Digital Scandal and Social Mythology

Posted on August 21, 2015 by ehurst

Divine justice is non-negotiable.

Maybe you are aware of the big scandal involving a website known as “Ashley Madison.” The site is advertised as a means to engaging in adultery anonymously. There are plenty of such sites and services, but this one was reputed as bigger and better than most. Naturally, it was open to those who wanted any kind of casual romantic hook-ups, including gays. It was a thriving business that charged a substantial fee for membership.

A month ago some computer crackers hacked into this site and copied everything. The gambit was claiming some kind of moral outrage and demanding the business owner shut down. He refused. During the interim, various actors made several dumps of data alleged from this hacking. They were hoaxes, but typical of what you expect from the hacker community. In the past couple of days, the real deal appeared. The first was 9.7 GB, the second around 20GB. If the claims are accurate, the crackers have a lot more in their stash.

As you would expect, all sorts of people are entertained by this and have dug into the data dumps to analyze it. Of biggest interest so far is the email addresses attached to the exposed accounts on this site. People are dumb enough to use their work email for this site, including a large number of government offices, giant banking companies, etc. We note in passing the US military is checking into this because adultery is flatly illegal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And then there are all sorts of juicy personal details in these accounts because they are part of the process of setting up a profile to draw other interested parties.

We also learn that the vast majority of accounts are held by males, so it smacks of false advertising. Should it turn out that the supposed willing women were all professional prostitutes, they would be hard pressed to service that many clients under even the most hurried circumstances. A lot of men paid to profess fantasies unlikely to be fulfilled by the site. Immorality works that way.

Already more than one big name in Christian media has splashed out of this brouhaha. There will be more, I’m sure. What does our religion, Radix Fidem, say about all this? As is the nature of our faith, I can’t speak for you, but I’ll tell you what comes to my mind. (Hint: Anything I say about this religion is merely one expression of something that defies description.)

We’ve already discussed how bizarre it is living with our ancient faith in Western society, making us quite alien. There’s so very much wrong with the whole range of contemporary society that we look askance even at what most people assume are obvious moral considerations. In other words, Western sexual mores are already so messed up, we should hardly be surprised at anything like this. On the one hand, the Bible raises the bar far higher than most Western Christians admit. On the other hand, the same Western Christians seem to have no comprehension of mercy and repentance and how God heals our moral failures. Instead, we have this imaginary matrix of objective rules and guidelines that never quite fit the real needs of people striving to follow Christ.

Nothing within human capability can lock down sexual behavior. Such behavior always arises from a complex of factors no man can truly know. Complicating it further is that mass of social mythology and bogus moral pretension. Western morals are not a good reflection of what God revealed. This insanity seems to have no limit; even those who reject common Western morality tend to operate and speak entirely in terms of that same morality. Their attempts to establish a different moral climate are all mired in the same pit as nothing more than reactions to something none of them seem to escape. Everything we see and hear among Westerners is framed on the same bogus moral mythology. And this mythology presumes a fundamental absolutism that is utterly foreign to Scripture.

The moral mythology, regardless where it falls on the presumed spectrum between conservative and liberal, remains detached from reality itself. Divine moral justice operates and responds on multiple levels; that in itself is alien to Western thinking. The Bible assumes an intellectual background that recognizes anything we can put into words will always come up short of God’s moral character. At best, we can only post road signs for areas of truth to discover individually. Biblical Law is an invitation to explore what is truly in your best interest. Truth is living and not static; it responds to you individually. We should never be surprised when others don’t live according to our moral apprehensions. I can only teach what registers in my own consciousness.

The biggest problem is not what people call “sin” but what they assume we can do about it. Human sexuality is what it is, and if you want my moral counsel on that, I need to know more about your personal context. All my responses will be limited by what you can tell me. What is truly immoral in this scandal is the vast blindness to God’s moral standards for the virtual space we inhabit through the Internet.

There is some broad insanity about refusing to recognize that the virtual realm does not operate by the same moral rules as our physical realm. Anything you place in digital format is globally accessible, sooner or later. There is no such thing as privacy online. There is only some social pretense. The problem starts with self-deception and fakery in general. You can keep some stuff private in meat space because of the universal space-time limitations, but those do not apply to virtual space. Nothing is truly forgotten and nothing can be permanently hidden. While there is nothing wrong with taking certain measures to limit digital access, the expectation that it is somehow sacred approaches blasphemy. Divine justice will hammer you into dust if you operate under that false assumption.

