Our global story is not yet completed, Crime, daring, commerce, chatter will go on, But, as narrators find their memory gone, Homeless, disterred, these know themselves defeated. — W. H. Auden, XVI from “Sonnets from China”
Thank you, Barry. It’s always fascinating to me which Spectrum blog posts receive the most discussion. Often the amount of chatter appears to be in inverse proportion to the subject’s true importance.
So take great peace in knowing your words matter greatly, that actively walking with Jesus will along the way invite scorn and discomfort, that joy is not dependent on circumstance, that hope flourishes through defiant optimism, that love always stands up against bigoted hatred.
Thanks, Chris. Every author wants to be read and discussed. Your words gave me the encouragement I needed to keep writing and posting in spite of the vast silence! It’s interesting to me that I posted this to my Linked In account, as I usually do with my posts, and so far the viewing and comments are about four times what they are here on Spectrum. You never know what will hit and what will miss with an audience! Thanks for your words.
Barry ,your words embody the essence of what must be our attitude as humans to give us a chance of avoiding repeating the folly of the wars of the early to mid 20th century. I believe that a major part of Jesus’ mission during his Ministry in the Middle East was to set the example of patience, compassion and love though we may be sorely pressed by circumstances of daily life. He, no doubt could have called for help resulting in the complete and utter destruction of tormentors , but he refrained from doing so. My concern is that it is nearly impossible for humans, at currernt stages of Conscious awareness andMental Development to emulate the actions of Jesus, which are our only hope of human survival. WW3 is looming. NKorea is determined to cause as much damage as possible to America and its allies even as it commits national suicide. They claim that There seems no way out of this peacefully; the US started to 1950 War and over a million civillians and soldiers were killed. They therefore HATE America. Human NATURE? What do we think would happen if blacks had the bomb?: The difficulty is this: it is one thing to pontificate , as it were, about the wisdom , and indeed the salvational neccessity to hold Jesus’ teachings and actions as the gold standard of human behaviour to others of our species but in ACTION how does this stance really work? I am struggling with this concept of how “oceanic” all-inclusive goodness/righteousness(if you will) could be implemented in my/oir daily lives. To exemplify the teachings of Christ even if unilaterally, is our aim, but this may well lead to physical destruction, as was the case with Jesus , for example. We can smugly determine to live non-violently as in refraining to becoming frontline soldiers to confront a hostile would-be invader, for example, but our survival will then depend on the actions of those who do bear arms on our behalf. Either that or we sit by as our wives, children, and ourselves be murdered or enslaved. I do not believe any sane human being would refrain from fighting in such circumstances So what then is the answer? In my take on this I firstly hold that humans, and indeed all intelligent lifeforms in this galaxy and beyond, are dualistic. There are parts of the neural heritage which are concerned with survival, as a priority, and will always seek to see to it that the individual will take axctions to ensure survival, even by acquiring and excess of those things which will assist survival , if even as lavishly as possible by acxquiring the possessions of others. The Ten commandments address this built-in tendence —the document outlaws even attempting to acquire other peoples mates, possessions,or torture, lynch or commit murder, torture and so on inter alia. We now KNOW from in utero studies, and even adult MRI scans how the brain stem , called the reptilian complex sue to its similarity with the most primitive basic layers of thelowerr anim,al kingdoms , and even that these sections cannot display ANY high level of REASONING POWER, and that the brain stem organs are more influential in human behaviour than neo-cortex at most times. We depend on the organs there for maintaining autonomic processes(breathing, instANT reaction to threat etc)
The purpose of morality teachings is therefore to give neo-a chance… It is thereforeVERY EASY, and often more comfortable, to HATE .Although genome scientists xay that there are no biologically discrete human “races” humans will seize on every little difference to try to acquire advANTage. If there were REAL RACES humans could not interbreed with normal results. Even the revered EGW ignored and even taught doctrines contrary to the express commands and the teachings of GOD himself when she advocated SDA racism in opposition to NUMBERS CHAPTER 12. The Bible , our revered guide, gives us multiple examples of this dual side of human nature, and brings it forcibly to our attention by STORY format, some literal, other times as object lesslons, The KKK/Neo Nazis therefore feel impelled to take steps, even if forcefully, to regain loss of former status. They feel hard done by in these times when their very iconic power symbols are under threat of removal/ destruction. This, when their former status was to terrify blacks routinely and cause great concern in the Civil War which almost split America. The only way to act by counter demonstrators is to STAND for even further justice in the body politic, non-violently, if possible. They SAY that “race” matters but it really does not even to themselves. The persons targetted by a sneak attack at Charlottesville whe 99% Caucasian. Hitler was happy to murder as many white Europeans as he clould, and the world can be happy that he lacked military vision. When prersented with plans by his scientists to develop an atomic bomb , ne nixed the idea, considcdering it a waste of effort which would be better spent developing conventional weapons. In the end we, as SDA’s, should strive to stand on the side of greater morality, and strive to exemplify Christlike wisdom, peace, and non-violence whereever possible, unless in need to defend ourselves. SDA church i s trying, best it can to struggle with dualistic human nature (the NATURAL behaviours mediated by bfrain stem structures called SIN). God help and further enlighten us, please.