Morality, Religion & Philosophy: August 2004 Archives

Reuters "news" editor Todd Eastham responded by email to a National Right to Life Committee press release:

Eastham's email read as follows: "What's your plan for parenting & educating all the unwanted children you people want to bring into the world? Who will pay for policing our streets & maintaining the prisons needed to contain them when you, their parents & the system fail them? Oh, sorry. All that money has been earmarked to pay off the Bush deficit. Give me a frigging break, will you?"

How obliviously evil! The parents "don't want" the children, therefore the children should be killed. With that logic and morality the strong can justify killing just about anyone we want, right?

Douglas Johnson, the National Right to Life Committee's legislative director, called it "sad but revealing to see an editor for a major news service so casually and gratuitously express such blatant hostility to both the Bush administration and to the right to life of unborn children.

"Apparently, Mr. Eastham feels strongly that abortion is necessary to prevent the birth of children who will otherwise snatch some bread from his mouth," said Johnson. "We can only wonder at how such vehement opinions may color Mr. Eastham's reporting or editing on subjects such as abortion and the Bush administration."

Nah, I'm sure his twisted morality and idiocy don't affect how he edits "news" stories or selects stories for publication.

Anyway, on the plus side, I really like the concept of "oblivious evil" and I think I'm going to use it more frequently.

Churches are financed by donations from their members, and are generally prohibited from engaging in business enterprises to make money (except on a small scale, such as car washes or bake sales). Lots of people give lots of money (and time, and energy) to my church, and just as new people frequently join, existing members occasionally leave. What's odd is when they ask for a refund.

It should be pretty clear that, as a practical matter, a church can't make a practice of refunding money to unsatisfied members or former members. Where would the line be drawn? If someone has been a member for 50 years should they be able to get all their donations refunded if they decide to leave? Although money is fungible and it would be possible to give refunds on a small scale, it would be impossible to fairly extend the practice to others once the ice was broken. (Not that many people would ever ask for such a thing, no matter how dissatisfied they were.)

As a theological matter, I don't think God gives refunds. In reality, we never give God something that he didn't first give us, and nothing we give to him can ever measure up to the gifts he's given to us merely through creation. I think most Christians would agree with this. The benefits we should expect from giving are spiritual, not material.

However, I can imagine that if a person leaves a church after giving money for a long period of time it can feel like they're abandoning a financial investment, but that's really the wrong perspective. When we give money to a church we aren't "buying into" anything or building equity. The money is given away, and it's no longer ours, and we get nothing in return. The church serves everyone equally, regardless of how much they give or how much they need, and no special favor or regard is obtained by giving a lot. For the most part, very few people know who gives how much -- generally just the treasurer, for tax purposes; our pastor doesn't know who gives what (although I'm sure he can make reasonable guesses, but so can anyone).

Apparently, God also doesn't finance cars.

For anyone *cough* who happens to think that Christianity is repressive towards women, consider this passage on the essence of an excellent wife and marvel at her industry, compassion, and wisdom.

Proverbs 31:10-31

10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

I'm curious as to historical norms for polygamous marriage, and it's hard to find sources. Here's a page about polygamy in the New Testament, but it focuses more on the religious/moral issues than on information about how polygamy worked.

For instance, are two women who are married to the same man considered to be each others' "wives", or sisters-in-law, or what? If the man dies is there any persisting relationship or obligation between the women? Depending on the culture and the laws of inheritance, if one wife or child inherits does she or he have to support the children of the other wife? Based on the longer life spans of women I imagine these situations were quite common. I bet it varied from culture to culture, but if anyone has any links I'd appreciate it.

(I'm told that my earlier post on polyamory is amusing.)

Let me admit up front that I don't claim to know the details of God's purpose for your life -- but I'm sure he has one. Since 90% of success is just showing up, I thought it might be valuable to explain the basic, overarching themes that will inevitably form the foundation of God's purpose for you. God will reveal the details to you himself through various means, but I can guarantee that they will be consistent with the framework below.

We all want to know why we exist, and when I talk with children (and many adults) they often have extremely self-serving, shallow understandings of what God wants to use them for. Among the common claims are that God wants them to, e.g., help animals, be an artist, raise their children, be a teacher, be happy, and so forth. None of these things are bad, but if they are components of God's will for a person's life they are very small ones. Most of these things are entirely unimportant and have no eternal value whatsoever, and even raising kids is often done with very little conception of how it is that God wants children to be raised. Most of the things that people think are important parts of their purpose in life are, in fact, completely worthless garbage (Psalm 14:1-3).

