Das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten

It was a phrase that first showed up in a work entitled, An Appeal to Fools. That in itself should throw red flags up. It has been given a tall tell about its meaning. A false story about a family’s wooden bath tub that gets used from father to mother to kids and finally to the baby. And the water becomes so dirty that you can’t really see the baby and you might lose him. First, eww. And second, ewww even more.

The original phrase Das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten translates as “to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

But think about this for second. Who would even come up with a phrase that talks about throwing out a baby. It sounds like what my big brothers would tell me to try to scare me — “Mom is going to throw you away, and we are going to cheer!” Thanks Bro’s. Love you too.

All that aside, its meaning does have a good point. We often dismiss people or movements or teachings because we don’t like one aspect of them/it. We let one bad apple spoil the whole bunch.

A few months ago, I got food poisoning and I claim it was the spinach leaf in the salad I ate. So now, I avoid spinach leaf all together. (First, get past the fact I will eat spinach people.) To avoid all spinach leaf for this reason is foolish.

Today in our society, we do the same thing on a bigger scale – we totally write off an idea or a movement or a policy because of our total cancel culture.

Many who hate Trump will never listen to anything he says, even if it might be a great idea. Can’t stand democrats, then you probably avoid backing anything at all from blue politicians (even if you would be saying the same thing).

Throwing out peaceful protest ideology because you see protestors doing stupid things? Then you might be missing an important cry for change.

Don’t get distracted by folks insisting you denounce the organization. That’s simply taking the focus off the real issues. Stay on message.Keep doing the work—which, by the way, is not done on Twitter. Pray. Organize. Protest. Vote. Rewind. Stay focused.

Thabiti Anyabwile

Too many people lose the real message of God’s love and mercy because they don’t get along with church goers. That is so sad for both parties.

So, this week. Don’t be a reason for people to miss the truth. And don’t let others get your focus off the important stuff. Don’t be a distraction and don’t be distracted. Or in other words …

Das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten