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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell. There are an estimated 70 million homeless dogs and cats in the US. And I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
Elon Musk. To say he’s a polarizing figure is an understatement. Just a few short years ago he was liked by most, especially those with left-leaning political opinions. He was developing technology that would get us back into space and make us less dependent on fossil fuels. People with right-leaning political opinions were less likely to care as much about his electric cars, but I don’t think they had a very negative opinion of him.
However, that’s no longer the case. Since he bought Twitter and increasingly so as time has gone on, he has turned into a lightning rod with people from all political leanings developing stronger opinions about him. Now those with left-leaning opinions strongly dislike him. Many seem to hate him. They’ve gone from championing his cars to selling them as fast as possible. Some have even gone so far as to vandalize the property of those who drive his cars.
Those on the right now like him. They see his work with Twitter as a step in the right direction of allowing free speech online. They like his work to try and make government spending more efficient.
He’s such a polarizing figure that I bet some of you are ready to turn off the podcast if I don’t stop talking about him.
I get it.
Today’s episode will center around Elon, but probably not in a way that any of you expect. Regardless of your political leanings, stick with me. If I’m throwing barbs today, it’s at my fellow Christians.
Today’s story begins in January of this year when Elon found himself swirled in controversy over a gesture he made during an inauguration party. A good friend of mine posted on Facebook about it and said, “It will be defended by some, and shrugged off by the guy doing it because he’s getting away with it, but it is indefensible, period. Let’s see how far this will spread to be commonplace. Hope I’m wrong. Possibly the true beginning of the end. Again, I hope I’m wrong.”
By the time my friend posted his opinion I’d already seen the photo, watched the video multiple times, listened to the audio multiple times, and formed my own opinion.
I replied and told him that he was smarter than this. I said, “In NO WAY was he doing a Nazi salute. He grabbed his heart and thrust it toward the crowd as a show of affection. It only comes across as a Nazi salute if you project that meaning into it instead of the meaning he clearly conveyed as he did it, and is clear if you watch the entire clip. But if you want to take screenshots or things out of context, I promise you there are plenty of these types of images with Hillary, Kamala, Obama, etc.”
My friend replied, “Sorry Darrell. You’ve gone too far down this hole to cause you to believe they can do no wrong. Watch the 100 hours or so of documentaries and years of studying I’ve done on Germany and the Nazi’s. So I do dare say I know more about it than the average person. But buddy, I’m sorry, we will never see eye to eye on Trump and his ilk.”
To that, I said, “My comment had nothing to do with Trump so I’m not sure why you’re bringing him up. I’m talking about this very specific example where you’re accusing someone of making a Nazi gesture and there’s simply no truth to it. I have no problem criticizing Trump or Elon when it’s based in truth. Truth is what matters, and what you’re spreading and accusing Elon of is not truth.”
He replied, “Taking Elon’s gesture in context, with audio and video, it completely from start to finish mimics a Nazi salute. Unless you want to claim it is Roman.”
I said, “Mimics a Nazi salute, yes. Optically it’s bad. But that’s just one way of gathering facts. When I not only look at that moment but the moments surrounding it and when I listen to what is being said, I get context. Context reveals truth. And truth in this example reveals it had nothing to do with Nazism. Does context not matter to you? Is it only about optics?”
My friend replied “My truth and optics are different from yours. Herein lies the problem with all of this.”
To that, I replied, “Your truth. Got it. So what you project to be truth on someone is more valid than their actual words and intent (i.e. actual truth). At least you’re admitting it.”
And with that, my friend said, “Darrell, when you lie thousands of times in just 4 years such as Trump you can’t reliably take their words. In his case, to me, he is always lying about the election results. To you and others, you don’t think he lied. But, with over 50 cases his lawyers brought to court they never once cited fraud, and according to legal authorities, that is because all of them could have been disbarred.”
“The result then, all the cases were thrown out without a leg to stand on. And, do you really believe those guards should have been beaten and in some cases killed by the insurrection mob? I guess you do since you think the election was stolen. Sorry man, Trump’s words mean nothing to me.”
Oh man, this is going downhill fast. I replied, “You are a master of projection. I’ll say it again since you seem to have missed it. I’m not talking about anything except the actions of Musk in this specific incident. That’s it. I’m not talking about Trump, I’m not talking about J6, I’m not talking about any results of any election. I’m seeking the truth for this item you posted about.”
“But for some reason you want to take your feelings on Trump and not only project those onto anything any of his “ilk” does (whomever that is). But now you are projecting that on to me. You know full well I’ve voted against Trump and I’m not a MAGA person.
“This is totally unacceptable. You are totally out of line here. To say I think people should have been beaten and killed. How dare you. It’s like you don’t even know me or my character. You are blinded by your TDS and have crossed a line by projecting that onto me. I’m out.”
