The World: Its Fools and Its Diners, Part II
That thing in Indiana is still going on, with everyone up in arms about it all one way or another. Much of that is in response to the presentation, not the truth about things, but then this is something I wrote a bit about in my latest home page piece.
I felt like adding a bit more in this post, just some things I'd thought about since my post of yesterday.
1. The idea of "discrimination" has become such a sacred cow that the mere mention of it is designed to stir up passions, mostly negative. The reigning rent-extractors send the word right into the bilge pump of presently splattered cultural nomenclature and voila, they get what they want.
Too bad there are too many who refuse to think carefully about it. Fact is we all discriminate about all kinds of things all the time. Restaurants may not discriminate against blacks, but they certainly will discriminate against someone sitting at a table but firing a loaded weapon into the ceiling every two minutes.
This is precisely why the incessant bleating about "religious liberty" is so pointless. It is about as huge a partial hangout as there can be, perfectly convenient for the World Operatives whose job it is to proficiently foment the culture war. Think about it, can someone get away with whatever they want just by saying "religious liberty"? The answer is an unequivocal no. In fact the people who are railing against homosexuality have to face the fact that homosexualists also say "religious liberty" about the things they feel privileged to be able to do. Then what? So what?
The thinking thing to do: Identify what may be discriminated against, but make the case that it works, that there is something there, that there is a good reason. Think that's not a good reason? Then give your best take. Let's talk, that's cool. But if you don't have a reason, if you don't want to talk graciously, if you only intolerantly whine "tolerance" and that is it, then shut the heck up. There is indeed some point where the truth about a thing does emerge, and all the blithering about it is just that.
Yes, no question, 98% of the discourse about "gays" and discrimination out there is just blithering.
Let's just be honest, if I were selling something to someone who happens to have homosexual feelings, I'm not going to discriminate against them. I'm not! They're just making a purchase for cryin' out loud. Note that I'm talking about people who may have a measure of same-sex attraction. Everyone has their own issues. Everyone must deal with their own sin. So what? Should I be privileged to share Christ's grace and truth and mercy and word with them -- wonderful!
On the other hand, if someone brazenly, loudly, unabashedly boasts about committing sodomous acts in my establishment, I'd summarily and justifiably take that into consideration regarding my interaction with them. How is that response any different than the one directed at someone boasting about having sex with children, or animals, or relatives, or some other means of using sex as an abuse crime? When someone makes a request of my product in order to sanction that abuse -- such as a same-sex "marriage' arrangement -- this is a fine example of precisely that scenario.
Do I have a right to discriminate against them? Yes, but it can only be truly understood if we establish that the reason for that is not some pitiful claim to some kind of religious liberty. The truth is that a sodomous act is an unrighteous one, and deserves to be duly censured. That we now seem to clutch this idea that we can just lean on this "religious liberty" plap has resulted in the most damaging -- and I believe irreparable -- losses in the culture war for those who value righteous integrity in society.
Indeed, if you haven't noticed, those struggling and grappling and bumbling with this milquetoast bleating "religious liberty" are the ones who are getting the tar beat out of them in this thing.
2. Here's the part that is even less considered by these people. All of this is precisely what the World Operatives want. The most successful of them can proudly boast that they accomplished what Iago did in Othello. Doesn't matter what anyone does, it is a victory.
If the victimized homosexualists win, they will continue to push for more government sanctions of their reprobate behavior, and Caesar's power is more fully employed for that purpose. The worse part is that ultimately more people are destined for hell as they continue to idolize sex. On the other hand, if the enraged anti-homosexual Christian family groups win, they'll foment more rebellion against the established powers that are at a point of no return regarding general acceptance of homosexual activity as normal, and Caesar's powers will be more fully utilized to manage all of that.
World Operatives love to convince people that those are the only two camps in which to rage. Doesn't matter to Caesar which one you're in, again, he wins either way. It is, however, quite the body of death. Look at how salaciously the homosexualist enablers are dining on those holding true to their religious convictions. The idea: If you don't like homosexual things, it is you who are the ones with the crazy religious beliefs. The Indiana law and ones like it are unwittingly arranged to portray the religious people as the evil ones. States start backing down, further endorsing homosexualism!
