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"I had believed a lie!"
"I had blindly promoted the 'company line' for so long."
"Why?"
"Why hadn’t I searched out the truth for myself?"
"Why had I closed my ears to the arguments I’d heard?"
These words were written by the former director of a Planned Parenthood Abortion Clinic, Abby Johnson, after she witnessed an abortion of a 13 week old baby through an ultrasound device she was holding for the doctor.
Her full article "The Ultrasound That Changed My Life" is found here.
That was her moment when she realized that the way she saw life, or her worldview that she had been taught, was not true--but only upon examination of it for herself.
Abby's words ring true for anyone who has come to realize that what they have been taught is not true. Not everyone, however, responds as maturely when their worldview is challenged or shaken, and some never even consider that their worldview may be limited.
As individual maturity and independence increase in life, dependency and comforting security decrease in certain respects. Some, upon being challenged by additional facts, begin to blame messengers as a cloak for their own insecurities, lack of effort, or unbelief. Many simply never develop a strong enough desire to examine their own beliefs.
In John 9:39-41, Jesus said:
"I had blindly promoted the 'company line' for so long."
"Why?"
"Why hadn’t I searched out the truth for myself?"
"Why had I closed my ears to the arguments I’d heard?"
These words were written by the former director of a Planned Parenthood Abortion Clinic, Abby Johnson, after she witnessed an abortion of a 13 week old baby through an ultrasound device she was holding for the doctor.
Her full article "The Ultrasound That Changed My Life" is found here.
That was her moment when she realized that the way she saw life, or her worldview that she had been taught, was not true--but only upon examination of it for herself.
Abby's words ring true for anyone who has come to realize that what they have been taught is not true. Not everyone, however, responds as maturely when their worldview is challenged or shaken, and some never even consider that their worldview may be limited.
As individual maturity and independence increase in life, dependency and comforting security decrease in certain respects. Some, upon being challenged by additional facts, begin to blame messengers as a cloak for their own insecurities, lack of effort, or unbelief. Many simply never develop a strong enough desire to examine their own beliefs.
In John 9:39-41, Jesus said:
"For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."
Jesus spoke this to those whom God expected to be the most reasonable,
wisest, and servant-minded of His people: religious leaders. They,
however, were not leaders. They were rulers: Controllers who had a
vested stake in how future events proceeded--and that if were not controlled--may end up too costly for them.
If you know the story of Jesus, then you know that the Pharisees were part of the religious leadership in Israel. They ran the show in the synagogues and challenged Jesus and His disciples throughout the countryside any chance they got. It was with the elders, chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees that Jesus had the most trouble. Why?
Why would elders and chief priests--religious, devout people with families--give Jesus so much trouble to the point of attributing His good works and miracles of healing to a demon god named Beelzebub?
I wondered this myself a few years ago and concluded that it was because they were vested in their worldview and did not want to pay the price acknowledging the truth would require. It was easier to "fire the coach" (get rid of Jesus) than fix the team (leadership and nation of Israel). Convenience and efficiency ruled the day for them as it does for us today. They were so vested in their worldview that they lacked the integrity to admit what Jesus said made sense. It would simply cost them too much. A price they were unwilling to pay and therefore they could not "see" what He was saying.
Brian Walsh and J. Richard Middleton address this problem in their book, The Transforming Vision, and apply it to God's people of today. They write:
Walsh and Middleton reveal why changing worldviews is so rare:
"I could not have imagined how the next 10 minutes would shake the foundation of my values and change the course of my life."
Benjamin Whorf suggests another reason why it is difficult to change our worldview. It involves the difficulty of "learning a new language" so to speak after becoming adults. People simply become vested or set in their ways. We are taught an entire language of words that have connotations and interpretations attached to them.
Whorf writes:
"The structure of the language one habitually uses influences the manner in which one understands his environment."
Walsh & Middleton add:
"Our language takes shape out of our worldview. The two reciprocally confirm one another."
