Category Archives: Religion

Church or State?

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The mariner thought he understood the legal and philosophical intent of the separation of church and state. However, when he reads the news of the day, confusion seems to reign over the subject and affects everything from getting married, to pro-choice or pro-life, to the rights of execution and euthanasia – not to mention many other conflicts between citizenry and the Constitution of the United States. Consequently, the mariner is confused as well.

For the benefit of the reader as well as the mariner, he will go back to the beginning. As a legal basis, the Constitution of the US, written in 1787 and the Bill of Rights, written in 1788, says exactly:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie. Diderot was a partisan of a strict separation of church and state, saying in 1747, “the distance between the throne and the altar can never be too great“.

In English, the exact term is an offshoot of the phrase, “wall of separation between church and state”, as written in Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. In that letter, referencing the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Jefferson writes:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.

Jefferson was describing to the Baptists that the United States Bill of Rights prevents the establishment of a national church, and in so doing, they did not have to fear government interference in their manner of worship. The Bill of Rights was one of the earliest examples in the world of complete religious freedom. [Wikipedia – church and state]

For our purposes, make note of the phrase, “…that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions…” meaning that the government will not interpret or reinforce religious definition and will limit government action to matters of governance. The inverse of this, applying the intent to religion, means that there is freedom for any religion to practice and believe as they choose but religious opinion will not apply to matters of governance.

On the surface, the separation appears to be clear and distinct. Why, 277 years later, is the citizenry having so much difficulty?

At this point, the reader must tolerate the mariner’s meandering. To state the conflict succinctly, the confusion is caused by secularism. Secularism excludes religious opinion. This seems to be in concert with the 1st Amendment and Jefferson’s letter. But this is simpler said than understood. If we can travel back to the time of the Mayflower landing at Plymouth Rock (1620), we would be in the midst of the Reformation (1517-1685). The established church still was the law of the land in most intra-human activities. In fact, the Pilgrims combined religious opinion and governance into one authority. The political leader also was the interpreter of the faith.

Ever so slowly, it became clear that there must be some separation so that government could govern without having to judge every opinion raised by the common folk. There had to be rules applied to situations that were stolid and did not change with every change in opinion. This slow, evolutionary process continues today. We are not finished with the separation of church and state.

The role of government, with its authority to govern without opinion, has expanded to include virtually all elements of intra-human activity. One can get married in a government agency – without opinion, mind you. But one may also be influenced by opinions of faith. The religious element takes umbrage that the government can perform the same ‘action’ as the religion but without the religious opinion.

The mariner now understands why there is conflict. For the conclusion, we must wait for the movie version – perhaps released in 2150.

Ancient Mariner

 

Reverence is not Advocacy

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Tim Pitt, City Council member in Knoxville, Iowa, recently wrote an angry article on facebook denouncing the intent of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The atheist organization was challenging the decision of the City Council to place a memorial art piece in Young’s Park – a government sponsored park – that included a cross similar to the crosses familiar in military cemeteries.

Knoxville

In Part, Councilman Pitt wrote:

Knoxville IA

Concilman Pitt continued at length to berate the organization for its disrespect of valid and reverent feelings for fallen soldiers. There is conflict in the atheists’ case because similar crosses are in many government cemetaries around the Country – including Arlington National Cemetary. Clearly, this is headed for the court system – if the courts choose to hear the case.

Broadly speaking, the atheists are a counterpoint to those who would establish a Christian theocracy, primarily religious conservatives fighting similar battles from the opposite side of the issue. Similar conservative events are Chick-Fillet, Hobby Lobby, the clerk in Kentucky who refuses to grant marriage licenses to homosexual couples in spite of high court injunctions against the clerk, the insistance of creation history as valid history in public school books, vocal prayer in schools, etc.

The mariner believes those tangled in symbolic issues like crosses, Stars of David and even secular memorials, are distracted by irrelevant idol worship. Memorials, regardless of their shape, are simply memorials, perhaps suggestive of a legitimate association with religious reverence but certainly not a tool of proselytizing and, as Tim Pitt contends, not representative of a state church.

It is insane to separate church and state with a cataclysmic act like removing crosses from graves or religious icons from past sites of remembrance. Such an act would be comparable to ISIL destroying temples and historical artifacts. The rows and rows of white crosses only speak loudly of a long age of human desecration.

