Only Adults Allowed !!!

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right....  

 [A] decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

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I preface a brief discussion of my view regarding abortion with two familiar American utterances.  The first quote is that of Abraham Lincoln from his Second Inaugural and the next phrase is that of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration. I use these quotes to better focus on two aspects of reality.  Lincoln reminds us that a multitude of decisions have the potential to harm ourselves or others and, conversely, to nourish us.  Whether on a family level or broader societal one, some decisions can be remarkably simple, even obvious, while a host of others prove stunningly perplexing on all levels. For these problematic junctures, Lincoln appropriately points to a sense of understanding lying well beyond the confines of the human skull—a rare-earth creativity and insight intervening to transmute reciprocal malice and its lust for destruction with the redemptive power of charity and goodwill.    

Finally, I quote Jefferson to frankly concede that some decisions—those marking irreversible finality—appropriately call for "a decent regard" and healthy obeisance before the thunderously stark and serious.  Ridiculing the handicapped, for example, is profoundly abusive and is an indicator of spiritual bankruptcy. Similarly, a flippant attitude regarding abortion is deeply disturbing—as if the medical profession dedicated to healing and health should jest the following before shredding a living person in the womb--"You make them, we scrape them."   If there ever were a societal flag imbued with ominous warnings of decline, this "dead canary" of rank inhumanity is surely it.

Those with no voice in community decisions always lie most vulnerable and naked before Mack the Knife.







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Penis Envy and the Hope for Decisive Spiritual Affirmation

The Dynamic Call of Saul

. 3 As he [Saul, later known as Paul] neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.  (ACTS 9:3-19 NIV)

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The Well-Endowed Must Be Proud (Click link below--clip from Evan Almighty): https://www.dropbox.com/s/f9qzl7cjmjnddra/Must%20Be%20Proud%21%21%21.mp4?dl=0

What is the movie Evan Almighty about?

Newscaster Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) leaves Buffalo behind when he wins a seat in Congress. Moving his wife (Lauren Graham) and family to northern Virginia, he seems to have it made, then God (Morgan Freeman) throws a crisis of biblical proportions at his feet: The Lord wants him to build an ark and line up all the animals two-by-two in preparation for a flood. (Evan Almighty/Film synopsis (returned on initial page following primary search) 

Click link below for selected clips from Evan Almighty movie:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ahzk967yi1pfmc/Evan%20Almighty%20Clips%20Main.mp4?dl=0


Throughout the years I have known Christians and others with a spiritual bent (including me) to have felt a virtual penis envy of the heart upon regarding St. Paul and his dramatic transcendent encounter on the road to Damascus. Many of us are only too well acquainted with the yeoman sweat involved in our being earnest servants and believers of the Way accompanied too often at times by the nagging sense of tiresome routine and of endless sloughs of the innervating and unremarkable.  But sometimes like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof who yearns for a deeper love than may be suggested by an arranged marriage to Golde (his wife of 25 years), we yearn for what can only be called an endearing personal affirmation so absolute, so striking, and so memorable as to weather any of life’s relentless storms.

Over two decades (1980-1999), like Evan Baxter of the movie, my world was shaken to the core and upon these disconcerting disruptions was tempered an irrevocable faith in which skepticism and doubt came to be silly and absurd and totally beyond belief.  When occasionally emotionally flipped-out by a host of omnipresent matrices, God would say to me (as he did Evan): Let it out son, for this is the beginning of wisdom (see movie clips link above).  And the path to belief did indeed seem to entail recurring algorithms.

