Thinking makes it so...

I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.

What Paul says about this subject is a little hard to swallow...sort of. He's specifically talking about food laws. Specifically, about Jewish food laws, and the moral issues for people growing up among the many gods of Rome and the implications of eating food sacrificed to idols. What I'm reading here is that if you think something you're doing is wrong, even if it isn't wrong, believing that it's wrong and doing it any way is wrong.
In other words, if I believe I'm sinning against God by eating that pork roast that was offered to Zeus as a sacrifice, I am. He's not really directing this at the people who are still a little afraid they might be worshiping the Roman pantheon without meaning too but at the people who don't see any harm in eating that pork roast---but their younger brother certainly does---and actively encourage the person who thinks he's paying homage to Zeus by doing so to do so.

Well, that was convoluted as all hell, wasn't it? Speaking of hell, there are lots of people who think swearing is a dire sin. I put it more into the category of wearing white after Labor Day. It's impolite, but not something I'm going to have to explain on Judgment Day. Speaking of Judgment Day, I'm not entirely sure that's going to happen like in the picture books. I do, however, know people who do. I know people who think drinking is a sin. I try to encourage the fallacy that smoking, in and of itself, is a sin because I don't want people to make themselves sick. Honestly? I really don't think it's all that bad.

Until someone comes to the conclusion that they can drink and swear without making that vein in God the Father's head pop out in anger on their own, however, I think it would be incredibly wrong of me to encourage them to do those things. I don't sneak bacon into the food of my Jewish friends. I don't encourage Baptists to take their first drink. If they already do it before they meet me, it's their problem. I don't encourage little kids to swear.

I do draw the line when people start claiming other people are unclean though. I've reached my breaking point on that. I figured out long ago that prejudice is an evil that needs to be confronted head on with repeated exposure to the people someone hates. Why? It's not the people they usually hate--but the idea of that person. Reason does not work until the initial wall between that person and the object of their hatred (and it is hatred--don't let them lie) is broken down. Only after they see that the person isn't what they thought they were can they listen to reason.

So no, I'm not going to keep the Republicans and the Democrats separated by a curtain at social events. I'm not going to pretend I don't have any gay friends or non-white friends (I'm not going to sit here and list ethnicities---that's silly) if I throw a party to which both friends and family are invited. We all need to remember that we're all just people underneath. Protecting people from their own idiocy is a sin. Period.

What should we do when confronted with this situation? Use your judgment. Expose them to the idea they might be wrong (If you really think they're wrong and not just different) but don't take a teetotaler to a bar. It might take them years to feel like they can talk to God again. After all, sometimes thinking really does make it so.