In 1982, a Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built in Washington, D.C. commemorating 58,272 killed in that war. There is no cross, yet the “wall” is one of the most powerful commemorations ever dedicated to soldiers killed in action. When it was built, a mother refused to believe that her son would be remembered among the tens of thousands who died. Her friends traced his name from the wall and took it to her; she clutched the drawing as if it were the American Flag at a military funeral. A simple wall as powerful as 58,272 crosses.

The point is this: The role of religion in society is changing as secular awareness grows in an age of information. There is no blame in this transition nor is there permanence in religious beliefs – else we still would worship the Gods of the Pantheon. The separation of church and state is a Constitutional requirement assuring religious freedom for all – and thereby preventing a “State Church” from existing.

It is not the crosses or Stars of David that are sacrosanct. It is the soldier buried in his time, in the way of his faith. The crosses, Stars of David and non-religious memorials are for us to remember the heavy price we asked them to pay.

Ancient Mariner

Abortion

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The mariner lives with a number of neighbors who advocate every aspect of the abortion issue from “no abortion under any circumstance” to “no one owns my body but me.” As he visits with one neighbor or the other, he must remember to whom he is talking regarding their conservative/liberal stance on any number of social issues.

The fetus is emerging as a viable living being about which more and more can be determined before birth; medicine is on the verge of applying gene therapy for certain genetic deficiencies. The increasing ability to interact with the fetus reinforces the pro-life idea that the fetus is indeed a living being. The pro-choice side believes that no one has the right to impose physical use of a female’s body against her will. It may be that violating a woman’s use of her own body is tantamount to torture or slavery. In recent decades, the use of birth control devices and pharmaceuticals has become more acceptable than in the past but religious advocates and pro-lifers still cast a wary eye lest conception occurs first. The use of contraceptives eases the situation of women who choose not to be pregnant. A significant majority of unexpected pregnancies occur in situations where contraceptives are not considered necessary, e.g., younger girls or older women presumed not to be fecund, rape of any kind, ignorance, or negligence.

It is the treatment of unexpected pregnancies that is an issue all its own. Hard line pro-lifers refuse any interpretation other than carrying the fetus to full term. Less adamant but still pro-life, some may allow abortions for the mother’s life, rape or, for a few pro-lifers, extreme deformity or incest. At first glance, the reader may think that the definition of exceptions may offer a better opportunity for negotiation; this is unlikely. Pro-lifers will claim that any exception can be stretched. In the gay marriage debate, it was popular to suggest that humans could legally marry a plethora of non-human animals and even non-living objects. Pro-choice advocates will raise social and economic arguments, e.g., “Who will pay for raising unwanted or unaffordable babies?” “Must a woman carry a fetus she does not want?” A recent case where a stepfather raped his 10-year-old stepdaughter is a classic example of social circumstances. A pro-life friend of the mariner would not consider any solution except full term delivery citing the fetus was innocent and had standard human rights to exist. Many who have less extreme views on both sides wrestle with the future impact of the heinous event versus abortion of the fetus. The mariner was asked, “Do two wrongs make a right?” Definitions of right and wrong are sorely overlooked. The oblique question shows that a logical foundation for debate is missing.

One argument the mariner will cast aside as irrelevant is the case where a fetus was considered for abortion but in the end was not aborted. “This person grew up to be [insert a wonderful leader].” Had the fetus been aborted, some other wonderful leader would play the role. This argument is both hypothetical and unpredictable.

That the abortion issue is irreconcilable is a shame. There is prejudice on both sides that has nothing in common with the opposite side. Then there is the law, which is inadequate to mediate differences. Abortion or no abortion is an intimate event. Yet, it is important to many people as a prerequisite to deciding church versus state issues, growing population, personal and government expense, medical and insurance policies, and class privilege.

Eventually, it may be that a legal procedure will be developed that assures the best interest of the fetus before abortions can be authorized. Such a procedure will require endless haggling over the wording but it moves the debate away from the “all or nothing” standoff between pro-life and pro-choice; it also lessens the tendency to mix church and state. In the end abortion, like euthanasia, will become a case-by-case court issue – or if one can afford it, a discreet arrangement.

