An old novel ends with the crucifixion of Jesus (Bauer, Behold Your King, Bobbs-Merrill, MCMXLV, p402). The nephew of Nicodemus seeks the body of Jesus from the Roman soldiers so that he might give Jesus a decent burial. Jonathan informs the soldiers his uncle has a tomb close by.
The author concludes the final chapter before the epilogue with this paragraph: “He has a tomb close by,” said Jonathan, turning slowly away. “It is there we will lay him, where no man has ever lain.“ And with a sigh, he added to himself, “He shall be wrapped in precious spices and fine linen. And with him will be buried--his Kingdom” (emphasis added).
The Kingdom of God still arouses much interest today. There are those within Christianity who pursue a close relationship with Israel in the belief that Jesus will one day return and “establish his kingdom” as a Jewish political state for 1,000years (generally called premillennialists).
Interestingly enough, the Iranian President recently stood before the United Nations and prayed a prayer that was an Islamic version of that Kingdom concept of Protestant Premillennialists - only Arabic.
Dr. Alfred Edersheim, wrote on page 270 of Volume I, of his well known two volume series, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah and concluded:
“In fact, an analysis of 119 passages in the New Testament where the expression ‘Kingdom’ occurs, shows that it means the rule of God; which was manifested in and through Christ; is apparent in ‘the Church; gradually develops amidst hindrances; is triumphant at the second coming of Christ; and, finally, perfected in the world to come.”
A careful reading of the Bible (both old and new testaments) reveals THE KINGDOM OF GOD not in literal Jerusalem “someday,” but in the hearts of individual believers, when you submit your life to Christ as the King of your life.
When Pilate interrogated Jesus, during the trial of Jesus, Pilate found no fault in him because Jesus was no threat to Rome; his kingdom was purely spiritual--“not of this world”--non-political.
While Jews, Arabs, and perhaps others, seek to prove their unique relationship with God, there is only one (1) kingdom. It is composed of people of all nations, nationalities, and languages - people whose prayer is “not my will but thine be done” as Jesus taught all men to pray. The “chosen people” are those who have aligned their lives with God, via Jesus Christ, and live their lives to reveal the God Who Is.
Much of the conflict in today's world is not because it was prophesied as such, but because carnal, greedy, selfish human beings want to claim a special relationship with God as "His Chosen." They fail to grasp the eternal truth of God thatJesus came to bring "on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased" (Luke 2:14NASV).Religion is not the cause of war and violence today, the heart of humanity is full of anger, jealousy and violence; thus, wars continue.
From Warner’s World,
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Worth of Example
I take comfort in a story about the veteran preacher, Washington Gladden. One Sunday a visitor attended service at the church Gladden formerly served. Quite unexpectedly, he found Dr. Gladden serving as Guest preacher in the absence of the current minister. War One was escalating quickly and people everywhere were vocalizing heated hyperbole and making patriotism synonymous with faith. Gladden, stood that day and raised a conciliatory flag of caution, personally and powerfully reaffirming the power of faith and love.
As the visitor left the service on that cold January Sunday just prior to the war, he overheard two elderly ladies conversing. “We did a very wise thing when we kept Doctor Gladden among us as pastor emeritus,” one said to the other. “If he did nothing but just lived his life here where we can catch his spirit, the influence of his presence alone makes it worthwhile.”
Aging seems inevitable, but I want to continue upgrading my life expectancy while I continue working my way through my lifetime. To me, that suggests I focus more on being, less on doing, and that I draw courage from the examples I find along the way.
Vanderbilt allegedly added 100 million dollars to the fortune he already had, between the years of 70-80. Kant reached 74 before writing his Anthropology, Strife of the Faculties, and Metaphysics of Ethics, while 74-year-old Tintoretto completed his 74 x 30 canvass painting of Paradise. Verdi completed his masterpiece, Othello, at 74, wrote Falstaff at 80, finishing Ave Maria, Stabet Mater, and Te Deum at 85.
Cato began studying Greek at age 80, while Tennyson wrote “Crossing the Bar” at 83. Titian completed his historic painting of the battle of Lepanto at 98.
Life today does not begin at 70, nor does it necessarily end at 70. In fact, the Psalmist seems to me right on target, when concluding, “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him” (Psalm 92:14-15, NIV).
Thus, I will pray, “O Lord, keep me fully alive as long as I live.” And Lord, may it be said of me, as it was said of Washington Gladden, “If he did nothing but just lived his life here where we can catch his spirit, the influence of his presence alone makes it worthwhile.”
From Warner’s World,
its never too soon or too late to leave a good example,
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
As the visitor left the service on that cold January Sunday just prior to the war, he overheard two elderly ladies conversing. “We did a very wise thing when we kept Doctor Gladden among us as pastor emeritus,” one said to the other. “If he did nothing but just lived his life here where we can catch his spirit, the influence of his presence alone makes it worthwhile.”
Aging seems inevitable, but I want to continue upgrading my life expectancy while I continue working my way through my lifetime. To me, that suggests I focus more on being, less on doing, and that I draw courage from the examples I find along the way.
Vanderbilt allegedly added 100 million dollars to the fortune he already had, between the years of 70-80. Kant reached 74 before writing his Anthropology, Strife of the Faculties, and Metaphysics of Ethics, while 74-year-old Tintoretto completed his 74 x 30 canvass painting of Paradise. Verdi completed his masterpiece, Othello, at 74, wrote Falstaff at 80, finishing Ave Maria, Stabet Mater, and Te Deum at 85.
Cato began studying Greek at age 80, while Tennyson wrote “Crossing the Bar” at 83. Titian completed his historic painting of the battle of Lepanto at 98.
Life today does not begin at 70, nor does it necessarily end at 70. In fact, the Psalmist seems to me right on target, when concluding, “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him” (Psalm 92:14-15, NIV).
Thus, I will pray, “O Lord, keep me fully alive as long as I live.” And Lord, may it be said of me, as it was said of Washington Gladden, “If he did nothing but just lived his life here where we can catch his spirit, the influence of his presence alone makes it worthwhile.”
From Warner’s World,
its never too soon or too late to leave a good example,
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Hidden Books of the Bible
An old story illustrates the importance of reading the Bible. A certain man and his wife operated a mom and pop grocery market. One day this man, a butcher by trade,left his wife at home while he went to church to hear Charles Spurgeon preach. When her husband arrived back home, the wife casually inquired about the service. Getting no reply, she inquired, “What songs did they sing?”
“I don’t remember,” he mumbled.
She pressed him, “what was his text?”
“I don’t remember,” he insisted.
By this time her curiosity was a little aroused and she launched this parting volley: “Well, what good did it do for you to go to church this morning?”
“What good,” he whispered, “I’ll tell you what good! You know those scales out in the shop that really weigh just fourteen ounces to the pound? Before we open for business in the morning, I’m going to correct those scales to where they weigh a full sixteen ounces to the pound.”
Spurgeon’s Bible homily convicted the operator of that small family meat market. It changed his attitudes. It mended his behavior. It made him a better man, just as it will make better people of you and your family.
That story from the life of Spurgeon gives me the opportunity to play a little game with you. Read the following paragraph and tell me the 16 books of the Bible hidden in the paragraph.
I once made a remark about the hidden books of the Bible. It was a lulu. Kept people looking so hard for the facts; and for others it was a revelation. Some were in a jam, especially since the names of the books were not capitalized, but the truth really struck home to numbers of readers. To others it was a real job. We want it to be a most fascinating few moments for you. Yes, there will be some really easy ones to spot. Others might require a few judges to help them. We will quickly admit it usually takes a minister to find one of them, and there will be a loud lamentations when it’s found. See how well you can compete. Relax now, for there really are sixteen names of books of the Bible in this little story.
From Warner’s World,
I am yours for better living
“I don’t remember,” he mumbled.
She pressed him, “what was his text?”
“I don’t remember,” he insisted.