Then someone I don’t know replied to me and I don’t engage at all with people I don’t know, so I simply said, “I don’t know you so I won’t be saying any more to you, but the Anti-Defamation League disagrees with all of this Musk Nazi nonsense. But what do they possibly know about antisemitism?”
To that my friend replied, “I know. I was surprised by that. A head scratcher for me for sure. Not because of this, but I may have taken things too far. Darrell, we need to talk about it. I clearly can’t get away from all roads leading back to the insurrection. Gonna let this simmer for a while and see what the next 100 days plays out to be.”
A few days later I messaged him privately about an unrelated personal matter. We talked about that and then he said, “My deepest apologies for offending you via all the crazy Musk stuff.”
I said, “It’s not that you offended me, it’s that you attacked my character. I had already told you I was only talking about the facts related to the Musk gesture, and yet you kept bringing up Trump. You said, “And, do you really believe those guards should have been beaten and in some cases killed by the insurrection mob? I guess you do since you think the election was stolen.”
That was completely unfounded and a misrepresentation of anything I’ve ever said, believed, or implied. After all the conversations we’ve had, I thought you’d know me better than to be one who would support the beating and killing of someone, especially someone in law enforcement.
I’m not angry with you and I’ve already forgiven you, but those comments hurt me and I’m not quite sure how we move forward. I’m not saying we can’t move forward and I’m not saying I don’t want to move forward. I’m saying I need time to think about it. I’ve never had a friend personally attack me publicly like this so I’m still processing it.”
We then talked quite a bit throughout the day. Neither of us changed our points of view. My friend is not only well educated on German history, but he’s been coaching track and field athletes for years. His specialty is the events that involve throwing discus, shot put, and javelin. You know, those events that involve thrusting one arm up and outward?
As such, he has studied body movements and believes that gives him an understanding on the topic that others are missing. He specifically mentioned it was not only the angle of the arm but the angle of the fingers. Our conversation ended with me wondering what the specific arm angles are that are safe, so that I could make sure I don’t make the same mistake as Musk. I never got an answer on that.
A few days passed and I continued to ponder our conversation. Eventually, I realized I was wrong.
Here’s what I learned.
I messaged my friend privately and said, “I owe you a sincere apology…for a few things. First, I’ve been passive aggressive, I’ve used non-playful sarcasm, and I’ve been unkind. I am sorry for that and I ask you to forgive me.”
We then had another very lengthy conversation that was healing and productive. He also apologized again.
I’ll keep most of that conversation private, but here’s the thing. I not only had to apologize to my friend, I had to repent.
Proverbs 26:17 says, “Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own.”
Simply put, Elon’s gesture that day was not my quarrel. As I read that verse and it poured into my mind, it had a way of clearing the fog and revealing the truth.
The truth is, I DON’T EVEN CARE ABOUT ELON MUSK! Not only do I not care about him, he doesn’t care about me! It’s not my job to defend him. He doesn’t need me to come to his rescue!
Furthermore, what was gained by all the thousands of words that were exchanged by my friend and I? What did it benefit? Who did it benefit?
My friend is an agnostic, the son of a Christian minister. He and I have had many conversations over the years about my faith, the Bible, Christianity, as well as many non-religious things. It’s one of our favorite things, I think. That is, our spirited and honest conversations.
My hope, my number one goal is that my friend would see the truth of Christ and surrender his life to Him.
How does arguing about Elon Musk help achieve that goal? It doesn’t. In fact, while nothing was gained by the argument, something was lost. Any progress I’d made in helping my friend come to faith in Christ was washed away.
In my apology to my friend I said, “I am not interested in republican, democrat, libertarian, or independent because Jesus is none of those things. He is not American. He is not white. He is not European, Asian, African, etc. When I call myself by any other thing, I lose sight of what is truly important, what is ultimately important. That is, helping people find and follow Jesus and living my life in a way that draws people to Him. Our discussion, if anything, drew people away from Christ. I must repent from that.”
“More than anything, I want our relationship and our conversations to be such that you come to believe in a god, that that god would be the one true God, and that would lead you to a relationship with Him through Christ.”
Christian friends, should we be involved in political discourse? Of course. But we must remember that political movements are not the main thing. The Jews of Jesus’ time refused to believe he was the Messiah in part because they expected the Messiah to be a political hero that would rescue them from Roman occupation. Other times they tried to trap Jesus about political questions such as paying Roman taxes.
But Jesus was never here for those man-made systems, or to use a phrase from a recent episode, those man-made kingdoms. Jesus was focused on bringing people into his kingdom, and so should we.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
I want you to be a part of the next Monday Mailbag on September 29th! Monday Mailbag is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, and I’ll respond to them via Monday Mailbag episodes. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.