Gerry Charlotte Phelps

God's Pharmacy

(From Guest Blogger Michelle Hollon)

It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish - all before making a human.  He made and provided what we'd need before we were born.  The things below are best and more powerful when eaten raw.  We're such slow learners..

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God's Pharmacy



A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.




A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.




Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food .




A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.




Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys .




Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.




Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).




Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm cells to overcome male sterility.




Grapefruits, Oranges, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts .




Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

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Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.




Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Making All The Difference

                                        (Image from pro.corbis.com)

From The FAX of Life by Rubel Shelly, at www.rubelshelly.com.

Jack lets us send "The FAX of Life" to him each week. Just over a year ago now, he shared a wonderful story with me and vouched for its details.

The story begins with a nine-year-old boy who was being raised by a single mother. He never met his father, but his hard-working mother put in 72 hours lots of weeks just to make ends meet. He had a sister two years older than himself, and they worked a garden to raise vegetables to eat and to sell.

There was some help from the state welfare agencies. A free-lunch program at school helped feed him and his sister. And the little family felt blessed when they were able to move into a nicer house in a better neighborhood.

Across the street from the new house lived a kind Christian lady. She was not particularly noteworthy. She didn't teach Sunday School. Her own husband wasn't a Christian, and their children followed their dad's lead and were pretty indifferent to faith. On a given Saturday, however, she saw the little boy and his sister playing in the yard. She asked if they would like to go with her to Sunday School the next day. As much from curiosity as anything else, they decided to go. And their exhausted mother gave permission. It would give her a bit of a break.

With whatever flaws there may have been in that little church, it opened up a whole new world to those two children. For the first time ever, they heard names such as Noah and Moses. They read Scripture and learned the story of Jesus of Nazareth. They saw people who cared about each other and whose lives were somehow different. It made an impression. They accepted Christ in that little community of faith. They were baptized there. They grew up there.

College, time in the U.S. Army, marriage, children - all these came in time to that little boy. Success in business has allowed him to bless many good works with generous gifts. He has been a faithful teacher and occasional preacher of the Good News. He has even had opportunities to teach in several foreign countries. He and his wife have taken in a number of foster children. Some of the more recent ones have been unwed mothers. Shades of his own childhood!

But Jack told me the story with less concern about the little boy who became a godly man than to speak of that woman across the street from a family without a father. She noticed and cared. Without benefit of psychology or training in Christian ministry, she did something that most of us might have thought was inconsequential. She cared enough to invite them to Sunday School. There they found their real father - the Father of their Spirits, who gave them a new life.

Jack knows the details of the story well, for he was that little boy. And he loves to tell the story of Kathleen Callen's invitation to Sunday School that day. He hopes that it might encourage someone else to do something, say something, or give something that could make a difference in another person's life.

Things that look small are often the things that make all the difference.

The Whisper Zone - No Right to Speak Out

Why We're Losing Our Right To Speak Out, by Chuck Colson, here .

David Woodard is a political science professor at Clemson University—one who has first-hand experience on how dangerous it can be to speak out in favor of traditional values: He almost lost his job over it.

In 1993, Woodard was asked to testify about the political power of homosexual groups in American life. He agreed to serve as an expert witness for the state of Colorado, which was fighting to defend the recently passed Amendment Two, which made it illegal to give protected status based on sexual orientation.

In his new book, Why We Whisper: Restoring Our Right to Say It’s Wrong, co-authored by my friend, the able South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, Woodward writes, “In that one decision, I unexpectedly jeopardized my academic career and entered . . . into the fiercest battle of the emergent culture wars.”

To publicly oppose the campaign for same-sex “marriage” and gay rights was, he writes, “the equivalent to being sent to the university Gulag.” He was denied an administrative position on the grounds that he was “ideologically incompatible” with the values of the university. He often found the word homophobe scribbled on his office door. The press viciously attacked him for his views.

But in private, Woodard was hearing a different message. People would call to whisper encouragement. So did parents and university staffers. Some students came into his office, carefully closed the door, and whispered their support. “The one thing they all had in common is that they were all scared, and they all spoke in whispers,” Woodward writes.

Homosexuality is not the only issue Americans can no longer speak freely about: Speaking up in support of any traditional belief will earn you attacks from secular elites. “Whether individual, parent, church, or business, Americans holding traditional values are trapped in a ‘whisper zone’,” Woodward and DeMint write, “surrounded by invisible electric fences that threaten to ‘shock’ them if they cross unmarked legal lines.”

This can come sometimes in the form of ridicule and intimidation—sometimes with lawsuits, as we at Prison Fellowship know so painfully well after three years of fighting Americans United over our successful prison program in Iowa. All too often, secularist judges and legislators have thrown the power of the law behind their views—making it ever harder to speak out for traditional positions. 

But as Woodard and DeMint point out, “historically, freedom of speech is crucial in any democracy.” They note that our founders understood that the ability to express our differences publicly was democracy’s substitute for violence.

Democracy is—by definition—a conversation about what is good and what is right and wrong; what is fair to all. “The demise of good government comes when this conversation is abbreviated, as we believe it has been,” Woodard and DeMint write. The result: We are now suffering from, as John Stuart Mill put it, the “tyranny of prevailing opinion.”

“The continued decline of America’s moral life,” Woodard and DeMint say, “will prove fatal to our society.”

I agree, and that is why you need to become informed about biblical worldview and about the so-called culture wars. And a good place to start is with DeMint and Woodard’s book, Why We Whisper. Learn more about how and why we are losing our right to speak freely. And then—speak up! Loud and clear.

This is part one of a two-part series.

"A Tact Attack"

                                         (Image from canjo.net)

From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life" today:

My wife tells me I'm seriously deficient in the tact department.  I tend to be direct, clear and forthright.  (Those are my terms.)  She thinks I am inclined to err on the side of being a bit abrupt and blunt.  (At least, she fears that my candid manner can be perceived in those negative ways.)

Even so, I don't think I'm quite as bad as one fellow I heard about.  When Fred went to Europe, he left his beloved dog with his brother Ed.  Three days into his trip, Fred called back to check on things.  "So how is my dog?" he asked.

"He's dead!" replied Ed.  No nonsense.  Straight to the point.

"What?" screamed Fred.  "You can't just hit somebody with news like that!  You have to ease your way into it.  Lay a groundwork for it.  Use some tact."

"Explain what you mean," said his brother.

