Tonight I will be teaching Applied Ethics to a group of Floridians. I have to say Floridians, well, because I live in Florida. To be up front, Florida is a special place. Jews, Christians and secularists all make their home here.
Pretty much the only thing that unifies us as a State is our prosperity. Each weekend, I will travel to the Sembler-financed BayWalk restaurant and movie complex to listen to free rock & roll, jazz & Jimmy Buffet-style concerts. Sometimes I even eat Italian where the financial "big wigs" eat (for example movers & shakers politically). We are a prosperous city and state here in St. Petersburg, Florida.
But is "prosperity" enough? Does it matter for instance if someone is engaged in homosexual acts, especially in public bathrooms as is a recent problem in Ft. Lauderdale? Does it matter if we are at War and people want to kill us as Americans because we refuse to submit to Islam? (Osama bin Laden's recent tape essentially told the U.S. to convert to Islam thereby showing how global domination in the name of Islam is his true intent).
Well, although the United States of America will continue on in our prosperity, there is now a new season upon us. We must set aside the sinful practices that have crept into our national psyche. We must once again say unequivocally that homosexual acts are wrong. We must once again not submit to Islam as a Nation State. We must once again reclaim our Judeo-Christian morality.
Only this way, will we as a nation "do the RIGHT THING."
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Applied Ethics Professor for Jesus
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Petreaus, Power, and Foucault
Knowledge is power. According to Michel Foucault, post-modern French philosopher, whomever controls the "categories" of knowledge can essentially control the world.
Economically, whomever can know when to buy low and sell high can quickly out-position others in the market so that the wealth literally flows toward them, rather than away from them. Bill Gates of Microsoft was able to "out-think" the competition by coming up with the brilliant idea of including "bundles" of software in one package so that he could produce his "set of products" at a lower overall price than buying operating systems that were separate from Internet explorers, etc.
Militarily, whomever can out-think their opponents has also won. Iraq is a dead-end for the United States now, and so General Petreaus' idea of doing more with less is actually a BRILLIANT idea. My own suggestion is in the projected troop draw-down to maintain special forces presence and numbers and then consolidate the major bases into more easily defensible zones thereby easing the burden placed on the troops who will be deployed there to replace the troops who are coming home.
Politically, whomever can out-think their opponents has also won. Barack Obama, although a dashing young African American leader would have been a horrible President because he is not able to out-think Hillary Clinton. Every move Obama makes, Hillary quietly has Obama's number and already has functionally eliminated him from the race. Check-mate Obama, Hillary is a better chess-player than you are.
So, if you wish to win at the game of life, NEVER allow yourself to be defined by your adversaries. Sure, they may label you something that you are not, but never allow such a label to stick. In College Football I quickly learned that the enemy could easily look at his depth chart and see "Rob King, Offensive Center, 6'O" 212 pounds" and then he would label me a lightweight. Of course, after having shattered the knee of one 300 pound nose-guard, such statistics soon came to be regarded as much more irrelevant than "Rob King, 340 pound bench press, 605 pound squat and 275 pound power clean" (in other words, although only 212 pounds, I had an "Arnold Swartzeneggar-type physical body" and could even hang with our own Davidson College nose guard, a 300 pound Behemoth who was even looked at by the NFL (at 300 pounds, we would always "battle to a draw . . .").
So, if you want a Candidate who will not crumble under pressure, if you want a Candidate who can actually outsmart Hillary, go for Davidson College, Duke University and University of Notre Dame, not just some guy who may look nice in a suit and tie. Otherwise, there will be a whole new Clinton enterprise in 2008. Even Karl Rove seems to think that it is Hillary vs. the G.O.P. Candidate . . .
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Jock for Jesus :-)
Economically, whomever can know when to buy low and sell high can quickly out-position others in the market so that the wealth literally flows toward them, rather than away from them. Bill Gates of Microsoft was able to "out-think" the competition by coming up with the brilliant idea of including "bundles" of software in one package so that he could produce his "set of products" at a lower overall price than buying operating systems that were separate from Internet explorers, etc.
Militarily, whomever can out-think their opponents has also won. Iraq is a dead-end for the United States now, and so General Petreaus' idea of doing more with less is actually a BRILLIANT idea. My own suggestion is in the projected troop draw-down to maintain special forces presence and numbers and then consolidate the major bases into more easily defensible zones thereby easing the burden placed on the troops who will be deployed there to replace the troops who are coming home.
