Sunday Thought - December 1, 2013: Immaculate Conception

Alright, let's get the definitions straight.  Mary was an "immaculate conception,"  Jesus was a "virgin birth."

The Immaculate Conception is constantly being misused in reference to the birth of Christ, even in the media, when it is actually a dogma of the Catholic Church referring to the moment when Mary, not Jesus, was conceived in the womb.  At that moment of her conception, being conceived of a father and mother, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, she was kept free of original sin and filled with the sanctifying grace normally conferred in baptism.

The virgin birth of Jesus, on the other hand, is the belief that Jesus was conceived in the womb of his mother, Mary, by the Holy Spirit and was born while Mary was still a virgin.

Christians make a lot of hoopla over this virgin birth miracle, yet it is interesting to note that in the Bible, not so much.  The virgin birth of Jesus is almost a footnote.  In fact, it was not considered universally accepted by the Christian church until the 2nd century, and was even challenged again in the 1700s.  It is now accepted by the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, the Protestants, and Islam.

On December 8 the Church will celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, exactly nine months before celebrating her birth with the Nativity of Mary.  The Annunciation, commemorating the virginal conception of Jesus, occurs on March 25, nine months before Christmas.  I assume we all know what that celebrates, and I'm not talking about the boxes of worthless, materialistic garbage we shove underneath a dying, decorated tree.

I think a good start at remembering these definitions might be to actually remember why we have the celebrations.  Let's try remembering that Christmas is about the birth of Christ, not the new sweater from Macy's.

Change the World

If you haven't received this from a good friend, like I did this morning, it is worth having a watch.  I had no idea where this was going, if I had I would have been better prepared.  Get a tissue before you watch it, as it is beautiful in it's message.  You have to turn up the sound for the little bit of dialogue at the end, as it is hard to make out through the thick accent.

 

God bless us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Hzgzim5m7oU&vq=medium

The Vatican is Thowing Stones

I hesitate to remind the Pope that he who is without sin should cast the first stone.

 

Reuters news reported Pope Francis "attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny", urging global leaders to fight poverty."  Again, my greatest issue with leaders of organized religion is the hypocrisy.  I will bet that the monthly upkeep on just one of the cathedrals in Vatican City would feed the poor in Italy for a year or more.  I mean, really, have you seen the size and opulence of these places?  Not to mention the value of the art, the properties throughout the world, the business investments, and the banks I understand they own.

 

But, the Pope's heart is right on target.  Global leaders should be looking at this issue and attacking the "unfettered capitalism" in favor of fighting poverty.  This message gets lost in the clutter of the Vatican wealth, however.  If the Pope wants everyone to listen, which they are more than ever with this new pope, he needs to take the first step by selling some priceless art, the Sistine Chapel, or St. Peter's Basilica.  Show us the Church is serious, and the faithful will fall in line.

 

What the Vatican needs to stop doing is attacking the global economic system and "idolatry of money" while they are raking it in from tourists 24/7/365.  

He writes of economic inequality, absolute autonomy of markets and financial systems and calls for an overhaul, all wonderful ideas from a pope that is cut from a different cloth than those before him.  He drives a Ford Focus and calls for austerity of those around him.  His arguments must get through the deaf ears in the Vatican, however.  He might be better served taking on his own house before he takes on global super powers. 

 

The example the Vatican makes will go a long way to showing a different path for the world.  But, for right now, he should remember that people in glass houses...

Hanukkah

This Thanksgiving marks the first time since 1888 that the start of Hanukkah has fallen on the same day as this American holiday.  It will not happen again until the year 81056, or 79,043 years from now.

 

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the military victory over 2,300 years ago, between the ultra-Orthodox Maccabees and the Syrian-Greek ruler Antiochus when he commanded that the Jews assimilate and worship the Greek Gods. The Jewish leader of the revolt, Judah Maccabee, waged a guerilla war for two years which ended in an eight-day celebration of their right to worship.

 

At the end of the conflict Judah and his followers cleansed the Second Temple.  At the rededication of this temple they witnessed a miracle.  The menorah on the altar was a gold candelabrum with seven branches representative of knowledge and creation.  These candles are meant to burn each night, however, after the fighting ended there was only enough untainted olive oil to keep the menorah's candles burning for a single day, yet they continued to burn for eight nights!  Now, even though the first Book of the Maccabees makes no reference to the miracle, I feel it is a great story to justify proclamation of an annual eight day festival.  Any reason to party!

 

An alternate story, not quite as colorful, is that the eight days celebrates the fall post-harvest holiday of Sukkot that was missed during the fighting.  Ok, that works too.  So we either have an eight day party due to a miracle, or an eight day party to double up on another eight day party that was missed.  Do you get the feeling these folks like to get down and boogie?

 

And then there's the dreidel, or spinning top.  The dreidel has been the brunt of many jokes by Jewish comedians.  I guess if you have the choice of playing dreidel games or watching paint dry, go for the paint.  It turns out the dreidel may not be of Jewish origin but of European, most probably from regions around present day England or Germany. 

 

Regardless, the story of the dreidel deals with Antiochus outlawing the study of the Torah.  Of course, like most religious faithful, the Jews took to their studies in secret.  Jewish children would take their studies out of the towns into the areas where they played.  When the Greek patrols would come by the children quickly hid their texts, pulled out their dreidel and pretended to play a game.  I suppose if the Greek soldiers had played dreidel games they probably would have been more suspicious that children wanted to play it so often, instead of watching paint dry.

 

To all of my Jewish friends and readers, I wish you the happiest of holiday seasons! 

Yehi ratzon milefanecha Ado-nai Eloh-einu veilohei avoseinu shetolicheinu leshalom vesatzideinu leshalom vesadricheinu leshalom vesismecheinu leshalom vesagi’einu limechoz cheftzeinu lechaim ulesimchah uleshalom vesatzileinu mikaf kol oyeiv ve’oreiv velistim vechayos ra’os baderech umikol puraniyos hamisragshos uva’os le’olam vesishlach berachah bechol ma’aseh yadeinu vesitneini lechein ulechesed ulerachamim be’einecha uveinei chol ro’einu vesigmeleinu chasadim tovim vesishma kol tefilaseinu ki Atah shomei’ah tefilas kol peh. Baruch Atah Ado-nai shomei’ah tefilah.

Why I Am Thankful

Why are you thankful this Thanksgiving?

I am thankful for the opportunities I have had to walk though castle ruins in southern Turkey which were not on a tourist map, and to have walked in the footsteps of biblical personalities.  I have visited Moorish fortresses and Roman amphitheaters in Sicily and have seen art and architecture in Spain and Germany.  I have been a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Taoist.  I have learned the art of meditation and hypnotic regression.  I have studied Psychology, Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis, the Gestalt of Fritz Perls and the analytical theories of Carl Jung.   And, although Freud may be the founding father of psychoanalysis, I am thankful I find his theory on psychosexual development bothersome.

I am thankful to have walked countless miles through the Mojave Desert; barefoot on beaches along the Mediterranean and for almost two years in Mexico while I came to appreciate watching sunsets, ships at sea, dolphins and migrating whales.

I am thankful not to have died, too many times, from my own stupidity, and for my mother and father trying to teach me not to do anything stupid.  I thank my dad for teaching me a man always needs to carry "a little folding cash" in a money clip, and for my mother always making sure he had some to put in it.  My son learned this lesson from them better than I did.

I am thankful to have been part of our national nuclear deterrent strategy, and to proudly serve in the military for over twenty years.  I have made decisions that affected whether we hit a planned target dead on, or to hit the target "well enough" and potentially kill thousands of innocent civilians.  I glad I was serving when we finally saw the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. 

I am thankful, though not happy, about picking up body parts after a bomber crashed, and sifting through personal items of deceased personnel to ensure there was nothing that would embarrass them to their family.  We worked hard and played hard, laughed and cried, and watched some die.  I have struggled with years of sleepless nights.  But, I am thankful it was me that did it, and not someone else, someone younger.

I have been lucky enough to hold down two jobs in my life long enough to be considered careers.  I have retired twice, so far.

I am thankful to have been married and divorced, had children and grandchildren, and to have learned the celebration of life and death.  I have been in debt and out of debt, and decided that “out of debt” was so much less restrictive.  I love the fact that I have eclectic tastes in food, music, drinks, and women.  I love antiques, women, and my friends.  Yes, I have said women twice.  I thought they needed repeating.

I am thankful to all children because they can make me simultaneously laugh and cry, and to old people for the same reason.

I am thankful for Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the possibility of life after death, for the opportunity afforded me to make a shine to the Virgin of Guadalupe while I was in Mexico, and for mom showing me it's ok to be spiritual but not religious.

I am thankful each and every morning to be alive, to be given another opportunity to experience this life and all the beauty this world has to offer.

I am thankful to my English teacher, Mrs. Hummel for teaching me to write, for making learning so much fun, and for being the only teacher I have remembered fondly for 45 years.

I am thankful, most of all, for a belief in God, because I am a humble sinner in serious need of forgiveness, redemption and salvation.

Amen!

Church Hours: 9:00 to 5:00

"Our church doors should always be open, so that if someone, moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door."

-- Pope Francis

 

Church Hours: 9:00 to 5:00, Friday through Sunday.  Have you ever seen this?  I have run into this numerous times traveling throughout the United States.  I'll be passing by a church and the Spirit will move me to stop in and have a moment of meditation, only to find the doors locked and a sign listing hours of operation.  Really, God?  I feel the urge upon me and the church is closed?  When did this start happening?

 

Well, I think this plays to the church spending so much money on pleasing God with "bling" instead of with worship.  For centuries churches and cathedrals have been pillaged for their gold and art.  It was only a matter of time before the doors would close when it wasn't supervised.

 

I have an idea that will assist the Pope with getting these doors back opened.  Let's take everything out of the church, bolt the benches to the floor, and hang a simple wooden cross high on the wall above the heavy marble alter.  There is nothing to steal, right?  Now we have created an open shelter for the homeless to occupy?  Maybe so, and maybe the priest will take a hint and start ministering to the poor or set up a separate "out building" for them.  Hey, if you do for the homeless maybe they'll help around the church and turn it into a real place of worship where the offerings go toward feeding the needy instead of feeding the church.  Maybe they will find God and a purpose in life.

 

Nothing say Christianity more to me than passing by a simple shrine in Mexico and seeing all the candles, flowers, photos and food that overflow from the enclosure.  This is worship.  When you take away all of the temptation what are you left with?

 

The Pope and I see eye to eye on so many things, getting back to what God needs is a crucial one.
 

Pope Francis and Vatican "PC"

"He may be the voice of God on earth, immune from making mistakes, but the cardinals still tell God what he can get away with, for now...

 

My fear for him is from threats within the Vatican, from the cardinals themselves.  It is a government, after all, and historically they have not been immune to intrigue from within.  Internal tug of war, back stabbing, and assassination should come as a surprise.  One can hope for more, but this is the Vatican." 

 -- Pope Francis: Why I Love This Guy, posted  on The Path, 11/14/13

 

I wrote the statement above because of my fear for the new Pope in agitating a political machine as powerful and controlling as the Vatican.  I hate being right all the time, it's a curse.  My problem with writing these statements is the knowledge that the minute it is said, you risk opening the gates of hell, so to speak.

 

Robert Royal, editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing, wrote an article in association with Newsmax in which he says of Pope Francis, "...we now have evidence of his willingness to correct his own errors or imprecise statements -- and quite openly, too -- something not always seen in Rome's handling of PR problems." 

 

"Rome's handling of PR problems?  The Pope, God's voice on earth, is a PR problem?  Hmmm..."What the Pope really meant to say was...," kind of equates to, "What God really meant to say was..."

 

Politics as usual, and I don't know who is buying this Vatican version of "political correctness," but I'm sure those Christians who don't like change, who like drinking from the cherry flavored Kool Aid pitcher, are probably breathing a huge sigh of relief.  As for me, I'm hoping my new hero isn't caving to the powerful Vatican politico who focus their narrow view only their personal interest and not on those of God. 

 

Kind of reminds me of the guys that wrote what they wanted to into the Bible, leaving out important aspects like, God has a wife.  I'll leave that tidbit for later.  It was supposed to be my next post, God's wife, as I write this current post with a glass of wine resting on the twenty pages of notes I have on the subject.  But, I felt this needed to be put out there first, for you to consider for yourselves.  I think it will put the aspect of God's wife, and why she has been edited out of your religion, into some context.  Is it political correctness, or male agenda?  Where, or when, does it end?

 

I hope for the sake of Christianity, for the love of God, and for righteous truth, Pope Francis is strong enough to stand up to the evil from within.  Playing politics was never God's plan, love was.  You're doing fine, my friend.  Don't let them turn you into something you're not. 

"Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession.  I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."  --  Ronald Reagan 

The Greatest Generation

I have not vetted this story.  It arrived via e-mail from a good friend, and I thought it was marvelous and deserved to be further distributed.  Besides, my mind needs a rest so I can do the post on God's wife, Asherah.  Yeah, that's what I thought.  Who knew, and why weren't we told?

 

Anyway, enjoy!

 

This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. It is well worth reading, and a few good chuckles are guaranteed. Here goes...

My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car.

 

He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.

 

"In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."

 

At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in:
"Oh, bull shit!" she said. "He hit a horse."

 

"Well," my father said, "there was that, too."

 

So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors all had cars -- the Kollingses next door had a green 1941 Dodge, the VanLaninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none.

 

My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines, would take the streetcar to work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.

 

My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and sometimes, at dinner, we'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars but we had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would explain, and that was that.

 

But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon as one of you boys turns 16, we'll get one." It was as if he wasn't sure which one of us would turn 16 first.

 

But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts department at a Chevy dealership downtown.

 

It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with everything, and, since my parents didn't drive, it more or less became my brother's car.

 

Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my father, but it didn't make sense to my mother.

 

So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I learned to drive the following year and where, a generation later, I took my two sons to practice driving. The cemetery probably was my father's idea. "Who can your mother hurt in the cemetery?" I remember him saying more than once.

 

For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of direction, but he loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the city limits -- and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.

 

Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage.

 

(Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)

 

He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's Church.
She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was on duty that morning. If it was the pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service and walking her home.

 

If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Father Slow."

 

After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If she were going to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. In the evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd explain: "The Cubs lost again. The millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored."

 

If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the bags out -- and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream. As I said, he was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she was 88 and still driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the secret of a long life?"

 

"I guess so," I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

 

"No left turns," he said.

 

"What?" I asked.

 

"No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic.
As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn."

 

"What?" I said again.

 

"No left turns," he said. "Think about it... Three rights are the same as a left, and that's a lot safer. So we always make three rights."

 

"You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support.

"No," she said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It works."
But then she added: "Except when your father loses count."

 

I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing.

 

"Loses count?" I asked.

 

"Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes happens. But it's not a problem. You just make seven rights, and you're okay again."

 

I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked.

 

"No," he said "If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put off another day or another week."

My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999, when she was 90.

 

She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at 102.

 

They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom -- the house never had one. My father would have died then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly three times what he paid for the house.)

 

He continued to walk daily -- he had me get him a treadmill when he was 101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy sidewalks but wanted to keep exercising -- and he was of sound mind and sound body until the moment he died.

 

One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide-ranging conversation about politics and newspapers and things in the news.

 

A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred." At one point in our drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not going to live much longer."

 

"You're probably right," I said.

 

"Why would you say that?" He countered, somewhat irritated.

 

"Because you're 102 years old," I said.

 

"Yes," he said, "you're right." He stayed in bed all the next day.

 

That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him through the night.

 

He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us look gloomy, he said:
"I would like to make an announcement. No one in this room is dead yet."

 

An hour or so later, he spoke his last words:
"I want you to know," he said, clearly and lucidly, "that I am in no pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth could ever have."

 

A short time later, he died.

 

I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I've wondered now and then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so long.
I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life,
Or because he quit taking left turns. "

 

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. 
So love the people who treat you right. 
Forget about the ones who don't. 
Believe everything happens for a reason. 
If you get a chance, take it & if it changes your life, let it.
"Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would most likely be worth it." 

Sunday Thought - November 24, 2013: Parents

I wrote a post yesterday about deadbeat parents, parents that abandon children after a divorce, before they're born, or for no reason at all other than pure selfishness.  Parents like this have always pissed me off because of the damage they do to the children that must forge ahead through life without the emotional support that parent brings to the table.  It doubly bothers me when a parent tries to make an excuse for why they did it.

This morning as I was thinking of something for the Thought for Sunday post, I thought back to my high school graduation.  The class I almost didn't graduate with.  Hey, I wasn't the best student.  I was very intelligent, I just wasn't very focused.  My interests were in areas not covered by the curriculum of the day.  It took junior college and a major in Psychology for me to hit my stride.  I don't think I as much as cracked a book, but I easily breezed through with a 3+ grade average in most classes.  Getting through high school, into college, and my Air Force career was not done alone.  It was a group effort.

I was lucky enough to have great, supportive, parents.  I have always thought that without the discipline that dad brought to the game I would have ended up either on the streets, in trouble with the law, drugs, a teenage parent, or dead.  I'm not so sure they understand what an impact I feel they had in my life, there was much of my life they didn't know about.  That's how much I loved them and didn't want to disappoint.  I laugh today at dad chasing me through the house with his hunting belt, threatening to wail the hell out of me with it, all the time promising it would hurt him more than me.  Well, physically, that wasn't true.  Emotionally, I now understand how much that discipline bothered him.  Without it, I would have been lost.

I plan on calling mom and dad this morning and reminding them how much I love them and appreciate that they were there for me.  I guess with Thanksgiving creeping up on us next week, I would challenge everyone to call family and thank them for being there.  I'm sure if you think about it, your view of your parents never being there for you may be colored by how big an ass you were growing up.  I think you may find, upon reflection, that they did the best they could.  If you still don't think so, ask yourself one question:  Did they stick around?  If the answer is yes, then think about those children that have to go it alone.  Think about the kids on the street, as you pass they by during the day.  Think about how hard their life is, and then call your parents.

If you know a young person that is in need of emotional support, call them.  Tell them how much you care about them and what they are going through.  Invite them to have Thanksgiving with you and yours.  Give them something to be thankful for, and someone to be thankful to.  It will have an impact.  It may save a life.

“I also believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their swirling waters, and sometimes that means you'll never know what they endured, and you may treat them unkindly, in a way you otherwise wouldn't.”  

-- Mitch Albom, For One More Day  

Suffering the Deadbeat Parents

Please don't worry, I am doing fine. 
You're much too busy to even find the time,
So use your chemicals and take this to your grave,
The boys you left are men you didn't raise. -- Author unknown

I hate deadbeat dads.  These are the irresponsible people (I have a hard time referring to them as men) that don't take the responsibility for their actions, in this case bringing another life into the world.  "You're pregnant, it's your problem, and I'm outta here!"  And these sorry excuses for human flesh tend to do it more than once.  I would refer to it as a mistake, but it isn't because they just don't care.

The sad part of their action is the effect it has on everyone else, and they still don't care.  The child grows up without a father, the mother without support, and those of us that want to do right by our kids during a divorce end up with a stigma that we have to fight.  When I was setting up my child support through the State of Washington they were very rude to me and I called them down on it along with a threat to sic my lawyer on them if it continued.  It's alright for a wife to sleep around, but heaven forbid you want to do the right thing as a man and provide support for your children.  People tend to forget that blame is a two way street and you shouldn't jump to a conclusion that one party is at fault, especially if you are part of a State agency.

The one thing parents in divorce need to do is to make sure the children love the other parent regardless of whose fault the split up was.  The parents don't have to like each other, but the kids need to be reminded that the erring party loves them, even if they fail to adequately show that love.  This is a double edged sword.  If the other parent ignores them, you become a liar, or the victim when they realize what an ass the other parent is while you are lying while trying to make them look good in their child's eyes.  Either way, the bad parent loses.  The big trick is never to speak badly of the other parent.  You don't have to, the children will find out by themselves, eventually, they always do.  You win.

The children of these "deadbeat" moms and dads are the true victims.  Although the majority of definitions for "father" have to do with supplying the paternal genetic material, the only definition I'm concerned with is that of providing the "father figure" for the child.  Showing a lack of responsibility doesn't do that.  A child without a father figure has a choice to make.  They can endeavor to be everything he wasn't in their lives, something better, or they can grow up to be the same irresponsible coward.

What of the children that know their father, but the father still neglects them?  It has been my limited experience that children see through the bullshit.  Whether the mother or the father is at fault in ruining the relationship to the point of divorce, the children will eventually see through it.  The caring parent will be obvious to them in the long run.  Mothers don't realize this when they take the kids just for the childcare.  The teenager will understand this when they have to go to dad for school money and mom is out every night spending the child support check.  The real test is when the absent father decides he wants to call the child and is told to get bent, by the child.

