Letter to My Congresswoman

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I sent the following letter to my Congresswoman today.  It sums up rather well (which I think shows God guided my sometimes scattered thinking) what I'd wish to say to every adherent of the "conservative Republican" ideology.

Quite obviously, many who follow that ideology do so because their intent in it is deception.  (It's unclear if their demi-god founder had that intent.  To give him the benefit of the doubt, I tend to think he was just ideologically shallow: which is what makes his doctrines so broadly popular, contrary their true merit.)

But I sincerely believe my Congresswoman is basically an honest person, with an honest desire to do good for her constituents.  So I'm hopeful something in my letter will persuade her to re-think ("repent") the harmful ideology she follows.
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Dear Congresswoman Jenkins:

                I was glad to be invited to your phone conference yesterday.  I was in the queue to ask you a question when the hour expired

                As a legislator, you had to field a variety of questions and concerns, in specific details and as policies.  What enables you to do so, and what comes across strongly to listeners, is the philosophy of governance you bring to your job.  My question was about that philosophy.

                You, and other members of your political faction, frequently cite the famous dictum from Reagans’ first inaugural: “…government is the problem.”   And certainly your faction is proud to promote itself as Reagan’s heirs.

It’s quite an illogical philosophy of government for those whose job is governing.  Indeed, it’s the basic principle of anarchy, the anti-government philosophy.  I’d urge you to re-think your faction’s embrace of that belief.

                That belief manifested itself in Reagan’s core policy, “de-regulation.”  This is likewise the core policy of your faction’s governing: as you said in yesterdays’ telephone conference, to “reverse job-killing regulation.”

                Please re-think the philosophy of governing, and the governing policy, your faction derives from its founder.  They are bad principles, rejecting God’s mandate to human rulers in the first verses of Romans 13.

                As part of a human government, that scripture says your job is to be “a minister of God [to people] for good.”  Doing good towards citizens is also the commonsense principle, and the traditional American principle, of government’s job.  It’s amazing your faction has always been so equivocal about government doing good for citizens; and has often denigrated that principle as “socialism.”

                Scripture also says your job is to be a “…minister of God” by “bring[ing] wrath on the one who practices evil.”  Please re-think if that doesn't mandate regulation of corrupt practices in the financial system, for example; or regulating pollution that harms America’s land, water, air…and people ?  Your faction’s opposition to “job-killing regulation” is the worst kind of political cant, devoid of honest thought.  Please give it your honest thought.

                My personal sense is that you’re a decent person, and in politics from a sincere desire to do good for your constituents.  I truly believe your heart and your intent are vastly better, and more honest, than the philosophy of your faction.

                That’s why I’d ask you to re-think that philosophy, and your legislative practice of it.

Respectfully,  Steve Hicks

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Today's Prayer

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Jesus, rule in Your Church again !   Lead your people again in Your ways.  Forgive us our foolishness in following the deceivers who come in Your Name !!

Put to shame, utterly crush, those who lead Your people in evil ways !  Cast down the political deceivers and false "prophets" who teach your people to love lies and unrighteousness.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Whose Work ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Whose work is it to persuade Christians to follow lies and unrighteousness ?  To convince Christians that lies and unrighteousness will "make America Great Again" ?

Take careful note of those who do his work for him.  Flee from them, as you would from their father the devil.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Luther quote

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Someone sent me this quote today, attributing it to Martin Luther:

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."

I always try to verify quotes by famous people before I believe them.  On this one, I found that some scholars trying to verify that quote had been unable to find it in Luther's writings; and suggested it may have come about as a paraphrase of the idea he expressed in a letter this way:

“...it does not help that one of you would say: ‘I will gladly confess Christ and His Word on every detail, except that I may keep silent about one or two things which my tyrants may not tolerate, such as the form of the Sacraments and the like.’ For whoever denies Christ in one detail or word has denied the same Christ in that one detail who was denied in all the details, since there is only one Christ in all His words, taken together or individually.”

(https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2014/02/20/5-quotes-that-luther-didnt-actually-say/)

The quotations are similar.  Both speak of denying Christ in some "little point" or "detail:"  and in both, the assertion is that we deny Him when we do not defend the smallest item of Christ's Being because it is controversial to the enemy's world-rulers, or under attack by "the world and the devil."

As important as it is to verify every word we hear that purports to be true, that's not my point here.  I've repeatedly and fiercely (maybe even stridently) insisted, as long as I've written this blog (and even longer), that all things, and all men, and all ideas, are measured by Truth.

And that's my point.  Rather than the true provenance of a single obscure quotation, I cry out here that Truth itself is "controversial," and "under attack," in this "post-Truth" day.

