History
Bonnie & Clyde and Art…75th Anniversary

The 1967 movie about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow was a sentimental, glossy Hollywood anti-hero flick that did not tell the real story of the two West Dallas bank robbers who went on a crime spree on back road America in the 1930s. But, Arthur Penn was not alone in creating the legend of Bonnie & Clyde. The newspapers of the day were so full of embellishment of the couple that they had earned a Robin Hood reputation with the public. It was, after all, the Depression and bank foreclosures, evictions and bank failures were commonplace [Sound familiar?]. They were striking back at the rich in the eyes of many.

But, it all changed 75 years ago tomorrow, April 1, 1934. Two Texas Highway Patrol motorcycle officers wandered upon the car of the pair outside Grapevine, TX. Bonnie & Clyde had a revolving door of accomplices during their crime spree and at this time, Henry Metvin was their partner in crime. Metvin was in the vehicle with the couple. In a gunfight that ensued when the officers approached the car, Metvin killed the first officer at pointblank range. The second officer was wounded and Metvin alighted from the car, stood over the officer and fired several more rounds into his prone body killing him. A false account had Bonnie firing the final, fatal shoots into H.D. Murphy who was to be married in a few weeks. The press and the public quickly turned on the couple.

Fifty three days later, after weeks of hunting down the couple, on May 23, 1934, a posse of lawmen, lead by Frank Hamer, ambushed Bonnie & Clyde on a dirt road in Louisiana. The car, with bodies still inside, was towed to Arcadia, LA, for public display. Bonnie Parker died in a hail of gunfire at 23. Clyde Barrow was 24. So, their lives ended 75 years ago in the violent fashion their public lives began

At the same time another man in his twenties was beginning a less spectacular and non-public career. 75 years ago, a young teacher in Clearfield, PA, started scholastic wrestling at the local high school. Art Weiss commenced a wrestling program that has produced lasted and thrived for ¾ of a century. He coached 14 undefeated teams and had 31 state champions more than any other coach in PA high school wrestling history. And, not only that, he has had a positive influence on several generations of young men. He has helped develop thousands of boys into men, teaching them lessons of wrestling and life. Unlike Bonnie & Clyde he did not squander his life. He lives today at the age of 100.

Art Weiss, while not notorious, has been recognized for a lifetime of achievement. He has been inducted into virtually every amateur coaching and wrestling hall of fame that he could be. It culminated with being inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame in 1991 along with national coaching legends Tom Landry and John Wooden. Not that you would know it as he lives as he always has as a humble and gracious man. He has poured his life into young people living by the principles of his Christian faith. His has been a life well lived. Seventy five years ago he made a commitment to better the lives of others through wrestling. He did not opt for a self-indulgent life as did Bonnie & Clyde. His was an effort to better and help others during the same Depression that the bank robbing pair, through crime and murder, tried to help themselves. Their program ended in death to them; Art’s brought life and hope to others.

So, in the coming days and months, if you are reminded of the 75th anniversary of Bonnie & Clyde, remember another 75th anniversary. One of construction not destruction; one of quiet, selfless contribution not brazen public displays of criminality; one that lives on in the lives of many, not dead on a rural dirt road, the life and legacy of Art Weiss.

Obamanomics
GM-USA

We are all familiar with government bailouts since last fall. Along with the stimulus spending, our children, their children and their children’s children will be saddled with debt without benefit except saving a system now owned and controlled by the US government. Now, the US government is going into the car business. That should be a comfort. Last Friday they ousted GM’s CEO because his plan did not go far enough to save GM in the opinion of the Obama Car Czar Committee. Is this not the same government that is running a bankrupt postal department? Interestingly, the same government poured untold billions into the banking system without ousting any executives. Maybe running car companies is easier that running banks for bureaucrats. My only anticdoatoal evidence of government cars is when I was in Germany a couple years ago. I saw the last few of the East German cars, and they were not prized antiques. They were sitting in fields and yards rusting away to nothing.

