tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77348462024-03-12T21:25:01.581-05:00Fires Along the TallgrassEssays from the Heartland - My world and times viewed through the prism of the Kansas Flint HillsPhil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.comBlogger645125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-25348582664619593242019-01-31T20:28:00.000-06:002019-01-31T21:56:07.789-06:00"RUSHING WIND"<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WNz_s7uV_uo" width="560"></iframe>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: blue;">“Rushing wind blow through this temple,</span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I've been born again.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: blue;">Keith Green - “Rushing Wind” (1981)</span></i></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-12cf76ee-7fff-a890-1c72-c3b8624013c9"><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes it takes a rushing wind to bring us to our senses, to sweep the dust and societal debris that has collected within our souls and blinded us to a higher reality. I know; there was so much worldly dust and debris in me I could hardly see. I was like the psalmist - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“my feet had almost slipped, I had nearly lost my foothold.” (Psalm 73)</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-12cf76ee-7fff-a890-1c72-c3b8624013c9"><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This world, the world we can see, feel, hear, and taste has a way of diverting our attention away from the things that are really important. We are, after all, earthbound creatures, and the tyranny of what our society, our politicians, and social media communicate to us has a powerful effect. It’s become a constant of modern life, somewhat like gravity. The message conveyed is clear, especially if one is a Christian - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Their mouths lay claim to heaven and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They say, ‘How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?’” (Psalm 73)</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-12cf76ee-7fff-a890-1c72-c3b8624013c9"><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not too long ago, I started reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “Between Two Millstones,” in which he looks back at his life from the time the Soviet authorities decided the only thing they could do with him was get rid of him. </span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-12cf76ee-7fff-a890-1c72-c3b8624013c9"><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His writing and his prophetic voice had become a powerful witnesses to truth, so Yuri Andropov and the Soviet apparatus decided to strip him of his Soviet citizenship and ship him off to the West. This is about where “Between Two Millstones” begins. Solzhenitsyn had come to the west. He was now a free man. There were no shackles on him. He was free to say whatever he wanted and he had a Western audience eager to hear what he had to say. It did not work that way, however. He discovered early on that the oppression he experienced for so many years in the Soviet gulags was actually a crucible for creativity and truth. The gulag could not silence him, nor could the threats of the Politburo. But, his new-found freedom was actually more stifling than could have ever imagined. This is now he put it in the early part of his book: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Back in Moscow, as soon as Alya or I would meet up with Betta, there ensued fiery exchanges of clandestine ideas—but now that I was free to discuss whatever I liked, I simply could not gather my thoughts. After a great upheaval passes, you feel it even more.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s really quite fascinating. We often fear opposition and oppression, but it’s often a great gift that allows us to see the world around us clearly. It’s painful, but it’s clarifying. Freedom, or what we most often think of as freedom, can, on the other hand, often have a stifling or shackling effect. I think this is what Solzhenitsyn was experiencing when he first came to the West.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It took him some time to regain his spiritual footing and when he did he reclaimed the prophetic mantle that had produced the great works which had played such a powerful role in bringing down the Soviet system. His new role began in earnest, I believe, when he addressed the faculty and students of Harvard University in 1978. As he came to the podium, thunderous applause erupted. By the time he was done a little over an hour later, the applause had become sporadic and muted. America’s greatest minds sat, stunned If they had been expecting or hoping for a pillow prophet, they were disabused of the notion. Solzhenitsyn had turned his rhetorical guns on the West. He spoke to the West’s loss of courage and the West’s slow, inexorable descent into humanism.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He left Harvard and continued to hammer away. When he was asked what he believed western civilization’s greatest problem was he declared, in no uncertain terms, “Men have forgotten God.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The response to his words and warnings was predictable. It was the sort of thing that happens to prophets when they dare to speak against the currents of the time. It almost always does. Isaiah was sawn in two. Jeremiah was thrown into a well. John the Baptist was beheaded. Dr. King was assassinated. Jesus was crucified!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the punishment wasn’t as severe as it had been with his predecessors, it was meted out with great gusto. Solzhenitsyn was shunned. He had been the darling of the West when he spoke out against the evils of our enemies, but he had become persona no grata when he turned the guns on us. The message behind the punishment was clear. “Leave us alone.” “Shut up!” “Go away.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve always admired Solzhenitsyn. Being shunned, criticized, ignored, or labelled a fanatic never seemed to bother him. He refused to heed the siren’s song that thoroughly dominated Western culture. He was tuned in to a much higher frequency.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The siren song of culture is still dominant in the West today, a decade after Solzhenitsyn’s death, and anyone who runs afoul of its currents risks being shunned, ignored, or worse. This is especially true for those who not only profess, but also practice their Christian faith. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The question, then, becomes a matter of how professing and practicing Christians should respond to a culture tha</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">t is now in conflict with their faith.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who, within our culture, are we in conflict with? Is it our government? To some extent it is, but it isn’t the major culprit. We have First Amendment protections and they are still as strong as they’ve been since our founding. Our Constitution says they can’t be abridged. No, our problem isn’t legal. It’s cultural. In the 1980’s, Christians seemed to be on the inside as far as our culture was concerned. Today, however, the winds have shifted. We’re now on the outside looking in.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not that Christian thinkers haven’t seen this shift coming. In the 1940’s. C.S. Lewis, had this to say in “God in the Dock”: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I had a postcard signed ‘M.D.’ saying that anyone who expressed and published his belief in the Virgin Birth should be stripped and flogged. That shows you how easily persecution of Christians by the non-Christians might come back. Of course, they wouldn’t call it Persecution: they’d call it ‘Compulsory re-education of the ideologically unfit’, or something like that.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is where we Christians are today in America. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Should we mourn or should we celebrate? It’s a fundamentally important question we Christians must answer. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus, who we claim as our Lord, said we should rejoice and be glad when the cultural tides run against us - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12 ESV)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why, if this is the approach our Lord tells us to take, do we spend so much time mourning? Is our grip on on political and cultural levers so important that we can ignore the words of Jesus? Further, are we really being persecuted? Are we being thrown to the lions? Are our bodies being set ablaze to light our city streets at night? Are we being nailed to crosses outside the city limits? No...No...No! We’re being shunned, insulted, and ignored, that’s all. Does being a cultural insider mean so much to us that we’d be willing to abandon the principles of our faith to maintain good standing with culture that really doesn’t want our contribution? Should we be obliged to practice our faith the way culture demands we do? Should we cringe in terror when the Twitter and Facebook mobs insult us? Should we give in to the cultural elites? Should we surrender our faith meekly when we’re brought before the courts of public opinion?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If this is the price we must pay for cultural acceptance, I believe we must refuse to pay it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a better way. In the short term it may seem painful, but in the end it will prove true. We must escape the clutches of our culture. We must find a way to be “in, but not of, the world.” As singer/songwriter Keith Green put it so beautifully in the early eighties:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Separate me from this world Lord.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sanctify my life for you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Daily change me to Your image,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Help me bear good fruit.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hasn’t that always been the case for those engaged in the pilgrimage of faith? Abraham had to leave the cultural riches of the Chaldeans. Moses had to abandon the wealth and power of Egypt. A few of Jesus’ disciples had to abandon their fishing nets. One even had to abandon a lucrative tax collecting business.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a difficult lesson to learn and the results are often tragic when God’s people wrap themselves too tightly in the cultural blankets around them and becomes slaves. That’s the lesson Ezra and the people of Israel finally learned as the Babylonian captivity was ending </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra+9&version=NIV" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(see Ezra 9</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where to from here? There are answers. About a year ago, I read Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option,” which presents a model/template which Christians can use or modify to find a path through our culture to carve out a meaningful, Christ-centered life. I highly recommend it. While Dreher doesn’t offer a one size fits all solution to our current dilemma, it does offer a splendid starting point. Second, we need to see that the opposition we face is not only cultural, it’s also spiritual. In fact, it’s a potent mixture of the two forces. Third, and most important, we must draw close to Jesus. In order to fight the battles that lie ahead, we need direction that can come only from Him. Can we win our culture over? I’m not so sure. Dreher seems to think it’s lost. I do know this, however. At his trial, Pilate asked Jesus if he was a king. Jesus’ response was right to the point. “My kingdom is not of this world. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest.” (John 18:36)”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When all is said and done, we may lose the cultural battles, but we need not worry. The kingdom Jesus established is firm. It’s unassailable. The Twitter mobs may rage and the cultural elites may threaten. They may even try to legislate us into oblivion. They cannot, nor will they succeed. What Jesus has given us cannot be taken away by any power on earth. Therefore, we must stand fast, fully confident that He who saved us will keep us until He returns!</span></div>
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Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-80008909223920712522018-10-12T14:04:00.000-05:002018-10-12T14:04:00.953-05:00THE GREAT JUDGE AND THE FINAL JUDGEMENT<strong><em><span class="text Rev-20-11">"Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.</span> <span class="text Rev-20-12" id="en-NIV-31051">And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.</span> <span class="text Rev-20-13" id="en-NIV-31052">The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.</span> <span class="text Rev-20-14" id="en-NIV-31053">Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. </span><span class="text Rev-20-15" id="en-NIV-31054"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em>Revelation 20:11-15 (New International Version)</em></strong><br />
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The grisly spectacle is finally over. After what seemed to be an eternity of interrogation and accusations, Brett Kavanaugh has finally been sworn in as the ninth associate Justice to our current Supreme Court. It came after a lot of bloodletting that was reminiscent of<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZURHD5BU1o8"> the cruel manner the Senate Judiciary Committee treated Clarence Thomas in October of 1991. </a><br />
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Despite having had multiple FBI investigations, a spotless judicial record and with hundreds of rulings for the Judiciary Committee to see and numerous character witnesses vouching for his character, the Democrats on the committee produced an eleventh hour accuser who claimed Kavanaugh had tried to rape her sometime in 1982 or 1983 or sometime during the 1980's. She also didn't exactly know where it happened. The only thing she knew thirty five years after the attack was that it was him. How could she know it was him when she didn't know anything else about the attack? Her therapist somehow managed to get her to see the light, with the help of an attorney once Kavanaugh was submitted as a candidate for the High Court.<br />
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From there, the madness quickly descended from the gutter to the sewer. Another accuser came forward claiming that he had groped her and exposed himself to her, with no evidence whatsoever to back up her allegation, followed by a woman represented by a singularly nasty "porn lawyer." According to the woman, Kavanaugh was once a member of a team of gang rapists who preyed on young women in Maryland sometime during the early 1980's. As it was with his other accusers, there was no one who could corroborate the stories. When all of that became too far fetched to believe, the committee began attacking his high school and college drinking habits, notes made on his personal calendar and high school yearbook, then his temperament. He was even accused of not having a proper judicial temperament when he had the unmitigated gall to forcefully defend himself before the committee.<br />
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As the nasty process ground on, I tried comforting myself with the notion that the Salem witch trials were much worse, but that didn't help. Next,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpMjakNhZTc&t=12s"> I tried the comedy of Monty Python and the convoluted logic of determining whether or not a woman was a witch.</a><br />
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While Monty Python was hilarious, as they almost always were, it didn't seem very funny this time. The sight of a man defending his unjustly shredded honor while his wife, two daughters, and the judge's faithful supporters sat helplessly behind him, wasn't hilarious at all. It was an injustice of immense proportions.<br />
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Not to be outdone by the antics of the committee, the news media piled on for good measure. If the Democrats on the committee saw fit to find Kavanaugh guilty of the crimes and misdemeanors he was accused of without without a shred of evidence to support the accusations, he obviously had to be guilty. The media agreed and began to paint a portrait of a drunken pervert for the whole country to see.<br />
Somehow, thanks to the tenacity of Kavanaugh and his supporters, he survived the ordeal and now sits on the High Court.<br />
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In the light of these sad events, I've been giving thought to our notions of what constitutes a Supreme Court and the meaning of justice in America. I've concluded that our only hope for justice will one day be realized, sooner, I hope, rather than later.<br />
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More than ever these days I find myself hoping and praying for that justice to be fulfilled, as it has been promised to us in Holy Writ.<br />
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On this side of eternity, those who would be deemed qualified to sit in judgement over us and our man-made law, must be made to run the gauntlet. Investigative agencies pore over their past deeds. Legal scholars look in every jot or tittle of their legal briefs for any hint of error. Politicians scrutinize their histories, hoping to find something they've said that runs counter to their intertogators' political agendas, Roe versus Wade, for example.The brutal process begins with a select Senate committee and winds its way tortuously to a full Senate for a final vote. That, and the media circus that surrounds it, is about as insane as it could possibly get.<br />
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On the eternal side of eternity, there are a few things that are somewhat similar to our way of doing things here on Terra Firma and quite a few that are different. Here on earth, for example, a government body, the Senate, examines every candidate who has been selected for the Supreme Court. It's not that way in the eternal court. There is no candidate to grill for days on end. The position in heaven was filled a long, long time ago and that judge was selected by the Almighty himself. Also, while our system calls for nine judges to decide whether or not a law is Constitutional or a plaintiff's arguments have enough legal weight for the High Court to rule in the plaintiff's favor, there is only one judge in heaven. In both cases, the High Court's ruling is final. After that final ruling, there is no other avenue of appeal available. In terms of integrity and character, both courts have high standards. A judge must be honest, unimpeachable, and fair in his or her rulings. A good judge must never show preference for the rich over the poor. A good judge must not kowtow to special interests or political partisanship. A good judge's reasoning ability must be sound and the decisions he or she renders should carry considerable moral weight. That's not always the case in our earthly system. In 1857, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, a slave who moved to a free state, had to be returned to his slave owner in the south. The Court's reasoned that, since Scott was not a U.S.citizen by virtue of his slavery, he had to be nothing more than property to be disposed of at the whim of his "owner." One would think that a decision that important would be close. It wasn't. The Court ruled against Dred Scott seven to two. In 1927, Carrie Buck, a citizen of Virginia with limited mental ability (at 18 years of age, she had only gone through the sixth grade in school), was committed to a state facility as a "feeble minded" person. One thing led to another and the board of directors of the institution ordered her to be involuntarily sterilized. Her guardian appealed the ruling and Carrie's case made it all the way to the Supreme Court (Buck v. Bell). Her attorneys argued that her <a href="https://constitutionallawreporter.com/amendment-14-01/">Fourteenth Amendment rights</a> to procreate had been violated. The Court' s final ruling was 8-1 and the sterilization order proceeded. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was one of the eight justices who ruled against Carrie Buck. His words in defense of the decision still have the same sting today that they must have had almost a hundred years ago - "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." In a 2005 case, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, against Susette Kelo in an eminent domain case in which she sued the City of New London, Connecticut for what she believed was its <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fifth_amendment">misapplication of the eminent domain doctrine</a> when the city condemned her property to make room for a business venture that the city thought would provide economic benefit to the entire city. I believe it was a terrible decision. I'm not a legal expert, but the idea that a municipality can take my property and give it to someone who wants to build a pizza parlor is ludicrous.<br />
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I could go on, but I think you get the point. Human justice is imperfect. It's sometimes as fallen as the rest of humanity. Even a good judge can render a bad decision (Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Kelo ruling, for example). This, however, is not the case in the High Court of heavenly justice. The chief justice of that court will rule the world and the people with justice and integrity (Psalm 9:8, Isaiah 11:5, Jeremiah 23:5). When that great day comes, he will not need the approval of a Senate committee or the entire Senate to approve of him. He won the heavenly confirmation battle here on earth and he has the scars inflicted on him in his hands and side during that process to prove it. They won't be rooting around in his high school yearbooks or calendars. In fact, he just might be rooting around in theirs. You've got to know he'll find more dirt in theirs then they ever did in Brett Kavanaugh's. The heavenly judge is well acquainted with the sting of false accusations. He was accused of being a drunkard and a friend of deplorables and dregs (Matthew 11:19). He was accused of blasphemy more than once by the religious leaders of his day (Mark 14). At his trial he was accused of sedition (Luke 23) and saying he would destroy the temple of God (Matthew 26). His accusers twisted his words in order to render a guilty verdict on their charge of blasphemy (Matthew 26:65). From that point on, his accusers had no further need for witnesses against him (Matthew 26:65). That portion of his trial ended with one final indignity. His accusers spit on and beat him. "Prophesy to us, Messiah," they howled. "Who hit you?"<br />