Ancient Mariner

 

 

Keeping Up with the World

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Some readers may be interested in why the world is the way it is today. For example, the Atlantic magazine has a truly insightful article about ISIS, its driving principles and interpretation of the Quran. See:

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

For a thorough, apolitical review of all aspects of global warming, population and impact on the biosphere, Live Science is an excellent source not only for global warming but a full rainbow of scientific insights about the world today. See:

http://www.livescience.com/topics/global-warming/

In order to produce both volume and profit in livestock corporations, animal abuse is rampant – including human animals. See:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+oliver+chicken+farmers&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=FB1EA7E99500750DC9B2FB1EA7E99500750DC9B2

A few books are benchmark publications that bring to light the subtle phenomena that shape our lives. For example, a book everyone should retrieve from a library is The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. It is an entertaining read recounting Kolbert’s travels around the world with scientists and researchers. She discusses how viruses and bacteria are carried around the world affecting everything from frogs to bats. The book focuses on human activity that destroys the biosphere. There is an alarming account of the huge number of extinctions that have occurred since 1900 and what that means to human survival.

The Road to Character, a new book by David Brooks, PBS commentator, is an introspective review of his life by comparing the lives of others against his own life. Brooks discusses foibles and successes and how others overcame their shortcomings to become people of high character.

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, written by Doris Kearns Goodwin, was published in 1977 but is a tour de force of Johnson’s personal and public life. Many today can recall (and observe) the cultural shift engineered by Ronald Reagan. Fewer remember the “guns and butter” policies of Johnson. Johnson launched the greatest cultural shift since FDR – including the Civil Rights Act. Goodwin was an intimate friend to whom LBJ revealed his inner struggles and his aspirations. Good for a summer long read.

Zealot: The life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, by Reza Asland, is a fascinating study of the time of Jesus – without focusing on the Christian ramifications of Jesus. It is a sociological look into that time; it provides a fresh perspective by which to understand Jesus and his role as a proselytizer and as a zealot. Reza Asland is a world renowned expert on world religions and has published several important works. For what it’s worth, Fox News vehemently denounced this book and assassinated the character of Asland.

 

Communication moves a lot faster today than even a couple of decades ago. Within minutes, we know about beheadings in Iraq, or a tsunami in Japan, or a volcanic eruption in Peru, or a giant explosion in China, or denying funds for America’s infrastructure and the jobs it would provide, or the disappearance of the Monarch butterfly. We know more about what is happening in real time. The added responsibility is to know why these events are happening. One can no longer speak blindly from old prejudices and unfounded privilege. Every day is a day at school maintaining our education about what is really happening and, knowing why, make the right decision to improve the plight of our real-time world.

Ancient Mariner

Just Some Odds and Ends

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A social earthquake occurred in the United States beginning last Thursday and aftershocks continued until today. It was caused by the Supreme Court’s rulings in favor of homosexual marriages, reinforcing the permanence of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), blocking Texas legislation that will close abortion clinics, indirectly making it simpler in the future to declare the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment regardless of the manner by which States choose to execute felons, and last but not least, voting against an appeal by the Arizona republican party to allow more party input into the State’s redistricting process. It turns out Arizona is one of only three states where redistricting is defined by an independent commission – not by party politicians.

The extreme right has been pressing for a one-religion nation since 2009 when the tea party was created. It was an opportune time for the tea party to press its political/religious mores because republicans had gerrymandered state districts to guarantee republican legislatures no matter how the popular vote turned out. The conservative legislatures were permissive to tea party requests. The homosexual marriage ruling, in particular, which requires all fifty states to allow, perform and recognize such marriages, was a heavy blow to the extreme right. From Alabama to Texas, state court systems are trying hard to fight off the Supreme Court’s ruling but the die has been cast. In short order, every state will have to conform.

Senator Bernie Sanders, running for President against Hillary Clinton, shows poorly in national polls. However, it turns out he is drawing the largest crowds to his events – larger than everyone else running for President!

Pope Francis has invited Naomi Klein to sit on a panel about global warming. The Vatican is putting on a panel Wednesday to draw attention to a conference in Rome later in the week being organized by the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace and by Catholic groups that work on development issues.

You may remember that the mariner has cited her works on several occasions. Klein’s latest book, This Changes Everything, Capitalism versus the Climate, takes the position that capitalism is the cause of climate change and further, capitalism cannot solve the climate issue.

