Thought of the Day 04.03.09

During a recent show on whether practical jokes are immoral, a caller asked me whether there weren’t more important things to be discussing. She was implying that such a topic was itself an immoral waste of time, an implication not to be taken lightly.

See, I think persuasion and argument are a lot like music. When first acquiring an instrument, you learn basic skills, play notes, and practice scales and simple melodies. Soon, these become warm-ups for more complicated (real) practice. And eventually, you apply the skills honed on these rudiments to play far more complex pieces of music.

Likewise, I firmly believe that the problem with our approach to this culture isn’t that we’ve spent too little time on hard issues like capital punishment and the Trinity, but that we’ve spent too little time on much easier issues like practical jokes and NCAA brackets. Learning how to play small, unemotional issues is the vital prerequisite to competently playing complex overtures like abortion and the exclusivity of Christ for salvation.