The weakest part of a society is the first to suffer when there's stress put upon the society. I think we can accept that African Americans as a group have reflected this stress and it's affects.
I can't accept that - not by a long shot!. I see Americans in America, where a hard working person can excel - any person. I would have to squint up reaaaally tight to see that point of view, since we have a great number of Americans of African heritage who have prospered though far greater challenges than other whites. Also Koreans, Cubans, Vietnamese, etc., etc., who have started with far less a time horizon than some of our more established groups. Harv, I see people, not races, not income classes, not ages, not ***. Oh, sure, I've been steeped in the culture of numbering and grouping just as anyone, but I've been taught (by my parents) to take everyone at face value and not make judgements.
And why would you call them "weak" as a group? I don't think they are weak as a group; only the weak ones fail - as do weak willed and victim-oriented people of any group. It is also the grouping and numbering of an increasing array of separate groups that weakens this country, pulls us apart, and why I refuse to put their group-name of choice in front of the word American. As TDR said, "There are no hyphenated Americans". Of course, if the groups and the unique group problems went away, so would the need for expanding government programs, and a whole pile of bureaucrats, intellectuals, and politicians would need to find work. How come you guys who tout this junk are so quick to shout "follow the money" when it comes to other things, but not this?
Their disdain for that individual marked me for life. I have spent a lifetime trying to avoid having someone talk about me that way.
Too bad it was disdain for an individual and not a separation of the sin from the sinner. That's what I am teaching, and trying to model. However imperfectly gained, though, it sounds like you've got your own absolute there, Harv. What do ya s'pose you'd be thinking if they had decided she couldn't help herself because of her socioeconomic, racial, or ****** place in society? Or perhaps they had decided they shouldn't judge? Or she should be free to express herself? Right vs wrong, and it shaped your behavior, whether by guilt or by example.
We have actually agreed on this subject of parents modeling good behavior for their kids, before. So who decides what is to be modeled, and how do we dare to infer what is right and wrong to a young mind, if we do not recognoize some plumb line, some guide, some absolute?
Is there any chance that your absolutes are there because relativism on those subjects would be complicated?
Actually there is a chance that relativism on most of my absolutes would kill me, one way or another, eventually. And while I'd like to take credit for the Ten Commandments, Harv, I feel the need to point out that they are God's, not mine. I find it interesting, and always present in conversations such as this, that Godly truth is relagated to human creation. I'm always answering that, and have just recently done so on one of these deep discussions we have going here. I understand the need or temptation to shoulder God aside, because it's easier to fight a big dumb human Marky than consider that we are flipping God the old bird and ignoring his word.
Is there any chance that their simplicity was because it would be too much to explain the reasons for each commandment to where anyone could understand it?
Preach it, Brother Harv! I do believe that some laws were given in simplicity because of a lack of human understanding - the throwing away of cracked pots, and some of the cooking laws can be explained by our current knowledge of bacteria and so forth. That actually helps me believe the bible was inspired by a greater intelligence. Especially when you find things like the earth being called a sphere way before anyone could have had any way to figure that out.
When you get to the understanding of why we shouldn't murder, or commit adultery, and find that it's O.K. if we understand everything around it, let me know - I could have some fun with both of those! Not to mention stealing, lying, and the rest of them. Just clue me in when you get to a place where that can be understood - I'm sure the good folks at Tyco, Enron, etc. who have no retirement or jobs would also like to understand how some of those commandments can be violated without hurting anyone, too.
Didja explain the concept of electron flow to your little bundles when they tried to stick a fork in the outlet, and then let them "find their own way", or "grow into their own persona"? I think I know the answer. Did you simplify things because you did not respect the little ones? Because you were lazy? Neither does God, in my understanding.
Let's keep this intellectually honest - we're thrashing about in the murk of cloudy reasoning here.
