Everybody has an opinion about the Gulf oil spill and whether or not the President is handling it properly. Like multitudes of others, I am disturbed by the behavior of British Petroleum, as well as most of the oil industry. They have had a free ride in this country for far too long.
I credit Bobby Jindal for leading the charge for the Cajon Country and the fishing and tourist industry of southern Louisiana. Charlie Crist, another Republican, is involved for Florida. I also credit Governor Haley Barbour of Yazoo City, MS for exercising some discretion with the President rather than using it for political purposes.
Today, I heard a disturbing story of a fifty (50) years long oil spill and pollution problem in southern Nigeria, which I had not heard before. I frankly wondered WHY we are not hearing about this oil spill and the ruination of Nigeria’s fishing industry and coastal waters in that area. WHY?Is it only Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida that count? What difference does it make to the most populous nation in Africa? Do those people not count as much as Gulf-coast Americans?
We are demanding accountability from BP, we say; or, we are criticizing the President for doing not enough for our coast. Of course, one Republican Senator, whose word no longer counts for anything more than warm wind, says the President is “shaking down” BP because he demands a $20 million accountability fund (then he turned around and apologized for apologizing to BP!) I don’t know what Glen Beck calls it, but I’m sure he has an opinion, which he has about everything, especially when it is profitable to him--like disowning soccer and making it “unAmerican” to play soccer.
Back to Nigeria: the oil industry has had a free ride for many years and we have all been manipulated by big money’s paid advocates in Washington and elsewhere. But, back to Nigeria and a fifty-year-long problem: that only illustrates what could happen in our Gulf-waters.
Such problems affect not only states or regions, but whole nations; in fact, everybody--the whole world. When Corporations are allowed the privilege of harvesting our energy (be it coal, lead, zinc, oil, or gold for that matter) they have a responsibility--a moral obligation to all of us--to protect our global garden. It is not ours to simply subdue, or pillage, or ravage, or waste; it is all we have for human survival and our common humanity ought to bond us together to cooperate and compliment, as well as complement, each other. Ultimately, WE ARE ALL ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT WE DO WITH THIS MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE--the globe we inhabit.
We didn’t create it, or just accidentally find it. Most of the world believes in some kind of higher power; I choose to believe that power is God and that we are accountable to Him.
Believe what you will; but, we have a job on our hands. Taking better care of this world of ours,and of each other who occupy it, is a moral and ethical issue--a deeply spiritual matter that has consequences for all of us.
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Human Trafficking
The State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, was released back in June ‘09. It documented the scope of this vicious and challenging industry in every country. It underscored root causes of human trafficking, like poverty, lax law enforcement, especially exploitation of women. It revealed the devastation wreaked upon victims and families.
The problem is particularly urgent now, as economies reel from the global financial crisis and people‘s increasingly desperate attempts to support families, which makes them especially susceptible to the wiles of ruthless criminals. Economic pressures add incentive for unscrupulous bosses to squeeze everything they can from vulnerable workers with fewer resources for the organizations and governments trying to stop them.
Since 2000, more than half of all countries have enacted laws prohibiting all forms of human trafficking. New partnerships between law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations, including women's shelters and immigrants' rights groups, have led to thousands of prosecutions, as well as assistance for many victims. We applaud those church organizations like the Wesleyan Church for adding their organizational efforts, and any others I am not aware of.
The 2009 report highlights progress in several countries that have increased intentional efforts against human trafficking. In Cyprus, where Oxana Rantchev was trafficked and killed, the government has taken new steps to protect victims. Costa Rica, long a hub for commercial sex trafficking, this year passed an anti-trafficking law; trained nearly 1,000 police, immigration agents and health workers to respond to trafficking; launched a national awareness campaign; and improved efforts to identify and care for victims.
This encouraging effort largely results from the hard work of local activists such as Mariliana Morales Berrios, who founded the Rahab Foundation in Costa Rica in 1997 and has helped thousands of trafficking survivors rebuild their lives. Advocates such as Mariliana help spur change from the bottom up that encourages governments to make needed reforms from the top down.
Criminal networks enslave millions of people crossing borders and spanning continents. The United States claims commitment to building partnerships with governments and organizations around the world, to finding new and more effective ways to take on the scourge of human trafficking. Let Christians of America add their personal efforts.
