Nice

Fa-So-La-La

Here is my paper for this month. The assignment was to use Pilgrim's Progress to expound on a theme. Enjoy!


It’s a typical episode of Leave it to Beaver. Mr. Cleaver, sporting the usual suit and tie, chats with Beaver about some small breach of faith, instructing him in the ways of Niceness. We don't cheat, his father explains, because it isn't fair to others. And we must be fair. That's just what we do.

June enters, in pearls and apron, and announces the lamb chops are ready. Isn't it all nice?

Beaver wonders why he should bother about being fair. If winning is what he wants, why should he not do what’s needed? And why care about those other people anyway?

But Mr. Cleaver insists we should be fair, because...well, because we are Nice! Why else?

I always wondered why I so dislike Mr. Cleaver. Is it the ever-present suit, the condescending advice that disgusts me? I finally realized: Mr. Cleaver is a humanist.

The Oxford Universal Dictionary defines humanism as, "Any system of thought or action which is concerned with merely human interests, or with those of the human race in general." Humanists live with little reference to anything divine, believing that man, unaided, can work things out. They say such things as, "Everything will be OK if we can all just get along! Share the crayons, Susie..."

Such ethics are unpredictable at best-- it may suit Susie to share the crayons now, but what if a situation arises where she can achieve the desired result by *not* sharing the crayons?

Mr. Cleaver’s niceties have no reference to God’s laws, no connection to the commandments of Christ to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself.’ He is nice because it’s nice to be nice.

This system quickly derails when it encounters evil. If niceness is the highest virtue, then what is the lowest vice? Un-niceness? This is absurd and unrealistic. We don’t say that terrorists are just not nice people; we say that they are *evil*. And by so doing we acknowledge that there is a greater virtue than nicety.

When we treat others well, humanistic thought presumes we see some dignity or worthiness in them that we respect and respond to. However, everyday events from drug deals in dark alleys to Beaver cheating on his homework constantly prove that man has less dignity and worth than humanistic philosophy demands. Respect for mankind is a slippery foundation to build ethics on.

So if not that, what?

John Bunyan has an answer. In Pilgrim’s Progress, Worldly Wiseman tempts burdened Christian to forsake the Straight and Narrow Way, promising him ease and wealth. He tells Christian of the nearby village Morality, where lives a man named Legality and his son Civility who are both skilled in removing burdens. If Christian likes the town, he may send for his family and settle down, for "provision there is also cheap and good; and that which will make thy life the more happy is, to be sure; there shalt thou live by honest neighbors, in credit and good fashion."

Christian sets out toward Morality, but he does not get far. Mount Sinai looms above him, threatening to fall upon him and crush him to the earth. He is afraid to go forward, ashamed to go back.

Bunyan brilliantly presses the point that the religion of Civility, or Niceness, is just another form of Legality. But he also indirectly shows us the futility of this religion-- the highest reward its followers ever receive is to ‘live by honest neighbors, in credit and good fashion.’ It is Nice News, and it yields Nice Things. Nothing more, nothing less.

Dr. George Grant says, "We must never be lured into the trap... of thinking that men may somehow manufacture for themselves moral excellence." Nice News does precisely that– at its best it is a synthesized goodness, a man-made morality. Its Niceties will hold only if the world around it is Nice as well. But with roots in the illusion of human dignity, it will fail when men act like monsters.

Christian’s story goes on: Evangelist chastens him and sets him back on his way, saying, "As many as are of the law are under the curse." Then he reminds him of the Good News. For there is indeed more than Nice News--

"And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold I bring you good tiding of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. . . Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."