9.02.2003
As The Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card continues the researchers are prohibited by their off-world superiors from communicating with the "piggies" in a way that allows them to transmit information to them about humans. Even asking questions runs the risk of giving them clues into the structure of human socies. One of the researchers comments to his fellows on the burdensome rules applied to them and how it blinds off-world researchers. He says:
You must remind yourselves, always: It is their law, their choice. They are the ones who built the wall between themselves and the truth, and they would only punish us if we let them know how easily and thoroughly that wall has been breached. And for every framling (off-worlder) scientist who is longing for the truth, there are ten petty-minded descabecados [headless ones] who despise knowledge, who never think of an original hypothesis, whose only labor is to prey on the writings of the true scientists in order to catch tiny errors or contradictions or lapses in method. These sukflies will pore over every report you make, and if you are careless even once they will catch you.
This summarizes the approach of so many fundies I know. I've been getting posts from a couple of indy fundy Baptists who personify the sentiment above. They are not out in the field sowing seed, cultivating, fertilizing or even reaping. They are leaning over the fence pointing fingers at the laborers in the field and criticizing them for their flaws, their methods, their shortcomings, their weaknesses. They would never toss so much as a grain of wheat to the ground, but just listen to them harangue the ones who are bringing in the sheaves.
I just finished a long diatribe by one of their ilk who blasted Rick Warren & Saddleback church for all that was wrong with it. Rather than actually do something on his own, this critic found fault with what Warren was doing. Why? To what end? For what purpose? To whose glory? I am baffled by it all.
At the heart of an anti-Pharisee ministry, it is so easy to look up from the chores of the day and harangue back. It is so tempting to berate the beraters for berating us. But that isn't what we are called to do. I serve not my Master's purpose if I chase them away from my fence, for my task is to work in the field. If I am not cultivating and nurting the young seedlings or brining in the sheaves or sowing seed on freshly turned soil, then I have become one of them. May the Lord help me to keep my goal in mind as I prepare for the harvest and leave the critics to their criticism.
You must remind yourselves, always: It is their law, their choice. They are the ones who built the wall between themselves and the truth, and they would only punish us if we let them know how easily and thoroughly that wall has been breached. And for every framling (off-worlder) scientist who is longing for the truth, there are ten petty-minded descabecados [headless ones] who despise knowledge, who never think of an original hypothesis, whose only labor is to prey on the writings of the true scientists in order to catch tiny errors or contradictions or lapses in method. These sukflies will pore over every report you make, and if you are careless even once they will catch you.
This summarizes the approach of so many fundies I know. I've been getting posts from a couple of indy fundy Baptists who personify the sentiment above. They are not out in the field sowing seed, cultivating, fertilizing or even reaping. They are leaning over the fence pointing fingers at the laborers in the field and criticizing them for their flaws, their methods, their shortcomings, their weaknesses. They would never toss so much as a grain of wheat to the ground, but just listen to them harangue the ones who are bringing in the sheaves.
I just finished a long diatribe by one of their ilk who blasted Rick Warren & Saddleback church for all that was wrong with it. Rather than actually do something on his own, this critic found fault with what Warren was doing. Why? To what end? For what purpose? To whose glory? I am baffled by it all.
At the heart of an anti-Pharisee ministry, it is so easy to look up from the chores of the day and harangue back. It is so tempting to berate the beraters for berating us. But that isn't what we are called to do. I serve not my Master's purpose if I chase them away from my fence, for my task is to work in the field. If I am not cultivating and nurting the young seedlings or brining in the sheaves or sowing seed on freshly turned soil, then I have become one of them. May the Lord help me to keep my goal in mind as I prepare for the harvest and leave the critics to their criticism.