Human trafficking flourishes in the shadows; it demands our attention, and commitment. Picking up just one thread, I defer to Hillery Clinton who began advocating against slavery in the 1990s, after visiting Thailand, where she held hands with a dying 12-year-olds, AIDS victim who had been “trafficked.” Later, she shared the tears of Eastern European women who questioned ever seeing their relatives again. As Americans we may think human trafficking is limited to other places, but sources document its abundance from deep in SW Michigan to most anywhere in the USA.
Checkout … if you dare … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery
Christians, especially, ought not to be able to sleep at night knowing that such activities happen within our borders. From Warner’s World, this is
Walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
The problem is particularly urgent now, as economies reel from the global financial crisis and people‘s increasingly desperate attempts to support families, which makes them especially susceptible to the wiles of ruthless criminals. Economic pressures add incentive for unscrupulous bosses to squeeze everything they can from vulnerable workers with fewer resources for the organizations and governments trying to stop them.
Since 2000, more than half of all countries have enacted laws prohibiting all forms of human trafficking. New partnerships between law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations, including women's shelters and immigrants' rights groups, have led to thousands of prosecutions, as well as assistance for many victims. We applaud those church organizations like the Wesleyan Church for adding their organizational efforts, and any others I am not aware of.
The 2009 report highlights progress in several countries that have increased intentional efforts against human trafficking. In Cyprus, where Oxana Rantchev was trafficked and killed, the government has taken new steps to protect victims. Costa Rica, long a hub for commercial sex trafficking, this year passed an anti-trafficking law; trained nearly 1,000 police, immigration agents and health workers to respond to trafficking; launched a national awareness campaign; and improved efforts to identify and care for victims.
This encouraging effort largely results from the hard work of local activists such as Mariliana Morales Berrios, who founded the Rahab Foundation in Costa Rica in 1997 and has helped thousands of trafficking survivors rebuild their lives. Advocates such as Mariliana help spur change from the bottom up that encourages governments to make needed reforms from the top down.
Criminal networks enslave millions of people crossing borders and spanning continents. The United States claims commitment to building partnerships with governments and organizations around the world, to finding new and more effective ways to take on the scourge of human trafficking. Let Christians of America add their personal efforts.
Human trafficking flourishes in the shadows; it demands our attention, and commitment. Picking up just one thread, I defer to Hillery Clinton who began advocating against slavery in the 1990s, after visiting Thailand, where she held hands with a dying 12-year-olds, AIDS victim who had been “trafficked.” Later, she shared the tears of Eastern European women who questioned ever seeing their relatives again. As Americans we may think human trafficking is limited to other places, but sources document its abundance from deep in SW Michigan to most anywhere in the USA.
Checkout … if you dare … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery
Christians, especially, ought not to be able to sleep at night knowing that such activities happen within our borders. From Warner’s World, this is
Walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Denominational Brands
The Writer, H. C. Heffren, liked to talk about how Soap Companies proclaim their special, even mysterious, ingredients, which they maintained made their products superior to all those lesser brands. His question was really probing whether or not different denominational brands of Christianity don’t spend more time advertising and promoting the superior doctrinal differences and advantages of their brand of denominational faith, rather than in lifting up Christ as Savior and Lord.
When we all check in for our final accounting, it seems pretty certain God will not be so much concerned about the kind of “soap” we used, as he will the garments we wore. The label on our brand of soap doesn’t clean anything; but, if the Prophet told it right, all our righteousness’s are as filthy rags. . .” He will be more concerned about our relationship (walk) with Christ and our being robed in his righteousness.
Denominations (especially in American life) all tend to think “they” have an edge on truth, a more biblical approach to life, and a better than average brand, or ingredient, for changing people’s lives. I wonder what would happen if we became less competitive and more complimentary--even complementary.
Complimentary--spelled with an I--suggests being civil, polite, appreciative, and such. Complementary--with an e--means filling in, supplementing, or making full. We behave like the rest of the world when we separate as Catholics or Protestants,Calvinists or Armenians, even Reformed, or Wesleyan, or Pentecostal.
If we could all step back a bit and observe things from Christ’s perspective, we might find that He said, A new commandment I give you, That you love one another; as I have loved you … By this shall all men know that you are my disciples. . .” (John 13:34-35).
My longtime friend Derl belongs to the Church of the Nazarene, but I don't. He is Arminian, and Wesleyan, and holiness, as am I. That, however,is not what makes us brothers in the faith: we each have a common walk with the Christ who is our common Lord. Paul reminds the whole church that there is but one body of Christ, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Ephesians 4).
Some of us might be more “biblical” than others, but our source of life for each of us is the Christ who said “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” This being true, each of us needs to be both more complimentary and complementary of each other, for there is but one gospel, one source of life--one Savior.
