The notion that the battles of prior generations are “won” for the next – just doesn’t happen. The battles over civil rights, women’s rights, … realizing the dream of the Constitution. A long slog, a forever journey. An evolution of minds, hearts, … and habits.
And sometimes conflicts are not so much won as just left behind by succeeding generations (without necessarily any linear progress either).
So, for example, let’s take the case of the Times cover page back in 1966 which asked “Is God Dead?” [1] At the time, that was really no big deal for many in my seminary. We’d already been reading books about the “(experiential) reality of God” and such. The transformative experience of faith. Existence was not a useful topic any longer. No more faith vs reason debates. Faith accommodated the discoveries of science. The Earth was not the center of the Universe. Evolution was okay as well (but that battle remained also [3]).
But it all got worse, all so much worse. Because the dismissal of God’s existence left a void. The claim and experience of monotheism persisted. It still left the feelings. The gut. And what was to be done about those? (Remember our mantra [2].)
And what about those still trying to establish a theocracy? Those wanting to de facto end the Constitutional separation of church and state?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_God_Dead%3F
[2]
What’s the good news about habits? They’re hard to break.
What’s the bad news about habits? They’re hard to break.
[3] For example, the creation–evolution controversy, as satirized by The Simpsons S17 E21 “The Monkey Suit.”
“The Monkey Suit” is the twenty-first and penultimate episode of the seventeenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 14, 2006. In the episode, Ned Flanders is shocked after seeing a new display at the museum about evolution. Together with Reverend Lovejoy, he spreads the religious belief of creationism in Springfield, and at a later town meeting, teaching evolution is made illegal. As a result, Lisa decides to hold secret classes for people interested in evolution. However, she is quickly arrested and a trial against her is initiated.