In a Mirror Dimly
Sam Aurelius Milam III
For
now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face....
—1 Corinthians 13:12
The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version
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When
I was young, I spent a lot of time at the Boldtville Presbyterian Church.
Most of my experiences there were good ones. The church was a social
center for the community. We met our friends at the Sunday morning
services, at Sunday School, at occasional social dinners after the Sunday
morning services, at choir practice on Wednesday evenings, and at parties
for the teenagers, usually on Saturday nights. In addition to socializing,
I learned a lot of Christian doctrine. I learned that Heaven is defined
as being in God's presence. I learned that God is love. I learned
that "the wages of sin is death". I learned that God is omnipresent.
I learned that "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven". I learned
that we must enter by the narrow gate, where the way is hard.
As
it says in 1 Corinthians, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave
up childish ways. I also noticed some problems with what I'd been
taught, as a child. For example, if Heaven is defined as being in
God's presence and if God is omnipresent, then what's the problem?
Who cares if the gate is narrow or if the way is hard? We're already
there, so why is there any gate at all? As Timothy Leary suggested,
we might as well just turn on, tune in, and drop out. What difference
does it make? God is here. This is Heaven. This is as
good as it's going to get.
After
I gave up my childish ways, I continued to study but with less gullibility
than had previously been the case. I learned some things that they
hadn't taught us at the Boldtville Presbyterian Church. I learned
about such things as the burning of witches and the torture of Templars.
I learned of the more general use of torture to encourage orthodoxy, and
to punish non-believers, by whatever names they were called. I learned
that some parts of the world that are regarded today as being legitimately
Christian weren't originally so. After being conquered by invading
Christian armies, such conquered people were often forced to choose between
death and conversion to Christianity. Charlemagne and the Saxon Wars
come to mind. I learned that missionaries, including Christians,
were often instrumental in the exterminations of cultures and in the obliteration
of bodies of literature. The Maya script comes to mind. I learned
of the brutality of the Crusades and of the horrors of the inquisition.
Such practices appear to have been all too common among Christians, for
centuries.
Christians
who will even acknowledge that aspect of their past today will declare
that we of this enlightened age have moved beyond such things. Nevertheless,
after almost a thousand years since the first crusade, Muslim lands are
still occupied today by a Christian army. Different people might
call it by different names but, to me, it looks a lot like a crusade.
Whatever it's called, the excuses for it are not one whit better than the
excuses that were used in the eleventh century. Even in America,
even today, there are people who know the One and Only Way, and who require
everyone else to follow it. To such people, sin is anything that
they don't want other people to do. For centuries, such people have
compelled obedience and punished violations. They still do so today.
Only the tactics have changed. Instead of a stake, a rack, a bed
of coals, or a blade, they use the legislatures and the prisons to compel
obedience and to punish violations. Many such people call themselves
Christians, although their kind predates Christ and infests the entire
world, not just Christendom.
In
Ecclesiastes, we can learn that "What has been is what will be, and what
has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under
the sun." Wisdom, when it rarely occurs, appears to be timeless.
So, I've been pondering that scripture about the mirror. Each person
is welcome to his own interpretation. This is mine. Evangelists,
even the Christian kind, should stop looking for evil in others.
They all suffer from a childish failure of love and understanding.
They should grow up. They should look first for evil not in others,
but in themselves, that is, metaphorically, in a mirror.
You
hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
—Matthew 7:5
The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version
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Walt
Kelly's notion is applicable. In this case, if the evangelists ever
do see evil clearly, face to face, it will probably not be in others, but
in themselves.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
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July 2013 |
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