Rendering Unto Caesar: Separating the Wheat from the Chaff‏‏

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

In the few the fragments of the Jesus legend that were spared from the flames of orthodox censorship we can read of a metaphor of preparing grains of wheat for use as food. The metaphor can be applied a variety of ways depending on the intention of the individual applying it. The orthodox censors may have considered all aspects of the Jesus legend that challenged their own authority to be chaff for the literary funeral pyre. Only the few poorly transcribed texts that guaranteed orthodox sovereignty qualified as wheat for the minds of future generations. Likewise orthodox authorities may have seen heretics as chaff to be burned in vain over bonfires while orthodox virgins were upheld as exemplary wheat for generations of benighted people to come.

The leitmotiv of fiery martyrdom has been brought forward again with a call from a defender of Constantine Caesar. Peter Leithart hopes that Christians will face the fire of trial in the courts to oppose the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down DOMA. Liethart is a big advocate of martyrdom given its effectiveness in promoting the cause of the early Church in the hearts and minds of Pagans of the time. The zealotry of early Christians to stand up against brutal persecutions struck non-Christians as awesome. It even led to a number of conversions. Leithart likes to think of Christians today as the same as those who willingly faced the lion's den.

In his own historic winnowing process Liethart downplays the way that the orthodox adopted the tactics of Pagan persecutors when they established a state sanctioned religion with little resemblance to the one that existed before the fourth century. By treating heretical leaders as chaff for the flames of state sanctioned religious terror the orthodox imitated the same kind of persecution that put them in power. Leithart sees the need for martyrdom on the part of Dominionists in an attempt to wrest control of the state back from heathen forces of secularism, but he fails to see the martyrdom of homosexuals who died at the hands of Christian persecutors. He also fails to see the martyrdom of teens homosexuals who commit suicide because of vicious bullying on the part of the pious.

In his book on his hero Constantine Caesar Leithart holds the man's hand up for curtailing animal sacrifice in Roman civil practice. He characterizes Pagan persecution against early Christians as a form of human sacrifice but fails to do the same for orthodox persecution against heresy. I got the distinct impression that he would have no problem making symbolic cannibalistic ritual a requirement for civil service as it was during the dominion of the medieval Church. Liethart professes to eschew sacrifice while espousing his own favorite form of sacrifice. Leithart gives us a great deal of food for thought. If his kids ever expressed such thoughts, they would receive a whipping at his hands.

What do you consider to be wheat for nourishment and chaff for the fire?

Links: Peter Leithart's call to enter the oven of martyrdom. Video on the defense of Constantine. Leithart's book defending a particular Caesar and his use of corporal punishment on his own kids.

Comments

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Who is that bearded gray scale ghost? He looks like he popped in from the nineteenth century.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

It's Garfield

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Okay, but who is the ghost behind whom Garfield is hiding?

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

that's Garfield

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

As in the president?

[dwer.livejournal.com]

LOL...

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha. *spits coffee out*

I've never seen that before. ToOo funny.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised it hasn't been tried more often, and alas I can't take credit for it

Sophia's confusion though, makes it priceless

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

That was not confusion on my part. That was sleight of hand on your part.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Alas all I did was plant an apple of discord

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

That sounds an awful lot like a Shakespearean allusion.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Greek mythology actually.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare was known to tap into the classics.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

God has his winnowing fork in his hand, and he’s ready to use it.

Requires facts not in evidence.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Not to Dominionists, it doesn't.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

And the inability to articulate any kind of rational argument dooms people and movements like this to the wayside of human activity. I have met a few people like this in my life and they're fearful and closed off. For them, life is full of peril and judgment.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I think of it as a cesspool of primitive precepts.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I like to think that progress happens despite ourselves.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Staying out of the path of the juggernaut of progress can be a life-affirming practice.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I was referring to the social development aspect of progress, becoming gradually less tribalistic and fearful of "otherness".

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I suppose tribalistic xenophobia could be addictive, especially when it runs in the family.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

I like Wheaties.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing.

[flaming-goat.livejournal.com]

Burn everything, not just the chaff.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

bring marshmallows

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

There is nothing more Roman than a scorched earth policy. "Kill them all, the material Creator of the flat and immobile Earth will know his own."

[flaming-goat.livejournal.com]