Plow Handles

Elisha, successor to Elijah as prophet of Israel, was plowing in a field with twelve yoke of oxen when God called him to succeed Elijah. The mantle fell on Elisha and he did not hesitate in his calling. The oxen were killed and cooked, the plow was destroyed, Elisha was serious in his calling (1 Kings 19).

Over my long, eventful life I have known many good friends, but not one did I admire more than Dr. W. Burkette Raper. Newly discharged from the Korean War, in practice near Mount Olive, Burkette asked me to speak to the student body when the college, in its infancy, was located in an old public school building. I believe Dr. Raper was familiar with the history of my family (early colonial Free Will Baptists arriving in North Carolina from Morristown, New Jersey), but I think the thing that united our thoughts quicker than anything else, was our mutual affection for Dr. James Evans, the fact that Burkette was reared on the Free Will Baptist orphanage farm at Middlesex, and I was raised on family farms in Wayne County. We had both plowed mules, Dr. Raper told me the names of the mules at the orphanage: Mary and Pearl. We both knew the feel of plow handles, we both knew commitment to our blessed Lord, having put our hands to the plow handles, we had not turned back. (Luke 9:62)

Burkette's greatest wealth, next to his faith, was his remarkable wife, Rose. Knowing that I did not “get out” very much because of my sightless condition, they would come down for a visit, always bringing some of Rose's home cooking. I tried to reciprocate by giving them things which I valued from my home and family: a cake pan from my great grandmother, silver, creamer and sugar. I said, “now, don't put this on a shelf somewhere, use it on your table every day and think of me.”

Matron of the boy's dormitory, my aunt (Louetta Sullivan Morris) before her death, reminded me that Burkette assisted had her in getting lice off the heads of the orphan boys. Another aunt (Helen Pittman Tyson), my mother's sister, secretary to the orphanage, reminded me of Burkette's remarkable politeness.

Burkette's entire life revolved around education, from his own marvelous education at Duke University to his long tenure at Mount Olive College. I honored him with a special financial gift to the college when he retired, having served as college president longer than any other college president in America.

Sitting in my living room, I remember as if it were yesterday, him saying, “I am so glad that I have given my life to Christian education.” We both knew why the college, the jewel of the denomination had so prospered, it was because of the hearts and minds of the people of the Free Will Baptist denomination. Those of us with familiar with country and city churches understand.

In my long life of church activity, mostly large city churches, it was easy for an old blind man to get knocked down by “city Baptists” rushing out the front door to get in line at the cafeteria. In our country churches, men and women, boys and girls, regardless of age, status in the community or anything else always lingered...visiting, talking, continuing the worship service in the church yard which I believe our blessed Lord really loved because He so wants those who claim His name to love one another, to have time for one another.

Our Lord came to set the captives free. More captives of the world, the flesh, the devil have been set free by those who demonstrate the saving grace of our Lord, than by pulpiteers.

Burkette and I discussed many things, we both knew that those of us saved by the grace of God are born twice and die once. Those who are lost are born once, and die twice. We both knew that the more you read the Bible, the more you discover that life is hard. God did not promise us a bed of ease, only eternal life. Perhaps some time, we will know why it was necessary for him to spend so much time in an orphanage, and for me to spend so much time sightless. God is boss, and it is left up to us to trust.

From the time of the conjugal embrace, egg and sperm uniting, the child of God's love, born, living until death, clings to the precious promises made in the council chambers of eternity. Burkette knew he was chosen to love and lead young people in their college careers.

He told me that the only time he ever had enough food at the orphanage was at Thanksgiving and Christmas. He told me how much he enjoyed peanuts left in peanut hay, hay which one Free Will Baptist farmer gave to the orphanage. I am sure to the very last, as he told me in our very last conversation, he knew that from his own beloved family, his friends, he had been blessed. Writer C.S. Lewis said, “we always learn goodness from good people.” Now, good people will replace Burkette's hands on the plough as they attempt to follow his spirit in the local church and certainly at a fine, Christian college.

Smoke and Mirrors

I don't know how many thousands of times that I have made this statement: “only the blind understand blindness.” When I came back from the war (I am a totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected, medical officer veteran of the Korean conflict), God was good enough to lend me enough vision in one eye to drive, to travel, to practice for awhile. After I had to give it all up, I am convinced that He wanted me to see the world. I was stupid enough to believe that others would be interested in my travels through every continent (8 round-the-world trips, passport stamped in 157 countries). I have found over the years, that very few people are interested in anything except themselves, certainly not interested in my travels around the world...not even members of my own family.

One time I asked one my drivers, “have you ever heard members of my family speak of my blindness, my courage in continuing to fight the battles of life, buying and selling on the stock market, so that even in my condition, I was a millionaire by the time I was 40 years of age.” He said, “they never talk about anything of any importance, not even your many activities for God.”

At least for the benefit of my two very fine grandsons, I am leaving a record of my travels, and experiences in business and God's work. I wish I could remember and relate every anecdotal experience, especially those pertaining to my interest in healthcare around the world. Many things, of course, were described to me by my “seeing eye” driver or guide. I will never forget the first African hospital I saw, where the patients were laying on mats, their families outside in little clumps, cooking and then caring for them.

I was in a hospital in Botswana, one of the larger hospitals in the country. In the large nursery, newborn and sick babies were in small cribs, naked, laying in their own excrement, flies everywhere. I said to the woman who was supposedly in charge, “why don't you put diapers on these children, clean them up? There is no way they are going to survive in this filth.” She said, “we are accustomed to very few surviving, if I diaper a child, I spend all my time changing diapers. Doctor, you are not in a world of make-believe. You are now seeing the realism of survival.”

Blind, old, still living alone and taking care of myself. I often wake up at night and weep about things that are going on in this world, to which I was exposed, to which God only wants me to pray, things about which the average person has no concept. Of course, there is much misery going on around me here in this town, even in the wealthiest country in the world.

I have four radios next to my bed, they stay on all the time I am in the bed, including a short-wave radio and I keep up with news around the world. I have been particularly interested in the so-called “kicking the can”, losing our AAA credit rating, bankruptcy fiasco, going on with the crooks in Washington. Because of scare tactics, state-controlled news media, another $2 trillion for Obama to “piss away”, you taxpayers are paying your taxes to rebuild mosques in Egypt, and finance a new public relations campaign to build up Obama in Israel.

Senator Coburn, M.D. like some others in Washington who actually have morals and intelligence has identified more than $3 billion in mismanagement at the National Science Foundation. I can't list everything, but such foolishness as testing sick shrimp's metabolism via a treadmill, or Jello wrestling in the Antarctic.

I was born in poverty, and only by the grace of God, hard-working parents, my God-given mental ability and desire to succeed by both working and studying, was I able to accomplish what very few have done. I take no credit for anything, all credit goes to our blessed Lord, but I remember that when I graduated $10,000/yr was a large salary for an emergency room doctor. There is no reason for me to lie about anything, because God expects truth. I was paid $2 to examine a welfare patient and the paper work for this examination would choke a large horse.

