Christians need to protect their leaders by standing up for those whose words are taken out of context.
When taken literally, generalizations found in speech can convey a meaning quite different than the speaker intended.
The way people speak is often more general than the way they write. When speaking, it is not typical to tease out nuances and point out exceptions the way one would in writing. When taken literally, generalizations found in speech can convey a meaning quite different than the speaker intended. What a person actually means is normally understood from the overall context of what they are saying, but people can purposely take what someone says out of context when they want to hurt that person.
People who want to hurt someone by misusing their words can also trap them into saying what they didn’t mean with insidious questions. This has gone on for millennia. Those who disliked Jesus tried to trap him in his words as well. Christians need to protect their leaders by standing up for those whose words are taken out of context or are the response to questions that were intended to trip them into making statements they didn’t mean.
As Christianity’s presence grows in the public square once again, efforts to trap Christian leaders in what they say will increase. The aim is to divide Christians by making many of them hesitant to follow a leader out of fear of a social backlash. However, Christians can protect their leaders from the fallout of these traps by standing behind them in unison.