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Alexander Solzhenitsyn died last month. The world is diminished by his leaving.
I read Gulag Archipelago several years ago. Now I’m wondering if I should read some more works by this interesting man. Here’s an excerpt from an article by George Friedman of Stratfor. For a little background, Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Conservatives hailed him as an enemy of communism. Liberals hailed him as a champion of human rights.
“When he reached Vermont, the reality of who Solzhenitsyn was slowly sank in. Conservatives realized that while he certainly was an enemy of communism and despised Western liberals who made apologies for the Soviets, he also despised Western capitalism just as much. Liberals realized that Solzhenitsyn hated Soviet oppression, but that he also despised their obsession with individual rights, such as the right to unlimited free expression. Solzhenitsyn was nothing like anyone had thought, and he went from being the heroic intellectual to a tiresome crank in no time. Solzhenitsyn attacked the idea that the alternative to communism had to be secular, individualist humanism. He had a much different alternative in mind.
Solzhenitsyn saw the basic problem that humanity faced as being rooted in the French Enlightenment and modern science. Both identify the world with nature, and nature with matter. If humans are part of nature, they themselves are material. If humans are material, then what is the realm of God and of spirit? And if there is no room for God and spirituality, then what keeps humans from sinking into bestiality? For Solzhenitsyn, Stalin was impossible without Lenin's praise of materialism, and Lenin was impossible without the Enlightenment.
From Solzhenitsyn's point of view, Western capitalism and liberalism are in their own way as horrible as Stalinism. Adam Smith saw man as primarily pursuing economic ends. Economic man seeks to maximize his wealth. Solzhenitsyn tried to make the case that this is the most pointless life conceivable. He was not objecting to either property or wealth, but to the idea that the pursuit of wealth is the primary purpose of a human being, and that the purpose of society is to free humans to this end.
Solzhenitsyn made the case -- hardly unique to him -- that the pursuit of wealth as an end in itself left humans empty shells. He once noted Blaise Pascal's aphorism that humans are so endlessly busy so that they can forget that they are going to die -- the point being that we all die, and that how we die is determined by how we live. For Solzhenitsyn, the American pursuit of economic well being was a disease destroying the Western soul.
He viewed freedom of expression in the same way. For Americans, the right to express oneself transcends the content of the expression. That you speak matters more than what you say. To Solzhenitsyn, the same principle that turned humans into obsessive pursuers of wealth turned them into vapid purveyors of shallow ideas. Materialism led to individualism, and individualism led to a culture devoid of spirit. The freedom of the West, according to Solzhenitsyn, produced a horrifying culture of intellectual self-indulgence, licentiousness and spiritual poverty. In a contemporary context, the hedge fund coupled with The Daily Show constituted the bankruptcy of the West.
To have been present when he once addressed a Harvard commencement! On the one side, Harvard Law and Business School graduates -- the embodiment of economic man. On the other side, the School of Arts and Sciences, the embodiment of free expression. Both greeted their heroic resister, only to have him reveal himself to be religious, patriotic and totally contemptuous of the Vatican of self-esteem, Harvard.”
You gotta like this guy.
“Christianity”
Christianity
teaches that you have to be a Christian to go to Heaven. This requirement essentially condemns the vast majority of people to hell. Those who have given their life to God but do so without the help of Christ will fall short of receiving Gods grace and find themselves on the wrong side of the pearly gates. There is only one way to God and it is through Christ.
A common claim that Christians often make is that the choice is ours. We can choose to either accept Christ into our lives or reject Him entirely. If we fail to make a choice, we still have made a choice. The problem with this line of thinking is clear: Christ is not a fact and the truth could be almost anything. It makes more sense to put our faith in (something like) the fruits of our labor or the methods of science than religion is worth. It makes no sense to commit our lives to such superstitious beliefs (as these people do).
