Garden of the Soul

Posted on July 21, 2010 by ehurst

Every year my dad plants a vegetable garden, sometimes a few flowers. This year he wasn’t feeling quite as strong as in the past, so was unable to put quite so much effort into it. Still, it produced a huge number of tomatoes, banana peppers and okra. We had a few crooked neck yellow squash but they didn’t do well. The eggplants weren’t too enthusiastic, and some of the tomatoes never produced at all. We have a half dozen cucumbers so far. Lots of onions, but most didn’t do too well. The cantaloupes are coming along.

Right now dad isn’t available, so my wife and I took over tending the garden. I spent several days just pulling weeds and grass. Then we slowly cleared the non-producing plants. Right now, about one-third of the main garden plot is empty, so I chopped up all the plants we pulled, plus some grass clippings and such, and let them dry on the empty portion. Today I turned all that under.

The problem we have here is the soil is a light layer of sand on top of red clay. So I’m turning it over as deep as the shovel will cut one time and chopping it up. Then I’m adding one heavy layer of mulch from the trees ground up a couple years ago in our trailer park. I keep it all wet and leave it for a week or so. Then I’ll turn it all under again, and add another layer. Over the winter, I’m hoping this will break down and make next year’s garden plot more like potting soil instead of a clay pan.

I’m doing this with hand tools. I chop the silage with a pair of short limb snippers. The mulch I tote about a half-mile in a large plastic barrel on a hand truck. It’s a good work out. Every day I give it an hour or so in the morning, then a similar effort in the evening before I water it. This is pretty good, since I’m not able to get to my usual make-shift gymnasium, and I can’t do any work on my trails until the first freeze kills off the deer ticks.

It won’t hurt the soil, of course. I’m trying to create a bit of a raised bed above the grass in the yard, so I’ll keep adding that black tree mulch until it’s up at least a couple of inches. Sometime during the winter I’m also going to add some cedar and pine clippings, because the soil is very basic here. There’s plenty of conifers along my fitness trail, and I’ve already piled some dead limbs from last year. Provided it’s still our garden next spring, we’ll plant stuff more typical of Central Oklahoma that we like: carrots, radishes, green beans, tomatoes bred specifically for local conditions, but we want to try the squash again, maybe some turnips, a couple heads of lettuce, and whatever else make good natural companions with those. Depending on how the cantaloupes turn out, I might do that again.

Naturally, it’s pretty good for the soul, too. I enjoy working with he soil, but I prefer to do it pretty much alone, and the way I want it. I would not enjoy nearly so much working someone else’s ideas. I’m that way on a lot of things, though hardly everything. When it comes to computers, I’m all about customer service, for example. But for something like gardening, I need to work alone mostly.

Given the way the economy is going, it might make a big difference for us in the next few years.

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There Is Only One Standard

Posted on July 20, 2010 by ehurst

Don’t talk to me about custom, law, treaties, history or tradition. While I normally take those things into account, they are not binding on me. I am free. Not that those things cannot bind my flesh, or kill it, but they don’t matter to my spirit, the part they cannot touch because they had nothing to do with it. I am free because I am alive in the spirit.

There is only one standard to which men can point which matters, and that is the Bible. No, not just the book itself, since the words printed on paper, in very many different translations in many different languages, can be made to mean any number of conflicting things. No, ultimate truth cannot be rendered in mere words of human language. Rather, it is the Bible as read by those who are born of the Spirit. Further, it is what that binding means to you in the context of the moment in which you live.

It is altogether likely your understanding of the same passage between today and tomorrow will shift somewhat. If you really do intend to understand what God requires of you, that happens. It happens because no one of us is where we ought to be when He comes to us. We have to be moved gradually. Choosing to bring you into His domain is His choice, but in a very real sense, once inside you have to cooperate every step of the way. And as your cooperation improves, so does your grasp of what God expects of you. So it is our understanding of that Bible will move some over time.

