{"id":4581,"date":"2019-11-08T19:33:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T19:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=4581"},"modified":"2021-03-24T15:45:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T15:45:38","slug":"word-of-the-day-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2019\/11\/08\/word-of-the-day-measure\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Measure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Measure<\/em>: this is\none of those interesting words in English that is both a noun and a verb. I am\npretty sure that today we use it more often as a verb than as a noun: \u201cI need\nto measure the room.\u201d In fact, we probably use the noun measurement<\/em> far more often than the noun measure<\/em>. But we\u2019re going to focus on the noun measure<\/em>, which means \u201ca unit or standard of measurement.\u201d According\nto www.etymonline.com<\/a>, the word means “moderation,\ntemperance, abstemiousness” around 1200 CE, “instrument for\nmeasuring,” around 1300 CE, and comes \u201cfrom Old French mesure<\/em> \u2018limit, boundary; quantity,\ndimension; occasion, time\u2019 (12c.), from Latin mensura<\/em> \u2018a measuring, a measurement; thing to measure by,\u2019 from mensus<\/em>, past participle of metiri<\/em> \u2018to measure,\u2019 from PIE root *me<\/em><\/strong>–\n(2) \u2018to measure.\u2019 The native word was Old English cognate m\u00e6\u00f0<\/em> \u2018measure.\u2019” That Old English word is pronounced like\nmodern English math<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                On this\ndate in the year 392 CE, according to the OnThisDate website, the Roman Emperor\nTheodosius declared Christianity the official state religion of the Empire. The\nrelationship between Christianity and the Roman Empire was a roller coaster\nride. In 64 CE, the Emperor Nero blamed Christians for a fire that burned in\nRome for a week. In 93 CE, the Emperor Domitian began persecuting Christians\nfor refusing to pay proper respect to the Emperor and the Roman gods. In 250\nCE, the Emperor Decius led a major persecution of Christians, actually trying\nto eliminate Christianity from the Empire. Then, in 312 CE, Constantine the\nGreat converted to Christianity. There is a famous story about a vision Constantine\nhad before a big battle; in the vision, he saw a cross with the words in hoc signo vinces<\/em> (\u201cin this sign you\nwill conquer\u201d). Now, it is true that Constantine\u2019s mother was a Christian, so\nthe conversion shouldn\u2019t be too surprising\u2014we all do what our mothers tell us,\nright?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Constantine\nissued the Edict of Milan in 313, declaring tolerance for the Christian\nreligion. And it was under Constantine that the Council of Nicaea, one of the\nmost important moments in the history of the church, was held in 325. But it\ntook the rest of the century before Theodosius, the last emperor to rule both\nthe Eastern and Western Empires, made Christianity the official religion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                We\nshould remember this day (or whatever day it was\u2014historians differ) as one of\nthe saddest days in the history of Christ\u2019s church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Making\nChristianity the official religion led to the persecution of the old Roman\nreligion. In other words, the kind of suffering endured by Christians for 250\nyears was inflicted on worshippers of the old religion by the Christians. How\ncould they do that? Because suddenly the Christians had the political power\nneeded to persecute others. And particularly in the Western Roman Empire and\nthe nations that followed it after the collapse of the Western Empire, that\npolitical power continued for a very long time. And why is that a problem? Very\nsimply, as Lord Acton famously said, \u201cPower tends to corrupt, and absolute\npower corrupts absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The\nproblem is that people who find themselves in positions of power, whether it is\ngovernmental power or power within private organizations, tend to abuse that\npower. And they especially seem to use that power against the powerless, taking\nadvantage of them and repressing them, and (worst of all) justifying the\noppression by calling on their religious position. Think about the Spanish, who\njustified the near extermination of the indigenous peoples of South and Central\nAmerica by saying that they were converting the natives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now, I\u2019m not suggesting that people in positions of authority should never use that authority to chastise people who have gone wrong. But the chastisement needs to be tempered with mercy. And, perhaps most important of all, when people in positions of authority judge others, they need to keep in mind their own faults, their own weaknesses, as they judge others. As our Lord says, \u201cJudge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you\u201d (Matthew 7:1-2). Or, as Shakespeare\u2019s Duke Vincentio says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He who the sword of heaven will\nbear<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should be as holy as severe;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pattern in himself to know,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to stand, and virtue go;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More nor less to others paying<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Than by self-offences weighing. (Measure for Measure<\/em> 3.2) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, far too many people in positions of authority,\nincluding judges, politicians, priests, and college presidents, are far more\nsevere than they are holy. And it serves as only small consolation that\neventually those people will be measured by the measure they use to judge the\ndowntrodden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Measure: this is one of those interesting words in English that is both a noun and a verb. I am pretty sure that today we use it more often as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4584,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4581\/revisions\/4584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}