*4 Affirmative Action - or else
the book of Romans speaks of government - both suggesting a sort of 'enforcer' role. the book of Romans speak of government as the agency that 'bears the sword'. It also talks about government's role as a collector of taxes. neither assignment brings immediately to mind a spirit of volunteerism. instead, government carries with it a 'do it or else' image. I think God designed it that way.
teaching moral goodness is always difficult. it takes a deft teacher, as any parent knows, to encourage someone to do something from the heart rather than merely to avoid bad results.
Government can't normally be that deft. if it were,
we wouldn't need troopers to keep us driving at safe speeds.
the IRS could send out fundraising appeals instead of audit threats.
Libraries could forget overdue notices, trusting all their patrons to return books in timely fashion.
Somewhere, though, troopers, tax collectors and librarians have discovered that teaching good behavior is not their main calling. they can offer a few carrots here and there, but mostly it's the threat of a stick that keeps people honest.
Affirmative action, as it ha come to be known in our generation, is about forcing people-using the government's power -to do the right thing even if it isn't totally evenhanded and fair. affirmative action assumes that people won't be good-spirited enough on their own to hire minorities in the workplace or to admit more women to medical school, for example.
affirmative action is different from the civil rights laws of the 1960s that made it illegal to cut people out of specified privileges, benefits and opportunities. those laws, expanded and still in effect today, applied to all citizens and said quite simply that if you didn't treat everyone by the same standard, you could get in big trouble. you might even argue that most affirmative action laws directly violate the spirit of the best civil rights laws. we've been watching a subtle shift that has switched government's task from enforcing evenhanded justice to teaching specific values. in doing so. we've demonstrated pretty conclusively that assigning such a role to government doesn't work very well.
the problem isn't primarily with the basic concept of affirmative action, which by itself is a totally Biblical concept. God Himself, is perhaps the ultimate implementer of affirmative action. in His own language, He 'set His love' on the nation of Israel for reasons suitable to Himself. and Jesus told the memorable story of the manager who hired people at different times of the day and, for reasons satisfactory to himself, chose to pay them wildly disparate wages for their work, the people hired late in the afternoon benefited inordinately from that man's affirmative actions - with full approval from Jesus.
and all of us, both personally and institutionally, exercise affirmative action - and , dare I say, discrimination - on every front in our everyday lives. we do our charitable giving in selected sectors. we send our missionaries to selected countries. against the hordes of hungry and needy people, we pick a few to help. from all the orphans in the world, we pick one to adopt. there's a certain arbitrariness to it, of course - but because we intend good, no one objects that our selection is somehow 'unfair'.
by itself, affirmative action is a wholesome, natural, and totally defensible kind of human behavior. Christians, of all people, need to understand that.
Affirmative action gets off the track when it is mandated and enforced by civil government. it's like pushing a string when a string was intended to pull. the agency that was intended to be the enforcer of justice is not a good agency to require demonstrations of love and goodness.
so the next time you're inclined to bellyache about affirmative action, keep in mind that there's an important place for it. it's a function individual Christians should exercise with generous abandon - but one that civil government is perpetually likely to get all messed up. (photo of demonstrator placard...'MERIT OR QUOTA'
*10 PROCLAIMED Gun owners across numerous states are joining together to declare 'Second Amendment sanctuaries' in their counties, cities and owns. the movement began last year in Illinois as a response to increased restrictions on gun ownership and has spread to California, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida and Virginia. the sanctuary movement gained further momentum in Virginia after incoming state Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw suggested making the purchase, possession, and manufacture of assault weapons a felony, a move that angered many gun owners and spurred several counties to pass 'sanctuary resolutions'. most of these resolutions state that local sheriffs and prosecutors will refuse to arrest residents who break unconstitutional laws, such as the amendment proposed by Saslaw.
*22 LIBERALLY APPLIED (Basic, 2019) has as its sweeping subtitle THE PAST, PRESENT, AND PROMISE OF A NOBLE IDEA, but it's more an elegy for a faith now in hospice than a hopeful look ahead. the question that needs more exploration:
What fatal flue infected liberalism and who spread it.
