Because they did not receive a love of the Truth, God gave them a strong delusion that they might believe a lie.
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Essays Moral and Political Site Contents
A Plea for Prejudice IndexI'm full of prejudice; I was raised that way. And most of my prejudices are wholesome and just. For example, I favor women over men and always have. I respect them, defer to them in most things, and will not stand by and see a woman mistreated. I can't help it. I'm just prejudiced. I also have a strong bias in favor of the afflicted. I think the strong ought to protect the weak, not abuse or exploit them. In fact, I'm downright dogmatic and unreasonable on this point. I consider those who mistreat women, children, and the aged unfit to live.I prefer America to all other places and get rather ill with people who attack her. I'm partial to home cooking and favor the Braves and the Falcons. I have a predilection for living in the South and like to say "sir" and "ma'am." I wish we still stood up when a grey head enters the room. I miss wearing hats so we could tip them to the ladies and doff them to show respect. I started out with a prejudice for Christianity, and I have since confirmed its supreme value by personal experience. I was raised to think that Western Civilization, with all its faults, was mankind’s greatest glory. The current multicultural craze on college campuses has not made me think otherwise. Just compare the treatment of women anywhere in the world with their position in places where Christ has been preached. Western Christendom, leavened by the gospel of Christ, has given the world the abolition of slavery, political liberty and democracy, science and technology, Shakespeare, Mozart, and the moon landing. My early bias has now been confirmed by a sober study of history. The mere fact that a prejudice or untested opinion is more of less forced on us by our common heritage does not make it wrong or untrue. Our second nature, which we imbibed with our mother's milk, may also be the collective wisdom of generations; it may be the "unbought grace," of a benevolent and gracious Christian tradition. I do not include racial prejudice or any form of hatred among the benign biases we ought to keep. They have to go. Some prejudices are vile; they poison us against our "neighbor" and keep us from obeying the Second Great Commandment. Although the lawless, leveling spirit of modern times mocks our traditions and makes us feel old-fashioned, we have given up
our birthright too easily. Many of those ancient biases embodied
the distilled wisdom of centuries. We have tossed them away
too lightly.
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