Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount (part I)

Introduction

It often occurs to me that folks are often confused about Christian beliefs. I like to take all scripture seriously and am especially pleased in sharing stories from the Old Testament as it reflects the life of a people who often felt a special relationship with God and were in conversation with that God regularly. That is a bit naïve and perhaps more based on Tevye’s relationship and conversations with God in the musical The Fiddler on the Roof. In truth, they probably were just as errant in their ways as we are, but I still like the idea. I would like to promote that idea of daily intimate conversations with God as Tevye had.

I also believe that this God is most revealed in his Son, Jesus of Nazareth; his teachings, and lifestyle examples. We find those in his many parables, which are great storytelling techniques. And we find it in his great sermon, The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), or Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6. 17-49). For my purposes and I will be using Eugene H. Peterson’s translation, The Message, for his fresh look at these teachings.

I hope my reflections help clarify for others and myself what God wishes to reveal to us in these times.

Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount

You’re Blessed Matthew 5. 5-12

5 1-2 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

6 “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

7 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

9 “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

10 “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

11-12 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

This message of Jesus is commonly referred to as the beatitudes. Here Jesus talks about 8 blessings we have or receive when we practice the teachings of Jesus. They are gifts God gives for faithful discipleship. A number of folk use “if, then” logic with the blessings of the beatitudes. I don’t think that is accurate, the blessing is in the act of the action itself. For example, you don’t find peace as a reward to working for peace, the blessing is in doing peacemaking activities. It feels good to do the right thing, it is not a payment for good works. Now on to the blessings.

For instance, when we find ourselves in dire straights, or at the end of our rope, it is a very good time to converse with God, to gain clarity and perspective on those things that have upset us. Just turning to God in conversation, prayer, helps our orientation to see our way through issues.

Next, Jesus tells us, when we are caught up in intense grief over the loss of someone near and dear to us, it is a good time to turn to the one whose love is eternal and unconditional. It is a time to embrace our God and our faith so “we do not grieve at others who lack hope (1 Thessalonians 4.13.) It is a time to be open to God’s embrace when we feel alone or abandoned.

Jesus then offers us the sound advice to just accept things as they are and be content. We find it so easy to complain about what others have that we want (covet), or situations that discomfort us. As Jesus said a bit later, worrying about things doesn’t change anything, it just makes us feel worse. Instead, think of all the blessings that you do have, it is the sugar that helps the medicine go down as Julies Andrew sings in Mary Poppins.

Jesus tells us to enjoy it when we are active in our discipleship, no matter what. Faithfulness and disciple discipleship are tasty.

Jesus tells us that when we care for people when we are aware of others' burdens and are sympathetic and have empathy, there is a blessing feeling God-like in the best sense. When that happens we can embrace being the children of God.

Too much introspection can give rise to a number of woes and even narcissism. However, when you are in close conversation with God, that introspection can give rise to great intimacy to our creation and give us a great perspective on the rest of the world.

We are very unblessed when we get all hung up on what is wrong with the world, and rotten other people are, and we constantly fight with others. Our competitive world can at worst lead to violence. When we see ourselves as part of the same team working for the same goals, especially God’s goals, we have a great sense of peace and belonging. Feels good.

We like to be popular and belong. But if popularity and being in the “in crowd” leads us to material and fleshly pleasures only that popularity is hollow and unfulfilling. If you do the right thing even if it makes you unpopular or not “with it” but you feel right with God for doing godly things, you can treasure beyond the “goodies” of this world. Look to be a good citizen in God’s world and you will benefit this world.

All is not right with the world, but God is still in her heaven. So, if people give you a lot of crap for working to preserve the world God gave us when we promote positivity instead of negativity when we show love rather than hate, when we work for the common good rather than selfish desires and folk call you a “goody-two-shoes”, rejoice because you have chosen the right crowd to be in with; God’s crowd of faithful, disciplined followers.

Debate and Committees

 Back in the 60’s when I was teaching in a high school, a group of students came to me and asked if I would be their debate coach. The school had had a debate team but their coach had moved on and they decided I should replace him. I knew absolutely nothing about debate and told them that. They said, “no problem” there are books and it and we’ll teach you. And so I became a debate coach.

They already knew about what the debate subjects for the intercollegiate debate where and were already at work researching and organizing the 3 x 5 index cards of data and off we went to various schools to debate. I do not remember any of the debate subjects, nor do I recall the schools where we went to debate but I do remember most of the students who were a part of the debate team.

Most of the debate team were active in other extracurricular activities and were very bright and enjoyed the debate competition and just seeing new places and meeting other debate team members and stacking up the skills against others.

I liked the process as well, however, it also made me uncomfortable and somehow seemed off. The goal of this type of debate endeavor was to win; to get the skills and techniques that would allow you and your team to win, to beat the opposition at least in the minds of the judges of those debates.

Now I have always loved to debate stuff. In conversation I loved talking about things and argue various points of view. But for me the overriding point of debate was to find truth, or the best solution to an issue. That was supposedly what debate teams were being taught to do, but in our competitive society what they were really being taught was how to win.

