pseudo-individualism

Tuesday August 26^th, Romans 12:  4-6 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So much for the American spirit of rugged individualism.  Part of the problem faced by America today is the move toward the pseudo-individualism.  We hold up the façade of making it on our own, and damn those who dare ask for my tax money or government handouts while turning a blind eye to our own interdependence.  We drive on our roads to work in a big corporation that gets government contracts or tax breaks to produce a product that is helped to be safe and saleable by government regulation.  All the while we are looking down our noses at someone just wanting some food for their children.  It is not someone else that cuts us off from the body of Christ, but rather own actions and desires and pseudo-individualism.  Paul points out in some rather graphic ways just what happens when we do fool ourselves into the notion of rugged individualism, we not only die, we send out a bit of a stench in the rotting process.  A so called self-made man just stinks no matter which direction the wind blows.