I’ve had a number of comments that can be summarized this way: You used to encourage us to use kind words, avoid conflict, prioritize patience, and use mild, conciliatory words. Why did you suddenly change in your last talk and recent website posts to now encourage blunt and offensive confrontations?
There was a change, and it is because our communications with one another are dishonest, manipulative, evasive, passive-aggressive, and offensive to God. We have maintained or adopted a form of communication that has prevented us from actually giving each other an honest, authentic, or direct understanding. We have become weak, lost our way, and adopted a façade of superficial kindness so devoid of substance that we are liars and deceivers, concealing ourselves from one another. It needed to be corrected before we were hopelessly lost and unable to return.
The ideal would be for us to have the courtesy, respect, and care that predominated our earlier interactions, combined with candor, honesty and forthrightness necessary for people to actually communicate in a healthy way. Bad habits and our incompetence make that a daunting challenge. The Perfect Mousetrap was a required talk for us to begin the process of facing that challenge.