Good News: "All You Need is Love"

Ah, those Beatles.  What couldn't they answer about Life's multiple dilemmas?

I've been reading Timothy Keller's book titled Counterfeit Gods.  It is a fascinating look at what motivates the human creature to elevate other forms of 'dust' to the status of idols.  At the core of his discussions is the built-in capacity for worship which we humans possess. 

He quotes from C.S. Lewis at one point, and I have gone to Mere Christianity to expand the quote more fully.

Lewis writes:

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage."  (Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis).

The Beatles weren't so far off course with their hit song - since love is a requirement for the human spirit to thrive. It may be safe to say that love is the common ground in the human experience.  We have a capacity to love, and a hardwired need to be loved.  Lewis is saying the reality of this powerful desire points to a probability that love exists, outside of ourselves and of humans in general. And that is why we crave it.  We are designed to receive love. And we endeavor to give love, to, in fact, love others, because we are made for love. 

The popular secular culture of our society, and many that have proceeded us, is bent on pursuing romantic love as the ultimate fulfillment, as the defining reason for our existence. And yet at every turn, human love disappoints, because human love flows from conflicted human beings who battle an unrelenting impulse to see 'self' elevated.  Keller writes about Ernst Becker's book The Denial of Death, which explains the "various ways secular people have dealth with the loss of belief in God." He continues, " Now that we think we are here by accident and not made for any purpose, how do we instill a sense of significance in our lives?.... We look to sex and romance to give us the transcendence and sense of meaning we used to get from faith in God."

There's a reason we love. There's a reason we desperately need to be loved.  Love is the currency of our souls. Love is not a contrived thing, though we do disfigure it greatly.  Love exists apart from us, and is the outflow of a self-existent, loving God.

That's the Good News in a nutshell.




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Dad Sayings

Been thinking about my Dad, and some of the many 'sayings' he had.  He didn't lecture with them... more like he subtly taught with them.  As sentences, they were simple and to the point, which no doubt contributes to their effectiveness as teaching agents.  Many will be familiar to people of my generation, such as:

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch."

"Buyer beware."

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

"A fool and his money are soon parted." 

I probably muttered silently to myself on more than one occasion upon hearing these, even  innocuously offered as they were.  But they stuck.  And they taught me real lessons about life, and about human nature.  And while everyone of them is still true today, because human nature does not change, I am stunned by their disappearance from the American lexicon, and their demise as inheritable wisdom.  The greatest gift we pay forward to the next generation is not material or monetary in nature, it is the accumulated wisdom of the ages.  Wisdom equips us to engage the world.

Consider:

How much of the Housing Crisis could have been prevented by listening to my Dad say, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."?  Or for that matter, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

How many politicians would be patently unelectable if "There's no such thing as a free lunch" were the standard grid through which the electorate filtered political speak? 

What would Food Assistance Program enrollment figures look like if people confidently embraced, deep down, that "When the going gets tough, the tough get going", secure in the knowledge that they can in fact manage their own destiny?

Maybe we need to believe more in ourselves, our own abilities and gifts, heed more of the wisdom collected in the lives of our family members and close friends, and through that process rely less on sweet sounding promises offered from the lips of strangers.

My Dad passed away in 2000.  But the lessons he learned from his life - and it was not an easy life, are his bequest to me. I count them amongst my greatest treasure.

Thanks Dad!

Life is like a bank account: You get out of it what you put into it!

Dreamer or Doer?

Two young boys were out inspecting their community in the aftermath of a powerful hurricane.  Devastation and disorder greeted them at every juncture, every turn.  As they drew near to their favorite beach, they noted the near complete obliteration of "Harley's", their favorite snow cone and snack shack.  For a moment they stood in silence, each inwardly recalibrating their own 'reality' compass.  As they approached the debris heap, Ned kicked through the debris, his thoughts darkened and overwhelmed by the loss of so much that had been familiar.  Zeke drifted off to the edge of the rubbish pile that had once been Harley's, and began digging in the sand and rubble.  After several minutes, Ned urged Zeke to leave, but Zeke declined. Ned bid him goodbye, not caring to gaze any longer upon the jumbled heap that had once been the symbol of so many fond and glorious memories. 

