"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with
which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more
idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are
at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient
times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound
up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only
unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is
theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer
any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes
evil.” Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas
Merton - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton
"Only Love Without
Judgment Makes Us Worthy"
***
Dear Fred,
Thanks for your email.
I should have addressed your concern
about Romney's shallowness yes
As a businessman, Romney's focus on
Mammon does not bode well for personal depth.
However, the salient shallowness in this is Laura's insistence that Obama reveal his birth
certificate -- already revealed twice -- and then, to salt the wound, his Columbia
transcript.
I have no problem with Romney concealing
his tax forms. Short of probable cause - and in light of the 5th Amendment -
Americans are at liberty to "reveal what they want to reveal" refusing to submit to unwarranted searches. (In some quarters, the nascent theocratic urge
to trash American democracy would move my devout mother to say "Shame on
you!")
That said, I have zero patience for
"birthers" and go slack-jawed at those "conservatives"
who insist Obama reveal documents simply because wingnut conspiracy theories deputize them as "special prosecutors."
To what end?
Bill Mahar observed that conservatives
would refuse to believe Obama was born in Hawaii if you gave them a video clip of baby Barry emerging from the birth canal, in front of the Honolulu Hilton, with Don Ho
playing ukulele in the background.
Trapped in a house of mirrors, American
"conservatives" have grown unduly fond of infinite regress.
And so, constitutionally incapable of
playing by the rules of intellectual rigor -- a practice that would squelch
most Tea Party talking points -- contemporary "conservatives"
devise intellectual carousels, powered by the tautological circularity of self-terrorization.
Global Warming Denial typifies such prolongation of nonsense. (The following post details the climate change denialism of a Catholic "Lord" named Moncton and the meticulous "correction" provided by a scientist at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/conservative-christians-and-global.html)
Consider.
If Obama published his Columbia
transcript, he would thereby collude with The Right --
particularly The Raving Right -- in its determination to
reduce him to a latter-day stepanfetchit.
"Hey, fetch this bone Barry!"
"And this one..."
"And this one..."
And on and on...
And on and on...
If Obama took one more step down the road to Irrationality he would open the door to
"the next thing" and "the next thing..."
Ad infinitum.
Take Benghazi... a real issue, to be
sure, but trivial in comparison with Ronald Reagan's cowardly retreat from
Beirut and the prior fact that several hundred Marines couldn't protect themselves from a terrorist attack. http://
Notably, there is not a whiff of non-partisan
evidence attaching scandal to Obama's years at Columbia... or, as Laura
insinuates, his years "NOT at Columbia."
On the other hand, there is lots of
evidence that Obama spent his junior and senior years at Columbia (after
transferring from Occidental).
The following investigation of
"Obama's Columbia Years" is not only "fair and balanced"
but spotlights The Right's most common logical error - to wit,
the use of "evidentiary void" so that "conservatives" can "fill the void"
in any way they see fit. http://www.cbsnews.com/
In brief, it is bloody difficult, if not
impossible, to prove a negative.
For example, the simple assertion that
"God does not exist" cannot be proven.
So what?
By positing that President Obama was not
at Columbia, "reasonable" and "objectively principled"
conservatives immediately ask: "Which al Qaeda training camp was
he at?"
Ah, but there's more! http://www.
Ah, but there's more! http://www.
It is flabbergasting that Laura
participates in (and actively encourages) bizarre conspiracy chatter while
claiming to champion Reason and Objective Principles.
Just yesterday, I said to my 15 year old,
Danny: "At least half the time, people talk most about what they lack
most. They are not trying to convert others as much as they are trying to
convert themselves."
***
If, by Laura's standard, Obama is
"anti-Christian," then what becomes of that same standard when her
eager defense of American belligerence is compared with the Amish whom she lavishly lauds?
It is not my intention to settle this
"dichotomy" with a neat "either/or."
I am confident God is big enough to
accommodate "both/and."
Personally, I see no impediment to
"multiple ways to God" including atheist ways, which, at their best,
I consider "God working anonymously." (Or as Woody Allen put it:
At some point, it would be helpful if
"fundamentalist" Christians acknowledged the role they play in
dissuading spiritually-starved Americans from exploring the rich depth, breadth
and ongoing revelation of the Christian tradition. http://
Ongoing revelation?
Not long ago, usury was considered such
grievous sin that "banking" (and the moral filth on which it hinged)
were left to European Jews. "Back then," righteous Christians shunned
usury like a rabid pit bull loose in the house. http://paxonbothhouses.
Nowadays, there is neither nun nor priest
who does not carry multiple credit cards, all of them charging usurious rates
of interest.
Personally, I would like to see more focus on usury, but since Capitalism vanquished traditional theology -- simultaneously elevating every deadly sin to "Glamor Status" -- it
is impossible to suggest any "banking regulation" without "the good Christians" up in arms, shouting you down.
Make no mistake, conservative American
Christianity knows full well which side its bread is buttered on. And it is
Mammon who spreads his unction.
Insistence that there is only
"One" Christian way -- and that Obama's "anti-Christianity"
can be safely judged by that presumptuous standard - may be the greatest
impediment to the resurgence of Christianity in America.
No one warms to the
fundamentalist/traditionalist disposition with its arrogation of Absolute Certainty and Total Righteousness to
its own sliver-thin band on the belief spectrum.
