Peter says, "But I have to THINK!"

Wondering why I get so few comments on my web blog I asked Peter what he thought. "Gee Bruce, every time I read what you have to say it requires that I take some time and actually think about something to write." Shazam! I've found the answer. It is crystal clear to me now! I can understand what he had to say two different ways. One, dumb it down or transfer all my work to My Space or Face Book. That would help I am sure. The other thought I had was that I should write less and listen more. Since I have every confidence that Petros is no dummy I will take the latter approach and believe that it will not only work, but that it will be better for all of us. So, here goes.

One: Read Chapters 2-5 for this next week. We are having our meeting this coming Sunday. Don't have to ask me. Lord willing we will stay on schedule.

Two: What did you learn last night? What about Isaiah chapters one and two most touched you?

Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, wooh! Nee yuk, nee yuk, nee yuk. Fingers snapping rapidly. ROTFLOL

Nothing But Space This Last Sunday

This last Sunday we had nothing but space in my family room as only two of us showed up for small group. I guess that the Timberbay retreat was more tiring, the homework burden greater than we thought the week before when we agreed to still meet. That is alright. Mark and Garret and I had a nice time talking for about forty-five minutes. I took Mark home and Garret drove himself home. They were both pretty tired too. Mark was also hurting from a leg bruise received during a short pickup game of soccer.

We also decided to have small group this coming Sunday night after Thanksgiving. Well, I have made an executive decision. It is in the best interest of all of our families that we take this coming Sunday off. No harm done. I will miss everyone as I love our small group so much. However, family and family time is so important during the holiday season. Let us all focus on our families and enjoy the blessings the Lord has provided for us through them.

We will next meet on Sunday the seventh of December. A good day to get together and get back into the book of Isaiah, which, by the way, is "Out of this world!"

Isaiah The Man Of Words And Visions

We took the first two weeks of our fall 2008 small group schedule to determine our group's direction as to what to study. We landed on the Old Testament book of Isaiah. After a slow start due to student schedules and my vacation we had our initial study in Isaiah last night (11/16/2008). We studied Isaiah; the man's context, his culture, his social position, family life, dates of the beginning and end of his ministry, and the international setting he was living through. We uncovered a most interesting aspect of Isaiah which is that he was song writer, poet, and prose author all wrapped up in one. He also used incredibly beautiful metaphors and also authored some most famous personifications, "the fields and the trees will clap their hands." He is a song writers dream come true and in going over the text we realized that there is more than one praise and worship song that we sing at church that borrows from Isaiah.

Only the first chapter was read. It is a poem. It points out the folly of Israel's ways, the consequences of those ways, and also God's great love for His people. We dissected the chapter in verses of five looking for themes, metaphor, applications. The group got through verse ten and then we broke for prayer, but another issue came up.

That issue was the question, "How do we, as followers of Christ, deal with the debate regarding the challenges that the Theory of Evolution has to the biblical account of Creation?" We took a little detour for the better part of thirty minutes. What is really at stake in this debate? Is it actually necessary to defend the faith by proving that creation happened and that there is a creator god? Or is the real issue about who Jesus Christ is? We talked a bit about this and I think it would be good to come prepared to discuss it a bit more this coming Sunday.

The painting above is a rendering of Isaiah having his lips cleansed by hot coals. Interesting? No?

Rwanda, Something, Some Place to Remember:

This is a photograph of the former general of the Rwanda Peoples Front (RPF) and incombent president of Rwanda. He is the first democratically elected president of the country since the 1994 genocide that is said to have killed as many as 1,000,000 people. I have been reading the book "Shaking Hands With The Devil" by Romeo Dallaire who was the United Nations' commanding General of their mission to Rwanda just prior to and during the genocidal period, which lasted one hundred days. This was perhaps the sixth or seventh major genocide of the 20th Century; Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, and Rwandans are the big four. Genocide has been there on smaller scales though that have been just as hideous but have not gotten the press. There are thought to have been two million Christians killed in China after 1949 when the Communists took over. There are the Native Americans, Kosovars, Poles, Gypsies, and more who have been slaughtered. The reason always comes down to a simple, "We just don't want to deal with people who are different from us." Now we are facing what the world considers the latest genocide which is happening in Darfur. Again, the world watches and waits. Governments wring their hands, leaders punt the problem to over leaders, and during this time thousands, millions parish in the most brutal of fashions. While I live my life and have never been denied a cheeseburger at McDonalds other people have fought for and lost their lives slaughtered like so many cattle. What is wrong with this picture? What is wrong with me?

Wall Street Redux: July 20, 2007

The following is a reprint of a short essay I wrote about the stock market at the time it hit one of its all time highs. The level it hit which stimulated this article may still be the all time record high, I am not sure. It had gone over 14,000 for the first time in the history of the stock exchange. Everyone was quite excited. I was not of the same mind set. That may be attributed to not owning much stock, if any. It could also be attributed to personal lack of skill and an overt sense of the evil of serving two masters. I have come to enjoy blogging. Blogging makes it so easy for one to look back and "see" what one was thinking. Perhaps you guys will find this interesting. The bubble popped, but it took a year for that to happen big time. When it did happen it was more explosive than anyone could have imagined.



The rich remain rich and prosper more. The poor remain poor, not poorer, just flat poor. The stocks are hot potatoes. They get warm, warmer, exciting, then too hot. As they begin to glow white from their heat (perhaps we are almost there) those who are best at the game drop them on those less expert. The great players remain__rich, and the others, well, they oft times get burned. Wages go down. Hopes for an early retirement gone, back most of us go to reality...creating our own livings with our hands, minds, and mostly time. Seems the money ends up in the same pockets and never really ends up changing the lives of those who are of lesser means. Yachts get bigger, hotels rise higher, Airbus builds ever bigger planes, Boeing ever faster, more efficient ones. More ways of taking others money are invented either by Madison or Pennsylvania Avenues. The control stays in the circle...the circle of the rich and the educated. I can not get too excited about the market...we celebrate ourselves, we don't help others. We celebrate the bigger house, the blacker BMW, the awesome HD wide screen in our entertainment rooms. But, real never seems to change much. When the bubble (illusion) bursts we cry for ourselves. I don't play, perhaps I am a fool, perhaps I am not smart enough, perhaps I know my limits, perhaps I've watched the system enough to know better. I have to keep reminding myself to not store up my treasures where moth and rust destroy. There are few things more rusty and moth eaten, less trust worthy, than our stock markets. Still, I guess I'll vote Republican again. I always have...somethings never change (maybe). But, I keep thinking...one can't eat carbon fibre or drink ethanol for breakfast. And, silicone chips go lousy with Easy Cheese.

