Life - Longing Logos

April 15, 2020April 29, 2020

Between the Scylla of Shut Down and the Charybdis of Open Up

Between the Scylla and the Charybdis — Johann Heinrich Füssli – Odysseus in Front of Scylla and Charybdis

Christians have historically navigated between the Scylla of legalism and the Charybdis of license. The Bible begins with the Book of Genesis, and God basically gives Adam and Eve one simple “law” to obey. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They disobeyed him and thus began mankind’s odyssey.

Scylla of Legalism

As we move further into the Five Books of Moses, the Pentateuch, there is a proliferation of laws. As Father Longenecker (2014) explains, “For the first time obeying a law code was the way to make God happy.” Perhaps it was also a way for Moses and Aaron to keep an unruly, disobedient and ungrateful caravan of freed Hebrew slaves from angering God and from exhausting them any more than they had.

Then comes Paul and Christianity. Longenecker says, “Unfortunately, the law is not enough, and St Paul unlocked the riddle by telling us that the whole reason for the law was not to make us good enough, but to show us that we could never be good enough. The Christian religion was another innovation. Instead of living by the law, we are called to live by faith in a dynamic relationship with God.”

Charybdis of License

Most people, even Christians, might ask: what does it mean to be “called to live by faith in a dynamic relationship with God”? It does not provide any real guidance. Although Christians have forgotten or ignored much of the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments continue to have a simplicity and practicality that is conducive to obedience. It is much easier to follow laws if one can actually remember them. License on the other hand requires no memorization and no restraint. Its potential destructiveness is also obvious.

Scylla of Shut Down and the Charybdis of Open Up

Today, as we debate the Scylla of shut down and the Charybdis of open up the economy, we would do well to remember that the safest passage in this crisis is navigating between the two extremes. The left seems to lean toward shutting down, maintaining stay-at-home orders, and the right seems to lean toward opening up, returning to normal.

There are economic consequences to maintaining restrictions that are too strict that go well beyond the stock market but affect ordinary people in real and painful ways. We need to be sensitive to the financial precariousness of their lives and understand that their economic vulnerabilities can quickly develop into other problems, such as domestic violence, child abuse, inescapable poverty and debt.

On the other hand, no restrictions at all would almost certainly exacerbate the spread of the coronavirus, which would bring with it not just illness and death but also economic ramifications, as people would be required to go to work and would feel compelled to do so even if they were feeling unwell.

This is not a matter of right versus left, legalism or license, shutting down or opening up. It is a matter of assigning proper weight to the risks associated with veering too much in one direction or the other and finding the correct middle path. Jesus’s perfect navigation between the extremes of legalism and license is often underappreciated. He never actually lowered the standards or diluted “the law.” In many respects, he raised them. However, he simultaneously extended tremendous compassion and generosity.

We would do well to adopt his approach to the extent we could – strict but compassionate. Ideally, our government would have acted faster and with more preparation and planning, in particular, making sure that we had adequate tests and medical equipment and were tracing any people suspected of having come into contact with the virus. They would have had to follow stricter self-isolation guidelines, i.e. quarantine, while the remainder of the population could have continued life under a laxer set of preventive measures. Alas, neither competence nor compassion can be found in the present administration.

My Brother’s Keeper

For the rest of us, let us live in faith in God and in each other. Let us be our brother’s keeper and think of others’ interests as well as our own. Let us remember that some among us are more vulnerable to sickness and death while others are more vulnerable to poverty, which can also lead to sickness and death. Let us not judge others for their particular fears or frustrations, but instead let us pray that our leaders will arrive at a reasonable set of guidelines that avoids both the health and economic dangers to the greatest extent possible.

April 13, 2020May 1, 2020

Forty-Eight Hours of Breath

Reverend Dr. William Barber recently asked the question, “If you knew you had only forty-eight hours of breath left, what kind of world would you use that breath to fight for? What kind of world, what kind of nation?” It is the question we should all be asking ourselves everyday of our lives. However, many people will never ask it. They will breathe their last in the same stupor or, worse yet, sin in which they lived their lives.

