Of Broken Eggs and Omelettes

Psalm 137:1-6 (New Living Translation)

Psalm 137

1 “Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem.[a]
2 We put away our lyres, hanging them on the branches of the willow trees.
3 For there our captors demanded a song of us. Our tormentors requested a joyful hymn: “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!”
4 But how can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill upon the harp.
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you, if I don't make Jerusalem my highest joy.”

Isn’t it funny how some memories linger, waiting in the recesses of our minds and hearts, waiting for what seem appointed times to surface? I often wonder when they come if they’re just products of dated bitterness of events long since past, memories of trying times in my life. Or, I also wonder, “Are they gifts from God, given to bring an opportunity for healing?” They’re so wispy, so difficult to describe or express in words that I’m puzzled when they rise up. And, they come accompanied by a strange mix of inner music, part martial, part sweet lullaby. Perhaps there’s a middle ground, a place where God’s healing and the bitter memories collide. Perhaps there’s a cosmic battle going on here and I’m ground zero. I can’t say for sure and leave those issues as matters of faith, to be sorted out somewhere further down the road.

But I feel compelled to express what I’m feeling. It’s an imperative.

These are really good days for me. That’s part of this odd mix. For the past week or so I’ve sensed that I’m really blessed. I see that blessing in a myriad of ways. I see it in Nancy most of all, in her gentle way, in her unswerving commitment to God and to me. I see it in the little things, in the chorus of birds who have protected a wayward blue jay chick in our back yard for the past few days. I heard it in the aviary quartet singing a cappella as I worked on my masterpiece on the grille last night. Off to my right I could hear the purple martins twittering. To my left came the chipping of a wren, responding in his own inimitable way. Not to be outdone, the redbirds chirped and the mourning doves cooed, adding the perfect touch to this glad little song. As I listened I was reminded of an old tune sung by Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem, a brief sample of which follows:

“All God’s creatures got a place in the choir
Some sing low and some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
Some just clap their hands our paws or anything they’ve got now.”

“Listen to the bass it’s the one at the bottom
Where the bullfrog croaks and hippopotamus
Moans and groans in the big tattoo
And the old cow just goes “moo”

“The dogs and the cats they take up the middle
Where the honey bee hums and the cricket fiddles
The donkey brays and pony neighs
And the old grey badger sighs”

“All God’s creatures got a place in the choir
Some sing low and some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
Some just clap their hands our paws or anything they’ve got now.”

Yes, I see God’s grace extended to me at every turn. I see it in the friends who visit, like the friends who came yesterday. I hear it in the conversations that wash gently through our house on these wonderful days. I can hear Nancy in the background, proclaiming most proudly, “Phil did this, isn’t he something, isn’t he wonderful?” as I try to focus on Doctor Mac’s animated discussion of politics, religion, the state of Emporia. I’m still amused by Gerald Clock’s tongue –in-cheek description of how he sneaks up on wild turkeys, which he revealed to us as we ate. “You’ve got to disguise the rifle and make them belief it’s a rake or some other garden implement,” he declared. I can still see the bemused look on his wife Ruth’s face as he revealed his secret. I can tell that she’s heard this story, and many like it. I ask and she tells me, “Oh yes, for thirty-eight years now.”

I’m grateful for all these little signposts of God’s goodness. They’re treasures for the keeping.

Yet, even with these blessings, there are still old memories that linger, and as I said earlier, spring up in the midst of these blessed times. This weekend, in the throes of the Memorial Day festivities, was such a time.

It all started when I reread Thomas Sowell’s “The Quest for Cosmic Justice.” There, on page one thirty-eight, was the trigger, in words:

“While many opponents of the Vietnam war on humanitarian grounds (myself included) were also horrified by the vast and traumatic exodus of the “boat people” fleeing the new regime in Vietnam, and still more so by the genocide carried out by the victorious Communist regime in Cambodia, those who opposed the war from the perspective of an ideological vision created no such uproar over the sufferings of the peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos after the Communist victories in Indochina. As with so many other issues, the fate of the ostensible beneficiaries was never an over-riding consideration, if it was a consideration at all. Long before the Vietnam war, the fates of other ostensible beneficiaries had been repeatedly brushed aside with phrases about “the growing pains of a new society” or “You can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs.” It was the vision that mattered, not the flesh-and-blood human beings who were viewed as incidental casualties in the vision.”

As I read those words, the memories came. There was my arrival in Saigon. I remember the smell of death that lingered in the air as I stepped onto the tarmac at Tan son Nhut as vividly as I remember the sounds of the birds singing in my back yard last night. I remember the daily memorials, part of a tradition, of GI’s saluting as trucks filled with empty boots, reminders of the deadly cost of what later became a futile conflict. I remember the processions of metal caskets that often followed them. The coffins were going back home filled with the “remains,” while the empty boots headed to some warehouse somewhere back in the “world.” I remember!

I remember my first brush with the protest movement that was gathering steam back stateside. It was in a setting somewhat removed from the daily grind of the war, sitting at the U.S.O in Saigon, speaking with some Quakers who had come to protest. They said they’d come because they “cared.” To this day, with all due respect, those words ring hollow to me. I remember!

I remember the fall of Saigon in April of seventy-five. The memories of that day are very fresh to me today. I remember the genteel language of the media. When parsed it really meant that you really can’t “make omelettes with breaking eggs.” I remember!

The memories of broken eggs bring on fresh remembrances, memories that tell me even now who really cared and who didn’t. I remember induction day in 1961. At the end of the ceremony, in which I swore to defend my country against all enemies and to do my duty as an American soldier, a Salvation Army chaplain prayed for us and gave us pocket New Testaments. I never understood the value of that brief moment until years later. Who really cared back then? Well, there were no policy makers there wishing me well. There was no contingent of college students thanking me and the others who were leaving for our willingness to serve so that they could enjoy the luxury of an education. There was only a Salvation Army chaplain. Who really cared? I know the answer.

The memories go back even further now. I remember being, as the sociologists and the politically liberated left described me in my youth. “Look at this poor kid. His father’s a drunk and his mother’s a dolt. There’s no hope for him.” I think about it now and see that, from their ideological position, they were just describing another “broken egg.”

And so the memories come. The bitter mix with the sweet. They come and I wonder once more – “Is this just bitterness, old wounds, resurfacing for no reason or is this an opportunity to forgive.” “Or,” I wonder. “Is it something else?” I feel conflicted by it all, yet not abandoned. I feel anger, but I’m not overwhelmed by it. As the bitter mixes with the sweet I sense that God’s grace finds its way even to the “broken eggs” of this world. For that I am very, very grateful.

The thought now strikes me – should I just forget about all that’s passed? As I ponder that thought, the psalmist’s words come to me once more:

Psalm 137:5-6 (New Living Translation)

5 “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill upon the harp.
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you, if I don't make Jerusalem my highest joy.”

No, I cannot forget, nor should I. These bitter memories, along with the sweet, are part of me. They’ve shaped me. They’ve informed my politics, my religion, my life. I’m sure the advice will come. “Forget.” “Let go.” “Live and let live.”

Perhaps some day, but not today. Today, I’m left with the temporal reality. I am what I am; I am who I am. I am only left with the words of the poet to describe what I’m now feeling:

“I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.”

“I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night.
In the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light,
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.”

“I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me.
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like very grain of sand.”

In the end I see that I, “broken egg” that I am, am also like the sparrow that falls. I’m known and remembered, even treasured. The thought overwhelms me now and I offer a prayer for those other “broken eggs,” those failed social experiments conducted by the uncaring ideologues. In the rush of experimentation and “ideas,” they’ve been forgotten. But the psalmist’s words remind me that, like Jerusalem, I cannot forget Saigon or those broken in its aftermath.

I remember!

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We Owe Them More Than Music and Muffled Drums

Exodus 12:14 (New Living Translation)

14 “You must remember this day forever. Each year you will celebrate it as a special festival to the LORD.”

Holy Writ encourages us to remember. The word, in its various forms (remember, remembrance, etc.) is mentioned almost three hundred times in scripture. By way of comparison, the word forget in its various forms (forget, forgetting, etc) is mentioned less than a hundred.

It’s Memorial Day; a day Americans set aside not only to enjoy the blessings of liberty, but also to honor those who have fallen so that we might enjoy those blessings.

This wonderful tradition of remembrance goes back nearly a century and a half now:

“While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.”

This day of remembrance was codified by General John Logan when he issued “General Orders No. 11 on May 5, 1868” The preamble to that document follows. If you want to research further, use the link in the first sentence of this paragraph:

“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.”

It’s been an American tradition since.

At a time when America’s sons and daughters are, in the great tradition of service passed down through the generations, serving freedom’s cause, I believe it’s important that we take the time to reflect upon their service and sacrifice.

To that end, I’m posting a poem written by Walt Whitman, honoring a father and son who had fallen in the Civil War. Whitman saw that we need to give those who have served not only the bugles and drums of mourning, but that we must also give them our love.

The best way we can do that, I believe, is to carry on the noble and necessary work they advanced even in falling:

Dirge for Two Veterans
By
Walt Whitman

"The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here and there beyond, it is looking,
Down on a new-made double grave.

Lo! the moon ascending,
Up from the east, the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,
(‘Tis some mother large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense, with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my solders twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon give you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,

My heart gives you love."

Time to Consider - Sunday Morning Thoughts From Oswald Chambers

Matthew 6:20-29 (New Living Translation)

20 “Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. 21Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.
22"Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. 23But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!
24"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
25"So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life--whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn't life consist of more than food and clothing? 26Look at the birds. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. 27Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.
28"And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, 29yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.”

Yesterday Nancy and I spent some time working outside. For me, it was merely labor. For her it was a labor of love. I was doing some concrete work on a section of buckled sidewalk with a friend. A few hours of doing that sort of thing makes a fella’ really appreciate retirement and leisure.

Nancy worked in the garden, watering a whitebud tree we’d planted on Monday. It was looking rather pitiful yesterday morning, with its large, heart-shaped leaves drooping. I’m looking at it outside my window this morning and it has the appearance of being very grateful for the care she gave it. I think it will make it. I’m also noticing that our coreopsis are now blooming. They’re absolutely grand. And, some of our lilies along the south side of the house are also in bloom.

Nancy’s also guarding a baby bluejay who had fallen out of its nest a few days ago. She’s making sure that Maizey, the calico cat who has adopted our front porch swing for a home, steers clear of this crisis. What this all means for Maizey is pampering. About every hour or so, either Nancy or I dutifully brings more food out to her, hoping that in doing so it will keep Maizey behaving the “better angels of her nature.” Since the fall, all the birds who frequent our back yard have been protecting the wayward child with incredible vigor, squawking at and dive bombing any perceived enemy. The cacophony of sound speaks to a very unlikely back-yard alliance, a mother blue jay, a wren, two or three redbirds. Even the starlings have taken up the little one’s cause. They, along with Nancy, are giving the chick every chance to make it. Given that, I think the little one will advance into adulthood.

Right now, there’s a wonderful stillness emanating from outside my window. The flowers are in bloom. The little one has made it to a fairly high branch in our ash tree. It appears that his tail feathers are much more developed than they were yesterday. Its mother, the wren, the redbirds, and the starlings are all very quiet. I take it as a good sign, that the fell good about the state of our back yard affairs. Pretty soon now and he’ll be able to navigate with a full rudder, then take wing, all thanks to Nancy and some feathered allies.

I see all of this and realize that it’s a wonderful time of the year, a time, for me at least, to reflect on the goodness of life

Holy Writ recommends that we take time to “consider,” to reflect upon the natural world and draw lessons for our lives. In doing so, we are told, we will see that much of what we “toil and spin” for is quite illusory, and cannot compare with the life lived in the gentle grasp of God’s grace.

Oswald Chambers, in his “Devotions for Morning and Evening,” put it this way:

“Consider the lilies. (Matthew 6:28)”

“When Jesus said “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow,” He was referring to the new life in us. If we make His words apply to the natural life only, we make Him appear foolish. If we are born of God and are obeying Him, the unconscious life is forming in us just where we are. God knows exactly the kind of garden to put His lilies in, and they grow and take form unconsciously. What is it that deforms natural beauty? Overmuch cultivation; and overmuch denominational teaching will deform beauty in the spiritual world.”

“The new life must go on and take form unconsciously. God is looking after it; He knows exactly the kind of nourishment as well as the kind of disintegration that is necessary. Be careful that you do not bury the new life, or put it into circumstances where it cannot grow. A lily can only grow in the surroundings that suit it, and in the same way God engineers the circumstances that are best fitted for the development of the life of His Son in us.”

I’m reflecting on these things, especially the beauty of the grace I’ve been given. I hope you are too. Have a great Sunday!

Universalism, or How an Unrepentant Hitler Could Make it into Heaven

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “Thy will be done.”

- C.S. Lewis – “The Great Divorce”

There was a rather startling op-ed piece in Wednesday night’s Gazette. Reverend Jim Darby, responding to an earlier letter to the Gazette about “basic tenets” of the Christian faith had this to say about the writer:

“He was especially concerned to point out that “The most basic tenet of the Christian faith is that there is only one way, one truth, and one life. (John 14:6)”

The passage Reverend Darby cited follows, along with John 14:7, for contextual purposes:

John 14:6-7 (New International Version)

6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know[a] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him”

Jesus’ answer was in response to a question from one of his disciples, Philip, who wanted to know where Jesus was going, which was heaven, and how he could even possibly know how he himself could get to the place where Jesus was going.

That’s the context. I believe it’s a statement of Jesus’ exclusivity and it’s clearly a basic tenet of the Christian faith.

Reverend Darby objected, noting that “God is love” ( I John 4:8b) is the most basic tenet of the faith.

I’ll cite that passage, along with verses one through seven, for contextual purposes:

1 John 4:1-8 (New International Version)

1 John 4

Test the Spirits

1 “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

It seems clear from this passage that love, too, is a basic tenet of the Christian faith. But, embedded in the text there is also a test of spirits, answering the question “How can I tell if someone is speaking on behalf of God?” Given that context, it affirms the exclusivity of Jesus (see verse 3).

Nevertheless, Reverend Darby closed his comments with this:

“For me (my emphasis added), Christ is the only way for my (my emphasis added) salvation. I cherish the Scriptures that speak of Christ in this way as sacred texts written by Christians, for Christians, in a hostile world. My life is given to the service of Christ. We share many things in common. Where we differ on this point is that I will not extrapolate my personal faith to a declaration that limits the sovereignty of God.”

Beyond the noble language employed, there are some critical, eternally relevant, questions that need to be asked, and answered.

After reading the op-ed, the first questions that came to mind were these – Does the Christian claim that Jesus is the only way to heaven exclude love for one’s neighbor? Does this claim amount to bigotry?

The answer to both is clearly, “No!”

I’ll cite my reasons from personal experience. I recall vividly while I was in Vietnam that most people seemed quite amused with the fact that I was destroying my life. And why not. I was quite amusing in those days, fun to listen to. As I look back on it now I see that most people I knew then cared little about what I was doing with my life and where I was going. One of the few who did care was a fella’ named Tim Harrington. He came to me once and just laid it right on the line. “Dillon,” he said. “You’re a real joke. You think all these people are laughin’ with you, but they’re not. They’re just laughing at you. You’re pathetic.” The words, of course, enraged me. But he didn’t stop there. “I’m one of the only people who really cares about you. Do you know that? You’re wasting your life. You’re a real jerk and it doesn’t have to be that way.”

It took me nearly a year, along with the help of Paul Vartenisian, another of the men who really cared, to see that what Tim Harrington was telling me was the truth. He and Paul played vital roles in my return to sanity. The others? They just laughed.

I ask you, who really loved me back then? Was it the people who didn’t want to “confront” me with the truth? Or was it Tim Harrington? The answer is obvious.