Politically, whomever can out-think their opponents has also won. Barack Obama, although a dashing young African American leader would have been a horrible President because he is not able to out-think Hillary Clinton. Every move Obama makes, Hillary quietly has Obama's number and already has functionally eliminated him from the race. Check-mate Obama, Hillary is a better chess-player than you are.
So, if you wish to win at the game of life, NEVER allow yourself to be defined by your adversaries. Sure, they may label you something that you are not, but never allow such a label to stick. In College Football I quickly learned that the enemy could easily look at his depth chart and see "Rob King, Offensive Center, 6'O" 212 pounds" and then he would label me a lightweight. Of course, after having shattered the knee of one 300 pound nose-guard, such statistics soon came to be regarded as much more irrelevant than "Rob King, 340 pound bench press, 605 pound squat and 275 pound power clean" (in other words, although only 212 pounds, I had an "Arnold Swartzeneggar-type physical body" and could even hang with our own Davidson College nose guard, a 300 pound Behemoth who was even looked at by the NFL (at 300 pounds, we would always "battle to a draw . . .").
So, if you want a Candidate who will not crumble under pressure, if you want a Candidate who can actually outsmart Hillary, go for Davidson College, Duke University and University of Notre Dame, not just some guy who may look nice in a suit and tie. Otherwise, there will be a whole new Clinton enterprise in 2008. Even Karl Rove seems to think that it is Hillary vs. the G.O.P. Candidate . . .
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Jock for Jesus :-)
Monday, September 10, 2007
The New Christian Empire, Opus Dei and the Latinization of the West
The Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, Roman Catholic Church just recently began having the mass in the official, pre-Vatican II, Tridentine Latin Mass. In this congregation (ironically where I received my First Holy Communion some 18 odd years ago), now the Traditionalists within Catholicism finally will have their rightful place.
In many ways, this whole debate over the Latin mass is somewhat pointless. I am a product of Evangelical Protestantism as much as I am my initial Catholic upbringing. Sola scriptura, sola fides is as much of a part of my belief system (because it is Christian Orthodoxy from St. Paul through St. Augustine!) as is the vast array of Tradition known as Catholicism.
For every sinner in the Catholic Church (including pedophile priests, apostate professors of theology, et al) there are also millions upon millions of ordinary Catholics who daily pray the rosary, venerate icons, and simply believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins and that accepting Jesus as their personal LORD and SAVIOR is essential for salvation.
It was thus with a somewhat curious response that my inner soul yearned for a united Christian Empire as I learned of the president of Mexico's recent exhortation to Mexicans in the United States to always stay loyal to Mexico their homeland. I could care less about Mexico's national sovereignty, nor the Mexican arrogance over their Latin American superiority in the sport of soccer, but the fact that the president of Mexico had a vision of a more unified Western hemisphere transcending borders of nation states was nonetheless striking.
To be frank, I have close friends (one of them highly influenced by the conservative Catholic Group, Opus Dei) who are Mexican nationals. In fact, when I taught philosophy in Indiana, although I was teaching at a staunch Evangelical Protestant liberal arts college, it was the Catholic students from Mexico whom I most closely connected with. These young men had a closer-knit fraternal community than their Anglo-Protestant peers, a greater love of children (including my son Manny who now wants to play soccer just like those Mexican soccer players he saw as a 1 year old!), and to be frank, these Mexican men are probably closer to me in Jesus Christ than many fellow Americans I know who wear either a thin veneer of artificial christianity at best or are just plain old secular humanists at worst.
Perhaps, the future of the United States of America really will look increasingly Latin. No, we won't go back in time to the 13th century and start writing all of our academic papers in Latin, nor will most Catholics even start attending the Latin mass. No, by Latin, I mean the Christian Empire of the West, first the Empire of Rome, then the Empire of the Germanic lands under Charlemagne (A.D. 800) is what the "new America" will look like.
So, no President Calderon, we won't unite 'officially' with Mexico, but yes, we will continue to eat tacos, drink cervezas de Mexico, and pray the rosary along with you, our dear neighboring country . . .
Viva las tierras christianas . . .
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Latin Presidential Candidate ("testing the waters" and waiting for the G.O.P. to figure me out . . . :-)
In many ways, this whole debate over the Latin mass is somewhat pointless. I am a product of Evangelical Protestantism as much as I am my initial Catholic upbringing. Sola scriptura, sola fides is as much of a part of my belief system (because it is Christian Orthodoxy from St. Paul through St. Augustine!) as is the vast array of Tradition known as Catholicism.
