"A New Year Bring New Chances"

"Lets take a chance and..."

Ever said that or been with someone or a group who decided to take a chance.  What is chance?  Certainly it is not the guarantee that success is around the corner of decision!  It is taking the opportunity for success.  It is measuring the possibilities and deciding such risk as is involved is worth it and then moving in some direction or another.

What keeps us from taking a chance?  For some I suppose it is fear.  For some it is comfort.  For some it is irresponsibility.  Irresponsibility?  That is right.  A story...

Imagine that there was a garden of the most delightful fruits and vegetables that one might imagine.  Though untended there were no weeds and the soil was so rich that plants effortlessly grew, and the fruit and vegetables were abundant.  There was a natural spring of the purest water which kept the soil moist.  There was so much produce that it would feed the dozens and dozens of families that had need.  In addition there would be so much left over, it could be sold and the monies earned could then be used to meet other needs.  

Then imagine that next door to this garden lived a miser.  He would go and harvest for his own needs but gave no thought to others.  You see the thing needed to share the produce was someone to arrange for those with needs to come and harvest the produce.  It needed someone to arrange for those who could harvest to provide the bounty to those in need, who could not do so themselves.

Yet the miser was only concerned with himself and so he built a fence around the garden and hoarded what was there.   

Now imagine that another man lives on the other side of the garden and he does all of the things just mentioned.  He take some for himself.  However, here he differs from the miser.  This man is possessed of a soft heart.   He arranges for the needy to come and harvest for themselves and others who cannot do so.  He arranges for the extra to be sold in order to meet other kinds of needs.  He begins a business and supports not only his own family but causes important to the community.

The question..."Which man would you like to be?"  Before you answer consider that years later both men are on their death bed.  One will die fulfilled and feel like life was well lived surrounded by family and friends from the community.  The other will die empty, unfulfilled, bitter, and alone.

Now change the story so that instead of a garden you have giftings, skills, ideas, and abilities.  What do you suppose would happen if in just one small area of your life you decided to share these things with others.  To give of yourself?

Maybe you are gifted in finances.

What if you took a chance on an IPO (Initial public offering of stock in a company that is going to be public)?  What if you invested in an income property?  What if you helped someone who is in a problem situation which they did not create?

Maybe you are gifted in business.

What if you took a chance, decided where need exists that opportunity exists, and began a small business?  What if you helped someone else begin a small business?

Maybe you like to learn and then teach others.

What if you took a chance and went back to school?  What if you found a struggling student and helped them achieve academic success?

Maybe you have time and material good so that you could give time to others.

What if you found a new place of service?  What if you became a volunteer at your place of worship?  Maybe you could serve at the USO, a veteran's home, the Boy Scouts, or some other place of service?  

Maybe you are well off and have more than you could ever possibly need.

What if you decided to give away more of your material goods this year?  Maybe start a charitable trust?  Maybe you could began a foundation to reach out to some need or another?  

Maybe you are....

What if you...?

About now could you be asking why?  Let me share anecdotally.

In the course of my life I've known two people who were wealthy beyond what anyone even close friends knew.  They both had inherited almost all of their material goods.  Though they did not know each other and were separated by time and miles, they both shared a common attitude and two common experiences.

The attitude was insecurity as to their financial future.  Neither could spend all of the interest their money earned  but neither would for fear that they would be left destitute.  They had placed their trust in finances instead of the Faith they both claimed.  I remember presenting a need to one of them, a need that would not have made a small dent in his wealth only to be met with a verbal if not violent response.

The common experiences?  Both of them had people unrelated by marriage or blood who sought to separate them from their wealth.  In one case it seems to me that the person died in need for the unscrupulous did succeed.  If such was not so, at their demise it was.  In the other case we (my wife and I) were able to intervene and with the help of a high powered attorney saved the considerable wealth from an unscrupulous individual who had already made some inroads.

The other common experience they both shared was that they died.  Neither took one dime of his or her wealth with them.

What is the point?  May you find this to be the year in which you take a chance in one or more of the areas listed above.

"Thank You..."

In the last 51/2 months, and as of today some 500 times someone has gone to the blog and hopefully read something that helped them along life's way.  Outside of the US the most hits came from Russia and the UK.  Other places include Latvia, Indonesia, Germany, Columbia, and others.  Again thanks for stopping by.

"Purpose and Meaning, But What About Initiative"

“Don't Leave Out Initiative”

When you consider the message that we receive from many quarters in western culture, and if you are like me, you feel bombarded with the notion that life has lost much of its meaning and purpose.  The message seems to be that we individually have no opportunity and that in order for us to know any success in life, we need the help of government.

However, such thinking diverts our attention from some vitally important things.  For people of faith it turns focus away from that fact that God is still on His throne and very much in charge of His followers.  Therefore, we as Christians need to hear His words as to the meaning of our lives and our eternal purposes.  For those with no faith life, it short circuits certain thought processes having to do with personal responsibility, opportunity, initiative, and genuine success (success as measured by one's own values).

A personal thought.  To be candid about it, I become comfortable in my life style.  There was little challenge and less initiative.  Then one day as I wrote in another blog, it came to me that we and especially we who know Christ are not disadvantaged by culture and country as much as we lack initiative to take it to life.  Man’s circumstance and situation can be overcome by Godly initiative and we who name Christ as Lord have certain responsibilities to lean forward.  We must live out genuine Godly initiative.

We do so not just in matters of faith but also in our personal lives, our economic lives, our relational lives, and in the living out of how we were designed, created, and gifted.  It is indeed a matter of personal responsibility which should bring each of us to contrition and humility.  And to the critic who sees this as some selfish personal thing, know that when one is blessed it is to be a blessing.  In other words one does well to see himself as a conduit through which others may be challenged and blessed and not the end point of such blessings.

As to the one who thinks the age of opportunity is now gone read on.

I recently heard the story of a young woman.  Hard times and failure had fallen upon her and yet it did not stamp out her initiative.  Some of her difficulties were of her making and in some she was a genuine victim (Note:  victim is a much over used term.  There are not as many as claim to be.  In most cases it is more convenient to claim victim than to seize the reigns of responsibility).  This young woman was horribly in debt, living on the beach and in her car.  She decided to began a business using a public payphone number for her contact point.  Within a year because of her initiative she was out of debt and had an income.  Today she presides over a very successful company.

Before you  dismiss this thought as an anomaly, consider that people who come to our country have not been influenced by impossibility messages that surround us and thus see the US as people have for two centuries, this indeed is the land of opportunity.  It is still possible through initiative and hard work to become successful, both in man’s eyes and more importantly in God’s eternal view.

The above observations, have great implications for our faith life.  If we do not exercise a sense of meaningfulness, purposefulness, and initiative in matters of faith, we will never rise to the level that God intended for us.  In addition we will never fulfill our Kingdom of Heaven responsiblilies.  None of us are only one in three billion.  Each one of us is uniquely endowed by our Creator for His great and eternal purposes!!!  However, understand this one thing.  

God is not sitting around Heaven waiting for any one of us to get underway but is moving forward with His great Kingdom of Heaven plan.  It will go forward with or without any one of us.

"Do I Really Want The Pain Go Away?"

Dismissing the Discomfort

Maybe you have noticed as I have, that there is a rejection of and even a rebellion against that which is  painful.  Such attitudes have progressed or we might even say regressed until there is rejection of and rebellion against that which is even mildly disagreeable to us.  How often have you heard someone in a mildly objectionable circumstance make the statement that they deserve better.

