As a recovering USA evangelical Christian who suffered from
a broken heart from life and church wounds I have recently realized: I had a
severe focus on theology that was correct while my heart was a wreck.
It is easy to point
out the flaws in others while denying we do the same.
Most people live myopically focusing on their own situation
and attack others while missing the big picture. How was that for a judgment?
Watch and listen to media, entertainers, news and politicians; even, sports.
Everybody is judging everybody about everything. Opinions fly rampantly. Ad
hominem, red herrings, straw men and all sorts of logical fallacies are magically
appearing as if they were valid arguments and flying violently but without
wings. There is little love, tolerance or patience being displayed in the USA
by anyone who disagrees with whomever they are disparaging.
Our tolerance and hatred
of one another has done a great job of curing
racism. If anyone has a differing opinion about anything, they are not allowed
into the closed friendship ring. We are
terrible at befriending those we disagree with. Instead those who differ
are branded enemies and opponents of the masses while receiving the brunt of
vehement ridicule. Our politicians have done a great job of role modeling
getting along with those across the aisle. Mudslinging has accomplished so much
to better our nation. We are all great at looking at both sides of all
discussions. Obviously, there can only be two sides!
Here is a hugely popular recent ad hominem: anyone
disagreeing with the gay movement is a homophobe.
Attack the person disagreeing and don’t listen to their point of view. There is
no room for discourse when name calling is acceptable by the vocal group with
money behind their screaming. What an amazing culture shift this has been to
watch over the last 40 years. Has anyone bothered to notice that no society in
the history of earth has lasted very long after its main concern became its
sexual permissiveness? Are we destined to repeat the history we ignore?
Here is a common Appeal to emotion mixed with an ad
hominem: Anyone denying the reproductive
right and freedom to have an abortion must hate women and want our society to
return them to the dark ages. That leaves little room for conversation of
opposing views. Fighting for these rights
has led to many ills being violently ignored: just search “How abortion hurts
women.”
Here is a popular False cause: Since we have so many
temperature readings and scientific measurements of ice melting over the last
120 years; therefore, climate change must be caused by humans. Never mind the
fact that we are on a ball hurtling through space at 70,000mph and spinning on
its axis at 25,000mph which has experienced ice ages and multiple asteroid hits
and mass extinctions in its long life well before the industrial age; so
obviously, it’s all our fault and everything we are doing on the planet needs
to be done differently. Of course, some will argue that last sentence was a
straw man.
Another great modern argument is that no God exists; we are
the masters of our own fate creating our own values and that given these two
there is still a reason and purpose to exist. A true, honest and wonderfully
sincere atheist will know the logical outcome of their belief system is that there
is no reason or purpose for life,
there is no good or evil, no right or wrong, no reason to be happy or sad, no
meaning for anything because those all require the existence of a God with
moral standards. Why should Dawkins or Hitchens care if people believe in a God
if nothing matters? They are imposing their atheistic religious values and
morals in a world they believe has no meaning.
That is illogical. If there is no meaning to life, then logic has no
value or meaning either. Nothing matters. Nothing is important. Nothing is of
value, purpose, good or evil. Everything is permissible like in the above
logical fallacies since nothing can have a higher value because that would
require a supreme being to assign values and morals. How can one’s view of
good/evil, right/wrong matter more than another’s if there is no God? This
leads to the one with the most power winning: survival of the fittest. Folks
like Mr. Dawkins and Mr. Hitchens are trying to redefine reality when reality
is irrelevant. Why should anyone care? Maybe because they are making a lot of
money and having fame from arguing against the God they do not believe in? They
should thank Him!
We are in the modern dark ages where no morality matters.
All of atheistic propaganda is racing toward its only goal: self-pleasure. Has
no one seen or noticed that we in the USA are the most depressed, highly
medicated and addicted society in the history of earth? What good are we to
earth? Why should we bother to exist?
And opposing this is: Why do all humans everywhere on earth have
a strong internal sense of right/wrong, just/unjust, good/evil, true/false,
logic/foolish?
There seems no reason for reason, no purpose to morals, no
value in good behavior, no logic for having logic, no purpose for meaning and
existence. We are all just a waste of existence. Then why should we despair, be
depressed and hopeless unless there really was a reason for everything? Why
should we care? Why should we be dignified or honorable if those things do not
exist or have eternal meaning?
“There is a difference between playing god and serving God,”
Ravi Zacharias.
Here are a few misapplied and misunderstood verses where
people have regularly done some picking and choosing of which parts they apply
to themselves and others:
Matthew 7: “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For
with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with
the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do
you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not
notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how
can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when
there is the log in your own eye? 5 You
hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Luke 6: 37 “Judge
not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive,
and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed
down, shaken together, running over, will be put into
your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
John 7: 24 Do not
judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
So, we are actually told by God Incarnate to judge; just do
it rightly according to God’s ways and means. Christians have not been doing
this well and certainly not with enough LOVE.
Let’s admit we all
judge others and that we really do suck at it. There must be something more.
There must be real meaning and purpose.
At the end of life or now in your dark, lonely places, your
gut and soul are crying out: “Do I matter?”
I tell you, you do. There is a reason. There is a purpose.
You matter more than you know. You won’t find the answers in exercising your rights,
sexual freedom, fame, wealth, pleasure or power. Those are where these endless
pursuits wind up going nowhere and leaving us empty, broken and wanting
something that works to satisfy our souls.
You only find meaning when you come to the end of yourself
and learn that you have a broken heart and soul in great need of the unseen God
Who really is in control and is the Author of Love. In His great patience He
allows us to make a mess of things so badly that we finally understand we are
responsible for all the junk, wounded by all the world’s brokenness and need to
search for Him like a person dying of thirst in the Sahara.
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