2.14.2020
"I have seen that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil. but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness,....
"In this version of the Christian Gospel, the exploitation and abuse of other human beings is a good. Homosexuality is an evil. And this global, heartless system of economic rationalism has morphed in the rhetoric of the Christian Right into a test of faith. The ideology it espouses is a radical evil, an ideology of death. It calls....
"Corporations, rapidly turning America into an oligarchy, have little interest in Christian ethics, or anybody's ethics. They know what they have to do. as the titans of the industry remind us, for their stockholders. They are content to increase profit at the expense of those who demand fair wages, health....
"Totalitarian systems usually start as propagandistic movements that ostensibly teach people to "believe what they want," but that opening gambit is a ruse. This insistence on the primacy of personal opinion regardless of facts destabilizes and destroys the primacy of all fact. This process.....
2.13.2020
We're in much deeper trouble than I realized. "As the process gains momentum-with some justices on the Supreme Court such as Antonin Scalia steeped in this ideology- America starts to speak a new language. There is a slow and
We're in much deeper trouble than I realized. "As the process gains momentum-with some justices on the Supreme Court such as Antonin Scalia steeped in this ideology- America starts to speak a new language. There is a slow and.... inexorable hijacking of religious and political tenninology. Terms such as "liberty" and "freedom" no longer mean what they meant in the past. Those in the movement speak of "liberty," but they do not speak about the traditional concepts of American liberty-the liberty to express divergent opinions, to respect other ways of believing and being, the liberty of individuals to seek and pursue their own goals and fonns of happiness. When used by the Christian Right, the term "liberty" means the liberty that comes with accepting a very narrowly conceived Christ and the binary world· view that acceptance promotes. America's Providential Hi....
2.12.2020
Brief update regarding mom and the boys.
She and I have been engaged in major work every day. She while totally consumed by earning an income and taking care of her boys. While remaining substantially unhealthy unable to find an affordable medical regimen so far. Can we get Beyond this? Time will tell.
Last you heard from James on this subject Mom and he had been conducting a flurry of documenting the situation so that others could become engaged which so far has not materialized much. Sadly.
But also, James was pushing for too fast an implementation of detailed work. The first stage is to see if we can get Mom back up toward full function with a health regimen. And if it is possible it may take some weeks.
Only then should any of us look for substantial detailed work to take place.
2.11.2020
My place last night. And they would be glad to have me stay for a while.
Yesterday afternoon I arrived for the night. She and her husband and I, well, I found it a absolutely wonderful exhilarating evening over a pasta dinner.
Stay longer. They reiterated it.
I recounted how I finally understand why Mother Teresa would never eat. Any place but at one of her orders. Even if she had been talking at a banquet, for example.
It is a largely fun, stimulating struggle, to keep the soul in charge. But the head and the flesh are relentless. Given the slightest opening, the slightest encouragement, they begin stealing attention. And I do not prefer it when they have attention.
As I departed our dinner, she said, now I hope you don't do a Mother Teresa and sleep on the floor. I had already mention that was likely. It is so odd, but the thought of spoiling all those sheets and creating all that work. Is so distasteful to me. It was a very pleasant vacation on the floor to have plenty of room to sprawl. , a solid floor, a safe quiet space, in such a beautiful area. With such nice friends..
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2.10.2020
REVEALED HERE. HEAR ME. Jesus, the most important figure in human history, Thousands and thousands of research hours, and finally emerges in this book. Theology for the Social Gospel, Walter rauschenbusch.
I cannot overstate what a revolution, Revelation, is This book. not possible.
Inarguably most consequential figure in human history, be he fact as is nearly certain, or fiction.
Lifelong the central figure in James life. The Rosetta Stone that could only be seen vaguely and distorted through the church and Christianity. Some have brought shame is much closer, Leo Tolstoy, in particular. As he did with Gandhi and Martin Luther King jr.
But after all that This book is an utter revelation. And it is this author, Walter rauschenbusch, That was the spark that ignited Martin Luther King jr. That certainly says something, correct?
2.09.2020
Rauschenbusch, theology, the fall.