Halfway through Traub's book comes a chapter about the liberal high point, with 'Liberalism as Civic Religion' in the 1960s. the next chapter is 'The Great Society Goes up in Flames', but I don't think the failure of anti-poverty programs made a crucial number of idealistic American conclude that liberal leaders were hypocrites. my speculation: the penny dropped when ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson and a host of others who were pro-life, saying they cared about 'the least of these', showed they cared more about political expedience.
Traub blames our current political malaise on 'the absolutism of religious right'. He labels the Republican Party 'the home of dogmatic absolutism'. He complains about 'the republican effort to reduce the courts to a partisan instrument'. He keeps spewing: 'contempt for neutral principle... the principle that the goal of Republican rule justified any and all means. ...Republicans won the 2000 election by playing dirtier than the Democrats'.
He also doesn't grasp the proper use of the Bible in political discussions. He describes theology as 'a trump card, for discussion ends where God's will begins'. that's not true; for questions on which the Bible is silent, and only partly true regarding issues where the Bible is clear, such as abortion. on those, a determination of God's will does not foreclose debate, but Starts the pragmatic discussion of how precisely to effect change; Should we pass heartbeat laws? Fetal pain laws? Should we emphasize partial-birth abortion? Pragmatically allow rape and incest exceptions?
Traub backs up a bit only 2 pages from the end. He writes that 'liberals must fight for judicial autonomy', but recognizes that 'defending through the judiciary rights that cannot prevail in democratic debate ultimately endangers both the courts and political parties...Recent decisions on abortion, gay marriage and other controversial questions of personal morality have helped fuel the culture war that rages all around us. the Democrats dependence on the judiciary implies a Hamiltonian distrust of the people. Populists like Donald Trump can go to town on that condescension'.
If Traub had started with that recognition instead of tossing it in at the end, his book would have been much stronger. He admits, 'Even the great holy war over abortion has begun to look increasingly Pyrrhic, the fact that abortion is adjudicated in the Supreme Court rather than in legislatures, state and national, has turned every Supreme Court nomination into a life -and -death battle, has vastly exacerbated national polarization and quite possibly got Donald Trump elected president'.
Hmm: Who moved the issue to the Supreme Court? Who moved the judiciary from neutral to activist? Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch put it well recently:
IT'S NOT UP TO 9 PEOPLE TO TELL 330.000,000 AMERICANS HOW TO LIVE'.
and millions of small ones when to die..
*55 THREATS BY TEXT
Harassing text messages attempt to deter Hong Kong Christians' engagement in the Pro-Democracy Movement
*56 News footage of police brutality and accusations of police collusion with gags have cause residents of Hong Kong to lose faith in the police force. a poll by the Chinese University of Hong
Kong found that 70% of Hong Kongers distrust the police.
Although Lo still receives threatening texts, he continues to organize prayer meetings. apart from being more careful about what he posts only about his family, Lo says he has not let the threat impact his participation in the democracy movement...
...The experience hasn't stopped Chua from attending events and protests, but it has prompted more caution: 'Whenever I do something sensitive, I...watch my back to see if anyone is following...
*57 WATCHDOG ON THE WEB
Last year, a reporter for the WEBSITE BITTER WINTER captured never-before-seen video footage of the inside of a reeducation camp in Xinjiang, China. the video showed bars and wire netting fitted over the dormitory windows, room with double iron doors and a keypad lock, surveillance cameras throughout the campus and outdoor areas surrounded by chain-link fences. on the exterior of the building were words of appreciation for China's Communist leader: 'Heartfelt thanks for the cordial care of the Central Party Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core'.
the reporter visited the camp, then under construction in Yining city, in August 2018. by the time Bitter Winter published the video that November, authorities had already arrested the reporter, according to website editors.
Since Bitter Winter launched in May 2018, the website has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) Published by the Center for Studies on New Religions in Italy, Bitter Winter uses leaked government files and on-the -ground informants to document the Chinese government's persecution of religious groups. its articles are available in 5 languages, including Chinese, making the site dangerous in the eyes of the Chinese government. the government has called Bitter Winter an 'overseas hostile website' and instructed its intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, to investigate the group.
