Evil

Why is there evil in the world? Naturally there is what the ancient rabbis called the "evil Impulse." This seems to be a natural part of the human condition. While this impulse exists, why can some people resist it and others can't? I am not saying that there is not a personal responsibility to avoid evil. There is. But there is an aspect of evil that I find interesting. Why do "good" people sometimes do horrific things? 

Related to this question is the not-so-horrific things we all may do. 

One reason for this is I Cor 15:33, here from the ASV:

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

If you are associated with people who drink to excess, are you less or more likely to drink to excess? If you are associated with people who curse, are you less or more likely to curse?  While I have been busy patting myself on the back because of the weight loss I have achieved, I suddenly realized that a significant factor in my weight loss was going from an area where I was not all that heavy in comparison to others, to an area where I was–from Missouri to California. In retrospect this was particularly evident in the church I attended. 

We humans are tribal in orientation. If we allow "group think" or our culture to dominate our thinking, we may head down the wrong path.  

Philip Zimardo talks about this in a "Ted" talk. 

Note that TED decide to remove the most horrific pictures. Note also that I do not agree with the "pop theology" presented about Satan. 

Otherwise good people can be corrupted by the tribes they join. We humans do things in groups that we would not do individually. 

Each of us needs to careful which groups we belong to. This is especially true for groups with a strong culture like the police, the military, and, well, churches.  

I sang a song in church for decades that I did not understand. It used archaic language and told me not to "stand in sinners' way." What this means is to not associate with the wrong crowd. Here is the Psalm that song was based on, in the modern translation The Message.  

Psalm 1

1 How well God must like you—

    you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,

    you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,

    you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.

2-3  Instead you thrill to God’s Word,

    you chew on Scripture day and night.

You’re a tree replanted in Eden,

    bearing fresh fruit every month,

Never dropping a leaf,

    always in blossom.

4-5  You’re not at all like the wicked,

    who are mere windblown dust—

Without defense in court,

    unfit company for innocent people.

6  God charts the road you take.

The road they take is Skid Row.

Sarah Palin, Comedian In Chief

I like Sarah Palin, although I completely understand that "your mileage may vary."  But to understand Palin you have to understand that you should not view her as a politician or even a pundit. She is first and foremost a comedian. And as the famous actor Lionel Barrymore (Drew's grandfather) supposedly said on his death bed, "Dying is easy, but comedy is hard."  

Sarah proves the truth of that observation at an NRA convention. Here is an excerpt:

I kinda (to use one of Sarah's verbal shortcuts) doubt that Sarah did much more than warm the pew at the Assembly of God congregation she attended. If she had actually paid attention, she might have realized how offensive this joke actually is.  

To compare torture to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, (for that is what baptism represents) is very offensive. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice, including torture, to allow us entry into his church. No, water-boarding is not a form of baptism. 

Particularly annoying was the obvious relish her comments engendered in the audience. Considering the audience, I would guess that most were church-going kinda folks. Yet they seem to have mentally compartmentalized their politics away from their faith. This bizarre bifurcation is common among us church-going types, as I unfortunately know from past personal experiences. 

The subtitle of this blog is leaving Babylon the Great. You cannot leave the Great Whore if you eat her food, so I blog about health. You cannot leave that evil city if you vote for her politicians, so I blog about politics. You cannot leave Babylon if you watch her television and read her books, so I blog about books and media. We cannot avoid being in the world, as Jesus said, but we can do what Jesus commanded his 12 disciples at the last supper and not be of the world. 

Sorry Sarah, but Barrymore was right, comedy is hard, and you were not funny. Can we leave Babylon the Great if we laugh at her jokes? 

Rev 18: 4-8 from the Message

Get out, my people, as fast as you can,

    so you don’t get mixed up in her sins,

    so you don’t get caught in her doom.

Her sins stink to high Heaven;

    God has remembered every evil she’s done.

Give her back what she’s given,

    double what she’s doubled in her works,

    double the recipe in the cup she mixed;

Bring her flaunting and wild ways

    to torment and tears.

Because she gloated, “I’m queen over all,

    and no widow, never a tear on my face,”

In one day, disasters will crush her—

    death, heartbreak, and famine—

Then she’ll be burned by fire, because God,

    the Strong God who judges her,

    has had enough.

You Decide Your Happiness

Tis nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so ... W. Shakespeare,

or if you prefer 

Philippians 4:11-14

The Message (MSG)

^10-14 I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.

or if you prefer.

Chozen (Frozen)

Gonorrhea

Not a very happy title I know. Here is some more happy news from Medical Xpress.

(Medical Xpress)—The CDC has issued a report detailing its findings in attempting to trace the increasing difficulty in treating gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that can cause severe discomfort, serious medical problems (such as sterility) for both genders and in very rare cases, death.

Gonorrhea is a bacterial disease that has been around for thousands of years, if not longer, plaguing human populations. In more recent times, it's had to evolve to survive as humans learned to treat it using penicillin and other antibacterial agents. Over the past thirty years in particular, gonorrhea has evolved to the point that there are very few treatments left (ceftriaxone along with either azithromycin or doxycycline) and now, it looks like its poised to get the best of those as well, which will mean those who contract the disease in the very near future will find that doctors have no way to cure them. 

Well at least you can be happy that I will post no pictures!  

Hmm, do I need to point out the obvious? Yes, I guess we need the obvious. In a world with incurable venereal diseases monogamy is an obvious choice, yet marriage keeps declining as a percentage of the population especially among those with the lowest incomes. 

Years ago I saw a skit on the comedy show “Living Color.” Two people were about to have sexual relations. They talked about their previous liaisons. Suddenly every person either had ever had sex with appeared in the room. The woman was clearly upset that some of the man’s previous partners looked better than she did. The man that appeared in his group was explained by the man saying “I was in jail once.” The skit never did explain the white (both actors in the skit were black) meek accountant that appeared on the woman’s side of the bed.

Often comedy can bring forward important points in a memorable way. When you sleep with someone you are also sleeping with every person they ever slept with. 

I Corinthians 6 talks about this issue:

¹² ”I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³ You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

 ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.