14 posts tagged “politics”

07 Highway 61 Revisited

Over the few years that I have lived in the Happy Valley i have heard innumerable people voice that they preferred Karma over Dogma, often in a very condescending tone, or with a sneer on their face and voice. I'm sure many have seen the bumper sticker that says My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma. Since blogging on Vox, i have read many blogs and YouTube presentations blaming Communism's brutality not on a secular ideology, but on the fact that those dictators that ran these little carnivals of horror relied upon religious dogma. (Stalin, you know, was training to be a priest so its all Christianities fault-- it couldn't be that certain atheist understood that if God doesn't exist, everything and anything is permissible?)

So let us define our terms, shall we? My Mac laptop has a little dictionary, and that dictionary defines Dogma as: 
 

"A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true: The Christian dogma of the Trinity/ the rejection of political dogma. Origin: mid 16th century: via late Latin from Greek Dogma, 'opinion,' from dokein, 'seem good, think.'

"(In Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as defining their fate in future existences. Also, Informal destiny or fate, following as effect from cause. Origin: from Sanskrit karman, 'action, effect, fate.'

While we're at it, how bout the word ideology?

"1. a system of ideas or ideals, esp. one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy: the ideology of republicanism. Also: the ideas and manner of thinking characteristic of a group, social class, or individual: a critique of bourgeois ideology.Also: archaic visionary speculation, esp. of an unreasonable or idealistic nature.
2. archaic the science of ideas; the study of their origin and nature. Origin: Late 18th cent. (sense 2) : from French ideologie, from Greek idea, 'form, pattern' + logos (denoting discourse or compilation).

I can't really figure out the argument, truth be told. There has to be connotations that have been added to these words that i don't know about.

Dogma is easily understandable -- there are a core set of principles to anything that, when questioned and challenged, damages it irreparably as to make those challenged principles into something else entirely. I suppose the trouble is that authority has declared those said principles as dogma, as incontrovertible truths. Modern people have made rebellion against authority an assumption and a duty. The Church, secularists favorite target, is the big bad authority, based on tradition instead of progress, calls doctrine like the Incarnation, the Trinity, and the Resurrection dogma. But secularists have their own dogma, Evolution being the most obvious. Try being a biologist and challenge that "theory," and see where it gets ya. Try being a Communist and challenge the dogma of progress.

Karma can both benefit and come along and bite you in the ass. I have never understood the attraction that western people have with karma, except that is is something new and different from traditional western thought. There is a lived out ethic, and a very reassuring cause and effect kinda vibe happening here which vaguely echoes the Christian teaching of the last judgment. Mean people suck, and with this belief, mean people will get theirs. The problem, of course, is that everyone will do whatever is necessary to protect their self-interest and justify their actions in a lifetime, which means at the end of anyone's life they will have fucked up way more than they will have done what is right. Mother Theresa ministered to the dying untouchable caste in India precisely because no one else would -- why should they if they were getting exactly what they deserved from actions they had taken in a former lifetime? When hard times happen now with those people around me i don't hear a lot of people whose karma ran over the dogma stoically enduring as if they deserve their fate. What i hear from these folks is bitching and moaning about why bad things happen to good people...

Ideology is easily understandable as well. Ideology is a whole system of belief, and can be both good and bad. I personally love the political ideology of republicanism -- i like what the American founders were thinking when they wrote the US Constitution and set up the government. I happen to dislike Socialism as an ideology, and i hate Communism unconditionally and with savage abandon. Ideology, however, has its limits in real life situations, boundaries set because often ideologies are abstract and idealistic.

Dogma, karma, and ideology get bad raps mostly because of certain personalities that tend to thrive and obsess over them -- people who cling to them as a means to an ends, as the vehicles for their will-to-power. Dogma is set as incontrovertible truths, but that doesn't set those truths as something that cannot be examined and proved. Every theologian worth his or her salt throughout Christian history has had to come to grips with the central Christian dogmatics. Likewise those who would disregard without pity or sympathy the poor and the dying as those who deserve their karmic fate in order to persue their own goals. The same goes with ideologies. There are always those, like the Russian intelligentsia, that are willing to single-mindedly apply their ideology regardless of the immorality of their actions. The irony is, of course, that the temperament of these people, regardless dogma or ideology, are remarkably similar -- and once again, in the name of the greater good, bullshit reigns and blood flows..

