Concept Series Preface
The purpose of this series of articles is to establish a cordon of doubt around firmly stated, but subjectively held, principles of truth and democratic belief, albeit used to govern our politics and personal beliefs. What are they who are freer today “to be themselves” free to become? Why are they who are pre-tensed in life spoiling upon the human mindset? Not even the human aspect is knowable, as we fawn upon a vacant incubation, and afterward feign a hatched reality.
Seasonal Sense
Spring – study whilst passing through its initial phases … prospects still ahead
Summer – study during its heyday … engrossed in favors and suspected faults
Fall – study whilst moving into decline … problems and odds of transformation
Winter – study during its wane and death throes … reclamation or dissolution
Caught In The Act
Consecration of what we should hold sacred, meaning the trust in American liberty and opportunity, is promised in the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Delivered in desperation, and yet hopefulness, at the beginning of the Revolution, these words were nevertheless presumptuous of the truth for which we do not have title. And I am not referring scrupulously to the words “all men are created equal” in an (18th century) age of prevalent slavery here and elsewhere; but more primly and exactingly of the phrase “endowed by their creator”. Thomas Jefferson, like many of the original founders, was a very religious man, though not necessarily a strict follower of the Bible as written (Blakemore, 2019). Since the Creator’s aim was invoked, it is well to remember the episode in the Bible (John 8:1-11) of the woman taken in adultery. Her exceptionality from (due) punishment, as well the citizens’ commutation as enforcers of that punishment, had nothing to do with ‘laws’, ‘liberty’, or ‘opportunity’, but rather with forbearing and forgiveness. When Jesus Christ rebuked the crowd seeking to stone the guilt-ridden adulteress: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”, He was not mocking their shortfalls and imperfections, or even belaying their obligations; he was prosecuting a verdict. Laden in love, Only the righteous have rights.
The murderer has forfeited his own user-right to live. What absolution would she have memorialized (the adulteress whom Jesus saved) had she not held her peace, accepted her fate, and singularly respected His absolute moral authority to intercept? Christ, her savior, then added another dimension to this intervention by inquiring, who is able to take away her memorial: “Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” We have it in our heart to know now (as then), that there was still a Father in heaven who gave her life, and Christ himself, purely wrought, as finding judges. In the availing of forgiveness — not merit, nor sorrow, nor compassionate pleas — the adulteress was approved, and so spared.
Once a group commences to talk about what its members deserve, liberty begins to err. “Because we have worked all week, we deserve this break!” Or because we have paid our principal amounts, this interest deserved!” Or because we were undercast in historic neglect and past discrimination, future reparation must be forthcoming!” Accommodation and reward come not to those who overlook their self-stigmata and reckon their own executive justice.
The pride is sated with rights; it is intoxicated with the self-same drink. On the eve of New Rights inauguration, fashion wastrels hasten to the monarch’s grand ball. They slurp loudly their satisfaction, and become heady. They consume bushels of dirt-trenched congratulations. They become sick, and vomit; thus to wallow swine-happy in their own jealous spew.
He did it; so shall I. He hurt me; the return awaits ambush on him. Come … yet, while slowly estranging myself from the calculated backlash, I am still beset in the child-like refuge of a tottering response. There is a prophet in the selling of rights, and a relinquishing of notarized will. Driven to imbibe, but not to vote. Given to fight, but not ever for a pious patriotic cause. Striven to rebel, but not to rejoice in the peaceful hammocks of ordered restraints, binding at tension the knots of faith, under a covenant of newly-found rational shade.
Pride eternal! Youth excretes a shell of self-glory … mollusks favored in society for their attributes of physical prowess, aptitude and dexterity, learning and memory. Age shatters form; time discounts skills. Natural blessings are soon lost or evacuated; while pride alone retains its urgent strength. Unable to accomplish, but determined to do so. Faulting surrounding systems for inward confusion. Cranky and sour, argumentative of reason, and interruptive of conversations; being as sure of mind as short on facts; a spoiler of excitement and playful enchantment. Becoming hateful and hate-able: while declining appeal and apparent dispensability provoke the senses of risen self-importance.