What a body of death!
The only antidote is the deepest spiritual wisdom drawn from Christ Himself. I just wonder -- who has that? It seems there are so few. I'm hoping there are a lot of them and that we don't know of them only because the mainstream media will never talk with them or about them. I pray they're still out there ministering to hurting homosexually-minded and homosexualists alike.
3. The idol thing cannot be dismissed. I'm reading Nancy Pearcey's new book Finding Truth, and it does an extraordinary job of laying out the main thrust of all this stuff. It is really not very complicated -- she uses as her text the first chapter of Romans. In what I've read so far she hasn't even addressed the "men giving themselves over to unnatural desires for one another" part yet. The much more significant truth is that
Everyone has an idol.
If you aren't actively acknowledging God and His transcendent standard for human behavior, then you have an idol. Pearcey even comprehensively identifies the most common ones, and they aren't little figurines made of wood or metal. They are reason, matter, science, religion, government, and yes, even sex. There are certainly others, the point being if you aren't worshiping God, you are worshiping one of those.
Is "religious liberty" an idol? I truly believe it is. It is an easy way to skate away from your convictions about the nature of sexual abuse because the rabidly strident homosexualist movement has browbeat you into conceding the discourse to them.
4. Finally, where am I, myself, with this whole thing? Yes, it is true, I confess! I am a backwoods Neanderthal narrow-minded bigot -- against anything that destroys the souls of the ones with whom I have to do. And yes, wanton homosexual behavior and willful homosexualism destroy human souls. Thing is, there are a lot of things that destroy souls, so I'm not just picking on this stuff. Adultery does. How much do we go to the mat against that? How about the dozens of other major things church-minded people may call sin?
My son plays on a high school baseball team, and two of its players got suspended. For drinking. For drinking. Seven games -- gone. The team lost its game today as a direct result of not having one of those key players in a key position at a key moment. These young men sinned, and it affected a whole bunch of other people.
When a whole society says "Okay" to violently wicked behavior like homosexual activity and its wholesale endorsement, millions of people's souls are hanging the balance.
Thing is, the agency of Cain is supposed to be there to do its standard thing: ruthlessly prosecute crimes. But World Operatives have pushed it to the point where it doesn't really have to do that anymore, at least with homosexual activity. It allows it for a more important reason to them: to poke and prod and provoke all of this so it can squeeze and squish and shape society as it pleases.
Look at it. "Freedom to be who you are" smashes up against "religious liberty." "Anti-discrimination" slugs it out against "wholesomeness in society". The minions of Cain's legacy sit back and watch the conflagration with glee. More and more and more legitimacy for them. Look at Indiana. It is punching bag right now.
But back to, where am I? What is my position? What do I want when it is all said?
It is simple. I will make this as clear as possible.
I'm a sinner too, but this isn't about me or that a whole bunch of other people are sinners too or any of that. It is just that I know how much someone can destroy souls by what they do because I've done it. Seems pretty clear to me.
So yeah, I am in need of a divine rescue. Also pretty clear. But I can't get it unless I see who I am and what I've done. Once I do that, I so viscerally grasp my need for a Savior. As it is I'm destined for judgment and a one-way ticket to a place I really don't want to be. Nothing else but me and what I've done get me there, and it isn't some nebulous religious make-believe thing. What I've done is really shitty and very real.
Then I see the love of that Savior, poured out for me in His very death. I can't help but turn away from those awful things, and tell Him that, and let Him make me into a new creation. I can't do it, only He can.
The upshot is that I want homosexually-minded people and the homosexualists who tell them to stay that way to see what they're really doing and turn around. Yes, those other people screeching about them and how objectionable they are do that for a reason, but they're in the ministry of condemnation.
Where is the ministry of reconciliation?
This is the place where hurting and wounded people can come and kneel at the nail-scarred feet of Jesus, and be healed. Not only that, be in His family.
And there they will find the love, the true lasting fulfillment they want. This is the rich love that makes so stultifyingly empty the futile attempts at proving how proudly anti-discriminatory you are, or trying to find that fleeting physical gratification in some sexual encounter with whoever.
