Non-critical Adulation

I am grateful to the Wall Street Journal for providing a daily offering from their editorial pages in my email inbox daily. Edward Larson had recently written a new book about the election of 1800 and shared it with George Bush who has become an avaricious history buff. Apparently, the president enjoyed it and found the Pulitzer Prize winning author’s observations informative. If you read the essay, you will find interesting comparisons between our current political parties and their attitudes about their respective histories.

A phrase in the closing paragraphs caught my attention; “non-critical adulation.” All too often, we take a cursory view of popularly held historical concepts and ignore less acceptable views. Views which might diminish our whole evaluation of a noted figure are swept aside to elevate his character and importance. In politics, it is all too common to assign near-sainthood to an historical personage who may well have some unpleasant baggage in his closet. In that regard, follow the above link for examples.

I would suggest that we are also often inclined to assign non-critical adulation to various prominent individuals in the scriptures and church history as well. It is lazy to cherry pick remarkable accomplishments to the exclusion of demonstrable evidence of the frailties of man. Through self-admission, we have confirmation of the weakness of those who are presented as doing God’s bidding through the ages. The Almighty frequently choose men from the available pool of talent who had shown lapses of character, unsavory pasts, or were possessed of physical defects. Once chosen, they were not only faced with the, mostly difficult, task of carrying out the divine plan but also overcoming their limitations as men. Regular readers I assume can fill in the names (Peter, Paul, Moses, Joseph etc.) and recognize this truth.

Almighty, infinite, unique, all-powerful, perfect, and endless are just some of the words we use to describe our Savior. None of these words are appropriate in any description of any man at any time. Sainthood is one thing but deification is quite another. My personal belief is that God chooses incomplete men to do his mighty works as an example to all of us of our potential. Repentance frees us then to continue to support Him, love Him, and ultimately bring about with His assistance the Zionic condition we seek.

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon