Poignant Thoughts…
Contained in this excellent post by Gus Van Horn commenting on the notion of sacrifice as a virtue. His piece is tangential to an Obama quote from a recent interview by super-thumper Rick Warren:
“Americans’ greatest moral failure in my lifetime has been that we still don’t abide by that basic precept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.”
As Gus noted, B.O. just thinks we’re too selfish. If we want to live up to the world’s expectations all we need to do is toss our selfish priorities aside and follow Barack. He can lead us to the glory of full sacrifice.
I especially like the point Gus made about charity:
I, who non-sacrificially donate money to charity, find it presumptuous [for another] to impute altruism to my actions and a huge leap for him to do so on behalf of millions of others.
Including this observation:
There can be many valid, non-sacrificial reasons to donate to a whole slew of charities. To have a personal, selfish interest in doing so would, I have a hunch, make one more inclined to give generously than if one merely felt an annoying obligation to do so. This is part of why some religions have to demand a ten percent cut of their followers’ incomes: They took self-interest out of the equation long ago.
Indeed, if writing a weekly check (or setting up direct deposit for technically advanced believers) gave one a sense of worthy investment, why stop at 10%?
He then conveys:
America is moral because its political system comes closest to allowing all men the freedom to act on their own best judgement to further their own lives while harming nobody else. In other words, America is moral because she is fundamentally selfish.
Read the whole thing.