When we are young, we are teachable, because it is obvious we don't know everything. As we get older we seem to harden in our beliefs and reputations. Perhaps this is why Jesus said for us to become like children:
This also was the case for the "common people" of Jesus' day--those who did not have a controlling interest like the religious leaders--but nevertheless were also not motivated to learn from Jesus:
In Matthew 13:11-17:
If you know the story of Jesus, then you know that the Pharisees were part of the religious leadership in Israel. They ran the show in the synagogues and challenged Jesus and His disciples throughout the countryside any chance they got. It was with the elders, chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees that Jesus had the most trouble. Why?
Why would elders and chief priests--religious, devout people with families--give Jesus so much trouble to the point of attributing His good works and miracles of healing to a demon god named Beelzebub?
I wondered this myself a few years ago and concluded that it was because they were vested in their worldview and did not want to pay the price acknowledging the truth would require. It was easier to "fire the coach" (get rid of Jesus) than fix the team (leadership and nation of Israel). Convenience and efficiency ruled the day for them as it does for us today. They were so vested in their worldview that they lacked the integrity to admit what Jesus said made sense. It would simply cost them too much. A price they were unwilling to pay and therefore they could not "see" what He was saying.
Brian Walsh and J. Richard Middleton address this problem in their book, The Transforming Vision, and apply it to God's people of today. They write:
"Perhaps you are wondering how a Christian worldview could possibly be corrected? After all, isn't it rooted in our faith in Jesus Christ, who is The Way, the Truth and the Life? Yes, it is. But if we did an empirical study we would discover that there are many Christian worldviews....[and] Christians often hold a world view at variance with their confession of Christ."
"At issue here is the internal coherence of our worldview. Is it consistent with its faith commitment? If it is not, then it lacks integrity. It is often just such a realization that precipitates a world view crisis for many Christians. One day we come to realize that our worldview is not the worldview of the Scriptures; we see that it is not consistent with our confession of Jesus as Lord. Then we need either to deny our confession or look elsewhere, or begin to overhaul our basic way of looking at life and living it" (bold emph. mine, sp).This happened for me concerning the collection for the saints (1 Cor. 16:1-4) and the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:17-34) among other things. The creed of the churches of Christ with whom I have been associated for the last 13 years is to return to the practices of the first century Christians and reject the man-made additions from the polluted stream of church history. I have found that this Restoration Plea worldview lacks integrity and internal coherence among those who proclaim it of whom I was one for many years.
Walsh and Middleton reveal why changing worldviews is so rare:
"People who doubt their worldview are restless and feel they have no ground to stand on. They are often in the throes of a psychological crisis. But that emotional crisis is fundamentally religious because our worldview rests on a faith commitment."This is what happened to Abby Johnson that day in the abortion clinic when she witnessed an abortion through an ultrasound device. She writes:
"I could not have imagined how the next 10 minutes would shake the foundation of my values and change the course of my life."
Benjamin Whorf suggests another reason why it is difficult to change our worldview. It involves the difficulty of "learning a new language" so to speak after becoming adults. People simply become vested or set in their ways. We are taught an entire language of words that have connotations and interpretations attached to them.
Whorf writes:
"The structure of the language one habitually uses influences the manner in which one understands his environment."
Walsh & Middleton add:
"Our language takes shape out of our worldview. The two reciprocally confirm one another."
When we are young, we are teachable, because it is obvious we don't know everything. As we get older we seem to harden in our beliefs and reputations. Perhaps this is why Jesus said for us to become like children:
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."Walsh and Middleton continue:
"For Christians, the ultimate criterion by which we judge our worldview is the Bible. It is God's revelation of reality. Paul tells Timothy that the Scriptures have a purpose; they are to teach, reprove and correct us.... The Bible suggests a summary question by which we can evaluate a worldview (Deut. 30:15-20): Does this view bring life or death, blessing or curse? In other words, does it open life up or close it down? In any respect that another worldview brings life, we should all learn from it and allow it to correct our worldview."This increased understanding will not occur, however, without desire to know additional facts. If a person, or group, believes that they have the market cornered on truth, then they will simply repeat the same sayings, or "language," and behaviors for a lifetime, because we are unwilling to examine and/or allow our worldview to be changed.
