It is hard to generalize about a whole nation as large and complex as our own, but it might not be far wrong to say that the characteristic flesh of America is compounded of covetousness, gluttony, egocentric libertarianism and pride, all of which have been selectively bred into our culture because of the types of sinful people we have attracted and the behavior which our political and economic system has stressed and rewarded. It is true that all of these vices are simply distortions of virtues which are part of the American ideal (ambition, enterprise, freedom, self-respect). But our immediate tendency to defend ourselves when accused of these defects is usually a sign of that unconscious subjection to universal sin which corporate flesh involves. The Christian cultures of other nations, especially those of third-world Evangelical churches, can easily detect the fact that most American Christians have their lives organized around the kingdom of business success and not the kingdom of God.
The end of an era
The first truth about human being is that we are not autonomous but evoked: to be a human person is to be called out of nothingness into dialogical fellowship with God and others. Our general vocation as human beings is to respond to the divine summons to be the creature the Creator intended for us to be…. Personal identity is less a matter of some underlying substance than it is of the characteristic style of one’s relationship with others, the style of our answerability to the calls of others and especially to the call of God.
A hypocrite…is one who fails to achieve identity, a “pretender” who avoids the project—the privilege and responsibility—of achieving integral selfhood. Hypocrisy is wrong not simply because it deceives others, then, but also because it injures oneself.
Leviticus 13:45-46:
The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, “Unclean, unclean.” He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
Finally watched (yes, for the first time) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Loved it! Though I cringed at how much of myself I saw in George when he lashes out at his family. Luckily that’s not the final note struck.
