What Difference Does it Make?

Time does not allow me to elaborate on an issue I've been pondering for many weeks now as I read the world news. In so many countries around the world I see hatred, violent clashes, murder and terrorism wrapped up in various forms of "Jihad." WHY ARE CHRISTIANS SO PERSECUTED IN SO MANY PLACES? ARE CHRISTIANS (JESUS / GOD) TO BE SO FEARED AS TO MAKE THEIR PRESENCE DANGEROUS? The following story by Michael Ireland is but one of perhaps hundreds I have read in recent months from numerous sources, but it illustrates the common thread.

"HOUSTON, TX (ANS) -- They call him "The Ghost" -- the preacher who started 400 churches in Uganda -- and cannot be killed.


"Pastor Zachariah and his wife have 12 children, he oversees 400 churches, and his home church has 2,000 members.

"Pastor Zachariah Sserwadda has survived three assassination attempts on his life, the latest of which was March 4, 2000. Local radio reported that he was dead, according to Christi Myers reporting for TV station KTRK in Houston, TX.

"Myers says that nine years ago the African pastor was left severely injured in a terrorist attack that killed an American missionary in Uganda. Since then, the pastor has suffered continuing pain.

"She states that Pastor Zacariah's car was hit intentionally in a head-on crash with a truck driven by Muslim extremists. He and a front seat passenger were seriously injured, but American missionary Anita Liebl was lying dead in the back seat. Liebl was on a visit to help in his ministry to Muslims.

"'So when she left I said, 'Lord, you have taken her away. It's up to you,'" said Pastor Zacariah.

"Pastor Zacariah suffered a fractured pelvis, damage to both hips, and broken ribs.

"'The bone was out for 24 hours," he said.

"'The first announcement that came over the radio was I'm dead, and the Muslims were very happy I was dead," said Pastor Zacariah.

"'My kids went into their room they were crying and praying," said Zacariah's wife, Robina, about the news that was broadcast over the radio that day.

"Myers reports the outspoken Christian pastor is a target in Uganda because he is actively converting Muslims to Christianity. In other attempts on his life, his car has been sprayed with bullets and a man tried to put a bomb in his house.

"'There are several mosques, they come together to plan for my assassination," he said.

"The truck crash left him in pain for nine years.

"Myers also says the Houston Metropolitan Baptist Church brought him to Houston, where a surgeon and a hospital donated hip surgery.

"Two days ago, orthopedic surgeon Brian Parsley and Foundation Surgical Hospital gave the pastor the gift of hip replacement surgery, she reported.

"'You're already on a cane the second day after surgery, which is outstanding, so I don't see any reason why you shouldn't walk normal," said Dr. Parsley.

"The surgery means much more to the pastor than just relieving his pain.

"Pastor Zacariah said: "Muslims have been ridiculing me saying even though you never died, we've crippled you with that limp, because if that limp isn't going to be there I'm going to be a perfect person. It's very important."

"Myers says Zacariah prays for his attackers.

"'Jesus save them, save them," said Zacariah."

It is a regular event in countries that are predominantly Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic. I conclude that there is something inherently wrong in the DNA of a religious system that cannot coexist with people of a different faith. Christians believe Jesus is THE WAY to God, but Christians do not believe they need to "delete" non-Christians.

To LIVE is to know God. The alternative to that is EVIL! from Wayne
Warner's World

Franchising God

Ban Lifted on Malay Section of Catholic Newspaper is the headline announcing Government maintains newspaper cannot use "Allah" for God.

Jeremy Reynalds, Correspondent for ASSIST News Service KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (ANS) reported earlier this year: “Nine days after imposing a ban on the Malay-language section of the Herald, a Catholic newspaper, Malaysia's Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday lifted the ban - but mandated that the publisher must not use the word "Allah" for God in its Malay section until the matter is settled in court.”

We’re seeing lots of this kind of "funny business" these days, but it is kinda hilarious. Accordingly, Compass Direct News reported that the editor of the Herald, which publishes in English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, was notified by letter of the decision to lift the ban late yesterday evening.

Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, told Compass that the letter made clear that the conditions set out by the government in its earlier letter still stand: “The publisher must print the word "terhad" ("restricted" or "limited" in Malay) on the cover page of the newspaper to indicate that the weekly can only be sold in churches, and is meant for Christians only.”

That ministry has continued to prohibit the publisher from using the word "Allah" as the Malay translation for God. Now while this Catholic agency finds it necessary to comply with the local law, it seems humorous to the point of the ridiculous to think that anyone can legislate, franchise, or control the use of the word for God.

That is about as simplistic, writes Jeremy, as the British Bus Driver who refused to drive the bus that had a statement on the side of it saying there is no God.It seems to me it is about as ridiculous as our commercializing Christmas then reducing it to Kwanza, Hannukah, or whatever other ideology you want to promote.

There is no “Merry Christmas.” You simply cannot trace the DNA of Christmas without investigating the Christ-mas and its origins.When people refuse to praise God, Jesus said, the very rocks cry out in recognition of Him. In that biblical soap opera of suffering and diagnosing of God (as Jeremy Reynalds describes it), when God finally responded, he challenged Job to answer a few questions like,

1. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
2. Who stretched a measuring line across the earth’s foundations and measured it?
3. On what were its footings set and who laid its cornerstone?
4. Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its proper place?
5. What is the way to the abode of light?
6. Where does darkness reside?
7. Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?

We surely know more today, with our scientific discoveries, but we have a long way to go before we can capture God, own the franchise, and control the use of his name - authority - wisdom - justice et al.

Be you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, or an atheistic humanist, I see little chance of your buying the franchise or exercising your ownership of the word “God.” God is neither for sale nor copyright, let alone patent. Controlled use of the word
“God” is not a legal option, not even with a delete key!

Giving due credit to Jeremy Reynalds for his original reporting,
this is Wayne at Warner’s World
adding a few modifications of my own……like

“Merry Christmas”

Who's a Socialist?

There has been much discussion about Socialism since the election of President Barak Obama. Health Care Reform and a Public Option for Health Care have been denounced by some as “Socialism.” Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have no taxes to pay? Think about how much your pay check would increase if no federal, state, or local taxes were deducted. Thinking about how much your savings account would grow sounds too good to be true!

Or does it? If all taxes were eliminated there would be other issues to consider. For example: there would be no public schools to educate your children, no police force to protect your life and property. And who would respond to the fire alarm when your home catches fire?

Granted, welfare may be an abused system in need of reform; we all agree it needs some tweaking! But do we not all agree that a caring and compassionate society needs some means of providing for those who through no fault of their own cannot take care of themselves? That goes beyond being Christian; it speaks to human decency.

My family has visited and loved our national parks. How much their preservation has enriched our nation! We have benefited by traveling cross-country on our interstate highway--sure beats the slow-going on those narrow two-laners. We have reaped blessings from being protected by our armed forces, although some of the political issues involved remain a little too political.

Like it or not (and I have not always liked it), the undeniable truth is that all of us have reaped many benefits from our federal taxes. Without doubt, it is true that in some cases our taxes could be lowered. Perhaps the size of our government could be reduced (a basketball game does not require so many coaches, scouts, et al, either). Yet, it remains true, as others have observed, our system may not be a perfect system but it is better than any of the others and it is the system of choice.

It is also true that we cannot cooperate (govern) together without some degree of being “social.” The alternative is to be anti-social. Being anti-social drives us apart and disparages working together. Charges of “socialism” are politically motivated, promoted without thinking through, and calculated to prevent us from achieving a common good.

Together, we enjoy what individually only a select few could otherwise enjoy. From both a Christian perspective and from the view of the common good, all of us ought to be happy to contribute out taxes to the protection of the common good of all of us. We can be sociable together or unsociable apart; we can cooperate for the common good and enjoy our good game of life, or we can go our individual ways and be manipulated by those who would greedily grasp it all without sharing it.

This is Wayne at
Walking With Warner

A Tiger Tragedy

The seemingly invincible Tiger Wood struck an ethical IED! While Mr. & Mrs. Public buzz busily with excitement a hysterical Media titillates its verbal autopsy amid a fire storm of talk show hosts whipping up voyeuristic recipes ripe with gossip. The hubris of these professional busybody's absorbs the attention of the mindless and prostitutes the gossip of a busybody media by transforming it into financial profit.

Celebrity or otherwise, difficulties in a marriage are tough--for everyone. It pains me for the popular golf star and his stylish Swedish Model. Seldom does the Wedding Service transform the human heart. Translation: most couples finding their way to the altar of marriage bring considerable baggage from their differing worlds and this widely celebrated marriage relationship was no different. They brought their super-star status, including their previous lifestyles filled with numerous negatives needing negotiation if the marriage become successful and the new couple a real family. The oft-resulting children only further complicate the process.

At best, this couple invested their lives in the fruits of successful secular living, a veneer which failed to pay off in real or lasting personal values with a comfortable marriage.

I find it too much to hope that Nancy Grace, Joy Behar, and all the others of that ilk search out more important issues for exploration instead of digging around in rotten garbage. On the other hand, the insatiable appetite of the public to diet on personal tragedy and celebrity gossip seems endless.

Someone I know met Tiger Wood in the middle of the night, in her dreams. She saw him from behind her large window, pacing back and forth, all the while watching her. When she finally opened the door and asked him what he wanted, he stopped, looked her full in the face and said, “Pray for me.”

