Faith (part 1)

What does it mean to be a ‘Christian?’ It’s not as easy a question as it appears: and definitely is more complicated than just by looking it up the word in the dictionary: but the closest definition I could find was a person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Christ. I began thinking about this recently after reading a blog from Brant Hanson. Brant is a dj at Air1, a Christian music station.

I was born the grandson of a southern Baptist preacher, and people automatically assumed I knew the Bible and was deeply religious; the truth was I knew enough to feed my prideful ego about how good I was.

I had an typical childhood of a poor southern family, my days consisted of hard menial work, with a heavy dosage of ‘church goin,’ which was mainly a list of things not to do. This list of ‘no’s did not lead to any discussion of sin, or even of original sin and how we live in a fallen world where the evil one tempts us constantly. So I knew nothing of why things were wrong, I was just told not to do it. As anyone who knows much about human behavior will tell you, the surest way to make someone want to do something is to tell them they can’t.

I make no excuses for what I did after I left my parents' home. I believed myself an adult, and as someone who has no foundation of faith other than what he was told to believe, I had nothing to fall back on. While my exposure to the Bible and the basic teachings of Christ had planted a seed in my subconscious, just as is true in planting a physical garden, much hard work, sweat, and frustration is certain. I began my college career, but it was also my walk in the desert. I didn't know then that it would be almost as long as Moses.'

It was in college I took my first drink: just one that first time, but as is always the case, it soon took more than one to get the desired effect.

The drugs came next, I started with marijuana, and while it would remain my favorite, it would not be the only one I did.

My life became a spiral of continuing darkness; my habits never affected my work as I was a dj in a bar where drinking and drugs would be the accepted norm. When the job at the bar ended, one of my drinking buddies got me a job at the radio station he worked at. I had worked in radio off and on for five years, and as I had learned how to maintain the high without affecting the job, the stations didn't care about my habits.

However, the job was at a Christian music station: he and I both thought it was funny that my 'drinking buddy' got me a job there. In hindsight, it was hypocritical to be talking about Jesus and faith in the shape I was in. The fact that I got my one and only fan letter from a lady who said she always made a point to tune into my show, because she always got a blessing does not ease the pain of that time as I look back.

It was during this time I started having blackouts, I have a couple of years of my life I don't remember; though I am sure from the stories I've heard that my lapse of memory are a good thing. I am not proud of those years, but I can also not deny my stupidity during this time.

This would be my last radio job, because of my economic choices-choosing to buy alcohol and drugs instead of paying bills, I found myself sitting in a dark apartment with no electricity, no water, staring at an eviction notice.

Since I had long since been kicked out of not only one, but two colleges for drugs, with no play to live now and heavily addicted, instead of growing up, I ran away, ran not only from my creditors, but my demons. I moved to Ohio to live with my favorite uncle. I foolishly thought the bad times were behind me-I never knew things were about to get a lot worse.

To Be Continued

. . . And Rumors 0f Wars . . .

            The President of the United States wants to go to war and is pushing Congress for a declaration of such. He would not be the first president antsy to put troops in harm’s way in a foreign country. Congress’ mandate is not needed; many commander-in-chiefs have just done a unilateral decision and convinced the country that it was at war. But the pseudo leader who has broken most of the laws the country stands for, feels the need now to be totally above board and insist the letter of the law is carried out. The most obvious answer for this is that he does not want blamed when body bags start being sent home-he want to blame someone else, as he has done his entire life.

            But what of this declaration of war? You must know that congress has never turned down a president when he has made this request. The first president to ask for a declaration of war was fourth President James Madison as he drug the country into what is called the War of 1812. The most powerful man in the country, more so than Madison himself was Speaker of the House Henry Clay. I am an admirer of Clay and will have a  new book on the Kentuckian coming out later this year, but I must confess Clay’s push into war “with the arrogance of youth and the ambition of national attention.”[1]

            Many, many presidents have been anxious to declare war-but why? Writer and Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait says it best when he says war is good for the economy because dead guys can’t flip burgers, in other words, a good old fashioned war is usually the answer when the economy lags for any amount of time.

            However, there have been two presidents, both war generals, who have cautioned their successors away from foreign entanglements: George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower. “A government for the whole is indispensable,” Washington warned. “No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute. They must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced.”[2] One hundred fifty years later, Eisenhower, the man who had masterminded the D-Day invasion was warning the nation that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”[3]  Both Washington and Eisenhower knew that if left unchecked, military power will continue to grow and, like everything else, will need to be constantly fed.

            The problem is, the current president doesn’t believe in what he’s selling. Don’t get me wrong, he don’t mind a good Republican war, one approved by a Republican president (as was the story with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan which had been begun by George W. Bush) and supported by then candidate Barry in his campaign in ’08 (against Senate and War Veteran John McCain).

            But, to lead a war, you have to go down unsafe avenues: and he’s never had to do that.

            In his first political campaign, he won by simply having his opponents declared ineligible to run. In his only two years in the U. S. Senate, he voted neither yes nor no to any of  the tough issues: he simply voted ‘present.’

