You know who you are. I’ve been watching you for the last several days and had to join in the conversation. At first glance, I was somewhat befuddled at the Magic Mike headlines. I thought that Magic Mike was perhaps the newest hit on the Disney Channel. But after the 3rd or 4th post I had to see for myself. So it turns out that Magic Mike is not a Disney character but a movie about a male stripper (although I wouldn’t put it past Disney). Of course, it’s all the rage among the ladies. However, this is not without controversy. Countless numbers of men and women have voiced their opinions that women should refrain from getting a glimpse of Magic Mike’s naked body. But aren't we overreacting a bit?
The answer to that question depends upon whom you ask. It depends on you ,or least that’s what I’ve been told. One lady posts, “I don’t mean to offend anyone, but for me, I can’t go see Magic Mike because I would not want my husband going to see a movie about a stripper.” A friend responds, “I hear ya girl. I ain’t here to judge but for me it’s wrong.”
Another thread boasts a more stern warning, “I can’t reconcile going to Magic Mike with my claim to follow Christ. I want to challenge all my friends to really think about this before seeing this movie“, adding, “But that's just my opinion. I’m not here to judge.” I’ve even read people quoting verses like, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”. The obvious implication is that we are to mind our own business when it comes to the personal choice of morality.
So the question of “to see or not to see?” depends on your own personal convictions. For some it may be wrong, but for others it may be right. We must learn to be tolerant and not judge one another. These are personal matters and we should respect everyone’s view equally. But wait a second. This deserves a deeper look.
What do terms like “personally”, “for me”, “I’m just saying”, “that’s just my opinion” and “I’m not here to judge” have in common? They are all subjective statements. By subjective I mean that they are just opinions or preferences, if you will.
These terms are perfectly fine when given in the context of a subjective preference. For example, it is makes sense to speak of your favorite burger joint in this manner. “For me, Five Guys makes the best burger in town.” I get it. You aren’t so arrogant as to think that everybody must agree with you on your personal preference in burgers. It’s just your opinion.
But when the subjective or personal preferences are applied to objective truths I must part ways. What do I mean by objective truths? These are things that are true whether or not you see them that way. They are truths that are not SUBJECT to you or me. Objective truths are the antithesis of SUBJECTive truths, in that they are not SUBJECT to interpretation or preference. They are OBJECTIVELY true.
When we qualify our statements about morality and God with these types of phrases, we mask the truth of reality in the cloak of subjectivity. And by doing so, we contribute to the demise of moral knowledge. In other words, we make morality unknowable, which logically paves the way to making God unknowable. Which, I could argue, is the most dangerous crisis facing the Church today. We are in the midst of a knowledge crisis. The very idea that we can actually know things is under attack by the prevailing philosophies of society.
If I qualify my statements about God, faith in Him, and His moral law, with “for me…….”, I am saying that this is not really true. It’s just true for me, just like my favorite flavor of ice cream. When we start with “Personally, I think…..” we are again removing the salt from our statement by removing the teeth of objectivity from the real truth. And when we say, “I’m not here to judge…..” we reaffirm that our statements are not really true at all. It is just our opinion and we are not going to bind that personal thing we call “faith” on anyone.
There is a huge, enormous, large, giant, really big problem with this. If our statements about morality are just personal then what would bind anyone else to our own “opinions”? If our statements about God are only “in our opinion”, we are left we a meaningless, powerless claim, a claim that holds no validity to compel others to decide to join us.
Christianity only works if it’s true. Not true for you, but really true. I’m talking about True True. So, when Paul writes in Philippians chapter two that we are to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, he not telling us to mind our own business when it comes to God, faith in Him, and His spoken word. In fact, the context of Philippians chapter two is quite the opposite. It is a call to Lordship, a call to actually live out our claim to follow Christ in our real life. It’s a call to unite faith and knowledge, our public lives and our private lives, our claims and our daily operations. In other words, live like Jesus really did rise from the dead. Paul says that if Christ was not, in fact, raised from the dead we are to be pitied more than all men. Why is this? Because Christianity only works if it is objectively true. If it's true true.
If Christ did not really come out of the tomb in real historical time, then He is not who He said He was and the entire thing is a sham. And if God doesn’t really exist, what basis do you have to claim anything is wrong or right? In the absence of God, your basis would be yourself and others. Most likely the dude with the biggest stick would get to decide. And this, my friends, would be subjective morality because it is subject to the dude with biggest stick. So when we make statements about God, faith in Him, and His written word in a subjective manner we are presenting a God who isn’t really there. And who would want to live for a God that isn’t there. But God is there and we must begin to act like it and speak like it. I know it’s not politically correct, but political correctness is nothing more than a tasteless soup of meaningless words. We aren’t serving soup, we are serving salt cured meat, a meat with substance and flavor. Don’t eat that tasteless soup. Instead order a big fat steak.
-Selected
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