Never Say That

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. ~ Edmund Burke

Say the thing that ought to be said because it is the correct thing to be said in the moment for the building up of another or saving another from a perilous fate. ~ Vaughn Berkeley, MBA

Have you ever just laid down on the grass on a warm sunny day and thought about words we say? And what does this have to do with the title of my article never say that? Well, with your permission, if you give me a few minutes I’ll take you through some thoughts I’ve been pondering about what we say on what we don’t.

Around 50 years ago it would’ve been quite taboo to see cursing on television shows and movies. According to social norms of that time, for a movie to be considered acceptable for the general audience there had to be a limitation on the amount of vulgarity used in the movie. Go back even 75 years ago and you can see those old gangster movies with the gangsters using language free from vulgarity or obscenities. Today however there is swearing and cursing and vulgarities used in place of a period or comma in the dialogue of characters. Imagine if your grandmother or great grandmother were to hear you speak like that 75 years ago, she might be telling you, “oh you should never say that.” It was the societal norm of the time.

Between the years 1500 and 1900, the Protestant reformers believed that the Roman Catholic Church bureaucracy was the Antichrist power described in the book of Revelation. This saying would be sounded by all of them from the pulpits including the Calvinists, the Lutherans, the Methodists, and other Protestant reform religions. However today you’d be hard pressed to find any religious group that still holds this interpretation of Scripture. Due to changing sentiments of society, now someone would say to you, “oh you should never say that.” But if you collect old books and love vintage classic books, you can read for yourself what the reformers of old believed. And you can read books like Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, to discover the hardship Christians have endured for hundreds of years.

Today another hot button of discussion is around international politics and how countries interact with each other over different economic and political beliefs. Canada is currently in the middle of a dispute with Saudi Arabia. According to Canadian news sources, this dispute was triggered by Canada’s Global Affairs Ministry tweet “decrying the arrest and detention of two female bloggers and activists, and urging Saudi authorities to immediately free the two women as well as all peaceful human rights activists.” The politics of the US President may be carried out via twitter but Canada is not the political juggernaut like the USA and should know better. The news reports that the “Saudi Foreign Ministry took exception to the wording of the tweet, calling it an attempt by Canada to interfere with the country’s internal affairs.” One can imagine an old timer politician on the backbench somewhere telling another associate, “one should never say that.” That tweet has resulted in Saudi banning Canadian wheat, Saudi recall of its diplomats, cancelling of air flights between Saudi Arabia and Canada, and the recall of hundreds of Saudi foreign students in Canada studying on a Saudi scholarship. Indeed many are probably whispering, “oh, the Canadian government should never say that.” This political mess may only be resolved by a firing of someone I suspect and Canada apologising to Saudi Arabia.

Exciting times, these are.

One thing that is still taboo and will probably be taboo until the end of the world is to tell a person of their sins against Yah. For some strange reason, people don’t like being called a liar, or a thief, or an adulterer, or a murderer, or a drunkard, even if those same people are indeed doing those things. I recently engaged in a lengthy conversation with an adulteress who absolutely denies my point of view as wrong, and defended herself as a forgiven woman. She sent me a long note on her rightness and my judging. A few days later she admitted that she felt like I would not want to talk to her ever again after her essay. But I told her I didn’t take her letter personally and I still got love for her. So if she is willing to be friendly, I’ll be friendly and we both can put forth our arguments until we find a breakthrough or get totally frustrated and end that discussion. Neither of us subscribe to the position, “oh you should never say that.”

The scripture teaches that iron sharpens iron. Have you ever rubbed two pieces if iron together to sharpen them? Things get heated. There’s friction all the time. And sometimes there are sparks. In the end, you get a tool ready for its purpose. In human terms, we will get heated at times, we will have friction in our discussions, and there may be occasional sparks flying. But if our goal is to build each other up, the end result is we will both be made sharper for the experience.

As writers you and I have a duty to step beyond the “never say that” barrier. Those who believe in the Kingdom of Yah and the place called hell, have a duty to step beyond the “never say that” barrier. Spiritual truth will always be taboo in a world that delights in spiritual darkness so prepare your heart and mind for some hurt feelings if you say pure, unadulterated truth from heaven.

As Samuel the priest was hurt when the people wanted a king to rule over them like the other nations, Yah told him not to be sad because they hadn’t really rejected Samuel, it was the authority of Yah they had rejected. The majority will reject you when you stand for truth so endure to the end so that when your name is read from the record in heaven, it will not be said of you that you were found wanting… oh please, Never Say That.

Until next time, continue to learn and grow.

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Photo: Original Painting Canadian Artist, Caleb Berkeley: Blue River and Mountains.