“13 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. 18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. 19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.” (Heb 13:1–19 ESV)

Litmus tests and flashy truth claims abound. Some innately devilish Genius asks not for a plain vote of yea or nay, but with exasperated laughter to cubbyhole and slander. But indeed Gossip in the ear… whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We are forged in the furnace of Affliction. Because the Enemy tries and chart a Course of suggestibility, hypnotic Intrigues around matters we are largely healthy and kosher about. It’s as if suddenly we were victim of our own wildly departing and erroneous Thinking, all because it was whispered in our ear: criminal. 

The Christian’s Witness, therefore, parts ways with the gestalt called Idolatry, this being the gestalt that “sues” all decent and polite society with blame games and illicit, trance-like, verboten but nonetheless of a sudden spoken about, memes. “Blame her! She is the guilty party!” “Blame him! He is the guilty party!” Yet scandal and perverting the Innocent Ones with New Ideas, unbiblical Ideas, unkosher Ideas… this is a Crime, even if guffah guffah we are Frustrated and Cynical about him, about her. About the man or woman of the hour. We have to take responsibility for our own Actions. We are the Responsible ones, when a strangely Calm half-mind, mind ruined by hurrah hurrah thinking, does laughingly Present the broader community with Off-Topic and Forbidden malignant Thinking.

We are trying our best, as Soldiers of Christ’s Crown, to think just a bit in the intended direction of Life-Affirming life choices. Not a life-long self-chosen Campaign to ruin someone else, but something Life Affirming. Rumors, too: life affirming. Indeed Any rumor… this is the opposite of Life. The prospectus Sublime, and the Factual Boots on the Ground: good men, good women, have in each their own extent, capacity, Faith in the system on some level Working. A Supreme Judge who holds society together via, shall we talk social class, via the Peoples put into Place.

Any logician will point out the heave and the ho of it all, that somehow to Vote positively for this Next societal Step, leaves open the flanks and the rear: suddenly the mechanisms seem not to be in place to Divert a cowardly offensive malignant tumor of ideas. Ideas that Harm and Ill-educate. Ideas that say, “You made me do it! You’re the scheming, perverse one!”

Schemes and wayward ideas, these are far and above just the banal and the lusciously sexualized. These are Malignant Tumors of what Drives a Man or a Woman: someone susceptible just to the Power of a Rumor, even if it doesn’t “on paper” tell a plausible, repeatable, characteristic-of-society story. “Oh, so this pastor fell into sin”. Well, good. We caught them. But is that the right, life affirming message? A person respected in the community… let us measure our response and counterbalance it with Positive Vibes.

Let us, that is, realize our cognisant-person’s War is quite True and Present and Unimaginary. And it begins, let’s face it, with the gall and offense of Strange childlike-if-not-purely-evil Ideas. We literally go mad in wartime, nearly, because our men, our women, are dying on the frontlines for Nothing, for helter-skelter self-immolating Social Evil, not the work of a devious spy seeding heresies but of a home-grown Plunderous and Fracking and Manipulative present Evil. And too, the Potential, for Coming Together, for “All is forgiven”, for Plain-As-Day transparent Intent… no longer to “Sue the Father” but to Accept a revelation Sublime: God wishing of course for every poor kid to get into a good school, but this not being His capacity or immediately first Foray: too much Militant Strength to Hold Together. So Stop with the endless lawsuit: “You’re all-powerful, so answer my questions!” and Begin with the Life Affirming life choices.

It is every soldier’s duty therefore sadly to Observe how, not quite an education in the class-based sense, but a Life Experience, behooves them to state: “we are more acquainted with suffering, perhaps”. Perhaps. We are not the obnoxious church-goers who are easily Aped and made Jealous… of nothing. We also do not even pat ourselves on the back: we are innocent of our own Qualifications and Rights: I am still a sinner, we say. But boy is it scatter-brained and tumor-like to see that those minus Forging in the Furnace… of Affliction, of Failures, of Losses and Infidelities… that these have a Sane and Coherent Theology. Of service. Of duty. Of Front-Line life-affirming Decisiveness, decisions made on behalf of an entire population “back home”. Because we can. Because we are positioned. Because maybe only we are the survivor and the one Capable of mending, making right, healing, avenging, forgiving, Establishing Principled Stand.