TRUTH CLAIM

TRUTH CLAIM

There is nothing wrong with sex–I have 4 kids. I’ve been married longer than many of you have lived. The issue I’m raising about sex isn’t about whether sex is great. I believe it is great and is a gift of God. Sharing this in marriage with your life partner has very profound meaning in life. I believe the sex drive comes from God, but I also believe our culture has become too absorbed in it. Isn’t life more than that?.
Are we only muscle and bones? Extrapolating that–are we just a biological accident trapped in a body controlled by instincts?
There should be more than sex that drives us.

Let me lay something else on your mind.
I believe something that drives us–in fact how we act–how we think or feel is how we view the world.

So what is our worldview?

WHAT IS A WORLDVIEW?

I BELIEVE OUR WORLDVIEW is our adopted set of truth claims that purports to paint a picture of reality;
This picture is really how we view reality and make sense of life and the world.
And as mentioned in a previous blog, something that drives how we act–in fact how we think or feel--how we really view the world. We may say different things about our beliefs, but this is how we really believe. This is our truth. What you do with these TRUTH CLAIMS forms your “ WORLDVIEW”
SO WHAT IS TRUTH?

SEX: IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

Our interests seem to be focused that way. Viewing the number of clicks on different blogs makes me wonder. So what’s wrong with that? At the least, sex definitely attracts our interest, and all the more if the writer is female. Again–so what? Sex is a natural thing, and really beautiful in the right circumstances. But that’s the problem, it often leads to abuse–sometimes very bad abuse.. Viewing some of those “stings” on T.V,. reminds me of a pack of male dogs chasing after a female dog in heat. Obviously we’re not all like that, and I don’t believe any person is like a dogs, nor an animal--man is made in the image of God.

The truth of it–maybe I should have written “Sex: is that all life is?”

Really aren’t we allowing our thinking–our minds to become absorbed in something that is really very very temporary–almost minute. Isn’t life more than that?.

I believe something that drives how we act–in fact how we think or feel is how we view the world.

What is our worldview?

Are we only muscle and bones? Extrapolating that–are we just a biological accident trapped in time?

LIVING LIFE IN A POST-CHRISTIAN WORLD

I recently received a letter from a sceptic who had decided to “abandon the faith,” and be “honest” about life. I know this topic can take on a broad view like looking at religion or a much narrower view like looking at a church experience. I have lived in both of those world too. As I understand the letter-writer, he was abandoning the Christian Faith.
Many years ago, in 1973, actually during the Watergate period, the late William F. Buckley Jr.was a quite well known intellect. For a number of years he had a TV talk show program on PBS. Buckley would often have some well known personality along with a panel of intellects. He had a series of TV discussion interviews with Malcolm Muggeridge. The discussion brings out some interesting points about Christian ity.
Malcom Muggeridge was also quite well known. He had been a journalist of some 50 years. During that time, he had been the editor of “Punch”–a British weekly magazine (1841-1992) which used humor and satire to make its point. Using his writing and journalist talents, Muggeridge had been a ardent socialist. He lived as a controversial figure - known as a drinker, heavy smoker and womaniser in earlier life. However, some of his best work came as a result of finding faith late in life, eloquently expressed in broadcast and in writing, and fighting energetically on moral issues.”


This particular exchange took place in London, in August of 1973

MR. BUCKLEY: Is it the notion of the clergy you speak of that they won't otherwise be noticed unless they come out for free ping-pong or whatever?
MR. MUGGERIDGE: Well, they won't otherwise have anything to say, because, for the most part, they’ve lost their, faith, I mean, the faith in Christianity as a transcendental view of life has dimished enormously in all....they've either got to go out of business altogether or look around and see some earthly equivalent of that, something they can hold up-“
...That change is really the most--it's much more important, in my view, than, for instance, Marxism, or than the Russian revolution or the Chinese revolution. This is the total collapse of transcendental Christianity, but what is even more fascinating is. where do you find this transcendental Christianity,raising its head again? You find it in the communist countries, among the dissidents, of whom, obviously, Solzhenitsyn is a classic example.”
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a political prisoner of the Soviet Union for some 20 or more years. He wrote “The Gulag Archipelago” and “One Day in the Life Of Ivan Densovitch.” Before he left that country, he wrote an open letter to the Soviet government. He wrote:"I'm not against the Soviet regime as such. I'm not against dictatorial government. I don't think that by dismantling a dictatorial government you will automatically achieve freedom.
What I am against is the ideology Marxism, which gives the notion that men can satisfy their aspirations in worldly terms. That is the great fallacy, that is the great illness, and that the only answer is Christ.”

