which son do you tend to be?

A nice essay from Marvin Olasky in World on the famous passage from Luke 15 on the Father and his two prodigal sons...

As Tim Keller points out in The Prodigal God (Dutton, 2008), the parable of the prodigal son should have a plural in its name: sons. We all know of the younger brother’s libertine living, but the elder brother has a more subtle problem: He is self-righteous and lacks joy.

Part of the evangelical political problem in contemporary America is that much of the press and public sees us as elder brothers. Sometimes we are that way in reaction to younger brothers. Sometimes younger brothers go their way in reaction to us....

From there, Olasky applies the older and younger brothers model to a variety of public arenas-- and then advocates a "third brother" approach.