Faith

How does a person without an anchor for their soul survive life without destroying themselves? The only answer is through faith. We must believe in something and work towards satisfying that faith. Faith will take a person a long way but faith can also destroy a person so make sure that you have faith in something sound. Faith in Christ has already stood the test of time so that is sound and not destructive. There are people who try to combine faith in Christ with something else like self love and that is destructive.

More on Anchors

The most effective way to deal with binge drinking and the other problems caused by people who don't have an anchor for their souls is to give them one. This is best started when a person is young but can happen at any time in their lives if the conditions are right.

Waiting for the binge

Binge drinking is something that allows a person to forget for a while and then get on with their lives. They can look forward to the weekend or whenever when they can anaesthetise their souls for a while and forget how painful it is to be alive. After the weekend they can recover from the effects of the binge and then survive till the next binge by looking forward to the next "good time". There is a problem with this lifestyle because people can do things that they won't recover from during the binge, things that will ruin the rest of their lives.

Anchors for the soul

Every person needs to know who they are and where they fit in their society. These things are taught to children as they are growing up. In primitive societies children have to complete rites of passage before they can become adults. In many modern societies there are no rites of passage. When a child reaches the age of two they realise that they are different from the rest of the world and they need to find out where "I" stops and the rest of the world starts. This process continues on into adulthood. A child who learns where "I" stops then feels secure because they know their boundaries and they can define themselves. A child who has boundaries will have an anchor for their soul. Children without these anchors will feel significant pain and this pain will keep with them throughout their lives unless they can find a true anchor. This leads to the need to anaesthetise the soul.

More on binge drinking

What purpose does binge drinking serve? In the days of drovers they would be out on the track for months at the time and weren't allowed to drink but when they came into town they would have a huge binge to catch up on the all the alcohol they had missed. They said that they developed a powerful thirst after a long time. However, some people have binges every week these days. How does a person develop a powerful thirst in just a week? Binge drinking has nothing to do with developing a powerful thirst, it is all to do with forgetting. When a person is drunk they can't remember the pain of their circumstances and that feels good for a while. The need to forget is so pressing that they are willing to risk the consequences.

Binge drinking

Alcohol and other drugs become problems because they are an anaesthetic for the soul. Many young people binge drink today because they want to forget the pain of being alive. This is actually the pain of never really having been allowed to define themselves within their own context. However after a binge all the pain is put on hold for a while.

True Justice

How can we define true justice? Many lawyers will say that they are the only ones to define justice and to say how it should be applied. There is an arrogance among this crowd because they believe that they are the only ones who understand the issues. However, everyone in society is affected by justice and they are hurt when justice is not applied justly. It is best if there is retribution first, a crime must be punished by a fixed penalty. But, how can we keep the prisoners under control if they know they are going to have to serve the full term, you may ask? Well this is where rehabilitation comes in. Prisoners need to show that they have been rehabilitated before they can be released, even if they have served their full term. Instead of subtracting time, that is, softening the need for retribution, for good behaviour time should be added for bad behaviour.

Retribution

The basic law of the universe is that of sowing and reaping, action and consequence. When a group of people live together in a society they have to have some rules to make sure that they can all live together in relative peace. If there are no laws then each person will live entirely for themselves and the entire society will break down. When there are rules it is important that people understand that there will be some sanction if the laws are broken. There are great advantages to being part of a group but a person must recognise the value of being part of the group or be excluded. This means that if a person breaks the rules there must be some sanction taken out against the person so that the group will not break down. This sanction is retribution. Without retribution there is no incentive to obey the rules of the group and the group will self destruct.

Rehabilitation

When a person commits a crime they need to be rehabilitated. That is, they need to be brought into a condition whereby they are suitable to live in society again. If the only goal of punishment is rehabilitation then no person should be given any fixed term of imprisonment. They should all be sent to prison until they are rehabilitated. The question then becomes, how do we know when a person is rehabilitated? Can we be sure that a person, who is rehabilitated, will not re-offend? If we cannot be sure then is the person rehabilitated and should any person be allowed to leave prison if that guarantee can not be made?

The deterrent effect 3

If the deterrent effect means that one person is being punished so that another person will be afraid to commit the crime then the deterrent effect is unjust. If the deterrent effect means that the punishment is so severe that anyone is afraid to commit the crime then the deterrent effect is just. However, if the law is not enforced by exacting the full penalty then the deterrent effect falls flat and the enforcers are unjust.

