Experts

I did the public address announcing at the Battler Invitational wrestling tournament a week and a half ago.  I enjoy public address announcing, but a phenomenon took place that I’ve noticed at other events that I’ve done public address announcing for.  There were several times when people came up and asked me questions about the tournament, even though I was not a tournament official.  The phenomenon is this:  if you have a microphone in front of you, people assume you must be well-informed and know what you’re talking about.

This was not true in this case.  I really don’t understand wrestling and probably knew less about it than anyone else there.  But because I had a microphone in front of me, people assumed I must know all there was to know about it.

I think this happens more often than we’d like to admit.  You go to a public meeting, and someone’s introduced as an expert on a particular topic.  You don’t know him, you don’t know anything about him, you don’t know much of anything about the subject he’s talking about.  But he’s up there with a microphone in front of him, so he must really be an expert, right?  Or we turn on the TV and see a politician talking about something.  We don’t know whether he really knows what he’s talking about, but we don’t know much about it, and he’s up there, he’s in front of a camera, and he has a microphone in front of him, so he must be an expert.  Or we turn on a talk show and somebody’s talking about something.  We don’t know whether they know what they’re talking about, we may not even know who they are, but we don’t know much about the subject, and they’re up there in front of a camera with a microphone in front of them, so they must be an expert, right?

That applies to pastors sometimes, too.  Look at me on Sunday morning.  I’m standing behind a pulpit.  I have a microphone in front of me.  A lot of times, that’s enough for people to assume I’m well-informed and I know what I’m talking about, whether I actually do or not.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I do try to know what I’m talking about.  I do think about these things and I have reasons for what I say.  But I certainly wouldn’t consider myself an “expert”.  I try, but I make plenty of mistakes.

The point is that we should never just blindly accept something someone says simply because they’re an expert.  God gave each one of us a brain, and God expects us to use it.  If an “expert” tells you something that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t believe it just because they’re in front of a microphone or a camera.  Don’t automatically dismiss it either, of course.  But think about it.  Check things out.  Get yourself informed.  Maybe, when you look into it farther, you’ll decide that what the expert said was right.  Or maybe you’ll decide that the expert was full of baloney.  But either way, you’ll know what you think and why you think it.  That’s much better than believing something just because an “expert” told you to.

There are a lot of frauds in the world.  There are also a lot of people who are well-intentioned, but are simply wrong about a lot of things.  And there are a lot of people in both of those categories who seem to be able to get behind microphones and in front of TV cameras.  So be sure to use the brain God gave you the way God intended you to use it.  Don’t believe anything just because an “expert” said it.  Do your homework.  Become informed.  And make your own decisions.