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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
Much of society is now a hooting nuthouse full of unhinged inmates trampling logic and common sense, and indifferent or even hostile to traditional religious beliefs. This is where the Christian admonition kicks in: Be in the world but not of the world.
The culture war is over - Conservative Christians lost
Traditional western jurisprudence has much of its roots in Biblical morality, but voters, elected representatives, and judges are rejecting those moral foundations, and the change has been rapid.
In 1986, the Supreme Court cited Blackstone to uphold Georgia's anti-sodomy law that outlawed homosexual sex. (Bowers v. Hardwick). In 1991, the Supreme Court declared anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional. (Lawrence v. Texas). Gay marriage followed in 2015. (Obergefell v Hodges)
Blackstone's compendium of western law explicates a nuanced approach to abortion, as does Jewish teachings. People who want an absolute abolition of the practice must first acknowledge that they hold an extreme and minority position. I don't mean that as a pejorative. True Christianity is uncompromising and not for the faint of heart.
Coercion or Persuasion?
Religious right Republicans could win the House, Senate and White House and launch a farrago of revanchist federal laws including prohibitions on abortions and gay marriage, etc, but they would trigger their own version of one person, one vote, one time. Voters would throw them out and banish them for a generation while the newly-elected would re-enshrine those rights. Cramming laws down the throats of people who don't want them is a form of dictatorship.
Politics aside, imagine the torrent of ramifications flowing from such laws, and the impact on society.
We are living in a neo-pagan age, and Christians are now in the realm of moral persuasion. The Lord's work will not be done in our legislatures and court houses, so roll up your sleeves, hoist high the First Amendment banner, and get to work.
Cramming laws down the throats of people who don't want them is a form of dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why a just society is one of strong secular freedom (civil Liberties) - and a broad and inviolable freedom of religion. A just society is where elected representatives thoughtfully ponder legislation with the view of 'how does this protect the Rights or expand the Liberties of the individual Citizen?'
from the Jowett summary of Plato's "Republic"
ReplyDeleteTyranny springs from democracy much as democracy springs from oligarchy. Both arise cxxiii from excess; the one from excess of wealth, the other from excess of freedom. ‘The great natural good of life,’ says the democrat, ‘is freedom.’ And this exclusive love of freedom and regardlessness of everything else, is the cause of the change from democracy to tyranny. The State demands the strong wine of freedom, and unless her rulers give her a plentiful draught, punishes and insults them; equality and fraternity of governors and governed is the approved principle. Anarchy is the law, not of the State only, but of private houses, and extends even to the animals. 563Father and son, citizen and foreigner, teacher and pupil, old and young, are all on a level; fathers and teachers fear their sons and pupils, and the wisdom of the young man is a match for the elder, and the old imitate the jaunty manners of the young because they are afraid of being thought morose. Slaves are on a level with their masters and mistresses, and there is no difference between men and women. Nay, the very animals in a democratic State have a freedom which is unknown in other places. The she-dogs are as good as their she-mistresses, and horses and asses march along with dignity and run their noses against anybody who comes in their way. ‘That has often been my experience.’ At last the citizens become so sensitive that they cannot endure the yoke of laws, written or unwritten; they would have no man call himself their master. Such is the glorious beginning of things out of which tyranny springs. ‘Glorious, indeed; but what is to follow?’ The ruin of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy; 564for there is a law of contraries; the excess of freedom passes into the excess of slavery, and the greater the freedom the greater the slavery.
Apologies for the digression, but did you see the Sean Penn, Mel Gibson movie, the professor and the madman?
DeletePhenomenal movie. But Jowett comes off as a real bastard.
No I didn't. I'll have to look for it.
Deletebtw - You apologize? I should be the one apologizing. All I ever appear to do in these threads is digress.
DeleteThere seems to be some evidence that the individuals in the White House, the Department of Justice, and the FBI have implemented another coverup of their unconstitutional and Criminal Activities.