You are bound under that best understanding you have at the moment of decision. Not in the performance, for even that is a miracle of God. No, in your commitment to do what He wants.

Nothing any man comes up with makes a hair’s breadth of difference in moving me one way or another in the basic decisions. Those things are burned into the very being of my spirit and soul. Again, I am responsible for knowing something about man’s requirements, but only so I can with open eyes see how it conflicts with my commitment to Christ.

Jesus is my only Lord. All others are either partners, allies, bystanders or enemies in terms of what I must try to do. We would surely disagree with what we see in that Book, because we are not at the same place on our individual paths. But we can still choose to cooperate by making room for each other, however much room that may be. But in the final analysis, I must do what the Spirit and Book demand. Nothing else matters.

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Take Them Seriously

Posted on July 19, 2010 by ehurst

Over the years of my life, whenever I have encountered children, I’ve never had too much trouble getting their cooperation. Nobody is perfect, and some groups are inherently bratty unless broken apart, but more on that later. The point is, the single greatest factor in my comfort and success with children as a whole is taking them seriously. They know instinctively when you do, and it changes everything.

It’s the same with any leader-follower relationship. The true leader takes into account every one of the group they lead, and takes seriously their wishes, even if there is nothing they can do to fulfill a single one. So we not the least surprised when someone points out US government by no means takes anyone seriously who isn’t part of the ruling class:

When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term “political class” came into use. Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public’s understanding, the American people started referring to those in and around government as the “ruling class.” And in fact Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act as a class.

Codevilla goes on to explain how this didn’t actually start with TARP, but it simply became painfully obvious to all on an unprecedented scale. He also breaks it down by party and basic policy orientation, noting those who are conservative or Republican are utterly certain the party leaders do not represent them. So while it’s highly likely the next election will see Republican gains across the board, nobody believes it will change much, because it can only be a matter of the lesser of evils, and all of them are very, very evil.

For mystics, we understand. We trust no one, least of all ourselves, but we know we cannot hope to bring truth to anyone if we don’t take them seriously. Truth only comes one individual at a time, and the essence of bringing enlightenment is one-on-one within a context of consistently revealing truth to all. It’s work, very hard work, until it becomes your basic reflex. I can’t explain how I came to take children seriously, but it has been a reflex for as long as I can remember. That is, I don’t exactly treat them like children, and give them as much as possible the same freedom to act as I do adults. Who am I to say they aren’t some superior genius in ways I can’t discern? Only what I must do to protect those under my care will indicate any limitations. It’s not a matter of inherent power or talent, but simply the role assigned by forces beyond my control.

I’m still trying to figure this out, and allowing people to choose will expose their readiness to face the world. Treat people like children, and you’ll tend to get the worst, most childish response. Treat them like equals within the limits of the situation, and it changes everything. That’s because we are constructing a bubble of truth when we do so, and all things come to light when we live the truth. The one thing which most sickens me among others who proclaim themselves “mystics” is the same awful pretense of superiority we get from any elitist ruling class. Mysticism does not make you better, just more honest with yourself. We do not have answers for the all the many needs of the world, but deny there are any real answers in this world. The only real answer is to deny them all, and point people to the place inside the human soul which can touch and be touched by the hand of God.

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Catalogue of Errors

Posted on July 18, 2010 by ehurst

It’s not as if there isn’t enough crazy evil coming out government and corporations, but too much of it. It would be easy to pick out single events for discussion, but today I simply want to reiterate some basic principles.

1. There is not a single national government which operates according to God’s Laws for nations and governments. In that sense, not a one has any legitimate claim on your loyalty. You would probably grant some latitude and act according to the laws of these governments, but in the West we are on the threshold of requirements for things we cannot do. No one should be surprised.