It would be nice to understand the “plan” the Obama administration has to make all this bailing, spending and now firing work together to right the economic ship that is listing and taking in sea water. I cannot escape the notion that they are making this stuff up as they go while trying to placate the Democrat legislators who what to spend more than Bush to ensure their re-election for years to come.

The nice thing for politicians is that they do not have to meet a payroll and make a profit. All they need to do is get re-elected. And, those things are mutually exclusive. As the government becomes more involved in business and the taxpayers are the shareholders what will happen?. Maybe all our politicians will have to stand for re-election each year as boards of these companies. That way, everyone in the US would be able to vote on everyone. There would be no more save districts. Wouldn’t it be fun to vote on whether Barney and Chris should return to their positions every year instead of leaving that up to citizens in MA and CN?

Obamanomics gets stranger and stranger as the months roll past. They are doing things that will finally put them past the “Bush caused this problem” response. Telling GM to get new management and Chrysler to merge in 30 days is ambitious and novel ways to merge government with business. Lets say this all happens. What modifications in the business plan of US automakers will be satisfactory to the policy folk in DC? How many more billions will be poured into those compliant with Big Brother? What happens if government managed autos does not solve the problem? US automakers are not competitive. Until they are, they are doomed to failure, with or without government dollars. Does anyone seriously think the government can “plan” successful automaking?

The marketplace has spoken but Obamanomics is not about the marketplace. The real question is whether Obamanomics is anything more that ad hoc solutions to keep things going until BO can be re-elected so that his big plans for education, health care and generating power can be put in place. GM-USA may just be a foretaste of what is to come.

Escape From Reason
Good Use of Reason

Man in neo-orthodox theology is less than fallen man. The Reformation and the Scriptures say that man cannot do anything to save himself, but he can, with his reason search the Scriptures which teach not only “religious truth” but also history and the cosmos. He not only is able to search the Scriptures as the whole man, including his reason, but he has the responsibility to do so.
Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason

Global Warming
Growing Cold

One of the controversial portions of the Obama Budget is the “cap and trade” for carbon emissions. Regardless of how that is to work, the entire process is built upon the idea of global warming from man made emissions of greenhouse gases. Although the Taliban of global warming is ferocious in holding on to the gw orthodoxy, cracks are beginning to show. Skeptics are being heard in public.

In September Brazil experienced on of their latest winter snowfalls and their coldest September in a century. Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart pointed out that extreme cold and snowfall occurs in Brazil from la Ninas as well as periods of solar inactivity. August 2008 was the first month since 1913 with NO sunspot activity was recorded. Dr. Hackbart believes it “is no coincidence” that lack of solar activity enhanced the cold. So, one could ask, was unending solar activity of the past 70 years be the basis of temperature increase?

Other voices now heard include Don Easterbrook, a geologist from Western Washington University, confirms Hackbart through studying warming and cooling of the earth over the past four centuries. He believes that there is almost a exact correlation between solar activity and climate change and is convinced that we are in for 30 years of global cooling. Analytical chemist Michael J. Myers calls man made global warming “junk science” declaring that worldwide CO2 emissions on a yearly basis only equals about 0.0168% of the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Craig Loehle an American scientist who conducts modeling on climate change, confirmed earlier findings of the Medieval Warm Period that disputes the hockey stick idea of recent only global temperature increase. Studies of physical phenomena have confirmed that the period from 800 to 1300 AD was unusually warm, especially in Northern Europe.

But perhaps the biggest blow to gw was the paper of David Douglas and John Christy. For almost 30 years Christy has monitored the daily temperature readings of NASA’s 8 weather satellites. The authors conclude that manmade emissions may have a slight impact, the global temperature variations in global temperatures since 1978…cannot be attributed to carbon dioxide.” In using data from their paper, it appears that all the temperature increases of the past 30 years have be neutralized by the falling temperatures of the last 4! Not what the gw crowd wants to hear.

