Do You Have Attitude Inoculation?

To inoculate is to give a weak form of a disease to a person or animal, usually by injection, as a protection against that disease. I was inoculated against polio when I was a young boy.

I was wondering if some people aren’t inoculated against a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.

Just as with polio inoculation, a little bit of religion can go along way when it comes to building resistance. Just as I don’t fear or concern myself with getting polio–so to, many don’t feel a need to go deeper to investigate what the Bible really has to say.

Here’s a marketing ploy of which you may not be aware. Attitude inoculation is a technique used to make people immune to attempts to change their attitude by first exposing them to small arguments against their position. Over time the weak arguments take hold and the individual eventually becomes resistant to even a strong logical argument. The person closes his mind, decides he’s heard enough and starts to prejudge other ideas without having first considered them. Lately, I see this almost every week with regards to politics and religion.

When I was “shipwrecked” and hurting after my first divorce, God found me and rescued me. As a result, I genuinely wanted to know him better and what he had to say about himself, an abundant life, sin–and most importantly, God’s solution to sin (The only solution that really counts.)

God didn’t cause my divorce, but I believe God used it to get my attention. I admit that before my divorce I didn’t have an open mind about God or his word. I had just enough religion to not really seek to know him. I really had no interest to intentionally studying his word with an open mind.

Oftentimes, a little information can be dangerous–it prevents us from learning more, digging deeper, getting to know someone better. Today, you see that in identity politics, stereotyping, broad brushing, cancel culture, using soundbites or brief video clips to define a person, a movement or an event. But it’s present not only in politics; people unknowingly close their minds to anything that sounds to them like “religion”. Oftentimes, they’re choosing unconsciously to not advance their knowledge beyond what they learned in third grade.

I was wondering if you have an open mind about personally reading the Bible and studying God’s Word? In particular, do you have an open mind about what the Bible has to say about salvation, and leading a fulfilling and significant life of peace and joy?

Not everybody has to have a life-altering catastrophe like I did to start to seek God. Seems logical to me that if the Bible is the inspired Word of God (our Creator and Redeemer), then it makes sense to discover for yourself what He has to say to you.

If you’re looking for a good friendly Bible Study, you may have interest in one I attend weekly developed by a non-denominational fellowship of men called Legacy Builders. Contact me and I can tell you more.

John Muckerman      JLMuckerman@gmail.com