I rather expected yesterday’s post would be hard to take. Maybe it was the choice of words, but I think most of my readers got it. The biggest problem is that “racism” has almost no definition at all; it’s just another excuse for mindless hostility regardless of whether you consider yourself a victim of it.
We all notice a difference in cultural background. We are supposed to notice, and it does make a difference. It’s freaking stupid to pretend we should all just welcome anyone and everyone, particularly when we know that people from varying cultures prey on each other. Everyone has an instinct to look for that competitive advantage, and cultural differences create that. Throwing people together without regard to cultural difference guarantees predatory behavior. In most cultures, it’s a badge of honor to do that. We have an instinct to take advantage of people who don’t understand and play by our rules.
Whether you like it or not, a significant portion of cultural rules do arise from differences in DNA. So some of the conflict when cultures collide isn’t just a matter of point of view; some of it is hard-wired. But it’s hard wired in all races. Nobody is neutral.
In our Radix Fidem covenant, we set forth the conviction that there is no hope for improving things without the heart-led way. Mankind by his intellect and talents and so forth cannot do it without the eternal power of the Almighty. We are damaged goods from birth and nothing we dream up on our own — individually or together — is enough to overcome that damage. It requires moving the focus of your awareness from the mind up to the heart.
We further believe that, in practical terms, you cannot steer enough of humanity by any means into the heart-led way to change what we can expect from the human race. It ain’t going to happen. The only possible amelioration of this curse is individually, as a gift from God alone, at His initiative. Whether or not that makes sense to anyone doesn’t make a bit of difference. That’s the way it is. The only hope is to embrace the truth as revealed. But you don’t have to take my word for it; you don’t have to do this my way. Just get hold of the truth for yourself and I have every confidence it’s going to work just fine without my hand-holding. We can get along just fine one way or another.
Don’t choke on this stuff, folks. We have to work with things as God made them, not as we wish them to be.
To put one of your points here in logical terms, the heart-led way is necessary but not sufficient to achieve interpersonal stability. In other words, two heart-led people can have the best of intentions but just won’t be able to work together. Their personalities could clash too much or God drew a different hand for their marching orders. Peace in that sense can be acheived by the two going their separate ways–forcing association will make it worse. The opposite of peace.
I wish the gospels really demonstrated this more. I’m sure there were plenty of instances where Jesus came across genuine people that He ultimately had to reject on a practical level because he couldn’t be part of His mission.
The cultural milieu in which Jesus operate presumed this knowledge. It was taken for granted that you would know there could be no forced association and that it’s perfectly fine for two very strong saints to need distance between themselves. Their culture had a lot of wisdom missing from ours. They had phonies too, but our culture is founded on pretense.