As for me, sometimes its good to be on the road, and revisit highway 61.

03 Deeper in the Heart

After conversion, part of being Christian is the growing understanding of exactly what the Christian's place and role in the narrative of Messiah Jesus and His Church and the place of other religions, spiritualities, and ideologies in relation to that narrative. At the center of the Christian narrative is the claim that Messiah Jesus is unique, and that all of history turns upon the life, death, and resurrection of that same Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life.

"The Bible sets forth a story of the world, from its beginning to its ending. It is the only true story of the world, all other stories being at best partial renditions of the world story disclosed in the Bible. Consequently, all other stories must be inscribed into the biblical story, rather than the biblical story into any one of them. Insofar as we allow the biblical story to become our story, it overcomes our reality. We no longer view the world as we once did; we view it from the point of view of a character in the Bible's story." Gerard Loughlin, Telling God's Story: Bible, Church, and Narrative Theology (p. Cambridge University Press: New York, 1996), 37.

Telling God's Story: Bible, Church and Narrative Theology

Gerard Loughlin

For a long time i thought Christianity was based upon allegiance too a set of propositional truth statements, theological, doctrinal, or creedal. It was nice intellectually, but it left my relational life in shards and didn't inspire motivation for a changed lifestyle. Plus, it was an out-and-out accommodation to Rationalism, although i didn't know it at the time. It was a major realignment for me to begin to understand my faith in a narrative, to see my life as a role in the drama of not only personal but universal redemption. I don't know what caused this shift within my perspective; perhaps it was something primal, hardwired inside deep. It began with beginning to study Reformation theology, especially Luther, and deepened when i began to read the Church fathers. I prefer narrative theology to systematic theology these days.

Christianity is an exciting and hard path to walk along, especially in relationship with American pop culture. Don't get me wrong, there are also many things in the culture around me that are similar, especially the American love for a great story. However, try to say that Jesus Messiah and His narrative is the only true story and then watch the shit hit the fan. In this pluralistic society, the one absolute is the belief is that there are no absolutes, and not to be "pluralistic" or "inclusive" is to dare the wrath of almost everyone.

The Kingdom of God that i am a subject in, has no need of either secular power or influence. The Church, whether Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican or Protestant, is it's own political entity, its own culture and society. The problem, of course, is that throughout history Christians who have not understood this, or those who were never converted in the first place, have compromised the Gospel or sold their soul for secular power or for cultural influence. Unfortunately, except in extraordinary times, those that day to day walk the orthodox way doesn't exactly get the press. For every Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Bishop Spong, and Jesus Seminar there are hundreds, thousands of Christians who simply live their lives as ambassadors from another land, and who are people who search for reconciliation with God.

Today is Friday and the end of the work week for many people; although not for me because i have to work tomorrow. Fridays and Saturdays are relatively slow days here, as most people have lives and few want to be caught in the Library on a weekend. This will give me time to catch up on my next project. I have to finish an incomplete grade from a couple of semesters ago in order to complete my student teaching requirement. The incomplete is my Methods class -- one of only two education classes i have taken that were not almost entirely worthless. However, altho this class was better than most education classes i've taken, it still didn't have an awful lot to do with the day to day work of a teacher, at least not at the school i did my pre-practicum. I pretty much was mocked and laughed at by the teachers for all the hoops the Education Department was putting me thru -- it seems the University cares more about accreditation than they do about equipping people to excel at what they will actually have to do as a teacher on the ground to survive in a public school. I need to prepare a ten lesson unit on the Civil War and a slide show presentation introducing the unit. Hopefully i can be done in two or three weeks...

Thinking about all the hoops i have to jump thru to obtain a couple scraps of paper made me think about politics. Now there are two kinds of politics, although they tend to overlap and intermingle with each other. One is Politics with a big "P" and has to do with our traditional concept of institutional intrigue and ideology. The other has to do with power as well, although in a different sphere, that of interpersonal relationships. Looked at this way, i guess someone could say that everything is politics, altho not everything has to do with ideology.

