Joan writes:
>When I say that our morals have decayed, I mean that the establishment,
>which has a great effect on what we do and what we consider acceptable,
>has been leading us for over 20 years toward a valueless society, one
>where there are no absolutes, where everyone is encouraged to do what they
>think is right and are told that they should not judge the actions of
>others for fear of hurting their self-esteem. The establishment's negative
>effects on our morals are evidenced in many, many ways.
>We have always had plenty of people who cheated on their spouses, but it
>has only been recent that the practice has been defended as being off
>limits to criticism.
If you don't mind, I like to share a very personal story from the
"heart/mind" to communicate my experience on the issue of decaying
morals and judgement. It is about insecurity=>creativity although I
prefer humility=>creativity. It is about shifting from "decaying
morals" to a "decay of the existing rule-based (right/wrong or
should/shouldn't) ethical paradigm's ability to solve the complex
problems of today.
Be patient, I will eventually make a point. I rely on my faith to tell
this story, but use it with yours and see if it is general. I may use
esoteric langage specific to my "Christian" mental model, so if you
don't like the words God or Jesus, I'm strong enough in my faith that I
won't be offended. As I expect in return.
Five years ago, my phone rang. It was a woman I never met. She was the
wife of a man my wife worked with at the time. She gave me his
phonemail access code. I called it and listened. I heard my wife
telling her husband that she loved him. My heart dropped to the floor
and all I knew of reality went with it! (I even wrote a poem decribing
this feeling call "Virtual Reality.") My wife cheated on me. This was
it. Hell had come to earth. She was possessed with the evil spirit
that I was told she had been born with! She divorced me, but did leave
the kids with me as I requested. She remarried the "other" guy.
After several months of judging, personal attacks, throwing things,
etc., I had another peak moment. I had two dreams in one night. In the
first dream, I was floating in a deep black stormy sea heading for a
deep, dark tempest, swirling to who knows where. Needless to say, I was
scared #$%@- less! Then two, magnificantly enormous and brillant
angels appeared in front of me walking ever so peacefully on the water.
Being more scared of there brilliance than the tempest, I sat straight
up in bed sweating, heart racing...peaking through the window blind
thinking "Where are they?" because it seemed so real...in fact I believe
it was more "real" that virtual.
Terrified, I watched TV for a couple of hours. Then went back to sleep.
The very same two angels appeared floating above a sunlit, peaceful
pasture. It felt like a pillow was over my ears...I could hear nothing.
It freaked me out so much (I was conscious of this) and I woke up
again.
One week later, I went to church. A guest speaker spoke on being in
storms in your life and how God is there for you. He read Pslams
107:25-30. "For HE SPOKE and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the
waves, they mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; their
courage melted away in their evil plight, they reeled and staggard like
drunken men, and were at their wits end. Then they cried to the Lord in
their trouble, and HE DELIVERED them from their distress, HE MADE the
storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were
glad when they had quiet, and HE BROUGHT them to their desired haven.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for HIS unfailing love, for his
wonderful works to the sons of men!"
I never read the Old Testament, let alone those verses before I had that
dream.
God himself, not the devil, spoke and created the storm (my divorce).
God himself made the storm be still. God himself brought me to my
desired haven (peaceful pasture). All were his wonderful works to the
sons of men. You might be thinking What! Why are you blaming God! Your
responsible! She's responsible! The Devils responsible! The book of
John says, God is light and in him there is no darkness at all!
EXACTLY. Metanoia!
That is when I realized, the two angels walked on the stormy sea as
graceful as they drifted above the sunlit pasture. Only I was afraid of
the dark. I saw the storm (adultery, divorce) as I was conditioned to
see the them, not as God intended me to see it from "the beginning." I
cried tears of joy from my deepest being, as I am again doing right now
as I type.
You might be thinking, Yea, Yea the Devil quoted scripture too! All I
can say is it is true that I said it, but it doesn't have to be truth to
you.
With all that said, what does it have to do with judgment and decaying
morals in a "valueless" America?
Nothing conditioned. Nothing logical. Nothing typically "Christian."
Nothing an "end times" guru would agree with! Certainly NOT a
right/wrong rule-based ethical paradigm! But the greatest paradigm
shift of all! So great "the church" missed it and still live under the
old covenant of judgement! A paradigm shift from the sin-conscious Law
of sin and death to the God-conscious Law of the Spirit of Life in
Christ! The Evangelical Christian Church existence depends on
sin-consciousness, separation (us/them), and emotion-based conflict
manipulation (fear of decay, going to hell, etc.) to "get" the evil
sinners saved! Most believe rule-based ethics work and are the
answer! But the whole point of the Old Testament ten commandments was
to show people they couldn't keep them! If they could, they would be
proud of it, thus breaking one!
