“Our capacity to love determines merit”
Who determines merit, and where does it end? Where one is from does not determine his/her worth (merit). What happens when the script is flipped, and some man determines that the ways in which the potter shaped your clay, be it: physical, mental, affluential, or otherwise, is of lesser merit?
EXCLUDED
dark skin
kinky hair
Spanish speaking
handicapped
elderly
mentally impaired
short men
fat women
factory workers (we can use robots)
hillbillies, hoodrats, rednecks, wetbacks (and the descendants thereof)
(you get where I’m going with this . . . )
At some point, divisiveness, evolved into bigotry, being rooted in insecurity, finds a way to exclude everyone and everything that is in any way, different, from one’s self. If the criteria, is now, for example: blonde hair; blue eyes; aristocracy; education and geographical descension; what will be your saving grace when it becomes a matter of: natural blonde only (no comb-overs allowed); blue eye depth; descension from a particular street (in Norway of course); the best school (not the top ten); the richest only (not among the richest)?
WHERE DOES IT END?
(bigotry is an ever-evolving cancer, which, unless cut out, cannot end until everything is eaten away.)
There’s a reason why God did not set us to judge one another: We are, altogether unworthy, for even our so-called righteousness is but, “filthy rags” in His sight. God gave us explicit instruction on how we are to engage one another:
LOVE ONE ANOTHER. FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER. FORBEAR ONE ANOTHER
(we are, indeed, our brother’s keepers)
Nowhere, in this mandate, are we instructed to exclude others based on race, creed, color, heritage, education, national origin, and definitely not wealth, for are not the poor among us “THE LEAST OF THESE?” The determination of one’s merit, based on their bank account or their (perceived) potential to profit is, in fact, the mindset of money over GOD (compassion + human decency=LOVE). In such a mindset, have ye chosen your god. God has given to each of us, individually, the grace of CHOICE; leaders, however (whether church, government, etc.), are called to greater integrity, because your choices, subject those, over whom you rule, to the consequences thereof. Thousand-dollar bonuses, stock market and economic growth are good, but such must not come at the expense of compassion for our fellow man. We must not exalt ourselves in such gains, for our glorying is not good: For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? We, the people, must stand against racism, sexism, or tyranny of any kind.
“He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.”
(fear, meaning respect and honor of sovereign of deity)
While we are not to judge one another, we are to use righteous judgement, in discerning between those who are at risk; and those who pose a risk to humanity. Is it a risk, to humanity, that we share our goods with “the least of these,” or is the risk in allowing the divisiveness, of the likes of a, merit-based, Hitler regime, to take root? He who is of such a mind is a leper among men, and the mindset of such, is a terminal cancer on society.
MAN CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON
John 13:15 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my people, if ye have LOVE one to another.
Commentary: National origin does not determine one’s merit; it is an ideology, often exploited, to camouflage another’s hatred.
Who determines merit, and where does it end? Where one is from does not determine his/her worth (merit). What happens when the script is flipped, and some man determines that the ways in which the potter shaped your clay, be it: physical, mental, affluential, or otherwise, is of lesser merit?
EXCLUDED
dark skin
kinky hair
Spanish speaking
handicapped
elderly
mentally impaired
short men
fat women
factory workers (we can use robots)
hillbillies, hoodrats, rednecks, wetbacks (and the descendants thereof)
(you get where I’m going with this . . . )
At some point, divisiveness, evolved into bigotry, being rooted in insecurity, finds a way to exclude everyone and everything that is in any way, different, from one’s self. If the criteria, is now, for example: blonde hair; blue eyes; aristocracy; education and geographical descension; what will be your saving grace when it becomes a matter of: natural blonde only (no comb-overs allowed); blue eye depth; descension from a particular street (in Norway of course); the best school (not the top ten); the richest only (not among the richest)?
WHERE DOES IT END?
(bigotry is an ever-evolving cancer, which, unless cut out, cannot end until everything is eaten away.)
There’s a reason why God did not set us to judge one another: We are, altogether unworthy, for even our so-called righteousness is but, “filthy rags” in His sight. God gave us explicit instruction on how we are to engage one another:
LOVE ONE ANOTHER. FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER. FORBEAR ONE ANOTHER
(we are, indeed, our brother’s keepers)
Nowhere, in this mandate, are we instructed to exclude others based on race, creed, color, heritage, education, national origin, and definitely not wealth, for are not the poor among us “THE LEAST OF THESE?” The determination of one’s merit, based on their bank account or their (perceived) potential to profit is, in fact, the mindset of money over GOD (compassion + human decency=LOVE). In such a mindset, have ye chosen your god. God has given to each of us, individually, the grace of CHOICE; leaders, however (whether church, government, etc.), are called to greater integrity, because your choices, subject those, over whom you rule, to the consequences thereof. Thousand-dollar bonuses, stock market and economic growth are good, but such must not come at the expense of compassion for our fellow man. We must not exalt ourselves in such gains, for our glorying is not good: For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? We, the people, must stand against racism, sexism, or tyranny of any kind.
“He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.”
(fear, meaning respect and honor of sovereign of deity)
While we are not to judge one another, we are to use righteous judgement, in discerning between those who are at risk; and those who pose a risk to humanity. Is it a risk, to humanity, that we share our goods with “the least of these,” or is the risk in allowing the divisiveness, of the likes of a, merit-based, Hitler regime, to take root? He who is of such a mind is a leper among men, and the mindset of such, is a terminal cancer on society.
MAN CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON
John 13:15 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my people, if ye have LOVE one to another.
Commentary: National origin does not determine one’s merit; it is an ideology, often exploited, to camouflage another’s hatred.
