Be strong and courageous. He is neither.
"Be strong and courageous."
"Only be strong and very courageous."
"Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed."
"Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses! Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous."
Four times in Joshua 1. Be strong and courageous.
This to a new young leader. A man with the heritage of Moses strapped to his back. A man with a seemingly impossible task. To be the human Chief Executive of a theocracy government.
The story of Joshua is the implementation of the Dueteronomic constitution.
The implementation of ancient Israel's constitutional law.
Joshua's story ends in failure. By the time that Dueteronomic History ends at the end of 2 Kings, Israel has ultimately failed in its covenantal/constitutional relationship with the theocratic head of state. The curses were invoked.
And yesterday, April 16, 2009, a symbolic Joshua, the Chief Executive of a modern-day, man-made republic, with a mantle of a proud "Dueteronomy-esque constitution," with a sworn obligation to uphold and defend that Constitution of the United States of America, with the cultic support of millions and millions around the world to "only be strong and courageous" . . .
Wasn't.
As Joshua's story ends in failure . . . so the story of Obama will end.
Moral failure.
For the Constitution of the United States requires the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of war crimes involving torture.
At first glance . . . Obama, a trained constitutional lawyer at that, is blinding his administration and by implication, we the people of these United States, from these atrocities requested, justified, and ordered by previous administration officials . . . starting with the President of the United States himself, the Vice President, Secretaries of the Departments of Defense and State, the Attorney General and Department of Justice officials, and the actual implementers in the Department of Defense and The Central Intelligence Agency. There are also others.
He has apparently decided that not seeking justice for atrocities in the past will somehow prevent them from ever, ever again, in the name of the United States of America, from happening.
How wrong can he possible be!
Why a nearly exterminated tribe of neurotic, xenophobic sheep and goat-herders, with a steadfast belief in a mono-theistic paradigm of life itself, would chronicle its history by exposing its fraught disasters of war and conflict and injustice, and yet still identify its ideal for its very identity and survival with stories like "Joshua," is truly a gift for modern-day mankind.
Unlike so many modern-day exemplars in the last century, the lessons of atrocities ignored were the implementation of even greater atrocities . . . (1) An ignored WW-I Germany that rises to WW-II Germany, (2) the antecedents of McCarthyism, the fallout of the Church Commission, (3) the junior operatives of the Nixon cabal, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfled, whose only lesson learned was to "let it never happen again!" . . . letting past injustices be ignored because they might be too painful to excise, those wandering herdsmen exposed for us what happens when there is moral failure.
For those old stories of Joshua, and Judges, and Chronicles and Kings, tell us that yes, there is failure.
And there is a reason why.
Only be strong and courageous.
Live up to your morals.
Be strong and courageous.
Obama. In what you did yesterday.
You are neither.
The Refectory Manager
"Only be strong and very courageous."
"Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed."
"Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses! Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous."
Four times in Joshua 1. Be strong and courageous.
This to a new young leader. A man with the heritage of Moses strapped to his back. A man with a seemingly impossible task. To be the human Chief Executive of a theocracy government.
The story of Joshua is the implementation of the Dueteronomic constitution.
The implementation of ancient Israel's constitutional law.
Joshua's story ends in failure. By the time that Dueteronomic History ends at the end of 2 Kings, Israel has ultimately failed in its covenantal/constitutional relationship with the theocratic head of state. The curses were invoked.
And yesterday, April 16, 2009, a symbolic Joshua, the Chief Executive of a modern-day, man-made republic, with a mantle of a proud "Dueteronomy-esque constitution," with a sworn obligation to uphold and defend that Constitution of the United States of America, with the cultic support of millions and millions around the world to "only be strong and courageous" . . .
Wasn't.
As Joshua's story ends in failure . . . so the story of Obama will end.
Moral failure.
For the Constitution of the United States requires the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of war crimes involving torture.
At first glance . . . Obama, a trained constitutional lawyer at that, is blinding his administration and by implication, we the people of these United States, from these atrocities requested, justified, and ordered by previous administration officials . . . starting with the President of the United States himself, the Vice President, Secretaries of the Departments of Defense and State, the Attorney General and Department of Justice officials, and the actual implementers in the Department of Defense and The Central Intelligence Agency. There are also others.
He has apparently decided that not seeking justice for atrocities in the past will somehow prevent them from ever, ever again, in the name of the United States of America, from happening.
How wrong can he possible be!
Why a nearly exterminated tribe of neurotic, xenophobic sheep and goat-herders, with a steadfast belief in a mono-theistic paradigm of life itself, would chronicle its history by exposing its fraught disasters of war and conflict and injustice, and yet still identify its ideal for its very identity and survival with stories like "Joshua," is truly a gift for modern-day mankind.
Unlike so many modern-day exemplars in the last century, the lessons of atrocities ignored were the implementation of even greater atrocities . . . (1) An ignored WW-I Germany that rises to WW-II Germany, (2) the antecedents of McCarthyism, the fallout of the Church Commission, (3) the junior operatives of the Nixon cabal, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfled, whose only lesson learned was to "let it never happen again!" . . . letting past injustices be ignored because they might be too painful to excise, those wandering herdsmen exposed for us what happens when there is moral failure.
For those old stories of Joshua, and Judges, and Chronicles and Kings, tell us that yes, there is failure.
And there is a reason why.
Only be strong and courageous.
Live up to your morals.
Be strong and courageous.
Obama. In what you did yesterday.
You are neither.
The Refectory Manager
posted by The Refectory Manager | 3:00 PM
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