Monday, February 29, 2016

This isn't going to fly

She whose mind and heart are captured by a finite thing or idea can see only that which enhances her right to serve it and to follow wherever it leads. The free person, on the other hand, is able to see other’s rights and, to at least some degree, “walk in the other’s shoes.” The one who is bound worries about possible limitations on one’s individual rights being compromised in the future while the free person is willing to sacrifice a personal privilege or two in acknowledging the community’s need for public safety in the present. A free man or woman refuses to live only for what is good for me and mine. Albert Einstein got it when he wrote: “The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which one has attained liberation from the Self.”—America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose, pages 152–53

<idle musing>
He's spot on here, but now I see why it will never fly. Our society is so self-absorbed that we wouldn't dream of allowing it. The common good is dead. All for one and that one is I! Give it to me! Now!

Share with someone else? Are you kidding?!

With self-denial being a four letter word, is it no wonder that death to self is an impossible message?

Well, we sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. In this case, 30,000 deaths per year related to gun fire. And, in the political arena we have a self-absorbed megalomaniac as the front-runner. Yep. We reap the whirlwind... Lord, have mercy on us! Deliver us from ourselves!
</idle musing>

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