I am about to go on two rants that will not be thought much
of if we think of them as rants. Because
all I want to do is to make a statement, and a few related statements that
brought me to my conclusion, and to have everyone agree with me. I don’t want to huff and puff about
them. I certainly don’t want to go to
all the trouble of trying to persuade people with carefully researched
arguments – which usually doesn’t work anyway.
1. Laughing at people
should not be thought rude unless it is clearly intended to be so. Children laugh with delight – at fun things,
at spectacles, at themselves, at comedy.
It is associated with being in good humor. I know I am not often in very good humor, and
I would like justification for expressing it when I feel it. If something you say makes me laugh, please do
not think that I find you merely comic – or that I am intending to tease or
ridicule you. You delight me. Please continue.
2. I used to think I
was conservative: a conservative Christian, conservative in politics. It’s possible I am conservative about
language, or conservative with resources.
But when conservation and ideals share ground, if you are an
unsuccessful conservative for long enough, you have to stop! I can’t be conservative for the sake of conserving! I’m not conservative just to oppose
changes. The idea is that I want
something to be stable, for goodness to be maintained. But for quite a while, evil has been
gradually overwhelming my ideals. The
status quo isn’t ok with me, either in our nation’s government or in our
churches. So I am a revolutionary. I am a submissive revolutionary. Some people rather derisively (or at least
dismissively) call me an idealist.
To God be all glory.
2 comments:
I am often called an idealist as well. It is almost always used as an insult.
"The modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." - GK Chesterton
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