I can recall as a teenager trying to choose a future career, with the idea of picking one where I would Do Good. I had a short-list of supposedly-Good jobs, that included being a doctor, a research scientist and creative artist.
I became a doctor eventually, later a research scientist, studied English literature (explicitly trying to work with a creative kind of criticism and scholarship), and did some (more-or-less) creative writing on a frequent basis.
All of which, serially, made me realize that these once-Good works were - at least in the late 20th-early 21st century - not really about doing Good.
What Good these social activities did was partial, temporary, declining, and even (increasingly) inverting into net-harm.
And anyway, from an atheist-materialist basis, there is no real Good that can be done - since Good is arbitrary and subject to redefinition and reversal. People can be made happier or more fulfilled... at a price, to some extent and for a brief time.
Human suffering may be alleviated - but only somewhat and temporarily (because everybody dies, and some problems are too hard to solve) - and often at the cost of increased suffering in the long-term, or for other people.
In sum; there is no path by which humans can really-do real-Good; and almost all of those who mistakenly believe their is such a path and they themselves are following it; can easily be seen (from a Christian perspective) to be on the side of evil - and doing actual harm to themselves and others.
For example I mean those (mostly leftists) who are 'active' in political causes, charitable causes, 'health' services', 'education', Law and (pseudo-) science.
These are - often - obedient servants of evil; whose corruption is so extreme that they have inverted their values; such that creating suffering, encouraging sin, inducing fear and despair, deleting meaning and purpose from life - all such actual evils have come to be seen as positive and constructive acts.
Because the world of public discourse and institution is so corrupt and evil-affiliated; then there is no objective and material Good that anyone can follow - not even in the Christian churches.
It was once the case that working for a decent church was genuine Good Work; but now the major churches (of the kind one can work for) are significantly (and increasingly) assimilated to the agenda of evil; and have taken on several or all of the core Litmus Test policies of strategic totalitarian corruption and value-inversion.
All significant institutions of The West are corrupt and 'converged' - so that serving the institutional churches (by church-focused evangelism, church development and foundation etc.) are nowadays Not ways of Doing-Good.
We may still Do Good in The West; but not by taking up the cause, or following the path, of any pre-established Institution: there are no longer any 'Good jobs' or careers.
We must do Good starting from our-selves and with guidance from the Holy Ghost.
We must, in other words, mostly work it out for ourselves; and any advice we choose to follow, requires to be selected and discerned - and not accepted on the basis of institutional provenance.
Consequently, it would be expected that people who are really Doing Good will be doing specific and personal Good; therefore may potentially be found in a wide variety of places and situations (including a wide variety of churches)...
And such people are less and less likely to be concentrated in particular social niches/ institutions/ jobs/ religions/ denominations/ or congregations.
1 comment:
I was inspired by the Meditations for this comment so, read into that what you will...
Planning to 'do good' is a disgustingly contrived goal these days. Anything like this is system-captured and the results will be laden with disappointment for those who have any god-given sense.
But we might do the right thing in the moment, but that isn't "good", that's our natural duty, our duty that we might be in fact 'be good'.
Post a Comment