My Issue With the Statement “We Should Be More Open-Minded Since Society Is Progressing”

Seriously, if there ever was a statement that drives me up the wall and has me tearing my hair out, it’s just that. And the fact that most people, even Christians, just go “hmm… yea, true that!” accepting it as some sort of truth doesn’t help things either.

What’s my beef?

Two things: please define “open-minded” and “progress”.

It’s become quite a phenomenon in this day and age to treat the two words “close-minded” as a cuss word and even an insult. Tell someone that he is close-minded, and watch him turn into this snarling hulk ready to tear you up with his bare hands and defend his “open mind”.

I’m exaggerating a little, of course, on the possible response, but it’s true, isn’t it? Nobody likes to be called “close-minded”; everyone loves to be an open-minded individual. To some, it shows that, to a certain extent, they are well-educated, have read more than a shelf of books at Borders, and have a good finger on the pulse of what’s been happening in the world.

So what is being open-minded to most people? From my experience, I’ll tell you that most just mean that you need to agree with them on that particular issue. Nothing else. Accept and agree with their viewpoint and you join the club of open-minded, well-educated and well-heeled individuals.

As I heard how some pastor put it once in a sermon: if you have an open mind, then why do you not allow the gate and door to your house to be left open for all and sundry to enter? After all, your mind is like the gate and door to your being.

The Apostle Paul knew how important guarding of one’s mind well is when he advised:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

Isn’t it also ironical that these same self-styled open-minded individuals won’t even spare a minute to listen to what God says in the Bible?

Now, as for that “progressive society” that many point to, it also boggles my mind as to what exactly they mean.

Has society progressed? And if so, how? Has the progress been beneficial or harmful?

Seriously, besides an increase in knowledge, I don’t see how we as a society has progressed. Losing our moral compass — becoming more tolerant of homosexuality, immoral conduct, not actually disciplining our children, etc — isn’t progress.

Besides, has technology really made our lives better so much so that we can call it progress? I doubt it. In fact, we are beginning to see how technology, while a blessing in small ways to some, is fast becoming a huge worry to many. People can now be tracked on their whereabouts at any time of the day, globalization means that workers work longer hours and need I mention how email has ruined the private lives of many?

Anything electronic and digital can be tracked and traced, which ultimately means a loss of privacy. In the name of security, governments can now listen in on your phone conversations, intercept your email and even detain you for unspecified periods without trial simply because you had the word “bomb” in one of your emails or SMS messages.

On the issue of morality, the world as a whole is plunging itself into the Dark Ages instead of progressing. For example, a report was released in Singapore just this Sunday stating that the number of teenagers, some as young as 14, are contracting sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) like gonorrhea and chlamydia. Now, teenage pregnancy has always been a problem, but the sheer increase in the number of teens contracting STDs means that many are having multiple sexual partners and definitely not practicing safe sex.

That is worrying not just because there are more teens with STDs, but that children as young as 12 are having sex! Twelve… imagine that! I was more interested in pulling girls’ ponytails when I was 12 years old than seeing them as sexual partners! My wife calls me a late bloomer because I wasn’t really interested in girls until I turned 16.

I also don’t see how a higher tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality and other immoral practices can be seen as progress. In the United States, the gay lobby has become so powerful that schools in some States are told to teach that a family doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s a male who is the father and a female who is one’s mother. The family unit, a pillar of a stable society, is being broken down!

And people call that progress?

Really, if we had indeed progressed, we’d all be in sackcloth and sitting in ashes repenting for our immorality, turning away from our sins and abolishing the warped values that are harming our society today!

And as for being open or close-minded, I prefer to be neither. I would like to be Christ-minded. In our case as Christians, we are called to not walk in the futility of the minds of Gentiles, or non-believers who know not God.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

Ephesians 4:17

So the next time someone says that you are close-minded and should be embracing or sympathizing with some issue that goes against the Word of God for the sake of being open-minded and in the name of progress, ask them to define those terms. You might be kicked out of that well-educated and well-heeled club and become unpopular, but it’s better that than eternal darkness and separation from God!

Soli deo Gloria!

Photograph “Open Minded” by jrvogt81.