Black and White are Simple, the Real Questions Lie in the Gray Areas

This was written in response to a comment made about "Liberty is Intrinsic to the Divine"

The first point about the persecuted church, I can't disagree with. Many Christians have made a very difficult and noble choice. I only hope I could do the same, though I pray I will never have to.

As for the second point, I never said that we should not teach people about morality. It is necessary for those that know to teach those that don't know. However, as a body, the Church has proven many times that they do not always have an enlightened view on moral issues. Quite frankly, the Church has been on the wrong side of many moral issues over the last two thousand years. This doesn’t make Christians bad people, just people, and every person on this planet is still learning. Of course we know the basics, don't kill, don't steal, and don't lie. Most people know these basic tenets of humanity. Even those that don't care to follow a path of civility know these rules. It's the gray area were everyone gets confused.

The Churches' view on these gray areas change. We (by we, I mean the Church) have gone through our own Era of Christian Jihad, we have murdered in the name of God, we have used the Word to rationalize bigotry and in the past we have tortured and thrown people in dungeons. We have proven many times that the Church does have the capacity to use poor judgment when it comes to morality and we are still learning. We continue to deepen our understanding of what God wants from us.

I couldn't agree more when you say, "In America, we get to have our own views on life so why not teach a good biblical concept of morality. Where the choice and freedom arises is at the point where people accept the teaching or reject it. The church should be a moral compass in a nation, not bring judgment on those who disagree but leading the way to truth." Of course we should teach our children and those that seek it, our best understanding of these issues.

When you say, "We don't take a stand to be obstinate but to obey God!" The reality is that we often try to force others to obey God as well. We do this by trying to create laws that prohibit people from exercising their free will to follow or not to follow God's law. I'm not naive enough to think that we don't need laws. However, I am idealistic enough to believe that our laws should be used to protect us from each other, not to protect us from making choices that others, who don't know us and have never tried to know us, don't approve of. This is most apparent in the Church's continuous support of laws that impede upon the free will of homosexuals and gamblers.

I’m not arguing the merits of God’s Law. I’m speaking to the contradiction that if an all powerful God does not force us to follow His laws, should we force His laws upon others. Conservatives often claim that liberty is under attack by the Left. The truth is the idea of free will has been under attack by the Right for quite some time. Perhaps conservatives are interested in only protecting the liberty to do things that they like to do. Too many people on the Right believe any other behavior is not liberty, it’s just liberal.

Same Tired Argument, Same Result

Saturday, November 11, 2009 is a historical day in the fight for those that can’t fight for themselves. The Senate healthcare reform bill appears to be headed to the floor for debate. This debate will hopefully begin a new chapter in American history. If this bill passes healthcare will stop being about money and start being about our humanity and civility.

The news cycle will be filled with Senators, Representatives, Governors, future White House hopefuls, Fox news anchors and even half term Alaskan Governors railing against the evils of a public health option. Socialized medicine, destruction of the doctor patient relationship, the end of personal freedom, and the rationing of our essential healthcare needs will be the central argument. It’s 1965 all over again and the oppositions’ screams of the end of the America we know and love has not changed. In the words of DMX it’s the “Same old s*** dawg, just a different day.”

For the last 44 years Medicare, a public health insurance plan, has provided care to all of its enrollees from coast to coast. It has provided health and financial security to millions of older people, people with disabilities and their families. For two generations Medicare has provided affordable insurance to those who otherwise could not afford it. Communism is not knocking at our door, seniors do not have to meet with death panels that get to decide who lives and who dies and the only people who are suffering without proper medical attention are those without insurance and those whom insurance companies consider high risk.

Those in the media and those in politics, who would rather see the current Administration fail in its attempts to fix this growing and largely unchecked problem, are being irresponsible. They are using the oldest political technique in the book, scare them into surrender. It is the easiest road to take whenever change is involved. The fear of the unknown has always been greater than the fear of the familiar, even when the familiar is unhealthy and unwise. Left in the hands of the conservative status quo, healthcare will never be fixed, because lowering taxes with impunity and deregulation, though an enticing sound bite can not solve all of the problems that we as a nation are suffering from.

We have to make sacrifices for the generations that will come after us. We should strive to leave a better world and a better nation than we received. Hard work should allow our citizens to reap the rewards of a more comfortable life, but all Americans deserve the right to live without the fear of financial ruin when catastrophic illness strikes. Don’t be afraid of rationed care now, because it has always been here. It is based on a socio-economic divide that underlines the worst values in our society. It is time to lend a hand to all of our American brothers and sisters and to reflect our greatest values, the generosity of our character and the deepness of our compassion.

