Bad, awful thoughts...

Over the last few days I've seen a commercial for an upcoming movie called The Purge.  It's not a movie I want to see at this point, since I see about 3 movies in theaters a year and never get caught up by DVD of other watchable movies.  I don't like horror movies, and this probably would turn into one.

But the story of this movie has piqued my interest.  In the quasi-dystopian future, life seems to be great.  Unemployment is almost non-existent, crime has just about been wiped out.  Society seems to be functioning well, but why?  For 12 hours each year, there is absolute freedom...there will be no consequences for crime, for murder, for anything that somebody might do, and society purges itself of its most heinous elements all in a brief period of time.  Kind of a cathartic, violent release.

I'm intrigued because, if I'm completely honest, sometimes the wicked side of me thinks, hey, this ain't a bad idea.  Wouldn't our world be all better if the child molesters, drug dealers, rapists, and murders basically had open season on each other?  Or go even further...what about the members of society who are, quite frankly, burdensome?  The aged, the sick, the morbidly obese.  Doesn't darwinism say that eventually the weakest of the species will die out, and isn't this what basically we have been preventing over the last hundred or so years of social safety nets?  We see it all the time, that there are some humans who are breeding who really shouldn't be allowed to breed.  We see it in hospitals in which the chronically sick are kept alive even as they soak up resources.  We wonder if society might better be served if we just shot the child molesters rather than letting them live out their lives behind bars.  Heck, just a little bit ago I saw at the grocery store a guy getting out of a car who must of weighed half a thousand.  How much does his existence negatively affect my life?

Part of me really does want to see this movie...but as usual I'd probably be disappointed because of the lack of answers that are given (IMDB seems to indicate that it's basically a very personal story with few outside elements).  I'd rather see the big picture...do people go through hospitals euthanizing patients?  Do prisons turn into slaughterhouses?  Do the most violent of our cities burn?  Is most of the year dedicated to getting prepared for the purge?  Is the fastest growing industry home defense?  Is this all just an NRA wet dream?

Of course, in some respects we already seek to purge society of its vilest elements.  We lock people away into prisons, mental institutions, and even nursing facilities, so we can forget about some whom we'd rather not think about.  We then broadcast their lives on cable TV and call it 'reality'.  We watch it and feel better about our good lives.

I'll be honest, there are only two things that keeps me from thinking that this wouldn't be a bad idea:
1)There's probably at least a few people out there who think that me (or my family or my other loved ones) ought to be purged.  Admittedly, I'd be an easy target.  I don't keep guns, and I'm nearly a pacifist.  Anybody who wanted to kill me would not find it that hard to do.  So maybe this ain't a good idea on a selfish level.

2)From a Christ-honoring perspective, in which we honor all, both weak and strong, this mindset is abhorrent.  It is faithful, Godly people who have helped lay the foundation of our society in which we don't kill the guilty straightaway and we take care of the weakest of our society.  Notice how most hospitals were started by Christians?  Perhaps our society has forsaken some of the religious structures but the mindset of honoring all people still (grudgingly) remains.  That's Christianity in action.

Indeed, I think that this is where grace comes in.  By grace we recognize that others have a right to life and liberty, not just the most powerful among us.  The Ayn Rands of our culture probably would love this movie concept unconditionally, because it is a way of life based solely on the selfishness we can maintain.  It might make sense for a year or two that a society does this...but to what end?  Ultimately it denies the absolute sanctity of life, and whatever short-term gains that others be purged will be quickly overcome by the long-term destruction of any culture that systematically purges the weakest among themselves.  Catharsis might feel good for a short time, but eventually it's like a drug...if once a year, why not once a month?  Once a week?  Why not just abolish all forms of civilization?  I'm sure some would love this, but only the strongest and most selfish will survive. Not sure I'd want to stay alive for that.

I suppose in the end our scared selfishness, combined with our innate Christian compassion, is the reason why the Purge likely will not happen in our culture, at least in my lifetime.  Someday this movie might seem to be accurately predictive, but hopefully it is as spot-on about the future as the Jetsons.

Enemies List

Back in the early 1970s Richard Nixon became obsessed with his enemies.  Such obsession led to his eventual disgrace and downfall, and we now view him as a petty little man who destroyed himself.

So today on Twitter great sportswriter Joe Posnanski mentioned that the NRA publicly keeps an enemies list, and that both my Kansas City Royals and Kansas City Chiefs are on it.  What???  I've never particularly thought of the Royals or Chiefs as anything more than poorly-run franchises whom I still continue to support for whatever reason.  But I continued to look at this list and wonder, hey, these people are all anti-gun?  Really? I'm sure that the gun nut advocates are not surprised to see the major networks and newspapers on there, but Silver Dollar City?  Former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie?  Hallmark cards?  Yep, they are all there, and many, many more.

I'm a bit sad that somehow they have not put me on their enemies list yet, but then again I'm just a small-town preacher who isn't big enough to be on their radar. That's fine...I don't need to have people writing me and telling me I'm un-American because I have a different perspective on the second amendment than they do.  Maybe someday I'll be fortunate enough to receive death threats.

But what I'm really interested in is the fascinating idea of having an enemies list and keeping it in a very public place.  Who does this?  Who sits around and compiles the names of hundreds of people and organizations who do not like you?  If this was a person, we'd think him/her to be petty and paranoid all at the same time.  What do we then think about the NRA?

The NRA exists because they stand against the growing trend of public opinion about guns.  That's fine, we need those who will stand up and take a different road, even when that road leads to disaster.  That's part of the public debate.  Freedom means we need NAMBLA, it means we need euthanasia advocates, it means we need both the John Birch society and American communists.  Just as we needed those who would advocate against Jim Crow laws when they were common, or just as we need people now who will prick our consciences about the homeless when we'd rather have them out of mind, we need somebody who will stand up and say that guns are not the sole reason there is so much violence.  They need to keep speaking up even though the more they talk, the more many of us continue to run from their position.

But when you get to the point that you obsess about how many people don't like you, you've shown yourself to be nuts.  NRA, welcome to Crazytown.