Lamentably, Christian
"conservatives" cannot broaden their view because breadth destroys
their view.
To forfend destruction, they are zealous
to close the window that Vatican II opened, the aggiornamiento
that left "the stuffy" gagging on the rush of fresh air. http://paxonbothhouses.
In related vein...
I have been paying attention to press
reports concerning Amos Oz' recent book, co-written with his daughter,
Fania Oz-Salzberger.
This morning's NPR interview is
spectacularly good.
Among many rich insights, we are reminded that
Israel means "struggling with God," and that Jews -- rarely in agreement
with one another -- see argument as central to religion and
welcome anyone wanting to join their festive and disputatious table. http://www.abarim-
Compared to a whole people willing to wrestle God as Jacob did, the "Christian" obsession with
anemic dogmatism is ghastly jejune.
Laura wrestles with God mostly to insure the salvation of her own "tribe."
I am increasingly persuaded that no soul is condemned to eternal torment and that the best way to foster "salvation" is to posit that "happy end" in conjunction with Acts of Mercy that will bring us to that end most surely8.
We rise to the level of expectation - and are rightly angered by those who make it their business to define another's damnation.
Admittedly, it is another topic but I will mention in passing that the threat of future pain is not an effective motivator, certainly not one that an omniscient God would use to invite people to the bliss of Love and Service
However, the Old Testament's Thunder Sky God has roots that run deep and, not surprisingly, Christianity has tapped those roots to devise a mass psychology reminiscent of Stockholm Syndrome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
'
By building on the Old Testament's foundation of vengeance, vindictiveness and retribution, many Christians have fashioned theological systems that control the rank-and-file through fear; the foremost fear being eternal damnation, and the easiest way to forfend that fear being the triumphant assignation of damnation to those who deserve everlasting torment.
Theologically, Yeshua was closely allied with the Pharisees -- the upstanding, punctilious, dogmatically-observant churchgoers of his day.
Depite Yeshua's flaying excoriation of these hypocrits, there is no hint they ever saw reason to change their ways.
Thoroughly self-satisfied, and certain of their own salvation, they were constitutionally incapable of metanoia.
And today's Pharisees -- always the "upstanding, punctilious, dogmatically-observant churchgoers" -- are not one whit different.
Laura wrestles with God mostly to insure the salvation of her own "tribe."
I am increasingly persuaded that no soul is condemned to eternal torment and that the best way to foster "salvation" is to posit that "happy end" in conjunction with Acts of Mercy that will bring us to that end most surely8.
We rise to the level of expectation - and are rightly angered by those who make it their business to define another's damnation.
Admittedly, it is another topic but I will mention in passing that the threat of future pain is not an effective motivator, certainly not one that an omniscient God would use to invite people to the bliss of Love and Service
However, the Old Testament's Thunder Sky God has roots that run deep and, not surprisingly, Christianity has tapped those roots to devise a mass psychology reminiscent of Stockholm Syndrome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
'
By building on the Old Testament's foundation of vengeance, vindictiveness and retribution, many Christians have fashioned theological systems that control the rank-and-file through fear; the foremost fear being eternal damnation, and the easiest way to forfend that fear being the triumphant assignation of damnation to those who deserve everlasting torment.
Theologically, Yeshua was closely allied with the Pharisees -- the upstanding, punctilious, dogmatically-observant churchgoers of his day.
Depite Yeshua's flaying excoriation of these hypocrits, there is no hint they ever saw reason to change their ways.
Thoroughly self-satisfied, and certain of their own salvation, they were constitutionally incapable of metanoia.
And today's Pharisees -- always the "upstanding, punctilious, dogmatically-observant churchgoers" -- are not one whit different.
Pax on both houses,
Alan
PS I also recommend a second report from today's "Morning
Edition" - "Dorothy Day's Road To Sainthood" - http://paxonbothhouses.
PPS "Please don’t lecture “conservatives” on contextualized
truths when you yourself support a president who won’t even reveal his own
birth certificate or his college transcript. If that’s what you call a high
regard for contextualized truth, I’ll take plain old, non-contextualized truth
any day." http://www.
What prompts Laura to say "I'll
take plain old, non-contextualized truth any day?" ... Except, perhaps, a
conscious (or unconscious) desire to do just that - to accept non-contextualized
truth as God's truth. It certainly makes a traditionalist's life easier. But even in "jest," I cannot imagine such
declaration issuing from a determined truth seeker. The suggestion that one
would settle for "non-contextualized" "truth" has no
comedic quality. Rather, it reveals perilous resignation in the very place where renewed struggle
should take root. As Aquinas noted, virtue and vice distill to
perspective-and-proportion - or the lack thereof. There is nothing prudent in
the birther movement nor in the quest for Barry Soetero's college transcript. Laura's
descendants will look back on her advocacy of these issues the same way we look
back on slavery, with rueful understanding that people deliberately delude themselves. Whether in the 19th century or the 21st, dishonorable ideas
get normalized by intransigent pietists who pretend to think but don't.
Theocrats need not concern themselves with systemic immorality for they know God will take care of them as he took care of the early Christian community when believers were regularly thrown to the lions.
Wait a minute...
***
No comments:
Post a Comment