Week In Review Feb.16

Ex 20:3 You shall have no other gods before

me.

4 "You shall not make for yourselves an

idol, nor any image of anything that is in

the heavens above, or that is in the earth

beneath, or that is in the water under the

earth:

5 you shall not bow yourself down to them,

nor serve them, for I, Yhwh your G-d, am a

jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the

fathers on the children, on the third and

on the fourth generation of those who hate

me,

6 and showing lovingkindness to thousands

of those who love me and keep my

commandments.

7 "You shall not take the name of Yhwh your

G-d in vain, for Yhwh will not hold him

guiltless who takes his name in vain.

8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it

holy.

9 You shall labor six days, and do all your

work,

10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yhwh

your G-d. You shall not do any work in it,

you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your

man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor

your cattle, nor your stranger who is

within your gates;

11 for in six days Yhwh made heaven and

earth, the sea, and all that is in them,

and rested the seventh day; therefore Yhwh

blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

12 "Honor your father and your mother, that

your days may be long in the land which

Yhwh your G-d gives you.

13 "You shall not murder.

14 "You shall not commit adultery.

15 "You shall not steal.

16 "You shall not give false testimony

against your neighbor.

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor`s

house. You shall not covet your neighbor`s

wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-

servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor

anything that is your neighbor`s."


Since Valentine's Day was this week, it's a
little ironic that there was another
college shooting spree this week. But the
recent history of Valentine's Day includes
the historic 1920's bootlegger shootings in
Chicago. A turf war among criminals is not
quite the same as a more or less random
campus shooting incident. They say that
the campus shooter didn't like to take his
medication. Yeah. That's the ticket.
It's the medication.


Did you ever notice, that these days nobody
holds any responsibility for doing anything
wrong. Nothing is bad, it's all good. But
when something goes haywire, oh...it's the
medication. There are a wide variety of
variations on this theme. But in the end,
it's not that the person was evil, it's
something else to blame. These days the
best way to earn a stigma is to be labeled
as 'intolerant'. Intolerance is the moral
equivalent of evil given the current social
mood. And the truely bizzare aspect of the
intolerance of intolerance is that it's not
directed at actions, it's an intolerance of
free speech. It's not acceptable to say
that certain behavior is evil. It's not
acceptable to say that someone, anyone, is
responsible for behavioral outcomes.


Doesn't this seem rather odd to anyone
else? Over the years I've had these
conversations with some of the more radical
elements of society. I've talked to some
of the advocates of social change. The
prevailing mindset is, you do your thing
and let me do my thing. If you object,
then you are a member of the evil minded
intolerant community, bigot. Is that so?


Scripture has a word that's used to
describe the mindset of living by your own
rules. It's called lawlessness. Scripture
says that lawlessness is a form of evil.


I Tim 1:8 But we know that the law is good,

if a man uses it lawfully,

9 as knowing this, that law is not made for

a righteous man, but for the lawless and

insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners,

for the unholy and profane, for murderers

of fathers and murderers of mothers, for

manslayers,

10 for the sexually immoral, for

homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars,

for perjurers, and for any other thing

contrary to the sound doctrine;

11 according to the gospel of the glory of

the blessed G-d, which was committed to my

trust.


It's my theory that in some cases, the
social mood of lawlessness provokes
undesireable actions. In mass, people have
to arrive at a social consensus about what
is acceptable and what is not. Those who
do not, for any reason, fit into the herd
mentality regarding what is acceptable and
what is not, are regarded as mentally ill.
It's a totally ambiguous category given
that the rules are subject to the current
mood. It's a mob rule mentality. It's a
highly intolerant and completely unhinged
way of looking at social change. But
that's where we are at today. Taken to
it's logical extreme, anything is
permissible. We just saw how this idea
plays out, in the form of Nazi Germany.
I'm not picking on Germans. It's just the
most well known example of the 20th
century. The Soviet Union was another.
There are others. These are not social
models that we want to emulate, even though
I suspect that in the end, that's where we
will go. Just look around.


Whenever I would have a conversation with
one of the social activists, I would try
to get them to explain to me, how is it
that we go about drawing the lines as to
what defines acceptable and unacceptable
behavior. Usually, we came to the point
that whatever is legal, and loopholes
count, is acceptable. If it's something
that we want to do, or rather if it's
something that the mob wants to do, then
just make a law that defines it as legally
recognized behavior. It's called
evolution. There is no goal. It's random.


So, occasionally, there is someone who has
a hard time coming to grips with the modern
social mood. They have often, already been
identified as 'mentally ill'. For whatever
reason, they don't have the capacity to
cope with a deranged and lawless society.
Pharmaceuticals help them feel better about
it all, but the condition can't be 'cured'.
I don't see why anyone is surprised that
these things happen. Taken to the logical
extreme, the current social mood of do as
you please, is designed to produce random
violence. Does anyone else notice that
the entertainment industry is giving a big
assist toward that end? I have to wonder
what passes for 'normal' on the college
campus these days. When I was there, the
Ten Commandments were not part of the
popular doctrine. But that's ancient
history.


There is nothing new here. The history
books are filled and overflowing with
examples of lawless societies crashing
down on top of their populations. In fact,
it's the normal course of events. People
are, at heart, lawless.