Shame on Those Who Call Others Nazis

There are some things that are predictable but every so often there is a huge surprise.

Most Democratic Presidents eventually get around to being called Socialist/Communists because if their inclination to have more government benefits and corporate regulations. Every time they move in this direction, even a tiny, tiny bit, people scream Socialism!!!

Most Republican Presidents eventually get around to being called Fascist/Nazis because of their inclinations toward an increased sense of nationalism, increases in defense, and a proclivity toward law and order. Every time they move in this direction, even a tiny, tiny big, people cry out Nazi!

Socialism and Fascism are often seen as the opposite ends of the political spectrum. If you move a person extremely to the left, they become a Socialist; extremely to the right and they become a Fascist. People do quibble with this for a variety of reasons, but there are some solid rationales behind this.

Barack Obama has, predictably, been called a Socialist. Government bailouts, stimulus money, the health care plan, etc., have all been labeled Socialist. This is fairly predictable and moves in, at least, the correct direction on the political spectrum. I am not sure where socializing something turns into Socialism, but that might be another question. There is even an incredibly offensive ‘cartoon’ of Obama with a white face and the red paint of the diabolically evil Joker from Batman. Using this caricature of any American President in light of the pure evil of that character in the movie is, frankly, offensive. But people see no fault in being offensive, I guess.

Interestingly enough he has now been called a Nazi and Hitler. There is a new caricature out of Obama as Hitler, little mustache and all.

One can make an argument about the absurdity of this because it would seem to indicate that Obama has managed to be an extremist on the polar opposites of the political spectrum. To confuse Fascism/Nazism with Socialism/Communism is to have little to no grasp of political philosophy. People often try to argue that the Nazi Party’s official name was the National Socialist Worker’s Party had the word ‘Socialist’ in it, but Hitler was staunchly anti-Socialist and anti-Communist. He loathed Karl Marx ( who was Jewish) and the philosophy of Marx. Loathed it. LOATHED it. Nazism had a strong sense of corporatism which was a movement seeking to have shared wealth but not at the expense of business. The name, which evolved from the Latin word “Corpus,” or “body” was designed to allow people, government, and businesses to work in partnership and cooperation with each other. In and of itself, corporatism is not a bad thing at all-----in many ways part of what we have in the United State is a sense of this in the best sense of the word when everyone does work in cooperation with one another.

But the Nazis were more than about that.

In fact, Hitler laid it all out. He argued that Nazism had 25 Points----Together which made up the spirit of the Nazi Party:


1. We demand the union of all Germans in a Great Germany on the basis of the principle of self-determination of all peoples.

2. We demand that the German people have rights equal to those of other nations; and that the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain shall be abrogated.

3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the maintenance of our people and the settlement of our surplus population.

4. Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of Creed, can be our countrymen. Hence no Jew can be a countryman.

5. Those who are not citizens must live in Germany as foreigners and must be subject to the law of aliens.

6. The right to choose the government and determine the laws of the State shall belong only to citizens. We therefore demand that no public office, of whatever nature, whether in the central government, the province, or the municipality, shall be held by anyone who is not a citizen.

We wage war against the corrupt parliamentary administration whereby men are appointed to posts by favor of the party without regard to character and fitness.

7. We demand that the State shall above all undertake to ensure that every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood. If it should not be possible to feed the whole population, then aliens (non-citizens) must be expelled from the Reich.

8. Any further immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately.

9. All citizens must possess equal rights and duties.

10. The first duty of every citizen must be to work mentally or physically. No individual shall do any work that offends against the interest of the community to the benefit of all.

Therefore we demand:

11. That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished.

12. Since every war imposes on the people fearful sacrifices in blood and treasure, all personal profit arising from the war must be regarded as treason to the people. We therefore demand the total confiscation of all war profits.

13. We demand the nationalization of all trusts.

14. We demand profit-sharing in large industries.

15. We demand a generous increase in old-age pensions.

16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a sound middle-class, the immediate communalization of large stores which will be rented cheaply to small tradespeople, and the strongest consideration must be given to ensure that small traders shall deliver the supplies needed by the State, the provinces and municipalities.

17. We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.

18. We demand that ruthless war be waged against those who work to the injury of the common welfare. Traitors, usurers, profiteers, etc., are to be punished with death, regardless of Creed or race.

19. We demand that Roman law, which serves a materialist ordering of the world, be replaced by German common law.

20. In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State.

21. The State has the duty to help raise the standard of national health by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor, by increasing physical fitness through the introduction of compulsory games and gymnastics, and by the greatest possible encouragement of associations concerned with the physical education of the young.

22. We demand the abolition of the regular army and the creation of a national (folk) army.

23. We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press. In order to make possible the creation of a German press, we demand:

(a) All editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens.

(b) Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State. They must not be published in the German language.

(c) All financial interests in or in any way affecting German newspapers shall be forbidden to non-Germans by law, and we demand that the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper and the expulsion of the non-Germans from the Reich.

Newspapers transgressing against the common welfare shall be suppressed. We demand legal action against those tendencies in art and literature that have a disruptive influence upon the life of our folk, and that any organizations that offend against the foregoing demands shall be dissolved.

24. We demand freedom for all religious faiths in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or offend the moral and ethical sense of the Germanic race.

The party as such represents the point of view of a positive Christianity without binding itself to any one particular confession. It fights against the Jewish materialist spirit within and without, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our folk can only come about from within on the principle:

COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD

25. In order to carry out this program we demand: the creation of a strong central authority in the State, the unconditional authority by the political central parliament of the whole State and all its organizations.

The formation of professional committees and of committees representing the several estates of the realm, to ensure that the laws promulgated by the central authority shall be carried out by the federal states.

The leaders of the party undertake to promote the execution of the foregoing points at all costs, if necessary at the sacrifice of their own lives.


Hitler, as we know, lived these out. Europe was devastated. Six million Jewish people were murdered for the simple crime of being Jewish. Millions of others were murdered for a large variety of bogus reasons. The murders were cold, calculated, and efficient.

