Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

• Matthew 5:22

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

• Matthew 5:27-28

“Born in Prussia, the philosopher Franz Brentano is best known for establishing psychology as a discipline in its own right Initially a priest, he was unable to reconcile himself with the concept of papal infallibility, and left the Church in 1873. Brentano believed that mental processes were not passive, but should be seen as intentional acts. His most highly regarded work is Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint. Its publication in 1874 led to him being offered a professorship at the University of Vienna, where he taught and inspired a host of illustrious students, including the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.”

• Sam Atkinson (senior editor), The Philosophy Book, Big Ideas Simply Explained

Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano, or simplyFranz Brentano (1838-1917) was a German philosopher and psychologist.  I was thinking of calling this “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.”  He left the priesthood over the idea of papal infallibility.  That might have been a good idea, but he jumped into the field of psychology, much of which I do not believe in.

Yet his idea that our thoughts are active processes is only shocking because it took from the Sermon on the Mount until 1874 for anyone to clearly state that our thoughts, at least many of them, are voluntary actions that we take, and we are guilty of sin when we “think” wrong thoughts.

We could say that Jesus was providing a preventive buffer.  If you harbor sinful thoughts, there won’t be too much time until you do sinful deeds.  Thus, to avoid doing the deed, let’s stop when we are just thinking about it.

But that is not what Jesus said.

We are guilty of “murder” for calling someone “Raca” or “Fool”.  Raca is Aramaic for empty-headed or fool (probably in the thought process thinking of fool).  Fool, according to what many say and Psalm 14:1 states, anyone who says there is no God is a fool.

So, it is in poor taste to call someone empty-headed.  I was about to go to the big boss’ office when I was working on the NASA project.  One of my friends reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a tire gauge.  He handed it to me and said, “You’ll need this.”  I asked him why.  He said, “With the gauntlet of airheads that you will pass to get to his office, you’ll need to check their heads for air pressure.”

I refused the tire gauge, but the others in our group told me that I would regret turning down the offer.

I was not the political type, so I had not wandered into the “head shed” of the project.  This time, I was called in to answer some questions about how people would become certified at their jobs.

It was like the “head shed” was a different building.  I went through a single door and the room that I entered looked like you could have ballroom dancing in there with room left over.  The first secretary challenged why I was even there.  Then another secretary made some comments that one of the bosses was expecting someone.  Then a third secretary added comments that muddied the waters.  I looked around and there were three office doors, one for each president of the consortium: 1. the oversight corporation that also handled facility maintenance, for which I worked, 2. The operations corporation, and 3. The construction corporation.  The problem was that no one had a name or a company logo on the door.  But it would have done me no good, four secretaries were arguing whether I should even exist or not and I had a badge showing that I was an employee.  Finally, the fifth secretary got up from her desk and looked at a notepad.  She checked my badge, but she asked me what my name was just in case I was an imposter that looked exactly like myself.  My meeting was very cordial and the big boss said I would have to put on a political hat to let the locals know that we had the certification of poor dirt farmers well in hand.  Actually, the poor dirt farmer idea bothered us.  About half of our applicants that we had already had could not read or write.  The HR personnel required them to fill out the application on site, and they had a literate friend come along to fill out the application for them.

But in just 5 minutes in the “head shed” I learned what the need for a tire gauge meant, but where is the valve stem?

Of course, I have written this before about calling someone a fool, in biblical terms.  You are saying that they must not think there is a God and thus they are going to Hell.  That is a rash claim when all they did was cut you off in traffic or got you the wrong change from the register when you paid cash.

And lusting upon someone?  Seeing a little more than you thought you might see and looking away is one thing.  Watching to see if the impending wardrobe malfunction will go any further is quite a different topic.

And Jesus pointed this out 1840 years, give or take a couple before Brentano published his book.  Did we simply think that we could not help it when our minds went down those rabbit holes?

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.