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The entire sham dragged on, with Jesus being dragged from pillar to post, from Pilate to Herod and back again. The climax came when Jesus' accusers demanded that Pilate pronounce the death penalty. They didn't even have the courage of their supposed convictions and had to use a Roman procurator as their hit man. Not long after that, Jesus was nailed to a cross at Golgatha. He was an innocent man. He really was who he said he was, but he died a criminal's death.<br />
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When I was young, I used to recite the Apostle's Creed in the Episcopal church I attended. Whenever we got to the place where we were to recite, "He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead," I would either mumble the words or go silent. I didn't believe them back then. I do now!<br />
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There is a Supreme Court in heaven and there is a Chief Justice who will one day make the final rulings. As it is with our Supreme Court here on earth, there will be no avenue of appeal available. The Judge's ruling will be final. The parameters of that judgement outlined in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=NIV">Matthew 25:31-46</a> and Revelation 20:11-15. (see introduction to this post)<br />
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Knowing this, a prudent person would retain the services of a skilled advocate/attorney when that inevitable day of judgement comes. Thankfully, the heavenly Court has provided an advocate for all those who admit their guilt and lean on the mercy of the court. That arrangement is available to all, including United States Senators, deplorables, dregs, false accusers, and assorted sinners of all stripes.<br />
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That's the plea I intend to make when my moment in the dock comes. And, I've been assured by my advocate that the penalty for every sin I ever committed has been paid for in full because he has told me he was the one who paid the debt that justice demanded. I know that now by faith, but there is a day coming when I will know it by sight: when I see my advocate's nail pierced hands and wounded side.<br />
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Will everyone accept this merciful arrangement? Apparently not. We are all free moral agents. We can choose to either embrace or reject the mercy offered. That choice will be the one that determines our eternal destiny.<br />
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<br />Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-69509387738717551372018-10-04T13:59:00.001-05:002018-10-04T13:59:53.445-05:00"The Third Compromise"<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Uz0sQDhx1rE" width="560"></iframe><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”</span>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-cf1548ce-7fff-a700-71b5-0c1191310029"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few weeks ago, I went over to Haag Pharmacy to pick up a prescription for my wife. As I walked toward the entrance, I found myself caught up in the sights and sounds of children playing and laughing in the adjacent playground of Emporia Christian School. If I could have, I’d have lingered a while longer. It just felt so good, for an all too fleeting moment, to be transported away from the insanity of modern life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I got inside the pharmacy, I was re-transported back into the realities of adult life in America. That’s the world where about 40 million of us are taking prescribed anti-depressants and psychotropics. It’s a world dominated by Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac, Xanax, Ativan, Ritalin, or some newly concocted chill pill. There are millions more of us taking Demerol, Oxycodone, and Percocet for our pain. Too often, the reward for using these painkillers is addiction. I’ve heard that using them for only five days can turrn a corporate executive, an undertaker, a truck driver, or a college professor into a mumbing, toothless junkie. And, wonder of wonders, it’s all approved by the Food and Drug Administration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, mind you, I don’t fault Amber and her crew. They’ve absolutely delightful people. They’re not the ones responsible for society’s ills. They’re only doing what the doctor ordered and the doctor is only trying to fix problems that he or she didn’t create. But, I digress. I need to move on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was greeted by a smiling face as soon as I got to the counter. “How are you, Phil? It’s good to see you. How can I help you?” “I’m good. I’m here for Nancy’s regulars,” I responded. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With my mind still trying to wrap itself around the joy those kids were experiencing in the playground next door, I paid for the prescriptions and made a bit of small talk before I left. “The kids next door are absolutely wonderful. They’re infectious, don’t you think?” The clerk smiled and nodded in agreement. I closed the conversation on a somber note. “The sad thing is, some of these happy kids are going to grow up and become United States Senators some day. I can’t figure it out. How does something like that happen? How does it all go off the rails?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Realizing it wouldn’t be fair for me to expect an answer to the question, I made my way to the exit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The questions have been nagging at me ever since. How? How? How? One day these kids are happy and content. Then, gradually, they get pumped full of Ritalin, Prozac, or painkillers and their heads are turned inside-out. The process repeats itself over time and they’re ruined. The only thing they’re good for in the end is the United States Senate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve been giving this thought since that brief encounter, racking my brain for solutions to the problem. I’ve concluded the only thing that makes much sense to me is for those of us who are Christian to never send our kids to public school at all. Let them learn about life on their own. They seem to do a far better job of learning how life is supposed to work without a lot of adult interference and instruction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Why, Phil,” you say. “That’s a bit too radical; it’s insane. Our children need to get an education. After all, how are they ever going to succeed in this world without an education?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That argument might have worked well on me a few years ago, but not these days. If what the world considers success and God considers success could be put side by side into writing, one thing would become abundantly clear. God’s ideas about success are radically different than the “world’s.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been that way for millennia. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I was in graduate school, I became acquainted with the work of Peter Marshall, a Presbyterian minister who emigrated from Scotland in the 1920’s and by the 1940’s had become Chaplain of the United States Senate. He died when he was in his forties. While his life was short, his legacy was rich and full. Whatever he was given in life, he used for the glory of God and the good of mankind. That was especially evident in the way he used worldly wealth. He died nearly penniless, with just a few dollars in his accounts to pass on to posterity. Some people thought that this was a terrible thing for him to do to his family, but his wife, Catherine, thought otherwise. She once observed that she was quite proud of the example he'd set in life. She let the critics know that he had used every resource he had been given in life to the best possible end.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think of a man like Peter Marshall and ask myself what he might have to say about our children and the educational system we plunge them into these days. I believe I know the answer. In fact, I’m sure I know.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some time during the 1940’s, Peter Marshall preached a sermon that is now best known as “The Third Compromise.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What, you might ask, was or is “The Third Compromise?” It was Marshall’s commentary on the contest of wills between God and Pharaoh recorded in the book of Exodus. “The Third Compromise” can be found in chapter 10 of that book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prior to chapter 10, Moses outlines God’s requirements for his people, under the broad umbrella of the now famous words, “Let my people go that they may worship me.” In response, Pharaoh offers a series of compromises - (1) the people may go, but they must worship in the land of Egypt, (2) the people may go, but they cannot go too far, (3) the men can go, but the children must stay in Egypt, and (4) All can go, but their possessions cannot go with them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the end, every compromise is rejected. The first is rejected when Moses tells Pharaoh that the children of Israel are to leave Egypt and go three days into the wilderness to worship God. Pharaoh responds by telling Moses the people can go, but not too far, which was another way of saying, “Don’t get too carried away with your religion business." It was a very twenty-first century response, but it was also rejected. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This brings me to “The Third Compromise.” Pharaoh’s offer and Moses’ and God’s response are outlined in the 10th chapter of Exodus, which follows</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the Lord your God,” he said. “But tell me who will be going.” Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our old, witth our sons and our daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the Lord.” Pharaoh said, “The Lord be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil. No! Have only the men go and worship the Lord, since that’s what you have been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh’s presence.” (Exodus 10:8-10, New International Version)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is this “Third Compromise” that far too many Christians have been willing to embrace and they have done it to the detriment of the faith they profess in.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In his sermon on the subject, Reverend Marshall puts the peril of the compromise succinctly:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">“This was perhaps the most subtle and the most successful of all the compromises, because even the most godly parents today desire worldly prosperity and position for their children. They want their children to stay in Egypt, they want their children to find success and approval in Egypt. One of the greatest problems facing the church today is the fact that so many children and young people are still in Egypt with the approval and the consent of their parents.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While some Christians opt for Christian schools or homeschooling, most send their children to public schools, which are supposedly neutral on the subject of religious faith, to learn the skills they’ll need in life to become “successful.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this regard, Reverend Marshall’s words from the 1940’s are prescient and powerful: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">“If you give to your children an account of the world from which God is left out, you will teach them to understand the world without reference to God.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I see 21st America and see the results of the “Third Compromise.” I see it in the ever increasing cohort of young people who want nothing to do with Christianity and even when they do, their belief systems are based on what the “world” believes it should be, not God’s. The current moniker for this cohort is “Nones.” How’s that for a belief system? It might just as well be Bette Midler’s famous </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Whatever!”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does this mean that the parents who have made this compromise don’t care about their children? No, of course not. As Reverend Marshall also observed, these parents give their children the best medical and dental care. They make sure their children's posture is perfect and their grasp of social graces are outstanding. They pay fortunes for college tuition. But while </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">“their bodies and their minds are carefully nurtured and trained while their souls are starved and neglected.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think of young children today and conclude, sadly, that this is how our children become United States Senators or anything else we deem to be important in life. Far too many of them enter the fray without much of an internal rudder to guide them other than ambition and self-interest. They are thrown into a world where that ethic prevails. It’s every man for himself. It’s do whatever ambition and self-interest tell you to do, even if it means destroying your fellow travelers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peter Marshall hasn’t been the only one who has seen the peril before the Christian world. About a year ago, I read Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option - A Strategy for Christians in a Post Christian Nation.” Dreher has observed what Peter Marshall observed more than a half a century before him. He has seen that </span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Christians often talk about “reaching the culture” without realizing that, having no distinct Christian culture of their own, they have been co-opted by the secular culture they wish to evangelize.”</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In other words, they have fallen prey to Pharaoh’s “Third Compromise.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dreher sees all to well that </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">“American Christians are going to have to come to terms with the brute fact that we live in a culture, one in which our beliefs make increasingly little sense. We speak a language that the world more and more either cannot hear or finds offensive to its ears.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But how can we come to our senses? Dreher’s prescription is simple, right to the point: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">“If we are going to be for the world as Christ meant for us to be, we are going to have to spend more time away from the world, in deep prayer and substantial spiritual training—just as Jesus retreated to the desert to pray before ministering to the people. We cannot give the world what we do not ha</span></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ve.”</span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As it was in the time of Moses, I believe it’s time for Christians who truly want to live the Christian life to go into the wilderness, as it were, to worship God without the influence of the “world" to corrupt us. I don’t have a clear idea of what that life looks like. Like most people, I’ve been too caught up in the affairs of this world to see the objective clearly. But, I am convinced that it is time for us to tell the Pharaohs of our time, “Let my people go, that they may worship me.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peter Marshall closed that famous sermon with a critical question. It was critical back in the 1940’s. It’s even more critical today. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll close with that question and leave it with you, the reader:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">“What is the good of your son's phi-beta-kappa key, or your girl's successful career in music or art or journalism, if they don't know God, if they are not saved, if they have not entered into a saving relationship with God through Christ, if they are spiritually illiterate or spiritually dead? That’s the question you will have to answer if your children are left in Egypt.”</span></span></div>
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</span>Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-54632567042513415002018-09-22T18:14:00.000-05:002018-09-23T12:23:41.413-05:00HOMEWARD BOUND<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-8j8feqdCKA" width="560"></iframe>
<span style="color: blue;"><i>“Bind me not to the pasture </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>Chain me not to the plow </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>Set me free to find my calling </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>And I'll return to you somehow</i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>If you find it's me you're missing </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>If you're hoping I'll return, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>To your thoughts I'll soon be listening, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>And in the road I'll stop and turn </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>Then the wind will set me racing </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i> As my journey nears its end </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>And the path I'll be retracing </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>When I'm homeward bound again.” </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>“Homeward Bound” by Marta Keen Thompson
</i></span><br />
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We just got back from an extended weekend, part of which we spent in Eureka Springs, Arkansas celebrating our 32nd wedding anniversary and part of it with a small group of fellow Christians at a retreat center on the shores of Table Rock Lake.<br />
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We didn’t do anything earth shattering. We celebrated our anniversary at the Bavarian Inn in Eurkea Springs. We had shared a wonderful evening there on our first anniversary in 1987. We loved it so much we’ve gone back three more times over the years, including this year. These brief interludes have given us the opportunity to look back at where we’ve been together and to spend time thinking of where we’re heading. The sights, sounds, atmosphere, and tastes have become familiar friends to us. There’s something very wonderful in seeing that, as the rest of the world spins madly around, there are places like the Bavarian Inn Inn that resist the temptation to join what has become the madness of modern life. In is own way, it’s actually quite radical in its approach to business. As soon as we came though the door, for example, we were greeted by a sign that read “cell phone free zone, thank you for your consideration.” The message conveyed is clear. “You’re entering an entirely different world than the one outside this door.” I’m sure a lot of American moderns would find that disconcerting or provactive. Nancy and I found it quite comforting.<br />
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The two days we spent at Table Rock Lake didn’t seem earth shattering either, but they were for me. When we first decided to go on the retreat, I just thought it would be nice to get together with the people we’d first met a bit over a year ago at their small church in Kansas City’s River Market. In the year we’ve known them, we’ve found them to be not only down to earth, but deeply committed to living their Christian faith in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity. Our weekend conversations and prayers about faith and life and our respective “homeward bound” journeys were far more powerful and transformative than I could have ever imagined.<br />
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My introduction to them came about the same time I read what has become a very influntial book to me - Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option.” I’ve written about it before, so I won’t go into a great deal of detail about it in this column. Suffice it to say that Dreher sees that a Benedict type of model of Christianity is needed to revive a Church that has, according to him that has become stale, ingrown, motivated far too often by worldy ideas of power. The Church is becoming more wordly than the world outside the church doors.<br />
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I’ve given a lot of thought to what Dreher has written and I believe he’s right. Something’s got to give.
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Dreher recently spoke at a meeting in Lombardy, Italy about the Benedict Option. One of the most important things he said was that Benedict did not do what he did in the sixth century to “save the Church according to some kind of strategic-political project for evangelization. No, he did it to save himself, his relationship with God.”<br />
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Dreher sees this as the crux of the matter for Christians today. “They need to be concerned with the faith itself before they become concerned with changing the world. How can we offer to the world something which we no longer possess ourselves? In short, Christian judgment and identity, a communal life rooted in the sacraments, prayer, and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church are so challenged by the world in which believers find themselves today that they no longer know them or live them.”<br />
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I learned something very valuable during those few days away. It’s not my job to cure the Church’s or the world’s institutional ills. In fact, trying to fix them is a real diversion from the calling I originally embraced back in 1967. It wasn’t a call to be a trail blazer or a power broker. It was a call to follow Jesus, nothing more, nothing less. Therefore, I can’t get so mired in the trappings and politics of this world that I lose my soul, calling, and true Home in the process.