Confirmation Code: GNHBBMB7340070

GENUINE CHRISTIAN?

“[H]e (Obama) must have come to understand that, to succeed in politics, it would help to acquire the trappings of being a good Christian — regardless of what he may or may not have personally believed. It is generally beyond the pale to question a public figure's personal religious commitment (Democrat's, anyway) —and I don't personally care whether he is a genuine Christian (whatever that may be) or not. But, if he was there to absorb the spiritual stuff, he can't have missed the political message, since they were pretty closely intertwined.”
NRO's Lisa Schiffren makes a good point about Obama and his pastor. He “can’t have missed the political message.” However, while she confidently uses the terms “good Christian,” apparently she doesn’t know what constitutes a “genuine Christian.”
I can say with some confidence, genuine Christians are not "clinging to their guns and religion" because of low wages.

So what is a genuine Christian?
KOINONIKOS

WHOSE BELIEFS AND VALUES?

WHOSE BELIEFS AND VALUES? whose beliefs and values should form the basis for legal and public policy decisions in our pluralistic society? What "world-view"–whose moral vision–ought to be taught in our public schools?
In the introduction of an old 1942 book, I ran across this jewel of a quote:
"The basic postulate of the democratic faith, " says Professor Ralph Gabriel in his objective study, The Course of American Democratic Thought, "affirmed that God, the creator of man, has also created a moral law for his government and has endowed him with a conscience with which to apprehend it. Underneath and supporting human society, as the basic rock supports the hills, is a moral order which is the abiding place of the eternal principles of truth and righteousness. "
From the point of view of the descriptive sciences, the first of the self-evident truths stated in our Declaration of Independence is not evident. It is simply not true that all men are created equal. But from the point of view of the law and love of God it is true, and that is the point of view that the authors of the Declaration took. They assumed the equality' of men in the light of "the laws of nature and of nature's God." That means their equality before His impartial justice and His fatherly love. Faith in God underlies and is distinctly avowed in the Declaration of Independence. So only does the Declaration make sense.
Part of the Introduction by Luther A. Weigle, Yale University Divinity School
of "GOD IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS" by W.S Fleming, D.D.

MORALITY WORKING IN AMERICA

Some years ago, Dr. Charles Malik addressed a dedication ceremony with these words.
"NOTHING IS AS IMPORTANT in the world today as for the Christians of America to grasp their historic opportunities and prove themselves equal to them. I say "the Christians," but I must add also "the Jews," because what is fatefully at stake today is the highest spiritual values of the Judeo-Christian tradition. If the highest Christian values are overturned, so will the highest Jewish values. Perhaps never since the Twelve Disciples and Saint Paul has any group of Christians been burdened by Providence itself with the responsibilities now devolving upon the Christians of America. By "Christians" I mean at once the Protestants, the Catholics, and the Orthodox. The intensity of conviction, suffering, and witness being evidenced today in the Orthodox world, especially in Russia, is something for which the Living Lord must be profoundly thanked. The Catholics, under the eminent leadership of that remarkable man, John Paul II, are manifesting an immense vitality all over the world."