2. Government power, or any other form of power over human lives, is unfailingly corrupted. Not just petty stuff, but major stuff. The powers that be (TPTB) have deeply embedded into the system horrific evil. We should never hold as decent or good anyone in that system. Consider all the things which tempt folks to compromise morally — every one of them, and some you cannot imagine, have been used. You will find it fundamentally built into government there will be child molestation, heavy mind-bending substances, massive quantities of material wealth essentially stolen, the most casual lack of concern for human life-health-safety, and on and on it goes. These things are the norm in government, particularly in the US. The apparatus in place which keeps it all secret is the same which keeps these compromised people on a leash. Nobody — nobody — is working for you. They are all serving other masters.

3. God is on the warpath and the cover is being ripped off even as we speak. At first, the corrupt actors will simply assume you don’t know, will continue brazenly acting as if nothing has been exposed, that their secret sins simply don’t exist. “We are the finest, most honorable folks because we say so.” The tricks used to cover their sins are wearing thin, and pretty soon nobody with an ounce of honesty is going to believe any of it. The scariest part of that is how few folks you will find honestly seeking to know. Most of the world prefers fiction.

4. It’s not just the so-called “Internet Kill Switch” recently handed to the President, but that is symbolic of the on-going fight to keep us in the dark. Right now, the one best means of spreading that truth across the entire global population is the Internet. Don’t be surprised if that goes away, and quite suddenly, very soon. Don’t be surprised if it only appears to be the same, but is actually so radically changed, it might as well be gone. I hope Mel Gibson does the smart thing and goes back to Australia, but his experiences are not a major news item compared to all the other stuff going on. Yet, you can be sure stuff like that will be shoved in our faces, as more and more sinister efforts are made to shut down the free flow of information. Kooks are just fine, and they should have full right to speak, since they are hardly more dangerous than government liars. The only thing which will keep this from happening is the Net geeks come up with some other means or protocol for electronic data transfer, some other type of network or whatever. Personally, I expect the government to simply convince the Telcos, who own virtually all the wiring not in government hands already, to participate in a new format which allows more entertainment, and less actual information.

5. Equally dangerous, we should expect some sort of surprise move to disarm everyone, not just of firearms, but anything which might aid people in resisting armed oppression from the government. This is what governments do when they plan to hurt the folks they govern. They are already working on this, but the stuff we know about crashes before it gets off the ground. I believe it is all theater designed to keep us from seeing the real threat.

6. There will be more war than you can possibly imagine. Think it’s bad now? Fasten your seatbelt. Hostilities with Iran will begin officially any day now, and we are already fighting a covert war in Pakistan, some other Stans, parts of Africa, you name it. Most fighting in the world right now was all started by the CIA, and they are just warming up. There will also be considerable warfare here in the US, again instigated by our own government, and massive population displacements, even use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

This would be a really good time to hone your mystical awareness. Just for the record, one more time, let’s define what we mean by “mysticism” — the habit of including in your decision-making process input from non-rational sources within your own soul and spirit. No, that does not include emotions and purely subjective wishful thinking, but something considerably higher up in the realms of subconscious operations. Thus, your rational mind takes a backseat to these higher processes and simply works out the means to doing what is decided.

Get used to the idea all your worldly goods are already forfeit. It could be nothing exciting will happen to you individually, but that’s highly unlikely. Then, get used to the idea all your hopes and dreams were silly from the start. You aren’t likely to ever accomplish anything in the near future, because the necessities for such planning are gone. The world is changing even as I type this, and everything is coming apart. Think in terms of simply doing what you absolutely have to do according to your convictions, and especially be ready to pay the price for refusing things you know are wrong. For those of you with children in your household — God help you — plan on having to fight to keep them under your parental control, or even seeing them any more.

God alone knows what comes next, so you best be standing next to Him.

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Mysticism and Leadership

Posted on July 17, 2010 by ehurst

So you are a Christian Mystic (like me) and have been placed in a position of leadership. Now what?