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-4104043590449423212018-02-22T12:08:00.000-06:002018-02-22T12:08:19.326-06:00THE MADNESS MUST END<img alt="Image result for school shootings" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgHkL6_Q5dt_c5tMorcUoWvWldABQCuiaZDqRbFv_K0cT82qhy8w" /><br />
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6139" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6140" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not long after Nancy and I watched the initial news reports about awful events at Parkland High School, I took our dogs, Ranger and Katt, for their evening walk. I went a bit earlier than I normally do, hoping to inject a bit of sunshine into what had become another day of senseless American mayhem. It worked for a while, until we passed by Walnut School. The building was empty. As I made my way past the dumpster in the parking lot, a surge of grief and rage swept over me. I turned and leaned over the dumpster, sobbing in despair as I did. It was my silent plea for the madness to end.</span></div>
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<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6142"><br id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6143" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6144" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6145" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I took Ranger and Katt for their walk the next morning, I read that the death toll seems to be capped at 17. Seventeen! That’s the same number of combat deaths our military suffered in Afghanistan during all of 2017. Now, one should reasonably expect casualties in a war, but it’s absolutely insane to think that an American school would become, in essence, a war zone where the body count is worse than a “real” war. Yet, since the 1990’s it’s happened over and over and over. It’s almost impossible to grasp.</span></div>
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<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6147"><br id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6148" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6149" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6150" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We took the same route we did the night before By the time we got to Walnut School, children were beginning to arrive. Ranger, our Sheltie, was, as he always is, in his element. He absolutely adores children. He’ll sit in front of them and whimper a bit, a signal that he wants to shower them with affection. Sometimes he fidgets, then holds up one of his front paws. It’s his way of asking, “Can we be friends; I’d really like that.? Let’s shake on it.” The kids love it. Katt just stands quietly, allowing Ranger to take center stage. It’s not that she doesn’t like kids. She’s a bit shy and it takes time for her to warm up to them. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6151" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6152"><br id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6153" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6154" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6155" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Ranger and Katt went through their paces, I just observed. One thing I always find amusing is the backpacks the kids tote. They’re bigger than the kids, so big in fact that it sometimes appears to me that the backpacks are toting the kids, not the other way around. The more I think about, the more I sense that those backpacks aren’t so amusing. They just may be symbols for the enormous burdens being placed on kids these days. Not only do they have to worry about their school work, they’ve now got to worry about their safety and whether or not one of their classmates is hatching another diabolical scheme. I’m sure their parents are also worrying as they send them off to school with a hug or kiss.</span></div>
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<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6157"><br id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6158" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6159" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6160" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s so much that’s frightening about these senseless acts of terror. The perpetrators always seem able to marshal powerful weapons. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who were about 18 when they went on their rampage in Columbine in 1999, used a 9MM carbine, a 12 gauge pump shotgun, and a 9MM pistol with high capacity magazines. Adam Lanza used a high powered Bushmaster when he killed 26 people at Sandy Hook in 2012. In 1997, Luke Woodham was only 16 when he bludgeoned and stabbed his mother to death in the morning, then took a rifle and 45 caliber pistol to his high school in Pearl, Mississippi where he killed 2 of his fellow students and wounded 7 others. Yesterday, 19 year old Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15 to kill 17 at Parkland High School. While the weapons used in the attacks were frightening, it was far more blood curdling to realize that, in each of these cases, it was kids, not deranged adults, who were killing classmates, teachers, administrators, and even their parents </span></div>
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<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6162"><br id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6163" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6164" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6165" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought about that as I was leaving Walnut School that morning. I saw a couple of older boys walking toward the school. They looked like normal kids, but in the light of all that’s happened in America since the 1990’s, I found myself wondering, “Is one of these boys the coiled spring of anger and despair, ready to snap over some perceived grievance?” I offered a silent prayer for them as I made my way back home.</span></div>
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<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6167"><br id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6168" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6169" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6170" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I said, I have no solutions to offer. More vigorous background checks and restrictions on high powered weapons, consistent with the Second Amendment, seem reasonable to me. I don’t find that difficult because I don’t own a weapon, unless you consider my “flame tempered” Louisville Slugger (Kirby Puckett model) a weapon. I have friends who I’m sure would strongly disagree with me. </span></div>
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<br id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6171" /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6172" style="font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv1191156503yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518743444413_6173" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, I’m left with the same old solutions, which aren’t being accepted. All I’m left with in the end is my plea for the madness to end!</span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-32514192591664748992018-02-08T09:09:00.000-06:002018-02-08T09:09:27.193-06:00THE LAST ENEMY<img alt="Related image" src="http://photosaws.sparkpeople.com/guid/4aa03e89-7f2b-400d-b0b2-0e036cb603a8.jpg" /><br />
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9878" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9879" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a once in a lifetime event that has many euphemisms attached to it. It’s been described as popping your clogs, pushing up daisies, being promoted to glory, biting the dust, buying the farm, kicking the bucket, or riding the pale horse. We even have euphemisms for our furry friends. We put them to sleep or put them down.</span></div>
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<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9881" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9882" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9883" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9884" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m sure you’ve figured it out. I’m writing about death, that once in a lifetime event that the Bible calls, also euphemistically, the last enemy.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9885" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9886" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9887" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9888" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9889" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read a recent obituary in the Gazette about a 103 old person whose friends reported that the deceased’s passing was “unexpected.” Unexpected? The deceased must have been a wonderful person and will undoubtedly be missed, but the idea that death at 103 would be unexpected is hard for me to fathom. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9890" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9891" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9892" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9893" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9894" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been like this for ages. In the Old Testament, subjects of some kings had to address them with the phrase, “Oh king, live forever.” (Daniel 3:9) I’ll bet the satraps and seers must have rolled their eyes when they said it.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9895" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9896" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9897" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9898" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9899" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember attending a meeting years ago in a corporate setting. The young turks were puffing out their chests, desperately scrambling up the ladder of success, It was pathetic. I sat silently for a while until someone asked me, “What do you think, Dillon?” I couldn’t help myself. “Do you realize that every person in this room is going to die?” Granted, it was a career limiting move, but it did end a pointless meeting.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9900" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9901" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9902" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9903" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9904" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, we don’t want to die, but most of us accept death’s reality. That, however, is not always the case. I recently read that a few Silicon Valley bigwigs are spending a lot of money trying to solve the death problem. Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into “life-extension therapies.” PayPal’s Peter Thiel, who has described death as “a terrible, terrible thing,” is spending millions in his effort to put death out to pasture.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9905" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9906" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9907" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9908" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9909" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My youngest son and I have talked about Ellison, Thiel, and others involved in this search. He seems to like their ideas. Me? The idea of a cure for death begs a couple of very important questions. First, how much would it cost the rest of us if they ever did manage to figure it out? I don’t think they’d give it to us out of the goodness of their hearts. It would probably cost a pretty penny, which would make the haunting lyrics of the old Bahamian lullaby a sad reality: “If life was a thing that money could buy, then the rich would live and the poor would die.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9910" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9911" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9912" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9913" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9914" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second question is also very important. Would we want to live in this fallen world with an eternally alive Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? Not me! No way! I’d be looking for the exit, screaming “Stop the world, I want to get off.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9915" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9916" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9917" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9918" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9919" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The dream of staving of death isn’t new. One of my all-time favorite movies is “On Borrowed Time,” a 1939 film about a grandfather who has an appointment with death in the person of a man named Mr. Brink. Gramps is worried about his orphaned grandson, Pud, and wants to protect him at all costs. One event leads to another until he discovers that by sending Mr. Brink up into an apple tree outside his house, Mr. Brink cannot come down to ply his deadly trade. No one can die. Next, Pud is tricked into trying to climb the tree and falls. He’s paralyzed, doomed to spend an earthly eternity in a wheelchair. Gramps then realizes his error and comes to the conclusion that death is the only humane avenue of escape for Pud. He relents and allows Mr. Brink to come down. The movie ends with Pud shedding the wheelchair and walking into a far better eternity with Gramps.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9920" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9921" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9922" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9923" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9924" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I once had the opportunity to speak to a group of workers who had a contractual right to “stay on the clock” on any given payday if their checks weren’t being made available to them. I asked them if they would make that same demand for another wage they’d earned. “How many of you guys are prepared to storm the gates of heaven to demand the wages of the sins you worked so hard in life to earn?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9925" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9926" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9927" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9928" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9929" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got no takers.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9769" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br clear="none" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9930" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9931" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv2796015759m_117660053814387087yui_3_16_0_1_1517537592900_9932" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m seventy-five. I have no illusions. Mr. Brink is waiting in the wings for me. That’s alright. There’s also an eternity beyond and I’m told that the rewards that await me are wonderful and they’re free. So, when that day comes, I’m going the old fashioned way. I’m just going to listen to the advice of my Counsel and lean on the mercy of the High Court. </span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-86517820729270009212018-01-09T14:19:00.001-06:002018-01-09T14:19:51.127-06:00ONE THING<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v1ARAIAvX2A" width="560"></iframe>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4949" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4950" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a recent First Things essay, Darren Guerra observed, as have other Christian writers, that fault lines are springing up within the Evangelical movement. The cause of the fissures? Donald Trump.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4951" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4952" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4953" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4954" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4955" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For example, Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a Conservative think tank, has decided to shed the Evangelical and Republican labels, citing his concerns about Donald Trump’s impact on both groups.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4956" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4957" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4958" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4959" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4960" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ross Douthat, a Conservative Roman Catholic, recently observed in his New York Times column that Donald Trump “has forced a crisis in evangelicalism.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4961" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4962" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4963" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4964" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4965" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guerra believes that Douthat is right and goes further. He subdivides the current Evangelical “movement into three distinct groups: Jacksonian, Tocquevillian, and elites.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4966" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4967" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4968" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4969" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4970" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jacksonians are, for the most part, from rural America’s working classes. They found their “champion” in Donald Trump when Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party abandoned them for the wealthy. According to Guerra, Jacksonians are Trump loyalists who “will not abandon Trump unless he abandons them first.” </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4971" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4972" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4973" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4974" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4975" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tocquevillian Evangelicals “possess more social capital than Jacksonians. They attend church regularly, have strong family ties, and wide circles of friends, are active in churches and voluntary organizations and work steadily.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4976" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4977" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Elite Evangelicals are “the institutional and intellectual leaders of the Evangelical world.” I can’t describe it any further than that. I don’t know any elites.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4978" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4979" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve given it some thought and I’ve decided that Peter Wehner is right. The label “Evangelical” doesn’t paint a full picture of his faith, or mine for that matter. There’s much more to the Christian faith than labels, political affiliation, or political power.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4980" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4981" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve never been a Donald Trump supporter, nor will I ever be, despite the claims some of my critics make. That doesn’t mean I don’t have great affinity for some Trump supporters. I know many of them. We share a common faith. I consider them friends. I would never willingly abandon those relationships.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4982" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4983" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m only one part of the world-wide Christian movement. My thinking and affinities are neo-Pentecostal/Charismatic/Emergent. My identity is Christian, nothing more, nothing less.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4984" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4985" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can best illustrate what I’m trying to communicate by describing an experience I had over the New Years’ weekend in Kansas City.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4986" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4987" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saturday morning my wife needed some things from the grocery store, so off I went to Cosentino’s in the Power and Light district. I got quite a surprise when I got there. The place was mobbed; there were young people everywhere. Some were in long lines at the cash registers. Some were sitting in the aisles, eating breakfast meals they’d purchased at the buffet. They were engaged in animated conversations. I didn’t know what to make of it. I thought perhaps there had been a power failure in the city and the crowds were trying to make the most of a bad situation. I got the few things I needed and made my way into one of the long lines. A cop motioned to me and said, “This way, Bud. I’ll take you over to customer service where the line is short.” As soon as I got there I felt quite privileged. There was only a young woman, a millenial, in the line ahead of me. As I positioned myself, she turned, smiled and asked, “Do you love Jesus?” I have to admit I was taken by surprise by her question. How often does a person get asked a question like that at a grocery store? I gathered myself and responded, “I do indeed.” We struck up a brief conversation and I found out that the aisles were filled with young people who were attending a Christian Conference in Kansas City called “One Thing.” She explained that the thousands of young people gathered were in Kansas City to express their love and devotion to Jesus Christ. “We just love Jesus and we want to worship him and serve our communities.” </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4988" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4989" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s further proof in the pudding. I’ve seen some of the video from the conference. Young millenials were caught up in praise and worship for hours on end. They were expressing their adoration for Jesus. It was as compelling to watch as it was winsome. It was clear they loved Jesus more than anything else in this world, more than Donald Trump or political power. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4990" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4991" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The conference was aptly named “One Thing.” Read Psalm 27:4 and you’ll see what I mean.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4992" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4993" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have to admit that I often have a hard time understanding millennials, but the young woman I met at Cosentino’s and the thousands gathered at the conference have shown me and their Christian elders a better way, We, like they, need to come to the place where we too love Jesus more than Donald Trump or political power. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4994" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 17pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span id="yiv8479927810yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515180110319_4995" style="color: #4d4e4e; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s time to shed the labels!</span></div>
