tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post3790802967631163174..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Permitted, Not Encouraged?Assistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1178517761929794902008-06-19T05:52:00.000-04:002008-06-19T05:52:00.000-04:00Hi Chris - just came back from a long trip, but yo...Hi Chris - just came back from a long trip, but yours is a great point. Much has been made of the Irish propensity, for ex., toward political discourse and their "gift of gab". But that gift, though most useful in the art of persuasion, unto itself does not guarantee an effective or even ethical politician - rather such gifts must be placed in check by higher ends, with the person realizing that it comes with responsibilities in ensuring it's used for the greater good (such it is with the broader term of having charisma, as is attributed to the likes of Adolph and Castro, both evil-doers par excellence). Cheers, TomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-54675414018711046262008-06-13T00:14:00.000-04:002008-06-13T00:14:00.000-04:00David, I commented (well, mostly linked) on that t...David, I commented (well, mostly linked) on that topic last November.<BR/><A HREF="URL" REL="nofollow" TITLE="clergy, law, and economics">http://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2007/11/clergy-law-and-economics.html</A><BR/><BR/>And you can always quote Lewis here.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-64805540827744697062008-06-12T20:02:00.000-04:002008-06-12T20:02:00.000-04:00C S Lewis said that if you want to feed the hungry...C S Lewis said that if you want to feed the hungry, you don't need a Christian, you need a cook. To which I would add, if a Christian (or other religiously-inspired person) takes up cooking in order to feed the hungry, he'd better learn enough about cooking to avoid poisoning them.<BR/><BR/>The same applies to all political issues. People who feel morally impelled to get involved in them should learn enough to give their activities a reasonable chance of doing more good than harm.David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-64919940809025921642008-06-12T11:50:00.000-04:002008-06-12T11:50:00.000-04:00As tomg said, with so many things of God, there is...As tomg said, with so many things of God, there is a natural tension inherent in His principles. Perhaps this is tied up in the principle of gifts, that some are gifted with involvement in political or social issues. I would suspect that said gift would need to be tempered with much prayer, and an exceeding openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, because the pitfalls of becoming absorbed in secular causes are manifold and painfully obvious.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03889681055577032812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-11197197851598035272008-06-12T05:57:00.000-04:002008-06-12T05:57:00.000-04:00AVI, this is the type of write-ups that keep me co...AVI, this is the type of write-ups that keep me coming back to your blog, so very insightful and full of probing questions of all that ultimately matters. On another site they were maintaining the POV of the necessity of keeping God out of what ought to be a secular-based (presumably unbiased and all-inclusive) politics to our democratic electoral process. I contend that there's no real way to do that - that one's religious and political convictions are most often intertwined. Perhaps with further speculation they would admit that what they really uphold is that a prerequistie to being a viable candidate is the ability to compromise for the sake of furthering a political agenda that involves people from many other walks of life - where there's no room for zealotry, that's all. To the contrary, many Christian thinkers have spoken about how political involvement corrupts the soul. Saint Augustine defined a dichotomous existence between the City of God and the City of Man, and Reinhold Niebuhr (in his Moral Man & Immoral Society) and Jacques Ellul (in his The Technological Society) talk of the less than noble ends of public policies and the deficiencies inherent to the impersonalized bureaucracies they engender. So on one side are the Christians warning to avoid politics in this world, and then there's the other extreme like the Latin American Jesuits and Maryknolls who stay vigilant in their dedication to actively struggle against what they deem to be the sources of human oppression. Yours here is the most crucial question to every human really, whether they're aware or not - how ought she/he to live? And if there's a God, what does He expect of me? And how does one ever know that she's/he's receiving "specific direction from the Holy Spirit"? How easy it is to delude oneself and/or trick others (like some televangelists that speak of their actual conversations with Jesus ... "as if!" as the youngsters say today). Enjoyed this immensely, and will be looking up more on the likes of Wilberforce, thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com