This week, we were told that a Florida man pleaded guilty to participating in two separate fraud schemes that led to the submission of more than $200 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. In Detroit, Federal prosecutors have charged more than two dozen people, including twelve pharmacists and four physicians, with participating in a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid of nearly $60 million in fraudulent prescriptions. It seems that bureaucrats, federal, state, and local, have a xenophobia, so afraid to investigate fellow human beings. It goes on everywhere in government...SEC, FDA, etc. Reportedly, $9 billion just disappeared, no trace, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even the military, more mercenaries (contract labor), builders, fighters, etc. are used in the military now than uniformed service people.

There was a time when the military veteran was an honored member of the community, when a decorated veteran entered a room, people would stand, when a speaker was introduced, he was presented as a Christian which was a word of honor. A Godless news media, such as Rachael Maddow and Chris Matthews (a flaming gay liberal while a student at Chapel Hill), have degraded the word “Christian”. A complacent, arrogant citizenry knows nothing of veterans or military service. Always on special holidays, I wear my veteran's cap with all the insignias and rank of my service. One young boy said to his mother, “look at that old man with the funny hat.” Thank God all are not so ignorant, scout units in this town where I live always put flags on the graves of fallen veterans.

The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1) Is America's destiny to go the way of Russia and China? We have already gone the way of Sodom and Gomorrah. There were 28 churches in Vladivostok before Communism, they were all destroyed. Before 1900, Russian women had an average of seven children; today, Russian women, like Chinese women, abort almost every baby, the average is now less than one. The few babies that survive in Russia are found on the street. When I was in the Balkins, mothers were paid to have babies, there had been so many abortions under Communism. In Russia, the death rate is exceeding the birth rate, women are paid $10,000 to have a second child. God keeps perfect records, the 53 million abortions in America since 1973...the abomination of same-sex marriage, the abomination of Obama. Every Democrat, every person who has cast his lot with Obama and his ilk will pay a price. It is all not just smoke and mirrors. The eyes of God penetrate the haze.

Pulpit Bible

As I have discussed in many commentaries, I paid a large part of my way through eight years of university professional education selling Bibles door-to-door during the summer months. During the school year, I worked a variety of jobs at night (selling cemetery lots, cooking ware, etc.) so that I could attend classes during the day. The summer work, covering every pig path in eastern North Carolina, selling the most marvelous Book in the world to people who made a pretension of wanting it, but in all probability never opened most of its pages, was the hardest work a young man can encounter. This work was an education in itself because it taught me to deal on a one-to-one basis with human beings of every type and tribe...white/black, wealthy/poor, somewhat educated or desperately ignorant. Of course, the object of my work was to make money for my education (one of my relatives even accused me of profiteering on God's Word; of course, she was lost and died in her sins, never knew the reality of hard work or the reality of selling a Book with the ability to totally transform a life).

I wish I had kept a journal of my experiences. Thinking back 60 years, so many wonderful stories have been lost with time. This was before the time of social services, welfare checks, social security checks (if any, very small). Everyone knew the honor of work, and the Christians, regardless of their meager living, knew the glory of giving. The way that the summer Southwestern Company Bible sales worked, you spent the entire summer covering a certain territory, usually several counties, taking orders, with a deposit if possible, and then at the end of the summer you made your rounds again, delivering the books and collecting for them. Of course, I remember very well, and if I could see, I believe I could take you right to the crossroads and the house, Whatha, NC, where my first sale was made. They did not have the money for the Bible when I returned with it. In other words, I was a failure with my first sale, but thank God, there were many sales, and I was top salesman for the company.

The pulpit Bible differed from the large family Bible in that the pulpit Bible did not have family records pages in the center between the Old and New testament, and the pulpit Bible had gold edges. A pulpit Bible sold for a few dollars more than the large family Bible.

I do remember, one older black lady wanted to purchase a pulpit Bible for her church. She only made $15 a week, and the Bible sold for $26, so she said, “I will have to save $4 a week from my pay.” She worked as a housekeeper in a local town. She said, “I will just do without some other things because I intend for my blessed church to have a pulpit Bible.”

I mailed out cards ahead of time, telling each customer which day I would arrive with their purchase. On the day I was to deliver the pulpit Bible to this remarkable lady, I had trouble with my 1941 Plymouth. I was late getting there, in fact, it was already dark. If I could see, I believe I could take you to this house this very day, up a path between Jacksonville and Rich Lands, NC. Late as it was, she was sitting on the front porch waiting for me with her money. So happy to see me, she said, “this Bible will be a blessing to my church.”

Now, this brings me to my real reason for this commentary. If I were an unbeliever, an atheist, I would try to be honest about it. I get so tired of pretenders...those who sit on church pews, sing the old hymns, listen to pastors pray and preach, their hearts hardening and their souls becoming more responsible for their own hypocrisy every time they enter a place of worship. One woman told me, “I go to church just because there might be something to it.” Does she not realize that she is just wasting her time, who does she think she is fooling? One black preacher, Reverend Jackson, sitting in my living room, said to me, “before I was saved, I was a first-class sinner. Since I have been saved, I am trying to be a first-class Christian.” I believe he had it about right, we are supposed to be transformed. (Romans 12:2)

40 million Americans suffer from anxiety brought on, I believe, from appeasement and adversarial ambiguity. Wickedness/sin separates you from your Creator, repentance and infilling of the Holy Spirit of God is the only way you can be cleansed. You must depend on the Holy Spirit within you. Television and technology has so hypnotized most people that they have forsaken God's Spirit within them. Our entire nation is being destroyed by the spirit of Satan.

If I were an atheist, I would base the nonsense of my unbelief on the uneven playing field, the disparity between people. It should be easy for the healthy, wealthy, wise to live the Christian life. Try living the wanton existence of this black lady giving up so much of her meager income just to buy a pulpit Bible for her church. Try living the life of the disabled: blind, crippled, or of lesser mental ability. We hear so much about unfairness, inequality. Our blessed Lord walked this earth at the most politically oppressive/destitute/corrupt time in history, no power as decadent as the Romans, no church as hypocritical as the Pharisees, even Herod attended temple (just as today some of the most immoral crooked politicians go to church like Jim Hunt or Barack Obama). The early Christians had no Bible, no buildings, no training facilities for workers, all they knew was the Resurrection of a man called Jesus. When you think of the hypocrites in your church, when you have doubts and fears, when you have sickness troubles and trials, think about Paul. When you cannot find a Christian, think about Paul. When you need a need a reason for your witness, think about Paul. That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death (Philippians 3:10)

Disconnect

The history of human civilization has been determined more by water and waterways than anything else. The political geographer knows that it is on the great bays and harbors of the world that you find the greatest cities (Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York, etc.). Transportation necessitated the building of cities at important bends in rivers. You can put a dam in a great river, build up the water behind the dam, mile after mile, keep extending the dam, but eventually, with enough water from glaciers, et cetera, the water will go over or around the dam.

