Argument weak. Yell.

Shalom!

Remember the old joke?  In the margins of a sermon, the preacher had penciled "AWYLH," which meant "Argument weak; yell like hell."

Dan Dick writes recently in his blog about "how contentious and competitive we have become." 

http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/pushing-buttons/#more-2451

It is amazing to me how contentious and competitive we have become. We seem to struggle so hard with holding opposing views on important issues. Somehow everything gets boiled down to good or bad, right or wrong, smart or stupid, spiritual or worldly. Why is it we do this to ourselves? If every issue is either/or, then everything is a debate at best, or a fight at worst. All a person has to do to push another person’s hot buttons is to disagree.


What does this do when it enters spiritual community? Well, if the spiritual community is strong, it does very little. But where spiritual community is weak, it is amazingly destructive. The weaker the faith, the stronger the negative passion. People who feel assurance in their beliefs are rarely threatened by someone who disagrees with them. I find this to be especially true about ecumenical and interfaith engagement. When Christians are strong and secure in their beliefs, they joyfully and gladly engage with people of other beliefs and faiths. The weaker the personal conviction, the more hostility, distrust, disrespect, fear, and judgement define the relationship. Same goes with secular phenomena as well. Evangelicals got all up in arms about Harry Potter swaying the weak and spiritually immature. However, it seems that this was little more than projection — raising the alarm from their own weak faith. Those who were strong in their faith and intellectually rigorous saw the stories for what they are — stories. Only those who believe that the devil is as strong as, or stronger than, God had anything to fear. Doubt is not the antithesis of faith; fear is. Where people scream loudest against opponents, it is fear that motivates them, not faith.

It seems to me that we need to be strong in our trust of God, so that we do not need to yell and condemn and put down one another!  One of the strengths of "the congregation" can be its mutual regard for one another as a spiritual community.  Things happen in a local church that point to the unity that God offers us as a gift.

I commend Dan Dick's blog to anyone for his provocative and evocative way of bringing the reader to reflection!

Shalom!
dave