Examining the "Slippery Slope"

 

We've all heard the expression.  Is it a valid one.  In a lot of cases I'd say "Yes, it is".  For instance to get generic for a moment - - I have never been to the top of Half Dome rock in Yousemite.  But I imagine if I were there would be a broad, flat area where it was safe to walk about.  But as you ventured further out as the ground took on a definite slant, there would be a point at which venturing further was unsafe.  I imagine the park rangers have installed baracades or something to let you know where that point is.  Making the rounds a few years ago there were those fourteen points of fascism where it seems that, one by one, our government was adopting those danger signals and constitutional violations that indicated we were on the wrong path.  Unfortunately the Obama administration seems just about as big as an offender as was the Bush administration.  But note that here a "line has already been crossed".  You issue a Presidential pardon of an ex president.  You call it Mercy.  Your critics call it "crossing a line" and "setting a dangerous precedent that will only come back to haunt you later on".   Because you see, to truely have mercy, you about have to be God, and Jerald Ford wasn't God.  When you pardon someone for offences they have comitted or "may have comitted" right there you are, as it were, "writing checks that you don't have money in the bank to cover when payment comes due".   Martin Luther King had it as a major theme not many know about- - of Black people reminding the rest of us that "This check has come due".   Malcolm X after the Assassination of President Kennedy uttered those immortal words of, "The chickens of violence in our culture have come home to roost".   Today we celebrate a sad one year anniversary in our nation's history, that of the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in which 26 people lost their lives.  Yesterday there was another such shooting in a school in Centenial, Colorado.  Parenthetically, Colorado seems a regular magnet for these types of killings lately- - perhaps because voters made it clear they want nothing done to interfere with their gun rights.  So you have Littleton, just eight miles away in one direction, and Aurora Colorado fifteen miles away in another direction where that fatal theater shooting occurred at the Batman Premier in July of 201.2.  And yet those who claim to be in the know say "Liberalized gun laws have nothing to do with the rise in this sort of mass mad man shooting".  And yet we are told there "have been at least nineteen shootings since Sandy Hook".   Three of these school shootings were in Georgia, and five of these shootings have taken place in Florida, famous for it's "stand your ground" laws.  And yet though reasonable men clearly pick up on the connection here- - the politicians do not agree, and they tell us so.  Some have said that 20114 will be the year that the average American will "actually feel the economic recovery" that has languished these past five years in some sort of incubation phase.  Some people believe that constitutional protections can be thrown out the window.  Some believe that safety alarms on industrial equipment can be disabeled, "and no one will be any the wiser" untill something like the British Petrolium blow out occurs.  This is just another slippery slope, but it didn't occur by accident.  A line was deliberately crossed or "transgressed" if you want me to get Old Testament on you.  States like Michigan and Wisconsin may have statutory constitutional protections against raiding Pension Funds of government employees.  But if a judge says it's OK, then you do it.  And if they "get tired of counting the votes" in Florida in the 2000 Presidential election,  we'll just get five men in black robes- - by Court fiat, (and that isn't a car) to declare that George Bush was the winner.  This act was so unprecedented in our nation's history that the Court then specifically stated "This ruling cannot be used as a precedent for future decisions".  So now we're doing things like "tap - tap - - I had my fingers crossed".   So "going off the record" is in style now- - as evidenced by President Bush's accounting techniques that would get ANY such employee fired in the Private Sector faster than you can say "Jack Robinson".  The trouble is- at some point "the check comes due - - and there's no money in the bank".   I think this would be an appropriate place to look to God, if you happen to believe in a personal God who will judge "the living and the dead" at the Great White Throne.  I thing we all have to be aware of a certain ammount of cosmic, or karmic accountability.  The very idea of responsability or "accountability" in Politicians these days seems as out of date as inviting people over for an old fashioned taffy pull.

