Here I am again, only a day or two after the last post. I am
trying hard to appease you for the long delay you have just suffered. No, no
promise it will not happen again, but I will try my darnest. I am foreseeing a
couple of trips in my intermediate future: to Atlanta (GA) and Mountain View
(CA). We’ll see what comes out of those trips. As I say….
One of the characteristics of this my blog is that I often
go back and forth between so-called “religious” and “worldly” or “secular”
topics. I don’t keep a straight line of
separation between the two; I don’t compartmentalize them. I discuss all sorts
of topics in random order—abortion, Aboriginals, transparency, taxes,
politicians and in between appear all kinds of religious and philosophical
issues. Why is this? Is my sense of
logic impaired? Am I propriety
challenged?
Actually, I “mix up” all these issues quite on purpose and
by design. Some years ago I published a book of daily meditations with the
title The Prophet Moses for Today.[1]
There, too, I mixed up all these topics and defended this practice in
Meditation 339 under the title “No Compartmentalized Christianity.” Topics just previous to this one include “A
Banker’s Responsibility” (332), seducing virgins (333), forced marriage (334),
sorcery (336-337) and bestiality (338).
Topics right after Meditation 339 include murder (340), politics (341)
and aliens (342). What a strange
hodge-podge!
The reason for this sequence was actually quite simple: I
was following the sequence of these subjects as found in the Bible--in the Ten
Commandments, to be more precise. But,
you may ask, why does the Bible write in this “hodge-podgy” way? Does this not confirm the negative misgivings
so many people have about it? Why did
its writers not organize topics more logically and systematically?
Meditation 339 puts it this way:
There you have it again. Mixing
religion with “secular” affairs. We have just meditated on sorcery and
bestiality, while the next few verses deal with aliens and widows. So, why have
just one religious verse mixed in with all this “secular” stuff? Especially moving from bestiality to religion
is to move from the ridiculous to the sublime. Why can’t the Bible keep these
things apart a little more neatly?
Sorry about that. …the Bible does
not compartmentalize religion from so-called “secular” life. It is against the
Christian religion to do so. Christians who so compartmentalize have given in
to secularism, which is simply another system of belief or religion. They
live by two religions, the Christian and the secular. These are two opposing religions or
perspectives. People who adhere to both are weak both in the spiritual life as
well as their life in the world. Christians will often compensate for their
weakness and contradiction by screaming and yelling in their religious
gatherings. Screaming supposedly covers up the powerlessness in their lives and
gives them a fake sense of spiritual power.
So, our text for today (Exodus
22:20) is a witness to and embodiment of the centrality of religion in human life—in everyone’s life. Your entire life is influenced and, indeed,
directed, by the force, ideal or idol or God to which you sacrifice or dedicate your
life. I urge that this be the Jehovah God of the Bible, the One the churches
around you preach about regularly.
=========
A random word of wisdom: “When you don’t talk about something, then
something will talk about itself for you.” (from Alexander Smith: The
Handsome Man’s de Luxe Café.)
[1]Jos, Nigeria: Institute of Church & Society, 1995. You can access it free of charge
on my website
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