So then, what is important? What things have eternal value? Well there isn't much that's going to be around for eternity (Revelation 21), but we will be. Each and every human being was created for eternity, which is a concept that's hard to grasp. Eternity means more than "for an unlimited amount of time", because time has no meaning in eternity -- we are spiritual beings who exist outside time itself, and are only temporarily bound to this present creation (Philippians 3:20-21). We are all destined for eternity, and God has given us the choice of how we want to spend it. Despite the evil we do -- and the eternal death we earn by it -- God offers us eternal life instead, if we are willing to accept it (Romans 6:23). Lest anyone think God to be cruel or unjust, this eternal life is offered to everyone as a free gift that does not have to be earned by human goodness (Ephesians 2:8-9). How? It's amazingly simple: we must admit our evil to God (1 John 1:9) and accept Jesus Christ's death as a substitutionary payment made on our behalf (Hebrews 10:14). Those things that are of eternal value all relate to this most critical decision.

Let's consider the Great Commandments and the Great Commission to see what things Jesus considered important enough to command us to do. First, the Great Commandments:

Matthew 22:24-40

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Next, the Great Commission, the last known words that Jesus spoke before returning to Heaven:

Matthew 28:18-20

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[to] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

From these two passages we can glean five important purposes that undergird the plan God has for your life. By aligning yourself to these principles you will fulfill the "showing up" that is 90% of success.

First and foremost, we were created to woship and love God. It is the first commandment. Our relationship with God is completely individual and does not depend on any other human. God deals with us each personally, and unlike the Jews of the Old Testament we do not require priests to act as intermediaries for us -- Jesus Christ now serves as a permanent high priest, bridging the gap between a perfect God and sinful men (Hebrews 7:11-28). We worship God through a life of love, praise, humility, service, intimacy, hope, and faith. As the primary building block of our created purpose, worship is interleaved with the others pieces I'll consider below.

The second principle is fellowship, between God and man and among men. The idea of fellowship is fundamental to both the Great Commandments and the Great Commission, as it's impossible to love either God or men without knowing them, and it's likewise impossible to go and teach. We are brought into fellowship with God when we accept Christ's death as payment for our evil actions and thereby obtain forgiveness, and we are brought into fellowship with other men when we are taught by other Christians and we in turn teach others. The Bible calls the church (and local churches individually) "the body of Christ", and every Christian is designed to be a part of it and to thrive in a particular role (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Just as an eye or an ear alone is worthless without the rest of the body, a lone Christian cannot fulfill the purpose God has for his life. Therefore, if you want to be used by God you must be a part of a church and in fellowship with both God and other believers. In fact, it is impossible to be right with God if you are not right with men (1 John 4:20).

Third is commonly referred to as discipleship -- that is, teaching and learning. We are commanded to "go and make disciples", and in order to do that we must be disciples ourselves. God reveals truth to us -- we do not "discover" it ourselves or create our own conception of what truth is -- as an act of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26), who is God. The Holy Spirit generally reveals truth through study of the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15, 2 Timothy 3:16), through other members of the church (Proverbs 19:20), through prayer, and through our experiences. It's easy for us to project our own desires onto any of these and thereby allow ourselves to believe that whatever we want is also what God wants for us, but when we're honest with ourselves we can generally discern the difference. Furthermore, we have a responsibility to understand what we believe and to be able to explain it to others (1 Peter 3:15). The single best advice I can give to anyone who wants to grow in their relationship with God is to read the Bible daily and to be frequently in prayer. Don't expect messages written in the sky if you're presently neglecting the most straightforward way God has created to speak with you: his written Word.

Fourth is service -- that is, we are designed to serve each other. This service falls into two major categories: evangelism and ministry. Evangelism is targetted at unbelievers, to whom nothing is more important than hearing about and believing in Jesus Christ. Ministry is service to other believers, and generally revolves around fellowship and discipleship -- although, for example, playing music can be a form of ministry that facilitates worship through song. As eyes, ears, hands, feet, and so forth in the body of Christ, we each have a purpose to fulfill within the fellowship of believers (the church), and we've each been given different abilities (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). When we use these abilities to support each other, teach each other, protect each other, provide for each other, and encourage each other to do good (Hebrews 10:24-25) we fulfill an essential part of God's purpose for our lives.

