Barry Goldwater

I like what Barry Goldwater said back in 1981:

"There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent.

If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism,'" – Barry Goldwater, Congressional Record, September 16, 1981.

[taken from the blog 'The Daily Dish' by Andrew Sullivan]

Re: zzzzzzz

Sleep. I need lots of it. More than most people.
That's why I like this blog:

Larry Summers and the Myth of the Tireless Leader - HBR Editors' Blog - HarvardBusiness.org

Yuck! Spring.

More suicides happen in April and May than in December and January.
I didn't know that. But it's true.
This blog says more about it.....

Springtime Depression: Don't Worry About Not Being Happy - Beyond Blue

Wilson

The books of A. N. Wilson have always interested me. I don't remember if I've ever read one all the way through. I just read today that he has come back into the fold. Here is one article about this reversal:

New Statesman - Why I believe again

horses and bulls

On my drive to church this morning I glanced over into a farmer's field and saw several beautiful horses running in the wind--their manes flowing, their backs glistening, and it was like a flash of God's glory. I felt I momentarily had an opening into the mystery of the divine. I said, Thank you, Lord...

A couple of Sundays ago as I was turning onto Fairgrounds Road, there were two bulls butting heads. (I suppose that's where we get the phrase, 'being bull-headed.') They were really going at it. I'm not knowledgeable about cow breeding, so I don't know if it's normal to have two bulls in one pasture or not. I guess those heifers were waiting to see which bull would claim the territory. Folks were getting out of St. Bridgid's early mass and coming the other way, and they were all pointing at the bulls. From church to bull-headeness--not unusual.

The Blessing

I'm called upon frequently to give the Blessing
before a meal -- at church, at family gatherings,
and civic occasions.
I guess I'm an okay Blessing-prayer-giver.
But I do get tired of hearing myself say the same thing
over and over.
Sometimes I want to break out of my rut and pray
a more imaginative prayer.

Recently I ran across these two prayers that I like.
Maybe I'll use them....


first one:

For every cup and plateful Lord,
make us truly grateful.

second one:

Lord, bless this bunch
As they munch
Their lunch.

Beards

I've had a beard since 1976 when many men grew beards for the Bicentennial.
The last few years my beard has been very short.
I used to have a full beard -- a big black beard -- and it looked great.
But even as the hair on top of my head has thinned out and doesn't grow
as it used to, the hair on the bottom of my head doesn't grow the same either.

Pat has challenged me to let it grow out more fully again.
So I'm taking up the challenge.
I will try to look more like Jesus.

Fashions change.
Sometimes beards are in -- sometimes they're not.
Most of the presidents of the United States wore beards.
Some people are suspicious of men with beards.
Are they trying to hide something?
Are they disguising a physical fault?
Are they attempting to cover up their true identity?

Some beards make a man look sophisticated.
A beard may make a man look as if he is a homeless bum.
Some beards look evil.

We know that Jesus had a beard; we see it in all the pictures!
In Isaiah, in one of the Suffering Servant Songs, we have these words:
"I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting." (Isa. 50.6)

I love the pictures of the full-bearded Walt Whitman and Abraham Heschel and Ulysses Grant and Sigmund Freud and Ernest Hemingway and John Knox.

St. Augustine of Hippo wrote: "There are some details of the body which are there for simply aesthetic reasons, and for no practical purpose - for instance, the nipples on a man's chest, and the beard on his face, the latter being clearly for a masculine ornament, not for protection. This is shown by the fact that womens' faces are hairless, and since women are the weaker sex, it would surely be more appropriate for them to be given such a protection." City of God (c. 410) book 22, chapter 24

Well, Augustine wasn't a feminist.

The Old Testament gives this instruction about beards: "Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." (19.27)

Jesus promised us that our heavenly Father watches over us with care. He said, "Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matt. 10.30) I assume that includes the hairs on the 'bottom' of my head too. I'm not going to try to count them. But I'm going to try and grow them.

Just call me Rabbi McLaughlin.

Scottish Presbyterians eat...

See this blog:

Creideamh: What Scottish Calvinists are eating these days...

