False Light and True Darkness

Where to find hope in times of chaos, and the utter unfairness of grace.

A 17-year-old boy in Frisco, Texas, was stabbed in the heart at a high school track meet last week. Austin Metcalf was killed by 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, for what is described as an argument over where Anthony was sitting. There is a wave of false and misleading social media posts spreading about the nature of the killing. Things like this make me wonder what God is thinking. One boy, MVP of his football team, with a 4.0 GPA, will never grow up to live his potential. Another is facing prison for life. Both their families are suffering.

Left: Austin Metcalf, image source: X. Right: Karmelo Anthony, image source: Frisco Police Dept.

That senseless killing is a microcosm of what’s going on in other parts of the world. In Gaza, decades of indoctrination of generation after generation of young people to hate and kill Israelis and all Jews has produced the predictable breakout of mass death. There’s no tracing the reason, because each proximate cause has a proximate cause of its own, going back to the days of Samson and the Philistines.

The Hutu and Tutsi feud in Rwanda has gone on for at least four hundred years, with its roots stretching back to the days when Joseph led his father Israel and his brothers to dwell on the lush plains of the Nile in Egypt.

Economics leads to envy, which leads to subjugation, which leads to persecution, which, left to fester, leads to lies, slanders, and genocide. You know what Mark Twain said: “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” But Mark Twain probably never said that—it just sounds like something he might say. There’s a twist of irony, that a famous quote about a lie is itself a lie.

I’m sure that someone in Egypt around the time of Moses thought that things would work out if only the Israelites and Egyptians could just find a way to get along and cooperate. Something could be worked out. The same with the Rwandans, or the Serbians and Bosnians.

The Russians have not been deterred by trade sanctions in their destructive war on Ukraine, to strip it of its territory and its distinctive culture. Iran is perilously close to having nuclear weapons. In defiance of years of economic carrots and sticks by the West, North Korea systematically starved its own citizens in order to pursue and obtain entry into the nuclear club. Time after time, history has shown that cultural and nationalist fervor, harnessed by cults of personality, is able to overcome the shackles of cooperative economic punishments and rewards.

Yet the world is panicking because international trade is being disrupted by one man in Washington, D.C.

Think about this. The number of individuals who can change world opinion or events is infinitesimally small, compared to the number of people in the world itself. This small group is not necessarily motivated by the policies pushed by legislators, pundits, or Ph.D.s. I’d say, most of the time, their motivation is more related to what is common to mankind: ego, power, envy, lust, greed. Those voids are less fulfilled by signed treaties or the singing of Kum-bay-ya, than they are balanced between the fear of being deposed by an angry mob, balanced against the opportunities to increase their own glory or position in history.

Kum-bay-ya is the public answer to the world’s unsolvable problems. The problems persist. It’s less important that the U.S. might have a trade deficit with, say, Lesotho—a landlocked sub-Saharan African nation sporting a single border, with South Africa—than the profits generated by trade with Lesotho is stolen by corrupt officials and businessmen while three quarters of that nation’s populace struggles and flirts with poverty. Is it the right thing to levy a tax on Lesotho’s goods, or to abstain from trading with a corrupt nation altogether?

If the world’s problems could be solved by Kum-bay-ya, from pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, to deforestation, to deoxygenation of the oceans, to deadly diseases, to crime, to corruption, to war, then the problems would have been solved decades, or even centuries, ago.

The peace of the strong is a false peace. The pax Romana lasted around 200 years, but was fueled by Rome’s conquests and its willingness to spill vast oceans of blood. The pax Americana has lasted a mere 80 years, should it end today. Even that is a false premise, as the U.S. spent all but 16 of those years engulfed in one shooting war or another.

At best, mankind can achieve a kind of cooperation that leads to some efficiency in employment of comparative advantage—the ability of different societies and cultures to specialize—therefore leading to the somewhat efficient production and distribution of goods and services (i.e. trade), which in turn leads to increased wealth. Except when that wealth is hoarded by corrupt, wealthy, political thieves and absolute rulers. Democracy is the best vaccine against concentration of such power, and a representative republic is the best version of that vaccine that mankind has found.

Let’s take our own country.

The United States is the fruit of an experiment in combining the best features of democracy in a representative republic, mixing federalism with a strong central government, in a land rich with natural resources. At our best, the experiment’s history presents a moral patchwork of very good things and some very evil things. We can hope that the patches of very good are more prevalent than the evil patches, but there’s no guarantee that we won’t break bad at any given time. We possess strong controls (call them “guardrails”) but sometimes, if we all sing Kum-bay-ya in the wrong key, those controls can work against the best results, and produce what turns out to be evil.

