Loving your neighbour vs. Challenging ideas

Is it just me, or is challenging ideas you don’t agree with becoming a bit of a taboo in this country?

Maybe it has something to do with the combative nature of openly disagreeing with anything – a concept that, let’s face it, is distasteful to British society as a whole. We’re not very good at conflict, are we?

As Christians we err on the side of extreme caution when it comes to contentious issues. Aren’t we just called to love our neighbour, not impose our morality on others?

Those who publicly disagree with the status quo risk being labelled as unloving, intolerant and judgemental. On the flip side, those who love freely and associate themselves with people who hold very different views to them can risk the criticism of the legalistic and the self-righteous.

Most of us probably lean more heavily towards one approach over the other – I imagine upbringing, church background, personality, occupation, etc are factors here. But I would argue that not only can you do both, but that to some extent, you should.

This may sound obvious but I think it’s worth saying anyway: Challenging a belief or ideology is not the same as condemning a person who subscribes to that belief or ideology.

Reconciling challenging ideas with loving the individual is something I’m still figuring out – partly, I think, because society tells us that people’s feelings must be protected at all costs. I frequently experience doubts and second-guessing because it’s just so much easier to be nice.

One way of coming to terms with my relentless desire to be truthful, however, is to ask myself what it truly means to ‘love my neighbour’.

A friend and I briefly touched on this topic after she commented on my recent post about feminism. She said something that struck me – ‘I care more about people than big ideas’.

I think I agree with that. My desire to engage with culture stems from the influence ideas have on society (therefore, people), for good or ill. In the bubble of academia, a lot of ideas are discussed that have little bearing on real life. But if third-wave feminism is anything to go by, ideology does leak, often like a slow poison, into the rest of the public domain. Certain ideas promoted by even a tiny minority can have enormous influence, if given the right platform.

I still own a copy of ‘An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory’, every English student’s Holy Grail handbook. I flicked through it recently, curious to re-read it through a different lens. In its chapter on ideology it says:

“Ideology, the way that people think about their world, is produced and altered in and through language. Language changes, and even creates the social and political world in which we live”. 

Activists, lobbyists and academics know perfectly well that they can turn the tide of public opinion if they fine-tune their wording.

But not all ideas are equally valid or produce equal outcomes. We’re in a spiritual battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, and the ideological sphere is the devil’s playground. He’s a master of twisting the truth just enough so that the counterfeit sounds plausible, attractive, and barely distinguishable from the authentic.

Objective truth is held in low regard these days but truth still remains. Jesus said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35). Regardless of our calling, we can and should speak the truth when opportunity presents. No, scratch that. I think we must speak the truth. The world is crying out for it.

Clinical psychologist and free-thinking champion Professor Jordan Peterson is not a Christian but he recognises the value of telling the truth: “It’s not safe to speak, and it never will be, but it’s even less safe not to speak {….} The truth is what redeems the world from hell.”

I also ask myself these questions: Is the gospel limited to personal salvation, or is it the redemptive power of the cross over every aspect of life? Is Jesus merely Saviour, or is he also Lord?

Colossians 1:16-20 says: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Dr. Joe Boot argues this: “It is because we can and must serve Christ the Lord in every area of life that we have the authority to prophetically call political power to do justice and bend the knee to God in all its functions.”

I’ve touched on this in my abortion piece already, but we don’t criticise William Wilberforce for using his influence in Parliament to abolish slavery. We don’t wish he’d decided not to ‘impose his biblical morality’ on British society. No, we thank God for his courage and conviction.

Telling the truth is hard, mostly because we’re all imperfect and we don’t understand everything! But, thank God, there’s grace for that. Grace to learn and refine our views. Better still, we don’t have to understand everything on our own. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would “guide us into all truth” (John 16:13). We have the greatest teacher.

Best of all, he’ll teach us to speak with love. The heart with which you speak colours the message. If the heart is bitter, resentful or proud, the message will be filtered through bitterness, anger and pride. The apostle Paul understood that without love, our words mean nothing at all: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

I’ve seen examples of truth spoken without love doing more harm than good, and I’m sure you have too. We’re all prone to it – the same religious spirit that Jesus challenged in the Pharisees is just as likely to show up in you and I. The moment we start to think we have any righteousness apart from Christ is the moment we need to shut up, repent, and give thanks that he’d save any of us.

But let’s not allow our fear of doing more harm than good to be our excuse for silence.

If you want to explore this issue in greater depth, this podcast from the Ezra Institute offers lot of insight and a much better scriptural argument for cultural engagement than I could ever make. 

Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash