Codependent Nation
One of the main thrusts of my webzine work is to elucidate the contrast between the World and the Kingdom. There couldn't have been more stark a contrast than in reading my devotional this morning and what I saw in the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper I peruse to, as Mick Jagger sang in that classic Stones anthem, to "get my fair share of abuse."
I've started a long devotional series with Isaiah, and in the very first chapter, right there in verse four, God doesn't pull any punches. He specifically cites what is going on with people -- four definitive references in one verse, and you can't miss them. He says we are sinful (missing the mark), weighed down with iniquity (bent or twisted), the offspring of evildoers (harmful, injurious), and acting corruptly (causing to putrefy). These are specifically defined terms that accurately characterize the human being -- no matter who he or she is.
Later, from my devotional booklet, I read a verse that was coincidentally enough, from Isaiah, chapter forty. Here is part of that.
"Do you not know? Have you not heard?... [God] brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing... The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom."
Very sobering. Might want to get right on over to the Kingdom, with all that. Humbly, graciously, gently, peacefully... head right over to the Gate, with all deliberate speed, really. There's you, described quite nicely there in the first chapter, and there's God, right there as He is, where He is, what He is...
The Kingdom.
Then there's the World.
That's where the Los Angeles Times and its handlers choose to stay. The Times only does what its handlers tell them to do, much of it directly from the New York Times. But that Times only does what its handlers tell them to do. Who are they? They're the same ones who tell federal government people what to do, who tell the major power players in capital movement and industry what to do. Sure there is a culture war going on, but Donald Trump and the Republicans simply will not do the things their voters thought they were going to do.
The Los Angeles Times this morning was filled to the brim with the most crushing disinformation, some of it exemplified in this story splashed across the front page. The message is truly, "All Latino K-12 students should be distraught that Trump won, so it is the job of good wholesome teachers to tell them they've got their back."
The numbers there in that story: the 880 is for the number of Latino students attending a particular elementary school, it is a high proportion of all students there; the 94 is the number of languages spoken other than English in the district; the 74% is the percentage of Latino students in the district. The clear implication with the numbers is not to say, "Here are the numbers of Latinos who feel this way and the numbers who feel that way." It is instead to say "All Latinos are afraid of Donald Trump and if they aren't they should be."
It is a horrifically disrespectful attitude to have towards people. Here are people who say, rightly so, "Don't stereotype" and here they are doing it with the most putrid impunity. Ironically the sign across the top of the classroom pictured is "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." The attitude the System wants these impressionable children to have is nothing other than "These brash strident adults will take care of me. I must trust them."
That's the idea these children are firmly planting their souls, and it will ultimately destroy them.
It is merely a reflection of what could easily be called the Codependent Nation.
Codependency is simple. It is taking responsibility for someone else's rotten behavior. If someone does a crappy thing, you assume their responsibility for what they did because you feel you will earn their favor by doing so. It comes from tremendous dysfunction about the way people interact with one another in healthy ways.
It comes from not having a truthfully healthy relationship with a God Who Loves, and from which one may understand who God is, what He is about, and what interacting with one another from the Kingdom is about.
In the case of the System's profound racialism perpetuated by the Times, children must grow up believing that they can't think for themselves, work hard for themselves, build a family and community for themselves, especially since they are so systemically victimized. Furthermore, they must learn to use their own minority status to exploit others by making them feel bad for not giving them whatever they feel they need, even if that is evil and destructive. I can't think of many things as despicable as that mentality.
I do understand why those who live by the System behave that way -- they are living by the precepts of the one who was banished from God's presence millennia ago -- they simply haven't a clue about who this God is. Oh they have their own Jesus, someone they consider some religious guy who they can talk briefly about in church. Their own Jesus may be a guy hanging on a cross in church, or it may simply be one's own benighted self -- that's the one humanists promote all the time.
When very famous politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren echo that splattered dissatisfaction with how things went politically for them last Tuesday, you'll hear them say, "We will still fight for our values!!!" They might as well just be saying, "Our chief value is to protect you from the consequences of your rotten behavior, and we're the ones who will empower your exploitation of that the most." That's really their overriding objective in everything they do.
Michelle Malkin recently wrote a piece about how rotten the Affordable Care Act is, that piece of work unfortunately called "Obamacare", by exposing the idiocy of the two items people say they like the most, the provision for pre-existing conditions and extension of coverage to 26 year-olds. She called the latter the "slacker mandate", and while that may sound insensitive, it is truly what it is.
If you don't want to be concerned about a "pre-existing health condition," then make sure you buy health coverage for your child even before he or she is born. If you want to keep your child on your health coverage until he is 46 for that matter, then just pay for it.
It is simple. When it comes to your health care, don't be a slacker. Take care of your business. Be willing to pay for it. If you're poor there are plenty of people who'd help you out if you're respectful and appreciative. Go get a job, there are all kinds of helpful productive things the not-as-intelligent-or-skilled can do as long as they are willing to be responsible and hard-working and respectful.
This is just not rocket science.
Oh, but the codependency mandarins, they're screeching already like crazy, but really, it comes down to their fears that you'll abandon them and they'll be left to be marginalized and worthless.
Don't get me wrong. I too believe that no one can be responsible and hard-working and respectful on their own. They can't.
That only happens by the power of God. Don't you remember that stuff from Isaiah? It applies just as much today: All those people you want to trust to fix your life, whoever they are, Trump, Sanders, Warren, whoever -- they will come to nothing. Yes right now they do the work of Cain, quite vigilantly, and if the Jesuit order does its job exceptionally well, quite proficiently I might add.
Many who follow them will be made sons and daughters of hell, sadly. I can't look at the Los Angeles Times without weeping for how many they are sending to hell.
