BAD EXPERIENCES WITH CHRISTIANS
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with the Rt. Hon. Adam Ingram MP. I dared to ask him about something I had heard to see if it was true. I had been told that Adam Ingram as a young man had attended the BTI (Bible Training Institute) Bible College in Glasgow. Adam Ingram was honest and transparent enough to tell me that it was true but that a couple of bad experiences with Christians had been very formative in the decisions he subsequently made.
The first was when he invited another Christian to his home who was from Northern Ireland. Unbeknownst to Adam, this man was a bigot, and in front of Adam’s mother he came out with a such a torrent of sectarian venom against Catholics that Adam’s mother showed this man the door and promptly told Adam that if that was what he was getting into, then this was the end of it.
Adam left the college and later he married to a lady of the Catholic faith. One of the Christians who used to know him when he attended church met him one day after he married. He had learned he had married a Catholic and said to Adam, "You used to be a nice boy."
Adam Ingram became a very successful and hard-working politician with a good reputation, but he does not how to profess faith as a Christian. I just wonder how things might have turned out for him had his experience been different in the early days of his faith when his opinions were shaped by the lives of other Christians he met.