Confrontation vs compassion

https://youtu.be/WtftZPL-k7Y

I felt it was quite confrontational. (I've been in his shoes before, having a debate on opposing views and wamting to win the argument).

It works in certain context: when the platform is set such that both parties have the same intention to win the debate and are open/closed to convincing an external third party judge/audience that they should be supporting one side/the other...

This would require: facts, credibility, history cases, etc...

Good for intellectuals and people whom make decisions based on rational logic and not emotions..

However......

In this case.... The students that he's talking to aren't that, and it also isnt the right platform, time or situation...

He might have the right intention: to get the truth across. The right goal: to convince/win the argument...

But what was wrong is he lacked the heart to listen. And the wrong method of discourse: conflicting debate. He was also sarcastic: when the lady touched him at the end..

If more than win hearts of those that are loss, I think he grew the seed of hate even more.

We don't win anyone over by insisting we are right and they are wrong. That's what the pharisees did. They tried to convince/impose upon people what the perceived to be correct.

However I would have loved to be able to sit down with him and try to change his mind.

This is a real challenge. Not for him in changing other people's mind... But for someone to finally come up and be able to change his...

Heart

To change a person's mind, you need to change thier heart.

And to change their heart, they need to be able to open it up to you

They need to be able to feel loved

And we don't show love when we are aggressively pushing forward our own agenda, seeing others as a means to and end instead of seeing them as ends in themselves.

I never rally understood that line that I just wrote. I've read it before in the past. But only now does it make sense to me.

Seeing others as ends in themselves.

Was I too caught up having a "heavenly mindset", championing the cause of the righteous and fighting a "holy war" for the sake of defending the Gospel apologetically without prejudice...

Gosh how blinded and wrong was i

How far I strayed from what Christ really wanted.

Love

And

Compassion

For the loss, for the needy.

But harsh rebuke for the "saved" and knowledgeable, for not lifting a finger to help the poor and thirsty.

I am a privaledge rich man, with a lazarus outside my door. How do I open it and invite him to come and feast on all that I know is good? Instead of condemning and shunning him.

Instead of being condescending

I prefer the way how jubilee project peeps are doing discourse and debates.

Middle ground and spectrum are geat mediums and platforms for this kind of 'getting to know' the other person's side of the story.