Why is tradition and common knowledge, traditional and common?

Matthew 12:1-6 “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was hungered, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.”

I cannot describe the despair I feel when I give a speech, and smiling adults step up to me afterward with the same words of insight. Good passion, excellent presentation, but with time you will learn that we are right and you are simply inexperienced. Now, I'm not so arrogant as to think I have gotten everything straight at age eighteen; nor am I so self-righteous that I will not see the other side of an argument. However, what I will never be able to do is to accept tradition because it is tradition, or the words “it is commonly accepted” as valid. Why? Because I want to know why tradition became tradition, and what experience has lead everyone to accept what they accept. Only in fact and scripture will I base my perspective.

I recently competed in the right to life oratory contest, where I placed third at the state competition. I have become a very sincere and passionate speaker through my four years of public speaking, and with the grace of God I have become a very successful speaker. The speech I had written and presented pertained to the pro-life approach to fighting the practice of abortion. I asserted in my speech, based on historical fact and current evidence, that attempting to end the practice of abortion through politics is ultimately a waste of time; rather the only way to succeed is by seeing a reform in the ethical guidelines and moral principles by which our society operates. At the end of my speech I summarized by saying that if we could all completely ignore politics and focus on the hearts and minds of the American people, we could see reform and as a result abortion would end without government intervention or involvement. My audience appreciated my speech very much, and considered it one of the best presented. However, my judges didn't agree and when I got the ballots back it became clear why. All three of my judges were political activists, all three assisted in the drafting of legislation and lobbying for governmental candidates, and while all three gave me perfect scores on presentation, I got almost nothing on content. They all said on the ballots that, in effect, they outright disagreed with what I had to say. The common phrase on all three of the ballots was “In time you'll understand.”

Now when an adult, especially a judge, tells me I am wrong I always go back to what I've said to evaluate where my flaw in judgment is. If I can find nothing, then I go back to what they have said and evaluate where in their line of logic might there be a flaw. In this case the flaw was in the fact that all three of my judges suffered from what is called “statistical illusion.” They all three agreed that abortion has continued to decline and thus political activism must be working. However these statistics show not less women choosing abortion as opposed to giving birth to an unwanted child, but less women facing that question entirely. Advancements in contraceptive technology have reduced unwanted pregnancies by huge margins, and thus reduced the issue of abortion entirely. If you evaluate just the number of women facing the question of what to do with an unwanted child, far and away more women choose abortion now than did fifteen years ago, in fact now roughly 4 in 10 unwanted pregnancies will be aborted in today’s society.

In this entire issue the voice of experience was backed by poor research and partial facts. Now this will never be a guiding principle, and I will always assume myself wrong when questioned by an elder; However assuming tradition is right because it has become tradition, assuming an adult is right because they have been around the block more than once, these assumptions must be recognized as what they are, assumptions. Ultimately they will never lead to true understanding, even if they have come to the right conclusion.

My second eldest brother is much more willing to accept adult's opinions in assuming they are right without proof. To an extent I envy him, my mind constantly asks why has this adult developed this opinion. The principle reason I envy him is because I am all to often seen as a young man who simply won't accept what is, “common knowledge.” I do not wish to be regarded in that light. What I see is what is in scripture. The Jewish hierarchy had traditions based in hundreds of years of “experience”, yet after Christ died they did not change what they did. Why? Had more Jews focused on the scripture on which their traditions were founded and less on the laws and traditions passed down, would they have more easily recognized the Son of Man? This gives us a clear example of why we must know why we hold tradition as valuable, and must ask the experienced why they hold to what they believe. 1'st Peter 3:15 says “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” First and foremost it must be recognized that we, especially those who are younger, must express meekness when giving forth our reason for belief. However, it is everyone's scriptural responsibility to be able and willing to give reasons for believing what ever they believe.

I have been around the block and back when it comes to saying what is right, verses saying what is popular. I have been ridiculed, made fun of, rejected, and judged for being so dogmatic about what I believe. Until I'm shown scripture or shown physical evidence I will always hold to what I believe. While the voices of experienced individuals will always cause me to go back and review what I believe, I will stay with what I believe until I am shown to be wrong.

As the example in Matthew showed, the pharisees knew the traditions they believed in, they just didn't understand why the traditions had become tradition. They spoke with the authority of years of experience, but apparently hadn't profited by that experience. Christ as a child was teaching, and as a young adult was questioning ancient tradition. Many people will say “well that is Christ, not you” and to an extent they are partially right. However we must keep in mind Christ took on flesh, came to our earth to show that as a man what He and our heavenly Father expect of man is possible for us through His spirit. While I do not expect to be teaching in my church at age 13, I do expect to emulate Christ, and to that end I will always search for the reason “why” when it comes to tradition or commonly accepted knowledge.

It is said that good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. Albert Einstein said that a smart man will learn from his mistakes, a true genius will learn from other men's mistakes. I will always and ever strive to develop good judgment by accumulating the knowledge of experience from those older than me. However, that experience without understanding the facts and evidence behind it is ultimately as useful as an empty gun in a gun fight. Again, in 1'st Peter God tells us to prepare the reasons “why” we believe what we believe. Saying “it is traditional” or “my parents told me” doesn't cut it in the real world. I intend to fulfill my Lord God's commandment, and find out “why” I believe what I believe.

If I fulfill this commandment in accordance with the other commandments He has given me, I expect to hear Him say “well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the happiness of thy Master...”