This is much easier than it seems. Leadership means you focus on the mission and results, not the fine details of the operation. Yes, there are regulations, and you’ll have to thread your way through the bureaucratic maze of idiocy. Every rule arises from some idiot pushing the envelope for his personal gain, and some idiot bureaucrat pushes back with a new regulation to eliminate that option. But it always goes too far and blocks good options, too. That’s the whole point — stop trying to micromanage. It’s a whole lot easier if you permit creativity in those you lead.

Mystics don’t even want control. We know we cannot trust ourselves to know what works best in every situation, even if we have 50 academic degrees and a century of experience. When you get that far, you should already know full well how to keep your nose out of your subordinates’ business. And it’s their business to execute commands under you guidance, not under your micromanaging hands. The ultimate wisdom knows your real mission is the people, and your assigned mission is the next stupid idea some bureaucratic manager above you dreamed up. The first thing we do is build a barrier to protect our family, which in this case is the folks you supervise. This puts God in control.

The people you lead are not mere extensions, as if they were hands and feet which must carry out the finite decisions of your mind. The people you lead are people. Don’t form a detailed vision, but do include them in your planning sessions. You aren’t better, just the one who is required to have the final say, which you will avoid exercising as much as possible. Respect your people.

It’s that simple. If you can’t work it out from there, you aren’t quite mystical yet, and you aren’t ready to lead.

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This Is What Scares Me in Oklahoma

Posted on July 16, 2010 by ehurst

Either they are completely stupid, or testing some kind of Orwellian mass control scheme.

The other day on our local TV news channels, which I watch only so I know what lies are being promoted by the establishment, there was this all serious, frightening story about kids using a new technique to get high. They called it “i-dosing” or something, and spoke about how these binaural tones could induce euphoria. Then they insisted this was a really big problem in the schools, etc. Oh my! Make sure you keep your kids away from this!

Yeah. Two things for a reality check. First, search “binaural” on the web, and soon enough you’ll find some scholarly descriptions of unusual auditory perceptions based on some unknown characteristic of the human mind. By playing frequencies close to each other in opposite ears, but within a specific range, you can hear pulsations or beats which aren’t actually there. It does not cause euphoria. Second, work in any secondary school for more than a day or two, and you’ll realize kids will hype all sorts of things. Even if they have to fool themselves, it will become all the rage in a closed population bored to death with what passes these days for “education.” Folks, I was certified to teach and did so in schools in Oklahoma and Texas.

So very quickly we have this deeply embarrassing exposé posted on the web about stupid Okies, including, of all places, an AV software company blog! Yes, it is entirely possible the officials here are just that stupid in actually believing this crap. Or, this may have been a very poorly disguised stupid attempt at playing Orwellian games. Either way, “stupid” is the appropriate adjective for this story splashed on the news channels, and for the suckers who believed it and supported the story, and for anyone else who takes seriously those officials. I’m willing to bet neither the officials nor the news folks will issue any kind of retraction. For all I know, they are still pushing this idiocy with all seriousness.

Look, unless you plan to come help us get rid of such a fraudulent waste of oxygen, don’t bother coming here to Oklahoma.

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The Iconoclast: Crushing False Dreams

Posted on July 15, 2010 by ehurst

If this life is all we have, then Western Civilization was right all along. When you strip it bare down to the core, the very heart and soul of Western Civilization is anti-Christian materialism. Everything about it assumes there can be no value to anything which does not promote creature comfort in this life. It utterly rejects the notion of the Fall, of human sin nature, and assumes you must make the most of things here and now. Even with all the nice words about eternity, Western Civilization perverts the notion so it means nothing.

Thus, we in America today are so wrapped around this devilish lie, we can hardly be taught to do what’s right. It requires massive plowing and destroying what stands in order to heal it down deep at the roots. An entire epoch of human history is built on sand, and that is Western Civilization.

