For some time now, I have been trying to find the words to intelligently discuss some of the recent goings-on in our nation and our state. From the transgender bathroom controversy to the religious liberty bill to gay marriage to even the confusion surrounding the Republican presidential primaries, there is no shortage of things to talk about.
Yet I find myself almost speechless.
The words simply escape me. I think it’s because these issues are so cut and dried that, in my simple mind, they don’t warrant much discussion. But here we are, thrown into a state of confusion because things that have always been true are now becoming . . . untrue.
Men aren’t men and women aren’t women anymore. Individuals of all religions have their rights protected by the First Amendment but Christians are under fire for practicing their faith. The candidate with the most votes should win the election; in today’s primaries, though, even that’s not a given.
Sometimes, society needs challenging. Women wouldn’t have the right to vote if someone didn’t challenge the norms of the day. Segregation and Jim Crow laws wouldn’t have ended if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hadn’t initiated the Civil Rights Movement. These movements challenged societal norms in a righteous, logical, and sensible manner. Their success resulted in a better, more orderly society.
What I see today, however, causes chaos, confusion, and ultimately, unrest.
I believe that there are sets of absolutes that govern a society. Every society has them, and any orderly nation operate under a similar set of guidelines. Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias believes that there are four absolutes on everyone’s minds: Love, forgiveness, evil, and justice. I tend to agree, and I believe that within these four come the thousands of individual laws and stipulations that attempt to address just about any situation that affects the human condition.
Yet there is another set of absolutes to which I believe we are all beholden. And that is biology. We are born male and female, and with those genders come certain roles. I know full well there are times when those roles must change, when out of necessity one must fill the roles of both genders. For the most part, however, the beauty of gender can be found in the unique qualities of masculinity and femininity. I also believe that society operates best when the masculine and the feminine work in harmony with each other.
As we have blurred the lines between the two, we have seen the breakdown of the family. I think we have also seen the breakdown of our society. We have thrown ourselves into chaos. Families don’t stay together. Children suffer the most, and many grow up without any stability or positive role models in their lives. We have so many resources at our disposal thanks to advancements in science and technology. Yet all of the progress we’ve made cannot halt the damage we are doing to ourselves, our families, our children, our culture.
We are in the early stages of abandoning any and all absolutes that have traditionally formed a framework for a society. Instead of operating on absolutes, we are beginning to operate on feelings: I don’t feel like a man so I’ll use a women’s restroom, I don’t feel like sitting through a prayer so I’ll stop all prayers from being said, we don’t like the nominee the people have chosen so we’ll pick our own. The list goes on from there.
Feelings, however, don’t provide a good framework for an orderly nation. Feelings can change at the drop of a hat or the changing of the wind. They can carry us in many different directions, sometimes all at the same time. They create confusion and double standards, and they have no consistency or uniformity. A society governed by feelings is chaotic, confusing, and volatile.
I believe we are seeing that happening in our nation today. When we operate on feelings, we are often selective regarding what we allow and what we prohibit. The American Civil Liberties Union will fight seemingly to the death for those whose beliefs line up with those of its organization. At the same time, it refuses to fight for all claims equally. It’s the reason why a celebrity (Bruce Springsteen) can oppose something on a matter of conscience but a person of faith (Jack Phillips) cannot.
As we descend deeper into chaos, we must keep one thing in mind: Society craves order. It always wins out. Order is based on absolutes not feelings. If we don’t cultivate a sense of order in our nation, someone will do it for us. And I can assure you that will not be a pleasant experience.