ReplyDeleteCould it be that the validity of Trump’s case-in-chief may rest on the documents that President Trump previously DECLASSIFIED BEFORE leaving office. SINCE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS PLENARY POWER TO DECLASSIFY DOCUMENTS, There Can Be No Criminal Charges brought against Donald Trump for it’s possession!
Could be. We'll know if so, if that same information where it resides in other instances, holdings and products....is similarly declassified.
Delete...or not, if Biden Reverse Uno carded Trump's last minute declassification efforts.
DeleteAs it stands now, Trump was caught with stolen property. Document classifications, if such exist, will only make such charges worse.
DeleteBrother, can you buy a vote?
ReplyDeleteI was listening to an interview yesterday with Russell Moore, now Editor in Chief of Christianity Today. One of the questions he was asked was along these lines...
ReplyDeleteWhy does it seem that religious conservatives seem to focus their hate of sin on those sins with which they seem not to struggle? Think the interviewer explained about "homosexuality", "abortion" and the mostly individual/personal "social" sins.
All the while leaving the "societal" sins, like racism and poverty to more liberal believers.
As it relates to public policy and politics, I found that to be an interesting question as it relates to where ppl focus their energies.
Also, as it relates to politics and faith, Moore said that data seems to show that the most ardent of "believers" involved in actually being involved in politics, fall into the camp of more nominal Christians, being very infrequent church goers and/or Bible readers.
I wonder how that affects how people choose to live out the commandments of Jesus, illuminated in the Didache. Particularly the call to love our neighbors.
Well Dave, they don't worry about the "social" sins because those sins are out of their control (and largely imaginary existing mainly in the eyes of 'progressives'.). They don't worry about racism because they aren't racist themselves. They don't worry about poverty because they aren't poor, contribute to charity (at rates far higher than progressives), and pay their taxes to a government that does an extremely poor job at dealing with the causes of poverty because the bureaucrats 'profit' from administering the funds and are unconcerned with the 'moral hazards' they often inflict upon the poor... in a country where "the poor" are the fattest people on Earth.
Deleteps- I don't think you understand the "love thy neighbors" commandment. You seem to believe that you need to 'celebrate' you neighbors. You don't . You can love them by merely "tolerating" them, w/o corrupting your own value system.
DeleteYou "love" them by not using your neighbors as "means to ends".
DeleteYou may live in a Sodom or Gomorrah of social sins. But it's G_d's job to punish them, not yours *anti-facism and anti-racism" being but two examples of what you should NOT do.
DeleteAs for taxes, render unto Caesar his due... and "privately" do what you can personally do to help other. Don't give Caesar more money to keep doing things the wrong way (moral hazards) "badly".
Delete...do the "Nash Equilibrium" (game-theory).
DeleteCollude with "Christian Charities".
Delete...not Cauesar's bureacrat's business model.
DeleteDave,
DeleteYou're the preacher man here, so tell us, where in the Bible does Jesus mention "societal" sins?
The didach is non-canonical and didn't make it into the New Testamenr. Social gospels? I don't know. I'm not an Xtian.
DeleteFarmer,
DeleteThe Didache is an early historical whose authenticity has never been challenged by historians. It is an extremely "conservative" document, forbidding homosexuality and abortion, as well as fornication, adultery and lying.
Doesn't Leviticus already do that?
DeleteIt sounds like it might have been an elaboration or interpretation of Mathew 10
DeleteBut then again, what does it mean to "love everyone" (universal love)? Can you love all without hating at least 1? As a "linguistic concept" it's "circular" in that hate is love and love is hate. A kind of "universal in-difference".
Delete"Love is not “I love you all.” Love means I pick out something, and it's, again, this structure of imbalance. Even if this something is just a small detail… a fragile individual person… I say “I love you more than anything else.” In this quite formal sense, love is evil.”
