A Moral Order- essay

Su Shi (1036-1101) who called himself Su Tungpo is considered by common consent as one of the greatest Chinese poets. Having displeased the emperor he was under detention at Huangchow. Another time he served his time on the island of Hainan. ‘What good is for a cricket to protest against the might of the moon?’ Many of his contemporaries thought so. They wished he would accept things as they are. His protest against the custom of drowning of the girl babies was so effective that when he left Huangchow the grateful parents lined up the village streets with tears in their eyes and babies in their arms whose very lives had been saved by his efforts. With many fools around we need to do what is reasonable under the cirumstances and leave it at that.
Each of us has a certain view. You and I have been set into a certain direction by forces that are beyond us. One being born to a family of devout Christians may have drawn moral values that are compatible with Christian traditions and it is a virtue you have accepted as an ideal. If it is the case you need to accept another shall have the freedom to set his own ideals. If such ideas are combined together the world must prove to be set firm on moral values where different religions and practices only underline certain shades more than another. How come then we see the world of chaos and not of any order? Think of a pendulum swinging steadily at a certain pace that we may speak of it as divine order. Suppose we connect a second pendulum to it. It is demonstrated that the second one soon falls out of the regularity of the first.
This is how we may explain man’s moral sense falling out of step with that of divine moral order.
If there is no such thing as a divine Order we might consign every god, Allah, Jehovah, God as not worth the candle one lights in reverence. God unjust? It is impossible. Does God sets out to settle our personal errors and put us back into working order, individually? I do not think so. God made this earth to be inhabited and expects man to set his own house in order in fellowship with all. The moral order that is inherent in so many working with a common purpose creates its own order and it is representational. For example human laws are derived in the manner man has paraphrased divine law to be just and equitable.

Why cannot man be equal to the task? If there are natural laws there must be an order that gives Nature it force and authority. Since we are all humans and given a finite time frame to understand why such and such events take place it is therefore excusable to draw a moral purpose to which human laws may do. It represents divine law. Law is represented holding a double edged sword. Law must serve justice as well mercy.
All we could do is to do what is proper and right, everything being secondary to the humanness that describes you and me. If we frame laws Justice is tempered with Mercy since we know to be human is to err. We who are wise are connected to foolish and if we were to pay the fools by the same coin we are also setting the course for error. Of this I shall write in another post.
benny

Read Full Post »

Judge For Yourself-anecdotes

On a hot day in Denver, Colorado a friend entered the Chambers of Judge Ben Lindsey to find him sipping a cup of steaming cup of coffee. ‘Why don’t you try something cooling Judge? He asked ‘Have you ever tried chilled gin and ginger ale?’ To this Judge Lindsey replied, ‘but I’ve tried a lot of fellows who have.’
2.
When Oliver Wendell Holmes was still in the US Supreme Court Bench, he and Justice Brandeis took walks every afternoon. On one of these occasions Holmes then 92, paused to gaze in frank admiration at a beautiful girl who passed them. He even turned to look at her as she continued down the street. Then turning to Brandeis he sighed, ‘Ah, what wouldn’t I give to be seventy again!’
3.
Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in his sixties was one of the most avid tennis players in Washington. ‘Don’t you think six sets of tennis in one day is too much for a man of 66?’ one of his friends asked him.
‘When I was 40,’replied Justice Black, ‘my doctors advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn’t play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again.’
4.
When a lawyer asked US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall’s personal advice because he had reached ‘the acme of judicial distinction’ Marshall interrupted. He said, ‘Let me tell you what that means, young man. The acme of judicial distinction means the ability to look a lawyer straight in the eye for two hours and not hear a damned word he says.’ (quoted by Albert Beveridge)
5.
CP Ramaswamy Iyer one of the most brilliant lawyers in India (and later a Dewan of the State of Travancore) declined an offer of a judgeship early in his career. When asked why he wrote to the Chief Justice that he preferred ‘to talk nonsense for a few hours each day rather than hear nonsense all day long.’
benny