Thus the New Testament was needed to shift the old paradigm. Jesus said
to the keepers of the law, "For judgment I came into the world, so that
those who do not see may see, and those that see may become blind." The
Pharisees asked "Are we also blind?" Jesus said "If you were blind, you
would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'we see' your guilt remains.
Those who see...see sin...see guilt...see death...see long-faced
religion. Those who are blind see God. "For judgment...I came" to
deliver the captives of their own conditioned minds so that I can give
them the unconditioned mind of Christ...the one that loves, accepts, and
forgives me as much as my X-wife...and you.
I suddenly "saw" Adam and Eve and the "decay" of man...as an ascent of
man. The apple came from the Tree of the Knowledge OF good and evil.
Knowledge of evil entered the world...not evil itself. My dream took me
back before the "fall." I saw the book of Revelation as exactly that.
A revelation OF Jesus, not a revelation of a future coming Jesus or a
catastrophic event culminating with the return of Jesus, which is an
unpredictable chasing after the wind. The decay of morals is usually
seen as a predecessor of this future event. I don't see the decay
though, because I'm blind although not denying or deceiving myself to
make myself feel better...just blind to that which causes us to
judge...our own apple-conditioned minds.
If no absolutes, then what is the non-rule based ethical paradigm? St.
Augustine says "Love and do as you please." What about justice?
Simple. Those who "do as you please" are condemned already. Those who
"LOVE and do as you pease" are perfect. Jesus is the author (starter)
and perfector (finisher) of my faith, my ability to love all the time,
right now! I'm not "in the loop" because the one who loses his life
will find it. An Unconditoned mode of thinking replaces a "decaying"
conditioned mode of thinking.
The one who loses his capacity to see "decay of morals" will see the
world anew. When has a rule-based ethics ever truly worked? Has it
decreased the number of people on death row? Will tighter, more strict
laws decrease or increase this number? Has it stopped you from touching
wet paint? I would argue that the rule-based ethic itself is
responsible for people breaking the rules! Can you solve the problems
of in an existing paradigm with the same rules you created the paradigm
with?
I believe the rule-based right/wrong paradigm has reached the limits of
its ability to solve complex problems. This is why what I'm saying here
is so hard to deal with out of fear of chaos and decay, instead of
opporunity. I see Jesus as the paradigm pioneer, and Deming, Senge,
etc. continuing the effort to build this new paradigm. The true "New
Testament" in action in the workplace! The same fear gets translated
into the rejection of Deming's philosophy on grades and performance
appraisals. People are still clinging and hoping for the best way to do
them when they can't be done. It is a virtual reality to try. We all
know this already even if it is blocked by our conditioned thinking.
The "insecurity" from my rejection did in fact cause me to step out of
every box I ever knew and was taught and be more creative. I'm "secure"
becuase of my faith. Nothing can take away the belonging I felt with
God in that dream. Nothing. That belonging is the only absolute. I
was conditioned to think my marriage would last forever. I was
conditioned to think Divorce was bad. I was conditioned to react with
anger and judgement. I was condtioned to think I should participate in
politics to help the cause of legislating morality. Isn't it funny how
people never change when you judge them...but the always are changed
when you love them unconditionally?
I hear the"decaying morals" argument all the time in my fundamentalist
Christian Evangelical Church. "Morals have decayed since they took
prayer out of schools!" "Family values is the answer to that decay!" I
wonder if the time when they "took" prayer out of schools conicides with
the time when the old paradigm began to experience its first anomolalies
or reach its limits to solve problems?
I believe in Jesus. I believe in prayerfulness and mindfulness of him
here and now as a way of life. I don't see God as a cause and effect
God...becuase that relies on my own ability to determine what is the
best right or best wrong for me...scary thought? Am I a robot? No, I
simply Love and do as I please.
I am now remarried to a beautiful woman. I call her Angel because of
what God showed me in the dream. She is best friends with my X-wife.
We practice a "one roof mentality in a two roof situation." All are
blessed and all win...and the kids get 4 cars, two houses, four extended
families worth of christmas gifts. The desired haven may be different
that what I was conditioned to think, but glorious it shall be and is.
You decide whether or not it is right or wrong and focus on events and
consequences...in the mean time...I'll be living a Great Adventure of
oneness with Jesus Christ!
Have a Great Adventure!
Don Kerr
--"Kerr, Donald" <Donald.Kerr@usahq.unitedspacealliance.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>