Liberty is Intrinsic to the Divine

“It is by God’s own will that we get to choose our own fate. He has given us the rules, now it is up to us to win the game.” - L

There are a lot of ideas within the humanist and liberal movement that I feel are intelligent in design. They lack the humbleness of the saints (at least what God had hoped for us), but can not be completely denied based solely on this one argument. The humanist view that truth and morality is sought through human investigation; as such, views on morality can change when new knowledge and information is discovered and the liberal belief of self-determination in human existence are both divine in nature.

I am not certain that morality can change. However, I think it is very apparent that our view and understanding of morality can deepen. The Old Testament laid out a set of laws and rules to follow to a very naive and ignorant society. As they progressed (for better or for worse) so did their understanding of right and wrong. In the New Testament God defined these laws in a different light. He told us if we love one another and treat each other well and hold God as the most high, then we could not disregard the law, henceforth they are one and the same (not different, just more complex). As our understanding of sin and morality increased and became more complicated in nature, so did God’s commandments to us. The church of antiquity (and America less than fifty years ago) thought it was okay to suppress and belittle women, propagate racism, and indulge in king worship (theocracy or papacy), by today’s standards that is immoral. More evidence that we as a body of believers can better define the nuances of moral questions as they become more complex and we become more mature as a people.

While the liberal and humanist reliance on self-worth is extravagant to say the least, as a religious man I do believe in self determination. Many intellectuals from the Enlightenment, including those most influential in creating our country; George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and many more, believed that individual liberty was not only humanly moral, but a God given entitlement presented to us and proven in His own actions in our history. God gave us a choice. This is never more apparent than in our freedom to worship. If the divine creator of all that exists insisted that we believe and worship faithfully, than we would. The fact that we all do not can be most apparent when believers at times exhibit extreme lapses in judgment and morals. Therefore, I can not understand why the church feels the necessity to propagate and espouse its moral authority upon the rest of the world (or at least our country). If God gave individuals the freedom to choose, how could we rationalize otherwise? Perhaps we as the body of Christ suffer from a form of narcissism or at the very least delusions of grandeur. We should not choose to destroy that which God has created and self determination is ever apparent from Adam and Eve to Revelation.

Intellectual progress is what God wanted for us. Reason, understanding and rational inspection of self evident truths can be seen from the writings of Moses to John. It is our nature and duty to progress; this is why we are not saved from birth. Liberty and free will are an essential part of life on this planet. We might not like the choices that others make but God did not intend for us to stand in between another man’s intellect and his actions. We choose and suffer the consequences of our action, God does not choose for us. He gives us the knowledge to succeed and we choose to listen or deny. It is our commission as saints to provide the information necessary to present the steps of salvation to the world, God never gave us permission to oppress those that choose otherwise.

"Going Rogue" or Not?

Apparently, in “Alaskan folksy” speak; Going Rogue means more of the same. It's not unusual for politicians to blur the lines between fact and fiction. It happens all the time. The current administration does it, as did the past. However, when your entire political platform is based on being different, you might expect something different. It looks to me like different just means more of the same, but louder. Name calling, flip flopping, fictitious facts (something I like to call fict-facts), and of course the shout from the rooftops mantra of EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE. We don’t really want it to change though; this is all much more fun. Below is the Associated Press fact check of Governor Palin's new book.

Yesterday

I yearn for yesterday. Though it seems so distant, I know it’s near. I remember a time when our leaders led. They motivated us to be better, to want more, and to love more. Each day of our lives were seen with a childish optimism, a chance to redeem ourselves and honor our country. Our leaders have become like minded. They are sycophants, eager to impress, but lack morals. Their party’s ideology and rules are more important than their underwhelming desire to protect the unprotected. They don’t fight for us today. They fight for ideas, disinterested in the pragmatic process required to change anything that won’t pay off before the soapbox is removed from beneath their clinched toes.

Yesterday I had hope, an all encompassing desire to be part of something more important than myself. Today’s climate is frigid. I can’t see the goal, to be better, through the blanket of snow falling from the clouds. However I can see each and every flake. Riding on the crystals are the ideas of men. Each idea pointing to “me.” We have become a culture of self-serving “me” followers. Every political and philosophical idea is wrapped around the essence of what can you do for me. Gone are the questions of Jack Kennedy and the dreams of Dr. King. The hopes and aspirations’ of a generation, that once lived among the circumstances of life, have been replaced by the wants and excesses of the “me” and the “now.”

I truly want to believe again. I want to live within the comfort of the fight for the weak. Where the wounds may run deep, but the softness of an eager soul and the warmth of a youthful exuberance for something bigger than “me” keeps us safe and parts the clouds. Tomorrow, I hope for a retroactive approach to today. I pray for a leader to fill the void, that the chill of this winter has left behind. A Utopian society may be a Trojan horse, but we can strive to be better, we just need someone to stand up and ask us.