Thirty years ago, I was floating in a dugout canoe on the Suriname River, along with a heavy load of the earliest portable equipment for showing The Jesus Film in a remote jungle village. I had flown my passenger, Joe, and the equipment into a nearby airstrip on one of my first flights as a missionary pilot in Suriname. After years of education, training, building experience, focus, and preparation I was finally doing what God had called me to do. I was thrilled!
"You need to quit wasting your time flying airplanes and show The Jesus Film full time, " Joe confidently opined.
If that conversation had taken place on Facebook in recent months, both Joe and I would have received dozens of "likes", comments, and counsel in response. Scripture, historical examples, and personal anecdotes would have rained down on both of us from heaven (or other places). The comment strings would have grown long and strident as each of our friends weighed in. Instead, sitting in that canoe a world away, I simply said, "Thanks, but no thanks."
And none of you were any the wiser. Until today.
Some of you may decide to "like" this, send me scriptural advice, and give me the benefit of your 20/20 hindsight on whether I should have taken up The Jesus Film ministry 30 years ago. It's okay with me if you do. But my question for you is, will it be okay with you if I disagree?
In recent weeks and months, maybe already years, there has been a steady stream of popular topics filling our news with advocates demanding that we agree with them. People are "cleaning out" their list of friends because someone said something with which they disagree. The CAPS GET LARGER and more frequent. The vitriol runs equally heated on matters both large and small. It seems as though every discussion is an effort to change everyone else to a single perspective.
It's not that I don't have values or an opinion. It's just that I've found that arguing seldom builds agreement.
When I describe a personal belief or perspective, I certainly invite you to consider it. But I know that I'm an oddball (to put it gracefully). I know that most people don't see things the way I do, and I have no expectation that they will change their minds and agree with me. When I read a perspective that differs from mine, I learn something. I may or may not change my beliefs. But I don't feel compelled to argue.
I recently came across a quote attributed to Zig Ziglar: "You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to."
Is it okay for people to disagree on immigration, refugees, coffee cups, gun control, Wheaton College, racial discrimination, global warming, vaccinations, ranching rights, and U.S. Presidential candidates—or would it really be better if everyone just agreed with you (or me)? For whom would it be better and how?
Is it okay not to attend every argument? Or is that unacceptable today?
For better and worse, democracy is pluralistic. We might not like it, but the alternatives also have problems. It seems that the one thing almost everyone agrees on today is that the world is a mess. I'm not suggesting that you and I shouldn't have values, beliefs, and opinions about how to make the world a better place. I'm also not saying we should all sit idly and quietly by while the world goes to hell in a handbasket. Few who know me would describe me as idle.
I'm saying that I respect your authority to disagree with me. I'll still invite you to listen to my hairbrained perspectives and consider the world from a different vantage point. But when you don't, I respect your right to disagree.
