Longing Logos - Page 7 of 8 - God | Life

April 2, 2020May 1, 2020

A Great Awakening: ESG Investing Edition?

This post is part of a broader subject that very much deserves public attention and discussion. Capitalism as it has been practiced since 1776, the year Adam Smith first published his book The Wealth of Nations, coincidentally, the same year as our Declaration of Independence, is failing. It is time to accept this fact and create something different – something better.

Moral capitalism is a term and concept that has been bandied around for a while, and its full realization in all aspects of our economy, including financial markets, is long overdue. A shift to one aspect of moral capitalism has been happening to a certain extent in, of all places, the investment community, driven mainly by the demands of institutional investors.

ESG Investing

Faith-based institutions have played a considerable role in the advancement of Environmental, Social, (Corporate) Governance (ESG) investing, also known as sustainable investing, since they are particularly sensitive to the companies or industries included in their portfolios. For example, with Pope Francis’s release of the environmentally oriented encyclical Laudato Si, the Catholic Church would do well by putting words to action and decarbonizing all of its portfolios.

Although ESG investing has been gaining steam, asset managers, traditional and alternative, have been too slow in truly implementing it. Partly, this is due to a lack of data, although the EU is now leading the data collection effort, but it is also due to the managers’ lack of foresight, knowledge, skill and genuine commitment to sustainable investing.

Some investment managers have their regular funds and similar ESG funds that exclude the companies and industries that would not meet the UN PRI or the manager’s ESG criteria. This could be acceptable in the interim, until the investment community as a whole fully transitions to ESG investing, as long as managers are not simply repurposing an old fund with an ESG label and engaging in “green washing.” (Note, the institutional investors have gotten wise and can tell.) The managers need to change their underlying investment processes and, ideally, their entire culture to a responsible, long-term investment focus.

The hedge fund industry, active managers with higher fees and often a focus on absolute returns, would be wise to adopt ESG investing, since it would be a real value added, particularly as the industry needs to justify its raison d’être in a time of passive investment.

Also, a good hedge fund manager, like a traditional one, minimizes exposure to systemic risks and acts as a shield against what is often mislabeled as a black swan event. It would be hard to categorize the effects of climate change, which has been documented for at least half a century, as a black swan event.

In fact, the financial crisis was often referred to as such, when truly savvy investors saw it coming. If one was looking at the economy, the proliferation of certain financial instruments, the data, and the historical frequency with which crises have beset capitalist economies, it was hardly a black swan event.

Some might argue that many institutional investors need alpha/pure performance and any potentially “compromising” considerations, such as ESG, should be secondary at best. The premise of this argument would be that alpha and ESG are at odds. Let us consider. If all of the alpha generated over some extended period of time is wiped out as the “black swan” takes over the lagoon, then all those fees paid were effectively a waste of good money, particularly when pensions funds cannot afford to lose any money.

Additionally, the governance factor is low-hanging fruit. There has been inadequate pressure by institutional investors on management and on corporate oversight to lower executive compensation, improve the treatment and compensation of labor, include other stakeholders, such as labor, on the board of directors and to the minimize the short-term focus, including share buybacks, i.e. quarterly capitalism. I would argue that the mismanagement of these companies is often directly related to the investors’ underwhelming returns.

Nonetheless, the ESG trend is positive. Let us keep it moving forward and fix our economy so that it serves everyone. That would be moral capitalism, and that would be a great awakening.

April 1, 2020May 1, 2020

Eternal Truths: Grief, Death and the Cross

I won’t pretend to speak about grief with any real knowledge, as I have never experienced it on a deeply personal level. However, I find Good Friday the saddest time in the liturgical calendar and, for me, it best approximates a feeling of grief. Like the rest of us, I know how the story ends, it ends joyfully with Jesus’s resurrection on Easter Sunday, yet it is so moving and hard every time.

Harrell writes, “the manger is not the central symbol of our faith. The empty tomb isn’t either. Christians decided early on that the sign of their faith would be a cross.” He goes on to say, “We hang on to our crosses, even at Easter, because it is in the hard places of life where Christ’s presence with us proves most holy.”

Grief and the Passion

I agree, but I think that Christians chose the cross to symbolize them and the faith because the crucifixion is the most selfless aspect of Jesus’s life. It is an incomparable sacrifice, and if you have the courage to engage with the Passion fully, it can bring you to your knees, maybe to the ground completely.

During Catholic masses on Good Friday, priests will lie prostrate before the altar, above which often hangs a cross or a crucifix. Just to watch that act of devotion and humility can bring one to tears. Theirs is a gesture of grateful submission that invokes Jesus’s gracefully submission to God the Father’s will.

This is also why Christians around the world literally walk Jesus’s path, the Stations of the Cross, year after year. They want to remember his pain and suffering, his divine grace, his love and compassion at the most difficult moment of his life, at his death.