Sometimes, you get kids at a track meet who have an unfortunate argument, and one of them is completely fine pulling out a knife and plunging it into the other’s heart, not thinking about the consequences of that act. Sometimes, you get a government that, on the whole, can’t legislate its way out of bankruptcy. Sometimes, you get someone whose own rapaciousness is only exceeded by his will to power. But none of it can be solved by singing Kum-bay-ya.

So what’s the answer? Leave the planet? That’s what Elon Musk thinks. Others think alien life seeded this place, and one day, they’ll be back. Some say that technology is the answer, that once we have sufficient control over things that have thus far been uncontrollable, we will be able to sing Kum-bay-ya like the world of Star Trek. When the first malicious artificial super intelligence (SGI) makes its debut, we will see how that turns out.

Some say there is no answer, only what is practical. Communism and Fascism are both the fruit of ideas born of practicality. If there were no private property, there would be no striving over who owns what. If the means of production were owned by everyone, there would be no hoarding of capital. If all business was the business of the state, then there would be no reason to work against the goals of society. The most practical method for removing the stumbling blocks of capitalism and democracy is to remove both capitalism and democracy, ceding all power and fealty to the state and its authority. Of course, that begins by curtailing freedom and individuality, leading to tyranny. I mean someone’s got to run the show—unless, I suppose, we submit to a beneficent SGI.

But is it less tyrannical that a boy has a knife in his backpack at a high school track meet, and is ready to use it over the most trivial matters? I can’t answer that, and I struggle to believe God can, but I do believe He can, and does answer it daily.

The problem of evil is not that there’s too much evil, it’s that people are attracted to false light, and deny the true light, because they prefer to live in darkness.

The false light is the singing of Kum-bay-ya. It’s the “if only.” If only we can all live in harmony, without the petty striving and differences we fight over, we could overcome all the evil in the world. People load a lot of hope into “if only.”

If we look at societies built on national harmony—Japan, Korea—we find that suicide rates, especially among teenagers, are very high. Why? I am not even qualified to give an opinion, but I think it might have something to do with the expectation of fitting in, and achieving harmonious goals at a young age. The price of failure is too great to bear for many, and they feel the only option is to end it all. That price is so high that they’d rather contemplate their own end in secret than to seek help, because seeking help would be a singularly selfish act (“save me, because I am important to be saved”).

And in nations, the same false light presents itself, that if we can only get along, we can solve those unsolvable problems. The pressure to be a good “global citizen” is immense, and the price of not doing it is high. It leads to a single man in a single country who stopped being a “global citizen” able to tank the world’s stock markets in just a week.

But the price of having a democracy with a wealthy Uncle Sam footing the bill is also high. If America doesn’t do something about its debt, running at over 100% of GDP, and projected to run at 113% of GDP in five to ten years, we won’t worry so much about Kum-bay-ya. We will be too busy fighting over the last dollar, while the federal government liquidates itself.

Then again, we could fix it by taxing everyone much more than we pay now. But doing that will cost the jobs of people who consider their vocation getting elected, with a side hustle of actually legislating things (in order to get elected again). One man, the one in the White House, decided in the 1980s that the answer is not Kum-bay-ya, it’s “do as I say.” He declared back then that if he was president (and now he is), he would apply punishing tariffs on friend and foe alike, but mostly friends, for those are the nations which he feels betray us by getting wealthy from selling to willing American customers (i.e. trade).

In this, President Donald Trump’s plan is to try to cure the national debt, and have other nations pay for it. I had a couple of AIs work on a truth chart for tariffs versus no tariffs, and government job cuts versus the status quo.

Image: ChatGPT

If we left the same policies in place as when Trump was inaugurated, in five years, we would have debt between 108-113% of GDP, that’s the lower left quadrant. If we left the tariffs in place, to collect somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 trillion, and executed large cuts in government payroll, we could get that down to 95-99% of GDP, best case. If we left the tariffs in place, not using the best case scenario, we can expect a baseline 106-111% debt to GDP. If we repeal the tariffs, the best case is 99-104%, if we don’t make giant cuts in government payroll.

What this shows is that all the pain we’re going through now won’t give us a whole lot of short term gain, and even if we stick with it we will still be just a few years away from our bad habits today. Plus, we will not have sung Kum-bay-ya, we will not have been a “global citizen,” and the rest of the world will be incredibly angry with us. The cost will be very high.

