I firmly believe the adage “you can be so open-minded your brain falls out.” The more open-minded you are, the more you risk becoming gullible and wishy-washy. You believe whoever is whispering in your ear at any given time. And someone, somewhere on any side of an argument can make a strong case for their views. But then in your open-mindedness, you listen to other people and change your mind again. On and on like a vicious cycle your views drift with the wind.
Others are open-minded to the latest fad ideas (or who’s screaming the loudest). They want to be cool and trendy and aren’t interested in thoroughly researching the topic. At that point, the once open-minded drift into the dreaded close-minded crowd. They refuse to consider anything that disagrees with the trendy ideas they’ve latched onto. But also a lot of archaic ideas are still around thanks to closed-minded people.
Being willing to listen to other people’s opinions, whether they sway you or not, is vital to learning and being a more informed person. But worse than not listening to others’ views is blasting people for voicing a view different from yours. Shutting down someone’s right to be stupid (wink wink) violates the very rights you’re accusing them of violating. You’ll never win an argument by being critical, rude and demeaning, by the way.
I suppose some people just want to be rude and don’t care if they positively influence people, but it pains me to see church people acting this way. The apostle Paul and Jesus himself set very clear examples of how to influence people favorably. Social media is full of church people who should probably go back and re-read those stories.
A crucial key to life is moderation. Moderation is important with health, lifestyle and, yes, viewpoints. We live in a world of extremes – extreme political views. Rarely are these extreme views correct. You know the other adage, there’s always another side to the story?
Now, as I say all this, I circle back to ask myself, will closed-minded people read this and take heed? Probably not. Which brings us to the adage, you can lead a horse to water… But I feel I must at least try.
Angela Mullins is the director of business & digital publishing at Tallapoosa Publishers, Inc. and the author of the mystery series “Working for Uncle Henry.”
