Christianity

It never ceases to amaze me how cruel we (Christians) can be toward others, especially others of different faiths. Since I've started making friends with other youth ministers, I've noticed this trend to insult, disparage, & ridicule anyone who doesn't believe exactly like you. It's gotten to the point where I don't want to tell anyone what faith I am, because I'm tired of them making sweeping generalizations & pre-judging me based on their own erroneous beliefs about us. I believe, & my faith believes, that we are to accept others no matter how we feel about their beliefs. I accept others' beliefs, no matter how they may differ from my own; why can't they accept mine?

Ok, maybe I'm just in a funk because of all the junk going on right now. And to top it off, my "problem child" was at church Sunday & caused trouble. I finally had to ask another adult to go get the mom, & when I tried to discuss it w/ her afterward, she implied that the problem was a "personality conflict" that I had w/ her child. Now I've found out that she's shared this opinion with others. Great, so now I'm the bad guy because I insis that her child show respect for others in my class. Someone said that's when the "spirit of slap" comes over you; you know you can't, but you just want to slap the parents silly.