By this time her curiosity was a little aroused and she launched this parting volley: “Well, what good did it do for you to go to church this morning?”
“What good,” he whispered, “I’ll tell you what good! You know those scales out in the shop that really weigh just fourteen ounces to the pound? Before we open for business in the morning, I’m going to correct those scales to where they weigh a full sixteen ounces to the pound.”
Spurgeon’s Bible homily convicted the operator of that small family meat market. It changed his attitudes. It mended his behavior. It made him a better man, just as it will make better people of you and your family.
That story from the life of Spurgeon gives me the opportunity to play a little game with you. Read the following paragraph and tell me the 16 books of the Bible hidden in the paragraph.
I once made a remark about the hidden books of the Bible. It was a lulu. Kept people looking so hard for the facts; and for others it was a revelation. Some were in a jam, especially since the names of the books were not capitalized, but the truth really struck home to numbers of readers. To others it was a real job. We want it to be a most fascinating few moments for you. Yes, there will be some really easy ones to spot. Others might require a few judges to help them. We will quickly admit it usually takes a minister to find one of them, and there will be a loud lamentations when it’s found. See how well you can compete. Relax now, for there really are sixteen names of books of the Bible in this little story.
From Warner’s World,
I am yours for better living
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Is the Young Man Safe?
IS THE YOUNG MAN SAFE?
As parents and leaders, one of our greatest charges is to help make the way safe for those who follow us. Second Samuel 18:24-33 narrates David’s concern for his rebellious son, Absalom. David had seen many victories, yet when Absalom revolted David left the city wet with tears (2 Samuel 15:30). When David’s men restored law and order by conquering the young rebel, David cried, “Would God I had died in your stead” (2 Samuel 18:33).
Victory brought no consolation. Restored power and wealth lost their value
because David had brought into the world one who had died as a traitor.
As a son of David, Absalom was a prince in Israel. He enjoyed opportunities not available to ordinary people. He exercised power and position; his good looks oozed with personality. What reasons had he to fail and fall?
Second Samuel 13:22 tells us Absalom hated his brother Amnon. This hatred festered for two long years while Absalom plotted revenge and murder (2 Samuel 13:32). Absalom invited David to the feast, but David declined because too busy. In response to Absalom’s urging, David sent Amnon whom Absalom killed. Amnon had not only defiled Absalom’s sister, but as first-born son, he stood in Absalom’s way for the throne.
Absalom was extremely vain. He had a pillar erected in the King’s Valley and called it Absalom’s Monument. Second Samuel 15:4-6 describes undermining the king and stealing the hearts of the people coming to the king for redress. Absalom used his charming personality to win the people. After four years of this farce, Absalom used religion as the needed cloak to disguise his going to Hebron and starting the insurrection.
Our world is full of Absalom’s, who want the shortcut to the throne, who want total control in their own hands. Not content to let power come through normal channels, Absalom needed an ulterior way and seduced the people to revolt.
The world is also full of David’s, fathers who know of a child who wants a shortcut, men who do not consider the possibility of ulterior motives when events appear out of the ordinary--as when Absalom wanted Amnon at his feast.
There are David’s who do not try to soothe a wound as was the case with Absalom living in Jerusalem for four years without seeing his father’s face. With that, Absalom finally set fire to Joab’s field in order to get the dad’s attention!
When David learned of the truth of Absalom’s rebellion, it broke his heart. But it was too late--events were final.
What about your young men and women? Are they safe? Can they follow your example? Are they safe when they worship, drive a car, work, live life the way you do? Have you talked to them about sex? Liquor? Tobacco?
Are vain attractions tangling your young people and leading to their spiritual death even as Absalom’s attraction led to his physical death?
Is your young man safe in church? Absalom went to Hebron on his own to “worship.” He took others with him. It was a veneer to cover his real self.
Is your young man safe in your home? Is he learning the values of praying, tithing, attending church? Will your values lead him to right living and committed service or to an eventual “hanging” in rebellion? Racing away on a mule, Absalom’s long hair got tangled in an Oak tree. Many a person rides a pet mule and eventually gets hung up by something that unexpectedly catches him or her and leaves them dangling. Stubborn running from God’s authority sometimes leads to getting hung up.
How safe is your young person? Do you know something of the goals and plans of your young person? If they follow your example, can they expect to walk in safety and security? How safe are those who follow behind you?
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Thursday, September 16, 2010
What Is a Child?
“I worry” said President Obama, “that even if Michelle and I do our best to impart what we think are important values to our children, the media out there will undermine our lessons and teach them something different.”
That is a legitimate non-political concern for every parent. The other day I took one of my occasional walks downtown. I went first to City Hall, paid my water bill, then headed through the Park to the Post Office. I mailed a couple of bills and turned my face homeward.
As I exited the downtown, I approached a young mother with two small children, waiting at the bus stop. As I drew near, the older of the two looked directly into my eyes with a childish smile. With one hand up to her mouth, she extended the other and discretely waved it back and forth, while looking directly into my face.
Being the Grandpa that I am, I studied her dark eyes filled with sparkle. This unknown Hispanic child of perhaps three, was shyly, cautiously, waving at me. I smiled and responded discreetly, “Well hi, little lady, and how are you?”
The mother mumbled something I did not understand, but I didn’t really care. I was all eyes for this youngster that made my day by befriending a stranger who looked considerably different from her. With that brief locking of eyes, I continued my homeward march, at peace with the world.
The President has a right to worry about his two beautiful girls. I worry about our children no longer being allowed to be children and enjoy the delights of childhood. We press them into our adult moulds so quickly. I worry about the kind of world we are leaving to them, a world that has no real place for childish innocense.
How do people wiser than me view our children?
“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth,“ declared Diogenes.
“We worry,” said Stacia Taucher, about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.”
“Children are not things to be molded,” declared Jess Lair, “but are people to be unfolded.”
“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children,” wrote Hodding Carter, “one is roots; the other, wings.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer grew up as a high-achieving child. Then, somewhere in his Bible studies he determined to spend his life “living Jesus.“ In that role, he countered another high achieving lad who became a paperhanger. However, the times, like ours were restless and resentful, and he took control of Germany's wild political swings and led them down the path of Nazi fascism. While Hitler involved us in a devastating world war, Bonhoeffer helped his compromised church to return to its roots of true faith.
Regarding children, Bonhoeffer said, “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.” To that John Whitehead adds, “Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” Louis Pasteur concluded, “When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become.”
2010 is an educated and sophisticated technocracy where children are “somethings” we sell for profit into sex slavery for the pleasure of perverse devils. A child is merely a youth into whose hands we put a gun and send out to rape and pillage in the name of our tribal war. That neighborhood kid down the street is another somebody entrusted to one of our community’s spiritual guides who, in turn, used our child for selfish sexual pleasures. For others of us, children are the annoyances that get on our nerves--somebody’s nerves, and more times than we dare admit ends up being abused, battered, or killed.
The words attributed to Dorothy L. Law remind us,
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with fear, he learns to be apprehensive.
If a child lives with, he learns to feel sorry for himself.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with jealousy, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns to be confident.
If a child lives with praise, he learns to be appreciative.
If a child lives with acceptance, he learns to love.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with recognition, he learns that it is good to have a goal.
If a child lives with honesty, he learns what truth is.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith in himself and those about him.
If a child lives with friendliness, he learns that the world is a nice place in
which to live.
With what is your child living?
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
From Bottom to Top
Former President, George W. Bush (43), has been out of office long enough now for us to have a candid look at Mr. Obama, as well as evaluate the Iraq war, the unsubscribed debt, the resulting depression and the financial corruption allowed to fester on Wall Street.
Mr. Obama inherited one of the worst messes ever left a White House successor. Consider that Mr. Bush took our nation into war in Iraq as a matter of choice, under false pretenses. He left our troops in harm's way on two far-flung fields of battle. He embraced torture, supporting it as an interrogation tactic, which turned our principle of championing human dignity into becoming an international pariah and an outlaw, rogue nation. To support his war, he borrowed from foreign investors without planning how to pay for it, thereby raising our national debt out of sight, at the same time cutting taxes, which he gave to the upper echelons.
