“27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” 33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. 35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. 36 For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, 40 and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.” (Acts 5:27-42 ESV)

The lure of aggression, the intrigue of dominance: Patience has her hour, when the educated one meets the one studied in War. Better studies have taught: to do Christianity by way of willingness, of designed and fought-over, research and life-affirming Tasks, is to gangland soldier-like Purpose shared and benign. We are benign around our day’s concerns and tasks, precisely because we are Aggression, War, Cruciform, around sin and around its faux claims.

See the division right down the middle, that what this hour calls for… some see bright lights in the gangland domination game, whereas others invest in things more subtle. Some actually prophesy, that today’s Dominator is the ticket to ride, the vehicle to sell, the sails to trim.

Plain competitive spirit, therefore, reassures that it is no sign of Weakness to do the hard route, to take up the Study, to mimic the stars. Rather, shoulders to shoulders, we envision a soup-to-nuts Democracy, unpanicky, un-shrill, sounding no alarm but for the Alarm to Work. And they say, “tell us… what are you doing right now? Lazing about, right?” Strange that the whiz-bang “fancy” man or woman on campus… in the broader world, is no longer par excellence the only Gamer or Player, but literally pales and falls shadowlike beneath Behemoths myriad. So to cease to Fuss, to cease to have mock Horror. To begin… the fact we ever met… this is a beautiful occasion to Do Business in concert, in league not with sin but with people who by having met we can attest to, to them not having an extra organ or some other strange bodily division into parallel evolutions unrecorded, unspoken of, weird Differences.

If we’ve met someone, chances are good that we can bury the competitiveness and do business together, peaceable business. More, chances are good that Together, dreaming in concert, you can See further and Embrace wider. We innately, naturally, do Like to stick up for one another. We are intrigued by the chance to Design patience around each other as to curricula or modes of thought. The soldier in her trenches, in his trenches, values the Liberal Game, the shelter for everything from Academic excellence to Capitalist excellence to Artistic excellence. Do you have any artist friends? And therein see the little people, their personal happenschance friends, who are inspiration and anonymous focal point of their art? 

The Christian is in the game of stooping, not condescending, but being Quality and Influence, Copacetic Peace, to calm and enliven, to build up and to peaceably Make Over, the wide playing field of Life Experience. By our nature we compete; by our nature we grandstand or march haywire over more sensitive Realities. The soldier, again, is strangely an artist and a poet. The soldier Labors under Authority too high and lifted up quite to share with the ones who persecute and demand answers.

As would-be sons and daughters, our Mission is to Study peace and to Study the wild ways we have peaceable dealings with people we know. More, it is to put aside the ennui or other man’s Depressive spirit as No Longer Fit for public consumption. That isn’t us. We are strangely buoyed by Laughter and Joy. We are, though indeed taking claims seriously, willing to accept camaraderie and differences of background. The unknowledgeable one, though possessing great authority, is encouraged to Trust and Invest, to Establish and Monitor, her or his agents of the gentler things, art and poetry, music and education. These things… they horrify the would-be movie-land (for example) imitator, who sees it all through a vale of violence and Hierarchical Authority. Real life has an authority, though, that is greater, an authority not always spelt out as if we were minions just needed a nudge. Rather, we are to ebb and flow and do our own “Thing”, in sensitivity and compassion with one another, even with those who do Lead us and Move for us. God lets out a little slack in our leash, to try us and to see what we come up with. He cannot simply answer our plea for instantaneous Judgment: wait and see, O would-be wheat! Wait and see, O former tare! We are working on a Tomorrow, that calls each of us to the front lines. And in soldiering style, we keep Healthy and contribute our two cents to the gathered. Our hope being to keep a modicum of Sanity around here, to keep us loving to serve, to keep us communicado with the loved ones back home, to Win the battle of attrition fought around things more important than naked Aggression or hierarchical, deadening schemes.