Month: May 2022

Drinking up the battle sauce in Texas

eejoseph

When David, king of Israel, led astray by his regal pride and human desires killed a man after sleeping with the man’s wife, the Lord took notice and imposed a penalty.  It seems to me that people think that atrocities like Israeli theft of East Jerusalem property or homicides with guns in the United States of America will have no consequences. An eighteen year old shooting up children in their classroom in Texas is another example of evil individuals trying to stop the education of the next generation.  The next generation, despite being targeted for assassination, will  be more than patriotic and insular robots and the leadership that thinks it can stack the courts with tainted judges will wax worse and worse. Who can forget Mitch McConnell’s version of impartial justice or Devin Nunes’ trips to the White House during he impeachment of the 45th president?  The homicidal outbursts in human history are the direct outcome of both of lawful and lawless obsession.   In Texas they proudly drink the sauce of armed insurrection when a crooked businessman calls, and they guzzle inaction when the lives of innocent educators and their students scream, for almost an hour, for service and protection.

A drunken stupor affects large swathes of humanity, and it is not an exclusively American phenomenon.  

What a pathetic besotted mob!

The institutions and traditions of Israel and Judah have not been adopted by any civilization, so neither Jerusalem, the original beneficiary, nor any of the capitals claiming inspiration from Sinai or Golgotha have seen even a truncated era of proven viability.  The fearful (and abominable, see Revelation 21:18) Caucasian crew that sees immigrants as a threat cannot be expected to be rational or neighborly.  If a repeated mantra could convince the public that MAGA fans were to be trusted the quasi-governor of Texas just brought the house down.

Get the narrative straight or let the police tell it

The performance behind the microphone in Uvalde was Governor Abbot’s trademark bluster and bravado but it could not hide the outrage of police holding back the parents while an eighteen  year old slaughtered their children in their classroom.  People sworn to go towards gunfire in a jurisdiction where eighteen year olds can acquire a weapon designed for war who choose to wait while ten year olds are murdered need to be sworn out.

The time is way past up

Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.  Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.  (2 Samuel 12:9-10, NASB)

Perpetual violence in David’s household

The sword shall never depart from your house

There is a fantasy parading as fidelity to noble ideals is spreading all over the world.  It sneaks around in places of worship and in legislatures desperately trying to wed the underlying evils of politics to a spiritual accountability. 

Bribed to do nothing about mass murder

The revolution will not be replayed and guns have not prevented the spread of fascism, nazism, or lying ignorant people posing as experts and leaders. 

Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person. And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Deuteronomy 27:25, NASB

But your eyes and your heart are intent only upon your own dishonest gain, and on shedding innocent blood and on practicing oppression and extortion.

Jeremiah 22:17, NASB

Nothing to see here

Freedom denied and slavery forgotten have unsheathed a sword on the United States that will never depart and the  proof that one idolized amendment to a constitution will make an entire nation a bleeding mecca.

War – homicide – death

It is questionable that homicide – The American War of Independence –   cut the ties between brutal England and her North American colonies.  The military and peace officer services of the United States have not failed to keep alive atrocious attitudes, policies and practices. Texan official leadership publicly wants to be the Keeper of the Keys of the Right of Violent Insurrection, which only means that the rule of law is bovine fecal matter to such people.   By their repeated kicking their responsibility for all the people and especially children down the road the people’s representatives – Democrat, Republican and Independent – are mired in genocidal icecream. They think that guns will save them when their day of decision comes.  The civil war and the world trade center inferno have taught them nothing.  So political hacks can say there’s nothing to see here. Whoop de do! Another bad guy committing a crime while they have done nothing to make sure that that crime can be reduced.

Resources to reduce murders are not in place but access to  weapons of mass destruction is a rite of passage in Christian America.   Politics and faith are strange bedfellows no matter what cliches believers use to prostitute themselves to the state.  They really do not know what JESUS thinks of the enablers of the massacres of innocent children and non-Caucasian people. They ought to know what he has to say to the National Rifle Association and the political charlatans it bankrolls.  Time’s up, pals.

