A California church is praying for the resurrection of one of it’s youngest members after the toddlers unexplained sudden death this week. I understand their logic. The Bible presents the example if the resurrection of Jesus and Lazarus. There you have it, 2 precedents. The Bible also tells us that we will do “greater works” than Jesus through our applied faith. No, I can’t give you a how-to guide on achieving said greater works.
To be A Christian One Must Believe Jesus is Divine, Not Just A Really Good Guy
I have read that many people gladly attribute spiritual goodness to Jesus, a man who talked about a lot of good stuff that they support. Live one another and the related teachings are in line with who they want to become. Most of these semi-believers can’t say they have definitive faith in his divinity. Thus, they aren’t Christians bc the Crux of the religion is defeating death, death being the wages of sin that we’ve all earned. Jesus paid our price. Then the penalty for the wages if sin, once paid, was eradicated by the resurrection (I hope I’m missing details bc as I reread my writing, the whole story sounds impossible.)
Example of an innocent Paying the Price for a sin
Kind of like my $130 jaywalking ticket. If someone paid it for me the I’d be off the hook, yet the penalty would be satisfied. As long as someone pays the ticket the state if Hawaii is happy. Any volunteers? I didn’t think so. Churches acknowledge that we don’t understand what Catholics call “mysteries” or why things are the way they are. We don’t know why Jesus’ death satisfies my spiritual debt just like a check from Jesus would pay the jaywalking fine (if only!). I suppose if we follow the illustration to its logical end, the money would e returned and no one would ever be charged again
We are to accept what’s held to be true, even if we can’t know why. Does the term “mystery” attempt to cover a weak point in the legend? I don’t know. But I do know that true believers accept everything. Hey, I accept the truth of gravity and that’s mostly a mystery to me, so my understanding is not necessary to keep the world turning.
TRUMP IMPEACHED
There are semi believers who kind of believe in our government. Once, we had faith. We could be shocked, scandals held our attention. Does it seem odd to anyone that a story like this should be featured on this important day in history. I think I know why the impeachment is headlining but not monopolizing the news. No one cares about the impeachment to the exclusion of all else. When the debacle went down with President Clinton, his impeachment did monopolize the news and every channel. In the end it was anti-climactic.
“Our president was impeached? Now what?”
- Do we need a new president?
- Is the vice president running things?
- Is President Clinton going to prison? What about Monica Lewinsky?
- Does President Clinton have to resign, like President Nixon?
We waited for some major consequence to come down the pike. As a member of society, recounting history for the youth, I would have to interpret the general mood as confused and irritated ultimately turning to indifference. To many, myself included, the Clinton situation was mine of the public’s business. Those issues were for the couple to work out. We were brought in on a bunch of foolishness which seemed more like personal attacks than concern for me and my fellow citizens. My beloved late friend, who’d been a medic in the Vietnam War said:
If the President of the greatest country in the world, the country I saw a lot of guys die for, if he can’t get no p****, ain’t no hope for the rest of us. Some of the guys who died [serving in Vietnam] were so young, they ain’t never had no p****. Crying for their mothers, blood running into the dirt. My president better be getting p***** or I don’t know why anyone would die for this country.
The words of My dear departed friend, A man who would have been devastated if the powerful office of POTUS didn’t include the benefit of sex with whomever, wherever, and however the leader of the Free world wanted
News Was Once Compelling
Now it’s Trump in the impeachment hot seat. Different details but same thing that got Nixon and Clinton–abuse of power. The Jaded Public is no longer shocked, not really too surprised either.
My understanding of how people experienced Nixon’s impeachment is this: That event rocked their worlds, dismantled the faith and trust people had in government. And like Humpty Dumpty, when that belief was shattered it couldn’t be put back together again. During that time, people said, “How could he?” They hoped it wasn’t true but overall the public didn’t fight Nixon’s departure. The media was trusted.
Today, “How could he?” is replaced by:
- Of course he did!
- What do you expect?
- What’s the point of being in power of you can’t use the power for personal gain?
- Maybe he did, but he’s still awesome.
- He totally did, and I can live with it.
- The Democrats have done and are doing way worse!
- He’s innocent, it’s just partisan politics at our county’s expense
- I don’t know what really happened but I doubt anyone’s telling the whole truth after three years of saying the same things. Nothing’s going to change so I don’t pay really close attention. (My stance)
Many agree with me that Trump’s issues have nothing to do with me, though politicians tell me I’m being attacked (whoever’s talking points the finger at the opposition; both sides have similar rhetoric). That’s why media outlets include stories like the one about grief stricken parents enlisting community help to perpetuate the fairy tale that they can get their dead child back if the whole church prays. You’d think that’s a story for a slow news day, not a historic day our descendants ill will study in school. When those future kids learn about today I hope they learn why we became so cynical. I guess, like my late friend who was a medic in Vietnam, we’ve all seen American boys young enough to still be virgins killed bc they couldn’t buy their way out of the draft by going to college. Their sin was poverty, the blood that flowed was from the poor, not the blood of Jesus. We’ve watched the rich and powerful maintain their status as Men Behaving Badly. They’re not punished at all or their punishments are laughable. Maybe Jesus died only for the rich, who get a free pass. If anything happens to Trump, I’m sure shoplifters will face steeper consequences. I will see what happens so I can talk about it when I’m old but I’ve got no skin in this game.
Be sure to alert me if that child is resurrected. My words are meant to show a sign of the times. I want to clearly express my sympathy for the family. I have had some experience with that pain of grief and loss. You worry the pain’ll kill you, but you’re more afraid that it won’t.
Hawaii Street Life-a Trusted Insider Tells All 