You can only keep people in ignorance for just so long, eventually knowledge will spill over. Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18) History has told us that man eventually learns the laws of nature. A country only 235 years old, we Americans are obviously slow learners. Frightened, stupid people do stupid things. After the “supposed” terrorist attack of 9/11, the Congress in an unprecedented 100 to 0 vote presented almost all balance of power to the executive branch. Little did they realize that a politician was on the scene, someone totally unknown, totally unequipped, totally everything that common sense would avoid, who had enough charisma to attract uninformed voters. Like his social security card, issued to a Connecticut man in 1890, like his forged birth certificate, like his lying about his mother's inability to get health insurance, like the inability of trained investigators to find anything about his scholastic records, he is the one with one hand on the wheel of the state, his other hand on the nuclear button which could decimate the world.

Weather conditions alone gives world citizens enough reason for alarm, unprecedented flooding in Australia and Pakistan, unprecedented earthquakes in Japan , New Zealand, Chile, and Haiti, the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the disaster with volcanoes in Iceland, extreme cold and heat, not only in Europe and Russia, but in America.

Just this weekend we hear about another earthquake in Japan, these unprecedented earthquakes have brought the once second-largest world power to its knees. We hear about famine in Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and other African countries. We forget that with the radiation from the nuclear disaster in Japan and other climate despair in this country, famine CAN cover the earth. Remember, 9 million Americans died from hunger during the Great Depression, and at that time 90% of the population lived on farms! When we go to the grocery stores and see the shelves full, we bask in our own confidence. In a national emergency, it takes only 3 days for all the shelves to empty, no delivery trucks on the highways, no gasoline, electricity, water, communication.

We think we have the world by the tail, “God don't bother us, we have the government.” Such supercilious, God-disparaging acts as same-sex marriage, recently legislated in New York state (really, two old women, ages 75 and 85, marrying one another!), the holocaust of the killing of the unborn, manipulation of the stock market for the benefit of the Congress (during the ridiculous travesty of “debt” questions), marking up then down, benefiting the portfolios of Democrats (last year increasing their net worth 750%). Are Americans too stupid to see the disconnect?

Love is a choice. Don't insult God by pretending to love Him...don't you know that the omnipotence of the One who threw the stars into space, knows the difference? Those of the same sex, regardless of age, know the difference between love and lust. It is inevitable that laws absurd enough to recognize same-sex marriage, group marriage, or even human-animal marriage.

Nothing could make Satan happier than to see human beings become slaves of science, and slaves of their own indulgence in lusts. Much of the knowledge of the world has been stolen. How well I remember the vault at the Wilson library in the University of North Carolina. I said nothing, I needed a job, but I remember the gay librarian giving the key to the library vault to one of his younger, cute conquests to plunder and cart off valuable manuscripts and books. I understand that this happens across the country, particularly in federal agencies.

Bill Clinton was not the first person to open top secret doors to the Chinese and the Russians. It is much easier for our enemies to steal research than to work for it themselves. Like so many other things that go on in our democracy, no one seems to care. Every republic in history has died from within, the rot always comes from two weaknesses: sex or money. Samson was great until Delilah gave him a “cropped” haircut, the fields had a plentiful harvest until 300 foxes, their tails on fire, wiped out the crops.

Wall Street is like a long rope, on one end there is “greed”, on the other end: “fear”. The securities market, in spite of Bernie Maydoff or even Martha Stewart, has been the launching pad for the poorest entrepreneur, giving hope to the smallest investor, but the greed of the “fat cats” and the fear resulting from the manipulation of the stealthy political manipulators, fear has become a blood-sucking vampire. Once, the careful, informed investor could expect a decent return, whether security or real estate. Now, the incongruent decadence of Wall Street has become a casino/gambling “high-stakes” experience. Combined with the unexpecteds and the uncontrolled partisan politics in Washington, such communist variables and vexations of Obama and his ilk, the investor seeks recourse under his mattress, probably the safest place to invest.

Try as you might, fool yourself if you can, within in the inner sanctum of your own mental-moral reality, you cannot disconnect black from white, right from wrong. Even the most desperate atheist with his natural law of conscience, even if he has never experienced the blessedness of the Holy Spirit of God, recognizes and realizes the differences between good and evil.

Why?

Dr. Ross,

This letter to you is written as a blog, online, going around the world. The letter is not the 1297 Magna Carta, but should be important to you. If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I still would not fear writing it.

The happiest days of my life were spent as a student at Chapel Hill. In my 81^st year, looking back, I remember Dr. Frank Graham at his Methodist church telling me, “you are what the university was built for.” Since I was Baptist, I normally sat with Dr. J.T. Dobbins at the Baptist church, on the corner of Franklin St.

Since the Korean War, I have been a totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected, medical officer veteran. As a veteran, I have encountered every insult your country can offer. One of the finest physicians I have ever known, Dr. Charles Beauchampf at Durham VA, wept as he told me of the treatment of young warriors returning from (then present) wars. Some day, God will explain many things to me, such as why this university here in Wilmington has become totally communist. One young man working for me, along with his wife, both students, left town after attending a performance at Thalian Hall where they recognized women professors, two lesbians, dressed as men, making out and causing a scene.

Although born in poverty on an eastern NC tobacco farm, I have the paperwork which traces my family to the first farm survey of Morristown, New Jersey, made in 1766 by the surveyor Adjoniah Peacock, who manufactured weapons for the Revolution. My folks were just dirt farmers, my father farmed, built houses and cut hair on the weekends so that his four children could attend college. I graduated from a country school with 13 students, right near the school that Governor Charles B. Aycock had attended with my two grandfathers. The county superintendent made sure I went to Chapel Hill.

I took advantage of everything the university had to offer. I heard Eleanor Roosevelt at Memorial Hall, say, “the individual is all that matters.” You can check with my lawyers, I am still leaving a chunk of my wealth to the university, but I will never forgive, nor forget, my attempt to get one of my cousins into the university.

I knew Erskine Bowles' father, Skipper. He wanted me to go to Chapel Hill and walk around with him and let him try to explain to me. My cousin, like me, was from a dirt-poor family, his grandparents had named him for Kay Keyser of Chapel Hill. His name, Kay Eldridge Pittman. I wrote to Chancellor House, Guy Phillips, W.C. George, Walter Spearman, all professors and men who I felt knew me. Still, Chancellor House would not admit my cousin who, like me, needed financial help. Anyway, he distinguished himself in the military and college, retired as an esteemed government worker, and is of great pride to his community.

I missed much, because at Chapel Hill and later in professional school in Memphis, I worked at night, but you should know that during those 8 years I sold Bibles door-to-door each summer, covering every pig path in eastern North Carolina. One day, a black grandmother, looking towards her black grandchildren, said to me, “son, what future do my grandchildren have?” At least, my cousin and I, with genes from early colonial families, could go to college.

