The Ability to Speak

"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent."  Qui Gon Jinn

Those words have become a reminder to me during this crazy time.  A time of pandemic.  A time of civil unrest.  A time of political division and sometimes outright hatred of opposing views.  

As a pastor, there is an awful temptation to speak to all of these things.  There is an awful temptation to grab an event; a riot; a political action; you name it, and speak to it.  Pontificate.  In churchy language, "Bring faith to bear on it."  And you have to do it fast!  Get ahead of everyone else who is ready to chime in.  

And chime in, we do.  We speak.  And speak.  And speak.  And speak.

Oftentimes before we think it through.

Oftentimes before we hear relevant facts.

Oftentimes based upon questionable sources.

Oftentimes because it confirms a particular narrative or ideology we adhere to.

But none of that matters: we have the right to speak!

And, now, because of the internet and Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and Instagram and blogs and comment sections on articles, we can use our voices as much as we want.

But "the ability to speak does not make you intelligent."

No.  It doesn't.  

But we are made to feel as though our voices are important.  We are told that our voices count.

I once told my bishop that I was not going to attend a Synod Assembly, and his comment was, "Your voice is important."

I responded, "In what fashion?  (Because of my positions on many issues in our church...) As a foil so that people can say, 'Oh my, I can't believe that someone in this church believes that!  We have so much work to do.'?  No thank you."

You see, it is a fallacy that our voices always count--at least in the way that we think they should.  We think that they should be considered; that they should be respected; that they should be honored and given dignity.  But they aren't.  Not by everyone.  Not by a long shot.  We are all guilty of tuning certain voices out.  All of us.

And I think I have been in the process of learning, especially over the last year, that sometimes, it is much more important to bite my tongue; to wait an indefinite amount of time before speaking or typing or posting.  

And maybe, just maybe, when I open my mouth to speak, it might just sound intelligent.