GATLING@SUVM (Keith E Gatling) (01/14/90)
You're probably wondering what on earth pizza has to do with Christianity. Ac-
tually, it has a bit to do with the recent discussion of the New Age movement
and Elizabeth's posting. Here we go...
Cheryl tells me that when her parents were younger, they were of the firm
belief that pizza was not a fit food for Christians. Why? Because the
only place it was served at the time was in bars. Since bars are not
places where Christians go, and pizza was served only in bars, pizza was
therefore not a fit food for Christians. I'm glad to say that over the
course of the past 30 years they've come to see the logical error involved
there (helped in no small way by the fact that you can get pizza almost
anywhere these days).
What does this have to do with Elizabeth's post? A lot. Just as Cheryl's
parents thought that pizza was unfit for Christians because of the one
place it happened to be available at the time (that they knew of), some of
us are stating that certain ideas are unChristian because of some of the
other plades where they might be found.
The fact that an idea is held by the so-called New Age movement does
not necessarily mean that it is either un- or anti-Christian. True, there
are some beliefs held by individual segments of the New Age movement which
are mutually exclusive with Christianity, but we cannot say that as a rule
if the New Age movement believes in it, it must not be Christian.
There are many in the New Age movement who believe that you should
love your neighbor. Should we toss this simply because they also hold to
it?
Remember, both pizza and water (one great as food, the other necessary for
life) are served in bars. Just as their coincidental location doesn't make
them intrinsically unfit for Christians, we must also remember that the
fact that a non-Christian group holds to some belief doesn't necessarily
make it evil.
keg