To remember Jesus’s beauty in death is also a way of vicariously engaging with our suffering and our mortality. When death calls us, will we respond with bitterness, resentfulness, anger, fear, or depression? Or will Jesus’s steps to his Father remind us that we can bear the momentary weight of the cross because each step ultimately brings us closer to another life, one free of everything that burdens us in this one.

Grief and the Coronavirus Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has not fundamentally changed death’s calculus, as it is always and forever a possibility. Really, what has changed is our awareness of the possibility of death or serious illness and our daily lives. As a thought-exercise, imagine if the probability of death were always at a relatively heightened level, as it is now. Imagine that it were even higher, such as during the Bubonic plague.

If this were “the new normal,” would we alter our lives permanently? Constantly hiding in our homes, practicing social distancing, or would we just resign ourselves to a lower life expectancy and a higher likelihood of death, and simply change psychologically or spiritually instead? Would we make peace with death?

If it is the latter, what would the shape of the peace be? Would it take the shape of the cross? Ultimately, the death that awaits us is unlikely to be anywhere near as hard as Jesus’s. And for many people around the world, they might view death as easier than their present lives.

For all of us, Jesus’s life and death is a source of comfort. In our darkest moments, we can find him there, or we can choose to go to him. To kneel in a quiet church, alone, staring up at the cross with his dead, tortured body hanging from it, and in our gratitude and submission, we can escape everything else because, ultimately, nothing else really matters.

I have no standard words of comfort to offer those in fear of death or those in grief, no angels or other well-meaning but essentially hallow allusions. I have only the truth, Jesus’s truth, and I hope that in his divine truth, one can find the shape of peace. It is the shape that Christians everywhere wear with pride, strength and full knowledge that the way, the truth and the life leads one out of this world and into the next.

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 30, 2020May 1, 2020

Serving Mammon and Selling the Faith Down River

It is not about right or left. It is not about socialism or capitalism. It is not about power or money. It is not about politics or culture. It is about the faith – Christianity. If one proclaims to love Jesus, this prioritization would show in various aspects of the person’s life.

When practiced, evangelical Christianity focuses on Scripture, a personal relationship with Jesus who is to be the center of one’s life, accepting Jesus as one’s savior and being born again. The orientation is not supposed to be toward controversial topics, legalism, economics or political positions and persons. It is about one’s relationship with God, in particular the Son of God, plain and simple.

The end of the Constantinian bargain was good for the faith, and the separation of church and state should be respected. In the more recent past, this separation has reverted to an unholy alliance between church, particularly within evangelical Christianity, and state, in this case, the Republican Party.

Huntington (2020) argues that this unfortunate trajectory was triggered by the election of John F. Kennedy, not out of fear of his Catholic faith but of losing influence, power and a hold on the American culture that they thought was veering into a liberal abyss.

The Start of the Faith’s Decline

He writes, “Kennedy’s speech has been cited innumerable times as one of the clearest calls for a separation of church and state, not to mention religious liberty. But, religious conservatives conceived of an America in which Protestant Christianity formed a central, immutable core. Thus, they fought to keep church and state separate while creating their own right-wing blend of religion and politics. They accomplished this by preaching Christian nationalism at the pulpit, organizing campaigns through conservative religious groups, and coordinating their actions with the faith-friendly business community. Eventually, when pressed by broader societal change, Protestant and Catholic conservatives joined forces with the Republican Party, forming a national pan-Christian movement to wage war against political and religious liberalism.”

To state the obvious, it is blatant hypocrisy to practice the very thing one condemns, the intertwining of church and state, and attempting to evangelize the faith while prioritizing power and money will likely be unsuccessful, which the data seem to support. Also, I would argue that this affinity between what is termed the “Christian right” and the Republican Party is now primarily about power and money and less about cultural changes such as the growth of secularism.

Dishonoring the Faith

Balmer (2020) states, “Socialism, they argue, is somehow antithetical to Christianity. Some have even argued that capitalism is sanctioned in the scriptures. Jerry Falwell, one of the founders of the Religious Right, declared that ‘the free-enterprise system is clearly outlined in the Book of Proverbs,’ and his son, Jerry Falwell Jr. recently said, ‘I believe in Jesus’ teachings to do what’s in the best interest of the corporation.’

Clearly, these evangelicals have never read the Acts of the Apostles. ‘All the believers were one in heart and mind,’ Acts 4:32 reads. ‘No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.’”

I would argue that they have heard of and read Acts, but they do not really care about Jesus or Scripture, but themselves. They have become corrupt and power hungry. The serve mammon – not the Lord. They hold their Bibles high not to evangelize the truth and the way but to obfuscate their sins and their self-serving manipulation and exhortation of theology in superficial gestures of piety.

