“Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he or she treats a person who can do them absolutely no good”.
This sage advice was written by Ann Landers. Younger readers will not recognize that name, but older people know it well. For 56 years, “Ask Ann Landers” was a syndicated advice column and regular feature in many newspapers across the United States. Ann Landers became something of a national institution and cultural icon over the years and millions read this daily column and hung on every word that sprang forth from Ann Landers’ mouth and took her advice as being Gospel.
What most people don’t know is that Ann Landers was a fictional character, a pen name used by a Chicago nurse turned advice columnist. Those readers could have asked Winnie the Pooh and done about the same amount of good as asking Ann Landers something. Millions of letters poured in to Ann Landers on a daily basis from often desperate people submitting questions seeking advice for just about everything one can imagine including suicidal tendencies.
The thought provoking words written above were written by the Chicago nurse turned advice giver and certainly are worthy, but she took some very controversial positions too. She repeatedly advocated legalization of prostitution, was pro choice and also a strong advocate of homosexuality to name a few.
Does this sound like the same bad advice being spewed from another fictional character from Chicago who achieved national prominence and even the presidency through deception?
Hmmm… It seems that folks routinely trust the most unlikely people for advice on everything from their marriage to raising their kids, to their God. Millions shared their innermost secrets with a complete stranger. The ficitional nature of the foundation for Ask Ann Landers kind of says it all as to the value of the advice rendered. If the foundation is flawed and based upon decption and fiction, it cannot be trusted to stand.
I’m often interviewed by the media and when I give my Bible based formula for success, the interviewer tries to dismiss it and look deeper. I tell them there is no secret aside from what I’ve shared with them and often they become almost angry at my response.
I don’t care what they say or believe, I seek my advice from the Bible. I’ve never had a personal mentor, or gone to Wharton Business School, Harvard, or Yale; instead I find the answers to my questions in the Bible. Consulting someone like Benjamin Spock to know how to raise kids or allowing Oprah to define my religious belief system is an asinine concept to me.
The Bible teaches that satan mixes a little truth in with his lies. He can’t speak the truth, without the intention to deceive, distort and destroy. He knows God’s Word, but misuses it to cause confusion, and disobedience. He is so clever that we need our Lord to protect us from him.
We should just trust in the Bible. It is as pure as a fresh mountain snow and if advice is given that conflicts with it, we should go with the Bible and dismiss the other as coming from a place that we don’t need to go. I urge you to go to the Bible for your advice rather than to flawed humans who intersperse their own logic among some truths. Recognize the craftiness of our enemy that has been around since the beginning…
Jer. 8:8
‘How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?’