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I am Not a Politician and My Other Habits are Good for in the Evening of Life, One Shall be Examined on Love!
It is a lonesome walk to the sidelines, especially when thousands of people are cheering your replacement. Humans are not and cannot be justified by anything of their own doing; they are not, and cannot be, separated from God by their sinful actions: sinful or not in their behaviour, humans are estranged from God. What stand in the way of the divine if not one’s bad deed only; it is one’s very existence. The self, as such, is sinful before any act; it is separated from God, unwilling to love Him. When you come to God forget your Christian morals, your achievements and your failures. Nothing is demanded of you—no idea of God, and no goodness in yourselves, not your being religious, not your being Christian, not your being wise and not your being moral. Immoralists take the opposite of the law, calling evil good and good evil. The New Being manifested in Christ is above morality and immorality. It demands nothing but your being open and willing to accept what is given to you, the New Being, the love and justice and truth, as it is manifest in Him whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. The mortality of the Christ does not mean that we can be saved by good actions or damned by evil actions; it means that there is a creative and saving possibility implied in every situation, which cannot be destroyed by any event. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Deep under the estrangement from God which is our existence and which our life manifests, there lies a unity, a unity with the ground being, with the power to be. The ethics of the New Being consists in letting the power to be inform all our actions. The forgiveness of sins of the Gospels is a symbol of this victory of the ground of being over existence; it conveys the certainty that we reach eternal life in spite of suffering and sin. Christian revelation does not give a new law and a new set of commands; it gives a new spirit, in which any law may be accepted as a norm of behaviour because it is already transcended in spirit. Can the problem of conscience be answered at all in terms of moral conscience? Being able to become deeply involved in one’s personhood, one’s very self, might lead to the reconstruction of the person—the person’s outlook, attitudes, values, behaviour. This would be a true reconstruction of experience; it would be a learning in a real sense. In those moments of unearthing the New Being are moments when you see a human soul revealed before you, in all its breathless wonder; and then a silence, almost like reverence, overtakes the environment. And each individual becomes enveloped with a warmth and a loveliness that borders on the mystic. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
The Bible presents human’s experience in relation to God as being above all, ethical existence. The ethics of the Old Testament is in a constant tension between the law and prophecy, between fear and love. In the New Testament, Jesus reinterprets the law, shows its radical implications, and sums it up n the commandments of love. In the person, this might be characterized by a healthy change, an increase in one’s flexibility, one’s openness, one’s willingness to listen. In the process, we all feel elevated, freer, more accepting of ourselves and others, more open to new ideas, trying hard to understand and accept. Once you become close to a person, perceive one’s thoughts, one’s emotions, one’s feelings, one becomes not only understandable but good and desirable. Every generation in every nation, including the selected one, the decision against righteousness means self-destruction. We must acknowledge with ultimate seriousness that all righteousness is from God and not from humans. To choose the righteous that is from God is to choose the Christ. To prefer a righteousness that would be from humans is to decide against Christ. What is decisive is only whether one acts for the law of love, for which Christ stands. Acting according to it means being received in the unity of fulfilment. Acting against it means being excluded from fulfilment and being cast into the despair of non-being. This is biblical ethics. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
If we view education, however, as the reconstruction of experience, does not this presume that the individual must do one’s own reconstruction? One must do it oneself, through the reorganization of one’s deepest self, one’s values, one’s attitudes, one’s very person. What better method is there to engross the individual; to being one, one’s ideas, one’s feelings into communication with others; to break down the barriers that create isolation in a World where for one’s own mental safety and health, humans have to learn to be part of humankind? From this standpoint, biblical ethics means being presented with an ultimate choice and making with courage an ultimate decision. In every such choice the fight of light with chaos of Christ with estrangement, is fought anew. And in every choice of absolute love the victory of the New Being over estrangement and existence triumphs again. Obviously, this has little do to with the middle-class ethics of avoiding a few things which are supposed to be wrong, and doing a few things which are supposed to be right. There exists a Universal transmoral conscious called the emotional-esthetic, the abstract-formalistic, and the rational-idealistic interpretations of conscience. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
The first rests on the principle of Universal harmony which humans discover through one’s conscience, and with which one should harmonize one’s actions. A conscience may be called “transmoral” which judges, not in obedience to a moral law, but according to the participation in a reality which transcend the sphere of moral commands. It is a new concept of conscience from the experience of justification through faith. Justification through faith is an ultimate experience which throws new light on all things, including the commands of morality. Justification implies that it is not because of our moral perfection but in spite of our moral imperfection that we are fighting and triumphing on the side of God. We are justified in our estrangement and sin. In the experience of sin we are graciously justified. Participation in the New Being is the other side of the experience of estrangement. It is the depth of estrangement, the depth of estrangement, the abyss and the ground under existence. Human’s actions, whether good or bad, reveal, in the ecstatic experience of the New Being in the Christ, an ultimate ground: the saving grace of the courage to be, the universal redeeming power of being-itself. The ethical question is not, to do or not to do; it is, to be nor not to be, to accept or to reject being-itself. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
Any view of the politics of human relationships must rest basically upon the conception of the human organism and what makes it “tick”—the nature and motivation of that organism. Here in this palmlike seaweed of society is the tenacity of life, the forward thrust of life, the ability to push into an incredibly hostile environment and not only for the soul to hold its own but to adapt, develop, become itself. We can even attempt some biochemical explanations of phototropism. We can say that the human soul grows where it does because there is an ecological niche that is fills, and that is this soul had not developed to fill this niche, the process of evolution would have favoured some other organism that would gradually have developed much these same characteristics. Yet it is very valuable as a part of the continuing differentiation, the finer description, the more accurate picture of functional relationship, which our curiosity demands, and which gives us at least a deeper respect for and understanding of the complexities of life. The transmoral conscience is not without content. It is rooted in the power to be. It is enlightened by the historical manifestation of the power to be. It is enlightened by the historical manifestation of the power to be under the conditions of existence in Jesus the Christ. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
On the strength of this, the transmoral conscience dominates all law and all mortality. It determines a situation instead of being determined by it. If it is not, in this sense, moral, neither is it amoral or immortal. For its very definite content is immovable, being no other than the ultimate rock of life, justification of the sinner: The good, transmoral conscience consists in the acceptance of the bad, moral conscience, which is unavoidable wherever decisions are made and act performed. This is to say, as soon as humans act ethically, one develops a moral conscience, a system of good and evil, categories of good deeds and misdeeds. It matters little where the contents of this moral conscience come from. They may derive from religion or from society; they may be biblical commands, primitive taboos, bourgeois prejudices, or superstitions. What matter is that the moral conscience, judging itself in the light of the New Being, perceives its incapacity to do justice to being-itself even in its fulfilment of an accepted system of ethics. Then, it is impossible not to transcend the moral conscience because it is impossible to unite a sensitive and a good conscience. The content of the transmoral conscience consists therefore in accepting both the dictates of the moral conscience and also the guilt that unavoidably accompanies ethical actions, in the knowledge that even morality does not justify. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
The moral conscience derives beyond the sphere in which it is valid to the sphere from which it must receive its conditional validity. The moral conscience receives its validity from the ecstatic perception of its incapacity: when this takes place, the transmoral conscience is born. It is the ethical analogue of faith as the self-transcendence of the intellect. We find that all parts and processes are so ordered so that they guarantee the maintenance, construction, restitution, and reproduction of organic systems. Here, then at the very heart of the mystery of what makes organisms “tick,” is an important foundation stone for our political thinking. The organism is self-controlled. In its normal state it moves toward its own enhancement and toward an independence from external control. What the transmoral conscience brings is neither security nor comfort. The person who is justified does not cease to be a sinner, and there is no comfort in accepting life in a boundary-situation, on the boundary-line that forms a ridge between and above the affirmations and the negations of morality. If we accept the message of the new reality in the Christ, we must understand that this message does not contain an easy answer, and that it does not guarantee spiritual security. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
The transmoral conscience does not prescind from the human situation; on the contrary, it knows that there is no ultimate answer to the ethical questions unless we experience it permanently in the light of our human situation, in which tragedy and hope fight each other without victory. It is the meaning of the Cross that victory is given in death, that resurrection is also crucifixion. The New Being arises out of the wrecked old being. The most impressive fact about the individual human being seems to be that directional tendency toward wholeness, toward actualization of potentialities. Psychotherapy or group experience is not effective when one tries to create in another individual something that is not there, but it is effective when one provides the conditions that make for growth, then this positive directional tendency brings about constructive results. It is much like when a scientist divides a cell One cannot cause the cell to develop in one way or another, one cannot (as yet, at least) shape or control the DNA molecule, but if one focuses one’s skill on providing the conditions that permit the cell to survive and grow, then the tendency for growth and the direction of growth will be evident, and will come from within the organism. Given the opportunity, a living organism tends to fulfill its more complex potentialities rather than settle for simpler satisfactions. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
Then there is no security; there still is sin and guilt, estrangement and frustration. However, there is liberty. For sin and guilt, estrangement and frustration are accepted as revelatory of the ground of all being. Bondage and fear have disappeared; obedience has ceased to be obedience and has become free inclination; ego and super-ego are united. This is the liberty of the children of God, liberty from the law, and because from the law, also from the condemnation to despair. It is very clear that when you receive an absolute minimum of any external stimuli, you open yourself to a flood of inter experiencing that goes far beyond that of everyday living. You most certainly do not lapse into homeostasis, into a passive equilibrium. This only occurs in diseased organisms. When it comes to motivation, the organism is an active initiator and exhibits a directional tendency. Even when its primary needs are satisfied and its homeostatic chores are done, an organism is alive, active, and up to something. We are, in short, dealing with an organism that is always motivated, is always up to something, always seeking. With liberty, holiness is recovered. The holy is human’s apprehension of the divine. When a human commits oneself unreservedly to the New Being, one enters into communion with God. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
So I reaffirm, even more strongly than when I first advanced the notion, my belief that there is one central source of energy in the human organism; that it is a trustworthy function of the whole organism rather than some portion of it; and that it is perhaps best conceptualizes as a tendency toward fulfillment, toward actualization, not only toward the maintenance but also toward the enhancement of the organism. The ethics of the New Bring develops a sensitive rather than “good” conscience. It implies liberation from moral commands as well as from moral prohibitions. Human’s free inclination now determines one’s purposes. The liberty of the children of God creates a new morality in harmony with the New Being, and by so doing unveils the holiness of creation. And the holy is the sphere of the divine, in which the divine radiates. A classic experiment showed that even the human infant eventually does a quite satisfactory job of balancing one’s diet. One may go on a protein “binge,” for a time, or devour too much fat, but soon evens out these errors, showing a wisdom of the body in maintaining and enhancing one’s development. This type of relatively integrated, self-regulating behaviour, directed toward maintenance and fulfillment, seems to be the rule in nature rather than the exception. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
Life flows into ever more diverse forms, correcting in its errors, and moving towards its own enhancement. God’s wrath is not directed against our moral shortcomings, against special acts of disobedience to the divine order. It is directed against the secret of our personality, against what happens in us and to us, unseen by humans, unseen even by ourselves. This, our secret, determines of fate. Love alone can transform itself according to the concrete demands of every individual and social situation without losing its eternity and dignity and unconditional validity. When a person is functioning in an integrated, unified, effective manner, one has the confidence in the directions one unconsciously chooses, and trust one’s experiencing, of which, even if one is fortunate, one has only partial glimpses in one’s awareness. Love alone is able to determine standards of conduct that will respect the changing human situations while safeguarding the divine content of every human action in which humans are ultimately concerned. Love has the power to transform human actions. Love is an absolute law because it is also absolute self-sacrifice. As love it is absolute, eternally related to the ground of being and manifesting this ground in action There is no danger of its swerving from the divine, because it is the divine. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
Love is always love; that is its static and absolute side. The ethics of the New Being is essentially inter-personal. Love is the drive toward the unity of the separated. The love of Jesus as the Christ, which is the manifestation of the divine love—and only this—embraces everything concrete in self and World. In love, the absolute become relational. Humans are totally dominated by the divine ground of love, and totally committed to all other human beings. When love reigns, the ethical problem is solved. The yoke of the law no longer exists. Moral pride has vanished. The sin of religion has come to an end. There are no right decisions which are rooted in love, which by resigning the absolute do not fall into the relative. No decision can be annihilated; no action can be undone. However, love gives meaning even to those decisions and actions which prove to be failures. The failures of love do not lead to resignation but to new decisions beyond absolutism and relativism. No objective law is absolute. What is absolute is this: life, as directed by the transmoral conscience, becomes the expression of unconditional love. Love creates the forms in which it will express its divine ground. These forms may be successful or they may be failures; at any rate they are neither right nor wrong. They are beyond morality, in the realm of love’s creativity. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
Love creates its forms, or it gives a divine content to forms of behaviour borrowed from human culture. If a condition of worth imposed on a child are numerous and significant, then the dissociation can become very great, and the psychological consequences very serious indeed. Individuals are culturally conditioned, rewarded, reinforced, for behaviours that are in fact perversions of the natural directions of the unitary actualizing tendency. If awareness and conscious thought are seen as part of life—not its masters nor its opponent but an illusion of the developing processes within the individual—then our total life can be the unified and unifying experience that seems characteristic in nature. If our magnificent symbolizing capacity can develop as part of and be guided by the tendency toward fulfillment that exists in us both at the conscious and nonconscious levels, then the organic harmony is never lost and becomes a human harmony and human wholeness simply because our species is capable of greater richness of experience than any other. Dissociation occurs when love and esteem are made conditional. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
In such a World God intrudes, gently and in many ways, but especially in the person of Jesus Christ. It is he who stands for love, as no one else has ever done, and pays the price for it. His crucifixion is the all-time high-water mark of love on Earth. “While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly,” reports Romans 5.6. No other source, whether inside or outside of religions, even comes close to what God in Christ shows of love. This is the first “move” of love in the process of redemption. “He first loved us,” reports 1 John 4.19. Therefore, “love is from God,” reports 1 John 4.7. And “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us,” reports 1 John 3.16. All other loves are to be measured by this standard (Acts 17.31). When we receive what is thus clearly given, the revelation of God’s love in Christ, that in turn makes is possible for us to love. Love is awakened in us by him. We feel its call—and to love Jesus himself, and then God. Thus the first great commandment, to love God with all out being, can be fulfilled because of the beauty of God given in Christ. This is the second movement in the return to love: “We love, because He first loved us.” Every conscience, be it right or erroneous, is binding. And conscious is not only an intellectual knowledge of the law. It is also the recipient of God’s moral guidance through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This guidance increases with growth in love. One who is totally committed to love always knows how to behave, even though one may be in the dark as to the letter of the law. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
If we can identify the environmental influences that promote a continuing learning of dissociation, these findings could be put to preventive use. We can prevent the rift from occurring. We can, if we will, use our scientific skills to help us keep the person whole and unified, a creature whose actualizing tendency will be continually forming one in the direction of a richer and more fulfilling relationship to life. The human species is composed of basically trustworthy organisms, trustworthy persons. The actualizing tendency, when operating freely, tends toward an integrated wholeness in which behaviour is guided as much by the experiencings within as by the consciousness that flutters over these experiences. However, what does this mean from the point of view of the political of interpersonal relationships? It leads me to the conclusions that the most trustworthy entity in our uncertain World is an individual who is fully open to the two major sources: the data from internal experiencing, and the data from experiencing of the external World. This person is at the opposite pole from the dissociated individual. Either one was fortunate in not developing the internal rift between the experiencing organism and the conscious self or this rift has been eliminated in helping relationships or by healing life experiences. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
In such an individual, functioning in a unified way, we have the best possible base for wise action. Politically, then, if we are in search of a trustworthy base to operate from, our major aim would be to discover and possibly to increase the number of individuals who are coming closer to being whole persons—who are moving toward a knowledge of, and harmony with, their innermost experience, and who sense with an equal lack of defensiveness, all that data from the persons and objects of their external environment. These persons would constitute an increasing flow of wisdom in action. Their directions would be wiser than the commandments of gods or the directives of governments. They might become the vitalizing stream of a constructive future. The love in question is the love of God, God being understood in the sense of being-itself, not one being among others, but the Supreme Being. Such a love embraces all created beings as concrete expressions of being-itself. It is focused on the Christ as the manifestation of being-itself in the conditions of existence. There is a close kinship between this and the Catholic doctrine of the supremacy of love. Well known is the saying of St. John of the Cross: “In the evening of your life, you shall be examined on love.” #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
Conformity to the moral law will not decide eternal bliss or doom. Rather, the love of God that shall have informed both our obedience to the law and, if possible, our aberrations shall judge us. The soul is entirely guided by the instinctive discoveries of its love of God. The higher one has been raised into the love of God, the more all embracing is the light. What the mind learns through the commandments, love knows by experience. Then the law is transformed. No longer a yoke, it is a delight. Humans no longer obey an exterior, heteronomous authority; rather, one discovers anew the regulations of the law in implications of His love. “And now, my beloved brethren, behold, I declare unto you that except ye shall repent your houses shall be left unto you desolate. Yea, expect ye repent, your women shall have great cause to mourn in the day that they shall give suck; for ye shall attempt to flee and there shall be no place for refuge; yea, and wo unto them which are with child, for they shall be heavy and cannot flee; therefore, they shall be trodden down and shall be left to perish. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
“Yea, wo unto this people who are called the people of Nephi except they shall repent, when they shall see all these signs and wonders which shall be showed unto them; for behold, they have been a chosen people of the Lord; yea, the people of Nephi hath he loved, and also hath he chastened them; yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them. However, behold my brethren, the Lamanites hath he hated because their deeds have been evil continually, and this because of their iniquity of the tradition of their fathers. However, behold, salvation hath come unto them through the preaching of the Nephites; and for this intent hath the Lord prolonged their days. And I would that ye should behold that the more part of them are in the path of their duty, and they do walk circumspectly before God, and they do observe to keep his commandments and his statues and his judgments according to the law of Moses. Yea, I say unto you, that the more part of them are doing this, and they are striving with unwearied diligence that they may bring the remainder of their brethren to the knowledge of the truth; therefore there are many who do add to their numbers daily. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
“And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for yes have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yes, the prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them—therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free. And ye know also that they have buried their weapons of war, and they fear to take them up lest by any means they should sin; yea, ye can see that they fear to sin—for behold they will suffer themselves that they be trodden down and slain by their enemies, and will not lift their swords against them, and this because of their faith in Christ. And now, because of their steadfastness when they do believe in that thing which the do believe, for because of their firmness when they are once enlightened, behold, the Lord shall bless them and prolong their days, notwithstanding their iniquity. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
Yea, even if they should dwindle in unbelief the Lord shall prolong their days, until the time shall come which hath been spoken of by our fathers, and also by the prophet Zenos, and many other prophets, concerning the restoration of our brethren, the Lamanites, again, to the knowledge of truth. Yea, I say unto you, that in the latter times the promises of the Lord have been extended to our brethren, the Lamanites; and notwithstanding the many afflictions which they shall have, and notwithstanding they shall be driven to and fro upon the face of the Earth, and be hunted, and shall be smitten and scattered abroad, having no place for refuge, the Lord shall be merciful unto them. And this is according to the prophecy, that they shall again be brought to the true knowledge, which is the knowledge of their Redeemer, and their great and true shepherd, and be numbered among his sheep. Therefore I say unto you, it shall be better for them than for you except ye repent. For behold, had the mighty words been shown unto them which have been shown unto you, yes, unto them who have dwindled in unbelief because of the traditions of their fathers, ye can see of yourselves that they never would again have dwindled in unbelief. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
“Therefore, saith the Lord: I will not utterly destroy them, but I will cause that in that day of my wisdom they shall return again unto me, saith the Lord. And now behold, saith the Lord, concerning the people of the Nephites: If they will not repent, and observe to do my will, I will utterly destroy them, saith the Lord, because of their unbelief notwithstanding the many mighty works which I have done among them; and as surely as the Lord liveth shall these things be, saith the Lord,” reports Helaman 15.1-17. How wonderful! How marvelous! This house if the gift of those who drew it forth and those who prepared it. How wonderful! How marvelous! This house is the gift of God and the spirits. How wonderful! How marvelous! We give, in return, our thoughts and prayers, our words and deeds. A gift for a gift, with thanks to the architects. How wonderful! How marvelous! We humbly beseech you, O God, Whose nature is purification. Almighty God, unto Whom assists us all, Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom; Almighty God, Who hast promised to hear, you are the model of our lives. When we wake in the morning, we are doing so because of you, taking place in the chain of life. Bless this say, then, that is might be productive and healing both in body and spirit. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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For the First Time in Human History the Opportunity to Evolve Beyond their Enslaved Past Has Been Accepted!
