Bonus from "Before I Had a Blog"

This may actually be on the Net somewhere since I wrote for a guy who ran a "patriot" forum a few years back. A patriot forum was where we talked about the Constitution and the best weapons for dealing with brain-eating zombie outbreaks. I ran across the copy a few days ago and thought it seemed timely. Back then I called it: The Right to Offend


Few argue the influence of Thomas Jefferson on American history. Nor is there great debate regarding his political genius. Still, the Republic’s third President remains a controversial figure in history. His religious views in particular are intriguing and slightly mysterious. One thing is certain. Jefferson did his best to keep his personal religion a private matter. He was not one to attempt to impose his personal view of Jesus on the public.

It is often claimed that Jefferson was a Deist and his creedal statements seem to support that. Nevertheless, he honored Jesus as a teacher, calling Him the greatest of sages, while believing that the New Testament account of the Master’s life was somewhat exaggerated. By 1804 Jefferson had settled in as President and concluded the Louisiana Purchase. With nothing better to do, Jefferson ordered two copies of the same edition of the English New Testament. In his office, the President took a razor to the holy writ and excised out what he considered to be the true sayings of Jesus of Nazareth. He took his passages only from the Gospels and it turned out to be a very thin volume. Jefferson’s first gospel digest has not survived but he did a later version that included what he considered both the true acts and the true sayings of Jesus.

In essence Jefferson took out all that was supernatural or miraculous in nature. Gone were the Lord’s claims of divinity, the ‘I AM’ statements from the Gospel of John, the healings and the signs. The Sermon on the Mount seems to have survived mostly intact. Jefferson’s Jesus was a man who prayed and taught, a wise sage who reasoned like an Enlightenment philosopher, no wild desert prophet.

Both Jefferson’s respect for the Galilean Carpenter and his correspondence with the Unitarian Joseph Priestly indicates that he may have gone beyond Deism in his beliefs. Even the most dedicated of Deists witnessing the triumph of the Continental Army and the peaceful transitions of power under the Constitution might be inclined to wonder if the Great Watchmaker in the Sky did not occasionally reset His timepiece. Later, after he reconciled with his old political foe, John Adams, also a Unitarian, Jefferson expressed his view that Unitarianism would be the religion of the future in America. At least one modern writer, Stephen Prothero, author of American Jesus believes that Jefferson would feel quite at ease in today’s Unitarian church, though he would be one of its most conservative adherents.

Wherever Jefferson’s religious sentiments lay, he might have trouble making his way to the Oval Office in 21st Century America. The majority of Americans in our so-called pluralistic society not only agree with Jefferson’s positive view of Jesus, they hold to belief in His claim of being the Son of God, in His Virgin Birth and His Resurrection. American society today is much more “Christian” and outwardly pious than was colonial America or the Republic in its earliest days. It was not until the Second Great Awakening in the 1850’s and following that American Christianity as we think of it today really began to take hold across the nation.

Jefferson, though, was a person who had no quarrel with the Christianity of others. When Washington D.C. was established as the nation’s capital in 1800, Congress authorized the use of the Capitol as a church for Sunday services. While President, Jefferson attended these services and even sent a military band to aid in providing music for the song service. In The Writing of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Albert Bergh, Jefferson stated in correspondence to a Dr. Thomas Cooper that he found no problem with the local courthouse being used as a meetinghouse for Christian services (Vol. XV, p. 404).

Neither Jefferson nor any of the other Founders, including the deeply religious Washington, could foresee the changes that would take place in American culture and religious sentiment. They were students of history and knew what had happened in England and throughout Europe as a result of religious wars. They wished to avoid that in America. To that end, the First Amendment with its Establishment Clause heads up the Bill of Rights. There is no Church of the United States. We are neither a Protestant nation nor a Catholic nation. No sect, as the Founders would think of it, would be given support by the federal government.

I doubt there is a Christian in America that has a problem with that idea. Not even Pat Robertson or the late Jerry Falwell would embrace a theocratic government, despite the cries of their critics. Most Christians merely ask for the right to acknowledge Christ in the public arena. We reason that we are the majority in most of our local communities. We pay most of the taxes for city hall, the county courthouse, and the local government school. We should be able to do what we like in those places as long as we do not deny the same rights to others.

Keep in mind, there is a significant difference between violating the rights of an individual and offending an individual. We all have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution gives us no rights but it does recognize some of the rights we have – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, etc. If I do not act to abridge the rights of another human being, the government has no business interfering with me.

