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Friday, October 2, 2020

Doing My Best to Follow James: Help Me If I Fail

My wife points out that it is too easy to let our words take us places we should not go:

How do we walk humbly in this age of inflammatory language, opinions parading as facts and words spoken under the guise of Christianity, but seem to be a far cry from the Lord we profess to follow?  James weighs in with how poisonous our tongues can be, and in this age of social media, our words can become especially hazardous: ...

But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. (James 3:1-6 NLT)

9/18/20 NPR quoting Trump:

"Renowned for her brilliant mind and her powerful dissents at the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg demonstrated that one can disagree without being disagreeable toward one's colleagues or different points of view," the statement said.
And yes, Trump could take a page there.  

This is a real problem.  There are policies that our opponents promote that are bad ideas, sometimes evil ideas (every white person is a racist, it should be legal to suck the brains out of a baby just a couple minutes before birth).  But the correct response to bad and evil ideas is to counter the ideas, not engaging in name calling or ad hominem attack.  (And I admit that the amusing play on Rep. Octavio-Cortez's name is quite witty, and I have used it at times, but no more.)  If someone engages in unlawful or depraved behavior (using your position as the VP's son to get contracts or bribes, using young girls as sexual playthings, or as bait to blackmail people), we can and should condemn their actions and hold them to account.  But not everyone on the left is evil; many are simply miseducated or looking for simple solutions to complex or painful problems.  Treat these erring people gently; savage their bad ideas.


1 comment:

  1. I have little sympathy left for intelligent and educated people who promote evil. Perhaps they are self-deluded. Perhaps they are as venal and self-serving as their actions seem to indicate.

    The left appears to be promoting a race and religious civil war. A nest of vipers.

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