Sunday.....Christianity.....Weekday Mornings

This blog is a little bit of practical advice for a certain type of person in a particular place, Pittsburgh. It was formed from thirty years of experience and a passion not always, probably not even most of the time, of the best wisdom. It comes from trial and error and unfortunately it comes from experiences in a weak Christian church age today in America. I'm writing to anyone there who God's Spirit is currently giving a glimpse of the Glories and Majesty of Jesus Christ, but who has not found a church and no clue as to where to go. Maybe anger and confusion is building in you right now? You have tried different churches but something essential is missing. After all you want to be a part of the Christian church, show me where to sign, but you want to see a little of the merchandise first. Maybe you blame the church, or blame yourselves or are worried that you will ultimately blame God and that this will have been just a bubble, a dream you had been in that will burst. Here is my opinion, for what it is worth. Many churches are failing in preaching Christ from the pulpit every Lord's Day. Many are failing to feed and nourish. Maybe they lost patience as the congregations did not grow as they wanted so they looked around to find answers to church growth from the pens of experts? Maybe they never had a clue? Many churches do grow but the people in these churches might not require the same thing that you are agonizing over. It is Christ that you want. He is at the center of these eruptions in your heart and mind There are churches out there that can feed you but its like looking for the one aisle in a Kmart for the canned food. You have to navigate many aisles to find it. So you will need nourishment as you search for this church. There are books but that is a long endeavor, for unless you are a speed reader, you can spend weeks on one book and one topic. Sometimes you need to hear another human voice. The television is not going to provide what you need for the very strength of it is in images and you need words. That leaves radio. Now I'm going to very subjective here. In your situation, you need a radio ministry that will suffice until you find that church. You need someone who not only has what you need but who also can convey what they know. There are only three such radio ministries on this level that I know of on WORD 101.5 FM in Pittsburgh. One, The White Horse Inn, is only on for 30 minutes a week and that on Sundays at 8:30 in the evening. In your condition, you need more. R. C. Sproul's Renewing Your Mind is another. It has served this purpose for multitudes over the past few decades but in Pittsburgh, you would have to get up at 2:30 in the morning to hear it every day on FM. That leaves John MacArthur's Grace To You. You will get the nourishment that you need every day if you can be near a radio every weekday morning at 7 O'clock (if you can receive the 73 AM signal, Renewing Your Mind is on at 7:30 in the morning!) If you start this daily regimen faithfully you will, I believe, be able to live and grow as you search for a church. You will be able to understand why it is that every church is not able to provide their congregations with what they need. The nourishment that you will be getting will enable you to have patience to find a church that preaches Christ and His gospel. You may find one of the better churches, and you may not. Let me ask you this? As you enter this journey in the Christian faith, are you now going to be angry because the beginnings of it are not easy? Pilgrim's Progress addresses this issue very well. If it were easy, and you were not disappointed it would be because you would not have the discernment even to know what is missing. Be thankful for even the confusion at this point for it will be evident shortly that you are indeed on the right path and the purpose of the difficulty of the path will become evident. I would imagine that the advice and comments I make here would not be warmly reviewed in the vast majority of churches. I am willing to accept that rebuke. In John MacArthur, I'm not pointing you to my denomination. We do not align up on some issues and he would probably rebuke many of my thoughts. It is you that I am concerned with for I was once where you are and there are many people out there just like you. God is moving mightily upon their hearts, through various means, by giving glimpses of the Glory and Majesty of Christ. My advice to churches seeking to grow is, find them! Find you! Proclaim this Glory and Majesty from the pulpits and even from the newspapers, the radio, bulletin boards and any means they can find. The invitation should not be we are a loving congregation and you are welcome, rather you are invited to come and worship the Christ, the Son of the Living God with us. Try this radio ministry...please, and be patient. The church that you wind up in will come with many challenges to you for they are pilgrims on this journey also. We are all struggling to live the Christian life in America 2010 but the church is a protection that God has provided, even commanded, for you, for me, for all of us.

Friday.....America.....Intellectuals And Society (3)

Thomas Sowell begins his chapter on Intellectuals and Economics relaying this quote, Whether one is a conservative or radical, a protectionist or free trader, a cosmopolitan or a nationalist, a churchman or a heathen, it is useful to know the causes and consequences of economic phenomena. His message on this topic is that intellectuals generally, and remarkably, do not have an interest in, or put the time in to learn even the basic fundamentals of economics, but then proceed to make sweeping pronouncements on economic theory, particularly income distribution. He says that they've substituted vision for facts. Sowell gives a number of examples along the way. On statistics that seem to show that most people remain in the lower income groups, he points out that the Census Bureau can provide these type of statistics but the IRS figures can give a better people picture because it deals with the particular people involved and not just numbers. When one is not just seizing upon any numbers, the situation points to people moving in and out of many categories, with new people entering the equations, and a different conclusion resulting. He takes on the issue of living standards, claiming that if the intellectuals would use the intellectual method they take pride in, they would see that the determinations of stagnation so often brought up, are incorrect and proceeds to tell why. His description of the intellectuals' theory is that they base it on wealth " somehow just existing" therefore we must distribute it, rather than wealth being "produced." He tackles common accusations such as interest rates on loans being higher in poorer communities. His explanation is that, once again, the intellectual not educated in economics, fails to go further and see that these loans tend to be short, even called "payday loans", and if lower interest rates are to be applied, the profit may not even cover the cost of processing the loans. He answers critics of capitalism who claim that without planning and control, chaos results. He points out that patterns are the results, not chaos. and that only the verbal virtuosity of the intellectual turned economist can continually criticise that which they do not know and then demand to orchestrate their own plans and control. His description of "planning" is the forcible suppression of millions of people's plans by a government-imposed plan. John Dewey and many others are taken to task in this chapter that describes an attack on business of which V. I. Lenin said that "running a business involved extraordinary simple operations which any literate person can perform so that those in charge of such enterprises need not be paid more than any ordinary worker." Sound familiar? Sowell writes on a problem that has raised it's ugly head in many areas today, that being the meaning of words and changing that meaning to fit one's own purposes. Thus we have businesses that lower prices to stimulate sales that become issues of power and control. Admittedly, this postmodern concept of changing the meaning of words at will, has been a subject of a few of the blogs I've written here. So, what were the causes of the Great Depression? Sowell lays out the theories but returns to his criticism of intellectuals failing to do their homework. He concludes the chapter with with the example of various histories of the Great Depression that made FDR the hero for coming to the rescue by men such as Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. who admitted that he was not much interested in economics.

