Facing Rejection

It’s a human response; we all want to fit in. Nobody likes to be rejected, especially not by people that we like or respect. It’s inevitable, though; no two people are going to have complete agreement on every possible topic of discussion.
Many places that I have worked have a strict policy that thou shalt not discuss sex, religion, or politics in the workplace, simply because these are where most of our hot-button issues are. These are the topics that can get people the most upset or outraged the quickest. The real problem here is that sometimes these subjects really need to be discussed. I have tried to stay away from politics, here, because I don’t feel that it is the purpose of this blog to discuss politics; religion is generally enough of a hot-button issue all by itself. I know some churches and other religious organizations form political organizations, because they feel strongly that religion ties into politics (and, to a very great extent, it does), but the IRS tends to frown on religious organizations taking political positions. A religious organization can lose its tax-exempt status by advocating a particular political candidate, but a political organization can get tax-exempt status as long as it is not religious, even if it has ties to a religious organization.
The point is, some people are very sensitive about some things. If you tell someone that the religious beliefs that they grew up with are not good enough to carry them into eternity, at least a few of them will get upset. If you try to share Jesus with someone, they may not appreciate what you are sharing. Does that mean you shouldn’t share? of course not. Scripture commands each of us to do the work of an evangelist. What you shouldn’t do is take people’s response to the Gospel personally. There will be many that won’t like it; that’s a given. There will be some whose lives will be changed dramatically. Some will even make it to Heaven because you took the time to share with them. If you worry about people rejecting the message, though, then you won’t share, and the consequences will be dire. If God lays it on your heart to share with someone, then do it.
It’s understandable if you have bad feelings about people rejecting God’s will. Samuel had a hard time with that in his day. God had to remind him that the people were not rejecting Samuel; they were rejecting God (1 Samuel 8:7). Out of all the things that have changed since Samuel’s day, one thing that has not changed is people’s willingness to obey God (or lack thereof). Some people are, and some people aren’t, and I suspect the ratio between the two groups has remained constant since the beginning of the world.

Hot Buttons

In politics there are certain issues known as ‘hot-button’ issues. These are things that resonate amongst a large percentage of the voters, and are usually somewhat controversial issues. For example, a lot of people feel very strongly about immigration: Some feel that we let way too many people into this country, and some feel that we should have an open border policy; a lot people feel very strongly about healthcare: Some feel that every American should have health insurance, even if the government has to pay for it, and some feel that they shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s healthcare (whether through higher taxes or higher insurance rates as insurance companies are mandated to cover those that can’t pay). Some people feel very strongly about capital punishment. Some feel very strongly about abortion. The war in Iraq stirs up strong feelings. Global warming. The list goes on.
I think most of us have hot-button issues of our own. Some people are bothered by all of the things I listed in the first paragraph, some aren’t bothered by any of them but are bothered by other things that I didn’t think of. It’s only natural that some things are going to get under your skin, and cause you act with less rationality than you normally would. That doesn’t make it right. Ephesians 4:26 says to be angry, and sin not. Getting angry is not a sin, in and of itself, but letting the anger (or any other strong emotion) control you, is. Does this mean that we should all becomes stoics? No, of course not. God gave us emotions for a reason. Jesus, our perfect example, even showed us His anger, on more than one occasion, but He committed no sin.
The point is, we have been delivered from sin. We don’t have to commit sin any more. We will, because we are human, and we make mistakes; but nothing can force us to sin. It’s almost like being delivered from sin means that we have no excuse for sinning. In Romans 8:38-39, Apostle Paul gives a list of things that cannot separate us from God. I have had people tell me that it is an all-inclusive list, that there is absolutely nothing that can come between us and God, once we have made the profession of faith, but, if you look, it doesn’t list one’s self, and it doesn’t list sin. Of course, none of the things on that list can make you sin, either, so, whatever is between us and God, is strictly between us and God. We cannot blame anyone else, we cannot blame our circumstance, our environment, our culture… God is greater than all of that.

Politics

Normally, I try to stay away from politics in this blog, but there are some things that have happened lately that I feel I must comment on:

First, I would like to thank Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Mr. Reid wrote a letter to Mark Mays, of Clear Channel Communications, essentially passing on a baseless accusation that Rush Limbaugh called military members that didn't agree with the war in Iraq 'phony soldiers.' In point of fact, the phrase 'phony soldiers' came from an ABC news report about people protesting the war claiming to be veterans of the Iraq war, when, in fact, they had not been to Iraq at all, and some of them aren't even veterans. In any case, the letter was auctioned off Friday, and leveraged into a 4.2 million dollar donation to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation--a charitable organization set up to help the survivors of Marines and Law Enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. This is the sort of thing that we like to see happen in the name of 'supporting our troops.' So thank you, Mr. Reid.

