Leadership off the rails

Who wants Canada’s secrets out in the public?

eejoseph, ,

That there is foreign interference in anyone’s politics is not surprising. Since Haiti gave the boot to French sovereignty the great pioneer nation of dispersed Africans has not had a year of release.  The people’s pleasure has been intercepted by the United States and God knows who else.  Every nation has secrets, some of which, like Haiti’s, have to do with survival.  Those people, especially politicians, who want a public airing of covert affairs that make their nation vulnerable are nothing but provocateurs and wannabe patriots and insurrection suspects. I have some ideas about who wants Canada’s secrets aired in public.

Trust with national interest is light years away from Conservative

The national interest will put people first, not corporations, large or small.  It is not enough to have federal politicians clamouring for a public inquiry, now Ontario’s premier is making his case for more details of foreign interference in Canada’s elections, now that, (you guessed it) the finger has been pointed at  provincial government officials from Premier Ford’s party. Geez, man, has the Ford government, while deciding the size of Toronto’s government, offers no insight into the rising occurrences of homicide. 

Smash up things then come in like saviours

Is there a push to create an image of the Ford government fighting crime and anything else? It looks that way and  scoffing and snickering at CSIS holding back secrets might work for Ford fiddlers and Pollievre pilferers.  It says much more about Ford refusing to say what he knows about the occupation of the national capital by admitted allies and friends of Conservative members of Canada’s legislatures. Conservatives have been tilting Canada towards “money talks” and the new right wing black hole. Since the 1970s they have been trying to make the difference between Canada and the United States seem inconsequential. For Ford and the Bloc Quebecois the line between federal and provincial powers and interests is sometimes thick and other times nonexistent.  I think Canadians know the difference between a fox in the henhouse and a German shepherd guarding a flock of sheep. They’re no saviours.

Opinion kills as certainly patriot bullets

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I have always thought that making idols of free speech and the right to bear arms was a suicidal venture.  A practice we put at the top of our list ought to be absolute.  No such scope applies to free speech and bearing weapons.  The framers of the American constitution were deep thinkers who did not foresee that generations would arise who take any portion of their words defining the national character and turn it into tools of tyranny and rebellion.  Free speech and the right to bear arms have come into focus as the prime corroders of government’s best efforts.

Who are they keeping safe for the enjoyment of life and liberty

It is not mere slogan wielding when heads of state affirm their sacred duty to protect the nation.  History has shown that failure to do so distinguishes the records despots, kings, presidents, and even tribal leaders in the jungles and deserts.  Every leader comes from a clan that can exert pressure on the leader to place its unique practices above all else.  We have allowed the value of plurality to weaken the indispensable unity a nation needs in order to be strong and survive.  The people Moses loved and led have a testimony in this regard and we advance the cause of good government if we take note of the deliberate division of the nation into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, two and ten tribes respectively.  The kings that succeeded David were not expected to repeat what David achieved; they only needed to keep certain aspects of his administration alive.  Evil kings were the ones who departed from  David’s example. They exposed their people to Yahweh’s anger by so doing and the promised consequences were insecurity, famine, exile and death.

So where are the reliable speakers of truth and warriors of mercy and justice

News ought to be factual, and the widespread use of experts to shape the news – they call it “giving context” – is as malicious as pushing outright fabrications.  When the source of information is either hidden or not stated news is as good for consumption as what spews from disturbed stomachs or rear ends.  BBC, FOX, CBC, Facebook and Twitter are not innocent purveyors of information the public needs.  They push whatever improves their market share of followers, and they bombard the public with their stupid slogans (ads) about their ability  to connect people.  Free speech is not absolute because every one knows that not only is untruthful speech dangerous it is punishable in the courts.  The right to bear arms has not only been in the hands of undeserving individuals it has also been the means for terrorizing innocent citizens.  The proclamation of truth and the war to foster justice and mercy have barely begun.

