Goodbye to Arkansas

This is to be my last posting from Arkansas and I am really not sure what I want to say.

To quote Thumper from Bambi “if you can’t say nothing nice, don’t say nothing at all”. So that sort of leaves me hearing crickets in the background.

It hasn’t been all bad here. We have learned a lot, but I guess what we learned wasn’t what we had hoped to learn or even do. I came here with the high hopes off helping a friend with a new type of ministry and instead wound up loosing that friend and a host of others, all because I believe differently concerning G-D.

I realize in the Christian world that my difference is huge, not believing that Jesus is G-D, but nothing about my values or morals have changed, yet here in what is supposed to be the Bible belt, home of more variations of Christianity then you can shake a stick at, and I have found a level of intolerance that I never quite expected. Sure I have known that there is a large concentration of KKK and skin heads, but I never imagined intolerance coming from the churches. Actually it isn’t so much intolerance as it is ignorance, ignorance as to what I believe and just how little of a threat I am to any ones ministry especially if their goal is supposed to be helping people. Ah well, I was seen as a threat thus here we are.

In many ways it’s ironic that the NE is actually more tolerant of differing views then here in the south, some in the NE will tell me that I am wrong, but at least they will do it to my face and we then continue on with our friendship, yet I am always seeing the polls that tell us just how ungodly folks are up there and yet I haven’t found that to be true. If by “ungodly” you mean that many people want nothing to do with main stream denominations then I would probably agree with you but just because someone does not conform to the denominational view of things doesn’t mean that they are ungodly.

What is it that makes a person “godly”? Is it following one denominational view over another? Is it dependent on how many times you darken the doorway of a church or synagogue? Is it a question of how many times you go to confession or how much you give in money? Is it carrying picket signs or fancy programming? The list could go on but the answer is no. Then what does make a person “godly”? Interestingly enough both the Jewish bible and the Christian bible agree on this question, though it tends to get lost in the battle for denominational superiority and it’s really simple.

Love G-D. Love your neighbor. Five words, two very short sentences, and you have just summed up the entire Bible. How do you love G-D? Read the Bible and you will find out. How do you love your neighbor? Read that same Bible and you will find the answers to that as well. This is not difficult. It is us humans and our desire to be better then others that make this whole thing difficult.

Just based on those two basic commands there is no reason why we cannot work together but alas it’s our own personal doctrines that seem to get in the way. So we don’t believe the same way about G-D, at least we believe, and that doesn’t excuse us from serving others.

This is the part where I stop. There is more that could be said, but my friends already know what I believe and they are still my friends. To you Shalom.

So as we go into the Passover and Easter holidays, I simply hope that you will remember that which we have in common and may your holidays be blessed.

Shalom, see you soon NE

Ignacio