{"id":5004,"date":"2025-10-31T08:58:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5004"},"modified":"2025-10-31T08:58:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:58:02","slug":"wise-fools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/31\/wise-fools\/","title":{"rendered":"Wise Fools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

It won\u2019t be a surprise if you see werewolves, vampires, and mummies on the hunt for Hershey\u2019s bars in your neighborhood this evening.

You might also see that most recent addition to the pantheon of scary Halloween monsters: the demented clown.

How in the world did a figure of fun become an embodiment of evil?\u00a0

By the middle of the last century, clowns had migrated from their original stomping grounds of fairs, circuses, and theaters to mainstream American culture. Silly but lovable Bozo became a smash hit during the earliest days of children\u2019s television. Ronald McDonald (no relation) arrived on the scene in the early 1960s, beckoning kids to Happy Meals at the golden arches.

For most kids and their parents, clowns were wholesome and approachable sources of mirth.

That\u2019s why Stephen King\u2019s 1986 bestseller It<\/em> is so horrifying. The novel introduces Pennywise, the malevolent clown who preys on young children. The feature film Poltergeist<\/em> (1982) likewise generated a new wave of kid\u2019s bedroom phobias when a demon possesses a child\u2019s clown toy.

How did clowns become the bad guys?

To be honest, not every child has enjoyed sitting on Santa Claus\u2019 lap at the department store, nor savored the over-the-top theatrics of the typical birthday party clown. Distorted features \u2013 perhaps a white face with garish red lips \u2013 are part of traditional clown makeup, calculated to generate smiles. But those same features can be unsettling.

When law enforcement officials revealed that serial killer John Wayne Gacy had performed as Pogo the Clown to generate trust and gain access to families in his community, the notion of the \u201ckiller clown\u201d became firmly planted in the public imagination.

Clowns were increasingly associated with hidden motives. There are many kinds of horror. The corruption of innocence is surely one of the worst.

Meanwhile, there are a multitude of reasons to rethink the place of clowns in our lives.\u00a0

Clowns Without Borders sends professional entertainers to refugee camps all over the world \u2013 places where children haven\u2019t had reasons to smile for a very long time. \u201cClown doctors\u201d regularly bring joy and comfort to children\u2019s hospitals, helping young patients and their families face the fear and uncertainty of difficult circumstances.

Historically, one of the purposes of clowning as an art form is to bring healing.

Studies have shown that skilled clowns, by modeling vulnerability and humor \u2013 falling down and getting back up in a variety of entertaining ways \u2013 are unusually effective at sending a crucial message to those who are suffering: \u201cYou can get through this, too.\u201d

Long before 19th<\/sup> century circus clowns began to major in slapstick (which is the only way most of us have experienced clowns), professional \u201cfools\u201d of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation saw themselves as inspiring resilience in the face of pain.

Clowns and fools used exaggerated means to display human folly. Their antics declared, \u201cAll of us are fragile and flawed. But life isn\u2019t over when we fail. We can find joy even in our imperfections.\u201d

But the history of clowning goes deeper still, as embodied in the notion of the \u201cwise fool.\u201d\u00a0

In most ages, it\u2019s been a very bad idea to approach an authoritarian leader and announce what everyone else might be thinking: \u201cYou\u2019re making a royal mess of things.\u201d That might be grounds for losing your job or losing your head.

A skilled clown, however, could pull that off. By telling the truth \u201cslant\u201d \u2013 perhaps through a story, a parody, or a silly skit \u2013 the wise fool could deliver biting social critique under the guise of \u201cjust horsing around.\u201d

How do you call out a king or a general whose pretensions deserve to be mocked? Make him laugh.

That brings us to one of the apostle Paul\u2019s most interesting statements.

No church gave him fits like the one in the Greek city of Corinth. Paul ranted and raged and pleaded and prayed with this gathering of baby Christians concerning a dozen or so controversial issues. In the end, he couldn\u2019t get over the fact that they assumed they didn\u2019t need him. They were doing just fine, thank you.

In I Corinthians 4:10, he finally unloads his frustration: \u201cWe are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!\u201d

Paul \u2013 the greatest theologian of the early church, with tongue firmly planted in cheek \u2013 declares himself to be a nothing but a fool.

But throughout Christian history, this verse has become a rallying point for teachers, preachers, and clowns (and yes, we are often one and the same).

Paul knew that the self-identified \u201csmart people\u201d among both Jews and Gentiles had written him off as a blithering idiot. God comes to earth and dies a criminal\u2019s death, on a cross no less, leaving behind nothing but a motley crew of scared followers? How strange and how sad.

\u201cThat\u2019s fine,\u201d says Paul. \u201cI\u2019m more than willing to be called a fool \u2013 but one day you\u2019ll realize that I\u2019m the wise fool who is telling the whole world the truth they so desperately need to hear.\u201d

A clown can be the bearer of very good news, indeed.

Just the same, if you see Pennywise this evening, it may be the better part of wisdom to turn off your porch light.\u00a0
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here It won\u2019t be a surprise if you see werewolves, vampires, and mummies on the hunt for Hershey\u2019s bars in your neighborhood this evening. You might also see that most recent addition to the pantheon of scary Halloween monsters: the demented clown. How in the world did a figure of fun become… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1028,625,650],"class_list":["post-5004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-clowns","tag-fools","tag-halloween"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5006,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5004\/revisions\/5006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}