Christian ethics is not about managing history, but about overaccepting the apparent givens of human life and turning them into gifts in the light of God’s grace.
Texas didn’t make it into the top ten listing of “conservative” states, according to the latest Gallup poll. I am not sure what to make of this read on the land of my childhood. I am, frankly, completely baffled by what “conservative” means these days. Corey Robin has a new book I need to read that will likely help. But, in the meantime, I am paying particular attention to the rhetoric around “progress” and “technology” in this Republican primary season. This makes for some whacky reading, as Newt Gingrich seems to match dear old Gene Roddenberry in his unbridled faith in technology to make our world a shiny, happy place. (Or should I say to make the solar system a shiny, happy set of places?) When Gingrich starts in about colonizing the moon, for instance, he seems less “conservative” and more, well … “progressive,” only we don’t usually use that word for someone who also wants to teach impoverished children a lesson by making them clean toilets. Yet there are some time-worn, icky connections between faith in scientific progress and disdain for people who seem not to progress.
I don’t usually post political links, but this one deals with ethics and the human condition, so here we go.
Caring for language is a moral issue.
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’
1 Peter 1:13-16
I forgot how much I liked 1st Peter.
Christian ethics is not about managing history, but about overaccepting the apparent givens of human life and turning them into gifts in the light of God’s grace.
As far as I am concerned it is never a question if God exists. The question is whether and how we should exist.
The convictions that form the background for Christian growth take the form of a narrative that requires conversion, since the narrative never treats the formation of the self as completed. Thus the story that forms Christian identity trains the self to regard itself under the category of sin, which means we must do more than just develop. Christians are called to a new way of life that requires nothing less than a transvaluation of their past reality-repentance.
Moreover, because of the nature of the reality to which they have been converted, conversion is something never merely accomplished but remains also always in front of them. Thus growth in the Christian life is not required only because we are morally deficient, but also because the God who has called us is infinitely rich. Therefore, conversion denotes the necessity of a turning of the self that is so fundamental that the self is placed on a path of growth for which there is no end.
The will of God is not a system of rules which is established from the outset; it is something new and different in each different situation in life, and for this reason a man must ever anew examine what the will of God may be.
The reward you get from a story is always less than you thought it would be, and the work is harder than you imagined. The point of a story is never about the ending, remember. It’s about your character getting molded in the hard work of the middle.
This is what Christians seek to do in worship. They spend time in the presence of the one whom they love. They hope thereby to become like him. Worship is a habit, but like all good habits, one that comes about through moral effort. The creative work lies in the preparation. The moment of worship is like the “moment” of decision. It is the time for instinct and habit, a time of being obvious and ordinary - so long as one has formed the right instincts and habits, and learned to regard the right things as obvious and ordinary.
