"Not in the bible" != "Not Christian"

(!= means ≠ or <> or "does not equal")

Utility pole sign that says
the Rapture is coming on October 28, 1992

"Not in the bible" isn't necessarily the same as "not Christian," "untrue," "heretical," etc.

In my layman's opinion, we are free to complement Christian tradition if it doesn't conflict with what's already in the bible and it helps us understand and practice what is there.

Every denomination does this. Every one, even those who think they don't. Small differences of opinion on common beliefs can lead to very different expressions of belief, and since we tend to judge each other by appearances, those expressions take on significance far out of proportion to the differences they represent.

There's a tombstone in Ireland (IIRC) that that says "I sold tin to Jesus Christ." I doubt Jesus made it to Ireland (at that time called Hibernia by Romans), but someone thought so, and what's the harm?

That's one of the great things about relics and tombs and such - they hold stories, and we love stories. Ever look at a painting and just wonder what the people are thinking or doing? That's what icons are all about, Charlie Brown.

[2014-07-25]

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"Glen" is a word (an early lesson from Scrabble).

Many years ago when I was old enough to spell but too young to remember my age, I was playing Scrabble with Grandma Grandy (Mom's mom).

She formed the word "glen" with her tiles.

I said, "Grandma, you can't use names. That's against the rules." (She had a brother, my Uncle Glenn.)

She said "glen" was a real word. I didn't believe her, but a dictionary proved me wrong.

Grandma was an excellent Scrabble player. And she didn't even dock my score for an unsuccessful challenge.

[2014-07-20]

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The Osmonds in plaid leisure suits. Yes,
that was once considered very stylish.

We're all in the middle of a trend. As much as we think we're always at the end of one (which may be true), we're usually right in the middle of a bigger one. Music and fashion are the obvious examples, but those change so quickly, we can watch a few come and go in a single lifetime.

It's the long, lumbering trends that we think have been around forever that we don't recognize - the novel, movies, international travel and phone calls, American civil religion, vaccinations for childhood diseases, highways, the American Way, representative democracy, Protestantism, fundamentalism, Federalism, etc.

There's no guarantee any of those will still be here (or be needed) a thousand years from now.

[2014-07-25]

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Let's see…. Save money, or help the environment...

A story was related to me when I was a student at Calvin College about an Arab Christian student who was taking business classes.[1] During a business ethics class, he questioned why anyone would debate the ethics of making money or how much you make; motives were agnostic and profits axiomatic.

He was wrong, of course. When you consider the impact a product has on jobs, health, or the environment, the picture gets rather muddy.

Consider MAP pricing.

MAP pricing is the lowest price a product may be advertised at; this price is mandated by the manufacturer as a qualification for selling the product. If you advertise below MAP pricing, you'll likely lose the privilege of selling the product. This often affects personal electronics, but may also affect consumables, like electric shaver blades and replacement brushes for electric toothbrushes.

In fact, it's often cheaper to buy an electric razor than new blades.

Now, look at the position I'm in as a consumer:

Buy a new razor?

Then I am contributing to landfills, larger carbon footprints, etc, but maybe also creating a job, since a razor has many parts that probably are acquired and assembled by many people.

Buy the blades?

I can't afford it. That's $30-$40, and that will buy a lot of bread and milk and eggs and fruit and vegetables.

Because I can't know the impact of my purchase, I can't be responsible for the effects.

But there are those who do know and are responsible, and that is a business ethics decision.

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[1]

His being Arab has nothing to do with ethics, it just happens to be an interesting detail. He was also very wealthy. When he needed a car to get around Grand Rapids, his father didn't send him the money, he shipped him a new pickup truck.

[2014-07-23]

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Does it matter if a 4-year-old DIDN'T go to Heaven and come back to tell about it?

The cover of 'Heaven is for Real'

I recently heard a noted evangelical criticize Heaven is for Real, a book that claims to relate the experiences of a boy who went to heaven and came back to tell about it.[1]

As much as I believe most of Heaven is for Real is attributable to coincidence and wishful thinking, I also know from personal experience that the book has made a difference in the lives of the dying and the families who've said goodbye to them.

We beat ourselves up over trivial differences, and since I spend a lot of time consuming Christian media, I witness those beatings almost daily, and I become increasingly dispirited each time.

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[1]

I first wrote about Heaven is for Real here: Did a 4-year-old really go to Heaven and come back to tell about it? >

[2014-07-21]

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Excuse me, you have Jesus junk stuck between your teeth.