For a narrative of my experience click link below: My Bouts with Battiness: 
http://www.wayneblogs.com/2010/07/my-bouts-with-battiness.html

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Institutional Respect--Appropriate and Necessary

Today we honor Martin Luther King, Jr.  Consider for a moment why America so dearly needed him.  One of his last acts was to support a living wage for garbage collection laborers.  Now there was likely nothing illegal about the laborers’ terms of employment.  The workers may well have been told before employment what they would be paid.  There were probably no legal grounds for alleging dishonesty or deceit.  But MLK as a a Baptist minister was well acquainted with the ministry of Jesus.  The operative concern for Jesus was not a strict constructionist view of legality.  If it were, the perfect place for his ministry would have been within the Jewish religious hierarchy.  Rather than being a strict constructionist, he would willingly break laws when they inhumanely stood in the way of loving acts of kindness.  Laws (the “form” of righteousness) could in no way take the place of a loving spirit (the substance of righteousness). To do so would be counterproductive and sometimes even diametrically opposed to kindness (as well as wider views of justice).

Authentic Christianity can never, never thrive as a dogmatic theocratic form of state governance.  It boils down to a simple question of professional appropriateness.  For Christianity to usurp the role of secular governance would be to sabotage spiritual creativity and freedom.  The joy of Christianity would drown in a cesspool of corruption and greed.  The heart of Christianity is not a set of ideological doctrines that can be fashioned into theocratic state rules and regs to which all must bow down in idol worship.  (Theocratic Type A males enshrine themselves in governance, not Christ).  That is, so far as atheist and nonbelievers espy the dangers of theocracy, I do so even more. For as much as they cherish the state, I cherish the integrity of the Christian Way with ultimate regard—a Way, full-stop, not “holier than thou “ (than secular government).  But simply in the nature things, a line that must not be crossed institutionally for the good of all.

 I began acknowledging today’s tribute to MLK.   We are all aware that he heavily influenced public policy.  But to repeat, for Christianity to be effective it must respect the special God-given role of government.  Needless to say, if King had conspired to topple the state in order for it to be run by a cadre of Baptist ministers, I think we can all agree the likelihood is that the state would be worse off, the integrity of the Baptist Christian mission on permanent vacation on a LaLa Pacific island, and MLK honored in puffery but not in fact.  His dream, rather—thank God--was grounded in faith AND “Faith is the key to unlocking barriers” (Vinney Myers). 

Pandora Potpourri

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A Few Thoughts for Today:

Incarceration of males varies in direct proportion to their certitude that no one gives a damn whether they thrive or perish. Upon an arrest, the necessary documents and court proceedings serve to substantiate the individual' reality and can materialize for a rare moment that larger society may actually seem to seriously care.

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I wish to thank those in Congress who in the tax law recently passed demonstrated resolute interest in the financial health of the alcohol beverage industry (business ipso facto is always virtuous and good and always silo in the event of a rare and unlikely untoward consequence). To get real for a moment, may the consequent widespread effects of broken lives and piercing, painful shards of thought--certain to ensue--haunt the legislators' dreams (and consciences?)  and those also of their children--generation upon generation-- until the full perfidy of their proud, victorious, and flaunted political prescience is fully deflated by the dried blood of fact.

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For those Republicans with whom I am personally acquainted that have religiously kept fealty to Donald Trump and his never-ending loyalty to Putin and all his ways, I relate that two long-time good and caring friends of mine could not worship in Russia since they are Jehovah Witnesses.  I want you dwell on this fact and all it implies until you are dead-sure you are totally fine with it.

Click Link Below for short related clip from The Sound of Music

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohdkt69zqdv5n8f/Clip%20SoMusic.mp4?dl=0

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Mechanism of Abundance

“Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan,
    I will now arise,” says the Lord.
    I will protect them from those who malign them.

(Psalm 12:5 NIV)

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Mark Twain once addressed the propensity for the religious in America to send missionaries to China. He suggested that those missionaries might be better placed within the lynching fields of America imbued as they were with the likes of the Ku Klux Klan. Likewise, I think there is a tendency for us to assume that “relatively speaking” everyone in America is wealthy. An image arises in our mind of emaciated children in some foreign land with distended bellies gazing toward us in dispassionate desperation. No doubt those born in America are fortunate in many ways. However, this in no way eliminates the fact that many in America live in poverty and the continual stress as to whether there will be enough money to pay the rent and to buy food--there are many that must assiduously account for a mere $20 that represents their set-aside for food to last out the month.