It was just a meaningless dream, I know. Yet for her, it triggered an automatic response, which she could-and-did follow. Only a dream, but dreams need not be meaningless. In her case, she followed her prompting and prayed for Tiger.

Although my estimation of Tiger has fallen a few notches, I have to admit I have not prayed for him, or any of his supporting cast. Thus, I ponder the words of Frances Barton's four line verse that says simply but succinctly,

Should I feel the need to judge how my brother fares or fails
Let me try him without grudge on the same forgiving scales
Where I balance my own cause and my purposes atone.
Father, may I weigh his flaws gently--as I weigh my own(Frances Barton).

We could go far in changing our world if we would change our own behavior. From Warner’s World, this is
Walkingwithwarner@blogspot.com

Terminally Ill

An online commentary I recently read relative to another issue came from an 8-year Viet Nam era veteran. This “American hero” admitted that "once upon a time" he bought into our "Great American Ethos" image and rushed off to “serve my country days after graduating from high school.” Now, he says, “I have earned the right to say the following," and I take seriously what his email said (I have added emphasis on some of his issues listed):

“For most of you out there, the good news is that capitalism is succeeding beyond its proponents wildest expectations on:

porn of the most degrading and criminal types

illicit drugs of all types to fill the corporate coffers of those who provide the logistics
profit from weapons (legal and illegal) to murder) (sometimes for that type of porn movie).

Corporate war profiteering with disregard for the life and economic costs

Boardroom fraud

political corruption

Hate crimes and those who hate with out carrying out the crime

etc. ad nauseam.

I say to you who have delusions of grandeur;

America is not what those corporate profiteering bumper stickers SAY !

AMERICA IS WHAT AMERICA DOES !

There are a million stories like the one this column addresses. When will the real Americans stand up to what's wrong INSIDE while they cheer the patriots who are defending against outside threats.

AMERICA IS WHAT IT DOES !

When I picture Americans as a collective society, my image is people in jail with Seinfeld, Cramer, George, Elaine, and the rest in their final episode.

Do you remember the charge they were guilty of?

CRIMINAL INDIFFERENCE

AMERICA IS NOT WHAT ITS PEOPLE SAY,
AMERICA IS WHAT ITS PEOPLE DO !!”

Read his comments, then read the rest of the "news" for this day or most any day. As he concluded, “Anyone who can actually do that, and still have delusions of grandeur about this nation and its "citizens" is brain dead, in terminal denial, and has neither the guts nor the inclination to change that.”

Jesus taught his disciples a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, meaning our actions betray what we really are (Matthew 7:17-19 NCV). America parades its lack of character and integrity daily by the things it advertises and practices. Like a cancer in a terminally ill human body, the destructive parasite will eventually destroy the body on which it feeds, resulting in the death of the body.

Walking with Warner in
Warner’s World

Vietnam ... Afghanistan ... Next ... ?

Charles V. Weber was at the peak of his career when I launched into pastoral ministry. I never forgot my first encounter of listening to him deliver his series on “Living Out of the Overflow;” I was an eighteen year-old college freshman and appreciated his ministry ever thereafter. It also seems that Pastor Weber never forgot a certain San Diego parishioner that struggled with guilt throughout his adult life resulting from his experience as a GI in the South Pacific.

One day, the young GI topped a hill while on patrol. Approaching from the opposite side of the hill was a startled Japanese soldier. As the oriental youth dropped his rifle and raised his hands in surrender, the American soldier responded with “immediate and automatic” response: he lowered his rifle-bayonet, rammed it into the chest of his enemy, and watched him die (COGPF Newsletter, Winter 2009).

Reading that story brought to mind CNN reports I encountered recently, which gripped me with rapt attention - “Killings at the Canal.” After obtaining 23 ½ hours of taping, CNN aired stories on the three decorated American Army Sergeant’s charged in the assassination of four Iraqi prisoners

These young Americans, hardly more than boys, now face decades (reduced from life) of incarceration at Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary. A young bride lost the life she anticipated spending with her beloved, the victim of his tragedy. One single incident of war obliterated normality for several people forever.

These young lives might aptly be called casualties--the collateral damage--of the failed policies of war. The unanswered question asked by the CNN Reporter was “When does a soldier cross the line from being a soldier to a murderer?”

As we struggle nationally to determine a politically right and wrong way to relate to Afghanistan, I suggest the question asked by the CNN Reporter was the wrong question. Crucial to global relationships today is a consideration of when does war over cross the line from being wrong to becoming right?

Two recent presidents, George H.W. and George Bush Jr., found just causes for involving America in war abroad. Now we struggle with the cancerous moral malaise faced by President Lyndon Johnson when he attempted to justify the political pursuits begun by his predecessors in dealing with Vietnam.

When one studies the political intrigue and economic involvement of earlier wars, going back as far as World War One, we find ourselves still confronted by underlying political intrigue that leaves us still questioning “when is it ever right to violate our enemy through military violence?”

The two unfortunate incidents that introduce this article further substantiate what I have personally observed about wartime casualties and the lives of returned veterans. For years I have observed the guilt and turmoil, which we now neatly package medically as post traumatic syndrome, not to mention the brain disorders, and the broken bodies that support prostheses.

We were not created for the violence of maiming, warring, and killing. Although many veterans avoid becoming warped personalities, many do not escape. Needing our help, they never escape the nightmares and other horrors they wish they could forget. Like the young GI, they do with “immediate and automatic” precision that which they were trained to do, and forever suffer the undeserved hangover of guilt, anguish, and pain.

For America to continue to support its industrial-military complex with its huge economic benefits is to "enjoy life on blood money.” We cannot desensitize ourselves to the wrongness of war and not reap the whirlwinds of economic abuse, physical violence, and shattered relationships. We must return to the ways of peace, partnership, and people described by the one man in history (Jesus)who’s greatest fault became his unflinching refusal to compromise; he more than any other inspires others after 2 millennia.

No one else can make that claim, but no one ever “loved” as he “lived.” We need more living and loving and less hating and hurting,

from Wayne,
walkingwithwarner.blogsopot.com
Warner’s World

Occupy Now ... Till I Come

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent.Pastor Jim (seen at right)spoke from that delightful text in Isaiah 9:6 where the Prophet Isaiah spoke of the promised child, the “Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, Father Who Lives Forever, Prince of Peace”(NCV). Jim talked about the promised child, that “Wonderful Counselor.”

He described the child, the baby that was the promise of God--hope born and given, by God (cf John 3:16). I remembered that great title of Barack Obama's book, “The Audacity of Hope” and I remembered when long ago Israel wanted a king to be like other nations, and selected Saul, much to the consternation of the Prophet Samuel.

Later, the Prophets predicted one that would come in the lineage of David, who represented Israel at its political peak.Seven hundred years later Jesus did come,as announced, declaring with John the Baptist that the Kingdom of God has arrived. H.C. Heffren (THE SIGN OF HIS COMING) writes how “Multitudes hailed Jesus as the Messiah. Others sneered, mocked and scornfully resisted Him.” Jesus, suggests Heffren, became “the object of tumultuous adoration by His followers and of bitter opposition by violent angry mobs of influential enemies.”

This conflicting of opinions is reflected in the parable of the nobleman found in Luke 19:11-27. The Nobleman called his servants to him, gave them “ten pounds,” (investment funds) and told them, “Occupy till I come,” while he went to a far country. Premillennialists read this parable as proof of a future earthly kingdom, and the Scofield Reference Bible describes this tersely as “The postponed kingdom.”

However, “there are compelling reasons for rejecting this interpretation,” concludes Heffren. Although it was said of the Pharisees, to whom Jesus was speaking, that “they thought” the kingdom of God should “immediately appear,” there is a vast difference between what “they thought” would happen, and what Jesus said would happen. We need to be guided by what Jesus said.

The parable was given to correct their misapprehension of the kingdom. Jesus did not say the kingdom would immediately appear then, or that it would ever appear. The fact that the Jews rejected Jesus did not mean that Jesus could not introduce his true kingdom. In fact, He taught them that the “Kingdom of God comes NOT with observation, but is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). We note in particular that Jesus said “Occupy till I come” (v. 13).

“Occupy” comes from a Greek word meaning “to do business,” or “to gain by trading.” He was saying “Do business till I return.” Notice also that when the Nobleman (the Lord) returns, it is not to set up His kingdom--He went away and “received” that. When He returns He calls His servants and distributes rewards to those who faithfully “occupied” and served Him during His long absence, and He executes judgment on all those who would not have Him “REIGN” over them during this period. This harmonizes fully with His teachings in Matthew 13 and with those of Paul and Peter.

When Jesus ascended into heaven He “received” the kingdom--not by any plebiscite of man but as His Divine right from God the Father. During this Gospel Age in which we currently live, He reigns over the entire Israel of God, “the holy nation,” (not the political nation) namely “the redeemed of all the earth.”

THIS kingdom does not come by observation. It does not “immediately appear” like “they thought” it would. Heffren reminds us that no one ever “saw” a person get “born again.” But what we do see is the effect the New Birth has on those who are born again.

Jesus compared it to the passing wind; we hear the sound and see the effect. Thus, we know it is here: every born again person is in the kingdom of God (John 3:5). While Jesus exercises His sovereignty over His people He faces the opposition of that vast throng that says by actions or words (as the Jews announced to Pilate), “We will NOT have THIS man reign over us.”

