They have a law against “injury or risk of injury to, or impairing morals of, children.”

I think this law is fantastic. It’s exactly the kind of law that should exist – the law that simply says, “Don’t do wrong.” This is the best law – it’s simple, it’s direct, and it upholds what is good. It’s obvious.

My first thought on seeing this law was that it was completely unenforceable. How rotten have we gotten? When someone says, “You can’t legislate morality” they’re really just stating the awful fact that our fragmented ideas of good are utterly fallen – to the point where we can’t even build a society worth living in.

The Bible sets as the vision of a great society one in which the notion of what is good and right is implanted – so deeply embedded that it doesn’t need discussion or teaching – or legislation. Law, it seems, is a testimony to brokenness. Where there is no transgression, there need be no law!

The interesting thing is, I found this law by reading a news story where a man was actually being charged with it (I can’t remember the story).

This law is enforceable – but it’s enforceable in special cases: those cases which operate on the principle, “I know it when I see it.” In some cases you can trot this law before judge and jury and they will just apply it without any discussion or controversy.

Again, this is the perfection of law – the idea that we can see something and immediately know the rightness or wrongness of it. But again, this is flawed, because we are flawed.

We live in a world where good laws are unenforceable as a very consequence of their goodness, and of our very badness.

This has a consequence for lawyers: they are dedicated to a system that is entirely a function of human evil.

I wonder what aspects of my own workplace are a function of human evil?

Today’s search was,

“does the bible say stay away from moron”

I’m gutted that I’m writing this post after the fact; this is a fabulous question and I’d have loved it if my blog could have provided a useful answer to the unknown seeker.

This is such a great question! “Does the Bible say, ‘Stay away from moron?’”

Well… Does it? What does the Bible say about morons?

Exhibit A:

He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. — Proverbs 13:20 (NIV)

Short Answer – Yes! Case closed?

I’m not so sure. The book of Proverbs is pretty hard on fools, but if you read the verses in proverbs condemning fools… they all have a certain flavour. A Biblical fool is one who is willfully ignorant.

Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. — Psalm 107:17 (NIV)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. — Proverbs 1:7 (NIV)
A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but fools detest turning from evil. — Proverbs 13:9 (NIV)
Fools mock at making amends for sin, but goodwill is found among the upright. — Proverbs 14:9 (NIV)

On the basis of these verses, Biblical foolishness is something very specific. A fool is one who says, in his heart, “There is no God.” A fool is someone who willfully commits to destructive, self-centered behaviour, regardless of the evidence and of the wisdom against it.  A fool is born of rebellion; a fool is one who is set against God and wisdom because they know what’s best and they will have it their way. A fool is dangerous.

But that’s not what we mean when we call someone a moron. Acting stupidly is something we all do. A moron is a simple person, and while a Biblical fool might well be simple, they have an intent that goes beyond simplicity.

The Bible does not say, “Stay away from moron.”

When I think of staying away from a moron, I think of something I do because I despise them or look down upon them. This is the opposite of what Jesus means when he says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

But when I think of staying away from a fool, it means not endorsing or embracing logic that leads to destruction.

So no, O Mystery Internet Seeker. The Bible does not say, “Stay away from moron.”

Be the moron that all the fools laugh at.

Here’s how it was – I saw a notice in the church bulletin for a three session course on Christian Life and Witness, sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

I thought, “That has to be good; I should go.” and so I went.

Part of the little course package they handed out was a DVD. When I received it, I thought, “Oh, goody. More overproduced Christian cultural advertising.”

But it’s not. Its the entire NIV bible as .mp3 and as text… And the NIV is the good version – the 1973 copyright version that’s not going public domain any time soon. Score!

I love getting stuff. Who doesn’t love getting stuff? It makes me feel Great to get stuff. I just got the most tremendous jag when I realized I’d gotten a whole free audio NIV and a whole free html version of the NIV.

But then I thought to my little idolatrous self – I have NIVs scattered about my house. I can search the entire NIV text online, already.

Our modern information age is making a spiritual truth more important than ever. This might eventually be a good thing; it might force us to learn something the hard way that we would otherwise never have bothered to learn.

In the Gospels, Jesus talks to a rich young ruler who knows everything and who has done everything. He’s flawless, and yet Jesus is able to speak right to the heart of what he needs. The ruler comes asking, “What must I do to gain eternal life?” and Jesus is able to pick out what the ruler hasn’t done.

The ruler hasn’t received the Scriptures inside him. He has read them and obeyed them and has followed all the commandments since he was a boy, but he hasn’t received God’s word inside him. This is why he is confused about eternal life, and this is why he ultimately goes away sad. Although the ruler has engaged the scriptures at a shallow level, Jesus opens up a deeper level to them.

“I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

The psalmist’s declaration talks about receiving the Word of God. There’s scripture we know and have, and then… there’s Scripture we receive. Scripture we accept and make a part of us. The psalmist is talking about words to live by.

On the internet, information is becoming ever cheaper and cheaper. I have access to more information than I could ever glut myself on in a thousand lifetimes. But the only information that does me any good is the information that I take advantage of. Simply the state of having it available to me does me no good whatsoever. I look at it all and I get really sad, because I’d like to harvest it all, but I can’t.

If our modern internet world will teach us one thing, it will teach us that information is useless and that informed living is priceless.

Simply reading the scripture without making any commitment to doing what it says will put me in the same boat – walking away sad.

Every once in a while, I stumble upon a little piece of truth which is so true and so incredible that I have to write about it. So I sit down to think. I try to chew out the essence of it. I chew and I ruminate and I attempt to stick words on it.

Eventually I crack open my Bible, and there my thought sits, pre-distilled and pre-recorded. Exactly the words that I want to use. Already taken.

At this point, I suffer from two jarring questions.

1) How did I ever read those words before yet not arrive at the thought? They’re the best description of this truth, the shortest, the clearest, the purest… and even so I’ve missed the truth in previous readings.

2) If the Bible already says it in the best possible way (and it oh so clearly does), what can I write about?

Time for a Jackie Pullinger* quote:

“The most important thing that I look for in any spiritual book is whether it makes me want to read ‘The Book.’”

Oh, and a John** quote:

“This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”

There is no new truth. There is only the truth.

And so while it might be proud and pretentious (and wrong!) to believe that I have received a new truth, that I can do anything other than point to Scripture with a big fat arrow, “Truth Here” …

It’s false humility and a denial of the church to say that I don’t have the right to testify about what Jesus has done (is doing!) in my life. John doesn’t have a monopoly on describing the things that Jesus has done. Is not my testimony also true? (Well, some of it anyway ) Don’t I get to spill some ink?

I guess there is validity to Christian writing. Whew! Otherwise, I’d have to deny the many Christian books which have had a dramatic impact on my life, teaching and clarifying the Gospel.

But there’s not a lot of room for pride. Looking at the basis for it… well… It’s really all about God, isn’t it?

* Foreword to “The Weapons of our Warfare” by Mare Allison
** John 21:24-25, KJV

I believe bits of it.