Saying Shibboleth
“In Essentials Unity, in non-essentials Liberty, in all things Charity”
Rupertus Meldenius
Please allow me to set a scene for you that birthed this post.
A dedicated band of warriors have just overthrown a tyrannical system, freeing tens of thousands from the misery of abject oppression. But their neighbors are deeply offended that they have missed out on the “glory” of being part of the victory despite having earlier spurned an offer to participate. The band’s leader is incensed by their audacity and reacts to their threats by crushing their forces in battle, but his rage is not satiated by merely defeating them in detail, he and his men must crush this impudence and make it clear who is in the right. At a river ford they test the unarmed refugees by asking them to say a word that their neighbors famously say in an unusual way. The result was a mass slaughter of neighbors by neighbors.
Jephthah seems to me to be one of the saddest characters in the Bible. He has the courage to free his people from bondage in the face of overwhelming odds, but then he loses his daughter because he can’t admit he had made a promise that was too broadly defined, and then immediately after this personal loss, he slaughters his neighbors’ best warriors because he believed that his passion for Truth gave him the right destroy anyone who failed to meet his lofty standards of Godliness.
I’m deeply tired of meeting people who tell me they would love to embrace Christianity but they can’t seem to overcome the wounds caused by the Christians they have known. Yet I also know that I too have loved and served Truth, and I confess that I my passion for Truth eclipsed my passion for those I claimed to love. I was one of those leaders who could passionately face insurmountable odds in defense of the helpless yet lose everything I love because I couldn’t bend my stiff neck over insignificant issues that weren’t worth destroying others over.
I’ve been mulling this idea of tolerance and Shibboleth for a while now, and then last night my wonderful wife made yet another of her profound insights when she casually commented on how much calmer I now appear compared to when we first met. According to my wise wife I am still passionate, but it seems I have finally found the balance to temper that passion with a compassionate calmness. But, being my wife, she then casually added, that it might just be possible that she has become so inured to my passionate nature that she no long notices it.
I do hope it is the former and not the latter, but I am aware that there is something in my personal makeup that leaves people with a slight suspicion that I might wreak havoc among delicate people and places if I am left too long in a peaceful posture.
I’ve probably been more like Jephthah in my past than I am comfortable admitting. But I have had the chance to live long enough to deeply regret the sacrifices other people have had to make because of my passionate pursuit and defense of Truth. There are far too many people that I have crushed because they couldn’t pass my “Shibboleth” tests.
A dedicated band of warriors have just overthrown a tyrannical system, freeing tens of thousands from the misery of abject oppression. But their neighbors are deeply offended that they have missed out on the “glory” of being part of the victory despite having earlier spurned an offer to participate. The band’s leader is incensed by their audacity and reacts to their threats by crushing their forces in battle, but his rage is not satiated by merely defeating them in detail, he and his men must crush this impudence and make it clear who is in the right. At a river ford they test the unarmed refugees by asking them to say a word that their neighbors famously say in an unusual way. The result was a mass slaughter of neighbors by neighbors.
Jephthah seems to me to be one of the saddest characters in the Bible. He has the courage to free his people from bondage in the face of overwhelming odds, but then he loses his daughter because he can’t admit he had made a promise that was too broadly defined, and then immediately after this personal loss, he slaughters his neighbors’ best warriors because he believed that his passion for Truth gave him the right destroy anyone who failed to meet his lofty standards of Godliness.
I’m deeply tired of meeting people who tell me they would love to embrace Christianity but they can’t seem to overcome the wounds caused by the Christians they have known. Yet I also know that I too have loved and served Truth, and I confess that I my passion for Truth eclipsed my passion for those I claimed to love. I was one of those leaders who could passionately face insurmountable odds in defense of the helpless yet lose everything I love because I couldn’t bend my stiff neck over insignificant issues that weren’t worth destroying others over.
I’ve been mulling this idea of tolerance and Shibboleth for a while now, and then last night my wonderful wife made yet another of her profound insights when she casually commented on how much calmer I now appear compared to when we first met. According to my wise wife I am still passionate, but it seems I have finally found the balance to temper that passion with a compassionate calmness. But, being my wife, she then casually added, that it might just be possible that she has become so inured to my passionate nature that she no long notices it.
I do hope it is the former and not the latter, but I am aware that there is something in my personal makeup that leaves people with a slight suspicion that I might wreak havoc among delicate people and places if I am left too long in a peaceful posture.
I’ve probably been more like Jephthah in my past than I am comfortable admitting. But I have had the chance to live long enough to deeply regret the sacrifices other people have had to make because of my passionate pursuit and defense of Truth. There are far too many people that I have crushed because they couldn’t pass my “Shibboleth” tests.
There are Truths worth dying for, there may even be Truths worth killing for. But those existential Truths are few and far between. I suspect most truths are not quite so existential and therefore safe to offer our neighbors an open minded tolerance when we disagree on what constitutes truth.
Do you have Shibboleth tests and how far would you take them?
Do you have Shibboleth tests and how far would you take them?
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