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Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-77343116784229664512017-12-14T15:03:00.000-06:002017-12-14T15:03:26.438-06:00WISDOM AND POWER, EXPRESSED QUIETLY<img alt="Image result for simeon" 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" /><br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6408" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6409" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: blue;">“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (I Corinthians 1:27)</span></i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6410" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6411" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6412" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6413" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6414" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While I was in Boston last month, I went to a Boston Bruins game at the Boston Garden. It was fun, except for a trip to the concession stand to get Nancy and me two cups of gelato. By the time I started back to my seat, I missed about 8 minutes of the second period, including a goal. That would have been bad enough, but on my way back up the stairs with the treat, a young man, trying to be kind, offered me some assistance. “Can I help you?” he asked. The only thing missing was “old timer.” It was a kind gesture, but it found it’s way under my skin. I thought to myself, “Do I look that old and feeble?” I should have said, “Thanks, but I’m okay,” but I didn’t. My retort was sharp, to the point. “Of course I don’t need any help...I’m fine!”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6415" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6416" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6417" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6418" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6419" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve wondered since what that young man might have said to his wife or significant other after the game. “Man, an old timer practically bit my head off when I offered to help him. See if I ever offer kindness to the elderly again.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6420" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6421" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6422" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6423" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6424" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Christmas is almost here. For the past three or four years, I’ve spent good parts of this time of year reading the Christmas narrative from the Book of Luke, with most of my time spent in the second chapter. I’ve always loved reading from Luke. He was a writer with immense skills. I think if he were around today, he might be winning Pulitzers. He was that good.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6425" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6426" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6427" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6428" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6429" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most scholars believe Luke was a physician, which may be why in some Christian circles he’s known as the patron saint of physicians and surgeons, in addition to being the patron saint of bachelors and butchers.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6430" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6431" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6432" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6433" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6434" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">About halfway through the second chapter, we’re introduced to a man named Simeon. There’s nothing earlier in the narrative that says anything about him, nor does Biblical history have much to offer. He comes upon the scene at a time when Israel has been conquered over and over again. The Babylonians have gone, as have the Assyrians. The Seleucids/Greeks have come and gone. The Romans are now in charge. Religiously, Israel is a shell of what it had once been. There are religious groups like the Pharisees, the up tight, legalistic band, and the Sadducees, who don’t believe in an afterlife. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6435" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6436" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6437" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6438" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6439" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Religious hope, if there is any, seems hidden from the view of most. This is where we see Simeon. Luke describes him as a man who, mysteriously, has come to believe that he won’t die until he sees Israel’s messiah face to face. His friends, if he had any, must have thought he was quite amusing. When they talked about him in polite company, the conversations must have been sprinkled with skepticism and rhetorical jabs. “That’s just Simeon being Simeon. Don’t pay him any mind, he’s really harmless.” “Simeon? He’s just a half a bubble off plumb. Just nod your head and pretend you believe him.” </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6440" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6441" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6442" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6443" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6444" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If there was any chatter in the background about him, Simeon didn’t seem to mind. He persisted. Every time I read the account, I’m amazed. He must have been a baby inspector, questioning God about every child who passed through his hands. “Is this him, Lord?” “No, you say.” “I’m still holding you to your promise. I believe you.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6445" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6446" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6447" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6448" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6449" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How long did the pattern repeat itself? I don’t know, but I do know something special happened when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to him in accordance with tradition. Simeon cradled Jesus in his arms and made a startling declaration: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations.” </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6450" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6451" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6452" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6453" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6454" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Simeon knew what the so called wise and strong of his time couldn’t, or wouldn’t, see.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6455" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6456" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6457" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6458" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6459" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the years pass, I sometimes wonder how old Simeon was. Was he 75, the mile marker I just passed? Was he 35? We’re not told, and I suppose that’s the point. The story of Jesus is a story for people at any age, young or old.</span></div>
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<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6461" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6462" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6463" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6464" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That means a lot to me. Jesus promised a second advent, which tells me I can go on looking ahead to an even more profound “consolation.” It doesn’t have anything to do with my age. It has everything to do with the amazing way God often does his work outside any culture’s approved streams of wisdom and power.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6468" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<br clear="none" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6465" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6466" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv3603897772m_4556035457488462127yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512764333129_6467" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Simeon saw this and it would be good for us to consider it also. </span></div>
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Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-89365271829288864812017-12-01T13:41:00.000-06:002017-12-01T13:41:02.100-06:00THE IMPRESSIONS OF YOUTH<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3046" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Image result for hypocrites for roy moore" src="https://www.plausibletruths.com/uploads/2/7/6/9/27698897/published/os-ed-letters-roy-moore-cartoon-021615-20150212.jpg?1510333588" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3046" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3046" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3047" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had a homecoming of sorts to celebrate my 75th birthday. It came in the form of a surprise trip to Boston. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3048" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3049" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3050" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3051" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3052" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nancy had told me we were going to Chicago and I was quite content with that. But, when the skycap told me we were actually going to Boston, my jaw dropped. Then, when I saw my kids were waiting for Nancy and me at the departure gate, my jaw hit the floor.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3053" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3054" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3055" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3056" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3057" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had a wonderful time. On our first night there I got to see a Boston Bruins hockey game, complete with lots of goals, a fight (which Nancy loved), a rare penalty shot, an even rarer save, and an empty net goal to cap the evening off. For the rest of the week we spent most of our time walking along Freedom Trail, stopping at historic sites like Faneuil Hall, the Bunker Hill monument, Quincy Market, Paul Revere’s house, Old Ironsides, and the Old North Church. On the 8th, we celebrated my birthday, along with Nancy, my kids, and my brother and his family, at a wonderful Italian restaurant in Boston’s “North End” neighborhood. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3058" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3059" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3060" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3061" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3062" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the day before we came back to Kansas City, Nancy, my son Jarrod, his girlfriend Julie, and I took the subway over to Harvard Square, then walked over to Christ Church, the church I attended when I was young. I was amazed at how familiar everything looked - the Revolutionary War bullet hole at the entrance to the sanctuary, the short, circular staircase going up to the 18th century pulpit, and the kneeling benches in front of the altar.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3063" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3064" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3065" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3066" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3067" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My brother and I were acolytes. I had the responsibility of lighting the altar candles before the service and snuffing them out when the service was over. My brother led the procession, carrying the cross at the beginning and end of the service.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3068" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3069" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3070" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3071" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3072" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I walked around the sanctuary, I got caught up in old memories and the mystery of the religion I was trying to understand. As I knelt at the altar, I was almost always aware that there was a “presence” near me, but I never could quite tune in to the frequency of that presence. Part of it stemmed from the fact that, after the priest recited a couple of collects (collective prayers), I would find myself swaying from side to side, feeling sick to my stomach. I’m not sure whether the feeling came from an allergy to the flowers at the altar or the sins of my youth convicting me, but about the time we got to the collect of confession, with the priest reciting, “We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us,” I’d be ready to go. One of the choir members, a young African-American college student, would take me to the restroom where I’d heave my guts up. He’d then wash my face and we’d get back to the sanctuary in time for the end of the service.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3073" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3074" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3075" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3076" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3077" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It happened so often I began to believe that God had it in for me. I don’t think I ever got to hear the last part of the collect of confession - “But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent.” If I had, I might still be an Episcopalian today.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3078" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3079" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3080" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3081" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3082" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The impressions of youth are often quite powerful. My impressions of God as a cosmic killjoy stayed with me for almost fifteen years, until a series of personal crises led me back “home.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3083" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3084" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3085" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3086" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3087" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought about my young experiences this morning as I was reading Ross Douthat’s op-ed in the New York Times, in which he outlined the un-Christian manner far too many Christian leaders are approaching the intersection of religion, politics, and ethics. Speaking primarily about evangelical leaders like Franklin Graham and Flip Benham, or politicians like Alabama state auditor Jim Zeigler, Douthat accuses them, rightly so, of being hypocritical in their strenuous defense of Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore. Douthat's words were pointed and powerful - “younger evangelicals (are being) betrayed by older pastors who insisted on the importance of moral character and then abandoned these preachments for the sake of partisanship — revealing their own commitments as essentially idolatrous.”</span></div>
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<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3089" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3090" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3091" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Courier New", courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3092" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Douthat is right. Do these men really believe that the young in their flocks or political action committees can’t see the hypocrisy and idolatry? Well, they can and they will abandon this Christian tribalism and self-serving politics and replace it with religion and politics that are new and vibrant.</span></div>
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<span id="yiv4328664408yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1511737865657_3095" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The change can’t come soon enough. We’re desperate for it.</span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-45697647388319269992017-11-18T09:48:00.000-06:002017-11-18T09:48:01.966-06:00MONEY LAUNDERING IS BAD BUSINESS<img alt="Image result for money laundering" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQlDwi6KBoNve0dd0beDuDCL-n9ywOzpwNHg-RCRwOk5GxbLijlJg" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The news is a bit dated now, but it’s still important. Paul Manafort, one of Donald Trump's former campaign managers, has been indicted by a federal jury for money laundering and tax evasion. What's next? There's an old proverb that says a very good prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich if he had a mind to. Robert Mueller is very good at what he does, so, we'll see. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lest you think I’m being flippant, let me assure you that I understand the seriousness of the charges Mr. Manafort faces. In fact, If he had contacted me several years ago, I could have warned him about the dangers of money laundering. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m married to an eagle-eyed accounting whiz. She’s meticulous and she’s as honest as the day is 24 hours long. There are days when I may be working on something here on the second floor while she’s on the third floor reconciling our books in Quicken. Just about the time a bolt of inspiration is about to strike me, I hear the dreaded words. “Okay, Slick, what did you buy at Wal-Mart last week? It cost 97 cents.” My response is almost always “I dunno.” I think you can guess what’s next. I go upstairs and read the receipt. “FLTLS HEAVY 0017500207222...0.097” I haven’t got a clue. I then go to Wal-Mart’s customer service and discover that it’s spray starch. I’m tempted to ask why they didn’t they didn’t label the receipt “spray starch,” but realize that would be pointless. When all's said and done, my accountant gets the information she needs and I try to find that lightning bolt that was about the strike me before I was interrupted.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What does this have to do with money laundering? A lot.</span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-d38b57c4-cfd0-0766-11b8-82feff3b971e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of us have occasionally left a stray dollar in the wash. In our house, that money becomes Nancy’s property even if I’m the one who carelessly leaves it in my jeans prior to depositing them in the washer. It’s usually not a problem, but sometimes there’s more than a buck at stake. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A while ago, Nancy inadvertently left four twenty dollar bills in a pair of her jeans. They went through the fill, wash, rinse, and spin cycles, along with scads of loose change I’d been leaving in my jeans for who knows how long. When she retrieved the jeans, the twenties had been thoroughly shredded. We worked feverishly to put the money back together, piece by piece, thanks to Nancy’s eagle eye, I was able to take the pieced together money to the bank and retrieve sixty of the eighty dollars that had been laundered.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, there’s more to the story. All the loose change I’d been laundering broke the washer. I can’t remember the exact amount of money Jim, Guion’s repairman, dug out of the washer in the process, but it was enough to buy us a couple of burgers at J’s Carry Out. I don’t know how much the repairs cost, but suffice it to say good professional help these days isn’t cheap.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I learned a couple of valuable lessons when the smoke cleared. First, a good accountant is a godsend. Second, money laundering can get quite expensive. If only Paul Manafort had spoken to me before he launched into what might become his very expensive adventure. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What a witch’s brew we have. Our political air is full of shady deals with foreign powers, money laundering, collusion, conspiracy, tax evasion, under the table sales, and dossiers. I suppose I should be discouraged, but I think I should try to look at the bright side. This whole mess is about the only thing about our politics that’s bipartisan right now. Michael Flynn is nowhere to be found. We haven’t seen hide nor hair of Trump the younger for some time. The Podesta boys, who were locked arm and arm with Mr. Manafort, are scurrying for the hills, waiting for the next shoe to drop. Hillary’s just written her best imitation of a Greek tragedy, buying dossiers, selling “smidgens” of uranium to the Russians on the sly, while the Russians are probably selling it to the North Koreans and Iranians. Bill made a half a million bucks for a speech he made in Moscow, thanks to the generosity of Vladimir Putin’s bankers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s enough to make my head spin.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m not sure this is going to end well. I think it might look a bit the old slaughter operations at Tyson. Folks who worked there used to tell me that cows came in one end and everything after that was a bloody mess.</span></div>
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Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-55796552226762374812017-11-02T14:16:00.001-05:002017-11-02T14:16:28.319-05:00STOP THE INSANITY - PLEASE!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/GW-plaque-inside-Christ-Church-e1459449685338.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/GW-plaque-inside-Christ-Church-e1459449685338.jpg" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="541" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;"><i>From Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee’s eulogy to George Washington (1799)</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The above statement would almost surely have been accepted by most Americans as true until a few days ago. Then, on October 26th, Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, banished our first President from his place of honor. In a letter to their congregation, the church’s vestry said they were going to remove two plaques that had been erected in 1870, one honoring Washington and another honoring Robert E. Lee. They explained their reason for doing so this way:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some you have entertained angels unawares.” Christ Church lives into this call, feeding the hungry with our Lazarus ministry, welcoming the stranger in our refugee ministry, and inviting all to worship with us. The plaques in our sanctuary make some in our presence feel unsafe or unwelcome. Some visitors and guests who worship with us choose not to return because they receive an unintended message from the prominent presence of the plaques.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Washington’s history with Christ Church goes back to 1773, when he purchased pew number five. The Washington Papers project credits him with being a vestryman and a lifelong contributor to the church (source Rod Dreher’s “American Conservative,” October 28th).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What had Washington done to merit such rejection? While it’s true that he was a slave owner, it’s also true that he emancipated a large number of them in the 1780’s. He would have emancipated all of them if he hadn’t been legally prevented from doing so by the language of a will. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Was it from the way he put down the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790’s, when he led a 10,000 man state militia into Pennsylvania that crushed the rebellious farmers who had refused to pay the federal excise that had been levied on liquor? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of our Presidents have done far worse. Woodrow Wilson used the Espionage Act of 1917 to suppress and imprison socialist Eugene Debs. Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator and savior of the American union, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, a fundamental American legal right. Franklin Roosevelt, who shepherded the nation through the Great Depression and World War II, put thousands of loyal Japanese-Americans into internment camps. Richard Nixon gave us Watergate. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does the vestry of Christ Church really expect us to believe the reason they’re relegating George Washington to the catacombs or wherever else they’re going to plant the plaque because a symbol honoring him is making some people “feel unsafe or unwelcome?” Who are these people? How many are there? Rod Dreher’s words here are exquisitely insightful - “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Find five people who did this. I dare you.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-62075226-7e23-a08c-1546-84d928d0f0af"><span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">I spent a few of my formative years as an acolyte at Christ Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As it is with its sister church in Alexandria, Virginia, the church I attended has a long, storied history. It was founded in the early 1760’s. I can still see in my mind’s eye a plaque in the narthex wall commemorating what the vestry in those times claimed was the “first shot fired in the American Revolution.” Legend has it that some brave patriot taunted the British as they were on their way to Lexington and Concord and a stray shot aimed at him wound up in the narthex wall. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">There is another plaque in honor of Abraham Lincoln, who visited the church some time during the Civil War. There was also one other plaque. It was there to honor George Washington!</span></div>
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<a href="https://adventuresingenealogy.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/cambridge-ma-christ-church-sign-regarding-revolutionary-war-taken-aug12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://adventuresingenealogy.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/cambridge-ma-christ-church-sign-regarding-revolutionary-war-taken-aug12.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">So, what’s next? Should the Christ Church I attended remove the plaque honoring our first President? Should it be removed for the sake of ecclesiastical symmetry? Should Lincoln’s plaque stay until some offended soul complains about the way he suspended habeas corpus? Or, should it go right now? And, what of the plaque below the bullet hole in the narthex wall? Shouldn’t it stay? After all, a bit of historical fantasy is good for tourism. Right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Is it any wonder that the number of baptized Episcopalians in America has declined by 25% since 1980? (source: Covenant - the Living Church, July 2017)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m am really getting tired of the offense and willful blindness of our history that some self-absorbed leaders are taking at every turn. I realize that our history hasn’t always been pretty. We’ve done some good. We’ve done some bad. It’s all part of who we are. If those taking umbrage don’t like it, they need to stay at home, lock their doors, turn off the TV, radio, computers, and steer clear of social media. That way, they won’t have to deal with us and we won’t have to deal with them. </span></div>
