Verse of the Day

Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

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One could debate whether or how authority can be justified.

However, for the purpose of this post I don't want to go there ; but, simply take it as the brute and inescapable fact that it is.

Whether we like it or not everybody has to answer to somebody or as Bob Dylan musically reminds us in all its sundry and various ways "You gotta serve somebody".

"I didn't ask to be born" goes the taunt of a teenager who has just been told he cannot do something. Whether it is a mother or a father, nobody enters into the world not without someone in authority looking down on them.

What I want to explore is how someone who is the object matter of somebody else's 'authority' ought to view himself and that person.

'Obey' and 'submit' is what we are commanded. It probably makes it easier to remember, when we are irritated and unwilling to 'submit' or 'obey' that these people must give 'an account'. If we acknowledge that state of affairs for the one in authority then we can help him or consider how we can help him as far it is in our power to do so.

That insight, I believe, gives us some motivation for our 'obedience' and 'submission' which is also perhaps self-affirming in some fundamental way. It also gives us a framework for discerning the limits and/or the legitimacy of the kind of authority under which we might find ourselves.

Grace, Psalm 78 and the authorities set up by God

In our house groups we're looking at aspects of God's grace in line with our verse for the year.

In our last study,we looked at Psalm 78. The title of the lesson was the Patient Grace of God. My daily readings prior to the study were in the book of Exodus where we find Moses' father-in-law Jethro giving what can only be termed sound management advice. You can read about in Exodus 18:13-26.

What was God's solution ?

It seems that implementing Jethro's inspired management advice solved the chaotic situation among the children of Israel at that time. That chaos of that time and place is re-told in Psalm 78 with the added commentary of God's great displeasure at all that was going on.

It seems the appointment of persons in places of authority over the people was how the spiritual disease was to be kept in check.

The same theme of rebellion and chaos goes right through Psalm 78 where we are again told about children of Israel but now as settled in the Land. They are settled but without a King and so up to mischief once more.

What is God's solution ?

The answer is given in verses 70-72 where God appoints King David to be a "shepherd" over His people. And again spiritual harmony is restored. Of course the significance of the Psalm for us is that it further points to the Son of David, the Messiah Jesus who is our Shepherd par excellence who leads us according to Psalm 23.

Contrary to all the egalitarian claptrap that infects the popular culture, the human condition calls for established authorities. The authority of God Himself is assumed but this alone, if we go by the case studies in Psalm 78, is insufficient.

God therefore, sets up human authorities over us for our own good which takes us immediately to the New Testament where this principle is made more explicit.

You can read about it in the following sections of 1 Peter :

1 Peter 2:13-3:17 , 1 Peter 5:1-17

Jack Black - "The man"

Islamic Conception of Authority?

"Most often used in my personal experience by Arab military officers to excuse failure, and essentially transfer responsibility for the failure to God - I suspect a perversion of the original intent of the concept - but used in the listed instance to essentially say, "Bummer, I've been insufficiently pious, I will pray more often/better, think pure thoughts, etc, and take the test again next week. But you can't fire me/fail me because, well, God has already punished me and who are you to trump God?" Source : Argghhh! The Home of Two of Jonah's Military Guys UPDATE : HERE is an interesting study dealing with attitudes not far removed from that which is represented in my own post. What follows is a video interview with the academic who conducted the experiment. He has some very interesting observations especially toward the end : UPDATE 2 : The Emirates Economist has more on the subject HERE.

Authority & Autonomy

This is the last of a three part philosophical analysis of anarchism, authority and autonomy. (I have already commented on the first part here.)

The "Maverick Philosopher" blog concludes that authority and autonomy are not dichotomous.

However "autonomy" comes from the words "auto" and "nomos" meaning "self" and "law". So the autonomous person is his own law-giver which can only mean he recognises no law outside himself which can only mean there is no legitimate authority outside himself. If that is the case then all state authority is also illegitimate and the case for anarchism if even more firmly established.

Ultimately there are only two possibilities : either Self is God or God is God.

The Case for Anarchism . . .

. . . is here.
Wolff's argument, as helpfully summarised by the Maverick Philosopher, is so compelling that anarchism is the inescapable and only conclusion UNLESS one accepts that certain people who are found to be in certain positions inherently possess authority for no other reason than that God says they do because He Himself is responsible for those persons to be holding those positions.
See Romans 13:1-6

Of Political Entrepreneurs and Political Correctness

I suppose like many others I too have done my share of genealogical research on the Web. The internet makes it so easy. And so as result I learned a bit more about the Balkans than I knew before -- which was next to nothing ! My grandparents had, in fact, emigrated from the Balkans to Turkey, my parents emigrated the U.S. which I guess makes me a third generation immigrant in the U.K. and possibly also in the running for "Honorary Gypsy" !

My maternal and paternal grandfathers were, respectively, from Bitola and from Thessalonica. My brief research of these areas has given me a bit of a feeling for the multicultural centers these places must have been prior to WW1. Bitola apparently was populated by significant numbers of Bulgarians, Macedonians, Greeks, Turks, Jews and others. Thessalonica was apparently a multicultural metropolis.

So what happened ? Well, the various ethnic groups have long since emigrated to the New World or Down Under or joined their national or racial brethren in neighbouring countries. I can't help thinking that something of value has been lost as a result but ask myself why "balkanization" never became a vibrant and lasting social model.

Well, I have heard and greeted with skepticism many a Greek or Turkish acquaintance who has said on occasion with a half apologetic tone something like:

You know we get along just beautifully. It's just the politicians that constantly stir things up between us and cause trouble.

My skepticism about such comments had to do with either the genuineness of the inter-communal fellowship which is possibly being mis-remembered or a desire to cop out and makes a nebulous class of people called "politicians" the scapegoat for what in fact is a real personal hatred of "the other" --- to (over)use a popular philosophical phrase these days.

Well, I may have to repent of such suspicions having recently come across studies by the American sociologist Charles Tilly on the subject of what he calls "political entrepreneurs".

These are people in authority (or seeking power) who make it their "entrepreneurial" mission to sow seeds of discontent along ethnic fault lines. He claims to have data showing how these seeds then bear fruit in terms of inter-communal violence. Isn't it true that divisions are easy to foment and much more difficult to bridge? So might there not be a good case for taking preventative measures ?

Well, some on the left of the political spectrum have been much maligned and much ridiculed for their social agenda popularly known as "political correctness".

Perhaps political correctness seems silly but it may actually be playing a vital role as an antidote to the social poison put out by the political entrepreneurs. Without such an antidote we might find ourselves sliding into inter-communal violence. I'd rather have the silliness of some forms of P.C. than have to fight my neighbour in the streets, wouldn't you ?

Sadly, there is a perfect example of what I'm talking about right out of today's news headlines :

On Sunday a mob of 5,000 white men, many of them drunk, attacked men they believed were of Middle Eastern descent in retaliation for the assault a week earlier of two volunteer lifeguards.

Youths of Lebanese descent were alleged to be behind that assault, but police say there was no apparent racial motive.

Police arrested 16 rioters and said 31 people were injured, including a man stabbed in the back by an assailant officers said was a man of Arab appearance.

Prime Minister John Howard called the violence "sickening" but denied it was underpinned by a vein of racism running through Australian society.

"I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country," he said.