"Maybe you could have said something about Old Fido being up on the roof.  You reassure me you have it under control and that everything is going to be fine.  When I call the next day, maybe you could say he jumped off and broke his leg, but the vet said he would make a complete recovery.  He's just going to have to spend a few days in the clinic," he explained.  "Are you following me?"

"Sure," said Ed.  "I'm not stupid, you know!"

"Okay," Fred continued..  "When I call back the next day, you could say there were complications and that my dog had died.  That way it wouldn't be such a blow.  That way you could have gotten me ready for bad news.  Understand?"

"Yes, I've got it," Ed told him.  "I'll try to do better from now on."

"Good," said Fred.  I'm glad that's settled.  So how's Aunt Helen?"

"Well," Ed began hesitantly, "she's out on the roof right now."

Some news is hard to receive or to communicate.  Some facts are simply unpleasant.  And all of us need a couple of friends who care enough about us to be really and truly honest with us - and to hold us accountable.  Like Fred, though, all of us would appreciate a modicum of tact and gentleness thrown in.

If you're struggling today with unpleasant or painful truth that needs to be shared, you are not doing anyone a favor by avoiding the task.  But think before you speak.  Don't use a cover such as "brutal honesty" to mask what everyone else will see as "honest brutality."  No swatting the fly on a friend's forehead with a meat cleaver!  Think and pray before you speak.  Then speak with gentleness.

Solomon had it right.  "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses."  (Proverbs 27:6)  Nobody benefits from false flattery.  Being a "yes man" (or woman) to a person who needs accountability and loving criticism is a sophistry that will come back to haunt you.

Be kind and have the right motive.  But care enough to speak the truth.

(See Rubel Shelly's weekly "The FAX of Life" at www.RubelShelly.com.)

Treating Only Symptoms

             (Image from pages.frederick.com)

This from The FAX of Life by Rubel Shelly:

Physicians are trained to trace symptoms to their root causes.  Then it is the root cause - not just a presenting symptom - that gets treated.  We can all be grateful for that.  What would happen, for example, if headaches simply got aspirin and belly aches got antacids without further tests?

The obvious answer is that many people would die from the serious underlying diseases behind their relatively minor aymptoms.  Symptoms are like the red lights that appear on the instrument panel of your car.  Don't smash the annoying light.  Change the oil or find out why the engine is overheating.  To focus on the symptoms rather than what is behind them just isn't very bright.

Without wanting to be unkind, let me try to be clear.  We human beings aren't terribly responsible when it comes to the basics of living.  Forget belly aches for a minute.  Let's talk about financial responsibility, intact families, or spiritual life.  Are we treating symptoms or addressing root issues?

A single mom with two children explained why she needed a vacation with her girlfriends.  "I'm so stressed out about money!" she said.  "My credit care is maxed out, and I am a month behind on my rent.  I've just got to have a break."  My suggestion was that she forget the vacation, put the money she had saved for it to catch up on her rent, and start paying down her credit card by taking a sandwich to work rather than eating lunch at restaurants.

Her problem wasn't stress.  It was debt - needless, inexcusable debt that she could take steps to eliminate.  She took the advice.  She tells me I was a real friend to her by insisting she treat the disease rather than the symptom.

It's not so different with trouble in a marriage or one's spiritual life.  "We're not happy and don't laugh like we used to.  Maybe we should take a trip together - a second honeymoon, so to speak, and reconnect."  No.  Find a competent counselor both of you trust, get honest about the things that have broken down, and do your part to try to rebuild the relationship.  Get to the root of things.

It's a bit like the fellow who kept telling me he couldn't pray, didn't like to read the Bible, and hated going to church.  I knew enough of what was going on to ask the right questions.  So he finally started coming clean about the affair and the drugs.  It was the beginning of the healing of his spiritual life.  He quit talking about trouble praying and not liking church and faced up to an out-of-control life.

Symptome are helpful things.  They let us know something isn't working right and invite us to seek the cause.  Then, with the real issues taken care of, it's amazing how quickly the symptoms resolve.

(The RAX of Life is available weekly from www.rubelshelly.com.)

Hillary to Drop Out of Race

                                    (Image from news.filefront.com)

No she's not!  April Fool's!  Gotcha, didn't I?

Over the years, there have been millions of April Fool's Day Hoaxes.  Rubel Shelley brings us some of the best efforts, below,  from the last 150 years.

Today is a day to be on your toes.  It's April Fools' Day - or April Fool's Day or April Fools Day, depending on your choice of spelling.  Believe me, I'll be especially careful.  I work with a guy who celebrates if 365 days a year.  And on this "official day" of pranksterism, he stands to be at his rascally worst.

One of the most famous of all April 1 hoaxes was pulled off in stiff-upper-lip England, no less.  A respected newscaster, Richard Dimbleby, reported on the TV news program Panorama that an early spaghetti harvest was under way in Switzerland.  He explained about an early spring and rambled on about the dangers of the spaghetti weevil.  The story was accompanied by photographs of happy Swiss villagers pulling the delicate strands off trees.

Think nobody could take such things seriously?  Think that no one gets fooled by hoaxers?  The BBC switchboard was jammed on that day in 1957 with hundreds of callers wanting to know more.  Many wanted information on where to buy plants so they could grow their own spaghetti.  "Many British enthusiasts," producer Michael Peacock is reported to have told them, "have had admirable results from planting a small tin of spaghetti in tomato sauce."

Just reading about some of the classic pranks pulled on a gullible public - not all of which were April Fools' Day events - generates giggles.

• Showman P.T. Barnum used to pack people in to see the 161-year-old former nurse of George Washington.
• The New York Sun published articles back in 1835 about the discovery of life on the moon - describing bixon, unicorns and other creatures
• Orson Wells' "War of the Worlds" caused panic across America in 1938 when CBS broadcast his story of an invasion from Mars.
• You can still find photos and occasional offers to sell jackalopes - a cross between killer rabbits and pygmy deer.
• Physicist Alan Sokal wrote a jargon-heavy piece of sheer nonsense in 1996 arguing that gravity was a fiction created for social-linguistic purposes - and actually got it published in a Duke University journal.

Yep, it all makes you wonder about our critical thinking skills.  It also has to make all of us wonder how much drivel we are being fed about our climate, political prospects, human origina, and/or cures for sale.  And we haven't even raised the matter of the hoaxes perpetrated in the name of religion.

