ECD Pilgrim

2009-11-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

MY NEW BLOG CONSOLIDATING MY 3 BLOGS IS NOW UP AND RUNNING AT

http://ecdpilgrim.wordpress.com

I HAVE ALSO ESTABLISHED A BLOG IN CONJUNCTION WITH A BOOK I AM WRITING ABOUT THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS AT

http://45from65.wordpress.com

THANKS FOR READING AND FEEDBACK OVER THE YEARS HERE. JOIN ME AT THE NEW SITES FOR CONTINUED CONVERSATION.

2009-09-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Obamacare
They’reeee back…next week.

I have always felt better when Congress is out of session. Not only is the blathering and blithering reduced, no legislation can be passed! But, after Labor Day they will be back in session. And, of course, centre stage will be health care reform; or health insurance reform; or health care cost reduction; or whatever the “title of the week” this legislative initiative undertaken by Congress and the POTUS will be called. Let’s just call it Obamacare for short.

Although seemingly no one has read the bills reported out of the various committees, the massiveness of the bills and the apparent sweep of change is daunting. Each of the bills reported out creates a massive new bureaucracy to administer whatever the bills provide. Where is this all going? So far it has not been good for the POTUS since his approval rating has been falling rather precipitously. As for Congress, there approval rating was in the Mendoza Zone to begin with so it matters not to them what the folks think. That is until November 2010 when all members of the House and 1/3rd of the Senate is up for re-election.

Obviously, it would have been better for sitting politicians to have passed a controversial, massive reworking of the health care system in the USA this summer. That was the POTUS’s directive. The closer to the election, the harder it will be for those members in “contested” districts to do something drastic. But, the Dems do have commanding majorities in Congress now. So, if there is going to be big change now is the time. Because of leadership based on seniority, the chairs of House committees are usually from relatively safe districts. And, with majority of Dems on committees, bills get reported out. But now, which “principle” triumphs for the membership of the Dems…the belief in health care whatever or the belief in re-election?

It has been a rough couple months. It was announced today the POTUS will be addressing a joint session of Congress. Will he be taking back the debate? Will he be urging bi-partisanship? Will he be scolding the Repubs? Will he be urging “winning one for Teddy”? Will he be dropping the “public option”? Will he be demanding the “public option”? [What is the public option anyway…seems like a wax nose to be shaped in any way you want it to be or the camel’s nose under the tent?] One thing we can be sure of…he will be eloquent and charming, his strong points…but will he be substantive and concrete, understanding the outrage and disgust over confusion there is in the minds of the voters? Not his strong suit. Does he get that our elected officials are to serve the people not tell the people arrogantly and condescendingly what is good for them and try to push it through without explanation? This is the real test of leadership for the POTUS.

2009-09-03T08:17:00.001-07:00

Down From the Green Tunnel

I have just published my first volume of short stories entitled Down From the Green Tunnel. It is available from Booksurge and Amazon. Everyone loves stories…even those who reject meta-narratives with overall application. This little book recounts fact and delves into fiction with the intention of making the reader think about life, place, kin, culture and God. Check it out.

2009-08-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

149th Edition of the Clearfield County Fair
Hank Snow & Ernest Tubb: County Music Kings

The Clearfield County Fair closed last Saturday night. Things have changed. Country Music used to be the staple of the fair. Now, its rockabilly, rock and pop country music. But, of course, that is the movement of our society and culture and the movement has reached Clearfield County. I can remember my father and grandfather listening to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights, and it was that kind of performers and performances that used to headline the fair. Two of the Country Music Kings were Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb; two of my dad’s favorites.

Hank Snow was born Clarence Eugene Snow on May 9, 1914, in Nova Scotia Canada. His parents divorced when he was eight and he went to live with his grandparents. At 12 he worked as a cabin boy on a fishing boat for four hard years. When he returned to land he held odd jobs. In 1929, his mother gave him some Jimmie Rodger’s records and that inspired him to become a performer. He even named his son Jimmie Rodgers Snow. He began playing and singing in Canada until the mid 1940s when he ventured into the U.S.

He moved around…Philadelphia; the Jamboree in Wheeling, W.Va.; two trips to Hollywood and finally to Dallas in 1948. It was here he met Tubb who was already a Grand Ole Opry star. Snow began playing at The Big D Jamboree. From 1949 through 1956 he recorded and played with his band the Rainbow Ranch Boys. In 1950, with the backing of Ernest Tubb he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He first hit on Billboard’s Country charts was in 1949 but it was his own “Movin’ On” in July of 1950 that propelled him to superstar status. “Movin’ On” is the longest standing number one in Billboard Country history. He had two number 1s in 1950; in 1951 a number 1, 4 and 6; two 2s a 4 and 6 in 1952; and “Let Me Go Lover” as a number 1 in 1954.

In 1961 he hit the charts with “Beggar to a King” written by the Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson who went down with Buddy Holly [When the music died!] two years before it hit the charts. “I’ve Been Everywhere” [heard sung by Johnny Cash on a motel commercial today] first recorded by Snow sent him back to number 1 in 1962. In 1963 he hit number 2 and number 5 in 1965. His last number one was in 1974, “Hello Love”.

Snow was an accomplished guitarist, and recorded with his producer, the legendary Chet Atkins, in 1964 and 1970. Yet, he is best known for his firm, sharp and perfectly controlled voice. His words were always clear and understandable and his pronunciation perfect as is heard on “I’ve Been Everywhere”. He was not a crooner, but sang intensely and precisely. His is a voice others tried to mimic without success. His distinctiveness set him apart for all generations of country music performers. He died in December 1999, at age 85.

Ernest Tubb, “The Texas Trubador”, was born the son of a sharecropper in 1914, the same year as Snow, in Crisp, TX. Also, like Snow, he was inspired when he heard the music of Jimmie Rodgers. Tubb worked at day jobs and taught himself to sing, yodel and play guitar in the Rodgers style. He met the widow of Rodgers and she helped him tour theaters and sing in 1936. In 1939, he had a tonsillectomy and returned to singing too soon thereby damaging his throat. This was a blessing since it allowed him to step away from being a Rodgers imitator to develop his own style.

He signed with Decca in 1940 and became a full time performer on KGKO in Fort Worth. He was the originator of the Honky Tonk Country style and his breakthrough “Walkin’ the Floor over You” defined him and sent him to the Grand Ole Opry in 1943. He was also an entrepreneur opening the Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville in 1947. His establishment sold country records worldwide via mail. Also, in 1947 he headlined the first Opry show at Carnegie Hall in New York City. His own show, live from the record shop, debuted on WSN following the Opry in 1948. And, he was one of the individuals who convinced the industry to adopt “Country & Western” to replace the derogatory term of “hillbilly music.”

In 1949, he had a number 1 in “Slippin’ Around”, a song that treated adultery as a matter of fact in life. A 1950 duet with Red Foley, Leadbelly’s “Good Night Irene” was a top ten hit in country and pop music. He established Roger Miller as a songwriter supreme performing “Half a Mind”. His final top ten hit “Thanks a Lot” in 1963 was classic Ernest Tubb. In 1965 he sang “Waltz Across Texas” which was a departure from his drinking and womanizing tunes showing his versatility. Also, in 1965 he became the 6th inductee into the County Music Hall of Fame.

His life was a lot like his singing with legendary offstage honky tonk carousing. He was twice married and twice divorced and essentially lived on the road. His “Green Hornet” tour bus crisscrossed the U.S. and was home to the Troubadours. A heavy drinker and smoker, his health deteriorated and he had to use oxygen on the bus because of emphysema. He finally came off the road in 1982 when his weakened state forced him to retire after 46 years of touring! He died in 1984.

His legacy is not just performing. He helped many get started including Snow, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Stonewall Jackson and the Wilburn Brothers. He recorded duets with Loretta Lynn “Sweet Thang” and “Mr. & Mrs. Used to Be”. Jack Greene and Cal Smith were former members of Tubb’s group. And, Johnny Cash, who was heavily influenced by Tubb, was helped by the Texas Troubadour getting established in Nashville in the 1950s.

These two giants of “hillbilly” music helped transition Country & Western into an enormous business enterprise. They were not “one hit wonders” or make their money and run guys. They were performers who worked a lifetime at their craft. They were musicians who established styles and standards that have flourished through the years. Today, Country & Western has lost much of its edge, clarity and preciseness, but when you hear a Randy Travis or George Strait think Hank Snow, or when you hear an Alan Jackson or Toby Keith, think Ernest Tubb. For without Snow and Tubb, we would have no benchmark by which to judge what real Country & Western music is.

2009-08-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Obamanomics
Cash for Clunkers…a Lesson

The Cash for Clunkers program is a big success. Well…sort of. Lots of cars were sold; lots of clunkers disabled by Uncle Sam. Another bail out of the auto industry accomplished! But, the program ran out of money so Congress voted to dump in another $2 billion before heading off on junkets and town hall meetings [which would you want to do as a Congressman?] during the August recess. There were other shortcomings…dealers not getting their money; people thinking they qualified who did not; the government web site crashing; cars taken out of circulation that could be used by charitable organizations; dealers running out of qualifying cars. Wow…unintended consequences that Congress did not think about.

Now, the lesson. If Congress cannot figure out how to run the Cash for Clunkers project, how are they going to do with health care? We keep hearing about how complex the health care issue is. And, some of the proposed bills exceed 1000 pages. Yikes! Cash for Clunkers was simple compared to this. Is the Congress the appropriate body to set up a complex system that manages 1/6th of the economy and touches the lives of every American? No one doubts there are issues to be addressed in health care. But, some adjustments can be made to correct inefficiencies and improve coverage without an entire makeover putting bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions for you and me. If you are tempted to think you want government involved with you health, remember Cash for Clunkers.

2009-07-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Summer Reading
Not a Review…an Invitation

Son Lucas has completed his first literary project. It is the first in what he hopes will be a series. The title of the first volume is The Wisdom of Brisbin Mindstorm: The Red and White Baton. It is an adventure story. It is a primer on friendship. It is about overcoming the struggles and disappointments of everyday life. In the stripe of Tolkien and Lewis, the story is both an exciting, entertaining adventure as well as a serious investigation of culture, man and God. It is a book of fun and of deep meaning. It is the perfect summer book for teenagers or as reading for beach goers. It will not disappoint.

For more on the book, and to purchase it, visit Lucas’s websites:

www.brisbinmindstorm.com
www.sgmideas.com

Enjoy!

2009-07-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Bloggy Mountain Breakdown

For a variety of reasons, blogging has broken down over the last few weeks. Not that there has not been an abundance of blogging material. Work, Church, travel, summer activities...all have contributed to the breakdown. I have also had the problem of blogging to three different sites. That will be changing soon as I am going to consolidate into one site at WordPress which is a friendly, intuitive system. The new blog and another blog based on a book I am trying to finish for my 45th high school class reunion next summer will be debuting by 01 Aug 2009. So, stayed tuned.

2009-06-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Global Warming
Cap and Trade...Round #1

I saw Carol Browner defending the narrow Cap & Trade victory of the Administration. She deftly avoided all issues concerning policy decisions based on the science of global warning. About all she would say is that the science is clear. However, in the interest of “fair and balanced”, take a gander at the following.

Washington, D.C., June 26, 2009—The Competitive Enterprise Institute is today making public an internal study on climate science which was suppressed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Internal EPA email messages, released by CEI earlier in the week, indicate that the report was kept under wraps and its author silenced because of pressure to support the Administration’s agenda of regulating carbon dioxide.
The report finds that EPA, by adopting the United Nations’ 2007 “Fourth Assessment” report, is relying on outdated research and is ignoring major new developments. Those developments include a continued decline in global temperatures, a new consensus that future hurricanes will not be more frequent or intense, and new findings that water vapor will moderate, rather than exacerbate, temperature.
New data also indicate that ocean cycles are probably the most important single factor in explaining temperature fluctuations, though solar cycles may play a role as well, and that reliable satellite data undercut the likelihood of endangerment from greenhouse gases. All of this demonstrates EPA should independently analyze the science, rather than just adopt the conclusions of outside organizations.
The released report is a draft version, prepared under EPA’s unusually short internal review schedule, and thus may contain inaccuracies which were corrected in the final report.
“While we hoped that EPA would release the final report, we’re tired of waiting for this agency to become transparent, even though its Administrator has been talking transparency since she took office. So we are releasing a draft version of the report ourselves, today,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman.

Soooooooooo…maybe the science is not as compelling as Czar Browner asserts. Or, maybe the EPA data is faulty which would be an “inconvenient truth”. Have I heard that phrase elsewhere? Certainly, there is still much to be hashed out before a massive legislative remaking of our entire society and its energy use and production.

2009-06-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

Obamanomics
The Devil is in the Details

So, now we have the “new GM”: Government Motors. The largest industrial manufacturer in the history of the US is in bankruptcy. And, when it emerges from Chp 11 reorganization, you and me, the American taxpayers will be the largest shareholders. Next will be the UAW. To get the “new GM” out of bankruptcy will cost another [conservatively] $50B and if one adds up all the cash poured into GM by all parties there will be a $100B price tag!

In its heyday, the “old GM” had a max capitalization of around $60 B. So, it appears that it will have to be fantastically successful for you and me to get our investment back. The POTUS says he wants to begin having the “government” [you and me] get out of its investment in 18 months. Good luck! The government has never run any venture successfully [Say: USPS]. And, the union has never been interested in business ownership because that is at cross purpose with their vision: labor, not ownership, should benefit from the business. As I have written before in this space…it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

While there have been some hard decisions made that management and labor failed to do over the past twenty years, as my mother used to say “the devil is in the details.” First detail, the UAW has no change to current wages, benefits or pension plans. The “new contract” they negotiated with the US Treasury is re-negotiated in two years just in time for the re-election bid of the POTUS. Do you think that renegotiation will benefit the government owners [you and me] or the union owners and workers?

Second detail, part of the reorg plan is to sell Opel. But, it is a sale with a condition that the buyer cannot compete with the small Opel cars in the US or China. It is sort of the opposite of Chrysler/Fiat where Fiat was needed to provide Chrysler with needed small car technology. Detail three, closely connected with detail one and two, the cars now manufactured by GM overseas, the little green ones, cannot be imported to the US. The upshot of the whole matter is that the “new GM” will have to retool what factories are left to build new little green cars in the US without benefiting from already available little green overseas produced cars and without competition from Opel. How convenient for the workers…they will be guaranteed jobs to build the “new GM’s” new fleet! [Repeat Q. at the end of the forgoing paragraph.]

While the administration says it is not interested in managing the “new GM”, it has already fired the previous CEO and has guaranteed the head quarters will remain in Detroit. Not exactly passive ownership positions. This whole matter of “to big to fail” has lead us to a debacle of enormous scale. Debt owners all over the world have had their “priority claims” crammed down their throats. This includes small potato investors worth less than a million dollars who had $ in GM debt as a “safe, non risk investment”. Thousands of dealers have been shut down affecting thousands of jobs in towns and cities, small and large, throughout the land. There is a push to reformulate the auto business in the US moving the country to manufacturing of little green cars that we are not sure the consumer even wants.

All that is left of the old GM is…well…the UMW. The workforce, albeit smaller, soldiers on knowing it will have jobs at least for a while longer. As long as the taxpayers do not revolt and the administration needs to be re-elected, the “new GM” will be the poster child of a planned economy. Keep your eyes and ears open about the next big program to keep the “new GM” operating even if it cannot compete in the market place. The devil will be in the details.

2009-05-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Dare to be Daniel
Babylonian Dreaming

Nebuchadnezzar was a world leader. A man who had power and authority over an entire nation. But, like all of us, when he closed his eyes at night, he had no control over his sub-conscious hours. We are told in Daniel chapter 2 that he had a dream that left him troubled and anxious. He asked his advisors what the dream meant. Now, I do not know if the advisors in the White House, Kremlin or 10 Downing Street are presented with such tasks, but for Double Z, this was a big deal. Now, if these boys knew the dream and its interpretation, they could tell him what they thought he wanted to hear or what would put them in the best light. But, they were incapable, and admitted so, which is a virtue in itself. Their response was probably the wisest statement these wise men ever made: No man can do what you want; only the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh.

Double Z was not used to this type of response. These were his handpicked advisors. They should know these things…after all they are the best and brightest in Babylon. We receive two insights into Double Z. One, for all his power, wealth and authority he was terribly insecure. He was frightened by a dream for crying out loud. Secondly, when he could not get an explanation from his trusted cabinet, he fell into a rage. He ordered his cabinet dissolved in the most literal of fashions. He ordered them all destroyed! Just the kind of cool and calm leadership the country needed an egomaniacal despot who issues death penalties to those who cannot interpret his dream. Nice!

Daniel and his friends are sought out to do the dirty deed. What a turn of events. Now Daniel can do away with the most powerful of the king’s advisors and he and his friends can move into their positions. Now they will be in charge of the nation that overthrew Judah and make things right again. Well, remember, Daniel did not see himself as a rebel within the enemy capital waiting for the right time to topple the evil Chaldean government. He was serving his God in a foreign land. This is not exactly an argument for the theonomists or even the neo-Calvinists. Daniel was not interested in claiming Babylon for Christ.

He asked the captain of the king’s guard what was going on that these men had to be killed. Upon hearing about the dream, Scripture says Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. What was he thinking? If the wise and powerful advisors could not tell Double Z about the dream where does Daniel get off making such a request? Was this an act of hubris on his part? No. When he was granted the opportunity, he called a prayer meeting. You see, Daniel and the advisors were kind of on the same page. The condemned cabinet said only the gods could know the dream. Daniel understood that the sovereign God of the universe, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, did know.

So, Daniel called a prayer meeting. The hit squad of the king became the prayer warriors of God. And, the prayers of the saints yielded the interpretation of the dream. Daniel knew that all actions of a believer should be bathed in prayer. Notice again what Daniel did not do. He did not rush out to Double Z and proclaim “I figured it out”. No, his immediate response was to render honor, glory and praise to God for his mercy and grace in revealing the dream. He praised God for His eternal wisdom and power, His governing of history and for making His will and way known to His people. Only after prayer and praise did Daniel make way to the king for interpretation of the dream.

Daniels’ actions spared the lives of the king’s wise men. But, what the king and the court saw was only the end result of more obedience by Daniel, this time in prayer and worship. So now he could go to Double Z equipped by God Himself to speak the Truth in boldness. He assisted the oppressor king and saved the lives of those who lorded over him. What a corrective to us. We seem to think if we can get control of the government, all things will be better. Daniel sought to serve the king and save the lives of his enemies. He did not see himself as the agent of change for Babylon. He was an obedient man of prayer and worship used by His God.

We can discern many lessons from this incident:
1] Always be a life saver, not a life taker, even when it is your enemies.
2] Obey God but serve the king. Is this not what our Lord was saying in his render to Caesar talk?
3] Always bath your prospective efforts in prayer.
4] Seek the mercy and grace of God for you can…pagans cannot…that is why Daniel could obtain the answer and the advisors could not.
5] Always be thankful to the God Who provides. How often do we seek His wisdom and when He delivers we forget to be thankful?
6] God alone is to receive glory through our praise to Him for His eternal wisdom, governing of history and His fellowship with His people.

Many get hung up on the interpretation of the dream and are enthralled with the images in the dream. The message of the rise and fall of kingdoms of this earth not being an accident but an outworking of God’s judgment on the nations of the world for not following His word and law gets our end times motor running. This is important, because it applies to Judah, Babylon and the USA. But, those are matters in the eternal hands of God and His divine historical timetable. The message of Babylonian Dreaming for the individual Christian is to be obedient, faithful people of prayer and worship to the sovereign God of the universe. Dare to be Daniel as you live out your daily life in the company of all, even oppressors and enemies!

2009-05-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Living in the World
Remembering

Decoration Day was started in Boalsburg, PA, by 3 women who wanted to honor the Civil War dead. A point of order: Decoration Day is May 30th not the manufactured or fake holiday the enables federal workers to have a three day weekend at the end of May. Now it is called Memorial Day and we celebrate the warrior dead of all wars, those who have served in the military, KIA or not, and all of our ancestors who have gone before us and through their sacrifices enabled us to have a better life. It is a time of remembering.

Each year I prepare for May 30th by attending those places where my relatives are buried and planting their graves with annuals. In St. Luke’s cemetery in Luthersburg, PA, my paternal grand parents and great grandparents are buried. It is the former German Reformed Church where they were married and my father baptized. Also, in Luthersburg, is the Union cemetery, one of thousands of Union cemeteries in the county first established for Union Civil War dead. It is there my parents are buried. Finally, on to Sykesville, PA, the place of my birth, where my maternal grandparents, my Uncle Milton and infant aunt are interred.

This year I added to my itinerary, a trip to Paradise, PA. Like Sykesville, it is in Jefferson County, between Sykesville and Big Run, PA. The reason was to find the graves of my mother’s grand and great grand parents have their graves. I needed assistance in finding the graves, so I journeyed to Punxsutawney, PA, to pick up my mother’s sole surviving cousin, Daryl Kicher. Daryl is 82, failing fast, and living in what he calls a “rest home” in Punxsutawney. After lunch we began our journey to Paradise; what a journey it was!

As I said, Daryl is failing, and he had difficulty in remembering exactly where the cemeteries were. So, we spent a pleasant May afternoon covering most of the eastern Jefferson County winding, macadam roads. It included a run through Wishaw, a town named after W. I. Shaw, the mine superintendent of what was the second largest bituminous deep mine in Pennsylvania at the beginning of the 20th century. Like all the old Pennsylvania bituminous deep mine towns such as Kramer, Snowshoe, Grassflat, and Helvetia, there is not much of the community and no prosperity left in these places. Eventually, we found the former churches of Paradise and their church burial yards holding ancestral Kichers.

Remembering. We do not do enough of that. We are busy folks, living life to its fullest [usually understood in a selfish manner] at breakneck pace. We have little time for remembering. But, the problem with that is not the remembering, it is the opposite side of the coin. Forgetting. We forget where we come from and who sacrificed and worked so that we could be better off than they were. We forget how we were blessed with caring and loving forbears. We forget who we are. Remembering is an antidote to self-centeredness and self-focus. So, on this coming Decoration Day take time to remember so you do not forget the people who make it possible for you to be who you are.

2009-05-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

Obamanomics
Credit Cards and Automobiles

Two revealing circumstances occurred this week before Memorial Day, which is celebrated early this year. One was the credit card legislation that the President wanted on his desk before the holiday. Amazingly, although some adjustments between the Senate and House bills is required, the deadline of Obama looks doable. This legislation is hailed as relief for the debtor who has had high balances and has had his rate or payment requirements changed in mid-stream. You know, the kind of folks who should not have credit in the first place. The government has now fixed that problem. Right?

Sure. But, what of the unintended consequences? Credit card companies have made big money from those who could not pay balances when due. The interest rates have always been high and a great profit source for the companies. That has made them greedy for more card holders. So, college kids out of college yet without work received credit card offers. Maybe their limits were only $500 but they charged to the limit and could not pay balances. Millions of interest payments on $500 balances equals real money. First unintended consequence: Those offers will now be non-existent, which is a good thing but there will also be many lower income folks, who could pay modest balances, who will also not be able to have cards. When their time is up…no new card. Some credit card companies seeing this coming are already offering to buy back credit cards from customers!

Second unintended consequence: Those who paid balances will become the new source of income for credit card companies. They are, after all, in business to make money. Someone has to pay. It had been a great ride for payers. They change a purchase with interest free money and if they pay their balance in dull when due they have used the bank’s money without an interest payment of any kind. When credit is restricted and high interest is not recovered from non-balance payer, how will money be made? Two ways seem to be the only option. One, charge interest from the date of purchase so that no one uses bank money for free. Two, charge fees again for all cards. Anyone over the age of 40 can remember the days of two.

Now this seems eminently reasonable. Credit card companies need to make money. But, what will card holder who have the wherewithal to pay balances do? Do you think they want to pay interest on purchases? I think not. There will be a flight to cash and those that have will spend and those on the margins will not. Unintended consequence three: Making the consumer economy weaker, which we are told is 2/3rds of our overall economy. Charging a fee for maintaining a card may not have the same disincentive, but we have an entire generation who never paid to have a card. So…who knows how the new way will be received.

Unintended consequence four: Many of the big banks make big money from credit card operations. At a time when we are worried about future “stress” on them we make “stress” for them by impacting a stream of revenue. So, Congress and the Administration have saved the “deadbeats” from the greedy credit card folks. There is blame to pass around on the credit card mess. But, the remedy may in fact be deleterious to those who used their cards correctly and the entire economy. But, that is not all….

The second big item of the week was the Obama Administration’s announcement of 39 mile per gallon fleet standards by the year 2016! This was done with apparent agreement by the Big 3 [or is it Little 3], major foreign makers, UAW and environmentalists. It was a Kodak moment with all the players smiling behind the President. The WSJ had an editorial with the sub-title “Are we nuts?” Automakers in this country have lost money to date trying to meet 20 something standards. Why? Because consumers want bigger cars that do not meet the standards but they have to build unwanted, what we used to call, “compact cars” folks do not want.

Living where I do where winters are tough and much travel is on I-80 with 60% of the traffic is 18 wheelers, I for one do not want a “compact car”. But, this is an example of why elections have consequences. BO has the banks in tow, is about to own Chrysler and GM with the UAW, and wants to forward his “green” agenda by building hybred “compact cars”. Notice how this lines up: Two of Bo’s constituent supporter groups are happy [unions and environmentalists]; he will have ownership of two of the three US auto makers; and Ford and the foreign makers have to play ball since they are still private enterprise [for now!] and will have to deal with credit markets and banks now controlled by the Treasury. It’s a perfect Strorm!

The feds justify this by saying this eliminates individual state CAFE standards the create inconsistency for the auto makers. But, the target is more ambitious than the 32 per gallon by 2015 standard heretofore established by those trying to balance mileage against profitability. The latter is obviously not a concern of the Obama Administration. These “green compacts” will be build, and we will all go along. So, how does this happen if the consumer doesn’t want the cars? Grab you wallet! Subsidized loans or tax credits for buyers will be the only way. Again, we all are in this together and short of outlawing any car over 4 cylinders or without a battery, subsidies from the government [the taxpayer] seems to be the only way.

We cannot stand many more weeks like this one. The Obamanomics policies are coming fast and furious. We have yet to get into cap & trade tax or health care reform. I guess I should look on the bright side. With the new “green compacts” I will travel less, walk more, create less green house gases and be healthier and we won’t need a carbon tax and government health care. Some how, I don’t think it will work out that way. The worse it yet to come from Obamanomics.

2009-05-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Living in the World
Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame

We in the Protestant world have experienced this for a long time. Our institutions of higher learning going the way of the secular world…think Harvard, Yale and Princeton. So, it is not a surprise to see a flagship university of the Roman Catholic world slipping away from its heretofore sacred principles. The fuming and agitating about an avowed baby killer speaking and being awarded an honorary degree by Notre Dame University recognizes the new world. It is more of an honor to have the POTUS speak at you institution than have your institution stand by virtues and principles of the church that sponsors the institution. If shows the enlightened stance of NEW Notre Dame.

At Lucas’ wedding I had an interesting discussion with one of his classmates at Catholic University of America, a Papal school, and another premier Roman Catholic university. Danny and his wife were quite perturbed at the invitation extended to President Obama by ND as well as the covering of the symbols of Catholic Christianity when BO spoke at Georgetown. Yet, they also recognized that BO was helping to delineate true religion from the cultural Catholicity that is becoming prevalent in the United States.

Again, I believe the Protestants are ahead of the game here. For a long, long time, folks have realized there is a bright line of difference separating orthodox Reformed belief and practice and what much of the contemporary evangelical church believes and practices. Man driven worship because there is no God centered doctrine; discipleship in the Word missing because the Word is no longer central to life; discipline of the saints non-existent because there are no Biblical standards accepted as normative; a desire to be accepted by the world because we have no concept of what is pleasing and acceptable to a holy God. It is easy to see the difference between content less Christianity and true Biblical faith; the former adapted to the culture, the latter not so.

I told Danny it’s a good thing the Roman Church is starting to see their own bright line. BO is doing the church a big favor. He is clearly showing that there is a difference between what James calls “religion that is pure and undefiled before God” and what many call Chritian religion today. The President in his commencement speech said there are irreconcilable differences between the pro-life and pro-abortion positions. Yet, he called for mutual understanding and dialogue between the positions. Obviously, Jeremiah Wright and his other pastors through the years have not preached much from James. For the Lord’s brother goes on to define pure and undefiled religion as:

…to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world [Ja 1:27].

We live in the world, but we are not to be taken in by the world’s views, even when those views are held by one who professes to be a Christian and is a popular POTUS. Is dialog possible between means of life and death? Can good seek compromise with evil? If differences are irreconcilable, who is going to change their mind? It seems it was old Notre Dame.

As a kid, I remember the chorus from the ND “fight song”. ND has, and probably will continue to have, the largest following of college football fans in the land. We all used to joke that all the priests and nuns were praying for an Irish victory on every football Saturday. Success has been rare for the Fighting Irish in recent years. Maybe we are getting a glimpse of why…it is no longer OLD Notre Dame. The only thunder to be shaken down from the sky in the future may be the thunder of displeasure or wrath for the NEW Notre Dame. The NEW Notre Dame now stained by the world and the blood of millions of innocent children.

2009-05-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

Obamanomics
Auto Politics…er…Policies

Yesterday was an insightful day on learning more about Obamanomics. At the deadline for Chrysler reorganization outside bankruptcy, 20 bondholders failed to agree with the government arranged Fiat-UMW-USA new Chrysler. So, Chrysler filed for the protection of the US Bankruptcy Court under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Here is the in sight. The President demonized the bond holders, claiming a priority position, for not giving it to the government proposal. It was their fault that Chrysler went bankrupt because they were greedy hedge funds. Wow! These lenders gave Chrysler life in 2007. Now, they are the cause of the failure of Chrysler? What about years of mismanagement and a UMW that negotiated pay without work or production?

Now, in bankruptcy, the rule of law should prevail. So, if the 20 lenders really should have a bigger piece of the pie, they will be able to put forward their case. After all, they were only trying to protect their stakeholders. It appears that the UMW would be receiving a big stake in the “new Chrysler”, about 39% and the bondholders only 10%. No wonder they were steamed. Trade in $6.9B in loans for $2.25 B and 10% of the common stock of the company having a lesser stake than Fiat, UMW and the government!

The judge who handled the Enron case will have to sort out the claims. The President talks of a surgical 30-60 day bankruptcy. What? How can such a complex case be dealt with in 30-60 days? If that does happen, we need to be wary for the rule of law would not have been applied with its right to be heard and due process. Heaven help us if the heavy hand of the government can be used to make a federal judge bend to the will of the Obama Administration. Avoidance of such a thing was the reason the Founders separated the judiciary from the executive and legislative branches.

