It's been a few days since I have written anything and I have had quite a bit on my mind, so this might be a long one. First off, I am nearly done with another one of my goals for the year. Reading the new testament. I only have Revelations left and there is probably a lot to be said about that, but I will come back to that in a little while if I have time, first let me address some things that have been on my mind.
It appears the Supreme Court has upheld the Obamacare legislation as it is currently being referred to. I don't really have much to say about it, honestly. I see both the good and the bad in it, but I refuse to be polarized on the issue as so many people have been. The whole thing has made me think about writing a short story though, about what the world would be like in a more socialized state, considering the effects of technology, bureaucracy, and public education. I might write something on this soon, if I can develop the idea in a cohesive enough fashion, could be interesting.
This leads me to a couple other things that have been on my mind. I watched two films that had a strong impact on me a couple days ago, not so much because the films themselves were necessarily profound, but more because the philosophies of the characters and themes of the films hit me pretty hard.
The first one was a film called Agora, which I pretty much hated, but was fascinated by, like a train wreck, and the other was The Edukators. Let's look at Agora first, shall we. This was a film about the destruction of the library of Alexandria and the subsequent murder of Hypatia, an Egyptian philosopher, astronomer, and teacher at Alexandria. The film was interesting enough historically that it kept me involved, but it took a perspective as viewing the destruction of Alexandria and consequent death of Hypatia as a product of Christian fanaticism. I had serious issue with the way in which the Christians were portrayed in the film, and the way in which Hypatia was constantly portrayed as the only force of logic in the film. It was essentially presented as a clash between science and religion, which is such a tiresome stance and so common among atheists. The Christians were literally presented as ignorant masses or political converts almost without fail. There was so much in the film that presented Christians as mindless and violent that I was literally disgusted and needed to look up some of the actual history of the events to try and determine what, if anything, was true in the whole garbled mess. What I found was that some things were true, and some were presented much more harshly in order to make the filmmakers' point, which was focused on the hypocrisy and evil of the church. The truth, was much more balanced and ultimately sad. Now, I am not going to deny that the church as an institution and as a leading force in the world and with its followers has not taught many things that were not the meaning of the doctrine, that were not what the bible teaches, and certainly were not the will of Jesus as I understand it, but this film was outright ridiculous. It seems that we accept the ridiculous in historical films and entertainment, and don't really think about what they are showing us, when in fact if we look at it critically, we'll find there are gross misrepresentations which are their own subtle form of propaganda. It is actually quite pathetic. So, I don't recommend the film, as it is ultimately tripe, but I also don't recommend that we turn our backs on looking at historical injustices that have occurred because people succumbed to an ideology that was not entirely wholesome, and was actually in conflict with the doctrine that those people profess to follow. If you choose to watch this film, look at it critically, and then go and research the truth of the events and understand there is more to it than the demonization of the Christian faith that the filmmakers would have you believe. Likewise, I think it is important that we acknowledge that even today there are those who would use scripture for their own political agendas and are not understanding of the truth of what they are saying, but are rather interpreting the truth in a manner that it was never intended.
This leads me to one such example. The legalization of gay marriage is a key civil rights issue right now, and it is an area that Christian talk radio and right wing radio pundits like to focus on as a point of contention. They are suggesting that it is not a civil rights issue because marriage is a sacred act, a vow before God, and the bible decrees it as between a man and a woman specifically. Ok, but you are missing something fundamental here guys. IT IS A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE BECAUSE MARRIAGE IS ALSO A CIVIL INSTITUTION. Christians and other religions view marriage as a sacred vow, and if you are a Christian, you follow the doctrine and recognize that marriage is between a man and a woman, but we do not live in a Christian nation, we live in a nation that is tolerant of many religions, and marriage in America is a legal and civil institution also, so you cannot deny it to people of a different religious faith or of different viewpoints from you, because you are denying them equal CIVIL rights. If you are of a particular faith and you choose not to recognize a marriage as having spiritual sanctity, well that is your choice, but if you choose not to recognize marriage as a legal and civil entity and denying those rights to two consenting adults, then you are oppressing your brother, and what the Lord says to me is that I am not meant to judge my brother, but to love him. Oppressing other people is not loving them.
