Today as I was ordering a Greek salad at Atlanta Bread Co., a late middle aged woman asked me if I was "still at St. Petersburg College." At first I was perplexed. I do not know this woman. I teach at St. Petersburg College, but something about the tone of her voice made me feel quite skeptical.
Then, upon refusing to answer, she re-stated the question. The truth of her intent then became known. This middle aged woman was asking me not if I taught at the local college, but was wondering if I was still a student at St. Petersburg College!
Upon her line of reasoning being unveiled, I looked at her and said, "Excuse me?" Then I stated somewhat intrepidly, "I have two master's degrees from Duke University and three years of Ph.D. studies."
I am still unsure whether or not this lady's query was an innocent mistake or whether or not she was trying to belittle a man nearing her age. I am, after all, thirty seven years old, not to mention having a full beard.
After sitting down with my Greek salad I was reminded of how in 1989, when I was only 17 years old, Tianamen Square in China pitted Chinese intelligentsia against the forces of communism. Egalite' so said the French Revolutionary! "All resources are to be controlled by the state" so did the Communist Chinese Revolutionary continue such false egalitarianism. But, in the end, "equality" is never quite equal, now is it?
"Equality" is often a thin veneer for toppling aristocracy.
"Equality" is also a "code" for denying "Equal Opportunity based upon merit!"
"Separate, but equal" proved to certainly be 'separate,' yet never quite equal.
And so, in the current trend towards socialist ways of the American populace, a new uprising will now occur. An uprising on behalf of Christianity. Yes, all men and women are created equal. But such equality (so the Jewish and Christian traditions embody) does not equal societal power independent of Virtue. Virtue, not the Chinese communist tank aimed at the solo protester, guides the founding of Republican political theory. Plato's key text on this issue, The Republic, serves as a foundation for all later Western political theory. It is by Virtue that a nation or city-state is to be led. Virtue such as courage guides the military. Virtue such as thrift guides the mercantile class. Virtue, intellectual virtue, such as prudence will guide the aristocratic political leadership class. But, and here is where the U.S. has made its "fatal error," Virtue had for a time vanished from political rule.
The woman who simply assumed that a man would be "barely finishing his associate's degree" at the age of 37 is in error. The scholar (Plato's "Philosopher-King") is to be re-instated, not by force, not by persuasion, but simply by social convention.
Harvard University Law School produced Barack Obama and now the White House is occupied by Plato's "Philosopher-King." Sadly, however, due to openly denying opportunity to persons of superior intellectual ability, the U.S. economy, rather than toppling itself will simply shift! Gone are the days of "good-ole boy G.O.P." networking in which a man like Karl Rove (who truly does not have an undergraduate degree) can ascend the ladder of political influence. In the New America, prosperity will reign. The salesperson, the under-educated man, will be forced to sell, sell, sell and sell, sell, sell she or he shall do. But, and as Plato's tri-partite view of the soul as a microcosm of society dictates, the salesperson shall serve the military and its interests, and the "top of the Pyramid" will no longer be a "bunch of good 'ole boys" who barely made it out of undergrad (if even that!), but instead the political top of the pyramid will be based upon merit. G.R.E. Scores. L.S.A.T.'s. Duke. Harvard. Yale. Princeton.
The "masses" will be the ones to now work at the bottom of the heap, hawking their wares.
The truly courageous will serve valiantly on distant shores as U.S. Military Personnel.
But, and as the 2008 election demonstrated, the "Top of the Pyramid" will be occupied by the scholar-activist. Barack. Harvard. VICTORY. McCain. Palin. Tragic flaw in G.O.P. reasoning. Barely passing the Naval Academy really ended up being no match for a Summa Cum Laude from Harvard Law School.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
The West's Decline and Coming Renaissance
I am somewhat in shock at how poorly the Barack Obama Presidency REALLY IS progressing. From making Federal tax money available to kill babies-in-utero to failing to present a balanced budget (1/2 of which is financed by debt-money) to now even re-instating the human rights abusers to power in our Nation's military, I am not sure how long this "Wave of Liberalism" can truly last.
Genocide is how Christian Historians label those regimes that practice abortion.
