Blinded! Secularists, Media See No Evil in Obama … or Elsewhere

This past week we have once again been confronted with youth killers in schools. In Danvers, Massachusetts, a 14 year old boy hacked to death with a box cutter popular female teacher Colleen Ritzer. There were accounts of what a kind, giving person Ritzer was. Beyond simply memorializing her, some accounts seemed to imply that she was especially undeserving of her fate because of her kindness.

Of course this is true, but wouldn’t it also be true of an old, grumpy teacher? Sadly, the news cycle for this story only lasted about two days. Perhaps the story did not receive longer coverage because it was not done with a gun, so liberals had little use for the tragedy. If people were to think about this for too long they might begin to think that the real source of violence is not guns, but evil people. As with many previous tragedies, whether its Newtown, Columbine or the Boston bombings, there follows a chorus of observers wondering how these tragedies could happen. There exists an almost universal inability to appreciate the existence of evil.

All of this reminded me of a book I read some years ago written by a Christian evangelist named Ravi Zacharias entitled, Deliver US From Evil. The book analyzes modern frustration with understanding the existence and increase of evil.
Zacharias examines the post-modern worldview that evil was supposed to decrease as knowledge increased and society became more secular. Among many pointy headed liberal academics religion is to blame for evil.

Zacharias outlines a process that leads to this inability to understand evil. It begins with secularization which involves the denial of the supernatural realm. According to the scientific worldview, provable science is the highest authority. Yet, these same secularists accept the unproven theory of macro-evolution by faith. The motivation for their faith is a stiff-necked insistence on denying the supernatural.

The denial of God leads to a rejection of truth and moral standards. Truth and morality are situational for the post modern. Absent an absolute moral standard, secularization leads to loss of shame and responsibility.

Now, add pluralism to the mix. Accordingly, all beliefs are equally valid. The new tolerance demands acceptance of all beliefs excepting those beliefs which claim absolute truth. Pluralism leads to a loss of reason. Popular culture, defined by mass media, defines what is acceptable. Acceptable behavior is re-defined as popular culture changes.

Finally, secularization and pluralism lead to privatization of religious belief, whereby spiritual ideas are evicted from public discourse. Religion is never to be discussed outside the church walls. The result is that evil is a mystery. It becomes fact-less, feeling-less, and face-less.

So, we live in a culture that does not assign responsibility to evil. This reckless denial of reality even invades the political realm and the fourth estate. There is a stubborn insistence among politicians and journalists that no one is responsible for wrong doing and that no one could be guilty of evil intentions.

The healthcare.gov website is a colossal and expensive failure, but no one is responsible. IRS agents harass political opponents of the administration, but no evil intent can be attributed. It’s just excused as innocent incompetence. ATF delivers guns to drug cartels in Mexico and numerous people on both sides of the border end up dead. But, no one is responsible. There could not have been any evil intentions. Nobody would do such a thing to sway public opinion about guns. An American Ambassador and three of his staff die in a terrorist attack. The administration quickly attempts to convince everyone that the attack was not terrorism. But, there could be no evil intention attributed to the Obama team. It was just a miscommunication and no one was responsible.

When one considers the policies of Mr. Obama in total and what he has done to this country, a thinking person would have to conclude that there are only two possibilities. Either he is incredibly incompetent or he has an evil plan.

What amazes me is the refusal of almost all media and political opposition to acknowledge the second possibility. Both McCain and O’Reilly would scoff at such an idea. Few in Congress would dare accuse Obama of evil intent. Joe Wilson and Allen West serve as an example of what the political establishment does to those who dare to proclaim that the emperor has no clothes. Look out, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Jim Bridenstine.

Of course, there are a few in the media trying their best to warn us: Beck, Limbaugh and D’Souza come to mind. But again, they are mocked and discounted by popular culture that sees no evil anywhere.

Image: Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjcs/8039318200/