Treat this scandal as yet another attempt at entertainment. It won’t teach you much about sexual morality, but it will speak volumes about digital morals. God is using various means to enforce His personal moral character, but His wrath always falls on sin.

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Cycling: Exploring between Harrah and McLoud

Posted on August 20, 2015 by ehurst

This was not intended as a full workout so much as just poking around areas I’d not seen before. PrairieSE15hnrFishMkt To be honest, it’s not as if I really missed that much. I spent more time calming nervous yard dogs than anything else. They are abundant out here. The area is a triangle with Harrah Road on the west, SE 29th on south and the North Canadian River as the hypotenuse. I never got close enough to see the river, but I noticed there was a lot of open prairie out here.

I chose to head north on Henney Road, then straight east on Reno as far as I could go. Before I was even half-way, a trio of Apache helicopters passed at low altitude heading ENE. You might have heard that the Pentagon has ordered all National Guard units to turn in their Apaches and I’m sure this flight was part of that. They are quite rare in Central Oklahoma otherwise. Nobody is talking, not honestly at least, so we can only speculate why the Pentagon is doing this. Maybe they are running out of Apaches and the money to replace them. Maybe they are making sure the states don’t have one of the most advanced weapon systems in the world should the states choose to resist something like federal marshal law. Who knows?

Once I passed Harrah Road on Reno, much of the traffic was hauling sand, gravel or cement. SandnGravelDepot There were several different kinds of depots for this kind of stuff, including one each from Harrah City, Oklahoma County and something unmarked but clearly a government operation — all within that first mile or so. On the maps, Reno goes out close to the river, then turns south on a very sketchy road tracing. However, that dirt path is actually private property behind a gate, so that ended my wandering in that direction.

I came back to Pottawatomie Road and headed south to SE 15th. Turning east again, I rode past this womens’ “retreat center.”MabelBassetPrison It’s named after Mabel Bassett. I’ve dealt with the state DOC from time to time visiting inmates at various facilities. It’s a very degrading experience just visiting, despite their claims to wishing more folks would visit.

Farther down, SE 15th exhibits one of the most unusual washouts I’ve ever seen. SE15thWashout The water was quite selective in what it dissolved. Pottawatomie County has been exceedingly slow in fixing any of these washouts. Of all the road blocks I ran into during my first few photo-journeys, only those in Pottawatomie County are untouched after these three months.

Heading back to Harrah Road I decided to check out the progress on the widening project down near SE 44th. SE44thBridgeOutnrPottRdIt’s moving along well, and I decided to get a closer look at the washout just barely visible on SE 44th east of Harrah. Now this one falls just inside the boundary for Oklahoma County, and I now realize what’s taking them so long. It’s just a minor loss of material under the bridge apron. I walked over the dumped fill material and stood atop a matching heap on the far side, aiming the camera back at the only visible damage. The hole itself was too dark for the camera to register what I could see inside, but it was not too severe. However, from what I’ve seen, they’ll have to rip out the whole thing before they can properly repair it. So while there were two small washouts near the prison refilled, if not repaved, there’s nothing out here to offer any political leverage, just a few houses and some small agricultural plots. It’s all accessible from one direction or the other.

To make up for being only about 25 miles, I made the last serious hill a hard sprint, coming up SE 44th west bound toward Henney Road. That left me just a couple of miles from home.

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Proverbs 17

Posted on August 19, 2015 by ehurst

The emphasis here is filial piety and personal loyalty. Shalom starts at home.

1. Better is a dry piece of bread, and quietness with it, than a house full of sacrifices with fighting. A literal rendering of the Hebrew would use the word “morsel” as a single bite of just about any food, something broken off of a larger serving. This along with moral abundance (“quietness”) is still a better life than a whole house full of whole animal carcasses (“sacrifices”) if it comes with adversarial living. Sacrifice your personal comfort in favor of a peaceful home.

2. A wise servant shall have rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brothers. This is as much instruction as observation. This assumes a society that doesn’t suffer from prissy pretense. If a family member brings shame, it’s typically because they have no moral grasp, no sense of accountability. Don’t take this as baldly literal, but a symbolic image of how some people need close supervision. Ancient custom allowed delaying or advancing the rite of passage to adulthood within the household when the child learned to act in the family interest. It was not unheard of for men to die under tutelage, never gaining full control of their inheritance, but having to take their allowance from some non-family manager who served the head of household. In real terms, the manager holds all the privileges of inheritance.

