Corrections

Joe sat upright and tense as the therapeuticians filed in. "I demand to know what I am charged with," he stated.

"Do not be silly," the first of the therapeuticians, whose name-tag said Dr Mayers, said, "Our job is to detect things that cause nonsocial behavior before it manifests itself as actual criminal episodes."

A woman with a clipboard, whose tag said Dr. Cage, continued, "You have shown excessive interest in certain religious notions. You have been reported as abusing others by pressing your beliefs on them. Metaphysical speculations are acceptable, though we prefer people refrain. But dogmatism like yours is dangerous."

"Further," said a man whose tag said Dr. Trevor, "you have neglected your psycho-sexual development. You have said you are waiting for the right woman, which is totally unrealistic. You need to broaden your experience in this area."

"How do you know that your approach to life is the right one?" responded Joe.

"We are not here for a debate," replied Dr. Mayers. "We have brought you in for treatment."

"I am not at all interested in your 'treatment' unless you can show me by clear logic that your view is the correct one," Joe returned.

"You will not question us," retorted Dr. Trevor. "You will accept our diagnosis and submit to treatment."

"So you are going to force your views on me without even proving you are right." stated Joe angrily.  "Have you ever considered that you might be wrong?"

"That's enough," interjected Dr. Cage. "Nurses, put him in a treatment room until he has a better attitude."

They put him in a solitary room for five days. They then put him through a series of treatments. They used counseling, drugs, sleep and food deprivation, and electric shocks. They even tried forcing him to watch pornography. Nothing worked.

Later, there was a tour. The star attraction of the tour was a former inmate named Sam. Sam was held up as an example of what their treatment could do.

"You see," whispered Dr. Travis in Joe's ear, "how foolish your resistance is. Sam was as stubborn as you when he came. But look at him now. A respectable and normal member of society. And he is now helping to lead tours to show people the value of the work we do here."

They gathered everyone they could to the conference room. Dr. Mayers was giving a speech about the work of the facility. "There once was the idea of imposing punishment as a retribution for criminal actions. We have grown out of that. We now seek not to punish but to cure. And we do not to wait until some criminal action takes place, but we anticipate problems before they arise and deal with them."

In the middle of the speech, with all eyes were focused on Dr. Mayers, the tourers all whipped out automatics. "This is a breakout," shouted Sam. "If no one moves, no one gets hurt."

The therapeuticians and some of the nurses pulled their own weapons. There was a brief firefight, and the three therapeuticans lay among the crumpled bodies on the floor.

"Come with me," yelled Sam. "I have a plan to get anyone who wants to out of the country."

As they walked away, Joe fell in close behind Sam. "So they never did break you " whispered Joe in Sam's ear.

"God forgive me, they did break me," returned Sam, chagrined. "They made act contrary to my principles. They made me a liar."                                                             

The Hard Type of Faith

Biblically, there are two types of faith. One is to be able to trust God for miracles (Matthew 8:10; Mark 5:34; Luke 17:19). But there is also the faith that trusts God even it there is no immediate miracle (Hebrews 11:13-16; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Proverbs 3:5,6). For we are frequently told to wait upon the Lord for the fulfillment of His promises (Isaiah 40:31; Psalms 37:7; 123:2). I find that this second kind of faith is even harder than the first. And I have often found that when we first put our faith in Christ is when we see our most obvious and blatant answers to prayer. I have a theory, though I cannot prove it Biblically, that God wants to encourage us to be those who trust in Him even in adverse circumstances. Therefore, as we grow older in the faith, we often see fewer immediate answers to our requests. God wants us to trust Him even if He does not instantly deal with the situation. I cannot be dogmatic about this, but I do believe God wants us to have both types of faith. And I know that those who trust Him through afflictions will grow in Him (2 Corinthians 4:17,18; James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3-5).

Unity in Diversity

The Biblical ideal for the Christian church is unity in diversity (1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:11-16). Different people with different gifts, working together to achieve one purpose. But in modern times we seem to be doing everything we can to avoid this.  We divide up into factions against the clear teaching of Scripture (1 Corinthians 1:10-17; 3:21-23; Ephesians 4:1-6). And while there are issues of substance, much of it seems to be over personality and giftings. We see teaching churches, evangelistic church, churches oriented toward community. We see churches that are thoughtful and historically deep, lively and emotional, or restrained and commonsensical. I am forced to wonder if the real difference is a difference of principle or a difference of character. I am also forced to wonder if each of these types of Christian do not lose something by not regularly interacting with each other. Is this not what we really need, people who are different from us to knock off our rough edges and to help us see the aspects of the faith we might otherwise miss out on? And in doing so, to keep each the other from running to extremes.

