Yesterday's Heresy Is Often Today's Truth
Galileo Galilei contemplating the nature of the universe
More than three centuries ago Galileo made important new discoveries about the laws of motion and their application to the solar system. (He supposedly demonstrated them by dropping a cannonball from the tower of Pisa.) But Galileo was criticized because his findings contradicted what "everyone" believed. The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated him for heresy, and only within the recent past has the Catholic Church finally admitted that Galileo was right. He wasn't a heretic after all.
A dismaying look at the past
Recently a friend and I were talking about our childhood years. Hers were spent in rural Oklahoma and mine were in Texas. We recalled how "everyone" considered associating with African Americans unthinkable. It never entered our minds that there might be anything wrong with treating people of color as inferior and making them use schools, restaurants, and other facilities that were separate from those we used. We assumed this system was God-given. We were horrified by the few white people who associated with black people and treated them as equals.
Looking back on those days now, it seems unbelievable that we could have failed to see how unjust this system was, and how contrary to what the Bible teaches.
Religious and secular history are full of instances like this, when what "everyone" assumed was God's will turned out not to be. The priests and worshippers in the days of Isaiah, Amos, and Jeremiah couldn't believe what these prophets said God wanted. Religious people at the time of Jesus' birth couldn't believe that God would send a baby into a poor, insignificant family to be the world's savior.
History also includes appalling examples of people claiming that following Jesus required treating people cruelly. Crusaders in the Middle Ages mistakenly claimed to be defending God's truth by killing infidels. Witch-burners in early America claimed to be rooting out evil for God.
God can surprise us
No matter how unthinkable a new idea may seem to us, it may turn out to be true. No matter how distasteful someone else's religious practice may seem to us, it may be a faithful response to God. People aren't necessarily heretics or sinners just because their beliefs contradict ours. We could be wrong.
The issue isn't just who is right
As Christians we must stand up for what we strongly believe. And holding each other accountable and offering guidance are important aspects of being the church. Also, the church must have some general guidelines that define it.
But offering is very different from forcing, and guidelines are very different from detailed rules that are declared compulsory for everyone. Besides, people sincerely trying to obey God can easily come to different conclusions about what God wants with regard to a specific issue. And right is rarely all on one side.
How we defend our beliefs is important
In standing up for what we believe is right, therefore, we must look first at whether we're focusing on something essential or merely defending a personal preference. Then we have to look at how we promote our views. If we mistreat people and try to force them to believe exactly what we believe, we're breaking Jesus' commandment to love.
Jesus' new commandment to love one another is not a new set of rules. It is a new way to treat people, even when we are declaring our opposition to their behavior or beliefs.
The most cruel and shameful parts of Christian history are those in which people claiming to be Christians have conducted witch hunts, inquisitions, and wars in the guise of eliminating heresy and defending truth. We can't afford to persist in this kind of pointless and cruel behavior.