While we are on this subject, let's talk about The Edukators. (Gonna get circular with this point here, so bear with me a moment.) The film Edukators, which I thought was quite excellent and which I will probably need to see again at some point to truly take it all in, was about a group of young German socialists, who were breaking into the homes of the rich and messing with their stuff in an attempt to leave them a message which was "You have too much stuff" and "Your days of luxury are over". The point of this was to do something extreme in an effort to affect a radical change and wake these deluded people up. The film was interesting. The main characters have an interesting point to make, and though I didn't agree entirely with their social agenda, the film made some great points about the broken capitalist system, human nature, and the generation gap. Here's where I have a problem with it, and how it ties into the general problem with socialism, the main female character in the film is being evicted and is impoverished and works at a job that she hates for ridiculous hours out of the day. She says that she owes $94,500 (Euro) for an accident she got into a few years prior with a rich guy in a Mercedes, and was being strangled by debt. This was then the catalyst for actions that end up leading her and her friends to face off ideologically and physically against the extremely rich persona that she owes the money to. When she had the accident she was not insured and so the cost of the damage to the vehicle was more than she could afford to pay. Her friend suggests that it is ridiculous for her to be killing herself and ruining her life to pay for some rich guy's toy. With this, I somewhat agree, but it doesn't acknowledge that the girl did the wrong thing to begin with. I'm a firm believer that our actions have consequences and if you stupidly or ignorantly perform actions that are illegal without acknowledging those consequences, don't pretend like you are not at fault or at least realize that you are in the position you are in as a consequence of your own choices. That being said, the rich guy in the film was somewhat at fault as well. He states at one point in the film that his lawyer handled everything with the lawsuit and the accident and he never really knew who he was up against, and that he AGREED that he didn't think it was right that she suffer and be impoverished for the rest of her life over the accident. This leads us to an interesting point on common sense and common decency. We are so litigious in this world today, that things happen as a product of the system, wherein if we were just kinder to one another and used more common sense, there would often be less suffering and more understanding between us. Is the system broke? Yes. Should we just chuck it out and start over with a socialist agenda? Hell no! That is just going from one failed ideology to another!
So what is my point in all this and how does it relate to my Christian agenda? It's simple. First off, as Christians, we are taught that actions have consequences, and we need to be prepared to make amends for unrighteous actions. Just because you make a mistake doesn't mean you should suffer for it eternally, Jesus is proof that we can be forgiven for our transgressions, and likewise the girl did not need to be suffering under her mistake, but could have asked for forgiveness, or tried to work something out with the guy. No guarantee that it would solve things, but she could have TRIED.
I can relate to the socialists in the film because their point is that people need to use common sense and work for the common good and for the benefit of everyone. In addition to this, I agree with their point "You have too much stuff", and I am amused by their methods of not stealing, but just messing with these rich individuals, and making them think about their affluent lifestyle a little more critically. After all, as Christians, one of our commandments is charity. Something the rich man was not acknowledging.
We are not meant to place value in things and worldly possessions, we are meant to place value in the Lord and God's love, and our job is to be charitable and loving to one another. In fact, we are repeatedly told that placing value in the things of the world will only lead to our own destruction, therefore the best that we can do is to interrupt this mindless habit and natural human inclination to accumulate and have more and do more and own more or to BE more. It's the path of sin, ultimately. Living in this industrial age, it is pathetic that there are people who starve or cannot get the medical help they need because of the high cost of things, when we are so very rich in technology and knowledge, and when so many riches are wasted.
However, putting our faith in any overly large, overly bureaucratic, or wasteful institution (be it corporate, religious, or government) is proven not to be the answer either, because those entities don't seem to know how to provide relief. They only seem to know how to consume and waste. Perhaps this is overly cynical, but it is what I see time and time again. I think the best thing a person can do with their time is to devote it to impacting individuals on a personal level with direct positive force. Taking the time to encourage, interact with, and help build the communities and lives of individuals around you, making the efforts to work for the greater good on an individual level, this is the greater reward and the true calling of us Christians. It is also the best way to implement lasting change and the greatest benefit.
Wow, ok, that was quite a diatribe, not sure I addressed everything, but perhaps that is enough for now.
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