They will care more about death walking through their locked door, instead of passing over it, than about the fact that while living they did not use their time or their lives well and did not treat others the way they ought to have, the way Jesus taught us. They will not have stopped to examine their lives or their conscience. Perhaps because if they had, they might not have liked what they found.

Forty-Eight Hours – As Carnegie Lay Dying

Approximately 100 years ago, as World War I, which had ravaged the world, was coming to an end, only to lead to the economic consequences of the peace and World War II, Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in the world, who had amassed a fortune by the cruelest possible treatment and exploitation of his fellow Americans, his workers, lay dying.

How did he choose to live his last hours? Standiford in his biography, Meet You in Hell, says that Carnegie sought reconciliation not with God but with someone possibly even more sinful than he, his once friend and partner turned foe and competitor, Henry Clay Frick. What was Frick’s response? Standiford writes, “‘Yes, you can tell Carnegie I’ll meet him,’ Frick said finally, wadding the letter and tossing it back at Bridge [Carnegie’s personal secretary]. ‘Tell him I’ll see him in Hell, where we both are going.’”

Redemption Cannot Be Bought

In his later years, Carnegie had decided to become a philanthropist. His foundations are numerous, as we all know since they bear his name, and his legacy, Standiford describes as follows: “To this day he is often credited with having established the precedent of corporate philanthropy; as one commentator observed, when Bill Gates makes a gift of some of his hard-earned millions, it is probably the ghost of Andrew Carnegie that guides his outstretched hand.”

I would hope not, for the Gates’s and for the world’s sake. Despite all his philanthropy, Carnegie did not seem to get it even at the end of his life. Perhaps motivated by guilt, fear or legacy, he was determined to remake his image from a brutal plutocrat to a benevolent philanthropist.

One of Jesus’s final acts before his crucifixion was the Last Supper, during which he washed his Apostles’ feet. It is one of the most emotional aspects of Jesus’s life for Christians around the world. It was a profound act of humility and love. I have witnessed many people cry during its reenactment.

By contrast, Carnegie’s final exchange reveals his preoccupation with the world. It hounded him until the end. What do others think of him? Well, he got his answer from Frick. Standiford says, “And all’s well since it is growing better and when I [Carnegie] go for a trial for the things done on earth, I think I’ll get a verdict of ‘not guilty’ through my efforts to make the earth a little better than I found it.”

If Carnegie thought he could buy forgiveness or redemption, Frick disabused him of this notion, and just to turn the sword, confirmed with pleasure that, indeed, Carnegie would end up in hell. Forgiveness is granted by victims and by God. Christians believe that salvation comes through faith and/or works, with their relative measure in debate. The simple and, likely, most honest understanding is that redemption and judgment are God’s purview, and it is best to just live according to the Way, love, trust and surrender to God.

The Last Judgment

I argued that annihilation is the greatest punishment. It is nothingness; it is to be without a soul. Some might have found this surprising. How could nothing be worse than eternal damnation? Well, if hell is an eternal, boiling cauldron of perversity, Frick seemed to relish the continuation of their earthly torments in hell, and better yet, perhaps he hoped that Carnegie, in his final days, would be tortured by yet resigned to this outcome.

This brings us back to the present. The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare many unfortunate truths. One of these is that many of our nation’s people and policies are callous, even cruel, particularly towards the poor and vulnerable. If Carnegie dreaded hell, as he seemed to indicate toward the end of his life, perhaps the larger question is: why did he choose to live a life on earth that he would find miserable in hell? The question for all of us is: if you have forty-eight hours or even forty-eight years to live, what and who are you breathing for?

March 31, 2020April 12, 2021

On American Freedom and Independence

Some Europeans say that Americans fetishize freedom. I counter that we give it the respect it deserves. Freedom is our God-given right. Our exercise of our American freedom expresses our humanity and is integral to our relationship with each other and with God. God did not create puppets. He created free, independent men and women in his image.

Every single person on our incredible planet is endowed with the right to freedom, and acts such as slavery, indentured servitude, unjustified imprisonment and the like are acts against God himself. Conversely, we glorify God by encouraging each other to indulge in our freedoms while still expecting these choices made of one’s free will to follow the law and to reflect a strong sense of morality, purpose and community.

