I have often said I would advocate the Liberal if they could give me anything remotely worthy of it. This may or may not happen, but I will say this, the Conservatives may yet give me cause to stand against them. and I won’t care if they have banners of Christian Right emblazoned upon their chests or if they have self-righteous emptyminded platitudes about how “reasonable and right” they are.
Because, so help me God, I have given my allegiance to one Lord. And I am taken back by the self-righteous mob pleasing catcalls of “Right and Wrong” if it is not predicated upon truth. You will not gain any acquiesence from this corner. Not one quarter.
God is a God of justice, yes, -yes, He is, but I have an admonition for you who seek an absolute justice that will impale the target with no remonstrance of mercy:
I wonder sometimes… is this the Age of Enlightenment’s legacy, this Directoire with gleeful guillotine crowds? Is this the impasse we will find ourselves at? Our very humanity sacrificed in the name of Human Reason.
Where is the mercy that met the adulterous women- the one at the well and the one presented for one last imprecation before stoning? Where is that mercy if you call yourself Christian? Where is the knowledge that we are all flesh, and prone to its folly? Does this take anything at all away from the fact that justice will be done? It does not.
Will you call Christ unjust, you who would justify yourselves? And isn’t that all we do in our frenzies of infuriated feeding on the stories of the day.
I have stood at the lines of good and evil in the black and white of matters, and I don’t apologize for that, but there is a difference between understanding social issues and applying strict no-mercy, no allowances rules to our fellow man.
Just witness some of the zero-tolerance fiascos that policy has provided.
Didn’t anyone else ever read Les Miserables? You were all on Inspector Javert’s side, right? And you subscribe to that mode of thinking: right is right and law is law and let’s get to the good part and stone the poor fool. They deserve it!
We have lost our moorings… and the Christian voice is truncated in demanding Righteousness!
Well, how about sowing a little of the real righteousness and throw your cloak over the poor fool, and get them some help…. and how about giving some thought and reason to dividing the issues in such a way that real criminals who work the system and literally get away with murder have some controls and more than virtual punishments…
Just one last thing on this rant… can we remember that it is the hue and cry of the inflamed mob that injustice may most hide under and justice may most be lost? And it is before the quiet, and reasoned Man who wrote the convicting letters in the sand, who brought both true justice and mercy into a volatile situation? Give truth some time and space, and render some mercy in the meantime. Who knows when you will need the same, in one court of justice or another?
I like this post! Was it inspired by what I think it was?
I am puzzled by the blogosphere’s reaction to “THAT issue”. I’m trying to put something together to post on the subject.
Yes, Goldie…*that*
Actually, we’ve been moving that way for years, and the blogoshpere is just reflecting it.
Excellent post, well thought out and stated.
Thanks FTS. It has been roiling around within for a little while and the time was right to say something.
I started to leave a comment, but decided to blog intstead. Thought you might want to know.
blog is good….
Great blog, and a great post 🙂
Yes. Very very well stated. If we want mercy we must show mercy, and if we don’t think we need mercy then we are so stupid that we are in dire need of it.
Thanks for the upbraiding, er, reminder, Ilona! ;~)
Schadenfreude ruled the past few days. God’s mercy upon us all!
I appreciate the kindness, Sven, MoM, and Bonnie 🙂
I do worry about the push to be so hard nosed… and “Schadenfreude”, indeed.
( I am sort of scold, aren’t I?)
grrrrwl!
Great post, Ilona. I had written something somewhat along these lines yesterday, but not nearly as eloquently as you did. Well done.
Theo-it’s been awhile… I will need to read your post!
It seems that some of these concerns are shared by many of us. I attribute it to the rising tide of militancy in our society.
Perhaps I can write on this when I get back…. I would hate to see Christians, esp, , caught up in the swing to a more militant stance in political demands. It happened with the worldly “Peace and Love” movement of the sixties. Perhaps we are seeing something of a redux.