Hurtful comments to depressed people

Therese Borchard writes about depression. Her blog is BeyondBlue.com

Here is her piece:

I recently told my therapist that I was going to come up with an automatic response to unintentional hurtful comments that come my way, so that I don't have to absorb them and stew over them hours after the conversation is over. When someone says something to the effect that "it's a shame that person X has to take medication to deal with depression because she hasn't learned how to train her mind yet," I am going to say this, a paragraph that I will memorize and practice saying to a mirror:

I understand what you are trying to say, but recovering from depression isn't as simple as thinking the right thoughts. Depression is a result of organic changes in specific areas of the brain, especially in the limbic system that forms the brain's emotional center. Did you know about all the cell death and shrinkage in the amygdala and hippocampus regions of the brain that occur with depression? And depressed folks have a diminished capacity for nerve generation, so the faster the person is treated for depression the better. Each day with depression damages more nerve pathway.

Thanks to high resolution PET scans and MRIs, some psychiatrist and neurologists can identify specific circuits of the brain, regional patterns of brain activity, that distinguish depressed people from non-depressed. You can actually see a scan of it! And the genetics of mood disorders is promising, as well! Did you know there has been great success locating and identifying genes associated with schizophrenia and OCD? Researchers have confirmed a role for the gene G72/G30, located on chromosome 13q, in some families with bipolar disorder, and also evidence for susceptibility genes on chromosome 18q and 22q! Psychiatric geneticists have been able to mark a narrow area on chromosome 15 as having a tie to depression. I think it's just great that further studies will point to biochemical pathways of disease and could lead to new treatments, don't you? It's been nice talking. I have to run.

Difficult People

Brian Vaszilywrote the piece below. His blog is Intent.com.

The piece is about how to deal with difficult people.

I never have any trouble with other people, but

perhaps you do. So, here is a technique to use...

_________

What zaps your energy and happiness more powerfully and rapidly than anything else is your reaction to difficult people.

Notice I didn't say difficult people are responsible for zapping your energy and happiness. Only you are in control of you. You do have a choice in how you respond.

With that in mind, here is a simple, powerful and transformative – that is, intense – experience for you, in two steps.

For the first step, on computer, paper, or at least in your mind, make a list of the people you would define as difficult who you routinely correspond with or who impact your life.

This can include those in your professional and personal world, and those in the public eye, who rub you the wrong way, who make your skin crawl, or who -- if you didn’t believe in kindness and compassion or at least in avoiding jail -- you’d flat out enjoy punching in the nose.

Surely a few people spring right to mind.

Create this list of people you don’t like, and then consider each person on it in this regard:

What is it about this person that is worth emulating?

Instead of focusing on their disagreeable qualities and actions, that is, for each person on your list shift your perspective to what their best qualities are … more particularly, to the one, two or more aspects of their character that YOU could learn from and perhaps use more of.

Perseverance? Discipline? A happy-go-lucky attitude?

Everyone has something worth emulating. Everyone. Though certain people may deserve to be fired, jailed, or impeached, even they have qualities that are worth appreciating and emulating.

It is our reactionary egos that are prone to completely trash those who seem to have a negative influence in some way on us. Our egos are primitive; if somebody strokes them, that somebody is good, and if somebody kicks them, that somebody is bad.

This lingering reaction creates the notion of “dislike,” or hate, which blocks our eyes, mind and heart from focusing on anything but the negative. But by focusing on the negative in anyone – “I really don’t like that person” -- we are doing by far the most damage to ourselves.

Honing in on what we don’t like in people (or in situations for that matter) won’t change them, but it does make our lives considerably less peaceful and sucks away our energy and happiness. It becomes a habit that perpetuates the self-damage. Plus it makes us considerably less attractive to others.

This is not a call to tolerate being taken advantage of or abused by “people we don’t like,” of course; if changes need to occur to avoid those circumstances then by all means do what is ethical to make those changes.

But it IS a call not to let those people – really, your own ego – pull you down into discord and disharmony where you don’t deserve to be.

