Religion (1)

I decided to do some overtly religious and political posts. So I'll name them that way, hope I can keep the numbers straight. BTW, NIV as a standard for references, others as noted.

The first point to make in any religious discourse is that we should all be at least five years old to be involved in any discussions. No offense to any three year olds out there, but I'm just not looking to you for sagely advice. I picked five years because by that time we should all understand what "fair" is. I've had the priviledge of working with groups of little kids and fairness is a big issue. It's really important when cookies come out. Little Mary wants all the cookies for herself, but doesn't want Joey to get all the cookies for hisself. That should be obvious because the two are mutually exclusive. Mary gets upset that Joey wants all the cookies and is aggressive in her contention that it's not fair for him to get them all. I state that if she gets them all then Joey won't get any. She understands. I ask if it would be fair for her to get them all and Joey to get none. She looks relieved because I finally get it. "Yes," she says, "that would be fair."

Names were changed to protect the guilty (read : rat children). Mary was only concerned about herself. Fair meant favorable to her. Likewise for Joey, but he's only an antagonist in this story. This is a blatant display of self-centeredness. All that matters is that she is taken care of no matter how many other people get screwed. That's not the way fair works. Fair is a rule that has the same result for all that have the same conditions. If Mary wants a cookie then she can have a cookie, if Joey wants a cookie then he can have a cookie. This works as long as you have more cookies than wants. If you have 20 cookies and 21 kids who want a cookie then the only fair thing is that no-one gets a cookie, then everyone gets the same bad deal. Except me, of course, I'm the adult, I get a cookie. We're staying quantum on this, I'll not entertain the idea of cutting 1/21 off of every cookie. There are compromises that work well for long term fairness. One kid goes without a cookie each day and at the end of 21 days each kid has had 20 cookies. Better long term results than at the end of 21 days each kid has had zero cookies and I gained 10 pounds. But those compromises mean one kid has to go without each day. Did I mention these are little kids. Not going to work. Those compromises are way better for the community, unless you're a hardcore nutritionist, in such case substitute apples for cookies. Sometimes the best fair we can have means somebody gets screwed everytime, and we're all better for it.

But I digress, this is a religious entry. God = cookies? No. That was all just to establish fair. To start talking religion, at least Christianity, we begin with love. The nature of love is not self-centered. Love is other-centered. But love is fair. It's not fair if I love you, the individual, above all other individuals and do things that are good for you at everyone else's expense. Though we are not bound by the Old Testament, it is an example of righteousness. It is the expressed character of God and, as God is love, is an expression of love. Now we get to the hard part. For this I'm talking about our physical existence and interaction with each other, so we'll overlook loving God. It's not about loving myself. It's not about loving my family. It's about loving my neighbor, I think Jesus summed up the whole of the law (read : expression of God's character) that way. Most of the laws of the OT dealt with either our relationship with God (overlooked for this discussion), or with how we (God's chosen, the Israelites in the case of OT, Christians for this purpose) get along as a community. Love is about putting the good of the community above my family and above myself. Doubt it? Read Dt. 21:18-21. Like most other putting someone to death issues, the reason isn't validation of one's self or revenge, it's protecting the society from the influence of pagan religions, contempt of God, or, as in this case, the degrading of societal standards of moral righteousness. See the great bulk of Paul's writing on the church being deceived and led away from pure doctrines, a process of debauchery -- archaic meaning. We have accepted boundaries. Someone pushes those boundaries and we become tolerant. Then those boundaries are the accepted norm and we have new boundaries that weren't acceptable at the beginning. Then the cycle repeats and we end up being tolerant of anything. When I was little it was tolerable for unmarried couples to live together. Then that became normal but gays living together was slanderous. Now that's normal and gay marriage is acceptable in some places. You just can't accept a rebelious son, you have to love your community more than you love your child. That observation being made, like sex and alcohol, things perfectly acceptable before God in and of themselves but capable of being misused to sinful ends, this tenent of Biblical Christianity (that true love entails a love of others and places the good of community above the good of individuals) is what is misused to form cults. I am not advocating cults. Have sex, but have it righteously. Drink alcohol, but drink it righteously. Love your community, but love it righteously.