Thinking About The Election

I am fifty-six years old. I have voted in every presidential election since I was first age qualified in 1970. My first vote was in 1972 when President Richard M. Nixon was challenged by George S. McGovern. Mr. Nixon won that election, giving him his opportunity for a second term, in what is considered one of the great landslides in presidential politics. Mr. Nixon won in excess of sixty percent of the popular vote and the Electoral College vote was a walk over. Two years later Mr. Nixon would resign in disgrace over what was known as the Watergate Scandal. Republican Party operatives were guilty of invading the Democratic National Committee's Washington, D.C. offices in the Watergate Office Complex. The thieves were arrested and in the following investigation it became known that the robbery was instigated at the "highest levels" of government, meaning the White House, its staff, even the President. Mr. Nixon worked hard to cover up the connection and it was this cover up that caused him to be faced with impeachment and removal. Seeing the hand writing on the wall Mr. Nixon resigned leaving the Presidency to Mr. Gerald Ford who all believed (and it turned out rightly so) to be the antithesis of Mr. Nixon. Mr. Ford was a good and honest man. At the time I voted for Mr. Nixon. I confess that at the ripe age of twenty I didn't give it much thought. Democratic Presidents had led us into war and Mr. Nixon promised to get us out...with honor. My parents tended to see things from the Republican point of view. Mr. Nixon also canceled the draft. I had a low number, was likely to be called up, and then "poof" the draft was over. I went back to college, a long story that I will not bother you with. Looking back I see my apologetic for my vote as being intellectually simplistic and obviously self serving.

I have voted in each subsequent election whether it be a local or national one. I have been both pleased and disappointed with the outcomes of those elections. I have also thought much more deeply about those elections, much more than I did the one in 1972. I did not know at the time that Mr. McGovern had been a bomber pilot flying out of Fogia, Italy during World War II at the same time that my father had been. My dad flew B-17's and Mr. McGovern flew B-24's. There were tens of thousands of soldiers there and I have reason to believe they never met. Both did receive the same decoration, the Distinguished Flying Cross. They were true heroes of equal stature. My father was a very sober thinking man regarding war. He never bragged about it, didn't talk much about it, and when he did speak about what he and his fellow soldiers did he never spoke without mentioning that he had the utmost concern and despaired for the people "on the ground" who were at the receiving end of his crew's bombs. Mr. McGovern spoke in a biography of his war years about how terribly concerned he was about two bombs that got stuck in his bomb bay which wrongly released and hit a barn in a farmer's field near the family house. For years Mr. McGovern lost sleep over the possibility that his mission had ended in the death of innocent people on that beautiful farm. The bombs were intended for military targets like rail yards and weapons factories. Years later he found that small farm, spoke to an eye witness, and was told that his bombs had killed no one. Mr. McGovern speaks of the immense relief he experienced nearly fifty years after the event. In 1972 Mr. McGovern was considered the "Peace Candidate." He spoke frequently of the collective guilt that we Americans had regarding the death and destruction going on in Indo China.

Apparently we Americans, at least most of us voting Americans, didn't want to hear that. Mr. Nixon ended up expanding the war into Laos and Cambodia, brought death and destruction to hundreds of thousands of innocent country folks (farmers) while carpet bombing jungles and villages. Mr. Nixon actually lead the United States to drop more tons of explosives on Vietnam that it did in Europe during World War II. Go figure. Victory with honor. And...when all the fire, smoke, and dust settled the North Vietnamese Communist Government was victorious. America came home with a strong sense of defeat and, to some, great shame.

Years later our veterans are most likely not able to find someone in Vietnam who can assuage their emotional pain. B-52's, F4 Fantoms, F105 Thunder Chiefs, F100 Super Sabres, and A6 Avengers each dropped four to fifty times as much high explosives as could a B-17 Flying Fortress or B-24 Liberator. Hit or miss those bombs killed somebody somewhere on the ground. No one escaped. Little wonder some Vietnam veterans suffer deep and debilitating emotional pain more than thirty years later. There is no one in Vietnam who could say to them, "Oh, we are all right. You missed us."

At fifty-six I face another presidential election. This is the most difficult vote that I have ever had to cast. I have never been so conflicted. At the same time I have never been so well informed. Thinking can be dangerous, boys. Guns or butter, war or agriculture (peace), conflicting economic philosophies, racial injustice, sexism, health or aging, experience or youth, divergent views of what it means to be patriotic, to abort or not to abort, confusion about the President's "pay grade", to grow government or to shrink it, to support my interests or to let them sublimate to the needs of others, to be young at heart or wise in middle age. These are the things that I am thinking so hard about. What should I do? The pain of not knowing is excruciating in a very real sense. Will my vote make a difference? Has it ever? I truthfully am not sure. I encourage you guys to think hard about life, your soul, your family, your nation, the world. I am asking you to accept pain. I think you and I need to suffer through election times. Soon, and even now, some of you will be asked to blacken in a dot, punch out a chad, or pull a lever. When you do, and I hope you will take this responsibility seriously, make sure you have suffered long and hard before you decide and cast to the future you heart's desire, your vote. And when you do, win or lose, don't brag or cry. Pray and work hard for righteousness. Live by Faith in God our Father.

War For Civilization And What That Is:

My latest reading is a book entitled "The Great War For Civilization-The Conquest of the Middle East" by Robert Fisk. He is a British journalist of significant reputation though we in the United States hear little of him. He has been a war reporter in the Middle East since the early 1970's. The book is a collection of his reflections on his reporting of wars, specific battles, political intrigues, war crimes, and more. Within the covers of the book are his thoughts on justice, fairness, hypocrisy, racism, criminality, and historical responsibility. He is not at all unbiased. It is an opinion piece at many levels. This book is not "balanced" in the sense that he makes any claim to impartiality. In fact he suggests to the readers that if one hears someone say to them that they are impartial one must immediately assume that speaker in fact has a view that they are working hard to get across. No one is impartial. It is humanly impossible if you are truly engaged in life.

That being said I strongly recommend to my few listeners that they take a shot at reading and understanding what Mr. Fisk has to say. He is not "popular" because he calls the western powers to account for their part in the mess that is the Middle East. He also does not give a pass to Israel on the basis that Jews suffered terribly during the European Holocaust. Mr. Fisk calls the Israeli government and its people to account for what he considers immoral violence and racist attitudes. At the same time he calls the Palestinians to account also for their immoral behavior, yet he also allows us to see them as an oppressed people group...a view that is distasteful culturally, particularly within the United States. Mr. Fisk does a masterful job or making understandable the incredible, historical disconnect that has been created in the Middle East between all who live there.

You can chose not to read this book. It is almost one thousand, two hundred pages. I will assure you that in reading it you will feel a life change if you are a follower of Christ. One of my core beliefs is that Christ calls his followers to a higher plain of existence. He, through his Word gives us an opportunity to see human existence through God's eyes. Clearly when the church begins to view anything primarily through cultural and political perspectives it is not seeing from its highest vantage point. From these lower perspectives the church has fought wars with itself and with nations violently and pridefully for the past two thousand years. Mr. Fisk is not a church representative. He is a secular journalist. However, he has achieved a sense of perspective that can be said to be on a higher plane than most. I fear that he is above many who would call themselves followers of Christ and members of The Church catholic. Mr. Fisk calls his readers to reconsider cultural norms and from my view he is calling me to be more Christ like, though he has no idea that he is calling me to raise my spiritual temperature.

I think all modern westerners should read this book before they die. If you die before you have read Mr. Fisk's journal on the Middle East and its tribulations, and only with the knowledge you have gleaned from the conventional media, then you will have died "under informed."

An amazing book.

Who Do You Hang Out With?

