Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
Had to add something now that the avatars are up and working.
My avatar and byline are related. The avatar is the album cover of To Our Children’s Children’s Children by the Moody Blues (1969). The byline is the opening lines from their album On the Threshold of a Dream (also 1969).
I like the picture because it shows antiquity yet looks forward beyond the generations already alive.
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That reminded me of something. There was an album that came out in 1968, I believe.
The Child is Father to the Man by Blood Sweat and Tears.
And
that 
reminded me of a poem by John Dryden (The Hind and the Panther) that had the lines:
By education most have been misled
So they believe, because they were so bred
The priest continues what the nurse began
And thus the child imposes on the man
It reminded me that there is continuity in the human experience, which your avatar touches on. Lee made the error of trying to do a 'clean break' from the christian tradition, and the fruit of his move has shown itself to be quite regressive and reactionary. It is not progress. Progress is incremental, and builds on the past. Christianity, for all its errors, has a continuity that links back to the church fathers, and through them to the apostles and Christ, and thus to our heavenly Father.
All the groups that try this "clean slate" approach err precisely in this vein. Yes, the past is full of mistakes, but God wants you to build on it. The foundation of the christian experience has been laid. Don't try to build another one. If you don't care for the traditions of the past, fine. Keep it to yourself. If you attempt to institutionalize (i.e. make them conditions for fellowship, and impose them on others) your rejection of the past you merely create new human traditions, apart from God, and worse than before.
On a personal, and related note, if you see my testimony, I was a self-styled hedonist. I wanted pleasure, and fun. The word we used for massive consumption of drugs and alcohol was 'party'. If you met someone new, you said, "Do you party?" Consumption of drugs & alcohol was equivalent to "fun". I wanted to have a good time. Life was too short to labor, to groan and sweat and strain for some elusive goal. For five bucks you could get a 12-pack of beer, open the can or bottle, and 'voila', you have arrived at the destination. Every time I drank I felt as if I had won the Gold Medal at the Olympics, or the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. It was time to celebrate!
Eventually, when I realized I was eating husks with the hogs, I repented and turned to the Father through my believing in His Son Jesus Christ. And when I came into the 'local church' life it was a party to the max. No "works", just "fun". Call on the name of the Lord, Praise God, sing and shout and cry out, pray and praise and declare. I loved it! It was the hedonist's dream. No hangovers, no lies, no guilty concience. As Isaiah said, "Come without money and price" It was freely given, and of incalculable worth. Just sing and shout and pray and declare. Marvelous!
Eventually, the bureaucrats and bossy people really ruined the fun. It went from "Grace" back to "Law", so I left. Today I am in many ways the same. I want to enjoy myself today, not groan toward some elusive goal. God did everything already in Christ Jesus. Our job is to appreciate, to enjoy, to praise, to thank, to "amen" God's choice, Jesus the Nazarene, the manifestation of God's love for us. Anything apart from that is, to me, a distraction and a stumbling.
OBW, I confess I probably dragged your avatar pretty far afield. I now return it; thanks for the loan.