PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

November 7, 2021

LABELS

Rex Stout in his Nero Wolfe mystery The Father Hunt has an interesting dialogue between Wolfe and Eugene Jarrett.

Wolfe: “Labels are for the things men make, not for men.  The most primitive man is too complex

to be labeled.  Do you have one?”

Jarrett: “No, but I can label any man whose faculties are concentrated on a single purpose.  I can

label Charles de Gaulle or Robert Welch or Stokley Carmichael.”

Wolfe: “If you do, don’t glue them on and have replacements handy.”

(The Father Hunt, Bantam Books, 1969, p. 82)

Labels help us organize the world around us to make it manageable.  Labels can provide us with helpful information in choosing what we want to purchase.   Labels are of value in communicating with others.  Labels serve us well in so many ways.  Without labels life would be much more difficult and almost impossible.

As Nero Wolfe points out labels serve us well when we deal with things but can be a real problem when they are used for other people.  This is especially true when the labels are based on stereotypes.  Such labeling paints persons with a broad brush that can ascribe to them all kinds of beliefs, interests, values, qualities, and concerns that they may or may not have.  In today’s political climate such labeling has become a staple for attacking those with whom one’s disagrees.

In the scriptures stereotypical labeling is alive and well.  In the Gospel of John when Philip tells Nathanael about Jesus, Nathanael says, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?”  (John 1:46)  The reason that Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) had such an impact was that Samaritans were looked down on and to be avoid.  In Jesus’ day onecould hardly expect them to be the hero of a story.  In the eighteenth chapter of Luke a Pharisee and a tax collector go to the temple to pray.  The Pharisee has nothing but contempt for the tax collector.  But it was the tax collector who left justified. (Luke 18:10-14)  One can find additional examples where Jesus condemns stereotypical labeling.

In response to Nathanael’s question about anything good coming out of Nazareth, Philip answers, “Come and see.”  Philip invites Nathanael to get firsthand information before he makes a judgment.  Rather than accepting the stereotypical label of someone from Nazareth, he should go and met Jesus and discover for himself who he is and what he believes.

The ideal would be that before we make a judgement about someone we would go and see them, listen to what they say, observe what they do, and state to their satisfaction what we think we have discovered.   The next best approach would be to gather as much first hand material as we can and see if we can see the world from the other person’s perspective.  The worst approach possible in evaluating a person is just rely on secondary material which in many cases is biased and distorted.

There is some real truth in Jesus’s advice in the Sermon on the Mount: “Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or “No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:32)  In talking about other people, especially those with whom we disagree, unless we have incontestable, firsthand information that we have checked with the person to make sure it is accurate and is not based on labels which have been applied by opponents, we should keep our comments to an absolute minimum for fear of being a pawn of the evil one.