WORLDVIEW - From where you're standing you can't see what I see!

WHAT’S BEHIND DOOR NUMBER ONE? [2 Corinthians 6:13-18; Culture, Others, Outreach, Perspective, Separation]

A couple drove several miles down a country road, not saying a word. An earlier conversation had resulted in an argument; now, neither party would concede their position.

As they passed a pig farm with several mules in a nearby pen, the husband asked sarcastically, “Relatives of yours?”

“Yep,” the wife quickly replied, “In-laws!”

This illustrates how two people, viewing the same scene, can see two entirely different things.

How we look at things (our prejudices, presuppositions; our knowledge or ignorance) determines our position on issues and our attitudes toward others.

If two people walked into a room from opposite doorways and found a man holding out a ball, between thumb and forefinger, and where asked what they saw, both parties would say, “A ball!”

However, if asked to describe the ball one might say, “It’s a white ball.” While the other might say, “It’s a black ball.” If prodded for more details, one might say, “It’s a hard, white, cue ball,” while the other might say, “It’s a soft, black bouncy ball.” How can this be? There’s only one ball, yet they both describe it differently.

The fact is the ball is half-black and half-white … both people are correct from their point-of-view (i.e., they approached the object through different doorways). Additionally, each person’s data retrieval system did a search for information on balls: one white ball, the other black balls … they each answered based on their knowl-edge (aka: prejudice).

Life is like that. If we approach a subject (e.g., politics or religion) with a presuppositional belief in abso-lute truth, existence of a sovereign God and His creative power (something out of nothing), our view may be decidedly different from that of our neighbor. Why? Because he approaches the same subject through the presup-positional lens of a belief in relativism, the ascendancy of man, and the ‘big-bang” theory; each of these is covered with his life experiences like icing on a cake.

Take any subject and you will find those with whom you interact holding view-points varying from your own.

Now, instead of a man holding the ball in the middle of the room, assume it hangs by a string from the ceiling. Instead of a rectangular room, assume a circular room. Instead of just two doors, assume an indetermin-able number of doors around the inside circumference.

Finally, assume the other person is free to enter any door in the room; you, however, always enter through the same door (assuming your beliefs are fairly stable). Now, take notice of the following phenomena:

1. If he enters the same door you entered, his view of the object should be the same as yours.
2. If he enters the door exactly opposite yours, his view will be a polar opposite of yours (if yours is righteous, his will be unrighteous; if his is conservative, yours will be liberal; rigid versus flexible; knowledge-based versus ignorance-based; and so on).
3. The closer to your door he enters the room, the greater the similarity between views … that is, the more common ground you have.
4. If the object changes, someone whose views were only slightly different than your own will, more likely than not, enter through a different door on the new subject (aka: issue).
5. Notice, between divergent viewpoints: a.) the greatest possible good is accomplished when there is common ground; b.) the least hope for accomplishment is when there is no common ground; and c.) the least efficient scenario is when there is common ground, but one or both parties is determined to work on uncommon soil.

Every institution known to man, especially the church, would benefit from this insight.

Divergent world-views certainly do separate people, but Christians must not fear engagement with the enemy. The “whole armor of God” protects us; and besides, God’s “grace is sufficient” for every contingency. And, as Paul told Timothy, “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” [2 Timothy 1:7]

You would be right if you said, “This sounds good but it sounds too much like psychology. Who’s to say one view is better than the other? Isn’t this too much like relativism?” Yes, it is, if all we have is the stage and the two actors; only the stronger of the two has any hope of prevailing.

However, someone hung the ball on the string (The String-hanger/God). This someone knows whose view is the right one; if you’re a true believer, so do you!

For those who practice the doctrine of absolute separation this insight holds no value; but for those who grasp the meaning of the Parable of the Good Neighbor (aka: Samaritan) [Luke 10:25-37] and Paul’s words in about “others” [Philippians 2:3-7] much can be done to woe people to “The Door.” [John 10:1-18]

Social Issues

Equally Hurt [1 John 2:15-17; other topics - Equality, Godliness, Roles, Sexes (Battle of), War (Cultural)]

A survey by MSNBC, September 1999, [1] asked the following question: are men really miserable? The survey offered four possible responses:

• You bet. They're expected to live to an impossible set of standards. (17%)
• No way. Men are just fine the way they are. (7%)
• It's all the feminists’ fault. (7%)
• Men and women have been equally hurt by a culture that values fame, power, and money above all. (69%)

The survey accompanied an article by Susan Faludi, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Male, Wm. Morrow & Co., on how culture conspires to make men miserable. [2]

What I see revealed in the results of this unscientific survey is a lack of awareness and sensitivity on the part of the shakers-and-movers of our society, something seemingly not lacking among the general populace. I'm beginning to see that most Americans aren't as stupid or as relativistic or as materialistic as most politicians, entertainers, educators, media gurus, and society mucky-mucks make them out to be.

Clearly, most respondents are aware that we all share the blame for the appalling condition of our culture and that fame, power, and money are not the answers.

[Adapted from [1] approx. 5,300 responses as of 9/15/99; no margin of error was given, if any. [2] MSNBC, 9/15/99]


Nonetheless [Psalm 49:16-20; other topics - Evil, Perseverance, Regeneration, Tribulation]

The shootings at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas, reminded me of something I read a few years ago.

Wm. Bennett, Ronald Reagan’'s Secretary of Education, in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, shared a discussion he had with a Washington DC cab driver. The cabby, a native of Africa, was in the nation‘s capitol doing grad work; he told Bennett when he finished his studies he was going home, where it would be safer for his kids. He said he didn't want his daughter viewed as a piece of meat; he also said he didn't want his son to be " the target of violence from the hands of other young males." He said, "It's more civilized where I come from!"

This is the opinion of an African man concerning the greatest nation on earth.

Bennett also relates how a young Polish girl, here on student exchange, said, "When I first came here, it was like going into a crazy world, but now I am getting used to it." She compared the two countries in this way: "In Warsaw, we would talk to friends after school, [then] go home and eat with our parents and then do four or five hours of homework but now I'm getting used to it. I'm going to Pizza Hut and watching TV and doing less work in school."

Bennett says, "Something has gone wrong with us." [1]

The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators points out that during the last 30 years our population has increased 41%; gross domestic product tripled; while social spending rose from $144 billion to $787 billion ... a five fold increase.

Those figures sound good, don't they? Well, during the same 30 year period, we experienced a 560% increase in violent crime; a 400% increase in illegitimate births; a quadrupling of divorces; a tripling of children in single parent homes; a doubling of teen suicide; and a 75 point drop in SAT scores. [2]

None of this is encouraging news ... but we do have Good News; our voices just need to be heard [Romans 10:14, 15]. Who will go and tell them!

One young man tried to tell the shooter at Wedgwood, but it was too late and it cost him his life. Perhaps, as we reflect, we should wonder who our neighbor is and who we know that hasn’t heard the Good News while we still have time?

"Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the abundance of their riches." [Psalm 49:6] surround us, yet they arena’t the shooters. Nonetheless, their intense and sin-filled materialistic, greed is the reactant that seems to send the shooters over the edge.

[Excerpted from "America's cultural decline," William J. Bennett, AFA Journal, April, 1994 … 16, 17[1]; Ibid [2]]