Teachers have to deal with both. The Administration in any school represents institutional power, as does the presence of a union. This is politics with a capital 'P." They also have to take into account their relationship with other teachers, with their students, and  with their student's parents. There is a lot of politics happening there, albeit with a small "p." All i want to do is to be left alone enough to teach history to High School kids for a reasonable block of time each day. I have no agenda, no ideology, no plans of indoctrination. I passionately believe that the role of a teacher is two-fold: to impart a certain body of knowledge and to teach kids how to make up their own minds about what to do with that knowledge. I don't care if a kid is a Republican or a Democrat, a Christian or an atheist; all i care is that they have carefully thought out their decisions based on some kind of historical knowledge as to why they believe and act the way they do. I want these kids to do their own thinking.

Really, i am sick beyond death of people who do not have the intellectual chops, the humility, and the courage to question their own assumptions across the spectrum and come to their own conclusions. If a student at this University had an original thought his/her head would probably explode, whether that thought had to do with Politics or politics. Around here it is people like Howard and Noam who do the political thinking for almost everyone; Rush, George (Will) and Sean think pretty much for the rest Politically. on the other hand, people are very anxious to mimic the attitudes and beliefs of who ever is a) in charge enough to have the ability to control the direction of their work environment or career, or b) are very charismatic and popular. In both instances, it is amazing to see how fast people turn into parrots for the sake of politics...

Oh well, life is what it is, at least we have music to take the edge off things occasionally. I thought you's all enjoy some Cash, so here's Johnny.

2-03 The Rebel_Johnny Yuma

1 comment

"They [the Alliance] will swing back to the belief that they can make people better. I don't hold with that." Capt. Mal, Serenity

It has occurred to me that most of the ills inflicted upon people in this life has been done in the name of good. Many a crime against humanity has been done in the name of religion or progress. Or, as the falsely accused lead character in The Green Mile said, this world uses people's love to kill them (as the real killer used the love the two sisters had for each other in order to make them be quiet when he abducted them in order to rape and murder them). It is theology Sunday Wednesday ;o), and today's subject is Original Sin.

Classic orthodox theology has always taught that God created this world and everything in it, visible and invisible, and that He pronounced that creation, including mankind, as "good." This would be why Christians called the very first rebellion against God as a fall from grace and not an improvement (as the later gnostics would claim), and why Christians have never believed in a dualism between the material and the spirit. The fall of mankind may be likened to a priceless Ming Dynasty vase toppling and smashing onto the marble floor of the museum, after which the curator tries to put it back together with glue. Although the repaired vase can be identified as a vase, its integrity and wholeness has been shattered, and it is no longer the priceless vase it was. Man was made in the image of God, but that image has been shattered, and everyone is trying to repair themselves with Elmer's Glue.

The fall, the rebellion of man against God, was and is about power, about control. Genesis has Satan tempting the pair with the promise that they would be like God, knowing good and evil, that they would be equal to the Uncreated Himself -- they no longer would have to depend on God for their life and provision. Satan lied, of course, and instead of being equals with God we were cut lose as enemies, separated and alienated from He who is love, from He who made us. We have become our own god, and we will do whatever is necessary in order to insure our own survival and security -- for our own good.

We are all born this way, with this will to power hardwired into our human constitution, beyond DNA or RNA. We are the authors of our own misery, the victims of our delusions of grandeur. In the new Harry potter, as in TLOR, the two wizards are be tempted by power, and would be corrupted by that power in seeking to do good. Gandalf would use the Ring for Good, and end up being worse than Saurman; Dumbledore would dominate the Muggles with Grindelwald "for their own good.. for the greater good," and become much worse a tyrant than Voldemort.

I believe the new tyranny will come in the here and now are from those who seek to control/manipulate for the greater good, for the Public's safety. This is a very efficient way to tag and eventually bag everyone. Here in Massachusetts, everyone now has to have health insurance under threat of penalty, and no one can smoke anyplace public because the Democrats are so concerned about the health & wellbeing of each and every one of us. The Republicans would wage unending conflict in the Middle East for the security of the US and for every American's "way of life." I don't know about you, but i don't sleep better at night knowing that they are concerned about how i live my life. Sam Harris, Dawkins, and Hichens all want to ban religion from the world for the good of humanity, regardless of the concept of the freedom of religion written in the US Constitution or the fact that they are a sliver of a minority in the world. But let us not spare those "Christians" and members of other religions that want to impose their own morality on pretty much everyone else. Lord, please spare me the attention of all these people so concerned about my own good...

