By Dennis Rowan

"He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites." (Numbers 25:13)

Despite the seriousness of his question I could not help but chuckle out loud upon hearing Bob Dole ask the question, "Where's the outrage?" (at Clinton's lack of character) . Dole was within two weeks of his unsuccessful bid for president of the United States. His question was very appropriate but his timing stunk.

Dole's question was much like the farmer who waited until his horse had had enough time to be in the next county, or perhaps two counties away before he shuts the barn door. Some would say Dole should have asked that question six months to a year earlier. I say 25 years ago would have been could time for conservatives to ask "Where's the outrage?".

Before giving my explanation to the 25 year time I wish to provide some Biblical reference. Chapter 25 of Numbers describes how the Israelite men became involved in immoral conduct with Moabite women and also began worshiping their gods. The Lord told Moses to instruct leaders to kill those who had sinned in this manner, and to do so in broad daylight so as to get the message across clearly. In spite of the many who lost their lives an Israelite man brought home a foreign women right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Scripture says "When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them--through the Israelite and into the woman's body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000." (Nu., 25:7-9)

This action of Phinehas pleased the Lord because he had shown the zeal of God in taking action in doing what was right in God's eyes. God's words were "he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them." (Vs 10) In other words, Phinehas' action saved the remaining people of Israel.

You might say Phinehas was outraged at what he saw and took immediate action. Now what does this have to do with the Twentieth Century? It has to do with standards, leadership, firm commitment, and much else if a nation is to follow God. And ultimately this means that Christians must take the lead. Following any other leaders eventually leads to doing as the Moabites do.

What did I see 25 years ago? I saw a unwillingness of "good" people to do what is right. I saw rebellious college students who were essentially the inmates who ran the asylum. I saw faculty and administrators who lacked the gumption to do anything more than "tuck their tails between their legs" much like any coward dog would do. The inmates who ran the college campuses in those days are the same inmates running our governments (and many churches) today.

While attending Virginia Tech in a doctoral program I watched the administrators allow men and women to visit together in dorm rooms so long as the door was left cracked open so many inches. That wasn't good enough for the students (they wanted the door closed) so they had a huge "sit in" in one of the campus classroom/office buildings. Then 200 state police were called in to carry them away to jail.

My point is that firm action at an earlier time may have avoided the mess. Sure it may have caused a lot of students to leave, but so what? Oh, I forgot, money would be lost. Later as a faculty member at Northeast Missouri State (now Truman U.) I was shocked to learn about the timidness some faculty and staff. In a faculty meeting involving other departments on campus I heard a math professor say he felt that anyone entering his class was entitled to at least a "C" grade. A physics teacher in the meeting said he didn't believe it was right to give a student and "F" because it may cause permanent psychological damage. I also heard open discussion of how we should cater to students because each warm body enrolled generated money that would keep our jobs in tact. Where are we 25 years later?
This is no lie! Just as I got to this point in writing I heard a radio news broadcast say President Bill Clinton promised the people in Uganda 120 million dollars for education!! That's part of the answer to "Where are we 25 years later?". About three weeks ago a report came out revealing that U.S. high school students are practically in dead last place in math and science scores when compared to other nations of the world. But, we did score high in self esteem! Go ahead Bill, give'em $120,000,000, put the U.S. Department of Education and the National Education Association in charge, enroll the children of Uganda in math and science, and since they are a disadvantaged people give everyone at least a "B" for enrolling and an "A" if they bother to show up in class. It will surely get their self esteem pumping, just like here at home; dumb but happy!

I'm okay, you're okay. I don't think so! However this is one of those lies that has crept into our culture. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, our righteousness is as rags, and none but Jesus is good.

Character doesn't count. Yes it does, there just aren't enough people who know how to count that high.

Tolerance and the cookie jar defense. I don't know about you, but I have trouble tolerating those who preach tolerance. Those who espouse tolerance are about as transparent as a clean window glass. We know how young children act when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They feel much better if they can point to someone else who did the same thing. There are some people who believe in tolerance who are just too uninformed and/or naive to see "through the glass". However those who are hard core advocates of tolerance are in reality saying "I'll tolerate your sin if you tolerate mine." Or, "Lets put our hands in the cookie jar. When Mom gets home none of us will have to admit what we did." Sorry, but Moms have a way of knowing anyway….. so does God. In other words, let's not call anything sin so there will be no need for anyone to be accountable.

Books can and have been written about the degradation of moral values in our culture. We need no exhaustive treatment here. However there are two points here I wish to emphasize: (1) standards must be set, and (2) people should be held accountable when standards are not met. My outrage in the late 60's and early 70's was not toward the young men and women who seemed to be causing all the trouble. My outrage was at those adults who tolerated it. I wondered then, "What will happen when these college students graduate and then become the next generation of teachers?" Good question; we now have an answer. I never thought deep enough to wonder what it would be like if one of them ever got elected president. I never asked that question, but boy did we ever get an answer!!

Finally then, it was pretty much the Bob Dole generation that let the Bill Clinton generation have and do everything they wanted. If the Dole generation was silent for three decades, who's going to get excited about his raising the issue two weeks before a presidential election. (I trust you now know why I had to chuckle at Dole's question.)

The Old Testament often deals in a harsh manner, but the point made was never couched in ambigous language written by a team of lawyers. When Phinehas saw blatant defiance of God's word he took a spear and "ran 'em through". He wasn't influenced by sensitivity and tolerance training received in some seminar. (He probably refused to attend that one.) Sin is sin and Christians don't need to let the Moabites define it for us. We must be zealous for the honor of our God!