Receipts

Last night I was doing homework for my Greek mythology class when a receipt tumbled out of the book and onto the floor. I picked it up, and it made me smile because that little book by Edith Hamilton has been one of the highlights of my week.

You see, I have had gross delays in getting my financial aid straightened out. First one thing and another has kept me from assurance that my college bill will be covered this semester. So I spent a considerable part of yesterday afternoon researching my classes to see which ones had required books that cost less so that I could get them in time to keep up with the work. When I came across the class for Greek and Roman mythology, I threw my head back and laughed, because the only requirement was a little $5 book. Unbelievable! Some of the books I have been required to purchase have cost $100 USED, and no bookstore was allowed to sell them any lower because of the deals that had been cut with the publisher.

Even better, this little book had a receipt from my sister's college days. She had used the book for her Greek mythology class, and she paid the bill with the funding she had received for her education. The bill had been paid, and here was this receipt letting me know that my sister had taken care of it. Someone else had helped me a little in my education, and I am very, very grateful. Thank you, sis.

There are many things that work that way. The democracy and the freedoms that we enjoy here in America are a lot like that little book. When our freedoms are threatened and we have to work a little harder to maintain the free society that has been established, a little receipt might fall out of the social studies book or the US government book that we are studying. It says - Deposit paid... by untold heroes who have given their lives and sacrificed many comforts to pay the price to keep our land free. Any one of us might be required to make a payment, but isn't the freedom of our children and their children's children worth suffering a little bit for a little while?

Love Is...

After thinking a lot about what it means to be committed in a relationship, I realized that my ideas can be stated simply with the words, Faith, Hope and Love. My profile points out that these are the most powerful forces on earth, even greater than money or power, and I want to show you why in this note. Perhaps it is an overstatement, but many men and women seem to become more commitment-phobic the older they get. Thinking through it helps you pinpoint what makes commitment most difficult for you.

First, consider the word HOPE. I'm not talking about the English definition of the word, but a more meaningful idea that looks more like a soccer goal or homeplate in baseball than a subjective feeling. And it isn't just any goal you choose, but rather its THE hope you hold out for your friendship, which is the hope of always being a benefit to your relationship partner. Can you promise to only do good to that person, and never evil? Even if you have to part ways, you can part knowing that your thoughts and speech about each other will always be gracious. This is your hope for the relationship. It may seem like a unobtainable dream, but it is up to you to make it a reality. The peace this promise can create in a relationship is astounding, and worthy of consideration.

The second facet to committing to a relationship is to have FAITH in the hope you have between you. You have to believe the person extends the same hope to you. Can you expect your relationship partner to promise the same thing you have, that is to only benefit each other? This is definitive trust, and in return you have to be trustworthy, as well. Certainly this is the most difficult part of a relationship for some of us. People have a tendency to hurt and betray each other, so we become less trustful and thereby less trustworthy. If you make the commitment to trust your relationship partner, it can keep you focused when it is not clear what you should do in a given situation. Your heart can then consider what is wise, which is not really possible when fear or jealousy skew your thinking. It is always best to know yourself well enough to know what clouds your thinking in many situations.

The greatest part of a commitment to love someone is the LOVE part. It's not emotion based, but another, different promise to accept someone as they are. Genuine love for a friend does not require that person to change in order to obtain your generosity and peace. This part of the commitment is a balance to people's inevitable untrustworthiness, and this type of love is agape. The cost of agape love is self-sacrifice. There are not immediate warm fuzzies to making sacrifices for others, but it does reap physiological benefits which you have to experience to understand.

These are not the only types of love you can experience in a committed relationship. Some types of love are contingent on certain behaviors. Such as PHILEO, which is dependent on a feeling of unity with another person, and this can only be obtained through a little communication and relating to each other. Another type is EROS, which is sexual love. Pure eros is dependent on fidelity, otherwise a chemical reaction of this sort of attraction is only biological, which isn't the same as eros in the spiritual sense. Unlike agape, both of these types of love require interaction with each other.

Human tendency is to make a committed relationship a standard for everyone, but that wouldn't be biblically or psychologically wise. It is up to each person to determine if another person is capable of a commitment like this, and to draw appropriate boundaries for themselves. These are just principle guidelines, but the practical application of it is something that has to be considered carefully and determined individually. The power of these three dispositions in your life and in the world to affect change is immeasurable. If every person made this sort of commitment to one other person in their life, it could change the whole dynamic of a society, and without a doubt it would change history.

I mention in my profile that I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and that I believe he is the greatest story of compassion that has ever been told, if you understand the story thoroughly. Compassion is part of the hope you have established between you and your relationship partner. It is difficult to trust people for compassion once you have been hurt a few times. Trusting Jesus can be an effective path to the ability to trust another person, and it gives you a safety net when others are not trustworthy. No matter what humans may do, Jesus Christ can always be trusted to protect you from the worst of things. Grasping this type of peace with Christ is an extremely powerful tool to use in your most intimate relationships.

Loving the Aliens Within Your Borders

Ferocious debate instead of reason rules today's discussion on the issue of immigration. Heated opinions have replaced good listening skills in these discussions and divided the parties. The participants of the debate seem to be divided from logical solutions, and we must find those solutions. America is at war on 2 plus fronts. We want peace with the whole world, but mistakes about immigrants may cost us dearly if we forget those who are ignorant of the components of democracy.

