Would you make good fertilizer?

Would you make good fertilizer?  That may seem like an odd question but when you hear the context it is more of a chilling question.  Allow me to share the back-story.  Some time ago I was at a frat house talking with some of the brothers.  One way to get frat boys to open up is to ask, “Which house has the reputation for being the rowdiest?”   Every time I have asked this question I get lively answers.  Generally, the answers are, “We are a little rowdy, but those guys are the worst.”  On this occasion the boys said, “Most people would say we are.”  They went on to relate a story of under-aged drinking and an alleged rape at one of the parties.  But in their defense they said the girl should have set her morals differently.  This in turn led to a discussion of morals and right and wrong.  One of the boys said, “I’ll tell you what is wrong.  It is all these old people using up all the resources.  They live a long time and just use everything up.  What we ought to do is grind old people into fertilize and use them to grow food that way they would have some use.”  Later in the conversation I asked this young man what was his major.  “Political Science” was his reply.  So, if this young man doesn’t change his mind and if he and those who think like him end up in power, would you make good fertilizer?

We tell ourselves that this could never happen in America.  We believe that in some way our inherent superiority will protect us from this level of depravity.  I am reminded that the land that produced Bach, Brahmas, and Beethoven also produced Auschwitz, Dachau, and Buchenwald.  The land that gave the world the great Martin Luther and Phillip Melanchthon also unleashed on the world Adolph Eichmann and Joseph Mengele. 

When we were given the worst-case scenario at the beginning of the sexual revolution many said it could never happen in America.  The degradation of sexual mores in our nation today is far beyond the direst of warnings of two generations ago.  To say “it can never happen here” is a fool’s insurance policy. 

So, what do we do?  I believe there are two things that must be the foundational in our efforts to oppose evil.  We must renew our commitment to evangelize our nation.  But this effort needs to be built on the first principle of truth.  Much of what is misguided in American Christianity is we have replaced truth with pragmatism.  We must be radically committed to truth.  Not relative truth, subjective truth, or group truth, but that which conforms to reality, objective truth.  As a nation we are completely disconnected from the concept of truth.  In my BiVo work I am in sales.  I am stunned at the ease with which sales training gives itself over to deceptions and fabrication.  From simple dishonesties to false representation, much of my sales training has focused on bending, ignoring, or rejecting the truth. I was told, “Yes, this is a lie but people need this, so lying to them to convince them to get it is okay.”  My failure to use approved sales strategies may result in my dismissal, but I am really okay with that. 

It is not just salesman.  There is a saying in sells, “Buyers are Liars.”  I have found a great many of the people I talk to possess a profound ability to lie.  One example will suffice.  I went to a home at the appointed time, knocked on the door and asked to speak to George (not his real name).  The teenage son looked at me and said, “He is not here.”  All the while I was looking over the boy’s shoulder at the man.  How many times had the boy been told to and did lie about his dad?  Falsehood has become our native tongue. 

As a society, we have become so adapt at spin and lie and propaganda that we can no longer care if something is true.  We only care if something supports or opposes our side.  From politics at the highest level down to answering the door we are a nation adept at myopic vision when it comes to truth and what benefits us.  We are often more than willing to point out the deceptions of those we disagree with, while blinking or nodding at the fabrication from those we like.  As disciples of the One who said He was the Truth we must be committed to truth, because beyond being a statement of fact, truth is also a person.