Skip to content
Guest Thinkers —

“What you believe to be true will control you whether it is true or not.” Jeremy LaBorde

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

“What you believe to be true will control you whether it is true or not.” Jeremy LaBorde

Recently I was following a thread relating to William Dempski and Intelligent Design movement originating in RichardDawkins.Net, which led me to the web site of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was there that I found this extraordinary quote from Jeremy LaBorde. I read the quote at face value and was really impressed. Who is Jeremy LaBorde? He had to be a philosopher or thinker of some repute.

No.

It turned out that Jeremy LaBorde is Pastor Jeremy LaBorde of the Gloryland Church, Macgregor, Texas, a rather unexceptional example of Southern Baptist Christian.  

That doesn’t stop me from liking the quote.

We have to be very careful about the information that we chose to accept because what we understand about the world directs our actions. Incorrect understandings can lead to incorrect actions. It is very important that what we believe to be true is proven to be true, or at the very least comes from an authority of appropriate credibility.

The fact that millions of Britons currently think that Swine Flu is a beat up on the authority of the Daily Mail rather that the Medical Association is one of the more bizarre current instances of misplaced faith.

I don’t  think that Jeremy LaBorde intended his words to be understood as I have read them. I suspect that he wants us to believe the Bible to be true and for us to be controlled by those understandings, whether they are verifiable or not. What was he thinking about? The brashness of such a statement is almost worthy of Dr. Goebbels.

Richard Oakes

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people
Related
Culture & Religion
The Gambler: How Paul Durand-Ruel Bet Big on Impressionism (and Won)
What would you do? Imagine you’re a politically conservative, devoutly religious art dealer fleeing your war-torn country when you suddenly see art radically unlike anything you’ve seen before. Do you stay the course or gamble on this next “big thing”? Now add the sudden death of your pregnant young wife, which leaves you with five children under the age of nine whose futures now depend entirely on your choices. Do you roll the dice with your life and theirs? If you’re Paul Durand-Ruel and that artist is Claude Monet, the original Impressionist, you don’t just make that bet; you go “all in” — staking your family’s fortunes to those of a family of revolutionary artists. The exhibition Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting, currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, goes “all in” with Durand-Ruel’s gamble and pays off big with a stirring tale of personal courage and art history in the making.
Up Next