Had a couple of things I thought about writing here. This article, from a conservative perspective, brought up quite a few thoughts on my end...
But now that it's time to post, I'm just not feeling it.
It just feels like... I dunno. Like there are forces at work that are determined to take us down the worst path, and they don't want to listen. Nobody wants to hear it.
So I'll write about the other thing.
Anyone who has been reading my blog has probably picked up on my interest in history (among many others, but those are less relevant to this post.) It's interesting to try and imagine what life was really like in the past, because we have a tendency to project onto it our own experiences... so it's hard to really understand what life was really like back then. Like Rome - most of us know Roman myths and legends, but our understanding is not the same. Romans apparently took their religion seriously, were devout in their own way, and it's hard for us to think about their beliefs that way. To us, legends of Jupiter, Minerva, and the like (more commonly, to me at least, known by their Greek counterparts Zeus and Athena) are more like folktales. Myths and legends. Ancient stories that have been passed down for centuries, but not beings that we believe in.
I never claim to be an expert, of course, but I filter various things I've read through my own understanding of people, and one of the things that has struck me is... how do I put it?
In the Old Testament, Abraham (or Abram at the time) asked his wife Sara (later Sarah) to say she was his sister in order to avoid trouble.
Think about that. Think about a world where someone was likely to murder you in order to take your wife. A threat that was commonplace enough that Abraham expected it and came up with a plan to avoid it. (A plan that involved letting a powerful man claim his wife for his own.)
It reminds me of all the strategizing and calculating that we think we need to do in order to make it in this imperfect world. Machiavellianism. Realpolitik. The attitude that "I got mine, how you do?" and "If you were in their position, you'd do it too."
So for Christians, Jesus came and overturned all that. He said that "the first shall be last, and the last shall be first."
He didn't succeed in a conventional and worldly way. He didn't make himself rich, or overthrow Roman rule and become a worldly King of the Jews (though apparently that's what some of his followers at the time expected, and our religion was shaped by some of the reconciliation we went through when it didn't happen).
He died like a criminal. Crucified on a cross.
And then you get the resurrection... and suddenly his disciples (who had mostly seemed interested in that worldly success, and kept missing the point of his sermons; who just a few days earlier had all fled, with Peter denying Jesus three times... ) were going around spreading the Good News.
From a historical perspective, there's no real evidence of what happened back then. It does make me think, though, of Napolean alleged quote that -
And I know all the Christian ways of saying what that message was, but I think at the heart of it was this:
Nice guys don't finish last.
Okay, that's the catchy way of summarizing it, drawing on the rather familiar saying that "Nice guys finish last", and it's meant to be far more inclusive than that.
And perhaps 'heart' isn't the right word, since the commandments Jesus said were most important were
But important though that is, it's not the part that made people go crazy for the story. (I mentioned early Christianity and fanfiction, and if you want a sense of that... look up the stories that never made it into the Bible. People were sharing and telling Jesus stories like crazy, though only a few were accepted into the Bible.)
So yes, we should all strive to love our neighbors as ourselves (and heal the sick, and hang out with prostitutes and tax collectors. You know, like Jesus did.)
But we're supposed to remember to be good people, to strive for that... and when the real world rears it's ugly head, when it seems like we just have to do wrong in order to survive - to practice realpolitick, or do whatever it is we're trying to justify because 'those evil _____ are winning and we have to do this or all is lost' we're supposed to remember that Jesus won despite 'losing' and dying like a criminal.
We're supposed to have faith, and resist worldly temptation.
Which is why I find the current state of affairs so horrifying, as the article I linked to above touches on.
When you think the battle "must be fought by any means necessary", when they are willing to overlook all the signs that someone isn't a good Christian because they think that's what it takes to win...
They've pretty much missed the entire point of the Book they claim to revere.
But now that it's time to post, I'm just not feeling it.
It just feels like... I dunno. Like there are forces at work that are determined to take us down the worst path, and they don't want to listen. Nobody wants to hear it.
So I'll write about the other thing.
Anyone who has been reading my blog has probably picked up on my interest in history (among many others, but those are less relevant to this post.) It's interesting to try and imagine what life was really like in the past, because we have a tendency to project onto it our own experiences... so it's hard to really understand what life was really like back then. Like Rome - most of us know Roman myths and legends, but our understanding is not the same. Romans apparently took their religion seriously, were devout in their own way, and it's hard for us to think about their beliefs that way. To us, legends of Jupiter, Minerva, and the like (more commonly, to me at least, known by their Greek counterparts Zeus and Athena) are more like folktales. Myths and legends. Ancient stories that have been passed down for centuries, but not beings that we believe in.
I never claim to be an expert, of course, but I filter various things I've read through my own understanding of people, and one of the things that has struck me is... how do I put it?
In the Old Testament, Abraham (or Abram at the time) asked his wife Sara (later Sarah) to say she was his sister in order to avoid trouble.
Think about that. Think about a world where someone was likely to murder you in order to take your wife. A threat that was commonplace enough that Abraham expected it and came up with a plan to avoid it. (A plan that involved letting a powerful man claim his wife for his own.)
It reminds me of all the strategizing and calculating that we think we need to do in order to make it in this imperfect world. Machiavellianism. Realpolitik. The attitude that "I got mine, how you do?" and "If you were in their position, you'd do it too."
So for Christians, Jesus came and overturned all that. He said that "the first shall be last, and the last shall be first."
He didn't succeed in a conventional and worldly way. He didn't make himself rich, or overthrow Roman rule and become a worldly King of the Jews (though apparently that's what some of his followers at the time expected, and our religion was shaped by some of the reconciliation we went through when it didn't happen).
He died like a criminal. Crucified on a cross.
And then you get the resurrection... and suddenly his disciples (who had mostly seemed interested in that worldly success, and kept missing the point of his sermons; who just a few days earlier had all fled, with Peter denying Jesus three times... ) were going around spreading the Good News.
From a historical perspective, there's no real evidence of what happened back then. It does make me think, though, of Napolean alleged quote that -
I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me . . . but to do this is was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space.Something mysterious happened, something that turned ordinary men and women into apostles willing to risk their lives... and their message was welcomed, was greeted joyously....
And I know all the Christian ways of saying what that message was, but I think at the heart of it was this:
Nice guys don't finish last.
Okay, that's the catchy way of summarizing it, drawing on the rather familiar saying that "Nice guys finish last", and it's meant to be far more inclusive than that.
And perhaps 'heart' isn't the right word, since the commandments Jesus said were most important were
Thou shalt love thy Lord, thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mindAnd
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
But important though that is, it's not the part that made people go crazy for the story. (I mentioned early Christianity and fanfiction, and if you want a sense of that... look up the stories that never made it into the Bible. People were sharing and telling Jesus stories like crazy, though only a few were accepted into the Bible.)
So yes, we should all strive to love our neighbors as ourselves (and heal the sick, and hang out with prostitutes and tax collectors. You know, like Jesus did.)
But we're supposed to remember to be good people, to strive for that... and when the real world rears it's ugly head, when it seems like we just have to do wrong in order to survive - to practice realpolitick, or do whatever it is we're trying to justify because 'those evil _____ are winning and we have to do this or all is lost' we're supposed to remember that Jesus won despite 'losing' and dying like a criminal.
We're supposed to have faith, and resist worldly temptation.
Which is why I find the current state of affairs so horrifying, as the article I linked to above touches on.
When you think the battle "must be fought by any means necessary", when they are willing to overlook all the signs that someone isn't a good Christian because they think that's what it takes to win...
They've pretty much missed the entire point of the Book they claim to revere.
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