The way it goes and I have seen certain questions become litmus tests for this very thing, is that if one wants to show oneself to be a good person then one either seeks to love something, which is difficult for it requires commitment, a love in fact, and effort and even what may be called sacrifice; or one finds something evil to hate. This latter is much easier and I see it time and time again, I have even done it myself. But as scripture says our righteousness is filthy rags, in other words it simply does not count, for it is self righteousness. Righteous anger is not what evil you are angry at but how you are angry at it, otherwise the destructive raping and murdering anger of the Soviet armies as they plunged into Germany at the end of World War II was righteous. Think so? I assuredly do not, and feel it necessary to regard the view I hold here as the only alternative to such I can find.
When Social Justice Warriors go berserk at an evil, even a real and manifest evil, and riot, throw tantrums, or a preacher rants about executing homosexuals simply because of an out of context misuse of a verse in the Law of God, we see, independent of any objective truth about the evil, an evil response.
Righteous anger, I assert, is angry not at the evil doer so much as is angry for them, deeply desiring their restoration, where human anger simply wants heads to roll in order to make the bad go away for the convenience of the angry person. Hence virtually all the demonstrations against evil I have witnessed over the years, from those against football matches with an apartheid nation, as in 1981, one of which I saw as a student then, to those for or against homosexuality or abortion are all the anger of men which does not work the righteousness of God (James 1:20), for even when the issue has no personal connection with the protester, it has become a litmus test for goodness but it is pointless, being a shibboleth to identify friend from foe not an expression of loving one's enemies
It is a bitter irony that the only people who say that man is evil are great saints, and I know none, or misanthropes, which I have been. However I suspect that misanthropes are embittered because they see perhaps only dimly, but it seems to me clearer than most, what they cannot accept
But as the Spirit leads me to repent of further man pleasing and idolatry I will come to accept what I begin to see, namely that as I am evil I do not need to conjure up a hatred of evil which is self righteousness, nor hold certain positions on certainly litmus questions in order to be seen as good by pothers, nor force good works which are invalidated as good works by their motives (see I Corinthians 13).
That my righteous is filthy rags is unpalatable to all of us. But being honest about it as well as seeking the Lord the Spirit concerning it makes for a much easier life and will contribute to gaining the peace which surpasses all understanding
When Social Justice Warriors go berserk at an evil, even a real and manifest evil, and riot, throw tantrums, or a preacher rants about executing homosexuals simply because of an out of context misuse of a verse in the Law of God, we see, independent of any objective truth about the evil, an evil response.
Righteous anger, I assert, is angry not at the evil doer so much as is angry for them, deeply desiring their restoration, where human anger simply wants heads to roll in order to make the bad go away for the convenience of the angry person. Hence virtually all the demonstrations against evil I have witnessed over the years, from those against football matches with an apartheid nation, as in 1981, one of which I saw as a student then, to those for or against homosexuality or abortion are all the anger of men which does not work the righteousness of God (James 1:20), for even when the issue has no personal connection with the protester, it has become a litmus test for goodness but it is pointless, being a shibboleth to identify friend from foe not an expression of loving one's enemies
It is a bitter irony that the only people who say that man is evil are great saints, and I know none, or misanthropes, which I have been. However I suspect that misanthropes are embittered because they see perhaps only dimly, but it seems to me clearer than most, what they cannot accept
But as the Spirit leads me to repent of further man pleasing and idolatry I will come to accept what I begin to see, namely that as I am evil I do not need to conjure up a hatred of evil which is self righteousness, nor hold certain positions on certainly litmus questions in order to be seen as good by pothers, nor force good works which are invalidated as good works by their motives (see I Corinthians 13).
That my righteous is filthy rags is unpalatable to all of us. But being honest about it as well as seeking the Lord the Spirit concerning it makes for a much easier life and will contribute to gaining the peace which surpasses all understanding
Personal interests normally take presidence over morality ~ probably the reason their is no righteous not 1 ~ bcoz ~ Man unlike God is not a lustful bigot
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