Russell Media - Mark

Sound bites, political slogans and Internet-produced information overload have all combined to create a paradoxical situation: We perceive the need to have an opinion on just about everything, yet we are deeply knowledgeable on almost nothing.

This phenomenon pulsates through churches across the country. We have no problem giving quick responses to particular socio-political issues. However, when the discussion goes beyond the surface level, it doesn’t plow deeper; rather it grinds to a halt.

The odds are quite high that we have an emotional opinion on something like stem cell research, and yet are not really familiar with the intricacies of the various arguments. The chance that we have never engaged in thoughtful conversation with someone of the opposing view is even greater.

The media and the press use emotional terms and tactics to draw in viewers and readers to their for-profit endeavors. While this may strengthen the bottom line, it is not the best way to determine productive responses to complex situations. 

Remember when you were a kid and the doctor would take out that small hammer looking instrument? The good doc would hit you just below your knee and your foot would pop out. You would laugh and your mom would smile. But doctors don’t do that to grown ups. There is no need for us to show our reflexes. Nevertheless, many adults continue to reveal their reflexes through their charged reactions to controversial issues.

Our current cultural climate conditions us to be reflexive instead of reflective. Just like getting hit with the doctor’s tool, certain views provoke an emotional response. It’s a reflex. Some views can cause our foot to pop right into our mouth.

Being reflective is an essential part of being a fully functional human being. Without thinking reflectively we cannot be sure if we are a counterculture, a part of the culture, or an entirely different culture. We will not be able to determine what the common good is or what it will take to accomplish it. Our culture is reflexive. We don’t have to be. We can choose to be reflective.

The other day my wife saw a sign in a hair salon. It said,

Big people talk about ideas.
Normal people talk about things.
Small people talk about other people.

To be a reflective people, we need to talk and think about the big ideas of the day. We have to be bigger than the small people and beyond the normal ones. We have to care enough about the common good that we do not unthinkingly follow or react to the masses.

Recently we returned to the States after spending several years abroad. Initially the things people concerned themselves with and the casualness they gave to big issues bewildered me. This nonchalant reality was disguised with strong, emotion-laden statements but it was there. After a few months I thought back to my initial reaction and realized that I had started talking and thinking about the same things in the same way everyone else had been doing.

Without flopping out of a lake, fish never realize the role of water in their life. Likewise, sometimes we never realize how much the culture pressures us to process vast amounts of information and pushes us to pretend we know what we are talking about. We have been hijacked by the “must have an answer” fixation.

Advertising jingles and news blurbs are an inevitable consequence of a convenience-oriented culture without enough time in the day. We simply do not have enough time to know it all. Our rescue in this regard is to simply decide that we do not need to know or have an opinion on everything.

In an age of uncertainty, we derive security by simplifying the world. When there is a perceived need to have a certain view on an issue but not sufficient knowledge to justify it, people bolster their position through the use of strong feelings. The gap between true knowledge and the level of expectation to know is filled with raw emotion. However, we must resist this temptation and acknowledge the inherent complexities of our current reality. We should replace our frustrations of not knowing everything with faith in the One who does.

When we do need to have a view on an issue, then it needs to be a thoughtful, well processed, informed one. We have to develop the ability to look at things from a detached, objective, non-emotional standpoint.

A positive way to do this is to engage in conversation with someone who has a view on an issue with which we are inclined to disagree. Throughout the conversation we should seek to truly understand. We can verify whether we have understood by repeating what has been said in such a way that our conversation partner is pleased. Then we should say what is good about their argument. Surely there is something! After all of this, if the need still exists, we are well equipped to critique.

By going through such a methodical process, we will not only avoid the temptation to be an average reflexive person, often we will learn that our ideological enemy is more of a friend than we thought. We will be liberated from the need to have an answer for everything. We will be free to be sojourners on a journey. We will have the liberty to simply love our neighbors rather than objectify them by their views on some cutting edge political issue.

By repeating this process of conversation we will condition ourselves to think before we speak, act and develop opinions. When we have become reflexively reflective, then we will know we have become a counterculture for the common good.