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Sunday, June 16, 2013

We stand for things

There's an old saying that society changes, but people never change.  People love, people hate, people get happy, people get stressed, people get concerned, etc. And people change views and society changes, but people are still the same. 

I remember reading a quote once that went something like this: "I'm concerned about our youth, as they don't seem to have the same values as I do."  The man who wrote that was Homer, who is believed to have lived around 800 years before the birth of Christ. 

So people don't change.  This is why I am always respectful for politicians and Churches that do not back down from what they believe in, even when it's a view I don't support.  And I don't respect media outlets and politicians who try to persuade, and hope even, that those they don't support give up on their old, fuddy duddy conservative principles and support the new views of the day; views that change on a dime; on the whims and wishes of society; and will change again in the future. 

But the point that these people just don't get is that a religion that believes in itself stands for things. A political party that believes in itself stands for things, and it attempts to spread that word. It believes those things because they think those things are good. They believe in those things not to oppress people, not to punish people, not to deny people. They believe in those things because they ultimately believe they are the best characteristics a culture or society could have and follow.

Now, you don't have to be a Catholic and you don't have to be Conservative, and you don't have to be liberal, and you don't have to be socialist or follow any of them if you don't want to. It's not up to the Catholic Church to bend and shape and flake and form in order to conform with whatever the daily culture happens to be. This is important, because culture changes all the time.  Culture has changes many times, in fact, over the 2,000 years of the Church's existence. Culture has changed many times since the democratic party was born, and things have changed many times even since the republican party was born. 

That's not what it is. It's not supposed to bend and shape. Neither is a political party. Neither is any institution that really believes in itself, and any institution that can be bent and shaped via intimidation by the media isn't worth itself. This man is fearless, and he's got no questions. This is another thing that I think a lot of leftists, particularly media people in this country, can't accept. The whole notion of God is a frightening thing to them anyway, particularly faith. Faith in God, or Jesus -- faith in something larger than man -- some people can't get their arms around.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Q. What's the definition of crazy??

A. To do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

Now to admire people just because they stand for something doesn't really make any sense. So your admiring them because they do not fall victim to global brainwashing, but yet they are victim to some kind of brain washing, that's why history repeats itself. We make up our minds at such a young age. I'm 36 and when the 19 year old cashier thought she knew everything there is to know about politics I felt frightened that this young lady had the ability to curve our government through her nieve vote. So in respect to the 19 year old, what must the 58 year old think of me making a good decision when it comes to forming an opinion and sticking to it. I must say with all the info out there, it's hard for me to choose who's is right. I usually decide that I am the one who is right because I payed attention to both sides of the argument and researched the facts. Then I make a conclusion of what info I have at the moment but know that more than likely I will change my mind as I learn more about the topic. I call this the truth paradox- you are 100% right as you are 100% wrong, depending on how you interpret the data. So all truth is both until you choose using our tiny little brain thinking we know better.... Better than???? "God only knows"

Rick Frea said...

No. No. No. No. No. No. I'm not talking about brainwashing. Brainwashing is brainwashing. Ignorance of the past is why the ills of history repeat themselves (like socialism for example). Other parts of history, the many parts that have succeeded and worked well for an intended purpose for thousands of years, you do not want to change. I'll give you examples: Egyptians and then Hebrews figured 5,000 years ago that certain behaviors resort to diseases: not hand washing after touching diseased animal or person, having sex with anyone you want without being accountable, not staying physically fit, lying, cheating, stealing, abortion... This was how values and virtues and the institution of marriage and the sanctity of life came into play --- thousands of years ago. The idea that abortion is evil, marriage between a man and a woman should be changed, adultery, prostitution, are old evils that some people today want to bring back (they want to change what has worked for 5,000 years). It's like opening that old can of worms. It's not hard to choose what is right, if you are brought up right.

Rick Frea said...

So you may ask, what is the definition of being brought up right? Going back 5000 years again, it's morals and virtues. We need to bring up our kids with morals and virtues. Most institutions that have succeeded for many years -- such as certain religions and Constitutions -- are based on morals and virtues, or at least inculcate them. Others have blown away in the winds of time, or will. If the Catholic Church does not stand by the principles of which it was formed, it will blow away in the wind. If the Constitution is not rock solid on what it stands for (unchanging to the whims and wishes of modern poeple), it too will blow away in the wind. Solid institutions that last do not change on a dime just to suit the modern world, they are meaningful to all people of all ages and times. When people run into trouble, they simply go back to those basic documents (hmm, so I'm broke, my wife left me, I have no money.... maybe I need to be moral and virtuous instead of a liar and a crook....)