Jesus pencil toppers. Some Jesus junk is created just for its kitsch 

value, but some, like these, are intended for Christians. Strange how

it's acceptable to make money off an executed human being, 

venerated or not. There's no end to poor taste. Ever heard of 

"serial killer" trading cards? I'm not kidding >

I was going to relate a story about a person of some importance who had a religious knickknack on his/her desk but by his/her private instructions was making a statement far louder than that knickknack, and quite contrary to the message that knickknack was meant to convey. In fact, a little Googling turned this person up as a deacon in a megachurch.

A word to fellow Christians: If you're going to festoon your life with Jesus junk, at least try to play the part so you don't paint the rest of us with the same brush. Hypocrisy has a way of shrouding us with a public secret known to all but ourselves, like spinach stuck between our teeth.

Am I blameless? Hardly. There are times I've been the worst example of a Christian I know. I haven't thrown anyone to the lions, but I may have nudged a few off the straight and narrow just by being obnoxiously backslidden.

But every new day discards the previous.

I heard a quote recently (GK Chesterton?) that the biggest problem in the church is Christians.

[2014-07-22]

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Saints preserve us!

Chief O'Hara from TV's 'Batman' often intoned 'May the saints
preserve us,' which cast him as an Irish Catholic

I had a difference of opinion recently with another Christian on "Intercession of the Saints," which (as I understand it) means the community of all Christians, living and dead, actively engaged in prayer and intercession.

There's a variety of ways to analogize this[1], but in this post I just wanted to say something about the thoughts and behaviors of early Christians.

Jimmy Akin, in The Father's Know Best (52. Intercession of the Saints), quotes a number of early church sources (including Hermas, Clement of Alexandria, Jerome, Augustine) as well as early Christian inscriptions, which are even more interesting to me, like these:

Atticus, sleep in peace, secure in your safety, and pray anxiously for our sins [Christian Inscriptions, no. 37 (c. A.D. 350)].

Blessed Sozon gave back [his spirit] aged nine years; may the true Christ [receive] your spirit in peace, and pray for us [Christian Inscriptions, no. 25 (c. A.D. 250)].

Gentianus, a believer, in peace, who lived twenty-one years, eight months, and sixteen days, and in your prayers ask for us, because we know that you are in Christ [Christian Inscriptions, no. 29 (c. A.D. 250)].

Pray for your parents, Matronata Matrona. She lived one year, fifty-two days [Christian Inscriptions, no. 36 (c. A.D. 250)].

Why are the inscriptions more interesting to me?

They reflect the beliefs of ordinary people like you and me who were dealing with death like you and me: They lost a loved one and carved something meaningful on the tombstone, as it were, something they wanted others to see.

Why are early opinions and practices important?

Because the closer you get to the source of a thing, the more likely you are to see the true nature of a thing, as well as the controversies surrounding the nature of a thing. That's why we have courts of law, use microscopes, or test soil samples on Mars.

Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken,
Josse Lieferinxe, 1497-1499 (Wikimedia Commons)

Caveat

I wouldn't want someone to dig up Hillary Clinton 2,000 years from now and presume everyone in the United States shared her opinions. But the early church was small, persecuted, and despite their differences, shared a great deal of theology. You wouldn't likely engrave something that identified you as a persecuted minority unless it was especially meaningful.

Pray for Me

There are plenty of "pray for me" passages in the bible. On a purely practical level, if we believe a man who died 2,000 years ago can hear us, why not someone who died yesterday?

I'm not out to convince anyone. I have my own opinion that fits my understanding. It may not fit yours. But even if it's nonsense, what's the harm?

Either the church went awry very early…

… or we have to take these things seriously. Either way, we can't just toss them aside as irrelevant.

I can understand how we might say after 1,500 years things needed some shaking up (the Reformation), but after 200? 300?

Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, nondenom, or anything else, if you're a Christian, you are the Church, the same Church to which belonged the grieving parents that buried their 1-year-old little girl Matronata Matrona in 250 AD.

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[1]

For example, Christians routinely ask each other for prayer, and there is an "elevated" quality to prayers requested by and offered by deacons, pastors, and so on. Some may disagree with that, but they're not observing carefully.

[2014-06-15]

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Angels aren't jerks.

