July 17th, 2020: Where is The Wise Person?
Sometimes
we ask, "What would be the right thing to do?" when we have to make a
difficult decision. We should be thankful that we still have a moral
standard left to ask such a question. The problem I am afraid that we
are facing today is not to be able to entertain those types of questions
because we might offend people.
When
we can not engage meaningfully with one another in our differences, we
will hurt both the majority and the minority of any group. That lack of
engagement will breed misunderstanding, distrust, and dishonesty. We
live in a society where cultural diversity is a reality, and yet we are
pressured to embrace conformity regularly. That is the problem with
political correctness.
When
we raise a moral question, we should expect a variety of answers
because people with different cultural histories and backgrounds might
have different takes at the question. We will be able to encourage one
another to develop our thoughts and establish a more reflective mindset
over the issue we discuss. When we shut that down, we create a form of
robotic response without any courage to challenge ourselves and others.
Asking
moral questions is vital to us as human beings. We have the gift of
free choice, and the execution of that gift depends on what questions we
ask, and the freedom we have in asking those questions. Political
correctness has robbed that freedom from us. Freedom of thoughts is
highly critical in the development of human history. We cannot advance
ourselves without that freedom.
"Where
is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the
philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the
world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did
not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was
preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles."
(1 Corinthians 1: 20-23)