Everything you dream of as the goals of your life are probably utterly sinful, whether you are a full blown Spirit-filled Christian or not. The Bible says we must give our entire focus to the Life beyond this world, and the only thing which matters here is how well we advertise that truth. I’ll cite some prime examples.

Sexual fulfillment is not a human need, not a right. It is an appetite of the flesh, and God has tightly, strictly ruled how it shall be fulfilled. Any other route is evil. No, God says you have no right to expect good sex or even bad sex, because you have no business demanding it in the first place. Your proper attitude is accept what He provides with grateful heart, and don’t let it own you. Sex is marriage in God’s eyes, so all the rules about marriage applies. The only reason we think this is cold and ruthless, that calling it life and joy is somehow perverted, is because our cultural perversion regarding sex runs all the way down to the roots, the very soil itself. No, I’m not promoting what you may think is Victorian or Puritanical, because that’s just a false counter raised to scare you. The real deal in God’s eyes is so foreign, I’m not sure writing a book or two would be enough to dispel the mythology.

Clinging to his life is evil. For folks who are spiritually dead, this life is all they have, and eternal torment is what follows. That is the natural concern of those who don’t know Christ. But for us who know Him, we can’t wait to escape this world. God keeps us here at His pleasure, and it is neither punishment nor a blessing to live long. What is a blessing is having a long train of good testimony of divine truth, of a life which reveals Him. For us, this life is not precious; it is to be endured. We aren’t here to grab a little gusto. It would appear to be some sort of gusto though, because we value it so lightly, we would bravely face almost anything for His name. It will seem we are a candle burning brightly and burning out quickly, and fatalism is awfully close to the truth. Children dying is not a tragedy to the children, but to us who love them. Children suffering is a tragedy because they tend not to understand, but tragedy is a good basic description of this life, because suffering is built into the nature of things. We don’t need to pursue what makes for a good life, but what makes for a good witness.

Your dreams are lies. Do you dream of a good education, a good career, a home and kids, and the same stuff for them? You are deluded, and God is not pleased. If your career matters much at all to you, God will have a very hard time using you. Retirement? It’s just a tool: useful, but not worth much effort. Economic rootlessness is not a sin, contrary to everything we are taught. It’s not irresponsible to be poor in the face of economic opportunity. It’s irresponsible to think it matters at all. If God has given you children, He does not require you to sacrifice everything for their apparent welfare and happiness. Try to understand this line from an obscure song: “We would rather our children be martyrs than murderers.” That’s godly; that’s biblical. Insofar as you are in charge of your children’s lives, God holds you accountable to Him for your commitments, not what you manage to do, and He demands sacrifice from the heart, which means you place them in His hands. Do what your conscience demands, and if that deprives them of the American dream, you have done well by them nonetheless, because they will have seen the truth of things. If they react poorly, that is not your problem, because the only thing you owe them is truth, not happiness.

There is no significant difference between violence by police and violence by criminals. Not every act of violence is unwarranted by either group, but a great many times both will assault and kill people for entirely personal gratification. Crooks don’t want your resistance for their nefarious deeds, and neither do police. That the police are paid by the government has no bearing on the issue, only that it means they are more likely to get away with it. When the public demands a criminal be punished, the state will comply only if it matches state needs. Often they simply won’t bother. The state rarely offers a policeman the same penalties for precisely the same criminal acts as non-state violators. Simply because a policeman followed official policy does not make it right; it simply means you and I have no input on those policies. The state is almost entirely unresponsive to public demand, and certainly less responsive than almost every criminal who lives. Confront a professional crook with minimal force and statistics show he’ll move on to easier targets. Resist the state and you will most certainly be killed, especially more so when the cop and/or state is wrong. The difference is the state refuses to admit what it does is wrong.

We have a long, long way to go to get it right.

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Your Own Resistance

Posted on July 14, 2010 by ehurst

Those who understand it best refer to the “Committee of One” — you don’t have to organize to be effective in resisting evil government.

