Every time I get in my car and drive off, I am reminded that, as an adult, I don't appreciate being treated as a child. When I put my car in drive, the doors automatically lock. Why? Because some safety-do-gooder-nut (I am blaming Ralph Nader.) in Washington decided I needed my car doors locked and since it was too dense to remember to do that, he would take care of me by making the car manufacturers install automatic door locks. And, of course, allow me to pay for them. After all, daddy knows best. Just about every time I hear the locks click I mumble to myself, "If I wanted my car doors locked I would do it myself." I may be an idiot but I still don't appreciate being treated like one.
As you read this blog (Rant) please keep in mind that I am a child of the 60's. My generation redefined the concept of rebellion and took it to new heights (Or depths, depending on how you see things.). We rebelled about and against almost everything. It was during the 60's that Al Capp, author of "Li'l Abner," a cartoon strip that did a great job of social commentary, introduced in his strip "S.W.I.N.E." S.W.I.N.E. was a campus group that rallied against anything that came to mind. S.W.I.N.E. stood for Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything. Al Capp was a very funny and engaging man. I didn't realize until, while in college and serving as the President of my university's SWINE chapter (We called it Student Government), I interviewed him on the local radio station where I did political commentary, that he had lost a leg and was in poor health. He certainly didn't let those things stand in his way of living a full and meaningful life and being a very witty guy. I tell you all of that to let you know that I seem to have a genetic tendency toward rebellion. That information should give you a context for what I have to say.
Needless to say, when I sense that people are trying to control me, I don't react well. I take offense because such people are saying through their actions, "I know better than you. You are too stupid to make the right choice so I will make that choice for you. Or you may make a choice I don't agree with and since I am morally, spiritually, and/or intellectually superior to you I will have to force you to do this my way, which, of course, is the right way." Besides being smug, superior and offensive, I don't care for that approach because I believe it robs us of a God given need to make decisions and then experience the results of those decisions. Such decisions and experiences are some of the basic elements in the process of growth and maturity. In your need to control me, to make sure that my life is lived as you perceive it should be lived, you are stealing from me the opportunity to grow to my full potential. As you observe my life, controlled by your expectations and management, you may be very pleased, but I believe that ultimately you have done me damage.
In this blog I am writing about attempts to control mature, rational adults. There are people who need to be controlled: small children, dangerous criminals, the mentally handicapped, and those suffering from debilitating mental illnesses. If it is your calling to control others, please consider a career in corrections or working at a facility for the mentally handicapped. Work your "control freak" magic on those folks and live a full and fulfilling life. But please, leave me alone.
Just recently I spent a few days at a Christian retreat center. It is a lovely facility in a beautiful location staffed by sweet, kind people and the food is excellent. The facility is super clean and, best of all, they supplied free coffee 24/7. It is a first class operation. The only problem is that it is run by religious people.
So, here is my complaint. (You knew there had to be one, didn't you?) It was a bother that I had to go to the lobby to use a wireless connection to get on the internet to check my mail. I could live with that minor inconvenience. I thought it strange that an excellent wireless internet signal was available in the lobby, just a few feet from my room, but there was absolutely no service in my room. It wasn't until I tried to download an e-mail program that I realized that the whole system had blockers to keep me from using it in the privacy of my room and to keep me from visiting certain sites like that web site of the devil My Space and from downloading anything for fear I would download porn. When I expressed my irritation with the system to my wife she informed me that it is their retreat center and they can do as they wish. If I don't like their rules I don't have to be here. And she is exactly right. Even offering me an internet connection in the lobby of an inn located in the middle of nowhere was a kindness on their part.
What I don't appreciate is that they assumed that if I were given free rein, I would do something wrong, or at least something they would not approve of. I often encourage parents of teenagers to not let their children have free use of a computer in the kid's bedroom. But I am not a teenager. Don't treat me like one. I found it intriguing that an inanimate object such as their internet connection had somehow become holy because it ran to their property and it was their duty to see that nothing they wouldn't approve of passed through those wires. Their assumption that, even though I am a practicing Christian, since they don't know me they can't trust me to make good healthy decisions about my use of the internet is offensive to me. In their religiously motivated attempt at controlling the poor behavior of a few, they have painted me and many others with their broad brush of judgment that says, "You are not smart enough, or moral enough, or mature enough or Christian enough in the way that we are Christian to be trusted with our holy internet connection."
Even though these safeguards are put into place with what can be rationalized as good intentions, this is just the kind of thing, based on these kinds of assumptions that turn people off to the church. Many pre-Christians see the church as a group of people who are judgmental, people who assume the worst of those they don't know or who are not like them. They see the church as made up of people who have the attitude of – you can do it my way or take the highway, people who have a powerful need to control others and force others to do what they want them to do and believe just what they believe. They are turned off by church people who are obviously more interested in controlling what you do than coming to know who you really are. To the pre-Christian religious people seem to be much more interested in how you act than who you are. And we do it all in the name of holiness, righteousness and in the name of God. And when you look at it like that, I wouldn't be interested in being a part of the church.
Our desire to control others is difficult to deal with, to see clearly, because of all of the rationalization that surrounds it. We convince ourselves that what we are doing is in the other person's best interests. We rationalize that controlling others is what God wants us to do. We fail to realize that we have placed ourselves on the judgment seat, decided what is best and right and righteous and then impose our "judgment" upon others. We do all of this in the name of love or justice or righteousness, when it is most likely done in the desire to control others. Which, in itself is ridiculous, since we have had very little success in controlling ourselves.
I must admit that your author, Mister Rebellion, takes a great deal of comfort in knowing that his idol, Jesus of Nazareth, was often criticized for hanging out with the wrong crowds in the wrong places doing the wrong things by the religious crowd of his day. He was disliked by the churchy people of His day because He failed to come down on the sinners He encountered. In fact, when faced with a woman caught in the act of adultery, He failed to give her a list of rules to follow, a list of places she could no longer go and a list of people she could no longer hang out with. Believe it or not, He didn't even cancel her internet service. Instead he just said, "Go and sin no more," and then give her the space to do that. It is no wonder that the religious people of His day couldn't stand Him. I am pretty sure the religious people of today wouldn't be all that pleased with Him either. He absolutely crossed the line when He failed to try to control people and instead treated them like intelligent adults. What an irreligious jerk? I just love Him!!!!
Copyright © 2008, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment