No Absolutes
equals No compass

November 18, 2013

There was a man who lived about 2,000 years ago whose name was Pilate -- a man with the power and authority to make life-and-death decisions for those living in Judea.  But Pilate, the Roman Governor, was faced with a difficult decision.  There was a man (Jesus) who had been charged with various offenses by people with lots of political power.  Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges and, even if he was guilty of any of them, none were worthy of death.  But he was being urged to crucify Him.  It had been reported to Pilate that Jesus spoke the truth, healed people, and even raised people from the dead.  People were flocking to Him.  All of this was threatening to many leaders, so they were at Pilate’s doorstep asking him to execute Jesus.

Pilate had already had problems with riots and discontent in Judea and could ill afford for word to get back to Rome that it was happening again.  Those calling for execution threatened to tell Rome that any friend of this so-called “King of the Jews” was not a friend of Rome!  Pilate was faced with making a choice between condemning an innocent man and threatened riots in the streets.  We all know his decision.

There are some lessons in this for us. 
- The first is that great evil can happen when truth is at the mercy of political pressure from the right or from the left. 
- The second is that when we abandon the belief in absolutes -- such as telling the truth, being honest, and doing what is right -- then Katy bar the door because there is no compass to guide us and our actions.

Today we are seeing an increasing number of Americans who no longer trust their government -- not just the TEA Party and NRA folks.  Millions of people have received notices from their insurance companies that their health insurance is being cancelled due to ObamaCare regulations while for the last three years they were told if you like your doctor, if you like your health plan you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. 

On October 28th, NBC News reported “Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that… ‘40 to 67 percent’ of customers will not be able to keep their policy” due to changes in their policies and the ObamaCare regulatory requirements.  The report continues “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”   

This means the administration knew for three years that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.   And yet even through most of 2013 they were saying, “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan… If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”  This shows an abandonment of having absolutes like always telling the truth, and it’s just one reason why more people no longer trust their government.

Bill, Mark and John