Any act of evil can be justified given a particular frame of mind.
Thus, the greatest safeguard is not against evil itself, but against the perverted frame of mind that would allow it.
Ambition Priority
Ambitions are good for life
But it is not good
If life is for the ambitions
The Mote in the Other Eye- Surrendering the Outcome
Distrust of Others)
In my previous post I talked about the popular trend of pinning all of the world’s problems on someone else and never taking accountability for one’s own side. I also admitted how I, too, have fallen into that trend many times, and how my conscience and Jesus’s words have always been there to convict me it is wrong to stay there.
At the end of the last post, I mentioned that when I recognize my folly and tell myself to focus on the beam in my own eye, there is a part of me that is worried about what might happen if I do so. That fear is based on a profound distrust of the “other side.” If I’m not there to keep them in check, who will be?
This is because our culture’s “us vs them” mentality leads us to shore up our own side even as we’re tearing down the other. In order to strengthen our arguments, we make ourselves blind to our own failings, excusing them as inaccurate or unimportant. So, now if I focus my energies on correcting myself instead, then that’s one less voice keeping the other side honest. Imagine if everyone on my side turned to self-introspection. We might take care of all the problems over here, but the other side’s problems will abound unfettered.
The Need for Surrender)
Well…yes, there is that potential outcome. There are other, more optimistic outcomes, but there is no guarantee of them. I do trust that good will ultimately prevail, but there is the possibility that if I focus on improving myself, the other side will run rampant in the meantime, and things will get worse for a while.
What this means, then, is that focusing on the beam in my own eye is not only an exercise in humility, but also a leap of faith. It means doing what is right in my own sphere with the hope, not the guarantee, that things will work out for the best because of it.
For this reason, I think an excellent companion to Jesus’s words on removing the beam from our own eyes is his later injunction that “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” Matthew 16:24. Once again, he’s talking about picking up our own cross, denying our own self. And his use of the word “cross” makes clear that this is something hard, painful, and even dangerous.
Let’s take a moment to take these abstract concepts and personalize them. Just what would you call “your side,” and what would you call the “other side?” Conservatives? Liberals? The Patriarchy? Feminists? White supremacists? DEI peddlers? Colonizers? Immigrants? Whichever tribe you belong to, I’m sure that if you were honest there’s some house cleaning that is needed over there. Would you be willing to take up your cross and focus on the beam in your own eye? Would you be willing to stop hammering the other side as you set your gaze inward? It’s a lot to ask…but it is what is asked.
The Mote in the Other Eye- The Problem of Others
Who’s to Blame)
Everyone knows someone who is making the world worse. Everyone can identify popular ideals and propaganda that are harming society. Everyone knows who is to blame for things being the way that they are right now. Everyone knows how they’d like to change the world if they could. And people certainly make their opinions known. My news feeds and social media threads are constantly inundated with criticisms and accusations of “them.”
And I cannot claim to have never taken part in this pastime either. I could speak at great length about who I see as responsible for the greatest problems in the world today, and the deep resentment that I’ve harbored towards them.
But part of me has always felt guilty when my mind goes to that place. Part of me knows that at some point I crossed the line from “judging righteous judgment” to full-on condemning. Part of me knows that my desire to make everyone do what is right is not actually from God. It’s a sneaky misstep, because it’s oriented towards trying to establish ‘right,’ but its method of control is evil.
Focus Inward)
When I consider all of this, I am reminded of the words of Jesus: “How wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?” Matthew 7:4. When I hear this, I realize that I’m not just wrong for letting my heart be filled with condemnation for another, but also because it has distracted me from focusing on the problems of my own side.
Of course, Jesus also suggested that after one had cleaned his own eye then he would see clearly enough to clean another’s. Honestly, I can’t speak to that, because I genuinely don’t feel that I am there yet. I suspect there are few who are. My focus for now is still on the first half of Jesus’s words.
The Reason for Reluctance)
I also want to make clear nowhere in Jesus’s injunction to focus on our own eye does he suggest that the other side doesn’t have problems. Even with my flawed judgment, I probably have identified some truly valid issues over on the other side. The idea that “they” need to change isn’t wrong, then, what’s wrong is thinking that I’m going to be the one to make them do it. I don’t have to stop my natural recognition of evil in the world, or condone any of it, but Christ is pointing out that everything would go much smoother if I acknowledged my own failings and worked on changing me, while “they” worked on changing “them.”