A good friend just called and she was quick to remind me moms can be deadbeat as well.  Irresponsibility to children knows no gender boundary.  Moms can be as guilty as dads for what they do emotionally to their sons and daughters.

Bad fathers and mothers just can't waltz in and out of their children's lives.  Children are not puppies, and I don't advocate treating your puppy like that either.  If you abandon a child and then want back in, you had better be prepared to do the penance for your error in judgment.  That penance is going to be long, tiring, and painful, as it should be, and the child has every right to make it so.  Payback is, after all, what they say it is.   Deal with it, or continue to be the loser you have already proven yourself to be.  There is no gray are available to you, you are a parent.

I guess, in conclusion, if you are reading this and you have been abandoned by either parent in your life, do yourself a huge favor.  Don't blame yourself.  Find a good father/mother figure you can open up to.  Most quality parents you might have respect for would probably be happy to mentor you and help you through problems in your life.  This is what makes the quality parents.  Finding someone to look up to is a good thing. 

Don't wallow in self-pity, don't blame the world just because shit happens, and don't hate.  Hate will eat you alive and that only injures you in the end.  Don't hate the parent, or parents, that have hurt you.  Rise above them.  Be better than they are and you will be the ultimate winner.  Above all else, when you become a parent, give your child everything you ever hoped for, and love, and more love.  This too will prove your worth, your value, and your reason for living.

Do not crawl within yourself.  Go out into the world and show everyone who you are.  Look up into the sky and scream to God, "I AM HERE, AND I AM SOMEONE!"  This is something God already knows, but wants you to forcefully, and emotionally admit. 

Now, prove it to yourself!

"Children are the angels God sends to mankind

in hope they will be everything we are not.

They are our salvation.

If we ignore our children, we ignore God

and deserve to be ignored in kind." 

Wisdom's Downward Path

Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?"

Priest:  "No, not if you did not know."

Eskimo:  "Then why did you tell me?"

-- Annie Dillard, American author

Is there wisdom without experience?  Was Christ righteous or wise?

If we believe Christian scholars, Jesus led a morally correct life.  If this is so, where did he gain the knowledge and understanding, the wisdom that only life experience can offer?  The experience and wisdom of the ages would have been his at birth, from God.  Was it?

If this is so, then is it true for all of us at birth, born without sin, and children of God?  But so were Adam and Eve, yet they showed little wisdom, the wisdom of knowing not to fall from grace.  Children may be born without sin, but many quickly find their way into trouble without some form of guidance.  From our teachers, pastors, parents, and others which comprise our "support group", we learn how not to fall.  What happens if we do fall?  What happens when we taste the experience of sin?  How do we surmount the excitement, the rush of desire and the forbidden?  Do we lean on our support group?  What if they have never fallen; never experienced the forbidden fruit?

There is righteousness without experience, but can there be true wisdom?  What does a celibate priest know of marriage or brothels?  If he has held fast to his vows he knows nothing of importance that would aid in counseling.  Sadly, he may find bingo, alcohol, and smoking might be a little more to his liking, though these, also, do nothing for the pious image.  So who is the better shepherd, one who has led a righteous life having always traveled an upward path of faith where experience is limited to only that which is seen and heard?  Or one who has traveled the downward path, experienced sin and surmounted it, rising above it to climb up the other side all the more wiser for the journey?

I think the righteous man travels a straight and narrow path to heaven, whereas the wise man has the experience to guide and minister to the flock.  He has a duty to do this that the righteous man may never understand.  The wise man has a debt to pay, a debt to God and his fellows, a "toll" for traveling that path and experiencing sin.

If there is no sin in the congregation, of what use is the pastor?  If all the land is green, lush pasture, what use is the shepherd?  But, if sin presents itself, who better to recognize it than the repentant sinner brandishing the sword of true wisdom and the shield of experience?  The question I ask, is his faith stronger for the journey, or just different?

In a confrontation with evil, the holy man can give no quarter, and his faith will bring his martyrdom as evil sends him to God without mercy.  The wise man, on the other hand, will give no quarter, show no mercy, and use all of his experience and wisdom in a bloody battle he knows he may not win.  The holy man is our pathfinder; the wise man has our back.  A priest that “has my back” does not instill me with much confidence.  In the face of evil do you send in the lamb, or the lion?

What then is to be said for those of little or no faith?

Truly blessed are the godless that protect the helpless, the atheist that gives their life in the defense of the defenseless.  They have no faith, no expectation of an afterlife or a kingdom of heaven.  Theirs is truly a selfless decision of sacrifice.  If they have traveled the downward path and returned, they will have done it on their own, without a faith in God.  Is this a stronger wisdom?  Perhaps, but consider this:

"In the face of evil, wisdom without faith is shallow and a man without faith is poorly armed."

As always, this is just an opinion, a passing thought that might give rise to creative discussion.  This one could be way off base.  We all have an opinion, or at the very least a thought.  Please feel free to share yours. 

Dear Friends are Leaving

There is always sadness when a friend leaves or moves on.  One hopes they stay in contact, remaining a part of your life, filling a part of the hole you feel in your heart after they ripped it out.  In a few weeks this will be compounded several fold for me, as the entire business I worked for leaves the city to set up in another location an hour away.  All my girls are leaving.

