In late 1775, George Washington and his tiny, nearly beaten army, retreated out of New York, losing rear-guard action after action.  Pushed into and through New Jersey, Washington was forced to cross the Delaware into safety in Pennsylvannia.  As January of 1776 dawned cold and harsh on Washington’s now very tiny army, a radical among his number, Thomas Paine, penned a pamphlet that would become what many would call "The most famous pamphlet in American history."  Washington was so moved by it that he had it read to his troops to inspire them.  The pamphlet, at first published anonymously, was an immediate best seller.  It appeared all across the colonies and gave voice to a revolutionary movement that needed unifying.  In the days before modern electronic media, Thomas Paine’s pamphlet became a media weapon in its own right.  As John Adams would say in 1805, "I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last thirty years than Tom Paine." 

Perhaps the most famous phrase from Common Sense is, "These are the times that try men’s souls.  The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and worman.  Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered."

The power of Common Sense is that the language rings so timelessly true as to be undeniable.  Who among us, even in our day, has not seen men who "shrink from service" and take the easy way out?  Or cower when the shots begin and head for cover?  Who among us has not seen "summer soldiers and sunshine patriots" that will fight for a cause only when it is convenient?  And what about the reference to tyranny?  Truer words would be hard to find.  Tyranny still causes its destruction all over the globe, from despots in third-world theocracies, to cowardly wife and child abusers in the home. 

I believe Paine’s pamphlet caught such fire in 1776 because he so elegantly put into words truths that rang sweet to the ears.  My favorite passage is the following:

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.  Time makes more converts than reason."

This particular portion of the pamphlet, for me, speaks to what happens when good people allow a "crack in the door" for a bad idea.  Slavery, for instance, began when a few sugar plantation owners in the West Indies accepted the apparently easy solution of populating their sugar cane fields with kidnapped Africans.  Over time, who was to say that African slavery was wrong?  After all, "Time makes more converts than reason." After Thomas Jefferson, as America’s third president, negotiated the Louisianna Purchase, he blew a perfect opportunity to proclaim the new territory a slave-free zone.  Such a move certainly wouldn’t have been without opposition, but with the mammoth stretching of executive power he had already exercised to finnagle purchasing the great swath of land, it would have been a mere extension of his hand to drive a stake in the ground and proclaim, "No more."  At the time, he was the most powerful man on the continent, not only the President of the United States but the leader and founder of the Republican Party (different than today’s party of the same name).  Presidents from the party of Jefferson would hold the Presidency for generations.  So Jefferson certainly could have done it, or at least tried it.  And it would have stayed off the ensuing "Missouri Compromise" which was really just another crack in the door for the spread of slavery that culminated in the bloody American Civil War. 

Another famous "crack in the door" that rages violently in our day is abortion.  At first, abortion was made legal only for the sake of saving the mother’s life in a time of severe medical emergency.  But "time makes more converts than reason," and once it is acceptable to take an infant life for ANY reason, it is almost easy to expand the list of reasons from what began as extreme circumstances, until today when the reason is nothing other than the expediency and "privilege" of the mother.  From emergency to convenience.  Indeed, "Time makes more converts than reason." 

Someday, future generations will look at abortion in our times like we look at slavery in the eighteenth century.  We marvel at how Washington, Jefferson and others could spout such wonderful republican ideals while OWNING other human beings at the same time.  The very concept is revolting to us and unimaginable.  But we have the benefit of history to focus our lenses.  We were never forced to look at slavery long enough to get used to it.  This makes no excuse for America’s founders, it just offers a bit of explanation for their unspeakable behavior.  And it also has another purpose: it should serve to warn each of us that we live in exactly the same type of situation in which they found themselves.  Abortion has creeped so far into our conciousness that we cease to be revolted by it.  Our shock is subdued and our offense at the practice is softened by its continual acceptance in society

This is how evil works.  It creeps in subtly, allowing everyone to get used to the new territory it has gained.  Then, when accepted as status quo, it advances some more.  This is true in people’s personal lives as well as society at large.  As we seek to keep our own lives on track, and as we fight to get our society back on track, may we never forget the words of a famous founding father that "a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it superficial appearance of being right."