Cracks in the Dam

Close

Collapsed dam in Taiwan, 1999.

Quickly now, a scene from a war move called Force 10 From Navarone. 

The good guys (led by Harrison Ford and Robert Shaw) have to blow up a bridge in Yugoslavia that is vital to the Nazis. After many harrowing adventures, including a plane crash, numerous shoot-outs and daring escapes, the good guys find and kill a German spy and then they go after the bridge. When they see it, they realize they don’t have nearly enough explosives to do the job. 

Mission Over? Not hardly 

They move upriver and discover a massive dam. If they could only slip past the Nazi guards, get down to the base of the dam, set off some explosives, slip past the Nazi guards again, and then escape in the general confusion, the water from the blown dam would rush down the riverbed, overwhelming the bridge, knocking out its foundations, foiling the Nazis in their evil plans to take over the world. 

So Harrison Ford and Robert Shaw dress up as Nazis, slip past the guards at the dam, find the right door, clamber down the steep steps to the bottom of the dam, find the right spot, put the explosives in place, and then turn to leave. But they have been discovered. No time to escape. They set the timer knowing they will die with the explosion. But of course they don’t. The dynamite goes off, makes a huge noise, and nothing happens. 

Meanwhile outside the dam the rest of the good guys hear the explosion. When the dam doesn’t disintegrate, the team turns to the demolitions expert who lights a pipe and says, “Patience. You’ve got to have patience.»

At the same moment Ford and Shaw (who expected to die) notice cracks forming in the foundation of the dam. Then water begins to spurt through the cracks. They run for their lives, barely making it out before the dam collapses, sending an avalanche of water hurtling downstream. When it hits the mighty bridge, the columns sway, then begin to crumble, and finally the bridge collapses at the very moment the Nazis are crossing with their tanks and jeeps. 

And that’s the climax of the movie. 

I thought about that this morning and meditated on the power of cracks in the foundation. If you know what you are doing, you don’t need an atomic bomb to wreak havoc. A little dynamite in the right place will do the trick. All it takes is a few cracks, well-placed, at the right moment, and the whole thing comes crumbling down. 

Those who have been attacking the institution of marriage laid their explosives in the right place yesterday. This morning as the smoke clears, we can see cracks in the foundation with water pouring through. All they need now is patience and the traditional definition of marriage will be washed away completely. 

I thought of something else too. The sun came up this morning as it always does. Life seems pretty much the same, which is what the opponents of traditional marriage have intended all along. Win a victory here, win another one there, keep fighting, blow another hole in the foundation. And then wait. Eventually the dam will collapse and soon the bridge will wash away with it.

Meanwhile it’s a bright, sunny morning in America. It appears that nothing has changed. But there is water gushing from the cracks in the foundation.