3. The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tries the hearts. Gold or silver out of the ground wasn’t all that valuable until it was purified. So it is with humans; we are born in need of purification and redemption. If you reject the fire of your soul’s refinement, you will remain little more than a potential person who cannot participate in God’s blessings. Must we mention that some of your greatest trials are in the family setting?

4. A wicked doer gives heed to false lips; a liar gives ear to an evil tongue. The concept of deception here is not simply factual errors, but moral errors. Truth is not mere fact, but is agreeing with whatever God says about this world. You should learn to treat immoral chatter the same as criminal actions, because the two feed off each other. Don’t hang out with family that runs to either problem.

5. Whoever scorns the poor reviles his Maker; he who is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. The word “scorn” would be better translated as mocking, the idea of making fun of someone. This is a standard Hebrew parallelism. People who are amused at human misfortune are an insult to God because they seek to play God in the sense of making something worse than it has to be. It’s just a very thin separation from blasphemy; all the more so when it concerns your family.

6. Sons of sons are the crown of old men, and the glory of sons are their fathers. This is more subtle than it seems in English. However much repute (and associated blessings) someone can have in this world is morally bound up in his or her extended family. This is another way of reminding people that they cannot argue with God about their DNA, as if He made some mistake putting them in this or that household. The blessings God offers require that you make the most of your situation starting with your birth.

7. An excellent lip is not fitting for a fool; much less are lying lips fitting for a prince. Since the definition of “fool” is someone with no moral sense of commitment to social stability, you wouldn’t expect a fool to exhibit charisma. By the same token, you wouldn’t call someone “noble” if they were foolish in that sense. This is another case of confessing God’s moral truth about what you discern in the world around you. Don’t be a sucker for social pretense. Even if you stand alone in your household, be noble by keeping honesty alive.

8. A bribe is like a precious stone in the eyes of him who has it; wherever he turns, he is prudent. The Hebrew here is ambiguous, so translations may vary widely. The word translated “bribe” is actually any sort of gift or offering, regardless of the purpose. This is likely intentional, since a great many proverbs address multiple levels of moral consideration. It’s also uncertain whether the owner or the stone is doing the turning and prospering. In a cultural context where passing gratuities up the social chain was entirely routine (think of it as tribute to your elders), the proper moral consideration is to be careful how you go about it. If you can’t be savvy, at least be honorable. Keep a clear conscience in all of your dealings and you won’t have to worry about what God sees as He examines your heart and directs His blessings accordingly.

9. He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends. The image for cover here is making sure something is complete. Thus, it’s a redemptive act to help someone else with his standard human weaknesses and failures. The idea behind repeating carries the notion of compounding an error, making it worse. Are you a faithful member of the same team, or do you expose your folks to public ridicule?

10. A reproof enters more into a wise man than a thousand stripes into a fool. English translations differ on the actual number, but the point is well taken. Someone morally committed to divine justice will take into consideration what people say, even if he can’t actually comply. A fool hears only the voice inside his own flesh, and beating that flesh won’t change the voice.

11. An evil one seeks only rebellion; so a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. The word “cruel” would better be translated as “brutal.” The head of household would always try to have at least one man-at-arms. This is as much a matter of temperament as skill. A chief or king would always have his cadre of executioners. God makes some folks better able to decide when violence is justified, men who proceed without hesitation. It has nothing to do with weaker morals, but a different approach to trouble. Leaders retain people like that because there will always be at least one fool who can’t seem to hear the words of a gentle messenger. Some people only respond to the wrath of God’s Laws.

12. Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly. The word order is clumsy in English. A bereaved mother bear was easily the most fearsome creature in that part of the world. Still, a man confronted with such would be better off than if he encountered a man who was morally insensate. How much worse it is when the fool is family.

13. Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. We live in a world where even the best intentions can sometimes go wrong. Sometimes a bad situation gets the best of us and we act rashly. Social customs generally make a way for apologies and repentance, and encourage mercy. However, when someone is consistent in consciously taking advantage of people over whom they exercise some power, that person God will not allow to live in peace. If nothing else, the moral destruction will echo throughout all their dealings. How sad to be born in such a household!

14. The beginning of strife is like letting out water; therefore leave off fighting, before it breaks out. It’s easier to prevent a flood by reinforcing a dam than to put all that water back once the dam breaks. Just so, it’s easier to let some things slide than start a fight that breaks up a family’s stability. Note: This is not the same as ignoring evil, but the reader is expected to recognize the different context. Not everything displeasing to you is a threat to the family.