Advent reminds us of the first coming of Jesus, when he came as Emmanuel--“God is with us. “ It is also an audacious hope, a reminder that Christ will settle with all of us, as did the Nobleman with his servants. In the meantime, we all face His charge to “Occupy till I come.”

This is Wayne at
Warner’s World
_____

Thanksgiving 2009

Today I am preparing for our first Thanksgiving at home in perhaps twenty years. Family custom dictates spending Turkey Day with our daughter in Kentucky, but circumstances necessitate a change of pattern this year. Moreover, we still look forward to spending Christmas in the Commonwealth (Kentucky).

My holiday preparation recalls a story I first read years ago in the pages of our church magazine. It was a story of a boy who grew up in a Church of God parsonage, the son of one of our pioneer preachers--a preacher‘s kid (PK). There he--Harold--often joined in singing hymns of hope, even as I did, many of which were taken from Bible passages. William Schell authored one such song in which he described hope as an anchor of the soul:

Blessed hope we have within us is an anchor to the soul,
It is both steadfast and sure;
It is founded on the promises of the Father’s written word,
And ‘twill ever-more endure
(Schell/“We Have a Hope”/Warner Press/1989, p. 727)

Harold observed the people around him and saw God blessing their lives and filling them with hope. He saw in them living embodiments of the Psalmist’s words:

As for the saints who are in the land,
They are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight (16:3, RSV).

Harold translated that hope into a personal faith that walked the talk. He found it adequate as a truck driver, and later as a baker. He lived it out clerking in a grocery store and later doing piece work in a nearby factory. Filled with that quiet assurance, Harold proved dependable and eventually worked his way to a solid education.

On achieving his Doctor of Education degree, he began hopefully investing his life in public education. Quietly, he gave his best years to his pupils. One day brought an unexpected telephone call. An unexpected caller announced, “I’m the boy who started the fire. I’m now a teacher in the public schools.”

The voice continued, “I thought you would like to know that you are the one who inspired me to be a teacher.”

Memories from across the years flooded in and Harold recalled a football player from years before. This star athlete had finally admitted starting a fire in a box of shavings in the school’s new industrial arts facility. Harold recalled quietly walking without fanfare to the sink in the rear, filling a bucket with water, and quietly doused the flames before returning to his desk.

Local authorities learned of the incident only when the troubled youth finally admitted to Harold, “I had never seen you excited and I wanted to see what you would do when you were excited.”

A relatively unknown teacher became an example of quiet consistency that aroused the aspirations of this young student. The teacher's quiet Christian consistency inspired a troubled youth to become a teacher, just like the mentor he had learned to admire.

Hopeful behavior and quiet, consistent living offer solid hope to individuals looking for answers. Hope encourages people to extend themselves, to reach upward, and to strive for new levels of achievement.

Following the television cameras into the Green House of John Hope Franklin, the late historian, I saw on my tv screen what Franklin called his “House of Hope.” There, I saw his numerous varieties of Orchid plant life, which he identified individually. In Franklin’s greenhouse I saw what he described as "something perpetually in bloom."

Thanksgiving reminds us that life is a house of hope. Here, we find available to the human heart the potential for hope in perpetual bloom. Our eternal hope greatly expands and multiplies those meanings that enrich our lives; without that eternal demension life loses much of its meaning.

In giving thanks, we experience renewal, and we become windows through which God often shines. So enjoy your turkey and cranberries, but be sure you give thanks to Him Who is the Giver of Every Good Gift (and Bless His Name for being able to touch another on your journey).

From Warner‘s World,
peace and grace,
Wayne
_____

Up With the Good

Some years ago, a Canadian Church of God radio preacher-evangelist-author wrote a small forty-page catechism. That little booklet was his way of providing his radio audience a question-and-answer guide to religious doctrine, a realm to which he devoted much of his life explaining. He titled it THINGS MOST SURELY BELIEVED (Gospel Contact Press/H.C. Heffren/1977), while also proceeding to produce a plethora of literature about a wide range of religious issues.

That writer’s works are being compiled and will soon be republished in new foremat by Reformation Publishers of Prestonsburg, KY. A brief paragraph of his recently caught my attention, as related to the church. This man of the cloth called for the church to again be the church God intended. As I read his words, I was convicted of the need for the church to once more become the Balm of Gilead, the leaves of that tree that Saint John the Revelator described as ”healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2 NASV).

His words were profoundly simple. Yet, they speak to a church that finds itself overwhelmed by a tsunami of hostility, greed, corruption, and violence.

Acknowledging worship as primary (#1) on the church‘s agenda, he followed that with the following, which I quote:Second. It is the duty of the church to care for and be concerned with the needs of others.This is well worded in Galatians 6;10, “As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” The Christian should be friendly, hospitable and courteous to all. If a believer falls into shame or sin, we should remember Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Too often the Christian attitude in such cases has been to criticize and condemn. It should be redemptive and bring restoration (emphasis mine).

Simple and to the point, the church is to be about the business of helping people help one another, of bringing healing to the nations, of helping people find meaningful relationships, assisting in restoring broken (strained) relationships, and pointing people to fortifying hope when they have failed.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out ways of becoming more constructive and helpful rather than spamming negative political messages about people and positions they dislike. The Apostle Paul offered a good suggestion to this end, writing, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

Rather, “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31).

Whether one be a Jew, a Muslim, or a Christian, there is not much way to improve on what I learned years ago about negotiating a stairway while using crutches. “Up with the good; down with the bad” said the therapist in directing me how to proceed on crutches up and down a stairway, thereby protecting my shattered heel

Up with the good, down with the bad; that could fill a world with hope.
From walkingwithwarner,
Wayne

Major Hasan Charged With Murder

The fact that Fort Hood's Major Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of murder raises a couple of questions (to raise the question of the 14th victim, a child in the womb, is only to pile on for the sake of a political agenda). People are ready to "throw the books" at the Jordanian Psychiatrist.

Without politicizing the issues involved in judging the Major, I raise a question of a different nature, as once posed by Theologian H. C. Heffren: "Are there such things as big sins and little sins?"

Dr. Heffren suggested "most people regard murder as a great sin, whereas to tell a little “white” lie is regarded of little consequence." He proceeded to answer the question with this line of reasoning: There is a danger in this reasoning. In the first place there is no such thing as a “white” lie. Furthermore, this places the emphasis on the deed committed rather than on the One against Whom it is committed. Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall DO AND TEACH them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). No doubt some sins are more abhorrent to God than others but all sin “is the transgression of the law” and “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

"Perhaps our best counsel," concluded this studious friend, is to "at all times . . .consult 1 John 2:1-2, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not, And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” An Advocate is like a lawyer who pleads our case, who stands by our side. Christ is our Advocate (italics added).

Not to be ignored is a related question, "Can a person sin against God without doing anything?" Author-Minister Heffren further reasons thus: "In James 4:17 we read, “Wherefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin.” There is such a sin as “the sin of omission.” Thus, sin may be committed by doing something wrong, or it can be committed by disobeying what is right, or failing to obey God in our duty to Him. In this connection he urges us to read Romans 8:7-8 in which the old KJV reminds us “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: and it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” A carnal mind is one that is worldly, or sensual; not spiritual. It is as mind dominated by the flesh. Paul says, “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” ( Romans 8:6--THINGS MOST SURELY BELIEVED/Heffren/1977).

So sin is not only a wrong act, but it is a state of mind that is not subject to God’s rule, but rather disobedient thereto. In other words, sin is not only what you do but also what you are.

Rather than quibbling so much about the pros and cons of sin's existence or non-existence, we need to deal more realistically with the fact that we are known by the things we do--we are what we do, as well as what we may think, feel, or theorize.

Wayne at
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

Killed By Friendly Fire

Former Arizona Cowboy, Army Ranger Pat Tillman died deep in southeastern Afghanistan April 22, 2004. Army Ranger Tillman died knowing he was a victim of friendly fire. I first learned of Pat Tillman after the Tillman family (Pat’s mother and brother Kevin, also an Army Ranger in Pat's Platoon) finally rooted out the true information, that had been hidden from them, and they began speaking out in public.

When I saw author Jon Krakauer interviewed on Book TV on a recent Saturday, I determined to find his newest book--Where Men Win Glory, Doubleday, 2009. I found the $28 hardcover among the new book offerings at our local library. Krakauer has detailed a rivoting chronicle of a tragic odyssey that left a trail from SE Afghanistan through the White House, to Pat‘s home on the West Coast. Krakauer researched his book assiduously.

Tillman, an undersized professional football player who made history on the gridiron, extended himself to serve his country and become a tough Army Ranger. He ended up in Iraq, part of an "oversized staging" of the rescue of Jessica Lynch. Driven by complicated emotions, personal notions of patriotism, pride, and masculinity, Tillman overcame his conclusion that the Iraq War was “illegal as hell” and determined to serve his full enlistment--finally dying in Afghanistan.

Deep in the mountains adjacent to Pakistan, maintaining a relatively insignificant outpost, his platoon found themselves floundering with broken down equipment, senseless orders from higher up, and inadequate support. Ordered to divide their Platoon into two groups, they separated as ordered--against their better judgment they followed orders. Pat Tillman’s section eventually came under some enemy fire.

