When Power Makes You Nervous

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.  But whoever obeys the law is joyful.  Proverbs 29:18

I must admit that I have never understood the obsession underlying power.  Personally, it has always made me quite nervous to be in the company of those who wield the kind of strength of presidents, governors, and other influential positions.  Those who lead bear a considerable weight of responsibility for the well-being of others.  It is an inherently-unselfish calling.  The fly in the ointment of the democratic system of choosing leaders who are perceived as strong-enough to do well, is that politics is a magnet for the best and worst of motives.

In an article[1] reflecting on the state of world affairs, published earlier this year by Princeton University professor, Jonathan Gold, calling for (at a minimum) mandatory psychological testing of candidates for public office, Gold trotted out the elephant in the rebel room, concerning the two most powerful leaders who should never have been elected by sane people:

At the extreme end of the scale are the symptoms associated with anti-social personality disorder (ASPD), which ought to be out of bounds for an elected official but read to the untrained like a character description of Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin.

This devotional blog is not a blatant political tool, rather a purveyor of Godly advice from the Scriptures.  What Solomon said about God’s guidance as the life-giving need for any nation, is precisely what leaders Putin and Trump ignore, in favor of ascribing all knowledge and power to their own imaginations.  It is often quoted that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  And if that is true, it removes (by definition) any hope of governance without corruption; the lone exemption is the one, true, living God. 

For You Today  

If your children and grandchildren are the hope of the next generation of leaders for this world, better teach them by example to be humble and honor God.  Otherwise those who live in those generations and beyond are going to be bound to the same human foolishness of the current times, thinking we have all the answers, yet having no vision at all.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

   Stubborn to the Bitter End and Without Vision Nations Crumble

Images:  Title Article - Don't Hand Power to Dangerous People   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

---

[1] Don’t hand power to dangerous people (even when they really want it) — a modest Buddhist proposal

The Hatred Prison

 

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.  He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.  He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.  He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered.  He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.  1 Peter 2:21-23

This may be one of the easiest passages to understand in all of Scripture.  It is, arguably, also one of the most difficult to incorporate into our thoughts.  It is even harder to practice.  When you’ve been wronged, the human response is to, at least, defend…and, more likely, hit back!   Our recently retired president was hailed as the Counter-Puncher-in-Chief; he proudly lived-up to the reputation.  If he sensed a criticism from you, the response would be lethal.

The problem with revenge is the jail time to which it is connected.  Certainly, the kind of revenge that involves committing felonies might require time behind iron bars.  However, the jail time that is most damaging to the human spirit, and the possibilities of genuine community Christ offers, and promises, won’t be incarceration time spent in Attica, Sing Sing, or San Quentin.  The prison of revenge remediation is found within; it is hatred which binds us more strongly, and with greater destruction to the soul, than any cellblock. 

In a previous post (The All-Inclusive Temple of God) I mentioned “cancel culture” which, considering some of the responses to that post, begs a deeper look.  This phenomenon of a power-shift in 21^st century cultural norms is a belief system that holds previous norms are wrong and should be silenced, dismantled, and banned.  It is closely connected to the unique brand of reverse prejudice which creates a revenge cycle, which, in turn, leads to hatred prison just as dramatically as the souls of slave owners in Colonial America wound up confined there. 

Cancel culturalists will probably eat me alive for this thought train, but here goes.  The comparison I make is thus: 

·       In the annals of slavery and since the end of such bondage, the black person was viewed as “less”.  White supremacists, pushers of Arian dominance, claimed a superior position and held down their captives with a strong hand.  Hangover prejudices persist to this day

·       In the new norm of cancel culture, anyone (even remotely) connected to the wrong of the previous norm are immediately suspect (at mildest), or (at worst) held as culpable, first-degree racists.

So, just laying this argument on the low shelf, whites persecuted blacks, and now it is the black person’s time at bat.  Evidentiary of that is the hyper-radical anger that classifies any white person as racist, purely based on race.

I know…the irony screams so loud it’s impossible to laugh or cry…it’s just stunning, that it matters not what a black person said in 1830, he was black, and white America considered him part of nature’s mistake.  In 2021 the tsunami of “equality” overwhelms whatever remorse or compassion the white-skinned descendants of racists may have, and relegates them to racist by color. 

In proper perspective, most white people have never come close to the kind of personal, or group pain experienced by those who are black.  And there is nothing whites can do to atone for the sins of racism and oppression of the past, nor those who would hold on to it in the present, and promote it for the future.  Racism is indefensible and heinous.

