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Merry Christmas and may your times of celebration

include the wonder of the Lord in all your relfections.

I've Been Reading...

Why I Am a Christian, edited by Norman L. Geisler and Paul K. Hoffman. (C 2006, Baker Books. Grand Rapids, MI) In the chapter, "Why I Am Not a Moral Relativist" Francis J. Beckwith writes on page 21,

"The fact that people disagree about something does not mean that there is no truth. For example, if you and I were to disagree on the question of whether the earth is round, our disagreement would certainly not be proof that the earth has no shape. Likewise, the fact that a skinhead (a type of neo-Nazi) and I may disagree on the question of whether we should treat people equally is certainly not sufficient reason to conclude that equality is not an objective moral value. Even if individuals and cultures hold no values in common, it simply does not follow that nobody is ever right or wrong about correct values. Despite the existence of moral disagreement, it is still quite possible that an individual or an entire culture, such as Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, are simply mistaken.

If a mere fact of disagreement were sufficient to conclude that objective norms do not exist, we would then have to acknowledge that there is no objectively correct position on such issues as slavery, genocide, and child molestation, for the slave owner, genocidal maniac, and the pedophile clearly have an opinion that differs from the one held by those of us who condemn their actions.

In the end, moral disagreement is simply a sociological observation that proves nothing about the true nature of morality."

Thank you, Mr. Beckwith, for your clarity.

The next path in the Wildwood will have something to do with the nature of evil, and of course, how Jesus as the indwelling Holy Spirit is the source of our over-coming.

Are We More Depraved Than Ever?

My take on the answer:

The relatively stable political system of the US supported by expanding affluence and an emphasis on religion has accomplished over the last two centuries a whitewash, an appearance of moral progressiveness, while of course, human depravity remained hidden but active at all levels of society.

We are no more depraved today, I would say. However, in the last fifty years or so, there has been a shift. Large numbers of the upper and middle classes of Western cultures now openly embrace hedonism and various spiritual perspectives that support its flowering as a part of everyday life.

Art imitates life? The "art" of Hollywood in the early Twentieth Century indicated high levels of interest and participation in hedonism. The whitewash mentality demanded a cover-up in the late 1930's I think it was. The hedonists won an open view of lust when the movies began a rating system in the 1960's. Movies could add all manner of reality--man's depravity--as long as movie-goers were warned of content. Advancing technology and distribution to the masses now fuels a life imitates art reality.

The moral under-pinnings of the whitewash were attacked at the intellectual level through the search for "truth" in universities affecting the ruling elite, while the media has thoroughly corrupted the moral practices of the great collective, the wisdom of man has studied at the university the fallen state of man and describes all reality from within the box of human depravity. Money can made by pragmatism, or the view that we need to accept and deal with the reality of the human condition, whether you live on the street, amongst the masses or within the halls of power.

I hold the corruption has always existed; it is the illusion of morality we Boomers have watched be destroyed. People are freed in these days for the ultimate experience materially--self expression. There is a rising tide of overt sexuality, including homosexual and bisexual experience, which is a function of what has always been traditionally rationalized as only a "heterosexual" problem--lust. During the golden years of the whitewash, homosexuality could not speak its name. An irrational divide held that heterosexuality was "normal", and its associated failures of impropriety were scandalous but understandable. The whitewashed ethic rationalized homosexuality as deeply wrong from a psychological and moral stand point. The much more open homosexual experience of today appears to some as evidence of a growing decadence. I think it is simply evidence of a post-modern pragmatism.

The condition of society we now experience is the biblical "lust of the flesh" given free reign by today's openness. Love of self through sexual pleasure has always lurked in the human heart, but today's enhanced electronic media peddles, promotes and glamorizes lust across all sections of society.

It is not surprising that in reducing the meaning of life to individual fulfillment labeled as self-actualization and removing all judgments in the name of tolerance that the dark loves of the human heart are being peddled as entertainment with disturbing pervasiveness. People who are removed from the struggle of life to make the earth give up its sustenance, as in the day when life was simply agrarian, have no reality checks of dependence on the Creator. Rather, now the struggle is completely within the system, defined by the system, and relieved by the entertainments of the system, for life itself is falsely understood as material reliance on the system or the "World" in the text of Truth.

God Himself has ordained the delusion to be lived out by the dark of heart.

Thanksgiving 2010

I am thankful to be learning the ways of the Spirit of Christ

Facing life standing on the Revelation of Jesus Christ,

All in all He is enough.

Imagining the wonders of God,

Thanksgiving and supplication in all requests of Him,

Hope is a continual state.

Facing inward to the In-Dwelling Holy Spirit,

Always at rest in the power of heaven's love

Intent on becoming the fullness of His purpose for me,

Trusting in all tribulations that His goodness is supreme,

Hindrances of the soul's burden cast on Him -- I embrace spirit

Facing upward into the grace of the Father,

Altogether the Family of God holds onto one another,

Independence of will to choose His righteous leading,

Turning away fears in confidence that He holds my family and me,

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!

Hallelujah Chorus - Rejoicing among Common Folks!!

Paul Instructs

Live in peace with one another. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Read in context here.

a reflection on a recent evening

in deeply colored curls

lie her age

unsuccessfully

curling smoke from cured tobacco has fogged her lungs for forty plus

and drawn a permanent pink curl about

her eyes crying age

lovely, heavy topaz and diamond wrap her neck

an insist

on adoration of her wealth

dainty hands, too, carry a burden of beautiful stones

glinting lavishly even in the softened light of three mindless globes above dinner

she sips the poor wine we serve without complaint

the sister in her, the earthly blood we share

living itself out in gracious acceptance of table fare common to her refined taste

a prong of conversation turns to our two brothers she and I complete

as all that’s left from growing up in family

in brevity that protects ourselves, we abandon another listing of being jailed and distant

I comment...we all make choices that limit the depths of life

it is an invite into the depths of God

she balks on these words

and the spit of fire I have always known in her erupts defiantly

a flash across the leftover olive and onions

she decries her independence

gained by her strength

her grasp of responsibility

squandered by those now ceased from loving

she takes a sip of wine and settles back to more casual stances

she does not grasp

what I wanted her heart to hear

from my love of her

from sight within heart

no pique in her interest, her intellect, her grasping hole

the subject changes behind those dulling aged eyes

her point exposed

finished

nothing else to say or ponder beyond the limits in which she rests

but can you rest, my sister, in your self-made

world as your only god