Peter Bleakley on negativity

[Anonymous]

What Roy said.

There is a story of a man who liked a woman, but she had two suitors already. The man said the capital of Ohio was Cleveland, and the other men said rightly that it was Columbus. Each insisted he was right and, eventually, that the other was an ignorant idiot. They got into a fist fight (two against one), and the original man (a strong, skilled boxer) eliminated his competition for the woman.

This is why I always emphasize precision in what we say. Telling someone who knows they are right that they actually are wrong is the surest way to start a fight.

[Anonymous]

I like the ending tone of the post as it emphasizes love, not fear. I gravitate towards messages of “love” instead of “we are right,” or even that we better change to go back to being right like we were in the golden years. We are a church of love, not a church of fear.

Old Timer wrote:

There is a story of a man who liked a woman, but she had two suitors already. The man said the capital of Ohio was Cleveland, and the other men said rightly that it was Columbus. Each insisted he was right and, eventually, that the other was an ignorant idiot. They got into a fist fight (two against one), and the original man (a strong, skilled boxer) eliminated his competition for the woman.

I think I get the point. You can start a fight that way.

As an aside…on that story of Ohioans, does the lady have to go with the man last standing? Or does she get to choose who she likes based on character instead of wins and losses in boxing?

If I compare that to the religion…does God pick the last church standing, and so we better out-grow the others and scramble to convert the world? Or can good ones, no matter the statistics and who is leaving or staying, find favor with God?

Maybe competition is the wrong way to go with religion, which should be rooted in charity always. I don’t really have to stay to change the church from within. I can just stay because I love it, even if I don’t love everything about it. Let the chips fall where they may, let the doomsdayers say what they will, if that is what gets their feet moving…”sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” I’m ok with living in the present church. Most days.

[Author]

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