Now, to the question of the exclusivity of Jesus Vis a Vis bigotry. One of my closest work relationships was with a fellow engineer, a devout Muslim, while I was living in New Jersey. He was a new employee and it was my task/privilege to help mentor him. I recall many of the wonderful times we had together and I learned a great deal about him. As a devout Muslim, he acted out of a firm belief that his day to day work was an act of worship. Who would, or could not, admire that? I also greatly admired his ethics. And he, in the same manner, admired me. That relationship grew to the point where we often discussed matters of great import. As a Palestinian he often spoke of his dream of a day when there would be a Palestinian homeland. I told him that I shared that dream, and further dreamed of a Middle-East that would be a secure home to Israelis and Palestinians living in peace. Most important of all, I shared my faith with him. I loved this man enough to tell him the truth; love compelled me to do so. I could not, in good conscience, say that I loved him like a brother, and then not tell him what I believed to be true. He listened, but never came to a point of decision. Never once did he tell me that my belief that Jesus was the only way to heaven was bigotry. He rejected it, but not once did he ever accuse me of not caring about him.

There was a time when he left open the possibility that I, as a “person of the Book,” might one day make it to heaven. But he knew that he too had to be true to his faith, as I had to be to mine. After all, his “way” was every bit as exclusive as mine.

He once said that “One day this question will be answered.” I told him that that was only half true. Sure enough, one day we will all find out. But, just as surely, Jesus made the startling claim that He is the Way. He answered the question! And, he proved that He was correct in making that claim by His life, death, burial, and resurrection. That is normative Christian belief!

There’s a part of me that would like to believe that, in the end, we’ll all make it. But that’s wishful thinking, a Freudian illusion, as Norm Geisler once put it. Reverend Darby’s mistaken belief stems from the notion that “love will conquer all” and that all will be saved. It’s the notion that there are many paths, and each one is as viable as the next. I have one. You might have another. In the end we’ll all get to heaven by following our own paths. It’s the view, called universalism, that some have just as mistakenly held throughout Church history.

The view does not hold up in the face of truth. If we all get there in the end, it renders Jesus’ life, His sacrifice, and His resurrection utterly meaningless. If Reverend Darby is right, then normative Christianity, its core truth, is also utterly meaningless:

1 Corinthians 15:13-17 (New Living Translation)

13 “For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless. 15And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can't be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins.”

This all comes for me at a time when I’ve expressed my belief that there are times when we need to compromise for the sake of unity within the national community. But there are also times when there is absolutely no room for compromise. This is indeed the case when it comes to the core belief that Jesus is the only Way to heaven, that He is the only one who can redeem man from his sinful plight.

There are times when the temptation to dispose of the truth for the sake of unity is very powerful. After all, I, and millions of other Christians, live and work every day with people within our own communities who woo us with the universalist message. But it’s an empty message, a message that says that there is no price tag on reconciliation. It’s a faulty message that opens heaven to an unrepentant Hitler or Pol Pot. It’s a message that tickles the intellect and the ego, but it has no power to redeem. In the end it’s nothing more than an empty illusion. The people I know, the people I see every day, the people I love, deserve more than that. They deserve to know the Truth!

There Oughta' Be a Provision for Time-Outs in the Game of Life

Isaiah 40:6-8 (King James Version)

6 “The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

Nancy and I spent a good part of yesterday in Kansas City. We were there partly for pleasure and partly for business.

At about one-thirty we met her cousin, Bill Berrier, and his wife Barb, for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza. The food was good, and the company was marvelous. Bill and Barb live near San Diego and had come to town for three reasons. Bill is going to be attending his 50th high school reunion this weekend, and this trip to renew high school friendships gave him and Barb a good reason to come in and visit with Bill’s dad, who everyone in the family, whether related by blood or not, calls Uncle Arthur. Arthur’s now a hundred and one and still going strong. Amazing! I told Bill and Barb that I think Arthur has a good chance at one day claiming the title “Oldest living American.” Nancy believes his key to success is that he absolutely never gets stressed out. I think she’s right. At almost every family gathering I’ve ever attended in the years Nancy and I have been married Arthur has been the one who quietly observed while the Catrons, Berriers, and the rest of the family discussed politics, religion, philosophy, liberalism versus conservatism, and other taboos while Arthur just sat and watched, amused, as the rest of us flailed our way through all these minefields over apple and gooseberry pies. Well, Arthur’s a hundred and one and going strong. There’s a lesson in that for the rest of us, I’m sure.

There was another reason for Bill and Barb’s visit. Bill and Nancy are caretakers, with Bill handling the primary duties, in Nancy’s aunt’s affairs and living arrangements. Myrtle, who will soon be eighty eight, had a stroke some time ago that was debilitating, and has since had a second one that further degraded her health. She is living at home, with the assistance of a managed care group. Right after lunch we took time to meet with the managed care group to go over Myrtle’s care, assess her health, and figure out how things need to proceed from this point.

There was a lot of good that came out of the meeting. Nancy was especially concerned over what would happen at some point in the future when/if Myrtle couldn’t or wouldn’t eat, that sort of thing. She wondered out loud whether a nursing home would be necessary. The group reassured her that Myrtle would be able to spend whatever time she has remaining at home. At some point, hospice care would almost certainly be necessary and we found out that it would be available to Myrtle. I believe this was a great comfort to Nancy, as well as the rest of us.

That said, I think this is a very trying time for Nancy. She had a very special bond with her aunt and having to see her life slip away, with her ability to communicate rapidly fading, is very painful. Myrtle was a mentor of sorts to Nancy. I’ve seen how special that relationship was. Nancy is a great lover of the arts and culture, and refined things like home decor. This she picked up from her aunt, who was a graduate of the art institute in Kansas City, and was also a fashion designer. She was polished, dignified, an exceedingly kind woman. Nancy’s always cherished their time together, which has become more infrequent over the years. I remember a very special visit they shared when we lived in New Jersey, the highlight of which was a night the two spent at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Nancy was just in seventh heaven as they left for the city and was beaming for days after the visit was over. But beyond those obviously special times, Nancy just loved being able to spend time with her aunt.

We left the meeting with the caretakers at about four; dropped Bill and Barb off at their rental car, and headed back south to Emporia. As soon as we got past the point at which interstate 35 goes from three lanes to two, I relaxed a bit, knowing that the traffic was going be a whole lot lighter from that point on. I think it was somewhere right around the southbound weigh station that it all hit me. It just didn’t seem fair at all, someone as refined as Myrtle now seemingly lost in a nether world, slowly losing her grip on reality. I’m not sure that I put it the right way, but I tried my best. “You know what, Coach? I think that life oughta’ be like NBA basketball games, especially the way they are at the end.” Nancy looked over at me quizzically, so I fumbled around some more, trying to explain how I felt. “I mean, it’s all those time outs. It all starts with about a minute left in the game. The losing team calls a time out and the clock stops. For the next three our four minutes they all get together and strategize, to find a way to overcome the deficit. Play then resumes for another eight or nine seconds and time is again called. There’s more strategizing and play once again resumes. At about the thirty second point it all happens again. And, it keeps on happening right till the end. I mean, Coach, the last nine seconds of a thriller lasts about two hours.”
“I see what you mean,” Nancy said, chuckling a bit.
I went on rambling. “I mean. I think life would be much fairer if we could all get to call a certain number of time outs at crunch time. I just think it would be a very fair approach, some time when things stand still and we could find ways to undo our mistakes or outsmart the opposition.”
Nancy didn’t say anything, but I think I know what she was thinking. Of the two of us, she’s the one who most often deals in the hypotheticals, the “what ifs.” My response is almost always the same when I hear them – “Hypothesis contrary to fact.” I’m quite certain that’s what Nancy was thinking as I was offering mine.

Something else struck me as we were moving south, and it was very, very close to home. There may come a time when reality slips away from one, or both of us. Now, I’m not a maudlin person, but I sense that I’m about midway through the third quarter now. The road ahead I never thought much about in quarters one and two is approaching and the game is going to end in another quarter or so. Knowing that, it just seemed to me that it would be really nice to have some time outs in the fourth quarter for myself.

Somewhere around Ottawa I began to see it all coming together in my mind’s eye. It was something like a Celtics game, with Johhny Most doing the play-by-play “high above courtside.” I remembered those old, glory days, when Johnny, with his high pitched, nasal voice would describe the action. “Cousy tricky dribbles to the right…..behind the back pass to Russell in the pivot…..over to Sharman at the top of the key…..a twenty footer…..swish!” Then, as we moved south of Ottawa, things changed. Johnny was still “high above courtside,” but he was describing the end of my game in life, with a minute left, complete with time outs for crunch time. “Dilly’s gotta’ call time here. That second quarter sprint he made has got him winded right now. He’s gotta’ call time.” Two time outs later it sounded like this. “Dillon to the top of the key…..around the pick…..left handed dribble…..lays it up and in.” Then, with that grand ending to a close, close game, he proclaimed for all to hear – “That Dillon really finishes well.”

I’m now home and it’s Wednesday afternoon. Reality has, of course, set in. My dream of a life with plenty of time outs is nothing more than a hypothesis contrary to fact. No one gets time outs in the game of life. Nancy’s aunt Myrtle doesn’t, nor do I. The clock doesn’t stop for any of us. We aren’t given an opportunity to strategize while time stands still.

There’s a real lesson in this fanciful dream. It’s all about today. It’s all about now. Holy Writ puts it this way:

Hebrews 3:12-15 (New Living Translation)

12 “Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters.[a] Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13You must warn each other every day, as long as it is called “today,” (my emphasis added) so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 15But never forget the warning:

“Today (my emphasis added) you must listen to his voice. Don't harden your hearts against him as Israel did when they rebelled.”

Some reading this post may be young and vibrant, living life in the first quarter. Some may be feeling very strong and independent, fresh off a second quarter spurt. But, I’m here to tell you that the fourth quarter is coming and there are no time outs that will be made available to you. It’s all about today, and you really need to think about that.

Compromise is Not a Four Letter Word

Genesis 41:37-44 (New Living Translation)

37 “Joseph's suggestions were well received by Pharaoh and his advisers. 38As they discussed who should be appointed for the job, Pharaoh said, “Who could do it better than Joseph? For he is a man who is obviously filled with the spirit of God.” 39Turning to Joseph, Pharaoh said, “Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, you are the wisest man in the land! 40I hereby appoint you to direct this project. You will manage my household and organize all my people. Only I will have a rank higher than yours.”
41And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.” 42Then Pharaoh placed his own signet ring on Joseph's finger as a symbol of his authority. He dressed him in beautiful clothing and placed the royal gold chain about his neck. 43Pharaoh also gave Joseph the chariot of his second-in-command, and wherever he went the command was shouted, “Kneel down!” So Joseph was put in charge of all Egypt. 44And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am the king, but no one will move a hand or a foot in the entire land of Egypt without your approval.”

Well, the deal has been struck. There will be no filibuster on three of George Bush’s judicial nominees. The people’s business will once again, after a nasty hiatus, be moved forward. How did fourteen senators find an avenue of compromise? Part IIA of the memorandum of understanding’s language they drafted relies heavily on trust and good will, a commodity in short supply these days in Washington. I believe it’s the most sensible, the most Godly way, to finally end this crisis:

“A. Future Nominations Signatories will exercise their responsibilities (my emphasis added) under the Advice and Consent Clause of the United State Constitution in good faith (my emphasis added). Nominees should only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances, and each signatory must use his or her own discretion and judgement (my emphasis added) in determining whether such circumstances exist.”

The agreement has, of course, fueled pundits on the left and the right about the correctness of the deal. On the right, Neil Boortz had this to say:

“But let's talk more about the Republicans. They had total and complete victory in their hands, and they gave it up. Would the Democrats do that? Of course not! Democrats play for keeps. They know that when you have your opponent on the ropes, you don't feel sorry for them, worry about their "minority rights" and offer them something they're not entitled to. You put your foot on their throat and defeat them by the widest margin of victory possible. The Republicans gained seats in the Senate in the last election. They defeated the sitting Democratic leader over this very issue. They should have voted to change the rules on the first day of business back in January. Now that they have the votes, it should have been simple. Slam the door on the Democrats obstruction, just as voters elected them to do. Reverse the rolls here. How many of you really believe that the Democrats wouldn't have changed the Senate rules if it had been Republicans filibustering Democratic nominees?”

On the left, E.J. Dionne made this observation:

“The deal is not perfect. There are grounds to worry that the federal judiciary will be dominated at the end of the Bush years by a certain style of conservative -- Janice Rogers Brown is representative -- ready to roll back the New Deal jurisprudence of the last 70 years. Many who buy this legal approach preach that federal rules on wages and hours, environmental and business regulation, should be overturned by courts that would use 19th-century standards to void Washington's capacity to create rational standards for a complex 21st-century economy. Stopping such a judicial takeover would justify filibusters.”

I guess what I’m taking away from all of this is that the fire-eaters are about the only ones who are unhappy about this. And, I don’t for the life of me understand why. What is so bad about compromise in this case, anyway? And, why is it that so many conservative Christians fail to see the value of compromise?

In this case I’ve actually found myself aligned with the Washington Post:

“The deal is admittedly messy. Some nominees get votes, some still don't; the principle isn't terribly clear. It isn't specified what constitutes "extraordinary circumstances"; the members have to trust in one another's good faith. But the deal is far better than the alternative.”

There is ample Biblical warrant for finding avenues of compromise. Good will and trust must prevail for the sake of the entire American community, which includes believers and non-believers, Democrats and Republicans, liberals, conservatives, centrists, men and women, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and atheists. I read Romans twelve and it seems so evident that I find it difficult to understand why so many of my “fellows” can’t see it:

Romans 12:16-18 (New Living Translation)

16 “Live in harmony with each other. Don't try to act important, but enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don't think you know it all!
17Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. 18Do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible.”

There are two things that are driving this madness. First, for far too many conservatives, particularly Christians, and for as many liberals, again Christians, there is a heavy reliance on dogma and power rather than grace and unity. The result has been that politics, which should be an arena where all are represented, has become more and more polarized, with both sides seemingly determined to lock the other out. If the situation with the filibusters had been allowed to continue spinning out of control or if the “nuclear option” had been used there would be absolute chaos right now in the halls of congress. Some might think that this gridlock would be a good thing, but I don’t. At a time when we’re engaged in a war on terror, at a time when programs like social security need to be fixed, at a time when China is flexing its economic muscle against us, at a time when North Korea and Iran are on the brink of joining the nuclear family, it would be foolhardy to continue to act in such an adversarial manner. We are countrymen and we need each other. The name of the game here shouldn’t be about who can maintain power; it should be about who is willing to serve the interests of all Americans.

I’m afraid that political power has corrupted both the left and the right in this sordid political chapter. The left is now determined to either regain power or render the process meaningless with endless filibusters. The right seems every bit as determined to keep the power it has gained in the past ten years, willing to use the “nuclear option” to maintain their tight grip on the reins. We, the citizenry, are caught in the middle of this foolish game. Monday night’s compromise, at least temporarily, has restored some sanity to the process.

The second thing that is driving this is that Christian communities, both left and right, are relying far too heavily on the persuasive power of “superheroes” who have little or nothing to do with the household of faith. For many Christian conservatives, Rush Limbaugh and other pundits seem to have replaced Holy Writ and Jesus Himself as the center of faith, belief, and practice. And it’s no different on the left. There are the disciples of Molly Ivins or some other anointed “guru” there as well.

Sadly, even within the Christian community's pantheon of superheroes there are marked divisions. For every James Dobson on the right there’s a Jim Wallis on the left.

The compromise reached Monday will, for the time being, bring some civility back into the political process. To those on the left and right of the temporal equation this compromise probably seems like an empty gesture. This is due in large part to the fact that they have no inclination to trust anyone whose politics differs from theirs. I believe they’re dead wrong. I further believe that the fourteen who struck the deal saw the need for trust and good will to prevail. And, I honestly believe they’re the ones who are right. This society cannot make any progress without trust and good will.

As Christians, we should understand and embrace this principle. By so doing, we will not be abandoning our faith, nor will we be forsaking Biblical mandates for life and living. We’ll simply be living by the principle of living in harmony, which is sanctioned by Almighty God. It’s the same principle that strengthened Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon. If these men, our ancestors, could thrive, by God’s grace, in these hostile cultures, I believe we can in ours as well. In fact, I believe we must!

Sweet Sorrow

2 Corinthians 13:11 (King James Version)

11 “Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.”

Dr. Mac said it best Sunday night as the rendering of some of the history of some close friends was beginning. Parting is, indeed, sweet sorrow.