I am almost done with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book entitled "Ethics." I am sorry that I can not underline books, which is grammatically correct. I am using the quotation marks as that is all the blog software word processing program will allow me to use. I was surfing the Net for some interesting photos of Pastor Bonhoeffer and found that there were very few. However, I came upon these photos. The one of him with his group of school friends caught my eye. It reminded me of the many friends that I have had in my life and the photos that have been taken. Not everyone will be able to look at a photo and be able to say, "That is me! I am right next to my buddy who..." won the Nobel Peace Prize, or saved thousands through an act of bravery, or was first to discover life on another planet, or some such thing. It is rare to be associated with fame much less be famous. There is something to be said for God's people that needs to be remembered. God searches our hearts. He knows out deeds. His world is upside down from ours. Rather we have it almost all backwards. Who is to say that the meek friends we have will not be famous in heaven, God's true economy? Who is to say that if you simply follow His leading you will be accomplishing something that is so important that there is no earthly award possible that would justly acknowledge it.

Pastor Bonhoeffer was a great man, wrote great books, had great thoughts, and committed great and important deeds. He is justly acknowledged as a most important man in the 20th Century as he was one who bravely stood up to Hitler's Nazi movement early on in the game. He will not only have received his recognition here on earth, but I am sure there was awesome celebrations when he entered heaven after being murdered for his faith and actions by Nazi operatives. His terrible execution must have been a wonderful moment in glory. Looking at the faces around him I just wonder. What did they do for God's kingdom? I bet they too did great things...we just don't know about them. Someday we will.

As you look to yourself, look at your relationship to Jesus, and experience the relationships God gives you ponder Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Ponder his friends. There are some mighty grand examples of how to live faith filled lives out there for us to learn from. Iron sharpens iron you know. Pastor Bonhoeffer has sharpened and "pastored" me.

A Great And Wonderful Letdown:

It does not get any better than this. The eldest daughter marries a wonderful young man. So, what is next...for me, for my wife, for my family?

I have spent the majority of my working hours in the past six weeks getting ready for this event. Lawns needed to be mowed multiple times, rooms needed to be painted, windows replaced, decks pressure washed and sanded, furniture purchased, new carpet laid, phones to be answered, checks to be signed, bills to be paid. The list goes on and on. Interestingly it was my wife who had to do the most, though my work was physically more strenuous. On her fell the burden of organization, of relationships both near and far. That is the greatest task. With it comes stress. What a time. Will it ever come again? Well, we've two more daughters to go. We pray for them regularly. I could do this all over again and enjoy it just as much. But, daughters have much to do with these moments and there is no guarantee they will chose the same kind of fellow...that was key. We shall see. We shall pray. Always have and always will.

My mother just left one week after the wedding. That almost signaled the end. The end of the party. The real end came when our daughter called home on return from her honeymoon. A good and godly time was had. Two new lovers learning each other on all levels of the human experience. One week, not enough time. But, more time than most get and they came home happy. How I wish I could have given them a year to themselves like I have heard was done in Old Testament times. I could not. Society seems to be unwilling to. Computers and call lists and youth groups and coffee machines demand attention. Morning clocks ring their alarm and we are off early and fast. That is all right. Been there? yes, done that? sure, enjoyed those early married times and challenges? you bet! Time marches on, my daughter and her husband into their future and my wife and me into ours, and our parents into theirs...those that are left to be embraced.

God uses the wedding, the wedding feast, the wedding relationships often in the Bible. If I ever wondered why that was my questions ceased a week ago. It can be such a wonderful experience for all involved; the bridal party, the parents, siblings, extended family members, and friends of the family. We need stuff like this! We need traditional events that mark the passage of time, signify renewal and new birth, stand for purity of heart and mind, and reflect the relationship we have to Christ. He is the bridegroom and his church is the bride. There is no symbol so beautiful, so complete.

I'll be off to church tomorrow to worship my lord and savior, Jesus Christ. I'll go and worship just like I have done for years. But this time I will be more focused on thanksgiving than I've ever been before. Look for these times gentlemen. Work for these times. Savor these events when these graces are given to you. I did. Last Saturday I "caught" happiness for a time. She was in my grasp yet I held her gently, losely. Happiness, she looked me in the eye and smiled. She said, "hold me now." I did. Sleep will come and then Monday. It will seem that the pursuit begins again. Not really. She is with me now and forever. I choose not to let her go completely.

"The Grapes of Wrath" a book worth "lookin at."

I have just finished "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. I will work up this post as soon as I can. A book well worth reading and thinking deeply about.

08/23/2008
Well, enough time has passed. What about this book? When I read it I knew I was in the presence of a great writer. It took some time to get used to the dialect that Mr. Steinbeck used when his nomadic characters were speaking to each other. But, given some chapters and a commitment to the book those idiosyncratic elements became as natural as breathing. When that happened I was "in" the book not reading it. The thirties were very difficult years. America was tested as were the people of faith. My parents lived as young people at that time and it was the Great Depression that brought them to Chicago where my life began. Some went west, some east, and my grandparents went north.

The story is about the common man, the uncommon man, how the common man so often does uncommon things. It is about government failing its population, a percentage of its population fail another. It is about classism, racism and it is most about fear. Mr. Steinbeck's work spotlights the nobility that man is capable of and this nobility is often manifested in tragic times. It is also a clarion call to be willing to evaluate the past and present for the failures and act positively on them. It is not all right to maintain the status quo when others suffer so greatly. How should a just society work?

The final scene of the book is a shocker. A young woman whose husband has abandoned her in her last months of pregnancy gives birth, in the presence of her faithful mother and a loving stranger, to a still born child. That child, like Moses of the Exodus, is set adrift on a river, this time dead and in a river caused by a terrible flood, a message to those who would hear and understand. She discovers that she is in a barn where a young boy is watching his father starve to death because the father has sacrificed everything he has so his son might live. What the young girl does...you will have to read the book. But, if you do, don't skip to the end. Breath the book, the dust, in.

Don't Fence Me In Comes Home To Roost.

I wrote a post on the subject of building a fence or barrier on the southern border of the United States on April 9, 2008. There is another post on walls featuring the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem dated May 29, 2008. That one is more about spiritual matters. The bottom line of my position is that we should not. That being said, we are. On this I am pretty much counter cultural. Well, today we have five carpet installers working at our home. All of them are from Mexico and I have heard nothing spoken in English with the exception of "thank you" as I offered up some Rice Krispy bars as a snack. There is much laughing, singing and, above all else, quality work going on. I know a bit about the installation of carpeting and I can tell you that I am getting a good job for my money. So, the questions flow...are these gentlemen taking work away from deserving United States citizens? Are they all legal? Am I paying for their medical insurance through our welfare state? Am I at a greater security risk because they don't speak much English? Is their being here in Minnesota fare to us working stiffs who are more qualified to be Minnesotans? I wonder not for long on these questions. I don't ask them when someone of European/English speaking descent comes to work at my home. I don't ask about their insurance, their families, and how they spend their money and their time when they are not at my home. I simply ask for and make sure that the work I get is done and done correctly. I also make sure that I pay my bills. So, I will do the same with these gentlemen and smile and shake their hands when they leave, but do so after I check the final work. Assuming that it is fine we will part and probably never see each other again. Many times I have had this type of relationship with workers at my house. Today should be nothing different.

We need to vote our beliefs and express our philosophical positions when the time comes. We need to think our positions out thoroughly. But, after we have done that, after we stuff the ballot in the box, the people we meet with, the folks we deal with should be treated with respect, fairness, and the love of Christ. Whether a worker comes from south of the boarder or north they deserve the same treatment.