People, as they were herded into Concentration Camps were stripped of their clothing, and their possessions. Upon their deaths teeth were pulled for ivory and precious metals.

In 1942 after a brutal German Commander was killed in the modern day Czech Republic, the village of Lidice was seized. All the men over the age of 16 were executed, all the women and children were shipped to Concentration Camps, and the village was burned to the ground. It no longer existed.

All media was controlled and regulated by the state. If you expressed any criticism, you died.

Clergy were killed by the thousands. Any hint in a sermon that Jesus was greater than Hitler was a death sentence.

Barack Obama is not a Nazi. Not even close. As much as I think George W. Bush was a poor President who didn’t protect people’s right as much as I think he should have, Bush was not a Nazi. Not even close. No American President has come even close to being a Nazi. To call any American President a Nazi, or even hint at it, is an atrocity in and of itself. It, on so many levels, dishonors those who were victimized by the Nazis. It dishonors the nation of Germany that has faced its history with great courage and has worked to move beyond it.

Shame on those who use the name of these horribly evil people from a different era on those they disagree with. And shame on us when we don’t challenge it.

A Great Story We Mostly Missed

Ponder what the 'news' has been of late. Seriously.

When is the last time you watched the news and didn't see a story about Michael Jackson? We are still on Michael Jackson overload and, as of yet, he has not been raised from the dead giving us a truly interesting story to cover.

The story of the Harvard professor and the police officer and a President who used the word 'stupidly' at a very bad time has dominated the news. We even got to watch them drink beer and eat pretzels together.

The health care debate has been on talking points and commercials. Our two parties are busily disgracing themselves by their antics instead of actually working on something constructive. They WANT to disagree with each other and WANT the other party's ideas to fail. This isn't about fixing health care; it's about making the opposition look bad. Both parties are totally guilty of this. This has been reported a great deal.

Some amazing lunatics, for whom facts mean nothing, and I use the term lunatic intentionally, are still debating over where Barack Obama was born. This foolishness is on the news. Nightly.

Missed was this:

WISE, Virginia — They came in their hundreds, America's uninsured and working poor, descending on this coal mining town in Virginia's southwest corner in search of the medical care they could not otherwise afford.

Some slept overnight in their cars in the grass parking lot in front of the Wise fairgrounds, where some 1,700 medical professionals had set up dental chairs, mammogram stations, panoramic X-ray machines and more, ready to diagnose maladies, numb mouths, pull teeth and take pap smears for Americans down on their luck and battered by economic realities.

And all for free.

Remote Area Medical (RAM), a travelling collective of volunteer medical practitioners, was set up in 1985 by British expatriate Stan Brock, who wanted to take medical care to those who were too poor, or live in areas too remote, to otherwise access it.

"The appearance of a RAM team means an opportunity for poor folks to get some real treatment free of charge," Brock said.

RAM has been doing this and their venture in Wise, Virginia was a huge effort. In a day and age when health care reform is being debated and all sorts of options are being laid out on the table, one group is doing amazing work.

And their work has gone virtually unnoticed.

This is a major media failure. We are fed a steady stream of nonsense and, the major media is feeding us this nonsense because it is what we want to watch.

More people want to watch stories about Michael Jackson than they do getting down to the nitty gritty on the economy, two wars, and health care reform.

More people want to know how they forged Barack Obama's birth certificate and got people to certify it in Hawaii, and even put birth notices in the local newspapers, when they claim he was born in Kenya in 1962 with a major plot to overthrown the American government. (His father even cleverly left his family and died to keep suspicion off of him. His mother, shiftily developed cancer at a young age and died so no one could question her. Devious people!)

I can go on, but you get the point. We want to listen to garbage, we crave garbage, and so it is what we are given.

But be reminded that there is a great story we missed. Great people doing a great thing for those who have less than they do. It's not only a good story, it's a holy story, mostly missed by the vast majority of people.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j8w9zX_4NeT2B2qNQnjCic-g6Pxw

No Matter Who you are...

At St. Marks, no matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you really will be welcome!

www.stmarksucc.org

The United Church of Christ

No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.

Wednesday Musings

I will continue on my theological journey with John Calvin, but I wanted to ‘muse’ today.

Brett Favre has decided to stay retired. It is so fitting and awesome that he will not be quarterbacking the Vikings against the Packers in Green Bay. My fear was that he would tarnish the love Packer fans have had for him over the years. He has taken a massive amount of punishment as an NFL quarterback and it is better to leave, now, while he still can leave with some semblance of health.

I am wondering about Dr. Conrad Murray and if he should be charged with a crime administering the drugs to Michael Jackson. I can make all sorts of ethical arguments and professional arguments on why he should not have, but I’m not sure there are many legal arguments against this. He was paid by a patient who requested a legal drug be administered for a medical problem. Lord knows that more than one physician has administered a drug to a patient who then died from that drug. It is often impossible to know how drugs are going to interact with people and when powerful medication enters the scene, things can happen. Unless Dr. Murray intentionally administered a dose with the intention of killing Michael Jackson, I do not see a crime here. There may be malpractice or something like this, but criminal, I doubt it. It also can create a dreadful precedent. Physicians vulnerable to criminal prosecution in the case of drug interactions.

A couple of thoughts on two sports figures.

The first controversy is that Michael Vick is going to be allowed to play this coming season. Some people are outraged, but I think this is a good thing. What Vick did was heinous, without a doubt. He has spent time in prison however, and this conviction, loss of playing time, loss of endorsements, has cost him an estimated $100,000,000.00. The man has paid for his crime and from my perspective, grace needs to be shown him and him given an opportunity to play again.

On the other hand, they are thinking of removing the lifetime ban on Pete Rose. Pete Rose bet on baseball while he as a manager. Unlike Vick, whose crime had nothing to do with football, Rose was gambling on baseball while actively part of the game. He was a great player, without a doubt, and had he not done something to disgrace himself while IN the game he was part of, he should be in the Hall of Fame. He, in my opinion, excluded himself from baseball forever. Unlike Vick, whose livelihood is on the line, and who has to prove himself on the field of play, all there is for Rose is an opportunity to be honored. It is an honor he does not deserve.