Zeke nodded, and kept at his digging. He used shattered lumber to drag the sand smooth.  He found one gallon  plastic buckets that had once held flavoring for snow cones, and five gallon containers full of pretzels and sand.  Zeke worked for hours, until his concerned parents showed up to check on his well-being.  This is what they found:

We are not defined by the circumstances that life hurls at us; rather it is our response to circumstances that defines us.... some would even say, shapes us.

The Tea Party: In the Crosshairs

What follows is a comment I posted on Facebook after this cartoon showed up on my page. (I've tidied up the passage a bit for the blog).

"You will get very little argument from Tea Party folks about this cartoon. The Tea party supporters strongly maintain that Lawmakers need to be forced to live by the same laws they pass for the People. As it is, we are rapidly becoming feudal, and the more money we send to DC, the more empowered are our lords. Instead, why not keep more of the money in the states, where we have better access to our state level 'representatives' and a bigger voice in how our money is spent... and not spent. When money goes to DC, it simply becomes fodder for the unending power grab, a vehicle for passing out goodies to other states for projects that 99% of the people in the US couldn't care less about nor benefit from.  But you can bet it benefits the politicians big time, because these favors aren't forgotten. And these are conservative and liberal favors. I can't control what a NY or CA U.S. Congressmen  vote   to spend money on, but I can get the attention of my representatives at the state level. We need to quit labeling each other and denigrating one another based on political beliefs... because it is pure bigotry to do so. As citizens we need to share ideas amongst ourselves that work toward solving these problems instead of bickering and backbiting like a bunch of highschool girls, and terminate our fantasy that our political system and its instruments will suddenly 'see the light' and find their way to doing the very hard things that need  to be done. The system is corrupt (and broke).... and the best way to cure it is to starve it down to a controllable size. If you like the status quo and the crony capitalism, then by all means, raise taxes and send more money to DC so the politicians can continue to feed your tax money to the corporate bandits, the 'too big to fail' financial entities, car companies, etc. Its just not my cup of tea.

Presidential Paybacks

There seems to be complete agreement among citizens, politicians and media muppets that our nation's finances are on life support. Liberals want to raise taxes. Conservatives want to reduce spending. Neither will fix the problem, not even in combination. But while we're riding this  fantasy train through a wonderland that believes this problem can be fixed with a few temporary policy changes, lets add one more means of bolstering the country's bottom line: presidential paybacks.

By now everyone  realizes (or should) that 'serving' as President of the United States is, upon leaving office, an express, one way ticket on the mother of all gravy trains. Between 2001 and 2010, Bill Clinton earned a cool $75 million in speaking fees.  George W. Bush has hit the $15 million dollar mark since leaving office in 2009. Clearly this money should go back to the country's coffers, since had it not been for the citizens of the country electing them, neither would by any stretch of the imagination be earning such outrageous incomes today. Considering how much treasure was spent on Clinton and Bush for protection and travel during their combined 16 years in office, maybe a little Presidential Payback is in order.  I propose that all such speeches be taxed at 95%, with the money going straight back to the White House budget to fund the  protection and travel expenses of whomever the current president is. The same will hold true for Obama when he leaves office.  Obama will of course opt for an even higher rate of taxation on himself, given his views on redistribution of wealth, and the responsibility of those to whom the opportunities afforded by this nation have been especially generous.  

What is Reality?

If you were to ask random people on the street, 'What is reality?', what answers might you expect?  It is instructive to mull over these expectations, to get your thoughts geared up for  the reality track.

Now, for some sort of baseline, let's go to the dictionary.  Dictionary.com defines reality, in its philosophical context, as:   

(Philosophy)   
a. something that exists independently of ideas concerning it.
b. something that exists independently of all other things and from which all other things derive.
6.   something that is real.
7.  something that constitutes a real or actual thing, as distinguished from something that is merely apparent

Now it is likely that, if you actually were to follow through and do random street interviews, a high percentage of the responses would not be a, b or number 7.  Good chance that number 6, 'something that is real', could surface with some frequency.  Another possible frequent response might be, "does it matter?".  Time will tell.

For me, the real question seems to be, "Is reality real, or is it just a perception that has been formulated, predicted and subsequently projected for retrospective interpretation based upon the combination of inputs from our sensory and neuro-chemical apparati?"  Is Reality an objective or a subjective entity? My premise is that it cannot be both, or contradictions would arise.

