Friday, March 6, 2009

Misuse of The Gift of Discernment (Part 4)

Here's the next installment from Straight Up blog of The Gift of Discernment Used in the Flesh (Part 4):
Distortion: Straw man argumentation is the practice of caricaturing the argument of your opponent and then dismissing the distortion. It would be humorous if it were not so sad to see the way people have taken the Obama post and grossly distorted my words before attacking them. Claiming that I was sold out to political correctness simply because I saw wisdom (rightly or wrongly) in the way Rick Warren prayed at the inauguration. Claiming that I was soft on the universal uniqueness of Jesus because I did not see the problem in using the name of Jesus in many languages as part of Warren’s prayer. Claiming that I was an abortion supporter because I do not believe it is right to speak of Obama in hateful terms or pray a curse upon him. To suggest that I was part of the emerging church because I use the word ‘missional.’ Oohhh pullleeeaaase!!! Words do not belong to factions and infighters. They are to be understood according to common usage. Words mean precisely what is stated in context, nothing more or less. To take what someone said and assume you know what they really meant, or that they know what you know, or that they had all the information you now have when they said what they did . . . All of these things are distortions. Are you listening flesh-discerners?

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