|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| I wrote this as a post to an online sociology class, so it may be a little out of context here. Enjoy it for what it's worth.
It is truly difficult to think outside of our own cultural box. Is each culture equally valid? It’s a good question. The best way to answer it is to first answer this: Is there objective morality? That is to say, is there a standard of right and wrong that applies across the board? If there isn’t such a standard then each culture is equally correct, with whatever customs go with that culture, whether the customs be holidays, music, slavery, rape, driving on the left of the road, child soldiers, christmas trees, forced marriages, dog fighting, or child abuse. Without an objective standard, every claim of right and wrong is merely a preference, equal to saying “pizza tastes good.” Saying “pizza tastes good” is clearly a preference. Saying “rape is wrong” can only be a preference also if you deny an absolute moral standard.
If say that there is an objective standard, then perhaps some cultures are closer to this standard than others. Each culture is different, and that doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Where does a cultural practice cross the line? A cultural practice crosses the line at the same place it crosses the line of morality, if you believe in such a thing. If you don’t believe in such a thing, then each practice is equally valid, and no line is ever crossed. I find that impossible to believe. While I was in Africa this past year, I had the opportunity to interact with several children who had been captured then escaped from the Lord’s Resistance Army. For those of you who don’t know, this is a rebel military group in Uganda that kidnaps children and brutalizes and brainwashes them into cold blooded killers. THIS IS WRONG. I interacted with children who have been put through experiences so horrible that our American minds can not fully grasp it. I could never look those children in the eye and say “what they did to you was not wrong. I would prefer that they didn’t do that to you, but it wasn’t wrong.” Come on people! Good exists. Evil exists. And it does not exist based on what the majority of a fickle society proclaims at any given time. What I saw will always be wrong, no matter what people think in 50 years. Good and evil must exist, and they must exist based on a timeless, unchanging standard.
So what do you think, is there an objective moral standard? If so, how is it determined? Who determines it? It must be a force that has existed from eternity past, that is infinite and unchanging. If not, the objective moral standard would also be subject to change.
| | |
| Earlier this month i listened to a Christian friend denounce abortion on the grounds that "it kills babies." After thinking about it, i determined that that isn't true. We wouldn't say that abortion kills adults, because "adult" refers to humans who are fully developed. We wouldn't say that abortion kills teenagers, because teenagers refers to a specific age range of humans. We cannot say that abortion kills babies, because the word baby just like the word adult or teenager refers to a specific age range. I looked at the definition of "baby" in Webster's dictionary, and there was not a single definition that included those that are unborn. A human baby is a newborn human. To say then that abortion kills babies is incorrect. Biology defines when life begins. For humans, life begins at conception. It is accurate then to say that abortion kills HUMAN LIFE.
I want to encourage anyone who reads this to use this term. Does abortion kill babies? That can be disputed. Does abortion kill human life? Absolutely. And no one can argue with that.
If it's okay to kill something before it becomes a baby, then embryo's are fair play. But if it's wrong to kill HUMAN LIFE, then any destruction after conception is morally wrong.
| | |
| As mentionted in my last post, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite books. Over the last two years I've written a couple of my own about subjects that are close to my heart. Here is another one, in memory of the girl who sobbed her heart out.
Dear Lucius,
Brilliant! I was about to write you a letter suggesting such a tactic, but I see from your last correspondence that you have stumbled across it yourself. Allow me to guide you in this most devious way.
I must warn you that you seem to have become overconfident in light of your recent success. You must remember your limitations as a demon. I wish it were not so, but we cannot change it. Unfortunately, you are limited in your power. You cannot control anyone’s actions. All you can do is place thoughts in their minds. This can be sufficient though, so long as they doesn’t realize that they can refuse to dwell on your ideas. My point is this: since you can’t make them do anything, place thoughts in their heads that will lead them to do what you want her to.
I commend your excellence in coercing your patient to give up her purity. Such a task is not easily accomplished with someone of her background. Now her background works in your favor for multiple reasons. In her community, such a high value is placed on maintaining purity that two things will now result.