Mr. Bush remained unnecessarily detached, following the customary laizzez faire policies of his party, while the city of New Orleans sank deeper beneath the waters of Katrina. He stood at the helm when the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression took hold, all the while relinquishing governmental controls that made some effort at protecting the public (which he called big government interference).
He went from being the most popular president to becoming the most disappointing president, even squandering his once in a lifetime opportunity to unite the country, and the world, behind a shared peaceful agenda after Sept. 11.
Mr. Bush established a new record for secret government, avoiding the general public while favoring screened audiences that usually agreed with his favored military supporters (he operated a military state). He divided his own political party, leaving what seemed to be a permanent majority status a divided party operating on a principle of “No!“ He politicized both the federal government and the social issues on Main Street. He circumvented the traditional policymaking process by usurping more than the president's share of a shared government; he ignored expert advice and suppressed dissent. Finally, he left us a broken government badly in need of repair.
Whatever history concludes about the forty-third president, Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post could be right when suggesting that America gave Mr. Bush a backhanded compliment for his having created such a hunger for an anti-Bush and for a restoration of pre-Bush American values, that he paved the way for the election of the first African-American president.
Mr. Obama has angered so-called conservatives and special interests by pushing ahead with issues of health reform, in spite of the concerted conservative campaign to “spin” it as Obamania and socialism, portraying those of us who support him as "left field liberals."
Frankly, I find it in the best interest of thinking people everywhere to help Mr. Obama do all he can to heal the divisions that divide us, clean up the messes that Mr. Bush exacerbated, and bring our global family to the parlor for a peace summit.
Following the funeral of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia’s Mr. Putin offered televised remarks in which he commended Mr. Solzhenitsyn: "Through his works and his entire life he inoculated our society against tyranny in all its forms." Mr. Obama has a difficult path ahead of him and I will support him as an outstanding black American, a professed follower of the teachings of Jesus ... as long as he focuses on uniting working Americans in respectful relationships, healthy living, and cooperative efforts at building a better America from bottom to top.
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Mr. Obama inherited one of the worst messes ever left a White House successor. Consider that Mr. Bush took our nation into war in Iraq as a matter of choice, under false pretenses. He left our troops in harm's way on two far-flung fields of battle. He embraced torture, supporting it as an interrogation tactic, which turned our principle of championing human dignity into becoming an international pariah and an outlaw, rogue nation. To support his war, he borrowed from foreign investors without planning how to pay for it, thereby raising our national debt out of sight, at the same time cutting taxes, which he gave to the upper echelons.
Mr. Bush remained unnecessarily detached, following the customary laizzez faire policies of his party, while the city of New Orleans sank deeper beneath the waters of Katrina. He stood at the helm when the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression took hold, all the while relinquishing governmental controls that made some effort at protecting the public (which he called big government interference).
He went from being the most popular president to becoming the most disappointing president, even squandering his once in a lifetime opportunity to unite the country, and the world, behind a shared peaceful agenda after Sept. 11.
Mr. Bush established a new record for secret government, avoiding the general public while favoring screened audiences that usually agreed with his favored military supporters (he operated a military state). He divided his own political party, leaving what seemed to be a permanent majority status a divided party operating on a principle of “No!“ He politicized both the federal government and the social issues on Main Street. He circumvented the traditional policymaking process by usurping more than the president's share of a shared government; he ignored expert advice and suppressed dissent. Finally, he left us a broken government badly in need of repair.
Whatever history concludes about the forty-third president, Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post could be right when suggesting that America gave Mr. Bush a backhanded compliment for his having created such a hunger for an anti-Bush and for a restoration of pre-Bush American values, that he paved the way for the election of the first African-American president.
Mr. Obama has angered so-called conservatives and special interests by pushing ahead with issues of health reform, in spite of the concerted conservative campaign to “spin” it as Obamania and socialism, portraying those of us who support him as "left field liberals."
Frankly, I find it in the best interest of thinking people everywhere to help Mr. Obama do all he can to heal the divisions that divide us, clean up the messes that Mr. Bush exacerbated, and bring our global family to the parlor for a peace summit.
Following the funeral of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia’s Mr. Putin offered televised remarks in which he commended Mr. Solzhenitsyn: "Through his works and his entire life he inoculated our society against tyranny in all its forms." Mr. Obama has a difficult path ahead of him and I will support him as an outstanding black American, a professed follower of the teachings of Jesus ... as long as he focuses on uniting working Americans in respectful relationships, healthy living, and cooperative efforts at building a better America from bottom to top.
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The Danger of Following Jesus
Recently I collected a box of old books from a former pastor friend. Among them was a novel I had not read: The Brother, Dorothy Clarke Wilson. (Phila: Westminster Press, MCMXLIV).
Wanting something different to read the other night, I picked up The Brother and piled up into bed, to read. It explores the life of Jesus, but the main character is James the younger brother of Jesus. Not only did I enjoy my reading, but I came away with a new appreciation of just how dangerous Jesus' teachings are to the status quo in which we seem to be stuck.
The teachings of Jesus pose a powerful threat to the hostility, hatred, and hazardous conditions around the world, which we take for granted as common to our lives.
The author describes the family of Jesus as always finding him different; they never understood him. They just knew he loved and accepted everybody and that he would live his life as he thought he should regardless of what anyone else did or thought.
As the story unfolds, Jesus becomes head of Mary’s household after the untimely death of Joseph. Eventually, James is old enough for the Jerusalem rabbinical school. Although Jesus had planned to attend, he stayed in the carpenter shop and arranged for James to go instead. Five years later James returned home a rigid Pharisee of the school of Shammai, reminiscent of Saul of Tarsus--rabidly radical in defense of Jewish ceremonial Law and without regard for the poor and vulnerable.
When Jesus did begin his ministry, James soon found his Pharisaical legalism conflicting with Jesus. In one instance, Ben Sirach, a student friend of James, sought James help in entrapping Jesus, as the Pharisees did. They discus the strange practices of Jesus.
“Take his attitude toward the Samaritans, for instance,” urges Ben Sirach. “As if it weren’t enough to put up with them in their villages, treat them as equals, he [Jesus] had gone on record as telling one of them that it was unnecessary to go to Jerusalem to worship, that God, being a spirit, could be worshiped anywhere. With such propaganda as that abroad how long would it be before the Jews lost their pride in the pure superiority of their race and, worse yet, refused to pay taxes to the Temple!
“And this insidious doctrine of loving your enemies! It sounded innocent enough on the face of it, but suppose somebody should interpret it as applying to the Romans! Where would the hope of Jewish independence be then. . .”(p. 263 italics added).
A few pages more and James converses with his uncle Clopas. This greedy, hard-nosed, tight-fisted business man would climb over whoever necessary to complete a successful business deal. However, he has been influenced by Jesus and is sharing with James his plans for a new community in Emmaus. He has turned the operation over to his employees and put in charge the brother of the man that was killed through Clopas’ use of inferior materials.
The author describes how “James’ first amazement at this inexplicable behavior on the part of his uncle changed to grim determination. Ben Sirach had been right. A philosophy that could make a man like Clopas not only loosen his purse strings but change his whole way of living was dangerous, indeed. You couldn’t tell where one of its strange ramifications was going to break out next. Before it got through it might upset the whole basic structure of society” (dangerous to the status quo, italics added)!
A culture committed to loving its enemies as Jesus did, could eliminate its enemies by making friends of them. It could produce a non-violent global community that could conceivably eliminate weapons of violence and mass destruction. Such a community could eliminate the need for a Pentagon and Industrial Military Complex and release trillions of dollars for peaceful means, for research and development of legitimate jobs, and the list is ad infinitum.
