Ecumenism promotes unity among the many religious groups and denominations of Christianity. Ecumenism exists, but the level of unity if weighed on a scale would perhaps not be as heavy as perceived. Recently, two suicide bombers blew themselves up inside an old Anglican church in Pakistan after a Sunday Mass. A friend on Facebook posted something about it, and in reality he questioned whether any of our ministers here in America had “preached about, mentioned or even prayed for the Christians terrorized in Pakistan. In fact, have the Christians being persecuted in Egypt been mentioned in your church in the last couple months? Please, diatribes. I'm just curious if churches are talking about their Christian brothers and sisters dying around the globe.”[1] My initial response to his comments was as follows: I think that you are making a very good point here in questioning this…. I personally feel that we need more ecumenism among all Christians. I sometimes feel and wonder if Baptists or Presbyterians think that Coptics or Orthodox, and Roman Catholics are their brothers and sisters and vice versa. We need more unity. I feel that most Christians are too obsessed with doctrines and dogma, and forget about "weightier matters of the law." The fact is that if this discussion was taking place, it was because many of us know that the reality is that the Church is nowhere near being one.
In the recent bombing it is clear that the enemies of Christianity are seemingly very united. In this specific case it was two radical Muslims, although mainstream Islam does not condone this type of violence there are radical factions that do. But, how is Christianity going to stand up to their enemies with its greatest weapon which is “loving our neighbor” if we do not show love and support for our own. Indeed, all Christians need to begin to consider if we indeed understand the prayer of Jesus in John 17: 21 which was: "I pray that they may all be one…."Abraham Lincoln use to say that he defeated his enemies by making them his friends. Christians need to first make friends with their own brothers and sisters, regardless of which group or denomination, so they can then reach out to other faiths in love and make them their friends also. This world would definitely be a better place to live if we all loved one another. Thank you for taking your time to read my post, and blessings to you! One quick note, if you did not even know anything about the recent bombing in Pakistan, below is a link that can inform you more about it.
Honestly, I did not mention the name of the friend that inspired this post based on a comment he made on Facebook. But, I did ask him if it was okay to mention him, and he was humble enough to go unrecognized. However, I will say that it was David Atkinson, and he should get credit for saying what he said. If you want to know a bit more about David, you can look him up on imdb.com or follow the link below as a short cut.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0040695/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1#actor.