The Clarion Call

You know that quotations at times can be "prophetic", but it may be a different quote for different people. People are not all in the same "place" of philosophical or perceptual development in life. Naturally people are going to identify with the particular quotes that match their own vantage point in life, made by people who have discovered the same Truths that they have. As such it will be interesting in class to see who comes up with what quotes. I used the word "prophetic". Dylan once said in a song "I ain't no prophet and I ain't no prophet's son". I don't subscribe to many of Dylan's beliefs. But I think his songs are prophetic in that they "speak the truths that society needs to hear". Personally in your reading of all that epositiory stuff today I was thinking, "that's a truth - - that's a lie- - that's a truth - - that's false". Some people look at a maze of cords and wires to a lot of electronic gadgets in the back of a bookcase and that's all they see. Others will want to unwind the strands and determine which one is headed from and which destination each wire is going to. So it is in a stream of philosophical thought you have a stream of platitutes that may not necessarily all be logically connected. One need not necessarily follow the other. But lazy people are bound to either accept the paragraph in total or reject it in total and that is that. I don't want to make this too long..

Kirkigard (sp?) Presents a very appealing view of Christianity. But as I said in class, what the head hauncho theologians believe about God and man and their relation may be alltogether different from what the man on the street believes. Some have said "We know that God is good because he makes Mankind and Mankind has done some amazingly good and heroic acts, therefore God must be good. Unfortunately this flies in the face of - - basically the Gnostic roots of Christianity, which kind of holds to the "devolution of God" principle. This theology holds that God or "The One" is so utterly unique that the very act of Creation itself is tantamount to sin, and that anything created will be morally inferior to the original First Cause. Each god created another god, which in turn created the angels, and at the bottom of the totem pole is man. Man and nature are seen as Evil under Gnosticism, and Christian just adopted the principle whole and changed the doctrine to "original sin" or the rebellion of Lucifer, or whatever. As such you can understand why I refer to perfect morality as "the highest nature of man" and not something from God because Christianity sees God and Man as utterly irreconsilable.

We'll move on. You know, one of the wises remarks President Clinton ever made was one about "If you see a turtle sitting on the top of a fence post, you know it didn't get there by itself". Bill Gates didn't get there by himself- - divorced from his environment or even government. He took atvantage of the patent laws. Without these he wouldn't have squat now; it would all have been ripped off. Gates relies on banking regulations to insure that his money is safe. He relies on the Police to insures that his house isn't broken into and his posessions stolen. He relies on the FAA every time he gets aboard a Jet to fly somewhere to insure that regulations are being followed and the plane doesn't crash. For someone to say to me "You are in life because of the choices you have made" I have to respond, "You mean that instead of being married for 35 years with children and grandchildren with lots of money in the bank - - I'm here at this facility - your basic "half way house" - virtually penniless - - because of choices I've made? - - I didn't get here by myself - - any more than that turtle on the fence post did. I had "help". It's too bad that "help" (be it from God or man) couldn't have been put to better use propeling my life to a more constructive end.

