Tolerantly Fellowshiping

MANY YEARS AND SET POINTS AGO our little doubles tennis group included four good friends, two of whom were devout Christians, two of whom were not. (I was among the unsaved, and remain so. A tennis player sans salvation) One Christian and one heathen per team, very evenly matched. The Christians got in trouble at church. They were admonished that they should abandon the tennis, or find a way to play Christian tennis, with Christian tennis players, and should not, under any circumstances, include non Chtistians in the group. They bravely responded by suggesting that we the non religious were excatly the type of folks with whom they should be fellowshiping. Did not Jesus go among the ungodly, spreading the message of God? Does a doctor not attend to the sick, rather than the healthy? Although my Christian friends made me proud by "having my back", as we say today. I was not pleased with the rather condescending implications, as if to be a non Christians were somewhow a sickness, a problem to be corrected. I thanked my devout firend, then suggested what to me was an even better approach. To wit: We play tennis with people who are good tennis players, well matched with us Christian tennis players in terms of skill level, and we play for fun, not salvation. Tennis is not a religious activity. Furthermore, it is not our job as Christians, on or off the court, to judge anyoone else's religiosity. We'll leave that to God. Not only do we tolerate folks of other faiths and belief systems, we accept them as our inherent moral equals. Tolerance, as Goethe said, is an insult, unless it leads to ultimate acceptance. Never mind that the Bible says, no fewer than twenty five times, that it is a "sin" to be lefthanded, or that Jesus said , in Mathew 15;4 that Whoever curses the mother and the father shall be given the death. For me that's a bit harsh. I am free to disagree with any book, or anyone who writes them or speaks in them. My charge is to accept and respect the beliefs of Christians, even though I strongly disagree with them. I do not allow myself to think that they could improve themselves by embracing my beliefs, for that would be an insult, and condescenidngly intolerant. I would be very grateful, eternally so, if my Christian friends and neighbors would stop thinking that something is wrong with me for having beliefs different than their own, and would instead accept me as their spiritual and intellectual equal.My sense is that I will have better luck waiting for hell to freeze over.