Rings and Shakes

There are many offensive challenges in my life and since I have been forgiven for so much by our precious Lord, I feel I should forgive those who have offended me.  I am particularly offended by murder, such as the abortion of the most innocent of life.  Anyone who has studied life and its processes, anatomy, physiology, neurology, psychology or even etymology (study of medical terms) has an appreciation for metabolism and the life forces which keep us alive and functioning, that only God could design.  Any time, an evolutionist or politically correct unbeliever challenges me about my Christian faith, I ask, if they can write out the formula for photosynthesis or the formula for the clotting of blood. Usually, those who know the least about anything, those who have never traveled anywhere, those who have allowed their brain to rot with synthetics, can only retreat to the residual compass of family descendants, “My Father did this or my Grandfather did that.” 

Usually, the country club crowd who have inherited their family wealth but never the family health, have little academic or other achievements.  Most are alumni of some university, skating through by the skin of their teeth simply because the fraternity of “Big I Little You“ has always been effective.  Aristotle said, “The brain is a vast cosmos” and in the inner sanctum of the brain or the recesses of the heart most “big deals” know that their life has been limited to pretension.  The most offensive ingredient in social circles resolves into the omnipresent characterization “Where did you graduate?”, “Which fraternity did you pledge?”, “Did you know so and so at such a club?” By chance, and in case, their attachments are not evident.  There are always the matter of secret handshakes or the wearing of certain rings (Masonic, etc.), or the fraternity pin in a lapel. So many preachers should wear a roman collar so they can be easily identified, since their character differs little from that of the world.

I have honestly known some wives to refer to one another as Mrs. Dr. So and So, so frightened was she that people would not know that she was the wife of a doctor and not receive the necessary preeminence. Try wearing a Christian cross in your lapel. Try stumbling into a meeting of any time with a white cane. Try crashing a party in a wheelchair. The country club political big wheel social elite from the “right sections of town”, particularly the “gated” communities expect you to be not only well-heeled but well connected and well exposed to all the intricacies and polite concepts of the well bred.

I have stated from the platform, the pulpit, radio and variety, only the blind or the Black can know the true despair of bigotry. The WASP mentality (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) or the JAP mentality (Jewish American Princess) has brought on a new type of discrimination which supersedes Jim Crow or the time of the tenant farmer and the cotton mill worker.  Many of us, reared in small Southern towns know of which I speak.  The President of the North Carolina Jaycees asked me the following question one time, “Why is it that North Carolina has so many small towns and no large cities?”  I said, “Simple.  The same reason that North Carolina has so many Baptist churches - there is only so much room for people in either case who want to run things.”

Baptist churches have always multiplied by dividing when a certain group of members decide that they cannot run things as they wish, they move out and reorganize in another place.  So it is in small towns.  A few families have always been in charge of everything.  In most Southern towns, there is a “social registry” of the prominent families and others need not try to break down the fence.  Every small southern town had a cotton mill.  The owners of the cotton mill along with the bankers, the doctors, lawyers, live in a certain area of the town usually up on the hill.  Like Ruth and Bernie Maydoff in their Park Avenue penthouse, they could look down on the people whom they had scammed. 

The workers in the cotton mill lived in their own section, houses usually owned by the mill were allowed to spend their money at the cotton mill store and never the twain would meet except, perhaps, at the public school.  Separation of classes was as evident in the South among Whites as among Whites and Blacks.  Even with the Black Race, to this day, the darkness of the skin largely determines social acceptance.  In most cities, among the Blacks, skin color of the brown paper bag is considered a minority from the darker skinned. 

The most segregated hour of the entire week in every area of the world is from 11 to 12 on Our Lord’s Day celebration at the church Protestant, Catholic, etc., when the races and classes are almost entirely segregated. This certainly extends to social and financial elitism.  You seldom find a person of wealth attending a worship service of poor people. You still find, even among the best educated, doctors, lawyers, ministers, etc., Black cardiologist groups and White cardiologist groups, a Black ministerial association, a White ministerial association. I understand on one great university campus in this state with outstanding athletic teams, the white players ride on a separate bus for the black players.

Perhaps the best known elitist fraternal organization is “Skull and Bones.”  Simply because men of wealth and family of prominence were members of this group at Yale University.  I speak, of course of the “ketchup king“, senator from Massachusetts,  John Kerry.  It is significant that he ran against another member of Skull and Bones, George W Bush, whose father and grandfather before him were all members of this fraternity.  I understand the initial fee for Skull and Bones is $10,000. Skull and Bones was founded at Yale in 1832 as the result of a dispute between Phi Beta Kappa. So, the elitists at Yale proved that they could have their own outstanding fraternity minus scholastic achievement.  In this way, the drunks and playboys who had the money and family influence could claim their own prestige. 

The most famous fraternal group in this or any country is the Masons.  Freemasonry came about from rather obscure origins in the 16th century, mostly from the builders of the European cathedrals,  There are about 7 million masons in the world and around 2 million in the United States. 17 American presidents have been members of Freemasons.  I have known prominent men who were members of the Masonic order, after they were saved by the grace of God, they immediately left the masons and will have nothing to do with it, and have nothing good to say about it.  A Christian cannot be a mason.  In masonry, you are required to put this fraternal order in front of everything, God, family, country. Masons are indifferent towards the Trinity or the fall of man.  Every leader of the KKK has been a mason.  Each Pope, including Benedict 16th has spoken out about Catholics belonging to the Masonic order.  Catholics are forbidden to belong to the Masonic order.  Again, they depend on their total acceptance by one another by wearing Masonic identification which is supposed to give credibility in business dealings and social standing.  Books have been written on the subject of freemasonry, its secrets, its devotions to one another.  Perhaps the most obnoxious form of masonry is the Shriners who take their oath of allegiance on the Koran. 

One can substitute loyalties, loyalty to God, family and country, in many ways.  Napoleon Hill, Author of “Think and Grow Rich,” like Dale Carnegie, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” all this advice for success recommends membership in these elitist groups.  My recommendation to any young man seeking success, is read all the self help books, but the real answer book should be studied, memorized and the source of constant meditation.  I could give many scriptures from the answer book to guide your life, I will give just one, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.” (Psalm 84:5)