The real conflict came when the second group inadvertently came up unwittingly on Pat’s group--pinned down. In the chaos and confusion, the second group began firing at the first group (unidentified in the dusk) and ultimately the Afghani with Pat was killed and Pat was critically wounded. Krakauer successfully unthreads the complicated story and makes it a very readable adventure.

What disturbed me was the way the Military wanted to use their celebrities (Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman) as Posters to increase public support of the war--being willing to manipulate people, tell glorious lies, and show an utter contempt of truth in doing so. What made it even more sickening to me was how the Military Chain of Command abused the system, hid the truth as long as they could, and deleted integrity.

Henry Waxman, chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee that finally got hold of it, “stated in frustration, ‘What we have is a very clear, deliberate abuse intentionally done. Why is it so hard to find out who did it.'”

Interestingly, the soldiers involved finally received a variety of relative slaps on the wrist as punishment, they did not feel was justified, while the two ranking officers up the echelon received promotions; one became a full Colonel, the other a Brigadier General. Correspondent Ed Henry challenged President Bush with the fact that seven investigations had FAILED to get to the bottom of the truth, but Mr. Bush equivocated.

Pat Tillman’s lifestyle was not one I would choose. Some of the language is not language I find comfortable. Yet, I found compelling reasons for being attracted to the core character and integrity of Pat Tillman, although I am a man of religious faith and he was not. I admire a man who will walk away from a multi-million-dollar contract just to do what he believes is the RIGHT thing to do.

I found the Military-Political behavior revealed throughout the investigations of the “friendly fire” incident self-serving, despicable, unacceptable, totally untrustworthy. Accidents happen. Friendly fire kills many; I understand and accept that, but let the truth be told.

I believe Jon Krakauer found Pat Tillman too good a human being to be wasted as a tool for propaganda and covered up with a Silver Star because of the bungling of a desk officer up the command. It is a remarkable story, more compelling than fiction--worth reading whichever side of the war argument you are on.


Wayne,
Walkingwithwarner@blogspot.com

America's Struggle With Morality

America continues to struggle with its class confrontation of elitism versus inclusivism. As a lifelong Republican, I hold many or most of the conservative values, but for the life of me I cannot understand how so many Americans oppose health insurance for everybody rather than a select minority. It sounds like those early Colonialists who believed only property owners should be allowed voting rights, (thus the development of the current electoral college voting system). Btw, many of them believed it was perfectly okay to give the black man only 3/5s of a vote because he was not equal.

For eighty years now, health insurance has been an issue and we still can't get it right. FDR backed his version; Harry Truman supported it, plus numerous others on both sides of the political aisle, including the now infamous Richard Nixon, whose health plan was little different from what is being offered today.

This is not Obama’s battle; it is our--America’s--battle to overcome elitism; it is not a battle against Socialism; it is an attempt to bring everybody into a process that citizenship should allow--a process we still have not achieved.

Many of the same forces that oppose Health Insurance Reform are those which opposed Integration, when the Southern States Rights bloc protected the rights of the white majority for so long. Remember Orval Faubus and George Wallace? I remember Richard Russell and numerous Dixiecrats who opposed “civil rights for everybody”--I call that elitism.

One simple solution to Health Reform is for Congress to give everybody what Congress gave itself--at our expense. As columnist Bill Ellis points out, we did not vote for Congressional health care, but we pay for it, and a lot of other unnecessary stuff. All Congress has to do is give us equal rights to the same health care; we already pay for it, like we do everything else.

Republicans and others who oppose this because of Budget costs etc are not at all backward about charging us for their military spending for a war the public did not vote for but still pays for. Iraq only cost us about $1.9 million per minute during 2008, and we didn’t even have a choice. SO, I have no problem at all in demanding equal health insurance to that of my Congressional Representatives--health insurance is not a right for a guaranteed few and should not even be “for profit.”

If the health issue is held up because of certain “moral” issues--abortion--as one friend challenged me, then I wonder … When “half” of our school children are on food stamps, what does that tell me about our country and its "sense of morality." It tells me that a few people in our country are living tolerably well (or better) while a whole segment of our country finds itself below economic par. What is “moral” about that? What is “moral” about launching a war that was not really necessary to the defense of our country? What is moral about my being forced to support an immoral war?

Such issues are no more moral than segregation was! (As for abortion: if I had my way, the government would not be meddling in that either way; I do not believe in abortion but neither do I believe the government has a right to dictate to me what should be a personal--civil rights--issue of morality.

Someone challenged me that “if those lazy bums would get off their ‘blessed assurance’ they would not have to be on the dole; if they would work they could buy health insurance, but I personally know too many people of whom that is not true. That is simply another ploy by those people who prefer to cut the safety net out from under people in order to cut taxes and maintain ideological purity.

I know people who believe that; yet they think little of unethical skimming of business profits and/or avoiding paying taxes when they can get away with it. Out of touch with reality, they certainly understand little of God’s concern for the impoverished and those most vulnerable, as the Bible views them, or of their own accountability for their blessings. We don’t talk much about our stewardship of life these days--that's a whole other moral issue.

Let’s make this ballgame called democracy work for everybody! That obviously includes the New York Yankees who have dominated the game by reaching the World Series some 41 times. But there is no “baseball sport” unless those other teams all have the same equal rights and opportunities to reach the World Series. To allow limits on one, or a few, is to stunt the quality and achievements of the majority, and ultimately to spoil the game for the fans without whom there would be no World Series.

I like Derek Jeter, an area product, but I value the game and support all those underdogs represented by the Philadelphia Phillies…………Oh, btw, someone suggested that all we need do is for all of us to "properly behave." Well, the nature of this human beast is to be myopic, self-serving, and greedy (the Bible calls it sinfulness,(it surely has got us in quite a global mess). It leaves us needing adequate refereeing in all of our economic and political ballgames, and that concern for the common good is a major role of government--of the people, for the people, by the people.

From walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com,
This is Wayne

OFF THE RECORD WITH MARTIN LUTHER

I haven’t been able to pedal my tricycle fast enough to keep pace with blogging in recent days. Being a care-giver can by itself become a full-time job. Cooking, cleaning, reading, writing, working on the house with Habitat’s siding specialist (Mike is a former Mennonite pastor--nice young man), doctor’s appointments, researching new health insurance, et al become overwhelming when trying to wrap around them. Too much for one person, but the option is even less appealing--not enough to keep busy.

Having lived with a spouse with fragile health for almost 63 years, how thankful I am for my own good health and reasonably strong constitution. It is a true blessing from God!

My peers, other pastors, and other friends that are interested in fascinating books will appreciate this word from Hansa-Hewlett Publishers of Kalamazoo. You can order it online at Amazon, or find it at your favorite bookstore--a well-done, 500-page soft cover book ($19.95), and related to one of the Reformation's great souls--a favorite of mine from Church History--Martin Luther.

This is the first, authentic translation of the original conversations between students and colleagues around the Luther dinner table. Some of my peers will find the Reformer’s medieval language occasionally blunt and explosive, even abusive and, at times, coarse--you will understand him.

Most will not know the translator-editor Charles Daudert--a retired trial lawyer become author. Daudert has several published volumes, mostly historical, academic, and religious, both fiction and non-fiction. He was seven years in translating and editing OFF THE RECORD and has produced the most comprehensive translation of “Table Talks” available.

While I long knew of “Table Talks,” I did not know that much of it remained untranslated, until Charles Daudert took it upon himself to expand our English translations. An honor student, a longtime spouse of a German bride with extensive interest in German issues, Daudert won the applause of that other Luther academic and friend, Dr. Paul Maier. Maier, a professor at Western Michigan University and the son of Dr. Walter Maier of the original "Lutheran Hour" admitted he “for one,” had planned such a project - until, that is, “Charles Daudert showed us all how it should be done!”

Available from Amazon and major book outlets, readers will find it filled with spicy wisdom. For example, in July 1532 Luther suggested “a lie is like a snowball, the longer one waltzes with it, the bigger it gets.” Another I like comes from September 1533: “Lustful thoughts come upon us without any special invitation, like fleas and lice; love is there, on the other hand, when we want to serve others.”

Luther’s Rhyme goes like this:
Nothing on earth is better done,
Than to be master of one’s tongue.
Know a lot and say but little,
Have not an answer for every riddle,
For what you borrow return what’s due
Let everyone be who they are,
And so be true to your own star.

It is possible that I can share a reading of this with some of my pastor-peers who are interested but cannot find Luther in their book budget--contact me at my email address.

Luther became a transforming experience for the translator and he will enrich both your personal life and add salt and pepper to your appreciation of Reformation history. Wayne at
Walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

JOHN TANNER, THE FALCON

Hansa-Hewlett Publishers of Kalamazoo, MI. recently published Charles Daudert‘s Narrative of John Tanner, The Falcon (found at Amazon and other major book stores.

This newest edition contains Tanner’s original Indian Captivity as he relayed it to Dr. Edwin James, M.D. It also includes the original Treatise on Indian Language and customs by Dr. James. Edwin James, M.D., was a renowned botanist and naturalist, and an Army surgeon at Fort Sault St. Marie, where Tanner had found employment as an Army interpreter.


Daudert, an Attorney as well as an accomplished author, has several published books in areas under History, Religion, and Academic. In his newest effort, he offers his own (new) Introduction based on his lengthy research. A special feature, is his splendid “Epilogue”. This life-long Attorney, has thoroughly reviewed legal issues in the question of “Who killed James Schoolcraft?”

