cairns

If I have a student who wants to learn, who is willing to do the work I give, who listens to the corrections I offer — and then at the end of our time gets a failing grade from me, who failed?

Did they fail as a student?  Or did I feel as their teacher, leader, mentor, friend, and guide?

Me.

It is plain, simple, obvious, and inescapable.   When they are placed under my care wanting to learn and I do not teach, I have failed them.  If they do not care, are already defeated as a child, are afraid to risk new challenge and growth and I do not re-inspire them, I fail to live out my calling.  They are required to show up bringing who they are.  I am there representing the God of all power and love and it is my responsibility to love courage and strength back into the reluctant, to design experiences that teach what they are to learn, and to offer opportunities to demonstrate mastery of knowledge which fit the learner and the content of the lessons.  I stand before the throne bathed in mercy and seek new wisdom for the next round, the next students, the next subject.  But, I stand before God knowing each one is entrusted to my care for a season and that God cares very much about seeing the best happen for the “least” of them.

But, I do not see it happening in church.

I have seen us use people up, chew them to pieces, cast them aside and expect them to be grateful for the experience.  If years of sitting under sermons, lessons and trainings leaves people unchanged, deemed unworthy of service, or unfazed at our holiness and spiritual guidance, then the failure must be theirs.  They have sin in their lives, unrepentant lifestyles, spiritual barriers, or defiant hearts.  Heaven forbid they should have the nerve to become ill and fail to respond to our faith filled prayers for healing!  God forbid that should tell the truth that they are seeking something deeper than we ourselves know, have pains we do not even want to hear of, or are open enough to consider Truth beyond our walls.  We have the Truth, the power, and the saving doctrine.  And it is; well to be Biblical, it is a pile of dung — stinking, rotten, nauseating dung.

I watch a supposed pastor have people under their leadership, training, and care for years with true hearts of love and service to God, and at the end of it hear only belittling and dismissive words from this supposed shepherd, and I want to vomit.  I have no softer words.  I am no longer capable of pleasantries in the presence of it.  The situation that prompted this purging, the neglect of a departing servant was only reported to me, I was not involved, it had nothing to do with me.  But I know the territory, the pain, and the damage and I want to go as postal as an Old Testament prophet or Jesus of Nazareth with a whip.  It is wrong.

I cannot participate in a system that allows the pampered stateside worker with the decorated air conditioned office to oversee a budget of 6 or 7 figures while requiring field workers to raise their own salaries, refuse to train those who deeply desire to serve God, act in belittling and dismissive ways towards those of his own flock who are going to serve while praising his self chosen few.  I cannot participate in a place that claims to represent the God of all love and treats people in ways which deny them both just treatment and the power to speak the truth about themselves, their treatment at the hands of the organization, and the real personal and spiritual damage that has been done to them.  I cannot give material or spiritual support to an organization which cannot separate the Sustainer of the universe from their own cultural gods of business, power, politics, and warfare.

I am the failed student.  No, make that the expelled student! I understand them.  I honor their honest fury.  I can no longer even entertain the idea of behaving as if you make sense while you heap dung on the heads of those who seek the Lord.

If a student of mine ever left with those words, I would be before the throne dissolved before my Lord and King.  I would kneel before the Presence knowing I had failed in my responsibilities and use of my gifts.  I would beg for the courage to go on, to seek healing, to renew the one I failed.  If anyone from my old church reads this they will shrug me off as a sore-headed, self centered, ungovernable maverick with questionable theology.

Go with your gods then.

I go with mine and I am content.

And I pray for you if the day ever comes that you see beyond your ego into the eyes of the One who made, loves, and follows after every one you have failed to love and nurture.  Keep worshiping yourselves. I tried to come back to be with dear friends in the membership and on the staff.

I can grant you your humanity as I expect you to admit mine.

