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Communism won’t truly win until our enemies lay down their arms and let themselves into utopia.
We must imagine Elon Musk, an ordinary socialist citizen, and happy.
i was literally just writing this:
I’m gonna make a wish that something in this universe touches Trump’s heart and Trump makes a turn-around and finally understands that … this world doesn’t need the fight; that this universe doesn’t need the slashing; but it needs a humane leader that embraces Bishop Budde’s message and that Trump finds his Scrooge on Christmas morning moment. That the universe can become on this tiny little chunk water and dirt better for everyone and not just the rich, the thoughtless, and the powerful. I’m going to hope that Trump sees that there is time left for Trump to turn it all around for everyone instead of just for him and his.
I’m gonna wish this: that Trump finds a little bluebird caged in his heart and Trump let’s this little bluebird be free to sing and fly and give life a chance over tyranny.
I’m gonna wish this every day that I have left with Trump. It is how I am going to start every day of my resistance to this rise of fascism in the United States with this wish.
I feel like I need to come up with a quick prayer I can say to myself when I see this stuff.
sry i cannot do it
I pray that they humble themselves and turn their hearts to God, so that God needn’t harden their hearts as he did to Pharaoh.
That seems super harsh and wrong. Obviously that’s the most Christ-like thing you can do but most of the point of the religion is that you aren’t Christ, you’re a normal person. Unless “never know the grace of God” is a translation that meant something different than it implies in modern English, he’s basically saying that God will forsake you if you’re not perfect? That’s a great recipe for some Good Place heaven numbers.
In fact, how would prayer help in the first place? If the issue is that our human free will prevents God from just making the person be good directly then prayer is the last thing they need in order to be saved.
It’s always seemed to me that if we have an immortal soul but our blip of a mortal life determines our infinite fate, then the physical actions we take in the name of our beliefs are way more important than the beliefs themselves. Is our job to try and save those who would profane parts of God’s creation or is it to demonstrate our love for as much of God’s creation as we can? In our finite form we have a finite capacity, so “just always do everything” can’t be the answer.
I have a feeling that demonstrating love and respect for existence is more than enough to know God’s grace. That also means being compassionate with yourself and accepting that you’re not perfect and that you’re not meant to be. I’d go as far as to say that not praying for Hitler is a lesser sin than trying to guilt trip people into praying for Hitler under the threat of damnation. Saint Shitbird the Asshole is more like it.
Respectfully, I think you need to have some humility and not call someone a shitbird asshole because you are uncomfortable with the implication of failing to meet a standard.
God commands us to love our enemies…is He a “shitbird asshole?”I think you also need to be more charitable to Saint Silouan. I don’t think he is trying to threaten people, only stress the importance of this teaching from Christ.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return;[a] and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
This is the standard set by the Lord and what is commanded.
I think it’s edifying for your soul to love in this way and harmful to it to close your heart to others, and if you want to fully live out God’s love and be an instrument of his mercy it is something you have to cultivate.
Is it next to impossible? Yes.
But I think it is impossible to be truly good and holy without some help from God.I don’t think people are going to be eternally dammed for not loving Hitler enough for as Silouan himself said:
“Understand two thoughts, and fear them. One says, “You are a saint,” and the other, “You won’t be saved.” Both of these thoughts are from the enemy, and there is no truth in them. But think this way: I am a great sinner, but the Lord is merciful. He loves people very much, and He will forgive my sins.”
Like I said, it’s something I fail at myself, but I don’t think the answer is to react defensively and hostilely, but to be humbled by how much of a sinner you are before God.
That’s how I see it at least.
I agree, I don’t think anyone here who hasn’t done this is guilty of anything nor do I think this is “sin”. I think this is where it ventures into a territory of religious ethics that is akin to fundamentalism in how literalistic and unrealistically demanding it is. This is the kind of stuff that leads to nihilism or, not just misanthropy, but hatred of existence as such. It honestly doesn’t sound like a concept of the Divine that deserves our worship and participation.
I’m high and tired right now so I’m having trouble formulating my thought further than that but I really agree.
Edit: Upon noticing the Orthodox Cross, I quickly looked it up and I found out that this is indeed an Eastern Orthodox monk. I’m still having trouble formulating it, at the moment, but this theological origin isn’t the same as the evangelical fundamentalism I had in mind so I want to retract that. So I will qualify what I said. In this theological context, his point is a little clearer. He is probably a believer in Universal Reconciliation or Universal Salvation, and doesn’t even believe in hell or damnation. So it’s not like a person is damned individually for not praying for their evil abuser. Although, I still feel like by putting this individualistic demand upon the action of the individual to enact universal salvation as opposed to it being a pure gift of the Divine towards creation, then it also means that those who are victims have the greater task of creating the space for eschaton and bear a larger guilt for potential failure than the “evil” ones.
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