While some allege that Tanner killed James, the brother of Henry Schoolcraft, by whom Tanner had been employed, Daudert offers additional research and provocative insights while weaving his way through a maze of prospective candidates for this as yet unsolved murder of nearly two centuries past--material not before published.

“The Falcon” provides a fascinating narrative of a victim suffering indignities that shape his life--so much not of his making. It offers insight into the daily life of earlier native America. It reflects the inevitable conflict of cultures as well as the corruption, suppression and ultimate destruction of Native American culture--not to mention the corrupt politics of Anglo-European interests.

Kidnapped from his father's Kentucky farm on the Ohio River at age nine, John Tanner was carried north by Shawnee Indians to Saginaw--Michigan Territory. Two years later he was bartered to an Ottawa tribe at Petoskey. At 13 he was taken to the region of present-day Winnipeg, where he endured a gut-wrenching 30 years of living, hunting, and starving among the Ojibway people--totally culturally assimilated.

Tanner married twice, and had a family, but lost all knowledge of English except for a few rudimentary words. At age thirty-nine, opportunity came for a return to the “Soo”. Meeting Dr. James, he found members of “his family”--a story by itself.

Dr. James wrote down Tanner's autobiography as Tanner told it. In 1830 they published A NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY AND ADVENTURES OF JOHN TANNER (U.S. INTERPRETER AT THE SAUT de SAINTE MARIE) DURING THIRTY YEARS RESIDENCE AMONG THE INDIANS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA.

This new edition--Tanner, James, Daudert--includes the original 1830 edition, by Dr. James, with his lengthy treatise of Indian culture and language. Daudert adds a thoroughly researched new Introduction and an interesting Epilogue, along with photographs, maps and brief biographical notes of important people in Tanner's life.

While Dr. Edwin James was an outspoken champion of the Indians, his account of Tanner failed to prevent the “Trail of Tears” and related tragedies. But as we learn, not all forest Indians were corrupted, although perceived as “savages.“ Daudert reminds us that Tanner’s band was rescued from death and starvation by Indians of the forest regions who still practiced the traditions of Native American culture that served them so well for so many generations, until exploited by the White Man‘s “Spirits” and other corruptive influences.

Daudert intends for his expanded edition to enlighten students of Native American culture, as well as achieve some of the purposes originally intended by Edwin James. While I found more information than I could immediately digest, I found a very readable story of a historical character that was new to me--a great read. In addition, mystery, historical intrigue, legal and social issues, fired my mind with interest.

I satisfied myself with who did NOT murder James Schoolcraft; I wonder who you think did. I recommend this new edition by Charles Daudert for your informed reading pleasure. It is apparently selling quite well at Amazon--John Tanner, the Falcon

Wayne, walking with Warner,

Drunken Behavior

A Connecticut Judge wiped her eyes while testifying before the State Judicial in HARTFORD, Conn.--charged with drunken driving. She was videotaped using racial slurs while arguing with police officers, and suspended without pay for eight months by the review panel.

Confirmed in 1991 as Connecticut's first black female Superior Court judge In her apology to the state Judicial Review Council, Her Honor admitted, "I regret that my actions may have tarnished the institution that I love. I've embarrassed and humiliated my family and loved ones, and disappointed my friends."

The panel unanimous agreed that her "disparaging and demeaning" comments failed to live up to the standards of integrity and impartiality expected of judges. The council could have imposed up to a one-year suspension and recommended her permanent removal by the Connecticut Supreme Court, but settled on the lesser suspension, which she said she would not appeal.

She was arrested Oct. 9 after her car hit a parked state police cruiser in a construction zone. Police say she told them she hadn't had any alcohol, but she failed a sobriety test, and urine tests later that night showed she had a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit of 0.08. Later, she argued with state and local police officers and a surveillance camera showed her using the N-word, calling a black state trooper "Negro," threatening that trooper's job, referring to a female officer as "little girl" and "Barbie" and using other offensive language.

"When I watched the video, the Judge told the Council, “I did not recognize myself. The woman I observed that night is not the woman I am." She acknowledged that her conduct was "reprehensible," and insisted she did not willfully violate the conduct code because her judgment was impaired by her intoxication.

Judge Susan S. Reynolds appeared to stump the Judge when she asked why her comments were not racist. “Why is it not racism .... hmmm. I think for crimes like bias you have to have intent," the defendant said. "All I can say is I was really intoxicated. ... I can't explain it. Why is it not racism ... I don't know. But if it is or someone perceives that it is, I apologize for that."

While other judges agreed that the defendant received above-average job evaluations and her reputation was excellent, a psychiatrist agreed she was under a lot of stress in 2008--death of her father, her mother's house burned down, and her adult children had legal problems. “She's had an impeccable record (as a judge) for 17 years,” concluded the Psychiatrist, “and I see no reason she couldn't continue."

In the meantime, the Judge has been accepted into the state's alcohol education program for first-time DUI offenders, and the drunken driving charge will be dismissed if she successfully completes the program.

From professional people to street derelicts, this story repeats itself ad nauseum. Each is part of someone’s family; there are 75 million-or-so of us who have alcoholics in our families. As she admitted, she neither recognized herself, nor approved of her behavior, when intoxicated.

Drunkenness frequently results in behavior not common to a person, except when “under the influence.” Sometimes their character shames them, at other times it is merely an excuse for being “out of character”--under the influence. Generally neither provides sufficient motivation for avoiding further indulgence.

What I fail to understand is how our various levels of government can justify this social cancer for the licensing revenues it brings in. The revenues are hefty, I know, but the tax burden placed upon the public is statistically three times greater. Yet, few among us dare challenge the system.

Clubs, taverns, and bars ring our local downtown area and produce more assaults, knifings, killings, and other violence than any other area. Does that not make our local government and all of us accomplices in crime and violence--for a price?
Wayne
____

Capitalism vs Socialism

I am not at all opposed to people getting rich. I believe entrepreneurs have justifiable rights to profit from investments of capital, time and energy. I support free enterprise, but I do not support the direction American life has taken in the last several decades.

I have been a customer of Bank of America (BOA) for nearly half a century; they reflect the current trend in Capitalism. The current BOA, like other corporations, is a result of economic canibalism--greed--bigger is better.

I have come to realize that at the core of this libertarian ideology is a fascistic greed. Bigger is better means buying out (eliminating) the competition--monopoly. This fascism is dictatorial in politics--the complete opposite of more “competition” mouthed by current Republicanism.

Such practices are aided and abetted by a compliant (non-interfering) government. Any complaint against this “free market” (so called) is labeled “socialism”--unAmerican. BUT, NOT SO! America has always insisted on enough rules so that a bunch of nobody-colonists could have an equal playing floor with King George, be it the King of England or George Bush!

Government OF, FOR, BY the people--Abe Lincoln--is government that finds no justifiable reason--no moral excuse--for the inequality we have allowed to develop, while we put down those who are different, or resist. An example of this was found in the 2007 Compensation Study that found the average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies 344 times higher than the average worker's wage.

The top 50 investment fund managers took home 19,000 times as much as typical workers earned (19 with three zeroes).. No one, writes David Callahan, “should be merely the means to someone else’s ends - whether its for pleasure, power, or profit.” (The Moral Center/Orlando/ Harcourt, Inc. 2006/277).

This is like writing the rules of the basketball game in favor of the 7-footers and too bad about the little guys under 6’; never mind that the 5’ 7” point guard may be as essential to the team as the 7’ center. My financial conservatism would only allow one Referee for a ballgame, but practicality shows additional referees keep the game more competitive, more honest, and much improved all around.

So I have no problem when the President wants to give citizens a public option for health insurance. I applaud regulations placed on Wall Street and out of control CEO’s. I find no acceptable way for justifying this behavior in a “democratic” society. For a society that claims to at least nominally endorse Christianity, and claims a majority who believe in God, there simply is no moral excuse for this, except self-centered greed.

Capitalism worked extremely well without such radical inequities in the three decades following World War II. When inequalities soar, the whole system runs into trouble. It happened at the end of the 1920s, when I was born. We have it again today.

In our struggle for power between the few and the favored, we have pursued a TRICKLE-DOWN theory (advocated by Ronald Reagan) that is a form of feudal socialism found in the Middle Ages and depended upon the divine rights of Kings and feudal Lords. That mindset believed affluent persons need to control the wealth and provide for the less able peasantry (even our Colonial Fathers hesitated to give voting rights to commoners, peasants, and non-property owners).

That hits home to a lot of us, so we need to remember that at some point, those with wealth amassed it with the labor of others. We now find ourselves needing to democritize--balance things--our economy and practice a TRICKLE UP economy that allows the masses to responsibly manage their own affairs. Never forget: it takes “producing workers” to enrich the entrepreneurs and corporations, who cannot produce products and wealth without their assistance.

There will always be one talent, five talent, and ten talent people, but both labor and management deserve a “LIVING” wage. Investing money should bring no greater dividends than the investment of time and energy--lifeblood. The entrepreneur deserves a profitable share of the worker’s produce. The worker deserves a respectable share of the investor’s produce. Each should enjoy the fruits of their labors, but those profits deserve to be distributed with a “Christian” equality.

TRICKLEDOWN assumes wealth is the beginning point. However, that wealth needed producing laborers at some level. Free Enterprise allows the wealthy to invest their wealth in jobs for workers, for which the workers are paid. Trickledown pays as little as they can get by with, regardless of the cost of living.

