Faith & Suffering

Today, my boss told me his sister is going to have to be taken off of life support for a heart attack. His mother is also in hospice in the final stages of her life. My sister has had three weeks of intensive pain, ruptured appendix, and an internal abscess which formed following the appendix rupture. She has had two solid meals in three weeks.

One of the key differences between Christianity and some other major world religions is how they view suffering. Other religions see suffering as something to escape. It holds no value. Christians should see suffering as the potential for growth. It is echoed in everything. Very little good ever happens without struggle to bring it forth.

I do not think life was ever meant to be easy. Often, as Christians, we assume that God will pave our road with ease. The reality is, that growth only occurs in difficulty. Hebrews even says that Christ was made perfect through His suffering. Are we, His people, not becoming like Him? All too often American Christianity tries to preach a gospel of convenience and prosperity.

But we see injustices, inequalities, and inhumanities all around us. And we even probably contribute some of our own. For this suffering, we are called to give aid and comfort. In this we serve God by serving others. By this we can extend the grace He has given us.

As for our own lives? Yes, God does love and bless us, this is very true, but in order for us to grow...we must also suffer. C.S. Lewis said that one of the key virtues of Christianity is courage. I agree...courage to stand up in the face of all that can happen in life. But our courage does not come from us, it is part and parcel, I think, with faith. And that comes from God. I pray that your paths are not overly troubled, but when trouble comes, and it will, I pray that God give you the faith to persevere. So that your suffering can be turned to growth, and you can help make meaningful the suffering you see in the lives of others.

30 years....

Okay, two weeks ago, I experienced my 30 year reunion. And it was, beyond my best expectations. It's amazing how much, despite time, despite LIFE, that people can come back together to celebrate a moment, to remember a community of friends and experience, as if no time had passed, and as if a lifetime had passed. Gone were old enmities and dissensions, gone were old cliques, gone were old judgments.

Only a true joy in sharing each others' company, and life stories, and shared history remained. And so, I can truly say, "Thank you" to my classmates of long ago, "Thank you for the memories, and here's very much looking forward to the next time we meet."

The Long Slide

Where have we gone?

1. Our government can now arrest and hold people without trial, indefinitely.
2. Key portions of our government are now no longer transparent, and can't be questioned.
3. No business or action can any longer infringe upon any minor group, in any manner.
4. The government now does, defacto, control matters of life or death related to health (and older Americans are now going to have to just get used to the problems that arise with aging according to one government mouth piece.)
5. States can no longer initiate law to move enforce law that is federal responsibility to uphold, but on which the federal government refuses to move.
6. The federal government can seize private companies and operate them without any legal standing to do so.
7. The federal government can seize computer records of any entity they desire, without any warrant, or judge's order. And then can do the same to any person connected in any way to that organization. And no one can talk about it having happened.
8. Social Justice, Ecological Justice and Collective Salvation have replaced Individual Right, Constitutional governance, and God inspired living.
9. Our president has close ties with people from the Weather Underground, Student Democratic Society, the Communist party of the US and other extreme radicals. How is it one person can have so much connection with such individuals (and have placed so many of them so highly in his administration) without he not having their views?
10. Have a president who has seized funds from a company, for a "disaster" that can no longer be found? Where is the oil from the spill? Even the press is now wondering where the oil is...
11. Have a government run more and more by appointed czars, many of which have not been "vetted" by the Congress.
12. Have judges "making" law.
13. Have states that abrogate the Constitutional structure of the Electoral College which will ultimately silence small states, and rural areas. Large states, and large metropolitan areas will determine presidential selection.
14. Have a "free press" which has shown itself, definitively, to be a mouthpiece for a party and a candidate.


When will we, as a people, say "enough" and stop this slide into madness??

Spirit and Soul

On a very interesting note this week, I was asked to explain the difference between "spirit" and "soul"...tough question.

I think I tend to line up on the triune structure of the human being (body/mind (soul)/spirit (animus) question because of my YMCA upbringing...but it wasn't up to the task.

I was caught in the Medieval-Renaissance definition of vegetable soul, sensible soul, and rational soul, but that didn't help either, really (maybe in defining different kinds of aliveness, but not really their properties).

So I turned back to the psyche/pneuma dichotemy (which is close to the anima/spiritus Latin one...kind of, and the Hebrew nephesh/ruah dichotomy. Problem is they don't quite all correlate.


Old Testament nephesh/ruah is fairly easy. Nephesh (soul) is just being alive, along with emotions and passions. Ruah (spirit) is that which possesses counsel, will, and purpose.

But see William Chomsky's article on the Hebrew language for a linguistic relation between the two from a Jewish perspective.

In the Greek (Platonic tradition), the psyche (soul) possesses reason (logos), emotion (thymos), and desire (eros). And the pneuma is the "alive part."

Both Ruah and Pneuma mean breathe or wind, but breath or wind that moves.

For an interesting and quite possible interpretation of soul, look at this article on the Immortality of the Soul

And for an interesting look at all four concepts see this article on Spiritual Souls: Nephesh and Psuche

Paul's use of the terms in juxtaposition shows the difference between the two in the New Testament:

I Corinthians 15:45 "And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living "soul" ("psuche"); the last Adam was made a quickening 'spirit' (pneuma)."

Philippians 1:27 "...whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in on 'spirit' (pneuma) with one 'mind' (psuche) striving together for the faith of the gospel."

