False Choices

You've heard the choices. So have I.
The answer to a  complex problem is EITHER one thing OR the other.

The answer in Politics? EITHER be Conservative OR Liberal
In approaching Life? EITHER live from our heads OR our hearts.
Worship? EITHER be Contemporary OR Traditional

You name the problem and someone has likely framed the solution as a choice between EITHER/OR.

It's simple. It's clear. It is also almost always wrong, even dangerous.

It is like saying that if we want to move forward we have to choose EITHER our right leg OR our left, and then be frustrated that we just seem to be going in circles.

Rather than consider changing our perspective, we believe the solution is to double down on our choices. The answer is now to be MORE...
    Conservative/Liberal
    Left/Right
    Head-driven/Heart-driven
    Traditional/Contemporary

When that still doesn't work, EITHER/OR gets hardened into VERSUS:

    Pro-Life VERSUS Pro-Choice
    Pro-Israel VERSUS Pro-Palestinian
    Pro Immigrant VERSUS Pro Security
    How many years has the Church been fighting over Law VERSUS Grace? Where has it gotten us?

More to the point, where is it getting us? EITHER/OR is almost always a false choice. 

If we don't want to just keep going in circles, maybe we should ask if the answer might not be EITHER/OR, but BOTH/AND? Other than the ruts which have become familiar, what have we got to lose?

 

Comments

[Hale Glenna J.]

judging causes one to take a side, when we accept and love one another we are walking Gods path!