Identifying Mark by susan caldwell

“He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind.” Proverbs 11:29

The play, “Inherit the Wind” was written to show how McCarthyism was stirring up tension, distrust and hatred, by making irrational appeals to people's deepest fears. It is a common enough ploy, and greatly favored by dictatorial leaders who have no better means of appealing for support. It is interesting to note how often, in the 20th century, this has been proven true: Stalin (Russia), Hitler (Germany), Pol Pot (Cambodia).

Sadly in the play it is the Rev. Brown who symbolizes the McCarthyite "witch hunters"

BROWN. (Deliberately shattering the rhythm to go into a frenzied prayer, hands clasped together and lifted heavenward.)O Lord of the Tempest and of the Thunder! O Lord of Righteousness and Wrath! We pray that Thou wilt make a sign unto us! Strike down this sinner [Cates], as Thou didst Thine enemies of old, in the days of the Pharoahs!(All lean forward, almost expecting the heavens to open with a thunderbolt. Rachel [Brown's daughter/Cates' fiancee] is white. Brady shifts uncomfortably in his chair, this is pretty strong stuff, even for him.)Let him feel the terror of Thy sword! For all eternity, let his soul writhe in anguish and damnation -

By the end of the play, Brown has totally alienated his daughter - in other words, he has literally "stirred up trouble in his own house", and as a consequence "inherits the wind" - is left with nothing when Rachel leaves home with Cates.

At the end of the play the protagonist, speaks these final words. “You never push a noun against a verb without trying to blow up something.”

I must say, I have become intrigued by this idea. (And that is not just because I really like the idea of pushing anything against something in the hope of blowing it up…most especially complacency.) Actually what I was really thinking of was how often the church gets involved in foolish battles against our own “house” which when won leaves us empty…holding on to nothing. And the battle I am thinking about here is; the need to control. (The noun is need and the verb is control.)

And with that said I am either about to inherit nothing or by my sticking my foot into the fire and making an awful stink, stir us out of complacency and fear and into a battle whose victory will bring real freedom: The battle to fight for the courage to live without the need to control.
We (the church) must stop using shame and guilt and fear as a means to control those around us. Love and the response to love must be free, given freely and received freely. This is the entire message of Christ. All condemnation, all fear and all need to control is cast out by Perfect Love.

Brokenness scars and wounds are the only marks that identify us with Christ.

“Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side or hand/
I hear thee sun as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaded Me against a tree to die, and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned;
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yet , as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar? "

Amy Carmichael

Entitled to Chose by susan caldwell

I have often thought that the depth of my compassion is equal to the depth of the pain I’ve experienced in life. But perhaps it would be more accurate to say that out of this pain is born the opportunity to choose compassion or indifference (apathy). To choose the first will give way to mercy and hope and with time it will bring healing. While choosing indifference leads to hate and despair and most probably death to any hope of redeeming the pain.

"Everything can be taken from a man but ...the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." p.104Victor Frankle “Man’s Search for Meaning”

Victor Frankle observed, after surviving two-and-a-half years in four different Nazi concentration camps, that there were three fundamental experiences which threatened to damage the character of the liberated prisoner: bitterness, disillusionment and when he returned to his former life, a belief that surviving suffering gave permission to do wrong.

Bitterness festers in old wounds, which only increases when restitution is dependent upon others seeing us as the victim by entering into our sorrow and loss or expressing great remorse for not rescuing us. Disillusionment (cynicism) overtakes us when a desperately anticipated reward or outcome, after enduring injustice or underserved pain, fails to materialize. However, I believe, it is the act of choosing one’s attitude about entitlement or the right to do wrong that will most determine direction, future actions and ultimately the character of all emancipated men/women.

I wonder if this why most freedom fighters after having won their battle over an oppressive, unjust and inhuman ruling force quickly begin to reflect the very same characteristics? Ida Amin in Uganda, Mobutu in Zaire and Joseph Stalin in Russia are examples of men who practiced indifference (lack of sympathy) over selflessness (compassion and benevolence) when exercising their freedoms to chose.

And then there is Nelson Mandela. In the book “Leading like Madiba” Martin Kalungu-Banda recounts how the moral character shaped by the choices Mandela made following his release from prison continually reflected grace, compassion and the desire to do justice.

Okay, so now I am thinking that compassion has to be a choice and it is born out of, not simply a product of, pain…and its depth is determined solely on continued selfless choices. This brings me back to aforementioned idea…and a confession that I don’t often choose compassion…
Okay, really how usually I demand justice and want grace, making me look a lot more like a freedom fighter turned indifferent dictator than a liberated survivor who choices bring redemption rather than revenge.