Laugh On


When I was a little boy, my brother and I noticed a fellow who was doing something we thought was very funny. We started pointing and laughing but when my mother saw what we were laughing at, she told us to “stop that, you’re being mean. That man has something wrong in his head and can’t help himself.” I remember noticing that she was right and felt bad because I had laughed him.

Over the years, I’ve seen some things like that (though I can’t remember what that event was) and remembered what my mother said and have striven to love and respect the person even though they have “something wrong in their head.” One of the things I’ve seen is men dressing like women. Sometimes they don’t have the whole regalia on, only high-heeled shoes, or a wig, or make-up. But my first reaction is to laugh at them, but then I remember what my mother said, and I don’t. I just feel sorry for them.

Now that I’m an older guy, things have changed a bit. Whereas before when men used to dress up to look like women (or even go the whole way and trying to become a woman), they had something wrong in their heads, now, when men dress up to look like women they still have something wrong in their heads, but instead of not laughing and feeling sorry for them, we are expected to also applaud them for their boldness in acting on their “wrong headedness.”

A couple of weeks ago, I read Doug’sarticle about how to think about this whole situation, but he didn’t really give me anything to do at a practical or personal level. As he always does, he pointed out the problem and encouraged us in very strong language to do something, and that not doing something was an evil in itself. We need to fight. But if our mothers told us to just let the nice demented man be, how do we fight? Now, the point of Doug’s article was that many, maybe most of us don’t fight because we are cowards, and I don’t disagree with that, but how do we fight once we get our hearts right?

Then, this morning, in the shower, it came to me that we should laugh at them those guys and the folks who are promoting and encouraging them. Somehow the story about the Emperor’s New Clothes came to mind. Remember that story? If you don’t, you can read it here. The point of the story is that at the end, even though all the adults were afraid (there’s that coward thing again), a little child said, “But he hasn’t got anything on.” 

At first, the child’s father said, “Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?

But then the people started whispering to one another and said, “He hasn’t anything on. A child says he hasn’t anything on.”

And finally, the whole town cried, “But he hasn’t got anything on!”

When I was a boy, everyone knew that the man who dressed like a woman had “something wrong in his head.” Now, everyone thinks this is not only normal, but wonderful. But in reality the emperor (our whole culture) has a new set of clothes and is strutting his stuff round acting like he’s “all that.”

So, how do I think we should proceed? I think my mother was right, you shouldn’t make fun of people who have broken brains (though if the situation was a man dressing up like a woman it probably wasn’t a broken brain as much as it was a sinful heart). But in our day, the problem isn’t broken brains, it is sinful hearts and foolish people promoting this sinfulness. And the Bible tells us how to treat fools.

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”They are corrupt,They have done abominable works [men dressing up like women, etc],There is none who does good.(Ps 14:1)

Every prudent man acts with knowledge,But a fool lays open his folly.(Pr 13:16)

The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way,But the folly of fools is deceit.(Pr 14:8)

Answer a fool according to his folly,Lest he be wise in his own eyes.(Pr 26:5)

We know who the fools are. That is clear. But I wonder about those who like the child’s father, at first, wanted to ignore the truth of what the child was saying. How long can a person, especially a person of God, continue to pretend that what is happening isn’t folly and a curse.

Here’s another interesting thing, The Emperor’s New Clothes isn’t a Christian story. The fellow who wrote it had Christian in his name, Hans Christian Anderson, but this kind of thing can happen in any culture when the people wake up and notice that they are being played by someone in the groovy club, the hip group, the in crowd, etc. If ordinary, non-Christian people can see things like this and act on it, how much more should the Church of the living God be able to see it and act on it.

The proverb says to “answer a fool according to his folly.” I know laughing and commenting out loud isn’t much, but it seems to me that if we start here, perhaps we grow in our answers as God gives us wisdom. I think we need to take out kids to the library, fully prepared for what they are about to see and prepared to laugh at the men dressed like women. If they think it is funny (and they should), let them, encourage them to laugh. They and we should laugh loud and long and heartily. And we should point it out and talk out loud about it. “Hey, that man is dressed like a lady! Ha, Ha!” “Hey, it isn’t Halloween, why is that man dressed up like a woman? Ha, ha!”

One other thing to keep in mind, “The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, ‘This procession has got to go on.’ So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.” The fool just kept on being a fool.

When we read the Gospels, we see the same thing. Jesus pointed out the folly of the Jewish leaders (Mt 23), many of the people noticed it, the leaders didn’t want the people to notice it, so they killed Jesus so they could keep on being fools. “As a dog returns to his own vomit,So a fool repeats his folly (Pr 26:11).

But Jesus rose from the dead. He won. So, begin by pointing and laughing. 

Image by Christopher Ross from Pixabay