Wednesday.....Culture.....Alert And Knowledgeable Citizenry

Forty-nine years and one week ago John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated as the nation's 35th President but it was the speech of the day before that I would like to comment on here. Farewell speeches are sometimes remembered more than any speeches of that person while in office or authority. Dwight David Eisenhower's farewell speech has been quoted often. It was given on January 17th, 1961. Short and solemn, he said I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all, but lamented that with a definite sense of disappointment.....he could only "wish" I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight. He saw the world threatened by the conflict now engulfing [it.] Describing Communism as a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method he saw the conflict as being of indefinite duration. Eisenhower was prescient in foreseeing two potential threats in the immediate future of that day, his comments taking many by surprise. Stating first that a vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. Admitting that we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions, it was his warning on the potential abuse of this new industry that has drawn so many to quote him today. We must not fail to apprehend its grave implications he began and continued In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. Eisenhower's wisdom was evident in this, WE SHOULD TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED, ONLY AN ALERT AND KNOWLEDGEABLE CITIZENRY CAN COMPEL THE PROPER MESHING OF THE HUGE INDUSTRIAL AND MILITARY MACHINE OF DEFENSE WITH OUR PEACEFUL METHODS AND GOALS, SO THAT SECURITY AND LIBERTY MAY PROSPER TOGETHER. There was another warning the retiring President gave that day, The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present-and is gravely to be regarded. Dwight Eisenhower saw the potential of the university becoming, primarily, a tool of government. What he did not see was it, all too often, becoming a tool of an ideology; not "serving" society, but being served and "enjoying the best seats in the symposiums" to paraphrase a biblical verse. Eisenhower knew and warned that we must avoid the impulse to live only for today and that we cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. He was not too timid to admit the possibility of the demise of democracy itself where it would become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. He concluded his farewell with a prayer and this advice, you and I-my fellow citizens-need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nations' great goals. The essence of President Eisenhower's message then and applicable today is that men with power and influence are vulnerable to abusing those benefits. The criticisms that we are hearing on this administration and media today primarily concerns the abuse of these "powers", and should the Republican Party return to power, the admonition to be an alert and knowledgeable citizenry will remain.

Monday.....Miscellaneous.....Intellectuals And Society (2)

"May or may not" seems to be the theme of Thomas Sowell's second chapter in his book Intellectuals and Society. According to Sowell, the various skills of the intellectuals can be used either to foster intellectual standards or to circumvent those standards, and he gives examples. Landmark treatises on mathematics from Bertrand Russell also came with his advocacy of unilateral disarmament in the 1930s and suggestions to disband Britain's army, navy and air force. Similar pronouncements came from linguist Noam Chomsky. George Bernard Shaw is quoted, You Americans are so fearful of dictators. Dictatorship is the only way in which government can accomplish anything, and in 1935, It is nice to go for a holiday and know that Hitler has settled everything so well in Europe. The author says that a superior ability in one area tends to make some intellectuals believe that this wisdom applies to all areas. Quoting a biographer of John Maynard Keynes, He held forth on a great range of topics, on some of them which he was thoroughly expert, but on others of which he may have derived his views from a few pages of a book that he happened to glance. The expertise and statistical data of a few, valued over the greater mundane knowledge of the millions, led many countries to economic disaster in the twentieth century through central planning. He lumps judicial activism into this problem. There is a tendency of some intellectuals to, not only look down on this mundane knowledge of the many, but to apply labels such as prejudices or stereotypes to it. Sowell acknowledges the value of experts but sees problems when these experts are used as mere window dressing in politics. A striking example is given; a judicial conference in the 1960s saw the testimony of a retired police commissioner who testified that the court' recent expansions of criminals' legal rights undermined the effectiveness of law enforcement. This was the mundane wisdom of one who was involved. In attendance were Supreme Court Justices Warren and Brennan who sat stony-faced according to a New York Times account. A law professor rose to bring ridicule on the police commissioner and the justices roared with laughter. Such was the trustworthiness of the expert. Sowell concludes the chapter with what he calls a "One Day at a Time" Rationalism where confidence in their own abilities to reason is so great that they believe they can come to sound conclusions, at any time, only by looking at the immediate consequences. Two examples are given, one by an eminent French political scientist who in 1938 asked Is it worthwhile setting fire to the world in order to save the Czechoslovak state, a heap of different nationalities? Sowell points out that the larger question was whether someone who was threatening to set fire to the world if he didn't get his way was someone who should be appeased and went on to write that six years earlier Winston Churchill emphasized that every concession which has been made, to Germany, has been followed immediately by a fresh demand. In the last paragraph of the chapter, Thomas Sowell put into words something that has floated around my mind for years and his one-day-at-a-time rationalism helps in systematizing this. I'm going to, with the author's help, put this in my own words. When we experience a disaster of some sort, such as a hurricane or Southern California wildfire that the author used, the administration in office at the time has no choice but to commit vast sums of money, as Sowell writes, to enable people who live in these places to rebuild in the known path of these dangers. A notation on this at the bottom of the page stated that the money used in rebuilding New Orleans would have been more than enough to relocate every New Orleans family. Yet the potential of future flood disaster remains. Had we not legislated as we did, we would have been criticized as uncaring by the intellectuals, and in using a one-day-at-a-time rationalism, the soundness of these ideas is immediately verified. Is this not what we have done, and continue to do, with the bailouts?

