Are you familiar with Ayn Rand?  Most famous for her novels Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, her fierce and unyielding advocacy of the unfettered free market, and her call for every human being to use his or her mind and reason to live the life for which he or she is most suited and capable, Rand has had her share of supporters and detractors. Nonetheless, over thirty years since her death in 1982, her ideas live on, her novels continuing to sell (in fact, Atlas Shrugged is the best selling book in the Ukraine), and an institute devoted to promoting her positions, the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), enlarges its reach and support with each passing year.
     So why do I mention Ayn Rand?  Last night, I was privileged to attend a celebratory and fund raising dinner for the ARI in Chicago.  We dined sumptuously, heard some intriguing speakers, and witnessed a lively auction which raised over $100,000 for the work of the
ARI.  Rand's worldview is decidedly materialist, that is, she brooked no thought of anything beyond this world, and believed that death is the absolute end.  For this reason, though I have enjoyed reading her novels and appreciate, to a point, her emphasis on the free market, I will likely never agree with her on her metaphysical starting points.
     This notwithstanding, what I found particularly striking about the evening was how speaker after speaker declared that America must return to the principles on which, from their standpoint, it was founded:  economic and personal freedom.  To execute this vision, the speakers proclaimed, we must educate the populace.  We must reach the youth, we must reach the elderly, we must reach the politicians.  We must do everything we can to spread Rand's ideas and restore America to its original greatness.
     How ironic, I thought, that this very same effort is being waged by some segments of the Christian community.  Many Christians, particularly those of a more fundamentalist orientation, issue call after call to Americans to help return the nation to the principles on which, as they see it, the nation was founded:  the Judeo-Christian worldview.  We must educate people, we are told, we must reach the youth, we must reach the elderly, we must reach the politicians.  We must do everything, the narrative goes, to persuade Americans to work together to restore the nation to its original greatness.
     Two visions of original greatness, two calls to restoration, yet two calls emanating from nearly opposite starting points.  How do we choose?
     It's complicated.  Tomorrow, I will bring in yet another perspective on this issue, one which I heard much about at a conference on biblical justice I attended last week.  We will have fun putting everything together.  Then, maybe then, we will be in a better position to legitimately choose how to respond to the "calls" to "restore" America to its "original greatness" (whatever that means!).