Santorum and the quote on women

The dust up over the quote about women in Santorum’s book is an excellent example of why Santorum makes me nervous. The passage from Santorum’s book says, “Sadly, the propaganda campaign launched in the 1960s has taken root. The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness.”

Frankly I agree with the remark as I think would most conservatives and independents, along with a vast majority of women and scientific studies. But rather than defend it, Santorum pleaded ignorance, claiming his wife wrote that part of the book. This is the man that wants to carry the conservative banner? Blaming his wife for a quote that appears in a book he is supposed to have written?

Also troubling is his claimed ignorance. Even if he did not remember the quote, the view it expresses is pretty common and by no means limited to conservatives. If he is the champion of the family that he claims, he must have encountered this view many times and should have been ready to defend it. Instead he retreated to liberal platitudes. A classic case of a conservative wimping out, resulting not only in a loss for the candidate, but a win for the liberal viewpoint.

As a contrast, just imagine (or just remember) Newt being challenged by a reporter about something he wrote. What should Santorum have said? How about something like this:

Well, I do not remember the complete context of every word I have written, but as for the general statement itself, I think it is completely true. I do think women were sold a bill of goods. The traditional roles of wife and mother were denigrated and women were told that they would only find happiness by having a career. Now here we are many decades later and many women feel trapped in the work force when they really want to be at home with their children.

 The bottom line is that feminists did not seek equality for women; they called for women to be like men. Women who wanted a more traditional life were not praised for their choice; they were often shunned as traitors to the cause. While the notion was attacked and ridiculed from the late sixties till the early nineties, and in some places even till today, the fact is that men and women are different. They think differently and react differently. As a general rule, and it is only a general rule, men find satisfaction in their jobs, women in their relationships. This is why feminism and its stress on women being more like men, while it has been adopted by society, has left so many women profoundly unhappy.

I believe that both men and women should have the choice to pursue the career they want, even if it is a traditional one. Women breaking down the barriers and entering the work force has brought about a lot of changes and much of it has been good, but some of it has been bad. We as a society have to be honest about that instead of simply clinging dogmatically to outdated and incorrect feminist dogma. Men and women are different. They both have strengths and weaknesses. True happiness will not be found by forcing people to pretend that those differences don’t exist, which is what we have been doing for quite some time.

But instead of this or a similar response, Santorum blamed his wife. Maybe his wife should be the candidate.

The Epistles of John: Living in Truth and Love. 1 John 2:7-2:8

Week 18:  Jan 29, 2012

–          Last time we saw how John was emphasizing that to love God was to Obey God’s commandments.   This naturally raises the question which commandment are we to keep?   Starting in verse 2:7 John answers this question.

Study

a.      Expansion: Love One Another (2:7:11)

i.      The commandment to Love  (2:7-8)

7 – Dear friends, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard.

Dear friends,

–          Marks another change of thought, this time an expansion on the commandments of God.

new commandment…but an old commandment…

Here John may be dealing with a charge from his opponents, i.e., that they had some new commandment or he may just be stressing that his message is grounded in the teachings of Jesus. Note change from verse 3 from plural(commandments) to singular(commandment) here. Commandment sums up the teaching of Jesus. Here it refers to    living in the light  as he himself is in the light (1:7) Which John is defining as living in truth and love. This is very similar to :

2 John 5 Dear lady, I am now requesting of you that we all continue to love one another. It is not as though I am writing to give you a new commandment, but one that we have had from the beginning.

John 13:34 I am giving you a new commandment to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

from the beginning

–          Commandment was new when Jesus gave it. But this could also refer to the teaching of OT as well.

This old commandment is the word you have heard

–          This is what they have been taught since they came to Christ. John is stressing the continuity of the faith.   This was the teaching of Jesus, handed down to the Apostles (see the prologue v 1:1-4) and taught to them.

8 – On the other hand, I am writing to you a new commandment that is truly in him and in you. For the darkness is fading away, and the true light is already shining.

–          Yet, while an old teaching there is a sense in which it is new.  It is new in the sense that it is in Jesus and in us.  While the teaching is nothing new, and in fact is old,  the way that the teaching works itself out in our lives is new.  As 1 Cor 5:17 puts it:   Therefore, if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a new creation. Old things have disappeared, and—look!—all things have become new!

