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Living with the Consequences
*Author’s Note* This is the last Truth in Two. Six years. 300 videos. I end with a warning:
At the beginning of the movie Boondock Saints, two young men are praying in church. During the service, they walk the middle aisle to kiss the feet of the crucified Jesus’ statue. The Catholic priest tells the story of Kitty Genovese who, in 1964, was stabbed to death as neighbors stood by doing nothing as she called for help. As the two Irishmen leave the auditorium, the Catholic priest is heard to say, “There is another kind of evil we should fear most and that is the indifference of good men.” As they exit the building one says to the other, “I do believe the monsignor gets it.”
How should we think about any injustice in the world? Peace is what we desire but peace does not come out of mid-air. There is no justice without a standard, and that standard is righteousness. Justice then forms the basis for peace, and, finally, peace establishes hope. We look for justice in this life. But notice what Proverbs 29:26 says: “Many seek the ruler’s favor, but justice for man comes from the Lord.” While we’re concerned for what happens now, we rest in the fact that ultimate justice, according to Psalm 73, will not take place until after this life.*
As I end this summer series, “What will you replace it with when it’s gone?,” I implore us all to carefully consider the consequences of the following: (1) giving the creation of laws to unelected government bureaucracies, (2) forgetting the original basis for law rests upon The Transcendent Lawgiver, and (3) accepting information given to us which does not consider all sides of a story. If we stand for permanent things, for justice, freedom, honesty, truthfulness, and transparency, our children and grandchildren will thank us. For the Comenius Institute, refusing to be indifferent, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration at Liberty University, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found. [First published at MarkEckel.com]
*NOTE Some of the content of this essay was taken from my 17 November 2015 post at my earlier website WarpandWoof.org
Published in General
Mark, first, thank you so much for sharing your insights, wisdom and faith with us. I do not recall ever disagreeing with anything you have ever written.
Second, I am so sorry that this series is coming to an end. I am sure that I have not read 300, so will bookmark your websites for further readings.
Third, I will be in Lynchburg Friday Sept 19th, would you be available for an early AM coffee? It would be an honor to meet you.
Agreed.
That be Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Aar.
Thank you, Mark. Your posts have all been worth reading.
Thank you for this, and especially for your statement of those three principles. I was going to write that they are particularly apt now, but they are apt in all times.
I think it will not weaken your argument to know that the original reporting on the Kitty Genovese case has been debunked, the actual story being quite different, though tragic. Perhaps we should call that reporting a violation of your third principle, and we will probably not be surprised that it was the New York Times that published it. https://www.history.com/topics/crime/kitty-genovese
Mark, this was an excellent series. What will we replace it with when it’s gone?
Boondock Saints is in my top five favorite movies of all time. It’s very violent, but entertaining.
It turned out that the story surrounding the terrible murder of Kitty Genovese wasn’t accurate. It was erroneous and sensationalist reporting by the New York Times, which the paper later acknowledged was wrong, stating, among other things, that “[t]he article grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived.” Here is the 2016 story setting the record straight.
The attack, and the original erroneous report, were in 1964. Fake News is not a new phenomenon.
To be clear, Ms. Genovese was brutally raped and murdered. That was terrible. The picture painted by the New York Times, about the apathy of her neighbors was not true. As explained in the 2016 article:
So I can’t agree with the fictional priest in Boondock Saints, repeating a Fake News story from the New York Times, that the “kind of evil we should fear most” is the “indifference of good men.” I’m more inclined to be concerned about the evil of poor Ms. Genovese’s murderer, Winston Moseley, a serial killer and necrophiliac.
The occasion of the corrective 2016 article in the New York Times was Moseley’s death in prison, at age 81. He had been sentenced to death, but later won an appeal that reduced his sentence.
I’m curious about the mental state that would lead one to believe, as the New York Times did, that the blame for such a heinous crime should be placed upon a bunch of innocent neighbors, rather than on the multiple murderer-rapist who actually did it. I do note that it was 1964, and the serial killer-rapist was a black man who raped and murdered a white woman.
OK, you might want to call to call this nit-picking (and you might be right), but Catholics don’t use the term “service.” I don’t think the Orthodox do either. “Service” is a Protestant term. Nor is any area in a Catholic church called an “auditorium.”
Thanks to those who have, in kindness, corrected the story and the vocabulary.
Thanks to all who have been encouraging in their words about my writing.
I will post at Ricochet from time to time, but most of my communication will come through my Friday (midnight) emails. If interested, sign up on the pop-up at MarkEckel.com Everything is bcc:, free, unsubscribe anytime, and you can skim or read ~2000 words each week. There is no “comment section” nor is there a discussion platform. [Because of Labor Day weekend, this week’s email comes out midnight, Thursday.] Here are a few entries from the past couple of weeks:
. . . Our love is for Truth. We really desire Truth. Why? Because we bear the mark of our Creator who IS Truth (Isa 65:16; John 3:33; Titus 1:2). Made in His image (read my humanity doctrine here), our nature resembles His. But when we rebel against His image, we make images (idols, anything our eye falls upon that satiates our thirst for something to worship). Augustine is right, unbelievers believe in Truth, but it is their truth (in our day, often “the truth” is politics).
. . . Choice is also a consequence when it comes to government control. Our summer Truth in Two series, “What will you replace it with when it’s gone?” applies to choice of leaders during an election year. This week’s TNT addresses question, “Does government give rights?” [Hint: If government gives rights, government can take them away.”] Lest it be lost on the casual reader, I will always be pro-freedom when it comes to candidate choice; but then, choice is consequence. But as I noted above if your candidate wins, don’t turn around and blame voters on the other side for the consequences of your choice. You, along with everyone else, will now have to live with the policies of your candidate. . . . Our summer series, “What will you replace it with when it’s gone?” asks these kinds of questions:1. With what will you exchange current structures, systems, and institutions? What will you put in their place?2. What laws, what beliefs, what sustaining order will fill the void tomorrow, you so easily overthrow today?3. What will happen when those who cheer you now, tire of your substitution then?4. What villain will be erected when your current straw man is burned, the crowds looking for new destruction?5. And once the overthrow is complete, why should we obey when you are in charge? Will you not become the target of “the people?”6. If you offer hope, what will it be? Will paradise ascend? Will all be fed? Will wars be no more? Will disease be eradicated?7. Will you expect every knee to bow and every tongue to confess?8. What new totem will you erect? What will be your “religion?”9. To whom would you have us pray, desiring our petitions be met?10. What heaven will you bid us enter? What will be your “everlasting?”
@Nohaaj thanks for the invite! I am meeting other friends that same weekend, folks who are bringing prospective parents and students to the mountain. I will have some time to meet on campus, early in the morning (6 – 10 a.m.) or sometime after 1 p.m. I’m actually giving a presentation that day at 11.30 a.m. to further explain Christian worldview integration to faculty. Let me know if that’s something you would like to do and I’ll let folks know to save you a space. :) Let’s connect via the Ricochet message system about ongoing communication.