Australia has raised concern about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The nation is one of the participants and the public has had more access to the agreement than we in the US. Australia is concerned about the same things Americans suspect about the agreement: it is heavily cast in favor of corporations, allows corporations to disregard labor and civil rights legislation, and does not, in fact, create more jobs because corporations are not bound by location and can relocate at any time to the least expensive labor market. Obama slipped us a mickey on this one.

Happy Independence Day!

Ancient Mariner

A Moment to Remember

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The Reverend Clementa Pinckney eulogy by the President was one of those moments that will hang around like FDR’s “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” FDR’s first inaugural address to a nation struggling with a collapsed economy. The speech rallied enough confidence that FDR was able to implement his aggressive recovery program.

It will hang around like John Kennedy’s inaugural “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”; and his speech in Berlin in the midst of a turbulent period of the cold war: “Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was “civis Romanus sum”. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

No list of timeless speeches is complete without Martin Luther King’s words, “I have a dream…” Another that has become forgotten – except that it is played once each year for West Point cadets, is General MacArthur’s speech about Duty – Honor – Country – a farewell to West Point shortly before he died. He was a magnificent public speaker and his entire speech is worth a listen. He ended:

“Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be – of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.”
 I bid you farewell.

We can find many momentous speeches – speeches that are more than words, more than inspiration – they are speeches that brought to one point in time great emotion, powerful leadership, and a unique quality to create new history.

As the eulogist at Reverend Pinckney’s funeral, only Barack Obama could have delivered a speech that will have a place in the annals of US history:

He is African American – any other race could not authentically share the gravity felt by the congregation.

He is familiar with the manner and practice of African American worship services – his delivery was absorbed by the congregation as if in a spell.

He is an African American President of the United States; what he said could not be refuted by any lesser political group – and he was one of them.

He is a liberal. His political profile against segregation, guns, and political abuse rang true to the congregation.

He wrote this speech himself. It was from his heart, from his life experience as a person of color. His words were words that nuanced the long suffering history of African Americans.

And quite beyond normal expectations, he sang Amazing Grace in the gospel style of African Americans. That clinched the speech as personal, standing in the light of God’s Grace, and although the song is a tribute to God’s Grace, it is also a unifying and strengthening song that unified the congregation in common cause.

The words above constitute the mariner’s perception of the chemistry of the event – certainly potent. Intellectually, he was pleased that the President understood how God’s Grace works and how the individual should respond. Quite often, the most learned pastor will interpret Grace backwards, treating Grace as a reward after the fact. The President had it right: Grace is God’s “pass it forward,” not a self-serving gratification.

Ancient Mariner

 

Befuddlement

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On Friday, Stanford University released a study by internationally prestigious scientists that declared planet Earth is well into the sixth mass extinction (Holocene). The report has charts and other references that indicate the fabric of the planet’s ecosystem is collapsing at an ever increasing rate. The report predicted the collapse would occur in about three human lifetimes (315 years+or-). The report further suggested that humans will be one of the earlier extinctions because of human dependence on so many environmental and specie services, e.g., naturally cleaned water, pollination by bees, and stable weather patterns for vegetation.

The mariner is befuddled that no television outlet grabbed this issue. If the reader hadn’t come across an article on a few websites, the reader would never know that extinction of Homo sapiens has become a statistical reality – near enough that today’s elementary school children will have their lives disrupted in significant if not fatal ways. Despite what the Bible says about Armageddon, it will not occur in one day. It will occur faster and faster over time. For the most part, symptoms will involve starvation, disease, economic collapse, vandalism and true anarchy as governments will not have the resources to quell the collapse of rule by law.

There is a book on this subject published recently by Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism versus the Climate. (The mariner’s town library has a copy as well as a copy of The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert). Klein has written several books on the subject of economic greed destroying the planet. Following is an excerpt from the New York Times book review for This Changes Everything:

“Klein diagnoses impressively what hasn’t worked. No more claptrap about fracked gas as a bridge to renewables. Enough already of the international summit meetings that produce sirocco-quality hot air, and nonbinding agreements that bind us all to more emissions. Klein dismantles the boondoggle that is cap and trade. She skewers grandiose command-and-control schemes to re-engineer the planet’s climate. No point, when a hubristic mind-set has gotten us into this mess, to pile on further hubris. She reserves a special scorn for the partnerships between Big Green organizations and Immense Carbon, peddled as win-win for everyone, but which haven’t slowed emissions. Such partnerships remind us that when the lamb and the lion lie down together, only one of them gets eaten.