There's Cain, there's Caesar, there're the ministers of whatever grievance you have on whatever side you have your idol.
And then there is Christ.
_
I felt like adding a bit more in this post, just some things I'd thought about since my post of yesterday.
1. The idea of "discrimination" has become such a sacred cow that the mere mention of it is designed to stir up passions, mostly negative. The reigning rent-extractors send the word right into the bilge pump of presently splattered cultural nomenclature and voila, they get what they want.
Too bad there are too many who refuse to think carefully about it. Fact is we all discriminate about all kinds of things all the time. Restaurants may not discriminate against blacks, but they certainly will discriminate against someone sitting at a table but firing a loaded weapon into the ceiling every two minutes.
This is precisely why the incessant bleating about "religious liberty" is so pointless. It is about as huge a partial hangout as there can be, perfectly convenient for the World Operatives whose job it is to proficiently foment the culture war. Think about it, can someone get away with whatever they want just by saying "religious liberty"? The answer is an unequivocal no. In fact the people who are railing against homosexuality have to face the fact that homosexualists also say "religious liberty" about the things they feel privileged to be able to do. Then what? So what?
The thinking thing to do: Identify what may be discriminated against, but make the case that it works, that there is something there, that there is a good reason. Think that's not a good reason? Then give your best take. Let's talk, that's cool. But if you don't have a reason, if you don't want to talk graciously, if you only intolerantly whine "tolerance" and that is it, then shut the heck up. There is indeed some point where the truth about a thing does emerge, and all the blithering about it is just that.
Yes, no question, 98% of the discourse about "gays" and discrimination out there is just blithering.
Let's just be honest, if I were selling something to someone who happens to have homosexual feelings, I'm not going to discriminate against them. I'm not! They're just making a purchase for cryin' out loud. Note that I'm talking about people who may have a measure of same-sex attraction. Everyone has their own issues. Everyone must deal with their own sin. So what? Should I be privileged to share Christ's grace and truth and mercy and word with them -- wonderful!
On the other hand, if someone brazenly, loudly, unabashedly boasts about committing sodomous acts in my establishment, I'd summarily and justifiably take that into consideration regarding my interaction with them. How is that response any different than the one directed at someone boasting about having sex with children, or animals, or relatives, or some other means of using sex as an abuse crime? When someone makes a request of my product in order to sanction that abuse -- such as a same-sex "marriage' arrangement -- this is a fine example of precisely that scenario.
Do I have a right to discriminate against them? Yes, but it can only be truly understood if we establish that the reason for that is not some pitiful claim to some kind of religious liberty. The truth is that a sodomous act is an unrighteous one, and deserves to be duly censured. That we now seem to clutch this idea that we can just lean on this "religious liberty" plap has resulted in the most damaging -- and I believe irreparable -- losses in the culture war for those who value righteous integrity in society.
Indeed, if you haven't noticed, those struggling and grappling and bumbling with this milquetoast bleating "religious liberty" are the ones who are getting the tar beat out of them in this thing.
2. Here's the part that is even less considered by these people. All of this is precisely what the World Operatives want. The most successful of them can proudly boast that they accomplished what Iago did in Othello. Doesn't matter what anyone does, it is a victory.
If the victimized homosexualists win, they will continue to push for more government sanctions of their reprobate behavior, and Caesar's power is more fully employed for that purpose. The worse part is that ultimately more people are destined for hell as they continue to idolize sex. On the other hand, if the enraged anti-homosexual Christian family groups win, they'll foment more rebellion against the established powers that are at a point of no return regarding general acceptance of homosexual activity as normal, and Caesar's powers will be more fully utilized to manage all of that.
World Operatives love to convince people that those are the only two camps in which to rage. Doesn't matter to Caesar which one you're in, again, he wins either way. It is, however, quite the body of death. Look at how salaciously the homosexualist enablers are dining on those holding true to their religious convictions. The idea: If you don't like homosexual things, it is you who are the ones with the crazy religious beliefs. The Indiana law and ones like it are unwittingly arranged to portray the religious people as the evil ones. States start backing down, further endorsing homosexualism!
What a body of death!