The key, then, is to try to focus on what is worth appreciating and emulating in the less-than-your-favorite-people people – even if (especially if) they are your “opponent,” such as in or on court – versus letting your ego, your emotional reactions, rule.

So the first step is to get your practice by making that list of people you don’t like and considering each person from that angle.

And then the second step is to extend that practice to daily life.

The next time you encounter someone who seems to be doing the opposite of their part to make your life fabulous -- in person, on T.V., in your head -- instead of focusing on what makes them such a lousy human being, focus on what it is about this person that is worth emulating.

Keep striving to do this until, typically two to three weeks in, it becomes a habit you don’t even need to think about.

You will be quite surprised at how this shift in your perspective reduces your overall anxiety, increases your energy and enables you to achieve more ... and achieve it happily.

_____

A ministry of the church

A little girl was in church with her mother when she started feeling ill. "Mommy," she said, "can we leave now?"

"No," her mother replied.

"Well, I think I have to throw up!" exclaimed the girl.

"Then go out the front door and around to the back of the church and throw up behind a bush," said her mother.

After about sixty seconds, the little girl returned to her seat. "Did you throw up?" her mother asked.

"Yes," the little girl replied.

"How could you have gone all the way to the back of the church and returned so quickly?" her mother asked.

"I didn't have to go out of the church, Mommy. They have a box next to the front door that says, 'For the Sick.'"

Those passionate conservatives

Another thoughtful blog by Pastor Carol... about whether
conservative churches are growing more than liberal churches
because the conservatives are more passionate, etc....

Read it here.

married priests

New York Bishop suggests that married priests in the Catholic Church might be a good idea.

Read it here.

rebuke?

I'm working on the first of six sermons on Peter. This Sunday is the lection about Peter's divinely inspired confession of faith, followed quickly by his rebuke of Jesus -- Matthew 16. (We don't use the word 'rebuke' much anymore, do we?) Have you rebuked anyone lately? Or been rebuked? Is rebuking a 'buking over again'?

Since we're having a shortened service Sunday, I'm trying to figure out how to shorten the content of the sermon. What to address...what to leave out.

I think a main point might be how Peter misunderstands the mission of Jesus -- misunderstands the meaning of 'Christ' from God's viewpoint.

Then there is the 'Satan' comment by Jesus. (Get behind me, Satan!!) Wow. I wonder if Jesus shouted that? I wonder if he was mad? I wonder if he pointed his finger at Peter. Hmm.

And -- to shorten a worship service... what to leave out? what is essential? It's an interesting exercise to think about these things as I prepare the service.

Can't leave out the Offering.

Front row

An older woman entered a country church. The usher asked her where she would like to sit. She motioned toward the front row. "Oh, you don't want to sit there," he said. "We have a boring guest preacher this morning. "Do you know who I am?" she said. "No," said the usher. "I'm the guest preacher's mother." "Oh," said the usher. "Do you know who I am?" he said. She replied, "No, I don't." "Good," he said, and walked away.

(from William Carl III's book, The Lord's Prayer Today)

The lesser evil

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life in the Vatican, said that the two Brazilian doctors who performed an abortion on a 9 year old rape victim do not merit excommunication, since they acted to save her life. (An article in the March 15 issue of the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.)

affording pastors

Are educated pastors becoming unaffordable for churches? Pastor Carol thinks so. The comments that follow her blog are interesting too. Read her blog here.

Whew

We have finished Lent.
I am spent.

gadget help

The instructions below are not 'religious,' but they do have to do with the stewardship of our time. (phone stewardship?)
They come from Kim Komando (that's her real name); I rely on her advice regularly for computer stuff....

[starts here]

We count on our mobile phones to stay connected with friends and family. But their cost in both time and money can be high. So, try these secrets to save a lot of both.

Send texts via e-mail

Does your phone not support multimedia messaging? Or are you nearing your monthly text-messaging limit? Then send your photo or text message via e-mail.