            What of the current Secretary of State, John Kerry? Kerry was the one who as the presidential nominee in 2004 proudly reminded us constantly he served in Vietnam, and yes he did. But he was the same Kerry who, upon his return to the states threw his medals away and became a war protestor. This was the same Kerry who, during the campaign would say he had proudly voted for the then current Iraq War before he voted against it. It is Kerry who has led the charge against how bad Syria is: I wouldn’t believe Kerry if he guaranteed me the sun would come up yesterday.

            President Barry and Sec Kerry have made an agreement with Russia to keep Syria in check. RUSSIA, of all people, I know times change, but Russia has ALWAYS been the bad guy.

            However, Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel, is not impressed with any of our overtures. The Unites States has been an ally of Israel since it became a state in 1948. It is written in the Bible that “Blessed be the Lord your God . . . because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever.”[4] It therefore sounds like Israel is important, and explains why we have been an ally.

            So President Barry will probably get his war, and it will be up to the people to know which side they are on, the side of God and Israel, or the side of the president and the Muslim brotherhood.

            Which side do you choose?

           

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[1] Henry Clay: Compromise and Ambition Jerry Hensley Outskirts Press 2013 page 34

[2] Washington’s Farewell Address September 19, 1796

[3] Eisenhower’s Farewell Address January 17, 1961

[4] 2 Chronicles 9:8

A Consuming Compassion

When I was a kid, I remember a conversation my Mom had with a co-worker, they asked if I had been named for Jeremiah in the Bible. The answer was no, my name is not Jeremiah, just plain ole Jerry.

However, I do seem to have a little in common with Jeremiah, name not withstanding.  Jeremiah was called the ‘weeping prophet’ and the pages of the book named  him is filled with someone who is begging his nation to turn from their ways because he loves his country and doesn’t want to see it destroyed.

Looking back upon many of my blogs, I see that’s what I am doing. The United States of America, my country, is on the backside of greatness sliding into the abyss of obscurity. The founders fought for a freedom we seem to almost be a hindrance and can’t wait to get rid of. Laws are made to insure that others spend our money, while we blindly obey whatever the talking head du jour says is right. This is MY country: it is NOT where it should be, it is travelling in every wrong direction, and the speed increases with each day. I will attempt, as Jeremiah did in his time, to broadcast, document and ultimately watch as the end comes.

However, the following book, Lamentations, Jeremiah says that whatever happens to the physical stuff, it is after all, just stuff. He says it better that I ‘Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.´(Lamentations 3:22-23). Get back to what matters, the rest will be consumed.

History Lesson

            Broke.  Bankrupt. Unable to meet expenses for an indefinite period. However you say it, that is what has happened to not only Detroit, but to many individuals over the last several decades.

            Detroit was the city that drove the world and in its heyday approximately 200,000 people worked in the motor city, today its fewer than 20,000.

            So what happened? To understand that, we have to go back in time. The America of today has become the land of instant gratification, where faster is better, older and outdated models are expendable and social media has replaced relationships. But in the eighteenth century, the founders of the country understood the connection between work and accomplishment: if they didn’t plant a crop, there would be no food in the winter.

            The agrarian lifestyle of the founders was replaced by the industrial revolution in the mid 19^th century, but the concept still held true: hard work equaled success.

            However, at about the start of the 20^th century, the idea began to change. It was almost as if the gamblers that had spent their entire lives roaming the world trying the find the next set of gullibles to fleece were given positions of influence. Success could be yours without the hard work; you just had to know how the system worked, because of this skewed thinking, things that should have been a good thing took on an evil twinge.  A ‘representative republic’ government became an over-reaching entity who stifled any productivity.

            The lawyers who help those who have no voice became a way to ‘get rich quick:’ by suing to right a wrong, whether real or imagined.

            The labor unions whose job it was to help workers from being taken advantage of began demanding more and more while producing less and less.

            Through this gradual evolution, the American psyche has been transformed into one waiting for the next big payoff. As of 2010, Americans spent $58 billion dollars buying lottery tickets, hoping for a quick payout from no effort. This is the evidence of our transgressions: we’re waiting for the big score be it a class action lawsuit or our own fifteen minutes of fame in the spotlight thanks to a new ‘reality’ show. Very few of us remember the equation that made our country a successful one and we are now paying the price.

            Detroit won’t be the last big city to prove there is no such thing as ‘too big to fail,’ and will eventually lead, if we stay on the road we’re on, to the collapse of what was once called the shining city on a hill.

Hyphen-etically Challenged

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FOLLOWING:

                My fellow Americans, I am declaring today, my fellow kinsmen, that I will no longer accept the yolk of the white mantel. For far too long, my chaps and lassies, we have accepted the ‘white’ be it on job applications or in discussions via social media.  The America of tomorrow is the Hyphenated States of America and is filled with African-Americans, Asian Americans, Chinese Americans,  and Mexican Americans, there is no room in the America of tomorrow for white, therefore as of today, I urge my fellow pigmently-challenged  kinsmen, to refer to yourself as a Anglo American.

                I also demand that, to begin immediately, Actress Betty White change her name to Betty Anglo-American, that Disney change its movie title to Snow Anglo-American and the Seven Vertically Challenged Individuals.

                More demands will be coming as needed.

END OF STATEMENT