For every sinner in the Catholic Church (including pedophile priests, apostate professors of theology, et al) there are also millions upon millions of ordinary Catholics who daily pray the rosary, venerate icons, and simply believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins and that accepting Jesus as their personal LORD and SAVIOR is essential for salvation.
It was thus with a somewhat curious response that my inner soul yearned for a united Christian Empire as I learned of the president of Mexico's recent exhortation to Mexicans in the United States to always stay loyal to Mexico their homeland. I could care less about Mexico's national sovereignty, nor the Mexican arrogance over their Latin American superiority in the sport of soccer, but the fact that the president of Mexico had a vision of a more unified Western hemisphere transcending borders of nation states was nonetheless striking.
To be frank, I have close friends (one of them highly influenced by the conservative Catholic Group, Opus Dei) who are Mexican nationals. In fact, when I taught philosophy in Indiana, although I was teaching at a staunch Evangelical Protestant liberal arts college, it was the Catholic students from Mexico whom I most closely connected with. These young men had a closer-knit fraternal community than their Anglo-Protestant peers, a greater love of children (including my son Manny who now wants to play soccer just like those Mexican soccer players he saw as a 1 year old!), and to be frank, these Mexican men are probably closer to me in Jesus Christ than many fellow Americans I know who wear either a thin veneer of artificial christianity at best or are just plain old secular humanists at worst.
Perhaps, the future of the United States of America really will look increasingly Latin. No, we won't go back in time to the 13th century and start writing all of our academic papers in Latin, nor will most Catholics even start attending the Latin mass. No, by Latin, I mean the Christian Empire of the West, first the Empire of Rome, then the Empire of the Germanic lands under Charlemagne (A.D. 800) is what the "new America" will look like.
So, no President Calderon, we won't unite 'officially' with Mexico, but yes, we will continue to eat tacos, drink cervezas de Mexico, and pray the rosary along with you, our dear neighboring country . . .
Viva las tierras christianas . . .
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Latin Presidential Candidate ("testing the waters" and waiting for the G.O.P. to figure me out . . . :-)
Friday, September 7, 2007
War, physical, spiritual, cultural . . .
I just received an e-mail from a military web-site (private, not public) that had the headline "China hacks Pentagon's computers" . . .
Sadly, as any Christian would know, the Christian life is one of continual spiritual war. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities in the heavenly realm. As a Christian, we are also told to put on the whole armor of God. The belt of truth. The breastplate of righteousness. Most, importantly, the Sword of the Spirit which is the WORD of God.
When we Christians wield these weapons and armaments, we can and do conquer in the MIGHTY name of Jesus Christ!
For example, ironically, China is not only an enemy of the United States of America, but also one of the greatest persecutors of Evangelical and Roman Catholic Christians who refuse to submit their Christian beliefs to being polluted with marxist ideology.
Therefore, Christians in China are conquering that nation from within. Communism may control key resources such as money, political power, but it is through the Sword of the Spirit, that is the WORD of God that China is falling bit by bit to the Name Jesus Christ.
And so, also in the United States of America, although the Name Jesus Christ is increasingly censored within the public realm, be it a Republican Party that looks more and more paranoid each day, be it the public school system, or even military chaplains who forbid Jesus' name being spoken during command ceremonies, or whomever else is the enemy of Jesus Christ, so also are we Christians, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox conquering by the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God!
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Defender of Pro-Nicene Christian Orthodoxy, circa 325 A.D.
Sadly, as any Christian would know, the Christian life is one of continual spiritual war. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities in the heavenly realm. As a Christian, we are also told to put on the whole armor of God. The belt of truth. The breastplate of righteousness. Most, importantly, the Sword of the Spirit which is the WORD of God.
When we Christians wield these weapons and armaments, we can and do conquer in the MIGHTY name of Jesus Christ!
For example, ironically, China is not only an enemy of the United States of America, but also one of the greatest persecutors of Evangelical and Roman Catholic Christians who refuse to submit their Christian beliefs to being polluted with marxist ideology.
Therefore, Christians in China are conquering that nation from within. Communism may control key resources such as money, political power, but it is through the Sword of the Spirit, that is the WORD of God that China is falling bit by bit to the Name Jesus Christ.
