One of the things that became apparent during the Civil War was that Southern men were "country boys" who had grown up hunting. That experience gave them an edge with handling a gun and maneuvering in the woods. Robert E. Lee led these men with brilliance in battlefield tactics, and the most basic of those tactics was to "claim the high ground".
Morally, the high ground could be defined as those principles which most closely align with what God declares to be right. After all, our Creator made everything we see out of nothing, and so He gets to set the fenceposts. People WITH the Lord want to stay within the fence. People WITHOUT the Lord try to reason where the fence should be. Too bad our thoughts are not like His thoughts; if we thought like Him, maybe we could know where the fences go. Sometimes it's confusing because people without the Lord are not all like an IRS agent or Idi Amin. There are many good people who do not have the Lord, but try to make their own righteous way. They just have no help processing their data about why they were made, or how their gifting cooperates with the larger Plan. I should know. I was on that "good works" hamster wheel for thirty years, putting on my own fig leaves. The trouble with the wheel is, you never know when you've been good enough. Now I prefer confident epectation in Christ.
Politically speaking, when a party adheres to major principles that cannot be supported in Scripture, they look frantically for some "other" high ground to justify their stance and claim moral superiority. That leads to some pretty interesting positions since, as my Grandmother used to say, "you never do wrong to do right". Of course, that's because God's high ground IS the only high ground.
African Americans have demonstrated their confidence in one political party by overwhelmingly (85-95%) voting Democratic for years. That party poses as their advocate, while actually holding them dependent on the government dole and a "victim" mentality. The Democrats were in power for 30 years in New Orleans...did they improve the plight of those people in the projects? Sadly, statistics show the welfare system has destroyed the black family. The faux high ground there was for the government to take the place of the black male as provider. But the structure of the family is God's design for taking care of His people and demonstrating His Abba Father relationship to us. High ground is to live in the family structure as He designed.
An emotional high ground is the pro-life issue. If the issue is presented as a woman's RIGHT, the right to choose is faux high ground because the Lord talks about knowing us in our mother's womb! Thinking constitutionally, wouldn't the baby as well as the woman have a right to life/liberty/pursuit of happiness? If there is any doubt about when life begins, doesn't it make sense to err on the side of caution? We will all stand guilty for many lost lives because our country has subsidized a lack of regard for what the Lord has to say about life, and those made in His image.
Torture. Everyone winces just to hear the word; no one wants the United States to torture. But I would offer that waterboarding is not torture. Ranger training includes waterboarding, so do we torture our own soldiers? It is an efficient, fairly humane way to make someone think (in a very short period of time) that they are dying without permanently harming them. On the other hand, torture is what the rest of the world does. Ask Jack Bauer. Last fall we were in NYC with an Israeli taxi driver who had immigrated to the US twenty years prior. He spoke of his early life as a soldier and being captured...and he named the countries around his that were the worst to captives. I would suggest that the faux high ground in this argument is the statement "the United States does not have to choose between it's ideals and safety...we will not torture". This statement shows desperate attempt to claim any ground at all in the military arena.
In June we went to the Canadian Rockies and saw a glacier that had receded waaaay back from the road. They had little signs that posted the glacier's progress back through time. One of the first signs said "1928". You know, in 1928 there was hardly the carbon footprint that we have today. What made it melt back then? Man without the Lord is pretty impressed with himself...and pretty big for his britches if he thinks he might have such a far-reaching impact on the globe. Surely something is going on, but I doubt that man is causing it. Faux high ground is to make this unproven science issue sound life threatening, therefore heroic to recognize and respond to.
It must be common for posers to inhabit faux high ground. Listen to these ethics promises and see if you can detect any posing..."We are the party of change and transparency in government. I will post legislation online five days prior to voting on it. I will go line by line and eliminate earmarks. There will no longer be a place for lobbyists in the Obama White House"...Barack Obama. And then my all-time favorite by Nancy Pelosi..."our party leadership is going to Washington to drain the swamp".
When things are put in order, if the Creator doesn't occupy first place, creation moves into that vacuum. Man is left to plead for a snaildarter instead of the life of an unborn baby...plead for the right to die, instead of for the right to live...or plead for a casual use of stem cells (http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/03/13/using_embryos_without_limit). Criminals are coddled because the death penalty is considered harsh; the environment is considered more important than the lives of people. Things are morally "upside down" just as when someone goes financially upside down in a home mortgage. Priorities get all whomper-jawed.
If we could just agree to agree with the Creator, we'd all be on high ground. Do you hear that old hymn..."this is my Father's world, O let me ne'er forget that tho the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father's world. The battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heav'n be one." Heaven is true high ground.
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him." Psalm 103:11
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