That's why the Kingdom is so important, and Kingdom people speaking boldly and articulately from there are so important. Are they? Are their voices able to drown the wicked folly that blasts from the Times? Sometimes I hear it, I do.
But I'd sure like to hear it more.
__
I've started a long devotional series with Isaiah, and in the very first chapter, right there in verse four, God doesn't pull any punches. He specifically cites what is going on with people -- four definitive references in one verse, and you can't miss them. He says we are sinful (missing the mark), weighed down with iniquity (bent or twisted), the offspring of evildoers (harmful, injurious), and acting corruptly (causing to putrefy). These are specifically defined terms that accurately characterize the human being -- no matter who he or she is.
Later, from my devotional booklet, I read a verse that was coincidentally enough, from Isaiah, chapter forty. Here is part of that.
"Do you not know? Have you not heard?... [God] brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing... The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom."
Very sobering. Might want to get right on over to the Kingdom, with all that. Humbly, graciously, gently, peacefully... head right over to the Gate, with all deliberate speed, really. There's you, described quite nicely there in the first chapter, and there's God, right there as He is, where He is, what He is...
The Kingdom.
Then there's the World.
That's where the Los Angeles Times and its handlers choose to stay. The Times only does what its handlers tell them to do, much of it directly from the New York Times. But that Times only does what its handlers tell them to do. Who are they? They're the same ones who tell federal government people what to do, who tell the major power players in capital movement and industry what to do. Sure there is a culture war going on, but Donald Trump and the Republicans simply will not do the things their voters thought they were going to do.
The numbers there in that story: the 880 is for the number of Latino students attending a particular elementary school, it is a high proportion of all students there; the 94 is the number of languages spoken other than English in the district; the 74% is the percentage of Latino students in the district. The clear implication with the numbers is not to say, "Here are the numbers of Latinos who feel this way and the numbers who feel that way." It is instead to say "All Latinos are afraid of Donald Trump and if they aren't they should be."
It is a horrifically disrespectful attitude to have towards people. Here are people who say, rightly so, "Don't stereotype" and here they are doing it with the most putrid impunity. Ironically the sign across the top of the classroom pictured is "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." The attitude the System wants these impressionable children to have is nothing other than "These brash strident adults will take care of me. I must trust them."
That's the idea these children are firmly planting their souls, and it will ultimately destroy them.
It is merely a reflection of what could easily be called the Codependent Nation.
Codependency is simple. It is taking responsibility for someone else's rotten behavior. If someone does a crappy thing, you assume their responsibility for what they did because you feel you will earn their favor by doing so. It comes from tremendous dysfunction about the way people interact with one another in healthy ways.
It comes from not having a truthfully healthy relationship with a God Who Loves, and from which one may understand who God is, what He is about, and what interacting with one another from the Kingdom is about.
In the case of the System's profound racialism perpetuated by the Times, children must grow up believing that they can't think for themselves, work hard for themselves, build a family and community for themselves, especially since they are so systemically victimized. Furthermore, they must learn to use their own minority status to exploit others by making them feel bad for not giving them whatever they feel they need, even if that is evil and destructive. I can't think of many things as despicable as that mentality.
I do understand why those who live by the System behave that way -- they are living by the precepts of the one who was banished from God's presence millennia ago -- they simply haven't a clue about who this God is. Oh they have their own Jesus, someone they consider some religious guy who they can talk briefly about in church. Their own Jesus may be a guy hanging on a cross in church, or it may simply be one's own benighted self -- that's the one humanists promote all the time.
When very famous politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren echo that splattered dissatisfaction with how things went politically for them last Tuesday, you'll hear them say, "We will still fight for our values!!!" They might as well just be saying, "Our chief value is to protect you from the consequences of your rotten behavior, and we're the ones who will empower your exploitation of that the most." That's really their overriding objective in everything they do.
Michelle Malkin recently wrote a piece about how rotten the Affordable Care Act is, that piece of work unfortunately called "Obamacare", by exposing the idiocy of the two items people say they like the most, the provision for pre-existing conditions and extension of coverage to 26 year-olds. She called the latter the "slacker mandate", and while that may sound insensitive, it is truly what it is.
If you don't want to be concerned about a "pre-existing health condition," then make sure you buy health coverage for your child even before he or she is born. If you want to keep your child on your health coverage until he is 46 for that matter, then just pay for it.
It is simple. When it comes to your health care, don't be a slacker. Take care of your business. Be willing to pay for it. If you're poor there are plenty of people who'd help you out if you're respectful and appreciative. Go get a job, there are all kinds of helpful productive things the not-as-intelligent-or-skilled can do as long as they are willing to be responsible and hard-working and respectful.
This is just not rocket science.
Oh, but the codependency mandarins, they're screeching already like crazy, but really, it comes down to their fears that you'll abandon them and they'll be left to be marginalized and worthless.
Don't get me wrong. I too believe that no one can be responsible and hard-working and respectful on their own. They can't.
That only happens by the power of God. Don't you remember that stuff from Isaiah? It applies just as much today: All those people you want to trust to fix your life, whoever they are, Trump, Sanders, Warren, whoever -- they will come to nothing. Yes right now they do the work of Cain, quite vigilantly, and if the Jesuit order does its job exceptionally well, quite proficiently I might add.
Many who follow them will be made sons and daughters of hell, sadly. I can't look at the Los Angeles Times without weeping for how many they are sending to hell.
That's why the Kingdom is so important, and Kingdom people speaking boldly and articulately from there are so important. Are they? Are their voices able to drown the wicked folly that blasts from the Times? Sometimes I hear it, I do.
But I'd sure like to hear it more.
__
Comments
Post a Comment