Conflation And Moral Messages

A story can deliver a message effectively.

However, the receiver of the story needs to be careful not to conflate an element of the vehicle that isn’t intended to convey a point of the message itself with a negative behavior that the story may be trying to point out.

Christians,

A story can be a good vehicle for delivering a moral message.  However, the receiver of the story needs to be careful not to conflate an element of the vehicle that isn’t intended to convey a point of the message itself with a negative behavior that the story may be trying to point out.  Consider a story with an elderly man who plays a mean trick on someone for a laugh.  

In this particular story about a mean trick, the message is that a mean trick is not worth a laugh.  However, because an elderly man is playing the trick, the receiver might conflate the age of the man with the fact that he plays a mean trick on someone (a careful look at the same story would disprove this because there is a very kind elderly man in the story as well). The receiver might then be mistakenly disposed to think that you need to watch out for elderly people playing mean tricks on others. 

It must also be said that an author may actually intend for you to think that a person such as an elderly man is more likely to play a trick on you than other people.  In other words, the receiver’s understanding of what the author is trying to say isn’t a misinterpretation.  The author is prejudiced.  That is a different scenario.