Read Full Post »

A Sunday Story-3

The Unhappy Prince ©

It was a sight that hit whoever laid eyes on it. The statue of a prince sheathed in gold and many precious stones was a marvel. More marvelous was that there it stood for centuries, a ransom for an emperor unmolested, in the town Square. As I said no one on seeing it for the first time thought of anything other than beauty.
Who was that prince ? No one knew. It did not however stop the viewer from feeling uplifted by happiness of being alive. There was an inscription chiseled in marble and gilded and it read ART. In that town with strange spires and gargoyles spitting rain water the statue of a prince made art synonymous with the most noble sensation of happiness. The tradespeople basked under its spell; so did the town crier whose stentorian voice often made the hearts of people feel dread of some bad news coming to their happy shores. The prince was called with one voice the Happy Prince. He stood as symbol of their happy state.
Far North under a gelid sky the statue of the happy prince stood warming the cockles of the aliens and natives alike. Visiting embassies of kings, diplomats,- jesters in their caps and bells or in pinstripes made a detour without exception to the Square and there they stood lost in admiration before they presented their courtesies to the king.
The happy kingdom stood the test of time and stayed in perpetual happiness since the happy prince stood vigil as it were, over their weal.
Of course time brought certain changes in their lives. The town came under the rule of a town council and all the elders of the city unlike in the olden days were chosen by certain rules of the law and Law was the thing and not the people. Law stated progress was the right of the people so those who lived cheek by jowl with every one else took to find how far did their rights go. They had their home turf surveyed and fenced so their rights were guarded. Unlike in olden times neighbors came only by invitation and not by any feelings of sociability. Then came the officials by the order of the Council to give number to each house. Rights of the householder was reduced to a number.’ It makes the work of Mayor Swallow-Tail easier,’said the Mayors office. Soon every householder had to pay tax for the privilege of keeping his rights. ‘It makes the ‘Town Council function better with money in the coffers.’ said one statement issued like clockwork by the Mayor’s office. Progress meant better informed people.
One morning the Mayor passed through the Square and he had a shock of his life. There were puddles of water at the base of the statue. ‘What made the Prince unhappy?’ asked the Mayor. Same day he called for a meeting . The Council found the town finances were in arrears. Mayor Swallow- Tail wanted to know why the Works department was behind schedule.’ We should have completed the Trade and Commerce Pavilion two years ago. What is holding up?
‘Our coffers are empty’ said the treasurer appointed for that year.
‘We collect tax don’t we?’ asked the Mayor somewhat hot under the collar. Money became a topic that made him edgy and he had no way to cure it. One Councilor piped,’People are defaulting on their payments’. The Mayor was sure penal interest would deter them from treating matters of money casually. The town council went about a Collection drive that brought in some. Soon it was seen the statue was becoming shabbier by day. And by night.
The treasurer had a bright idea. ‘Why not tax the people for maintaining the statue to its proper glory?’ One Councilor pooh poohed it and said the Happy Prince was covered from time immemorial with pure beaten gold sheets. ‘Silver and precious stones adorn every available surface of the chain mail coat of the Prince. You want to gild the lily in his hands?’ The Mayor was stunned! He had never for a moment thought of the statue in terms of its parts. ‘Silver!’ The deputy Mayor who was on nodding acquaintance with the real Power nodded,’Yes Silver. Its worth beyond measure.
The Mayor wanted the worth of the Prince put down on the Official Register.
‘So long no one had thought the Prince in terms of money the councilors exclaimed in confusion.
‘Progress means paperwork.’ hollered the Mayor,
Yes, paperwork means an official Archives,’the deputy Mayor chimed in dutifully. He suggested that there ought to be a building for storing all the official records.
Then it was the question,’Is it wise to keep 5 million gold florins and 60 pence that was the official worth of the statue unprotected? The law of the town had clearly stated public property worth more than twenty florins should be locked and kept away for safekeeping. They were breaking law if the statue was left unattended. It agitated them and they had a great respect for law! The Council after deliberations took to vote and they passed a law that the statue would be moved to the bank vaults for safe keeping.
However before the law could be put into effect the Mayor found some miscreants had systematically stripped every precious metal from the statue. Not even a brass stud that cost two pence a piece was spared.
How did the happy Prince become Unhappy Prince?
Progress had seeped into every pore of the townsfolk and the statue had to pay the price for strange sensations that overwhelmed them. It was not happiness or art that moved them but the awful reality of defaulting on their tax obligations.
Law of their rights had in equal measure imposed on them their duties. In its equation art and happiness were too abstract and superfluous.
No wonder the statue of the prince looked in the vault more like a scarecrow and the officials from the Mayor’s office, who from time to time took inventory had to observe each time, ‘The unhappy Prince!’
(based on the Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde)
Reprinted from Elves Bells-ben4ben.wordpress.com
benny

