Sophistry

At the time of the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD) the entire wealth of the then known world was controlled by 2000 individuals. The greatest mystery of my life, unimaginable, as I have experienced religions from one side of the world to the other. (the writer has made 8 around the world trips, every continent, passport stamped in 157 countries) Is the sophistry involved in religions... regardless to the religion... Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. On roadways in Bhutan, High in the Himalayas, Buddhist crawled along roads, praying, attempting to worship, and satisfy their god. In Montreal, the great Catholic cathedral of Mary, hundreds of steps, pilgrims crawling up the steps praying. In Manhattan, just across from Rockefeller Center, the financial and entertainment center of the world, St. Patrick’s cathedral, people crawling down the main isle praying.

In Lakewood church, Houston, TX, a former basketball arena, seating 16,800 filled with people listening to Joel Osteen. What type sophistry, this man without ministerial credentials, mostly comedian, no Christian symbols of any kind in the place. Much liked, Protestant and Baptist churches across the world, hard to differentiate from civic halls, civic clubs.

Moses, who led the “stiffed-neck” rebellious children of Israel from slavery in Egypt toward the promised land, gave to them 613 commandments. He stressed to them the privilege of living with these commandments, what would happen if they did not, the essentials of obedience. The prophet Isiah, reduced this number of commandments down to six. (Isaiah 56) Jesus, reduced the commandments down to two (Mark 22:37)

Jesus, standing by the treasury, as the people gave their money, most gave from their abundance but a widow, received the Savior and the disciples attention, when she gave two mites, ALL THAT SHE HAD) (Luke 21:1-4) We live in a world of just going through the motions, even playing church, even, giving because we know we can get a tax exemption. Surely, a born again, holy spirit-filled, believer, should know that the One who has the very hairs of your head numbered, knows the intent of your heart. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. While it is true that we are saved by grace thorough faith plus nothing, our works and service show the extent of our new creation.

The two greatest responsibilities of a Christian, self denial and self evaluation. You do not build a big congregation preaching these. Most Christians do not understand worship (worthship), privilege, obeying. I get to live, serve, live the Christian life, because I want to. Jesus told us that if we love Him, we keep His commandments. (John 14:15)

Spiritual mediocrity is spiritual hypocrisy. In my long life of church activity , I have witnessed and endemic spirit of discontent, people who never gained from the church, what they wanted, if anything. It was a matter of just habit, socializing, never knowing or understanding total commitment. It takes total commitment, total submission to give life, arms, eyes for others on the battlefield. Few Christians know total devotion, perhaps martyrs or missionaries on the foreign mission field. We are very content to just play the game, many times, actually believing that no foundation is necessary, a foundation of repentance, study, giving in every way. As one black woman said to me, “I am very active in my church, people consider me a very good Christian, because I enjoy the people, there is nothing better for me to do, and there may be something to it.” Most of my relatives, friends, pew warmers I know, have this identical attitude.

Circumstances are always changing. We live on both sides of our circumstances, what has already happened and what will happen. Self does not matter, it is all about God. We must find contentment within this crucible. Discontentment is the very opposite of what Christ brought to the world.

There should be a THERAPY of thanksgiving during this season. Woe unto the man or woman without the connection, the protection, the direction of the reason for this holiday. My mother was always up early every morning, making biscuits for her family in the large wood burning, “home comfort” cook stove. Her biscuits were well known throughout the community and family. She said, “hundreds of times perfectly baked biscuits but, one time burned biscuits.” My father talked about it for several days. Most have many more blessings than problems.

Money Tree

Faced with mounting pressure to do something – anything – the United States House of Representatives last week passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. 159 pages long, the bill seeks to overhaul the way the government deals with food, recalls, and safety issues. Does it surprise you that with the taxes you pay to local, state and Federal government, the price you pay for food, whether unprepared or prepared, we still have these constant problems of contaminated food?

