More Brain Pain

A friend dropped by to visit me a few weeks ago, someone I've known since I was 11. I am unusually lucky, I think, to have a few life-long friends, people I've known since 5th, 6th, 7th grade that I am still close to. Anyway, he dropped by, and we had fast food and unhurried conversation. The conversation ranged over No Child Left Behind, salvation by grace, and economic theory. I was commenting on the fact that, contrary to the old saying (never trust a young conservative or an old liberal), I seemed to be getting a little more liberal in my old age.

He told me a story of when the first liberal seeds were planted in his heart. About 10 - 15 years ago, in the midst of an economic downturn, he happened to be the employment specialist for his local church. His assignment was to help those who needed it to find work; some he was able to help and some he wasn't. But he mentioned in one meeting that things must be tough for a lot of people. He had been walking in downtown Salt Lake City and had been approached by an unusually large number of people asking for money. And he let it slip that he had given them some.

The leader of the meeting immediately chided him for handing money to beggars, and began a recitation about how many of them had chosen that kind of life by their actions, and so forth. My guess is he eventually got around to the part about not giving people fishes but instead teaching them to fish.

Intermission

Is anyone else feeling a little uncomfortable at this point? Anybody think that seems a little strange in a Christian church? Yeah, me too.

End of Intermission

My friend, to his credit, just let his eyes glaze over and started to think about the story of the Good Samaritan. But the seeds were planted. The Gospel of Utah Republicanism was never quite the same for him.

See, stuff like that makes my brain hurt. I happen to be familiar with this particular religious tradition, and I know there's a revered old King named Benjamin who had some fairly peppery advice for anyone who would say, "The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just."

Another thing that melts my Jello is that there is no way that guy could have provided any proof for what he said: how would he possibly know what those people had chosen or not chosen? How could he have known what was in the hearts and lives of so many people -- to say nothing of what was in my friend's heart? But that didn't keep him from spouting off the party line as though it was true beyond dispute. Alas, it is a common malady, even among people who should know better. In the words of Slim Pickins in Blazing Saddles, "I am depressed."