{"id":1051,"date":"2008-07-10T19:42:33","date_gmt":"2008-07-11T00:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=1051"},"modified":"2022-01-02T07:37:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T12:37:31","slug":"color-me-audacious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=1051","title":{"rendered":"Color Me Audacious"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, during a Bible class at my church, the teacher, a man in his early 30s, said something to this effect: I wish we could return to our 1950s morality.<\/a><\/p>\n

I immediately thought: Which 1950s morality are you talking about? The black and white, warm and fuzzy, cut and dry predictability of Ozzie and Harriet<\/a> or the black and white Jim Crow laws<\/a> and state-supported racism which consigned a significant portion of our Southern population to second-class citizenship, public lynchings and other various and sundry travesties of justice? <\/em><\/p>\n

And what year were you born in? 1975? What could you possibly know about “1950s morality?”
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

I started to raise my hand and say something, but one good swift elbow in the ribs from Eyegal took care of that.<\/p>\n

Be careful what you wish for, I say. I understand the angst behind the comment (to wit, this summer’s #1 pop song)<\/a>, but as my dear friend, The Preacher in Ecclesiastes, said:<\/p>\n

“Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.”<\/p>\n

–Ecclesiastes 7:10<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Politicians, preachers and pundits often traffic in fear, whipping up (or exaggerating) a crisis in order to solidify their power, fire up the troops and open up their wallets.<\/p>\n

You know what I’m talking about:<\/p>\n

The country is going to hell-in-a-handbasket!<\/p>\n

Traditional morality is going down the tubes. Man your battle stations!<\/p>\n

The church is going astray–it’s up to us to keep it on “the old paths.”<\/p>\n

This election is the scariest one in a long time. We must cover it in prayer to make sure that, you know, that guy<\/em> doesn’t get elected…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, the scariest one since what, 1960? As if one president is going to make or break this country…please.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I’m sick of it.<\/p>\n

So, I decided to counter a little of that ever-pervasive gloom and doom with some fond–and optimistic–recollections and stories from my recent trip to Washington, D.C. in my next community column. Read all about it in this Sunday’s Huntsville Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I know what the cynics will say: That’s awfully hopeful<\/em> of you.<\/p>\n

Well, you know, just color me audacious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, during a Bible class at my church, the teacher, a man in his early 30s, said something to this effect: I wish we could return to our 1950s morality. I immediately thought: Which 1950s morality…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,23,49,92,54,27,51,34,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-current-events","category-history","category-huntsville-times-community-columns","category-nostalgia","category-politics","category-religion","category-scripture","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9374,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions\/9374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}