I hate all this silly religion,but you, God, I trust

" I hate all this silly religion,

but you, God, I trust." - Psalm 31:6 (The Message)

I have been using The Message for daily readings in the Psalms and Proverbs. I find it really refreshing, and I know that God will have one single passage of scripture mean different things to each person on different days. So, I was pondering a non-Believing (by her own categorization) friend's question:

"Why would God help Tim Tebow win a football game but let genocide occur? Just wondering."

She then added "I'm not a believer, but I just wonder how those who do believe can reconcile it."

God does not justify bad happening to good people, nor does He explain why some quarterbacks’s prayers seem to be answered over other quarterbacks’s prayers. It’s the way He works, which my Bible tells me we men are not capable of understanding. There’s a well quoted, often misapplied, verse that says “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” In a different translation, this becomes “That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” Here is a subtle, but significant difference in what is immediately apparent: “is worked into something good.” It may be bad to start with, but by the time God is through with it, it will be something good.

He just didn’t tell us how, what, when, why and where for everything.

Then I read: "I hate all this silly religion, but you, God, I trust."

Since this is now the 3rd time I have quoted it, you should feel, quite correctly, that I want the words to sink in. You see, this has to do with non-JudaoChristian perceptions of God, primarily with understanding faith. Faith is what let's me, no, MAKES me accept God's modus operandi. It has to do with grace. It has to do with David the Shepherd. It has to do with free will.

C.S. Lewis pointed out that "Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having." Free will is one of the basic tenets of Christianity.

God made us with free will so that we would love him of our own volition, not because He made us love Him. The answer to L’s question is simple, as they usually are, to state, but difficult to comprehend. Since we are free to be good, we are free to be bad; since the world was given to Satan run around in, Satan’s free will causes good and bad both happen to bad people, bad and good both happen to good people. That is what it means to say “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”, but leave the emphasis on His purpose.

David did not go to that big church downtown. Even when he worshiped on mountaintops, he was not in a building. And, he wasn't with a group of fellow believers (although sometimes you or I may feel like we're just in a herd of sheep). But there is no denying that he had faith.

See (or choose not to), it's this way: we have nothing to do with our faith. Once the Holy Spirit is in us, it is the Spirit who forms our faith regardless of, no matter what, in spite of what we may do or think we are doing. Ritual, prayer, scripture - if they matter as far as how our faith is formed it is the Spirit working and not we ourselves.

David's faith developed strictly by his spending time with God, and in his "praying", far from the rote patterns of many churches today, he asked Him a few questions and then listened and observed. David knew that God would answer him, but that the answers were not always meant to be understood fully. But, the questions would be answered and God was always paying attention to David and his questions.

I have a son-in-law who is an ordained minister with a doctorate in post modern ecclesiology. He is maybe more liberal than I am conservative. At the core level, though, we share beliefs and wishes. He recently wrote on Twitter:

I wish that the church spoke to the younger generations...That the church was more interested in those outside the walls than inside the walls... That the church was an instrument of grace rather than rules and doctrine... That the church followed Jesus rather than parade him around... That the church could learn to love our neighbors as ourselves... That the church would truly love and worship God... That the church was less interested in buildings than people.

I heartily agree with him. We need to have churches that speak to the L’s of this world, those who sincerely question God in being and action. We need to answer her not by explaining that since she is Jewish she is underprivileged, not by saying that because we are CathoMethoPresbyLutheroEpiscopoEvangeloCharismoPentecostals we are better than anyone else, but by remembering the very simple pieces. God is love, He wants us to love Him, right is right, wrong is wrong, and, pretty much as Bill and Ted said, be excellent to each other.

This still does not give answers to the implied parts of the question of why God “allows” genocide. I can tell you why He does, but I can’t tell you what He is going to do with it that makes it good in the long run. That’s His purpose. I can tell you that part of His purpose is to love me, and to love you, and if that means He wants me to win a football game or to die without explanation at the hands of lunatics my faith says “so be it.”

Santorum on Marriage Laws

Turmoil and travail over Rick Santorum's answers about gay marriage. This is a situation where you can't win, can't break even, and can't get out of the game. Folks, we're being forced to deal with religion and politics simultaneously. Never going to be fun.

Historically, religion has defined marriage. Within any given group, traditional practices and concepts were followed and marriages were registered within the church. In the 1800's, governments realized they were passing up a chance to make money, so they instituted civil registration of marriage and required marrying couples to buy their license, etc. Since churches had previously controlled marriage, same sex marriages, plural marriages, and bestial marriages were allowed within the rules of the church body. When civic laws took over, restrictions were added.

