Up from melancholy
I try to explain to my own family why [U.S. politics of] these past five years [has] pierced my soul, stoked my rage, caused my hope to ebb more than flow; in general, why [it’s] exacerbated my melancholy. I end up writing a half-vast sermon.
Our nation is in mortal crisis now, and many who should know better are still cheerleading its dismantling. Knowing history can be hazardous to peace of mind, but rightly so, else history’s lessons go unlearned: there’s much U.S. resemblance now to Germany circa early-1930s, and I shudder.
The eerie part spiritually is, just as then, about half of us see clearly what’s happening, and the other half don’t see at all. Polarization like this is creepy in any context, in any age. Why do so many otherwise smart people tolerate and even cheer monstrous ignorance and shameful, criminal incompetence? Why do those who profess faith in Jesus war against his teachings?
It’s not a close call; it’s hysterical blindness. It’s not about politics, and hasn’t been for a long time. It’s about discerning clear right from clear wrong. It calls to mind Jesus’ words in Matthew when the disciples ask, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
He replied, “This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not
hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’”
I observe a seeing/unseeing divide falling between (1) those who cross-check traditional media reporting against multiple other sources — which is the surest antidote to propaganda — and (2) those who accept, say, Fox News at face value.
Everyday Germans at least had the excuse that no outside news and points of view were let into the country, on pain of death. And hearing nothing but German government propaganda, many were led astray. (I had a primary source on this a year ago when an elderly houseguest who was there in 1930s Germany, who lived it, told me about his chilling sense of déjà vu.) Today in the U.S. we don’t have the excuse of no outside access; we have a global Internet, and we can cross-check.
And on doing so, on corroborating accurate reporting from propaganda, on discerning clear right from clear wrong, the necessary faithful response is to fall on one’s face in repentance. That we are a stiff-necked people is an understatement, and while more and more of us are waking up in appropriate humility, the consequences we’ve already unleashed will last for generations.
God forgives, but in his justice seldom releases individuals, communities, or nations from the real-world consequences of their actions. We are being held accountable for the the blood we’ve shed, despite our self-righteous protestations that our actions are justified.
Give up, then? No. Despite the consequences to come, waking up, seeing, repenting, and changing our behavior remains vital, for this process means the difference between our enduring the consequences and surviving, and our not surviving at all.
We must recognize right from wrong. We must recognize sanity from insanity. Here’s another Tennessee boy who sees clearly, and he speaks truth sanely, with passion and power. This is what I expect from my leaders:
US Constitution in Grave Danger
(Al Gore, Jan. 16, 2006) (C-SPAN video, Real)
If these perceptions and diagnoses aren’t true, aren’t sane, aren’t right — if the worldview of those in power is — then every good and honorable thing I’ve ever been taught, every principle I’ve ever held dear, is a lie.
But I believe these good and honorable and dear principles I hold are true. Integrity matters. Honesty matters. Peace matters. Justice matters. I will not surrender them to evil and deluded men. I will fight until this cancer on our souls and on our democracy is excised, or I will die in the attempt.
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Most of these so-called Christians are really nothing more than warmed-over old-book Jews. Their God is a stern father, who delivers swift punishments on the unfaithful and heaps embarrasing luxuries on the just. Progressive Christians believe in a merciful, forgiving all-provider and all-maintainer. These two polar ideals shape the underlying debate in our society today.
How did that verse go? “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
It is a war between justice and mercy. We have to remember that those who see God in this way are still making an approach to God. The trick, which I haven’t yet figured out, seems to be in activating your own concept of the merciful God in the same context as their concept of the just God, and then reconciling the two.
If we don’t get it figured out and get it done soon, we’re headed for something far, far worse than National Socialism. The the NSA’s power of surveillence gives Bush the virtual omniscience of a terrestrial god. Bush isn’t what scares me. His possible succesor is what scares me.
— autoegocrat Wednesday January 25, 2006 #okay, let’s say you’d like to learn about an actual political campaign to impeach the president …
ah, none of this noise about a yearning for somebody to go do it …
in addition, you’d like to learn about a game plan to snag Osama …
if all the above meets with your approval, then click, somehow, on the following hyperlink:
http://hewhoisknownassefton.blogspot.com/2006/01/osama-and-our-president-dumass-botch_20.htm
and get ready for a ride on a wild blog
toodles … ….\ .he who is known as sefton
oh, yes, the above was copied and then pasted by an actual human being, who visited this “tread lightly … ” blog.
— A Alexander Stella Sunday January 29, 2006 #Why do those who profess faith in Jesus war against his teachings?
nothing new here, Mike.
all of the above represent moments when the powers that be altered the message of christ for their own purposes of wealth, power and permanent entrenchment as the gods of the minds of men. it’s the same old enemy all dressed up in a brand new gown. and just when the common people think a step made in the direction of a free mind and a free will has been made permanent, this enemy squeezes until the blood of man runs thru it’s fingers and the outspoken, the brave, and the noble are purged or rendered ineffective, and the blanket of silence and suppression reigns for another several hundred years.
it perverted the roman republic into empire, leaving us only it’s grisly power corrupted caesars as its memento. it turned the magna carta into a church backed enslavement of the common man to the feudal power of the nobility. it waged genocide against those of the old religion, the templars, the jews, any dissenting christians, and machinated the first world wars called ‘crusades’. it brought on the black death by instilling fear of the devil and religious fervor in stamping evil out by killing off his emblem, cats, and invented hell as an eternal prison for anyone who dares oppose its will. it stood by and held the cloaks of the ruling classes and blessed slavery and the economic oppression of less fortunates in the guise of religious fundamentalism aligned with the political/economic form of the day.
it’s the same old enemy behind the power of every throne, the same raspy whisper in every ear that pens a list of ‘detainees’ in every time and culture. the same one who directs the power of the throne to trod on rights of every human being who has ever lived and will ever live, which is a free will given by god in the fabric of our creation, however that occurred.
and it always finds a ready ear in those who deceive themselves by adhering to some form of outside religious observances and system of proscriptions and negations of normal human endeavors, falsely believing those acts, or negations thereof, render them as the spiritual betters of mankind. they establish that, in direct defiance of the master’s own words, that the kingdom of god is without and is a law enforceable upon others, that god is quick to judgement and merciless on his enemies, that service therein is mandatory and not a free will offering, and that organized ritualistic conclaves in elaborately described buildings are the manifestations of the one church, the only church.
it seems that every word in the bible is literally true to them. except such as: “thou shalt not lie, kill or covet”, “have i not said that ye are gods?”, “god created man a little below god”, “a church made without hands”, and my own personal favorite, “the kingdom of god is within”.
they hire for themselves speakers who tickle their ears with indoctrinations that mollify their consciences away from the simple loving words of a kind, loving, compassionate god who hates violence and honors forgiveness.
in short, if they weren’t getting something out of it, they wouldn’t be in it and all the rest is smoke and mirrors to lay the blame elsewhere.
— Larry Wednesday February 8, 2006 #