A sense of mission? Not so much…

Many Christians know little or nothing about personal guidance from God. They go from event to event and live a kind of hand-to-mouth spiritual existence—a spiritual and moral opportunism. They have no sense of working out a plan of life under God’s guidance. They have little or no sense of destiny, of mission.

This is true of the nation as well as the individual. When a nation loses its sense of mission, it is beginning to disintegrate. Someone asked President Eisenhower, before he was nominated for the Presidency, what was the greatest need of America, and he replied: “A sense of mission.” A very wise and penetrating reply. Personally I believe this sense of mission for America is to be true to the last line of the pledge of allegiance to the flag: “One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” This is the thing we have been raised up to do: to give “liberty and justice for all,” at home and abroad. This rules out all imperialisms—economic, social, political, military. We have been the proving ground of an idea—an economy of liberty and justice for all, apart from race and birth and religion and color and sex. We have been brought up to make the word “all” operative in all relationships at home and abroad. This is the mission of America. We must work it out—or perish. And if we don't work it out, we ought to perish—we will be a useless, amorphic mass of selfish people struggling for personal advantage. If we as a nation go out to dominate anyone economically, socially, politically, militarily, then our “name is mud.” “Ichabod”—“God has departed”—will be written on our banners, and angels will weep. For we who began by breaking with imperialism would end in setting up one of our own—the saddest ending to the greatest beginning in human history. One of our greatest needs is a call for a national day of prayer in which we will humbly bow our knees to get back as a nation “a sense of mission”—a sense that we are working out a divine destiny in the world.—E. Stanley Jones, Growing Spiritually, 274

<idle musing>
He wrote this in 1953. His fears have definitely been realized, haven't they?
</idle musing>

The Nazi myth recycled … as a MAGA myth!

I read Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth over the weekend. On the whole it's just a rehash of Eliade and Joseph Campbell, but with a good dose of Walter Burkert thrown in to make it more interesting. But, the final chapter had this tantalizing paragraph:

We are myth-making creatures and, during the twentieth century we saw some very destructive modern myths which have ended in massacre and genocide.… These destructive mythologies have been narrowly racial, ethnic, denominational and egotistic, an attempt to exalt the self by demonising the other. Any such myth has failed modernity…

Sound familiar? But she doesn't stop there. She suggests that

We cannot counter these bad myths with reason alone, because undiluted logos cannot deal with such deep-rooted, unexorcised fears, desires and neuroses. That is the role of an ethically and spiritually informed mythology. We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply those who belong to our ethnic, national or ideological tribe. We need myths that help us to realize the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded as sufficiently productive or efficient in our pragmatic, rational world. We need myths that help us to create a spiritual attitude, to see beyond our immediate requirements, and enable us to experience a transcendent value that challenges our solipsistic selfishness. We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it as a ‘resource’. This is crucial, because unless there is some kind of spiritual revolution that is able to keep abreast of our technological genius, we will not save our planet.—Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth, 136–37

Thought for the day

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.—Harry S. Truman

A word for today

I was reading Ezekiel 22 in the Hebrew Bible yesterday. It sound strikingly similar to what is going on today in the United States:

22 The Lord’s word came to me: 2 You, human one, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then explain all her detestable practices to her. 3 Say, The Lord God proclaims: City, self-destructive blood-letter, self-defiling idol maker: 4 All the blood that you’ve shed is your punishment, and all the idols that you’ve made are your defilement. This is how you’ve shortened your days and hastened the end of your years! For this reason I’ve given you over to the ridicule of nations and the derision of every land. 5 Those from near and far will mock your infamous name and great chaos. 6 Look, Israel’s princes, every one of them, have joined forces to shed blood in you. 7 In you they treat father and mother with contempt. In you they oppress immigrants and deny the rights of orphans and widows. 8 You despise my holy things and degrade my sabbaths. 9 In you slanderers show up to shed blood. In you they eat on the mountains. In you they do obscene things. 10 In you a father’s nakedness is uncovered. In you menstruating women are violated. 11 Every man engages in detestable practices with his neighbor’s wife, every man defiles his daughter-in-law with obscene acts, and every man violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. 12 In you they take bribes to shed blood. You collect interest and fees, you profit by extorting your neighbor, and you neglect even me! This is what the Lord God says.

