FSTDT

David B Marshall #crackpot #fundie #dunning-kruger #quack #wingnut christthetao.blogspot.com

[From “Racism or the Tao?”]

Even St. Paul's most pared-down tool belt of virtues is both oddly formidable, and remarkably useful:

"Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

Social scientists have come to recognize the civilization-building power of the final item on this list. Max Weber's classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism linked such religious virtues to secular success. The fruits of the spirit may include patience and self-control, but to apply those virtues in the workplace, will bring money in the bank. Likewise, Mona Charen's Sex Matters, and Heather MacDonald's War on Cops, demonstrate that a lack of self-control and sexual faithfulness undermines one's power to express love, destroys peace and joy, and creates a ruthless subculture of predators and prey.

It is for want of "fruit of the Spirit" that murder rates soar on the South Side of Chicago.

Virtue is power. It is the reliable child who is given the flag to direct traffic. Sexual self-control creates families and gives them strength. Scrooge's hard work and careful saving allows him to buy a Christmas turkey for the Cratchits. (Dickens' own father lost his son’s esteem by wasting his earnings.)

Am I boring you? Would you rather drive a "Black Lives Matter" sign into the front lawn of your church, and gain cheap grace? Do you fear that telling men and women to get married before sleeping together will sound "patronizing," "bigoted," or "racist," because those are the only tools left in your belt? Or are you afraid you might have to follow Paul’s code yourself? Restrained sexuality may build civilizations, but it frightens a Roe Vs. Wade generation.

David B Marshall #crackpot #dunning-kruger #fundie #quack #wingnut christthetao.blogspot.com

[From “Racism or the Tao?”]

The concept of "racism" is a valuable tool. Without it, some sudden gust of prejudice might blow the shingles off our roof and drench us all. We must keep this hammer within easy reach, and be prepared to use it. We do not want to return to the worst crimes of our past, which betrayed every "fruit of the spirit" on the deepest level.

"That's just your pampered white reality!” I hear a voice saying. “Stop hiding your head in the sand! Even if you don’t experience it in your suburban cocoon, listen to the news, and you'll know that acts of gross white-on-black racism occur in America every day!"

I bet Pentheus wished he had hidden his head in the sand, before his mother tore it off his neck.

If America is really still a racist society (in the only sensible sense, a country that commonly and systematically mistreats people for their color), why have you fallen for every race-bating scam that has come down the pike in recent years?

The word “racism” has become a powerful weapon to control Americans of all races, and keep them at one another’s throats. This is why when you hear the word, you jump, like one of Pavlov's poor, reactionary hounds.

David B Marshall #crackpot #dunning-kruger #fundie #quack #wingnut christthetao.blogspot.com

[From “Racism or the Tao?”]

"Do not be a racist" might be classified as one precept within the "Law of General Beneficence." Lewis argued (quoting Confucius!) that a single law cannot stand alone, but derives validity from the whole.

The fact that you obsess on one narrow statute, and forget the Tao from which it gains validity, reflects both moral progress and regress.

Your concern about racism reflects progress, because the ancient Romans seldom recognized a duty to the poor and marginalized. In his magisterial work Dominion, historian Tom Holland argues that our care for those on the margins of society comes from the Judeo-Christian tradition, in particular the teachings and life of Jesus. I think one can find buds promising a similar blossoming on the stems of early Buddhism (the Dhammapada), the writings of Mozi, and to lesser degrees Confucius and Lao Zi, along with Greek and Roman Stoics. (And the ethical nursery where Jesus no doubt picked up his own shoots before nurturing them to verdant blooms, the Hebrew prophets.)

But what all these pre-scientific thinkers held in common were well-stocked tool belts, not one sad hammer with which to pound like Bam Bam Rubble.

The Tao encourages no narrow obsession. Whether in Stoic, Buddhist, Confucian, or Christian forms, it provides a vastly richer and more positive worldview than either "Black Lives Matter" or even the New Ten Commandments hanging from my neighborhood church.

...

The Tao allowed for progress, Lewis insisted. Where feet were bound or widows burnt, followers of Jesus brought it. The Tao may be as universal as the sky, but like the universe itself, it creates space for seekers of truth to expand into.