Time for the people to reform the Church

Phil Beaver seeks to collaborate on the-objective-truth, which can only be discovered. The comment box below invites readers to write.

"Civic" refers to citizens who collaborate for responsible freedom more than for the city, state, nation, or other institution.

A personal paraphrase of preamble, the USA Constitution’s most neglected legal statement:  For discussion, I convert the preamble’s predicate phrase to nouns and paraphrase it for my proposal as follows: We the willing citizens of the United States collaborate for self-discipline regarding integrity, justice, goodwill, defense, prosperity, liberty, and children and by this amendable constitution limit the U.S.'s service to the people in their states. I want to collaborate with the other citizens on this paraphrase. I would preserve the original, 1787, text, unless it is amended by the people..

It seems no one has challenged whether or not the preamble is a legal statement. The fact that it changed this independent country from a confederation to a union of states disciplined by disciplined people convinces me the preamble is legal.

Every citizen has equal opportunity to either trust-in and collaborate-on the goals stated in the preamble or be dissident to the agreement. I think 2/3 of citizens try somewhat to use the preamble but many do not articulate commitment to the goals. However, it seems less than 2/3 understand that “posterity” implies children. “Freedom of religion,” which civic citizens cannot discipline, oppresses freedom to develop integrity.

Our Views

bad actors; domestic August 19 (https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_66b27dac-a0b4-11e8-8eae-d766e94328d3.html)

Among domestic bad actors are, apparently, the FBI, the Louisiana Legislature with Governor, churches, racism indoctrinators, abusers, togetherers, respecters, and the free and irresponsible press like The Advocate. (With 230 years’ U.S. performance to chaos and only 46 more years of my human life, I am impatient.)

It occurred to me this morning that my chorus may be changing to:  The preamble to the U.S. Constitution offers willing citizens individual happiness with civic morality (rather than personal liberty with civic morality). Perhaps my awareness is moving toward freedom-from British, colonial tradition (for me, at last).

If so, it is perhaps due to a renewed neighborly appeal to eastern meditation like that described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monk_Who_Sold_His_Ferrari, but under the socially-hot button, “mindfulness.” The monk’s way seems like endless egocentricity purported to develop “love,” whatever that may mean to the ego. I prefer mindfulness as appreciation for fellow citizens who behave and collaborate for civic morality.

That fellow citizens do not recognize the 1787 Constitution as an opportunity to terminate British colonial tyranny and start anew is a grave concern. After all, the 1789 Congress was still a British colonial adolescent and the people never realized it.

So far, people who would like to establish a civic culture as defined by the preamble, have been bemused by Blackstone with Canterbury---the Chapter XI Machiavellianism that England constitutionalizes and American regimes unconstitutionally traditionalize. Greece v Galloway (2014) holds that I am niggling to try to expose the tyranny.

Freedom-from tyranny with the liberty-to responsibly pursue personal happiness rather than the dictates of another entity seems the most unpopular idea in town.

If you don’t understand me, never mind. I’m writing to civic citizens and dissidents who are yet fellow-citizens.

August 18 (https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_6159f640-a178-11e8-b14a-33d5bd414d9d.html)

“Trump’s tariff policies, even more than his rhetoric, are threatening America’s free press.”

The fellow citizens President Trump fights for includes dairy farmers and the paper producers that went out of business in the past because The Advocate did not buy local product.

I consider U.S. milk and paper producers more reliable providers than The Advocate and their free and irresponsible press. Until The Advocate personnel take the role of responsibility, specifically, being individuals who are of We the People of the United States as defined by the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, I am willing for them to go out of business.

The preamble has, during the 230 years it has been established as a civil (legal) sentence, needed adult education by a free and responsible press. For example, many parents do not understand that “posterity” includes the children. Therefore, many parents lobby for adult satisfactions at the expense of children.

It is the press’s (The Advocate’s) job to clarify such facts and keep the coming children and adolescents informed. Instead, for example, the press tolerates generation after generation of Church business abusing the children of believing parents. The press is part of the Church-abuse problem: It’s a B2B relationship. Let them both either perish or reform.

  

Letters

End religion’s hypocrisy (Roland F. Carey) (https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_b2532230-a496-11e8-9cdf-176d95a1e4e4.html)

“Away with un-Christian, race-based behavior.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Carey does not seem to recognize civic morality, which admits that Christianity is each believer’s mystery and thereby cannot be the basis of mutual appreciation among fellow citizens.

