Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has once again demonstrated how to expose foolishness with a simple question. When asked by a news anchor about President Trump’s executive order declaring that the United States will only recognize the two sexes of male and female, and whether he would do the same as Prime Minister, Poilievre responded with a simple question:
“Do you have any other genders that you want to name?”
After an awkward pause by the anchor, followed by repeating the question, Poilievre stated “I’m not aware of any other genders than men and women. If you have any other that you want me to consider, you are welcome to tell me right now.”
After more stumbling, the anchor proceeded with a third attempt by moving on to a related question on the same topic. But instead of looking evasive or frustrated, Poilievre simply pivoted the conversation. Citing some devastating statistics about the topics he wanted to discuss – housing prices, poverty, and crime – he explained “I find it to be a strange priority to spend time talking about this.”
The tactic of asking a simple question, as Poilievre did in this instance, lines up with what Solomon teaches in Proverbs 26:4-5. This passage presents two instructions that, at first glance, seem to contradict each other.
“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”
Taken together, these verses make it evident that there is a time to answer and a time to not answer. Discerning the difference requires wisdom. In his interaction with this news anchor Poilievre answered in such a way as to quickly reveal who the fool is. So, Christians should take a page from Poilievre’s book when we’re being pressured by fools.
Answering a question with a question might go against our instinct to try to be as helpful as we can. However, while a genuine questioner does deserve a good answer, what Scripture is teaching us is that we shouldn’t treat someone who is foolish or downright wicked as if they have any interest in actually hearing truth. We have to understand they are simply looking to cause harm.
Our LORD exemplified this questions-as-answers approach best. There are a whopping 305 examples of where Jesus made His point by asking questions.
We can learn from Poilievere, but where we’ll differ is that, instead of stepping over the fool to talk to the listening audience about what is popular, we can follow Christ’s example and step over the fool to pivot the conversation to a humble but confident explanation of God’s good design for sexuality. That’s what anyone listening in the audience really needs to hear.
Picture credit: screen shot of January 22 CTV News interview.
