Paul wrote in Romans 14:1-4,

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

And later, he writes,

Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

From this, I know:

1. There is a moral right and wrong. It’s better to eat meat than only vegetables. So there is no moral relativism.
2. Food fads, like all fads, are not Christ’s concern. He died for your brother. So don’t destroy your brother over a difference of opinion. 

Applied to politics:

Your opinion, right or wrong, shouldn’t be your primary concern. You have to love your brother even if he votes Republican. Or Democrat. Or not at all. 

It might be true that how he votes indirectly affects you, but think about what directly affects you. If you sin, it’s not going to matter if you won an argument or got someone to vote like you. 

One more thing to follow up on the last “paradigm” post…

I’m pretty sure everyone will go to extremes to maintain their existing viewpoints. I mean, honestly, no likes to admit they’re wrong. 

Newtonian Physics is a government conspiracy. 

OK, you will not hear many 9/11 truthers go quite that far, but they will get pretty close.

Firstly, I studied engineering, and I took two structural engineering courses.  I made A’s in both, by the way.  All that to say, I’m not an expert on the subject. It’s really hard and complicated.  Mostly, I learned that I didn’t understand the subject well enough to make a career of it. 

Secondly, 9/11 truthers even if they took, say, two structural engineering courses and made A’s are not experts, either.  No matter what they tell you.  Even the structural engineers who designed the World Trade Center would not be completely familiar with every detail of the design.  That’s because all engineering design on that scale is done in teams with a project lead who gives things a final check before construction.  A bank building on Gervais Street in Columbia, SC, has a moving floor because the design lead didn’t review his workers’ blue prints carefully enough.  No one knows 100% why the Towers fell.  A government “investigation” will not yield definitive answers.

On that topic, even if the government did a more thorough investigation, the 9/11 truthers wouldn’t be happy with the results because the government was involved with the investigation.  

Thirdly, 9/11 truthers aren’t convinced by details or facts.  They’re convinced because they operate on a higher metaphysical plane than the rest of humanity.  If you disagree with them, you are some kind of dolt, simpleton, or just one of the “sheeple.” If you simply point out they don’t know what they’re talking about because they’re not experts (see first and second point above)… then they switch to just wanting an “investigation,” which I as I mentioned they wouldn’t be happy with.

Fourthly, there may be so called “experts” to attest to and confirm, the 9/11 truther’s accusations.  Fine and well.  There will be other “experts” who disagree. So how does the 9/11 truther choose which expert to believe? Well, the answer, of course, is agree with the one you already agreed with because 9/11 truthers aren’t convinced by details or facts anyway. 

I could go on.  But I won’t.

The respectability police are the group who cool-shame people with marginalized viewpoints. I’m sorry that on this issue, I’m part of the respectability police.  

Fresh reminder of a truth I forget too often. From Valley of Vision:

It is my responsibility to grasp thy overtures of grace, for if thou, the offended part, act first with the word of appeasement, I need not call into question thy willingness to save, but must deplore my own foolish maliciousness; If I do not come to thee as one who seeks thy favor, I live in contempt, anger, malice, self-sufficiency, and thou dost call it enmity.

It was Christ, the offended part, that made reconciliation, and that is the Gospel way - the person who feels offended needs to act first to make things right.

Though troubles assail
And dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail
And foes all unite;
Yet one thing secures us,
Whatever betide,
The scripture assures us,
The Lord will provide.

The birds without barn
Or storehouse are fed,
From them let us learn
To trust for our bread:
His saints, what is fitting,
Shall ne’er he denied,
So long as ’tis written,
The Lord will provide.

We may, like the ships,
By tempest be tossed
On perilous deeps,
But cannot be lost.
Though Satan enrages
The wind and the tide,
The promise engages,
The Lord will provide.

His call we obey
Like Abram of old,
Not knowing our way,
But faith makes us bold;
For though we are strangers
We have a good Guide,
And trust in all dangers,
The Lord will provide.

When Satan appears
To stop up our path,
And fill us with fears,
We triumph by faith;
He cannot take from us,
Though oft he has tried,
This heart–cheering promise,
The Lord will provide.

He tells us we’re weak,
Our hope is in vain,
The good that we seek
We ne’er shall obtain,
But when such suggestions
Our spirits have plied,
This answers all questions,
The Lord will provide.

No strength of our own,
Or goodness we claim,
Yet since we have known
The Savior’s great name;
In this our strong tower
For safety we hide,
The Lord is our power,
The Lord will provide.

When life sinks apace
And death is in view,
This word of his grace
Shall comfort us through:
No fearing or doubting
With Christ on our side,
We hope to die shouting,
The Lord will provide.

There is about a real Christian a prevailing sense that God sees him, and he does not care who else may set his eye upon him; it is enough for him that God is there. He hath small respect to the eye of man, he neither courts nor dreads it. Let the good deed remain in the dark, for God sees it there, and that is enough; or let it be blazoned in the light of day to be pecked at by the censorious, for it little matters who censures since God approves.

And.. the picture at the bottom is funny.

“The light of nature shows that there is a God, who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and does good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.”

Chapter XXI-Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day