I am sitting here looking at a photo of a spokesperson for a hair-care company giving one million dollars worth of PRODUCT to a mission for the homeless in LA. I am trying not to be cynical about the value of this gift as I think of LA’s homeless being the best groomed people in town. Perhaps the mission can sell it on Ebay. Most likely if I knew more details it wouldn’t seem so ludicrous, which is the case with most of the stories we hear. Often we make snap judgments with very little solid information. My email fills each day with critical stories about politicians and the like and you know they are prepared by special interest groups preying on the gullible. Facts are often deliberately distorted and half-truths are told to play on our insecurities and fears.
One of the classes I teach each summer is called Research Methods and one of the very first lessons is to ask who paid for the research. One can find research that will support almost any position. It all depends who put the numbers together and what is their bias. Most of us with grey hair can remember when the tobacco industry filled evening television with actors pretending to be doctors as they told us how soothing, relaxing and stress-reducing cigarettes were. They had all kind of research data to back up their health claims. One thing we do know is often people do not want the truth. What they really want is a research study to support what they already believe.
It is the same way with Bible study. Often instead of looking for truth we instead look for a text to support what we already believe.
Written by Roger Bothwell on June 2, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org