In democracies driven by lobbyists, donors and plutocrats, the giant polluters are going to win while the rest of us, in various degrees of passivity and complicity, will watch the planet die. “Any attempt to rise to the climate challenge will be fruitless unless it is understood as part of a much broader battle of worldviews,” Klein writes. “Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war.”

The point is, there is a mountain of resistance to change – especially on capitalist philosophy and the ingrained demand for ever increasing profits. How long will it take Earth’s humans to break the most successful profit engine in history? The Mass Extinction report implies that everything must be corrected in two lifetimes to prevent full collapse of the environment.

The mariner includes one chart from the report that ties the development of the mass extinction, or conversely, the destruction of the global environment, back to the beginning of the industrial age.

extinct animals

An easy to read article is available at the following link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/11/there-have-been-five-mass-extinctions-in-earths-history-now-were-facing-a-sixth

As Naomi Klein pointed out (and Pogo), our own perceptions of what is good, better and best for each human, each of all species, and the planet environment itself, is a myth. We do not have a model of human behavior that matches the reality around us – nor will reality accept it. Yet, humans are delinquent and tardy in how they manage their own place on the planet.

How many years will it take for humans to eliminate arrogance and hubris and recognize that we are not the reason for the Earth to exist?

How many years will it take for core cultural values to recognize that Homo sapiens is not, by a high count, the superior species. We are more dependent on many other species than they are on us.

How many years will it take to dismantle capitalism and nationalism? If history serves correctly, once a nation has cured its unstable situation of war and abuse, it won’t be until the third generation thereafter before that nation will have leaders unscarred and unbiased in their decisions about national policy and culture.

The mariner will have more on the Holocene as matters develop. He presents only high level concepts and ideas in this post; he depends on the reader to pursue links and news sources that will add more substance to this issue.

Ancient Mariner

Failing Humanity

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The mariner grows weary of humanity. We are overcome by selfish legislation, abusive parents, uncaring school systems that knowingly disregard the health and stress of children in the name of law and procedure. One asks, “Where is the humanity?” but…. there is no humanity. Only a culture based on something besides humanity. There is something wrong about the role of school Principals. He didn’t like them as a student and he doesn’t like them now. Principles are responsible for children, not procedures.

 http://abcnews.go.com/US/colorado-lunch-lady-fired-giving-students-free-meals/story?id=31497325

 Christians speak of the presence of Jesus in our American Culture. Bullshit. Jesus wants each Christian to set rules in the best interest of each human, that they may be happy, healthy and spiritually whole.

Not in the United States. It’s financially restrictive rules that count and the “budget” constrained by lack of support in the property-based tax system. Whatever the tax system, why aren’t we, unconstrained citizens, mothers, fathers, and family allowed helping feed children when the capitalist bureaucracy fails?

The time is long overdue when we, the common citizen, can’t make our nation a happier nation. We are crushed by inhumane voting laws; crushed by abusive employee treatment gradually becoming indentured slavery; subject to the will of corporations to disregard civility and fair distribution of profits to those who created the wealth.

The solution is up to you and the mariner. We must take control of our society before we become slaves in a mechanistic environment serving the upper classes in our international world.

The least we can do as individuals is to make sure all children are fed – even on holidays and in the summer. The mariner pledges to support feeding children despite the capitalist government that turns its back on humanity. If you are interested, consult your school dietician; Principals will do their best to stop you. Rules, you know.

Ancient Mariner

 

 

 

The Truth and Nothing but the Truth

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The mariner may have mentioned, he truly doesn’t recall, that he is writing a lesson plan for twenty-first century Christians. The lessons are in an early stage; he has asked seven friends to review what has been written so far. The friends are from many stripes of Christian belief and activity. The mariner has received all manner of response. All the reviews were helpful and improved the quality of the work. One issue stood out across the board: Every reader had some degree of difficulty managing the difference between spiritual truth and empirical truth.

