I’m always right …
I’m always right, except when I’m wrong. My kids would often protest, “Dad, you always think you’re right!” To which I would respond, “Of course I do, if I thought I was wrong I would change my mind so I could be right again!” I’ll hold my opinion with passion, but never so tightly that I won’t change it when the evidence demands it.
We all want to be right, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who has wanted to be wrong. However, are we willing to be discerning in our quest for knowledge and truth? None of us has all the answers and it would be arrogant to claim that we do. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything.”
Over the last couple weeks I have been forced to change my mind. I have been wrestling with the statement of Martin Luther King jr., “that a riot is the language of the unheard.” It is a statement that does not sit well with me, it makes me deeply uncomfortable, I don’t agree with violence, and yet I am now willing to accept this statement as true.
How did I change my mind? How did I get to this place and what does it mean for me as a Christian?
Pastor and theologian Karl Barth reminded young theologians, “to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” This comment provides the critical framework for all Christians to use when it comes to expressing thoughts and opinions on current events. Christians are not to be ignorant of what is going on in the world, I am to be informed and I am to be involved in the world. Christians universally agree that God created this world and that God loves this world.
God’s word in the Scripture serves as the authority to which Christians turn. Political science, sociology, psychology, philosophy, science, and other disciplines are all very helpful, informative, and critical guides on the journey to discernment but ultimately Scripture serves as the Christian’s final authority.
The challenge is that Scripture requires both translation and interpretation. There is ample opportunity to get it wrong. So I must be willing to do the hard work of discernment to make sure I am as close as possible to getting it right. I must be willing to change my mind as soon as I am made aware that I have it wrong.
I certainly don’t want to be a fool. As the writer of Proverbs states, “Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them” (26:12). A wise person is given that title by others, I must be careful to never claim it for myself. I must look for sources outside my own mind, it is not enough to be satisfied with my own feeling of being right, “Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe” (28:26). I must take time to think through my position before I speak, “Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for them” (29:20).
I have no desire to be foolish, although I often probably prove to be so. That comes with being a person on a journey who has a lot to learn.
Over the last couple of weeks I have tried to lay aside my prejudices, not an easy thing to do, and listen to the voices of those around me. My past reading and study has certainly helped me arrive in a new place. Over the years voices outside my evangelical, Presbyterian, reformed tradition have shaped me. Books like John Dominic Crossan’s - God and Empire, John Howard Yoder’s - The Politics of Jesus, Justo Gonzalez’s - Manana, and many others have served to challenge and inform me as outside voices. Discernment and seeking the truth involves listening to the voices that challenge me and then taking the questions they pose back to the Scriptures to test their validity.
I was a little taken aback when a friend and pastor, who I have great respect for, saw his business in Minneapolis burn and then said, “if the buildings have to burn for justice to be served, then let the buildings burn.” Yes, he was upset with the outside agitators who came to recklessly destroy, but he also recognized an initial outpouring of anger from the voiceless. It forced me to take a long hard look at my own position.
Now, I grew up in Belfast. I saw bombs go off. I saw what I believed was the needless destruction of property. The people planting the bombs said they were freedom fighters, I thought of them as thugs and terrorists. The position of “them and us” was deeply ingrained in my life. In the late 80s and early 90s I volunteered with Prison Fellowship and was grateful for the relationships I made with former terrorists/freedom fighters, but those still fighting for “the cause” where still thugs in my mind.
I carried this bias for decades. Now a new voice is speaking into my life. So I sat and listened to disparate voices. The voices of black friends and friends of colour. The voices of national leaders on civil rights, local and national political figures, and others.
I looked to history and saw so many occurrences where oppressed people responded violently when they felt they had no other recourse. In just a few weeks time people in America will be setting off fireworks and hosting parties to celebrate the violent overthrow of British oppressors. Violent opposition to the Stamp Act and was supported and encouraged by the clergy! You can look to the destruction of property at the Boston Tea Party. The national anthem celebrates bombs bursting in air, and the rockets red glare. These are all part of the American story of overthrowing their oppressive colonial masters.
The history books call it the fight against the British a revolution, but when Nat Turner led slaves in 1831 to fight oppression it is called a rebellion, an insurgence. I had to ask myself, why is one a revolution and the other a rebellion? Would it have been a revolution if Nat Turner had succeeded? The word choice matters.
Many of the same people who condemn the violence in Minneapolis and around the country are fundamentally OK with other violent movements in history, myself included. I had to ask why? The answer is almost exclusively because it has been to my benefit.
Then I went back to Scripture to read what it says about justice. I prayed that I would see it with clear eyes and an open heart. I read of God’s passion for people, God’s disgust at the injustice of oppression, God’s disgust towards the wealthy who take advantage of others, I read again that God sides with the oppressed. None of this was new to me. I have read it many times before and know that Jeremiah 22:3 tells us, “This is God’s Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters.” Or that the book of Proverbs tells us we must, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy” (31:8-9).
I have never been part of an oppressed group. I am one who is called to speak up because I have a voice. So I listened to the voices of the oppressed and asked them what I needed to do and they said, “Speak up! Don’t be silent!”
I reflected on the violence and I changed my mind. It was not easy to do so. I now believe there are times when oppression is so great that violence is understandable. I also believe that the oppressor bears at least as much, if not more, responsibility for the violence than the oppressed.
I am not condoning the violence. I am opposed to the violence. I follow Jesus and I believe wholeheartedly that his message is a message of peace. I simply want to make it clear that I now understand it for what it is, the outpouring of decades, even centuries of frustration.
The biggest thing I’ve gleaned from this change of opinion is that I can see others more clearly for who they are as image bearers of God. I can’t dismiss their humanity as many seek to do. I can see the pain and hurt of the oppressed in ways I could not before. I understand how the violence of systemic racism and discrimination can result is a violent revolution against it. I am now better able to see with eyes of compassion and understanding and that helps drive me to do what I can to work for the end of oppression, to see justice done. With fresh eyes I can no longer lord it over “them” from a position of arrogance and privilege. I must now come alongside and enter into life with others, stand by my brothers and sisters and show them and the world the grace, love, and mercy of Christ.
It feels good to be right again … until I’m wrong ;-)