Italian sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne and other scholars started the website after realizing there was no way to study religion in China without addressing China's lack of religious freedom. they began to work with human rights activists, journalists, and religious groups to disseminate information bout what was happening on the ground.
Bitter Winter taps into correspondents inside China willing to pass along information, photos, videos and government documents. each week, said director-in-charge Marco Respinti, Bitter Winter receives 5 or 6 emails from people inside China who want to submit information to the site.
'We have people on the ground all over China who feel the necessity (to report) because they are persecuted and they want the world to know, said Respinti.
between August and December 2018, authorities arrested 45 of Bitter Winter's journalists. today, 20 apparently remain in custody, mostly in Xinjiang. officials in Shanxi held one Bitter Winter reporter in prison for 6 months on 'suspicion of illegally providing state secrets overseas' before freeing him on bail. the reporter is unable to leave the city and is required to check in with the police whenever the authorities wish.
recently, Bitter Winter broke a story about the Chinese government tightening control over how the state-approved Three-Self churches spend their money. one Henan province church leader told the website that titles can't be used to assist believers, but only to 'buy propaganda materials promoting CCP's ideology'. In Jiangxi province, a reporter found local officials forcing Christians to remove crosses and religious decorations from their homes and replace them with portraits of President Xi Jinping.
an article about a government crackdown on religious statues contained photos showing how officials had modified statues to obscure their religious context. for instance, a statue of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra in Lianoning province was replaced with an image of ears of corn and stalks of wheat symbolizing a bountiful harvest.other Buddhist statues are completely covered or torn down.
Bitter Winter also reports on the persecution of the Church of Almighty God, a religious cult that China has officially banned. in Shandong, authorities arrested more than 1000 of the group's members this year.
Hackers have attacked the website's servers two or three times. Bitter Winter uses encrypted emails and asks informants to pass along videos and documents in small segments sent to different locations. to authenticate the reports and the trustworthiness of the informants, website editors use connections in China's religious diaspora community, as well as experts.
Respinti said the Communist Party accuses Bitter Winter of propagating lies. 'But it's an ideological attack. they can't demonstrate that a single piece of information, video, picture, name or document we published is false, because it's not.
*59 Lifestyle (series on long marriages.) BLESSINGS BY THE DOZEN
Zack Guess' mother died when he was 19. his father died 5 years later. with his parents gone, he developed a close relationship with an older couple at is church and often visited them at their home.
One day, he noticed that the couple's teenage daughter, Judy, was growing up. Zack fell in love and told her he planned to marry her. Startled, Judy at first avoided him, but over time her heart changed as she observed his passion for the Lord. they married in 1969, when Judy was 17 and Zack was 28. a few years later Zack became a pastor at Grace Chapel Primitive Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn.
the couple chose to let God decide how many children they would have. God ultimately gave them 12, though one died as a baby. they discovered that raising so many children while working in the ministry was no easy feat.
The family had a two-bedroom house: they put two sets of bunk beads in one room, tow sets in the other, and one set on a closed-in front porch. Judy creatively kept everyone organized. instead of always cleaning up after the kids, she confiscated things the children left on the floor. to get their shoe or pencils back, the child would have to wait until Saturday and do an extra chore. but
Judy also made things fun: She had the children draw names to see who would be their 'secret pal', a sibling to secretly serve that week.
with such a big family, finances were often tight. Zack remembered one occasion when the family was squeezing into a station wagon and couldn't afford a new van. Judy told the children they would eat only cornbread and ilk for breakfast and save the money and pray for a new van. the Guesses said God always provided: in this instance, several people donated a used van to them.
parenting was difficult especially when the kids misbehaved. once, two children ate the candy they were supposed to be selling. the kids denied it persistently, but Judy could see chocolate around one child's mouth. Zack and Judy prayed that the children would choose to confess and after a few days, they did.
