[CS-FSLUG] Linux Is Capitalism in Action

[Don Parris]

On 5/22/06, Alan Trick <alantrick at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-05-22 at 09:13 -0500, Yama Ploskonka wrote:
> >
> > Don Parris wrote:
> > > On Sat, 2006-05-20 at 13:03 -0700, Chris Brault wrote:
> > >> Interesting,
> > >>
> > >>> Where socialism went wrong is that it tried to impose Righteous Thinking
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > > I submit that you might be looking at "government" in the wrong light
> > > here.  It is true that there is no geographical "Christland".  Yet, I
> > > submit that the Theocracy is very much alive, in the form of a loose
> > > United Church.  Some of us may dwell in one of the Catholic, Protestant
> > > or Pentecostal "states".  Yet we are united in following our
> > > Priest-King, Jesus Christ, who is orchestrating his people - regardless
> > > of our socio-political backgrounds - to accomplish quite amazing
> > > things.
> >
> > I don't want to sound anything beyond this being a straight, fool's
> > question, (I Cor 4:10)
> >
> > what is it we are we united on?
> >
> > (beyond platitudes, please - practical life issues is what I would want
> > to know, because such knowledge would help me center my efforts)
> >
> > Thanks
>
> After I figured out that he wasn't talking about the United Church
> (which is hardly even Christian) I realized that he was probably talking
> about the catholic church (by catholic, I don't mean the Church of Rome,
> but catholic). The catholic church is defined by three things:
>
>   * the creeds (normally the nicean and apostles creeds)
>   * a community
>   * Jesus Christ
>

My apologies for any confusion.  I should not have capitalized the
word "united".  But yes, I am talking about the catholic (universal)
Church of the creeds.

> This is the church, everyone else is either a heretic or a pagan.
>
> It's a concept that has been around since Christ ascended 2000 years
> ago. Unfortunate the implementation hasn't been so good. It is not
> kingdom in any normal sense of the word. That was the great mistake of
> medieval Europe.
>

I have actually come to the conclusion that attempts to create a
"Christian" nation would be foolhardy and counterproductive.  Never
mind the political infighting. :-)  Suppose we all gathered in one
geographical location.  While we could disciple each other, we could
not make disciples nearly as effectively as we can now - if you can
imagine it being any worse.

If we look closely at the process of discipleship, we are to make
disciples, baptise them and teach them to obey and to make more
disciples.  This process occurs most naturally in the context of
relationships with those in our spheres of influence.  Creating a
Christian nation actually reduces the opportunities for us to develop
the relationships with people around us.

Yet, God has drawn each of us to Himself in ways that He knows will
work best for us as individuals.  So I may be drawn to a Baptist
church while another is drawn to an Eastern Orthodox church, and
another to a Methodist church.  Picture us as computer components for
a moment.  We are all plugged into different motherboards in different
computers.  Those computers are plugged into different LANs.  Each of
the LANs connects to form God's WAN (his World Area Network). :-)

To some, this nation (WAN) may look poorly implemented and deeply
divided.  By and large, that's true.  We just have to remember who is
Root.  Our King knows better than we do just how well implemented the
spiritual nation really is.

Sorry to have preached so long.  You may now be dismissed, but the
Presbyterians have beaten us all to the cafeteria. ;-)

Blessings,
Don
-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
"Hey man, whatever pickles your list!"