― Slavoj Žižek
In other words, the concept of "universal love" is neither "in" nor "of" the world.
DeleteŽižek thereby concludes that the injunction to ‘love thy neighbour’ and correlative preaching about equality, tolerance and universal love “are ultimately strategies to avoid encountering the neighbour” (Conversations with Žižek, p.72, 2004). To Žižek, idealistic proclamations of love actually preclude the possibility of loving ...
DeleteTo appreciate "perfect" beauty, helps to contrast it to a small imperfection.
Delete"Be in the world but not of the world."
DeleteHow would that be possible if we "universally" loved "all the world"?
To "abstract" a concept (ie "a word") requires one to "forget" minor distinctions and differences. In that sense, language is a hyper-real "symbolic" realm. The "narrative realm" of "human" magical-realism.
DeleteThe Didache appears to be a document that plainly states the beliefs and prohibition of the new church Christ founded. It was necessary because of all the "outsiders" coming in (Greeks, etc) who would not have been familiar with the Jewish religion, so alot of stuff had to be stated all over again. Of course its going to have echoes of the Torah. The fundamental beliefs did not change.
DeleteThe distorters who argue "Jesus never said... so its OK" ignore writings and other historical and cultural artifacts.
Jesus also never said not to eat broken glass, and was completely silent on animal torture.
Context is king.
DeleteThersites said... "I don't think you understand the "love thy neighbors" commandment. You seem to believe that you need to 'celebrate' you neighbors. You don't . You can love them by merely "tolerating" them, w/o corrupting your own value system".
ReplyDeleteDoes "merely tolerating" them rise to the level of the sacrificial love Jesus modeled on the cross? I would probably argue we need a more active love than merely tolerating ppl will demonstrate.
I think that He did it so the we don't have to (but I'm not an Xtian). But hey, knock yourself out.
DeleteThe point is, your next door neighbor is armed and can kill you. If he doesn't, let's thank Him.
DeleteLet's not take his guns away and let the FBI illegally/ unconstitutionally surveille/ entrap him in the interest of keeping YOU safe.
DeleteIn G_d (not government) we trust.
Delete:P
Delete:)
Deletebtw - If you think you should be willing to "die" for you neighbor, shouldn't you also be willing to "go to the end" and "kill" for him (ie join the Ukrainian army and fight against Russia)?
DeleteMost of us love our neighbor best when he is far- far away. But when that neighbor gets too close, that love often turns to hate. Most liberals want their much loved and revered neighbors kept out of their gated communities so as not to have to feel "harassed" by their over-proximity.
DeleteIMO the best way to "love your neighbor" is to open carry.
DeleteIt'll reduce his temptation to "harrass" you.
Delete...and so long as he does likewise, it'll reduce your temptation to harass him.
DeleteThank G_d for the 2nd Amendment! ;)
DeleteThersites... to bring this back around to Silver's first point, the responses of Jesus would be and example of being "in the world". Some might call it Christian charity. Loving your neighbor, even when that neighbor is close up.
DeleteThe merely tolerating seems to be an example of someone who is "of the world."
For most ppl, I'm not advocating either response, as much as arguing as to what the Jesus would be. Each will choose his or her own response.
But, if Jesus is to be someone's model, indeed, the radicalness of the Didache and most importantly the cross, stand as bright markers of not being "of the world."
That depends upon whether you speak of Jesus as man or Jesus as G_d. In the end, Jesus the Man exclaimed, "Father, why hast Thee foresaken me?" upon his ascent to the cross.
Delete...for in the end, He was no longer even "of the world".
DeleteI don't vote Democratic. I never did vote Democratic. And I don’t think that I will ever vote Democratic…. Until they do what they haven't ever done to earn my vote. And I seriously doubt if they ever will.