For now, at least, you take your vices in stride. Sin does not look bad on the young — on they of tan-able, smooth-looking skin. But wait until you are old and wrinkled, smoking one cigarette after another, coughing, hacking, sloshing down bad whiskeys and whores; behaving wildly, dropping things, passing out on the floor; pill-popping, eating to no limit without taste, becoming pale and shaky, body regurgitating all the poisons forced into it; making careless mistakes, no longer as dependable, at a loss to perform or manage physical chores, at variant with the simplest of commands, heeding with difficulty novel things outside the range of prior-set experience; finally even faltering in reflex, to wipe your nose or prevent bedwetting; losing control of once automatic functions — coming undone in part since you have not listed the (troubled) rows of your straying habits, left uncultivated your wild-conscience and chaotic plantings. For now, true self is hidden underneath a cloak of admired youth. Wait until this evil becomes you.
We embrace brackets of age appropriateness (e.g., drinking); only afterward do we brace ourselves for the mis-sanctioning of conduct abuse (drunkenness). A woman who couldn’t say “No”, on a casual sexual date, feels herself qualified, of her own volition and spiteful dedication, to project the destiny and lifetime duty of unwanted procreated life. Another woman who allows herself to be berated and officially mistreated everyday at work, and says nothing; next confronts a lower-ranked male over a misunderstood comment, charging him with all but verbal rape. Only the righteous have the right to hate, whether extemporaneously or seemingly provoked. No one who judges on pageant performance should have tent arrangement over staged outlook and pretentious beauty. More than just evident and inevitable hypocrisy, people have become indifferent to their own incongruities. Only the right-affirming and aware … only the righteous have rights.
Prisoners who disrespected the dignity of others’ property, life, and security have consequently lost their status, freedom, and safety. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Matt 5: 38-39). Assailants who are constantly putting others’ health and welfare are at risk every day of shedding their own. A man who had repeatedly cheated on his wife with many different women comes home one night to find his wife (surprisingly) cheating on him for the first time (after discovering his many infidelities). Although the wife takes upon herself a presumptive retribution, the husband has no ‘right’ to be angry. A man who lives by the sword, dies by the sword (Matt 26: 52). Such was the morality he promulgated and such was the judgement delivered back to him. Only the righteous have rights.
A robber while ransacking a house accidentally falls down and hurts himself. After being picked up by the police and taken to the hospital, he later finds a lawyer and sues, implicating a dementia in his own mind and under detestable American law, that he has become the victim of the vicious household occupants for “making their home, in effect, unsafe for burglary”. Nevertheless, in life’s court, only the righteous have rights, and what you deny to others shall be denied from yourself: turning back the phrase of what sin you commit against your brothers shall constitute a sin against God (Matt 10: 40; 25: 40). Like the Biblical thief caught in the night, he has forfeited his own right to free-run of living; then by vain resistance, forthwith be succumbed and bound until morning. In restitution, his own possessions shall be taken in double recompense, or himself sold into slavery (Exodus 22: 2-4).
We are all human-insects caught in the web of our own devices; we are like whores strapped by the will of our sadist lover. You presuppose being human requires more rights than for animals. Then how many more rights must angels and other heavenly creatures possess? [Only for God, all rights are duties.] Then, what right should he have who respects no rights? The unsightly and the ill-kempt will be sent away from the banquet table (Matt 22: 12-14). The wisdom of the worldly provide no cover for their unclad minds; the sufferings of the unsaved provide no credit unto sacrificial salvation.
