Moderation "makes us lazy"

Mark Durie has written a list of twelve harmful ideas and beliefs that are prevalent in Western society. Today he addressed #9: The belief that extremism is the problem and moderation is the solution.


There's a belief that extremism is always bad and moderation is always good. Why is that wrong?

That's the idea that if you're kind of vanilla somewhere in the middle...you must be safe.

The problem with that is that it short circuits the idea of thinking through ideas.

The problem is, when we apply this idea of extreme versus moderation to religion, we stop thinking.

It makes us lazy, I think.

What do Christians tend to moderate?

I think you end up just going with the flow.

You end up accepting the status quo.

Whatever are the values of society, you get conformed.

If we aren't salt and light in our culture, what happens?

It loses it's flavor.

Ditch the whole talk of moderate versus extreme, we're supposed to be true Christians.

Look at the way Jesus speaks, He didn't say be a moderately good person.

If we follow through with Jesus, we're going to have to change.

It becomes a sort of denial. You don't think you have to change.

It's not really what Jesus calls us to.

What's the hardest thing for the people in your congregation to change?

I think just setting aside, you might say, worldly ambitions.

It's the call of trying to be successful in your life.

Instead of trying to be successful in the eyes of the world around you, you think, "How can I be successful before God."

We have lots of distractions in our lives.

I think pressing the "off" button may be one of the most liberating acts we can do.

In the Bible they speak of gluttony, which can be food. But today we're stuck on technology.

In your blog, you mention Eric Hoffer's thesis. Explain.

Well his basic thesis is extremism is a personality type.

So a Nazi may become a Communist one day, and something else radical the next.

The problem with that, it denies the power of the actual idea. The real problem is the extreme personality.

That can cause us to be really lazy when we encounter bad ideas...it's really your attitude that makes all the difference.

Some ideas are really bad ideas and cause a lot of grief in the world.

I remember once I had a friend who came from Russia......and someone said Communism isn't that bad. He said, I've lived under it! Communism is a bad idea!

Saul went from being a radical persecutor of Christians to being a radical Christian. Is there an element of this that's personality based?

I think there is.

Clearly, some people are very committed, passionate people.

Often bad ideas have a grain of truth in them.  That's what makes them so appealing.

If you just focus on that personality issue, you'll miss the fact that when Paul did become a believer of Christ, it changed his life.

He didn't just change from one kind of extremist to another kind of extremist.