Sunday.....Christianity.....Plant A Tree And Keep Oil In Our Lamps

Reuters reported yesterday that the National Academy of Sciences released a strongly worded report that the United States was doing little in attempting to find the smaller asteroids that are out there and headed this way, that are potentially devastating to the region they would hit. The U. S. is looking for the larger NEOs (near earth objects) but almost ignoring smaller ones, and that only $4 million is being spent yearly on the effort. You may be familiar with what is called the Tunguska Event where a comet or asteroid hit central Russia on June 30th, 1908 with the force of a large nuclear explosion. The Academy is looking at, among other things, evacuation measures in the case of an impending collision of cosmic bodies but I see something else important in this era that can witness natural disasters that kill hundreds of thousands of people at a time. I have to wonder how many of these scientists consider that the Bible seems to mention (Rev. Ch 8) this kind of occurrence (an asteroid hitting the earth) previous to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ? In former times most scientists, if not all, would have meditated on this. There are differing interpretations on the events of the Book of Revelation as should be expected. The vast preponderance of what scripture says is very clear and to interpret it differently is nothing short of holding one's own biases as more important than what God will tell you, and God has given us all that we must know and only what we can handle. The specifics of certain prophesies concerning the end-times will become more clear in their proper time. Today, we have the capabilities for a literal interpretation of many of these prophesies and this warning from the National Academy of Sciences should, at the very least, give us pause as we strive for political and military solutions to our national crisis, important as they may be even to the free proclamation of the gospel. Asteroids may be the least of our concerns when compared to nuclear war, a one-world government and a quest to elevate the autonomy of man not seen since the building of the Tower of Babel whose ruins lie in the sands of Iraq to this day. There is another biblical prophesy that admittedly unnerves me. The Apostle Paul speaks of a great apostasy before the coming of the Lord. Indeed, he is addressing those who would be unnerved as he tells the reader of a great falling away "before" God's final judgement and a strong delusion that is coming upon those who do not believe. To someone like me who strives, albeit probably poorly, to address the minds as well as the hearts of those who desperately need Christ, it is sobering to know that a time will come when...the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His Mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. And The coming of the "lawless" one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders....and for this God will send (people) strong delusion. Already at work in the time of Paul, we may or may not see the fulfillment of this but we are ripe for strong delusion as our interests are too often centered only on today. Another chief passage on the end-times comes from the book of Matthew in Chapter 25 where Jesus gives us a word picture of ten virgins, five of whom were preparing at the time of His coming by keeping oil in their lamps, and five who did not. This is a perpetual command to us and should occupy our thoughts at least one-seventh of our time. It is paramount, in my opinion, to have this concept of a strong delusion in our mind, if only in the back of it, for it will be the most difficult challenge that the church will face. As I have mentioned before, Martin Luther, when asked what he would do if he knew that Christ's Second Coming was tomorrow, answered I would plant a tree today. I think that you can see the attempts to plant trees in this blog, along with the encouragement to keep oil in our lamps.

Thursday.....Politics.....Arms Race

The Supreme Court (Kennedy with the Originalists on this one) gave the ok for corporations...and unions, to spend money on political candidates; as much as they want and whenever they want. Democrats are unhappy for, according to them, it diminishes the average citizen's opinion, but this was not a concern with MoveOn's 501 (C-4) influence in the last election or, for that matter, with public opinion in many of the issues at the forefront today. Corporations, those who want to enter this area, have the money for such advertising, where unions have to enter a spending race. The case had its impetus with a group called Citizens United that produced a film critical of Hilary Clinton and wanted to air it on cable channels using video on demand, during last year's primary campaign. They were stopped (see www.citizensunited.org for their films.) It'll be a whole new ballgame come this fall, and the Democratic Congress is already trying to come up new and innovative ways to skirt the Court's decision. I don't relish the thought of the company that I work for backing certain candidates but that is their right. I would not agree on the candidates that most unions would back, but they have rights also. If American analytical skills continue to improve, this decision will benefit the Republican Party. If we revert to wallowing in a sound-bite mentality, the voter will simply fall for condescending political ads. Corporations that depend on the loyalty of its customers may find themselves in a precarious position of backing candidates that may be the target of large citizens revolt movements. Some candidates may not welcome union support, outside of their union halls, for the same reason. The Hillary film, may be shown, as well as films on Barack Obama's birth certificate, but so might Hollywood's various offerings, and this is their forte. People may watch more television to see the jousting, or they may turn the tube off because of it. Ultimately, the decision had to come down this way. McCain-Feingold did not foresee the consequences of its attempts to soften corporate influence, for corporations that owned media outlets, or were media corporations, could present their opinions freely under McCain/Feingold, while corporations with opposing viewpoints could not; an unfair advantage that was abolished in this court decision. Conservatives who can see no further, and care for nothing more, than a political advantage in the next election, may rue the day of this decision just as they may have to backtrack from the celebrations over the Massachusetts Senate election if moderates use the result as a spring board in constructing a party platform. Ultimately, this was a decision that may or may not benefit conservatives and traditionalists, but it does return us to consistency to constitutional principles.

Wednesday.....Culture.....Intellectuals And Society (1)

Thomas Sowell is a scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and author of numerous books. He's an economist whose works were very influential and a social philosopher who has the admiration of people such as Rush Limbaugh and historian Paul Johnson. His syndicated columns appear in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Fortune and numerous other media outlets. By his own admission, he was a Marxist in his 20s. He is Black and was born to a poor family in the South. A high school dropout due to financial reasons, he went on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard and received a Doctor of Philosophy in economics from the University of Chicago. It is his latest book, Intellectuals and Society (isbn 978-0-465-01948-9) that I would like to write about piecemeal because of the importance of each chapter. According to Sowell, this is an age like no other, in being influenced by intellectuals, who he describes as those who deal with ideas where there is generally no external test to determine whether those ideas are right or wrong. He stresses that intellect itself is not wisdom, pointing out the obviously incorrect belief by Marx that labor...is the source of wealth. He quotes George Orwell in "Some ideas are so foolish only an intellectual could believe them." What is needed, according to Sowell, to go along with intellect is knowledge, experience and judgement. His answer to his own question of whether a financial genius would be considered an intellectual is a resounding No because they, along with engineers and even football coaches, are held to external standards. He points out that intellectuals, generally, do not administer the programs their ideas lead to. Thus the importance of this book for the essence of many of the ideas that we struggle with in American politics, ideas that would restructure America and jettison its heritage, have originated with intellectuals, who according to Sowell, are unaccountable to the outside world. The author also points out that many of these ideas garner excitement in this culture and need validation only from those who tend to have these beliefs in the first place. An example might be(my thought here) the Cap and Trade initiative that is generally accepted only by those who might benefit from it intellectually or financially, and this in spite of evidence that its research was faulty at best and falsified at worst. Sowell concludes the first chapter of his book with examples of intellectuals whose theories were proven wrong, yet their reputations were enhanced. Lest on thinks that this book is simply an anti-intellectual diatribe, it is the opposite. Sowell is one of those intellectuals who combine other attributes that culminate in wisdom. His later chapters enter into the areas of law, war, economics and social visions and I hope to comment on them in due time.