15. He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, even both of them are hateful to the LORD. This goes along with the previous verse. There comes a point when something is beyond repair and you have to realize it reflects an evil desire that threatens the moral covering of the household. Castigating someone who dares to point that out is equally evil. Westerners struggle with this because of a bizarre absolutism when it comes to family relations, something alien to the Scripture. The Hebrew people had protocols for divorcing from a family where you just could not find a peaceful place.

16. Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, since he has no heart for it? This is a figure of speech that translates poorly. It’s rather like asking why you would give someone money and send them to the store to buy something when he has no idea what it is. To be a fool is the same as having a dead heart, incapable of discerning the moral fabric of Creation. Some people seem to possess no capacity at all for awakening their hearts. There’s not enough money in the world to buy moral discernment.

17. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for the time of trouble. A Hebrew parallel, the terms for friend and brother are equally ambiguous, defined by context. You know whom to call friend and brother by how they stand by you regardless of the situation. Treat such people accordingly.

18. A man lacking heart strikes hands; he pledges in the presence of his friend. Again, the word for friend is contextual. Notice the literal comment about lacking a strong heart-mind. While Hebrew law permitted people to cosign loans, it was always considered high risk. Typically someone wealthier and more powerful would cosign, someone who could pay off the debt and find a way to extract the balance from the other. Most people can’t play that rough with their peers, so it was considered folly to consign for someone your social equal. Since ancient times it was very destructive of family relations.

19. He who loves fighting loves transgression; he who makes his gate high seeks ruin. Another challenging figure of speech in poetic parallel, the focus here is on provoking trouble in any social context. If you find conflict entertaining, you might as well be in open rebellion against your own kin, because you will bring all kinds of moral failures into the household. A “high gate” presents the image of provocative arrogance, someone just looking for an excuse to make trouble.

20. He who has a perverse heart finds no good, and he who has a crooked tongue falls into mischief. This parallelism is more obvious, in that a heart choked by hedonism lies behind a perverse tongue. Not so much in the sense of saying naughty things, but a perverse tongue goes overboard, outrageously asserting things contrary to the revealed moral character of God. It’s just a step away from outright blasphemy. A wise head of household would run such folks out of town.

21. He who fathers a fool does it to his sorrow; the father of a fool has no joy. Actually there are two different words translated as “father” here. The first is the verb for begetting children whether as mother, father or even midwife. The point is that anyone involved in the life of a child who never awakens the moral discernment of his heart will deeply regret that involvement. Sorrow is their destiny.

22. A merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. The sentiment here is echoed in may other passages in the Bible. People who rejoice in the moral character of God, who delight in discovering how it is woven into every part of Creation, are the best medicine for every ill that afflicts humanity. Their faith is contagious. You pray to find such people in your household, and do your best to isolate someone who bears a gloomy outlook. Depression can be somewhat contagious, too.

23. A wicked man takes a bribe out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. This is the same word for “bribe” as in verse 8 above, but the context is obviously limited. Unlike some customary tribute offered openly as a mark of high honor, this is something sneaky. It seeks to seduce the higher power into dishonor and injustice. This is particularly destructive in the family setting.

24. Wisdom is before him who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. Here is another unfamiliar figure of speech. The image is a savvy fellow keeping his attention focused on moral wisdom, contrasted against a fool who seeks just about everything except wisdom. The obvious point is encouraging a sense of moral focus as if paying attention to someone great and mighty.

25. A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him. This one keeps coming back in different contexts. However, it is particularly appropriate in this chapter themed on family moral stability. Compare this with the commandment to honor your father and mother.

26. And it is not good to punish the just, nor to strike princes for uprightness. Recall from previous proverbs that the just need only verbal correction. To punish them the same as fools is a grave offense to God, on a par with any kind of violence against nobility or royalty when they are morally upright. In the latter case, you’d be lucky to live much longer, since powerful folks keep armed guards around. How much worse it is to fall into God’s wrath for eternity.

27. He who has knowledge uses few words; a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. The first phrase we have seen before. It’s more than just a solid grasp of the subject where you can answer with concise brevity, but you have no need to put on a show to demonstrate your expertise. It’s not reluctance, but reticence. The second is a figure of speech indicating someone who is a rare treasure. Keep such people around because they won’t waste time and energy on frivolity.

