In My Own Words

I am a conservative Christian. The things I write come from my own occasionally warped opinions, but what I believe is based on my own upbringing and experiences. I don’t hate anyone. (There are some people I don’t like, but that’s different!) I have my own view of the world, heavily influenced by the Bible, which I truly believe to be the inspired word of God.

When I am critical or judgmental or come across that way, I hope that I am not hateful. But I also hope that I am not dishonest. You may not agree with my opinions. That’s okay. I have FB friends and Twitter followers who have vastly different opinions than me. I take the time to read their postings even though I often disagree with them. But again, that’s okay.

Yesterday, in my Men’s Sunday School class, we had an interesting discussion about forgiveness. While on the subject, our teacher related a recent incident in which he had offended a friend, unintentionally and without even realizing it at the time by something he had said. I shared that I had recently (and also entirely unintentionally) offended an old friend with a recent blog posting. It was a good reminder to ourselves that our words are powerful and sometimes hurtful even when that is not our intent.

Having said all that, I am truly sorry if I have ever offended or hurt others by my words. My purpose is always to use the power of language to teach and inform, to build and strengthen the base of knowledge in others. To provoke thought, to stir ideas, to shine a light on issues that affect us all. In no way do I believe my opinions carry any more weight than others. (I’ve never claimed to be perfect or smarter than anyone else.) They are simply the words of one man.

The problem today is that too many people refuse to admit that not everyone sees the world the way they do. And way too many people are “offended” when others challenge their opinions and beliefs. I choose to not be offended. I am perfectly willing to admit that I could be wrong. I am also willing to accept that others who have a different life experience than my own may disagree with me on many things.

Despite the current state of affairs in our world, I believe that people can have different views and still be friends. I believe in civil discourse. I can respect a man who disagrees with me. I can respect the opinions of others, especially when they are willing to respect mine. What I have difficulty accepting are the people who would rather be victims than have an honest discussion. The ones who are happy to be offended and wear it like a badge of honor.

And this is not a new phenomenon. I read something recently that made me aware of that. If you think that there is anything new about the way some people choose to be so easily offended, let me close by sharing a quote from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Russian novel The Brothers Karamazov written in 1880:

A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn’t it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a word and made a mountain out of a pea – that he knows all that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility.

Pretty interesting, right? So, have a wonderful day and feel free to share your thoughts with me. Even if you disagree. I promise not to be offended!