Addendum 2...the "culture wars"...(#10)

 

A somewhat dated musing as this writer currently endures yet again another hyperactive, frenetic, angst and anger-ridden election season where each and every candidate and party promises salvation if we vote for them, and damnation if we do not, them believed with religious fervor by their fan clubs. Likewise we are promised utopia if particular religious institution factions are in power, and damnation if they are not, believed with political fervor by their fan clubs. Where even religion has become only politics with same mass media campaigns and propaganda, pundits on the internet spewing from left and right, and treated as if it a football game, helped along by religious news sources also covering deeply spiritual matters such as movie reviews....and all so very tiresome. Imagine if all that energy were put into a loving union with God, and all that money used to spread the word. It is simply mind numbing to see just how much is wasted on the silliest things.

Our first responsibility is that of uniting ourselves to God with love, which changes us from the inside out.  Large numbers of people doing that will/would change the world for the better, in both political and religious institutions, getting the latter back to its original purpose of uniting souls to God where everything else would then follow. There is no "unity" in the Church or churches or political institutions minus that love for God, but only politics, and we all know how well THAT works for solving problems.

We do not have the power to do what even God chooses not to do, which is to force others to love and obey God and God's ordinances. We CAN seek to convince them.

But, if we are not practicing as we preach, if we are not walking the walk before talking the talk, we do incalculable damage. 

Even the smallest child becomes quite adept at detecting phonies, much less those children grown to mature adults. 

I cannot count the times I have heard, "if that's what being a Christian is all about, count me out." In my youth, I said it myself. Thanks to those "witnesses" of youth, I nearly missed out on the best thing in all of eternity.

Being "nice" is not good enough, any pagan can be "nice". Nor is strict following of religious ordinances good enough, while devoid of love of God and then love neighbor. 

The most effective witness anyone can be, is to live and be in a manner which causes others to desire that which we have. We cannot "fix" the world, but we can "fix" ourselves, and can truly "fix" nothing until we DO "fix" ourselves.

It took a very long time for our world to get into the mess in which we find it today, the seeds were sown long ago and only now the blossoms and fruit are apparent. It will take just as long to repair the damage, there being no quick fixes. 

Minus true love of God, the Western culture and religious institutions are coming unglued, as they lack what held them together, their moral and religious compass smashed minus that love of God underpinning all which was admirable in those cultures and institutions, leaving only what is worst.

The more it became lip service and only rules just like any other rules, rules made to be broken, the more people looked for meaning elsewhere and gave their allegiance to manmade things no better than themselves, and the bloodier things have become by orders of magnitude century by century with "Progress". Today, the only rule is that there are no rules, where each seeks only what is only a fleeting gratification of greedy self which is never satisfied or sated. Mankind sinks back to the animal kingdom.

Nothing will be repaired by only a new strong political or religious leader, nor everything made well by the triumph of a particular political party or codified religious rite. It starts with ourselves made aright, and there is only one way to get there. 

Whether we will or not, only God knows. But, for certain, if we do not, things will end much sooner rather than later, and such a shame if that is how it goes amidst all the promise. Even so, united to God, one can see the stunning loving beauty of it all and how it is all unfurling exactly as it ought, despite our limited surface view, breathtaking in its wonder and infinite scope, mere words and conceptions useless in description, where describing red to the blind or a symphony to the deaf is child's play in comparison.

Knowing humanity, and its history, I am not placing my faith in it suddenly turning things around, and so put my faith and effort in the one thing which experience shows really matters. 

But my people heard not my voice: and Israel hearkened not to me. So I let them go according to the desires of their heart: they shall walk in their own inventions.