Colin Powell had the best line about the story of the police officer and the Harvard professor. “Adult supervision” was needed. That is the case so very often, isn’t it? I suspect that we have been guilty of needing adult supervision from time to time. I know I have. It is a reminder that losing one’s temper generally has consequences.

A 24 year old woman in Mississippi car-jacked a car and drove to an RV dealership to hold them up telling the people in the RV dealership that she had a gun. She told employees she had a gun and demanded money. The employees did not believe the claim and restrained her until officers arrived. As she was dressed only in a bikini that left little to the imagination it was obvious that she was not carrying a concealed weapon. Police said the suspect appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She is in the current lead for dumbest criminal of the year award. This kind of brilliance does need to be recognized.

Calvin 1

Calvin Part 1

I have been doing some reflection on the growing sense of Calvinism we are seeing within Protestantism these days. Is this a good thing?

I decided to reflect on this a little and I want to start with some basic premises behind Calvinism and some of my thoughts on the subject. As a point of reference, I am not a proponent of Calvin so what I write may be somewhat biased.

To begin this, however, one thing needs to be stated. There are all sorts of theological frameworks in which people work. There are many theological vantage points that have a great deal of substance to them and many of them differ from each other in significant ways. Many of these frameworks, however, enable people to develop a relationship with God and ought not be trivialized. They do need to be seen, however, as theological frameworks which are not sacred in and of themselves. They are simply means of interpreting much greater truths.

In reviewing Calvinism, in its most basic form, there are five basic principles, often given the name TULIP. I’m going to reflect on each other.

In words from religioustolerance.org:

T: This usually stands for "Total depravity:" This is often mistaken to mean
that humans are all hopelessly, intensely sinful. Actually, it means
something quite different: as a result of Adam and Eve's disobedience to
God -- the Fall of Man -- sin has extended to all parts of every person's
being: "his thinking, his emotions and his will."

Sometimes, this has been called "Total inability." This is the concept that it
is impossible for the ordinary "natural" human to understand the Gospel's
message. They are spiritually helpless. First, God must first decide to
intervene in the form of the third personality within the Trinity, the Holy
Spirit. Otherwise, the person is lost forever.

Calvin’s point is that not everything every person does is driven by their depravity. This would make people unable to do anything good and worthwhile. His point, however, is that this depravity (his word, not mine) or sinfulness, touches on each portion of a person’s life. The writers point out examples of ‘thinking, emotions, and will.’ It is not that our thinking, emotions, and will are totally sinful, but that sin and human weakness touch every part of our being.

Often one of the differences between much of Roman Catholic theology and Protestant Theology is the nature of humanity. From my understanding, Roman Catholic theology teaches that humanity is basically good, but sinful; Protestant Theology teaches that human nature is essentially sinful with people’s goodness coming by the grace of God. While these appear to be opposite, they ultimately end with the same idea. People have goodness within them and people have an inclination to sin. Both are present in everyone all the time.

In essence, I’m not sure I am particularly comfortable with John Calvin’s words, total depravity, but the point is well taken.

Monday Musings

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and police Sergeant James Crowley had a memorable meeting and are now probably going to the White House for a beer. The original 911 call did not mention race so any racial overtones that might have been raised took place at the scene with a lot of shouting. In the midst of all the shouting, I strongly suspect that we have a story of two incredibly good men with great reputations having about the worst possible meeting imaginable. I would venture a guess and say that neither of them wanted things to turn out the way they did. I also suspect that they will come together and teach the world a lesson about what took place as they are both fine individuals. They teach us a lesson that even the best of us have bad days and meltdowns.

President Obama, I think, might have also learned a lesson about speculating in front of an open microphone. When he began his comments with not really knowing all the details, he should have stopped right there. Once the word ‘stupidly’ came out of his mouth, that was going to be the center of the story.

The Octo-Mom signed a television deal for ‘reality television’ starring her children. Why do I fear that her children, much like the Gosselin children, are going to end up being ‘stars’ in a horror show that will be their lives. I am long passed believing that either of the Gosselins have their children’s best interests at heart. Kate may have an inkling in that direction, but only an inkling. Jon is too busy going on dates with crazy girls to worry about much else. Of course, there is some major money involved...

I have been a lifelong New York Mets fan and the Mets are terrible. Willie Randolph took it in the neck last year and it was ‘his’ fault that the Mets were not playing well. He is gone and they are far worse. They need to fire EVERYONE in their front office and start over.

I watched some of the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor and they were incredibly uninformative. Her responses were not much different from Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito though, one suspects, they will vote contrary to each other. No one in their right mind is going to ever really answer a question on these confirmation hearings but they have them anyway. Ugh. I think that if I lived in Alabama, however, and my Senator was Jeff Sessions I would like to crawl under a pregnant ant and hide. It is rather sad that we have such a collection of intellectually challenged folks in Congress. Ugh.

Erin Andrews has reminded us that there are still major gender problems in the nation. She is a very attractive woman who is a sports reporter for ESPN. She was filmed, through peepholes, at multiple hotels walking around naked in her hotel room. It is most interesting to see responses.

First, one person was saying that she ‘deserved’ this because she was walking around naked in her hotel room. We shouldn’t even know what she wears or doesn’t wear in the privacy of her hotel room let alone judge her for it.

Secondly, the only places that I saw ‘blurred’ photos of her was on Newscorp, most notably Fox News and the New York Post. It was disgraceful. This woman’s privacy was completely violated.

Sadly, the taping of her is not illegal in many states. Despite the fact that her privacy was completely violated and she is subjected to humiliation around the country, it is dubious that criminal charges will ever come forward. I do hope that I am wrong. Erin Andrews is a competent sports reporter and she deserves far better than she has received.

I am doing some research and teaching a class on the New Calvinism on Sunday. I will, hopefully, write something about this.

