Is Naivitee Bliss? Or Can Marriages Last?

So which is more wonderful - the beginning of a new dating relationship, or a relationship that has stood the test of time (decades) and is still in love? Your answer to that question tells a lot about your personality. Romantic movies tend to glorify the very beginning of a relationship because it warms all of our hearts and reminds us why we love the other person.

Nevertheless, I like relationships that stand the test of time. They must be doing something right. Relationships can be precarious, and it's easy for one party to leave the other in today's culture. Even in yesteryear, it was easy for relationships to grow stagnant and for couples to fall out of love.

Yet it is cute to watch couples learning the disciplines of life-long relationships. To hear them talk about communication. To hear how they spend hours gushing over each other. There's something inherently right about such things. There's something that calls out, if you are religious, the glory of God.

Perhaps that is why marriage has been a bedrock of our society and because it is a foundation of civilization. Not because it goes wrong so often, but because it is so beautiful when it goes right.

One Reason Why We Should Pay Teachers More

As human beings, we have chosen to organize ourselves into nation-states. We are Americans, or we are Canadians, or we are Kenyans. These nations must organize themselves internally. The classic question then becomes, how do you organize a country? How should we relate to each other?

Socialists rely on an all-powerful state to organize their business. Even more, communists organized society from the top-down by force. Kings organized the nation according to their whims. Enlightened despots did the same, only with a more refined humanity. All these organized society, but they did not serve the people.

Liberal/free society organizes society around the individual, and it seeks the economic benefit of all involved. (This is why the Soviet Union fell; it could not keep up with the economic engine of the West.) Society is organized around the principle of division of labor. Everyone does their part in the economic engine and gets rewarded for it.

This is why economic fairness for people like teachers is so important. We must pay our teachers fairly if we are to keep them working as expected. Otherwise, there is economic inequity, and inequity breeds oppression, and oppression breeds rebellion, and rebellion breeds bad work.

An Escape From Reason

Doing the reasonable thing is often the most loving thing that someone can do. I am a big fan of collecting data, analyzing it appropriately, and acting on the conclusions well. This is the foundation of medical management, and something I have chosen to base my life upon.

However, in our lives, there needs to be an escape from reason. Theologian Francis Schaeffer used this label to say that there has to be an escape from reasonable interpretation of the Scriptures into a living, vibrant relationship with God. Theology, though informed by data, cannot be purely data-driven.

Likewise, family and friends (the ones you can show your crazy around) provides us with an ability to escape from reason. They give us the chance to let our guard down, to be ourselves, to give, to see the world through others' eyes, and to love mightily. We have to let our guards down somewhere; it might as well be with those who are forced to love us whether we like it or not.

A Conservative Case For Gay Marriage

Conservatism historically has stood against the encroachment of the liberal state. Instead, it stands for individual liberty. The state is needed to make laws which allow the advancement of work that requires social cooperation. For instance, a state where murder is legal would not allow us to prosper. But a state that would disallow us from using particular kinds of light bulbs would be overreaching because it stifles individual liberty.

You can see where this is going. Why are we making arrangements illegal, arrangements that uphold society? Isn't this a liberal move and not a conservative one? Doesn't this stifle individual liberty? Isn't this a case of state overreach?

Indeed, gays contribute to the economic prosperity of our country. They have for centuries. They have monogamous relationships which provide an adequate amount of peace and allow for flourishing. They only seek the legal protection of the state like the rest of us. They only seek that gem of Western societies - equal protection under the law.

Instead they face the opposition of religion, which seeks to enforce its will upon us all. Religion, afraid that it cannot make an argument to justify itself and its positions, resorts to the legal force to discriminate against fellow citizens. This does not advance individual liberty but forced obedience to the wills of a select few. It is oppression at its worst, and history will judge those who bow to it negatively.

What Is Liberation?