And then comes modern political debate. That competitive spirit dominates modern political debate. At least Mitch McConnell was upfront when Obama was elected and said, he sole interest during the Obama administration was to stop that administration from getting anything done. There was no to attempt to justify or support the superiority of the Republican positions over Democratic positions, they just wanted to win. It did and does sicken me.

That style of debate, where skewed rhetoric and rude overbearing words and tossed about so popular today in political debate does very little good for anyone. While I like watching George Stepanopoulos’ program “This Week” and other news shows and do learn a lot about various views folk have on issues, I don’t like the process and the means most folk use to get their points across.

Now here is a process I do like. I love committee work. I know that probably most folk regard committee work as a pain in the butt, I have always liked it. A committee is a group of people generally given a specific task or overall goal to do something. Yeah, I know often those committee discussions often go on too long and some folk seek to dominate the discussion but that is just process issues that can be resolved. A good chair of a committee can pretty well make it a good process, if they see that all are contributing to a discussion and thus getting the values of a variety of points of view and setting time limits on the gathering so people just don’t wear out. I developed a pretty good reputation while in my ministry of being a good small group worker. I truly believe that small group work come up with the best solutions to issues and develop processes to solve problems. Again, as it debate, the point of debate or discussion is to discern truth as best we can. And groups that have good small group discipline find those solutions better than individuals or large groups.

Members of congress are elected by their constituents to work for their common good. That is there job. Congressional work is usually divided up into various committees. There are a whole slew of them; 36 standing committees (i.e. budget, judiciary, rule, veterans affairs); 9 Special, Select and Other Committees (i.e. Climate crisis, aging, ethics,); 4 joint committees (i.e. on printing, on taxation, economic,) and 5 Commissions and Caucuses (i.e. Human Right, Congregation Oversight, Senate Commission on Art…). Each committee has a job to do. Unfortunately party politics often getting the way of getting their work done. These committees often line up like debate teams who see their job for their side to win and the other side to lose. The function of the committee is to get the work done and gains insights from every member’s positions so the wisest and most helpful decisions are reached. Wouldn’t it be nice if they worked that way?

Ideologies can help or can hinder that process. In churches where I worked with committees I would often remind them who we worked for, the church we served and ultimately God. And to do God’s work we should be guided by the teachings and guidance of Jesus, not just personal druthers. When it was clear that we really were about God’s work, committees did good work but when personal agendas and outside pressures got in the way, the committees did not function well.

We need to remind our politicians who they work for, the common good of the nation. When special interest groups bring pressures to bear and funding for elections into the process our congressional committees can easily lose sight of whom they work for. That is why I keep arguing that we need to get campaign funding laws enacted the limit these special interest groups, especially those that represent the few, the wealthy at the expense of the majority.

We, as citizens need to elect folk who will get these campaigns under control so that committees of congress can do the work they were elected to do. And they do that work best when rather than regarding each other as combatants see each other as members of the same team working for a common goal. Let it be.

NERF: A better way

 I write a lot. I write on many many topics. I believe I bring to my articles or essays, a liberal arts education supplemented with a long personal history (meaning I’m old) and much philosophical reflection. I have been accused of being creative on more than one occasion. Some folk even think I come up with good ideas from time to time. 

Well, here it comes. I think I’ve come up with a humdinger this time. It is an aha, eureka, epiphanous moment. Ready? We need to bring back to prominence the NERF ball and other nerf stuff. 

Think about it. Let the idea roll around softly around your brain a bit. That’s it. NERF stuff are usually weapons: balls, clubs, footballs, baseballs, basketballs; sports balls are generally used in gentile or not so gentle wars of entertainment. The most aggressive nerf was probably the “blaster” but to date, I know of no one that was ever wounded or even bruised by a NERF weapon. Think of football games with nerf footballs and nerf padded helmets and uniforms; how could you even get a concussion in nerf football. They are just foam, brightly colored, happy foam (or polyurethane).

The first NERF ball invented was a 100 mm (4 inch) ball to play a type of football indoors. Reyn Guyer from Minnesota created it out of polyurethane foam in 1969. Genius. Then quickly came the Super NERF ball, my personal favorite. In my work with youth over the years I have found the nerf (okay, I’ll go to lower case) my favorite for games played and fewer trips to doctors. I also had a set of nerf clubs, like caveman clubs for beating each over the heads. In one youth group, there was one of the kids who was just always going to be bullied. The family came to see me if I had any way of helping him. After we talked a bit about anger and stuff I took one of the clubs and gave it to the bullied kid and told him to take it home. And when he felt really angry and sad, pretend that his dad was one of those bullies and just beat the crap out of him. They knew that no one was really going to get hurt but it got a lot of frustration out, and, it was funny. Funny is remarkable in diffusing anger. 