If your thing is paradise, it may be hard to obtain, but worth keeping. I believe that the whole future of human culture depends upon our solving the problem of how to introduce into education processes the essence of the preventive and curative methods to avoid poverty and crime. Education will be preventive in the sense that it will limit and guide the fateful dichotomy which occurs early in life between conscious and preconscious processes on the one hand, and the inaccessible unconscious on the other. It will have to be curative as well, because we cannot expect prevention ever to work perfectly. Consequently we shall always have to build into the concepts and techniques of education certain types of therapeutic experiences, both for groups and for individuals, which will be designed to reintegrate unconscious with conscious and precious processes. Even to attempt this will require that we overcome not only the individual resistances and prejudices to which are floating about in society, but also the entrenched opposition of many existing social, cultural, religious, and educational institutions. This is no small order: and I would hesitate to offer the challenge, if I did not have so deep a conviction that all of our vaunted culture and education, as we have known them in the past, have failed humankind completely. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
Some may feel these views to be unduly pessimistic. Yet I believe that these criticisms of our educational processes are rooted in optimism, and pursue an optimistic ideal. If our purpose in studying our failures is to learn how not to fail in the future, it is not pessimism to face the fact of past failure. It was neither pessimism nor a morbid fascination with death which led medicine to the autopsy table, but rather courage, optimism, spiritual humility, and a determination to avoid the endless repetition of past error. Humankind’s reward is scientific medicine; and we must now face the failure of education with the same combination of humility and determination. Because education has failed humankind in the past, it does not follow that it must necessarily continue to fail, unless we cling obstinately and defensively to methods which have already been tried without success. Yet the tendency to prescribe more of the old medicines is deep in us. For instance, when I read that a new college president declares that what we need in education is a greater emphasis on religion, I confess that my heart feels joy. Much like when someone says we need more humanities. Or when professors call for more of the great books by greater thinkers out of the past, or when a classicist calls for more of the classics, or a mathematician for more mathematics or a chemist for more chemistry. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
When in the face of our general culture failure each cultural specialist cries out for larger doses of one’s own specific remedy, it is not a pretty spectacle, nor a reassuring measure of the maturity of the educators. However, at least they can recognize that the human mind needs more cultivation and are speaking up because we cannot have an education system that is producing people with little wisdom or maturity. It is important to understand that scientists, including psychiatrists, are not immune to these frailties; and that they are equally true for all of those who carry the banners of culture. It is an old story of youthful idealism, of young confidence that the way to the good life is in their hands, then of a gradual disillusionment which usually is masked by a paradoxical defensiveness and a refusal to face the limitations of existing methods, turning instead in their anger against anyone who is honest and sceptical enough to challenge one’s particular road to salvation. All of us want to go on educating as we have in the past, making at most only trivial curricular changes. However, what humankind actually needs is a cultural stride of far grander dimensions. A little more or less general knowledge and more in-depth information. General information does not give power to train and grow. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
General information without knowing how to think, apply it, nor build will create novice who are not able to process information correctly because they have not studied long enough to see how trends and supply shocks may impact the future, and they may not know how to accurately forecast and avert disasters. After having devoted a lifetime to having honestly mastering some erudite discipline, and having thereby become a pew-holder in a towering cathedral with a limited seating capacity, it is indeed understandable to see why one would believe that their technique which they have mastered at such great costs is just enough. We can see why a doctor might say, “Give the patient more of my medicine. More of the same is what he needs. Pour it down his throat. It is just a maintenance dose we are slowly introducing and will increase overtime before we move to something stronger because it will surely get him in remission in the future.” We have to teach people more and give them more art, writing, history, science, theology so they can become more cultured and expand their minds and increase their attention spans and learn to see the truths. Those who represent the World of the mind and of the spirit must acquire the humility which leads doctors and law enforcement to prevent people from lying on the autopsy table. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
What then must education achieve? It must make it possible for human beings to change. That is the necessary goal of education. America is a city on a hill, a holy experiment, whose success would prove that God’s plan for His churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness. This is why militant Protestants work diligently to promote the prosperity of the church. Uniformity of religion must exist in any given society. This conviction rests on the belief tat there is one true religion and that it is the duty of the civil authorities to impose it, forcibly if necessary, in the interest of saving the souls of its citizens. Religion will liberate the savages from their inhumane ways. It is a way to control the sinful, Worldly people. It also allows for authority figures to worship closely with the people and monitor and help them keep their Godly ways through counseling and education. This is a unique moment in human culture. And as we do this, let us stop to remind ourselves that when a patient dies, the doctor does not blame the patient, unless he or she was not following medical orders, otherwise the doctor feels it was his or her fault. However, when humanity fails, people do not blame themselves. They do not turn their pitiless scrutiny on themselves, their beliefs, and their techniques. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
Our culture is supposed to be revered as though it were a creative and moving force in the Divine Kingdom. An education not only gives humans sophistication, tastes, historical perspective, manners, erudite parlor conversation, and knowledge of how to use and control the forces of nature on the human spirit, it teaches you to appreciate life. We see it is the uneducated and students, who have failed humankind, not humankind which has failed us. Science and art and philosophy and religion and learning have succeeded; just as it is medicine which as succeeded when it keeps a patient alive, and prevents them from becoming a corpse. The next goal of education is a progressive freeing of humans—not merely from external tyrannies of nature and of others humans, but from internal enslavement by their own unconscious automatic mechanisms. Therefore, all of education and all of art and culture must contribute to this. It has been long recognized that in spite of technological process, and in spite of art, literature, religion, and scholarly learning, the heart of humans has not changed. This is basically a challenge and a rebuke to the TV News Media culture and its devastating commentary on culture. It is possible to break through the sonic barrier between conscious and unconscious processes, and thereby to bring to humans for the first time in human history the opportunity to evolve beyond their enslaved pass. That is why this thesis can claim for itself a realistic spiritual optimism. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
Just as the battle for political freedom must be won over and over again, so too in every life the battle for internal psychological freedom must be fought and won again and again, if humans are to achieve and retain freedom from the tyranny of their own unconscious processes, the freedom to understand the forces which determine their thoughts, feelings, purposes, goals, and behaviour. This freedom is the fifth and ultimate human freedom; and like every other freedom, it demands eternal vigilance. Without this dedicated to truth and honour, education will sell humanity own the river—back into slavery. And this will continue to be true until we rescue humans from their present oblivion this forgotten human of education. Self-knowledge in depth is not all there is to wisdom, but that is what makes maturity and understanding possible; and what is even more important, it frees us from the tyranny of those rigid compulsive mechanisms which have made impossible our psychological evolution. Without self-knowledge in depth, we can have dreams but not art, we can have the neurotic raw material of literature, but not mature literature. Without it we have no adults, but only aging deviants armed with words, paints, clay, and atomic weapons, none of which they understand. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
It is aging, uneducated deviants which makes a mockery of the illustrious claims of education, or religion, of the arts, and science. Self-knowledge is the Forgotten Human of our entire educational system and indeed of human culture in general. Without self-knowledge it is possible to be erudite, but never wise. My challenge to all of us is to have the humility to face this failure, and the determination to do something effective about it before it is too late. We have to relate to each other as people, trusting each other, and sharing the energy of our lives in meaningful, honest ways. In the milieu of trust and openness we create, I think we all discover more capacities in ourselves and in each other than we had thought possible. This will allow spontaneity, courage, and integrity of the people to emerge. The spirit of self-determination, freedom, and growth (like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) lives on in people like the Sun on a Summer in California with a light of trust, understanding, compassion, and awareness shining on the land of the free and the home of the brave. It is an attitude embodying a respect for the integrity and worth of persons; it is a way of seeing and relating to the World and others. This is the experience of responsible freedom. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
The way to utilize power is when dealing with people, trust the, have no desire to control or manipulate them, and have it be a shared responsibility. We want to foster an environment of mutual trust, openness, sharing, excitement, creative and self-responsible actions. Cooperation will replace competition. Self-discipline takes the place of external discipline. Each person will be able to experience and freely utilize one’s own power. We have all experienced the smarting hurt, the feeling of being blow away, exterminated, by the injustice of the action of oppression. It gives us a tiny view of the destruction of self that has been felt by millions of persons who have been the object of the crushing force of impersonal, arbitrary, blind power. However, the politics of power and control can be devastating, even when exercised by those who are only trying to protect and care for the young. Leadership, creativity, imagination spring up everywhere as individuals resist the encroachment of their rights as persons. There are also tremendous advantages for growth, support, and community in our present relationships. If anyone gets depressed, there are others to give one support. Though so many of us have been through so many changes in the past year—from ecstasy to terror—we have to accept each day as it comes. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
Feel good about your present life-style. Many of us could not imagine ourselves living a closed, possessive, and jealous existence. It is a blessing to have the freedom to be who one is; to explore the many facets of one’s personality with many people without fear of being caught or criticized. It is nice to meet people who are gentle, loving—caring. People want others in their lives who balance them. Others who share their past as well as present life; both the sad and happy times. Thanksgiving Day has always been a warm, beautiful day, a day of happiness among all Americans. It makes people glad to be alive to know that people can be happy, relating freely without jealousy and possessiveness. People can communicate with their loved ones freely, and express loving and joyful feelings. The growth that families are encouraged to experience is continuously infused back into their loved ones, keeping them strong and alive—a process rather than a fixed entity. However, we must also learn to recognize interpersonal abuse and crippling coming from the avoidance of jealousy or the experience of it. In addition to the Angels of faith, hope, charity, wisdom, and loving, are also the Angels of doubt, despair, need, passion, and hate. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
The morbid Angels are part of us all, I believe. However, many of the people in our community come across as pre-Raphaelite saints, there are no characteristics of evil in them. In our environment, jealousy, greed, competitiveness, and anger are equated with being imperfect. To not allow oneself or others the right to both feel and express emotions is to hold the person in an emotional strait jacket. When emotions are allowed to be legitimate and valued part of interaction, difficulties can be dealt with more flexibly and more humanely than when they are suppressed. From my understanding, for many people, along with the intense pain of jealousy, comes a shame at having the feeling at all. People, instead of experiencing and owning their jealousy, often try to find other rationalizations for their pain as a way of making sense of their feelings. I guess they can make sense of their jealousy; it comes from a place deeper in them than “sense” goes. Indeed it has its own sense, and their minds have little understanding of it. Perhaps one learns to be jealous, and in many cultures that seems to be an approved lesson. One can also learn not to be jealous. People just have to understand to what extent do they feel fraudulent in their personal life? #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
One has to know those feelings of jealousy are wrong, so unbelievable, so shameful. What exactly is love? It is will to good or “Bene-volence.” We love something or someone when we promote its good for its own sake. Love’s contrary is malice, and its simple absence is indifference. Its normal accompaniment is delight, but a twisted soul may delight in evil and take no pleasure in good. Love is not the same thing as desire, for I may desire something without even wishing it well, much less willing its good. I might desire a vanilla ice cream cone, for example. However, I do not wish it well; I wish to eat it. This is the difference between lust (mere desire) and love, as between two intimate partners. Desire and love are of course, compatible when desire is ruled by love; but most people today would, unfortunately, not even know the difference between them. Hence, in our World, love constantly falls prey to lust. That is a major part of the deep sickness of contemporary life. By contrast, what characterizes the deepest essence of God is love—that is, will to good. His very creation of the World is an expression of will to good, and it is then to be expected that His World would be found by Him to “very good,” reports Genesis 1.31. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
God’s love and goodwill towards humans is, therefore, not an add on to a nature that is fundamentally careless or even hostile. It is another expression—one of the more important ones, of course—of what He always and in every respect is. It is not hard for God to love, but it is impossible, given His nature, for Him not to love. Our human World as we find it is not like God, though it was intended to be. We have already expanded on this in the past, but must take note of it again here. Love is not natural in our World, though desire or lust certainly is. “The lust of the flesh, the lust f the eyes and the pride of life,” the apostle said, is “all that is in the World,” 1 John 2.16. Pride is defined by desire, not by love. It is, above all, the presumption that my desires should be fulfilled and that it is an injustice, a crying shame, and an injury if they are not. Lust and pride all around us inevitably result in a World of fear. For they bring us into a World of little dictators; and the most likely thing is that each person will be used and abused by others, possibly destroyed, and at least not helped and cared for. Our families, which should be a refuge from such a World, often turn out to be places where victimization is at its worst. “The dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence,” reports Psalm74.20. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
The tender young are initiated into an adult World hardened in evil. Some babies are not even safe from people in their mother’s womb. “And one who turns aside from evil makes oneself a prey,” reports Isaiah 59.15. Injury brings pain and loss, then fear and anger, which mingle with resentment and contempt and settle into postures of coldness and malice, with brutal feelings that drain the body of health and strength and shatter social well-being. “And now it came to pass that Samuel, the Lamanite, did prophesy a great many more things which cannot be written. And behold, he said unto them; Behold, I give unto you’re a sign; for five years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name. And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great light in Heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto humans as if it was day. Therefore, there shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the Sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless that night shall not be darkened; and it shall be night before he is born. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
“And behold, there shall a new star arise, such and one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you. And be this is not all, there shall be many signs and wonders in Heaven. And it shall come to pass that ye shall all be amazed, and wonder, insomuch that ye shall fall to the Earth. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life. And behold, thus hath the Lord commanded me, by his angel, that I should come and tell this thing unto you; yea; he hath commanded that I should prophesy these things unto you; yea, he hath said unto me: Cry unto this people, repent and prepare the ways of the Lord. And now, because I am a Lamanite, and have spoken unto you the words which the Lord hath commanded me, and because it was hard against you, ye are angry with me and do seek to destroy me, and have cast me out from among you. And ye shall hear my words, for this intent have I come up upon the walls of this city, that ye might hear and know of the judgment of God which do await you because of your iniquities, and also that ye might know the conditions of repentance; and also that ye might know of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of Heaven and of Earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and that ye might know of the signs of his coming of the intent that ye might believe on his name. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
“And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them though his merits. And behold, again, another sign I give unto you, yea, a sign of his death. For behold, he surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it benooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby humans may be brought int the presence of the Lord. Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemth all humankind from the first death—that spiritual death; for all humankind, by the Fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual. However, behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemth humankind, yea, even all humankind, and bringeth to pass the condition of repentance, that whosoever repentance the same is not hewn down and cast into the fire; and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness. Therefore repent ye, repent ye, lest by knowing these things and not doing them ye shall suffer yourselves to come under condemnation, and ye are brought down unto this second death. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
“However, behold, as I said unto you concerning another sign, a sign of his death, behold, in that day that he shall suffer death the Sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his light upon the face of this land, even from the time that one shall suffer death, for he space of three days, to the time that he shall rise again from the dead. Yea, at the same time that he shall yield up the ghost there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the Earth shall shake and tremble; and the rocks which are upon the face of this Earth, which are both above the Earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more par of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up; yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole Earth, yea, both above the Earth and beneath. And behold, there shall be great tempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great. And many highways shall be broken up, and many cities shall become desolate. And many graves shall be opened, and shall yield up many of their dead; and many saints shall appear unto many. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
“And behold, thus hath the angel spoken unto me; for he said unto me that there should be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours. And he said unto me that while the thunder and the lightning lasted, and the tempest, that these things should be, and that darkness should cover the face of the whole Earth for three days. And the angel said unto me that many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of humans—and this to the intent that whosoever will believe might be saved, and that whosoever will not believe, a righteous judgment might come upon them; and also if they are condemned thy bring upon themselves their own condemnation. And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto oneself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto oneself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made your freed. He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
“And ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored to you,” reports Helman 14.1-31. Come, Holy God, and please bless this Thanksgiving food that will feed my body, though the actions of which you are daily made manifest in the World. O Lord, open Thou my lips and my mouth shall declare Thy praise. Praised art Thou, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, mighty, revered and exalted God. Thou bestowest lovingkindness and possessest all things. Mindful of the patriarchs’ love for Thee, Thou wilt in Thy love bring a redeemer to their children’s children for the sake of Thy name. O King, Thou Helper, Redeemer and Shield, by Thou praised, O Lord, Shield of Abraham. Thou, O Lord, art mighty forever. Thou callest the dead to immortal life for Thou art mighty in deliverance. This Thanksgiving dinner is the work of many made palpable. Before eating, it is right to acknowledge their labour. We thank all these people and all their protective spirits. I send my prayers to God. Holy Ones, please accept my invitation. Please be honoured by it, by life’s true sacrifice. The food we eat is a gift from you and how grateful we are to have family and a beautiful home and safe Ultimate Driving Machines and a wonderful education. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
Residence One at Mills Station holds 1,932 square feet of single story living. The open concept design includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two car garage. Each home includes a Home Hub located at the front of the home which can be used as a study, playroom or sitting room.
The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters. The great room is spacious and full of natural light with a covered patio! The Owner’s suite is nestled in the rear of the home separate from the secondary bedrooms, providing maximum privacy. Enjoy a spa like experience in the Owner’s bathroom with a large walk in shower, dual vanities, and makeup counter.
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Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Google Mini to help connect everything together! https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/move-in-ready-home-site-77/
Thank you, Holy Ooe: please share my good fortune. I praise you, Holy One: please share my friendship. How wonderful! How marvelous! This home is the gift from the Earth which it grew. #CresleighHomes
This Has Been the Limiting Factor in Our Culture of Doom: Know Thyself—Know Thyself in Depth!
Only the upright heart has its own logic and its reason is free. Many people are proud to be members of a community where there is so much caring and concern for others, a caring that is broader and more sensitive, than most people are capable of. In a group where control is shared by all, where, by means of a preceding facilitative climate (in small groups), every person is empowered, a new type of community becomes possible, an organic kind of flow with individuals living together in an ecologically related fashion. Power and leadership and control flow easily from one person to another as the differing needs arise. The only analogies which come to mind are from nature. The sap rises or falls in the tree when conditions make one direction or the other appropriate. The bud opens when it is ready—not in an effort to beat competition. The cactus shrinks in the drought and glare, swells to bursting after the rain—in each case the action is learning to adapt to the community and serving its own survival. Generally, it is the same thing people do. That is why they remain civil. It makes life easier and it is better to make friends than enemies because someday, we all we need someone. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
And one final analogy which to me fits so many of the persons in our group (in all groups?). The seeds of many plants can lie dormant for years. However, when conditions are right, they sprout and grow and some into full blood. For me, that helps to describe our process of community. When people have a supportive community, it helps them in their greater life. They feel the strength of the people they have supporting them while they are at work or during public speak, even if their group is not among the crowd, and what is happening is greater than anyone can imagine because it gives one such confidence. To their surprise, they will learn to feel they are being heard, and even believed. The feelings of support keep echoing inside, like bells that one suddenly hears at the most unexpected moments, and these continuous waves take up every cell of an individual, transforming one forever. They come as feelings very pure, without words, at the most significant moments. That is why having a supportive community is so important. So everyone can become facilitators of learning, taking themselves into new pathways, learning viscerally, learning intellectually, and in this process learning an independence of thought and being. Each people then becomes an independent leaner. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
No human looks at the World with pristine eyes; one sees it edited, and editorial policy is always forged in the widest field of vision. Lectures provide the opportunity for trying out ideas while they are in process of formation and are thus part of the teacher’s laboratory. The advantage to the listener is that one is not presented wit a finished treatise but is watching a living mind at work and being given an insight into its strategies. When sitting in a lecture, we are witness to a powerful mind’s direct movement in the act of thinking. Deeper and more fundamental then pleasures of the flesh, deeper than the craving for social power, deeper even than the desire for possession, there is a still more generalized and more universal craving in the human make-up. It is the craving for knowledge of right direction—for orientation. Every sentence calls for knowledge of one’s materials and their limitations and an unswerving eye on the effect intended. It is an old problem: how anything of the real can pass the gap between intuition and expression. The passage can be effected only by translation, not from one language into another but from one mode of being into another, from reception into creation. It is more important that a proposition be interesting than it be true. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
The importance of truth is that it adds interest. I have sensed myself as a lecturer: traveller, pilgrim, archeologist of space and time, trying with the help of a parcel here and a fragment there to piece together the largest possible meaning for life and the World. Such mean, though it is intelligible, exceeds the merely rational. Or if one prefers, is the highest category of the rational. Every discipline has its tools, and each such tool has its own inherent errors. The finest microscope produces an image not of facts alone but of facts embedded in a setting of obscuring artifacts which the microscope itself creates. As a result of the failure to consider the sources of error in the human being oneself, wen our academic disciplines assemble together in our great education institutions they reenforce the tacit, fallacious assumption that humans can understand the World the lies outside of oneself without concurrently understanding oneself. Actually, each human is one’s own microscope with one’s own idiosyncrasies, to which one alone can penetrate. Therefore we cannot perceive the outside World without distorting our very perceptions unless we search out individually the sources of error which lie hidden within. This is precisely what every mature discipline des in its own field: yet it is what no discipline does for the broader concept of education as a whole. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
As we view the World around us, and as we look and listen and think and feel and interact with our fellow humans and their works and their history, we view all such external realities through a cloud of distorting projections of our own unconscious problems. It is a scene observed as through the wavering convention currents over a hot fire. This is why it is impossible to reduce scholars who in the true sense of the word are wise humans, if the know nothing about themselves. Without self-knowledge in depth, the master of any field will be a child in human wisdom and culture. Even the seemingly objective data of one’s own field at the same time represent projections of one’s own unresolved problems in dreamlike symbolic disguises: and as long as one knows nothing of one’s own inner nature, one’s apparent knowledge merely disguises one’s spiritual confusion. Humans must know themselves. Skorates always said that. When modern psychiatry adds to this ancient adage is that self-knowledge if it is to be useful and effective must comprise more than superficial self-description. It must include an understanding of unconscious as well as conscious levels of psychological processes. Yet such self-knowledge, which requires the mastery of intricate new tools of psychological exploration, is wholly overlooked throughout the entire scheme of “modern” education, from the kindergarten to the highest level of academic training. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
This deepening of our self-knowledge is in turn intimately dependent on the nature of symbolic thinking. Learning depends upon progressive mastery of the many processes of symbolic thought. Symbols, however, are not all alike. They fall into three groups. There is the realistic form of the symbolic thinking in which we are fully aware of the relationship of the symbols of language to that which they represent. Here the function of the symbol is to communicate the hard core, the bare bones, of thoughts and purposes. Secondly there is the symbol whose relationship to its root is figurative and allegorical. The purpose of the second form of symbolic thinking is to communicate by inference all of the nuances of thought and feeling, all of the collateral references which cluster around the central core of meaning. This is the symbolic language of creative thinking whether in art or science. In technical jargon, the first is called conscious, and the second preconscious. Third, there is the symbolic process in which the relationship between the symbol and what it represents has been buried or distorted, so that the symbol becomes a disguised and disguising representative of unconscious levels of psychological process. Here the function of the symbolic process is not to communicate but to hide. This is the unconscious symbolic process of the dream and of psychological illness. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
Yet all three already operate together, with the consequence that every single thing we ever do or say or think or feel is a composite product of them all. Consequently when a scientist is studying atomic energy or a biological process or the chemical properties of some isotope, when a sociologist studies the structure of government and society, when a historian studies the development of events, or an economist the play of economic forces, when a classicist studies an ancient tongue, or a musicologist the intricacies of musical composition, when a theologian studies theology, each deals with one’s subject on all three levels at once. On the conscious level the deals with them as realities. On the preconscious level one deal with their allegorical and emotional import, direct and indirect. On the conscious level, without realize it, one uses one’s special competence and knowledge as an opportunity to express the unconscious, conflict-laden, and confused levels of one’s own spirit, using the language of one’s specialty as a vehicle for the projection outward of one’s internal struggles. Since this happens without one’s knowledge, it is a process which can take over one’s creative thinking in one’s own field, distorting and perverting it to save one’s unconscious need and purposes. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
The result is a structure of unconscious compromises which may render great intellectual brilliance as futile and as impotent as are any other symptomatic products of the neurotic process. It is for this reason that we can no longer tolerate with complacency that fact that art and science and every other cultural activity are hybrids, born of an unhealthy fusion of that which is finest and that which is sickest in human nature. It is a further consequence that the greater the role played by the unconscious components of symbolic thought, the wider must become the gap between erudition and wisdom. A scholar may be erudite on conscious and preconscious levels, yet so obtuse about the play of unconscious forces in one’s own life, that one cannot tell when one is using realistically and creatively the subject of which one is a master, or when one is using it like the inkblot on a Rorschach card. Education for wisdom must close this gap, by providing insight which penetrated into those areas of human life in which unconscious forces have always hitherto played the preponderant role. This is the challenge which psychoanalytic psychiatry brings to the goals and techniques of education. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
At first thought the suggestion seems simple, a mere extension of the ancient Sokratic admonition to “Know Thyself,” making in read “Know Thyself in Depth.” Yet these two added words, “in depth,” will demand one of the most difficult cultural steps which civilized humans have ever taken: a step which is essential if the human of the future is to be saved from human’s present fate. And what has been that fate? It has been that in spite of a growing knowledge of the World around one one has repeated like an automaton the errors in forms which become increasingly destructive and catastrophic as one becomes more educated. Whether one’s erudition has been in history, art, literature, the sciences, religion, or the total paraphernalia of modern culture, this has been the limiting factor in our Culture of Doom. This automaticity of conduct which is governed predominately by our unconscious psychological mechanisms is dependent directly upon their remaining inaccessible. Therefore, if “self-knowledge in depth” ever becomes the goal of a new concept of education, and if it becomes a part of the equipment which education brings to the cultured human, it will make it possible for a human to attain freedom from one’s ancient slavery to the repetitive psychological processes over which at present one has no control. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
In his Personal Record Joseph Conrad describes himself as a knight in shining armour, mounted on a magnificent horse. The picture was quite flattering until on looking more closely, one noticed that little knaves were running by the head of the horse’s back, or the knaves running by its head. This is the image of the educated man of today. He is a noble figure on a noble charger, magnificently armed. However, the knaves who trot unheeded by the horse’s head, with their hands on the reins, are guiding hat horse far more than is the pretentious figure of culture astride the horse’s back. Life infinity, self-knowledge is an ideal which can be approached but never reached. Therefore like education it is a process which is never finished, a point on a continuous and never-ending journey. It is relative and not absolute. Consequently, the achievement of self-knowledge is a process which goes on throughout life, demanding constant vigilance; and because it requires a continuous struggle, true self-knowledge never becomes an occasion for smug complacency. The person who knows oneself in depth does not look down one’s nose at the rest of the World from a perch on Trump Tower. Rather will one acknowledge with proper humility the impossibility of knowing oneself fully, and the importance of struggling constantly against the lure of insidious, seductive illusions about oneself. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
Nor on the other hand will one be incessantly preoccupied with one’s own conscious and unconscious motivations. Instead the more fully one approaches self-awareness, the more coherent and integrated become the various levels of one’s personality. As a result, self-knowledge brings with it the right to trust one’s impulses and one’s intuitions. One may continue to watch oneself out of the corner of one’s eye with vigilant self-scepticism, but one will give the center of one’s attention to one’s job and to the World around one. Thus, self-knowledge brings freedom and spontaneity to the most creative alliance of the human spirit, the alliance between conscious and preconscious processes: and it brings this spiritual liberation by freeing us from the internal blocking and distortion which occur when conscious and preconscious process are opposed by an irreconcilable unconscious. Thus my vision of the educated human of the future is not an unreal fantasy of individual out of whom all of the salty seasoning of preconscious and unconscious processes will have been dissolved, like a smoked ham which had soaked too long. It is rather of a human whose creative process are relatively freed of the burden of unconscious internal conflict. In turn, however, this does not mean that to become educated a human must be psychoanalyzed. It means rather that new procedures must be introduced into the pattern of education which will make therapeutic analyses necessary only for those in whom the educational process has failed. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
The positive goal of this vital aspect of education is to shrink the dark empire in which unconscious forces have in the past played the preponderant role, and to broaden those areas of life in which conscious and preconscious processes will play the dominant role. It is one thing, however, to describe self-knowledge in depth as the ultimate goal for culture and education. To achieve it is another. I will not presume here to write out a prescription on how this can be done. In dealing with any individual patient we know that without too much difficulty the psychiatrist can trace the interweaving patterns of complex, conscious, preconscious, and unconscious force which have shaped an entire life. Yet many weeks, months, and every years of additional work may be required to communicate the analyst’s insight to the patient oneself. If he communication of insight to a single individual presents such formidable problems, we should not be surprised that the communication of insight to successive generations will require the development of basically new techniques of education, techniques which will have to start in the nursery and continue into old age, techniques which will have to circumvent adroitly the unconscious opposition of the oldsters among us who lack these insight and who feel personally threatened by them. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
Thus a new and critical version of the ancient battle between the generation is surely in the making. Ordinarily we do not think of children and young people from middle-class families as being an oppressed group. However, under certain circumstances they can be exactly that. Sometimes they are manipulated. Their rights are ignored, their voices unheard. And they may be completely powerless—no money, no clout, no part in the real decisions. Freedom, however, is irreversible. Once a person—child or adult—has experienced responsible freedom, one will continue to strive for it. It may be completely suppressed in behaviour by a maximum use of every kind of control including force, but it cannot be eliminated or extinguished. Most of the wealthy people in the community are in precinct one. The other four precincts are not nearly so wealthy. The disparity is huge—that is the picture I am trying to give you. However, the poor people by this community’s standards are not poor by most standards. They are primarily middle-income families. However, the community is schizophrenic. The people who have the political power have the least to do with the community itself. The rich people send their kids to private school. People love to live in a community where the energy is really up; where people are being creative and responsive to each other. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
Bureaucracy in the public schools is so bad that it took ten days to get chocolate milk for the kids who wanted it—even though milk was delivered daily. The milkman kept saying: “We have lots of chocolate milk, but I cannot leave it until I get the order from the people upstairs.” My attitude is, “Do not give me an award, send me money.” “And it came to pass in the eighty and sixth year, the Nephites did still remain in wickedness, while the Lamanites did observe strictly to keep the commandments of God, according to the law of Moses. And it came to pass that in this year there was one Samuel, a Lamanite, came into the land of Zarahemla, and began to preach unto the people. And it came to pass that he did preach, many days, repentance unto the people, and they did cast him out, and he was about to return to his own land. However, behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, that he should return again, and prophesy unto the people whatsoever things should come into his heart. And it came to pass that they would not suffer that he should enter into the city; therefore he should enter into the city; therefore he want and got upon the wall thereof, and stretched forth his hand and cried with a loud voice, and prophesied unto the people whatsoever things the Lord put into his heart. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
“And he said unto them: Behold, I, Samuel, a Lamanite, do speak the words of the Lord which he doth put into my heart; and behold he hat put it into my heart to day unto this people that the sword of justice hangest over this people; and four hundred years pass not away save the sword of justice falleth upon this people. Yea, heavy destruction awaiteth this people, and it surely cometh unto this people, and nothing can save this people, and it surely cometh unto this people, and nothing can save this people save it be repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, who surely shall come into the World, and shall suffer many things and shall be slain for his people. And behold, and angel of the Lord hath declared it unto me, and he did bring glad tidings to my soul. And behold, I was sent unto you to declare it unto you also, that ye might have glad tidings; but behold ye would not receive me. Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Because of the hardness of the hearts of people of the Nephites, except they repent I will take away my word from them, and I will withdraw my Spirit from them, and I will suffer them no longer, and I will turn the hearts of their brethren against them. And four hundred years shall not pass away before I will cause that they shall be smitten; yea, I will visit them with the sword and with famine and with pestilence. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
“Yea, I will visit them in my fierce anger, and there shall be those of the fourth generation who shall live, of your enemies, to behold your utter destruction; and this shall surely come except ye repent, saith the Lord; and those of the fourth generation shall visit your destruction. However, if ye repent and return unto the Lord your God I will turn away mine anger, saith the Lord; yea, thus saith the Lord, blessed are they who will repent and turn unto me, but wo unto one that repenteth not. Yea, wo unto this great city of Zarahemla; for behold, it is because of those who are righteous that it is saved; yea, wo unto this great city, for I perceive, saith the Lord, that there are many, yea, even the more part of this great city, that will harden their hearts against me, saith the Lord. However, blessed are they who will repent, for them will I spare. However, behold, if it were not for the righteous who are in this great city, behold, I would cause that fire should come down out of Heaven and destroy it. However, behold, it is for the righteous’ sake that it is spared. However, behold, the time cometh, saith the Lord, that when ye shall cast out the righteous from among you, then shall ye be ripe for destruction; yea, wo be unto this great city, because of the wickedness and abominations which are in her. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
“Yea, and wo be unto the city of Gideon, for the wickedness and abominations which are in her. Yea, and wo be unto all the cities which are in the land round about, which are possessed by the Nephites, because of the wickedness and abominations which are in them. And behold, a curse shall come upon the land, saith the Lord of Hosts, because of the people’s sake who are upon the land, yea, because of their wickedness and their abominations. And it shall come to pass, saith the Lord of Host, yea, our great and true God, that whoso shall hide up treasures in the Earth shall find them again no more, because of the great curse of the land, save he be a righteous man and shall hide it up unto the Lord. For I will, saith the Lord, that they shall hide up their treasures unto me; and cursed be they who hide not up their treasures unto me; for none hideth up their treasures unto me save it be the righteous; and one that hideth not up one’s treasures unto me, cursed is one, and also the treasure, and none shall redeem it because of the curse of the land. And the day shall come that they hide up their treasures, because they have set their hearts upon riches; and because they have set their hearts upon the riches, and will hide up their treasures when they shall flee before their enemies. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
“Because they will not hide them up unto me, cursed be they and also their treasures; and in that day shall they be smitten, saith the Lord. Behold ye, the people of this great city, and hearken unto my words; yea, hearken unto the words which the Lord saith; for behold, he saith that ye are cursed because of your riches, and also are your riches cursed because ye have set your hearts upon them, and have not hearkened unto the words of one who gave them unto you. Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the thing with which he hath blessed you, but ye do always remember your riches, not to thank the Lord your God for them; yea, your hearts are not drawn out unto the Lord, but they do swell with great pride, unto boasting, and unto great swelling, envyings, strifes, malice, persecutions, and murders, and all manner of iniquities. For this cause hath the Lord God caused that a curse should come upon the land, and also upon your riches, and this because of your iniquities. Yea, wo unto this people, because of this time which has arrived, that ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, and cast stones at them, and do slay them, and do all manner of iniquity unto them, even as they did of old time. And now when ye talk, ye say: if our days had been in the days of our fathers of old we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
“Behold ye are worse then they; for as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with one, and cast one out and seek all manner of ways to destroy one; yea, you will say that one is a false prophet, and that one is a sinner, and of the devil, because one testifieth that your deeds are evil. However, behold, if a human shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, one will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a human shall come among you and say this, ye will receive one, and say that one is a prophet. Yea, ye will lift one up, and ye will give unto one of your substance; ye will give unto one of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe one with costly apparel; and because one speaketh flattering words unto you, and one saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with one. O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light? #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
“Yea, behold, the anger of the Lord is already kindled against you; behold, one hath cursed the land because of your iniquity. And behold, the time cometh that one curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them. And in these days of your poverty ye shall cry unto the Lord; and in vain shall ye cry, for your desolation is already come upon you, and your destruction is made sure; and then shall ye weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts. And then shall ye lament, and say: O that I had repented, and had not killed the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out. Yea, in that day ye shall say: O that we had remembered the Lord our God in the day that he gave us our riches, and then they would have become slippery that we should lose them; for behold, our riches are gone from us. Behold, we lay a tool here and on the morrow it is gone; and behold, our swords are taken from us in the say we have sought them for battle. Yea, we have hid up our treasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land. O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
“Behold, we are surrounded by demons, yea, we are encircled about by the angels of one who hath sought to destroy our souls. Behold, our iniquities are great. O Lord, canst thou not turn away thine anger from us? And this shall be your language in those days. However, behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head. O ye people of the land, that ye would hear my words! And I pray that the anger of the Lord be turned away from you, and that ye would repent and be saved,” reports Helaman 13.1-39. Thus faith in Christ and the initial hope it inspires lead us to stand in the grace (the action) of God, and standing there leads, in turn, to a life full of love. We will want to see how this love relates to joy and peace, as well as to the rest of the fruit of the Spirit. However, the first we need to get a clearer picture of love itself, of its four movement required to complete its work in our life, of how (when completed) it casts out fear (1 John 4.18). Then we shall see the effect of all this on the feeling dimension of our life. #RanolphHarris 21 of 24
Loving people more than your spouse does not decrease the love in the marriage. Here is a suicide note a man left to his wife. “I just want you to know that this is something I am doing totally on my own. It has nothing to do with our chosen life-style. You always have been the best mate/partner/friend and you continue to be even at the moment. Do not let the stresses of society and friends or parents who do not understand what great things we have achieved throughout our relationship wear you down—hang in there. Setting yourself up to be an achiever or someone that everyone perceives as always together is a dangerous proposition. You begin to believe that you are capable of anything. The coming down is very hard. My greatest fear is hurting those around me. I do not want them to think that they, through something which they did, or in some way which they acted, have contributed to where I am at now. My greatest fear is hurting those around me. I do not want them to think that they, through something which they did, or in some way which they acted, have contributed to where I am at now. My greatest concern, of course, is with you. With you I have achieved or shared my highest moments. You have seen me at my best. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
“I want you to remember us in that ways. I love you. Keep tight with your friends, especially Chip. Please reassure my friends, especially Janet that they have not contributed to my state.” The man overdosed on pills and was in the intensive-care unit for seven days. Eight days after he regained consciousness, he slowly began making his recovery, until one month later tests showed that there was fortunately no detectable mental or physical damage. The things that led to his suicide attempt is that he was terribly demanding of himself, and went through a traumatic event. As a graduate student he always had to be the best and the fastest and he set impossible deadlines for himself. Somehow he linked his sense of personal well-being to the achievement of is external goals and became depressed when nothing happened on schedule. When he took is Ph.D. candidacy examination under great emotional stress, his parents were separating, his grandmother was fatally ill, his best friend Chip lost his job, and his favourite pet died. To make matters worse, his exam had to be taken early, leaving him only five days to prepare. He passed it. Emotionally, however, he felt unfinished, as if he had somehow manipulated the committee into passing him. He was filled with guilt. As he looked at his four years of research, it seemed worthless. He wondered if he could ever finish his thesis in that state? Then he became depressed over the fear he might get the degree but no job. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
The state of the World was pretty grim, too, and that only further saddened him. Everything in his environment seemed depressing. Four weeks later his grandmother died. He and his wife went to the funeral and stayed at his parents’ house. Somehow he managed to hide his hopeless depression. Back home, he received notice that he was to present his research at a national meeting. Panic and emotional paralysis ensured. He was in an acute depression. Then he was totally unable to function physically or emotionally. The only escape seemed to be death. He waited until he was alone and took massive overdoses of two drugs. Upon this food, place your blessing, Holy One. Our eating of it is a ritual of praise for all you have done. Praised art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who createst the fruit of the vine. Praised art Thou, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who hast sanctified us through Thy commandments and hast taken delight in us. In love and favour Thou hast given us the holy Sabbath as a heritage, a reminder of Thy work of creation, first of our sacred days recalling our liberation from Egypt. Thou didst choose us from among the peoples and in Thy love and favour didst sanctify us in giving us Thy holy Sabbath as a joyous heritage. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who hallowest the Sabbath. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
Cresleigh Homes
If we lived here, we would simply take extra time to get ready to enjoy this incredible bathroom! So sorry — we may have made this #PlumasRanch ensuite a little TOO luxurious. 😉✨
Residence Four at Cresleigh Meadows is one of the largest homes available in the market! At just under 3,500 square feet we are sure you’ll have enough room for the entire family here! The open concept design includes four bedrooms, three and one half bathrooms and a three car garage.