The cover of 1953's Angel Unaware, by
Dale Evans Rogers. It tells the story of
Roy's and Dale's daughter,
Robin Elizabeth Rogers, born with
Downs Syndrome. I have not read it,
but it seemed a fitting illustration.

When I'm especially troubled by a conversation or the actions of others, I often recall the biblical statement that we sometimes entertain angels unawares. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant for the moment; it's a pleasant conceit.

I must also remember, however, that in instances where humans reportedly encountered angels, the angels didn't purposely try to challenge or confuse anyone. In other words, angels aren't jerks.

If you're having trouble with a jerk, you're not talking to an angel.

And maybe you weren't in any case; but we are then confronted with an even greater challenge, aren't we? To turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, be kind to those who spitefully use us.

That's very difficult. Even most Christians I know are not very good at practicing that.

But my father was very good at it. He would become upset like anyone else (as when a customer at Loblaws, where he was a manager, told him to shove a box of Fiddle Faddle up his ass), but I saw him far more often shrug or smile in the face of an insult.

I do that myself now. It doesn't come naturally, but unfortunately there is no dearth of opportunities to practice.

[2014-07-19]

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Even if X interferes with Y, preventing X doesn't lead to Y, and here's Why…

A recent news story on "why vitamins are bad for you" got me thinking: We too often assume that by preventing or stopping something otherwise benign, we can encourage something beneficial.

Eg 1

Personal electronics turn children into antisocial beings.

Logic: Less time with earbuds and video games will create more time with people.

Clarence: Not unless you actively replace them with a different activity. Just pulling out the earbuds does no good by itself. When I was a boy, it was TV and comic books. We were encouraged to turn off the TV, put down the comics and go outside.

Very often that led to us sitting on the patio saying 'What do you want to do?" and "I don't know, what do you want to do?" over and over, which can't be any better than television.

Adults also find solitary ways to entertain themselves, don't they? Facebook, a Kindle, a ball game on TV. We just don't like to see the kids doing it, and if we're honest with ourselves, maybe we're just trying to get them out of the way for a bit.

The personalization of media will only get more personal, until interaction with real people is the exception. It's not too early to begin finding healthy ways to manage it.

Eg 2

Using your left foot to brake when driving is bad.

Logic: Because you might apply both the brake and gas at the same time; bad for your brakes, bad for your engine, and you can lose control in an emergency.

Clarence: Police officers are taught to drive this way. I presume race car drivers do as well. It's obviously not impossible and provides increased control at dangerous speeds.

F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway
(looks like a doctored photo)

Eg 3

If you can't spell, you can't write.

Logic: Good writing depends on good spelling.

Clarence: A single counter example suffice, but two come to mind: Truman Capote couldn't recite the alphabet, and F Scott Fitzgerald couldn't even spell his good friend's name, "Ernest Hemingway."

The importance of being Earnest Hemminway, (or why spelling isn't that important) >

Most people who make a living insisting on how English ought to be spoken or written don't understand how English is spoken and written, or at the very least, have an uninspiring relationship with words.

Detail from Luca Signorelli,
‘The Damned Cast into Hell’

Eg 4

If you think something besides a prayer of salvation saves you, you're not saved.

Logic: Salvation comes by faith alone. If you think works are part of it, you may depend on those works and never really have faith.

Clarence: There is no prayer of salvation in the bible.[1] How many people in the past few generations (in which this has become widespread among Protestants) prayed a "sinner's prayer" without believing it? And not only that, evangelicals teach that you're saved forever despite anything you do after, no matter how heinous.

What an unenviable task a lot of evangelists will have someday explaining their theology as millions they "led to the Lord" are thrown into hell.

(I cast that sentence in terms evangelicals can appreciate, but it's the set-it-and-forget-it easy Christianity that's really at issue, regardless of what/if judgement awaits.)

[2014-05-20]

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When we make such a big deal about differences of opinion, we don't just take a stand, we hurt each other in ways that last a generation and are inculcated into the next.

The ministry of Jesus was rarely anti anything. We just make it that way.

[2014-07-19]

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[1]

The Sinner's Prayer >

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Unconventional grooming brings unhappy consequences.

Clarence at the Black Rose in
Grand Rapids maybe 10 years ago

I’ve worn my hair long for most of my adult life. I cut it for funerals or important trips, but otherwise keep it long.

A former boss once told me (this was a long, long time ago, no one I work with anymore), “I don’t know what you think you’re trying to prove.”

