Opinions

Recently, I have been reading Proverbs. This morning, these two jumped out at me:

“Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.” (18:2)

“To answer before listening—that is folly and shame.” (18:13)

 If there is one thing our culture is extremely prone to and good at is airing our opinions. Social media has accelerated that exponentially. And these two proverbs nail the crux of the problem today—we typically air our opinions with the tone of certainty without seeking to understand whatever situation or belief we are addressing.

Several years ago, I posted a blog dealing with the revelations of the abhorrent behavior of Ravi Zacharias that was revealed after his death. My purpose in that post was to point out the dangers of turning pastors, evangelists, entertainers, etc., into celebrities because of the many who have fallen in the past. Within hours of the post being published, a number of readers began to criticize me because I didn’t mention the plight of his victims directly. They were quick with their criticisms, but none sought me out in private (or public) to ask what I had intended. They just jumped to the conclusion that I had no empathy for the injustice visited upon these women who were Ravi’s victims. They had opinions about what I wrote, but little understanding of why I said what I said.

This is the era in which we live—give our opinions, but don’t seek to understand more fully what we are commenting on. Social media is aflame with opinions on the current war in Gaza. Yet, how many have spent much time at all looking into the complexities of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians before airing those opinions? In the political arena, people have strong opinions that are expressed with an air of certainty. Based on what—a full understanding of individual politicians, parties, or issues?  Or just on assumptions of what they think is true?

The more I am exposed to various people and groups, I’ve realized so many have an air of certainty about what they believe and yet have reached very different conclusions. This is at play in so many areas of life, whether it be politics, church doctrine, the education of our children, the efficacy of vaccines, etc. Everyone is certain they’re right and everyone who disagrees with them is wrong.

I am convinced (thus, I am right!) that this dynamic will not change until we each humble ourselves and acknowledge that our opinions are not facts, that we possibly could be wrong, and that, perhaps most importantly, we seek to gain understanding of why others view things differently from us.

I am not calling for a wishy-washy faith or view of the world. It is fine, and likely necessary, to reach certain conclusions for ourselves, but to realize we might be wrong, or at least not totally right in our views. This does three things: First, it keeps us open to listen to other viewpoints. Regardless of our age, we still need to be teachable because we do not have perfect understanding. Second, it helps keep us humble, which can lead to thoughtful discussions and even debates that are void of the anger and hostility toward counterviewpoints so common in our culture. And finally, it might lead us to alter our opinions or strengthen them. Regardless, we will learn to share our opinions with love and humility and in a timely fashion. And isn’t this what the two proverbs are trying to teach us?

©Jim Musser 2023 All Scripture references are from the New International Version, 2011.