C.S. Lewis on socialism

A prophetic voice for our time

C.S. Lewis speaks:

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Consider these words in an age when the national deficit gets tripled+ in two months, and moral language is used to force even worse fiscal abuses and future indebtedness on the nation... it's urgent, it must happen, "it's for the good of the people." Note: When politicians start talking about the good of the people meanwhile excluding themselves from the mandated 'good,' it's not good -- benevolence is not the point.

It's the worst kind of hypocrisy and the point is not benevolent. This mind-boggling dept is going somewhere... and the blatant hypocrisy of the leaders should be a neon sign, to those with eyes to see and ears to hear.



All honest Americans should be asking incisively, what is the unspoken chain behind these all these initiatives, in the forms now forced upon us:

• cap-and-trade
• government takeover of industry
• government takeover of finance
• health care 'reform'
• deficit spending
• stimulus

Selah.

Divine life

Lord God, whose Spirit drives us out

Lord God, whose Spirit drives us out
Beyond convention's rules and laws
To walk on water for your cause
And test what faith is all about:
Nerve us for risks the Spirit asks,
Strange venturing and daunting tasks.

Lord God, whose Spirit advocates
Structure and form which will endure
That generations may secure
Gains which past faithfulness creates:
Order our ways that we may find
Order consistent with your mind...

Firm boughs and moving sap entwine
To make true branches of the Vine!

Selah.

Words: Ian M Fraser (born 1917) © 1994 Stainer & Bell Ltd.

Sabbath as a revealer of idolatry

The four alternatives to worshiping God

What are the alternatives to worshiping God? There are four, according to the commandments. One is to worship a different God. This is given no elaboration, because it needs none: God has brought Israel out of slavery. What use would Israel have for any other god? A second is to make an idol. This is to worship something smaller than God, something God has made. It is to confuse the creation with the creator, to serve that which cannot liberate -- in other words, to return to slavery. A third is to trivialize God by forgetting that his name is holy, by using his name to advance our own purposes rather than his. If we frequently call on him when we don’t want him, we must accept that he won’t be there to answer when we really do.

The fourth is to make gods of ourselves. This is the underlying warning of the commandments concerning the sabbath and parents. Temptations to break the sabbath are understandable: we are needed, we are vital, we have made commitments and need this extra time to fulfill them, we don’t want to let people down, there is so much good that can be done. The temptation to break the sabbath is the temptation to do extra good. Why is extra good necessary? Because salvation is just out of reach and we are striving for it? Because we are surrounded by suffering and evil, and God can’t or won’t intervene, so we must? The sabbath is a great test of our faith in God. If we look to him, he will look after what he has given to us.

Selah.

David F. Wells, "God Spoke These Words," Christian Century

The turn to God: Intentional, responsible

In the turmoil of life without

In the turmoil of life without, and black despair within, it is always possible to turn aside and wait on God. Just as at the center of a hurricane there is stillness, and above the clouds a clear sky, so it is possible to make a little clearing in the jungle of our human will for a rendezvous with God. He will always turn up, though in what guise and in what circumstances cannot be foreseen—perhaps trailing clouds of glory, perhaps as a beggar; in the purity of the desert or in the squalor of London’s Soho or New York’s Times Square.

Selah.

Malcolm Muggeridge in Seeking Peace

Seeing myself responsible: the path of personal freedom

My friends, pray to God for gladness. Be glad as children, as the birds of heaven. And let not the sin of men disturb you in your actions. Fear not that it will wear away your work and hinder you from accomplishing it. Do not say, “Sin is mighty, wickedness is mighty, evil environment is mighty; we are lonely and helpless, and evil environment is wearing us away and hindering our good work from being done.” Fly from that dejection, children! There is only one means of salvation: take yourself and make yourself responsible for all people’s sins—friends, that is the truth, you know, for as soon as you sincerely make yourself responsible for everything and for all humans, you will see at once that it is really so and that you are to blame for everyone and for all things. But by throwing your own indolence and impotence on others you will end up sharing the pride of Satan and murmuring against God.

Selah.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Gospel in Dostoyevsky

Veterans: thank you

Freedom takes sacrifice and rule of law under God. Veterans embody this sacrifice, tasked with the protective task of holding the sword against evildoers: I honor the faithful veterans in this the land of the free. Thank you!

Thank a veteran today and ask questions of your life related to divine law -- thus will freedom endure!

Selah.

A blessed Memorial Day to you!

Hello dear friends and readers -- a blessed Memorial Day to you!

Here's a clip from the funeral of a great American, one of my favorite songs... and a quote from one of my favorite Presidents:

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Friends, there is a great work left to do for America... and it begins in the spirit. May you know that new birth of spirit so that our land may have a new birth of freedom -- freedom from the metaphysical chains that enslave so many of our citizens -- and we may once again turn as friends to that divine Law, under which real freedom is known!

Selah.

What do I owe to Christ, my Lord, my King?

What do I owe? Nay, Lord, what do I not?

Words: John Oxenham, 1924
Tune: Ellers

What do I owe? Nay, Lord, what do I not?
All that I am and all that I have got.
All that I am and that how small a thing
compared with all thy goodly fostering.

What do I owe to all the world around?
To set thee first, that grace may more abound.
To set thee first, to hold thee all in all,
and, come what may, to follow thy high call.

What do I owe to this dear land of ours?
All of my best, my time, my thought, my powers.
All of my best is yet to small to give,
that this our land may to thine increase live.