Yet in considering those situations and circumstances most people with any self awareness at all understand that when difficulty comes, their emotional reaction fits somewhere between mildly disagreeable to deep agony.  Certainly there are a number of words that one might employ to describe his emotional reaction.

Another element is that different people respond to the same circumstances with different emotional reactions.  In other words ones' capacity to deal with difficulty is very individual and thus what one person might view as mildly unpleasant, another might view as extremely offensive.

Why is this rejection and even rebellion so?  Would it not be easier to just move to contrite acceptance.  Consider the following as a possible answer to that question!  

Consider as well that such a desire for restoration creates a tension with the world in which one lives as one seeks to negate the effects of living in and among fallen people, in fallen bodies, in a fallen world order, and in a fallen environment.  This falleness is is not as God intended in the original creation.

Since mankind is created in the image of the Divine, there is within each of us a spark of the Divine--a vestige  though marred by self and sin of the "created in God's image" part of man.  Within that spark are a number of the higher values of man such as creative expression, justice, etc.  There also is the desire for restoration.


It then follows that as we are in a straightened circumstances, that we should be stressed.  However, there is more and it is that we who live with the Divine in view before us, should  stress these things!  That is we should be a stress to those elements of life that create or should we say occasion our reactions on the mildly disagreeable to deep agony emotional reaction scale.

Said another way, just as God's provision of a way for man to be restored to Himself so too within mankind in general and within each man there is that penchant for restoration.  For example, suppose sees another person who has lost the capacity to walk.  Further the first person knows of a medical miracle worker who can restore the capacity to walk.  Most people even though risking scorn, would tell the person in hopes that the stranger who they might never see again would be restored as opposed to simply accepting the situation.


So it is when we are emotionally embroiled in the discomforts and inconveniences of the unpalatable situations and circumstances of life.  Such a "restorative" desire occasions action and such action in some sense seeks to redeem or buy back ourselves and others from the negative situations, circumstances, and feelings that come upon a person.  Another example would be seeking to once again be healthy following major surgery.

However, there must be a healthy caveat in this discussion and it has to do with God's intervention in the lives of  His followers for His purposes.  

Yes, we want to fix the objectionable elements of our lives.  However, it may be that God's intention is that we gracefully carry the uncomfortable elements of our lives.  You see there are some things for which we must be responsible.  On the other hand, there are other things, even if we were vested with all the responsibility in the world, we can do nothing about and those things we must make it our business to make them God's business.  

Think with me about the notion that everything that I find objectionable in life must be fixed!  What might be some of the unintended outcomes. One outcome is that we would then place unfair burdens upon the one carrying the difficulty.  Thus one might hear the following,

Why are you not healed?  Why do you keep on falling back into your sinful habits?  Why do you consistently fail in the Faith?  Why do you not have victory in this area of your life?  Why is it impossible for me to win over some other reflection of my selfishness?

I suppose you might sum up these and other life'e experiences with the thought, Life is at times very trying!

Then ask the question, What do these unfair expectations say about God? You've no doubt heard the questions as I have.

If you are God, why don't you heal or provide, or give me (or them) strength, or victory over a sinful habit, or some other thought about being an over-comer? 

I suppose you ight sum up these and other question with the thought,  God is at times very trying!


It seems to me that if God were to take away the objectionable elements of our lives it would also mean that He would then be removing some key elements of our relationship with Him.  For example,

To remove all that is unpleasant and trying would be to remove the necessity for trust in the Lord.  It also would mean that the necessity for grace is now gone.  What would such a thing say about the opportunities to grow through developing a forgiving heart?

Admittedly there are more questions than answers in the above.  However, there are two things that we do know.  First and of prime importance is this.  When our days of trouble are ended we who follow Christ, will know perfect and complete victory. Those nagging vestiges of our sinful flesh will be left behind.   Second, though we are to be responsible, show initiative, live out ethical qualities, still in all, we are but reader-observers of our day.  The true author who is writing the eternal Kingdom of Heaven story is the only one who knows the great purpose in all that is discussed above.

Though it is of little comfort in the midst of trial, temptation, failure, and frustration, it is not that it is our story but it is His story and we get to be a small part of that narrative.  At least for the days we are given on this earth.  Could it be that the pains and discomforts of this life are a part of His story.  Is that not the point of "...all things work together for good for them who are called for the purposes of God?"

"The Cost of the Loss of Personal Initiative?"

Recently I read an interchange on Facebook and it set me to thinking about an aspect of what is constantly being presented to the American public under the guise of news.  It was an interchange in which one respondent spoke of "the man" and "corporations."  His contention seemed to be that these nebulous entities were disadvantaging people.  For the sake of this discussion I shall forgo the fact that even if such entities as did exist they do not possess the power that seem to be given to them.  What was missing in the discussion was the whole matter of personal responsibility. 

Perhaps the reason that there is "the man" and "corporations" is that such notions seek to absolve one of personal responsibility by seeking to blame others.  If I can blame “the man” then I can safely assume victim status and therefore gain a plethora of benefits.  For example if I am a victim, then I can commit a crime and not be held responsible.  If I am a victim then I can assume an entitlement mentality.  If I am a victim, then I “should” be, rather entitled to have that which the next fellow has worked for.  Then comes another of those words, “deserve.”  If I am a victim, then I deserve to have what others have.  It is almost as if there is a proactive entitlement.

Let’s do a reality check here.  In terms of the “corporations” it was as though the employees of those entities were entitled or deserved to work there.  It was an opportunity that had become a right and thus when said corporation did something that may have made perfect business sense but that did not fit the paradigm of "best interest of the employee" the company was seen as "getting over on" the poor disadvantaged employees.

Look!  All of us are victims of something or another.  However, some choose to get on the victim train (a train that goes to nowhere) and some choose to keep a firm hold on personal responsibility and press on with life.   The reality is that the NO ONE can make anyone do anything they are not willing to do.  No one including the large corporation and the unions that are involved can make an employee continue to work for that company, keep an employee from being personally responsible for his own welfare, his own future, etc.   As I read the Facebook interchange a thought two thoughts came to me.  

The problem is twofold.  First, as has been discussed there is the matter of personal responsibility.  Second, there is the matter of personal dependence.  In the matter of dependence, the individual must have become so dependent upon the employer, union, government, etc. that he cannot see himself moving on to a different situation and better opportunities.  This of course is a matter of choice.  

The simple truth of the matter though often avoided, one cannot hand off one’s own personal responsibility.  Problems abound when one comes to believe he can do so and invest these and other entities as their ultimate source of security and care. 

The sad part is that when this happens, another element of life flees from us.  It is the whole matter of seeing and seizing opportunity.  When I divest myself of personal responsibility and become dependent upon another be it union, business, or government, then there is a very real chance that I will not exercise the initiative to seize such opportunities as may be present in my world.  This is the whole problem with extending unemployment over and over again.  Interesting how suddenly people find jobs when the unemployment benefits end.

The real tragedy is not that opportunity is gone it is that initiative is gone.  Even when one comes from a “faith in God” view, still in all it is a matter of personal initiative.  Such is gone because we have come to believe more in what goes on inside the union leadership, corporate office, and government than we believe in and trust in God. Still in all it is personal responsibility lived out in personal initiative with a healthy dose of faith in God, that will carry the day!

