Issue 646 Children and Reverence/respect July 31, 2015

There is a core set relationship rules that children need when growing up.  This core set means teaching respect and reverence when and where it is needed.  So what do these terms mean, and in what capacity are they to be applied.

Reverence/Respect:  Respect is to hold someone with esteem, or high regard.  Reverence is a little deeper than typical respect, and can be a form of admiration.  Basically, it is when a person looks at another person and values them for their talents, abilities, or position.  But children must be able to do this.  Children who do not (in my opinion) will value themselves less, or mistreat themselves or others.  It is up to Parents and in some capacity schools to teach Respect and Reverence.  But who for exactly.  The categories are simple.  First and foremost, children must respect their parents.  As such, they should be made to help out with daily tasks their parents generally do for them to build up a level of respect for something they take for granted.  Then scale it up from there.  The next category is respect and reverence for others.  Recognizing others for their work, hardships and empathy with their situations aids in this.  Teaching children about the more fortunate and less fortunate and that peoples will power, decision making, talents, ability and life's circumstances can either make them rich, poor or in between.  That they are to a major extent in charge of what their future will be.  Next will be Authority.  People have hierarchies and people in charge require a certain level of respect even if one believes they may or may not deserve it.  This is teachable starting with parents being above the child, and bosses in a business being above employees.  Essentially teaching them hierarchies, and interpersonal relationships.  And finally, the most important is respect for the self.  They must be able to see themselves.  In this, they must realize that they have their own talents that can be refined and improved.  That their accomplishments are a result of their hard work.  Self-Respect must be taught at the same time as the others as the different forms of how respect is shown or perceived allow for the child to see all aspects of themselves and others.  All the while this can also be used to aid children in evaluating their worth as a respectable human being and drive them as they continue to learn and build upon the lessons of respect, so that they can enhance themselves.  So they can be able to improve themselves as human beings and decide who is worthy of a greater or lesser forms of respect and reverence.

Conclusion:  Respect and its higher form, reverence, need to be taught to preserve and protect appropriate relationships.  It insures that we treat the elderly with care, and that we do not diss our boss.  The earlier these are taught the better in order to enhance and nurture children to become adults who themselves will be worthy of respect.

Issue 645 Baptizing Pleasure July 30, 2015

I was watching an interview with Alice Von Hildebrand of the Hildebrand Project and she said something interesting.  That we must baptize pleasure.  Here is the explanation of why that I found this particularly interesting.

Baptizing Pleasure:  Hildebrand described pleasure as something that we share with animals.  It is something primal in that sense.  But she said we can separate it from animal pleasure.  We can separate it in such a way that we can detach it from our animistic urges.  To do so, we must baptize pleasure as a gift.  What Hildebrand meant by this was that we should be thankful when it is given to us from someone else.  That we should seek to give more than we receive, to the extent that we would be seeking solely to give it to others rather than seeking it for ourselves.

Thus, why I found it so interesting.  The idea that pleasure is animalistic, but that it can be converted into something higher.  Maybe even holy with respect to how she described it as being baptized.  The idea that we should seek to pleasure others over ourselves is obviously selfless, but I do not think she meant it to solely relate to sexual relations.  I think she meant pleasure in the broadest sense, from companionship, friendship, love, faith, and beyond, but still including bodily contact.  Obviously, this does not mean finding a random person to please, but to make sure that it is more than you or me being selfish.  It is about giving of yourself over receiving.

Conclusion:  Some of you may be having "dirty" thoughts, but Hildebrand being a religious theologian, does not talk from a "dirty" perspective, but a biblical one.  That, if we stopped being selfish with respect to seeking to please ourselves, and thought about others, that we may have a less selfish society. Well, these are my thoughts, and I hope you found them useful.

Issue 644 Influence vs. Authority July 23, 2015

Do you know the difference between Influence and Authority?  Do you know there relationship to power?  Well, let's find out.