I would like now to address some of the "Christian stuff" for lack of a better term, I've been writing about lately.  In the case of "Sins of the flesh" some out there say "Write rather not sins of the flesh- - but Indulgences of the Flash, which is more to the point".  Perhaps.  Indulgence indeed does not have the same conotation of "wrongness" as the word "Sins" does.  I wrote that little paragraph more in terms of a general description rather than propose some sort of Moral Code deliniating where all the "safety barriers" should be erected.  Some may look at our "Karmic funnel" we speak of by way of graphic illustration and would exclaim "Well here is an obvious case of the slippery slope".  But here it can't be helped.  But even Rush Limbaugh will say "There is danger in everyday living.  Stuff happens- - and you can't control all of it".  But there is also the notion of a 'critical mass" where you set things in motion and after a while they form a self perpetuating change reaction - - where things can't be stopped.  I'm aware that there is a point where this is true about the Federal Deficet, and I do not suggest that we "tempt fate" to see how close to that line we can get without going over the edge.  However I would remind you if you wish to go back to the Greek - - like a good "Fundamentalist" truely would- - then you know that the words of sin and "sinner" are part of an Olympics or sporting contest.  It's like out of bounds in tennis or baseball.  People know where all of the lines are and when you are either inside or outside of them.  So it is with "Sinners".   However not so for Chuck Smith.  But Chuck Smith- - like so many Calvary Christians- - is a closet Marcionite.   Besides believing that it is inherently impossible to render SEX itself as a non sinful act, because the very idea of sex and reproduction to a Marcionite itself is Sin Incarnate.  Chuck will say "Do not think in terms of boundaries or what is "safe' or "OK" but rather you should continually be obsessed every waking minute- - with the idea of "being in that perfect spot where God would have you Be".  This of course makes the gigantic assumption that I know where the Hell to find God's council to even get in touch with Him and find out what he thinks.  But chuck sill say rather than the Greek concept of a certain circle- - or boundary line where things are "OK' or out of bounds- - rather to fixate on this abstract "point" in your mind.  Not even a point on a chalk board but smaller than that- - - infinetessible in size.   What Chuck is describing without knowing it is classic Pythagarian Gnosticism- - - or that "One " or "The Point" - - that etherial locus or "Source of it All"  (Selah)

We haven't heard much about the Affordable Care Act lately, and I guess that is just as well.  Because apparently the site is still not working to the satisfaction of anyone.  This is what the wife of this Republican Pennsylvanian Senator said on the Response on KNX 1070 this morning said.  But even if the site accepted your application you still might be getting coverage.  You'll only find that out when you  put in your first claim sometime next year when the thing takes effect.  We are still hearing endless stories about people either having to lose their doctor, or their low rates- - or get slapped with a high deductable or what have you.  I have said time and again this is one Headache I would have prevented in advance by not signing the Affordable Care Act in 2010.  I think of that Christian Hymn "Oh what needless pain we bear".  Just think of all the pain and hassle the President could have avoided- - and devoted and channeled that energy that was squandered on Health Care- - into other areas of his political life - - that really mattered.

In terms of Arguments from Silence- - there is a place for them.  We have spoken of two obvious areas where an Argument from Silence makes sense.  One is Proof of a Personal God- - and the other is whether Space Aliens exist and have visited planet earth and made contact with human beings.  It's hard to disprove something for which there is no evidence to begin with.  Let your silence do the talking for you, just as the Court lets its Silence do the talking for it last June when Proposition 8 in California was up for discussion.  But let's look at Josephus and this whole idea of the text saying Jesus was Crucified under Pontious Pilate.  The trouble is- - if you look at the WHOLE contraversial text then most reasonable men will say "Josephus did not say this- - saying Christ was more supernatural than an ordenary man, and such".   The trouble is- - - this passage was never referenced AT ALL, which is to say that NONE OF THIS PASSAGE was referenced at all - - untill the time of Eusebeus- - which is to say the early Fourth Century  or over three hundred years after said Passage was claimed to be written - - - at which time not only this WHOLE passage was referenced- - but some other strange stuff not even his contemporaries could swallow.   In addition to this "external evidence" of bogusness- - we have the Internal Evidence- - of lack of logical flow in the text and a change in style of word choices employed by Josephus.  You may ask me, "Marcus, why are you going to the mat on this issue of who was Governor when Jesus died?"   I think all four Gospells - - could be made to read a whole lot differently if you changed one thing- - the howling Mob on Good Friday screaming for the Crucifixion of Jesus- - seemingly overwhelming one of the most powerful men on earth, into submission to their demands.  This crowd Comes from seemingly out of nowhere- - and seems to vanish just as quickly - - but without it- - the whole outcome of the Story would be very different.  We have expounded on this- - several weeks ago- but I don't know the exact posting.