In praise of a closed mind

I’m closed minded about some things; and so are you, if you’re sane.  But there’s a church in my neighborhood that seems very open minded.  They have a slogan on their church sign:  “Open doors, open hearts, open minds.”  Is that the Christian message?  Speaking of his ministry in Corinth Paul said that his entire focus was “on Jesus Christ and the fact of His death on the cross.”  (I Cor. 2:2, Phillips)  Corinth was a major Greek city and Greece was the birthplace of western philosophy.  Paul could have come to Corinth with an open mind, intent on opening up channels of dialogue with all the leading intellectuals.    

But Paul didn’t go to Corinth to hold discussions.  He was absolutely convinced that God the Son had become a man, died on a cross while paying for our sins, and that He had been raised from the dead.  Paul saw this as the ultimate solution to human problems and he proclaimed it with authority.  Jesus Himself said that he was “the way, and the truth, and the life” and that no man could come to the Father apart from Him (John 14:6).  On the basis of that statement Christians have always held that Christianity is right and that every other religion on the planet, while they may contains some true and beautiful ideas, is ultimately wrong.  That sounds terribly closed minded.  We have been culturally conditioned to believe that being closed minded is a bad thing.  That cultural conditioning is pure demonic hogwash.

I once knew a woman who wasted a decade of her life on crack cocaine.  This is what she had to say about it.  “Once the drug has a hold of you, you’ll sell everything you own so that you can buy the drug.  Then you’ll sell everything you can steal.  And once you run out of things to steal, you’ll sell your body.”  I don’t know about you, but I have a closed mind when it comes to crack cocaine.  I examined the evidence, made a decision, and now my mind is closed.  I’m sure the drug must make you feel good while you are high, but I’m not really interested in entering into a dialogue with a pusher on the subject.

I’m not interested in robbing a bank as a solution to a financial need.  You may have come up with what you believe to be an absolutely fool proof plan to do the crime and escape without anyone being hurt, but I’m not interested in your plan.  I’ve thought about crime, made some decisions, and now my mind is closed when it comes to crime.

If there is some poor, confused woman out there who desires to enter into an intimate relationship with me (I know that odds for this are not good) I would want that woman to know that I have a closed mind when it comes to any woman but Nancy Lafyatis Cummings.  I gave the whole issue of monogamy a great deal of thought before I got married and I believe that it is the will of God and the best way to maximize joy and minimize pain as we make our way through this life.  I have a closed mind on the subject of affairs.

Some people don’t believe in vaccines or antibiotics.  I’ve listened to their arguments and I am unconvinced.  I don’t agonize over whether or not to get a prescription when I have a sinus infection.  If I need one I go see the doctor and get one.

I am closed minded when it comes to paying 18%-25% interest on any kind of a purchase whatsoever.  I have a closed mind when it comes to political correctness because I believe in freedom of speech.  I’m closed minded about a lot of things, and so are you, if you are a sane person.

I believe in Jesus Christ.  I believe in Him because of all of the Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled.  If the book of Daniel was written by the prophet Daniel in the 6^th Century B.C. (and I have never seen any convincing evidence that it wasn’t written at that time) then I don’t see how any thinking person who honestly considers the issues could be anything but a Christian.

I also believe in Jesus because of years and years of religious experiences in my personal life, mainly happening in times of prayer.  There is Someone there; He is real; and He consistently confirms the message of the Bible to me.

Last but not least, I believe because the Bible helps me make sense out of life like no other book ever written.  If the Bible is true, then we would expect evil spirits to be present and hard at work manipulating human beings and human culture.  We would expect them to be constantly assaulting our minds and attempting to get us to believe really, deeply stupid things.  For instance, take the idea of being closed minded.  We examine the facts, come to a decision, and when we think we have sufficient evidence we close our minds to what we consider to be foolishness.  We all do it.  It doesn’t make sense not to do it.  (Unless you are currently addicted to crack cocaine in which case none of this will make sense to you.)

So why is it that a mental process, that makes perfect sense when you apply it to high interest credit cards, adultery, and crack cocaine, suddenly feels so wrong when we apply it to religious ideas?  It’s almost enough to make someone believe that there really are dark powers out there messing with our culture; which is exactly what we would expect to see happening if the Bible was true.