Quebec’s Quixotic Quest

eejoseph

Quebec’s politicians have no real concerns about Canadian respect all across the country.  That Quebecois have a special place in the Canadian federation may be a rabbit hole in the service of jealousy and antagonistic attitudes towards newcomers and Canada’s First Nations.  Even when the Parti Quebecois rises to speak in the House of Commons and speaks against the Head of State no one seems to notice.  Canadians are that forgiving.  Our neighbours to the south  and their struggle with states’ rights seem to have gone over the heads of Quebec’s politicians.  Practically no one wants a state within a state. 

That is a recipe for civic disturbance and failure.  The late Honourable Rene Levesque tried. Jacques Parizeau tried.  40% of Quebecers may still be in favour of a nation within a nation and separatists (by any name) can count on conservative support for negotiating the break up of Canada. No one can figure out how a family in a family works. No one can give a reason why the idea doesnot work for Canada’s First Nations. I propose that since we count two founding peoples, Francophone and Anglophone, we need to go back to the first grade.

From the heart

eejoseph

The calling card of God’s kingdom and the gospel’s measuring stick are essentially matters of the Father’s privy council.  We cannot see the contents of the human heart but we are able to perform certain actions that might be interpreted as the Spirit’s fruit.  No-one need pretend: the life itself has the microchips for the believer to do God’s will from the heart (Greek, ek psuches), that is, not mere outward expression, such as sabbath-keeping.  There is no necessary spiritual foundation for a person to be off work on the weekend, and not have to report to his workplace. That same person can harbour thoughts on the sabbath day or any holy day that go seriously offline from the sabbath-keeping integrity.

Both God and the pastor remain on duty on the sabbath day; the pastor in violation for which he does not get prosecuted, and God because he works non-stop and is not subject to the fourth commandment or any other law aimed at pointing out sin (and the need for atonement). God’s Son was not a sinner until he was in the cross.

The idea of behaviour “from the heart” aims at anchoring behaviour in the cleansed heart, because one can truly say “I followed my heart” when one has followed the deceitful and destructive passions of the heart.

The holiness of God, the day and the person

  • that God is idle, not doing whatever work occupied his 6 days in any week
  • that God is subject to do not work orders
  • that a special holiness affects human beings from the rotation of our planet
  • that the Holy Spirit’s presence for the six previous days can be outdone
  • that a holy walk with God gets amplified from the day before the sabbath 
  • that a holy walk with God gets dialed down  the day following the sabbath 

What was in Yeshua’s heart

When the disciples fed themselves fresh wheat on the sabbath day it was an offence to the Pharisees. When Yeshua healed a man on the sabbath day he was accused of being a doctor – not the bishop of all souls – working outside his hours. The extent to which the Incarnate Word was a genuine human does not veer off when the content of his heart is to be revealed. Were the residents of his heart not the same as his contemporaries evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. (Mark 7:21-22, NASB) he could not say that he is familiar, by experience with the common temptations of human life.

Whether or not you believe it, Christ was born into a unique situation. He was not born of human desire and was born of a woman only. This makes it possible for him to be Holy God and sinless lamb. God’s will for Yeshua was written in his heart, not the hundreds of commandments against this and that or for this and that, but the order to lay down his life to save humanity.

“From the heart” must take its shape and dimensions from the Saviour. The believer’s hearty conduct of life needs a North Star. It most certainly cannot be grounded in a hundred or ten commandments. It must be cognizant of both old man and new man passions and desires, respectively for mortification and nourishment.

Canning a basic can do

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There are fourteen “can you” questions in Job. The most riveting are Yahweh’s to Job at the end of the human speeches. It seems that it was popular in antiquity to question a person’s ability on a superhuman scale when a person seems to have fallen off the bus. What ever happened to the basic can dos? Asking a mere mortal to explain his own origin and experience can result in a mountain of lies and fantasy. There is a question that comes, having legs that decisively force a person to can even the most basic human “can do”.