Kent and Pat Austin, two of Victory Fellowship’s charter members are moving to Colorado within a month. They’ve lived in Emporia, and served the church faithfully for twenty years. At a time when many people have found the habit of flitting from church to church, shopping for the “best programs” or the “most entertaining” preaching, their tenure here was a remarkable example of faithfulness. They came to lead in the foundation of a Christian school here in Emporia and stayed on as the school, and the church, grew.

Their contribution has been remarkable, especially in terms of the number of children and young people their work of service touched.

There was a reception held to honor them for that service, and about fifty members, including Nancy and I, attended.

I didn’t get to know Kent and Pat as well as I would have liked to, so the reception provided me a great opportunity to do just that.

After the obligatory snacks and punch, we all settled in while some of the members who had more in-depth history with Kent and Pat told some humorous “stories” about them.

Now, I thought I’d had real barrel of laughs at the men’s retreat, but that was nothing compared to Sunday night’s affair. I laughed until my sides hurt.

I’m going to relay a bit of what I heard, partly to give you a glimpse of these wonderful folks, and partly to show that evangelical Christianity isn’t the dry, boring life its detractors have made it out to be.

First, I’m going to spend some time describing Kent and Pat. Just pretend that you’re listening to a forties radio show and come along with me. You’ll understand why I’m using the imagery of radio shortly.

Kent is a burly-chested man with what appears to be a perpetual tan. I’ve never asked him, but I’ve always been curious about how he could stay so tanned here in the Flint Hills. I understand how it could happen in the summer, but the tan seems to even stay for the winter. Now he doesn’t appear to be the type of guy who would sit in a tanning bed, but since I’ve never asked I can’t say. His face is round with an ever-present smile etched on it. His hair his thinning on the top, I believe at about the same pace as mine. Since he has a few years on me I feel comfortable in saying that I might have a strand or two more than him. But, it’s a close race.

Pat is a petite woman, and, like Kent, she has a smile etched wonderfully on her face. The most prominent thing I’ve noticed about her, though, is that her eyes are quite expressive. It’s almost as if she has listening eyes, if that makes sense. I think what I’m trying to say is that, in conversation, folks speaking to her have her undivided attention. She’s an apt listener. I can see that because her eyes don’t wander off. This ability to focus on others also shows in her remarkable ability to recall the minutest details of events and conversations. And then there’s her laugh. When something hits her funny bone, the laughter comes in short bursts, like it was shot out of a machine gun. It is simply one of the most infectious laughs I have ever heard.

Kent seems to be the more outgoing of the two, at least at first glance. But, after attending the reception I got to see things much more clearly. The best way I can describe the relationship is that Pat appears to me to be Gracie Allen and Kent appears to be George Burns. Now I’m not sure, but I think that Kent has believed that he’s had the best punch lines for years, but Pat has found those wonderful, delicate ways to upstage him at almost every turn.

There’s a Burns and Allen routine that I found that does much more than I could ever say to describe Kent and Pat. In the routine, George is playing the straight man and Gracie is getting all the zingers. George tries, and does get a good line or two in, but the show is really Gracie’s. The discussion is about the list of the greatest men of the twentieth century. It begins with Gracie asking a question:

GRACIE - Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill. How can they pick men like that to head the list?
GEORGE - I'm intrested to know, Gracie, who is your choice?
GRACIE - Need you ask, George? I'm thinking of a man whose glorious romantic voice has thrilled millions.
GEORGE - “The birds are sweetly singing and perfumed flowers are bringing in the wind”
GRACIE - No, a man whose charm and talent are world-famous.
GEORGE - Gracie, this is getting embarrassing.
GRACIE - Only one man should top this list--Charles Boyer.
[laughter]
GEORGE - Charles Boyer?
GRACIE - Uh-huh.
GEORGE - You put him ahead of Edison?
GRACIE - Yep.
GEORGE - Edison invented the electric lights.
GRACIE - With Boyer, who needs them?
[laughter]
GEORGE - Gracie, there are some pretty great men on this list.
GRACIE - Not as great as Boyer. Well, look at these names. Arturo Toscanini, conductor. How do you like that? A man who punches transfers.
[laughter]
GEORGE - He happens to be a musical conductor.
GRACIE - All right, so he hums while he punches transfers. And here's another one, Einstein. Now what did he do?
GEORGE - Einstein?
GRACIE - Yes.
GEORGE - What did he do?
GRACIE - Uh-huh.
GEORGE - He's the father of relativity.
GRACIE - Oh, what does she do?
[laughter]
GEORGE - Relativity Einstein?
GRACIE - Yeah.
GEORGE - She's at Warner Bros.
[laughter]
GEORGE - You know, Gracie, for a minute there, instead of Boyer, I thought that you thought that I belonged on that list of great men.
GRACIE - Oh. Oh, well, you see, George, you're my husband and I don't think of you as a man.
[laughter]
GEORGE - Well, thanks.
GRACIE - I mean, I don't think of you as a man who does anything.
[laughter]
GEORGE - Thanks again.
GRACIE - I mean, I don't think of you as a man that does anything romantic.
[laughter]
GEORGE - A triple thanks, and stop thinking about me.
GRACIE - Aw, now I've hurt your feelings, and I didn't mean to, George. You know, I'd rather be married to you than any man on this list: Churchill, Edison, Stalin, Hitler.
[laughter]
GEORGE - You have just earned me fourth “Thank you.”

That’s exactly how things work with Kent and Pat.

One after another, folks recounted some of the funny tales they remembered from their times with Kent and Pat. There’s one that will show you why I believe the resemblance to Burns and Allen is right on target. I’m not sure if I’ll get every detail correct, but it’ll be close enough. There was a time some years ago when Kent was having problems with his sinuses. It got bad enough to require professional attention. Upon seeing a doctor, he found out that he had a deviated septum that would require surgery. At some point in the process, at a church service, parishioners were asked if there was anything that the church should pray for. Pat, knowing that the surgery would be painful, requested prayer for Kent. I won’t be able to quote verbatim, but I think I can get the way Pat offered her request. “Please pray for my husband, he’s having surgery for a deviated scrotum!”

What a classic case of misplaced biology! I think only Gracie Allen or Pat Austin could have pulled it off.

I can only imagine the response of the congregation. If I had been there I’d have been working with the same competing interests everyone else was. One part of me would be aware of the need for “decorum” in the house of the Lord and the other part would be absolutely dying to howl.

How could one not laugh at a time like that? I think that in heaven that even the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost must have been doing a bit of knee slapping upon hearing this wonderful little malaprop. I can almost see it now in my mind’s eye as I think about it.

And so the evening went, one wonderful story after another. As I listened and laughed, I understood why these two wonderful folks will be missed. Their unswerving dedication to Christian service, coupled with their self-effacing ways, have endeared them to everyone.

In less than a month they’ll be on their way to Colorado. We wish them well.

There will, I’m sure, be a grand reunion with them one day, a time when we can reminisce, a time when Kent and Pat, like George and Gracie, will fill us in on all the details of the years from when they left Emporia till they, like we, made their way to Glory. While I’m sure, that in Heaven’s just way, they’ll each have their zingers, I am just as certain that Pat will find a way, gracefully, to upstage Kent. It just seems to me that that’s the way it should always be.

Godspeed, Kent and Pat. We will miss you!

Science, So Called

1 Timothy 6:20-21 (King James Version)

20 “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
21Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.”

I read an op-ed piece by Michael Kinsley this morning that just made my blood boil. It started with this little piece of invective:

“Mr. Bush, don't I matter more than tiny clumps of cells?”

“Imagine what it's like to open the newspaper (as I did Friday morning) and read that scientists in South Korea have made a huge breakthrough toward curing a disease that is slowly wrecking your life. But your own government is trying to prevent that cure.”

Then, in a fury, he outlined three issues that the president, his ethicists, and the majority of Americans have with the work just completed in South Korea. With each issue he advocated a position in response that, if adopted, would be a “Katie open the door – real wide” approach to science and technology. I’ll cite the issues and Kinsley’s response in full so that you can get some grasp of what he’s objecting to and what he’s advocating.

In point one he argued against the viability of embryonic stem cells:

“There are three issues: First, do the embryos used for stem cell research and therapy have rights? They are clumps of a few dozen cells, biologically more primitive than a mosquito. They have no consciousness, are not aware that they exist, and never have been. Nature itself creates and destroys millions of these every year. No one objects. No one mourns. In most cases no one even knows. If my life is worth no more than the survival of one of these clumps, then it is terribly unfair that I can plead my case on the Op-Ed page and they can't. But I have no trouble feeling that the government should value my life more than the lives of these clumps. God may disagree. But the government reports to me and to other adult Americans, not to God.”

Next, he posited that any arguments against his recommended approach are shallow and meaningless because they are “abstract and poetic, concerned (only) with the nature of humanity and “stuff”:

“Second, is human cloning such a horrific concept that it crosses a line into the territory of Frankenstein and “Brave New World”? Well, they said the same thing 27 years ago about in vitro fertilization, and that is now uncontroversial. It has brought joy to millions. And it is politically unassailable, even though the in vitro process produces and destroys far more “surplus” embryos than will ever be needed for stem cell therapy. The arguments against therapeutic cloning (cloning for medical purposes) tend to be abstract and poetic, concerned with the nature of humanity and stuff. But on the subject of stem cells, I am not in the mood for poetry.”

Then, in grand fashion, he pleaded passionately that the arguments against human cloning on the basis of “the slippery slope” are driven by “professional ethicists” looking only for “problems,” not solutions:

“Third, there's the slippery slope. If we're willing to destroy microscopic embryos for their stem cells, why will we stop before harvesting body parts from advanced fetuses, or breeding babies for their organs? Once we allow human cloning for embryos, how can we be sure no one will bring a cloned embryo to term and produce an actual cloned human being?” ”The answer is that we can't. But slippery-slope arguments could have stopped every technological advance since the wheel. Scientists look for solutions. Although there are no guarantees, when you put more scientists onto a problem, you increase your chance of solving it. By contrast, professional ethicists tend to look for problems. When you put more ethicists onto a problem, you can end up with more problems. Cad that I am, for example, it never occurred to me to worry that cloning embryos for stem cells “exploits women as egg donors not for their benefit.”

This all came for me at a time when I was pondering what that scientist, whose name still escapes me, had to say on Friday about the American public’s opposition to what many in the science “industry” want to do. We’re just uninformed, she told NPR.

I don’t think the scientist I heard on NPR is atypical. Nor do I think that Michael Kinsley’s views are out of step with the elites in the media. The two groups, ideologically, were made for each other. There’s very little difference between them other than the rhetoric used to either persuade or dismiss anyone who objects to their expert opinions. That use of language does stand out, though. One group, typified by the scientists, drapes its views in polite, cold, scientific language. The other, typified by Kinsley, employs a full frontal linguistic assault on its dissenters. Hence, those who object, particularly those who object on religious or moral grounds, are told that what we’re dealing with is nothing more than “clumps” and that the grisly work needs to proceed because “the American government reports to me and other adult Americans, not to God” or that this is not a time to be ‘abstract and poetic.”

The only real difference I see is tactical. Philosophically, much of mainstream science and the media elite are in lockstep.

Now, who would deny some of the great benefits science has brought us? We’d be foolish do so. So, to that end, I’m really a great admirer of science. But, I have to be honest and say that while science doesn’t bother me, the arrogant attitude far too many in the scientific community holds does.

And, I hold pretty much the same view of journalism and the media.

I don’t feel that I can trust them. Why? I just don’t believe there’s much of a moral foundation to them. In short, their gods are their bellies and their insatiable appetites for investigation and power, particularly power.

Here in Kansas some have dissented, willing to challenge one of the great apostles of science, Charles Darwin. These dissenters are viewed by much of he scientific community and the media pretty much right in line with Kinsley and the view many scientists hold about cloning. They, like Darwin, want to remove the major impediment to their ability to drive us all full throttle into the abyss. They are driven as much by their need to destroy religion and morality as they are to peer into their microscopes. Darwin’s words themselves are instructive in this regard:

“The same high mental faculties which first led man to believe in unseen spiritual agencies, then in fetishism, polytheism, and ultimately in monotheism, would invariably lead him, as long as his reasoning powers remained poorly developed, to various strange superstitions and customs.”

It sure seems to me that what they’re wanting to create is a new religion, one with them enthroned, expecting the rest of us to stand in awe or to bow down and worship them at the altar of cold, rational thought.

Well, I won’t. My trust level isn’t really high with these guys. They rank right up there with drug dealers and crooked politicians as far as I’m concerned. Songwriter Bob Dylan put it all much better than I ever could:

“Don't wanna betray nobody, don't wanna be betrayed,Don't wanna play with nobody, don't wanna be waylaid.Don't wanna miss nobody, don't wanna be missed,Don't put my faith in nobody, not even a scientist.”

To that end I’ll continue to be misguided, placing my faith in the God of heaven and earth or Darwin's "unseen spiritual agencies" rather than those who profess themselves wise and show themselves to be fools.

The Hot Rod Shirt

1 Peter 5:5-6 (New Living Translation)

5 “You younger men, accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, serve each other in humility, for
"God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble."[a]
6So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you.”

Yesterday morning Nancy and I had breakfast at the Commercial Street Diner. It’s one of the most interesting places in this small city. Each time we go there’s a surprise of one kind or another. In past posts I’ve described seeing everything there from the ranchers, rednecks, and rowdies around these parts to the Lebo (pronounced leebow) Choralettes.

Well, yesterday was every bit as entertaining and instructive as any morning we’ve ever spent at this little café. After spending a few minutes with some friends who were just getting ready to leave, Nancy and I sat and discussed the state of things around town. The big news is the permanent closing of one of Emporia’s largest grocery stores that was announced on Friday. Dillon’s (same name, no family relationship) is closing in about a week. It was quite a shock. As we were discussing that, another shock wave, much more benign, caught Nancy’s eye. There was a man about my age who was approaching the register to pay for his meal, and boy was he ever a sight. He was a bit round in the middle like most of us men at this age (fifties to sixties), short, moon-faced, with a dark mustache. If it weren’t for what he was wearing he would have seemed quite normal. But he was a walking advertisement for clothes not making the man. He was wearing black work shoes, black shorts, and a black golf cap, and in between all of this he was decked out in a black shirt with garish orange, yellow, and red flames emanating from the bottom of the shirt to about the top of his pot-belly. He reminded me of an old, souped-up hot rod.

We laughed for a bit and then Nancy made the following observation: “He couldn’t possibly be married.”

I knew what she meant. I’ve been guilty of wearing odd color combinations in my day and I’ve even worn corduroy in August a time or two. But I’ve never, ever dressed myself like this guy.

Nancy’s observation piqued my interest and I took a look at his wedding ring finger as he was turning away from the register to leave. I chuckled a bit and waved my left hand in front of her, rubbing my wedding ring. “Third finger, left hand, Coach. He’s as married as I am,” I proudly announced. “ Don’t know how he got out of the house, but there it is.”

It’s now Sunday morning and I’m thinking of a larger point here. Holy Writ tells us that we should clothe ourselves with humility. That’s an interesting way to put it – “clothe yourselves.”

I wonder how often I clothe myself with a hot rod shirt, spiritually speaking, instead of humility. I wonder how often in manner my “inner’ clothing says, “Look at me, look at me, I’m hot, souped-up,” rather than saying that I’m ready to humbly serve God. I wonder how often I leave home clothed with the inappropriate attire for the “season.”

I believe we Christians need to be clothed for the common, ordinary business of living life and serving others. Oswald Chambers, in his “Devotions for Morning and Evening,” put it this way:

The Sphere of Humiliation

“If Thu canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” (Mark 9:22)

“After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at the heroic pitch because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, but God wants us at the drab commonplace pitch, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a fine thing for them to remain on the mount, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mount into the valley, the place where the meaning of the vision is explained.”

If you’re a Christian and you’re wearing, so to speak, that hot-rod shirt, it’s time to put it in the closet. There may be a time for it some day, but right now, at this time, it is out of season, and will be for some time. Put it back in the closet, then, where it belongs and clothe yourself with humility.

Have a great Sunday!

Cap'n Luke

Proverbs 17:17 (New Living Translation)

17 “A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.”

I spent the better part of the day yesterday in Wichita. One of the disadvantages of small city life for me is that Emporia doesn’t have a Volvo dealership. That means that my periodic service, for one thing, is about a two hundred mile round trip.

