Don't you love it when you read something that you have never thought about before. Something that never even crossed your mind before, but makes absolute sense the first time you read it, and you wonder why it has never crossed your mind before?? That's just what reading Fern Seed and Elephants (by C.S. Lewis) is like for me. I don't know why I never read it before. It's a small book of essays, but with a lot to chew on.
Here's a couple excerpts from the essay on membership...
"I believe in political equality. But there are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commnwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows.
That I believe to be the true ground of democracy. I do not believe God created an eglitarian world. I believe the authority of a parent over a child, husband over wife, learned over simple, to have been as much a part of the original plan as the authority of man over beast.
I believe that if we had not fallen Filmer would be right, and partiarchal monarchy would be the sole lawful government. But since we have learned sin, we have found, as Lord Acton says, that 'all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' The only remedy has been to take away the powers and substitute a legal fiction of equality. The authority of father and husband has been rightly abolished on the legal plane, not because this authority is in itself bad (on the contrary, it is, I hold, divine in origin) but because fathers and husbands are bad. Theocracy has been rightly abolished not because it is bad that learned priests should govern ignorant layman, but because priests are wicked men like the rest of us. Even the authority of man over beast has had to be interfered with because it is constantly abused.
Equality is for me in the same position as clothes. It is a result of the Fall and the remedy for it.....
It is idle to say that men are of equal value. If value is taken in a worldly sense - if we mean that all men are equally useful or beautiful or good or entertaining - then it is nonsense. If it means that all are of equal value as immoral souls then I think it conceals a dangerous error. The infinite value of each human soul is not a Christian doctrine. God did not die for man because of some value He perceived in him. The value of each human soul considered simply in itself, out of relation to God, is zero. As Paul himself writes, to have died for valuable men would not have been divine, but merely heroic; but God died for sinners. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is Love. It may be that He loves all equally - he certainly loved all to death - and I am not certain what the expression means. If there is equality it is in His love, not in us.
Equality is a quantative term and therefore love often knows nothing of it....
As democracy becomes more complete in the outer world and opportunities for reverence are successively removed, the refreshment, the cleansing, and invigorating returns to inequality, which the Church offers us become more and more necessary."
Maybe this is why we struggle to really know God.. to trust Him. we are so bound by the ideals of democracy that we haven't learnt reverence. Because we lack reverence we bring God down to our level... and how can someone on my plane work miracles?? I don't trust God because I don't know Him. to know Him I must search out the truth about Him and seperate that from the god I know who is covered by the culture that I know and am a part of.
No comments:
Post a Comment