This is all to say that I believe that Psalm 12:5 quoted above relates not only to far-off countries, but to many in our own country.

Sometimes it is frankly quite difficult to discern where good practical sense ends and ethics begins. Consider the tax plan recently made into law. The role of ideology can be illustrated by a perceived ambiguity in national affairs. That is, since the phenomenon observed is somewhat hazy we all feel justified in a Rorschach application of values derived exclusively from our own experiences and prejudices. Since it seems that no position is QED provable, we ascertain that our subjective view must be right and should be passionately pursued as if it were.

The Republicans have long advocated a “trickle-down” approach in which the wealthy are “wealth creators” and generate jobs and incomes for many through their investments. It is my belief that history has not demonstrated the correctness of this principle. Rather, it makes greater sense in my view to map out the true situation through the economic process called “the Velocity of Money”. The following description of the process is by Joshua Kennon. (https://www.joshuakennon.com/the-velocity-of-money-for-beginners/)

What Is the Velocity of Money?

Simply defined, the velocity of money is a measure of the economic activity of a nation.  It looks at how many times a unit of currency ($1 in the case of the United States) flows through the economy and is used by the various members of a society.

All else equal, the faster money travels (the higher the velocity of money) and the more transactions in which it is used, the healthier the economy, the richer the citizens, and the more vibrant the financial system.  The velocity of money tells you how efficient $1 of money supply is at creating economic activity…..

Ultimately, economic growth is the result of consumer demand.  Thus, you want money in the hands of people who will spend it, in turn, increasing the velocity of money.  Tax cuts that only [preponderately*] benefit the rich, rather than the average school teacher going into Target to buy a box of cereal or a video game for her child, are a failure.  [*bracketed word my addition].

There are many religious groups who foresee a coming apocalypse due to the divisive centrifugal forces rending our society. It is also possible in my view to see God acting in history in ways that concurrently increase abundance and economic justice.


Transcending Doctrinaire Ideologies

Fantasy Land and the Money Tree

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  Matthew 19 (NIV)

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Jesus in the Beatitudes says “Happy are those…” who live from essentially a stance of humility and gratitude.  The other day Connie and I asked our doctor if he could make a general observation about how HE is treated by patients.  He said that those at the top and those at the bottom of the social pyramid are generally the most difficult to counsel.  When all bark is removed, the common element of both groups is their proud belief in their sheer entitlement.  Like the doctor, I have seen that those entitled by government funding at the bottom lose sight of the fact that the source of government funding comes sooner or later in one way or another from working families struggling to pay taxes while supporting their own families. In essence, the entitled can view the source of their funding coming not from other people (essentially what is social in nature) but painlessly from a type of disembodied SYSTEM.  I see no difference in this than those wealthy at the top who never give it a thought that much of their wealth ultimately derives from the labor of others.  The wealthy top executive feels totally entitled to millions in compensation from a capitalistic SYSTEM safely detached from any suffering of real people.  No doubt there were slave owners who never once questioned the total justification of slave compensation and lack thereof.  Likewise I’ve heard totally complacent present-day executives purr regarding the idyllic contentment of their employees subjected to the stress of chronic under-compensation and dead-end jobs.

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Sentimental Hogwash or Foundational Surety?

Zechariah 4:6 (NKJV)

‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’

Says the Lord of hosts.

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The other day I played one of my favorite theme songs “Don’t Fence Me In.”  A freedom to roam and explore stands paradoxically as testimony to a nurturing, steady, reliable, and supportive background.  The turmoil of presidential politics in the United States during the past year came as a jolt to many Americans.  We felt much as children would feel who became long accustomed to a loving, nurturing environment when suddenly one parent (institution) became rabid with abuse, untruth, and malignant ill will. Such children who once assumed foundational comity and trust now felt dangerously close to the edge of a sucking abyss.

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May the Force Be with You

                           

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