Sunday, April 14, 2013

CHRISTIANS AND GUNS - WEIGHING IN ON THE GUN DEBATE…

As usual, when the sinfulness of mankind rears it ugly head that results in a “national” tragedy, the left leaning politicians, pundits and news media jump at the opportunity to push their agenda in the name of trying to prevent more evil and tragedy.  They always attack the symptoms or the actions but never address the real cause.  They always want to throw money and meaningless laws at the problems but want to ignore the issues that help to create the problems.  Guns, they say, are the problem and the solution is less freedom and more government control.  Never do they acknowledge the problem of human sinfulness or the loss of respect for human life and accountability to God perpetuated by a denial of any divine authority and the demeaning of human life through the promotion of humanism, evolution, a-morality and abortion, or the violence perpetuated by the sub-culture of rappers, rockers, video games, movies, etc.  They fight to promote all these things while pretending to try to solve the problems that these things promote and perpetuate.

If the truth be told, the ultimate goal and hidden agenda of the left is not to solve society’s problems but to use them as a means to create class warfare, overthrow a society built on traditional Judeo-Christian values and usher in a brave new world of Marxist-socialism based on the worship of man and science.  They are haters of the idea of any ultimate authority or accountability above man.

BUT NEITHER DO I AGREE WITH THE CONSERVATIVE RIGHT.   While I would not want to be associated or identified with the likes of the Obamas, Clintons, Polosis, Feinsteins, Shumers, Michael Moores, Al Gores or Jesse Jacksons (to mention a few), neither do I identify with those who are on a campaign to promote guns and arm everyone for self-defense against the government.  I am especially perplexed that so many of these are Christians.  

The idea that I should arm myself to fight against the government because the government threatens to limit my freedoms or to persecute me is contrary to the Gospel teachings of Christ and the examples of millions of saints and martyrs through the ages.  It’s as though professing Christians ignore the clear teachings of Christ and the examples of the saints of Christ.   What did the Saviour do when the government infringed on his freedom and persecuted him and led him to execution?  When he was falsely accused and unjustly treated he opened not his mouth.  He turned the other check.  He humbled himself and endured all things.  When St. Peter drew his sword to defend him from the government, he rebuked Peter reminding him that his kingdom is not of this world.  Christ taught his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount to turn the other cheek, resist not evil and if someone takes your coat let him have your cloak also.   St. Paul tells us that we should cultivate the mind of Christ who when he was reviled, reviled not again.” Are these words of Holy Scripture no longer relevant for Christians?  How can we follow Christ while doing the opposite of his teachings?  Did not his apostles follow in his footsteps?  Which one of them took up arms against a cruel and unjust government?  They did not resist.  They did not expect good from the godless. They submitted to torture, imprisonment and death.  What did the countless martyrs do?  Take up arms?  No, they followed the example of their master clearly understanding this world was not their home or their place of true citizenship.  They did not trust in princes or governments or hope in human justice or worldly kingdoms.  Their hope and trust was in the Kingdom of God - the peace, righteousness and mercy of Christ in his Church, and the Kingdom of Heaven to come that would overthrow all the kingdoms of this world.   They knew that this present world is under the control of the god of this world and no friend of God.  They knew that all the kingdoms of this world are judgment bound and not a place for Christians to find hope or place their devotions. Why has all of this been forgotten or ignored?  Could it be that America’s founding spirit of rebellion and the false notion of manifest destiny ultimately gave birth to the same deceptions in American Protestantism and Evangelicalism that now refuses to believe that the America once known is no more, or that with guns it can be created again?  Or perhaps it simply reflects the disconnect from the Church and the loss of communion with the saints that no longer honors, commemorates or reads the lives of the saints and martyrs.

And by the way, has everyone forgotten what happened to the people who had guns to defend themselves against the government at Waco? 

Monday, April 1, 2013

WHEN GOD DISAPPOINTS YOU

            I would venture to guess that everyone who takes their Christian Faith seriously and tries to walk with God has at one time or another felt that God has let them down or did not answer their sincere prayers.  Sometimes these may be fleeting thoughts and feelings.  At other times the feeling of disappointment with God can become very troubling to the soul and lead to depression, spiritual coldness, rebellion or loss of faith.

Two Examples
 When I was a child I heard of a man who experienced such disappointment towards God that he ended up turning completely from faith to agnosticism, if not atheism.  I would dare say that many people who profess to be agnostics or atheists are there because of some deep disappointment or sense of unfairness they have felt towards God.  Sometimes it may be personal and at other times just a general sense of disappointment or doubt such as is found in the question “Why does God allow innocent people to suffer?”  

