#Rapture Fail

U2 - Until The End Of The World on May 21, 2011 at Denver's Invesco Field.
Bono dedicated the song to Harold Camping after Camping's prediction of the Rapture had come and gone.

One of my life lessons this past year, and one of the reason's I have not posted here a great deal is because I am realizing that my initial reaction to situations I disagree with should be at least tempered, if not ignored. I have found that my ability to respond gracefully is a "growing edge."

Politically and theologically, I tend to be liberal and progressive. People who think the opposite of what I think tend to cause my stress level to shoot up. I can feel the muscles in my neck and shoulder tense up. My initial response is to lash out and try to inflict the same discomfort in them as I feel. Now, I don't believe that anyone at Fox News, or in the Fundamentalist Church gives a rat's behind what I think, but it doesn't mean I don't want to fire back.

So when 6pm came and went yesterday with no one coming or going, Camping and his followers became easy targets.
Fortunately, my friends are much more grace filled than I, and fortunately they refer me to wiser people. One of them is Timothy Dalrymple and his blog Philosophical Fragments. His post today about Camping and his followers is the approach I should have had all along.

Christ commands us to pray for our enemies. Just because someone does not agree with me does not make them my enemy. But it also does not mean that they are not one of God's beloved and worthy of my respect and honor.