Finally, people make choices and we must respect their right to do so.  However, I highly resent that the Congress seems to think that it is their role to fund safety net programs for people who have and continue to make stupid and irresponsible choices.  People must be allowed to be responsible for and to suffer the consequences of their choices.  If nothing else it is a great learning tool.  

So the question becomes, should a person choose to trust his employer, the union, or the government with his present care and future security?  The question then becomes what happens if that business or the union, or yes, the government should fail.  Such a person should then be allowed to suffer the consequences of his choices.  The same would apply to any other “dependency” entity that you might list. 

If a person does not exercise personal responsibility and initiative, and if that person does not provide for the lean times, and if that person then does not put something aside for the future, there is nothing at all wrong with allowing that person to "enjoy" the consequences of his choices!   Now before you class me as a less than caring conservative/libertarian, yes, there are exceptions.  Certainly there are people who need a helping hand up, people who need care because of unfortunate circumstances not of their making, etc.  However, know this one thing!  There are not as many in genuine need as are on the welfare rolls.  There are not as many as the mass media, the evening news, those on the left, academia, and the Beltway Gang of Thieves have led us to think that there are!!!  

Reduce the government give aways, allow people to deal with the harsh realities of personal responsibility, allow people to experience the consequences of their choices, encourage people to be productively take initiative, and watch the economy heat up as people go out and productively resume responsibility for themselves.   Remember this one thing, you cannot give up nor can you give away personal responsibility.  It is one of those things that one simply cannot give away.

"Answer Evil With the Greater Good"

Two years ago four young people--police officers with families, in the prime of career and life, and serving in their community were senselessly executed by an evil mad man.  Later that week he attempted to kill another officer only to meet his own demise--for which many of us are grateful.  Yes, that man and others prove that evil and all that is of the Kingdom of Darkness (Satan's domain) is alive on planet earth.  It will remain so as things go from bad to worse.  While we have an eternal hope in Jesus Christ, there is more in this life than that of some future utopian hope.  Such hope is not without present practice.  It is within that present practice that God's "good" is to answers such evils as was witnessed two years ago and as well other evils be they personal, national, or international.

Just as the Pacific Northwest, here in the USA was on alert for the despicable killer of those four young people, we too need to be on alert since the Devil and his ilk are on the prowl to create chaos, dissatisfaction, disconnect, and yes even murder etc.  There can be no doubt that the killer who is not worthy to have his name repeated, along with his cronies were evil--desperately evil and each worthy of the full measure of such punishment as society might impose upon them!  Not many will agree that the punishment of even those on the periphery was nearly enough.

Such evil bring suffering but it did not end with the four families, their police department, and the community in which they served.  Such evil brings suffering wherever it is allowed to roam unchecked!  This was not only true in this case but also on a broader scale.

One need only look at the suffering Christians in Muslim countries such as Egypt and in places such as Africa to understand that being a Christian is a serious business.  No other faith group has suffered what Christian have suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of Godless communism (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot) and at the hands of other religious ideologies such as the one just mentioned.

Yet, just as those four served to keep order, preserve right, and stave off lawlessness in their community so too, we who serve the risen Christ must stand for those and other things.  Other things such as those that  bring unity among Christians who are not so in name but in relationship with the risen Christ.  That is so be they Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant.

Also, we who serve Christ, must seek to preserve that which is right, and live out the laws of the Scriptures--those things that keep us in right relationship with God, then right relationship with one another, and finally right relationship with self.  As my mother used to say, "JOY = Jesus, then Others, then You."

We as Christians often have been taught that we are a hospital for those injured by the world's treatment, fleshly failures, and Satanic attack.  That thought sounds so good and contains some truth but not the full measure of truth for no army has ever been victorious, nor has it held one centimeter of ground by being a hospital for the injured.  Aggressive armies win and so the Kingdom of Heaven's army--the Lord's Army, the Church must march forward in Scripture and prayer, living out the Lord's commands, doing good to all first to other Christians and then outward into the uttermost parts of the world.

God's Kingdom--the Kingdom of Heaven is divided into those here on earth and those now departed to be ever joined with Christ.  The earthly portion is to be the aforementioned army that fights with the weapons of earthly warfare at times but more often wages war with weapons of a spiritual nature, wages war by doing good, wages war by living out ethical truth no matter the cost, and expressing love in practical ways.  You see the weapons of the Christian are mighty to the tearing down of the strongholds built by the Kingdom of Darkness.

We who claim Christ will never be understood by those of the present world order.  Even so we must be ever on guard to do good, stay to the tasks, fulfill our calling, be ever alert at our station be it in the pew, behind the pulpit, in the work place, as a volunteer in some humanitarian enterprise, at leisure, or some other place.  All are responsible to go forward in the Lord and the strength of his might, to be spiritually strong, do good, to do their part!  All are to withstand the chaos of evil and the unraveling of this present world order.

Onward Christian, unite with one another, remember that no matter how many times an evil demented sick and despicable person such as killed the four officers attacks us, no matter how many people seek to defame us, no matter if we are martyred for Christ, lose our reputation in the cause greater than ourselves, if we die of some dread disease in a foreign land, or if we die of old age, we win.  We win because the Kingdom of Heaven of which we are a part ultimately is victorious--eternally victorious until there is but one Kingdom, that of Jesus Christ the Lord!

"Struggling To Do It God's Way"

Values, be they personal, corporate, cultural, or sub-cultural are are founded upon and guided chiefly by two influences.  First and as previous submissions have discussed there are the influences of mores, that is the prevailing standards found in the individual and the previously listed social groups.

Then second and also as previous submission have discussed, there are those transcendent objective universal truths.  These values have their origin from outside of the individual and the previously listed social groups.  A new word to the discussion is the word, "virtue" which is the acting out of these transcendent truths.

There is for some a missing piece to this discussion and it is found in the following article titled, "THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN" with the subtitle, "The Limits of Human Reason and the Knowledge of God."    

There is the seen, and there is the unseen, the material and the immaterial. That which is material can be scientifically examined and experienced, the immaterial can only be seen and experienced spiritually. These are two worlds that are only seemingly at odds with one another. If you attempt to examine that which is of a spiritual nature using a science that is by its very nature meant to explore the material realm, you will fail.

The things that are of God are far beyond the capabilities of our finite mind to comprehend. The divine can only be known through the nous, that place in the heart that is our true center. It, unlike the brain, is capable of knowledge that is beyond human comprehension, coming as it does from noetic knowledge.

The science of the soul is noetic and can be examined and experience only through the activation of the nous. The nous in Orthodox Christian theology is the "eye of the heart or soul", the mind of the heart. God created us with the nous because the human intellect is not capable of knowing Him without it. The intellect alone can not know God, for human reasoning is limited to the things that are of a material nature. God is unknowable without His divine revelation, and only the nous can perceive this knowledge. God's essence remains inaccessible without noetic knowledge. Science has it's place, but only the heart can know God.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

(article available at https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Merciful-Saviour-Orthodox-Christian-Monastery/104578182913886)

Once again the tension between a closed (material) system and an open (Divinely influenced) system may be seen.  Transcendent objective universal truths are a reflection of the very person and nature of the Divine.  Just perhaps this is the reason that though some desire to live out these principles, they struggle.  Could it be that such understanding and practice as is necessary is only possible because of the "nous?"  Oh, yes, there are those who have such profound volitional strength that they do so but for most people such is a struggle.


