Secular Humanism vs Humanism

Secular Humanism vs Humanism

In the world today there seems to be a struggle between secular humanism and humanism on one side and organic identity and spiritual heritage on the other. So what are they and what do they stand for? And why should we care? After doing a bit of research I found that individualism is basically the idea that people should be self reliant and independent. Something that people in the States are really good at.

But what I found out about humanism is harder to define, because there several types of humanism. A lot of it depended on which time period you were talking about. Before the renaissance for something to have worth, it had to be church related, everything else was considered heresy. Humanism began with the idea that all talents had worth.

Christianized humanity

After the fall of the Roman Empire, there were thoughts of a more Christianized humanity for society. Western Christian clerics controlled education, since only the monasteries remained as seats of learning. Charlemagne requested that scholars set up places of learning that would become universities in the 12th century. Eastern Christians meanwhile continued the late Antique practice of studying in the homes of secular masters, studying the same curriculum of classical Greek authors as their predecessors in the Roman period: Homer’s Iliad, Plato’s dialogues, Aristotle’s Categories, Demosthenes’ speeches, Galen, Dioscurides, Strabo, and others. Christian education in the East largely was relegated to learning to read the Bible at the knees of one’s parents and the rudiments of grammar in the letters of Basil or the homilies of Gregory Nazianzus.

Proclaiming a Theology of De-Humanization.

This is a bit troublesome considering that these men proclaim to be Christians.

In the theological view of Lindsey, Hagee, Beck and their fellow travelers, the Iranians, Russians, and Palestinians aren’t viewed as actual human personalities. They aren’t seen as people bearing the divine image of God, however imperfectly (much like the rest of us). Instead, they are reduced to little more than Satan’s hordes, predestined as cannon fodder for the Apocalypse. Whether by delusion or naked cynicism, “Christian Zionists” proclaim a theology of de-humanization.

Dehumanization is the psychological capacity to deny the humanity of others, to relegate people to the status of non-human animals, and so to deprive them of the protections normally accorded to fellow humans by moral codes. As this far-reaching and inter-disciplinary study by David Livingstone Smith amply demonstrates, it is a recurrent historical phenomenon extending back millennia, and it seems to be a necessary precondition for the perpetration of sustained injustices, especially slavery, genocide, and racial subjugation.

It’s a Wonderful World

This is particularly disturbing taking into account I live and work here in Russia. Those who these men would like to demonize are simply people like everyone else in this world. I don’t often involve my work in my blog but I must share something that caught me completely off guard recently. Recently I’ve understood that to reach my students music would be a great tool to do so. Keeping their attention has been difficult in this modern world. After we listened to several songs that I prepared I asked them what they would like to listen to (you must understand we had just finished listening to “Jeremiah was a Bullfrog” and “It’s a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong), remember they could chose anything they wanted, they chose “Take Me to Church”, the message here is very powerful. I think these students (though sheltered from adult life) understand what tolerance truly means even in world where they (Russians)are being singled out. I suggest that Hagee, Beck, and Lindsey come and see for themselves who they are speaking about, they would a lot less likely to criticize those they’ve come to love and understand. See more here.

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Western Militarism in the Name of Christ

Just a few decades after the Roman Catholic Church left the Orthodox Church in 1054, the Pope announced the First Crusade. This is likely not a coincidence.

Eastern Christianity does not have crusades as part of its tradition. But in the West, militarism in the name of Christ has been a blemish on Christianity for a millennium, and its spirit continues until today with George W. Bush recruiting Bible Belt Christians to support the decimation of Iraq.

Undoubtedly, this is a complex matter, and Orthodoxy is not unblemished. But, generally, the Church does not support militarism or invasion but does allow for armed defense. Beyond that, the Church really does promote Jesus’s teachings to be loving, peaceful, and merciful to our enemies.

For two thousand years, the Orthodox Church has started every Sunday morning service by reciting the Beatitudes. Like, they really believe them: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are the peacemakers.” Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount is considered the foundation stone of all teaching and doctrine. In Prostestantism, it seemed to me we were always thinking, “Yeah, yeah, that stuff Jesus talked about, but let’s get to Paul’s doctrines in the Epistles and all those cool wars in the Old Testament.” See more here.

This brings us to the present  and we must ask why is that NATO forces are building up on Russia’s eastern borders? Are these actions justified even after the statement from Lavrov, he stressed in his statement back in June that Russia has never planned and does not plan to attack any NATO member country.

In his statement he said:

“I am confident that serious and honest politicians know that Russia will never attack any member country of the North Atlantic Alliance,” Lavrov said. “We do not have any plans like this. I think NATO knows it very well but just uses the pretext to deploy more equipment and battalions, first of all as a guarantee that the United States will still keep an eye on this ‘field’,” he added. See more here.

“One of the main threats to Russia’s security is in NATO’s further eastward expansion and the alliance’s policy of using military force in violation of international law, the way it happened in Libya and Yugoslavia,” Lavrov said.

“We see threats not in the existence of NATO but in the way that military alliance acts in practice,” Lavrov said

So is this an escalation between countries or is it an expression of secular humanism vs humanism?

What if Russia is Forced into War with NATO?

If this is going to be a war than it will be not only be for Russian national interests, but will be in the cause of a just multi-polar world, for real dignity and for real, positive freedom – not (nihilistic) freedom from but (creative) freedom for. In this war, Russia will set an example as the defender of Tradition, conservative organic values, and will represent real liberation from the open society and its beneficiaries – the global financial oligarchy. Ridding

This is the world that we should be pursuing, not the agendas of the elites but for the world as a whole. It shouldn’t ever be about us vs them. But coming together to create a more harmonious world.

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