Offending another is an entirely different issue. My wife sent out Christmas cards and enclosed a poem in almost all of them. It was no big deal; just something she thought was inspiring and appropriate. She did print it up very nicely. In the rush, she forgot to enclose one in the card she sent to her oldest sister – or maybe I forgot. As a result my sister-in-law got her feelings hurt. My sister-in-law went so far as to call a number of the other relatives to ask if they received a poem. She is a lovely woman but she is apparently crazier than a loon.

She was deeply offended. But her rights were not violated.

A small town not far from where I live had a Christian symbol, a cross, I believe, as part of their official city seal. An atheist who lived there was offended. She filed suit and forced the town to remove the symbol from the document.

I am expecting a subpoena over the poem any day.

Is there a right not to see a cross? Or, was the atheist just offended by the appearance of it?

I am purposely being dense, right? It is obvious that having a picture of a cross on the seal down at city hall is a violation of the separation of church and state. The secularists are screaming at me now. That town is establishing a religion. The city has violated the First Amendment rights of the atheist.

Nope. The establishment clause pertains specifically to Congress. Having a cross on the Halfway, Missouri seal does not rise to that level no matter what the Supreme Court says. Only a lawyer could be stupid enough to read that into the First Amendment.

Further, the town (I really don’t think it was Halfway, I just like the name) did not do anything to support the Christian religion with taxpayer money. Neither does the State of Missouri do anything to support Neptune/Poseidon worship even though there is a big statue of the character behind the capitol in Jefferson City. The cross is a Christian symbol, but it is not exclusively a Christian symbol. Crosses are wore by Goth chicks at the mall who appear to be invisible in mirrors and by performers upon whom the roof would surely fall if they ever entered a church building. The ankh, a cross with a little loop on top, pre-dates Christianity and was the ancient Egyptian symbol of eternal life. The same goes for other symbols – fish or whatever. A symbol has the meaning that the observer assigns to it. If I saw a city seal with the crescent moon on it, I would assume it is run by Shriners (God help us), if you want to be offended by it that is your problem.

This whole mess, from the 1962 rulings about prayer in school to the more recent controversies over Christmas parades and displays, has absolutely nothing to do with individual rights. The courts started making decisions on the basis of people being offended.

Those poor little atheist kids could not pray and just had to stand there, feeling pressured, feeling outcast, and having their little feelings being hurt. It is up to the courts to protect these precious ones from the horrors of Christian indoctrination.

That is it.

They have a right to not be offended.

The benediction at the commencement exercise offends them. It does not violate their freedom of religion or their freedom of speech. It just offends them. Their kid is too stupid to make valedictorian, so they do not want the Christian kid who did end up at the top of his or her class to be able to thank God for the success. They are offended when the football team wants to pray before the game, even though most of the players are Christians. They are offended that a local clergyman puts in an appearance at the city council meeting and opens with prayer – even though it costs no one a dime.

Practice your religion inside your churches or in the confines of your home, the secularist says. That is the secularist definition of religious freedom. Interestingly enough, it is quite similar to the definition they have in China and the one they had in the old Soviet Union. You can be a Christian, just keep it to yourself. All you gay guys painted purple and dressed as butterflies with a sparkler up your butt can go on parade, but you mouthy Christians need to get back in your closet.

That is not what men like Jefferson had in mind when they penned the First Amendment, any more than they meant for the Second Amendment to be about the National Guard or collective rights. The Constitution protects the religious rights of individuals, that includes the right of a speaker to try to win converts in public and of hearers to put their fingers in their ears, walk away or shout down the speaker. My freedom of speech should not be limited by the fact that you cannot see or do not believe in the person to whom I am speaking. I certainly cannot believe that my wife finds so many people to talk to on her cell phone, and she has never figured out whom I am addressing when I am out in the field alone.

Freedom sometimes is not pretty. Truly free people often get offended and have their feelings hurt. In fact the First Amendment seems to me to guarantee the right to offend others more than anything else. Inoffensive speech does not need protection. As the Supreme Court reads it, First Amendment protection covers a pornographer dispersing his wares on magazine racks and over the Internet. It should also protect children praying over their school lunches at the local government school (and if any meal needs prayer it is a school lunch). Christians may have to unplug their television sets to keep the broadcast filth away from their children. Non-theists might have to carry earplugs or headphones wherever they go.

It is a rough world.

Deal with it.

Rebuilding the Temple

Now the LORD of Hosts says this:

You have planted much
But harvested little.
You eat
But never have enough
To be satisfied.
You drink
But never have enough
To become drunk.
You put on clothes
But never have enough
To get warm.

The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with holes in it. --Haggai 1:5,6

In the ninth verse of that chapter the Lord adds, “You expected much, but then it amounted to little.”

We sincerely hope this applies to O-bummer supporters.

I meet people all the time who never have enough. Sometimes I even see a hard-looking old man in the mirror who thinks that way, but Haggai was not talking about a perception and existential angst. The exiles had returned to Judea from Babylonian captive. They had prospered and done well under Babylonian then Persian rule. Back in their homeland, they began to build their houses, plant their crops and ply their trades.

Yet they found life harsh and unsatisfying. No doubt they blamed it on volatile weather and the poor soil. Then a prophet arose and began to speak to them. Haggai said that the Lord was causing their problems because they had neglected to rebuild His temple. They were building their own fine homes, trying to make themselves comfortable while ignoring God who had brought them back to worship and serve Him.

In Haggai’s time there were no stock markets, 401k’s, IRA’s, or investment banks, but some of us have looked at portfolios we were counting on to grow only to find ourselves thinking we will never have enough.

I am not a prophet, and if I were, I’d be only a reluctant one. I think it is generally unwise to tie headlines to Scripture and watch the evening news while reading “The Revelation”. But that’s mostly because I think it is unwise to watch the evening news or read the newspapers -- if there are any left. I am not predicting malaise, calamity, financial collapse or civil war. I am predicting that those who neglect God’s temple will never have enough, regardless of the terrestrial, political, social, or economic climate.

But what does that mean for us?

Don’t you know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone ruins God’s sanctuary, God will ruin him; for God’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are. (1 Corinthians 3:16,17)

Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19,20)

God wanted to make known … the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27)

… you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. …

… you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession … (1 Peter 2:5,9)

For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4: 17)

Squirrels, Acorns, and Oaks

Love never ends.
But as for prophecies, they will come to an end;
As for languages, they will cease;
As for knowledge, it will come to an end.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,
But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put aside childish things.
For, now, we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.
-- 1 Corinthians 13:8-12

I agree with atheists on one thing. I don’t believe in the god they don’t believe in either. The typical non-theist troll over on One Cosmos has what might be described as a “Sunday School” conception of the Divine, but, to be fair, that is also the concept of many who sit in churches three times a week. Neither the atheist nor the average fundamentalist appears able to recognize a simile, a metaphor or a semaphore when it eats their lunch.

Give the religious leaders of the Jesus’ time this much credit: they knew no one could look upon God, i.e., comprehend Him and live. To understand God was death to fallen man. To think that Jesus could actually be the Son of God in the fullest sense, that He had invaded humanity, was, and is, shocking. As a Muslim once said to me, with astonished, if hopeful indignation, “How can a man be the Great God?” Just because we have gotten used to the idea of the Incarnation doesn’t mean it is not still a scandalous terror.

We have probably all heard, if we haven’t thought or said something along the lines of: “When I get to heaven, I’m going to have a long talk with the Lord. I’ve got some questions about how He did things down here, and why things happened this way.” You know, at the Big Wrap Party, we catch the Director passing by, offer Him a cocktail (non-alcoholic, of course), then pull Him aside to ask why He shot a certain scene the way He did.

In order to understand God at all, we have to think of Him symbolically, so it is easy and natural that we would sometimes fall into our own meaning traps, get entangled in the very word nets we are using to draw up the comprehensible from the dark depths.

Most of us aren’t poets.

All I really meant to quote today was that last line: Now I know in part; but then I shall know, as I am also fully known.

And might I add: What a long, strange trip it’s been.

A hound knows its way home, no matter where or how far it runs because it has something like an internal compass to lead it back to where it belongs. The reason I get lost on the surface of this planet is because the pull of my internal compass is not to some earthly abode but to a heavenly one. It is unerring. You can put me down anywhere on the globe, or anywhere in the cosmos, for that matter, and I will get home.

When I get home, I will not be as the seed that I am today -- the part you put down -- any more than a seven-foot green corn stalk is the little yellow kernel that was planted, or a sixty-foot oak is the acorn a long-gone squirrel carried, hid, and forgot. I will know then, as I am known now. I will see, not reflections and shadows, but face to face.

There will be no explanations for there will be no questions.

Where was Moses when the light went out?

(In his shirttail trying to find a match.)

The statement that George MacDonald reiterated perhaps most often in his writings was John 7:17: “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.”

In a selection from My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes:

The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience. If things are dark to me, then I may be sure there is something I will not do. Intellectual darkness comes through ignorance; spiritual darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey.

I once obeyed God in something that was terrifying to me. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about running through machinegun fire or into a burning building or handling snakes or even getting on a rollercoaster that goes upside-down. I’m talking about doing something that could have made me look like a fool. No doubt, in the eyes of some, I did look like a fool. The loss of pride and my cultivated coolness was worse than death to me at that time. I still wonder that I managed to get through it. Yet just as Chambers indicates, my obedience led to a new degree of spiritual insight. I recognize now that it wasn’t much insight – just a crack of the door really, but compared to my prior darkness it was a veritable floodlight.

