If I have ever been your friend, I still consider you a friend.

Add an enjoyment of writing to strong opinions about faith and politics, and you may have a recipe for offense among friends.  That’s pretty much where I land.

Here’s the thing.  People who enjoy writing tend to write about the things they are most passionate about.  What ends up happening is that you don’t get the opportunity to see the shades of gray within those topics.

Take politics for example.

If I write a blog entry about politics, it will most likely be right-leaning.  I may speak my mind on a particular topic, but not address related topics.  As human as you and I are, here’s what will happen:  You will read the post, you will add to that post other things which you know (or think you know) about me, and then you will fill in the gaps – the missing information – with experiences you’ve had or seen with other right-leaning types.

It’s that latter piece which will deceive your mind into believing something about me which is not true.

Oh, you can’t help it.  It’s what we humans do.  Our minds insist on completing a partial picture.  It is once we have created that picture, likely in an instant, that we can remind ourselves that we have drawn a conclusion that was not stated but rather given a hue from other unrelated experiences; from people whom I may not even know.

I am privileged that some of my closest friends differ greatly from me in their beliefs.  We can respectfully debate, we can passionately disagree, and we can be mature enough to still be friends.

If you don’t see things the same way I do, I don’t think badly of you.  I also don’t think you are any more wrong than you think I am.

If I have ever been your friend, I still consider you a friend.

– read about grace in friendships