It takes a lot of hard work to convince yourself that something bad is actually good.<\/p>\n
In a recent commentary, I told you about my friend\u2019s autistic son who, despite being surrounded by things that cause him genuine distress, bravely does what needs to be done.<\/p>\n
As I put it at the time, his courage is both an example for and a rebuke to our culture\u2019s obsession with \u201cmicroaggressions\u201d and \u201cmicrotraumas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, recently, my friend\u2019s son unknowingly rebuked our culture again. The occasion was the question he asked his father after yet another viewing of one of his favorite movies, \u201cThe Music Man,\u201d starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.<\/p>\n
For those of you unfamiliar with the 1962 film and the 1957 Broadway musical it was based on, \u201cThe Music Man\u201d tells the story of Harold Hill, a con man who preys upon small towns in the Midwest. It\u2019s a great movie.<\/p>\n
After having fleeced most of Illinois, Harold Hill arrives in River City, Iowa. He decides that the way to get at the town\u2019s wallets is to sell them on the idea of creating a marching band, which requires money for uniforms, instruments, and music lessons.<\/p>\n
Through a combination of charm, fast-talking, and great songs like \u201c76 Trombones\u201d and \u201cYa Got Trouble,\u201d he persuades most of the town to part with their money. All that stands between him and his payday is a buffoonish mayor, who is no match for Hill, and the town librarian, who has fallen in love with him.<\/p>\n
Actually, there\u2019s someone else: an anvil salesman named Charlie Cowell who comes to River City with evidence of Harold Hill\u2019s previous crimes. And that brings me back to my friend\u2019s son.<\/p>\n
After watching Music Man again he asked his father if Harold Hill shouldn\u2019t be regarded as the villain of the story and Charlie Cowell the hero. After all, he pointed out, Harold Hill admits to being a \u201cdirty rotten crook\u201d and a \u201cbig liar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet in the end, the town \u2014 and the audience \u2014 sides with Harold Hill. They convince themselves that his lies have made River City a better place to live.<\/p>\n
My friend\u2019s son cannot understand how this can happen. The right and wrong of the situation is clear to him. Ironically, his disability has made him immune to the sentimentality and relativism that seduce the audience as surely as Harold Hill seduced the people of River City.<\/p>\n
Chuck Colson, whose grandson Max is also autistic, noticed how people like Max lack guile, they don\u2019t use subterfuge like a lot of us so-called \u201cneuro-typicals.\u201d Chuck also speculated that people like Max think in a way that\u2019s closer to the way God intended for all of us to think.<\/p>\n
While autistic folk are as fallen as you and I, they don\u2019t rationalize their wrongdoing, and thus are genuinely surprised and even disturbed at other people\u2019s flagrant transgressions, both on screen and off.<\/p>\n
This story brings to mind another musical, \u201cSouth Pacific.\u201d In one of its most memorable numbers, a sailor sings \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be taught to hate and fear. You\u2019ve got to be taught from year to year. It\u2019s got to be drummed in your dear little ear. You\u2019ve got to be carefully taught.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same thing is true of relativism and calling evil \u201cgood.\u201d As my colleague\u2019s son reminds us, this kind of folly doesn\u2019t come naturally. It\u2019s not the way God made us.<\/p>\n
Instead, it\u2019s been carefully drummed into our ears and from there into our minds and affections. The process is so effective, we don\u2019t notice its impact and we end up despising those who, like Charlie Cowell in \u201cThe Music Man,\u201d point out our folly.<\/p>\n
Well, not all of us do. And thank God for them.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2015 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. \u201cBreakPoint\u201d is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It takes a lot of hard work to convince yourself that something bad is actually good. In a recent commentary, I told you about my friend\u2019s autistic son who, despite being surrounded by things that cause him genuine distress, bravely does what needs to be done. As I put it at the time, his courage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3647,3648,82,3209,2326,232],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}