In spite of things which you “normal” people will never understand, I have enjoyed the success of investing and being philanthropic in several places, particularly Mount Olive College and ministries supporting the God to which I am totally committed. You may have never heard this song, but you should, because in these days, we all need an answer. My passport has been stamped in 157 countries, and I realize that no one cares, but I have sought the answer. Ed Ames, asked “Who Will Answer?” (Song attached below)

At my age, still working every day, living alone, taking care of myself completely (I have one son, a Ph.D professor at Southwestern Seminary, two grandsons; a lawyer and an engineer, all university graduates and SBC missionaries to South Korea) Forsaken by my country, putting cement blocks behind my doors at night, I often contemplated suicide while in this cocoon of blackness for over 50 years, but God does not test a men when everything goes well, but only when things go bad. He has been too good to me to disappoint Him now. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

I have every promise that He has given those who love Him. Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. (Deuteronomy 31:6) I have the assurance of knowing that those who have forsaken me and others like me, even our lying, decadent government, will receive what is coming to them. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. (Isaiah 3:10-11)

The largest minority are the disabled, larger than any other minority, and you will note that I have left funds for disabled students. The great preacher John Wesley, one of 19 children, after he had traveled the world, after he had done all he was capable of doing, just before his death, said ”the best is yet to come.”

The Talking Dog

One of my friends recently died, he was everything that I am not. Firstly, he was sighted. He was married with a wonderful family and had enjoyed a most rewarding business life. Unlike me, who was born in poverty; he had been born to a family of wealth and position. I don't suppose he had ever lacked or wanted for anything. As a child, his parents sent him to a private school, went on wonderful vacations. He had his choice of prestigious colleges because not only was he financially able to pick out the one he wanted to attend, he had the grades and the intelligence to move through with flying colors, and yet at the same time enjoy all the social advantages that a prestigious university provides: beautiful car, fashionable clothes, eating out in fancy restaurants (he once told me that he had smoked salmon at least once a week) and enjoying all the merriment which fraternity and sorority houses provided. He was good looking, well-built, charismatic, one of those rare people who it is a pleasure to know. In college, he had the time and talent for intramural sports, and played golf every week. Unlike most of us who worked our way through school, money was his least concern, his parents replenished his bank account regularly. He partied at the best homes in the state, the best country clubs, even the governor's mansion.

He had captured the most eligible débutante, and because of his connections, his business flourished. He and his wife could walk into any place of power and prestige in the capitol city and everyone was immediately aware of their presence. Yet, as pretentious in commerce, politics, finance; he was just as pretentious with the church. Heaven had no attraction to him because he enjoyed everything the human mind could desire here on earth. I do not know the condition of his soul, but like so many in his status, he attended church only when it was convenient. Please God, is that all that is necessary in life, where the playing field is so uneven? Totally unexpected, he died, and none of his money, none of his power, none of his prestige could do one thing. A great charismatic, wealthy, magnificent man was just as dead as the most insignificant man who has ever lived.

It is all a matter of concept, like a bouncing red ball, is it the sponge of the ball, the redness of the ball, the curvature of the ball; which characteristic is most important in making the ball what it is?

The earliest, most primitive, most mentally deprived caveman would not be able to comprehend the events of this world at the present time. In the 21^st century, our lives are colored and controlled by advertising, several just infuriate me, for instance, “the talking dog”. The caveman would surely say that if it is natural for two men or two women to marry, why not a man with an animal? All the animal, such as the dog, would have to say is, “I love you.”

Having totally traveled the world, I can safely say that one of God's most beautiful spots are the fjords of Norway. Norway, a country that has forgotten God, where the churches are museums, the gargoyles on these ancient churches frown and laugh at earth's demons. These liberal, socialist, secular people thought they could laugh and frown at God, I wonder to whom they were praying at their memorial service in the great cathedral in Oslo (which I have attended) for the hundreds killed by one killer.

Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year old supposed conservative, stated that he wanted to save Norway and Western Europe from dangerous people, Muslims, taking over. He admits to the killing, using explosive-type ammunition. Even if he is convicted of the killing of the hundreds of his fellow citizens, because of liberal God-less politics of Norway he can only receive a maximum of 21 years in prison.

America, its churches, seminaries, programs of ministries, in the main, are moving toward a Norway-type agnosticism, using a “seeker-friendly” approach to the gay agenda. Republicans, its Log Cabin group, like the mega Willow Creek church no longer assists Exodus in their Christian program involving homosexuals, rather, “the more the merrier”. Can we understand why, at one time when homosexuality was considered a psychological disease, every group, every government agency is so politically correct, afraid they might offend someone. The caveman would say, “are these people insane?”

There are mysteries we will never understand, Christ, Son of God, yet a real life human male living on this earth. The trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A spiritual mystery, a dead person laying in a casket appearing as we knew the person, here on earth. Yet, the soul, without mass, weight, identification...the very thing that made the person in the casket who that person was: personality, ability, is no longer there, not dead like the body, but more alive than ever.

God, Creator of the universe, Creator of every person who has ever lived, distinct in every way, has well described all these things, yet the cave man would be amazed to learn that the average person, believer or not, has never spent one day attempting unravel these mysteries. He'd be amazed to know that there are actually those who profess to believe in the existence of almighty God, who know nothing about God. It has been determined that 99% of all those who sit on a pew in a house of worship cannot explain their faith, their reason for being there.

To the uninitiated, everything is obscure. The uninitiated caveman would ask why a blessed, powerful country such as America would visit warfare on many fronts against innocent fellow human beings. Why, in South America and Africa, 60% of all women are critically abused by men, leaving their children on the streets as orphans. How and why, $9.5 billion sent on planes to the middle East, taxes on hard-working, God-fearing, taxpaying people, just disappears. No trace. He would never understand how or why a man such as Obama would be living in the White House, the world's greatest military and economic power. A man who could not prove his citizenship who could not even take the oath of office as commander in chief of the military (those of us commissioned as military officer; me, a medical officer, produced hundreds of copies of transcripts, board certifications, etc. Obama has never produced anything except a forged birth certificate). When everything happening is considered, a talking dog is not a rare phenomenon.

Polystrate

Difficult for the evolutionist to comprehend: polystrate fossils, fossils from certain periods that are not aligned with time and space expectations, found in different geological strata. In other words, the oldest and the newest are backwards, such as is described in Orwell's 1984 when everything on earth was backwards, much as today, bad means good, black means white, and the clock is striking thirteen.

The human brain is the most complex structure in the universe...100 billion cells, millions of neurons, each neuron with the equivalent storage capacity of the the most expensive modern desktop computer. It would take over 3000 years to use your brain's entire capacity. We only use about 8% of our brain's potential, but we all know people who do not even begin to use that much!

This is one of the many reasons I will never understand and so despise those who kill the greatest of God's creation in the holocaust of abortion. I will never understand how any sane individual could support same-sex marriage when any sane person knows that the only method of reproduction, for homo sapiens or other fauna, is the uniting of the reproductive ability of male and female.

This is also the reason this writer will never comprehend, or even treat decently, those who belong to a political ideology and party such as the Democrats, who support such ignorance and insanity. The killing of the most innocent of life, the precious child, is unforgivable and our blessed Lord assures us that those who kill the unborn and abuse the young will get their just reward. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:6). I do not want anyone to tell me that they are Christian and a Democrat.

In Greek, the word “witness” means martyr. We do not sit in judgment, we are not the police of the world, but we do have the evidence supporting our faith and we do not mind being witnesses, martyrs of that faith.