13 I now strike my hands over your ill-gotten gain and blood that’s been shed in you. 14 Will your strength and courage endure when I deal with you? I am the Lord: I speak, and I act! 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you throughout the lands, and so I will remove your uncleanness from you. 16 When you are degraded[Heb. adds "in you"] like this in the sight of the nations, then you will know that I am the Lord.

17 The Lord’s word came to me: 18 Human one, the house of Israel has become a waste product for me. They are all copper, tin, iron, and lead. In the furnace, they’ve become the waste product of silver. 19 So this is what the Lord God says: Because you’ve all become a waste product, I’m now gathering you into the middle of Jerusalem. 20 Just as silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are collected and placed in a furnace to fan the flames under them and melt them down, so in my anger and rage I will collect you, put you in, and melt you down. 21 I will gather you, fan the flames of my wrath under you, and melt you down in the middle of it. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it. You will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my rage on you.

23 The Lord’s word came to me: 24 Human one, say to her, You are an unclean land without rain on the day of reckoning. 25 The conspiracy of princes[LXX; Heb. prophets] in her is like a roaring lion ripping up prey. They’ve piled up wealth and precious goods and made many widows in her. 26 Her priests have done violence to my instructions and made my holy things impure. They have not clearly separated the holy from the ordinary, and they have not taught the difference between unclean and clean things. They’ve disregarded my sabbaths. So I’ve been degraded among them. 27 The officials in her are like wolves ripping up prey. They shed blood and destroy lives for unjust riches. 28 Her prophets have whitewashed everything for them, seeing false visions and making wrong predictions for them, saying, “This is what the Lord God says,” when the Lord hasn’t spoken. 29 The important people of the land have practiced extortion and have committed robbery. They’ve oppressed the poor and mistreated the immigrant. They’ve oppressed and denied justice. 30 I looked for anyone to repair the wall and stand in the gap for me on behalf of the land, so I wouldn’t have to destroy it. But I couldn’t find anyone. 31 So I’ve poured out my anger on them. With my furious fire I’ve finished them off. I’ve held them accountable. This is what the Lord God proclaims. (CEB)

Tozer, from the 1960s, with a word for our times

We hear of rapists, murderers and all the rest. Yet that rapist who rapes and kills in the park in the dark of the night is no further off from God than that proud businessman surrounded by his adoring family, who reads Shakespeare and listens to Beethoven. All are sinners, and all have come short of the glory of God (see Rom. 3:23). We are all without hope and without God in the world. Yet there is hope in God, if we will believe.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 92

Thought for today

1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 Lord, how long will I call for help and you not listen?
   I cry out to you, “Violence!”
     but you don’t deliver us.
3 Why do you show me injustice and look at anguish
   so that devastation and violence are before me?
There is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 The Instruction is ineffective.
     Justice does not endure
     because the wicked surround the righteous.
   Justice becomes warped.

5 Look among the nations and watch!
   Be astonished and stare
     because something is happening in your days
       that you wouldn’t believe even if told.
6 I am about to rouse the Chaldeans,
   that bitter and impetuous nation,
     which travels throughout the earth to possess dwelling places it does not own.
7 The Chaldean is dreadful and fearful.
   He makes his own justice and dignity.
8 His horses are faster than leopards;
   they are quicker than wolves of the evening.
His horsemen charge forward;
   his horsemen come from far away.
     They fly in to devour, swiftly, like an eagle.
9 They come for violence,
   the horde with all their faces set toward the desert.
He takes captives like sand.
10 He makes fun of kings;
rulers are ridiculous to him.
   He laughs at every fortress,
     then he piles up dirt and takes it.
11 He passes through like the wind and invades;
   but he will be held guilty,
     the one whose strength is his god.