I'm with CS Lewis -- half the reason i think Christianity, the Christianity faithful handed down from the Apostles anyway, is true is because it is so counter intuitive to the will to power. Messiah Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, blessed are the ethically and  religiously bankrupt, those who realize their condition to be catastrophic, who realize their total inability to heal or repair their inherited lack, or to impress God with their good works. If you would gain your life, says Jesus, you must first lose your life. This humiliation is such a contradiction to modern ears!  All that we have schemed and constructed and achieved for our security must be renounced; we must fling ourselves into God's hands and depend on Him to supply our needs instead of ourselves -- this is not music to our ears.

I'll be honest -- i think most of the people everyone else considers spokespeople for the "Christian Right" are just men or women who have hijacked religion for political purposes, to use to justify their will to power. Usually it isn't politics that need protection from religion, it is vise versa. I think of extremists "Muslims," militant atheists, ideology driven politicians from the Right and the Left and i don't think they represent what they claim they represent. We live in interesting days, eh?

It has been a very wierd couple of days. You'd have to have been living in a hole not to know what is happening on the campus at Virginia Tech. It must be April, because there was a shooting at a school and its time for the Government to give me my money back they've been keeping "safe" for me.

I remeber the April of '99 Columbine shootings, how time stood still for an entire day. I was a Youth pastor, and that hit way close to home; i remeber the intense feelings that i experienced on that April day, both for the victims and the attackers. My heart broke for those kids who were just eating lunch or sitting in a classroom and then--BOOM--and the end came quickly and relentlessly without pity or sympathy.

All those kids in Colorado, all their parents, all their brothers and sisters and friends. I especially grieved as a teacher bled to death because the cops were so hung up on procedure they didn't enter the building quick enough to him on time. I remember especially feeling ambivalent about the attackers, as i don't buy the media's line about people like this being somehow different than the rest of us, insane or some kind of "monster." It made me wonder what had brought these kids to this kind of violent action, what kind of harsh reality that would give these kids this kind of mindset. I was also sorry they were able to kill themselves as it would have been a lot more just to let the courts do it for them. My only regret would be that the electric chair had been phased out and instead of being fried, they would just be drugged. I would hope that Messiah would get their souls while their bodies would be Uncle Sam's responsibility.

Now it is happening all over again, except this time the body count is higher and there was only one miserably unhappy shooter. 32 people dead. Death is final, complete, non-negotiable. That young man ended all of their might-have-beens and could-have-beens, all those hopes and dreams, all those lives living the own unique narratives. The greif and the anger and the anguish are shared by more people who knew each one of these daughters and sons and brothers and sisters and friends, all the multi-relational spheres a human being inhabits, all the personnas each person has to their lives. Plus, the gunman also denied the authorities and the families and our fellow citizens the opportunity to pronounce justice and end justly end his life as he ended so many others. I believe in the death penalty not because it is a deterenebt (because it isn't), but because justice is really an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. There is a reason why Justice is blind.

There were no innocent victims, in the VT shootings, there were only victims. There is no such animal as an innocent bystander, as Faith the rouge slayer said to Buffy the vampire slayer before starting a tiff surrounded by, ironically, college students. Faith was correct, as each one who died at VT had not only their lists of dreams and accomplishments, but also their own record of wrong done to others out of their own selfishness. They were normal, average, everyday people who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and we should mourn them as such. We should never speak ill of the dead, but neither should we make them saints or angels. They were no more guilty or innocent than any of us, and we should understand that this could have been us except by the grace of God.