Jimmy Carter Leaves His Church

Jimmy Carter left his church after many years because he cannot abide by the rampant sexism in the Southern Baptist Convention.

For those who discriminate against women and blame it on God, his words are a firm rebuke which, interestingly enough, has barely been reported.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/losing-my-religion-for-equality-20090714-dk0v.html?page=-1

This Day, 40 Years Ago

This day, 40 years ago, July 20, 1969 the first people set foot on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin departed "The Eagle" and walked around on the moon.

I was 14 years old and watched in live on television.

Many years later I met Neil Armstrong at the funeral of a dear friend of his parents. He came back to his hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio to attend the funeral of this very fine woman. I was officiating at the funeral and was quite honored to meet him. He grew up at St. Paul United Church of Christ in Wapakoneta and, years later, I spent 11 years as the Pastor of that congregation, so I heard a good deal about his 'growing up' years from people who knew him in his youth.

Neil Armstrong was, and is, a very quiet, very private, very decent, very intelligent, very courageous person. He was the first person on the moon and he set the pace for all the others. He could have gone off the deep end and we could be using all sorts of products he chose to endorse and listened to him on all sorts of subjects or been to a "First Man on the Moon" theme park or some other foolishness. Except Neil Armstrong did not exploit what he did. He was an astronaut who was doing his job, and one of many who was responsible for landing on the moon. His quiet dignity is something that ought to always be treasured.

In the news footage remembering Walter Cronkite, two images stand out. One was the sheer pain of announcing the death of President Kennedy and the other was the smiling delight and exhilartion speaking about the moon landing. It really WAS that exciting!!!

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins were literally strapped to their seats in a small capsule on top of a large guided missile----a huge bomb, if you will. They were catapulted into the sky and travelled at 66,000 mph to the moon. The calculations to get there were done by hand (they hadn't yet invented the calculator) and an error of 1 degree would mean that they would have been lost in space forever. The moon, which is about a quarter of a million miles away from the earth, is a target that, with that distance in mind, would have been difficult to hit.

The astronauts were incredibly brave and brilliant minds led them to their destination. They were able to photograph the earth from a distance and an angle and a view never seen before----reminding us how small our world is in comparison to the universe.

It was a great a momentous day in the history of the United States and a day that, I think, is worth remembering.

Mike Lupica's Column

I find myself very much agreeing with Lupica on this column. I know a lot of people will focus on Lupica's comments about the gun. That's a political statement that you can agree with or disagree with. To me, the crux of what Lupica is saying comes in these words:

That this pillar of his community and the pride of Mount Olive, Miss., was another guy in sports who thought women are supposed to be perks of the job.

How often have we seen this? Men abuse girls and women in sports and think there are no consequences? Star athletes who have never been accountable for any of their misdeeds end up tragically facing something far worse than they anticipated?

Lupica's column says it well:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/2009/07/11/2009-07-11_lupica_mcnairs_life.html#ixzz0LGRcwdQb&D

Top Ten Reasons Sarah Palin Resigned!

Top Ten Reasons Sarah Palin Resigned

10. She was jealous of all the attention Governor Mark Sanford was receiving.

9. She was so excited about beating Rod Blagojevich for the Sitting Duck Award she figured this was a great time to cash in on her status.

8. She was jealous of all the attention Carrie Prejean was getting so she wants to run for Miss California in the Miss USA pageant next year.

7. She wants to host her own late night talk show opposite Letterman and tell jokes about him too.

6. She couldn’t think of any other way to get on the news tonight.

5. She got confused with her dates and got April Fool’s Day and the 4th of July mixed up.

4. The midnight sun made her a little goofy.

3. She wants more free time to go flying with Putin.

2. She was jealous of all the attention Michael Jackson was receiving.

1. They told her that as the Governor of Alaska she was not allowed to live in Hawaii.

Monday Musings

Today Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. My hope for him is that he has a very long life to fully enjoy the accommodations provided for him so that he can reflect on the ahem, ‘joy’ that he brought into so many people’s lives.

His assets have been completely seized with his wife being given ONLY 2.5 million dollars. If she didn’t know about this scheme I’d be surprised and, being the generous soul I am, I’d be happy for her to enjoy similar accommodations to her husband. As for as I am concerned, the 2.5 million dollars she received is about 2.5 million more than she ought to.

One person you have to admire is Jenny Sanford. She is (rightly) mad as hell and she is perfectly capable of letting people know that she’s angry. She has been, in my opinion, up front and delightfully blunt as to her feelings and thoughts. I do believe she’d like to save her marriage, but she will not allow herself to be victimized by this. She is a really strong, brilliant woman.

The Mets have been devastated by injuries. I think if Marv Throneberry was still alive they might sign him... Yes, it’s that bad. And if you don’t know who Marvelous Marv was, you aren’t a true baseball fan.

Iran decreed that the recount proved that the Presidential election was valid. The Ayatollah Katherine Harris has assured everyone that the election was properly held and all the votes were properly counted.

An autopsy of Michael Jackson showed that he weighed 112 pounds, had excessive scarring from badly done plastic surgeries, and he had lost mostly all of his hair. I have no words....

Pet peeve term: “Reverse racism.” Racism is racism no matter which direction it comes from. There is no such thing as reverse racism; there is only racism. If you hate another race, you are a racist. Period.

Pet peeve term: Decimate used as if it means devastate or totally destroy. To decimate a people is to kill 10% of them or to destroy 10% of a place. This word is so misused that people do not know what it means any longer.

Pet peeve term: Disinterested when a person means uninterested. A person who is disinterested is a person who is impartial and neutral. A judge is disinterested. The judge has to make judgments based upon law and fairness and now on how the judge feels or thinks about a situation. Uninterested is having no interest in something.

I truly do not understand Justice Clarence Thomas. In the recent strip search case on a school strip searching a 13 year old girl in Arizona searching for Advil, the court ruled 8-1 that this was an improper search. It is a convergence of law and common decency. At least it was for 8 of the justices; Clarence Thomas ruled that it was okay that they did the strip search. His opinion, in my mind, makes no sense whatsoever. None. Zip. I do not understand how he came to the decision he came to. I even read when he wrote and his logic defies my imagination. If for no other reason, common decency and common sense can tell us that this was wrong. Wrong!!!!