Okay, I have another. In couples therapy, I often told couples when involved in tense arguments to dance the Penguin. If you are not familiar with the penguin it is a dance I first heard done by the Harvard Lampoon Tabernacle Choir. In the dance music starts very slowly and the dance partners face each other with their arm down stiffly at their sides and the hand perpendicular to their bodies and the begin to step in rhythm to the music. The beat of the music increases in tempo and the step more and more lively. As the music reaches it top speed it suddenly stops the dance partners immediately stop dancing and reach toward their partner's tummy tickle it and then throw their hands in the air and holler “Whee!” I defy folk to stay angry after the penguin dance. (Further research shows there are many versions of the penguin dance from the 1970s, children’s shows; there are even lyrics I believe penned by Jack Hartman or Pinkfong. But I still prefer the Harvard Lampoon Tabernacle Choir version on the 1962 album, “The Harvard Lampoon Tabernacle Choir Sings and Leningrad Stadium,” and described as I did before. Christopher B Cerf (a Harvard alum ’63) wrote the original lyrics. The record first printing sold out in 3 weeks after release. Boston disk jockey “Woo Woo” Ginsburg played in constantly at the time. Hey, you need to know these things.)

Imagine nerf balls and penguin dances in life situations. In games when the competition gets to wild and fights about to break out, the referee blows their whistle, nerf basketballs, baseballs, footballs or whatever are substituted for the hard counterparts and the teams and throw them against each other. In hockey, an especially violent sport when fights break out, instead of sending offenders to the penalty box makes them dance the penguin on the ice. I think it would save of lot of stitches.

And how about congressional debate? Instead of rudely interrupting each other or talking over the other, just throw a nerf ball at whom you are angry with. Can’t just see the House of Representative or the Senate involved in an all-out frenzy nerf ball throwing at each other while the lobbyists are required to stand in the gallery doing the Penguin dance?

Campaign debates could even get interesting if the debate host was armed with gigantic nerf balls suspended over each candidate, and one dropped on them whenever they went overtime, got off the subject, was rude, or just because they irked the MC.

We could probably end Middle Eastern strife if somehow we could just replace all weaponry with nerf balls. Well, that’s not likely to happen but I would like to see Benjamin Netanyahu beaned by a nerf ball by Yasser Arafat. Now that escalation I would pay money to see.

British parliamentary debate is pretty laughable as it is, but it certainly would be spiced up and more fun with nerf balls being hurled at each other by Lords and Commoners.

Would the Irish Troubles be more of the Irish Laughables with nerf balls?

We wouldn’t have to impeach Trump, just force him to hit nerf golf balls while opponents got to use regular golf balls. Instead of censure just force him to wear nerf clown shoes the rest of his life. But I wander... sorry.

You could do a great TV special featuring Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell launching various nerf attacks supported by their entourage armies. They could all line up facing each other and then dance the Penguin.

I don’t think we would ever have to worry about arms buildup escalations if the only arms were nerf oriented. More likely we would encourage nerf innovations to enhance nerf warfare. It makes more sense than creating a Space Force to me. The most expensive nerf weapon I could find on Amazon was a Nerf Elite titan CS-50 Toy Blaster. I’m not sure what it is but it costs $299.00. I think that is significantly less than a nuclear warhead plus missile.

There it is my flash of brilliance for the day or decade. Get nerf stuff, dance the Penguin, and wait for the pandemic to subside so we are prepared for the nerf Olympics.

The Good Old Days vs The Good New Days

As we continue to age and lot us like to harken back to the good old days. We like to think of them as when life was simpler, there were less rules and regulations we had to adhere to. Where with a good relationships with our neighbors and folk knew how to get along. There weren't all those blasted gadgets we didn't understand and if something busted you just fixed it and didn't have to buy a new one. There weren't a lot of race, gender, creedal issues and you didn't have to worry about being politically correct. In our intertainment on radio or TV the good guys wore white hats, the bad buys wore black hats and the good whited hatted folk just shot the black hatted bad guys and peace ensued. Cops could always be trusted, teachers taught reading, writing and arithmatic and you didn't have to know much of anything else. Most of us had indoor plumbing and lights. Outings were generally with neighbors and family where we would eat good food and play games and most folk just go along with no big political or religious fighting. Most folk were farmers or lived in small towns where everyone was pretty much like everybody else. And at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning almost everybody were in churches that were all basically the same. Ah, the good old days. 

But just how good were they really? True, there were less rules and regulations, but those rules and regulations generally were created as safeguard to the public welfare not just to make life difficult. There were less traffic rules as there was less traffic. There were no regulations for pesticides and herbecides because there weren't any. If you burnt your trash and buried your tin cans it was no big deal because there weren't that many of us. Less people, less polution. And, if you neighbors were messy you just lived with it or community pressure made them shape up. There was a lot of community pressure to conform and do whatever others did. Woe to the nonconformist who came up with something new like paint their house with colorful polka dots; responsible just didn't do colorful polka dots and folk that did were quick to be condemned and even ostracized. 

Then came dial telephone and "central" the phone operators lost their jobs. We lost a lost of good gossip and prying when there were not party lines to listen in on, but we gained quite a bit of privacy and convience. Washing machines and dryers were what they were advertised to be, "labor saving devices." People we trusted like teachers, police, preachers and the like, were often bullies who like to lord it over others unlike the radio and TV ideals we saw. But most things could do good things.

For preachers and other folk who did a lot of research we no longer had to go to libraries or have a lot of our own books and the internet came, research became a breeze and we could not many time more things that we used to be able to do. 