More on this subject to follow.

Testing my settings

This is a meaningless test post to see if I can correct the settings on my web layout.

No Body Love Z Me...

I'm thinking of hanging up my blog. No one seems to read it but me. I may do a few more, but talking to myself seems rather...hummm, neurotic. Perhaps no one is commenting as I don't have a comment spot that is currently working. Something has changed in my set up. Sometimes I hate technology. Other times I can't seem to get along without it.

The Lion And The Lamb: One And The Same

"The Grace and Truth Paradox" is a most interesting little book. Its author, Randy Alcorn, has written a number of little books on specific subjects and they can be read in a short period of time. They seem concise and to the point. Enjoyable and enlightening readings.

Lamentation Takes A Few Years

My nephew Andrew and niece Staci were in Jerusalem together last week. Andrew took this picture at what is called the "Wailing Wall." It is the western portion of Herod's temple, (the ruins of its foundation) a traditional place where the children of Israel would come to offer up prayers for sins and failures in their lives for the expressed purpose of communicating with God their spiritual brokenness before Him, their dependence upon Him. We always think of children wailing as they need food, a drink, or their diaper changed. Babies cry for help for they are helpless in many ways. In a real sense adults wailing before God is a beautiful symbolic gesture of man/woman's true standing. We are helpless before Him and his creation. How long would we live if the sun suddenly went supernova? What could we do? But what difference would it make to God? Would he be affected? I think not. In so many ways we are so vulnerable. In so many ways, in all ways we need our Heavenly Father. How often do we forget this truth?

There is a second word or concept associated with the Wailing Wall and that is lament. This is more than a cry for help. The children of Israel lament at this place. They express sorrow and deep regret. It is in this word that we find a deeper meaning than simply thinking of the western wall of the temple as being a place of wailing. It is here that guilt is recognized both corporate and individual. The older I become the greater is my understanding of the word, lament. It is such an important spiritual reality that a book of the Bible was named by the word. Lamentation: the utterance of profound regret, a wailing cry.

As I grow older and study Scripture I am coming to the point of grasping the idea of collectivism. Having been raised in an ever growing and successful culture, that seems at every turn to abhor any recognition of merit in anything communal, it has been a hard learning for me. I have lived the entire Cold War. A man, John Wayne, single handed took on the Soviet Union and triumphed. This archetype of the rugged individual expressed by Mr. Wayne was my proverbial baby food, fast food, and dessert from birth to maturity. For me to think collectively is nearly impossible. Also, collective thinking is different than simple team work. I can be a great individual on a team, I can not be an invisible member of some vast, loosely defined group. As Frank Sinatra would sing, "I gotta be me!" But this is not Scriptural. Success and failure are often seen in the Bible as national success or failure. Certainly there are striking individuals who appear on the scene, but the Word of God is about the Gospel to and for "God's People." Though I can and should read and understand its specific messages for me, I should also see that I am only "a part." The Wailing Wall is a place where individuals not only confess sins and pray for themselves and their loved ones, it is a place where they confess and pray for their nation.

I thought the photo interesting as you see the innocence of the child. The child has a face of one who could perhaps wail at any time. Yet it is the father, facing the wall, who understands not only the wail but lamentation too. That is why he is there. He is old enough to know his place, he is old enough to be acutely aware of his short comings, his flaws, his sin. I thought this picture precious.

We need to lament from time to time, I think. I think we don't do it enough particularly as citizens of the United States. Our culture seems to be blind to the need to recognize error when it comes to collective sin. We are reticent to take on the guilt of others. Yet, as I look at our history there are few countries that have done a better job of it. Certainly a paradoxical reality. Perhaps it is not that we are so good at it as it is that other nations are so bad in recognizing collective sin. That we have lamented and repented on social evils such as racism, sexism, voting rights, and have changed direction and law is something to remember and cherish. And why are we better at it? I am not sure. I do think there are two forces at play. There are those in our nation who are totally secular and lamentation and wailing are not in their vocabulary. Then there are those who "fear God" and are wise. I think they are the salt that preserves and moves our nation forward and not back despite "those others." Interestingly, I am not at all sure that the salt necessarily sits in church pews Sunday mornings. There are churches that represent "cultural religion and values" more than they do Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord. The salt seems dispersed pretty much. Many who sit in pews on Sunday morning have "lost their taste."

I wonder. Could our nation benefit from a "Wailing Wall" of its own? Some would suggest it is the Vietnam War Memorial. Could be...could be. I am not sure. It could be a start in that direction. Maybe some day in the distant future it could be seen that way. A place to beseech God, as a helpless child/nation, to come and confess and regret, to seek peace with God and man, to ask for forgiveness, and...to get help. "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I will hang my hat on that. Would you go to such a wailing wall if our nation had one? Would I? I would hope so. In the absence of an official and historical sight as Jerusalem's Wailing Wall perhaps we have such a place in the mean time. Could it be that it is the back wall of our bedroom closets?

Some Treasures Seem Misplaced...I Guess.

This car was sold the other day at auction for $11,000,000.00. It is thought to be the highest price ever paid at auction for an automobile in all of history. The car is a 1961 Ferrari California Spyder. As you can tell by the picture it is, for a car, most beautiful and it is like new. It is a museum piece, not something you would drive to work. I can understand preserving "art". It can certainly be argued that this particular car is in fact a "work of art" and not just basic transportation. I do have to ask myself the question, "What would I do with a spare eleven million dollars?" The individual or company who purchased this car used discretionary income. The ROI (Return On Investment) on such a purchase is not high enough and the risk of loosing money is great enough that one would never "bet the farm" on such a object. In other words, whoever purchased this vehicle had money to burn and lots of it. We must be careful not to be judgemental. At the same time we are called to be discerning. What would you do with eleven mil? Better yet, what would you do with a spare twenty dollar bill? What we do with the treasure, regardless of its size, the Lord allows us to have is one of the most telling dye markers for our spiritual temperature. The Lord calls us to not be luke warm. Remember, where ever our treasures are that is where our hearts are also. No exceptions made for art regardless of the form it takes. So, where do we keep our treasures and what forms do they take? See my July 20, 2007 Post for additional thoughts on this subject.

"I Didn't Expect To Die In Class Today."

Last Friday literally thousands and thousands of elementary and high school students in China went to school not knowing that it would be their last day on earth. Instead of learning new knowledge about life, science, art, music, language, themselves, the culture they were born into, they found themselves in seconds not on the earth but in it. Can you imagine the entire population of Maple Grove Senior High School, Osseo Senior High School, Maple Grove Junior High School, and Osseo Junior High School, along with ALL of the feeding elementary schools perishing in a few moments? What would the scene look like with desperate Maple Grove and Osseo "soccer mom's" frantically racing around the rubble of Fernbrook or Rice Lake elementary schools crying out for their children in a hopeless effort to resurrect the dead? Would they be complaining about how slow the fire department is? Would lawyers be handing out business cards assuring them that they will get their day in court, that they have rights? Probably the firemen are dead...the moms too. Even the fathers are gone. I can not grasp this. I can not feel what is happening. It is impossible to do. Pictures show me, words inform me, but there is no sound, no smell, no screams. So, I pray. 50,000 humans dead within moments and I feel so little. When the earth shakes like it did last Friday...what is there to stand upon?