You know - - we could invent some new religion if you want to - - a new rule that says you get judged solely on the Choices you freely make. In the Bible "free choice" isn't the prominent doctrine in it - - not by a long shot. The theme of the Bible is "man has his plans and schemes, but God holds his destiny". But I maintain God is A moral because even given the rare gift of 20 -20 hindsight (which you don't have at the time) I take issue with certain "Judgement Calls" of God. First lets look at some of the choices the "Good people" of the Bible have made. God said it was his "choice" to keep mankind ignorant of moral principles such as good and evil. Abraham made the choice to marry his half sister. Abraham was willing to slay his son Isac is God wanted him to. Lot told those homosexuals outside they would have his daughters to do whatever they wanted with them. Lot had incest with both of his daughters. Samson made the "choice" to grab the pillars of the Philistine arena and bring the whole house down. King David did not punish one of his sons for raping one of his daughters. It was seemingly OK to have the next King of Israel to be spawned from an adulterous relationship. It was also OK if the son who wasn't born of adultery to be killed if he got in the way. Jesus Christ told the Gadderine recently freed from demons - -not to follow him but to go back to the town's people, who probably hated his guts- -we know they were a little paranoid - and for the man to try and convert them. (where is the Golden Rule here?) And I'm wondering if someone gave me three hundred dollars and I went out and got an expensive massage from a prostitute blowing all my money in one evening, whether that would be a wise "choice". And it wasn't Donald Trump or one of the Koch brothers who uttered the words "The poor you will always have with you" That was Jesus Christ, in one breath denying there was any hope for the poor, and also seemingly denying his own resurrection! If I were the Dali Lama at this point I would ask you readers the question "Now which of these people listed above did the most heroic, virtuous act of faith? We'll give you the answer in a moment. OK now lets review Choices of the "bad people" Of the Bible. Adam and Eve wanted spiritual and moral enlightenment. BAD King Saul went ahead with an animal sacrifice to insure victory in a battle he was facing "because the people were scattering". Had he NOT done so and LOST the battle, people would have been on his case for that. General Joab was bad because he killed the ring leader of a massive rebellion in Israel. It was General Joab who said "I get the feeling you rather would have had the whole Israeli army wiped out- - if your son could be brought back safely". And then we have Zachariah the future father of John the Baptist who told a prophet "Give me a sign from God whereby I might know this." BAD The sin of doubt knows no bounds for a pastoral commentary. And also it was Thomas the desciple who said "Let us all go with Jesus to Jerusalem, that we may die with him" (presumably in a battle of liberation against the Romans) As to pulpit comentary on this one - - this is the place were on radio where they would play the soundtrack of chirping crickets. Their silence on this issue is impressive. And then we have in Acts the sin of Simon the sorceror who repented of his sins and said to his accusers "Pray for me that the things you say won't come upon me", to which good churchmen respond "He should have prayed for himself". Oh how they love to talk about the sin of "false humility". That really irks me because these people wouldn't know True humility if it came up and bit them on the ass. You have heard the saying the Old Umpire in baseball who doesn't say "I call them as I see them" but rather, "They ARE what I CALL them". I think there comes a time when man has to fight for his OWN morality and let God's go by the way side. What would Soren Kirkigard say if he were alive today?

In that long list of people whom the Bible does not condemn their sin (it isn't a question of forgiveness, the sin was never called out in the first place) one individual included on the list was SAMSON. Believe it or not Samson is the more morally virtuous person on that list. He went down as doing a patriotic act for his country slaying all those Philistines who were only there to mock and make sport of him. You know people talk about choice and even broach an exestential idea or two when they are trying to appeal to the unconverted, but once you sign your soul away, all such talk goes out the window. Some of the "Choices" wern't all that hard to begin with. Paul was knocked off his horse and blinded. He had a choice. Either stay out there and die or be helped by some Christians with the promise of restoring his eye sight. My brother [Pete Richards] had a real choice, too. He could stay in the rock band he was in with a bunch of loadies who insisted on coming to band practice stoned out of their gords, going nowhere fast, or play in a much higher class band with some Christians who actually had a future. When push comes to shove, Chuck Smith himself has admitted "I made my Choice for Christ because it had always suited me and served my life well". "Some people are born on third base and think they hit a triple". Anne Richards said that at the 1988 Democratic Convention.

In terms of my favorite quotes on that list I like the one about how mankind would be better off without religion that Freud spoke of. Religion is as alluring as drugs and the analogy is too good to pass up. It's like that Cocaine add on TV where a woman's voice says "Will you die for me - - I knew you would". But I also agree with Fredrick the Great saying we should have freedom of religion. I do not believe the Government should be in the business of religion. I like that Adler one that I guess you like to about "Life is all about the process of action. Trust action - -not words or promises". I like the Emerson one about "A hero is no braver than an ordenary man. He's just brave five minutes longer". A lot of people may fantacise they are brave- - untill the test actually comes. Once the crisis has passed a coward says something like "I would have done something but I wasn't around or in the right place or otherwise occupied" or whatever. I guess the Burtrin Russel one is about how Life is too often about settling for the Possible above the Ideal. "People head for the Ideal but settle for the Possible". My only beef with this one is not its truthfulness- - but many cowards use it as a rationalle for their own apathy and sloth. This is just one reporter's opinion.