"For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of." --Ephesians, 5:12
So I guess that's an epic fail for all the Christians who latched onto the 50 Shades of Bait machine? A great opportunity for discussion and spreading the Gospel? LOL.
I'm not sure, but since the so-called public square is demarcated more and more by the pathological as a strict rule, the fact that one is speaking truth in this arena seems to not only matter little, but one seems to be casting pearls before swine. For you have given assent to their pathological grounds as an a priori for discussion. And, moreover, you are depriving a culture of life which is seeking fruition through you; in other words, one is lacking in faith. And thus lacking, one is ripe for the illusion that one is really engaging in a real battle by addressing such things as the aforementioned pathological artifact soon to be tossed onto the garbage heap of history. Sometimes silence is golden.
I tend to have an over-sensitivity, but still, when reading through some articles and blog posts, I've just had to stop reading, saying, "Do you not see that the trade-off here is simply not worth it?" One blogger even posted the original movie poster as the header image in his post. Not that the image is terribly explicit, by today's standards, but still. How does that help things? I thought to myself. I guess it's a way of getting people to read your post? Which is rather cheap.
"Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you." --Matthew, 7:6
The last part of that teaching often goes unquoted:
lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you.
Mull those words in your mind; think about the meaning of each word. This teaching of Christ is actually very positive and not, in fact, sectarian - or stand-offish, which is precisely what one would accuse me of with this post, I'm sure. I sometimes chuckle when picturing what a run-in between a Catholic today and the first Christians would look like, and how utterly sectarian they would appear to us. But their sensitivity was owing to the fact that they had such superabundant life. They knew how precious was every moment. They knew how dark was the darkness. We today, not so much.We tend to be rather dulled.
Remember that Jesus spoke in response to the Pharisees; He spoke in response to Pontius Pilate; but He was completely silent in response to Herod.
If you don't agree with me, then at least take this as a warning to keep in the back of your mind.
1 comment:
+JMJ+
Not just silence, but also "blindness" . . . or the ignorance that is really innocence.
Now forgive me if I've told this story here before . . . When I was younger, I liked reading all the columnists for a certain local broadsheet, but there was one in particular whom I couldn't stand. I thought his opinions were awful and couldn't believe that his editor wasn't reining him in. Well, one day, the columnist mentioned that a friend had seen the number of angry letters that he had inspired, and had wondered how he could stand to have so many of what we now call "haters." The columnist replied that it is not his job to please or to offend, to be agreed with or to be disagreed with, but simply to be read. And all the "hate mail" was hard evidence that people all over the country were reading him.
It was a brilliant point, aye? So brilliant that I realised that the best response I could make to him was . . . to stop reading him entirely. And I literally never read his column again.
I'd probably feel differently about him now that I'm older and have more developed thoughts on politics, journalism, and the art of earning an income--but I still value the takeaway, which can be applied to all other media we have today. So many new movies seem to exist simply to be watched (the message of the director or the experience of the viewers being secondary). Sometimes I wonder whether we are so deep down the dystopian rabbit hole that some movies exist merely to be talked about--even if nobody ever watches them.
In the first case, at least we still have a movie industry. We can apply free market principles and debate the quality of the films. But in the second case, we have a notoriety and gossip industry, in which we are willing worker bees--the unpaid, but most powerful arm of an international, hegemonic entertainment complex. Even saying why we won't buy a ticket or a DVD just feeds the machine. It isn't to its detriment, but to its benefit.
And that is why the best weapon we have here is silence--the innocence of the tongue.
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