Why such an effort to save Chrysler in the first place? It is a failed business with a failed business model. This is the auto politics. The UMW, as well as all unions, were big supporters of BO in his election campaign. This is the payback. Keep Chrysler, as well as GM, afloat with taxpayer $, get the companies re-organized, and save as many union jobs as possible. By working out a 39% stake for the UMW in the “new” Chrysler, the UMW is now in an interesting position. As owners, they want cost cutting and efficiency; as labor they want high wages and benefits and relaxed work rules. For years it has been the latter that has ruled with a predictable result.

Maybe it will be easier for the OA to get its auto vision of small, high mileage autos running on ethanol, wind and electric as the standard for US vehicles if the government controls the auto manufacturers. And, if not the Administration, its close allies the autoworkers. It should be interesting to see how this plays out in court and for GM with their June 1 deadline looming.

One thing for sure, Obamanomics is not good for the capitalism that has led to prosperity in the country. Control of more and more of the private sector by government sure does not make folks anxious to invest into private capital. It keeps people holding cash. It is mystifying to me that this same Administration that wants private capital to help in a government partnership to buy the asset backed securities ruining the banks lambastes private capital that helped Chrysler float the last two years as the cause of their bankruptcy. What are they thinking? That’s the problem with policies based on politics…they are inconsistent and not based on anything except raw political power. What a way to run a railroad, an auto company or an economy.

2009-04-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

The New America
No more partisanship?

Congress is back in session. They had the privilege of seeing Tea Parties in their districts and were away from Washington were the Obama Administration released what are being called the “torture memos”. With all the talk of pulling the nation back together, little has been seen of good old fashioned Tip O’Neill/Ronald Reagan working together to accomplish what the nation needs. Polarization is still on the rise. I thought our new President was looking ahead and bringing unity where partisanship reigned?

Witness the Senate and Congressional elections in MN and NY respectively. The “victory” margins are razor thin. Yet, the election moves out of the ballot box and into court rooms. I am not making un-American accusations toward those who are appealing voter decisions where there are serious questions of voter fraud and disenfranchisement of voters in an inconsistent manner in one jurisdiction. Interestingly, in MN the winners call the loser a sore-loser when it was that party’s Presidential nominee who sought the aid of courts in his quest to be President. Litigation following close elections is only indicative of the unwillingness to set aside partisan differences and move forward.

Our President is attempting to change the policy of discourse outside the country. He was apologetic in Europe and in the southern Americas he listened to anti-American screeds and shook hands with a sworn enemy of the USA for the world to see. Our President said this was what the electorate voted for…more dialog with those who have heretofore hated us. He has certainly succeeded in having world leaders, friends and foes, like him, but whether that will translate into better relationships abroad is still an open question. What happened with the Iranians and North Koreans does not bode well for success. Biden said Obama would be tested. There is one place Delaware Joe has been spot on.

Unfortunately, all the overseas angst and friendship to American haters has not helped. While he is right, there was discussion on the campaign trail of talking to enemies, I don’t think voters…for or against BO…believed he would be quite so apologetic for what others say the USA stands for without being more forthright and affirming in what “we” say we represent. He is, possibly unintendedly, giving photo ops and positive reinforcement to American haters who pummel the USA. And, without taking any steps to defend the country he represents. That does not help the division at home.

Millions are upset with a US President who sits quietly by while his and their country is bashed by the likes of Daniel Ortega. Who readily admits the shortcomings of the USA but fails to defend the USA. Who bows to Saudi kings, shares a warm handshake with tinpot dictators and generally takes the position that what happened in the past was not on his watch. So if you do not like it, don’t blame me, blame the country’s misguided policies by lesser lights than me. And, by the way, things will be different now that I am in charge. [Smile].

Obama is insufferable about his ability to change things. He proposes massive spending and deficits, expanding programs where government has failed to previously tread, yet promising to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term [Note to BO: No one is guaranteed a second term.]. Add to this is overseas machinations and the hint yesterday that he may permit prosecution of the authors of the “torture memos”. So, there is a looking forward for the man…forward to bigger government programs. That leads to division. But, there is a dwelling on the past too…policies of predecessors to bash and people of the same forerunners to prosecute. This too leads to division. Seems like partisanship still reigns supreme in the new America. Has it been one hundred days yet? When does the healing begin?

2009-04-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

Dare to be Daniel
How to Draw the Line

When the Babylonians took the best and brightest of Judah back to Babylon, it was not so they would be disgruntled captives or slaves. They decided to assimilate them into Babylonian culture by giving them an thoroughly liberal Chaldean University education. Kind of like what the dominant culture in this country does to our youngsters when they leave their homes and head off to State U. Daniel and his buddies were going to be indoctrinated into the ways of the Chaldeans.

These Judeans were uprooted from their homes, taught about things Babylonian, had their names changed and were given a new diet…the king’s food and drink. Note what Daniel and his buds DO NOT do. They do not organize protests walking around with placards saying “Hey, hey, ho, ho, I won’t go”. They do not boycott classes saying “we don’t want to b taught your junk”. They do not go on a hunger strike until they get the food they want. They did not refuse to be called by their new Babylonian names because it was an “insult to their native heritage”. There was not demand that they be granted the universal human rights inherent to all men. To be what they want.

No these 21st century tactics were not evident in Daniel. He accepted what was happening, but drew the line, with God’s grace, at eating the king’s food. He proposes in his heart to not define himself. He goes along with the whole assimilation project except the eating part. Why? Theories abound. Sure the food was not kosher but how about the vegetables he did eat, we cannot know they were either. Also, refusal to drink the wine was not associated with ceremonial cleanliness. The point is, Daniel took his first stand for his God in what seemed to be an insignificant matter. Faithfulness begins with the seeming insignificant matters. But, it begins…early in living life for our God. We must begin establishing a difference between ourselves and the world early on in our Christian walk so that we do not become so entangled that there is no difference between “us” and “them”.

Again, notice how Daniel draws the line. He requested not to eat the food and asked for a test. He made no demands. He was not seeking to be a spokesperson, champion for the good guys or a martyr for the cause of God. No, he took his stand with modesty and humility. After all, this was about his God not him. His resolve was about God’s holiness and glory. He wanted to be personally obedient not to be a hero. His desire was that his God would be glorified. Daniel was not the focal point of Daniel’s obedience. At an early stage and age of his captivity, Daniel established that he would live for his God in captivity. By beginning with obedience in little things, the stage was set for obedience later in bigger things.

We receive two wonderful life lessons from Daniel in this line drawing. Always take the first opportunity to show yourself to be a committed Christian. It is not always an easy thing, but you can be assured that it will never be easier to stand for Christ. If you refuse the first time to stand for Him, it is no easier the second. The world will be relentless in, as JB Phillips paraphrases Rom 12:1, 2, in “squeezing you into its mold.” Satan knows he cannot have God’s children, so he works overtime in neutralizing God’s own. Your flesh wants you to stand for you, not Christ. The sooner a Christian shows resolve for his God, the better able he is to glorify God with his obedience throughout his/her life.

Second, as we know from reading Scripture and observing the lives of Christians we know, trials and tribulations are constant companions. They help to gage our progress as a Christ follower. We want to see them as deviations and estrangements from the Christian life rather than part of what God uses to build character and strength in us. But that is not the case. James, Paul and Peter all agree that we should treat trials and tests of our faith as “maturity makers”. Sinclair Ferguson calls them “important and connected punctuation marks in the biography of grace His is writing in our lives”. So, there is no little test of our obedience to Christ. God uses what seems to be a minor matter to build up His faithful servants preparing us for bigger trials in which we can glorify Him.

Faithful Christians draw the line and stand for their Lord and Savior early and often in their Christian walk. Little trials, big trials, they are all treated as opportunities to grow in grace and serve God. They do so not to be applauded for their obedience but as a witness to their God. It is obedience to their God for the glory of their God alone.

2009-04-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Good Friday 2009
The Ultimate Sacrifice

Today is the Friday Christians call good. Why? Because today the ultimate sacrifice was given. Jesus Christ died on the cross. Yesterday, I posted on sacrifice or lack thereof in human terms. The sacrifice we commemorate today is unthinkable in human terms. He Who was very God and very Man died on the cross. Your Creator became your Substitute, Redeemer, Propitiation, the Sacrifice required to take away your sin and His wrath. He was the Price Paid to purchase you from slavery to sin. And yet, the world refuses to acknowledge this ultimate sacrifice.

Who needs a bloody sacrifice? Surely we are more sophisticated that that! What is wrong with the world can be cured with more education, more jobs, more cash, more programs to help the disadvantaged, more of anything but Jesus. Superstition can not help us, but human progress through science and technology can. Science will eventually solve all the so-called “mysteries” of life. Belief in a Savior other than man is a crutch for the weak. Not only is the foregoing the party line of the world, the world goes to great length to put out all manner of drivel to disprove Jesus, His life, death and resurrection.

Recently, one The ExChange dudes, Willie Mo, responded to whether he had considered what the crucifixion of Jesus Christ means to him in the following manner: “I saw on the Discovery Channel that crucifixion was impossible.” I bet that was news to the Roman Empire and the thousands they crucified! Why is it that there is a full court press every Easter season to disparage the death and resurrection of Christ? It is the absolute No. #1 threat to secular humanism. And for Christians, without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to Paul, we are helpless, hopeless and foolish, to be pitied above all men.

Christian, be of good cheer. Fear not. Science will not figure it all out, it will only discern what God reveals to science. And, He has already revealed His plan for the salvation of man. There is no better man-made or devised plan for man to be discovered by man. Last year at Oxford, Dr. Gary Habernas made a compelling presentation on why the resurrection happened. He has also made his case to skeptics who have always held that the resurrection was a “spiritual event”, that is it occurred in the hearts and minds of believers. Guess what, they admitted there was truth to the actual physical death and resurrection of Christ! Hallelujah…the world has been won for Jesus Christ!

Just one moment, please. While it may be factual that Jesus rose from the dead, the skeptics still choose not to believe. They do not want to believe regardless of the facts. And, is that not the real issue…unbelief? Folks just do not want to believe in the ultimate sacrifice. So, our loss of the desire to sacrifice personally so we can be what we want to be, is also translated into the loss of wanting to believe in the ultimate sacrifice. Why? Because it will not leave us as we are if we believe. We will be changed by it and that terrifies those who are comfortable in their sin and guilt. So, the world continues to choose not to believe in the ultimate sacrifice.

2009-04-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Living in the World
The Loss of Sacrifice

Waiting for a flight recently I sat next to a fellow who was bemoaning the lack of sacrifice in out society today. He told of his grandmother coming to the USA from Italy as a 16 year old and never seeing her mother and family again. She was seeking a better life at a high price. And, as a result of her willingness to leave kin and hearth, 80 years later her grandson now has a better life. It started me thinking about personal sacrifice, or the lack thereof, today.

It seems that is what is behind the government trying to “bail out” all manner of companies from financial collapse. No one wants to take the pain that is incumbent from failed policies and foolish decisions. As individuals, we have lost the definition of sacrifice in out culture. No one wants to sacrifice anything at anytime for any reason. Period.

The AIG dustup over bonuses magnifies this proposition. While many of the bonuses were based on contractual relationships, the contracts could be modified. Those due the bonuses could have refused them. For many that would not even be a sacrifice. But, for those who were dependent on the bonus for the lion’s share of their compensation, refusing it would be a sacrifice. While there has been a give back because of the backlash, such is not sacrifice because it was not the intent of those receiving the bonuses to sacrifice. They were forced to do so by the government and an angry public.

It is not just from corporate America where the “no sacrifice” mantra comes emanates. I have remarked many times that compared to the rest of the world, all Americans are “wealthy”. Two million people are born, live and die on the streets of Kolkata, India. Imagine that, living you whole life outside any shelter. These are not “homeless” they are “never homed”. In this country we consume far more resources than our population warrants. Yet we grouse when the price of fuel for our automobiles goes up. That is a “sacrifice” we do not wish to make. We want cheap gas! You see, even our sense of sacrifice, what it is, is warped.

Imagine that Italian grandmother leaving all she knew for that which she had no idea what it would turn out to be. Imagine you or me giving up our home and family to go to a place unknown to us to try and make a better life for those to follow us. For many years, we have lived with the idea that we would make circumstances better for our children and grandchildren. Instead, today we are saddling the future generations with back breaking debt because we do not want to have our nice, cozy lifestyle changed or modified in any way. Instead of sacrificing for the future, we want those to come to sacrifice for us. Come to think about it, there is not a loss of sacrifice. We have converted self-sacrifice into shifted sacrifice.

2009-04-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

History
The Rainbow Tour…Then and Now?

In 1947, Eva Perón conducted her Rainbow Tour of Europe. It resulted from an invitation to Juan Perón by Francisco Franco to visit Spain. The defeat of fascism in Europe had isolated Spain, and Spain was not part of the various reconstruction plans paid for by the US to rebuild Europe. Argentina was one of the few countries who maintained cordial diplomatic relations with Spain. So, it was a natural for the Generalissimo to invite the Argentinean leader to Spain.

However, all the reasons for Franco to invite Perón were also reasons not to go. Argentina had taken its place in the UN and improved relations with the US after the war. The mood in Buenos Aires was not to set back Argentina’s new place in the world. However, Argentina made a loan to Spain a year prior so that the Spaniards could purchase grain and beef from the Argentineans. As a compromise, it was decided that Eva should go to Europe, not just Spain, so that the world could see the woman who was unifying the poor and workers of Argentina. So, the Rainbow Tour was launched.

Eva meet with many European leaders starting with Franco. She was well received in Spain, receiving from Franco the highest award the government could grant to a non-Spaniard. She also handed out 100 peso notes to every poor child she met on her journey. She was hailed as a champion for the poor, the oppressed and the worker. She met with the Holy Father at the Vatican where she received an award for her husband and a rosary from the Pope. In France she went to Versailles and meet with de Gaulle. While in France things began to sour. She was advised that she would not be permitted to stay at Buckingham Palace. Citing exhaustion, she then canceled her trip to the UK. In Switzerland she was subjected to thrown stones and tomatoes. And, it was widely circulated that she was only in Europe to deposit funds in a Swiss bank account. Shortly after the Swiss incidents, she headed home.

The Europeans were critical of her form fitting dresses, big hairdos and extravagant lifestyle. Yet, during the tour she appeared on the cover of Time under the title “Eva Perón: Between two worlds, an Argentine rainbow”. Even that was a downer, however, since this was the first print story to mention her out of wedlock birth. For that mistake, Time was banned in Argentina for some months. The Rainbow Tour, its reasons and outcomes, was popularized by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber in the musical Evita. Evita was a heroine in her own country but the rest of the world came to see her as more flash than substance, a cult figure who was a rags to riches success story but who was a celebrity rather than a serious political figure.

Fast forward to the now concluded “Charm Tour” of President Obama. He is an extremely popular figure in Europe, a rock star type. He drew big crowds everywhere. The press is gushing over his tour. But, what was accomplished? He wanted Europe to climb on the stimulus bandwagon. They did not. He wanted more commitment to the war on terror [oops! That is non PC talk.] and for combat troops in Afghanistan. They did not. Apologists for the president say he started a “process” and there were no firm goals to be accomplished on the “Charm Tour”. He went to listen to Europe and apologize for US behavior over the last eight years. However, this process seems to be based on the same premise as the domestic economic recovery…undo what Bush did, or Bush bashing as Bush II supporters call it.

Is BO more flash than substance? He has had a meteoric rise on the public stage, another kind of rags to riches story. Does he have any answers to the world wide financial problem? Yes, spend, which the Europeans saw as no answer. Obama did not push the Europeans on any issue, and maybe that is why he is so popular. Instead, he admitted the prior administrations missteps and arrogance, chummed up to the G-20 leaders, lobbied for more support for whatever we now call the fight for survival against Islamic jihadists, stopped in Turkey and paid a surprise visit to Iraq where he praised the troops for a job well done [A war he opposed from the beginning]. Fortunately, he had no rocks or vegetables hurled at him…those were reserved for London Bobbies and the RBS. Is he more a celebrity than serious political figure? Hard to say, but leadership surely is more than cavorting around Europe being contrite about what the US has stood for and done and giving an I pod to the Queen with his speeches loaded on it. Celebrities have charm; leaders have firm policies and the determination, resolve and commitment to see them through. We will see.

2009-04-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

Dare to be Daniel
How to view History

Those of you who were churched as young people remember this little ditty:

Dare to be Daniel
Dare to Stand Alone
Dare to Have a Purpose Firm
Dare to Make it Known

Daniel lived in a pagan culture not his own for 70 years. He lived in unwavering and uncompromising faithfulness to God. He is a good example for us today. Much of western culture is hostile to the Christian faith. Daniel and the lessons learned from the living of his life are timeless and appropriate for us today. Christians today must be willing to “stand alone”, have a “firm purpose” and let that purpose to be “made known” to all.

Right off the bat in Daniel, the context of all that happens to Daniel is set forth. The tone of all that happens to Daniel is revealed in the first two verses of the first chapter:

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And he Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand…

A timeless lesson is revealed to the reader. There is a spiritual answer to every historical event. God is in control of all things! There are no renegade molecules or acts in the universe. God gave over His own people to the Babylonians. Nothing [no thing] occurs outside the sovereign will of God. Man is at work in history; God is in control of history.

God was not surprised when Judah fell. He arranged it! It was predicted in His Word, even the carrying away of the young men [Is 39:6, 7]. The curse for disobedience by the House of Israel was prophesized by Moses long before fulfillment [Deut. 28: 45-52]. Jehoiakim did evil in the sight of God as did Manassas before him [2 Chron 36:5; 2 Kings 24:3,4]. God is faithful to His Word ALWAYS. The consequences to man are of no concern. Man had been forewarned. No matter how much we try, we cannot blame God for what He has promised.

Oh, the sovereignty of God is an unpopular topic to modern man. As, a result we think we are creating reality instead of living in the face of reality. Even, those who are faithful followers of God, have difficulty swallowing God’s sovereignty. Witness the prophet Habakkuk. He was one who was apprised of God’s plans, and he did not like it. In like manner to 21st century Christians lamenting the state of the church and/or the USA, Habakkuk cried out to God for justice. How long O Lord until justice comes?

God’s answer comes in Hab. 1:5-11. Babylon would overrun Judah thus ending Judah’s violence and faithlessness. Imagine the thoughts of Habakkuk. The Babylonians, they are a nasty, wicked and ruthless people! God, the cure is greater than the disease. God, how can you use such ungodly people to chastise Your own? Yes, even the OT saints have trouble with the sovereignty of God over history. They, as we, want it done their way even though they full well knew His will as set forth in Scripture.

Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great Welsh preacher, spoke to the concerns of men in a rapidly disintegrating world during WW II. In his commentary on Habakkuk lays out four principles for the Christian to understand about God and History:
1] History is under God’s control: Every nation on earth is under God’s
control…Things are not what they appear to be. It seemed to be the astute military power of the Chaldeans that brought them into ascendancy. But it was not so at all, for God had raised them up. God is the lord of history…We must never lose sight of this crucial fact.
2] History follows a divine plan: The events of history are not accidental, though they may appear so to us. They follow God’s plan. There is a purpose in history, and what is now happening in this twentieth century is not accidental.
3] History follows a divine timetable: God says: I am going to do something in your days…not before or after or but precisely when He wanted it to happen.
4] History is bound up with the divine Kingdom: The key to the history of the world is the Kingdom of God…Let us not, therefore, be stumbled when we see surprising things happening in the world. Rather, let us ask: “What is the relevance of this event to the Kingdom of God?” Or, if strange things are happening to you personally, don’t complain, but say, “What is God teaching me through this? What is there in me that needs to be corrected? Where have I gone wrong and why is God allowing these things?”…WE should therefore judge every event in the light of God’s great, eternal and glorious presence.

It was this understanding of history that marks Daniel’s time in Babylonian captivity and measures his responses to various trials in Babylon. He did not know why he was a captive, but he understood that his God was still in control. There was a divine purpose for all that had happened. Pastor/theologian Sinclair Ferguson summarizes how Daniel could live for 70 years in Babylon: The principles that governed Daniel’s life –grace, faith, Scripture, prayer, fellowship, obedience, hope—provide the answer. Daniel knew he was not the master of his fate, the captain of his ship. He was not where he necessarily wanted to be. But, he accepted God’s sovereignty over all things which allowed him to sing the Lord’s song and be His witness as an exile in a foreign land.

This has tremendous practical import to us today. When matters seem to be “going to hell in a hand basket” as one of my old law partners used to say, take heart, God is still in control, His will will be done. In this era of prosperity, seemingly endless progress and the appearance of man having control over all things, we panic when matters seem to get out of our control. We fail to realize that they were always out of our control. Take a cue from Daniel. Understand that history is in God’s control, following a divine plan, happening when He wills it and that all is for a divine purpose. We too can live in difficult times with the principles of grace, faith, Scripture, prayer, fellowship, obedience and hope singing God’s song in a strange and hostile land. Christian in 2009…dare to be Daniel!

2009-04-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

PBC
Another season begins

The Pittsburgh Baseball Club…the Pirates…begin play for keeps next Monday at St. Louis against the Cardinals. Spring training is a wonderful time. Every hitter has the potential to hit over .300 and every pitcher the potential to win 15 or more games. Such is the exuberance of training in the sunshine of Florida or Arizona. But, now it is time for a healthy dose of realism. Returning north to the cool of spring also helps to cool down overheated expectations.

The fact is that the Pirates return the same players that lead them to a 95 loss season. In fact, over the past 4 years the PBC has averaged 95 losses a year. So, how can any sane fan believe they will be winners. It will take an additional 15 wins just to have the current edition break even. Last year they had the worst ERA for starting and relief pitchers in the National League. And, they have virtually the same staff. So, if the old saying rings true, “offense sells tickets but pitching wins games”, there is not much reason for optimism. There is no offense to bring in the folks and no pitching to put the Buccos on the winning path.

The Pirates are facing a major league record 17 straight losing seasons. Unfortunately, that seems much more plausible than a winning record in the 2009 season. I have been a Pirate fan all my life. From the O’Brien twins in the fifties; to the unbflievable 1960s team that won the Series on Maz’s bottom of the 9th homer; to the two championships of the 70s, 1971 starring the Great One and 1979 with the “We are Family” of Pops Stargell; to the present years of mediocrity broken only by the early 90s teams of Van Slyke, Bonilla and a drug free Bonds, I have hung with the PBC.

I would start each year watching and rooting for the Bucs until they were out of it…usually by Decoration Day! My dear Susan wondered why I wasted my time and frustrated myself on such a bunch of losers. So, beginning last year, I decided I would not watch them until they proved they could win through May. Needless to say, I saw no contests last year. Likewise, I will only read about them until they can prove they can win this year. Only then will I give of my time. I should get a lot done this spring!

2009-04-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

Calvin @ 500
Preacher for the Ages

July 10, 2009, will be the 500th birthday of John Calvin. No one has had more influence on the church in the last 500 years. And, it is not waning. Did you notice that the 3rd of the 10 ideas Time says is changing the world today is the “new Calvinism”? John Calvin was one interested in education. He entered the university at 14 to study theology. He received a classical education that included Latin, logic and philosophy. He studied law at the University of Orléans and Greek at the University of Bourges. He was a humanist scholar his first book being a secular treatment of Seneca the Younger’s De Clementia. Before he became the pastor at St. Pierre’s in Geneva he became Professor of Sacred Scripture at the university there. He believed in education and the necessity of an educated pastorate.

He was a prolific writer and Biblical commentator. His Institutes still stand today as the most concise and informative explanation of the Biblical basis of the Reformed faith. Yet, by far his greatest influence was as a preacher of the Word of God. He was an expositional preacher moving verse by verse through books of the Bible. He preached without notes or manuscript and as a result we only have around 1500 of the over 4000 sermons he preached at Geneva and Strasbourg. He did not believe that preaching was a human invention but an accommodation by God to sinful man who could not hear directly the voice of God Himself without their destruction.

By preaching in an expositional manner, there could be no escaping difficult doctrines or avoiding difficult passages in God’s Word. Thus, the hearers received the whole counsel of God. The leading Calvin biographer T.H.L. Parker says this about Calvin’s methodology:

Sunday after Sunday, day after day, Calvin climbed up the steps into the pulpit. There he patiently led his congregation verse by verse through book after book of the Bible…In his mature years, Calvin preached on a NT book on Sunday mornings and afternoons [although for a period on the Psalms in the afternoon] and on an OT book on weekday mornings.

Through his thorough Biblical preaching and the Institutes, Calvin became the architect of Reformation theology and practice.

Calvin became the preacher for the ages. His preaching was fashioned by belief in the authority of Scripture. He truly believed Scripture was verbum Dei, the Word of God. In the Institutes he penned:

Their [ministers] whole task is limited to the ministry of God’s Word; their whole wisdom to the knowledge of His Word; their whole eloquence, to its proclamation.

Reformed scholar J.H. Merle D’Aubigné said this about Calvin’s relation of preaching to God’s Word:

In Calvin’s view, everything that had not for its foundation the Word of God was futile and ephemeral boast; and the man who did not lean on Scripture ought to b deprived of his title of honor.

Parker says that Calvin never entered the pulpit with his own dreams or fancies to relay to the congregation. Instead:

For Calvin the message of Scripture is sovereign, sovereign over the congregation and sovereign over the preacher. His humility is shown by submitting to this authority.

What a refreshing departure from what passes as preaching today. This is a far cry from meeting the “felt needs” of the pampered, unchallenged, self-centered congregations of today. The story is told that when Calvin returned from his exile from Geneva three years later, he picked up preaching on the next verse after that last verses he preached on three years earlier! He did not return with “lessons learned” from his interregnum, for himself or the Genevans. No, he returned to preaching God’s Word, verse by verse, precept by precept, book by book of Scripture.

Preaching, above all other things, was Calvin’s priority. For Calvin, it was the centerpiece of worship and a mark of the true church of God. Calvin lead to the removing of the communion table from the center to the pulpit and the Bible thereon being central to corporate worship. Calvin had a very high view of preaching based on three premises: a high view of God; a high view of God’s Word and an accurate view of man. Calvin believed:

Preaching is the living voice of God in His Church [Commentary Pentateuch of Moses]; God begets and multiplies his church only by means of His Word…It is by the preaching of the grace of God alone that the church is kept from perishing [Commentary The Psalms] and the subject to be taught was the Word of God…best done by the steady and methodical exposition, book after book [Commentary Ephesians].

As you contemplate Calvin’s influence in the world and church, which will be discussed at length over the next months, keep in mind his view of preaching God’s Word as what he believed his primary call in his life was. He believed he was God’s oracle, proclaiming His Word to be applied by the Holy Spirit to the lives of hearers to effect change in their minds, hearts and behavior. May there be raised up a new generation of Bible expositors in the contemporary church who proclaim the whole counsel of God that changes lives through the application of God’s Word by and through the Holy Spirit. That would be a fitting tribute to John Calvin, the Preacher for the Ages.

2009-03-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-16T07:16:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

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!].

2009-03-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-01-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

Escape From Reason
No More Answers

Today there are almost no philosophies in the classical sense of philosophy—there are anti-philosophies. Men can no longer think they can get answers to the big questions.

Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason

2009-01-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

Economics 101
Sharing the Wealth

The election for POTUS has been over for some time and now the country is poised to inaugurate President Obama. The blather in the press has been over BO’s appointments, the Senate race in MN, the seating of Blago’s choice to replace BO and what the Obama team can do about the economic crisis that grips the country and the world. There stock market is rather stale, but there is hope for an Obama Rally.

With the economic crisis solutions being championed, there still is a holdover from the election campaign. That is President elect Obama’s comment to Joe the Plumber about “sharing the wealth”. What does this mean? How is it applied by the government? The idea of taking from the “rich” and giving to the “poor” is a romantic notion rooted in the heroic Robin Hood. But, there are complex issues here, not the least of which are definitions of “rich” and “poor”, and how much is to be shared.

It does appear that increasing taxes [or repealing the Bush tax cuts] is a bit of a back burner issue at the current juncture. In fact, there is talk of a $300B tax cut including some for business. That is a appositive step for which BO should be applauded. However, tax cuts, the enormous new stimulus being proposed by the Obama team, along with TARP and the numerous other rescues must be paid for at some time. Eventually, all what the government has done and will do has to be repaid. BO always talked of cutting taxes for 90% of the population. So, imagine the size of the tax increases on the remaining 10%. Tax increases to “share the wealth” are being delayed not scrapped.

It is no secret that some in society contribute more and earn more. Why? Opportunity, positioning, timing, all come into play. But, many produce more based on innate abilities and hard work. And, the reward for folks in our economic system is “more”…wealth, power and prestige. There are two obvious results from a system that rewards the able hard working individual…greed and envy. The greedy want more and the envious want what others have. Neither should be the driver in a re-distribution ethic. The politics of greed and envy are equally to be avoided.

When considering the question of “Who are the rich?” I submit that each and every American is “rich” vis a vis the rest of the world. Of course, that is not the majority view in this country where there is a desire to compare the “rich” with the “poor”. And, that is a moving target as witnessed by the changes in what earning level determines the middle class in the Obama campaign.

The state re-distributes that which was distributed originally through the economic system. This is done through the power of taxation. The excess of the “rich” is redistributed to the “poor” by taxing the “rich”. Can there be a more inefficient system? For the state to do this requires a massive bureaucratic system. Hundreds and thousands of employees at the state and federal level are required to carry out this redistribution. It costs millions of dollars in overhead before the “poor” receive a penny. And, what about the taxed “rich”? Why will they be willing to work hard or use their abilities to have their earnings diverted through the government to those who did not earn it? Why not invest in tax free investments or take their funds elsewhere. In a global economy, US citizens are not tied to the US economy. Or, what if taxes mollify greed to the point where the rich are satisfied with the status quo? Less work, overseas investment and just sitting on funds all leads to less income for the “rich” to be taxed and redistributed.

The welfare system shows how poorly redistribution works. Welfare begets more welfare. The recipient of welfare is not benefited if he has no idea of how to use the cash, except to be a consumer. There is no making the “poor” “rich” through redistribution. If the distributee has no ability or self-discipline to generate surplus, then they will obviously continue to need redistributed cash. Investment of excess has been the engine of capitalism, not redistribution by taxation. A redistribution scheme produces nothing and without wise investment of the excess, income ceases.