WEALTH begins with people, creative ideas, and hard work. The wealthy need workers--not slave laborers--to produce products. People produce products (become workers), from which both workers and investors benefit. SHUFFLING PAPER is the stuff of con artists and corporate criminals and produces no real wealth.

Some thoughts from Walking With Warner,
Wayne

"I'm Sorry!"

A public figure whose character I much admire today is the Reverend John Lewis, better known as Representative John Lewis, of Georgia. This story comes out of his background as an early member of CORE. Lewis was one of the Freedom Riders with CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) (CORE) that rode into Rock Hills, South Carolina and attempted to enter an all white waiting room at the bus station on May 9, 1961.

Ku Klux Klan member, Elwin Wilson, was waiting. When he saw John Lewis enter that restricted area (white‘s-only), he attacked, pummeling the young civil rights worker. Lewis responded with nonviolence.

It was neither the first nor last time Lewis faced abuse as a leader in the civil rights movement. During sit-ins, the freedom rides, and at the front of the marchers who were violently abused with batons on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on “Bloody Sunday,” he was beaten numerous times.

According to Lewis, now the Reverend John Lewis and a United States Representative from Georgia, none of the men who beat and abused him ever apologized—until Elwin Wilson. Forty-eight years later, Elwin Wilson contacted the former Freedom Rider and apologized for beating Lewis that many years ago.

Since that time, Wilson has apologized to members of the African-American community in Rock Hills for his numerous acts of racial hatred. He had the conviction to call and confess “I’m sorry.” Representative Lewis readily responded to the former KKK member with mercy, grace, and forgiveness, and now refers to him as a friend.

Such apologies are far too rare. Lewis readily admits that Elwin Wilson is the very first person out of the hundreds who attacked and abused him during the civil rights struggle to say publicly and personally, “I’m sorry.” It is a story that bears repeating. Although parts of it are regrettable, the power of forgiveness and healing found in their encounter after nearly half a century is evidence that the teachings of Jesus are still at work in our broken and fallen world.

If we are to come to terms with the regrettable events in our national history and international affairs, people like Elwin Wilson cannot be the last to courageously turn about face and say “I’m sorry.” Long ago, an observer took note of the happy results of the disciples’ journey with Jesus. and asked Jesus, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life” (Luke 10:25 NASV)?

With that, Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan

I pray we will be encouraged and challenged both by Wilson’s repentance and Lewis’ forgiveness in all areas of our lives, and particularly regarding areas of injustice. Many people around the world--South Africa--Ruanda--and elsewhere are learning to deal with destructive relationships in this way.

It was the only way when Jesus first taught it and it remains the only way for a world hell-bent for destruction to once more hear Jesus say “Go and do likewise.” Wayne
This is Walking With Warner

Overcoming Hatred and Hostile Rhetoric

One of the great stories I’ve read recently is that of Lisa Gibson. Lisa lost her brother in the Lockerbie Bombing incident and recently met Muammar Gaddafi, as reported by ANS (Assist News Service).

"After waiting for several hours,” Lisa reports, “we got word that he had been delayed. So, I left. At 5:30 pm, I received a call from the Libyan Ambassador who invited me to come to the Libyan Mission to meet the leader at 7:30 pm. . ."So, myself and another young man who lost his father on the Lockerbie plane, were invited to a one-on-one meeting with Muammar Gaddafi.”

As she describes it, “He shook my hand and we exchanged the general pleasantries. I shared with him that I have been to Libya three times and have truly fallen in love with the Libyan people. I also talked about the projects we are engaged in there.

“He was grateful. I also gave him a gift. A 'Cross' brand pen and a card. In the card I shared that I have been praying for him since my first trip to Libya in 2005, wished him the best for himself and the people of his country, and blessed him--Not the expected response to a known dictator and terrorist.”

Lisa continues, “when he opened the gift, his countenance changed. His previously stern demeanor softened for a moment and a genuine boy-like smile came to his face.

"It was truly a historical day by many standards. I have the t-shirt and umbrella with a welcome for his first trip to America to prove it. The western media were not present, only a small delegation of Libyan reporters when I met with Gaddafi. They filmed and asked us questions, but the world may never hear about it. But as I walked out of the Libyan Mission and on the way back to my hotel, I felt God's peace. I had fulfilled that particular mission.”

As she describes it, while the rest of the world was spewing hate and rhetoric against him, one simple woman welcomed him to America and shared the love of Christ with him in the simplest ways she knew how. Let us all pray that it will in someway make a difference."

What we struggle with in Afghanistan and the Middle East dates as far back as the days of the Old Testament Patriarchs. I encourage political diplomacy but military forces remain powerless to resolve it. Religion contributes some understanding, including Islam, but the Prophet Mohammed failed to find a resolution. The Christian Apostle Paul reveals the one option in which I find the most potential (Ephesians Chapter 2 of the Bible).

Verses 13-15 read (Amplified):
(13) But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were [so] far away, through (by, in) the blood of Christ have been brought near.
(14) For He is [Himself] our peace--our bond of unity and harmony. He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one (body), and has broken down 9destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us,
(15) By abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enmity [caused by] the Law with its decrees and ordinances--which He annulled; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man - one new quality of humanity out of the two - so making peace.”

There is but one means of resolution: God’s reconciliation and forgiveness that transforms Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) from two into one humanity. Lisa Gibson is a Christian peace-maker working to extend Shalom--Hebrew for peace. Shalom means more than the absence of peace. It refers to the SUM TOTAL OF HUMAN FLOURISHING, socially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It signifies the wholeness, rightness, and ultimate harmony of both victim and offender.

You can read more of Lisa Gibson’s story online at www.peaceandprosperityalliance.org.; you can find Shalom in the One Who said “Blessed . . . Are the makers and maintainers of peace, for they shall be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9, Amplified)!

These are not easy days, but they call us to walk the walk:speak that which is positive and uplifting, and walk authentically, as we carry a faith of forgiveness, reconciliation, and at least a cup of cold water (IN HIS NAME).

From Warner’s World, Wayne

Even a Cup of Cold Water

I borrowed the following paragraphs from Eric Denton's JACKETS FOR JESUS; it deserves a reading. No clue who those two are...reports Eric, just one of the hundreds of couples who passed by us in their limousines to People Magazine's Emmy Celebration Party for Entertainment Tonight- held in what was formerly St. Vibiana's- with a long, wide red carpet covering our former work area.

"If you ever served with us in the past, you beat the rich and famous to the place they stood in line to get into last night to hear Mary J Blige and celebrate their success. (If you want to read more about it or watch the video's of the night- the above photo's a link to their coverage of their own party.)

"Every limousine, literally every single guest to the party- less than two hundred yards from our line -had to drive to a roadblock at 3rd and Main, where the city closed off Main St, and only the invited were let in. The limo's formed long lines next to our line... long lines of dark windows... I'd wave at the line of staring limo drivers, who'd quickly look away, every star in every photo at their site- drove right by us.

"Not one of them rolled down their window to wave their Emmy and yell: "Hey! Look! I WON!" Not one stopped to invite someone into the party with them. Though the level of "call girls" on the corner had stepped up about twenty notches as they tried to get some limo business. Don't know how they came out. The men and women in our line barely bothered to look up.

"Talking with one man he said: "They never even look at us..." I said: "It must make you feel invisible." Looking down, he shook his head as if to say: "it is what it is..." and shuffled forward for his hamburger. I wasn't angry- in fact I went to security across the street to see if they'd let us drive the van through the limo line so our workers could enjoy the moment: "NO!"

"Thought about my evening... I had our workers walk down past St Vibiana's so they could see the stars- what fun! I drove the van around the corner and met them at the other side of the block. Driving, I thought about buying the burgers: Miguel, the manager of the McDonald's we've met at for over 20 years refused to discount the burgers Sunday night, the guard on a public street refused to let the Jackets for Jesus van cruise through and enjoy their moment in the spotlight, the stars- rich, famous, admired by millions - beautiful and many victorious, drove right by and wouldn't even roll down their windows... they all missed incredible opportunities to change lives- to be a blessing, to make the simple act of sharing themselves with those the world overlooks: the "invisible" poor, important.

"Some day this party's going to be over. I don't think Jesus meant it as a threat when He talked about it- He just knew it better than the rest of us -and so He spoke from His Heart. Someday the simple acts of love done in darkness- when the spotlight of the world is shining brightly, literally, just down the street -will be remembered, when the real party starts and real rewards are handed out.

"None of us serve for that reason... but it hurts to think about how so many are missing out on the real joy and so many feel invisible because the world refuses to look or even to roll down their window. Thanks so much for your part in Jackets for Jesus. Thanks for your prayers, your support, you. Because of you a crowd of people lines up every week and knows that God- that God's people -remember, we're family. He's Our Father.

"You're invited to join us any Sunday night. To begin a legacy of change and love in your family, in your community. We're going to the streets this week. You're invited. You're needed. Now, more than ever for changing lives,Eric M. Denton."

From Walking with Warner, saluting all the faithful people out there who are giving their cups of cold water (and more)in the name of Jesus,
Wayne

In Quest of Holiness and Unity

The “Saints Reformation” at Grand Junction, Michigan (1884-1896), as it was known, resulted through the ministry of Daniel S. Warner of the Northern Indiana Eldership of the Churches of God and Joseph C. Fisher of Carson City, MI.(the Michigan Eldership).

