"Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools" – Albert Einstein
What's up with GOP politicians this week? First, Maine's GOP candidate for governor, Paul LePage tells a reporter that President Obama can "go to hell". Then, New York's GOP candidate for governor, Carl Paladino, threatens a reporter saying, "You send another goon to my daughter's house and I'll take you out, buddy." Is this a new GOP strategy? Call out somebody for a brawl in the street? Perhaps pay-per-view might want to consider adding a new feature for its fight-thirsty audience.
For quite some time, Republicans have been boasting of their success in tapping into voter anger, and look to make huge gains in this fall's elections as a result of that anger. Undoubtedly, GOP politicians like LePage and Paladino feel that exhibiting the 'angry tough guy' image will buoy their chances for success at the polls in November. They may be right, but all that anger they're stoking won't create a single job, balance the budget, pay off the national debt or make our country any safer from our angry enemies than it is today. In fact, that anger makes us more susceptible to attack from our angry domestic terrorists, many of whom are being fomented by the angry GOP rhetoric. I ought to add Tea Party to that sentence, but that would be redundant because, as Newt Gingrich previously noted, "The Tea Party is the militant wing of the GOP."
Einstein was a keen observer of life's fundamental forces of nature, as well as the relationship those forces had with one another. He recognized which forces built up and which forces tore down. He understood that which was positive and that which was negative, and so he knew what he was talking about when equating the notion of anger to fools.
If anger is all the GOP has to offer, the only question left to answer is this: Who's the bigger fool, the angry GOP politician or the angry voter who votes for him?
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
PREJUDICE AND IGNORANCE
"Prejudice is the child of ignorance." ~William Hazlitt
It's not surprising that religious prejudice abounds in America today, and our collective ignorance on the subject of religion helps explain why. According to a survey just released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Americans as a group fared poorly on a survey of questions testing general knowledge of all the world's major religions, including their own.
The Pew survey, a series of 32 questions covering tenets and facts about various religions, revealed that many Americans cannot identify the central teachings of the major world religions, their observances and their founders. Given that prejudice comes from the seeds of ignorance, it's easy to understand why religious prejudice flourishes in America.
We fear the unknown. We are hostile toward that which we do not understand and we all too frequently seek to stamp out anything that is not familiar to us. That is the very core of prejudice.
Ironically, the most knowledgeable on the subject of religion were the atheists and agnostics. Those individuals are also the most tolerant of people with beliefs other than their own. Now we know why.
It's not surprising that religious prejudice abounds in America today, and our collective ignorance on the subject of religion helps explain why. According to a survey just released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Americans as a group fared poorly on a survey of questions testing general knowledge of all the world's major religions, including their own.
The Pew survey, a series of 32 questions covering tenets and facts about various religions, revealed that many Americans cannot identify the central teachings of the major world religions, their observances and their founders. Given that prejudice comes from the seeds of ignorance, it's easy to understand why religious prejudice flourishes in America.
We fear the unknown. We are hostile toward that which we do not understand and we all too frequently seek to stamp out anything that is not familiar to us. That is the very core of prejudice.
Ironically, the most knowledgeable on the subject of religion were the atheists and agnostics. Those individuals are also the most tolerant of people with beliefs other than their own. Now we know why.
Monday, September 27, 2010
IS THERE A PREDATOR IN THE PULPIT?
I have no idea whether Bishop Eddie Long of Atlanta, Georgia is guilty or innocent of allegations that he groomed young boys in his Longfellow Youth Academy program and eventually manipulated them into having sex with him. The boys had reportedly reached the age of consent when the sexual conduct supposedly occurred, so no criminal investigation will be held. Nevertheless, after hearing descriptions of Bishop Long's alleged methods of operation, if they are true, then members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church should know that they've got a predator in their pulpit.
It's understandable that members of the New Birth congregation would be stunned by the allegations made against their Pastor. Equally understandable is the decision by many of those congregants to reject the allegations outright and stand wholeheartedly behind Bishop Long. After all, Bishop Long is a widely loved preacher, and nobody wants to believe that a man of the cloth, a person in whom they've placed their deepest trust, would betray that trust and commit predatory acts against young members of their congregation.
It does happen though, and members of the New Birth congregation would be well-advised to take a long, hard look at both the substance of the allegations and Bishop Long's responses to those allegations before rendering a final judgment on the matter. Many a preacher has used the pulpit as a cloak to hide their personal transgressions, and a congregation invites a far greater crisis of faith by automatically dismissing charges of improper behavior leveled against a pastor, even a beloved pastor, simply because the pastor is supposed to be a man of God.
Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggert and Tony Alamo are the first who come to mind when I think of sexual misdeeds of so-called men of the cloth, but any Catholic in this country can probably whip off the name of some priest in their diocese who was charged with sexual misconduct, and many in other denominations can do the same. All of those men had several things in common, besides their sexual transgressions. They all railed in the pulpit against the very type of conduct they were committing in private. They all used their position of authority to accomplish and conceal their acts. They were all loved by their congregations. They all initially denied the allegations of their misconduct and their denials were believed by many of their followers.
Whether Bishop Eddie Long finds himself walking in the footsteps of the formerly disgraced men of the cloth, or reveling in the comfort of the vindicated, remains to be seen. What is certain is that the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church faces a difficult challenge in days and months ahead, and I wish them well on their journey. They have my prayers.
It's understandable that members of the New Birth congregation would be stunned by the allegations made against their Pastor. Equally understandable is the decision by many of those congregants to reject the allegations outright and stand wholeheartedly behind Bishop Long. After all, Bishop Long is a widely loved preacher, and nobody wants to believe that a man of the cloth, a person in whom they've placed their deepest trust, would betray that trust and commit predatory acts against young members of their congregation.
It does happen though, and members of the New Birth congregation would be well-advised to take a long, hard look at both the substance of the allegations and Bishop Long's responses to those allegations before rendering a final judgment on the matter. Many a preacher has used the pulpit as a cloak to hide their personal transgressions, and a congregation invites a far greater crisis of faith by automatically dismissing charges of improper behavior leveled against a pastor, even a beloved pastor, simply because the pastor is supposed to be a man of God.
Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggert and Tony Alamo are the first who come to mind when I think of sexual misdeeds of so-called men of the cloth, but any Catholic in this country can probably whip off the name of some priest in their diocese who was charged with sexual misconduct, and many in other denominations can do the same. All of those men had several things in common, besides their sexual transgressions. They all railed in the pulpit against the very type of conduct they were committing in private. They all used their position of authority to accomplish and conceal their acts. They were all loved by their congregations. They all initially denied the allegations of their misconduct and their denials were believed by many of their followers.
Whether Bishop Eddie Long finds himself walking in the footsteps of the formerly disgraced men of the cloth, or reveling in the comfort of the vindicated, remains to be seen. What is certain is that the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church faces a difficult challenge in days and months ahead, and I wish them well on their journey. They have my prayers.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
THE SERMON I NEVER GAVE
In Victor Hugo's classic novel, "Les Miserables", the main character is a convict just released from prison, a man imprisoned for thievery, a man named Jean Valjean. By law, he must wear a patch that identifies him as a former prisoner and upon entering any town or village; he must first announce his presence to the local chief of police. Wherever he goes, news of his presence precedes him and the local taverns and innkeepers refuse him food and lodging. Destitute, he finds himself at the door of the local Bishop, a kind man of the cloth, who takes pity on Valjean and offers him food and a place to sleep for the night. In the middle of the night, Valjean awakens, sneaks through the Bishop's house and steals several valuable items of silver, including two silver candlesticks – the Bishop's prized possessions…candlesticks that everyone in the village knows belong to the Bishop. When local police stop Valjean on the road the next day, they find him in possession of the candlesticks and realize that he has stolen the items from the Bishop. Valjean claims that the candlesticks were a gift, but the police know he's lying and drag him back to the Bishop's house. When the Bishop answers the door, the police relate to him the lies Valjean has given them, but to everyone's surprise – including Jean Valjean, the Bishop scolds the police and tells them that Valjean's story is true. The Bishop then scolds Valjean for forgetting another bag of silver, and sends the ex-convict on his way with not only the bag of silver previously stolen, but a second bag of silver as well. You can imagine how Valjean felt. One minute, he was on the way back to prison. The next, he was free with money in his pocket. In the story, the Bishop's act of kindness had such a profound effect on Valjean that he made a dramatic change and dedicated his life to the service of God.
Many of you may be tempted to say, "That's a good plot for a novel, but stuff like that never happens in real life." But I take exception to that notion, because with God, that happens to each and every one of us, each and every day.
We're not deserving of God's love – but He loves us anyway. We're not deserving of God's grace, but He showers us with it in spite of ourselves. We don't deserve the rich and abundant life we enjoy in this Country, but God has blessed us with it nevertheless…and He wants us to take those gifts and use those gifts as instruments of His good will. The important question is – will we?