A man standing next to me at the urinals in the office once said, “I thought you were a girl.”

A man in the cafeteria, unable to find his indoor voice, said, “He should get a haircut.”

Someone else thought I was American Indian, which would have made it acceptable to some folks (I’d be very proud to be an American Indian, but I am, alas, Anglo-Saxon).

Today a lady shopping next to me in a big box store followed me with her eyes, even though I never got within a few feet of her. When I passed (at some distance), she took her purse out of her cart and put it over her shoulder.

I’ll wear my hair long anyway.

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Q: Why would you do something that invites so much criticism?

A: Of what advantage is it to me or others to enable small-mindedness?

Q: Why do you grow your hair?

A: I don’t know. My toenails are doing it too. How do you get them to stop?

Q: Why do you grow your hair?

A: So children who can’t, might  feel good about themselves. (Locks of Love >)

Q: Why do you grow your hair?

A:

[2014-02-25]

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How many kids can I remember from Vernondale Elementary School?

How many kids can I remember from Vernondale Elementary School?

Let's see…

Girls	Boys
Nina Donner Chrissy Dahlstrand Rosetta Lawrence Beth Williams Colleen Madera Crystal Flickinger Sandy Clutter Barbara Joe Allen	Andy Dahlstrand Rich Nickel Mike Guyton Jeff Hull Steve Schloss John Tushak Ricky Clouser Jim Segal Joe Campbell Jim Campbell Neil Chipoletti Jay Chipoletti Tommy Kahil David Sturtevant

In those days, grade school went from K-6. Nowadays most grade schools stop at 5th, some at 4th.

Not a lot of names for 7 years of one's life, is there?

Hey Crystal, wherever you are, you were my biggest grade school crush, a sixth-grade Beatrice and first canto in a carnal comedy of errors.

A post from last April on Vernondale Elementary >

Vernondale Elementary School in Millcreek, PA

[2014-07-10]

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Why does the Catholic Church have a pope?

Why does the Catholic Church have a pope?

Sometimes the best answer to a question is another question, since it puts what we think is a special case into a familiar context.

So...

Why does a school have a principal?

Why does a company have a president?

Why does a  church have a pastor?

In other words, the Church has a pope because all human organizations of any size require a leader, and religious organizations are no different.

And the bigger the organization, the greater the need for a leader and rules circumscribing dissent.

I'm not Catholic but I fully understand the need for a pope (and an Archbishop for Anglicans and a president for Lutherans and a pastor for Baptists).

The first response is often, "But our leadership is different from theirs." Perhaps on paper, but not in practice.

What is the response when a GARB deacon goes off the rails? Or a pastor? It happens. Even a loosely allied fellowship like the GARB will act quickly and firmly.[1]

Just because there's no one person at the top of the org chart doesn't mean there isn't a singularity in purpose, theology, and enforcement.

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[1]

General Association of Regular Baptists. Please understand, I'm not picking on them, I love them like family, but because I know them so well, I draw on them for examples.

GARB homepage >

GARB on Wikipedia >

[2014-06-15]

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Forty-Five years ago a hot school lunch was 40¢ and men walked on the moon.

(Repost. from April 2013 Today - Sunday July 20  - is the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11, the first manned moon landing.)

Floor plan of Vernondale Elementary School

On the right is a floor plan of Vernondale Elementary School in Millcreek, PA as it appears today. (Click to enlarge).

The red box outlines the school prior to 1971. My earliest memories are of the school inside that red box, perhaps through 2nd grade.

The blue lines are windows. I draw them here because I spent a lot of time looking out of them, especially as weather warmed with spring and we opened classroom windows and could hear lawn mowers and birds and other outside noises.

Here is a list of the rooms and teachers that I remember...

K - Kindergarten

P - Principal, Mr Luscheon.

Mr Luscheon's secretary was Mrs Nickel. Mrs Nickel was the mom of my closest friend all the way through 6th grade, Rich Nickel.

1 - 1st Grade, Miss Minucci (sp? pronounced min-OO'-chee)

I spent time in both rooms labeled #1. I like to joke that I flunked 1st grade. Actually, I was what you'd call a "young 5" today, but there were no provisions for kids my age then, and so I ended up going back to kindergarten for another year, which was fine by me. (There's a story there for another time. I still dream about being in those classrooms; strangely, in each dream, without fail, I'm a teenager in a 1st grade classroom.)

