He loved him some horses though.
Our group produced two questions through our extended discussion.
The factual question is as follows:
True or False: Paul believed humans could reach heaven solely through the strength of faith?
The answer is "True"
The discussion question is as follows:
In which ways has/does American society employ this idea that God has established governing authorities? In which way does/has American society deviated from this ideal?
Our first picture is slightly... disturbing...
ReplyDeleteThe most obvious observation for how we've deviated from this idea of governing authorities being established by God is our governmental system. We choose who is the ultimate authority over our society, though it may be through many convenient extensions. How we have applied this idea, on the contrary, can be found in how highly we still value religious theologies in these leaders. God may not have "chosen" them for us, but it is still considered an asset for the leaders to believe in a higher power.
I was very excited to see that we have a picture...of a horse! And I was a little disappointed that Paul has not an opinion of the small, cuddly squirrel critters.
ReplyDeleteTo me, I think this question is rather complicated to answer. I had the understanding that the voyagers from Europe first came to the new land America to establish a new nation that allowed free practice of religion apart from the higher governing rule. In a way, this new formation of a nation and governmental system had deviated away from the ideal that God had established the governing authorities. Even in today's age, many of us see that it is essential to separate church and state and to not allow religion of any kind to become mixed up in our politics. But even though, there are many people who chose their candidates and base their vote solely off of one of their religious beliefs. And as for what began as the colonists, as time went on, they persecuted Jews, Catholics, Mormons, and Natives for their beliefs. They also imposed on other countries sending missionaries believing that these "underdeveloped" countries needed to be educated in religion and were a "white man's burden."
That horse is wearing a sweater. At least, that is what it looks like. I will incorporate fun pictures from now on to the posts.
ReplyDeleteAs to the discussion question, many of the policies enacted by American government, policies which are themselves the result of both outsider and insider claimsmakers, are constructed from a Christian religious view of the law. However, in recent times, I believe that American society is constructing laws and social problems from the idea of a secular state. Whether or not this is for the best is a personal opinion. But, going from what Shannon mentioned, it is still considered an asset for our leaders to believe in a higher power. Why? Well, the obvious social construction is that one must believe in a higher power in order to have morals. How could someone have morals without a higher religious power to ground those morals in? Thus, according once again to that social construction, those without religious beliefs are without morals.
The horse is wearing a vest, Tim, not a sweater.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that democracy encourages the idea that we should obey governing authorities without question. If we did follow this idea, there would be no protests or even free speech. We wouldn't have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. I think even the most devout Christians in America would argue for questioning those in power. Of course despite political views I know many people still respect our President even if they don't agree with him, and some don't even like to question him, but I'm not sure that this is because they believe he was God-sent.
A perfect current example of how Americans don't follow this idea that we should unquestioningly follow powerful figures is the Occupy Wall Street protests. The reason why these people are protesting is because they believe too few are gaining too much power over the rest of us. They believe corporations have become the governing authorities and they seek to take away a lot of that power.