Belief

In my years of ministry I've discovered that people are going to believe whatever they believe irrespective of anything I say or do. I believe certain things because they appear to be Biblical to me; other people do the same. Applying this to the big social issues of our day we can see this belief dynamic at work. People are deeply entrenched on things such as abortion, gay marriage, illegal immigration, the war on terror, etc. The polarization is immense, and we tend to focus on that polarization as if that is the big problem. And so people try to persuade others to change their beliefs through argumentation and debate, and sometimes unfortunately, threats and legislation. The thinking is that if everyone believed the exact same things there would be unity and harmony-- the whole "One Nation under God" thing.

What would happen if we stopped focusing on what people believe and began delving into who people are? There is more to people than their beliefs. People have stories which have molded their beliefs. Perhaps we need to look at the stories to find out about the person rather than trying to railroad them into a set of intellectual proposals. This will foster true harmony and unity, whereas the present way of handling things leads to oppression and uniformity.