For twenty years I have watched young women come into the business and learn how to dress, develop a work ethic, get married, divorced, and have children.  No lecherous guy of 40, waiting to prey on the innocence of youth, not my style.  These were my girls, and my family at work.  These were the people I laughed and cried with, and when the HR department said there would be no inappropriate physical contact, we would sneak a hallway hug in quiet, peaceful, civil disobedience. 

The girls would search me out for counsel in their love life, or just to bleed on me as they vented about a husband without a clue.  We would discuss career, kids and recipes.  I cannot count the number of babies I have listened to and felt kick prior to birth, then watched grow into teenagers.  Children of my coworkers that grew up and got married, now having babies of their own.

And there were a few beautiful personalities, men and women, who came into our lives only to die, all too young, from violence or poor health.  Some survived bouts with cancer, while some passed on in their sleep.  All will be missed.

Now that I’m 60, in a few weeks 20 years of smiles will go away, the cheerful morning greetings, and the warm hugs.  No more morning fashion shows, commenting on new hair styles, or seeing how short of a skirt they can get away with.  In a few weeks I don’t just lose a friend or two, or three, I lose a family.  This will be tough. I’m sure I will cry as I have no idea how I could possibly prevent it.  These are people I love dearly, and have loved for years.  My daughters and my friends are moving away.

For all of them I wish the best of futures.  Some will be retiring, some will move on to other jobs closer to home, some will tough out the commute, but all of them will remain in my heart and my memories for years to come.  I hope to see some of them occasionally, if just to catch up for a few minutes, and to get a warm hug. 

I love them all.

Church Law or God's Love?

Open hearts, open minds, and open doors?

 

Rev. Frank Schaefer, a southeastern Pennsylvania United Methodist minister who, in 2007, officiated at his son's same-sex wedding, pleaded not guilty this week to charges that he violated the Methodist Book of Discipline and broke his pastoral vows.  Rev. Schaefer could be reprimanded and lose his minister's credentials if a jury of Methodist clergy convicts him of breaking church law banning performing same-sex weddings. 

 

The complainant, a member of Schaefer's congregation, was "dismayed and shocked" when he learned of the ceremony.

 

According to Schaefer's attorney, "It's important to him to practice in his family what he preached to his congregation," he said. "He did this wedding as an act of love and not as an act of rebellion."  He told the jury his client was extending God's love to his son.

 

So, that's the gist of it, and I have been presented with another opportunity to get on the wrong side of a church.  I've managed to have a go at Islam, Catholics, and Baptists, and now the Methodists are creating controversy.  This whole situation is a prime example of the United Methodist credo of "open hearts, open minds, open doors," unless you're gay, then no God for you!  Can you be any more hypocritical than this?  And let us not forget to consider this is a church, holding court, a trial, with attorneys.  A church? 

 

Be real.  I'm sure we all remember Jesus reminding us, as he died on the cross for all of us,  to gather the lawyers unto ourselves lest the homosexual faithful dare to attempt entry into the kingdom of God.

 

If I were Rev. Schaefer, I'd tell them where to shove their trial.  His love for God is not in question any more than the love for his son.  I think the United Methodists would be better served if they rewrote their credo, "Open hearts, open minds, open doors; definitions pending."

 

According to the article I read, a pastor attending the trial stated it wasn't about gay rights.  It was about breaking church law and pastoral vows.  Bullshit!  The problem with religious clergy is they keep missing the target.  It isn't about gay rights, it is about human rights.  It isn't about violating church law or vows, it is about a poor definition of open hearts, open minds, and open doors.  It's about God's love of ALL of us, not just those that Methodist doctrine chooses for God to love.  How dare they presume to choose for God!  I'm sure they will waste no time thrusting the bible in my face to bolster their claims, but that presupposes I buy into the bible being the written word of God and not men with alternate agendas, like control.

Depending on the intelligence of the congregation, this speed bump should haunt them for some time to come.  Or, they could continue to buy into church rhetoric, in which case they might as well fall in line to grab their glass of poisoned Kool Aid.

 

This should be another wake up call to all those involved with organized religion to take a hard look at who you are worshipping with and the doctrine they are presuming to force upon you.  If you don't agree with them, leave.  As with any divorce, it really isn't worth the time in court when all you really want to do is find true love. 

A Godless Concept

Creatio ex Nihilo

In 2019, I updated the 2013 post, entitled Faith, addressing my views on what faith meant to me.  This was a follow up to a previous post, What is Faith?.  These posts got me to thinking about a life without faith in the supreme power in the universe.  As a refresher, "faith" is defined as a belief in something for which there is little or no evidence.

My posts are, usually, about more than spiritual faith, per se.  For instance, I address the notion that even an atheist can, and should, have faith in something, preferably something good and pure, even if simply an unyielding faith in themselves to be good stewards of the earth, society, and civilization.

“I need nothing. I seek nothing. I desire nothing.”

-- Milarepa (1052-1135), poet, yogi

If I define faith in the context of religious or spiritual belief, my question then falls to having non-spiritual faith or a life without God.  In my 50 years of searching for answers, doubting, questioning, and discovering, I have come to the realization that something else must be out there.  Whether we call it a creative force, energy, particle, a supreme being, Allah, or God, is immaterial to the fact that something is out there.  What it is, I suppose, depends on your own desire for interpretation.  Why it is might be the more important inquiry and, again, I suppose it depends on your own desire for interpretation.  I no longer have such a desire.  It is what it is and, for me, what and why it is, is enough.  People, who visit the abyss at the Cusp of Forever might ask, "Why do you worry and argue over that for which there is no evidence?" 