As I look back on my life, and how I arrived at the place I find myself today, much of the credit goes to people I never thanked. It's not that I didn't have good manners; I just didn't always appreciate the gifts they were giving me, or recognize at the time how powerfully their actions would affect my life. And the times when actions of others affected me the most, were the times when I was the least deserving.
I've done and said things to people that were mean and cruel, and a few people forgave me anyway. I lived my life in a selfish pursuit of my own pleasures, oftentimes at the expense of others, and when it all came crashing down around me, there were a few people who didn't stand around and jeer, "Boy, you had that coming", but instead, offered me a hand and pulled me up. I not proud to admit I once ruined a marriage. I broke the trust of friends and relatives. I trashed a decent career and got about as low as one can be in life without giving up and committing suicide, but there were a few spectators to the tragedy that was my life, like God and a few others, who recognized that I didn't deserve their mercy or kindness, but they gave it anyway. And they changed my life because they did.
I have to admit that I struggled for a time with guilt over not having said "thank you"…or not having let those people know that their generosity and kindness to me (when I was least deserving) had a huge impact on my life, but over the years I've come to appreciate the fact that in their own way, each and every one of them made a choice to act as Jesus would act, to show kindness, mercy and compassion, when none of it was deserved…to be forgiving, even though I wasn't really being remorseful. They were people who saw value in me, even when I didn't recognize it in myself, and they went out of their way to help me, even though they never got a "thanks" in return or saw that their actions made a difference in my life.
At first blush, you might think, "That's a shame", but I don't think so. People weren't kind and generous and forgiving to me because they wanted a pat on the back or a medal or public recognition of their good deeds. They did what they did because they made a choice to be like Christ. They decided to be an instrument of change in the life of another human being without the immediate reward of seeing the fruits of their deeds.
My Grandma use to say, "God's work is hard work and slow work". I understood why it was hard. It took me a lot longer to figure out why it was slow.
In Victor Hugo's novel, when Jean Valjean left the Bishop's home for the second time, that's the last the Bishop is mentioned in the novel. The Bishop didn't get to see the fruits of his charity. He didn't get to appreciate the fact that his single act of mercy ultimately changed the lives of hundreds of people for the better. All he had was the knowledge that he had done God's will.
That's one of the difficulties with being a follower of Christ. We're asked to do things that make absolutely no sense whatsoever - to love our enemies, to be kind and generous to those who don't deserve it, to forgive when forgiveness isn't warranted…and not seek anything in return except the knowledge that we have done God's will. That's because God's work is slow work and things don't always turn out as fast as we hope they would.
These days, people are falling all over themselves in this country to be called Christian, but with what it takes to be a true follower of Christ, you have to wonder whether they're nuts or delusional, or just ignorant about what Christ really asks his followers to do.
For me, being a follower of Christ boils down to this one question: How will I respond when Christ asks me to be a life-changing instrument in the life of another person? I ask that question because I don't know when that time will be. I don't know who that person will be and I have no clue as to where I'll be or what circumstances I'll be facing. All I know is that God is going to ask…maybe once, maybe twice…maybe a thousand times. And if I'm to be a true follower of Christ, I have to be ready, able and willing to respond each and every time.
The best and most practical piece of advice I can give is to get in the habit of doing God's will, because it certainly doesn't come naturally. You have to work to make it part of your life and part of your nature. Once it is part of your nature, it will change you, and it will change the lives of many people you meet along the way. But like the Bishop, you may never see it, because God's work is slow work and all you'll have is the knowledge that you've done God's will.
In the end, that's all we really need. Amen.
Many of you may be tempted to say, "That's a good plot for a novel, but stuff like that never happens in real life." But I take exception to that notion, because with God, that happens to each and every one of us, each and every day.
We're not deserving of God's love – but He loves us anyway. We're not deserving of God's grace, but He showers us with it in spite of ourselves. We don't deserve the rich and abundant life we enjoy in this Country, but God has blessed us with it nevertheless…and He wants us to take those gifts and use those gifts as instruments of His good will. The important question is – will we?
As I look back on my life, and how I arrived at the place I find myself today, much of the credit goes to people I never thanked. It's not that I didn't have good manners; I just didn't always appreciate the gifts they were giving me, or recognize at the time how powerfully their actions would affect my life. And the times when actions of others affected me the most, were the times when I was the least deserving.
I've done and said things to people that were mean and cruel, and a few people forgave me anyway. I lived my life in a selfish pursuit of my own pleasures, oftentimes at the expense of others, and when it all came crashing down around me, there were a few people who didn't stand around and jeer, "Boy, you had that coming", but instead, offered me a hand and pulled me up. I not proud to admit I once ruined a marriage. I broke the trust of friends and relatives. I trashed a decent career and got about as low as one can be in life without giving up and committing suicide, but there were a few spectators to the tragedy that was my life, like God and a few others, who recognized that I didn't deserve their mercy or kindness, but they gave it anyway. And they changed my life because they did.