28. Even a fool, when he is silent, is counted wise, and he who shuts his lips is counted as a man of understanding. This continues the previous verse. Anyone who seeks to show off usually proves only his incompetence. These last two verses support the teaching of not throwing pearls before swine. It’s hard to share truth with someone whose life is one big lie. It’s also hard to live in the same house with them.

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Cycling Draper Again

Posted on August 18, 2015 by ehurst

Nothing remarkable except that for late August it was refreshingly cool and cloudy today. I rode out on Henney to SE 59th just for the fun of climbing one long hill west-bound where the road humps over I-40. I headed south on Hiwasee to SE 89th and stayed on that all the way to the lake. I stopped to take this shot of West Hog Creek Branch, but I find the Coolpix has just a little trouble showing the full perspective. That valley is pretty deep and far ridge is steeper than the image indicates.WestHogCreekValley It’s really quite appealing visually and sufficient reason for me to climb the two razor-backed ridges to see this view.

Just a quarter-mile farther I encountered a dog that actually gave me trouble. While there are no words to explain how different people use their sensory heart, mine comes with a facility for handling animals. I really don’t like the idea of domesticating anything, but that’s no reason to be an ass about it. It’s been more than a year since I’ve felt the need to use the dog spray. Barking dogs are not an interruption to me, but a moment to exploit for divine justice. Most of them seem to sense that I am not a threat once they get close enough. I generally talk to them as best I can, but I find that domestication confuses their instincts, and some can act inconsistently. At this one spot, the house is fenced with a double-paneled swinging drive gate. The edge of one gate has been bumped by a vehicle and bent inward just a bit. This allows one of the two dogs to squeeze through. It’s big enough to be a threat, but the past two times has calmed when coming out to bark at me — just doing his job, you see.

Today he was in a foul mood and was going to bite. But as he drew near, I raised my hand and he seemed genuinely surprised that I would defend myself. He backed up a few feet, continuing the aggressive barking and posture. I yelled at him to back off and he actually turned to comply, stopping a few more feet away and turning back to bark some more. I dismounted and dropped my kickstand, and he looked genuinely worried. I stepped forward, pointed back at the gate and ordered him to get back inside the yard. He did so, still hanging around the gate and barking. Then I took another step and ordered him to stay there or he would get hurt. I wasn’t bluffing; I carry a knife for things like this and I do know how to fight attack dogs. He moved away from the gate and around the corner into the yard, growling but compliant.

Hint: Be firm and insistent, but with no real emotion. They know when you fear them and nothing can make you fearless except genuine experience and training, if then. It makes a huge difference if you learn how your own sensory heart works and use it to empower your faith in God’s Laws. This dog knew I was not fearful. That business of “smelling fear” is bunk; animals can sense your heart-mind even if you don’t.

I took Draper Drive counterclockwise. Today I stopped off at the boat ramp on Point 1, which was deserted except for a single vehicle behind me.DraperPoint1 The various lakes I’ve visited on my bike all have the same basic hardware around these ramps, but the ones here were in the best shape I’ve seen. They are probably the newest in the sense of the having the most recent modifications according to whatever they consider the standard pattern these days.

I’ve noticed there is a tremendous amount of dirt work around Draper the past couple of years. Some of it has intensified, with a constant rotation of dump trucks of all sizes streaming back and forth between two places. They are loading out from somewhere near where the massive pipe ends are kept, not far from a water treatment facility below the dam. They take it around to the east side of the lake near SE 104th and dump it. Both locations are screened by heavy forest and there’s no way to look without violating the warning signs or getting eaten alive by ticks and chiggers. Up on the north end not far from the Midwest Boulevard entrance there is a very large space being carved out of a hillside, looking for all the world like a construction site in preparation. As usual, I can’t seem to find any information published about all of this.

I came home via Post Road and SE 29th.

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Neither Product Nor Process

Posted on August 18, 2015 by ehurst

It’s environment, not outcomes.

The entire focus of revelation is the character of God. Because of our fallen nature, we can know only what He demands of us in terms of what our minds can handle. Thus, His revelation is a collection of narratives that focus on Law Covenants and divine initiative. From that narrative we are obliged to form an image of God as a Person. We aren’t merely learning His Laws, but learning Him through His requirements.

Stop and think: At what point does revelation emphasize outcomes? If your orientation is to think in terms of outcomes, your mind will supply all sorts of examples. But if you make an effort to understand the orientation of the people who lived and wrote this narrative, you’ll realize that the focus on outcomes is tied directly to the fallen nature. The call to a higher moral understanding means forsaking outcomes and operating in terms of the moral environment.