Salmonella, botulism, etc, many of which have mutated into several strains, which commonly used antibiotics and other drugs have no effect. Thousands of children die each year from diarrhea, to say nothing of the horror story with elderly citizens and even pets. No one escapes the negligence of bureaucrats, many of whom call themselves scientists, who are legislated to provide oversight to food supplies produced in this country and food shipped into this country. When you consider the list: ground beef, peanuts, spinach, even pistachios, think of the money saved by terrorists in completely crippling a nation with chemical and biological warfare, instead of the long and expensive process of producing nuclear missiles.

Each time I write a letter to one of these many government agencies, US Public Health, USJD, FTC, FCC, SEC, etc. I always ask the question, “Are you just paid to sleep?” If I get a response, which is seldom, and which is always just a carefully manufactured pacifier, spit out of a computer and sent to anyone who writes to them, you realize that most of these government employees are those paid enough to buy the illegal street drugs or have a hangover from all the cocktail parties sponsored by the lobbyists where they make all their sexual contacts and try to get an entrée with someone for a better job for better pay so they can afford better drugs and better vacations. After all, as one government employee told me long ago, “We spend Mondays talking about what we did on the weekend. We spend Tuesdays arranging to have a long weekend off by not working on Friday. We spend Thursdays talking about what we are going to do Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So, the only day we have to work is Wednesday and most of us have one day a week off for recreation, such as playing golf. We take off every legal, secular and religious holiday. There is no work like government work because, like the early missiles, we won't work and we can't get fired.”

My largess to God's work is well known. God has richly blessed me in spite of everything. My blindness has never slowed me down. I work every day, even at age 79. My frugality, in spite of indecent taxation, allows me to invest and my real joy comes in helping others. This is a two-edged sword because there is always someone or some group with a hand out.

Recently, two black preachers came to me asking for help for a worthy project, like sickle cell, which I have at times tried to help, these largely black projects depend almost entirely on contributions from white people. I asked these two black preachers if they had approached the one black congressman from this state, Representative Melvin Watts. They said, “He will not even meet with us, even though our chief project is in his district. He will not give us the time of day.”

Another black woman preacher came to me because, according to her story, she was going to feed homeless people from her church facility. I gave her about $2,000 before I learned that there was no such work going on there. She did tell me one thing which was very interesting and which shows the pretensions effecting many black and white ministries. She had been going to the jail to witness and try to help the women inmates. She said, after her arrival, her going through the processes of getting inside where the women are located, most of the time they were all sitting around playing cards. When she arrived with her Bible, they got very religious and even wanted to sing some hymns. They would tell her how sorry they were for their sins and were full of repentance while she was there. One day, on her way out, she remembered that she had left one of her books and she went back to retrieve it. Already, before she had gotten out of the jail, the card games for these 'repentant sinners' had already restarted.

My experience with non-government “do-gooder” organizations, even the Red Cross, has not been complimentary. During all the years in the military, on staff at military hospitals, even as a patient myself, I have never received any assistance nor seen much assistance from anyone from the Red Cross, even though they promote the idea of being available at any time of distress. Like a friend of mine, a Two Star General (Major General) who is a well known speaker before Christian groups, was a combat field commander but he said he had never had a Christian Chaplin say one word to him about his immortal soul. I repeat again as I have repeated so often, “Are most people just going through the motions?” I know some individuals who are paid big salaries with the United Fund, Lions International, Rotarian, AMA and other professional and even denominational hierarchy. Who would not like a job which pays big salaries, big expense accounts, big titles, big banquets, big introductions, big vacations, in fact, just being 'Mr. Big'?

This nation is a super power, with super money, super science, super education, and our superiority has made us a beacon light attracting people from all over the world who want the opportunity of being superior themselves, and, much to my sorrow, many of whom just want to mooch off this wealthy nation. Many are getting tired of it. The mayor of New York City is supplying money for their moochers to move to Florida. There is no reason why our empathy should be misused and why we cannot find the concerned patriots to well use our wealth and knowledge.

Our food supplies, care for the elderly, care for those in mental hospitals, should have oversight. There is no reason not to use our knowledge in helping a country such as Bangladesh, where 700,000 people are bitten by snakes every year and at least 7,000 die from these snake bites. There is no reason why our financial largess, our scientific knowledge, our Christian heritage should not extend to the diseased and dying, especially children, from bad water and mosquitoes in Africa. God blesses those who bless others.