Racists and Transgender Apologists Both Reject Basic Biology

My wife’s mother was born and raised in Nigeria. Her parents were Baptist missionaries from America. Thus, in spite of the fact that my wife Michelle is almost as pale as I am, I sometimes (lightheartedly) tell people that I’m married to an “African-American.” This is (barely) humorous because of the modern left’s obsession with skin color and what is typically denoted as “race.”

It’s rare that Ken Ham (an evangelical Christian) and Bill Nye (a devoted Darwinist and secular humanist) agree, but when it comes to the issue of race, both rightly conclude: “There’s no such thing as race.” As Ham puts it,

As a result of Darwinian evolution, many people started thinking in terms of the different people groups around the world representing different “races,” but within the context of evolutionary philosophy. This has resulted in many people today, consciously or unconsciously, having ingrained prejudices against certain other groups of people.

However, all human beings in the world today are classified as Homo sapiens sapiens. Scientists today admit that, biologically, there really is only one race of humans. For instance, a scientist at the Advancement of Science Convention in Atlanta stated, “Race is a social construct derived mainly from perceptions conditioned by events of recorded history, and it has no basic biological reality.”

Bill Nye concludes,

We’re all the same, from a scientific standpoint. There’s no such thing as race — but there is such a thing as tribalism.

Many biologists avoid the term “race” and prefer a phrase such as “continental ancestry.” Thus, to prefer one “race” over another, or to declare one “race” superior to another, is biologically ignorant. Or, put another way, the “racists”—or “race-baiters”—of any era, of any color, on any continent, who battled against the cause of human rights of those of another skin color are guilty of contradicting the laws of basic human biology.

Likewise, those who fight to further the cause of the gender-confused (“transgenders”) are also guilty of contradicting the laws of basic human biology. Only in a world corrupted by liberalism must we debate who is a male, who is a female, and what restroom they get to use. The next time you encounter a liberal—especially one claiming the mantle of “champion of science”—who wants to lecture you about global warming—I mean climate change—or stem cells, or evolution, or the ignorance of Christians, conservatives, and the like, remind him that, when their side can settle on what is a male and a female, then you might only consider them ignorant and lost. Otherwise, tell them you have no time for madness.

And consider the ignorant irony: the modern liberals championing the cause of the gender-confused are on the same (wrong) side of science as those who fought against the civil rights of black Americans. As I began this piece, I encountered the following on the front page of the website of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution—the largest newspaper in my home state of Georgia:

When I clicked on the link, I was taken to a page headlined, “7 African American museums to visit with your kids for an unforforgettable (sic) history lesson.” The image above is taken from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. It’s from a display that depicts the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike.

Barely a week into the strike (it lasted over two months), at a rally with the strikers (black sanitation workers), The Rev. James Lawson declared, “For at the heart of racism is the idea that a man is not a man, that a person is not a person. You are human beings. You are men. You deserve dignity.” Rev. Lawson’s uplifting words became the message on the iconic placards seen above. In other words, there was a time when liberals knew what was a man. No more.

Chris Cuomo of CNN, and—being the son of Mario Cuomo, former New York Governor, and the brother of Andrew Cuomo, current New York Governor—of strong New York liberal stock, provides the perfect anecdote here. After President Trump this week reversed the Obama administration’s perverse decree that instructed public schools to allow the gender-confused to access the bathrooms and locker rooms they prefer, Cuomo (Chris) went on what David French called “one of the strangest tweet exchanges I’ve ever seen.” (The Blaze provides a good summary of the tweets.)

As Cuomo attempted to promote the transgender agenda via Twitter, he was voluminously challenged. His retorts are telling. Most revealing is Cuomo’s response when one tweet asked, “What do you tell a 12-year-old girl who doesn’t want to see a penis in the locker room?” To this, Cuomo answered:

Only a mind and heart corrupted by liberalism could “wonder” about a young girl in a locker room with boys, and her “intolerant” father who merely wants to guard the eyes (not to mention, the rest of her body) of his 12 year-old daughter. Amazing, but not surprising.

On “tolerance,” G.K. Chesterton declared: “Tolerance is a virtue of a man without convictions.” As the debate over bathrooms and gender reveals, what better describes a modern liberal than “a man without convictions?” Thus, we see again that liberalism corrupts not only sound science, but common sense and morality as well.