Those nation states that are "lenders" (e.g. China, the U.K., Japan) will now RULE OVER the Debt-Machine called the United States of American Federal Government. To be frank, it is SO BAD in the U.S. (from a Christian perspective!) that I just hope that as the U.S. continues its demise that the military does not somehow "fall into the wrong hands." I hope that TRUE Evangelical Protestants, Catholics, Jews and others who support Christendom will somehow maintain control over the domestic-military MIGHT that is what remains of American world hegemony!
After all, our products are "second-rate" (e.g. Chrysler autos!). We have a "bad reputation" of IMPERIALISM. We have "burned bridges" with our National Allies in the E.U. (under the Bush Administration). Finally, we have turned Orthodox Christianity (Protestant, Catholic and Greek/Russian/etc. Orthodoxy) directly against the Executive Branch due to its "Culture of Death" stance--e.g. a Catholic Bishop, John D'Arcy calling for a "boycott" of Barack Obama's speech at the University of Notre Dame.
But, in spite of the decline of American hegemonic control (e.g. failed economy, ill-advised, protracted wars, etc.), in the future generations, the West itself shall survive, and I TRULY believe, the West WILL flourish. Music. Art. Pro-Christian Politics. Much should happen in the coming decade to reverse the trend towards nihilism that the Liberal side of the U.S. political spectrum represents. For example, when on tax day (April 15, 2009), tens of thousands assembled in re-enactments of the Boston Tea Party, then C-H-A-N-G-E is just around the corner! "Obama-mania" is OVER! "Cults of personality" are either the mark of Communism on the Left or of Fascism on the Right. "Cults of personality," however, are ALWAYS a B-A-D IDEA for truly democratic government!
So, what is a Christian to do for the next three and a half years?
Well, as for me, I listen to Classical Music (most of which was Christian!). I teach. I learn from history and its mistakes.
How about YOU?
All the very best in Christ, Robert J. King
Genocide is how Christian Historians label those regimes that practice abortion.
Those nation states that are "lenders" (e.g. China, the U.K., Japan) will now RULE OVER the Debt-Machine called the United States of American Federal Government. To be frank, it is SO BAD in the U.S. (from a Christian perspective!) that I just hope that as the U.S. continues its demise that the military does not somehow "fall into the wrong hands." I hope that TRUE Evangelical Protestants, Catholics, Jews and others who support Christendom will somehow maintain control over the domestic-military MIGHT that is what remains of American world hegemony!
After all, our products are "second-rate" (e.g. Chrysler autos!). We have a "bad reputation" of IMPERIALISM. We have "burned bridges" with our National Allies in the E.U. (under the Bush Administration). Finally, we have turned Orthodox Christianity (Protestant, Catholic and Greek/Russian/etc. Orthodoxy) directly against the Executive Branch due to its "Culture of Death" stance--e.g. a Catholic Bishop, John D'Arcy calling for a "boycott" of Barack Obama's speech at the University of Notre Dame.
But, in spite of the decline of American hegemonic control (e.g. failed economy, ill-advised, protracted wars, etc.), in the future generations, the West itself shall survive, and I TRULY believe, the West WILL flourish. Music. Art. Pro-Christian Politics. Much should happen in the coming decade to reverse the trend towards nihilism that the Liberal side of the U.S. political spectrum represents. For example, when on tax day (April 15, 2009), tens of thousands assembled in re-enactments of the Boston Tea Party, then C-H-A-N-G-E is just around the corner! "Obama-mania" is OVER! "Cults of personality" are either the mark of Communism on the Left or of Fascism on the Right. "Cults of personality," however, are ALWAYS a B-A-D IDEA for truly democratic government!
So, what is a Christian to do for the next three and a half years?
Well, as for me, I listen to Classical Music (most of which was Christian!). I teach. I learn from history and its mistakes.
How about YOU?
All the very best in Christ, Robert J. King
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
My Soul Looks Back . . .
Way back in 1996, during a God-awful course in contemporary United Methodism (depressing subject if anyone knows the plight of mainline U.S. Protestantism! :-) I read a book by Black Liberation Theologian, James Cone. The book, entitled My Soul Looks Back, was Cone's personal memoirs concerning how he left the normal course of theological study and embarked upon a course of reflection for African American empowerment.
