I'm a writing tutor at my school. And, I remember taking the class to learn about what it takes to be a tutor, and all of the theories surrounding the idea of teaching someone to write. One of biggest concepts we had to learn about was the constant fear of students being told that their paper is bad. Writing, no doubt, is a personal thing and strongly connected to your sense of self. And to walk into a writing center and be told that you have dozens of mistakes, and that you need to fix this and change that, it sucks. It can be offensive and almost feel like an attack, especially if the essay is about something near to their heart.
So as tutors, we have several options to approach that fear, while still helping them improve their writing process. One option would be to focus on the positive aspects of the paper, and develop them, rather than point out every error and make the student feel self-conscious. Or, as another option, you could point out one mistake that you continuously see and show them how to fix it. Then, have them go through the paper themselves, and change the mistakes on their own, to give them a sense of independence, and overall confidence that they do in fact know how to write a paper. Or, you could even just start a conversation with them, and they will talk on and on, and eventually, after listening to themselves, will figure out on their own how to fix their paper. And, might I add, without a single comment from you, other than rhetorical questions that make them think harder.
If you tutor correctly, and the if the student has a true desire to learn, there is no negativity. No arguing. No sense of a lack of independence. And the student doesn't feel stupid. And they leave actually learning something and more confident about their paper than they did before they walked in.
This rant has a point, I promise.
Many of you have probably seen the viral video on YouTube called "Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus." Honestly, when I saw this video, I was humbled by it. To me, it seems like he is talking about the lack of trust and obedience in Jesus, and the overall sense of hypocrisy of organized, legalistic religions. Of course, like every other human being in this world, there are a few flaws in the video. Some argue that he is not using the right terms; that he should be saying hypocrisy, and not religion. That there are more to wars than religious beliefs. That he said this wrong or that he said that wrong, and blah blah blah. There are dozens of blogs, articles, and videos responding to this video and calling the guy stupid, dumb, unchristian, etc.
But, here is my question: Why should we even be arguing at all?
People, including myself, walk around parading the name of Jesus Christ. Yet, the moment someone offers a bold statement or differing opinion, or even incorrect information, we confront it with hate, anger, and argumentation. We love to love our own beliefs, and we love to hate people who don't agree with our beliefs. It is a sad, disheartening cycle that I have seen over and over again.
Now, don't think that I am not advocating telling the truth and gospel of Jesus Christ. If someone needs to know the love of Christ, I am not saying you should back down and let them live in lies and incorrect information. No. I am not saying that at all.
This is what I am saying: We are approaching people with differing opinions, numerous questions, and skewed information in all the wrong ways.
If a student were to walk in the writing center and did not know how to use a comma correctly, and had comma splices all throughout their paper, would you expect me to raise my voice? Would you expect me to throw the latest version of the MLA handbook and say "Are you dumb? Do you not read? It's right there in black and white!" Would you expect me to ignore their mistakes and just let them use the commas incorrectly, just because I didn't want offend them? Would you expect me to write an entire paper in response to theirs to prove that they did everything wrong? No, of course not. All of those answers are no.
Yet, why are we approaching the most holy, and Biblical truth there is (Jesus Christ) like that? Witnessing to other people, correcting your brothers and sisters in Christ, and approaching people with differing opinions should be no different than a tutoring session. We should approach the conflicting views in the same way we were taught as tutors to approach a tutoring session. We should focus on the positive, help them learn how to correct themselves, or offer support as they figure it out on their own. We should learn the reasoning behind their beliefs, answer any questions with grace, and show them the Biblical proof. We should not call them stupid, we should not judge and dissect every statement they say, and we sure as heck should not get angry with them just because they don't know something.
Here are some verses to illustrate what I am trying to say:
1 Peter 3:15-16: "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame."
2 Timothy 2:22-26 "Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will."
2 Timothy 3:10-17 "You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Philippians 2:1-11 "Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!"
This video is bold. Powerful. That man in the video has one hundred times the amount of boldness than most Christians have. Yes, there is a difference between true religion and the religion he is talking about. But, at least give him credit for trying to preach the name of Jesus Christ to millions of people on YouTube. Of course he is not perfect, and there are some misuses of terminology and such. But if you disagree with him or have issues with some of his arguments, don't go around proudly arguing about it with other people. Make sure you have Biblical proof for anything you want to say. That is how people need to be responding to this video, with curiosity and love. Not hate and judgement.
And, to be honest, many people are looking at the controversy surrounding this video and being more turned off from Christ. Not because of what the video said, but because of the comments being posted below it. The factions, arguments, hate, and anger makes it seem like Christianity is nothing but a set of confusing beliefs, and that you choose which beliefs work best for you, and that you just hate everyone else who doesn't believe the same. If we are acting like that, we are not representing our Savior properly...at all.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
We ARE Christ's ambassadors.
Acts 20:28 "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood."
We can't be shepherds of the church of God if we are all just arguing all the time.
