On Being Right

Today's Link
2nd Cup of Coffee

Today's Saying
We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers. ~Martin Luther King

Today's Picture
Disaster

Let me begin today by saying I’m a Lutheran.

From the beginning Lutherans have believed that one of the worst sins is work’s righteousness, the disease of the Pharisee.
That’s where one believes that what he or she does, thinks, believes, or is makes them superior to everybody else.
This condition separates people from people and people from God.
And yes Lutherans suffer from it too. Just because you can diagnosis the disease in others doesn’t mean you see it in yourself.

That serves as a background to the rest of this article.

Little by little I am becoming convinced that the primary problem of the world is righteousness.
The problem is people and groups of people who know they are right and act on it.

It was people who knew they were right who gave up their lives for God and destroyed the World Trade Center.
It is people who know they are right who seek to force their will on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It was a President who knew he was right that took us into war in Iraq.
It is Israel and the Palestinians both of whom know they are right that prevent peace in the middle East.
It is because we are right that our CIA felt it was okay to torture people.
It is an Iran that is sure that God wants Israel wiped from the face of the earth that scares us with the possibility of nuclear weapons.
It is a righteous North Korea that threatens the world with missiles and Atomic weapons.
All across the globe righteous groups carry on ancient feuds because it’s the right thing to do.
In America Liberal and Conservative politicians can’t find reasonable compromises because their position is the right one.
More and more the government decides what is right for us and then forces us by law to do it.
Scientists ( who should know better) on both sides of the global warming problem know what is right and so instead of looking for truth they defend a position.
Racial groups like the KKK kill and spew hatred because they are right.
Sunday one man who knew he was right on the question of abortion killed a man in Church who held a different position and therefore was evil and had to die.

Why do we fight?
Because we are right and they are wrong.
This kind of right gives us status. It makes us who we are.

We aren’t like those nasty folks who oppose gay marriage
or
we aren’t like those sinful folks who lobby for gay marriage.

We aren’t like that arrogant, hate spewing, pill popping Rush Linbaugh because we are right.
Or
We aren’t like those socialist Democrats who would take away our freedoms because we are right.

We aren’t like those evil, woman hating Moslems we follow Jesus and we are right
Or
We aren’t like those Christians we follow Allah the one true God and we are right

Our position is the right one . If you don’t hold it there is something wrong with you.
Can’t you see that.

Otherwise nice people feel they have the right to denigrate other groups of people because they are right.
If I am right and you don’t agree with me then you are uncaring, evil, scheming, irrational etc.
Why because if they were good people they would agree with me. It’s that simple.

The more things we are right on the smaller and tighter our group becomes.

But wait a minute aren’t we allowed to be right on the really important things like God?

Certainly. And you have a right to proclaim what you believe to be true.

But the moment it ceases to be proclamation and becomes attack you have crossed the line from being right to being righteous. The moment you beat others over the head with your position as the only Christian, intelligent, rational or whatever position you have crossed the line.

It is a very hard line not to cross.

So the world will continue to suffer at the hands of all those who are right and would force everybody else to be right as well.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
It had to happen. Tommy UK and Tammy are in love again. They have been working together on the mystery of the Town Hall trench and have rediscovered each other. Tommy tried hard not to let it happen. He was heart broken when she dumped him before but you can’t fight true love. The smile is back in their faces. Their step seems lighter. Life is just better.
Now they have gone from trying to solve the mystery of the trench which has come to a dead end to trying to solve the mystery of Tommy’s real parents.
Together they went to Tommy’s old friend Mayor Trumble and asked her for help. Tommy knows that she has lots of contacts with people that might be able to help and certainly have better resources than he has. She suggested he open a Facebook account on the internet and tell people he was looking for his parents. They might even see it or somebody who knew or knows his parents might see it.
Tommy and Tammy thought that was a great idea. Mrs. Trumble told him to keep trying as it’s possible his real parents are just waiting for the right time to contact him.

Wrap UP

A rather ordinary day. The hanging garden should be back up tomorrow. We think we lost only the middle flower. One of the rose bushes has a bud.I visited the blogs that left a comment yesterday. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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