For most of my life, I have been an antiquarian, rare book collector. Recently, I came across Dr. J. T. Dobbin's textbook on analytical chemistry. This was my text in analytical chemistry as a chemistry student. How well I remember Dr. J.T. Dobbins, always in his pew at the First Baptist Church, Chapel Hill. How well I remember the “unknowns” in analytical chemistry, the determination of elements by color. When God constructed His perfect earth, His perfect universe, every element we will ever need was put here. Among the absolutes of the earth, each element has its own atomic weight, used in molecular formulas for scientific calculation. Each element has its own specific color spectrum, when you put a log in the fire, you are observing God's greatest scientific evidence, for your spiritual/physical enjoyment. In analytical chemistry, I was given certain unknown elements, you determined the identity of the elements by weight and by color. 6000 years later, in spite of the doubts, fears, questions from the quislings of so-called scientists and the scientific method, the absolutes of nature remain the same.

All of acts of sin and betrayal begin with the imagination, whether in areas of science or behavior. Sexual sins start with imagination just as the attempt to “evolutionize” the universe starts with the imaginings from the minds of men. These phony, puny pests of intellectualism want so desperately to find some evidence, fossilized or new, to make God's work week a hoax.

Satan always pay off in counterfeit, physically or mentally. So many young women, who were living with a man, unmarried, have told me that this very man to whom they have given themselves had told her that she was not good enough to marry. Such mental gymnastics account for the destruction of our world. Prisons are full of people who could have become saints. The apostle Paul was the most outstanding bigot the world has ever known. We want to change the nature of God...all born with so much potential.

On the great plains of the Kalahari in Africa, at the time I had a small amount of vision, I watched a great mother eagle teach her young eaglets to fly. “Love is a many splendored thing” (Francis Thompson), and even the mother bird has enough love for her young that she knows when to empty the nest, as the young eaglet fell from the nest, the mother would swoop down, catch the young bird with her great wings, soar upwards and then drop the bird again. Slowly, the young eaglet began to use its own wings.

We now understand why the eagle is on our national emblem. Those 56 forefathers wrote our about our independence, but we are all very dependent on God. The problem is, we have too many “smart people” who think they have the greater wisdom...thinking God should follow them instead of them following and believing on the eternal truths of God.

There is value in every man, some good in the worst of us, some evil in the best of us. Christ recognized some good in one thief hanging on a cross. Pity that those who for a few days had honored Him, had chosen Barabbas, who was back robbing on the street.

The impervious identity of it all, then until now. Like Legion of the Gadarenes, crazy, naked, living in the tomb, broken chains; knowing Christ, sane, clothed, wanting to go with him. The people of the city, instead of rejoicing with what Christ can do with people, the miracles of our blessed Lord, through God, wanted Christ to just leave and leave them alone. They, like us, prefer insanity. (Mark 5)

On the streets of London, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army wore a sandwich sign which read on one side: “I am a fool for Jesus”, the other side: “Who's fool are you?” A slave, Simon, from a place in Africa called Syrene, first carried our Lord's cross. Are we fools enough to carry His cross?

Black Hole

When speaking of black holes, the 21^st century person probably talks about the black hole of the universe, that region of space in the universe from which nothing, not even light, can escape. It is that vast area where there is neither time nor space, from this point of no return, the relativism, Darwinians/evolutionists believe that from a great explosion, the universe was formed. It is all conjecture, no one can prove anything, not even with the new, greater Hubble telescope.

From the frigid fantasy of such horrendous blackness, we understand the black hole of existence and its application to our lives. One of my great uncles, the brother of my grandfather, a land owning, hard-working, God-fearing, taxpaying Christian man of great reputation, had only one love in his life. In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, with so few roads and few methods of transportation, most courtships and marriages were among young people of local families. Cassie was his love from another side of my family, both were from well-known early colonial homes, but a young, dashing charismatic man was moved by the state's Roads department into the area. He immediately swept Cassie off of her feet. I still remember him, a dandy dresser, with a white boater hat (the same type hat often used by male dancers in vaudeville shows). I can still see him taking off that hat, tilting it to every woman he met.

After this man and Cassie married and moved on to Cassie's land, land that her family had left to her, they had one son, but I don't believe she ever had another happy day because her jaunting, flaunting husband was always chasing after other women. He was one of the first real womanizers I ever knew. Even when the two of them went to church, they would never go past the old family home where my uncle continued to live. My uncle in the black hole of despair/bitterness, was never interested in another woman, lived a long, lonely life. So resentful, so afraid that he would see her at the family church, the next time he was in the church was when he was rolled in, at his funeral.

I speak as a totally blind person in a cocoon of blackness. It is so easy for a disabled person, like a bitter person, to fall into the slough of despondency, the black hole of despair. One day, when I was in one of my buildings, a young man in a wheelchair called me into his office. He closed the door and said, “I want to talk to you for a while.” He said, “I always see you outside, with a white cane, getting around as a blind person. I know you are a veteran, I know you live alone. Do you think that most of these “normal” people with whom we come in contact everyday have a clue about what we encounter as disabled people?” He said, “I have a wife who drives me here to work everyday, but I know she has stayed with me all these years simply because I make a good living. She can barely tolerate my disability, the fact that we do not go out, socialize like other couples. I know for a fact that she is in her third adulterous relationship of our marriage, weeing a man whose wife is a mental cripple; the last one, until he tired of her, was a widower. What can I say? What can I do? I need her much more than she needs me, and besides, we have two teenage children” Most “normal” people have no understanding of the plight of the handicapped, in a wheelchair or blind, such a matter as going to the bathroom.

Martin Luther King said, “you must overcome oppression without become oppressive.” I lived at time when there was racial oppression. I well remember the oppressiveness, the despair of black people. It was not just a matter of black people. Believe it or not, we live in a country where many were oppressed, black and white, and not just in the south. One of my friends in New York City told me about how her niece would borrow her expensive fur coat to go shopping in Manhattan's better stores, she got very careful service if she had on an expensive fur coat! Can one even imagine the quandary of a young black mother, or the mother from a poor family, whose baby she had birthed, knowing full well that her baby would never have the opportunity which every human being should have in this country? The black hole of discrimination, separation has led to the faithlessness of many individuals.

One my best friends in the army, a black army medical officer, told me he would never forgive or forget his wonderful mother being referred to in the white community as a “black girl”. He could never forget how she was treated in the department stores...unable to try on apparel, even a hat which she loved to wear to church. He said, “my mother was a brilliant woman, cleaner and more ambitious than any of the white clerks who worked in the white stores.” We can well understand why the haze and cloud of distrust hangs over this once segregated country.

Think of the black hole of drug addiction. This week, Amy Winehouse supposedly killed herself with an overdose. This talented young woman was known for her addiction. Like John Belushi, Chris Farley, all about the age of 27, all having attained fame and fortune, just to fall into the black hole of addiction, and these are just the famous ones, there are many, many others...prisons full, rehabilitation centers full.