In our everyday life, we tend to make use  of some common, generic parameters with which we triangulate a reality. For instance, someone might describe their immediate reality as:  "I am married, have 2 children, a career at Apex industries, college fund started, yearly family summer vacation, member of the garden club and actively engaged in a church family.  I am surrounded by a small  circle of close friends, which is ringed by a larger more distant  set of friendships. My spouse and I plan on raising our kids to become responsible citizens equipped to make good moral choices. They will probably attend college, get married, and at some point we will have some healthy grandchildren to spoil."  

Inherent and unstated elements of reality are, "I live on planet Earth, a small planet in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is one of several hundred billion galaxies known to exist in the universe. Earth is, so far, unique in its ability to support life, and as a higher life form, I am able to contemplate questions such as, 'What is reality?' "  

The scenario outlined above is sort of a middle class American template, and certainly the specifics will deviate from those named above, but probably some similar benchmarks will be entered into the equation defining  our construct of reality. 

When we scrutinize our reality construct, though, we notice some things.  What we attribute as framework in our reality are some very plastic, dynamic elements and characters. This reality is largely defined by and highly dependent upon, relationships.  There is nothing static or fixed about the reality matrix we grow attached to, and yet we begin to embrace it and meld with it as though it is overtly reliable.

And so we strive and labor and pour ourselves into creating a reality that we find decent and nice and secure. We start believing that we can, in fact, generate a reality for ourselves and our loved ones. 

And then we are totally, utterly shocked and derailed when the phone call comes. "Mr. Smith? County Sheriff's Department.... there's been an accident. Can you get to the hospital to identify the body?"  Or when the husband comes home from work one evening and announces to his wife, "I just don't love you anymore. I am moving out. I want a divorce."  Or when the once happy child enters the doldrums of adolescence and finds his salvation in drugs, alcohol, and dismally dark music, until finally he quits  school, happy to mooch off of his parents for food and shelter, but otherwise consumed with disdain for them while  simultaneously engrossed with his own,  rarefied view of reality, and his very significant role in it.  And of course there's always that ridiculous projection of the collective mood of human beings around the globe: the stock market. Who hasn't seen their college fund decimated lately?

So, is reality real? Shouldn't something with as grandiose sounding a name as REALITY be a little more reliable, a little more rock solid and enduring,  underpinned by something other than the capricious moods and whims of both chance and man?    

The first definition from Dictionary.com under the philosophy heading is "something that exists independently of ideas concerning it." So back to our example, the happy marriage, the two children, the college fund and the successful launching of the children into independence suddenly become mere myth, a simple projection of what we desire. Because as we've seen, the happy marriage was in transition, the happy children were in transition, the stock market was in transition. Even money is not real in the sense of possessing any inherent power implied by the number stamped on its face. The practical, inherent value of currency is better assessed by the heat it releases when burned on a cold winter's night.When our reality triangulations predict outcomes which then fail to materialize, disappointment ensues. We are very prone to living our whole lives in the future tense, as though all that we do is an investment in some future outcome which we can make into a reality if we practice due diligence. And yet every single element of what we tend to esteem as reality is hinged upon frail, finite carbon-based life forms possessed of limited knowledge and free will, and eager to execute the latter. 
To recap: Because we believe we can guide our ship toward the shores of particular outcomes, we tend to think of reality in terms of compass points, time and rate of travel. We believe that what we have constructed around us is real, firmly anchored to some unseen bedrock reality, existing with a high probability of persistence, owing in part to our own due diligence. As building blocks of this construct, we point to any of our collection of 'real' things and 'real' relationships, and deploy them into our reality equation.

We have only one assurance in life if this is our view of reality: we are assured of disappointment. We are guaranteed a good measure of dissatisfaction, a hearty meal of sadness, and a life lived in the future tense. We are certain to become entrenched in a lifestyle that precludes us from even inquiring about existential reality because we are laboring in vain to create one of our own design. We weave together a tapestry with threads of fragile hopes and ephemeral dreams, and determine to live our lives upon it. But we are completely unaware that our tapestry is but a flimsy mat of dried grasses and chopped straw, set adrift on the great expanse of sea that is the real Reality, the unchangeable and fixed Reality, whose powerful, unseen impulses and upheavals jar us from time to time, calling to us through the mists of our ignorance, imploring us to lift up our eyes from our frail and fading tapestry and behold the one true vibrant Reality, the Creator, who has said,

“For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s;
on them he has set the world. (1 Samuel 2:8)

And again,

"My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together." (Isaiah 48:13)

That same Creator, the  true Reality, has also said,  

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8) Further He declares:

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”   Deut 31:6

Now there's a Reality to carry the ages. An eternal Reality, a guaranteed outcome, the product of the grace of the God of the universe, who has known those hundreds of billions of galaxies since their inception. And while God has known the galaxies since their inception, He has loved you since the beginning of time itself.