I have to admit that I struggled for a time with guilt over not having said "thank you"…or not having let those people know that their generosity and kindness to me (when I was least deserving) had a huge impact on my life, but over the years I've come to appreciate the fact that in their own way, each and every one of them made a choice to act as Jesus would act, to show kindness, mercy and compassion, when none of it was deserved…to be forgiving, even though I wasn't really being remorseful. They were people who saw value in me, even when I didn't recognize it in myself, and they went out of their way to help me, even though they never got a "thanks" in return or saw that their actions made a difference in my life.
At first blush, you might think, "That's a shame", but I don't think so. People weren't kind and generous and forgiving to me because they wanted a pat on the back or a medal or public recognition of their good deeds. They did what they did because they made a choice to be like Christ. They decided to be an instrument of change in the life of another human being without the immediate reward of seeing the fruits of their deeds.
My Grandma use to say, "God's work is hard work and slow work". I understood why it was hard. It took me a lot longer to figure out why it was slow.
In Victor Hugo's novel, when Jean Valjean left the Bishop's home for the second time, that's the last the Bishop is mentioned in the novel. The Bishop didn't get to see the fruits of his charity. He didn't get to appreciate the fact that his single act of mercy ultimately changed the lives of hundreds of people for the better. All he had was the knowledge that he had done God's will.
That's one of the difficulties with being a follower of Christ. We're asked to do things that make absolutely no sense whatsoever - to love our enemies, to be kind and generous to those who don't deserve it, to forgive when forgiveness isn't warranted…and not seek anything in return except the knowledge that we have done God's will. That's because God's work is slow work and things don't always turn out as fast as we hope they would.
These days, people are falling all over themselves in this country to be called Christian, but with what it takes to be a true follower of Christ, you have to wonder whether they're nuts or delusional, or just ignorant about what Christ really asks his followers to do.
For me, being a follower of Christ boils down to this one question: How will I respond when Christ asks me to be a life-changing instrument in the life of another person? I ask that question because I don't know when that time will be. I don't know who that person will be and I have no clue as to where I'll be or what circumstances I'll be facing. All I know is that God is going to ask…maybe once, maybe twice…maybe a thousand times. And if I'm to be a true follower of Christ, I have to be ready, able and willing to respond each and every time.
The best and most practical piece of advice I can give is to get in the habit of doing God's will, because it certainly doesn't come naturally. You have to work to make it part of your life and part of your nature. Once it is part of your nature, it will change you, and it will change the lives of many people you meet along the way. But like the Bishop, you may never see it, because God's work is slow work and all you'll have is the knowledge that you've done God's will.
In the end, that's all we really need. Amen.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
THE STRENGTH OF FORGIVENESS
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong". ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Recently, I was fortunate to overhear a conversation among several acquaintances about the response of the Amish community in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania to the family of the deranged man, Charles Roberts IV, who stormed the Amish schoolhouse in that community in 2006 and killed five young Amish children before committing suicide. One acquaintance expressed admiration for the Amish community's immediate outpouring of support and forgiveness to the Roberts' family, but the remainder of the group voiced strong dissent to the Amish response to the shooting.
At first, I found the emotional intensity that accompanied the dissenters' remarks to be a surprising phenomenon, but after giving that discussion more thought over the past few weeks, I've come to believe that the emotional responses were a mask of sort to hide an underlying fear of weakness.
Gandhi was right. The Amish are strong, and not just in physical strength. The Amish are strong of heart! They are strong of character! They are strong in their belief in God and strong in their dedication to carrying out God's message of non-violence and forgiveness.
The lessons of the Amish are particularly apt given the Commonwealth of Virginia's recent execution of Theresa Lewis, a woman convicted of hiring killers to murder her husband and her stepson for insurance proceeds. Despite Ms. Lewis' religious conversion and her documented efforts to help fellow prisoners lead a more productive life, Virginia's governor rejected pleas for clemency and a commutation of Ms. Lewis' sentence from death to life in prison.
No doubt, Virginia's governor found little need to forgive, as such an attribute is frequently viewed in today's political world as a sign of weakness, but in refusing to grant a commutation of Ms. Lewis' death sentence, all the governor did was confirm his own weakness of character.
