On dissension

“Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels — men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, we may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The freedom to share one’s insights and judgments verbally or in writing is, just like the freedom to think, a holy and inalienable right of humanity that, as a universal human right, is above all the rights of princes.” -Carl Friedrich Bahrdt

“Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming.” -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“I like the noise of democracy.” -James Buchanan

“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.” -Edmund Burke

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” -Jesus Christ

Dissent can be either noble or ignoble. Hitler, Luther, Ghandi, Cain, Moses & Israel, American Patriots, Radical Islam, King, children, and so on. What difference it makes depends on the motivation, be it love or hatred of fellow man, overcommitment to some ideal or reality, process or rule, power or greed, and ultimately for or against the glory of God. It matters just from whom one is dissenting and for the sake of exactly whom and what.

All men are dissidents. Today, one will rebel against God or rebel against the world. I pray it is the latter.