ReplyDelete"Why does it seem that religious conservatives seem to focus their hate of sin on those sins with which they seem not to struggle?" It seems to me the question is one of projection more than observation. Greg Koukl once noted that he was often asked "why are you Christians always talking about gay marriage" to which he answered "we're not. Why are you always asking me about it?"
ReplyDeleteAs a conservative Christian I focus most on those sins I have control or influence over which is mostly the ones I struggle with! Paul the Apostle lumps gossip in with murder. Fornication with coveting. All of these fall short of God's standard. Russell Moore may need to broaden his contacts with Christians.
Do we EVER focus strongly on ones we don't struggle with? Of course? Just not exclusively. How else did slavery get outlawed in the western world?
BAYSIDER
The "Christianity Today" website is a mixture of mealy pablum and crap, pablucrap, or crapulum, take your pick.
DeleteI found myself sympathizing with Emerson in his Address to the Harvard Divinity School. Religion has been reduced to "history". And as Nietzsche commented in his 2nd Untimely Meditations "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life" when he quotes Goethe, "Incidentally, I despise everything which merely instructs me without increasing or immediately enlivening my activity.".
DeleteOswald Spengler had a high regard for Goethe
DeleteSilver opined... "The "Christianity Today" website is a mixture of mealy pablum and crap, pablucrap, or crapulum, take your pick."
DeleteSometimes yes, sometimes no. But the recently promoted Moore is a serious guy with whom I don't always agree. But whether I do or don't, I respect him and the way he comes to the table. Prepared, consistent, passionate and respectful.
So did Beethoven, even if he didn't always agree with him. But then Spengler was a disciple of Nietzsche... so he would love Goethe. Goethe was Nietzsche's definition of a "cultured" man.
DeleteWould any of us break bread with a neighbour knowing they gave respect to mother earth or any other false gods?
ReplyDeleteOr give in to the punishing ridicule from all the other neighborhood false god followers claiming you/we, are, too hard nosed, fallowers of the Father in Heaven - The Highest Heaven?
Would any of us break bread with a neighbor knowing they gave respect to mother earth or any other false gods?
DeleteSure, absolutely. Why wouldn't you? Are you insecure in your religious faith?
+1
DeleteHow or what people worship is none of my business. I recommend Jesus Christ to anyone who asks, and I can explain why if asked, but I understand everyone does not believe as I do.
DeleteWhat matters is the outward actions of people, towards their family, their neighbors and the larger community.
I know why I'd break bread with him. For the very same reason I'd attend a Bacchanalia. To determine who I could trust to watch my kids when I had to go away to fight a war... and who I had to make sure they avoided. I want to know how people behave when given the license to behave as they want, rather than how they behave when only in the presence of a society which tells them how they "should".
Delete"Trust" means being charitable and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. But you don't have to "trust" blindly and stupidly. You should "trust but verify".
DeleteBesides, I need recruits for my Dionysian Chorus and Apollonian Dance Troupe. ;)
Delete“I would believe only in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn: it was the spirit of gravity - through him all things fall.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"
Thersites,
DeleteYour Bacchanalia answer wins the innerwebz!
I don't suppose you'd care to sub as Choir Director/ Choreographer for my Troupe? ;)
DeleteI've only got one requirement for it, if you're gonna two-step, ya gotta wear boots.
DeleteI would divide the world into threes (as I tend to do)... those bound into the covenant and 613 commandments of Judaism, those bound into the covenant and 7 commandments given to Noah (Judaism is Noahide law plus 606 other laws), and those who are not bound to either of the other two. When Satan was cast out of Heaven, he only took a third of the rebellious angels with him. Most of the world's religions and societal and governing hierarchical structures are largely Noahidian in composition, ascribing to the seven laws:
Delete1 – Do not worship false gods
2 – Do not curse God.
3 – Do not murder.
4 – Do not be sexually immoral.
5 – Do not steal.
6 – Do not eat a limb removed from a live animal.
7 – Set up courts and bring offenders to justice.