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Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-55062773042574055832017-10-05T14:59:00.000-05:002017-10-05T14:59:02.005-05:00HEROES<b id="docs-internal-guid-69204b94-ee16-ee62-547c-c2e2eda96dff" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a lot of media buzz about the heroic defense of our First Amendment professional football players have mounted in response to our President’s intemperate remarks about what they’re doing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many in the media seems to want us to embrace them as heroes, but I can’t bring myself to that place. The players were well within their rights to protest, but calling their actions heroic is a bridge too far.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can think of others who stood for what they believed who were truly heroic, not only because they stood up for what they believed, but also because they did so willingly, at considerable risk to themselves.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On October 22nd, 1965, not long after I’d arrived in Vietnam, a young Chicagoan named Milton Olive, who was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, was killed in action. He and four other soldiers were moving through the jungle on a search and destroy mission. The Viet Cong started lobbing grenades at them. They were in trouble. </span><img alt="Image result for milton olive" 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" /></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The medal of honor citation speaks eloquently of the type of man Milton Olive was: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Private Olive saw the grenade, and then saved the lives of his fellow soldiers at the sacrifice of his own by grabbing the grenade in his hand and falling on it to absorb the blast with his body.”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Milton Olive risked everything for his fellow soldiers. He didn’t have to. He had surely felt the sting of prejudice during his life. He was African-American. Further, one of the men he saved, Robert Toporek, was southerner. He and Olive had fought one another before they arrived in Vietnam. Somehow, that fight opened the door for brotherhood. Toporek, who survived the firefight, described how it happened - “After that, we were brothers. We were fighting the same Viet Cong. We didn’t care what color your skin was, what race you were.”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robert Toporek, the white southerner, lived. Milton Olive, the African-American from Chicago, died to save him. That’s heroism born out of love.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sophie Scholl was born in Germany in 1921, to what has been described as “free-thinking Christian parents.” She grew up reading Socrates, Augustine, and Pascal. She learned from the Bible that “words must be made real in actions.” (James 1:22) Her father taught her that “What I want for you is to live in uprightness and freedom of spirit, no matter how difficult that proves to be.” By the time she was 21, she had seen the evil of the Third Reich and believed that time for both words and action had come. She helped form an organization called “the White Rose” in 1942. For about a year they secretly printed anti-Nazi literature and distributed it. The sentiments were printed in bold fonts with simple messages - “LONG LIVE FREEDOM’”or “DOWN WITH HITLER.” It wasn’t a glamorous protest, with media breathlessly hanging on every word they published. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1943, she and her “co-conspirators” were caught and subjected to a show trial. The Nazi judge’s verdict was a foregone conclusion. Sophie was to be executed on the guillotine. Her last recorded words to her cellmate spoke volumes - “Such a glorious, sunny day and I must go...What will my death matter if, because of our actions, thousands of people will be awakened and stirred to action.”</span></div>
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<img alt="Image result for sophie scholl" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQA7D-l6JQok0APjrFMxcBhwvVV0htOHvT5I5WwgW_FaQebX9IU" /><br />
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sophie Scholl was 22 when she died. She could have remained silent in the face of the evil around her, but remaining steadfast in principle meant more to her than life itself. That’s heroism of the highest order.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Little Sisters of the Poor is a Catholic order of nuns that was founded in 1839 by Saint Jeanne Jugan. Her mission statement for the order was simple - “My little ones, never forget that the poor are Our Lord; in caring for the poor say to yourself: This is for my Jesus – what a great grace!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The American branch of the order provides food, shelter, and nurture to the old, infirm, and poor. They ask nothing for themselves. They own their dignity and faith, nothing more. They take vows of poverty in order to do their good work.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, the Little Sisters have run afoul of our government. They’ve refused to obey what they believe to be an immoral Obamacare mandate to provide abortifacients to those they employ. They’ve been threatened with fines so steep they would have to shut down their operations. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Their case has gone to the Supreme Court. It’s still in limbo. The Little Sisters are standing firm. They’re risking everything for what they believe. That, I submit to you, is heroism.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have no axes to grind with the N.F.L. I just don’t consider what they’re doing heroic. When it comes to heroism, there are plenty of candidates who are more worthy of that honor.</span></div>
<br />Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-61474452174940944772017-09-21T12:15:00.000-05:002017-09-21T12:27:33.699-05:00MEMORIES<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H_uN4WNpABY" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b><span style="color: blue;">“Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind</span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b><span style="color: blue;">Memories, sweetened through the ages just like wine”</span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b><span style="color: blue;">Mac Davis/Elvis Presley - “Memories” (1968)</span></b></i></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The recent hurricanes have triggered a lot of thinking for Nancy and me. We’ve found ourselves wondering how we would respond if we’d lost our home and all our earthly possessions. Would we be so crushed we wouldn’t be able to go on?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In terms of material wealth, we’ve been blessed far beyond anything a reasonable person could, or should, expect in life. Pop theology would tell us we earned it all. Christian theology, on the other hand, tells us, that material wealth is often a trap on the road to perdition.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Knowing that, we see that the most valuable things we have are one another, our shared faith, and the memories we’ve built in our 31 years together.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I met Nancy at a time in my life when marriage was the last thing on my mind. I’d done marriage once and I’d failed miserably at it.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My logical approach to life was simple. Being a bachelor freed me up to spend Saturdays with my buddies, not antique shopping.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It started slowly, with pleasant conversations outside Broadway Baptist Church after a class Nancy and I were attending. As one week blended into another, my admiration for her grew until I was head over heels in love. I was like the cartoon character whose heart was bouncing on the end of a spring, with train whistles blowing smoke from my ears.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was hooked. We were married on September 13th, 1986.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My most vivid early memory came when we moved to New Jersey. We rented an 1836 Victorian house in Montville. It was a lovely place. Nancy especially loved watching the birds in the morning as she sipped her coffee. On this special morning, she spied a visitor she hadn’t seen for a while. “Oh, Phil!” she exclaimed as she squeezed my hand tightly. “It’s the flicker.” The moment might have escaped my notice if it hadn’t been for the power of the squeeze. Nancy is quiet and contemplative. She prefers silence and introspection in the mornings where I prefer noise and activity. The power of that squeeze taught me that, while Nancy is quiet, there are very powerful things stirring in her soul. That little bird clearly had a very special place in her heart. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve never forgotten what I witnessed that morning. I’ll always treasure it.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few years passed and the morning found us still living in New Jersey. Unlike her normally quiet times, Nancy was making a lot of noise downstairs while I was still trying to sleep. I got irritated enough to ask what was going on. “If you get cleaned up real quick, we can make it to Cape May for breakfast,</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">” </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">she responded with a sense of urgency.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cape May, which is known for its bird sanctuaries and quiet little inns, was a hundred miles to our south, but how could I refuse?</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few hours later we were sitting in a little inn, ordering breakfast. As I looked around, I noticed something that had until then had escaped my notice. I was aging. I saw the other patrons and realized, “My God, I’m as old as them.” I was having an encounter with my mortality. Nancy seemed to pick up on it asked a really strange question. “So, Slick, tell me what you’ll do with your life if I die before you?” I saw right away what she was trying to tell me. Our morning encounter wasn't just about my mortality. It was about ours. I tried to avoid answering, but it wouldn’t work. Nancy persisted. “I finally blurted out, “I don’t want you to ever die,” then started blubbering like a fool. Nancy would have none of my sentimentality. “Look, Slick. We’ve got three choices - you before me, us together, or me before you and if I go before you I won’t be coming back just to please you. I’ll be in heaven, so you need to get past your sentimental Irish ways and figure out something productive to do with your life if I die before you.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I didn’t sink in at first. It wasn’t till later that night as I read a passage from C.S. Lewis’s “A Grief Observed,” that I saw how selfish I was being. If push were to come to shove, I'd have been willing to snatch her from heaven if it would benefit me. I’d forgotten that Nancy was a person distinct from me, that she wasn’t put here just for my amusement.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think this is what Lewis must have been feeling when he wrote of the grief he felt when he lost his wife, Joy Gresham, to cancer:</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><b><i><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What sort of a lover am I to think so much about my affliction and so much less about hers? Even the insane call, ‘Come back,’ is all for my sake. </span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">I want her back as an ingredient in the restoration of my past. Could I have wished her anything worse? Having got once through death, to come back and then, at some later date, have all her dying to do over again? They call Stephen the first martyr. Hadn’t Lazarus the rawer deal?</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></span></i></b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #353535; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Memories have been added over the years - international trips to Switzerland, Ireland, France, Austria, Israel, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom, quiet morning conversations, planting gardens, sipping wine on our front porch on cool Kansas nights as we watched the world pass by</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #353535; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #353535; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We've been together for 31 years now. They've been the best 31 years of my life!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #353535; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s so true. Possessions come and go, but memories stay. They really are the permanent things in our lives and we need to treasure them.</span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-76073306395221677962017-08-24T13:33:00.002-05:002017-08-24T13:33:53.324-05:00ANCHORS OF SANITY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxxVlxKsjyRENZiq6C1K80DTQQVD0E7ERdVVZv-K57rlslEdelsjp6slbyc_L3nvG4LQRBrmleIpdk9FnDNh7A2bXF2pKHQcJc2kegItR0jSe7WECj5xx07i3JdX18e63WQn8Seg/s400/Phil+and+James.jpg" width="300" /></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-fbfc0c43-1581-8d3c-9de1-435b5a8c0148" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Events in Charlottesville and the President’s response to them have all but sucked the oxygen out of the public square. It’s understandable. Neo-nazis and their ilk live by a creed most of us find absolutely disgusting. They have earned the condemnation being heaped on them, even if the President refuses to see it.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are also other stories that hit the back pages of the news that are no less important than Charlottesville. That became very evident when I read the news coming out of Iceland and France on the morning of the 16th. In a dispatch from C.B..S. News, the people of Iceland reported that only two Down Syndrome are born in Iceland annually, thanks to mandatory pre-natal screening, which in turn has led to abortions of most unborn Down Syndrome children. They were quite proud of what they’d accomplished.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s also being reported that that France has gotten the same sort of result with their mandatory pre-natal testing. Over 90% of pre-born Down Syndrome children in France are aborted before they’re born. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apparently, the result didn’t completely satisfy the French authorities. On the morning of the 17th I read an essay written by J.D. Flynn written in “First Things,” the publishing arm of the “I</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nstitute on Religion and Public Life.” This is from one of his early paragraphs:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Last year, the Conseil d’Etat upheld a government ban on a television commercial highlighting the lives of people with Down syndrome in video was judged to be “inappropriate” for French audiences because it conveyed happy people with Down syndrome, who were “likely to disturb the consciences of women who had lawfully made different personal life choices.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I guess French sensibilities are fragile, just not fragile enough to stop the abortions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It makes me wonder who the next target might be. The autistic? Those with cleft palate? Spina Bifida? Fragile X Syndrome? It makes me wonder when, or if, this will be coming to America.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of my great joys in life is spending time with Nancy’s developmentally disabled brother, James. I’ve known him for 31 years now. I know him alternately as James, Beanblossom the Great, and my twin brother-in-law. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">James wasn’t born with any syndrome. He was the older of a set of twins. But, early on in life he developed spinal meningitis and double pneumonia simultaneously. The result is his developmental disability. Some of his cognitive skills are very limited, but one thing I’ve always seen in James is his uncanny ability to read discomfort in other people. He’s a great judge of character. He also a has one of the firmest moral compasses I’ve ever seen in a person. You can’t make James do something he morally objects to, not even under the threat of death. You’ll never find James preaching hate or carrying a Tiki-torch around Emporia. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can James be difficult? You betcha.’ I’ve had more than one occasion when I’ve told him he’s driving me up the wall. Those little flare ups almost always end with James and I hugging tightly and forgiving one another.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The developmentally disabled can often teach us profound life lessons. My next door neighbor, Dewane Reed, is autistic. I think his disability may be profound, although I’ve never discussed it with him. The degree of his disability isn’t important when compared with his simple humanity. One of the connections we had early on was our mutual love of slapstick comedy. We both love the Three Stooges. I’ll sometimes see him early in the morning or the evening when my day’s labors are done and launch into my bad imitation - “Hey, Dewane, How you doin? Whoop, whoop, nyuck, nyuck, nyuck...coitenly!” I usually top if off by slapping my head, a la Curly. The silliness amuses Dewane no end. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like James, Dewane just wants to be loved and do a good job. It makes life pretty simple. You’ll never find him sporting a swastika or carrying a Tiki-torch around town. And, unlike our political leaders and fat cat developers, James and Dewane aren’t dreaming up clever ways to pick their neighbors’ pockets.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The people of France and Iceland have decided the world is a better place without the likes of James or Dewane. It seems to endow them with a sense of superiority. As Flynn put it in his essay, </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Shunning—or aborting—disabled people lets us pretend that we are stronger, smarter, and more independent than we really are.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God, I hope this never comes to America. I don’t think I’d want to live in a world without James and Dewane. They’re anchors of sanity in an otherwise insane world. We need them far more than we need the spectacle of neo-nazis in their jackboots. In fact, we probably need them more than we need slick politicians or fat-cat developers. </span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-49272234775935356902017-08-09T14:41:00.000-05:002017-08-09T14:41:26.041-05:00DEVELOPMENT DONE RIGHT<img alt="Image result for kansas city river market night life" 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" /><br />
<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Saturday morning I took a pleasant morning stroll around Kansas City's River Market with our pups. While they concentrated on the scents left by other neighborhood dogs, I focused on all the changes that have taken place in the River Market since we bought our loft in an old industrial building about 10 years ago.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-d36839c1-c87c-1724-b595-548aa0e160dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Nancy and I were considering a second place in Kansas City, we explored Westport, the Plaza, and Crown Center. While each area had its charms and appeal, we eventually decided on the River Market, in part because the price was right and in part because we were offered a fifteen year tax abatement to buy our loft. It just made sense. The planners understood that if the incentives are given to homebuyers rather than developers and other speculators, a thriving community will spring up and businesses, almost exclusively small ones with good paying jobs, will follow the people who have moved into the neighborhood. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we first bought our loft, there wasn't a l ot of neighborhood activity. There were what you might call the old staples of the River Market– the Steamboat Arabia, Planter's Seed, the Al Dente Café, Carollo's Italian Market. But, my, how things have changed. As the dogs and I strolled along, we passed Houundstooth, a small specialty tailor's shop, Nature's Own, a health food/grocery store, The Farm House, a delightful eatery where all the food served comes from local vendors, small restaurants like A Taste of Brazil , Beignet, Bloom Baking, the Opera House. We passed a new loft development being built on the corner of Fifth and Grand and a recently completed loft complex a block north of that. A bit further east, there's a new condominium complex.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At 6:15 A.M. I heard the clang of the streetcar making its first daily stop. It's become a familiar sound in the River Market for a over a year now. While some residents weren't sure about the streetcar project when the issue was being debated, the referendum passed and residents and business owners have now seen that the service has been a roaring success. It's given local residents free transportation to the Power and Light District, the Crossroads and Arts districts, Union Station and Crown Center. It's also given residents from other parts of Kansas City free transportation to enjoy the River Market vibe. The project has been so successful that the residents of the city south of the River Market have just voted to approve extending the streetcar service south all the way to U.M.K.C. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Toward the end of our walk, we went west. The development is omnipresent there as well. At the far west end of the River Market district there's a huge apartment complex and a small convenience store. As we got back to our place on Second and Main, I looked across the street at one loft complex that was completed a few years ago and another that is under construction. When it's completed, it will be totally "green," including rooftop gardens.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ten years ago, the River Market was struggling in the aftermath of rampant crime and mafia influence. Today, it's the place to be in Kansas City. The area is overflowing with life. The shops, cafés, and bistros are full to the gunwales. How did that happen in such a short time? It was simply economic development done right. Incentives were given to homebuyers rather than developers and residents got to vote on other issues as development moved along. The result of this "development done right" has been beneficial for everyone – residents, the city, business owners, and even developers. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we got back to Emporia on Sunday evening I took the dogs for a walk downtown and spotted some hopeful signs. Lofts, with what will be small shops on the lower levels, are being built, thanks to Cory Haag, a young entrepreneur who seems to get the concept of people first. It's development done right in the right place. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Monday I drove to Wal-Mart and couldn't help but notice the Hobby Lobby project in its final stages. It's a testament to what I believe is old school economic development, where few profit and many pay. Pretty soon now we'll have another big box retailer and more westward sprawl, thanks to a combination of an incentive-seeking developer and readily available land. The developer will profit, as will the landowners who sold to the developer. What will the rest of us get? A one percent bump in sales tax on any purchases we make at Hobby Lobby. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While it's good to see a few encouraging signs in downtown Emporia, it's discouraging to see that too many of the old ways still persist. It makes me wonder if we'll ever learn.</span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-66913611967814879392017-07-27T10:59:00.000-05:002017-07-27T10:59:01.555-05:00'STAGGER ONWARD'<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Something Josh Barro recently wrote in a “Business Insider” essay struck a raw nerve with me - “Except on abortion, where public opinion remains about evenly divided, conservatives have implicitly admitted that they have lost certain parts of the cultural war.” He’s probably right. Most Conservatives can see that our culture is changing at what appears to be breakneck speed. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As I observe the changes, the question for me as a
Conservative is no longer “How do I/we stop this?” We’re well past that stage. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Once in a while in conversations with friends I
allude to the old slippery slope, which instantly makes me the target for their
loving scorn. “This isn’t the slippery slope, Phil. It’s progress.” The
conversation usually ends there, with me stubbornly clinging to my thoughts of
humanity at the highest point of the roller coaster, poised to take the plunge
straight down into the abyss.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The signs of change are becoming more and more
pronounced. A case like Charlie Gard, where the State apparatus has supplanted
parental rights, has become legally acceptable. At what point will society
decide this arrangement is also morally acceptable? Will it become normative?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It wasn’t too long ago that euthanasia was almost
impossible to imagine. Now, it’s becoming increasingly tolerable, even to the
point where involuntary euthanasia is being practiced (NCBI/NIH abstract “The
Illusion of Safeguards” – 6/2012). Polite discussions about what to do with
unwanted or unhealthy children are now taking place, thanks to the work of ethicists
like Princeton’s Peter Singer and evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, both of
whom advance the grisly idea that killing a child is a morally sound decision.