And so, also in the United States of America, although the Name Jesus Christ is increasingly censored within the public realm, be it a Republican Party that looks more and more paranoid each day, be it the public school system, or even military chaplains who forbid Jesus' name being spoken during command ceremonies, or whomever else is the enemy of Jesus Christ, so also are we Christians, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox conquering by the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God!
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Defender of Pro-Nicene Christian Orthodoxy, circa 325 A.D.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Friendship
Back when I was a Resident Advisor for the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at Duke University, in addition to getting the free basketball tickets to see Duke play :-) I also learned a lot about friendship and its importance.
To this day I am good friends with someone who now works next to the Pentagon, is a strong Christian man, and all because we have made time for our friendship over the years.
Similarly, although the communication can be somewhat stilted, I am still friends with professors from Duke.
Stanley Hauerwas (one of my old profs . . .) in some of his work in Christian Ethics has pointed out that in the field of moral philosophy, friendship is a prominent, yet often overlooked theme. Aristotle, the ancient Greek Virtue Ethicist (and Natural Law philosopher who gave taxonomies of the various animal species) especially noted the importance of friendship.
From a Christian perspective, friendship is also vital. Jesus Himself one time said that "what greater love is this then for a man to lay down his life for his friends . . ."
So, how are you being influenced by your friends?
Is this influence positive or negative?
Also, how good of a friend are you being?
If a friend has just been laid off from work or suffered a horrific divorce, are you willing as a friend to stop and talk or even potentially pray with them?
These types of friends are the one who have "kept me going" over the long-haul and it is this type of friend that I always seek to be.
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Friend of All, Love of Jesus my LORD and Savior
To this day I am good friends with someone who now works next to the Pentagon, is a strong Christian man, and all because we have made time for our friendship over the years.
Similarly, although the communication can be somewhat stilted, I am still friends with professors from Duke.
Stanley Hauerwas (one of my old profs . . .) in some of his work in Christian Ethics has pointed out that in the field of moral philosophy, friendship is a prominent, yet often overlooked theme. Aristotle, the ancient Greek Virtue Ethicist (and Natural Law philosopher who gave taxonomies of the various animal species) especially noted the importance of friendship.
From a Christian perspective, friendship is also vital. Jesus Himself one time said that "what greater love is this then for a man to lay down his life for his friends . . ."
So, how are you being influenced by your friends?
Is this influence positive or negative?
Also, how good of a friend are you being?
If a friend has just been laid off from work or suffered a horrific divorce, are you willing as a friend to stop and talk or even potentially pray with them?
These types of friends are the one who have "kept me going" over the long-haul and it is this type of friend that I always seek to be.
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Friend of All, Love of Jesus my LORD and Savior
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The New Natural Law
Today as I was grading my Applied Ethics essays in Starbuck's I was sitting next to a third year law student from the top-ranked Florida Law School, Stetson.
As he was tending to presumably studying case after case in preparation for an exam, I was diligently reading how Ethics is conceived of by college students in 2007 U.S. higher education.
What was especially striking about my conversations with this law student was how we were both on the same side of the "political fence" arguing for a Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia "textual" interpretation of American jurisprudence. We both agreed that the only way that the United States of America can be governed is NOT by continuing the practice of judicial constructivism (both liberal a la Roe v. Wade AND conservative a la Chief Justice Roberts who does not adhere closely enough to the text of the Constitution apparently!). Rather, instead of constructing judicial law out of thin air (always a bad idea, and the sign of a tyrannical regime!), whatever the Constitution and whatever laws that Congress passes and the President signs into law, whether we like it or not, IS THE LAW OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
We ended the conversation with me wrapping up my essay grading, the law student bidding farewell and each of us returning to the battle that looms ahead for the United States of America.
* Will we as the United States of America continue to pass laws in direct opposition to the Natural Rights documents of the founding of our Republic such as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?
* Will our federal judges, liberal and conservative, continue to exercise judicial tyranny by inventing law "out of thin air" through false legal constructs that again have no actual textual support nor foundation?
* Will our nation continue to perpetrate war crimes such as torturing our enemies to extract information and holding them indefinitely in prison without due process under American law?
Please support this grass-roots effort to make America safe again for democratic rule.
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Christian Natural Law Thinker
As he was tending to presumably studying case after case in preparation for an exam, I was diligently reading how Ethics is conceived of by college students in 2007 U.S. higher education.
