I don’t want to write this – not now. I’m angry, and I’m sad. What happened less than twenty-four hours ago in Texas hurts. All I want to do is abide by Romans 12:15 “…weep with those who weep.” Looking through the pictures of those children, and reading their names, I could hardly do otherwise.
I don’t want to write this, but sometimes I don’t get to do as I please. Sometimes I’m pressed to do something in defense of myself and others – and, in this case, for those who I endeavor to represent. So, that’s what I’ll do, because I owe it to them to do so.
There are those in this nation, less than twenty-four hours after this tragedy – a massacre of children – who have stood on their still-warm tiny bodies to politick. They have not sought to unite, but to divide. What’s worst in this politicking is the manner in which they have done so: to present themselves as emissaries of Heaven with all the solutions to the evil in the heart of men.
We want to thank Michael Belcher for this Op-Ed.
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We have fundamentally divergent worldviews from these partisans. There are those of us who understand that we live in a fallen world, where the evil fires burning in men’s hearts cannot be extinguished by man, nor by institutions of man, nor by governments of man.
We understand the existence of evil is inherent, that terrible things will happen (some perpetrated by men), and that government is little more than a band-aid on a broken bone. That does not mean that government can do nothing to quell the violence, but that it is limited, fallible, and powers delegated must be balanced against the known capacity of government itself to be the greatest of all earthly tyrants.
There is another worldview, wholly different from ours above, that says that mankind itself is on the verge of immanentizing the eschaton – to bring about the end of history and begin a new epoch – and introducing a new, manmade Eden on earth. In this Eden, all will not only be equal, but precisely the same in all things, and no violence will be necessary any longer.
This is the hypothetical Eden of Progressivism. It is the same hypothetical Eden as in Communism, which bills itself aptly as “the ruthless criticism of all that exists.” This ideology is in rebellion against all of creation and casts itself as the eventual savior of mankind – literally substituting itself for Christ on the cross.
It misunderstands man’s place in this universe and casts him as creator instead of a fallen creature. It misunderstands government’s place as one of forcing the evolution of society to perfection – either through vanguardism, proletariat dictatorship, or a bureaucracy of experts – instead of as an imperfect institution for upholding natural law.
It is in this vein that those now claiming the moral high ground while standing on tiny graves, accuse their opposition of moral crimes against humanity, and of standing in the way of this new, impossible Eden. They hold their opposition directly and uniquely responsible for original sin, and the fall of man. In this manner, they are exposed as the absolute lowest of snake oil salesmen and liars. They promise what they cannot deliver. They come declaring Heaven when Hell follows.
Mike Belcher | Substack