Roads improved, wages increased, labor saving devices really did help us with daily chores and we began to have a lot more neighbors with varied backgrounds that help extend our knowledge of the world. TV expanded our world vision emmensely and changed our perspectives on almost everything. It was easier to become smarter and wiser about a plethora of things because of all these inventions. Productivity from farm products to factory made stuff, goods and services just kept increasing and we took this abundant life for granted.

Perhaps the are the good new days and we just to appreciate it or have used them as wisely as we should have. The potential for good from modern technology is mind boggling and indeed has improved life. Our problem generaly comes when we use the tools of productive for greedy purposes to gain advantage over others, to accentuate selfish aims over the common good. 

If we lived in communities that felt more accountable to each other, and viewed as friends to work togetehr for the common good, these would be the good new days. The good old days were often repressive, the new days just have more aninimity and less accountability so sometimes we are more isolated than when there were less of us and we didn't live in massive populations centers. If we see new people and new places, and new mechanisms and fearful and repressive than opportunities to expand our horizons and appreciate diversity and benefit from other perspective; these days can be as oppressive and the days of yore.

In reality there is more good news than bad news in the world. Things really are much better for a lot of folk, despite current history were greedy indidividualistic wealthy folk abuse other and control government. If we look for good news we will find it in loving neighbors, new opportunties, and the like. Unfortunately bad news sells better than good news.

As I used to tell my congregations spend less time listening to the news; that doesn't mean ignore it, just just give more time and importance to reading scripture and you will have a more realistic and positive view of the world. The word gospel still means good news - look for it.

It is very difficult to be optomistic in these times. If my confidence was dependent upon human nature I would be completely discouraged. But like the psalmist in scripture, who spent a lot of time complaining as well, we have a relationship with a God who for not apparent reason to me seems to be madly, passionately and rediculously in love with humanity. Talk to her more and your attitude will be enhanced.

I believe if we do these things to enhance our conversaton and connection with God, concentrate of the teaching of Jesus and others of wisdom whether secular or sacred, we will gain the courage, confidence and conviction to work of the challanges that face our society and world today. Here's to the Good New Days! 

The American Caste System

I’ve been thinking of the caste system in the United State of America. Caste system you may ask, isn’t that something they practice in India but certainly not here. No, here in America we talk about economic classes, not castes, but they seem pretty much the same to me.

U.S. News breaks down the economic classes as: 

Low Income – less than $40,100 

Middle Income - $41,000 to 120,400 and

 Upper as more than $120,400.

Looking at data from the Pew Research Center shows that the middle class is shrinking as the lower class is increasing while the highest class is growing.

I could show a whole bunch of charts here about how the poor and getting poorer while the rich are getting richer, but I think most of you know that already.

That is typically what happens in a oligarchy where the rich folk running the government set up a tax structure than benefits the rich and the expense of the poor. And that is exactly what has happened with Ronald Reagan set up “Trickle Down Economics” during his presidency and has been followed every since especially during Republican administrations.

I’ve thought a lot more about this since the pandemic has ravaged the country. Who have been disadvantaged the most during this time? The poorer lower economic classes as usual. Everybody is affected, but the poor lose their jobs the first and have the least resources to withstand a long tern economic downturn. 

I have especially thought about the children during this time. Children are always the most in lower classes. Schooling in in democracy is supposed to be the great equalizer allowing folk access to education so they can improve the economic positions. Yeah right. Have you looked at the cost of higher education in recent years? Higher is right. If I have my math done correctly (which I don’t really trust) the cost of going to school has increased a 100% since I went to school.

With the pandemic home schooling has become normal with aid from the schools providing materials for children, via parents to use over the internet – Zoom education. Now who do you guess have the best computers, internet connections and familiarity with this technology? It’s not the lower classes. And the upper classes can just hire private folk to take up the slack.

I’ve also thought about extracurricular activities/sports during this time as well. Again, sports have been an access point for a few (the emphasis here is on “few”) to get education and jobs due to their athletic prowess. Now days to excel in sports you can’t just go out for school sports to excel, you better go to camps, and join clubs to increase your prowess if you are going to succeed. So that means to economic ascendency if also now tied to economic class.

Now to gaze into our crystal balls and envision the future, is this going to get better or worse. I have very little optimism here. If things keep going the way they are going our class/caste system seems to be headed for the dark ages and feudalism. The Lord and Ladies will have the time to indulge in sports and whatever, but the peasants just better keep their noses to the owners grindstones to survive.

If there is going to be change let’s not blame lower economic folk for wanting a living minimum wage, let’s rekindle democracy by taking power back from the wealthy oligarchs. 

To do that, we will have to get money out of political campaigns so that the wealthy can continue to buy governmental workers not matter what party they are. 

TRUMPF SUPPORTS PART IV: The changing role of media

When I was a kid our family would frequently gather around the radio in the living room and listen to Fiber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleave, Johnny Dollar, The Red Rider, The Lone Ranger and one of my favorite The Shadow (alias Lamont Cranston, now also the name of one of our cats.) Radio was a major portion of our news information along with the Des Moines Register newspaper. We also had at various times magazines such as Look, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, and others that the school kids were hawking on any given year. All in all we were pretty well informed I thought.