In this time, it's not some "little point" or "detail" the enemy is attacking: Jesus identified Himself as "The Truth."

Where then are 80% of white American "Evangelicals" when Christ' very Being is under attack by the kingdom of darkness, the devil, and his world-rulers ?  They've enlisted in the enemy's army, under the command of his political commissars and false prophets.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Unity and Diversity

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I posted this comment several days ago on a friend's blog, in response to his post about the "One Worldism" of the last days.

To date he hasn't "published" my comment, and I'm not sure why.  But I think God put some of His wisdom about "unity" and "diversity" in my comment; so I publish it here.
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Yes, your words highlight some essential truths.  Our choices are between the unity Jesus prays for us (John 17:20-21): joined in Him, the Father, and the Spirit of Truth: or the world's (and the enemy's) counterfeit unity.

Unity is a good thing: else why would Jesus have prayed it for us ?  The world too recognizes so, saying "in unity there is strength."

But the world (and the enemy) cannot create anything good: they can only pervert the good which God creates, and imitate it.  Indeed, the most successful perversions of God's good are those that most closely counterfeits what He creates: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, for example, in counterfeit of the Church of Jesus Christ.

But the world's counterfeits, like its counterfeit coins, have base metal at their core.  God enacts unity through diversity (I Corinthians 12:4ff, Romans 12:4-5, and elsewhere).  Only God's wisdom could even conceive of such a thing: and nothing but God's power could do it.  But the world's (and the enemy's) idea of unity is rigid "likeness."

We see the world operating on its false idea of "unity" in so many contexts.  "Tea Party" Republicans try to "unify" and "strengthen" their party by driving out all who don't share their ideology: Serbs try to "cleanse" their nation by killing its citizens of every other ethnicity.

We do well to question if those who scoff at "diversity" as wimpy "political correctness" understand at all that it is God's chosen vehicle of HIS unity ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Do the Right Thing

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Last night the pastor leading our Bible study mentioned how he sometimes set up small "tests" for
church-workers he interviews.  That it told him something about a person whether a person picked up or ignored small trash in the church' hallway, or straightened out a rumpled rug at the church' entrance.

I call that wisdom.  The things we do, especially the small things, say more about our heart-attitude than all the theology crammed into our brains.  In the pastor's examples, what candidates do shows their attitude toward the Church, in ways their academically brilliant ecclesiology doesn't.  And not coincidentally, shows their care for the cleanliness and safety of the church' people...who are the Church.

Scripture's wisdom and truth is that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."  Our deepest operative attitude shows in what we consistently do.  And what we do consistently becomes our character, who we are.  Scripture's wisdom is therefore to "diligently guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life."

My Christian take is that what we "guard" for in our operative beliefs, and acts, and character, is simply that we "do the right thing."  That seems the most basic social "good" we expect from others, and ourselves.  And because it's most basic, it's common to all human beings.

C.S. Lewis opens his Mere Christianity with an illustration that's always impressed me.  When people on a bus protest someone taking their seat, they appeal to some idea of right behavior that they seem to believe the other person (street-punk, Muslim, housewife, atheist, or the Archbishop of Canterbury) certainly knows, and recognizes as governing the situation.

Lewis also points out that we show we know and acknowledge this common "law" of right behavior when we break it.  We don't argue there is no such "law:" but rather, that some exception to the "law" justifies us in breaking it.

It's only the most basic manifestation of scripture's truth that God has written His law in men's hearts (Romans 2:15).  And because it's the most basic, everything else follows from it.  All our beliefs and actions toward what's "right" are the beginning of our moral sense, and our theology: the beginning therefore of everything we are, and become.

My Christian take is that God puts His simple, basic "law" in our hearts: and that He evaluates what we become in simple, basic reference to it.  In God's judgement...the only judgement that matters...a man who does the smallest right thing is the greatest righteous man.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Woe to the Stiff-Necked

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’…”     --  Jeremiah 19:14,15

“Stiff-necked” means self-willed, and stubbornly opinionated: people who won’t listen to God, or obey Him.  People who defiantly continue in their own way even when it brings disaster on them, as it always does.  People too proud to admit to God, or to themselves, that they’ve done anything wrong, and repent.

To the stiff-necked, God says “I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle.” (Jeremiah 19:3b)  The entire chapter is a catalog of the horrific results God promises will come upon the stiff-necked.

This is a time for Christians in America to repent.  This is not a time to be stiff-necked.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

"A Man With No Labels"

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Our spiritually-perceptive Australian brother Tim and I had been discussing the deceptive "boats" Christians get on-board with: the political, doctrinal, phllosophical, national, ideological (etc.) canned worldviews or mindsets every human being is expected to join in, and subscribe to.

