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Sharing Faith- Pt 2- Fear of Ridicule, I don’t want to be called “intolerant”
By Dan | July 23, 2008
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One of the greatest fears associated with sharing faith has to be some form of persecution. Now most people in today’s United States aren’t all that afraid of being jailed or hurt, but there is plenty of fear of ridicule.
In sharing your faith with a non-Christian there is the chance the person with whom you’re sharing will see you as judgmental. After all, most people, including Christians, believe that a person can be saved through many different paths. Many people don’t even believe in hell anymore. To share your faith, indicates that a person might be in some type of danger if they don’t convert and this can be viewed as the greatest sin of all- intolerance.
And we know what happens if we’re viewed as intolerant. We then get lumped into those crazy Christians for whom there is so much ridicule. And much of it is really rough and mean-spirited. Just glance through the comments in this online discussion or check this one out too.
So what’s a Christian to do? Well first of all, slow down. Don’t catastrophize all the time. Yes, there is a chance that in sharing your faith you’ll get a little ridicule or someone will view you as intolerant, but most discussions don’t go to this level very quickly. Second, a lot of this has to do with approach. If you want to go out on street corners then some people are definitely going to be turned off. If you share your faith with friends and family and do so out of your own experience, there’s much less of a chance of ridicule or that those people will think you’re doing so in a mean spirited way.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, don’t rush into the really tough issues. So often people think about sharing faith in terms of confronting people on the biggest struggles within today’s society (homosexuality, abortion, etc) or talking about how Jesus is the only way. These are conversations that you might let develop over time, but first talk about God and his nature- how he is loving, just, has a plan for the world, etc. Talk about sin in general, and what’s applicable to you and the person with whom you’re talking. Talk about grace. Talk about Jesus’ love and the cross.
Will you move to some of the tough questions eventually? Yeah, but if you can get the person on board with this kind of a foundation and if you can get them reading the stories of the Bible with you, they’re going to see God’s view on these tough subjects in a much better light.
Have you ever been accused of intolerance? Have you been able to talk with someone about hard issues without that happening? How did it happen?
Topics: Sharing Faith |
July 31st, 2008 at 11:11 am
This is one of those things I struggle with. Especially since I used to be one of those folks who thought most Christians were pretty intolerant. So, I see both sides of the coin, I suppose.
I am working on being honest with everyone about exactly what I believe. It’s a real step outside of my comfort zone.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Jennifer- I think this really is the key, being honest. While people will disagree with us and maybe even be a little angered by our stances on some hot button issues, if we communicate our ideas honestly, openly, and humbly, I think we can at least get the conversations going.
When did your perspective on Christians start to change?