It is only as God the Holy Spirit in relationship with and then because of that relationship functions within the human spirit that one can not just understand these Divine principles but also is empowered to live them out.  Such is "Christ-likeness."  Said another way "Christ-likeness" is not being conform in thought and action to mores (cultural relativism) but is simply the living out of God established principles or as others have termed it Divine character principles.  


An attendant discussion then is that to be Christ-like in a secular culture may yield the view that one does not fit in.  It might be well to remember that Jesus did not fit into His culture either.  

"Values Based Decision Making"

A question worth pondering is this.  "What is the basis of making decisions?"  That question could be asked in terms of one's personal life, one's family life, one's employment/business life, and any and all other arenas of one's life.  In most cases the decisions we make or might we say the choices we choose are based upon our values.

The word, "value" or "values" has the following definition available at the site referenced.

Value (n)  c.1300, from O.Fr. value "worth, value" (13c.), noun use of fem. pp. of valoir "be worth," from L. valere "be strong, be well, be of value" (see valiant). The meaning "social principle" is attested from 1918, supposedly borrowed from the language of painting. Value judgment (1892) is a loan-translation of Ger. Werturteil.

 (definition available at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=v&p=1&allowed_in_frame=0)

As you may now recognize the word gives rise to other words such a valuing, valuate, evaluate, etc., all having to do with the process of assigning importance.

Indeed, valuing is a process that begins with one's presuppositions, processes to opinions and attitudes, continues with one's perceptions (of people, institutions, and situations), and often leads to some kind of an action (either words or deeds).

Such processing is not without challenge.  For example, so very often the message sent is that one is to make decisions in terms of how it will impact a relationship or relationships.  The message goes something along the lines of, "...relationships are the most important thing we do and so you must at any and all cost maintain relationships with all who are in your pathway...."  While this may be so in many cases, there is at least one thing that should take precedents over relationships and that is the values by which one lives!

It is a poor relationship that is maintained based upon the violations of one's deeply held values or may we say convictions.  Such a view of relationships will not long endure the challenges of life and in fact will leave one at the mercy of life.  Such can only be described as chaotic and even enabling as relationships pull one in this direction and then in that. Enabling in that relationships without the responsibilities born of values allow for one to behave in less that profitable ways.

In another blog I wrote of love in terms of how one is to behave.  To understand love on the level of an emotional response is to make it fragile and at the mercy of many of the interactions, events, and circumstances of life. However to view love as humbly living out of closely held ethical values is to make it a durable love.  Thus we might see that the choice to live out of ethical values is the highest form of love for it never imposes but always chooses what is best no matter the cost, even at the cost of the relationship involved.

Then too, "What are one's closely held values?" is another question worth considering.  To not know is to leave one's self vulnerable to the winds and tides of the moment.  Attributed to Abraham Lincoln but found in many other places is the quote, "Following the path of least resistance is what causes men and rivers to run crooked."  Certainly when one does not know what one believes and that for which one is willing to suffer great loss, he is vulnerable and disadvantaged.

However, changing that same river picture a bit, we might note the following.  It is our values--our ethical convictions and our character (volitional capacity to live out those values) that provides the river banks that keep the steams of our lives flowing in the right direction.

One not accustomed to such things might counter with the impossibility of such a change.  The response to that is that all could use a "tune up" in these areas and for each of us, it is a matter of beginning with the small things as we live out the simple values and then, at least in my experience, the big issues will take care of themselves.  Then too keep clearly in mind that correct ethical values have their origin in the Divine and though opposed, one who is in right relationship with Jesus Christ is vested with the power, not to be perfect but to live out these things in greater measure.

"Respect"

Respect is a word that has quite a history and over those years of use there are nuances of difference in meaning.  However, which ever period one chooses to view the outcome is the same.  Respect is a matter of how one person treats another.  As to definition consider the following.

Respect is from the Latin respectus and literally means "the act of looking back at one." Included is the notions of "look back at, regard, consider,"  which comes from re- "back" + specere "look at" The verb is from the mid 1500s and means to "treat with deferential regard or esteem."  (adapted from definition found at http://www.etymonline.com/abbr.php) 

Said another way respect is to "treat with reverent or courteous regard—to value, hold in esteem, or high regard.”  In other words, it is a relationship word. 

Some 4,500-6,000 years earlier the Hebrew Language uses the word in the sense of  “to lift” or we would say “to lift up”one's regard for a person or a people.  Then the Greeks came along and added the dimension of feeling and their word meant “to feel respect for.”  Feeling or not, it speaks to the quality of relationship. 

There are it seems to me two applications of the word.

First, it describes how we treat another person.  An example would be in the following.  She treated her the older woman with respect as she listened to her story for the tenth time.  Another way of saying it is that she had a respectful demeanor.

Recently I read the remarks by a young woman by the name of Sara as she wrote of respect.  She works in a local court system and writes about her contact with those who have run afoul of the Law.

"I realized...that the respect I show these people isn't because they have necessarily earned it or deserve it but because there is also an Ethic of Respect.  That Ethic of Respect comes from a decision to intentionally obey the rules of conduct put into place by something greater than just my feelings."

She went on to say, "I don't always respect every customer I come into contact with but I always show them respect..."

Respect is a small gift that each can easily afford to tailor made and then give to another.  One never knows the outcome of such a gift.  It may well be an instrument of change in the life of another.

Second, there is respect as in how we react within.  An example would be the reaction we might have to another who is consistent of character.  One who no matter the winds or tides stays to the course.  It is to be the genuine living out of character qualities.  Such is found in statements as for instance “I respect your honesty.”  We might add other words such as, integrity, punctuality, sensitivity, boldness, determination, dependability, faith, and many others.

Notice that in both cases it does not mean that one has to even like or agree with the person respected.  There can be great respect between people who have different presuppositions about an issue and thus have diametrically opposing viewpoints as they interact based upon the previous list of words and others like them.  Generally speaking respect between even enemies can be maintained when both sides function in not so much a moral but in an ethical manner.

The benefit is that when a person treats even people one does not necessarily like nor gravitate toward, with respect, there is a benefit that will accrue.  Such a benefit may not be readily apparent but more than one person has been "bailed out" by a person who while they disagree with, has received their respect.

"Blame vs. Responsibility"

Sometime ago, someone close to me make a statement, something to the effect,  "The reason I am not a Christian is that you are negative and dour and you claim to be a Christian."

Setting aside his attitude, and while his perception may or may not be true, the fact remains that seeking to divest oneself of responsibility for a faith commitment or any other responsibility by blaming another in no way obviates that blamer of his or her personal responsibility.  Such thinking is akin to "victim thinking" and because it is not legitimate in content and process breaks down rather rapidly.  Yet culture, media, and academia either tacitly or directly has sought to impose upon us the message that given the "politically correct" set of circumstances, given the superior "exclusive truth" one does not have to be responsible.

Consider the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.  In the kind of thinking that prompts such a movement, there is a notion that because they are disadvantaged in some form or another, they do not have to be responsible to obey the law, respect other people's opportunity to make a living, and generally be responsible to respect other people even their fellow protesters.  They seem to believe that they have the superior "politically correct" circumstance that trumps all else and so they can be disrespectful, defecate wherever their please, fulfill their sexual proclivities even at the expense of other protesters, and do other things as they choose.

