Saving the West. 2: Calling all Progressives

2: Calling All Progressives

I have some shocking news for you, you have been sold a counterfeit!

“there is a way that seems right to humans, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14; 12)

You were probably attracted by Progressive ideas because wanted the best – to end injustice, poverty, oppression, hatred, domestic violence. You wanted to save the world! You signed up with what looked like the best bet for doing this. But progressive socialism, for all that it identified real things that were wrong with the world, for all its promises, for all the vision of a utopia on earth that it painted, is fatally flawed. It can never deliver on those promises. It will, like a bowling ball aimed at a mark look for most of its run as though it is going straight for it, then at the last veer off to one side and miss it completely.

For the bowling ball it is because it has an inbuilt bias. For progressivism it is because it leaves human nature out of the equation. Its Achilles' heel is that human nature has an inbuilt bias too.

For those who are thinking: “Surely you just described 'the Church'!” you are quite right. In fact it proves my point that human nature can sour the best of things and best of intentions. The Church has exhibited everything from the best of humanity to something close to the worst. No argument about that! The two main reasons Christianity succeeds where every other system ultimately fails are these:

1. God knows all about the problem of human nature: so his plans to save the world take this into full account

2. God invites humans into a new relationship with himself through his son Jesus, who is both God and human. Only a few take up this invitation, though many pretend to. Those who do take it up find that God works with them to slowly heal the flaws in their human nature, so they are able to be part of God's work of saving the world to a degree that still seriously flawed humans cannot.

So if you really want to save the world, your first step in the right direction is to begin a friendship with God through Jesus Christ.

Of course you will need some more information about him to decide to do that, so lets begin:

Do you yearn for the sort of better world that God yearns for?

Do you hate domestic violence? So does God.

“The man who hates and divorces his wife” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect”. Malachi 2: 16

Do you hate economic systems that make the rich richer and the poor poorer! So does God.

“Hear this you who trample the needy … skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, … selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done”.” Amos 8

Do you hate all forms of injustice? So does God.

“I the Lord lave justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing” Isaiah 61: 8

Do you hate oppression? So does God.

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'You have gone far enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right.” Ezekiel 45:9

Do you long for world peace? God intends this in his heaven.

“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more.” Isaiah 2:4

Do you long for harmony with nature? God intends this in his heaven.

“the wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox … They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain” says the Lord. Isaiah 65: 25

Would you like a world without pain? God intends this for his heaven.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” Revelation 21: 4

On the other hand, do you wrongly accuse God for the problems of the world? Jesus perfectly represented God, look at what he actually did.

Do you still blame God for disease in the world? Jesus healed everyone who came to him.

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages … healing every disease and sickness.”
Matthew 9: 24

Do you blame God as though he does not care about the suffering sicknesses cause? Look at just one episode in Jesus life:

“Jesus went to a town called Nain … As he approached the town gate a dead person was being carried out – the only son of his mother, and she was a widow… When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said “Don't cry” Then he went up and … said “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.” Luke 7: 11 on

Do you blame God for bad deeds done by 'the Church'. Jesus had trouble with the church of his day!

“Jesus called out in a loud voice 'Lazarus come out!' The dead man came out … Therefore many believed in him … but some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting … (they said) “If we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him” … So from then on they plotted to take his life.” John 11

I could go on, but I think this very brief thumb-sketch may be enough to have you saying something like: “That must be some different God to the one I know about!”

Precisely! The god you “don't believe in” does not exist. It is just a human construct, an imaginary caricature. Rather like the Unicorn!

You were right to refuse to believe in that god. But there is a God who really does exist, the one I've just sketched a few characteristics of.

Curious? Like to know the truth about God? Read on as we do a quick jog through the Bible picking up more clues. Before that however I want to lay to rest a couple of false arguments that seem to often get re-told and never refuted.

NEXT WEEK: False Argument 1: God can't exist because there is suffering.

My Adventures with God Ch 42 - Is my Story Worth Telling?

Ch42: Is my story Worth Telling?

Am I having second thoughts about continuing with my story of adventures with God? Yes I am!

I notice I have readers from around the world. This makes me ask: is my story going to help you in your situation for your walk with God?

It is a story of remaining faithful to God under persecution: that is good as far as it goes, but some of you face levels of persecution that make my troubles look trivial.

It is a story of people whose hate rules their lives seeming to win (in a worldly sense). But the hatred I endured while significant by Australian standards looks so petty compared to say survivors from Rwanda!

