If a parent decided to waylay one of their children, there is a good chance social services and the police would be called. If you get mad at a neighbor or co-worker and you decided to beat the snot out of him, you likely would be hauled off to jail. If you get mad at officials in your local government and you went to their offices to scream all sorts of invectives at them, you would be escorted away by security and, possibly, cited and arrested.
When we common folks abuse others -- for whatever reasons -- there tend to be serious consequences for our actions. Some consequences involve nothing more than public disapproval. Just as frequent, it involves the criminal justice system. Beat up your spouse or your grandma and there is a good chance you'll spend some time in the poky!
But when the abuse comes from on high, there often are few, if any, significant consequences. When no consequences are invoked, it only encourages more abuse with a grand sense of impunity.
As we have slowly worked our way through the Old Testament in the Tao Bible series, we have seen incident after incident in which an angry God abuses his creations, sometimes for the pettiest of reasons. Since God is the supposed apex of the mountain, there is no recourse whatsoever when he is the abuser. Not surprisingly, since he can face no recriminations, he continues to abuse his "chosen people" whenever he damn well feels like it!
This model seems to have been passed down both to Christian and Catholic churches. There are lots of pastors/ministers/priests who seem to take the cue from the Heavenly Father. They abuse their parishioners emotionally, physically and sexually. While some have been caught and run through the criminal justice system, many seem to get away with it time and time again. Instead of facing any sort of sanction, they merely move on to the next church down the road.
Corporate execs seem able to get away with murder, rape, pillage and community destruction, yet few are called to task. Their companies can produce products that foul the air, poison the water, denude the earth or destroy the life savings of millions and yet the only consequence they face for their willful actions is an increase in their compensation package!
And then there are our government leaders. For the past 15 years or so, there has been one feigned threat after another. Terrorists. Recession. Debt Ceiling. Illegal Immigrants. The Gay Agenda. Blah...Blah...Blah. Every few weeks a new specter is brought forth and we're told that if something isn't done quick, the sky will fall.
Threatening economic calamity, terrorist attacks or the next world war day-in and day-out is a form of psychological abuse. One could make the case that it's a form of emotional terrorism. Threaten and frighten people too frequently and you end up with a nation of emotional basket cases willing to accept anything that will make the abuse stop.
When we common folks abuse others -- for whatever reasons -- there tend to be serious consequences for our actions. Some consequences involve nothing more than public disapproval. Just as frequent, it involves the criminal justice system. Beat up your spouse or your grandma and there is a good chance you'll spend some time in the poky!
But when the abuse comes from on high, there often are few, if any, significant consequences. When no consequences are invoked, it only encourages more abuse with a grand sense of impunity.
As we have slowly worked our way through the Old Testament in the Tao Bible series, we have seen incident after incident in which an angry God abuses his creations, sometimes for the pettiest of reasons. Since God is the supposed apex of the mountain, there is no recourse whatsoever when he is the abuser. Not surprisingly, since he can face no recriminations, he continues to abuse his "chosen people" whenever he damn well feels like it!
This model seems to have been passed down both to Christian and Catholic churches. There are lots of pastors/ministers/priests who seem to take the cue from the Heavenly Father. They abuse their parishioners emotionally, physically and sexually. While some have been caught and run through the criminal justice system, many seem to get away with it time and time again. Instead of facing any sort of sanction, they merely move on to the next church down the road.
Corporate execs seem able to get away with murder, rape, pillage and community destruction, yet few are called to task. Their companies can produce products that foul the air, poison the water, denude the earth or destroy the life savings of millions and yet the only consequence they face for their willful actions is an increase in their compensation package!
And then there are our government leaders. For the past 15 years or so, there has been one feigned threat after another. Terrorists. Recession. Debt Ceiling. Illegal Immigrants. The Gay Agenda. Blah...Blah...Blah. Every few weeks a new specter is brought forth and we're told that if something isn't done quick, the sky will fall.
Threatening economic calamity, terrorist attacks or the next world war day-in and day-out is a form of psychological abuse. One could make the case that it's a form of emotional terrorism. Threaten and frighten people too frequently and you end up with a nation of emotional basket cases willing to accept anything that will make the abuse stop.
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