TECH TIPS: Ask Kim

Just open a new e-mail message. In the To: field, enter the 10-digit telephone number (without dashes). Then enter the appropriate domain name for the recipient's carrier.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Internet | Change | Speed | Tired | Checking | Replay | Rewind | Faster | Fast Forward | Pause | Reply | Delete | Slower | Navigate

AT&T: @txt.att.net

Sprint: @messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile: @tmomail.net

Verizon: @vtext.com

Standard charges apply for the recipient. If you're e-mailing from a cellphone, you'll pay for data usage.

Block messages

Maybe you don't like text messaging. So why pay to receive unwanted texts? Block texts or set up filters.

AT&T users must register for Message Preferences at mymessages.wireless.att.com. Sign in and you're given options to block specific types of messages. You can also allow and block messages from specific numbers.

Sprint lets you block messages from specific numbers. Log in to your account online. Click My Sprint, then My Online Tools. Under Communication Tools, select Block Text Messages.

Some plans may not provide this option. Or, you may want to block all billable messages. In that case, call *2 for customer service.

T-Mobile lets you block messages based on type. Log in to your account online and click My Account, then Change services. Select the blocking features you would like. Click Change Services.

For Verizon, log in to your online account. Select Preferences and choose Text Blocking. Block specific addresses or types of messages.

Skip the formalities

Tired of listening to your friend's obnoxious voice mail greeting? Then skip it. When the greeting starts, enter the appropriate code for the recipient's carrier.

AT&T: #

Sprint: 1

T-Mobile: #

Verizon: *

Check your account

Have you used up your monthly minutes? And how many text messages do you have left? A quick call will tell you. Just use these shortcuts.

AT&T

*MIN# (*646#) for minutes used

*DATA# (*3282#) for text usage

*BAL# (*225#) for account balance

*PAY (*729) to make a payment

Sprint

*4 for billing information

*3 to make a payment

T-Mobile

#MIN# (#646#) for minutes used

#MSG# (#674#) for text usage

#BAL# (#225#) for account balance

Verizon

#MIN (#646) for minutes used

#DATA (#3282) for text usage

#BAL (#225) for account balance

#PMT (#768) to make a payment

Navigate your voice mail

Checking your voice mail can be a chore. But, shortcuts can help you out when you're listening to a message. Speed it up, slow it down, save it and more.

AT&T

1: Rewind

2: Pause

3: Fast forward

4: Slower

5: Message date and time

6: Faster

7: Delete

9: Save

0: Help

(#): Skip

(*): Exit

Sprint

1: Message date and time

2: Reply

3: Fast forward

4: Replay

5: Rewind

6: Forward message

7: Delete

8: Call back

9: Save

0: Help

(#): Skip

(*): Cancel

Verizon

1: Rewind

11: Replay

2: Pause

3: Fast Forward

33: End of message

4: Slow

5: Message date and time

6: Speed

7: Delete

9: Save

0: Help

(*): Exit

(#): Skip

T-Mobile

1: Rewind

11: Replay

2: Pause

3: Fast forward

33: End

44: Slower

66: Faster

7: Delete

9: Save

(#): Skip

Text a landline

Sprint and Verizon provide text-to-landline services. Your text message is converted to a voice message and delivered. Just enter the landline number as you would a mobile number.

Sprint does not charge for the service; the message counts the same as any other. Verizon charges 25 cents per message. There is no charge to message recipients.

Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim's free e-mail newsletters, s

Calvinist Faith

I love John Calvin's definition of "faith":

"A firm and certain knowledge
of God's benevolence toward us,
founded upon the truth
of the freely given promise in Christ
both revealed to our minds
and sealed upon our hearts
through the Holy Spirit."

___

So, faith is a kind of 'knowledge.'

It is founded upon a promise.

It is known in the mind
and in the heart.

The Holy Spirit gives us this knowledge.

Bipolar Churchill

I read in World War II magazine that Winston Churchill probably had Bipolar II disorder. It is well known that Churchill had bouts of depression. He called depression his 'Black Dog.' But now some historians speculate that he actually suffered from manic-depressive illness (which we call bipolar disorder).

