2.21.2005
Futility No More!
"It is honorable for a man to stop striving, since any fool can start a quarrel." Proverbs 20:3
Last week, I spent a few very frustrating minutes trying to talk sense to some fellow bloggers on another site that most of you would call Liberal. I have decided to abandon such convenient labels, as they only serve to paint individuals into corners where they don't necessarily belong.
While it's true that most of my political views can be labelled conservative, my social views tend to be less easily defined. I'm sure there are those whose politics lean left, but whose moral and social conscience more closely resembles my own. I haven't met any yet, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
Instead, I have chosen refer to your average, run-of-the-mill, parroting, liberal types collectively as The Clueless. It is pointless to debate politics with them, as they have a blind commitment to that which they do not understand. Not all Liberals are Clueless, and many Conservatives are. Whatever their stripe, The Clueless all have the following in common:
1. The Clueless don't understand the nature of man. They believe that man is possessed of inherently good intentions and not naturally inclined to do evil. The fact that evil is in evidence everywhere around them will not deter them. Their response is that the 'corrupted' institutions of society and the oppression of the few over the many are responsible for the evil that we do. From blaming the lack of social programs and poverty for the rise in crime among urban youth to asserting that our capitalist system incites the hordes of jihadi abroad, The Clueless are quick to blame everyone but the perpetrators.
However, the Scripture -- and common sense -- teaches us a very different view of man. Man is possessed of many wonderful gifts, borne in the image of our Creator, but his natural inclination is to serve self interests over all others and to use whatever means necessary to acquire what we want. An honest person will recognize that most of our moral behavior is coerced in one way or another -- whether by force of law, the necessity of cooperation with others to achieve our own aims, or outright fear of God. The latter is also known as the beginning of wisdom.
2. The Clueless don't understand God. Some deny His existence altogether, but most simply make Him up in their imaginations to conform to their self-serving agendas. Thus, words like justice, compassion and moral become twisted into aberrations of what the God of the Bible says they are. Justice becomes the platform by which anyone can live in any way they want to, regardless of the damage it does to others and society. Compassion becomes the knee-jerk search for an excuse as to why someone or some group of people do wrong -- committing violence, neglect or robbery on others. And morality? Forget about it! Morality is now defined as blind adherence to whatever group or agenda has managed to get its message adopted by the media.
To The Clueness, God is either absent, unconcerned or uninvolved in events here on the planet. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus Christ came to establish His Kingdom by first procuring His people through His death on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead. He is coming back to rule over this earth, and those who fight against Him both now and at His return will be in sorry shape. It's irrelevant what your politics are at that point, so I've given up having these pointless debates. The 'evangelical right' might be happy with the way things are now that they've got four more years, but I'm not. Our country is losing its place in moral leadership. We've been co-opted by rampant consumerism, greed, hedonism, and apathy. Children are being abused, neglected, abandoned, and murdered in the womb so as not to impede our progress on this hamster wheel of life we've chosen for ourselves.
I heard an alarming statistic in church yesterday. The preacher stated that if the top 10 richest nations in the world gave 10% of their resources to the needy in this world, we would eliminate world hunger and be able to provide basic healthcare to everyone in the world. There's something seriously fucked up when children in our own backyard go hungry at night, but it's no less fucked up that people would rather sit at home and collect welfare than do an honest day's work.
We're sending some college kids on a short term mission trip to Jamaica. The place where I took my honeymoon is home to some of the worst poverty in this hemisphere. How many pairs of shoes do you have? I have 10, including 2 pair just for golf. Most women in my Sunday school class confessed to having over 25. Compared to that, a Jamaican male being served by this mission trip will be happy to have a pair of used women's shoes with the toes cut off.
Kinda puts it into perspective, doesn't it?
So go ahead and continue this endless back and forth about how Bush is a liar, and how those of us who voted for him are blind and stupid, and how our country is being ruined by this administration. I'm done with it. George W. Bush is not my king. Jesus is.
Shalom.
- posted by The Drake @ 11:50 AM
Comments:
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Yeah, I've got to quit doing that too. Unlike banging your head against a brick wall, arguing with an solely-emotional leftist doesn't feel good when you stop.
Amen Brother....now lets walk on in His name and make daily choices as Jesus would!
Anon!
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Anon!
# posted by 
: 2/21/2005 03:37:00 PM
: 2/21/2005 03:37:00 PM<< Home
