{"id":68235,"date":"2024-11-05T01:09:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T06:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=68235"},"modified":"2024-10-29T06:00:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T10:00:40","slug":"cynicism-seeing-life-through-dark-glasses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/11\/05\/cynicism-seeing-life-through-dark-glasses\/","title":{"rendered":"CYNICISM\u2014SEEING LIFE THROUGH DARK GLASSES"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/05\/thumbnail_FB_IMG_1714936775690-scaled.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-64202\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/05\/thumbnail_FB_IMG_1714936775690-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"614\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Do you remember the phrase cock-eyed optimist?\u00a0 Well perhaps not, but it was a phrase used about persons who were or are overly na\u00efve about their life, or their country, or their world. I am reminded of the famous speech of William Faulkner when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969 in Amsterdam.\u00a0 Here is a portion of what he said, bearing in mind that he was speaking while the U.S. was in a land war in Vietnam, and our relationship with communist regimes in general was not good.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.<\/p>\n<p>He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed \u2013 love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.<\/p>\n<p>Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking.<\/p>\n<p>I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet\u2019s, the writer\u2019s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet\u2019s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you are not old enough to remember this speech, which came out as I was heading off to college.\u00a0 But I suspect today many would call this speech hopelessly na\u00efve, watching wars in Ukraine and the Middle East spin out of control.\u00a0 I must confess that I do not have hope for the future based solely on the factors Faulkner mentioned about\u2014namely because humans have a capacity for compassion and endurance.\u00a0 All human beings are fallen creatures, or to put it another way, sinners, and we live in perhaps the most narcissistic age and culture in the history of humankind. We live in the selfie age, where it\u2019s all about me.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than listen to Faulkner, and be na\u00efve about human potential for good, I would rather listen to a WWI British Chaplain, Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy who saw the horrors of trench warfare in Europe and yet was able to write his famous poem entitled Faith, which says:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>FAITH<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>HOW\u00a0do I know that God is good? I don\u2019t.<br>\nI gamble like a man. I bet my life<br>\nUpon one side in life\u2019s great war. I must,<br>\nI can\u2019t stand out. I must take sides. The man<br>\nWho is a man a neutral in this fight is not<br>\nA man. He\u2019s bulk and body without breath,<br>\nCold leg of lamb without mint sauce. A fool.<br>\nHe makes me sick. Good Lord! Weak tea! Cold slops!<br>\nI want to live, live out, not wobble through<br>\nMy life somehow, and then into the dark.<br>\nI must have God. This life\u2019s too dull without,<br>\nToo dull for aught but suicide. What\u2019s man<br>\nTo live for else? I\u2019d murder some one just<br>\nTo see red blood. I\u2019d drink myself blind drunk,<br>\nAnd see blue snakes if I could not look up<br>\nTo see blue skies, and hear God speaking through<br>\nThe silence of the stars. How is it proved<br>\nIt isn\u2019t proved, you fool; it can\u2019t be proved.<br>\nHow can you prove a victory before<br>\nIt\u2019s won? How can you prove a man who leads,<br>\nTo be a leader worth the following,<br>\nUnless you follow to the death\u2013and out<br>\nBeyond mere death, which is not anything<br>\nBut Satan\u2019s lie upon eternal life?<br>\nWell\u2013God\u2019s my leader, and I hold that He<br>\nIs good, and strong enough to work His plan<br>\nAnd purpose out to its appointed end.<br>\nI am no fool, I have my reasons for<br>\nThis faith, but they are not the reasonings,<br>\nThe coldly calculated formulae<br>\nOf thought divorced from feeling. They are true,- 6 -Too true for that. There\u2019s no such thing as thought<br>\nWhich does not feel, if it be real thought<br>\nAnd not thought\u2019s ghost\u2013all pale and sicklied o\u2019er<br>\nWith dead conventions\u2013abstract truth\u2013man\u2019s lie<br>\nUpon this living, loving, suff\u2019ring Truth,<br>\nThat pleads and pulses in my very veins,<br>\nThe blue blood of all beauty, and the breath<br>\nOf life itself. I see what God has done,<br>\nWhat life in this world is. I see what you<br>\nSee, this eternal struggle in the dark.<br>\nI see the foul disorders, and the filth<br>\nOf mind and soul, in which men, wallowing<br>\nLike swine, stamp on their brothers till they drown<br>\nIn puddles of stale blood, and vomitings<br>\nOf their corruption. This life stinks in places,<br>\n\u2018Tis true, yet scent of roses and of hay<br>\nNew mown comes stealing on the evening breeze,<br>\nAnd through the market\u2019s din, the bargaining<br>\nOf cheats, who make God\u2019s world a den of thieves,<br>\nI hear sweet bells ring out to gayer, and see<br>\nThe faithful kneeling by the Calvary<br>\nOf Christ.<br>\nI walk in crowded streets where men<br>\nAnd women, mad with lust, loose-lipped and lewd,<br>\nGo promenading down to hell\u2019s wide gates;<br>\nYet have I looked into my mother\u2019s eyes,<br>\nAnd seen the light that never was on sea<br>\nOr land, the light of Love, pure Love and true,<br>\nAnd on that Love I bet my life. I back<br>\nMy mother \u2018gainst a whore when I believe<br>\nIn God, and can a man do less or more?<br>\nI have to choose. I back the scent of life<br>\nAgainst its stink. That\u2019s what Faith works out at<br>\nFinally. I know not why the Evil,<br>\nI know not why he Good, both mysteries<br>\nRemain unsolved and both insoluble.- 7 \u2013\n<p>I know that both are there, the battle set,<br>\nAnd I must fight on this side or on that.<br>\nI can\u2019t stand shiv\u2019ring on the bank,<br>\nI plunge Head first. I bet my life on Beauty, Truth,<br>\nAnd Love, not abstract but incarnate Truth,<br>\nNot Beauty\u2019s passing shadow but its Self.<br>\nIts very self made flesh Love, realised.