When I went to Ravi's sight today, I wasn't expecting a history lesson- but that's sort of what I got. Os Guiness wrote this post- entitled "The Golden Triangle of Freedom". Since I don't want this to just be a summary of the original, I'm gonna expand on some things that came to mind while reading. Feel free to comment :) (And by the way, here's the link... http://www.rzim.org/just-thinking/the-golden-triangle-of-freedom/)
When you see words like Freedom...Faith...Hope...Love...Virtue... What comes to mind? Maybe it's people in your life that have emulated these values, or incidents in which these words came alive. Maybe a time comes to mind when these were absent, or scarce. Just sitting here, letting those words roll around in my head- I see our country. I don't take credit for this connection though- Guiness brought the subject up. His article focuses on George Washington- and the pillars of character that he embodied.
War is a nasty thing. It's harsh and ugly. It's cruel and sad. For some, it brings out the worst. For others, such as Washington, it brought out the best. I love the quote Guiness included in this article-
Abraham Lincoln wrote later, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man, give him power.”
Washington was certainly given power. Something that most people aren't aware of- he was offered the Crown several times, and refused. That's right, we could have been our own Monarchy. The decision of one man, a really long time ago, changed that. The whole Golden triangle thing goes like this- When you have faith, you also gain virtue, and your actions defend freedom. It goes the other way too. Freedom requires virtue to function properly, and it's hard to have any sort of virtue without faith. I'm not 100% sure on Washington's faith, but he obviously had virtue, and knew what it would take to defend freedom.
It's humbling to think about. I've never been in a situation like that (I don't think any of us have), but to think that a little virtue on the part of this one guy changed the entire course of history... woah. It makes me think... are we really so different from George? We make power into this huge thing reserved for kings, politicians, and celebrities, but in reality- I think you and I have a lot of power. And you know what else? I think we abuse it.
Before you protest, or tune out, let me elaborate. There are different kinds of abuse. When it comes to power, you can use it for a negative, or you can not use it for a positive. You follow? George had faith. And therefore virtue. His actions reflected that. He chose to not use his power for something negative (and in doing so, resulted in a positive). But what about you and me? What about the God given abilities and yes, even power, that we've been blessed with? What happens when we choose to not use those for a positive, what ever it may be? It's sort of scary to think about. If George's one action steered America away from a Monarchy, don't you think that the dozens of decisions we make (or don't make) every day, have some sort of lasting impact?
We may not be a president. Or king. Or celebrity. But I grantee you this- we all have power. We have the power to do right, and fight for freedom. But we also have the power to do wrong. Decisions may seem little- but they can have lasting impacts. So what now? How do we work on our use of power? I think it goes back to that Golden Triangle. As we work on our Faith with Christ, we gain virtue. As we gain virtue, our actions naturally defend freedom. That virtue helps to steer our use of power toward positives. And what's more? When it comes to Christ, those actions can have eternal impacts.
I challenge you. Heck, I'm challenging myself- take a look at your power. How are you fighting for freedom and virtue and faith today?
Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more Ravi Posts :)
Faith and virtue can go together. But I don't think that one causes another. If one has virtue, it does not mean they have faith (you pointed that out). If one has faith it does not mean they have virtue. We know that one by personal experience.
ReplyDeleteFaith is a belief, virtue is an action. Our beliefs can influence our actions. But we can also have those same actions without belief, and we can have belief without those actions.
You definatly have good points, but I dissagree a bit.
ReplyDeleteI think I didn't clarify well enough, I meant Faith in Christ. Not just faith in anything. If that was the case, then you'd be totally right, but I do think that strong faith in Christ causes virtue. It may not be instantaneous, or super strong, but in knowing Christ, his charachter becomes ours (and therefore virtue...?) I suppose that you could have a virtuous person who didn't believe in Christ, but I think that true virtue is a result of faith.
Also, I think that your definition could be flipped. Faith could be an action, (an act of faith, or to have faith), and likewise virtue could be a beleif, or a charachter thing, rather than just an action. That's sort of going into semantics of a definition, but I don't think those words are limited to just action or just belief.
As far as the belief without action and vis versa... I would say that there may be exceptions to the rule, but more often than not, a belief drives an action. The extent could change, or how it gets expressed... but if we don't have reasoning for an action (whether concious or unconcious)- what would cause it? Spontaneousness? It's interesting to ponder.
