In Barbados, a story is told of a woman in Church who always bowed profoundly whenever the name of Jesus was mentioned. But she was seen to bow equally profoundly whenever the name of Satan was mentioned. Being Christlike in our differences does not mean having no convictions or clear position of your own. It is a call to interpretive charity in our Christian dialogues. Interpretive charity can be defined as the ability to apply the most loving interpretation to actions and opinions of others.
Interpretive charity means listening to one another in love.
It demands that we restrain our impulse to start formulating our response before the other has finished what they are saying. It is difficult. It is a lot easier and more attractive to evaluate the first few words of the speaker and then plug that statement into a pre-constructed mental model. Interpretive charity calls us to persevere with the discomfort of thoughtful silence and to use that time to prepare a loving response to what we have heard. Interpretive charity challenges us to avoid demeaning labels that we are so eager to apply to our opponents.