Coyne recently put it this way in a blog posting dated July 13<sup>th</sup>:
“This change in views about euthanasia and assisted suicide is the result of
the tide of increasing morality in the world.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text" style="text-align: justify;">
Not to be outdone, Gary Comstock, a philosophy
professor at North Carolina State University, wrote about the painful death of
his newborn son. After reflecting on his agonizing experience, he decided “that
the repugnant has become reasonable. The unthinkable has become the right, the
good. Painlessly. Quickly. With the assistance of a trained physician….You
should have killed your baby.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text" style="text-align: justify;">
How far into the abyss have we plunged? Just this
morning I read a piece in the Palm Beach Post about some teenage boys in
Florida who mocked and filmed Jamel Dunn, a 32 year old disabled man, as he
drowned. The more Dunn pleaded for help, the more they mocked. “Get out the water,
you gonna die” one teen can be heard shouting. Another yelled to the man “ain’t
nobody fixing to help you, you dumb (expletive).”</div>
<div class="story-body-text" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text" style="text-align: justify;">
According to Florida law, the teens hadn’t done
anything wrong. There may be a statute they violated by not reporting a death,
but mocking a dying man and making a video of his ordeal isn’t illegal. Is it
immoral? It probably is now, but will we get to the point where even things
like this will become morally acceptable?</div>
<div class="story-body-text" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text" style="text-align: justify;">
I just finished reading Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option
– A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation.” The book is in part a
tome and in part an indictment of the modern Christian Church. Dreher bores in
right away, arguing that the Church, which should be a counterforce to
secularism, has become “content to be the chaplaincy to a consumerist culture
that was fast losing a sense of what it meant to be Christian.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dreher argues that Christians have some very
important decisions to make. As a baseline, he cites the work of Scottish
philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, who saw that “the time was coming when men and
women of virtue would understand that continued full participation in
mainstream society was not possible for those who wanted to live a life of
traditional virtue.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dreher then argues, quite persuasively, that
Christians need to pull away from the rest of society? He calls it the
“Benedict Option.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I think he may be right.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We Conservative Christians need to understand we
have lost the culture wars. The question for us is no longer how to stop the
wheels of the machine, but rather it is now a question of how those who choose
to can live a meaningful, Christian life in such an environment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The signs of the times all point to one thing. The
Christian pilgrimage for many right now is difficult. Our input is neither
valued nor wanted. The path is narrow; the light seems dim. Yet, in spite of
the difficulties, we need to press on, in our own way. As W.H. Auden put it in
his short poem “Atlantis,” we must:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Stagger
onward rejoicing</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
even then if, perhaps<br />
Having actually got<br />
To the last col, you collapse”</span></i></div>
<br />Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-43912812844075968032017-07-13T10:19:00.001-05:002017-07-13T10:19:36.275-05:00'THE PRESERVE OF THE POWERFUL'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1oQ21TtvsIUWAWTxJe917NES40qBHwVmgvpw2ESOINdIxbVew8nKJeiZZ06PC_Wc6TOsYUvhLUVb5oNmUHw0pf707nswQ7l1ThTOiN0jyuPaKg0uClpjXqgd7KnBsyDLwvOVcSQ/s1600/charlie+gard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1oQ21TtvsIUWAWTxJe917NES40qBHwVmgvpw2ESOINdIxbVew8nKJeiZZ06PC_Wc6TOsYUvhLUVb5oNmUHw0pf707nswQ7l1ThTOiN0jyuPaKg0uClpjXqgd7KnBsyDLwvOVcSQ/s1600/charlie+gard.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Power should not be concentrated in
the hands of so few, and powerlessness in the hands of so many.”</span></i></span></div>
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</i></span><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: #073763;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I can only imagine the agony Chris
Gard and Connie Yates, the parents of 11 month old Charlie Gard, must be going
through right now. Their child is suffering from a rare genetic disorder that
slowly saps the life out of him. His brain cells are dying and he is unable to
breathe without the aid of a mechanical ventilator. The British doctors have
told the parents they have done all they can and it’s now time to allow Charlie
to die with dignity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chris and Connie believe there is
still hope for Charlie. They have offers of financial support from more than
80,000 donors who have pledged $1.7 million for experimental treatment that is
available here in the U.S. They’ve gotten messages of support from the Pope,
Donald Trump, and even celebrities like Cher. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unfortunately, neither the money nor
the messages of support may change the outcome. While there is a slender thread
of hope in the form of an appeal that is going to be heard on Monday, the 10<sup>th</sup>,
it is just that, a slender thread.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Are Charlie’s parents so desperate
to keep Charlie alive they are refusing to see the reality of the situation?
No, not at all. They’ve told the hospital that they understand Charlie may die
and if that is to be the outcome, they want to take him home to spend what
little time is left surrounded by those who love him. Tragically, the hospital
has told them they cannot even take Charlie home to be with the parents who
love him. They’ve even refused to entertain the possibility of hospice care. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In response to the hospital’s denial
of what seems to me to be a reasonable request, Chris poured out his anguish to
the Daily Mail – “We want to give him a bath at home, put him in a cot which he
has never slept in but we are now being denied that. We know what day our son
is going to die but don't get a say in how that will happen.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Any parent worthy of the title
would, or should, feel the same way.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chris and Connie’s grief has been
compounded by the law. When the hospital decided to act without their consent,
they filed a legal appeal that made its way to the European Court of Human
Rights. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a ruling that must have pierced
like a sword to the heart, the Court ruled in favor of the hospital. Mr.
Justice Francis, the presiding judge, put it this way: “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some people may
ask why the court has any function in this process; why can the parents not
make this decision on their own? The answer is that, although the parents have
parental responsibility, overriding control is vested in the court exercising
its independent and objective judgment in the child's best interests.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
did the ruling mean to Chris and Connie? It meant they were powerless. In an
interview with N.P.R., Dr. Claire Fenton-Glynn, a legal scholar that the
University of Cambridge, explained how it works – “Under English law, we don't
talk about parental rights. We talk about parental responsibility. We don't say
that a parent has a right to make a decision for their child, particularly in
the cases of medical treatment.” In cases where the matter is adjudicated,
making the decision “doesn’t start with the presumption that the parents are
right.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is the long and short of it. European law ignores the parents and gives the decision
making power to bureaucratic actors who may have other things besides the
child’s welfare in mind.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
shift in power from the individual to the state or those acting with state
approval are becoming quite common in Europe. In the Netherlands and Belgium,
for example, euthanasia is legal, with supposed legal restrictions in place to
protect the public. Yet, even with the so-called protections, over 400 Dutch
citizens were euthanized without their consent or the consent of their loved
ones in 2015 (Wesley Smith – the National Review, July 2017).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
legal door has been opened and it’s going to be almost impossible to close. As British
journalist Anne Perkins recently wrote, <span style="color: #0c343d;"><i>“The Charlie Gard case is a sad
reminder that the law is the preserve of the powerful.”</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thankfully,
parents and individuals still have rights here in America. But, will it always
be that way or will the powerful find a way to strip us of those rights? I
suspect it’s a question we’ll have to one day answer and that day may be coming
sooner than we care to believe.</span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-77950208874527139152017-06-29T12:55:00.001-05:002017-06-29T12:55:34.697-05:00DEPLORABLE?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/47E2tfK5QAg" width="560"></iframe>
Loyal Democrats were devastated when the results to the special election in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District were certified. They had pinned their hopes on a young man named Jon Ossoff, a political neophyte. The party had spent millions, believing they could take this Deep South red seat from the Republicans. They had started the night with the old strains of Jimmy van Heusen’s “High Hopes” dancing in their heads. But, alas, victory was not in the cards. Ossoff lost. “High Hopes” gave way to the proverbial “Dirge of Defeat.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Defeat is never easy to swallow, and this loss was
especially painful to the Democrats. It was best expressed by Hazel Hunt, a
woman “The Atlantic’s” Molly Ball described as “a middle-aged drama teacher.” Ms.
Hunt told Ms. Ball how the results made her feel. “It makes me very sad. It
tells me that despite all the wonderful people I met in this campaign, there
are still a lot of people who support the meanness and ignorance and tearing
each other apart.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There you have it. Supporters of Democratic
candidates are “wonderful people.” Trump supporters are mean and ignorant. It’s
become a refrain of the Democratic Party. The words change, but the sentiment
doesn’t. In 2008, Presidential candidate Barack Obama described un-progressive
Mid-westerners as so bitter they cling to their guns and God. In her campaign
for the Presidency, Hillary Clinton described half or more of Donald Trump’s
supporters as “a basket of deplorables.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Were the remarks unfortunate Freudian slips? Were
they misinterpreted? The Democrats claimed that was the case, but what else
could they say?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ve never been a Donald Trump supporter. I’ve used
some strong language in a few of my columns to describe him. My candidate was
Marco Rubio. But, even though I didn’t support Donald Trump, I know a lot of
people who did. I’ve disagreed with them, but I’ve never thought of them as
“deplorables.” I don’t believe they’re ignorant or mean, nor do I believe they
just “cling to guns or religion” to mask their hatred.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My usual custom in the morning and evening is to
walk our dogs. I’ve always enjoyed walking by the Schumann’s place on the
corner of 11<sup>th</sup> and Rural and occasionally taking a moment to chat
with Gerald, when he was still alive, and his wife Orinne. My memories of those
chats have always been pleasant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One night, during the election season, I noticed
that Orinne was uprooting some Trump-Pence campaign signs in front of her house.
I’d known from our earlier chats that she was a Trump supporter and wondered
whether she had changed her mind. I asked her about it and she chuckled a bit.
“No,” she replied. “Every time I put them up in the morning, some angry person
rips them up in the night. So, I just save them the trouble of venting their
anger by taking them down myself at night and putting them back in the
morning.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Orinne and I disagreed about the election, but never
disagreed on the really important things in life. We’re friends and we have a
common faith. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Orinne has never said an unkind thing to me or about
me. About the only thing she ever said to me about my Presidential vote was,
“Phil, I’m disappointed, but you’re still my friend.” We spoke a few times
about her reasons for voting the way she did and they made good sense to me. She’s
pro-life and that’s always been an important component in her decision making
process. She’s also a faithful citizen. A little while ago we spoke and she
said that Romans 13:1 is very meaningful to her. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ve met a lot of really nice people since I’ve
lived in Emporia, but I can’t thinking of anyone I’ve met who is as kind and
caring as Orinne. She is one of those people who truly lives out her Christian
faith. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I don’t believe Orinne Schumann is an anomaly. There
are a lot of Orinne Schumanns in this country. Like Orinne, they are loyal
Americans. They love their families, their communities, and their country. Some
of them serve in our military. Others have children who have done multiple
tours in Afghanistan and Iraq while their critics spend their time sipping
over-priced latte’s at Starbucks. Still others work at minimum wage to make
ends meet. They’re kind, decent, people who vote based on the dictates of their
conscience. They vote the way they do because they care about this country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Democrats can’t seem to figure out why they keep
losing elections. Well, maybe if they stopped painting with such a broad brush
and labelling Orinne Schumann and millions of decent, caring Americans as
deplorable, hateful, or ignorant, they might be able to win them over and get
their votes.</span></div>
<br />Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-54627430841137903522017-06-15T14:35:00.002-05:002017-06-15T14:35:59.197-05:00THE COMEY SHOW<div style="text-align: justify;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vc0TXIPKCW8" width="560"></iframe>
The much anticipated James Comey show is over. People who should have been at work can go back to what they get paid to do and the nation’s watering holes can replenish their stocks. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I watched some of it on C-SPAN, but decided it would be better to just read the transcripts of the testimony. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What have I learned so far? I learned that Comey believes Donald Trump is a liar. I’m tempted to say I’m shocked about the President’s behavior, but I’m not. In fact, the only thing I find shocking is that James Comey somehow innocently stumbled upon something most Americans already know. Donald Trump lies. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But then, catching Presidents in lies isn’t all that shocking. It’s like what Judge Judy says about teenagers. You can tell they’re lying because their lips are moving. Richard Nixon told us he wasn’t a crook. Lyndon Johnson told us he wasn’t going to send American boys to do what Vietnamese boys should be doing. Ronald Reagan lied about arms for hostages. Bill Clinton lied, straight faced, about Monica Lewinsky. Barack Obama lied about the Affordable Care Act.
I could go on, but I think you get the point.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I also learned that James Comey doesn’t like Donald Trump. Well, welcome to the club, Mr. Comey. There are a lot of us who don’t like him, for obvious reasons. There’s a lot to not like. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got to watch Donald Trump in full bloom back in the nineties when Nancy and I lived in New Jersey. He was every bit as unsavory then as he is now. I would watch him and wonder, “What kind of experience could have formed the kind of man he was?” Years later I read portions of Timothy O’Brien’s “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald” and I saw very clearly how it happened.
The most telling of the formative experiences came in 1964 when his father took him to the dedication of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The celebration should have been about Othmar Amman, the engineer/designer of the bridge, but that wasn’t what happened. As Trump recalled, Amman stood quietly in the rain and was “ignored as the city celebrated his creation.” Who took the credit? Who almost always does? The politicians, or as Trump described them, “jerks.” They were being applauded while the man who was responsible for the bridge’s creation was being “made a fool of.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As he watched the spectacle, a light of mini-revelation went off within him. This is how he put it: “I realized then and there something I would never forget. I don’t want to be made anybody’s sucker.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That’s Donald Trump in a nutshell. It’s embedded in his D.N.A. Any time he thinks someone is making a fool of him, he swings back, almost always recklessly. He can’t help himself. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I think this character flaw may be the thing that propelled him to the White House. In 2011, President Barack Obama made a fool of him at the White House Correspondents’ dinner. As Mr. Obama went on and on, savoring the moment, Donald Trump sat in the audience, stone faced. The President escalated the rhetoric to the boiling point. He had, rhetorically speaking, torn the Donald to shreds. The salvo was so masterful.it caused Trump’s cheeks and forehead to turn as red as New Jersey beefsteak tomatoes and his glare became as icy cold as the surface of Europa. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The impish grin on the President’s face spoke volumes.
I think this is why Donald Trump decided to run for President. He was not going to be a fool of. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Was the observation he made at the Verrazano Bridge when he was 18 entirely accurate? I doubt it, but I think there may have been a glimmer of truth in his observation. I’ve been exposed to a lot of politicians and political appointees in my life and the words of Holy Writ describe many of them quite aptly - “they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces…” (Matthew 23:6-7) </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What else did I learn? I learned that there doesn’t seem to have been any collusion and it does appear to be true that Mr. Comey told the President three times he wasn’t under investigation. Apparently, the New York Times and CNN got it all wrong. Shocking, isn’t it? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I learned that, on the heels of her meeting on the tarmac with Bill Clinton, Attorney General Loretta Lynch applied a bit of pressure to Mr. Comey. It was subtle and linguistically clever. It worked! I learned that the President applied undue pressure to Mr. Comey when it came to Michael Flynn. And I learned something that really troubled me. Mr. Comey couldn’t summon up the courage to tell the President that what he was doing on behalf of Flynn was inappropriate. He didn’t offer to resign, which is what he should have done. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All in all, it was quite an education.
</div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-49965850420110402872017-05-04T12:54:00.000-05:002017-05-04T12:54:04.970-05:00THE PILLARS OF CONSERVATISM<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ-EMhWccu6zntQOS_VnhMFU1BA-gb1I7nNYeypbOqT8cebJI9M8HMiK5_IXBGLFL1OxG8PDzYlnq6WR2Xw0rmxDMqvHhqkzTwO18bnm10qSI93NnBwvnRY31-TUYST0bmg1EVWg/s1600/kirk+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ-EMhWccu6zntQOS_VnhMFU1BA-gb1I7nNYeypbOqT8cebJI9M8HMiK5_IXBGLFL1OxG8PDzYlnq6WR2Xw0rmxDMqvHhqkzTwO18bnm10qSI93NnBwvnRY31-TUYST0bmg1EVWg/s320/kirk+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Freedom
is a need of the soul, and nothing else. It is in striving toward God
that the soul strives continually after a condition of freedom. God alone
is the inciter and guarantor of freedom. He is the only
guarantor…. Religion and freedom are indivisible. Without freedom the soul
dies. Without the soul there is no justification for freedom.”</span></i></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><i>
</i></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whittaker
Chambers – “Witness”</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
didn’t attend the forum on the “common good” a few weeks ago, so the
information I’ve gleaned about it has come from media reports. With that said,
I did find one of the comments cited in the Gazette from Professor Charles
Brown quite interesting</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is what Professor Brown said - “What strikes me
is that conservatives don’t have the faith in peoples’ abilities to come
together, reason together and make constructive changes for the future. It
strikes me that they, too, often say, ‘Well, we’re just better off to just let
things alone...’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While I’m sure that Professor Brown’s thoughts are
sincerely held, I must say that they don’t represent the Conservatism I
explored, studied in depth, and adopted in the late seventies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I didn’t come by my Conservatism easily. I grew up
in Boston, America’s cradle of liberty and one of the country’s Progressive
strongholds. Until the 1970’s, I would never have considered voting for a
Republican, nor can I recall knowing many Conservatives other than an
occasional acquaintance I tolerated for the sake of politeness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Things began to change when a friend encouraged me
to read William Buckley’s “God and Man at Yale.” I was surprised to find that
Buckley wasn’t the fire breathing lunatic I’d heard about. Once I passed that
threshold, I decided that further exploration was in order. I read Whittaker
Chambers’ “Witness” next, followed by Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," F.A. Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom” and
“The Fatal Conceit.” Then came Milton Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” and
Edmund Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My pilgrimage was complete as soon as I read the
final page of Russel Kirk’s “The Conservative Mind.” I knew that I was a
Conservative and was proud to be part of the movement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When Professor Brown said that Conservatives “don’t
have faith in the peoples’ abilities to come together,” he couldn’t have been
more wrong. That’s not the Conservatism I have practiced for many years now.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When one looks at the core beliefs of Conservatives,
he or she won’t find a shred of evidence that suggests that Conservatives
“don’t have faith in the peoples’ abilities to come together.” At the heart of
Conservative belief is the principle that people should live cooperatively with
their neighbors and be as free as possible to govern their own lives. Further, they
should be governed by people who promote human freedom and virtue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If Professor Brown believes that we Conservatives
don’t have faith in people, he has misread us. We do trust people, but we also
understand human nature and recognize, as Founding Father Alexander Hamilton
did, that men aren’t angels and limits must be placed on those men and women
who govern us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In his recent book, “Constitutional Conservatism,”
Peter Berkowitz described how Conservatism works: “It assumes the primacy of
self-interest but also the capacity of and necessity for citizens to rise above
it through the exercise of virtue. It welcomes a diverse array of voluntary
associations because they are an expression of liberty, to prevent any one from
dominating, and because they serve as schools for the virtues of freedom. And
it recognizes the special role of families and religious faith in cultivating
these virtues.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Conservatives value liberty. Where the real divide
between Conservatives and Progressives comes in to play is the value Conservatives
place on what Berkowitz called “traditional understandings of order and virtue.”