Fifth and finally, the second component of service is evangelism. Jesus commands us to "go and make disciples", and there's no such thing as a secret Christian. It's impossible to please God if you're unwilling to obey him, and in fact most people who struggle don't really have an obedience problem, they have a love problem (1 John 5:2-3) -- that is, they don't really love God as much as they may think they do. We can say anything we want, but the truth is revealed by our actions. Likewise, we claim to love our unbelieving family and friends, but we're then hesitant to share the truth with them about their eternal destiny and their one hope for escape through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). We don't want to offend, we don't want to risk friendships, and in the end we'd prefer to be comfortable than to do the work God has commanded us to do. Consider the fact that God loves our family and friends far more than we do, and when we refuse to share the Good News with them we are deliberately thwarting God's purpose and acting as his enemies rather than his children. We are commanded to love our fellowman, and Jesus said that:

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

He gave up his life to restore us to fellowship with God, and yet we are often so reluctant to sacrifice the tiniest bit of convenience to share his love with others. God's purpose for your life will absolutely encompass a mission field and a group of people God intends to save through you.

The rest is just details. Where does God want you to live? Where does God want you to work? Who does God want you to marry? What does God want you to eat for lunch? Mere trivia. Once you structure your life around the five principles above all these other decisions will fall into place as God reveals his day-to-day plan for your life. Do you want to do something "big" for God? Then start by doing these "small" things (Matthew 25:21). Each task builds upon what came before it as God prepares you not just for the rest of this life, but also for eternity. God doesn't intend his plan to be a mysteryto you, and he is constantly working to reveal himself despite the clouds of distraction that tear our gazes away from him. As Jesus exhorted his followers:

John 15:9-17

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

(See also: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.)

I'll probably explore this in more depth later, but let me just say right now that anyone who thinks they can live a godly life without belonging to a local church is a fool. I'm always amazed at how God uses my church family to bless and support me, and I'd never be able to be the man I am without them. I'm not any sort of super-saint, but I recognize that almost every time God uses me he's able to do so because of the godly people he's put around me.

Update:
More here.

Next up for synthetic relationships: cuddle parties. So yeah, sometimes it's hard to find someone to cuddle with, but is this "latest craze" any less bizarre than the above-linked imaginary girlfriends?

It's not about sex and all about the touchy-feely experience of snuggling up to perfect strangers wearing pajamas.

The grab fests are called cuddle parties, and since they started in New York in February, hundreds of people have paid $30 each to touch and embrace others in intimate gatherings.

Everyone needs to be cuddled, especially in lonely New York, say creators Reid Mihalko and Marcia Baczynski who say it's a good way to meet new and interesting people.

Everyone needs to be cuddled... so let's cut out all the preliminaries and get right to it! I'm sure you'll feel amazingly fulfilled the morning after.

Curiosity is a big driver for people who attend cuddle parties, and it is a better way to meet people than going to a bar, getting drunk and spending the night with someone just because of the need for some affection, she said.

If that's the only alternative you can think of, that's pretty sad.

This kind of story is actually a little comforting to me, because it indicates that I'm not the only person having trouble establishing a meaningful relationship. On the other hand, it's disheartening to see just how desperate and lonely it's possible to get. I think many of the problems my generation has with intimacy come from the divorces of our parents -- but that's for another post.

The Cost of Abortion to My Generation

Proverbs 22:13

The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside!"
or, "I will be murdered in the streets!"

I wrote a lot about the Bible and money, and now I'd like to write a bit about how people often conflate their views of God and money. Paul wrote to his young disciple Timothy:

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Note that there's nothing wrong with money itself, but rather with the love of money. Jesus also recognized the competition for worship between God and money.

Luke 16:13

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

Money is a powerful tool because it represents the value we create for the community around us and it can be exchanged with other people to get them to do what we want. There's nothing wrong with that. I don't know how to build a couch, so when I need a couch I work, get paid, and then trade my money (which represents my labor) to someone else in exchange for a couch (the product of their labor). It's an excellent system, and far more efficient than direct bartering. After all, I build satellites, and it's hard to trade satellites for food or housing. Money that is gained dishonestly is obviously tainted, but money that is earned through honest labor is worthy of respect because it represents that the earner has contributed to the well-being of his fellow man.

