Reflection This Week
CONVERSION

    It is a known fact that I am a political junkie as well as a life-long Democrat (it’s genetic: from both parents). Thus, I was somewhat bemused to read the comment from Tom Tancredo, one of the Republican candidates for President, commenting on his opponents who have shifted to conservative positions on hot-button issues ahead of the Republican caucuses in Iowa. Tancredo: “I trust those conversions when they happen on the road to Damascus, not on the road to Des Moines.”

    Funny line, but there is so much truth to what he opines. True conversion takes time and it often and usually does come at a cost. Conversion is not about wetting our finger and sticking it in the wind to see which way it is blowing. That’s not conversion. That’s momentary expediency. That’s like the person whose favorite team happens to be the one that is presently in first place. The true believer is the one like me who still roots for the Pittsburgh Pirates even though they haven’t had a winning season in over a decade.

    For a true believer to be converted, as was Paul on the road to Damascus, one’s (whole) way of thinking and being has to change. What was once black is now seen as white. What was once considered an abomination is now seen as natural. What one once believed to be morally wrong now is seen as if not morally correct, at least morally neutral. That conversion does not come over night or in the heat of a campaign or the heat of a pennant race or to get on another’s good side. That conversion takes time, lots of time, intentional time. Think slavery. Think women’s suffrage. Think.

    Conversion involves the mind and the heart, our whole being, in fact. A true convert is a changed person and not simply a person who has changed his or her mind on some issue. That is why real conversion does not depend on what another or others may think about us or if they will or will not vote for us or even deign to have dinner with us any more when we used to be the best of friends. Conversion is the result of a deep conviction that what one once believed to be valid is no longer so and one cannot go back.

    However, there is also a downside to conversion, at least potentially. There are times when the convert is so changed that s/he cannot understand how s/he ever thought or acted formerly and thus has a difficult time with those who now cannot see as s/he now sees and believes. What was once the truth is no longer so. The convert then asks, “I now see the truth. Why can’t you?”

    The answer, quite simply, is that no two people see with the same eyes. One person’s view of reality may be another person’s fantasy world. We get into trouble as individuals, as a society, even as a church when we want to impose what we see as the truth on everyone else. We want them to see as we see; but, of course, they cannot, not always.

    That is not to say that we should not defend our views because another might disagree and decide that we can no longer be compatriots of whatever sort. We have to speak the truth and live the truth as we believe it to be. But we also have to be open enough to accept the fact that others in very good conscience simply do not see it our way.  WJP