(I would like to forewarn anyone who is reading this...it is poorly written. I intend to rewrite this and clarify my points, but I think the basic idea is solid, and I wanted to make sure to get my thoughts out there.)
So, I've got to admit...I didn't do my research on this one until three seconds ago. I'll explain:
The Message translates this part of the passage as "Love does not force itself on others." And I had this whole big thing planned to write about all the opinions I have on that concept.
So then, for the sake of the title, I went to check what some of the older translations have to say.
"Love is not rude."
And honestly, I have to curse a little bit, because I have this teensy little feeling that Peterson took some liberties in that translation. I do have one saving grace, however, and that is the dictionary, and my hope that rude maybe has an entirely different definition than I originally thought.
Okay, so Dictionary.com has a few different options for rude. I think, without question, though, my favorite is: "without artistic elegance." I like the way it is phrased. artistic elegance. You can almost imagine artistic elegance as having a physical form. And that physical form is the least rude thing imaginable.
Rough.
Harsh.
Ungentle.
These are things that love is not. Love has artistic elegance.
And suddenly... I am writing about something entirely different than I set out to write about.
Everybody’s seen “The Lord of the Rings,” I’m assuming. At this point, if you don’t know who Frodo Baggins is, you probably also aren’t quite sure who Luke Skywalker’s father is.
(Now, my pride kicks in, and I feel the need to tell you that using illustrations from “The Lord of the Rings” doesn’t make me some fantasy geek who played Magic: the Gathering at lunch in high school. Because, in truth...I look down on those people, and I don’t want you to look down on me the way I look down on them. This is wrong. I am aware that it is wrong. And yet, I still don’t want to be associated with “those people.”)
So there’s this ring. It gives you power. But it makes you evil.
That power will overcome you, eventually. That hunger to make people do what you say.
There’s this dilemma:
This world has so many problems. And we want -- all of us -- legitimately want to do something to fix those problems. Yet, we realize that we are totally insignificant. I cannot change anything on my own.
But if only people listened to me.
If only I was influential.
If only I had power.
But I forget that the ring also makes me evil.
Love is not rude. It’s not. It’s just not. Trust me, on that. Love isn’t rude. Love is artistically elegant.
There’s this new concept in America that EVERYBODY knows. It’s called the Moral Majority.
It’s taken us thousands of years. But we “Christians” have finally realized that we have power. Great power. Power to make people live the way we want them to live. Power to stop people from sinning.
Well, almost that much power. We’ve rallied together and we’re able to accomplish some...but not nearly enough. We need more power. We need greater numbers. Then we can make people stop sinning!
Yet, people still have the gall to oppose us! All we’re trying to do is protect them! All we’re trying to do is save them from themselves! So we try to explain to them why we’re doing what we’re doing.
And they say “Stop! I don’t want your help!”
So we get louder. We talk over top of them. We drown them out in our many many voices.
...
but they’re not even listening because we’re being rude.
And they will never again listen to anything a so-called “Christian” has to say.
America throws around it’s power a lot.
If there’s a country that has horrible human rights violations, usually, the first thing America does is effect an embargo on that country....and so the country gets pretty poor pretty quickly.
And boy do they hate us.
Or, maybe in other circumstances, we don’t put an embargo on them. But usually, in some form or fashion, we try to use our “great power” to force people to change.
Let me let you all in on a little secret. People don’t like it when you force them to do something. EVEN IF IT’S FOR THEIR OWN GOOD!
Parents: correct me if I’m wrong.
When you try to force someone to do something nine times out of ten, if not ten times out of ten, they will do it just to spite you.
Because it’s rude. I’m starting to think that Peterson wasn’t so far off when he translated “Love is not rude” to “Love does not force itself on others.” Because what is more rough, harsh, and ungentle than forcing someone to do something.
Sex is a beautiful thing. I don’t think there’s anybody out there who would say otherwise. It’s often called “making love” and has been many times referred to as, in a way, the ultimate expression of love, or the physical manifestation of love. I think artistically elegant would honestly be an excellent description of sex.
When you force someone to have sex...
...we don’t even really call that sex anymore do we? It’s interesting, the physical manifestation of love...when it’s forced upon someone. When it becomes rude: (rough, harsh, ungentle)...it ceases to be ANY kind of manifestation of love. It becomes one of the purest expressions of hate.
This passage could easily be translated “Love does not rape.”
So let’s look at America again.
Let’s imagine something, shall we? Imagine we ended the embargo on Cuba. Imagine we just apologized. Imagine instead of forcing their country into poverty and, in some cases, starvation, we just threw money at them. We didn’t tell them how to use it. We just gave to them. And not just money. What if we sent over food, doctors, workers to make their country a better place. What if we loved them.
Now, I can already hear the voices of a thousand Southern Baptists explaining to me that we have to be careful as Christians to be clear that we do not condone that sort of behavior, and if we help people who do evil things, we seem to be in support of their evil ways.
Wow...then I guess Jesus must really have been condoning the behavior of all those sinners.
Cause really, honestly, seriously -- ask yourself this question. Why am I worried that people will think I’m condoning this sinful behavior?
Is it because (like me with the fantasy geeks) in truth...you look down on those sinners, and you don’t want other people to look down on you the way you look down on the sinners?
Well, guess what...this is wrong. And it’s rude.
Don’t seek after power. It’s a slippery slope. You can never have enough power. And even if you did, power isn’t love. Power can never, never, never replace love.
Because love is artistically elegant.
I really like that phrase...I’m going to have to start using it.
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