There are many controversial issues in which it really doesn’t matter if you or I are wrong. It would be nice to be right, but if we’re wrong there is no great price to pay. But there are a few topics in which what you or I decide is a matter of life or death. On these we must be right, or at least as right as we know how to be. On these we can’t afford to let others do our thinking for us. 

Most of us would agree that when it comes to the important questions of life we certainly do need to think for ourselves, but in practice, thinking for ourselves is much easier said than done. There are powerful tides of public opinion that rise up around us and try to carry us with them. We’re told we’re welcomed to think “independently” as much as we want, but we soon discover they meant that so long as we come up with the “right” conclusions. To be out of step with public opinion on issues that really matter can actually become quite dangerous. Independent thinkers who cross certain lines will be warned to conform, and then if they persist in charting a different course, threats will follow. In time that person is likely to be mocked, shamed, fired, relationally abandoned or even physically attacked.

So on the one hand, each of us has an obligation to ourselves to investigate the important issues carefully, so we can make an informed decision. But on the other hand, if in doing so we discover that the opinion of our surrounding culture is wrong, we put ourselves at risk. It will be dangerous to express the unpopular truth we’ve discovered. To follow our conscience, sooner or later will require courage.

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