Penny and Pound ~ Malleable Ethics

Greetings Dear Reader,

There are some things where one is either in or out.  One cannot be “a little bit pregnant.”  One is alive or dead.  One is faithful to one’s spouse or they are not.  There are some lines that cannot be crossed without being other than what we claim to be.

I cannot point my finger at others.  That is not my place nor the purpose of this exercise each day.  Rather it is so that I honestly consider what I must be in my heart, mind, and actions so that I do what is right.  I fail. That too drives me.  I want to be better today than yesterday.

Increasingly we see that ethics in our culture are opening malleable.  Our ethics have always been situational in some ways but it becomes more open and flagrant of late.  We have a serious problem of being ethically mercurial.   

We live out logical fallacies and embrace untenable philosophies.  We deny truths to appease our social and political desires.  We put truth, honor, justice, love, and kindness on a sliding scale.  

I had friend, who no longer considers me a friend because he wanted to minimize God’s command to love everyone.  He insisted that we need only respect everyone.  The Father is clear that we must love Him, our neighbors, strangers, and even our enemies.

We cannot pick and choose to whom we will show love, grace, and kindness.  I cannot refuse to love anyone.  I cannot pretend that I am better than anyone else.  I must be all in as one who commits to being faithful in my devotion to Christ’s example and following him.  It is not a weapon.  It is a practice in clear ethics lived out in humility.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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Evil be thou my Good – Closing Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

We are the ones who try to walk a narrow path when our steps stumble and wander.   The journey home is long and often challenging.   We choose what we embrace.  We carry with us things that either burden or ease our travel.

So many dangers and distractions exist along the way.  There is abundant evil that clamors for our attention.  It wants to wants to walk with us just long enough to get our attention.  Perhaps evil can convince us to simply stand for a while and slow down the journey.  It may be that evil can convince us to stand in its company and neglect what we are to be doing.  Its ultimate goal is to get us to stop, sit, and scorn that which is good.

Whether we accept it or not we are on a journey.  Evil becomes good to us when we fail to keep moving in our journey.  We must not embrace that which is not good for and cause even if the cause seems like a good reason to do so.  It is in Christ that we must live, and MOVE, and have our being.

Anything that distracts me from this is an attempt to get me to embrace evil over good.  There are no issues that do not connect to Christ and his desire for me to follow him.  There are not situations or circumstances in which I am allowed to avoid my obligation to love and grace.  Any attempt to rationalize being unloving is a proclamation that I am willing to embrace evil over good.  In that is the hinge on which all things swing.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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Evil be thou my Good – Crooked Sticks

Greetings Dear Reader,

Someone once counseled me on how to know that I am flawed.   He simply said to ask my family.   Those closest to us know our flaws.  Sometimes they love us anyway.  Some of them at least tolerate us.

We embrace the idea that we are right and others are wrong in arrogant divisive stubbornness.  It may be our greatest clinging to evil when we forget to be humble in our correctness.  Truth is not ours.  Truth is something to which we must cling in remembrance of a time when we had it not. 

When we abandon the fact that we are all crooked sticks in daily need of grace we give foothold to the evil that is pride.  We give place to the evil in the world when we think it does not infect us.  When we say we are without sin we embrace evil.

I cannot ever claim to be a “good man”.  Rather I am a fallen man who by the grace of the Father has opportunities to do good.  I must never forget that in moment I must choose to do what is good.  In each moment I must choose to follow Christ and not my own designs.  It is only in daily giving my self back to the Father that I can avoid embracing evil as good.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Evil be thou my Good – Faith and Politics

Greetings Dear Reader,

I think that a primary principle in this discussion must be the premise that there are no secular issues.  For the Christ follower every political discussion must be centered on what is consistent with following Christ.  It is never acceptable to lay aside the spiritual and social commands of Christ in political matters.