Then my brother in the late 50’s brought home a 13” portable he bought with one of his jobs between times in college. Whoa! We got 3 channels: NBC our regular news outlet largely because it had the strongest signal for our rabbit eared antenna, and on good days we would also get CBS, ABC and sometime PBS. Our aunt and uncle then bought a console TV and would invite us over from time to time for big TV events. I believe there were 2 or 3 commercials of a half or a full minute allowed to sponsor these shows. However, new show were not allowed to be money makers, according he the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) they were the stations obligation to the public for the privilege of selling the other programs on TV. As a result the nation it seems to me was better and more timely informed that ever before. The great newscasters were icons of virtue and truth telling such as Huntley and Brinkley (our NBC station giving a friendly “Goodnight Chet”, “Goodnight David” even if they didn’t know each other all that well and lived in different cities, Howard K. Smith, and the great Walter Cronkite the most respected voice on reliable news that everyone accepted and a truth speaker. Ah, those were the days.

~    ~  ~  ~

Then in 1977 Roone Arledge, well known for his running of ABC’s Wide World of Sports took over ABC’s news department. He decided enough of the loss leader news stuff and say that new should pay it way and thus began profit-making news. Meaning a long more bad news as that sells best. All other networks soon fell into place with this new source of revenue except of course PBS. Good old solid reliable PBS. Of course a good number of Trump voters don’t believe things on PBS.

Anyway, the race for profit TV  News was on its way. Sob. (You ever notice the similarity between sob and SOB; that just occurred to me; sorry my disturbed gray cells get in the way of my writing from time to time. Who knows what happened to commercial limits; likely big money bought the FCC as well.

And then came Cable. I believe Cable was one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse but I could be wrong. Now everyone who has cable has 4 quintillion channels to select from each worse than the original 3 + 1. And, each one is out to make a buck. Of course, for profit news programs began to proliferate as well. I am using the term new programs loosely here; very loosely. At any rate there are a lot of channels about almost anything except things of interest.

Oh, back to radio; now this is important. Radio, despite creative guys like Stan Freeberg who would march 100,000 roman soldiers during a program and say, match that TV. Again I digress. The fight between radio and TV wasn’t really a fair fight despite Stan Freeberg. You could see things, kinda fuzy and first and then clear, and then came color (the clerk of session in our church was bought the first color TV in my hometown; a nine inch screen with a magnifying glass over it), and then came replays, and then came…well you get the idea. By the 70’s the number of am radio station had declined sharply despite Dick Clark and brain numbing music. FM became the way to go. Well, maybe this all is that important except, for the folk who started buying all these nearly defunct radio stations. Who, bible belt, fundamentalist bible thumpers, that’s who. They cost little and low and behold got a lot of listeners. There is a ton of information on the transitions on radio and then TV and the folk who bought these stations, far too much into than I want to get into here but it leads to where I want to go and this point anyway.

This was the beginning of a large consortium of folk from the right, often the far right who began buying all these radio stations and later Cable TV stations.

Now if you remember back with the 3 +1 dominated the news, there was a growth in the social consciousness in America. Wars viewed up close and personal and family kitchen tables began to upset folk who wondered why are we fighting them. In my hometown there was not a single black man, woman, or child, or any other minorities I noticed. Now there was talk about civil rights, and demonstrations, along with music gatherings where folk wore little clothing, sang protest songs and like to stick flowers in GI’s rifles during parades. Some folk saw this and doing what Jesus said to do in the bible, others thought they were immoral, decadent complainers just upsetting the apple cart. They organized as well, but quietly at first anyway.

Folk like the Southern Baptist Convention used their new purchased radio and some TV station to combat what they had organized to begin with during the civil war, to fight integration of the races. The Bible was filled with slaves and God fearing Christians had a right to those slaves.

It occurs to me that the essay is going to grow to gargantuan proportions unless I cut to the chase and get to the major points here. The major player in right wing politics and media is the CNP (Council on National Policy.) It is not a big outfit but its members are absolutely financially loaded. It came into existence in 1981 and combined a number of organizations such as the Southern Baptist Convention, Focus on the Family (Dobson), Tim LaHaye the head of the Moral Majority, Christian TV guys like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, a bunch of senators, Trump spokeslady Kellyanne Conway, good old Oliver North, then secretary of Education Betsy Devos, the Kock brothers and a bunch of others and the NRA. It is a secretive group that does not want it meetings know however in 2016 the Southern Poverty Law Center got ahold of its membership and listed it. The point is this small group is very smart, and huge financial recourses, incredible political knowhow and a definite extreme right wing agenda. Wikipedia descries is as a pluto-theocracy. It is probably best described as against anything liberal.

I would suggest you do your own googling about the CNP and it membership and the extremism of it constituents. 

What is important to me is there control and power they have through modern media resources. They have influenced a great number of people who have bought into the misinformation. For example the group Qnon in the news today where folk with extreme positions gathered from these misinformation resources have alienated family members.

