“How dare you question/disagree/not enthusiastically support what I choose to think/believe/do.”
Sound familiar? Personally, I think this attitude has become more common/emotional/hostile in recent years. We’ve become a nation of touchy/reactive/combative people.
Feel free to pick and choose from the options listed above, to tailor it to match your experience. There’s a good chance you will need several variations.
What should we do when someone, whether through confrontation or their private example, challenges what we think, believe and do?
Each of us have a certain way of looking at the world. This worldview is the set of glasses we use to interpret and evaluate the world around us.
It’s based on a mixture of what we’ve been taught, life experience, and our own prioritization of what we believe is most important.
I live in Indianapolis. Our local NFL team are the Colts. There are passionate fans whose lives seem to revolve around this team; the players, the season, the tailgates, and the merchandise. Their second favorite team are whoever is playing the Patriots.
Their lives are focused on the Colts, and they see everything through that lens. It’s their worldview. I’m exaggerating, mostly, but you get the point. Our worldview is what we use to understand what is happening around us, and it affects how we will respond.
Add to this our own prejudices.
The militant atheist sees believers as misguided simpletons. The hardline fundamentalist believes only those within their small circle are right, a circle that grows ever smaller the more strictly they stick to their core values.
Neither side seems capable of seeing the vast number of positions that exist between these polar extremes.
There’s an old debate between the influences of nature versus nurture. We are born with a certain set of genes that cannot be avoided. They impact who we are. At the same time, we are all raised within an environment where family, education, and life experience helped shape who we became.
What is commonly missed is the powerful opportunity to exercise our free will. I cannot override genes. I can’t delete my upbringing. I can decide how I will react to both.
Unless we are willing to think for ourselves, we are trapped.
What do we do when we encounter moral guidance that conflicts with what we’ve been taught, or is different than what dominates our culture, or conflicts with our personal preferences?
A few months ago, I read where some scientists had discovered a new fundamental law of physics. No one had conceived of it before, and it was going to radically alter their understanding of science.
This is not uncommon. A NASA probe makes a new discovery that forces us to backtrack on what we “knew” before. This will be touted as gospel truth, until another probe finds something else surprising.
Perhaps we need to be more open to an ongoing quest for understanding.
To my fellow Christians who also believe in grace, we sometimes need to remind ourselves that Heaven is owned by God and not us. While we may have [hopefully humble] confidence in our interpretation of divine truth, we need to acknowledge that God has the last word.
To those who have little or no faith in the Christian tradition, may I suggest you loosen your grip on your assumptions.
Much of the Bible can be divided into two main categories. There is the historical record of the successes and failures of the people of God. There is also an abundance of moral teaching. While we may or may not repeat the exact examples of the people of the past, moral teaching is timeless.
It’s common for people to think modern society has evolved, and some biblical teaching no longer applies. This is one of the consequences of living in a Postmodern world where all former/conservative rules are tossed aside as outdated and irrelevant. They are then replaced with a new progressive set of moral/social expectations that are seen as much more enlightened and trendy.
The moral teaching of the Bible has stood the test of time. It has been an irreplaceable guide for billions throughout history. From a Christian perspective, it is a gift from an all-knowing all loving God who wants the best for us, and who is infinitely smarter than we can imagine.
Please don’t dismiss it out of hand without giving it a chance to reveal itself.
For Christians, marginal/cultural Christians, and non-Christians, we should all be open to continue to grow in our understanding of the deepest truths. When we don’t, we imprison ourselves in the past, and deny ourselves the opportunity to become more than we are.
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Dave Soucie lives, serves and writes in Indianapolis.
Copyright © 2021 by Dave Soucie. All rights reserved [but permission is granted for non-commercial use only, with proper citation].
Dave Soucie 