The real truth is that no amount of "politically correct" permission will absolve a person of responsibility.  One might blame and thus claim victimization because of his surroundings, his family, his culture, his faith, etc. but still in all personal responsibility does not transfer.  As I recently wrote in another venue, one can transfer his or her job to another but not the responsibility for the accomplishing of that job.

So it is that my friend that sought to blame another--me for his failure to make a faith commitment, in no way has absolved himself of responsibility for that commitment.  In fact the sad truth is that such may allow him to sleep the sleep of denial at night but someday it will be revealed for what it is--deception!

"A Western World In Need of Christ"

A Western World in Need of Christ

"The western world has entered a period of decadence and decline, departing far from her Christian roots. With the European Union denying the historical and cultural Christian heritage of her member states, a secular based world view reigns dominant. This, together with the mass immigration of peoples from Islamic countries at a time when the birth rates of indigenous peoples are at an all time record low, threatens the very existence of Western civilization."


Please read the rest of this Facebook article at https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Merciful-Saviour-Orthodox-Christian-Monastery/104578182913886?sk=wall

ALSO, see follow-up discussions at that same fb address.

"The Truth That Leads To Contrition"

There is a truth that leads to contrition.  There also is a truth that does not.

Imagine that a person is driving and without paying attention drives over the speed limit.  Maybe this has happened to you.  Then it happens, a quick look in the rear view mirror reveals that a police officer is following and he initiates a traffic stop.   He approaches your window and says something like the speed limit is 35 miles per hour and you were observed going 45 miles per hour.

When he tells you that you were breaking the law by speeding you have a choice to make.  The choice is in how you react.  Generally and with most people such an experience will bring forth a sense of contrition.  Another way to put it is that such an experience softens the heart.

The other choice is to respond with a hard heart.  The first kind of reaction is that of receiving the words of the officer.  The second is to reject the words of the officer,  put forth some kind of an excuse, or even argument with the police officer.

Now change the story to the person who while reading the Scriptures, listening to a sermon or a sermon in song, or simply pondering the things of God comes face to face with his failure to live by God's standards--God's truth.

Faced with genuine truth will either bring about conviction which then results in a broken and contrite heart or a heart that hardens against the truth.  The humble and contrite heart receives God's truth and remains soft before it.  On the other hand the hard hearted--the stony hearted person will on some level reject it.

Rejection takes several forms to include seeking to not be responsible with an excuse or two, seeking to rationalize one's way out of responsibility, shifting blame, denying the truth, and so on.  It does nothing more than deceive the hard hearted and such deception further hardens the heart.  There comes a point when the heart becomes so hardened that it neither hears, is convicted, nor cares that it does not conform to genuine truth.

Said again, facing truth will either soften our hearts or harden them.  That is the serious state in which we find many people today, they have traded away the genuine eternal truths of God for those things that are comfortable, acceptable, and temporal.  The consciousness they have of God is not a consciousness of God for it is only of a god that they have created.  Such temporal values masquerade as truth and it is with great danger that some have constructed a whole reality based upon a foundation that at best is subject to failure.

Truth, that is genuine truth can, if allowed soften the human heart.

If allowed it can call us to account, to realize our own failings and sinfulness, call us to conviction, and challenge us to a higher level of behavior that is the living out of our faith.  

If our hearts are soften, we are more likely to hear the voice of the Heavenly Father, more likely to take to heart the written Word of God, more likely to have a God consciousness, to feel the conviction of and communion with the Holy Spirit, and more likely to be in a position to have our hearts further softened, etc. 

If our hearts are soften by genuine truth, it adds a God dimension to life and such a view of life if allowed to germinate and grow, day by day and in greater measure give spiritual understandings to physical realities.  

Such an humble and contrite heart is key and essential for Christian growth.

There is much to be said for the one who seeks genuine and Godly truth in order to be brought to a place of contrition that results in a soft and humble heart.

"Truth or Consequences"

There is no safety in truth that is not genuine!  However, falsehood in its very degrees leads to destruction.  Beware of that which is not genuine truth.

We do well to remember that "genuine truth" does not change! No matter how ones spins it, rejects it, seeks to destroy it, and/or compromise it, genuine truth will in the end be there when the false has failed.  Genuine truth is not at the mercy of polls, opinions, the media, nor is it at the mercy of academia.

Not so with man's unproven opinions.  Take for example the matter Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth and the whole notion of "global warming."  It was not too long ago that the climatologist were proposing "global cooling" and a coming ice age.  Then came "global warming."  Now we have "climate change."  The only inconvenient truth here is that the whole notion of man caused climate change is "junk science" to be sure.  How can I say that?  Consider the following.

Science--true science is built upon the idea that a discovery is characterized by at least two basic qualities.

First, it is stable, that is the scientific discovery does not change.  It can be a gateway to deeper understandings and truths but the basic theorem is stable and thus does not change.  

Second, the outcome can be validated by any scientist or laymen who cares to replicate the conditions of the original experiment.  

 "Climate change" meets neither criterion as when you remove "interpretation and opinion" from the discussion, there is little factual data.  Oh, I know, drilling through the strata of Antarctic ice, looking at tree rings etc. gives data, however such data is open to interpretation and thus is not purely factual.  Therefore it is not "genuine science" and in fact qualifies as "junk science."

Well, you might ask, "How is it that you are qualified to render this conclusion?"  The answer is quite simple.  When you look at the scientists that signed on to "climate change," you will notice that not many of them are any more qualified that I am since this is not their area of expertise.  Said another way, I am as qualified as they to discuss the veracity of this theory and I with as much expertise as they say that this is an illegitimate theory!

There is an underlying issue as well.  Consider the first part of the term, "man made."  Does it not speak to an arrogant view of man and his influence upon God's creation?  Does it not tacitly say that man's actions are greater in power than God's capacity to keep and maintain creation?

Well, you respond, I am an evolutionary atheist.  Then consider this.  The basic notions of evolutionary science (again "junk science") should encourage "climate change" since it creates an environment in which only the fit survive and thus progress further up the theorized evolutionary ladder.  Makes no sense to me why the evolutionist would not want this supposed "climate change."

"Climate change does make a difference.  There is an economic effect upon the individual and upon the economy in general.  Sure we should all be for clean air and clean water but this has gone way too far.  That brings us to this final point!

There is safety in genuine truth! Maybe that is the Genuine Inconvenient Truth!  When man individually and as a nation turns from God, there is a price to be paid and that price is that the view of God becomes distorted or all together absent.  Without the "God view" all truth becomes subjective and subject to the influences of prejudice, societal mores, bias, and results in chaos.

"Love Your Enemies and Others"

The normal "give and take" of a group of cops was running high.  The bantering turned to a class they had taken having to do with sensitivity and diversity.  As the subject began to shift as happens with people such as these I overheard  something that perked up my ears and I listened to hear all I could.

One officer said something to the effect, I do not have to like nor do I have to respect the person I deal with, but what I do have to do is to treat them with respect.  In the practical world of these cops when contacting the public, it matters little who the person is, their criminal history, their attitude, the officer's bias, how they treat the officer, and/or their demeanor etc.!  What matters is that they be treated with respect.

That overheard conversation along with a blog which spoke to loving your enemies, occasions the following thought.  When the one who follows Christ is commanded to love people such as one's neighbor, one's enemies, etc. such love may include any of a variety of feelings but it must go beyond those feelings to how a person acts and how the other is treated.  There was no indication that faith played much of a part in any of the officers at that table yet they spoke words people of faith needed and need to hear.  So here is the question.