This has been the most difficult piece to write because of it scope and complexity. I’ll try to summarize as best I can. Groups on the right of the political spectrum began buying and controlling minor media markets since the Reagan days. The represent lots of groups including the Southern Baptist Convention, The Bible/Rust Belt contingents like Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robinson and the like, and a great number of extremely wealthy folk who just want more wealth and believe in noblesse oblige, that they should be in charge of government, people who could fund all these groups. Folk like David and Charles Kock, Dick and Betsy DeVos,  Timothy Mellon, and a bunch of other folk whose names you probably do not know the NRA who has more money to spend on politics than their $35/year dues could possible generate (must be a miracle). The organization that brings most of these groups together is the CNP (Central National Policy), who are effective at staying out of the public eye. These are the groups that have benefited the most economically from right wing control of the economy, the .1%ers.

Most mystifying to me are the right wing religious groups who claim to be bible based fundamentalist interpreters of scripture who have accepted right wing social norms and biblical values. They support school prayer, intelligent design, Christian nationalism, and ardently oppose stem cell research, homosexuality, euthanasia, birth control, sex education, abortion, and pornography. They are experts in finding obscure texts taken our of context and use them to justify their ideology. They claim to take the biblical literally, but are quite selective about which verses they select ignoring ting like a man has the right to cut off his wife’s hand if she grabs his genitals (Deut 25. 11-12), you can wear clothe combine linen and wool (Lev. 19.19), If you woman is suspected of adultery she should drink dirty water (Num. 5. 11-31, you shouldn’t sit where a menstruating woman has sat (Lev. 15. 19-21.), you are not allowed to kill a burgler during the day  (Ex. 22. 2-3), and of course you should not boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk (Ex. 23.19.) I could go on but you get the point.

For me simply following the teachings of Jesus, which boils down to loving and accepting each other as found in the Sermon on the Mount and his parables should provide clear guidance for moral behavior. So many of the things they stand against preach just the opposite; condemning folk who are gay, of a different color, a different belief system or like bagels. This is not to say that Jesus does not get mad at folk in the scriptures, condemn them and judge them badly. But those folk are inevitable people of his own faith who have left love out of the law and made up a bunch of rules that became a burden for folk rather than a means to care for others and build up community. This describes the very people who do the same thing today and are found on the extreme right. Jesus taught tolerance and supported those marginal folk of his society, he didn’t condemn and make their life more difficult than it already was. I do believe in taking all scripture seriously but for me that means understanding the historical context, research and critical thinking.

A good deal of the materials I used in this essay came from a book,  Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right by Anne Nelson (enough information in it to make your head spin for weeks) and other similar books: The Power Worshippers, Democracy in Chains, Dark Money, American Oligarchy, etc.

I don’t feel I have given this subject due justice, take from it what you will and we all struggle to be faithful followers of Jesus. And social media would take another whole article if I can bear to get into it.

Oh, you can still get episodes of those great old radio programs at  http://www.radioclassics.com/   and elsewhere. And a lot more fun that shock radio.

“Good night Mrs Calabash wherever you are.” 

TRUMP SUPPORTERS PART 3: Why? An education population is necessary for democracy

The founding fathers were convinced that education was a critical component for democracy to work. They also believed that an aristocracy of wealth was the demon that could wreck democracy. To that end they believed education ought to be available to every citizen, that it be public, and free of religion and ideology. It was a cost worth bearing.

Samuel Adam wrote to James Warren in 1779, “If Virtue and Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav’d. This will be their great security. (I take comfort that his grammar seems on to on a par to mine.) Thomas Jefferson wrote frequently to his colleagues about the essential role of education for a democracy to work, for instance, this letter to Joseph Cabell in 1818: “A system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest, of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest.” The writings on the importance of education are rampant among the conversation and correspondence of the early promoters and creators of democracy.

In light of that you would think that civics, teaching about our government and how it works would be very prominent in our educational system. It’s not. Only 9 states plus the District of Columbia require of yearlong course in civics in our country. In 30 states such as Iowa where I taught civics, a half a year is required.  And, 11 states just say “posh and fiddle” and require no civics education at all. (“The only good government is no government.” See previous simple statement in part II.)

The results of the paucity of education are apparent. If you asked folk at random, as Jimmy Kimmel is prone to do, only 26 of a hundred good citizens can list the 3 branches of government. (Hint, they are not Elm, Hickory or Oak.) Given this lack of understanding it is not a surprise that on 18% of our citizens trust the government. Lately we have pushed math and writing at the expense of civics. These subjects after all are important in getting jobs and reaching our material goals. Civics? No so much unless you are a lobbyist, then you will make big bucks. (Oligarchy pays, at least some people.)

For those states that do teach civics they appear to emphasize data: The Bill of Rights, systems of governments, and some awareness of local and state voting processes. Among the curriculums examined 0.0% taught about experiential learning or local and national problem solving methods. We may be critical of government but we lack critical analysis of the issues (they are not the same thing.)

Along this line only half on the states give school credit for community service.

There are good materials available for teaching civics. The Southern Poverty Law Center has material for teaching tolerance as a basic American value. If tolerance was indeed an American value and was practiced think our different that past four years or the past 40 years could have been.