"We have implicitly suggested here an attribute of a 'good' worldview: it recognizes its own finitude and limitations. It is open to learn from other visions of life. This can be a difficult proposition. People hold to a worldview because they assume it gives a better account of reality than any other. But a worldview is not infallible and therefore it must not be absolutized. We dare not let our worldview become fixed. It must be informed constantly by reality and, if we are Christian, by an increasing understanding of revelation, the Word of God" (all bold emph. mine, sp).
This also was the case for the "common people" of Jesus' day--those who did not have a controlling interest like the religious leaders--but nevertheless were also not motivated to learn from Jesus:
In Matthew 13:11-17:
The disciples came to him and asked,
"Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."
This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand."
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
"You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving."
"For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes."
"Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them."
"But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it" (bold emph. mine, sp).
EVALUATING OUR WORLDVIEW
Walsh and Middleton write:
"A worldview is never merely a vision of life. It is always a vision for life as well. Indeed, a vision of life or worldview that does not actually lead a person or a people in a particular way of life is no world view at all. Our worldview determines our values. It helps us interpret the world around us. It sorts out what is important from what is not, what is of highest value from what is least."For example, is the 'worship hour' exalted above all other hours?
"It is important to note, however, that world views (just like cultures) never belong to just one individual. Worldviews are always shared; they are communal. Indeed, true community is possible only when people are bound together by a common way of life rooted in a shared vision of life."
"How do we judge a worldview...? The primary criterion is simply this: Does the worldview in question accomplish what a world view ought to accomplish? As a vision of life, does it elucidate all of life? Can it open up all of life to those who adhere to it? Is it truly a world view? Or does it tend to open up only some aspects of life, ignoring others? Does it overemphasize or idolize one thing at the expense of another...?"
Walsh and Middleton state,
"The fact is that God's creation coheres. Everything has its rightful place. And a world view that absolutizes either the economic side of life or group membership will inevitably do injustice to the coherence of the creation. Such injustice will become evident in certain breakdowns in the life of the culture....A world view that does not integrate and elucidate God's creation as it really is cannot lead to an integral and whole way of life."Do some Christians get to operate by a different set of rules than the rest?
They conclude:
"The question is really whether our world view is consistent with reality. If it is not, then reality will fight against our misconstrued vision, urging us to change our perspective and our way of life. A second question to ask is whether our perspective sensitizes or desensitizes us to issues of love and justice. Does it in effect legitimate all kinds of evil? Do we become blind to the selfishness and injustice that our own particular culture propagates, or can we still see it? If everything in our environment tends to legitimate our way of life, never challenging it, then perhaps we need a new prescription for our worldview glasses."Do we see innocent life taken in war as exactly the same as innocent life taken in abortion? Or do our inherited political leanings skew our worldview of the innocent?
As an example,
In early 2013, CNN reported that Dick Cheney said "the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, is unpredictable and doesn't share the United States worldview."
And here we are on the verge of another conflict. The United States has a worldview and North Korea has a different worldview. Instead of following Dick Cheney into another war, what else could occur rather than war to remedy this problem?
Seth Godin gives some helpful insight in a recent daily blog post:
"One of us is wrong... and it's not me. That's the way every single conflict begins. Of course it does, because if it didn't, it wouldn't be a conflict, would it? So, given that the other person is sure you're wrong, what are you going to do about it? Pointing out that they're wrong doesn't help, because now you've said the second thing in a row that your partner/customer/prospect/adversary doesn't believe is true."
"The thing that's worth addressing has nothing much to do with the matter at hand, and everything to do with building credibility, attention and respect. Only then do you have a chance to educate and eventually persuade. We cure disagreements by building a bridge of mutual respect first, a bridge that permits education or dialogue or learning. When you burn that bridge, you've ensured nothing but conflict."
But back to Jesus' explanation of why He used parables in Matthew 13:
Why would the "common people" not desire to hear Jesus?
I believe Abby Johnson discovered it in her world, just as I have in mine:
"Looking back now on that late September day of 2009, I realize how wise God is for not revealing our future to us. Had I known then the firestorm I was about to endure, I might not have had the courage to move forward. As it was, since I didn’t know, I wasn’t yet looking for courage. I was, however, looking to understand how I found myself in this place — living a lie, spreading a lie...."How about you?
Are you ready for the firestorm... from your own people?
Like Jesus and like Abby?
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