When entering this expansive home, take note of the two story ceiling height at the entry. There is a bedroom on the first floor, located off the entry, with its own bathroom making it ideal for a guest suite or multigenerational living. The formal dining room provides ample space for entertaining and has convenient access to the kitchen via Butler’s Pantry.
The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters and opens onto the spacious great room. Upstairs you’ll find the Owner’s retreat, two bedrooms, and the loft perfect for a game room or TV lounge. The Owner’s retreat is spacious and inviting with a large bedroom and spa like bathroom featuring a large soaking tub, walk-in shower, dual vanities, and two walk-in closets.
Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we will gift you a Google Home Hub and Go. https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/residence-4/
The Average Human Does Not Even Dare to Ask Oneself Whether the Emperor Wear Clothes!
What passes for a culture in my head is really a bunch of commercials. The intuitive idea of justice as fairness is to think of the first principles of justice as themselves the object of an original agreement in a suitably defined initial situation. These principles are those which rational persons concerned to advance their interests would accept in this position of equality to settle the basic terms of their association. It must be shown, then, that the two principles of justice are the solution for the problem of choice presented by the original position. In order to do this, one must establish that, given the circumstances of the parties, and their knowledge, beliefs, and interest, an agreement on these principles is the best way for each person to secure one’s ends in view of the alternative available. Now obviously no one can obtain everything one wants; the mere existence of other persons prevents this. The absolutely best for any human is that everyone else should join with one in furthering one’s conception of the good whatever it turns out to be. Or failing this, that all others are required to act justly but that one is authorized to exempt oneself as one pleases. Since other persons will never agree to such terms of association these forms of egoism would be rejected. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
The first principle of justice guarantees the right of each person to have the most extensive basic liberty compatible with the liberty of others. The second principle states that social and economic positions are to be to everyone’s advantage and open to all. These two principles of justice seem to be a reasonable proposal. In fact, I should like to show that these principles are everyone’s best reply, so to speak, to the corresponding demands of the others. In this sense, the choice of this conception of justice is the unique solution to the problem set by the original position. By arguing in this way one follows a procedure familiar in social theory. That is, a simplified situation is described in which rational individuals with certain ends and related to each other in certain ways are to choose among various courses of action in view of the knowledge of the circumstances. What these individuals will do is then derived by strictly deductive reasoning from these assumptions about their beliefs and interests, their situation and the options open to them. Their conduct is, in the phrase of Vilfredo Pareto (an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist, and philosopher) the resultant of obstacles. In the theory of price, for example, the equilibrium of competitive markets is thought of as arising when many individuals each advancing one’s own interests gives way to each other what they can best part with in return for what they most desire. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
Equilibrium is the result of agreements freely struck between willing traders. For each person it is the best situation that one can reach by free exchange consistent with the right and freedom of others to further their interests in the same way. It is for this reason that this state of affairs is an equilibrium, one that will persist in the absence of further changes in the circumstances. No one has any incentive to alter it. If a departure from this situation sets in motion tendencies which restore it, the equilibrium is stable. Of course, the fact that a situation is one of equilibrium, even a stable one, does not entail that it is right or just. It only means that given human’s estimate of their position, they act effectively to preserve it. Clearly a balance of hatred and hostility may be a stable equilibrium; each many think that any feasible change will be worse. The best that each can do for oneself may be a condition of lesser injustice rather than of greater good. The moral assessment of equilibrium situations depends upon the background circumstances which determine them. It is at this point that the conception of the original position embodies features peculiar to moral theory. For while the theory of price, say, tries to account for the movements of the market by assumptions about the actual tendencies at work, the philosophically favoured interpretation of the initial situation incorporates conditions which it is thought reasonable to impose on the choice of principles. By contrast with social theory, the aim is to characterize this situation so that the principles that would be chosen, whatever they turn out to be, are acceptable from a moral point of view. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
The original position is defined in such a way that it is a status quo in which any agreements reached are fair. It is a state of affairs in which the parties are equally represented as moral persons and the outcome is not condition by arbitrary contingencies or the relative balance of social forces. Thus justice as fairness is able to use the idea of pure procedural justice from the beginning. It is clear, then, that the original position is a purely hypothetical situation. Nothing resembling it need ever take place, although we can by deliberately following the constraints it expresses simulate the reflections of the parties. The conception of the original position is not intended to explain human conduct except insofar as it tries to account for our moral judgments and helps to explain our having a sense of justice. Justice as fairness is a theory of our moral sentiments as manifested by our considered judgments in reflective equilibrium. These sentiments presumably affect our thought and action to some degree. So while the conception of the original position is part of the theory of conduct, it does not follow at all that there are actual situations that resemble it. What is necessary is that the principles that would be accepted play the requisite part in our moral reasoning and conduct. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
The acceptance of these principles is not conjectured as a psychological law or probability. Ideally anyway, I should like to show that their acknowledgement is the only choice consistent with the full description of the original position. The argument aims eventually to be strictly deductive. To be sure, the persons in the original position have a certain psychology, since various assumptions are made about their beliefs and interests. These assumptions appear along with other premises in the description of this initial situation. However, clearly arguments from such premises can be fully deductive, as theories in politics and economics attest. We should strive for a kind of moral geometry with all the rigor which this name connotes. Unhappily the reasoning I shall give will fall far short of this, since it is highly intuitive throughout. Yet it is essential to have in mind the ideal one would like to achieve. There are many possible interpretations of the initial situation. This conception varies depending upon how the contracting parties are conceived, upon what their beliefs and interests are said to be, upon which alternatives are available to them, and so on. In this sense, there are many different contract theories. Justice as fairness is but one of these. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
However, the question of justification is settled, as far as it can be, by showing that there is one interpretation of the initial situation which best expresses the conditions that are widely thought reasonable to impose on the choice of principles yet which, at the same time, leads to a conception that characterizes our considered judgments in reflective equilibrium. This most favoured, or standard, interpretation I shall refer to as the original position. We may conjecture that for each traditional conception of justice there exists an interpretation of the initial situation in which its principles are the preferred solution. Thus, for example, there are interpretations that lead to the classical as well as the average principle of utility. These variations of the initial situation will be mentioned as we go along. The procedure of contract theories provides, then, a general analytic method for the comparative study of conceptions of justice. One tries to set out the different conditions embodied in the contractual situation in which their principles would be chosen. In this way one formulates the various underlying assumptions on which these conceptions seem to depend. However, if one interpretation is philosophically most favoured, and if its principles characterize our considered judgments, we have a procedure for justification as well. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
We cannot know at first whether such an interpretation exist, but at least we know what to look for. The popular picture of animal aggressiveness has been largely influenced by the concept of territorialism. The general public has been left with the implication that humans are dominated by an instinct for defense of their territory, inherited from one’s animal ancestors. This instinct is supposed to be one of the main sources of animal and human aggressiveness. Analogies are easily drawn, and the facile idea appeals to many that war is caused by the power of this same instinct. The idea, however, is quite erroneous for a number of reasons. In the first place there are many animal species for whom the concept of territoriality does not apply. Territoriality occurs only in higher animals such as the vertebrates and arthropods and even there in a spotty fashion. Still, the so-called territorial defense may be, after all, merely a fancy name for the reaction patterns to strangers, flavoured with anthropomorphism and nineteenth century Darwinism. Further and more systematic experimental explorations are necessary to decide this issue. It seems certain territories are selected mainly on the basis of properties to which the animals react innately. This makes all animals of the same species, or at least of the same population, select the same general type of habit. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
However, the personal binding of a male to its own territory—a particular representative of the species’ breeding habitat—is the result of a learning process. In the description of primates we have seen how often there is an overlap of territory. If the observation of apes teaches us anything, it is that various groups of primates are quite tolerant and flexible with regard to their territory and simply do not offer a picture that would permit the analogy to a society, jealousy guarding its frontiers and forcibly preventing the entry of any “foreigner.” The assumption that territorialism is the basis for human aggressiveness is erroneous for still another reason. Defense of territory has the function of avoiding the serious fighting that would become necessary if the territory were invaded to such an extent as to generate crowding. Actually the threat behaviour in which territorial aggression manifests itself if the instinctively patterned way of upholding spatial equilibrium and peace. The instinctive equipment of the animal has the function that legal arrangements have in humans. Hence the instinct become obsolete when other symbolic ways are available to mark a territory and to warn: no trespassing. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
It is also worth keeping in mind that, as we shall see later, most wars start for the purposes of gaining advantages of various kinds and not in defense against a threat to one’s territory—except in the ideology of the war makers. Equally wrong impressions exist popularly about concept of dominance. In many species, but by no means in all, one finds that the group is organized hierarchically. The strongest male takes precedence in food, pleasures of the flesh, and grooming over other males on lower orders of the hierarchy. (One has more rarely drawn a parallel from this hierarchy to the “instinctive” roots for dictatorship than one has from territorialism to patriotism, although the logic would be the same. The reason for this different treatment lies probably in that it is less popular to construct an instinctive basis for dictatorship than for “patriotism.”) However, dominance, like territorialism, by no means exists in all animals and, again, not regularly in the vertebrates and mammals. With regard to dominance among the nonhuman primates we find a great difference between some of the monkey species like the baboons and macaques, in whom one finds rather well-developed and strict hierarchal systems, and the apes with whom dominance patters are much less strong. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
Of mountain gorillas definite dominance inter-actions were observed 110 times. Dominance was most frequently asserted along narrow trails, when one animal claimed the right of way, or in the choice of sitting place, when the dominant animal supplanted the subordinate one. Gorillas showed their dominance with a minimum of actions. Usually an animal low in the rank order simply moved out of the way at the mere approach or brief stare of a high-ranking one. The most frequently noted gesture involving a bodily contact was a light tap with the back of the hand of a dominant individual against the body of a subordinate one. Although there was some evidence of differences in status between individual chimpanzees, dominance interactions formed a minute fraction of the observed chimpanzee behaviour. There was no evidence of a linear hierarchy of dominance among males or females; there were no observations of exclusive rights to receptive females; and there were no permanent leaders of groups. However, in a study of baboons, circumstantial evidence suggests that hierarchical behaviour is associated with environmental stress of various kinds and under stress it is the lower-ranking animal which first shows physiological symptoms (lower disease resistance, for example). #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
If it is subordinate behaviour that determines rank (rather than dominant behaviour as usually assumed), the stress factor can be seen as directly affecting all animals to difference degrees dependent on their construction, producing physiological and behavioral (submitting behaviour) changes at the same time, the latter in turn giving rise to a hierarchal social organization. The hierarchy appears to be maintained chiefly by subordinates’ behaviour pattern, and by the low—rather than the high-ranking animals. However, in the study of chimpanzees, we express some strong reservations. The view taken here is that dominance and subordination are simply conventional designations for the fact that chimpanzees often stand in the relationship to each other of intimidator and intimidated. Naturally, we would expect the larger, stronger, more boisterous, and more aggressive animals in any group (being intimidating to almost everyone else) to display a kind of generalized dominance status. Presumably this accounts for the fact that in the wild, mature males are generally dominant over adult females, and they, in turn, are dominant over adolescents and juveniles. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
Apart from this observation, however, there is no indication that chimpanzee groups as a whole are organized hierarchically; not is there any convincing evidence of an autonomous drive for social supremacy. Chimpanzees are willful, impulsive, and greedy, certainly a sufficient basis for the development of dominance and subordination, without the participation od specialized social motives and needs. Dominance and subordination can thus be regarded as the natural by-product of social intercourse, and but one facet of the relationship between two individuals. For dominances, as far as it exists, the same comment applies which I have made with regard to territorialism. It functions to give peace and coherence to the group and to prevent friction that could lead to serious fighting. Human substitutes agreements, etiquette, and laws for the missing instinct. Animal dominance has been widely interpreted as a fierce “bossiness” of the leader who enjoys having power over the rest of the group. It is true that among monkeys, for instance, the authority of the leader is often based on the fear one engenders in the other. However, among the apes, as for instance the chimpanzee, it is often not fear of the retaliatory power of the strongest animal, but one’s competence in leading the group which establishes one’s authority. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
As an example of this, mentioned earlier, it was reported about an old chimpanzee who retained his leadership because of his experience and wisdom, in spite of the fact that he was physically weak. He is what the youth refer to as an OG (original gangster), someone who was tough and strong and dominant in his youth and was to be feared, who is now greatly respected because he has a reputation for being someone to admire. Nevertheless, some of these OG’s can still tango with the strongest youth. Whatever the role of dominance in animals is, it seems to be pretty clear that the dominant animal must constantly merit one’s role—that is to say, show one’s greater physical strength, wisdom, energy, or whatever it is that makes one accepted as a leader. A very ingenious experiment with monkeys suggests that is the dominant animal loses one’s distinguishing qualities even momentarily, one’s commanding role ends. In human history, when dominance becomes institutionalized and no longer a function of personal competence as is still the case in many primitive societies, it is not necessary for the leader to be in constant possession of one’s outstanding qualities, in fact it is not even necessary that one has them. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
The social system conditions people to see in title, the uniform, or whatever else it may be, the proof that the leader is competent, and as long as these symbols, supported by the whole system, are present, the average human does not even dare to ask oneself whether the emperor wear clothes. If human actions can be traced up, by a necessary chain, to the Deity, they can never be criminal; on account of the infinite perfection of that Being, from whom they are derived, and who can intend nothing but what is altogether good and laudable. Or, if they be criminal, we must retract the attribute of perfection, which we ascribe to the Deity, and must acknowledge one to be the ultimate author of guilt and moral turpitude in all His creatures. In ever period of its existence, there is an instructive and inspiring progression from an initial faith in God through Christ, with an accompanying initial hope, to a subsequent or higher-level hope that does not disappoint. The apostle Paul wrote this way because, in the progression of our experience, the Holy Spirit pours out into our own hearts the kind love God has. This important message needs to be studied in depth for any adequate understanding of spiritual formation in the Christian tradition, especially as it concerns feelings. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
The initial faith Christ gives us our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. This is the new birth into Christ’s kingdom. It puts an end to the war between me and God that has gone on most of my life and surrounds me with God’s gracious actions. Now, become of Christ’s death for me and his continuing graces, I know that God is good, and I am thrilled with the hope that God’s goodness and greatness will serve as the basis of my own existence as well as of everything else. Thus, we exult in hope of the glory of God. However, this opens the path for transformation of our character. I am also thrilled about my tribulations! I know that they will prove God’s power and faithfulness in love to me, and to trust him in all things becomes my settled character. Therefore we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation beings perseverance; and perseverance, proven character. However, Godly character now brings about a different quality of hope. Character is a mater of our entire personality and life, which has now been transformed by the process of perseverance under God. Hope therefore now pervades our life as a whole. And this new and pervasive hope—which is an outgrowth of our initial hope of the glory of God, but now covers our entire life—does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
Those ills, under which we labour, are, in reality, goods to the Universe; and to an enlarged view, which can comprehend the whole system of nature, every event becomes an object of joy and exultation. The characters, which engage our approbation, are chiefly such as contribute to the peace and security of human society; as the characters, which excite blame, are chiefly such as tend to public detriment and disturbance. The World is full of obscurities and perplexities, and we must not focus on difficulties because our enquiries with launch us into a boundless ocean of doubt, uncertainty, and contradiction! “And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of humans; yes, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him. Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocs and their herds, and in gold, and in sliver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of the enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of one’s people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and the exceedingly great prosperity. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
“And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yes, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him. O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and how devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of humans; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the World! Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s paths! Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide. O how great is the nothingness of the children of humans; yea, even they are less than the dust of the Earth. For behold the dust of the Earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
“Yea, behold at his voice do the hills and the mountains tremble and quake. And by the power of his voice they are broken up, and become smooth, yea, even like unto a valley. Yea, by the power f his voice doth the whole Earth shake; yea, by the power of his voice do the foundations rock, even to the very center. Yea, and if he say unto the Earth—Move—it is moved. Yea, if he say unto the Earth—Thou shalt go back, that it lengthen out the day for many hours—it is done; and thus, according to his word the Earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto humans that the Sun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for surely it is the Earth that moveth and not the Sun. And behold, also, if he say unto the waters of the great deep—Be thou dried up—it is done. Behold, if he say unto this mountain—Be thou raised up, and come over and fall upon that city, that it be buried up—behold it is done. And behold, if a human hide up a treasure in the Earth, and the Lord shall say—Let it be accursed, because of the iniquity of one who hath hid it up—behold, it shall be accursed. And if the Lord shall say—Be thou accursed, that no human shall find thee from this time henceforth and forever—behold, no human getteth it henceforth and forever. And behold, if the Lord shall say unto a human—Because of thine iniquities, thou shalt be accursed forever—it shall be done. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
“And if the Lord shall say—Because of thine iniquities thou shalt be cut off from my presence—he will cause that is shall be so. And wo unto one to whom God shall say this, for it shall be unto one that will do iniquity, and one cannot be saved; therefore, for this cause, that humans might be saved, hath repentance been declared. Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved. And may God grant, in his great fulness, that humans might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace, according to their works. And I would that all humans might be saved. However, we read that in the great and last day there are some who shall be cast out, yea, who shall be cast off from the presence of the Lord; yea, who shall be consigned to a state of endless misery, fulfilling the words which say: They that have done good shall have everlasting life; and they that have done evil shall have everlasting damnation. And thus it is. Amen,” reports Helaman 12.1-26. O God, merciful Father, Who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, as this race is set before us, please cast the light of Thy true to brighten our path. Thou hast ordained strength to protect our souls from assault and pain. Please keep us, we beseech Thee on the way of Thy commandments. May we so faithfully serve three. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
May we show forth our thankfulness in all things and may our service be to perfect freedom. For Whom to serve is to reign, as Thee protects us from perils and dangers, from snares. In Thy true religion Thou hast blessed us with Godliness and continual kindness as Thee support us in all dangers, for it is by Thy help we may overcome the things which we suffer for our sins. Who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful humans, for Who makest the minds of faithful humans to be of one will. Please nourish us with all goodness. May we not be brought into the temptations of the World, the flesh and the devil, for infections of sin are of the devil. I am setting a place at my table for God. Blessed One, please come eat with me! I am setting a place at my table for God of my household. Blessed One, please come eat with me. I am setting a place at my table for the Ancestors, Blessed one, please come eat with me! I am setting a place at my table for the Holy Ghost, blessed One, please come eat with me. God of Earth and Sky, please eat with me, be my guest. I invite the Holy Ones to my table. Please come; sit with me, eat and drink with me. I offer you the hospitality of my home. You are always welcome here. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
Prayers over food and drink are a special type of thanksgiving prayer. The connection between them is shown quite strongly in the North American Harvest festivals that have been given the name “Thanksgiving.” We should thank God and the food. Our eating is a constant reminder of one of the central mysteries of the connection between life—and our Heavenly Father. Our life depends on God, he provides us with our food, so we should be thankful, it is only proper. Thanksgiving is a special day because eating together draws people together, and thanking God brings us closer to Him. We sit down to the table of God where the company of Heaven meets, and we share with them our food. Blessed ones, please be our dining companions! May God’s great name be blessed forever. May Jesus Christ be blessed forever. Exalted and honoured be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, whose glory transcends, yea, is beyond all praises, hymns and blessings that humans can render unto Him. May the prayers and supplications of the whole house of Israel be acceptable unto their Father in Heaven. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life for us and for all Israel. May He who establisheth peace in the Heavens, grant peace unto us and unto all Israel; and ye say, Amen. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
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Give Me a Laundry-List and I Will Set it to Music!
