My Thoughts

Opinions are personal, demanding no allegiance to the truth, which is why we bristle if and whenever our opinions are challenged. We adamantly protest our opinion to be truth—and it may very well be—without a spoonful of fact to add to it. Opinions are by nature emotionally charged for we are personally invested, our egos so deeply involved we cannot nor dare not admit to any fault or crack or fissure, contravening truth be damned. Opinions are malleable, but it takes Mjöllnir to reshape them. There is no emotional weight to plain fact or ordinary truth, which is perhaps why so many choose to ignore or deny such bothersome trifles. Opinions take no effort to obtain and are just so much more interesting.

We have become well and truly addicted to opinion; it is the motor that runs our lives and drives our politics. Have a question, there is a poll for that; attend an event, state your opinion; purchase a product, there is a survey to rate customer service, another to rate the product—all before you have had the chance to open the box. The long-running game show, Family Feud, is premised on the opinions of people surveyed. Political popularity is measured by opinion polls as welcome as junk mail and as reliable as grocery checkout scandal sheets; mainstream media no longer report facts but offer non-stop opinion; vote and before the polls are closed, the pollsters are predicting who won, who lost, all by some margin of error, of course. Want to know which way the wind will blow tomorrow, a survey of likely wind-watchers will prognosticate on its direction, speed, and whether it will blow hot or cold.

Note how many times the “experts” utter “In my opinion” or “It is the consensus of opinion” or “according to the opinion of …” When the experts insult you with their opinion, run for your lives. When politicians defer to the opinions of experts, kneel down, confess your sins, and give your soul to God. Wake up America.

Just my thoughts for a Wednesday, for what it is worth.

About the author: Deacon Chuck

Deacon Chuck was ordained into the permanent diaconate on September 17, 2011, in the ministry of service to the Diocese of Reno and assigned to St. Albert the Great Catholic Community. He currently serves as the parish bulletin editor and website administrator. Deacon Chuck continues to serve the parish of Saint Albert the Great Catholic Community of the Diocese of Reno, Nevada. He is the Director of Adult Faith Formation and Homebound Ministries for the parish, conducts frequent adult faith formation workshops, and is a regular homilist. He currently serves as the bulletin editor for the parish bulletin. He writes a weekly column intended to encompass a broad landscape of thoughts and ideas on matters of theology, faith, morals, teachings of the magisterium and the Catholic Church; they are meant to illuminate, illustrate, and catechize the readers and now number more than 230 articles. His latest endeavor is "Colloqui: A journal for restless minds", a weekly journal of about 8 pages similar in content to bulletin reflections. All his reflections, homilies, commentaries, and Colloqui are posted and can be found on his website: http://deaconscorner.org. Comments are always welcome and appreciated. He is the author of two books: "The Voices of God: hearing God in the silence" which offers the reader insights into how to hear God’s voice through all of the noise that surrounds us; and "Echoes of Love: Effervescent Memories" which through a combination of prose and verse provides the reader with a wonderful journey on the way to discovering forever love. He regularly speaks to groups of all ages and size and would welcome the opportunity to speak to your group.

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