America is an egalitarian system, which goes against the grain of most cultures in the world. Certain components of other societies, such as differing economic systems and local governments, religion and even family structure may include a system of terror that the people accept and adhere to. In some other countries, drugs and weapons cartels and other entities often rule communities with an iron fist, and these types of networks automatically accompany many immigrants.

It is most often those who are most oppressed who want to migrate to America to enjoy the freedom and safety they have lacked, but their privileged elite also often come as students and apprentices to learn about our free society and economy. Future leaders are attracted to American institutions, but embracing freedom may not seem imperative to the middle class of a foreign society, and the upper elite may even oppose it. Not grasping the democratic rights of the individual and its integration with a free economy gradually weakens and destroys them both. Whether out of personal irrelevance, ignorance or fear, people from these cultures may unwittingly give away their new found freedom.

Americans love our democracy, and we have a difficult time understanding why everyone would not value the same freedom we enjoy. We forget that many cultures are not accustomed to the rights afforded a citizen of the United States, that is, the Bill of Rights, so we make assumptions about the alien's understanding of our culture. We know that no person in America should submit to a system of terror, and aliens who reside in our borders must value our democracy. We realize participants in a free society must stand up to intimidation, and our law enforcement community daily fights systems of terror to maintain the public safety. But we forget some people won't stand up to the threat.

Christians have been cultivating our own heated debate about what this means. How should we respond to the aliens living within our borders? God doesn't allow people to live within his kingdom without laying down some very strict guidelines, and yet we are admonished to love the alien. In the law, God laid out requirements for the admission or expulsion of foreigners. The Bible also maintains in the New Testament that in order to live in the Kingdom of God, you have to believe its main tenets and demonstrate that belief. Those who do not love the Kingdom of God will be cast out in the end. Christians cannot ignore God's model and the picture it paints about the priority of education yet simultaneously claim to love the immigrant.

Extending compassion means taking the risk to be willing to teach others how to understand and adhere to the rules, or they must be sent to live in another place. An unchecked system of terror undermines the orderliness a democratic society requires. Tactics of terror include incarcerating its victims and snatching the freedom of its targets. Compassionate followers of Christ cannot leave a person captive to such fear. Compassion compels us to teach others about freedom and a better life.

Churches are often the first resource an immigrant looks to for education in English. Sometimes such ministries will also teach American Civics, but not usually. Why don't we believers advocate for a better tomorrow for all of American society by encouraging our guests to learn civics and the democratic way? Although foreign immigrants and those with permanent work visas bring many good things from their culture, we must also keep our eyes open for things from other cultures that undermine freedom. Compassion requires teaching them to adhere to our laws and to say no to any system of terror.

Contrast of 3 Belief Systems with the Philosophy of Domination

You can tell a lot about a person by what they think of the weak and powerless person. I have edited this half a dozen times already, but I think it will be a work in progress for a long time yet. I really want each one of us to consider how we think the lower strata of society should be treated, and I hope thinking through it will open all our eyes to blind spots in our belief system. I talk a lot in my writings about the philosophy of domination and coersion. It is an attitude that is gaining momentum in the world today, but I don't think it will have the final say in history.

People who believe in domination use power and money to push down against those who threaten their ability to obtain more power and money. You can note their belief in domination by their attitude that says "The bottom class of society deserve what they get so they should be used as slaves and guinea pigs. They are expendable by-products of our economic system, and it is unfortunate that their demise makes us look so bad." This philosophy isn't based on any reasonable belief system, and I am not sure it is compatible with practical ethics, although you hear American's parrot these ideas all too often.

Humanists or Agnostics believe that the weak may have hidden or latent benefits to society and are slow to marginalize them because our society is founded on compassion. America is all about second chances, so relegating the lower class to slavery is anathema to most people here, whether they have a firmly established belief system or not.

In a similar fashion, Christians believe the weakest members of society have intrinsic and extrinsic value because their existence brings out the best in human beings. Christian belief in an upside down kingdom includes the protection of the innocent and weak, who often have hidden strengths. If you look at what feeds the strict philosophy of domination and coersion in this present world, it is never a desire to protect the innocent and weak.

With a little consideration, it can be proven that an atheistic belief and confidence in natural selection/survival of the fittest is diametrically opposed to the philosophy of domination, which is survival of those in power by use of the biggest weapon. An atheist believes that there are natural principles that weed out the weakest member of a given group, and domination by those with power and money would thwart the natural selection process because those who obtain power and money are not those most capable of handling it appropriately. The current global economic condition has already proven this true.

Another reason the philosophy of domination and coersion is contrary to atheism is because atheistic thought often uses the rule, "Do to others as you would have them do to you." Domination of others contradicts this rule, which is the basis of many religious belief systems, as well.

To clarify further, survival of the biggest weapon does not speak to the process of legitimate discipline or self-defense, which fits well with any other belief system. But is a philosophy of domination and coersion capable of such coexistence? I say it clashes with any belief other than exalting power and money as God, and the current descent into a totally counter-productive anarchy with domination as the ruling philosophy is foreign to us Americans and an offensive to our democratic principles. If your belief system is healthy, you will protect the innocent and weak from domination and coersion, which is what makes the United States of America, and our democratic republic worthy of fierce loyalty; and makes terrorism and fascism the enemies of every one of our citizens.