Deceptive because they lure us on-board with some partial truth they say "explains all."  And as Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan cogently observed in her History's People (about the "guiding ideas" embraced by Hitler and Stalin), what we accept as "explaining all" thereafter "justifies all" that we enact in its behalf.

"Boats" because they convey us, once aboard, where the captain of deceit wills, whether we wish to go there or not.  Many aboard the "Christian conservative" boat loudly bemoaned last year that it was sailing to Port Trump: but that's where it went...and they with it.

The same day Tim and I were e-mailing back and forth, my beloved brother Kasumba Nathanael in Uganda posted the following meditation on facebook:

"Jesus is outside the camp. He is a man with no labels. And the moment you link up with one group or another, and take unto yourself the labels and causes and agendas and issues of this or that group, then it is you cease following Jesus and begin following men. That will lead to pride, division, strife, and trouble. Men love to build empires and fight enemies. But Jesus has called us to something better and higher. He has called us unto Himself.

"We are in this world, but not of this world. Here we have no continuing city; for we seek a city whose builder and maker is God. Therefore, we are pilgrims passing through the many camps we come in contact with; exchanging greetings in the marketplace, dining in the restaurants, sunning on the beach, or playing in the fields — but only for a while. For this is not our home; this is not our camp.'Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.' (Hebrews 13:13)"

I was amazed again...though I shouldn't be...at this manifestation of God's love, and power.  That, even in my miniscule and fallible experience of Him, God is speaking His unified and unifying Truth into the hearts of all who will hear Hm,  across all His earth.

Praise Him !!

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Blasphemy Laws

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

"...they...called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, 'O Baal, answer us!' But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made.  And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, 'Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.'..."     I Kings 18:26-7

Baal was a false god.  His priests' idea of God could not be otherwise than false.

So Baal's priests believed they had to defend their god by their own futile and puny actions.  Elijah's God proved more than capable of defending Himself.

In Muslim-majority Indonesia, a Christian politician was recently convicted of blaspheming against the Quran.  Maybe the court felt that they had to defend the god of the Quran because they knew in their hearts their "god" could not.

Maybe he was busy relieving himself.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Simplicity Quotation Found

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

For years I've quoted, mis-quoted and paraphrased a quotation that beautifully makes a point about wisdom.

It was one of those inspired quotes you hear or read once, and remember the idea forever...but can never quite find again.

I was sure I'd read it in C. S. Lewis, and watched for it every time I was re-reading something of his.  I searched the internet for it among his writings, unsuccessfully.

I found the quotation yesterday: not exactly as I'd remembered it, which was probably part of my problem in trying to find it.  A problem also that I'd looked the wrong place, since the version I found was attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.:
 

"I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my right arm for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.

"Attributed" to Holmes; since that formulation hadn't been found in his writings either.  Who actually authored that quote, or something like it, seems unknown.

But it's the idea I remember, and find so striking: that understanding is not merely "either/or," "simple" or "complex."

I've read far too many experts (usually academics) who are quite unable to convey any cogent understanding of their field to interested, intelligent laypeople.  For some reason, these experts are often chosen to write the textbooks.

Inability to convey understanding indeed seems the point in many experts' writings.  That having mastered its full knowledge, I know such light-years more the detailed complexity of things than any lesser mortal can ever possibly comprehend.  Inability to convey understanding is often the self-validating (as John Dryden called it) "priestcraft" of the learned expert.

That's possibly why I was certain the "lost" quotation was by C. S. Lewis.  I esteem him as one of those rare souls whose mastery of knowledge (in his academic field, and in Christian apologetics) gave him the simplicity "the other side of complexity."  Gave him understanding so thorough that it could be stated simply, in words accessible to all.

In that, Lewis follows Jesus.  My mentor in the faith, Derek Prince, once pointed out the striking fact that Jesus' recorded teachings use very few words of more than one syllable.  The One Whose knowledge comprehended all things, conveyed His wisdom in homely sayings about fish and seeds, coins, and sheep.

Simplicity cannot be esteemed for its own sake.  "The simplicity this side of complexity" is mere ignorance of reality.  Sometimes willful ignorance, such as that of politicians who campaign by (and just possibly, believe) mindless slogans...and afterwards complain that "nobody knew health-care could be so complicated."

"The simplicity on the other side of complexity," from knowledge rather than ignorance, is God's gift, and wisdom.  It was Jesus' gift, and His wisdom.

Praise Him !!