So be on your toes today.  But spend a little time trying to get ahead of the curve in your workplace.  "A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face; a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day." (Proverbs 15:13 MSG)

(For back issues of "The FAX of Life, visit www.RubelShelly.com)

What We Do Vs. Who We Are

    Former N.Y. Gov. Elliot Spitzer

    (Image from prblognews.com)

Public Figures and Not-So-Private Failings, 3-17-08, by guest blogger Rubel Shelly

The news stories come at a non-stop pace.  It's a baseball player called before Congress.  Then comes a big city mayor exposed for lying and infidelity.  Next is more bezarre behavior and rehab for a music star.  Now a governor steps down because of money-juggling to cover liaisons with a prostitute.

There will be more.  Count on it.  And one of the most common and off-putting responses we will hear in every case is this.  What so-and-so does in private has nothing to do with his or her public abilities.

At one level, that's right.  The ability to paint the corner of the plate with a fastball, belt out a mesmerizing concern, draw business to the state - all these abilities exist independently of dumb, criminal or evil things somebody does.  For a time anyway.  Until the next temptation or blackmail based on the last gaffe.

At a much deeper level, however, the connection between personal ethics and public persona is apparent.  If he will lie to and cheat on his wife, he is not trustworthy in anything he promises us.  If she is out of control, she is on the way to self-destruction and is going to take others down too.  And there are not enough laws or enforcement agents to make things work right.

Have we really come to a point in human history where results, advantage and effectiveness trump character - or the lack of it?  Will we tolerate anybody and anything that turns a profit - without regard to the harm done to others?

If this sounds like a diatribe against corrupt politicians, celebrities who muddy kids minds, and athletes who sully the legitimacy of sport, it is.  But it's the smaller part.  The much larger point is to remind all us moms, bosses and teachers that we are more than our jobs.  Who we are is at the heart of what we do.  Character either legitimates or undermines everything we claim to value.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "By their fruit you will recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." (Matthew 7:16-18)

To be an honorable human being is to be decent in the dark as well as before the cameras.  It is everyone's challenge these days..

(See related post, "Character Trumps Talent, Sooner or Later", here, Chapter 15 from "Up and Out: A Guide to True "Compassion for the Poor.")

Rubel  Shelly's free weekly email, "FAX of Life" is available from www.RubelShelly.com.

Injuring the Truth

                    Child Victims of the Holocaust

                           (Image from ushmm.org)

Some Christians believe that obeying God's commandments is mere "legalism," not really needed.  That approaches blasphemy.  While obeying God's commandments cannot save us, God does expect our obedience.  This is about breaking that one commandment that probably gets broken more often than any of the other nine, with little or no concern.

Today's Guest Blogger, Rubel Shelly, writes today in his latest newsletter, The FAX of Life, that the consequences are bigger than we imagine..

How Falsehoods Diminish Truth

The story is absolutely mesmerizing!  It is a touching tale from the years of the Holocaust.  A little Jewish girl from Belgium makes her way across Europe to search for her Nazi-deported parents.  She is able to escape capture herself only by taking refuge with packs of friendly wolves.  In the course of her incredible escape, she even kills a German soldire.

This multi-layered account of Nazi cruelty, childhood innocence, and unlikely rescue was published as Mishna: A Memoire of the Holocaust years.  It generated millions of dollars in revenue and was translated into 16 languages.  A French movie from the book has been a hit during its current run.

Then came the confession through her lawyer last Thursday that Misha Defonseca's dramatic story is a shameful lie.

Defonseca spent the war years in safety in Belgium.  Despite her moving speeches about experiences that led to her bestselling book, we know now that she made up the stories about wolves and Nazis.  She isn't even Jewish.

Scholars had challenged a garble of dates, events and information in the book.  But their research largely fell on deaf ears, as the public received the book with eagerness.  Now the house of cards has collapsed.

People who misrepresent significant realities with trumped-up, self-serving false claims actually manage to tarnish the truth.  In the words of Dr. Lawrence Langer, one of the scholars who knew all along that it was a hoax, "What happened to the Jews was the worst atrocity in history; and people who exploit it for profit, by posing as Jews or lying about being part of the experience, insult those who went through it.  It's as bad as saying the Holocaust never happened."

The gruesome facts of the Holocaust don't change; a woman's misrepresentation of her experiences related to that event minimizes it, however, and gives comfort to Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites.  Neither do the facts of Christ's resurrection and the life-changing power of the gospel change; people who misrepresent themselves as its messengers or devotees tarnish the Christian faith, discredit Jesus of Nazareth and decrease the likelihood that unbvelievers would consider - much less embrace - it.

Sleazy televangelists, gay-bashers at military funerals, priests who molest chidren, church-member moms and dads who betray families, Sunday school teachers who bully or curse employees at work - all are agents of betrayal.  They sabotage the gospel, undermine Christ's appeal, and make faith unattractive.

Truth's credibility is always tied to the integrity of its messengers.

The Britney Spears in Your Life

                    (Image from newsday.com)

This from Guest Blogger Rubel Shelly at "Fax of LIfe."

This isn't a piling-on piece about Britney Spears out-of-control life.  She has enough people alternately diagnosing and dismissing her.  Even as the TV newscasters tell about the latest bout in court, the most recent episode of partying, or intruduce the latest censored photo, they tend to roll their eyes.  She generates a lot of tongue-clucking these days.  She just seems hopeless.

Ah, but that's the point.  Or, at any rate, it is the beginning of a point somebody needs to make about the latest young celebrity on a path to self-destruction.  Is there nobody who cares about her?  Will nobody risk telling her the truth?  Doesn't anybody love her enough to throw her a lifeline?

Practically everybody has a Britney Spears in her life.  There is a friend or family member, a colleague at work or a member of her church whose life is clearly spinning sideways on a sheet of ice and about to crash.

It's a younger brother who has been experimenting with drugs - while racking up a couple of DUIs along the way.

It's a brother-in-law who has left his wife and their two children to live with someone half his age.

It's a friend who has four or five credit cards maxed out from shopping binges and whose idea of solving the problem is to get another card.

It's the deacon who was arrested a few weeks ago for stealing a computer from his company - and whose absence from church has not been mentioned.

It's the person in your office who used to be cheerful and dependable but who has missed a lot of work lately - and whose presence complicates life for everyone.

See what I mean now?  My point is not to moralize about or to pass another sanctimonious judgement on Ms. Spears.  It is to look in from the perspective you and I share to wish somebody would reach out to her.  Maybe there are people who really care about her.  Maybe they have tried.  And maybe she has rebuffed them all.  That happens sometimes!  More often than not, though, people crash and burn because the people around them look away.