The religions of the world have produced a plethora of violence, anti-social behavior, and negative thinking. In other words, following Jesus seriously threatens even the religions of the world because. Becoming a follower of Jesus transforms people into peaceful and non-violent cooperative communities, all of which conflicts with the status quo which we currently accept as legitimate.
From Warner’s World,
I am ready for a change in the status quo,
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Wanting something different to read the other night, I picked up The Brother and piled up into bed, to read. It explores the life of Jesus, but the main character is James the younger brother of Jesus. Not only did I enjoy my reading, but I came away with a new appreciation of just how dangerous Jesus' teachings are to the status quo in which we seem to be stuck.
The teachings of Jesus pose a powerful threat to the hostility, hatred, and hazardous conditions around the world, which we take for granted as common to our lives.
The author describes the family of Jesus as always finding him different; they never understood him. They just knew he loved and accepted everybody and that he would live his life as he thought he should regardless of what anyone else did or thought.
As the story unfolds, Jesus becomes head of Mary’s household after the untimely death of Joseph. Eventually, James is old enough for the Jerusalem rabbinical school. Although Jesus had planned to attend, he stayed in the carpenter shop and arranged for James to go instead. Five years later James returned home a rigid Pharisee of the school of Shammai, reminiscent of Saul of Tarsus--rabidly radical in defense of Jewish ceremonial Law and without regard for the poor and vulnerable.
When Jesus did begin his ministry, James soon found his Pharisaical legalism conflicting with Jesus. In one instance, Ben Sirach, a student friend of James, sought James help in entrapping Jesus, as the Pharisees did. They discus the strange practices of Jesus.
“Take his attitude toward the Samaritans, for instance,” urges Ben Sirach. “As if it weren’t enough to put up with them in their villages, treat them as equals, he [Jesus] had gone on record as telling one of them that it was unnecessary to go to Jerusalem to worship, that God, being a spirit, could be worshiped anywhere. With such propaganda as that abroad how long would it be before the Jews lost their pride in the pure superiority of their race and, worse yet, refused to pay taxes to the Temple!
“And this insidious doctrine of loving your enemies! It sounded innocent enough on the face of it, but suppose somebody should interpret it as applying to the Romans! Where would the hope of Jewish independence be then. . .”(p. 263 italics added).
A few pages more and James converses with his uncle Clopas. This greedy, hard-nosed, tight-fisted business man would climb over whoever necessary to complete a successful business deal. However, he has been influenced by Jesus and is sharing with James his plans for a new community in Emmaus. He has turned the operation over to his employees and put in charge the brother of the man that was killed through Clopas’ use of inferior materials.
The author describes how “James’ first amazement at this inexplicable behavior on the part of his uncle changed to grim determination. Ben Sirach had been right. A philosophy that could make a man like Clopas not only loosen his purse strings but change his whole way of living was dangerous, indeed. You couldn’t tell where one of its strange ramifications was going to break out next. Before it got through it might upset the whole basic structure of society” (dangerous to the status quo, italics added)!
A culture committed to loving its enemies as Jesus did, could eliminate its enemies by making friends of them. It could produce a non-violent global community that could conceivably eliminate weapons of violence and mass destruction. Such a community could eliminate the need for a Pentagon and Industrial Military Complex and release trillions of dollars for peaceful means, for research and development of legitimate jobs, and the list is ad infinitum.
The religions of the world have produced a plethora of violence, anti-social behavior, and negative thinking. In other words, following Jesus seriously threatens even the religions of the world because. Becoming a follower of Jesus transforms people into peaceful and non-violent cooperative communities, all of which conflicts with the status quo which we currently accept as legitimate.
From Warner’s World,
I am ready for a change in the status quo,
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Friday, September 10, 2010
Living Love
Our global community would profit greatly by learning to accept, love, encourage, strengthen and help one another. The Bible teaches that peace, unity, and love should be the behavior of Christians as the bride of Christ.
My friend Bill Konstantopoulos suggests, “It is about time we practice what we preach about holiness, unity, love and brotherhood.” He believes we “must learn to hold onto our fellow Christian, because he/she is a member of the family (The God Who Is/ Konstantopoulos/2010).
To make his point, Bill tells this story of Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play major league baseball. While breaking baseball’s ‘color barrier’, Jackie faced sneering crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. His own fans began to ridicule him. He stood at the second base, humiliated, while his fans jeered. Then shortstop “Pee Wee” Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
With that story, Bill concludes thus:
Let’s love one another. Too many of us in our effort to succeed, to promote our program and our ideas, we walk over the body of the saints. This love must be binding between minister and minister, between minister and people, and between people and people. Your joy should be my joy, your concern should be my concern, and your pain should be my pain. You see, we are brothers and sisters and members in the same family. Let it be said of us, “Behold, how they love one another…”
Bill’s point is well taken. The church needs to practice what it preaches, especially within the confines of its own fellowship. But equally important is that we practice it outside of our fellowship. As Jesus suggested, only in this way will people know . . .
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
My friend Bill Konstantopoulos suggests, “It is about time we practice what we preach about holiness, unity, love and brotherhood.” He believes we “must learn to hold onto our fellow Christian, because he/she is a member of the family (The God Who Is/ Konstantopoulos/2010).
To make his point, Bill tells this story of Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play major league baseball. While breaking baseball’s ‘color barrier’, Jackie faced sneering crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. His own fans began to ridicule him. He stood at the second base, humiliated, while his fans jeered. Then shortstop “Pee Wee” Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
With that story, Bill concludes thus:
Let’s love one another. Too many of us in our effort to succeed, to promote our program and our ideas, we walk over the body of the saints. This love must be binding between minister and minister, between minister and people, and between people and people. Your joy should be my joy, your concern should be my concern, and your pain should be my pain. You see, we are brothers and sisters and members in the same family. Let it be said of us, “Behold, how they love one another…”
Bill’s point is well taken. The church needs to practice what it preaches, especially within the confines of its own fellowship. But equally important is that we practice it outside of our fellowship. As Jesus suggested, only in this way will people know . . .
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
On Volunteering
Dr Paul Brand wrote a wonderful book thirty years ago; I enjoyed it enough to keep it. I picked it up again the other day and read this story I thought worth repeating.
Brand wrote about not all of us being called to the front lines, then mentioned some who were called to a more public stage: Mother Teresa, Corrie ten Boom, Billy Graham. He offered a paragraph about the Christian heroes found in Hebrews 11, then recognized that Christians [1980] were under “oppressive regimes are being persecuted for their faith.”
His quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn regarding the “reservoir of suffering” in Russia at that time reminded me that today “Christians under oppressive regimes are being persecuted for their faith.” Stories from Nigeria, Sudan, China, Pakistan, India, and Indonesia daily confirm this "reservoir of suffering" as a fact of 2010.
Then Dr. Brand told this wonderful story out of his own home. I quote him in italics:
I think of my own mother, from a society home in suburban London, who went to India as a missionary. When Granny Brand reached sixty-nine she was told by her mission to retire, and she did … until she found a new range of mountains where no missionary had ever visited. Without her mission’s support she climbed those mountains, built a little wooden shack, and worked another twenty-six years.
Because of a broken hip and creeping paralysis she could only walk with the aid of two bamboo sticks, but on the back of an old horse she rode all over the mountains, a medicine box strapped behind her. She sought out the unwanted and the unlovely, the sick, the maimed, the blind, and brought greatment to them. When she came to settlements who knew her, a great crowd of people would burst out to greet her.
My mother died in 1974 at the age of ninety-five. Poor nutrition and failing health had swollen her joints and made her gaunt and fragile. She had stopped caring about her personal appearance long ago, even refusing to look in a mirror lest she see the effects of her grueling life. She was part of the advance guard, the front line presenting God’s love to deprived people (Fearfully & Wonderfully Made/Brand & Yancey/Zondervan/1980/155-56)
Granny Brand reminds me of my friend Les. Dr. Ratzlaff retired as founding Dean of Florida’s Warner Southern College (now Warner University) in 1983. He died Labor Day 2010, 27 years later. He spent those 27 years as a “professional volunteer” and I deeply admire that.
