Beware of the thought police

“The Thought Police: To censor and protect.”

—Craig Reucassel

In a world that demands us to conform to certain standards set forth by society, it's not difficult to lose ourselves. I don’t want to bash anyone or any organization, but I am increasingly concerned about the amount of people who get angry over people who dare to think for themselves.

I am guilty of wanting everybody to think like me, so I am no better than the next person. It is human to want to be right or at least think one is right all the time. Sometimes the best thing we can do in life is to admit when we are wrong.

Sadly, the thought police are incapable of admitting when they are wrong. In fact, they often double down. If we don’t see eye to eye with them, some may feel insulted and rejected.

There actually is a very good reason behind that. According to researcher and author Brene Brown, people who must be right all the time have a high degree of shame. They look at themselves as being bad, so being right all the time makes up for it.

Shame is a very overwhelming, very powerful emotion for us all. Some people can hide it well while others can’t deal with it at all. The thought police can’t deal with their shame, so they seek to control people.

Have you ever had somebody say you shouldn’t feel that way? Feelings aren’t good or bad. They just are. No one has the right to tell us how to feel. God gives us our feelings for a reason; we don’t have the same set of emotions. Our emotions are a mixture of our own experiences, what we have been taught and our DNA.

Let's look at the flip side: When are there times when we become the thought police? I don’t like it, but if I am 100% honest, I like it when others agree with me. Of course, that isn’t all bad, wanting people around us who think like us, but it becomes a problem when we only surround ourselves with yes people.

See, to many of us, myself included, we just want people to agree with us and rubber-stamp everything. That is not how we grow.

I believe everyone is made by God. When we try to dictate what people think or read, we are, as one theologian put it, robbing God of his godliness. We should encourage people's differences and let them use their skills to bring glory to God.

Kyle Snyder can be emailed at kylesnyder86@yahoo.com.