Segal (2015) writes, “But is money more spiritually dangerous than theology? The answer may be trickier than we think, especially within the numbing comfort of a proudly affluent and educated American church. Money is a tangible, countable, often visible god. Theology, on the other hand — if it is cut off from truly knowing and enjoying God himself — can be a soothing, subtle, superficially spiritual god. Both are deadly, but one lulls us into a proud, intellectual, and purely cosmetic confidence and rest before God. Theology will kill you if it does not kindle a deep and abiding love for the God of the Bible, and if it does not inspire a desire for his glory, and not ultimately our own.”

Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). The question is: Who do you serve? Honor with your lips and your heart or else it is not honoring but dishonoring the faith.

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 27, 2020May 1, 2020

Annihilation Is the Greatest Punishment

Is life or death the greatest punishment? Is the possibility of hell or the certainty of nonexistence scarier? It depends on who you are and what you believe. Consistent with being a slightly (or more than slightly) strange person, I have been contemplating my mortality since I was a child. I am still less afraid of dying, if I am afraid of it at all, than I am of living. I understand that this might seem backwards to most people, but I find it quite logical.

I find humans more terrifying than death. They are capable of all manner of evil, and I would feel relieved to not fear them any longer. Contrarily, God is love. If one believes in God, then one is finally returning home.

When I was a child, I did not think of it as returning home to God since I was too unsophisticated to think of it in those terms but as my soul continuing in a different, non-earthly form. This was a comforting thought, not because I was suffering physically, but because I would simply be free of a corporeal existence and everything it entailed. Life is a great gift, but everlasting life, in whatever form, is peace – the greatest gift.

If one is Christian, one’s worst fear is likely hell (gehenom in the Jewish faith). One might also fear God’s judgment since that would be the determining factor. Perhaps I have too much confidence in gaining entry into heaven or perhaps I just trust God I would argue as one ought, but I do not fear hell nor I do I fear God’s judgment in this sense. I fear disappointing him, which is quite different. It has almost nothing to do with the afterlife and everything to do with fulfilling my purpose while living.

If one does not believe in God, one’s worst fear is likely death. In this enlightening conversation, Vidas (2020) said, “…the utmost punishment in traditional Judaism is not such eternal torments but the complete annihilation of body and soul — the lack of any type of afterlife.” In fact, this is what people who do not believe in God are contemplating – complete annihilation. They are effectively facing what I would argue is the greatest punishment. It is odd that many atheists pray (to whom or to what is unknown), but if one’s worst fear is death, i.e. oblivion, it would paradoxically increase the desire to pray.

I do not intend to write a comforting post on this topic since I am aware that my particular perspective is most likely not broadly shared. However, I put forth that one has two frameworks to choose from: heaven or hell (setting aside the concept of purgatory) to be determined by God or certain and total annihilation, body and soul, for all.

Given these two options, I think one is better off with the former framework and with the perspective that living is about purpose and death is about peace. Also, these concepts death/life and purpose/peace are really more about states: active versus still. I would also argue that the greatest punishment is in fact annihilation since it possesses neither activeness nor stillness. It is nothingness.

Yancy (2020) – https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/opinion/judaism-life-death.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

>>https://longinglogos.com/the-powerful-and-mysterious-holy-spirit/<<

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 24, 2020April 30, 2020

The Powerful and Mysterious Holy Spirit

It is a dangerous endeavor to try to describe an event or concept that is beyond our words but belongs to the Word. Although I was raised Catholic and come from a devout family, I was not particularly religious until fairly recently. I have made the sign of the cross, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, since I can remember, and yet, I never understood what the Holy Spirit was. As I was preparing for my confirmation, I sought clarity from others on exactly what the Holy Spirit was, even attending a seminar, since my lack of understanding seemed to me a glaring omission. However, even after these attempts, I still did not understand.

The Holy Spirit was integral to my conversion. The person of God is Jesus, and I felt visited by the Holy Spirit for the first time in my life when I realized that I actually love Jesus. This realization itself remains a mystery since it is hard to believe that I, someone of skeptical heart hardened by cynicism and who is far more comfortable in my head than in my heart, could actually love someone I had never met and who had existed until that point as a concept.

It was like standing before a threshold with the only thing preventing me from taking the necessary step to cross it being myself. Instead of fearfully or even consciously crossing it, I just found myself on the other side of it, profoundly altered, slightly disoriented and completely assured all at once. What greeted me on the other side was not God the Father or the Son but the Holy Spirit. Although I have since come to rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and have a better understanding of it now, it remains, like God himself, powerful and mysterious.

If all of this sounds incomprehensible, that is likely because it is. It is not a relationship of this world. I do not even know how to address the Holy Spirit: he, she, it. It does not matter. What I know is that it will come to me when God deems it to be so. Until then, I hope that my will has been reconciled to his; I pray and wait. Perhaps one day, you and I will find ourselves on the other side of another threshold.

This piece by Bloom (2020) triggered my reflection on the Holy Spirit – https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/receive-the-holy-spirit.

>>https://longinglogos.com/annihilation-is-the-greatest-punishment/<<