There’s been an email going around called “The Obituary for Common Sense”. I received it twice, both times from well-intentioned people (one of them was my mom). If you haven’t read this clever piece by Lori Borgman yet, then you can read it here. It was originally published on March 15, 1998 in the Indianapolis Star. 
To sum it up… it’s a cutsie editorial type thing which bemoans the death of Common Sense. Unfortunatley, though, Common Sense is alive and well, and I think he’s stunting my spiritual growth. He might be affecting you adversely as well, but I’ll let you decide that for yourself.
Many folks are unaware that Common Sense has a sort of “shadow” life all over the world . Some of his most infamous and enterprising exploits were as “a wolf in sheeps clothing”. Black South Africans during apartheid knew that their struggle was against more than merely whites; they were fighting Common Sense, as well. Blacks in the American South knew that Common Sense was their enemy. He goes by many assumed names. Members of the Untouchable class in India know him as Karma. Americans struggling to describe their self-worth in more-than-economic terms know him as The Way the Market Works. Many of the youth in our schools and churches meet him going by the name The Way Things Are when they start questioning the way the world works. His cousins are Because I Said So and The Way It’s Always Been. His closest companion’s are Status Quo and Conventional Wisdom.
He has been honored by Kings and peasants alike. The wise King Solomon wrote an extensive tribute to Common Sense which we can find in the biblical writing Proverbs. Anywhere we find “unjust economic relations, oppresive political relations, biased race relations, patriarchal gender relations, hierarchical power relations, and the use of violence to maintain them all”, we will also find Common Sense working hard to justify them all.
Not many know of his origins but they can be found in ancient histories and legends. Over five thousand years ago, nations began using wheels and domesticated horses as a means to carry plunder back home from foreign conquests. Before this era in history, the risk of creating warfare with neighboring peoples was not worth the reward that came with victory, because the booty won in the fight had to be left in the foreign (and now hostile) nation. With new technologies, war became profitable for conquest-states that did it well. Powerful nations now needed systems and myths to maintain control over their defeated foes (which often outnumbered them). The systems used by the powerful to manage women, the poor, and the captive became know as Common Sense.
“In culture after culture, human destiny was driven in a direction that few would have consciously chosen.” Civilization gave birth to Common Sense as a means to maintain the status quo. Great religious leaders and teachers of wisdom have exposed the nature of Common Sense throughout history. They have cried out that there is something wrong with the way that Common Sense constrains us to live. Jesus called Common Sense the Broad Road that leads to destruction and contrasted it with the Narrow Way which leads to a fuller life. Regarding Common Sense, Marcus Borg wrote:
Most live lives structurd by the conventions of their culture, by taken-for-granted notions of what life is about and how to live, by what “everybody knows.” Every culture has its conventions, indeed, is virtually defined by its conventions. Growing up involves internalizing the conventions of one’s culture. Thus we do not simply live in a world of convention; rather, convention lives within us. Our lives are structured, even driven, by the central conventions of our culture. We learn to value what our culture values, pursue what our culture tells us to pursue, and see as our culture sees. In short, we commonly live in a world of conventional wisdom.
Here’s my problem. Jesus said that his Anti-Common Sense message was for those who had ears to hear and eyes to see. Even with a high tolerance for bucking Common Sense, I am trapped by a desire to maintain the status and privilege that Common Sense affords to me. I’m trapped in the middle of a system of Common Sense that limits my ability to hear, see, and follow Jesus. My Common Sensitivities are offended by the challenge of Jesus to sit in the lowest place at a feast (Luke 14:10), to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to my parties (Luke 14:13), or to give up all my possesions (Luke 14:33). I’m possessed by the stuff of Common Sense, the rewards of playing the game by the conventional rules. I keep doing things “the right way” so that my family and I can rest comfortably in warm beds with full stomachs; all the time knowing that there is a better way, a narrow road, an abundant life available if I will just let go of my place in the conventional “line”.
Common Sense is alive and well, but the story is not over. He will continue to morph and move through generation after generation and from culture to culture. But, the way of Common Sense will end in destruction. Conventions that are maintained by the sword will find an end by the sword. A new way will come with peace and plenty for all people, and Common Sense will be suceeded by Loving Sense. I just hope that I can get on board with the new way before that judgement of Common Sense finally comes.
First two quotes are from The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium
Block quote is from Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary