This
is not the post I meant to write today. I meant to get back to blogging through
the Articles of Religion, but I had an online exchange with my friend Tony Ares that forced me to do some real
self-examination.
Tony
posted something about the debate over the Washington Redskins mascot debate.
In our back and forth, Tony referred to the
“ 'loud professionally offended' making decisions for all of us.”*
The comment stopped me.
I
started thinking about all the things that bother me today that didn’t bother
me a year or two years ago. I tried to
mentally divide my offendednesses** into stuff I didn’t understand enough about
to be angry and times when I jumped on the indignation bandwagon.
I
couldn’t discern the difference. Not immediately.
Can
you?
Think
about the political and social issues and activities that you think need to be
outlawed or legalized after all the decades they’ve been whatever they are.
Think
about them.
Did
you read the book? Did you then read an equally well researched and written book supporting the opposite viewpoint?
Or
did you hear about it on Twitter or Facebook?
If
the overwhelming majority of your friends and online followers believed the
exact opposite and if you had heard the opposite opinion from all of them
FIRST, would you still have the same opinion?
Would you still be offended?
This
is important. How much of your opinion
is really YOUR opinion?
For
who-knows-how-long, Adam and Eve walked around Eden buck naked and nobody had a
problem with it.
And
they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2: 25)
Then
one afternoon, they did something they’d never done: they put on clothes and hid
from God.
Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves coverings.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3: 7, 8)
When
God confronted them about this shift in their view of what was socially
appropriate in a Pre-Fall society, Adam explained that he and his wife were
now offended by their traditional state of primordial nudity. (Genesis 3: 10)
Why?
“Who
in crap’,” (My paraphrase. You won’t
find that phrase in the NIV.) God asked “Who
in crap told you that you were naked? I didn’t say anything was wrong with you
being naked. Why do you suddenly find it
‘offensive’?”
Adam’s
response was evasive and embarrassing.
The gist though was that he did not arrive at his new opinion
independently. He had consumed opinion-based
media in the form of fruit from the Tree of “Knowledge.” And this new source of information had him
and his wife looking at themselves and each other differently.
Adam
and Eve had stopped seeing themselves the way God saw them and started seeing themselves
the way a certain serpent saw them.
Solomon
once said, “Do not take to heart everything people say, Lest you hear your
servant cursing you.” (Ecclesiastes 7: 21) In other words, “If you listen to everything
everybody says you’ll find reasons to be mad.”
But
some of you think, “Well, if that’s how they feel, then I wanna know.” (Try to imagine me rolling my neck when I say
that. Better yet, don’t.)
To
you who wanna know EVERYbody’s opinion, Solomon points out “Many times, also,
your own heart has known that even you have cursed others.” (Ecclesiastes 7: 22)
Is
what they did/ said out loud really so much more offensive than what’s happened
in your own heart? (Matthew
5: 20-22)
Who
told you to be offended?
Now
pause for a minute, because right now you might be absorbing what you think is
my opinion instead of examining your opinions.
I am not trying to unoffend*** you.
I’m trying to get you to consider WHY this pisses you off and that doesn’t. You may have good reasons.
But what if you don't have any reasons?
Christians especially have to be extra conscious and careful about simply
copying and pasting the prevailing cultural opinion onto our minds.
Sometimes,
popular opinion is right.
And
sometimes it’s not.
The
prevailing opinion during Jesus’ public ministry was that Jesus was either a
new prophet or a reincarnated one (Matthew
16: 13, 14) .
The
correct answer was something totally outside the mainstream.
Simon
Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew
16: 16)
How
did Peter find the courage to speak such a fringe opinion?
He
faced the 3 questions I have to face and you need to face as well. They are the 3 questions Tony got me thinking
about. They’re the 3 questions God has been
asking His children since the beginning.
The
3 questions come from the Father’s examination of Adam in the Garden and the
Son’s examination of the disciples in the gospels.
Who
told you that you were naked? (Genesis 3: 11)
Who
do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? (Matthew 16: 13)
But
who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16: 15)
The
3 Questions are:
Who told you?
What do they say?
But what do you say?
I’m
re-examining what offends (and doesn’t
offend) me by asking myself the 3 Questions.
I pray you’ll do the same.
Who told you to be offended?
What do they say to make you feel that way?
But what do you say for yourself?
May
your final answer come from the right place.
“Blessed
are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to
you, but My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16: 17)
And may you be convicted if your answer comes from the wrong place.
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16: 23)
*(If
you’re on Facebook, you can read the post and our exchange here.
)
**
Yes, “offendedness.” Well, it’s a word now.
***
“Unoffend” is also a word now. It’s a
verb.
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural
leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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