12 Lord, aren’t you ancient, my God, my holy one?
Don’t let us die.
Lord, you put the Chaldean here for judgment.
   Rock, you established him as a rebuke.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
   you are unable to look at disaster.
Why would you look at the treacherous
   or keep silent when the wicked swallows one who is more righteous?
14 You made humans like the fish of the sea,
   like creeping things with no one to rule over them.
15 The Chaldean brings all of them up with a fishhook.
   He drags them away with a net;
   he collects them in his fishing net,
     then he rejoices and celebrates.
16 Therefore, he sacrifices to his net;
   he burns incense to his fishing nets,
   because due to them his portion grows fat
     and his food becomes luxurious.
17 Should he continue to empty his net
   and continue to slay nations without sparing them?

2:1 I will take my post;
   I will position myself on the fortress.
   I will keep watch to see what the Lord says to me
   and how he will respond to my complaint.
                         Habakkuk 1:1–2–2:1 CEB

<idle musing>
I've been hanging out in this for the last month or so now. I'll probably eventually get to chapter 3, but for now, this is it. Make the appropriate changes, e.g., those horses are Tesla trucks that raid the government buildings, the Chaldeans are Dear Leader's™ cronies looting and stealing…

YMMV, of course. But that's where I'm at.
</idle musing>

They swallow the lie—and get indigestion

With the working class it is the other way about. Too ignorant to see through the trick that is being played on them, they easily swallow the promises of fascism, yet sooner or later they always take up the struggle again. They must do so, because in their own bodies they always discover that the promises of fascism cannot be fulfilled. To win over the working class permanently, the fascists would have to raise the general standard of living, which they are unable and probably unwilling to do. The struggle of the working class is like the growth of a plant, the plant is blind and stupid, but it knows enough to keep pushing upwards towards the light, and it will do this in the face of endless discouragements.—George Orwell, A Collection of Essays, 202

<idle musing>
OK, I don't like his demeaning classist outlook, but he does shine the light on an important truth. The "lower class" may empower their overlords, but when the leaders fail—which they inevitably will, because their real goal is power and money—the "lower class" will rise up and rebel. It might take a generation or two, but they will. Cue reference to Hab 3.
</idle musing>

Sound familiar?

The ruling power is always faced with the question, “In such and such circumstances, what would you do?”, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions. Where it is a permanent and pensioned; opposition, as in England, the quality of its thought deteriorates accordingly. Moreover, anyone who starts out with a pessimistic, reactionary view of life tends to be justified by events, for Utopia never arrives—George Orwell, A Collection of Essays, 131

Callous (Tozer for Tuesday—on a Wednesday)

Perhaps the most dangerous situation confronting Christians today is what I call cauterizing the conscience. That is, making a person insensitive or callous to the world around him. In practical terms, he experiences a deadening of feelings toward morals. Quite simply, this moral insensibility is a lack of feeling. You cannot feel the whole moral question. The strange paradox is that a person may be troubled by his inability to feel, yet he cannot feel. Even among those who consider themselves Christians, there is very little outrage at the immorality of our times.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 34 (emphasis original)

Psalm 33 and Isaiah 40

Yesterday's devotional at Seedbed was on Ps 33. It's a short little thing, as devotionals usually are, but this one seems especially appropriate for today:

If you feel powerless today, or that the purposes of God are somehow being thwarted in the world, then take heart. God is in control of human history. His plans will unfold according to his eternal and unchanging purposes. The last headline of the newspapers of the world will be: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).

I'm pretty sure that when they wrote this, they weren't intending to target a certain event happening in Washington, DC later today, but it is timely, isn't it?