Pope Benedict decreed that bones in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome are definitely the bones of St. Paul. He said scientific data helps prove discovered bones belonged to apostle St. Paul. "Tiny fragments of bone" in the sarcophagus were subjected to carbon dating, showing they "belong to someone who lived in the first or second century," the pope said in a homily carried on Italian television. "This seems to confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition that these are the mortal remains of the Apostle St. Paul," Benedict said in Sunday's announcement.

Maybe they are and I am just being cynical, but I am hard pressed to embrace that dating bones and making a declaration as to who the person was is credible evidence. If Paul was living on a deserted island and they found the bones, I’m all ears. But Rome?

I am guess that the dental records weren’t available.

This kind of stuff annoys me. I am a huge fan of St. Paul and think his letters and his witness are peerless. Trying to ‘prove’ his bones appears to be a trite and potentially comical endeavor in our approach to this great man. It is moments like this that often make Christians look silly.

Authorities arrested former Gainesville Mark Musselwhite and charged him with public indecency last weekend after state Department of Natural Resources officers found him sitting nude at his Rabun County campsite.

Officers had received a complaint about a naked man walking along a nearby road earlier in the day, but the 43-year-old Musselwhite said he was not the same man.

Musselwhite, a Republican, was elected to the Gainesville City Council in 2000, where he served for six years, including a stint as mayor. He lost a bid for a state Senate seat in 2006.

At least there were no concealed weapons charges....

Elliot Spitzer was on television this morning giving his input on financial decisions, regulations, etc. There is a really evil joke in here somewhere concerning a very aggressive guy who went after ‘escort’ agencies with vigor and became a client----and from what they said, a nasty client. And now he’s on television as an expert. Wow.

Random Musings

I am not going to mention ‘he who should not be named.’ I’m tired of all’ he who shall not be named’ on the news.

I have no idea on what we should do (or not do) concerning Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a nutcase, a lunatic, and a liar. Other than that, he’s probably fine. I suspect that they never even counted the votes; he was the choice of the ‘Supreme Leader” and that’s about all that one needs to know. The good news is that there is great unrest in the country. I am not sure we can be helpful. Our credibility in Iran, long term, is bad. I suspect there are some issues nations need to work out for themselves.

I have a creeping sense that nothing significant is going to change concerning health care. It won’t be until price controls are in place and malpractice limits are given, than any progress can be made. I don’t really think anyone has the testicular fortitude to actually make the difficult choices on this.

The ‘family values’ crowd is not doing very well these days. Unless I have misconstrued, however, and forgotten what families they ‘value.’ Of late, it’s looking like the Hefners, the Flynts, and the Gucciones...

I watched Mark Sanford the other day and actually did feel for him. Seriously. In listening to him and his wife, it is obvious that there is a deep and painful chasm in their lives. I also suspect that these people are, at heart, good people. This saga does not have a happy ending. I strongly suspect that by summer’s end he will not be the Governor of South Carolina and that the Sanford marriage is over. It is painfully obvious that his heart is elsewhere. It is painful to watch.

Speaking of painful to watch: Jon and Kate. Let’s see, Jon has hired a shark for an attorney and is looking at $3000.00 a month apartments in New York City. Why do I get the impression that he is no longer going to be on the show and that his desire to be with the children is all talk? I suspect that he is going to vanish from the lives of his children----and this is horrible. Dreadful. Despicable. I hope I’m wrong about him-----but I doubt I am.

Sarah Palin has been engaging in a battle of wits with virtually everyone these days. I feel badly for her going into all of these battles unarmed...

Bernie Madoff has to forfeit EVERYTHING. So, raise your hand if you feel badly for him? .....I don’t either.

NBC showed President Obama going to a 5 Guys for burgers. It was filmed like this was spontaneous. Sure.

The Mets gained ground on the Phillies while playing very badly. That means that the Phillies played worse. The NL East is stinking up baseball.

The best all time political ‘excuse’ for misconduct still belongs to Senator Larry Craig and his ‘wide stance.’ Before that it was Bill Clinton’s parsing of ‘is,’ but Craig’s line belongs in the annals of great political bogusness.

The Problem with Anecdotal Evidence and Labels

There is a problem with anecdotal evidence and labels. It seems that people who love labels seem to love anecdotal evidence. Using anecdotal evidence is like this. One makes a statement and gives examples of how that statement is played out. An example, "There is a war on Christmas in America!," and you give three examples of events that are, or appear to be anti-Christmas. What did this prove? It proved that there were three events that were, or at least appeared to be anti-Christmas, no more and no less.

Often people make judgments based on these statements and the anecdotal evidence that goes with them. What people often fail to grasp, however, is that most of these statements are hypotheses and a hypothesis, no matter how well argued, is not a fact until it has been proven. Anecdotal evidence, no matter how compelling, is not really proof.

Of late the usage of the label 'socialist' is on the rise. There are lots of anecdotal statements to this effect. Interesting thing, however, Atlantic did some research and discovered that this might be overstated. As the chart indicates, .21% of business assets have been nationalized leaving 99.79% of business assets in the hands of the free market.

I do not know if we are moving in the right direction or not. I do know this, however. Having one group of people yelling "Socialist!!!" all the time and offering no viable alternative plan is not going to help the discussion. For one, it's a use of a cheap label (sigh!) and, additionally, it is untrue.

My great rant on all of this does not come down to debating direction; I think that debating direction is important. What my rant really is comes down to the incessant need for people to place labels on ideas and thoughts with little thought as to what is actually being discussed.