Ability addressed four times

The verb that designates ability (like Greek’s dunamai, I can), appears 183 times in the Hebrew Bible, but yukal, he is able, appears three times in the human speeches and once in Job’s response to Yahweh’s.

If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking? (Job 4:2, NASB)

“Who can shut up?” argues Eliphaz.

For calamity from God is a terror to me, And because of His majesty I can do nothing. (Job 31:23, NASB)

Job confesses “I am helpless”.

Refute me if you can; Array yourselves before me, take your stand. (Job 33:5, NASB)

Elihu throws out a challenge, “Prove me wrong”.

I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2, NASB)

Job confesses Yahweh’s ability

Basic “can do”

“Can do” to the waste bin

The canning begins when Yahweh rips into Job, not Job’s miserable comforters. It is humanity’s relationship with an animal that comes under scrutiny without a line on actual ability. The question that puts human can-do in the can is “How is your dominion over leviathan?”, and it has fourteen legs.

  1. Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?
  2. Or press down his tongue with a cord?
  3. Can you put a rope in his nose
  4. Or pierce his jaw with a hook?
  5. Will he make many supplications to you,
  6. Or will he speak to you soft words
  7. Will he make a covenant with you?
  8. Will you take him for a servant forever?
  9. Will you play with him as with a bird
  10. Or will you bind him for your maidens?
  11. Will the traders bargain over him?
  12. Will they divide him among the merchants?
  13. Can you fill his skin with harpoons,
  14. Or [fill] his head with fishing spears? (Job 41:1-8, NASB)

All the people running around with an “I can do all things” attitude are practically incapable and seem to have little understanding about the primary responsibility for humans over the planet in having dominion over animals of the sea, the sky and the land and in the water! Straight to the can!

The kind of fast GOD approves

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Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord? (Isaiah 58:5, NASB)

Isaiah’s query

These three questions put by Isaiah to his contemporaries paints a picture of a generation stuck on ritual, external appearances, and personal bodily punishment.

Yeshua’s take on a popular practice

Fasting is a private matter, and his recommendation, apart from any audience query, instructed his disciples to avoid human notice.  Skip the public show!  But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:17-18, NASB)  Noone needed to know they were fasting.

Responding to a question

Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?

Matthew 9:14, NASB

The Lord frames his reply within the time in which people were living; the prenuptial days of the bridegroom and his friends.  It lands one step short of saying “We have no need”, and that would be a premature conclusion.

THE DAYS OF THE BRIDEGROOM

And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Matthew 9:15, NASB

The bridegroom’s attendants cannot be expected to mourn (=fast).  Preparing for a wedding is right next to the wedding itself on the joy scale.  Who are these persons; bridegroom and attendants?  Whose marriage is imminent?

The Wedding must be near

The certainty that the friends of the bridegroom will fast when the bridegroom goes away means that this wedding is neither the Communion Service nor the Lamb’s marriage supper, which we understand is scheduled for the end of the age.  The bride, in her final state, is called heavenly Jerusalem.  However, sticking with the traditional prenuptial separation of the bridegroom from the bride, we recognize that Christ’s return to glory is felt with real grief by his companions, and we note that receiving the Holy Spirit is an occasion of unprecedented joy.  Yet it is matter of personal experience and deep affection that believers want to be with the Incarnate Word, even though they have the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit.  There is a [re]union that occurs when Christ sends the Holy Spirit and another that happens at the general resurrection where all the saints are united with the Lord-groom. “So”, says Paul,  “shall we forever be with the Lord”.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, NASB

Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.

Revelation of John 19:7, NASB

Presenting to Himself the church in all her glory,  (Ephesians 5:27, NASB)

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

Ephesians 5:25-26, NASB

Having received the Holy Spirit

The sadness and despair that the disciples felt when their Lord died cannot be explained with words. Clearly they were disillusioned and thought that the tales of his resurrection were just that; mere tales.  But on the day of Pentecost everything changed. They were with the Lord again by means of the presence of the Holy Spirit whom the Lord had designated “another Helper”, someone to help them just as he had, but with better resources since he, the Son of  God, was after all a human being limited somewhat by space and time.

