The goal of Lenten discipline is to be more fully conformed to the likeness of the Son of God, Jesus, who loved us and gave himself for us.
I wonder if one thing we all might strive to give up this Lent is... CONTEMPT.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines "contempt" as "the feeling that a person or a thing is worthless or beneath consideration." It is ultimately derived from the Latin word contemptus which means "to scorn or despise." I still get a kick out of my old-school Latin and how often our Modern Society defers to it.
As written in The New York Times, contempt is not the same thing as strongly disagreeing with someone. Not only are strong disagreements inevitable, but "Disagreement helps us innovate, improve, and find the truth." It also leads to common understanding and new ideas.
The problem isn't that we disagree; it's how we disagree. Increasingly, disagreements today are characterized by a "noxious brew of anger and disgust," which is directed not only at bad ideas, but also at the people who espouse them. Mmmm...
This goes beyond incivility and rudeness. It even goes beyond intolerance. It's the conviction that while your side "is driven by benevolence," the other side "is evil and motivated by hatred." Who does this help? No one!
You can probably think of several examples of contempt recently directed at Christians. So can I. However, to paraphrase the First Letter of John, if we say that we are free of contempt, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Can we honestly say that we never think of our opponents, in any area, as: not quite as informed, educated, or forward thinking as we are? Do we always strive to be "greater than thou" with people while we criticize their ideas?
The fact that we ourselves are often unjustly maligned... isn't a reason to reciprocate in kind.
As part of our observance of Lent, let's be mindful of those "occasions of sin," those settings and circumstances that expose us to temptation. In the case of contempt for our opponents, things like social media, cable news, and political websites can be such occasions.
These are the mechanisms and media for modern propaganda and word peddlers. They are folks who "profit from the culture of contempt." They pump up the outrage in our country and you can almost hear the ego rise with every page view and "like."
Of course, this isn't easy when so much is at stake in our culture. But being conformed to Jesus' likeness isn't supposed to be easy. It involved dying. We should be grateful that, in this instance, the "death" being demanded of us is... to not treat our enemies as if they are beneath our consideration.
After all, Jesus not only suffered his enemies, he suffered for them — and that includes us, who in our sin ... were also his enemies as well.