The gospel is a sensational story that we might call “From rags to riches.” Better yet, call it “From rags to robes.” Whatever results we achieve in our lives, we do not overcome by sewing our denominational labels onto our “filthy rags” as we run them through our Ecclesiastical Laundromat.
The old rags must be discarded and the robes must be “imported,” because they are always “fit for a king” and no substitute is permitted in the presence of the King of Kings. Moreover, the truth we share is not that of our superior brand, but of the Redeeming Savior who transforms our lives and makes life for all of us worth living.
From Warner’s World, we are
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
When we all check in for our final accounting, it seems pretty certain God will not be so much concerned about the kind of “soap” we used, as he will the garments we wore. The label on our brand of soap doesn’t clean anything; but, if the Prophet told it right, all our righteousness’s are as filthy rags. . .” He will be more concerned about our relationship (walk) with Christ and our being robed in his righteousness.
Denominations (especially in American life) all tend to think “they” have an edge on truth, a more biblical approach to life, and a better than average brand, or ingredient, for changing people’s lives. I wonder what would happen if we became less competitive and more complimentary--even complementary.
Complimentary--spelled with an I--suggests being civil, polite, appreciative, and such. Complementary--with an e--means filling in, supplementing, or making full. We behave like the rest of the world when we separate as Catholics or Protestants,Calvinists or Armenians, even Reformed, or Wesleyan, or Pentecostal.
If we could all step back a bit and observe things from Christ’s perspective, we might find that He said, A new commandment I give you, That you love one another; as I have loved you … By this shall all men know that you are my disciples. . .” (John 13:34-35).
My longtime friend Derl belongs to the Church of the Nazarene, but I don't. He is Arminian, and Wesleyan, and holiness, as am I. That, however,is not what makes us brothers in the faith: we each have a common walk with the Christ who is our common Lord. Paul reminds the whole church that there is but one body of Christ, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Ephesians 4).
Some of us might be more “biblical” than others, but our source of life for each of us is the Christ who said “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” This being true, each of us needs to be both more complimentary and complementary of each other, for there is but one gospel, one source of life--one Savior.
The gospel is a sensational story that we might call “From rags to riches.” Better yet, call it “From rags to robes.” Whatever results we achieve in our lives, we do not overcome by sewing our denominational labels onto our “filthy rags” as we run them through our Ecclesiastical Laundromat.
The old rags must be discarded and the robes must be “imported,” because they are always “fit for a king” and no substitute is permitted in the presence of the King of Kings. Moreover, the truth we share is not that of our superior brand, but of the Redeeming Savior who transforms our lives and makes life for all of us worth living.
From Warner’s World, we are
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Baseball and Life
I grew up following baseball, America’s game. My favorites, among others, included such notables as Dizzy Dean, Bob Feller, and Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial and a host of others. I received the Chicago Cub News, which I read avidly, and especially enjoyed the battles between Chicago’s Cubs and the St Louis Gas House Gang. One of my all-time favorites was Dizzy Dean, the man described as having a million-dollar arm and a ten-cent head. I later married a distant relative of Ole Diz and I still enjoy a good game of baseball, but that became the extent of my baseball career.
Although I don’t watch much anymore, there is one I would watch if I had the opportunity--#2 grandson, who plays for Fridley, MN High School. This undersized over-achieving competitor has worked his way into regular playing time on both the baseball and football teams as an underclassman. As a Junior now, he has become enough of a leader that in his senior year he will share leadership roles on both the baseball and football teams,as one of the team captains. Way to go Austin; he knows his grandpa is proud of him.
Baseball offers some interesting analogies for young men like Austin. For example: people are batting for their lives every time they are confronted with the invitation of Christ. It takes only one good clean single to get on base, but to reject an invitation as important as one from Christ could be likened to a strike out.
Watching the story of Joran Vander Sloot unfold makes me so aware of how easy it is for young people to go off in other directions, where their dreams collapse and their lives fall into disarray. One need not work out all of his or her problems before becoming a Christian; fact is, becoming a Christian is the best way to find help for overcoming one’s problems.
Nonetheless, one does need a solid hit to get on base. Once on base, growth follows in the Christian graces of faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. “For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:9 NAS).
Austin is not a heavy hitter, but he is an instinctive athlete. He has a good work ethic, he handles his body well and has a good eye for the ball, while being fast on his feet. He already knows that to neglect these skills is to fail to move into scoring position at third base. Next to getting on base, the next most important thing is for the runner to get to third base.
