Always Right

Who is right? For my dad, a WWII vet, there was the Army way and the right way. The right way was usually his way and it was always the hard way. If it didn’t take a lot of elbow grease it couldn’t possibly do the job properly. For my son, if there was an electric tool that did things quickly and easily, he would refuse do the job without it.

I run into this controversy a lot. It seems that there has to be one right way to do everything. So far in churches, to increase membership, there seems to be around 1000 different methods going around that are billed to be more effective than others.

Multiple ways

The reality in life is that there are many ways to do things. Some are more effective than others. In life, in business, and in the church you evaluate different methods and look for the one with a good cost-benefit ratio. That’s the one that offers the most value or effectiveness.

There are many ways to change people’s attitudes about things. For some it comes down to an intellectual discussion about the need to change and the advantages of change. A few people can do this.

For others their attitudes are solidified by their culture, church teachings, politics, and quasi-experience. I say “quasi” because people tend to interpret their experience by their attitudes so their interpretation of their experience may not reflect reality at all. The most extreme of this is radically polarized views.

For others it takes real world experience to change their attitudes. They have to walk a mile in other’s shoes or they have to get break a leg to shake loose fantasy cures and get the best cures. This is the difficult way to change attitudes.

A very few respond to stimulus-response. You hit them with something, like a law and penalty, and they modify their behavior which can modify their attitude.

The most wrong way

We have a group of people in the US who don’t understand any of this. They think that their way can be the only right way and they couldn’t possibly be wrong. God is on their side, according to their interpretation, so they have to change everyone and everything to fit that mold.

We see this playing out today in the US Congress in the inability to elect a Speaker of the House. It’s the “my way or the highway” attitude that we’ve been seeing in minority political groups since the late 1980s. It’s the shootings of electrical substations, the attacks on politicians, the inability to accept the results of voting, it’s the opposite of democracy.

The inability to grasp reality and act within its bounds is a sure sign of a type of insanity. It’s the result of a natural progression of thinking that accepts only its own definition of what is right, endless feeding on delusions and perceived injustice, and rejecting all other regardless of opposing facts. It’s leaders pumping out fantasy thought for constituents to feed on. Paranoia, delusions, terrorism and other violence are its hallmarks.

It ain’t easy being green

Telling the truth isn’t always easy, but it’s always right. Someone recently said, “If you want to use people tell them what they want to hear if you want to help them tell them the truth.” It’s as simple as that. (A similar statement is attributed to Thomas Sowell.)

Insanity leads to insane actions, even to criminal insanity such as shooting people, hostile takeovers, or refusing to work things out. It’s the opposite of freedom and democracy. It’s what some seem to want. From recent experience they end up in prison.

Christianity is truth

Christianity and all religions tend to border on fantasy. We often look to God not for truth but for what we want to believe.

Jesus talked about truth. Not my truth or your truth, but ultimate truth. My and your truth lead to wickedness and death. We need to talk about Jesus’ truth: love.

________________________

The standard of belief and conduct for Christianity is love. It’s a requirement, not an option – otherwise you’re judged on your failure to love.

________________________

If you find these articles intriguing, please consider joining the mailing list.

If I’ve challenged your thinking, I’ve done my job.

___________________

Our answer is God. God’s answer is us. Together we make the world better.

– Dorian