Chaplain's Corner

I have an acquaintance that sends me a “quote of the day” each morning. In August he sent me one by the First Century B.C. Roman politician, Cicero. “Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: The delusion that personal gain is made by crushing others. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it. Refusing to set aside trivial preference. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind and not acquiring the habit of reading and study. And attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.”

One only need read the list and it is evident that in the past 2000 years we as a race continue to make the same mistakes. I could write an article on each of these mistakes, but I want to focus on the final one, “attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.”

I have never been ashamed of my commitment to Bible believing, conservative, evangelical Christianity. The adjectives bother me because the meaning of those words seem to be changing all the time, but I think you understand what I mean. Half of my career AI served as a Baptist minister and the last half as a health care chaplain. There are some in my profession that believe that these are incompatible but it is this sixth mistake that Cicero notes that leads people to such a conclusion.

Bible believing, conservative, evangelical Christians are often accused of being all about compelling others to believe and live as they do. At times, Christians of my ilk have resorted to pressure and compulsion in an attempt to get people to believe and live as they do. This tactic is always one of desperation and is never successful in helping in their faith. This has never been a disposition that I could embrace.

In my years of studying the Scriptures, I have never found an instance in which God compels a person to trust in him. In fact there is a very telling account in the Gospel of Mathew (19:16ff) where Jesus is approached by a would be follower, answers the persons question and then stands and watches the person walk away without saying a word to persuade him.

I at times people call my office concerned for the spiritual wellbeing of a person in the hospital. They ask if I might visit the person they are concerned for, they want me to try to persuade the person to turn to God. Although I understand these callers, I cannot promise that I will seek to persuade the one they call about. I do pray that God will speak to this person, that there may be an openness to talk about spiritual matters, that I would be the kind of person that is safe to talk openly speak about these matters. But I do not try to persuade the other.

My work requires that my aim not be to compel another to believe and live as I do, but to respect those I care for, to seek to understand who they are and what they need at this particular moment, to have integrity about my own faith but respect the others right to embrace a faith different than mine or to reject faith altogether. Often in the environment of this kind of respect, conversation becomes rich, understanding is gained and mutual respect develops. It is in such conditions that people feel free to talk openly about their beliefs for they feel no need to defend against mine.

Caring for another never means pressuring, compelling, and manipulating the other to believe and live as I do. To embrace such approaches only proves that we have learned nothing and that the mistakes we have made for millennia will continue to be made in our relationships.