Walking Contradictions

Part 1

“Mama said life is like a box of chocolates,” said the unknowingly philosophical Forest Gump . I thought of this line in the shower and how man is often nothing more than a walking contradiction. Gump’s words are so profound because they strike at the nature of man. “Life is like a box of chocolates because you never know exactly what you are going to get from it.”

Consider Johnny. Johnny is an example of formation that we all have experienced firsthand. He is nurtured from his birth to be a certain person–chasing a certain vision of the good life. The way his parents raise him, the school he attends, the friends he makes, the religious education he is afforded–all these play a factor in determining who Johnny is. It is key to note that Johnny is not a blank slate waiting to be written on. Rather, he is a man made in the image of God with the ability to reason and make choices of his own volitional will. His molding consists of accidental traits. He has the potency to be many things but only that which is actualized through training or experience actually make up who Johnny is. This is an Aristotelian notion summarized man. Man is not formed with any traits like “musical” or “un-muscial” at birth but as he begins to take part in the act of music he becomes “musical” so on and so forth. Johnny is not formed as a religious, morally upright man but as he takes part in religion and morality he becomes moral and religious.¹

Leaders realized the importance of molding children, like Johnny, from an early age in order to continue society’s morality and growth. For example, Aristotle emphasized training in morality and ethics. Plato emphasized the nature of justice in society and the nurture of children to be just members of society. The former theme comprises the whole of his famous work–The Republic—while the latter is a key theme throughout. Parents throughout history emphasized training their children in the ways of societal customs, the cardinal virtues, and theology so that they may be well-ordered members of society. Over the past one-hundred years modern formation has been undervalued by parents as the modern education state has taken the helm of formation. However, those in the education state often care more about their own agenda rather than the objective (whatever that may be) morality and uprightness of their students. As such, the education state has failed our generation. We have become, to borrow from James K.A. Smith’s You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, “what we love” but what we love has been distorted by the mixed signals we receive from our parents and the education state. Their has been a major disconnect between parents and the education state and its implications have been harmful on society writ large.

Because we are no longer formed by the same vision of the good life we are walking contradictions. Despite knowing what is right, we often do what is wrong. To be certain, I do not believe that before the education state people were always doing what is right. To my point, as a product of this society, I find myself conflicted between what I have been taught, what I have taken in by proxy, and by what I know to be right by my Christian educational formation through my parents. And I know this expands beyond just myself, I have many friends who also are conflicted by their sources of influence. I further understand that it is not just education that has shaped us, I think social media is the biggest player in society’s formation, or deformation, but that is too big a topic to tackle now.

The idea of a walking contradiction is nothing new, for man has been one since the fall (see Gen 3; Rom 1:18–32). Man was created with knowledge of his Creator, had the privilege of walking with him, abandoned the Creator for self-pleasure, and since then has wrestled with knowledge of his failures and knowledge of the truth. Man is guilty of not only realizing after the fact that he has failed God but he also knows in the moment what is right and wrong. He only acts out when he consciously decides to rebel against the Creator.

One objection to this is the fact that many sin against God’s standard–as set forth in nature and in Scripture–daily without feeling any sense of guilt. My response to that objection is that they have been formed improperly either from nurture or by rebellion at a later stage in life. Remember, Johnny is formed from the moment that he born to be someone who is chasing some version of the good life. So are you, and everybody else who has ever existed or will exist. Some believe drinking is a sin–and if they are convinced of it, they would be committing a sin if they drank–this is because they have been formed to see it as such based on some formative training. For the man who believes his homosexual lifestyle is not sinful, it is because he has been formed to believe it to be such from nurture or from some extenuating formative circumstance.

Everyone is formed by some view of the good life and they act in accordance with that view in almost every circumstance of their life. Notice how I worded that last sentence. As you look back, I intentionally italicized the word “amost,” I did so because I think formation can only go so far. Formation can teach you to hold certain things in higher esteem than others but it cannot fully and truly convince you that a sin is right, that a vice is a virtue. All men are created in the image of God and as the first man rebelled against God and lost some of his reasoning capacity, so did we. But as the first man still understood sin and its deadliness, so do we. You can be formed to think that something is wrong when it is right, but you can never hold that without any skepticism. There is almost always a time when you will come to question your most deeply seated believes and wonder, “did God really say …?” or “did Satan really mean …?” In these moments, the formation you had will come to a reckoning with reality. You will have to weigh the cost of holding to your formation or become open to the reality of nature that is removed from your immediate context.

You may think you know why you act certain ways but there is always a bit of randomness, like eating a box of chocolates. You may think you would never do that sin, you may think that vice is too evil for you–but when the rubber hits the road, you become aware of who you are. Your formation makes you who you are but it never forces you to act a certain way. There is always a way out and there is always hope of reformation.

Reflecting,

Sam.

1. Yes, all men are created as moral and religious beings, so what I mean here is that he is not actively moral or religious until he has come to grasp these concepts through formation.