Public Opinion

Well, loyal readers, we have now come to the end of the first full month of "Beneath the Curls," and I for one have enjoyed it quite a bit.  I have learned a lot from writing this blog over the last month, also.  Here's a brief look:

• If I don't post anything, I don't get as many visitors.  Imagine that.
• It really ticks ME off when I don't put up a good post.
• Some of the best posts come when I don't actually think about them before I start writing.
• Facebook is easily the best source for traffic to my site.
• There are some really REALLY clever ways that other sites do get traffic to their sites.  For example, a couple of sites have tricked Blogger into thinking that they sent people to my site.  I, being very confused and excited, went to their site to see what was going on.  Spam.  I had to admit, it was absolutely brilliant.
• It takes a lot to offend you people.  Seriously, I've told you Muslims may be going to heaven, the church has corrupted the mission of Christ, and the Resurrection doesn't matter, and I haven't received a single complaint.  What does a guy have to do to get some hate mail around here?

In all seriousness, though, I really do appreciate everyone that takes the time to read my blog, and I would like to gleam some more input from you.

I have decided that I would like to have a "post of the month".  A POM if you will.  With that in mind, on the right side of your screen (that's over there ----->) there should be a poll.  I am going to put up the seven most visited posts from the month of April.  If there is another you think I should add, feel free to nominate it, and I will add it.  Please take a few seconds to cast a vote.

If you think about it, this is really not such an uncommon thing anymore.  It seems like people are always looking to get your opinion about something these days.  Why is that?  What is it about mankind that forces us to seek feedback?  Is it a feeling of inadequacy?  Is it a desire to please people?  Is it simply the fact that evolution has led to a "herd sense" in humanity to help us survive?

Most people (including me less than five minutes ago) will tell you that other people's opinions don't matter.  The only opinions that matter are your own and God's.  I disagree with this basically for one simple reason:  we as people need other people.  Humans are not built to survive on our own.  If we were, we never would have developed language.  Several experiments have shown that babies require human contact to survive.  We need other people.

Sometimes, whether or not people accept your opinion depends almost completely on how your opinion is presented to them and, often moreso, who presents it.  Case in point, my home congregation.

Like I said earlier, it seems to be pretty hard to offend you guys, but the old people in my home congregation are a different story.  I have recently started teaching my little cousin for Sunday School, but before that, I went to Sunday School with the adults.  Through the course of the discussions, I had a tendency to play devil's advocate or to have an opinion that didn't line up with their very traditional values.  I know, I can hear the gasps of shock at the idea that I have opinions that don't line up with traditional beliefs.  While in these discussions, I got some of the best looks of shock (with just a hint of horror) that I have seen in my life.  They definitely aren't used to people with different opinions.  Then came Preach'rman.

Preach'rman is our interim pastor.  He is a Baptist turned Methodist preaching in our Lutheran church.  He is amazazing and, believe it or not, I'm not the only one that thinks so!

I have, however, become somewhat frightened by his sermons.  There's nothing threatening about them, but they have a tendency to leave me frightened.  This is because they lead me to believe that my life have somehow been bugged.  It amazes me how many of his sermons are over things that I have talked about before, whether in Sunday School with the old people or outside of the discussions because I thought the old people might would pass out if they heard them.  Yet when he presents these ideas from the pulpit as an ordained minister recommended by the bishop, he is wonderful and brilliant.

It makes me wonder if they are actually listening to what he's saying.  Do they realize that he is simply rephrasing what they gawked at me for saying not three weeks earlier?  Probably not.  But it's really rather telling of the way the world at large functions.

Prime example:  Adolf Hitler.  In the movie "The King's Speech", on of the main characters little girls asked her dad what Hitler was saying in a video they were watching.  He replied (though not likely verbatim), "I don't know.  But he seems to be saying it rather well."  If you ever take the time to go watch one of Hitler's speeches, even if you can't understand him, he is very captivating.  Whatever he is saying, he is certainly saying it very well.  That may well have been why people were so stricken by him.  It may not have been that people would have actually agreed with him, but just loved the way he said it so much that they went along with it.

So I leave you with this question*:  Do you actually like or dislike what people are telling you or just the way they are presenting it?





*Shout-out to JesusFreak3:1,4  ;)