Max Kampleman

I’m reading the book Next Christians by Gabe Lyons, one of the coauthors of the book UnChristian. It’s a fairly easy read, but has a lot to say. When I finish it, I’ll review it here.

One incident that Lyons describes in his book caught my attention. He told of being at the Hoover Institute in Washington, at a conference on the Christian stance toward nuclear disarmament. One of the speakers was Max Kampleman, a Jewish conscientious objector during World War II. Kampleman unapologetically took an impractical stance on disarmament, saying, “We must recognize the power of the ‘ought.’ It’s the power to change the world! We can’t just see the world in terms of how it is today, or we will always feel defeated. But when we see the world in terms of how things ought to be, we can dream for the impossible—and work to see it become reality.” (p. 62, Lyons’ emphasis)

That really made me stop and think. I hadn’t really thought about how wrong it can be for us to speak in terms of “can” and “can’t.” Do we really believe that we have a God for whom nothing is impossible? If so, should we focus on “can” and “can’t” or should we focus on “ought” and “oughtn’t”?

What if we dared to dream, dared to believe that our God is who He says He is? What if we focused on doing what’s right, even if all human logic says it won’t work? What if we focused on faithfulness instead of practicality?

Maybe we’d be a bunch of idealistic dreamers. Like we’re supposed to be.

What do you think?

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