That said, it is vital that we set out the premise that neither of the primary parties gets this right.  The parties are not what matters.  Loyalty to a party over the Gospel is going to be always wrong.  The evil chosen over good is to promote issues we prefer over what is righteous and loving.

It is not enough to claim to be Christian.  History is filled with unspeakable acts done in the name of Christ.  None of those things are obedience to the foundational commands to love and kindness; grace and mercy. 

It is also wrong to reject others simply because they are not Christ followers.  We must not use politics to prevent us from being kind, loving, charitable, and compassionate.  Any political position that neglects these things is not one a Christ follower can support with integrity.

It is my obligation to weigh every matter in light of the Gospel.  If I put any political position before the Gospel then I make evil my good.  I am not allowed to usurp Christ for any cause.  I am not permitted to choose to deny social justice because of politics.  I am not allowed to hate or reject anyone for any cause. 

No politics can allow us to ignore the commands of Christ.  It is the essence of evil to replace Christ and his desire for us to love one another without condition. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Evil be thou my Good - A Pause for Gratitude

Greetings Dear Reader,

As you know I highly value your thoughts and questions Dear Reader.   If I think in a vacuum then I keep company with a fool.   Today I wish to put at center stage the thoughts of two dear friends who took the time to responds to my post in this series concerning the arts. 

Mark and Kyp took the time to express to one of my other friends their thoughts.  One is brief and the other lengthy.  Both capture the spirit of my thinking in their analysis.   I welcome further thoughts on this. 

For context Mark refers to the following line:

“But fear no more! I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo.” - Faramir

Mark:

That was my favorite line from a character that I loved in the books and was very disappointed with how Peter Jackson adapted him in the movies. And, after reading the blog post, I see that my disappointment was for the very same reasons as yours.

Kyp

Full disclosure: I hated the movies' Faramir portrayal for a while, I still hate the Aragorn and Eowyn character changes.

But I'd argue different reasons for Faramir (and Aragorn's) changes in the movie, and I'd say it actually comes from two thousand years of Christian storytelling:

We LOVE redemption stories. Star Wars is the story of a man who falls and the son who saves him. Vader sacrifices himself to save his son and defeat evil (see also Doc Oc, Prydain's Prince Ellidyr, that one woman in Atlantis, etc.). Harry Potter's Snape, a former Death Eater, repents and seeks a new life, becoming the biggest hero of the series (see also Lando Calrissian, Jean Valjean, etc.). The Silver Chair's Jill fails to follow instructions, puts a friend in danger, and is sent on a quest to save him (also seen in Labyrinth, East O' The Sun, etc.), hearkening back to the Cupid and Psyche mythology.

So, why does LoTR need more of these? It's already got Boromir and Sméagol. Well, the books DON'T need more of that.

But the movies were different. First, they catered to a new audience who might not have read the books at all, and second, they came out years apart from one another. Because of this, events were shuffled around a bit so that each movie had a slightly different arc: one that could stand alone for a year until the next movie. A speed reader could power through those books in a day or two; a slower reader in a week. These movies took three years to see. The first movie would had a firm ending and set all the stages, the second had a series of cliffhangers, and the third concluded all story arcs.

So in Fellowship, Boromir has the redemption arc. In Return, it's Sméagol/Frodo. But who do we have with a big redemption arc in Towers? Nobody, that's who. Sure, the wheels are turning on Sméagol, but his redemption is unique and comes in fits and starts. So, let's go into the life of Faramir, the unloved younger brother of a cruel father. So they created for him an arc of his own, which is fleshed out to my satisfaction in the extended Towers movie.

Also, remember that the Frodo scenes in the book, while arguably the most important, were small, simple, and far-between. There needed to be more problems for them to face to slow their trip into Mordor and to give them the screen time they needed.