But, I cannot sit silently in the presence of the hubris that allows you to dare to speak your opinions, ideas, and prejudices as the will and Word of God.  If I am present, I will have to rebuke you.  If I thought there was a shred of a chance of being heard, I would risk your anger and your wounds for the sake of both our souls.  But, I see no ears that hear and I will not sow discord in the body even if the body is cancer riddled and abusive.  I leave you to it.  May God have mercy on our souls.

peace,

really; through all my disappointment, human frailty and disgust, I send you peace.

Just stay away from me.

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There is another reason I decided against another term for a person of all people.  We already have the word disciple used by Jesus.  Or in the book of Genesis we are told that God originally called both the man and the woman Adam as they were given the command to be and to spread throughout the Earth.  Then the story is repeated in the family of Noah remembered by God and rescued from the chaos (represented by water again) and then sent forth with the animals to spread life throughout the Earth.  And again in the story of Babel we hear God demanding that mankind spread out and become all the peoples of the Earth for God’s glory rather than their own.  Man is to be everywhere on the planet in communion with the Creator and Creation (including each other).

When the covenant is made with Abraham, (even tough often applied to one half or the other of his descendants to the exclusion of all others), the narrative indicates that the blessing was already intended to be for all people.  The slaves in Egypt (the first of many Empires condemned for exploiting the other) cry out and are heard by God, rescued, blessed, and told again to welcome and bless all people.  Solomon built a great temple and dedicated it to the purpose of blessing all people with the knowledge of God.  Having reverted to Empire themselves, they fall and are carried of into exile where the new prophets, and recorders of much of what we call the Bible, emerge.  This time the prophecies are so obviously intended for all creation that gentile (non-Jewish, pagan, “other”) Christians have never doubted these beautiful passages apply to themselves.

(Sadly many chose a broken logic which said the promises no longer belonged to Israel, to whom they were spoken, or the rest of the world as is obvious in the passages.)

Jesus came and declared that God was in our midst, that we would now worship not in one place or another but everywhere in Spirit and in Truth.  And he directed his followers to take the news to the ends of the Earth.  Then John wrote a letter of amazing symbols, images, and poetry to some of the early churches (which many again stole and found a broken logic to apply only to themselves on some magic future day) declaring that after the times of suffering would come a world predicted by the prophets where all the people of the earth worship God in song completing the order intended since creation…

The term for a person who belongs to all people is Adam, human, Jesus.  The term for a person learning to follow this Way from Jesus is disciple.  It has always been intended as the Way for all — to walk humbly upon the Earth loving justice and helping the helpless.  It is what “human” should mean.

But we have twisted the narrative, cut and pasted the passages, stolen the heritage of others and applied them as solely our own.  In my own country we still cling to our pride of Empire claiming like the Romans that we bring peace to the world by conquest.  At times each street corner church seems to believe the descriptions of man in right relationship with God will come true in a special way for only those exactly like themselves.

And, my own country led the way in developing the capacity to destroy the world at one unspeakable command.  Now, we see that our excessive consumption and overuse of the ancient substances from deep within the Earth threatens to bring about nearly the same result more slowly and painfully.  And we, with hubris beyond any the world has yet seen, declare that we do not care as long as we can defend our borders, take other’s resources, and live our lifestyle as long as possible.  We choose ignorance of the facts as our claim of innocence while continuing to make war when and where we choose through both our military and our dollars.  But the fruit was eaten long ago and we are neither ignorant nor innocent.  We have placed all creation in peril by intentional acts of the will.

And still!!  There is a Spirit moving upon the face of the deep!  The voice of the oppressed is always heard and the time for revelation of Truth draws near.  People across the globe, many of them young, are waking up to the joy of each other, to a Spirit larger than their family, houses of worship, cultures or nations.  They are spreading the hope, truth, and love like fire.

Many of us have experienced the joy sung by the prophets in worship with those of other places, colors, and languages.  Join together with global friends in worship of the One beyond all the mind can comprehend and realize that difference makes no difference as voices raise in orchestral harmony, and you are forever changed.

We are outnumbered.