Which path is the solution? Neither.

Both paths are the path of false light. One of them leads to a lot more darkness; the one that angers the world. But you know, here’s a spiritual truth: having true darkness is good for the soul when it illuminates the source of true light.

Let me explain. We could go on indefinitely with the lower left quadrant—no tariffs, world trade—until our debt problem becomes debilitating enough that we would be forced to do something, something very painful. That would lead to a lot of darkness. At some point in time, a point that approaches and gets closer with each day, we will be in darkness: chaos, hopelessness, striving, and want.

Darkness cannot be flushed away by Kum-bay-ya. Human nature drives the striving and ignores the consequences to the next generation. But darkness does allow the true light to shine.

There is an answer to Kum-bay-ya and false light. It’s the light of mercy, kindness, and the one feature of Christianity that C.S. Lewis wrote entire books about: grace. Mercy and kindness suffer a similar defect in that they can be reciprocal and earned. If you are kind to me, I will be kind to you. If you show me mercy, by withholding a punishment I earned, I can show you mercy. But grace, that’s not fair at all. It means God forgives the murderer and the thief who murdered your family and took your goods. He offers them the same grace as you and I. Mercy and kindness are fair, and we understand them. They are, without grace, a false light. Grace is the true light, and it’s not one bit fair.

By “Christianity,” I am not talking about a particular church, or religion. Many churches and even religious Christians are infected with Kum-bay-ya false light. They read the Bible and see rules, or seek political or economic power. By Christianity, I mean the pure worship of Christ, a simple faith in His resurrection and power, and trust in the Word of God. I mean embracing grace, in all its discomfort and unfairness.

Whether mankind cooperates and solves large problems, or not, whether we strive against each other, or not, God dispenses grace on all of us, the same grace, unearned, when we all deserve eternal damnation. And the hope of that grace, that, by no works of our own, we can be reconciled to God, and obtain love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (the fruit of the Spirit, from Galatians 5:22-23) in the bargain, is the true light.

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. —John 1:1-5

God created the universe with a word, a living Word, that existed before time itself. The Word became a person, with flesh and blood. He brought the light of God in himself, but there’s a false light also, which sought to extinguish the true light (and still does seek that). In that effort, frequently darkness falls, and that only directs people’s vision to the true light. Why does God allow the light to fail, and darkness to fall? Because through that darkness, we look to Him.

It’s why God allows bad things to happen. It’s why we must not fight our battles against darkness using the false light. It’s why, to the Christian, who believes in grace, not an earned salvation, the battle is not against people or governments in power. It’s against “powers and principalities” of darkness. The weapons are for the pulling down of strongholds against the true light and truth of God.

These weapons are the Bible—the written Word of God—and prayer, or communion with God. So if we want to know how the current darkness, or market drops, or even wars, can be used to illuminate the only hope of the world, we must read the Bible and pray what’s in it.

The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases. —Proverbs 21:1.

It doesn’t matter whether I personally like Donald Trump as president or not. He is the chief executive of our federal republic. We must pray for him, and for him to hear godly, wise advice. But if he acts in a way that produces darkness, we must pray that people look to the true light and not the false light. Opposing Trump’s tariffs over a few percentage points of debt to GDP will not accomplish much. But praying that Trump’s heart turns to God, and he acts with the fruit of the Spirit, will accomplish much.

And not just Trump. We must pray for all world leaders, the small group who can make large changes in our world, leading it to the false light, or into darkness, or to the true light. Think about how small that group truly is. And think about how large the group of people praying can be.

Then think about the senseless deaths, the wars, the genocides, and hate. Think how our Kum-bay-ya solutions have failed to prevent these. Think how hope and grace, unfair as it is, accomplish miracles.

The fact is, our nation needs a miracle. If we are going to survive without going bankrupt, and without stumbling into war, we need a miracle. If Kum-bay-ya could provide one, we would have had it already. I am convinced the answer is grace—not “church,” not religion, not some preacher, but pure grace from God. It is the true light, even if it takes darkness to see it clearly.

The Bible says that one day, quickly, the Lord will return, and the age of grace will end. Judgement will come. All will see clearly with their own eyes. Better to grasp on to grace now, in the darkness, than to need it and not be able to obtain it, in the light of the true judge. Better to pray for our leaders now, when their decisions are less important than they appear to be, than to put faith into false light solutions.

This is why I pray for Donald Trump, even if he isn’t listening, and it doesn’t seem he will ever listen.

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