the pursuit of happiness

I have not watched any of the presidential debates in the last couple of months, but there were apparently two comments in recent debates by Newt Gingrich which resulted in standing ovations.  The more reported statement was a rebuttal to his ex-wife's accusations about the situation surrounding their divorce.  The statement that got me thinking was one that include the following sentence.

"I believe that every American of every background has been endowed by their Creator with the right to pursue happiness."

Gringrich went on to say that he would help poor people learn how to get jobs, so the context of this was that the key to pursuing happiness is learning how to work and getting gainful employment.  I'm not planning to comment on this assertion one way or the other. Gingrich apparently made some other comments that could be read to be agreeing with what I have to say below at some other point, so what I have to say doesn't really address what he meant in context.  It did bring me back to the earlier post I had made about the unalienable rights listed in the Declaration of Independence, though.

That a focus of debate popular enough to elicit a standing ovation in what I should expect to be one of the most God-fearing electorates in the world (South Carolina Republicans) is regarding the details of pursuing happiness is disheartening.  The concept is not Biblical at all, and it's one of those arenas of knowledge where research fairly conclusively backs up the Biblical viewpoint.  The following video exemplifies this to a degree.  If one group of people attempts to be happy and another group of people attempts to be meaningful, the "meaningful" group will always be happier than the "happy" group.



I see this same concept embedded throughout the entirety of Scripture.  It's summarized by the psalmist in Psalms 37:4, in that we receive the desires of our heart only after we have delighted in (and, by implication, sought our meaning in) God. There is almost no other purpose for Ecclesiastes other than to make this point, and the point that our only meaning is found in God.  It's found in the fruits of peace, patience, joy, et al that God grants us as we grow in Him.  It's found in the hope that we are supposed to have in Christ that should cause others to notice.

The warnings against pursuing happiness are many, though they generally take the form of warning not to fall prey to specific sins.  What is sin other than a misguided pursuit of happiness that bypasses meaning?  Greed is a good example.  Paul said that it was the same as idolatry (Col 3:5). Whether you are greedy is not necessarily tied to how much you make, but it is certainly tied to your awareness of what others make.  I would expect that it would also be negatively correlated with a drive to find true meaning.  I have noted in the past that people who attempt to climb up the social ladder beyond their level of wealth in the pursuit of happiness will almost certainly make themselves unhappy.  Chasing happiness for most people is an exercise in futility.

In summary Scripture is pro-pursuing meaning and anti-pursuing happiness.  While it appears at a glance that this is an anti-fun/anti-happiness buzzkill position for God to take, it is obvious that those who explicitly try to seek happiness fail where those who seek and find meaning succeed.