Die, Heretic Scum!

Well, that got your attention, didn't it?

Now, I don't intend to issue any fatwas against members of other faith traditions or divergent streams of the Christian tradition.  Rather, I'd like to call attention to the tendency of the faithful - even mild-mannered mainliners - to climb up on ecclesiastical soapboxes to hurl imprecations at those whose understanding of the will of God differs.  The truth is that we just don't do a great job of disagreeing with others.  One possible explanation is that discussions become so very heated because matters of ultimate truth are being debated.  Perhaps.  But I think that something else can be at work: identity.  How we comprehend, discuss, share (or even reject) God is at the heart of who we are as people.  When those conceptions are are challenged, we can feel that we are being attacked, our very sense of self questioned.  At such moments, we might do well to remember Jesus' admonition that to save one self, one has to lose oneself.  If life's about us, we're in trouble.  If it's about trying (and I stress that word trying) to discern God's will with humility and a bit of caution, doing so with the knowledge that others are doing so, too, we may fare better.   Because, to be honest, I can't imagine that God wants us to call anyone "heretic scum" let alone wish for their deaths.  Instead, I suspect he'd rather we focus on our own shortcomings so we can figure out how to do things better by our Creator and his people.

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