And if you are one of those who is rejoicing over that event, remember that he, too, will one day bend the knee before the King of creation and give an account. Isaiah says it well:

5 The Lord’s glory will appear,
      and all humanity will see it together;
      the Lord’s mouth has commanded it.

6 A voice was saying:
       “Call out!”
And another[a] said,
      “What should I call out?”
All flesh is grass;
      all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass dries up
      and the flower withers
      when the Lord’s breath blows on it.
      Surely the people are grass. Isaiah 40:5–7 (CEB)

Thought for the day

I hear and my insides tremble.
       My lips quiver at the sound.
       Rottenness enters my bones.
I tremble while I stand,
       while I wait for the day of distress
       to come against the people who attack us.
Though the fig tree doesn’t bloom,
       and there’s no produce on the vine;
       though the olive crop withers,
       and the fields don’t provide food;
       though the sheep are cut off from the pen,
       and there are no cattle in the stalls;
I will rejoice in the Lord.
       I will rejoice in the God of my deliverance.
The Lord God is my strength.
       He will set my feet like the deer.
       He will let me walk upon the heights. Hab 3:16–19 (CEB)

Tozer for Tuesday

I think of the prophet Jeremiah. I find many men who are wandering around that are not any good, and many men who are the messengers and saints of God who are not wanted. You cannot always tell whether God is blessing a man by how many calls he gets, because many men get calls that if the truth were known about them, they would never be called anywhere, except to a court of law. Other men are God’s own saints but are not wanted.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 203

<idle musing>
He preached this sermon either in the 1950s or the early 1960s. You would think he was looking at the current state of the church (and society) in the United States. Celebrity pastor after celebrity pastor is being found out for hidden sin. One of the candidates for the US presidency is a convicted felon and a known sexual predator.

I guess Tozer was wrong about one thing: Their sins are known and they still get calls. What a sad state of affairs.
</idle musing>

Violence is NEVER an option

Never, ever, ever, is violence an acceptable option for the Christian. That's all.

The more things change…. SCOTUS and Pericles (5th cent. BCE Athens)

A parallel restriction of the power of gift-reciprocity is evident in laws concerning the administration of justice. Because gifts expect, and oblige, a return, those invested with judicial roles who are also embedded in gift relationships, and therefore have obligations to their benefactors, are liable to skew their assessment of legal disputes. Hence Pericles’ innovation, in fifth-century Athens, that citizens who took part in judicial hearings should receive payment from the state (a source that commits them to the interests of the city) —and this to counter the power of Cimon, whose gifts to his demesmen kept them beholden to him. Wherever we find civic oflicials swearing to conduct their roles without regard to favors, and judges required to refuse gifts, we find the clash between two transactional regimes, the regime of the gift, with its strong personal ties of loyalty and reciprocation, and the regime of civic-legal power, which claims a higher authority within its own domain.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift 30

<idle musing>
The more things change, the more they remain the same, eh? Not much has changed in 2500 or so years. Think SCOTUS, gits, and justice. Which one suffers when SCOTUS accepts gifts? (Hint: it isn't the gift-giver!)
</idle musing>

That trial in New York City

I'm only going to make three observations:

1. It was trial by jury.
2. The defendant's lawyers had to consent to allow a juror to be on the jury.
3. The defendant chose not to testify

Now, an observation: Every time the defendant goes to court, he loses. Why? Because under oath, he can't lie or he will go to jail for perjury.

What does that tell you about his truthfulness?

Now, as a Christian, I ask: Does character count?

Jesus has a few words for you if you think it doesn't—and they aren't comforting.

That's all.

Rolling coal and restorative justice

On Bicycling, a look at the “rolling coal” case in Texas three years later: https://www.bicycling.com/news/a60747401/waller-texas-coal-rolling-cyclist-crash/

Basically, drivers can do whatever they want and it’s too bad for the pedestrian or cyclist. What a world!

I pulled off the road in 2020 after over twenty years of riding anywhere from 2000–4000 miles/year. We’ve modified where we walk (even in little Red Wing) because of the recklessness and inattentiveness of drivers. It seems like every week more and more drivers run stop signs, sometimes not even looking to see if anyone is coming—especially pedestrians.

Earlier this year, a driver, going over 60 mph by his own admission and without brakes (he knew it, too), no insurance or driver's license, crashed into our neighbor’s house, severing the gas line and requiring the entire neighborhood to evacuate their houses for forty-five minutes.

Our city had a traffic planning meeting earlier this month and they have federal funds to make the roads safer. I’m not terribly hopeful, but we gave our input as pedestrians and residents…

But, more importantly, what would restorative justice look like in these two cases?

