Revolution

What is happening now in the Middle East, with minor shock waves even here in the USA with union protests against state governmental financial reform may be the opening scenes of a cataclysmic turning point in our lifetime. Or, it may be akin to the social revolution of the 1960’s that never quite materialized; if it was the ‘dawning of the Age of Aquarius’ I guess I missed it.

Living on the Big Sur coast, as my wife and I did in 1969-‘72, we saw the hippies walking and hitch-hiking down to this supposed Mecca and then walking and hitch-hiking back to wherever they came from even more dirty disheveled and disillusioned than before. The ideals of the New Left proved to be so vacuous and unsupportive of even life itself that these disenchanted ones came crawling (or hitch-hiking) back to the society that had earlier supported them.

Here, I think, is the difference between today’s incipient revolutions and the moral turbulence, even nihilism, of the ‘60’s. I do not think that the cry for the dismantlement of the tyrannical regimes of the Middle East is related in the least to the ideals of Nietzsche, or Marx, or Herbert Marcuse, but rather to the universal desire to be free: free from bondage, free from political tyranny, free to pursue happiness and economic stability, free to express one’s voice and pursue one’s destiny without undue restraint. In short, free to pursue the values of democracy which seem to resonate with all who have been exposed to them. Modern social media has made that exposure possible. But anarchy is not the solution to freedom, stability, and peace. Social order, quickly put into place is absolutely necessary. And social order is built on a solid foundation.

The true revolutions of the recently concluded millennium that changed the world—the revolution of John Locke and the English or ‘Glorious’ Revolution of 1688; of Thomas Jefferson and the American Revolution of 1776, and of Napoleon and the French Revolution of 1789 (as well as the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century) all had a driving philosophy, a foundational focus ,and each had spokesmen or recognized representatives that people resonated to. And many revolutionaries would sacrifice all they had to achieve their goals: “Give me liberty or give me death!”

My take on the matter before us is this: The greatest revolution was the Christian Revolution of two millennia ago, begun by one man, Jesus Christ, that gave a germinal voice and rise to the very ideals that are being sought by the oppressed of our day—freedom, dignity, opportunity, civil rights, with life as the highest value—indeed, Eternal Life as the quintessence. Though the players are Muslims, they are resonating to the ‘inalienable rights’ so well articulated by the Foundational documents of our own democratic republic—a republic founded on Christian, and I submit universal, ideals: civil and economic rights and responsibility and a respect for the dignity of man and of women.

If we, as a Christian nation without apology, are to continue to be a beacon to the oppressed of this world we must let our light so shine that it does not reveal a dirty mirror. We must clean up our own act, and then we can unhypocritically encourage the new acts that are in the process of birthing and trying to come on to the world stage. Let us pray they do not become aborted or stillborn and that if they are born alive and well that they have dedicated nurturing and a clear vision of what it will take to get them well-established. I support the effort.

‘Let Freedom Ring…!”