Chemistry is applied theology. In order to actualize our potentialities, in order to become fully human and completely ourselves, we must not merely think; we must also permit ourselves to be thoughts. Both the historical record of creative thought and the laboratory report of its appearance today, indicate clearly that creative intelligence can spring from the mind that is not strained to its highest pitch, but is utterly ease. Our is a civilization in which vast numbers of children and adults are so chronically bored that they have to resort during their leisure hours to a regimen of non-stop distractions. Any method which promises to make life seem enjoyable and the commonplaces of everyday experience more interesting should be welcomed as a major contribution to culture and morality. It is most certainly very difficult, perhaps quite impossible, to serve two gods simultaneously—to pursue the most sordid interests while aspiring to realize the highest ideals. This is obvious. Only a little less obvious, however, is the fact that it is very hard, perhaps quite impossible, to serve God wile failing to make the best of both Worlds—of all the World of which, as human beings, we are the inhabitants. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
Rightness as fairness is to be understood as a replacement for existing conceptions There is no necessity to say that sameness of meaning holds between the word “right” (and its relatives) in its ordinary use and the more elaborate locutions needed to express this ideal contractarian concept of right. If the theory of justice as fairness, or more generally of rightness as fairness, fits our considered judgments in reflective equilibrium, and if it enables us to say all that on due examination we want to say, then it provides a way of eliminating customary phrases in favour of other expressions. So understood one may think of justice as fairness and rightness as fairness as providing a definition or explication of the concepts of justice and right. we are not to gain from the cooperative labours of others without doing our fair share. The two principles of justice guarantees the equal basic rights and liberties needed to secure the fundamental interests of free and equal citizens and to pursue a wide range of conceptions of the good. These two principles of justice define what is a fair share in the case of institutions belonging to the basic structure. So if these arrangements are just, each person receives a fair share wen all (one’s self included) do their part. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
Further, the content of obligation is always defined by an institution or practice the rules of which specify what it is that one is required to do. And, obligations are normally owed to definite individuals, namely, those who are cooperating together to maintain the arrangement in question. As an example illustrating these features, consider the political act of running for and (if successful) holding public office in a constitutional regime. This act gives rise to the obligation to fulfill the duties of office, and these duties not as moral duties but as takes of responsibilities assigned to certain institutional positions. It is nevertheless the case that one may have a moral reason (one based on a moral principle) for discharging these duties, as when one is bound to do so by the principle of fairness. Also, one assumes public office is obligated to one’s fellow citizens whose trust and confidence one has sough and with whom one is cooperating and running a democratic society. Similarly, we assume obligations when we marry as well as when we accept positions of judicial, administrative, or others authority. We acquire obligations by promising and by tacit understandings, and even when we join a game, namely, the obligation to play by the rules and to be a good sport. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
All of these obligations are, I believe, covered by the principle of fairness. There are two important cases though that are somewhat problematical, namely, political obligation as it applies to the average citizens, rather than, say, to those who hold office, and the obligation to keep promises. In the first case it is not clear what is the requisite binding action or who has performed it. There is, I believe, no political obligation, strictly speaking, for citizens generally. Psychologically, humans are highly educated products of the twenty-first century civilization, chained, in a state of uneasy and hostile symbiosis, to a disturbingly dynamic unconscious, a wild phantasy and an unpredictable id—and yet capable of falling in love, writing string quartets, and having mystical experiences. They feel pride. They are proud to be members of a community where there is so much caring and concern for others, a caring that is broader and more sensitive than one individual is capable of. However, at times people are so frustrated with life because they work so hard and are tired and do not realize that they are burnt out and need a vacation that it can make them wonder if coming to the community is worth it. However, the other reaction they have is much stronger. People watch with awe the birth pangs of something new in the World. And their earlier state of mind returns. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
If humanity can live together without destroying one another, can live together with a caring concern for the full development of each person, can live together in the richness of diversity instead of the sterility of conformity, then we may have found a truth with many, many implications. Some people themselves are painfully confused, uncertain where they stand or who they really are. To provide themselves with a recognizable identity, a niche in the scheme of things that they can call “home,” they will give assent to the unlikeliest dogmas, conform to the most absurd and even harmful rules of thought, feeling, and conduct, put on the most extravagant fancy dress and identify themselves with masks that bear almost no resemblance to the faces they cover. The inhabitants of all these personal ideologies must somehow learn to make the best of the community in an ability to discover anything that is approximately true and Earthshaking as revolutionary power. And I believe we are making some such discovery. So there is hope that some of the overwhelming World issues may be touched, in ways we cannot even dream of now, by what we are doing. However, a good education may be defined as one which helps the boys and girls subjected to it make the best of all the Worlds in which, as human beings, they are compelled, willy-nilly, to live. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
An education that prepares them to make the best of only one of their Worlds, or of only a few of them, is inadequate. Mens sana in corpore sano (a Latin phrase, which means “a healthy mind in a healthy body”) is an ancient educational ideal and a very good one. Unfortunately, good ideals are never enough. Unless they are accompanied by full instructions regarding the methods by which they maybe realized, they are almost useless. Hell is paved with good intentions, and whole periods of history have been made hideous or grotesque by enthusiastic idealists who failed to elaborate the means whereby their lofty aspirations might be effectively, and above all harmlessly, implemented. Just how good is modern education? How successful is it in helping young people to make the best of all the Worlds which they all have to live in? At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in other schools where similar problems have arisen, the answer to this question has found expression in a renewed interest in the humanities. Excessive scientific specialization is tempered by courses in philosophy, history, literature, and social studies. All this is excellent so far as it does. However, does it go far enough? #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
Do courses in the humanities provide a sufficient antidote for excessive scientific and technical specialization? Do they, in the terminology we have been using, help youth to make the best of a substantially greater number of their Worlds? Our natural duties are to help one another when one is in need or jeopardy, provided that ne can do so without excessive risk or loss to oneself; the duty not to harm or injure another; and the duty not to cause unnecessary suffering. The first duty is a positive duty, the duty of mutual assistance. We have a duty to do something good for one another. Whereas the last two duties are negative in that they require us not to do something that is bad. The distinction between positive and negative duties is intuitively clear in many cases, but often gives way. Now in contrast with obligations, it is characteristic of natural duties that they apply to us without regard to our voluntary acts. Moreover, they have no necessary connection with institutions or social practices; their content is not, in general, defined by the rules of these arrangements. Thus we have a natural duty not to be cruel, and a duty to help another, whether or not we have committed ourselves to these actions. It is no defense or excuse to say that we have made no promise not to be cruel or vindictive, or to come to another’s assistance. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
Indeed, a promise not to kill, for example, is normally ludicrously redundant, and the suggestion that it establishes a moral requirement where none already exited is mistaken. Such a promise is in order, if it ever is so, only when for special reasons one has the right to kill, perhaps in a situation arising in a just war. Another further feature of natural duties is that they hold between persons irrespective of their institutional relationships; they obtain between all as equal moral persons. In this sense the natural duties are owed not only to definite individuals, say to those cooperating together in a particular social arrangement, but to persons generally. This feature in particular suggests the propriety of the adjective “natural.” One aim of the law of nations is to assure the recognition of these duties in the conduct of states. This is especially important in constraining the means used in war, assuming that, in certain circumstances anyway, wars of self-defense are justified. From the standpoint of justice as fairness, a fundamental natural duty is the duty of justice. This duty requires us to support and to comply with just institutions that exist and apply to us. It also constrains us to further just arrangements not yet established, at least when this can be done without too much cost to ourselves. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
Thus is the basic structure of society is just, or as just as it is reasonable to expect in the circumstances, everyone has a natural duty to do one’s part in the existing scheme. Each is bound to these institutions independent of one’s voluntary acts, performative or otherwise. Thus even though the principles of natural duty are derived from a contractarian point of view, they do not presuppose an act of consent, express or tacit, or indeed any voluntary act, in order to apply. The principles that hold for individuals, just as the principles for institutions, are those that would be acknowledged in the original position. These principles are understood as the outcome of a hypothetical agreement. If their formulation shows that no binding action, consensual or otherwise, is a presupposition of their application, then they apply unconditionally. The reason why obligations depend upon voluntary acts is given by the second part of the principle of fairness which states this condition. It has nothing to do with the contractual nature of justice as fairness. In fact, once the full set of principles, a complete conception of right, is on hand, we can simply forget about the conception of original position and apply these principles as we would any others. There is nothing inconsistent, or even surprising, in the fact that justice as fairness allows unconditional principles. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
It suffices to show that the parties in the original position would agree to principles defining the natural duties which as formulated hold to principles defining the natural duties which as formulated hold unconditionally. The same principle of fairness may establish a bond to existing just arrangements, the obligations covered by it can support a tie already present that derives from the natural duty of justice. Thus a person may have both a natural duty and an obligation to comply with an institution and to do one’s part. The thing to observe here is that there are several ways in which one may be bound to political institutions. For the most part the natural duty of justice is the more fundamental, since it binds citizens generally and requires no voluntary acts in order to apply. The principle of fairness, on the other hand, binds only those who assume public office, say, or those who, being better situated, have advanced their aims within the system. There is, then, another sense of noblesse oblige: namely, that those who are more privileged are likely to acquire obligations trying them even more strongly to a just scheme. I shall say very little about the other kind or principles for individuals. For while permissions are not an unimportant class of actions, I must limit the discussion to the theory of social justice. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
It may be observed, though, that once all the principles defining requirements are chosen, no further acknowledgments are necessary to define permissions. This is so because permissions are those acts which we are at liberty both to do and not to do. They are acts which violate no obligation or natural duty. In studying permissions one wishes to single out those that they significant from a moral point of view and to explain their relation to duties and obligations. Many such actions are morally indifferent or trivial. However, among the permissions is the interesting class of supererogatory actions. These are acts of benevolence and mercy, of heroism and self-sacrifice. It is good to do these actions but it is not one’s duty or obligation. Supererogatory acts are not required, though normally they would be were it not for the loss or risk involved for the agent oneself. A person who does a supererogatory act does not invoke the exemption which the natural duties allow. For while we have a natural duty to bring about a great good, say, if we can do so relatively easily, we are released from this duty when the cost to ourselves is considerable. Supererogatory acts arise questions of first importance for ethical theory. For example, it seems offhand that the classical utilitarian view cannot account for them. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
It would appear that we are bound to perform actions which bring about a greater good for others whatever the cost to ourselves provided that thus sum of advantages altogether exceeds that of other acts open to us. There is nothing corresponding to the exemptions included in the formulation of the natural duties. Thus some of the actions which justice as fairness counts as supererogatory may be required by the utility principle. I shall not, however, pursue this matter further. Supererogatory acts are mentioned here for the sake of completeness. Children should be taught that words are indispensable but also can be fatal—the only begetters of all civilization, all science, all consistency of high purpose, all angelic goodness, and the only begetters are the same time of all superstition, all collective madness and stupidity, all worse-then-bestial diabolism, all the dismal historical succession of crimes in the name of God, King, Queen, Nation, Party, Doctrines, Beliefs. Never before, thanks to the techniques of mass communication, have so many listeners been so completely at the mercy of so few speakers. Never have misused words—those hideously efficient tools of all the tyrants, war-mongers, persecutors, and heresy-hunters—been so widely and so disastrously influential as they are today. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
Generals, clergymen, advertisers, and the rulers of totalitarian states—all have good reasons for disliking the idea of universal education in the rational use of language. To the military, clerical, propagandist, and authoritarian mind such training seems (and rightly seems) profoundly subversive. To those who think that liberty is a good thing, and who hope that it may some day become possible for more people to realize more of their desirable potentialities in a society fit for free, fully human individuals to live in, a thorough education in the nature of language, in its uses and abuses, seems indispensable. Whether in fact the mounting pressures of overpopulation and overorganization in a World still enthusiastically dedicated to nationalistic idolatry will permit this kind of subversive linguistic education to be adopted by even more democratic nations remains to be seen. Make the body capable of doing many things, this will help you to perfect the mind and come to the intellectual love of God. Education is desirable and indeed, if the child is to grow into a fully human being, absolutely necessary. The detailed curriculum for an education in what maybe called the nonverbal humanities has still to be worked out. Humanities is a process that should be started in the kindergarten and continued through all the years of school and college—and thereafter, as self-education, throughout the rest of life. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
Education is to life in general—an indispensable condition for any kind of improvement. School children need to learn a kind of internal awareness that can lead to a creative conscious control. All our mental processes depend upon perception. Inadequate perceiving results in poor thinking, inappropriate feeling, diminished interest in and enjoyment of life. Systematic training of perception should be an essential element in all education. Awareness has to be assigned to each special significance and value for the human being who aspires to make the bet of both Worlds and so, by teaching one’s psychophysical organism to do many things to perfect the mind and come to the intellectual love of God. It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of creation in which nature has done more for the sake of pleasing humans, more for the sake and evident purpose of talking to one and teaching one, than in any of her other works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her. There is not a moment in any day of our lives in which nature is no producing (in the sky) scene after scene, picture after picture, glory after glory, and working always upon such exquisite and constant principles of the most perfect beauty, that it is quite certain it is all done for us and intended for our perpetual pleasure. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
We never attend to the sky, we never make it a subject of thought. We look upon it….only as a succession of monotonous and meaningless accident, too common or too vain to be worthy of a moment of watchfulness of a glance of admiration. Who, among the chattering crowd, can tell me of the forms and the precipices of the chain of tall white mountains that girded the horizon at noon yesterday? Who saw the narrow Sunbeam that came out f the south and smote their summits until they melted and mouldered away in a dust of blue rain? All has passed unregretted as unseen; or if the apathy be ever shaken off, if even for an instant, it is only by what is gross or what is extraordinary. A habit of wise passiveness in relation to the everyday drama of the clouds and mist and Sunshine can become a source of endless pleasures. However, most of the products of our educational system prefer Westerns and alcohol. In the United States of America, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are constitutionally guaranteed. However, if life hardly seems worth living, if liberty is used for subhuman purposes, if the pursuers of happiness know nothing about the nature of their quarry or the elementary techniques of hunting, these constitutional rights will not be very meaningful. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
An education in that wise passiveness recommended by the saints and the poets, by all who have lived fully and worked creatively, might help us to transform the papers promises of a democratic constitution into concrete contemporary fact. The mentally ill are the victims of their phantasy, and even more or less normal people find themselves tempted into folly, or inhibited from behaving as they know they ought to behave, by what goes on in the superreal but unrealistic World of their imagination. How can we make the best of this odd, alien, almost autonomous Universe that we carry about with us inside our skulls? Truth lives, proverbially, at the bottom of a well, and wells are often muddy. No genuinely scientific investigator has any right to be squeamish about anything. Made the worst of, our imagination will destroy us; made the best of, it can be used to break up long-established habits of undesirable feeling, to dissipate obsessive fears, to provide symbolic outlets for anger and fictional amends for real frustrations. In the course of the last three thousand years how many sermons have been preached, how many homilies delivered and commands roared out, how many promises of Heaven and threats of hell-fire solemnly pronounced, how many good-conduct prizes awarded and how many immature buttocks lacerated with whips and canes? #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
And what has been the result of all this incalculable sum of moralistic words, and of the rewards and savage punishments by which the verbiage has been accompanied? The result has been history—the successive generations of human beings comporting themselves virtuously and rationally enough for the race to survive, but badly enough and madly enough for it to be unceasingly in trouble. Can we do better in the future than we are doing today, or than our fathers did in the past? Can we develop methods more effective than pious talks and Pavlovian conditioning? Moral equivalents must be found not only for war but also for delinquency, family squabbles, bullying, puritanical censoriousness, and all the assorted beastliness of daily life. Hope is anticipation of good not yet here, or as yet “unseen.” It is of course inseparable from joy. Sometimes the good in question is just deliverance from evil, which is here. Then “we are saved by hope,” (Romans 8.24), and “we rejoice in hope,” (Romans 12.12), because “if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it,” (Romans 8.25). That eager anticipation strengthens us to stay faithful to God and to stay on the path of what is right. One of the remarkable changes brought by Jesus and his people into the ancient World concerned the elevation of hope into a primary virtue. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
Hope was not well regarded by the Greco-Roman World. It was thought of as a desperation measure. And whole, according to the myth of Pandora’s box, it may be all we have left with which to endure the agonies of life, it must be grimly held in check or it will give rise to vain expectations that only cause more misery. Christ, by contrast, brings solid hope for humanity. Clearly, then, hope also is closely related to faith. Faith is confidence grounded in reality, not a wild, desperate “leap.” It is, as Hebrews 11.1 says, substance, and evidence, or poof, not—as contemporary translations usually have it—subjective psychological states such as “being such of” or “having a conviction of.” Rather, faith sees the reality of the unseen or invisible, and it includes a readiness to act as if the good anticipated in hope were already in hand because of the reality of God (compare 2 Corinthians 4.17-18). One that believes dare trust God for the morrow, and is not more solicitous for the next year than one is for that which is past. No one worries about what was going to happen last year. Accordingly, Moses “left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king,” reports Hebrews 11.27. Egypt and its king were in the realm of “the seen.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
Moses was able to disregard them to stick with his goal because he saw the One who is invisible but none the less real for that. For one endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Hebrews 11.27). That is faith as the Bible portrays it. “And now it came to pass in the seventy and second year of the reign of the judges that the contentions did increase, insomuch that there were wars throughout all the land among all the people of Nephi. And it was this secret band of robbers who did carry on this work of destruction and wickedness. And this war did last all that year; and in the seventy and third years it did also last. And it came to pass that in this years Nephi did cry unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, do not suffer that this people shall be destroyed by the sword; but O Lord, rather let there be a famine in the land, to stir them up in remembrance of the Lord their God, and perhaps they will repent and turn unto tee. And so it was done, according to the words of Nephi. And there was a great famine upon the land, among all the people of Nephi. And thus in the seventy and fourth year the famine did continue, and the work of destruction did cease by the sword but became sore by famine. And this work of destruction did also continue in the seventy and fifth year. For the Earth was smitten that it was dry, and did not yield forth grain in the season of grain. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
“And the whole Earth was smitten, even among the Nephites, so that they were smitten that they did perish by thousands in the more wicked parts of the land. And it came to pass that the people saw that they were about to perish by famine, and they began to remember the Lord their God; and they began to remember the words of Nephi. And the people began to plead with their chief judges and their leaders, that they would say unto Nephi: Behold, we know that thou art a man of God, and therefore cry unto the Lord our God that he turned away from us this famine, lest all the words which thou hast spoken concerning our destruction be fulfilled. And it came to pass that the judges did say unto Nephi, according to the words which had been desired. And it came to pass that the people had repented and did humble themselves in sackcloth, he cried: again unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, behold this people repenteth; and they have swept away the band of Gadiantion from amongst them insomuch that they have become extinct, and they have concealed their secret plans in the Earth. Now, O Lord, because of this their humility wilt thou turn away thine anger, and let thine anger be appeased in the destruction of those wicked humans whom thou hast already destroyed. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
“O Lord, wilt thou turn away thine anger, yea, thy fierce anger, and cause that this famine may cease in this land. O Lord, wilt thou hearken unto me, and cause that it may be done according to my words, and send forth rain upon the face of the Earth, that she may bring forth her fruit, and her grain in the season of grain. O Lord, thou didst hearken unto my words when I said, Let there be a famine, that the pestilence of the sword might cease; and I know that thou wilt, even at this time, hearken unto my words, for thou sadist that: If this people repent I will spare them. Yea, O Lord, and thou seest that they have repented, because of the famine and the pestilence and destruction which has come unto them. And now, O Lord, wilt thou turn away thine anger, and try again if they will serve thee? And if so, O Lord, thou canst bless them according to thy words which thou hast said. And it came to pass that in the seventy and sixth year the Lord did turn away his anger from the people, and caused that rain should fall upon the Earth, insomuch that it did bring forth her fruit in the season of her fruit. And it came to pass that it did bring forth her grain in the season of her grain. And behold, the people did rejoice and glorify God, and the whole face of the land was filled with rejoicing; and they did no more seek to destroy Nephi, but they did esteem him as a great prophet, and a man of God, having great power and authority given unto him from God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
“And behold, Lehi, his brother, was not a whit behind him as to things pertaining to righteousness. And thus it did come to pass that the people of Nephi began to prosper again in the land, and began to build up their waste places, and began to multiply and spread, even until they did cover the whole face of the land, both on the northward and on the southward, from the sea west to the sea east. And it came to pass that the seventy and sixth year did end in peace. And the seventy and seventh year began in peace; and the church did spread throughout the face of all the land; and the more part of the people, both the Nephites and the Lamanites, did belong to the church; and they did have exceedingly great peace in the land; and this ended the seventy and seventh year. And also they had peace in the seventy and eighty years, save it were a few contentions concerning the points of doctrine which had been laid down by the prophets. And in the seventy and ninth year there began to be much strife. However, it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi, and many of the brethren who knew concerning the true points of doctrine, having many revelations daily, therefore they did preach unto the people, insomuch that they did put an end to their strife in that same year. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
“And it came to pass that in the eightieth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, there were a certain number of the people of Nephi, there were a certain number of the dissenters from the people of Nephi, who had some years before gone over unto the Lamanites, and taken upon themselves the name of Lamanites, and also a certain number who were real descendants of the Lamanites, being stirred up to anger by them, or by those dissenters, therefore they commenced a war with their brethren. And they did commit murder and plunder; and then they would retreat back into the mountains, and into the wilderness and secret places, hiding themselves that they could not be discovered, receiving daily an addition to their numbers, inasmuch as there were dissenters that went forth unto them. And thus in time, yea, even in the space of not many years, they became an exceedingly great band of robbers; and they did search out all the secret plans of Gadianton; and thus they became robbers of Gadianton. Now behold, these robbers did make great havoc, yea, even great destruction among the people of the Lamanites. And it came to pass that it was expedient that there should be a stop put to this work of destruction; therefore they sent an army of strong humans into the wilderness and upon the mountains to search out this band of robbers, and to destroy them. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
“However, behold, it came to pass that in that same year they were driven back even into their own lands. And thus ended the eightieth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi. And it came to pas in the commencement of the eighty and first year they did go forth again against this band of robbers, and did destroy many; and they were also visited with much destruction. And they were again obliged to return out of the wilderness and out of the mountains unto their own lands, because of the exceeding greatness of the numbers of those robbers who infested the mountains and the wilderness. And it came to pass that thus ended this year. And the robbers did still increase and wax strong, insomuch that they did defy the whole armies of the Nephites, and also of the Lamanites; and they did cause great fear to come unto the people upon all the face of land. Yea, for they did visit many parts of the land, and did do great destruction unto them; yea, did kill many, and did carry away others captive into the wilderness, yea, and more especially their women and their children. Now this great evil, which came unto the people because of their iniquity, did stir them up again in remembrance of the Lord their God. And thus ended the eighty and first year of the reign of the judges. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
“And in the eighty and second year they began again to forget the Lord their God. And in the eighty and third year they began to wax strong in iniquity. And in the eighty and fourth year they did not mend their ways. And it came to pass in the eighty and fifth year they did wax stronger and stronger in their pride, and in their wickedness; and thus they were ripening again for destruction. And thus ended the eighty and fifth year,” reports Helaman 11.1-38. I am praying to God of Heaven, may the Earth be blessed with a sweet smell and bring Him to mind, to give Him the best of what I have, as is only His proper share. Our God and God of our fathers, accept our rest. Sanctify us through Thy commandments, and grant our portion in Thy Torah. Please give us abundantly of Thy goodness and make us rejoice in Thy salvation. Purify our hearts to serve Thee in truth. In Thy loving favour, O Lord our God, grant that Thy holy Sabbath be our joyous heritage, and may Israel who sanctifies Thy name, rest thereon. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hallowest the Sabbath. Magnified and sanctified be the name of God throughout the World which He hath created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom during the days of your life and during the life f all the house of Israel, speedily, yea, soon; and say ye, Amen. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
Cresleigh Homes
When planning #MillsStation Residence 1, we did not *just* create an open floor plan—we incorporated windows, lighting, and slanted ceilings to maximize light and space in this room! This charming home is 1,932 square feet, three bedrooms, two bathroom, and a home hub, which could function as a den, playroom, fourth bedroom, office or formal dining room. There is also a private backyard and a two car garage.
We have two move-in ready homes with this floor plan at Homes Sites 17 & 77! Take a virtual tour of this home on our website. Link in bio. 🏡 https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/move-in-ready-home-site-77/
This home is designed with Universal Design concepts meaning that its well equipped for life’s transitions and aging in place. Learn more about this unique feature by speaking with a sales associate today!
Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Google Mini to help connect everything together!
Who Would Respect Someone who Voted in a Jury Trial or Decided which House to Buy with No Regard to the Evidence Relevant to the Decisions?