Alcoholics, philanderers, religious bigots, incorrigible gamblers, clinically depressed people, tax cheats - the list just goes on and on.  People have life issues that have them by the throats.  It will likely take a professional to help them dig out.  But somebody who is close to and credible with them has to take the first step to intervene.  Get in his face.  Let her know how serious things are.

You don't know Britney Spears?  Don't think you can help her?  Okay.  But what abou the person you do know who is on a similar path?  You may be that soul's best hope of recovery from a nose-dive into oblivion.

Even if you make the effort, there are no guarantees - except that major problems don't solve themselves.  If the shoe were on the other foot, wouldn't you want someone to reach a hand to you?

(Rubel Shelly's devotionals are available at www.rubelshelly.com )

A Small Light in Great Darkness

                              (Image from sxc.hu)

From Rubel Shelly's "Fax of Life":for 2-11-08:

Whei I was a boy of about ten, my mother and father took me to Carlsbad Caverns.  I still remember the gigantic stalagmites and stalactites.  I can almost feel the cold of being deep inside the earth on a hot summer day.  But my most vivid memory is of the moment our guide had all of us find a place to sit down and - after warning of what was about to happen - turned off all the electric lights that had been put inside the dark belly of the earth.

I felt like I was tumbling head over heels.  My heart raced.  With one hand I grasped the rock ledge on which I was sitting and with the other reached for my father.  Fortunately, the tour guide didn't allow it to last long.  He turned on his flashlight.  And it looked as bright as a million candle-power searchlight!

An ordinary flashlight that costs $3.00, complete with batteries, can push back the encompassing, frighteninig darkness of Carlsbad Caverns.  A beam that would be hardly noticeable at ground level on a sunny day looks like a laser in deep darkness.  As soon as it appeared, my stomach gave up its tumbling sensation.  My lunch became stable again.

I could see my parents' faces in outline again and knew I wasn't alone.  I sensed that the single light in our guide's hand heralded the return of the lights which had guided us perviously and whose presence we had taken for granted.

When God created Planet Earth for our habitation, he came onto a scene that was formless and dark.  He pushed back the darkness with light, then set about to bring order to chaos.  It takes light for life to survive and thive.

When Jesus was re-creating the human race and restoring hope to despairing people, he came onto a scene made formless and dark again.  This darkness had come by human rebellion against his Father and humanity's inhumanity to its own.  In his birth, teaching, lifestyle and personal victory over death in the resurrection, he pushesd back the darkness with the light of heaven's bright glory.  To use John's language, Jesus was the light shining into our darkness; the darkness could not conquer the light he brought.

If you ever feel the head-over-heels sensation that comes of being in the deep darkness, look in his direction.  Jesus is still the Light of the World.  And it is only in the presence of light that yu can live, grow and flourish.

"I am the world's light," Jesus said.  "No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness.  I provide plenty of light to live in."  (John 8:12 MSG)

("FAX of Life" is a free email that can be ordered at gbciii@aol.com, or viewed at www.rubelshelly.com.)

Lumping Christian & Muslim Fundamentalists Together

                   (Image from timesonline.co.uk)

Guest blogger David Trawick asks this question.  Here is his answer.  (Pastor of Northwest Hills UM Church in San Antonio TX, he writes perceptively on important issues.)

The problem isn't fundamentalism, but fundamentalist Islam.

In articles on acts of Islamist terror, we often read the side-comment that "Fundamentalism is found in religions other than Islam."  Certainly that's true.  But I suspect the comment is a not-so-subtle slap at fundamentalist Christians, suggesting that they and fundamentalist Muslims are similarly dangerous and distasteful.

I'm not a fundamentalist Christian, but I have to ask: is this lumping together of Christian and Muslim fundamentalists warranted?

Certainly, fundamentalists of all religions have clear, strong opinions about truth and falsehood, right and wrong.  They are often publicly vocal about their beliefs.   

Fundamentalist Christians (and others) often connect their faith and politics.  (There is a conatitutional separation of church and state, but not of faith and politics.)

But where do we see fundamentalist Christians waging violent jihad against those who disagree with them?  Where have they passed a law requiring everyone to believe and worship the way they do?  Where do they imprison people for practicing other faiths?  Where do they execute non-Christians who proselytize?

Have fundamentalist Christians outlawed possessing, buying, selling, or giving away copies of non-Christian scriptures?  When was the last time you heard of a school teacher being imprisoned because his or her students named a Teddy bear "Jesus?" 

These things only happen in lands dominated by fundamentalist Muslims.

Have you ever wondered why?  Because a literal reading of Islamic scriptures directly leads to those conclusions.

Numerous passages in the Kuran call for violence toward people of other faiths.  Some passages explicitly name Jews and Christians as the enemy.  The Quran doesn't supply any historical context for those commands.  So they are read by fundamentalist Muslims as commands from Allah for all times.

In the earliest traditions of Mohammed's life, there are numerous stories of violent jihad against non-Muslims and brutal assassinations of vocal critics of the prophet.  Historically, Islam has been spread by the sword.  It makes sense that the fundamentalist Muslim would continue that practice. 

True moderate Muslims face a very difficult situation.  A few are honest and brave enough to say, "We must go beyond the Quran.  That was for then, not for now."  They risk their lives for saying that publicly, as the Quean is particularly harsh in calling for jihad against those who leave Islam, as fundamentalists say moderates have. 

Nothing like that exists in Christianity.  It is true that the Bible contains descriptions of violence, murders and wars.   But these passages are in specific historic context and never given as divine commands for all times.  These passages can be used to justify violence today only if yanked from their literary and historical contexts.

In past centuries, when "Christian Nations" did violence, they made very little appeal to the Bible to justify it.  What appeal they did make violated the Bible itself. 

The worst that might be said of today's Christian fundamentalists is that some are narrow-minded, judgemental and condemning of those with different opinions.  At that, they betray the character of the Jesus they claim to serve. 

In a fascinating twist, writers who lump together fundamentalist Christians and Muslims sometimes show that very same narrow-mindedness, judgementalism and condemnation. 

Are they, therefore, liberal fundamentalists?

When The Ads Become The Story

                                  Eli Manning, Super Bowl 2008 MVP

                                           (Image from newsday.com)

(From Guest Blogger Rubel Shelly, 2-4-08, writing at FAX of Life, www.rubelshelly.com.)

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday.  As usual, however, the game was always in danger of being overshadowed by the ads.  There were Clydesdales working to make their team, a baseball diamond following Derek Jeter, multiple examples of how sex sells, and special effects that made the impossible happen.

