Jack Pelham

If you are like many, you will reject some lies,
Sometimes even daring to stand up in front
Of your fellow man and call the lies out.

And if you are like many, you will do
Such rejecting and calling out—
Even as you are embracing yet other lies
A promoting them to this smart/stupid world.

Just because mankind was given intelligence
Doesn’t mean he always uses it well.

If you listen to a group discussion—especially about a controversial topic—and I mean really listen, like you had to write it all down just right all by yourself—what you’ll likely be hearing, whether you can get your head around it or not—is a few keen comments and questions buried in a sea of sloppy, ill-defined, poorly-stated, and poorly-vetted ideas.

I see in Christian circles a good deal of talk about empathy these days, and in that discussion, I think I perceive a wide movement that’s conflating excusing with forgiving. Here’s what I mean:

Jesus says this about forgiveness in one of his parables:

Is it wrong to think that a person is obligated to live as God has obligated all humans to live?

Is it wrong to remind him of the same and to hold him to it?

If on the forehead of every human there were magically to appear a number in neon red—from zero to ten—put there by God himself to show to the world in undeniable terms how much each person cares about God, I suppose that half or more of the collective pressure of pretense in this world would immediately vanish—supplanted by surrendered shame in some cases, and humble vindication in others.

He is mad at the world for its dismal failure
To fill his personal void to his satisfaction—
That void existing in him on account of
His refusal to take in the things of God,
For which that space was designed.

I see that the teacher who loves the subject matter is often found teaching and discussing it, whether being paid for it or not—even if he or she really needs the money. And this is doubly true of the teacher who also loves the students.

But the teacher who loves only the money—or perhaps, the prestige of being the teacher—tends to be stingy and personally disinterested in the subject, even a high expertise.

And the experience of the students, from the one teacher to the other, is like the difference between day and night.

In the previous methods, we looked at questions that are actually stupid. Today, we consider a scenario in which you want to ask a question that will be taken as stupid.

METHOD #4

1. Find a person who has these qualities:

• Confident in his understanding.
• Considers himself above you.
• Hasn’t considered all the possibilities on a certain matter, yet
• Has a strong opinion on the matter anyway.

2. Ask a question that assumes that some other possibilities may have some merit and should be considered carefully.

3. You’re done! You have successfully asked a question that’s sure to be taken as “stupid”.

As I asked him questions about the doctrinal assertion he had made, he said, “I feel like you’re trying to trap me.”

But what I was trying to do was to demonstrate, by way of my questions, that he was already trapped by his own bad thinking—both by ideas that conflict with one another and by ideas that conflict with the very Bible he assumes that he believes.

But he has no apprehension, it seems, about traps of that sort.

Surely, God could have written us a manual
With precise explanations of everything,
So clear as to defy misunderstanding
And disagreement.