Read Full Post »

In My Sunday Best-4

The New Jerusalem

Rev 21:10-14 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. vs.14The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

In previous posts regarding the Church,whose builder is Jesus Christ, I had stated the churches of the world were built on Peter the Man. These carried the inherent flaws of man,-his pride, ambition, superficiality and guile. The story of Adam clearly shows how he was beguiled by Satan. He could not walk with God since he was afraid. Satan had deflected his mind first and thereafter his body also followed. It is the case with his churches. Adamic nature of man produced only divisions. His church and his city are not man made or on a rock that was half and half. Jesus expressed his will. (St.Matt 16:18-19,23)

Only that the Rock he had in mind had to be transformed as clear as crystal.

The vision of John the divine is after the similitude of man. So we need to see it as a narrative from the standpoint of Man.

The rock is like jaspar and as clear as crystal. Peter the man who minded the things of man has become jewel and do mind the things of God.

The Scriptures is like a play where God Holy Spirit and Man hold the stage of eternity at any time or age. There are exits and entrances for angels prophets, kings of the world. Parts are written for women,wicked and good alike. Notwithstanding such a cast plays subordinate role to the Triune God.

Good theater is when the personages that make up the cast carry the story forward. This way each of us is part and parcel of it.

We see God in the Old Testament as the Judge beginning with the calling of Abraham out of Canaan:Jerusalem was the visible center of His people where law and its obedience instilled in people to make a distinction of godly and gentile peoples. Law in itself didn’t make any one perfect but gave the people of God a context and a standing in reference to Him.

Second Act begins with the Advent of Christ. In sending the Son God made man to live and walk under grace. There was a kind of freedom that made people fall on Him than on dead works of Law. Both are for Adamic man and the only difference implied is in the way he viewed Law: law written on stone tablets were inward and on his will to fulfill the requirements of Law. On the other hand man under grace relied on His mercy and His Will. With the outpouring of Holy Spirit (revelation) focus on Man becomes clearer. He is of the House of God and the people would see God among them.

Raison d’etre of churches of the world holds such a fellowship as the bedrock but in practice churches have proved to be the biggest recruiting centers for Satan. A simple example of Catholic Church would suffice. With such rampant child abuse does Vatican do the one thing that is needed? Disband all her hierarchical pomp and circumstance to make bishops truly shepherds of the flock and oversee their parishes accountable to their wards? Vatican is an amalgam of State and Church that has got her arithmetic wrong. In matters of Church they have applied cold logic of a state protecting its instruments of power. In matters of State they acquiesced and diluted or misplaced the very principles of Christ, in securing advantage for her See. Thus the Church survived in the Nazi Germany and during the time of Franco.

Can State and Church co-exist? The New Jerusalem shall be a proof that nothing is impossible for God. The New Jerusalem will have Children of Israel, nations and those who are washed by His blood.God and Church of Christ make State and Church as one. The Millennium vision of the Prophet (Isa.11:6-9) speak of Lamb and the wolf coexisting. God the Judge and the Church of Christ shall be one House.

