THE PIZZAONIAN

Every new generation plays the morality game - judging history

 

The context of history:   

Every new generation plays the morality game. By that I mean they like to judge the actions of past generations by the morality of their time. While objective morality (if there is such a thing) does not change, subjective morality does.  

This is particularly true when current generations attempt to ascertain the moral compass of their ancestors, who lived, acted and were motivated by the emotions and horror that only direct experience creates.

In addition to different times, past generations had to deal with the anger and increased personal awareness of a horrific event that only they suffered with all of its shock and horror.   

This is why making historical judgments about past events is risky business.

One has simply to imagine how you would feel about someone who had just killed someone you loved, and how you would react against that person. Now let thirty years go by – do you think you would have the same reaction?

The act did not change, but time does change how we act. This is a lesson we do not seem to understand when judging our ancestors. 

Obviously, one has to be careful here.  This is not an attempt to soften the impact of horrible acts.  It is an attempt to understand how the emotions of those who directly experience an act are quite different from those who are completely removed from any emotional context.

History buffs like to point out that time makes for better analysis.  Maybe so, however, I don’t necessarily believe that.  Time supposedly creates objectivity.  If that is the criteria, so be it.  But this is patently unfair to those who directly experience history subjectively as compared to those who attempt to understand it years later.

This is true, even if later analysis proves to be more complete.  It still remains without the direct emotional perspective experienced by those who suffered the event.

These brief comments are not intended to prove right or wrong.  It is an attempt to give context not only to history but how we interpret history as well. And in the process, be a bit more kind in how we judge those that came before us.

And, perhaps be more kind and less judgmental in all things.

Brother Giovanni

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Who needs Barnum and Baily? We have "The Greatest Show on Earth" - the American presidential election - 2016

 

If there is an “objective truth” it is the statement that there is no objective truth. It is amazing how little appreciation or consideration this statement gets. Consider how this affects the American presidential elections, now in full bloom as each party engages the painstaking process of electing their candidate. 

As you listen to the various speeches, it seems they are often incapable of knowing or appreciating that in a pluralistic, democratic society, reasonable conflicting points of view exist - or they are hypocrites or ideologues, playing to whomever they have to in order to gain their electorate’s support.   

If the latter is true no wonder there is no middle ground in American politics. If you don’t agree with someone, you do not have to spend any time considering their point of view since they are obviously ill informed. What else could they be if they don’t agree with your political viewpoint?  

And it’s much easier this way.  You don’t have to waste any time rethinking what you believe. You certainly don’t need to spend any time trying to analyze opposing points of view from a different perspective.

What would that accomplish since the people you don't agree with are bubble heads anyway? This seems to be the scenario for American political thought today. 

This also makes it a lot more fun for professional journalists or newscasters. You don’t have to spend any time researching and actually knowing the news. You just have to be very good at making sure you call those you don’t agree with imbeciles. (Fox News?) There is one caveat when entertaining your audience with the so-called news. You don’t want to use the word imbecile too often, though it does help occasionally.

It is more effective to employ words that ridicule those you disagree with on more intellectual terms. Use words such as misguided, misinformed, and inexperienced and other pejorative terms that are equally degrading, but offer a much higher level of discourse.

It also helps to be able to sit on a stool with your legs crossed and still keep a straight face. 

And just consider for a moment - this is the way we pick the leader of the “free world.” What does that say about us, the electorate?  After all, our elected leaders do reflect who we are as a people.  And the beat goes on and on and on ………..

John Frank Giovanni, commenting for “The Pizzaonian”* from the United States

*A division of the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, Diverti Mento, editor

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We also recommend: GIOVANNIANDFRANCO.COM

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A PIZZAONIAN PERSPECTIVE - A search for this man called Jesus - the more we attempt to label him the more elusive he becomes.

A PIZZAONIAN PERSPECTIVE

Part one:

Any reflection of Christianity can only start at one place – the man called Jesus.  So let me begin.

Who is this man called Jesus?  There is the Jesus of the Bible.  There is the Jesus of the Church.  And somewhere in all of this there is Jesus, the man.

Today it seems whatever is written about Jesus gets attention, particularly if it is critical or controversial. He remains one of the most well-known, famous individuals in all of human history.

