[Bill,
May 15, 2009]
Worried about global warming? Think Cap-and-Trade is the answer?
Read this.
[Bill,
May 12, 2009]
Is God gonna getcha?
One of the most difficult concepts to get is sin. I wrote a couple of posts down about the nature of sin, and the nature of salvation. Salvation is perfected love. Sin is what gets in the way. Sin means missing the mark. Often, that means falling short of the mark, over-shooting the mark, not shooting at all, or hitting the target but missing the bulls-eye.
Understanding and knowing love is what it's all about. Love is willing the Good for another. That involves knowing the Good, and then pursuing it. When we are nice, but tell people what they want to hear, as opposed to what they need to hear, we fall short of the mark.
For the record, I don't like to hear it, either. I've seen how unloving and selfish I've been in my life — that's what it means to confront sins. To see how I've missed. Settled for less than full love. Indulged in the feelings of love instead of fully committing to the good of another. Not told people the truth out of civility and good manners. Used people for my own ends or emotional needs, instead of giving myself to them. Gave up loving rather than endure the pain (often out of pride/ego) of getting hurt. Or worse, sometimes, I just couldn't be bothered.
But Christ taught love is not pain free (see Cross, Nailed to, followed by Resurrection). Sometimes, people are so committed (Bill included, Bill especially included) to working their own shortcuts toward what they think is happiness, or what they think is love, or what they think is good enough, that they miss the real thing.
Sin, I now believe, is something that closes a door within us to this real love, to this real experience of God, to being able to fully and unselfishly give ourselves to others, to emptying ourselves out and allowing God's love to fill us up and flow through us toward others.
Evil, it seems to me, is when we not only close that door, but lock it, and listen to the spiritual forces on the other side. Then we sin, and the penalty of sin is ... more sin. We develop a taste for it. Our brains and chemistry become used to sin. We crave it. We create justifications for sin ... we become emotionally committed in those justifications, and we end up having a real stake in both justifications and sin. Then it becomes more and more difficult to unlock that door.
But we still can. Jesus stands at the door and knocks. But the door opens from the inside. After years, we may have to remove the boards we barricaded the door with, undo the deadbolt, remove the chain, unlock the door-knob, and then open it. Then we have to stand there while the light shines all over our rooms, uncovering every sin, justification, lie, shortcut and shortcoming. Many of us open the door, see what's in our rooms, shut it, open the door, shut it ... and so on. I personally justify (wrongly) doing this because I figure I'll clean one part of the room at a time, so I only need to see one part at a time.
God is not some cosmic School Principal out to punish us. We fear God because that love makes us ashamed — men hated the light because our deeds are evil. He made us to love, and He's trying to save us from our willingness to accept shortcuts, substitutions and distractions instead of learning and living out that love.
So no, God's not gonna getcha. We get ourselves. But God's there if we want more than that.
Understanding and knowing love is what it's all about. Love is willing the Good for another. That involves knowing the Good, and then pursuing it. When we are nice, but tell people what they want to hear, as opposed to what they need to hear, we fall short of the mark.
For the record, I don't like to hear it, either. I've seen how unloving and selfish I've been in my life — that's what it means to confront sins. To see how I've missed. Settled for less than full love. Indulged in the feelings of love instead of fully committing to the good of another. Not told people the truth out of civility and good manners. Used people for my own ends or emotional needs, instead of giving myself to them. Gave up loving rather than endure the pain (often out of pride/ego) of getting hurt. Or worse, sometimes, I just couldn't be bothered.
But Christ taught love is not pain free (see Cross, Nailed to, followed by Resurrection). Sometimes, people are so committed (Bill included, Bill especially included) to working their own shortcuts toward what they think is happiness, or what they think is love, or what they think is good enough, that they miss the real thing.
Sin, I now believe, is something that closes a door within us to this real love, to this real experience of God, to being able to fully and unselfishly give ourselves to others, to emptying ourselves out and allowing God's love to fill us up and flow through us toward others.
Evil, it seems to me, is when we not only close that door, but lock it, and listen to the spiritual forces on the other side. Then we sin, and the penalty of sin is ... more sin. We develop a taste for it. Our brains and chemistry become used to sin. We crave it. We create justifications for sin ... we become emotionally committed in those justifications, and we end up having a real stake in both justifications and sin. Then it becomes more and more difficult to unlock that door.
But we still can. Jesus stands at the door and knocks. But the door opens from the inside. After years, we may have to remove the boards we barricaded the door with, undo the deadbolt, remove the chain, unlock the door-knob, and then open it. Then we have to stand there while the light shines all over our rooms, uncovering every sin, justification, lie, shortcut and shortcoming. Many of us open the door, see what's in our rooms, shut it, open the door, shut it ... and so on. I personally justify (wrongly) doing this because I figure I'll clean one part of the room at a time, so I only need to see one part at a time.
God is not some cosmic School Principal out to punish us. We fear God because that love makes us ashamed — men hated the light because our deeds are evil. He made us to love, and He's trying to save us from our willingness to accept shortcuts, substitutions and distractions instead of learning and living out that love.
So no, God's not gonna getcha. We get ourselves. But God's there if we want more than that.
[Bill,
May 12, 2009]
So it was immoral and soul-imperiling to vote for Obama after all
Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (essentially "chief justice" of the Catholic Church's "Supreme Court") puts a stake through the heart of the idea that a Catholic (or anyone else) could vote for Obama — or any pro-choice politician — without imperiling his or her soul.
Therefore, "Catholics for Obama" was a lie.
Roma locuta est, causa finita est.
LOPEZ: You seemed to make very clear that Catholic voters collaborated with evil when they voted for Obama. If you’re Catholic and did, do you have to confess this now that Mexico City, embryo-destructive funding, among other things, have happened?
ARCHBISHOP BURKE: If a Catholic knowingly and deliberately votes for a person who is in favor of the most grievous violations of the natural moral law, then he has formally cooperated in a grave evil and must confess his serious sin. Since President Obama clearly announced, during the election campaign, his anti-life and anti-family agenda, a Catholic who knew his agenda regarding, for example, procured abortion, embryonic-stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage, could not have voted for him with a clear conscience.
Therefore, "Catholics for Obama" was a lie.
Roma locuta est, causa finita est.