2 - 2nd Grade, Miss Leopold

3 - 3rd Grade, Miss Anderson

4 - 4th Grade, Mrs Budzynski (homeroom, math)

4b - 4th Grade, Mrs Southpaw[1] (reading and geography)

5 - 5th Grade, Mr Veith (homeroom, math)

6 - 6th Grade, Mr Locke (homeroom, science)

6b - Mrs Fuhrman (née Roslanowick), (English)

a - Before 1971, the cafeteria, after 1971, the library

There were two books I remember quite well in that library that I read cover to cover many times: Small animal life in a field, and the daily routine of a police officer. Rich Nickel and I wanted to get a couple acres someday and raise small animals like that. And we wanted to be policemen. I've lost track of Rich completely.

b - Courtyard; this was locked and unused the entire time I was at Vernondale.

This may be because a number of classroom windows looked out into it and activities would have been distracting.

c - The front of the lunch line where you picked up your food and milk.

The line sometimes extended down the corridor next to the courtyard, (b). A hot lunch was 40¢. Milk was 5¢ for a half pint. Chocolate or whole. Luke warm.

d - Cafeteria during lunch, otherwise the gymnasium.

There is still, as far as I know, a spot of mustard high on the brick interior, placed by yours truly when someone challenged me to smash a mustard packet with my fist. I did, and the end of the packet facing the wall exploded. I vaguely recall the lunch monitor (who was also the recess monitor) scowling.

This is the room in which I watched one of the Apollo moon landings. I reviewed the dates, days of the week, and times of day that each took place, and I don't think I actually watched any lunar landings; I think what I remember seeing was a telecast from the moon surface, which could have been broadcast any time during the mission.[2]

e - Music room

I learned to "play" the recorder in 4th grade in that room.

I was especially fond of Miss Anderson and Mr Locke.

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Theseus fighting the Minotaur, by Jean-Etienne Ramey;
marble, 1826, Tuileries Gardens, Paris

[1]

Her name was not Mrs Southpaw, but she had a delightful soft Southern drawl and a name that had an "s" and "th" in it (if I recall correctly) and "Southpaw" became an affectionate name for her. She was the gentlest, kindest teacher I ever had, though to this day I can't picture her very well, even though I can picture the others; I learned in her class that the alphabet had 26 letters in it. (She insisted I count them until I got it right.) She also taught us art and Greek mythology. It was in her room I first encountered the Minotaur.

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Crew of Apollo 16, L-R
Thomas K Mattingly, John W Young, Charles M Duke

[2]

As I recall, that day we were enjoying what we called "spring jacket weather" - clear, warm and breezy; I remember running all the way home from the bus stop to tell Mom I'd seen men walking on the moon.

The weather that weekend actually was unseasonably warm; temps started out around 70°F on April 21, 1972 in Erie (source >).

If my memory of the weather is correct, the moon mission I watched could only have been Apollo 16, which landed in the Descartes Highlands on April 21, 1972 at 2:23 UTC (source >).

Unfortunately, that's about ~9:30pm Thursday April 20 in Erie, PA, and the lunar module was only on the moon's surface for 3 days, so they would have lifted off Sunday about 9pm. That means I could not have been watching a live landing or live moonwalk in the Vernondale gymnasium in April of 1972.

John Young, commander of Apollo 16,
salutes the American flag on the lunar surface.

However, there are a few possible explanations that still make Apollo 16 a good candidate:

1) TVs were not as common as they are today and most homes had only one if they had one at all. TV networks (there were only three big ones - ABC, CBS, NBC) may have been broadcasting the moon walk on the next day, a Monday, when children had returned to school.

2) If I'm wrong about the weather, it could have been one of the other Apollo missions during the school year, but none of them landed during school hours either, so I'm faced with some of the same questions.

3) Vernondale may have taped and replayed it. There were no VCRs in those days, but there were reel-to-reel video recorders. They were very large and had to be rolled from class to class on wheeled carts. Vernondale had two. My best friend Rich Nickel was on the "AV Team." Everyone on the AV team had to have very good grades so they could be excused to set up the equipment in other classrooms when needed. Rich was very smart. I applied but was not accepted for the AV team.

I don't think #3 is possible, as I don't recall anyone from the AV team getting it started. Whatever we were watching, we were there on someone else's schedule, not our own.

[2013-04-08]

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God bless Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

[2014-07-18]

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