Forget parties and the typical definitions of liberal and conservative, since it is all artificial. What you see in the mainstream information outlets is entirely fake, never mind how ardently such a vast horde of people truly believe. If you don’t think the system here in the US, and in the West generally, is completely broken, then I have nothing to say to you. For the rest, you already know we are moving in a very, very bad direction. Official government itself, regardless of what it may have been in the past, has now become inherently evil. It does far more harm than good, and honest people — yes, even Ron Paul — are corrupted by being involved. (Ron Paul’s decisions did not reflect the will of the people, nor their best interest, and allowed the perverted campaign to continue unchallenged. That’s irresponsible. That’s politics.) The whole thing is implacably the foe of humanity.

So an honest conscience requires resistance. It’s inevitable. Naturally, there is a wide range of resistance open to you, starting with the simple passive refusal to participate in the evil government demands. If you simply go along, you aren’t fully human. Even if your methods are altogether furtive, waiting for the right time to escape, it’s still resistance. When you operate on the principle of Committee of One (Co1) you get to choose. That there will be widespread resistance is inevitable, and all resistance is, if not good, at least different from the evils of government. We will focus on principled resistance for this discussion, since the crooks have a totally different ethos for all this.

It does help if the many Co1s are operating from the same basic principles, but I think that’s too much to hope, not realistic. However, the mere act of resistance alone is at least temporarily an alliance with your Co1. The choices open to you remain flexible, both in fundamental orientation and in choices you make to answer surprises. Don’t pretend for now there is any hope of restoring anything we may or may not have had in the past. It’s gone forever. We’ll have to start from scratch. Go ahead and dream, but try not to become too wrapped up in it, because you probably can’t imagine what it will be like down the road.

Then again, if all you do is react to the immediate challenges, you’ll probably end up in quite a mess. If that’s okay with you, then at least you know. In my own case, I don’t expect anything in particular except trouble of some sort. It’s just too obvious things I cannot do will be demanded of me all too soon. I’d rather not get involved in bloodshed, or even mild roughing up of other humans. I may escape that entirely, particularly if the resistance is truly wide and deep, or more precisely, wide spread and based on deep commitments. TPTB in their evil hold a lot of cards we cannot see. There will be advantageous leaks, and I insist it is right and proper to pray the cover be torn off everything. Still, there is a certain layer of evil at work none of us can imagine. So for someone like me who has actually served that evil as an enforcer in times past, while little will surprise me in the sense of cynicism, it’s hardly impossible to catch me off guard. Understand this: A very key element in government evil is the unjustified secrecy over things which would easily justify lynching every one of the officials. I’ve seen a huge number of government and corporate secrets, and every one of them was a matter of covering up someone’s sins. It was never a matter of denying the enemy operational intel.

So we know there will be some real surprises, because evil can also be intelligent and resourceful. Back off a moment and see yourself as part of the whole scene. Chances are very favorable you’ll get hurt regardless of how you act. Most of us will get hurt more than once, and in different ways. A few of us will surely die unnaturally in the next few years. The proportions will vary with geography — cities will be more dangerous, coastal conurbations most dangerous of all. A uniformity of threat is impossible, since this involves real humans, evil though they may be on various levels. Some will not be able to go through with it, and in various ways bail out on the process. Let me warn you the folks in government who are most religious will dominate the extremes, while less religious folks will take up the middle range of things in having a conscience. You have to understand this in terms of deeply held convictions, not whether they belong to any religious institutions, though the overlap is huge. So the one thing you can expect is the unexpected.

The only preparation which really counts is knowing yourself. There are some things which only circumstance can reveal, but the more you know about your own deeply held convictions, not just what you hope they are, the more likely you can make full use of those quiet moments when your actions can be shaped in deliberation. At some point in the game, every moment will see a change in expectations. You’ll be cut off from all the previous inputs by which you guided your life, and you’ll have only what’s inside, responding to the immediate context. At some points, probably in most points, your guesses will be wrong, but things may well work out in spite of that. Or it simply won’t make a bit of difference. Be ready for that. The one and only hope you have for any kind of peace and safety is not the external kind, but the kind which means you didn’t catch yourself compromising because someone or something suckered you.

