Wise as Serpents, Guileless as Doves

The blog is back, though the dissertation and other interruptions remain.  I will try to post frequently, but expect posts to be brief--perhaps two or three hundred words.  One day's thoughts will be continued later.  I'll try to title things accordingly, so that readers can follow a given thread of thought, even if I interrupt to post about more immediate news and chews.

There are a variety of reasons for reopening the blog now.  The short and sweet principle, however, which encompasses most of the specifics one way or another, is to practice rational discourse.

That's odd, isn't it?  A blog, after all, is the unfiltered, unchecked commentary of a single individual.  No friends, no followers, no editors.  What sort of place is this for rational discourse?

But of course, if one looks at Facebook, Twitter, or just about any news and editorial outlet these days, it becomes apparent that friends, followers, and editors are not always, or even, now, often, conducive to rational discourse.

"Rational discourse" is, in the sense in which I mean it, compatible with if not exactly identical to the attitude described in this post's titular quote: "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves."  It's advice that Christ gave to his disciples when sending them out to preach.  The line stands on its own, but the context matters (Matthew, ch.10):

[16] Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves. [17] But beware of men. For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. [18] And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles: [19] But when they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak. [20] For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.

[21] The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. [22] And you shall be hated by all men for my name's sake: but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved. [23] And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another. Amen I say to you, you shall not finish all the cities of Israel, till the Son of man come. [24] The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord. [25] It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the goodman of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household?

[26] Therefore fear them not. For nothing is covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid, that shall not be known. [27] That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops. [28] And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell. [29] Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. [30] But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

[31] Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows. [32] Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. [33] But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. [34] Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. [35] For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

[36] And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. [37] He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. [38] And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me. [39] He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it. [40] He that receiveth you, receiveth me: and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me.

[41] He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive the reward of a prophet: and he that receiveth a just man in the name of a just man, shall receive the reward of a just man. [42] And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.

I'm not going to try to unpack all of that or, indeed, any of it.  But it informs my notion of even secular rational discourse quite heavily; and since that is what this blog will be aiming to offer over the next weeks and months, it seemed fair to put it up front.

Caveat lector.