What do I owe to those who follow on?
To build more sure the freedom we have won.
To build more sure the Kingdoms of thy grace,
Kingdoms secure in truth and righteousness.

What do I owe to Christ, my Lord, my King?
That all my life be one sweet offering.
That all my life to noblest heights aspire,
that all I do be touched with holy fire!

Selah.

A discovery of freedom in purity of heart

If we should wonder of grace, let us wonder no longer, but stake our claim upon it, swinging out as it were, upon a star, in ocean grandeur, true self in divine relation. Let us ask no longer of grace, but rather live it! And so learn with T.S. Eliot:

"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'
Let us go and make our visit."

"Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.

"Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God's will, because the soul delights itself in God himself..."

Amy Carmichael

"Purity of heart is to will one thing. We will the Good and only the Good. We do not resist it, we do not will it for ulterior reasons, and we do not possess other motives which obscure it…

"Purity of heart: Willing what is good, willing what God wills, willing to be gracious and kind, accepting God’s forgiveness for guilt, willing to be obedient to God...

"Each one shall render account to God as an individual. In eternity there is no mob pressure, no crowd, no hiding place in the crowd. Do you now live so that you are conscious of yourself as an individual? Do you live in such a way that this consciousness is able to secure the time and quiet and liberty of action to penetrate every relation of your life?"

Soren Kierkegaard

Chief Justice Roberts: Freedom and the rule of law

Freedom inextricably linked to the rule of law

Today I listened to a speech by Chief Justice Roberts, given on 3-08-06 at the Reagan Library. Roberts was quiet in his style, but instructive…and, at times moving in his words. Here are several nuggets from the speech. Note: This is not a transcript; just my post facto remembering and writing of his words, with a few of my thoughts added in. I trust the each reader will have the brainpower to know the difference, lol! :-)

Roberts said the thing that impressed him the most about Ronald Reagan was that Reagan unalterably believed that freedom is linked to the rule of law. Reagan defined freedom as freedom under the law; in other words, justice as the foundation of freedom. Roberts gave several examples of this, but by now he had my attention. Why?

Because this is a classical definition of freedom!

In a personal sense, Judeo-Christian revelation defines freedom as the power to do what is right. In other words, we are free as we do right [personally]. J-C revelation makes this same principle national, teaching that only the people who do right will be governed rightly.

Roberts talked about the role that the independent judiciary plays in defending the true ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people’ – how this is underpinned necessarily by the rule of law.

He talked about how difficult it was to build democracy when there was not a model – ever – in which the people followed a law that transcended State, with an independent judiciary.

I don’t think he mentioned Iraq by name, but the implication was there. Building democracy, he said, would be built brick by painful brick as an independent judiciary is built; and as the people learn that freedom is related to rule of law – and not just release from a dictator, or a new ability to do more things.

An independent judiciary assumes the rule of law, above State and for the people. This is a fount of freedom. And it is a novelty, for many people and countries.

Roberts went on to talk about judicial exchange, where judges travel to different countries, to interact and discuss judicial philosophy and practice. Since the point of these discussions is education and [hopefully] justice, sometimes the exchanges are sharp – irenic, but pointed.

He mentioned a time where a Russian judge pointedly asked him [through a translator]: “Is there ever a time when you rule against the government?” Roberts said that on the court of appeals he served, they ruled against the government three times before breakfast just to get warmed up [laughter]. That’s not the language he used in reply to this Russian judge, but he did express that yes, many times they ruled against the government. The law was larger than the government. The government serves the law, which serves the people. Again, quite the miracle of the American Republic [note: not raw democracy, but a true republic]! Roberts talked of this man’s response to ‘ruling against the government,’ and how American government is amenable to the law. This man was surprised, because his government, in practice, placed itself above the law and judicatory.

Another anecdote Roberts gave was quite illuminating on several levels.

This exchange occurred somewhere in Western Europe [specific names weren’t mentioned to protect the innocent, lol], when a Russian judge visited with a group of Western European judges. The judges asked him, “What judicial model are you using?” He replied, “Why, the American model, of course.”

They didn’t much like this answer. And one of them said snidely, “If all you wanted was a can of Coke, you didn’t have to come to Western Europe to get it.”

The Russian judge quietly received this. Then he looked them full in the eye and said strongly, “Sorry, I don’t much like Coke.” “I like my wine French, I like my beer German, I like my Vodka Russian…and I like my judicial institutions American.”

They got the point.

And it is a powerful example of what sets America apart. The rule of law is the foundation of freedom. This is an undeniable claim of Judeo-Christian revelation, a J-C foundational truth. And only in places where Judaism or Christianity touched is this concept now practiced.

It is an incredible gift.

And it’s one reason, for example, why a letter from the U.S. Congress asking India’s Prime Minister to take action against indigenous religious persecution carries such weight.

It’s one reason why America is a place where immigrants tear down the doors to get into. Conversely, it’s one reason that America is a place that dictators and totalitarian regimes hate.

But I’ll take the good with the bad…and also the responsibility that entails, to keep our country grounded in a proper definition of freedom. For once we lose the reality of person freedom under a transcendent Law, we will eventually lose the gift of freedom under the rule of law.

And when that light is extinguished in our world, behold! what manner of darkness!

In these words are a lesson, and a powerful obligation:

“I like my wine French, I like my beer German, I like my Vodka Russian…and I like my judicial institutions American.”

God grant we keep them that way, and accept the law that brings freedom in our personal lives.