Hating the Hateful

Mean Spirits Abound…

Recently, our son purchased a registered, German-bred, Rottweiler. Though still a puppy the dog shows signs of excellence. He has already bonded with his owner and dutifully follows around the house and yard. He stays close to home and comes when called. He has learned to sit and stay. He is an adorable puppy that will grow into a fine big, well behaved but intimidating animal. We all love him.

Secular societies are unable to properly assess the worth of human beings. The absurd idea that we evolved from an amoeba, a fish, or a monkey sullies our ability to properly see our relationship to the remainder of creation. The innate intelligence that is born into every one of us creates a messianic relationship over our habitat. We were designed to have dominion over the earth. Failure to comprehend our position in the creation results in a distortion of our relationship to other living things and often fastens an inflated importance to animals and their treatment.

We are to have dominion over animals. They are a food source. We consume tons of domesticated chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, geese, and turkeys, supplementing that with thousands of wild deer, ducks, rabbits, and pheasants. Some of these animals are raised in assembly line type operations were they are born fed, grow and are killed without ever touching the ground. Michael Vick’s slaughter of 8 dogs pales in comparison to the distortion of the entire life spans of millions of domestic animals destined for our tables. The industrial revolution distanced us from the earth and created a demand for mass production that tends to devalue life.

Humanists are unable to adjust to the reality that man was created in the image of God. Man’s relationship to his environment is a reflection of God’s relationship to the world. I love my son’s new puppy but I also have dominion over him. Dominion involves life and death. Laws against killing animals conflict with the procedures involved in supplying meat for our diet and vie with the stature of men in the world.

The distortion that has elevated animals to a quasi-human legal status has been evident is the arrest and subsequent vilification of Michael Vick. The game of football is sufficiently brutal that if animals were involved many “animal lovers” would support laws against the sport. It is not hard to understand that after absorbing brutal weekly punished by 300 pound linemen Vick might not be repulsed by dog fighting.

Please understand I am not condoning needless cruelty to animals nor am I supporting dog fighting. This essay is about law and the position God has created man to fulfill in the world.

People are cruel and as our society deteriorates cruelty grows. Cage fighting is a step down from boxing. Football players continually get bigger, faster, and more vicious. Basketball players are giants that push, bump, and elbow each other. Executions always draw a cheering contingent. When the despondent person stands on the edge of the roof of the tall building threatening to jump there is always someone who urges him on. Occasionally a Christian person forgives the perpetrator of a crime but in most cases the victims and their families want their pound and a half of flesh. Falling into the jurisdiction of the court system is like being led to the Roman Arena where the audience often pointed theirs thumbs down indicting they wished the loser to be slain.

For proof of the mean spirit born in us watch a group of young children at play. A dominate child will steal another child’s toy and ignore the anguished cries. Cruelty is born in human flesh. Even at a very young age children want their will to prevail. Their loudest cries are in response to being thwarted in their attempt to dominate.

Michael Vick has served several months in jail lost his job and his money and without a defender is still being vilified and condemned in the media. Many think he may not have properly repented and begrudge his return to work with the Philadelphia Eagles. Americans have Vick down and he will need a star performance to be allowed up.

The Fourth Estate work for a handful of powerful homogenous individuals whose eccentricities filter down through the ranks and result in a unanimity of opinion that is carefully maintained by the serfs Bonnie Erbe, who writes for Scripps Howard, has recorded the statistics of a Marist poll: 57 percent of football fans believe Vick’s return to the NFL is proper while 36 percent disagree. “Young fans and men are more likely to be in favor of the ruling compared with older men and women.” Only 36 percent of women agree with the decision. “I am not a believer in redemption, writes Erbe, “very sick minds rarely heal, and they remain menaces to society.” Might it be Erbe and her fellow humanists whose minds are sick? Read the article here.

The confession Vick is announcing reminds me of the show trials Joseph Stalin carried out in Russia during the 1930s. Vick has not endured the physical torture used to illicit confessions from Russian dissidents, his torture has been at the hands of law enforcement (dog fighting is common but seldom prosecuted), his employer, the courts, and the media; while he could not retaliate all pilloried him unmercifully.

There is a lesson to be learned from this. King David opted to fall under the judgment of God rather than of men. “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.” (I Chronicles 21:13)

Mercy is an attribute of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is not an attribute of sinful men and women.

The press and media have great power over public opinion. They made Barak Obama president and tried to make Michael Vick an outcast..

The pragmatic idea that the end justifies the means is widely accepted by both Christians and pagans. The word “pragmatic” is used as a laudatory adjective in describing secular (occasionally Christian) individuals. But do we really want to live in a pragmatic society? Do we want the vigilante justice of the press and media to control guilty or innocence. Should O. J. Simpson be thrown in jail by a kangaroo court because many of us think he is guilty of a crime from which our courts found him innocent? What happens to the law when this occurs?

We have feminized our society by denouncing the reality that women were created as help mates to their husbands and men were created to govern; first in the homes and second in the social order. When women govern, silly positions like Erbe’s result, “He may have served jail time, but Vick not ready to take the field”. (How did Erbe determine that?)

The incongruity involved in the treatment of Michael Vick would be cause for laughter if it were not so tragic. Last night Vick took the field as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback for six plays in an exhibition game with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He completed all of his 4 passes for 19 yards and ran for one yard. The crowd gave him a rousing reception and when Donovan McNabb replaced him they chanted, “We want Vick”. The Associated Press article read, “It was Vick who captured fans attention – whether he was on the field or on the sideline or sitting on the bench.” The fans seemed to be excited about Michael Vick; there was no mention of negative response. Nevertheless, the reporter felt it necessary to include this sentence in his article, “With Vick the Eagles scored 3 points. Without him they moved the ball far more efficiently”. Secular male reporters are not much better than their distaff counterparts. Read the article here.

When men live without the restraint of God’s Law a gross distortion of reality is a result. Justice cannot be found and the innate cruelty of men rises to the fore. If he plays well Vick may experience some redemption; if he does not, the press will see that he remains in a prone position.