A Simple Twist Of Faith

Perhaps the reason you discovered and respected your sisters faith is that one day soon, you may discover your own.

I appreciate the author???s openness to admit her own failing of tolerance. Most Evangelicals have run into this many times, in which they are labeled as intolerant and judgmental simply because they are Evangelical. By definition this is intolerant. As an Evangelical myself, I make a distinction between tolerance and acceptance. There seems to be much confusion between these terms today. Evangelicals are not accepting; that is of faiths and religions that differ significantly from their own on the basis of theology. This does not make them intolerant! In fact Christians by the command of Christ are among the most tolerant in any society. By example Christ conversed, healed, blessed and ministered to those who were on furthest fringes of society. Thank you for submitting this essay, I pray it will encourage those who have a negative reaction to Evangelicals, to take a moment to learn about them and not let labels cause intolerance.

What a wonderful article so insightful into tolerence and understanding. I have recently subscribed to a new website that gives this kind of understanding it is called www.onedialog.com. There is a lot of really neat stuff but this article is just WOW!

Your sister's life sounds like a good example of a person who has been changed by a relationship with Jesus Christ. It seems like she is full of love for God and others. (which is one of the most important things about being a Christian.) Hopefully she will continue to be an encouragement to you.

I'm an "evangelical" who sees himself more a disciple of Jesus than a religious fanatic. Maybe with time I've learned to respect others' beliefs in nothing, though I disagree with them. In response to jeffreylebowskijr, there are more evangelicals who feel like me than the other way around. We're not the intolerants trying to convert any or all to our "religion". We're not the ones trying to blot out God from our country's life. We're not the ones making an effort to keep the Bible out of schools while allowing other religious writings (such as the Koran, witchcraft, etc) in our schools. We have convictions and thus we defend them just like others. Just happens that when we do that, we???re perceived as unloving, fanatics closed minded jihadists we???re not. It takes more effort to believe in God, than to deny it just because we don???t want to be accountable to anybody. Jesus would approve that!!

This IS a great article...and it's nice to read about tolerance whenever we can these days...now can we see one where the evangelicals remain open-minded and accepting of those of us who doubt and don't try to damn and/or convert us? Somehow I'm not going to hold my breath for that one, because frankly, most of them don't truly respect those of other (or no) faith or allow that we have the same right as they do to be a part of the conversation. "God said it, I believe it, and that settles it" pretty much sums up the general level of tolerance and open-mindedness I've experienced (for what it's worth, a couple of my best friends in the world are Christians, but they are BY FAR the exceptions). I can't think that Jesus would approve...

Wow, what a great story. Good for Kristen for truly being the type of person that God calls us to be. He doesn't call us to be preachy and judgemental, he calls us to have faith, love him, and love others. Loveing others doesn't mean just loving other followers of Christ, it means loving E V E R Y O N E. Not always easy, but Theresa, it sounds like you sister is a wonderful example of this. It also sounds like her actions have changed your heart a bit as well. :-) God Bless you both.

This is a wonderful story about being open to understanding that we don't all worship and have faith in the same way. I saw an article on www.onedialog.com that really helped me to understand this, too. It's amazing how we all make assumptions and uniformed opinions on how others believe, yet when we take a moment to be open and understanding, we find that we can have a great deal more respect for each other. That's what www.onedialog.com is all about. I bet the people at that site would love this story!

I think that this article does a great job at debunking some myths about evangelical Christians. I applaud her sister for learning to love the person that Kristen was, and not focus so much on her beliefs. I honestly feel like there are a lot of evangelical Christians just like Kristen. I also believe that there are plenty of atheists that are moderate and accepting of religious people as long as Christians show them (us) respect also :o)

Theresa thank you for your wonderful article regarding the faith of your sister Kristen. Just few days ago my family faced an overwhelming crisis that could have torn us apart. As I was driving home, my wife frantically called me about an agency inquiring about our family. She started talking but half way down the conversation, she and the kids started crying. Over the years, I have been through crisis, that has made me strong (I still need to be more strong) and the only way that I could endure this is PRAYER. I told my wife to open Psalms 121 read it any pray with the children. I thank God for a fine example of Kristen set in the storm and for people like you who have seen the power God through your sister. Yes there is nobody on earth who will be always with us except Our Father and His Son Jesus Christ who has already confirmed and assured us that He will be there until the end of time. Thank you Kristen for setting a great example and thank you Theresa for admiring the power that your sister has.