Not only that, if Carey wants to end “un-Christian, race-based behavior,” he may want to understand African-American Christianity; https://www.wsj.com/articles/dr-kings-radical-biblical-vision-1522970778. I learned the opinion (perhaps wrongly) from Jeremiah Wright’s 2015 talk (https://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2015/02/jeremiah_wright_tells_a_southe.html) that God’s chosen people have black skins and the only way a white man can save his soul is to help African-Americans reign supreme. One person told me Christianity emerged from Ethiopia, but I have no idea how many fellow citizens would agree.

No wonder I have trouble persuading black fellow citizens to help develop We the People of the United States as defined in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. One of my greatest concerns is that many fellow citizens do not perceive that “posterity” includes their children.

I think it is past time to relegate Christian pursuits to their proper places: in the heart, in the closet, in adult believer’s assembly, in willing collaborative dialogue; but not in civic collaboration to discover integrity for human justice.

Some citizens may be willing to collaborate on their God, but many fellow citizens are not interested in evaluating Gods, especially their own. Yet most everyone wants individual happiness with civic morality.

  

BTW, the picture with the little girl’s right hand flexed back and fingers splayed expresses that children resist Mitch Landrieu’s hypocrisy.

To Elaine O Coyle:  What has not happened is needed reform from traditional Christian dominance. The First Amendment’s clauses in defense of theism should be revised to promote civic integrity.

The 1787 U.S. Constitution, especially its first legal sentence, the preamble, offers explicit break from Blackstone common law and church-state-partnership. However, the First Congress was like adolescent parents doing what their mom and dad did; former British colonists knew not how to escape their own tyranny.

The church-state partnership is constitutional in England but only traditional in America. See Greece v Galloway (2014) to understand the gravity of the imposition on the people. The overall progress of civil church-state alliances since 1789 seem to be factional-American Protestantism, evangelicalism, Judeo-Christianity, and now Judeo-Catholicism.

However, the black caucuses want African-American Christianity to prevail.

I promoted the agreement that is offered in the preamble about two decades before I began to try to understand African-American Christianity.

 To Elaine O. Coyle again: ". . . minding our own business" is more profound than it may seem to some readers.

One of the first principles of the human condition is that unlike a foal, which can walk in an hour and find its mare’s tit within 3 hours, a human infant takes about a year to learn to walk. The human being is so physically and psychologically complex it takes three decades for him or her to develop understanding and intent to live a complete human life.

Most adolescents understand that their first obligation to self is to earn the life style they want. Few understand that to have the freedom from oppression so as to pursue the happiness they perceive---instead of the dictates of another---they must live responsibly and collaborate for justice.

I think I have covered some of the detail of “minding our own business,” and would appreciate anything you would add.

To JT McQuitty: Interesting observations.

There’s a wealth of evidence in your citation, and I am not smart enough to dig it out quickly. However, I copied the data to a spreadsheet and began exploring thoughts. I computed %black two ways: among whites and among the total population. I then computed the ratio of the first divided by the second, subtracted 1.0 and multiplied by 100, and labeled that variable “diversity ratio.”

NYC is ranks 35 by diversity and 4 by “dissimilarity index.” San Francisco ranks 24 and 93, respectively; Austin TX 42 and 174. I don’t know and seek clues.

Lawrence, KS, with its second to lowest dissimilarity index and ranked 316 has 4% blacks. That’s interesting, because Lawrence was founded by Christian abolitionists from Massachusetts to promote local decisions on whether a new state would allow slavery. “Bleeding Kansas” developed around 1856: white Christian blood caused to flow by white Christian bleeders over more erroneous religious beliefs. This opinionated war claim was incorporated in the Confederate States of America’s declaration of secession, 1860. Contrast Kansas City, ranked 37, with 23% blacks. Why do blacks populate Lawrence at only 1/3 of the national average, 13%? It’s an ironic outcome of Civil War era Christian abolition struggles. Another irony is African-American Christianity, whatever opinion that label represents.

Baton Rouge, with 32% blacks is rated 33, near Kansas City’s 37 with 23% blacks. In my “social science” observation blacks in Baton Rouge did not, in summer 2016, riot, destroying lives and property, as national black organizations and AMO leaders would have liked. That’s perhaps because most Baton Rouge blacks are of We the People of the United States through their genes, memes, and intentions.

Explanations may be obvious to some readers, one factor being French and Spanish influence in Louisiana and the consequence that in 1830, 13.2% of Louisiana blacks were free, compared to 0.8% free blacks in Mississippi. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_Louisiana,  https://www.lib.lsu.edu/sites/all/files/sc/fpoc/history.html, and http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/free-people-of-color for historical opinion.