It is a tale of betrayal by the church hierarchy – but that too pales into insignificance compared to what we are now learning that all churches did to victims of pedophile priests.

But it is also a story of survival and a testimony that God's grace is sufficient and that is worth hearing!

So perhaps my tale has value, and with humble tribute to those who have been confessors and martyrs in a much more real sense throughout the history of Christianity down to the present, I will tell it.

Dominant themes in this story:

Start with God's love for his people, even when they rebel against him.

This is a theme that leaps from almost every page of the Old Testament. It is also a theme of Jesus teaching. Just take one parable, the “wicked tenant farmers”. Remember how in this parable the owner sent messengers again and again, but they were rejected and ill treated. Finally he sent his only son. Whom they killed. Jesus enemies realised that he was talking about them. Then they completed the story by killing Jesus – God's only beloved Son whom he had sent into the world.

The story of Vermont Anglican church is like a tiny echo of this. This church had gone wrong. God had warned them. (I only learned this much later but the parish had accepted as genuine a prophecy given my a member warning them that they were rebelling against God – but they had not obeyed it.) Then God sent me there to try to win them back to him – and two thirds of the church showed themselves receptive. One third reacted more like the religious leaders of Jesus day did to Him. But Jesus did warn us that people would treat his followers the way they had treated him!

Continue with how the evil one uses those who are in his thrall.

Hatred: Jesus said “they hated me without reason”. In this story we meet people whose hate defies any logical explanation of being produced by events.

Pride: In this story we meet people whose “self” is their god.

Lies: Jesus said that the devil was a liar and the father of all lies. In this story you will meet people who turn truth upside down. They are on the side of “Right” (so they convince themselves) so whatever aids their cause must be “The Truth” and anything that hinders their quest is “A Lie”. This is instructive because it is a behaviour pattern shared with the so called “progressive socialists” prevalent in the Western world at present.

Vengeance: Jesus taught “Forgive as God has forgiven you”; the Old Testament sough at least to curb vengeance to “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”; Lamech, a figure mentioned in Genesis boasted “if Cain is avenged seven times, Lamech is avenged seventy-seven times”. You will meet in this story people claiming to be super-Christians whose thirst for vengeance knew no bounds.

Folly: you will see a church hierarchy groomed to shelter and facilitate people doing evil. This case is very minor compared to the way church hierarchies around the world were groomed by pedophiles to protect them, allow them to continue to prey on their victims and even shield them from the police! However It is another warning to “put not your trust in princes (or bishops!), mere humans who cannot save”.

End with God triumphant!

This is the way every human story ends – whether seen here on earth or whether revealed only on the Day of Judgement or some of each: in Christ God has won the victory, nothing can thwart his eternal purposes and our labour in the Lord is not in vain!

Morals Blog: Truth , Lies & Nietzsche

I may be crediting Nietzsche with too much.

Back in 1990 I was taking a sabbatical studying philosophy. One moral philosopher’s criticism of his contemporaries stuck: “They claim to be 'Fearless Moral Thinkers' challenging the old morality – but they are really only men of their time spouting the mores of their own social group” Nietzsche's philosophy may not be the cause – his notions may be just a co-effect of more widespread human foibles! This would be ironic justice since he famously rejected scientific tools such as 'cause & effect'!

So although Nietzsche has been hailed as a source of inspiration by such mutually incompatible groups as Fascists, Nazi's, Anarchists and Zionists it may just be that they resonate with some of his ramblings. And although some modern philosophies have popularized his ideas, the same perverse ideas may also spring quite independently into human minds.

With that caution, I will look at two modern problems under quotations from Nietzsche.

1. “There are no facts, only interpretations” (Nietzsche)

a) Climate change is a contentious issue. Lets not go there! However the debate has raised this concern about modern scientific method: Truth as paramount over ideology.

Novelists – and I think C. P. Snow wrote a classic novel on this – have depicted the primacy of truth in scientific research. The researcher who discovers a fact that contradicts the findings they are about to publish as the culmination of years of research is tempted to bury this fact. The one who succumbs to this very real temptation is – at least in fiction! - found out, pilloried and driven from the scientific community as one who has betrayed the very essence of scientific method.

Sadly the climate debate is replete with revelations of scientists who have done just this but still hold their heads up high – and hold their positions. They justify themselves, and are justified by other scientists on the grounds that the end of “saving the world” justifies the means – falsifying their results.