The New Jerusalem is unlike the old where so much blood has been shed. In 70AD the Imperial Rome defiled the city of Peace. Many wars fought there since that time make it unfit for the work of Christ who is also called the Prince of Peace. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Here we have revelation and work where the Church minds the things of God.

benny

Read Full Post »

Spot the Difference-2

The fellow who by sweat  and tears in the end reaches a key position to steal the company wholesale. He goes to Lichestein and dreads the day the kingdom changes its  tax haven status.  Whileone who never did a day’s honest work floats a pyramid scheme and makes off with it to a rogue nation. He gets instantly a celebrity status. His loot by a special Presidential decree is  free from any taint.

Moral: Thieves stick together  and even their law knows which side is more crooked than the other.

benny  

.

Read Full Post »

A New Jerusalem-work in progress

St.Matt 16:18-19,23

And I tell you that you are Peter,[and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

23Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Let me fix a few points first before I try to make my meaning clear.

‘I will build my church..’ Who makes this statement? Jesus is the Builder. There is no difficulty here. There are so many churches that cater to all sorts of believers. Those who build it may profess certain creed but they are kept by those who subscribe to their teachings. Some may profess their faith keeps the church which is a blatant lie. They rely on men to pack their halls and hear their slant to the Word of God. Even so they depend on man. It is obviously not what Jesus is telling. He is not telling of a church built on Peter since he rebukes him a little later in no uncertain terms that he is Satan!

Kingdom of Heaven :The church that Jesus is hinting at is not an ordinary one. It has a divine seal: it is impervious to the attacks of Satan. Either it must occur when Satan is finally bound and cast into bottomless pit or death is no more an event. (Jude. 6And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.) It is not for us to seek things that God has chosen to hide from us. For example the time frame in which this is to be visible is by God’s calender. How will you predict it since St. Peter speaks of thousand years in human terms is like a flash? So it is waste of time to prove we are wiser than God.  More than that it would be blasphemy! By many parables Jesus has warned us to watch and be ready. Any man who is intelligent and good sense will be circumspect and conscious of his time and place. Similarly Christians are instructed to be prepared. Those who have known the will of God and also are found doing them will be part of the kingdom of heaven.

Members chosen from all over the world,- and not of any particular church, make up the new heaven. As we are told in the Book of Revelations old will pass away. A new Jerusalem is not by any account a geographical reality but a figure of speech as it were.

Therefore we need to look at our public worship as pointing to a reality that would happen in future. For Christians a place of worship in which brotherly love guides each is a prepratory school. It is essential to encourage one another as well uphold our brothers in prayer and in good will. Hearing the word and not doing them as Apostle James points out is pointless. We measure ourselves as in glass and forget straightaway what we need to do. The word is meant to correct where we have come short. In the Church built by Jesus we are the Word in its effect. Jesus was the Word made flesh but  we all will be the proof of it. The churches on the earth are and imperfect. It is rife with heresy, abuse and wickedness that must naturally come with serving two masters. State and Church has never made a perfect union. Nor it will on the earth. Kingdom of God or heaven is where God as Judge and as Love make State and religion as one..

Church of Christ, so we may conclude is not a historical church. The Church that we read in the Acts of Apostles, was already bedeviled by Satan and Jesus had correctly warned him during his earthly ministry. Simon Peter transcribed his masters teachings and gave a Hebraic form to it. He did not want to exclude those who were Jews. So he let them feel comfortable with certain elements of Jewish worship under his stewardship. Paul was in his own admission all things to all men. He made himself an Apostle and he wanted to accommodate gentiles. His goal was to spread of Jesus’ teachings as interpreted by him throughout the Roman Empire.. These churches are not built by Jesus. In such a case can anyone say he is surprised at the evil rampant in the Church of Rome or any other? These churches are tainted by earthly ambition or custom of men. I cannot say any of the church is Satan- proof.

