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Personal Attacks
November 3, 2012

Last week, we learned that prayer can get us throughchallenges. One of the challenges that people face from time to time and even more so during an election season as it is in the United States is the challenge of overcoming a personal attack, and by personal attack, I mean the kind that are meant to belittle or diminish the value of another person. Schools throughout the country identify personal attacks as a form of bullying and bullying is not tolerated in the vast majority of schools. There are probably as many reasons why people bully in the first place, as why there are bullies. And if you see somebody being bullied, remember to try to help, and if you are a student in school, let an adult know in school and at home, because putting up with bullies is horrible. And if you are the victim of a bully, please tell an adult at school and at home, because you deserve better. I personally believe that most bullying stems from either immaturity in self-advocating for one's self, abdicating responsibility for one's actions by indicting another person, or fear. When working with children, I believe that understanding why the bullying is taking place will help remedy the bullying. Bullying has been around since the beginning of time, and an example of bullying is found in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:1-8
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Some may be asking,"Where is the bullying?" This is an example of intellectual bullying. The serpent inferred that Eve was stupid to believe God and if you listen carefully in today's world, there are many who will tell you the same in those words and many similar words. Intellectual bullyingattacks the mind and intellect of a person. Those who overcome a bully are strong and those who overcome an intellectual bully are intellectually strong. The way to overcome an intellectual bully is to reject the argument of the intellectual bully. If Eve would have replied with something like, "Your hurtful words to me do not prove your position," the bullying would have stopped, and the serpent would have left, as would most bullies.

James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

We resist the devil by honoring our commitments to God. Resisting the devil is done by focusing on God rather than trying to take on the devil. It is when we try to take on the devil that we allowed ourselves to be drawn into an intellectual argument. The author Hans Christian Anderson, wrote the tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and in this tale a couple of con men use an intellectual argument to convince the Emperor that he should wear clothes that are invisible to those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. Those around the Emperor do not want to appear to be stupid or ignorant, so they are able to see the invisible clothes. Ultimately, the Emperor is able to see the invisible clothes and is convinced to wear those clothes in public so that all may see. In the end, the stupid and incompetent one who points out that the Emperor is indeed naked, is a little child. What are the intellectual arguments that we are supposed to accept so that we are not stupid or ignorant? In Election seasons past we have seen global warming on center stage. On stage this time is gay marriage and terms like "Liberal" and "Tea Party". I believe that what makes a person liberal or conservative is not a matter of character, but more a function of how one's mind is organized. Like businesses, people either organize thinking around a process or result, and the older I get, the more I equate process-orientation with liberalism, and results-orientation with conservatism, and both have a place because there is no need to have a process unless a process can attain a result, and there is no need to focus on a result, unless one has process to achieve the result. It is important to reject intellectual arguments that do anything other than validate the argument itself. An attack on another person does not validate any argument. Perhaps it was with this undestanding of how intellectual arguments can be used to intellectually bully a person, that Jesus cited the example of a little child, much like Hans Christian Anderson cited the little child in his story.

Mark 10:13-16
And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

Like the child in the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes" we need to accept the Kingdom of God for what it is, and we must not back down on our journey to this place even when intellectual arguments and intellectual bullying are used to get us off track. Personal attacks are not fun to endure, and those who endure to the end, the same will be saved. And we can endure to the end by celebrating what is good, embracing what is good, and doing what is good.

All verses are from the King James Version.
This site provided by Tom Laign. To all who may believe differently, I also extend peace and love.
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