Thursday, February 25, 2016

The Trap of Equality

To the Equal Rights Activists,

Hear my plea and reasoning. I ask you to be free from the trap of "Equality" for it is indeed just that. You may consider this briefly controversial to hear, but Equality is impossible, making it the perfect tool for manipulation.

Consider this food payment problem. How much should we pay for a meal? Should it be the cost of the ingredients? Or should it be in respect to how much we enjoy it? How about the amount of food that is in the meal? Or should it be in relation to how much it fills our stomachs? What about in respect to our income? Note that you cannot obtain perfect equality here. If you lean towards one idea, which is fair in its line of reasoning, then you create inequality in some other aspect. There will always be something we may consider unfair and we need to accept that.

I'm not saying that Equality is evil, but that shouldn't be our goal. What we should really desire and fight for is Justice and Mercy. Why? Because Justice is what balances things. Physics dictates that if you place two differing weights on a teeter-totter, the way you get them to balance is to either move the smaller weight closer to the fulcrum or heavier weight away from the fulcrum. This idea of balance is why Justice is described as scales.

Let me show you an example of current Equal Rights ideas that would actually disrupt the balance: Equal number of Men and Women in the workforce. Are women capable of working as well as men? Certainly! However, there is a problem here. If this means that less women stay at home as mothers, and the number of men working stays the same, that means there are no parents taking care of the children. Why is this a problem? Two reasons: First is that babies are said to become the most healthy when breastfed for 6 months (and I also read this helps with reducing food allergies though I don't remember where). This means women need the time off from work for this to be the most effective but it would create a huge burden for the company to pay for this time off. The second reason is something I have observed. In households where both parents work, the children may have more toys to play with, they also appear more likely to do drugs or commit crimes. When parents are actively part of the child's life, the child grows up with virtue and becomes a model citizen, both emotionally and academically.

A third reason, which is not totally unrelated to children, is that the economy requires one spouse to be at home. Think about it. Why would shopping malls and retail stores be open all day, providing jobs for the people who work there, if no one can come to the store? Why should the post office and banks be open only at the hours that a typical person is supposed to be working? Seriously, I cannot go to either of those places, except on Saturdays when they are only open for part of the day. This makes Saturday a day of stress rather than work as those are just two things that can take a few hours to do, in addition to all the other things that need to be done. When one spouse is at home, then these things can be accomplished during the week and people have jobs to do during the week. The economy and society depends on stay-at-home mothers.

I may not know which side to be on in the "Gender Wage Gap Debate", but I do know we need most mothers to stay at home if possible. In fact, this could be part of why men might make more than women. Society is still in the middle of that "The man earns money to provide for the household" while "women are working for extra money" mentality. Is that fair? Yes and no. I do hold that women should be able to earn enough to provide for a household, especially if she's a single mother. However, I also hold that should be the exception, not the rule.

It's amazing that we can be so focused on Equality, that we attack those who show generosity. Did the workers deserve the raise given by that Washington CEO last April? Most likely not, but that's why his act of slashing his own salary to help them was so special. Those who needed a boost got one, while those who were earning a good amount got only a minor boost. In all cases, the CEO's action was generous and that is an "inequality" that is okay.

What I think is that we need to stop comparing salaries as that can lead to trouble. The amount you are paid should be what you think you are worth for the work you are doing, with extra pay being considered a gift to be appreciated. In my company, there are multiple employees in my division, but I don't care how much each makes as I occasionally consider myself overpaid, but I'm thankful for my bosses' generosity. So even if we have the same title, we do our jobs in different ways, resulting in covering a large area that one man could not do himself. So there is no way to determine "equal pay for equal work." We all do our job and our management appreciates it. As a result, I like my bosses and I try to do what I can to work hard for them for as long as I can.

