Overmiller on lemmings vs. walking wisely
“We often take our cues and form our views from whatever the news media tells us, or whatever social issues are trending at the time, or whatever our body and emotions want to do at the moment. Consider, for instance, what happened in the city of Ephesus not long before Paul wrote this letter to the church in that city.” - P&D
Encouraging post and much appreciated.
I want to add one nuance to it though: Everything there about mindlessly following “the world” is also true of mindlessly following our own crowd. These days, many equate the biblical phrase “the world” with “the left” or “society in general,” which is not the same thing. The right is as much “the world” as the left now. And the Independent Fundamental Baptist subculture can be its own unwise herd at times. …so by all means, apply the call to wisdom against the news media but also against whatever herd we find ourselves identifying with.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Aaron, I agree with what you just wrote. I had an elderly pastor friend who passed away a few years ago. He was opposed to having the words to songs put on a projector because that was connected to churches that had gone down the wrong road. He was very concerned about trends that evangelicals had embraced. There was an era when a number of pastors had the idea that if it was popular, then it was bad. We need to be careful of that no matter what the issue. Some think that just because something is popular with the main stream media, then it is bad. That is a mistake. We must look at each issue and weigh the evidence. We also must not think that just because something is popular then it is good.
We also must realize that even amongst evangelicals there will be differences of opinion on issues. We must be careful not to just say “that is an evangelical right or an evangelical left issue” and say that is why we need to reject it. There have been some recent issues that have been labeled as evangelical right issues on SI and have been condemned because a lot of Trump supporters embrace them. We need to look at the issues and weigh the evidence, not who it is that is supporting it. In other words it is just as bad to say we are against something because CNN is for it as to say we are against it because Trump or his supporters are for it. It is kind of like my pastor friend who did not want to have the words on the projector because he did not want people to think he was endorsing “them”. Regardless we need to look at the issues themselves not who is pushing them. If something is right or wrong we need to convince each other on the merits of the subject material, not who is on one side or the other.
BTW if someone says they believe something because Trump said it, I believe it legitimate to suggest that Trump may have had a bias or is lacking some additional information and then to bring other evidence to the table. I would say the same thing about other politicians and media sources as well.
Discussion