Redistribution is a threat to the formation of capital. Redistribution takes excess that could be invested and distributes it to individuals who do not invest. Redistribution programs also vest more and more authority in the state that holds the taxing power. The “poor” increasing look to the state to cure their plight of not being “rich”. It keeps individuals from looking to themselves for solutions. And, redistribution, by taxing the “rich”, asserts the proposition that the “poor” are “poor” because the “rich” are “rich”. Nannie State must make all her children equal. The “poor” are entitled to be “rich” and the “rich to be “less rich” for the sake of equity.

Socialism as an economic system has never lead to all being equally rich. Rather, it results in an equality of poverty. “Spreading the wealth” dissipates the wealth. Redistribution makes us all dependant on the state because its redistribution has undermined the source and process of wealth creation. Witness the intrusion of the federal government into the market place last year, and continuing. “Bailouts” to large corporations are welfare for the wealthy and, in the case of the financial system, stupid and/or corrupt decision makers. We are told, “It would be worse if we [Uncle Sam] did not intervene.” But, who can tell? It is clear that the state in now deeply involved in the free market system. Who will be next to request corporate welfare?

Christians never look to the Nannie State to being bout equality. A Christian also knows that equality of material wealth is not the goal of living on this earth. There will be rich and there will be poor. Jesus Himself says: You will always have the poor [Matt. 26:11]. Christians are to assist the poor; it is evidence of their Christianity. But, assistance is of a voluntary nature. It is not the involuntary taxation of the state leading to redistribution. Christians give to the poor because of a changed heart, changed by faith in Jesus Christ. The haves want to help the have nots in their community. This is not an impersonal, forced transaction. It is an outreach to those created in the image of God in a personal and compassionate way.

One who is not counted among the faithful Christians, or one who championed the people, Machiavelli, recognized the problems with forced redistribution through taxation:

One man should not be afraid of improving his possessions, lest they be taken away from him, or another deterred by high taxes from starting a new business, Rather the prince should be ready to reward men who want to do these things and anyone who wants in any way to increase the prosperity of his city or his state.

Machiavelli believed that the entrepreneur should not be punished with taxes for his personal improvement translates into improvement for the state. The Christian goes one step further. He sees such programs as a reliance on the state so as to make the state god. This displaces the God of the Universe with an idol. The Church must come forward and be the Church, reaching out to its own and then to the general community to help those in need. Love and charity have been central pieces in the Christian ethic. It is a giving freely of what is available to give, not taking. It is action without mandate, coercion or redistribution. It is part of the service and obedience of a Christian.

2009-01-05T12:57:00.000-08:00

2009
It's going to be an exciting year!

We first heard of her in the late summer of 2006. Lucas went to Fairfax, VA, to begin teaching and coaching soccer at NVCA. She assisted him with the boy's team and he her with the girl's. She was from rural PA [eastern]; played soccer in college; attended a small Christian liberal arts school [Cedarville]; and was a Christian [Baptist]. But, what really caught our attention was the fist week of school when Lucas contracted a nasty virus. He was home in bed in Arlington for about four days calling constantly about what to do next to get better. She showed up at his door with soup and a "what can I do spirit"! Understand, Arlington is only about 8-10 miles from Fairfax but a 40 minute drive. This is some young lady we thought.

During the year there was much discussion about her. And, she was there for him when he was challenged by the NVCA folks about not being a "real" evangelical Christian in the Northern VA sense. We always asked to meet her when we went to see Lucas, but we were politely rebuffed…by him. We knew why. He knew when we met her we would take to her. Finally, near the end of the school year we met. He was right…she was a gem.

Lucas has had many wonderful influences in his life, male and female. This young lady had the characteristics of three of the females rolled into one. What a work of God's providential blessing was her presence in Lucas' life. Since the spring of 2007 a friendship has blossomed into a relationship. We have met her family and we see why she is the person she is. She has an older brother who is a missionary and two younger sisters. Her dad is a leader in his church and her mother is lovely Christian woman who is every ounce a nurturer and encourager.

Back in October, on a truck ride with her dad, Lucas asked for his daughter's hand as his wife. For six hours they together talked about faith, family and two living as one under the Lordship of Christ…and said yes. Sister Barb helped Lucas choose a ring. And, this past weekend, as he planned for several weeks, he asked her to be his life's partner when we all traveled to New York. And………she said yes!

Part of the glorious Christmas season is about a betrothal; one that preceded the Incarnation. We are so thankful what our great God has done in and with Lucas' life and that He has in His grace, mercy and wisdom brought to Lucas as a for life help mate a godly woman justified by faith in Christ. Join us in this season of Joy as we celebrate the engagement of Lucas to Katie Walter. When you meet her you will love her as we do and see God's fingerprints all over the two of them.

2008-12-05T11:39:00.000-08:00

Living in the World
Science and Creation

Wooly Mammoth DNA has been harvested. Should we then try and create a Wooly Mammoth? One of the changes that will occur in the new Presidential administration will be in regard to stem cell research. The extent and type of stem cell research will stir controversy, especially with Petri dish embryos. The real issue here is how we treat creation.

Science today believes it can conquer nature. In fact, modern science pursues all knowledge and power as its mandate. It has come a long way from a set of procedures and experimental methods. Science has become the cultural motor. That is even more so with the explosion of technology and applied science. Michael Polayni as a scientist was one who came to understand the faulty vision of the new science with respect to knowledge. But, he is the exception. Science and scientists believe they are the fount and finder of all true knowledge.

When Leon Kass became the Chairman of the president’s Council of Bioethics he had the council members read Hawthorne’s story “The Birthmark” which demonstrated how it was fatal to seek perfection and total control. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Abolition of Man:

For the wise man of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline and virtue.

Modern science seeks all knowledge un-tethered from self-discipline and virtue. It has a mission to frame reality, not conform to it. Pursuing nature to find knowledge is the only virtue.

For Christians, this is a misinterpretation of creation. In Scripture, Adam is given dominion over the creation of God. His dominion is linked to his faithfulness to the Creator. Modern science tries to subdue creation apart from any concept of a Creator let alone faithfulness to Him. Thus, nature can be conquered and mastered without any reference to anything but the need to know. This is the secularization of science.

When creation is solely for manipulation to bring nature in compliance with the desires of men, we have lost engagement with the Creator. Nature and reality become the sole domain of science when the Creator is separated from inquiry. This leaves Christianity as a spiritualized practice, fully private. Why? Christian belief and practice have nothing to do with reality, the real world, but is an internalized “what works for you” system. But, true Christianity is closely connected to creation. We serve God in creation, an ordered creation, ordered by a Creator. This is incompatible with a secularized science disconnected from a Creator with responsibility to Him. The modern scientific view of molding creation with science and technology sees nothing beyond science. Such a practice removes the Creator from the lives of most folks. This leads to several results.

Man becomes the new master, eliminating the real Master. There is no check to what man does in nature except man, or more correctly, the man with the most power. We are left with, at best, a Deist God who may be a Creator but does not much care about that creation. He has fallen asleep, taken a hike or is incapable of intervening into His Creation. We have a scary randomness because there is not an ordering and providential Creator. And, there is no natural revelation from which to know God, for He is unknowable in creation. Nature is only the raw material for an advancing, scientifically driven society desiring to subdue all of nature to its own desires and ends.

This is why the resurrection of Christ in anathema to secular science. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, tells the believer that their faith is futile and pointless, they are still in their sins and trespasses, if the resurrection did not occur. And, this is not some internalized ideal of a Christ rising in your heart. No, Paul says people are liars [that is non truth tellers] if Jesus in not alive. Paul’s point: the resurrection occurred in space and time and conforms to reality, it is true. The resurrection points back to creation. It was a supernatural event in the natural world, an event impossible by science. Science can neither prove nor disprove the resurrection, but if it is really true, science in no longer the shaper of reality and the Creator must always be accounted for in science.

Should we produce a wooly mammoth just because we can? Modern secular science responds with an unequivocal yes. But, does it comport with the Creator’s concept of creation? Does it assist mankind in conforming to the Creator’s reality? Or, is it merely an attempt to be a creator just like God or to show man is god? For the Christian, technology and applied science is not a means to conform and subdue nature. Rather, it is a means to better understanding creation, the Creator and our role and relation to it and Him. Only then will science be turned away from secularization, and the will of man, and returned to a relationship with the Creator, and the will of God.

2008-12-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

Living in the World
Dream or Opportunity

The recent mortgage crisis that has lead to the credit problems in the world economy has been based on achieving “the American Dream.” The theory is that everyone in America is entitled to be a home owner. From 2002 to early this year, homes have been sold to many people in many ways. Unprecedented home ownership has lead to unprecedented financial problems.

Smart people bundled questionable loans, made them into securities and sold them all over the world. By keeping the prime rate low, the Federal Reserve made money cheap to obtain. Together [cheap money and securitizing bad loans] the so called “housing bubble” was created. The bubble burst and the entire world has been splashed with red ink. The stock markets have tanked, millions of investors have lost the lion’s share of their retirement investments, job losses are rapidly increasing, the government is madly printing money and increasing national debt to try and stem the tide. To date, it has had very little impact. The “American Dream” has become the “American Nightmare”.

It seems like an appropriate time to revisit this idea of home ownership as “the American Dream”. A dream is, after all, something that is not real. It may be a subconscious idea of what the dreamer wants to be real. Yet, is does not usually comport with the way it is. And, when you think about it, that is the housing crisis. Who would actually believe that non qualified individuals could actually be homeowners? No docs, no down payments, no income, variable low rates, interest only…all these ideas could only seemingly work in an artificial environment. That environment was the concept that the housing bubble would never bust. Sure you can’t own a home. But, we can get you in a home with unrealistic terms. And, when the good terms expire, you can refinance using the increased equity value that your home will gain during the time you hold the original loan.

The only problem was that values of homes plummeted. When the “good deals” expired, instead of a higher value, you had less equity than you were obligated to pay. The dream died, as dreams always do when you wake up. But, unlike dreams in your head, real life consequences ensued. And, the consequences were visited on us all. The “American Dream” lead to a “Worldwide Nightmare”.

The United States used to be called the land of opportunity, not dreams. Opportunities are based on substance—education and employment, for instance. Obtain a good education, get a job, earn money and save for a down payment, then you can buy the home of your “dreams”. The dream is achieved by taking advantage of the opportunities. Home ownership was always looked upon as a tangible achievement by industrious, hardworking folk who made a dream tangible.

In the past half dozen years, homeownership became an entitlement. Congresscreatures seeking votes, unscrupulous lenders seeking wealth, and greedy, envious people who wanted a home they could not afford, combined to concoct schemes that really were dreams.
Opportunity provides access to knowledge, self discipline and virtue that can be translated into rewards, financial and otherwise. The attempt to hand out rewards without effort equals a dream turned nightmare. It just does not work. Consider welfare payments, individual and corporate. What have they accomplished over the years? Dis-incentive and stagnation result. Recipients of the government largess rarely move on to personal responsibility and accomplishment without the need of government help.

How do we escape this mess? It all starts with the government. As a social institution, the government should promote opportunity so people can achieve their dreams. It is true; some will not take advantage of the opportunity. But, that is the individual’s failure to cultivate the opportunity. Fulfilling dreams through magical schemes that seem impossible is impossible. Trying to have dreams substitute for opportunity and hard work is a dead end process. Let us make the US the land of opportunity again. Please Uncle Sam, no more trillion dollar nightmares that our grandchildren will be paying. Give us opportunity not unrealized dreams.

2008-11-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

Living in the World
Indian Summer 2008

Last week we had some horrendous winter weather…snow, wind and cold. I was stuck on US 322 Wednesday 29 October, because the snowy conditions lead to a traffic accident that turned the highway into a parking lot. The snow melted and the weather has been quite nice since. Since a week ago, the high temperatures have been creeping up and up. The last two days have seen middle sixties. We are experiencing a magnificent Indian Summer. Last week was Squaw Winter which must occur before Indian Summer.

Recently, I mentioned this Squaw Winter/Indian Summer relation and a person to whom I was speaking never heard such a thing. Like most concepts in a post-modern world, Indian Summer is whatever and whenever you want it to be. Well, guess what? That ain’t so. The meaning of Indian Summer is a concrete and absolute here in the Eastern Continental Divide. To understand the objective, true meaning of Indian Summer unsullied by contemporary mushy, subjective views of this world, read the following:

I have a little something that I would like to pass on to you about weather. Call it a bit of weather wisdom. I know you have heard of a period of weather in the Fall of the year called “Indian Summer”. Now some weather men refer to it as if they may hve invented it. They refer to any period of warm days in the Fall as Indian Summer. Now, let me give you the truth about Indian Summer. Native American Indians and old timers for many years know there is no timetable for Indian Summer. There’s no month or any specific time period for it. It is a time in the Fall that the weather is warm and hazy. But first, there must be a winter episode where snow falls and accumulates on the surface of the ground. The first snow that lies on the ground is called “Squaw Winter”. When the snow melts, the first day or period of days after that the weather is warm and hazy, that’s Indian Summer. You may have it or you may not, but warm days without having Squaw Winter is not Indian Summer.

Clarence C. Kriner, Grandpa: His Life at the Old Home and Beyond, [Clearfield, PA: SGM Press, 2006], p. 31.

Around these parts we are enjoying “real” Indian Summer because we have had Squaw Winter. I hope you too are enjoying Indian Summer, or you have it to look forward to if you have yet to experience Squaw Winter. If you do not have Squaw Winter, or winter of any kind, too bad, you will never experience Indian Summer. The weather forecast indicates a return to normal fall weather this weekend. So, the temperate weather will come to an end, but it has been a thoroughly enjoyable Indian Summer of 2008.

2008-11-05T12:08:00.000-08:00

Election 2008
The Day After

Some initial musings on Election 2008 on the day after:

1] It truly is historic that America elected a black man as POTUS. I am long enough in the tooth to remember the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s. From the assassinations of 1968 to forty years later, a black President…truly amazing and a statement of how the Republic works. I am sure the gushing and fawning will be over the top, especially from a media that so desperately wanted to see BO win, yet it is a milestone in our history.

2] I am always impressed by split party voting. Most American voters make decisions on respective candidates, not their parties, and that is a very good thing.

3] BO was as liberal a state and federal senator as they come. And, he has had no stomach for standing up to his party. I hear post-election pundits say he will govern from the center. But, there is no evidence to believe that. Will he resist the left leaning policies of his party that he so openly embraced now that he is POTUS? He certainly ran his election as if he was now a centrist. We all must watch carefully what happens for that will indicate who BI really is…what we could not discern during the election campaign.

4] As we ponder the historicity of the moment, some big questions remain. Will the race card forever be jettisoned since a black man has won the big enchilada? Or, will all objection to the new President’s policies and positions, warranted and unwarranted, be met with a racism charge? Will BO be subject to the same withering vitriolic and mean spirited attacks Bush had to endure? Or, will BO be insulted from that because he is the first black President? Will the skin tone of the President be used to silence all opposition to the liberal agenda if in fact the real BO is the far left senator he has been known to be not the centrist he held himself out to be during the campaign? The debate permitted over coming governmental initiatives will tell the tale.

5] Finally, BO will be my President, and Scripture directs that we pray for him as the civil magistrate who leads this country. That, all Christians must do whether you agree with him or not.

It will be an interesting four years.

2008-11-04T07:37:00.000-08:00

Election 2008
Election Day

It is finally here…3 cheers! Go to the polls and exercise your franchise…your vote. In the history of the world few have had the opportunity to choose their leaders on the local, regional and national level. Do not take that right for granted, it has been paid for in blood. But, also remember you are voting for mere fallible men or women. They hold no key to your ultimate destiny or wellbeing. Every politician is a sinner, some saved by grace, others not. Their plans and ideas are temporal, perishable and incapable of eternal or permanent change. For Christians, our trust is not in McCain or Obama or the hundreds of others running for public office today.

It cannot be said better than Psalm 146:

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob;
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

So, vote for the candidates; put your trust in the Sovereign of not only the US but all the earth!

2008-10-27T07:18:00.000-07:00

Economics 101
The New Economics?

As we all know by now, there is a credit crisis. Who is at fault will be a political football for months to come. Congress gave treasury $700B to solve the problem. After changing course several times, Treasury opted for the European way as a first step. That is, capital was injected into the 9 largest banks in the country. There are conflicting reports about the willingness of the banks to go along, but it is a done deal. Thus, the American banking system is now partially nationalized and the first checks go out today.

There is much hooha about this being an attempt to save capitalism, not take over capitalism. Now, it is true that the London Interbank Offered Rate [Libor], the rate banks charge each other to borrow money has been trading way above three month Treasury bill rates. And, when this is the case, no one lends. It creates anxiety because no one knows if they are lending to the next Lehman Brothers. So, money floods the safe haven of treasuries. Until the rate spread [the TED] narrows money will not come out of treasuries and to borrowers. It is too risky. So, by injecting capital, the Treasury hopes to create lending in spite of the TED.

Is this a good idea? Well, consider this. The palookas in Congress who got us into the credit mess by changing the requirements for mortgages will now have some say in our largest banks. Can they resist the type of meddling that Congressional types like to engage in? When things get better will the government want to get out? Wells Fargo announced they are looking for capital to repay the government pronto because they want no part of government ownership.

In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal there was a report of Democrat Senators such as Schumer wanting more controls over this money going to banks to make sure they make loans. What type of loans? Hopefully not the risky ones pushed by Congress that are now under water. And, was not the dividend to be paid on the preferred stock issued in exchange for the loans what the government was to receive? We were assured they were not getting into the banking business.

All of this new socialism in banking may just be a precursor to more socialism in general. Joe the Plumber has been made into a media star by the GOP and a villain by the Dems. But, he did extract a real issue…….redistribution of wealth which is a tenet of socialism as an economic system. The Speaker has already signaled a new stimulus package of $300 M is on the way. Pile that onto Bear Sterns, AIG, TARP, $ to auto makers and everything else in the pipeline and you have enormous government intervention into the marketplace. What will it be like when Dems control Congress and the Executive? The invisible hand of Adam Smith will be replaced by the visible hand of the government.

Remember when the Paulson/Bernanke/President/Democrat Congress warned us that if the stimulus package was not passed there would be Armageddon? Since its passage the Dow has dropped another 2000 points. The mortgages in trouble have yet to see TARP relief. The stock market may not yet have fully absorbed the full brunt of the recession. Stocks are wonderful bargains today, but investors are skittish because of not knowing the government’s next step. All things economic are in turmoil. Welcome to the Twilight Zone of the New Economics!

2008-10-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

Election 2008
Debate Season Over….Finally

I don’t know about you but I am glad the debate season is over. They were yawners by and large. BO was the Teflon man…deflecting everything with his mantra that we “can’t afford 8 more years of failed Bush policies.” McCain was choppy in his answers and never went for the throat when given the opportunity. I heard some wag during this whole process say the both acted like senators, not presidential candidates. Neither inspire as leaders. BO is just trying not to lose; McCain is just trying…..

It seems pretty clear that barring a catastrophic event…BO will be the next POTUS. I have repeated many times to many people, whomever is elected with be a one termer. The problems are so large and systemic that the next POTUS will have grave difficulty in forging solutions. Look at the credit crisis. How much more can the government do? The Fed can cut rates again, but it will take a great deal of time to melt the lending ice jam. And, the economic crisis is still coming with a recession of who knows what magnitude upon us. The next POTUS can undoubtedly make things worse will ill advised policies, but I have a hard time seeing how he can make things better.

There will be some unfortunate outcomes of BO as POTUS. Here are a few:

1] There will be much gushing about how we have so progressed in this country by electing our first African American POTUS. I cannot remember a POTUS election cycle where the media, electronic and print, have so wanted on candidate to win. While I believe a lot of it is hatred of Geo. W. Bush and identifying McCain with him, there is a fair amount of rooting for a history making election. Why? So all the journalists can say I was there when it happened and write books about this new chapter in American history. Moderator of the VP debate anyone? In many ways this sociological factor outweighs who would be a better governor of the country.

2] With the Democrats in charge of the Executive and Legislative the investigation of the credit mess will lay the blame squarely on Wall Street ignoring the Dodd/Schumer/Frank Trinity who forced the risky lending principles on the banks and the public. These guys were big on the $700B bailout because they hope these funds can be used to cover their dirty laundry. CEOs will be correctly castigated and some many even make a visit to the Big House. But, it will be difficult to get the full picture and expose all the Congressional shenanigans in hearings controlled by Democrats and with an administration of Democrats.

3] The SCOTUS will not be changing its composition. With BO as POTUS we will have expansionist interpreters of the Constitution replaced by like minded folk. So, the 5-4 decisions will continue and there will be continual chipping away on strict construction. And, heaven forbid if one of the strict constructionists dies and has to be replaced while BO is President. Then, there will be change….and maybe that is what BO means with his change talk.

4] Another outcome of Democratic control of Executive and Legislative will be the increase of tax and spend policies. That is a tandem that goes together in policies of Democrats. And, BO’s tax breaks to 95% of the population…those earning <$250k…is actually the biggest move to income redistribution in decades. Between 35 and 40 % of Americans do not pay taxes today. So, their tax break would be to receive money from the government as a tax credit is not a break to one who does not pay taxes. And, where does that money come from? Taxpayers…which is why McCain [awkwardly] tried to make the “Joe the Plumber” connections in last night’s debate. This is what BO meant in his comment to Joe that BO wants “to spread the wealth around”.

5] The Acorn voter fraud story will be buried. As it now stands, BO looks to win decisively and if he does, there will not be any further inquiry into what happened in registering voters in what were to be key battleground states. Like the shenanigans in Congress with Fannie/Freddie and housing for all, what really happened probably will not come to light. And, the Acorn operatives will be at it again in the 2012 election instead of putting it to a stop now.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 19 days. No one wants any more untoward events, the kind that could swing the election, but they are always possible. With BO ahead, the economy and credit markets in the tank, and the unpopularity of the present POTUS, BO is as close as there can be to a shoe in 3 weeks before an election. Circumstances not controlled by McCain have swamped McCain. The same could be the fate of BO the next four years as POTUS.

2008-10-13T07:43:00.001-07:00

Escape From Reason
Surrender to Despair

Modern man has given up his hope of unity and lives in despair—the despair of no longer thinking that what has always been the aspiration of men and women is at all possible.
Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason

2008-10-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

Economics 101
Credit is also Debt

Credit has been way too easy to obtain is this country. Who does not get dozens of credit card applications in the mail each year? Mortgagees have mortgages they cannot pay. Mortgagors have granted loans they have no business giving. Consumers have credit card debt so huge they can’t pay the interest! Lenders have been leveraged 20-30-40 to 1. Credit has been abused.

Now credit has dried up. Banks will not even lend to other banks because no one understands the extent of the risk involved. Credit has a significant place in our economy. Companies borrow money daily to make payments banking on the receipts they will be obtaining. Now, no one wants to take the risk that their borrower can pay. Grandpa Kriner always said do not buy something you cannot pay for in cash. Darn good advice for the consumer because it keeps you out of debt.

For some reason, many believed there would never be a deflationary impulse in housing in spite of the overbuilding that was evident all over the country. But, now houses in many places are worth less that they were last year…even last week. But, the big mortgages taken against those houses still have to be paid. Another thing Grandpa said: “When you have a mortgage the bank owns your house.” The situation with the current crisis: lots of debt; decreasing equity; no place to turn to refinance or pay the debt.

We have been witnesses to the circus in Washington trying to solve the credit problem encouraged by the same clowns who made this possible. That is not excusing greedy lenders who tried to come up with fancy new ways to make mortgages that were of questionable value into securities. Yet, without the attempt to make home ownership an entitlement, the sub-prime mortgage mess would never have occurred. But, the real question is what this all means to you?

Get out of debt when you can…as soon as you can. If the government does enter the banking market as appears to be the case, expect more mucking about. Why? What free enterprise action does the government do better than the market? You get the idea. Your share of the bailouts of Bear Sterns, Freddy & Fanny, AIG and whatever is next will be sufficient debt for you. Remember whatever all these governmental actions are called, it is now attempting to unfreeze the credit markets. Credit must flow for the economy to work. But, also remember, credit is also debt. You will be saddled with more of it by your government; so avoid it on your own.

2008-10-01T07:58:00.001-07:00

Escape From Reason
Changed Thinking

The mass of people have received the new way of thinking through the media without analyzing it…It is not merely that they think different things. They think differently. Their thinking has changed in such a way that when you say Christianity is true the sentence does not mean to them what it means to you.

Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason

2008-09-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

Conservatives…
and Ideologies

Conservatives are often referred to in the media as being “ideological conservatives”. That is a misnomer, a contradiction in terms. Ideologues are the antithesis of conservatives because they exalt time over place. For the ideologue, time is unfolding a better and better society. What has gone before has no import to the ideologue. Ideology is about what is “not” instead of reality; about what could be instead of what exists. Ideologues fit nicely with scientific materialists who believe that we live in a closed system of random origin without outside influence or ideals and we alone are responsible for “getting it right” and that requires time.

On the other hand we have the conservative. Russell Kirk said being a conservative is a:

…cast of intellect or a type of character, and inclination to cherish the permanent things in human existence…to join in resistance to the destruction or the old patterns of life [and] damage to the footings of civil social order…

Note two things in particular that sets the conservative apart from the ideologue. The first is “permanent things”. That is non-negotiable virtues without which a society cannot exist and operate. Ideologues are about changing social order because nothing is permanent. Why? Because, for the ideologue, there is the unfolding enlightenment of man that allows him to move to higher and higher plains of goodness. There is not a good, an ideal, to be cherished because we are making things better and better.

Second, the conservative is “against destruction” of the old social order. This is why conservatives resist ideologues and their ideologies. Conservatives know that ideologues leave in their wake of change dismantled foundations and non-functioning institutions that had served the society before the “change for the better”. On striking example, but by no means the only, is the “better way” of sexual liberation leaving in its wake the broken and destroyed family as it had functioned for thousands of years in the world.

At their core, ideologues are about the rejection of reality and destruction of what is. In place of reality ideologues what to build a “possibility” that has never existed and is not possible. The ideologue represents a smug, self-righteous attitude that by subverting and dismantling the “way it is” there can be a “better way”. This attitude is rejected by the conservative. This is not a rejection of change, for change is inevitable. It is a rejection of the radical change that dismantles what we know for what is imagined. Conservatives desire to maintain the permanent virtues and patterns of life that have been the basis of society since there have been societies and promote change within.

The hubris of ideology ignores the fallibility of man. The ideologue wants to dismiss the accrued wisdom of men through the ages for the enlightened view of modern man. The traditional virtues, tested through time and experience, are found wanting by the 21st century ideologue. They are viewed as oppressive and not in step with what is now happening. For improving the world, wholesale change is needed. Bringing the world in line with the desires of modern man is the way to a better world. This is why there are no “permanent things” or “footings of society” for the ideologue. The desires of man are always changing, so change is inevitable. Tying society to the desire of man means a constantly moving target unmoored to anything permanent.

Virtuous terms do not disappear; just the meaning of them. Take for instance the modified definition of honor. At one time honor meant standing on principles believed regardless of the consequences or impact on the person of honor. But, today we do not see honor as a permanent virtue that is manifested in an individual as part of his character. Honor in a “changed” society is now defined as status, or respect for personal accomplishment. It is an “I did it my way” view of things. Honor is no longer attached to virtue or a part of a person’s character. We honor those judged to be successful at fulfilling his or her personal desires. Honor is now recognition of the individual rather than the individual representing service, sacrifice, or even death for a cause that is virtuous.

A brief examination of the world we now live inn exposes the foolishness of ideologies. Do we really see in the unfolding of time a continuing revelation of a higher and better humanity? Do we see in our world societies finally “getting it right” after centuries of misplace emphases on permanent things? Globalism, multi-culturalism and neo-conservatism are ideologies that are moving us away from the “old ways” to “new ways” that promise an elevated humanity. Is that what we see? One a grand scale we see a movement to a one world economic order doing away with nation-states and on a micro scale it is personal autonomy shedding the shackles of oppressive communities. I am sure you can come up with many other examples.

The dream of ideologues is progress driven by the engine of technology. Ideologues love progress for it is indicative of the better. Surely the new is always better than the old? Progress is defined by the ideologue as moving ahead. We are the most advanced folks because technology has made our lives easy, comfortable and pleasurable. So, we surely must also be the most advanced in ideas and consequent behavior. We march into the future armed with technology and believing that we can ignore the past and create a new social order. To T.S. Eliot’s famous statement:

We are what we are because they were what they were,

the ideologue answers yes…but we must be different because we now know better.

The late Gerhart Niemeyer asserted that ideologies fail because of two reasons. One, they are frauds. They substitute the philosophical questions about what is given for a set of assertions about what is not given. As a willful assertion of unreality or willful denial of reality, ideology is an intellectual perversion. Second, because and ideologue does not embrace reality and act within it to achieve real possibilities they are destroyers of societies not builders.

Two examples of 20th century history…National Socialism and Communism…prove Niemeyer’s point. Going forward in the 21st century we must be vigilant in identifying the unreality and destruction of ideologies. They can come from anywhere. No group or party has a monopoly on ideology. This is where the conservative must play an assertive role in society. Ideologies must be called ideologies. And, the conservative must continue to stand for permanent things and keep the foundations of society from being destroyed. Conservatives look to the past to seek the accumulated wisdom of those who have gone before and the time worn verities that maintain a society. This is not a romantic return to “Ozzie and Harriet. He does not live in the past but is guided by the old order built on permanent virtues that have stood the test of time. Change will come but as a modification of the old not the substitution of a new order built on human progress driven by technology and human desires of modern man.

2008-09-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Not Forgetting 9/11

This was a day that ranks with Pearl Harbor and the assassination of JFK in the memories of Americans living today. A bright, sunny day in the east turned dark and foreboding as airliners were turned into missiles and thousands of non-combatants died in a war we did not even know we were fighting. Some call it a War on Terror, others call it a resumption of the war between Islam and Christianity. Whatever the case, we can never forget that day. Say a prayer for the families of the victims of that day who can never scrub this day from their minds. Say a pray for the leaders of our country as they attempt to keep the citizens safe in an increasingly hostile world where the technology for those who want to harm us is increasingly available.

2008-09-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Living in the World
The Providence of God

Nothing happens by happenstance, serendipity, if you will. There is a purpose and plan for all that happens in the universe. What the purpose and plan is we sometimes cannot know at the time an event happens. There are times when we just rejoice. This is one such time. When I think of this lifetime memory for the Ledford girls I just smile and chuckle for such a cherished moment in their lives. A moment unplanned by man; designed by God!

http://danledford.blogspot.com

2008-09-09T12:30:00.001-07:00

Escape From Reason
The Crisis of the Middle Class

This middle class group is, in many ways, a product of the Reformation; it is something to be thankful for as a source of stability. By now, people in this group often do not understand the basis of its stability. They do not understand why they think in the old way; they are continuing to act out of habit and memory after they have forgotten why the old form was valid. Often they still think in the right way—to them truth is truth, right is right—but they no longer know why. So how can they understand their 20th century children who think in the new way, who no longer think that truth is truth nor that right is right?

Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason

2008-09-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Conservatives…
and Education

It is appalling how little attention is paid to reading and history today. They go had in hand. Television, the internet and cellular phones tell us little about our history. They are technological “now” instruments. You have to put them down to read. And, we do not want to do that. We might miss something!

Education has generally moved from the liberal arts [including history] to technical and specialized learning. And, what is left of the liberal arts is riddled with political correctness. In the academy of today, race, gender and class, with increasing doses of sexual preference, dictate the study of the social sciences. Western civics has become the story of the failure of rich white men, who were probably homophobic, to produce an egalitarian society where every idea has equal validity and importance. You are far more likely to gain admittance to a doctoral program in a US university wanting to study about homosexual black women on southern plantations than the study of any heretofore significant male figure from the 17th to 20th century.

Jude Daugherty, former Chairman of the Philosophy Department at Catholic University maintains that being an educated conservative requires a literary [reading] tradition that puts people in touch with the wisdom of the past. Of, course that flies in the face of those who debunk the past [history] as the story of the oppressive winners who suppressed every dissident voice and view. Even for those who have not bought into the PC view of education, the past and its wisdom still lacks importance. They look at the past as worthless and hopelessly outdated for modern man. The virtues of the past; the rule of law from the past; ideas of society and family from the past; concepts of science and religion believed in the past; none of it has relevance to now and the future. So, why read history?

For conservatives, the past is important and it is imperative that we understand the past. The conservative understands that Western Culture is the foundation of our society. The Greek and Roman classics; Holy Scripture; the early and medieval church fathers; European works on philosophy and science; these all play an important role in the structuring of what we now identify as the west. The conservative cannot understand why someone would espouse the construction of a new order of things ignoring the collective efforts of the past. Preservation of those collective memories of the past is necessary according to Edmund Burke:

…it is with infinite caution that any man ought to venture upon pulling down an edifice which has answered in any tolerable degree for ages the common purposes of society or on building it up again without having models of approved utility before his eyes.

We are 180 degrees from Burke. We reject notions of the past as out of step with the now. We are attempting to build a society without a known foundation. How long can such an edifice stand?

Specifically, this country, the USA, was built by men schooled in foundational works of the past. Conservatives know that, and real conservative educational concepts would propose returning to the classics. Walter Lippmann addressed this matter on the University of Pennsylvania campus in 1940. His topic was, interestingly enough, entitled “Education v. Western Civilization”. He said:

The men who wrote the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights were educated in schools and colleges in which the classic works of this culture were the substance of the curriculum. In these schools, the transmission of this culture was held to be the end and aim of education. Modern education, however, is based on a denial that it is necessary or useful or desirable for schools and colleges to continue to transmit from generation to generation the religious and classical culture of the western world.
Thus there is an enormous vacuum where until a few decades ago there was the substance of education. And that vacuum is filled with the elective, the specialized, the accidental and incidental improvisions and spontaneous curiosity of teachers and students. There is no common faith, no common body of principle ,no common body of knowledge, no common moral and intellectual discipline. Yet the graduates of modern schools are expected to form a civilized community.

Breathtaking! Spoken 68 years ago and unheeded. Where there is no common educational process there is no common anything. Just about sums up where we are today.

Conservatives are not against vocational education. But, for us to have a citizenry that has common principles, knowledge, morals and intellectual discipline, there must be a pursuit by all citizens of the foundation of our cultural formation. Our civilization is becoming increasingly uncivilized, as Lippmann predicted. The education promoted by the true conservative is based on understanding the basis of our western culture and transmitting those principles and virtues to all our citizens. Recapturing such a vision of education is needed yesterday and any other educational philosophy cannot be called conservative.

2008-08-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

Conservatives…
and the State

Back on 02 March 2008, I posted on “Who are the Conservatives?” in light of the criticism of John McCain as not being conservative. I opined that being a conservative is not about conserving what or where we are now, but rather about reclaiming permanent things with “redeemed imagination”. The principle is that modernism, and now post- modernism, has corrupted the western culture’s view of what is important and those permanent things need to recaptured. But, that in itself is pretty unsatisfactory. How is this applied in looking at the world? We will try to answer that over the next few weeks with reference to certain specific topics.

We start with the state, not Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc. but the governing authorities whomever they may be. Geo. W. Bush is portrayed by the media and his political adversaries as a conservative. But, is he really when it comes to the state? On his watch, the federal government underwent unbelievable growth. He liked all kinds of spending bills and that extended the power of the state. So, too did the expansion of bureaucracy. TSA alone added thousands of individuals to the government payroll, and the increased emphasis on security has spread the tentacles of the state further into the lives of the citizen.

Most government spending is to enhance the state’s position in the lives of those living in the state. And, state authority and power is not the goal of the truly conservative. Read what Robert Nisbit says about state power:

The contemporary state with all its apparatus of bureaucracy, has become more powerful, more cohesive and is ordained with more power than at any time in history…the whole tendency of modern political development has been to enhance the role of the political state as a direct relationship among individuals, and to bring both its powers and its services even more intimately into the lives of individuals.

That was written in 1953! How much more appropriate today. The massive leviathan state of today with all its intrusions and influence in individual lives would make Nisbit wince.

Conservatives oppose the growth of state power. Why? Because it shifts allegiances away from home and community, local influences, to regional, state and federal influences. The power over individual lives becomes vested in the state, and in the US, especially the federal government. The live of the individual is more and more affected by power centers removed from him when state power grows. And, the larger the state grows; citizens take on more of an impersonal, numerical identity. You are more likely to be on a first name basis with your mayor or township supervisor than your governor, state or federal representatives or anyone in the Executive Branch of the federal government. At least you local leaders have a better chance of knowing who you are…that you have a name! The state rarely knows you so there is no personal touch or compassion in you relationship to the state as there are with family, neighborhood and community of place.

If you have ever had to deal with the bureaucracy of the state or federal government, you understand. Your issue better be one that has stock solutions. Square pegs find no answers in a bureaucracy of round holes. The state is not in the business of addressing your particular problem and it cannot tailor a specific solution not allowed by the operations manual of the bureaucrat. The idea that “I am from the government and I am here to help you” is indeed a joke. The state is not about individual problems; it is about government solutions.

That is to be expected when the seat of power and authority is far removed from where you live your daily life. The bureaucrat in Harrisburg or Washington is not concerned with you as a person and how your problem affects you. His mission is to field your question, open his little box of pat answers approved by the state and see if you fit the profile for “help” he is permitted to dispense. If you do not fit the profile, then you are passed off to another bureaucrat. The mass of red tape and paper work needed to address the simplest question is often mind boggling.

For the conservative, the role of the state is to maintain order so its people can live in peace and safety and punish wrongdoers while promoting good. A friend of mine used to say: The role of government is to deliver the mail, protect the borders and keep the highways open…and they do a lousy job at all of them!” With that many can concur. At what are they good? Taxing and spending comes to mind. Redistributing income so that incumbent politicians can hand out our money to those who are best suited to see that they are re-elected. The expansion of the power of the state permits the state to control more of our lives and keeps those who exercise that power to remain the entrenched political elite. We do not have a King George, we have KINGS George!

The expansion of state power is not a tenant of conservatism. Conservatives place a premium on the individual, his family, his local community and local associations as being most important in forming life and character and permitting an individual to flourish. What Burke called “the little platoons.” For the conservative, the power of the state is to be limited for a healthy society. There is little doubt that the power of the state over the lives of the people dramatically increased under Geo W. Bush’s stewardship of the USA.

As we approach the November election, it is pretty clear that neither major candidate is a “limiting state power” kind of guy. Neither is likely to capture the vision of my friend as to the role of government. The real question may be: Can the present political climate ever produce a conservative candidate who wants to recapture the idea of limited state power for the good of the country? That is, one who values family, community and place as the power centers of life over and above the influence of the state.

2008-08-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

Living in the World/Tales from the ECD
China, Clearfield County and Rights

[As the Summer Olympics wind through the second week in China, I wanted to share an article I wrote that first appeared in SGM Magazine. It has a reference point when Chinese were in Clearfield County to examine how open pit mining was conducted in the US. It also involves a discussion of the changing attitude toward “economic rights” in China and the US. That is not to say one should prefer the PRC over the USA. It is obvious to all who have watched the run up to the Games that there is much wanting and a distance unmeasureable to go in the matter of “human rights” in China. Yet, we see the “times are a changing”’ with respect to “economic rights” both in China and the US.]

In November and December of 1978, Deng Xiaoping eased Communist party and State controls into his hands. Quite a feat for one who was twice exiled by Mao.Deng was an economic reformer. He believed that communism did not mean poverty. One of his greatest reforms was the Special Economic Zone [SEZ]. Much of the growth of China today is based on the SEZ and the partnership forged between free enterprise and the Communist Party. In 1984, Deng described the SEZ as:

a medium for introducing technology, management and knowledge…a window for our foreign policy…and to import foreign technology, obtain knowledge and learn management.

The success of Chinese economic reform can be seen by all in the big box stores in the USA. Many of the goods sold are marked “Made in China” which was unheard of ten year ago.

But, before the onslaught of Chinese consumer goods into the USA, Clearfield County came face to face with the economic reforms of the People’s Republic of China [PRC]. In the early 1980s, the PRC sent a delegation of mining engineers to the US to investigate mining technology.

Their first stop was Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, for good reason. According to Geologist C.H. Chance, as reported in The History of Clearfield County by Lewis Cass Aldrich published in 1887,Clearfield County is divided into three great coal basins separated by two anticlinal axes. The county sits on one of the largest deposits of bituminous coal in the Commonwealth. And, in the 1980s large amounts of coal were being mined by the surface mining method. The Chinese delegation wanted to investigate the types of machinery used in removing coal by the surface mining method.

During the one and one-half days they were in central Pennsylvania they crawled all over the bull dozers, rock trucks and loaders typical of surface mining. They took plenty of notes and pictures. The group consisted of 30 men…18 engineers, 4 interpreters and 8 “pilots”. The later were actually agents of the PRC accompanying the others to ensure the others returned to China at the completion of the three week visit.

At a banquet honoring the Chinese visit to Clearfield County, I sat with six of the visitors. When the conversation turned to what I did, I responded that I was a lawyer. The six looked at each other and after a long silence, one of the “pilots” responded. He spoke directly to me and said: “We do not need lawyers in our country. The government takes care of us.” Another period of silence ensued. I finally responded, “I see.” The conversation resumed without any reference to “rights talk”.

My how times have changed. Because of China’s burgeoning economy and international commerce, the PRC has developed a commercial legal system. This does not included a legal system protecting personal, property, civil or political rights of individuals. After all, it was the economic reformed Deng who turned the troops loose on the students in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But, even that is changing. A new brand of legal activists, trained in Chinese law schools, is pushing the envelope on public interest and human rights issues. In Chinese courts they have raised issues involving illegal land grabs, freedom of press and illegal taxation. Such actions, like Chinese goods in Walmart, were unheard of ten years ago.

The Communist Party is not yielding ground easily, however. Trudy Rubin reporting from Beijing, tells of Chen Guangcheng, a blind peasant lawyer, who tried to bring a class action suit challenging forced abortion and sterilization in Linyi. He was seized by the PRC and is being held in an undisclosed location. The Chinese media is forbidden to mention his case. Nevertheless, the New China with its presence on the world stage and the coming 2008 Summer Olympics, is clearly emboldening lawyers to push for peaceful internal political change through the courts.

Wang Xixin, associate dean of Peking University Law School has even created the China Center for Public Participation and Support. One of their key projects is to help farmers assert their legal rights to comment on draft legislation affecting them and challenge expropriation of their land by the government. All in all, strides are being made in a communist ruled country to free folks from the tyranny of the state involving the property rights of the people.

At the time of these encouraging changes, the USA seems to be moving in the other direction. While most conservatives were roiling about the two Ten Commandment cases in the last term of the US Supreme Court [USSC], Kelo v. City of New Haven, flew under their radar. In Kelo, the USSC approved an eminent domain taking by the City of New Haven, CN, not based on:

blight in the Fort Trumball area, but their determination that the area was sufficiently distressed to justify a program of economic rejuvenation..

The city used a state statute authorizing “eminent domain to promote economic development.” Kelo argued that economic development does not qualify as a “public use” under the explicit language of the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution. The USSC agreed with taking statute:

There is, moreover, no principled way of distinguishing economic development from other public purposes that we have recognized…Clearly, there is no basis for exempting economic development from our traditionally broad understanding of public purpose.

It appears that the PRC and USA are moving in two different directions. While we are a nation of laws not men, the US Constitution is being molded like a wax nose. As Justice Thomas points out in his dissent, the Constitution is being stretched to the breaking point in justifying economic development as “public use”:

Public utility, public interest, common benefit, general advantage or convenience…we are afloat without any certain principle to guide us.

The USSC has opened the door to any government action based on “general public economic good” to condemn private property. Isn’t that what the public interest lawyers in China are trying to curtail? Practices by a totalitarian regime are being adopted by the USSC. We are witnessing quite a role reversal. If you live in an economically depressed area, watch your perfectly fine home or your neighbor’s home may be condemned so a Wal-Mart can be erected to sell Chinese goods. After all, it will bring commerce and jobs to the area. Economic development is a constitutional public use.

God bless those brave Chinese who want to obtain and keep personal, political, property and human rights. God help us here in the USA and the Eastern Continental Divide as our courts continue to limit our rights as a constitutional principle. If you live in a state where a Kelo result is possible, call you state legislator. And if you live in a state where it is not, keep it that way!

2008-08-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

Living in the World
Technology Famine

It is truly amazing how we see Olympic events from Beijing and other venues in China live. As we have commented many times, however, technology is not a zero sum game. It has taken a toll on individuals and cultures. Technopoly by the late Neil Postman is a great read from that standpoint. As you watch the Olympics and text you friends about the amazing competition, keep in mind this quote from Albert Borgmann from Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology:

Telephone and television are the technological devices that have weakened literacy and impoverished the culture of the word. Electronic machines have disburdened us of the demands of reading and writing. Once we had to impact our worlds through the work of writing or telling, and we had to gather our worlds laboriously from the promptings of writing and our fund of experiences and recollections. Now information is handed to us as readily available sights and sounds. Engagement with the world has been yielding to the consumption of news and entertainment commodities.

So, take a break from the events and write to your aunt [not e-mail, a hand written note] and read a good book. The written word written and read word will nourish you in an image sated world of entertainment.

2008-08-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

Election 2008
Is Politics an Idol?

In Joshua 24: 14, 15, Joshua exhorts the Israelites to put away the idols their fathers served before they arrived in the promised land. He then utters that famous verse about whom to serve and he makes clear he will serve the Lord. The context is important. In verses 2 through 13 he recites the history of God’s covenant faithfulness to the Israelites. Therefore, it begs the question: Why would you not serve this God with the sincerity and faithfulness He has shown to you?

We all know the history of the Israelites. They were constantly unfaithful and they turned to idols for their worship. They did not always see the problem. After all, wasn’t the golden calf just a representation of our God? And, sometimes a compromise is warranted because of the people who live in and around you. A little synthesizing helps keep the peace. And isn’t keeping peace and harmony the goal?

In this Presidential election year, Joshua’s reminder should be taken seriously. If you are your house are serious about serving the Lord, it is time to cast off the idols and the gods they represent. They are sometimes hard to recognize because of the syntheses we all live with. We are, after all, modern folks and we have acquiesced to the way of life established by our forefathers. What are other gods that are substituted for or compromised with Jehovah in our day? How about the god of the Democrats…or Republicans? How about the god of civil religion? The god who recognizes all religions as true? The god of personal peace, the pursuit of happiness or personal prosperity? I am sure you can come up with many more…you own personal idols.

This is what makes the idol of politics so dangerous. We want our own little gods to be promoted through politics. We agree with the candidate(s) who will push our personal agenda(s). Maybe that is why professing Christians work so hard in the political process. But, you can work hard in preparing for disaster. Remember the words of our Lord in Matt 24:24-27? Both the wise and foolish man worked hard. In fact the foolish man could have worked two, three, you name the multiple, times harder than the wise man. The results were still the same. When you make bad choices hard work does not make them good choices. When the storms come, the good investment survives; the bad does not. The key is the foundation of the work…rock or sand.

Choose this day whom you will serve. And, in doing so put away the false idols and gods they represent. By all means vote, and campaign for the candidate of your choice if you are so desire. Some of you may be running for office. There is nothing wrong with that. It is whether you are building your future on the political process. Oh no you say. Examine yourself carefully…we all must…for the gods of this world are everywhere. Look closely at Jesus’ words again. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them…” is the premise of His rock building statement. The wise man listens to the Word. Are you?

2008-08-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

Living in the World
Edwards on Sin

No, not that Edwards…John Edwards former NC Senator and professional candidate. He says he made a “mistake.” Nothing is indicative of the “spirit of the age” like redefining behavior. Edwards admits sexual dalliance as a mistake, but what about the lying about it. What was that? Another mistake or what everyone does in a circumstance where they have been caught? It appears that his trip to the west coast to meet his paramour was to keep his behavior private. Certainly not the actions of one who wants to come clean in repentance to obtain forgiveness. And, how about a revelation of his “mistake” on a Friday night of the beginning of the Olympics, was that an attempt to bury the news? He says he has asked forgiveness from his wife and God. John Edwards professes to be a Christian. None of us has the right to question another Christian’s repentance. But, we can question how actions are characterized and the sincerity of the revelation of behavior. For me, I intend to continue to look to the other Edwards for interpretations of sin and repentance.

2008-08-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

Election 2008
The Political Christian

Christians are strangers in a strange land. Not, however, in the world of politics. We see Jim Dobson on television telling the world why he can or cannot vote for a particular candidate. The Evangelical vote is commented on, courted and analyzed by political pundits virtually every day. Liberal Christians [whatever that is?] are also a part of the current campaign probably because of Obama’s tie to the UCC. The press can only be concerned about these things because Christians have made politics a concern to themselves. Would it not be nice if Christians were known for the practice of their faith in word and deed that for their political involvement?

May involvement in politics be the Slough of Despond of the modern day believer on the way to the Celestial City? Is political activity distracting us from our real mission and making us more comfortable here in the world than we should be? Is this too other worldly? Yes, we are to reform the culture but is that to be through the political process? Should not our efforts be more firmly entrenched in making the church reflect the Biblical mandates of the church? The reformation of the culture comes through the reformation of lives which is the work of the Gospel. The church is the expression of Christ in this world until He returns. It is where the “already” is expressed. It is the supernatural institution created by Him for His worship and His work. Like Jesus, we change the world one life at a time.

Is it just coincidence that the church has seemingly deteriorated as the Christian has taken on a greater role in politics? As we have taken more interest in who is our President than who are the bishops, we find bishops who are not in line with Biblical standards. Look around carefully. See how much worship has changed; how less people read Scripture and Scripture is exposited in a corporate worship service; the renewed attacks on justification by faith; the boldness of the new atheists; the general worldliness of churches in how they operate; and the lack of holiness and virtuous living among church attenders; all since politics became important to Christians.

The politicization of what passes as evangelical Christianity today is not the sole cause of the church’s malaise today. But, one must acknowledge that the zeal for things political by believers has diverted their time, energy and treasure from the work of Christ’s Church. Every Christian knows Christ said “seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. Yet, we seem to look “first” to things of this world for the solution to what we believe are the world’s ills. We know better…sin is the ill of the world. And, for sin there is only one solution. And, that solution is not found in the state house or the White House.

Ask your Christian friends who are headlong into politics how their hard work to have someone elected their civil magistrate fits with St. Peter’s identification of Christians as aliens and sojourners in this world. Cultures that are Christian are not founded upon politics but upon the preaching, teaching and living out of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ through His embassy in this foreign country…the Church. This is not our home and we should be working more diligently for the homeland than for a land that belongs not to us and is passing away.

2008-08-07T06:14:00.000-07:00

Election 2008
Christian as an Adjective

Both Presidential candidates profess to be Christians. This points out the problem with the adjective “Christian.” What exactly does it mean in the realm of politics? Can a politician be a Christian politician if he wants to raise taxes to a confiscatory level? Or, how about one who believes global warming requires drastic action that empowers international tribunals to regulate energy consumption in the US? How about one who is against the death penalty, or turn it around and say one who is for the death penalty?

For “conservative” [another questionable adjective!] we easily draw the line on abortion, homosexual marriage, the usual shooting fish in a barrel subjects. But, in the real world of political action it is much harder to draw lines. Is a judge who enforces no-fault divorce a Christian? Can a politician who wants a high or low minimum wage a Christian? Does a Christian politician promote more off shore drilling for oil?

These social issues do not easily translate into a test of Christian belief. Why? Because except for moral behavior based on Biblical warrant, these types of decisions are based on individual conscience informed by Christian principles. If the Bible teaches on a matter with sufficiency and clarity it alone binds the conscience of the believer. If not, then the Christian has liberty to decide what is the right course of action. And, the clarity thing is, well, not clear within the church. My RP friends believe in exclusive psalmody in worship; my Baptist friends believe in believer baptism; my dispensational friends believe in pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture of the saints. Are they not Christian friends?

There are two forces at work here that complicate matters. The first is our extreme egalitarian democratization that allows us to believe we have a better idea than anyone else. We believe each and every one of us is able and entitled to discern the good, the true and the beautiful just because we breathe and live in the USA. The other is the failure of the visible church to display unity over what Biblical belief binds the consciences of the followers of Christ. The church in its fractured state knows not what it believes and, trying to accommodate to the world, is making up what it believes as it goes. If we cannot understand Biblical Christianity in the church how can Christian be applied as an adjective to those operating in the world…especially our politicians who represent Caesar not the church?

2008-07-31T04:18:00.000-07:00

Summer 2008
The Era of Irresponsibility

To quote Gomer Pyle, “Golllllie!” it’s been over two months since I posted. A busy travel schedule combined with a busier work schedule has kept me out of cyberspace. And, a lot has happened since 27 May 2008. BO has the nomination; the SCOTUS has determined that folks in Washington, DC, as well as all of us who want to can keep and bear long and short firearms; several banks have failed; the Buccos are on their way to another losing season tying a Major League record; Stiller camp has opened; and the Olympics are still on for China without boycott…so far.

I mention the last item because of the air quality in Beijing. When we were in Beijing in 2001, it was apparent that something would have to be done there to allow world class athletes perform at high levels. It was like being in a newsreel of Viet Nam. Everything was grey and hazy, the air burned you eyes and stuck in your throat and it smelled like bacon grease. This was before the games were awarded to China for 2008. Everyone was complaining about the human rights violations in the PRC as a factor for not awarding such a prestigious event to the Chinese. But, no one was talking about the air quality and we could not understand that.

Well, we see the Chinese solution now. Shut down all the factories and limit automobile traffic for several weeks before the games in the hope the air will clear. Typical of the PRC…present unreality as reality. Like the Three Peace Church…the state run church in China. It is an attempt to create the impression that there is the freedom of religion in China. But, it is not the reality of the situation. 52 weeks of every year…except this one…the Chinese people are subject to chocking pollution because there is no planning [factories and power plants are placed in the middle of residential areas] or pollution controls. This is one reason that the “global warming” cult is not going to harness man made pollution without the co-operation of China as well as India.

So, the world will appear in China and have a we-are-the-world love festival of athletic competition. Reporters from around the world will be there and shown the government approved and sponsored “highlights of China” . The protesters will be kept at bay, reporting of negative stuff will be monitored and prohibited and generally we will see on TV the Disney China. When the world leaves the human rights violations will continue, the pollution will be turned on and Bible based Christianity will continue to be persecuted. Everyone who visits, and doesn’t get snoopy, will have had a good time. The Chinese will not be responsible for what they are really doing.

But, hey, that’s where we are. Did you notice the US government is bailing out some folks from the sub-prime mortgage mess? What? Every week I see publication of foreclosures on mortgages in the Clearfield County Legal Journal. What about those folks? For as long as I have been practicing law, lenders and borrowers always bore responsibility for bad loans or bad decisions in obtaining a loan respectively. Times have changed. Now banks that should not have loaned and borrowers who should not have borrowed are being rescued by Uncle Sam…that is you and me by the way. These Ninja loans [no income no job application] were ill conceived and a predictable disaster. Who would make such a loan? Who would take such a loan? How did either party expect them to be paid?

The government is rewarding bad behavior. Oh, but the financial markets are in turmoil over this “crisis” and we must do something. More banks will fail and more folks will lose their homes. So, we are all collectively responsible for the bad decisions of a few. What a terrible precedent. Which bad decision will next be rewarded by a government rescue? This is the Era of Irresponsibility. We can’t allow anything bad happen to anybody even if it is the result of a foolish choice they made. No one is responsible for their behavior any longer…be it the PRC or the sub-prime lenders and borrowers. Let’s reward all behavior for it shows our concern, compassion and tolerance for all people. I guess I’ll call Judge Ammerman and tell him to take the rest of the week off.

2008-05-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Problems of America
Kosovo

Kosovo is not really a problem…it may very well be in the future…but it is indicative of a big problem—what I call the Kosovo Principle. Kosovo is part of Serbia. On 17 February 2008, Kosovo’s Parliament declared independence from Serbia. For some time the US has been pushing for Kosovo independence and of the very next day recognized Kosovo’s sovereignty. Why? Because it has as a majority that is Muslim. They are mostly ethnic Albanians who have a murderous and drug cartel pedigree. Yet, it seems that they must be independent. Never mind that Kosovo is the heartland of the Serbian Medieval state or that it contains many of the artifacts and architecture of Christianity that define Serbia’s contribution to the common heritage of Europe. That is no longer important. And, therein lays the problem.

The cultural elite and those puzzled about the world of Islam are joined together to do two things. One is to do away with the ancestry, heritage and history of western Europe. The “new” Europe rejects all that is specific and distinctive about its common heritage both on a country to country basis and as European in general. Like Eva Peron’s “new Argentina” the “new” Europe is just that…new and without connection or remembrance of the old. Second is to curry favor with what are deemed to be “moderate Muslims who have no common cause with the “old” Europe. This premise is, like most based on western loathing, is extremely questionable. The Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA] of ethnic Albanians have trained at al-Qaeda camps and al-Qaeda operatives have fought along side the KLA in their terrorist campaigns against Serb targets. Hardly are these the Muslims of the “moderate” stripe.

Hatred of Serbia is driven, in part, by the recent Balkan wars. But, it goes deeper than that. Recently, I was in Cyprus. There, the Turks have occupied northern Cyprus since 1974. They even call the occupied zone the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Why has there not been a solution found? It is a religious standoff…Eastern Orthodoxy versus Islam. There is night and day difference between the two areas. The northern sea areas, only 50 miles from Turkey, have been settled by Turks building new homes overlooking the water. But, the rest of the north is sub-standard compared to the south. When the Turks moved in whole villages were abandoned and remain vacant even today.

Can Greek and Turkish Cypriots live side by side? They had for many years. But, a solution is hard to forge when the religious question intrudes. Greek Cypriots driven out of the north lost home and hearth and until recently could not even return to visit. The leaders of the west have no affinity any longer for the traditional Judeo-Christian cultures that lead to the development of Europe and the US. So, in places like Serbia and Cyprus, the “old” ways are willingly sacrificed because the cultural elite say those ways are passé and the Casper Milquetoast world leaders want to find a way to get along with Muslims to avoid future terrorist attacks.

Here is the principle. Cause enough problems as an ethnic group distinct from the heretofore dominant cultural group through intimidation and violence and you will be rewarded. The fact that you want to split up a county to do so is o.k. because we have to recognize that we live in a “new” world and the “old ways” have to go. No heretofore sovereign state is immune. So, ethnic Albanians in Serbia should have their own republic. Black North African Muslims should have their own states in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. And, in the US, we struggle with the illegal Mexican immigrant problem. Why not give southern California, Arizona and New Mexico to them? Farfetched? When we fail to understand that the US is more than a “proposition about freedom” but is a culture of shared virtue, language, history, beliefs and law, such an outcome is as possible as the Republic of Kosovo. That’s the Kosovo Principle.

2008-05-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

The Church
The ExChange

Luther called 2 Cor. 5:21 the Glorious Exchange. This is the verse where we are basing the downtown DuBois ministry of Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church. The following is our announcement of the ministry:

The ExChange

The ExChange is a ministry built upon the Words of Scripture,
especially 2 Corinthians 5:21 which teaches as follows:

For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

The ExChange stands for changed lives that can only come about through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ whereby He takes away our sin and grants to us a new life by faith in Him alone.

The ExChange is about proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the message of life over death, light over darkness, freedom over slavery and eternal life over eternal death.

If you are interested in a new life to live that changes everything for you contact us as follows:

521exchange@gmail.com
814-661-2033
149 West Long Avenue
DuBois, PA 15801

We begin at the building this weekend. Our goal is to let these folks who know not the Savior that we are here in the community…their community at the corner of Jared and Long. We want them to know we love them and want to see their lives changed the only way possible…through faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But, we want to be able to help them deal with the practical things too. We want them to understand that a Christian is the most responsible of citizens…they work, support their families and meet their obligations. Faith in Christ is not the end of your problems, but the beginning of dealing with them.

Take the first ReStart session. Charles and Bob delivered the Gospel and I spoke to them of the responsibilities of a Christian man or women and walking in the path of righteousness which will keep them out of prison. One of the inmates said: “I know what you say is right. I want to have my life changed. I don’t want to come back here again. But, I am going home in thirty days to a dad who is a user and a family of offenders who know no other way.” This is where we…that is all who claim the Name of Christ…come in. We must point this man to the Savior AND THEN help him to understand what it means to LIVE the LIFE in a world that despises the Lord of his salvation. Some of the circumstances people emerging from prison face are foreign to us, but it is the way it is for many. What does one do when his own family is the source of his continuing sin? Salvation belongs to the Lord alone. Our obligation is to deliver the Good News and come along side ALL His children to nurture, discipline and assist them in all things, including the practical matters of life, as they attempt to walk in the new life He gives them.

Pray for The ExChange as we attempt to do just that in DuBois…and by God’s grace we will.

2008-05-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

The Church
Mission Outreach

Back in January, two pastors and I met with the President Judge of the 46th Judicial District about a ministry to the drug culture in DuBois, PA. There is an unbelievably high drug use in DuBois; it has one of the highest percentage per capita uses of heroin in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Judge convinced us to go at the problem from two ways…one, meeting with inmates in the county jail who were going to be released back into the general population, and two, by meeting these folks where they are in the community. He had attempted to implement the first idea a couple years ago and received little and no response from the churches in Clearfield County. He was thrilled that Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church was willing to take on this mission.