The nature of these indulgences ought to be related to the limitless range for individual expression. The soldier poet, the ballet dancer hunter, the blue-collar worker writer, the doctor priest, the activist nun, the rock star evangelist, the professor novelist, the artist programmer, there is an endless combination of selves to be claimed by the next bold soul willing to declare to the world, “I define myself; I will not be defined by others.” (See, S.E. Cupp on ballet and hunting and Roman Baca on war and dancing.) That is freedom – American style. I would argue that American freedom is freedom as it ought to be: boundless, surprising, imaginative, rebellious even irreverent.

American Freedom is closely linked to independence. The link between the two might or might not be immediately apparent, but I assure you that they are inextricably intertwined. A country’s citizens who come to depend on their government too much risk both their freedom and independence. One might argue that Americans have too much distrust, dislike and not enough dependence on their government. This might be true. However, one can both strengthen the safety net and governmental institutions so that they work better for the people while, simultaneously, giving them more personal freedom and independence.

American Freedom and Hunting

We have a tradition in this country of hunting and fishing. Although I am opposed to the NRA and trophy hunting, I believe that hunting and fishing are traditional aspects of American life that we should preserve. They are not just sports. They are also practical skills. Hunting and fishing also reflect a fiercely independent American streak, which has characterized the country from the beginning.

Slavery, the genocide of the native people and exploitation of the country’s enviable natural resources was an evil violation of their freedoms and dignities and an abuse of our planet. A respectful relationship with the land, such as Native Americans had and still have, preserves a divine, either Christian or non-Christian, relationship with the earth and with God. It is an explicit understanding that our lives depend on our planet’s life. Any extended contact with nature is rejuvenating for the soul, and when exercised correctly, the act of hunting and fishing is also an acknowledgement of our dependence on God’s creation and each other.

As the beautiful, diverse, complex creatures with whom we share our planet die in a manmade mass extinction, let us use the right to hunt and fish to remind ourselves that all life is precious and interdependent. There are no crops without bees and butterflies. There are no waterfowl without clean bodies of water, and there are no deer without fields and forests. Our planet is not optional. It is absolutely essential to our survival. When we hunt and fish, we assert our freedom, reestablish our independence while simultaneously becoming one with God and the world he created. Defy the stereotypes and labels. Define yourself and with it, American freedom and independence.

March 28, 2020April 30, 2020

L’Art de la Politesse

As we are rightfully focused on saving lives and on supporting the economy, we have given less attention to the degree to which certain cultural practices have been suppressed in response to the pandemic, no more famous American hugs or French bises, not even a handshake. Humans have a need to express fondness or simple acknowledgement with physical contact. In fact, many of God’s magnificent creatures display these tendencies. As such, I have no concern that these expressions will return once this challenging period is behind us. However, this is a good time to consider the ubiquity of these cultural norms, which seem to defy evolutionary assumptions, and what motivates them.

Once humans learned of the invisible killers, i.e. germs, one would have thought that we would have stopped engaging in these acts since we risk our health every time we engage in physical contact with others. They are not necessary forms of contact. So, why do we still do them? From an evolutionary perspective, one might reasonably argue that strengthening social bonds is also important to survival. However, one could simply use words or gestures to convey these sentiments, which would be more sanitary, instead of engaging physically.

To question more broadly, la politesse, as it is referred to in French, has considerable variation across cultures, but it is arguably uniformly unnecessary. We could simply state each desire as “I want this,” or “I want that.” One could take this line of questioning even further and ask: why we even use such superfluous words as “please” or “thank you?” Further yet, why bother to verbally greet each other, as Americans often forget to do during transactional exchanges in Europe? It is rather inefficient, and it changes nothing substantive about the statements or requests.

On the contrary, humans have developed a delicate art of social interaction that goes well beyond the rational or the necessary. These interactions reflect deeper needs, values and fundamental truths about us. We are physical, emotional and spiritual creatures capable of complex thoughts and emotions, and we express them in a myriad of ways. Our considerations extend beyond what each other might need physically, or even emotionally, for our own or each other’s survival.

