aintsobad

Suggestion Seven: When Out of Power, Show Courage

   Here is an ancient aphorism:

   If the test of tolerance is when you are in the majority, the test of courage is when you are in the minority.

   To be in the minority does not mean there are fewer people who think as you than there are of those who think otherwise. To be in the minority may mean only this; you are not in power.

   Power protects itself in the same way water seeks its own level. Obscure parliamentary rulings, tacit agreements made behind the scene, simple acts of raw strength; all of these can blunt the thrust of reform.

   The modern rewriting of history holds the American Civil War was unnecessary, for African slavery would have disappeared within fifty to one hundred years as industrialization took over labor's tasks. One wonder what a further three generations of persons held in forced servitude  would have voted about their race's inevitable emancipation.

   By this rationale, the European Holocaust would have ended if everyone had just held their place until Germany ran out of Jews.

   Simply put, nothing is inevitable until it occurs. People can still hurt while the sands of time pour through the eye of the hour glass. More cunningly said, the stance of Christianity on the matter of evil is this; evil must be actively opposed. The Christian answer to the problem of innocent suffering is to act against innocent suffering, which in turn implies, on occasion, the need to resist the prosperous wicked.

   No organization may have or hold power simply because it had the power to do so.

   When out of power, it is not necessary to unfold a detailed plan of opposition. It is enough to point out the foibles of the powerful party, to work within the system if one can and to smash it when necessary. If one is shut out of power for a generation the result is a permanent under class, with those in force expressing their feelings of permanent entitlement. The faces in power may change but the cause remains the same; protect the public trough for one's own use. Share it with as few as possible.

   Courage is required to say no, when no is a socially unacceptable reply.

   The source of courage might be civility, or the desire for civility. Courage to quest for civility often springs from deep feelings of social responsibility. The Church is not a bad place to inculcate ideals of social responsibility but it is too often (and too sadly) the last place where reform might take hold. The Church often holds itself up as "an assembly of the elite of the just," (Bonhoeffer).

   If the Church cannot identify with the sufferings of the sufferer to oppose those who bring on suffering the Church fails to identify with its own Savior. The Church ceases to be Christian or even truly religious.

   The failure is not one of faith, often, but of courage. Without courage, faith does not matter much.

  

Fiction Over at Pastor's Pal

   In September, I wrote a month of daily devotionals over at pastor's pal, my companion blogsite.

   In October, it was a daily prayer guide.

   For November, I am writing short stories. At least, it started out to be short stories. So far, it is Four Chapters of the Ham Chronicles, subtitled Piggie Soared: The Swine Flew.

   In chapter four, just put up today, Ham, the Pilot Pig, explains the perfect faith required for a pig to fly. Read it and be informed.

Suggestion Six: Morality Never Really Goes Out of Style

  

   "How happy and prudent is he who tries now in life to be what he wants to be found in death. Perfect contempt of the world, a lively desire to advance in virtue, a love for discipline, the works of penance, readiness to obey, self-denial, and the endurance of every hardship for the love of Christ, these will give a man great expectations of a happy death."

        ----Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ.

   Occupy the moral high ground in all campaigns. Be there because you believe you are right, not because you think you are God.

   People who think they are God behave as though their rules for others apply only to others.

   People who think they are God behave in ways God would never sanction.

   The sinlessness of God includes this facet; to wit, God will not do wrong in the forlorn hope of producing some good result.

   In His best recorded temptation experience, Jesus the Christ is offered a chance to redeem all the nations of the earth if He will worship the adversary for a moment, entirely in private. The Christ refuses, citing the ancient Jewish injunction to worship God only.

   The Devil might have asked Jesus, on the mount, then, who His God was, if He was not in Heaven at the moment.

   I imagine Jesus saying, "I know this for certain. You are not God, nor anything like God."

   Even in those moments when you are not certain about God or where you fit with God, you can always know who is not God. You do not have to let uncertainty feed apostasy.

   Jesus understood His dying time, so He got what His life meant. He was not suicidal. He was committed.

   Jesus is remembered, reverenced, venerated. The file clerks who killed Him are rightly forgotten.

   A practical politician can sometimes get the consent of his listeners but, if he is only a pragmatist, he can never actually win their conviction. An equally expressive colleague can win them to their side with concessions, or with simple empathy. Conviction holds a person fast.

    To convince someone to change is useless. To help him discover he wants to change is durable.

    A moral person, finally, is neither a fool nor a file clerk. He is a man with a sense of vocation, or sacred calling. He is a teacher and a leader, so an agent of progressive change. His opposition will inform him on the matter of cost, while his circumstances will tell him when he must pay. For Lee, it was his commission and Appomattox. For Lincoln it was his family and Ford's Theater. For Jesus, it was all and Good Friday.

   Left unsaid is this; whatever is required and whenever it must be rendered up, the moral man steps up to pay. He inspires with heroism, energy and purity of purpose. He does not act until his righteous indignation burns itself to embers, for it anger does not motivate him, or greed. He sees wrong and wants to right it. He sees need and wishes to meet it.

