by Tank Tankersley
“There is nothing so ridiculous but some philosopher has said it” (Cicero, De Devinatione, II, 1191). But compared to the politicians, the philosophers are the wisest of men. It is no surprise, of course, to hear the politicians, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, spout nonsense. It’s what they do. It’s who they are. It’s in their DNA.
In signing hate-crime legislation recently, the President envisioned a country in which “we’re all free to live and love as we see fit.” Take a moment to let that sink in. The adulterer who destroys marriages, families, and lives is no doubt “loving” as he sees fit. So, too, the pedophile.
Whether hate-crime legislation is wise can be debated by reasonable people, I suppose, but surely the irony is apparent to anyone who has his wits about him. One who murders someone motivated by the victim’s race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or any such commits an act that is … what? Reprehensible? Vile? Loathsome? Despicable? Depraved? Words fail, and Roget’s offers little assistance. But the murderer is living as he sees fit. That’s precisely why he does what he does. If there is anything we need less, not more of, it is people living as they see fit. Hitler and Stalin were living as they saw fit when they murdered millions. Terrorists murder men, women, and children because they live as they see fit. Millions of innocents have been slaughtered in the womb by those living as they saw fit. Pimps, pornographers, panderers, and the like ruin the lives of countless young women because they live as they see fit. Drug traffickers destroy the bodies and the futures of innumerable children because they live as they see fit. Corporate hoodlums throw the economy into chaos because they live as they see fit. Despoilers of the environment plunder God’s creation because they live as they see fit. The haves ignore the miser of the have-nots because they live as they see fit. Most merciful Father, protect us from those who live their lives as they see fit.
So what’s the alternative? How about living as God would have us live? He has not left us clueless, you know. His word instructs: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16).
But now I’ve done it. I’ve introduced the “G” word, and in the corridors of power that word is not well received. That should hardly prove surprising, of course, for many who walk the corridors of power in business, and in the arts, and in academia, and most dramatically of all in politics have no room for God, for they recognize only themselves as deity. They are, you see, living their lives as they see fit.
Will any of this change? Most assuredly not, not until God in the flesh returns. For living as he see fit has always been the way of man, ever since Eden. And all that is wrong with the world is derived therefrom.