Monday.....Miscellaneous.....And miles to go before I sleep

I don't think that I have ever heard Rush Limbaugh so giddy. He was playing patriotic music throughout the show in anticipation of tonight's senate election in Massachusetts. Every other conservative radio talk show host that I tuned in was in the same celebratory mode. Friends are thrilled that Massachusetts has elected its first Republican Senator since 1953. The word miracle is being used. It indeed was big news. Scott Brown played a big part in this day's events but the sudden deflating of the Democratic Party started months ago. It has been my position that President Obama will have trouble making it through the primaries in 2012. He still has his supporters but the American people now know very well that his agenda has proven to be dizzying in its radicalism. He probably has one year left with the House of Representatives in his corner, and two plus months after the election but before the swearing in of the 112th Congress, during which time we may have to contend with the power of the executive order. Scott Brown has impressive credentials but we are making a hero out of him, a hero that we may have to contend with one day, for he has given us a warning...he's an independent thinker, indeed he campaigned on this sobriquet. To use a theological analogy; we all have free will but that free will is dependent upon a fallen nature. We revere our Declaration of Independence which is dependent upon the Constitution it foreshadowed. We are all independent thinkers who are dependent upon our convictions. The indicatives of our convictions steer the imperatives of our independence. Winning back the Congress and the White House, is a goal, not a panacea, and if we have not learned anything through the disasters from disunity of convictions, we will indeed repeat them, mistake for mistake. The Democrat's celebration over last year's election lasted for many months, but someone left the cake out in the rain and they'll never have that recipe again. So, yes, lets go ahead and enjoy the 41st Republican vote in the Senate but let's also consider the words of Robert Frost in, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Saturday.....War On Terror.....Two Terrors, Two Different Answers

Along with the rise in suicide terrorist bombings in that last few decades, the United States has seen a rise in mass murders. From the statistics I have seen, roughly two-thirds of those attackers committed suicide afterwards. There are similarities and differences. The terrorist believes that there is a reward for him (her) in heaven. The domestic murderer tends to believe the opposite, that they will be condemned in the afterlife, that is if they believe in one at all. Both are acting against someone or something that they hate. The terrorist believes that he is advancing a cause while the domestic is carrying out retribution of some sort. The terrorist is recruited by others who will not do this act, but rather trains and supplies those he enlists; whereas the domestic conjures up his own plan. You cannot talk a murderer out of his plan when you do not know of it in advance but there is potential to reach those who are preyed upon as future terrorists. We can, and do, attempt to prevent the actual terrorist acts but can only try to limit the carnage of the domestic murderer after he has begun. The first act takes a lot of planning while the second takes only a little. Even with the dissimilarities, they are alike in that one kills knowing he will die and the other kills even if he dies. Our society produces these murderers. We, ourselves, make up that society. There is a lot of introspection needed here as we seek God's mercy in reforming our culture, for not only do we not respect life but we ignore the end of it. The Achilles Heel of terrorism may be in those who preach hate and supply the means to kill, for they are identifiable people and not just an ideology, potential targets and not nameless souls enlisted out of a mass of discontent. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a source of terrorism around the world, and his quest for the most terror potential of all, nuclear devices, should primarily be dealt with in his potential to distribute them (and the technology) rather than in using them himself, for although both are possible, the first is more probable in the near future. We are dealing with him as if he were a rational human being who would not want retaliation for his acts, when his intention is more likely; to cause havoc, deny responsibility, and retreat to the nearest cave in the resulting turmoil.

Friday.....America.....Trojan Horse?

One of the first blogs that I wrote was titled A La Carte Cable and I've done a few more since then. To me, this is one of the more important concepts that we need to seriously consider today. Here is a quick synopsis: Cable companies offer us packages of television programming. We can receive as few as a dozen stations, or we can receive dozens, even hundreds more. We can pick a package that has some of the channels that we want but we receive far more than those we pick. There is a bill sitting in committee called the Family and Consumer Choice Act of 2007 that would force cable companies to offer the consumer a choice of the specific channels they want. John McCain was also involved in a similar attempt in the Senate. There are problems. The cable companies believe that they will lose considerable revenue if consumers can choose their channels. Many Christian broadcasters are against a la carte because their own broadcasts are now included in the packages. Some think choice will save consumers money, others think it will cost them more. The bill in congress goes beyond only the issue of choice. Why do I think that we need a la carte? One reason is that 60 or more channels offers us too big of a temptation to waste our time. Another reason is that the medium of television is a teaching opportunity and most involved in television today espouse liberal (the new radical definition of it) causes. A third reason is that learning through images demands a fundamentally different process of the mind than through the written word. Yet another reason is that the consumer effectually supports all of the channels they receive, whether Christian, PBS or MTV. Summing it all up, our national intellect has become indisposed. We, as a society, have become a narrative of Gullibles Travels. We are sound bite citizens. Lee Loevinger was an anti-trust lawyer, associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court and served in the Kennedy administration's Justice Department. He was another one of those who supplied many statements that have been quoted often, one of which was Television is the literature of the illiterate, the culture of the lowborn, the wealth of the poor, the privilege of the underprivileged, the exclusive club of the excluded masses. It's a harsh statement, but accurate. He described me in my youth. When our son was in his first year, I said something to him as he sat in front of the television. He was oblivious to me. I passed my hand in front of his face with no response. We promptly took the television out of our house and it remained out for nine years. One afternoon, we were having a nice father/son lunch at a sandwich shop and there was a poster of the television character Alf on the wall. He looked at me and said Dad...what's that? I had an idea but said, I don't know. Maybe it's a dog? He analysed the poster and my response and said That's no dog! Our son is doing very well in law school. The difference between his intellect and mine, and I'm sure you will attest to this, is in no small part due to the amount of television each of us watched in our youth. I think that the people I know most in this life are, my wife, our son, my mother, Raymond and Debra Barrone, my in-laws etc., if you get my drift. I don't plan on giving up on a la carte cable television but realistically it's a long way off. I may not be a good person to give advice on television viewing, but if we can identify a major problem, maybe we can improve the situation for our children's sake.