Just because you like my stuff does not mean I owe you anything. Those who generally deny or ignore their World of private and subjective experience during wakefulness seem to recall fewer dreams than those who accept and exploit this dimension of experience. Emotional problems often take advantage of the dreaming state and a skilled psychoanalyst can use dream content therapeutically. Replacing the notion that dream last only a few seconds was the finding that EEG-monitored Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stages of sleep are rarely less than 10 minutes long and may last for an hour or more. During your sleep, the body repairs and regrows tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens the immune system. There is an average of four of five REM stages in the course of a typical night’s sleep. The average young adult subject spends about 20 percent of one’s sleep time in the REM state. During infancy and childhood the proportion is much higher, while during old age it is somewhat lower. REM sleep is usually a deep sleep and if someone woke you, you would likely feel disoriented. It is interesting that the larger animals with a longer lifespan and a lower metabolic rate tend to have longer sleep-dream cycles. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
The average length of time from the beginning of one REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage to the next varies from four minutes in the Mus musculus to 90 minutes in the adult man. It has been suggested that cyclical dreaming evolved because this arrangement gave the organism an opportunity to come to a state of near waking readiness and “sample” the environment for danger. REM sleep is basically a process for “programming” the brain; this programming system is homeostatic, organizing and storing memories [perceptual, cognitive, and behavioural programs]. Thus, lower or “fixed program” forms of life do not need much or any REM time while newborn high life forms should have more REM time than adults to develop the central nervous system. It is also possible that the fetus spends almost all of time in the REM state. If the REM sate serves a developmental function, one might be able to detect a disturbed or atypical sleep-dream cycle among individuals with central nervous dysfunction. If this dysfunction responds to therapy, one might expect to see a reflection of this change in the sleep-dream cycle. Dreaming serves to integrate new information into existing past information stores and leads to improvement of speech production and comprehension (exempli gratia, “reprograming”) would alter the sleep dream cycle of aphasics. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
Artemidorous Daldianus, a professional diviner, in the second century A.D., produced the first systematic interpretation of dreams. He asserted that truth exists within dream symbols—as when Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream of the seven fat and seven lean cattle as seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Rather than serving as evidence of communication with God, Artemidorous looked upon Pharaoh’s dream as an indication of human intuition. Jeffery David Ullman, an American computer scientist and the Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Engineering, also concerned himself with the roles that dreams play in a particular culture. He notes that dreams of preliterate people reflect the prevailing mythology and that dreams often act as a channel for a person’s idiosyncratic modes of viewing the cultural myths. Dr. Ullman conceded that the end-product could be banal or ecstatic but noted it is an act of creation to have the dream in the first place. An idea may sleep for decades in the unconscious mind and then suddenly return to consciousness. In primitive and ancient societies, dreams were typically thought to be the work of supernatural entities, appearing to mortals with messages of hope or despair. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
Some peoples believed that the soul left the physical body in sleep and wandered in a spirit World. It was generally believed that dreams could provide a glimpse of the future, reveal events happening at a distance, or indicate the thoughts of another person. Our normal waking consciousness is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go throughout life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness. No account of the Universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. Individuals who make a persistent, conscientious, disciplined attempt to cope with internal events typically report that the quest has assisted their capacity to perceive and understand the various levels of reality, to accept and enjoy the self, to behave spontaneously, to appreciate art and nature, to develop close interpersonal relationships, to work creatively—in other words, to become a more fully realized human being. The current interest in dreams and other forms of altered consciousness is a promising development for humanistically oriented psychology, psychiatry, religion, education, and other fields. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
The goal is to produce superhumans who are fully functional. As a larger number of professionals and noneprofessional become involved in the inner life, the possibility grows that there is a new consciousness emerging in our time—a consciousness geared toward self-actualization and the full development of the human potential. If you could hear that a flying saucer from another planet had landed on Earth one hundred years ago, you would want to know how the space ship was constructed and what kind of power propelled it, but most of all you would want to know about the people who navigated it and the society from which they came. If they lived in a World without crime and war and destructive conflict, and if they were comparatively free from chronic mental and physical ailments, you would want to know about their methods of healing and education, and whether these methods would work as well with the inhabitants of Earth. If you heard further that the navigators of the ship had found a group of 12,000 people living as an isolated community among the mountains, and had demonstrated that these preliterate people would utilize their methods of healing and education, and reproduce the society from which the celestial navigators came, you would probably be curious about these psychological and social methods that conquered space inside the individual, than you would about the mechanics of the ship which conquered outside space. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
These people lived in long community houses, skillfully constructed. They maintained themselves by practicing dry-land, shifting agriculture, and by hunting and fishing. Study of their political and social organization indicated that the political authority in their communities was originally in the hands of the elder members of the patrilineal clans. Because of their psychological knowledge of strangers in their territory, they could very easily devise means of scaring them off. They did not black magic, but allowed the nomadic hill-folk surrounding them to think that they did if strangers invaded their territory. However, the absence of violent crime, armed conflict, and mental and physical diseases in their own society can only be explained on the basic of institutions which produce a high state of psychological integration and emotional maturity, along with social skills and attitudes which promote creative, rather than destructive, interpersonal relationships. They are, perhaps, the most democratic group reported in anthropological literature. In the realms of family, economics, and politics, their society operates smoothly on the principle of contract, agreement and democratic consensus, with no need of police force, jail, or psychiatric hospital to reinforce the agreements or to confine those who are not willing or able to reach consensus. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
Study of their society seems to indicate that they have arrived at this high state of social and physical cooperation and integration through the system of psychology which they have discovered, invented and developed, and that the principles of this system of psychology are understandable in terms of Wester scientific thinking. They have built a system of interpersonal relations which, in the field of psychology, is perhaps on a level with our attainments in such areas as television and nuclear physics. Humans create features or images on the outside World in their own mind as a part of the adaptive process. Some of these features are in conflict with them and with each other. Once internalized, these hostile images turn humans against themselves and their fellows. In their unconscious minds, humans have the power to see these facets of their psyche, which have been disguised in external forms, associated with their own fearful emotions, and turned against them and the internal images of other people. If the individual does not receive social assistance through education and therapy, these hostile images, built up by human’s normal receptiveness to the outside World, get tied together and associated with one another in a way which makes one physically, socially and psychologically abnormal. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
Unassisted, these unconscious ideas, which humans create to reproduce inside oneself the external sociophysical environment, tend to remain against one the ways the environment was against one, or to become disassociated from one’s major personality and tied up in wasteful psychic, organic, and muscular tensions. With the help of a trained professional, these psychological replicas of the socio-physical environment can be redirected and reorganized and again become useful to the major personality. Any human being, with the assistance of one’s fellows, can outface, master, and actually utilize all beings and forces in the unconscious universe. Humans discover their deepest self and reveals their greatest creative power at times when one’s psychic processes are most free from immediate involvement with the environment and most under the control of one’s indwelling balancing or homeostatic power. The freest type of psychic play occurs in our unconscious minds, and the social acceptance of our deepest repressed thoughts and idea, therefore, constitute the deepest possible acceptance of the individual. Evil is neutralized by enforcing desirable behaviour. Modern civilization may be sick because people have sloughed off, or failed to develop, half their power to think. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
People rely too much on the news, often as their only source of information about the World. However, the news is a vision someone wants to present to you, and it is to generate revenue. Much of the news is entertainment, and if you want to be entertained, then watch a movie, read a book, listen to music, get some exercise. Western society is rife with war, crime, and wasteful economic conflict, insanity, neurosis and chronic psychogenic physical ills because people are more willing to watch the news than they are to go to church and learn about God and His laws. Through religion and a focus on intellectual and social interests, we can solve the problem of violent crime and destructive economic conflict, and largely eliminate insanity, neurosis and psychogenic illness. Instead of sitting down for half an hour to watch the evening news, go for a walk or to the gym with a friend. Play sports. Do something to be active. Notice that children have about two hours of activity in a school day, physical education and lunch, well adults need to be active as well and it will improve your health and mind. Now, the realm of feelings may appear on first approach to be an area of total chaos. However, this is not so. There is also order among feelings, and it is a much simpler one than most people think. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
When we properly cultivate with divine assistance those feelings that should be prominent in our lives, the remainder will fall into place. What then are the feelings that will dominate in a life that has been inwardly transformed to be like Christ’s? They are the feelings associated with love, joy, and peace. For the sake of simplicity we shall simply call them love, joy, and peace, though, as we have noted, love, joy, and peace are not mere feelings but conditions of the whole person that are accompanied by characteristic beneficial feelings. Love, joy, and peace are, we recall, the three fundamental dimensions of the fruit (note the singular) of the Spirit. They mutually interpenetrate and inform one another and naturally express themselves in the remainder of that one fruit: “patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” reports Galatians 5.22-23. Faith (confidence) and hope are also very important in properly structuring the feeling dimension of the mind and self. However, they play their role in that regard in subordination to love, joy, and peace—that is, because of their relationship to them. The three primary dimensions of “the fruit” (love, joy, and peace) are in fact not separable from the three things “that remain” of 1 Corinthians 13.13 (faith, hope, and love) and of course are partially identical with them. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
Love, joy, peace, faith, hope, and love are all focused on goodness and what is good, and all are strength-giving and pleasant even in the midst of pain or suffering. That is not what we see them for, or something we try to make of them. It is, simply, their nature. I once told my children that if they ever got to the point where they thought it was unreasonable to believe that Christianity was true, then they should abandon the faith. Does that sound risky? It is, but what is the alternative? Should we tell our children to set their minds aside totally and accept the Christian faith without using their intelligence? It can be risky to encourage people to develop their minds and allow reason to help them decide what they believe and why. No one can predict where such an approach will lead in a specific individual’s life. It is easy to lose control of the outcome. If your church is Reformed, charismatic, or whatever, and if your church actually equips people to think widely and deeply about their own theological beliefs, there is no guarantee that they will all come down where the church leaders are on a specific topic. For some, this can create an uncomfortable heterogeneity; it forces us to work harder at drawing lines between what sort of theological diversity a church will or will not tolerate within its membership. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
Commitment to truth and reason: The fears just mentioned are easy to understand. However, we cannot let our fears dictate to us our approach to Christian growth and ministry. We need to keep two things firmly planted in the center of our mines. First, we simply must reaffirm our commitment to truth and right reason and be confident that our Christian beliefs both warrant that commitment and will flourish in light of it. Any commitment, it seems, depends on two distinct elements. It presupposes certain beliefs [to be true] and it also involves a personal dedication to the actions implied by them. We are committed to Christianity in general, or some doctrinal position. And we are committed to the importance of our God-given faculty of mind to assist us in assessing what is true. Second, we need to remember the consequences of abandoning a fundamental commitment to truth and reason. A people that does not care about these will be easily led to behave in certain ways by rhetoric, image, narcissistic self-infatuation, and so on. This is extremely dangerous. Further, if our allegiance to Christianity is not based on the conviction that it is true and reasonable, then we are treating the faith as a mere means to some self-serving pragmatic end, and that demeans the faith. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
To further highlight the illustration, if we are more concerned with practical application from the Bible than with having a good reason for thinking we have correctly interpreted it, then our bottom line will be that the Bible exists as a tool to make us a success, and we do not exist to place ourselves under what it really says. In medicine, we all know what a placebo is. It is an innocuous substance that does not really do anything to help an illness. However, the patient’s false belief that it works brings some mental relief. Unfortunately, a placebo works due to the naïve, unenlightened, false belief on the part of the patient, but that also shows you the power of the mind to heal the body. Many people have Worldview placebos—false, naïve, misinformed beliefs that allow them to live in a safe fantasy World of their own mental creation. Often, life is a struggle. We grow sick, lose our jobs, experience fragmented relationships with others, and eventually go to Heaven. We want to know if there is anything real upon which to base our lives. Is there really a God and what is He actually like? What does God believe about the things that matter most? Is there any purpose to life and, if so, what is it? Why was I thrust into this World? Are the values objective and real, or arbitrary and invented? #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Is there life after death? In what ways can I really count on God, and are there any true, effective ways to get close to Him? When we ask these questions, we do not just want answers that help us merely because we believe them. We want to be comforted because our answers to these questions are really true. For the wise person of virtue, a life well lived is based on the truth, not on a placebo. However, if truth really matters after all, then it follows that rationality also is crucial to a life well lived. Why? Because if we want a life built on truth, we want to be sure that our Worldview consists of the highest percentage of true beliefs and the lowest percentage of false ones. The only way available to us for making sure this is the case with our own belief system is through the careful use of faculty of reason. In ordinary decisions of daily life, we try to base our beliefs and actions on the best evidence we can get. From sitting on a jury to buying a new house, we try to base our decisions on a careful assessment of all the relevant evidence we can get. Who would respect someone who voted in a jury trial or a decided which house to buy with no regard to the evidence relevant to these decisions? #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
If someone used blind faith and bought the first house one saw with a For Sale sign in front of it, but made no effort to get information about the house and neighbourhood, we would consider that person foolish. Why? Because when we use our reason and base decisions on the best assessment of the evidence we can make, we increase our chances that our decisions are based on true beliefs. Now if this is the case for day-to-day issues why should we suddenly abandon the importance of reason and evidence when it comes to religion? We should not. Any religious belief worthy of the name should be accepted because we take the best exercise of our mental faculties we can muster. In the long run, it is better to risk losing control, face our doubts, be patient, and do the best job we can of using our minds to get at the truth. Not only is the Christian faith secure enough to withstand such an approach, but the faith actually encourages it. If we are going to make progress in our Christian lives, then we must defeat the empty self and take back what insecurity and fear of losing control have taken from us. This is the first step toward making progress in cultivating the Christian mind as part of an overall spiritual journey pleasing to God and good for others and ourselves. However, just exactly how does one develop a more careful intellect? #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
How can a person learn to think better and be more assured that one’s belief are, in fact, true? Christ wants a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s mind. “And it came to pass that there arose a division among the people, insomuch that they divided hither and thither and went their ways, leaving Nephi alone, as he was standing in the midst of them. And it came to pass that Nephi went his way towards his own house, pondering upon the things which the Lord had shown unto him. And it came to pass as he was thus pondering—being much cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites, their secret works of darkness, and their murderings, and their plunderings, and all manner of iniquities—and it came to pass as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a voice came unto him saying: Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments. And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
“Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God. Behold, I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels, that ye shall have power over this people, and shall smite the Earth with famine, and with pestilence, and destruction, according to the wickedness of this people. Behold, I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on Earth shall be sealed in Heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people. And thus, if ye shall say unto this temple it shall be rent in twain, it shall be done. And if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou cast down and become smooth, it shall be done. And behold, if ye shall say that God shall smite this people, it shall come to pass. And now behold, I command you, that ye shall go and declare unto this people, that thus saith the Lord God, who is the Almighty: Except ye repent ye shall be smitten, even unto destruction. And behold, now it came to pass that when the Lord had spoken these words unto Nephi, he did stop and did not go unto his own house, but did return unto the multitudes who were scattered about upon the face of the land, and began to declare unto them the word of the Lord which had spoken unto him, concerning their destruction if they did not repent. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
“Now behold, notwithstanding that great miracle which Nephi had done in telling them concerning the death of the chief judge, they did harden their hearts and did not hearken unto the words of the Lord. Therefore Nephi did declare unto them the word of the Lord, saying: Except ye repent, thus saith the Lord, ye shall be smitten even unto destruction. And it came to pass that when Nephi had declared unto them the word, behold, they did still harden their hearts and would not hearken unto his words; therefore they did revile against him, and did seek to lay their hands upon him that they might cast him into prison. However, behold, the power of God was with him, and they could not take him to cast him into prison, for he was taken by the Spirit and conveyed away out of the midst of them. And it came to pass that thus he did go forth in the Spirit, from multitude to multitude, declaring the word of God, even until he had declared it unto them all, or sent it forth among all the people. And it came to pass that they would not hearken unto his words; and there began to slay one another with the sword. And thus ended the seventy and first year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi,” reports Helaman 10.1-19. From you have flowed freely many gifts, given with no conditions, offered with open hands. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Continually you have renewed the World with your largesse; continually you have brought new wonders into being. I come before you, then, with unnecessary gratitude; no matter what my actions are, yours will not change. What you do is in perfect accord with your nature. I wish to be more like you, to take you as my model, and, though my gifts may be unnecessary for you, they are all too vital for me. I hold them out to you, then, generous ones. See—I am generous too. Our fathers’ shield, God’s word has ever been; he giveth life eternal to the dead. Holy is He; no other can compare with Him who giveth rest each Sabbath day unto His people whom He loves. With veneration and with awe we serve Him; we praise Him every day and bless His name. To God all thanks are due, the Lord of peace, He halloweth the Sabbath and doth bless the seventh day; He giveth rest unto a people knowing its delight, in remembrance of creation. The circle turns, it turns around, carrying me with it, and I turn too. These wonderful things that came from God are being returned to Him, to keep the turning going. The balance is kept: I do not only take, I also know how to give. God has given birth to another wonder in this marvelous life of mine. I will thank Him daily for the gift of life and for all He distributes from His free and open hands. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad. If you try to beat around the bush, you are very foolish—you just meet yourself coming around the bush the other way. I noted in the past that a society should try to avoid the region where the marginal contributions of those better off to the well-being of the less favoured are negative. It should operate only on the upward rising part of the contribution curve (including of course the maximum). One reason for this, we can now see, is that on this segment of the curve the criterion of mutual benefit is always fulfilled. Moreover, there is a natural sense in which the harmony of social interests is achieved; representative humans do not gain at one another’s expense since only reciprocal advantages are allowed. To be sure, the shape and slope of the contribution curve is determined in part at least by the natural lottery in native assets, and as such it is neither just nor unjust. However, suppose we think of the forty-five degree line as representing the ideal of a perfect harmony of interests; it is the contribution curve (a straight line in this case) along which everyone gains equally. Then it seems that the consistent realization of the two principles of justice tends to raise the curve closer to the ideal of a perfect harmony of interests. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
Once a society goes beyond the maximum it operates along the downward sloping part of the curve and a harmony of interests no longer exists. As the more favoured gain the less advantaged lose, and vice versa. The situation is analogous to being on an efficiency frontier. When the justice of the basic structure is involved, this is far from desirable. Thus it is to realize the ideal of the harmony of interests on terms that nature has given us, and to meet the criterion of mutual benefit, that we should stay in the region of positive contributions. A further merit of the difference principle is that it provides an interpretation of the principle of fraternity. In comparison with liberty and equality, the idea of fraternity has had a lesser place in democratic theory. It is thought to be less specifically a political concept, not in itself defining any of the democratic rights but conveying instead certain attitudes of mind and forms of conduct without which we would lose sight of the values expressed by these rights. Or closely related to this, fraternity is held to represent a certain equality of social esteem manifest in various public conventions and in the absence of manners of deference and servility. No doubt fraternity does imply these things, as well as a sense of civic friendship and social solidarity, but so understood it expresses no definite requirement. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
We have yet to find a principle of justice that matches the underlying idea. The difference principle, however, does seem to correspond to a natural meaning of fraternity: namely, to the idea of not wanting to have greater advantages unless this is to the benefit of others who are less well off. The family, in its ideal conception and often in practice, is one place where the principle of maximizing the sum of advantages is rejected. Members of a family commonly do not wish to gain unless they can do so in ways that further the interests of the rest. Now wanting to act on the difference principle has precisely this consequence. Those better circumstanced are willing to have their greater advantages only under a scheme in which this works out for the benefit of the les fortunate. The ideal of fraternity is sometimes thought to involve ties sentiment and feeling which it is unrealistic to expect between members of the wider society. And this is surely a further reason for its relative neglect in democratic theory. Many have felt that as incorporating the requirements of the difference principle, it is not an impracticable conception. It does seem that the institutions and policies which we most confidently think to be just satisfy its demands, a least in the sense that inequalities permitted by them contribute to the well-being of the less favoured. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
On this interpretation, then, the principle of fraternity is a perfectly feasible standard. Once we accept it we can associate the traditional ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity with the democratic interpretation of the two principles of justice as follows: liberty corresponds to the first principle, equality to the idea of equality in the first principle together with equality of fair opportunity, and fraternity to the difference principle. In this way we have fund a place for the conception of fraternity in the democratic interpretation of the two principles, and we see that it imposes a definite requirement on the basic structure of society. The other aspect of fraternity should not be forgotten, but the difference principle expresses its fundamental meaning from the standpoint of social justice. Now it seems evident in the light of these observations that the democratic interpretations of the two principles will not lead to a meritocratic society. This form of social order follows the principle of careers open to talents and uses equality of opportunity as a way of releasing human’s energies in the pursuit of economic prosperity and political dominion. There exists a marked disparity between the upper and lower classes in both means of life and the rights and privileges of organizational authority. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
The culture of the poorer strata is impoverished while that of the governing and technocratic elite is securely based on the service of the national ends of power and wealth. Equality of opportunity means an equal chance to leave the less fortunate behind in the personal quest for influence and social position. Thus a meritocratic society is a danger for the other interpretations of the principles of justice but not for the democratic conception. For, as we have just seen, the difference principle transforms the aims of society in fundamental respects. This consequence is even more obvious once we note that we must when necessary take into account the essential primary good of self-respect and the fact that a well-ordered society is a social union of social unions. It follows that the confident sense of their own worth should be sought for the least favoured and this limits the forms of hierarchy and the degrees of inequality that justice permits. Thus, for example, resources for education are not to be allotted solely or necessarily mainly according to their return as estimated in productive trained abilities, but also according to their worth in enriching the personal and social life of citizens, including here the less favoured. As a society progresses the latter consideration becomes increasingly more important. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
These remarks must suffice to sketch the conception of social justice expressed by the two principles for institutions. Before taking up the principles for individuals I should mention one further question. I have assumed so far that the distribution of natural assets is a fact of nature and that no attempt is made to change it, or even to take it into account. However, to some extent this distribution is bound to be affected by the social system. A caste system, for example, tends to divide society into separate biological populations, while an open society encourages the widest genetic diversity. In addition, it is possible to adopt eugenic policies, more or less explicit. I shall not consider questions of eugenics, confining myself throughout to the traditional concerns of social justice. We should note, though, that it is not in general to the advantage of the less fortunate to propose policies which reduce the talents of others. Instead, by accepting the difference principle, they view the greater abilities as a social asset to be used for the common advantage. However, it is also in the interest of each to have greater natural assets. This enables one to pursue a preferred plan of life. In the original position, then, the parties want to insure for their descendants the best genetic endowment (assuming their own to be fixed). #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
The pursuit of reasonable policies in this regard is something that earlier generations owe to later ones, this being a question that arises between generations. Thus over time a society is to take steps at least to preserve the general level of natural abilities and to prevent the diffusion of serious defects. These measures are to be guided by principles that the parties would be willing to consent to for the sake of their successors. I mention this speculative and difficult matter to indicate once again the manner in which the difference principle is likely to transform problems of social justice. We might conjecture that in the long run, if there is an upper bound ability, we would eventually reach a society with the greatest equal liberty the members of which enjoy the greatest equal talent. There is something about clarity in myself, and about human beauty available to me in anyone I might work with, that I have a grip on now, unexpected ways, even when I “love.” Community tensions, racial and otherwise, can be eased by using the person-centered approach to empower the people on both sides of the conflict. Sometimes the dominant group has no idea that tensions are brewing, they think everything is fine because there is no overt discrimination. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
However, people in the non-dominant culture in the community may feel oppressed, believe hat the community is not responsive to their needs, and harbour feelings ranging from passive resignation to burning resentment. That is why it helps to have leaders in the community who are trained facilitators of expression and communication and it is important for these leaders to be focused on communication, not on taking action. The conversations are personal but focused on community issues. There is talk about unemployment. There is an airing of frustrations with people wanting to make changes to the colours of their houses and landscaping because it disrupts the unity of the community. They also discuss educational concerns that their children are having. Thus, the major topics are community issues but set in a personal framework. The non-dominant culture was actually disheartened to be reconfronted with the lack of solidarity in their own group, and this disunity was a barrier to improving their own situation. However, the dominant culture thought they all got along and were happy. One of the most characteristic discoveries in these meetings was the attitudes of the participants, no matter what their backgrounds or ages, were more similar than they had supposed. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
When they discussed their children or need for jobs, feelings were the same on both sides of the pond. Both the dominant group and non-dominant culture discovered how very much alike they were in their hops for, and their problems with, their children. However, after much consideration, it was also discovered that the dominant group felt discriminated against as well because people look at them like they have no problems and everything is their fault. Nonetheless, they also face discrimination in the work place and racism in society, but keep it to themselves. All of this community discussion was accomplished through a $50,000.00 grant from the federal government. It allowed individuals on both sides of the track to experience and use their power because they were able to realize their strengths through open expression and personal communication. It was possible to observe what happens in a group where the bitterness involves generations of economic, religious, and cultural rifts. People often forget that flareups are more than just about one incident. During the sessions the hatreds, the suspicious, the mistrusts of feuding groups were very evident, sometime covert form, gradually becoming more open in their expression. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
By discussing these concerns in an educated manner, these centuries-old hatreds were not only softened but, in some instances, deeply changed. It is evidence that facilitative attitudes can create an atmosphere in which open expression can occur. Open expression, in this kind of climate, leads to communication. Better communication very often leads to understanding, and understanding washes away many of the ancient barriers. So rapid was the progress, so significant the changes, that some of the people apologized for being inconsiderate in the past. And the reason society is in such an uproar is because in the past, opposition would have endangered the lives of the speakers, so it festered. Encounter groups need to be done at a street-by-street level. When will this come about? It will happen when the concerned public makes up its mind that the problem is so serious that something must be done. Many cities are too large for one town hall meeting to address the entire community and the representatives of their communities should consider hosting meeting in their district to figure out what their people need. It is not experience or personnel or solid evidence that is lacking. It is the public will. The public is not yet convinced that there are any possible solutions, and even if there were, it is not willing—yet—to take the risk. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
As mentioned before, many of the dominant culture often feel vilified as the abuse is heaped on them. The rage is overwhelming. There are several natural reactions on the part of the dominant culture which may not come across to people unwilling to listen. However, rage need to be heard. This does not mean that it simply needs to be listened to. It needs to be accepted, taken within, and understood empathically. While the diatribes and accusations appears to be deliberate attempts to hurt the dominant culture—an act of catharsis to dissolve centuries of abuse, oppression, and injustice—the truth about rage is that is only dissolves when it is really heard and understood, without reservation. Afterwards, the non-dominant culture change in what seems a miraculous way, as though a weight has been lifted from their shoulders. To achieve this kind of manifestation of empathic listening the dominant culture need to listen to their own feelings too, their feelings of anger and resentment at “unjust” accusations. At some point they too will need to express these, but the primary task is to enter empathically the non-dominant cultures World of hate and bitterness and resentment and to know that World as an understandable, acceptable part of reality. #Randolphharris 11 of 26
In working with international groups it is fascinating to watch the development of appreciation for the customs and beliefs of very diverse nationalities, races, and cultures. They reactions of the participants and facilitators to the person-centered approach has been overwhelmingly beneficial. They speak of loss of fear in trying to communicate, a feeling of being heard, and an awareness of the beauty and richness of cultural differences. Difficult to describe in words—the giving of ourselves, the dropping of masks, and all feelings of having to be nice, of having to do anything. The fullness of being able to say from morning to night what one is thinking and feeling allows insight into a community, their lives, the culture they live in, their different roles in society, how other people see them as people, and as a part of a culture. Sometimes people find acceptance, and then realize they did not want to be accepted, did not need to be accepted by everyone in the community. It is okay to be mutually indifferent. People learn to accept rejection as well as acceptance, and not be afraid of their strength, as a man, woman, child, or person. One of the most striking things about international groups is that national and racial and cultural differences some to seem unimportant as the person is discovered. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
In spite of all the once perceived differences, there is a great potential for understanding and closeness in the human issues the community is all trying to cope with. It turns out a lot of times what is really frustrating people in problems in their own house. After group meetings, the community comes back together an individuals report, “I have found my family again”; “I was not being honest with myself”; “I can cry, show feeling, instead of constantly joking”; “If I am going to change, can change, or dare to change, I do no know yet, but I am surer of myself”; “I am more self-confident”; “I have learned to better trust my feelings.” It is in being human which dissolves the barriers and brings closeness. This appears to be the result when persons of highly divergent cultures are empowered by being heard and accepted and permitted to be self-directed. This is the interpersonal politics of a cross-cultural application of the person-centered approach. Whether we are speaking of religious differences or bitterness based in poverty versus wealth or mistrust rooted in differing cultural customs or the seething rage growing out of racial discrimination or deadly centuries-old feuds involving a number of these elements, we are not without knowledge of, and experience in, utilizing interpersonal skills which help to resolve these tensions. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
We need to improve our skills. We need to recognize the problems that will emerge if these efforts are multiplied 100- or 1,000-fold. However, experience with a person-centered approach indicates that there is no basic reason for despair. We have made progress in setting up test-tube solutions. When the World is ready, we can say tentatively and with humility that we are ready to begin. Throughout every example there runs a consistent thread of interpersonal politics. The individual is not manipulated by powerful leadership; is not converted by some charismatic figure; is enabled to become more of self, more expressive, more open to feelings, good or bad. And it is out of that more complete and powerful humanness that person touches person, communication becomes real, tensions are reduced, and relationships become expressive and understanding, with an acceptance of the negative as well as the beneficial. If one party or the others is able to take steps in the direction of providing facilitative conditions, then this self-empowered relationship can become constructively changing and growthful. Where power is relatively equal, either party can provide the conditions for change. Where power is unequal, or where one is perceived as more powerful—the teacher or administrator are examples—the first steps must be taken by the perceived leader, the perceived power. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
The attitudes that make for change and growth and improved relationships are not mysterious, even though they may be difficult to obtain. One is the willingness to “indwell” in the perceived reality of the other; a willingness to step into one’s private World and perceive it as if it were one’s own. The more such profound understanding occurs, the more tensions relax, fresh insights occur, and communication become possible. Another facilitative attitude is the valuing and respecting and caring for the other person. The more this exists, the more the individual gains in self-esteem, and hence in a more responsible and responsive stance toward others. Furthermore, realness and absence of façade in one party draws out realness in the other, and genuine meeting becomes possible. The revolutionary nature of this seemingly simple, straightforward approach threatens family life as it has existed in the past. It turns education topsy-turvy. It changes the whole pattern of the helping professions. It threatens the number, the power, and the importance of supervisors and administrators in industry or any other organization. It is threatening to both militants and conservatives alike in social issues, interracial tensions, international disputes. It is a genuinely new approach, though not necessarily in its ideas, which can be shown to have roots. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