The Patriots were going for a perfect 19-0 season, the Giants were going for credibility.  Tom Brady was shooting for a fourth ring, Eli Manning was hoping for his first.  There was potent offense and stifling defense.  It was serious football on the big stage - the game every football fan waits for from one season to the next.  And then there were the ads.

Some were real dogs.  They just didn't meausre up in terms of creativity, special effects, or impact.  A few were so bad that they will be memorable only for the embarrassment today's reviews will cause the people who paid for them.  It is a bit like the way life works for all of us the other 364 days of the year.

Many a store or product line has lost customers for something that had nothing to do with availability or quality.  Someone who answered the phone was rude or didn't take a request seriously.  A clerk was more interested in a personal conversation than the rushed customer.  Fortunately, it works the other way too.

A cheerful voice, a clerk who is helpful, someone who actually remedies a problem for an unhappy or angry person - and a first-time or occasional customer becomes both a regular and someone who tells others.

Then we get around to the things that really matter.  Have you seen those angry titles of books bashing God?  They proclaim that God isn't really all that good after all.  Perhaps he is nothing more than a delusion.  And maybe it is time for people to move on - and move away - from religion altogether.

I've read the books and talked with people who think that way.  Most have been distracted from the real issue (God) by a really bad "ad" (a believer) they've seen.  He was sexist.  She was homophobic.  They were big church-goers who didn't have a clue about being good neighbors or simply kind people

And yes, it works the other way too.  Many a life has been rescued by a godly grandmother who keeps on loving when everybody else turns away or a coach who cares more about the kids than their games.  They were neither brash nor pushy.  They were simply there.  They cared.  And they looked a lot like Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is about the big themes of eternity and redemption, history and purpose, freedom and choice.  But the game is always in danger of being upstaged - or, in some cases, sabotaged - by the "ads" surrounding it.

You and I are the story for many people.  Let's try not to blow it.

A New Year's Prayer

                   (Image from thehurricanwatch.files.wordpress.com)

Holy God of Heaven and Earth,

I know that a thousand years are as a day to you, but we humans are bound up in time.  As a new year is beginning, please teach me to....

-care more about people and less about money.

-enjoy my work but not let it enslave me,

-and laugh more easily than I did last year.

As I get ready for 2008, help me to remember things that are easy to forget....

-that it might well be my last year,

-that some people are counting on me,

-and that you have things for me to do.

Lord, with the things I have accumulated over the years, please let me....

-shake off the monotony of life,

-try some new things in this new year,

-and mend some broken fences.

And, Father of Mercies, please teach me in this new and unspoiled year to....

-lighten up and enjoy children, sunsets, reading and long walks,

-avoid quarrels and work at being a peacemaker in this world.

-and start next year with fewer regrets than I bring to 2008.

I cannot know what this year will bring, and I am grateful for that!  But help me....

-eat less junk food.

-exercise and take better care of my body,

-and learn to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Above all other things, Father, I want to be your instrument for....

-easing some body's too-heavy load,

-relieving some sad person's misery,

-and introducing some lost soul to Jesus.

Come what may in the year about to begin, may we live it for your glory, within your wall, and to your delight.

We pray in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

(From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life" at www.rubelshelly.com )

Christmas Teaches Skepticism Toward the World

                                     (Image from artprints.com)

Guest Blogger Rubel Shelly writes about What Christmas Teaches:

There is a wonderful line from the American scholar Stephen L. Carter that is appropriate to the Christmas season:  "Religion is, at its heart, a way of denying the rest of the world."  He is surely, astutely and gloriously correct

Faith's view of this world is strangely skeptical.  No, more than that.  It is a posture of unequivocal distrust leading to rejection!  When the world recites its mantras - you matter only if you are beautiful, the most important thing is money, winning is everything, Look Out for Number One - faith protests them all.  It adopts a posture of doubt and incredulity.  It lives in skepticism and disbelief.

I refuse to believe that selfishness is acceptable or that it is permissible to resent another's good fortune. I will not swallow the world's way of thinkng in order to justify prejudice, aggression, and hatred.  No believer can be anything but incredulous about the claim of this world that she is entitled to anything she can get her hands on or that he should feel no guilt about exploiting others.

So distrust the alleged certainties of sense that cancel the mysteries of faith.  Dispute the tendency of the masses to look forward only for the sake of declaring the impossibility of living with hope.  Deny altogether the inevitability of such greed, hatred and violence that we cannot prove the reality of love.

The Bible warns against being blinded by this world and speaks of the danger of the blind leading the blind.  That warning puts us on notice that things, people, and ways of thinking totally rooted in the finite world of time, space and matter will keep us from discovering, experiencing, and delighting in the greater realities of God, spirit and eternity that can only be known by faith.

Faith isn't self-deception.  It is neither wish-projection nor wishful thinknig.  It is our willingness to hear and stand with the things God has shown us through events and people as awe-inspiring as a trembling, smoking mountain in the desert and as modest as a baby's first cry in the village of Bethlehem.

So let Christmas deny the hold of this world on your heart.  Let it open your eyes to what the willfully blind will never see, your ears to things the incorrigibly deaf can never hear.  See Immanual - and know God is with us.  Hear the song of angels - and receive God's peace given to anxious hearts.  Hold the confusion, cynicism, and antagonisms of this troubled world suspect - and choose God's reign as your way of affirming the true realities. 

Merry Christmas to all!

(Rubel Shelly's free weekly newsletter can be requrested at www.rubelshelly.com or GBCIII@aol.com.)

Grownup Memories of a Nuns' Home

                      (Image from geocities.com)

From Guest Blogger Norman Hoonan's email response to the post juet below this one, "Stranded in the Snow in a Car:"

"Your story about the snow and things of long ago reminded me of another time in my life.  The following letter was written on the eve of my retirement from the United States Air Force.  This letter was the genesis of what resulted in a reunion of hundreds that passed through the gates of St. Vincent's Home..".

October 1982

Vandenberg AFB, CA

Dear Sister,

It has been many years since I last saw you and as I approach my forty-third birthday I cannot help but think that all of my life you have been dedicated to a cause…a cause that I was but a small part…a cause that gave me my values…a cause that can only be repaid in heaven.

Reading your story, “They’re All Of My Children”, in the Fall River Herald News has brought back many a memory.  As I read I could not hold back the tears that swelled up inside me…tears of joy…tears of hope…tears of wanting; wanting to say I love you.