It is interesting to me how many folks talk about reaching out, but not to those that do not look, think, dress, act or smell like we do. That is why it is always easier to listen to missionaries who come to your church and talk about missions, give benevolences to them to carry on and go back to your own comfortable life. The church in the USA has become quite insular. This work in DuBois is a God sized work. When I met with the chief of police in DuBois, he thought we wanted these people to go to church. They are coming to church until they first come to Christ. Then they will be part of His Church and desire to worship Him!

This Wednesday, we begin the county jail portion of the ministry. We call it ReStart. Being released from jail provides an opportunity for a new start; one that avoids the old ways. The following is the announcement provided to those inmates who will be released within 30 days of our visit:
Announcing: ReStart
ReStart is a faith based ministry outreach to residents of the Clearfield County Jail about to be released at the conclusion of their sentence to the county jail. It is designed to accomplish three goals:
1]Explain to the soon to be released residents of the jail that upon re-entry into the general population they need not return to the life they lived before entering jail. Their lives can be ReStarted as new lives by and through an active faith in the living Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. ReStart is an outreach that aims to see lives changed through the Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2]Discuss some practical measures that have to be addressed by every resident as they are released. To help those about to re-enter the general population understand that they must take personal responsibility for the obligations required to pursue a life different from the one that led them to jail. To distribute a resource guide that will assist them in becoming responsible members of society and discharging their particular duties and obligations.
3]Provide information about The ExChange. The ExChange is an outreach to those who want to live a new life apart from the slavery to sin and addictions that plague a life without Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The ExChange is based on 2 Corinthians 5:21, whereby the Bible promises that those who surrender their lives to Jesus Christ will exchange their sin for the righteousness of Christ… ExChange a broken old life for new life in Christ.

ReStart will meet on the 3rd Wednesday of each month from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. beginning on Wednesday the 21st of May, 2008. All who will be released from the jail within the next thirty [30] days of each scheduled meeting are welcome to attend. The only requirement is to be cleared by the jail administration to attend and the signing of a registry of attendance for ReStart.

ReStart and ExChange are both ministry outreaches of Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church of DuBois, a church of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

The other part of the ministry will begin this weekend. More about that in a future post. All the secular folk we have met with are excited about this because they know programs do not work. Money and methadone will not solve addiction…only a changed life will do that. And, right now, no one wants to come alongside those who do not look, think, dress, act and smell like them, but by God’s Grace that is about to change in DuBois. Soli Deo gloria.

2008-05-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Problems of America
The PetroEuro

For the last several months, the media pundits have centered on the sub-prime lending crisis in this country. Congress is now debating a bill to bail out lenders and borrowers who engaged in questionable mortgage loans. But, the real crisis does not concern the debt of individual Americans but the debt of their country.

Treasury bonds held by foreign investors carry the debt of the USA. It is a low cost way for the country to carry its debt. But, that only works as long as there is such an animal as petrodollars [oil is traded in dollars] and foreign investors are willing to hold our debt. As we all know the dollar continues to lose value in comparison with the Euro. If and when oil starts to be traded in petroeuros, look out.

The outlook for oil continues to be dire. Today, 16 May 2008, the Saudis refused President Bush’s plea to increase oil production. The price per barrel hit an all time high near $128. And, Goldman Sachs has revised their prediction of prices saying it will rise to $141 per barrel. The dollar continues on its nosedive making an alternative pricing method more and more likely. Again, beware of the petroeuro for it will result in consequences for the USA.

There will no longer be a reason to hold dollars and the US debt. The government will no longer be able to finance their debt cheaply with Treasury Notes. The result will be the interest rates rocketing up. Remember the 17% Carter year rates? It could be worse. The inflation that is now creeping upward will zoom. Asians have held dollars so that we can buy the things they produce. But, with oil being pegged to the Euro instead of the dollar, the dollar would decline even more and the US as a market for goods would not outweigh holding increasingly worthless US debt.

There are many who pooh pooh this scenario. The Arabs, it is said, cannot afford to see their US dollars and debt take such a hit, so pricing oil in anything besides the dollar is not likely. But, will not the Euro continue to look better as the days wear on? The EU does not have a large deficit nor is it indebted to the world for its excesses. It imports more Arab oil than the US. The Arabs can buy their luxury yachts, condos, Lear jets and yellow Ferrari’s with Euros as easily as dollars. A potential painful short run, but not a big deal over the long haul.

The Fed cut rates by 25 basis points recently. And, they signaled that may be the end of cuts. They have apparently come to the realization that more liquidity is no solution for a crisis spawned by excess liquidity coming from easy credit to questionable risks. Oil prices keep climbing and the dollar keeps weakening. The time is coming when we will have to stop printing dollars because no one will want them…Arabs, Asians, borrowers. When the world decides to shift emphasis from the dollar to the Euro, we will be at their mercy. We put ourselves there by selling cheap debt to those who wanted us to keep consuming their goods. We are walking on the edge of catastrophe. We are no longer immune from our creditors. An ugly day is coming, probably sooner than later.

2008-05-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

Election 2008
A Christian Manifesto

A Christian Manifesto and a companion study guide are available at the internet site designed for its release on 07 May 1008, to wit, www.chrisitanmanifesto.com Os Guiness is one of the prime drafters and seems to be the spokesman during this early period after release. In a short interview reproduced at Justin Taylor’s http://theologica.blogspot.com Guiness the emphasis of the document is to promote understanding of who evangelicals are and to improve their performance in the public square, mainly by abandoning the demonizing of opponents.

This appears to be an odd time to release it. A Presidential election cycle year is one in which demonizing opponents in the public square ascends [or is that descends?] new heights. Although Guiness denies that the manifesto is a political statement, it does seem to be a not too veiled attempt to separate evangelicals, as defined by the drafters, from partisan political wrangling. Kind and charitable evangelicals should not ever be associated with politics.

Now, it is true that because of decades of trying to influence public policy through the political process, many non faith based persons identify evangelical as a political term. The manifesto does a good job of defining theological parameters of what an evangelical is. But, does that really have an affect on those who know no evangelicals to convince them that being an evangelical is about a Triune Creator, Redeemer and King? To the regular Joe Doaks, Pagan, theological beliefs are akin to belief in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. It is not a real, meaningful and purposeful pursuit. Nice but not very practical.

Yes, we must be more like Christ in the public arena. That will lead to our being ignored in the political process. Maybe that is the point of the manifesto drafters. But, there are times and issues that require squeaky wheels to get the media grease. Maybe that is the point of the drafters. We evangelicals cannot be single issue folk but look beyond homosexual marriage and abortion as hills upon which to die. Does that mean joining in with the trendy cultural and political issues of the day with secular folk?

Jesus did not come to overthrow the political order but neither did he come to address Israel’s hot button issues of the day. The manifesto correctly states that evangelicals should be “defined theologically and not politically, socially or culturally” [p.4]. But, that does not mean Christians should not be politically, socially or culturally active. To do so in the rough and tumble political arena means exposing unbiblical positions with boldness and forcefulness.

One other comment to make at this time. The manifesto promotes a “civil” public square in opposition to a “sacred” or “naked” public square. Does that not place the civil authorities over the faith authorities? Everyone, regardless of their faith or faithlessness has the right to speak out in the public square. Fair enough. But, who maintains the public square? Who says when the Muslim, Hindu or Christian goes too far? And, since the secular folk who now referee the discourse so not see themselves as biased, who watches the watchers? If an evangelical is truly a theological person, then he/she must always stand for the distinctiveness of Christian belief and practice everywhere at all times…in or out or the public square.
Read the manifesto yourself. There will be much more commentary in the weeks to come. Will this change the way the public in general looks at evangelicals? Probably not. Will is change the way evangelicals approach their involvement in society? Probably not. But, it does provide a vehicle in which to reassess who evangelicals are and what they must be doing in proclaiming the “good news” after which they claim their identity. And, that is a good thing…we must always be reforming.

2008-05-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

The Problems of America
Can there be real Populism?

Christopher Lasch called for a revitalization of politics in the 1980s. He believed the “left” was finished as a viable option and the “right” was warned over liberalism. This seems to be the chord Barack Obama [BO] is trying to strike with his call for “change”. I have previously posted about the issue of “change”. As the primary season winds down, I would like to examine the “new populism” that seems to have emerged.

Populism has always been a viable force in American politics. Jefferson was a populist as opposed to the federalists. He favored the exercise of power by the farmers and laborers of the countryside with their regional interests. Obviously, he lost that debate to the centralizers, whose position was solidified during the Civil War. The 10th Amendment of the amendments required by the Virginians for their Constitutional support reserved to the states all powers not specifically granted to the federal government. This was to be a check against centralized power. It did not work! So, there has been populist appeals over the years to counteract Big Brother.

This populist impulse is always rumbling just below the surface of political America. During the Gilded Age, the economic condition of all was improving, nevertheless, the rich became very rich and the regular populace felt threatened by collusion between business and government. We have a similar situation today. The first 3 months of 2008 have seen a “correction” in the stock market, the credit crisis and the highest gasoline prices in history. The conjunction of these things has created great angst among the populace.

In little cities and towns around America, “Ma and PA” businesses are disappearing. They have been Walmarted! And, up until recently, folk have been satisfied as long as they are comfortable. Now they are feeling uncomfortable, so a desire for change. They see their conventional institutions and structures disintegrating…schools that cannot keep order let alone teach; local government dependant on the federal government for dollars to provide services; service clubs [Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions] losing membership; churches more interested in therapy than God. It takes all a man’s efforts to keep up with the economic demands of our society.

This brings us to another of Lasch’s problems…….progress for progress sake. For the new world wide economy to work, all men must be sold out to produce wealth and prosperity for the whole world. A sort of new “We are the World”. And, that takes a toll on kin, place and community all of which takes intentional, directed effort to maintain. My mother, not a cultural pundit, used to say many things are done for the “almighty dollar.” Joseph Schumpeter believed that capitalism leads to “creative destruction”. That is, the social institutions that fostered it are devoured by it. To stay ahead of the Joneses means our relationship with the Joneses suffers.

In the political culture of today, nanny statists and free enterprisers are both in favor of an economy that continues to pump out goods and services that promote our comfort. For Bill Gates and welfare programs to be successful, the world wide economy has to continue to grow. We are all progressiveists…we have to be. Real populism would reject continued superhighways, foreign entanglements, global economics, mass media and unfettered technological development. That is not going to happen.

So, the American public seems to be captivated by BO as the “new populist” alternative. It is hard to believe that a Harvard educated lawyer is a populist leader. He is a privileged person; he is “the man”. But, strangely, he has a populist appeal. As an African-American, he stands as outside the “dead white man” structural control. He is an orator of no small talent. He can energize a crowd and he has involved the under 30s like no other in recent memory. He is not anti-modern, however. He may want to redistribute income, but he still favors a system that produces income to redistribute. And, if he does not embrace progressive, world wide capitalism, as some on Wall Street fear, he will be a failure to those who backed this “new populist”.

These are strange times in America. We want change and our prosperity too. Whatever one thinks of the War on Terror, it is clear no one wants to sacrifice to win it. We want “peace at any cost”…or rather at NO cost. We have lost Eliot’s “permanent things” that were once our shared beliefs. The “little platoons” of Burke are no longer the active protectors and promoters of virtuous living that holds a society together. What we have is our “stuff”, very little of which is produced in the USA. China and India are sucking up the excess oil in the world because they want to keep making and selling us “stuff”. And, we are willing participants. Real populism necessitates the taking back of our culture and economy. Real populism requires sacrifice that halts the unbridled consumption that marks our dependency on unfettered international economic growth and technological progress. Is BO such a populist? Can BO deliver such populism? That would require a real change…a return to Jeffersonian populism that was long since buried by conspicuous consumption, globalization and self-absorption. What are the chances of that happening, regardless of the President? Slim and none.

2008-05-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

The Problems of America
Loss of Identity

It is said that Cinco de Mayo is a more popular holiday in Los Angeles than the 4th of July. Could just be a rumor or a way of exhibiting an animus toward our Mexican neighbors. Whatever the case with respect to celebrating the 5th of May, Roger McGrath, in the March issue of Chronicles [Vol 32 NO 3] reports some eyeopening statistics about his native California. Here they are:

Last year [2007], 263,000 citizens left the once Goldrn State—and a similar out-migration has been going on, with a few anomalous blips, for the last 15 years.

Nearly 30 percent of California residents are now foreign born; as stunning five million of them were born in Mexico.

For most grammar school students in the city of Los Angeles, English is a second language. For some, It is a third language behind one of several Indian tongues of Mexico and Spanish. Hispanics now make up 75 percent of the students; whites, a mere 7 percent.

Twenty-six of the city’s high schools are now 80-percent or more Hispanic. Eighteen of those have student bodies that are 90-percent or more Hispanic, and seven are 98-or 99-percent.

This is a startling trend. McGrath calls it “ethnic cleansing” or a “foreign invasion”. No one knows how many are legal or illegal. But, we know for sure that it is changing the face of California. It does not stop there. Midwest states like Nebraska and even PA have seen a significant influx of Hispanics in the last decade.

Why do they come? Looking for a better life, but unlike other immigration waves there are two problems. One, the Hispanics do not seem anxious to become part of our American culture. That is why English is a second language. Second, the fragile economic situation in the USA is less able to absorb this invasion. Much has been made of NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] in this primary election cycle. Who was for it and who was against it.

Opponents argue that is has devastated USA businesses. But, what of it’s effects in Mexico? Mexico’s agriculture has disappeared. They now import agricultural goods from the USA as part of NAFTA. So, Mexican farmers now at a competitive disadvantage to the massive agricultural machine in the USA can move to Mexico City or the USA. What would you do? Recently I was in New York City for the first time in twenty [20] years. I noticed two things: one, increased safety in Manhattan, and two, the number of Hispanics in the service industry. Twenty years ago you took you life in your hands at night in NYC. And, most of the service workers were whites, many from Eastern European countries.

The need for the Hispanics, legal or otherwise, is promoted and argued for on the basis that for no one else will do what they do. But, with respect to the illegals, the taxpayer is picking up their medicals, educating their kids and paying welfare benefits. It may be cheap for employers, but we make up the difference. It is hard to see how this benefits the taxpayers of the USA.

What to do with the 12-20 million illegals is indeed a thorny problem for which there are no easy answers They are even an issue in Hazelton, PA, the heart of “coal cracker” country for heavens sake. We must deal with this Hispanic invasion…our very identity as a nation of common language, place, history, memory and belief is at stake. Here is a question each citizen must ask: Does our identity as a people really matter anymore or has the USA been reduced to a concept or idea?

2008-05-01T06:46:00.001-07:00

Living in the World
61 B

Yesterday, I stood waiting in front of the Waverly Presbyterian Church. This was Susan’s church when she lived in Pittsburgh. It is also where we were married thirty four [34] years ago on 4 May of this year. Wow! Thirty four years since I stood in front of this church. And, today I was waiting on bus 61 B to take me downtown. It had been longer since I rode a city bus…thirty six [36] years during my last year of law school. Then it cost thirty [$.30] cents; today two [$2.00] dollars.

It was an interesting trip down Forbes until it becomes one way, then down Fifth until reentering Forbes near the old county jail. The bus was full so I hung on a strap. There we were: white, yellow, black and Hispanic together as a little community. There were youngsters riding to school at Oakland Catholic [girls] and Central Catholic [boys] in Oakland. On board were students and others heading to Pitt. Assorted workers for the hospitals in the Oakland area and those headed for jobs in the downtown. A couple well dressed men, probably businessmen or attorneys, were along for the ride. Interestingly, no one alighted at Carnegie Mellon [CMU]. Maybe they are flush enough to drive or all students live on campus. By and large, the bus was populated by those who could not afford to drive to work, whether they had a car or not.

Our little community of travelers was not much different than other communities in which we lived. No one talked to each other. Most said hello to the driver, a 30ish attractive black woman. Some even said, “See you tomorrow”, indicative of their daily use of the bus. But, there was no greeting or such conversation with each other. Most avoided eye contact. When I smiled and said “hello” to those who would look at me, there was an inaudible reply or nothing. Many of the young ones had their phones out text messaging. The older folks hid behind newspapers and those of in between years were plugged into I pods.

On the way back from the city, it was the same. Unlike the trip in, there was a seat next to a black woman with ear buds in her ears, so there was no conversation with her. I heard more talking, but it was passengers talking on the phone, not to each other. This time at the CMU stop, people got on the bus. One young man sat next to me and I asked him how his day was and whether he rode the bus every day. He was a sophomore civil engineering major. I specifically asked him if he noticed passengers did not talk to each other. At that question, another person, a young lady who got on with him, turned around and smiled at the question. This was the only personal contact I had on both trips besides the female driver on the way downtown. As I alighted at the Waverly Church and spoke to the driver, a 40ish black man, he did not respond.

Why such a small amount of interpersonal communication? It was early going in, so some were probably not morning people desiring to speak to others. And, on the way back, folks may have been tired. But, that did not stop folk from talking on their phones while sitting next to someone else in the bus. Some of the youngsters probably were instructed to keep to themselves because of the concern for safety and about strangers. But, it is apparent that they see each other often, if not daily. And, as to me, who would speak to a first timer in blue jeans and a sweatshirt. But, I can’t help but believe it is a commentary on our society in general. What is happening in the lives of others is not important to us. We have our own issues. If the dude who gets on at Dallas doesn’t show up for a week I have no obligation to care or inquire. If I get involved with others, that ups the ante of responsibility. Who wants that? Self absorption is a lot simpler. I only have to care about myself.

Today I will not be on 61 B. Will anyone notice? Will anyone care? My appearance on 61 B did not register with all or most of the riders. But, what of the students headed to high school, or the workers at Presbyterian Hospital who ride everyday? Unfortunately, their non-appearance would likewise make no difference in the lives of the riders. And, that is a tragedy and shows where we are as a people on 61 B, in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, in the USA and in the world.

2008-04-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Earth Day/Election Day 2008
Do we vote to save the earth?

Today is Earth Day and Election Day in Pennsylvania. The whole world knows that. Earth Day is like Halloween, a big secular holiday. And, Election Day in PA is known the world over because of the Hill/BO battle. Closer to home, there is a primary for the 5th Congressional District seat being vacated by John Peterson [R]. It has been particularly nasty in the final weeks of the campaign which has been of particular interest to us because a nephew is one of the candidates on the Republican side.

gets buried in all of the hoopla surrounding the environment and politics is the “God factor”. On Sunday, I read as our call to worship Psalm 24. It begins:
The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,
The world and those who dwell therein.
Note, the earth and all its inhabitants belong to the Lord. Does that mean we are not to be good stewards of the environment? No. But, we must keep in mind, no matter how often it is repeated, that we are not “saving our” earth. We are to exercise dominion over what we have been given for we answer not to any agency of men, but to God. Likewise, when electing officials as public servants [Do the candidates know what they really are?], it is to be a civil magistrate for God…to do good and restrain evil. The world and all in it belongs to God as much as the physical earth. For, He is the Creator and Sustainer of all.

So on this combined Earth and Election Day, remember we do not vote to save the earth. Each of us is individually responsible for using what has been given to us in a responsible way. And, we are to vote for those candidates who would make good rulers, discharging their duties to all folk under their jurisdiction so that good would be able to be done and evil punished. So, go to the voting booth if you are in PA and then plant a tree. By keeping this in mind, you will be glorifying God Who is in charge and has set forth a way to do all things from eternity.

2008-04-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

Tradition of the Church
Lost in the ‘60s

Tradition is anti-individual. In the 1960s in the USA, individualism became important. A traditional culture requires shared virtues and character traits in individuals agreed upon by the members of the culture as desirable. And, virtue and character are mediated by institutions of authority such as families, voluntary associations, schools and churches. The problem is that in the turbulent ‘60s all institutions of authority were under attack.

The result was that the “shared” ideals of the culture were not longer recognized as shared. Many were seen as the tools of oppression and control of the authorities who were only interested in staying in control. When the cry “Hey, hey, ho, ho, western civ has got to go!” was raised at Berkeley, it was because younguns no longer wanted to hear about the values of dead white men who represented the established order. The ‘60s radicals wanted freedom from the past. They were seeking a divorce from tradition. It was sociological postmodernism. I want my own social order because there is no correct, overriding social order binding on all folk. What is your tradition does not have to be my tradition.

Autonomy of the individual became the currency of the realm. And, the rest is…as they say…”history”. The unifying factors in our culture are few. Try to name a few. How about, anti-smoking? Global warming is trying to establish traction, but its 1st cousin environmentalism comes very close to universal acceptance. After all there is an “Earth Day” that is all about our collective responsibility to the earth. My dear wife reports even Campbell Soup is packaging with green labels as proof of their eco-friendliness. Question: If Lucky Strike brought back “Lucky Strike Green” [which for all you sub 60s, went to war in WW II] would that make smoking Luckys o.k.?

In academia, race, class and gender are big unifying issues. At least in the framework of being the apex of an enlightened culture, reaching a classless, raceless and genderless society would be a worthy goal. This has been difficult to achieve in practice since it takes tipping the scales in favor of the heretofore unfavored in order to achieve equity. And, this has taken decades of the full weight of government power to bring about redistribution between the classes and give advantage to minorities of color and sex. It is rather astonishing that the one authority that is acceptable is the government when used to advantage the disadvantaged!

There is a significant intersecting of this anti-authoritarianism and the contemporary church. When the culture was captured by those who wanted nothing to do with institutional tradition, the church reacted in one of three ways: Who cares, or separation from the culture, or adapting to the culture. We can all try to cubby hole into those responses certain denominations or churches with which we are familiar. But, the important thing to see is that “engagement” is not apparent in any of the responses. Whether it is “us v. them” or “keep away from them” or “we’ll become just like them”…there is a failure to take culture seriously except for their personal “hobby horse” reasons.

In what has become the modern evangelical church this is what we see. We are to pluck individuals from the culture and introduce them to Christian music, Christian entertainment, Christian novels, Christian exercise programs, Christian diets….you get the point. The Christian has to like Veggie Tales and CCM to be truly redeemed. Salvation is reduced to providing the saved with alternative consumption and entertainment opportunities. No thought is ever given to redeeming the culture by bringing folks to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and then impacting the world, and everyone in it, for Christ. Evangelicalism is busy creating a sub-culture that is waiting for the Rapture.

This is no different from the secular minded individual. That person has no time for spiritual matters. Those are private issues and have no impact on culture. Is that not the same result reached by our modern evangelical? Spiritual matters are all about separating us from the culture and creating our own culture. The big difference is that the non-Christian cares about his culture. When you think about it, there is a quite frightening result in both cases…faith is privatized!

The culture we live in is only good for scoring spiritual points. The Christian faith has become highly individualized. The Church Fathers, the history of the Church, the “solas” of the Reformation, none of it has any impact on the 21st century church. Acts tells us the apostles turned the world upside down for Christ. That is no longer a concern of the 21st century church. The institution of the church as the supernatural authority of Christ in this world to bring the Kingdom to fruition has been lost. Lost in the tsunami of anti-traditionalism leading to radical individualism all spawned by the social earthquake of the ‘60s.

2008-04-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Modern Culture
The Sad State of Mass Media

Can you find any hard news on the television? I mean a half to one hour of “news” not swallowed up or overshadowed by entertainment. Or, news without focusing on a personality. Like reporting on the Iraq conflict without a focus on Bush, Pelosi, Reed, Petraeus or Maliki. Allow the viewer to assess “successes” or “failures: by individuals elicited from the news events. All news is treated as a premise to a political or social position. Calling your program the “No Spin Zone” is itself spin.

During the 1996 election, I was interviewed at the Clearfield Diner about the election. Bill Clinton was running for his second term against Bob Dole. ABC was traversing I-80, stopping at diners along the way interviewing voters about their perception of the government as the campaign unfolded. Susan and I arrived at the diner about 10:30 a.m. I was treating her to breakfast after a dental appointment. When we arrived we could see there was something unusual occurring. A woman dressed like she stepped off the pages of Vogue was there with an attractive well dressed man and another man looking more like a Clearfielder in dress, but who had a large hand held camera.

The woman came to our booth and asked if we would be willing to respond to some questions about the election. It was late September or early October. I said sure, and she spoke to the GQ guy and I was interviewed. The questioner was a second banana on the ABC Nightly News at the time…doing weekend broadcasts. In the interview I opined that television was part of the problem because of its sound bite method of reporting where nothing was covered in depth and there was jumping from story to story without opportunities to contemplate what was reported. Off camera I related that Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death had an incisive critique of the cultivation of non-thinking by television. The interviewer had never read the book. I sent it to him later and received a nice note from him thanking me for bringing Postman’s writing to his attention.

When the show aired, the interviewer, who was anchoring the news that Saturday night, mentioned my concern about the lack of contemplation television permits. He then said that tonight they would take Mr. Kriner’s suggestion and allow the audience to think about the issue before going to commercial. This was followed by 30 seconds of dead time with a blank screen, an experiment that cost ABC money!

Unfortunately, things have not become any better, at least on television. The content of television is about forms [entertainment] and choices [zillions of channels]. That which is superficial not serious; glitzy not plain and outrageous not commonplace is what attracts the choice of the watching public. Television, like almost everything else in our culture has been commodified. And, we consume what we like or desire. In a circular way, television creates the desires and likes of the viewer by offering what it does. It is an endless cycle without a way out. Back in 1996, I was incorrect in my presumption. I thought if more time for thought was given to folks, they would come to decisions themselves. Folks do not want to think and the mass media does not want them to think either…a perfect marriage

Remember Huntley, Brinkley, Swayze, Cronkite? If you do not, go back and look at some old footage. It was television, and therefore images, but the speed, excitement, immediacy and entertaining value of what was presented was unbelievably different from today. Yes, the images shown were carefully chosen then as now to convey a point of view. But, it was not so consumer oriented. It was news. Today, news divisions of networks and cable outlets differ very little from their entertainment counterparts. In fact, the 24 hour news networks are plunging deeper into entertainment because “news” is their form of entertainment. And, with the 24 hour folks, they want to be the first to deliver the next, and do so with dispatch. They want the consumer to choose them as their source for Brittany and other Hollywood hyjinks, political dirt and Amber Alerts.

The Mass Media is in a sad state for delivering news. But, they are doing what their consumers want, helping them with their wants along the way. The print media is in retreat because of the lack of desire for in depth reporting on stories. But, there is some hope with the Internet. More and more print media organizations are using the internet for news than can be consumed without speed, show and immediacy. Twelve years later, using 20-20 hindsight, and knowing the explosion of 24 hour “news”, I think I would recommend a new alternative. The screen on your television should be blank permanently…not just for 30 seconds. Get back to reading your news so that you can contemplate what is reported. Let us dispense with the speedy, innovative images of a Mass Media that fulfills our desires and makes us shameless consumers of entertainment that is big on form with little or no content.

2008-04-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

Tradition of the Church
Where is it located?

Not everyone agrees on the “correct” tradition of the church. Protestants do not agree that Papal infallibility or Marian worship are valid traditions. But, Protestants have their own traditions. The solas of the faith are surely the tradition of Protestants. A rejection of the solas is treated as a denial of the Biblical faith in Lutheran and Reformed believers. Now, not all Protestants embrace the solas, but their concern is with the lack of holiness they claim ensues from an individual not appropriating the faith. But, the basis of salvation by faith and not works which is the perceived Roman Catholic position holds sway in Protestantism in general. That is a tradition rejected by the Roman church.

So where do we go to determine what tradition is correct? Protestants would say we go to Scripture…sola Scriptura. The pitfall of that approach is to appropriate the Bible as the believer’s Bible instead of the church’s Bible. It leads. As some Roman Catholic wags would say to “many popes”! Each Protestant is free to interpret the Bible as he/she sees fit for his/her particular circumstances. Each individual has the right to interpret the Bible and determine what practices are acceptable in the church without any faith community telling him/her otherwise. Here, the priesthood of all believers becomes the sacred tradition above all others.

Obviously, no individual can interpret the Scriptures in a vacuum. Faithful use of Scripture can only be accomplished in a believing community who practice the truths of Scripture in their daily living. This makes the apostolic and patristic community and their practices indispensable to the modern day post-modern Christian. The apostles and those whom they taught and trained were the closest to the time of the Christ Who is worshipped and served. Their theological principles and practices represent the tradition of the church that was ultimately codified and legitimized into the Holy Scriptures which represent the Holy Spirit’s normative transmission of the truth.

The apostles and the early church fathers gave birth to the Christian tradition that has been passed on and flourishes to this very day. Disagreements on tradition notwithstanding, there is still a formative tradition of the church. Author D.H. Williams says:

Protestants may insist that tradition is not revelation, yet they might agree that the early tradition was and is an element of the Spirit’s providential working to define and preserve the church. Even as the Spirit continues to incorporate mew expressions of the church’s faith, hope and love into the body of Christ, it does so always under the guidance of Scripture and in “conversation with the patristic tradition.

Creeds, catechisms, hymns, doctrine and practices came from the church fathers as those who were delivered the faith and who helped develop the faith that is confirmed by the Holy Scriptures. Indeed, tradition is not revelatory in the sense Scripture is the revelation of the Triune God. Yet is has developed and is part of the transmission of the faith to the faithful.

For instance, the Nicene Creed became a vehicle of stating the tradition of the early church. The great Councils of Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) were recognized by Luther and Calvin as important to the development of the church. And, this all happened within the framework of the community of believers. These church councils helped to define what would be a normative and universal understanding of orthodoxy as taught in Holy Scripture. It is in this early church period that we find tradition that can be looked to in the 21st century church. A tradition that leads to a basis of belief all can embrace.

2008-04-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

Tradition of the Church
For Protestants?

It is often proffered that Roman Catholics differ from Protestants in that the former have two sources of authority: Scripture and tradition, meaning the teachings of the church. Protestants, on the other hand, believe in Scripture alone in that truth is mediated by the Bible alone and not by tradition in and of a church. Authority for belief and living comes from Holy Scripture and not from teaching or tradition of any church body. The early Reformers declared God’s Word to be the final judge of all teaching of the church, the so called tradition.

The unintended consequence of such a position is to isolate Protestants from much of church history. It is as if Luther, Calvin and the other Magisterial Reformers actually invented the real church and that all that came before was bogus or irrelevant. For 1500 years all the folks who called themselves Christians had it totally wrong. They had no concept of interpreting the Bible nor did they have a clue on the person and work of Christ. Before the Reformers there was no “real” church. We should call them the Inventors, not the Reformers. Of, course that was not the case, the Reformers desired to reform the church. They knew it was Christ’s Church and they wanted Christ and His Gospel returned to the position of centrality it once had.

