October 28: Of Despair...and Hope

Jeremiah 51:54-52:34

Titus 3:1-15

Psalm 100:1-5

Proverbs 26:18-19

Of Despair…

"At one time we were too foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.  We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another."

Titus 3:3

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how readily and how completely so much of society today is prepared to deny fact, research and truth in order to justify desire and gratification?  This had been bothering me for quite some time, but hit home particularly hard reading an op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal ("The Politicization of Motherhood", by Jeff Taranto, Oct. 27).  The piece discussed the research of a liberal Upper West Side psychoanalyst, Ms. Erica Komisar, who found that "mothers are biologically necessary for babies"…"especially for the first nine months after birth" - and in ways fathers are not built to replace.  

It wasn't the research that bothered me.  I personally do not challenge conclusions so long as the research methodology is good.  It was the fact that, despite how important these findings might be for raising children well, the author was "rejected wholesale - particularly in New York - by the liberal press".  She did appear on one morning talk show but, "seconds before the camera went live…the interviewer told her: 'I don't like the premise of your book.  I don't like your book."

The reason?  One very angry woman said "you are going to set women back 50 years".  Another said "You are going to make women feel badly.  How dare you?"  And various agents said "No, we couldn't touch that.  That would make women feel guilty."  And because the research wasn't consistent with what they wanted, they would deny it.

Now I'm not focusing on this issue alone; I am equally troubled by other examples of our willingness to blind ourselves to truth in order to justify our gratification, however much we might hurt ourselves by it.  A few samples: kids paying upwards of $60,000 a year for an education but choosing to be hurt when asked to consider ideas they find hurtful or divisive; one faction of Americans still insisting certain races are inferior - and another faction of Americans insisting their problems are all someone else's fault.  We even see this in church, where in some instances inclusiveness has become the new gospel, replacing Scripture. 

After all of mankind's advances, how have we come to this?  It is discouraging to think that for all we've done, for how far we've come as a species, we are still competent and ready to delude ourselves into disaster.  If we cannot hope to save ourselves, from where will our help come?

And Hope…

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.  He saved us though the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Christ Jesus our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." - Titus 3:3-7

Sometimes the answers are really clear, and nothing more needs to be said.