The Christian Stoic

September 5, 2008, 3:00 pm; posted by
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Acts 17:18 — “Then certain. . . Stoic philosophers. . . “

Once while studying the text above, I found that the Stoics believed in something called “suspended judgment.” They did not believe in responding to things immediately, and saw no value in forming opinions about, or reacting to, everything that happened around them — hence, our concept of the stoic, unemotional person.

I like that idea. I think people have too many opinions. Maybe it\’s just my natural laziness, but I have no interest in pursuing things outside my realm of concern. It\’s a waste of time and energy. Forming an opinion is hard work — or at least it should be — and doing so about a subject that doesn’t concern me is like voluntarily writing a 50,000-word essay for a class I’m not in, just to get in on the discussion.

Several years ago in New York, our senior pastor suddenly left the church, taking about one-tenth of the people with him to start another church in the same town. It was a painful and confusing time for all of us. Around that time, one of the young men from the church came to our house for lunch; as we sat around talking, he asked me my opinion of the man who had left.

I said, “I don\’t have one.” He said, “What? Are you sure?”

I remember searching my heart for a few seconds, then responding, slightly embarrassed, that I honestly had no opinion of the man and his recent actions.

After a pause, he said, “You\’re the youth pastor…you\’re part of the leadership! How can you not have an opinion?” After thinking again, I remember shrugging my shoulders. “Because I don\’t have to?”

The truth is that God had called me to that church, and while that man was there, he was my pastor. But after he left, he was no longer my pastor, and ceased to hold any interest for me in that regard. I loved him, I prayed for him, but I didn\’t feel any need to judge him, examine his actions, or form an opinion about him. Other people in positions of authority might have had to form opinions and deal with him on a disciplinary level but — thank God — I was not one of them.

Ten years after this, while I re-read The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis, I ran across a passage (reprinted below) that I first read around that same time. I guess it must have sunk down deep, because although I had no specific recollection of reading it before, it perfectly summarized a chief foundation stone in my personal philosophy: I refuse to force myself to have an opinion on everything that crosses my line of sight.

I read once that worry is a “bevy of inefficient thoughts whirling around a point of fear.” I wonder how much of our examination of people and events springs from worry. How many of our opinions are produced by inefficient thoughts that surround the fear in our lives? How much sweeter it is to find that point of fear and remove it, so that your thoughts can work on something that does require your attention. I hope you take a minute to read this passage below, and that you find it as liberating as I have.

The main character, John, is speaking with a character named Reason, trying to determine if the island he seeks is real or imagined. This passage begins with a question from Reason.

Who told you that the island was an imagination of yours?
Well, you would not assure me that it was anything real.
Nor that it was not.
But I must think that it is one or the other.
By my father’s soul, you must not — until you have some evidence. Can you not remain in doubt?
I don\’t know that I have ever tried.
You must learn to if you are to come far with me. It is not hard to do it. In Eschropolis, indeed, it is impossible, for the people who live there have to give an opinion once a week, or once a day, or else Mr. Mammon would soon cut off their food. But out here in the country you can walk all day, and all the next day, with an unanswered question in your head; you need never speak until you have made up your mind.
But if a man wanted to know so badly that he would die unless the question was decided — and no more evidence turned up?
Then he would die, that would be all.


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