So, my discussion and I infer Rick Santorum's discussion are simply addressing the legal points. For any one person, if your religion prohibits same-sex marriage, plural marriage or bestial marriage you will probably not go any of these directions if you consider yourself to be a "good" church member. If you belong to an alternative church you are subject to alternative marriage directions, or if no church at all, then you are limited by your internal moral compass ON THE RELIGION LEVEL. But, you are still subject to the law.

Like it or not, if someone wants to marry their dog in a state that allows same-sex marriage, such a bestial marriage should be legal. Likewise plural marriage (polygamy) should not be restricted in those states. For the fanatics who insist on the mythical "separation of church and state", this HAS to be the case -- a penumbra encompassing all marriage concepts.

So, I don't think the question is as simple as "do you approve of gay marriage?" The question that you are asking, from a legal perspective, is: "do you approve of rewriting laws and practices regarding marriage that have stood the way they are since the Code of Hammurabi?", or some such equally long time. The question you are asking, from a religious perspective, is: "does your religious denomination and/or personal set of beliefs acknowledge same-sex partnerships and, in that context, are you and your church willing to recognize such as marriage."

Logically, these are mutually exclusive. My answers are easy. My denomination and my personal religion are not willing to accept same-sex partnerships as marriage. Nor am I personally inclined to make changes to laws that have stood for years without a LOT of careful consideration and a full vote of ALL the people, not just the (Iowa) Supreme Court. Neither of these statements has to mean that I eschew LGBTs or that I am specifically discriminating against them.

So, Rick, you opened up a can of worm's. The only way to get rid of a can of worms is to get a bigger can. Good luck.

The Final Christmas Present

Well, although the actual day of Christmas is past and we have yet to have New Year's Day, this is when we Iowans look forward every four years to that final christmas present: the caucuses.

Honestly, these things are probably more watched by anyone else than they are by we who live in Iowa. I mean, being first is cool and all, but, come on, is it that big a deal? Oh, Barry surprised everyone in 2008 in the caucuses, but he surprised everyone everywhere, right Hil? And, who remembers Mike Huckabee as a serious politician (me, I still want Fred Thompson or Alan Keyes to come around, sentimentalist that I am).

This year, it stinks.

Few people have decent campaign ads. That is up this year from like almost no one. The pattern has been negative slam ads for so long that the presentation of a sincere and dedicated politician now shows up for the oxymoron that it is.

All of them are in Iowa. Them, in this case, includes every Republican and media representative conceivable plus a couple of wild cards. Local news even showed the Japanese news agency who moved a crew in a month ago for the duration. I almost never see them, which is probably just as good. The attitude on the air is mostly one of overly courteous condescension and patronization. I now know how disabled people feel when others yell at them, inferring that they are hard of hearing, and particular speak slowly using small words, again inferring that "disabled" always includes mentally challenged. {Hey, I'm disabled, but my hearing is as good as it could be after all of those Springsteen concerts and I got a 1540 combined on my SATs, for heaven's sake}.

It's kinda like Boise State feels when all the coastal conferences stick up their noses. Hey, we like it here people, and we are really pretty good at what we do. Can Diane Sawyer grow corn? Does Scott Pelley leave the evening news and cultivate his beans? David Letterman doesn't have hogs at his place in the country, does he?

So, a week from today, we will have the final Christmas present for this season. It will be that incredible vacuum toward Illinois and points east that is left as all of the politicos and pundits emigrate, en masse, to New Hampshire. That will be followed by a massive influx of quiet, fresh air.

Thanks for the present, folks.

The Iowa Caucuses

The media blitz has now officially moved to Iowa for the next 3 weeks. Then, of course, there will be this massive sucking wind moving to the east instantaneously following the completion of our caucuses. Until then, though, the attention of the [liberal] media is focused on Iowa.

If they could be more condescending I don't know what it would look like. This time around they are treating us like real hicks. I think they fail to realize that the polls everybody keeps quoting are far from scientific and far from representative of Iowans in general. I know my wife and I hang up whenever we get called. Even the questions they ask are either insulting or leading (would you vote for Newt Gingrich over Barack Obama? Well, yes, but I would vote for a black mamba over a bushmaster, too).

The condescension is downright insulting. Eastern liberal media (Candy Crowley) skewered Herman Cain for not speaking the language of Washington politics. Too bad we cannot skewer the eastern liberal media for not speaking heartland English. What the political reporters believe to be the middle class, and, indeed, what may be the middle class in Washington, D.C., is far from the true middle class in Iowa. People work. People are honest. We think it's fine that Tim Tebow thanks his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; hey, if he was thanking Allah, the Easternites would tell us we HAVE to let him do that - but with Obama's war on Christianity firmly implanted in what passes for their brains the attitude for the goose is 'way different than the attitude for the gander.