But what if I do work on me, and “they” don’t work on “them.” There is a real anxiety in this that manifests each time I try to pull myself back from policing the entire world. Tomorrow I will speak more at length on this fear, and how it can be remedied.
A Worthy Life
If it takes our whole life long just to find God, and to give Him our heart, and to regain our soul, it will have been worth it.
We Are Not Made for Peace
Made to War)
Many have envisioned a utopia where there is no more war and strife. Many have proposed by what method we could achieve such universal peace, though every attempt has failed. It is a strange paradox. Whether we have peace or not is obviously in our own hands, and it is hard to think of a more common goal, so why does it continually evade us? Why can’t we just stop fighting?
Because we are not made for peace.
We are a people that are designed to do battle. It is simply in our nature to fight. It is in our nature to draw a line and make war with whatever is on the other side of it. Yes, there is a part of us that craves calm and rest, but that part will always be overrun by our stronger, warrior nature. Battle is inevitable, and all of us are called to it. The need for war isn’t lessened by previous victories or having a rich life. The previous fathers’ wars do not satiate the hot blood of the rising generation.
This principle was found to be true in the shocking Universe 25 experiment with rats. The rodents were given a perfect Rat Utopia, with all the food, space, and sociality that they needed to thrive. And in every case, the rats eventually turned to self-destruction and brought about their own extinction. We may not be rats, but we carry that same fire within us.
A Divine Purpose)
But just because we are made to battle, does not mean that we have to use it for evil. Indeed, our warrior heart was given to us for a good purpose, and it is only when we twist it or suppress it that it bursts out in violence and hate.
God gave us warrior hearts so that we would have the motivation to battle our own inner demons. God made us restless in times of peace, because there is no end to the onslaught of temptation. God made us itch for a fight so that we wouldn’t be complacent about our flaws.
All of our lives are meant to be a struggle, though in the afterlife it may very well be different. Perhaps the part of us that yearns for peace looks to the afterlife, while the part of us that yearns for a fight looks to this life.
But one has to choose to wage war with the inner man. One can, instead, run from that fight, surrender to his worst impulses, and then his warlike nature has nowhere to go but outward. Even worse, because he gave control of his spirit up to the author of evil, his noble warrior heart becomes corrupted to one of cruelty.
Resolved to the Better Fight)
Trying to numb our desire to fight is misguided. That is trying to change our fundamental nature, which we cannot do.
Peace in this life will not be found by removing our desire to fight, but by each of us turning that fight inwards. Conflict never dies, but it can be transplanted. The global conflict can be internalized by the populace. We will only know peace in our society as we each accept that we will never know peace individually.
It may be a sobering reality: a lifetime of never-ending battle within the heart, but ironically, you can make peace with that war. You can accept it as a necessary component of life, something that you just have to do, and then it becomes easier. There are no easy answers, but there are at least answers.
A Pivotal Moment- An Opportunity
Two Different Reactions)
In my last post I mentioned diverging movements that we are seeing in America today. Over the last few years, the white, conservative male has decided to respond to the unfair treatment that he has received. For some that has meant going back to church and looking for a higher purpose, while for others it has meant abandoning society and treating their antagonists with deep resentment.
Many of those who turn to anger and resentment will do so because they are reacting to personal hurt. Perhaps they obediently submitted to the anti-masculine/anti-white messages they received, publicly emasculating themselves until they could bear it no longer, then turned hateful for having been led to shame themselves. But the truth is, they “simped” because they thought it would serve their own interests, and now their turn to harshness and cruelty is still in pursuit of their own interests. They are still obsessed with the self, and just playing the game that they think will benefit them best.
The better approach is to take oneself out of the game entirely. Turning to God and traditional religion, if done sincerely, is an act of faithful surrender. It is saying, “I don’t care what the rest of the world says anymore, or what benefit or harm society has in store for me, my focus will remain on something Higher.” In both reactions we have men recognizing that the current state of affairs just isn’t going to cut it, and renouncing the way things used to be, but one actually breaks free of the social merry-go-round while the other goes around for another turn.
Which of these sides will outweigh the other? Only time will tell.
Hanging in the Balance)
The future is unknown because the future is still subject to influence. I believe that there are many men currently hanging in the balance who could ultimately go either way. In this there is the danger of souls being pulled deeper into the abyss, but there is also the potential of souls landing at safe harbors.
What we need now, is lighthouses. We need many beacons of light. We need good examples and good teachers, people who can encourage the undecided young man in the right way to go and welcome him with open arms. We have the opportunity in this pivotal moment to really make a change for good, to make the world better than it might have been otherwise.
