The Tribute Album In Gregorian Chant
I'm of the opinion that it's difficult to change opinion. You don't hear debaters on Question Time or similar say, "you know what, you're right. Hadn't seen it like that". They've already made up their mind. So have the audience. They're usually there to ask a question they know the answer to or to rattle their opposition. I know this because of the increase in clapping / booing after statements. This is why I no longer watch it. It's not interesting. It's not informative. It's simply, hot air.
Recently, I've read a few blogs regarding Rowan's (Atkinson, this time) comments. On the whole, they seem to be aimed at like minded people. Maybe it's an encouragement, 'we're alright (/all right), aren't we'. Makes me wonder; Does their message ever get to the people that would benefit from hearing it, ie not just patting each other on the back or writing something that like minded people can agree with? And also, if by some stroke of luck it ends up under the nose of the person it could do with reaching or someone who has a different view, would it actually change their mind. Were any of these posts good enough for Rowan to unreservedly retract his comments?
Healthy debate is good. But often, it's just different ways of expressing the same opinion in the hope to win others to your side, prove the other wrong. I would imagine people would either agree or not and have probably made up their mind long before the end of a comment. Jeremy Vine would love it on his show if a guest turned around and said, 'I have nothing to say, I've got it wrong, your other caller is correct, didn't see that. at. all'. Nope, at best it's, 'we will have to agree to disagree'.
And so, to my simple point: This past week or so, there's been a lot of 'What Would Jesus Do' talk in the media. It seems like an attempt to imply Jesus would pick a side. The church should simply talk about Jesus, this is informative, it's interesting, doesn't alienate anyone and then people can make up their own minds.