Response to a Critical Dismissers

(This is my response to some in my theology class who stated they had a hard time with the theologian we were reading because he was a rich white male and wanted to read something else)

When you talked about the need to hear other voices, I personally heard a stronger story in your statement, and I can’t help but feel dismissed by what you have said. I feel dismissed not because I am a rich, white, powerful male, though I am close. I feel dismissed because I have grown to love them; I have grown to see that many fought for life and freedom, and that many also fought for my current ability to think about them.

I have heard often the message to invite, I have been told many times to never look past someone because of their story, no matter what story it is. In my short time here at Mars Hill I have seen what it is like to be listened to when everyone else writes you off. I have read Jesus say to love my enemy, and I have hated those words. I want to separate, to see division and to make sides, for and against. I don’t want to kill someone with kindness, I want to wake them up and shame them of their self-centered ways. I don’t want to listen to my enemies, or the proud, or the self-righteous, I want to startle them out of their complacency and self-centeredness.

But as I am starting to believe what I am hearing I no longer want to love my enemies so that they will have heaping coal burn a hole through their heads, or whatever the good book says about such things says. I want to love them because I don’t want them to be my enemies. I don’t want enemies anymore. I have hurt too long living in this way. This is the struggle I am having with you as I am seeking a connection with you. I don’t want to invite you to dialogue; I want to dismiss you for your lack of acceptance. But I am now seeing that what I really desire is for you to risk accepting those who think differently than you and most of all to find freedom.

What you forgot to do was surrender. When you read this author, you brought your beliefs, world view and criticisms and you never put them down. Could you not try him out and see what was awakened in you? Could God not use even rich white men to communicate his story? But you did not because you never entered in. You didn’t like the color of the house, so you never walked in to see what was inside.

I feel dismissed by you not because I see you attacking ideas close to my heart. I feel dismissed by you because I believe you attacked a way of being, a way of living that seeks to hear others, not label others. When you chose to write someone off instead of listening and waiting, it breaks my heart. Not because of the damage a belief like that causes, though it causes so much. It breaks my heart because you were made for so much more. I hate to see you settling for putting others in a box when you were made for Glory.