1 Thessalonians 5:23 "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole 'spirit' (pneuma) and 'soul' (psuche) and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of 'soul' (psyche) and 'spirit' (pneuma), and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."


The two are as closely aligned as bones and the marrow in them and by construction of the last, the spirit is in the body (marrow in the bone), and the soul is how it "moves and connects." (joints).

If the human spirits died with Adam (became incapable of relationship with God as Spirit, except by God's efforts), then Christ's Spirit, enlivened (or potentially enlivened) the spirits of humans.

It is this spirit (the numenous part of the human?) that will be able to live (and pull the purified soul with it) after death, and will be given a "spiritual" body. I tend to think that Paul's use of psyche, is the Greek one, and so not only "bios" (life) is involved, but that which makes us who we are (our individualism). Our spirit (our transcendent portion, angel-like stuff), is made alive and ultimately will "will" and "purpose" what God will's and purposes.

So ultimately, those who do not know God have spirits that will not live...and their souls will inhabit in the same lake of fire that the spirits-creature fallen angels inhabit. Although there is debate on this.

See this article: The Use of "Hell" in the New Testament and also Christian beliefs on Hell and for a different take (also held by many Christians) see Heaven and Hell, What does the Bible Really Teach

It could be said that the lack of spirit is what separates from God, and the knowledge of this by a human soul, is the context of a Hell, but this flies in the face of creatures of spiritual composition (fallen angels/demons) inhabiting the same "place" even though they have or are spirit.

With regard to those who go to heaven see What does the Bible say about Death, Eternal Life, and Heaven

I don't feel too bad about not having a ready made answer on spirit and soul...and I think there is a lot of room for discussion about this. But, it certainly is interesting stuff.

Governance

The Founding Fathers of the US were pretty bright cookies. They determined we needed a government with checks and balances, thus the three branches...they determined that people should be directly represented (the House), and that the states should be represented (the Senate). (The second is really important because it keeps the Senators beholden to the states they represent, rather than other lobby, or party interests, alas the 17th Amendment did away is that.) The three branches were to keep check on each other, thus limiting the power and reach of any of the three branches.

They also initially recognized that, although everyone should be protected (Bill of Rights), NOT everyone should vote. I know this flies against our modern concept that everyone's voice should be equally heard, but the reality is, we don't believe that. No one would allow their two year old an equal "vote" in family decisions. The founders recognized that people that had no vested interest in the properties of the country would either 1) become parasites, and take, take take, or that 2) they would fail to understand and take care of the common good. While it is arguable that property ownership might not be the only valid indication of "responsibility," it is likely that some governance of this is wise.

We can see this in the result of this in Welfare dependency, or the horrid state of many of the old public housing units. People had no vested interest in taking care of what was given to them. It didn't impact their finances, they weren't responsible, so they showed no responsibility.

Unfortunately, our government is now working against the very people for whom it exists. They have come to the point where the people exist for the government, not vice versa. It behooves the government to have people serve it, beholden to it, and dependent on it. It is not in the government interest to have to serve the people.

We the people, from the government's point of view, are to follow it's dictates. So now it's "We the government, in order to keep order among the unwashed masses, will dictate what the people will do, and when, and how, and we will tax so that all of this order will be spread equally whether the people like it or not.

We live in a land where people wanting to have English be the official language are being called hate-mongers, but people calling for the killing of whites and their children are allowed carte blanche speech. A place where people flooding in illegally, are being held up as people whom need to be supported and paid for and legalized, but those who come in legally are spending years and thousands of dollars to realize their dream of citizenship.

We live in a land where US citizens are abducted in US cities by foreign drug cartels, and where it is becoming dangerous for US citizens to travel on our borders, but, while states attempt to rectify this, the federal government watches. We live in a land where the government has determined it is in our best interest to pay them more for programs they can not sustain. We live in a land where our representatives belittle their electors, and where elitism of public servants at the highest level is the norm.

Our government is broken. We the people need to make sure we fix it.

Birthdays

Today was my wife's birthday, and yesterday the birthday of our country. This is a big time of year for our family! Birthdays are landmarks of life. They let us see how far we've come, and take stock of what we've done.

They also are a time of celebration, a time for being thankful, a time for looking ahead.

They are a time for remembering who we are. And a time for thinking about who we want to become.

Happy Birthday, America, and Happy Birthday, princess. May both of you live long and wonderful lives. And may all both of you touch in your lives in the future, be as blessed as those whose lives you have touched in the past.

He is actually a Representative?

I was outraged, as I'm sure many were, by Pete Stark, Representative from California, and his ridiculous exchange with the Minutemen.

Congressman Stark needs to be reminded he is a public servant. He fails to understand that at several levels. Stark in that one exchange, shows his lack of understanding of many things it takes to lead, and that, even though he has been in office for over 30 years.

1. He mocks the minutemen and their attempt to protect the borders, because of the governments failure to do so.
2. He lacks a basic grasp of the border and its problems, or if he understands, he is even more dangerous because he doesn't care.
3. He lacks a basic understanding of the proper relation between elected public servant and his constituents.
4. He has a dire need for humility.

In short, he demonstrated his lack of capacity to serve.

If Stark were a lone example, it would be bad enough, however, we seem to be infested with public servants who have no clue that they are servants of any sort. Instead, there are many that are arrogant, power hungry, elitist of the worst possible sort. And often their own desires, idiosyncrasies and appetites are what drive their decisions, not the public that they serve.

IF I were a Californian, I would work with all my might to recall Stark, regardless of his party or politics. He is not fit to hold office.