Thursday, September 14, 2006
Limited Vision
We live in an amazing world - the breadth of information, methods of information distribution, and topics, specialties, concentrations abound. Isn't it great that we can decide what we like and pursue it to depths we never dreamed about.
There is a problem with that; however. Much as "everything looks like a nail when you are holding a hammer," so when we are interested in one thing, we tend to view everything else through some sort of filter formed by that interest.
One of the endless discussions of the death of Steve Irwin included Phillipe Cousteau - who was with Steve at the time. Phillipe simply could not help himself but to bring us "the important environmental issues of our time." Irwin's death was not about Irwin and his family, it was about wildlife, the environment, and.... I admit these are things that Irwin cared about, but a human tragedy is a human tragedy and it does not need a political cause to make it important.
Worse, it says that in the minds of these people. people that are supposed to be his closest friends, they need the context of the cause to relate to him - he exists for them only in that context - it is the context that assigns him value, not himself. That's a shame.
Then I got thinking about this as it relates to those of us of faith. Some of us love theology. Some of us love building the institutions of the church. Some of us love feeding the poor. Some of us love [Insert you preoccupation here].
Problem is, we often let these preoccupations set the context for the value of our faith, of others, and more, our Lord. Arminians and Calvinists draw battle lines as if our eternal souls depended on which one was right. (Although in this case, the Calvinists have it dead nuts on
) Liberals and conservatives act as if politics is the key the the Pearly Gates. (insert "conservatives are right" wisecrack here) And so it goes.
Now bear in mind, it is not that any of these things are trivial, or worthless, or anything like that - it is that we have to be smart enough not to let them define the context in which we view everything else.
I want to be smarter than that.
Related Tags: specialty, context, knowledge, prejudice
There is a problem with that; however. Much as "everything looks like a nail when you are holding a hammer," so when we are interested in one thing, we tend to view everything else through some sort of filter formed by that interest.
One of the endless discussions of the death of Steve Irwin included Phillipe Cousteau - who was with Steve at the time. Phillipe simply could not help himself but to bring us "the important environmental issues of our time." Irwin's death was not about Irwin and his family, it was about wildlife, the environment, and.... I admit these are things that Irwin cared about, but a human tragedy is a human tragedy and it does not need a political cause to make it important.
Worse, it says that in the minds of these people. people that are supposed to be his closest friends, they need the context of the cause to relate to him - he exists for them only in that context - it is the context that assigns him value, not himself. That's a shame.
Then I got thinking about this as it relates to those of us of faith. Some of us love theology. Some of us love building the institutions of the church. Some of us love feeding the poor. Some of us love [Insert you preoccupation here].
Problem is, we often let these preoccupations set the context for the value of our faith, of others, and more, our Lord. Arminians and Calvinists draw battle lines as if our eternal souls depended on which one was right. (Although in this case, the Calvinists have it dead nuts on
) Liberals and conservatives act as if politics is the key the the Pearly Gates. (insert "conservatives are right" wisecrack here) And so it goes.Now bear in mind, it is not that any of these things are trivial, or worthless, or anything like that - it is that we have to be smart enough not to let them define the context in which we view everything else.
I want to be smarter than that.
Related Tags: specialty, context, knowledge, prejudice