According to Le-way, everyone is wrong about God, including me. It’s not that I’m right. It’s that God’s not wrong. The important thing is that we be true to ourselves. If we’re not being true to ourselves, we’re not being true to God. Le-way doesn’t have to be true to be right and since no one knows what’s true, all that matters is what’s right. If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. We should stand for what’s right, even if it means facing the fires of hell and never getting to rejoice in our good deeds (of which, there are many). Forever isn’t worth forsaking ourselves in the name of some God that doesn’t live up to our expectations of what a God should be. God is good and the devil is bad. If you don’t understand this, then you don’t understand.
Another problem I have with the Christian dilemma is what they consider right from wrong or, in other words, a sin. A thing is right or wrong (and to the degree that it is right or wrong) for reasons that can be determined. A sin can usually be defined as an action or behavior that brings harm to ones self or another. There are exceptions to the rule which most often involve the greater good or the lesser of two evils. There are also what I call the lesser sins which are sins that do not necessarily bring about harm to anyone but are still apart from Gods will (or, in other words, not something we’ll be doing in Heaven). What makes something right or wrong is not what distinguishes it from other things but the fruit it bares. A sin is a sin is a sin for the mere reason that everything we do results from the same knowledge of good and evil that gives us the right to be a fool. It’s called original sin and is what separates us from God.
Christianity veers from this course and tries to define a sin in ways that do not agree with the way things really are. A prime example is homosexuality. According to Christianity homosexuality is an abomination. It is among the worst of sins when really it is anything but. Homosexuality is a lesser sin at worst. Gay people have sex for the exact same reasons straight people do (short of having children). They have sex with each other to express love, show affection, give and experience pleasure and so on. Their motives are absolutely no different than what two straight people share with each other. The only real difference is that it falls outside of societies norms and therefore earns ridicule (deserved or otherwise). We should be more concerned with unsafe and promiscuous sex than same sex behavior. It is wrong to hold such things against a person when they have nothing to do with us or anyone else for that matter. Homosexuality is no more a sin than a lot of other things people take for granted. It is certainly a forgivable offense.
As I see it the worlds religions are just a bunch of (different) ways to worship the same God. You don’t have to be a Christian or believe in the God of the Jews. You merely need to believe that God is perfect and put Him in control. It doesn’t matter what you call or do not call God because God is the God of everyone or He is the God of no one. He either is or He isn’t. God is like a mirror, the mirror never changes but everyone who looks at it sees a different face. There is more than one path to a spiritual awakening but they all lead to God. According to Le-way, there will be liberty and justice for all.
Let me begin this post by saying that I love this country. It may be true that one doesn’t fully appreciate his homeland until he’s left her—it’s certainly true in my case. I am undeniably thankful for the safety, security and comfort of this nation.
Having said that, I am concerned about us. I’m concerned about the American church, in particular. I think we have been swamped by the deceitfulness of riches and the cares and affairs of this world—to use the words of Jesus. So swamped, in fact, that the boat is sinking. So deceived, in fact, that we don’t even know it.
This is a song by David Wilcox, that describes what I think will happen to us in this wonderful country, the United States of America. I’m sure that Mr. Wilcox in no way considers himself a prophet, but I think he is singing prophetically.
Summer lasted a generation
A generation—then the winter wind.
The bounty harvest that seemed so endless—
It seemed so endless, ‘til it gave what it could give.
Prosperity will have its seasons.
And even when it’s here, it’s going by.
And when it’s gone, we pretend we know the reasons.
All the roots grow deeper when it’s dry.
It looked so easy. We changed the weather.
And we would turn this world ourselves—our world, so small.
But slower rhythms, still unheard of
Said that every blessed summer someday has to fall.
Prosperity will have its seasons.
And even when it’s here, it’s going by.
And when it’s gone, we pretend we know the reasons.
All the roots grow deeper when it’s dry.
Our Father will act in His mercy, to cause us to turn to Him. All the roots will grow deeper when it becomes dry.
Please pray for us. We are seriously considering re-deploying to the mission field.
All of us would be going. Laurie and I, our daughter, her husband and their five girls.
Where? Possibly India. We’re presently in email contact with the man who is the overseer of the work there. Great guy, who likes us. Thinks I’d be perfect for the needs there—Bible teacher and mentor of leaders. I’d possibly be traveling to Bangladesh. Pakistan.
