The Rush to the RIGHT and LEFT and Logic Be Doomed

Transcript from Overflowing Hope Podcast

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The Answer to this QUESTION is not up for debate, discussion, or compromise! This seems to be the status and standing of many, if not most, on social media. It is the ALL OR NOTHING politics of the left and the right. It is also the ALL OR NOTHING stand of some Christians. This stand has pushed the left to the ridiculously dangerous and the right to a precarious heterodoxy. How can we reason together, share logically, and bring forth arguments on both sides of an issue with the ridiculous and the heterodox firing rapid rounds at us? Even the universities, which should be the guardian of debate, have eliminated any gray areas to discuss. They have established their canon law, and it is finished. We who would hunger for a chance to speak with passion, love, and logic and hear others do the same are assigned to bunkers out of the earshot of the warring parties. It is fear that silences the logical mass. 

Many of these social media exclusivists are sideline Christians who speak of things they have not experienced. They pass judgments, give advice, and offer insight into something of which they know little. Now, I don’t think you must have every experience before you can speak to an issue; however, I do believe that Christians need to listen with grey ears to people and their situations; not everything is black and white. The old saying that we should not judge people’s choices when we don’t even know the options that faced them is true. You can’t truly listen to a person unless you are determined to understand the person and their choices.

The woman by the well that Jesus spoke to about living water in John 4:4-26 had made some questionable choices. Jesus shared with her that He knew she had five husbands and was now living with a man, not her husband, yet he spoke to her and offered Living Water. If Jesus had been on social media dealing with this issue, he would have received fire from both sides:  the right, because he should not be so calm and willing to forgive her sin, and the left, for being so callous as to bring up her past. The Lord used this woman to share the Gospel in her village. In the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox church, she is treated as a Saint and referred to as Saint Photine (luminous or enlightened one).

Many issues today need to be listened to with compassion and understanding. No one is asking you to change or repudiate a foundational belief, but only to listen and understand another opinion. Change comes in an atmosphere of acceptance and respect. Watch Jesus as he speaks of water at the well, as he draws on the ground when the woman is caught in adultery, as he touches the leper, as the woman pours perfume on his feet, as he goes to Zacchaeus’ house, and on and on. Jesus accepted you and me long before we ever thought about accepting him. 

When I asked online if taking a life was always murder, the answer fired from both sides was emphatic and sure. I asked about capital punishment, self-protection, and war but the rounds being fired were so loud I could not hear any logic. The abortion issue has pushed the right and left to obscene corners:  one wants now to prevent the use of contraception and the other to abort a baby up to delivery. One won’t listen to questions about saving a mother’s life, and the other gives no credence or value to the unborn. They have settled it, and the persons experiencing a choice between the mother and the unborn are doomed by both sides, regardless of choice. One side has said it is not an issue, and the other has stated it is murder. There is no room for discussion, and the person even fears going to the church.

As Christians, especially pastors, our purpose is to listen to understand, and bring reconciliation to the process and the person. I have stood with families in complicated circumstances where decisions were not black and white, and in those moments, we leaned on the Lord’s understanding. We need not agree, acquiesce to the opinions of others, or betray foundational truths; however, we are called to be ministers of reconciliation and not ministers of condemnation. It may feel good to roast people from the sidelines, but it is not good nor edifying. I have failed many times, but I am determined to do better. Would you join me in putting down the torch and pitchfork and picking up the mantle of reconciliation? I believe we all could benefit.

God bless you.

Dr. James D. Allen