All those years at St. Vincent’s Home and I never said, “I love you.”  Well I want you to know that I have never forgotten you or St.Vincent’s Home, and I could never be thankful enough for the love and dedication you and the other sisters have bestowed upon me.

It was in September of 1945 when I first arrived at Saint Vincent’s and I departed in June of 1954.  I visited you only once since that time…1958 or 1959, I’m not sure.  It was sometime after you made a trip to Washington, D.C., in which I confirmed having seen you across the street.  I’ve always regretted that moment of not having made the extra effort to change my direction and at least have said, “Hello.”

You know ever since that time, when ever I see a RSM in my travels I at least stop to say hello.  I think the last time was in St. Louis, Missouri; however it was the RSM who spoke first.  She said to me, “Do you think you know someone?”  I said, “I was staring across the bus station when I recognized that familiar habit (which is no more) and just had to approach you, perchance you may be from St. Vincent’s.”

All those years have passed but I want you to know the memories of St. Vincent’s have been with me in times of crisis, loneliness, and love.

I remember when I first joined the U. S. Air Force and the discipline those “TI’s” tried to instill in me could not approach the cause and effect results that I received at St. Vincent’s.  Whenever the going got rough, I just pictured that “TI” in a nun’s habit, and everything was just OK.

I remember when I studied in school about far away places that little did I know that someday I would visit such places.  It was in the fifth or sixth grade (Sister Mary Bridgetta) that I first learned of the boat people in Aberdeem Fishing Village in Hong Kong, China.  When in 1968 I was dining on a floating restaurant, observing the boat people as I was quietly saying my grace (I still do you know, before every meal), I recalled where I first learned of such extraordinary people.

I remember the loneliness of Christmas when I was driving across the upper peninsula of Michigan in 1970.  Across all that vast emptiness of the winter snow, I felt a yearning that I once experienced at St. Vincent’s.  The yearning and waiting (in the snow) for a visit from my dad at Christmas time.  And all of the Christmases at St. Vincent’s…the Knight’s of Columbus Christmas parties, the AMVETS Christmas parties, and all the wonderful times we had then.  Back then, Christmas was Christmas.

I remember when I received only one toy…a wooden duck on wheels that would quack, quack when pulled along.  And, when I cried because someone broke my duck.  When I look at my own children today, spoiled with all kinds of toys and not caring as I did for my duck, it makes me realize how important it is to shower your children with love and not toys.

Whenever and wherever I travel throughout the world, people always talk about the various foods; especially the bread!  Well nobody, I mean nobody, could ever make bread like Sister Mary Regis.  I’ve had bread in Sicily, Germany, Thailand, and just about everywhere and always I remember, Sister Regis made the best…crisp hard crust with soft white center that would melt in your mouth.

I  read that you lost your book of names during the move from North Main Street.  I’m Not sure I can remember them all but a few that come to mind are: Emile (Emo), Paul, and Ronnie Duclos, Frankie Nicholson, Armand Huard, Billie Oznick, Kenneth and Jo-Jo Brocheau, Richard (Roxie) Walker and brothers Billie and Joseph, Peter, Dan, and Charles Leary, Richard and Norman Mello, Billie Dennis (I think he had a brother also.), and now my memory is slipping.  Where are they now?  I know Joe Walker drowned in an unfortunate accident and he is remembered in my prayers.  But the others are remembered to…

I suppose that I was the only one from my year group at St. Vincent’s to go to Vietnam during that unfortunate crisis, but I would like to know what happened to the rest of my classmates.  It would be nice to have some kind of reunion someday.

Before I close this letter I want you to know the training and discipline that I received at St. Vincent’s has been with me all of my adult life…it will never leave me.  I, even still, say my prayers each night before I fall to sleep.  To some people that’s no big deal, but I still have to remind my children to do so.  In fact, just raising a family is a big job for my wife and me and I often wondered how you could manage with twenty or thirty children when I have my hands full with just three.

My most sincere love,

Norman Hooben

(Norman adds that "the nun who is the subject of the commentary is Sister Mary Monice.  She is now in a home for elderly nuns and sits quietly in her wheelchair remembering all her children."  www.normanhooben.blogspot.com)

Stranded in a Car in the Snow

                   (Image from edalemountainrescue.co.uk)

This from Guest Blogger Deb Spaulding:

Hebrews 13:2 (NIV):"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it."

What is it like to entertain a stranger, to help someone you do not know?  Have you ever received an extravagant gift of hospitality?

Long before seat belts and mini-vans, Daddy would load our luggage into the trunk of our 1962 Chevy, and off we would go to grandmother's for Christmas.  On the way we would sing along with Bing Crosby and Elvis Presley on the radio, and watch for the North Star to appear.

One such Christmas Eve, we were caught in what seemed to be a blizzard.  Gusts blew snow all over our windows, and over everything I could see, barely, through the back window.  I had just dozed off when Dad pulled over to the side of the road.  Startled, I sat up suddenly, wondering what was going on.  A young woman was standing at the edge of the highway, her car wedged in the snow bank.

Shivering in the cold, she hoped someone might stop to help.  My parents agreed to take her back home, wherever that was.  We turned the car around and headed back toward the city.  It was way out of our way, but we were far more concerned about the woman riding in the front seat of our Chevrolet.  I will never forget the look on her face as she sat warming up in the passenger seat.  She said "Thank you" over and over. 

We dropped her off in front of her two-story flat.  My Dad carried her luggage to the front door and waited to see her safely inside.  We never saw her again.

It was very late when we arrived at our grandparent's home.  But we knew that someone who once was lost had now been found.

Is there a stranger stranded along your highway?  Maybe there is something you can do to help them get home.  The best gift you ever receive is the gift you give away.

Deb Spaulding, Faith UMC, St. Charles, MO, www.songofdeborah.com.

"God's LIttle Cowboy"

(Click on "Play" arrow-button at bottom-left of screen to play video.)

From Guest Blogger Storm'n Norm'n Hooben, here:

"Logan is a 13 year-old boy who lives on a ranch in a very small town in Nebraska. Logan listens to Christian Radio station 89.3FM KSBJ which broadcasts from Houston, TX. Logan called the radio station distraught because he had to take down a calf . His words have wisdom beyond his years. "

It was a hard, painful situation for anyone, let alone a 13 year old boy.  But how he handles it is tremendously inspiring.  If you can keep your eyes dry while listening, you will do better than I did.

