The Persistence of Leftism

“The Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali painted a famous picture of a couple of melting clocks: The Persistence of Memory. I’m not here to tell you what that’s about (as if I knew). No–this post is about the persistence of leftism.

We live now amidst a God-given opportunity to liberate our country from a secular utopian ideology that looks to an all-powerful government as the answer to all the world’s problems. We can defeat it; we can drive it into the political wilderness; but it will never really go away.

As Christians we know that what we really need is the regeneration of our own hearts from within, accomplished by the sovereign grace of God. No matter what policies any government pursues, the fact remains that we are all born sinners.

For leftists, salvation is accomplished from the outside in, by external measures, usually coercive, even violent, imposed from the top down by persons who have power. Hence the speech codes, re-education camps, forced labor camps, collectives, and the piles of dead bodies. For them the problem is never sin, never the darkness in the soul, but always some kind of shortcoming or inaccuracy in this or that public institution–which can always be remedied by whatever action by the government is deemed necessary.

This mind-set arises from the Original Sin itself: the delusion that we mortals can be gods in our own right, determining good and evil for ourselves. This was the lie told by the serpent, the lie that got Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden. It is a lie that dwells in our flesh, and only the love of God in Jesus Christ can save us from it.

We have to remember this–especially whenever we are tempted to think like leftists and convince ourselves, “Get the politics right, and the human heart will follow. Just draw up and enforce the right public policy, and bob’s your uncle!”

We’ll never have anything to show for that but a bunch of woozy clocks that don’t run anymore.