The dead giveaway

Political speech, religious traditions and tribal tenets have been allowed to pollute the social fabric by being placed above the simple facts.  Fully one third of most populations laps up the venom of politics, religion and tribal tradition without so much as a second glance.  People give heed to foot doctors talking about the brain and regard science as magic, despite the knowledge that the human body is equipped to heal itself with our cooperation.  The deals politicians make with manufacturers to exact exorbitant prices for their products from the consumer show that the maintenance life is not a priority.  Sick people with little access to healing regimes cannot pursue happiness. We might pity the preacher, the politician, the pundit and the jurist, and it might be wasted, because they remedy is to reject every such person who worships the right to free speech and the right to bear arms.  In addition to the ballot box for politicians there should be a day for lying and homicidal politicians and their  television and print personality allies to go to prison. When the heads of government are allied with and dependent on media types who have little regard for truth and facts, free speech and Patriots kill instead of promoting life. When speakers and warriors are interested only in affecting large audiences with their moronic slogans and buzzwords Idolatry rules the roots and kills the innocent.

A very big deal

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Why Christ is an unprecedented and inimitable big deal eludes even Christians.  Those who we think are Christian leaders – standard bearing and accountable – lare mostly something else, and quite unlike the apostles, not to mention the Nazarene himself.  The Christian buck, fortunately, stops with Christ. The race to the bottom features mere miracle talk, lots of books and comments, and it is not Christ who gets the highest praise.  Moses needed kings and priests to succeed him and make his message a success. By comparison Allah needs a human operative to make his message a success, while John the Baptist was pretty sure that God would make offspring out of stones if John’s contemporaries kept up their resistance to God’s instructions and promises. We believe that God’s appearance to Abram (Genesis 12:1, 17:2, 18:1) are not fiction. If we want to be permanently juveniles, always waiting to be told what to do, we can simply stay in line behind Moses or even our national and local governments. People telling us what to think and do is just fine if you want an entry level spiritual relationship and experience. The number of Christians who believe that righteousness and morality are both simply doing as we are told keeps growing. That there is no such thing as a successful religious nation is proven by God’s choices for world-ruling empires, as if he knew that these same powers would kick up dust long after they lost their influence. The successors of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman rulers are evidence that the mighty fall, and our human view, even the views of prophets, generals and mighty men hit the dirt.   That makes Christ the inimitable and absolute monarch of leaders.

Hello! Goodbye!

A lot of hot air is circulating about religion, religious rights, and especially how religion can fulfill the needs of civic government.  God allowed four non-religious governments to dominate the world, so where ever you dug up your religion from, please keep it out of my nation’s government.  Comparison is fascinating study, especially for theology students.  There was, a few years ago,  a rumour that a new and logical religious perspective was possible, provisionally named Chrislam.  That perspective and the rumour about a new ecumenical deal died because there is no global pattern for religious government.   An evaluation of the judicially-challenged powerbrokers of the twenty-first  century can only conclude that truth and its seekers have been replaced by phony monarchs, poor rich heroes, cruel vigilantes and crumbly opposition cutthroats.   The righteous nation dies in the womb.  In the rise of the somewhat popular religions we have the evidence that religion in government has never ended well for the governed, especially for women, children, foreigners and migrants.  Multi-faith statements and prayers are a feel-good but perforated bag that tends to turn grace and goodness into misleading and debauched gateways to more rebellion and endless revolution.  We live, work, and play with people of every description but we are not obliged to embrace their beliefs. 

More than a prophet

Prophets are talkers, often uninformed, unenlightened, prone to sink to the popular contemporary threads in opposition to decency.  Sometimes prophets are asked to play out their message, or to make their private lives a feature of the message they are commissioned to bring.  They are spokespersons.  They do not have to heal, repair, punish or comfort anyone.  It is sufficient that the nabi’ (Hebrew for prophet) says what God tells him.  Sooner or later prophets get laughed out of town by the home crowd.

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.”