I am linking the article from Atlantic.

http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/conor_clarke/2009/06/what_socialism_looks_like.php

David Letterman Apologizes

David Letterman apologized. He gave a real live apology----a good one and a real one.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/06/15/2009-06-15_david_letterman_apologizes_for_palin_joke.html

Sarah Palin professes herself to be a devout Christian. A significant part of Christianity is the issue of reconciliation and forgiveness. Letterman owed her a sincere apology----he went way over the top in his comments. He gave a half-hearted apologia more than an apology last week, but today issued a real live apology and took the entire blame. He came around and did the right thing.

This is an interesting moment for Sarah Palin. Her faith is now being put to the test. The right thing to do, spiritually, is accept the apology in the way it was given, sincerely, and move on. We shall see if her faith commitment is real or political rhetoric by her response.

David Letterman Versus Sarah Palin

David Letterman and Sarah Palin are feuding.

It started with Letterman when David Letterman crossed the lines of common decency. And he did cross the line in a big way.

What has not gotten enough ‘press’ so to speak is the usage of the word ‘slutty’ in reference to Sarah Palin’s makeup. He inferred that she was using comparably slutty makeup to flight attendants. This is insulting to both flight attendants and to the Governor.

A larger picture is at play here, however. Sarah Palin uses makeup as do many women. Actually, women who do not use makeup are held up for scrutiny as well as those who do. I would say that using makeup for professional women, even more so as they get older, is the norm. If one were comparing professional men to women, men do shave every day and often dress in a professional or business casual kind of way. Much in the way men shave each day, many professional women apply makeup. It is certainly out of bounds to refer to any professional woman as slutty. What Letterman did was sexist and totally inappropriate. Sarah Palin has every right to take offense at this.

But Letterman is a comedian who has always pushed the envelope and finds great humor in saying mean things. It is part of his routine. He went way over the top when he used overtly sexual humor in referring to Sarah Palin’s daughter.

In watching Letterman, I think that he and his staff made a huge mistake. Bristol and her younger sister Willow look a great deal alike. When they are not with each other, I cannot tell them apart. I suspect that Letterman was making jokes about Bristol who is 18, whereas the daughter who was actually with Sarah Palin was Willow who is 14. In knowing Letterman’s humor, he was mocking Bristol’s so-called abstinence tour while blindly missing that fact that it was not Bristol at Palin’s side, but Willow.

In reality Letterman was not funny at all. His semi-apology was an effective apologia to the premise that he was referring to Bristol and not Willow, which is very believable, but the painful reality of this is that he should not have been joking about either daughter. I do not buy that Bristol Palin is on ‘tour’ for her abstinence only education and that makes her fair game. Whether one agrees with Bristol or not, or whether it is wise for her to do this or not, does not make her fair game for comedians most especially with sexually charged comments like Letterman made.

Letterman was majorly offensive and the Palin family was a victim of his bad taste.

I am not a fan of Sarah Palin and I am not a fan for a variety of reasons. There are three, however, that are paramount.

First, Sarah Palin seems to have an only passing acquaintance with truth. This happened over and over again where things that she would say would not be grounded in reality. Her little ‘bridge to nowhere’ narrative turned out to be rather brutally dishonest but she would not relent in using it until it became painfully obvious that everyone knew her words were bogus. I found a person who said she was grounded in her faith who was so obviously shading the truth with falsehoods to be rather unseemly.

Secondly, Palin did not know what she was talking about much of the time and she blamed her ignorance on others. She reminded me of a high school student who would whine that tests were unfair because she did not know the material. The material the students did not know was out there the entire time----other students knew it. If Sarah Palin wants to be taken seriously by more than a few, then she needs to get over blaming the world for her ignorance, and actually study.

Thirdly, she plays a very cynical game of trying to demonstrate that there is a ‘real’ American and a ‘not real’ America. This kind of overt cynicism and divisiveness is crass and wrong.

I say this because her response to David Letterman and his truly offensive comments have been, in kind, offensive.

First, she is repeating that he was speaking about Willow. He obviously was not. Everyone, except perhaps a poorly trained chimpanzee in the Bronx Zoo knows this by now. His words about Bristol were and remain truly offensive, but he was not referring to a 14-year old, under-aged minor. Her repeating of this, over and over again is part of why I do not appreciate her. At least allow your outrage to be honest. His comments about Bristol, and they were about Bristol, are offensive in their own right. He was not making an inference to statutory rape and Sarah Palin knows this and will not even acknowledge this.

Secondly, her usage of the East Coast/West Coast versus ‘real’ America is blatantly offensive, most especially in light of her insistence that Letterman was referring to the sexual behavior of adults with minors. She was inferring that people on the two coasts would not be as offended by this kind of behavior as people would be in the middle of the country. I personally found this to be offensive----very offensive. People all across the nation are offended by this kind of talk and behavior. Do not use the offensive remarks of a comedian to conclude and to state that this is representative of how people are divided in the nation.

Thirdly, she is blaming the universe on there not being the same outrage for her children as there would be on the children of President Obama. The Obamas have been different in how their children have been seen in public than the Palins have been. I have no criticism of either approach in the least. I was offended by the early treatment of the press of the Bush daughters, I was offended by how Rush Limbaugh referred to Chelsea Clinton. I am offended by Letterman’s comments. The children are not fair game. Period. I think most people, even in the news media, will respect this.

This should end soon. I think that two things need to transpire.

The first thing is that David Letterman owes the Palin family a sincere apology. His explanation about which daughter he was referring to is helpful, but he needs to apologize sans further explanation. I am sorry. I was offensive to you and your family and I deeply regret this. No excuses, no further explanation, just a simple and sincere apology is in order.

And the Palin family, for their part, ought to accept the apology and move on. She appears to be attempting to make political hay out of this and this is the wrong thing to be doing right now. Accept the apology and move on.

Evil Came Our Way

James Von Brunn was a disaster waiting to happen. He was a man of hate and he got his wish. He was able to murder an African American man in the Holocaust Museum. He killed a black man and he hated black men. He killed in a precious place to people within Judaism because this museum forces people to remember a dreadful and evil event that James Von Brunn did not believe happened.

Steven Johns, a guard, opened the door for an old man and was shot in the chest for his kindness. Johns, a guard, was on the front line; totally vulnerable. Thankfully for so many, other guards were able to shoot Von Brunn before he could kill some more.

