I've been wanting to reflect for a while on the concept of Otherness and Christian experience in Northern Ireland. It is my perception that we do not deal with that which is other to us very well. If somebody does not share my experience in life, I become suspicious. If that person tries to share a different experience with me, I might even become aggressive. In reality I think that this is a universal challenge. The majority of us, tend to shield ourselves against things that are not familiar to us. We see it as a threat.
As a Seventh-day Adventist I've been on the receiving end of this experience several times in my short stay in Northern Ireland. A few weeks ago I went to visit a member of my church in Newcastle. As I pulled up to the house I noticed that the member was talking to some neigbours. I walked up to them and was introduced as the pastor. The neigbours asked me where I was from. I mentioned that I was a pastor in Banbridge. Their next response was: "Oh, so you are not Presbytarian then." They did not say anything else, walked to their car (which had a driver waiting for them) and drove off.
I am afraid however, that I, and members in my denomination also sometimes have a similar fear of otherness. Perhaps we are afraid of being hurt, excluded or attacked. Perhaps we sometimes feel that we know more than others. I wish we could cultivate a more open and accepting attitude to those who are other to us.
In laboring in a new field, do not think it your duty to say at once to the people, We are Seventh-day Adventists; we believe that the seventh day is the Sabbath; we believe in the non-immortality of the soul. This would often erect a formidable barrier between you and those you wish to reach. Speak to them, as you have opportunity, upon points of doctrine which you can agree. Dwell on the necessity of practical godliness. Give them evidence that you are a Christian, desiring peace, and that you love their souls. Let them see that you are conscientious. Thus you will gain their confidence.
Gospel Workers, pp.119,120 (1915)
Here is a further quote, which contains advice to A.T. Jones, who Elden Thompson describes as perhaps one of the most countercultural and confrontational Adventists alive at the end of the nineteenth century:
The Lord wants His people to follow other methods than that of condemning wrong, even though the condemnation be just. He wants us to do something more than hurl at our adversaries charges that only drive them further from the truth. The work which Christ came to do in our world was not to erect barriers and constantly thrust upon the people the fact that they were wrong.He who expects to enlighten a deceived people must come near them and labor for them in love. He must become a center of holy influence.Testimonies for the Church, vol 6, pp.121,122
Here is a final quote:
Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control, forbearance, and sympathy. We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary. We judge differently. Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to the consduct of life, are not in all respects the same. There are no two whose experiences are alike in every particular. The trials of one are not the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.So frail, so ignorant, so liable to misconception is human nature, that each of us should be careful in the estimate we place upon another. We little know the bearing of our acts upon the experience of others. What we do or say may seem to us of little moment, when, could our eyes be opened, we should see that upon it depended the most important results for good or for evil.The Ministry of Healing, p. 483 (1905)Picture of Seamus and Sean. "The S-Factor" Performance in the streets of Belfast as part of theFestival of Fools
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