But, we are aligned with the power that holds the universe together.  It is time to unify with each other to pray, to hope, to sing, to dance until the walls again tremble and fall and people are free to be

HUMAN.

peace

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I decided to develop this further than just the comment added to the last post.  I really think our society, or at least this member of it, is ready for a new category of identity.  Here are the definitions I was recently asked to choose from for our federal government.

• Hispanic or Latino: A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
• American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community attachment.
• Asian: A person having origins in any of original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent, including for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
• White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

For starters what are origins?  Does it require more than one family member?  How long in the past are they allowed to be?  And what do “maintains cultural identification,” and “community attachment” mean?  I think these definitions leave the meaning and the choice up to the person who fills out the form and give no verifiable information about our make up.

I want to propose a mindful experiment.  Let’s explore our origins.  Scientists now tell us that humans emerged from the rift valley of Africa, that could qualify us all as black.  So could the Biblical narrative which is generally understood to include Ethiopia within the boundaries of Eden.  More likely the Bible would be used by most to claim we all emerged from the Middle East.  By these definitions, that would make us all qualify as white.  But, then anthropologists tell us that the tribes of Europe and the Americas traveled from Asia, so all of us with European or Native American ancestry could identify ourselves as Asian.  And finally authors like Michener have eloquently described, and the genome project has scientifically recorded how most of us are of very mixed origins.

Which brings me to our time using myself as an example.  I know that I have Scot-Irish and German ancestors, but have no idea how many generations ago they lived or who they were.  One grandfather always claimed that we were American Indians, but nobody in the family has been able to find evidence to back up the claim.

I also know that the Native Nations had stories of emerging from the ground of this continent.  And, I know scientifically that nearly every molecule of every member of my family for generations has been composed of the soil of North America.  How many generations does that have to be true before a human can claim to be a native of this land?

(If community attachment means living on the Rez and participating in the rituals, I do not have it.  If having my heart permanently stolen by the Lakota Nation and having a deep appreciation for the respect for Earth found among many Native Nations is community attachment then I do have it.  But, I am also very sensitive to the rip off of everything but identity from the Native Nations and I make no claim to their identity.  What I am saying here is leading to a claim of belonging to a new tribe.)

I believe that I am a wonderful combination of people groups by both genetics and culture and that my material body and my worldview are profoundly from this place.  I am an American.  If the government would give me that choice for my race and ethnicity, I would mark “American.”

For some I suppose that term would imply some sort of mythical racial and historical purity with some nativist and anti-immigrant or anti-multicultural perspective.  I do not agree with their views, but I think it is clear that they strongly identify themselves as Americans.

For me it would be a term celebrating my origins in a tribe that comes from every corner of the Earth bringing language, heritage, culture, story, music, and dance combining into persons with bodies composed of the stuff of this soil to make the complexity that is an American.

I contemplated whether there should be a box that just said human or global citizen.  I might be tempted to choose such a box having developed deep affection for Haiti, Africa and China after visiting and sharing small samples of their cultures.  But, I know my worldview, culture, and ethnicity are permanently marked by growing up in and of this place.  So, I believe the term American defines people like me.

I wonder if others would prefer to identify themselves simply as American rather than the old categories we use now?  Today, I asked a member of Congress to consider exploring whether our government would support giving us the option.  Would you take it?

peace

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I read a liberal article today focused on how conservatives name things (effective) and liberals mock (ineffective).  For good measure they included Progressives who at times can be found in either camp.

I do not believe the problem in American government is diversity of opinion.  I do not believe the problem is people who have opposite views to mine.  Our experiment with democracy has always included views and opinions that were in direct opposition to one another.  It should!  The diversity of honestly held beliefs about both aims and means helps us to avoid extremism from either side.  Getting the people’s work done only requires a few skilled persons who understand compromise as a means to achieve what is positive in both views.