A Picture Worth One Thousand Words!

"Michelangelo's famous statue of The David returns to Italy this week after a successful 12 week, 20 city tour of the USA."

This joke in photographic form could lead to a discussion on the affects of bad habits and sin in our lives more than fifty paragraphs I could write. I hope that you are not offended by Michelangelo. If you are...take it up with him and the Italians.

Viewing The Woman At The Well

"Some children see Him lily white, the baby Jesus born this night. Some children see him bronze and brown, the Lord of Heaven to earth come down..." Those words are part of a song made popular back in the late 1970's and early 1980's by a young woman by the name of Evy. Her last name at this time escapes me. Perhaps it is Evy Erickson? May be... I had the privilege of speaking to the junior high Oasis youth group two Sundays ago and my subject was spiritual thirst taken from the Gospel of John, chapter 4 when Christ met a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well while he was traveling. I always like to place a picture above my posts to help get a reader's attention and make points stick a little better in our minds. I was on the web and found this picture and immediately fell in love with it. I think my reading about civil rights history this last month has made me significantly more sensitive to racial and perspective issues. When I thought of Evy's song the "thought circle closed and became complete." How do you see that Samaritan woman? How do you see Jesus?


I try not to think of what Jesus looked like physically. I try to understand his heart more thoroughly. Certainly he looks to my heart and makes judgment. Better it is then to look at the character and nature of Christ's heart than to contemplate what he might have physically looked like. One can not know what he looked like, only speculate. Through the study of Scripture we can know what Jesus' heart contained. Many try to imagine his appearance, type him a certain way. Often this is done for political reasons. Sometime, like the picture above, to instruct. I have seen a special on the Discovery Channel where a forensic anthropologist worked to make a clay model of Christ's face using computer analysis of Semitic genetic norms. Interesting attempt, I guess, but why the search? why define and solidify the image of a face when it is the limitless content of a all loving heart that actually matters? I've decided that if I am to see, or have to see Jesus in my mind, not just his face but his entire body, I want him to be black. By having that image it forces me to address the prejudices that I harbor inside of me, some placed there by my culture, some allowed in by my choices and sins.


Back to Jacob's well and thirst; if I can see Christ as a black man of African heritage can I see myself as a woman at a well? Hummm. Seems to me that this is a broader and more dangerous leap than thinking of Christ as racially different than me. Now I have a gender barrier to over come. Let's take this to a more challenging level. Christ is a black man, a very large and ebony skinned black man with rippling muscles and chiseled forehead, and I am a white woman at the well.. alone. Wow! That is certainly a "charged" image. Can I hear Jesus' words now? Would I be able to accept his "agape" considering prejudice and fear? Can I, a grown man, surrender to this image? Can you? Will I still be able to understand my true thirst? My real needs?


A gentle man from our church by the name of Mark Peterson loves to look at the night sky through his telescopes. He has a number of them and was actually building his own, including the making of his own mirror. Mark is pretty bright. It is kind of scary that there are people out there that are that smart. But, despite his very imposing brain, Mark has been a real blessing to me, an instructor full of grace. One time he asked me over to his home to watch a three quarter moon through one of his telescopes. He explained that a partial moon shows more definition and detail as shadows give the image more depth through the telescope. A full moon will look flat and dimensionless. It was a beautiful and clear summer night. The only objection I had to it was the bugs. That is Minnesota for you. As I looked at the moon through his instrument I noticed that it was an upside down image of what I was looking at when using the naked eye. He was using a lens that was of low magnification. When I pointed this out he calmly said, "No it isn't." I looked again into the eye piece, again at the moon with my own eyes and said, "Yes it is." Again he calmly said, "No it isn't." I was about to make some joke about how limited he must be, but something reminded me of how smart Mark was, so I held my tongue and asked, "Really?"


Mark proceeded to bring out an aluminum briefcase that had about eight or nine different eye pieces all with progressively increasing powers of magnification. He gently replaced the 5X with a 10X and told me to look again. The moon was definitely closer. He placed a 20X eye piece on the telescope and sure enough the moon got closer and more detail started to show up. He added a 30X and then 50X. Suddenly I was no longer looking up at the moon, I was no longer looking at it right side up or up side down. I was standing on the earth but was looking down at the moon as if I were in an airplane or arriving there in an Apollo space capsule. My perspective went from standing to flying, from gazing up to looking down. My thoughts, my vision of the moon, and my relationship to it was substantially modified. I was somehow different. I no longer had feet, arms, body. There was no this way or that way, left or right, wrong or correct view. Somehow I traversed beyond an invisible line separating me from the moon and it all became new and fresh. What was left was my mind, my soul, and God's moon. His entire creation before me as I floated mentally from crater to mountain range to arid plain. I became free and understood a new truth about life. I have thanked Mark many times for that lesson on perspective. He was so gracious and so pleased to share. And yes, technically speaking, the image through the eye piece was inverted by the mirror relative to where I was standing and the nature of my body's optic system. But, if Mark had simply said to me, "Yes, it is inverted," I would have learned nowhere near as much as I did that night because he stretched me and my thinking ever so gently.


All that happened so long ago was that a man met a woman at a well and she drew water for him. Or...perhaps much more.


I think this is what God does all the time with His Word. I am personally thankful for the teachers he has put in my life including Evy and the artist who created the beautiful picture above. God wants us to look deeply. He wants us to release many of our preconceived notions about reality. He wants to set us free. Relative to His being we are inside out and upside down. I think we need to "let go" more and more to better hear, understand what God has to say to us.

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. Forty Years Later: A LIFE "Bookazine" worth owning.

To all of my friends and relatives; If you have an opportunity, I highly recommend that you visit your local book store and purchase a copy of this documentary, special edition of LIFE. The quality of the photographic work and the historical account of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life during the civil rights movement is educational, historically crucial, and emotionally moving. This is a collectible edition. It is much better quality than simply a magazine. The publisher refers to the work as a "bookazine" as it is not quite a book yet way beyond being a simple periodical. It will be a permanent part of my library and I have embossed it with my personal library stamp as I have some of my finest editions, which include a personally signed, leather bound edition of "Long Walk To Freedom" by Nelson Mandela. You can also find the LIFE work on Amazon.com and there were multiple references to it when I did a Google search. Strike now while the iron is hot. Don't wait to find them all sold out. I just finished reading it this evening and it was an hour and a half well...no, wonderfully spent. I continue on with my reading of the Taylor Branch trilogy about the civil rights movement. I am about to start the third "At Canaan's Edge". LIFE's stunning black and white photography enhanced my reading exponentially.

Don't Fence/Wall Me In!

A very close friend, who I love so much, sent me an email regarding the building of a fence along our southern boarder with Mexico. It was a petition asking Congress to push fence/wall building legislation through as fast as is possible, in a form as close to its original bill, and get the construction underway immediately. The intent of the bill and the fence is aimed at stemming illegal immigration, controlling our boarders, and increasing our over all "Home Land Security." I could not, in good conscience, respond and email my approval to the petition's authors. I am seriously conflicted. Which way should our nation go on this issue?