This post is, in fact, a way for the mariner to clarify the issue in his own mind before he starts a major rewrite because of this issue. He will use the parable of the laborers in the field (Matthew 20:1-16).

Briefly, it is an allegory describing the Kingdom of Heaven. A farmer hires day laborers to work in the vineyards. He begins hiring them at the beginning of the day and every hour or two throughout the day, all the way to the last hour.

At the end of the day, the laborers return to receive their pay. To everyone’s surprise, every laborer is paid the same amount whether they worked from early morning or for just the last hour. The laborers who worked the full day claim this is unfair. The farmer replies that everyone received their agreed wage. The farmer further says “Am I not allowed to do what I choose to do with what belongs to me or are you envious because I am generous?”

Jesus ends the parable saying, “The first will be last and the last will be first.”

To translate this just a bit, Jesus deliberately uses an empirical value, money, to make a spiritual point. The parable actually is a definition of the Kingdom of Heaven – a spiritual truth – not an empirical truth. The laborers are engrossed in the empirical reality that everyone was paid the same – a seemingly unfair empirical truth.

Yet, it is the Kingdom of Heaven that is the subject of this parable. Jesus ends the parable saying the first will be last and the last will be first. This means that, in the Kingdom of Heaven at least, everyone is equally accepted by God; no soul is judged – a spiritual truth that has nothing to do with the empirical truth money represents. Nevertheless, we learn from an empirical situation a new spiritual truth that no one is treated differently by God.

The mariner selected a relatively simple parable to dissect into spiritual truth and empirical truth – though many never get beyond the money issue and miss the spiritual point of a fair and just God.

The ability to see spiritual truth in empirical circumstances is the required skill if one is to read the Gospels in a rewarding way. Readers of the New Testament tend to lean one way or the other when spiritual truth and empirical truth are within the same words. To be overly simplistic, one reader says a given passage is a “metaphor” (an editor’s most discomforting word). Another may say the NT is promoting socialism or equal pay for unequal work. Read properly, inevitably there is spiritual truth and empirical truth woven together in that strange but poetic prose written 2,000 years ago.

This parallelism of truth is most conflicted when a miracle is involved. There is nothing wrong with accepting the miracle (empirical truth) as long as the reader can discern what the spiritual truth is, too.

Ancient Mariner

 

Spiritual Worth

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The mariner writes this post for several readers. The quandary is “how does one measure spiritual value at a time in the world’s history that it is overcome with empirical success, scientific wonderment that explains everything, and a social mandate that one MUST place cash value at the top of their measure of personal value?”

Everyone, whether a religious believer or an atheist, requires a way to measure personal value. “What am I?” “What am I worth- even to myself?” “Who depends on me?” “How will I know I am successful?” It is hard today to answer these questions. The entire world is in the midst of a time whorl changing so rapidly that one cannot take root in an identity that is permanent.

In the old days (not so long ago), one had a job or career that would last until retirement. One could marry successfully and financial strife was of little concern that it would lead to divorce. Today, and for the ensuing years, the definition of “job” is changing dramatically. One thinks of working from home but that is just a predecessor. As computers and computerized devices take over more and more functions that used to require humans, how do the masses earn a living?

There will come a time when the current conflict between government conservatives and liberals will no longer have ideological pedestals upon which to stand. The capitalistic structure will fail because of the need to sustain the citizens of the nation. That nasty word, “democratic socialism” will become a path to human decency.

This is hard to believe today but already the division between haves and have-nots is approaching dysfunction. Must we have another French Revolution?

The mariner could go on infinitely with transition but the original question is this: “How does one measure spiritual value?”

First, we must recognize that spiritual worth and empirical worth is not the same thing. One could be held in a tortuous prison and still have strength derived from what one believes within oneself about personal worth in an orderly universe. Spiritual worth is not dependent on empirical reality.

Second, we must recognize that spirituality is a very personal value system. It may draw from great literature, art, music, or personal insight. However you construct the pillars of your soul, they are yours regardless of the empirical world.

From spirituality comes morality and ethics. Today, morality and ethics are in short supply. Do not presume that you are soulless. Identify your pillars of spiritual strength and secure them for the trials of the future. Regardless of the empirical confusion of our world, you will know your spiritual worth.

Ancient Mariner