Think of the many who have fallen into the black hole, not of drug dependency, but welfare dependency. We now have several generations who are depending on the taxpaying public to support them. It has been estimated that a welfare family of four, taking advantage of every government social service subsidy, including food stamps, grants, section 8 housing, appropriations for learning problems, that the total would amount to around $75,000. The black hole of government largess, dependency for food, shelter, utilities, health and professional care.

Think of it, millions of your tax dollars spent on warfare, bringing misery to to people you do not know and who do not know you. Millions spent on homeland security, travel security (TSA), when there is a greater chance of your being struck by lightning than harmed by terrorists. The black hole of fears, government taunted and promoted, is gripping the American soul.

You cannot feel deeply unless you think deeply. Your deepest thoughts are those of your faith. You escape the black hole of fear, addictions, social problems via an all-comprehensive, all-compassionate faith. Martin Luther said that we should constantly be pushing the Gospel on ourselves.

Roach Motel

The most resilient life, able to adapt to any environment, the greatest distributor of microbiology, found throughout the world: the cockroach. Some species are several inches in length and can live for many days without food or water, their females continuously hatching offspring. From my study of parasitology, these pests are probably the most dangerous lifeforms in existence. One would think that with all the technological advances, with out chemical and biological expertise, such dangers to mankind would have been eliminated long ago.

We have no problem affecting the RU486 abortion pill which eliminates God's chief creation, babies. We have no problem with the technology that has almost eradicated the genetics involved in all seed production. The earliest forms of tobacco, like other herbs which you can inhale, were good for the lungs. According to the World Health Organization, lung disease is the greatest killer in the world, yet over 500 chemicals were added to tobacco, including benzene and arsenic, and tobacco became a killer. The most successful area of mind control in the world: the smoking of tobacco products. Anyone who has ever seen the autopsy, the lungs, of a tobacco smoker, anyone with knowledge about the growing of tobacco, (constant dusting and spraying with poisons to kill insects, the sticky stomata on the leaves holding fast the poison, the leaves then dried) would know that tobacco with its poisons and toxicity could not be good for anyone. Primitive civilizations used it, along with other herbs, medicinally.

As a young student at the university, I had to work. My first job was working in the university cafeteria, I have never forgotten the warehouse where the food for the cafeteria was stored. There were rats everywhere, one cannot comprehend so many rats. Rats, like cockroaches, urinate and defecate everywhere they move. There is nothing more poisonous than the defecation of cockroaches and rats, yet, think of it, a prestigious university staffed with highly intelligent people, a nation spending millions of dollars on public health projects and clinics, and still to this day, rats and cockroaches in places of commerce, and more maddening/sickening of all, thriving in the homes of citizens.

On my many trips through Asia, particularly China, where 66% of the people smoke cigarettes, I was shocked at the many smokers, their variety of cigarettes. They do not poison their tobacco, but they do put out poison to eradicate rats and cockroaches.

The poet William Cowper said, “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.” God must blush and snicker to watch the unexpected actions of His chief creation...consistent inconsistencies. We know that radiation causes cancer and yet continue to cling to radiation treatment for cancer treatment. We know that God's most prized creation, His most prized possession are children, yet we spit in His face by killing children and even glorifying same-sex marriage (marriage of those who cannot have children), marginalizing and putrefying the education and development of children. Only insane people would expose young, sensitive minds to putrid television. Only insane people would buy putrid food for a child's ingestion. Only insane people, knowing the consequences of hideous, sinful activity, prisons full of people convicted of such, would allow their most precious possessions, their children, to be exposed to such depravity anywhere.

We pray that God will forgive this country, the citizens of this world, those who know better, for such insanity. The greatest example of forgiveness: Christ and Peter. Catholics should cling to this truth, Peter so close to Christ, yet at the trial, as His Savior was being flogged, sat down with the accusers and warmed his hands by their fire and denied knowing Him. God always warns us, He used a rooster to warn Peter, true repentance to such sin, leads to much weeping, but on Resurrection morning, Christ said, “go tell my disciples, and tell Peter.” Why did He specify Peter? Such marvelous forgiveness is available to us.

In our brilliance, the roach motel, they go in and don't come out. So should it be with our living, our giving, using the sanity of being able to determine right from wrong. You go to poor people to hear purpose in prayer, you go to needful people, those who want to understand God's message, to hear purpose in prayer.

Barrel of Snakes

In 1948, the year that this writer graduated from high school, George Orwell wrote his famous book Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the book, Orwell describes how a government (and people) can have a virus of insanity: “up” means “down”, “black” means “white”.

It was after the Korean conflict, I was in the nation's capital, having been honored by the Army. Since I had lost most of my vision, a Congressional assistant walked me into the Senate chamber, thinking he might introduce me to at least one of my Senators, from the Senate gallery he said, “on the floor right now is Senator Kerr Scott, your former Governor, that man could fall through a barrel of fish hooks and never get scratched. Washington knows him for being that crooked, that slimy.” Of course, I remembered from when he was governor, the famous paper bags of $20 bills that were taken into his office and left there, if you expected any attention from him. I remembered his son, later governor, Bob Scott, and the same tales. His daughter (Commissioner of Agriculture) did not get by with the “crookedness” of her father and grandfather, she went to jail.

It is so easy to get attached to the treasure/idols of this world. You can be sure that someone will try to rob you. This very day, the latest scam, men calling, trying to speak English, attempting to get information about your banking or securities account. In the background of the boiler room, you can hear many voices on phones attempting to get the information required to hack your account. Hacking has become the most popular and profitable activity in the world's economy and news gathering operations. Wikileaks led the way, now everyone is involved for profit and promotion. Billionaire Rupert Murdoch and his son James are testifying before the British parliament, so scarce was the security that Murdoch's Chinese wife Wendi Deng had to protect him. One whistle-blower found murdered in England, but it seems to be of no significance to the police. Another, a woman, was found hanging naked from a balcony with her hands tied behind her back, two days after her son's death. The clueless police thought that it was suicide. According to Orwell's book, the clock is striking thirteen. The halls of our nations capital are filled with stock brokers dealing with politicians.

Democrats have had a gain of 750% in their stock portfolios, Republicans a gain of 168%. President Obama's net worth was $300,000 in 2004, $9 million in 2009. Tom Harkin, Senator from Iowa, was worth $2 million in 2004, $16 million in 2009. Nancy Pelosi's net worth has increased from $13 million to $124 million, she is now ranked 6^th in the House by net worth. Go to http://governmentgonewild.org/thelist and http://www.opensecrets.org/ to read more of our Congressional leaders' financial gains. Senators and congress people who make a salary of $174,000 a year, cannot wear $3,000 suits...their constituents wear suits bought from thrift stores. Politicians, like their fellow heathen idol worshipers, adhere to things that are sticky and shiny. As worthless as it is, fiat money really sticks to the hands of wrongdoers. It is so much easier to polish the apple, shine your charisma, than put in the hard work which God has always required of His disciples. 59% of the American people depend on incentives, retirement checks, subsidies of some sort.

