April 21, 2011
Speak For Yourself
Once when my children were in middle school I attended a public meeting where the topic of discussion addressed problems in the school district. I struck up a conversation with the man in the seat next to me and found out that we shared the same views. Unfortunately he had another meeting to go to, so I offered to put myself in a leadership role and tell the officials what ‘we’ thought. He wasn’t rude, but he firmly said, “No, I can speak for myself.” I felt somewhat put-in-my-place, but I learned a valuable lesson. Whether it is in the world, or in the church, it really is presumptuous of us to think we speak for others.
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3 comments:
Gail;
-----Speaking for others has its place. Moses certainly spoke to Pharaoh for all the people of Israel. Yes, he was speaking for God. But God commissioned him upon hearing their cry for freedom. There are obviously common viewpoints shared in common situations where speaking at least in general for others is not only beneficial, but is also proper. It is the heart and soul of the democratic republic form of government. And many cultural issues quite naturally offer the opportunity to speak for others because the very substance of culture is the popular holding of similar ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Yet, it is only proper as long as one does not speak eccentrically, but rather respects the boundaries where viewpoints begin to diverge, and as long as he honors any desires for anonymity.
-----Frankly, I could not imagine myself being in your neighbor’s situation and turning down the chance to have someone speak for me where I could not be present. He obviously had enough interest in the matters at hand to attend as much of the meeting as he could. And he sorted out and shared with you the interests you both had in common. To know that my viewpoints would add to the weight of your similar viewpoints shared in the meeting would make me more comfortable with my having to leave. Maybe there is something I don’t know about his situation, but if the matters being brought to this public meeting were at all important, I cannot understand how his refusal of this opportunity could be deemed socially responsible. In some ways, we owe each other the weight of our viewpoints because of the gravity of some matters.
-----I do not think we have any better example of this than the state of affairs in our country today. Pick any issue with which we currently struggle: the teaching of origin theory in schools, abortion, providence of government, near worship of the environment, state’s rights, even the sovereignty of our nation; the list is endless and their import is dramatic. Each issue brought to the public attention is done so on at least the implied basis that it has risen from some massive public outcry. This is a claim to be speaking for others. It is the claim itself that is proper or improper, not the speaking for others. We are turned upside down because too many surrogate speakers breach all the rules of speaking for others. They purport eccentric viewpoints as commonly held. They have no respect for the boundaries where common viewpoints begin to diverge. And they project hidden agendas upon those for whom they speak, wrapping these agendas in acceptable terms used as code words to disseminate quite different meanings. Thus the culture is robbed of the majority’s common sense and finds a thorough brainwashing left as a replacement.
-----I don’t shout, “Speak for yourself!” when someone speaks for me what I believe. Rather, I am honored and am likely to shout, “Ata-boy! Carry on!” It is not the surrogate deceivers who have flushed the goodliness from our culture; it is the people of integrity remaining seated in great numbers silently speaking for themselves to themselves.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by accident, I bookmarked it.
Anonymous,
Glad to have you join the conversation.
Gail
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