In 1946, men were occupied with thoughts of rebuilding. World War 2 devastated lives and economies. How do you recover from ruin? Where do you begin rebuilding?
Writing immediately after the war, Quaker, Elton Trueblood, considered this question in his book, Foundations for Reconstruction.[1] He concludes “the primary task is that of moral reconstruction.”[2] The first thing necessary for the construction of a lasting society is a consistent morality.
One might build a thriving small business, but if the employees steal from the company, it won’t last long. We might emphasize science and technology, but they provide no advancement to civilization if the scientists are immoral. “Science is lost whenever the unmercenary love of truth ceases to be honored.“[3] What good is a scientist who feels no compulsion to tell the truth? He might ruin a nation during a pandemic.
For over 90 years now, American leadership has made a conscious effort to embrace secular humanism. Beginning with the first edition of the Humanist Manifestos in 1933, our leaders sought to push “religion” into a corner. Bit-by-bit, that corner has become ever smaller.
We can only conclude this has ended in massive failure. As Trueblood notes, “There is one thing worse than failure to reach an accepted standard and that is to have no standard to miss.”[4] No standard is exactly what the secularist approach provides. Believing no god exists, every man is a god unto himself. This is the essence of the disunity in these United States.
Trueblood noted in 1946 the urgency of recovering a moral foundation. “What we require now is a clear understanding of the [Ten Commandments] as relevant to our troubled human situation.”[5] Then and now, it is imperative we teach our children what God’s Law is and why it is relevant. Isn’t a significant part of discipling the nations that we teach “them to observe all [Christ] commanded” (Matthew 28:20)?
As we consider Christ’s commands, we must note both the negative and positive aspect of each. Trueblood wrote that the positive aspect of the commands was “the most exciting idea” that came to him when he was writing Foundations.[6] He believed many of his contemporaries viewed the commands with contempt “because its form seems merely negative and thereby repressive.”[7] He notes, however, that “perhaps some will be given an entirely new view of the Decalogue if once they see that the heart of the matter is fidelity and integrity and concern for others.”[8]
It is the positive side of the commands that Trueblood asserts as the “necessary planks for a platform on which civilization must be rebuilt if it is to be rebuilt in enduring fashion.”[9] Here, I’ll give his statement of the commands which we’ll consider individually in the coming weeks: the allocation of priority, the necessity of intolerance, the recovery of urgency, freedom from the angelic fallacy, respect for inheritance, the cultivation of the uneasy conscience, the achievement of fidelity, the dignity of ownership, the requirements of veracity, the counterpoise of greed.
[1] Elton Trueblood, Foundations for Reconstruction, Revised Edition (New York: Harper & Row, 1961). This book is no longer in print, but may be accessed online here: https://archive.org/embed/foundationsforre00true
[2] Ibid., 4.
[3] Ibid., 3.
[4] Ibid., 5.
[5] Ibid., 2.
[6] Ibid., 7.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid., 8
500 Words 
Leave a comment