Fast Fridays: 30 Minutes for God: Difference between revisions
Fast Fridays: 30 Minutes for God (view source)
Revision as of 17:08, 26 September 2024
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== Friday, Sept 27: | == Friday, Sept 27: "Religion is the opium of the people" (or nothing new under the sun?) == | ||
Marx was an idiot. | Marx was an idiot. | ||
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Engels and Marx correctly worried, as did Dickens, who also profited form it, the conditions of the working class in industrial England. Dickens, though, sold his books to the growing middle class (growing from those rising in income, not the other way around) who turned the industrial revolution into cottages, professions, education, and improved living conditions. The short of it is such: Marx, Engels and their later followers all thought -- hoped -- the communist revolution would occur in industrialized Britain or France, which of course, would have none of it, as factory workers were making money and the rising middle class (the dreaded "bourgeoisie") was having a time of it all. Those revolutions did occur, but only in nations that, instead, lacked a vibrant, healthy middle class -- Russia, China, etc. | Engels and Marx correctly worried, as did Dickens, who also profited form it, the conditions of the working class in industrial England. Dickens, though, sold his books to the growing middle class (growing from those rising in income, not the other way around) who turned the industrial revolution into cottages, professions, education, and improved living conditions. The short of it is such: Marx, Engels and their later followers all thought -- hoped -- the communist revolution would occur in industrialized Britain or France, which of course, would have none of it, as factory workers were making money and the rising middle class (the dreaded "bourgeoisie") was having a time of it all. Those revolutions did occur, but only in nations that, instead, lacked a vibrant, healthy middle class -- Russia, China, etc. | ||
The impatient and frustrated seek to blame obstacles for impeding their will. Marx blamed the bourgeoisie for externally obstructing the great proletariat uprising and religion for sedating proletariat anger, thus his infamous "opium of the masses" rant, which went as follows: | |||
<div class="quote"> ''Religious'' suffering is, at one and the same time, the ''expression'' of real suffering and a ''protest'' against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the ''opium'' of the people.<br> The abolition of religion as the ''illusory'' happiness of the people is the demand for their ''real'' happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to ''give up a condition that requires illusions''. The criticism of religion is, therefore, ''in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears'' of which religion is the ''halo''.</div> | |||
Well, then. ''Marx: 1, God: 0 ?'' | |||
We will discuss how our faith does not intoxicate, but uplifts; does not replace our pain, but refocuses it upon the Cross; does not excuse suffering; and how our faith does not reflect our lives, but instead makes our lives. | |||
== Friday, Sept 20: Typology and Salvation History == | == Friday, Sept 20: Typology and Salvation History == | ||
Carrying on from last week, we will review the concept of "typology" and apply it more directly to the "History of Salvation" -- aka ''God's plan for salvation.'' | Carrying on from last week, we will review the concept of "typology" and apply it more directly to the "History of Salvation" -- aka ''God's plan for salvation.'' | ||