But, the gw crowd is not silenced by this flattening temperature issue. They acknowledge that there is no answer to the apparent cooling. Kyle Swanson of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is nevertheless undaunted by the thesis that man made gw is a problem. What is causing the cooling is a mystery and Swanson thinks it may continue for up to 30 years. Yet, he says it’s just a hiccup and "When the climate kicks back out of this state, we'll have explosive warming. Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will return and be very aggressive."

What the gw forces reason is that all this gw is being stored up, although not reflected in our current climate. And, the day is coming when it will all be unleashed upon the earth with a rapid temperature climb that will bring the devastation promised with the inexorable march of temperatures upward that is no longer present! Wow. Sounds like something for the SciFi channel. This is what mother would say is “having your cake and eating it too.” If temperatures rise…we were right; if temperatures fall…we are still right…just wait and see. Is this a position upon which to erect public policy?

We may look back on 2008 as a watershed year in the gw debate. The consensus of gw may have finally been exposed for what is wasn’t…a consensus. Much of the dogma of gw advanced out of fear of opposition to the political correctness of the notion of man made gw. Many respectable scientists are now coming forward to question a theory based on computer modeling and now without proof of its ongoing nature. From a political standpoint, the costly “cap and trade” carbon tax needed to save the planet may not have the stamina to carry the day. Why should costly government policy be based on faulty science from incorrect premises?

The world wide financial crisis is also a problem for gw advocates. There is no reason to enter into expensive and costly programs at a time when people cannot afford them. Withdrawal from a foreign oil addiction is a worthy goal for national security purposes…we should not be enriching our enemies by buying their oil. But, to tie that together with gw to race to unproven technologies that can only supply a fraction of the energy we need is just ludicrous. In the US we will be generating electricity with coal and powering our motor vehicles with oil based products for years to come, no matter the initiatives adopted. Yes, we can and should look to alternative energy, but over a 30 year not 10 year period. And, if we have a 30 year cold snap, we may all conclude that gw has grown cold. Except, that is, for the gws [global warming storage] guys of whom there will be few, if any, left [no pun intended!].

Pastoral Principles
Declare the Whole Counsel of God

Declare the whole counsel of God. Paul says that because he declared the whole counsel of God, the lack of faith in Jesus Christ by any of the Ephesians is not his problem, he is innocent of their blood. Great, but what is the negative implication of that statement. A pastor who fails to proclaim the whole counsel of God is responsible for those in his care who have not heard from him the “whole counsel of God”. Need I make the point that such an attitude is missing in the contemporary church today? Paul did not shrink from declaring the entire scope of redemptive history. That is, the truth about who man is, who God is, what God has done and how we are to live as His children. You know what the Biblical and theological principles are. So…declare them. Do not shrink from declaring the difficult parts, including sin. We are where Paul told Timothy we would be: people have itching ears, accumulating teachers to suit their own passions turning away from the truth. Whether Westminster wants to hear it or not: Declare the whole counsel of God! You have been called to this church as its Pastor. If you do these four things: serve with humility and tears; proclaim repentance and faith in Christ; make testifying to the Gospel the priority in your life and declare the whole counsel of God, at the end of your ministry you too will be able to say the blood of the members of Westminster PCA is not on your hands because you have been faithful to your call and to your Lord as the pastor here.