   The moral man is not waiting for applause to tell him how to act, much less think.

   Morality is not transient.

  

Suggestion Five: Live a great life

   Decisions taken today decide if your life is ordinary tomorrow, or great, or somewhere in the fen between the two. Decisions taken over a set of days determine the course of your life.

   What is a great life?

   A great life is lived in pursuit of a nobler cause. If you are to live greatly, you will take stock of the common lives around you. You will not be able, inwardly, to accept the less noble living you see.

   Understand, your nobler cause may be to raise a family. You have only to want something wonderful for your children and then for their children. At the end of a great life lived to bestow a familial blessing, you will have made unselfish choices, marking you as great.

   Along the way, you will accept hardship before your own comfort. In fact, your life will not be about your own comfort at all. You may never face great danger but, if you do, you will choose to face it rather than run for safety, if you have steeled yourself to live without applause.

   In the end you will look back on a life lived in pursuit of a nobler cause.

Suggestion Four: Restore the Primitive

   Some argue for energy.

   Most want a hero, or, someone heroic.

   All cry for purity.

   So, restore the Primitive.

   You know you are not of the Roman Universalist model or one of her Orthodox siblings. You have some knowledge of what you are not.

   You think you are some kind of Protestant but that is unthinking, at best. Really, what is it you protest? Protestantism came out of an inner rebellion against Roman Universalism, or the macabre version of the faith it had become by Luther's day.

   Really, is that what you are, friend? Is that what you want to be, really?

   If you search your soul, you will find you want the energy, the heroism, the purity of the Primitive. Young people graduated from your old institutions, graduated in every way, will show you what you want. They do not hate you or your music or your hide-bounded obstinacy.

   They only want the Primitive

   They want only the Primitive.

   They want the Primitive only.

   The Primitive is the one who spends his life in a pursuit greater than himself. He is the fellow who rests his head on a pillow of stone when he could he have a bed's soft succor if only he would concede. He is the one just out o f step with the rank and file; not disdaining the ordinary but insistent on purity.

   Look up the name Edith Cavell.

   You hate to attend meetings that used to seem so important.

   You hate them because the leader of the machine is a file clerk. You don't hate the substance. You just cannot find any substance.

   You wanted a mighty prayer mission, totally dependent on God. Your leadership gave you another fund raiser and some trinkets. The world did not change. The world did not even notice.

   A file clerk needs something to count and something to file. Do not rage against him because he is only a file clerk.

   This is his job description; File Clerk.  

   If you want a Hero, get out of the machine.

   Dismantle the machine.

   Close the offices. Let all wander in the world without a place to lay their heads.

   Sacrifice makes heroes.

   Restore the Mighty Primitive.

Writer's Note:

   The Primitive is a Fundamentalist, a LIberal; a Centrist of the Old Order. He is that open-hearted kind of Liberal who governs with a rigid ethos hard-set in Scripture. He will prosecute conflict to the end, never flinching, and, at the end, he will call for "malice toward none and charity for all."

   In fact, he is anathema to the ersatz-Fundamentalists and closet-Liberals who claimed, over the preceding three decades to be the purveyors of the faith once delivered to the fathers. Neither group tells the truth when they appeal to our creeds (we are not a creedal people, it says so in our creed) or our history (by which most of us mean our individualistic pioneer mores).

   When I argue for the Return of the Primitive I do not mean something left over from the '50's. At least, not the 1950's. I mean we need to go back to 50 AD, to the raw energy of the real emerging church; heroic, energetic, pure, even when it erred.

Suggestion Three: Time is on your side if you do right and do not have to be here to see the resolution

   History will resolve itself to right.

   That is, after all, the whole point of the Parousia, of the City Coming Down from on HIgh, of the absorption into God-head.

   History corrects itself. We only nudge it along.

   History corrects itself readily, we nudge it along and we may be certain of the efficacy of time if we do what is right and do not have to present at the award ceremony. If we do things for applause, when the last cheer dies out, we have the whole reward we will receive. There is nothing more.

   So, we should join only what we can join by principle and stay with only that which has its weight from character. We should join and stay with what is good and right for only those facets of life's diamond shine in the end.

   For most of the just elapsed thirty years we have been led by personality cults so agenda driven, so patently pretentious, the side that won could feel only slightly less well off than the losers.We have been a driven herd, not a shepherded people.

   Yet, we are to continue to send money to these dear folks, hoping that some small trickle of the flood might reach its intended end. This is habit, now, only habit, and none too holy.

   There is a better way. I have suggested it before. I will do so again.

   No, I don't want anything.

   "What do you want?" is a Modern question, fathered by spin, born of the angle. His father is Cynic, his mother Jade.

   "How do we make this right? is the post-Modern question.

   How do we support those life-transforming institutions, the pastor of the End of Caliche Road Baptist Church? How do we protect children from clergy predators? We will not save the Free Church tradition in Texas or America with some mail-out DVDs.