It’s a disadvantage I can live with.

On the way down I made the mistake of turning on the radio as I cruised south on the turnpike. And even worse, I tuned into NPR. At about mile marker 117 there was a feature about the new effort that South Korean scientists had just announced in the area of stem cell research. According to what I read later these are:

“ The same scientists last year became the first to clone a human embryo, sparking international clamor.”

I’ll be writing more about that on Monday.

A few more minutes into the dialogue and NPR really got to the meat of the story. The interviewer with one of those typical NPR names like Lakshmi or Nina or Noah or Cephas, those names that tell you what side of the studio they’re sitting on, was getting expert input from an American scientist on the matter. The scientist, whose name now escapes me (perhaps Mandalit or some other trendy name), was answering this statement/question – “The president has said he will veto any legislation that would allow human cloning for stem cell research. In addition, the American public, in the latest surveys, seems to be decidedly against human cloning. Why is that so?” Well, talk about fluff questions. Wouldn’t the president love that type of question to answer at his news conferences? Our intrepid scientist replied to this NPR softball in a politely indignant manner, “The president and the public are terribly misinformed.”

I guess that settled it. The expert has spoken.

This all happened between mile marker 117 and 109, my favorite part of the Flint Hills. I realize it was my own fault for tuning in, but I have to say it spoiled the view. I would have stopped to vomit, but I didn’t want to ruin the scenery any more than NPR already had. But, as I said earlier, more about that on Monday.

I got home at about 1:30 or so in the afternoon and had lost any energy my day had started with. The remainder of the afternoon, and evening, was spent “vegetating,” like the beets and cucumbers and tomatoes sitting out in the garden. My great advantage on them was that, since it was in the nineties here yesterday, I could do mine in air conditioned comfort.

This morning Nancy and I went up to have breakfast at the Commercial Street Diner, Emporia’s “in” place for Saturday morning “haute cuisine.” As soon as we got there, as almost always happens in such trendy places, we met a few friends. Adorning the table closest to the cash register were Curtis McCauley (I call him “Doc”} and Lucas Stephens, who I have recently dubbed “Cap’n Luke.”

It was especially good to see Lucas. The road has been a bit bumpy for him in the past few months, but it appears now that things have taken a turn for the better. He’s starting a new job in Dodge City come the 19th of June. The position will bring him closer to his family and give him a really good professional opportunity.

We’re gonna’ miss him a lot, but I wouldn’t for a moment take this opportunity from him. You could see by the beam on his face this morning that Lucas is a very happy man right now.

I don’t know Lucas as well as I should, but in the time I’ve known him I’ve come to see him as one of the kindest, gentlest men I’ve ever met. I did get to know him a bit better at our recent church retreat since he roomed with me. That’s when I re-named him “Cap’n Luke.”

An explanation is now in order.

Lucas has a condition known as sleep apnea, a breathing disorder, and to deal with it he sleeps with a device on his face that ensures that he doesn’t stop breathing while he’s asleep. It looks like an airline pilot’s oxygen mask.

By the time he got to the retreat on Friday the story of Jim Kegin’s sleep-talk was becoming a legend. Before he went to sleep that night he offered an advance apology in case the sound of the device disturbed either Jim or me.

He really didn’t need to. Neither Jim nor I heard anything at all.

But, on Saturday morning when he woke up he asked me if he had said anything significant during the night. I couldn’t resist; it was too much like an NPR “softball.” “At about four-thirty I think I heard you say something like this,” I said, stifling my laughter. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached a safe cruising altitude and you are now free to move about the cabin.” My over the top humor didn’t phase Lucas a bit; he accepted it all in the gracious manner he does just about everything in his life. It was then I crowned him, to be known henceforth and forevermore, as “Cap’n Luke.”

I’ve since kidded with him that I’m going to buy him some goggles and a Snoopy vintage leather pilot’s helmet. I’m sure if I do he’ll take it all in stride.

One of the wonderful things about Christian friendship is that we can share humor, even at difficult times in our lives. Humor and the merry heart are part of the bond of Christian friendship. I tend to believe that Jesus Himself occasionally had a bit of fun at the disciple’s expense. There may have been a noogie or two. And, who knows, the Master may have even “cut the cheese” and then looked around at Peter and said something like, “Whew, big boy, was that you?”

There’s something that can be very cathartic about humor. Holy Writ recognizes this principle:

Proverbs 15:13-14 (New Living Translation)

13 “A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit.
14A wise person is hungry for truth, while the fool feeds on trash.”


I think if I’d said the same sorts of things I said to Lucas and Jim to someone with an NPR attitude, the folks from the ACLU or the People for the American Way or some other left leaning peeping Tom organization would be descending on my house right now, lawsuits in tow, to make an example of me. Such is life in a good part of America outside the Kansas Flint Hills nowadays.

I’d like to think that my brethren on the left, the ones with the NPR attitude, could change, that they could start living a little, playing in the traffic with the rest of us for a while if you will, instead of spending their time attempting to mold every one else into their sour image. It really wouldn’t hurt them a bit to laugh a bit, even at themselves, instead of taking themselves so seriously that they’ve become self-righteous parodies. Our towns, our cities, our communities, and even the Kansas Flint Hills would be a whole lot better of if they did.

A Tradition of Sedition

1 Chronicles 16:15-22 (New Living Translation)

15 “He always stands by his covenant[a]-- the commitment he made to a thousand generations.
16 This is the covenant he made with Abraham and the oath he swore to Isaac.
17 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to the people of Israel as a never-ending treaty:
18 "I will give you the land of Canaan as your special possession."
19 He said this when they were few in number, a tiny group of strangers in Canaan.
20 They wandered back and forth between nations, from one kingdom to another.
21 Yet he did not let anyone oppress them. He warned kings on their behalf:
22 “Do not touch these people I have chosen, and do not hurt my prophets.”

We’re reading Edwin Louis Cole’s “Real Man” in our Wednesday night group. There was a portion of what the author had to say in chapter nine, which we read through last night, that got my wheels turning:

“The other element of faithfulness is submission. Personal submission is willingly yielding, giving, or offering yourself to an authority. Conversely, sedition is revolting against authority to which one owes allegiance. Submission is God’s answer to sedition. Sedition in the Church today is ripping apart congregations, tearing down families, and crushing friendships. To remain faithful today, a man must beware of the subtlety of sedition.”

There’s a lot of truth in what Cole said. In both conduct and language there is a some rebellion afoot in society and the Church. Cole believes it stems from a failure on the part of many to submit to authority. I also think there’s a lot of truth in that.

Having said that, however, I think there’s even more to the problem than that. There’s a part of me that stops short of trying to purge the rebels from the flock, seeing even legitimate dissent as sedition. I think it stems partly from my journey, and partly from my read of Holy Writ.

First, I’d like to examine this from the point of view of personal experience. If you’ve read my blog for any period of time you know that I spent a good part of the seventies in a large Charismatic church in Kansas City. It was a church with an international reputation and in the time I was there I served faithfully. But, there came times when, on matters of conscience, I found myself at odds with the leadership of the church. I’ll briefly recount what happened now.

It was really a little thing. I’d gotten out of class early one day and stopped by the church. After a few minutes of conversation one of the leaders asked me if I would go and pick up some “goodies” from a bakery south of downtown. It was a personal favor. The stuff I was to get was for a party. It was not related to any official business of the church! I agreed. I was then told that I would need to get some money for them from the church secretary, who was going to take the funds (about three hundred dollars) from the church’s general fund. I felt uncomfortable about doing something like that and said so. The conversation then took an ominous turn. “What’s the big deal, Phil? It’s only three hundred dollars.”
“It’s not the amount. It’s the manner here. I just don’t think that anyone should take general operating funds and use them for personal things. That’s what salaries are for.”
My response didn’t sit well at all and I got this fired right back at me. “Look Phil, don’t moralize. This is not a big deal. Just go get the stuff and stop being a rebel.” I refused as politely as I could and was then told that I shouldn’t be touching “God’s anointed.” The reference was pointed, telling me that I was in rebellion to appointed leadership. I reminded him that, while almost anything in the Bible has individual dimensions to it; his reference was not meant to be appropriated by individuals at the expense of the welfare of the body. I cited this reference at the beginning of this post and I’ll let you be the judge.

We never resolved the matter.

Perhaps you’re thinking that this was such a small thing. Perhaps you’re right. But the big problems almost always begin with small ones. I’m sure it all started with something very small and grew into one of the biggest Church scandals in the last half of the twentieth century. Little things grew into big ones, as evidenced by this little snippet from Wikipedia:

“Between 1984 and 1987, the Bakkers received annual salaries of $200,000 each and Jim awarded himself over $4 million in bonuses. Their assets at that time included a $600,000 house in Palm Springs, four condominiums in California, and a Rolls Royce. In their success, the Bakkers took conspicuous consumption to an unusual level for a non-profit. PTL once spent $100,000 for a private jet to fly the Bakkers' clothing across the country. It also once spent $100 for cinnamon rolls because the Bakkers wanted the smell of them in their hotel room.”

A hundred bucks for the smell of cinnamon rolls was just a little thing, a perk if you will. So was the four million dollar bonus. The only real difference was the scale. The breach of ethics took place early on, with little things. It grew out of control.

How did Jim Bakker get away with things for so long? I think that, beyond the personal failings, there were a lot of other folks at PTL that knew early on that the little things, the “harmless” things and excesses, were going on and said nothing. “Touch not mine anointed,” was the watchword.

The piece that Cole didn’t mention in the chapter we covered last night (perhaps he will in a subsequent chapter) is the mutual nature of submission and accountability. It works in both directions. People, by and large, will submit to submissive leadership. They will gladly be held accountable to leaders who are themselves willing to be held accountable. I think it all boils down to that principle.

The breakdown in the equation comes when one party or the other develops an attitude that they are set apart, special, and that the rules of ethics and behavior don’t apply to them. It’s the “touch not mine anointed” syndrome and it breeds nothing but bad things – fear, mistrust, and ethical lapses.

One of the things I really admire about the leadership in our church here in Emporia is that the standard of ethics is high, due in large part to the fact that neither Jim Kegin, our pastor emeritus, nor Mike Stubbs, our pastor, are so above everyone else in the congregation that they lord power and privilege over others. The communications and the accountability flow in both directions at Victory Fellowship. It works here the way things should, people working together, in mutual submission, in God’s vineyard.

You know, I’ve met very few Christians in my lifetime who have outrageously rebellious natures, who are trying to incite discontent. I do, however, believe that there is a good healthy tradition of respectful dissent that is sometimes mistaken as rebellion or sedition. To use a catch phrase, Christianity has a “tradition of sedition” built into it.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to be flippant. I believe there’s an important principle to be learned here.

By that I mean that God’s expectation is for His people to be loyal, not only to leadership, but also to principles. One of the best examples I can think of is the prophet Nathan. Almost everyone reading this blog knows the story of David and Bathsheba. David, the king, had abused his position of privilege and power to satisfy his lust for a beautiful woman. Even worse than the adultery he committed was the callous disregard he had for the life of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. While he did not physically plunge a dagger into his heart, David coldly calculated the murder of one of his most loyal servants. Uriah died in battle, forsaken, and David reaped the spoils – he married Bathsheba (see II Samuel 11).

Fortunately, for David and for Israel, there was a prophet who was loyal to the principles of truth and justice. Nathan confronted David with the evil he had done. The words were stark, powerful:

2 Samuel 12:7-10 (New Living Translation)

7 “Then Nathan said to David, "You are that man! The LORD, the God of Israel, says, `I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. 8I gave you his house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. 9Why, then, have you despised the word of the LORD and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah and stolen his wife. 10From this time on, the sword will be a constant threat to your family, because you have despised me by taking Uriah's wife to be your own.”

It was also fortunate that Israel had a king like David. I think a lesser man might have accused the prophet of sedition or said, in cavalier fashion, “Touch not mine anointed.” But David, to his everlasting credit, accepted full responsibility for his despicable actions. “I have sinned against the Lord” he replied. There were no justifications. There were no questions about Nathan’s loyalty. There was no hush money offered. David just confessed. It’s one of the most amazing confessions of guilt in all of Holy Writ.

But there’s a lot more to the “tradition of sedition.” Jeremiah, another loyal prophet of Israel, swam against the tide of the opinion to his own detriment. . Ezekiel confronted the sins of an entire nation, not holding back a thing:

Ezekiel 22:25-29 (New Living Translation)

25 “Your princes[a] plot conspiracies just as lions stalk their prey. They devour innocent people, seizing treasures and extorting wealth. They increase the number of widows in the land. 26Your priests have violated my laws and defiled my holy things. To them there is no difference between what is holy and what is not. And they do not teach my people the difference between what is ceremonially clean and unclean. They disregard my Sabbath days so that my holy name is greatly dishonored among them. 27Your leaders are like wolves, who tear apart their victims. They actually destroy people's lives for profit! 28And your prophets announce false visions and speak false messages. They say, `My message is from the Sovereign LORD,' when the LORD hasn't spoken a single word to them. They repair cracked walls with whitewash! 29Even common people oppress the poor, rob the needy, and deprive foreigners of justice.”

As you can see, Ezekiel didn’t spare anyone in all of Israel. Princes, prophets, leaders, and even the common people were declared, by the word of the Lord, to be guilty. But, in spite of the harsh rhetoric, Ezekiel was not a man with sedition in mind. His dream, his vision, was of restoration. This can be seen beautifully in his vision of the temple, the river of life flowing from it, and the city in which God’s people would live in harmony (Ezekiel 40 through 48).

In the New Testament there is John the Baptist, a loyal servant, who confronted a ruler and was imprisoned, and eventually executed, because of his stubborn refusal to bend the truth to suit the leader he had confronted.

Then there’s the early Church. They refused to waiver in the face of fierce opposition from the culture and its appointed leaders. Their response could, and might have, been interpreted as sedition, but our earliest forefathers believed that they had a debt of responsibility to the Message they had been given:

Acts 4:27-29 (New Living Translation)

27 “That is what has happened here in this city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. 28In fact, everything they did occurred according to your eternal will and plan. 29And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give your servants great boldness in their preaching.”

In the end, for me, I believe the matter of accountability and submission, is a two way street. Loyalty should cut two ways, as should accountability. When those elements are held in balance there is a flow of trust, mutual respect, and open communication.

I hope that I’m not going to be misunderstood by those who read this post. I’m a firm believer in loyalty and submission. I’ve lived it and I subscribe to it. But I also know that God has given us consciences, and in the grand tradition of scripture, He has given us the mandate to speak out in matters of conscience. Leaders have that responsibility. The laity does as well.

One Constituent's Option - Beat Some Sense into the Senate

Isaiah 1:17-19 (King James Version)

17 “Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.”

Isn’t there any middle ground in the congressional battle over judicial nominees and filibusters? Apparently not.

By now almost everyone in America has heard the Republican proposal of the “nuclear option” to end the threat of Democratic filibusters to block judicial nominees put forth by the president.

The Democratic leadership has put their position this way:

“But Reid of Nevada said the thought of eliminating the filibuster option is just another sign of the “arrogance of power of this Republican administration.”

“It's not enough that they come to the people's body and say 'let's take our chances by a fair ballgame. “They're going to change the rules in the middle of the ballgame,” Reid said. “This administration is unwilling to play by the rules ... the filibuster is a critical tool in keeping the majority in check.”

Senate majority leader Bill Frist advanced the Republican position with these remarks earlier today:

“Mr. President, I rise today as the leader of the majority party of the Senate.
But I do not rise for party. I rise for principle.
I rise for the principle that judicial nominees with the support of a majority of senators deserve up-or-down votes on this floor.
Debate the nominee for five hours. Debate the nominee for 50 hours.
Vote for the nominee. Vote against the nominee.
Confirm the nominee. Reject the nominee.
But, in the end, vote.
Senators, colleagues, let’s do our duty and vote.
Judicial nominees deserve an up-or-down vote.”

Now I won’t even pretend to know how to fix this ugly mess; I’m at a loss. But I believe it needs fixing badly.

