11/10/10 – I’ve been asked to lead a discussion about the Overton Window. The Overton Window became popular back in June when Glenn Beck released a novel by the same name. This is not an advertisement for Beck or his book. I’ve seen the book and it seemed a little “hokey” to me – but I rarely read fiction so I’m probably not the right person to do a fictional book review.

     The real Overton Window is a theory advanced by a public policy expert, Joseph Overton. He said that there is a “window of acceptability” of ideas for the average person in society. Ideas outside this window are considered extreme, radical, or unthinkable. If for some reason someone wants to move a radical idea into the window of acceptability – then you must move or enlarge the window to accept that idea. For example, 50 years ago, paying $1 for a small bottle of water would have been unthinkable, but now it is considered acceptable and normal. How was our “window” enlarged to accept that?  I recently watched a documentary about marijuana and they described how over a period of 40 years, marijuana use/abuse went from criminal to acceptable among the American people.  How did “they” (we) manage to do that?   

     Wednesday night, we will relate the Overton Window to Christian Ethics and see how our “window of holiness” has been shifted and enlarged to allow things that were formerly sinful to become acceptable. We will also see if it is possible to to reverse the process. After something has entered our window of acceptability is it ever possible to push it back out of the window?