I am personally considering ways that I can help those who are looking for answers in this pivotal moment and invite you to do the same. Let us see this as our God-given opportunity to do something with our lives that really made a difference.
A Pivotal Moment- Possible Outcomes
Back and Forth)
I have discussed how some aspects of America’s historical treatment of women and the black population were immoral, how many of those issues were addressed, and how the pendulum kept swinging so that now there is much that is immoral in the treatment of men and white people also.
Now, there is a movement pushing against that most recent unfair treatment, but does this actually represent change and progress? If all we’re doing is changing which side has the stick to beat the other with, that would only be a continuation of the same.
As I mentioned before, this sort of tribalism and zero-sum game and cyclical oppression all seem to stem from our loss of spiritual identity, and shared purpose, and sense of one another as children of God. Unless we see a positive change at this deeper level, then I cannot be optimistic about any shift happening on the surface. So long as we remain godless, each shift is more likely to be an escalation of offense, not a return to balance.
What is Happening Now)
So, do we see any of those deeper shifts that would represent a return to godly living? Unsurprisingly, the answer is mixed. Let us look at the dynamic of men versus women specifically. On the one hand, there does seem to be a real movement of men back towards religion. A recent Axios article noted that “Gen Z men are more likely to attend weekly religious services than millennials and even some younger Gen X-ers.” It also noted that while historically there have been more women in church than men, that the female decline in church attendance continues. Thus, if the latest trajectories persist, eventually there will be more men in church than women.
Of course, this trend must be observed longer to see if it is going to actually have any lasting results. The numbers are still developing. Speaking anecdotally, though, I have also perceived a shift of men around me moving back to God and religion. Even I, who always called myself religious, had a shift seven years ago that has made my relationship with God far more real.
But that’s just one side of what’s happening. At the same time, we are seeing movements like MGTOW, which is built on resentment and rejection of women and society as a whole. We also see figures like Andrew Tate growing in popularity, who encourage men to treat women as products. And just like I have seen some men around me moving towards God, I have also seen other men moving towards anger.
For an entire generation, men have been told that they are irredeemable monsters. This is a gross lie, but my great fear is that this oft-repeated incantation will summon forth a generation of men filled with cruel indifference, men who truly are beasts, and thus become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Hope and Fear)
It is an unclear picture, with many parts still moving, and difficulty in telling how things will land. There is reason for hope and there is reason for fear. A time of potential, but also of danger.
I admit that my assumptions are pessimistic. I see the world following a downward trend overall. Also, I am a Christian, and I believe the Biblical prophecies that the world will be a hellish place before the return of Christ. I suspect we are in the last age before that return, so even if things do get better in the short term, I suspect that overall it is worse times that lay ahead.
Still, I could be wrong. There is reason for hope. Even if this shift turned out to be negative overall, there could still be a treasure of good within its midst. I will finish this series tomorrow by exploring that more hopeful view.
A Pivotal Moment- The Pendulum Swings Back
In the last post we discussed the deep spiritual sickness that society has progressed in for over a century. We have pushed God further and further from our hearts and never found a core purpose to take His place. We have become technologically and financially superior, but depressed and bitter at the same time.
We also discussed how we never found a unifying force either. Now that we no longer see one another as brothers and sisters, fellow children of God, our fractures have grown deep, dividing us into tribes that compete rather than cooperate.
In the last sixty years there have been dramatic shifts in society, and we have changed who is “winning” at the game, and we call that progress. But that is an extremely shallow and shortsighted perspective. There is no progress in taking turns oppressing one another. There will only be progress when we stop playing the game entirely.
Men vs Women, White vs Black)
Two of the greatest divides in our culture today are on the basis of sex and on the basis of race. Feminism looks to disable the patriarchy, and racial justice seeks to end differences of outcome. In both cases, I believe there were valid concerns at the origins of their movements, but they have also each been corrupted by overreach, tribalism, and faulty assumptions. Let’s look at each in turn.
With feminism, all one needs to do is watch classic movies from the ’40s and ’50s to see that there was a genuine tone of misogyny common to the time, and that’s never alright. Even worse, there was little recourse for victims of abuse, and women have always been more at risk for that then men. These were genuine concerns, and any society seeking to improve itself would need to address them.