Thank you again for your citation, and I hope to return to it in future.

Blackstone fallibility (Dwight Doskey) (https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_75121a86-a192-11e8-b332-7f95ea39de2f.html)

I appreciate Doskey’s clarification that the November 6 vote to preserve Louisiana’s U.S. Amendment VI impartiality-provision through 10:2 unanimous-majority verdicts does not change capital-punishment trials.

Now, the people need an authority to do the calculations needed to show that the 10:2 rule favors black fellow citizens disproportionally to white fellow citizens and protects the people from criminal influence and bigotry.

No matter the skin-color of seated jury members, there is chance that not all twelve jurors are habitually and serenely impartial: Some fellow citizens may tend to self-doubt and some may be insecure. The courtroom experience can inspire errant jurors to reform to the majority, but not always. U.S. data (with 96% absolutely unanimous jury rules) shows that 13% of verdicts seem wrong or courtroom influence is sufficient 87% of the time.

The positive courtroom influence is insufficient at 11:1 allowable verdict, but predicts impartiality at 10:2. With one bigoted juror or criminal influence, the allowable verdict needs to be 9:3.

Impartiality helps black fellow citizens more than whites. Consider FBI data from 12,253 murder reports in 2013. Of 5500 reports involving blacks and whites, 3009 victims were white, with 409 black offenders, and 2491 victims were black, with 2245 black offenders. White offenders numbered 2509 and 189, respectively.

Black offenders victimized a black 84.6% of the time, and 90.1% of black victims suffered a black offender. The population in 2013 was 73.7% white and 12.6% black. Yet blacks accounted for 45.3% of murder victims and 48.2% of murders.

To preserve impartiality in criminal courtrooms, Louisiana blacks and whites will vote to preserve the 10:2 unanimous-majority verdict.

However, I hope Louisiana calls a special session to rescind the unconstitutional Act 493.

Papal infallibility (Rev. Louis Arceneaux) (https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_2ac6647e-a191-11e8-8cb4-2bbd638c2003.html)

“[Sadow] never heard of the development of doctrine in the Catholic Church. In the early centuries of Christianity, slavery was accepted. As a Church, we came to realize that slavery reflected a failure to respect the dignity of every human. The same can be said about the death penalty. The dignity of every human is fundamental to our Catholic teaching.”

Is that blasphemy or what?

I recall “papal infallibility.” And confirmation of public awareness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility. It seems to me papal infallibility is indisputably false dogma. But dogma and doctrine are not the same: one is disprovable, and the other can be amended so as to preserve its mystery. However, humankind collaborates to discover the-objective-truth. Mystery as a means of tyranny over humans is approaching extinction.

There’s also a Wiki on Arceneaux’s topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_doctrine. There we are informed “The term was introduced in [John Henry] Newman's 1845 book An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. Newman used the idea of development of doctrine to defend Catholic . . . doctrine which he argued was in some way implicitly present in the Divine Revelation in Sacred Scripture and Tradition which was present from the beginnings of the Church.”

Arceneaux implies that the Holy Bible’s affirmation of slavery in the 405 AD, Church-canonized New Testament is offset by Tradition regarding the dignity of slaves. In other words, slaves have dignity without voice, if they submit to Tradition.

Consider 1 Peter 2:18-20, CJB: “Household servants, submit yourselves to your masters, showing them full respect — and not only those who are kind and considerate, but also those who are harsh. For it is a grace when someone, because he is mindful of God, bears up under the pain of undeserved punishment. For what credit is there in bearing up under a beating you deserve for doing something wrong? But if you bear up under punishment, even though you have done what is right, God looks on it with favor.” Church Tradition fixes the offense? Perhaps, if Tradition develops.

There’s also a Wiki on the Church’s doctrine of discovery, which said that lands in the Americas could be colonized and the indigenous peoples converted, enslaved or killed, but I prefer to cite https://centerforearthethics.org/message-pope-francis/. Fifteenth century papal bulls “authorized” first Portugal then Spain to enhance colonization by purchasing African slaves and shipping them to the Americas; http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/african_laborers_for_a_new_emp/pope_nicolas_v_and_the_portugu.

Do black-power theologians within African-American Christianity preach that slavery is valid, but subjects have white skin? I think I heard that tacitly from Jeremiah Wright, here in 2015. It seems to me discovered-objective-truth has passed mystery, and it is past time for clergypersons to become carpenters, the-objective-truth scholars, and civic citizens for responsible personal prosperity.