And they will surely try. Remember that G20 business in Canada? The alternative press was full of stories about false-flag police provocateurs. When big things go wrong in big ways in the near future, consider Toronto a dress rehearsal. We’ve seen it elsewhere in the past, but this time the activists were ready and caught a lot of good photos and videos of it. This is the primary reason organizing is a mistake. Anything organized is a target for subversion by the state. The longer and more involved it is, the more certain it will happen. A critical element in mysticism is not trusting yourself, much less anyone else. It doesn’t require hostility, nor even direct assertive resistance, but simply the assurance of human failure at the worst possible moment. So even if the state does not plant a mole, someone in any group of two or more is vulnerable to bailing out, and it may be you. By not organizing, you guard yourself from failure of others, and guard others from your own failings. If all you do is mess things up for yourself, you can keep a clear conscience.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking results matter. That’s a Western materialist obsession, part of what got us into this mess. There is no measurable objective which can hold all the variables. This is not about dreams of a brighter tomorrow, a better world, because that is utterly impossible. It never was, nor ever will be. The only thing that can ever matter is being true to your best self in the process. The results will always be purely a matter of God’s sovereign will.

That’s the whole point behind resisting. I can’t tell you how much and what kind of resistance is right. That’s between you and God. Even if I tell you I’m a pacifist, that doesn’t mean God can’t ever move me to harm another human for some divine purpose I can’t imagine. It’s altogether unlikely, but I do know a lot about weapons of all sorts, and I’m physically large, and currently working out quite regularly. I want the Spirit of God to have full access to me as an asset. My current expectation is to review all I’ve learned about escape and evasion. That is actually more work than fighting. I don’t like seeing people suffer, and I’ve seen plenty of it people hurting to know for sure how I feel about it. Whether fighting or fleeing, it has to fit my sense of what causes the least suffering for all involved.

That there will be more suffering is beyond question. Whatever we might have done at some time in the past, it’s too late to fix what exists. It’s going to be very messy, very soon. God help us.

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Christian Mythology of Marriage

Posted on July 13, 2010 by ehurst

I agree with Vox in his disdain for typical marriage talk in churches. Were I to say anything on the list of statements he quotes from yet another blog, my wife would know it was hyperbole.

You have to understand I am very eclectic and lyrical, often using drama, including broad satire, and all sorts of other thespian devices to express myself. You may not see such displays at first, but as soon as I think I can get away with it, and there appears some reason for it, however frivolous, I’ll act crazy.

Thus, you should understand some things about my marriage.

I am the last person to quibble over semantics, but within the context of this discussion, let’s make clear Vox rightly distinguishes between “just deserts” and “worthiness.” If I got the former, I would suffer a short and miserable life, a long and painful death, followed by eternity in Hell. Worthiness is an attribute of God alone. Where the Lord can be found, there is worthiness. If you find Him in me, then worthiness will be found in me.

This confusion of terminology ends up becoming an excuse for a very twisted, perverted middle class American evangelical culture. It’s a parody, something which vaguely approaches the ideals of Western Civilization at times, but seldom bears any resemblance, even in caricature, of the New Testament model drawn from a frankly Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) intellectual framework.

Real men in the Bible do not take themselves seriously, but their duties are the essence of life, the excuse for which God has not yet taken their lives. My duty to my wife is to remain utterly committed to Christ. If she does not see in that devotion something worthy of her devotion, I hope she has the good sense to put some distance between us.

Jokingly, I’ll tell her I’m awesome, and seconds later grovel dramatically at her feet. Neither is the reality of what I am, or what I do. Yet both bear an element of truth. No, I don’t deserve someone so wonderful as my wife, but if there is no worthiness in me, she had better get packing. And that works both ways. Were she not committed to the same things as I, there would not have been a first date.

