The Demise of Veracity

 What happens if we lose veracity?  Veracity means “conformity to facts and truth”.  Veracity synonyms include words like accuracy, credibility, honesty, and trustworthiness.  What happens if we lose these things?  I suppose what happens is the opposite, when the antonyms take over.  Antonyms of  veracity include words like deceit, dishonesty, falsehood, lying, and inaccuracy.

Nearly all of the Ten Commandments are concerned ultimately with persons.  In each instance, an act is seen as evil, not in abstraction, but in its effect on human beings, who are precious because they are made in God’s image.  Killing, for example, is evil, because it is persons who suffer and die.  Theft is evil because it is taking something that belongs to another person.  Lying is evil because it harms one’s neighbor. 

All these moral laws are simply ways of showing what it means to uphold the dignity and value of human life, including that of others as well as our own.  All of us seek the dignity and value of our own lives, but the moral law says we ought to seek the same for other members of the human family.  The moral laws are detailed applications of what it means to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Unless veracity is part of the foundation of our society and democracy, we labor in vain.

Hodge-podge

 Hodge-podge is a soup or stew.  I like hodge-podge, especially at this time of year.  Leftover ham, with onions, garlic, celery, carrots, beans, and other mixed vegetables has become a favorite. The really neat thing about hodge-podge is that you can put it together with almost anything (and everything) that happens to be in the fridge or the pantry cupboards. 

I suppose that is why the word “hodge-podge” has come to mean “a confused mixture” (rather than a soup or stew) in our modern vocabulary.  Synonyms for hodge-podge include words like:  agglomeration, assortment, grab bag, melange, potpourri, etc.  

This writing is a hodge-podge—an assortment of things that cause annoyance; a mixture of things that rankle in my mind and irk my soul on occasion. And believe you me, there are many!

The first annoyance came in reading a FaceBook post that said:  “God is watching over you, I know because I asked him to.”  This blows my mind.  Does the person mean that God only watches over those for whom he or she asks God to watch over?  Does it mean that “my will, desire, wish” is the only thing that will cause God to watch over another person? Does it mean that God does what I want God to do?  What kind of God is that?  

Another thing that often disturbs me is the prayer:  “God bless me and my family.”  Even “God bless America” irks my soul on occasion.  Why?  Because it eliminates most of God’s children, most of God’s beloved community.  Is God around only to bless America?  Is God only concerned with your concerns (my family)?  What about all the other people, all the other nations of this world?  Do we want only to be blessed ourselves and not ask or seek God’s blessing upon everyone and every nation?

The New Testament is not afraid to use the word “all.”  And we should not be afraid  to use the word in our thought and prayer.  In fact, the New Testament focus is on “all” and not just some.  “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all (men) to myself.”  “…so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”  “God so loved the world…that he gave…”  “I have other sheep, not of this fold.”  Christ “gave himself as a ransom for all.”  

It is impossible to set limits to the grace of God—and yet we try to do so. Let’s stop doing it.  

Basking In the Joy of the Joys

It seems like only yesterday that I wrote:  “I’m basking in the “joy” of the Joys this morning.  Liam and Katherine Maria Joy of England (via FaceTime) shared that joy with us yesterday.  They are expecting their first child in November.  This anticipated joy of the Joys will be our third great grandchild.

Katherine Maria (aka Katie, and for me, her grandad, aka “Katydid”) is the daughter of our Rachel.  Katie is our oldest granddaughter.  We have only two, Katie and Eleni, and both, as the song goes, “light up my life.”  Matthew, Austin, Nick and Ethan, our grandsons, light up my life, too.  Our first two great granddaughters, Addison and Delaney, daughters of Rachel’s son Matthew and his wife, Emily, only add to the brilliance of that light, as will the joy of the Joys.”

I wrote the above in 2019. Elodie—the joy of the Joys—is now two years old.  We’ve only met via FaceTime.  COVID has prevented travel across the pond and  a face-to-face meeting. Yesterday, Katie called to share once again a joy of the Joys.  They are expecting their second child (my fourth great grandchild) in late July.  The joy of the Joys gives me great joy!

Elton Trueblood Speaks To Our Predicament

 

D. Elton Trueblood wrote a little book in 1944 titled “The Predicament of Modern Man.”  Reinhold Niebuhr said the book was “An able and profound analysis of the spiritual situation of our time.”   That “time” was 1944—we are now in the year 2022—and the “predicament” remains.

I was struck this morning by this passage from Trueblood's book:

“Just as some declare their faith in science without inquiring sufficiently into the structure that makes science possible, others assert that their faith is in democracy.  But a democratic way of life can by no means stand alone.  Its success or failure depends, not primarily on political issues, but on the unargued principles and premises that the citizens of a democracy already espouse.  Ultimately it depends on the faith of the people, and this fact is demonstrated by the failure of the most modern democratic societies when the supporting faith is weak or non-existent.

Democracy does not succeed by creating a system of counting votes.  It depends far more on whether we retain the essential dignity of man (human beings).  Can man, the individual, respect himself and his neighbors?  If he cannot, the most elaborate system will break down.  Lacking respect for himself and failing to trust others, he is easily appealed to by a demagogue who asks the citizens to trust him and him alone.  Loss of the sense of human dignity thus leads to (Caesarism) Authoritarianism.”

Democracy has “for its inner soul or substance a special and peculiar cluster of ideas,” said W.T. Stace in “The Destiny of Western Man”.  “I call them a cluster because they cling together.  They imply one another.  The chief members of this cluster are the ideas of (1) the infinite value of the individual; (2) the equality of all people…; (3) individualism; (4) liberty”.