(This is also why Aragorn gets turned into a whiny, weak, reluctant hero. Coming back two years later to "hey, it's this guy, who totally knows what's up and never falters" seems increasingly unrealistic with the passage of so much time. This was a Bad Call, though. There were enough Reluctant Heroes already, and he keeps changing his mind as to whether he's reluctant or not, which gets implausible after the third.

Thank you, Dear Friends, for your thoughts. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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Evil be thou my Good – Black and White

Greetings Dear Reader,

The shades of grey in the world are infinite.  As the standards in our culture for morality and social justice are in flux it becomes difficult to always know what to do in a circumstance.  For the Christ follower there are standards where there is no grey, or shadow, or doubt.

The problem is that we tend to proceed from positions other than bedrock.  There are things that I must do as a Christ follower that are unquestionable with integrity.  The foundation of all that I must do must be my love for God.  Second, from that love must proceed a love for all humans. 

Social issues become much less grey in light of this.  How we treat others tells the world the extent of our love.  It reveals if we have allowed the black and white of love they neighbor, the stranger, or thy enemy to become muddied by circumstance, selfishness, or politics.

We make political issues out of things that are moral imperatives.  We demand that those who do not follow Christ to act as Christ followers instead of sacrificing all in the effort to show true selfless love.  Instead we protest and argue.  Instead we allow children to starve over what might happen.  We allow the murder of the unborn instead of making it easy to avoid it.

We judge and condemn those who do not live as we think they should.   We shun and denounce instead of loving and serving.  We embrace evil acts that violate love and justice and call them good.   We cannot hope to show the world Christ unless we lay aside all forms of hatred and to whatever it takes to love others as Christ loves them.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Evil be thou my Good – The Arts

Greetings Dear Reader,

I have loved Tolkien’s writing since I was a small boy.  In the Lord of the Ring’s, Faramir is part of Tolkien’s type of those un-tempted by the One Ring.   In the movie, he is flawed and conniving.  He does right in the end but at the cost of part of Tolkien’s message.

This is a simple example of a greater trend.  Very seldom is the pure and the good seen as the hero.  We tire easily of the man or woman who is uncompromising in his or her commitment to right and righteousness.  Our heroes have bloody hands and wild hearts.  They do not have a moral code that aligns with faith and following. 

I do not mean to say that everything must be Christian to be good entertainment.  I do mean to say that it is rarely celebrated when a sincere Christ follower offers good art with Christ as the center.  Those in the arts may celebrate any other diverse opinion but are marginalized or mocked when they make Jesus the focus of success.

It is acceptable to mock Jesus in the arts but not to uplift him.  It is not acceptable to mock other faiths (I agree we should not mock them.   There is no tolerance in the tolerant for someone who genuinely loves Jesus and centers him in their work.

We have transitioned as a culture to being allowed to claim evil as good in the arts.  We create caricatures of those who follow Christ and enhance the ridiculous and the failed.  The worst examples of Christians are held up as the norm.  The arts are valued and appreciated by me.  I wonder, however, if there is any consideration or tolerence left for those who love Jesus and treat others with love and respect?

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Evil be thou my Good – Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

As I was pondering the year I realized that one of the things that concerns me is the continued shift in what is seen as acceptable and good in our culture.  I do not expect things to get better.  That is not what Christ followers are supposed to expect. 

I do, however, need to be vigilant about the things that are changing around me.   Between a culture that is ambivalent about rules and the acceptance of things that faith directly declares wrong I must find the path through the year without being compromised.

This does not mean that I can reject those who disagree with me.  It does not allow me to condemn others.  I must also not allow fear of things to guide my choices.  The world will change around me and I must consider how I will represent Christ in that world without compromise and contrition. 

As I walk through this thinking I have to consider the choices culture makes relative to the absolutes of my faith.   When they are in contrast I must always choose faith.  When the compromise does not violate the principles of my faith I must give up my preferences if it helps me be a better example.

Some of this will be hard but the truth and the right path are what the journey requires.  Walk with me a bit Dear Reader and as always let me know that you think.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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