One the one hand we have some valid security concerns regarding terrorism. How can we keep Islamic terrorists out if we can not control our boarders? We also have security challenges as it has to do with our economic future. Illegal aliens, it can be argued, cost the tax payers of the United States billions of dollars in legal and medical expenses. Along these same lines it is argued that they take jobs away from legal citizens. Another considerable issue is that the "Intrinsic Value" of citizenship is compromised if just anyone can come into our country unimpeded. There is a fear that illegal immigrants will be issued drivers licenses (there are movements afoot to do just such a thing) and given the privilege (which citizens consider a hard fought for right) to vote. With that sort of power given to illegal immigrants the entire political structure of the United States of America could be up for grabs. It was certainly a fear of the white segregationists in the south during the civil rights movement and their fears proved correct. Free and voting black citizens did in fact completely and permanently change the political landscape of the south. In this case, however, it was such a beautiful and nation saving event. ( See my writing on Taylor Branch's books on the civil rights movement.) Additionally there are issues of simple fairness. African Americans waited centuries, often sacrificed their lives in the effort to achieve their constitutional right to full citizenship and to vote. Many European immigrants stood for weeks in line at Elis Island and studied for years to become naturalized citizens. How can a nation such as ours, built on the rule of law, give away such a precious commodity to those who overtly ignore the rule of law? How could such a group possibly vote in the best interest of this nation whose citizenship they have obtained by illegal means?

On the other hand there are some interesting counter arguments. The fence/wall can be seen as an over reaction to a perceived threat that is really not there. Catching the bad guys is more complex than building a multi-billion dollar fence/wall. The fence will not "really" make us more secure. We may feel good about it, but reality will be quite different. There is also the issue of the United States Government not having in place a sound immigration system in tune with our neighbor, Mexico, and the economic needs of both countries. The system is anything but high tech and efficient. This slow and archaic system is seen as the real culprit and the energy of the nation should be directed towards fixing it. Blaming the businesses that need the workers, blaming the poor who are willing to work hard for their under nourished families, and creating high paying jobs for yet another new government agency, to build and monitor this modern China like barrier, is seen as a false economy. There is the posibility that some of our national leaders are using southern boarder issues as a tool to unite our nation's political will by creating an "enemy" and "fear" that is statistically insignificant. The boarder may be a political red herring, and worse, illegal immigrants are being made scapegoats for abstract political reasons.

Another interesting point has to do with Canada and our boarder with them. There is very little political pressure and will to create a fence/wall on our northern boarder. There are some who are pushing for such a thing, but they are relatively few. The political pressure is on the southern boarder. This begs a few challenging questions for those of us who are believers in Christ. Why? Why only Mexico? Is it that terrorists are more likely to enter that way? Hum? All the 9/11 criminals came in through the east coast and Canada by air. A fence or wall would not have stopped them. Is it simply because of economic pressures and securing our economy? Well, our economy has been growing off and on (and mostly on) my entire life. We have had some set backs, but they were short and followed by long and strong growth. Or is it more cultural? Mexicans speak Spanish and "We the People" speak English. Our language and identity are at stake. But, my great grand and grand parents spoke Bohemian, German, and Irish. Somehow we survived and became what we are today. Most challenging is the idea that we fear those from Mexico and other Central and South American countries because they are perceived as "racially different." They are people of color. Their values are different, feared and not understood. That is the threat! God forbid this is the "real reason!" Haven't we learned our lesson on race well enough? It too is a wall. It is America's worst and most lingering sin. What amount of economic suffering has slavery and racism exacted upon our nation and its citizens lives? One can not imagine. No fence needed up north because "they are European up there." A fence down south because "they are people of color." This is a challenge and I believe that there are those in our nation, and many in The Church, who want that fence for that reason. They want to maintain a racial status quo. They want to keep the nation the way they think it was, which is always better that the way they think others may change it.

My biggest challenge to the creation of this southern barrier has three elements to it. First, it has been my experience that fences and walls are contagious. I remember living in a Chicago suburb and my father building a house in the middle of the end of a new block. Before all the houses were completed he was able to look out his back sliding glass door and see one quarter of a mile into the distance. He dreamed of everyone having a communal view with beautiful green grass, swing sets, patios, parents, and children all enjoying and playing in this boundary free private park, inviting each other over for dinner routinely and with ease. My father had grown up in the inner city where the finest view he had was of a Chicago brick wall a few feet from his bedroom window. Sadly, one day my father looked out the back window and saw the first chain link fence in place some distance down the block. He was devastated. He knew what was coming and sure enough within one summer everyone but my home had a fence and, ironically, we were virtually fenced in by our three neighbors one on each side and the one behind us. Dad saved money on a fence he didn't want. He only connected when it was necessary for the safety of his aging mother and our dog. Had no one else put up a fence he would have found another solution. A couple of years later honeysuckle hedges were in place and Dad could see no further than the end of his short back yard. The children, the barbecues, the patios, and most importantly the conversations and faces were gone, no longer a possibility.

Secondly, walls and fences are very successful at keeping people out. But, there is also a potential down side. They also work to keep people in. The same fence can do both equally well. What is it that can change a fence or wall's mission from keeping out to keeping in? A man or a nation's heart. This concerns many, myself included.

Finally, walls by definition represent and create separation. Biblically separation is one of the grandest consequences of sin. Men and women became separated from their creator. Sin is "THE WALL" and keeping it in place in our lives, not surrendering to Jesus Christ and allowing Him to be our Lord and Savior, brings about continued alienation and ultimately death. Walls are used for protection and they are used to create prisons. Building a barrier on our southern boarder may have many, many unforeseen consequences. Since we have survived and thrived as a nation for some 232 years without one, are the potential benefits worth the potential risks? Walls create "thems", "others", "not us'es", "strangers", and propagate "enemies." Do we, as a nation, want to create and nurture this type of international environment?

I feel some sort of wall is to be built. The snow ball is heading down hill and gaining momentum. I feel this simply because of my years of experience listening to and participating in political discourse. However, I have some fear and trembling. In not overtly supporting it I am attempting to delay it. I am not a liberal or conservative on this matter. I am neither courageous nor a coward. No, I am a baby boomer who grew up and lived in the shadow and fears of the cold war from birth to 1989. Trust me when I say that this was a long time. The only wall that existed then was the Berlin Wall that I have pictured above. It shows a guard (middle picture)from East Germany successfully escaping to the west, a famous image of an East German (top) who was shot by East German guards and the world watched him bleed to death, and the West German side colorfully decorated in protest to oppression juxtaposed to the drab and colorless side, the Soviet communist prison of East Berlin. To this observer walls did not then, and never in the future will, represent freedom and security. They will represent only oppression and alienation.

What are some of your thoughts? I'd like to hear from you. I'd love to hear from my close friend. This is a big time current event and the one chosen to be our next president and his or her party will have great say as to whether it will be built and what form this barrier will take.

Existential Experiences: Sometimes Make Sense

Albert Camus was an author who was considered an "existentialist" writer. What that means and the term existential may be of great interest to us. Life to that person can not be brought into complete focus. Its paradoxes and conflicts can not be resolved. Life ultimately will not make sense. The only sensible path is to not seek truth for it does not necessarily exist. Sometimes our lives seem to not make a lot of sense. To some of us those are times we call periods of doubt. An existential crisis is a place of great terror as we seem lost. Yet, it can be a time in which a follower of Christ can grow the most in their life's walk. I'll add thoughts in a later post or add to this post as thoughts develop.

