“But why?” It was my constant refrain as a child. The adults in my life, though they loved me (and still do), said I was an occasional pest, as I was never satisfied with a status quo response. “Because I said so!” or “because it just is” couldn’t quench my thirst for knowledge.
From childhood, I’ve been passionate about writing. I found solace in my grade school and college writing professors who concurred with my perspective on detail. “Don’t just tell me you like the book”, they’d say in some form or another. “Tell me why you like the book. Which part of the book resonates with you?”
The motivation to provide deeper meaning is why I resonate with the literary process overall. My affinity for it took me deep into the realms of poetry and fables especially. I consider both as windows into the human condition.
Poet and fabulist, Ivan Krylov, made a poignant observation about humanity with his 1814 tale, “The Inquisitive Man”. Krylov writes of a man who visits a museum. All of the small exhibits catch his eye, but he fails to see an elephant in prime view.
Decades later, the 1935 Broadway musical, Jumbo, incorporated elements of Krylov’s tale. The protagonist, actor Jimmy Durante, is stopped by a police officer while pulling a giant elephant across the stage. The officer asks what he’s doing with the elephant, to which Durante replies, “What elephant?”
It’s believed this scene was key to the phrase “ignoring the elephant in the room” or when someone consciously denies what’s otherwise crystal clear because it’s uncomfortable to handle.
A proverbial elephant appeared for the country to see on June 24, 2022. On that day, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn an almost 50-year precedent — stemming from the 1973 Roe vs. Wade case — which gave expectant parents the unfathomable option to terminate their pregnancy.
Social media posts from champions of the pro-life cause celebrated the Court’s final opinion. They gloated over opponents, and it was prominent from the church-at-large. As a member of the body of Christ, my reaction was muted, however. Why? I believe it exhibited an inconvenient truth we’ve ignored and yet many others have suspected for a long time.
More than a monumental step to display compassion towards mothers, fathers, and children, I believe the Supreme Court’s judgment fed our inner animal, which harbors an insatiable appetite to “get one over on someone”, for control.
That need to fight back and be the leader of the herd was encapsulated by former Georgia state gubernatorial candidate, Kandiss Taylor. In a passionate May 22, 2022 pre-electoral speech, she revealed the church-at-large’s ulterior motive: “The church runs the state of Georgia. This state is sovereign. This is our state. We decide what happens. We decide if we kill babies. That’s our choice. I pray Roe versus Wade gets overturned, it should be. But let’s get one thing straight: The States didn’t give them the right to have Roe versus Wade to begin with!”
When we prioritize the law as a change agent over grace, we nullify the transformative power of Christ. The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 2:21, “I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” Some may believe otherwise, but it effectively says to the Lord that He’s no longer essential.
When we “leave it to the states” to bring about morality, we abandon our responsibility to share the Gospel, which alters human nature, followed by behavior. If we pin our hopes for righteousness on the government, we’ll have — as the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:5 — “a form of godliness but denying its power.”
There’ll come a day when the political and ideological composition of the Supreme Court will shift again. Therefore, we must become more vigilant in sharing the love and forgivenesses through spiritual rebirth from Jesus Christ. He’s the only One who can replace a heart of stone with one of surrender and contain the beast within.
Sources:
Book: “The Inquisitive Man” by Ivan Andreevich Krylov
Article: “Elephant in the room” – Wikipedia
Article: “Elephant in the room” – Grammarist
Article: “GOP gubernatorial candidate running on ‘Jesus, Guns, Babies’ platform says ‘the church rules the state of Georgia” by Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, published May 22, 2022
Scripture: Galatians 2:21 (New Living Translation)*
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:5 (New King James Version)*
*Scripture references are taken from bible.com, courtesy of YouVersion, makers of the Bible App available for iOS and Android devices