Every play made by the team on the field is calculated to prevent that base-runner from scoring. Stealing home has the least chance of success, and a careless runner can sometimes be tricked out. On other occasions a fly ball will get a runner on third base into trouble, but a fast, alert base runner is always a threat once he gets on base.
Old-time Detroit Tiger fans remember one particular year when the Detroit Tigers were clawing hard to claim a pennant championship, and they were close as Mullen and Moriarity. Mullen came to bat with Moriarity on third and only one out. Mullen hit a long fly ball. Moriarity happened to be off base when the ball was caught, but he tagged up quickly and raced for home.
The fielder threw a hard and accurate ball to the catcher at home plate and cut off the runner. Moriarity made it safely back to third--barely. The next batter struck out and the Tigers had lost their press for the pennant. The paper announced this epitaph: “Moriarity and the Tigers died on third.”
It can be easy to die on third. Pride can cause us to carelessly lose a chance to score. Jesus said, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
Others continue residing in the far country of prodigal living, dissipating themselves and their resources. They love pleasure, or themselves, more than they love God. Their hearts follow their treasures into far-off places. Unwilling to discipline themselves in the skills of the game of life, they die at third, without scoring.
While base hits count in the statistical column, only the runs scored win the games. We need to have our heads and our hearts in life’s game, and we need to run the bases alertly. Most important of all, we need to advance to third base with caution and position ourselves to score home and make our hit count.
Toward the end of his life, Paul told young Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that Day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Instead of dieing on third, prepare to complete your journey home and register your score.From Warner's World, this is
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
_____
Although I don’t watch much anymore, there is one I would watch if I had the opportunity--#2 grandson, who plays for Fridley, MN High School. This undersized over-achieving competitor has worked his way into regular playing time on both the baseball and football teams as an underclassman. As a Junior now, he has become enough of a leader that in his senior year he will share leadership roles on both the baseball and football teams,as one of the team captains. Way to go Austin; he knows his grandpa is proud of him.
Baseball offers some interesting analogies for young men like Austin. For example: people are batting for their lives every time they are confronted with the invitation of Christ. It takes only one good clean single to get on base, but to reject an invitation as important as one from Christ could be likened to a strike out.
Watching the story of Joran Vander Sloot unfold makes me so aware of how easy it is for young people to go off in other directions, where their dreams collapse and their lives fall into disarray. One need not work out all of his or her problems before becoming a Christian; fact is, becoming a Christian is the best way to find help for overcoming one’s problems.
Nonetheless, one does need a solid hit to get on base. Once on base, growth follows in the Christian graces of faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. “For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:9 NAS).
Austin is not a heavy hitter, but he is an instinctive athlete. He has a good work ethic, he handles his body well and has a good eye for the ball, while being fast on his feet. He already knows that to neglect these skills is to fail to move into scoring position at third base. Next to getting on base, the next most important thing is for the runner to get to third base.
Every play made by the team on the field is calculated to prevent that base-runner from scoring. Stealing home has the least chance of success, and a careless runner can sometimes be tricked out. On other occasions a fly ball will get a runner on third base into trouble, but a fast, alert base runner is always a threat once he gets on base.
Old-time Detroit Tiger fans remember one particular year when the Detroit Tigers were clawing hard to claim a pennant championship, and they were close as Mullen and Moriarity. Mullen came to bat with Moriarity on third and only one out. Mullen hit a long fly ball. Moriarity happened to be off base when the ball was caught, but he tagged up quickly and raced for home.
The fielder threw a hard and accurate ball to the catcher at home plate and cut off the runner. Moriarity made it safely back to third--barely. The next batter struck out and the Tigers had lost their press for the pennant. The paper announced this epitaph: “Moriarity and the Tigers died on third.”
It can be easy to die on third. Pride can cause us to carelessly lose a chance to score. Jesus said, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
Others continue residing in the far country of prodigal living, dissipating themselves and their resources. They love pleasure, or themselves, more than they love God. Their hearts follow their treasures into far-off places. Unwilling to discipline themselves in the skills of the game of life, they die at third, without scoring.
While base hits count in the statistical column, only the runs scored win the games. We need to have our heads and our hearts in life’s game, and we need to run the bases alertly. Most important of all, we need to advance to third base with caution and position ourselves to score home and make our hit count.
Toward the end of his life, Paul told young Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that Day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Instead of dieing on third, prepare to complete your journey home and register your score.From Warner's World, this is
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
_____
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