Blind Following

1998-11-23 18:26:00

Rod Simon wrote:

Is it better to blindly follow the Pope or to blindly follow J.J.Dewey? Or perhaps to blindly follow John the Beloved?

I was hoping I had made my position on this clear in previous posts by even praising some for disagreeing with me. It is not good to blindly follow me, Clinton, Newt, Jesus, Buddha or anyone else without thinking it through and preferably checking with the soul for final confirmation.

Do not feel uneasy about disagreeing with me or others on the list. As long as it is done with sincerity there should be no problem. However, be prepared for the possibility that your disagreement will not be blindly accepted either.

Let me repost something I have previously written about authority in teaching. "Let's say you want to learn Spanish and two teachers surface who say they can teach you. They both seem equally convincing, but the truth is that one of them knows the language well and the other one does not. If you accept either as an authority just because he or someone else tells you to, then you have a 50-50 chance of getting a bad teacher. What do you do? You test the teacher. Have him actually speak some Spanish. Give him several paragraphs from English and see if he can translate and then check out the translation for correctness. Finally, you will establish in your mind that one of them can truly teach you.

"Once you have tested your teacher then you do not have to check up on him in every little detail; but when you have learned the basics and want to go to advanced Spanish, you do need to check again to see if he has anything more to teach you or if you need to move on to another teacher."

Rod also writes:

Two of my children go to school. One is an eighth grader; the other is a sixth grader. They are exceptional athletes that want to win, and know how to win! They are fine boys that the schools cannot turn into an image of a beast, despite beliefs to the contrary. That is because they have learned to question most everything. They may certainly be perceived as a beast by the beholder, but that does not make it so.

Despite their natural rebelliousness children rely heavily on authority, so the only way they can escape blind obedience is from a strong influence from good parents. It sounds like you are trying to do that. The truth is the authority of the beast is very subtle and affects us all. I think you will find this discovery quite interesting as we proceed.