June 2001 – If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that I often use satire or humor to make a point. Many of you have written over the years to say you enjoy the column and appreciate some levity amid the otherwise serious news in the AFA Journal.
However, one of the inherent risks in using humor, especially satire, is being misunderstood.
In the November/December, 2000 AFA Journal I wrote about an employee at our local Wal-Mart whose job it is to collect shopping carts in the parking lot and push them back to the building.
As my wife Alison shopped, I would watch from my van as this man did his work in all kinds of weather. I told how I bought this hard-working man a Bible and gift certificate as a show of admiration and as a Christmas gift. It was a touching piece of prose, I thought, and I received several nice notes about it.
But according to one reader, the account revealed my irresponsibility. I received this postcard a few days after the column ran: “Tim, at our local Wal-Mart a husband sat in his car in the parking lot while his wife shopped. He was approached by police officers who told him his wife had been killed by an elderly woman driver about 20 minutes before. No sacrifice of companionship for your wife? Shame on you! So you’re one of those scofflaws who parks illegally at stores and malls? Shame on you! I've stopped reading before you tell more on yourself!”
In last month’s column I used the act of moving my family to try and make a spiritual point. When we move, we clean out and throw away junk, I said. We should do the same in our spiritual lives.
But in the process of telling the story, a reader took literally my exaggeration that moving is so unpleasant that it must be a sin and I planned never to do it again.
A reader questioned my interpretation of scripture on moving being a sin. His E-mail read: “Dear Mr. Wildmon: My wife and I just finished reading your article, ‘Moving. Toward spiritual growth?’ in which you claim that the scriptures say that moving is a sin…. The scripture that you quote talks about sin. Many of us are called by God to move to various places for various reasons. If we are called by God to do so, how could it be sin? Sin is NOT of God. Do you also believe that it is sinful when missionaries are called by God to move countless times in order to spread the good news and fulfill the scriptures?
“You also admit moving several times, and again, we question your decisions in those moves if you believe it is sinful to do so. We will pray that you and your wife make a new commitment to study the word… and spend more time in prayer. You might gain a whole new perspective on the concept of moving. We will also pray that God doesn’t call you to move again, as it seems that you struggle with finding joy in what God has planned for you. Again, you will be in our prayers.”
Okay. Thanks for the prayers.
When I read his message, I wondered if it was worth his time – and mine – to try and explain to him that I did not literally believe that moving was a sin. I tried to explain myself in a return E-mail.
He then wrote back and said he didn’t see anything funny about the column. Oh well.
Funny how you can say or write one thing and it is understood as something totally different than what you intended.
