Who Said That?

I note this week that the Arkansas legislature killed a bill honoring Thomas Paine. A legislator complained the founding father was anti-Christian. So the pen of the man of whom John Adams wrote in 1776, "Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been yielded in vain," has at last been vanquished by the sword of a lawgiver who plainly stands for something other than what this original American had in mind.

Here's half a dozen quotes from the week gone by. I'll attribute them afterwards:

1) "Why am I here? What am I supposed to be about as a human being? How am I supposed to relate with other people?"

2) Gene Robinson's elevation is "a satanic attack on the Church of God."

3) "The marks of our church are grace, tolerance and living with difference."

4) May we remind our Muslim brothers that they do not have the monopoly of violence in this nation."

5) "It is very dangerous to come out as gay in Nigeria. You have a big chance of losing your life, or your family and friends. And the church now makes things worse."

6) "It's about achieving a world where human beings live with dignity and have what they need to live with dignity."

I was baptised, age 43. Up until then, works performed were in and of themselves. After conversion, those same works were elevated by a joy and intentional purpose I believe of the Holy Spirit. I experience faith as a sanctifying unfinished progression. My Christian life, as well as the secular life before, is and was in accord with the statements 1, 3, 5 and 6 above. I can't ever imagine, whether pre-Christian or post, aligning with statements 2 and 4.

The attributions: 1) Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefforts-Schori, The Episcopal Church; 2) Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria; 3) Archbishop Ndungame of South Africa; 4) Akinola; 5) Davis Mar-Iyalla of Changing Attitude Nigeria; 6) Bishop Katharine.

When recently asked about the possibility of an afterlife, our PB replied, "that's not a question that concerns me day in and day out. I think I'm meant to use the gifts I have to transform the world in this life." How does she know, how can I know, if the acts I undertake are transformationally just or unjust?

The 18th century philosopher Emmanuel Kant writes all we can know is known through the experience of our senses. An example is throwing a ball. Once the ball is thrown we can observe the ball only through the reality of how our senses perceive a ball in flight. Besides the actual external reality of the ball in flight, which we can not know, there is also something that involves the decision to make the throw. That involves will, free will, and the 'ought' question whether to throw or not. According to Kant, what constitutes the ought, or the just or unjust action behind the throw, is unknowable since it also lays outside the perception of our senses. Kant, however, was not an atheist. Though his logic follows that to prove the existence or non-existence of a God that is the source of oughts is not possible, Kant was a believer.

The 20th century theologian Karl Barth also considered God unknowable. Regardless, he beheld God's humiliation on the Cross, ultimate power reversed, as so unique, that it inevitably leads to changes in behavior of a person that accepts the act as a gift. He wrote, "You can only know Him through the miracle on God's side. This is analogia fidei, an analogy of faith." He encapsulates wondrously by writing of "The Agency as Beauty in which to bask."

Within these quotes lie beauty that elevates humanity and plagues that stalk the darkness. This is what makes us human, imperfect, in need of Christ. Which of these are consistent or inconsistent with the intention and consequences of your actions and allegiances? I'll leave this week with the last quote appropriately enough from Thomas Paine, "Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man."