This is really good.

Answering Wisely

With all the election excitement, Ted Haggard is old news, but an interview with new interim president of the NAE, Leigh Anderson, on CNN is worth noting. Anderson was interviewed by Miles O'Brien on Monday. The topic was forgiveness, restoration, and the likelihood of Haggard serving again in a pastoral role--until right at the end when O'Brien tacks on one last question: "Do evangelicals believe Ted Haggard was born gay?"

It's a loaded question with one obvious aim: to stir up controversy. O'Brien didn't really care about the answer, and Anderson knew that; you can see it in his smile. Saw it coming, flicked it away. "I don't know what evangelicals think," Anderson said, "because we're talking about a really diverse group, and certainly there's difference of opinion on that."

I couldn't help but cheer when I heard his answer. It's so easy to go on the defensive, or the offensive for that matter, when we're challenged in a public forum, but the better part of wisdom says that sometimes the best answer is no answer at all. Jesus did this pretty frequently with the religious leaders of His day who were trying to trip him up with one controversy or another. And Proverbs offers the juxtaposed wisdom that we are to "answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself," and, in the very next verse, "answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes." As the preschool song goes, "Oh, be careful little mouth what you say."

Those who are genuinely seeking the truth deserve an answer; those who just want to cause trouble don't.
Thu, Nov 9, 2006 6:35