For the darkness is fading away, and the true light is already shining.

–          This is more than a distant hope.  The transforming nature of Christ’s teaching can already be seen.  John is not arguing just from abstract theology, but from the real impact Jesus had on people’s lives, and the way that it transformed them, and us.   The message of the Jesus is nothing, if it has no effect.   This is why obedience is so important.  Jesus’ teachings are not some secret that is hidden away, as the Gnostics claim, it is to be proclaimed and demonstrated in our lives.

If you have question or comments about the class, feel free to send me an email at elgin@hushbeck.com and be sure to put “Epistles of John” in the header.

See here for references and more background on the class.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible: International Standard Version^®. Copyright © 1996-2008 by The ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission. www.isv.org

Note: Some places I have modify the text from the ISV version. Passages that I have modified have been noted with and * by the verse number and the ISV text is included in a footnote.

The Epistles of John: Living in Truth and Love. 1 John 2:2-2:6

The Epistles of John: Living in Truth and Love.  1 John 2:2-2:6

Week 17:  Jan  15, 2012

 I have fallen a little behind in posting the class, and will try to catch up in the next  few days. When we finished from the last posted class John had interrupted is refutation of the claims of his opponents to clarify that his comments on forgiveness should not be misconstrued.  We do not have forgiveness so that we can sin; we have forgiveness so that we can have fellowship with God.  We also have an advocate or our behalf, Jesus.  In verse two John continues this thought, giving the John giving the reason Jesus can serve so effectively as our advocate.

Study

ii.            Three Proposition Refuted (1:6-10)

      b.      Expansion: Keep His Commandments (2:1-6)

            i.            Jesus the Messiah is our advocate (2:1-2)

2:2 – It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world’s.

      It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins

–    atoning sacrifice  

The Greek word (ἱλασμός) occurs in NT only here and in 1 John 4:10, and there is some dispute over how to translate this word.  In secular literature this word refers to a means of placating an offended person, which could be translated with the word Propitiation.  Some scholars, however, argue that in the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word has a somewhat different meaning. Instead of focusing on appeasing the offended person, these scholars argue that it focuses on the removal or cancelling of sin, and as such means expiation more than propitiation. Not too surprising, other scholars strongly disagree, arguing that it does have the meaning of propitiation in some places of the OT.

So how should we settle? As always, we look to the context. Here the context is Jesus as our advocate before God and this would point to propitiation, the appeasing the offended person, more than expiation, the removal of sin. The meaning here is that Jesus’ death on the cross, renders God favorable to pardoning our sins.  Yet this controversy may help explain the passage in 1:9 earlier and the meaning of Forgive and Cleanse. Forgive would point to propitiation, cleanse to expiation and like in 1:9, and in this light both meaning may be in view here.  Thus the translation of atoning sacrifice

                  atoning  –  for sin –   expiation

                  sacrifice –  to God –  propitiation

Jesus is both or advocate and our atoning sacrifice. He pleads before the Father on our behalf based on what he has done.   However, it is important not to push the metaphor of the court room too far.  There is nothing here to say that God is reluctant to forgive our sins. On the contrary,  in John 10:30 Jesus said, “I and the father are one.”   John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave is one and only son.”

      –    but also for the whole world’s

Christ serves this role no just for John’ readers (i.e., Christian) but for the whole/complete (ὅλου) world (τοῦ κόσμου). This is one of the reasons I question the doctrine of Limited Atonement, which holds that Christ died only for the elect. But if Christ died for all, does this then teach universal salvation?  No.  This is in the context of 1:9 which said, “If we make it our habit to confess our sins.”  Christ serves the role of advocate for the entire world.  If anyone in the world seeks forgiveness through Christ, they will be forgiven. But we must seek forgiveness to be forgiven.

What does this say about our duty to forgive? Are we required to forgive those who do not seek forgiveness?  This may run counter to a lot of teaching on forgiveness, but I believe our duty to forgive is balanced by an offending parties duty to seek forgiveness.  We have a duty to offer forgiveness, as Christ died for the whole world.  But as with salvation, that forgiveness is not complete until it is truly sought.

           ii.      To Know him is to Obey him (2:3-6)

1.       Statement (2:3)
           a.       Claim (2:4)
           b.      Counter-Claim (2:5)
2.       Restatement (2:6)

Having clarified the nature of forgiveness, John now returns to the claims of his opponents, in this case that they know God.  Notice the emphasis that John’s structure gives this claim.  This is a very key claim and central to John’s overall argument.

