Articles
Attitudinal Inertia
There is a phenomenon of human behavior that is evident in daily affairs. It is a feature that is consistent, but one only seems to notice it gradually, perhaps through repeated observations. This phenomenon we will call “attitudinal inertia.” Attitudinal inertia is the tendency for people, either individually or in the aggregate, to keep believing something long after it has been proven highly doubtful or outright debunked. To put it another way, it is hard to change people’s minds, even for the better, because they tend to hold to the conclusions or worldview they have become accustomed to – even if it is erroneous.
On a family level, we are deeply influenced by our parents to think, speak and value certain things. They are the primary authority figures in our lives – and rightly so. And we have the God-appointed obligation to submit to their authority and give them due respect for their unparalleled investment in our existence and nurture (Eph 6:1-3). But at some point in our maturation, and without dishonoring them, we must transition to thinking for ourselves, examining the world we are living in (conditions likely differing from those of our parents’ generation) and formulating our own worldview. Of course, fundamental to this process is firmly anchoring our thoughts and attitudes upon the revelation of God.
For some people, their parents didn’t adequately teach and model an adequate ideal. I am currently having conversations with a young Christian man whose father, though a baptized believer, did not fully engage with his children spiritually or otherwise. To his credit, the young man realizes his father’s deficiencies and is trying to forge his own faith and discipleship, but is not easy to break free of parental nurture, even when it was flawed and inadequate.
But in the opposite case where the nurturing was ideal and deeply valued it can be hard to think for oneself and look at life objectively. What makes it more difficult is when parents pressure their children to adhere to family values, traditions, legacy, property, etc. This, obviously, can lead to all sorts of maladies including parental meddling, unfair criticisms, pressures to put parental wishes above their adult children’s families and other intra-clan feuding. But most damaging is when offspring cannot move beyond the parents’ mistaken views of Scripture or discipleship. They are reluctant to stray very far from the norms they have become accustomed to even when they need to grow beyond the spiritual stature of their parents.
Societally, there are many pressures to conform to community thought and values, even when they are grossly erroneous, immoral or destructive. Biblically, note the frustration of the prophets who condemned the very inertia that was killing the nation. No matter what they said, no matter how right they were, no matter how many lesser judgments God brought upon Israel or Judah, there was a seeming pathological commitment to idolatry and disobedience. Note:
Ø The decisive, public victory of Elijah over the prophets of Baal and Asherah did not eradicate idolatry or ignite the dethronement of Jezebel. Even when the terrorized people “fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!’” (1 Kgs 18:39), and the prophets of Baal were slain, it did not arrest the nation’s plunge toward oblivion.
Ø The venerable Isaiah could not stop Samaria’s slide: “All the people will know … who say in their pride and arrogance of heart: ‘The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars’ … For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them, nor do they seek the Lord of hosts. Therefore the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel … The elder and honorable, he is the head; the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed” (Is 9:9-10, 13-16).
Ø Jeremiah pleaded his whole life – facing ridicule, slander, death threats, physical harm and heavy psychological stress – for the people to repent, for the false prophets to be rejected, for Zedekiah to surrender to the Babylonians to save Jerusalem from total annihilation – yet his divine warnings fell on deaf ears: “Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: “If you surely surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live; this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans; they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.”’
“And Zedekiah … said to Jeremiah, ‘I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they abuse me.’ But Jeremiah said, ‘They shall not deliver you. Please, obey the voice of the Lord which I speak to you. So it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live. But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the Lord has shown me … “So they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans. You shall not escape from their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. And you shall cause this city to be burned with fire”’” (Jer 38:17-23).
One of the most damaging societal lies that the Western world desperately clings to is the universe springing into existence out of nothing and life developing out of natural, unguided processes. No matter how much evidence and logic is amassed against this fairy tale, it holds sway from the classroom to the boardroom to the courtroom to the living room.
Another persistent philosophical lie is that communism and socialism can produce equity and fairness and prosperity for all. No matter how many millions of Russians and Chinese and Cambodians and North Koreans, etc. have been slaughtered by their own governments, no matter how many different iterations of these philosophies have horribly failed, academics and humanistic idealists still believe in them. That’s not a political statement, by the way. It is a judgment upon a sinful, godless motif that perpetuates murder and poverty and global unrest. The only antidote against pernicious and pervasive lies is truth. And to understand and embrace truth we must be willing to recognize and follow it wherever it leads, even if it conflicts with our parental nurture, conventional wisdom or comfort zone.