Sometimes Les could be difficult, like the day down at Lake Wales when he got on the tractor and spent the day pulling stumps, in spite of the protests of younger friends. From the classroom to the grubby, Les could be found helping others. He had already lived a lifetime preaching and teaching, at home and abroad, as a doctor of the church.
The Granny Brand’s and the Leslie Ratzlaff’s along my pathway remind me that when I come to the end of my days here, I want to have invested my life in something far bigger than my own self, my career, and my comfort. Since I’m only going through this reservoir of suffering once, I'm going to do what I can do to make it better for both of us. I believe God put us here to help each other.
Do you remember what Jesus told the lawyer who wanted to know who his neighbor was? He told the Good Samaritan story, then said, "go and do the same" (Luke 10:37).
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Brand wrote about not all of us being called to the front lines, then mentioned some who were called to a more public stage: Mother Teresa, Corrie ten Boom, Billy Graham. He offered a paragraph about the Christian heroes found in Hebrews 11, then recognized that Christians [1980] were under “oppressive regimes are being persecuted for their faith.”
His quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn regarding the “reservoir of suffering” in Russia at that time reminded me that today “Christians under oppressive regimes are being persecuted for their faith.” Stories from Nigeria, Sudan, China, Pakistan, India, and Indonesia daily confirm this "reservoir of suffering" as a fact of 2010.
Then Dr. Brand told this wonderful story out of his own home. I quote him in italics:
I think of my own mother, from a society home in suburban London, who went to India as a missionary. When Granny Brand reached sixty-nine she was told by her mission to retire, and she did … until she found a new range of mountains where no missionary had ever visited. Without her mission’s support she climbed those mountains, built a little wooden shack, and worked another twenty-six years.
Because of a broken hip and creeping paralysis she could only walk with the aid of two bamboo sticks, but on the back of an old horse she rode all over the mountains, a medicine box strapped behind her. She sought out the unwanted and the unlovely, the sick, the maimed, the blind, and brought greatment to them. When she came to settlements who knew her, a great crowd of people would burst out to greet her.
My mother died in 1974 at the age of ninety-five. Poor nutrition and failing health had swollen her joints and made her gaunt and fragile. She had stopped caring about her personal appearance long ago, even refusing to look in a mirror lest she see the effects of her grueling life. She was part of the advance guard, the front line presenting God’s love to deprived people (Fearfully & Wonderfully Made/Brand & Yancey/Zondervan/1980/155-56)
Granny Brand reminds me of my friend Les. Dr. Ratzlaff retired as founding Dean of Florida’s Warner Southern College (now Warner University) in 1983. He died Labor Day 2010, 27 years later. He spent those 27 years as a “professional volunteer” and I deeply admire that.
Sometimes Les could be difficult, like the day down at Lake Wales when he got on the tractor and spent the day pulling stumps, in spite of the protests of younger friends. From the classroom to the grubby, Les could be found helping others. He had already lived a lifetime preaching and teaching, at home and abroad, as a doctor of the church.
The Granny Brand’s and the Leslie Ratzlaff’s along my pathway remind me that when I come to the end of my days here, I want to have invested my life in something far bigger than my own self, my career, and my comfort. Since I’m only going through this reservoir of suffering once, I'm going to do what I can do to make it better for both of us. I believe God put us here to help each other.
Do you remember what Jesus told the lawyer who wanted to know who his neighbor was? He told the Good Samaritan story, then said, "go and do the same" (Luke 10:37).
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Monday, September 6, 2010
The Final Hooding of Dr. Les
The picture shows Dr. Ratzlaff and me visiting sites around Grand Junction that were once the stories in The Book of Noah (Stultz and Welch), published by the Church of God Historical Society. Accompanying Dale Stultz on a tour of Grand Junction in a recent year, Les and I are observing the one-time site of the Gospel Trumpet Company near “where the lightning tracks cross.”
D. S. Warner and Company shipped printed religious materials to the four winds from this railroad intersection that connected him to his world. His rail lines were the “lightning tracks, described in his poem “Innocence.”
We were two friends absorbing as much Church of God history as we could. The picture shows us caught up in some detail of the location, now site of an unfinished Memorial Park and a walking trail beside an abandoned rail line in rural Grand Junction, MI.
Dr. Leslie Ratzlaff was a multifaceted man to say the least. He came from the South Dakota prairies; his uncle Jonas was a lay preacher and Canadian evangelist. Les was Princeton educated, with an Ed.D. This longtime Church of God minister had a heart for missions and the qualifications of an educator, and he gave them all to God.
When I met Les a decade ago, he had been a career missionary, had taught at my Portland alma mater (WPC), and retired as founding Dean at Warner Southern College of Lake Wales, FL after 17 years. He had raised a family, lost a wife (sister to one of my favorite professors, Irene Caldwell), and spent his life serving the church.
This time he was courting, a widow lady I had known as Grace for several decades, a person I admired greatly and dubbed as “Amazing Grace.” My wife and Grace developed a special bond through our years of volunteering at Warner Camp. We listened as she wrestled with herself over Les.
She was competent and happy, fulfilled, had a great family, and satisfying work. We encouraged her to bi-pass marriage with another German who was probably just that - very Germanic. Little did we know! Grace finally agreed to marry this German and we have watched and shared with them for almost eight years now. They were a perfect couple. Les treated Grace with gracious grandeur, as a lady of true grace.
We found so much in common, and Les and I dialogued over Church of God history, church practices, doctrine ... Retired at WSC, he stayed active physically and mentally, volunteering at the Heart Institute, where missionaries learn how to live in third world circumstances. Then, he would come to Grand Junction and do grubby work around camp, change hats and teach, but you best be ready to learn.
I learned to love and admire this gentle scholar, a dozen years my senior. I remember how surprised I was after having an article published in a major religious publication not frequented by most Church of God readers. I received the nicest note of commendation from Dr. Leslie Ratzlaff at the Lake Wales campus; he read my writing with warm appreciation.
Being with Les and Grace at our recent NA Convention in June, and again at Warner Camp in July, we knew Les was losing ground. We read the signs, while he continued as sprightly and energetically as ever. Yesterday word came--terminally ill. Grace was aware; he had held up while coming home from their last trip west, after almost eight years of treating her to many of the things she had always wanted to do but couldn’t.
This morning, Ray Selent Jr called to inform us Les was gone. I quickly sent messages informing friends that Dr Les had graduated from this stage and been eternally hooded at 7:15 this morning, Labor Day Monday. God enriched my life through a decade of friendship with Dr. Leslie Ratzlaff, minister--missionary--educator--volunteer of 27 years.
My WPC friend, former President Jay Barber, put it into terms I could “feel” when he responded to my note informing him of Les’s passage:
I'm very proud and grateful to have Dr. Ratzlaff's signature on my "yellowed" and old diploma! He truly was a great man of God and "heavens gain is our loss".
Yes, you enriched our journey, Les, and it is with sadness that we say “so long for now. We do anticipate time later when we can celebrate together in the presence of our Risen Lord.Maranatha! So come, Lord Jesus!
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Warring on Working People
My core orientation is my evangelical Christian faith, with a Republican twist. I became interested in politics as never before when so many of my Christian friends treated President Bill Clinton with such shabby disdain when he got into trouble with Monnica Lewinski. I found Clinton appealing but in deep trouble. The ferocity of pharisaical and judgmental Christians who fought him with such irrationality totally repelled me and I began reading with new purpose.
Labor Day weekend is a good time for me to mention one of the many books of history, economics and politics that I read: Lou Dobbs , War on the Middleclass, NY, Viking, 2006).
