Wealth and Peace is not Success [Luke 16]

We are against an enemy that has one goal. One. It is our destruction. If they can confuse us and get us thinking about many things, then it is well. We are against an enemy that is crafty. An enemy that will cheat. Peggy Noonan sees that in US politics, but forgets one thing: the democrats see nothing wrong if 120% of the population votes for them, and cherishes the dead, for they can still vote.

This is a lot to work out. It will probably take more than one election cycle. It’s to the credit of Republicans that they are having these debates. But a party wrestling with these issues is by definition not unified.

The Democrats, for all their small struggles, are. They are disciplined. Their central organizing principle is getting and holding power.

The Republicans this year have more intellectual vitality and engagement. That they are split about ideas, stands, principles is to their credit. They are acting out what politics was meant to be. But that civic virtue is a political liability.

At this point—early, but certain trends are obvious—the Democrats have the advantage. They want one thing. The Republicans want many serious and opposing things. [1]

There is nothing new here. Nothing new. Which is why one of the more puzzling parables exists. For in this the manager cheats his employer, and gets commended: for the employer notes he was shrewd. He keeps his job by cheating.

He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

(Luke 16:1-13 ESV)

The parables that Christ gave us are not nice. They are more real than nice. This happens. It is unfair. And although there may be laws, they will probably not be enforced in our favour. Indeed, we can expect the anti discrimination laws to be weaponized against us.

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A complaint that the Catholic Church has offended and humiliated gay, lesbian and transgender Australians by distributing a ­booklet supporting traditional marriage is looming as a test case for freedom of speech and religion ahead of the national same-sex marriage plebiscite.

The Archbishop of Hobart, ­Julian Porteus, is preparing to fight the complaint to Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commission on the grounds of religious freedom.

“I am prepared to vigorously defend any complaint against me that Tasmania’s Office of the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner may proceed with,” Archbishop Porteus told The Australian yesterday.

“I am aware that there are some in society who would seek to ­silence the church on this issue and indeed prevent Christians ­expressing their beliefs in the ­public square on important social issues. Increasingly, they are trying to manipulate anti-discrimination legislation to achieve this end.”

Malcolm Turnbull has recommitted to the Coalition policy of holding a national vote on same-sex marriage after the election.

The commission is considering a complaint lodged this week by Hobart transgender activist and Greens’ candidate Martine Delaney that Archbishop Porteus and the Catholic Bishops Conference breached the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act by circulating a booklet to the parents of Catholic school students called “Don’t Mess with Marriage”.

Ms Delaney, who has changed from male to female and lives in a same-sex relationship with a woman, said she felt humiliated by the marriage booklet.

She said the booklet, which claims to advise all Australians of the church’s reasons for opposing same-sex marriage, paid lip service to respecting same-sex-attracted Australians, but actually sent out negative messages about them.

In a statement after lodging her complaint, Ms Delaney said her view was that the booklet said “same-sex partners don’t deserve equal recognition, same-sex-­attracted people are not ‘whole’ people and the children of same-sex partners are not ‘healthy’.”

“By spreading this message, the church does immeasurable harm to the wellbeing of same-sex couples and their families across Tasmania and the nation — ­particularly those who are students, teachers or parents within the Catholic education system,” she said.

Well, I know who I’d support here, and who I would have a beer with: the Bishop[2]. Greens do not ever get beer, they are too priggish, demand it to be gluten free, criticize my semi paleo diet as cruel, demand I regulate my speech, and refuse to repent of their perversions. They assume they judge, when I am more like a fellow alcoholic telling his mate not to head for the whiskey.

But they do know how to use the courts. They know where the courts are full of Petunias and fellow travelers. They will be shrewd, they will point, shriek, demand apologies, and want their show trial.

So we need to account the praise of this society, and wealth, and success as suspect. Those who are praised in this society are at risk, great risk, of that fatal compromise that leads to the pit. For money equates to wealth, and time, and is counted not merely in coin. It is a trap, for it is an easy way to measure success.

The real measure is the consequences of our lives on other people. The real measure is the fruit of our life. And that we cannot judge: but God can. Mistrust the proxy measures. Become single minded. To Christ.

For the world has but but one goal, and that is to follow Lucifer in his sin, and covet power, as a proxy for the divine.
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1. The link is to a comment I made at Vox Populi. The following comment has the link to the Wall St Journal. The WSJ tells me that I cannot read the text I want: they don’t get the link.
2. The Bishop would consider me a heretic. I consider his church has fundamental errors. However in this time the reformed have to back the papists: the Orangemen will fight with the Republicans: for it is our nation and our faith at stake, and that is shared.