in 1991, the Guesses struggled when their 11th baby died a month after her birth. Zack had recently preached on the resurrection, and Judy remembers her 4-year-old son insisting they buy baby food at the store. she explained that the baby was in heaven and wouldn't need it, but her son said that when Jesus came back, the baby would be resurrected and need food. Judy bought the baby food.
the Guesses remember the pressure their baby's death put on their marriage. 'I'd read that when parents go through the death of a child, they are vulnerable to divorce'. said Judy. instead of pulling away, the couple worked to stay close to each other.
as the children grew up and started their own families, having so many siblings has provided opportunities for mutual support. Judy said that when their oldest daughter Hannah became pregnant with twins, lost one in utero and developed a terrible infection, a carload of family members drove 13 hours to Virginia to be with her for the weekend. there are fun times, too, especially on birthdays and holidays. Thanksgiving traditions for the Guesses include games, singing together, and a family talent show. in 2019 they had 82 people attending, including a few friends. every other Sunday, Judy has the whole family over for a meal. 'We try to keep a lot of togetherness, she said.
after 50 years of marriage, Zack is 78 and Judy is 67. Zack still pastors Grace Chapel Primitive Baptist Church in Memphis after 44 years. one of his sons, Isaac, serves as an associate pastor there. the couple is enjoying their children, most of whom live nearby and their 35 grandchildren.
*63 TASTE AND SEE
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD COMES WHEN WE VENTURE WHOLLY ON HIM
You are invited to an event featuring exotic coffees and spiced ciders and you avidly go.
upon arrival you find a large and festive room, every wall covered with photos of coffees, teas, and fruit nectars. as at a museum you mosey slowly past each one in studious attention: her a lavender French Perle Groove mug, there a clay hand-warmer mug from Oregon, a few steps further a Pfalzgeraff Winterberry glass, turning the corner a pair of Waterford Crystal Irish coffee glasses.
each receptacle, more lovely than the last, is photographed and framed with care, attention paid to capture light and surface beads of frost to tantalize the eye. off to the side is a table with free color brochures that describe each coffee's pedigree and each cider's land of origin. descriptions of the wares include such words as Earth, Spicy, Bouquet and Almond Finish.
that's it. then you go home.
God is not such a host,
He says: 'Taste and see that the Lord is good' (Psalm 34.8). you think at first He must mean 'Come and See'. the word Taste is poetry, you think, like the writing on key chains at curio shops to make us sign and mewl. (def- to cry, as a baby, young child or the like; whimper (Love is never having to say you're sorry', remember that?) still, I got curious enough to find a dictionary. TASTE; to try or test the flavor or quality of (something) by taking it into the mouth'. 'Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God' - but these depths are reserved for those who taste. they step out on His word And Prove It True. they cast all to the wind and drink it down. to nontasters , the Scriptures and promises attached to discipleship remain flat pictures at an exhibition, nothing more.
'The proof is in the pudding, your teacher said. and she spoke profoundly. how do you know Puddingness? by a graduate-level course in pudding? by a study of ingredients and origins? you have missed the essence if you haven't put spoon to mouth. it isn't those who say 'Lord, Lord' who know God best but those who do his will. when you obey, you know God better afterward. You Feel better afterward.
Trust and obey/for there's no other way/ to be happy in Jesus'. That's the surprise discovery.
the prodigal son sort of knew beforehand that his father was a decent man,. but he never would have learned the extent of the old man's goodness had he not ventured on him wholly - had he not tested the 'flavor and quality' of him. there was more to his father than his feckless youthful self had ever known.
Jesus asked Levi to leave everything and follow Him. had Levi not immediately doe it, he might have know Jesus as a good teacher but wouldn't have known what it was like to taste Him - the thrill, the fear,the freedom of absolute free fall, of cutting loose all financial security, social identity and predictability. he might have had a fine little life for himself and died with his family around his bed.but that's all.
the Israelites were robbing God(Malachi 3.8)they thought they had to take care of No.1'. God proposed a taste test .'Bring the full tithe into the storehouse...put me o the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need' (v. 10).
hearing he yearning in His voice.'Oh,that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!...The Lord...would feed you (tasting!) with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you(Psalm 81.13,16.