Reason Enough To Take Up Writing

I love this quote. It is the response of a well known author to this question. What do you think about? Her reply was, HOW DO I KNOW WHAT I THINK UNTIL I HAVE READ WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN?"I heard the quote during an interview the author had with Charlie Rose on Public Television. I am sorry that I can not find her name, but she is quite "deep" in her novels and challenges the minds of her readers. Her statement, which I could never have come up with, expresses perfectly to me why I love to read and write. Think about her statement and idea. Try writing your thoughts out in detail. You may find that you begin to know yourself much, much better.

A Trilogy Worth Reading And Acting Upon

I am almost done with the first of Taylor Branch's three historical writings about the civil rights movement in the United States from 1954-1968. I am in a wonderful dream world of reading that I can not explain to you if you don't do much reading. It may sound odd that I say fondly that I am in a dream world when, in fact, for most participants in the civil rights movement life was more like a nightmare. Within my heart I have such a deep sense of remorse for the sins committed against blacks and empathy for those who were suffering such terrible injustices at the hands of the established, bigoted, white power structure in the south during those years. (Remember that bigotry continues.) What is more important is that I am developing a much greater respect and sensitivity for those who suffer in our country even to this day. My heart is broken. I have had folks look at the thickness of "Parting the Waters" and they seem dazzled that I would be attempting to read such a long book. All I can say is, "I wish is were longer. I wish it were more detailed." Having been born in the early 50's and having always, from the youngest years, been intrigued by news reports and history, I have a strong sense of the truthfulness of Mr. Branch's accounts and his chronology. I am sure that there are those who may have some opposing views on Mr. Branch's take on the history of the civil rights movement, but those challenges are most likely not on issues of great consequence. They may be about a perspective on an event or about a particular role one individual had relative to the outcome of some protest or legal process. I remember so very much of what Mr. Branch records. I find myself saying over and over again, "Oh, I remember that murder, that arrest, that protest, the name of that racist judge/cop." This book is a walk down memory lane. I do not think that anyone needs to have my back ground to enjoy the books or learn from them. I just feel a special affinity to the subject due to my personal history. I am conflicted in that I don't want the first book to end yet I can not wait to get going on the next two.

Mr. Branch received a Pulitzer Prize for the first book in the trilogy. Interestingly, Carl Sandburg received a Pulitzer Prize for the first two books of his biography of Abraham Lincoln, which eventually turned into a six volume set. I think, and this is just a guess, that Mr. Branch had read, was fully aware of, and wanted to follow up on Mr. Sandburg's effort in that the subject matter is so seamlessly connected. Mr. Branch talks of Martin Luther King Jr. as being in the center of the movement, but clearly not the movement itself. Mr. Branch sees Mr. King as either its heart or at the heart of the movement for sure and much of what is written is about Mr. King and his activities. Yet, there are so many more individuals involved one of which was Roy Wilkins for whom the "Roy Wilkins Arena" in Saint Paul, Minnesota is named. It may be argued that the entire Xcel Energy Center building should be named after him rather than just its oldest arena. Then again, we are in Minnesota, bastion of Scandinavian heritage. But, Mr. Wilkins was the "Big Time." He was the President of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) during this entire experience. He had been the head of the Minnesota branch and was promoted to the national office in New York City and was responsible for much of its success in the legal battles that were waged. He ended up succeeding the NAACP's founder W.E.B DuBois who is an interesting character to the extreme. There are huge books written about this complex gentleman, who was the first black man to achieve a PHd from Harvard, and the many influences he had on the civil rights movement. Mr. DuBois was once asked about the honor he had of being the first black man to achieve a doctorate from Harvard. He responded by saying that, "The honor was Harvard's." Mr. DuBois was a man of great intellect and a force to be reconded with. Interestingly he died of natural causes on the same day that Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous speech in Washington, D.C.

Back to Sandburg/Branch and the seamlessness of the subject matter; I look forward to the story of the behind the scenes activities that lead to the huge march on Washington, D.C. where, at the foot of the Lincoln monument, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of, if not the most moving addresses ever given in our nation's history, that famous "I Have A Dream" speech. The poetic nature of the setting, the 100Th anniversary of the signing by President Lincoln of the Emancipation Proclamation, at the foot of this martyr's marble image and Grecian pillars of remembrance, must not be lost on us to history, time, and complacency.

I have a dream. My dream is that all of my students read at least the first of these three books and that some of you will get through the entire trilogy. In this dream you read them now, in your youth, and your lives are invariably altered for the good of God's purposes. Then justice "flows down like a mighty river" in your later years and you will remember the lessons of the civil rights movement, you will have positively contributed, and perhaps you will remember me. Don't, like me, wait until you are fifty-five to get going. You will always be "too busy." Remember what great coaches always say, "I Can't really means I Won't." If you are ever to assert your "will" to do something good, assert your will and read these books. Another great teacher once said; to a violin student that a particular challenging work of music was frustrating, "It isn't hard. Somethings just take longer than others." Get going, take the time. You won't be disappointed, you will be changed forever, for the good.

Sometimes A Pastor Might Lose You Some Votes.

The man who pastored the church that Barak Obama attended for twenty years has interesting points of view. He sees Jesus as a poor black man living in a world dominated by rich white men. He sees the evils of the September eleventh attack as a possible just result of America's sins. He suggests that AIDS and illegal drugs are viruses and chemicals produced by the white man to infect and destroy the colored people of the world. He sees President Bush as a spoiled, white, rich, C student, who isn't as qualified as many black men for the job he holds. He suggests that President William Jefferson Clinton is not the "first black president", but that he treated the colored community of America in the same way he treated Monica Lewinsky. Pastor Jeremiah Wright has given a church sponsored community service award to Louis Farrakhan for his service to the black community. Mr. Farrakhan is as racist and anti-Semitic a person as you will find. Pastor Wright has had a long and personal relationship with Barack Obama, the currently leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States. Pastor Wright officiated at the wedding of Mr. Obama to his wife.

So, here is the question. When you learn of something like this in what way will it affect your thinking and your vote? Should Mr. Obama be held accountable for the thoughts and words of his pastor? If so, what should Mr. Obama say to the American people about his association with Pastor Wright and also the church that he pastored and Mr. Obama attended? Do you think, and you should do more research on Pastor Jeremiah Wright as this note is not enough to go upon, that a man who holds such views can actually be a "follower of Chirst?" I'd appreciate some perspective from you guys on this matter. Let's hear your voices. Keep in mind that Pastor Berg believes in the sanctity of life and is aggressively anti abortion. He is most likely a capitalist, literally applies Scripture, believes in conservative takes on male/female gender roles in the church and society, and my guess, has a pretty conservative voting record (though that is none of my business). Suppose you were running for political office and those views were perhaps unpopular with your constituency, how would you respond?

Who Would Make The Best Christian, Ah...President?