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_3bbbf70c-a0de-11e8-a69c-ab023a8e364f.html

Some remembrances makes me visceral if not bitter.

I regret having to vote for Edwards rather than a fiscal conservative and will find it hard to vote GOP in future . . . especially if they finally endorse abandoning a Louisiana treasure, the 10:2 unanimous-majority verdict, which enhances provision of the U.S. Amendment VI requirement of IMPARTIAL juries. This change was made in Louisiana in 1880 because French colonial influence was willing to abandon English tradition. England reformed their Magna Carta tradition of absolute unanimity in 1967, allowing 10:2 verdicts in order to lessen the influence of organized crime.

Nevertheless, I wish Edwards would resign in disgrace over everything that has happened: squandering 2016 flood relief on administrative fees; Medicaid liabilities; tax increase; toleration of illegal law enforcement; increase in the costs of judges and lawyers; increase in cost of low-value education; badly managing road taxes; Act 493 Vatican "blessings" on January 20, 2016; together; abusing posterity (children) by promoting adult satisfaction.

 

Columns

Vote to keep Louisiana’s 10:2 unanimous-majority criminal-jury verdicts (Jeff Sadow) (https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_e301875c-9bf7-11e8-b445-cf257b9a346c.html)

Sadow ought to write a column to correct his error regarding capital murder jury verdicts.

Also, he’s careless about the origins, supreme courts confirmations, value, and England’s reform to unanimous-majority verdicts. England reformed to 10:2 verdicts in 1967 in order to reduce organized crime’s influence on jury service.

Reform of a British tradition that emerged from Magna Carta starts with the 1791 U.S. Amendment VI requirement that states provide IMPARTIAL rather than unanimous juries. There’s French-colonial Louisianans’ low regard for British traditions like twelve-person juries with absolutely unanimous verdicts. The 1880 consequence was 9:3 unanimous-majority verdicts so that bigoted jurors may be nulled. With a U.S. Constitution stipulation 12 person unanimity, Louisiana might have gone to 12:3 juries at 25% higher jury costs. (Attorney General Jeff Landry expressed interest in preserving efficiency with impartiality.)

Both the Louisiana Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 9:3 unanimous-majority verdict in 1970 and 1972, respectively. Therefore, the Louisiana Legislature’s imposition of a referendum to regress from state provision of impartial jury verdicts seems unconstitutional. The Legislature ought not impose injustice on the people.

To maintain collaboration for a civic culture rather than regress to vulnerability to organized crime and bigotry, Louisiana voters will maintain the 10:2 unanimous-majority verdicts.

In the future, capital murder rules might be revised to 11:1 or better so as to defeat crime and bigotry; also, non-capital verdicts may be returned to 9:3 unanimous–majority verdicts or even 8:4 or 7:3.

   

News

The Church repeats past error (Andrea Gallo) (https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_4916d8fe-a7c3-11e8-9807-6b81d6f7d004.html)

   

We the People of the United States, in individual self-discipline, may hold the Church responsible for civic integrity.

In 405 AD the Church had the chance to purge from the New-Testament-canon all passages that condoned slavery in any way. An egregious example is 1 Peter 2:18-20, CJB. The Church apologized for slavery. On this error alone, we may know that neither the Holy Bible nor Church Tradition is the word of God.

Today, the Church coexists with African-American Christianity, whatever that means. I have heard at least one champion, Jeremiah Wright, attribute its development to the Church’s influence.

Neither Catholic spirituality, Protestant spirituality, African-American-Christian spirituality, nor any other spiritual hope collaborates for civic morality. But actual human justice surpasses spiritual hopes.

In 1992, I attended the public viewing to celebrate fellow-citizen Stanley Joseph Ott’s life. His was partly contemporaneous with mine. On Friday, my friend Hugh and I passed a block from St. Joseph Cathedral’s isolation and noted without objection that we were publically excluded. I doubt I will cross that gestapo threshold again.

  

However, the elected officials who were present may be aware that they serve We the People of the United States, rather than the Church. Consequently, officials who will be talking to Michael Duca may develop a transparent list of reforms so that Church canon in the U.S. conforms to U.S. statutory law.

Also, they may develop a list of Church reforms to civilly repress sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

After attending a fair at a Catholic school, I asked a friend why elementary-school girls wear such short skirts. The friend responded, “Well, let’s just say that short skirts are titillating. And little girls become adolescent girls.” Parents cooperate.

I commend the Louisiana Legislature to pass a law that requires school uniforms to protect a girl’s innocence.