More pointedly, we are called to build a working environment that allows God to reveal His compassion.

He will most certainly reveal Himself, and it will be entirely on His own terms. If you ignore those terms, then what applies to your life is His wrath. In other words, you’ll be pounded into a pile of impotent insignificance. Thus, all that talk in the Bible of futility and how we all end up in the same place — the grave. That sort of language is aimed at folks who struggle to embrace reality in its fullness. Among rodeo folks around here, the expression goes like this: It’s you and the bull in that ring. You can try to ride the bull and hang on for dear life wherever it takes you, or you can let the bull chase you until it gores and tramples you. Ignoring the bull is not an option. God speaks through the bull in this case.

The options we have for building an environment are limited. The Law Covenants allow us to see God’s intent for how we should live. Rodeo bull-riders don’t get it right the first time, so it does take some training to gain a working knowledge of how to ride. But try to imagine that God is bull who wants you to learn how to ride. The environment is rooted in yourself. The biggest task is changing your expectations and habits so that they match reality as God created it. It’s not just an 8-second trial run with a quick escape, but a lifetime commitment.

However, a conscious choice to commit means we can take away the image of bull-riding and it becomes any number of more sane contexts. You can color it any way you like, so long as you strive to match up with reality as God defines it. You have choices; they are seldom what fallen nature tells you. A large part of what I write here is aimed at correcting the myths humanity generates in pursuit of fallen lusts. This is not Burger King and you can’t have it your way. You have to discover God’s way, and it won’t be precisely the same for any two of us. God knows each of us as unique individuals and delivers to us a uniquely individual set of parameters for the environment He calls us to shape inside our hearts. You have a limited dominion over certain features of your existence.

And one of the biggest myths in our Western society is that specific outcomes matter. It’s not the results of what you do, but the discovery of what God has granted. Every time you uncover the next mystery in your life, there’s always more. You are obliged to organize as best you can, but your reason is the servant whose job is never finished. You can never stop and tell yourself you have it all worked out (Luke 12:16-21). You don’t lose everything you gain, but you don’t get hung up on what’s measurable to human senses. You wake up every day in a new world in terms of potential. You are called to bring His justice to a whole new range of moral failures.

It’s never finished until you leave this world.

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Shepherd’s Complaint

Posted on August 17, 2015 by ehurst

Going back to the scattered fragments and passing references from the most ancient sources, we gain a rough outline of the primordial shepherd. Not so much as the one who owns and herds sheep, but as the head of household we see something we really need today.

It’s not about ownership, but duty to God. The divine moral imperative was raising an extended family on behalf of some higher sovereign. It’s that business of Ancient Near Eastern feudalism, where the whole of a sheikh’s wealth was the people in his clan. They remained free souls as far as the shepherd is concerned because they are God’s family first. If something drives them out of the immediate household, they could leave with blessings if they cared. Otherwise, they were asked to avoid going out of their way to provoke the chief shepherd. The protocols were radically different from what Westerners would expect. The whole point in clinging to the image of shepherd as head of household is that he leads by moral authority, exercising a very limited range of physical force. Even that little was aimed more at protecting the sheep from threats.

The constraints resulted from a focus on daily existence, not results. The shepherd was accountable first and foremost for personal commitment. If his ability was limited, he was apprenticed to someone else, but the necessity of networking with peers was always there, regardless. And while privacy was one thing, the ideal of openness was ever present. A leader was accountable on all sides, though primarily to the sovereign first. He never forgot that this was all about people and their lives in this world.

All of this blather remains idealistic and idyllic until people try to manifest it into reality. By the time it runs through the meat-grinder of Western church traditions, you can no longer recognize it. Orwell’s dystopian nightmares pale in comparison to ecclesiastical doublespeak. Having worked as professional clergyman, I know what I’m talking about.

When was the last time you saw a church open their records to their harshest critics? Even then, the written record may not reflect actual practice. The closest I’ve seen any religious organization come to total openness is when they chained an interviewer to the chair metaphorically until the representative managed to lay out their whole propaganda presentation. If I tell you there has to be a balance point between the bias of the questioner and that of the church authorities, I can assure you most of what I’ve seen in public presentations looks more like combative debate (think of the entertainment value), when it wasn’t slavish softballing of the investigation. But the moral burden is on the churches to reach out to their critics and let them make of things what they will.