Here we are again in the midst of a presidential election. Every four years, based upon our nation's constitution, we elect a new "man" to head our exectutive branch of government. This year could be one of the most interesting in our nation's history because of the prominence of the race and gender issues. In the past two elections the values issue has been of tremendous importance. The misbehavior of our former Commander and Chief brought this to the surface and a candidate's faith became paramount in the list of considerations in the minds of many voters. Those voters were mainly conservative and "Christian" according to media poles and reports. Something seems a tad different this year. Perhaps it is the complexity of the issues; war, economy, experience, progressiveness, greenness, gender, race and many more. Interestingly these issues have been part of every presidentail election in the past. It may seem that race and gender were not part of the mix, but actually they were. You had to be white and male, period. That was a political decission we have always had to make, now we might just decide differently. But, these other issues have always been part of presidential politics and important parts of any election cycle. But, where have the values gone? How can something that seemed so important before just evaporate from our collective consciousness?

During the Regan years in some evangelical circles to be a Christian was to be a Republican and vise versa. The terms were practically synonyms. Is it still that way? Can someone be a dedicated Christ follower and be a Democrat or an Independant, or member of the Green party? Remember my comments about Desmond Tutu, labels, and litmus tests? What are your feeling regarding what you hear about this year's choices? And, if values are important, if having a "Christian" in the White House is imporant to you, which of the current three possibilities seems to fit your vision best? I'd love to read what you have to say about this.

Parting The Waters...A Miracle No Doubt

"Parting The Waters- America in the King Years 1954-1963" has totally hooked me. The author, Taylor Branch, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for this work. I can remember it coming out, but I had no time to read it. On top of that I had not yet experienced my renaissance in education and reading. I was busy with my family newly moved to Minnesota. Many of the men in my current class had not been born. I have been keenly aware of how important this book is and how well respected. Taylor writes not only about an important subject, but he writes beautifully and clearly.

I've placed pictures of Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea in the 1956 film version of "The Ten Commandments" along with the cover page of "Parting The Waters". I am not far enough along in the book to make all the connections I need to understand its title fully. However, I can take a bit of a guess as to what one of the meanings "might" be. As the children of Israel had their backs to the Read Sea with Pharaoh and his army pursuing them, intent on their destruction, the sea represented a barrier, that if not overcome, would lead to the people of Israel's destruction. The recorded miracle of God parting the waters, so that they could cross over, made the sea bed and the water "the way" to salvation. The feat of parting the sea was beyond human capacity. In like manner America, and for that matter all of humanity, in the 1950's through at least 1968 (we still have to fight) had their social and spiritual backs up against a sea of racism, which effectively would lead to the destruction of the "American way of life", democracy, and perhaps lead to the moral collapse of western civilization. There needed to be a supernatural path, a way, so that we all could escape destruction. The men and women of the civil rights movement were perhaps the miracle that God ordained. This is just one possible guess as to the meaning of Mr. Taylor's book title. Needless to say the film version had many unbiblical and extra biblical additions and subtractions to the Exodus story, some made for film art's sake, some made for political and religious reasons. But, as I read this account of the civil rights movement, it seems to me to be the real thing.

I can remember as a teenage boy/man hearing such terrible things about Martin Luther King Jr. His politics were wrong, he was black, ignorant, a trouble maker, arrogant, communist puppet, revolutionary, womanizer, and much more. I can remember him coming to the Chicago land area to lead a civil rights march in Cicero and Skokie, two of the nation's most segregated and racist communities. You wouldn't think of northern cities as being in the running for such a horrible title, but it was true then. I don't think so now. That is a long story you can ask me about. The hate aimed at Mr. King and his activists was so great that for the first time Mr. King chose to not march for fear of assassination and the potential of a counter productive riot. To save his life, the lives of his family and friends, and to keep his movement peaceful, he respectfully retreated to fight another day. It was wise, and also a learning experience for him and the civil rights movement. I was born in Cicero, Illinois in 1952. The first church I ever attended was "The Cicero Bible Church." Hard core fundamentalists that they were, they didn't step up to the plate for equal justice under the law. A sad commentary on a church body, a sad chapter in the life of a small suburban town.

One of the great secrets of the 1950's and 1960's was just how smart, educated, and wise Martin Luther King Jr. was. His education put "all" of his critics to shame. Couldn't let that little bit of information out in those racist times, now could we? Anyway, he was amazingly and highly educated. Nothing he did was without serious social and spiritual thought. Here is a quote I lift from the text as an example of Martin Luther King Jr's thoughtfulness as a young college student.

Even as a student, King believed that religion was alive only at its edges, and that doubt was as important as belief. In a paper obviously influenced by Hegel and Niebuhr, King wrote that "if a position implies a negation, and a negation a position, then faith carries disbelief with it, theism, atheism, and if one member of a pair comes to be doubted the result may be disastrous to religion itself."

Chew on that awhile fellas. There is lots there that pertains to all of our lives and I think you will find some "margins" when you take a look at the churches in Revelation. Also, Christ brings up the margins in The Sermon on the Mount.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an amazing man. I need to learn more about him. You do too. He was a "brother in Christ". I have no doubt. Less than perfect, but wonderfully equipped, he lead a movement that perhaps has shaped your lives more than any other. I've got to finish this book! You've got to read it too!

Hubble Finally Proves We Are Not Alone.

It took the longest time for the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST) pictures to start showing up in the public domain in a big way. For a few years I used to joke that some atheist at NASA was keeping the pictures from the public as the telescope actually found that God was out there looking at His creation as if He were looking at fish in his family room aquarium. The end of the Universe, the definition of reality as we understood it, was the outside surface of a galactic glass fish bowl. Certainly, the atheists couldn't let the human race know that there really was a god and that he looked suspiciously like the guy painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Thankfully, that is not exactly what the HST found. God does not have gray hair, His palms are not pressed up against a glass bowl, there seems to be no end in sight of His creation, and time and distance still remain so unlimited that our minds have little or no chance of grasping their magnitude nor meaning. Some have suggested that the Universe is a lonely place. They use HST photos to suggest that there probably is life somewhere else, but it is unimaginably remote to us.

I, however, see the HST photos in a different light. God is always everywhere in His creation. He is all around us. He gave us such a wonderful place in His creation to stand, so that we can see Him through His creativeness. Those galaxies...perhaps they are God's palms on the glass surface of our imagination and His reality.

We are not alone in this Universe. We have each other. We have our families. We have our relationship with our creator through His Word, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It never ceases to amaze me at how lonely some folks feel. It never stops boggling my mind that we think we are the only ones with a problem, that what we are going through is novel to the human race, and that God might not or doesn't understand. We also fear that He will not be willing to forgive us. This fear causes us to withdraw from Him and from our fellow believers. No, no, no...He is faithful and just to forgive....and cleanse...all unrighteousness.

I think that feeling alone is the wrong way to look at life. Our culture wants us to define ourselves by emphasizing our uniqueness. I am reminded of Gary Larson's "The Far Side" joke of the penguin standing up in the midst of thousands of identical penguins and singing out Frank Sinatra's famous song, "I Did It My Way." Uniqueness is fine, but it has its limits. Those things that make us "the same" as others are sometimes better to consider. We are all sinners who have access to God's grace through Jesus Christ. We all are His creations. We are all human and loved by God. We all live in the same world and though we may each view it differently, that world is our gift from God. We all need food, water, shelter and the like. We also all need to love and be loved.

When we look at the stars and feel alone...that is wrong. Those stars mean God is out there. It means God is with us. So, let's be with each other, be there for each other. No need to be or feel alone...the Universe is a beautifully together place.