At the same time, though, man-hating has been an angle of feminism basically from the very beginning. Also, the movement goes far too far in assuming that every cultural tradition, difference in sex responsibilities, and difference in outcome is necessarily a problem. It lacks the nuance to see that some differences were mutually agreed upon because they were beneficial to both men and women and still would be today.
With racial justice, again there were clearly many legitimate concerns at its roots. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, Jim Crow laws and segregation prevented all races from enjoying the same freedoms. The Civil Rights movement was necessary to provide systemic equality to every person.
As the years have gone by, however, there has emerged a movement for reverse oppression instead. DEI initiatives have brought back the very same racial discrimination practices that the Civil Rights movement sought to end! There also has been an increasing trend of casual racist sentiment, with mainstream media unabashedly disparaging an entire category of people on the color of their skin. It wasn’t right when that was permitted towards our black brothers and sisters, and it isn’t right when it is permitted towards our white brothers and sisters either.
Lost Progress)
In summary, things have gone from correcting genuine problems to hurting one another in a zero-sum game. What at first looked like barriers being broken and all becoming one, transformed into barriers being re-established, and one group elevated at the expense of the other. Many have noted that gender and racial relations seemed to be improving for a time, up until the turn of the millennium, but that the last two decades has seen a reversal into increasing racism and sexism.
But then, over the last two years, it has appeared as though things are starting to shift again. The revolution seems to be facing a counter-revolution. White men, previously submissive to the public agenda, now are pushing back against it. It took about a generation for this to happen, as challenging the narrative seemed like social suicide, but people will not forever tolerate playing a game that has unfair rules. Thus, the rules are changing.
But is it for the better? We’ll examine that in depth tomorrow.
A Pivotal Moment- The Death of God
Mankind Ascending)
In the late 19th century, Nietzsche boldly proclaimed the Death of God. The world had passed through its Enlightenment Era, scientific discoveries were breaking barrier after barrier, and industrialization would see a dramatic increase in the average wealth of the everyday citizen. With things becoming so self-manageable and positive, what need was there for God?
Even as he made this observation, Nietzsche’s words also showed extreme caution. He foresaw existential quagmires as people gave up their traditional morals and purpose. Would we be able to find a new source for motivation and decency, or would we be blessed all the way into a state of despondency and depravity?
As it turned out, humanity’s ascension was not without serious setback. There was a crippling depression, terrible world wars, organized crime waves, and continued racism. Did these serious problems dispel Nietzsche’s vision of a godless society? Actually, no. If anything, they seem to have hardened that vision in our cultural mind. So now mankind was ascendant, but also cynical, a most dangerous combination. As a whole, we still believed that we didn’t need God, but also a growing resentment against Him, one another, and all of creation.
Competition and Nihilism)
Though Nietzsche might have hoped that we would find some new unifying principle, we never did, and so shifted into a zero-sum game where every side seems to feel that they can advance only at the loss of the others. Significant portions of society have bought into the idea that everything is a struggle for power. This mindset pits poor against rich, women against men, and black against white.
If we are not all children of God, members of a universal family, then why not look out for our own interests and play for our own advantage? From this perspective, we have only to look at whoever was doing best at the turn of the century, and clearly those people were “winning,” so now everyone else needs to compete against them and grow by taking away from them.
So obsessed have we become by this game, that we have ignored the fact that no one even cares about the prize anymore. They want to win just so that they can say that they are winning, but they’re the most miserable “winners” the world has ever known. Not only have we not found a new unifying principle outside of God, but we also haven’t found a purpose outside of Him either. We say that all we want now is career, fame, and fun, but do those goals really sustain us?
Look at the end result of these worldly pursuits: incredible rates of depression, suicide, singleness, childlessness, abortion, obesity, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, media consumption, complacency, declining education, indifference, dearth of creativity, crime, and mass murder to name a few. So now we’re striving against each other to get at the top of the heap, but one has to stop and ask, what is even the point?!
A Current-Day Analysis)
It is a most disturbing picture. Nietzsche correctly saw that humanity was entering a new era, but it did not turn out to be the utopia that so many hoped it would be. The dream has become a nightmare. Suddenly, old and “quaint” fables like the Tower of Babel and Icarus flying too close to the sun become incredibly relevant. We have ascended on high, but was to our ruin and not our salvation?
As I said in my previous post, the world seems to be shifting again, but I am undecided as to whether it is to something better or worse. Now that we have this deeper analysis of society in front of mind, we are ready to look at some of those changes in the proper context and can discuss what they do or don’t say about this deep underlying sickness.
Spiritual Wanderings 