Wrong Righteousness

If you have any doubt that we live in a culture that esteems being right more than anything else, visit a messageboard or comment section on news articles. What used to be just opinions stated by well meaning people have instead became a campaign to prove our views right. If I post a comment on a comic book message board stating I am not a fan of a certain plot line, someone will most likely pipe in with 'facts' about why I am wrong and they are right to like it.

We've all got our opinions. We are blessed to be able to share them. But it seems that we can be content any longer with simply holding our opinions- we have to have to prove our opinion is the correct one. Why is that?

Maybe the answer lies in our self worth. It's the information age, so it stands to reason that information is the commodity we value most. And the top, gold standard of information is fact. The indisputable thing, the incontrovertable evidence that the holder of said fact is- in fact- right. And to be right is to be valuable, trusted, and often promoted. To be wrong is to be stupid, unreliable and often unemployed.

We don't admit we are wrong, even when caught being wrong. No, we hold onto the idea that we are still 'right' based on a multitude of reasons we have to explain for why it seems we are wrong, but are actually still right. Or that we are wrong and its somebody else's fault for that and we deserve immunity and a proxy reinstatement of our 'right-ness.'

Maybe it started with politicians who refused to acknowledge an error because an error meant no re-election. Maybe it came out of journalism's quest for the scoop. Probably it came from religion, where we need to be right or we go to some other belief system's version of Hell.

The problem with our pursuit of 'rightness' is that it is a pursuit of a kind of wrong righteousness. Righteousness being the act of being righteous, which is, according to Dictionary.com: 1. characterized by uprightness or morality: a righteous observance of the law.
2. morally right or justifiable: righteous indignation.
3. acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous: a righteous and godly person.

I think we have taken that first one, righteous observance of the law, and ignored the moral part. We keep the law, the letter of it, because it is right. Whether that law is from the Bible, the Torah, the Talmud, the Constitution, or the Encyclopedia of Star Wars Trivia. We keep the law because we want to be right, we want to be valuable. We, We, We.

True righteousness is not about being right in a factual sense. At least not totally. We need to do things that right, but we need to do them for others, not our own self worth. True righteousness is not pushing an argument to prove you are right- it is letting the other person talk and seeking to understand their position. True righteousness is giving to the poor regardless of whether or not it gets you a tax deduction. True righteousness is not gloating over a convicted felon's sentence- it is feeling regret for their bad choices and the lives that were damaged by that- and seeking to see it not happen again.

Rightness becomes a lot like judgment. Righteousness is bound with compassion. There is a right and a wrong, do not doubt that. But it is not up to me to dictate what is right for you based on what I feel or think. I may point you to what I think is right, but may I never push you there. I believe in something, something truly righteous. I don't think I can introduce you to Him if I am more concerned with my being right by the letter of the law, or the facts. No, I think I need to seek righteousness, which is not earned (value is in me), it is bestowed (value is in giver).

I delight greatly in the LORD;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
--Isaiah 61:10, emphasis mine.