Simple answers sometimes do more harm than good.


Somehow we tend to possess the impressive ability to create a boogieman that help us feel like we understand terrible, complex situations. This ranges from one side narrating the tale of the evil boogieman missionary that accepts all of the blame for the evils of imperial conquest in the last few centuries... to the story being told by another side today that so many of these bad things happen simply because of the boogieman tale of "God being kicked out of school."In both cases, these scenarios just tend to be convenient for the respective side that benefits from it, while the truth seems to always be more complex.


So, just a couple of quick thoughts:

Here are some interesting words about the phrase "God was expelled from the public schools in 1962." -- http://bit.ly/RvJ4AD

If shootings happen simply because of a court ruling that happened in 1962, then why was there a shooting at a Christian school last April? http://yhoo.it/Hg5H4j

I'm against over simplifying things to create easy "monsters"/"demons"/enemies to blame. Rarely is it as simple as, "we need to defeat Hitler." Instead there are so many things that have influence on people's decisions, from stuff that has to do with faith, to things seldom spoken of -- like the effect that heightened stress and lack of downtime has on people (imagine the average pace of life in the 50's vs the average pace of life today). Minor [mental] health issues become much more apparent when one is under extreme stress.

Spiritual/faith stuff? Maybe. Mental health problems? Maybe. Both? Likely.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
-- H. L. Mencken

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