Introduction
These commentaries are written from my experience and study. They express my opinion about religious doctrine, the narrative that guides the Christian faith, and its impact on spiritual health in the Church. I have concerns about the relevance of the Christian faith within the current social landscape and question why it’s viewed as little more than an inconvenient sub-culture that increasingly struggles with its own spiritual and social identity. Has the Church played a part in this, and what might be changed to impact the current moral catastrophe?
About Me
I grew up with a Christian understanding of life, and the Presbyterian Church was my early religious experience. Some 40 years later I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and saviour. In 2001, I was part of a leadership team that welcomed a new Pastor to the Church. Shortly after, we experienced a series of theological and relational challenges that split the Church in two. This event took three subsequent Pastors, and many years to recover from. I remember the disillusionment left in the wake of the unanswered questions this type of event incurs. I began to realise two things, I came to see that I knew very little about why I believed and that anything I did know, was not my own.
My Latest Commentary
The Dark Road to Personal Pleasure
Hedonism, an ethical theory that suggests pleasure; as in the satisfaction of our own personal desires, is the highest good, and the proper aim of all human life. Today we see this pursuit of pleasure over responsibility in many forms. It might be a pleasure that overrides the responsibility of building financial well-being, personal gratification over commitment to family, or social insurrection at the expense of others. The greater moral good has been replaced by short-term personal gratification, which is accompanied by a dangerous preoccupation with blaming others for anything that offends a victim's view of reality. It's as if the accident of living gives us an intrinsic right to anything we deem pleasurable, at the expense of others. Many don't seem to realize they've succumbed to a distorted view of reality, a view that will ultimately lead to self-destructive, and sadly not produce the pleasure that might be imagined in the long term. In fact, loneliness might be an unexpected outcome.
Hedonism, an ethical theory that suggests pleasure; as in the satisfaction of our desires, is the highest good, and the proper aim of all human life. Today we see this pursuit of pleasure over responsibility in many forms. It might be a pleasure that overrides the responsibility of building financial security, personal gratification over commitment to family, or social insurrection at the expense of others. The greater moral good has been replaced by short-term personal gratification. This is accompanied by a dangerous preoccupation with blaming others for anything that offends a victim's view of reality. It's as if the accident of living gives us an intrinsic right to anything we deem pleasurable, at the expense of others. Many don't seem to realize they've succumbed to a distorted view of reality, a view that will ultimately lead to self-destructive, and sadly not produce the pleasure that might be imagined in the long term. Loneliness might be an unexpected outcome.
The current social upheaval might be difficult for the hedonistic types, in so much as those who embrace a self-centred view of life, are often those enamoured with a socialist narrative, where the ultimate goal is the control of freedoms, along with any choice about pleasures. Here you might take into consideration that hedonism is idolatry, and self-gratification includes, but isn't limited to physical pleasure. One might read the history of Rome to see how this unfolds. Yet, this mix of hedonism and socialism is the mindset of an overwhelming number of people today, especially 15-45-year-olds. Many in this bracket have little understanding of history, and for all their social intelligence, have learned little from past efforts to engineer equal outcomes. The activist end of the liberal types are so consumed by their ideological rights, pleasures, and social importance, that they cannot see that narcissism only leads to dark places.
One of the difficulties with the hedonist argument arises from the words used to identify the theory. Why is the pursuit of pleasure viewed as the highest good, and why is it, a good? By what standard is pleasure defined as a good ethic? To state, that something is good, is surely a moral claim, so on what authority is pleasure defined as such? Why is personal gratification viewed as the highest good, thus implying that nothing else in life reaches the same level of importance or preoccupation? This appears absurd, not least because our conscience might suggest otherwise. Virtues such as love, responsibility, and sacrifice might come to mind. Of interest is that the conscience is somewhat separate from the brain in so much as it functions in isolation, as an adjudicator if you like, offering moral decisions about right from wrong. But this is not to say that we act upon it, our mind makes that decision. However, I can see how proponents might argue that these more traditional goods are indeed still good, but they come as a consequence of pursuing pleasure, having satisfied the higher good, to begin with. However, even this argument invariably collapses into itself, because hedonistic pleasure as the highest ethic to strive for in life, might survive in isolation, but cannot survive in a community, or long-term under the demands of a relationship with those closest to us. Survival in life and relationships requires higher virtues of love and respect, both of which hang on to the virtue of submission. Just ask your partner or your Children. Hedonist risks descending into the worst forms of narcissism.