Bipolar II disorder is a variant in which hypomanic episodes--periods of unusual energy, creativity, and goal-oriented activity--are often more frequent than depressions and do not result in breaks from reality associated with full-blown manic episodes.

Churchill was known for his unusual energy level. A typical working day began at 8 a.m. and continued until 2 a.m. or beyond. Perhaps it was this mental illness that helped save the world for freedom in World War II.

Congressional Presbyterians

Presbyterians Today magazine reports that the 111th Congress of the US includes 44 Presbyterians -- 33 in the House and 11 in the Senate.

As I look at the list I see in the House there are 17 Democrat Presbyterians and 16 Republican Presbyterians; in the Senate there are 4 Democrats and 7 Republicans.

Therefore, a total of 21 Democrats and 23 Republicans in Congress.

Probably the two best known are Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and John D. Rockefeller (D-WV).

Denominations

The Presbyterian Outlook magazine reports on the latest figures about church membership. The 10 largest Christian denominations/bodies are:

1. Roman Catholic Church -- 67 million
2. Southern Baptists -- 16.3 million
3. United Methodist Church -- 7.9 million
4. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) -- 5.9 million
5. Church of God in Christ (Black Pentecostal) -- 5.5 million
6. National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc (Black Baptists) -- 5 million
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- 4.7 million
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc (Black) -- 3.5 million
9. Presbyterian Church USA -- 2.9 million
10. Assemblies of God -- 2.9 million

I was called for jury duty last week.
I went to the courthouse in downtown Dayton,
found the right building, the right floor,
and the right courtroom.
I went in and sat down.

I had been called before--when I lived in Greene County.
The procedure there was to be taken to a room down the hall
from the courtroom--and wait with other folk.
We waited all morning, and then were dismissed.
Same thing the next day.

So, this time, in Montgomery County, I wised up and
took a book to read.
I took The Future of Justification by John Piper.
And here is the odd thing: I sat down in the courtroom to
await instructions from the clerk, and I opened my book up
to the page where I had left off reading...And here is what my
eyes landed on:

"The charge against us in God's law-court is that we do not have this righteousness. 'None is righteous, no, not one...no one seeks for God' (Rom. 3.10-11). We are all guilty of 'ungodliness and unrighteousness...and have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images' (Rom. 1.18, 23; cf. 3.23). Nevertheless, God 'justifies the ungodly' (Rom. 4.5)--the omniscient Judge does not merely show clemency or forgiveness and assign us a status of 'righteous'; he finds in our favor precisely because he counts us as having the moral righteousness that we in fact do not have in ourselves. When the charge against us is read ('You do not have moral righteousness') and the verdict of the Judge is rendered ('I declare that you are not guilty as charged but do indeed have moral righteousness'), the righteousness in view in this declaration is real moral righteousness."

There I was--sitting in an actual courtroom--reading about the gospel wherein we sinners are declared righteous by God because of the death of Jesus in our place! As Luther put the paradox: "We are justified sinners."

Romans 4.5 is a stinger: "God justifies the ungodly."
That's grace.
It's not fairness--it's grace!
In our relationship with God, we don't want fairness, we want grace.
Otherwise, we're doomed.

But last Monday I received grace upon grace... the clerk told us that
the matter had been settled out of court that morning--we were free
to go home.
So I went to the church office and worked.

I am a sinner.
But God the Judge has acquitted me.

"There is now (already) no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom 8.1)

Alleluia!

Alien

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.

memory

A minister decided to try something a little different one Sunday morning.

He said, "Today, in church, I am going to say a single word and you are going to help me preach. Whatever single word I say, I want you to sing whatever hymn comes to your mind."

The pastor shouted out, "Cross!"

Immediately the congregation started singing in unison "The Old Rugged Cross."

The pastor hollered out, "Grace!" The congregation began to sing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound."

The pastor said, "Power!" The congregation sang "There is Power in the Blood."

The Pastor said, "Sex!"

The congregation fell in total silence. Everyone was in shock. They all nervously began to look around at each other, afraid to say anything. Then all of a sudden, from the back of the church, a little old 87-year-old grandmother stood up and began to sing "Precious Memories."