The Cost of Indifference
“Whatever,” I said in a recent telephone conversation with my daughter.
“Yikes!” I thought afterward. “Did I really use that word?” Fact is, it’s hard to resist the use of words and phrases that are endemic in society. The incredible use and abuse of “like,” mostly by people under 50, is a prime example.
But I dislike the word “whatever” for one principal reason: It denotes indifference. It means, “I don’t care one way or another. Whatever you’re concerned about doesn’t concern me.”
I’m reminded of a quote from the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible – one of the most difficult and most-often misinterpreted books of the New Testament: “Would that you were hot or cold! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth.” (In my youth I remember that this translation was especially popular with fundamentalist preachers who drew out the “spew” to sound like “speooooo.”)
Incompatible
Isn’t it obvious that indifference is incompatible with the search for God? And this not only applies to “religious” people, some of whom practice their faith mostly because they always have, but to would-be believers who tell themselves they are honestly searching for God but do virtually nothing to advance the search.
Indifference is often expressed in procrastination. “I want to find God but I don’t have time now.” “Someday I’ll get serious about faith but after I get my life settled.” Think of all the opportunities you will have passed up.
I’ve mentioned in other blogs that I’m a fan of the music of Mercedes Sosa, an Argentinian who sang protest songs in the 60s and 70s. She died in 2009 at age 74. Recently, in Colombia, I discovered a song of hers I hadn’t heard before. It’s called “Solo le Pido a Dios,” “All I ask of God.” You can find it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvyl_zdji2k. Here’s my translation of the first verse.
Only one thing I ask of God, That I not be indifferent to suffering,
That barren death does not find me empty and alone without having done what was needed.
Jesus showed frustration with indifference, musing in Luke’s gospel about people’s lack of interest in his message.
“To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?” he asks. “They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking and you say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”
Indifference doesn’t care. It shrugs. It refuses to be open to change. It just wants to be left alone. “Maybe some other time.”
Worse Than Hostility?
As the “hot or cold” message implies, indifference is, in some ways, worse than opposition or even hostility. They, at least, require listening to a message and discerning its value. Indifference is closed indefinitely.
People searching for God can’t be indifferent to suffering, their own or that of others, especially during times like these. And if the search for God is genuine, it can’t be put off, assigned to the indefinite future.
As bad as these times are from one point of view, it is providing most of us with free time we’ve seldom had before as adults. Wouldn’t it be a good time to pray, to study (especially the Bible and reliable commentaries on the Bible), and to look for answers to our questions about God and religion?
