A Fatih That Is Afraid of People

A faith that is afraid of other people is not faith at all. - Thomas Merton

This is Bill White writing today. It seemed appropriate after this week of reflection on how to relate to the spiritual and religious journeys of those different than us to take a moment out and share a personal reflection.

In part because of who I am (I LOVE to battle, to win) and in part of my spiritual background (I was involved in conservative evangelical communities when I came to faith), I was afraid of those whose faith was different than mine. I felt the need to immediately convert them, to have a battle of wits with them until I could prove my way of thinking was right. I had so, so many conversations like that. And even in the conversations that went better and were less aggressive, I always had an underlying motive to try to win.

That approach has shifted in recent years. In part because of the warmth, love, and embrace of the LGBTQ community - which I had not treated particularly well before - many of my assumptions started to change. I started to realize that people are people, each one made in God’s image.

About a year ago I started on a remarkable spiritual friendship with the neighborhood Wiccan priestess. I wrote about it HERE. Even though she ended up becoming a Christian, I ended up changing just as much - realizing how much there was within me that judged and condescended and simply assumed she wasn’t made as much in God’s image as me. What a gift she gave me to go on that journey together.

Who are the people who are shifting your approach to how you see different religions/spiritual journeys? What are you learning from them? What is God teaching you?