To understand this claim, it is important to understand the discussion to this point, which has centered on the question: who is correct. It is important to remember that 1 John was written to a church that had undergone a church split where a heretical faction has broken away.  Both sides claim to have the truth, and to know God. Individual members probably had friends in both camps, so how could they tell which side was correct?

2:3 — This is how we can be sure that we have come to know him: if we continually keep his commandments.

–          John answers the implied question of which side is correct.  Again, a key claim of the opponents was to know God (see the next verse) and this was a key claim of Gnosticism.  Yet for John this is not just intellectual knowledge about God.  To know God is to be in a relationship with Him.

      if we continually keep his commandments.

–          This is a common theme for John.  In John 14:21-24 the theme is to love God is to obey him. We cannot be said to be in a relationship with God, if we do not obey him. 

2:4 – The person who says, “I have come to know him,” but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person.

–          John now returns to the specific claims of his opponents, in this case the claim that they know him.  At the core of agnosticism was the claim to have a secret knowledge of God.

      but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar

–          How can we claim to know Jesus if we do not follow him.  This is a much more powerful argument than it may at first seem.  How can we really truly believe that Jesus is God incarnate; that he died for our sins; that we are in a relationship with him, and yet then ignore what he says?  Every time we sin, we in effect deny that we know Jesus.

      and the truth has no place in that person.

–          This is an emphasis of the previous point, but it is more than just an emphasis.  In John 14:6 Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life.”   Jesus is the truth, and to have truth, secret truth, was a key claim of proto-Gnostics.   So this is more than just a mere emphasis of the point. They have neither the truth nor Jesus.

 2:5 – But whoever continually keeps his commandments is the kind of person in whom God’s love has truly been perfected. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:[1]

–          Having dealt with the claim, John now turns to his counter claim. Note that John as changed from “If we” to “the kind of person” (ἐν τούτῳ) Lit: in this one.   John is not talking about particular people but rather a goal that we should strive for.   The person who is willing to be molded and shaped by the love of God; that person is the one who will follow his commandments.  

has truly been perfected.

–          The word for perfected (τετελείωται) means to finish, to reach a goal, to perfect.  God’s work in us will be completed when we continually follow his commandment.  John is not saying that we will reach this perfection.   In fact John has already made it clear that we will not.  Earlier in he wrote,  “If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves (1:7) But this is the goal we should strive for; the kind of person, we should strive to be.

This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God

–          John is not saying that we must reach perfection, to be sure. Rather that God is working in us.  That we are striving to follow his commandments.

2:6 – The one who says that he abides in him must live the same way he himself lived.

John now returns to a restatement of his starting principle stated in verse 3, though here it is a summary statement and serves as an emphasis of this point. This was also one of the key messages of the Gospel of John.

Interview on Christian Economic Perspectives

I will be interviewed this Saturday morning Feb 4^th at 9:00 AM by Rev Oliver Burrows on his show Christian Economic Perspectives.  You can listen at 1230 WXCO-AM  in Wausau, WI and on the Internet at www.1230wxco.com/stream.htm . We will be discussing my book, Preserving Democracy and some of the roots of the current economic problems.

 

While is Newt Doing So Well

With Newt Gingrich’s solid victory in South Carolina, one question is why Newt?  When even many of his supporters will admit his weaknesses, why are voters choosing him over all the other, and seemingly more electable, Republican candidates?  The reasons are many and not all of them are exclusive to Newt.  More importantly, these reasons reinforce each other and when taken together they have allowed Newt to come to the forefront, and to even bounce back from the onslaught that followed.  So here are the six reasons that voters are choosing Newt in no particular order.

Newt comes across as Newt

Probably first and foremost is that Newt comes across as himself. Voters have the sense that Newt is not just giving them polls tested lines they want to hear, but is saying what he really believes.  Romney, on the other hand, comes across as a well-polished and experience candidate, but there is always the lingering question as whether candidate Romney will be the same as a President Romney?  Voters don’t have that question with Newt.

