My kid beat up your honor student

So says a bumper sticker slogan, presumably attached to a car driven by a parent who’s sick and tired of GPA or athletic prowess being the main measure of parental pride. Do smart kids think they’re better than average ones?

Apparently Senator Kerry (D-Massachusetts—by the way, did you know that he was in Vietnam?) thinks so. At a campaign appearance last week in California, the former standard-bearer for the Democratic party cautioned university students, “If you study hard, if you make good grades, if you are smart, then you can get ahead; if you don’t, you wind up stuck in Iraq.” Interpretation: the military is filled with dumb and lazy people who didn’t do their homework and for whom military service was the only alternative to burger-flipping. Of course, Mr. Kerry refused to apologize for his remarks, insisting that he was the victim of dirty Republican tricks. However, when such Dem dignitaries as Hillary Clinton urged him to apologize, Kerry posted a statement on his web site in which he indicated “regret if anyone misinterpreted my remarks” which were intended as a “joke” which he “botched.” He really meant to say “If you don’t, you end up getting us stuck in Iraq,” indicating that he believed that George Bush is the only stupid one here. Ha ha. ROFLOL.

Besides this being a clear case of a non-apology apology, what does it say? Bush and Kerry both went to Yale. Last I checked, Ivy League schools had pretty tough admission standards, especially before affirmative action. Last I checked, Bush graduated with a masters’ degree and had a higher GPA than Kerry did. Who’s calling whom stupid?

In a song from the musical “Wicked,” Glinda sings about how she’s going to make Elphaba “Popular.” A line that sticks in my mind is “Celebrated heads of state, or ‘specially Great Communicators—did they have brains or knowledge? Don’t make me laugh! They were popular..please! I know about popular.” In case you didn’t know it, “Great Communicator” was the nickname of President Ronald Reagan, who was, in his day, equally dismissed as a bumbling fool by the Democratic elite. Reagan saw that the Cold War could be won and that Communism was evil and needed to be opposed. His political adversaries said he was an idealistic idiot. Sound familiar? Now who’s calling whom stupid?

The Bible speaks of those who are wise in this present age. For them, the Gospel—Christ crucified for sin and raised again to declare sin forgiven—is foolishness. Consequently, those who believe the Gospel are fools. And, as we discussed a few weeks ago, those who publicly profess such faith and admit to praying to God for his guidance are considered just plain scary. Who’s calling whom stupid? To the rationalist, the enlightened atheist who declares “There is no God,” God himself says that that is what a fool says in his heart.

How does it feel to know that as soon as you open your mouth to say “I believe in Jesus Christ,” that you may be dismissed as a fool? How do you think those laying their lives on the line feel to know that intellectuals consider them lazy and uneducated?