What is new and highly threatening to the establishment is that it present evidence to show that it works. It is not a pie-in-the-sky ideology that can be ignored as unrealistic. In every area I have mentioned, it has been shown to be practical, constructive, and effective. It is the realization that it is a viable alternative to our present ways of seizing and using power that makes it most threatening of all. It is, not only in principle but in cold fact, a quiet revolution. A person living by God’ grace will also clothe oneself with humility. Unfortunately this particular fruit of the Spirit is not eagerly sought after by most believers. Perhaps that is because it is often confused with self-depreciation, which denies there is any good or worth in us. This false nation of humility causes us to see ourselves only as “worm Jacob” and “little Israel” without at the same time seeing ourselves becoming might threshing sledges of God’s grace at work in us. Christian humility does not consist in denying what there is of good in us; but in an abiding sense of ill-desert, and in the consciousness that what we have of good is due to the grace of God. Humility, then, gives credit where credit is due, namely to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
Pride, which is the opposite of humility, seeks to find within ourselves some innate goodness or even to ascribe to our own commitment or faithfulness the causes of any blessings of God in our lives. Pride might say, for example, “Because I have been faithful and obedient, God has blessed me”; whereas humility would say, “Because of God’s grace at work in me, I have been motivated and enabled to be faithful and obedient. Humility beings with God’s grace and recognizes that the good in us in the form of Christlike character, and the good done by us in service to God and other people, is totally undeserved on our part and is due to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. However, humility does not deny the evidences of Hos gracious work in us and through us. To do so would be to dishonour God as much as to ascribe the cause and results of His working to ourselves. Jesus not only said, “No branch can bear fruit by itself,” but He also said, “If a human remains in me and I in one, one will bear much fruit,” reports John 15.4-5. To remain, or to use the word we are more familiar with, to abide in Christ is to set aside our own wisdom, strength, and merit in order to draw all from Him. In other words, to abide in Christ is the same as to depend totally on God’s grace, both in the realm of ability and in the real of merit. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
However, Jesus did say that when we abide in Him, when we depend on the grace of God, we will bear much fruit. So it is not honouring to God, nor is it a mark of true humility to refuse to see the good produced in us or through us. Humility, then, is a recognition that we are at the same time “worm Jacob” and a mighty threshing sledge—completely weak and helpless in ourselves, but powerful and useful by the grace of God. We have been looking at humility in a vertical dimension—that is, in our relationship to God—recognizing that all the good we have and do is from Him. However, there is a horizontal dimension of humility in relationship to other people. Pride, in relation to other people, is comparing ourselves with others and seeing ourselves as superior to them in some way—whether it be in character, conduct, or achievement. One of the worst forms of pride is spiritual pride, an attitude that I am more holy, or righteous, or faithful, or obedient, or more fruitful in evangelism than others. Humility toward others, then, is once again a recognition that all we are and do that is of any worth is a gift of God’s grace. Hence, humility turns the temptation to pride into an occasion for gratitude to God for what He has done in and through us. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
There is another aspect of humility in relation to other person. Paul probably had this aspect in mind when he said in Colossians 3.12 that we should clothe ourselves with humility. The virtue admired by pagans [in Paul’s day] was domination, powerful self-assertion, assuming a position above other humans; hence [humility] was despicable to the pagan mind, a poor, low mind that could not assert itself and lord it over anybody. Unfortunately, this self-assertive, domineering attitude was not limited to Paul’s day; it is still with us today and, even more unfortunately, is found among Christians. However, Jesus took the pagan meaning of humility and turned it upside down. He washed His disciples’ feet—the usual task of the most lowly servant—and told His disciples they should follow Hid example (see John 13.1-15). He said, “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? However, I am among you as the one who serves,” reports Luke 22.27. Above all, Jesus laid aside His glory and became the ultimate servant, dying for us on the cross (see Philippians 2.5-11). By His actions, Jesus turned what was deemed a weakness by pagans into a strength and virtue for Christians. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
The person who wants to experience God’s transforming grace in one’s life must be prepared to let the Holy Spirit transform self-assertiveness into Christlike humility and servanthood. “And now it came to pass that when Nephi had said these words, behold, there were humans who were judges, who also belonged to the secret band of Gadianton, and they were angry, and they cried out against him, saying unto the people: Why do ye not seize upon this man and bring him forth, that he may be condemned according to the crime which he has done? Why seest thou this man, and hearest him revile against this people and against our law? For behold, Nephi had spoken unto them concerning the corruptness of their law; yea, many things did Nephi speak which cannot be written; and nothing did he speak which was contrary to the commandments of God. And those judges were angry with him because he spake plainly unto them concerning their secret works of darkness; nevertheless, they durst not lay their own hands upon him, for they feared the people lest they should cry out against them. Therefore they did cry unto the people, saying: Why do you suffer this man to revile against us? For behold he doth condemn all this people, even unto destruction. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
“Yea, and also that these our great cities shall be take from us, that we shall have no place in them. And now we know that this is impossible, for behold, we are powerful, and our cities great, therefore our enemies can have no power over us. And it came to pass that thus they did stir up the people to anger against Nephi, and raised contentions among them; for there were some who did cry out: Let this man alone, for he is a good man, and those things which he saith will surely come to pas except we repent; yea, behold, all the judgments will come upon us which he has testified unto us; for we know that he has testified aright unto us concerning our iniquities. And behold they are many, and he knoweth as well all things which shall befall us as he knoweth of our iniquities; yea, and behold, if he had not been a prophet he could not have testified concerning those things. And it came to pass that those people who sought to destroy Nephi were compelled because of their fear, that they did not lay their hands on him; therefore he began again to speak unto them, seeing that he had gained favour in the eyes of some, insomuch that the remainder of them did fear. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
Therefore he was constrained to speak more unto them saying: Behold, my brethren, have ye no read that God gave power unto one man, even Moses, to smite upon the waters of the Red Sea, and they parted hither and thither, insomuch that the Israelites, who were our fathers, came through upon dry ground, and the water closed upon the armies of the Egyptians and swallowed them up? And now behold, if God gave unto this man such power, then why should ye dispute among yourselves, and say that he hath given unto me no power whereby I may know concerning the judgments that shall come upon you except ye repent? However, behold, ye not only deny my words, but ye also deny all the words which have been spoken by our fathers, and also the words which were spoken by this man, Moses, who had such great power given unto him, yea, the words which he hath spoken concerning the coming of the Messiah. Yea, did he not bear record that the Son of God should come? And as he lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so shall he be lifted up who should come. And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even unto that life which is eternal. And now behold, Moses did not only testify of these things, but also all the holy prophets, from his days even to the days of Abraham. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26
“Yea, and behold, Abraham saw of his coming, and was filled with gladness and did rejoice. Yea, and behold I say unto you, that Abraham not only knew of these things, but there were many before the days of Abraham who were called by the order of God; yea, even after the order of his Son; and this that it should be shown unto the people, a great many thousand years before his coming, that even redemption should come unto them. And now I would that ye should know, that even since the days of Abraham there have been many prophets that have testified these things; yea, behold, the prophet Zenos did testify boldly; for the which he was slain. And behold, also Zenock, and also Ezias, and also Isaiah, and Jeremiah, (Jeremiah being that same prophet who testified of the destruction of Jerusalem) and now we know that Jerusalem was destroyed according to the words of Jeremiah. O then why no the Son of God come, according to his prophecy? And now will you dispute that Jerusalem was destroyed? Will ye say that the sons of Zedekiah were not slain, all except it were Mulek? Yea, and do ye not behold that the seed of Zedekiah are with us, and they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem? But behold, this is not all. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“Our father Lehi was driven out of Jerusalem because he testified of these things. Nephi also testified of these things, and also almost all of our fathers, even down to this time; yea, they have testified of the coming of Christ, and have looked forward, and have rejoiced in his day which is to come. And behold, he is God, and he is with them, and he did manifest himself unto them, that they were redeemed by him; and they gave unto him glory, because of that which is to come. And now, seeing ye know these things cannot deny them except ye shall lie, therefore in this ye have sinned, for ye have rejected all these things, notwithstanding so many evidences which ye have received; yea, even ye have received all things, both things in Heaven, and all thing which are in the Earth, as a witness that they are true. However, behold, ye have rejected the truth, and rebelled against your holy God; and even at this time; instead of laying up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where nothing doth corrupt, and where nothing can come which is unclean, ye are heaping up for yourselves wrath against the day of judgment. Yea, even at this time ye are ripening, because of your murders and your fornication and wickedness, for everlasting destruction; yea, and except ye repent it will come unto you soon. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26
“Yea, behold it is now even at your doors; yea, go ye in unto the judgment-seat, and search; and behold, your judge is murdered, and he lieth in his blood; and he hath been murdered by his brother, who seeketh to sit in the judgment-seat. And behold, they both belong to your secret band, whose author is Gadianton and the evil one who seekth to destroy the souls of humans,” reports Helaman 8.1-28. Thanks can be given for individual blessings or for general ones. If you pray to God for healing and you are healed, thank him. Do not let the fact the doctor gave you antibiotics or a vaccine serve as an excuse for not doing so. You prayed, you owe, and who is to say that God had not worked through the medium of the doctor or medication? Thank you, O mighty God, for all you have done for me. May I not forget you, though the World turn against me. Though I fall with my enemies rejoicing about me, it will be your presence that will comfort me, and I will still thank you for the incomparable rightness of every moment. O Lord, guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile, and to those who slander me, let me give no heed. May my soul be humble and forgiving to all. Open Thou my hear, O Lord, unto Thy sacred Law, that Thy statutes I may know and all Thy truths pursue. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
Bring to naught designs of those who seek to do me ill; speedily defeat their aims and thwart their purposes for Thine own sake, for Thine own power, for Thy holiness and Law. That Thy loved ones be delivered, answer us, O Lord, and save with Thy redeeming power. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto Thee, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Thou who establishest peace in the Heavens, grant peace unto us and unto all Israel. May it by Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, to please grant our portion in Thy Torah and may the Temple be rebuilt in our day. There we ill serve Thee with awe as in the days of old. The gifts God gives me are many and wonderful and I am grateful to God for His generosity. Knowing that it would be wrong to forget God, I life my voice in thankfulness. Holy One, thank you, for all that you have done. Standing in the presence of might God, may mind is turned toward all I have been given. I thank God, as is only His due, for He pours out blessings on all His children. It is only fair to thank You, blessed One: God has given me so much; I give to You from my little. Almighty God, may we be fulfilled with Thy grace and Heavenly benediction, not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offenses. Thank you, Almighty and immortal God. Amen. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
Cresleigh Homes
The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters. The great room is spacious and full of natural light. The Owner’s suite is nestled in the rear of the home separate from the secondary bedrooms, providing maximum privacy. Enjoy a spa like experience in the large bathroom with a walk-in shower and free-standing soaking tub.
Take a trip to #CresleighRanch in today’s blog post! We’re featuring Residence One at #BrightonStation and exploring the features that make these homes unique. The blog is live on our website NOW! 🙌
Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Google Mini to help connect everything together! https://cresleigh.com/blog/
The American Dream is one of success, home ownership, college education for one’s children, and have a secure job to provide these and other goals. The Declaration of Independence states the principles that underlie the American Dream: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all humans are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
You Cannot Run Away from Your Weakness–Promises and Pie Crust are Made to be Broken!
To expect truth to come from thinking signifies that we mistake the need to think with the urge to know. Undeserved inequalities call for redress; and since inequalities of birth and natural endowment are undeserved, these inequalities are to be somehow compensated for. Thus the principle holds that in order to treat all persons equally, to provide genuine equality of opportunity, society must give more attention to those with fewer native assets and to those born into less favourable social positions. The idea is to redress the bias of contingencies in the direction of equality. In pursuit of this principle greater resources might be spent on the education of the less rather than more intelligent, at least over a certain time of life, say the earlier years of school. Now the principle of redress has not to my knowledge been proposed as the sole criterion of justice, as the single aim of the social order. It is plausible as most such principles are only as a prima facie principle, one that is to be weighed in the balance with others. For example, we are to weigh it against the principle to improve the average standard of life, or to advance the common good. However, whatever other principles we hold, the claims of redress are to be taken into account. It is thought to represent one of the elements in our conception of justice. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Now the difference principle is not of course the principle of redress. It does not require society to try to even out inherent limitations as if all were expected to compete on a fair basis in the same race. However, the difference principle would allocate resources in education, say, so as to improve the long-term expectation of the least favoured. If this end is attained by giving more attention to the better endowed, it is permissible; otherwise not. And in making this decision, the value of education should not be assessed solely in terms of economic efficiency and social welfare. Equally if not more important is the role of education in enabling a person to enjoy the culture of one’s society and to take part in its affairs, and in this way to provide for each individual a secure sense of one’s own worth. Thus although the difference principle is not the same as that of redress, it does achieve some of the intent of the latter principle. It transforms the aims of the basic structure so that the total scheme of institutions no longer emphasizes social efficiency and technocratic values. We see then that the difference principle represents, in effect, an agreement to regard the distribution of natural talents as a common asset and to share in the benefits of this distribution whatever it turns out to be. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
Those who have been favoured by nature, whoever they are, may gain from their good fortune only on terms that improve the situation of those who have lost out. The naturally advantaged are not to gain merely because they are more gifted, but only to cover the costs of training and education and for using their endowments in way that help the less fortunate as well. No one deserves one’s greater natural capacity nor merits a more favourable starting place in society. However, it does not follow that one should eliminate these distinctions. There is another way to deal with them. The basic structure can be arranged so that these contingencies work for the good of the least fortunate. Thus we are led to the difference principle if we wish to set up the social system so that no one gains or loses from one’s arbitrary place in the distribution of natural assets or one’s initial position in society without giving or receiving compensating advantages in return. In view of these remarks we may reject the contention that ordering of institutions is always defective because the distribution of natural talents and the contingencies of social circumstance are unjust, and this injustice must inevitably carry over to human arrangements. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
Occasionally this reflection is offered as an excuse for ignoring injustice, as if the refusal to acquiesce in injustice is on a par with being unable to accept death. The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts. Aristocratic and caste societies are unjust because they make these contingencies the ascriptive basis for belonging to more or less enclosed and privileged social classes. The basic structure of these societies incorporates the arbitrariness found in nature. However, there is no necessity for humans to resign themselves to these contingencies. The social system is not an unchangeable order beyond human control but a pattern of human action. In justice as fairness humans agree to share one another’s fate. In designing institutions, only when doing so is for the common benefit, they undertake to avail themselves of the accidents of nature and social circumstance. The two principles are a fair way of meeting the arbitrariness of fortune; and while no doubt imperfect in other ways, the institutions which satisfy these principles are unjust. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
A further point is that the difference principle expresses a conception or reciprocity. It is a principle of mutual benefit. We have seen that, at least when chain connection holds, each representative human can accept the basic structure as designed to advance one’s interests. The social order can be justified to everyone and in particular to those who are least favoured; and in this sense it is egalitarian. However, it seems necessary to consider in an intuitive way how the condition of mutual benefit is satisfied. Consider any two representative humans A and B, and let B be the one who is less favoured. Actually, since we are most interested in the comparison with the least favoured human, let us assume that B is this individual. Now B can accept A’s being better off since A’s advantages have been gained in ways that improve B’s prospects. If A were not allowed one’s better position, B would be even worse off than one is. The difficulty is to show that A has no grounds for complaint. Perhaps one is required to have less than one might since one’s having more would result in some loss to B. Now what can be said to the more favoured human? To being with, it is clear that the well-being of each depends on a scheme of social cooperation without which no one could have a satisfactory life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
Secondly, we can ask for the willing cooperation of everyone only if the terms of the scheme are reasonable. The difference principle, then, seems to be a fair basis on which those better endowed, or more fortunate in their social circumstances, could expect others to collaborate with them when some workable arrangement is a necessary condition of the good of all. There is a natural inclination to object that those better situated deserve their greater advantages whether or not they are to the benefit of others. At this point it is necessary to be clear about the notion of desert. It is perfectly true that given a just system of cooperation as a scheme of public rules and the expectations set up by it, those who, with the prospect of improving their condition, have done what the system announces that it will reward are entitled to their advantages. In this sense the more fortunate have a claim to their better situation; their claims are legitimate expectations established by social institutions, and the community is obligated to meet them. However, this sense of desert presupposes the existence of the cooperative scheme; it is irrelevant to the question whether in the first place the scheme is to be designed in accordance with the difference principle. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
Perhaps some will think that the person with greater natural endowments deserves those assets and the superior character that made their development possible. Because one is more worthy in this sense, one deserves the greater advantages that one could achieve with them. This view, however, is surely incorrect. It seems to be one of fixed point of our considered judgments that no one deserves one’s place in the distribution of native endowments, any more than one deserves one’s initial starting place in society. The assertion that a human deserves one’s initial starting place in society. The assertion that a human deserves the superior character that enables one to make the effort to cultivate one’s abilities is equally problematic; for one’s character depends in large part upon fortunate family and social circumstances for which one can claim no credit. The notion of desert seems not to apply to these cases. Thus the more advantaged representative human cannot day that one deserves and therefore has a right to a scheme of cooperation in which one is permitted to acquire benefits in ways that do not contribute to the welfare of others. There is no basis for one’s making this claim. From the standpoint of common sense, then, the difference principle appears to be acceptable both to the more advantaged and to the less advantaged individual. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
Of course, none of this is strictly speaking an argument for the principle, since in a contract theory argument are made from the point of view of the original position. However, these intuitive considerations help to clarify the nature of the principle and the sense in which it is egalitarian. Nonetheless, relatively marginalized groups need jobs or equal pay or civil rights or educational opportunities. Still, when we let people face these problem situations in their own way, that is how true self-initiated learning takes place. Gradually they become fully aware of their World and its problems. Then they begin to seek answers. The issues which have come from the people return to them—not as content to be deposited, but as problems to be solved. Some people regard themselves as lazy, unfit, worthless, les free than an animal. Because of this they feel attracted to the oppressors and their way of life, and their highest dream is to be like the tyrant, and oppress others. However, gradually the self-concept and the goal change. Less affluent (and sometimes the rich are victims of oppression) makes such statements as these: “I now realize I am human, an educated person.” “We were blind, now our eyes have been opened.” “Now we will no longer be a dead weight on the cooperative farm.” “I work, and working I transform the World.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
People who have been oppressed change their goals and they eventually no longer want to be like the oppressor, but they envision a new type of social system, more human. Then they begin to take considered steps to change the terrible conditions under which they live. The important thing is for people to come to feel like masters of their thinking and views of the World explicitly or implicitly manifest in their own suggestions and those of their comrades. However, sometimes their anger at professionals, at the ack of health services, at the lack of any voice in their own health care becomes so strong that some of the professionals are frightened, while others are self-righteously angry in response. Still some people get upset when communication starts because they think, “See, what you are accomplishing is better, less angry communication! You are destroying the possibility of revolutionary change! You are defusing the hatred and bitterness which alone can spark any real change for the oppressed!” Are we fiddling while Rome burns? What possible difference can a new approach to family or to psychotherapy make when our very planet is threatened with dissolution? We have to subordinate these ancient quarrels and launch a global partnership. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
The discrepancy in wealth and income between the “haves” and “have-nots” of the World is laying a basis for present as well as future hatreds. Groups roam the World, wreaking violence on totally innocent people. There seems no end to the list of undying feuds between races, cultures, and nations. Does a person-centered approach in psychotherapy have anything useful to offer in solving these immense and dangerous global issues? We must attempt to establish a sense of common cause among the vastly disparate and competing nations of the World. It requires that a nation moves beyond self-interest defined in terms of power and concentration on the common interests defined in terms of realizing a human’s fullest potentialities. There is also a desire for citizens to develop their potentialities and that goal is one of the few items on which most of the nations of the World might agree. And it is precisely at this point that experience with a person-centered approach may have something to offer. Ina time of major social change, people become acutely aware of the problem and frustrated by the superficial attempts at correction. Then, sometime suddenly, the public as a whole sees the problem clearly, looks more deeply for solutions, and discovers that the answers on a small scale, are already at hand. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
There develops a clear public will to deal with the problem, and enormous forces are set in motion. This does not mean that a miraculous solution is quickly reached, because most social problems—and technological problems too—are highly complex, and many unforeseen difficulties arise. However, once the corner has been turned, once that amorphous creature “the public” has made a decision to attack the problem, there is a great deal of forward movement. The telephone, the Internet, the radio, the automobile all went through a slow gestation period before the public realized the value of each, and demanded their rapid development. For generations different groups in American were denied the right to vote and could not hope to receive equal justice before the law. However, changes are beginning to occur, sometimes they happen with surprising speed, sometimes with tragic slowness. Yet, they are being made. Just when it seems too late, the great social collective mind grasps the seriousness of a problem and begins to move dramatically ahead. Because the collective decision is so late, the outcome is always in doubt—the World may still be drowned by overpopulation, we may still die of pollution, we may still see violent racial and gender strife—but at least we are making massive efforts to deal with those issues. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
It is this knowledge of the past that gives me courage to propose methods for dealing with intercultural, interracial, interpersonal, and international tensions. I believe that if the public becomes truly aware that present-day policies are targeted directly toward the destruction of all of us, then they may decide to look for alternatives. And the person-centered approach offers just such an alternative. Conflict within the individual is the most basic of all feuds and tensions. Some people seen outwardly like reasonably acceptable people, but they are lying to themselves. Inwardly they feel they are frauds, worthless, incompetent, full of bad impulses and evil intentions. There is an irreconcilable discrepancy between what they seem to be and what they really are. If people knew them as they are, they would reject them. Here is a power struggle within the person. In order to get by, people must keep up their façade, yet this fraudulent front is continually undermined by who they really are. No matter whichever might win out, life will be dissatisfying or frightening, or both. Individuals must realize that they can work openly for approval of others and can strive for recognition, but they can also resist control by others. Some of the conflicts that create rifts between people are marital conflict, sibling rivalry, athletic or academic cutthroat competition, and racial, gender, and educational differences. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
However, the only thing in a person’s life that makes one different is the thoughts in one’s mind that you know and no one else does. No matter how rich or poor, the person’s skin colour or gender, when someone opens up to you it is like a formula that grants access to their soul. You may learn you are closer to this person than you ever thought possible. Why? Because it is in our humanness—the shared conflicts, and feelings, learnings, perplexities, “experiences”—that we can come together, in spite of lives that in their externals probably have nothing in common, except that we were both born and have lived. One of our greatest difficulties in any dispute is to recognize or, even more difficult, to accept that the certitude we feel about our own rightness and goodness is equaled by the certitude of the opposing individual or group abut their rightness and goodness. If tension is to be reduced, it is this pattern that must somehow be dissolved. Here is where a person-centered approach is at its most powerful. When people can listen to their own feelings of hurt and distrust, the conflict over “principles” becomes completely redefined. It is now a question of the feelings, the needs, the fears of each person. New channels of communication are opened up. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
The politics of a head-on confrontation over decision-making changes completely when each person is empowered to be all of oneself—feelings, fears, ideas, hopes, distrusts. A decision is then reached on a human basis, not as a result of a political clash. Listening is important. It provides a germinal took for radical self-experience, interaction, and group process. When we listen to others, coming from a rich, as yet untapped, understanding of and access to the locus of power in the individuals, we can also relearn what it means to be ourselves. Furthermore, gratitude is a handmaiden of contentment. An ever-growing attitude of gratitude will certainly make us more content since we will be focusing more on what we do have, both spiritually and materially, than on what we do not have. However, contentment is more than focusing on what we have. It is focusing on the fact that all we do have, we have by the grace of God. We do not deserve anything we have, materially or spiritually. It is all by God’s grace. Discontent usually arises when we think we are not getting what we deserve, or when we think we are not getting as much as someone else. We have already seen the corrosive effect of discontent in the attitude of those who worked all day in the vineyard. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
They were discontent and consequently unhappy, because they felt they had earned more than the workers who were hired at the eleventh hour. How different from their attitude was Paul’s who regarded himself not only as “the least of the apostles” but even as “less than the least of all God’s people” (1 Corinthians 15.9, Ephesians 3.8). Paul truly regarded himself as an “eleventh hour” worker in God’s vineyard, as one who was receiving a full say’s wages, and more, for one hour’s work. Discontent is a sign that we are living by works, that we think we deserve more than we are getting, that in some way God is not being fair to us. One of the more helpful passages of Scripture on this subject is Luke 17.7-10: “Supposed one of you had a servant plowing or looking after sheep. Would one say to the servant when one comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would one not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would one thank the servant because one did what one was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
I am sure this passage of Scripture offends many people’s sense of fairness just as much as does the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The master of the servant seems completely selfish and callous to needs of his servant. However, Jesus was not commending the master, He was simply describing conditions as they existed. The issue was, given the culture of the day, who had a right to have expectations of whom? Clearly, the servant, when he had fulfilled his duties, had no right to expect either gratitude or consideration. He had simply done what he was supposed to do. God is no selfish and callous like the master in Jesus’s story. He is the generous and gracious landowner we saw described in the parable of the workers in the vineyard. However, we are the servants of Luke 17.7-10. When we have done everything we were told to do—and who of us has come anywhere close to that standard?—we should still say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty. If we want to live by what we deserve, God could say, “All right, let us first add up your debits, and ten we will think about your credits.” Our problem is, we do not recognize our debits. We do not recognize how far, far short we come every day in doing what we are supposed to do. And because of that, we tend to live by works instead of by grace in our daily relationship with God. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
Paul said, “Godliness with contentment is great gain,” reports 1 Timothy 6.6. All the wealth and prestige in the World with discontentment results in poverty of spirit. However, contentment arising in our souls from living by grace—that is, from realizing we have not received what we actually deserved, but daily receive what we do not deserve—bring great wealth of spirit, even if we are living in poverty and obscurity. I commend to you for meditation in respect to contentment Luke 17.10, which sums up Jesus’ teaching in that story. “Behold, now it came to pass in the sixty and ninth year of the reign of the judges over the people of the Nephites, that Nephi, the son of Helaman, returned to the land of Zarahemla from the land northward. For he had been forth among the people who were in the land northward, and did preach the word of God unto them, and did prophesy many things unto them. And they did reject all his words, insomuch that he could not stay among them, but returned again unto the land of his nativity. And seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment-seats—having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of humans. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the World, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and skill, and do according to their own wills—now this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites, in the space of not many years; and when Nephi saw it, his heart was swollen with sorrow within his breast; and he did exclaim in the agony of his soul: Oh, that I could have had my days in the days when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem, that I could have joyed with him in the promised land; then were his people easy to ne entreated, firm to keep the commandments of God, and slow to be led to do iniquity; and they were quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord—yea, if my days could have been in those days, then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren. However, behold, I am cosigned that these are my days, and that my soul shall be filled with sorrow because of this wickedness of my brethren. And behold, now it came to pass that it was upon a tower, which was in the garden of Nephi, which was by the highway which led to the chief market, which was in the city of Zarahemla. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
“Therefore, Nephi had bowed himself upon the tower which was in his garden, which tower was also near unto the garden gate by which led the highway. And it came to pass that there were certain people passing by and saw Nephi as he was pouring out his soul unto God upon the tower; and they ran and told the people what they had seen, and the people came together in multitudes that they might know the cause of so great mourning for the wickedness of the people. And now, when Nephi arose he beheld the multitudes of people who had gathered together. And it cam to pass that he opened his mouth and said unto them: Behold, why have ye gathered yourselves together? That I may tell you of your iniquities? Yea, because I have got upon my tower that I might pour out my soul unto my God, because of the exceeding sorrow of my heart, which is because of your iniquities! And because of my mourning and lamentation ye have gathered yourselves together, and do marvel; yea, and ye have great need because ye are given away that the devil had got so great hold upon your hearts. Yea, how could you have given way to the enticing of him who is seeking to hurl away your souls down to everlasting misery and endless wo? O repent ye, repent ye! Why will ye die? Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God. Why has he forsaken you? #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
“It is because you have hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd; yea, ye have provoked him to anger against you. And behold, instead of gathering you, except ye will repent, behold, he shall scatter you forth that ye shall become meat for dogs and wild beasts. O, how could you have forgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you? However, behold, it is to get gain, to be praised of humans, yes, and that ye might get gold and silver. And ye have set your hearts upon the riches and the vain things of this World, for the which ye do murder, and plunder, and steal, and bear false witness against your neighbour, and do all manner of iniquity. And for this cause wo shall come unto you except ye shall repent. For if ye will not repent, behold, this great city, and also all those great cities which are round about, which are in the land of our possession, shall be taken away that ye shall have no place in them; for behold, the Lord will not grant unto you strength, as he has hitherto done, to withstand against your enemies. For behold, thus saith the Lord: I will not you unto the wicked of my strength, to one more then the other, save it be unto those who repent of their sins, and hearken unto my words. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
“Now therefore, I would that ye should behold, my brethren, that is shall be better for the Lamanites than for you except ye shall repent. For behold, they are more righteous than you, for they have not sinned against that great knowledge which ye have received; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them; yea, he will lengthen out their days and increase their seed, even when thou shalt be utterly destroyed except thou shalt repent. Yea, wo be unto you because of that great abomination which has come among you; and ye have united yourselves unto it, yea, to that secret band which was established by Gadianton! Yea, wo shall come unto you because of that pride which ye have suffered to enter your hearts, which has lifted you up beyond that which is good because of your exceedingly great riches! Yea, wo be unto you because of your wickedness and abominations! And except ye repent ye shall perish; yea, even your lands shall be taken from you, and ye shall be destroyed from off the face of the Earth. Behold now, I do not say that these things shall be, of myself because it is not of myself that I know these things; but behold, I know that these things are true because the Lord God has made them known unto me, therefore I testify that they shall be,” reports Helaman 7.1-29. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
Awaken me, God, waler on the edge, Lord of beautiful music, God of wild longings. My shield and my protector, God, be. God, rescue me please. Great King, please guide and protect me. My guide is God as I ride through life. Life’s soft fluid, gently welling, source and gift to all who live, please be my protector. Defeat my foes with flashing flame, with thunder and lightning, Almighty God. Please empower me, Most High, I ask to write the truth on the tablet of life. God of beauty, please grant my desire. God, you give us so much. The entire World is a gift from You. You keep it running, and this should be acknowledged. O inscribe all the children of Thy covenant for a happy life. May all the living do homage unto Thee forever and praise Thy name in truth, O God, who art our salvation and our help. Blessed by Thou, O Lord, Beneficent One, unto whom our thanks is due. Please grant lasting peace unto Israel Thy people, for Thou art the Sovereign Lord of peace; and may it be good in Thy sight to bless Thy people Israel at all times with Thy peace. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who blesset Thy people Israel with peace. In the book of life, blessing, peace and ample sustenance, may we, together with all Thy people, the house of Israel, be remembered and inscribed before Thee for a happy life and for peace. Blessed art Thou, o Lord, who establishes peace. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
Cresleigh Homes
What is a butler’s pantry? Everything you need to know about the luxury home feature. There are some old-house features we sorely miss in today’s construction—transom windows, stained glass, vestibules, and turrets to name a few.