Daniel converted to Christianity in 1865, felt called to the ministry in 1866, was licensed in 1867, and began formulating his understanding of the Biblical message of John Winebrenner and his followers. He served as a pastor for 6 years, and a missionary--evangelist--publisher for 4 years.After discovering sanctification as a second blessing, He became part of the Holiness Revivals.

Warner founded the Gospel Trumpet publication, later known as Vital Christianity
(1880-1996). As a publisher-preacher--evangelist, Warner eventually became the patron saint of a reform movement now known as the Church of God, Anderson (1880-2009). John W. V. Smith summarized the first century of the Church of God (Anderson) in his centennial history, The Quest for Holiness and Unity (Warner Press/1880).

For us to continue that quest for holiness and unity is not to perpetuate the administration of Anderson, Indiana but to reclaim Biblical holiness and unity. I suggest we achieve this in 3 ways:

(1) We not simply denounce denominational exclusivity, as did the exponents of the “come-out” doctrine, but we overcome it by breaking down the barriers and joining ranks in cooperating in common Kingdom purposes
(2) We become intentionally “inclusive” within the full Family of God, cooperating with believers in the common cause of taking seriously Christ’s Great Commission to “Go into all the world. . .”
(3) We walk the walk we talked for 125 year; we must now reaffirm the first fruits of Christian experience (the essence of holiness--wholeness, and unity) and maintain what Gerald Mann called the salvage-ability of human worth in spite of the worst of circumstances.

This will help the Church of God to rediscover its own soul. If, as a Movement, we have the sense of a Mule, we will, unlike the horse that will eat anything, separate the Biblical Wheat from our “Evening Time” chaff, and join hands with Christians of all colors and nationalities and make a serious effort to teach the Love of Jesus to a world filled with the inhumanity of genocide, terrorism, unfettered greed, hatred, and fear.

If this is not worth OUR ABSOLUTE BEST, then in the name of God we need to find a more humane cause …
Wayne,
Walking With Warner

Finding Safe Haven

“If they told you that a murderer were to be released into your neighborhood, how would you feel?” asks Antoine Rutayesire, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide that left one out of eight of his countrymen dead. “But what if this time, they weren’t just releasing one but 40,000?” This chilling question is not hypothetical for Antoine and his small, African country. They released 40,000 prisoners in 2003, and 10,000 more in 2007.

The horrific genocide of Hutus slashing, bludgeoning, and burning of Tutsi neighbors in Rwanda has become familiar to many. A profound story continues to unfold. A sampling of redemptive stories has been published by Zondervan, 2009, written by Catherine Claire Larson.

Based on personal interviews and thorough research, As We Forgive briefly outlines the early colonialism that used racism to political advantage to shape the boundary lines for the 1994 genocide. Larson traces the route of reconciliation in the lives of Rwandans—victims, widows, orphans, and perpetrators—who’s past and future intersect. These stories reveal the suffering, memory, and identity that set up roadblocks to forgiveness, but they further reveal how mediation, truth-telling, restitution, and interdependence create bridges to healing. I found her book breathing with humanity and as haunting as it is hopeful.

We live in a violent world—Janjaweed raids in Sudan, brainwashed child-soldier attacks in Uganda, Sunni and Shiite conflicts in the Middle East. In Ireland, the Ivory Coast, and Eastern Europe deep wounds still separate people who have survived generations of conflict.

Nor are Americans immune to such violence and division. As recent as 9/11, I heard the word “revenge’ raised as a yet possible response. Jonathan Kozel, in his book The Shame of America, reveals some of the hidden racial tensions in our educational system. I cannot remember when I have seen such political polarization. I can scarcely believe the animosity and hatred I find in the current Health Care debates, following the election of our first black president. Broken marriages and splintered relationships assault all of us.

Is there any alternative to the collective devaluing of people currently taking place? Is there any roadmap to reconciliation? Is a shared future possible after unthinkable evil? Catherine Larson dares to believe that if forgiveness is possible after the slaughter of nearly a million in 100 days in Rwanda, then, we owe it to humanity--to ourselves--to explore how one country is addressing perceptual, social-psychological, and spiritual dimensions to achieve a more lasting peace.

If forgiveness is possible after genocide, then perhaps there is hope for the comparably smaller rifts that plague our relationships, our communities, and our nation. I am deeply saddened by the way we divide and devour one another verbally--using words like battering rams to assault, denigrate, dehumanize, and destroy.

There is only one proven response to the hostilities and broken relationships we face, and that is a love that is willing to value people and unwilling to devalue them.” It seems to me that is the bottom line of all that Jesus said and did--bottom line of love.

We cling to our treasured forms of war, nationalism, and personal independence and wonder why we have no peace. We forget that forgiving is an active form of suffering offered on behalf of the victim to create a pathway of redemption, of peace, of shalom. We want our peace halfway (on our terms), but Shalom provides for the well-being of all--victim--offender--the flourishing of humans, which comes only as a result of reconciliation

As many a preacher has proclaimed, when God raised the man, Jesus Christ, from the dead, he didn’t take away his scars. The scars testified to the pain, and the love--the extent to which God will go to conquer the evil of the world through the active suffering of forgiveness.

Only through such active love can such horrendous scars be transformed into emblems of triumph, concludes Larson.

Last summer, I met Pastor George Jordan, of Columbus, Ohio Hilltop Church. His business card tells us where to find a safe haven:
Help those in need
Adore God
Value God’s grace
Encourage one another
Nurture spiritual gifts

From Walking With Warner,
Wayne

Public Option Controversy

Eric Denton wrote on the wall of his Face book: “Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows. Isaiah 1:17 Written over 700 years before Jesus was born- same lessons of love and passion -stand with the overlooked. First words cut home: "Learn to do good." We take it in and teach it- love and passion -or we don't. Today, I want to learn to do good. It's the lesson of our lives... live it, teach it.”

I like that. It reminds me that even in the days of the Old Testament Prophets, and especially since the time of Christ, there have been those advocating for the common good of humanity, regardless of the political “stuff” that circulates endlessly.

I’m thinking of President Obama’s speech today; don’t know what he will say, don’t care in a manner, I salute the efforts of those trying to advance equal health-care reform for everyone. I’ve been married to the daughter of a Medical Doctor for 62 years, the daughter that was supposed to be a boy, that was supposed to become the next doctor. By a twist of fate, she left Pre-med and became Pro-ministry.

I’ve heard her stories and observed through the years, and strongly support a Public Option in today‘s Medical Market. She began as an early adolescent as Doc’s Assistant, helping with pre-natal needs, pharmaceutical needs that came out of Doc’s Medical Bag, shots and all the other stuff a Physician’s Assistant did in those “medieval medical years.” And yes, we still believe the way Doc practiced Medicine (Urban Houston; rural OKLA): equal access for all, first come, first served, pay accordingly, depending on circumstances--NO EXCLUSIONS!

We spent our 62 years together staying close to the medical community, wife’s fragile health is a story all its own, beginning with My Air Force discharge because of her malignancy, not to mention our raising a highly asthmatic child. We’ve dealt with such issues forever, and still do, but there was a time when we could obtain reasonable medical insurance, which did not become terminally inflated until after DEREGULATION under Reagan. Since that time, the Health-Care Industry giving Medical Insurance Companies a Monopoly. This has led to desk jockeys practicing medicine without a medical license, in the name of the bottom line.

I support Public option because I believe as an American citizen I have equal right to access health care equal to what the President and Congress have--as a citizen. I do not believe that health care should remain “FOR PROFIT!” President Reagan used the Government to turn over public health care to private interests--for profits which have been huge. Health care is up for grabs for “them what has the mostest of the money” and that is unAmerican and totally undemocratic.

There are good doctors and bad, and those profits did not all go to doctors faithfully serving patients. My wife still remembers how much her father lost in unpaid bills during the depression--a staggering amount, but whether or not Doc made money, Doc practiced faithfully being his brother’s keeper and he taught his kids likewise, both the democrat one’s and the republican one’s.

Consideration of the common good today is a lost concern. When I think of the common good, I think globally, but I have to admit I despise “my government” spending “trillions” 'warring overseas'(spending a majority of the national budget) while it cannot see that the man on main street has health care--that is Christianity in reverse. . .(AND CHRISTIANS AND REPUBLICANS AND OTHERS TALK ABOUT KEEPING GOVERNMENT OUT OF OUR LIVES……………what a joke!

Today, I want my life to be an expression, not of Eric, not of the President (a great model for family values), not whatever political party, but I want my life to be an expression doing good, the kind of goodness Jesus taught. As Eric wrote, It's the lesson of our lives... live it, teach it.” I've had enough failures of my own, but I'm working on it, Eric!

This is Wayne
At Warner’s World

Integrity In the Church

Attended church…fixed lunch and spent the p.m. watching recent video’s of the Memorial Service of Bill Shrout in WPC's McGuire Auditorium. Bill married Julie (Julia Hilda Honeycutt) 62 years ago, the day before I married my spouse. The girls lived at High St. Dorm as AU students.

