Throwing Out The Baby

So it seems that the most common solution to a problem today is the "throw the baby out with the bathwater" solution. In our no-looking-back, progressive societal mind, change is always the best solution. And for the hedonistic, only-do-what-feels-good portion of that progressive mindset, the best form of change is the easiest one. The analogy goes something like this:

You're taking a bath with your baby and the water becomes really dirty. You want to get rid of that water and make way for fresh, clean water. The fastest and easiest way to do that is to throw it out. But now you're faced with a problem. Your baby is in that dirty water somewhere, but sifting your hands through the mirky water is too much trouble and draining the water would take too long. Now imagine a man walks in and tells you that you'd be much better off without the baby and that it isn't even a human anyway, so you have no real obligation to it at all. Your parental instincts are simply a product of your upbringing and your imagination. Realizing that you'd have more time and money without the baby (a thought that greatly appeals to you) you decide to throw out the water, and the baby right along with it.

This is an absurd little analogy, but it reflects the truth (and no, I'm not ranting about abortion again). I'm talking in a broader sense here about what the "progressives" are doing right now, in our very midst. Let's use a real example. Most Christians beleive, and indeed everyone used to believe that gender roles were very real. The man was to be the head of the household, as an example. For a Chritian this is of supreme importance because this notion of gender roles was set forth in the Bible, and as such it is a direct command from God. But now what was your gut reaction when I used the phrase "gender roles"? Was it bad? Did you immediately think of the mistreatment of women? This is the dirty water. Twisted minds in the medieval church took the words of Paul and the creation story and decided that because Eve was created after Adam that she was somehow less than him, less than human. But that isn't what God intended. As R. C. Sproul put it, "Eve was created to be a Queen, not a slave." Men and women are of equal value, only their assigned tasks are different (I'm not implying here that women can't work outside of the home or serve in any position of authority at all, so don't get all bent out of shape). But because of the "dirty water" of female inferiority created by evil men for the last two thousand years and beyond, feminism now seeks to destroy any notion of gender roles whatsoever, as if this is the ONLY solution to solving the problem. Like the anaology above, it is the quickest and easiest, but ultimately the worst solution possible.

Now we widen our field of view to see the real issue at hand; religion. If you were wondering who that man in the analogy is, he's your science professor, or philosophy professor, or a member of the Democratic party. He could be lots of people. The point is, he's whipsering in your ear, telling you that it's ok to throw out your own baby. In the case of religion; the crusades, the inquisition, and a host of other terrible deeds of the medieval Catholic church represent our dirty water. The baby is, of course, the true and beautiful nature of God and of Christianity. In this case it's a little harder to throw out the baby, since almost everyone believes in a higher power, if not specifically a god. Still, I hear so many people who claim to be religious or believe in a God, but want nothing to do with any form of organized religion because all it does is divide and breed hatred for your fellow man. Religion is responsible for more violence in this world than any political or economic causes, but does that make religion bad? Is religion to blame? Or is it man's perversion of religion? Another question I might ask is; is God to blame for the things men do in His name? If not, than it doesn't seem like a wise solution to reject God. So we don't. As I said, almost everyone believes in a "god" of some kind. We keep Him around for those hard times in life, so we can pray to Him or go to church, feel better, then forget about Him again. That's what that guy was doing in the analogy. Telling you that God's just sort of up there somewhere to answer your prayers, but that's about it. He hasn't really set down any rules to govern His universe, so you're free to do whatever you want, to live however you please. All that stuffy, old-fasioned crap that churches try to shove down your throat to oppress your freedom is all made-up. It sounds great, doesn't it? It's very liberating. You can live a life of utter self-gratifiction and not have to worry about all that "sin" nonsense. It's much easier to do what you want and live how you want if you just prentend that all religion is fake and God is nothing more than a comforting thoght whenever you need Him. And let's not forget that without organized religion, we don't get all the hatred and violence that it creates, so we get rid of that filthy water! Everything just works out better if religion isn't real. With no book, creed or law to follow, truth becomes relative. So eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die!

And when you die, heaven help you if you threw out the baby, and it turned out to be real after all.