CONFUSING TIMES “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” Galatians 6:1 By: Kathryn Barattini, Communications Specialist
THERE IS A LOT of general confusion in the world right now. So many people are making arguments that sound good. After all, most people want to do the right thing. Almost no one wants to be a hater. The problem is that the words some people use can be deceptive and manipulative. If you would like to avoid being manipulated, it’s good to try a little language experiment to see if an argument holds. What if we substituted the word “fire” for many of the common and impassioned arguments we hear today, and see if they still make sense? Fire is good. It warms. It cooks. It purifies. It’s beautiful. It has so many uses. How can something as good as fire even be “misused?” How can using something as good as fire ever be used “immorally?” You fire haters can’t tell me how to express my fire love! I LOVE fire. I want to be one with it. I want to stand in the middle of it and let it consume me. It’s my body! Who are you to tell me that’s “wrong?” I want to merge with fire! I AM fire because I choose to be! Of course,
in reality, I’ve always been free to burn myself to ashes. What I want is for you to cheer me doing it. I want everyone to celebrate it! I want to establish self-burning holidays. I want facilities on each corner to provide for everyone’s selfburning needs. How can you even use ANY fire without thinking ALL fire is good? Hypocrites! How dare you! How dare you be filled with such HATE that you refuse to cheer while I burn? Now some could argue that this is not a fair comparison because everyone knows that we should not hurt our bodies, and we should not. However, is not protecting the soul infinitely more valuable than the body? Jesus, Himself, expresses this very idea, when He uses startling language to get us to see just that: “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your NOVEMBER 2020 21