First, she will feel isolated and alone. It is your job to facilitate this feeling every chance you get. It is such an easy task that I laugh at the thought of it! Whisper in her ear that she can’t tell anyone. Those damn Christians are so judgmental anyways that your assistance is barely needed. Still, the more intervention on your part, the deeper in your grasp you will have her. This should not be difficult for you, but it is crucial.
You must remain wary that she never thinks about telling anyone. The blunt fact is that she is not alone, she only thinks she is. If she were to realize how much some people truly cared for her, we would lose her in no time. Therefore, never let her talk to those who truly care for her. You must use her guilt to skew her judgment just enough so that she blurs the genuine Christians in with the Holier-than-thou, condemning “Christians.” Then she really will be all alone, except for you of course.
As I mentioned, our great ranks have won victories, even amongst the enemies own, but still, many are truly loving (it pains me to write the word), and will listen to her and encourage her. You must keep her away from such people.
Second, you can use her background to promote despair. Now that she’s lost it, she can’t get it back. Remind her of that every moment of every day. If you execute this correctly, she will start saying things like, “It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve already lost it. This week will just be like all the other ones.” You see? Now you have her committed to continuing in her behavior! Convince her that since she’s already lost it, it doesn’t matter if she keeps living in it. If she stopped for two seconds to think about it or talked to anyone who cared for her, she would quickly see this error in thinking. That’s why your job is to keep her so occupied in her emotions that she doesn’t have time to do this.
You have been trained well. I needn’t explain the importance of all of this to you. Destroying a girl’s purity is a huge victory for The Cause. But remember that we’ve won many a victory such as this, only to have the enemy win them back through the love of his people. I will always remember that dumbass demon Hellsman, who in a similar situation to yours lost his patient, and now is still lurking from the shadows, following the girl around trying in vain to slip past the enemy’s guard. I warn you, do not lose your patient or you will receive punishment of the most painful kind. I don’t think I have anything to fear though, for you have proved yourself worthy on many counts, most notably this last one. Now continue in this most excellent way to seal your victory and guarantee her an eternal place in the flames with our Father.
Your Uncle,
Rafar
| | |
| One of my favorite books by C.S. Lewis is The Screwtape Letters. It is a series of letters from an Uncle Demon to his Nephew Demon, instructing him on how to keep his assigned human away from God. It helped me to see things from a different perspective. I liked it so much that i wrote my own screwtape letter. Enjoy!
Dear Lucius,
Your last letter disturbed me greatly. Indeed, for quite some time I was unsure of how to address your current crisis, which explains why my letter is so late getting to you. I was immediately concerned when you informed me that your patient had gone to a youth retreat with his youth group, but I had confidence that you would be able to sufficiently distract him from the Enemy’s message. I see that such was not the case, and as a result of your failure he has committed his life to the Enemy. Your blunder is significant but not irreversible, should you employ the proper tactics to tear him down again.
I’m sure you’ve already found that he is immune to your attacks, and that your normal strategies are no longer effective. You must now bombard him from different angles; change your battle plan a bit. Your patient no doubt views this retreat as the “perfect” weekend. You must use this to your advantage. He is living off a spiritual high, and you can use the grind of normal life at home to crash his wave.
For example, when his mom asks him to wash the dishes, or when his brother is grating on his nerves, suggest to him that if only he still lived at the retreat center then he could come closer to God, and serve God. When he is frustrated, tell him over and over again that his family is prohibiting him from walking with God. If executed correctly, this will produce favorable results. But if you fail here, he will be so far into the Enemy’s clutches that it will be difficult to recapture him.
I cannot stress enough the importance of this. Many souls have been won for our great Father, and many lost, on this battleground of family life. It is such a fierce battleground because it presents equal opportunity for both the Enemy and for us, and the stakes are monumentally high. For children, family life is the training ground for the rest of their life; it teaches them how to react to authority, how to live with people every day, and how to respond to adversity. My friend, if we can control people’s thoughts regarding these three areas, we will soon control their actions, and it will not be long before we receive the fruit of our labors: the enjoyment of watching them burn in hell, utterly and eternally separated from the Enemy.
