Erosion

Words to a song get stuck in your mind and often can almost drive you crazy. So phrases and slogans can stick with us and ramble around in the brain. The picturesque point in the New Testament about "moth and rust" that destroy has been entertaining me. What continues to strike me as interesting is that it is the fragile thing that can destroy the stronger thing. The moth would certainly seem to be more fragile than the coat. Rust is just a powder yet it destroys the sword. There is a word of warning that we need to be careful of the weaker things because they have power to overthrown the mighty things. Of course, we have celebrated that when we claim that the pen is mightier than the sword. But there may be a down side as well

Certainly there is evidence from history that it is soft doubt and lack of convictions that can topple societies. I think there is a poem which suggest that anarchy comes when the best lack all conviction. The frightening thing, I think, about the current Terrorists is that they are zealots. They have great conviction and they are engaging a western civilization which seems to be so unsure of anything that it has no power or position with which to counter the attack.

The moth, the rust, the drip of water, the gradual assumption of moral relativity, the soft acceptance of "anything goes" suggest that it is so easy for the soft things to destroy the strong things.