Thursday.....Politics....."Power Tends To Corrupt"

In 2004, Massachusetts law stated that upon the vacancy of a Senate seat, the Governor would appoint someone to fill it. Mitt Romney was the Republican Governor at the time. John Kerry was running for President of the United States. Senator Kennedy pushed for a change in the law that would call for a special election so that if Kerry won, Romney would not be able to put a Republican in his seat. Senator Kennedy died this past August and that same law called now for a special election where the Senate seat would remain vacant until the election, to be held about four months later. This would have prevented the Democrats from the filibuster proof 60 votes in the Senate over that period. Over strong criticism, they changed the law once again to allow the now Democratic Governor to appoint a Democratic Senator to serve until the election which will be held on January 19th. In what was supposed to be an easy Democratic victory, a Republican has appeared who is now in a dead heat with the Democratic nominee. The concept has been floated that if the Republican wins, it could take quite a while for the vote count to be affirmed in which the 60 vote filibuster proof Senate would still be there to pass legislation. Democratically held elections are not a panacea to all that ails us in government. You have probably heard of Lord Acton's statement that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Edmund Burke wrote the greater power the more dangerous the abuse. I would not go so far as to say that the norm today is for those in power to abuse it, but it is epidemic in many areas of life and certainly in this administration and Democratic Party leadership. We have a constitution that was meant to prevent this abuse but those in power today seek to redefine the essence of that constitution to one of a living document that can be interpreted in the from the interpreter's point of view rather than the interpreter applying the view of the authors. This is the beginning of tyranny, and this is what we are faced with today.

Wednesday.....Culture.....It's Not...Location, Location, Location

It was Christmas Eve 2004, sometime in the late evening when I first heard the reports of a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Those first reports, for I remember it well, stated that there were 30 (that's right, 3-0) reported deaths. Such was the panic to get news out without spending any time analysing the situation. As you know by now, Haiti has been hit by a major earthquake. The country has seen nothing like this for two centuries. It occurred only a few miles below the ground surface which caused the earth to shake even more violently. We don't know how many people have perished but we do know that suffering there must be unbelievably terrible. There is no time for politics at a time like this as everyone is searching for ways to respond as quickly as possible. I also remember Tom Brokaw standing in front of the Superdome the morning after Hurricane Katrina. You could see panels flapping in the breeze behind him from the sports arena. The gist of his report was that it could have been a lot worse than it was. We learned later that the real destruction would come from levees that would not hold. We have been blessed in this nation. We haven't experienced deaths from earthquakes and typhoons to the degree that China and other Asian nations have. God has had His hand upon us since our beginning and yet today we can become offended when anyone applies our good fortune to Him. Part of the reasons for this blog is in presenting the possibility to you that we are not permanently immune from massive destruction from any one of a number of causes. Churches are praying all over this nation and monies are pouring in to relief agencies for Haiti and many are praying Lord, help these people and (hopefully) forgive us our ingratitude. There is a classic old, old movie from 1938 called Angels With Dirty Faces that starred Jimmy Cagney and Pat OBrien. Cagney was the young tough who became a criminal and then paid for his crimes in the electric chair. O'Brien was his friend who went into the priesthood and walked with Cagney to the execution. O'Brien uttered But for the grace of God, there walk I. But for the grace of God, we would be either an enslaved nation, a poverty stricken people, or we would still be a nation that enslaves others. The sad reality is that we ourselves are becoming enslaved...to our own desire for autonomy apart from God. There is a lot being written about the Tea Party movement that is sweeping this nation, and this is good, but what we really should desire is God's Spirit moving upon us as has happened before. Benjamin Franklin wrote during the First Great Awakening that, [it seems] one could not walk thro' the town [Philadelphia] in the evening without hearing psalms sung in different families from every street. The first step for us as a people might be to say, God has blessed us, we have not acknowledged this, but we acknowledge and proclaim it from this time forward.

Monday....."Missileanus".....Dialect and Vocabulary

It was July of 1970 in a small EM (enlisted man's) club just north of San Fransisco. A small group of us were there for a month's training on the Vietnamese Problem prior to flying over there, as we had previously been trained only generically in our job. None of us knew each other. We sat there talking, over beers. One man was Black and the others were tip-toeing around the topic of race with condescending talk. I wasn't joining in and it must have looked as if I held a differing opinion. Finally, he looked at me, without smiling, and brusquely asked me point blank, Do you have something against Blacks? There was a palpable tension present. I responded simply I'm not going to condescend to you by telling you how much I think that we are equal. Apparently, this is what he wanted to hear for we spent the rest of the evening consuming mass quantities of beer proving that we were indeed brother idiots. I'm not thrilled with all the hubbub by conservative radio talk show hosts over Harry Reid's comments. John Bunyan probably did not speak the King's English but one who did, John Owen, greatly desired to hear the former tinker preach Christ! It took me years to live down a Buffalo dialect when I moved to Pittsburgh. Little did I know that the Pittsburghers, of what I am now, were the ones with the problem. Yuns Stiller fans know where ah mat. You may be familiar with Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angles. Once a night manager at McDonalds (second only to Navy Seals in courage), he's a radio talk show host nowadays, and a good one. His accent is very strong Brooklynese, but he could put most Harvard intellectuals in their place through logic, common sense and honesty. I paged through a book at Barnes and Noble today called Intellectuals And Society (9780465019489) by Thomas Sowell. The author takes a much needed critical look at the failure of the intellectual to function up to the level of his vocabulary and degrees. I didn't purchase it because I have a few books on the table already, but intend to do so later. Politically speaking, why would the talk shows want to disparage Harry Reid any more and encourage him in refraining from running for reelection? I would think that they would want him, and Nancy Pelosi, and a host of others around in November; for we don't want to reminisce about the attempted scams perpetrated upon us this past year, rather we should want their words at the time bringing back total recall.