This self-professed conservative Republican reported half of Americans making more than $44,000 and half less (16). In more than forty years of preaching I never made anything like that, but so what … the items I mention in this article are some of the things with which ordinary working folk must deal … things that keep the working man down, while the rich and powerful fill their pockets at other people’s expense, with the help of the legal structures.
Regarding that median of $44,000, Dobbs added, “We have allowed the elites to subvert the principles of free market and a democratic society, and establish the lie that the unfettered growth of our economic system is far more important than the preservation of our political system”(11). Actually, I already knew that!
My reading of the Bible tells me Jesus defended the vulnerable, the impoverished, and the wasted masses. With that in mind, I found much of what Dobb’s criticized in “American life” decidedly unchristian. For example: Dobbs noted:
income increase up 18% for median family income;
up 200% for top 1% of wealthiest (16).
This tells me the system is stacked against the working class, regardless of what the Tea Party says about tea and stuff. I fail to find any American democracy in such and I simply can not understand how good fellow Republicans can support such policies … but they do. At the very least, I credited the bible with condemning this widening gap as unfair and immoral greed.
In a similar vein, Dobbs suggested among greatest dangers as follows:
(1) CEOs et al with millions in stock options, who have become rich on options based on company performance and will maintain at any cost. EXAMPLE: NW Airlines increased Executive Compensation by $2.5 million while the company fought bankruptcy and slashed worker pay. Excuse me; I find this “unconscionable.”
(2) Dobbs referred to George Bush describing - “work Americans won’t do” (a statement I heard Bush make). I challenged it myself but I have to agree with Dobbs when he concludes “we no longer honor honest work” (emphasis added).
In spite of such statements about work we will and won‘t do, I can tell you about my friend who is a converted alcoholic (evangelical Christian). He gets up at 1:00 a.m. every morning and reports for work at 3:00 as a trash truck driver. I know him, I know his story, and I know he is honest, honorable, and hard working.
On the other hand some of the biggest CEO increases, reports Dobbs, are up to 200% (on Defense Contracts) - people who are “getting rich at our expense” from the government‘s “Just War” philosophy. Under Joseph Stalin or Adolph Hitler I could accept that, but it is indefensible in America.
Dobbs reported K-Mart filing bankruptcy in 2002. Yet, CEO Chuck Conley received $9.5 million in severance while laying off 22,000 workers without severance. A similar story happened at Polaroid and I find these inexcusable and contrary to what made America great. Makes for great celebration on Labor Day!
Now, while both political parties seem to agree in theory with Dobbs that reforms are needed, yet Dobbs reports “the U.S. cannot be healthy while lobbyists influence the laws, [and] the fact remains that the public cannot get beyond the politicians to make the necessary reforms. In actual practice, 62 Lobbyists registered in 1968, as Lobbyists, whereas today we have 34,000, including 2,390 former public officials + 240 Congressmen. This prompts Dobbs (and many others of us) to believe that we have the best government that our money can buy (cf. Bush, Abrahamoff et al). Speaking of our “culture of corruption“ ...I say we need to take back our government!
The President of the Chamber of Commerce told Dobbs, “We’re spending money so that the government doesn’t put so many impediments in the way that we kill the goose that laid the golden egg” (42). Do you wonder that that made my blood boil just a few degrees? Yet, Glen Beck and others have the audacity to call President Obama a socialist, and worse.
Speaking of Corporate America, Dobbs reported that 50 years ago corporation taxes paid 1/3 of federal revenue; today 1/8. Simultaneously, the Middle Class pays roughly half of all Federal Taxes. But get this: according to Citizens for Tax Justice, the largest 275 US Corporations dropped 1/5 over past 3 years (2004) from 21.4% in 2001 to 17.3% in 2003. They reported pretaxes of near $1.1 trillion but paid only $557 billion.
Mr Raymond, CEO at Exxon Mobile told Congress, (one of those poor Oil companies), “We’re all in this together all over the world.” His 13-year compensation as chair & CEO was $l44,573 per day, with the following additional benefits:
+ retirement package approximately $400 million,
+ stock options, pension, personal and home security,
+ $1 million consulting contract,
+ use of corporate jet
+ other perks (25-26).
Now, even I can understand that these issues involve “corporate welfare,” whether the company makes money or not. Yet, my neighbor (a Rush Limbaugh fan) supports a Republican candidate who hopes to return to office so he can vote out Social Security and slash Welfare fraud. My friends from the far right speak repeatedly of Obamania and use words like “socialism” and define “social justice” as Christian code words for liberalism and socialism.
At the time Dobbs wrote his book, CEOs had been paid an aggregate of $865 million in compensation during the five prior years (CEOs of AT&T, BellSouth, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Lucent, Merck, Pfizer, Safeway, Time Warner, Verizon & Walmart) while shareholders lost $640 billion.
Some of us are asking questions; some of us want change. I ask you: should a CEO be paid as much as the market will bear;
18% for median family income;
up 200% for top 1% of wealthiest (16).
When does the working man get an equal opportunity?
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Labor Day weekend is a good time for me to mention one of the many books of history, economics and politics that I read: Lou Dobbs , War on the Middleclass, NY, Viking, 2006).
This self-professed conservative Republican reported half of Americans making more than $44,000 and half less (16). In more than forty years of preaching I never made anything like that, but so what … the items I mention in this article are some of the things with which ordinary working folk must deal … things that keep the working man down, while the rich and powerful fill their pockets at other people’s expense, with the help of the legal structures.
Regarding that median of $44,000, Dobbs added, “We have allowed the elites to subvert the principles of free market and a democratic society, and establish the lie that the unfettered growth of our economic system is far more important than the preservation of our political system”(11). Actually, I already knew that!
My reading of the Bible tells me Jesus defended the vulnerable, the impoverished, and the wasted masses. With that in mind, I found much of what Dobb’s criticized in “American life” decidedly unchristian. For example: Dobbs noted:
income increase up 18% for median family income;
up 200% for top 1% of wealthiest (16).
This tells me the system is stacked against the working class, regardless of what the Tea Party says about tea and stuff. I fail to find any American democracy in such and I simply can not understand how good fellow Republicans can support such policies … but they do. At the very least, I credited the bible with condemning this widening gap as unfair and immoral greed.
In a similar vein, Dobbs suggested among greatest dangers as follows:
(1) CEOs et al with millions in stock options, who have become rich on options based on company performance and will maintain at any cost. EXAMPLE: NW Airlines increased Executive Compensation by $2.5 million while the company fought bankruptcy and slashed worker pay. Excuse me; I find this “unconscionable.”
(2) Dobbs referred to George Bush describing - “work Americans won’t do” (a statement I heard Bush make). I challenged it myself but I have to agree with Dobbs when he concludes “we no longer honor honest work” (emphasis added).
In spite of such statements about work we will and won‘t do, I can tell you about my friend who is a converted alcoholic (evangelical Christian). He gets up at 1:00 a.m. every morning and reports for work at 3:00 as a trash truck driver. I know him, I know his story, and I know he is honest, honorable, and hard working.
On the other hand some of the biggest CEO increases, reports Dobbs, are up to 200% (on Defense Contracts) - people who are “getting rich at our expense” from the government‘s “Just War” philosophy. Under Joseph Stalin or Adolph Hitler I could accept that, but it is indefensible in America.
Dobbs reported K-Mart filing bankruptcy in 2002. Yet, CEO Chuck Conley received $9.5 million in severance while laying off 22,000 workers without severance. A similar story happened at Polaroid and I find these inexcusable and contrary to what made America great. Makes for great celebration on Labor Day!
Now, while both political parties seem to agree in theory with Dobbs that reforms are needed, yet Dobbs reports “the U.S. cannot be healthy while lobbyists influence the laws, [and] the fact remains that the public cannot get beyond the politicians to make the necessary reforms. In actual practice, 62 Lobbyists registered in 1968, as Lobbyists, whereas today we have 34,000, including 2,390 former public officials + 240 Congressmen. This prompts Dobbs (and many others of us) to believe that we have the best government that our money can buy (cf. Bush, Abrahamoff et al). Speaking of our “culture of corruption“ ...I say we need to take back our government!