But God didn't stop at just making the promise. He guaranteed it, sealed it with the blood of Christ, who chose to serve humanity, to suffer and die for the sins that would otherwise separate us eternally from God's presence.  Christ's resurrection dealt an absolute defeat to Satan's unmitigated death pillaging.  

Christ says to us, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."  John 5:24

Reality 1.0.  The first, the last, the one true Reality.

And yes, Reality really does matter.

Change the world

Some say our world today is running short of certain things, such as courage, compassion and conviction. We who agree that the world would benefit from an increase in these qualities must commit to being a source for them.

That is, of course, a far larger dilemma.

Quick... join a group

Securing special treatment in the USA can now be described by a simple formula: Identify yourself as a member of a  minority group (any minority group - make one up if need be), set up your ideology for failure in the public square, then watch in amazement as your ideology is fast tracked into a law granting special protections and privileges via the courts. 

(Bonus: Enforcement will come gratuitously via the PC Apparatus - which is not entirely free: it will cost someone their 1st amendment rights.)

Simple enough, until you play it all out to its logical conclusion.  When our rights and protections  are sourced from our affiliation with some group or organization, rather than the 'inalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator', the specific protections from government abuse incorporated into the U.S. Constitution are usurped by the manufactured rights and privileges accorded to various groups.

Not a member of a recognized group? Sorry, but that means you are a loser.
Oops,  'loser' is mean spirited.

Let's just go with Epic Fail.

An American Cause: The Violence in Mexico

Do you deplore the violence in Mexico and on the border? Hopefully not a single drug user will dare to answer that question with a 'Yes'.

The raging violence and systemic corruption in Mexico, the murders of innocent citizens on both sides of the U.S./Mexican border, is the product of the American drug user. Each and every drug user, from the homeless junkie to the elites in Hollywood and corporate America, can hold their hands before their eyes and see the blood of the border war trickling down. The corruption and violence that exist in Mexico are the products of the American drug users' ravenous cravings to feel good. It turns out that the price of drug use is measured not in dollars, but in human lives and the suffering experienced by surviving family members of those who bear the title 'casualty' in the overall equation of making rich Americans 'feel good'. (And for the record, if you can afford to purchase drugs, a non-essential luxury item, that is the new definition of rich.)

The darkness and emptiness of America's soul craves filling. A gnawing sense of hunger and want, misguided and unchecked, has morphed into a sensuous craving for euphoria, for heaven on earth. Seeking a utopia where hardship, suffering and despair are shoved to the furthermost recess of our collective mind. For all our wealth (now being revealed as the illusion that it has always been), Americans are restless, dissatisfied, always on the prowl for 'more', be it possessions, food, luxuries, or just plain pleasure, we are relentless in our hunger. But because we are seeking to fuel a dying fire not with oxygen and timbers, but with water, the craving only grows.

Wealth and status do not impact drug use; emptiness does. The advantage of opulence, prestige and materialism is insufficient to prop up even the icons of the privileged world. The root of drug use and euphoria is selfishness: it is extreme preoccupation with self and the pleasuring of self. It is narcissistic and toxic, as evidenced by the unchecked hunger for drugs in this country in spite of the desperate consequences it has for those in an economically underdeveloped country. The impact of drug- affiliated corruption on poverty levels in Mexico is simply the compounded interest of the destructive investment made by drug using Americans bent on retreating from the real canvas of life into a make believe world of amusement and pleasure. And so they flee into a cave of neurons and synapses and there they suckle the nectar of self-indulgence, momentarily escaping the reality that stands ready to confront them when they dare leave the honey cave.

Americans are long on possessions, on fluff and bling and other perishable 'assets', but far too short on spiritual vision and substance. Bankrupt comes to mind. Principles, values and virtues are vanishing from the life accounts of Americans, and America the Nation can be no greater than Americans, the human beings of the nation. A nation comprised of soulless, selfish people cannot through some strange alchemy become a Nation of stalwart fortitude and a beacon of hope for the huddled masses across the globe. Afterall, what can the cowering lost offer to the one who has learned through hardship and trial that intangible principles and abiding faith are the foundation upon which a life, a meaningful life, is built.

