Jelabiya

#547

Jelabiya

I have visited many crowded cities around the world, Mexico City, the worlds largest city situated in the mouth of a volcano, but the one I remember most is Cairo, Egypt. The population of Cairo is about 17 million. It has been said that in the city there is standing room only for the population. The garb for both men and women in Egypt and throughout the Persian area of the world is the Jelabiya, a gown like structure which goes over the head and covers the body from neck to foot along with a turban. This type outer garment is warn by both men and women and it is very difficult to tell the expensive ones from those worn by the poor. But, there are expensive Jelabiyas, tailored for the more successful. Recently, there has been much publicity about Egyptian men starting to wear Western type clothing, suits, ties and shirts, even Western loafers. Most of Egypt's past political leaders have worn the Jelabiya including Nasser. Today's politicians and power brokers in Egypt wear Western suits.

I owned a condominium in Manhattan for many years, used it when I was there...about one week each month. This was an extravagance but it provided me a chance to meet some of the world's great people since the apartment was near the United Nations. Leaving the apartment one Sunday morning, heading to church, rain was threatened so I had an umbrella. When in New York, I attended the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church...one of the great Presbyterian Churches of the world. I made my regular turns, a blind man must count his streets and be very careful, when the Heavens opened up and it began to rain. I knew I was near the church. A man on the street, seeing my desperate situation, asked if he could help me. I said, “I'm trying to get into the church”. Now it just so happens that the Great Saint Thomas Episcopal Church is on the corner of 54th street and the Presbyterian Church is on the corner of 55th street. The man helped me get into Saint Thomas Church.

Of course, as is the case in most churches...even the church here in this city which I attended as a member for many years, disabled people are ignored. I don't believe anyone ever spoke to me at the Presbyterian Church in all the years that I went there and certainly no one spoke to me at Saint Thomas Church.

The service at Saint Thomas was spectacular...the great organ, the brass ensemble, the great choir...trained, paid voices. I knew one choir member from Saint Patrick's Cathedral. When you hear the voices from the choirs at the Crystal Cathedral in California, where Dr. Schuller is Pastor, or many of the other great church choirs, you can know that these are trained, paid, performing voices.

As I sat in the service, listening to the impassioned music surrounded by people of wealth and prominence, listening to a liberal theologian, the thought occurred to me and has never left that this is what liberal, agnostic theology is all about. It is matter of “Jelabiya”, having a cloak of religiosity, simply from habit, family or partial conviction...hanging on to a remnant of faith founded and floundered somewhere...and finding, here in, a cathedral of worship, anesthetic massage of “feel good” escape, although not convicted or convinced of anything. Others would call the participating in this charade hypocrisy. But, these attendees, although not there for worship...more for the theater and drama involved, at least have shown their allegiance to the history of the church.

Has our entire national ethic become a matter of Jelabiya...patina or veneer? Is there a dearth of depth to any conviction anymore? Are we so busy with our own evaluations of everything...our own wisdom, that we cannot accept basic values founded on the firm foundation of Christian belief and even patriotic providence?

We have a hyperbole resulting in the high flying, juxtaposition, of the importance of faith in a community...the importance of God, family and country. We want God on our terms, not his terms. We are willing to forsake the most basic principles of freedom, liberty, and the true republic form of government, for the man made idealism flowing from the adultery of such weasels as Marx, Lennon, Stalin, Mao or even, a Castro, Mugabe or Obama.

Satanic forces have won when real Americans have doubts about this nation and it's constitution. Satanic forces have won when Christians doubt the very foundations of their faith. Satanic forces have won when Catholics doubt the universality of their faith when the sordid history of the Catholic Church is presented referring to the Doge's Popes, recent pedophilia among priests or a general attempt by the world to cheapen and nullify Christianity such as the constant...”Christian Militia”.

Nothing in world history is as exact as the history of the Jewish people and culture. 659,000 Jews were captured and taken to Babylon as slaves. 50,000 were allowed to return to rebuild the temple, totally destroyed by the Babylonians. It took them four and a half months to return to Jerusalem. The city had been totally destroyed. Removing the rubble of the temple, the foundation of the the temple was the first thing to be restored. The first thing these people did on their return was to have a worship service and take up an offering for the construction of the new temple. When the new temple foundation was completed, there was a time of great worship and celebration. In the rebuilding, they became very discouraged. For 15 years they did nothing.

The greatest weapon Satan has in his arsenal is discouragement. Before the Bible, with only the words of prophets, these people had to be brought back to the realization of the building of Solomon's Temple, still one of the greatest architectural feats of the world, the most expensive building ever built (estimate 14 billion dollars) and at who's dedication, 22,000 oxen and sheep without number were slain and sacrificed.

The world has always been better doing worldly things than the church, nations have always wanted to take off in a new direction...always studying but never learning the true values of freedom and liberty. Many nations thought they wanted Socialism until Anti-Christian Socialism took over. Many churches thought they wanted to win the world for Christ until the world took over the church

In one of the most Christian countries in the world, the Philippines, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, cradle Catholics, enslaved a decent people. Holding onto the church with one hand, the world with the other, they ruled desperately with greed and pride. While most of the people in the Philippines were starving and naked, at Ferdinand's death, Imelda left 1,220 pairs of shoes behind in the presidential palace. In the New York City townhouse where she sought refuge, one floor of the townhouse was a large disco with mirrors, revolving lights, where she would dance for hours at a time. The Marcos, Chicago's Reverend Wright, some of the world's pedophile Catholic priests, the Doge's Popes, even some of my country, fundamental, Baptist family members, have a “Jelabiya” of religiosity, a cloak of professed faith, a religion without possession, un-sustained by obedience.

In David Roeckefeller's 1978 Memoirs, his biography, on page 405, he lets us know that most of us are just slaves, slaves to a veneer of just hanging on to a depleted belief system.