It occurred to me today that we’re usually better off when we get it from the horse’s mouth.

So, something interesting happened to me the other day at work. A couple of my coworkers got involved in an argument, and one of them –in an attempt to win the argument– told the other one that I said something that I never actually said.

This story, told by my coworker about me, could be described as a canard. A canard is an unfounded story.

More specifically, Teacher A was using a piece of technology in the school district in an unconventional way, and had been doing so for some time. Teacher B told Teacher A that they ought not be doing that with the technology. When the argument ensued, Teacher B eventually told Teacher A that I’d told Teacher B that what Teacher A was doing was wrong.

Now, officially, I did not have, nor do I currently have, a problem with what Teacher A was doing. In fact, I’ve known for a few weeks that Teacher A was doing this particular thing with the technology, and I personally thought it was kind of ingenious, what they were doing. Why Teacher B thought it was their business to tell Teacher A what to do, or what not to do, with the technology, is beyond me.

The fact that Teacher B involved my name in this argument that they were having with Teacher A created a couple of different problems for me.

First off, Teacher A felt that, having heard from Teacher B that I had a certain opinion on what Teacher A was doing, it was necessary to come and find me –> to talk to me and to ask whether or not I had a problem with what they were doing.

Which, of course, I didn’t.

So, after the ordeal, Teacher A came to find me. Teacher A pulled me aside and said, “Did you say this?” To which I replied, “Of course not.”

But, I thought I saw something in the eyes of Teacher A that said to me that Teacher A wasn’t quite sure whether or not I was being dishonest, or whether it was Teacher B who’d been dishonest.

Frankly, the whole thing was ridiculous.

Mostly, it angered me.

I was made to look a certain way by someone who cast me in a particular light, in order to win an argument over this other individual. If I’d been misrepresented for a good reason, I may have been less upset, but to use me as a pawn in a petty argument made things even worse.

What Teacher B didn’t count on was that Teacher A and I have a pretty solid relationship. Teacher A knew enough to come straight to me, to get the necessary information from the horse’s mouth.

When we had that conversation, Teacher A didn’t mention the name of Teacher B. Part of me wishes that I knew who it was that was putting words in my mouth. However, when I told Teacher A that everything was fine and that I didn’t have any issues with what was going on, that seemed to be the end of things.

The other problem that this created was that it got me to second-guessing myself. I was thinking, for the rest of the day after this happened, whether or not I’d ever said to anyone, even to Teacher B, anything that could have been construed as disapproval of the actions of Teacher A. I couldn’t remember having done that, at any point, but I also wondered whether or not I’d said something to someone that could have been misunderstood, mistaken for my disapproval.

In short, this incident made me more aware of what I say to people, and how they might interpret what I say.

* * *

What this really got me to thinking about was God, and modern, western hemisphere Christianity, and the human tendency to judge others.

If you want to get something ‘from the horse’s mouth’ in Christianity, you have to go to the Bible. God doesn’t answer questions these days in an audible way –at least not in my experience– so reading the Bible in order to understand what He has to say is very important.

Especially when you have Christians, and others, running around, claiming that God has said certain things that He’s never said.

Why do Christians, and others, do this? To win arguments with other people about what those other people are doing, how they’re behaving.

Sounding familiar, yet?

Many times, Christians, and others, won’t even come close to accurately representing what God has said on a particular subject. They are so far off that anyone with a slight knowledge of the Bible would recognize their inaccuracies. Other times, Christians, and others, misrepresent God by suggesting that His utter focus is on something that the Bible only really mentions in passing. Or worse, they’ll use bits and pieces of the Bible, out of context, when the entire landscape of the Bible says something else entirely.

It’s unfortunately the case that many Christians, and others, are invoking God in their arguments with the people around them in ways that cast God in a light that isn’t very precise.

Anyone without a significant knowledge of the Bible should either 1) just stop trying to use God to win arguments about people’s behavior, or 2) get to a place where their understanding of the Bible is so significant that they can then accurately represent what God has said to others.

Christians, and others, need to stop playing the God card to try to affect the behavior of other people. Why do we do this? Is another person’s behavior, and God’s possible issues with that behavior, any of my business? I don’t know about other Christians, but I have enough of a mountain to climb, dealing with my own behavioral issues.

Aha! Maybe that’s it! Maybe some Christians are so judgmental because it distracts them from the real issues they should be solving… their own!

The other side of this situation is that people who aren’t sure about what God has said on a particular topic do have a place to go. If someone has misrepresented God to you, to try to win an argument with you, just go to the Bible. Read it and understand what there is to know. It’s not nearly as intimidating as you might think. Avoid the King James Version, and you’ll be surprised how approachable God’s Word actually is.

Finally, when I think about how angry I was the other day to hear that I was being misrepresented by someone, to win an argument with someone else, I started thinking to myself that God, who is being misrepresented thousands of times every day, must be furious with those people who are doing this evil work.

What if I’ve done this? What if I’ve tried to get people to behave a certain way by playing the God card on them? What if He’s mad at me for having done so?

Maybe it would be better for all of us if we spent less time condemning the behavior of the people around us, and more time with our mouths shut.