The chief of police in West Point, New York retired and moved to this town into a house next to mine. Of course, I learned long ago that no one cares that I lost my eyesight serving in the military for this country. He said to me, and I will never forget the words, “you are such a fool, spending all that time in school, going to war for a country which despises you and will never do anything for you. I started out as a rookie policeman, writing tickets, kissing ass, and retired as chief. I get over $200,000 a year in retirement, you have already told me that you get practically nothing, still work everyday, and I see you stumbling around all the time. Every police officer, every civil service worker is retired at the height of their pay, taking into consideration sick leave, vacations, and bonuses. I am retired with better healthcare, better everything than you fools who thought you were serving your country.”

America has produced a defective crop of citizens, something for nothing. One woman was working for me, who had many problems at home, bills to pay, a child to raise. She said, “I need $500. I want this money from you, and if you do not give me the money I am going to accuse you of molesting me.” This has happened twice. When I laughed and told the two women to get out my house, one of them, Sandy Scott, picked up a book, threw it at me, hit me on the head and ran out. I called the police, and right after that call, one of my friends called me (Joe Pascal), evidently he had a premonition of something and he called the police also. In this town, even with murder, the police do nothing. In cases such as this, in cases of thievery (and I have many of those), in case of break-ins, the police do nothing except draw their nice paychecks and ride back and forth to their homes in cars for which our taxes pay.

Most of us work continuously/contagiously, like slaves in order to pay exorbitant taxes. At one Army hospital where I was on the staff, about once a year, the pharmacy cleansed its stock. As the pharmacy officer told me, “we throw away millions of dollars in drugs and other pharmacy products which could certainly be used.” He said, “one day the world will know what our blessed Lord was talking about when he called the deceiving Pharisees, who thought they were so religious and patriotic, snakes and vipers.” Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? (Matthew 23:33)

Dynia

In medical etymology, the earliest descriptive words pertaining to healthcare and disease have Greek origins. Your practitioner will use these superlatives in describing your condition, a word with -ology means “study of” (for instance, bacteriology, cardiology, etc.), a word with -itis means “inflammation” (for instance, conjunctivitis, bursitis, etc.), a word with -osis means “condition of” (for instance, osteoporosis, psychosis, etc.). A word with -dynia means “pain” (for instance, cephalodynia).

What is the need of going to school and learning to read, what is the need of having technology if you do not use such knowledge in your life? Your health, in spite of the stock market, real estate, silver and gold, is your greatest wealth. Your body has a tremendous ability to heal itself, your body has a tremendous ability to help you diagnose your problem, and no matter what has happened so far, you will have problems. Pain is the first warning of a problem.

The most accurate diagnostician must depend on subjective findings, what you tell him or her. In my lifetime, because of the progress of radiology, nanotechology etc., objective diagnosis is much improved. Have you noticed that when you go to your doctor now, he spends most of his time with his fingers on his computer, you are fortunate if he touches you at all. Unlike the old-fashioned doctor who felt that “laying on of hands” was not only an accurate diagnostic measure, but who had sense enough to know that it gave much assurance and healing to the patient. Any patient in my presence was touched, just a squeeze to their hand assured them that things were under control. These silly frilly young practitioners, running from one exam room to the other depending just on laboratory results, data from the technician, their minds more on a golf game than on your body, just wants results from an MRI or a scan. As Dr. Margaret Swanton, professor at UNC Chapel Hill Medical School said to me one time, “the body does not function the way it is written in books, each body has its own homeostasis.” In spite of progress, politics, professional and social parasites, we are not cookie-cutter products.

I experienced warfare pain, not just my own, but heard the screams of others. In my sleep I still hear the screams of burn victims. It is absolutely beyond my comprehension that those who enjoy the benefits of this democratic republic can so casually enjoy fireworks...can be so thrilled with pop music, can be so unconcerned as they rest comfortably on church pews. In several medical museums I have seen the medical equipment of yesteryear: the saws used in limb amputation, the forceps used in child birth. Every time I have blood work done I remind the technician of how we, at one time, sharpened needles, today's needles are so finite you barely feel them. Like the slide rule which we used as students, the stethoscope is almost a thing of the past.

There is no surgery as painful as eye surgery. In an attempt to save at least some small smidgen of vision, I underwent 10 eye surgeries including cryosurgery (eyes frozen). Trying to lessen the effects of wounds, much cosmetic surgery. I know of nothing any worse than needle injections all around the facial areas.

I believe my grandmother was my first experience as a child observing objective excruciating pain. My grandmother was from a family with money, and she could afford the best. At that time, 80 years ago, the best was not much. In eastern North Carolina, there were few public hospitals, some private surgeons owned their own hospital with a few beds. She was in one of these hospitals, Wilson NC, and we know now that she was dying with breast cancer (all such problems of that sort, at that time, called “carbuncles”). Like so many in ancient history, diabetics or toxemia interfered with any type healing. Pain management, or even control, was unknown. Professionals, families, people did what they could, the best they knew, but with such severe pain, nausea, they did not last very long. More and more we learn of patients who were put out of their pain. To this day, assisted suicide is not rare.

For one month, I have been afflicted with severe pain, back pain. The same old song and dance that everyone should be well-educated, referrals from one specialty to another. When we get down to the truth of the matter, in spite of our research, technology, Big Pharma, we are not much better off than we were 70 years ago. The drugs are more potent, much more time is spent on your ability to pay than their ability to help you, but it is still the same old song and dance. It is rare to get an answer, just experimentation.

Political, western medicine/treatment considers alternative methods as cults...osteopathic , naturopathic, chiropractic, homeopathic physicians, even methods that have worked well in other cultures for thousands of years. With Obamacare, with increasing scrutiny, funds more and more limited, most insurance companies have given up on healthcare, everyone should get prepared for pain. Having gotten the run-around from four different practitioners, having spent thousands of dollars for nothing, like many of you, I am about back to zero. Can you even imagine the billions of tax dollars paid everyday to practitioners of every discipline, just experimenting. In this town, one large medical complex, 65 physicians in this one practice, takes in $100 million each week, most of the work divided between physician's assistants (PA).

Exaggeration has become the byword in most interests. Most preachers cannot preach without exaggerating, most politicians exaggerate with their promises and pleading. Your healthcare practitioner always exaggerates...a scared patient will always spend more money. It is inconceivable that television advertising pronouncements try to wring more money out of you by advertising drugs and treatments. Every day, every way, pulling at the strings of your charity, giving to such supposed non-profits as American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Americans for Medical Progress, Brain Tumor Foundation, and about 50 others. Don't we have sense enough to know that with all the money (millions of dollars every day) that has been spent on cancer research, more progress should have been made? However, with all the money made from the treatment of cancer, a cure would result in a real economic calamity. We all wear badges, badges of Christian commitment, badges of healthcare, badges of patriotism. I do not mean to tarnish any badge, but the shine has been taken off the badge of many groups...churches, professions, nationalistic integrity.

The fastest growing religion is witchcraft, 99% of those in churches cannot tell you why they are there. The judicial, law enforcement, education, military professions, no longer have the honor which was accorded them in my youth. The key which unlocks the door of our heart in all these life-giving agencies is our desire to prevent and relieve pain.

