Open-mindedness in the Post-Christian America
What is the answer?
Open-mindedness is cultivated because it is practically worshipped in today’s world. So, I’m offering a counter-balance to this over-correction and hoping to persuade a few to tug the pendulum back.
Open-mindedness is, without question, considered a cardinal virtue and the first of countless politically correct commandments masquerading as “suggestions.” In our post-Christian, post-Constitutional, pre-apocalyptic nation. All of the crucial bedrock structures like the family, faith, and truth have been deconstructed. The loose and unstable framework of our world is “open-minded”. With our crucial “constructs” dismantled and unconnected we’ve decayed (many would insist “progressed”) into accepting chaos and confusion as a state of being unbiased and nonjudgemental. To ignore the devastation wrought on a soul is to be “enlightened”. To fill the void with the thin watery tasteless gruel of “the truth to you is not the truth to me” is “wholesome”.
I don’t consider the absolute open mind to be virtuous or reliable and therefore because the collective American mind has been diluted by openmindedness and become delusional it is no longer trustworthy as it might have been long ago when families were strong and supported by the Christian faith and the community it nourished. To be succinct; common sense has departed. The book of Proverbs and the wisdom it contains is just an antiquated old parchment.
Our relentless dedication to open-mindedness is not a virtue and borders on fascistic. It seems most misunderstand the problem I have with the so-called “open mind”. Open-mindedness today means, “Judge not lest ye be judged,” torn from the garment of Matthew chapter 7 and fashioned into a flag to which we swear oaths. That verse is better known than John 3:16 nowadays or anything in Proverbs. Non-Christians and Christians seem to deploy this out-of-context-verse when anyone dares to think outside the box of chaos and judge the insanity around us.
The verse “judge not lest ye be judged” is like Kryptonite for the well-meaning but unthinking Christian. These days the quiet part of open-mindedness is the unsaid claim that making distinctions (judgments) is wrong. But the Bible says we are morally obligated to judge in the proper context. An open mind today is an ultra-hyper-tolerant mind that stands for very little because it fears being thought of as narrow-minded: fear of making distinctions. More and more the crowd typically desires distinction only in clothing, tattoos, or hair, not in thought. Outerness can be diverse but thoughts must be conformity, craving adherence, and allegiance to groupthink under their various expressions in the material world.
Paradoxically, the so-called “open mind” today is the most pre-judgmental and intolerant of all. It wants to put everyone under an indistinguishable collective “conformity,” i.e., forced unity, the “correct” – politically correct – collective. It breaks down gender roles, melds all religions into one thereby diminishing the distinctions, and insists all cultures are equal. Many, especially “liberals”, love open-mindedness like it’s a command from the version of Jesus they like, Love openmindedness with “all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” I think open-mindedness, as it is known today, will cause your mind to be polluted.
Not all ideas are equal by virtue of their mere existence. It would help if you inspect (judge) the views encroaching on the borders of your mind at the gate of your mind or you will be slaughtered from the inside out. You cannot open up to everything. The old saying goes: You must stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. And wow, do we have multitudes imploding? Yes! Full open-mindedness attacks and starves the mind of spiritual and ethical discernment. Something will fill that vacuum and it is being filled by chaos in the culture. It’s that free-floating anxiety that seems to permeate our days. Unguarded minds become stuffed with uninspected cargo, weighted down but empty of understanding. Unhealthy open-mindedness says nothing is objectionable except not having an open mind. That is a lie.
What is the answer? Have an open VIEW and an ACTIVE mind.