In my humble opinion civics should be required in every state, preferable a year long course. I think it should include: 1)instruction on civics, government, law, economics and geography, 2)daily discussion of current events and the encouragement of everyone to speak, (I’d also toss in lesson on listening skills as well), 3)service opportunities and credit for them, 4)extra curricular activities, 5)student participation in student government, 6)simulations of democratic processes, 7)literacy about the new media resources (and old) and judging their credibility, 8)Action civics (you figure that out), 9)the social and emotional effects of government of those governed, 10)finally, the social climate for changes and reform of government.

I will refrain from engaging in a long tirade of the advantages of liberal arts education vs the trend towards “how’s this class going to make me bucks?” education which is making higher education lower. Or another spiel on valuing trade schools equally to college education and the need for teaching not just teaching of trade “skills” but trade etiquette and civility or, - civics for the trades.

Until the next time.

TRUMP SUPPORTERS Part 2: Why

This is perhaps the easiest explanation of what certain folk are Trump supporters – he is a Republican. (Though he once was a Democrat.) There are folk who are so entrenched in a party that absolutely nothing will move them to change politics. A common line for folk of this persuasion is, “My father would roll over in his grave if I voted anything but Republican.” This can be followed by an equally entrenched utterance, “Better dead than Red.” Or, the equally inane statement, “There are good Indians and there are bad Indians. Damned Indians. (You may insert and group here that you wish to demean: democrats, liberals, blacks, gays, Bears, Martians, or a personal favorite – There are good Alpha Centaurians and there are bad Alpha Centaurians, damned Centaurians.

These folk are perfectly oblivious to the changes in parties over the years. Modern Republicans love to refer to themselves as the party of Lincoln. However, they no more embrace the values of the Republicans in Lincoln’s day that cats are dogs. Actually cats and dogs can get along better than the deluded Republicans. We had a dog that raised a kitten; I wondered if the cat thought it was a cat or a dog. There I go meandering again. The point is the Republican party in Lincoln’s day were the liberals in the political spectrum. They were against slavery for pity’s sake while the conservatives of the day, democrats, were ardent opponents of abolition. Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican and Franklin D. Roosevelt was a Democrat, but the shared the same liberal ideology. Read a little history folk and get your facts straight.

One can admire loyalty to parties and to causes, but it should not be blind sighted, thoughtless loyalty. John Kennedy’s book Profiles in Courage lifted up those folk who went against tradition and popular opinion to just do the right think because it was the right thing to do.

It is like the old story of a young girl asking her mother why when they made a loaf of bread they always cut off of the of the roll and put the rest in the baking pan. Her mother said, “that’s the way my mother taught me.” The little girl then went to her grandmother and asked why they always cut off the end of the bread roll before putting in the baking pan. Her grandmother told her because that was how her mother told her. The little girl then went to her great grandmother and asked why they always cut off the end of he bread roll before putting it in the baking pan. Her grandmother said, “So it would fit in the pan we had.”

Just because we have traditions and traditions are often very good things to follow. But we also need to know the history of our traditions and whether they make a bit of sense in times that have changed or you got a new larger baking pan.

Of course, the response to this story by ardent Republican or Democrats, or Whigs, or libertarians, or the Green Party, the Federalists, the Social Democrats and the Socialists, (or those who don’t know the difference between the two,) will be, “We always been and always will be ….”

TRUMP SUPPORTERS: Why?

While I am happy, even joyous, that Biden won the presidency and celebrated the inauguration that had such a civil and positive feel to it, the cynic in me considers the Biden/Harris a marginal victory for the values I hold dear. It remains true according to the Associated Press 74,223,744 of our citizens voted for Trump. Forty-six percent of us supported this man who by my estimation personifies racism, sexism, xenophobia, gender discrimination, destruction for nature resources for quick profits, denigration of the LGBTQ communities, authoritarianism and violence. So why did nearly 75 million folk vote for this man who seems so odious to my Judeo-Christian value system or any major religious teaching? These supporters include family members, friends, colleagues and folk I hold dear and love. How did that happen?

This is a big question and simple answers obviously won’t answer them. But I do wish to pursue the matter as best I can and do what I do; think, rumminate and write. So, I am starting a series of articles, at least 5 at this point, to try and understand this phenomenon. So far the articles include: a)hard liners that will vote the party of their choice come hell or high water, b)those who believe in authoritarianism, “carry and big stick and a bigger voice, c) educational changes taking place in the country that place less emphasis on civic education and critical thinking versus data and pragmatic business training, d)Media; a great shift from 3 major networks who had news departments that were public service arms of a networks, to a multitude of media form and outlets which focuses more on selling news and ideological propaganda than factual news, e) and finally, legitimate anger at a society while it has continued to grow economically, more and more of that wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer people at the expense of the middle and lower classes or, the rise of oligarchy and/or plutocracy in our society. Oops, I just added a 6^th article; it is more of a sub point of (d); CNP, the unholy alliance between the religious right, big money, and other selfish dudes.

I will be putting leaders for these stories on Facebook but also I will be reactivating my blog so the sequence and availability will have a more permanent place. You may find my blog and a lot of previous articles at:  http://drennans-et-al.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-common-good.html   I’ll warn you in advance there is a lot of stuff on it, including chapters from my eBook, Cattails for a laugh or two. (Found on Amazon Kindle books for the lowest price I was allowed to put on it.)