When I first read it, I must admit that I too was seeking an alternative to the quasi-Christianity that I had been increasingly experiencing in the new denomination of which I was a member, a seminarian and eventual clergyman serving within. I well remember the feelings of angst I would receive during this particular course, less owing to anything authentically Wesleyan, but more to a type of growing "gnostic" tendency whereby historical research increasingly replaced actual lived discipleship.
Eventually, through good Evangelical United Methodists such as Benji Kelly and humorous voices of dissent-against-boring-professors (e.g. Peter McGuire), I gained a bit of a following. Tear down the establishment! Elect Stanley Hauerwas (Ethics Professor/mentor) as "Pope of United Methodism" or something. Out with the old white guys and in with the "New Bucks!"
Well, now some thirteen years later and since returned to the Roman Catholic Faithful, I now realize how correct I was in my premature evaluations!
Stan Hauerwas was right! Methodism had long since "died on the vine!" Jesus Christ Himself once said, "I am the vine, you are the branches and apart from me you can do nothing." Well, given United Methodism's increasing theological and practical liberalism, anything that was historically orthodox or (God forbid!) charismatic/Pentecostal had long-since been ruled verboten by the Liberals who ran the show!
Well, although I myself am a liberal economically (as was Jesus Christ Himself! ;-) the types of morality associated with the Democratic Party (e.g. everything from endorsing homosexual unions to murdering babies through abortion) had largely infiltrated United Methodism that there was no choice but to pack my bags and return home to the Catholic Church of my boyhood.
Now the road has not been easy. I have lost a "blossoming career" as a United Methodist clergy (M.Div., Th.M., Ph.D. ABD*). I even ended up losing my wife and children in the transition back into Catholicism--less the fault of anything Catholic, and more the pernicious effects of feminism on U.S. Higher Education. But, and an important but, when walks according to Jesus Christ, when one takes up one's cross and follows Christ daily, then one will be blessed! I have been absolutely blessed to teach full-time (On-Line and at St. Petersburg College) since 2005. Now I am seeking to finally finish that "full Ph.D." that had eluded my grasp! Jesus Christ is faithful.
May the LORD Christ guard your own steps!
<>< R. King
When I first read it, I must admit that I too was seeking an alternative to the quasi-Christianity that I had been increasingly experiencing in the new denomination of which I was a member, a seminarian and eventual clergyman serving within. I well remember the feelings of angst I would receive during this particular course, less owing to anything authentically Wesleyan, but more to a type of growing "gnostic" tendency whereby historical research increasingly replaced actual lived discipleship.
Eventually, through good Evangelical United Methodists such as Benji Kelly and humorous voices of dissent-against-boring-professors (e.g. Peter McGuire), I gained a bit of a following. Tear down the establishment! Elect Stanley Hauerwas (Ethics Professor/mentor) as "Pope of United Methodism" or something. Out with the old white guys and in with the "New Bucks!"
Well, now some thirteen years later and since returned to the Roman Catholic Faithful, I now realize how correct I was in my premature evaluations!
Stan Hauerwas was right! Methodism had long since "died on the vine!" Jesus Christ Himself once said, "I am the vine, you are the branches and apart from me you can do nothing." Well, given United Methodism's increasing theological and practical liberalism, anything that was historically orthodox or (God forbid!) charismatic/Pentecostal had long-since been ruled verboten by the Liberals who ran the show!
Well, although I myself am a liberal economically (as was Jesus Christ Himself! ;-) the types of morality associated with the Democratic Party (e.g. everything from endorsing homosexual unions to murdering babies through abortion) had largely infiltrated United Methodism that there was no choice but to pack my bags and return home to the Catholic Church of my boyhood.
Now the road has not been easy. I have lost a "blossoming career" as a United Methodist clergy (M.Div., Th.M., Ph.D. ABD*). I even ended up losing my wife and children in the transition back into Catholicism--less the fault of anything Catholic, and more the pernicious effects of feminism on U.S. Higher Education. But, and an important but, when walks according to Jesus Christ, when one takes up one's cross and follows Christ daily, then one will be blessed! I have been absolutely blessed to teach full-time (On-Line and at St. Petersburg College) since 2005. Now I am seeking to finally finish that "full Ph.D." that had eluded my grasp! Jesus Christ is faithful.