What was especially striking about my conversations with this law student was how we were both on the same side of the "political fence" arguing for a Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia "textual" interpretation of American jurisprudence. We both agreed that the only way that the United States of America can be governed is NOT by continuing the practice of judicial constructivism (both liberal a la Roe v. Wade AND conservative a la Chief Justice Roberts who does not adhere closely enough to the text of the Constitution apparently!). Rather, instead of constructing judicial law out of thin air (always a bad idea, and the sign of a tyrannical regime!), whatever the Constitution and whatever laws that Congress passes and the President signs into law, whether we like it or not, IS THE LAW OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
We ended the conversation with me wrapping up my essay grading, the law student bidding farewell and each of us returning to the battle that looms ahead for the United States of America.
* Will we as the United States of America continue to pass laws in direct opposition to the Natural Rights documents of the founding of our Republic such as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?
* Will our federal judges, liberal and conservative, continue to exercise judicial tyranny by inventing law "out of thin air" through false legal constructs that again have no actual textual support nor foundation?
* Will our nation continue to perpetrate war crimes such as torturing our enemies to extract information and holding them indefinitely in prison without due process under American law?
Please support this grass-roots effort to make America safe again for democratic rule.
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Christian Natural Law Thinker
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Psychological Perspectives on Evil
In M. Scott Peck's interesting, yet dated read, People of the Lie, a psychological evaluation of human evil is attempted.
In Peck's outstanding sampling of case studies (clinical psych) and interviews & observations of Catholic priests performing exoricisms, Peck comes to the conclusion that there is in fact something "evil" that is foreign to humanity, and outside of the realm of normal "empirical reality."
In Catholic and Protestant theology, such "evil" has always been designated as the figure of the devil, also known as "the Satan" ("accuser") and sometimes also known as "lucifer" the fallen angel. Evil is given concrete names in Christian theology.
Outside of Christianity (and to a lesser extent Islam and Judaism), much of the so-called secular world is left scratching their heads concerning evil.
One example of this is Stanley Milgram's famous experiment in which the professor of psychology admistered a startling test that proved that at least 2/3 of "normal Americans" would obey orders unquestioningly and even to the point of murdering innocent life! These normal Americans were very often college-educated, some even with master's degrees, and all were subservient to what they perceived as "authority" that must be blindly and unquestioningly followed. This experiment, according to Milgram, helped to explain how and why mass evil such as the Nazi genocide of 10 million people could be perpetuated by seemingly ordinary, and indeed even "rational" individuals.
So, what the secular world is left scratching their heads over, we Christians (and Jews & Muslims) know is evil personfied. Call him the devil, satan or lucifer. Whatever the name, we people descended from Father Abraham know that an evil force outside of nature does in fact exist. This is who we TRULY battle, not "Democrats" or "Republicans" but the devil.
For a fuller analysis, please see ABC News with a follow-up blog posting by me at:
STORY: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2765416&page=1
BLOG: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/comments?type=story&id=2765416
Blessings in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Defender of Abraham's People
In Peck's outstanding sampling of case studies (clinical psych) and interviews & observations of Catholic priests performing exoricisms, Peck comes to the conclusion that there is in fact something "evil" that is foreign to humanity, and outside of the realm of normal "empirical reality."
In Catholic and Protestant theology, such "evil" has always been designated as the figure of the devil, also known as "the Satan" ("accuser") and sometimes also known as "lucifer" the fallen angel. Evil is given concrete names in Christian theology.
Outside of Christianity (and to a lesser extent Islam and Judaism), much of the so-called secular world is left scratching their heads concerning evil.
One example of this is Stanley Milgram's famous experiment in which the professor of psychology admistered a startling test that proved that at least 2/3 of "normal Americans" would obey orders unquestioningly and even to the point of murdering innocent life! These normal Americans were very often college-educated, some even with master's degrees, and all were subservient to what they perceived as "authority" that must be blindly and unquestioningly followed. This experiment, according to Milgram, helped to explain how and why mass evil such as the Nazi genocide of 10 million people could be perpetuated by seemingly ordinary, and indeed even "rational" individuals.
So, what the secular world is left scratching their heads over, we Christians (and Jews & Muslims) know is evil personfied. Call him the devil, satan or lucifer. Whatever the name, we people descended from Father Abraham know that an evil force outside of nature does in fact exist. This is who we TRULY battle, not "Democrats" or "Republicans" but the devil.
For a fuller analysis, please see ABC News with a follow-up blog posting by me at:
STORY: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2765416&page=1
BLOG: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/comments?type=story&id=2765416
Blessings in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Defender of Abraham's People
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)