Isaiah’s query redirected from self-interest

Isaiah’s questions about the type of fasting God accepts anticipate an answer about what we do for others, not what we do to ourselves, namely (1)  loosening the bonds of wickedness, (2) undoing the bands of the yoke, (3) letting the oppressed go free (4) breaking every yoke? (5) dividing your bread with the hungry (6)  bringing the homeless poor into the house (7) seeing the naked, to covering him and (8) not hiding oneself from one’s own family (Isaiah 58:6-7, NASB).

Fasting then is not a thing we do to exorcise demons and get God to pay attention to our requests and needs.  We can be certain that God is always listening and his gifts have no strings – such as afflicting our bodies.  God has left us no instructions about bodily maintenance.  The early church fasted (1) when appointing leadership (Acts 14:23, NASB) and (2) at the local church in Antioch appointing a team for the Gentile mission (Acts 13:2, NASB).  Unmet needs are a symptom of either greed, inappropriate desires, or irrelevant requests. Praying without tiring is perfectly efficient and does not expose as being apathetic or inactive when the interests in Isaiah’s query are present in our communities.

Give me a moon, a star, an idol

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Day moon

Sun and moon serve God

Light is introduced in the creation narrative mysteriously and without fanfare, but we also see light in that narrative as commonplace and serving as everyone’s clock. Day, month, year, seedtime and harvest (cold/hot and wet/dry) are functions of light sources, both the great and the lesser.

Light mysteriously from God’s command

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. (Genesis 1:3-5, NASB)

Photo zoo, big light, little light

We live in a photo-op zoo, but death is also ionized as darkness.

Light separator

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.  God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth…

Genesis 1:14-17, NASB

From this narrative in Genesis we learn that light has a purpose, that being to separate, to create the ability to distinguish created elements. It does not seem that ELOHIM created light to banish or condemn the darkness. The deep was dark, not conducive to his plans for life. ELOHIM is light but he also created light, and that created light made it possible for distinctiveness to be made.

What time is it?

As surely as the information in Genesis 1 is unique and I inimitable so is the appearance of God in the flesh.  The appearance is one of a kind and timelocked. When we answer the question “What time is it?” we synchronize our clocks with day or night, or one of Yahweh’s annual festivals.  The architecture of human times has made it so that whether it is night or day light is available.

Lesser light and stellar apostles

“Lesser light” is moonlight, and if someone was mindful of the arrival of a light-bearing era the time is permanently day. We cannot imagine who needs moonlight in the daytime.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;

from 1 Thessalonians 5

Sleepyhead and drunkard

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-10, NASB)

Give me the Sun of Righteousness

People are known to walk in the night and stumble, because light is either minimal or absent (see John 11:10). Indeed when the moon is under the feet of the woman who gives birth to the church (Revelation 12) it is certain that moonlight is the least of our concerns. Furthermore, the woman is clothed with the sun, she has stars (suns) forming her crown! Just think how inescapable is our obligation to avoid elevating moonlight to appear as the high and glorious riches of the gospel. The life shared by believers by means of faith is not an outcome of the creation of big or little light, but the will of the Light becoming our very clothing.

Everyone a prophet

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Final, vital prophets, and other vain headliners

It is a kind of default badge for people in what they think are new movements to seek a accreditation by associating the movement with a prophet or some other icon of authority.  Whatever the choices are for an icon it is hoped that the movement acquires an aura of authenticity.  This is a madness that envelops religion.