There was in a certain city two preachers of the same denomination. One was tall, distinguished, clever, and glib. He had been a professor at Bible colleges and had authored a book on the subject of church growth. The tall preacher was sincere, and his messages were well-timed, rich, and memorable. With his gifts, he gathered to himself the cream of society: the governor, doctors, lawyers, and various others in positions of authority. He built a new building and greatly expanded the church’s membership.

Across town the second pastor was short and dark. He was not glib, mispronounced words, and said things backwards. His messages were pointed, sharp and fiery. He lost track of the time when he preached. On occasion he would pause, look over the congregation as they were momentarily stunned into silence, and say, almost with a sneer, “Now shout!” Church growth was meaningless to him. “I would rather,” he once said, “have a hundred who all go to heaven with me, than a thousand, and nine hundred go to hell.”

After he built the new, impressive building and filled it with dignitaries, the tall preacher fell – not for the first time. His friends and political connections saved him once more. He moved away, got another church, began to build again, and fell again. The tall preacher was not a bad man. This is not a parable. I knew him personally and once counted him as a friend. He was brilliant, but he lacked spiritual insight simply because he refused to obey. Like most people, I thought he was disobeying with regard to his sexual conduct, but I learned that I was wrong. Adultery was for the tall preacher a consequence, not a cause. His disobedience was in regard to his positions. He would not go where the Lord wanted to send him, but where he had the best opportunity to advance his career, have a nice house, and gain prestige. This left him in the dark, empty and vulnerable to the cravings of the flesh. I eventually lost track of him, so I don’t know if he ever figured out what was wrong.

When I first met the short preacher we were both young men, but he had already been through half a dozen churches. He had never built a building. Until he arrived in the town with the tall preacher, he had never owned a house. His churches had all been small and never got much bigger. The church in which I made his acquaintance was easily the best he had been in to that point. After a couple of years he left it for probably the worst one he ever led. The short preacher was far from perfect. He had his faults and failings like most of us do, but he was generally willing to go where the Lord sent him. His prayer was always, “Lord, choose our changes.” The light in his life came from this obedience. It’s probably the most important lesson I have learned from him. He is still my friend, and he turned sixty a few months back after moving to what will be, most likely, his final pastorate. It is by far the best facility and the best congregation he has been given.

I guess my thought for the day is this: If I find myself having trouble, trials and temptations, I should perhaps ask God if I am where I am supposed to be. It’s a risky business – not too unlike Bilbo going out his front door – but I might even consider praying, “Lord, choose my changes.”

Don’t pray that one unless you want an answer.

Shell Games

”But what do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go, work in the vineyard today.’

“He answered, ‘I don’t want to!’ Yet later he changed his mind and went.

“Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered. But he didn’t go. Which of these two did his father’s will?”

“The first,” they said.

Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” --Matthew 21:28-31

Those who attend churches and call themselves Christians today seem to be deeply concerned about immorality – especially the specific immorality of others. The adulterer wants to help the drunk out of his pit, and the drunk looks down on the drug user, who, in turn, is repulsed by the homosexual. We can always find someone more disgustingly immoral than ourselves. It’s a fact of human nature. You can have a prison full of rapists, murderers, thieves, and pushers, but you cannot turn a child molester loose in general population. They won’t last fifteen minutes because even the most hardened criminal hates that particular kind of perversion.

Jesus, on the other hand, never freaked out about basic immorality. He certainly did not approve of it, but it was not His focus. After all, we all know that lying, cheating, stealing, murder, etc. are wrong. Jesus did not lay aside His glory, empty Himself of all His rights, and walk a pain-filled path to the Cross in order to point out that we should be “better” people. He made His point with His own life, laying it down, denying Himself.

What did get the Lord stirred up was the idea that we could serve God on our own terms, in our own way – which really amounts to serving our own god. A group of idiots like the Westboro Baptist Church illustrates this point in hundred-foot high pink and green neon, but a lot of Christians -- including me -- are guilty in less egregious ways. I want to hold onto self and figure out some way to get God to go along. Jesus said, “Deny yourself.” That’s the only way to truly serve the Lord.

Christians like to talk about doing God’s will. We have sermons and seminars, classes, conventions, and conferences. I am reminded of the philosopher, Tuco, who said, “When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.”