The only antidote is the deepest spiritual wisdom drawn from Christ Himself. I just wonder -- who has that? It seems there are so few. I'm hoping there are a lot of them and that we don't know of them only because the mainstream media will never talk with them or about them. I pray they're still out there ministering to hurting homosexually-minded and homosexualists alike.
3. The idol thing cannot be dismissed. I'm reading Nancy Pearcey's new book Finding Truth, and it does an extraordinary job of laying out the main thrust of all this stuff. It is really not very complicated -- she uses as her text the first chapter of Romans. In what I've read so far she hasn't even addressed the "men giving themselves over to unnatural desires for one another" part yet. The much more significant truth is that
Everyone has an idol.
If you aren't actively acknowledging God and His transcendent standard for human behavior, then you have an idol. Pearcey even comprehensively identifies the most common ones, and they aren't little figurines made of wood or metal. They are reason, matter, science, religion, government, and yes, even sex. There are certainly others, the point being if you aren't worshiping God, you are worshiping one of those.
Is "religious liberty" an idol? I truly believe it is. It is an easy way to skate away from your convictions about the nature of sexual abuse because the rabidly strident homosexualist movement has browbeat you into conceding the discourse to them.
4. Finally, where am I, myself, with this whole thing? Yes, it is true, I confess! I am a backwoods Neanderthal narrow-minded bigot -- against anything that destroys the souls of the ones with whom I have to do. And yes, wanton homosexual behavior and willful homosexualism destroy human souls. Thing is, there are a lot of things that destroy souls, so I'm not just picking on this stuff. Adultery does. How much do we go to the mat against that? How about the dozens of other major things church-minded people may call sin?
My son plays on a high school baseball team, and two of its players got suspended. For drinking. For drinking. Seven games -- gone. The team lost its game today as a direct result of not having one of those key players in a key position at a key moment. These young men sinned, and it affected a whole bunch of other people.
When a whole society says "Okay" to violently wicked behavior like homosexual activity and its wholesale endorsement, millions of people's souls are hanging the balance.
Thing is, the agency of Cain is supposed to be there to do its standard thing: ruthlessly prosecute crimes. But World Operatives have pushed it to the point where it doesn't really have to do that anymore, at least with homosexual activity. It allows it for a more important reason to them: to poke and prod and provoke all of this so it can squeeze and squish and shape society as it pleases.
Look at it. "Freedom to be who you are" smashes up against "religious liberty." "Anti-discrimination" slugs it out against "wholesomeness in society". The minions of Cain's legacy sit back and watch the conflagration with glee. More and more and more legitimacy for them. Look at Indiana. It is punching bag right now.
But back to, where am I? What is my position? What do I want when it is all said?
It is simple. I will make this as clear as possible.
I'm a sinner too, but this isn't about me or that a whole bunch of other people are sinners too or any of that. It is just that I know how much someone can destroy souls by what they do because I've done it. Seems pretty clear to me.
So yeah, I am in need of a divine rescue. Also pretty clear. But I can't get it unless I see who I am and what I've done. Once I do that, I so viscerally grasp my need for a Savior. As it is I'm destined for judgment and a one-way ticket to a place I really don't want to be. Nothing else but me and what I've done get me there, and it isn't some nebulous religious make-believe thing. What I've done is really shitty and very real.
Then I see the love of that Savior, poured out for me in His very death. I can't help but turn away from those awful things, and tell Him that, and let Him make me into a new creation. I can't do it, only He can.
The upshot is that I want homosexually-minded people and the homosexualists who tell them to stay that way to see what they're really doing and turn around. Yes, those other people screeching about them and how objectionable they are do that for a reason, but they're in the ministry of condemnation.
Where is the ministry of reconciliation?
This is the place where hurting and wounded people can come and kneel at the nail-scarred feet of Jesus, and be healed. Not only that, be in His family.
And there they will find the love, the true lasting fulfillment they want. This is the rich love that makes so stultifyingly empty the futile attempts at proving how proudly anti-discriminatory you are, or trying to find that fleeting physical gratification in some sexual encounter with whoever.
There's Cain, there's Caesar, there're the ministers of whatever grievance you have on whatever side you have your idol.
And then there is Christ.
_
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