Sadly, in many ways, the Church has bought into the current emotionally charged narrative, which has been engineered by post-Christian ideologues. We find Christians using the same words and language, which in many ways makes the Church complicit and unhelpful in confronting the current attitude of discontent. Culturally loaded terms like "caring for the most vulnerable" might be a popular example. The nature of caring is a biblical imperative so it's hard to avoid the discussion, but the problem for the Church lies in the politics. The current liberal ethos has misrepresented the moral foundations of caring, by shifting the emphasis away from personal choice and limited responsibility for any civilized society, to one of unfettered blame and recrimination. Responsibility for failure and general inequality have become systemic consequences of colonial patriarchy, racism, and discrimination. The narrative has been weaponized by creating tropes of national and cultural victimhood, with villains that become scapegoats for victims to blame. The Church has been blindsided in a crossfire of social upheaval. This is partly the result of the pandemic, but mostly because conversations that should have occurred years ago have not been had. This situation has been evolving since the 1960s, and somewhat charged over the last 6 years. What has been exposed is that by and large, the Church has become a sub-culture instead of a counter-culture. How can you say this? Well, when was the last time, you as a Church, were persecuted for standing against the moral climate of a post-Christian generation? The Church has nothing to say because fear has exposed the impotent compliance of its leaders. On one level we have the biblical approach to caring, and on the other a socialist narrative that talks about caring but covets power and control, and we have nothing to say?
We see communities separated into tribal groups that identify their social worth and value. This tribal group further determines the degree of victimhood suffered by the group. Those who define this narrative claim to represent a fairer, more liberal, and equitable approach to rights, freedoms and caring. In reality, the underwriters are using the ignorance of short-sighted hedonism to destroy the foundations on which an objective view of life is built. Why, because the social ethic that pervades our post-Christian discourse is consumed with satisfying personal rights and grievances, and pleasure is regarded as the highest ethic that humanity might strive for, and we have nothing to say?
Archive
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Trevor
Strange
- 16 Dec 2024 The Last Supper - Retrospection or Reunion?
- 16 Sept 2024 The Semantic Drift of Worship
- 11 Aug 2024 Run to Win the Prize
- 12 Jul 2024 Continuous Atonement
- 26 Jun 2024 So You Have a Haunted House
- 7 Feb 2024 The Sermon
- 30 Aug 2023 In the Absence of Persecution
- 24 Jun 2023 Are We Born Sinners?
- 9 May 2023 Did the Cross Separate Jesus from God?
- 7 Feb 2023 Pastors/Teachers, Are They the Same?
- 17 Nov 2022 The Dark Road to Personal Pleasure
- 29 Jul 2022 The Persecuted Apostle
- 4 Dec 2021 Crowd Hypnosis and the Church
- 15 Oct 2021 Victims of Social Engineering
- 7 Aug 2021 White Middle-Class, Middle-Aged Males - The Beatitudes
- 7 May 2021 Can Christians Lose Their Salvation? - Part 3
- 1 Apr 2021 Can Christians Lose Their Salvation? - Part 2
- 27 Aug 2020 Can Christians Lose Their Salvation? - Part 1
- 17 Jul 2020 Are We Totally Determined?
- 17 Mar 2020 Submission and Covering
- 13 Jan 2020 Godlessness
- 18 Apr 2019 The Rise of Socialism
- 4 Mar 2018 Jesus Must Go
- 18 Sept 2017 Death Spiral for the Anglican Church
- 14 Sept 2017 The Image of Evil
- 4 Sept 2017 False Prophets
- 1 Jun 2017 Who Owns the West Bank? - Part 2
- 19 May 2017 Who Owns the West Bank? - Part 1
- 18 Feb 2017 United in the Spirit
- 13 Dec 2016 What Are Our Rights?
- 31 Jul 2016 A Matter of Baptism
- 5 Jul 2016 The Love of Money
- 5 Nov 2015 Signs of the Times
- 19 Jul 2015 Simply Apologetics
- 24 Feb 2015 Religious Systems of Authority
- 1 Feb 2015 Degrees of Sin - Part 2
- 19 Jan 2015 Degrees of Sin - Part 1
- 11 Dec 2014 The Cry for Peace
- 13 Sept 2014 Speaking in Tongues - Part 2
- 7 Sept 2014 Speaking in Tongues - Part 1
- 23 May 2014 Where are the Prophets?
- 4 Nov 2013 The Unsaid Truth
- 2 Sept 2013 Saved by the Church
- 6 Aug 2013 Unified Disagreement
- 25 May 2013 Have the Promises of Wealth Come True?
- 23 Apr 2013 Part 5 - Headship
- 23 Mar 2013 Part 4 - Egalitarian Relationship Not Ruling Authority
- 2 Mar 2013 Part 3 - Wives, Submit to Your Husbands
- 16 Oct 2012 Part 2 - Husbands, Submit to Your Wives
- 20 Aug 2012 Part 1 - Mutual Submission in Relationships
- 6 Aug 2012 Progressive Healing
- 10 Jun 2012 Tithing - Part 2
- 16 May 2012 Tithing - Part 1
- 17 Apr 2012 The Popularity Myth
- 22 Mar 2012 Freedom and Grace
- 23 Aug 2011 What is Biblical Authority?
- 23 Aug 2011 What About Accountability?
- 23 Aug 2011 Conflict is not a Bad Word
- 23 Aug 2011 When the Church Loses It's Way
- 23 Aug 2011 Anointing With Oil