But neither is there a commonsense argument for revenge’s retaliation.  Not only do two wrongs never make a right, the only genuine, workable commonsense argument is on the side of mental health.  The only healthy choice regarding racism is not fists in the air, anger, and getting even…it is forgiveness.  For those who care, it’s the only way to avoid spending time in The Hatred Prison.

For You Today

It’s time to join the Cancel Culture movement…let’s cancel racism from any perspective, and put the Hatred Prison behind bars.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

When Your Choice is the Lesser of Evils

 

Monday, November 2, 2020

For the Lord’s sake, submit to all human authority—whether the king as head of state, or the officials he has appointed.  For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right.  It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.  For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.  Respect everyone, and love the family of believers.  Fear God, and respect the king.  1 Peter 2:13-17

Tomorrow is “Election Day”.  It sounds odd to proclaim that; probably more than half the voters in America have already cast their ballot, either in early voting or by mail-in ballot.  The early voting line last Thursday was an hour long.  My bride and I passed the time in the stiff winds, under our masks, still talking about the choices we would make in the voting booth.  Some are decidedly the lesser of evils.

The apostle Peter understood that condition.  In his youth the big fisherman was impetuous, idealistic, and brash.  By the time he wrote the words of our text he’d lived long enough, and sinned big enough, and been forgiven more than enough, to get his mind around what a Christian’s responsibility is when it comes to separating earthly authority from heavenly authority; you respect the king, and honor God.

I hoped I would get that right in this year’s general election; mature enough to respect those currently governing, and those running to replace them, all the while honoring God by my behavior and choices.  Considering the vitriol and outright mudslinging of campaign ads, which Peter would call foolish accusations, well, it wasn’t an easy fight!

For me, the choices always come down to the candidate that comes closest[1] to what Scripture proclaims is God’s ways.  Last Wednesday I watched a video sent to me by a friend.  It was Fr. Ed Meeks, a parish priest in Towson, Md, preaching about the non-negotiables of the Catholic church, which candidate Joe Biden, a self-avowed, lifelong Catholic, violates…proudly.

Biden is an enthusiastic supporter of abortion rights, disdaining church (and U.S. Constitutional) teaching of the sanctity of life[2]. 

He also leads a party that makes a mockery of the sanctity of marriage, even officiating the marriage of two men[3] in 2016 as the sitting vice-president of the United States. 

Fr. Meeks, in his homily of Oct 11^th also characterized Biden as a threat to religious liberty, also a non-negotiable teaching of the church.  Allowing that many policies and philosophies of governing, such as economy, national security, and much more, are debatable, and should be scrutinized, these three, sanctity of life, marriage, and religious freedom, are non-negotiable.

On the other side of the ballot stands Mr. Trump.  His is a personality that leaves little room for middle ground.  People seem to either love or despise him…profusely.  But personality is trumped[4] by ideology in the ballot booth.  The choices become a lot clearer for those who commit their lives to Jesus Christ.  The party to which Donald Trump belongs holds as sacred the sanctity of life, marriage, and free exercise of religion.  And the president may have some tall explaining to do (without spin) on these issues in his personal life when judgment day arrives.  But personality aside, the performance of his administration has tended to support the platform which protects the non-negotiables. 

On the other hand, Mr. Biden stands unabashedly with the Democratic party, which tends toward Socialist Marxism, a system that cannot help itself from becoming totalitarian, and, typically, an enemy of the church.  Ironically, Mr. Biden belongs to both the church and the party.  In the case of the church to which he proudly proclaims to belong, he also rejects their most sacred tenets, the sanctity of life, marriage, and religious freedom.  This is more than having your cake and eating it too…it is duplicity of the most dangerous sort.  I had little doubt standing in line last Thursday.  I still don’t; just a measure of sadness over a choice between the lesser of evils.

For You Today

Our elections are still free, and without coercion.  But what does compel, for a child of God, is the evidence generated over the last 6 decades of 61 million aborted children before they had a breath in their lungs, and the downward spiral of honoring God with our choices. 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

GO TO VIDEO

Title image: Pixabay.com   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on 1 Peter 2:13-17 see:  An Honorable Life and Honorable Behavior - Part 2

---

[1] “Closest” is a good word here, because we do not live in a perfect world.

[2] Abortion may be legal in the U.S., however the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is interpretive.

[3] USA Today 8-2-2016

[4] Sorry…don’t unfriend me