Recently in Australia a newspaper took our government Bureau of Meteorology to task for this. Apparently they had been caught out changing historic temperature records. Their mantra was: We believe there has been continuous temperature rise over recorded history, so old records of high temperatures must be wrong. In one instance the highest recorded temperature on record at one recording station was simply deleted on the grounds that it occurred on a Sunday, and records were not generally taken on Sundays. The son of the postmaster who manned that station reported via the newspaper: “Yes it was a Sunday but it was a heatwave and so my father went in and checked the temperature and recorded it.”

I am not here arguing either side of the debate. I am saying that fully considering the facts not just even if but especially when they contradict our theory is of the essence of scientific method. If we lose that we are in danger of losing “science” as the tool for human advancement it has been in the past few centuries.

b) I passed a sign in the window of a Naturopath's shop-front: “We practice evidence based medicine”. “No,” I thought, “you really don't” The rise in popularity of these so called “alternative” or even more misleading “complementary” therapies shows how tenuous is our hold on real science. OK I have a reason for bias, my wife is a real doctor, but I am still right!

Many medical doctors are hopeless as “spin-doctors” so their patients go away unconvinced of their treatments or with unresolved issues. That is most unfortunate. But they are still using scientific methods of treatment.

Pharmaceutical companies possibly do many of the things they are accused of. But they still do scientific trials (and we are rightly outraged if they fake their results or hide bad side effects!). They sell some of the same compounds as “alternative practitioners” - but – and this is a huge BUT – the pharmaceutical companies get rid of potentially harmful impurities and produce doses of a known and consistent strength. OK (once again) my late father was a pharmacist – does that make me biased? - maybe – but I remember him saying how much safer it was when instead of using medicinal herbs of unknown potency he could get the active ingredient purified and in standardized doses from the drug companies.

Just remember that in many of the parts of the world where “natural remedies” were all they had people died like flies until Western scientific medicine came to their rescue. Don't let's throw that away!

Losing scientific method and scientific thinking puts us on the road to a new and terrible dark age!

2. “Truths are illusions about which we have forgotten that that is what they are” (Nietzsche)

Years ago listening to a radio program I heard the late Baroness Thatcher – then Prime Minister of Britain – make comment that has stuck with me. I can't remember her exact words – which is a pity since she undoubtedly said it better than I can – the gist was this: When she was Minister for Education she had to deal with a Communist dominated teachers union. She came to realize that they, and Communists in general were blatant liars. They had no respect for any sort of objective truth: If a statement would suit their current purpose then that alone made it “The Truth”.

Communism is in a bad way around the world but in the West, Progressive Socialism, or “Progressives” are in the ascendant. The Communist's attitude to truth is part and parcel of Progressive ideology

However this is not a blog on politics. I have introduced progressives because they are proliferating and they have  the Communists' idea of truth: there is but one criterion: if a statement serves their cause then it is thereby “The Truth” conversely if it hinders their cause it is thereby a “Lie”.

I suspect that the common link here, and indeed a link with tyrants and dictators around the world is that they want to control people. Communists, tyrants, and sadly so called “progressives” in the free world want to control people. They are not necessarily averse to using force to control people – yet they use lies if they can by preference.

Lies become internalized and make the subject doubly subjugated: they obey their masters and also believe it is just that they obey their masters. Take a simple example lie: “you're just a girl, you can't do anything” if women accept that lie they are not only made second class citizens, but they come to believe it is right that they are treated as second class citizens. Becoming free involves first throwing off the lie and holding the truth: “A woman can … “

Progressives may be more subtle but their agenda is the same – to reduce the populace (apart from themselves who alone know what is best for everyone) to servile obedience. Lies and propaganda serve that purpose admirably.

Jesus said “the Truth will set you free”. He was of course talking about himself and the freedom he promised was from sin and death. However truth is a marvelous thing and it is also the case that in a more general sense knowing the truth rather than being befuddled by lies is a really good start.

So firstly, no matter how expedient it may seem to lie, we must ourselves tell the real objective truth.

Then we must reject the lies of those who want to use them to control us. We must search for the truth and not accept their clever lies – remembering the old adage that the most effective lie is the one that is true except at the vital point. I think the term is “a shaft of truth with an arrowhead of a lie”. Finding the lie in the propaganda may not be easy.

We must accept that truth may cost us. Pilate asked Jesus “What is truth”. Jesus answered, not in words but in deeds – suffering and dying (and rising from the dead) to save the human race. Truth can be a costly affair, but it is worth it.

When lies are being used as the method of choice to control people, exposing those lies may cause the propagandists to use the next method of control: force. Force may hurt, but at least when they have to use force we are only singly subjugated rather than the double subjugation of believing their lies. And that is a step towards freedom.