The Atheist's dilemma, Part 1: The Existence of Evil

Tonight at our small group, we watched another segment in this Timothy Keller DVD series titled The Reason for God . It features Pastor Timothy Keller and 6 or so panelists, each either atheist or agnostic , discussing their difficulties with, or objections to, the notion of God. It has been one of the most thought provoking encounters I have witnessed in quite a long time.

Tonight's topic was the issue of why, if there is a God, does he allow suffering and evil. A common, understandable complaint of atheists and agnostics is the issue of a supposedly good and omnipotent God permitting evil and suffering to exist in the world of His own making.  Keller uses the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus's riddle as a launching point for the session:  “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”

The question has merit, but its inherent assumptions change the context of the question, namely, how are the terms 'evil' and 'suffering' being defined? Definitions are needed to set some parameters by which we evaluate this dilemma. Looking first at evil, we ask, "What is evil, and is evil personal or impersonal"?

In the Judeo-Christian framework, evil and good are personal, and they are attributes of existent beings. God is the creator of the cosmos and all contained therein. God is also the source of every good and perfect thing. Lucifer transformed himself into Satan by executing the Free Will Option against the good and perfect decrees of God. Evil precipitates in the toxic environment of disregard for God's decrees, and a free will is the only environment in which evil can exist; i.e. it cannot exist in a cow or a rock or a sofa or a painting, but only in the heart of man.

Without the heart of man in which to dwell, evil would have no residence on earth. Humans tend to look at one or two major human ills as aberrant and evil, such as murder, child rape, and torture, and in so doing, we keep the degree of separation between us and God rather small. But when we examine what God has declared to be unacceptable, i.e. evil in His sight, it quickly becomes clear that the degree of separation between ourselves and the Holy God of the bible is vast indeed. Evil is a choice made by the human will in opposition to the decrees of God, which are inherently good (God is incapable of making evil decrees.) Without the heart of man in which to be conceived, evil would have no home on earth, and in order for God to rid the world of evil He would need to rid the world of mankind.

So be careful what you wish for.

Two Tracks, One Choice

The person who attempts to live life with one foot on the world's rail and the other on the rail of Christ eventually discovers how divergent these two tracks are, for there comes the moment when he must choose: life with Christ or death with the world.

Time

TIME is more precious than gold, so spend it wisely, and invest for the long haul.

Random Thoughts

Aspirations are the source of much success, but expectations are the source of much disappointment

profiling (ˈprəʊˌfaɪlɪŋ)
— n
the practice of categorizing people and predicting their behaviour according to particular characteristics such as race or age: racial profiling

OK, let me get this straight: Frail old pasty white people and young children must submit to being touched on every part of their body by complete strangers because terrorists from Islamic nations would like to kill us. But 'we' must pretend to be blind to any physical clues and instead do random searches rather than targeted ones, because to do otherwise is to commit the awful act of, say it with me, profiling.

So explain to me how in the hell affirmative action ever got passed?

What is Truth?

“What is truth?”. Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Jerusalem in the first century AD, asked this question as he stared into the face of a prisoner brought before him on charges of sedition against the ruling religious leaders of his day. And while Pilate failed to grasp the truth, at the very least, he asked the question.

In today’s post-modern world the situation is much bleaker, particularly In the Western world, where we seem to make little inquiry as to what the truth of a matter is, any matter. Truth does not matter. Truth is relative and has become a commodity leveraged for its political or economic sway. Truth exists to whatever degree we manage to make it, market it and influence with it. Relativism has become so entrenched in the DNA of Western society that it is easy to believe that there is no such thing as truth in the absolute sense of the word; there's only 'your truth' and 'my truth' and 'their truth'.

But the ramifications of such reckless handling of so seeming a passive entity as truth are far reaching. Humans know that to craft a lie is to aim for deceiving someone, with a desired end result in view. Meanwhile, the truth, more often than not, sits mutely on the sidelines, awaiting discovery, always ready to be revealed, but rarely, if ever, the subject of the grandiose production that goes into the manufacture of the lie.

In 2007 the Kansas state school board was involved in a shooting match vis-à-vis the state’s science standards. During the debate Kansas became fruitful fodder for late night television hosts and scientific opinion journals alike. The world lined up courtside to denigrate or congratulate the wheat state, depending upon their personal worldview.