The deterrent effect 2

Does the deterrent effect mean that one person is being punished to discourage another person from committing a crime? On the other hand, it may mean that the punishment has been designed to be severe so that any person committing a crime will think twice so that they don't have to experience the punishment themselves.

The deterrent effect

The deterrent effect is meant to stop other people from committing a crime. They see the punishment that is a consequence of the crime and then are deterred from committing that crime themselves. Is the deterrent effect true justice or not?

Abortion 6

If we want to live by the WWJD rule then we can look at the Bible and find out what Jesus did, as mentioned earlier in this blog. In John 8 we find that Christ is confronted by a situation of sin but He dealt with it in His own way. At first He asked that a person without sin cast the first stone; that was too much for the accusers. When all the accusers left He forgave the woman and asked her to stop sinning. Do all the abortion critics claim to be without any sin? Have any of these men or woman not looked at another person in lust?

Abortion 5

How deep and dark must be the torments faced by a woman when she has to decide what to do with a new relationship that is entirely dependant on her. Even though this relationship is inside her body and she has complete control over her body, her hormones and consequent emotions are working towards sustenance and not destruction. Let's counsel these women about the relationship issues and not the rights issues. But let's not criticise or condemn them.

Abortion4

How can any man judge a woman who is faced with the dark torments of ending a relationship of total dependence that is growing inside her? Often the woman hasn't been properly counselled as to the pain of the bereavement but she will still feel it. This is always a time for compassion and respect.

Abortion 3

There was a campaign for a while where young people wore wrist bands saying WWJD, meaning what would Jesus do? Somehow this was meant to make them think about their actions. However, there are many instances where we already know what Christ did, they are recorded in the Bible. What would Christ do if He met a person who had recently been bereaved. We know that He would weep with them. Christ would treat a woman who has just been through a bereavement with compassion. He would be compassionate with a woman who had just had an abortion. Even with a woman who is going through the deep torments of having to decide whether she is going to terminate a intimate relationship or not.

Abortion 2

Every woman who has had an abortion should be treated with dignity, respect and compassion. She has just been through a bereavement, having been deprived of a relationship. These facts so not change even if the woman voluntarily had the abortion. Christians should be the first to show love to the bereaved woman.

Abortion 1

There are many arguments about when a foetus actually becomes an individual person. This affects your view of abortion. However, at the moment of conception, or perhaps implantation, a new relationship comes into existence. There is a physical relationship of dependance and an emotional relationship that begins between two distinct sets of DNA when the new DNA comes into existence.

The doctrine of self indulgence

Children need to know who they and where they fit in the world. If they don't they will never be secure in themselves, become angry and targets of destructive habits. The doctrine of self indulgence teaches us that we can always blame someone else but that means we can never help ourselves. It is time to realise that I am responsible for my thoughts and that I am what I think. 

More on Consequences

Every time we allow children in schools to do things without experiencing consequences we are destroying their concept of reality. Adults are meant to contribute to society not be supported by society. As just society will support those who are genuinely in need but a decaying society will allow people to believe that society owes them support when they are unwilling to accept the consequences of refusing to contribute.

Consequences

The basic Law of the universe is sowing and reaping or action and consequence. In spite of this, we teach children that they can insulate themselves from behavioural consequences while they are still in grade school and then we spend a lot of time trying to work out how to deal with the problems that occur when they live as though there are not consequences when they do whatever they want to do. We even introduce them to drugs at an early age to continue to insulate them from the consequences of their actions.

How do children define themselves?

In the 1960s experts in education decided that they didn't want children to feel bad about themselves so they didn't force children to reach certain standards before they could progress in their education. This didn't help the people they wanted to help but took away the rites of passage from the other children. Many of these children are now angry because they have not been allowed to define themselves and now they set up their own rites of passage. They do things like graffiti to define themselves and prove that they are adults or they try to stop the pain inside by binge drinking, drugs and gang warfare.

More Rites of Passage

When a child reaches the "Terrible Twos" they seem to get into a lot of trouble. At this age they realise that they are not continuous with the rest of the world. They try hard to find where "I" stops and the rest of the world begins. It is important to give the child strong direction at this stage so that they are able to define themselves in the world. If the child doesn't learn where there boundaries they will always be angry and when they grow up they will be insecure because they don't know who they are. Rites of passage are part of this important process and they a child will grow up to have an anchor for their soul.

Rites of passage

Every primitive society has rites of passage where a young person has to perform certain tasks to qualify as an adult. What rites of passage does our society have?

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