Multi-isms

Inclusivity is in. Closemindedness is out. At all costs, we are to validate people as equal regardless of gender, race, religious beliefs, socioeconomics, sexual orientation, personal interests - you name it. It is NOT popular to talk in language of absolutes today. Do that too many times in public and discover quickly who your real friends are.

The Pope yesterday declared again that Catholicism is the only true church. While I obviously don't agree with him, I admire the strength he has to say what isn't going to be worldly popular and actually stand up for something he believes in while in a very public office. It would have been easier to soften his language and throw a bone to the Protestants, Orthodoxes, and perhaps even the other major faiths in the world. That's what any good politician does. That's what anyone that wants to be accepted and liked does. But that is hardly Jesus. And NOT the God of the Old Testament.

Last week at coffee house, we talked briefly about multiculturalism, pluralism and just the general idea of Canada. Should we be melting everyone in Canada together or should we be celebrating our differences to the point of segregation?

It got me thinking about the Jews in exile during the OT. The military strategy of the day after defeating an enemy was assimilation. They would take the skilled people from the land and bring them back home. And they would take some of their people and put them into your country. Over time, you intermarry and forget about what it was like before. So instead of having a country always waiting to rebel, you simply enhance your territory by assimilating people.

For fear that it is sounding Borg-like, I'll stop. But consider this. Is the enemy destroying the church in Canada by our multi-isms?