How Then Should We Live?
Thought for your day #23, Mon 9/18/00.
First, a sampling of some of the interesting emails this week.
Hey Rabbi,
Just wanting to thank you for the "thought 4 the day" section. It keeps me well fed mentally to chew on the
things, as well as my spirit to strengthen me and keep me in focus.
Love ya man.....
Firstly, let me apologize up front if this message is less than coherent, but my mind had been racing since I found your page a week
ago, but I didn't want to put off writing any longer.
I've been studying religion, mysticism, the occult, and the Qabalah (my personal spelling choice which I can explain latter) for most of my
life, and your page STILL blew my mind. Some of the thoughts expressed on it are things I've been telling people for years, but taken to a
deeper level of understanding than I have ever achieved.
I was, and am, smitten with the complete logic and reason your page displays, and how well each idea follows from the previous one. I've
seen some, though surely not all, of your ideas expressed elsewhere, but never so concisely and completely.
Your ideas have given me so many new ways of looking at things, that I don't know where to start.....
Hallo Ahyh,
Excellent thought for the day. I always have felt that way, but never knew quite how to articulate it so
well.....
You are brave to mention kids need their Mommies. Cause Society tells woman she has to do it all (and you can't do it all, at least not all at once.)
When my stepson was little and I was den mom to his cub scout group all the other kids
had one parent homes and full time working mommies. Man you could tell!. And I'm not trying to be mean, I know every body does the best they are capable
of doing. And it's not enough for kids. (And I screwed up at the job a lot myself so I'm not trying to be holier than thou here). They do need somebody
other than even the best day care institution. Your position on TV is right on. Kids need Mom (and Dad), and parents need the love and support of
Yahweh. Erma Bombeck once said the hardest thing about being a Mom was showing up (for the "job") everyday. And I think that's true, too.
Also with regard to public school, if you don't have public school, how then do the poor kids get a chance at what their parents cannot afford to give
them? ( I know it's not EQUAL and the rich kids attending public schools still fare better as a group). I like the idea that my country cares, at
least in in spirit that our children are all educated.....
[end of emails]
Pastor Ahyh's a To me, it is so simple. Look:
 | Let's assume the very best about government and the public school system. Couldn't they, then, best be seen as society's way of providing for the poor who cannot afford education? Of course they could. In other words, the very fact that public schools exist shows that people would provide for the education of the poor. |
| The problem, then, is the immoral and coercive nature of the threatening tax system that underlies it, not to mention the bureaucracy that consumes way too many resources. Would it be right, I ask you, to sell crack cocaine to school children in order to use the money to feed the poor? I think not. So, the fact that taxes are used for "good", educating children, for example, does not make it right. |
| And private industry, motivated to show its "customers" (the parents of the children being educated) the quality of its product, goes to great lengths to provide the best teachers they can. Not so the public school teachers, where the pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow is "Tenure", meaning basically that you can't be fired for any reason whatsoever. (And yes I know I am exaggerating.) The public school teachers union still opposes any types of tests for the teachers. And when the teachers are tested, all too often we see that they should be taking the course, not teaching it. |
| And specially to the poorer areas, once you return all the trillions (yes,
trillions, and a trillion is one thousand billion, and a billion is one
thousand million) of confiscated dollars, people would have immense
amounts of money to provide for their own children, and be able to
generously give to those in need.
|
Now the thoughtful reader might ask, having read the above question and answer,
"What is the big deal? Whether the money is paid in taxes or donated, isn't it really just a matter of semantics? I mean, call "taxes" a voted-on, socially agreed to charity program and the whole problem goes away."
And THAT, Dear Reader, is the really real question here. I will answer with 2 amazingly short stories:
Story # 1: Recently, deaths from teenage drivers in California are down 18% over last year. Why? There is a new law saying that teens under a certain age are not allowed to drive with any peers in the car.
Story # 2: Sit a perfectly healthy person in a wheelchair long enough, and that person will lose the ability to walk.