But the missing link in this debate would seem to be none other than Pilate's query, ‘What is the truth?’ Because in the end this debate was not about seeking and discovering the truth, but about promoting agendas and worldviews.

The science standards implemented in 2007 are a move away from broader inquiry and toward the narrower view of naturalism. Naturalism, commonly known as materialism, is a worldview in which everything can be explained in terms of natural causes. Physical matter, i.e. the atomic world, is presumed to be the only reality, so everything can in fact be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena. By definition, Naturalism excludes any supernatural agent. It is not a stretch to say that naturalism is atheism, and the natural moral climate in the absence of God is moral relativism.

What is truth? The question is deep, and deserves much thought and reflection, and I will leave that part to you. But it is fair to state that those who genuinely seek The Truth have always fought uphill battles, have always encountered resistance. Because if someone is in the position of seeking the truth, than they are seeking something that is thought to be unknown at present, meaning they do not accept the prevailing wisdom or professional edict regarding the matter in question. Otherwise, why would they be seeking it? It would be plain as day and a known quantity. Galileo and Copernicus studied the heavens and arrived at a conclusion that rocked humanity’s belief about where the Earth sat relative to the sun and the remaining planets (hint: we are NOT the center of the universe), ending the 1000 year supremacy of the Ptolemaic premise that the Earth sits at the center of the solar system.

Newton pondered the fall of apples from a tree, and eventually uncovered the truth of one of the four fundamental forces of the universe, gravity. Yet today no one has seen gravity, held or smelled or heard gravity, let alone touched gravity, but no one denies it exists. Why? Because we see its effects all around us. Newtonian gravity is reliable and predictable… at least until we enter the world of quantum mechanics.

Van Leeuwenhoek refined the microscope of his day and discovered a world that had previously been invisible to humans. The twentieth century saw the invention of the electron microscope, enabling scientists to magnify objects otherwise invisible up to 2 million times, and alas, another previously unknown world was unveiled, a world where life's simplest manifestation, the single-celled microorganism, is found to be comprised of exceedingly complex molecular factories possessed of exquisite molecular-sized machinery.

The truth is always present, but it is not always detectable. And if the public education system teaches ‘truths’ that turn out not to be true at all, can such a belief system be undone spontaneously? Naturalism and evolutionary theory take on a worldview-shaping function, namely that there is no God; and worldviews shape values, and values shape people and their actions which in turn shape a society. What is reaped originates from what is sown.

If public policy is to be sculpted so as to forever eliminate anything that echoes even faintly of Judeo-Christian teachings, here are some further topics the school board may be forced to consider for removal: Love. Honesty. Honor. Kindness. Gentleness. Self control. Peace. Respect. Wisdom. Integrity. All of these concepts are taught extensively in the bible, from its beginning to its end. And all are taught as being traits of the God of the cosmos, traits which have been conveyed to humans as standards of behavior, rules for living, just as the atomic world is subjected to the laws of nature.

The bible instructs that murder is wrong, lying is wrong, abusive language is wrong, bigotry and prejudice are wrong, rape is wrong, battery is wrong, neglect is wrong. And yet, where there is a wrong, by definition must there not be a right, a quality that exists in opposition to these wrongs? But this quest is summarily absent from public discourse and education, precisely because it deviates from the underpinnings of scientific naturalism and its inherent atheism. Are we skewing the quest for knowledge away from the truth in our eagerness to presume against the existence of God? Why would anyone do that?

It is safe to say that as a society we covet the fruit of the bible, namely the decency and uprightness it prescribes, but we are loathe to attribute such traits to anything outside of the material world. Are we really so dull of mind that we never ponder what might lie beyond this veil of atoms which we have declared to be the sum of all reality? Who are the power brokers that have taken it upon themselves to dictate via the public education system that God is dead and the one who seeks Him is on a fool's errand? Who are you?

Lords of Deception

"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:28-32

I read this in my quiet time this morning. In a pretty unspiritual change of focus, my immediate thoughts went to politics, as in of the American variety, but also politics as a collective manifestation of the heart of man.
I dwell on politics too much. I don't deny it. My predilection, however, may be defensible, because politics in every nation on the planet is only minimally about taking up the torch of righteousness and justice for the governed, and is far more a malignant enterprise aimed at gobbling up power rightfully belonging to the people. Politics is just another manifestation of the lust for power inherent in the darker regions of the human heart. Check out J.R.R Tolkien;s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and if you aren't up for slogging your way through the novels, the movies deliver stunning depiction of the complicated landscape that resides in the inner man.