To instill in your patient rebellion towards his authorities (his parents) is not nearly as difficult as you would imagine. There are many different tactics you can use, but my favorite one has always been music. Find out what music his parents don’t like, or don’t approve of, and make it attractive to your patient. Make it so important to him that he is willing to sacrifice harmony with his parents in order to argue for the right to listen to his music. Suggest to him that he needs this music to continue his walk with God. Whisper in his ear that perhaps he is wiser than his parents, and that they are “old-fashioned” or misguided. Make it as big of an issue as you possibly can – a constant source of tension between them. It makes no difference at all who is right and who is wrong, so long as they’re arguing. It is quite amusing to watch this process; to see how easily the youth will trade his family harmony for something so tiny, something that doesn’t really matter. You can use this tactic with basically any guideline the parents lay down, whether it is friends he’s not allowed to hang out with, parties he’s not allowed to go to, or meetings he must attend. All you need to do to be successful in this area is to make the object more important to him than his relationship with his parents.
In regard to him living with his siblings, you will find it a bit more difficult to control his
actions. If you have been successful in alienating him from his parents, you have one factor working against you: the children will generally be united against the parents, which will bring them closer together. It is your job to see that this unity does not overflow to other aspects of their relationships. This may be accomplished a number of different ways, but I recommend rivalries, which will, with strategic suggestions from you, escalate out of control. You remember in ancient times what happened to Cain and Able, when Cain became jealous of his brother and killed him. This was all the result of cunning tactics on the part of Ratsbain, Cain’s guardian demon, who took a friendly rivalry and turned it into a jealous rage. While I doubt that you will be able to insight your patient to physically kill anyone, you might succeed in getting him to hate his brother, which even our Enemy admits is just as bad. You must work closely with the demon responsible for your patient’s brother. The ultimate goal is to make them hate each other so fiercely that they cannot even speak to each other without sarcasm and scorn.
Creating strife in the family is of the utmost importance to our cause. Thanks to our efforts, there has never been a perfect family. There has always been adversity, and in most cases, we have been able to cash in on this. You must work hard to keep it so. In every household, there are certain tasks which must be performed: dishes to be cleaned, laundry to be washed, dogs to be walked, kitty-litter to be changed, rooms to be swept, cars to be waxed, rugs to be vacuumed, trash to be emptied; and in these lay multiple opportunities to make your patient stumble. Have his mother remind him to perform one of these mundane duties when he is dead tired or frustrated over his homework, or even better, when he is in the middle of reading that abominable book of the Enemy’s. The evil thoughts that you can slip into his head at moments like this will be particularly effective. Make him roll his eyes. Always strive to control his attitude. If he is supposed to take out the trash on Wednesday night, have him take it out on Thursday morning, because “it doesn’t really matter.” Little acts of disobedience will lead to bigger acts of disobedience. It is important that you make him feel as if he is being hounded by his family, and that he is doing more than his fair share of the chores. When somebody helps him out and does one of his jobs for him, let it quickly slip his mind before he can even say so much as say “Thank you.” Do not ever allow him to realize how much it means to his siblings to do their chores for them every once in a while. I have seen this happen all too many times; family members helping each other out in the little things, such as doing the dishes for someone who was out late, walking the dog for someone with a heavy school load, and folding laundry for a stressed out parent; and no advancement for our cause has ever come of such things, in fact, there are few things that our Great Father hates so much as these little acts of kindness.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that we govern family life. The habits that one forms when he is young will likely stay with him for the rest of his life. If we can teach kids to dishonor their parents when they’re young, how much more will we be able to when they’re older? They will be unable to submit to authority, whether it is a man to his pastor, a citizen to his government, a wife to her husband, or a worker to his boss. If we can create strife in a child’s relationships with his siblings, how much more will we be able to create strife in his relationships with his co-workers and his spouse? If we can prevent little acts of kindness while a child is young, how much more will we be able to prevent them when he’s older? Family life is the training ground for the rest of life – the training ground for marriage, the training ground for a job, the training ground for parenting, and the training ground for just about everything else. I do not lie to you, if we undermine a kids respect for authority, cripple his ability to interact with siblings, and prevent his considerate acts of kindness, he will be strongly inclined to follow these patterns for the rest of his life.
I hope this letter has been of help to you,
Your affectionate uncle
Rafar
| | |
|
