Long ago and far away

   before church had a name or a place ... 

     We are knit together by shared belief and faith, by shared principle, and by the bond of a common hope. We gather together, lifting up our prayers to God, as in our agreement we might engage with Him, and God delights in this strong interchange.  We pray, too, for the rulers, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final conclusion.  We gather to read His words . . . and with those, we strengthen our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more steadfast; and under His instruction we build lives worth living. 

There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money like some religion that has a price for recognition or favor returned. 

On the day, if one likes, each puts in a small donation; but only by choice, and only as each is able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are . . . not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck ... But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us ...

They say of believers, "See how they love one another," while they themselves are driven by hatred. "See how they are ready even to die for one another," they say, while they themselves would sooner kill.

     ~ from Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and others speaking of Christians in the first and second centuries. The church was not yet defined or organized, but Christians were emerging across the empire.

They were strangers and sojourners, we're told, passing their days graciously and unselfishly here on earth but as citizens of heaven.  They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time, they far surpass the laws by their lives.  The real thing, just fascinating.

___________________________________________________

Do Christians and the church today impress the world similarly?

The Real Enemy

Skip the religious rhetoric.  Our fight is against evil and its rule.

We must stand in truth with strength and a clear voice.  Choices we make (or that the rulers of nations make) are either good or evil.  Precious people live or die based on our actions.  They are helped or harmed, enabled or oppressed, lifted up or pushed down.

Every selfish choice has a price.  Every prejudice, every judgement of another, every alliance violated, every hubris, every arrogance, every virtue abandoned, every promise forgotten, every lie, every slander, every hatred, every bitterness, and every time we turn away ... has a price.

The real enemy attempts to mold us all in his image.  "Compete!  Conquer!  Dominate!  Win at any cost!"  It's a compelling path that sheds humanity along the way.

Equip yourself, then, with truth, virtue, and a willingness to engage.  Carry with you your confidence in Him whom you serve and the truth he speaks through you.


Every word we speak to our children,
Every encounter at work,
Every gesture, every expression ...
Every decision, transaction, and choice we make ...

May each one shine with the light of Him who sent us here.

Wishful Thinking

The 20th century's most influential economist, John Maynard Keynes was always confident he could find a solution to whatever problem he turned his attention to and retained a lasting faith in the ability of government officials to do good.  

Keynes' optimism included the belief that people whose basic economic needs had been satisfied would naturally gravitate to other, non-economic pursuits, perhaps embracing the arts and nature. 

A century of experience, however, suggests that this was wishful thinking.  Neither governments nor culture have fully understood.  One economist has noted, “Reversing consumerism’s financial and cultural dominance in public and private life is set to be one of the twenty-first century’s most gripping psychological dramas.”

The Human Cost of Ideology

Our opinions are often formed by group ideology, and with the flood of alternative facts, objective truth doesn’t seem to change people's beliefs or behavior.  It's particularly difficult to think differently than the common trend.

Interestingly, we're warned that such conformist thinking prevents learning, but if we approach the truth with a little humility, we'll learn quickly and change wisely.

For example, slavery ended in the 1800's, and we rose up to be a righteous people, right? No. Crude slavery continued for more than a century. The ruling elites in Africa used the slaves they couldn't sell to Europe anymore to work locally on plantations and produce the 'legitimate products' that could be sold internationally. At its height in Nigeria, parents were afraid to let their children play outside for fear they would be kidnapped and sold as slaves.

For centuries, extractive policies transferred wealth from colonial regions leaving countries and their inhabitants devastated for generations. The Arab slave trade spanned a thousand years; there were still 300,000 enslaved in Saudi Arabia when it was legally ended in the 1960's.

In our morally adjusted America, slavery evolved into employment at slave-equivalent wages. Child labor moved from the homestead to large businesses.  As the industrial revolution expanded the economy, the elite became stunningly wealthy by the extractive economics of poverty wages. 

Despite attempts to regulate safe working conditions and reasonable wages, harsh and unreasonable labor practices continue today, and the bottom 20% are the most affected.  Employees are expendable in most working environments, and they're available for abuse according to many identified recently.

If the national minimum wage isn't a

living wage in even the cheapest

city in the country, it's not a

 living wage anywhere.

Today's workplace is grueling, stressful, and surprisingly hostile, or so concludes an in-depth study by the Rand Corp., Harvard Medical School, and the University of California published in 2017 by Fox news and others:

• 20% report recent abuse or harassment at work.  Nearly one in five workers - which the study calls "disturbingly high" - say they face a hostile or threatening environment at work, which can include sexual harassment and bullying.
61% of American workers perform repetitive or intense physical work.  This work can include moving heavy loads or maintaining painful positions. More than half are exposed to hazards such as loud environments, extreme temperatures, hazardous materials, or unhealthy air.

All the words have changed, but the moral dilemma remains the same as does the behavior. The justifications we're offered are no more legitimate than those that were offered in the colonial era.  

Ideologically, what are the things we're supposed to have learned? 

From a Christian perspective, what's visible here?  Anything?   

(Decoupling from ideological norms; that's the modern terminology for not being conformed to this world. Disentanglement is another good description. So, how do we pursue that particular goal?)

The Power of Metaphor (and Meme)

Can a metaphor replace a truth?

Metaphor: a figure of speech containing an implicit comparison.  

Over a few years of inquiry, I've noticed that things which are abhorrent can be justified or minimized by the way we describe them, by our metaphors.

Snakes: in Rwanda, Hutus described Tutsis as snakes and treated them as such.
Vermin: Germany’s Reich portrayed Jews as vermin and treated them as such.

For the sake of the nation, it had to be done.  It was necessary, for example, during WWII, to bomb civilians.  In the pursuit of room to live (lebensraum), Germany began bombing Polish cities and towns that weren’t military targets. Japan similarly bombed civilian targets in China.

In response, allied bombing destroyed many cities in Germany and Japan before Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Targeting the morale of the nation, we said.  After the war, it was examined and acknowledged that many attacks had targeted innocent civilian populations that were uninvolved in the decision to go to war or in the war effort.  It continues to be troubling.

Manifest Destiny: for our new-born nation, it was necessary to vacate the country ahead of our expansion westward as our manifest destiny required.

Over the decades, the abuse of others has been metaphorically justified.  They’re savage beasts, we said of those we enslaved.  Of desperate migrants seeking refuge, we said they are criminals and rapists, an invasion.

In each case, metaphoric misdirection provided an excuse for violation of absolute principle.

If you inquire into such issues, it often circles back to simplistic, metaphoric justification rather than a principled foundation, and there is no objective answer.

A question for us as individuals and as a culture, then; do we have genuine principles?  Or a confusion, perhaps, of conflicting values?

Either we have an anchor, or we're left to drift with the wind and waves. He said, metaphorically. 😏 Thoughts? Memes?

It's worth remembering, Jesus didn't suggest his followers choose between the ruling parties of their day.

   We're fed a constant stream, not of simple truth, but of someone's preferred interpretation. And it needn't be factual, apparently.

   If we accept it, we dull our own heart. If we join in and play along, we perhaps corrupt our own understanding along with that of others.

   And the most difficult issue, I suspect ... if we give our loyalty to either side, we find ourselves approving of things our Father warned us against. It's worth remembering, Jesus didn't suggest his followers choose between the ruling parties of their day. Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees were a blight on their culture.

   So how do we see the truth with some measure of objectivity, some measure of clarity? And how do we choose our own path? Is there a downside if we do nothing?

   It's perhaps time to take a deep breath and remember the goal of a united people, a virtuous nation, and principled governance.  Now perhaps, remind your friends as well.