The Apostle acknowledges the tradition of the early church. In 2 Thessalonians 2:15, he states:

So then, brothers and sisters stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by spoken word of by our letter [ESV].

Paul confirms here that he has been teaching and transmitting the tradition of the church. That is all of which a Christian must know, believe and live. Paul did not create a tension between what was revealed and what was taught. The tradition of the church was an aid to the inspiration process of the Holy Spirit.

In the early church, tradition became a way of transmitting the teaching of the apostles. When you think about it, in the first centuries of the church much of its development came from the transmission of tradition. There was no inerrancy of Scripture doctrine in the early church. Why? There was not yet a standard collection of inspired texts. And, we have no idea how available Paul’s letters and other texts were to believers of the day. So, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that tradition was passed on in word and writing. The faith was first imparted in early confessions, singing of hymns and through baptismal instruction when folks made a public profession of their faith in Christ.

The Word of God has always been paramount for the Church and believers. Yet, in the early church, God’s Word was confirmatory of what had been preached and taught. Much like in China today where the Word is at a premium, the early church grew through what was taught by the apostles and those trained under them. They taught the truth in the traditional beliefs of all those who called on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Tradition and the inspired Scripture developed on a parallel track and the Holy Scripture became the normative revelation of what must be believed and lived for all believers.

What Protestants need to understand is that the entire history of the Church has been superintended by the Holy Spirit. The Church is a supernatural work of God. Tradition was not the antithesis of Scripture for the early church. Protestants are as dependant on the tradition of the early church as much as Roman Catholics are. Church history, and especially that of the early church fathers, is not to be dismissed but understood as part of God’s plan for His Church. Tradition is not another source of truth but is part of the deposit of truth transmitted to believers as revealed in its completeness and sufficiency through the inspired Scripture.

2008-03-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

Global Warming
Is it over?????

A report of an interview in The Australian seems to indicate that temperature increases have plateaued. So, is GW over? Is the hoo ha over greenhouse gases going to be relegated to the dust bin of history? Is the catastrophe over? You can read the entire article at www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23411799-7583,00.html
Here is a sample:

Question:"Is the Earth still warming?"

Answer: "No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years."

The interviewee, Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow at the think tank Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, AUS, claims that the head of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change also believes GW is history. The data gathered by NASA’s Aqua satellite has had a lot to do with these new revelations. Climate Scientist Roy Spencer’s interpretation of the data has, according to Marohasy, “people still in shock at this point.”

What is very odd is that there have been no reports in the American Press about this. The Aussie article was on 22 March, yet when you Google “Aqua Satellite Global Warming” three is no American press report. Spencer’s book Climate Confusion, released recently will soon be putting the issue back in the public light…hopefully. Then, the GW fanatics, who want all government as well as private policy decisions to be bathed in man made global warming, will have to explain the Aqua Satellite findings they were all so anxious to obtain. Stay tuned, the GW debate is not over yet.

2008-03-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

PostmodernismNo Change

In his book In the Ruins of the Church, R.R. Reno posits that change is anathema to postmodern sensibilities. Recently I posted that the emerging/emergent folks who have adopted those sensibilities want church to be about affirmation and acceptance not change and conversion. Reno helps us to see why.

According to Reno, the humanism of modernity and Christianity shared an interest in transformative change. The freedom of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the empiricism of John Locke both attempt to change minds. It is true that Christianity changes hearts and minds through the power of the cross, but change is still in play for both modern humanism and Christianity. Not so with the humanism of postmodernism. While individual freedom is still embraced, it is has been placed by multiculturalism in the [Reno’s words] “the quicksand of race, class and gender.” In other words, individuality must be mediated by the holy trinity of postmodernism for it to be permitted.

Reno goes on to say that while the humanism of modernity saw a confident hope for the highest good, not so with postmodern humanism. Humanity is still first in postmodernism, but it is without confidence. It is humanity clouded with fear. Postmodern humanism has two evident features according to Reno:

…fear of authority and flight from truth. Both are integral to the strange way in which postmodern culture seeks to serve humanity by saving it from any and all power, by protecting us from the ambitions and demands that lead to change.
Change is a casualty of postmodernism.

This explanation gives us a window on seeing why the postmodern culture cannot be embraced to produce authentic Christianity. And, why authentic Christianity…its dogma, tradition and transformative power…must be avoided. It is the authority most to be feared. Real Christianity is an oppressor because it claims exclusive truth and authority over life. The two bogeymen features Reno says postmodern humanism most fears.

This separates postmodernism from modern humanism as well as reasoned Christianity. As Reno says:

These efforts to shield ourselves from authoritative demands make us fear any proposition, some insight to a conclusion or a syllogism that may lead to control over our intellect or soul. Sharing now smothers debate. God for bid that anyone should formulate a reasoned argument; it might contradict or “marginalize” the experience of others… Everyone must be affirmed; the views must all be validated.

Here we have it. No argument is possible. All ideas are equally valid. Everyone must be affirmed. This is the postmodern agenda! Why would anyone who is a Christian swallow that?

Only one proposition is permitted…that all truth is relative. Thereby, no one can be authoritative over another by espousing their view as superior to any other. Reno claims that this is the dogma of the young people he teaches at Creighton University. Not, mind you, a theory but an issue of faith. Reno puts it this way:

Relativism is not a philosophical theory. It is a spiritual truth, a protective dogma designed to fend off any power that might claim our loyalty. It is a habit of mind that insulates postmodern life from the sober potency of arguments and the force of evidence, for the rightful claims of reason and the wisdom of the past…Here our contemporary horror of obedience joins hands with solipsism in order to protect the soul form all the demands, rational or otherwise. Here we are face to face with the spirit of the age.

Relativism is deadly. It is the enemy of reason and faith. Those who embrace it are safe from any claim to a loyalty or authority other than the self. It is the ground of a postmodernism that allows for no change. That is antithetical to Christianity which is all about change and any church that substitutes affirmation/acceptance for change and conversion through Christ is propounding “another gospel”.

2008-03-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

Easter 2008
Bobby Foster: The Adoption of a Gravedigger

The two men finished their spade work. The sun was nearing the horizon and a chill was beginning to be felt. It was April 19, the last day of winter. After finishing, two men stood at the edge of the hole and looked in. One was in his late fifties with a weather beaten look and a wiry build. The other was younger, in his twenties, taller and heavier. “Well BF, that does it,” rasped the older man. He reached into his mouth with the thumb and middle finger of his left hand, pulled out a wad of chewing tobacco and threw it in the hole. That was a ritual every time a grave was finished at the Union Cemetery.

“Do you want to ride the backhoe to the shed?” “Naw, I think I’ll walk back.” As the older man walked to the machine, the younger tarried at the grave. “Are you o.k. son?” the older man asked looking over his shoulder. “I hate these types,” the young man responded. “I’ve dug hundreds of graves and the ones for kids do seem harder,” the old man said sympathetically. “When I took over this job from Oren when he retired, he told me, ‘Newt, this is not just a job, it’s a trust. You will bury a lot of folks and this will be their last stop on earth. Their families will be hurting. Do the job right, the dead and their families are depending on you.’ But you know Bobby, it does take its toll on you. Especially when its folks you know and the younguns. But, old Oren was right, we have to do the job right, that’s our contribution. Luckily we don’t have to explain why it has to be done.”

“I just don’t get it. The kid was only 11. What sense is it for an 11 year old to die?” The older worker lifted his green John Deere hat off his head and ran his caloused hand through a chock of grey hair, but had no response. Both stood staring into the empty grave. “Who is the parson officiating?” “Pastor VanDeever of the Presby Church in town. He has always impressed me as good man.” The young man thought out loud, “Maybe I should ask him why the boy had to die.” “Meebe you should.” Newt again walked to the backhoe, fired it up and drove off the hill to the equipment shed.

Bobby Foster lifted the two spades, one on each shoulder, and began walking after the backhoe. He thought about when he was 11. He was a Junior Olympic wrestling champion. Wrestling was his passion, nothing else was even close. In high school he earned two Pennsylvania Regional Wresting Championships but never finished higher than 8th at the two state tournaments in which he wrestled. The size, confusion and pressure of the event overwhelmed him. He did earn a partial wrestling scholarship to Pitt Johnstown, but only made it through one semester. Again, it was a situation in which he could not be comfortable.

He reached the shed, cleaned the spades and hung them on the wall. He had been working at the Union Cemetery for almost 5 years. He looked over at Newton Alston, superintendent at Union for 23 years and wondered if he would be here that long. Newt was wiping down and replacing tools used earlier in the day to repair on of the chain mowers. With Spring tomorrow, the busy season would soon begin. “Can I help, Newt?”

“Nope, I’ll be done in a minute. Tomorrow we got to order grass seed and some new saplings. The Association wants a better catch of grass across from the parking lot and a row of trees planted. We’ll want to do that before the cutting and trimming gets into full swing.” “What time tomorrow?” Bobby asked. “Funerals at 10:30, so they should be here by 11:15, so we need to be here to set up at 9:00. See you then.” “See you at 9:00, Newt.”

Bobby picked up his lunch cooler and headed out the door. “You alright boy?” “Yep”, Bobby responded, “see you tomorrow.” He walked to the back of the building, entered his Silverado pickup and headed out Cemetery Road for home. It is only a 15 minute drive to the small 5 room ranch house he rents from Mrs. Schindley. She was in an assisted living facility. This little house was the dream house of the Schindleys, but Henry developed Alzheimer’s within a year of building the house. He is now in a home for Alzheimer’s patients. Actually, that whole deal is another thing he can’t understand.
A nice little old retired couple and in a couple of months their whole world is turned upside down and wrecked.

Bobby Foster pulled up to his mail box. Nothing but bills and flyers from WalMart and Penneys. He went in the side door, removed his Red Wing work boots and peeled off his dirty Woolrich and Carhartt work clothes. After popping open a Budweiser, he jumped into the shower for a long, warm drenching. Try as he could to think of other things, he kept coming back to Ricky Myers, the 11 year he would lower into the grave tomorrow.

About twenty minutes later, he checked his answering machine and saw the light blinking. He retrieved one message from his sister Marie. She was trying to be calm, but he knew better. His mother was back in the hospital…not serious…but he needed to come and see her as soon as possible. Laverne Foster had been battling sever diabetes for the past four years. The docs were having trouble regulating it and she already had the toes on her left foot amputated. She seemed to be subject to infections. He pulled on clean clothes and headed to Memorial Hospital.

At the hospital he rode the elevator to the 4th floor. As the doors opened, Bessie Lerner, one of his mother’s church friends was waiting to go down. “Bobby, honey” she seemed to shout. “Your mom will be so glad to see you.” “Hello, Mrs. Lerner. How is she doing.” “She is in a lot of pain in her bad leg. Dr. Meechem says it doesn’t look good for that leg. But, you know your mom…she is always smiling and loving others. You are blessed to have a mom like yours.” Bobby and Bessie Lerner parted company and he looked for and found Room 415.

As he crossed the threshold, his mother looked at him, smiled and said, “Bobby, honey, how are you? It is so good to see you. You aren’t working too hard are you? Are you taking care of your self? Do you….” He interrupted her, “Mom, I’m fine, what about you?” “Come and give me a hug son”, as she sat up further in her hospital bed. He complied and gave her a hug and she kissed his unshaved cheek. “It’s good to see you,” she repeated. “Now, mom, why are you back here?” Bobby emphatically inquired. “Oh, honey, I’m having some discomfort and Dr. Meechem wanted me to be here so they could monitor what’s going on. It’s not a big deal, though. Have you met Dr. Meechem, he’s a nice man. I taught him and his sister a church camp.”

“Mom, it is a big deal if you are in here! Mrs. Lerner said you are having a lot of pain in your leg.” “Oh, Bessie worries so much about everything. I think I’ll be fine.” Before Bobby could ask anything else, three people popped in the door. “Rev.Skillman, Peggy and Becky, so nice of you to come. You know my Bobby don’t you?” After introductions, an exchange of niceties and a brief explanation of Laverne Foster’s medical issues, the next 30 minutes were spent discussing the church and the problems of other parishioners. Bobby thought to himself, that is just like mom, concerned with others more that herself. He patiently listened.

When Pastor Skillman, his wife and Becky Larson took their leave, he asked Bobby. “Are you still working at the Union Cemetery?” “Sure am.” “I grew up with Newt Alston. He came from a tough background. Dad in and out of jail; his mom died when he was 15.” “I didn’t know that.” “And, to top it off, his first wife deserted him when he was in the Army. But, he still seems to have it together. Thanks be to God for His grace.” Bobby said nothing more but thought, how about grace for Ricky Myers, his mom and the Schindleys.

“Haven’t seen you in church lately.” “No, I don’t get there very often with my schedule and other things.” “You know you are always welcome. It would please you mother greatly if you came with your dad, mom, Marie and her kids.” Again, Bobby was silent. What could he say except he didn’t see much reason for church. And, it didn’t seem to make much difference for those that went anyway. No use starting an argument in mom’s hospital room. “It was nice to see you again, Bobby,” the pastor said as he shook his hand and walked away.

It was 8:55 and a nurse came around to say visiting hours were over in 5 minutes. “I have such nice friends, Bobby.” “Yeah, mom they seem very nice. How is dad taking this?” “Well, he insisted I come in here. I really didn’t want to, but you know dad, he is very protective of me. So, he brought me in about noon when I couldn’t put weight on my leg.” “How long had it been like that, mom?” “A couple days, honey. I thought it would get better. But, now I am here so they can find out the problem.” The lights flashed and over the intercom a nurse’s voice boomed, “Visiting hours are over.”

“Mom, I am going to go, but I’ll be back tomorrow evening.” “You take care of yourself and be careful, Bobby. I love you.” “I love you too, mom.” He hugged her again and she again kissed his bristly cheek. “Are you growing a beard again, honey?” “No, I just didn’t shave today. You never liked my beard.” She smiled, “It’s not that I didn’t like your beard, it hide your dimples.” Bobby smiled and said goodbye.

On his way home, he decided to stop at the Old Cabin Inn. He pulled into an almost empty parking lot. Good, he thought, I don’t want to talk to anyone. He took a stool at the bar. “Bobby,” Jack Hudson the week day bar tender said, “How are you?” “Good, Jack. Give me a Yeungling Lager.” “Glass?” “No, just the bottle.” As he lifted the bottle to his lips, the door sprung open and a penetrating voice exclaimed, “It’s Digger O’Dell.” Bobby knew exactly who it was, Reggie Neumann. Bobby turned on his stool and saw Neumann and his sidekick Stu Phillips. They were high school classmates and not his favorite people.

One plopped down on each side of Bobby. “Jack, bring us two Black Jacks on the rocks.” Neumann turned to Bobby, “How’s the cemetery business? People dying to get in?” He burst into laughter, as did Phillips. Bobby wondered why he stopped. “Me and Stu are still working for Minter Construction. Great job. We are off all winter and go back to work next week.” “Yeah,” Phillips added, “We went to the Super Bowl and took the Clymer twins to St. Croix for a month. Beats dealing with this winter weather, eh Bobby?”

Jack asked, ”Who has the new ride?” “That’s my 2003 ‘Vette. Tomorrow being the first day of spring, I Got it off the blocks and put on the tires for cruising until next winter,” explained Neumann. “Still have your Ram pickup?” “Yeah, that and the PT Cruiser. Never can have too many wheels I say,” said Neumann chuckling. “I’ve got a Prowler ordered,” chimed in Phillips chimed in, “should be in by April 15. Cherry red with black leather buckets.” Even amid the bragging the Jack Daniels was gone. “Two more, Jack. How ‘bout we buy you a beer Digger?” Bobby responded, “No thanks, I have to work tomorrow.” “Too bad,” Neumann said without meaning it.

“See you Jack”, Bobby said as he left, and he added for Neumann and Phillips, “take care guys.” When he got outside he breathed deeply of the cool night air. He was glad to get out of that stifling environment. Those guys do nothing but talk about themselves and what they have and have done. He walked by Reggie’s Corvette with more that a little bit of envy in his heart and swung up into his 1999 pickup. He tuned in MegaRock and headed down the road not knowing that his life would be soon changed forever.

Just about two miles from the Log Cabin Inn, he spied a figure on the side of the road. As he came closer, Bobby saw it was a massive man wearing a black Nike warm up and a Pittsburgh Steeler ball cap. He was hitchhiking. Nowadays, you do not see many hitchhikers. He recalled dad saying never, never pick up a hitchhiker. But, there was within Bobby an overwhelming urge to stop. He tried to overcome it but he stopped next to the guy and lowered the passenger window. “How about a ride?” the stranger asked. Bobby hesitated in his mind but his voice said, “Sure, climb in.” The man lifted himself in and filled the passenger side of the cab. He had to be 6’6” and 275 pounds. Bobby was 6’2” and 200 pounds and this man dwarfed him. “Thank you for your kindness”, the man said reaching over with a massive hand that totally enveloped Bobby’s.

Bobby was feeling a little intimidated, so he quickly said, “You a Steeler fan?” The big man replied, “Not really, never saw a game, but I wear this in recognition of my brother.” “He plays for the Steelers?” “Yes. He is called Thunder Dan Kreider.” Bobby loosened up, “Wow. Dan Kreider what a great player he is and you’re his brother. This is an honor. Are you heading home?” “No, I am just passing through.” Bobby inquired, “What’s your name?” “John Allen”, he replied. “I thought you were Kreider’s brother? How come you have different last names?” “We have the same older brother and Father” John responded.

Bobby began thinking there is something strange about this guy. He looked at him but found he could not look long in his face. He had wavy brown hair cascading out from the hat and his face was smooth and almost featureless. “You seem troubled, Bobby,” John stated in a melodic way. Bobby freaked out, he knows my name, he thought almost audibly. “Well…uh…you just don’t see many hitchhikers today.” John ignored his comment and said, “Ricky Myers is my brother, too.” Bobby’s flesh became cool and sweaty at the same time. Who is this guy and what is he talking about? John showed no emotion although Bobby knew he could feel Bobby’s apprehension.
“Bobby, life is certainly hard to figure. And, we do not always understand why things happen. When you dug that grave today, it was not for Brother Ricky. It is only his body that will be placed in that grave tomorrow. Ricky the person has gone to his Father and my Father. And some day his brothers and sisters will see him again.” Bobby listened in a way he seldom did. But, it didn’t make sense; Ricky Myers was an only child.

“Bobby, there is more to this world than you see. This is not the home of those who have the same elder brother and Father. Ricky was just passing through. I was just passing through. Danny Kreider is just passing through. All those bodies you and Newt bury, old Oren was not quite right…that is not there final resting place. We all have a destiny beyond this world. The only question is where it will be. And what happens to you here does not determine your destiny. Your destiny is dependant on whether you belong to the family with our elder brother and the Father.”

When he finished, John peered out the windshield and said, “That’s my next stop…that house with the picket fence and separate garage.” Bobby bewildered by the last 10 minutes, looked and said, “The Recker place. You know them too.” “John Recker is my uncle. I’ll get out here.” Bobby stopped the truck. John turned to him and Bobby could not avoid looking into his face. Later he thought it was like looking into the very depths of all the world’s seas. “Bobby, remember, do not make this world your home. Seek first the Father’s home and you will not have to worry about the things of this world. Turn your back on the things of this world and believe and trust in all the things my elder brother says. If you do, I’ll see you again. Repent and believe, Bobby.”

The big man slipped out of the truck, waved, turned and headed up the path from the road to the house. Bobby watched as he mounted the porch steps and them pulled back onto the highway. He was about a mile down the road when he noticed a book on the passenger side bucket seat. John left it he thought. He turned around and headed back to the Recker place. He pulled into the driveway this time. The house was dark. It was now almost 11:00. Come to think of it there were no lights on when he dropped off John. Not wanted to disturb the Reckers, he decided to come back tomorrow to deliver the lost book.

The alarm sounded at 6:45. Bobby Foster had not slept much. He laid awake thinking about what John Allen said. He didn’t get it all but he seemed at peace about the funeral today. Since he had to stop at the Reckers before work he decided to arise, shower, put on his work clothes for the day and get going. As he was going out the door, he passed up his usual NASCAR hats and grabbed his Steeler cap even though it wasn’t football season. He arrived at Thatcher’s Restaurant at 7:30 for breakfast. Linda Timmons, who was a single mom, also from his class at school, waited on him. He had the usual, fried eggs, home fries, and home made toast with OJ and hot coffee. “Bobby, you look different today,” said Linda. “I guess that’s a compliment,” he laughed. There is something going on, he thought.

He arrived at the Reckers around 8:15. John and Alice Recker were in their late sixties. John retired from the railroad. They both enjoyed gardening, flowers and vegetables. He picked up the book and realized for the first time that it was a Bible. Must be John Allen’s he thought. Bible in hand, he walked up the steps and knocked on the door. Alice came to the door and smiled when she saw Bobby. “Bobby Foster, come on in. I haven’t seen you in a long while. I hear by the church prayer chain that your mother is in the hospital. How is she doing?” “Good morning, Mrs. Recker. I am sorry to bother you this early.” “That’s fine Bobby, we are early risers. I’m making some sticky buns. Would you like to join John and me. The first batch is ready to come out of the oven.” “Thank you, but I’ve got to get to work. I just wanted to return this Bible to your nephew, John Allen. I gave him a ride over here late last night and he left it in my vehicle.”

Mrs. Recker turned ashen. Weakly, she called for her husband, “John, Bobby Foster is here and he says….” Her voice tailed off as she choked back tears. Bobby was surprised. “Are you o.k. Mrs. Recker?” She excused herself and turned and ran into her husband coming to the door. “What’s wrong Alice?” She sobbed as he held her, “Bobby says he brought Johnny to our house last night.” John Recker shot a fierce stare at Bobby, “What is the meaning of this? My nephew John has been dead for 3 years. He died on a mission trip to Cambodia and his body was never recovered. Is this some kind of hoax.” Whatever good feelings Bobby had now escaped like air out of a balloon.

For several minutes he recounted last night and showed them the Bible. It was on of John’s Bibles from the name on the inside. He received it at confirmation class at his Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio, his hometown. The Reckers recounted that John was last at there home on the way to New York to fly to Cambodia. He was part of a mission group to take the Gospel to the jungles of Cambodia. John had become a Presbyterian and believed it was necessary to go everywhere to bring those for whom Christ died into the Family of God.

Bobby apologized for the problem he caused. The Reckers were gracious and wanted him to keep John’s Bible. He returned to the truck. He was having that feeling he did at the state wrestling tournament and in college. He was uncomfortable. It was confusing and he felt like he wanted to be somewhere else. But where would he go? He turned the key in the ignition and started for the Union Cemetery. He was restless and anxious. He pulled in behind the shed rubbed his eyes. It was almost 9:00 but Newt wasn’t there yet, which was unusual. He picked up the Bible and opened it again. Some of the pages were book marked with some of the text underlined.

He began to read those passages. In Eph. 1:4-8 he read that God had chosen people to be His children by redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. In Rom. 3:22-26, he read that justification, remission of sin and righteousness is available only through the death of Christ. In Gal. 4:4-7, he read that the redeemed receive full rights as the sons of God. And finally, he read in Rom. 8:12-17 and 28-35 that as sons of God we can suffer, but nothing, not even death, can separate God’s children from Him. The tears were streaming down his cheeks. Suddenly he understood what John was saying. He understood his mother. He understood why the death of a child of God was not a tragedy, no matter their age. Right there in the Silverado, he repented and believed and to him the righteousness of Christ was credited.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was another spring. Snow was flying, mixed with rain. A blue sedan pulled up beside the shed at the Union Cemetery. Alighting from the car was a man dressed in a grey suit, white shirt and blue striped tie. He opened the door and saw Newt Alston and two young boys working on chain mowers. Newt looked up and gladly greeted the visitor, “BF, good to see you. How long has it been?” Bobby moved forward to shake the older man’s hand, “About 5 years. I finished working here the summer after Ricky Myers died. Went back to college that fall, got my degree last spring and have been working in Pittsburgh since.” “Sorry to hear about your mom, Bobby.” “That’s why I’m here Newt, I want to help with the grave.” Newt paused and then said, “Well…if you want to son I don’t see no harm. Be here at 7:30 tomorrow morning.”

“I’ve got an appointment with the Pastor at 2:00 so I need to move on. I’ll see you tomorrow, Newt.” “I’ll walk you to your car.” The two went through the door to Bobby’s car. Newt said, “You used to hate digging graves of kids and people you knew, Bobby. I know you said you became a ‘born again Christian’ but what happened?” Bobby smiled and said, “If you have some time get in we’ll take a ride and I’ll tell you about my Father.” Newt hesitated, climbed in the passenger seat and the car drove off in the snow and rain with two puzzled boys looking on from the shed door.

2008-03-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

Easter 2008
Good Friday

Today is the Friday Christians call Good. It is the day when He Who was without sin became sin; He became a curse for us [II Cor. 5:21; Gal 3:13]. Today He drank the cup of God’s wrath to the dregs. He was placarded on the Cross for all to see. But, as brother Musser is fond of saying, “Fridays here but Sunday’s coming.” On the third day, as He said, He was raised from the dead. The stone was rolled away, not for Him to escape the tomb, after all, we are told He could walk through walls in His glorified body. It was for the whole world to see that He was not there. His glorious resurrection conquered sin, death and Satan and this was the verification and certification of His sacrifice for the sin of the world. What He accomplished in His perfect life, death and resurrection is as misunderstood now as then.

We have been assaulted with the Black Liberation Theology [BLT] of Jeremiah Wright during the last week. It is not a new phenomenon. It is a cousin of the Ché Guevara theology of South America. And, it is no different than the health, welfare and prosperity gospel of white, middle class America. None of them are the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are what Paul calls “another gospel”. But, why are we surprised? We live in a time where religious pluralism [“there are many paths to God”]; cultural relativism [“what is true for you is dictated by your cultural context”]; therapy [“you need to learn how to cope with your situation”] and the death of reason [“it is how you feel and what you experience that counts”] reign.

So, why not a BLT for those who think they are the poor, oppressed and downtrodden? Those who are subjugated to the white dominated society? After all the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil War, Reconstruction, the flight to cities and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not eliminate racism in this country. So, why not Jesus as the Liberator from second class citizenship? Why not Jesus as a political force? Well…because that is not Who He is.

He is the suffering servant Who gave His live for His Church. He was not into politics. He was not a liberator in the human sense. Many of His erstwhile 1st century colleagues did not understand Who He was either. They wanted to be liberated from an earlier oppressor…the Romans. But, that was not His mission. His closest associates did not understand His plain teaching that He would die and be raised on the third day. That is why all but John disappeared on that Friday we call Good. He was the ultimate Liberator and Deliverer. He liberated His own from sin, death and Satan. His was not a policy, program or social reform. He came to make dead people live…to change individual lives.

I attended a Heroin Task Force meeting yesterday with Pastor Charles. I was amazed at the discussion. It was about programs, grants and drug treatments. Everyone wants to stop the heroin plague in the City of DuBois, but they are incapable of changing lives. Only God through Christ can do that. And, it is the same with racism, both black and white. It is an inside job. It will never be eliminated by politics, programs or policies. Last week in corporate worship our New Testament reading was Romans 6: 1-14. I had the congregation read twice verse 14: For sin will have no dominion over you, for you are not under law but grace. If you are united to Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection, you are a new creation under grace and He will through the Holy Spirit mortify the sin in you…including racism. That is how lives, families, communities, states, nations and the world will change…one life at a time.

As you contemplate this Friday we call Good, do not allow Jesus to be co-opted by some social or political agenda. That is not the “good news”. The Gospel is the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord and Savior so that salvation by grace through faith on account of His atoning sacrifice can be applied to those who believe. Read how Clearfield County’s greatest hymn writer, Philip Bliss, described Who He was and what He did:

Man of Sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim:. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood
Sealed my pardon with His blood: Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless w; spotless Lamb of God was He;
Full atonement! Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die, “It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in heav’n exalted high: Hallelujah! What a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King, all His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we’ll sing: Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Soli deo Gloria!

2008-03-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Election 2008
Who should change?

Big day in the world of news yesterday: Arguments on 2nd Amendment in SCOTUS; BO gave a big speech on his take on his former pastor’s black liberation theology; and the FED cut the prime rate 75 basis points making it a whole point cut since last Friday. A few weeks ago I posted on the “change” aspect of the current Presidential campaign. My former pastor Slash 8 [a/k/a Earl Brooks] sent along a piece on change I am reproducing below.

There is an increasing angst among the “regular” electorate about what is going on in this loooooong primary season. It may be “voter fatigue” or it may be symptomatic of a deeper unrest behind the hedgerows and along the byways of the country. I believe that is what comes through this piece by Monte Tucker. A late friend of mine used to say of the government, let them deliver the mail and protect the borders…neither of which they do very well today. Most folks are not looking to the government to take care of their every need or change how the country functions. It seems like groups with special agendas...those who believe in the trinity of race, gender and class…have center stage and are greasing the skids of change. This is the frustration of Monte Tucker in his conclusion on who should change. What do you think?

"What's Under My Hat" by Monte Tucker

Howdy friends and neighbors. Come on first Tuesday in November! I have already had about all of the Presidential election I can stand. Surely, somewhere out there in this great nation is a "good ol' boy or gal," that is worth voting for. You know, someone that has actually done something, not just talked about what they think they have done. It's only the first quarter in the game between the R's and the D's. Both sides keep talking about time for change. Just what are they going to change? They obviously haven't changed the game of politics. Billary and Bama Lama Ding Dong boost the word "change" every time I see the media put their face on my boob tube.

The first place they could start changing things would be on the Senate floor that they're already on. Just go and look at their voting records for the last several months and you will find they aren't showing up to vote. You know, the job they campaigned so hard to get by promising "change," but they just don't have the time. McCain isn't immune from this either.

Let's talk "change." What in the world do these hot air compressors think they are going to change and why? Again, I'm just a professional bovine relocation specialist (it's the 21st century, we used to call them cowboys). But the way I see it from Sunny Point , Oklahoma , how are they going to change the greatest nation in the world? All of the candidates are demanding we must change! OK. I wake up a free man every morning and I'm free to do anything that is morally right or I can do nothing. If I choose to do something productive that day, well I can whistle at my dog, start up my ol' tan feed truck that I bought with the help of a free enterprising banking system I chose to use. Plus, there's the fact that other free Americans assembled this truck, and the companies that bought, sold and hauled parts and supplies to make that pickup possible. As I turn the key, ol' tans fires up on diesel fuel that a mean, nasty, big oil company conveniently made very accessible and affordable to me. I turn out of my land that I can freely own, onto a county maintained road that leads to any point in North America I would choose to go to that day. Also, in this country, I am free to own livestock and free to care for them so that the livestock will return a profit so I can repay my bank, buy my feed and fuel, and provide for my family. On Sunday Morning (or any other day that ends in "Y") my family is free to drive from our house on a ribbon of roads that lead to the Church of our choice and worship the real owner of all things we know, God. We can give praise to Him for all and especially for Jesus.