To a deist, the question of philosophical "rightness" is not as important as the philosophy creating more questions than answers.  To put it another way, an irrefutable definition of God is secondary to a belief in the existence of God.  Abrahamic religions have a definition of God which meets the criteria set forth by their historical body of religious leadership which seems to have always operated with hidden agendas guaranteeing sustainable wealth and control of the faithful.  Their scripture is constantly reinterpreted to meet the current political atmosphere or to excuse some hypocrisy perpetrated upon others.  Examples would be the terrorist factions of Islam excusing the killing of innocence, and those Christians who constantly judge others like the LGBT community who come in search of the loving, tolerant, and forgiving Christ.

But, what if your belief is based on there being no God, period?  No belief or faith in the existence of any supreme power and, therefore, no concern for any definition of that power or any promised salvation in some afterlife.

“This terror then and darkness of mind must be dispelled not by the rays of the sun and glittering shafts of day, but by the aspect and the law of nature; the warp whose design we shall begin with this first principle, nothing is ever gotten out of nothing by divine power.”

-- Lucretius (94 BC-??), poet, philosopher

The arguments for or against a God, whatever the definition, will probably go on forever, and seemingly have.  I write this trying not to swing opinion either way.  I always try not to do that.  I politic, if you will, for tolerance of religious and spiritual belief, as long as that belief is peaceful and tolerant of others.  A person's belief, however, is what it is, and they should feel free to express and practice their belief freely and without ridicule, as long as they are lawful and peaceful in their practice and don't try to force it on others.  Others don't have to agree.  This, again, is just my thoughts on how it makes me feel, this notion of a life without God.

The first thought that occurs to me is: "Who do you talk to when you're alone?  Yourself?  We always joke that talking to yourself is the first step to losing your mind.  People talk to themselves around me all the time, so I must conclude that we're all a can shy of a six-pack.  Remember, no one among us is righteous.  Not one.  We don't have to be perfect, but maybe it's enough for us to try our best, and not blame others for our shortcomings.  Clergy can't own your sins, and why should they?  You are expected to embrace your own sins, your own shortcomings, and strive to be more than you are.

Catholics stopped hearing confessions.  I think they finally came to the same understanding many of their congregations have thought about for years:  Why do we need a go-between to talk to God?  According to Matthew 6:5-6, "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."  This opens the door to other questions, like why do we have churches and synagogues where we are seen by others when we show praise?  Is it in order to feed some hidden ego or, perhaps, to violate a tenet set forth by Matthew because clergy knew an empty seat is a dollar lost?  Maybe we read it but didn't really understand the simplicity of it, or maybe the true intent has been clouded by the smoke and mirrors, the bullshit fed to us by organized religion.  I like the notion of a God that I can talk to.  I like the one true cathedral of God which I can enter by simply opening my front door.

Prisoners of war during the Vietnam conflict, almost to a person, would argue that without their faith in God and country, the years of imprisonment and torture would have been unbearable.  For most, their prayers to a God for the strength to continue, to soldier on, was paramount to their survival.  This has been true for military men since armies were first conceived.  I try to imagine what it would be like for an atheist to try and survive that ordeal, and I keep coming up short.  To me, this means they go into the ordeal armed only with what they have, or what is, whereas the spiritual man is armed, not only with what they have, what is, but they are also armed with what might be.  They carry with them the sword, shield, and armor of a God which atheists don't have the imagination to perceive.  Maybe it's because I'm not an atheist and, therefore, have no point of reference that I find this lack of perception, this lack of faith, hard to wrap my mind around.

Faith in a higher power, a God, also adds the notion, the hope and promise, of a life after death, a hereafter, heaven, or reincarnation into another existence.  For me, what is the point struggling your whole life just to flip the "off switch" at the end?  I like the thought that maybe there is another great adventure awaiting me on the other side, a "Tony:  Part II," coming soon to another reality near me.

“Matter and Spirit are intertwined in creation at this plane of existence and both are non-existent without each other. To live one, the other has to be lived. It is the obsessive attachment to the material world, which is seen as an impediment... when one can see nothing beyond it”

-- Anupama Garg, author, "The Tantric Curse"

For a scientist, if a thing can't be proved, and that proof can't be repeated, the thing doesn't exist.  Science requires a repeatable outcome.  Something not repeatable is view as an anomaly.   Well, think about the fact that you can't repeat death.  You can't repeat it, therefore, it doesn't exist, right?  According to science, then, it exists only as an individual anomaly.  Therefore, death must be repeatable.  Welcome to the abyss.  I come here often and stare intensely into the void hoping my head doesn't simply explode (which again, according to science, would be an anomaly since I can't repeat it).

If you expect nothing after death, is that what you get?  I hope atheists at least get a good slap for being wrong.  Beware what you wish for?  If you expect nothing, you should be doomed to relive each new life in an existence where you are thrown into a "prison camp" of your limited beliefs until the realization of something more, faith in a power greater than you, allows you to move forward?