But the present divided state of the church does not look like it will go away soon. How then should we deal with the present situation? We need to work to accept those with different approaches and gifts and to learn to appreciate them, not force them to accept our views or way of doing things (Romans 14:1; 15:7; 8:33,34). Now I do believe that there are limits to what we can accept (Jude 3; Galatians 1:8,9; 1 John 4:1-3). But we need to be careful of making blanket judgments on every  minor matter that people disagree with us on  (Romans 14:10; James 4:11,12; 1 Corinthians 4:3-5). One thing that is valuable is to try to learn where those different from us are coming from and to understand what is valuable in their perspective. And we can welcome and learn from those who do not approach things the same way. Instead of trying to require everyone to strictly conform in every particular. This seems easier than allowing people freedom to express their strong points, but it is impoverishing to the life of the church. We were meant to provoke and encourage each other to grow into the people God wants us to be (Hebrews 10:24,25; 12:12,13; Colossians 2:19). It is easier to press people into a mold than to let God develop each person into a unique servant of His. But the real disciple is worth producing (Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Timothy 2:2; Colossians 1:28,29).  

A Touch of Humor - Rabbit Trail

How can pop culture affect our understanding of God? How should we deal with this situation?

Old Erich Proverb - Steering-wheel

In the power and providence of God,. it is frequently the hand of the few, often apparently unimportant, people who turn the steering-wheel of history.

A Voice from the Past - Augustine

Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter in. It is ruinous; repair Thou it. It has that within which must offend Thine eyes; I confess and know it. But who shall cleanse it? or to whom should I cry, save Thee?

Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 AD, The Confessions, Book I, V, 6 (translated by E. B. Pusey, Barnes & Noble Books, 1999, p. 4)

Should we see ourselves as in this type of condition and in need of God's cleansing? What are the implications of such a view?

Making Peace

Christians are called to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9; Romans 12:18; Hebrews 12:15). But how does this apply to international affairs? There are two contrary approaches to this. We can believe that we are all basically good, reasonable people, and if we just act nicely toward one another, we will all be friends. We can believe that we are all basically sinners (Romans 3:23; Isaiah 64:6; Jeremiah 17:9), but we have an obligation to work to avoid conflict in spite of that. We need to avoid wearing rose-colored glasses; we also should avoid getting on our high horse and looking down on others. We may reach the place where we have to stand up on principle or fight for what is right. But we should be reluctant to do so too easily.

However, does Christianity require us to be pacifists? The Old Testament very clearly upholds fighting for one's country. But there is always the question of how much of the Old Testament requirements apply in the New. On the positive side, the government is said to bear the sword (Romans 13:4). The reference is more to internal than external use, but it upholds the principle. Soldiers are not admonished to quit their job, but to be careful how they perform it ( Luke 3:14). Soldiers are held up as examples of faith, rather than deplored for their profession (Matthew 8:5-13; Acts 10:1-6; Mark 15:39). On the negative side is the command to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39). This is a response to an eye for an eye being taken out of context, not as instructions for a judge, but as an approach to life. It is an admonition against always trying to get your own back.  But I do not think it is saying there is no point where justice or duty may not require another response. There is also "he who takes up the sword will die by the sword" (Matthew 26:52). This seems to be a general principle that speaks against seeing the sword as the obvious or first recourse. It seems to be a rule of thumb, not an absolute prohibition. I would conclude that the weight of Scripture is in favor of appropriate military service. But I can see how someone could draw the opposite conclusion.

While I would then conclude there is such a thing as a just war, I get the impression that very few wars clearly live up to this. Though there are exceptions, most wars seem to be stumbled into by two nations, with guilt on both sides. While I would therefore not oppose all wars, I think it is worthwhile to try to avoid them where possible. I do not believe in naively ignoring aggression. But I do believe in giving careful consideration and in legitimate attempts to make peace before going to war. This, at least, is involved in turning the other cheek.