{"id":17005,"date":"2018-07-11T09:22:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T13:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17005"},"modified":"2018-07-11T09:59:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T13:59:26","slug":"questioning-our-loyalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17005","title":{"rendered":"Questioning Our Loyalties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Questioning Our Loyalties<br \/>\nWednesday, July 11, 2018<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hj_0pvIGkks\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nMost religion is highly \u201clegitimating religion.\u201d It is used for social control and public order by the powers that be and individuals. This oppressive use of religion has allowed much of Christian history to fully cooperate in toxic and unjust societies\u2014just as long as each person had \u201ca personal relationship with Jesus.\u201d This will not work anymore; in fact, it never did.<\/p>\n<p>The American bishops, paraphrasing many recent papal statements, said that \u201csocial justice is an integral part of evangelization, a constitutive dimension of preaching the Gospel, and an essential part of the Church\u2019s mission.\u201d [1] Social critique is not an add-on, an option, a choice, or a unique vocation for a few. If we profess Jesus is indeed \u201cthe savior of the world\u201d (John 4:42), we must not, we cannot, continue to think of salvation as merely a private matter. We are wasting our time trying to convert individuals without also challenging corporate, collective sin and fully institutionalized evil. (Corporate or social greed is called capitalism; individual greed was once called one of the seven \u201ccapital sins\u201d\u2014but no one believes it anymore.) Our morality is split in two! When we send momentarily changed people back into a corrupt system, people can think they are godly but it will never last for long or at any depth. As Jesus said, \u201cthe last state of the house is worse than the first\u201d (Matthew 12:45).<\/p>\n<p>Social justice is clearly God\u2019s concern, starting with liberation of God\u2019s people in the Exodus, yet it has taken Christians a long time to be able to see the Gospel in a fully historic, social, and political context. Truly transformed people organically change the world, while fundamentally unchanged people can only conform to the system and wholeheartedly cheer it on (see Romans 12:2). Culture will win out every time over the Gospel if it is not critiqued by the Gospel. That essential critique was much of the point of the evangelists\u2019 writings. However, those politicians and priests who are concerned with their own privilege usually prefer an unaware and superficial populace. The people in the pews are so used to this arrangement that they usually resent any forays into their public morality. \u201cKeep it private and personal, Father,\u201d they say. We can no longer waste time this way in the name of a God \u201cbefore whom the very nations count as nothingness and emptiness\u201d (Isaiah 40:17).<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was not afraid to say it strongly: \u201cWe need to change the system. We need to overthrow, not the government, . . . but this rotten, decadent, putrid industrial capitalist system which breeds such suffering. . . .\u201d [2] As long as we unquestioningly buy into the egoic system, where the roots of our narcissism often lie hidden, we\u2019re going to have problems. If we think we can say our private prayers and still genuflect before the self-perpetuating, unjust systems of this world, our conversion will not go very deep or aid in the unfolding of history. There is no one more radical than a real person of prayer because they are not beholden to any ideology or economic system; their identity and motivation is found only in God, not in the pay-offs of \u201cmammon.\u201d Both church and state are threatened by true mystics. Such enlightened people can\u2019t be bought off or manipulated, because their rewards are always elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us need to have the status quo shaken now and then, leaving us off balance and askew, feeling alienated for a while from our usual unquestioned loyalties. In this uncomfortable space, we can finally recognize the much larger kingdom of God. Many churches don\u2019t seem to understand this, even flying the national flag in sanctuaries while daring to talk about \u201cone God before us\u201d in the same space. After authentic conversion, our old \u201ccountry\u201d no longer holds any ultimate position. We can\u2019t worship it any longer as we were once trained to do. Our national identity is okay, probably necessary, but very limited in its capacity for truth, much less universal truth.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>WORSHIP ME ONLY. Idolatry has always been the downfall of My people. I make no secrets about being a jealous God. Current idols are more subtle than ancient ones because today\u2019s false gods are often outside the field of religion. People, possessions, status, and self-aggrandizement are some of the most popular deities today. Beware of bowing down before these things. False gods never satisfy; instead, they stir up lust for more and more. When you seek Me instead of the world\u2019s idols, you experience My Joy and Peace. These intangibles slake the thirst of your soul, providing deep satisfaction. The glitter of the world is tinny and temporal. The Light of My Presence is brilliant and everlasting. Walk in the Light with Me. Thus you become a beacon through whom others are drawn to Me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.\u201d \u2014EXODUS 20:4\u20135<\/p>\n<p>You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. \u2014ISAIAH 55:12<\/p>\n<p>You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light. \u20142 SAMUEL 22:29<\/p>\n<p>Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Questioning Our Loyalties Wednesday, July 11, 2018 Most religion is highly \u201clegitimating religion.\u201d It is used for social control and public order by the powers that be and individuals. This oppressive use of religion has allowed much of Christian history to fully cooperate in toxic and unjust societies\u2014just as long as each person had \u201ca [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17005"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17008,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005\/revisions\/17008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}