In the Fourth Century we continue to see the doctrine of Christ that teaches us to abandon all violence and war is carried forward as Christian leaders continue to preach against paganism and prove the superiority of Christianity through its embrace of nonviolence. Martin of Tours provides a marvelous example of exactly what a Christian should do if ever he (or she) is forced into military service. Athanasius teaches that the way you can tell the difference between a true Christian and an idolater is how they approach violence and war, accurately pointing out the true source of all ideologies that promote contention and conflict. Likewise, the great Christian orator John Chrysostom draws the dividing line between Christian sheep and the savage wolves of the world. And no less than the Council of Nicaea and the Christian manual The Testament of Our Lord both outline the exact punishments to be levied against Christians who engage in military violence or who willfully join the military. Along the way the Latter-day Saint can find direct relationships between the teachings of these ancient Christians and the modern teachings of our church.
Tag: Dr. Carl Jung
Public Education Conditions Us For War
The purpose of education has been warped. Education used to be about more than educating people in the kind of math and technological skills that make them good cogs in the machinery of the State. It used to be about expanding and liberating the minds and spirits of people by exposing them to the greatest thinkers and ideas that human history has to offer so that they learn the ideas that will make them better people, so that they will be better humans. But since the government has assumed control over the education systems in every nation this purpose has been falling ever more steadily by the wayside. Instead, today people are educated and miseducated into the ideologies, moralities, and values that justify the ever-expanding power of the police state and the unceasing waging of wars abroad. As this article argues, this condition is not some perverse accident caused by state mishandling of education. Rather, educating us into the beliefs and ideas that convince us to remain subservient and obedient to the State is the very point of public education, a cause that finds its ultimate expression in war.
The Origins of The God-State
There are many historical works on the rise of the modern State and the origins of its power. Many of them trace the development of the modern state from the end of the Medieval all the way up through the present day, drawing attention to how particular national and global crises – mostly wars and economic collapses – have resulted in the growth of the power of the centralized state as a solution to these problems.
As with all history, understanding these facts is very important to understanding how we got to where we are today. But in answering how they all too often neglect the why things are the way they are today.
Why is it that people have turned to the State for temporal and material salvation?
Why is it that men and women lavish religious levels of adoration and faith upon the State and its operatives?
Why is it that people have given it so much power?
What about humans and the way we think has convinced us, seemingly en masse, to turn to the State for salvation?
Using the writings of eminent psychologist Dr. Carl Jung, I try here to answer these questions; I answer not how the God-State came to be, but why humans have created the God-State in the first place.
Why The Governments of Men Are the Enemies of God
A few weeks back I wrote an article based on the writings of Dr. Carl Jung and his insights into the way that the very nature of human psychology makes the slide of the State , no matter how minimal or minarchist, into oligarchy and autocracy inevitable. This week I continue to use Dr. Jung’s observations and insights into the human psyche in order to explain why the above described operation of the State sets it at opposition to religion, to explain why religion and the State are always enemies to one another and why the State always seeks to control, corrupt, or eliminate religion. Dr. Jung explores how the State operates as religion in the lives of the people, promising salvation in the material world in exchange for the people surrendering their individuality and liberty to the politicians who run the State. Religion provides the ability of the people to have morality outside of the power of the State to control and therefore provides a challenge to the authority of the State which it cannot allow.