Dr. Malik addressed the same topic in one of his book, "Christ and the Crisis." This was published way back in 1962--the "Cold War" was in full flower, and the good doctor told of his concerns.
"Surely every conceivable weapon should be employed in self-defense - military, political, diplomatic, economic, psychological. Now there are limits to self-defense, because mere self-defense could become self-defeating, and because, precisely in self-defense, one must at times pass to the offensive. What concerns us most here is the moral and spiritual weapon. And here too this dialectic of the defense and the offense is most apparent. Morally and spiritually the Communists put you and me on the defensive; they make us feel guilty, and we supinely accept the terms of their debate. They talk in terms of capitalism," "imperialism," "colonialism," "monopolies," "profits, "exploitation," "means of production," - all purely economic, purely materialistic terms. And in answering them usually all we say is that the exploiting, capitalism of the nineteenth century no longer exists, imperialism has been liquidated, monopolies are now owned by the people, and as to profits, everybody now shares in them.
There is about this response a pathetic air of apology, a ring of feebleness, a sickly note of timidity....This will not do. They should be answered, not apologetically, not on a materialistic basis, but in human, moral, and spiritual terms."

"MORAL, AND SPIRITUAL TERMS"?---ISN'T THAT RESTRICTED TO CHURCH?

WHO IS DR. MALIK ANYWAY?

(If you are not acquainted with Dr. Malik, Charles Malik was a University Professor at The American University in Washington, D.C.. He received his B.A. from the American University of Beirut, and his M.A.and Ph.D. from Harvard. He was a Lebanese ambassador to the USA before his becoming president of the UN Security Council. Following that, he was elected as the president of the General Assembly of the United Nations.)

THE TASK IS NOT EASY

How could the delegates to the Constitutional Convention plan a more perfect union? They had to keep in mind three things.
First, they had to form a national government in which all the states would work together as a team.
Second, they had to make sure that the government would be a government of and by the people.
Third, they .had to give to everyone the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which the Declaration of Independence claimed as the basis for the Revolution..

The federal government had to be given authority over national problems; the state governments authority over state problems. At the same time the state and federal governments had to protect the rights of each individual citizen. Within the framework of the Constitution, the national government, state. governments, and individual citizens had to work together, and yet have a system of governing that ensured, as President Lincoln put it, “ a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
So what’s the problem--what's the answer?
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external or internal controls on government would be necessary for framing a government which is to be administered by men over men...”

Again overlooking human nature--as James Madison’s comment points out--would be a mistake. The great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
However, we know there are problems with all government–“men are not angels.” History has shown pure democracies, like the Greeks, has the majority always dominating the minority. Even a representative style of government, like the Romans, has the senators buying votes by giving away government projects or dole, and eventually progressing into corrupt authority and lawlessness. The reaction ended with despotic caesars claiming all authority to themselves as gods. This has happened in more modern governments such as the French Revolution of the Russian Revolution.

Our Founding Fathers dealt with the problem of tyranny and tyrants.
As we know, we have the separation of power; executive, judicial, and the legislative.branches operating independently and putting checks on each other. The Congress makes the laws, but is controlled--directly answerable by election, to we the people. But the American people were themselves answerable to an Authority--that 's evident in our Declation of Independence--a higher then man's government or king--that is God.

Is that changing?

Our Government has worked well for over two centuries. In fact it has had excellent results in many areas. The Christian Church in America should have been far more active politically in the past, in preaching equal respect for all people. I believe that is happening now.

I believe we are a country with problems, and it is within our borders. I don’t think it’s changing the structure of our government. We have unbounded freedom which may be lost with bad decisions--including how we vote.
I don’t think it has to do with more laws. Not unless we make our country a police state.
I do think it is the morals we are teaching our children. Morals are values!
What kind of example are we to our children?

America's Declaration of Independence claimed God as the authority over man, and under which authority they acted--do we claim this?
I believe television preaches far more of their values, and has far more influence on America's values than the church.
Whose values-morals are we living under?
Do we even recognize sexual immorality anymore? Do we recognize the value of marriage?

Why are our school children killing each other?

Why have we killed--not thousands, but millions--the most innocent beings in our care?
Why is there so much lawlessness? Our mass transit systems are not safe.
People are stealing the metal railing off of bridges for drug money.

Obviously America is going through a change as the politicians say, but are we changiung our Higher Authority?