Jonesboro

In the words of the Duke of Wellington, "Educate men without religion, and you make them but clever devils."

by Rod D. Martin
March 30, 1998

If you're looking for comfort, don't read this column.

In fact, if you're looking for standard political commentary of any sort, you won't find it here. This essay goes beyond that. Some readers will be offended. You have been warned.

First, the reason why. The shock and horror we all feel is perfectly normal -- as Governor Huckabee rightly said, may the day never come when we are not shocked by such as this -- but in reality, it is foolishness. As the killings in Pine Bluff the very same week and the ceaseless murders in our cities insistently prove, there is a certain percentage of the population who simply have no qualms about -- even enjoy -- killing. And therein lies the problem.

Post-Christian America revolves around precisely one of the unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence: the pursuit of happiness. Some might attribute this to John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, or even to Enlightenment Humanism, but in fact it is a far older phenomen…