There needs to be some method found to educate the public in all nations that the way to social problem solving is found in a moral (value) pattern for personal and social conduct. Scripture makes clear that God has a general (universal) approach to the world that works even for those persons (individuals) and nations (social groups) who do not acknowledge God or any spiritual context to human life. Part of the context of the evolutionary theory presents a case for creation and humanity – that what we have has arrived to us through a flow of natural forces offering the present earth and cosmos that appear in our self-conscious experience. It is interesting that the general view of evolution follows the steps registered in the story of creation offered in the biblical Genesis. There is consecutive match between both the creative narrative and the human concept of evolutionary development. Our first concern in the world population is not in the matter of beginnings so much as to how we make work and live in a context that makes life reflective of how mankind ought to live – in love, peace, decency, order (work and play), fulfilled in self and relationships that, in balance, make the earth a better habitat for ourselves and future generations.
God’s meaning for mankind, even secular mankind, is for love and peace. Mankind moves about in a stew of emotional responses to earth and peoples. There are elements that spoil life context found in prejudice, hatreds, revenge, conflicts, conquering, selfishness, arrogance, ignorance, immaturity, and misuse of some factors, like competition, and other negatives that move mankind backwards from the ideals meant for self-conscious humankind – the only ones in nature who can enjoy the meaning of life and understanding of that which is available. The consequences are fierce in warfare, terrorism, bullying, divisions of fierce and destructive effort by which we not only lose or delay peaceful objectives, but intensify any harshness of life. This is being written during Thanksgiving week in 2014. On Monday a report of a grand jury found no reason to prosecute a police officer (white race) who shot to death a young man (person of color). The events were recited, with conflicting evidence related to the case. For a number of days there had occurred demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri, which were ugly and required militia attention. In the ultimate national media announcement of the appointed group that the officer was not guilty of acting so to be charged, the community erupted in fires, looting, harsh confrontations, and that extended to other communities across the nation. Apparently offended persons hoped to find some solace in violence. They likely found no solace, even in some odd glimmer of satisfaction that did nothing for solutions, but rather created another delay in finding solutions. The context has been multiplied in the story of history.
What would happen in this case if the peaceful approach and ideas of Martin Luther King, of Mahatma Gandhi, of Jesus, of Moses had been engaged? Moses did not want or seek any loss for Egyptians or their leaders. He did want his people free, and resorted to prayer and argument for the purpose. The Egyptians by choosing the negatives encountered responses that they invited in disregarding the call to justice. The punishment was invited by the Egyptians, but not from the victimized. As much as it may trouble the human mind, the victim is never strong enough alone to fight the person or the system to gain objectives.
One solution to our problems of mutual obligation to each other combines education with whatever mysterious benefits will accrue to society in the shift from negative responses to affirmative. In the matter of education I would suggest that each state (community) determine the public provision for the education of children so to gain what the community wishes to gain from the cultivation of its youth, and that the department of education on the national level turn to an educational pattern for education of the citizenry in the development of just citizenship. Each week would be designated as a practical objective for the education of a unity of national meaning. One week, the New Year, another Family, and so on – Health, Thanksgiving, Stewardship, Psychology, Loyalty, Labor, Children, Nature, Industry, and so on. If well done, using whatever we can to advance the program, we might just get closer to God’s earth meaning. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020