Held In The Wake
Pride supporteth pride (that he feel not alone in evil); and “evil bindeth itself into a sticky web”. Against this, respectively, goodness is not soothed by the fair slice, nor lent seamless spread amongst equal company. Mercifulness is a personal ambition they must yet work toward understanding. For the sinner reasons from an immoral heart, always defensive, always protecting his evil from exposure. Thus, for him, every social problem is a medical or political one, never moral; and every criminal act is passive or habitual, never deliberate. As does the fool who turns aside from divine assistance, declaring, ‘there is no God’; and the feverishly sick, ‘there is no disease’, so the sinful, in the ignorance of their condition, declare ‘there is no personal failing’.
A legal injunction is proffered that an ethnic group or concession herd should cite remedies and force-bribe rectification for all hurts suffered. This is a happening on the Left: only they who have feelings; only they who can be visually offended; only they who can be subjectively abused. Honor is purely a cistern they reserve for themselves. This is vain and evil. A society that is foolish enough to cede human rights to the unworthy is all so vain and full of nonsense. What reconcilable rights does the general public, the buzzing swarm, possess, who has itself flooded the air with offensive sounds of stinging harm? Only individuals suffer, or are taken with personal offense over a stressed act or a casual mis-identification. Apropos, all judgement, therefore, must be decided individually. As in the law when the judge declares, “only a person with standing can sue”. Only the righteous of identifiable hurt have resolution claim. Over all, God, and only the Lord, holds close to breast the static-sewn cloth of a chosen people (in service thereof).
Only the righteous have rights. Only the holy make solemn the occasion. Only the holy can create a season out of sanctions and crucifixion. Only the holy make sacred the holidays; make hallow the high places where, before, low pagans once worshipped.
It is an inconvenience to pride for some matter to be persuaded of me; for some religious custom, some moral precept, make inroad into my socialized setting of a basic human function (forever) unsatisfied. Except when interest is switched to another soul’s conversion: “Oh, you are so right! A law should be passed.” I’m sorry, but I cannot agree with you. Neither do I disagree, merely am unable to bring myself in concordance with someone whose system of logic is arbitrarily applied.
So, too, society, as a unitary body, defies its own nature. The majority has no right to impress upon the minority principles and suspected convictions which itself blatantly rejects or overtly violates. And an honorable government is dependent upon a virtuous society. ‘Virtue-holding’, once pushed aside, taints all human rationalization with the moth residue of brushing Satan’s wings. Whereas, when resounded, virtue is truth in behavior; as we question not a Jesus who stood in fulfillment of self. For without such standards, no “way” is mindful of its own direction.
Your idea of freedom is to do what you want, to whomever you want; to vanquish in desolation anything that might hinder. This is not freedom; none of this is of constitutional or provisional in origin. There can be no true freedom without righteousness, that being the foundation of all sanctity. Every right has an associated responsibility. If you are not willing to accept responsibility for your actions, then you do not deserve the right. If you always seek to blame someone else for your position or downfalls in life, then you have made that person your master. If you refuse to apply logic over accusatory banter, then the bargaining of your fate has already passed.
Courts preside over the thoughtful and the thankless. Nurses comfort-hold the victim and the dying offender. With a sight set for every cloudy corner, skies rain on the just and the unjust (Matt 5: 45). Only the sculptured key opens the uncommon-model lock.
Righteousness is knowing this: a child abuser cannot wail aloud the excesses of a corrupt government. Fornicators should not waylay themselves in worry over bad business practices. Though however much you entreat outside yourself, there can be no social morality without a personal morality. Stumbled blindly into the ditch were the sightless and their vision-less guide (Matt 15: 14). Accept this right: no right at all! The only righteous earning is to perform rightly. You must be holy even as your father in heaven is holy (Lev 19: 2). A ruler demands for himself many rights. Heaven shall someday demand of him a corresponding record of governing responsibility. Stakes are raised over the priests and the scholars, and over them of secular and religious dominion — that the wealth and the power they accumulate in life shall not become an avalanche of debt encasing them. Yet though I am tired and futuristically tried in angelic times, I must progress toward the making of an honorable self – absent even an Absolute concern; moreover, the concern for absolution, absent the beckoning — absent the mission call. As it is written, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matt 16: 24-27).
