The Majority Doesn’t Rule. The Lord Rules.

23 Sep

“A lie doesn’t become the truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by a majority.”  ~ Booker T. Washington

One of the things that seems to be the most difficult is to break free from pressure from the majority.  The first taste we got of that was called peer pressure.  Our parents and our teachers would warn us not to succumb to peer pressure.  Just because everyone might be doing something, they told us, did not make it right.  That concept was difficult to understand and to follow then and it does not get any easier as we get older.

We would like to think that age leads to a general wisdom.  However, age makes no matter when we are considering going against the majority rule or the majority opinion.  We need to learn to think for ourselves, though, rather than have the majority sway us or think for us.  I still go back to that moment a few months ago when a high school student was labeled and blamed by national media for “causing” a racist incident in Washington, D.C.  Everybody had based their story upon a brief video clip that was given to them.

When the “story” hit Facebook, I cautioned people who were commenting about the young man to search for a more complete story.  Something did not sound right to me regarding the whole affair.  Sure enough, the following day, a more complete picture came about and many news sources had to eat crow.  They fell for the oldest trick in the book: majority rule.

Just because a majority of people were saying something based upon a lie did not make it the truth.  But, participating in that majority lie made others look bad as well.  We need to do all that we can to question majority rule, especially when things just do not look or sound right.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating anarchy.  Majority rule and opinion can be good, as long as it is based upon good, sound, legal, and ethical principles.

The well-worn phrase, “What would Jesus do”, really comes into play here.  When someone is pressuring us to adopt a certain stance, a certain way of thinking, or a certain action, we need to question ourselves and see if it is something that Jesus would endorse.  There is too much in this world that has become “right” that is absolutely wrong.  Embracing the wrong ethics and the wrong morals will not make us right in the eyes of God just because everyone else has embraced them.

Perhaps God is waiting for someone to say, “No.  That is not right.”  Instead of caving and adopting a life that goes against the values and teachings of Jesus, let us ask for the abundant graces that we need to adopt and embrace the values of the Lord.  Even if we are the only ones to do so.

It is not the majority opinion that is going to get us into heaven.  It is the opinion of one man, Jesus Christ.

FAITH ACTION:  Pray for the grace to follow not the majority rule, but, the Lord’s rule this day.