No Shame: No Curse, No Cure

Romans 12:19

Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.

There are several things that make me wroth. Nothing beats the King James for hard and precise words. Biblical whiskey versus The Message spritzers.

Confederate Flags on trucks/cars/tee-shirts and the idiocy of those who defend Southern slavery vis-à-vis "States Rights," "Northern War of Aggression," and all that pernicious propaganda. I have heard more than one present day hard-core Southern Presbyterian--the historical theological defenders of American slavery--still say this in the 21st century, as do their less erudite redneck half-cousins. Calvinism has a lot to answer for in its defense of the indefensible.

Slavery unleashed a scourge upon the land that is still not yet been stopped. A legacy of the divided mind and soul of Thomas Jefferson--that great Humanist who had his slaves construct Monticello and tear it down and build it again and again. Talk about Wall of Separation. "All men are created equal." Oh, you with the bricks who work for no wage, "You're not a man." Liberals should be mighty careful in summoning Jefferson words, for he spoke with a forked tongue. Blacks on one side of the wall working, Jefferson on the other side, pontificating. American Sphinx? More like American Serpent. Jefferson had the means to persuade the Founders that slavery needed to be ended. Instead, he participated in it, profited from it, and perpetuated it.

More modern anger arena? Another thing that really piss me off. Those who text and drive. There are several aspects of my anger here. First, texting distracts the driver and makes being on the road a danger for all. Second, considering the insipid nature of most texts, the driving texter is putting others at risk for some stupid OMG or LOL comment. Like that can't wait you infantile goof? I see it again and again, someone looking down while driving, chuckling to themselves in media-fueled masturbatory messaging. Do it when you are in a safe place, not behind the wheel of a one ton rolling projectile. Driving dangerously is an activity that provokes me to anger.

My general premise: No one has a right to threaten and endanger others by their intentional stupidity.

That probably could play a thousands ways. The other night it did for me. I was getting ready to pump gas and noticed two pumps down a young man--probably in his mid-twenties--was smoking closely adjacent to a gas pump that an older man  was using to fill up his beater-mobile. I made a comment to the effect, "Would you please put out your cigarette?"  I said it loud and firmly, for it seemed like a dangerous situation requiring more than just a gentle suggestion. Gas goes boom and I was in no mood to be barbequed. It had been a long day. The older man made a comment along the lines "It is our pump and none of your business." As if the explosion would contain itself only to the guilty. I replied back, "That was a smart ass comment." He took offense to that tone and said, "If you lived in the city, your ass would get beat." It was his son smoking and he trying to defend it. I glared at him.

At that point, I felt like calling the old man and his progeny something nasty and vile. I refrained. I could have been a lot more graceful in that incident but I could have also allowed it to escalate into a relational explosion by saying something more or less accurate, embellished no doubt with insults, on their demonstrable lack of intelligence. Dumb and Dumber.

The whole event caused me to reflect on a pattern of society that is becoming more and more prevalent. People who lack even a minimum of good sense and civility being offended when someone has the audacity to actually point it out. It truly astounded me that the young man could be so stupid, that his dad shamelessly defended him, and then issued a mendacious threat to me, and somehow they drove away thinking that I was the ass.

I have no doubt that I could have nailed them verbally--skewered their pathetic attempts of self-justification, but then I would have probably got hit with a tire iron.  So there. I guess the first clue to the lack of intelligence was the young man  smoking next to the gas pump to start with, a mere couple of feet away from the "No Smoking" sign. I could have gone up to that sign and helped them sound out the words. Again. Probably would have gotten hit with a tire iron for my tutorial efforts.

Bullies, miscreants, and thugs prey on most people not having the courage to say enough is enough. So, inner cities are terrorized by a small minority of punks, while grandmothers and children cower behind locked doors. Police act in flagrantly unlawful ways and literally laugh at attempts for redress. Corporations rape the land and sea and somehow convince us that it is Free Enterprise, when there is nothing free about it. Politicians act like pigs and squeal on and on at the public trough. Entertainment is juvenile and degraded. Where is the shame?

If Adam and Eve lived today, they would say something along the lines of, "So I ate some fruit. Big deal," and continue to parade around proudly naked until God killed them in their tracks. No coverings for you because you have no shame. I don't want to be overly negative yet I am sensing that our society is dangerously adrift on the sea of shamelessness and rocks of reality are crashing into and cracking the hull. We shall soon sink in our sin. For where there is no sin, no shame, there is functionally no Savior.

Shame can be a terribly destructive condition but it can also be quite constructive if given to God and reconciled. Shame, used lawfully, leads to repentance. I wish I had the conviction and character to give the two men the Good News the Gospel, after my confrontation with them. My confrontation was correct but tragically incomplete. For Jesus did not come in the world to condemn it, for it is already condemned without Him, but to save it.

Forgive me Father for being right.