Both sides claim they are acting out of principle. I don’t for a moment believe that. As I see it from my pristine little perch in the Kansas Flint Hills, this is all about power. One side is in power now and intends to use it. The other, a former political powerhouse, is trying desperately to re-establish themselves as power brokers in the American political process. That’s made this all a toxic political mess.

Surely there has to be some reasonable option that would satisfy both sides. Constituents like me on both sides of the political aisle spend a good part of our time compromising. It’s really not a bad thing at all. It is, among other things, one of the elements that holds marriages together. I mean, we who have been married for some time know that the family that prays together stays together and the family that compromises also stays together.

Businesses often find avenues of compromise so that commerce doesn’t grind to a halt. I can’t tell you the number of times I heard in business meetings something like this. “I know there is a “best way” to do this, but since we can’t seem to find it right now, let’s not let best get in the way of better.” In other words, “Let’s get moving. Our customers and shareholders expect nothing less of us.”

It’s sensible. It really is

I’d like to think that we’ve sent adults to Capital Hill to represent us. But, after seeing events unfold recently, I’m less inclined to think so. Both sides are making me feel like we need to take out a “whoopin’ stick” and go to Washington, en masse, and beat some sense into them, the filibuster, and the nuclear option in one fell swoop.

Enough of the empty “principle” talk, senators. Get with the program. Find a way to make it work for all of us. We pay you a helluva’ lot of money to do that sort of thing.

We’re not asking you to abandon principle; we’re simply asking you to find a way to make government work. That’s not too much to ask.

Perhaps these words from Father Richard John Neuhaus might help:

“Democracy is the product not of a vision of perfection but of the knowledge of imperfection. In this view, compromise is not an immoral act, nor is it an amoral act. That is, the one who compromises does not step out of her role as a moral actor. To the contrary, the person who makes a compromise is making a moral judgment about what is to be done when moral judgments are in conflict.”

Come on boys and girls, learn to become men and women. Stop acting like petulant little children. Get yourselves together in a small room, light up the stogies, and find a way. The country, the political process, and the Constitution need you all to take the high road right now. Do it!

A Few Prosecutions?

Proverbs 18:7-8 (New Living Translation)

7 “The mouths of fools are their ruin; their lips get them into trouble.
8What dainty morsels rumors are--but they sink deep into one's heart.”

Solomon wisely saw the folly of misplaced words and the damage they can do. Too bad that Newsweek’s writers and editorial staff didn’t take the time to consider them before they printed what they did last week.

I’m a bit behind the curve on the news these days. I just found out that a story, printed last Monday in this esteemed weekly, has ignited a firestorm of violence in the Muslim world. As of the latest report I’ve seen there are at least fifteen dead in riots from the Gaza Strip to Afghanistan.

According to Newsweek:

“Michael Isikoff and John Barry reported in a brief item in our Periscope section that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that American guards at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had committed infractions in trying to get terror suspects to talk, including in one case flushing a Qur'an down a toilet.”

Knowing what the press believes about the U.S. military, it all seemed to fit

The problem with the story, though, was that the “knowledgeable government source” they used to prop the story up may not have been so knowledgeable after all.

Now, with the body count, riots, and who knows what in the future, Newsweek issued this “apology”:

“We believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said government investigators turned up this evidence,” Whitaker wrote. “But we regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.”

In one sense that’s little that Newsweek can do now. A retraction isn’t going to miraculously resurrect those who died in the rioting, nor is it going to reverse the anti-American sentiment that is seething in the Arab world. I suppose that’s as much as they can do, or care to do.

Now, with the apology issued, Newsweek has gotten what it wanted out of the episode – dead bodies, carnage, anti-Americanism, and confirmation of their low opinion of the U.S. military.

The flimsy “mea culpa” isn’t going to hurt them as much as it has already hurt fifteen people or the American image in the Arab world.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. There’s little doubt that Osama bin Laden will be using this little snippet in his recruiting videos and propaganda pamphlets.

Now I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure that here locally Patrick Kelley and the boys down at the Gazette will be finding creative ways to defend what Newsweek did in their “report.” I’d be willing to bet on it.

The defense will come in two forms. First, we’ll be told to adopt a “wait and see” attitude about this. To that I respond, “Tell me what else I can do? I’ll be reading all about it and watching it develop. I’m as good at reading body counts as the next guy and I know an angry face or mob when I see it.” I’d like to tell them that they shouldn’t treat the public like fools, but that message hasn’t gotten through for years. Their wisdom, by virtue of position, pitted against public ignorance, is one of the cardinal operating assumptions of the press these days.

But the last, and most important, line of defense here will be freedom of the press. We’ll be reminded that:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

We’ll hear it ad-nauseum. “Don’t trample on the freedom of the press.” It won’t be voiced, but we’ll all get the message - freedom of the press trumps all other freedoms. They’ll do everything but tell us to bow in their presence, and they’ll come dangerously close to that.

They’ll drag out Thomas Jefferson, prime author of the Declaration of Independence, in their defense:

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787.

“Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.” --Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1786.

They’ve done it before. They’ll do it again. It’s the nature of the “beast.”

Of course, few, other than the lunatic fringe, would advocate abrogating press freedom. But that won’t matter.

The Gazette has raised the “freedom of the press card” to me before when they’ve been confronted with the wayward nature of their work. I’ve told them that if I ever heard the sound of hobnailed boots tramping down Merchant Street to stop the presses I’d be the first one down there with my blunderbuss to defend them. But that didn’t make any difference then; nor will it in this current circumstance. They’ll drag out the age old scare tactic and beat us with until we’re as raw as a piece of red meat.

They’ll say little about the responsible use of freedom. When confronted with it they’ll remind us that they have apologized (what a noble touch) and that we need to move on to the next (created) crisis.

I’ll try my best to remind them that their icons have also rendered other opinions, opinions about their abuse of privilege:

“Our newspapers, for the most part, present only the caricatures of disaffected minds. Indeed, the abuses of the freedom of the press here have been carried to a length never before known or borne by any civilized nation.” --Thomas Jefferson to M. Pictet, 1803.

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807.

But it won’t make any difference.

I’ll even try to remind them that at one point in history their champion even had the audacity to recommend that the public not read newspapers at all:

“The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.” --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807.

It won’t matter.

I’ll even try to remind them that Jefferson himself once advocated a “few prosecutions”:

“A few prosecutions of the most prominent [Federalist] offenders would have a wholesome effect in restoring the integrity of the presses.”

“So what,” they’ll respond.

The bottom line to this sordid episode is that there’s little we can do that will have an impact on the press in this regard. It never has; it never will. It’s the nature of the “beast.”

I’d like to think that the press has the interests of this country at heart. I’d really like to think that. But it sure seems to me that they have no interest but their own agenda, rooted in the belief that they are our watchdogs, in mind. In the early seventies I took a class in journalism to fulfill a requirement in my major (communications). Required reading for the course was John Hulteng’s “The Fourth Estate.” Chapter seventeen, titled “who watches the watchdog?” began with the observation that the “only meaningful quality control being brought to bear on the mass media today lies within the consciences of the men who own and operate those media.” Knowing that, Hulteng posed a few questions:

“The question inevitably works its way to the fore: is internal conscience enough protection? Does society’s watchdog need watching? If so, what kind of mastiff would be appropriate to the assignment.”

They were good questions then, and they’re good questions today. The problem is that there really isn’t any answer that’s enforceable or will make the press realize its obligation to the rest of us. Unfortunately, we have to rely on their “internal consciences.” Till that conversion happens, miraculously, en masse, we’ll continue to be treated to spectacles like Newsweek’s story, the ensuing bloodbath, followed by a tepid apology. It’s the nature of the “beast.”

Sunday Morning Thoughts From Oswald Chambers

Philippians 2:12-15 (New International Version)

Shining as Stars
12 “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe”

Difficulty is a natural part of the Christian life. It can’t, and should not be, avoided. When we approach these trying times properly, in the right “spirit,” they can be most rewarding.

Oswald Chambers, in his “Devotions For Morning and Evening,” put it this way:

“The Habit of Rising to the Occasion”

That you may know the hope of His calling…(Ephesians 1:18)

“Remember what you are saved for – that the Son of God might be manifested in your mortal flesh. Bend the whole energy of your powers to realize your election as a child of God; rise to the occasion every time.”

“You cannot do anything for your salvation, but you must do something to manifest it, you must work out what God has worked in. Are you working it out with your tongue, and your brain and your nerves? If you are still the same miserable crosspatch, set on your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved you and sanctified you.”

“God is the Master Engineer, He allows the difficulties to come in order to see if you can vault over them properly – “By my God have I leaped over a wall.” God will never shield you from any of the requirements of a son or daughter of His. Peter says – “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.” Rise to the occasion; do the thing. It does not matter how it hurts as long as it gives God the chance to manifest Himself in your mortal flesh.”

“May God not find the whine in us any more, but may He find us full of spiritual pluck and athleticism, ready to face anything He brings. We have to exercise ourselves in order that the Son of God may be manifested in our mortal flesh. God never has museums. The only aim of the life is that the Son of God may be manifested, and all the dictation to God vanishes. Our Lord never dictated to His Father, and we are not here to dictate to God; we are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. When we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine to feed and nourish others.”

Have a great Sunday!

The Kansas Bobble-Heads Society

Job 38:1-7 (New International Version)

Job 38

The LORD Speaks
1 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
2 Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
4 Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-
7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels [a] shouted for joy?”


Kansas is making national headlines these days. According to Patrick Kelley, the Emporia Gazette’s resident expert on all things that matter it’s all about the Kansas Board of Education and a bunch of wacky “theologians of intelligent design”:

“The Kansas Board of Education has been running Bobble-Head days in Topeka,”

“The theologians of intelligent design have been pronouncing windily on the sins of Charles Darwin, nodding sagely as they airily dismiss 150 years of science.”

For those of you not familiar with what’s going on in Kansas the roaring debate is really all about whether or not anyone, be it a layman like me or a scientist with standing within the scientific community, has the right to question Darwinism.

There are two sides in this debate. First, there are the proponents of investigating, scientifically, the theory of intelligent design. To Patrick Kelley and Darwinists opposing their efforts to be heard they are known, euphemistically, as “bobble-heads.”

What is that makes them “bobble-heads?” They have the temerity to question some of the science of Darwinism, based on science itself. One Intelligent Design website, Intelligent Design Network, describes the theory of Intelligent Design this way:

“The theory of intelligent design (ID) holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ID is thus a scientific disagreement with the core claim of evolutionary theory that the apparent design of living systems is an illusion.

In a broader sense, Intelligent Design is simply the science of design detection -- how to recognize patterns arranged by an intelligent cause for a purpose. Design detection is used in a number of scientific fields, including anthropology, forensic sciences that seek to explain the cause of events such as a death or fire, cryptanalysis and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). An inference that certain biological information may be the product of an intelligent cause can be tested or evaluated in the same manner as scientists daily test for design in other sciences.”

The debate, as they see it, is framed in the following manner:

“Thus, a disagreement continues to exist within the Science Writing Committee with
respect to very substantive issues relating to the inherently controversial issue of teaching
students about the origin of life and its diversity. There is general agreement that standard
biological evolutionary theory must be presented. However, Draft 2 continues to implicitly discourage any critical analysis of the theory that would “weaken” it. This implication is reinforced by the absence of any learning objective that would inform students of important evidence inconsistent with evolution’s critical assumptions and historical narratives. This is in spite of agreed upon standards that explicitly state that students should critically analyze all scientific theories and consider competing alternatives.”

In layman’s terms it means this – continue to teach the theory of evolution and also allow for discussion of Intelligent Design as a competing theory.

Then there are the Darwinists. We all know what they believe. They’ve held a monopoly in the academic arena for quite a while now.

Interestingly, they have decided to boycott the School Board hearings. Why? Basically, according to these paragons of education and science, the hearings would be a sham. Patrick Kelley, who’s a journalist but plays a scientist in commercials for Holiday Inn Express, put the objections of the Darwinists succinctly:

“But the current state school board trying to pass judgment on what constitutes acceptable science is like a group of average seventh graders demanding to grade the final exams for the KU School of Medicine.”

What I find really fascinating in this debate is the willingness of the proponents of Intelligent Design to discuss science while the Darwinists have decided on a different strategy. Liz Craig, a spokesperson for Kansas Citizens for Science, described it this way

http://www.kcfs.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000017
posted February 10, 2005 06:53 PMFebruary 10, 2005 07:53 PM
********
Pat,
“I admire your attitude. I feel the same way. However, the BOE answers to no one. They have no reason to resign. They are in the cat-bird seat, they have all the power, and they will do what they want to do.”

“My strategy at this point is the same as it was in 1999: notify the national and local media about what's going on and portray them in the harshest light possible, as political opportunists, evangelical activists, ignoramuses, breakers of rules, unprincipled bullies,etc.”

“There may no way to head off another science standards debacle, but we can sure make them look like asses as they do what they do.”

“Our target is the moderates who are not that well educated about the issues, most of
whom probably are theistic evolutionists. There is no way to convert the creationists.”

There’s science for you! There’s intelligent inquiry. I wonder if Ms. Craig learned her science at the same Holiday Inn Express as Patrick Kelley.

In case you think that Ms. Craig is a rogue, I’ll cite a few other snippets from the Kansas Citizens for Science website. There’s this:

“Biology is chaos. Biological systems are the product not of logic, but of evolution, an inelegant process. Life does not choose the logically best design to meet a new situation. It adapts what already exits.”

And this:

“I remain aghast at the prospect of science and religion becoming a single subject. When are we due to rewrite the laws of physics, chemistry? Are we going to be burning books next? Geez, these people have truly lost it.”

Then there’s this gem:

“The arguments against evolution are but a symptom of the real problem, which is acceptance of religion as AUTHORITY FOR MORAL GUIDANCE. We should no more allow ourselves to be guided by this criminal cabal than we should allow ourselves to be governed by any society of career criminals.”“It's time to remove the tax exempt status for religion. Ignore these smaller battles and fight the one that matters and is the cause for much of the financial and political influence this group has, in spite of their psychotic and far right beliefs.”

To their credit, there was one Darwinist who seemed to get the point of the debate:

“I will say, however, that I was troubled by the lack of direct response by our side to the allegations made by the "witnesses" presented by the other side. It seemed to me that Mr. Irigonegary did more in the way of attacking the witnesses and citing various people's opinions of them and their work than directly rebutting the information they presented.” “I understand that it's probably because Mr. Irigonegaray is an attorney, not a scientist and didn't want to wade into unfamiliar waters. But why aren't we bringing forward our own witnesses to blow these guys out of the water? What are we afraid of? I mean, the evidence is clearly with us -- not them. It comes off as a little shallow when the best we offer the public is to snipe at the other side's witnesses for the church they attend or attended and/or the degrees they earned. It would be far more effective, in my view, to take their allegations head-on and rebut them using hard, scientific evidence.”

I can say unequivocally that I’m not an expert on either theory. But I can also say that I have questions for the Darwinists that they’ve not answered to my satisfaction. I have questions about “punctuated equilibrium.” I have questions about “social Darwinism.” I have even more mundane questions like “How does a duckbilled platypus fit into a Darwinists scheme of things?” or “What principle drives all those monarch butterflies to wind up flying thousands of miles to a little field in Mexico every year?”. And my problem is that I never get answers from the Darwinists. I’m only told to keep God out of the debate or that I’m a fool or a bobble-head.

I’d really like to get the proponents of Darwinism and the Intelligent Design proponents in a room to hear what they both have to say. A lot of folks, a majority in fact, in Kansas would like to hear it too. If that makes us bobble-heads, so be it. We stand in good company. Christopher Columbus, who believed in the face of reputable science that the world was round, was a charter member of our club. Those who resisted the science of “Der Fuhrer’s men in white coats (eugenics, etc.) were also charter members. Seeing the nature of how the Darwinists are framing the current debate, it’s much better company to keep.

Pure Religion, Undefiled

James 1:23-27 (New International Version)

23 “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”
26 “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

David Brooks wrote an interesting piece that was syndicated in yesterday’s Kansas City Star. His theme is the same one that’s intrigued me for about a week now – how to heal the growing divide between secular and religious conservatives. It’s a battle I suspect that’s been brewing for a while, and, since the rhetoric has become white hot, healing will be difficult.