Sunday.....Christianity.....Have You Considered

Quite a number of years ago, someone asked theologian R. C. Sproul if he expected to see Billy Graham in heaven. It was a rhetorical question for the answer was obviously yes, and meant to make R. C. squirm, but he didn't fall for the bait. He answered something like this I don't know if I'll see him for he will probably be so much closer to Jesus than I. R. C. Sproul is a Reformed Theology theologian and Billy Graham's theology is Arminian, as is most of America...today. Does it matter who is right? What I would like to do here is just pose some questions. If you think that it might indeed be important, I'll mention a book that explains Reformed Theology very well and you can research this issue for yourself. If the word theology turns you off, you might want to consider that that very statement is a theological dictum and you are a theologian! Reformed Theology centers on God's sovereignty and man's total dependence upon Him. There are five points in Reformed Theology, also known as the Five Points of Calvinism, and also used in the acrostic tulip. The T stands for total depravity in that every aspect of a person's being is effected by the fall of Adam and Eve. The U stands for unconditional election, more often referred to as predestination, in that God makes His decisions on individual salvations apart from any standing that individual would bring. The L stands for limited atonement in that Christ's atoning blood was shed for some and not for all. The I stands for irresistible grace in that when God's Holy Spirit calls one, he (she) cannot reject that call. The P stands for perseverance of the saints in that all who are called and thus respond with faith...will persevere to the end. Now I imagine that this raises hackles on the neck of most who have read what I just wrote. I rejected these doctrines untill I was 40 years old. Michael Horton, of the White Horse Inn http://www.whitehorseinn.org/ has said that when he was confronted with the truth of these same doctrines in scripture, he threw his bible across the room. I'm purposely not going to try to defend the five points for R. C. Sproul's book Grace Unknown, The Heart of Reformed Theology (isbn 0-8010-1121-3) does this infinitely better than I could do. I simply want to ask some questions and if they spark an interest in you, you might let Sproul give the defense. I believe that if you do look into this, you will be in for a great surprise. The questions are these:


If, as a Christian, you do believe that "man" fell in the Garden of Eden through Adam's fall, is there any part of man that might have not been effected?

Are we to interpret the bible statement that man is "dead in sin" to really mean that he is only "sick" albeit "very sick," in sin?

In your prayer time with God, can you honestly say to Him that you, even in a most minute way, have done something that was the "straw on the camel's back" in determining your salvation?

If you could say this, would it not elevate you over those who have not responded to God's grace, and if so does this feeling that you are more worthy than someone else not cause you to wince as you admit it?

Multitudes have died without hearing the Gospel, would not you be forced to either say that God was not fair with them...or...out of necessity, change the Gospel in that everyone does not really have to have faith is Christ's righteousness for redemption?

If Christ's atoning work was for every human being that ever existed, would it not be correct to say that His blood was 100% efficacious?

If the Holy Spirit of God, the God who not only created every molecule in this vast universe but who holds everything together to this day, called you, would you really be able to overcome His power?

What would it say about God if many people who were "born again", adopted into His family, made a brother of Christ, their name written in the Book of Life, in whom God loves and has promised to be with forever, would lose their everlasting life with Christ and go on to an eternal destiny apart from Him?

If you cannot understand why God would call some to salvation and not others (you would be, with me, part of a very large club) are you then going to say that God cannot possibly explain His ways and His plan, more than adequately and more than wonderfully, when we are with Him?

Have you considered that "man's" natural reasoning leads him to believe that he alone must determine what his destiny is?

Would you deny that it would be possible for God to communicate to us with "commands" to believe and "warnings"of what will happen if we do not, because that is the way we think and because that is part of His perfect plan?

Would the testimony of many who have said that, upon their salvation, they thought that they chose God, only to find out later that they were in deeper trouble than they even thought and that God's salvation and mercy was much greater than they originally rejoiced in, cause you to pause and reconsider?

As you have read of the many stalwarts of the Christian faith over the centuries and great evangelists in foreign lands, are you aware that most of these believed in these doctrines? Would you consider for a moment that as America departed from these doctrines, that it also departed from discernment and developed theological systems that bear little resemblance to the Gospel and much resemblance to our "modern" and now "postmodern" culture?
And finally, would you take some time and meditate on the problems that can arise "if" these "Doctrines of Grace" are true but not believed?

I'll give you one example; if we believe that an individual's choice determines his salvation, then, over time, we will increasingly evangelize with our own devices and innovation, rely less on proclaiming the cross and eventually attempt to coax and manipulate others to "believe". The church will fill over that time, with people who have "joined" something rather than being "born again" through the power of God. A new form of the Gospel will creep in, one more amenable to gaining "converts," and the church will be weakened and confusion will reign. Understanding these doctrines does not make one Christian superior over another, in fact it tends to make them feel even more inadequate in proportion to the greater grace that is understood. It does not stifle evangelism, it increases it; for the salvation of others is rightly seen as God's work, not ours. We cannot fail to win someone to Christ. What we can do is fail to proclaim Christ and His cross and partake in the blessing that He gives us as we proclaim Him and see the same forgiveness that was extended to us, bestowed on others! We can plead for the salvation of loved ones and others, for God has even given us this desire. All the glory is His and this is the most wonderful thing of all!