I wonder about myself sometimes. I believe that society has to have justice to be functional, and i do support the death penalty. But as a Christian, on a personal level, i am to have mercy on those who wrong me just like God showed mercy on me for wronging Him. There is no option here, it can never be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth for me; it must always be returning good for evil, forgiving those who have wronged me. I am reminded of an Asian couple who lost their son in a carjacking in the early 90s, who, after sitting each day in the trial of the man who had killed their boy until the jury had returned with a guilty verdict, arose after the sentencing and begged the court to have mercy on the perp, to release him into their custody and not incarcerate him for the rest of his life. I remember weeping as i read about this, and wonding like i am wondering now -- would i have the courage it would take to forgive the killer of a family member, especially if the judgment fell short of justice? Would i be able to forgive Cho if it had been my kid, my brother or sister, my niece or nephew, my friends that had died in those classrooms?

I am once again reminded that the world is a dangerous place, and as Bilbo Baggins once said to his nephew, leaving your house is a dangerous thing to do because you don't know where the road will take you. Suffering and sorrow happen arbitrarily and randomly, and there is no mortal alive that cannot be faced with his own mortality at any moment in time. I pray what i pray every night before i go to bed, but now especially for the families, friends, and the community of those who were gunned down at Vt:

"Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, sheild the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen."

Anyone remember a horrible yet very cool horror movie called Fright Night? The geek, who plays a very sarcastic ironic best friend to the innocent and clueless hero very well, keeps telling the main character that "you're so cool, Brewster" in this high pitched, crackling voice. For the last week or so i've been hearing that exact voice in my head... Remember the last post? Oh yeah. The Wife was late for class (again), and was not only told off by the others in her section (its a vocal performance class) but was also warned by her professor about possibly having to give up leading a section next semester if it happens again. When i did not come to pick her up, she took the bus home (in my defense, she didn't call, but THATS a pretty sad excuse on my part), and when she got home and found me still asleep from my post blog nap, we had an earnest disscussion, a give and take dialogue in which calmer heads did not prevail. However, we did eventually make up (in the biblical sense), and i'd rather fight with her than anyone else. Damn, what is the matter with me that i can't see what's right in front of my face relationship-wise?

Work has been pretty tough lately, the body has been staging it's own protest rallies after work. I am in trouble a bit with my weight again, not in that i am sloppy fat or anything, but in that i seem to have reaquired that cumpulsive eating pattern again in dealing with stress in my life. I thought i'd fast from today through Sunday morning as it is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter, and all i did today was argue with myself in my head about the stuff i wanted to eat. I gotta get a handle on this, not because i want to look a certain way, but because one either has control of one's habits, or they have control of you; not to have control of those habits is a miserable way to live a life.

I have been doing fair with my paper. I have about eleven pages done, and i think i am building a convincing argument from my thesis on Jack Kerouac in the context of the American post-WW II years. The wife read my introduction and she was very encouraging. I do need to get maybe one or two other's opinions, tho. You reading this Macho Mike?

I added a couple of new songs to the ipod -- Martinis and Bikinis by Sam Philips and Audioslave's I Am the Highway and Like A Stone. I know i've said this before, but i really am enjoying the 2nd generation Nano. I listened to my Pink Floyd collection while i was off-loading a bunch of product in the library today. The Gov. was in the library today, posing with the books and pretending to be "The Education Gov. for the state of Massachusetts." They blocked off my normal resupply route while he was filming his commercial, and people who actually work for a living had to disrupt their routines because of this bozo. I am so fucking sick of politics. My first reaction, when he came in, was to think that everthing's messed up because of another dishonest politician. I guess i was a little jaded because all i've been reading in the papers the last couple of days have been about Obama out fundraising Hillary, and knowing they are all rich anyway. I handed in a tax return that said i made 25k for all of last year.

To top off my distaste of politics, my grad class weekly book assignments about the formation of American culture in the 20th century are invaribly is written by some Leftist radical left over in academia from the 60s or the early 70s, and all they have managed to do is piss me off. I took Ms. Scarlett's political test and was a bit to the left of the cross in the graf, so i am not some die hard conservative. I just hate jargon as it reveals such a weakness of argument; i hate an author who is glaringly into will to power mode trying to convince me his/her marginalized minority community speaks for the majority of the nation...

So i'm in a bit of a bad mood tonight... guess i need to hit the sack. Perhaps if i get some sleep i won't be hearing "you're so cool, Brewster" in my head anymore.