One Victorian England feature we are lucky enough to see making a comeback is the butler’s pantry. A butler’s pantry is a kitchen within your kitchen and it is ideal for homes that love to host parties and entertain. It is often a buffer zone between the kitchen and dining room.
It gives additional storage space to a kitchen, allows privacy in meal preparation while hosting guest, has a beverage refrigerator, and a sink. You can even add a counter top oven to make the space more functional. This luxurious features is also a better way to organize items like delicate china, crystal, and silver. The house gourmet will relish the large kitchen with its coveted butler’s pantry captured in this handsome design at #BrightonStation Residence 2. https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-2/
Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Google Mini to help connect everything together!
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I Hold it True, what’er Befall; I feel it when I Sorrow Most; ‘Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost!
Youth is not chronological age but the state of growing, learning, and changing. All people must be helped to regain the condition of youth. The two principles of justice: The first guarantees the equal basic rights and liberties needed to secure the fundamental interests of free and equal citizens and to pursue a wide range of conceptions of the good. The second principle provides fair equality of educational and employment opportunities enabling all to fairly compete for powers and positions of office; and it secures for all a guaranteed minimum of the all-purpose means (including income and wealth) that individuals need to pursue their interests and to maintain their self-respect as free and equal persons. In applying the two principles of justice to the basic structure of society one takes the position of certain representative individuals and considers how the social system looks to them. The difference, for example, requires that the higher expectations of the more advantaged contribute to the prospects of the least advantaged. Or as I sometime say more lightly, social and economic inequalities must by in the interests of the representative people in all relevant social positions. The perspective of those in these situations defines a suitably general point of view. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
However, certainly not all social positions are relevant. For not only are there farmers, say, but dairy farmers, wheat farmers, farmers working on large tracts of land, and so on for other occupations and groups indefinitely. If we must take such a multiplicity of positions into account, we cannot have a coherent and manageable theory. Therefore we need to identify certain positions as more basic than the others and as providing an appropriate standpoint for judging the social system. Thus the choice of these positions becomes part of the theory of justice. On what principle, though, are they to be identified? We must keep in mind the fundamental problem of justice and the manner in which the two principles cope with it. The primary subject of justice, is the basic structure of society. The reason for this is that its effects are so profound and pervasive, and present from birth. This structure favours some starting places over others in the division of the benefits of social cooperation. It is these inequalities which the two principles are to regulate. Once these principles are satisfied, other inequalities are allowed to arise from human’s voluntary actions in accordance with the principle of free association. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
Thus the relevant social positions are, so to speak, the starting places properly generalized and aggregated. By choosing these positions to specify the general point of view one follows the idea that the two principles attempt to mitigate the arbitrariness of natural contingency and social fortune. I suppose, then, that for the most part each person holds two relevant positions: that of equal citizenship and that defined by one’s place in the distribution of income and wealth. The relevant representative humans, therefore and the representative citizens and those who stand for the various levels of well-being. Since I assume that in general other positions are entered into voluntarily, we need not consider the point of view of humans in these positions in judging the basic structure. Indeed, we are to adjust the whole scheme to suit the preferences of those in the so-called starting places. In judging the social system we are to disregard our more specific interest and associations and look at our situation from the standpoint of these representative humans. Now as far as possible the basis structure should be appraised from the position of equal citizenship. This position is defined by the right and liberties required by principle of equal liberty and the principle of fair equality of opportunity. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
When the two principles are satisfied, all are equal citizens, and so everyone holds this position. In this sense, equal citizenship defines a general point of view. The problems of adjudicating among the fundamental liberties are settled by reference to it. Many questions of social policy can also be considered from this position. For there are matters which concern the interests of everyone and in regard to which distributive effects are immaterial or irrelevant. In these cases the principle of the common interest can be applied. According to this principle institutions are ranked by how effectively they guarantee the conditions necessary for all equally to further their sims, or by how efficiently they advance shared ends that will similarly benefit everyone. Thus reasonable regulations to maintain public order ad security, or efficient measures for public health and safety, promote the common interest in this sense. So do collective efforts for national defense in a just war. It may be suggested that maintaining public health and safety, promote the common interest in this since. So do collective efforts for national defense in a just war. It may be suggested that maintaining public health and safety or achieving victory in a just war have distributive effects: the affluent benefit more than the less affluent since the have more to lose. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
However, if social and economic inequalities are just, these effects may be left aside and the principle of the common interest applied. The standpoint of equal citizenship is the appropriate one. The definition of representative humans for judging social and economic inequalities is less satisfactory. For one thing, taking these individuals as specified by the levels of income and wealth, I assumed of power and authority to avoid an index problem. That is, I suppose that those with greater political authority, say, or those higher in institutional forms, are in general better off in other respects. On the whole, this assumption seems safe enough for our purposes. There is also a question about how many such representative humans to single out, but this is not crucial because the difference principle selects one representative for a special role. The serious difficulty is how to define the least fortunate group. Here is seems impossible to avoid certain arbitrariness. One possibility is to choose particular social position, say that of the unskilled worker, and then to count as the least advantaged all those with the average income and wealth of this group, or less. The expectation of the lowest representative human is defined as the average taken over this whole class. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
Another alternative is a definition solely in terms of relative income and wealth with no reference to social position. Thus all persons with less than half of the median income and wealth may be taken as the least advantaged segment. This definition depends only upon the lower half of the distribution and has the merit of focusing attention on the social distance between those who have least and the average citizen. Surely this gap is an essential feature of the situation of the least favoured members of society. I suppose that either of these definitions or some combination of them, will serve well enough. In any case we are to aggregate to some degree over the expectations of the worst off, and the figure selected on which to base these computations is to a certain extent ad hoc. Yet we are entitled at some point to plead practical considerations in formulating the difference principle. Sooner or later the capacity of philosophical or other arguments to make finer discriminations is bound to run out. I assume therefore that the persons in the original position understand the difference principle to be defined in one of these ways. They interpret it from the first as a limited aggregative principle and assess it as such in comparison with other standards. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
It is not as if they agreed to think of the least advantaged as literally the worst off individual and then in order to make this criterion work adopted in practice some form of averaging. Rather, it is the practicable criterion itself that is to be evaluated from the perspective of the original position. It may turn out that a more exact definition of the least favoured proves unnecessary. As far as possible, then, justice as fairness appraises the social system from the position of equal citizenship and the various levels of income and wealth. Sometimes, however, other positions may need to be taken into account. If, for example, there are unequal basic rights founded on fixed natural characteristics, these inequalities will single out relevant positions. Since these characteristics cannot be changed, the position they define count as starting places in the basic structure. Distinctions based on gender are of this type, and so are those depending upon race and culture. Thus is, say, humans are favoured in the assignment of basic rights, this inequality is justified by the difference principle (in the general interpretation) only if it is to the advantage of women and acceptable from their standpoint. And the analogous condition applies to the justification of caste systems, or racial and ethic inequalities. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
Such inequalities multiply relevant positions and complicate the application of the two principles. On the other hand, these inequalities are seldom, if ever, to the advantage of the less favoured, and therefore in a just society the smaller number of relevant positions should be ordinarily suffice. Now it is essential that the judgments made from the perspective of the relevant positions override the claims that we are prone to make in more particular situations. If we think of ourselves in terms of our more specific positions, not everyone always benefits by what the two principle require. And unless the viewpoint of the relevant position has priority, one still has a chaos of competing claims. Thus the two principles express, in effect, an understanding to order our interests by giving certain of them a special weight. For example, persons engaged in a particular industry often find that free trade is contrary to their interests. Perhaps the industry cannot remain prosperous without tariffs or other restrictions. However, if free trade is desirable from the point of view of equal citizens or of the least advantaged, it is justified even though more specific interests suffer. For we are to agree in advance to the principles of justice and their consistent application from the standpoint of certain positions. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
There is no way to guarantee the protection of everyone’s interests over each period of time once the situation of representative humans is defined more narrowly. Having acknowledged certain principles and a certain way of applying them, we are bound to accept the consequences. This does not mean, of course, that the rigors of free trade should be allowed to go unchecked. However, the arrangements for softening them are to be considered from an appropriately general perspective. The relevant social positions specify, then, the general point of view from which the two principles of justice are to be applied to the basic structure. In this way everyone’s interests are taken into account, for each person is an equal citizen and all have a place in the distribution of income and wealth or in the range of fixed natural characteristics upon which distinctions are based. Some selections of relevant positions is necessary for a coherent theory of social justice and the ones chosen should accord with its first principles. By selecting the so-called starting places one follows out the idea of mitigating the effects of natural accident and social circumstance. No one is o benefit from these contingencies except in ways that redound to the well-being of others. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
The very first character trait that should flow out of experiencing God’s grace is gratitude to Him. Everything we are and everything we do that is of any value, we owe to the grace of God. This, of course begins with our salvation. The longer I live the Christian life, the more grateful I am for the salvation God gave to me when I was an eighteen-year-old college student. Years ago I memorized Mark 8.36-37: “For what shall it profit a human, if one shall gain the whole World, and lose one’s own soul? Or what shall a human give in exchange for one’s soul?” Initially, I memorized that passage to take the gospel offer seriously. However, in recent years I have begun t mediate on those verses for my own benefit to help me realize what an infinitely priceless gift I have received in God’s gracious gift of eternal life. As I think of the message of those verses, I visualize a balance scale with all the treasures of the entire World on one tray and eternal life on the other tray. The two rays are not balanced. Rather the scale is bottomed out on the side of eternal life. In the gift of eternal life, God has given us greater treasure than all the accumulated wealthy of the whole World. Are we sufficiently grateful for this priceless gift? Do we take time to actually give thanks to God for the gift that cost Him so much? #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
Are we as grateful today as we were the day we initially experienced the forgiveness of our sins and peace with God? If we are truly living by the transforming grace of God in our daily lives, gratitude for God’s gif of eternal life through Jesus Christ will be a growing experience. We should have a greater sense of gratitude, and be more desirous of expressing that attitude to God, today than the day we were brought out of the kingdom of sin into the Kingdom of grace. God has, of course, given us so much else in Christ. Have we grown in the Christian life so that we are a bit more mature today than we were a year ago? Are we perhaps more loving and gentler today than we were a year ago? If so, where did this growth come from? It did not come from ourselves, because as Paul said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature,” reports Romans 7.18. There are only two moral forces within us: our sinful nature and the Holy Spirit empowering our new nature. If we are more Christlike today than a year ago, it is because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us, and this is by the grace of God. Certainly, we must clothe ourselves with Christlike virtues, but these same virtues are also called the fruit of the Spirit—that is, the result of His work in us. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26
One great paradox of the Christian life is that we are fully responsible for our Christian growth and at the same tie fully dependent upon the Holy Spirit to give us both the desire to grow and the ability to do it. God’s grace does not negate the need for responsible action on our part, but rather makes it possible. What about ministry? Have we accomplished some specific work for God? As we have already seen, we must admit to God, “All that we have accomplished you have done for us,” reports Isaiah 26.12. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, we are or we have done that is worthwhile, that is not the result of God’s Spirit working in us and through us. I fear that often we Christians begin to think our spiritual growth and “success” in ministry is due, at least in large measures, to our own goodness and hard work. The irony is, the more committed and diligent we are, the more susceptible we are to that temptation. We face the same temptation in a spiritual sense that Israel faced in a material way when God warned them they would be prone to say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me,” reports Deuteronomy 8.17. Let us go on to the temporal blessings of life. Are we comfortably situated in a nice home with plenty of food in the cupboard and the refrigerator? #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
Do we enjoy a reasonable degree of health? Do we have our own personal copy of the Bible (aside from the half dozen or so different translations some of us have)? Are we able to gather with other believers for worship and study of the Scriptures without fear of religious persecution? All of these blessings come to us by God’s grace, and all of them are occasions for gratitude and giving thanks to Him. It is interesting that some people use the expression “saying grace,” for the prayer of thanksgiving at meal time. I have no idea of that expression’s origin, but I suspect it was born out of a recognition that the food on the table was not only from God, but that it was there by His grace. We actually ought to “say grace” continually throughout the day for the temporal and spiritual blessings that come our way so abundantly. I know many of us are going through some difficult times, and it is tough to have a grateful spirit. However, if we stop and consider, we will recognize that we are still recipients every day of the amazing grace of God. If we are truly growing in grace, gratitude—and its expression in actually giving thanks to God—will be an ever-growing characteristic in our lives. Many adult learners have a deep sense of insecurity about their own mental abilities. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
Defensiveness and a false sense of pride can arise to protect one from feeling embarrassed about not knowing something. Intellectual embarrassment is one of the worst forms of humiliation—no one wants to come off as stupid or uninformed. I think our adult Sunday school classes have unintentionally contributed to this false sense of pride. I have spoken in hundreds of churches and have regularly observed Sunday school classes which divine into small groups to reflect on a passage or discuss an idea. Later, when the groups recombine to share their observations with the entire class, group feedback is almost always affirming no matter how inaccurate or poorly reasoned the point is. Over the years, this creates a feeling of safety in the class but at the price of generating both a false sense of pride and the mistaken notion that all opinions are equal, whether spontaneous and quickly conceived or the result of detailed study prior to class time. It also keeps adults from learning how to receive criticism for their ideas in the interest of truth and stifles growth in the ability to respond nondefensively. If we do not work on this in the safety of the company of our own brothers and sisters, we will come off as small, reactionary, and inarticulate in the public square. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
We need to give one another permission to express inadequately thought-out points to each other and create the expectation that we can learn to argue with one another, critique and defend ideas, or leave class with more work to do on a subject. All of this is in the interest of learning to reason carefully to get to the truth of what we study together. This may be a bit threatening at first, but over the long haul it will produce a church filled with people who are more secure about what they believe and why. The very forms that define our periods of study together often institutionalize false pride and a lack of intellectual growth. There is absolutely nothing wrong with admitting you do not know something or that you are currently inadequately equipped to think a topic through. What is unacceptable, however, is running from this fact and thereby giving up on intellectual and spiritual growth in the interest of avoiding embarrassment or possible rejection. We all need help in this area, and we should care enough about truth and reason to give that help. Even if we agree with one another’s conclusions, we need to dedicate ourselves for Christ’s sake to refusing to allow each other to reach those conclusions with poor argumentation and sloppy treatment of data. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
Another form of inferiority comes from the simple fact that we are evangelicals. For some time now, our culture had told us that conservative Christians are intellectually inferior, that the Christian faith is irrational, and so forth. And we constantly watch our view caricatured as the news media, hostile university professors, and others regularly build straw humans out of Christians positions and proceed to destroy those straw humans. When a community is repeatedly told that it is ignorant, it will come to believe that message whether or not it is true. Asking them to leave: What should we do about this problem? I think we need to work harder at holding forth and celebrating our past and contemporary Christian thinkers. We need to know who they are. Do you know who the top Christian intellectuals are today in various fields? Are these people and their work placed before our children as examples to be emulated? We do this for Christian sports heroes, missionaries, and public speakers, so why not do it for our intellectuals? The effect of identifying and celebrating our Christian intellectuals before one another cannot be overestimated. Even though the early church was a minority movement that faced intellectual and cultural ridicule and marginalization, it maintained internal cohesion and a courageous witness thanks in no small measure to the powerful role in the broader Christian community of Christian intellectuals and apologist. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
The early church knew who her intellectuals and apologists were, and this gave them confidence and a feeling of strength. In the same way, we must identify, celebrate, utilize, and make role models out of our Christian thinkers. And we need to celebrate the absolutely unequaled history of the intellectual life in the Christian church. If an alternative community of atheists, or anything else can rival the rich culture and intellectual leadership in church history, let someone come forth and demonstrate it. The intellectual life is our heritage as Christians, and it is time to remind ourselves of this. However, if one becomes so dependent that every problem as it arises is at once put before the teacher for solution, the consequence will eventually be an utter helplessness before all problems. The capacities for independent judgment, for taking the initiative, for showing creativeness and forming decisions, will decay and even disappear. Becoming a satellite and revolving around a guru may be beneficial to a human. However, when this revolution become a permanent one, the harm beings, and one will never again be able to move into a fresh orbit and fulfill the evolutionary intention secreted within one’s own being. It is absolutely indispensable for the disciples to learn how to live their own lives. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
The guide must not only be competent to do what one proposes to do, but the disciple also must be qualified to take advantage of it. Rare is the true disciple. It is better to have a few earnest students who willingly work hard for their self-improvement than a mass of students who do nothing more than read books and talk amongst themselves. The kind of student one likes to see, but unfortunately rarely does see, blends a fine moral character with good intelligence and sound practicality, all topped by profound mystical intuition and a proper sense of reverence. Such a one is thoroughly dependable and reliable, one’s words are not mere froth of emotion to be quickly forgotten. When a seeker’s determination to follow the quest become tough enough not to be deviated by adversity or by luxury, one is ready for a teacher. “And it came to pass that when the sixty and second year of the reign of the judges had ended, all these things had happened and the Lamanites had become, the more part of them, a righteous people, insomuch that their righteousness did exceed that of the Nephites, because of their firmness and their steadiness in the faith. For behold, there were many of the Nephites who had become hardened and impenitent and grossly wicked, insomuch that they did reject the word of God and all the preaching and prophesying which did come among them. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
“Nevertheless, the people of the church did have great joy because of the conversation of the Lamanites, yea, because of the church of God, which had been established among them. And they did fellowship one with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great joy. And it came to pass that many of the Lamanites did come down into the land of Zarahemla, and did declare unto the people f the Nephites the manner of their conversation, and did exhort them to faith and repentance. Yea, and many did preach with exceedingly great power and authority, unto the brining down many of them into the depths of humility, to be the humble followers of Go and the Lamb. And it came to pass that many of the Lamanites did go into the land northward; and also Nephi and Lehi went into the land northward, to preach unto the people. And thus ended the sixty and third year. And behold, there was peace in all the land, insomuch that the Nephites did go into whatsoever part of the land they would, whether among the Nephites or the Lamanites. And it came to pas that the Lamanites did also go whithersoever they would, whether it were among the Lamanites or among the Nephites; and thus they did have free intercourse one with another, to buy and sell, and to get gain according to their desire. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
“And it came to pass that they became exceedingly rich, both the Lamanites and the Nephites; and they did have an exceedingly plenty of gold, and of silver, and of all manner of precious metals, both in the land south and in the land north. Now the land south was called Lehi, and the land north was called Mulek, which was after the son of Zedekiah; for the Lord did bring Mulek into the land north, and Lehi into the land south. And behold, there was all manner of gold in both these lands, and of silver, and of precious ore of every kind; and there were also curious workmen, who did work all kinds f ore and did refine it; and thus they did become rich. They did raise grain in abundance, both in the north and in the south; and they did flourish exceedingly, both in the north and in the south. And they did multiply and wax exceedingly strong in the land. And they did raise many flocks and herds, yea, many fatlings. Behold their women did toil and spin, and did make all manner of cloth, of fine-twined linen and cloth of every kind, to clothe their nakedness. And thus the sixty and fourth year did pass away in peace. And in the sixty and fifth year they did also have great joy and peace, yea, much preaching and many prophecies concerning that which was to come. And thus passed away the sixty and fifth year. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
“And it came to pass that in the sixty and sixth year of the reign of the judges, behold, Cezoram was murdered by an unknown hand as he sat upon the judgment-sea. And it came to pass that in the same year, that his son, who had been appointed by the people in his stead, was also murdered. And thus ended the sixty and sixth year. And in the commencement of the sixty and seventh years the people began to grow exceedingly wicked again. For behold, the Lord had blessed them so long with the riches of the World that they had not been stirred up to anger, to wars, nor to bloodshed; therefore they began to set their hearts upon their riches; yea, they began to seek to get gain that they might be lifted up one above another; therefore they began to commit secret murders, and to rob and to plunder, that they might get gain. And now behold, those murderers and plunderers were a band who had been formed by Kishkumen and Gadianton. And now it had come to pass that there were many even among the Nephites, of Gadianton’s band. However, behold, they were more numerous among the more wicked part of the Lamanites. And they were called Gadianton’s robbers and murderers. And it was they who did murder the chief judge Cezoram, and his son, while in the judgment-seat; and behold, they were not found. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
“And now it came to pass that when the Lamanites found that there were robbers among them they were exceedingly sorrowful; and they did use every means in their power to destroy them off the face of the Earth. However, behold, Satan did stir up the hearts of the more part of the Nephites, insomuch that they did unite with those bands of robbers, and did enter into their covenants and their oaths, that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be places, that they should not suffer for their murders, and their plunderings, and their stealings. And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered int the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant. And thus they might murder, and plunder, and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country and also the laws of their God. And whosoever of those who belonged to their band should reveal unto the World of their wickedness and their abominations, should be tried, not according to the laws of their country, but according to the laws of their wickedness, which had been given by Gadiation and Kishkumen. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26
“Now behold, it is these secret oaths and covenants which Alma commanded his son should not go forth unto the World, least they should be a means of bringing down the people unto destruction. Now behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadiaton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit—yea, that same being who did plot with Cain, that if he would murder his brother Abel it should not be known unto the World. And he did plot with Cain and his followers from that time forth. And also it is that same being who put it into the hearts of the people to build a tower sufficiently high that they might get to Heaven. And it was that same being who led on the people who came from that tower into this land; who spread the works of darkness and abominations over all the face of the land, until he dragged the people down to an entire destruction, and to an everlasting hell. Yea, it is that same being who put it into the heart of Gadianton to still carry on the work of darkness, and of secret murder; and he has brought it forth from the beginning of humans even down to this time. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“And behold, it is he who is the author of all sin. And behold, he doth carry on his works of darkness and secret murder, and doth hand down their plots, and their oath, and their covenants, and their plans of awful wickedness, from generation to generation according as he can get hold upon the hearts of the children of humans. And now behold, he had got great hold upon the hearts of the Nephites; yea, insomuch that they had become exceedingly wicked; yea, the more part of them had turned out of the way of righteousness, and did trample under their feet the commandments of God, and did turn unto their own ways, and did build up unto themselves idols of their gold and their silver. And it came to pass that all these iniquities did come unto them in the space of not many years, insomuch that a more part of it had come unto them in the sixty and seventh year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi. And they did grow in their iniquities in the sixty and eight year also, to the great sorrow and lamentation of the righteous. And thus we see that the Nephites did begin to dwindle in unbelief, and grow in wickedness and abominations, while the Lamanites began to grow exceedingly in the knowledge of their God; yea, they did begin to keep his statutes and commandments, and to walk in truth and uprightness before him. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26
“And thus we see that the Spirit of the Lord began to withdraw from the Nephites, because of the wickedness and the hardness of their hearts. And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words. And it came to pass that the Lamanites did hunt the band of robbers of Gadianton; and they did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them, insomuch that this band of robbers was utterly destroyed from among the Lamanites. And it came to pass on the other hand, that the Nephites did build them up and support them, beginning at the more wicked part of them, until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites, and had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils, and to join with them in their secret murders and combinations. And thus they did obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek, and the humble followers of God. And thus we see that they were in an awful state, and ripening for everlasting destruction. And it came to pass that thus ended the sixty and eighty year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi,” reports Helaman 6.1-41. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
Almighty God and Jesus Christ, over the deeply sounding sea please carry me safely. Part the mists and guide me through. End the chaos, mighty Lord. Protect y people with sword upraised by at my side. All seeing God, may I be just. Lord, father, friend, please keep my feet clearly on the path of the right. King of Heaven, bless my home. Lord, endow me with wisdom. We thank Thee also for the miraculous and mighty deeds of liberation wrought by Thee, and for Thy victories in the battles our forefathers fought in days of old, at this season of the year. In the days f the High Priest Mattathias, son of Johanan, of the Hasmonean family, a tyrannical power rose up against Thy people of Israel to compel them to forsake Thy Torah, and to force them to transgress Thy commandments. In Thine abundant mercy Thou didst stand by them in time of distress. Thou didst rise to their defense and didst vindicate their cause. Thou didst bring retribution upon the evil doers, delivering the strong into the hands of the weak the many into the hands of the few, the wicked into the hands of the just, and the arrogant into the hands of those devoted to Thy Torah. Thou didst thus make Thy greatness and holiness known in Thy World, and didst bring great deliverance to Israel. Then Thy children came into Thy dwelling place, cleansed the Temple, purified the Sanctuary, kindled lights in Thy sacred courts, and they designated these eight days of Hanukkah for giving thanks and praise unto Thy great name. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
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It is a Melancholy Truth that Even Great People Have their Poor Relations!