They Are Expecting You

                                (Image from neatorama.cachefly.net)

Rubel Shelly, guest blogger today, writes:

It was a Sunday morning.  A bright and perky mom went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get up, eat a bite of breakfast, and get dressed for church.  "I'm not going!" he announced.  There was a sullen tone in his voice.

"Hold on, young man!" she replied.  "You know the Sunday routine in this house.  Why don't you want to go to church today?"

"I'll give you two perfectly good reasons," he said.  "First, nobody likes me down at that church.  And second, I don't like them either."

Rather than get exasperated with her boy, the wise mother sat down on the side of his bed.  Rubbing his back very gently, she spoke in her most tender and comforting voice.  "Now, sweetheart, you know you shouldn't feel that way," she began.  "But let me give you two good reasons why you just must get out of bed and go with us.  First, you're 47 years old.  And second, you're the pastor."

Okay.  It's an old story you've heard before.  But it is marvelously adaptable.  It can be Monday mornnig, the people in that office, and their boss.  Or Wednesday morning, the nurses at the clinic, and the doctor.  It even works for Friday morning, traffic court, and the judge.  The reason it is such a flexibla story that fits practically every work situation is that we all have those days or seasons.

When things are going well and everybody's happy with you, there is no problem getting up, going to work, and doing your job.  But things don't always go well.  And people aren't always happy with you.  What then?

Have you noticed how many things are cyclical?  A few good months of sales may be followed by a lean time for the company.  Or maybe it's the mortgage business when interest rates are at historic lows, then the Federal Reserve starts inching rates up again.  It even happens in family life.  There are seasons of health and joy and laughter that seem to vanish overnight in the wake of a heart attack or auto accident or angry exchange.  Does that mean the good times are gone forever?  That it is right just to throw in the towell?

The Bible speaks of a virtue called perserverance.  This noble trait is also known as holding on, staying steady at the task, and persistence.  It deserves more credit than it gets.  And it needs to be cultivated in everyone's character.

Somebody occasionally needs to remind us that tasks need doing because they are ours.  We've made commitments with consequences.  Others are depending on us.  Once we carry through, the outcome can be trusted to the faithfulness and mercy of God.

So what's on your agenda for today?

______

For back issues and other resources please visit www.RubelShelly.com

Where Is Your Church - and When?

         (Image from collegeparkbaptist.org)

Not only where is your church, but when is it? And what is it?  Rubel Shelly, guest blogger,  tells this story:

Dr. Halverson was chaplain of the United STates Senate for several years.  He would occasionally visit the seminary where Cook was a student.  After one of those visits to speak to students, he joined a group of them for coffee and made himself available for informal conversation.

"Dr. Halverson," began one of the seminarians, "where is your church?"  The student was asking about the street location of the Presbyterian Church Halverson served, but he got a deeper and more insightful answer.

"Well, it's three o'clock in Washington, D.C.  The church I pastor is all over the city right now.  It's driving buses, serving meals in restaurants, sitting in board meetings, having discussions in the Pentabon, deliberating in Congress."  He proceeded with a long list of roles and responsibilities where his church was functioning that day.  "And periodically we get together at a building on Fourth Street," he added, "but we don't spend a lot of our time there."

Then Rubel comments,

The pastor-chaplain was not naive with his answer.  He was brilliant.  And he had the clear intent to challenge a young would-be pastor to raise his sights above the Sunday event of the church as an assembly.  Or even church as programs and budgets and organization.

The church was never intended to be isolated from the world but to penetrate it as salt does food.  Jesus wants his people to be "in the world" but not "of the world" - functioning as light to dark places.

Thanks Rubel.  I needed that.  Maybe some others could use it too.

(Rubel Shelly's weekly FAX of Life can be emailed to you free.  Just email him at GBCIII@aol.com )

Eerie Color Photos of WWI and Czarist Russia

Did you know there was color photography back during WWI?  These amazing photos give an unexpected peek into the world your grandparents, great and great-great grandparents saw, almost 100 years ago.

These photos are so incredible that I have taken the liberty of posting the entire post from the phenomenal blog of Frank Warner at http://frankwarner.typepad.com/free_frank_warner/2007/10/1910-in-color-a.html.  Here then is Frank Warner, guest blogger.  (Click on photos for enlargements)

_______________

1910 in color: A peek into Russia before Communism

Did you see the Seriously Cool web site’€™s remarkable photographs of France in the First World War? The big surprise is that the pictures are in color.

To me, the photos are as if the Internet suddenly gave us a time-travel portal to major historical events. Color pictures of 1917. Who knew?

The photos are real, and they are not colorized. They were taken using an early color film process.

Tsarist empire. That same web site has even older color pictures of Russia, also stunning. These are around 1910, and they also give you the sense you’€™re seeing something you couldn’€™t possibly be seeing.

They’€™re Russia before World War I, before the Red Revolution overthrew Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918). The pictures show us some of Russia’€™s most beautiful churches and cathedrals, usually in the sunshine, often in the most idyllic settings. You wonder if this is old Russia, or the land of Oz.

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii took the pictures for the tsar.

There is graceful St. Nil Monastery, a study of blue on blue on Stolobnyi Island in Lake Seliger, northwest Russia. There is the ornate Cathedral of St. Nicholas, atop a green hill in rural Mozhaisk, Russia. There is a panoramic shot, with a depth of color, showing us the city of Tbilisi, Georgia, including the Metekhi Cliff on the Mtkvari River.

You can study these pictures and wonder what life was like that distant time in these remote locations. The scenes are so sunny and romantic it’€™s hard to imagine anyone could have been unhappy. Even color film can’€™t record unrest.

What were the Russians and Georgians of 1910 thinking on those green hills and under those blue skies? How many were stirring against the tsar? How many imagined a revolution or what would follow?

And just out of curiosity, what do these places look like today? Send postcards!

Frank Warner

Click here to see the rest of the color photos of 1910 Russia.

Click here to see the color pictures of the First World War.

____________

Thanks, Frank.  What a terrific post!

Did you see the Seriously Cool web site’€™s remarkable photographs of France in the First World War? The big surprise is that the pictures are in color.

To me, the photos are as if the Internet suddenly gave us a time-travel portal to major historical events. Color pictures of 1917. Who knew?

The photos are real, and they are not colorized. They were taken using an early color film process.

Tsarist empire. That same web site has even older color pictures of Russia, also stunning. These are around 1910, and they also give you the sense you’€™re seeing something you couldn’€™t possibly be seeing.

They’€™re Russia before World War I, before the Red Revolution overthrew Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918). The pictures show us some of Russia’€™s most beautiful churches and cathedrals, usually in the sunshine, often in the most idyllic settings. You wonder if this is old Russia, or the land of Oz.