The President of the Chamber of Commerce told Dobbs, “We’re spending money so that the government doesn’t put so many impediments in the way that we kill the goose that laid the golden egg” (42). Do you wonder that that made my blood boil just a few degrees? Yet, Glen Beck and others have the audacity to call President Obama a socialist, and worse.
Speaking of Corporate America, Dobbs reported that 50 years ago corporation taxes paid 1/3 of federal revenue; today 1/8. Simultaneously, the Middle Class pays roughly half of all Federal Taxes. But get this: according to Citizens for Tax Justice, the largest 275 US Corporations dropped 1/5 over past 3 years (2004) from 21.4% in 2001 to 17.3% in 2003. They reported pretaxes of near $1.1 trillion but paid only $557 billion.
Mr Raymond, CEO at Exxon Mobile told Congress, (one of those poor Oil companies), “We’re all in this together all over the world.” His 13-year compensation as chair & CEO was $l44,573 per day, with the following additional benefits:
+ retirement package approximately $400 million,
+ stock options, pension, personal and home security,
+ $1 million consulting contract,
+ use of corporate jet
+ other perks (25-26).
Now, even I can understand that these issues involve “corporate welfare,” whether the company makes money or not. Yet, my neighbor (a Rush Limbaugh fan) supports a Republican candidate who hopes to return to office so he can vote out Social Security and slash Welfare fraud. My friends from the far right speak repeatedly of Obamania and use words like “socialism” and define “social justice” as Christian code words for liberalism and socialism.
At the time Dobbs wrote his book, CEOs had been paid an aggregate of $865 million in compensation during the five prior years (CEOs of AT&T, BellSouth, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Lucent, Merck, Pfizer, Safeway, Time Warner, Verizon & Walmart) while shareholders lost $640 billion.
Some of us are asking questions; some of us want change. I ask you: should a CEO be paid as much as the market will bear;
18% for median family income;
up 200% for top 1% of wealthiest (16).
When does the working man get an equal opportunity?
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Friday, September 3, 2010
Kerosene Lamps vs Electricity
A night employee at East Tennessee Norris Dam saw the warming glow of kerosene lanterns in the cabins across the lake. Puzzled by this paradox of primitive lighting within the shadows of the great hydro-electric dam, he learned that although the residents lived within the shadows of the large and powerful dam, they had no transmission lines by which to receive electric power.
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus empowers God’s heavenly generating plant. Through Jesus, we connect to the power plant of the universe. Living without Jesus offers the paradox of life across from Norris dam--without benefit from the dam‘s electrical power--a kerosene lantern.
When the disciples of Jesus walked with him daily, they quickly discovered his power line. Watching him, they realized the frailty of their fragile humanity and asked that he teach them to pray. . .“ (Luke 11:1 NKJV).
This should not surprise either of us. Being with him early and late, they saw the frequency of his prayers. They heard him pray, early and late. They recognized the strength He gained; they saw how it fortified Him for public encounters that drain the juice from one’s battery. Nor, did they miss the positive changes that came in people’s lives when He prayed for them.
These disciples were ordinary Jewish men, but Jewish men were different from most Gentile men. They knew about pride, idolatry, and disobedience. They were well-taught in Hebrew wisdom, having learned the sacred writings from boyhood. By custom they prayed three times a day and understood the barriers to prayer.
When Jesus prayed, however, they felt their frailty and self-dependence. They compared the worth of His personal experience with the embellishments of those lukewarm Pharisees with their impassioned prayers on the public street-corner.
I don’t not wonder that they insisted He teach them “to pray” (Luke 11:1). When Jesus prayed, they saw the sunrise of a new day and felt the fresh anointing. The further they went with Him, the wider became the horizon of their transformed lives, altered circumstances, and deepening trust.
The greater presence of the Heavenly Father, fired their desire for greater intimacy with Him; help us to pray as you pray, they insisted.
We too long for that renewing likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29). We yearn for solitude, where we can confess Him as Lord and share His presence! Thus, we pray:
“Make us more usable today than yesterday. Guide our words. Use our thoughts and actions to express your will in our lives. Fortify us to bear witness to your living presence. In our preoccupation with our own needs, open our busy eyes and ears; help us hear the lonely, and see the needy. Clear our clogged channels of communication. Empower us to lift the burdens of the over-burdened and friendless.
“We want your approval more than we wish for fame and fortune. Use us to your glory--for as much, or as little as you will. We give you our best--just as we are--whenever you call. Guide us through it all, we pray in the powerful name of Jesus.”
Or, as Albert Reitz voiced it so well,
"Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray--
This is my heart cry day unto day;
I long to know Thy will and thy way--
Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray." 1
From Warner’s World, we are
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
_____
1 PRAISE! Our Songs and Hymns, Ed. By Norman Peterson. (Grand Rapids: Singspiration Music, 1979 ), “Teach Me To Pray” by Albert S. Reitz, p. 409.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Meeting People Needs
I have long understood that if you meet people needs you will experience church growth; Robert Schuller taught me that. Once again, I suggest that we the American people need to return to renewed diplomacy that seeks a peaceful and productive society for everyone. That includes moving away from simply self-positioning ourselves for our own global benefits as Americans. It also implies moving away from diplomatic and economic concepts that justify the legality of war.
Even The U.S. Army Marine Corp Counter-insurgency Field Manual understands this, and I quote: taking care of the needs of people is a tactic in fighting insurgents. This counterinsurgency doctrine proceeds from several paradoxes, one of which claims: “some of the best weapons for counterinsurgents do not shoot” (49). Dollars and ballots become the weapons of choice. The manual says that “a vibrant economy, political participation and restored hope” are the best ways to combat insurgents.
General Petraeus reportedly is using a current new book titled Stones Into Schools to teach this concept to his troops in Afghanistan.“Taking care of the needs of people,” as the Marine Corp Manual describes it, is more than a “tactic in fighting insurgents.” It is the basic concept fundamental to global peace. As such, it is arbitrarily contrary to the current concept of “reasonable justification of war.” Meeting the people needs and recognizing the common good eliminates our needs for violence and the standing armies supported by a huge military-industrial complex supporting the current Pentagon.
Economic development, democracy, human rights, and religious liberty, all form sustainable peace principles that are most readily justified by reason and common sense. These are all capabilities that our military forces readily admit they cannot provide. It will be argued that the Military secures the conditions whereby we can work out diplomatic solutions. It can, however, also be argued that the Military creates more problems than it resolves, and that it only provides an economic security for a certain portion of our culture.
It can be further argued, with even better reasoning, that we need to prioritize both non-governmental organizations and inter-governmental organizations, to work on the ground in conflict situations to help initiate such principles. I would argue that had our diplomacy from World War One to the present treated “everyone” more fairly (rather than special interests), and had the focus been on economics, democracy, human rights, and religious liberty, we could have avoided much of the military conflict of the past sixty-five years.
As outlined in the Marine Manual, counterinsurgency understands the influence of nonmilitary leaders and of extra governmental leaders in conflict situations. Business people, religious leaders – including lay leaders – media people, and elders of families help the community interpret current events. These are often closest to the hearts and minds of the masses.
For the immediate, what would happen if our global inter-religious peacemaking groups did work on the ground with local people to teach conflict resolution, help organize groups to build a strong civil society, to work on issues of local economic development, and to create truth and reconciliation commissions. What if the current military would actually focus on Mortenson’s theme of Stones Into Schools, and begin educating third world children in all the ways of conflict resolution, local economic development, and human dignity?
I was appalled when I heard President Bush (43) disparage “nation building.” I noticed also that the majority of his photo ops offered a military setting. All he did was parade himself as a "military jock" and make our economic “Military machine” more profitable, yet I cannot overlook the military statements admitting peace is beyond the use of force.
