protestant nationalism

I don’t often post about the Orange Order because it is a topic I get very angry about very quickly. However, reading a recent BBC news article has really annoyed me. It highlights a major issue with the Orange Order’s raison d’être. Reverend Stephen Dickinson is quoted in the article as saying, “This [referring to Orange Order demonstrations/marching] is about Protestantism, this is about Britishness.”

Why, oh why, do they so link Protestantism with Britishness?! One is not related to the other in any way. Furthermore it is very dangerous for the church to be (apparently) of a certain political persuasion. This idea is regrettably perpetuated in the media, which refer to Protestants generally as the unionist/loyalist community and Roman Catholics generally as the nationalist/republican community.

What a load of crap! I am a Protestant, yes, but I am not so ignorant or simple-minded as to have my politcal views entrenched in this archaic tribalism. Does the Orange Order believe Protestant Nationalism to be an oxymoron or (dare I suggest it?) even heresy?!

the fear of unconditional election

You know what scares me even more than the way the world is going? The thought that I am not part of the elect.

The general doctrine of Predestination is something that I have never really got to grips with in the past. Only now am I beginning to grasp what it’s on about – in particular, Calvin’s application of this doctrine in one of his Five Points (Unconditional Election).

The Westminster Confession (1646, Chap. X, p. 1-4.) puts it thus:

All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ … This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from any thing at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein … Others, not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, … yet they never truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved …

It’s that last sentence that hits home with me: “although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, … yet they never truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved…” If I am not in the elect, I never will be; there is nothing I can do to earn, get or buy salvation. How do I know I am part of the elect and not merely “called by the ministry of the Word”? Is it wrong to doubt one’s salvation?

Love is Bittersweet

‘Tis better to have loved and lost

than never to have loved at all.

There is, I believe, a little bit of doubt as to the author of the above maxim; some attribute the adage to Saint Augustine, others point to Alfred Lord Tennyson (English poet, 1809-1892) In Memoriam, 1850, line 27, stanza 4. Regardless of who it was that wrote it, I don’t believe they had the slightest idea what they were talking about.

Never to have loved is by far the better position. Obviously to be in a loving relationship with a partner who loves you in return is the ideal position – that is a given – but when faced with the choice between love lost or no love, I would side with never having loved as the better.

I can’t argue a case for my choice except that I know what love lost means… I know what love lost feels like. I have in the past loved someone who was in love with me but who then fell out of love with me. It hurts. Love, if it is real love, is all about compromise, honesty, openness, sharing, trust. And in each and all of those there is risk. (If there is no risk in the relationship, there is no love.) To try and mitigate the risk would be to stifle and suffocate the love.

When two people are in love with one another it is amazing. Your thoughts are captivated by the other person. Your heart beats faster when you’re around them. You worry about them, are concerned for them, want the best for them, would probably do just about anything for them. You hurt when they hurt. You are happiest when they are happy. Each kiss, though in time lasts but a moment, on the lips lasts forever. Each gaze into one another’s eyes, though in time is fleeting, in the soul an age passes.

But, when the relationship goes pear-shaped and love is lost. It is agonising.

Though, that’s not the only type of love. One need not be in a relationship to love someone else. By far the most cruel relationship I have been in and that perhaps man can conceive is that of unrequited love – that is, love that is not returned in kind. Where one loves another, but the other either has no idea or loves not in return. I have been in both those situations, too. It hurts more than I can adequately articulate. It’s like being desperate for a glass of water in the desert, but not because it’s so much more. It’s like crying out when your blind and lost and cold with no one answering, but not because it’s so much more. To be honest, it’s like nothing else… unrequited love is pure hell.

To have loved and lost that love sucks. To experience unrequited love is hell.

How must Jesus have felt when He displayed His love for us on the cross? Well, He experienced hell… literally [Apostle's Creed].