He says that Progressives see these traditional understandings as obstacles to
freedom. Conservatives, on the other hand, see them as pillars of freedom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We Conservatives aren’t resistant to change, but we
are the first ones who would say, to paraphrase English poet/philosopher G.K.
Chesterton, “Don’t ever tear down a fence until you know the reason why it was
put up.” Put another way, Conservatives believe <span class="st">“</span><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Hasty</span></em><span class="st"> innovation </span><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">may</span></em><span class="st"> be a devouring </span><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">conflagration</span></em><span class="st">, rather than a torch of progress.” (from Kirk’s “The Conservative
Mind”)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="st"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We Conservatives are fully prepared
to cooperate with our fellow citizens and leaders. We are willing to compromise
when compromise is called for. Above all, we want to secure the blessings of
liberty for ourselves and for the generations of Americans to come. We believe
these blessings are best preserved when we preserve them freely and
cooperatively. These virtues are nourished, as Berkowitz observed, “by
tradition.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, liberty and
tradition are inter-dependent. They’re like love and marriage from the old
Sinatra tune - “You can’t have one without the other.”</span></span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-23706224479489138682017-04-06T05:22:00.000-05:002017-04-06T05:23:17.168-05:00"ACT NATURALLY"<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zZOlu1vyLg8" width="560"></iframe>
<i>
<b>“Well, I'll bet you I'm gonna be a big star</b></i><br />
<b><i> Might win an Oscar you can never tell </i></b><br />
<b><i>The movies gonna make me a big star </i></b><br />
<b><i>Cuz I can play the part so well” </i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i>- “Act Naturally” – Buck Owens and the Buckaroos (1963) </i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I recently saw a very funny snippet of video about
acting. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, himself a recipient of many entertainment
industry awards, was about to receive another one when he turned the tables on
the Hollywood stars (another name for someone with an inflated sense of self-importance)
assembled. A small sampling follows:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“They come to these award shows dressed like
senators from Krypton.” “They haven’t got an original thought in their brains.”
“He pretends to be ‘Bob Johnson’ on screen and he’s declared a genius.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Oh, give ‘em hell, Jerry!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ve always been grateful that I never dreamed of
gracing the silver screen or seeing my name in lights. Acting to me is about as
worthless a job as being a professional food critic. I mean, don’t these folks
have anything better to do with their time than to sit around restaurants
complaining about the amount of saffron in the <span class="tgc"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">bouillabaisse. Talk about a useless
profession. Film critics and op-ed writers, by comparison, are just a rung
below sainthood on the social ladder.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="tgc"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When I
was going to college, a faculty member in the arts department asked me to play
the part of Jesus in a stage production. I should have felt flattered, but I
didn’t. Now, mind you, I have the greatest of respect and admiration for Jesus.
After all, he’s the one who opened the door to heaven for me. But, playing the
perfect, sinless man was way out of my league. “How about giving me the
role<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Phil Dillon, chief sinner?’” I
replied. “I’ve got that one down pat. In fact, if it weren’t for the grace of
Jesus I’d be dead meat right now.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="tgc"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Think of
it. Does any actor on the planet actually believe they can portray sinless
perfection on the stage or on film and be perceived as believable? Come on,
now. It’s not that a few haven’t tried. I saw Jeffrey Hunter in “King of Kings”
and Max von Sydow in “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” How believable were they?
Hunter was an American and von Sydow was a pasty-faced Swede. Jesus was Jewish.
I don’t know much about Hunter’s background, but I believe I can safely assume
he committed a sin or two in his life. In terms of belief systems, von Sydow
was either agnostic or atheist. How about that – an atheist playing the part of
God in the flesh? That’s what I call creative casting.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="tgc"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I don’t
go to the movies as often as I used to, but it’s not because I don’t like
actors. I just don’t see many actors these days I can find believable. It
hasn’t always been that way. One of my favorite actors from the 40’s and 50’s
was Jimmy Stewart. I absolutely loved him in “It’s a Wonderful Life” and
“Harvey.” Why? As I watched him, I realized that Jimmy wasn’t playing George
Bailey or Elwood P. Dodd, he was playing Jimmy Stewart. He was playing himself.
He was so good at it that I can still believe that an invisible, six foot,
three inch tall rabbit roaming around is perfectly plausible and that I can
also believe I too have a guardian angel named Clarence.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="tgc"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Another
of my favorite actors was Jack Palance. He always seemed to play the bad guy
and, man, did he do it well. He was at his most vicious in the great western
“Shane,” when he played the gunfighter Jack Wilson. His lines were short, but
both memorable and blood-curdling. “See ya’ later Shane,” as he hissed through
clenched teeth.” “What’s it mean to you Shane?” as the two men faced each other
down in Grafton’s saloon. “You mean I’ll kill him if you have to” in response
to Rufus Ryker as they discussed killing Joe Starrett.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="tgc"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Why did I
love Jack Palance? For the same reason I loved Jimmy Stewart. Jack Palance
played himself in Shane, not Jack Wilson. The more I watched him the more
convinced I became that I’d never want to meet him in a dark alley.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="tgc"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There was
something else about the two men I admired. Both served in our military dyring
wartime, Stewart as a bomber pilot in World War II and Vietnam and Palance served
in the Army Air Force during World War II. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The reason men like Stewart and
Palance were so believable was because they were ordinary guys who just
couldn’t help being themselves.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’m not sure that much can be said
of our current crop of actors. "Superstars" like Tom Cruise and Matt
Damon have never served in the military and Jane Fonda once manned an
anti-aircraft gun for the North Vietnamese. How’s that for patriotism?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Like Jimmy Stewart and
Jack Palance, I like being just myself. That way, if the doorbell rings or my
country calls, I'll know how to answer.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-80753195698434048152017-03-23T05:21:00.001-05:002017-03-23T06:36:57.419-05:00SURVEILLANCE AND SECURITY: INDUSTRIAL SCALE<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TH_YbBHVF4g" width="560"></iframe>
<span style="color: blue;">
<b><span style="color: black;"><i>“Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you”
- Sting and the Police (1983)</i></span></b></span><br />
<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve had many friends tell me that I’m too concerned with what some
journalists are now calling the “administrative state” or “deep state.” They’re
only half right. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Permit me to explain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In a recent essay penned for the Mises Institute, Albert Jay Knock made the
following observation:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i>“Every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society
with so much less power. There is never, nor can there be, any strengthening of
State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social
power.”</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The America I live in now is less free than the America I grew up in. I
suppose if one were to dissect the reasons for this shift, he or she could come
up with a lot of reasons, but for me the most obvious reason of all was 9-11
and its impact on our collective psyche. Security and safety became the most
important American values. Liberty still had some value, but it took a back
seat to safety and security. That shift is becoming more and more pronounced as
time passes. It’s like the ratchet moving the gears of State slowly but surely
in the direction of totalitarianism. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I traveled by air prior to 9-11 I rarely had problems with security.
That’s not the case anymore. Now, airline travel has become a nightmare. A few
years ago I was part of a group from our church that traveled to Mexico to do
missionary work in a community that eked out its daily existence in a garbage
dump outside of Mexico City. It was a very rewarding adventure.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Coming home almost ruined things. I had no problem with security in Mexico
City, but when we got to Dallas I got quite an education. I did everything I
was told until a surly T.S.A. agent demanded my wallet. I refused, which
irritated him and my friends. “This is all for our safety and security, Phil.”
The contest escalated until it got close to the boiling point. I tried to
explain the meaning of the Fourth Amendment to him and he didn’t seem to care,
nor did my friends. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
we got through the ordeal I got the lecture in spades. “If you’re not doing
anything wrong, you’ve got nothing to worry about, Phil.” I would have reminded
them that one our Founders’ grievances was that King George had “<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance,” </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but how could I argue with my friends’
compelling logic? <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I think they may
have sided more with Vladimir Lenin, who said “</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully
rationed” than they would have with our Founding Fathers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I got a much fuller understanding of
the power of the administrative state when Nancy and I returned from Spain this
past December. I knew I was in trouble when the T.S.A. agent at J.F.K. referred
to me as “Hey, you” after I’d gone through the metal detector. By the time he
was done with his “inspection,” he knew whether I was male or female. Nancy,
ever the astute observer, couldn’t resist. “It’s President Trump and the City
Commissioners getting even with you for those opinion pieces.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We now have an enormous administrative
state with almost unimaginable powers. Our security agencies have a facility in
Utah that stores data on our phone calls, e-mails, and internet correspondence.
They’re able to store zettabytes of our data (that’s 10 to the 21<sup>st</sup>
power), which amounts to the capability to store all human correspondence since
the dawn of recorded history. They’re working on yottabyes (10 to the 24<sup>th</sup>
power) as I type.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The inhabitants of the administrative state tell us
not to worry, that they have our best interests at heart. A couple of years
ago, for example, James Clapper, the N.S.A’s director, told the U.S. Senate
that the N.S.A. wasn’t collecting any data on the average American. When he was
later caught in his lie, he told the Senate that he had given them his “least
untruthful answer.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">His answer seemed shocking at the time, but why
would it? That’s the world our security professionals inhabit – they lie and
deceive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just yesterday, thanks to Devin Nunes’ press
interview, we learned that, despite the repeated use of clever language being used
to make it all look quite innocent, someone within our government has been
spying on Donald Trump and his campaign team. To many it may seem alright, since
the President isn’t well liked, but the last time I checked I believe we still
have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights and that those rights aren’t allocated
based on popularity. If he doesn’t have the rights of an American citizen, who
among us does?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I believe this administrative state and the ability
it has to use the law as a cudgel to serve its own ends is becoming dangerous
to individual liberty. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Are we coming to the place where someone like</span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lavrentiy
Berea, Josef Stalin’s security chief, will be ruling our security apparatus? Will
we, like the people of Russia, be hearing the ominous words, “Show me the man
and I’ll find you the crime.”? Will we get to the place where we lose all our
rights and liberties?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I hope not, but the signs I see are very ominous.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<i> </i>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-78015810035889433142017-03-09T06:34:00.003-06:002017-03-09T06:34:56.828-06:00"I AM IRELAND"<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sm1MQ-3dJIY" width="560"></iframe>
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<span class="st"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b>“If </b></i></span></span></span><span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">you</span><span class="st"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> strike us down now, we shall
rise again and renew the fight</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">. You cannot conquer Ireland. You cannot
extinguish the Irish passion of freedom.”</span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Padraig
Pearse – Irish poet/rebel/revolutionary</span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A few months ago, I had my DNA tested and discovered
to my dismay that I may not be as Irish as my mother always led me to believe. </span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tests may reveal some scientific details, but they
can’t peer inside a man’s heart. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
maintain that my heart, mind, soul, and sentiments are Irish and always will be!</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">St. Patrick’s Day is just a couple of weeks away.
I’m writing this commemorative essay well in advance of March 17<sup>th</sup>.
My Irish roots just can’t seem to help themselves. Right now I’m listening to
composer Patrick Cassidy’s classical work titled “1916: The Irish Rebellion.”
It’s a grand piece of music. It expresses the heartfelt Irish love of freedom,
the brief moments of victory, and the inevitable pain of defeat that a small
band of Irish patriots experienced in the six days of the rebellion that has
become known in Irish lore as the “Easter Rising.”</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By the end of the 19<sup>th</sup> century, Irish
independence movements had gained considerable popular appeal. They grew until
April 24<sup>th</sup>, 1916, when a band of rebels declared an independent
Irish republic. The opening salvo of the rebellion came in the form of a
proclamation, penned by Padraig Pearse. The words of the Proclamation are
stirring, reminiscent of America’s Declaration of Independence:</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i>“We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland,
and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and
indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and
government has not extinguished the right …Standing on that fundamental right
and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the
Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State. And we pledge our lives and
the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare,
and of its exaltation among the nations.”</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pearse and six other rebel leaders – Thomas Clarke, Sean Mac Diermada,
Thomas Macdonagh, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett, signed
the proclamation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After initial successes at the Dublin Post Office and the Four Corners, the
British sent thousands of soldiers to quell the rebellion. The overwhelming
numbers and a massive artillery barrage proved too much for the rebels. Within
six days the rebellion was crushed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the aftermath, the British declared martial law, with Sir John Maxwell
proclaimed military governor. Retaliation was swift. All seven of the leaders
were executed within weeks. Padraig Pearse was executed on May 3<sup>rd</sup>, holding
a crucifix as the firing squad did its deadly work. Joseph Plunkett was
executed on May 12<sup>th</sup>. On the night before his execution, he married
his childhood sweetheart, Grace Gifford, in the prison chapel. She never
remarried, proof that she must have loved him dearly. James Connolly was
executed on the same day as Plunkett. He had been mortally wounded in the
rebellion and was on his deathbed. The British, not content to let him die a
noble death, strapped him to a stretcher, carried him to the prison courtyard,
placed him in a chair and shot him to death.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In all, sixteen Irish rebels were executed. One of them, Michael Mallin,
wrote the following words to his wife on the night before his execution on May
8<sup>th</sup> - “My darling wife, pulse of my heart, this is the end of all
things earthly… and so must Irishmen pay for trying to make Ireland a free
nation, God’s will be done.” He also encouraged his daughter, Una, to become a
nun and his son, Joseph, to become a priest. Both children followed their
father’s dying wishes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Several years ago I visited the Dublin Gaol (jail) where some of the 1916
rebels spent their last days. As I passed from cell to cell, I could almost
hear their old ghosts whispering to me, “Never forget…Never forget.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On the 17<sup>th</sup> we’ll be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and all things
Irish. Here in America it’s come to mean green beer, leprechauns, shillelaghs,
shamrocks, parades, and over-indulgence. Like most Americans, I too will have a
pint of the bitters and wear the green. But, I’ll also be remembering there’s
much more to being Irish. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Padraig Pearse
expressed it best in the Gaelic words “Mise’ Eire” (I Am Ireland), his classic
poem that expresses the mixture of pain, shame, glory, and the love of freedom
that comes with being Irish.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, to that end, I’ll pause to remember what it means to be Irish. I’ll
celebrate, but I’ll also listen for those voices calling me to “never forget.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I never will! After all, <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I am Irish and “I am Ireland.”</b></span> </div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-71264574589732807202017-02-22T07:11:00.002-06:002017-02-22T07:39:59.930-06:00DEEP STATE; DEEP KIMCHI?<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dWO-XnAwGrA" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>“In 20th century U.S. slang, “kimchi” was occasionally used in the phrase “in deep kimchi” (particularly by veterans of the Korean War), a euphemism for “in deep trouble”</i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i> - Definithing.com</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a lot of chatter about America’s security
apparatus these days, brought to the fore in the light of the
resignation/sacking of Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor.
