What’s Your Defintion Caller?
Why do we need definitions? Makessha has an interesting conversation going on about how the emerging/emergent church defines certain issues. It’s a good read. But it’s something in the comment section that caught my attention.
Geoffrey, over at Swinging On The Vine, says,
“As for labels in general. . . I don’t like them. I call myself “liberal” and “post modern” because otherwise I am left boring people, spending hours trying to explain what I believe and why. Yet, by so doing, I pigeonhole myself, and am left being attacked, or ignored, precisely because of labels, rather than for any substance.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve read this. Just today Joe commented in one of my posts. He said,
“I’m not a tag kinda fellow (emergent, emerging, postmodern, missional, etc.); I tend to keep things real simple. I’m a follower of the Jesus Lord. Period. That means you are engaged, active and actively reaching into the world to the lost. There is no other option.”
To a great extent definitions save time. They help us cut to the chase to create an understanding of the person. They create comfort by helping us see what someone believes and how they will act based upon certain common expressions of the word.
The problem is as Geoffrey states. Definitions pigeonhole. They create fixed interpretations that are not always true or fair. They, in essence, create fixed images or stereotypes. And stereotypes are never the fullest expression of who we are. They may be in the ballpark but they are never spot on. And when someone presents a different image than us but is in the same stereotype, we suffer.
When Jesus called us not to judge, maybe he had this in mind. What if he was somehow trying to communicate that when we define someone, we may be limiting our own understanding of who the person is or can be? Because isn’t that what we want too, the real picture?
PS: I found this comic strip after I posted this. It’s hilarious and to the point.
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Makeesha
