With What Will We Put Up?
With the continued coverage of the ISIS issues, I find myself hearing over and over again that people will defend their actions (atrocious as they are) over and over again by saying, "But they bring us food, they provide electricity, they keep us safe." They do manage to do that, but they do it in much the same way an abusive person keeps their spouse and/or family in check. They do provide and, from time to time, can be kind and seemingly gentle folks.
However, they keep their spouse so worked up by already having demonstrated a penchant for abuse (physical, emotional, etc.) that the spouse never knows what the next trigger will be or when the next battering will take place. So ISIS may provide in ways the government couldn't, but they do so through corruption, intimidation, and fear and then what they provide is seen as a blessing and the praises are high because to suggest a differing opinion is to risk life and limb.
The question becomes with what will we put up? Abused spouses tend to put up with quite a lot and make plenty of excuses for the bad behavior of their abusive partner. Why? Even if the status quo is terrible, sometimes change seems too hard. But we will all put up with things that others can't understand. From hoarders who risk a collapsed second floor to abusive relationships to persons who use the guise of religion to commit atrocities (Jim Jones, ISIS, the Inquisition). We put up with a lot.
As a pastor, I find that the difficulty lies not in pointing out the abuses, but in moving beyond them. We strive to educate, but we find that people have so bought into the brokenness of whatever system it is that seeing something new is frightening and they will rebel against it.
Like Plato's allegory of the cave, some people will insist on returning to the lie of the shadow in the cave rather than risk exposure to the true light of day (and if you don't want to read Plato, watch the first Matrix movie). So many congregants will feverishly work against progress because they feel safe in whatever system they exist. And it seems that that system has to collapse completely before anyone will give thought to change. When the church can no longer record the service because they can't find anyone who still sells cassette tapes, the system begins to waver. For some, when film strips went out of fashion, the whole thing fell apart.
Yet instead of being above it all, resisting the abuses, we stay firm in the brokenness because we still find some benefit in the midst of the horrors.
However, they keep their spouse so worked up by already having demonstrated a penchant for abuse (physical, emotional, etc.) that the spouse never knows what the next trigger will be or when the next battering will take place. So ISIS may provide in ways the government couldn't, but they do so through corruption, intimidation, and fear and then what they provide is seen as a blessing and the praises are high because to suggest a differing opinion is to risk life and limb.
The question becomes with what will we put up? Abused spouses tend to put up with quite a lot and make plenty of excuses for the bad behavior of their abusive partner. Why? Even if the status quo is terrible, sometimes change seems too hard. But we will all put up with things that others can't understand. From hoarders who risk a collapsed second floor to abusive relationships to persons who use the guise of religion to commit atrocities (Jim Jones, ISIS, the Inquisition). We put up with a lot.
As a pastor, I find that the difficulty lies not in pointing out the abuses, but in moving beyond them. We strive to educate, but we find that people have so bought into the brokenness of whatever system it is that seeing something new is frightening and they will rebel against it.
Like Plato's allegory of the cave, some people will insist on returning to the lie of the shadow in the cave rather than risk exposure to the true light of day (and if you don't want to read Plato, watch the first Matrix movie). So many congregants will feverishly work against progress because they feel safe in whatever system they exist. And it seems that that system has to collapse completely before anyone will give thought to change. When the church can no longer record the service because they can't find anyone who still sells cassette tapes, the system begins to waver. For some, when film strips went out of fashion, the whole thing fell apart.
Yet instead of being above it all, resisting the abuses, we stay firm in the brokenness because we still find some benefit in the midst of the horrors.
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