The Jesus that has always attracted us here in Pizzaonia is Jesus the man. We are told that he was both “true God, and true man.” If so, the human being, this “true man,” who walked the earth more than 2000 years ago remains the most human among us, then and now.   

There have been countless books written on the historical Jesus.  Each one leaves us unsatisfied.  For one, they are all speculations as to how the writer chooses to interpret the historical references to Jesus’s physical life. Clearly, the more we attempt to describe and label him the more elusive he becomes.

Sometimes we miss the obvious.  I would like to leave all the vague, interpretive, explanations of Jesus out of the equation for now and focus on the words “true man.” This suggests that he was not only completely human, but uniquely so.  

Many who cannot accept Jesus as Savior or the Messiah have found in the events of his earthly life true respect for him as a man. I would like to think that for Jesus, each moment of his life was an awakening. From his boyhood on as he began to sense that he was special, feelings of both joy and confusion may well have been part of his experience. Just consider how you would feel if the same spiritual revelations came to you.    

What was the boy Jesus like? We know nothing of his childhood until he shows up for the first time in Luke’s account of his visit to the temple. Here we get a glimpse of what he was beginning to realize about what he was being asked to be. He becomes so absorbed with what was happening, he forgets to tell his parents where he was. 

So many accounts of Jesus suggest he knew from the beginning who he was and what his life was meant to fulfill.  However, what if the opposite were true - what if he was often confused, especially in the beginning about the strange calling he felt compelled to follow.  For me this would be the fully human Jesus – a Jesus like us having to work out what his Father was calling him to be.

This becomes the flesh and blood, the human Jesus, and the longer you see him from this perspective the more you can appreciate what he accomplished.  To add to his humanity, consider that he also had an actual choice.  What if after fully realizing what he was being asked to do he had said, “are you kidding, you want me to do what.”

When we start emotionally feeling what he felt as the strange odyssey of his life began unfolding before him, we start appreciating fully the impact of  his humanity – and we begin to know the man, Jesus

Continued:

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Nothing gives Christianity a bad name as much as the assumption that the Bible must be interpreted literally.

A saint for all ages and all faiths

For true believers, faith in God does not require proof.  I accept that. However, that does not make it any easier. I have speculated most of my life why God made the world the way it is.

Is the world what it is because that’s the way it was naturally meant to be, or did we in our arrogance and God-like pride, foul our own nest creating the suffering and misery that so many souls endure?  

The Bible tells us, we razed our own nest with our conceit and lust for individual power.

Accepting our obvious flawed human nature, I would think a loving God would at least leave us footprints – some examples of His presence? This is a question that is not going to be resolved in this short essay.

However, I can, speculate. I believe a loving God creates beacons for us to witness as signs of His existence. Such a person was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. While we may have created this valley of tears, God, in his loving mercy and tolerance gave us this heroic figure to inspire and lead us to Him.

Dietrich, a Lutheran minister, lived during the rise of the Nazi evil that swept Europe. As a leader of his Church, his followers wanted him to be safe, so he could carry on his ministry in exile rather than in his native Germany.  

He did escape to the United States to continue his ministry. However, his convictions and never-ending belief in God’s destiny for him brought him to the early conclusion that he could not remain in safety while his flock suffered in his native country. He had to be with his flock. His conscience allowed him no other choice. So he returned knowing full well the inevitable consequences of his actions.

After his return to Germany, he could not let his voice be silent. His message of God’s love could never be reconciled with the brutality of the Nazi philosophy. He joined the German Secret Service and became a double agent. He used his position to help rescue Jews from Germany.

It was only a question of time before he was arrested. For many, this would be the end of the story. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it was the beginning of his - his last days in prison, and his eventual execution by the Nazis became his cross – a cross he bore as only a true lover of God could.

If ever God created a saint whose life by its very existence is a beacon of faith for all of us to follow - it is this man. For many this would be the end of the story. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer it was the true beginning of his.

Brother Franco           Follow us on Twitter

“Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. … Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, and grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/martyrs/dietrich-bonhoeffer.html

Recommended reading: Books by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Life Together

The Cost of Discipleship

Letters and Papers from Prison

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