I often hear conservatives cast
negative aspersions on the characters of certain famous men. Men who
are held in respect by the opposition, the liberals, or the majority.
You've probably heard such things yourselves from time to time, but
I'm not here to repeat them. I'm here to ask a simple pointed
question. “What's the point?”
What's the point of questioning these
men's character? They're already dead. If we drag their corpses
through the mud, is it going to change the judgment they receive on
high? Is it going to change the deeds they committed on earth? No,
it is too late to harm them. The only thing it can possibly change
is what we ourselves think about their message.
You see, I have the impression that we
are still trying to kill the messenger, even though the messenger is
already dead. Why would we do that? Do we expect everyone who tells
us about the beam in our eyes to be perfect? That's only happened
once, and it's not going to happen again, at least until it's too
late.
If it is a false message, there is no
reason to be concerned. The messenger will be discredited by the
message itself, if it is untrue. “Let fools rave, that all may
hear, and know them to be mad.”
If the message is not addressed to us,
there is no reason to be concerned. We can leave the envelope
ignored, unopened, returned to sender. Someone's else mail is not to
be our concern. And if we are mistaken, the sender will surely try
again.
If it is a true message for us, we
cannot silence the message by killing or discrediting the messenger.
We cannot even silence the message by ignoring it. If we ignore the
message when it is delivered by our own conscience, the message will
be sent again. If we ignore the message when delivered by the humble
preacher of peace, the message will be sent again. If we ignore the
message when it is delivered by a senator or president, the message
will be sent again. If we ignore the message when it is delivered by
crowds of angry protesters, the message will be sent again. If we
ignore the message when it is delivered by mobs of rioting looters,
the message will be sent again. If we ignore the message when it is
delivered by well-armed terrorists, the message will be sent again.
If we ignore the message when the economy collapses, when the war is
brought to the homeland, when it is delivered the voice of thunder
and famine, still the message will be delivered. When we stand at
the last day, and the message is delivered by the Prince of Peace
himself, he will have all the messengers he has sent to us there with
him to stand as witnesses against us.
It is not for us to judge the
messengers. When we discuss the private lives and personal grooming
habits of the messenger, it is merely a distraction from the message
itself. Our part is to judge the message. If there is good in the
message we should point it out, and do it. If there is error in the
message we can also point it out and be edified by the discussion.
We should never disregard a message because of its envelope and we
should never give credit to a message because the deliverer was able
to hire an expert speech-writer.
We can only judge the value of the
message based on the content of the message itself, and that cannot
happen until we stop discussing the messenger, and start reading and
discussing the message.