Very early in the history of organized Christian religion, leaders began to envy worldly respectability. They brought into the church all their unredeemed social expectations and prejudices and failed to actually leave them at the foot of the Cross. Today we have this upside-down assumption that somehow the churches created some portion of the mainstream social expectations.

This is patently false; the church bears little resemblance to the ancient pastoral family structure that Jesus demanded His followers embrace. Can you imagine? Almost any church you ask will assert with all sincerity that their particular organizational structure and system of internal government is precisely what Jesus taught, regardless how they all differ across the spectrum. Each takes so very much from a wide range of competing secular organizational theories that none of them have a clue what Jesus taught on the matter.

It’s bad enough our actual families are so very far away from God’s revealed expectations. If there was ever a time when people needed the Lord’s family atmosphere for healing and redemption, it’s now. If you happen to find such a thing, it will likely be in spite of the official church organizational policies.

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The Popular Legend of Democracy

Posted on August 16, 2015 by ehurst

I dread it.

Perhaps you understand how our Western cultural heritage equates “rule of law” with civilization and all that is obviously good and right in human existence. It carries this basic assumption that you simply cannot live any other way without diving off into barbarity, so that the resulting chaos just begs for some civilized nation to come in and conquer you. There was a time when just about everyone on earth you were likely to encounter would bow the knee to this notion.

But it was always a lie told by some elite plutocrats intent on ruling things as they pleased. It wasn’t a bad mirage to keep the serfs distracted, but it was hardly fitting for the entitled class. Thus, we have had several generations of increasing separation between the two groups — voters and government officials. Whatever amounts to sophistication has been hidden farther and farther from the masses.

Perhaps you’ve met someone who was sophisticated, possessed of a genuinely noble education such as was more common a century ago. It’s not that he was an entitled snob, but the very opposite. He really didn’t expect much of his world, but held the guy in the mirror to a high standard. It’s also the opposite of hypocrisy. He was able to find himself a place almost anywhere, but most assuredly preferred the company of those who were similarly mature and cultured. He didn’t demand the world conform, but enticed others to rise to his urbanity.

Such people don’t take themselves too seriously, but believe that they are part of something far greater.

Instead, we have several generations of folks who somehow insist that if they could just get the laws right, and get the judges to rule accordingly, all would be well. They equate the system with God. Whenever anything fails to meet their presumptions in this world, they throw a big fuss and demand that somebody make it right. It’s that same sense of entitlement but utterly impotent. It’s even more ridiculous when you hear them talking about the way the Internet works, but we’ve covered that enough here. The point is we have an awful lot of activists running around promoting some kind of legal and social agenda that is so completely out of touch with reality, it makes you wonder if you’ve stumbled onto a movie set.

At some point that mirage will fade away, blown into oblivion by the storms of general economic and social instability. It will come about the same time all the governments and banks have to outright admit they are financially insolvent. Okay, so maybe they’ll wait until after they cut all the social welfare stuff from the budget in favor of military spending and full-time pointless warfare. The elite who never believed in the rule of law will openly admit that much, anyway. I don’t dread that.

What I dread is dealing with all the children of social conformity-at-the-bottom. These folks will be chaotically disoriented. They’ll keep pushing the automatic pedestrian crossing button long after the streets are awash in rivers of blood. Maybe you’ve seen that bewildered crying of the child who has been told there is no Santa Claus. This is the same folks who keep voting every election.

I’m not looking forward to it.

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Cycling Odds and Ends

Posted on August 16, 2015 by ehurst

Yesterday’s ride was unremarkable for the most part. I was still very tired from the long ride to Shawnee Twin Lakes, so I didn’t push. I headed north on Henney up to Jones and then wandered around the North Canadian Valley a bit.

WilshireFix The repair on Wilshire Boulevard between Peebly and Triple X Roads is not totally finished. All that’s missing is a few concrete fills around the upright posts supporting a portion of the guardrail. Otherwise, it’s one of the better jobs I’ve seen. On the left here I took a shot of the splash wall showing where the road side run off comes around the side of the buttress. WilshireFixDetail But the whole area has been cleaned up nicely. They spent a very long time smoothing all the soil and rolling out turf on top of it. So long as we don’t have any more torrential floods, that stuff should stay in place and grow some really fine tall weeds (heh).