The Church of Christ built by Jesus and will be called Kingdom of heaven.

Dan2:44“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. Prophet Daniel is speaking about future. Who all shall belong to it? No one knows the Father but the Son; similarly it is God’s office to reveal the Son. Peter had knowledge by what He revealed to him. Did he have in his mind the things of God? No he had not. Hence the rebuke from Jesus.

He is the one who chooses. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matt 7:21) There will be a new earth and new heaven. The Church is made secure and eternal. Death is a past event. Being with God a new reality

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

This is the Church of Christ Jesus meant and it will be built by Jesus.The work is in progress. ‘I go to prepare a place for you’, Jeus said. When he ascended to the skies the work of New Jerusalem began in earnest, Not the city of David but of His Father.

(To be continued)

benny

Read Full Post »

Target: Polanski

Here is an item from the Reuters:
‘Major U.S. newspapers called on the Oscar winner to account for the crime, and commentators said U.S. public opinion was running strongly against Polanski.”
This reminds me of a similar public outcry in the Victorian England. Here the target was an Irish genius, a wit and his jibes, a thorn on the side of hypocritical Victorian society. Oscar Wilde had ridiculed their hypocrisies and when he fell they made it sure he was destroyed. Evil of these hypocrites took the guise of social orderliness and fatherly feeling. Marquess Queensberry was seen by the public as a father who would resist his son being corrupted by a pederast. In real his son was a confirmed homosexual even before Oscar Wilde began ‘feasting with panthers ‘as he put it. But the public outrage needed a victim and Wilde, the outsider fitted the bill perfectly. So much for the public outcry against so called ‘moral turpitude.’ The US newspapers are no different from those who gloated on the downfall of Wilde.Polanski is an outsider,of Polish and French extract. His lifestyle was not of American pie and flag waving as of the moral majority.
Wilde found fame in London just as he fell because he was an outsider. Law tried him as an equal only that justice was of doubtful quantity.
Justice that the public cried was not so much for establishing their middleclass correctness or for propriety or justice. When he was sentenced the prostitutes danced on the streets because homosexuals were cutting into their business.
Why did Queensberry pursue Wilde with implacable hatred? He was convinced that his one son had died earlier in a homosexual scandal in which Lord Roseberry who later became the PM of Great Britain was a party.(His son Drumlanrig was afraid of blackmail over his relations with Roseberry.)
From above we see that before Law all are equal but Justice served comes in  tainted dishes.

Thus when the US public cries for justice they merely hide all their prejudices and social injustices to which they are party to and gives lip service to Justice. If only there was a public outcry against Bush when he embarked on his war against Iraq or against Abu Gharib atrocities. There are so many wrongs still in circulation that they could rail against and also work for the good of all.
Tailspin: Law sent Wilde to prison and broke him. His creative genius could not survive the inhuman treatment meted out to him after the fashion of Victorian sense of Justice. Redeeming nature of their prison system was not what could have left the best part in him, his genius, in tact. Effect of justice for a dockworker is different from that of man of letters. Shylock in the Merchant of Venice had the right to his pound of flesh but he had no right to the man’s blood. Collateral damage the Law exacts from his spirit or from those who are dependent on him makes Justice somewhat questionable.
benny

Read Full Post »

Law And Order

I am quoting a recent news where the life of a minor has been taken for granted by all  those who are appointed to protect and keep law and order.

