Our nation mourns the innocent victims of the murders on Saturday in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. A terrorist murder such as this happening once in a lifetime is too often. Now when news breaks of another murder, our first reaction is, “again?”
The news media carries interviews of various experts who share opinions on how to put a stop to this. Some call for gun control and banning of assault weapons. Others call for more treatment of mental health issues. Others call for strict controls on social media and video games that glorify violent behavior.
There are those who cast blame on President Trump. Still others will blame the hostility displayed in public discourse today.
All will be calling for some solution that requires action by the government. You can sum these up in two words, “fix it.”
These two words describe the early 20th century American-born philosophy of Pragmatism. This philosophical view of the world puts man as the center and ultimate in all things. Pragmatism as a world view is not the same has being a pragmatic problem solver.
Americans have been “can do” from our beginning. We had the audacity to declare independence from Great Britain, but in that action, our Founding Fathers acknowledged God. In the Declaration itself, they wrote that they were, “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world.”
Americans tackled Westward expansion. They connected East to West with the railroad. The future path of the Panama Canal was first a railroad, built by Americans, to move people and goods more quickly to California for the gold rush. The Wright Brothers conquered flight. Edison invented the light bulb. Charles Lindbergh made the first solo flight across the Atlantic. Americans were the first and only ones to walk on the moon.
These bold achievements were built on the foundation of a nation that acknowledged a Supreme being. Not only did the founders make an appeal to the Supreme Judge, but they also acknowledged and declared their “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.”
Something began to change in America at the end of the 19th century. At first it was barely noticeable.
Institutions of higher education became enamored with European philosophers. The thought leadership in these institutions, with few exceptions, had one thing in common. They held that man created the idea of God in order to explain the world and nature. Man, through his great accomplishments and advances in science, would solve the problems of the world and usher in a bold and grand new age.
World War I threw a fly in the ointment for the grand hopes of a Utopian world but as that war came to end, it was tagged as the war to end all wars. That tagline was moot within two decades.
Political Science thinkers such as Woodrow Wilson promoted a new brand of government where trained and skilled professionals would carry out the wishes of the elected officials. John Dewey developed the philosophy of Pragmatism which basically declares “whatever works” as being ethical and proper.
Public administrators were presented as professionals who had the knowledge to solve public problems in a scientific manner. The belief was that the citizen elected to public office would make political decisions based on the options presented by the professionals in public administration. The secular/humanist philosophy in higher education would take decades to filter down into American society.
In the 1960’s America was racing to the moon in the technical scientific arena. In the social science arena, the Johnson administration declared War on Poverty. The technocrats in government, coupled with a strategic political move to capture blocks of votes based on race, ignored basic realities of fallen human nature.
The policies of the 60’s blamed poverty as the root of crime and all social evils. The solution was to “fix it” by giving money to single mothers based upon the number of children she had. Marriage meant less in monthly payment.
The policies punished marriage and promoted childbearing out of wedlock. Young girls in lower income populations became little more than baby machines with growing dependence on government welfare payments.
Courts began to rule against religious activities in the public square. It also became popular in the entertainment industry to mock Christians.
What does this overview of the changing world view in America have to do with the shootings in El Paso and Dayton? Consider this. Recent shooters have all been in their twenties.
As they came of age, prayer in public schools was unheard of. In some cases even Bibles were removed from school libraries. Saying “Merry Christmas” was socially frowned upon in the media. Christmas manger scenes in most communities were removed. Prayer before a high school football game was no longer allowed. Abortion was freely available. Condoms were distributed in schools. Families were disintegrating.
When a society adopts a world view that puts man at the center and attempts to relegate God to mere folk lore, there are consequences. The prophet Hosea delivered a piercing message to the people of Israel in his day. They turned from the law of God. Their culture and society was crumbling. Hosea summed it up “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7)
If we are wise, we will connect the dots. We will return to that “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” not only in our individual lives but in the governing of our nation. Our secular/humanist culture sowed the wind and now we are reaping the whirlwind.
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