Knowing Your Triggers VII

 

One of my most stubborn triggers is the frustration I feel when social exchanges devolve into virtuous chest-beating, especially among the churched. 

A familiar passage from the Book of Isaiah begins "Come now, and let us reason together" (1:18, King James Version) and seems to be enjoining the tribes of Judah to cut the crap and get down to the business of fixing their problems. Being level-headed will make things right (obliterate all manner of sinfulness).

Other common translations render "reason together" as "talk over" (Complete Jewish Bible), "argue it out" (New Revised Standard), and "settle the matter" (Good News). In every case I found, the goal appears to be resolution and not pointless prattle or continued dispute.

Even so, I often get the feeling when I'm observing or participating in an exchange about pressing matters with church folk that they are more interested in undermining than understanding. 

I suppose that follows if one's models for public discourse are men and women whose purpose is to find support for why they are right in what they believe or do. Hermeneutics is not about seeking truth but evidence of what one is already convinced of. 

This might also explain why dogmatic church people and dogmatic politicians get along so well and are best avoided.