Higher Ground

With Hurricane Irene turning on the spigots in the skies, it makes me more at peace that we live in Mountville, high upon a hill. Higher ground in the best response to flooding for water obeys gravity even when it is acting up.

High places signify many realities in spirituality. They typically are places of worship. What is worshiped can vary, but worship happens. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, high places--what a culture believes to be ultimately the transcendent truths of life--are going to be occupied. One has to have a view of the world, a worldview, and ultimate truths are the apex.

There recently was an article published in the New Yorker about the Dominionist. The writer Lizzi (a literary Lizzie Borden for the ax job) essentially posited that Christians who think that the faith applies to more than Sunday morning are dangerous. Nancy Pearcey, one of the writers targeted in the article, defends her viewpoint better than I can.

There are two essential major stories involving mountains and the faith in the Bible. The Old Testament giving of the Law on Sinai (to Moses) and the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament (from Jesus). It is certainly true that any culture that violates the Ten Commandments persistently won't long be a civilization. It doesn't matter what the Supreme Court declares. The Supreme Being is the ultimate judge.

To the degree that a culture adheres to the Law of God, it prospers. And people can adhere behaviorally to precepts for a lot of reasons besides actually agreeing with them. However, when Christians use the political system to coerce adherence to the Law we have to acknowledge that this impulse can devolve into theocratic hegemony and a thousand of abuses. However, that sword of coercion also cuts the other way with other systems imposing its beliefs on religious people. The strategy of secularists is to extend the authority of government like a flood into every nook and cranny of life, and then wall off people of faith into isolated islands of enforced irrelevance and then drown them out. That is equally totalitarian.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, certainly expects his followers to assent and practice His teachings. Read this below and rank it on the Taliban tenor:

Matthew 5

1And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

2And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

3Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

7Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

9Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

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