Hi Friend,

Imagine for a moment that you are approached by a thug who threatens to take your life if you don’t give him your money.  You, being the rational person, quickly decide that life, especially yours, is worth more than money, so you give him everything you have.  The paradox of this is that the robber is the irrational person because he thinks money is more valuable than a human life.  He doesn’t care if you have young children who would be devastated by the loss of a parent or if you are the world’s best heart surgeon.  Life means nothing because he is insane.

The irrational person has an obvious advantage over rational people.  They win by being bullies.  It is the theme of Machiavelli’s book, “The Prince”.  This is counter to our logical instincts.  We might wail and cry, “It’s not fair,” and we would be right.  It isn’t.  Rational actions should have greater power than irrational, yet just the opposite is true.

America is facing this dilemma now.  Irrational people are taking over major cities.  City leaders are opening their pockets, or rather the pockets of local merchants, and giving the possessions of local citizens to the thugs.  After all, it’s somebody else’s property so it’s easy to give it away.

Those of us who have raised children know that children aren’t born as rational creatures.  It takes training to turn them into civilized beings.

When I served as pastor of a church in Amarillo, Texas, our congregation had a Women’s Club that I was occasionally privileged to attend.  At one meeting the topic of discussion dealt primarily with child-rearing.  Mrs. Gully was a senior member with grown children. She was also a retired elementary schoolteacher.  Her husband was a pragmatic manager of a 13,000 acre ranch in the Texas Panhandle.  Mrs. Gully offered the group of mostly younger mothers a sage piece of wisdom that is a cardinal rule for parenting.  In her soft firm voice, she said, “Well, you just have to be tougher than the kids.”

Civilization depends on that characteristic.  The only way reasonable people will prevail is by being tougher than the barbarians.  If we aren’t, we will be overrun with anarchy — whether in the family or the community.  It’s a rule for young mothers, and Americans are bearing witness to poor parenting in places like Portland, Oregon.

The Apostle Paul recognized the same when he wrote to Timothy.  An Elder in the congregation must be “one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.”  (1 Timothy 3:4)   Then Paul follows in verse 5 with the logical question, “For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?”

Civic leaders would do well to follow the instruction Paul gave to churches.  There is a certain toughness that men of reason must possess.  We might call it conviction.

George Gilder writes, “Conviction is a process of conversion in which identity itself is engaged.  Such immovable convictions are often termed religious.  In some sense, they transcend reason and partake of the domains of faith.  The rational man at some point has to make a religious stand. He makes a commitment by declaring some entity as ‘holy’”.

The core issue is whether a person has an identity with God. Without that commitment we lose contact with the rational world.  Every human will face circumstances in life where he must declare what is holy.

Christians are facing that crisis now.  What is Holy?  It determines your identity. It also determines whether we will live in a civilized world.

Until next time,

Jim O’Brien