Does love not require the one who would love to go beyond feelings in how he treats his neighbor and even his enemy?

The story of the Good Samaritan is a case in point.  The Samaritan man was an outcast, thought to be an inferior person of an inferior "mixed breed" race.  The person he helped was in all likelihood opposed to the Samaritans.  In fact that very day he could have chosen to not associate himself with the man, said something to defame the man, and most certainly seen him as unclean and undesirable.  The divide between the two races in general and if they conformed to those divides, between the two men ran as deep as the social mores of the two cultures.  There clearly was potential for discrimination.  There was precious little that would have united them--especially emotionally.

However, the Good Samaritan did love the victim, not in emotion but in his ethical actions--in his sacrificial actions.  That is the whole notion behind "doing good to those who take advantage of you!"   It is a volitional action not because of how one reacts emotionally but despite that reaction.  Love is an action not because of an emotion but despite the emotion.

With that understanding then love is an action born of volition and those decisions includes but not limited to the following.  It is...

To be patient toward and with the impatient person as well as being tolerant with the intolerant.  

To be gentle with those who speak and act in an hurtful and harsh manner.  

To not be resentful in reaction another's successes.

To patiently listen when tempted to boast and thus best another's achievements.

To demonstrate the highest ideals of character no matter the situation.

To be unselfish, not seeking one's own way in situations that would justify same.  

To be one who interacts not reacts to adverse treatment.  

To turn a blind eye and thus look beyond some mistreatment by another.

 ...and the list goes on and on.

This to say the least is greatly misunderstood by many.  So the sum of the matter is this.

To love is a volitional action and if emotional attachment is involved so much the better.

May we go forth as did the Good Samaritan and love in action not just in attitude and word!

"Salvation or Social Idealism"

Fr. Tryphon writes,


"Just as we have seen the progressive moral bankruptcy of our society, we have also been witness to the wholesale sellout of traditional Christianity by much of America's religious community. The partial adherence of many of America's denominations to the traditional Gospel call to repentance, forgiveness and redemption through Christ, has given way to a new kind of salvation. These "churches" are now more concerned with social idealism than seeing souls saved through entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ. They have ignored Our Lord's own words, "My kingdom is not of this world". They have shown forth for all to see that their loss of faith has led to a replacement of the good news of salvation in Christ, with a mandate to build a Utopian society where social justice and peace reign forever. They have forgotten that Christ said we would never attain this outside of His Kingdom, 'which is to come'."


Full article available at https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Merciful-Saviour-Orthodox-Christian-Monastery/104578182913886 and also at  http://www.morningoffering.blogspot.com/


May you be blessed with but more importantly challenged by Fr. Trypon's words.  Reading carefully and prayerfully will not only enlarge your view but challenge your heart to a deeper commitment to the Lord, Jesus Christ and His eternal Kingdom. 


It is of utmost importance, indeed imperative that we who are followers of Jesus keep in mind that it is an "already" and "not yet" proposition.  For those who do not understand, we enjoy some of the benefits of following Jesus Christ "already" (in the now) but they are a mere shadow of what we will enjoy (the "not yet") when we are united with our Lord and Savior.  Indeed is not that the hope that should cause all of this life to grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace*?.


*From the chorus Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

"The Inconvenience of God!"

Could one argue that atheism is a "religion" of convenience?  Religion?  Yes, it is so because it has all of the qualities of a religion—a common belief, doctrine, adherents, meetings, and activists.

Convenience? While there are many atheists with high moral standards, there are fewer with ethical standards, and many more who have come to embrace the belief because they find divinely established ethical standards to be inconvenient.  For them God is inconvenient, not inconceivable, just inconvenient.

These are those who understand that to believe in some form of God will require accompanying ethical behaviors.  For them one’s self pleasuring tendancies and other behaviors are inconvenienced by such ethical behaviors as God required and requires.  In that sense they are to be respected for at least they do not pretend something they are not--an argument often pointed at people of faith in their ethical/moral struggles.

Continuing that thought, at this point the athiest has company for there are those who believe in some form of God—a God that they have redefined to fit their moral proclivities.  In either case, it is much easier to redefine God or to rid one’s self of God than to rid one’s self of a penchant for various pleasures and conveniences that are outside of God’s standards.

The problem is that, just as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Rome, there is internal evidence that has been “hard wired” into each person.  Such gives testimony to each that “there is a God and that God is there.”  However, when life style choices make an ethical God inconvenient, it is easier to intellectually get rid of God.

Then too, to defend the athiest’s position requires more argument and even more faith than to take the leap of faith necssary to decide to believe in God.  It is far more simple say, "God is!!!"  However, at that point the issue becomes, if God exists, what will He require?

An accompanying thought for those of faith is this.  "Since you believe God exists what does He require of you?"

"Maybe You Will Remember..."

GRADUATION THOUGHTS

(PFCTA Class 2011-2)

As you leave from this place and one another, maybe you could take these few thoughts with you.  Having been in a group such as this a time or two, I've no doubt that you will not long remember who spoke nor what was said.  By this time in your training you may feel like your brain hit a bad sector and just cannot absorb any more.

Someone once wrote,

Life is filled with froth and bubble,

Two things stand alone

Kindness in another’s trouble,

Courage in your own. 

We will get back to that in a moment.  However, let us take a moment or two to consider these few thoughts, thought that are along the lines of, maybe you will remember that...

1. Maybe you will remember that you were challenged to get more than a piece of paper...

"As in law school, the other students were disturbed. Hagbard began to understand: they are not here to learn, they are here to acquire a piece of paper that would make them eligible for certain jobs....”

[From The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, 1975]

You soon will have a piece of paper and for some it will all end tomorrow at noon as the square will be filled and you can move on to whatever else is ahead for you.  However, for others you were challenged and your learning will continue!

As William Yeats said,

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

[William Butler Yeats, 1865 to 1939]

2.  Maybe you will remember that one or more of the presenters lit your fire...

Most of you probably feel a bit overwhelmed with all of this in as much as your pail is filled to overflowing.

Whether obvious or not most all of the presenters you have heard are people of passion who on some level sought to light a fire not fill your pail! That is they are passionate or afflicted with passion about what they do and teach.  If you would not have taken one note or peered at one PowerPoint slide but listened to their heart you would have heard a certain passion not about who they are as a chaplain or other presenter but about what underlies their serving.

As someone once said,

If this does not light your fire, then your wood is wet

For some this experience confirmed your calling to serve those who serve us, for others it no doubt confirmed that this is not where you belong.  Wherever you serve may you be passionate about it.   Speaking of passion, we will look at it a bit more in a moment.  

3.  Maybe you will remember that you need to be possessed of a wish to know...

Hopefully as you leave it is with some sense of what you do not know but also some sense of what you wish to know.

The African proverb goes,

Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse.

As was said, this is the basic course.  May I suggest two sources for further study.

First, those you serve.  Make a study of those you serve.  Ask one of your charges this question, "What are the most important things I need to know about serving here?"

Second, most of the presenters could have given you much, much more and would be honored if you contacted them for further study.

As others have given to us from their experience, so too the instructor corps at the Academy gave to you so that you might give to others.