Brooks put his finger directly on the pulse of the problem for the religious “wrestler,” the person who is an odd combination of faith and doubt, with these words:

“We reject the bland relativism of the militant secularists. We reject the smug ignorance of, say, a Robert Kuttner, who recently argued that the culture war is a contest between enlightened reason and dogmatic absolutism.”

“But neither can we share the conviction of the orthodox believers, like the new pope, who find maximum freedom in obedience to eternal truth. We’re a little bit nervous about the perfectionism that often infects evangelical politics, the rush to crash through procedural checks and balances in order to reach the point of maximum moral correctness.”

While I’m not from Mr. Brooks’ school of politics or religion, I do take his point. Like an automobile, politics is a vehicle that has both a gas pedal and brakes. In order to use these vehicles properly one must know when to put his or her foot on one or the other. Stepping on the wrong pedal at the wrong time can produce disastrous results.

Brooks sees a middle ground in the divide in the person of Abraham Lincoln, a model who tempered faith with doubt to bring the nation through its most trying times. He put it this way:

“Lincoln came to believe in a God who was active in human affairs but who concealed himself.”

One lesson we should carry from Lincoln’s belief, Brooks says is that:

“We can learn that there is no one vocabulary we can use to settle great issues. There is a secular vocabulary and a sacred vocabulary.”

Abraham Lincoln was a master of both languages. Even in his use of secular language, the hint of the sacred is always there. In his first inaugural, for example, he pleaded for the nation to remain unified with these stirring words:

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Then, in the throes of a bloody Civil War, at his second inaugural, Lincoln, in language that is theologically rich, expressed both remarkable faith and doubt about divining God’s will and purpose in the conflict. The language was theological/metaphysical, but it held something for both the saint and the skeptic:

“Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”

And so I take Mr. Brooks’ point once more. We must try to find ways to make room for both languages in our civil discourse if conservatism is to continue being viable, and believable, in the days ahead.

There’s also another model from history who I believe can also instruct us in this ideological conflict. We would do well to heed his words.

Edmund Burke, according to the Cambridge Biographical Dictionary and many scholars, ranks “as one of the foremost political thinkers of England. He had vast knowledge of affairs, a glowing imagination, passionate sympathies, and in inexhaustible wealth of powerful and cultured expression.”

For conservatives in our time, both religious and secular, Burke has wisdom for both the religious and the secular conservative. For the secularist, particularly those who would have religious conservatives jettison their faith in the public arena, there is this:

“If there be a God such as we can conceive, He must be our Maker. If He is our Maker, there is a Relation between us. If there be a Relation between us, some Duty must arise from that Relation, since (we) cannot conceive that a reasonable Creature can be placed in any Relation that does not give rise to some Duty.”

“The Relation betwixt God and Man, is that Man has received several Benefits but can return none. That he may suffer all Manner of Mischief, but can return none, or by himself avert none.”

“Therefore by no act can he perform this Duty; but he can by the Sentiments of the Mind.”

“Where we have received good, ‘tis natural to praise.”

“Where we hope good, it is natural to pray.”

- This is the foundation of Religion

“We have a Relation to other Men. We want things compassable only by the help of other beings like ourselves. They want things compassable with our Help. We love these beings and have a Sympathy with them. If we require help, ‘tis reasonable that we should give help. If we love, ‘tis natural, to do good to those whom we love. Hence, one Branch of our Duties to our fellow Creatures is active – Hence Benevolence.”

- This is the foundation of Morality

“Morality does not necessarily include Religion, since it concerns only our Relation with Men. But Religion necessarily includes Morality, because the relation of God as a Creator is the same to other Men as to us. If God has placed us in Relation attended with Duties, it must be agreeable to Him that we perform those Duties.”

- Hence Moral Duties are included in Religion, and enforced by it

If secularists could see that this is the motivating force for the religious conservative brethren, the conservative movement would be all the better for it.

By the same token, religious (particularly Christian) conservatives would do well to heed Burke’s further wisdom about attempting to make religion solely utilitarian and political:

“If you attempt to make the end of Religion to be its Utility to human Society, to make it only a sort of supplement to the Law, and insist principally upon this Topic, as is very common to do, you then change its principle of Operation, which consists on Views beyond this Life, to a consideration of another kind, and of an inferiour kind; and thus, by forcing it against its Nature to become a Political Engine, you make it an Engine of no efficacy at all.”

If religious conservatives could see this, I believe the rhetoric from their secular “brothers in arms” might very well cool down.

And so I conclude with this. For the sake of society, and the conservative movement, a truce needs to be declared before the saber rattling becomes open warfare. Secular conservatives need to tone down the rhetoric and find room for their religious brethren. Religious conservatives need to loosen their grip on their new found power and find avenues of compromise with the secular brethren. Without this sort of moderation by both parties in the dispute, modern conservatism’s fate could well be a split that would bring great injury to both sides and all that religious and secular conservatives have worked to so hard to build in this generation.

Drunk "In the Spirit"

Ephesians 5:15-18 (New International Version)

15 “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

It’s funny, isn’t it, how the mind works? Memories of an old piece of my journey have come, uninvited and yet welcome, into the foreground of my conscious thought. I take that to mean that the story should now be told.

I’m not a teetotaler. There was a time in my life when alcohol and I had a symbiotic relationship. I consumed it and it was consuming me. That was long, long ago, in a life that’s been washed, as they say, in that “cleansing stream.” Nowadays I’m inclined to have my annual glass of zinfandel or a pint of the “bitters.” No more than that, just something “for the stomach,” as Holy Writ recommends.

I cut my Christian teeth in an American Baptist Church back in the late 60’s. One of the things I learned then, and in subsequent years, was that a certain amount of aberrant theology was acceptable, but the use of “demon rum” was anathema.

I recall, very vividly, the first communion I ever took. It was in an American Baptist church in Columbus, Ohio. The most striking thing I brought out of the experience was that there certain things one did that could potentially disqualify him or her from the prize. Strong drink was at the top of the list. Prior to the communion elements being passed out there was a required litany. Rather than confess our sins, which I’m sure were many, we had to confess that we hadn’t either smoked a cigarette or had a drink of alcohol since our last communion. I was, based on the litany, only half guilty. I’d quit smoking, thankfully, but there was that glass of wine or two I’d had that was nagging at my conscience. I honestly didn’t know what to do. In order to partake of the elements I would have to lie. In order to be truthful I would have to pass the elements. I decided to secretly confess my lie, and then partake.

It all seems so trivial to me now. But it wasn’t then. When religious authority has the power, whether overtly or covertly, to withhold a sacrament from a believer, it’s powerful stuff. So, it remained my “dirty little secret” for as long as I was an American Baptist.

It also seems so strange now, too. In order to partake of the forgiveness I needed I was required to read a litany in which I was verbally demonstrating that I’d done nothing at all that would make the “ritual” necessary. I mean, if I’d been so good, then why would the sacrifice of Jesus and the commemoration of that sacrifice even be necessary? I guess it’s very American in character, sort of like getting a loan from a bank. In order to get the money a person has to provide enough collateral to prove they really don’t need the money in the first place

Now my point in writing is not to create a controversy with the American Baptist Convention, its members, or the American banking system. What I’ve mentioned to this point is just a starting place for what I really want to write about.

I’ll now fast forward to the mid seventies. I was attending a large Charismatic church in downtown Kansas City. My role, like a lot of other would be “charmers,” was to be at the disposal of church leadership. Sometimes the role meant sitting, like overstuffed interns, on the platform, while some celebrity preacher revealed an aspect of truth no one in the world had ever heard. Sometimes we just ran errands. That was the way the movement was back in those days. It’s not that I felt dissatisfied with what I was doing. In fact, I felt in very good company, with men like Joshua (Moses’ “servant”), for example.

One of the interesting things about any religious movement is the risings and fallings of the “stars.” There are the notable ones, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart being the most recent cases. These “stars” usually have some charisma that causes folks to listen, and then follow. After a time, when their power and importance in the scheme of things becomes magnified beyond all sane proportion, they somehow feel that fleecing the flock or chasing painted ladies is alright. At least, that how it seems to happen as far as I’m concerned.

The man in question in my story was once a rising superstar. I’ve never known what his name was; only that he was once “a mighty man of God with a mighty anointing.” He was powerful enough, I was once told, that he could “charm the apples right off the wallpaper.”

But those days were long gone. I don’t know what caused the fall, but it was close to being cataclysmic. Maybe he’d fleeced someone in some flock; maybe he’d dallied once too often with a pretty painted thing. Whatever it was, he’d been shamed and defrocked, and now lived in a bottle.

It was during those times that the church was undergoing a huge building project, a youth center. In terms of funding close to seven figures were going to be needed to complete the construction. At about the mid point in the fund raising effort I got a call from church leadership, asking me if I would go to pick up a large sum of money from someone who wanted to do his part.

I agreed and set out to the downtown hotel where I was told I could find him. When I got to the address I was given I did a double take. It appeared to be a flop house. I sat outside for a few minutes and then drove around the block, thinking that I must have had the wrong address. I got back to the flop house about ten minutes later, realizing that I had not made a mistake. A climb up two flights of dark, dingy stairs with the smell of sneaky pete wafting through the air and a moment or two to catch my breath and I was there. Room twenty-two. As I approached the room to knock on the door I could hear the sound of Gospel music from inside the room, accompanied by glossolalia. On hearing this I thought to myself, “This is going to be one of those really interesting experiences.”

It was.

I knocked, he opened. It was “him,” the man who had once been so anointed that he was a superstar. As I entered the room I noticed two bottles of Jim Beam, one empty and one half full, sitting on the table in front of the flop house bed. He was indeed living in a bottle and was drunk. I told him why I was there and he acknowledged, then turned and whirled away toward a dresser that was sitting in the corner of the room. As he did he began to sing along with the Gospel melody that was playing on the radio. He stumbled a couple of times as he did, then opened the top drawer and pulled out a large wad of money. He looked at it for a moment, then made his way back to me. He was holding the money up, in ceremonial fashion as he did, praying “in the spirit.” “Haye beeto, meeta coubra mae ting see ta.” He kept repeating the “words” over and over as he did. Then, triumphantly, he handed me the money. “Sokay, kid,” he slurred, somehow seeing through the whiskey created fog that I needed to be reassured. “Igonnabealright…Juss need some time to get meself toggedah.” He was one of the most pitiful sights I’ve ever seen. I turned for a moment, then thought better of it and turned back, facing him. “I can’t take the money. You need help and this money can’t buy your problem away. You need to kill the stuff that’s killin’ you. You’ve got to really bring this stuff to Jesus, man. That’s your only hope. Giving this money won’t help a thing.” It was the best plea I could make, but I doubt that he really heard what I was saying. I tried handing it back to him, but he wouldn’t take it. Then, as I left, I tossed the wad of bills toward the bed.

I got back to the church and reported to the leadership what had happened. I honestly thought they would affirm what I did, but I was very wrong. They were furious. The money, they said, was needed to reach kids. They put it this way – “Sometimes the “wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.” I tried pleading my case, but couldn’t get through. I felt that this man’s life was still worth redeeming. The leadership told me that, while my sentiments were commendable, this was really a matter of logistics, one lost, desperate soul compared to multitudes of young people who would benefit when the project was completed.

I don’t know for sure what happened to the former superstar after that. I’d be willing to bet that the church sent someone else down to the flop house to get the money. The project was completed, everyone rejoiced and that seemed to be the end of it.

There’s something about intoxication. There’s a dynamic that’s set loose once we imbibe. We can hide from reality; we can feel the rush of glory as it cascades through our inner being. And, we can feel strangely brilliant, immersed in a world of our own making. It’s all part of a paradoxical, toxic mixture.

Was that superstar’s life ever redeemed? Only God knows. If I had to judge by what I saw that night, a helpless man, “drunk in the spirit,” trying desperately to recapture the glory of a life that had passed him by, and alternately trying to hide the shame of life as it had become, I’d have to say I doubt it.

But there’s something else about those times that I’ve thought about off and on since. While one man was flailing away in desperation, others who should have cared were drunk with power, seeing the multitudes, seeing the glory of the crowd, the adulation above the need of one man.

As I said a few paragraphs ago, it’s all very intoxicating. It’s not at all unlike the intoxication of the corporate world and the board room, where grand results are so often more important than the lives of the people who roam the halls and cubicles, then go home to live, like the failed superstar, by crawling into a bottle.

As I think about it now I can’t help but believe that there are only a few differences between the two types of drunkenness. The first is that one reeks of fallenness and shame and the other has what appears to be the sweet fragrance of success. Second, one is socially unacceptable and the other is all too often seen as the standard of success. Third, in one the life and value of the individual is sublimated, offered casually on the altar of success, while the superstar is exalted in the other. Fourth, while one is ingested whole by the bottle in flop houses or some secluded corner of the world, the other is sipped giddily by the glass to the sound of “amens” and applause. And finally, the tragic reality is that, while failure magnifies one type of intoxication, success all too often obscures the other.

Dogs, Fleas, and Conservative Politics

“Revelation, reason, and an assurance beyond the senses tell us that the Author of our being exists and that He is omniscient; and man and the state are creations of God’s beneficence. This Christian orthodoxy is the kernel of Burke’s philosophy. God’s purpose among men is revealed through the unrolling of history. How are we to know God’s mind and will? Through the prejudices and traditions which millennia of human experience with divine means and judgments have implanted in the mind of the species. And what is our purpose in this world? Not to indulge our appetites, but to render obedience to divine ordinance.”

“The Age of reason, Burke protested with all his splendor of rhetoric, was in reality an Age of ignorance. If (as most men, since the beginning of human history, have believed) the foundation of human welfare is divine providence, then the limitation of politics and ethics to a puny “reason” is an act of folly, the refuge of ridiculous presumption. Precisely this blindness to the effulgence of the burning bush, this deafness to the thunder above Sinai, is what Burke proclaims to be the principal error of the French “enlightenment.”

Russell Kirk – Commenting on Edmund Burke’s view of religion’s role in human affairs cited in “The Conservative Mind” (page 29)

I came across an interesting observation from columnist George Will a few days ago. Will, who is one of my favorite columnists, had this to say about what he perceives to be the unnecessary wailing and gnashing of teeth that can be heard from many Christian conservatives lately:

“Some Christians should practice the magnanimity of the strong rather than cultivate the grievances of the weak. But many Christians are joining today's scramble for the status of victims. There is much lamentation about various “assaults” on “people of faith.” Christians are indeed experiencing some petty insults and indignities concerning things such as restrictions on school Christmas observances. But their persecution complex is unbecoming because it is unrealistic.”

I’ve pondered that observation since I first read it last Thursday and I’ve asked myself some questions about what Will was saying.

First and foremost, was he right?

I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s more than a small grain of truth in what he said. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from fellow Christians about being squeezed out of the public arena in the past few months. I've even given voice to a few myself. But, are the complaints warranted?

Will cites the popularity of Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ” and Jerry B. Jenkins’ and Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” series as evidence that faith is very much alive in the public square. To further bolster his contention, he also cites some recent happenings in network television programming:

“The Associated Press reports that NBC is developing a show called “The Book of Daniel” about a minister who abuses prescription drugs and is visited by a “cool, contemporary Jesus.” Fox is working on a pilot about “a priest teaming with a neurologist to examine unexplained events.”

To add fuel to the fire, NBC is in the process of airing a miniseries titled “Revelations,” my just completed twenty-two day one-man protest notwithstanding.

Yes, it seems that religion is in.

People of faith, particularly Christians, have become increasingly active and powerful in the public arena in the past ten years or so. After a series of shocking public policy defeats (school prayer and abortion), evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, who had long lain dormant in politics, awoke, shook themselves off, and made themselves heard. It took a while, but the movement has now not only taken root, but has also grown far beyond what anyone could have reasonably expected a few years before this “new awakening.” The social reverberations of this movement seem to be, on the surface, like those of the “First Great Awakening” of colonial America. That revolution, which profoundly changed a fledgling nation’s spiritual character, was also the forerunner of a revolution that shook the eighteenth century world, and continues to shake the world today.

Knowing all this it does seem curious that evangelical and fundamentalist Christians would be lamenting nowadays. Wouldn’t celebration be a better expression, given the stunning successes of the past decade?

