A NATION RULED BY ITS CITIZENS

What arrogant nonsense! We disagree on a few issues so first we have to decide which of us is more saved than the other is? You refuse to compromise with your neighbor unless he adopts your interpretation of Christianity? You think the God who allowed Himself to be crucified wants you to be pridefully belligerent? And you think that that is manifesting God’s Will?

So what is it Tom? Are you arguing in a civic issue based on what YOU supposedly believe or what GOD means for us all to believe, even if we may have a vast pluralism of divergent theological interpretations?

Call it situational
if you prefer, but we practice virtue by applying it dynamically to a set of often ambiguous facts down in the dirt and confusion of this finite and fallen world where we all live, not up in your ideological ivory tower of absolutistism. Does the Scripture that you just quoted really require a subjective religious arrogance, or is it saying just the opposite – that we should find and appeal to the manifestation of the universal and eternal Chiat that is always incarnate and waiting there in each other and every human heart?

As for the Constitution, I only keep pointing out that you don’t know what your talking about. The Constitution mostly lays out an imperfect and complex ongoing process for government rather than being the simplistic, set-in-stone rule book that you want it to be. We The People concede to give legal sovereignty to the decisions made within that process even when we don’t always agree. Sure it can go too far, but you act like if your religious viewpoint doesn’t get its way in everything, then the Emperor in Rome is persecuting your majority religion. We Christians have never had it so good with a government in our entire history and all you do is whine like you’re actually being thrown to the lions by the Pagans.

“Sadly, while many have faith in the morality as described by God thru the Bible… in reality morality is judged by man to qualify his actions.“

Yes! And that should give us pause and engender some humility, but it doesn’t. None of us are innocent of this sort of judgmental moralizing (myself very often included). However, when we unsheathe the Christ sacrificed on the Cross like a sword to politically batter our neighbors with Him, we ought to stop and say to ourselves and each other, “Forgive us Father for we know not what we are doing.”

Couldn’t we even start with that sometimes. Start by saying: “I don’t know what God wants me to do, and I suspect that your arrogance simply disguises the same confusion – why don’t we begin instead by applying those universal commonalities that we all share together to the issue and then work toward a humble compromise rather than claiming that my tribe or political party has God’s secret decoder ring for everything?”

“I have no idea what “Chiat” means. I just know that whenever I do the right thing God deserves the credit.”

Ha! The pagan god of lost causes and bad cell phone typing I suppose.

You know it seemed like I was a flight student for a very long time, basically four years of continuous training before I finally, gratefully made it to Patrol Plane Commander. I was always kind of a plodder as a student. It seemed to take me longer than others to get things, but once I had it, I had it cold. This often left me more than a little self conscious.

I remember having a few instructor pilots who were absolute screamers. They would be all relaxed and buddy- buddy with me in the briefing room, but once we got into the aircraft they would turn from Doctor Jeckel into Mr. Hyde. I could feel these instructors on the dual controls with me to the point where I didn’t know if I was flying or he was. Their anger at even the slightest false move was instant and palpable. This left me distraught and insecure about whether I was going to make it through or not, until I finally found out that these kind of instructors were that way with all their students.

After I became an instructor myself, I finally figured out what made these few instructors so darn angry. It was their own fear, their own insecurities about their own abilities that made them that way. They were terrified that their students would make a mistake that would kill them both (always a real possibility in flight instruction). As long as the student showed up at the preflight prepared, then a good instructor feels that it is his failure if the student isn’t getting something. A good instructor tries different approaches to teaching the maneuver and, along with the student, gets a kick out of it when the light bulb finally goes off.

In all the years I instructed, I never gave a downing flight to a student (although I gave a couple of ready room downs to students who showed up and obviously did not study). This wasn’t always easy, but I would figure out a way to continue the flight and give the student more time until he/she got it.

My feeling about flight instruction is the same as it is about life, and about being a Christian – if we are not enjoying passing on blessings God constantly gives us to love, to live, to learn and to teach, if we are angry and full of hatred at our neighbor’s faults all the time, we are probably doing it wrong, not them.

Forgive me brother – I‘m afraid that I am still a plodder in most things. No, of course, you are not arrogant or belligerent. I always admire your fierce intensity. 🙂