My friend, Eddie, used to tell his own, updated version of the Good Samaritan. A man had run off the road into a big ditch, was hurt and could not get out. Member of various Christian denominations and movements came by and turned away with condemnation, offered no help, or, at best, shouted a comically inappropriate platitude or two toward the broken man in the hole. The Samaritan in Eddie’s story was a cigarette-smoking redneck with empty beer bottles in the floorboard of a dirty old truck. It was done so well that Eddie was almost never invited back to speak at a church after he told that story.

Kind of like Jesus.

Pointing out the essence of sin is what makes me uncomfortable. As long as I can keep it categorized into good and bad behavior, while avoiding the more notorious categories – prostitution, homosexuality, accounting, and politics, I am good. Jesus won’t let me off that easily. He says it’s not about how big and graphic and perverse my failure is, but it is about my simple refusal to deny myself, take up my cross and follow Him. Nothing more is required, and nothing less will do.

God doesn't miss much

So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and He took notice. – Exodus 2:24,25

The last phrase in the KJV reads something like, “and He had respect unto them”. Another translation says, “God acknowledged them.” God did not just look at the children of Israel in passing, and He did not respond to them simply because they were suffering. He remembered His covenant. The LORD put Himself into a contractual relationship with Abraham in response to Abraham’s willingness to believe. He restated this covenant to Isaac and to Jacob – especially to Jacob, changing his name to Israel.

(Abram/Abraham and Jacob/Israel had name changes. Isaac was named for the response that first the promise and then the actuality of his birth evoked, i.e., “Laughter”. Isaac was not renamed; he knew who he was.)

God acknowledged the legitimacy of the children of Israel – not as descendants of an earthly patriarch – but as His own children with whom He had a covenant and to whom He had obligated Himself.

When Jesus died on the Cross, He established a new and better covenant with all of humanity, an all-encompassing covenant. The Messiah, passing through pain, death, and the grave to a resurrected life, became the Israel of God, bringing salvation to all. As in Adam all died, it says, so in Christ all are made alive.

Oswald Chambers makes a couple of challenging statements about salvation. First, Chambers said, we should not push redemption into a future fulfillment: “Men are not going to be redeemed; they are redeemed.” We are not waiting on God to save us. He is waiting for us to enter into the covenant relationship with Him. Second, Chambers offers a slightly different take on the role of faith in salvation: “I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing.”

In Egyptian bondage, the Israelites did not feel much like children of God, heirs of a covenantal relationship that gave them access to the very Creator of heaven and earth. Nevertheless, this was the case. I may not feel like a child of God as I suffer in some bondage that seems as unbreakable as it is unbearable. Yet I am a legitimate son, a rightful heir of that better covenant in Christ.

We were talking about my granddaughter, EL-C, last night, reminiscing about little things that happened as she grew up. My daughter brought up a bike wreck that EL-C had when she was five or six. Their house was on a corner at the bottom of a steep grade. Grandma, Mom, EL-C, and I had been up at a little neighborhood playground on the other side of the block. Mom and Grandma ambled along while EL-C and I went on a little faster, rounded the block and started down the hill. Normally I could keep up with her on her bike, but the accelerating effects of gravity were not yet factored into her little organic calculator. Her bicycle tires were somewhat worn, and she did not apply the brakes anywhere close to soon enough. Couple all that with a moment of sheer panic, and the result was that she drove straight into the curb and did an impressive end-do onto a fortunately well-watered, plush lawn.

Amazingly, she broke her fall with her face. She has always been a talented child.

I got to her right away and scooped her up out of the neighbor’s yard. Her nose was bleeding but there was no other obvious damage. She was, however, wailing like a tornado siren. Her mother, still out of sight around the other corner, heard this and knew immediately it was her baby. Clogs shed, barefoot Mom ran down the hill, grabbed EL-C out of my arms as I reached the other side of the street, and carried her into the house to be suitably soothed and cleaned up. I took care of the bike. (On a side note, my granddaughter explained her accident by saying, “Poppy didn’t hold on,” -- that is, to the back of her bicycle seat. I didn’t bother to argue that Carl Lewis couldn’t have kept up with her.)

My daughter is a pretty good mother. Mothers will respond to the voices, and especially to the cries of their children. Normal people do not forget their offspring or ignore their suffering. God says that even if a mother could forget her child, He will not forget us.

If we are willing to believe what God says about us, willing to believe that we are His children, then we need not be surprised that He responds to our sufferings and breaks our fetters.

Workin' for a livin'

Looks like the jungle will be all undergrowth most of this week.

Too many arns in tha faar.

Somebody has to fund Obama's generosity.

You all keep the lights trimmed and burning in the cOOn-O-sphere the next few days. I'll catch up.