What’s more, the “tolerance” of which Cuomo speaks is little more than a self-refuting system of thought that attempts to impose liberal values onto any culture unable or unwilling to recognize the fallacy. The United Nations’ Declaration of Principles on Tolerance (which Cuomo has probably memorized) instructs, “Tolerance … involves the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism.”

How about that, a dogmatic and absolute statement decrying “dogmatism and absolutism.” How intolerant! Given that its foundation is filled with lies—and as Cuomo, and his fellow gender-denying apologists well demonstrate—liberalism is filled with such contradictions. The fact is, we’re all intolerant. It’s just a matter of who’s right.

Again, some things deserve no debate. The great C.S. Lewis alludes to this as he rather bluntly declares, “An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy.” More plainly put, one would have to be an idiot not to recognize that certain things—like a person’s gender—are settled for all time.

(See this column at American Thinker.)

Copyright 2017, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the brand new book The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Milo Needs "Moral Chains"

In opposing the godless and bloody French Revolution, Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism, concluded that,

I should therefore suspend my congratulations on the new liberty of France, until I was informed how it had been combined with government; with public force; with the discipline and obedience of armies;…with morality and religion;…with peace and order; with civil and social manners. All these (in their way) are good things too; and, without them, liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and is not likely to continue long. The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please: We ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.

Like many corrupted by liberalism, the liberty enjoyed by Milo Yiannopoulos has not served him well, because it seems that most of what he “pleases to do” is vile and vulgar. (And, with the loss of his job at Breitbart, his book deal, his CPAC invite, has recently cost him dearly.)

I’ve never been impressed with Yiannopoulos. His penchant for what is vulgar has always turned me off. Like a foul-mouthed musician or comedian, if you have to resort to regular use of cursing and crude sexual references to make your point, I’m just not going to pay attention. In light of that, I’ve never understood the fascination of some conservatives (“so-called” in many cases, I’m afraid) with a swearing, sex-crazed, unrepentant homosexual.

Yes, Yiannopoulos has boldly taken a stand for free-speech and bravely confronted the ignorant, safe-space seeking, “End of Discussion” mob that dominates U.S. campuses. However, he’s done so devoid of “morality and religion” and with few “civil and social manners.” And thus, as Matt Walsh recently pointed out,

[H]e [Yiannopoulos] is not equipped nor qualified to be a spokesman for the conservative cause. He never was. He was always a spokesman for his own cause, his own cult, and even before his foray into pederasty-promoting, his cult never had very much to do with anything resembling conservatism.

The notion of “pederasty-promoting” Walsh refers to comes from statements Yiannopoulos made in an interview with Drunken Peasants Podcast back in January of this year. It’s best to let Yiannopoulos speak for himself here:

This arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys the understanding that many of us have of the complexities and subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships. People are messy and complex, and in the homosexual world particularly some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and, sort of, a rock.

Yiannopoulos later adds:

In the gay world, some of the most important, enriching, and incredibly life affirming, shaping relationships between younger boys and older men, they can be hugely positive experiences for those young boys.

A longer exchange, highlighted by Guy Benson at Townhall, can be heard here (warning: extremely vulgar). As Benson notes,

Despite the ages he cites in his Facebook post (16 and 17), he mentions the age of 13 at least three times…including a hypothetical example of sex between a 28-year-old adult and a 13-year-old child. “These things do happen, perfectly consensually,” he asserts. Milo can parse and spin until he's blue in the face -- and some of the points he makes are worthy of consideration and even empathy -- but he did mount a public justification of pederasty…

Whatever the age of “consent,” it is not unusual for those in the homosexual lifestyle to speak favorably of “man-boy love.” As Dr. Michael Brown points out,

[I]t is no secret that gay activists have often been at the forefront of pushing for the lowering of the age of consent. (For a 2010 example from England, see here.) It is also no secret that gay literature through the centuries has celebrated the “love” of grown men and boys; and in these cases, there is no doubt that they were minors rather than young men.

Make no mistake about it—as most not corrupted by a liberal worldview well know—this is evil, predatory behavior. Tragically, these attacks help to continue the cycle of pederasty. As Peter LaBarbera noted after the recent case in Minnesota of a homosexual elementary school teacher (who was “married” to another man) who was accused of molesting multiple young boys,

Pederasty—sex between men and boys—has long been a part of male homosexuality. A new study by world renowned psychiatrist Dr. Paul McHugh and Johns Hopkins University scholar Lawrence Mayer finds that homosexuals are “two to three times more likely to have experienced childhood sexual abuse.”