Many in churches with conservative theology believe that Christian liberation means freedom from sin - and only freedom from sin. While freedom from sin certainly is a component of Christian freedom, there are certainly other aspects of such freedom. Like freedom from death. Or freedom from political enslavement. Yes, Jesus intersects politics sometimes.

We in America are accustomed to seek after a wall between church and state. But if we do so, we neglect many Biblical themes. Liberation theology, which focuses on how Jesus liberates the oppressed, reminds us that Jesus does want liberation for us all. He does not want us enslaved by our governments. Or by slave masters. Or by our bosses. Jesus wants us to be free people, politically.

While not yet a mature theology, liberation theology has inspired a revolution in El Salvador. It has received much attention by the Pope. In African-American circles, it focuses on how God brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt. It brought them to freedom, even if Israel ended up screwing it up in subsequent centuries.

This theology is certainly preferable to the all-too-predominant prosperity Gospel, which claims that God wants us to be happy. Instead, it seeks to speak prophetically against existing political structures that are unjust. As such, it is preferable to argue that political beliefs hurt our neighbors rather than simply to argue for more money.

While liberation theology seeks to make a political difference in the world, the best difference this theology can make is in our own hearts. It can help us look after the poor and oppressed instead of building yet another megachurch. And in looking after the least of these, we might lose ourselves and find Christ. Not a bad prospect, indeed.

Anarchists

If you looked at the news recently, you would have seen anarchists protesting the NATO summit. Anarchy is an issue that is widely avoided by Americans in favor of our democracy. Nevertheless, they raise interesting issues. (Incidentally, I studied under an anarchist for a time at Clemson; I even wrote my senior thesis under one. I myself am not an anarchist, but I have a respect for their viewpoint.)

For example, why do we need government at all? Why doesn't our social structures reward the work of the average person more? Are all governments, even the most "democratic," simply oppressing people? These are real questions that should haunt our leaders.

However, anarchists, who instituted May Day as a labor holiday, fall short in practice. Capitalistic democracy has tapped the power of self-advancement. People will work hardest when they are convinced it will advance their own causes. Anarchy would lack such self-interest.

These protesters don't really challenge our national discussion because they don't get the appropriate media coverage and because anarchy has a bad name in our country. While still adhering to classically liberal capitalism, I think that it's a shame we don't talk about anarchism over our dinner tables. We would have a richer view of our nation and world if we did.

The Foundation of Abstinence

Sex is such a powerful topic because it's so important to each of our lives yet it is talked about so little relative to its importance. In ultra-conservative South Carolina, I find that there are many distortions out there about sex. This is one of those states with abstinence-only sex education. While I am all for high schoolers prolonging their coming-to-the-party date, the problem with this strategy is that there's no evidence that this education works.

Indeed, many pastors I know preach that sex outside of marriage is forbidden by the Bible. This sounds pious and nice, but my question is: Where? The best answer I receive is that it is forbidden when Paul attacks "fornication." Again, this sounds nice, but when you go to what the Greek meant by this word in then-contemporary literature, fornication means immoral sexual practices, like sleeping with boys - never sleeping with your wife-to-be. Indeed, the book of Ruth contains possible pre-marital sex with feet being used as a euphemism for Boaz's genitals. If we are to practice sola scriptura, we cannot continue to speak this lie.

I challenge anyone to confront me with a reasonable interpretation that interprets pro-abstinence. I am open to changing my mind.

This does not mean that abstinence is a bad idea. There are a lot of risky behaviors that can be avoided by keeping sex until engagement or marriage. Pregnancies can be avoided, STDs can be excluded, and emotional damage can be eschewed. The disciplines of monogamy can begin. Nevertheless, this is by the choice of couples, not by a divine mandate.

That being said, if the couple is committed to each other for the long haul and decides with each other to open up the Pandora's box of sex, then I have no problem with such an act. But it is their choice because they are free to make such choices in love. Love exists only in freedom, and we cannot squelch it with our so-called "divine" rules.