Instead, when we engage with each other, it is not just to convey information or even to comfort but to connect on the full range of our beings. I argue that these aspects of our daily lives, which we do almost perfunctorily, recognize our humanity and our divinity. We are not just man and woman born to each other, another creature of God, but we belong to God, and, as such, the art of la politesse is actually the art of the recognition of our inherent divinity as children of God who are made in his image.

As an aside, please do take the pandemic seriously, if not for yourself, for others. Respect the social distancing and self-isolation rules or recommendations whether or not you agree with them and even though they feel and are unnatural. Also, I had a few masks on hand, and I have been using them when I do essential tasks, such as grocery shopping, which I try to group into a day’s activity. The air in most places is circulated unlike the outdoors. Lastly, there is no need to hoard. Stay safe; be considerate of others and respect their divinity. May the Lord bless you and keep you.

>>https://longinglogos.com/death-in-the-time-of-spring/<<

March 26, 2020May 1, 2020

The Economic Consequences of the Vote

Should the politicians or the people who vote for them be held accountable for the economic consequences of the vote? Trickle-down economics is the greatest scam in economic history, yet many of the people who are negatively affected by it also vote for the politicians who support it. However, a snake oil salesman is deemed a perpetrator and the buyer a victim.

The degree to which the buyer of the product is accountable depends on the degree to which he or she understood or should have understood the risks associated with the purchase and chose to buy it anyway. This is the concept behind every financial disclosure and eligibility guideline. Disclose the risks of the product and/or restrict the purchase to buyers with the means to bear the risks and the sophistication to understand the product.

In a democracy, there cannot be such restrictions, as it would violate a citizen’s most essential right. This inherent feature of self-government complicates the process of accountability. The fourth estate, the much-maligned free press, is the mechanism by which a country’s populace can obtain unbiased information.

We are fortunate that in our country the established, well-reputed but not necessarily popular news media is committed to informing the public with truth and facts to the extent possible. Although there is inevitable bias in most forms of communication, the press does generally try to minimize it, if still prone to some sensationalism. Therefore, the culpability does not really lie with them either, as the people have access to generally reliable, objective information.

If there can be no restrictions and if the voting public is receiving accurate information, then the accountability must rest with the voters in the end. A politician shows the country who he or she really is not by rhetoric or gestures, but by his or her vote. Their votes must correspond to their professed positions, and when they do not, they are engaging in a scam.

If the voting public has been scammed, the politician should be subsequently voted out of or removed from office. However, if a politician’s vote aligns with his or her platform, and a citizen votes for the person anyway when those positions are not in his or her or the country’s best interests, then the onus is on the voter.

Based on their votes, many citizens seem convinced that what is holding back the country is not corporate greed but inadequate corporate greed. They seem to believe that there is too much help for the poor not too little. They seem to think that if we only threw out or kept out the immigrants who labor for inadequate pay in undesirable occupations, that would benefit the workers in other industries that have no relation to the immigrants’ industries, and so on. Again, if these are voters’ judgments and values, then the economic consequences of the vote are ultimately theirs to bear.

Therefore, do you know who your politician really is? Do you know how he or she votes? It is each citizen’s responsibility to read honest, well-sourced information to discern who the politician really is. Jesus said that those who follow him know his voice. The question is: can you discern a genuinely righteous voice from the devil’s imitation of it? Because the Christian doctrine is that unless you were truly ignorant or deceived, you and you alone will be held accountable for your vote.

Self-inflicted cruelty? The NYTimes Editorial Board (2020) – https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/opinion/coronavirus-stimulus-senate.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

>>https://longinglogos.com/avarice-and-the-dying-of-the-american-experiment/<<

March 25, 2020April 30, 2020

The Tradition of the #Trending

Innovation without truth is, well, without truth. It is instead a mere gimmick and, as such, fails to register in history’s ruthless separation of the wheat from the chaff. At best, it might resurface in a lackluster version of its once equally misguided former self. Speaking of which, there is a new #trend as younger people try to satisfy their need to believe in something aside from themselves, as their parents have often taught them, or to cope with the inevitable anxieties that are part of life.