We know that many adult homosexuals were sexually abused as children [as was Yiannopoulos], and then they go on to abuse children as adults. Hopefully, these victims will break the chain of sexual abuse and escape the destructive bondage of homosexuality.

In the Minnesota case mentioned above, Life Site News reported,

Forty-year-old Aric Babbitt and 36-year-old Matthew Deyo were under investigation for regularly taking adolescent boys on overnight trips, specifically boys who identified as possibly gay, with parental approval, even though the men were openly homosexual. 

According to court records, Babbitt assured parents that he was “mentoring” their children, and when questioned about inappropriate gifts he gave them, such as underwear and skimpy yoga shorts, Babbitt told the parents that they wouldn't understand because “It's a gay thing.”

Note the similarities between the language of Babbit—who later committed suicide—and that of Yiannopoulos. LaBarbera is right, the homosexual lifestyle—like all sin—is a form of “bondage.” And as Burke further instructed us on liberty,

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetite…Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters [chains].

Or, put another way, as the Apostle Paul reveals, we are slaves to the one we serve. In spite of his reputation as a champion for liberty, Milo Yiannopoulos is in deep bondage. Given his fascination with sex (just about every lengthy exchange he has devolves into a discussion of it), it is clear what is his “passion,” and where he needs his “moral chains.”

Copyright 2017, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Hey Ashton Kutcher: Tell the Whole Truth about Sexual Immorality

As his recent and moving testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee reveals, Ashton Kutcher seems to be doing some great work combating the horrendous evil of world-wide sex trafficking. I wish him much success, and I hope he continues his efforts for many years to come. However, I challenge Mr. Kutcher to go even further when it comes to battling evil in the sexual realm.

As he began his speech, Kutcher passionately declared that he was there to “defend the right to pursue happiness.” He, of course, was referencing the U.S. Declaration of Independence. However, he made a couple of mistakes in declaring that the “right to pursue happiness” was “bestowed upon all of us by our Constitution.” I thought perhaps it was simply an error in semantics. However, Mr. Kutcher doubled-down on his misunderstanding of our rights and in his next sentence said, “I believe that it is incumbent upon us as citizens—as Americans—to bestow that right upon others.”

Mr. Kutcher’s biggest mistake was not in referencing the Constitution instead of the Declaration; it was in his misunderstanding about where the rights of humans originate. Our rights are not “bestowed upon us” by any human being or any document created by human beings. As the Declaration of Independence reveals, we are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable [indisputable and irremovable] rights.” In other words, our rights come from God and not from man.

The job of men and women is to provide good government that guards those rights. (Kutcher later declared himself a product of our public school system, so I suppose we should cut him some slack here.) Mr. Kutcher’s current “day job,” as he described it, is as the chairman and co-founder of Thorn. Thorn’s motto declares the company to be the “digital defender of children.” Thorn works to prevent the sexual exploitation of children by fighting against human trafficking and the proliferation of child pornography. This work is what got him an audience with the U.S. Senate.

In addition to his work at Thorn, Kutcher also declared that another part of his day job is to be the father of his two young children. No doubt his role as the father of a two-year-old daughter and a two-month-old son has greatly enhanced his passion for fighting the scourge of human sex-trafficking. If Mr. Kutcher really wants to stand up and defend his children and rescue and defend other children, he would do well to note that there are other dangers beyond sex-trafficking and child pornography lurking in the sexual realm.

And as horrific as is child pornography and the child sexual slavery that is the result of sex-trafficking, far more children are ensnared into a different type of sexual slavery—one in which Mr. Kutcher himself has had a hand.

Ashton Kutcher would almost certainly not be in this position (technology entrepreneur/investor) if it were not for the tens of millions of dollars he’s made from his TV and movie career. Tragically, much of this career has involved “entertainment” that presents and promotes a wide array of sexually immoral behavior—everything from teenage sex to adultery, fornication, pornography, and the like.