Why can't these hopefuls for the highest-ranking governmental seat see that it is just that simple? Provide me infrastructure and protect me from these knot-headed whack's that think they can take away our freedom. Billary, Bama Mama or McNobrain aren't going to change anything. The foundations of this great country can't be changed by one person, no matter how much they think they can. As Americans, we have the right to succeed or fail and try again as we please. As a free man, I'm getting good at failing but I get smarter when I try again.

When presidential candidates tout change, the only thing I see in this country that needs changing is them. Life in America is good and for those that don't think so, you're free to leave at any time, go to another country of your choice and try to change it.I'm Monte Tucker, and that is what's under my professional bovine relocation specialist hat. Wait, I'm not changing, that is what's under my COWBOY hat!

2008-03-07T12:15:00.001-08:00

The Church
Gospel…+ and –

Pastor Aaron Garber, whom Susan and I like to refer to as our son in the faith, has some interesting references to the Gospel on his site http://afterdarknesslight.com/blog/blogs He points us to the positive aspect of the Gospel in Packer’s introduction to the John Own classic The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. [The introduction is worth the price of the book!] He points us to the negative aspect through Piper’s comments on why the health, wealth and prosperity gospel in no gospel at all, but is rank idolatry. When we recognize the true gospel, we recognize the counterfeits, of which there are many. Check it out.

2008-03-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

Living in the World
Buddy Dial

Gilbert Leroy “Buddy” Dial died. Now he did not claim the attention in death that Myron Cope did. But, he was a big part of Steeler football history. He was a hero of mine as a child. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1959 to 1963. This was a time when the Stillers showed promise. They came within a game of of playing for the NFL championship in 1963. And, during his tenure in PGH, they had 3 of 5 winning seasons, unheard of for the Black & Gold, those loveable losers. Dial still is in the record books of Pittsburgh even though he played long before the AFL opened up NFL football. In 1961, he caught 12 touchdown passes, a record that still stands but tied by Louis Lipps and Hines Ward. His 235 yards receiving against Cleveland, also in 1961, is the second best in Steeler history.

Despite his records he is hardly mentioned with all time greats like Swann, Stallworth, Lipps and now Ward. He was an All-American at Rice Universtiy, not exactly a football hotbed today. But, in the 1950s, as part of the South West Conference, the football was in the top escelon of the college game. He was drafted by the NY Giants in the second round and traded to PGH. His excellence as a player is shown by his being induced into both the College and High School Football Halls of Fame. He was selected All Pro in 1961 and 1963, playing in the Pro-Bowl both those years. Cathching passes from the incomporable Bobby Layne, he lead the league in yards per game receiving in 1960 and again in 1963 as Ed Brown’s deep threat. Astonishingly, his 20.8 yards per catch average over his entire career is still second in NFL history!!

He had a difficult life after football suffering greatly from injuries he sustained. He knew the tragedy of real life. He had five back orperations and was addicted to pain killers that destoryed his kidneys. He was declared permanently diabled in 1993, but was involved in lagal wranglings with his former wife over disability payments through 1999. Additionally, in 1999, his son Kevin Dial was on of nine prople shot to death by a gunman at an Atlanta office building. Despite all his problems, he did return to Rice Stadium this past season for a reunion with the 1997 Rice team that lost in the 1958 Cotton Bowl to Navy.

The Steelers never won a playoff game until 9 years after Dial was traded to the Cowboys. Buddy Dial was the first 1,000 yard receiver for Pittsburgh. He and others like John Henry Johnson, Dick Hoak, Lou Michaels, John Baker and Dick Haley gave young boys like me a glimmer of hope. The Stillers could be winners…or at least be respected for effort. The Black & Gold would go on to be one of the great sports franchises in the history of professional sports. It was a success born out of long years of frustration, waiting ‘til next year, and disappointment. Just like life, you keep working hard, plugging away and competing. Maybe you don’t get the big enchilada, but you lay the groundwork for those who do. Such was a Buddy Dial.

2008-03-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

Election 2008
Who are the conservatives?

There is much hand wringing and name calling in the ranks of the Grand Old Party. Seems as if John McCain, the nominee in waiting, is not “conservative” enough. Bill Buckley died the other day, the same day as Myron Cope [if you do not know who he is you are not a Stillers fan]. Buckley was considered the modern re-maker of conservatism in this country. And, he did stand against the liberalism that corroded American virtues and aided the development of the “meism” of today. Alas, Buckley’s heirs are the neo-conservatives who are peopled by those who want to export democracy to make the world secure for global trade.

Before Buckley, Russell Kirk was considered the individual who brought back conservatism from the dead. Now, a new book by Gerald Russello entitled The Postmodern Imagination of Russell Kirk, questions whether Kirk was the first postmodern thinker. In fact, Kirk early on used the term post-modern to describe the failed liberal confidence in rationality. But, he was not one who wanted to give up on permanent things. And he spent his literary life defending tradition, community, faith and permanent things against its destruction by modernity.

Russello claims that Kirk was anti-ideology and saw true conservatism as being maintained and strengthened by “redeemed imagination” [thus, the title]. Kirk saw ideologies, such as liberalism, as destructive to all that has been believed as good, true and beautiful. All falls prey to the drive for individual liberty and the exercise thereof without the constraint of tradition, institutions or authority. Kirk announced the death of liberalism as non-imaginative in 1955, in “The Dissolution of Liberalism”:

The liberal system attained popularity because it promised progress without the onerous duties exacted by tradition and religion. It is now in the process of dissolution because, founded upon an imperfect and distorted myth, it has been unable to fulfill its promise, and because it no longer appeals in degree to the higher imagination. It has been undone by social disillusion.

These are not the words of a man who embraces the postmodern sense of no truth and no authority except me.

Now, that is not to say Kirk is faultless. The late Sam Francis believed that the still vital classical conservatism Kirk argued for, using Edmund Burke as his example, was long gone. Francis saw the problem not as conserving a now decadent order, but rather, how to change it. So, in reality, liberals and conservatives alike were in the changing business. And, that brings us around to Election 2008.

John McCain may not be a “traditional” conservative, but neither is any other potential nominee, nor their predecessor. Kirk was right about a redeemed imagination and that those of the liberal stripe have none. Where is the imagination in just turning everything into a government program? Every time we look to “power” instead of “imagination” to solve problems we give up liberty, what liberals are supposedly all about. The real conservative is one who looks to imagination, innovation, and ideas to solve problems without relying on the power of the federal government.

As Kirk has said about conservatives:

[they] must stand firm against centralization, legislation that offers to substitute a passing “security” for prescriptive liberty, and the conversion of republican government into plebiscitary democracy.

So, as the election continues to heat up, think about this whole idea of who the conservative is. Is it the person interested in power and exercising it…no matter his/her party affiliation? Or, is it the person of vision who wants to find solutions to problems by unleashing the imagination, innovation and ideas of the private sector? It’s not the conserving where and what we are now…it is reclaiming permanent things with “redeemed imagination.”

2008-02-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

The Church
Conversion not Acceptance

Relationships are important to the emerging/emergent movement types. And that is not a bad thing. We need to open our churches to all folks in the postmodern world. But, we must take care that fulfillment is not found in our human relationships instead of in Christ. Too often our relationships are for affirmation and value; for feeling good about ourselves. Belonging to the softball team, YMCA, Rotary Club or any other group can be good for self esteem. Lots of groups give us affirmation. The Church, however, is not about affirmation and value. It is about change. It is called conversion.

Accepting and including others is a step to conversion but not an end. We need to introduce others to the “good news” that they do not have to be as they are. They can be a new creation in Christ. The old passes away; the new has come. 2 Cor. 5:17. Acceptance and inclusion is not the Gospel. The Gospel is about radical change. Dead people are now alive. The unvarnished Gospel is not about keeping people as they are but about changing them forever.

The emerging/emergent folks want to embrace the postmodern idea that we need to understand the times, and who can argue with that? But we are not to embrace the times. Jesus was counter cultural. He was accepting of people but not their behavior whether it be the woman caught in adultery [go and sin no more]; the Pharisees [you brood of vipers] or the rich young ruler [give up all that you have]. Christ wanted folks to be different from the way they were. The sinners obvious to the world, the religious types and the prominent people all needed to be changed, not affirmation and acceptance.

Jesus knew the culture would change when those who affect it change. He did not say…”well, this is how people are, so how can we make the message relevant to them in that situation?” No, He wanted them to see that they must be nailed to a tree, but the good news is that they do not have to be. He did it for them. John Murray’s wonderful book Redemption Accomplished and Applied is the Scriptural punch line. Jesus paid it all and through faith you can apprehend His work. That is a radical message that is not in tune with a self-centered culture where people want to be comfortable in their sin. They do not want to change…they want to be accepted just as they are.

When people come to Jesus and encounter His grace and mercy, they are never the same. He is an Agent of change. He died for those the Father gave Him. He did not die for folks to remain as they are. The Church is about the Church not the culture the Church finds itself located, wherever or whatever that is. The Church is not about acceptance. The Church is about conversion.

2008-02-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

Global Warming
Hurricane Studies

One of the favorites with the “gw” crowd is the position that climate change is creating more numerous and intense hurricanes. Those who have the apocalyptic view of gw are persistent with their arguments that the catastrophe that is gw is played out on the tropical cyclone front. It is kind of a taste of what’s to come. Well, two recent studies seem to take the wind out of their sails [Sorry for the bad pun!].

The first report is in Geophysical Research Letters. The study was conducted by three scientists in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Creighton University. Their work was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They studied tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific near the Mexican coast. Their finding was that tropical cyclone activity is statistically decreasing. And, as to an increase of intensity, there is no upward tendency there either.

The Journal of Climate published a second study conducted by Francis Parisi of Standard and Poor’s and Robert Lund of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Clemson. They looked at hurricane strike data from 1900 to 2006 and found that despite the active seasons of 2004 and 2005, there is no increasing trend in hurricane strike frequencies over the period of time studied. The report specifically states: The hypothesis that hurricane strike frequencies are increasing in time is also statistically rejected.

I wonder if we will hear Heidi Cullen of the Weather Channel report on these findings? Oh, I know, neither study was specifically of the Atlantic Basin. But, at least the studies look at actual date and make scientific and mathematical conclusions. Could they be wrong? Yeah. But, how about Al Gore, could he be wrong? And, does this prove there is no man made global warming? No. But, at least it makes one pause when looking at the poster promoting Gore’s movie…a hurricane pattern from a smokestack emission!
Connections between gw and hurricanes must be shown by data not imagination and media hype. One prediction is certain, these two reports will not slacken the drum beat for drastic action to avert the catastrophe that is awaiting us all from gw!

2008-02-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

The Church
Belfast Northern Ireland

I never thought in my lifetime I would be in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This past summer I was there with Susan, Lucas and oldest grandson Zach. It is a tough city. Although there has been only one bombing incident since the accords of peace were signed in 1998, the symptoms of the “troubles” are everywhere. Fences toped with barbed wire still separate Protestant and Catholic blue collar neighborhoods. Murals are painted on buildings commemorating green and orange “heroes” and evidencing the deep seeded animosity, even hatred that still exists. Neighborhoods are marked with flags of their particular cause. And, in Protestant neighborhoods wood was being gathered for the annual march and bon fire of the Order of the Orange on 12 July which is the celebration of the Williamite army of Wm. of Orange’s victory over the Jacobite army of James II at the Boyne River in Ireland.

So, while there is peace at the moment, always fomenting below the surface is the distrust and rejection of the religion of the other side. The government is run by a coalition of Protestants and Roman Catholics. But both sides express unhappiness that they have to share power with hoodlums and criminals of the opposition. When you ask the man on the street is the peace with hold they reply, “I hope so.” There exists a stability that is uncertain and uneasy.

But, more astounding was the opportunity to worship God in Belfast in a Reformed Presbyterian Church that has been in existence at the same location for 150 years. A church where the roof was blown off by an IRA bomb blast in the 1990s! The congregation went on worshipping in their building without a roof until it could be replaced. What a rich experience to worship with Covenanters who have stood for what they believed in a hostile environment for all these years. To hear the Psalms sung without accompaniment, RPC fashion, in Gaelic tones and accents is a rare treat. And, the pastor preached on Phil 4:6: “be anxious about no thing.” This message preached in a city that displays anxiousness aplenty.

Not many years ago, there was doubt that peace, even the fragile peace of today, would come to Northern Ireland. We should take heart at what has happened there. While the political parties in No. Ireland surely remain sectarian, I seems for the present they recognize that the government must provide peaceful existence for both Roman Catholic and Protestant alike. One can more fully appreciate the concept of separation of church and state. Paul instructs Timothy that prayer must be offered on behalf of kings and those in high places “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” [1 Tim 2:2].

So, we must pray for the governing authorities in No. Ireland. May they provide the peace and quiet that permits folks to worship God…be they Protestant or Catholic. A peace that will allow a godly and dignified life to be lived by all. It may take generations for the flags and painted murals to disappear and the fences to come down. But, by the Grace of God this will finally occur and the battle for the hearts and minds of the people will be fought with weapons of truth and life and not weapons of death.

2008-02-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

The Church
Emergent/Emerging Movement

A little over a month ago, Dave Andrianoff and I stood on the streets of Athens and discussed the emerging/emergent church movement. We had just worshipped at the Greek Evangelical Church and witnessed how it was having an impact on a culture where evangelical Christianity is a “foreign religion”. We discussed how the emergent/emerging folks may be in a similar position in our culture. I had some misgivings that we discussed with a promise to begin reading and thinking about the movement and commence a discussion with Dave. This is my preliminary thinking as put to Dave in an e-mail after the jet lag lifted on our return to the Eastern Continental Divide. We will have more to say about this subject in the coming months.

Dear Dave--------Your question to me in Athens about the emerging/emergent church as well as your embracing of A Generous Orthodoxy put me to more serious thinking about this movement [I call it a movement because, as we discussed, there is no authority or discipline structure which is necessary to be a Biblical Church.]. There is good that has come from the movement. Examples:

1. Enunciating the problem that the evangelical [whatever that is!?] church in the USA is, in large part, wedded to politics and nationalism. They have accurately pointed to this factor adding to the angry judgmental spirit of many “Christians” to domestic social issues and international relation/security matters.
2. The movement has exposed the anti-historical view of the modern evangelical church in the USA and the resultant lack of continuity with the ancient/apostolic/universal [real Catholic] church. Christopher Lasch who wrote The Culture of Narcissism says the failure to face the past is indicative of deep despair in a society that cannot face the future. In some ways that may be why modern evangelicals in the west cannot deal with those who are “different” from us. We look at the future of the church and blanch. We must become reconnected with the past to understand how to move forward in the future, a position this movement has promoted.
3. The movement has reacted to modernity’s change of emphasis from God to man and it’s commitment to reason and empiricism. We are all modern people and the emerging/emergent folk have rightly pointed that out. The cultural conditioning of evangelicalism in the USA means the modern church “thinks” it has it figured out [another reason why history is irrelevant] and that its modern understanding is “the way it is and must be”. Coincidently, this understanding comports with the ease, comfort and pleasure of the culture and a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial eschatology which takes the western Christian out before “real trouble” begins. These folk have been effective in pointing out this problem.

With all the good, however, I think the bad is the adaptation to post-modernity. The church must strive to make the Gospel intelligible but that does not mean adapting to the post-modern mindset: no overarching truth; no sin [not even the neuroses of modernity]; and no meaning. These do not represent the reality of Holy Scripture and so should not be part of a church’s belief system. The church is always reforming but never conforming to culture. We are countercultural…not modern or post-modern. Now it is true, post-modernity gives ear to the Gospel as another story which modernity did not, viewing it as pre-modern, miraculous, non-scientific hooha.

As we discussed, a large part of the problem with post-modernism, and the embracing of same, is epistemological…How do we Know? What can we know? Our knowing must always be driven by Holy Scripture, not cultural moods. Yes, we are all influenced by the culture we live in, yet for a Christian that culture does not define our belief system. As David Wells says, the Biblical God is an outside God, self-defined through revelation. He stands apart from His creation and is the standard of Truth.

The emergent/emerging movement seems to be rejecting that concept through swallowing post-modern epistemology. That may be why it is easy to know what they are against but difficult to know what they believe. In an appendix to the recent book The Supremacy of Christ in the Post-Modern World, John Piper relates a conversation he had with two emergent/emerging leaders, Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. Piper is frustrated by their conversation. This is what he says:

…committed relationships trump truth…To ask “What is the gospel underneath, supporting the relationship is a category mistake. And so I keep going back on my heels, saying I just don’t understand that way these guys think. There are profound epistemological differences—ways of processing reality—that make the conversation almost impossible, as if it were just kind of going by each other. What is the function of knowledge in transformation? What are the goals of transformation? We seem to differ so much in our worldviews and our ways of knowing that I’m not sure how profitable the conversation was or if we could ever get anywhere….[a]s far as their beliefs on certain doctrinal issues, I can’t tell, because as I pushed them on them. I could tell that their attitude was: “That’s not what we do. That’s not what do here. We don’ try to get agreement on the nature of the atonement. That is alienating to friendships to try to do that, so we don’t do that.”…Paul insists on establishing the gospel, whether there is a good relationship or not. [p. 155].

Piper’s experience seems to be indicative of the movement buying into the Grenz/Franke Beyond Foundationalism thesis that there is no epistemic access to the real, objective world but only beliefs fashioned and determined by our particular circumstances. Therefore, we cannot contend for any Truth with others just try to understand their circumstances and resulting belief systems. But, is that Biblical?

While Biblical truth is more than propositions, it is not less. Scripture is full of warnings, promises, commands and assertions, and they are all inerrant and infallible. This content is Truth because it points to the Truth…Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior…the only way to salvation. This is unacceptable to both a modern and post-modern view of reality and the church should not buy into either schema. I fear that the emerging/emergent movement has done just that with post-modernism. If Scripture does not represent the overarching Truth, the meta-narrative that stands apart from all other stories, then how can we come to know the way, the Truth and the life, to which Scripture points us? We proclaim the Gospel because its Truth changes all those who hear and believe. That is the real, objective Truth this world needs to hear.

I eagerly await your comments on this topic since it ultimately affects how we all evangelize in this undeniable post-modern culture.

Blessings-------wck

2008-02-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

Election 2008/Modern Culture
Image or Word

In 2008, the majority of advertising for candidates is on television. It is the projecting of images. Images can show a reality of sorts, but they do not allow discerning or interpretation. Words are required for that. TV images are usually accompanied by “sound bites” not explanations of positions. And, it is because of the image driven political culture that there is more of an emphasis on personality than character. How many times have you heard people say: “I like ________” but when pressed about what _______’s policies, beliefs or character is, they draw a blank. Why, because we really do not know the people we elect today.

Warren Susman wrote an article some time ago entitled “Personality and the Making of 20th Century Culture”. In it he opines that in the image driven culture of the 20th century we moved from character formation to personality formation. Instead of using nouns to describe someone, we now use adjectives. We can know so few people in a crowded world. If we want to appeal to more than our immediate family and community, personality instead of character is required. Public Relations came on the scene in the early 1900s as a way of managing a person’s image. It first was used with the new burgeoning motion picture “stars”, but was adapted to all public persons. Now, it is the most important aspect of modern day politicians.

We have had the “debates” [where the questioned often fail to answer the Q asked resulting in another preening sound bite] and candidates still make “stump speeches” [carefully crafted for the audience consuming the speech] but the overwhelming exposure voters have to candidates is the sound bite image on TV. And, we have become image consumers. Images do not explain themselves, cannot be interpreted by themselves nor describe the inner makeup of the image if it is a person. Images are for the folks who do not think and do not want to know anything more than what this candidate can do for me. Images give the voter the opportunity to choose without much work. Images massage your desires and wants making you feel like the empowered consumer but cannot tell you what you are buying. There is no precision with images; they emote. We are not taught by images. It’s what grandma used to say about “buying a pig in a poke.” You really do not really know who or what you are voting for.

Mass media is all about commodifying everything for the consumer. And, that extends to political choice. You are manipulated into a position where you think you are the sovereign and can unleash your personal freedom to vote for _____________. This is an especial problem for Christians because we are people of the Word, not image. For Christians there is a theology of language. God “spoke” creation into existence; Adam was given the task of “naming the animals”; God’s identity is tied to His Name [“I am”]; Jesus is the “Word” made flesh; we are baptized in the “Name”; and there are to be no “images” of God because Christ “revealed in the Word” is sufficient for man. Contrary to modern theorists, language did not evolve. We speak because God is a speaking God from the beginning of time.

So, during this election time, and in all of life, Christians are to be about understanding what is said and believed, not just what is portrayed. We are to be interested in character not personality. We are to be interested in depth not superficiality. We have been receivers of grace and we are not consumers of images. We need to make a discerning and wise choice not as a consumer of an image but as a believer in truth and goodness.

2008-02-14T07:12:00.000-08:00

Living in the World
The Archbishop and Sharia law

Dr. Rowan Williams created quite a stir on 07 Feb. when he was reported as saying Sharia Law should be implemented in parts of the UK. As reported at www.Spectator.org Dr, Williams stated that there need be “a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law as we already do with some kinds of aspects of other religious law," His reasoning is that Sharia law is little different from other legal codes, and as such should not be seen as threatening. He declares that "it's not as if we're bringing in an alien and rival system.”

Thankfully, the Archbishop of Canterbury is just that and not the PM.. In the interview he admits not being an expert on Sharia law but gave his opinion anyway. With that no one can quibble…after all he is in the UK and not Saudi Arabia where contrary opinions are not countenanced. [I wonder why?] But, the sensibility of his statement must be questioned. If Muslims in the UK can have certain law forms for them only, several questions are raised. Does this cover all Muslims? When Sharia law and UK law conflict, which prevails? But, most importantly, since Sharia law makes non-Muslims second class citizens, how does this impact Muslim/Christian relations in the UK?

Dr. Williams must be overlooking the fact that Sharia law is for all of life. There is no separation of church and state in Islam…all is one. That is why non-Muslims are second class citizens. The UK is a fragmented place [as Williams acknowledges] Why add to the fragmentation? Should not all people in the UK be under one law and be assimilated into one society? How can separate social and legal systems work legitimately in one society?

The last post I entered was on “change” and the new tolerance. Here, Dr. Williams represents he worst of both. Introducing Sharia law into UK society is certainly change. But, is it change that is for the better of society? In addition, this represents the new tolerance. Not acknowledging Sharia law as different and tolerating it as such but looking it as an equal to UK law, especially when it applies to Muslims in the UK. The position is that what may be true for you may not be true for me in the context of a society where we live together. What does that sound like?

These statements of the Archbishop are symptoms of a larger problem. It indicates our willingness to give up on western civilization. Not because it has show itself to be unworthy but because we have not stomach for it any longer in this age of pluralism. Many in the West are willingly rejecting the importance as well as the virtues that flow from the spiritual, cultural, historical and legal legacy of a common civilization. We all are infected by the postmodern ethos and the desire to treat all ideas as equal in merit and therefore application to the society in which we live. That should be anathema to Christians like Dr. Williams. Instead, it is indicative of living in the world today.

2008-02-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

Postmodernism / Election 2008
The New Tolerance

There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, 12 June 1987

The above words were spoken on the day before my 40th birthday. All my conscious life the USA had been in tension with the Soviet Union. It was called the “cold war”. It was a struggle between two ways of life…freedom for folks in the USA and repression for those in the Soviet Union. The Soviet rulers had their boots on the throats of their people.

When the Soviet Union began its rule, many hailed it as a new way of bringing equality to all the people, especially in the economic sense through socialism. But as the years passed, it became apparent that the communism espoused by Marx and Lenin was not possible and was clearly not the way it was in the Soviet Union. Yet, to avoid a “hot war” there was a “peaceful coexistence” that developed between the ideals of the Soviet and American rulers. Many wanted to take that to the level of “moral equivalence”. Thankfully that did not happen. Enough folks in the USA, including Reagan, believed we were right and the Soviets were wrong although we “tolerated” their position to avoid a nuclear holocaust.

But, as evidenced by he remarks above, Reagan and others never gave up on pressing for a change in the Soviets…a change that would promote freedom for the people under Soviet rule and thereby peace among state adversaries. DA Carson has opined that a big change that postmodernism has brought is a redefinition of “tolerance”. That is, it used to be that we acknowledged differing positions held but never gave up the belief in right/wrong or true/false positions and our need to advance the right and true. We “tolerated” other positions even though we knew them to be invalid.

Today, that has changed. Postmodernism with its views that “truth” is constructed culturally and is not universal, now demands that all positions be “tolerated” as TRUE. You know all the catch phrases: “what’s true for you is not necessarily true for me”, or “its all relative”. This is real “moral equivalence” because no one can impose their ethical system on another because there is no one right and true system, idea or proposition.

I for one am glad Reagan was not a postmodern president. Without delving into his theological reasons, he never quit striving to point out that the repression of freedom by the Soviets was wrong and their system was an invalid expression of a state in human history. This is an important point to consider in the 2008 election. Who wants to press for the good, the true and the beautiful? Who wants to see the dignity of man enhanced?

I am not talking about programs that make us more reliant on government or shifts resources from one person to another. These are political gimmicks to buy votes to stay in office. I am talking about the candidates approach to ideas and propositions that enhance the well being of all citizens and not special interests or segments of the population. Are the policies and positions of a candidate going to change our way of life; our view of family, land, and faith; our security and safety, all because the candidate believes we stand for nothing but the expedient and pragmatic? And, what we once stood for is not better than any other ideal or system in this world? When a candidate talks of “change” what is it he/she wants to change? Let us beware of candidates who would become postmodern presidents.

2008-02-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

Modern Culture
In the Year 2525

I graduated from college in 1969 at the end of the decade many call the cataclysmic decade of change in the culture of the USA. Columnist George called the year before, 1968, “perhaps the worst year in American history” and sixties as “the most dangerous decade in America’s life as a nation.” Interestingly, in 1969 a haunting tune was released that seemed to be both warning and prophecy. I recently heard the song on a trip to a Presbytery meeting. It was “In the Year 2525” by Zager and Evans.

Denny Zager and Rick Evans were students who met at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. They were two guitar pickers who were trying to make a buck in the Lincoln area. Evans wrote the song in 1964 and they released it themselves in 1967. Two years later RCA picked up the record and released it nationwide. It rocketed to #1 here and in England and one million singles were sold in a two month period. It remains the biggest one hit wonder of all time in the recording industry reputedly selling over 20,000,000 copies worldwide!

It appears that all the success is keyed to the desire folks had living in a crumbling culture to understand what is happening. The lyrics are as follows:

In the year 2525If man is still alive.If woman can survive, they may find.

In the year 3535Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies.Everything you think, do and say, is in the pill you took today.

In the year 4545Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes.You won't find a thing to chew.Nobody's gonna look at you.

In the year 5555Your arms hanging limp at your sides.Your legs got nothing to do.Some machine doing that for you.

In the year 6565Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife.You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too.From the bottom of a long glass tube. Whoa-oh

In the year 7510If God's a-comin, he oughta make it by then.Maybe he'll look around himself and say.Guess it's time for the judgment day.

In the year 8510God is gonna shake his mighty head.He'll either say.I'm pleased where man has been.Or tear it down and start again. Whoa-oh

In the year 9595I'm kinda wonderin if man is gonna be alive.He's taken everything this old Earth can give.And he ain't put back nothing. Whoa-oh

Now it's been ten thousand yearsMan has cried a billion tears.For what he never knew,now man's reign is through.

But through eternal night.The twinkling of starlight.So very far away.Maybe it's only yesterday.

In the year 2525If man is still alive.If woman can survive, they may find.
I
n the year 3535 {fade}

Here is the intriguing part. Two young men of the sixties generation are pointing out the potential harm to the human race from technology because it leads to dehumanization. The song also does not shrink from mentioning that Divine Wrath and that Judgment Day may be appropriate because of the self-destruction of man. Now, I am not endorsing the theology of Zager & Evans but the fact that such a tune indicating those themes and floating them for thought came out of 1969. There was great angst about where man was headed then, even at the end of decade where there was so much degradation of conventional cultural norms…including music.

Could this happen today? Would a record like 2525 be released by a major producer, a record that questions progress and technology and asserts that the wasting of life itself invites Divine wrath? Seems unlikely except possibly in country and western music or contemporary Christian music, which are niche markets. This is indicative of how improperly Christians have responded to deteriorating culture. Instead of trying to be an influence on all culture, we have established our own “little cultures”. The result is no more songs selling 20,000,000 copies that strikes back at the world’s norms being available to question those norms. And, isn’t that the first step to confronting the world with the Gospel? How are worldly men, slaves to the system of the world to know that they are heading to destruction unless the world’s systems are questioned? That was needed in 1969 and is needed today.

2008-01-31T11:20:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Edwards
Helm on Edwards

This year is the 250th anniversary of the death of Jonathan Edwards. Many will be writing and talking about that great American philosopher and theologian. I intend to read some of Edward’s works again this year as well as works about Edwards. Almost everyone claims Edwards from Pentecostal to Reformed. And, I am sure you will be reading glowing accounts of him this year. I will be posting on Edwards myself in the coming year.

I was intrigued by the following from Paul Helm. Dr. Helm was being interviewed by Guy Davies at his blog Exiled Preacher. In answer to Davies on a question about Edwards, Helm offers this:

The strength is also the weakness: a confidence in human reason which is in some respects breathtaking (the relentlessness of his argumentation in Freedom of the Will), in other respects ridiculous (his view of the continuity of things and people through time, as expressed in his Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin). In many ways he is an archetypal 18thcentury figure. Interesting that the influence of the Enlightenment should reach so powerfully into the recesses of New England; there is irony here, an arch-conservative using the ‘latest thought’ (in Edwards’ case Newton and Locke), to assist ole’ time religion. Perhaps there’s a lesson for us.While one cannot but recognise his greatness Edwards has always seemed to me to have been a tiresome person, aristocratic, tactless and remote, and something of a know-all (justifiably perhaps!), but not someone I’d like to have had as a pastor. Sorry, I’m straying from your question.
[You can read the entire interview at http://exiledpreacher.blogspot.com/ ]

I doubt if you will see as frank and critical assessment about Edwards from any other card carrying Biblical and Reformed believer. I also find it interesting the Helm sees Edwards’ use of the Enlightenment “to assist ole’ time religion” as a possible lesson for us all. Is Helm saying we should use the “latest thought”, such as postmodernism, to make our case today? Or, is he saying we too should not abandon modernity in the face of post-modernity? Just wondering.