Equality should not be our goal. We should care about Justice and be Merciful. There are cases where we may have the right to be angry or to demand reparation, but sometime it's when we show our mercy, generosity, and forgiveness that we and others can move on to become a more perfect society. Fighting for Equality is a trap that never ends, but True Equality comes when Justice and Mercy reign supreme.

With Love,
N. D. Moharo


P.S. I forgot to include this idea in my initial draft despite my intent to do so. The Justice aspect of stay-at-home mothers is that they should be praised and appreciated for all the work they do to maintain the house and care for the family, because it really is a lot of work, even when you don't have children. They are important and necessary, so NO ONE should ever say otherwise.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Shared Essays: Christian Marriage

Sometimes coincidences are purely interesting. I recently attended a wedding and the bride and groom prepared some essays for their guests about why they were doing a Christian Marriage. I meant to share this earlier last week but lost access to my computer and only just received permission from the bride to share it. As a result, I'm posting this on Valentine's Day which is a Christian feast day but also famous for showing love to one another. Hope you enjoy the interesting insights this married couple wrote their their guests.

With Love,
N. D. Moharo


Why the Crucifix?
You may notice after entering the church there is a crucifix, an image of Jesus when he died. Why do we prominently display this image, which should seem to appear to be the worst thing to happen? This is because God is an interesting Director and used this event to show how much He loves us. By recalling the death and passion of our Lord, we remember how he took flesh and suffered one of the most painful deaths to show that even though we treat Him unjustly, desert Him, and even insult Him and speak words of hatred, He loves us so greatly that He died for our sins. We pray that this example of Love never leave our minds as there is no better example for Christian Marriage.
There will be times where we make mistakes and hurt each other emotionally, but it takes a strong will to endure the pain, forgive each other, and continue to love each other. We must willfully desire what is good for each other, even at the sacrifice of ourselves. Love is influenced by the heart, but it is an act of the will. This makes it possible to “Love our Enemies” and to love each other even when it is difficult.


Why Christian Marriage?
We often consider Marriage to be about Love even though the joke is that very few actually still love each other after a few years. Christianity, on the other hand, is and always has been about Love.  It is about true, authentic, and undying love. There is no other religion that can claim the title of Religion of Love.
Consider this chain of logic. God is Good. God is Love. God created Man in His Image.  God called Man very good.  If God is Good and Love, then Man’s perfection and Happiness lies in being Good and to Love. Christianity reveals that God created us out of Love in order to Love. God even became Man to show us that perfect model of Goodness and Love. Therefore, Christianity must be the Religion of Love.
Christianity has not only the perfect example of Love, but it challenges us to strive towards that perfect example. Even if we cannot reach the perfect model, there are many heroes called Saints that show us how we can still love greatly. The first heroes we have are our parents bound through marriage, committing to love each other “Through Good Times and Bad, For Better and Worse.”
In today’s society, it’s hard to maintain that commitment, but by focusing on Christian Models and Ideals, we look ahead with hope. We have adhered to its teachings while we dated, and now we shall work to thrive through them as we live as husband and wife.

Why the Mass?
The Mass consists of two liturgies. The first is where we listen and reflect on the Bible. This is to help us appreciate the Love of God and prepare our minds to participate in the second liturgy. The second is where we participate in the passion of Jesus by receiving Holy Communion and praying.
The Mass is where we see a miracle every time with transformation of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. While the physical attributes of Bread and Wine do not change, we believe that God has changed the substance within. This is amazing because it allows God to dwell within us.
In the Bible, Jesus states that those who want to enter heaven must eat His flesh. It’s a strong statement, but reading it carefully, we see that He was serious. But if Jesus is no longer present here on earth, how is this possible?

We believe the Mass to make present the sacrifice of Jesus. We do not believe that we offer up Jesus to die again and again, but that through a divine miracle, we are somehow present at the one sacrifice.  By this, He who created the world, turned a sea into blood and then back again, and turned water into wine, is perfectly capable of changing bread and wine into bodily flesh without changing anything physical. It’s called a Miracle.