Friday.....America.....People...Assets or Liabilities?

An article in the January 18, 2010 issue of Forbes sheds a lot of light, and not only on the topic it is written about. Titled Carbon Windfall and written by Jonathan Fahey, it tells the success story of John Rowe, Exelon's CEO. He has been at the head of this utility for a long time and Exelon is labelled the country's most valuable utility. Through mergers, Rowe created Exelon in 2000 and promptly began selling coal fired power plants to rely on 17 nuclear reactors, by far the largest nuclear fleet in the nation. Rowe desires to be a visionary. The article quotes him in I thought climate legislation would come sooner or later and I'd rather have my money in the nuke fleet. Today, Exelon depends on this legislation being passed. I wrote in a previous blog how some electric utilities are pushing for cap and trade legislation for a different reason. The financial collapse of last year took its toll on the industry and cap and trade is one possible way to recoup those losses. It depends on the final decisions made by Congress on how companies will get the required permits. Everyone acknowledges that power prices will go up should this legislation become law. John Rowe is counting on making money through this price increase while his competitors suffer at a disadvantage for they will have expenses in complying with the emission restrictions. Both sides want the legislation but for different reasons. The article continues, the company (Exelon) views spending on lobbying for legislation almost like a capital expense and (Lowe) has emerged as a lobbyist for cap and trade. It gets tackier. Although Lowe is a Republican, Exelon has deep ties to the Obama administration. One Exelon executive helped advise Obama before he ran for President and is one of Obama's largest fundraisers. Obama's chief politcal strategist, David Axelrod, worked as a consultant to Exelon. Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, helped create Exelon. The article reports that Emanuel e-mailed Rowe and asked for help before the vote on the carbon trade legislation. Exelon was one of the utilities that quit the United States Chamber of Commerce because of its opposition to the legislation. The writer of the article takes the position, which I disagree with, that fossil heavy utilities want the legislation because it would rather have the certainty of the legislation, over the unknown regulation the EPA would require. Commenting on the government's powers to limit excessive profits, Rowe says The government has innumerable ways to take money from us if they really want to (tell us about it.). The second part of the article examines how Exelon has succeeded. Rowe's heavy emphasis on efficiency is one reason...nothing wrong with that. Nuclear power plants take an average of 40 days for refueling (downtime), Exelon averages 27 days. Thousands of documents were drawn and codified on how to do a given task. The article goes on to describe a number of innovative ways Exelon increases efficiency and thus profits. It sounds like something out of Japan's original workforce philosophy, with one possible exception, and it's a big one. Japan cared just as much for its workers, for they were considered assets, even family. Now I don't have the slightest idea how Exelon treats its employees. I do know that part and parcel of the current rage for windfall profits and ever-increasing profit margins, in much of America, relegates its employees as little more than necessary liabilities. Exelon might not be like this but it would be encouraging to have read in the article of their appreciation and care for their employees. Cutting the outage time as drastically as Exelon does must put tremendous pressure on everyone involved as the article describes the initial shutdown as choreographed down to the minute, like a Nascar pit stop. Exelon is still seeking to grow, in fact they were turned down on two acquisitions in recent times. John Rowe has gambled and so far it has paid off but a frozen world puts Rowe's prediction on passage of the cap and trade in 2010 as better than one in four, as overly optimistic. It's an ugly article in many ways. What does it say when a CEO is gambling on higher electricity prices as the source for his profits? What does it say about concern for users of the electricity? What does it say about any utility heavily promoting and lobbying for cap and trade under the guise of helping the environment? This is not the first time in American history that industry and Wall Street seemed to lacking a soul and were intoxicated with personal profit, but it is the first time that it corresponds with the nation on the brink of losing its liberties and freedoms, with enemies at its doors, and an with potential second economic crisis that would dwarf the Depression. Today's New York Times posted and article by David Barboza, titled The Man who Predicted Enron's fall Sees a Bigger Collapse Ahead. Its about hedge fund architect James S. Chanos who bets on companies to lose and a country this time, China, is in his sights. Should China's economy collapse, the global economy collapses. We need a return to people oriented corporations in these treacherous times for all of the efficiency innovations in the world won't help when the determination of the workforce, an asset and a blessing, is what would be needed most.

Wednesday.....Culture.....Information

Benjamin Disraeli was twice Prime Minister of England in the 19th century, and the only person of Jewish heritage to hold that office. His writings generated numerous quotes, one of which was As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information. Generally speaking, to stay in the same vein, the information that we receive in our society, through our culture, is destroying us. Entertainment is one of the culprits. We tend to learn from Hollywood directors. Oliver Stone has bestowed upon himself an honorary doctorate in American history. James Cameron's Avatar instructs the willing mind, as do many films each year of this genre, and Michael Moore has made a mockery of the documentary. Television tells us what a man is and what a woman should be, what the purpose of life is, what we need to own, and reinforces in us, that which we really want, that there is no judgement, and if there is it will be on the curve. The television news, along with PBS, give one side of the story. Our children's textbooks have long since promoted a secular world, and using revisionist history have failed to admire the good in American history and failed also to condemn ideologies that produce havoc in the world. Ask a young person about Nathan Hale and Che Guevara. They probably never heard of the former and might even admire the latter. Far too often, our universities elevate learning over what is learned, seeking over what might be found, and challenging over reasoning. To add insult to injury, outright deception in politics is so commonplace that challenging this brings a charge of being divisive. Being politically correct is the new golden rule. So what is the best information that Disraeli speaks of? I would think that it would have a strong foundation in observation and reporting of what is observed, and labeling opinion as such. Ultimately, the responsibility is ours in what information, in this information age, that we take in. There is a need for great introspection today. What is the successful man that Disraeli refers to? What is success? How about this thought, the beginning of success is in defining it and being able to defend that definition? For it would force one to admit where their heart is, and the difficulty in defending it might just coax one to reassess and redirect their goals.