Two of the television shows that prominently featured Kutcher—That ‘70s Show and Two and a Half Men—were regularly labeled as some of the worst programs on television by the Parents Television Council (PTC). Writing about That ‘70s Show in 2005, PTC noted,

Frequently included on the PTC's Top 10 Worst list, this series once again earns a spot for its casual and irresponsible treatment of teen sex and drug use, which are depicted as risk- and consequence-free. Frequent references are made to pornography and masturbation. In one episode, for example, Kelso [Kutcher’s character] decides that he has to start respecting women, so he gives Fez his entire collection of pornographic magazines. Jackie says that giving Fez a "box full of nudie magazines" is like giving a monkey a loaded gun, to which Fez replies, "No, it's not. A monkey with a loaded gun can hurt a lot of people. I can only hurt myself." When they see Fez later, he looks exhausted because he has done nothing but look at pornography all day. Episodes also endorse smoking marijuana as harmless fun.

Sex traffickers and child pornographers aren’t born, they’re made. As those on the front lines of the battle against child pornography have often noted, almost all adults who are engaging in child porn got their start with adult pornography. As was noted at The Witherspoon Institute several years ago,

The link between adult and child porn is observed globally, and it is nothing new. Fifteen years ago, at the 1996 World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Margaret Healy stated in a paper titled “Child Pornography: An International Perspective” that “with the emergence of the use of computers to traffic in child pornography, a new and growing segment of producers and consumers is being identified. They are individuals who may not have a sexual preference for children, but who have seen the gamut of adult pornography and who are searching for more bizarre material.” (Emphasis added)

Likewise, almost all who are ensnared in the illicit world of adult pornography were first tantalized by what could be called the “soft-porn” (or at least, sexually graphic) images that exist in large numbers of TV sitcoms, dramas, motion pictures, music videos—even television commercials. As I’ve often noted, for decades now Hollywood has lied about sex and promoted the raunchy, perverted sexual agenda of modern liberalism. Sadly, for much of his professional life, Kutcher (along with Mila Kunis, his current wife and mother of his two children), has been right in the middle of this smut.

With multiple generations of American youth exposed to such sexual immorality, it is little surprise we live in a “hook-up” culture where women and men both are often seen as little more than a means to a selfish sexual end. Put another way, men and women across the U.S. have become objects to be used—as Kutcher put it to the Senate—“for the momentary happiness of another.”

The tragic results of this are detailed nearly daily: tens of millions of helpless children have been slaughtered in the womb, and tens of millions more are born out of wedlock and immediately thrust into broken and dysfunctional homes. Among many other tragic outcomes, in his testimony, Kutcher himself notes that children in foster care (almost always at least partly the result of a broken home) are four times more likely to be exposed to sexual abuse. Kutcher called this a “breeding ground” for trafficking.

I don’t how many more times it needs to be said, but here it is once again: broken families—families without a loving and married mother and father—are a “breeding ground” for a wide variety of sad outcomes for children. In addition to sexual abuse and prison (something else Kutcher mentions), there’s physical abuse, drug abuse, poor health outcomes, poor education results, and so on. In other words, in spite of the best efforts of liberals and their like-minded allies to ignore or explain away what common sense and sound morality have always revealed, the biblical family model produces the best results for children.

So Mr. Kutcher, if you want to be a complete advocate for the health and well-being of children the world over, abandon your notions of “social liberalism,” (Kutcher has described himself as a “fiscal conservative but a social liberal.” Another note to Mr. Kutcher: If you’re a “social liberal,” then you’re a liberal.) and support, live, and defend what the Bible reveals on the family and sex. The God that bestows upon us the right to pursue happiness that you so passionately defended before the U.S. Senate has also clearly revealed His plan for the family and sex.

(See this column at American Thinker.)

Copyright 2017, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the brand new book The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

The Moronic Madness of “Moral Mondays”

For liberals, attempting to claim the moral high ground is like a community organizer winning the Nobel Peace Prize (or getting elected President of the United States): it only happens with willful suspension of reason and facts—which means it happens a lot in liberal circles. The most recent case in point is the “Moral Monday” movement that is active in a handful of states across the U.S. (mostly the South).

For evidence of the corrupt morality that exists in this movement, you need to know nothing more than Moral Mondays were started by the NAACP. First in North Carolina, later in South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, and New Mexico, Moral Mondays are a sad attempt to sway politicians and the public toward the perverse agenda of liberals. These attempts are usually through acts of civil dimwittedness—I mean disobedience—involving such things as protesting at state capitals, disrupting legislative sessions, and staging sit-ins.

Also telling about the Moral Monday movement is that it gained national prominence while protesting North Carolina’s common-sense bathroom law. Only a modern liberal would predicate his moral outrage upon a cause that runs contrary to biology (and morality) that a five year old can understand, and that is championed by an unrepentant registered sex offender.

