In today's 3/13/2010 Daily Camera (Boulder's newspaper) there was an Op Ed piece in the Opinion pages worth reading. It is entitled "Tolerance goes both ways, Boulder!" Check it out. It was written by Charles Danaher.
I have a few thoughts about one frequent complaint I have received from people who don't agree with the decision we made here. The complaint goes more or less this way: Jesus would never have turned anyone away, no matter where they came from or who they were.
Now let us set things aright:
Actually Jesus did turn people away. In Mark 5 Jesus healed the demoniac, and after the healing the man wanted to become a disciple. Jesus said, No, go back to your own people and tell them all that the Lord in His mercy has done for you. And when the rich young man wanted to follow Jesus, He told him, Go first and sell what you have and give it to the poor and then come follow me. And in John 6, Jesus taught a very hard message so that most of those following Him turned away and would no longer walk in His company. He did not soften His message so as to win them back.
So the post-modern thought that Jesus was warm and fuzzy and making no demands on anyone is just not true and avoids the very hard teachings that eventually led to His crucifixion. Did He not say: Try to enter though the narrow gate, for wide is the way to destruction and many choose to go that way.
May God give us all a very powerful Lent.
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