The Ponder Nook

The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel (1847)      All stories have an adversary. Sometimes they can be less concrete, such as natural disasters, or inevitable consequences of actions. Usually, however, they come in the form of an antagonist in direct conflict with the hero of the story. The Big Bad Wolf stalks and eats Little Red Riding Hood, The Evil Queen desires to kill Snow White over her beauty, Sauron seeks to destroy all who would come between him and the One Ring. In all these examples, it seems to me that the bad guy is either obsessed with the protagonist or sees them as a hindrance to their own evil agenda. One of the oldest, and most despised adversaries in western culture is, beyond a doubt, the Devil. According to mainstream Christian belief, Satan, or Lucifer, is a fallen archangel who rebelled in a war in heaven and is seen as a rival to God, striving to tempt as many souls as possible into damnation. Within the context of  Christianity, Satan stands ...

  We have all heard the time-worn adage, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” And often it seems people try to pin the cliche on things that truly are broken. The check engine light turns on, but the car still gets you from point A to point B. You have recurring back pain but you push through your daily routine. A virus warning flashes on your computer screen, but you click ignore yet again. What we think is working is only a malfunction or two away from falling apart completely and can be expensive to repair or replace. Similarly, a system of governance, if ignored and taken for granted, can exhibit the same symptoms of wear before it begins to break down. Political groups polarize, compromise is abandoned for rigid idealism, Congress grinds to a halt, people lose faith in their leaders, and extremism grows rampant among the population. In the United States, the signs are everywhere that things are not working and the distance between right and left, liberal and conservative, rural...