Dialogue
What I Mean May Not Be What Others Hear
In our efforts to communicate love and inclusiveness, we may sometimes send messages that mean quite a bit more than what we had intended.
Rebecca Taylor
July 18, 2022
In our efforts to communicate love and inclusiveness, we may sometimes send messages that mean quite a bit more than what we had intended.
People tend to seek information that affirms what they already think. But prophets are called to a very different task. And whether prophetic teaching is subtle or direct, the public reception is often sadly predictable.
Nonviolence is a wonderful aspiration, but is it always God’s will? In the face of true evil, Latter-day prophets make clear our obligation to sometimes fight.
Reflecting on what we’ve been learning as a team from the conflicts over January 6th and abortion.
What does it mean when we’re deeply uncomfortable with what someone else has said? Has a great wrong been done? Christian teaching highlights another (uncomfortable) possibility.
“I don’t see color.” To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, “you keep using that phrase. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
“Never was so much owed by so many to so few.” That sentiment by Winston Churchill has been deeply felt by many over the years. Do we feel it anymore today?
Some of the charged responses to inexplicable tragedies like this are only understandable. And some are clearly standing in the way of both greater healing and more effective prevention of future violence.
Many believers have distanced from sacred conviction in order to be “neutral” researchers – without recognizing the alternative worldview they are embracing. There is a better way.
It’s important to raise our voices to defend truth. But especially in confusing and difficult moments, it’s also important to come together to seek a better understanding of the full truth of a matter.
The problem with HB 11 was not its failure to reach compromise on the question of transgender athletic participation, but limiting its scope to a single question, where only one set of competing interests could be served in the end.
Modern minds tend to exult in new ideas—while scoffing at those of the past. Could that hubris help explain some of our crises today?