Are We Living in Bizarro World?

I remember growing up watching the cartoon adventures of Superman, Batman, and the whole Super Friends gang. The Super Friends, of course, stood for truth, justice, and all things good. Every now and then the cartoon would take a specific cue from the DC Comics stories on which it was based and bring the characters from Bizarro World onto the scene. The characters were essentially the opposite of the Super Friends. The inhabitants of Bizarro World lived by the code, "Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!" You can imagine that on Bizarro World squares are seen as circles, love becomes hate, and good is seen as evil.

Sometimes I feel I am living in Bizarro World. Please allow me to explain. We live in a culture where we constantly hear buzzwords like "political correctness," "tolerance," "equality," and a plethora of other so-called "virtues." Conviction is seen as bigotry, hate, or fear, love is defined as encouraging one to do whatever makes them happy, and good is seen as merely subjective and in the eye of the beholder. In a sense, our culture has become a Bizarro World of sorts where traditional values and the classical understanding of good are rejected and their opposites, or at least very distorted versions of themselves, are accepted and championed as the new coveted "virtues." It actually seems to reflect the words of Isaiah in Is. 5:20, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

The reality, however, is that these "virtues" have replaced the true cardinal virtues which are grounded in reality (and ultimately in God); virtues such as wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. In other words, we have rejected the truly beautiful (and truth itself) for whatever stirs the emotions and provides some type of shock value. As philosopher Dr. Edward Feser notes (and yes, Dr. Feser is a Catholic, though one need not agree with everything regarding his, or other Catholics', theology and doctrine to appreciate and learn from their teaching on metaphysics and philosophy),

A soul which strives primarily to acquire those traditional cardinal virtues, even while acknowledging the value within limits of open-mindedness, empathy, tolerance, and fairness in the process of acquiring them, is rightly ordered.  But a soul which primarily values open-mindedness, empathy, tolerance, and fairness, and either rejects the traditional cardinal virtues or relegates them to second place, is disordered.  Similarly, a rightly ordered society will value the traditional cardinal virtues over open-mindedness, empathy, tolerance, and fairness, whereas a society which celebrates the latter over the former is disordered.  Even if it uses the language of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice, it will not respect or promote true virtue, but only its counterfeit.

A primary example of this counterfeited and disordered thinking is the idea of redefining marriage to include same-sex couples. North Carolina is no stranger to this debate, and unless you live under a rock you know that choosing sides on this issue is often seen like being a Carolina or Duke fan, there is no middle ground! We have seen this illustrated in the controversy regarding Chick-fil-a, certain out-of-context comments from the CEO of Starbucks, the designations of "mother" and "father" being removed from certain government documents in other countries, and this past week's Supreme Court hearings regarding the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8. One of the more recent high-profile examples of this debate is the The Boy Scouts of America's ongoing inquiry regarding their decision to change their policy of not allowing practicing homosexuals in their leadership and membership.

Let me be very clear. I am NOT saying that those who support same-sex "marriage" are intentionally disregarding the cardinal virtues, truth, beauty, God, or anything else in attempt to simply make reality a Bizarro World. In fact, I think many of those who support same-sex "marriage" often do so out of very admirable and sincere motives. Likewise, many who oppose such a redefinition often do so out of very evil motives. Ideas, however, must be judged on their own merits and not on the motives of their supporters or opposition.

I hope you realize that quoting a Bible verse or saying "The Bible says it, I believe, that settles it," is not an adequate response to the same-sex "marriage" debate (or much of any other debate in our culture). How do we know the Bible is true? Why should someone accept it as an authority? These are questions that need to be answered if one is simply going to appeal to the Bible. Assuming you are a Christian, would you take a Muslim's word for it that you should accept some idea as true simply because the Quran says so? I certainly think the Bible does teach that marriage is designed for one man and one woman for life. But, I also think such a conclusion can be reasoned to and defended from simply thinking well about reality, a reality which we all share.

In the weeks to come we will be looking at some of the arguments for and against traditional marriage and same-sex "marriage." It is my hope and prayer that you will begin to think well about this issue and be able to lovingly and respectfully dialog with others about this as well. As we journey through this discussion it will become clear that same-sex "marriage" advocates, and those who struggle with homosexual behavior, are usually seeking very good things just in the wrong way. In other words, they've bought a counterfeit and have come to think that Bizarro World is actually reality.

I will warn you that thinking about this issue will, heaven forbid, require you to do some philosophy. But as G.K. Chesterton said,

Philosophy is merely thought that has been thought out. It is often a great bore. But man has no alternative, except between being influenced by thought that has been thought out and being influenced by thought that has not been thought out. The latter is what we commonly call culture and enlightenment today. But man is always influenced by thought of some kind, his own or somebody else’s; that of somebody he trusts or that of somebody he never heard of, thought at first, second or third hand; thought from exploded legends or unverified rumours; but always something with the shadow of a system of values and a reason for preference. A man does test everything by something. The question here is whether he has ever tested the test.

The Apostle Paul says in Phil. 4:8, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things." That is precisely what we are going to attempt to do. I hope you will join us.

For His glory,
Adam Tucker