On this day, Jeremiah Wright was quoted as saying “Them Jews” won’t let President Obama talk to him.

The Holocaust Museum is the place in our nation’s capital that receives the most threats of violence and threats of vandalism. To say that this is shameful is beyond comprehension. To question the very existence of the Holocaust is to have the ability to suspend belief in reality. The extermination of Jews, by the Nazis, was an event the Nazis maintained careful and detailed records of. They were PROUD of what they were doing.

Dwight Eisenhower made the American troops take a great deal of photographs, preserve the records, and film what they saw. Eisenhower believed that there would come a day when people would deny the atrocities of the era. Little did people realize how wise Eisenhower was.

Von Brunn was a right-winged extremist, not to be confused with a person who considers himself or herself conservative. Von Brunn hated pretty much everyone. He took conservative positions on things and perverted them to make them all aspects of hate----and he was a man who hated. He was not a man of ideologies; he was a man of name-calling and hatred till the point of becoming a lone gunman in a one manned vendetta against the world.

People ought not be trying to make political hay about this. It would take a person of despicably low character in order to do so. Thus far the only person I have heard was, of course, Rush Limbaugh he argued that Von Brunn was actually a leftist, a point so bizarre that it is laugh out loud funny. But Limbaugh tried to make political hay out of it which, of course, seeing his level of character, is no surprise. Of course, Wright’s words coming out today, though somewhat unrelated, are equally bizarre and despicable. As a person who once greatly admired Jeremiah Wright for the good work he once did, I grieve about what he seems to have become.

It strikes me that anti-Semitism is not confined to political ideologies. People seem to find their own unique reasons to hate our Jewish brothers and sisters. I do not understand it and frankly, I do not want to understand it.

My hopes and prayers for this world are that the Von Brunn’s of this world are kept away from everyone else, and that the families of those who have died are consoled in their grief, and that the rest of us truly learn how totally evil hating others is.

Sermon for Sunday June 7th

Here I Is!
Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
June 7, 2009

When I was a child when of my favorite things to watch on television were the old Little Rascals shows. I grew up watching Spanky, Alfafa, Buckwheat, Darla, and their dog Petey. In one episode they were playing Romeo and Juliet and the response to “Romeo, oh Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo,” turned out to be “Here I is.”

For a while I didn’t get that this was funny. I hadn’t realized that “Here I is,” was an improper use of the infinitive ‘to be’ and that the correct response would have been, ‘Here I am.”

All of which makes you wonder what this has to do with these lines from Isaiah speaking of the call of Isaiah in the year King Uzziah died. King Uzziah, one of the kings of Judah, died about 750 years before the birth of Jesus and the first of three prophets named Isaiah speaks of his call.

The call of Isaiah is fascinating, dramatic, and very atypical of most call narratives in the Bible. It’s a ‘here I is’ narrative in terms of the fact that Isaiah does something no one else does. He says, “Here I am, send me.”

Most call narratives, be it Moses, Peter, second Isaiah, or Jeremiah, generally have the person called not wanting to be called. Jeremiah’s call was, ‘I am too young; get someone else. Moses proclaimed that he was too inarticulate----get someone else.

But here is Isaiah, ‘Send me!!!’

This issue of saying, “Here I am,” accepting God’s call is a big deal. There are things that go along with this.

First, God calls everyone to something. We often make a mistake in church in relegating God’s call only to clergy. Everyone is called to serve God in some way.

In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians , Chapter 12, he writes that there are a variety of gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit to people within the church. Different people have different gifts but no one is exempt from God’s gifts.

Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, a day we celebrated the coming of God’s Holy Spirit into the Christian Church. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, however, there comes gifts that people have. And everyone has them.

In my second church we had a man, the Sexton or custodian or building engineer of the church, whatever you wanted to call him. He was more than any of these things; he was the resident miracle worker. There was more than one Sunday we had Worship not because I was there, or because the choir was there, or the organist was there, but because he got the furnace going or the lights on or something with the plumbing fixed.

One Sunday he performed a particular miracle getting the furnace going. He was the one and only reason we were able to have Worship that Sunday.

I recall looking out at the congregation that morning and he was sitting next to his wife and his children and grandchildren were around him and he was quietly praying with his eyes closed and his head down. It struck me that he was just a quiet, humble man who served God by caring for the building.

I was still young and cocky enough to take myself very seriously, but he struck a chord that day. Everyone is called and everyone has gifts.

Secondly, people ought to listen to God’s call with great humility.

The author, Phillip Yancey once visited an Amish home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and had dinner with them. He learned how it is the Amish call a pastor.

Now this is a different universe than the one we live in. The Amish, customarily only attend school until the 8th grade and so one who pastors in an Amish community has more than an 8th grade education, and has no college and no formal theological training.

They also do not seek outside of their own community or circle. It is always going to be someone from their own congregation----and it’s literally a congregation of people because they Worship in each other’s home. They do not have church buildings.

The Amish gather and each person votes for a man, in their tradition it is only men, and then all the men who get at least three votes are invited to sit at a table.

Hymn books are passed out randomly to the men and inside one of those hymn books is a card telling that person that he is now the pastor.

Yancey asked, “What if the person selected doesn’t feel qualified?”

The Amish man simply said, “If he did feel qualified, we would not want him.”

There is a marvelous theological premise that says that God does not call the qualified; but qualifies the called. God does not choose people to serve because they earned that right; God calls people and challenges people to live up to that calling.

Moses, when he stood in God’s presence, was told to remove his sandals because he was on holy ground. Indeed. We all need to serve God with that kind of humility.

Lastly, we serve not knowing what life brings us.

Yesterday was the 65th Anniversary of D-Day when the Allies invaded France to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis.

I watched a program, recently, where two men were interviewed. They were elderly men and both survived that day. One was an American soldier who came ashore, and one was a German machine gunner.

They both had a lot in common. They were both loyal to their countries and were fighting for their countries and felt called to do so. They were both devout Christians. And they were both terrified.