"But if we don't have reasoning for an action - what would cause it?".
ReplyDeleteGood question.
I'm thinking about birds now. They fly to be able to escape predators, they fly to be able to see food. But the birds, as far as we know, don't reason through these things. There are reasons behind what they do, but at the birds level, it is mostly instinct.
I think the same kind of conditioning might be in us as humans. There are many things that we do that we don't have reasons for. This doesn't mean that reasons don't exist - but we certainly do not have them on the forefront of our mind.
There are many people who are kind and compassionate to the poor. This is a good thing. Some of these people have a religious reason for being compassionate. Some people just feel it is the right thing to do, but don't really think about why they are doing it - and some might say that it has absolutely nothing to do with religious reasons.
So, perhaps there are reasons for us doing things, acting virtuously, but we may not have it in the forefront of our mind - it might be hidden among all of the conditioning we receive as humans. This would be part of our 'unconsciousness'
And I would hope that a faith in Christ (a legitimate - deep faith) would cause one to lead a virtuous life. But I just know that there are exceptions - people who did indeed have a deep faith who decided to reject it later and not act in a right manner.
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I might step on your toes with this next question, but I do think it should be brought up.
"but I think that true virtue is a result of faith". Do you think that a person who did not know Christ could show true virtue? Would you look at a person who might be working at a homeless shelter or doing something else of that magnitude would only have a copy of this thing called 'true virtue'? They would look like they have true virtue, but its only a facsimile?
I agree with your instict thing- I guess I was just including "beliefs" in the instict category. And I suppose a word that I could add to my explanation that would clarify something- "ongoing"- as in "ongoing faith". If it's a cause and effect thing, as soon as the "faith" part stops growing and being genuine- the virtue sort of dies as well. Again, Not to say that you couldn't be virtuous without faith, but it could be a cause of loss of virtue.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't step on toes, this question is making me think. Which is a good thing. I think that entirely depends on the definition of virtue. Especially when you stick the word "true" on there. If I was to associate the word "true" with Christ- that changes things. Virtue (in the worldly sense, just charachter and good morals) could be shown by anyone. You could definatly have a "virtuous" person who didn't have faith in Christ. But- if you attach the "true" part, you have to go to the origin of virtue: God (Or in this case, to be more specific- Christ). If you take that away, you take away the "true" part. Not "true" as in real, just "true" as in pure, and deep- something that goes back to the origin of Virtue. Does that make any sense? It does in my head... but sometimes when I actually type things they get messy.
I think I left a set of links earlier called logical fallacies. They can be found on Wikipedia. One of the logical fallacies on that list is called "No true Scotsman". It is an interesting one to think about.
ReplyDeleteBasically a Scot is talking about his life back in Scotland. He says that every Scotsman eats haggis. Then his friend tells him that he knows someone in Scotland who doesn't eat haggis. The first man chimes in - Every TRUE Scotsman eats haggis.
It is a fallacy about changing the definition of Scotsman. He starts off by Scotsman meaning those from Scotland. At the end he means those from Scotland who eat haggis. During the middle of his argument, he changes the definition of "Scotsman".
Since we were talking about putting the word "true" in front of virtue, I wanted to bring this up. I just need to make sure I am using good and consistent definitions of the word Virtue.
And when I was thinking about 'true' virtue the other day, I thought of our righteousness being like filthy rags, or of the sin of pride. We are all just human, and we do what humans do, whether good or bad. If we do virtuous things, we do them as humans. If we do evil things, we do them as humans. A person came up to Jesus and said to him "Good teacher". And Jesus said back to him "Why do you call me good? There is no one good but God".
If someone does a virtuous thing, a good thing, it is not because they are necessarily a virtuous person. They are still just a human, with human attitudes and ideas. And even though I may think that I have integrity and virtue in my life - I need to watch out for pride. I shouldn't be thinking of myself as virtuous, as having integrity. I should just do it. If I do start thinking that way, it is called "pride" and just as bad.
So as I thought about the question, I came to this answer:
People who don't know Christ will only show a facsimile of virtue. But even though I know Christ, I still am only able show a facsimile of virtue. The real, true virtue belongs to Christ, and Christ alone. Christ is the light, and we are doing our best to reflect the light. I think it keeps me humbler if I think this way.
I like that. It makes sense.
ReplyDelete