Down on NE 23rd on the SE corner at Peebly Road is this old car dealership. The building and lot are quite large. It was vacant for awhile, but there is now some evidence of occupancy. Rumor has it multi-million dollar medical lab bought the place and is moving their entire operation here from California. Someone said their bigshot is a very successful molecular biochemist. We shall see. Harrah’s municipal government isn’t necessarily corrupt, but they aren’t known for being friendly. It’s funny how stuff like this is kept so tightly veiled from the public, then they brag about it among their personal friends. So instead of a straight story, we have rumors that get inflated with retelling. FutureLabChoctaw They also keeping shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to courting big businesses. I think most of the ones that move in do so despite the idiocy simply because it’s a good location. (Edit: I had first thought it was Choctaw, but Peebly Road is the boundary with Harrah, so the property is technically in Harrah. Oddly, both city governments are about the same in regards to such things.)

It’s a good thing that nice road repair job on Wilshire didn’t fall under their purview.

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Psalm 63

Posted on August 15, 2015 by ehurst

Written during a time away from home and in the wilderness area west of the Dead Sea, this is another psalm that has found it’s way into many contemporary songs. Even in translation, the words are powerful and moving. This is a mixture of lyrical images and profound, simple confession.

Jehovah is my only deity, says David. As soon as his eyes open, his heart cries out to renew the awareness of God’s Presence. The figure of speech for starting early implies an earnestness that runs throughout his waking hours. It is not possible to sate this burning desire; one would think God was water to a man lost in the desert. Keep in mind that this was well before any Temple was built, so David longs to present himself formally in the Tent of Meeting where the Ark of Covenant rests. If only he could simply stay there all day, as a mere retainer in the divine courts! God’s glory alone is all the reward he seeks.

God’s merciful favor in allowing David to enter His Presence is worth more than staying alive on this earth, for it comes from an ineffable heavenly level of existence. David could hardly restrain himself from offering up his voice in praise to the Lord for so long as his soul remains in his body. Assignment to God’s praise choir is far richer than the choicest things David could offer to God in return.

In the middle of the night, whatever it is that awakens him, his consciousness first turns to God. So precious are these quiet moments that David eagerly stays awake while the world sleeps just to enjoy this undistracted time of celebration. Every good thing in David’s life bears the fingerprints of God’s blessing. This is what it feels like to be a child of royalty who fears nothing because his royal Father is so powerful. Human boredom is a million miles away, even when God seems to pay him no mind as David shadows Him about His business.

With such an otherworldly orientation, it’s no surprise that David has worldly enemies. It’s also no surprise they have to be replaced so often, because God sees to it that they cannot long oppose him. Fortunate are the ones who have a proper burial, for many are those left for the carrion eaters. Yet we should not imagine that David wastes much time crowing over their demise. He’s too busy expressing his joy in Jehovah’s divine favor. David would much rather find folks interested in sharing this worship, instead of watching so many of them silenced for opposing God’s revelation.

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Quick Note: Geek or Surrender

Posted on August 15, 2015 by ehurst

We are reaching a saturation point of sorts in computer technology again. Don’t worry; it’s cyclical. What it means is that we are on the verge of a sudden jump that, in popular vernacular, is termed “a paradigm shift.” The underlying technology as we know it now is about to collapse under too many conflicting threats and there is no way to escape without digging into it deep enough to become a computer geek. Otherwise you just grab the best protection you know about, cross your fingers and mentally prepare for the worst.

I don’t have room in a regular post to address the full catalog of stuff in the technology news just for this week.

For example, I don’t use any mainstream browser because all of them have compromised too thoroughly with marketers, which leaves the door wide open to crackers. On my Linux system, I replace Firefox (Iceweasel) with Pale Moon and I install extensions like NoScript and uBlock. When I need a browser that acts like Google Chrome, I use Slimjet. Both are tricky on Debian 8 but I simply install the most generic version (matching either 32-bit or 64-bit as applicable) in my user Home directory because it’s easier to upgrade. Slimjet still requires the root password each time, but only once to activate the “sandbox” that protects the system.

Most of the time I use Links2 (they have a version for Windows) because it’s the most crippled browser available that still shows graphics and manages to render most common websites for reading. If I know I don’t want even the graphics, I use either Elinks or Lynx.

Yep, those are all pretty geeky options. The Net is dangerously close to unusable, even as the world becomes more dependent on it. I’m placing my bets on some brand of Linux remaining more viable than the other options for awhile. I’m not choosing that for you, but giving you proper notice about how to pray. You must obey your own conscience before the Lord.

Addenda: This looks like a very interesting project for Windows geeks: TT Livescan from an outfit calling itself “Temple of Transgression.” I note that the site doesn’t do cookies or JScript, so that alone makes it seem trustworthy.

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