When Mike Pence was booed and lectured to at Hamilton, he gracefully smiled and told his children "that's the sound of freedom." But even though he is a public servant, shouldn't he be granted freedom to take his family to a play without being lectured or booed? Doesn't he deserve to be respected, especially in the presence of his children? When we are "in your face" with what we are free to do, freedom morphs into something I'm not proud to send my son off to war to defend and protect. This "freedom" is arrogant, impolite, entitled. It's the "freedom" that sows seeds of hostility and conflict--the stuff that makes freedom untenable. And there are certainly more extreme examples of this arrogance in recent American history. The freedom that we love, the freedom that enhances the quality of human life, is freedom that is self-restrained. It is restrained by love, mutual respect and humility. It is bold when necessary, like Martin Luther King, Jr.'s version. But we see in the Civil Rights movement, that tension between restrained and unrestrained freedom. Oppression builds up an energy that takes great discipline to restrain, and great courage to confront. Freedom requires both that courage and that restraint. Also, prosperity tends to breed entitlement and immaturity; traits that have historically preceded societal decline. Democracy is a fragile state of human existence. It is an out-of-balance condition when looked at from the worldwide historical perspective. It is somewhat of a glorious anomaly. And it can only be maintained by a psycho-spiritually mature populace. Our Founding Fathers, though imperfect as all men, seemed to realize this fragility, setting up a system with balanced power--a form of self-restraint. And not only providing freedom from state oppression of religion, but encouraging religion [the primary venue of psycho-spiritual maturity]. In fact, democracy is arguably a corollary of [result of] the psycho-spiritual maturity of a people who were willing to fight for religious liberty and who were determined enough to endure grave hardships to flee religious oppression. Let us hope that this stamina still exists in the prosperity and obesity of our democratic republic. The most important foundation of democracy is healthy religion; the Christian Faith of our Founding Fathers. This Faith must never be imposed, but its repression is a grave symptom of the decline of all freedoms, and the rise of authoritarianism.
Friday, November 25, 2016
Friday, November 4, 2016
Persevere
Let us not become weary in doing good, for in the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:9
And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow cold, but he who endures to the end will be saved. Jesus Mt. 24:12-13
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to all my brothers and sisters in Christ (those who have received Him, recognizing that He is the Messiah) who are prayerfully seeking to be the Light in this world that He has ordained us to be. In our time there are many Christian voices warning us of spiritual decline, just as in the days of Israel's decline before she was taken into captivity. And, as then, most seem to be ignoring these prophetic warnings. We should pray for discernment, for evil is deceptive and insidious, like unnoticed cancer cells growing in the physical body. Jesus says evil is so deceptive that, if God did not shorten the time of its rise, even the very "elect" (all of us sincere Christians) would be deceived (Mt. 24:22,24). None of us is above reproach or immune to the deceptions of evil except as we diligently abide in Christ--in His Spirit, being careful, watchful, sober-minded; for Satan, like a roaring lion, roams to and fro throughout the earth seeking to devour those who stray from the safety of the flock of God's children--the Kingdom introduced by Christ, which is comparable to the Ark of Noah's day. We should try to remain in the very center of the Kingdom; not out on the periphery, barely saved but not practicing our Faith. We must not make ourselves vulnerable to the subtle deceptions of the world, which can slowly and imperceptibly lure us farther and farther into eternal darkness. We should not fear evil, but we should be very aware of its deceptive and destructive powers. How many family members or friends do you know who have fallen into one of Satan's sticky traps? Some of them have not been able to get out. And how many Christians do you know who don't seem to take their walk seriously, as if were a nice option, but not crucial to life? Even though the effects of evil glare boldly at us through our media and everyday human interactions--perhaps because it does--we can become dull and desensitized to its devastation, and unknowingly allow ourselves to be pulled by its subtle currents farther and farther out into the sea of endless darkness. The Bible, and Jesus Himself, warn us to stay awake to the lurking horrors of evil. If you want to know how bad things can get in a Godless culture read Deuteronomy 28:15-68. There seems to be no end to the difficulties and gut-wrenching sorrows that beset a nation or culture that drifts from the Truth of Christ. God has given us freedom; and the responsibilities that naturally accrue to it. If we ignore the responsibilities that God has commanded, revealed and generously given to us in Christ, we should expect our lives to become progressively more difficult, fruitless and void. But if we will diligently seek Him and walk in the Light of the Love of Christ, He will not fail to bless us with eternal blessings, like the dawning of the sun, growing brighter and brighter to the full light of day (see Deut. 28:1-14).
And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow cold, but he who endures to the end will be saved. Jesus Mt. 24:12-13
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to all my brothers and sisters in Christ (those who have received Him, recognizing that He is the Messiah) who are prayerfully seeking to be the Light in this world that He has ordained us to be. In our time there are many Christian voices warning us of spiritual decline, just as in the days of Israel's decline before she was taken into captivity. And, as then, most seem to be ignoring these prophetic warnings. We should pray for discernment, for evil is deceptive and insidious, like unnoticed cancer cells growing in the physical body. Jesus says evil is so deceptive that, if God did not shorten the time of its rise, even the very "elect" (all of us sincere Christians) would be deceived (Mt. 24:22,24). None of us is above reproach or immune to the deceptions of evil except as we diligently abide in Christ--in His Spirit, being careful, watchful, sober-minded; for Satan, like a roaring lion, roams to and fro throughout the earth seeking to devour those who stray from the safety of the flock of God's children--the Kingdom introduced by Christ, which is comparable to the Ark of Noah's day. We should try to remain in the very center of the Kingdom; not out on the periphery, barely saved but not practicing our Faith. We must not make ourselves vulnerable to the subtle deceptions of the world, which can slowly and imperceptibly lure us farther and farther into eternal darkness. We should not fear evil, but we should be very aware of its deceptive and destructive powers. How many family members or friends do you know who have fallen into one of Satan's sticky traps? Some of them have not been able to get out. And how many Christians do you know who don't seem to take their walk seriously, as if were a nice option, but not crucial to life? Even though the effects of evil glare boldly at us through our media and everyday human interactions--perhaps because it does--we can become dull and desensitized to its devastation, and unknowingly allow ourselves to be pulled by its subtle currents farther and farther out into the sea of endless darkness. The Bible, and Jesus Himself, warn us to stay awake to the lurking horrors of evil. If you want to know how bad things can get in a Godless culture read Deuteronomy 28:15-68. There seems to be no end to the difficulties and gut-wrenching sorrows that beset a nation or culture that drifts from the Truth of Christ. God has given us freedom; and the responsibilities that naturally accrue to it. If we ignore the responsibilities that God has commanded, revealed and generously given to us in Christ, we should expect our lives to become progressively more difficult, fruitless and void. But if we will diligently seek Him and walk in the Light of the Love of Christ, He will not fail to bless us with eternal blessings, like the dawning of the sun, growing brighter and brighter to the full light of day (see Deut. 28:1-14).
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