OPINION:
We’re halfway through June, which has apparently become America’s quintessential holiday. The gratitude of Thanksgiving, the miracle of Christmas, and the courage of Independence Day no longer serve as our country’s cultural benchmarks. Instead, something much more important now defines our nation’s ethos.
Our rising “virtue” is pride, and,in fact, it is essential that we dedicate not just one day but thirty to its celebration. There are parades. There is pomp. There is pageantry. Schools, churches, Congress and the White House all join in. Corporations change their official colors, and television networks change their programming — all under the banner of pride.
Since we now elevate pride and its puffery over freedom, family, faith and apple pie, wouldn’t it behoove us to reflect a bit on what 4,000 years of wisdom literature tells us about this “virtue” we now claim as our nation’s highest good?
Here’s just a smattering.
“Pride leads to conflict.” Proverbs 13:10
“Pride and arrogance and the way of evil … I hate.” Proverbs 8:13
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6
“And when they cry out, God does not answer because of their pride.” Job 35:12
“Everyone who is arrogant in heart … will not go unpunished.” Proverbs 16:5
“Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.” Proverbs 21:4
“They wear pride like a jeweled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelty.” Psalms 73:6
“Love does not envy or boast; it is not proud.” 1 Corinthians 13:4
“The Lord tears down the house of the proud.” Proverbs 15:25
“The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.” Psalm 31:23
“He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.” Isaiah 66:2
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18
“One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.” Proverbs 29:23
“The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled.” Isaiah 2:11
“The Lord of hosts has purposed it; to defile the pompous pride of all glory.” Isaiah 23:9
“For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud … and it shall be brought low.” Isaiah 2:12
“I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low [their] pompous pride.” Isaiah 13:11
“For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul. … In [his] pride… all his thoughts are, ’There is no God.’” Psalm 10:3-4
“It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Proverbs 16:19
“Do not be haughty. … Never be wise in your own sight.” Romans 12:16
“Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure.” Psalm 101:5
“Through pride, we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience, a still, small voice says to us something is out of tune.” — C.G. Jung
“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.” — Andrew Murray
“Pride is the mother of arrogance.” — Toba Beta
“The proud wish God would agree with them. They are not interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s.” — Ezra Taft Benson
“Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.” — Thomas Jefferson
“Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.” — St. Vincent de Paul
“The tyrant is a child of pride who drinks from his sickening cup [of] vanity until from his high crest, headlong he plummets to the dust.” — Sophocles
“Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. It is the sin that leads to all others.” — C.S. Lewis
“Pride is a poison so very poisonous that it not only poisons the virtues; it even poisons the other vices.” — G.K. Chesterton
“The root of all these seven [deadly] sins is pride: the general root of all harms.” — Chaucer
“A wise man has dignity without pride. A fool has pride without dignity.” — Confucius
“Pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.” — John Ruskin
“When men are most sure and [proud], they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.” — David Hume
“Remember when the peacock struts his stuff, he shows his backside to half the world.” — Herve Wiener
Happy Pride Month, everyone.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.
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