Intellectual Honesty

I'm so impressed by my co-worker, 'J'. We've managed to have conversations on some hard topics, because he's willing to honestly listen to a point of view that he disagrees with. He's not just being polite until it's his turn to talk, he's actually listening to see if I will say anything he can learn from. And given his level of education, that keeps me on my toes!

I've been trying to read Constantine's Sword, by James Carroll, which he had recommended to me. I admitted to him that I'm finding it hard going, because the author (a Catholic priest) repeatedly makes statements about Christianity and Christians that don't match my understanding, or my experience. I don't know if it is a Catholic / Protestant divide, or if it is simply the author's own bias, or if I'm the one who is naive. But in any event, it's uncomfortable.

So I told him that, and he asked for an example. I quoted a concept from page 59, where it says:

Christianity's self-awareness depended on the continuing existence of the Jewish people as the negative other against which positive Christian claims were made...Only Jews, because of what they deny, tell us Christians who we are...

This passage, and others that claim that Christianity by its very nature must be anti-Semitic, rubbed me the wrong way, because I think it does a dis-service to both Christianity and to Judaism.

Anyway, the other day I was reading this quarter's VLI assignment (Turning Points by Mark Noll) and came upon a passage with a different point of view, on pg 29.

As the Christian church moved out into the Roman world, its Judaic roots would be obscured, but even beneath the surface, those roots remained a critical part of what Christianity had been and what it would become.

I called 'J' over to my desk to show it to him. I wasn't sure what he would think, but 'J's response blew me away. First he acknowledged that he pretty much agreed with that description, and then he said "I might want to read that when you're done."

Wow -- what an example of educated curiosity. Here I am, trying to stretch my horizons as a matter of simple fairness, in order to build the groundwork for conversations, and yet I'm not showing the honest interest that he is.

And while I'm on the topic of fairness...

A couple of months ago, my cousin 'P' visited. Although he had no interest at all, he explained that he came to church because he recognized that it seemed to be important to me that he go (for some obscure reason!), and he went just to honor and please me. Well, I certainly was pleased! But I'm hoping that he will forget the conversation we had at lunch afterwards, when he tried to convince my brother and me to listen to hiphop music. 'H' made it clear that he has a real antipathy to this genre, and had no interest in listening. Then 'P' turned to me, with an unbeatable argument:
Well, if I went to church because it was important to you, you can listen to my music because it's important to me.
So to all my friends out there...if you hear hiphop leaking out of my headphones one day, it is not because I like it, but rather it is a peculiar consequence of attempting integrity in Evangelism.