Building Bridges

Here I am sitting on a plane, again writing a blog post for St. Paul's (note to self - must write at other times as well). I have an announcement to make. I need to come out of the closet. Are you ready? OK here goes - I am a democrat. There I said it, you are the first people I've ever told publicly. But there is more, and this one is even more shocking - I'm reading Sarah Palin's biography 'Going Rogue'.

Please don't hate me! For the Republican's out there it's not that I think you are bad but if you force me to choose a single party then sorry but I bat for the other team. Democrats, please don't make fun of me because I paid good money to buy Sarah's book and am helping to fund her political career. I had my reasons......

I wanted to understand her. I may not agree with her but I wanted an insight into what makes her tick. How can I honestly say I disagree with her if I know so little about her? St. Paul's is such a loving community but in many ways it is so easy to love. And here lies my problem. When we make it so easy to love, we run the risk of ignoring hate. It is sometimes to ignore hate than confront it. I don't believe that Christ called me to a life of ignorance. I don't believe that Christ does not want me to walk alongside those who hold different beliefs to myself.

I have heard people ask if it was right for us to pray for the soul of Bin Laden, to invite an Imran into our midst on the anniversary of 9/11. Personally I say yes it was totally right. I personally believe that Christ would not only be a greeter at the door of His church for both of those occasions, but that he would have been emailing Dean Scott and Cannon Allisyn asking to lead a forum to discuss the issues.

My prayer tonight is that we don't get too comfortable in love that we ignore what we disagree with. My prayer is that we actively go out and learn about those that we do not understand or those who hold different beliefs to ourselves. I'm sure that when we do, we will find out that there are many more things that we share in common than divide us. To love is easy, to understand takes work, to build bridges is a full time job. I'd write more but I want to get back to my book.  

Richard Lee