Doghouse

The Need to be Right

After a recent encounter with some of he folk at DougTenNepal.com I was relfecting on the obsession and need to be right. I am not talking political Right, just the need to be "right".

I can see it if you are in mathematics or a scientific endeavor. I think you also want the pilot of your 747 to be pretty "right" about his choices. There are absolutes and there are rights and there are wrongs and most sensible people have some idea of what those are, at least in the most glaring areas.

Those of the Rabid Right complain that Liberals are "Relativists", which, of course, is most often nonsense. Liberals have very strong opinions about what is right and true, and what is wrong and false. I more often align with them on many issues, but not always...you see because, gulp...sometimes I have been, er...wrong.

And I will be again. And so will Liberals I know as well as Conservatives.

But I remember when I was younger being right about everything. That was before I understood that when faced with God, we are all, in many ways, simply wrong.

Now I still work hard at the study of theology. I keep exploring and asking questions. But I no longer have to have the answers or "know everything". I really only need to be known by a loving God, and have a deep connection and relationship with my girlfriend, my friends and my kids. Beyond that Jesus asks me to care for my neighbor and forgive and love my enemies.

So when I go to these rabid sites with their insistence on being "right" in all things I feel bad for them. But I also remember being that way myself. It was based in fear, not in faith or trust.

It doesn't stop me from arguing with them, but sometimes, just sometimes, they bring up a whole other way of seeing things I have not seen and have to turn on a dime and modify my own view.

This is not Relativism...it's an exploration of Truth.

But I have noted that really scares them. Never once has either Doug, or Kenny or the other more rabid members ever admitted I had a good point. They accuse me of being stupid, a faggot, immoral, psychotic, etc...which is what "shamers and blamers" do. Yet they asked me to write for them and chucked logic and reasoned argument fairly quickly on most occasions when I did.

But not all. I remember Kenny Hitt had a whole bead on the first few chapters of Genesis on the issue of death that I had just missed. He made a reasoned argument and it was a fine piece of work. It changed the way I now view those chapters.

But this admission went unnoticed and the abuse continued anyway. Which was fine by me because I'm not the least bit intimidated. With schoolyard bullies (and their "Forum" is just that...a schoolyard) you have only to stand your ground. You do not have to inflict the same abuse. Just stand your ground long enough and they will flee.

(And make no mistake, "banning" others from reasonable debate is fleeing).

In the case of both TenNapel and Hitt, they have both repeatedly tried to nuke me with words in emails then at the end they say "stop writing me" (even though they have just written me a long missive).

This is a sure sign of cowardice and fear. If they were so secure in their "rightness" they could hang for as long as it took and make their points. They would consider a reasoned argument and not try to slander other people.

But they can't.

They mistake emotional rhetoric for reasoned argument. It's an easy mistake to make when most everyone in your inner ring thinks like you do because it goes unchallenged.

But I could be wrong.

posted by Obi-Mac BakDon @ 7:54 AM