Religious tolerance...

“27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest:” (Mt 13:27-30a)

I confess to being near the top of the list of those who have at some point extracted a meaning from a parable that Jesus never intended. The devil is in the details. In the case of parables, he is often in the striving for too much detail. Here, however, I fear that I have not done justice to the obvious.

"There can be no question but that the great principles of freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, and voluntarism in religion, so basic in American Protestantism and so essential to democracy, ultimately are derived from the Anabaptists of the Reformation period,"  from Parade of Faith: A Biographical History of the Christian Church, by Ruth A. Tucker Kindle edition, location 6805.

Ya gotta love a quote like that from a non-Baptist historian!

I suppose we could be cynical and say that early anabaptist teaching regarding religious tolerance emerged from a survival instinct: some of our spiritual forefathers suffered equally at the hands of Catholics and Protestants. Nonetheless, there is a rich Biblical foundation for their position.

Three essential maxims:

• There is wheat; there are tares.(Jn 3:18) 
• Tares look like wheat, but are not wheat. (Mt 7:21-23)
• It is more important to protect the wheat than to root out the tares. (fodder enough right here for an entire sermon)

God lets people exercise their will... wants us to let people do the same. I know... in some circles you can't say free will out loud, but...

We shouldn't be afraid to let people say what they think... blaspheme everything holy in the process... proclaim their anti-God agenda... mock Christianity. Even the tare stuff shouldn't surprise us (people labeled as Christian spouting off anti christian thought and living in an unchristian manner). They can't affect you... or God. In the end, even their ranting will have served to glorify Him... and in more than a few cases - where the Holy Spirit is working - their own self-indictment is part of what God uses to bring them, broken and repentant, back to Himself.

“Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” (Ps 76:10)

Why do we find it hard to give people their own personal space? Some so-called spiritual leaders should be denounced as thieves. By their overbearing, manipulative, rule-imposing tactics, they pretend to take away from the individual his/her God-given right to think and decide, embrace the Gospel or not, follow Christ or not, live a holy life or not. Freedom-of-conscience robbers!

Religious tolerance starts at the top: church leadership that reflects Spirit-filled integrity... Jesus saw the pastorless multitudes and had compassion on them... gave his life for them; some look at the same multitudes and see a means to an end.

Preserving a true spirit of tolerance is nearly as precarious as bringing an endangered species back from the brink. The multitudes ARE pastorless, they ARE vulnerable, they DO seek, albeit imperfectly. We could wrongly take advantage of some if we so chose.

We can easily have people circumventing their own personal process of discovering the Lordship of Christ and a Holy Spirit guided life. Some will take the lazy way out: substituting their pastor and his particular set of passions, convictions and rules for their own personal journey toward a true walk with Christ.

We should not let people get away with that if we can help it. We should insist that they exercise their God-given right (obligation) to make the trip for themselves.

For the "Sovereignty of God" folks (I am more in this camp, personally), why should that be a problem? Are we afraid that people might not end up exactly where we are? Hmm... maybe that's a good thing... a God-given system of checks and balances that protects the leader from getting too self-assured.

There are some things that God does not need our help with. Rooting out the tares is one of them. When all is said and done, not one teeny tiny tare will end up in God's kingdom; not one little grain of wheat will slip through the Harvester's fingers into the fire.

Letting "the heathen rage" (Ps 2:1,4) is more than just an essential ingredient if we want some semblance of democracy as a form of government: it is an integral part of how God's people interact with the world around them. We boldly proclaim a message of reconciliation and hope of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ... we love and respect our neighbors so much that we take pains to respect their own, personal decision-making process.

By doing so, we evidence our implicit trust in the relevance of our message. We walk away smiling because we know what the Holy Spirit can do with the words we have spoken... if and when He chooses!