"You're making me nervous here....are you saying it is wrong that teens are being saved??!?!?"
No. Of course not. But this is the crux of the matter:
For each of us individually, and for society as a whole, non Natural-Law-based government is as detrimental as placing a perfectly healthy person in a wheelchair.
Step by step now:
- The extent to which we rely on an outside agent or thing, any thing, is the extent to which we lose that ability within ourselves. Use a calculator long enough, you cannot do math....Use written notes long enough, you can remember nothing....Use a wheelchair long enough and you cannot walk....Slam enough fast-paced images into children for long enough and their imagination dies...... That's just how human beings work.
- After thousands of years of governmental experiments, we are (if anything) morally more bankrupt than ever before, and even stupider than the monkeys we are supposed to have evolved from.
Look, folks.....Let me be very personal.....
When my daughter turned 16, she got her driver's license. But she never drove anywhere alone. Whenever we had to go anywhere, her Mother and / or I would ride as the passenger as she drove. She always drove herself to and from school, but we were also always in the car. No, we didn't nag here, but we did point-out different things to be aware of. As adults we know that we drive on "auto-pilot" 98% of the time (another statistic.) The problem with teen drivers is that they have very little experience with which to gain those habits that let an adult "auto-pilot" driver survive more often.
Only when she turned 17 was she allowed to drive without us in the car. But, so sorry, she could not drive with anyone else (her friends I mean) in the car....No one to talk to, no distractions, no showing off.
When she turned 18 she could pretty much drive when & where she wanted.
Again, just what is the point here?
No !@#$#$# GOVERNMENT TOLD US TO RAISE HER THIS WAY!!!! Her Mother and I, fully aware of the risks, took it upon ourselves to do everything in our power, (including getting her a 1974 IRON crash-cage of a car instead of the plastic death-traps we currently drive in), to help her learn, grow and be alive!
The "problem" with Story #1 above, then, is simply that the government had to step-in with a new law in order to save these teenager's lives. The parents were too stupid or un-involved to care about their own children! The government has become the parents. And oh, how sadly true this is, in sooooo many ways [insert yet another book here.]
And the real problem, the REALLY REAL problem is in Story #2. We have had the externalized governments of the world for so long, that we are losing the capacity to be wise and moral ourselves. The more we rely upon government to solve our problems, the more we lose the ability to do anything about those problems ourselves.
What we need is education which enables us to internalize life's lessons and become strong, NOT external agents making all of our decisions for us. There is a universe of difference between education and indoctrination: the first generates strong, independent, free-willed, healthy people; the second creates oceans of mind-dead robots who need cradle-to-the-grave bottom-wiping by Big Brother.
Evil people, seeing this weakness in others, have sought to exploit that weakness, so that they can have fame & fortune, and be called "Senator."
That, Dear Friends, is the "moral" of the story here. That's why I have taken so much of our time writing about government and laws and things, inside the context of this Church. It DOES MATTER.
Because YOU matter.
And your children's children's children do too. They deserve to be free, instead of sold into slavery to an evil taxation / socialist system by satanic bureaucrats who would, indeed, sell their own mother's soul to a thousand eternities in hell for just "4 more years.....4 more years.....4 more years....."
And yes, I do read all your emails....And yes, I do know fully well that some of you think I have "too much anger"......Righteous indignation, yes...Too much, no.
Because once you catch a glimpse, even the tiniest glimpse, of your real birthright as YHWH's child, once you see even a hint of how life could and should be, the present social conditions on this planet will physically nauseate you.
And you will spend the rest of your life trying to help as many people as you can, in every way that you can, to be able to life that life.
How then should we live?
| As children of YHWH, totally free. Totally. |
| With a strong government / military & police force, to swiftly deal with anyone who would use their freedom to hurt another. |
| Then, guided with peace, love, and concern for our fellow man, have all those with an abundance (in any dimension) share with those who have a lack. |
That's called the Kingdom of YHWH.
And He's ready when we are.
Sorry it took so many words, but that's all I wanted to say.