So money is a tool, and as such it increases the capabilities of its owner. I can't drive a nail into a plank with my bare hands, but I can do it easily if I've got a hammer. The reason people tend towards loving money should be pretty obvious: we tend to love ourselves quite a bit, and we take an immense amount of pride in the wonderful things we can accomplish. Love of money is fundamentally love of self. Look at what I've earned, look how powerful I am, look at everything I can accomplish.

People who love money tend to view God in the same way: as a tool. They think that if they say the right words (prayer) or act in certain ways (e.g., going to church) then God will do what they want him to do. To many people, religion is all about manipulating God into giving them what they want. Why? Because at the root they love themselves, and even their religion is all about them. These people see God as a genie in a bottle and think that if they rub him the right way he'll pop out and grant their wishes. After all, that's how money works.

Loving money -- and the power it brings -- warps our view of God. Rather than loving God and seeking a relationship with him, we try to enslave him. Rather than realizing that he is the master and we are the servants, we reverse the roles. Unlike money, which is a tool, God has his own purposes and his own desires, and he wants to use us to accomplish them, not vice versa.

So instead of valuing money as a tool to be used towards loving ends (e.g., feeding our families), we value money as an end in itself for the power it gives us; instead of loving God as a relational end in itself, we see him only as a tool. Again, the roles are exactly reversed: money takes the place of God and becomes an idol, and God takes the place of money as a tool. As with most modern idolatry, love of money is all about putting ourselves at the top of the pile because we trust ourselves more than we trust God. We think that if we've got enough power we can accomplish whatever it is we need to do, and we won't have to trust God for anything. Unfortunately, as they say, you can't take it with you.

Clayton Cramer quotes from some articles about the transgendered deception, as he calls it, and relates some pretty disturbing stories. I'd only like to add that one of the saddest facets of transgenerism is what many transsexuals call the "50% rule": that is, that 50% of transsexuals commit or attempt to commit suicide. There aren't a lot of major studies that I can find, but it's apparently conventional wisdom among transsexuals is supported by some data, as the linked-to site discusses.

Some may be quick to claim that these suicides are caused by a society that refuses to accept the transgendered, but isn't is more likely that a person who would want to undergo irreversible surgery to change his gender is already pretty disturbed? Wouldn't he be better served by counseling than by pandering to his psychosis by validating his self-destructive impulses? One of the tragedies of modern anything-goes morality is that people who really need help are dismissed as simply living an alternative lifestyle; it costs lives and ruins families.

All I know is that I haven't seen a man trapped in a woman's body since before I was born.

One of my more interesting discoveries at Cato University was that many of the younger attendees rejected the existence of natural rights. This rejection is intellectually honest, particularly for atheists, but still abnormal for libertarians who generally consider such rights (life, liberty, and property, as first argued by John Locke) to be axiomatic. Some think that natural rights are ordained by God, and others think they flow from the "natural order", but few deny that they exist at all. Without natural rights, it's hard to argue that a government that respects life, liberty, and property is "better" than one that doesn't, because there's no way to define "better".

The rejection of natural rights by some of my fellows led me to consider the question further, and I've come up with a new (to me) approach to the issue from a very primitive "might makes right" perspective. Note that, as a Christian, I don't wholly subscribe to these notions, but they are consistent in result with my own beliefs and with the traditional "natural order" arguments I'm familiar with.

Essentially: natural rights are those liberties which are easier to protect than to take away. For example, it's difficult for government or individuals to control what I think, and it's easy for me to resist or ignore any laws restricting my thoughts; therefore, freedom of thought is a natural right. On the other hand, it's easy for an individual or government to thwart my alleged "right" to have someone else pay for my health care. Thus, the first is a natural right, and the second is not.

Now certainly sufficient force can be applied to create any "right" one may desire, but force is in limited supply and can't be used for everything. Witness the former USSR, and how difficult it was to use force to restrict private property rights. On the contrary, in America very little force is required to protect private property rights.

This argument doesn't claim that anything that can be accomplished by force is moral, but rather that anything that can be easily accomplished by force (or without any force at all) is acceptable. Deciding what is a natural right, using this structure, does not require a belief in God or in any particular "natural order", it only requires that it is possible to reach agreement on what things are easy and what things are hard to accomplish by force.