Watching the NBA finals was pure entertainment for me. The Lakers had
already been unceremoniously dismissed from the playoffs, so my interest in the
final series was somewhat limited. The two teams battled back and forth
over the course of six games, but mistakes at the most critical points, and
cost San Antonio the game, forcing a seventh and final game. I found
myself rooting for the "lesser of two evils" in my mind; San
Antonio. Back and forth these two teams battled, until just a few seconds
remained in the game and Miami was headed to their second NBA Championship in a
row.
Something interesting took place as time ran out and the game came to its
conclusion. Instead of a wild celebration breaking out by the winning team,
the Miami Heat, led by Lebron James and Dwayne Wade headed towards the members
of the San Antonio Spurs and began to embrace their defeated opponents!
The respect between the players and coaches of these two teams was evident by
the embraces and the complimentary remarks made at the post game interviews and
press conferences. All of the pushing, shoving and trash talking gave way
to an impressive display of respect and admiration between two opponents.
Immediately I wondered and then Tweeted: "Imagine if people with
different views on religion and politics, treated each other like these two
teams just treated each other. Respect!" Our society has become so
combative and disrespectful. For the most part, gone are the days of "agreeing
to disagree." Now we disagree and resort to name calling, threats
and personal attacks. While it is disheartening to see this take place in
politics and in discussions on social issues, it is especially discouraging to
see church organizations or denominations behaving in the same fashion.
Someone disagrees on a theological issue, and the other side is damning
everyone who disagrees to hell. We need to reverse this dangerous course
of action, and it all starts with me. We are all probably guilty of
stepping out of line from time to time, but we can’t expect the political or
religious communities to change if we are not willing to change
ourselves.
Ultimately, we must learn to look past the disagreements, ignorance and in
some cases hatred, and recognize that there is an individual who was
created by God on the other side of the debate. Some will call it
"pie in the sky", but imagine if conservatives and liberals could
debate the issues in a civil manner, find common ground, agree to disagree on
the areas they differ on, but then go out and have lunch together when it’s all
over. Imagine if church groups would stop segregating themselves over
petty issues and unite on the things they have in common. How powerful
could the force behind the unity be? Imagine if the homosexual and the
heterosexual would stop the name calling, and engage in discussions that could
help each side to understand each other a little bit better.
Let's be honest, in most cases, nobody's mind is going to change about any
of the above mentioned issues, nor am I suggesting that either side has
to give up on their convictions or beliefs. I am simply saying, let’s stop all
the name calling and the rhetoric and be polite enough to listen to each other,
unite on what we agree upon, then take a step back, take a deep breath and just
show a little respect for those who disagree with.
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