(Minghui.org) Reading Master's recent comment on a Minghui editorial regarding putting up Shen Yun door hangers, I was reminded of two recent encounters.
Once, I was talking to a well-known lawyer about Falun Gong. He accepted me warmly. However, when I mentioned that practitioners were very kind, he became upset and showed me a letter.
The letter was a warning written by practitioners, asking the lawyer to position himself with the righteous side and not to assist the evil Party in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. The letter went on to say that if he didn't, he and his family would face retribution.
It was just one of many letters he received after he was invited by the local 610 Office to defend a practitioner on trial.
He was offended by the warnings in the letters. He also told many practitioners that he couldn't believe they were threatening him even though he offered to defend a practitioner for free.
It seemed that he was so bothered by the threat that he didn't read the whole letter which explained more about the persecution. He sided with the Communist Party and believed it was illegal to practice Falun Gong.
The second encounter happened on a train last month. I was talking to a middle-aged man and brought up Falun Gong.
He said he used to have a good opinion regarding Falun Gong, but it was changed by a warning on a Falun Gong flier stating, “Whoever tears this flier will receive retribution.” It took me some time to clear up his misunderstandings.
I decided to write about these two encounters to remind fellow practitioners that we need to pay serious attention to the effectiveness of our truth-clarification.
Of course we don't want to see truth-clarification materials get destroyed. Some practitioners thus became angry and added the warnings, thinking they would keep the fliers posted longer. I think we risk pushing away a large number of good people by adding a warning message targeted at a handful of bad people.
We certainly have to mind our words as we talk to people or print fliers. A correct word can save a life, and a wrong word can add an obstacle preventing a life from being saved.
The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly correct anything inappropriate.
