In the debates that are raging in today's culture, a common argument used against traditional positions is that they are on the "wrong side of history." Those who are progressive believe that history is moving to a great progressive end and that they are on the side that will proven by history to have been on the right side of the argument. They proclaim that those of us who disagree with them will be left in the dust of history.
Of course this argument fails on so many levels. However, I will only mention two here today. The first lies in the idea that there is a right side of history and that progressives are sure that they are on it. If one looks back at only the last hundred years, the progressives in our society have been notoriously bad at choosing the right side of history. Politically, the progressive cultural elites of our society have at one time or another sided with Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Some even today try to rehabilitate these individuals even though they were collectively responsible for the murders of approximately 50 million people. Morally, progressives were at the head of the eugenics movement that valued the extermination of "useless eaters." Although the language of this movement has gone underground in recent years, the philosophy is still present in the rampant abortion industry found in western countries. Progressives have a no better track record than any other group at determining what is the right side of history.
The second failure in this line of argument is what I would like to call a "chronological arrogance." As Obama once declared, "we are the ones we have been waiting for." That is one of the most arrogant statements ever made. In all of human history, nobody is smarter than us. No one ever thought as clearly about the issue as we have. They all were benighted primitives who didn't have the intelligence to understand the issue the way that we do. In this fashion we negate all the careful arguments of previous generations not because they have been disproved, but because we are superior to them purely by having a later date of birth. This arrogance particularly appears among so-called "Christian" progressives. 1900 years of Bible interpretation by millions of people are set aside merely because having been born at the end of the chain makes us smarter than all those who went before. May God forgive us for such arrogance.
Of course this argument fails on so many levels. However, I will only mention two here today. The first lies in the idea that there is a right side of history and that progressives are sure that they are on it. If one looks back at only the last hundred years, the progressives in our society have been notoriously bad at choosing the right side of history. Politically, the progressive cultural elites of our society have at one time or another sided with Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Some even today try to rehabilitate these individuals even though they were collectively responsible for the murders of approximately 50 million people. Morally, progressives were at the head of the eugenics movement that valued the extermination of "useless eaters." Although the language of this movement has gone underground in recent years, the philosophy is still present in the rampant abortion industry found in western countries. Progressives have a no better track record than any other group at determining what is the right side of history.
The second failure in this line of argument is what I would like to call a "chronological arrogance." As Obama once declared, "we are the ones we have been waiting for." That is one of the most arrogant statements ever made. In all of human history, nobody is smarter than us. No one ever thought as clearly about the issue as we have. They all were benighted primitives who didn't have the intelligence to understand the issue the way that we do. In this fashion we negate all the careful arguments of previous generations not because they have been disproved, but because we are superior to them purely by having a later date of birth. This arrogance particularly appears among so-called "Christian" progressives. 1900 years of Bible interpretation by millions of people are set aside merely because having been born at the end of the chain makes us smarter than all those who went before. May God forgive us for such arrogance.
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