Both men recounted the horror of the day and both men said that they did two things while firing their weapons. They prayed constantly and could not stop crying.

Two men. Faithful Christians and loyal to their country and both terrified for where they found themselves.

Being called is not unlike this. When we put our lives in God’s hands, when we listen to a call and try to live it out, we never know where we are going to end up and what situations we will find ourselves in.

God calls and we are invited, like Isaiah, to say, “Here I am.” But remember, it might even be better to be a little incorrect and say, ‘Here I is,” because we never quite know where it is we are going to go.

Confessions of an Elitist

I have learned that I am an elitist.

I have read, numerous times, that I am part of the ‘educated elite.’ I ended up being an elitist because I have advanced degrees, both a Master’s degree and a Doctorate.

I have read that I am part of the ‘northeastern elite’ because I was born and raised in the northeast. My New Jersey roots have come back to haunt me.

I think it might be time for the word ‘elite’ to find its way into the hopper. It is being way over-used and it’s being over-used in some majorly unhealthy ways.

First, speaking about the ‘educated elite.’

This makes education sound like a bad thing and woe to us when education is seen as a bad thing. Woe to us big time.

In diminishing education as the domain of the ‘elite’ we are saying to science that scientific thought is less important than it used to be. It is saying that when science discovers things we do not like or wish that science hadn’t discovered these things, then we are moving down a dangerous path. When we say that we do not like history as it reads, so we are going to make some ‘adjustments’ to the story, then we are not acknowledging reality.

I have grown weary of scientific thought rejected because it does not match people’s interpretation of the Bible. Often the science is correct and it’s the Biblical interpretation that is off. If education helps people come to a more correct answer than a desired answer, so be it. Simply calling people ‘elite’ because they bothered to actually read founding documents in their totality instead of picking and choosing lines; or people who have studied the Bible in its totality and its context and dismissing them a liberal elitists because they did hard work is bogus.

Education is not elitism. Most people who have earned doctorate degrees will make the same confession that I am going to make. A doctorate degree does not make you elite and it does not necessarily signify that you are smarter than everyone else. (Though you may be more educated which is different from smarter!)

It does demonstrate, however, determination to do the work that was required. Doctorate degrees are not sprints----they are marathons. It is a difficult and grueling process that is achieved not be being elite or even smarter than anyone else. It’s achieved by determination more than anything else.

The fact that I did this does not make me a elite. I am not part of the educated elite; I am part of those who are educated and that is all.

Then there is the northeast. The northeast is largely Democratic these days and people make some really interesting presumptions about the northeast. Elitists. Hah!

My Dad repaired televisions for most of his career. He graduated from a vocational high school and went to radio school and learned to repair televisions in the days of tubes. Later in his career he became a field supervisor at General Electric product services where he oversaw other repair people. It was his only white collar job and he was so incredibly proud of that achievement.

My Mom was a stay at home Mom for a long time and then worked in offices as a typist. Her secretarial skills were limited to typing----on typewriters.

I grew up with my brother and sister in a modest home. We delivered newspapers and got other jobs. I worked for two years unloading grocery trucks and pushing shopping carts at a grocery store. My parents, neither of whom had education beyond high school demanded we all go to college. And we did. On all sides of the family, my generation was the first generation to attend college.

We were a blue collar family in a world that had white collar people and blue collar people. Many people belonged to unions and many people did not.

In that world it was interesting. The blue collar world was largely Roman Catholic; the white collar world was largely mainline Protestant. It was the mainline Protestant congregations that were more educated and were mostly Republican. The people raised Roman Catholic were mostly Democrats. If you called most of the blue collared, Roman Catholic Democrats liberal, they’d laugh in your face and you’d deserve it.

As the Republican Party grew more and more in the Evangelical movement, the mainline Protestant people moved over to the Democrats. The largely blue collared, Roman Catholic Democrats look at people from the Religious Right like they are from another planet.

The northeast has a diverse, highly concentrated population. Because people all live on top of each other, and because the region has always been ethnically incredibly diverse, it is a region that is, out of necessity, highly tolerant.

What is often perceived of as ‘liberal elitism’ is really just a natural tolerance for diversity and largely Democratic. It has never really been as ‘liberal’ as people like to believe it is and if you called people who grew up in the many blue collared regions that permeate most of the northeast ‘elite’ it would be the funniest thing they have ever heard.

My elitism confession is this. I have never been an elitist. The only people who have presumed this so are too willingly ignorant to recognize this.

My thought, more and more is that the word ‘elite’ is a word that needs to find a nice place to rest until people learn what it actually means.

Horror and Hope

President Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel all visited Buchenwald together. In quoting from a news source, it was written:

The president called the camp where an estimated 56,000 people died the "ultimate rebuke" to Holocaust deniers and skeptics. And he bluntly challenged one of them, Iranian President Ahmadinejad, to visit Buchenwald.

"These sites have not lost their horror with the passage of time," Obama said after seeing crematory ovens, barbed-wire fences, guard towers and the clock set at 3:15, marking the camp's liberation in the afternoon of April 11, 1945. "More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished."

It speaks well of our world that a sitting American President, and a sitting German Chancellor can visit this place with a Holocaust survivor like Wiesel.

It is a stunning reminder of horror. It is the horror of human hatred. Buchenwald, like so many other former Nazi Concentration Camps remind us that there is human evil and human horror. The freezing of the clock at the hour of liberation, however, reminds us that goodness still also prevails and lives in the hearts of people.

In a way, this place is a living reminder of horror and hope.

Tomorrow, June 6, 2009 is the 65th Anniversary of another day of horror and hope. It is the day when American, British, Canadian, and French soldiers stormed the beaches at Normandy France to begin the liberation of western Europe from Nazi occupation. Omaha Beach was a place of bloody and brutal horror; yet out of that horror sprang hope for the people who were liberated.

These places remind us of horror and hope and challenge us to always face, confront, and challenge evil which brings about horror----and invite the world to have hope.