Opinion...What Opinion?

Over the last few years, I have found the works of theologian Marva Dawn to be quite helpful in my Christian life. She has impacted my thinking deeply about Christian worship. Her insights are always quite thought provoking. As well, I have appreciated the weekly e-mail ministry of Professor Chip Stam of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Each tuesday he puts out the Worship Quote of the Week to over 8,000 people. (see www.wqotw.org) This week, he used a quote from Marva Dawn that absolutely blew me away. I thought you might find it helpful and wanted to pass it along the way.


“THAT’S YOUR OPINION”

The value of “Opinion” in our society has been so corrupted as to have taken on sinful proportions. Opinions have become our personal gods or, more accurately, the proof that we are our own gods. They signify our autonomy, a massive leveling of all convictions, the abandonment of all standards, the elimination of truth.

It drives me nuts! I have tried to talk with certain pastors about the historic faith, about doctrines upon which the Church has agreed for centuries, and the response is always, “Well, that’s your opinion; we’re entitled to our own.”

Certainly there are truths beyond opinion. Wouldn’t everyone agree that a loving marriage is better for us that hatred and distrust? Don’t we all think generosity is preferable to stinginess? Doesn’t the world need peacemaking and justice more than violence and oppression?

Once, a few years ago at a youth convention, a lovely young lady came earnestly to talk with me. She asked me what I thought about a certain matter of sexual ethics. I answered her with the most careful biblical reading and ethical nuancing I had gained in years of training.

She responded, “Well, I just wanted to know your opinion.”

“That wasn’t my opinion,” I replied. “If I had given you my opinion, it would have been the opposite because I really would like to escape these biblical truths and say what pleases everybody. I tried to tell you as faithfully as I could what all my studies have discerned God is saying. That’s much more sound, more reliable, more eternally true than my measly opinion.”

She looked at me in shock. How could anyone question the importance of personal opinion? How could anyone give an answer different from her own private feelings? Is there really such a thing as public truth? Yes there is. And truth’s name is God.

—Marva Dawn, TALKING THE WALK: LETTING CHRISTIAN LANGUAGE LIVE AGAIN. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2005, 83.