What do you believe?

I’ve listened and watched it so many times. Someone states what they claim to believe. They say something like everyone has value. Or they state that children are the future. Or that education is important. Or a whole host of other claimed beliefs.

And then when you watch what people do, their actions do not match with their stated beliefs. Often, their actions are in direct opposition to their stated beliefs. And their actions comes through in what they do, how they treat other people, themselves, and the rest of creation. It comes through in how they vote and who they align themselves with ideologically and theologically. It comes through in how their resources are used as well.

I have a working hypothesis about humanity based on observation related to this. I haven’t done any official study on this. So maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe it’s just an observation of what I witness in South Central PA. Maybe it’s partially true and partially false. I don’t know and I don’t know how to test the hypothesis out.

My hypothesis is this — what people state is their belief is not really their actual belief but rather an aspirational belief. It’s something they wish was true, but recognize as not being true. It’s something they want to believe.

If you want to know what someone actually believes, watch what they do. Our actions reveal our actual beliefs. I remember reading that our core actual beliefs drive our actions and that we will not violate those beliefs except in rare occasions in which our lives are in danger.

There are plenty of Christians who state all sorts of beliefs about following Jesus. Yet, when you watch their actions, what you see is a core belief in the ends justifying the means, that the strong survive, and that might makes right. Those beliefs are in direct opposition to what Jesus called on his followers to do and be like. Yet, here we are.

It’s not just Christians of course. You can see the same thing going on in politics. Conservatives claim to value order and slow change, yet have fallen in line behind a candidate who is chaotic and changes policies and ideas on a whim without thinking through the long term consequences. Progressives claim an openness to ideas and people but more often than not find ways to exclude ideas and people they disagree with. All of this is enough to drive a person crazy.

I recently started reading “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and…