September 21, 2006
Rotten to the core
Frankly, I've heard more eloquent, rational, substantive, mature, estimable dialog on the internet.
What is a civilized international forum to do when members that demand admission by the forum's own rules insist upon acting like undisciplined children? I mean come on now, since when is one head of state calling another the devil anywhere near close to admissible in serious discussion? What are you, twelve?
Chavez has taken the podium at the UN and called President Bush the devil. Excuse me? How did you get in here, young man? That's not the way we talk in adult company. Go to your room until you can speak courteously, and don't even think about watching television.
And if you can walk into the UN and simply lie through your teeth, it somehow seems that you shouldn't be given any creedence or respect.
The fact that not only are these despicable tyrants admitted to discussion but actually applauded is an indication that the forum in question, if not the culture in general, is rotten to the core. The ears of a reasonable, moral person should burn at the words mouthed by these beasts. Here we see horns and crowns and hear the croaking of frogs. The enemy suffered a mortal wound with the collapse of the Evil Empire, but as always, it has risen again. Only this time, instead of attacking the legacy of the Kingdom at its strengths, it attacks at its weaknesses, turning the tolerance that replaced love and the appeasment that replaced fortitute into the weapons of dissipation and dissolution that they are.
Only the church can withstand an assault of this nature. The cultures and governments of this world, even those that oppose these malefactors, are powerless to withstand them, as they are all children of this present evil age. Only those who await the life of the world to come may be equipped to stand their ground.
But the Kingdom does not have political authority. We may serve in and attempt to prop up the governments around us, but the state is not the church, and the church is not the state. The church currently lives under the civil protection from the state and in this country we enjoy great freedoms, but this is not a rarity and not essential to the life of the church.
Sooner or later, things are going to go completely off the rails. There are any number of factors that are conspiring to bring this about. What does this mean? It means that the church will be victorious as Christ is victorious: by dying. Our life is in the age to come. We seek the peace of the city, as its peace is our peace, but we long for the peace that is yet to come and cannot be lost to wars and rumors of wars.
Maranatha.
