The combination of the Terry Schiavo case, the advent of the feminism section of one of my classes, the coming of Easter, and an inexplicably high level of stress has prompted me to assert a few things about the way I think about and relate to life.
In particular order:
1. I do not believe in the power of women. Nor do I believe in the power of men. In fact, I think it is the fixation on such 'power,' and the distribution thereof, which has led to much of the oppression of 'minorities' throughout history, and winning power back through the same fixation only purpetuates the nature of oppression and separation.
2. The intelligenzia, of which I am a part, has placed too much importance on our analytical categories. We have artificially defined which categories of people are important, artificially defined which rights/powers the members of these categories should have, and artificially defined the measures of whether these rights are being sufficiently supplied, yet we cling to a ridiculous lockean/rousseau-esque idea that these rights are deserved by human nature. I tend to think that focusing on who gets what rights when and how, ignoring the associated resposibilities, has caused more harm than good. Understanding the world through the categories of its Creator may lead to rather valuable conclusions.
3. Responsibility does not require capability. A father gives his son two instructions--do not go near the 10 foot ditch, and mow the lawn before the end of the day. When the father leaves home, the son promptly goes to look in the ditch, and falls in. The father returns home, finds the son in the ditch, and after pulling him out asks why the lawn is not mowed. Rendering himself unable to fulfill the second command by violating the first does not absolve the son of responsibility for both.
4. Freedom to choose is less valuable than freedom to fulfill. Modern American society, both Christian and non, is obsessed with having the freedom to make choices unhindered by influencing factors. The absence of influence is a fallacy of the human conceit, and all things equal should be ignored in favor of a more important freedom: the freedom to fulfill your God-directed purpose. These are two fundamentally different ways to deal with issues of ability, preference, and decision. The mindset of purpose fulfillment is, I tend to think, a much more realistic and God-centered way to deal with the world than trying to eliminate all possible influencing factors.
5. 'Power' is subordinate to authority. 'Free' choice is important when the question is regarding a person intervening by strength of force who does not possess the authority to wield it. At the same time, no matter how strong one may be, that power should be set aside when faced with the influence of a proper authority, and power should always defer to righteously executed authority. Many have the power to take life because it seems unbearable; no one has the authority to take life except as a matter of retributary justice, and a just cause must be present.
6. Death = Separation of cutting off; Holiness = Separation of intimacy. One might define Holy as "set apart, separate, distinct, different;" the separation of death is of a different nature. A holy thing or person possesses an especially strong relationship with another thing or person (usually God), while a dead thing or person has had his relationship with another thing or person completely cut off. Physical death is to be completely cut off from the physical world, incapable of reconnection (without outside intervention). To be dead to someone is to be so utterly separated/cut off that you two are beyond reconciliation (again, without outside intervention). Conversely, holy separation is to have a special uniting bond, a formal intimacy. A husband is separated to his wife, a holy covenant. A king is separated to his office and duty, also in many ways a holy covenant. The high priest of Israel was once a year separated to the Holy of holies, a final example of a holy covenant. Understanding these relational separations makes human interaction far easier to comprehend.
7. Mind, emotion, will, body, and spirit are equal parts of being human. They must grow together, face strain together, relate to others together, and rest together. If any one of these is emphasized far beyond the others, or neglected far more than the others, the human being is not whole. Having one part of being human separated from the others is a kind of cutting off. It is a kind of death.
8. Real change is generally characterized by definitive, progressive, and consumative actions, in that order. The definitive is the point in time where a change is sparked, and from that point it is certain or definite that the change must occur. The progressive is the process by which the concequences and implications of the definitive act is worked through all things affected, changing different elements at different rates, yet without a doubt as to the teleological end. The consumative is the burst that brings all things to completion, not just completing but also sealing the progressive activity as final and binding, confirming the certitude of the definitive act.
9. The body is generally consumative by nature. It was the death of his physical body that finalized Jesus' life of obedience and salvific work. It was the resurrection of his physical body and his bodily accention to heaven that finalized his authoritative restoration of his people. It will be his bodily return to earth that destroys death and shatters sin forever. It is the physical union in marriage which should confirm and complete the covenantal intimacy. Thus the physical is the "caboose" of human action: always connected to the others, it should be invested in an action when all other parts are firmly set on it, and then it may be invested utterly.
10. Creation, fall, redemption, restoration. These are the concepts that shape the course of history, govern sub-creation, and guide the life of man. God is the creator of all things, with full authority and power over them. Adam, the first man, in his freedom of choice, being created as a perfect representative of man with authority (and responsibility) to represent all of his decendents, fell. By violating God's commands Adam earned a cutting off from God and all that is good for himself, and all those under his authority.
God did not leave mankind in this state, but instead became the man Jesus of Nazareth, in all ways both God and man, not naturally born of Adam's line but born of a virgin, thus not under Adam's authority. Under Jesus' authority were placed a people, God's flock plucked from the separation they had earned, who place their trust in Jesus' as their authoritative representative. Jesus obeyed God with his whole person, to the point of being cut off from God on behalf of his people, to satisfy the Just nature of God.
Jesus was resurrected bodily as a consumation of his redemptive work, itself the definitive act of history which now is now being worked out by the Holy Spirit in God's flock and in His world, over which Jesus has been given all power and authority. Those members of the flock await the consumative restoration of all of creation, down to their own physical bodies, at which time they will again be perfectly free to fulfill their purpose in holy separation to intimately relate to God.
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