Pastoral Principles
A Life Testifying to God

Understand your life to be testifying to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are a son, brother, husband, father, pastor and fellow pilgrim. The call the Lord has placed in your life is to be a minister of the Word and the Sacraments. Paul says his life was about testifying to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You must make that your life not just in title but in practice. Being a pastor is not just you life’s work, it must be the passion of your life. Paul speaks to his passion in Phil 3. Always keep a marker in your Bible there. When you feel drained, discouraged, put upon, rejected and generally useless as a pastor, read Phil 3. I know, I know, there are those who say oh Paul was probably not married, he did not have “my 3 daughters”, he did not live in this pressure cooker we call now. Pulezzeeee! Put a marker in 2 Cor 11 so you can be reminded of Paul’s sufferings. The trials and pressures of your life are nothing like those of Paul. Remember this rock; your girls do. It is from Lystra. It is the kind of rock used to stone Paul on his first visit to Lystra [He returned twice!] when he was taken to the outskirts of town and left for dead. So, unless I hear the folks in Butler stone you and drag you out of town to be left to die, I don’t want to hear that you life as a pastor is more difficult than Paul’s was. Remember, the priority in your life is testifying to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and if you do, you will also be an outstanding son, brother, husband, father, pastor and fellow pilgrim.

Pastoral Principles
Repentance and Faith

Proclaim to all people, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. If you read the account of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus in Acts 19, you see him preaching in synagogues, the lecture hall of Tyrannus and in homes. His ministry was an outreach everywhere to all people…public and private. When he speaks of his testimony or proclamation, it occurs not just in one place. So, also, you must take your proclamation outside the walls of this church.

And notice he makes it clear what he proclaimed: Repentance and faith. Aren’t you sick of what passes for repentance in our culture? “I’m sorry.” Or more correctly, “I’m sorry I was caught.” Repentance that Paul proclaimed was not bad feelings, an emotional catharsis and shame. That may very well be the reaction of a sinner. But, that is not repentance. Repentance is “turning away”, walking in a new direction away from the conduct that lead to your situation. Godly sorrow that seeks to live in accordance with the commands of Christ the Lord leads to repentance, real repentance. Always teach Biblical repentance.

Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. There is an object of our faith and it is not you, the church, ourselves, or some cosmic, ethereal force that will be with you. I suppose you have noticed the loosey, goosey way in which we speak of faith today in the church as if your personal definition of faith saves you. Do not succumb to such foolishness. Faith is always tethered to Christ or it is not Biblical faith. It is not faith that saves. It is faith in Christ because the saving power resides exclusively not in the act of faith, the attitude of faith or in the nature of faith, but in the object of the faith…Jesus the Christ! [Benjamin Warfield] Always proclaim faith in Christ.

Pastoral Principles
Humility and Tears

[I had the blessing and privilege of giving the “Pastoral Charge” to my good friend Dan Ledford on Friday, 06 March 2008, when he was installed as Pastor at Westminster PCA, Butler, PA. The next few entries will be from the outline from which I made my comments.]

Serve the Lord with humility and tears. Humility and tears…we all know what tears are, but what about humility? This is a lost character trait in our culture. I think it all started with Cassius Clay…”I am the greatest!” he crowed. We all sort of smiled at the time, but the scene was changing. It was becoming more about us than others, the overall society, our families, and certainly God, whatever or whoever that is. But, Paul tells us this is not a new problem. A simple definition of humility is “freedom from pride or arrogance.” Paul certainly had that as an issue in his life…we all do.

Paul set out for us a test for humility in 1 Cor. 4:7:
1] How are you different from anyone else?
2] What do you have that you did not receive?
3] If you did receive it why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
One of the great results of the Reformation was the recapture of the priesthood of all believers. The magisterial Reformers dispatched the “special priesthood” as non-Biblical. You are the teaching elder here, but you are still and always a sinner saved by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone. Do not ever forget that!

Tears is used twice by Paul in this passage [v. 19 and 31]. No one would call Paul a touchy, feely guy. In fact femi-nazis in the mainline church criticize Paul as being an insensitive hater of women and therefore dismiss him as misguided by his culture. Paul is speaking here of empathy, identity with those to whom he ministered. Francis Schaeffer, although he dressed in a funny manner, was another who was not a “girlie man”. Yet, he maintained that tears were always appropriate in speaking truth that hurts, exercising the sanctions of church discipline and in separating from the brethren. And, the latter is demonstrated by Paul when he left the Ephesian elders for the last time. Never forget to struggle with the struggles and grieve with the grief of those you minister to with tears.