What they mean:  Both of these have an integral relationship to power, with power being the ability to compel someone or a number of people to do something whether it is in line with or against their will.  Now, this power is exercised in a number of ways, but there are two ways that it particularly manifests itself with respect to people interacting with other people.  Those manifestations are both Authority and Influence.  But what are these terms and what do they mean.  The easiest to understand is Authority.  It is literally the ability to command or control what goes on.  So, when you have authority over someone, you can compel them to do something by simply telling them to do it.   However, Influence is different.  It does not use commands to make someone do something.  Instead it is the ability to guide, or cause a change in someone's opinions or actions.  Basically, when someone has influence over someone else, they literally have the ability to change people through what they tell them because they are usually trusted in some way.  So someone you trust and whose advice you act upon is someone who has influence over you.  This is how both Authority and Influence are an exercise in power over others.  

Conclusion:  Politics is the exercise of power, and authority and influence are two forms of power that people have over other people.  Your boss, your parents, people who make laws or enforce laws are those with the authority form of power.  Friends, people you put your faith in, or people you look up to have the ability to influence others.  While these examples are very simplistic, it is not my intention to say that people having authority or influence over someone else is bad.  Instead, it is that you should be aware of how much power you are giving to others around you or how they use that power over others.  This lets us maintain independent thought, and protects us from abuse by others.  So basically be self-aware of power and its forms so that you do not end up losing power over yourself.

Issue 643 Abortion Revisited July 28, 2015

Abortion is still an ongoing debate, but I wanted to give an update on the exemptions that most people know of.  These being Rape, Incest, and Woman's life in danger.  Here is what we know now.

Rape:  This will always be an exception, and I do not think many people will dispute this, despite misgivings.  However, morally speaking, the amount of women according to the news media getting pregnant from a rapist is very small.  In short it is rare.

Incest:  Incest for those who do not know is when two relatives have sexual relations.  Sometimes this will result in a child with disabilities, but that is not the reason why this is one of the exceptions.  The reason is because this is typically associated with rape as it usually occurs in the act of a rape.  That’s right, it is one family member raping another.  As such, under current law, this exception is really not necessary from my perspective as it is already covered under the rape exception.

Women's Life in danger:  Now this one may hopefully go away soon.  Technology has made this form of abortion (partial birth) almost irrelevant and stands to continue to do so.  Science has made it possible to either avoid the woman's life ever coming to harm, in any process of the pregnancy or to remove the child safely during childbirth.  So while this one will remain as a key exception, the need for it is slowly vanishing.

What does this mean:  Now this brings us back to the debate, is this a women's rights issue trumping the life of another.  My opinion is yes as the baby beyond a certain level of development is viable let alone recognizable as a human being while in the womb.  It may be technology that ends the need for partial birth abortions completely as we can see and save these children in the event of an emergency and see for 100% certainty that they are human children and not a cluster of cells.  But, others do not see it that way as they still believe that they are a cluster of cells despite that the baby in the womb is formed.  But if you want more evidence on if the baby looks human beyond a certain stage of development, simply look up when the baby has all the body parts formed.  Also, look up a partial birth abortion.  I guarantee you, you will never be able to unsee it, and that the right to life is being overridden.

Conclusion:  Abortion has been a debate since before the American Revolution.  We are all alive and people forget that even if the baby cannot fully survive outside the womb yet.  Remember, they are human too.

Issue 642 Transracial July 27, 2015

Is it possible to be born white, but believe you are black?  Rachel Dolezal former NAACP president was born white, but identifies as black, even going so far as to change her hairstyle, and skin color to match.  Is this something bad?  Or is it a step in the right direction?