Probably what most irks me about this circus is their continually telling us how we are all rising to back Newt Gingrich. Are they serious? Where have they been for the last year when everyone around me has been talking about Ron Paul? Didn't they notice that Michelle Bachmann is still hanging around Iowa with a smile on her face? Why do they think Perry and Romney are still dumping millions of dollars of ads into this hickville? The answer, of course, to the actions of the media is that they are a part of the re-election plan (remember the "committee to reelect the President, aka CREEP?). Obamites truly believe that Iowa Republicans are stupid and gullible enough to go for Newt Gingrich if led that way, and Barry Hussein himself knows that Newt would have a hard time beating his way out of a wet paper sack, let alone being able to beat the worst president since Buchanan (we are now talking poll numbers FAR worse than George H.W., who really wasn't that bad, or James Earl, Jr. Personally, I would jump at the chance to re-elect Jimmy to another term over Obama.

And, as I point out, I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I will likely make an effort to caucus with the Republicans; there is no opportunity to caucus for my Constitution Party as we are not yet of sufficient size in Iowa. There will be the opportunity to vote for our candidate who has not been selected yet - we wait until the convention, a somewhat unique and misunderstood process in this day and age.

Well, that gets my juices flowing for the week. If I blog later this week it probably should be and likely will be about what we all should REALLY be doing for Christmas. Think about it.

So, This is Christmas ...

... and what have you done?

John Lennon had some really good thoughts. I am sure that politically and religiously he and I are quite different. Pretty much know that for a fact. Yet here is a point on which we agree: it's Christmas; what have you done?

Everyone who reads my blog (both of you? if that many) knows that I stand for, primarily, two things:

1. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8, Authorized [King James] Version). And,
2. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. (James 1:27, The Message)

That being said, I always enjoy the 3rd day of the month because I read Proverbs 3 and get to read some of Sol Davidson's best work:

Don’t lose your grip on Love and Loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. Earn a reputation for living well in God’s eyes and the eyes of the people. Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for GOD’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.

Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to GOD! Run from evil!

Wise living gets rewarded with honor; stupid living gets the booby prize.

Yep, those words, too, come from The Message. I have just recently been parallel reading The Message with my New American Standard Bible and English Standard Version, and while yes, it is a paraphrase and represents someone's interpretation of God's true word, like I care? All scripture is profitable, good or bad (yep, long discussion there, skip it for some other time) and while some versions offer what are respected as more literal translations, others proffer the guts of the Word.

Paul brings us these thoughts in Philippians 1:

15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;

16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;

17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.

18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

19 for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

21 ¶ For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

(New American Standard Bible). Or, if you wish:

The Message

15 It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world.

16 One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help.

17 The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them.

18 So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! And I’m going to keep that celebration going

19 because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done.

20 I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit!

21 ¶ Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.

But, I digress, sort of. The point is that we are really best served, as I read it, by thinking about good things and by doing good things for those in need while shielding folks from the slings and arrows of this outrageous world. I don't mean you have to go out and wash the faces of occupy protesters who have been pepper sprayed; hey, myself I would follow up the pepper spray with CS gas and a high-pressure fire hose like I've seen them on the news doing in Japan. But,

when you have an opportunity to do what you believe Jesus would do, you ought to do it

As my son-in-law was very recently discussing, this falls in the category of orthopraxy, if you are so disposed in vocabulary. You do what you think Jesus (or God) is telling you to do. This gets to be really obvious in the actions of most organized religion at this time of year as food banks finally get above the meager level of donations and as homeless shelters and charities find coffers with contents for a change. I think if you are gonna do what John and I are thinking, though, you need to come into the zone of what has, since the 70's, been called performing random acts of kindness all year long.

I went to the dentist for my checkup. When I inquired, she grabbed a case of Colgate toothpaste and gave it to me to take to the homeless shelter.

I have a friend at HyVee who stocks the personal hygiene shelves. When I was there the other day, she was stocking toothbrushes and gave me a handful of Oral-B's to take with the Colgate.

I found a dozen good-sized packages of dental floss on eBay for $5.00 including shipping. That was almost a no-brainer.

Again on eBay, I found a new-old-stock box of 1/2 gross (that would be 72) disposable razors, mixed men's and women's (like your hairs know the difference anyway) for $12 including shipping. I thought about saving them for myself.

w00t! had Snuglis for $3 each, $5 total shipping. Limit 3 as usual. As nice as they look in the recliners on TV, I bet they will be worth more in the shanties down by the river.

These people did not become poor and homeless by choice. They may have become as they are due to choices they made - but, like don't we all make bad choices in our lives? They string some together, they fail to learn from them, they do not, as we see it, follow the Word (yet who are we to know if they have even heard the Word, and, no, giving them a pocket Bible is not what I am talking about here). But, unless they are mentally questionable I do not believe they willfully look to wearing castoffs from Goodwill living in shacks made of scrap metal and cardboard in the bushes by the river when the temperature is -5 Fahrenheit.

