Unaverage Musings

Comments on life and ideas, personal anecdotes, books read, television shows watched and perhaps the occasional political or social issue rant.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Communication confusion

I think there are three basic types of speech, which are:
1) Statements of belief (Absolute truth, true for everyone)

2) Statements of personal convictions (how I personally apply Scripture in my life, differs from person to person, although many agree on individual points of conviction but not necessarily all)

3) Statements of preference (what I like and dislike, in varying degrees)

Confusion in our communication occurs when it is unclear to our hearer(s) which type of speech we are using. It seems as though I am often guilty of being unclear in how I speak and sometimes I am guilty of judging other's freedom by my conscience when in fact what we are discussing is not something that rises to the level of absolute truth as clearly stated in the Bible or clearly evident by objective observation. Quite often when I, and many of my acquaintances, begin to speak; we do so without preamble or statement of intent. We aren't being clear as to whether we are building a case for an absolute truth, describing our personal convictions or merely stating our preferences. In a desire to be clear in my speech with others, I would like to suggest some prefatory remarks.
1) If I am making a statement of belief/truth, I could preface my remark with something like "I believe the Bible teaches that..."
2) If I am making a statement of personal conviction, I could preface my remark with something like "Personally, I ..."
3) If I am making a statement of preference, I could preface my remark with something like "I prefer ..."
Hopefully by preceeding my statements by an introduction phrase that indicates my intent much confusion and misunderstanding can be averted. My struggle to avoid judging another's freedom by my own conscience is a subject for another post. I have read some helpful teaching on this subject in 1 Corinthians 6-10, which I will write about later.

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