Malaysian Christians Need to Learn the Difference Between 'Nice' and 'Good'


Malaysia is a country where there are as many world views as there are people groups. As it is no two world views are consistent with each other, but somehow Malaysians have managed to reach a point where, perhaps after being so tired of being fed segregationist propaganda from government machinery, they have created their own brand of unity. One where all Malaysians are the same, and their opinions and world views equally valid (unless you're a politician from an opposing side, then your views are irrelevant).

This is nothing new or uncommon. When conversations veer towards topics like race and religion, Malaysians like to throw catchphrases like "Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity... All same.  Religion is good. They all teach you to be good", or "Malay, Indian, Chinese... All same... Satu Malaysia!" Malaysians in general are nice. We like people to think we are nice, unlike how some politicians behave. These politicians like to raise divisive topics and make people unhappy. These politicians are not nice. We don't want to be like them. So instead of raising divisive topics, we say everything is the same, because we want to be nice.

The problem for Malaysian Christians is when we unconsciously adopt this amalgamation of world views along side our Christian world view. How is that a problem you ask? Well, for one, Christianity makes several unique claims which gives no space for all world views to hold equally valid positions. In fact, if you understand any one religion, you will find that if their world view is to be true, it immediately disqualifies the rest from being true. For the sake of example, one cannot say that both Islam and Christianity are true at the same time - a Muslim and a Christian will have largely contradicting views on how reality functions.

Which brings me to my main concern - that Malaysian Christians can sometimes be too caught up with wanting to be nice and forget that we were never called to be nice. Think about it. If Jesus was nice, he wouldn't have been crucified. The very message that he taught, and that we are to faithfully pass on has never been a nice message. It is a good message, no doubt, but not a nice one. The gospel message puts forth truth claims which challenge all other ideas of religion, and no one likes to hear that they're wrong.

If you found the gospel to be reliably true, and are trusting in Jesus' death and resurrection to save you from God's just anger, then grow a spine. Stand firm in what you know to be true, and preach it boldly even if the message is offensive. Don't 'preach the nice bits, and leave out the controversial bits' just because you want to be perceived as nice and accepting. Name heresies to be heresies, false teachers to be false teachers. Being nice does no one good, and in fact, will cost souls.

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