When I was a boy growing up in Texas, one of my favorite TV shows was “The Adventures of Superman”, starring George Reeves. It was a great show. And at the beginning of each episode they would talk about Superman’s powers and just what he stood for – Truth, Justice, and The American Way. That really made an impression on us kids. But, a few years ago I made it to the latest of the Superman movies and I noticed something very telling. During one discussion, newspaper editor Perry White, when asked what Superman stood for he replied – “Truth Justice, and all that other stuff”. He didn’t even mention “The American Way”.
Well, later I did some investigation; I contacted the producers of that film and asked them the question, “Why did you change that oh so famous phrase? Why did you remove that part, ‘The American Way’“? What the producers of the movie told me was scary, but true. They said that that today in America, no one really knows what the American Way even is.
And you know, sadly, I must agree. Our nation has become so morally watered down. We’ve been so overwhelmed with this idea that there are very few real rights and wrongs, that there are no absolutes, and if you dare stand firm to your own convictions, then you’re seen to be a narrow minded extremist. We’re being pressured into having no firm convictions, but, instead, that we should stand in the middle of the road.
My dad is gone now, but I don’t think that I have ever known anyone like my dad – who could talk so little and say so much. One day when I was a teenager my dad was aware of a circumstance that I was in; I had to decide something, but there were multiple options and opinions as to what I should do, where I should stand – I could do what I knew to be right and, perhaps, stand very alone from my peers and friends, or I could take the safe place, the middle of the road, and be a part of the group. My dad told me this, and I have never forgotten. He said “Son, the only thing in the middle of the road is yellow stripes and dead armadillos – get out of the middle of the road”.
We are in a difficult position in our nation today; it is getting harder and harder to be in the group because the group wants to go to the middle where it is safe, where there is comfort in numbers. And when you choose to follow your own convictions, your own moral compass, what Almighty God has to say, you tend to find yourself so often very much alone. But, sometimes even worse, sometimes by standing up for your own conviction, you can find yourself in trouble with those who want to destroy your conviction.
It was William Penn, the man who helped start the state of Pennsylvania, who said this: “Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.”
Let us do right. Let us stand firm for our convictions – even if we’re the only one standing there.
I invite comments. What do you think?