Monday.....Miscellaneous.....We Are Americans, If You Please

Do the American people know the extent of the crisis they are in? Lets consider the crisis itself. We watch the carnage in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan but a desensitization has occurred. What we see seems almost surreal, but it can happen here as it did before. This past week British intelligence agencies warned that they are expecting an attack in the beginning of the new year. Our intelligence agencies followed that up with information that communications traffic indicates that attacks on our soil may be immanent. The financial collapse of last year was followed by the amassing of a debt that we have not come to grips with, and we are currently being warned that there are new bubbles forming that could dwarf 2008, yet satisfaction with the rising Dow is obscuring this and a rising tyranny in our government. The powers of our Constitution are currently being usurped and we are experiencing an attempted Socialist takeover. The future of our children is in jeopardy. Part of the polarization that has ruined any unity we might have had before is evident here for many will testify to the dangers we face but others seem to be oblivious to the potential devastation ahead, and even many conservatives neatly schedule their tirades between sports events. The horror of September 11, 2001 remains; passengers watching the twin towers coming closer and closer, screams in the cabin, jumpers from 100 floors up and firefighters and police officers running up stairs only to have millions of pounds of concrete and steel collapse upon them. The failed jetliner bombing of Christmas day was only the latest of an increasing number of individual terrorist attacks and other plots that were detected in time. Yet some are more concerned with freeing detainees from Gitmo than protecting our own citizens. No, we are in a war and will be devastated by that war if we do not wake up. Having said that; forgive my own absurdity in analysis here but there was a song from a Disney animated children's movie, Lady And the Tramp I believe, in which I would like to paraphrase a part of its lyrics. Our message to the world should be We are Americans, if you please. We are Americans, if you don't please. We deserve a humbling but that is our business and not Europe's, nor Asia's. We should not have to go to any country or people and plead forgiveness when they would either have banners of a swastika or flags with a hammer and sickle dotting their landscape if not for this nation, nor should we join with or emulate the strategies of European countries that are losing the war on infiltration and intimidation. The terrorist's timing better be perfect for if it is not they may meet a people out of American history books, for many of those now wasting time wondering who will win the Super Bowl, still have the determination of December 8th, 1941 running through their veins. Until proven otherwise, Americans may bend until our shores are breached when that bend becomes a bow, as President George Bush demonstrated. The trend towards globalization needs to be reversed immediately. China wants us to buy its exports and to prove financial stability for their investments but its government is not a friend to us nor to its own people. Moderation in the liberties we enjoy is wise. Moderation in defending those liberties is not. We need to inform moderate Republicans running for office that we are not in a moderate crisis, we are not going to moderately defend our country, we don't moderately respect the sacrifices of our military nor those who came before us and most of all, we will no more moderately honor the benefactor of our blessings nor moderately acknowledge His goodness and wisdom for He is the only one who can sustain us and the only one whose forgiveness we should covet.

Sunday.....Christianity.....Peculiarities And Deception

I am a person of many peculiarities as my family and friends can testify to. Here are some of the habits, formed over time:

-I fly the Stars and Stripes six days a week. I won't hang it outside on the Lord's Day so as not to confuse the Gospel with patriotism.
-My back has not touched the back of a pew in church in probably the last 15 years; for listening to God speaking directly to us, through His minister, deserves our full attention. And it is too joyful anyway, when Christ is preached, to do otherwise.
-My eyes never leave the pulpit during a service. I don't know who passes the collection plate, nor do I know who is sitting in the same pew across the aisle. I do this to lessen distractions from His message, distractions that we are so prone to invite.
-I would not become a member of our church until the problem that I had with the oath could be resolved. That problem being, taking an oath where I had to make promises that I was in no way confident that I could keep. It was resolved when the pastor added "through the grace of God" before the promise.
I, in no way, recommend anyone else to do what I do and acknowledge that they may not even be wise. I'm simply well aware of our own frailties and have added these habits as reminders. I might seem to others to go overboard at times in defense of the Gospel, to seem intractable, but I also know the power of deception in and around the church. Christian cults are prima facie evidence of this deception. A man, usually a man, claims to have had a vision from either God or an angel. He is given a mission to restore the true church to the world. Within a short period of time, sacred scriptures, peculiar to this person's teaching, become the foundation of truth. I have had many conversations with such followers where their eyes seem to stare above my head as they repeat the mantras, or the interpretations, indelibly etched into there minds. The evidence against the founder is clear but few, only those who God had opened their eyes, escape. Subversions of the gospel within the church are a different kind of deception but deception nonetheless. Testimonies laden with miracles are usually used here to support a particular doctrine. Christ's name and good works are everywhere while the deception can range from outright heresy to sad tangents from the gospel. Prophesy teachers can concoct outrageous predictions and I was not immune from some of these in my earlier days. Huge attendance at certain churches can serve as a testimony that all is well within, entertainments and personal ministries can keep fertile minds barren, even the outright blasphemy of books like The DaVinci Code allure Christians. Other books with serious deviations from the gospel rise to the top of Christian best selling lists, but there is another type of deception that I have to be concerned with all the time and that is realizing the deception all around and writing about it like this can puff one up, and make one think that a poor interpretation of Scripture is worse than failing to love. John Bunyan once gave a sermon where he described Satan as a lion, close on our heels and devouring all he can catch, but he also wrote in Pilgrim's Progress that he is tethered if our eyes remain on the truth that Scripture proclaims. There is no contradiction here. We are in a seriously precarious situation all the days of our lives but with our eyes on Christ and His gospel we are secure in His love.

I took a break in writing here to listen to the weekly broadcast of The White Horse Inn (www.whitehorseinn.org ) and I want to repeat a verse they related from 1st Timothy, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. (1st Tim 1:15) Paying heed to this verse is infinitely more important than any peculiarities that I might construct. Paul was encouraging Timothy here to defend true doctrine and be aware and wary of false teachers. I'll leave you with another admonition of Paul to Timothy in his second letter no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier (2nd Timothy 2: 4). We have work to do in this life, and enjoyments, but to let them entangle us so as to constrict us is falling for yet another kind of deception.