Jack Pelham

He is careful to warn me that the only proper motivation for good works is the gratitude for the great grace bestowed upon us by Jesus. To do them for any other cause, he cautions―such as duty or obligation or utility or obedience―is to miss the mark and to operate in a worldly and unspiritual manner―and then he grows darkly serious when he goes on to warn of how doing good works under any hint of an understanding that they are required by God is nearing the heresy of “works salvation”.

It’s not that the time I’ve spent on this Earth so far
Has been wholly without its bright spots, mind you,
But I must say that had it all been left to me,
I would much rather have done the work
Of making bigger differences in this world
Than the world seems to want made.

The big lie says that those who have been harmed by this world deserve special latitude when harming others―that those having been cheated deserve to cheat, and those having been lied to deserve to lie, and those having been betrayed deserve to betray others.

What the well-established menace to society requires this to thrive is this: His own will to violate the good order of the society must exceed the combined will of the rest to maintain that order. Thus does the one man’s continual transgression serve to condemn the apathetic hordes, who might otherwise have put him out already with but a flick of the public wrist.

The problem with that question on the board was not that it wasn’t excellent; it was that it was the teacher’s question, and not our own.

We were not asking it; she was.

About once a year or so, I’ll have a chat with somebody about religion, to which his or her response is an enthusiastic outburst about how, surely, his or her pastor and I would get along just great.

He ventured to mention some doctrines he wanted me to believe. So, naturally, I raised some questions and objections to what he was saying. But confidently, he promised he would bring me a book that spells it all out in good order.

The churches are packed with millions and millions of members who should not be there, according to Jesus. They are not the sort to repent of their sins, and should have been confronted about it and put out a long time ago, yet they are given quarter, and with flagrant disregard for Jesus’ instructions:

¹⁵ “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Matthew 18:15-17. NIV.

Society A has been engineered and maximized by its leaders to reap as much profit as possible (for themselves) from the citizens.

Society B is engineered and maximized by its leaders to promote the maturation of its individuals in virtue and in just dealings.

If this is all
That goes on here
I might suppose it were
By some sad mistake
That I had come either
To the wrong where
Or the wrong when.

But it seems as yet
I’ve still got the right why.