What is the purpose of law? Law is our only gift as a nation or family so every person may celebrate life, cherish each other and let it pass on coming generations as well. Each of us has pledged to keep it for the common good. If we break the golden rule we are letting in chaos and lawlessness. What evil we have let by our silence may sooner or later visit us. So law we uphold for ourselves and for all. Law is not in itself anything but given its sacredness in the hearts and minds of those who exercise it. If one can escape from one’s obligations by some loopholes cited by one’s attorney law has become a parody of itself. Law is not soiled by single instance but is dragged through mud  day in day out. Look at the gun culture in the US. The citizen have the right to bear arms that may have had some relevance at the time of founding of a new nation. In course of time Indians have been blasted away along with bison , their livelihood. Those who are ever vigilant of protecting their right have now let children take fire arms to school. We see so young as five committing sins for their fathers. They merely exercised the right of their fathers. Such a disaster is not visited upon the innocents over night but on account of  law gone off the rails long before. Sacredness of law is no longer in our hearts and is invested instead with a battery of legal luminaries whose fees are as inscrutable as their interpretation of the articles of law.

A child molester is allowed to live in the hot spots near schools and play  areas  and those who see him think the law knows best and keeps tabs on him as in the case of the abductor of Jaycee.

This is the same law that looks at one who ‘is suspicious looking’ (in all probability his color is wrong and poor) and draws his gun to send him to kingdom come. Remember the hapless Brazilean electrician who, in London two years ago, was shot many times over in the head after being trussed up like turkey because he was suspected to be a terrorist. Law has been debased all around we see only its horrid exercise deprived of all sense, and as an example I look at those death row inmates whom  if the law could, fry sooner than determine if they are guilty or not.

The following reports by AP writers makes a sad reading.

By LISA LEFF and TERRY COLLINS, Associated Press Writers Lisa Leff And Terry Collins, Associated Press Writers – 28 mins ago

ANTIOCH, Calif. – Jaycee Lee Dugard has been subjected to what police say was nearly a lifetime of torment in a backyard compound set up by a religious zealot with a rap sheet dating to the 1970s. Prosecutors say she was raped and had two children by her captor, who hid her from the outside world.

But it became increasingly clear Friday that this 18-year nightmare did not have to be for Dugard, with new details surfacing that authorities blew numerous chances to catch her alleged captor.

Neighbors complained to law enforcement that a psychotic sex addict was in their midst, alarmed that Phillip Garrido was housing young girls in backyard tents. A deputy showed up to investigate, but never went beyond the front porch.

Probation officers showed up at the home, too, but had no inkling that his back yard was actually a labyrinth of tents, sheds and buildings that were Dugard’s prison. They did not even know he had children on the premises.

Garrido also wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his every movement, the result of his sex-crime convictions that sent him away to Leavenworth for a 50-year stint, only to get paroled after 10 years.

benny

Read Full Post »

Just One Point

In analyzing Representational Dispensation we see that evil men like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler seem to prosper.  It may even seem they are instruments of God to be able to get away with great many wrongs. They are equated with success. Naturally one wonders where does morality come in the equation.  Evil geniuses and saviors are both on equal footing before the law. Both good and bad alike being subject to the same laws in operation we need to see morailty beyond the obvious. Those who question God or impute bad motives to Him are wrong as old Job was.
benny

Read Full Post »

Crime and Punishment

Bad Laws are all alike. These make justice, to fit the law of the land and not for people who shall be affected by it. The criminal who commits a murder for example is punished according to the law. But what of his wife who has no idea of her husband’s crime? Or what of his children who are dependent on him? Having thrown them into the street or destitute for no guilt of theirs  if at all they are helped that is charity and not justice.
The criminal may learn a much needed lesson or most likely becomes a hardened criminal. The hero in the Dosteovsky novel was sent to Siberia and was redeemed through suffering. Yes in a way suffering for the guilt is apt as much as we suffer for the simple reason we are inadequately protected in an imperfect world. Suffering then is a natural part of living. You invest some forty years of your life with a woman and grow into each other so to speak. If she is all of a sudden stricken with some incurable disease are you not then affected? You suffer because you live in an imperfect  world.
Still we need to make Law as though divine and sacred ( as in the case of religion), while those who administer it or interpret them are only imperfect. We allow it since what greater good it may do to organize a society that can work with all its imperfections than total chaos, which would otherwise by and by engulf us all.
benny

Read Full Post »