I have often wondered how previous generations could be so blind for so long to the most obvious sins. Why weren’t they able to see the inherent wrong-headedness of some of their most cherished values?

It’s unnerving to read sermons that were preached in some of America’s most reputable churches during the decades that preceded the Civil War. Somehow those pastors found proof positive in the Bible that God was watching the backs of slave owners. Throughout the nineteenth century the voices of many politicians eagerly endorsed the notion of Manifest Destiny – that God had made it plain as day that the citizens of the United States, a country less than a century old, were being called to roll across North America and absorb or eliminate whatever indigenous cultures stood between them and the Pacific Ocean.

Just eighty years ago the notion of eugenics was embraced by many of our country’s more thoughtful people – that steps ought to be taken to eliminate the scourge of inferior DNA in our society’s gene pool, perhaps by involuntary sterilization.

How could so many teachers, elected leaders, pastors, and parents be so arrogant and blind for so long?

Of course, the sentence I just wrote is astonishingly arrogant. It is a legacy of the Enlightenment – that heady season in eighteenth century Europe when the intelligentsia seized upon the idea that the medieval minds that had preceded them were quite obviously blind, while they themselves could see clearly.

Every succeeding generation has suffered from Summit Fever. In the present moment we believe that we are standing on top of the mountain of wisdom. We’re not like our parents and grandparents, who somehow failed to anticipate the inevitable revolutions that would overturn our culture’s assumptions about race, the role of women, what constitutes sexual harassment, and any number of other values that we have long since come to see as Normal. It’s so wonderful to be enlightened.

But of course our generation is not an exception in the human drama. We are stunningly blind to still other issues, a number of which will leave our grandchildren scratching their heads: How could they not have seen what was right before their eyes?

Prophets and pundits try to call out those issues. Sometimes they are right; other times they miss the mark. What are the blind spots that afflict Western culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century? Democrats and progressives would be quick to produce such a list. So would Republicans and conservatives. Throw in social workers, scientists, environmentalists, and theologians and you have the makings of quite an animated discussion.

Let me make four suggestions of my own. If you’re offended by at least one, I’m probably getting close to the mark. What will future generations find it hard to believe that our generation tolerated or even embraced?

I dare to believe that there will be a giant wake-up call in the future concerning abortion. During the last three and a half decades at least a third of the human beings conceived in America were not granted the privilege of birth. Rhetoric aside (and I do not lightly dismiss some of the extreme reasons why abortion might be seen as a viable option), most of those fetuses died on the altar of personal freedom. I believe that one day it will seem incredible that so many human lives were sacrificed so that we might have a better shot at personal happiness.

I hope the world looks back one day and finds it impossible to believe that we thought it necessary to invest so much time, so many resources, and so much worry concerning military defense. The world is broken; it is a dangerous place. We must make strong, appropriate responses to the evil of terrorism. But this year we will spend 100 million dollars every single day just to keep our strategic nuclear missiles in a state of readiness. Can’t we imagine a wiser use of that money?

I believe that future generations will be amazed at the busyness and extreme social isolation of our present society. We seem bent on conducting a vast and inherently risky experiment: Will life be richer and happier if we continually try to do more, at the cost of marriages, friendships, and spiritual commitment? The returns to date are unanimous: We are lonely, uprooted, and chaotic people, even though that latest version of my Blackberry sure helps me access a lot of information in a flash. Why are we so blind to what we are doing to ourselves?

My vote for the ultimate scandal of our generation, from the perspective of those who will be looking back from what they think is the new summit of wisdom, is the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots on planet earth. Many of us felt panic last year when our food bills, as a percent of household income, lurched from 10% to 12%. At the same time the percent of household income devoted to procuring food in the developing world, which represents two-thirds of earth’s population, soared from 50% to 80%. Can we imagine what it would be like to surrender four-fifths of every paycheck just to stay alive one more day? As the wealthiest people in the world, what are we willing to do about this?

No doubt you can think of other issues. Climate change comes to mind. Just raising the question of our society’s present blind spots can lead to dynamic discussion in families, churches, and local watering holes.

I am glad there is a Lord of history. I am glad that forgiveness is available when broken and repentant hearts come clean concerning bankrupt ways of living. But I also know that it would be far wiser to discern our blind spots today and to confront them, than to wait for our grandchildren to ask, "What in the world were they thinking?"