Tearing Down the Greats

Somewhere along the line Americans have decided they are the epitome of morality. And Christians have bought into this idea wholesale. 

"Oh no, no one is good but Christ" you might say to yourself. And that's the problem right there. The Christian flavor of virtue signaling. We feel like we are justified by how much more "Christian" we are than the next person. We can't chew up the meat and spit out the bones anymore. If there are any bones, if there's any cartilage, if the fat isn't lean enough, if the meat is lower quality, if we have any opportunity to make a correction at all, then we must. And we can write off those who don't measure up to our perfection since they obviously had flaws. 

You can't quote Thomas Jefferson, he read the Bible with a pair of scissors.

You can't appreciate Christopher Columbus, he ushered European colonialism into the americas.

4 people were burned for heresy in Geneva while John Calvin was the prominent elder of the church there.

John McArthur had the audacity to write a study bible.

Alexander the Great was morally reprobate.

Augustine believed in paedobaptism.

The French Huguenots were.... well.... French.

The list of people who made it into the history books, but not perfectly, goes on.

And that's the crux of what irks me so much about this Christian version of virtue signaling.

In the vast sea of humans who have lived on this planet, out of the billions and trillions if not more, people who have lived, how many have their names recorded somewhere? How many people did something worth remembering with their lives? I would say it's an extremely small fraction of those who have lived. Yet, we've decided, that right here right now, we are the most morally developed and our ancestors are all neanderthals who should be ignored at best, the only value in their lives coming from the mistakes they made that we condemn them for and certainly wouldn't have committed were we in their shoes.

Thomas Jefferson could write two different thoughts, on two different pieces of paper, in two different languages, simultaneously!! And we're not talking he could write in English and French, even he could write those languages too. No, this trick was done in Latin and Greek! The man was a genius. Way smarter than me, that's for sure. And his brain helped develop America's founding documents and legal philosophies. He was absolutely critical to the success of early America.

But, I'm certainly justified in writing him off because he would cut the parts of the Bible out that he didn't like. I'm certainly more morally developed than he is and can just ignore him for the most part.

Christopher Columbus sailed across an unassailable ocean to discover undocumented land and interact with entire nations who had no idea who he was and he had no idea who they were. He was faced with daily reports of sea monsters and endless storms and the probability with falling right off the face of the earth while some of his own men tried to mutiny. Yet he did it. And he made it into the history books because of his amazing courage and being right about an idea that no one else believed. But what's he remembered for? Bringing European colonialism to the americas. Enslaving native Americans and stealing their land. Giving native Americans diseases they had no immunities against. (Side note, they're not native to America. But, that's a different conversation)

It takes a certain level of arrogance and self righteousness to decide that we are superior to the giants whose shoulders we stand on. 

In all likelihood I won't be remembered past my great grandchildren. And neither will you. So, I would rather spend my time learning from the greats who have come before me in order to push my children even further forward, than spending my time tearing them down.