Speaking of proverbs…
Context: The religion we teach here is non-Western. You knew that, right? To Westerners, that reads as “anti-Western” so I often use that term for the sake of “honesty” as Westerners view things. So, for example, we aren’t “Green” because we don’t worship the earth, but we are in communion with all of Creation as it worships the Creator. We know beyond all doubt that Creation is a living thing itself, and that many elements in Creation can take on a moral presence as individual creatures.
I could go on at length, but you get the picture: We are utterly alien to Western society, and they to us. We exist in a parallel universe — how else can you say it? We operate on a moral reference found in all of Creation, but to which Western Civilization is not just blind, but hatefully and truculently stupid about refusing to recognize it. We know better than to reflect that hatred back, but we are nonetheless exceedingly cynical about any good thing coming from any person who remains essentially Western.
Our God has the power to do anything that pleases Him, and we know that He has called us to resurrect this ancient truth of His revelation. Not that we have it nailed, but if we didn’t find this closer to reality, we wouldn’t be pursuing it, would we? Sometimes you need a soundbite to answer the bullshit, so here goes:
If you evaluate Western Civilization by Western moral values, it’s hard to see the failures.
In Western terms, it’s cultural hubris. It’s also Circular Reasoning.
A correlative realization is that God didn’t just pick the Middle East; it was neither thoughtful nor random. God designed and built the Ancient Near East as the closest reflection to reality and human nature. Then He used that cultural background to reveal Himself. Once that job was done, He did allow things to go to pot in the sense that today’s Middle East bears only a superficial connection to the ANE. There is some overlap in intellectual assumptions about reality, but you’d have to be a real scholar of Antiquities to discern what is and isn’t connected, and how.
But beyond all this, that we who are fully awakened find ourselves in sweet communion with nature in worshiping the Creator makes us utterly alien to those around us. Not only that, but we seek ultimate truth at a level above the intellect in a world that denies there is anything above the intellect. How many folks geographically close to you evince even the slightest sign of our kind of consciousness? This is an age and time when it’s very important to know how to keep your faith and remain strong against what feels like the entire human race. We are by no means hermits, but we are called to something that tends to isolate us on that level.
The good news is that while I may not feel comfortable in most human company, I’m embraced as a friend by the natural world.
When I was struggling with how to write about this on my blog, you once advised me “try to remember what it was like before you knew”. Thing is, I don’t remember not knowing. Maybe everyone knows, but Western civilisation is under a spell of forgetfulness. Maybe people simply have to want to remember and Creation, sensing this desire, will answer and break that spell.
Or it is only a few of us and the rest really are as hostile as it sometimes seems. I really don’t know.
I would suggest the culture is hostile, though people inevitably vary. The Father selects and commissions a wide variety of folks with a wide variety of approaches to reach a wide and varied audience that has wandered from the truth in all directions. Sin is defined as any narrative varying from revelation. Divine justice is defined as any move back toward the truth.
As gregarious as I tend to be, I am far more comfortable with nature than with most people. I do my best to befriend to the two to each other.