Those 7 commandments apply to all of humanity (the children of Noah), the post-Flood human race in perpetuity. Those 7 things have a parallel in the Biblical account of the world before the Flood wiped all but Noah's family out. Not keeping them were God's justification for wiping out the world with the Flood in the first place. Probably none of the seven are more important than the others; societies and civilizations throughout all of recorded history have collapsed when one or more of those seven are broken and ignored.
So, how many Noahidians are there in the world? Probably a lot more than you realize. It's not a religion. It's a code for decent, ethical human beings. They can be Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and so on. It's a code anyone that wants a decent world can live by.
Sure, Hindus have thousands of gods. Christians have thousands of angels and saints, so? Are they really not the same thing? God the Father sent and is Jesus the Son. Vishnu sent and is Krishna. Not worshipping false gods and not cursing the real God seems very easy to do when you're not murdering, not being sexually immoral, not stealing / commiting fraud, not being cruel to living animals, and maintaining a justice system to settle disputes and remove criminals from society. Nothing in those seven laws dictate how to avoid worshipping false gods or how to not curse God. To me, it's self evident. People who do not worship false gods and do not curse God follow the other five laws as if the world will be destroyed if they don't.
Notice that when God destroyed the world with Flood and saved the world with the sacrifice of his Son, he didn't need any mortal man's help or input.
To those who believe they can work and rise above God's grace and make themselves holy, I can only say good luck, but you're going to fail just like the rest of us.
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN!
DeleteMatthew 25:31-40
DeleteJohn 10:34
:)
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - the Golden Rule that Jesus said all other commandments hang upon, is actually cross-cultural and older than the Bible by thousands of years.
DeleteIt's as if it all came from the same Source after a Floor or something.
*Flood
DeleteAlmost sounds like a Categorical Imperative... ;)
DeleteAs likely the only Jewish person to comment. Aboriginal Christianity is judaic in tone and substance. If you want to see a progressive go insane just repeat Zola Levitts response to Jesus was a Palestinian or the Church replaced the Jews. If one doesn’t want to this just say the name Zola.
DeleteThe Noahides believe in God in the original context. God isnt PC or woke.
The problem with all religion is every single order is infected with parasites. Cultural Marxists made a mockery of his teachings. Are the Bernie and Biden bots happy with Cuba 3 in Nicaragua. We fail to learn when we dont know our foes. How many of you know about Ilhan Omars involvement with Witness for Peace. When Reagan was gone and the cameras left Ortega continued despotism. Ever see Butthead Bernie praise Israeli health care or education. Ever see the Ben and Jerry crew lift a finger for Venezuelans, Cubans or Nicaragua.
All religions need to understand Marxism is a cancer in your midst.
The only mask this patriot wears is the gasmask. It is the sign of the irreverent genius whose wit and wisdom was loved by all who read them.
@FJ you Kant.... well, you did lol
Delete@Beakerkin? - John 10:34 refers to Psalm 82:6, as does the parable of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-40...
Toss in God creating mankind in His image... it all ties together.
Nothing good comes from treating anyone as less than a child of God. And we all fail at this. I fail spectacularly at it.
All religions need to understand Marxism is a cancer in your midst.
DeleteThou shalt not covet... thou shalt not steal...
Coveting and stealing are Marxism 101.
Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy summarized:
DeleteFirst: the phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness–the world of things and animals and men and even gods–is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent.
Second: human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.
Third: man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit.
Fourth: man’s life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.
Huxley applied this to his understanding of Hinduism, but it applies to *every* religion.
1. There is a God
2. We can know God
3. That we are separate from but belong with God
4. We must reunite with God
The perennial philosophy is Huxley's greatest work, IMO. Blew me away first time I read it. And it still blows me away when I dip back into it
DeleteAgreed. The man was whacked out on mescaline and LSD most of his writing life, but at least he remained able to communicate what he was "seeing" to us mostly sober people.
Delete