Conflicts and confrontation

Merv,
    A couple of weeks ago you posted an excellent candid comment and question about YEC positions in the environment in which we work. You rightly pointed out that it's much easier to take a stand on a belief when such a stand has little or no influence on our lives, such as jeopardizing our jobs. All of us have read and admired the martyrs chronicled in works such as "The Book of Martyrs" but few of us have faced a choice between life or belief. ok, let's not take it that far. Just in the situation where we might have strong anti-YEC beliefs while working in a YEC organization, or the inverse.

    I was thinking about your note this past week while attending IBM's annual corporate technology recognition event. It occurred to me that the company's technology folks represented an incredible diversity of beliefs but it still managed to achieve an amazing degree of coherence and cooperation. Perhaps the secret was to focus on unity of that which the group needed while ensuring that the diversity in all other areas was respected and did not lead to confrontation. In other words, we all shared a commitment to the technology goals of the company while honoring the various religious and ethnic beliefs in the group. I had good conversations with my Muslim and Jewish friends and we talked about organizations comparable to ASA in their religions. The system worked because we kept our religious beliefs from becoming conflicts. They were not germane to the function of the group. However, had the differences been critical to the technology objectives of the group, the conflicts would have had to be resolved.

    The analogy is that in ASA and in our churches, the message we need to emphasize is the unity of that which makes us Christian, our belief in Christ and his salvation. Beyond that we ought to be respectful of each other and avoid confrontation. That ideal falls apart when a church or school decides to make a position such as YEC a fundamental part of a statement of faith. Then the core has shifted from a central focus on Christ to a focus on a specific set of ideas. At that point confrontation has been initiated and it would be very difficult to stay within that organization.

    Net: hard as it may be, we don't need to engage in a crusade to root out YECism. It isn't central to Christianity. Yet when it becomes a part of the organizational mandate or is presented to the body of Christ as a critical tenet of Christianity, we must be ready to stand for integrity in our beliefs.

    Randy
Received on Wed May 31 20:39:56 2006