May the LORD Christ guard your own steps!
<>< R. King
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Money, sex, pleasure, and why the West was won by Catholicism!
We live in a "sex-crazed" age!
Whether it's cross-dressers seeking to defy their normal biological gender specificity or whether it is the homosexual agenda seeking to normalize their union by calling it "marriage," the 'politics-of-sex' is something that is recurrent in the West!
Take the ancient Greeks prior to becoming Christians for example.
In ancient Greece, homosexuality (male-male or female-female) was practiced, as was "man-boy" love.
Looking back on those times, one can see how whenever a type of sexual relationship was deemed as "acceptable" by the governing structures, then those very governing structures would somehow become immune from any external moral critique.
Now, in 2009, state-after-state (e.g. California and Florida) are seeking to ban same-sex marriage.
Granted the Christian moral grounding of such a grass-roots movement to preserve monogamous, heterosexual marriage has been on the decline ever since the 1960's "sexual revolution," but nonetheless, the latent natural law reasoning of even liberal states such as California is claiming that homosexuality is simply not a normal practice.
But, and an important point to note, whereas the homosexual movement (e.g. "gay rights") is contrary to both the natural law and the theological view of Christianity, the move towards even viewing sexuality as primarily rooted in "pleasure" is in itself an underlying cause of why homosexuality would ever even begin to claim maritial union for itself! To separate sex from procreation, something that can be supported ironically enough from the philosophical history of sex posed by Michel Foucault, is itself to move in the direction of creating a new view of what "romantic love" even is!
Romantic love is to be contained within the covenant of marriage, yes, marriage between husband and wife, and with the intended goal of family-creation. When this end-goal is removed from the sexual act, then yes, sex becomes only something that "feels good" and the homosexual movement would, of course, see nothing wrong with also claiming their types of behavior as a type of "romance."
In conclusion, although I applaud Protestant attempts to maintain the sanctity of marriage, it is truly only the teaching of the Catholic Church which inextricably links marriage to family-creation that makes any moral sense (systematically!) concerning issues of sex.
Whether it's cross-dressers seeking to defy their normal biological gender specificity or whether it is the homosexual agenda seeking to normalize their union by calling it "marriage," the 'politics-of-sex' is something that is recurrent in the West!
Take the ancient Greeks prior to becoming Christians for example.
In ancient Greece, homosexuality (male-male or female-female) was practiced, as was "man-boy" love.
Looking back on those times, one can see how whenever a type of sexual relationship was deemed as "acceptable" by the governing structures, then those very governing structures would somehow become immune from any external moral critique.
Now, in 2009, state-after-state (e.g. California and Florida) are seeking to ban same-sex marriage.
Granted the Christian moral grounding of such a grass-roots movement to preserve monogamous, heterosexual marriage has been on the decline ever since the 1960's "sexual revolution," but nonetheless, the latent natural law reasoning of even liberal states such as California is claiming that homosexuality is simply not a normal practice.
But, and an important point to note, whereas the homosexual movement (e.g. "gay rights") is contrary to both the natural law and the theological view of Christianity, the move towards even viewing sexuality as primarily rooted in "pleasure" is in itself an underlying cause of why homosexuality would ever even begin to claim maritial union for itself! To separate sex from procreation, something that can be supported ironically enough from the philosophical history of sex posed by Michel Foucault, is itself to move in the direction of creating a new view of what "romantic love" even is!
Romantic love is to be contained within the covenant of marriage, yes, marriage between husband and wife, and with the intended goal of family-creation. When this end-goal is removed from the sexual act, then yes, sex becomes only something that "feels good" and the homosexual movement would, of course, see nothing wrong with also claiming their types of behavior as a type of "romance."
In conclusion, although I applaud Protestant attempts to maintain the sanctity of marriage, it is truly only the teaching of the Catholic Church which inextricably links marriage to family-creation that makes any moral sense (systematically!) concerning issues of sex.
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