Well, just before I got revved up and started my celebratory jig a second question occurred to me. Could Will have been both right and wrong in his observation?

I think so. And, I have a few reasons for believing this.

First among those reasons is the growing concern about “fundamentalist religion” being voiced in ever wider media circles. And, ominously for the movement, the concern is not only being raised by “fundamentalism’s” arch rivals on the left, but also from its assumed allies on the right. It’s conservatives, whose philosophy evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians have embraced, who are now sounding the alarm about the dangers of “jihad” and a “theocracy” being fronted by people of faith who only last November were viewed as essential elements in a Republican victory at the polls.

Conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan, for example, recently noted that:

“Yes, fundamentalism as a mindset can extend beyond the purely religious to the secular as well. Hence the notion that all critics of Bush are, by definition, liberals. And what unites the fundamentalists from James Dobson to Benedict XVI is that they alone define priorities. For today's fundamentalists, everything in the Bible is literally true and there is no way to pick and choose from among them. Of course, they do pick and choose - look at how civil divorce is now pretty much fine among evangelicals. The same is true of Benedict's record: he has vastly expanded those areas of “faith” that are non-negotiable. The point here is that fundamentalism is a circular system where power and authority count more than reason and dialogue. That's why it poses such a threat to liberal democracy; and why it must be countered before it becomes a cancer to the very possibility of a liberal society.”

It’s astounding. Conservative Christians, who only months ago were being courted and wooed as brothers in arms, are now being viewed as either cranky and ungrateful (Will) or unreasonable and dangerous (Sullivan). How the mighty have fallen! Even more ominous, though, are the shots being fired across the bow of the "S.S. Evangelicus." We’re no longer friends, but a “cancer” that must be “countered” if democracy itself is to survive.

No, it’s not fiction. The rhetoric has been heating up for some time now. Conservative Christians are now in the cross hairs. Is there any wonder, then, that there has been this type of reaction from conservative Christians?:

“In more than 50 years of direct engagement in and observation of the major news media I have never encountered anything remotely like the fear and loathing lavished on us (evangelicals and traditional Catholics) by opinion mongers in these world-class newspapers in the past 40 days," he laments. “Readers have been assured, among other dreadful things, that we are living in ‘a theocracy’ and that this theocratic federal state has reached the dire level of — hold your breath — a ‘jihad.’”

Sullivan, in his commentary, noted that “fundamentalists” are notoriously “circular” in their thinking, wanting only to exercise “power and authority.” They are, in his mind (and the minds of many conservatives), unyielding jihadists bent on creating a society more in keeping with John Calvin’s Geneva than Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.”

But secular conservatives, without seeing it, are guilty of the same circular thinking. What did they expect of the “fundamentalists?” Once the invitation to become part of the core of national political power was issued and subsequently won, Christian conservatives began to flex their muscles. That was apparently too much for their secular brethren. Their operating assumption was that the religious right would just sit on their collective hands and applaud and vote on cue, eschewing exercises in power politics. This thinking was every bit as circular as the one Sullivan and other conservatives protested.

Then, when Christians attempted to fully exercise their new found clout many of their fellow conservatives were shocked into action. The circular chase was on.

Well, the two parties have now somehow caught up with each other in this vicious political circle. The result is this - the welcome mat that was ceremoniously placed at the feet of Christian conservatives six months ago is fast becoming the rug pulled out from under them today.

While it may be difficult to see it right now, for Christian conservatives this may be a blessing in disguise. This brings me to my second reason for believing that George Will was wrong as well as right in what he wrote.

As a life-long Democrat I’ve had to learn my political lessons the hard way. The party of my youth has been a consistent disappointment to me. From my formative years I’ve been well schooled about power and the powerful. They love you in the run-up to the election. They’ll get you to the polls. Then, once they’ve been elected your ideas and agendas are long forgotten. I learned that it was all about being, as Lenin was purported to have once said, a “useful idiot.” This, I believe, is the lesson that Christian conservatives will be learning about the Republican Party and conservative politics in the days to come. Vote for them in November and you’re their kissin’ cousins. Flex your muscles and express your wishes in May and you’re a cancerous jihadist.

There are a couple of other valuable lessons in all of this. First, as the adage says, “sleep with dogs and you just might wind up with fleas when you wake up in the morning.” That is, political power cuts two ways. Not only can evangelicals exercise influence on the arena, but the arena can also exert influence on evangelicals.

George Will cited some statistics gathered by the American Religious Identification Survey in his May 5th column. I first glossed over them. Then upon re-reading, they hit me like a Burlington Northern freight train:

“According to the American Religious Identification Survey, Americans who answer “none” when asked to identify their religion numbered 29.4 million in 2001, more than double the 14.3 million in 1990. If unbelievers had their own state -- the state of None -- its population would be more than twice that of New England's six states, and None would be the nation's second-largest state.”

For evangelicals, who have had what seems to have been growing power and influence for nearly a decade, this should be seen as a clear message, if not a cause for alarm. The number of people who can’t or won’t identify their religion in America, at a time when evangelical power seems to be so great, has doubled. That’s astounding! It’s a symptom of an age-old expectation, akin to the expectations of Christians in the political arena – present a good spiritual front, but when the chips are down make sure that you’re core beliefs align with conservative dogma.

As I said, this may all well be a blessing in disguise, a bolt from heaven designed to get us back on track. If, for all our power, the net result has been a doubling of the number of people who don’t identify with religion, there is something dramatically wrong in the way we’ve approached power in what we believed was our heyday. This might indeed be the signal to turn back, to become the “jihadists” we’re supposed to be.

Ted Olsen, Rob Mall, and Wesley English of Christianity Today put it this way I’ll close with their comments, using them as my resounding “Amen”:

“Evangelicalism, however, has always been a reform movement. And there is always more to reform. The Kingdom of God has arrived, but is not yet here. And we won't be satisfied until the king comes in all his glory.”

“And that's evangelical Christianity's little secret right now. We really are theocrats. Only in exactly the opposite way from how some op-ed columnists think we are. Our hopes lie far beyond the next election, or the next judicial fight. Our king isn't elected, and our judge isn't appointed. Sometimes we forget that. But it's what we're all about.”

God's Miniseries, The Final Chapter

The final chapter says everything you need to know. Jesus is coming…..soon!

God’s miniseries, the final chapter, follows:

Revelation 22 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 22

1 And the angel showed me a pure river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2coursing down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit,[a] with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.
3No longer will anything be cursed. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5And there will be no night there--no need for lamps or sun--for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.
6Then the angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true: `The Lord God, who tells his prophets what the future holds, has sent his angel to tell you what will happen soon.' "

Jesus Is Coming
7"Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the prophecy written in this scroll." 8I, John, am the one who saw and heard all these things. And when I saw and heard these things, I fell down to worship the angel who showed them to me. 9But again he said, "No, don't worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this scroll. Worship God!"
10Then he instructed me, "Do not seal up the prophetic words you have written, for the time is near. 11Let the one who is doing wrong continue to do wrong; the one who is vile, continue to be vile; the one who is good, continue to do good; and the one who is holy, continue in holiness."

12"See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay all according to their deeds. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." 14Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. 15Outside the city are the dogs--the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.

16"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne.[b] I am the bright morning star." 17The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Let each one who hears them say, "Come." Let the thirsty ones come--anyone who wants to. Let them come and drink the water of life without charge. 18And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. 19And if anyone removes any of the words of this prophetic book, God will remove that person's share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.
20He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon!"
Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all.

Footnotes:
Revelation 22:2 Or 12 kinds of fruit. Revelation 22:16 Greek I am the root and offspring of David.

God's Miniseries, Part Twenty-One

This is the city that Abraham looked for. This is the celestial city that will one day be our home.

God’s miniseries, part twenty-one, follows:

Revelation 21 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 21

The New Jerusalem
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a beautiful bride prepared for her husband.
3I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.[a] 4He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever."
5And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making all things new!" And then he said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true." 6And he also said, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega--the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give the springs of the water of life without charge! 7All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. 8But cowards who turn away from me, and unbelievers, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those who practice witchcraft, and idol worshipers, and all liars--their doom is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death."
9Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
10So he took me in spirit[b] to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11It was filled with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious gem, crystal clear like jasper. 12Its walls were broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. And the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. 13There were three gates on each side--east, north, south, and west. 14The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, it was in the form of a cube, for its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles.[c] 17Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick[d] (the angel used a standard human measure).
18The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. 19The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve gems: the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.
21The twelve gates were made of pearls--each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass.
22No temple could be seen in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. 24The nations of the earth will walk in its light, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory to it. 25Its gates never close at the end of day because there is no night. 26And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. 27Nothing evil will be allowed to enter--no one who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty--but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Footnotes:
Revelation 21:3 Some manuscripts read God himself will be with them, their God.
Revelation 21:10 Or in the Spirit.
Revelation 21:16 Greek 12,000 stadia [2,220 kilometers]. Revelation 21:17 Greek 144 cubits [65 meters].

God's Miniseries, Part Twenty

The end is near. Only a thousand years to go.

God’s miniseries, part twenty, follows:

Revelation 20 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 20

The Thousand Years
1Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. 2He seized the dragon--that old serpent, the Devil, Satan--and bound him in chains for a thousand years. 3The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward he would be released again for a little while.
4Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus, for proclaiming the word of God. And I saw the souls of those who had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their forehead or their hands. They came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) 6Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years.

The Defeat of Satan
7When the thousand years end, Satan will be let out of his prison. 8He will go out to deceive the nations from every corner of the earth, which are called Gog and Magog. He will gather them together for battle--a mighty host, as numberless as sand along the shore. 9And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God's people and the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them.
10Then the Devil, who betrayed them, was thrown into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The Final Judgment
11And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the one who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. 12I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to the things written in the books, according to what they had done. 13The sea gave up the dead in it, and death and the grave[a] gave up the dead in them. They were all judged according to their deeds. 14And death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death--the lake of fire. 15And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Footnotes: Revelation 20:13 Greek and Hades; also in 20:14.

God's Miniseries, Part Nineteen

Revelation 19 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 19

Songs of Victory in Heaven
1 “After this, I heard the sound of a vast crowd in heaven shouting, “Hallelujah! Salvation is from our God. Glory and power belong to him alone. 2His judgments are just and true. He has punished the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and he has avenged the murder of his servants.” 3Again and again their voices rang, “Hallelujah! The smoke from that city ascends forever and forever!”
4Then the twenty-four elders and the four living beings fell down and worshiped God, who was sitting on the throne. They cried out, “Amen! Hallelujah!”
5And from the throne came a voice that said, “Praise our God, all his servants, from the least to the greatest, all who fear him.”
6Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a huge crowd, or the roar of mighty ocean waves, or the crash of loud thunder: “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. 7Let us be glad and rejoice and honor him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. 8She is permitted to wear the finest white linen.” (Fine linen represents the good deeds done by the people of God.)
9And the angel said, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”
10Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said, “No, don't worship me. For I am a servant of God, just like you and other brothers and sisters[a] who testify of their faith in Jesus. Worship God. For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.[b]”

The Rider on the White Horse
11Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. And the one sitting on the horse was named Faithful and True. For he judges fairly and then goes to war. 12His eyes were bright like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him, and only he knew what it meant. 13He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. 14The armies of heaven, dressed in pure white linen, followed him on white horses. 15From his mouth came a sharp sword, and with it he struck down the nations. He ruled them with an iron rod, and he trod the winepress of the fierce wrath of almighty God. 16On his robe and thigh was written this title: King of kings and Lord of lords.
17Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, shouting to the vultures flying high in the sky: “Come! Gather together for the great banquet God has prepared. 18Come and eat the flesh of kings, captains, and strong warriors; of horses and their riders; and of all humanity, both free and slave, small and great.”
19Then I saw the beast gathering the kings of the earth and their armies in order to fight against the one sitting on the horse and his army. 20And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast--miracles that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. 21Their entire army was killed by the sharp sword that came out of the mouth of the one riding the white horse. And all the vultures of the sky gorged themselves on the dead bodies.”

Footnotes:
Revelation 19:10 Greek brothers. Revelation 19:10 Or is the message confirmed by Jesus.

God's Miniseries, Part Eighteen

The tide of battle has turned. God’s miniseries, part eighteen follows:

Revelation 18 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 18

The Fall of Babylon
1 “After all this I saw another angel come down from heaven with great authority, and the earth grew bright with his splendor. 2He gave a mighty shout, “Babylon is fallen--that great city is fallen! She has become the hideout of demons and evil spirits, a nest for filthy buzzards, and a den for dreadful beasts. 3For all the nations have drunk the wine of her passionate immorality. The rulers of the world have committed adultery with her, and merchants throughout the world have grown rich as a result of her luxurious living.”
4Then I heard another voice calling from heaven, “Come away from her, my people. Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her. 5For her sins are piled as high as heaven, and God is ready to judge her for her evil deeds. 6Do to her as she has done to your people. Give her a double penalty for all her evil deeds. She brewed a cup of terror for others, so give her twice as much as she gave out. 7She has lived in luxury and pleasure, so match it now with torments and sorrows. She boasts, `I am queen on my throne. I am no helpless widow. I will not experience sorrow.' 8Therefore, the sorrows of death and mourning and famine will overtake her in a single day. She will be utterly consumed by fire, for the Lord God who judges her is mighty.”
9And the rulers of the world who took part in her immoral acts and enjoyed her great luxury will mourn for her as they see the smoke rising from her charred remains. 10They will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They will cry out, “How terrible, how terrible for Babylon, that great city! In one single moment God's judgment came on her.”
11The merchants of the world will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods. 12She bought great quantities of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple dye, silk, scarlet cloth, every kind of perfumed wood, ivory goods, objects made of expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble. 13She also bought cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and slaves--yes, she even traded in human lives.
14”All the fancy things you loved so much are gone,” they cry. “The luxuries and splendor that you prized so much will never be yours again. They are gone forever.”
15The merchants who became wealthy by selling her these things will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They will weep and cry. 16”How terrible, how terrible for that great city! She was so beautiful--like a woman clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens, decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls! 17And in one single moment all the wealth of the city is gone!”
And all the shipowners and captains of the merchant ships and their crews will stand at a distance. 18They will weep as they watch the smoke ascend, and they will say, “Where in all the world is there another city like this?” 19And they will throw dust on their heads to show their great sorrow. And they will say, “How terrible, how terrible for the great city! She made us all rich from her great wealth. And now in a single hour it is all gone.”
20But you, O heaven, rejoice over her fate. And you also rejoice, O holy people of God and apostles and prophets! For at last God has judged her on your behalf.” 21Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder as large as a great millstone. He threw it into the ocean and shouted, "Babylon, the great city, will be thrown down as violently as I have thrown away this stone, and she will disappear forever. 22Never again will the sound of music be heard there--no more harps, songs, flutes, or trumpets. There will be no industry of any kind, and no more milling of grain. 23Her nights will be dark, without a single lamp. There will be no happy voices of brides and grooms. This will happen because her merchants, who were the greatest in the world, deceived the nations with her sorceries. 24In her streets the blood of the prophets was spilled. She was the one who slaughtered God's people all over the world.”

God's Miniseries, Part Seventeen

“Woe unto you, ye sons of pain that are this day on earth,
Now cry for all your torment: now curse your hour of birth
And your fathers who begat you to a portion of nothing worth.
And Thou, my own beloved, for as brave as ere thou art,
Bow down thine head, Desponia, clasp thy pale arms over it.
Lie low with fast-closed eyelids, clenched teeth, enduring heart,
For sorrow on sorrow is coming wherein all flesh has part.”

