28 Summers

28 summers ago I fell in love with Jesus

Not all at once

But a growing awareness

Starting with a desperate deal

Heal my life Jesus!

And I will live that life for you!

Little did I know what that would entail

But Jesus was faithful when I was faithless

And so unfolding over several months

This new love became real

Until one late night

On a Christmas break

At a Taco Bell

I knew I belonged to Jesus

Deep down in my gut

And it wasn’t just bean and cheese tacos talking. 

Two Lefts don't make a Right: The Old Left and the New Left

Now that I have around people on the broad "Political Left" for over a decade, I have come to see both the persistent Right Wing mischaracterization of Leftist politics, as well as the endless debates and battles within the Left itself. And what most outside the Left, and many inside the Left, do not understand is that there is not just one Left. There are many. Just as there is not just one form of conservative. There are many. 

And while I identify with Classical Christianity instead of modern politics (whether Left or Right), and no one on the Left would accept me as part of the Left, I would like to talk here about two versions of the Left which seem to be particularly important in the United States in 2020. This is my attempt to compile and organize what I have learned reading and teaching about politics in the last decade, and not an authoritative account of political or economic theory. Any flaws in the description are my fault alone, and should not be blamed on the sources I cite.

With that out of the way, let's start with two basic definitions:

The Old Left: Focuses on making sure every person, starting with the most vulnerable and impoverished, has “daily bread”. The main emphasis here is making sure the material conditions are met for all people to survive and thrive, including access for all to healthy nutrition, secure housing, quality medical care, educational opportunity, and access to political representation and courts of justice. This Old Left can range from a Democratic Socialist emphasis on nationalizing some industries as utilities for the public good, while leaving a robust free market for other goods and services, to Statist Communism, in which all industries and economic activities are managed and distributed by the government. 

The New Left: Focuses on making sure every person, starting with the most traumatized and marginalized, has a positive self-image. The main emphasis here is to limit psychic, social, and symbolic violence which is done to marginalized peoples by other powerful stakeholders in society. When marginalized peoples are demeaned or denied by other stakeholders, this has systemic effects socially, economically, and psychologically. Thus we must make all marginalized groups safe from these aggressions by carefully regulating speech, artistic content, institutional access, media coverage, and all other aspects of social interaction, so that we can silence, de-platform, and marginalized all ideas, people, and groups who would traumatize and marginalize others. 

Christ and the Cosmos: A Review and Proposal for Trinitarianism

Recently I finished reading "Christ and the Cosmos: A Reformulation of Trinitarian Doctrine" by Keith Ward. It is a stunning and masterful restatement of the idea of the Trinity in light of the findings of modern science and the philosophy of personal idealism. In it, he lays out a powerful case for why the Trinity should be conceived as three Intersubjective Relations within One Divine Self, rather than as three Independent Persons in a Community of Three Divine Selves. I have written before about the difference between this "One Self" or "One Consciousness" view of the Trinity versus a "Three Self" or "Three Consciousness" view of the Trinity. 

Social Collapse and Divine Judgment

The LORD says: Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel? Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? (Amos 9:7)

The history of Israel is given as a Pattern of how God works with all people groups through all time. From the oppression and enslavement that led to the liberation of God’s people in the the Exodus, to the idolatry and injustice that led to the discipline of God’s people in the Exile: It reveals the Pattern God follows in dealing with peoples and nations. What God has done in the history of Israel, God has also done in the history of the Ethiopians and the Egyptians and the Philistines and the Arameans. And what God has done in those nations, God also does in all other nations and peoples and cultures. 

Here's how that works out...