Book mixup

Historians and theologiams have found similarities between Christianity Islam and Judaism which can only be explained by the fact existence of a common source. The “people of the book” designation must be taken literally, otherwise people would need to rely on oral tradition and, frankly, rumour speculation and folklore. Christians had the same Hebrew Bible, its (second century BC) translation into Greek, and the belief in one GOD. The unique Christian book, the New Testament, did not take shape until the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and the Arabs had neither book nor monotheism until the 7th century. The only book that could have been a source for the thoughts that reliably lift people towards Divinity must be the Hebrew Bible.

Those unfamiliar bridges

What are females?

The creation of woman is unique among the creation narratives. The existence of an alternate version means that the book cannot be trusted. Neged as the term defining the relationship between male and female cannot possibly mean the lame “beside” or “suitable” with which we are familiar. Rib, from which God made Eve, is help and protection, as ribs are known to protect the vital organs, heart and lungs. Neged also describes equals in negotiations and equals face to face. The reason the first woman is called “mother of all living” is obvious, but mother as source could not be a male honour. Man becomes part of the living chain only through women. Hence women represent the fact of being alive, and the “out front” part of the life cycle. Or do we want to imagine that God’s bringing Eve to Adam could be something other than a face to face presentation? So what’s with the hidden or invisible woman, the second class female, and the exclusion of females from any human endeavour?

What are words?

If Christians, Muslims and Jews read the first three chapters of the Hebrew Bible study Christians are less likely to grasp the foundations of human life. The vocabulary and grammar leaps off the page into a clear understanding, and the meaning does not need to pass through translations and revisions of translations such as we find in the 17th century King James version and the 19th century Revised Standard version. When one has no respect for the distance between the 21st century and the unique materials that have come to us through Jewish hands, the search is over for the counterfeit and diabolic.

Relative goodness

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

No matter what people call themselves they know what is good, they know what justice looks like, they appreciate kindness (given and received) but they all have a problem with humility. Just look at the jockeying to be first and tops in humanitarian ventures, even when the game has been called repeatedly, for kings, priests and mystics. There is no second Solomon, no remixes of covenants and promises. Isn’t goodness within the reach of all humans apart from a creed or cultural framework?

Least in tune

It makes sense that projection is involved in the claims people make about themselves. The expression of such claims are either external or internal. It is always what we wear, clothing or life itself. The liar broadcasts his abhorrence for lies, and unholy people wear their holiness on their sleeves. A prophet is only a big deal for people who want to avoid God.  Do people not have a moral obligation to read sacred texts? The landmark encounter with God in the Jewish experience is still the Exodus and Sinai Covenant. The elephant in the room of every reflection on history and personal accountability is the broken covenant; broken from inception by choosing not to hear Moses instead of God’s voice and violated to the present day via idolatry. The indications are that neither Jews, Arabs nor 21st century seekers make any significant progress without acknowledging the demise of prophets and the rise of anointed leadership without precedent. Of Yahweh, Isaiah wrote:

Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

Isaiah 40:11, NASB

Ezekiel, a prophet of priestly background, also wrote:

For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.

Ezekiel 34:11-12

I [emphatic] will feed My flock and I [emphatic] will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God.

Ezekiel 34:15

It is Moses, the prophet who dared to ascend Sinai and be as God to the Egyptian king who assures us that prophets are going to be common.

But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

Numbers 11:29, NASB

The Arabs of the 7th century were neither fans nor followers of Moses, disciples of Jesus nor owners of the Hebrew Bible or the Greek Testament. Every tenet in the Bible takes on an extreme profile while the virtues of love and moderation become mere platitudes. We are great at avoiding GOD by means of talk. A lot of yapping about God blesses no one. First and last things get reversed any way, and it is the truly eternal statutes that demand our attention: justice, mercy and faith[fullness]. So let’s take Moses and John the Baptist seriously, before we find it really challenging to exit the prophet trap. We are not going to impress God by being hard line on crime and sin. God has already shown what his answer is to human sin, and it is a sacrifice, not fixing behavior.

What conversation?

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May 09, 2022.