4.  Maybe you will remember that someone said to be invited into someone's world is an honor...

Plato said,

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

Remember, every day you put on your department patch, that you have been granted a great honor.  May none of us seek the honor of the patch but may we enter into that honor by invitation.  When you are invited into the world of that patch, it means that you have been honored by being invited to belong to that department but you also belong to another group.

You belong to others who have been privileged to wear the patch.  Yes, it is the privilege of the patch.  Please do not take lightly that you wear the patch you wear, it is an honor granted to few.  Honor it and by honoring it, you honor those of us who also wear the patch with you.  Many will collect, some will trade, but few will be granted the opportunity or should I say privilege to wear the patch.

Do not presume upon the patch by taking what it means for granted.  There are three chaplain who I personally know who did just that--presumed upon the patch in one way or another and no longer wear the patch.

In being allowed to wear the patch you join those across this world who serve those of the patch.  They wear it with you and you with them. But also remember that you wear the patch not to be served but because you serve in important and essential ways--let no one denigrate your importance.

Finally remember that you enjoy the privilege of the patch not to be served bu to serve--serve in the good times but also in the dark places of life.

That leads to the next point...

5.  Maybe you will remember that you were warned that this indeed is a painful privilege...

The background of the word passion as it came to the English from other Latin based languages, means to suffer, to endure, to hurt, etc. For example we speak of Christ's death as The Passion.  Later in the 14th Century it came to mean strong emotion, desire.  In other words it historically has meant to endure hurt and suffering and much more recently has come to mean a strong emotional desire or attachment.

But there is more.  Your trainers were more than people of passion and resource, indeed they are people of compassion and they sought to light the fires of compassion within you.  Compassion draws from the earlier meaning of passion, that notion of suffering.  The word originates in the idea of "com" or "together" and as we saw suffer.  In other words compassion is together suffering.

There is a cost to compassion—for when we are compassed with the needs around us, we give and such giving is not without cost to our hearts.  However, remember…we do not suffer alone.  Because we do not suffer alone the cost is not to us alone.

Together we suffer with the God when we serve.  For those of Christian faith understand that our God is one who became flesh and dwelt among us and understands personally our compassion.  C. S. Lewis noted that when we suffer we join Christ in His Passion.

Together we suffer with those with whom we serve, our fellow chaplains.  

Together we suffer with those to whom we are called to serve.

Together we suffer with those of our families for they are not immune to what we do.  When the call volume is high, or God forbid you lose an officer, or there is a mass casualty event, the members of your family will suffer as those things exact a toll upon you. 

As you leave this place leave in the knowledge that in the dark places of life, God has prepared others to walk with you.  They may not be physically present with you but they none the less walk with you.

6.  Maybe you will remember that because of others you could come this way...

Your calling to serve is to join with those who have gone before you!  Maybe a question worth considering is this.  Am I honoring the others who have come this way?  Do I honor them and what they did, how they opened doors, by how I am living out their calling in my calling?

When going through such an academy as this, while in the military, I heard about the blue wall and that it would be difficult to gain entrance and acceptance.  You see in the military because of rank structure there is no cami wall.  I came to civilian law enforcement expecting the worse but found that where I live, others had broken down that wall of mistrust and skepticism.  You would know Dan’s name but not the others yet that is exactly what they did in one form or another.

Should joining in that tradition, not mean something?  Not require something of us?

Your calling is to join with those who are now serving! Others who with you wear the patch!

Your calling is to join with those who will serve, whose fires will be kindled and who will wear the patch.

Someday someone else will direct this academy, perhaps one of you.  

Someday someone else will stand in your stead in your department in the darkness of death and loss.  You may want to be the one but you will be gone and they will be there.  Be to them like those who preceded us, not the one who prepares the way, but the one who is the way maker who fashions a better way.  Be the model for those who follow.

CLOSE

7.  Maybe you will remember your re-commitment to serve...

A commitment to serve born of strong emotional desire, born of passion serves in the good times, but may not be there in the bad.  You will meet chaplains if you have not already done so who love the title, the uniform, the patch, the privilege, but never take a call out.  They are chaplains of passion--of emotional attachment.

However, remember that we started with,

Life is filled with froth and bubble,

Two things stand alone

Kindness in another’s trouble,

Courage in your own.

We who do this service--this ministry must come to a place of commitment born of the pain of compassion.

It is to be the commitment to serve--serve up kindness in another's trouble.

It is to be the commitment to serve, to serve up courage in our own--our own when...we are overwhelmed by our circumstance...our own when we are in times of great personal loss...our own when we are unrecognized in this life…when darkness clouds our day...when that call comes in the dark of night...when  that family event is disrupted...when your best efforts are questioned…when you give and give and go and go...when are treated unfairly…when--well you fill in the blank!

That is when the person who serves because of the commitment born of the pain of compassion courageously stays to the task.

No matter your place of service, may you be blessed with a commitment born of the pain of compassion, may you courageously stay to the task--stay to the painful privilege.  May you courageously give kindness in another's trouble.

AMEN!

"Cultural Competence" CT8

Overview:  In considering the terms Sensitivity and Diversity, there is for some a certain imposition involved.  It is not as though one has a choice in the matter of relationships with the members and adherents of other cultures, sub-cultures, religions, and ethnicities.    However, it must be remembered that this is not a matter of relationship between by group and another's group.  It is a matter of relationship!

The relationships in between and within certain groups are complex and one will not easily exhaust all the is necessary for there to be some modicum of reasonable relationship across the varieties of people with which one contacts.  To say that this is impossible is an understatement.

Add to the mix the unspoken pressure to accept and even celebrate the culture of racial minorities the problem of how to function becomes more complex.  In my world alone there are Blacks, Koreans, Mexicans and other Hispanics, Romanians, and others.

In order to function in these various cultures one must develop, not Sensitivity and Diversity but Cultural Competence.    Cultural Competence is based upon four core competencies and yes, cultural, sub-cultural, and ethnic understanding is important.

In fact these four competencies are so essential that one does not even have to like or agree with another's culture etc. for them to work.  For example one can show respect to another, no matter the personal feelings involved.  The same goes for the other elements involved.

The Cultural Competence competencies are,

• Respect--certainly some understanding of the other's culture helps here.
• Honesty--one must not deny one's ethics, what they are and what they believe
• Honor--give honor to the other person
• Permission--seek permission before speaking or acting

The mode necessary to make these work is questioning.  In other words, if one is going to learn to function in the Western brand of a particular culture, a few well placed questions will yield the information necessary for one to do so.  

Therefore the following is offered.

THE SCALE OF CULTURAL COMPETENCE

Overview:  There those who are so opposed to other cultures.  Such people are termed Culturally Destructive.  Then there are those who are incapable of grasping cultural issues and are thus viewed as Culturally Incapable.  The third group contains those who though capable choose to not recognize cultural differences and this group is named the Cultural Blind.  Beyond these three groups are those who in some degree or another do or do not possess the cross cultural skills and are not opposed to gaining same.

It is not in the purview of this study to discuss the first three categories nor to provide any antithetical argument in hopes of changing such a person or group.  The remaining categories are where the focus is going to be.

Assumptions and Presuppositions


It is out of the purview of this section to discuss the nuances of difference in these words.  That will be reserved for another time.

As in many other areas of life, one's capacity to function is strongly influenced by presuppositions and assumptions.  Of course basic to one's words and actions are things one supposes or takes for grant to be true and thus those things serve as the foundation.  It can often involve conjecture, deduction, and speculation.

