Fisticuffs

Sometimes good discussions on Facebook are like having a friendly game of boxing in a public park. Not everybody is going to understand what the match is all about. You may only be having a “gentleman’s match” following the Marquess of Queensberry Rules, not a wild slug fest that will end by biting someone else’s ear, but sooner or later a slugger will break in.

Recently one discussion became difficult when an unexpected person entered the ring and tried to deflect the conversation onto another subject. She opened her remarks by saying she hadn’t read the beginning of the discussion and then began raising issues about race and gender.

Like a boxer she came swarming out of her corner, but she was in the wrong ring and didn’t know what our discussion was really about. She told us that she was an atheist, and she was obviously proud of it; then she “took umbrage” because she misunderstood the moral basis of what we were saying.

We weren’t discussing race issues, nor were we saying that only Christians have morals as she implied, but it should be evident that Christians and the children of the world base their understanding of morality on different presuppositions. As a Christian I don’t assume that I am always moral, but I do understand that I am forgiven and expected to grow in love and morality.

She was already angry and spoiling for a fight, but she would be even angrier if she knew what I was thinking, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction" [Proverbs 1:7].  

As a side note, I’m sure that some people would be surprised that someone would attempt to have thoughtful discussion on a social media like Facebook, but it takes all kinds of people, even people like us.