Crazy photo op by Canadian PM is how a morning show television host describes the visit into Kyiv on May 8, but one should hear what the Ukrainian partners had to say about the value of a visit. That does not even need to be googled.  I find that getting animated about what the Canadian government should have done instead is not a conversation.  If you have been to or watched a decent church service you are sure to have seen a rare genuine conversation. Very little of what goes on in government houses and political CONferences or CONventions will pass for fundamental conversation.  Canadians talk about the weather a lot because we know that no-one is likely to think we are looking for any credit or recognition as meteorologists.  Having a digital footprint and using it to spread whatever comes to mind or what shows up in an internet search is not contribution to a conversation,  and having no expertise or professional standard as a compass, television hosts are the swiftly rising destroyers of conversation.

The converse Asian is a guy with a lot of loud talk which we suppose follows sober thinking, but we cannot say we knew how many nations would sit on the fence when borders change by force  as the Ukrainians are currently experiencing.

The PRC and a host of other nations are publicly neither pro nor con Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the early morning pundits on television are neither for NATO to join the battle against Russia as if Ukraine was a NATO member, nor are they against a veto in a democratically operated UN Security Council.

Cultural figleaf in play

War is what many want to see, including the cowardly.  If international laws have been broken then the international cops need to serve and protect.  The late US president G.H. Bush was able to gather a coalition against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in what, though effective, turned out to be another poor demonstration of collective security.  Boots on the ground against all odds was last seen in the 1940s when Britain went to Africa to reverse the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.  There has never been an international action that mirrors NATO’S article 5, and war can be fought in many ways by the international community’s agencies to end lawless ventures. It seems that starting a shooting war should not be automatic especially in the age of nuclear vulnerability. Apparently, no-one at the UN, NATO, ASEAN, the Arab League, or the Gulf Cooperation Council can do anything more than protect what is left of their pride and precarious resource influence. None of the remedies are working, despite evidence of their effectiveness over the centuries. Neither diversity nor overwhelming majorities like language or religion have brought Asia, Europe, or the Middle East the security or prosperity one expects when the focus everywhere is said to be people-based, culturally-sensitive and non-destructive. Do African, Pacific, and Asian nations need eyes on Europe, China or Japan to achieve the better dreams of the next generation? You can be sure they are all asking “What next generation?”

What is a human right when death knocks persistently

People had better start looking for the real source of their rights, and it will certainly not be a religion a culture, or a thriving and centuries-old economy. Effective communities cannot base their longevity on the extinction of any of the rights of any of the members of the communities. Employers, employees, children and elders have inalienable rights but only people have rights because they are alive. Effective combat, against tribalism, government corruption, climate change, and even external military threats does not have to include hundreds of fatalities and wanton destruction of property. Some nations do have qualms about reckless decimation of their own populations, including their heads of state.  We count ourselves fortunate that we are not living under any of the ancient or modern wisdom that wants to pass as divinely designed. The ease with which human rights can be violated means that human life is not a concern of the nation as a whole. They all seem ready and willing to murder, assassinate or neutralize their own citizens. There are not enough people who understand that governments, kings, prophets, religious leaders, and politicians are not the guarantors of our rights. These functionaries are the ones who have allowed human rights to take a second place to their need to appear in charge. Collective security is a global ideal on paper, and the current roster of accountable nations do not have the smallest bit of humanity in their national DNA.

Guess what happens when people who do not speak the dominant language or follow the cultural priorities. They kill you. They put you in a ghetto or reserve. So people should stop pretending that the mantras of our many silos are part of a conversation that is changing minds. Mothers who are educated in every way are the solution for minds that need to be changed. Mothers have shaped human character when it matters most and their influence is at risk of disappearing. Who wants uneducated women training their sons and daughters? Can we stand the disappearance of Afghanistan and any nation alike it because we trust men who think nothing of the only entity declared the mother of all living? They have to know, if they believe all the prophets, that the nobility of women puts a lie to their so-called submission to God and enlightened governance. Lies and violence get exposed every time there is informed genuine conversation.