Thus the importance of questioning!

THE ROAD TO RELATIONSHIP

Let us be clear!  The discussion is safe when it is kept on the level of relationships of the individual with another's culture or culture to culture.  What is a great deal more challenging and threatening is the relationship between people.

It is possible for a vibrant, affirming, and healthy relationship to exist between people who are polar opposites from one another.  What is necessary is that there be understanding and acceptance which in an age that suffers from a lack of clearly defined boundaries and a fair amount of enabling behavior can be quite difficult.  A common task, a common challenge, or a common foe also helps the process


Cultural Pre-competence:  The beginning of right relationships.

This is the point at which a person who perceives that there are cultural differences seeks understanding of the other person to include the influence and practice of that person's culture.  Though this generally focuses upon one side of the relationship, it may be that both need to understand something of the other's culture.

Included would be some foundational understandings of the other's race, gender, religious belief, ethnicity, referent group, sub-culture, and sensitivities.  This does not mean that one has to agree with,  embrace, or celebrate those things.  It simply means to come to some understanding of what those things mean to the other and thus their effect upon the relationship involved.

Cultural Competence:  Continuing right relationships.


As understanding and skills increase there continues to be greater perception of and understanding of cultural differences.  This persona has developed a greater degree of understanding and with that understanding a greater understanding of how to effectively relate.

With increased understanding there is a danger and that danger is the stereotyping of the other according some knowledge of the culture.  Take for example the case where an Asian child is adopted at birth by a Western family.  The appearance of the child, now adult is Asian but the ethnicity is Western.  To stereotype in this case can be the basis of great difficulty.

Cultural Proficiency:  Maximizing right relationships.

The understanding and skills to operate within the framework they provide are continually being tuned.  This is the point at which one can be both honest about himself and as the same time treat the other with honor and respect.  Knowledge of the other is key and essential.

UPGRADING CULTURAL COMPETENCY SKILLS

Just as culture is ever dynamic (see previous blog) so too is the necessity for a continue honing of skills.  What follows are some of the guides necessary to function with some competency in relationships.  Because they are interrelated, they are presented in no particular order of importance.

Since the following is a continuing process, there is a strategy if employed, which can be of great benefit.  The OODA Loop is the process of Observing, Orienting, Deciding, and Acting.  One might have several OODA Loops in process at the same time as one deals with others.  For example one might be reading body language, then verbiage, and then emotions, etc., all the while reorienting his half of the interactions, deciding what is appropriate, and then taking action.

1. Boundaries:  Relationships are best when the boundaries of those relationships are mutually understood.
2. Values:  Some understanding of the basis of values is necessary and as well the degree of importance placed upon those values.  In particular are the values ethics based or mores based?  If they are mores based then what are those mores and how important are they? However, it is important to keep in mind that to discard one's own values does not allow for the aforementioned honesty.  That leads to the next point.
3. Self Awareness:  Careful examination of one's own cultural values and beliefs is key to how one responds to another's values.  Keep in mind that honor and respect are not necessarily based upon what one values and believes but on how one treats another.  However, such treatment must never violate one's personal values.
4. Cross-cultural knowledge:  Understanding the culture of another may be the basis of understanding the individual member of that culture.  This again is a dynamic activity which requires a certain vigilance.  However, here as already noted is a danger and that danger is assumption.  It is in assuming too much that one can stereotype another.  
5. Cross-cultural skills:  Simply converting one's knowledge to action is a continuing action.   

As previously noted the OODA Loop figures prominently in these processes.  

Most important in all of this is to remember that one's relationship with another is a dynamic entity that must be kept within certain boundaries in order that it not assume a life of its own.  Key is that such boundaries be based upon one's convictions and values.  Even so, there is nothing to suggest that one cannot do his part to establish and maintain a healthy and beneficial relationship even with those who are diametrically different.  Such is only possible when one lives out respect, honor, honesty, and seeks the permission of the other.

"Contemporary Religious Pluralism" CT7

In today's culture, instead of religion in general and Christian religion in particular influencing the culture in which it is to serve, in reality, it is influenced by culture.  The whole notion of contemporary religious pluralism is an example of such influencing.

HISTORICAL RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

Looking back, historic religious pluralism could be roughly defined as "believe" and "cooperate."  Of course there have always been exceptions and those who did not want to "play."  The point was that no one was asked to violate their own belief system and so no common belief was exacted from its members.  Then too there was an emphasis upon cooperation.  Such lead many of the Mainline Denominations to participate in the Ecumenical Movements of the 50's and 60's.  

But there was a change forthcoming.  Just as notions like sensitivity, diversity, tolerance, etc. gained traction in the culture so too they gained traction in the church and there became a certain preoccupation with being non-offensive.  That non-offensive doctrine became so pronounced that it was no long "believe" and "cooperate" but now "what can we all believe together."  

The importance of Historical Religious Pluralism is that it allowed for one to maintain his belief system and even gave room to personal convictions, that is personal theological conviction.  There was no demand for universal truth and one might even embrace subjective truth.  One might sum up the position in the notion of unity not uniformity.

The unity of "believe" and "cooperate" was how historic or classic Religious Pluralism. However, there was a change and it now placed stress on the notion of "unity" but now it is based on "commonly held belief."  

CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

It is a certain  pseudo-unity in that it can only come as one is completely tolerant of those with divergent doctrinal positions, thus Contemporary Religious Pluralism.  In many ways Contemporary Religious Pluralism is a reflection of the post modern mindset in that it dismisses all that might mitigate against difference and disagreement.

The primary doctrine of the position is contained in the question, "What are the things upon which there is no disagreement?"  Of course there is very little, even among those who claim the title, "Christian."  Add in those of other major religions and the list grows ever shorter with the greater the inclusion.

The outcome is that cardinal doctrinal differences compromised, set aside, negated, etc.It is a certain  pseudo-unity in that it can only come as one is completely tolerant of those with divergent doctrinal positions.
In extreme cases divergent religions are called upon to cooperate.

As with most any position that is largely indefensible, the arguments tendered are not based upon ethical principles but the mores of that particular religious sub-culture.  The likely arguments are

• Reactionary in that they react against those who have an exclusionary doctrine, e.g. the eternal outcomes of the saved differing from those of the unsaved.
• Generalizing in that they move from a specific example to a general belief.
• Discriminating in that it embraces all except those of deep conviction which would include those with ethical truth claims and those with exclusive truth claims, etc.
• Devaluing in that those who hold to ethical truth are often named as uneducated, without compassion, irrelevant, and intolerant.
• Universal in that all religions contain elements of truth
• Inconsistent in that tolerance is one of the mantras, however as already noted, such belief allows for "correct" discrimination.

THE TENSION

The culture including the sub-culture of religion is in a state of tension.  Such tension occasions the opportunity for the individual to choose.  One can choose the Contemporary Religious Pluralism track or one can choose the more traditional approach.  One is untenable unless one is willing to give up almost all of what one believes for the sake of "unity."  Then based upon that foundation of "unity" one's belief system is built back.  The problem is that the outcome of course is some kind of a "group think" theology.

The other choice in terms of religious pluralism is the more tradition approach.  Such says that each believes as he will, each allows the other to believe as he will, but we join together in what we can, accept our differences, and move forward in what we can jointly support.  In this kind of relationship there is no "Mush God" for each serves Him as they understand Him to be!