America's political stage is overflowing with a cast of characters manifesting unashamedly the lust for power that Tolkien revealed. And make no mistake... power does not stand alone as a harmless choice that some make while others feign disinterest. Power does not exist in the absence of the powerless. To possess power in the sense we are discussing, the possessor must have an entity over which to lord this dominion. Without subjects, power cannot be precipitated. Power is very much like love, which exists only given the existence of a person or object to love, because that person or object precipitates the potential for love that resides in the human heart. Power is a verb, just as love is a verb. But whereas love seeks the good of the loved at the expense of self, power seeks the good of self at the expense of the other.

Power concentrated in the hands of a select few hundred people is not so very different from the power concentrated historically in the hands of the singular kings and dictators that have inhabited the world's stage over the centuries. It is still a concentration of power, and will lead to tyranny. Power must be distributed across the individuals making up the governed, or they will become the ruled.

And even knowing this, we in America speak soothingly to ourselves and say over and over, 'We live in a democracy (which isn't true at all). This is the will of the people at work.' And as we coo ourselves back into our disengaged stupor, the forces of darkness continue unabated, in fact, often to the applause and accolades of mindless television talk shows whose main duty seems to be to parrot back to the people a positive rationale for the theft of power being executed on the main stage. And well, golly shucks darn, if a Hollywood star or starlet embraces the power grab, its gotta be a good thing.... right?

So as a Christian, and to my Christian friends, I ask: what is expected of us, as Believers living in a fallen world destined for destruction? I know that God is the author of liberty, as he demonstrates by imparting and preserving free will in man. And again by His decree that Christ's sacrifice serve as atonement for our unrighteous state, thereby liberating us from the certainty of eternity in hell. And as the author of liberty, God surely does not wish to see his creation subjugated to the will of a handful of Utopian-eyed Statists whose only use for God is in the public square as a means to instituting Social Justice via a Social Gospel... does He? Such changes are not real if they do not flow from a changed heart, they are only symptomatic of a dogma turned policy turned coercive.

And why is it suddenly OK for politicians to coax through their agendas on the wings of 'What would Jesus do?', anyway? I thought we had to keep religion and politics segregated, lest the citizenry hear something that offends them unto the point of incomprehensible agony?
Like so many pawns are we, being drawn across a mammoth board following first this soothing promise and then that one, yielding up our inalienable rights to the seductive tune of the charmer who has neither the authority nor the capacity to deliver on these empty promises.

" 'Because they lead my people astray, saying, "Peace," when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. 12 When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, "Where is the whitewash you covered it with?" (Ezekiel 13:10-12)

"What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)


Its your move.

Our Laughable Congress

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert will testify at a Congressional hearing on immigration.

And still some people say there is no disconnect between Congress and the People? We are SO being herded by the media as to what message(s) we will hear. I wish the dome of the Capitol building could be inverted into a giant plunger and just purge every last representative from the congress and start over with farmers, plumbers, doctors, business people, but not one single lawyer or professor! Real life, and real life problems, requires real life experience, NOT the visions of intellectuals being imposed on the people via top=down policy making that ultimately disrupts the vital, natural interactions of we the people on the ground.

Constitution

The way I see it, the Founders constructed the Constitution of the United States as a means of putting a leash on government, and a hedge of protection around the individual liberties that are given to us by God. And I think I am not alone in this view. But a foundational element for the success of this arrangement was left unspoken, unwritten in any formal treatise regarding the fledgling government they were about to birth: just as the powers of government are tethered to a stake driven into the bedrock of the Constitution, so must the heart of the individual be tethered to God. If the people desire self-rule, they must endeavor to be the gate keepers of their own heart and to constrain the darkness that dwells therein. There is no action taken, no word spoken, that is not conceived first in the heart.

As Government has eliminated God from the public discourse, and dotingly shielded students from the dangers associated with even a cursory assent to the existence of God, it has cleverly created the need to expand its own powers. A government such as ours that develops a lust for power must necessarily push the citizenry toward an unfettered and equally lusty heart that cherishes and covets a selfish, unrestrained freedom over and above the nebulous energy force that maintains order in the human world: principle.