But, now we have a party system where both sides seem to focus the vast majority of our elected officials time and effort on two nonproductive activities.  One is “getting yours.”  This does not have to be personal greed, but may be expressed in honest efforts to get governmental dollars spent in meaningful ways back in the home district.  This gets votes because people at home expect it as part of the job.  But, it has become the means of compromise.  Instead of working for action or inaction that is truly believed to be for the good of the country, we have a system of you vote for this and we will include these dollars for your district.  Conservatives love to point out how frivolous and wasteful too many of those projects are.  But, the truth is both sides of the aisle play the game for their voters and for their contributors.  It is wasteful beyond the dollars involved (and that is an unimaginable cost if it was the only problem!).  But, it does something worse.  It robs of us of honest debate and struggle to find real solutions to national problems.

The second method of working in government seems to be putting more emphasis on avoiding blame and manipulating situations to cast a negative light on the opposition than on identifying and solving real problems.  Politicians and campaign managers on both sides of the aisle have studied and practiced it to an art form.  They believe it works because you can win votes by placing the right spin on any incumbent’s record to cause people at home to choose change. It works because the national news media loves controversy that increases viewership and increases advertising dollars.

What it does not do is encourage working for common ground.  It does not encourage honest debate, even if heated.  It does not bring about solutions.  It does not encourage new government action where help is needed — nor does it help to reach new answers which include stopping government from doing things it should not be involved in while we all pay for it.  So it achieves no purposes of conservatives, liberals, progressives, or any other ideology.  It celebrates gridlock as long as the gridlock is blamed on somebody else.

Most dangerous of all these tactics have caused government to become more and more distant from the governed.  Conservatives may be pleased that huge new spending plans are hard to pass, but any amount spent on a huge governmental system which does not serve the people is too much.  Liberals may be pleased when they get spending on pet projects included as financial compromise, but spending this way does not accomplish their long term goals either.

What this system does is make some people quit caring at all.  Voting percentages have shown this for decades.  It is making others angrier everyday.  And the angriest, the ones already buying arms, have very radical agendas.  Our lawmakers and enforcers need to listen to what vocal people like the  Tea Party rank and file are saying while they are still using media and votes to communicate their message.  And they should listen to the underlying message, “We no longer believe ANY of you are building a better America with our tax dollars.”

As long as the response to that anger is positioning the other side to look the worst — with appeasement money for projects thrown in to buy votes and campaign dollars, our government is participating in bringing a storm I fear none of us will want to weather.

Here is to the Bayhs and Grahams of the world willing to try and bring back a government where very different views are strongly presented, both sides listened to, and meaningful compromise sought where ethically possible in order to build a stronger country.

Jesus never said the Way in life was to make sure everybody else looks worse than you.  While church and state are separated further and further each year, the vast majority of elected officials claim to be people of faith.  What would it look like if they practiced faith in action rather than party games?

peace

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Stop our dependence on foreign oil, walk.

(That will be the eventual outcome regardless.  Oil is a non-replenishing resource.)

Global warming is not our fault, die guiltless.

(How comforting, not!)

Limit abortions, celebrate gay lifestyles.

(Very offensive to my conservative friends I know, but it is logical!)

Stop illegal immigration, welcome the world’s huddled masses.

(or tear down the statue!)

Stop government tyranny, impeach the Supreme Court.

(all of the most volatile changes to our beliefs and constitution originate and end here, not Congress or the White House!)

God so loved the world that He commissioned us to bomb them.

(Don’t we act like it?)

Love those in need, send your money there instead of the church building fund.

(Tents or seat cushions and chandeliers?)

Or any that proclaim this ancient advice:

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³ Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. ^[c] Do not think you are superior.

