All life is sacred. Human life is especially so. Sacred means worthy of veneration and respect. By designating something as sacred, the Lord signals that it is of higher value and priority than others things. Sacred things are to be treated with more care, given greater deference, and regarded with deeper reverence. Sacred ranks high in the hierarchy of Heavenly values. God sends light and knowledge from Heaven and he invites us to receive and treat it as sacred. “Protecting human life is of utmost importance to God. He takes this so seriously and personally because he made humanity reflect him. We are his Earthly representatives, made in his image. To murder another person is to mount an attack on the One who created him or her,” reports Genesis 9.8-10. Moral reciprocity—doing to others as one would have them do to oneself and giving an equal return for benefits received—is closely linked to impartiality, for to be impartial between oneself and someone else would mean doing nothing to profit at his or her expense. We believe in being honest, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all people. Traits of virtue, broadly practiced, can loosen and derail Satan’s firm and insidious grip on the hearts, minds, and spirits of mortal humans. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
How does this spoiling of God’s initially good creation come about? Evil has entered into the Universe through the culpable violations of free creatures, angels, and people. Their sin consisted, not in choosing positive evil (for there is no positive evil to choose), but in turning away from the higher good, namely God, to a lower good. For when the will abandons what is above itself, and turns to what is lower, it becomes evil—not because that is evil to which it turns, but because the turning itself is wicked. Natural evils, such as disease, are divinely ordained consequences of the primeval fall of humanity, and thus all traces of evils are directly or indirectly linked to a wicked misuse of creaturely freedom. God is the highest, richest, and most intensely real being, is the supreme good, and everything that he has brought into existence is ipso facto good. For this reason, the corruption which we call evil can never be complete; for if a thing becomes so vitiated in nature that it ceases to exist, the evil which is parasitic upon it must also crease to exist. The Divine Mind is like an infallible calculating machine, surveys all possible combinations and selects the best, to which it then gives existence. We are perfect the way God made us and all here to learn our own nature, which will determine where we spend eternity. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
The sacred cannot be selectively surrendered. As we seek answers from God, we feel the still, small voice whisper to our spirits. These feelings—these impressions—are so natural and so subtle that we may overlook them or attribute them to reason. Those who choose to abandon even one sacred thing will have their minds darkened. There is a generally recognized right to be left alone. An invasion of privacy occurs when someone unjustifiably intrudes on this right. If your privacy has been invaded by intrusion, misappropriation, public disclosure of private facts, or false light, an individual may have suffered physically and emotionally, or otherwise and may wish to bring a civil lawsuit to recover from this harm. The harm to one’s intertest in privacy depends on which form of privacy invasion an individual suffered. If private facts were publicly disclosed, one would be entitled to economic compensation for the harm that came from the disclosure, such as harm to your reputation and standing in the community. Mental or emotional distress that one has suffered from is also recoverable. And, if the invasion caused one to incur any special damages (specific quantifiable damages, such as medical expenses one has incurred) an individual may also recover those. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Daily reflecting upon and recording the impressions that come from God help us recognize our personal encounters with the divine and preserve them for ourselves and our posterity. Confidentiality is a respected part of the medical code of ethics. Doctors understand that people need to feel comfortable talking about private and revealing private information, they need a safe place to talk about anything they would like, without fear of that information leaving the room. They take your privacy very seriously. Laws are also in place to protect your privacy. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) contains a privacy rules that creates national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and personal health information. The right to control other’s access to one’s personal World, whether psychologically or physically can be attained by physical barriers or by communicating boundaries verbally. Privacy is important to not only a person’s psyche, but also the sense of self-worth. No one wants to live in a community where the government and media has violated their privacy and spread around rumors and sensitive information, and every time you meet someone, they feel like that know you, but actually have no idea who you are. They only know things that they have heard about you, which they may take as facts. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Light and knowledge from Heaven is sacred. It is sacred because Heaven is its source. It can be deeply disturbing when you meet people for the first time and they are talking about things you shared in confidential messages, and you know they would have no access to unless they are hacking into your personal messages. Sometimes the media will stoop to levels you cannot believe and work like witches over a cauldron to create a story. In 2013, police arrested six journalists because of phone hacking and suspicion of corruption charges that caused the News of the World newspaper empire to close. The reporters were accused of phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories. Scotland Yard investigators found evidence of a further suspected conspiracy—above and beyond the scope of the original phone hacking probe that led to the paper’s demise. The journalist intercepted viocemails (answering machines messages on a mobile device). The board reach of the scandal became even more evident when Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, announced his resignation. There was ongoing speculation and accusations relating to the Metropolitan Police and with the News International at a senior level and in particular in relation to Mr. Neil Wallis, who was editor of News of the World, until 2009. He was also arrested as part of the scandal. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
The news media swooped down on innocent people like a plague of crows and felt that they were above the law as they violated privacy laws. It was even revealed that Milly Dowler, a teen murdered in 2002, allegedly had her voicemail hacked and messages deleted by a reporter from the newsroom. The owner of the news agencies went on record and apologized. There was also a connection to September 11, 2001, as allegations surfaced that reporters tried to tap the phone of 9/11 victims in search of yet more sensational headlines. “Many, many innocent men, women, and children their private tears bought and sold by News International for commercial gain,” reported Gordon Brown the former British Prime Minister. As a result, the government established a judicial inquiry to look at criminal activity, media ethics, and media ownership. The media is very helpful at being a voice of the community, and getting justice for some people, but they can also be a very dangerous criminal organization and ruin the lives of people by targeting them in an effort to profit from “Breaking News.” No matter which way you turn, you get it right between where the Sun does not shine because so many people are morally adrift in a secular white squall. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Salvation is free. The sacred cannot be selectively surrendered. Money is not the root of all evil, it was new in Biblical days, they did not know much about it. Those who choose to abandon even one sacred thing will have their minds sulked in darkness as if they are in the bowels of the Devil. And unless they repent, the light they have will be taken from them by a theft in the night, allowing Satan to take root in their souls. Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. Studying history is important because it allows us to understand our past, which in turn allows to understand our present. If we want to know how and why our World is the way it is, we have to look to history for answers. History does not repeat itself, people do. If we study the successes and failures of the past, we may, ideally, be able to learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them in the future. Studying history can provide us with insight into our cultures of origin as well as cultures with which we might be less familiar, thereby increasing cross-cultural awareness and understanding. People know good from evil and the law is given to them. God is light, and people that receive the light, and continue in that light grow brighter and bright until the perfect day. May the Lord bless us to ever and always recognize, remember, and hold sacred that which we have received from above. As we do, we will have the power to endure the trials an overcome the challenges of our day. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7