Why Do We Need To Know?

Everyone has a private life that indeed should remain private. The idea of living lives that are entirely transparent sounds progressive, but ends up being manipulative. We want people to affirm us, and if they don’t, we shame them into it. We want God to affirm us, and if He doesn’t, we shame Him, or declare that He does not exist. We work at creating a majority opinion, and consider the majority opinion affirmation of our decisions, even though the majority’s opinion has no bearing on what is right or wrong. 

Those who worship transparency do so on the pylon of tolerance, yet they destroy the idea of tolerance by the constant casting of shame on those who disagree with them. 

A society that values good over right and tolerance over patience provides perfect conditions for evil to prosper. The word “good” needs a comparison to be understood, whereas God defines "right." The idea of tolerance means acceptance, whereas patience looks for signs of understanding, growth, and change. 

The current trend of having people declare their sexuality is a perfect example of this new manipulative norm. People feel compelled to talk in public about their personal lives and struggles. For decades, we did not ask and were not told about the sexual habits of an individual at work. If I was a welder, I needed to be able to weld and produce an appropriate product, or risk losing my job. The evaluation process was based on the work that I performed, and my respect for both the customer and those who supervised me. 

For years, I worked in a public school district that was mainly populated by Jewish teachers and students. I am a Swedish Christian. I lived my life, taught my students, helped make the other teachers around me successful, and was never threatened because of my personal life. I never walked into the school and declared that I was a Swedish Christian and demanded respect, even though I lived out what I believed. 

I do believe that Christ is the Messiah, the only way to God, and that those with whom I worked who practiced the Hebrew faith were close, but seriously mistaken. I am sure they felt the same towards me. 

We had civil discussions at times, honest inquiries, and mutual respect. I lived in a way that was consistent with what I believed, and I was ready to answer if questioned. I did not, however, run a campaign, demean my colleagues, or claim that I lacked respect because of some rather substantial disagreements. 

As a teacher, I used to ask my students what a majority opinion meant. As fifth graders, they knew that a majority opinion had nothing to do with right and wrong, even in America, but had to do with, well, the majority opinion. 

Believing something to be right has never made it right. Self-absorbed confused citizens will eventually populate a society that campaigns to make whatever an individual believes right or normal.