"It's Just Restin'..."
There is a quite famous Monty Python bit called "The Parrot Sketch." A John Cleese character enters a pet shop and confronts the clerk, played by Michael Palin, with a complaint. The parrot he'd bought from the shop not long before was dead.
The Palin character is in complete denial about this, insisting that that it was "just restin'." The Cleese character must go to great lengths to demonstrate that indeed, the parrot is dead.
I think about this sketch whenever I see virtually every single World inhabitant completely oblivious to the truths about the way their beloved World works, even in the most vitriolic censure of that World. I would otherwise dismiss such behavior as the typical way of those inhabitants -- it is what they do, they are hopelessly blind, they refuse to be made to see -- all the rest of it.
What gets me is that so many of them claim to be or try to comport themselves as good wholesome Christians.
I just shake my head.
Today the major buzz is about summarily former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith's op-ed piece in the New York Times about how evil his erstwhile company actually is. Like we haven't had enough of how much Lloyd Blankfein is a vampire squid, now we've got Greg Smith confirming it.
The financial world is aflutter about this, but the truth is that any and all of these firms are by nature value extractors. In fact Smith follows all the spewdom with a note about how the desire to make money will just not get you to be good or successful or virtuous or whatever. The exact quote is "sustain the firm," implying that Goldman is going down if it keeps it up.
Come on. Like these whines haven't been bleated before, about any such venture through the centuries. The truth is that everyone is looking to maximize their own self-interest. The real question is, are you doing it for the Kingdom or the World? Goldman only does what it does because people ask it to do so. Smith mentioned that Goldman people have called their clients "muppets." Muppets, puppets, dupes, dweebs... Nah, they're just as much the human sacrificers, lying and cheating and flat-out murdering others as the vampire squids Smith is so disgusted with.
While the "Kony 2012" campaign is still raging, today George Clooney testified in Congress about how bad things are in Sudan. When reading about this I thought, "Are ya kiddin' me? George freakin' Clooney has to draw our attention to bad things in Africa?...
"WHERE ARE ALL THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST?!..."
Why in blazes are they not out there ministering to these people?
I know why. I know precisely why.
It is because they are so intractably Catholicized.
They all live by the World's religion. A lot of it looks very Christian. But all these people are sucked right into civil religion impotency.
Don't get me wrong. There are a few missionaries in tough places like these who do have Jesus' name on their lips.
But there are hundreds of millions more who think they can change things by the World.
Again, the World does what it does. Ehh.
But I still hurt because people listen to Greg Smith and George Clooney and think what they are saying is anything. Oh yeah, it is something. It does shine a light on the most evil wickedness.
Thing is, how many are allowing that light to shine on their benighted thinking? Even more, on the rank wretchedness of just refusing to see that Christ is the only answer to any of this?
It's as if the John Cleese character walked into the shop and said, "I'm dead. I'm spiritually dead. I think I'm something, but you know? I'm not. I'm dust. All my efforts to try and be good and make things good and all that are ultimately worthless."
The Michael Palin character then responds, "Nah nah nah, you're just restin'. It's fine. You're fine."
How many people refuse to look to see that indeed, they are dead, and instead listen to the World operative clerks made up of priests and ministers, bureaucrats and scholars, journalists and movie stars who tell them they're fine.
There are some who do call upon the name of the Lord.
And they come humbly and earnestly to Christ who is the only One who can empower them to do anything.
The earnestly part does mean that you understand what is really going on at Goldman Sachs and what is really going on in Africa with all the warlord activity. And if you don't understand, you will soon enough.
But you have to be made to see by Him.
Otherwise another story from the World will be there to try to convince you otherwise.
And you'll still be dead.
The Palin character is in complete denial about this, insisting that that it was "just restin'." The Cleese character must go to great lengths to demonstrate that indeed, the parrot is dead.
I think about this sketch whenever I see virtually every single World inhabitant completely oblivious to the truths about the way their beloved World works, even in the most vitriolic censure of that World. I would otherwise dismiss such behavior as the typical way of those inhabitants -- it is what they do, they are hopelessly blind, they refuse to be made to see -- all the rest of it.
What gets me is that so many of them claim to be or try to comport themselves as good wholesome Christians.
I just shake my head.
Today the major buzz is about summarily former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith's op-ed piece in the New York Times about how evil his erstwhile company actually is. Like we haven't had enough of how much Lloyd Blankfein is a vampire squid, now we've got Greg Smith confirming it.
The financial world is aflutter about this, but the truth is that any and all of these firms are by nature value extractors. In fact Smith follows all the spewdom with a note about how the desire to make money will just not get you to be good or successful or virtuous or whatever. The exact quote is "sustain the firm," implying that Goldman is going down if it keeps it up.
Come on. Like these whines haven't been bleated before, about any such venture through the centuries. The truth is that everyone is looking to maximize their own self-interest. The real question is, are you doing it for the Kingdom or the World? Goldman only does what it does because people ask it to do so. Smith mentioned that Goldman people have called their clients "muppets." Muppets, puppets, dupes, dweebs... Nah, they're just as much the human sacrificers, lying and cheating and flat-out murdering others as the vampire squids Smith is so disgusted with.
While the "Kony 2012" campaign is still raging, today George Clooney testified in Congress about how bad things are in Sudan. When reading about this I thought, "Are ya kiddin' me? George freakin' Clooney has to draw our attention to bad things in Africa?...
"WHERE ARE ALL THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST?!..."
Why in blazes are they not out there ministering to these people?
I know why. I know precisely why.
It is because they are so intractably Catholicized.
They all live by the World's religion. A lot of it looks very Christian. But all these people are sucked right into civil religion impotency.
Don't get me wrong. There are a few missionaries in tough places like these who do have Jesus' name on their lips.
But there are hundreds of millions more who think they can change things by the World.
Again, the World does what it does. Ehh.
But I still hurt because people listen to Greg Smith and George Clooney and think what they are saying is anything. Oh yeah, it is something. It does shine a light on the most evil wickedness.
Thing is, how many are allowing that light to shine on their benighted thinking? Even more, on the rank wretchedness of just refusing to see that Christ is the only answer to any of this?
It's as if the John Cleese character walked into the shop and said, "I'm dead. I'm spiritually dead. I think I'm something, but you know? I'm not. I'm dust. All my efforts to try and be good and make things good and all that are ultimately worthless."
The Michael Palin character then responds, "Nah nah nah, you're just restin'. It's fine. You're fine."
How many people refuse to look to see that indeed, they are dead, and instead listen to the World operative clerks made up of priests and ministers, bureaucrats and scholars, journalists and movie stars who tell them they're fine.
There are some who do call upon the name of the Lord.
And they come humbly and earnestly to Christ who is the only One who can empower them to do anything.
The earnestly part does mean that you understand what is really going on at Goldman Sachs and what is really going on in Africa with all the warlord activity. And if you don't understand, you will soon enough.
But you have to be made to see by Him.
Otherwise another story from the World will be there to try to convince you otherwise.
And you'll still be dead.
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