The one most important thing about marriage is the planning. Not in the details, but in the spiritual ground upon which it stands. Were the people involved both spiritually dead, marriage remains in theory the one place where God can demonstrate His love for us even if we don’t accept that love. Lost folks can know something of Jesus through marriage. That they seldom get that something of Jesus is proof they need Him, but that’s another matter. God’s gift still stands with no strings attached; it’s only what you make of it on the purely human level.

For believers, it is utterly essential you pay attention to it before the time comes. The New Testament makes utterly clear this is a one-shot deal in this life. You are permitted only one partner once your spirit comes to life, and any previous partner will have a claim on you regardless of their spiritual condition. If you’ve had more than one, you’ve made a mess of things which can’t be undone, but you can salvage something if you truly trust the Lord to make it work for His glory. That’s the only reason anything regarding marriage can work — His glory. Chances are, if it’s too messed up, you should prepare to do without. Harsh, but that is the biblical standard.

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The Iconoclast: Military Departure

Posted on July 13, 2010 by ehurst

There was a reception. Not fancy of course, just the ad hoc stuff pulled from the exchange shelves using a slender portion of unit funds. None of the men for whom the reception was organized were of the rank for which military protocol required such expense, nor were any of their awards such high honors. Rather, it was because there were so many of them. Rotation policies had changed yet again.

Their departure would take a bite out of the community. That was the only real reason any of them drew any attention. But one man in particular, who seemed to have breathed some fresh subtle hint of life into things when he came, would be surely missed when he was gone. But the plans to honor him were borged by the the commander who was the ultimate politician. The reception was more military than community. To no one’s surprise, this did not hinder that particular man at all.

Most of the men mumbled a few standard phrases when given their awards and a chance to address the crowd. Two even managed to sound very close to the standard military ideal, if the leadership manuals meant anything. Nice speeches with a fresh bite, not entirely predictable, and even funny at points, but ending on a sober patriotic note. Then it was his turn, because the civilians demanded he be last on threat of a very ugly revolt of sorts. The commander had wanted to do this one first and get it out of the way. He dreaded what the fellow might say. This one had not given him one shred of military reason for official disfavor, but the man was totally alien. So while it was never anything dramatic, it was always obvious just the same. Always on protocol, this soldier was still scared him.

The award was presented, and the man was asked to speak. The commander’s jaw tightened and his brow lowered just a bit over his eyes.

It’s not possible to find words for what I feel today. I would, therefor, not normally speak to you all. However, an iconoclast never misses a chance, and I hope you’ll indulge me a few seconds with my sledge hammer. The plaque has little value in itself, and I’m not the sort who will wave it people’s faces after today. I’ll keep it because it will form a symbolic anchor point, a way to recall all the things I found worthy of the time I spent here, and the people I’ve come to love. A few of you understand well what has driven me.

We cannot ever know what we are. And what we do is always fraught with imperfections in the eyes of someone somewhere, if not our own eyes. It remains for others to say why it was this plaque should be given to me. But just one more time I want to declare for the record: This is merely a bit of stuff which represents to me the things to which I am committed. It would change nothing if I left without any plaque, and without a chance to speak.

The other awards will go on my record, and someone somewhere will count them in the standard military bureaucratic fashion, measuring me against an ever changing, yet always lifeless, standard for serving under the authority of human government. They matter only in the sense of their utility. What matters to me is the irreplaceable opportunity to operate under commitments bigger than any of us, or all of us, or all humanity together. That is something needed everywhere, at all times. What matters to me is demonstrating what really does matter. Such a thing is its own reward, so the rest of this matters little. For your cooperation, such as it was, I am truly grateful.

It wasn’t code language, but of the couple thousand whose presence in that foreign land depended on a shared mandate from their government, only a dozen or so understand what he had said.

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