Recently, I was fortunate to overhear a conversation among several acquaintances about the response of the Amish community in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania to the family of the deranged man, Charles Roberts IV, who stormed the Amish schoolhouse in that community in 2006 and killed five young Amish children before committing suicide. One acquaintance expressed admiration for the Amish community's immediate outpouring of support and forgiveness to the Roberts' family, but the remainder of the group voiced strong dissent to the Amish response to the shooting.
At first, I found the emotional intensity that accompanied the dissenters' remarks to be a surprising phenomenon, but after giving that discussion more thought over the past few weeks, I've come to believe that the emotional responses were a mask of sort to hide an underlying fear of weakness.
Gandhi was right. The Amish are strong, and not just in physical strength. The Amish are strong of heart! They are strong of character! They are strong in their belief in God and strong in their dedication to carrying out God's message of non-violence and forgiveness.
The lessons of the Amish are particularly apt given the Commonwealth of Virginia's recent execution of Theresa Lewis, a woman convicted of hiring killers to murder her husband and her stepson for insurance proceeds. Despite Ms. Lewis' religious conversion and her documented efforts to help fellow prisoners lead a more productive life, Virginia's governor rejected pleas for clemency and a commutation of Ms. Lewis' sentence from death to life in prison.
No doubt, Virginia's governor found little need to forgive, as such an attribute is frequently viewed in today's political world as a sign of weakness, but in refusing to grant a commutation of Ms. Lewis' death sentence, all the governor did was confirm his own weakness of character.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
THE LATEST BRAND OF SNAKE OIL
The Preamble to the soon to be released GOP "Pledge To America" is a farce of the highest magnitude and anybody who's fooled by the cow manure that passes for this Republican manifesto deserves the just desserts of the "old government" that appears likely to take control after the upcoming elections.
Only a nation of buffoons would reward a party (that would be the GOP) who took this nation to war in Iraq on false pretenses, who never asked taxpayers to pay for that war, who year after year fought for deregulation of the financial sector until it was on the verge of total collapse, who then sat back and scoffed at Democrats for cleaning up their mess, and then have the unmitigated gall to blame the sorry state of our union on our President and his political party.
People who want to know who's responsible for our nation's mess should look in the mirror! They're the people who voted for the people (the GOP) who created the current economic crisis. They're the people who voted for the folks who, when the crisis occurred, wanted to sit back and do nothing - like Herbert Hoover, the same game plan that caused the Great Depression of the thirties. They're the ones who hemmed and hawed about liberty and freedom, but when push came to shove, were the loudest screamers demanding the trading of freedoms for public safety. And now, they fill the airwaves and media with rage and anger, demanding the end of deficits, like somehow, the money to pay off those public debts will magically appear out of thin air. Well, it won't.
The "Pledge to America" is the snake oil of a bunch of yellow-bellied cowards who don't have the stomach to take responsibility for the mess they created. Buy it at your own peril.
Only a nation of buffoons would reward a party (that would be the GOP) who took this nation to war in Iraq on false pretenses, who never asked taxpayers to pay for that war, who year after year fought for deregulation of the financial sector until it was on the verge of total collapse, who then sat back and scoffed at Democrats for cleaning up their mess, and then have the unmitigated gall to blame the sorry state of our union on our President and his political party.
People who want to know who's responsible for our nation's mess should look in the mirror! They're the people who voted for the people (the GOP) who created the current economic crisis. They're the people who voted for the folks who, when the crisis occurred, wanted to sit back and do nothing - like Herbert Hoover, the same game plan that caused the Great Depression of the thirties. They're the ones who hemmed and hawed about liberty and freedom, but when push came to shove, were the loudest screamers demanding the trading of freedoms for public safety. And now, they fill the airwaves and media with rage and anger, demanding the end of deficits, like somehow, the money to pay off those public debts will magically appear out of thin air. Well, it won't.
The "Pledge to America" is the snake oil of a bunch of yellow-bellied cowards who don't have the stomach to take responsibility for the mess they created. Buy it at your own peril.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
GOP: GAYS STRONGER THAN U.S. MILITARY
Republicans in the United States Senate today essentially called our military ranks a bunch of yellow-bellied cowards for being unable to carry out their assigned duties in the presence of openly homosexual individuals. That's why GOP senators defeated an attempt to discard the current "don't ask – don't tell" policy against homosexuals serving in the military.
I thought no enemy was too strong to defeat the forces of the United States military, but I guess I was wrong. According to the GOP, a small band of homosexuals is all that's needed.
I thought no enemy was too strong to defeat the forces of the United States military, but I guess I was wrong. According to the GOP, a small band of homosexuals is all that's needed.
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