Dangerous Beliefs

I have many nice, well-meaning people on FB who post all sorts of advice about meditation, ill-defined concepts of being present, and other lite versions of Eastern religions and general mysticism.  (Even those who purport to be passing along Native American wisdom are just reconfiguring some Ameribuddhist tropes.) Just posters with little sayings, simply declaring some banality to be true, and important. Sometimes the sayings are true, or true enough - letting go of anger, forgiving, rolling with the punches, that sort of thing.

There is a darker underside in that I know the people and some of them have anger issues which they play out in this guise of gentleness and wisdom.  But some don't, or not obviously.  Some are fine folks, people you might take advice from on any number of issues. Still, my initial reaction to this posts is to be irritated by the unfairness of much of our public discourse, which regards these religious expressions as benign and acceptable, but Christian expressions to be intrusive and aggressive.  In American mode, I regard this as unfair.* One branch of religions - and not the ones which had any part in the rise of Western Civilisation - gets a free pass as harmless, while Christianity is perceived as a great danger.

Having noted this, however, once one steps out of American mode of measuring the fairness of the public square and into an eternal perspective, I see that this is absolutely true.  Our message is dangerous, intrusive, and aggressive, however winsomely we present it. Contrary to the medieval perception of the great danger of all occult and nonChristian teachings, the Bible usually regards such things as useless and powerless distractions from the truth.  God is angry and jealous, not because we have chosen the other side in the great battle between Satan and Michael (there are those who do, but they are few), but because we have chosen No Side, a sort of oblivion of gods who babble nonsense and cannot save. The two "sides," if you will, are Him and Not Him. The wide varieties of Not Him may not be ranked as we would predict.

So no, it's not fair, and it doesn't matter, because at a deeper level it recognises a more important truth. Those offended by the gospel may be sensing their danger very clearly.

*However, I have friends at church who post Christian encouragement and messages all the time, and in their circles, there is seldom any objection.  This is also true, and it likely seems a bit oppressive to non-Christian.