Since my retirement I have consistently questioned what God is calling me to do in the part of my life. The most consistent piece has been writing. Since, writing my books: Aids to the Psalms (A, B,C) at CSS publishing, in lieu of going for a doctorate in ministry program that shut down a week before it was to begin; I have made research and writing a part of  my daily regime, well usually.

I invite you to follow along in this current journey. If nothing else than to see if I can follow through with it. Or you can be part of the large majority who thinks, “Who cares what this jerk thinks.” For those who do follow and read and I can guareentee you that I will make my ussual multittiude of tpyos, missspelling, pronunctuation goodies and general grammatikkle errorors to find fault with. Even spell check generally gives up and just freezes my computer.

Meanwhile, I’m raising a glass of chardonnay to the Biden and Harris and hope. Is 10 am too early for that?

Righteous Anger

Some things are worth getting angry about. Some things should demand that we get angry. For some of us in faith communities we feel God’s call to get angry with issues and people. This is called righteous anger and it means that anger should be right. And it is not limited to faith communities.

The anger I am going to talk about today is anger about our government. It is an anger directed at both Republicans and Democrats and the people who have been bamboozled by them; though more anger is and should be directed at the bamboozlers.

Today’s members of congress by their own admission need to spend 4 of 5 workdays per week raising money to get reelected. That means the vast majority of the time they are working at things that they were not elected to do. It is such a mammoth miscarriage of rightness that you would think they would stop it immediately.

That anger, is the major element behind the so-called Tea Party movement. They were angry with the government, government that wasted their time not doing their job. A great many were angry that the government did anything. “Let’s just go back to the good old west where the good guys just shot the bad guys.” That was not righteous anger but is pretty easy to sell and the bamboozlers sold it well. 

There was the anger that people were coming into our country and taking “our” jobs and benefiting “our” welfare benefits. That was not even true in almost each and every case, but the bamboozlers played on people fears, even these created fears and it worked well. This is not righteous anger.

There were people who were angry at folk who looked different from them. Even though many of these people had been kidnapped and brought to the country for economic gain. These people were often seen as being biologically inferior to the white majority. I even had a high school superintendent tell me this when I was teaching. This not righteous anger, in fact, we should be righteously angry at people who promote such injustice, particularly those who say the follow the teaching of Jesus.

There are those who are anger at members of the opposite sex and also regard them and inferior, “weaker vessels” for literal bible missinterpreters. And again it is particularly odious coming from the followers of Jesus who ignore that in Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, man nor woman for you are all one in Jesus Christ.” This is not righteous anger but rather what brings forth righteous anger.

Obviously I could go on and on and on and on a number of these subjects, but let us return to righteous anger against the government. Government officials are elected or appointed to be public servants. They are to serve the general public, to work for the common good. That should be blatantly clear to everyone. But that is not how our government works today and seems to be drifting farther and farther away from that basic responsibility. Today, government officially work primarily for special interest groups. They are working for people who put their interests above the interests of others generally so they can get more of their share of the economic pie that would be the “just share.” 

Now I do not want to make a blanket judgment on the work of all special interest groups. Some of those groups, even a lot of those groups are forced into existence to combat the special interests of other groups. An obvious example is unions. Unions came into being to find power in numbers to fight those whose power was in money to get more than their fair share of the products they were producing. History shows us that when unions do well, the country as a whole, the common good, works well as well. This does not mean that unions and other well intended special interest group do not abuse their power when they get. History is full of examples of those miscarriages of justice as well. But the point is that it is the roll of the government to work for the common good, not just special interests.

Righteous anger comes when government does not live up to that basic responsibility of working for the common good, for the best interests of every one of its citizens. That is true of Republican and Democrat and other political parties or interest groups as well.

This injustice and miscarriage of justice will continue as long as money is the driving force for electing and appointing government officials. How do you get rid of this evil? Vote the bastards out office, Democratic, Republican, or whatever. If ever there was a reason for a one issue vote it is this one. Vote every politician out office that does not support government sponsorship of elections; money raised by a buck or two added to our tax bill. It works in other countries and it can work here. That limit would also shorter the interminable length of elections just because they couldn’t afford to run them. That is a righteous solution.

One periodically hears about a proposed 28^th amendment. They want term limits, get rid of pensions and tenure, special health care, no and abide by the laws. To me this sounds more like “let’s get even get the bastards.” But I think it also misses the single most important point, limit the money accompanied after with a particular list of things that don’t seem fair. In this case it truly seems that the love of money is the root of all evil. So we may talk about term limits but would you do that in business? Fire someone after they gain skills and know the job? They have some of the most important jobs in the country, pay them well, give good pensions and a few perks. It will still be considerably less that we pay the CEO’s of the major corporations. We need to stay focused on the real problem. The problem is big money buying elections by paying for them. It would be nice if folk elected could ignore those funds, but the don’t and don’t think the can. Thye owe and in owing are owned.

To vote the current money driven system out of office we must find enough people to run for office promising to do that single thing, limit campaign spending. If those people were elected to office then a whole lot of governmental ills and bad governance would give way to folk elected to do their job, to serve the citizens they represent and work for the common good.