Clearing Out the Clutter

Photo Credit: toddeemel.

I am a pack rat. When faced with the choice of throwing something away or keeping it, nine times out of ten I will want to keep it.

That empty Cool Whip container?
I can use it for storing leftovers!

Those old newspapers?
They will be collectors' items someday!

The piles and piles of stuff in my basement that I haven't touched since the day I moved into my house?
I might want that stuff when I move into my next house!

With an attitude like this, you can imagine that it does not take long for all of my personal spaces to get cluttered. More times than I care to admit, I have spent money to buy something, only to be rummaging through an unkempt drawer to find an older version of that item which I had forgotten in my disorganization.

What makes this simultaneously sad and frustrating is that, somewhere, buried under all the clutter, there very well may be good arguments resting upon a solid foundation.So, a couple months ago, I began a comprehensive de-cluttering project. Beginning with the basement, continuing on into my bedroom, and now partially complete in my office, I have sorted, organized, and most of all trashed everything to reduce and eliminate stagnating clutter. And, two months into this project (a statement that in itself is rather sad), I am amazed how it is still a difficult discipline for me to let go of things that really are not useful and throw them away.

But that amazement is tempered into understanding as I think on the fact that many people (probably all of us at some point) have just as much a problem in our studying and discussions, only we hold on to "mental clutter."

By mental clutter, I mean things like "sound bite theology"; words, phrases, and arguments designed to gain a rhetorical advantage over our opponents rather than to pursue the central truths of what we are studying. These are positions that are weak in argument and non-essential in importance, but we hold onto them anyway.

In our minds, we look at this massive accumulation of argumentation and think we have constructed an impenetrable fortress of logic that any opponent will approach with fear and likely just run away rather than be beaten down by our spiritual insight. But often, the reality is our opponents see our arguments for what they are--an overwhelming pile of clutter that is more frustrating to deal with than intimidating.

Let me give a couple examples from recent news. This week, a study was reported which claims that homosexuality is more dangerous than smoking. Now, it is not my purpose in this post to examine the validity of the study, but whether true or not, in the context of examining what Scripture teaches on homosexuality, it becomes clutter.

But undoubtedly (and the comments section in the above link seems to bear this out), many who oppose homosexuality on Scriptural grounds will latch on to this study and pile it onto their mountain of studies, anecdotes, and old wives' tales, growing that much more confident that their mess is a fortress.

What makes this simultaneously sad and frustrating is that, somewhere, buried under all the clutter, there very well may be good arguments resting upon a solid foundation. But in order to get to the heart of the matter, we have to spend two months sorting, organizing, and trashing that which is obscuring it.

And it is not only the anti-homosexual side that is guilty of this. Those who defend the validity of gay relationships are just as guilty of piling up anecdotes of the unfairness and logical abuses of the Peter LaBarbera's of the world and throwing all that clutter at sincere, thoughtful Christians, employing the worst forms of broad-brushing, "guilt by association" arguments, attempting to portray any discussion of the morality of homosexual activity as close-minded bigotry and hatred. Just as strongly, I say that sort of clutter must be trashed.

Thus, we are going to begin to clear out some clutter. Some of it will be sorted, organized and filed. These are things that, while important to address at some point, are not central to our study of what Scripture says about homosexuality. In fact, they are things that we can't really have a Scripturally-informed discussion about until we come to some conclusions on the heart of the matter. Things like the current debate over gay marriage or the alleged moral breakdown of society caused by homosexual activity. Certainly, these are valid topics of discussion, but they are not the foundation of the discussion, and the foundation--Scripture--is where we are ultimately trying to travel on this blog.

While some things will be sorted and filed, other things will be trashed. We will try to find some agreement on abuses both sides have made, speaking without knowledge and without charity against each other, and commit ourselves to eliminating such things from our lives and conversations.

So as we discuss things with each other, I am going to post on numerous "clutter" topics right at the start (and later as necessary). These will be our "junk drawer" posts, where we can keep all the clutter separate from our central discussions. Then, hopefully, once we get some of the clutter put away, we will be able to sit down without all the distractions and reason together with our Bibles open and our hearts asking God for His wisdom and guidance to turn our lives according to His commands.