Because the moral demands of liberalism are few and malleable, any movement born of liberalism will have a corrupt morality. For further evidence of this, the Moral Monday protestors are able to declare that it is “morally repugnant” that people are dying because “they don’t have access to health care,” while at the same time calling for taxpayer funded (“free” in the fantasy land of liberalism) “health care” that will allow them to kill their unborn children.

Can’t you just imagine some obscenely tattooed, belly-pierced, scantily-clad, braless feminazi screaming: “My mother died because she had no health care! Now give me my free healthcare so I can go to the clinic and kill my daughter!” Liberals at the Moral Monday marches refer to the genocide of abortion as “Reproductive Justice.” Excluding the unborn from “the universe of moral obligation” allows self-described “guardians of morality” to foolishly champion a supposed moral cause that not only excludes, but is violently hostile toward, the most innocent and vulnerable among us.

In addition to much other nonsense, Georgia’s Moral Monday (2014) website decried that the state “promoted bigotry [directed] towards the LGBTQ community.” No evidence is offered. We can only suppose that such “bigotry” is the result of Georgia legally defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Only a modern liberal can take an institution that has existed across cultures for thousands of years (from “the beginning” according to a Christian worldview) and deem it “bigoted.”

The most tragic aspect of this moronic moral movement is that many so-called “pastors” are at the forefront. The (Ir)reverend Raphael Warnock, pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor, has been a large part of the Moral Monday protests in Georgia. The (Ir)reverend William Barber II is the leader of Moral Mondays in North Carolina and is widely considered the leader of the movement at large. (He’s also—surprise!—president of North Carolina’s chapter of the NAACP.)

How tragic is it that such supposed “men of God” have aligned themselves with a political party that boos the inclusion of God in its platform and has devoted itself to support of killing children in the womb (millions of whom are black children), a perverse re-definition of marriage, removing prayer, the Commandments, and the Bible from the public arena, and supports the gross sexual immorality of the homosexual agenda?

Of course, as we’ve seen with most organized groups of liberals lately, the election of Donald Trump has brought further rounds of protests from the Moral Monday marchers. With Barber leading the way, the largest “Moral March” yet took place in Raleigh, N.C. last Saturday (2/11/17). Portraying Trump’s election “as a right-wing response to recent expansions of equality and justice,” Barber used the biblical account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (who refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol) to implore his fellow protestors to “stay strong.”

Having recently used the story of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (their Hebrew names) myself to make a moral point, I know well that “Reverend” Barber has it quite wrong. The biblical account of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego recorded in the book of Daniel are great examples of a faith that runs counter to the culture—even the legal code of the culture, and even when it means facing the harshest of consequences.

Like a modern-day Nebuchadnezzar, for the last several years, it has been the vengeance-minded left—with their literal lust-driven desire to redefine marriage, kill children in the womb, and the like—that has sought to use the law to punish those with whom they disagree. Because of their refusal to bow down to the perverse sexual agenda of the modern left, all across the U.S., a wide variety of Americans have faced a wide array of harsh consequences, including fines, the loss of their jobs, the loss of their businesses, the loss of television shows, and so on.

As we all should know well by now, this is what liberalism does. This is what happens when liberals are in power. (Which is one of the big reasons why Donald Trump is now President of the United States.) There seems to be no end to their perversion. Whether sex, marriage, the family, the unborn, gender, education, the military, immigration, spending, and the like, on virtually every issue debated today, liberals are on the wrong side of the truth. Thus, today's liberals can be trusted with almost nothing, and certainly nothing deemed “moral.”

(See this column at American Thinker.)

Copyright 2017, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

“The Most Excellent Way”

I’ve often said that after our relationship with our Creator, the most important relationship in the universe is that between a husband and his wife. Whether or not you are married, when you were a child, the most important people on earth were your mother and father (or, it should have been this way). Thus, after our love for God, the most important love in the world is the love between a husband and wife.

A few weeks ago our family said goodbye (for now) to my wife’s beloved grandfather, Horace Fitzpatrick—known to all of the family as simply “Pa.” Nearly two years ago, Pa’s oldest son—my wife’s father—David was tragically killed by a drunk driver while bicycling near his home. When I spoke at David’s funeral, I made note of David’s loving devotion to his wife:

After his relationship with his creator and Savior, David was most devoted to his wife Margie. This was clear to all of us who knew him best. This is perhaps his greatest witness. Of course, David witnessed this devotion in the life of his own father. Thank you for that, Pa.