In other news, we are taking up a collection to buy Ann Coulter a shoe horn. It needs to be a very strong shoe horn, because her foot is so much bigger than her mouth, and it needs to be durable, because she manages to get her foot in her mouth so often. She made a comment last week saying that she wanted the Jews 'to be perfected.' As if that made them any different than the rest of us... She has caught a lot of flack about 'these are the kind of comments that led to Auschwitz.' I have to disagree. The Nazis weren't trying to perfect the Jews, they were trying to perfect themselves. A lot of Germans believed that they had been weakened by Jewish influence, Hitler preached that the Jews needed to be eliminated in order to recover the 'master race'--the blond-haired, blue-eyed people that God intended for us to be... The criticism, of course, stems from the fact that the Nazis and Ann Coulter both seem to think that the Jews are inferior. I don't think that Ann Coulter would advocate killing Jews because they are imperfect (and if she is advocating killing people who aren't perfect, then she should set the example by getting in line for execution first--and people like me will just have to hope that once she's gone, the push to kill imperfect people will die down). I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "There are no perfect people." We also need to get her one of those bumper stickers that says, "Christians aren't perfect--just forgiven."I think I understand what she meant. The plain and simple truth is that the Jews have been waiting for a savior for over two thousand years. Some of them set out an extra chair and set an extra place setting at meals, in case the Messiah shows up. Meanwhile, we Christians know Christ. We are waiting for Him to come back, and take us Home. The Jews are inextricably linked to our salvation, and they don't even see it. Some people cry that they killed Jesus; my salvation was bought with His blood--I say, thank God for the Jews! I would like to see as many of them in Heaven as possible. I don't want to see them threatened or browbeaten; that's not effective anyway. Side note: Recently some sociologists discovered some Latino Roman Catholics in the United States that celebrated Chanukah, Purim, and Passover. They only did this in the privacy of their own homes, they never talked to anyone at church about it, and all are descendants of Spaniards that lived during the Spanish Inquisition. Apparently these people have been (secretly) practicing Jewish rites for over 400 years...

To be honest, Ann Coulter illustrates an unfortunate aspect of Christianity. We, as Christians, think of ourselves as 'chosen.' Well, okay, we don't just think of ourselves as chosen, we are chosen. But we have a bad tendency to think that we are somehow special, that God chose us because we have some talent or ability that was instrumental to His grand scheme--as opposed to God giving talents and abilities to people who are willing to follow His direction. But our 'specialness' comes from our obeisance, not from our abilities, or our looks. If any one of us decides not to follow God, he will simply raise up another. We are recipients of Grace; not because of what we have done or even could do, but because God is a loving and merciful God. God would like to extend His Grace even further, but is often limited by our failings as Christians. If the Jews are not saved, it may very well be because of us. Apostle Paul wrote about not 'boasting against' the Jews...

American Ignorance

There was an interesting survey sponsored by Newsweek--you can look at it here. 81% of respondents at least knew that they didn't know who the Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court was. 28% knew that they didn't know who the Speaker of the House was. 40% knew that they didn't know who the first Republican president was. As Americans, our ignorance is astounding. We should be the most blissful nation on earth.

There were some trick questions in the poll. One question asked when did the Korean War officially end, and included in its multiple choices both '1953' and 'Did it ever end?' Both of those answers could be considered correct. The fact is that in 1953 an armistice was signed, which ended hostilities between the two nations and established a de-militarized zone (DMZ) between the two. This agreement is considered by some to be the official end of the Korean War, while others point to the fact that no formal peace treaty was ever signed, and wars are normally ended by peace treaties. Another asked how many countries have nuclear weapons, but did not offer seven or eight as a choice--the United States, Russia, Great Britain, France, China, India, and Pakistan have all been verified as having nuclear weapons. North Korea claims to have nuclear weapons, however, there has been no detection of radioactive fallout from their tests, indicating that they may have only detonated a rather large conventional weapon. Israel will neither confirm nor deny their nuclear capabilities, but they certainly like for their neighbors to think that they have nuclear weapons. That would make nine the correct (or, at least, most correct) answer. Considerably more people answered five, presumably because only five nations have signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (the first five on the above list).

I was surprised that 20% thought that Christianity was older than Judaism--one out of five are not aware that Jesus was born a Jew? At least that means a good chunk of our population don't blame the Jews for the death of Christ... 21% thought Islam was older than Judaism. Wow.

There were a good many things that I did not know: I did not know that Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population. I could not have told you what year the Internet stock-bubble burst. Did not know the current Dow-Jones average, or the current chairman of the Federal Reserve Board (I had heard some noise awhile back about Alan Greenspan retiring, but I didn't know that he actually had). I was unaware that childbirth kills one woman every minute somewhere in the world (I wonder how many women die from botched abortions?). I could not have named the winner of American Idol this year (and I am surprised and comforted by the fact that 77% of the respondents couldn't either).

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the breakdown of political affiliations: 35% identified themselves as Democratic, 34% as Independent, 25% as Republican, 3% as no party affiliation, and 3% didn't know (just at a guess, I would say many of the 3% who responded 'don't know' would have responded 'Republican' eight years ago). If that breakdown truly represents the national population, then our next president may be an Independent. Perhaps we should pay more attention to Ralph Nader than to John McCain...