I also remember hearing Osama bin ladin justify Islamic Jihad against the “invader” in protest against foreign troops on Islamic soil. That whole syndrome could have been initially avoided by utilizing “real peace-makers” rather than justifying military force on our part and parading it around the world.
NEVER has America attempted a Peace Department; it has always, rationalized the necessity of a standing army and sought peace through violence, insisting that when reconciliation is necessary, only the military can/will do it. History shows 65 years of military build-up since World War Two brought neither the desired world peace nor homeland security; rather it left a trail littered with casualties, debts, and broken relationships.
Now, we have powerful forces in our country holding a “vested economic interest” in continued military buildup and sales of armaments. Defense industries they are called, but such thinking must be exposed for what it really is: mythological and irrational thinking that although highly profitable is illegitimate and devastating to the cause of global peace, not to mention greedy. It did produce the greatest prosperity the U.S. has ever known, but it also contributed to third world impoverishment in several ways.
One of the founders of Hamas spoke of his early life when as a boy he wanted to be a surgeon. It was the 1960s but he was already a refugee, without dignity and without hope. There was no humiliating blockade then. Now he asks (following decades of imprisonment, killing, statelessness and impoverishment), “What peace can there be if there is no dignity first? And where does [human] dignity come from if not from justice?”
When I look at the people in our world today; I wonder, knowing my own impatience, were I in his place, and subjected to as much as he and many others are, would I also have become a terrorist demanding attention from overwhelming forces against which I was helpless to protest otherwise?
I would argue that if had we worked from a basis of peace-makings, rather than justifying (rationalizing) force as we have done, we would all be living in a far different world than what we currently do. We have created many of our own problems, while blaming everyone else
I for one no longer have money, time, nor energy to waste contributing to an American system that faithfully supports the existing power structures. I am totally dissatisfied with maintaining the status quo and leaving the rich and powerful with their political--economic--military agenda in tact while we remain their patriotic subjects. I love America, but the differences between America and Afghanistan are only relative; neither nation has pure motives, both are filled with greed and corruption, and like all nations, we want to be King of the Mountain.
I cannot really quarrel with Foreign Minister al-Zahar when he claims “History teaches us that everything is in flux. Our fight to redress the material crimes of 1948 is scarcely begun, and adversity has taught us patience. As for the Israeli state and its Spartan culture of permanent war, it is all too vulnerable to time, fatigue and demographics: In the end, it is always a question of our children and those who come after us.”
No telling how many others feel that same way; yet, I hear the Prophet Isaiah crying out for attention and asking: Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord? Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from our own flesh (Isaiah 58).
Our insistent irrationality recalls the words of the Wiseman of Ecclesiasstes: Madness is in their hearts while they live … How God must grieve.
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Even The U.S. Army Marine Corp Counter-insurgency Field Manual understands this, and I quote: taking care of the needs of people is a tactic in fighting insurgents. This counterinsurgency doctrine proceeds from several paradoxes, one of which claims: “some of the best weapons for counterinsurgents do not shoot” (49). Dollars and ballots become the weapons of choice. The manual says that “a vibrant economy, political participation and restored hope” are the best ways to combat insurgents.
General Petraeus reportedly is using a current new book titled Stones Into Schools to teach this concept to his troops in Afghanistan.“Taking care of the needs of people,” as the Marine Corp Manual describes it, is more than a “tactic in fighting insurgents.” It is the basic concept fundamental to global peace. As such, it is arbitrarily contrary to the current concept of “reasonable justification of war.” Meeting the people needs and recognizing the common good eliminates our needs for violence and the standing armies supported by a huge military-industrial complex supporting the current Pentagon.
Economic development, democracy, human rights, and religious liberty, all form sustainable peace principles that are most readily justified by reason and common sense. These are all capabilities that our military forces readily admit they cannot provide. It will be argued that the Military secures the conditions whereby we can work out diplomatic solutions. It can, however, also be argued that the Military creates more problems than it resolves, and that it only provides an economic security for a certain portion of our culture.
It can be further argued, with even better reasoning, that we need to prioritize both non-governmental organizations and inter-governmental organizations, to work on the ground in conflict situations to help initiate such principles. I would argue that had our diplomacy from World War One to the present treated “everyone” more fairly (rather than special interests), and had the focus been on economics, democracy, human rights, and religious liberty, we could have avoided much of the military conflict of the past sixty-five years.
As outlined in the Marine Manual, counterinsurgency understands the influence of nonmilitary leaders and of extra governmental leaders in conflict situations. Business people, religious leaders – including lay leaders – media people, and elders of families help the community interpret current events. These are often closest to the hearts and minds of the masses.
For the immediate, what would happen if our global inter-religious peacemaking groups did work on the ground with local people to teach conflict resolution, help organize groups to build a strong civil society, to work on issues of local economic development, and to create truth and reconciliation commissions. What if the current military would actually focus on Mortenson’s theme of Stones Into Schools, and begin educating third world children in all the ways of conflict resolution, local economic development, and human dignity?
I was appalled when I heard President Bush (43) disparage “nation building.” I noticed also that the majority of his photo ops offered a military setting. All he did was parade himself as a "military jock" and make our economic “Military machine” more profitable, yet I cannot overlook the military statements admitting peace is beyond the use of force.
I also remember hearing Osama bin ladin justify Islamic Jihad against the “invader” in protest against foreign troops on Islamic soil. That whole syndrome could have been initially avoided by utilizing “real peace-makers” rather than justifying military force on our part and parading it around the world.
NEVER has America attempted a Peace Department; it has always, rationalized the necessity of a standing army and sought peace through violence, insisting that when reconciliation is necessary, only the military can/will do it. History shows 65 years of military build-up since World War Two brought neither the desired world peace nor homeland security; rather it left a trail littered with casualties, debts, and broken relationships.
Now, we have powerful forces in our country holding a “vested economic interest” in continued military buildup and sales of armaments. Defense industries they are called, but such thinking must be exposed for what it really is: mythological and irrational thinking that although highly profitable is illegitimate and devastating to the cause of global peace, not to mention greedy. It did produce the greatest prosperity the U.S. has ever known, but it also contributed to third world impoverishment in several ways.
One of the founders of Hamas spoke of his early life when as a boy he wanted to be a surgeon. It was the 1960s but he was already a refugee, without dignity and without hope. There was no humiliating blockade then. Now he asks (following decades of imprisonment, killing, statelessness and impoverishment), “What peace can there be if there is no dignity first? And where does [human] dignity come from if not from justice?”
When I look at the people in our world today; I wonder, knowing my own impatience, were I in his place, and subjected to as much as he and many others are, would I also have become a terrorist demanding attention from overwhelming forces against which I was helpless to protest otherwise?
I would argue that if had we worked from a basis of peace-makings, rather than justifying (rationalizing) force as we have done, we would all be living in a far different world than what we currently do. We have created many of our own problems, while blaming everyone else
I for one no longer have money, time, nor energy to waste contributing to an American system that faithfully supports the existing power structures. I am totally dissatisfied with maintaining the status quo and leaving the rich and powerful with their political--economic--military agenda in tact while we remain their patriotic subjects. I love America, but the differences between America and Afghanistan are only relative; neither nation has pure motives, both are filled with greed and corruption, and like all nations, we want to be King of the Mountain.
I cannot really quarrel with Foreign Minister al-Zahar when he claims “History teaches us that everything is in flux. Our fight to redress the material crimes of 1948 is scarcely begun, and adversity has taught us patience. As for the Israeli state and its Spartan culture of permanent war, it is all too vulnerable to time, fatigue and demographics: In the end, it is always a question of our children and those who come after us.”
No telling how many others feel that same way; yet, I hear the Prophet Isaiah crying out for attention and asking: Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord? Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from our own flesh (Isaiah 58).
Our insistent irrationality recalls the words of the Wiseman of Ecclesiasstes: Madness is in their hearts while they live … How God must grieve.
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
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