8 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
8 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/125818.jpg?w=540" width="540" /><p class="text">“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” So goes the popular rhyme parents tell their children when some other child has said something hateful on the playground. Words, we’re led to believe, can’t inflict any real damage. We really didn’t believe it then. And we certainly don’t believe them now. Words can hurt and they can hurt a lot. They can wound us so deeply that the bleeding never stops. In worst cases, we carry that wound with us for the rest of our lives.</p>
|
|
<p class="text">A lot of us have forgotten the damage words can do. Or at least, we seem to have forgotten. If some of us were aware of the damage our words could do, surely we wouldn’t speak that way. No one is that mean. Or are we?</p>
|
|
<p class="text">Every day, we read another commentary on the nastiness of our public dialogue. The anonymity of social media has made us willing to say things online that we would never say to someone’s face. The relaxing of the norms of public behavior have made verbal assaults, even vulgar attacks, a common experience.</p>
|
|
<p class="text">What can we do to return to a more respectful dialogue with our neighbors and friends, or former friends? First, Christians would do well to stop obsessing over how everyone else behaves and check our own behavior. You know, deal with the beam in your own eye before you deal with the speck in your brother’s eye.</p>
|
|
<p class="text">Let’s remember, this isn’t the first time things have gotten chippy in the church and in the world around the church. The church was born in the hostility of the Roman Empire. No one wanted to hear the claims of Christ and the impact His church was making on the world. The church and its leaders were frequently attacked, daily according to Paul, and ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight/2021/october/sticks-and-stones.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
|
|
<p><br /><a href="https://rss.beaconads.com/click.php?z=1289806&k=c779018782158d93282944b4f7dd4d03&a=189988&c=91725174" target="_blank"><img src="https://rss.beaconads.com/img.php?z=1289806&k=c779018782158d93282944b4f7dd4d03&a=189988&c=91725174" border="0" alt="" /></a></p>
|
|
|
|
5<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/jesuscreed/~4/xDqI8ZjSkho" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> |