Hope in Jesus, but act within the law (Andrea Gallo) (https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_244931e6-a6f3-11e8-bf72-b33bf21995ae.html)

   

Installation of a new bishop is of civic interest in Baton Rouge, because 24.7% of the area people are Catholic; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Baton_Rouge. The other 75.3 % of inhabitants may share hope for individual happiness with civic integrity.

Church canon has been around at least 1700 years, and recent skirmishes with statutory justice have occupied an inordinate amount of public power, energy, and authority (PPEA). PPEA derives from the collective individual power, individual energy, and individual authority (IPEA) each human citizen has and may employ to develop integrity or not.

We the People of the United States, repressed these 230 years, hope Michael Duca will dedicate himself and his flock to help separate church from state, a tacit goal of the preamble. The preamble is a legal sentence that states the purpose of the U.S.: tacitly, civic discipline by the majority rather than dominance by a minority. The U.S. was established on June 21, 1788 by former British colonist’s representatives of nine eastern-seaboard states. Since then, the U.S. has expanded to 50 more diverse states.

So far, minority factions of fellow-citizens have used hopes for mysterious afterdeath to persuade some fellow-citizens to think their civic station sits above human justice. It’s a false idea that begs civic reckoning.

  

Other fora

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-insecurity-and-self-doubt

You pose an impactful* question. Perhaps self-doubt derives from lack of particular information and insecurity develops from seeking higher authority.

The human being is the only species that faces such a profound dilemma. The human is so powerful it takes three decades to develop the understanding and intent to live a complete lifetime. Completion involves the subsequent decades to develop integrity and fidelity to the-objective-truth.

Rather than an increasing capacity to know enough, each newborn faces an exploding body of discovery that no source contains with integrity and most fellow citizens cannot attest to.

Google operates artificial intelligence that will help readers understand emerging phrases. For “fake news definition,” Google refers the reader to Wikipedia, which would like to be neutral but is subject to the writer’s bias. Wikipedia also intends to cover all knowledge, but is limited by the writers. For “gravitational waves definition,” Google accepts its own and presents for further reading What are Gravitational Waves? before a Wikipedia article.

The entire Internet seems insufficient. Consider “the-objective-truth” search without the quotes, for which the first URL is 4. Does Objective Truth Exist? The essay seems to equivocate “objective truth” with “absolute truth.” Both involve human evaluation, whereas the-objective-truth is and can only be discovered. For example, the-objective-truth regarding the existence of God may be discovered. But the point is, Google did not like “the-objective-truth.”

Most cultures impose the belief in higher power. However, every human has the individual power, the individual energy, and the individual authority (IPEA) to develop integrity and with practice go on to fidelity. Fortunate is the person who employs IPEA to manage the lesser authorities: appetites (banality), societies (coercion) and governments (force). Some people use IPEA for crime, believing that crime pays.

Integrity is a practice: discovering whether a heartfelt concern is valid or not, accepting the discovery, understanding how to benefit, behaving responsibly, publicly sharing the understanding, listening to public response so as to improve on mutual understanding, and remaining open to new discovery that requires change.

Self-doubt motivates more study to discover the-objective-truth, which may be: I don’t know at this time but have earned the opinion on which I behave. Insecurity derives from not using IPEA to constrain the lesser powers.

*Karen DiFulvio made me aware of this word on August 6, 2018, and I am grateful.

https://www.quora.com/Does-objective-truth-exist

This question has 34 answers because, IMO, it unintentionally omits a needed article. What exists is the-objective-truth.
I prefer “the.” The hyphens encourage listeners and readers not to substitute “objective truth,” which seems subjective—-a human attempt at absolute evaluation. See, for example, 4. Does Objective Truth Exist?.
I like to use actual reality as a conversational synonym for the-objective-truth, which can only be discovered. Rather than “an-objective-truth,” I prefer “a discovered-objective-truth” or “that-objective-truth.”
There is the-objective-truth respecting the existence of God. That-objective-truth has not been discovered.
I have used this phrase for several years, but only by searching [“the-objective-truth”+”phil beaver”] do I see a few URL’s to my work. I do not view “the-objective-truth” as Phil Beaver’s truth but admit I do not know the-objective-truth.
I write to learn so would appreciate comments.

 Phil Beaver does not “know.” He trusts in and is committed to the-objective-truth which can only be discovered. Conventional wisdom has truth founded on reason, but it obviously does not work. Phil is agent for A Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana, education non-profit corporation. See online at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com, and consider essays from the latest and going back as far as you like.