Bambi and Christians
Dear Cynthia,
Thursday morning I’m sitting at Monarch Mountain Coffee where we’ve walked from the Edgewater Resort through pouring rain with an umbrella. It’s the day after my 52nd birthday when we drove to Hope and on our way back decided to stay the night in Sandpoint, although not far from our home near Diamond Lake.
A busy weekday morning has begun at Monarch, but we’re relaxed, enjoying the holiday feel of Spring Break, settled in the comfortable chairs at the window table for two, reading.
I take up The Sandpoint Reader just out of date and work my way to page 10 where I discover your Letter for Deeper Living, “Nature: Beyond Bambi.” You catch my eye, stir my mind, and end up touching my heart. So here I am to visit a bit with you about it.
You refer to moving on from the standard Judeo-Christian superior attitude. I confess I’ve never gotten past my belief that Jesus Christ really lived, really died, really came back to life, really is God, and really created everything.
Christians and others in the name of Christ have made a mess of things over these past two millennia, and I apologize for the horrible things we’ve said and done. Our Founder never intended such, and I’m ashamed of the way we have treated nature.
But the distinction between The Creator and the creation is an important one, and I think it is the only way to find true love, joy, and wholeness. Care for nature becomes grounded beyond my self in a personal Creator who cares for me.
I appreciate your honesty in saying you hold a firm conviction that you think is correct. Your willingness to employ an absolute concept like “correct” is refreshing. So much contemporary thought that parades as pluralism is wishy-washy nothingness, a celebration of imprecision. True diversity celebrates differences in a context of mutual respect and understanding where it’s ok to talk about those differences.
Just because I may think you are dead wrong does not mean that I wish you dead. I may hold a world view that has no room for yours, but that does not mean there is no room for you in my world.
I applaud your courageous voice and thank you for hearing mine!
Thursday morning I’m sitting at Monarch Mountain Coffee where we’ve walked from the Edgewater Resort through pouring rain with an umbrella. It’s the day after my 52nd birthday when we drove to Hope and on our way back decided to stay the night in Sandpoint, although not far from our home near Diamond Lake.
A busy weekday morning has begun at Monarch, but we’re relaxed, enjoying the holiday feel of Spring Break, settled in the comfortable chairs at the window table for two, reading.
I take up The Sandpoint Reader just out of date and work my way to page 10 where I discover your Letter for Deeper Living, “Nature: Beyond Bambi.” You catch my eye, stir my mind, and end up touching my heart. So here I am to visit a bit with you about it.
You refer to moving on from the standard Judeo-Christian superior attitude. I confess I’ve never gotten past my belief that Jesus Christ really lived, really died, really came back to life, really is God, and really created everything.
Christians and others in the name of Christ have made a mess of things over these past two millennia, and I apologize for the horrible things we’ve said and done. Our Founder never intended such, and I’m ashamed of the way we have treated nature.
But the distinction between The Creator and the creation is an important one, and I think it is the only way to find true love, joy, and wholeness. Care for nature becomes grounded beyond my self in a personal Creator who cares for me.
I appreciate your honesty in saying you hold a firm conviction that you think is correct. Your willingness to employ an absolute concept like “correct” is refreshing. So much contemporary thought that parades as pluralism is wishy-washy nothingness, a celebration of imprecision. True diversity celebrates differences in a context of mutual respect and understanding where it’s ok to talk about those differences.
Just because I may think you are dead wrong does not mean that I wish you dead. I may hold a world view that has no room for yours, but that does not mean there is no room for you in my world.
I applaud your courageous voice and thank you for hearing mine!
posted by Daniel Leslie Peterson | 5:01 PM
3 Comments:
Dear Dan,
Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate your honesty too! If all Christians were like you, nature would be thriving. God and Nature are one to me, like a mirror: one reflects the other. Although we may have slightly different belief systems, you sound like a kindred soul to me. I am by no means well versed in the Bible, but I always thought God asked that we be stewards of the land, not control freaks. However, there's certainly no need to apologize, I think we all just got carried away as a species. I take my share of the blame too, we're all in this together and perhaps with communication like this, (and some help from higher up), someday we'll figure it out!
I appreciate your point of view very much and thank you for sharing it with me,
Cynthia
and by the way: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! (I turn 51 in a few weeks.)
I am thoroughly amazed. First of all, by the structure of Dan's post--awesome way to focus a reader's attention. Not just the structure, but the thoughts expressed as well echo my own discoveries.
Further, and with greater amazement, to have a reply from THE Cynthia! How often I've written letters to individuals I've read (and I'm not counting the few letters I wrote to Sherlock Holmes) and received no response! The whole experience reaffirms my sentiment that all works published are an invitation to dialogue, through letters as well as publication. Like a child that stopped believing in Santa Claus, I stopped writing to authors. Now, I think, I have a few letters to write.
This line was particularly interesting: "God and Nature are one to me, like a mirror: one reflects the other. Although we may have slightly different belief systems, you sound like a kindred soul to me..."
There is a rich history in the church, especially the Eastern Orthodox expression, along with some medieval mystics, of valuing the creation this way and even viewing it as "sacred" or a "reflection" of the Creator. To reference Jesus' words to a spiritual seeker of the 1st century, Mark 12:34, I believe this woman is "not far from the Kingdom of God". At the least, a conversation has been started, and possibly a "spiritual friendship" of sorts.
May the Holy Spirit guide you and empower you to sustain the conversation for His glory and the good of this spiritual seeker...and also to the benefit of God's glorious creation!
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