Closed-minded open-mindedness

Two men encounter each other on the street. One man (we shall call him Mr. Blue) proudly displays a t-shirt which reads in large, bold letters; Marriage is not a privilage it's a RIGHT. The other man (whom we shall call Mr. Red) also sports a t-shirt bearing large, bold letters, only his reads; Marriage is between a MAN and a WOMAN. Mr. Blue is appalled by what he reads on Mr. Red's t-shirt and excalims, "You closed-minded bigot!"

Excluding for the moment the possibility that poor Mr. Red is blind and wasn't aware of what his t-shirt said, what else makes Mr. Blue's verbal attack unwarrented? As my good friend Donald once put it, "for [Mr. Blue] to be truly open-minded, he must be open to my closed-mindedness."

This statement, though at first glance confusing, is entirely accurate. The truth is, we're all closed-minded, the "open-minded" liberals are simply in denial of their true state (we might say the same about certain evangellical denominations, but I leave that discussion for another time).

Or, if you wish to look at it a different way, we are ALL actually open-minded (and by all I'm referring only to those who have made their own REASONED decisions on issues, based on all available information, since that is the basic definition of an open-minded person).

In short, a person is NOT closed-minded when he has formed a reasoned belief and after he encounters an opposing reasoned belief (and after weighing all the evidence for each) he does not change his mind. This person has simply determined that his reasoned belief is still better. Likewise, a person is not open-minded simply because he forms his beliefs based solely on popular opinion.

After reading some of the comments made by liberals on Dustin's blog the other day, the ridiculous contradictions within their arguments were abound. They yell and curse at conservative biggots for their views, yet claim to be open-minded. Suppose homosexuality really is an abomination? Wouldn't a truly open-minded person be open to that view as well? Next they cry out that their freedom of speech is being trampled upon, yet they seek to silence the clcosed-minded, dogmatically driven conservative biggot for his oppressive views. Forget being open-minded, these upstanding crusaders of justice and equality need to work on a basic understanding of foundational logic first.

And the truly ironic thing of all? Closed-minded opinions are often formed based on strong negative emotions...the kind of strong negative emotions that conservative beliefs seem to evoke in their liberal opponents. Not that I'm insinuating anything. :)

So here's the big question; Are we, the Christian right, open-minded? In the strict sense, yes we are. We have formed reasoned beliefs based on Biblical knowlege and rationality, and the simple fact that we refuse to sacrifice our integrity to "keep up with the times" does not make us closed-minded. In the sense that the secular (aka, irrational) world views "open-mindedness", no we are most certainly not, nor should we strive to be. Without delving into the idiocy of relativism (since this post grows far too long already and the hour grows far too late) Christians have no business trying to be more accepting or tolerant of secular ideologies. There is right and there is wrong. Period. God gave us sixty-six books worth of information on what is right and what is wrong, and if we claim to be Christians who believe in and follow His word, we should be anything but (from the world's point of view) "open-minded."