subject: When Right Goes Terribly Wrong [print this page] When Right Goes Terribly Wrong When Right Goes Terribly Wrong
I recall with childhood fondness the fables of Aesop, an ancient Greek slave known for his poignant morality tales that never fail to reveal larger life lessons.
In the tale called "The Farmer and the Fox," Aesop recounts the story of a farmer who sought revenge against a fox for robbing his poultry yard.
One day, overcome with anger, the farmer caught the fox; tied a rope soaked in oil to his tail, and set the chord ablaze.
By a sad coincidence, the fox rushed back into the farmer's own fields and although it was harvest time; the farmer reaped nothing that year and returned home grieving.
The moral of the story is be careful about consequences.'
The axiom is also the underlying principal of a message that I shared with my congregation several weeks ago called "The Right and Wrong of it All" based on I Corinthians 6:
"Everything is permissible for me"but not everything is beneficial."
The passage relates to the church at Corinth which was full of gifted but spiritually immature people who struggled with constant disputes and failure to live according to teachings of the Apostle Paul.
The crux of my message had to do with the dichotomy between our rights as members of a democratic society and discerning what is the right thing to do in a particular circumstance.
At the time of my sermon, a pastor of a tiny church in Florida's threat to burn Qurans on 9/11 incited violence in Afghanistan at the height of Ramadan, the Imam Rauf decided to forge ahead with the planned mosque near Ground Zero in New York City and just prior, the president's Christian faith was once again called into question by his political opponents.
On the surface, all parties appeared to be within their rights to do as they pleased, just as the Corinthians were free to sue one another. But does having the right to do something make it inherently right?
When you take a step back to gain perspective, in each situation there was no apparent account taken of the larger impact of the choices made. The same holds true for the farmer and the fox.
No doubt, the famer had the right to capture and even chastise the fox. But the manner that he chose to fully exploit his liberty resulted in his own destruction at the height of his greatest opportunity harvest time. The Bible says that if we sow to please our own nature, we reap destruction. But, if we have the opportunity, it is better to do good by all people (or in this case, foxes.)
Proverbs 19 says:
"A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression."
Sometimes we need to pump the brakes on our own ire. It is true that we have the right to express our rights, but like the farmer we have no power over the consequences.
Choices are like a pebbles dropped into a still pond that reverberate out in endless concentric circles, disrupting nature at rest. Our deeds have the potential to have a long ranging impact.
Whether it is the choice to destroy the holy text of another, or to build a cultural center in area marred by public pain, or the audacity to question the authenticity of one's faith is it the right thing to do?
I say, having the right, doesn't automatically make the choice right.
Let's not major on the minor. Sometimes maturity means weighing out the long term benefit before setting out on a course of action for which there may be no recourse. Instead, let's be masters of our own destiny. Be wise. Think before you act. The Apostle Paul said it best:
"Everything is permissible for me"but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"but I will not be mastered by anything."
