A few years ago I wrote an opinion piece for a local newspaper. I was asked to do this from my perspective as a faith leader in the area. At that time, there was a recent religious controversy in the area because of a new faith center built in the city for a world religion other than Christianity. Many citizens were angry that this center was allowed to be built. Some protested. Lawsuits were filed.
In the end, the center was built here.
Having this in the recent history of the city, I wrote my piece about tolerance. One of the things I was most concerned with was the ability for people to allow those who are different to be present. So many times we overtly or covertly ask people to be different than who they are so they can fit into our society. Maybe it is the way they dress, maybe it is the way they act, maybe it is the way they talk. It could be almost anything. As we judge people into the box we prefer for them, we are denying them the truth that Christians proclaim that humans are made in the image of God. It will not be the same image of God that I or you are made in, but it is the image of God just the same. When we define the image of God as looking like me or you instead of someone else, we are limiting God through our own lack of imagination.
So I wrote a piece about tolerance. I thought it was pretty good. I had written a piece for this newspaper a few times before, but this was the first time I received a response from a reader.
To be honest, I'm not certain what the writer wanted to convey. But I think it was something like, "Bless your heart, you're so young and naïve. If you just knew what I know, you'd realize we can't tolerate..." The end of that sentence was not clear, but the gist was there are some people out there we just can't allow around us.
As I have lived more of life, I hope I have become less naive. But my impulse to tolerate has grown from tolerance to acceptance and finally to affirming. Let me be clear, when I say this, I mean I am affirming of all people who live to seek the good that God created them to be. That goes for different world religions, adherents of which I do not feel it is my place to judge by the criteria of my own religion. That goes for people who are on the sexuality spectrum whose sexuality is different from mine, but who want love and desire companionship just as much as I do.
It was in a discussion group with friends on the spectrum that I learned about the difference between acceptance and affirming. Acceptance means that it's OK, but often has the implication that it isn't as good as whatever the norm is. Affirming means you are just right the way you are.
There is evil in this world. It should be called out and named. But people who are loving and working toward God, even if it is in a way different from our way, deserve more than tolerance or acceptance. They deserve to be affirmed.
How beautiful would our world be if we were able to affirm one another for the image of God within, not despite our differences, but through and because of those differences? Those differences may just be glimpses of God's image that we could never get another way.
That's the view from the limited vantage point of where I stand.
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