- C.S. Lewis (from “The Visionary Christian”)

Part seventeen of God’s miniseries follows:

Revelation 17 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 17

The Great Prostitute
1 “One of the seven angels who had poured out the seven bowls came over and spoke to me. "Come with me," he said, "and I will show you the judgment that is going to come on the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. 2The rulers of the world have had immoral relations with her, and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality."
3So the angel took me in spirit[a] into the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, written all over with blasphemies against God. 4The woman wore purple and scarlet clothing and beautiful jewelry made of gold and precious gems and pearls. She held in her hand a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality. 5A mysterious name was written on her forehead: “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.”6I could see that she was drunk--drunk with the blood of God's holy people who were witnesses for Jesus. I stared at her completely amazed.
7”Why are you so amazed?” the angel asked. “I will tell you the mystery of this woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns. 8The beast you saw was alive but isn't now. And yet he will soon come up out of the bottomless pit and go to eternal destruction. And the people who belong to this world, whose names were not written in the Book of Life from before the world began, will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast who had died.”
9 “And now understand this: The seven heads of the beast represent the seven hills of the city where this woman rules. They also represent seven kings. 10Five kings have already fallen, the sixth now reigns, and the seventh is yet to come, but his reign will be brief. 11The scarlet beast that was alive and then died is the eighth king. He is like the other seven, and he, too, will go to his doom. 12His ten horns are ten kings who have not yet risen to power; they will be appointed to their kingdoms for one brief moment to reign with the beast. 13They will all agree to give their power and authority to him. 14Together they will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord over all lords and King over all kings, and his people are the called and chosen and faithful ones.”
15And the angel said to me, “The waters where the prostitute is sitting represent masses of people of every nation and language. 16The scarlet beast and his ten horns--which represent ten kings who will reign with him--all hate the prostitute. They will strip her naked, eat her flesh, and burn her remains with fire. 17For God has put a plan into their minds, a plan that will carry out his purposes. They will mutually agree to give their authority to the scarlet beast, and so the words of God will be fulfilled. 18And this woman you saw in your vision represents the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”

Footnotes: Revelation 17:3 Or in the Spirit.

God's Miniseries, Part Sixteen

“When the speeches ended, after several hours, there was an urgent break for the men’s room. Streaming downstairs in their tuxedos to relieve themselves came an extraordinary parade: John F. Kennedy Jr., and Mickey Rooney, Henry Kissinger and Joe DiMaggio, Louis Farrakhan and Tom Cruise and Norman Mailer and Kevin Costner and Billy Graham and Kofi Annan and Mel Brooks. Mummified celebrity disconcerts the eye. The shock of recognition is a shock indeed, and there was an impulse all through the evening to squint at someone and wish to ask, “Didn’t you used to be dead?” Jack Kevorkian was there, the doctor notorious for assisting people to commit suicide. I had the cruelty to wonder if he was there to look for clients. But the women displayed a certain gallant glamour – Lauren Bacall, for example, and Mary Tyler Moore.”

“But Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s favorite moviemaker, also attended – physically unrecognized, a potent name from long ago, famous for her film “The Triumph of the Will,” Hitler’s most artistic p.r. release. How does one make the right moral judgment about an artist whose work was not, people have argued, evil in itself, but whose dramatically sympathetic, Wagnerian images of triumphant Nazism at a Nazi rally in Berlin, and in her film “Olympia,” the 1936 Olympics in Berlin were at the time an instrument of evil, even if now the films are merely film school texts.”

- Lance Morrow – Commenting on the love of celebrities and the media for the anti-hero and for trivializing evil in his book “Evil: an Investigation”

My one man protest continues. I’m just not going to trivialize evil and the end of time by being entertained by NBC with half-truth.

God’s miniseries, part sixteen follows:

Revelation 16 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 16

1 “Then I heard a mighty voice shouting from the Temple to the seven angels, “Now go your ways and empty out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth.”
2So the first angel left the Temple and poured out his bowl over the earth, and horrible, malignant sores broke out on everyone who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue.
3Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse. And everything in the sea died.
4Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs, and they became blood. 5And I heard the angel who had authority over all water saying, “You are just in sending this judgment, O Holy One, who is and who always was. 6For your holy people and your prophets have been killed, and their blood was poured out on the earth. So you have given their murderers blood to drink. It is their just reward.”7And I heard a voice from the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God Almighty, your punishments are true and just.”
8Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, causing it to scorch everyone with its fire. 9Everyone was burned by this blast of heat, and they cursed the name of God, who sent all of these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
10Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. And his subjects ground their teeth in anguish, 11and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they refused to repent of all their evil deeds.
12Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and it dried up so that the kings from the east could march their armies westward without hindrance. 13And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. 14These miracle-working demons caused all the rulers of the world to gather for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God Almighty.

15 “Take note: I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for me, who keep their robes ready so they will not need to walk naked and ashamed.” 16And they gathered all the rulers and their armies to a place called Armageddon in Hebrew.
17Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a mighty shout came from the throne of the Temple in heaven, saying, "It is finished!" 18Then the thunder crashed and rolled, and lightning flashed. And there was an earthquake greater than ever before in human history. 19The great city of Babylon split into three pieces, and cities around the world fell into heaps of rubble. And so God remembered all of Babylon's sins, and he made her drink the cup that was filled with the wine of his fierce wrath. 20And every island disappeared, and all the mountains were leveled. 21There was a terrible hailstorm, and hailstones weighing seventy-five pounds[a] fell from the sky onto the people below. They cursed God because of the hailstorm, which was a very terrible plague.”

Footnotes: Revelation 16:21 Greek 1 talent [34 kilograms].

Sherbucky's Secret

Proverbs 17:22 (King James Version)

22 “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

I just got back last night from five days at a men’s retreat. In all about a hundred and sixty men attended, including nineteen or twenty from our church. I had a great time.

For me this retreat came at a time in my life when I’m not especially needy. Now it’s not that I don’t have needs, but right now my life is on a pretty even keel. I guess when I think about it my real need right now is to contribute. It’s a good place to be.

What the time meant for me was that I was able to just be myself and contribute in small ways to our group. As I said, it’s a good place to be. It also helped that the guys from our church are very accepting. I’m still a New Englander at heart, spending a good part of my time in a world of ideas and concepts. The guys at church are much more down to earth. Theirs is a world of cutting boards, cutting cows, or cutting pipes. At first glance you wouldn’t think that they’d fit into my world or that I’d fit into theirs. But, God’s grace and a bit of effort makes it so. The beauty of it all is that I think it brings balance to our lives. I once heard it put this way – “If you dismiss concepts and lofty ideals because you believe that those who live in those worlds are out touch or if you dismiss the work of the plumber because his world is beneath your dignity, then neither your pipes nor your theories will ever hold water.”

One of the immediate benefits of being around nothing but a bunch of guys is that the pressure is off. We could belch, pass gass, scratch our crotches, or wear mismatched clothes and no one really cared or even noticed. The getting together was all about being just company and companionship, not polite company. I don’t think I once heard statements like, “You’re not really gonna’ go out to dinner dressed like that, are you?” or “You can’t wear corduroy now, it’s past April 21st!” or “Did you just emit “something that smells like sulphur” near the punch bowl?” There in a collection of pot bellied men those things weren’t even on the radar screens.

The real highlight of the five days for me was rooming with Jim Kegin, our pastor emeritus. For those of you who haven’t read my blog for a good period of time, Jim had to step down from his day to day roles as pastor of our church and his district leadership role for the Foursquare churches in the Midwest. Not too long ago now he was diagnosed with Pick’s disease, which is described, in medical terms, as:

“A progressively degenerative neurological disease similar to Alzheimer's Disease for which there is no known prevention, or cure. Pick's Disease affects the frontal and temporal lobes first, with earliest symptoms showing up as changes in personality and a decline in function at home as well as work. Pick's Disease is frequently first diagnosed as stress or depression and then as Alzheimer's disease.”

Back in December when Jim and his wife, Judy, first announced what the doctors had told them, I wrote about the feelings it brought up in me and everyone else at Victory Fellowship. It all just seemed to be so unfair.

One of the things I really admire about Jim and Judy, though, is that from the day they made the announcement they wouldn’t allow us to wallow in pity. They’ve taken the lead by using a multi-pronged approach to this adversity – accepting it for what it is and seeking as much medical help as is possible, praying for healing, aiding the transition in leadership this has necessitated, compiling the wisdom they’ve gathered over the years, and moving on into this part of their journey of faith.

In the two days before the retreat actually began Jim and I were assigned to do some of the painting that needed to be done to get the campground in shape. It was a perfect assignment for two “thinkers” like us. While Ben Gray, Pastor Mike, Danny Horst and the other guys did the heavy work like tile, cabinets, and sheetrock, Jim and I plied our trade as “arteests,” adding the final touches. I dubbed the two of us “van Gogh and Gaugin.” If you ever get a chance to visit Camp Pomme de Terre and see the lower level of dormitory seven you’ll understand why. It’s impressionism at its very best!

I didn’t get much sleep on Wednesday night. Jim and Pastor Mike, my roommates, had a snoring duel going on. If I were to have to judge the competition I’d have to say that Mike won, more than likely because of a late spurt at about 4:30 am.

Come to think of it, I didn’t get much sleep Thursday night either. Mike had moved into one of the other dormitories and I’d found my earplugs, so I went to bed thinking that I was going to get eight hours or so of interrupted sleep. All went well until about four o’clock in the morning when, through the earplugs, I heard some mumbling. I turned over, thinking that the sound would dissipate. But it didn’t. For some reason I decided to take the earplugs out to see where the sound was coming from and what it was. As soon as I did I could hear Jim chuckling in his sleep. It was quite infectious and I began to chuckle a bit too. Then, at about four fifteen I heard the first of what where to be six words or statements. After laughing a bit Jim said, in low measured tones, “sherbucky.” I waited for a minute or two to see if something else would come to clarify, but it didn’t. Then, for the next fifteen minutes I pondered the meaning of that word – “sherbucky.” “Is sherbucky a concept I missed somewhere in my theology classes long ago?” “Something from Aquinas I’ve never read?” “Is sherbucky a place or a thing?” “Or is Sherbucky a person?” There in the stillness of the Camp Pomme de Terre night there were no answers.

My pondering was interrupted at about four thirty by the following words from Jim, who was still sleeping quite soundly – “Got a ladle for that honey?” His question was then punctuated with a chuckle or two and the silence once again enveloped the room. By now I was wondering about not only who or what sherbucky was, but also whether or not I should be adding a comma between “that” and “honey.” It was all becoming a great mystery to me. I decided it would be best to start writing down the things I was hearing. At about five I recorded these mysterious words – “It’s in Arizona.” At five-fifteen there was this gem – Woo, wah…..Rope a dope.” At five fifteen there was a reminder of sorts – “Gotta get more exercise.” At five forty five it all ended with this masterpiece – “Coke, no joke.”

From that point, until about six thirty, I tried to piece it all together. “Sherbucky…..sherbucky…..It’s got to mean something. But what?” I thought. “And just what’s in Arizona?” “Sherbucky perhaps?” “Or honey?” The mysteries began to deepen. “Woo, wah…..Rope a dope.” “I mean, what’s up with that?”

And so it went until a stroke of inspiration hit me. I had gotten a hold of the stuff that made Dashiell Hamett and Mickey Spillane famous. I had a mystery that needed someone to solve it, someone like Sam Spade.

There, in the pre-dawn darkness I began to create “Sherbucky’s Secret,” my homage to Spillane and Hammett’s literature noir. My hero was Clyde Club, king of the detectives. I could almost see him sitting at his roll-top desk as the story began, sipping week old black coffee, barking at his secretary, the ever loyal, ever snippy, gum chewing Alice, “Hey Alice pull the Sherbucky file for me, would ya?” A while later I could hear him responding wryly to some Brooklyn tough who was trying to, as we say in the Midwest, “pull the wool over his eyes,” as he was looking for leads in the “sherbucky” case. As only Clyde could express it he sneered and asked his adversary, “Got a ladle for that honey?” I could then see our intrepid sleuth finding an important clue. ‘That’s it…..That’s it…..It’s in Arizona.”

After subduing a thug I could hear him explaining his self defense methods. With hands raised, knees bent, he cut loose with his famous calling card just before he leveled the crook – “Woo, wah…..Rope a dope.” It was all over in a flash. Then, as he stood over the fallen thug he had this advice to offer as he walked away – “Gotta’ get more exercise.” Finally, as he was in Arizona trying to piece it all together he found himself in a “gin joint.” As he leaned over the bar he ordered “Coca-Cola, straight up.” The barkeep, not believing what he’d just heard gave Clyde that look, you know, the one that says, “Say it again, Clyde.” In a deadpan that only Clyde could muster up he snorted in response, “Coke, no joke.”

But, try as I might, I could never quite piece it all together. I never could figure out who or what “sherbucky” was. I even tried “googling” it a little while ago. All I got was “Did you mean sherbuck?” and “Your search – sherbucky – did not match any documents.”

I’ll keep on working on it. There’s got to be an answer.

Well, for the rest of the retreat I had great fun at Jim’s expense. On Friday as we were painting I’d occasionally ask him, “So, who or what is sherbucky anyway?” At lunch that same day I asked what was in Arizona. And so it went. It even became infectious enough that the other guys picked it up, re-dubbing Jim from “Gaugin” to “Sherbucky.”

Jim handled all the ribbing with his customary humor and grace, much like he’s handled this period of adversity in his life. It was a wonder to behold.

As it has been since December this has been a time of transition for Jim, and he’s handled it all with great dignity. I believe that’s important for him and also important for those who have stepped into the roles he once filled.

The retreat leaders spent some time honoring Jim for his work over the years and talking about the transition that has taken place. As I listened to all the talk of change and new things, I was struck by something else in all of this. Yes, there is transition, there’s no denying that. But even in all the change there are still important things that Jim needs to contribute to the greater good. It’s his wisdom and grace under fire.

On Sunday, before we left for home, I shared with him about things I’d been sensing during our five days together. There was a small portion of Holy Writ that struck me as quite appropriate. I’ts from Joshua:

Joshua 13:1 (New International Version)

Joshua 13

Land Still to Be Taken
1 “When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, "You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.”

The first half of the statement seems to be an acknowledgment of sorts. “You are very old.” In the King James version the description of the aging process is put this way – “stricken in years.” I wondered what Joshua must have been thinking as he heard those words. Maybe memories of great victories raced past his mind’s eye, memories of Jericho and Ai, memories of great victories over the Amorites and the Anakites, memories of the day the sun stood still, memories of victories from the north to the south. Perhaps he was also thinking, on hearing the acknowledgement of his advancing years, that he was going to be lost in the transition, that his best days were now passed, that he was going to have wonderful memories of those days, but no real future.

I think it was at about that time that the Almighty reminded Joshua that “there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.” It’s was God’s way of saying to the great man, “Yes, Joshua, there is transition, but I still have a lot of work left for you to do. The years have advanced on you, but it’s not over for you by any stretch of the imagination.”

I shared my thoughts with Jim and told him that I sensed that the wisdom he’d compiled over the years needed to be documented and that the need was critical. “The generation ahead of you is going to need it,” I said. “There are going to be times coming up when the younger leaders will stumble and they’re going to need your wisdom to pick themselves up to keep moving on.”

There was a lot that happened in those five days, but for me nothing was more vital than those times I was able to share with Jim. I got to see God’s grace working in a very powerful way in his life. The shared laughter was indeed like medicine, the wisdom given, by way of transition, to a new generation of leaders was transformational.

You know, I doubt that I’ll ever finish the mystery of who or what “sherbucky” is. But something greater, more powerful was revealed in its place. It was the power of a merry heart and how, by God’s grace it is transforming Jim Kegin. While I can’t predict the future, I sense that his transition is going to be very active, very alive. Jim needs to press on with that work …..and so do we!

God's Miniseries, Part Fifteen

Revelation 15 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 15

The Song of Moses and of the Lamb
1 “Then I saw in heaven another significant event, and it was great and marvelous. Seven angels were holding the seven last plagues, which would bring God's wrath to completion. 2I saw before me what seemed to be a crystal sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name. They were all holding harps that God had given them. 3And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your actions, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.[a]
4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”

The Seven Bowls of the Seven Plagues
5Then I looked and saw that the Temple in heaven, God's Tabernacle, was thrown wide open! 6The seven angels who were holding the bowls of the seven plagues came from the Temple, clothed in spotless white linen[b] with gold belts across their chests. 7And one of the four living beings handed each of the seven angels a gold bowl filled with the terrible wrath of God, who lives forever and forever. 8The Temple was filled with smoke from God's glory and power. No one could enter the Temple until the seven angels had completed pouring out the seven plagues.”

Footnotes:
Revelation 15:3 Some manuscripts read King of the ages; other manuscripts read King of the saints. Revelation 15:6 Some manuscripts read in bright and sparkling stone.