More Thoughts

The Catholicist Nation

For the college student,

    If you asked the typical college student what he or she really wants, it would probably be something about having it figured out. Oh sure many of them just want to find a way to scratch that itch for the best pleasure there is— whether it is by partying or by joining the latest righteous crusade— but that still requires fulfilling the search for that thing, in other words, having it figured out.

    Yeah, a lot of them will even sneer "Don't tell me who I am!" That's funny because they're still off chuggin' away at defining themselves. Great. But what silliness to boast that you're really nobody in particular when all you want to be is somebody. That's kind of why you're in college.

    Or maybe you're just someone who wants to get a move on, get up the achievement ladder, get that degree and that good job and that happy family and then you'll be set. You'll make the world a better place from there.

    But what does that mean?

    "Make the world a better place"?

    Yeah, everyone wants to do it, to have it figured out so it'll be better. Thing is you're sure you're on the real path to doing that, and college has helped you gobs with that: We can be rest assured that there is no objective truth, that God is a fairy tale, that religion is for Neanderthals (albeit sometimes very kind Neanderthals), that no one's on the cutting edge of what's real but the truly enlightened people here at this fine academic institution—and hey, you can't even be sure about any of that, so, "Whew, good thing I don't have to be dogmatic about anything..."

    But then, aren't you dogmatic about that?

    Let's cut right to the chase: college isn't as liberating as it's made out to be. It's just another of those World System institutions employing a modus operandi designed specifically for bright eager 18-25 year olds to get wrapped up in the worship of gods who look and sound really cool. You don't even know how many facets of the grand deception are in place because they've got you thinking and feeling intensely about so many simulacra— there's a finely crafted god just for you and your particular tastes and you've bought it. You're so gorged on the promotional media that you can't see beyond your nose.

    Do you think for two seconds that the Power Brokers of the World don't know that you suppose college is where you'll finally discover what's really going on? And do you think for another nanosecond they haven't already sabotaged that conception and laid out hundreds of avenues for you to be thoroughly convinced about exactly what they want you to believe? Many of them are so mind-blowingly erudite (oh there's that word again) that you're sure it's what's really real.

    Come on, how naïve is it to think that all the injustice in the world is just the fault of some nebulous entity commonly branded "narrow-minded white-ethnocentric homophobic Western Civilization." Or that the war in Iraq will end when when progressive thinkers are loud enough about what college students all know. Or that any bad thing will go away once we all get together and softly sing sixties anti-war songs by candlelight. Or even that all this busy-ness will fix the gnawing emptiness of postmodern angst you're so proud to embrace.

    I don't deny for a second that college students have a fine-tuned insight into the wrongs that need to be righted. That's terrific, it really is. Go gonzo to take out the things that exploit and oppress. But frankly it is foolish to think you can right them using the World's ways, from a World that set it all up in order to set you up. I still see impassioned young people proclaim "The U.S.-dominated West is guilty of this or that horrific crime, so let's get behind this or that federal program to fix things." (And every incorporated entity is mandated, sponsored, or subsidized by the federal government.) They still don't get it: that raging conflict and violence and destitution and desperation will just continue, and you're just there flung about, the little gnat in a tornado.

    College also has a ton of great stuff to learn, that's indisputible. Except that every time someone opens his mouth, even if the most unbiased impartial instructor, he or she is proselytizing. No matter how much they boast about how areligious their words are, whether it is a sentence or a whole course of study, you are being indoctrinated in the religion of areligion.

    Even if you are a "Christian" and think that a godly, churchly stamp on your soul is your protection, you're still being played like a sweetly-tuned Stradivarius. Now, yes, it is true, what God has said in the Bible does lay open what life and reality are about— indeed it is in those words where anyone can find what they really want, what would really give them the joy and enchantment they actually long for.

    What is just as striking is that this same Bible explains what the deceivers are doing as well. The World System operatives have spent millennia derailing that authentic joy because they are oath-bound to serve their master and they do it over the entire college domain. Some of the most susceptible people in the world are young adults who want to do good in their lives and in their relationships and think they've got it down, but just don't have any solid grounding in actual veritable Truth for them to distinguish the real from the counterfeit.

    The Real is actually Jesus Christ, The One Lord God who loves, really loves, really demonstrates that love by asking you to be with Him forever in His home (and sometimes even out there in the adventure that is life!) Please note that this Jesus is not the Jesus of the World, the Jesus most collegians think about when they see that name.

    There are a lot of Jesuses out there, people or things one believes is his or her salvation. You can have a particular religious Jesus, like Buddhist nothingness (a very popular one on campuses I see), or you can have a diversion Jesus, like intensive commitment to athletics or just hitting the clubs every other night.

    The Jesus Who Loves has Himself been formed twisted and distorted into whatever concoction those operatives have presumed would be best to draw you from Him. The most common one is a religious figure who is no different than all the other religious figures, and that wars are fought over the perceptions about those figures and we all oughta knock it off already. Of course wars are fought in this way, but they are fought precisely because no one does what Jesus asks us to do.

    So what's the big deal with Him? The fact is He is God, the One who made you and me to be extraordinary. The problem is that we've messed that up, jerked people around, and we will die with it like that unless we accept that His death could be put in place of our death. Note that the key is not in what He says, as if He's just another religious dude with cool things to say, but what He did, purely out of His active, vibrant, bountiful love for you.

    He's really actually truly there, because being God and all He also became very alive again after He died. So He's alive right now inviting you to allow Him to embrace you. This doesn't mean that once we're "saved" and "forgiven" that we can go out and keep jerking people around (as a lot of "Christians" who trust in another Jesus admittedly do) What it does mean is that we would love with His love because He did and does love us in very real reality.

    A straw-man Jesus can't do that.

    No wonder there's always the need to save a Darfur or end a war in Iraq.

    I humbly invite you to surf around this site to discover more about This One who would love to interact with you— hey, remember, He made you. And in the meantime, maybe you'll see a bit about those "straw-man" Jesuses and the people who market them, and actually see the difference. Perhaps you'll even see how you may have been taken in by some professors, students, activists, club leaders— individuals who are very attractive and articulate but who are serving the one who ultimately wants you for dinner.

    And then you'll discover the real — oh, there's that word again — the real reason for all the wars and violence and stuff college people spend so much energy railing against.

    This site is not designed to make you paranoid of everyone and everything. All people are doing what their souls compel them to do, but they do so at the behest of someone. Once you see that, you'll be better able to accept and understand the sometimes crazy things that go on around you. Even better, when you do it through the lens of the mind of Christ, then you'll rejoice in walking with Him whatever happens, and love others with a love like that you've never experienced, and that those you touch have never experienced.

    What's really real is Him. What really gratifying is getting into life with Him. What is amazing is that He likes it when we're out figuring it out because He likes to do it with us.

    So think about Him. Think about taking His hand. Not the hand of a straw-man Jesus, but His.

    You'll be blown away by how much you'll have actually figured out.

    I invite you to email me. Nothing in a letter on the Web like this one can replace real interaction. If you were taken with what was written here, whether positive or negative, I'd love to hear from you. Give me your take. Just to let you know, this is not a church or organization, I'm not trying to sneak in any stealth recruitment for anything— I represent nothing except the words of Christ. All I care about is honoring Him, and maybe introducing you to Him as well.

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This page was originally posted by David Beck at yourownjesus.net on November 4, 2006