"It is important to realize that the story of the fall is incomparably more fundamental in later theology than it was in biblical thought. The conspicuous place given to Genesis in the arrangement of the Hebrew canon, itself concentrated the attention of later times on it. The story now embodied in Genesis iii was part of the Jahvist narrative, a document of Ephraimitic origin dating back to the ninth century B.C. The original purpose of the story was not to explain the origin of sin, but the origin of 40 A THEOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL GOSPEL death and evil. There are scarcely any allusions to the story in the Old Testament. The prophets were deeply conscious of the sins of men, but they did not base their teachings on the doctrine of the fall. Not till we reach post-biblical Jewish theology is there any general interest in the story of Adam's fall. Even then the story of the fall of the angels in Genesis vi attracted more interest. In the synoptic sayings of Jesus there is not even a reference to the fall of Adam. In the fourth gospel there is one allusion, (John viii, 44). Jesus, of course, had the clearest consciousness of the chasm between the will of God and the actual condition of mankind. The universality of sin was a matter of course with him ; it was presupposed in all his teaching. But he was concerned only with those sources of sin which he saw in active work about him: first, the evil heart of man from which all evil words and actions proceed ; second, the social stumbling blocks of temptation which make the weak to fall ;....
Social Gospel, rauschenbusch, on the Supreme Joy.
"Our duty to the Kingdom of God [Creating it on Earth] is on a higher level than all other duties. To aid it is the supreme joy. To have failed it by our weakness, to have hampered it by our ignorance, to have resisted its prophets, to have contradicted its truths, to have denied it in time of danger, to have betrayed it for thirty pieces of silver, — this is the most poignant con- sciousness of sin. The social gospel opens our eyes to the ways in which religious men do all these things. It plunges us in a new baptism of repentance.....
If you consider yourself a friend, of James, And you respect him, then you need to consider this....
Note: James intention regarding all this is to help a great Soul get their head above water and likely to keep it above. That way. It is not an attempt to provide material Nirvana.
James finds it very difficult to understand himself. Let alone anyone else. And it is probably the same with you, No?
It is at crisis points that we have the chance to learn such things more deeply.
James, and any that think they are his friend, are at such a crisis point. Crisis meaning, opportunity on a dangerous wind.
James life, as it should be with all of us, is devoted to the unleashing of the human soul, the mammalian brain, the seat of all goodness in we the most powerful creatures in the universe that we know of, and the source of all joy.
He has found the Pearl worth any price personally, a soul of great goodness that is going to be snuffed out if help does not arrive. And he has devoted much of his time, near all of it in recent weeks, to trying to determine if this Soul can be saved.
This Soul being an absolutely heroic, brilliant, strong, good... Tenacious parent with two special-needs sons that is in the final stages of drowning, Where James would have drowned long long ago.
James sees tremendous hope but not unless he really does have friends in More Than Words, in deed that will give some time and possibly Financial Resources, For a detailed quantified plan that is being developed.
In very high level overview. It is shaping up something like this.
It is game time. You need to search your soul. Do you have a lot of respect and confidence for James? Are you his friend? Indeed? If there is anyone for whom the answer is yes, yes, and yes, Then you need to contact James on messenger or email. Tell him, James, when you have the plans, James, I want to see it. At that point, James, I will decide if there is anything else that I can do. Email. Start underscore loving at yahoo.com.
PS. If James and this heroic parent finalize a plan in which James has some confidence He will be investing everything he has in time and treasure up to and even including the liquidation of his current mission, If that is needed, as it is likely to be if no other help arrives.
2.08.2020
Theology for the Social Gospel, rauschenbusch.
Historical criticism has performed an inestimable service to true religion by clearing up the historical antagon- Xism between priest and prophet in the Old Testament, and labeling the literary documents of Jewish religion according to
2.07.2020
Chris Hedges: Stringfellow repeatedly warned Christians, as well as Christian institutions, not to allow the fear of death to diminish the power of Christian witness. Faith becomes real o....
Stringfellow repeatedly warned Christians, as well as Christian institutions, not to allow the fear of death to diminish the power of... Christian witness. Faith becomes real on the edge of the abyss. “In the face of death,” he wrote, “live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst Babel, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God.”
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