It seems like people are so frigging ambitious to have power that everyone and their mother is throwing their hat into the ring and announcing their desire to run for President. More than a year and half away from November 08. Most of the American people are pretty much looking at this with dread and indifference --like a bunch of old women scrambling onto their chairs after they've noticed a cockroach infestation in their bedroom. Americans'll be frightened at the thought of having to endure all the meaningless media glare following candidates without number, but eventually will hop down and make a run for the living roomto watch American Idol till the exterminator gets there.

I don't know about anyone else, but i instinctively distrust anyone who would want the job this badly. Never give anyone power that craves it; give it to someone qualified who isn't clamoring for the job.  These people also make my skin crawl on a personal level. Edwards pretty much went right into campaign mode the minute Kerry was defeated in the polls. There is something strange about a candidate that moves into Iowa FOUR years before the next election. Mitt Romney -- i know this guy, i've lived in MA for the last four years. This guy is a snake oil salesman, and could give a crap for anyone who actually works for a living. I know the blue collar worker is a dying breed, and most people push paper instead of actually work, but this guy is simply the out and out enemy of anyone in the poor or lower middle class. Please don't get me going on Hillary -- didn't she pretty much run things when Bill was in office? Can she go to the restroom without consulting a focus group or taking the pulse of "the American people?" Highly doubtful. The only other person i am even remotely familiar with is McCain, and he looks older than Reagan did when he took office in '80. Of course, there is Opie, the boy scout who would be President when he grows up, Mr. Obama.

We haven't had anyone in the Oval Office since Truman who was worth a damn, and it don't look like anything is gonna change in '08. These idiots can't even write their own speeches, although to give Barak his due, he can actually speak the words other people write for him. I am a conservative, and a Christian, but that doesn't mean i am a single issue voter. The absolute worst election i have ever personally been involved in was Clinton v Dole, and with tears in my eyes voted for Bubba; a vote for Dole was pretty much a vote for the prince of fucking darkness. Kerry and Gore were almost as bad -- the piece of wood pretending to be a human being and a waffling, sniveling glory hound. W was no prize, but at least the frat boy had a backbone, something glaringly missing in his last two opponents.

I vote in every election. My uncle died in Normandy, and his other two brothers served as well. My ability to vote never came cheap, and i know it. But ideology, from both the right and the Left, seems to be trumping everything. I used to be attracted to the moderate Democrat side of things until i saw what the Progressive Left did to Joe Lieberman. I vote more on the common sense ticket, and i take a lot of things into account.

The core of a family is a mom and a dad. Every kid needs a mom and a dad. Those who treat us like we would like our actual family to treat us are not really biologically family, no matter how many times ya wanna click your hills and wish it wasn't so. Call families and marriages for what they are: dysfunctional and a poor representation of what they should be, but they ain't your family. On the other hand, i think civil unions aren't a bad thing for same-sex couples. Last time i checked, this was a free country, and consenting adults may act as they choose unless they are hurting or iminging on the rights of others.

Abortion is not a form of birth control. It is for a medical emergency. What i find very interesting is that for poor women who have abortions, there is no choice for them. They are usually compelled because of their circumstances to have the procedure done. If they had the money, many of these women would carry the kid to term. It is, i notice, the middle and upper middle class that really has a choice, and when they abort a kid, they do it because they have the money, it is a convenience they can afford. The abortion industry is a billion dollar industry, and it has few, if any, regulations in place. There is a lot of money that changes hands...

The great enemy of democracy is multinational corporations. Those who run these things were not elected by anyone, and yet they determine so much. I used to have a quote about fascism being corporatism by Mussolini, but i lost the quote. The industrial/military complex is long gone, but it has been replaced by the joining of the politico/media/lawyer cabal, and is even more of a threat than what was during Cold War.

Global warming is a crock -- its just another system of control (Read M. Creighton's State of Fear). Should we be conservationists? You bet! Is there a problem with pollution? Of course. But should we we fall under the modern delusion that we are the masters of our circumstances and our fate and decide to form nature into our own idea of what we think she should be? Get this: Greenland was once so warm that the Viking set up farming communities... and there was no industrial revolution happening at the time. Should we still strive for clean air and water? Hell yes. The cloud of smog that over hangs a our major cities  should and can be cut back. Fear is the big seller, it gives politicans an issue, lawyers achance to litigate, and the media a story ("It Could Happen Tomorrow!") But most of the debate going on now is about power, control. Scientist, politicians, the Media... they all are vying to control the issue.