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii took the pictures for the tsar.

There is graceful St. Nil Monastery, a study of blue on blue on Stolobnyi Island in Lake Seliger, northwest Russia. There is the ornate Cathedral of St. Nicholas, atop a green hill in rural Mozhaisk, Russia. There is a panoramic shot, with a depth of color, showing us the city of Tbilisi, Georgia, including the Metekhi Cliff on the Mtkvari River.

You can study these pictures and wonder what life was like that distant time in these remote locations. The scenes are so sunny and romantic it’€™s hard to imagine anyone could have been unhappy. Even color film can’€™t record unrest.

What were the Russians and Georgians of 1910 thinking on those green hills and under those blue skies? How many were stirring against the tsar? How many imagined a revolution or what would follow?

And just out of curiosity, what do these places look like today? Send postcards!

Frank Warner

Click here to see the rest of the color photos of 1910 Russia.

Click here to see the color pictures of the First World War.

____________

Thanks, Frank.  What a terrific post!

1910 in color: A peek into Russia before Communism

Did you see the Seriously Cool web site’€™s remarkable photographs of France in the First World War? The big surprise is that the pictures are in color.

To me, the photos are as if the Internet suddenly gave us a time-travel portal to major historical events. Color pictures of 1917. Who knew?

The photos are real, and they are not colorized. They were taken using an early color film process.

Tsarist empire. That same web site has even older color pictures of Russia, also stunning. These are around 1910, and they also give you the sense you’€™re seeing something you couldn’€™t possibly be seeing.

They’€™re Russia before World War I, before the Red Revolution overthrew Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918). The pictures show us some of Russia’€™s most beautiful churches and cathedrals, usually in the sunshine, often in the most idyllic settings. You wonder if this is old Russia, or the land of Oz.

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii took the pictures for the tsar.

There is graceful St. Nil Monastery, a study of blue on blue on Stolobnyi Island in Lake Seliger, northwest Russia. There is the ornate Cathedral of St. Nicholas, atop a green hill in rural Mozhaisk, Russia. There is a panoramic shot, with a depth of color, showing us the city of Tbilisi, Georgia, including the Metekhi Cliff on the Mtkvari River.

You can study these pictures and wonder what life was like that distant time in these remote locations. The scenes are so sunny and romantic it’€™s hard to imagine anyone could have been unhappy. Even color film can’€™t record unrest.

What were the Russians and Georgians of 1910 thinking on those green hills and under those blue skies? How many were stirring against the tsar? How many imagined a revolution or what would follow?

And just out of curiosity, what do these places look like today? Send postcards!

Frank Warner

Click here to see the rest of the color photos of 1910 Russia.

Click here to see the color pictures of the First World War.

____________

Thanks, Frank.  What a terrific post!

For All The Saints

For those who have forgotten, All Saints' Day is always the day after Halloween.  And to refresh our collective memory, Halloween was never meant to celebrate hobgoblins and monsters, but to fondly remember and commemorate our dead, those we love who have passed on.  So it was originally Hallowed Evening, contracted to Hallow e'en, then to Halloween.

Here then is Allan Bevere's short list of saints we should know about and learn from, here:

.Aimee Semple Mcpherson

Ambrose of Milan

Athanasius

Bernard of Clairvaux

Blaise Pascal

Brother Lawrence

Catherine of Siena

Charles Finney

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Wesley

Clement of Alexandria

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dorothy Sayers

Elizabeth Fry

Fanny Crosby

Francis Asbury

G. K. Chesterton

George Whitefield

Harriet Tubman

Hildegard of Bingen

Joan of Arc

John Calvin

John of Damascus

John Donne

John Huss

John Newton

John Wesley

Jonathan Edwards

Karl Barth

Martin Luther

Perpetua

Phoebe Palmer

Polycarp

Richard Allen

Sojourner Truth

Teresa of Avila

The Venerable Bede

Ulrich Zwingli

Walter Rauschenbusch

William Tyndale

Many, many thanks to Rev.  Allan Bevere for his labor in compiling and linking this list! See his excellent blog at www.arbevere.blogspot.com

What Our Soldiers Are Like

This photo is not about a soldier grieving for a fallen comrade.  Rather it is....

U.S. military police officer Brian Pacholski comforts his hometown friend and fellow officer David Borell, both from Toledo, Ohio, at the entrance of the military base in Balad, Iraq, about 30 miles northwest of Baghdad, on June 13. Borell broke down after seeing three Iraqi children who were brought to the base seeking medical help after they were injured while playing with and burning a powder that was inside a plastic bag near their farm.

These strong, tough men who break down when seeing an injured child ... how noble they are; how different from our enemy, who plant bombs on children.

From www.cheatseekingmissles.blogspot.com, with many thanks.  Photo from "A Soldier's Blog" at http://www.brandonblog.com/war-blog-96.html. 

Kipling Gets It Right

                                Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling

                                    (Image from twainquotes.com)

This is from Wolf Pangloss, here.  Tremendous for our day and this time.  Enjoy!

Kipling: The Gods of the Copybook Headings

October 24th, 2007

Copybooks were for handwriting practice, back in the days when handwriting mattered. A timeless gem of old wisdom was written at the top of the page in a beautiful hand, and the user of the book would copy it all the way down the page.

By 1919, when he wrote this poem, Kipling had lost his son in World War I. He had lost his faith, though he yearned for faith in something. As is clear from the language of the poem, mentioning “Social Progress,” the “brave new world,” “robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul,” the dangers of disarmament and immorality, and with the overall structure following the evolutionary narrative, the subject is the progressive movement that attempts to reduce human life to scientific, animalistic principles. The poem reminds the reader constantly that old wisdom is still wise and true even if we have lost faith in it, and the last line echoes the toll of the first two years of the Russian Revolution. For the reader in 2007, it echoes the 100 million death toll from Communism, the ultimate progressive movement for the scientific reformation of society and humanity. And it echoes in the toll of 40 million abortions in the United States since Roe vs. Wade. And finally, it echoes the threat of an even greater death toll from the Global Jihad, which in the worst case could end up with multiple American, European, and Muslim cities being attacked by nuclear weapons and a death toll better than half a billion souls.

To all of this, the God who inspired the copybook headings is the answer. Believe if you can believe. Keep trying if you can’t. Chin up old bean. Never give up. Never give in.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings
1919
Rudyard Kipling

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking