{"id":75187,"date":"2020-05-25T16:55:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T13:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75187"},"modified":"2020-05-25T16:55:22","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T13:55:22","slug":"doing-the-right-thing-for-the-wrong-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/doing-the-right-thing-for-the-wrong-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing The Right Thing For The Wrong Reasons\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"75187","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37561,"related_cahpter":"488","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What would Eleanor do?","content":"

In NBC\u2019s philosophical comedy \u201cThe Good Place\u201d Eleanor Shellstrop, played by Kristen Bell, finds herself recently dead and in \u201cThe Good Place\u201d, only to quickly realize there has been a mistake. Eleanor was not a very good person when she was alive, and she doesn\u2019t belong in “The Good Place” at all. Eleanor tries to pretend she fits in with the other remarkable people in the \u201cneighborhood\u201d, but quickly changes tack and tries to convince another character to give her \u201cgood person lessons\u201d. While viewers enjoy the comedic value of Eleanor\u2019s studies in ethics and moral philosophy, they\u2019re also forced to confront a fundamental ethical conundrum: If we do the right thing, but we do it for the wrong reasons, is it still \u201cgood\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

This chapter of Ezekiel poses the same question\u2026 about us and God. Once again, we read in this chapter a promise from God to replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. <\/span>In chapter 11, I wrote about this switch <\/span><\/a>as evidence of a brave and vulnerable move towards living a fulfilling life. But in this chapter, the same seemingly compassionate act is not a show of God\u2019s love or a move towards a more whole-hearted human existence, but is really in God\u2019s self-serving interest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This chapter contains all the prophecies of salvation and restoration that a destroyed people could want: we will be back on our land, the land will be prosperous, and we will be returned to our former glory. But lest we think we deserve any of this, God claims that our \u201credemption\u201d is really just a way for God to save face. We may feel like we are living free on our land, but only in service of God. Even our new hearts of flesh will not be for our own benefit, but in service of God, \u201cthat I [God] will cause you to follow my laws and faithfully observe my rules\u201d. We get back everything we lost and more, but at the cost of our free will.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though God does not present this restoration as a choice to the Israelite people, we modern readers have the chance to consider: would we rather have a sort of redemption but know we don\u2019t deserve it? Or would we reject this \u201cfake\u201d redemption if it comes with ethical strings attached? And, perhaps ironically, if we choose option B, do we actually deserve the redemption more than if we had taken it in option A?<\/span><\/p>\n

image:\u00a0Official poster for the first season of “The Good Place” \/ wikipedia (fair use)<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":75188,"id":75188,"title":"ez36-good place","filename":"ez36-good-place.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/doing-the-right-thing-for-the-wrong-reasons\/ez36-good-place\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez36-good-place","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75187,"date":"2020-05-25 13:54:32","modified":"2020-05-25 13:54:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":247,"height":264,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","medium-width":247,"medium-height":264,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","medium_large-width":247,"medium_large-height":264,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","large-width":247,"large-height":264,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","1536x1536-width":247,"1536x1536-height":264,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","2048x2048-width":247,"2048x2048-height":264,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","post_full_size-width":247,"post_full_size-height":264,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","home_baner-width":247,"home_baner-height":264}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Doing The Right Thing For The Wrong Reasons\u00a0","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"What would Eleanor do?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":75188,"id":75188,"title":"ez36-good place","filename":"ez36-good-place.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/doing-the-right-thing-for-the-wrong-reasons\/ez36-good-place\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez36-good-place","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75187,"date":"2020-05-25 13:54:32","modified":"2020-05-25 13:54:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":247,"height":264,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","medium-width":247,"medium-height":264,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","medium_large-width":247,"medium_large-height":264,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","large-width":247,"large-height":264,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","1536x1536-width":247,"1536x1536-height":264,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","2048x2048-width":247,"2048x2048-height":264,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","post_full_size-width":247,"post_full_size-height":264,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-good-place.jpg","home_baner-width":247,"home_baner-height":264}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75189,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75187\/revisions\/75189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}