2008-01-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

Reading
Truth in a Postmodern World

I have posted on postmodernism in the past. Here is an excellent book that delves into truth in the postmodern world. You will obtain a feel for the different approaches to truth, in the view of the four contributors, which return it to its proper place in the world today. Hopefully this preview with encourage you to read the book and come to grips with this “truth question” that dominates our culture.

Whatever Happened to Truth? Andreas Köstenberger, Gen. Editor, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005)

This is a compilation of essays that were first plenary addresses at the 56th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. A generation earlier, Francis Schaeffer lamented “truth as truth is gone…relativism reigns.” And, Schaeffer understood that once truth was banished from the realm, our everyday lives would be chaotic and unintelligible. Is that not where we are?

In this work, there are four essays about rising up to make a new case for truth so that modern man can be lead out of the wilderness of truth-less-ness and re-establish order is his life. The essays express four different approaches to the dilemma. Editor Köstenberger approaches the issue Biblically using Pilate’s well known question to Jesus on the nature of truth in John 18:38.He looks at the struggle for truth both with the Jewish religious leaders as well as Pilate the secular leader. The Jews, denying Jesus as the Messiah, reject the truth; Pilate wanting to keep control, evades the truth. Jesus’ various “trials” pit the “truth of power” against the “power of truth”.

R. Albert Mohler speaks to the cultural problem created for truth by the postmodern cultural turn. Mohler sees postmodernism deconstructing truth through linguistic analysis that tries to undermine the meaning of words which leads to a therapeutic culture, a decline in authority other than self and the ultimate displacement of morality. This is all an enormous challenge to Christians requiring them to reassert a robust understanding of truth. Without such, “Christ will not in fact be glorified, the Bible will not be obeyed, the Gospel will not be preached, and the Kingdom will not be extended.”

JP Moreland lays the demise of truth on postmodernism and its philosophical dishonesty. Moreland sets forth 5 problems of postmodernism: 1] misunderstanding of Cartesian certainty as it applies to knowledge and truth; 2] confusion about psychological and rational objectivity; 3] rejection of a belief structure with proper basic beliefs; 4] misunderstanding of where truth is found in linguistic structures; and 5] confusion about perception and intentionality. All these problems have lead to the current view of truth as a social construction rather than what actually corresponds to reality.

Kevin Vanhoozer completes the essays with a very challenging look at what has heretofore been the accepted evangelical propositionalist view of truth he calls the Hodge-Henry hypothesis. To Vanhoozer textual meaning cannot be reduced to propostions only and the inerrancy of Scripture is not in itself a hermeneutic. He finds some merit in the postmodern criticism of truth cast in the propositionalist way. For Vanhoozer truth involves proposition and action. He claims the Bible is theodrama whereby Scripture is the “script” and we are the “recipients” receiving doctrine and direction on how to live as Christians. Truth is the fit between text, how we live and reality; the key is proper interpretation of the various literary forms of the text so as to properly act out the teachings.

Whichever position appeals to you, these men provide trenchant analysis of the need for truth. Though their approaches differ, they all agree that there is truth in Scripture and Christ; that truth can be known and that it is the responsibility of Christians to be advocates of Christian truth as the only truth in the world of relativism long ago predicted by Francis Schaeffer. May we be so!

2008-01-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

Election 2008
BOK

In an historic moment, Ted Kennedy, his son Patrick Kennedy and his niece Caroline, the daughter of JFK, endorsed Barack Obama for President. In their view, BO is the next JFK, an agent for a new change in Washington, DC. How Hill and Bill must be fuming. Of course the entire endorsement thing is overwrought. They make good political theater but do not necessarily deliver votes.

There are assumptions in this endorsement. First, that a JFK is what the country needs. Second, that BO is the new JFK. Third, that the country wants a JFK like figure. It is often forgotten that JFK brought enthusiasm and excitement to the 1960 election but he was a narrow winner. And, tragically he only served until Nov. 23, 1963. Camelot and touch football were favorites of the press, but what kind of president was JFK?

It is true that his New Frontier was an answer to the Republican policies of Eisenhower, so his was a message of change. But, his presidency had its successes and failures just like any other. But his tenure is often painted as one of perfection and overwhelming competence. Because of his assassination, there was never a re-election to see if his decisions and policies were endorsed by the electorate.

Furthermore, this is a different world from the sixties. It was the cold war period and the threat was missiles in Cuba. Globalization and a world wide interconnected economy had not yet appeared. During JFK’s administration, the stock market had its sharpest drop since 1929. His response was Reagan like…cut corporate and individual taxes. He also had Congress give him tariff cutting power so he could trade with the European Common Market. His response was not that of the liberal Democrat of the BO stripe. Today, the threat to safety is not an identifiable enemy state like the Soviet Union. And, the American economy now has many competitors in this world for resources and in production. The security and economic problems today are much more complex. And the solutions thereto are elusive and lack permanence.

So, is BO the right man for this time? Time will tell and the electorate will decide. Those who Bill O’Reilly calls secular progressives often make light of the desire of some to return to the Ozzie and Harriet Days; those 50s values. Yet here is the old liberal lion Ted Kennedy and his family wanting to hearken back to the days of JFK for a solution to the current problems facing the USA. But what the country needs is a candidate who has a vision of how to deal with the security and economic issues of today, not the sixties. BO has brought enthusiasm and excitement to the Democratic primary. Now that he is anointed as BOK, it is time to hear how he plans on leading the country in solving the ongoing security and economic problems in this fluid, ever shrinking world. Returning to nostalgic images of the sixties wouldn’t do.

2008-01-28T08:23:00.001-08:00

It has been a long time since I posted. I have had a very ambitious schedule over the past months. I was involved in one of the most difficult cases of my 35 year legal career the last half of 2007. It took its toll emotionally and physically [I'm not a kid anymore!]. Additionally, Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church was particularized by the Ascension Presbytery as an official church in the Presbyterian Church in America. As a result, the responsibilities of a ruling elder in a "baby church" have set in. Our travel schedule has been over the top...even for us. Susan and I have criss-crossed the Atlantic 6 times in the last 7 months visiting Scotland, Ireland, Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. Any of you have been involved in international travel know how difficult that is Finally, Susan's beloved Aunt Lenore, her late mother's only sister, passed into her eternal reward just two weeks ago. In an example of God's blessings, we were able to see Lenore on the night we returned from Athens after 24 hours of travel, just an hour before she died. God is good all the time! Now, things seem to have returned to the "usual madness" of the practice of law and the establishment of a Biblical and Reformed witness in Clearfield County. Ergo, there will be time for blogging. There is lots to talk about, so let the posting begin!

2007-12-14T08:36:00.001-08:00

Advent 2007
Our Shepherd

Jesus is referred to as “shepherd” numerous times in the New Testament. He is variously called “The Good Shepherd” (John 10:11), “The Great Shepherd” (Hebrews 13:20), and “The Chief Shepherd” (1 Peter 5:4). In the 23rd Psalm, King David draws on his own experience as a shepherd boy. He knew that the sheep were dependent on the shepherd to meet their every need. David recognized the dependence of man on the Lord Jesus Christ as their shepherd. Unlike, David in a non-herding economy, few can identify with the sheep and shepherd relationship. It is a foreign concept. Furthermore, modern man sees no dependence on God. Fierce independence and self-sufficiency, doing what he wants when he wants to and how he wants to, is the hall mark of 21st century dweller in the western world. After all, isn’t our individuality our right? Life is full of choices and what determines choices is our status…our education, wealth, and power. If we improve our position in any or all of those three areas, our choices will lead to a more fulfilling life. The shepherds crook is relegated to the closet of antiquated thinking. Give us opportunity, not God! And, whatever needs we cannot fulfill, we have the state. Isn’t that the purpose of government to solve the problems we can’t. What if we can’t achieve the education, wealth or power needed to prosper? The government will pass legislation, spend tax money and/or bring actions in court to bring the less fortunate to the status others cannot attain in the society. The power of God has been exchanged for the power of politics. Christians must not exchange the Good, Great and Chief Shepherd for the politician. Take time this Advent to ponder how that Babe in the manger is your Shepherd. If you are a sheep that has gone astray by buying into the world’s view of life, repent and return to the Good, Great and Chief Shepherd Who will meet your “real” needs.

2007-12-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

History
Strong Vincent

This past weekend in Pennsylvania, two high schools played football against each other: Thomas Jefferson and Strong Vincent. It is a wonderful concept to name public schools after historical figures. Most know of Thomas Jefferson, although you may be surprised at what adults do not know if you watch the “Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?” show on TV. And, there are plenty of Thomas Jefferson schools in the country. But, I would guess there is only one school named Strong Vincent in the entire country.

There is a reason Strong Vincent High School is located in Erie, PA. He was born in Waterford, some call the strawberry capital of PA, in 1837. He graduated from Harvard in 1859 and thereafter opened a law office in Erie. When the War Between the States broke out he enlisted for three months in a militia regiment and when the time expired, he re-enlisted as a Lt. Colonel in the 83rd Pennsylvania Regiment. That regiment suffered the 2nd greatest amount of casualties for the Union. He married on the day he enlisted.

He fought on the Peninsula and when the colonel of the 83rd was killed on June 27, 1862, he became the colonel of the regiment. He was felled by malaria which kept him out of battle until December at Fredericksburg. Because of his legal background, he was offered position of Judge Advocate for the Army. He turned it down to remain a fighting man. The Union army was reorganized after Chancellorsville and he became brigade commander. On his 26th birthday he was marching to Gettysburg.

At Gettysburg, he took command of Little Round Top by rushing the hill with his standard bearer choosing for his brigade a section of the hill that now bears his name. On the hill he commanded the 83rd as well as the 20th Maine, 44th New York and 16th Michigan. As one group began to falter he scrambled atop a boulder brandishing a riding crop that was a gift from his wife, and accomplished aquestrian, and shouted: “Don’t give an Inch!” A bullet tore through his leg fracturing his thigh bone. He was carried from the field. Reinforcements form the 140th New York helped the line on Little Round Top hold. Knowing he was dying he wanted to return home, but the severity of his wounds prohibited travel to Erie. He held on for five days and died on July 7, 1863.

General Meade recommended Vincent be promoted for his heroism to Brigadier General on 2 July and he was on 3 July, 1863. It is doubtful he ever knew. Here is the report of Brig General James Barnes, Commander of the First Division:

It was at this time that Colonel Vincent, commanding the brigade, while rallying this part of his command, fell, mortally wounded. He was a gallant officer, beloved and respected by his command and by all who knew him. His death is a serious loss to the army and the country. ....A tribute is due to the memory of Colonel Vincent, who fell, mortally wounded, early in the engagement. He lingered a few days after the engagement. His promotion as a brigadier-general was sent to him at once as an appreciation of his services by the Government, but it reached him too late for his own recognition. He expired soon after its receipt.

While a lesser known hero of Little Round Top, he was indeed a hero who took the initiative to take the position in the first place. The official order issued announcing his death speaks to the character and standing of the man:

The colonel commanding hereby announces to the brigade the death of Brig. Gen. Strong Vincent. He died near Gettysburg, Pa., July 7, 1863, from the effects of a wound received on the 2d instant, and within sight of that field which his bravery had so greatly assisted to win. A day hallowed with all the glory of success is thus sombered by the sorrow of our loss. Wreaths of victory give way to chaplets of mourning, hearts exultant to feelings of grief. A soldier, a scholar, a friend, has fallen. For his country, struggling for its life, he willingly gave his own. Grateful for his services, the State which proudly claims him as her own will give him an honored grave and a costly monument, but he ever will remain buried in our hearts, and our love for his memory will outlast the stone which shall bear the inscription of his bravery, his virtues, and his patriotism.
While we deplore his death, and remember with sorrow our loss, let us emulate the example of his fidelity and patriotism, feeling that he lives but in vain who lives not for his God and his country.
Signed: Colonel James C. Rice

Two months after his death, Vincent’s wife Elizabeth gave birth to a baby girl who only lived one year. So, this hero would have no heir to live to tell his story. The 83rd Regimental Monument at Gettysburg does bear a striking resemblance to Vincent, although likenesses of commanders were not to be upon PA monuments. And, the school that bears his name still exists in Erie, PA. In his correspondence to his young wife, Strong Vincent says: “If I fall, remember you have given your husband to the most righteous cause that has ever widowed a woman.” In this age of self-seeking and self-aggrandizement, such sentiments are refreshing. That he was willing to give his life for something he believed was right made Strong Vincent an American hero. Strong Vincent is little known outside Erie and Gettysburg, but he is part of the glorious history of the human sacrifice and cost in the War Between the States.

2007-12-07T07:02:00.001-08:00

Advent 2007
Time Traveler

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd made time traveling entertainment in the movie “Back to the Future”. They went back in time and experienced events that occurred decades prior with hopes of influencing the outcomes which would in turn influence their lives in the present. This is an oft used theme in fantasy literature. In 2 Peter 3:8, Peter tells us that time is meaningless to our Lord. He sees yesterday, today and tomorrow as now. However, Jesus Christ was the ultimate time traveler because He entered time from eternity. He did not move forward or backwards along the timeline of human existence. He punctured time from timelessness. And, this travel into time did affect the events of time forever. He came from eternity to time to save sinners like you and me. While we were yet sinners, He loved us enough to die for us [Rom 5:8]. He left the perfect love that was His with the Father and the Holy Spirit in eternity to take on our flesh and become sin itself. Because He lived a perfect and sinless life as the God-Man, we obtain His righteousness in exchange for our sin. Jesus Christ, God Himself, did not consider Himself above the task to be the sacrificial servant for sinners [Phil 2: 6-8]. To do that He became a time traveler. Some day each of us will be time travelers. We will pass out of time to timelessness. Eternity awaits us all. No one knows their departure time. This Advent as you contemplate the Babe in the manger, remember He came into time from eternity for a reason. Have you booked your reservation with the ultimate time traveler? The only One Who can provide for you safe passage to a heavenly home in eternity.

2007-12-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

Joseph V. Paterno
Standing on History and Tradition

Last night Joe Paterno was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. That was to happen last year but was postponed because he sustained a broken leg last year that prohibited him from being in New York to receive the award. Now, that is not a surprising event. What is surprising, even amazing, is the history of Hall of Fame coaches at Penn State.

Since 1918, Penn State has had 5 coaches. One, Joe Bedenk was only coach for one year in 1949, after which he asked to go back to being an assistant. The university hired Charles “Rip” Engle as head coach in 1950, and he brought with him from Brown University one of his players to be an assistant, Joe Paterno. The other four coaches Hugo Bedzek, Bob Higgins, Rip Engle and Joe Paterno are all enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. Eighty nine years, five coaches, four in the Hall of Fame…that is unmatched in the history of college sports.

The coaching replacement carousal is underway again this year. Everyone wants a coach who will lead them to the promised land of a Mythical National Championship. When surveying what is going on, think about the history and tradition, or lack thereof, of the institution chasing the next winner. What is the school’s history and tradition? Not just the wins and losses, but the stability, the integrity, the commitment, the principles, the academics, the history and tradition of lives devoted to coaching young men and preparing them for life not just sixty minutes of fleeting fame. Penn State Football has an exemplary history and tradition in many areas but is unparalleled and unequalled in coaching excellence. One of the reasons Joe Paterno stands so tall today is that he is standing on the shoulders of giants who laid the foundation of the history and tradition he has enriched.

2007-11-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

Modern Culture
The Empty Self

Last week I opined that our modern culture was being made over for the individual which is unworkable because it renders no culture at all. Each one is doing what is right in his own eyes as Judges announces is the conduct of post-Joshua Israel. But, there is also the vacant or empty self that results from only looking within self to define what is believed and performed.

JP Moreland recently proposed in a post entitled “Christianity as Knowledge Tradition” that this condition of the self without substance, hope and character is the product the secularization of culture. He says:

The pervasive denial of truth, knowledge and rationality outside the hard sciences has left people without hope that true, knowable forms of wisdom can be discovered as guides to a flourishing life.

This has further resulted, he opines, in the “empty self” which he defines as:

…narcissistic, inordinately individualistic, self-absorbed, infantile, passive, and motivated by instant gratification. The empty self experiences a loss of personal significance and worth, as well as a chronic emotional hunger and emptiness. The empty self satiates itself with consumer goods, calories, experiences, politicians, romantic partners, and empathetic therapists. The empty self does not value learning for its own sake, is unwilling to defer gratification under the demands of discipline, and prefers visual stimulation to abstract thought. Applied to education, a classroom of empty selves will reinforce a view of education in which learning exists to make the student happy, to satisfy his/her emotional hunger, and to fulfill his/her own plans for success.Moreover, with the secular relativization of truth, knowledge and reason outside the hard sciences, secularism has contributed to the absolutization of desire satisfaction. With truth and reason dethroned as guides for life, something had to take its place. And the heir to the throne is the absolute importance of satisfying one’s desire. Secularism helps to prop up this value in the culture by its denial of truth and reason in matters of worldview, along with its promulgation of a naïve and destructive notion of tolerance.

Wow! A perfect description of the men and women we encounter everyday. While I may not agree with Dr. Moreland about the exact reason we are where we are, he has the diagnosis right. Without truth and reason that is the basis of culture, there are nothing but unsolvable issues and no hope for the individual living in that culture. Satisfying individual desires as the highest good eventually leaves one empty. Just look around and we see the destructiveness of secularism and the therapeutic culture it has spawned. What a wonderful opportunity for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ the only hope of all men living as empty selves in modern culture.

[The entire piece of Dr. Moreland is worth reading and can be found at www.scriptoriumdaily.com ]

2007-11-28T12:41:00.000-08:00

Election 2008
Conservative Breakup

Mike Huckabee has caused a bit of a firestorm. As a Baptist minister he has solid cultural conservative convictions, but some are questioning his fiscal conservatism. This is in contrast to America’s Mayor who is viewed as a solid fiscal conservative, but cultural conservative he ain’t. And them there’s Mitt who…ah…ah…ah…well he can’t really be explained. Then the “new Reagan”, the TV prosecutor, who just seems a little too…well…old, tired and kind of disinterested.

It is going to be a darn interesting election for the GOP. The cultural conservatives have always been around to help get a President elected but then for four years their priorities seem to disappear for the radar of governance. So, now there is an array of candidates who do not fit a mold that can be parlayed into a winning candidate. Could be we will see a third party run, which would be deadly to the GOP. Also, an unusual combination of Pres/VP nominees who try to deliver something to everyone, which, of course, means the party stands for nothing except “getting elected.” There is a conservative breakup on the way and it promises not to accomplish anything but electing Hill, BO or Mr. $$$$haircut.

2007-11-26T06:51:00.000-08:00

Evangelicalism
What is its meaning today?

At a recent meeting of Reformation For Today [RFT] we discussed the article in Touchstone about the state of Evangelicalism as assessed by six self-proclaimed Evangelicals. There are many today who believe the term is archaic having died the death of 1000 modifications so that it has no coherent meaning today.

In our discussion we examined 11 questions arising from the article. They are as follows:

1.Is evangelicalism a term you use? If so, how do you define it?
2. John Franke says: It [evangelicalism] does not reflect a specific confessional commitment so much as it indicates a general outlook of the Christian faith that can be situated in a broad range of church traditions." Do you agree with his statement?
3. D. Hart says evangelicalism is a symptom of "anti-formalism" that is the prevailing notion in the Christian community. Agree or disagree?
4. Do you see evangelicalism as a "mellow" fundamentalism?
5. Has political involvement watered down evangelicalism by requiring a "bigger tent" mentality?
6. Is religious pluralism, feminism and Open Theism properly part of evangelicalism?
7. D. Hart asserts evangelicalism is least common denominator Christianity that fails to do justice to the fullness of Biblical truth. Agree or disagree?
8. M. Horton believes evangelicalism is reaching the lost but losing the reached. Agree or disagree?
9. Is evangelicalism an aid or detriment to the Church?
10. The contributors outline the "best of evangelicalism". Which positions do you see as its best? Do you see a different best?
11. Is evangelicalism a term without meaning that should be relegated to at the ash heap of history? Why or why not?

The conclusion of our discussion was that the term “evangelical” is not an issue for the basic believer in a local parish. It is not a term of identification for orthodox, Bible believing folks. The group concluded that the term had been co-opted by the media and political types to identify blocks of voters who bought into a particular agenda. It is salt that has lost its flavor, so should be disregarded and placed underfoot. Today, evangelicalism has little to do with the “evangel”, the Gospel or good news, and any set of coherent, identifiable beliefs. Its context is not associated with the church or Scripture today.

One other conclusion seems to be that no “new” term is needed. Christian, or more particularly Biblical Christian, seems to be sufficient for identification purposes. The lesson learned is that any term must be defined with affirmations and denials. The latter are so unpopular today that we can only be categorized by what we agree upon and that leads to such broad categories as to be useless. There is no distinctive in evangelicalism, ergo, there can be no distinctions in any other term today.

What do you think? The Touchstone web site is www.touchstonemag.com to access the article which is from the November, 2007, issue.

2007-11-21T08:00:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving 2007
It’s been two years.

It’s been two years. I finally mustered up the courage to go through Dad’s personal belongings. I knew it would be difficult, and it was. He did not have much. But, when I sorted through his clothes, I cried. I could see him in the shirts and pants. And, I remember when Mom bought him some of the clothing. It’s been two years, but I still remember. I kept some of his flannels for Lucas and me to help insulate us from the chill of the seasons. That was his outerwear of choice for the last 30 years. I am sure he would be pleased to know we will be wearing them now. I kept his last pair of shoes. They were brown ankle high boots that had a strap over. Brown, that was Dad’s color; he was an earth tone guy. I never saw him wear a black pair of shoes except rented ones for Bob’s wedding and mine. I’ll take those old shoes next spring and dig them in the ground and plant flowers in them. That would please Dad even more than wearing his flannels because he was a man of the soil.

Included in his personnel things were the last greeting cards he ever received. I looked at them all…birthday, Easter, Christmas, thinking of your, Father’s Day. People had such kind and compassionate words for Dad. In the fog of Alzheimer’s, I am sure he understood very little of what was written. But, of course, that is not the point. Expressions of love are just that, whether understood or not. During the card reading, I cried again.

It’s been two years but there are still tears. Spring and fall are the most difficult times. Spring because when the earth comes alive, Dad came out of his winter cocoon charging into cultivating and planting. In that way he participated with the Creator awakening the earth and His creatures to a new season of growth. When I spade and plant my own little garden, I remember Dad and I cry. Fall is equally nostalgic. Summer’s harvest is in with corn boils, tomatoes in all manner of preparation, apples and other fruits gathered, potatoes and carrots dug and all foods preserved for winter eating. Fall was synonymous with football, a sport Dad loved. And, then came deer season, Dad’s real passion…spotting deer, shooting in the rifle and going to camp. When the garden is gleaned, the leaves fall from the trees, when Squaw Winter appears and men start wearing blaze orange, I remember Dad and I cry.

Two years have passed since Dad went to be with his Maker and it is not becoming any easier. And, I suspect it will not. I continue to remember, which is good. I cry, which is not bad. I miss Dad, and Mom too. But, by remembering them I remember their impact on my life. Next to a godly wife a man can have no better earthly influence than godly parents. I remember that and seek to impact my biological and spiritual issue as they did me. And, I remember the day is coming when I will be with them again where there will be no past or tears. This Thanksgiving I remember Christian parents who made me memories but also introduced me to the God Who makes a permanent, joyful place for all those who put their trust in Him for their eternal home. I am thankful.

After Thanksgiving, Susan and I will make the trip to the Union Cemetery in Luthersburg. There we will place a wreath in front of the tombstone of Mom and Dad. It is the evergreen of the eternal Christ and the unbroken circle of His everlasting, eternal love for His. I’ll pray and then wipe away the tears of remembrance and thanksgiving…again.

2007-11-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

Modern Culture
Reformulated for Disaster

It used to be a person sought to discover how to fit in to his society. In you place, time and according to your talents, how can you bring yourself to be a contributor to your society? And, part of living well in your space and time included a large dose of self-restraint and self discipline. Living life was not all about you but how your piece of the puzzle helped to formulate the common good for the community in which you lived. C.S. Lewis saw this as conforming your soul to reality. Boy, have things changed!

Today, modern man sees the task at hand in his/her life as molding reality to them. Out with restraint, finding place and discipline for the good of community. Now, the task is to change reality to meet my desires and wants. It is not about changing us for the common good, it is changing the world for us! So, we have You Tube, My Space and other such internet ventures where individuals can trumpet their beliefs, talents [or not] and physical bodies to the world. This can be done without place, time and community. You establish your community of one without restraint or discipline.

In the older pattern, as created beings we found meaning in the image of the Creator. That was all part of the order of time, space and matter. Now, in a culture where there is no Creator, we must create ourselves as special and worthwhile. When creation and our part in it was accepted, living in a community with a complex of responsibilities and obligations was paramount. History, institutions of society and orderly living was important. Today, self-seeking that is allowable because of wealth and technology dispense with the former order. In fact, history, structures, order and obligations are all seen today as stifling and oppressive.

So, we are busy creating ourselves. And, it is in a vacuum that this is done without concern for others, communities or institutions. This has lead to autonomy without responsibility. Can a society exist very long in such a situation? In the attempt to create a non-dependant culture what resulted is an epidemic of irresponsibility. The barricades have been broken and we are living in the light of Romans 1. Man has been turned over to his own depravity.

We now have a reformulated culture. It is no longer about how we fit in to the created order. It is all about how we create our own disorder. So, in the new culture, we have individual cultural monarchy. All the old convictions and standards have been jettisoned. Each of us is culturally sovereign. In this new world we can choose a Garmin or TomTom or we can choose hetero or homo-sexuality. And, no cultural institution, ideal or commonly held principle can countermand our autonomous decision. We are shaping the culture as each of us wants and desires it to be. This view of modern freedom cannot last long. It is a recipe for cultural disaster.

2007-11-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

Hunting Season 2007
Really Big Game Country

Hunting has be a staple of life in the area of the Eastern Continental Divide for as long a man has been here. The indigenous people were hunters and gatherers as well as small scale agriculturists. Because of the rugged terrain, agriculture never became the only source of food. Early white settlers also hunted game for food purposes. And, even when hunting was no longer needed for subsistence, it was a supplement foodstuff for residents. Now, it is primarily a sport but many still enjoy eating rabbit, squirrel, venison and even bear meat. Deer season is just around the corner. That is a time when the influx of hunters can double the population of Clearfield County.

When I was growing up in Clearfield County, DuBois was known at the “Gateway City”. It was the gateway to big game country. In those days “big game” referred to white tail deer and black bear. Now, because of phenomenal comeback of the elk population, it has a new meaning. The Pennsylvania Game Commission just released their statistics on the 2007 Elk hunt. Thirty five elk were harvested in the two season hunt. The largest was taken in Covington Township, Clearfield County. It was a bull weighing 792 pounds with an 8 X 7 rack of horns! Although the majority of the Elk herd is in Elk and Cameron Counties, this “big bull” reinforces Clearfield County’s claim as Big Game County…REALLY Big Game country!

2007-11-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

The New Atheism
How Evangelicals Aid and Abet

There are many who subscribe to the position that the rise of science has made atheism a plausible belief system for modern man. The arguments goes as follows: Science has eliminated much of the unknowns of the world, the suspicions that permitted religion to flourish. Man no longer requires religion to explain away the mysteries of life. Science is the domain of real knowledge. Religion is relegated to the private domain because it is about belief not facts. The atheist needs not God or any god to explain his world.

This was also the root of theological liberalism. Science has shown that the supernatural [miracles] are not possible. Religion must adapt to that, so religion is reduced to the worldly…what we can do on this earth to make it a better place of all. There is still truth but it is empirical, that which is explained by facts. Faith is in science and not in God. That has been borne out in the rapid technological advance that has made our lives easier and better on earth. Liberal religion made unbelief an alternative for right thinking folk, those who marginalized God to the private sphere of life.

But, we must not underestimate the contribution of evangelical faith to the rise of atheism. How, you may ask can that be? The evangelical was for many years one who believed in justification by faith alone and the inerrancy of Scripture. That has changed a great deal in the last 10-15 years. Many who do not believe in justification as the article upon which the church stands or falls today call themselves evangelicals. In addition, there are many more who question the Bible as inerrant or as the full Truth of God who call themselves evangelicals. Because there is no real binding definition of who and what is evangelical today, the evangelical has been reduced to a process, not a set of beliefs.

And that process is the salvation of the lost, a worthy goal, but not the end of the story. Because the evangelical process has reduced God’s role to salvation, the door is left wide open to atheism. The evangelical has abandoned God’s creation to science. There is no real interest in things of this world except as it facilitates salvation for the lost. Evangelicals left the culture room and turned out the lights; the atheist moved in and decorated the culture in the anti-God way it is portrayed today.

Evangelicals have a diminished view of the importance of creation with one exception: arguing for a literal six day creation. That in itself is a problem. The focus comes again on the process: how creation came into existence. And, much time, effort and funds are expended in this area to no avail. It is a matter of belief…did God create or not? The Bible says so. Richard Dawkins says no. Who will you believe? This side of heaven we will not know. Only God knows the scientific parameters because only the Triune God existed at the time of creation. As Ken Hamm says: “Were you there?”

Regardless of how creation came into existence, how are we impacting it? It was created good and will be redeemed. Should not evangelicals spend more time on cultural issues, along with their evangelism? If so, they would develop an expanded view of the church, the sacraments, and the nurturing of the saints at it occurs in the here and now. That would allow the world to see that matters of culture are not individually driven but that the Church has something to say about it.

When I was practicing environmental law [representing industrial clients], I was amazed at the overwhelming amount of pantheists that inhabited government regulators. Christians were almost non-existent. I pondered that for a long while. I came to realize that Christians were not seen as those who had an interest in creation. They were interested in individual souls and seeing that those souls came to know God as Savior. But, how about God as Creator? This is not an appeal for “Christian environmentalism”, whatever that is. This appeal is to put Jesus back in the public square and get him out of private.

When all that is important is to save “Fred” but not prepare him to make an impact in his created order for his Savior, we marginalize God. We privatize the faith as much as a scientist or a liberal Christian. Committed Christians need a high view of God, including Him as Creator, Redeemer and King. We need to proclaim the Gospel to the lost and allow Him to call His own to Himself. Then, with the Word, the sacraments and teaching we need to prepare these saints to make a difference for His Kingdom, for His Kingdom has come and He is King of all NOW!