Speaking of lightning (as I did in the previous note), I have been struck three times in the past week, not by lightning but by absurdity, specifically the absurdity of insisting something is true while ignoring the fuzziness of words and the ways we use language.
Here are the three propositions.
1. Government absolutely has the right to regulate what we do with our bodies.
This is a reaction to another absolute statement, "my body, my choice" which is used as an anti-vax slogan. How absurd to begin a discussion that must end in compromise with the attitude "you're wrong and I'm right, end of discussion." It is just a rhetorical gambit. Let the discussion continue.
2. The Bible contains the truth.
How absurd to use the word Truth to dress up the parochial as paragon. We do this because knowledge is hard work. It is easier to trust what is in the book even if you don't know what's there or what it means.
A thought about the truth itself is recorded in John 8:32, "ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Sounds nice. Makes you want to know the truth. Consider this dissenting proposition: ye shall know the truth and become its slave. Not as inspirational, but there are many stories in the book and beyond that illustrate the point very well. The truth about the truth is that there is always more to be said.
The understanding of the ancestors is dressed up as truth until we see that they got it wrong. Truth is not the point. The Bible is the original soap opera with heroes and villains and ordinary folks showing us how we can do better or worse. Now try this on, Truth is elusive, but the search will keep you free. It is presumptuous of me to challenge venerable wisdom with my own tiny thoughts, but that is what the book is for. It invites us to question and rethink and live with the best imagination, passion and understanding we can muster just like the heroes in the book. As for the villains, Truth is a trap. If you think you have hold of the truth, you took the bait and it may be your last thought. Let me think. Did I just take the bait?
3. God is good.
How absurd to take two words, each with multiple definitions, and say that one is the other. This is a mantra rather than a rational proposition. We do not say "God is good" to begin a treatise in theology and ethics but rather to quiet the inner voice that is busy understanding and making plans and getting things done and evaluating results, all of which can be exhausting. Now and again we need to just stop and let the mind drift from rational to spiritual, from left brain to right brain, from self-centred to one-with-Everything. "God is good" drowns reason in mystery so we can stop worrying about the truth for awhile. Then we revisit the grace we experienced as newborns, every cry answered without reserve by nurturing parents who relieved our neediness. The world we mature into is short on grace. It will control, judge, punish, demand and withhold, wear us down with arbitrary suffering and finally put us in the ground. Yet we carry with us the memory of being cared for, and that is the healing bliss into which we retreat when we hear that God is good.
and keep you talking
until struck dumb by absurdity.
In the silence,
reason yields to poetry,
absolutes beget compromise,
meaning emerges from nonsense,
incomprehensible goodness
bathes the uncaring world in irrational grace.
We are living a miracle.
The universe works.
We have a say in what happens next.
God is in us with this.
Therefore, search with confidence.
I too heard some of this. My first thought was just how important it is to keep having conversations. One who spoke out so vehemently in support of his current opinion has missed long months of practice hearing differing opinions, varying perspectives and trying to reconcile hearing such contrary thought and continuing to love the person.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest reaction is none at all. Just keep quiet and let him vent; but that doesn't get us anywhere, does it? I'm examining my own place going forward. How to maintain a loving relationship with a brother, but help us both (and the rest who think as each of us thinks) to somehow come together in a community with a mutual sense of calling and mission...