I seem to stand alone on my common sense platform -- common sense is the arch enemy of ideology. I'd be hit from both the Left and the Right for this blog if i was doing it for a living or had anything close to a wide readership. I'll vote in 08, but please, God, send me someone i can actually vote for that is qualified to lead...

What sad days for American politics. Can I just rant on for awhile on how much I just truly hate ideology? It is a hatred which runs neck and neck with dispensational theology in my lexicon of contempt, so the loathing for the ideology of the Left and the Right runs very deep.

If ideology was simply an idea, I wouldn't be writing this post. No, ideology is the justification and systematic organization around an idea that makes that idea The Idea of all ideas. Once this happens the ideology becaomes the way to interpret any narrative that may come around to fit with the ideology, all in the name of what was formerly probably a pretty good idea. In other words, ideology is the foundation for both the tyrannies of both the Right and the Left.

The tyranny of the Right is of course national socialism. The Nazis are pretty good examples of this type of tyranny. What did Hitler and the boys do? They took some very cool ideas about tradition, ethnicity, and nation and turned it into something ugly. The tyranny of the left is Communism. Soviet Russia was a good example, North Korea is a good example of this form of tyranny. Lennin and Stalin took some pretty cool ideas about communal egaltalianism and turned them into a kind of surreal nightmare.

Ideologies can, like tumors, be either benign or malignant. Ideology is always a tumor, tho, whether it kills you or not. Just take a look at the many Socialist states in Europe. France has a kind of democratic socialism that has not produced the systematic slaughter of it's own citizens. It has produced an appalling inefficientcy, but how many people are worried about the dangers France poses to the rest of the world? Plus, a lot of people are amused at France's government because really, has a group of people in history more deserved the government they have than the French?

Christianity can function under any form of government. The Bible is an ancient document, and it knows no form of government other than monarchy or tribal leadership. Yet Christians flourish regardless of whether they have political freedom or not; the Christian scriptures presents the the Kingdom of God as the example of what, someday at the end, all government will look like. Christianity reaffirms authority correctly excersized to protect a nation's citizenry, and provides a rival authority when corruption of power eventually appears. Believers in Christ are ambassador from a far away country where justice rolls down like the rivers, and justice and truth kiss. The Church, in capital letters, are to be oasis' of this as a witness to the rest of the world.

Every time I turn on the TV it seems that I am provided soundbytes of one sort of ideology or another. I'd rather break out in boils and sores and rend my clothing while sitting on a gargage heap than become a Dittohead. I'd rather sell all my clothes and run naked thru poison ivy than become a Progressive. People are political animals whether they like it or not. I suppose that I will have to practice more of the politics of the Kingdom of God just to be able to ignore the ideologies that compete as some person or parties subversion as the will to power. The only one you want running things is the guy who really doesn't wanna run things. George Washington wasn't beloved because he was tall, athletic, and good looking. He was beloved the world over because he could have been king and commanding general after the American Revolution, but decided to be a farmer again instead. Jesus was God incarnate, but He washed His disciple's feet. I know where to swear my alligence too....

Think about it: what if the Church were full of grateful, humble people who were not illusioned by either man's potential or disillusioned by man's inhumanity to man? What if they cared for all people, regardless, because God cares about people? What if they really believed that love covers a multitude of sin? I think any community of faith that even comes close to postulating this would have to nail the doors of their worship service shut because of the throngs of people who are dying for what Jesus is giving thru those who are His would. Ever see what lengths the desparte are willing to go? I'm sick of the Evangelical Church being subverted by the ideologies of the Right, and the Mainline by the ideologies of the Left. What about representing what Christians truly are -- the third way?

Meanwhile, away from the rant, I am pretty close to kicking these two frigging dogs thru the goal posts of life. If they get me up one more time before 7:00 AM for a walk after I've worked till 2:00 AM, showered, loved The Wife (Woo Whooo!), and gone to bed I will seriously consider how much it would cost for a kennel. Can I subcontract this gig? Today and tomorrow are my days off, altho I spend Thursdays at the Vocational High School for my Graduate prepracticum. I wanna go to a movie tody or tomorrow night. I'm thinking Mel Gibbson's new movie or some holiday comedy just for the fun of it. I need to meld with a theater chair, a coke, a bag of pop corn with extra butter, and a reeses peanut butter cup.

