Three Things Better About Today

Last updated on: June 29, 2015 at 2:13 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Three Things Better About Today 2015-06-29T14:13:19-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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This still is true.

So I don’t agree with the Supreme Court. I do not think there is a right to vice. Nothing I am about to say will let me into the cool kids’ club. That is not my goal. Nor am I forced to hate my country. It has never been my country right or wrong, but my country her wrongs to right.

My goal is to be thankful for the good and not to overreact. Today is a new day and there is much for which I am thankful here in the United States. I will never call vice virtue or virtue vice, but nobody is asking me to do so. Most people don’t care a fig what I say and that is encouraging in itself. So my job is to keep witnessing to the truth as I see it, love my enemies, pray for those who despitefully abuse me, and look to build a counter-culture where I must and support what is good in the culture when I can.

I am a Constantinian, building a new alternative city, but still a Roman because that is my nation and my tribe. Jesus is Lord over all, but I am still an American, because what else could I be? So here is a good thing about this time when I live (relevant to the issue of the day):

No more closets.

I always hate the moral hypocrisy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Let’s all confess our sins and temptations one to another and move forward in love. Every Sunday I confess that I am the “chief of sinners” and that is true because my sins are all that I can confess. Nobody should condone sin, but now there is no sin that “dare not speak its name.” At least . . . there is one fewer. We can all live out our Faith.

If you call your sin a virtue, then you have removed yourself from the orthodox faith, but telling you that is not my job. Thankfully nobody is going to make me a pastor or a bishop.

Nobody is for bullying.

When I was a young adult, I was taught never to use slang or demeaning terms for gay people. It was wrong and ugly, so I did not. Sadly, despite this, I heard these hurtful terms all the time in my government schools. Bullying of kids was common, though I never saw bullying over sexuality. I am not saying it did not happen or that my actions did not contribute to it.

The good news is that nobody is supports bullying now. Nobody ever should have. We may different motives (mine is the Christian ethic of love), but we agree on the result: bullying is bad.

Arguments must keep improving with our witness.

We lost the argument over “sex outside of marriage” long ago. We lost the argument over easier divorce. We lost the argument that a trashier pop culture would harm kids and the poor. I still think all those things are true, but these were not popular ideas since about the time I went to graduate school. Now I hold to another unpopular idea that is the result of this rational conviction: sex is reserved to the marriage between one man and one woman. It is a covenant before the Almighty that the state might recognize, but is essentially a community act that the state does not control.

I always thought this, but slowly America has abandoned more and more of this notion. We are now at a watershed where the Courts have made clear what was true for some time: I am a minority on this issue.

On the other hand, my family was a minority on the issue of race in the past. We were the part of Virginia that left to fight for Lincoln and liberty. Being a minority is o.k. I still love my country for her virtues and mourn her vices. Slavery was evil. Many of the things done to Native Americans were evil. Black churches burned all over America last week. America has (more and more) embraced a libertine version of sexuality. This is painful, but if African-Americans could serve a country with legalized segregation in World War II because they saw the other options are worse . . . or in hope of change. . . .I can do the same.

Arguments advanced in the last two decades failed to persuade. Mostly, this is because we were making arguments against culture and culture always wins. We need to create film, art, theater, and music that isn’t propaganda, but proceeds from who we are. Until we start to do this, progress will elude us. The next thing about being a conservative and a Christian is that I have never put much trust in princes.

I still love this Republic, though I hate all these wrongs as only a lover can hate what he sees as the evils in the beloved. I will vote my values, argue my cause, and try to live a better life of service.

My hope is that the next President will appoint Supreme Court justices that will reverse this decision. Until then, I pray (as always), God save this Republic.

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