Flashbacks include overnight at the Shrouts--Amarillo, TX early 50’s, visitations at NAC, church leaders met on our journey, conversations about problems when struggling with debacles at Warner Press, Church Extension, et al.“Nowhere is the character crunch more critical than in today’s church,” wrote someone recently.(1)

BILL SHROUT--whatever his politics--was a man of integrity--a fun-loving man of faith and family. Shrout belonged to a Church culture that put self on the line rather than compromise integrity. He demanded it of himself, taught it to his family, and expected it of his church. His absence leaves us hitching ourselves together trying to take up the slack that he left.

Bill challenges me to reexamine myself, my integrity, and the integrity of “our church.” I see denominational successes, but I see integrity compromised--progress and public image. I see material successes, national recognition gained, personal advantages sought, but I fail to see stalwarts putting themselves on the line.

What we most need are humble disciples with the faith and fortitude to stand, even if failing--just because it is right, people of impeccable integrity who will stand for principle, even if it means bearing a cross (like Jesus).

Bill was such a man. He was part of a church culture that produced such people of impeccable integrity! Two that greatly impacted me were A.F. Gray and O. F. Linn. President Gray accepted me as an unproved student and gave me opportunity to redeem myself. He believed in his foundling Bible College enough to relinquish his salary to meet a financial crunch.

Gray hired teachers like Otto F. Linn, who dared to quietly face the political winds in the church and teach a better way of proclaiming our Church of God quest for holiness and unity than that of F. G. Smith.

Whereas Smith would have imprisoned the church in his compelling-but-contradictory come-out theology and final reformationism, Linn paid his dues academically and politically, but helped many of us better understand the true church. Linn could willingly mortgage his home to meet his faculty payroll on more than one occasion, but he brought a living bible to life for his students, of whom I am among the less significant.

Bill’s life supported what Winston Churchill proclaimed, “Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never, never--in nothing great or small, large or petty--never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

This is Wayne at Walking With Warner, reminding himself that friends like Bill come at a premium, but they pay rich dividends.
_____
1 EJ FORUM at http://forums.ag.org/enrichmentjournal

Something to Think About

Do you ever wonder why people still look to the Jews (Israel) as the chosen people of God, divinely destined to return to Palestine and rightfully own that land and rule the nations of the world? Jews have long taught it. Pre-millennial Christians think in similar terms. This issue has compounded and confused global politics for generations.

The ultimate authority for advocates of this theory is the Scofield Bible. I find something to think about in THINE IS THE KINGDOM (H.C. Heffren/97-101/Reformation Publishers).

The Trial of Jesus before Pilate resulted from his “claim that He was the Son of God. This charge, however, was not a capital offense in the Roman state, so a different charge had to be made before Pilate. At first they tried to evade the issue by saying, “If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee” (John 18:30). They hoped to obtain a death sentence without revealing their underlying cause, but Pilate refused to grant it without further evidence of Jesus’ guilt.

Pilate demanded that they prove that Jesus somehow menaced the Roman government, as a basis for their charge of sedition. Heffren describes the seething mob of frantic men hurling torrents of indignant accusations against Him, calculated to result in His death. Above the din someone shouted, “We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is ‘Christ, a king” (Luke 23:2).

This charge amounted to treason against the Roman state a crime for which death was the penalty and Barabbas was already in prison due on a similar charge.

Now, suggests Heffren,“Had Christ ever proclaimed an earthly kingdom, either present or future, this accusation would have been true, and capital punishment would have been warranted. Since there were no witnesses present to verify the accusation, Pilate took Jesus into the judgment hall and questioned Him privately.”

We tell this story every Easter and here Heffren protests “in strongest terms” against the “notes” in the Scofield Reference Bible from which he quotes that Jesus “first offered the Jews an earthly Davidic kingdom but later withdrew the offer because of Jewish opposition. In its place He substituted a Kingdom of rest and service” (see S.R.B., p. 1011).

Heffren argues that if we “accept the Scofield notes as correct, we must also conclude that the court testimony given by Jesus was perjury, since He disclaimed ever to have taught that His kingdom was of an earthly character. Had it been so Pilate could not have exonerated Him. Moreover, if the promises of the Old Testament demanded an earthly kingdom as fulfillment, then the only possible way Jesus could claim to be the Messiah was to fulfill them.

Jesus could not alter God’s eternal purpose and be “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Any deviation from the prophetic fulfillment would immediately have convicted Him of being an imposter, as indeed that is what the Jews maintained He was.

Each of the four gospels mentions that Pilate expressly asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” The question is of paramount importance! Jesus calmly replied, “You say that I am,” adding, “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I would not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from hence.”

What Jesus said really means, “But as it really is, my kingdom is not from hence;” it is not of an earthly character and there would be nothing gained by fighting for it.”

According to Matthew 27:18, Pilate “knew that for envy they [the Jews] had delivered him.” He therefore gave his verdict of not guilty, but tried to compromise with justice and pacify the mob by ordering Jesus to be scourged. Although he ordered an extremely painful punishment, the decision infuriated the people.

As Heffren reports it, pandemonium broke loose. Stentorian voices shouted, “If you let this man go you are not Caesar’s friend. Whosoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar” (John 19:12). The people raged in this shocking manner until the blackest chapter in human history was written in the shed blood of the innocent Lamb of God. “The voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed, and Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required” (Luke 23:23).

Of interest to me is that Scofield’s flawed thinking makes Jesus a liar and the bible an uninspired record, either that or God flip-flopped in sending Jesus as The Messiah.That I cannot accept!

Something to think about,
from Walking With Warner,
Wayne

Reform Peace Efforts

Learn about ONE MINUTE FOR PEACE, sponsored by AFCS (American Friends Service Commission). You can find it at www.OneMinuteFor Peace.org. This effort seeks to raise the equivalent of ONE MINUTE of what the military spent last year $1.9 million.

Most noteworthy is seeing how much of YOUR MONEY AND MINE will go to military causes next year. Based on President Obama’s Budget to Congress check whitehouse.gov/omb/budget (Percentages are rounded off for the following list):

1% Interior
1% Treasury
1% Labor
1% NASA
1% Environmental Protection Agency
2% Justice
2% Agriculture
2% Energy
3% Homeland Security
4% Other Agencies
4% Education
4% Housing and Urban Development
4% State and Other International Programs
6% Transportation
6% Health and Human Services
57% Department of Defense, War, Veterans Affairs

It is not health-care reform that threatens to bankrupt the country! For Senator Orrin Hatch to castigate his friend Robert Kennedy for insisting on health care for ALL AMERICANS is a disservice to all of us; it is unpatriotic,and un-American,while protecting special interests--just so he and fellow Republicans can spend 57% of our Tax Dollars for military purposes.

President Eisenhower’s second inaugural address warned of the day when the Pentagon would be the tail that wags the dog. We are there and I protest because that does not accurately represent American citizens, which is what the job of Congress used to be.

Either WE THE PEOPLE ARE the government, or we now have a caricature of what democracy was supposedly about. To promote this caricature of democracy is merely to promote another form of militarism among the world powers.

We do not need more of what we already have. Less Nationalism and the right kind of diplomacy could powerfully extend democratic principles and reduce the Pentagon to Homeland Security issues. It is past time for real reform--less militarism, no private contractors, agencies accountable to the Public and additional Health-care Reform.

This is Wayne at
Walking With Warner
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Commitment

Not new, but accurate, information from the Iraq War is summed up in a report from NBC’s Brian Williams:
1. 750 injuries monthly (2-07);
2. Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) possibly 1825;
3. 23,000 injuries (non-fatal casualties,205,000 treating in VA facilities at that time, plus 72,000 mental health patients (Bob Woodward);
4. 754,000 homeless people, 1/3rd being families with children (Brian Williams);
5. 300,000 more people than VA beds seeking help (Bob Woodward).

Such information is old hat with us. We take it for granted, all the way from war abroad to neighborhood violence. Our world pays a terribly high price for our low level of living. Without turning to further sources, Iraq offers more than 2,754,750 reasons for advocating more actively for the common good of humanity.

As we wrap up the (Iraq) war, we ramp up another--Afghanistan. Further conflicts confront us elsewhere--already responsible for cleaning up some of the other political messes we have made.

The bottom line calls for every citizen to become pro-active in building new and better relationships in our world. The one sure way to eliminate enemies is to build constructive friendships; that calls for less hostility and more mutual sharing.

Edward Kennedy was a man who had the best of everything. In that, he found strength to take on what he felt was his moral responsibility--improve life for those less fortunate. Thus, he became the face of Health Care Reform. While watching the reviews of Kennedy’s death, I heard the recurring phrase “moral responsibility” as a driving force in his life.

Not everyone agreed with the Senator; some wrote him off with distracting designations. He failed miserably at times in his personal life. Yet, through his Catholic Faith, and fortitude,this man focused on and found a level of redemption by focusing on the needs of others.

The Christian faith calls us to live our lives responsibly--mutually accountable to each other. Jesus taught us to love others as we love ourselves. He invites us to live with that commitment until we stand before Almighty God--for the common good.

Foy Valentine, a great Southern Baptist preacher-author, valued this word “commitment.” We need, wrote Valentine, to make our world a better place in which to live, admitting his greatest concern was our commitment. He concluded: “My concern is that we shall one day stand before the Judgment seat of Christ and in shame be forced to confess to Him who has the print of nails in His hands that we were not outnumbered but out committed.” (Valentine/THE CROSS IN THE MARKETPLACE/Word/1966/73).

From Walking with Warner, this is Wayne,
pressing forward with commitment...