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So I read this bumper sticker on my friend's car that said, "If You Want Peace, Work for Justice." As bumper stickers go, especially in a college town, this was one of the more interesting ones. Usually bumper stickers here are very political, and we'll just say the humor is biting. I noticed this one because it was on my friend's car, and because it was a Roman Catholic sticker. Big Danny is a good man with a heart as big as he is, but I wouldn't say he was an especially informed Catholic.

I've been thinking about this little slogan and to be honest, I still don't know really what to make of it. On the one hand, I understand what it is trying to communicate just read literally. If the scales were balanced, then what would there be worth fighting for? There would be social justice as everyone would be satisfied with their lot in life. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that the scales are really ever still in any circumstance, for individuals or corporate groups; the scales of Justice are always in need of being righted because there are always people willing to use any means necessary to attain what they desire, there are few people satisfied with what fate has dealt them and the scales are always in motion, like the scales of Justice on Metallica's "And Justice for All."

I think that there is merit to what this slogan is saying. Injustice cannot be ignored. What comes to my mind immediately is American chattel slavery in the 19th century and South African Apartheid in the 20th. Abilitionists and the international community both stood for justice against both of these injustices. One ethnic group was exploiting another, the scales were out of balance. The American Civil War ended chattel slavery, and Apartheid collapsed under the weight of its own injustice and basic math, as the Whites were outnumbered by the Blacks and the international community was almost, in the end, unified in the condemnation of the practice. For a contemporary example of standing against injustice I bring an example my buddy Mike. Mike and his wife are working to stop the sex slave trade, human trafficing, in India and the surrounding countries.

Yet all these examples, past and present, just illustrates that often justice is not attained without the use of force or coercion: to end American slavery it took war, to end Apartheid it took nonviolent coercion, and to end the sex slave trade today peopel will eventually have resort to some type of legit authority taking coercive action. Really, if one work's for justice, social or otherwise, is that person really working for peace? Or are they actually guaranteeing conflict? Justice must be enforced, does it not?

I remember the first inkling I had about the nature of justice, of why the goddess is blindfolded. When I watched "The Dirty Dozen" for the first time two of the main characters were in a military prison during WW II. There was a hanging taking place; a young soldier had gotten drunk and had murdered another soldier. The scale had to be balanced, a life for a life. The young man was filled with regret and remorse and he didn't want to die and was begging, in vain as it turned out, for his life. But it really didn't matter. Justice is blind, you see, and it didn't really matter if the boy was sorry, the scales had to be balanced and they were when the trap door was opened under his feet.

My mind goes out to my best bud Mike and what his work. In advocating for justice for these girls and boys, young men and women caught in this despicable trade, he will have to advocate for confrontation, for the enforcement of antislavery laws both locally and internationally on the books already by authority, be it local or international. He will have to advocate for a crackdown on corruption in these countries, and this will not lead to an absence of conflict. On the contrary, this will piss of corrupted and violent men that are enriched and empowered by this trade, and will almost guarantee and escalation of violence. Look what has happened in Columbia when the druglords have become better armed and organized than governmental authority like the courts, the police, and the army.

There are some things that are worth fighting for, I am not a pacifist and neither is the New Testament, in my humble opinion. I'm right there with the Reverend Martin Kuther King, Jr.: Let Justice roll down... The Apostle Paul wrote this to the Romans about how a legit government is to be effective:

"For the authorities do not frighten people who are doing right, but they frighten those who do wrong... The authorities are established by God for that very purpose, to punish those who do wrong" (Romans 13:3, 4b New Living Translation).

I don't think Christians can oppose the death penalty by saying that only God can take a life and not the State. If we are to stand against the death penalty it should be by advocating mercy. Like Ghandi said, if justice is an eye for an eye, there is gonna be a lot of blind people without the presence of mercy with justice. But I digress... I dunno, perhaps we might need to redefine the word "peace" instead of focusing on the word justice?