Freed By The Loss
A virgin has her purity, a nun has her chastity, a devoted wife has her fidelity. You profess none of these, still you presume to judge artless men guilty based upon a virtue you yourself do not possess. Only the righteous have rights; the non-virtuous have none. They have none because they cannot abide its corset bindings and its cardinal features, giving grant a complement to others. The unrighteous have naught leave or dismissal for what they will let stand in betrayal of the little ones. The law is as much a matter of duty as it is respect, a courtesy of rage as it is grace.
Only the righteous have the right wisdom. Only by knowledge can the wrongdoer be identified, and the convicted be treated afterward with forgiveness. Only by the service of enlightenment can noble intentions shine forth, and the Spirit of Truth spared His fatal choice. Sincerity is asked: all that the orphaned and the widow possess. All the time in the world, all the troubles thereof, have not earned for us one ounce of mercy. Lesson is, once given, ownership is lost. In entropy all things pass down, and cannot be lifted up again except by the Lord’s unmerited favor. Devastation follows the ‘liberty’ of high vain winds, and the venal grumbling of unsatiated desires. Wherefore, suffer the violent cause. The creature attitude receives the creature fate, which is death, and condemnation for all your failures. Adding moreover, prone like dazed victims to wander back into the ant swarm after once escaping, we be drawn back into evil.
If the Devil makes promotion, and keeps it, then he keeps nothing. Honor but hinges on the good and righteous turning. What righteous indignation possess the non-righteous? Heaven consists of two kingdoms. The first kingdom is governed by the Law, and the second Love. By your actions you have chosen to live in the first, although most of the ordinances you choose to favor are vainly man-made, and rarely divinely inspired for the betterment of your soul. To the extent that you comply with some order in your life, you do not apply these regulations with equanimity, neither do you offer referral for the unmatched lonely and the still lowly unmet. And when you get caught in violation of your own rule, you acknowledge no real sin; rather, insist on prevailing shelter for “what everyone else does also”. Or you complain that Christians should be more lenient, less judgmental, or more rendering unto minor deviations. But how is it you demand the rights of a citizen in a land wherein you do not dwell, or the mercy of a King you do acknowledge? Only those who abide in the kingdom of Love have vital plantings of forget-me-nots, ample sustainment of liquid faith, and amiable harvests of peace to share.
The avenger considers himself immune from the justice he seeks. In battle, the ill-equipped veteran, along with the drafted innocent, fall slain to their own inadequacies. Both spectator and expectations of easy victory, regardless of the outcome, are shocked by the struggle’s toll. Rather than bellow a solace toward one or the other, Justice, when it finally comes, arrives indifferent … with scarcely more than dry thunder mirroring an already desiccated and plainly spent land. Only within the fine sands of subordinating soil shall hardy seeds awaken, watered by the blood of the fallen.
God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth (John 4: 23-24). Become a father: the first of the Christian commandments; like the Father which is in Heaven. When in discordance, become a father in spirit to model the path of proper journey. When lied to, become a father in spirit toward he whose excuse is only for ego’s sake. When wronged, become a father in spirit to the orphaned while yet parents live and veer disturbed into weary lives. These are indeed your children for whom you must bring acquittal from indiscretion and ruthlessness. Only a true Christian is bound to walk in Christ’s ways, to follow His teachings, to earn His blessings, to indulge in His final reward. Selfless treasures are added unto him in righteous procurement of inner finds.
No grace exists except to him who graces others. Sensing others fall, the father would that they both rise anew. Fearing no great travel of final outreach, where broken earth is joined: only the legally contracted are voucher-bound for heaven. Only those sacred to God are saved.
References
Blakemore, E. (2019, August 1). Why Thomas Jefferson rewrote the Bible without Jesus’ miracles and resurrection. Retrieved from www.history.com/news/thomas-jefferson-bible-religious-beliefs