I'm not terribly certain, but I can recall a situation when our son, Ryan, was in high school. One day at school, he had a knife pulled on him in class. I don't doubt, knowing Ryan, that he made some wise crack at which the other boy took offense. While Ryan probably shouldn't have said what he said, that certainly doesn't justify pulling a knife!

The other boy had a history of trouble and a case worker. The case worker brought the boy over to our house and had him apologize to Ryan and us for his actions. Not sure how much of an effect that had on the boy, but it had an affect on us. It transformed the way we looked at the kid. He became human rather than an abstract "kid with a troubled background." In other words, he was no longer an "other." He was a person.

So, in the case of the neighbor, perhaps the driver should be required to help the workers who are repairing the foundation. Perhaps he should be required to apologize to our neighbor for the mess he made of her house. I know the neighbor is struggling with bitterness toward the boy. Maybe if he was required to to do that, he might become human to her? I don't know, but I would like to think it would.

In the Texas case, I would require the driver to meet with the six people, to hear the trials and troubles of their lives since getting hit. Maybe do some service work specifically for the victims—not some generic public service, but specifically for the victims. It would probably do both of them some good. They would become human to each other.

Further, I would require him to do public appearances, preferably with one of the disabled victims, warning those who want to "roll coal" about the dangers and the possible long-term ramifications.

Pipe dream? Maybe. But if we want to see a better world, we need to dream. And that dream needs to get beyond retributive justice and into restorative justice. That's the Christian way!

Just an
</idle musing>

Sound familiar?

The “mobilizing passions” of fascism: (1) a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions; (2) the primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether individual or universal, and the subordination of the individual to it; (3) the belief that one’s group is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies, both internal and external; (4) dread of the group’s decline under the corrosive effects of individualistic liberalism, class conflict, and alien influences; (5) the need for closer integration of a purer community, by consent if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary; (6) the need for authority by natural chiefs (always male), culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s historical destiny; (7) the superiority of the leader’s instincts over abstract and universal reason; (8) the beauty of violence and the efficacy of will, when they are devoted to the group’s success; (9) the right of the chosen people to dominate others without restraint from any kind of human or divine law, right being decided by the sole criterion of the group’s prowess within a Darwinian struggle.—Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (New York: Knopf, 2004), 219–20.

<idle musing>
Let those who have ears, hear! Note the date of publication, over ten years before #45.
</idle musing>

SCOTUS just allowed the Rubicon to be crossed

We are now officially in the decline of the republic stage of the Roman republic. SCOTUS has allowed the former president to be on the ballot, effectively nullifying the Fourteenth Amendment.

I have hopes that the election in November will nullify their decision by reelecting Biden and pushing out the MAGA Republicans from Congress, but…

Seems that congress will need to put some steel into the the Fourteenth Amendment at that point. If not, then say goodbye to a republic and hello to an official Principate, which will rapidly devolve into a monarchy, as they always do.

Meanwhile, I suppose the best thing to do is echo The Who, and say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss. But in all seriousness, it won't affect my belief in the goodness of God in Christ. He is above all kings of the earth and his kingdom will come, despite all our attempts to prevent or cause it.

Stewardship and creation

The doctrine of creation leads to the idea of human stewardship of the creation, which is to be contrasted with a secular notion of human ownership of the world. The creation is not ours; we hold it in trust for God. We are meant to be the stewards of God’s creation, and are responsible for the manner in which we exercise that stewardship. This insight is of major importance in relation to ecological and environmental concerns, in that it provides a theoretical foundation for the exercise of human responsibility toward the planet.—Alister McGrath, Theology: The Basics (2nd ed.), 45

Wisdom from the ANE: “intellectual” (dub-sar!) was not yet become a term of abuse

Apparently the Babylonians did not set much store by small government, and “intellectual” (dub-sar!) was not yet become a term of abuse. Also, it should count for something that all this thinking and writing came from those who were judged to be the best minds, and certainly the best schooled intellects, of their times.—Herman Vanstiphout, in What Is a God?, 18