Thursday, February 17, 2005

Just Don't Call Them Stupid

A lot of conflict in church (or anywhere in life) is kept alive by our reluctance to give grace to one another. We tell ourselves that the other side doesn't deserve mercy because of their evil motives. They become the enemy, a threat, out to get us and ruin everything!

Well, I came across something. It's called Hanlon's Razor. It says, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

Maybe it would help if we first assumed conflicts were caused by innocent mistakes instead of vicious attacks. This may be the window of opportunity we need to go all the way and forgive that person, just as we've been forgiven.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel at times as tho I could apply Hanlon's razor to my relationship with my wife. So many times I get frustrated with her disagreements with me over sometimes trivial things. Then I tend to get upset and the whole thing escalates to a level that seems ridiculous considering it's origin. Maybe stupidity isn't as accurate as igorance. I think she is just a tad naive about the things the I think are mere common sense. But in the heat of an argument, it feels like she's arguing just to argue or that she is resentful of me somehow, and therefore I see her as being malicious in her motives. After stepping back and taking a look at the whole picture, I then can see that her motives are good and she is only misguided in her thinking (or so it seems to me).

Thumper said...

It seems pretty rare that someone is really trying to get you goat. And even then, they're often lashing out because of extenuating circumstances. Not trying to make excuses for anyone--just trying to be gracious.