From Consumer to slave

3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil;

4 but in the end she is bitter as gall,
sharp as a double-edged sword.

5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave. [a]

6 She gives no thought to the way of life;
her paths are crooked, but she knows it not.

7 Now then, my sons, listen to me;
do not turn aside from what I say.

8 Keep to a path far from her,
do not go near the door of her house,

9 lest you give your best strength to others
and your years to one who is cruel,

10 lest strangers feast on your wealth
and your toil enrich another man's house. Prov. 5: 3-10

In this post, I will focus on lines 6 - 10 of Proverbs 5.

I don't normally comment on current events per se, but I am deeply disturbed at how our "economic crisis" is being morphed into emotional blackmail intended to push forward morally questionable spending that has nothing to do with the economy. I speak here of the inclusion of a quarter of a billion dollars for contraception, among other "social need" spending in the "stimulus" bill. The inclusion of what the Democrats have acknowledged "may be perceived by Republicans as pork". Republicans? I would argue that any of us in our right minds would view these items as "pork" which I will define here as spending that does not directly accomplish the stated goal of any given bill. Unless we have also redefined "economic".

Vice-President Biden was today saying about the "crisis" that "It is worse, quite frankly, than everyone thought it was, and it is getting worse every day". Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that we are losing 50,000 jobs every month (an eight of the total population of 400 million which includes non working children, the elderly, and those in other unpaid work) this number should be greeted with skepticism. Pres. Obama keeps claiming he will save and ever increasing number of jobs.

There is a very deep problem with our political discourse in which the prolific use of fear mongering is seen as necessary to get "buy-in" and commit our country to an unbelievable level of spending will garuantee that American citizens will be indentured for the near forseeable future. But this is only the most visible and obvious path we take to slavery. The more powerful and irreversible way is hidden in such a way that we do not even know we walk on the "crooked path".

We have moved so far down the road to slavery that selling human life itself (ESCR, organ donation, fetal remains, etc) is no longer considered taboo. It is in fact now accorded legal protection and patents. What started with acceptance of pornography and prostitution (who are we to impose our values?) has become an ever growing monster. We have become so insensitive to the murder of the unborn under the banner of "reproductive rights" that we are now desensitized to the pain of our children caused by other parental "freedoms" like divorce, adultery, and all consuming careers.

We now openly talk about "life worth living". And the need to "end compassionately" those lives which are seen as unproductive or difficult. After all, "who would want to live like that?" And in so saying, we devalue those who DO "live like that". Their lives, their value is less than ours.

We are so consumed with ourselves that we are ever less sensitive to the other. Oh we may decry the death of middle east children in war, but we care nothing for the suffering of untold women in the developing world sterilized or forced to have abortions against their will. Their pain funded by USAID and, ultimately, us. Perhaps the woman in China who killed her own son after suffering two forced abortions deserves more of our pity.

And we don't even know it. We give no thought to what we owe God. We give no thought to prudence. We give vague lip service to Charity, but are way too interested in moderation when it comes to action.

So we find ourselves defending the indefensible and spend our "best strength" on issues of secondary importance. We serve those who promise us safety. Who promise us admiration of others. Who tell us what we want to hear. How inconvenient then that God promises us just the opposite. We are to serve Him though it cost us our lives, our prestige, our comfort. What good will it do us if we save the whole world and lose our own soul? Not much.

Do we want to give our radically pro culture of death President our best strength. Do we really want to promise our wealth to those who would use it to kill the innocent and persecute the Church? Do we really want to empower any political party over God?