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” ^[d] says the Lord. ²⁰ On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” ^[e]

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

peace

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People who stay in people jobs long after they have given up on people, especially ones who work with children –

Conservatives criticizing government for siding with big business after chanting my whole life that what is good for big business is good for America–

Republicans after the Bush/Cheney years claiming the Democrats are too friendly with big oil –

Democrats who are still running away from the label of liberal and trying instead to present themselves as a “reasonable” version of the Republican platform –

How we keep believing that electing people who say they hate the system, but spend a fortune to get into it, will change our lives –

People who trust any talking head of any ilk to speak the Truth when their obvious agenda is building their listener base and advertising take –

People who believe that government, the church, a protest movement, education, or any other organization of man can solve the world’s problems, or even tries to do more than protect and promote itself –

People who believe that multinational corporations are more interested in their well being than their own elected government–

People who still believe there is AN answer to be found that will work for everyone in politics, education, religion, or any other life category–

People who believe school accountability programs which are based on the premise that everyone can be in the top half of any type of category (and after passing fourth grade math class!) –

People who believe that education is the problem with business while all of the jobs are being outsourced to uneducated sectors of the world willing to work as slaves–

Well, most of today’s realities :-/

Things I do understand:

Children love to learn, learn to love by being treated with loving respect, and grow up to be our future.

People deserve the right to be who they really are; their narratives are unique, life giving, and deserve to be honored.

God loves them both, and we have no right to do less.

peace

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For my recent life journey and for remembering the loss of faith 40 years ago in a government that cared about all its children, both the uniformed and the angry ones.  A song for the people who live in countries with no pretense of benevolent government at home or abroad (this version is from Haitian relief, if you like it you can still contribute and the need is dire and ongoing).  A song for mankind’s lonely moments looking into the vastness of the universe and for a Savior crying out in the moment of greatest unity between God and man.

06 Motherless Child

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Note to Republican leadership:  The country was fed up with the results of your recent administrations!  So fed up that they elected a majority in both houses plus a President from the other party.  You lost.  It is not the end of the world, the pendulum swings and right now you are the minority.  Yes, Obama is black–get over it.  You were just never told the evidence that Ike was too (try to find a picture of his mother).  No, he is not destroying the country and your extremist statements are not winning over anyone who didn’t already agree with you — reminder, they were the minority not the majority of voters in the last round of elections.

Note to Democrat leadership: Part of how you got a majority was anger over the gridlock and government officials unwilling to listen to the other side, or the American public.  You can lose power the very same way.  Your solutions are not right for everybody everyplace in this country any more than the Republican ones are.  From the time of the writing of the Constitution this has been a government based on compromise.  Its time to find a way back there.

Note to those preparing to lock and load:  The Founding Fathers really were the intelligent men you should have been taught that they were in school.  The political system works.  The economic system is a complex game of imaginary assets and wealth beyond anything any talking head tells you.  Most of it doesn’t even exist in the terms everyday people think of, and the CEO’s of the major multinational corporations are making more decisions about how the world is run than Obama has any power to do.

Note to self:  Everybody thought we were going to have a revolution in the Sixties.  The system sustained itself.  The biggest issue in American government today is not the Congress or the President.  It is the unbelievable power to create law by ruling on issues Congress has passed no law about, and which cannot be overturned, in the hands of nine old justices.  They must be laughing their robed ol’ butts off watching everybody fume about Congress and the President while they make the laws and policies of the country anything they want them to be.

This is the most important constitutional issue of our time.  Power will swing back and forth in the Congress and the White House like it always has as people become dissatisfied.  But, if the other two branches and the public do not find someway to balance the power of the Court: we are country living at the unchangeable whims of nine people the electorate never had any say in appointing, who cannot be removed from office, and who do not have to answer to anyone.

Bottom line — breathe — none of them will solve the world’s problems or destroy it.  There is a Higher Power whether the branches of our government or the leaders of the multinational corporations acknowledge the fact or not.  Their acquisition of power only appears to be by simple acts of man separated from the will of that Power.  And, when it is time for them to be “brought low,” it will happen.  The “System” far bigger than our beloved country works.

peace

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This started out as a warning from somebody who learned about our country’s methods of dealing with frightening dissent back in the day.  So, I put together this list of names and places anyone speaking in terms of violence should know.

