A person is the temple of God. Inasmuch one neglects his or herself or others they abandon God.
When born, a person has native tendency and capacities, referred to in developmental psychology as core knowledge (Spelke & Kinnzler, 2007). These are innate structures that guide learning in specific areas. This is a natural consequence of our nature as biological organisms. The structure within a toddler that scaffolds his or her learning about the characteristics of objects is the biopsychological extension of the process of ontogenetic and mechanistic structuromolecular transcription of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
A principle may be established then: structure precedes function. There is structure, then there is action. There is God–then there is creation. There are quantum fields–then there are emergent properties. There is God–then there is us. The corresponding effect is only conceivable within its cause. Structures make possible functions.
I believe there is a will, or an endogenous faculty of the human being that desires this or that, that wants to do this or that. I propose, further, that developing this and placing it within the proper bounds of God and love for oneself and the other is a critical part of human developmental psychology. It shows much about today that this is debatable. The natural will is part of what makes being an independent human being possible. But, unfortunately, rather than cultivating, teaching and nourishing this part of who we are, it is daily uprooted and replaced by and with exogenous commands, advertising and social pressures. The child wakes up in the morning and is forced to mandatory public school. The adult has an idea, his phone rings, and he forgets about his initiative. The person has a natural sufficiency and it is questioned and targeted by advertising. The opportunity for the individual and their will, dreams and desires to be affected, manipulated and substituted by the commands and manipulation of others is at an all-time high through compulsive social processes and the continual submerging within a media landscape built on capitalizing on the attention and desires of its targets: i.e., you and me.
Television stations looking for ratings, advertising agencies trying to sell products and services, social media companies coding for maximum interaction: the matrix of much of our economy today, since the onset of commercialism in the early 20th century, has sought to turn the citizen into a consumer, needy for products and corporations. To the degree that this social project has been successful, the project of modernity, internal and external liberation from slavery, i.e., the autonomy of the individual, has been stifled or forced to find its sovereignty within a spiritual, psychological and social order that legitimizes the use of internal and external methods of force to gain power.
Jesus’ decision to travel penniless and powerless, yet walk in the power to heal the sick, perform miracles and cast out demons, represents his station in the next world: the kingdom of heaven.
The ideal personal state is composed of freedom from all unnecessary external and internal compulsions. So, one will work to eat, or provide for themselves and their family, and not be forced into labor that exorbitantly enriches their employer to the employee’s detriment. The ideal person engages with others as temples of God, thus not seeking to coerce or rob the person from what is theirs, that is, God’s. The ideal state supports the flourishing of every individual and promotes relationships of co-operation and self-sufficiency, not collective organizations of self-serving power (public or private). It does not create or sponsor relationships of redundant, inefficient competition and learned helplessness.
I begin at this place of independent autonomy as the bedrock of life, leading to fair and co-operative relationships. One’s life in an ethical order, a moral order, in the kingdom of heaven, seeks this reality here and now and comes to realize that it is already present and waiting to be revealed for those willing to see it.
We are temples of God, called to listen and follow Him, to worship Him and meet Him in each other. Our activity, if not engaged in this fundamental activity, this work and rest, does not bring the peace and victory on earth sought by the sons and daughters of God.
In a great way, unfortunately, this calling has cast a shadow over us. We are called to live in faith, but as a carnal being, I am afraid of this calling. I am called to commune with others in the body of Christ, but I must persist in the continual rejuvenation of the Holy Spirit and not my own subsistence. We are invited into heaven, but are terrified of our imperfections.
Nevertheless, God so loved the world that He died for us so we might enter into our inheritance as His brothers and sons. I press on to show the world the glory of God.
The spiritual, social and psychological forms today, the marketing, the gossip, the drama-seeking, the attention-manipulating, the lying–all of it, then, is just temple robbing: robbing God of who He is, of what is His. In many ways, they try to sell back to you your lost agency, what they had taken through special effects, editing, manipulation, i.e., witchcraft. The best decision, then, is to crucify the world, just as Jesus was crucified. The decision for heaven is to live for the kingdom of heaven, now.
I invite each of you to stack up your riches in heaven, where thieves do not break in and steal and where moths do not corrupt or destroy.
Spelke, E. & Kennzler, K. (2007). Core knowledge. Developmental Science, 1 (10), 89-96. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00569.x
Veracity as Virtue 