They grope in the religious marketplace for something not quite so “established” and “normative” as Christianity, something, well, cooler. As if they are searching for the perfect countercultural outfit or posture, they might decide that being a witch or perhaps just a pagan seems cool. As a young child dressing like its parent, it reprises the hippie dippie chic without whatever modicum of imagination it once held.

This is a free country, as it should be, and we are all free to exercise our right to practice the beliefs we would like. However, let us also be honest in saying that all belief systems are not made alike. Returning to a pre-Christian pagan era is not simply idolatrous from a Christian perspective, it is valueless from any perspective, as it literally has no associated definitive values.

Although it is true that Christianity is the most popular religion in the world, perhaps its appeal is because it is appealing. It is reasonably argued that it is successful because it was and will always be the most authentically countercultural set of beliefs in the world. After all, we worship a poor man from Galilee who was crucified on a cross for preaching about truth, love and compassion.

Christianity does now fall into the category of “organized religions,” but perhaps that is also a testament to its past success and a necessity for its future success. After all, it is pretty hard to manage the spiritual lives of and other services for over 2 billion people and growing without organization or structure.

So, maybe a confirmation picture complete with crooked teeth or a bike-grease stained first communion dress is not cool, even embarrassing, but then what is cool without a certain amount of conformity-induced humiliation. So, on second thought, maybe it is cool, but it is just not #trending.

Also see Douthat’s (2019) remarks on the (overstated) #trend – https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/opinion/american-christianity.html

>>https://longinglogos.com/necessity-for-christian-witness-secular-society/<<

March 25, 2020May 1, 2020

The Necessity for Christian Witness in Secular Society

As the western world became more secular, commencing with the Enlightenment, which has since developed into the perverse idolization of science, western society has also become more reliant on government to provide the basic needs that were once met by the church. Hospitals and education as we know it were inventions of the church. However, the weaknesses of a dependence on government to meet these needs have become exposed. First, let’s consider the differences in their inceptions.

Jesus renamed Simon, a poor, uneducated fisherman, as Peter (rock) and told him that on this rock he would build his church, one that has since grown from a small Jewish sect to over 2 billion people worldwide, the largest, most diverse body in the world. The foundation of the church is Jesus’s timeless, universal teachings.

The foundation of a secular society is neither timeless nor universal. The American Constitution although remarkably well-reasoned and advanced for its time was the product of elites, who indirectly referenced the Christian conception of the person, children of God with all of its inherent dignities, yet tempered this theological understanding with pragmatic worldly considerations of good governance, which they determined required a republic, in other words, similar to the classical conception of democracy, led by well-educated, well-heeled men.

Jesus had no such considerations. Jesus’s choice of Peter had nothing to do with education, power, money or pragmatism, but with his love for and devotion to him. Despite his failings, Peter seemed to intuitively, meaning by grace, understand Jesus and his message, and it was his understanding that earned him this privileged position. Men of this world are not trying to understand divine lessons, but the world they live in and see. Peter could understand a different world, not his one, but the one that could be, the heaven on earth that could be realized if only humans were to consistently and completely apply Jesus’s teachings.

This fundamental difference in origin continues to manifest in our secular world. The primary motivations for Christians who provide these services is still to live out Jesus’s calling, which is based on love and compassion. The state’s or the private sector’s provision of the same services is mainly motivated by money. Thus, its success is dependent not on one’s conscience or bearing honest Christian witness, i.e. laws written by God, but on laws written by men. Any failures in the law or in their administration could result in problems with the provision of these services, as we have seen time and again, for example, in our public education and health care systems.

Therefore, the sole dependence on the state for these services is as dangerous and precarious as the nation itself. If a corrupt, depraved person rises to power, the people will be at the mercy of a failed state with no corrective measures since the constitution and the laws would simply be changed to facilitate the exploitation or subjugation of the people.