            My Dad, who passed away in 1978, was a deeply spiritual man who spent most of his free time reading and memorizing the Bible and in prayer.  He could quote whole chapters from memory.  After I would go to bed at night he would read and pray into the late hours of the night.   Many times I could hear him praying for his children.  But there came a day when he experienced bitter disappointment towards God. 

            Dad believed that war is evil and contrary to the will of God.  When World War II broke out he had two sons who were eligible for the draft.  He prayed fervently that they would be delivered from the war and for reasons I don’t remember they were both exempted.  Then, after the death of two wives and marriage to my mother, who was much younger than he was, he had more children.  When the Vietnam War broke out my brother was draft age.   With the firm conviction that war is evil and that God had promised to grant whatever we ask in faith, once again he prayed fervently that my brother would be delivered from the war.  But then my brother was drafted and sent to Vietnam.   My Dad’s faith went into a tailspin that lasted for years and from which he never fully recovered. 

            He was disappointed, hurt and angry.  Had not God promised to hear and answer the prayer of faith?  But God didn’t.  He felt betrayed and full of doubts.  He stopped praying and reading and wouldn’t go to church.  “What’s the use?” he said, “Where is God?”  He was no longer certain about God and became somewhat of an agnostic.  For years he grieved and struggled.  Eventually he was able to start praying again but mostly repeating over and over, “Lord, have mercy”.   That seemed to be the most he could do.  Then, in time, he recovered enough to start reading the Bible again.  His last years in illness were spent praying, “Lord, have mercy”.

How Do We Perceive God?
So what are we to do when we feel disappointed thinking God has let us down or isn’t there for us?  First, we must face some common human fallacies pertaining to our ideas about God and our reactions to God.  Our conclusions about a subject are only as valid as the ideas the conclusions are based upon.  If we begin with faulty assumptions we end up with faulty conclusions.

            The moment I question God’s justice, or accuse God of failing me, or feel God has disappointed me, I have already created a god after my own image.  I now perceive God as another human being.  If God is truly God then He is above all human frailty, guile or capriciousness.  He is above all human judgments and assessments.  The moment I set myself in judgment of God’s actions or lack thereof, I have set myself above Him and made myself God.  How can I, a sinful and blind human being, set in judgment of God as though I am all knowing?   The very idea that I know more or better than God is already to make myself God.  If God is truly God, the only valid response is one we learn from suffering Job.  When his wife told him to curse God for all the tragedy and devastation God allowed to come to him he replied, “Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him.”

How Do We Perceive Ourselves?
            Then there is this subtle, semi-conscious idea that lies just below the surface that somehow because I am a believer I should be delivered from the tragedies and sufferings of this world.  Rather, I should ask myself, “Why should I escape or be exempt from the suffering, hurt, pain and tragedy that is common to a fallen world and that so many others have to endure?”  Is it not my arrogance, my self-righteousness and self-centeredness that make me think so? The Christian Faith has never offered any promise of escape from the suffering and consequences of a fallen world this side of eternity.  In fact, the suffering of this world is seen as a vehicle of God’s mercy that can lead us to the humility and repentance that turns suffering into redemption.  The cross of our Saviour is, of course, the ultimate example of this and His followers are called to take up the cross, deny self, and follow Him. 

            The very sinfulness that causes us to think we should be above the suffering that is common to mankind also blinds us to what is sometimes the reason for our failures that lead to suffering.  Rather than blaming God we could ask ourselves if or how our wrong desires and choices have led us to the place where we feel abandoned by God.  Often it is we who by our choices, desires and associations have abandoned and disappointed Him.  Often we choose certain paths convincing ourselves it is what God wants while failing to see that our motives, desires and intentions are never completely pure and selfless.

The Alternative Is Worse Than The Problem
            Finally, we must consider the alternative.  If I conclude that God is unjust or has failed me or not lived up to His promises and I can no longer believe in or follow such a God, then what is left?  Only the absolute darkness, emptiness and absurdity of a world and life with no meaning or purpose.   It is the world that Solomon described as “vanity of vanities, all is vanity”.   So I must ask myself, “Which is better?  A God that is beyond my understanding and comprehension or a world and life of total absurdity with no meaning or purpose?”

            So in my disappointments I should ask myself some questions.  Is my faith in God or in myself?  Will I humble myself or exalt myself? How did I contribute to my disappointment? Will I trust in God or trust in the absurdity of a godless world?