Pa’s funeral was the best “end-of-life celebration” that I’ve ever witnessed. His generous and loving life made for a powerful end. (We were especially close to “Granny and Pa,” as they played an important role in the debt-free manner in which we built our home.) Four men spoke at the funeral, including Pa’s son Roger. Roger made special note of Pa’s love for his “Beautiful, Sweet, Toony.” Horace and Bertie-Mae were married for 67 years. My wife’s parents, David and Margie (Papa and Mimi) had been married for 46 years when David was killed in 2015. My own parents, Edsel and Carolyn Thomas (Poppy and Nonny), have been married for 48 years.

In other words, I’ve had several excellent examples of what true and lasting love looks like. In today’s sex-crazed, fornicating, adulterating, divorcing culture, such examples were (and still are) immeasurably impactful. With 19 years of marriage already under my belt, I certainly hope to continue such a tradition.

I say all of this with Valentine’s Day in mind. Several years ago, I wrote the following to help paint a picture of “the most excellent way.” I provide it again to remind all of us what it really means to love. (Thank you to all of my family and friends—but especially Granny and Pa, Nonny and Poppy, Mimi and Papa, and Michelle, Caleb, Jesse, Caroline, and Noah—for all the love you’ve given me.)

The Will to Love

I believe that the one most revealing, the most essential characteristic of our Creator is love. By His love He made us, and because of His love He redeemed us. We are closest to His nature and what He created us to be when we are living our lives according to His idea of love.

He also told us that His entire law can be summed up with one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What does that mean? What does it mean to love your neighbor as you love yourself?

First of all, who is our “neighbor?” Most of us have heard of “The Good Samaritan.” Through this parable, Christ taught us that our neighbor means more than those who live near us, or those within our circle of family and friends. In effect, what He was saying was that loving our neighbor also means loving our enemies.

Secondly, how do we “love” ourselves? If we are honest, we should all admit that there are times when none of us is particularly loveable. In fact, most of us have probably been pretty disappointed in and disgusted by our own behavior, and thus, in ourselves. We may even have seen ourselves as downright nasty.

Therefore, loving our neighbor does not mean always having pleasant feelings about him or being happy with everything she does. As C.S. Lewis put it, it does not mean “thinking them nice either.” In fact, love in the Christian sense isn’t a feeling at all. It is a matter of the will.

As Lewis put it, “It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we naturally have about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.” In other words, do not bother so much about how you feel towards someone; act like you love them. In other words, do and say the things that true love requires. Feelings and emotions come and go, but our will can be forever unwavering.

Consider 1 Corinthians chapter 13, where the Apostle Paul reveals to us what true love is.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

Patience, kindness, a lack of envy or boasting; humility, politeness, and controlling your temper; keeping no record of wrongs, and so on—these all are matters of the will. As soon as you do these things, Lewis notes, “we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

Jesus said that the greatest act of love is to lay down one’s life for another. What is that if not an act of the will? No one “feels” like doing such a thing. Jesus even prayed that His act of sacrifice, if possible, would pass from Him, but His will was surrendered: “Not My will, but Yours be done.”

Of course, romantic love can generate a torrent of emotions within us. Almost all of us have been tied in knots over one person or another in our lives. But, even in the strongest of relationships, these feelings don’t last—and thank goodness! How would we function day to day and year to year with such emotions?!

Yet popular culture has chosen to highlight this brief and passing aspect of love and held it up as the ideal. Of course, popular culture has also made love synonymous with sex. This is especially true with our youth. They enter relationships—even marriage—with their hearts and minds full of the wrong ideas about love.

Thus, the most important relationship on the earth—that between a husband and a wife—often rests upon a very shaky foundation. If a marriage rests upon this feeling of “being in love” alone, it almost certainly will fail. Couples need to understand that when this feeling subsides, it does not mean that we should stop loving. Love in this deeper sense is about a promise or vow that nearly every couple makes upon marrying. And keeping this promise is a matter of the will.

However, Christians know that, left to ourselves, our own will is not enough. On our own we cannot love as we should. The selflessness that true love requires runs very contrary to our born nature. That is why, in order to love truly, we must look to the One who is love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Copyright 2017, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com