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 News You Can Use

By David Bachelor, PhD

There is a maxim in Chaucer’s “A Knight’s Tale” that describes events in recent headlines. The maxim is “Every man is for himself.” This saying is reflected in some of the previous week’s stories about individuals and about national governments. It is rare that the micro and the macro of human behavior track so closely parallel.

A CNN headline on April 23 offered a video clip entitled, “CNN Examines Why Gun Sales by First Time Buyers Are Surging in America.” The clip centered on a gun store in rural New York.  The store owner and his new customers attributed increased sales to the sense that as the world becomes more dangerous, people need to provide their own security. For many of these first-time gun owners, the onus for personal safety represents a conversion experience.

On April 22, The Atlantic ran an article titled, “The Ineluctable Logic of Gun Ownership.” The author was a reluctant convert to gun ownership. Two factors led to his conversion: Geography and availability. The author noted, “If you live in a remote area, it can take the sheriff an hour or more to get to you, so if there’s a deadly threat from an intruder, you are on your own.” The proliferation of guns among the American populace caused the author to presume his hypothetical intruder would be armed. The author concluded, “This reality has pushed me toward a moral dilemma: I wish no one were armed, but because practically everyone else is, I have a gun myself.”

Around the world many nations are also enhancing their security posture. The April 23 edition of Bloomberg featured the story, “World Military Spending Rises to Record as Insecurity Swells.” Pardon the pun, but the trigger event was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. When adjusted for inflation, defense spending in Europe rose by 3.7% in 2022. The article notes, “Global military spending rose to a record last year, spurred by a policy U-turn in Europe where governments boosted capabilities by the most since the end of the Cold War.”

A week earlier, RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty on April 16 published, “The View from Finland: With Or Without NATO, You Need to Be Able to Defend Your Own Country.” The article featured input from Finland’s former Defense Minister. The retired Finnish Air Force General advised his fellow Finns, “You need to plan in advance, and you need to have the capabilities in-country to defend your country, whether you are a member of an alliance or not.” The Finns already have a larger standing army than the combined militaries of the rest of Scandinavia, and the largest artillery collection in Europe. The former Defense Minister does not expect the Finns to change their acquisition policy.

Ancient Israel had many security crises. After the Babylonian captivity, the returning Israelites found Jerusalem defenseless. The prophet Nehemiah organized the rebuilding of the city’s outer walls. Israel’s enemies did not want the defenses of Jerusalem to be rebuilt (Neh 4:1). These enemies planned to attack the Israelites as they were working on the walls. The Israelites knew they were vulnerable and were afraid. Nehemiah instructed everyone to arm themselves and to always carry their weapons. The prophet modeled the behavior he proposed, “Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water” (Neh 4:23). With their personal security assured, the Israelites finished Jerusalem’s walls. The change in Jerusalem’s security struck fear in Israel’s enemies because, “They realized that this work had been done with the help of God” (Neh 6:16).

Three hundred years after “The Knight’s Tale,” Chaucer’s maxim was updated in a book of proverbs to “Every man for himself, and God for us all.” For Christians, the updated axiom is our hope whether we choose to arm ourselves or not. God has promised His people that when He dwells among them, “Violence will never again be heard of in your land; devastation and destruction will be gone from your borders. You will call your walls Salvation and your city gates Praise” (Isa 60:18).