Little Red Blog

Time flies when you ponder such things. Or at least for me it does. Here it is the hour of necessity, or at least when this would have to be delivered for consideration, and I’m only beginning to put keys to fingers. My first inclination is to harken back to the time when I more frequently commented on the absence of moral thought or awareness in our self-governance. Somehow that doesn’t seem right though, at least not for this occasion. Instead, I’ll offer this.

There is a terrible beauty in simplicity. Beauty in the very way the simple reaffirms the nature of our being and the universe. Terrible in the many ways we are blind to the simple. Whether it is our addiction to nuance, our expansive capacity to create conspiracy, or otherwise carnal yearnings of primacy it is evident that the wisdom of years past is seen as but a folly to today’s foolish. In a time when from afar hatred brews to a boil and scalds our very being in a wave of violence unknown before to us, there are those who find fault not in the foaming hatred of the murderous, rather they cry that the murdered were at fault. Fools will be about their folly and stray not from its grip.

Being a nation born of moral virtue and dependent on those very virtues to stand the test of time, we are today in battle to maintain our heritage while proclaiming it anew for friend and former foe. And here at home we know just as well that there are those in our homes, across the street and about town who would rather not hear tell of our sacred honor or the meaning of God’s providence. It is that they’d rather support peace, in all its nuance and variety, than stand firm for or against any act or indignity. It has not always been so, yet it has always been that far too few stand for the virtuous, the moral and the absolute.

For right or wrong, the ideas and values of our hearts are formed with the faith of our forbearers. A Judeo-Christian nation we were. And like we were we must remain a nation of values and morality. Else we fail.

Our political and cultural foes, whose courses are unknown even unto themselves, speak of fear of imposed faith, moral policing, and the establishment of a religious dominion. This while it is their ethos, their acceptance of all forms of behavior, their tolerance of only those who agree, their ridicule of the simple at heart, simple in words or of simple aspirations that tears at the fabric of our nation.

Morays are the bindings of common faith, understanding and purpose that we share aside from our legal bindings. And unfortunately they are less and less availed to those who seek them. On the other hand, the law reaches deeper into our daily lives. The impact is clear. Our character fails as the state takes the lead, our values are worthless when all values are equal, and sadly… the morass of nuance hides the beauty of simple truth.

[This post was prepared for the 2005 EO Symposium (2nd Quarter). The symposium theme is Judeo-Christian Morality in an Ethically Pluralistic Society. Other entries will be listed here as soon as the complete list is available.]