Settling for Second Best

Letters From Behind the Lines

Enemy-occupied territory – that is what the world is. … When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.

- C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity, II-2

Settling for Second Best – Reflections for Canada Day

National holidays are days of challenge for the Christian living behind the lines. We are not free to ignore them, even if there were a way to do so, or if, as in 2003 in Canada, it would be more comfortable to do so. Holy Scripture records the instructions to the exiles in Babylon:

Build houses, settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce; take wives and have sons and daughters; choose wives for your sons, find husbands for your daughters so that they can bear sons and daughters in their turn; you must increase there and not decrease. Work for the good of the country to which I have exiled you; pray to Yahweh on its behalf, since on its welfare depends yours.

- Jeremiah 29:5 ff (JB)

And as it was for the Chosen People in Babylon, so it is for the people of Canada, and the people in the rest of the First World today.

On the one hand, Canada is a country whose national anthem asks, “God, keep our land / Glorious and free.” In that, it is similar to other nations, like its neighbour to the south, which declares, “In God we trust.” On the other hand, it seems quite determined, also like its near neighbour, to settle for second best, and go it on its own, without reference to the source of the very blessings it seeks to celebrate. It has, among the nations of the world, been given of the very best. It has also chosen, in spite of that, to settle for second best.

In a speech that is at least as honest as it is disturbing, the Prime Minister of Canada bore witness to this sad decision. In characterizing Canada, he stated:

Our citizenship is defined by common values. Values such as freedom, tolerance, sharing and compassion. These values guide us and unite us. They have been the foundation of our history and the nation we are today. These values are like a beacon of light that shine throughout the world and bring newcomers to our country – new Canadians to share the journey of nation-building. Together we are making Canada the best country in the world to live in. A country that is rich in its diversity and blessed with resources.

The troubling aspect of this observation is encapsulated in one word: “values.” Stocks, bonds, commodities, land, buildings – these things have a value. A value is arrived at by the convention and agreement of people. For who is to say what the definitive worth of an ownership share of a company, its debentures, its goods, produce, or assets might be? None of these things have intrinsic worth, and are subject, not improperly, to trade and barter. Concluding, though, that all and everything is of such a character is not only inappropriate, but also a serious and ultimately a dangerous error. And it is an error the Prime Minister has made in his remarks.

There are entities which are properly treated as values apart from those which are the playthings of politics and the marketplace. More importantly, there are entities which it is never appropriate to approach in such a manner. The Prime Minister mentions two of them in his speech, sharing and compassion. For these flow from virtue, not from an agreed consensus. In a nation of misers, it would still be a virtue to give food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, care and medicine to the sick. No matter how noble the undertaking, it is always a virtue to turn and give comfort to one in need, who in the terms of value, apparently has none, as did Mother Theresa of Calcutta. It is right that the Prime Minister called the attention of the nation to these virtues on the country’s national day. It is troubling that he degrades them by labeling them as values.

Many would ask what difference it makes. The difference can be seen in the examination of the state of the other two entities he touches on in the same sentence, freedom and tolerance. What becomes of these when virtues are debased into values?

Let us take tolerance first. The term, in Canada, has become less the name of a principle and more an incantation. As a principle, tolerance defines a zone in which variations and differences are not a matter of concern. Look at the specifications page in the instruction manual of any device you own. The computer I am using right now, for instance, will operate properly within a wide range of non-condensing atmospheric humidity. There is no need for me to run to the hygrometer, and adjust devices that regulate the environment in my house in order that I can use it. But tolerance equally says, “This far, and no farther.” Had I been using it out on my deck when a brief squall passed over a few minutes ago, rather than inside, this aspect of tolerance would have very quickly made itself evident. Where there is tolerance, implicitly there are limits.

It is those limits that are ignored where virtues are degraded to values. No more is there the implicit safety zone defined by the admonition, “This far, and no farther.” Instead, as an incantation, the invocation of tolerance becomes indistinguishable from the whining, petulant, mouthing of self-centered adolescents, who set about doing as they please while declaring, “Whatever” to those whom they shock and disgust. Tolerance ceases to exist; the word becomes meaningless, and the concept vacuous.

Without true tolerance, how can there be any freedom, the second entity the Prime Minister references. For freedom, true freedom, also depends very much on the limit, “This far, and no farther.” Every year here in British Columbia, we hear the stories of people who come to grief through counterfeit freedom. There are many local ski areas, and some of them have areas that are “out of bounds.” Well, not for them. The snow is fresh; the vistas are wide; the lure is evident; the results have been fatal. Freedom, in the absence of limits, became license. In the end, there were still limits, ultimate limits, and encountering those limits proved fatal. As it is with skiers, so it can be with nations.

So for the Canadian Christian, this national holiday is a not untroubling occasion. As virtues are presented as being implicitly no different from values, we are also called to look inward and be thankful. Mother Theresa lived in a country where looking inward was a very much established and accepted approach. She looked outward, as a Christian, and today is a treasured and revered example for both Christians and people who acknowledge the existence of virtue. We live in a country that has looked inward, and chosen to abandon God’s plan for men, women, and family – the very plan that the Chosen People were to put into effect, even in exile, even in Babylon. We live in a country whose political structures have declared themselves free of standards they have not themselves devised. We live when, once again, the admonition of Moses,

Be sure that if you forget Yahweh your God … -- I warn you today – you will most certainly perish.

Deut. 8:19-20 (JB)

But we live in it as a people redeemed by the death, and given hope by the resurrection, of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; a people who can say:

We know that by turning everything to their good, God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those called according to his purpose.

Rom. 8:28 (JB)

As Christians, we must, on this national holiday, rededicate ourselves to following the direction given to the exiles in Babylon, and “work for the good of the country,” knowing that the good is found not by looking inward, but by looking to receive the gifts and the strength that a loving and redeeming God is eager to give those who acknowledge and submit to his design for his human creation. We must not settle for second best. For if we do, then what will become of this land of abundant blessings?