Loveland

From 1799 to 1892, even the Supreme Court of the United States declared this nation a Christian nation. Even when two Jews of the FDR cabinet interceded with the President about the Jewish holocaust in Germany (Henry Morgenthau Jr and Ms. Cordelle Hull), Roosevelt reportedly said, “this is a Christian nation and we will not interfere with Mr. Hitler and the Jews.” If this is a Christian nation, and since God is love (1 John 4:8) the United States of America could be called “Loveland”.

There is a town called Loveland in Colorado, 50 miles north of Denver. Like most towns, they have an art gallery, and since most art galleries are very liberal in their thinking, the decided to display some pornography. The work of a Stanford University artist, Enrique Chagoya, was displayed, showing Jesus Christ in a sex act. There were not any men in the Loveland area who had the heart to correct the situation, so a 56-year-old Montana woman, a truck driver, Kathleen Folden, came in and corrected the situation with her crowbar. I know no tool more efficient than the crowbar. Of course, Kathleen was arrested, was released last night, and now faces two years in prison when she goes to trial. Her words were, when she took matters into her own hands, “how can you desecrate my Lord?” If Kathleen corrects everyone who desecrates our blessed Lord, she has a job on her hands. From the pulpit, to the backyard barbecue pit, the first words out of the drunk's mouth, “Oh my God!” Just imagine those in the pews being so uninformed that they would listen to a lesbian, same-sex marriage preacher in the pulpit.

In my book, the greatest hero of life is the mother of a special needs child, I have known several, children not only with a physical deformity, but more acute, a deformity of the mind. It is a strain on the father, but only the mother, and God, knows what she goes through everyday of her life. I have found that the other children of a special needs brother or sister, have a very special love for their mother because they have seen her love for that child. Her devotion, which is all the child has.

Adrian was such a child, when his mother brought him to me, he was about 10 years of age, the second time he had ever been into town. Adrian's mother expressed her concern for him: no place for him in the public school, no money for private education, “I just believe he has a talent which he wants to express; with colored pencils, and even crayons, he draws like and accomplished artist, it just seems that his eyes are not working correctly, and I don't know if you can examine him because he cannot read.“ I said, “oh yes, I can be very accurate with a retinascope.” After Adrian and I became friends, I examined him very carefully and found that he was very hyperoptic with amblyopia.

The new prescription I put on him, he would not allow anyone to take off, because he could see for once in his life, the world had opened up for him (Only one who cannot see, as is the case now with this writer, could possible understand the exasperation of blindness or low vision). His mother had brought me some of his artwork. She said, “he will sit and draw all day. Do you have any pictures from your travels that he can copy?” In an old house I had purchased, I had found some old National Geographic magazines from more than 50 years ago, in them, I found some marvelous pictures of animals. He particularly enjoyed drawing animals, because of his mathematical limitations he had trouble with lines, particularly buildings, however, he seemed to capture everything about animal life, he drew for me a copy of an enlargement from a photograph I had made in Sri Lanka, of some elephants. I really prized this artwork, had it framed. Of course, like so many of my prized possessions, normal, sighted people have stolen them out of my house, people I was paying to help me.

Speaking of theft, even the theft from a blind person by a sighted person, one female, Sheree, was hired to type for me. The entire lower floor of my house is devoted to my business activities, she volunteered to do some cleaning in my kitchen, I should have known that she had an ulterior motive. No one can believe, and we are still trying to estimate, how much she took to the front door of my house, which her husband put in her car.

Along with all our other learning, some way, at the school house, the church house, the court house, people must learn that in this Loveland of opportunity, that everyone including the disabled, there are consequences for actions. There is a consequence for an artist displaying pornography, especially pornography involving the Creator of the universe. If this had been a Muslim county, this artist's head would be on the chopping block. Kathleen must learn that she cannot take things into her own hands, that even though other Christians admire her actions, just as people admire our Lord's actions when he threw the moneychangers out of the temple, we must be willing to live with the consequences of our actions.

We will never understand why God put such limitations on Adrian, and yet allowed a woman, with other type limitations, to rob me, a person of my limitations. Nor will we ever understand some of the people who saw Sheree driving for me, knowing that she was in my house, did not say something to me about her tattoos, her piercings, her reputation, so that I would limit her employment. Not being able to see her, not being able to investigate as thoroughly as I should and could, for her, it was like robbing a candy store with a blind owner.

In this day when human depravity is more on display than ever before, when there is racketeering, not only in the private sector, but more so in government, the words of our Lord, spoken on a hill beside the Sea of Galilee, become much more understandable, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). In Loveland, North America, where so many handicapped, disabled people are nurtured by God and those who love them, we get a glimpse of the purity of heart. In Loveland, Colorado, we get a glimpse of the purity of heart from a woman whose heart permitted her to use a crowbar, and almost everyday, in every way, we see what evil in the heart can do to people and countries.