Sanity and madness - it depends on what we do with "Do to others as you want them to do to you"
Summing up his teaching on prayer - how do you talk to God and expect God to listen - Jesus concluded: "Whatever you want men to do to you, do so to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." In this he was restating Rabbi Hillel with approval, when someone asked him to sum it up when standing on one foot: "Whatever you hate, do not to others. This is the whole Law. Now, go study."
It's not for nothing that Jesus and Hillel said that this is the law and the prophets. We blow it off, and we're just insane, which is why the American empire and its people are insane. We go by this rule - the punchline of Jesus's teaching on prayer - and everything comes clear.
Simple example. If Russia spent $5 billion to subvert the government of Canada and install an anti-American regime that wanted to join a military alliance with Russia and China, and post nuclear missiles aimed at the US on its territory, and which attacked, say, British Columbia and killed several thousand people while driving several hundred thousand into Washington and Oregon, what would we expect the US to do about that? What is wrong with Russia doing about it anything up to what we would expect the US to do?
Here's another simple example. Even now, the US population today is not short of people walking around with guns and criss-crossed guts. Some of them blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people, besides other assorted killings over the years. Now let's suppose the People's Liberation Army occupies the United States and installs a Chinese puppet regime in DC - a sectarian regime oriented to minorities that have been shut out in the past, as the US did in Iraq. Let's suppose further that the PLA was routinely killing US civilians, breaking into their homes at 2 AM, raping women, and dragging people off to torture centers, while arming and training black and Latino militias to fight against the resistance of formerly dominant ethnic groups such as white folks, as the US did in Iraq to the formerly dominant Sunnis at the hand of Shi'a militias.
What would happen in the US under such a regime? Would there be shootings, roadside bombs, and suicide bombings - keeping in mind that the very popular movie Independence Day featured a heroic American suicide bomber?
Now if we would think it improper for us to be done this way, what excuse does an American Christian have to think that it's anything but abominable to do it to anyone else? Why should we not expect people to respond as we would?
It's not for nothing that Jesus and Hillel said that this is the law and the prophets. We blow it off, and we're just insane, which is why the American empire and its people are insane. We go by this rule - the punchline of Jesus's teaching on prayer - and everything comes clear.
Simple example. If Russia spent $5 billion to subvert the government of Canada and install an anti-American regime that wanted to join a military alliance with Russia and China, and post nuclear missiles aimed at the US on its territory, and which attacked, say, British Columbia and killed several thousand people while driving several hundred thousand into Washington and Oregon, what would we expect the US to do about that? What is wrong with Russia doing about it anything up to what we would expect the US to do?
Here's another simple example. Even now, the US population today is not short of people walking around with guns and criss-crossed guts. Some of them blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people, besides other assorted killings over the years. Now let's suppose the People's Liberation Army occupies the United States and installs a Chinese puppet regime in DC - a sectarian regime oriented to minorities that have been shut out in the past, as the US did in Iraq. Let's suppose further that the PLA was routinely killing US civilians, breaking into their homes at 2 AM, raping women, and dragging people off to torture centers, while arming and training black and Latino militias to fight against the resistance of formerly dominant ethnic groups such as white folks, as the US did in Iraq to the formerly dominant Sunnis at the hand of Shi'a militias.
What would happen in the US under such a regime? Would there be shootings, roadside bombs, and suicide bombings - keeping in mind that the very popular movie Independence Day featured a heroic American suicide bomber?
Now if we would think it improper for us to be done this way, what excuse does an American Christian have to think that it's anything but abominable to do it to anyone else? Why should we not expect people to respond as we would?
posted by Peter Attwood at 1/13/2015 03:52:00 PM
2 Comments:
A pair of Jehowas Witnesses came by and rang the doorbell tonight. They are the only group that I know that goes around and rings or knocks on peoples doors to talk with them here in Germany.
I sent them away with out talking to them.
They sure to to a lot of trouble to reach, I would think, a very small number of people. My impression is that most people are happy with their religious orentation. So it would seem to make sense to me that rather than go out and seek those who may be less than satisfied that they let the world know where they can find the Jehowah's Witnesses if they are searching for a new orientation.
Is trying to convert someone to becomeing a Jehowah's Witness at all comparable to trying convince someone to become a supporter of or an opponent of nuclear power? Is it similar to trying to convince someone that the US Air Force needs to bomb or not to bomb Iran or ISIS?
Help me if I am missing something.
Curt
I meant, to reach a small number of people, in the post above.
Curt
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