When your highest good is to be viewed as good, the result
of your life and message is that you are good for nothing. This is the biblical definition of Pharisee spirituality. At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were a
part of the religious community of Israel and claimed to practically live out the
instructions of their Old Testament religion.
The faith of the Pharisee was concerned mostly with being viewed as one
of the good guys, the religiously pure, placing themselves at the front of the
temple, giving grandiose prayers at worship and parading themselves in
religious duds. With their noses in the
air, the Pharisees considered all others of lesser quality and questionable
character. Because of their self-imposed
spiritual superiority and aloofness, their brand of spirituality had no influence
upon others, they proved themselves to be good for nothing.
Christianity has always been conflicted at this point for just
as the religion of Israel was stuck in the mirror, some believers are in that very
same club. These believers must be
viewed by others as the moral ones, with moral values and moral friends living out
a moral religion. When Jesus entered the
temple at age twelve, was he fellowshiping with the religious masters or was
he debating with them? In my limited
understanding of the scripture, I believe that Jesus was debating with the
masters about what was at the heart of their religion, a love for God which
should culminate in a love for all others, sinner and saint. This opinion cannot be proof texted for we
are not told but this opinion seems to fit the before and after scriptures.
I am a short term, five year, resident of Landers and the Morongo
Valley. We love it here, my dogs, Hammer,
Belle and our pet gander Herbert. It did
not take long, however, to assess that a segment of the religious community of
the Morongo Basin may have a possible priority of looking good to the folk,
no matter the cost. You know, that
forest for the trees thing. This presidential
election season has confirmed my suspicion as our Republican political
leadership can only trash the man, Donald J Trump. Joining forces with the
Democratic smear misters of the valley, Chad Mayes objects to Donald Trump on
moral grounds? I ask, what is moral
about what you are doing, now, today, not twenty years ago? Corneal Cook is hiding in his foxhole when
his military brothers need a friend in the White House. None of this makes sense on biblical moral grounds
or if one prefers, with the use of pure logic.
The only possible explanation for their collusion with the
left can be pure self-interest. All the
morality plays and hiding are cowardly actions taken to bring home the vote and rejoin
the ranks of the politically corrupted.
I apologize but could we return to the Bible. Was it not Jesus who slammed the religion of
Israel six times in Mathew, Chapter 23, “You hypocrites!”, each time exposing
another facet of their duplicitous nature.
The biblical Greek word that is translated hypocrite for us, means to be
an actor on a stage, to be playing a role so it can be seen and appreciated by
men. Should we not ask, what is at the
heart of our Republican political and moral hypocrites?
Could it be the new trade agenda of Mr. Trump and the threat
it poses to the funding sources of the political class of folk? Could it be the promise of Mr. Trump to clean
out the swamp?
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA.
