Jack Pelham

Here is a list of some paradigms that influence how people decide what to believe about things. The list that follows won’t describe any particular person, but a useful profile of a person could be built by observing which of these paradigms affect them, and in what measure, and regarding what types of beliefs.

Rather than to prolong the description, let me just get to the list, which will be somewhat instructive in its own right.

Some prefer to believe:

Perhaps the biggest difference between people
Is that one wants to do what is right
While the other does not.

Let me start off by saying that I have a very high regard for the Bible and its contents. I believe they were written by people who were under the careful and capable influence of God, and I believe that they have been delivered to our generation so that we can learn about what all happened in that ancient world—about what was said, done, taught, and believed. And I believe that the exploits of the faithful, as well as the acts of God and Jesus, shine a great light into this otherwise-dark world, such that we can see for ourselves (if we want to) what it means to be righteous and just and loving and gracious and godly and pure and so on—such that we might be like that ourselves, should we so choose.

I believe that God set the stage in those earlier times, knowing that one of the results of it all would be this collection of writings that could tell these stories to the world forevermore. And I believe that we should be reading it, studying it, reflecting on it, and discussing it as a part of our daily and weekly lives, so that we can be built up and instructed by it.

Now, I had to say all that to defend against the people who might want to attack me about what I’m going to say next:

I’m not sure we have enough information in those texts from which to figure out all the original doctrines and practices completely.

We all know that procrastination is bad—
Having been bitten by it ourselves
A hundred thousand times
In various ways.

But it strikes me that we don’t realize
That we were born into
A deep heritage of procrastination—
Into a culture that’s steeped in it.

The truth about myself—both good and bad—is true.
And it is true whether I see it or not—
Understand it or not—
Like it or not.

And it is true whether you see it or not—
Understand it or not—
Like it or not.

I heard someone complaining about conservative Christians who cause certain teens and preteens to commit suicide by refusing to call them by their preferred (atypical) pronouns. They were saying it’s unloving, and that the loving thing to do is to honor the confused person’s request to call them what they wish to be called.

So let me stop right here before I make my main point, so as to demonstrate at least one reasonable limit to propriety in calling people what they want to be called. Suppose that Billy at work were to insist that everyone call him Lord God Almighty. Would it be the “loving” thing for us to do, to comply with his wish? Or suppose that Freddy wanted to be called by the boss’ names—first and last. Or that Larry insisted on being called President of the United States. Or suppose that Tommy wanted to be called by some particularly-foul curse word or words—something of the sort that is frequently represented by characters such as #$@%&. Would it be the loving thing to do to call these people what they want to be called?

Billy can dish it out, but he can’t take it.

He’ll object to Larry’s church doctrine, citing particulars with which Larry is unfamiliar and challenging and questioning Larry’s position. And he looks down on Larry’s ignorance and his unwillingness to study the things he says he believes.

Funny, how after being such the champion
And wrestling with myself
To make myself accomplish
The hardest task first,
I am rewarded with neither cheers nor laurels,
But with the realization that the shortened to-do list—
Me having crossed out with a flourish the aforementioned
Heroically-accomplished first task—
Is still replete with a succession of
Newly-promoted successor hardest tasks,
For each of which I must again
Force myself into action.

And I think I could embrace the heroism of it all
Much better if it did not have to be my own.

See also The Hardest Task First, which was written a couple of hours before this one.

They say it’s important to do the hardest task first.
And along the way to trying to adopt that habit myself,
I have learned that the hardest task is not the hardest task itself,
But is making myself do the hardest task.

It is the mastering of myself,
To make myself do what ought to be done—
That is the hardest part.

See also After the Hardest Task First, which I wrote a couple of hours after this one.

Some live in the haze,
Where religion is not
Supposed to make sense—
Where it’s not supposed
To be rational and reasonable,
But is merely a collection of things
To be believed—
Whatever fuzzy version of it
One’s camp is promoting.