Daniel Shay, John Brown, Benedict Arnold, Kent State, Jackson State, Wounded Knee, Fred Hampton, David Koresh, Orangeburg, Tim McVeigh, SLA

They have one thing in common.  The US has never been a country where revolution or loose talk about revolution are safe activities, even for bystanders.

Both the Jeffersonian and the Reagan revolutions were achieved with the ballot, not the bullet.  So was the election of 2008.

But, as I have thought about it more, there is a deeper level that has not dawned on the folks broadcasting their support for either party.  Anyone who believes that our national government only taking care of the wealthy while waging war on the rest of the world will add up to a better life is just not paying attention to the constant decline in standards of living experienced by working people under those policies.  The only thing trickling down is the condensation on CEO’s golden shower curtains.

Anyone who believes that the Democrats can come up with a large national plan that will meet everyone’s needs while not taxing the working man to death, is probably still in the bonds of modern thought.  It was a nice dream, that man could invent grand answers that would eliminate suffering and injustice.  But, man is not God and the experiment failed. One of the biggest lies in American public policy is known by all common folk to be, “I am from the government and I am here to help you!”

I now see myself politically (and in all other areas) as a post-modern.  Answers work best on small scales, near the point of need, with ownership and empowerment of those affected most by the problem and proposed solutions.  Neither national party promises that, even though the GOP would like you to believe that they do.

So two last names for anyone selling your soul to any part of the political machine — P.T.Barnum and Jesus Christ; duly warned and Kingdom come.

peace

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To be honest, in many ways I simply gave up on them.  But, most of this will be about where my hope rests.

Mathew 6:25-34 says I do not have to worry about man.  It is God who provides, and man cannot add anything by worrying about things he does not control.

Romans 8:37-39 says we are already the conquerors because nothing is capable of removing us from the love of  God.

The entire Bible confirms that God is profoundly interested in the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the helpless — all those who know they have no other hope but God.

So, I am firmly convinced that the gifts God gives are secure; and no man, government, circumstance, or terrorist can remove them.  I am also firmly convinced that what God chooses to withhold cannot be given by man.

And yet, the Word clearly calls on us to care for the widow and orphan, to love justice, and to provide for those in need.  Because the mystery of our resurrection in Christ through baptism places us as the current body of Christ on Earth, we are called to do those things that God does.  And, this brings me up short of over concern with government on another front.

When the conservatives are in power and want government to serve the interests of war and industry, I am tempted to complain that they do not do what the Biblical texts call on governments to do.  Then, I am brought up short.  It says that I am animated by the very Spirit of God and called to do those things.  I find no mention of the government as an entity experiencing the same grace or call.

When the liberals are in power and want government to step up and do the work of caring for those in need, I am tempted as much as my most conservative friends to grouse about everything the government does costing me more money while providing little to those who work for a living like my family.  Then, I am brought up short.  If I, if the Christian community — (Both Jews and Muslims also claim to believe in the same Old Testament God who compels justice for the powerless.  Native American practiced it most of the original cultures of this continent with no claim to the Gospel mandate. The list goes on.  But, my faith and hope are within the context of Christianity.) — again, if we who claim to know, love, and serve the God of mercy had taken care of the infirm and the destitute [to the measure of their need rather than the salving of our consciences] there would be no issue for the government to try to solve.  I have worked with families in these situations for most of my career, and I know they are real.  I have tried to give their children hope through education and exposure to Truth.  But, I know the issue is real.  I know my God calls us to minister to the need.  So, when my government tries its feeble best to do human engineered solutions the limit to my anger is conviction.  We were supposed to care for our neighbors and enemies as children of the same God.

I am a political cynic.  Whatever the government does will most likely cost me money and solve very few problems.  But, I am an optimist in faith that life does not come from governments.  It is by the ongoing gifts of God that we have our being, our meaning, our sustenance, and our hope.

The king is dead, long live the King.

peace

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