Mark 6:4, NASB

Prophet going where no-one dares

Yeshua described the messenger who announced his arrival as “more than a prophet”.  This messenger is also evaluated as the greatest man to be born, and the messenger and his monarch showed absolutely no interest in the contemporary government aligning with the movements of kingdom of God.  The two are necessarily incompatible. Caesar and God are not equal “buddies” in governing the world.  There is a thin line between being a disciple and being an adversary (a satanas, a person who opposes or resists); and that line reveals the difference between what we can see – even after heaven smiles on us – and what is spiritual and eternal.  The person who is authorized to speak for God might as well buck the trend, trash the tradition because the tradition and the trend hand learned how to not bend towards the guarantors of their success: the children.

21) From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. 22) Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 23) But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Matthew 16:21-23, NASB

We are a stunted society because kids and parents mutually scorn each other’s choices sufficiently to part ways

Mediation perfection towards peace

If you have wondered or worried why, after two world wars, after countless tribal and territorial conflicts, the deadly competition and bloodletting continues, you might try finding a nation or people demonstrating a meaningful commitment to the brotherhood of all humans.  The American people are not alone,  struggling to explain the distance they have covered towards a peaceful and prosperous society.  Try finding a governor, mayor, local elder who is willing to affirm the value of common human principles  ahead of his people’s self-interest.  Millions of people will never see a conflict-free decade, never choose their local or national leader, never go out on the street without the fear of being assaulted by someone who thinks you do not belong.  “Money can’t buy you love” goes the song, and more than a few believe that money was going to buy the nations peace.  The peace is largely denied in places where it is explicitly promised.   We do not know whether the UN will be able to monitor and indict, for example,  the predation and bigory, the genocidal social policies  that are shaping realities of our time, both in living colour and the virtual.  A peace won by killing one’s neighbours is a poor foundation for a sustainable society.

So where are the dream-weavers, the deal makers, the philosophers, all the wiz-kids, the wheelers and dealers of academia and commerce?   If they had what it takes to help humanity arrest the terrors of kings, generals, mighty men,  tanks and  high-flying missiles they would have used it.  Imagine though the standing ovation for the leader on the word scene who offers a plausible priority roadmap for feeding the hungry, calming the seas of strife!  Even if his plan is not really  viable that person will be called a “god”.  That is where today’s “more than a prophet” personality is going to come from.  A fabulous personality like this is bound to be a genuine mediator, expected to relate to both sides involved in any process by actually belonging to both sides.  That guy will be a quickly recognized fraud , because it is laughable that people imagine that the boss of all the prophets need a prophet, priest or king to make his benefits flow.  Our personal demonstration of accountability to the community where we live is not atonement.   It is a small drop in the ocean of salvation for all.

Prophets are not superhuman

Let me conclude with an overview of the religious movements that have risen since the Galilean and his disciples operated as heaven’s witnesses in the early first century. Against the backdrop of Moses and John the Baptist there is no human authority and when Moses himself sought God’s mind on the rights of women to inherit and hold property and gets told that they absolutely do, we know that sects (no negative significance intended) that have risen without a superhuman figure are wisps of smoke in the air. Whether they are in Asia, the Middle East, Europe or North America, they all take their cues from a prophetic figure, sometimes a learned figure. Even when the recognized figure is clearly uncharismatic or unread people follow with one eye closed. Prophets are not a replacement for God’s voice. Let us be convinced that the God who spoke to Abraham spoke to David; the God who spoke to Martin Luther speaks to all Christians, and wants to speak with us. Furthermore, the prophets of old were notably not experienced in the things they predicted or modeled, so this generation needs to hear directly from God, bypassing human opinions and dreams at the critical junctures. Calling people to follow and revere a prophet is profoundly misguided. People need a bigger deal deal than a prophet or a thousand volume of commentary on what God wants.

7) Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8) 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 6:7-8, NASB

Real Eternal Life in Life

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Accusations about the liberation movement of African peoples are mostly smokescreen and political drivel.  If the number of Christian leaders who have done something to make justice come alive for African peoples is more than a tenth of all leaders it would be highly suspect.  We know that the vast majority model their work after ancient conventions known to be the tools of greed, oppression and ignorance.  Real life in God has no outlet for merchandising and theft. “Ticket to heaven” salvation and little compassion for the oppressed is shallow stuff indeed.