If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.
~ Malcolm X * [1925-1965 ]
I don't want to read a newspaper, magazine, or social media, listen to a radio station, or watch a tv program that will make me crazy angry because of its extremes in political or religious or whatever viewpoint. But I also realize that if I only accept what I want to hear, I may miss something important that may alter my thoughts by opening my mind. And besides, if I already know my mind, why would I be afraid to hear another idea?
OH, the dilemma! Dear Lord of all Critical Thinking, grant me the patience to hear other voices and not be quick to reject them without thinking through the points they make. Push me, also, not to blindly follow the directives of the voices I like better. Your Gospel gives me the criteria for listening to the opinions of others who set themselves up as authorities of all information. To Love your neighbor as [if s/he is] yourself [Mark 12:31] is, for me, the standard by which I try to look at my own thoughts and actions and, those engaged in the public information business attempting to sway my opinions.
Sometimes, no matter how difficult the message or the messenger is at the time, there may still be truth, wisdom, and a new perspective to be gained when my mind is open. I don't have to change my opinions - but I'm free to. I don't have to listen to the disagreeable stuff all the time, either - right?
Malcolm was a child of You, God of Abraham, and spoke a truth we don't always want to hear even now. But in this case, as with searching for truth as a treasure, X marks this spot very clearly. Please help me to stop, think, and reflect, and, to remember that I must re-evaluate regularly how I accept, reject, and act on an uncomfortable truth. amen.
*Malcom X was born as Malcolm Little and after a more than difficult childhood and later imprisonment, he converted to The Nation of Islam becoming a minister and a very outspoken, radical, and controversial human rights activist. After traveling in the Middle East and Africa and changing affiliations from The Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam, he repudiated many of his early beliefs and teachings. He said, "I did many things as a [Nation of Islam] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then ... pointed in a certain direction and told to march." He was assassinated by three members of The Nation of Islam in 1965.
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