Transracial:  For Dolezal, she felt she was black when her adopted black son said that he felt she was his natural born mom.  Thus, she apparently felt the need to be black for him (though this was not the start of her racial identification).  But can someone identify as a different "race".  It is possible when you look at it from the context of adopting a type of culture.  For instance, Irish Americans that were born in the United States are not ethnically Irish, but have adopted a part of the culture here in the States.  Therefore, if you do not identify as Irish, despite your heritage, then you are not Irish.  Likewise, Black Americans have their own unique culture in the United States, and thus it may be possible to identify as a Black American despite not being Black in any form.  In short, culture and how we identify ourselves is something flexible irrespective of skin color.  Also, if you believe it is ok to alter your body, or to be a hyphenated anything, then you must accept that people of different heritage could and will identify as a race as opposed to an ethnicity.

As to whether this is a step in the right direction is subject to perspective.  By not viewing oneself as an ethnicity, it lends people to looking at themselves in a larger cross country context (especially as there are far less races than ethnicities).  But on the other hand, if anyone can be any race, then what happens to the culture and spirit when wannabe black, or Asian etc. try to become part of that group.  It blurs the lines between us further, and purists will fear it, while it slowly blends every culture together and makes race into a tribal thing as opposed to a genetic thing.  So people born as a race may lose their racial identity overtime and therefore the traditional separations we know of and create disappear.

Conclusion:  Now whether Dolezal is crazy or not I do not know.  But if this is a turning point with respect to racial identification, then many things will change, hopefully for the better.  People will possibly see themselves as just that, people first and adopt aspects of the various parts or sub cultures that make up the larger global community.  As such, race ceases to exist as a boundary.  But this may not occur as like I said, the woman may simply be nuts.  Only time will tell.

Issue 641 Sheep stealers July 24, 2015

Now this is funny.  A sheep stealer is not someone who steals sheep, but when a priest is so compelling that parishioners leave one church for another.  So how does this affect us?

What does all this mean:  This fear of one priest stealing another's is the reason why some churches will not work with their fellows.  The congregation and their donations are what support the church to keep it open and thus if a "sheep stealer" is present they want to avoid their parishioners interacting with this potentially more compelling Priest.  In short, they do not want to lose your money.  Now if that isn't disappointing I do not know what is.  A priest is more concerned about cash than the salvation of his/her flock.  Very, very stupid in my opinion, despite my understanding that they could shut down if enough people leave.  However, it would show how good a priest is and how much faith they have if they do work together with other priests.  In short, you will know for sure that the priest cares more about you than your money when they willingly works with other priests from other churches nearby.  Also, when you think about all the good one church does for the community, what would happen if more of them work together for the greater good?  Think about it.

Conclusion:  Sheep stealing is so dumb in my opinion.  If your church cannot keep parishioners then maybe you should question yourself on whether or not you are a good priest, or what else is going on in the community that could be making people not want to come to the church.  Do not let fear prevent you from doing what is right.  Work together, help each other and set an example for your parishioners to follow.

Issue 640 Courage or faith July 23, 2015

So what came first between the two of these?  Was it faith that gives us courage or was it courage that gave us the faith to believe?

Courage 1st:  In this case it is courage that gives you the ability to believe in a higher power.  It allows you to take that leap of faith to have faith and thus reinforce your ability to believe.  The courage to believe is to possibly remove doubt or to overcome doubts in the first place.  But courage is a unique emotion.  It is the reinforcement of our will to do something against the odds.  As such, to have courage with respect to faith is to overcome doubt itself.

Faith 1st:  With regards to faith first, courage is not there yet.  Faith itself is what enables you to feel the courage to do something.  It gives you the strength to have courage to do the impossible.  The impossible could be anything, such as overcoming doubt to literally laying with lions.  It provides the fortitude to stand alone when needed.  In essence, faith is the backbone to all that you are.

Conclusion:  Thankfully this is not anything like the chicken and the egg debate.  Faith or courage coming first is something personal for each person.  No answer is right or wrong or makes anyone’s faith less flimsy than another's.  It is all a personal decision, and whatever reinforces that faith or whether faith reinforces who you are is unique to you as an individual alone.