Christian Tossed Salad

Image by Professor Bop via Flickr  After a late start, my garden’s producing. And what it produces doesn’t totally delight me: radishes, cabbage and yellow squash. But then my husband Neil is stuck with tomatoes, peppers and green beans.

  Two of us share this garden, and the two of us have different tastes. Neil loves the pungent taste of Brassicaceae family (that’s the biological term for the cabbage kind of things). I will eat fresh tomatoes (Solanaceae) until my mouth breaks out in sores from the acid.

  I’m sure those of you who relish your gardens are the same. The kids won’t eat anything except the “trees” (broccoli), and you have to take up too many rows with three types of lettuce in order to make everyone smile at the dinner table.

  Even so, when company comes, how many of us take them out to the garden and show off the wonders? How many hours do we toil to gain our produce? Whether we love every plant we grow, we love our gardens.

  Our church is a fabulous garden as well—unlike our backyard variety—it’s always is season. However, to please all people, we are a varied group.

  Some are outgoing, gregarious-(perhaps we’d call them annoying). Some are artistic (weird). Some aren’t very pretty, some aren’t very fit, some complain, some are just too happy all the time and finally, some are just too active and keen on fitness.

  Just like our veggies, each comes with its unique pests, yet each displays its own flavor. We are unique and that distinctiveness is essential. A tossed salad without tomatoes is boring, and if you don’t like the little red glob plopped on your plate—your dining partner will snatch it up for you.

  In our churches we all have a role to play, and our church could not perform as God intended without each of us.

  “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Rom 12:4-5

A Case for Intolerance

I will climb out on the proverbial limb and utter an obscene word: intolerance. Sometimes it's good.


Take for example smoking. When I first began teaching, smoke swirled around my classroom. I asked for an air purifier and got this teeny little machine that had minimal effect on my air quality. My room abutted the teachers' room. It had no outside windows and the the smoke wafted through the cut-outs in the ceiling that allowed the fluorescent lights to run.


We all experienced smokey restaurants, businesses, homes, cars, mass transportation. Today, no one can light up on school property--not even in their car with the window rolled up. Smokers used to congregate at doors of businesses and stores to smoke. Today, many places require that they stand a distance away from the entrances. We no longer tolerate the health destroying effects of tobacco.

The same goes with dog droppings. Years ago, no one cleaned up the "litter" and only the property owner was expected to scoop the poop--or the walker, in whose case had to scrape the poop. Today our local rec park stocks plastic bags to make it possible to clean up after dogs. Homeowners will stop recalcitrant dog owners and insist on this basic decency.

Image via WikipediaWe've become intolerant of sex abuse--those guilty can never erase the stigma of their crimes; intolerant of physical abuse; intolerant of driving under the influence

Isn't it time to become more intolerant? Cursing? Indecent clothing? Sexually explicit comedy on sitcoms? Stereotyping Christians as intolerant or hypocritical? Sexually active behavior? Pornography?


Without foregoing mercy, love, kindness--without forgetting Christ's forgiveness, we need to take a stand against what is offensive and wrong, refuse to accept it. If we do, perhaps these behaviors will follow in the fate of second hand smoke and dog doo-doo.