Newt is smart

Whether it was with Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, or George W Bush or Sarah Palin, one of the standard criticisms from the Democratic play book is to label Republicans as dumb.  Conservative voters know the charges to be false, but conservatives don’t want to wait for the verdict of later historians, as was the case with Reagan, to be vindicated.  While Newt can be criticized on many fronts, being dumb is not one of them. Even his strong critics admit that he is smart.   By itself this is not that big of a deal, but in the overall context this is key, particularly when combined with the next point:

Newt effectively defends conservative principles.

Conservatives are interested in a lot more than just winning the election and defeating Obama. They certainly want that; but they also want change. They want conservative change.  Republican candidates that talk about conservative principles in a campaign are a dime a dozen.   Republican candidates that can defend conservative principles when attacked are rare.  Republican candidates that continue to defend conservatism after being elected are almost non-existed, and those who do, are not in any position to effect real change.

One of the big complaints about George W Bush was that he spent more time trying to get along with Democrats then fighting for conservative change, or even defending  his own policies.  He effectively let Ted Kennedy write the No Child Left Behind law, and yet it still became one the consistent points on which Democrats attacked Bush.  In his second term he was pretty much silent, leaving it to Democrats to characterize his presidency and thus Republicans.  It is one thing to fight and lose, but conservatives are tired of losing because our side does not want to fight.  Those voting for Newt not only believe that he can beat Obama; they believe that he will effectively fight for conservative principles as President.

Newt attacks Obama

All the candidates have for the most part focused on attacking Obama.   Newt has been particularly effective at this.  Until he started to respond to the negative attacks by Romney and Paul, Gingrich had run an unusually positive campaign.   Following the attacks, he responded, and his response cause a lot of concern among is supporters.  But after a few days he backed off, at least with his comments that many saw as an attack on capitalism, as much Romney.  The bottom line here is that those voting for Newt do not have any fear of Newt going up against Obama.

Newt is not the Republican leadership

For the last decade, conservatives have been told that they have to wait.  Now is not the right time to move the conservative agenda forward, or in many cases, to resist the Democratic agenda.   Now is not the right time for a conservative candidate.  Over the last year, at each point where there was an opportunity to force some change,  rather than to use our leverage the Republican leadership has said, next time will be when we make a stand.  But after several “next times” have come and past, conservatives realize that an entire year has gone by and they have nothing to show for it.

Right or wrong, Romney is seen as yet another moderate being pushed by the same establishment that gave us Dole, Bush, and McCain and makes up the Republican leadership.  This is one of the reasons the attacks on Newt are taken with a grain of salt.  The establishment has lost its credibility, thus their attacks on Newt ring hollow and in fact may actually be supporting him.

Newt does not accept the press attempt to trap Republicans

One thing that has been clear is that Newt can handle the press.  For example, in a recent debate each of the candidates muddled through a response to a loaded question on same-sex marriage.  These were pretty typical of responses to load media questions that had driven conservative nuts for years.  Then came Newt’s turn to answer the question and he turned the question back on the Democrats to the cheers of the audience. 

Many of his critics see this ability as emotionally satisfying but inconsequential.  While this might be true for those well informed, it ignores that most people get their knowledge of these candidates from the media.  All too often there is reality, and there is what the press reports.  Writing off Newt’s ability to effectively deal with the press, is to ignore that this is the major battlefield of politics.

Many candidates claim some subset of these characteristics.  For example, Santorum also comes across as himself, and is not part of the establishment.  But only Newt can claim all of them.  Even in those places where characteristics are shared among the candidates, Newt simply outsights the others.

Newt now has one other advantage that no other candidate in this race has demonstrated.  Romney’s support has remained fairly steady.   Other candidates have risen to challenges Romney, only to have their support evaporate.  This also happened to Newt. But only Newt has shown an ability to bounce back and again return to the lead.

Whether this will be enough to overcome Romney’s organizational advantage remains unclear.  Coming off the victory in South Carolina, Newt has now retaken the lead in the Real Clear Politics average of polls in Florida.  National polls leading up to South Carolina has Romney falling but still in the lead, while Newt is gaining.  The only other real non-Romney candidate, Rick Santorum placed 23 point behind Newt in South Carolina and is falling in the polls, both nationally and in Florida.  While it is not impossible for Newt to collapse again, and Santorum to rise, such turmoil would only further increase Romney’s advantage.  So as it stands now, Romney has the advantage, but Newt has a chance.

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