When I was in the military I was offered Area 51 as a special duty assignment for a job well done.  I thought about it for a couple of days before I refused the assignment.  People still ask me why I turned it down.  Well, if I go to Area 51 and find there are "flying saucers" in the hangers, I'm sworn to secrecy and can't tell anyone.  If, on the other hand, I find there really aren't flying saucers being hidden there by our government, all the years I spent hoping for proof of extraterrestrial life here on earth are wasted, and I am crushed, and I still can't tell anyone because no one would believe me anyway.  So, what would be the fun in the assignment?  This is the way I feel about having faith is something greater than myself.  I like having faith that there is something more to come.  Without this faith in something more, what's the point, of anything... like aliens, or peace on earth?

What about our notions of good and evil?  I'd like to think that an, albeit misplaced, faith in God helps prevent the wholesale slaughter of innocence.  An atheist might argue that God was the driving force behind the wholesale slaughter of the Crusades ordered by the Christian church.  But, the targeting system of the League of the Perpetually Offended is always in need of a reality adjustment.  God doesn't kill people, people kill people, in the name of God, which is heresy.  The Crusades were about greed, not about God.  The popes used God as an excuse to refill their coffers by sacking the wealth of Islam, and then they discovered tithing was a way to get the common man, with a promise of salvation, to refill the church coffers.  Heresy, plain and simple.

How about religion as a deterrent to evil?  Isn't that what the prison system and capital punishment accomplish.  Really?  Let's think about the sorry state of our judicial and prison systems before we address this.  A murderer can be set free before their victim's body is cold.  How is this viewed as a deterrent?  No, I think that without a healthy dose of religion or, more importantly, faith in a higher power, history would repeat itself and we would visit the fall of Rome all over again, worldwide.  It's bad enough that religious hypocrites, clergy in general, reinterpret their "holy" scripture in order to use God as an excuse for mayhem.  Imagine what would happen if everyone didn't have to worry about the righteous message in that same scripture, and relied on their own sad interpretations of morality.  Remember the criminal justice system that doesn't seem to be working?  Nuff said.

"The skeptic endlessly demands proof, yet God refuses to insult the true intelligence of man, the '6th sense', the chief quality, the acumen which distinguishes man from the rest of creation, faith."

-- Criss Jami, poet, essayist, philosopher

For many, it probably comes down to proof of God.  An atheist would state the proof of God is on the believer.  Why isn't the lack of proof on the atheist?  Science believed the world was flat and they didn't have to prove it.  Science believed the universe revolves around the earth, and science was wrong.  Science said the world was flat, and science was wrong.  Science said a man couldn't fly, and science was wrong.  Science said the sound barrier would never be broken, and science was wrong.  I hate to point out that God, traveling at the speed of light, antigravity, and teleportation will probably have a pretty good chance of proving science wrong.  Science is always right until they're wrong.

And, by the way, while we're talking of people talking like the south end of a horse heading north, I think actors should stick to acting and leave politics to politicians.  Politicians do themselves no favors in the first place without having actors without a clue trying to support them, just like actors do their careers no favors by supporting those same clueless politicians.  This goes for atheists, as well.  Having someone like Penn Jillette open his mouth in support of atheism is embarrassing, if not harmful to the cause of atheism.  He deserves his opinion, I just wish he'd keep his intolerant and hateful rhetoric to himself.  When you think about it, his career is sleight of hand, magic, and trickery.  I have always heard that Satan is also a master of deception.  Now, we all know Penn Jillette isn't Satan but, just think about it.  Hmmm.

If there is absolute evil, by the rules of universal balance there must be an absolute good.  What we call this negative and positive energy is just semantics.  God, Satan, the dark side of "the force" or the light, regardless of what we call it, it is just a name.  If we surround ourselves with good energy or bad energy, we reap what we sow and there is balance in the universe.  For there to be a balance there must be opposites; good and bad, light and dark, positive and negative, equal and opposite reactions, conflicting opinions, believers and non-believers.  Can this hypothesis be tested to meet the scientific model?  I'm not sure I care.

“If you write a line of zeroes, it´s still nothing.”

-- Ayn Rand (1905-1982), writer, philosopher

A mathematician can argue there is an equation proving "point nine times infinity equals one."  Do I need to see the scientific model, have the equation explained, see his proof?  No, because good sense tells me his equation sucks.  There is still point one times infinity hanging out there in left field.  Can I prove it?  No, but I have unyielding faith that I'm right.

A Godless concept?  I can't imagine a world without a concept of God.  Nor can I imagine a world without someone proclaiming there is no God.  If someone doesn't shake our belief systems, if someone doesn't ask "why," how will we ever grow to become something more than we are?  Just because the concept of God works for me doesn't mean I need to force the concept on the unbelievers.  You either have faith, or you don't.

“I know only that it is time for me to be something when I am nothing.”

-- Patrick Branwell Brontë, painter, writer

A Godless concept?  For me the equation just sucks.  I think spirituality, religious belief, meditation, rituals, and the like, are simply a way of bringing one's chi, their prana, one's life force, into balance with the energy of the universe.  One might refer to this energy as God.  To do so, however, but they would have to be willing to understand there is little difference in how we refer to this energy, the difference will be in our interpretation.  Call it what you want, it is what it is.  Or, as God simply stated, "I am."  

Oh, by the way, Creatio ex Nihilo?  It's Latin for "creation out of nothing."  A closing thought to consider:  If nothing didn't exist, how did we name it?

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

-- Plato (427 BC-??), philosopher

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as lead Chaplain and Chaplain Program Liaison, at the regional medical center.