Jesus did not shrink from tasting, but 'taste(d) death for everyone(Hebrews 2.9). and as reward for downing that foamy cup 'God has highly exalted him Philippians 2.9).
This year let us not just know About God. let us KNOW God. it doesn't even have to be a big thing. just the breakthrough of being first to say 'I love you' or 'forgive me' to your spouse.
let's begin.
*64 Hadley bills NEW PRO-FAMILY LEGISLATION FOR 2020?
Hadley Arks, my oldest academic friend, turns 80 this year. we met when he as 40 and i was a 30 year old at DuPont headquarters in Delaware. Part of my job was to bring in scholars to meet with up-and-coming DuPont executives. The goal: Let the future corporate leaders see how the other half thinks, and learn which could match wits with the academic elite.
Haley was an Amherst college political philosophy professor - he taught there for half a century - with the makings of a Borscht Belt comedian, probably because he grew up a single child in a Chicago Jewish family with two parents and four grandparents who praised his performances. (Visualize a 2-year old wandering into the kitchen, saying 'Good morning', and receiving a standing ovation.)
Hadley discombobulated the DuPont execs with his combination of rapid-fire references to Aristotle, Rabbi Akiva, Abraham Lincoln and absurdities from American popular culture - and that was just the A's. (Visualize a meld of Socrates and Groucho Marx.)
Ten years later, Hadley at age 50 was the top Jewish pro-lifer, and i was briefly chairing quarterly meetings that brought together squabbling Christian pro-life leaders. Hadley the outsider made a proposal that the insiders grew to support; In 2002 it became the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which gave some legal protection to a baby who had somehow dodged a fusillade of abortion bullets and emerged breathing and crying. in Hadleys sometimes-macabre humor, a right to abortion did not guarantee assassins the right to a dead baby.
for years Hadley said he thought the gospel story was wonderful and beautiful, but he just could not believe it. at age 70 in 2010, though, Hadley converted to Catholicism. when we had dinner recently, he related his four current legislative goals, starting with the establishment of penalties for those who dropped born-alive babies into a discard bucket. Hadley though Donald Trump should pragmatically push this:: 'He could drive the democrats into the sea, even before the oceans start rising'.
next, Hadley says, should come a Defense of Monogamous marriage Act (DOMMA): Governments should not have to call 'marriage' any union of more than two persons. if you think that's unneeded, thin again: Polygamy is roaring down the track. nothing in the arguments the Supreme Court accepted in overturning the Defense of marriage Act (DOMA) will stop it. nothing in our official friendliness toward Islam will help us ban Muslim multi-marriage. the 19th century latter-day Saints dropped polygamy to gain statehood: maybe they were just prematurely woke.
Third would be a bill to allow discrimination on the basis of some sexual orientations. The Supremes legislated same-sex divorces). But could a company discriminate against pederasts? You might say it could because pederasty is illegal - but could it discriminate against practitioners of bestiality, which is still legal in 4 states?
Finally, Hadley would like laws o protect parents from losing custody of minors if they refuse to approve use of 'sex change' drugs and surgery. that's happened occasionally and will happen more often if transexuality continues to be hot in our culture.
I'd recommend another law along these lines: 'The Protection of women's Sports Act of 2020', which would keep DNA-men from yanking medals and scholarships out of female hands. confronted by thoroughly modern gender definitions of'male' and 'female', can we just go by chromosomes and call one kind of human 'XY' and the other kind 'XX'? That's how God made us.
Let's look at one objection straight on: What about the very rare humans in the middle? the website of the Intersex Society of North America says 'not XX and not XY' occurs once in 1,6666 births. individuals stuck in the middle are also made in god's image, but we shouldn't let the tail wag the mastiff. Can we find a fair solution for the one, rather than messing with the 1,665?
Anyway, it's a pleasure o see Hadley at age 80 still producing clever proposals. he needs help from several gutsy members of congress. WORLD has some readership in those parts: Let me know if you're willing to run with the ball.
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