I attended the General Church Council of the Clergy meetings at the end of June and I think one of the lasting impacts of those meetings will be a shift in how I hold ignorance in other people. We human beings are all desperately ignorant—entirely clueless about many things, misguided about many others, and still with so much to learn even about the topics that we do know something about. It is, then, to be expected that we will regularly encounter people who don’t know things that we know. How should we respond?
The teachings for the New Church provide useful perspective on ignorance. One passage says that people who are interiorly good “may sometimes be exteriorly evil, for they may exteriorly do evils, and speak falsities, but yet they may repent, and desire to be informed of truths (Apocalypse Revealed 948:2). It is tremendously useful to know that people can be doing bad things but that they may still be good on the inside. It is relieving to know that they are not culpable in the same way as someone knowingly doing evil. But, at the meetings, one of my colleagues pointed out that the goal, though, still is that the person repents and desire to know the truth. And another colleague made the comment that our response to someone doing evil in ignorance should not just be relief that they are not culpable: it should also be grief. Ignorance and especially false beliefs have negative consequences that hurt people.
It can be an act of love to help someone with their ignorance. It’s part of what the Lord came to do. Explaining the meaning of the prophecy from Isaiah 40, Arcana Coelestia 3527 says that “the crooked places shall be made straight” means “the evil of ignorance turned into good” and “the rough places [made] smooth” means “the falsities of ignorance turned into truths” by the Lord.
It is good to want to help people to know the truth and we need to be careful about the tone that we take as we do that. Along these lines, I love this comic: https://xkcd.com/1053. The caption reads “I try not to make fun of people for admitting they don’t know things. If I make fun of people, I train them not to tell me when they have those moments. And I miss out on the fun.” And the comic makes a reference to someone not knowing what happens when you mix Diet Coke and Mentos. That’s a fun thing to get to educate someone about.
As you have lots of good chats as you drive in the car, or go for a hike, or sit by the water this summer, I invite you to be aware of how you respond to other people’s ignorance. And I hope that you don’t miss out on the fun.