Posted on 10/15/2001 6:54:40 AM PDT by malakhi
| Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. - John Adams |
Right on Havoc. Its hard for alot of people in here to tell the difference.
In 1914, all of Middle and Eastern Europe was governed according to constitutions (in the English sense) that were explicitly Christian. The King of Prussia (and German Kaiser) was Calvinist, the King of Württemberg was Lutheran. The Emperor of Austria-Hungary, the Kings of Bavaria and Saxony were Catholic. And, of course, the Tsar was Orthodox. By 1918, all of these constitutions had vanished and were replaced by explicitly secular governments. Admittedly, there continued to be Christian monarchies in several of the smaller states, but once the German/Austro-Hungarian/Russian governmments traded their Christianity for secularism it was as if the torso of Christendom had disappeared, leaving only the extremities. The mantle of Western European leadership was promptly taken up (temporarily) by the anti-clerical, secularist French, and the pragmatic English, succeeded briefly by the even more anti-Christian Nazis, and eventually superceded by the influence of the arch-secular U.S. And, through all that time, Russia was enslaved by a brutal anti-Christian tyranny unparalleled in history.
Modern European political philosophy is now based on Rousseau rather that Scripture and Tradition.
I think the idea of trying would be a good premise for a Chestertonian-style novel, but -- to the best of my knowledge -- there is no current restorationist movement for the Holy Roman Empire. All of the current monarchist groups (except in Poland) are concentrated on restoring specific princely familes.
I think TRD will simply wash his hands of him. He's more wise than I.
SD
It would seem like the 'observant' would NEED it and the 'reform' would be proud of it?
I went to public High School in NH in the mid-1980's. They still offered Latin as one of the courses to fulfill the two-year foreign language requirement. I took two years of it but now I wish I had paid more attention.
My public HS in the 80s also offered up to 4 years of Latin. I took Latin I during my senior year, mostly as a goof off elective, and have retained very little. I do know enough to snicker at folks who say things like "I'm an alumni."
SD
Which, IMO, precisely explains Western Civilization's current descent into savagery -though a savagery about which there is nothing noble.
Is that the word for "Havoc gets to act superior and throw mud at the Catholics cause he doesn't understand concepts like "chastity" or what "intrinsically evil" means?"
SD
We'll always have Helium. Argon. Neon, etc.
SD
| Thursday, February 28, 2002 | ||
|
Seemingly out of the blue, the prophet Jeremiah declares, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt" (Jeremiah 17:9). If this is true, why have we been taught about the goodness of all creation? Doesn't Jeremiah's statement contradict the teaching that we are made good by God?
We are indeed made in God's image, and God delights in each and every one of us. But we don't have to look too deeply into ourselves to discover that something in us has gone astray from God's intentions. Our hearts betray our best intentions. We tend to say hurtful things to those we love the most. We try to be humble, but we still find ourselves at times pulling others down or making a show of our talents or knowledge. Many saints warned of the danger of starting some service or project humbly, following an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, only to find later that we have pursued it with ego and pride. St. Paul describes the exasperation of dealing with the heart when he says, "I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (Romans 7:19).
So why should we try to do God's will at all? Perhaps a better question is why God bothers with us at all? God can see the darkness in our hearts far better than we can, yet he never stops loving us. He never asks whether we are worth his time and attention. Why? Because he knows we're worth it! We are more precious to him than we can ever imagine.
Here's the key: God doesn't just want to show us where we are off course so we can correct a few faults. He wants to share his very life with us. By the transforming power of his Spirit, he wants to give us a new heart and a new mind, one that trusts him as fully as Jeremiah exhorted the people of Jerusalem to do (Jeremiah 17:7-8). We don't have to wait until we die, or until the Second Coming, to experience this transformation. Even today, we can take one more step toward that complete transformation Jesus longs to give us.
"Lord, I praise you for choosing to work so powerfully in my life! I will place my trust in you and know that my life is safe in your hands."
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Have a great day, everyone!
AC
When I type to you my keyboard makes a high squeaky sound.
That would make sense, considering that the Franks were a Germanic tribe, and ended up speaking a Latin derivative. But of course, they would not have needed to import the Latin from Rome, since Gaul had been a Roman province for hundreds of years, and Latin would have been the "lingua franca" even after the collapse of Rome. So the Franks picked it up from the natives.
This is assuming that the "natives" spoke Latin and not some corrupted mishmash of developing what we now call French. If the natives spoke some "pidgin" tongue, then actual Latin would need to be brought in from Rome.
I don't know what the actual case is, but it was several hundred years from the end of the Empire, so it wouldn't suprise me.
SD
Yo Al. Welcome back. I've missed the daily spam. :-)
8-).
Then what DOES He want?
Surely you jest. The univerally understood message of the Abraham and Isaac tale you cite is that God does NOT desire human sacrifice.
SD
That may or may not be true but I bet he understands "invincibly ignorant". :-)
Hmmm. Sounds more like a mouse than a keyboard.
SD
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