<br>\nI bet my life on Christ\u2013Christ Crucified.<br>\nBehold your God! My soul cries out. He hangs,<br>\nSerenely patient in His agony,<br>\nAnd turns the soul of darkness into light.<br>\nI look upon that body, writhing, pierced<br>\nAnd torn with nails, and see the battlefields<br>\nOf time, the mangled dead, the gaping wounds,<br>\nThe sweating, dazed survivors straggling back,<br>\nThe widows worn and haggard, still dry-eyed,<br>\nBecause their weight of sorrow will not lift<br>\nAnd let them weep; I see the ravished maid,<br>\nThe honest mother in her shame; I see<br>\nAll history pass by, and through it all<br>\nStill shines that face, the Christ Face, like a star<br>\nWhich pierces drifting clouds, and tells the Truth.<br>\nThey pass, but it remains and shines untouched,<br>\nA pledge of that great hour which surely comes<br>\nWhen storm winds sob to silence, fury spent<br>\nTo silver silence, and the moon sails calm<br>\nAnd stately through the soundless seas of Peace.<br>\nSo through the clouds of Calvary\u2013there shines<br>\nHis face, and I believe that Evil dies,<br>\nAnd Good lives on, loves on, and conquers all\u2013<br>\nAll War must end in Peace. These clouds are lies.<br>\nThey cannot last. The blue sky is the Truth.<br>\nFor God` is Love. Such is my Faith, and such<br>\nMy reasons for it, and I find them strong<br>\nEnough. And you? You want to argue? Well,<br>\nI can\u2019t. It is a choice. I choose the Christ.<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>(This poem is in Kennedy\u2019s collection of poems called \u2018The Unutterable Beauty\u201d and is in the public domain, like Faulkner\u2019s speech).<\/p>\n<p>The reason I\u2019m not a cynic about our current cultural and political malaise, is because of my faith in Christ, and his ability to change human lives from hopeless to hopeful, from faithless to faithful, from loveless to loving, and more. I like Sting\u2019s line \u2018I lost my faith in politicians\/they all seem like game show hosts to me\u2019, or worse\u00a0 in some cases they seem like pawns in the hands of the Liar in chief\u2014 Satan.<\/p>\n<p>I do not believe in the syncretistic and false religion called Christian nationalism, which is neither Christian, as it is based on hatred and division, both of which are tools of the powers of darkness, nor is it true patriotism in a country that has on its statue of liberty \u2018Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free\u201d written by Emma Lazarus in 1883 to be placed on the pedestal on the statue. At least then we realized we are overwhelmingly an immigrant nation (with the exception of the native Americans\u2014Indians), and immigrants are one of the things that has made this nation great. My great uncle was a doctor on Ellis island in the early 20<sup>th<\/sup> century and he saw so many of those immigrants coming into the country with nothing but their hope in their hands and a willingness to work hard and be Americans who believed in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the latter of which I would amend to \u2018the pursuit of holiness\u2019. \u00a0My great uncle had great stories to tell about these immigrants which could be called \u2018profiles in courage\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>It is a sign of the current sickness of our country that we want to blame most of our problems on immigrants.\u00a0 But think for a minute about the drug crisis in our country.\u00a0 Friends, the source of the problem is not primarily at the borders of our country but at the borders of our hearts. If Americans didn\u2019t want dangerous drugs and were not willing to pay for them we would not be supporting the drug cartels in other countries.\u00a0 Period.<\/p>\n<p>I write this at the cusp of perhaps our most important national election in our nation\u2019s history. I hope the American people will use critical thinking and vote, even if they think they are voting for the lesser of two evils.\u00a0 As for me, I remember a line from a hymn and another from a famous missionary\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy hope is based on nothing less\/ than Jesus\u2019 blood and righteousness\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And in the words of a missionary facing possible death at the hands of those he was trying to share the Gospel with\u2014\u2018the future is as bright as the promises of God\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Amen and amen.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Do you remember the phrase cock-eyed optimist?\u00a0 Well perhaps not, but it was a phrase used about persons who were or are overly na\u00efve about their life, or their country, or their world. I am reminded of the famous speech of William Faulkner when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969 in Amsterdam.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":63257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14970],"class_list":["post-68235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-take-off-your-tainted-glasses"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CYNICISM\u2014SEEING LIFE THROUGH DARK GLASSES<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; Do you remember the phrase cock-eyed optimist?\u00a0 Well perhaps not, but it was a phrase used about persons who were or are overly na\u00efve about their\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CYNICISM\u2014SEEING LIFE THROUGH DARK GLASSES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Do you remember the phrase cock-eyed optimist?\u00a0 Well perhaps not, but it was a phrase used about persons who were or are overly na\u00efve about their\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/11\/05\/cynicism-seeing-life-through-dark-glasses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-05T06:09:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-29T10:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/03\/main-qimg-93a0a20ebe1e1d252a5149f83b5da95f-lq-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"571\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/11\/05\/cynicism-seeing-life-through-dark-glasses\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/11\/05\/cynicism-seeing-life-through-dark-glasses\/\",\"name\":\"CYNICISM\u2014SEEING LIFE THROUGH DARK GLASSES\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-05T06:09:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-29T10:00:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; 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