Tuesday, May 05, 2015
You Really Should Not Tell People...
...that their problem is not really a problem.
ANy good decent Christian person will work very hard when encountering difficult circumstances to find God's blessing, which is always present in any situation. But this headline "The Hidden Blessing of Infertility" was more than a bit tasteless. The piece is really a testimony along the lines I just described, but to put it under that headline is to say to people in the middle of the struggle that their struggle is not really a struggle at all. It lacks empathy and understanding, It is the worst of what the church offers, prescription without listening.
I am often guilty of this very same sin and therefore try to be particularly sensitive to it. What I know is this, if I had encountered this article when my wife and I were younger and still wondering it, I would have never bothered to read it and likely complained to Christianity Today for daring to publish it. Too many times I have heard pastors and publishers make this mistake and then excuse it by pointing out the rarity of one particular viewpoint that was harmed by the perspective.
So, we are only compassionate to the majority position?
compassion empathy sensitivity
ANy good decent Christian person will work very hard when encountering difficult circumstances to find God's blessing, which is always present in any situation. But this headline "The Hidden Blessing of Infertility" was more than a bit tasteless. The piece is really a testimony along the lines I just described, but to put it under that headline is to say to people in the middle of the struggle that their struggle is not really a struggle at all. It lacks empathy and understanding, It is the worst of what the church offers, prescription without listening.
I am often guilty of this very same sin and therefore try to be particularly sensitive to it. What I know is this, if I had encountered this article when my wife and I were younger and still wondering it, I would have never bothered to read it and likely complained to Christianity Today for daring to publish it. Too many times I have heard pastors and publishers make this mistake and then excuse it by pointing out the rarity of one particular viewpoint that was harmed by the perspective.
So, we are only compassionate to the majority position?
compassion empathy sensitivity