I have asked you for a moral and spiritual restoration in the land, and give thanks that in Thy sovereignty Thou hast permitted a leader to lead us at this momentous hour of our history. Rules establish a sense of obligation and license as they apply to the microacts of seeing, thinking about, remembering, recognizing, feeling, or display. Consider, for example, the relation of obligation to act: “He will be obligated to precent himself from becoming so swollen with feelings and a readiness to act that he threatens the bounds regarding affect that have been established for him in the interaction.” Or, a gamesman “has a right to deeply involve himself.” Feelings are contributions to interactions via the passive medium of a bodily self. We act behaviorally, not affectively. The system affects our behaviour, not our feelings. Institutions—such as corporations control us not simply through their surveillance of our behaviour but through surveillance of our feelings. People actively manage feelings in order to make their personalities fit for public-contact work. Emotions signal messages to the individual. Anxiety signals the presence of a danger from within or outside the individual. It is a means by which the individual told of an apprehended danger. Similarly, other emotional states such as joy, sadness, and jealousy—can be seen as the senders of signals about the way of apprehending the inner and outer environment. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
What we see is known to be mediated through our notions of what we expect to see. Prior expectations are part and parcel of what we see, and in the same way they are part of what we feel. This idea of prior expectation implies the existence of a prior self that does the expecting. For example, when we feel afraid, the fear signals danger. The realization of danger impinges on our sense of a self that is there to be endangered, a self we expect to persist in a relatively continuous way. Without this prior expectation of a continuous self, information about danger would be signaled in fundamentally different ways. Most of us maintain a prior expectation of a continuous self, but the character of the self we expect to maintain is subject to profoundly social influence. Insofar as our self and all we expect is social—as by the time of adulthood it inevitably is—the way emotion signals messages to us is also influenced by social factors. Mechanisms of defense are ways of altering the relation of expectation to grasped facts as well as ways of altering each in itself in order to avoid pain. Feelings signals not only a newly apprehended reality (outer or inner) but what that reality impinges upon—our prior self and expectations. Feeling signals perception and expectations to us, and turning this around, different patterns of perception and expectation correspond to different feeling names. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
Since culture directs our seeing and expecting, it directs our feeling and our naming of feeling. In sadness, I am focusing of what I love, like, or want and also on the fact that it is not available to me. I do not focus on what has caused the loss or absence nor on my relation to the cause of the loss. I do focus on my relationship to the loved object. In nostalgia, the focal points are the same but the focus on the love or liking is stronger than the focus on what is gone, which adds sweetness to the bitterness of plain grief. In frustration, the focus is not on what I want that I do not have but on the self in this state of not having; the focus is on my not having rather than on the wanted thing. When we focus on the desirable qualities of a person or thing and on our closeness to one, or it, we call it love. When we focus on the desirable qualities of the person in light of some attention to social distance, we call it admiration. In awe, we take not of much greater social distance. As with all emotion, it is not that awe is a compound of entities in the sense that chemicals are compounds. What is combined are particular twists and turns of moment-to-moment noticings that lend context to seeing. As in the case of all emotions, too, what is noted is expected as relevant to the self. The emotion tells exactly how. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
So long as I live my identity-for-myself, I experience my action as my very existence in the situation. My technique is simply what I am see doing as I pursue my projects. One’s intent to insert oneself into the social system with the status, responsibilities, and privileges is serious; that one is willing to undergo sacrifices in order to gain qualifications; that one is trying to learn from one’s predecessors. However, there is a limit to this learning. That is why many people become skilled at impersonating commitment. In time, their charade is discovered. The time to become self-conscious and to reflect upon one’s praxis is when it fails to yield hoped-for outcomes. However, so longas one is seriously addressing one’s task, one is a unified being; and effective action will emerge spontaneously, through trial-and-error in thought or deed. Humans learn as they pursue goals and project that have meaning for one. One is always learning something. Perhaps the key to the problem of independent learning lies in the phrase, “the leaner has the need and the capacity to assume responsibility for one’s own continuing learning.” It may well be that those who train young people in the ways of their group (a most necessary task) have overshot the mark; they have trained youngsters to believe that they cannot, dare not, learn anything without a trainer close at hand. The only safe and good learning is learning-for-the-trainer. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
And the youngster, being human, independently learned something meaningful to them; namely, that it is dangerous or futile to become interested in something, to learn for oneself. It is only safe to learn for the teacher’s or for society’s approval. One set of image-molders, the teachers, have been commissioned by social leaders to shape youngsters to the acquiescent mode. They implement this commission by invalidating a child’s experience of spontaneous curiosity and fascination with aspects of the World. They insist one learn only when and what one is taught. One must learn for others. The teachers and parents have robbed children of their autonomy—their capacity to experience amazement, wonder, and fascination—by invalidating it whenever it appears. Then, they look at their product and find it wanting; they produced a Golem, a humanoid, a “dependent learner.” Now we are asked to breathe life into it. We are caught on the horns of a dilemma. Children must be shown the ways of their group; they must be taught and trained. However, they must also be able to transcend this training and learn for themselves, if they are to experience their lives as meaningful, and if the society in which they live is to grow and change. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
The question is, how is it possible to reconcile the contradiction between teaching children for society and letting them learn for themselves, such that children can serve their society without loss of freedom and capacity to go beyond what they have been taught? This is the same problem, writ large, that every serious teacher—of piano, of art, of psychotherapy, business and economic, or even teaching—faces: how can one teach a pupil in the fundamental techniques of this art without producing a mere technician? In any of these arts, we wish the learner to commit himself, to be willing to struggle for objectives beyond mastery of exercises and technique (learning experienced as “for-the-teacher”) and even beyond current goals. We hope one will seek to make actual one’s own image (not one’s teacher’s image) of beautiful music, pictures, healthy personalities, or independent leaners. If the teacher has been effective, one will have shown one’s pupil that techniques are no more than a beginner’s set of tools, to be used up to the point that an impasse is reached. Then, true artist, the involved therapist, the committed teacher (committed to one’s own image of ultimate goals, not means), gropes and leaps into the unknown, exercising that courage that is not devoid of fear and trembling, to invent or discover new means to further one’s project of actualizing the image. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
If the old versions of ultimate goals have lost meaning, the pupil will envision new embodiments of them. Our inference can be either immediate—a sudden intuition—or a result of longer reflection. In the latter case, the inner clue is really our memory of a feeling, and here culture may influence how we remember. Some people tend to upgrade feeling in retrospect, to remember feeling happier than they actually did at the time, whereas others downgrade feeling in retrospect. When we use our feelings as a clue to outer reality, we seem to presuppose certain things, namely, that emotion provides information about what we expect and desire, and about what we see our imagine as a new reality. Thus, emotion functions as a prism through which we may reconstruct what is often invisible or unconscious—what we must have wished, must have expected, must have seen or imagined to be true in the situation. From the colours of the prism we infer back what must have been behind and within it. “I did not know she cared so deeply,” and “I did not know the situation was that bad,” are various of reality that we infer from feeling. In addition we may “ride over” a feeling (such as a nagging sense of depression) in the attempt to feel cheerful. When we meet an inward resistance, we “put on” the cheer. When we meet no inward resistance we amplify a feeling: we “put it out.” #Randolphharris 7 of 23
However, neurotic troubles will soon follow upon an attempt at self-repression; for example, a neurosis will soon avenger her upon the unloved husband and cause him just as much unpleasantness and sorrow as the real truth would cause him had he known. Modern conditions created a moral imagination which could define inauthenticity as a problem, for among so many prejudices and false passions, it is necessary to know how to analyze the human heart and to disentangle the true feelings of nature. The intensity of pleasure or the enjoyment which indicates well-being is the intensity of pure sensation; and that while the intensity of such sensations can be experienced and known by the subject, it is impossible for others to know it or to infer it with reasonable certainty. If we can decide whether a change in the basic structure makes one better or worse off, we can determine one’s best situation to another. The primary social goods, to give them in broad categories, are rights and liberties, opportunities and powers, income and wealth. (A very important primary good is a sense of one’s own worth.) It seems evident that in general these things fit the description of primary goods. They are social goods in view of their connection with the basic structure; liberties and powers are defined by the rules of major institutions and the distribution of income and wealth is regulated by them. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
A person’s good is determined by what is for one the most rational long-term plan of life given reasonably favourable circumstances. A person is happy when one is more or less successfully in the way of carrying out this plan. The good is the satisfaction of rational desire. We are to suppose, then, that each individual has a rational plan of life drawn up subject to the conditions that confront one. This plan is designed to permit the harmonious satisfaction of one’s interest. It schedules activities so that various desires can be fulfilled without interference. It is arrived at by rejecting other plans that are either less likely to success or do not provide for such an inclusive attainment of aims. Given the alternatives available, a rational plan is one which cannot be improved upon; there is no other plan which, taking everything into account, would be preferable. It is assumed that the members of society are rational persons able to adjust their conceptions of the good to their situation. There is no necessity to compare the worth of the conceptions of different persons once it is supposed they are compatible with the principles of justice. Everyone is assured an equal liberty to pursue whatever plan of life one pleases as long as it does not violate what justice demands. People share in primary goods on the principle that someone can have more if they are acquired in ways which improve the situation of those who have less. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
Once the whole arrangement is set up and going on questions are asked about the total of satisfactions or perfections, things work themselves out according to the principles that would be chosen in the original position. On this concept of social justice, then, expectations are defined as the index of primary goods that a representative being can reasonably look forward to. A person’s prospects are improved when one can anticipate a preferred collection of these goods. We learn thence the great force of custom and education, which would mould the human mind from its infancy, and form it into a fixed and established character. Is the behaviour and conduct of one gender very unlike that of the other? It is thence we become acquainted with the different characters, which nature has impressed upon the genders, and which she preserves with constancy and regularity. Are the actions of the same person much diversified in the different periods of one’s life, from infancy to old age? This affords room for many general observations concerning the gradual change of our sentiments and inclinations, and the different maxims, which prevail in the different ages of human creatures. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
Even the characters, which are peculiar to each individual, have a uniformity in their influence; otherwise our acquaintance with the persons and our observations of their conduct, could never teach us their dispositions, or serve to direct our behaviour with regard to them. One day, driving back to the office from an appointment, I was grappling with some difficult circumstances in my life and feeling a bit sorry for myself. However, as I drive, I tried to focus my mind on some portions of Scripture and reflect on them rather than on my problems. As I did this, I thought of Colossians 3.12-14, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievance you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” When reflecting on this passage, my mind goes directly to the character traits we are to put on: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and love. I had never paid attention to the apostle Paul’s introductory phrase: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.” To me Paul was saying nothing more than, “Since you are Christians, act like Christians.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
Behaving like good Christians is our duty, the traits of Christ’s character we should seek after. However, that day the Holy Spirit caused my mind to focus on the two words “dearly loved.” It was as if He said to me, “William, you are feeling sorry for yourself; but the truth is, you are dearly loved by God.” Dearly loved by God—what an incredible thought! However, it is true, and that afternoon the Holy Spirit drove home to my heart the wonderful truth with such force that my self-pity was completely dispelled. Pity. The phrase “take pity” came into common use with the establishment of the Christian church. The church, in turn, came to power in an age known for extreme differences in wealth and generally brutalizing conditions of life. There were, in addition, communal ties between people who were in dire need—widows, orphans, the elderly—and people who could “take pity” and provide for them. Now that almsgiving has been bureaucratized so that giver and receiver remain unknown to each other, the perceptual focus that corresponds to pity is less common. As certain social conditions, habits of seeing, and namable feelings fade from a culture, others enter. I continued on to our office rejoicing in the fact that, despite my difficult circumstances, I was dearly loved by God. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
Of course, the main thrust of Paul’s teaching in this passage is that we are to clothe ourselves with Christlike virtues, what I call “garments of grace.” However, he grounds is exhortation on the grace of God—on the fact that we are chosen by Him, holy in His sight, and dearly loved by Him. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, for us to show compassion or patience to someone else if we are not sure God is patient with us—or, worse, if we do not sense the need for God is to be patient with us. So these garments of gracious Christian character can only be put on by those who are consciously experiencing God’s grace in their own lives. Having experience God’s grace, we are then called on to extend that grace to others. The evidence of whether we are living by His grace is to be found in the way we treat other people. If we see ourselves as sinners and totally unworthy in ourselves of God’s compassion, patience, and forgiveness, then we will want to be gracious to others. God’s grace is indeed meant to be transforming grace. As Paul said in Titus 2.11-12, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all humans. It teaches us to say, ‘No’ to ungodliness and Worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and Godly lives in this present age.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
The grace of God bring salvation, not only from guilt and condemnation of sin, but also from the reign of sin in our lives. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodly character traits, but also to say “Yes” to Godly character traits. God’s grace teaches us to clothe ourselves with “garments of grace.” Paul listed eight different character traits in Colossians 3.12-14 with which we are to clothe ourselves. I did a detailed study on most of these traits, as well as others, and these five traits are particularly related to grace: gratitude, contentment, humility, forbearance, and forgiveness. “And it came to pass that in this same year, behold, Nephi delivered up the judgment-seat to a man whose name was Cezoram. For as their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction., for the laws had become corrupted. Yea, and this was not all; they were a stiffnecked people, insomuch that they could not be governed by the law nor justice, save it were to their destruction. And it came to pass that Nephi had become weary because of their iniquity; and he yielded up the judgment-seat, and took it upon him to preach the word of God all the remainder of his day, and his brother Lehi also, all the remainder of his day. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
“For they remembered the word which their father Helaman spake unto them. And these are the words which he spake: Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them ye may remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good. Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it maybe said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them. And now my sons, behold I have somewhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in Heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers. O Remember, remember, my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people; yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby humans can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the World. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
“And remember also the word which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them from their sins. And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls. And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if humans build they cannot fall. And it came to pass that these were the words which Helaman taught to his sons; yea, he did teach them many things which are not written, and also many things which are written. And they did remember his words; and therefore they went forth, keeping the commandments of God, to teach the word of God among all the people of Nephi, beginning at the city of Bountiful. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
“And from thenceforth to the city of Gid; and from the city of Gid to the city of Mulek; and even from one city to another, until they had gone forth among all the people of Nephi who were in the land southward; and from thence into the land of Zarahemla, among the Lamanites. And it came to pass that they did preach with great power, insomuch that they did confound many of those dissenters who had gone over from the Nephites, insomuch that they came forth and did confess their sins and were baptized unto repentance, and immediately returned to the Nephites, insomuch that they came forth and did confess their sins and were baptized unto repentance, and immediately returned to the Nephites to endeavour to repair unto them the wrongs which they had done. And it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi did preach unto the Lamanites with such great power and authority, for they had power and authority given unto them that they might speak, and they also had what they should speak given unto them. Therefore they did speak unto the great astonishment of the Lamanites, to the convincing them, insomuch that there were eight thousand of the Lamanites who were in the land of Zarahemla and round about baptized unto repentance, and were convinced of the wickedness of the traditions of their fathers. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
“And it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi did proceed from thence to go to the land of Nephi. And it came to pass that they were taken by an army of the Lamanites and cast into prison; yea, even in that same prison in which Ammon and his brethren were cast by the servants Limhi. And after they had been cast into prison many days without food, behold, they went forth into the prison to take them that they might slay them. And it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi were encircled about as if by fire, even insomuch that they durst not lay their hands upon them for fear lest they should be burned. Nevertheless, Nephi and Lehi were not burned; and they were as standing in the midst of fire and were not burned. And when they saw that they were encircled about with a pillar of fire, and that it burned them not, their hearts did take courage. For they saw that the Lamanites durst not lay their hands upon them, but stood as if they were struck dumb with amazement. And it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi did stand forth and began to speak unto them, saying: Fear not, for behold, it is God that has shown unto you this marvelous thing, in the which is shown unto you that ye cannot lay your hands on us to slay us. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
“And behold, when they had said these words, the Earth shook exceedingly, and the walls of the prison did shake as if they were about to tumble to the Earth; but behold, they did not fall. And behold, they that were in prison were Lamanites and Nephites who were dissenters. And it came to pass that they were overshadowed with a cloud of darkness, and an awful solemn fear came upon them. And it came to pass that there came a voice as if it were above the cloud of darkness, saying: Repent ye, repent ye, and seek no more to destroy my servants whom I have sent unto you to dealer good tidings. And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul—and notwithstanding the mildness of the voice, behold the Earth shook exceedingly, and the walls of the prison trembled again, as if it were about to tumble to the Earth; and behold the could of darkness, which had overshadowed them, and did not disperse—and behold the voice came again, saying: Repent ye, repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; and seek no more to destroy my servants. And it came to pass that the Earth shook again, and the walls trembled. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
“And also again the third time the voice came, and did speak unto them marvelous words which cannot be uttered by man; and the walls did tremble again, and the Earth shook as if it were about to divide asunder. And it cam to pass that the Lamanites could not flee because of the cloud of darkness which did overshadow them; yea, and also they were immovable because of the fear which did come upon them. Now there was one among them who was a Nephite by birth, who had once belonged to the church of God but had dissented from them. And it came to pass that he turned him about, and behold, he saw through the cloud of darkness the faces of Nephi and Lehi; and behold, they did shine exceedingly, even as the faces of angels. And he behold that they did lift their eyes to Heaven; and they were in the attitude as if talking or lifting their voices to some being whom they beheld. And it came to pass that this man did cry unto the multitude, that they might turn and look. And behold, there was power given unto them that they did turn and look; and they did behold the faces of Nephi and Lehi. And they said unto the man: Behold, what do all these things mean, and who is it with whom these men do converse? Now that man’s name was Aminadab. And Aminadab said unto them: They do converse with the angels of God. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
“And it came to pass that the Lamanites said unto him: What shall we do, that this could of darkness may be removed from overshadowing us? And Aminadab said unto them: You must repent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ, who was taught unto you by Alma, and Amulek, and Zeezrom; and when ye shall be removed from overshadowing us? And Aminadab said unto them: You must repent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ, who was taught unto you by Alma, and Amulek, and Zeezom; and when ye shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you. And it came to pass that they did begin to cry unto the voice of him who had shaken the Earth; yea, they did cry even until the cloud of darkness was dispersed. And it came to pass that when they cast their eyes about, and saw that the cloud of darkness was dispersed from overshadowing them, behold, they saw that they were encircled about, every soul, by a pillar of fire. And Nephi and Lehi were in the midst of them; yea, they were encircled about; yea, they were as if in the midst of a flaming fire, yet if did harm them not, neither did it take hold upon the walls of the prison; and they were filled with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
“And behold, the Holy Spirit of God did come down from Heaven, and did enter into their hearts, and they were filled as if with fire, and they could speak forth marvelous words. And it came to pass that there came a voice unto them, yea, a pleasant voice, as if it were a whisper, saying: Peace, peace be unto you, because of your faith in my Well Beloved, who was from the foundation of the World. And now, when they heard this they cast up their eyes as if to behold from whence the voice came; and behold, they saw the Heavens open; and angels came down out of Heaven and ministered unto them. And there were about three hundred souls who saw and heard these things; and they were bidden to go forth and marvel not, neither should they doubt. And it came to pass that they did go forth, and did minister unto the people, declaring throughout all the regions round about all the things which they had heard and seen, insomuch that the more part of the Lamanites were convinced of them, because of the greatness of the evidences which they had received. And as many as were convinced did lay down their weapons of war, and also their hatred and the tradition of their fathers. And it came to pass that they did yield up unto the Nephites the lands of their possession,” reports Helaman 5.1-52. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
May I descend with God, may I rise with God. God Whose wings support all beings, please by my help, please by my supporter. I call on you Father, Lord, King, Almighty, Most High. God, best and greatest, please rule in splendor. Love’s dear patron, handsome king. Bright shield, bright spear, bright God, please come. May no act of mind disturb your feather. Our God and God of our fathers, may our remembrance and the remembrance of our forefathers come before Thee. Remember the Messiah of the house of David, Thy servant, and Jerusalem, Thy holy city, and all Thy people, the house of Israel. Please grant us deliverance and well being, lovingkindness, life and peace on this day of On Rosh Hodesh say (the New Moon), On Pesah say (the Feast of Unleavened Bread), On Sukkot say: (the Feast of Tabernacles). Remember us this say, O Lord our God, for our good, and please be mindful of us for a life of blessing. With Thy promise of salvation and mercy, please deliver us and be gracious unto us, have compassion upon us and save us. Unto Thee do we lift our eyes for Thou art a gracious and merciful God and King. O may our eyes witness They return to Zion. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who restores Thy divine presence unto Zion. We thankfully acknowledge Thee, O Lord our God, or fathers’ God to all eternity. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
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Randolph Harris II International 