There are no allusions here for Laurie and me. We know how hard it is to leave the culture, the food, the safety, we have been familiar with in this wonderful nation in which we’ve lived the majority of our lives. But there is the call of God, and it can’t be denied.
And there is the price of discipleship, which is a mandate for all those who desire to be called His disciples. Our amazing, challenging Jesus has told us that he who seeks to save his life will lose it. He who gives his life, however, will gain it. Sounds wonderful from this comfortable, idealistic chair. It’s harder as it actually happens—although He is always sufficient.
I know there are some of you who love me, who would want to help us financially. And there are some of you who will also want to pray—which will be hugely, monstrously important, more important than the financial support. If you are one of those people, please let me know. I’ll give you my email address so you can receive instructions as this thing proceeds, which will probably be several months down the road. We may fly there first to check things out.
“The Divinity of Christ”
There is little doubt
that someone named Jesus of Nazareth walked the Earth some 2000 years ago, claimed to be the Son of God and die for our sins. Many of the worlds religions, at least, think of Him as a prophet. Among them are the Bah’ai Faith, Islam and numerous others. They all agree that He was a real person and a splendid teacher but not, necessarily, that He was who He claimed to be.
A few religions profess their particular prophet to be the last in a long line of prophets. In order for this to be the case, all the others would have to be wrong which seems unlikely, if not totally absurd (if you ask me). It’s far more probable that God has and will continue to send messengers (on His behalf) to share His way of life and unique perspective with the world. I propose to be one such individual.
Christianity teaches us that the divinity of Christ is without restraint. They claim we must either believe Jesus is the Son of God and that He literally died for our sins (so that all who believe in His name shall not die but have eternal life) or lose out on salvation entirely. To believe He was merely a man or a prophet is not good enough. The only way to God is through Christ. People of all other faiths will face the fires of hell for not accepting Christ as their lord and savior.
According to Le-way, the way to go to Heaven is to surrender The Knowledge of Good and Evil which can be accomplished in as many ways as there are to be sincere. You don’t have to be a Christian, Muslim or a Jew. You merely need to believe that God is perfect and be willing to surrender your life for His. Those who fail to do so will end up in Utopia (also called the Land of Oz or, sometimes, Purgatory) where they will experience Perfect On-going Justice, Actual Free-will and a Permanent 2nd Chance (to surrender The Knowledge of Good and Evil and go to Heaven).
Unfortunately, there is no way for any of us to substantiate either of these claims. No one knows for sure if Jesus truly was the Son of God or that Le-way isn’t just make believe. We must choose to either concede we are completely blind to the truth (and go on with our lives) or put our faith in what the truth should be (believing that God will make it that way). In either case, our beliefs do not determine what is or what isn’t and should never be allowed to take precedence over our ability to reason and approach things in the logical and systematic fashion that would clearly be Gods way (for God truly to be).
In order for me to recognize my own calling it becomes necessary (for me) to recognize that of others (as is the case with Jesus). I believe it’s entirely possible and completely realistic that Jesus was called to do what He did just as I have been called to do what I do. It’s not necessarily the case that history has correctly relayed the story of Jesus or serves His purposes any better than it shall mine (should it at all). The point is that Jesus may have achieved His objective without anyone ever, actually understanding what it was (so far as the vast majority of us are concerned anyway). I believe that Jesus could have died for our sins but that He would have done so unconditionally, asking nothing more than we give our lives to God regardless of what religion we belong to. According to Le-way, there will be liberty and justice for all.
“The Crack in the Liberty Bell”
May America bring us a miracle…
A paradigm shift that’s one of God‘s most wonderful gifts,
A promise in the form of justice,
And the end of times in a series of rhymes!
The truth is not a guessing game,
And no one knows Gods name
It doesn’t matter who is right
If no one’s willing to stand up and fight
To defend the truth for what it is
And hope God considers them one of His!
When all is said and done
Does it really matter what we call Gods Son
Or just that our lives were fun
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