Although both church and state are vulnerable to corruption, unlike the state, the corrective measure in the church is indelible and immutable since it is the foundation of the church itself, Jesus’s teachings. The enforcement of the church’s corrective measure is its believers who would force the church to return to the correct application of the teachings. The church’s role in society was incomparably important, and it needs to remain so, as it provides an irreplaceable source of stability and goodness for the world.

CT, Quick to Listen (2020): https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/march-web-only/contagious-diseases-compassion-public-health-hospitals-hist.html

>>https://longinglogos.com/the-tradition-of-the-trending/<<

March 23, 2020April 30, 2020

Anodynes for Anxiety

Feeling anxious is normal. It is an emotion like many others, and as with them, it deserves to be treated with respect, which is also a way of treating ourselves with respect. It is natural for anxiety to increase during uncertain times, such as these. Let us acknowledge these truths and take comfort in their universality. I share here the primary ways I have learned to deal with anxiety because I have found them quite effective, and I hope they help others.

The first thing is to reach out when you need help. This could be to friends or family, to a place of worship, another community to which you do or might want to belong, or to a counselor or a therapist. There is no shame at all in needing assistance. It is a sign of self-knowledge and strength to ask for it. This step involves building a support network and community to which you (will when ready) give and receive help.

The next step involves taking more control of what you can control. I have found that lists are quite helpful in this regard. Ask yourself: what can I do to ameliorate my situation? Make a daily list and work on it methodically, only doing what you can each day. If you do not get through the whole list, that is fine.

Start on it again tomorrow. The list will help you stay organized and focused, and the goal is that, regardless of the outcome, you can look back and feel reassured that you did what you could. That is really all one can do. This step is about being as productive and positive as you can and minimizing any potential for regret or self-recrimination.

This last step is not necessarily the easiest, but it is the best. It is about letting go. It is about prayer, trust and surrender. It is about delivering to God this gift that is who you are, as you are, where you are, and saying to him, this is everything I have to offer you and the world. This is my best, and the rest is in your hands.

Trust that God will take you to where you need to go next, and whatever his will might be for you, you can and will rise to the challenge. Our lives are journeys that we do not walk alone. We walk them with and for the people we love, mankind, the planet and God. This last step is about hope, love and faith. A life lived in hope, love and faith is guaranteed to be well-lived.

>>https://longinglogos.com/beauty-and-the-state-of-the-self/<<

March 19, 2020April 30, 2020

Beauty and the State of the Self

Particularly in these tech-oriented times, the arts, in their traditional definition, seem to have diminished in the general population’s pastimes, as they have been replaced with televisions, technology, sports, and other less “high-brow” leisure activities. More than just existing for their own sake, the arts create beauty, which, whether natural or manmade, can be both a balm for the stressed, anxious mind, and an intellectual and creative stimulant.

Humans have created magnificent expressions of beauty, such as architecture to include places of worship, fine arts, which were also often meant to glorify God, and luxury goods, but beauty can also be found in more common spaces and things. Inexpensive but well-designed living spaces, clothes or other common items are often captured by artists not because they have an intrinsically high value but for their unique qualities, which can transport the viewer into a distinct time and place.

These artists understand the qualities of art that can transform a relatively mundane subject into a (perhaps unconventionally) beautiful one. It is hard to enumerate these qualities, as they vary considerably. In general, they have to do with composition, light, and form.

Some might think that orienting oneself in this way to the beautiful is a distraction or a luxury. I would argue that it is a necessity. It is a way to infuse one’s daily life, which can often feel quotidian or routine, with an element of romance. It is the difference between existing and living. It is an important component of self-care, since it provides, at a minimum, a subconscious message to the heart, mind and soul that, indeed, the world’s ugliness has limits.

It stops at the self, and in oneself starts and continues the true, the good and the beautiful. Whether or not one can extend these elements to the world is secondary to what is gained by incorporating them into one’s own life. The simple act of intentionally seeking beauty can still anxiety and revive a wearily mind.

Look up. Look down. See the light beam fall upon old wood tables with a worn leather backpack draped across a slatted chair, turn your clothbound book, and wonder: why did man create all this? Because we could. Because it’s necessary. And because it’s beautiful.

>>https://longinglogos.com/anodynes-for-anxiety/<<