“All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
— Edmund Burke.
“To God for illumination” means I accept as true the Biblical interpretation of “good men”–that all of us possess inherent dignity as creatures uniquely made in God’s image, and yet we all live with the fallen human condition called sin, that internal evil that leads us away from God’s good will.
God’s illumination to man is God’s incarnation as man–Jesus Christ. He is the solution to our sin, and in this solution we find all others. For I believe in the Risen Christ whose grace and truth are working all over the world, enabling those who trust Him to win the battle against both the evil within and the social injustice we see all around us.
I view “fighting evil” as first an internal exercise, enabling us to see clearly enough to recognize the workings of evil and tyranny in the world. For as much as scientific discovery has helped us bring order from the chaos of the world, there still remains a darkness that science cannot penetrate. The darkness of human sin can only be overcome by the person and work of Jesus Christ.
The twin pressures of sin within us and evil tyranny throughout our world make the task of self-government in the American democracy a challenging experiment, but one worthy of our best efforts.
Coordinated efforts at self-government, initiating from the citizens, is especially urgent in our increasingly diverse society. For I know that while my statements above capture my personal starting point for approaching life’s issues as a Christian, I must also say that I am also an American, and I cannot expect others to share this same Christian starting point, even though I believe it is true. So, given that I am but one of many voices in the marketplace of ideas, I advocate a different social starting point: Plurality.
Better yet, make that scrutiny-in-plurality.
Plurality says every worldview has equal right to speak and be heard. This is the vision of America’s Founders. Scrutiny-in-plurality says let’s go the next step and create contexts to let each worldview compete fairly in the marketplace ideas.
We all know America’s sad history of oppression, even amid its great restraint as a superpower. Some seem to think there has never been any significant oppression in America, while others seem intent to jettison the American experiment altogether, or at least expel the Judeo-Christian values that made America possible.
I believe both approaches are doomed to failure. I also believe most American citizens know this–though perhaps we find difficulty articulating it–and are thus dissatisfied with our national government and the current two-party makeup. Here’s a novel approach: Citizen-driven government. This involves looking at issues from the citizen’s perspective first. Then we can embrace intellectual integrity with openness and transparency as we communicate across our philosophical divides.
In this framework, scrutiny-in-plurality is a model of public discourse that I believe can serve the common good by avoiding both narrow dogmatism and moral relativism. It can also preserve each of our religious traditions to the degree they are true to life and truly satisfying to the souls of their adherents.
I believe my faith needs scrutiny in this way, and I believe in the end its veracity will stand tall even as I must kneel closer to the ground as a result of my many intellectual errors and my ongoing battle with the evil within me.
And beyond strengthening my faith and my overall outlook personally, I believe this approach also provides a good way to develop solutions to America’s and the world’s most pressing problems. We need the best thinking and the most cherished contributions from all perspectives if we want lasting solutions for our children and our children’s children.
So, I welcome you to chime in and engage the other readers here. We are all in this thing together, like it or not. For my part, I do like it, for I know that as people from a diversity of worldviews commit to both listening carefully and arguing honestly, real good can result.
With this pluralistic approach, I hope all my readers across the ideological spectrum will find A Deo Lumen a safe haven for respectful dialogue and a source of sharpening for all ideas. So, please bring your best ideas and questions here! Expect to be heard and even challenged, and please respond with grace and self-reflection. I commit to the same.
In short, make this blog yours as much as it is mine! As silly and idealistic as it may sound, I believe that through many efforts at pluralistic dialog, evil cannot triumph.
