“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate”

”What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate”

If I’ve learned anything from blogging it is that communication is complicated.

Some of you may know the source of that famous quote “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” I don’t remember many lines from old movies, but that one has stuck with me for many years. (Google it.)

If I am proud of anything about myself it is the grace God has given me to communicate well. People often congratulate me about it. I give God all the credit. But it is a gift I sought and accepted.

I do NOT claim to be the best communicator in the world or even in my neighborhood. However, communicating especially in writing is my specialty; I revel in it and enjoy it and am constantly amazed at how difficult it can be.

I often sit here at my computer and simply shake my head in amazement at how some people misunderstand what I clearly wrote.

Here’s one example: I have never, never compared President Trump to Adolf Hitler and yet people keep accusing me of it when I compare SOME Americans (especially some American Christians) to people in Germany (especially German Christians) in the 1930s. Both evidence(d) a kind of blind loyalty to their governments that is pathological.

Both experience(d) great difficulty speaking out critically against government policies and practices in the midst of humanitarian crises caused by their governments.

My analogy is so clear that I have to suspect some of those who accuse me of comparing Trump to Hitler are simply trying to undermine my message. However, I also suspect many people simply cannot understand how analogies work.

I do expect some level of fairness (giving me the benefit of the doubt) and intelligence (ability to recognize what an analogy is doing and not doing) on the part of my readers.

Henceforth, when I make that analogy, I will not post comments here that misinterpret it—as comparing our president to Hitler or our current humanitarian crisis to the Holocaust. I have made neither comparison.

My message is to all who call themselves Christians in America: Part of being Christian is being willing to speak out on behalf of the weak, the vulnerable and the mistreated—especially in our own country when our government is mistreating them with cruelty. Anyone who thinks tearing children away from their parents and putting them in cages and warehouses without adequate adult supervision is not cruel…is morally and ethically and theologically challenged.

This is so fundamental a conviction on my part that I cannot debate it with people who disagree. It would be like debating with people who think slavery was a good institution. What’s the point?

*Please know that this is not a discussion board; it is my opinion page. Like any editor of any opinion page I select which “letters” to publish (post) here and which ones to omit. Comments that are civil, brief, stick to the subject of the post, and do not blatantly misunderstand what I wrote are most likely to be approved and posted here. If you are not sure you understood correctly, ask a question. If you accuse me of something based on a clear misunderstanding of what I wrote I will no longer post your comment(s). So think before you waste your time composing a comment for my approval. Thank you.