   We have to find a sustainable missionary life-style; connected, compassionate, committed. We do not live it now.

   Like any man, I would like to live. I would like to get there with you. The truth is that I will not get there with you. We look decades ahead and I do not have them to give. It really does not matter. I don't have to be there at the awards ceremony.

   Time is on our side if we are right. Someone else can clutch the trophy. All we have to do is pass the baton.

Tomorrow: Restore the Primitive.

  

  

  

Suggestion Two: Take the Poison From The System

   Redistribute the wealth.

   Take the money from those who need it least and give it to those who need it most.

   Remove the money from those who seem to know least how to use it competently for its intended purpose.

   When you bail out the (already) rich you reward the rich for being rich. The diligent saver, the competent businessman is penalized for thrift and acumen.

   Remember that Moderns (those mostly in power now) have personal survival as a motivation.

   Moderns (I am one) grew up watching civil strife in American streets, pointless armed conflicts, political/religious assassinations (King and Malcom X were preachers who flew too close to the sun) and scandals like Watergate. They (I) became inured to the complexity of life. They (I) stayed active in public life but always with one eye toward personal survival.

   Hence, the Modern Ethos, i.e., the whole thing may crumble soon. I need to get mine and get out.

   Large concentrations of money tend to be toxic. The people who mete out the dollops of dollars they can spare tend to hoard money, to save up against a "rainy day." Leave money around, pass it by a very few (unconnected) hands and learn this truth; money will not just lay there inert. It is a strange attractor.

   Simply put, the system that now is is attractive because it is where the money lives. Take the money out of the system and see who leaves.

   In ancient times, when currency was mostly in commodities, a thief would give a gift to a wealthy person. He would give a gift with a pungent aroma to it. Later, he would burrow into the wealthy man's home, stop and sniff. He would follow his nose to his aromatic gift, knowing that the owner would put the worthy gift with other valuable articles. He "gifted" the owner first to rob him later.

   Little wonder the Scripture tells us to "give without thought of return."

   Take the poison from the system. See who is led to "another place of service"  or into retirement because he/she lacks a "skill set" they neither have nor "want to acquire," when the poison is removed. Why did the unskilled fellow stay so long, if not for another dose of the poison in the system?

   Take the poison from the system.

   See who leaves and how quickly. 

   See who lauds them on their way out the door.

   Check their bags as they go.

Monday: Time is Always on Your Side if You Want to do Right and Don't Have to be Here to see the Resolution.

RJ on WG, 262

Suggestion One: Push the Extremists to the Edge

   If we are to  have a life together, we will need to make some changes.

   You pick the moment things began to go desperately wrong. I go back to 1975, for no more reason than to gain minor historical perspective. This is not the date some would expect, so we can talk without threat. In fact, that is the way we must learn to talk all over again.

   We have lost the language.

   Since 1975 we have suffered the intrigues and agitations of the extremists. These persons and their acolytes made a good living off  us. They transformed us into a perpetual minority party within our state. Now we are on the decline everywhere.

   Baptisms are now anabaptisms, or worse, the immersion of near-infants; the ignorant, the uninformed, the willing.  Growth is transfer.

   All the Kingdom weeps.

   There is some small hope just now. A few of the Ultras pass from the scene. If we learn from their being here we can yet benefit from their going.

• Extremists need conflict. They cannot live without it. An Ultra cries "Peace" only to rearm.
• Extremists claim they want no position and tell the truth, but only in part. They want power and prestige, not position, only, and will gladly do without a public spot if they can maintain private ambition and so be called selfless men.
• Extremists offer to leave as soon as their work is done but insist they are the only ones who can decide the end of their purpose.

   Imagine what might have happened in 2008 if the GOP had run a Republican candidate for President. We might have had a debate of enormous magnitude for the Democrats, breaking tradition, ran as much a Centrist as they could find; not apparently a philanderer, nor a man made of wood. If the GOP had found a Republican instead of a (national hero, brave man, straight-spoken) hero who never articulated a meaningful difference between himself and his opponent, we could have had a discussion.

• Extremists operate well in the sound-bite. Debate, they deride.

   If we are ever to have peace, or even constructive debate, the extremists will have to go back to their corner. Push the Ultras to the edge again.

TOMORROW: TAKE THE POISON FROM THE SYSTEM

  

  

Here at aintsobad, some suggestions

   Perhaps Monday, if not before, here at aintsobad, perhaps a few suggestions for the Free Church. The Anglicans are running home to Rome, so many others are dying; still the faith grows over all the earth.

   There is a great chance here for the Free Church to mount up with wings like eagles again.

Devotionals for September; Prayer Guide for October; Some Stories for November; Advent Thoughts for December

   I did devotionals for September, each day; a prayer guide for October, each day.

   I am about to do short fiction for November, not each day.

   Then, Advent Thoughts again this year for December.

   You can find it over at http://aintsobad.typepad.com/pastorspal/.

   September and October's works are complete, over there and welcome to them.

   November? Well, remember, this keyboard has not yet grown cold...