Hard Choices

ICE, Immigration, & Compromise

Dear Friends,

I am tired of writing Quarter Inch newsletters about American citizens being shot and killed by Federal agents. One is too many, two is intolerable, and if this skirmish in Minneapolis continues it is likely to get uglier. Here is something that we ought to internalize and reckon with: cooler heads do not automatically prevail. For that to happen, choices—hard ones, even—must be made by responsible people. Hatred and violence come naturally to fallen, fleshly people; self-control does not.

I lament the loss of life and the complex perfect storm of circumstances that has brought it about. But I lament even more that Isaiah 59 reads like an Op-Ed published today. The whole chapter is worth reading and meditating upon, but this bit stands out to me:

Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the LORD, turning our backs on our God, fomenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived. So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.

Truth has stumbled in the streets. Next to the actual deaths of two people, truth is the casualty I lament most. Truth. The ease with which people utter lies they have conceived in their hearts—worse, the ease with which people believe such lies—is a measure of our social and cultural corruption. And the culture of lies is endemic; no one seems to escape its snare. Left and Right, each warring tribe has its own self-serving narrative to justify and to foment further hatred and animosity. These “just so” stories are artificial, two-dimensional, and melodramatic. Whatever elements of truth they may have is belied and made worthless by the fact that they are being weaponized in the causes of unrighteousness. A “truth” in the service of lies is no longer truth.