Quality and Quantity and Equality

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness...knowledge...self-control...perseverance...godliness...brotherly kindness [and] love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-8).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was imprisoned and then killed by the Nazis just before the Allies came in, said in his Letters & Papers from Prison, "Nobility arises from and exists by sacrifice, courage, and a clear sense of duty to oneself and society, by expecting due regard for itself as a matter of course; and it shows an equally natural regard for others, whether they are of higher or of lower degree.

"We need all along the line to recover the lost sense of quality and a social order based on quality. Quality is the greatest enemy of any kind of mass-leveling. Socially it means the renunciation of all place-hunting, a break with the cult of the `star', an open eye both upwards and downwards, especially in the choice of one's more intimate friends, and pleasure in private life as well as courage to enter public life.

"Culturally it means a return from the newspaper and the radio to the book, from feverish activity to unhurried leisure, from dispersion to concentration, from sensationalism to reflection, from virtuosity to art, from snobbery to modesty, from extravagance to moderation. Quantities are competitive, qualities are complementary."

Note that Dr. Bonhoeffer said quality, not equality!.We are so concerned with equality, i.e., our rights, that we have let slip that virtue of quality that enables us to have real equality. In our effort to make all flowers equal, we tend to chop off the more beautiful blossoms. Sameness has a way of killing off worth. I am convinced that every child allowed to be born in these days of “choice” is equipped with his or her own special qualities, and only he or she can accomplish that certain responsibility for which this child is sent to earth. This is why each child is so precious. This is why we must add to our faith all the virtues that make our life -- and the lives of others -- worthy and worthwhile.