In reflecting on my Sister complaining that I argue too spitefully in proving my points to others. That if I would simply back down a bit and work people through my points I might be better received, I realize that in some of my more vicious ridicule, lies a selfish goal.
You see, if there's one thing I've noticed (and this ties back to my first impressions mentality) it's that those that write, earn followers. And those followers in my opinion, and a most backwards argument it is, reflect upon the authors they endorse. Take my Uncle R for example. My most vivid memories of him are discussing the virtues of Lee Strobel's book while at a thanksgiving reunion. Now, I know this shouldn't be the case. But since that time, I've seen my Uncle R make some pretty silly statements on anything from politics, to economics. Brothers in Christ we may be, but I think my Uncle R a slippery buffoon. He makes one ungodly comment or criticism one second, and when I confront him he jumps behind the grace of the Cross the very next! Most slippery indeed. I don't care for his mindset one bit. And frankly, if men of that mind are in favor of Mr. Strobel, how can I be? For one, I'm clearly missing something if someone so disagreeable agrees with that writer, and for another, my support of the author better be carefully thought out, for I am, in a sense affiliating myself with a man I categorically disagree with issue after issue. My beloved Uncle R, that is. Now there is always a chance I can disagree with beloved Uncle R, and support Mr. Strobel's authorship, but the above should be sufficient to introduce the fears I have as a writer.
What sort of people will agree with me? Will they contort my words, or usurp the Truth I proclaim in some slant of unstable mind? Will they lambaste others I would love in some severe conviction that isn't even close to what I intended? I already have seen the ambiguity of my thoughts in the general populace. I can assault the Red Republicans with my satisfaction that their god: The Elephant has lost again due to the will of the Almighty, and bring out their hardness of heart to boot! Next thing you know I have believers who would agree with me, applauding next to the atheists who mistake my fire for a loathing of hard religion. Dear reader, you'll find no harder religion than mine, I look in the mirror to find myself short of that standard each and every day! Yet the risk lies entirely in how I word what I write. Will I have loathsome atheists finding virtue when their eyes are blinded to the Truth to begin with? Or more worrisome, will I find weak-kneed believers with big barks, using me to support their ridiculous vendettas against the world system? Oh the odds! They are against me.
So I write as I do, in part, to scare you, dear reader. I write in a way that burns you, (or I do promise to try) in a way that spurs you away from me. You are wrong, I am right, you can't fathom, but i can, it's the virtue of absolutism, for the sake of argument but moreso for the precious sake of keeping you in line! Please don't do me a disservice, if you are thinking my thought worth reciting, worth living out in your life, let it be balanced in reason and tested in Spirit. As James, says, speak little (feel free to not speak at all, many men would rise out of foolishness if they did) and listen all the more. In this you might do me a small favor, of not tainting my thoughts put to paper, with foul action in the world. For this will cause my credibility to crumble, or at least I fear it might.
Come to think of it. I find the entire enterprise of a man using his desire to prove God a fraudulent one, when the sleuth is a journalist (and you'll forgive me this bias). A journalist! The greatest of intellectuals those of journalism... no not at all. He has no science, he got, by God's great grace, theology. But he panders to men of Uncle R's mentality. Men who take what they are fed in the great eatery of ideas because it is agreeable to their current worldview. I reject this lazy approach to all views both great and small!
Let every thought, every motive, every belief, be scorned until it's veracity is revealed. For only in revelation is reason pure, wholly unadulterated if you will. Understanding, apart from faith is an edifice to the curse of Sin. Faith without understanding however, may suitable for some. But I pray they won't be amongst my audience, lest they be lead astray. Here's to you, reader, may you think hard and do it on your own merit, may you keep far from being one of the Uncle Rs of my written ventures.
Cheers,
An overly confident and self righteous jerk
(my sister made me add that, you've been warned it would seem)
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