Widows do not become so by killing their husbands (well, in most cases, and if they do that is another set of questions). Orphans do not choose, likewise, to lose their parents. My Bible tells me that God gave the earth to Satan as a playground to roam in, and God, while not punishing people through His actions, allows Satan to do bad things to good people for reasons I do not understand but I do accept. Likewise he allows ostensibly good things to happen to people, as I believe it, so that the good may be shared with those who need good to offset the bad in their lives.

So, here is my bottom line. Do something good. If you are fresh out of ideas and don't want to carry that can of pickled beets that you know you'll never eat to the donation bin at church, if you want to do something more, consider these:

1. End Human Trafficking - target of Natalie Grant, so you get to look at her beautiful face and hear her phenomenal music when you check the website at The Home Foundation and move on to Abolition International.
2. Give away water - if you had to walk for an hour to get your daily water out of a high-turbidity river of questionable fecal content you might be quite willing to donate to and through charity: water. They have some great pictures of clean water, a new picture every day. Make clean water a reality, not just a picture.
3. Fight Group B Strep - There is a vaccine that is in trials. I lived in the days of polio and my brother was a Polio Pioneer. Those days are almost forgotten and are happily forgettable. But, this spring I followed as a good friend's 3-month-old daughter succumbed to Group B Strep. I cannot imagine how it felt to watch progressive MRI's as a normal baby's brain was, bit by bit, literally eaten away by bacteria. Flesh-eating bacteria taking an arm or a leg would be welcome by comparison. [I believe there is a special place in heaven for these sufferers, children and parents, and a special reason God chose them for the role. That does not make it any easier to watch].

There are many other worthwhile organizations and causes out there. Hey, there are even several more that I actively advocate and support. But, for this year, when the question comes out "So, what have you done?" these are what I answer. I probably will continue to advocate them for next year and maybe longer - I will go where God leads me.

Will you?

Manipulation beyond manipulation

I just heard on the 5:00 news about how good the Cain baloney is for Newt Gingrich. Here is the real agenda. Newt Gingrich? Do the media really think by manipulating with their magic wands they can get the Republicans to nominate a man who should not even be running and doesn't have a snow ball's chance of beating B Hussein Obama? Come on, now!

I think it's the same logic that makes them not even mention Ron Paul. There's a man of principal who has had the same fundamental and conservative views for years (instead of waffling the way Mitt does). They didn't even mention Ron when they went over the results of the Iowa Republican Straw Poll last summer, and HE FINISHED SECOND. All the media could mention was that Bachmann finished first and whoever it was finished 3rd. Paul finishing second? Apparently not news.

Come on people. Wake up, and tell the media to wake up.!!!!

Ignominy

I'm getting tired of the news media. Since the media are 90% liberal Democrats, according to statistics I heard in the last presidential election, their slants, leanings and ravings should not be surprising. Since I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat, I'm past the stage of chuckling and into deploring the way these supposed grownups are acting.

I think I pointed out before some of the columns about morality, which point out that immoral actions are always what the other guy or the other side does. I remember Gary Hart, who I personally knew and thought was a really nice guy, lost a chance to run for Presdient because, as a married man, he spent a weekend on a schmantzy boat named Monkey Business with a leggy, smiley blonde (Donna Rice, truly a real looker and herself a pretty nice girl). Even had he been an inveterate philanderer, he would have been much better than who we ended up with as a Democratic candidate in my opinion. Who really remembers Fritz Mondale? And, can you tell me who did run against Reagan's election in 1988?

Then, though, the "our side is ok but let me tell you what they did" attitude came in. The Clarence Thomas hearings with Anita Hill, for example. Compare those to President Clinton, the Oval Office, the blue dress and his cigar. I mean, Hollywood could not write that script, yet he survived.

Now we witch hunt Herman Cain. Having no substantial political reason to eliminate him from the race, the media rely on the old rumor mill. OK, let's say he DID have a 13-year affair and is lying about not having it. Is he guilty? According to the legal precedent, remember, "that depends on what your definition of is is." Folks, either it doesn't matter and candidates should be allowed to run even if they have colored personal morality (that is NOT a racist remark, by the way), OR we should dumped Clinton way back when. Personally, I would just as soon leave all this personal life stuff out of the election emphasis. It's not like they're gonna be successful at hiding it anyway once it is just casually mentioned. Let us discuss it in the Iowa caucuses, let's see what "We the people" think about this, not we big business, we Wall Street or we the news media.

And, by the way, I think it's the wrong thing to do, but if he wants to have an affair, what business is that of mine, anyway? Only if it threatens national security or turns into blatant hypocrisy. That's my bottom line.