Were the N.S.A. and the C.I.A., with an extremely antagonistic executive at the
helm, and Flynn, who, according to scuttlebutt, loved conspiracy theories
almost as much as he loved Vladimir Putin and Russia, clandestinely conspiring
against their bosses?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Everything I’m reading about this reminds me of one
of my favorite films – John Frankenheimer’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Seven Days in May.”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The film was made in 1964, <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">dur</span>ing the Cold War. The
plot is straightforward. There’s a “liberal” President who has become quite
unpopular. He’s trying to negotiate an arms treaty with the Soviets and appears
to be willing to strip America of its ability to defend itself. A group of
generals, seeing this, devise a plot to overthrow the weakened President. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As things almost always are in Hollywood, the liberal
President was the hero of the film. It only makes sense, with Hollywood being
Hollywood. Any good producer, director, or actor knows that “liberals” would
never undermine an elected government. In their minds, only “right wingers” do
such things. Liberals, as we all know, value our Constitution and the rule of
law.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Watch the clip at the beginning of this essay and
take a moment to substitute the unpopular President Lyman with an unpopular
Donald Trump. Watch and I think you’ll see that there may be something quite
interesting happening today, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I honestly can’t tell which end is up here. Were
Trump and Flynn conspiring against the Nation or were bureaucrats within our
security agencies up to no good? Were the leadership and rank and file of our
security agencies trying to protect us from an impending disaster? Or, were
they, in ways subtle and not so subtle, flexing the enormous undercover weapons
at their disposal? If so, to what end? Would it be service to the Nation? Or
would it be something far more self-serving, if not sinister? In all the back
and forth between the President and our intelligence agencies about leaks,
suspicious activities, etc., who is telling the truth? Where does America’s
left wing fit into all of this?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m suspicious, but then who isn’t or shouldn’t be?
I am pretty certain that no one in this current dustup is up to any good. When
I was a kid, I used to listen to “The Shadow.” As I observe current events, I
think I can hear the dark musical tones, the sardonic cackling, and Lamont
Cranston’s voice – “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men…….the Shadow
knows!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While I can take some comfort in knowing that the
Shadow was a fictional character whose only aim in life was to entertain
America, I’m not sure I can take the same kind of comfort in America’s current
reality. I don’t find what I’m seeing very amusing. In fact, the air in
Washington, D.C. is now pregnant with some really nasty possibilities, not the
least of which is becoming subject to an unelected shadow government twisting
all the dials and pulling the levers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the things that I’ve found interesting is
that those who would normally be expected to press the alarm buttons don’t seem
to be concerned at all. I think you know who I’m talking about. It’s the left
of center politicians and political writers. This morning, for example, I read
a piece in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Atlantic</i> that compared
our “deep state” to Turkey’s. It was another way of saying, “Don’t be alarmed.
Everything’s just fine in America. Pay no attention to those men behind the
curtain.” The more I read from the piece, the further my jaw dropped. If I
could have, I would have asked them if they were serious, but there was no
point in that. Whoever wrote the piece obviously believed it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, am I supposed to believe that, since Turkey has
a deeply rooted “deep state,” the United States can’t possibly have one? The
syllogism doesn’t work for me. It’s a bit like complimenting the politicians in
Massachusetts for their tax policy because the taxes in Massachusetts are a bit
lower than the taxes in Sweden. It makes absolutely no sense to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Could America, with its strong political
institutions, complete with checks and balances, its Constitution, and its
history, fall prey to something like a “deep state?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I want to say, “Absolutely not,” but I find myself
hesitating.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We could at some point in the future find ourselves
at the mercy of an unelected “deep state” that not only monitors, but directs
our daily lives. If something like that happens, it won’t happen overnight. It
will come in small, almost imperceptible increments, somewhat like what happens
to the proverbial frog when he’s placed in a pan of lukewarm water and the
flame is lit under the pan. One minute he’s feeling quite comfortable, but
sooner or later he’s gonna’ be cooked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In a 1966 Supreme Court case (Osborn v. United
States, 385 U.S. 323,343. Justice William O. Douglas was the lone dissenting
vote in a case that dealt with government wiretapping. The following words from
his dissent express the very things I’m concerned about. Sometimes, on the
surface, a decision rendered might seem easy to arrive at. But, there are
occasionally some who ask what the implications of such a decision might be.
Read Justice Douglas’s words and you’ll see what I mean:<span style="color: blue;"> “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">These examples and many others demonstrate an alarming trend whereby
the privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away by sometimes
imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little
consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite
unlike any we have seen -- a society in which government may intrude into the
secret regions of man's life at will."</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, are we witnessing the rise of an American “deep
state?” I can’t say for sure. The water does feel nice and warm right now, but
I swear I can see some bureaucrat fiddling around with a book of matches, ready
to ignite the burner under me that will eventually cook me.</span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7734846.post-18255179710695113702017-02-11T13:30:00.001-06:002017-02-11T17:04:00.556-06:00IMMIGRATION - A PROBLEM WITHOUT A SOLUTION?<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Oft7sc3RvLU" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>“I pity the poor immigrant</i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>Who wishes he would've stayed home</i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>Who uses all his power to do evil </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>But in the end is always left so alone </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>That man whom with his fingers cheats </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>And who lies with ev'ry breath </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>Who passionately hates his life </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i>And likewise fears his death.” </i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><i> - Bob Dylan – “I Pity the Poor Immigrant” (1967) </i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It doesn’t seem to matter what the issues are any
more in America. The strident voices have taken over. This is very true when it
comes to our current immigration policy and President Trump’s executive order
on immigration.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve seen a lot of information flowing hither and
yon concerning the executive order, but I couldn’t find myself completely trusting
what folks were saying. I probably should, but I know enough about human nature
to understand that when people, friends or otherwise, have a political axe to
grind, it’s Katy bar the door.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With all the give and take on the issue, I thought
it might be a good idea to actually read Mr. Trump’s executive order. I did and
it didn’t help a lot. Although the order banned entry to citizens of the now
infamous Middle-Eastern countries, I couldn’t find anything in the order that
barred entry to American citizens who had been born in other countries or
citizens of other countries with green cards or valid entry visas.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At any rate, the matter has been litigated and the
travel ban is now on hold, waiting for the President to either draft a new
executive order or ram the current order to the Supreme Court. I guess it’s
best to leave it all up to the lawyers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In all the give and take about the executive order,
I’ve learned that are lots and lots of shithouse lawyers in America these days. They
seem to know or claim in subtle ways to know more about immigration laws than
the people who draft them. When they comment on the subject, they cite their
extensive knowledge and compassion. Please forgive me, but I doubt them. What
little knowledge they have is a fig leaf for their alarming lack of
understanding of how immigration is supposed to work in this country. They talk
of compassion, but they wear a cloak that masks the sinister motives in their
guts. When it comes right down to it, I think they hate Donald Trump far more
than they love immigrants or refugees.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What little I know about immigration comes from
experience. I’m the son of one. My mother was from Newfoundland, in the
Canadian Maritimes. She came to America in the 1920’s with a third grade
education, a little bit of money, and high hopes. She met my father, who was an
American citizen, fell in love, got married, and started a family. I’m the
youngest of her three children. My father died when I was six years old and my
mother was left to take care of the three of us. In some ways she was fearless,
but there was one thing that would always cause fear to bubble up in her like a
volcano doing a slow boil. It was the dreaded letter from “immigration.” I won’t
bore you with the details. Suffice it to say, it was one hell of a tough road
for her to hoe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I remember the very first job I ever had, delivering
vegetables for a Lebanese immigrant named Mr. Sahady. I would ride in his truck
on Saturdays. He would drive around, hawking produce on his loudspeaker as we
made our way up and down the streets of Cambridge. “Raspberries, strawberries,
thirty-five cents a quart.” <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Th<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">e words rang out through his thick accent, but folks seemed to understand what he was selling.</span></span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">They</span>would either come down to his truck when he
stopped or call their orders in from their apartment windows. I got the honor <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">making deliveries</span>, <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">earning</span> a nickel tip her or a dime tip there. When the day was done,
my mother would collect the loot, which almost always included a generous gift from
Mr. Sahady’s wallet.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As we drove around, Mr. Sahady occasionally talked
about America, spiced with love and <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">that</span> thick accent. “I love Ameeeericah, Butch.
This is a won<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">nerfull</span> country.” Mr. Sahady had somewhere along the way become an
American citizen. Where he was born wasn’t nearly as important to me as knowing
that he was one of us. He was an American. His accent didn’t disqualify him,
nor did his past. He had taken the oath of citizenship and that gave him all
the rights I, a citizen by birth, had.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As Mr. Sahady made his Saturday rounds with me in
tow, I learned to love America too. I knew I was poor, but I also knew I was
free. I knew I could make my way in life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Call me a fool if you will, but I still believe that’s
the way things should work today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nancy and I have lived in Emporia, Kansas since
1999. Over our years here, we have been hosts to young international students
from the Republic of Moldova, South Korea, Vietnam, China, Germany, and Colombia.
The longer they stayed, the more we’ve loved them. They, in turn, graced our
home with many of their friends from far-flung outposts of the world – Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Mexico, India, to name a few. We’ve loved them too and always will.
We’ve told them that our house is their house and we’ve meant it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first student we hosted was a young woman from
the Republic of Moldova named Corina Nour. She came to us in 2003, the same
year the lights went out in New York City. By the time she got to Wichita,
after a long flight from Europe to New York, followed by a few days in the
dark, she looked like she was shell-shocked. Then, to add insult to injury, the
airline had lost her luggage. Nancy and I could only imagine what she was
thinking. “I left the poorest country in Europe for this? Get me out of here, I
wanna’ go home.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re glad Corina made her way past the rocky start.
She stayed with us a year, went home, did her under-graduate work in Romania,
then came back to live with us while she worked on her Master’s degree. From
there, she made her way to Silicon Valley, began a career, fell in love, and
started a family. She and her husband, Sherwin, who is from a thoroughly
Persian family, live near San Francisco. They have one precocious daughter,
Elina, and are expecting a second daughter in a few months. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Seeing Corina succeed has made me very happy. The
only thing that would make me happier would be to see her become an American
citizen. I think she wants to, but I’ll just have to wait and see. If, or when
that day comes, I intend to be there to see her take the oath of citizenship.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If that time comes, Corina will have a lot to
consider. She’s from Moldova and I’m sure there are loyalties she has to the
country of her birth. She comes from a really good family. I’ve met her father,
mother, and brother, and they are absolutely wonderful. The people of Moldova
have much to be proud of. In the early nineties, they shook off the yoke of
Soviet oppression and declared themselves to be an independent Republic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The years since their declaration have been
tough, but they’ve refused to be bullied by Vladimir Putin and his attempts to
interfere in their political life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For those who think that coming to America is as
easy as a flick of the wrist, let me disabuse you of the notion. Becoming an
American citizen and becoming part of our two and a half century old experiment
isn’t easy. It requires a lot. Any prospective citizen must be at least
minimally proficient in English, our common language. They must know something
of our history, customs, law, etc. They must be, as President Trump put it so
indelicately, subject to extreme vetting. It’s all spelled out in Section 337.1
of our Code of Federal Regulations and Section 337 (a) of our Immigration and
Naturalization Act.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When those requirements are completed, a date is set
and the applicant publicly recites the following oath:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I
hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all
allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or
sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that
I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of
America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith
and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United
States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in
the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will
perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by
the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation
or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Our oath of citizenship also
requires anyone applying for American citizenship to divest themselves of any
titles of nobility (prince, lord, etc.). In other words, once they become an
American citizen, they are no better than any other American citizen. They are
simply one of us, nothing more, nothing less.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The wording of the oath is
purposefully strong. For Corina or anyone else taking the oath it means he or
she must renounce and ABJURE any allegiance they may have had to their home
country. They must swear “true faith and allegiance” to our Constitution and
laws. They must be willing to defend the United States “against all enemies, foreign
and domestic” when “required by law.” </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Think of what that could mean.
What if Moldova, as an ally of a foreign power, declared war on the United
States? This country would expect her to abide by the oath she had taken. The
same would hold true for someone from Mexico, Syria, Yemen, or any other
country in the world.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Just a flick of the wrist, eh? </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The world is going through an
enormous refugee crisis right now. People by the millions are fleeing counties
like Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Mexico, and small Central American nations in
desperation. The situation is so bad that I don’t think the question before us
as a country is not whether to do something, but what we should be doing. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">This is where we are at
loggerheads. On one side you have those who would bar entry to all and on the
other you have those who would open the floodgates without requiring those
coming to consider why they are coming and what we should in turn require of
them.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I saw this first hand in Emporia,
Kansas back in 2007 and 2008. A large number of Somali refugees came to work at
Tyson Foods. One thing led to another and before long, Catholic Charities
wanted Emporia to be named a “sanctuary city.” City leaders seemed to endorse
the idea. It all came to a head at a public meeting. It wasn’t pretty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were the usual culprits that crawl out
of the woodwork when government doesn’t think things through and just acts
willy-nilly. There were a few race-baiting bigots, opposed by the so called “enlightened”
members of the community who delighted in calling anyone who opposed the idea
roaring bigots and xenophobes. But, the real truth of the matter was to be
found somewhere in the middle of the mess. The primary objection had to do with
employment. Other minorities, Mexicans, Central Americans, Vietnamese, etc. saw
the Somalis as a threat to their employment at the plant. They had families
with hungry mouths to feed, bodies to clothe, and rent to pay so their families
could stay warm. The “enlightened” members of the community, particularly those
from Emporia State University couldn’t see that, or refused to. After all, many
of them had secure, tenured positions at the university. I told some of them
after the meeting that if the shoe had been on the other foot and the Somalis
had coveted their jobs, they would have had no trouble finding their inner
bigots.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Sometimes it’s a matter of whose
ox is being gored, isn’t it?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Probably the most significant
problem the city had with the Somalis, however, was that they did not want to
assimilate. They </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">had come</span><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> here from a tribal culture and wanted little or nothing
to do with America beyond employment. They cared little about our Constitution
and didn’t appear to be willing to become part of the American way of life.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I asked several of the Somalis
who attended the meeting if they understood why feelings were running so high.
I talked to them about how America’s mission of mercy in Somalia back in the 90’s
had turned into a nightmare. I asked them if they understood how some Americans
felt as they watched some of their sons’ bodies being dragged through the
streets of Mogadishu by warlords. I asked them if they understood that most
Americans were willing to once again extend the hand or mercy, but that they
wanted some expressions of support for our way of life in return. The Somalis didn't
seem to care; they just wanted to be left alone.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I don’t think the current
situation with refugees from other countries is much different.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I’m one of many Americans who
wants to help. I want to do my part. I’ve even sent a written recommendation to
my Senator, Jerry Moran, on how it could be done. It’s probably a hair-brained idea,
but I sent it because I care and I want to solve the problem. I’d be willing to
bet I’ve done more in doing that than most of </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">the President's</span><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> critics have done in their
lifetime when it comes to helping immigrants or refugees.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">In a recent letter to our local newspaper,
a friend of mine named Bill Hartman cited a speech made by Theodore Roosevelt
in 1907. In think it’s appropriate to close with it and ask if those who oppose
the President’s executive order so vehemently would be willing to support ideas
that lend a helping hand to those in need while also upholding what I believe
to be the heart of what it means to be an American:</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“In
the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good
faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on
an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate
against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is
predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing
but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he
is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room
for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here,
and that is the English language .. And we have room for but one sole loyalty
and that is a loyalty to the American people.”</span></i></span></div>
Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00933117233625601141noreply@blogger.com0