Cire Perdue

Cire Perdue is the French word used to describe the process involved whereby a wax cast is constructed from the artist's original bronze or brass sculpture. Often the same process is used in statuary repair, heated wax can be dripped into a crack or flaw and through this cire perdue method a perfect replica is produced. As with all artwork, only the most trained/educated eye can detect the difference.

Such is the importance of outward beauty, beauty which any eye can see. It is inward beauty that is more difficult to detect. Looking at the great works of Michaelangelo such as David, alone at a great museum in Florence, the marble seems so real. It has been said that after Michaelangelo finished his famous statue of Moses, so real, so perfect, he hit statue with his hammer and said, “speak to me.” The great artist said that each large block of marble contains someone just waiting to come out. The artist does not produce ugliness, whether with the chisel and hammer or the artist's brush, he wants reality, but the reality of beauty, the customer does not pay his money for ugliness, in craftsmanship or reality. In art, as in life, one desires balance, style, class.

Religious history shows us that believers desired the best. Until this day, the greatest building ever built, Solomon's Temple, just to read of its dedication, the music involved, the sacrifices involved (22,000 oxen slain, sheep without number), or even St. Paul's in London, (one that you can still see to this day), we can understand why, as children, we wore our best clothing to church on Sunday. Even in the poorest eastern North Carolina town, the church house, with stained glass windows, carved woodwork, was pointed to with pride. Many of the attendees might have come from barren homes but they did not approach God's house in a casual way... modest dress, careful behavior, appropriate music. Everything showing honor to the Creator of the universe.

Can you even imagine going for a job interview, going to a wedding, a funeral, wearing casual clothes? God deserves, and expects our best. Everything we do, our dress, our behavior, our worship, is all for His glory. (1 Corinthians 10:31) I am told that some churches allow attendees to wear shorts, flip-flops, even let them bring drinks. I was told that in one black church in town, signs were on the vestibule door leading to the sanctuary that said, “no eating or drinking beyond this door”. One man told me of a church where a young man, wearing shorts and flip-flops was holding a dip cup in which he spat from tobacco. What is wrong with the men of this church, do they have a shoestring for a backbone?

One woman came to my house for a job, her husband was an assistant at a local megachurch. it was his job as one of 31 assistant pastors just to the lighting system in rhythm with the drums and brass of the church music. I said to her, “do you have an organ or piano, as do most old-fashioned churches?” She said, “no, we do not want a conventional church, we want music that will attract the younger set, music that they can move and dance by during the service.”

At the University Cathedral in Los Angeles where Dr. Gene Scott was pastor for so many years, if he saw one person whisper to another, or any unnecessary movement, he asked an usher to immediately escort the person out of the building. Children attended services in the main sanctuary only when they reached the age of twelve, from the age of twelve until marriage, they were required to sit with their parents. Those under the age of twelve had their own special service. God's Word was real and important to this preacher, church service was not a time of entertainment, a social gathering, it was a time for study, learning, harmony instead of cacophony.

Traveling the world, I attended many church services, many denominations. On Easter Island, Pacific Ocean five hundred miles off the coast of Chile, in the Catholic church on Sunday Morning, all the women were well-dressed, they all had flowers in their hair and over their outerwear, everything about the service was glorious.

Scripture talks much about longsuffering above everything else, our habits, our sins of omission and commission, our ungratefulness, our faithlessness. God is longsuffering in our attitude of worship to Him. A person as ugly as a fencepost can go to church clean, dressed in his best with a humble attitude of worshipfulness in living and in giving. The most important measure of our worship is our giving, returning to God a portion of that which has been given to us. The tithe is the Lord's whether we give it or not. 1/7 of our time is the Lord's whether we give it or not. Our longsuffering Lord expects us to remember Him as often as possible at His table. We can use cire perdue patchwork put on paint or other makeup, we can pretend and disguise but the inner man will always expose the outer man.

All Things Considered

The greatest yearning of the human experience is to be happy. The first time I was in communist Russia, other than the dreariness of the country, the thing that impressed me most was the unhappiness of the people. The people, like the buildings, the streets, and even the nature that surrounded them, was dull, dingy, dreary.

Sharing the trip with me was a news commentator from Radio WRO in New York City. He said, “I never see a smile.” We also noticed that so many of the people on the trollies, on the streets, were drunk. I remember saying to him, “if I had to live in this dreadful place, alcohol would probably be my escape.”

In my lifetime, I have seen the American spirit of optimism and opportunity, turn into a morass of drug addiction. News accounts are full of such, even involving police officers.

Because I lost my eyesight in a war and have been totally blind for over 50 years, I must depend on other people to help me with many things. No one would believe how many young men and women have been employed by me, carrying along with their many other problems, the baggage of addiction. I had hired a 32 year-old young man, a father of two daughters, married to a public school teacher, to do some repair work on a rental house which I own. This very day, he told me that he had spent this weekend in the hospital as a drunk, is now beginning 45 days of rehabilitation, all at your, the taxpayer's, expense. You can consider me foolish, but I had given him money to buy material, which he evidently spent the money on alcohol. This is just one example of such problems which I have encountered year after year. The jails and hospitals are full, tax-supported facilities are filled with such human debris. As long as we have permissive parents, a permissive society, quackery in schools, masquerading churches, a politically correct society where it is improper to criticize, where the taxpayers will subsidize character flaws, things will not improve things.

Character determines destiny. The building of character starts in the home shortly after cutting the umbilical cord. Children are lovely and are to be loved, but the greatest and most important love is tough love. Yielding to a child's whims by attempting to assure a child's happiness with things just leads to the child thinking that satisfaction and happiness comes through things, when things stop satisfying, one tries to find happiness in the bottom of a liquor bottle, snorting exotic chemicals. It even becomes fashionable to dig into designer drugs, to have a police record. The time is long past when parents are shamed by a police blotter, a grandchild born to an unwed mother. I had rather to have died than to have shamed my parents by having them bail me out of a jail. God-fearing, hard-working, frugal living parents who had denied themselves in order to give their children opportunities which they had never had.

The enabler of every addiction is the hideous process of throwing money at it. We throw money at education, enabling poor performance; throw money at welfare recipients, throw money at useless business enterprises—and something which cannot be hid from the world—we throw money at our national enemies, hoping they will love us. As long as decent, hard-working, taxpaying, God-fearing Americans tolerate the throwing of money and thereby enabling addictive behavior, we will just have more of it.

Please answer this question: why would any young man or woman work or show responsible living, when, because of addictive behavior (alcohol or other drug absorption) they can lay around watching useless slop on television, live off the tax dollar, supported by ambitious people who work for a living, pay their taxes, and appreciate the opportunities provided them by this democratic republic?

Classic, time-tested behavior: studying, reading good books, taking advantage of spiritual and physical opportunities, exercise, decent sexual control, eating correctly. Few people who love their prized pets would feed them junk food, likewise parents who love their children will control their appetites, whether food or that which enters the body through the eyes or ears.

I am very familiar with one young man, a father of four small children. He was working several jobs in order to support the family, before leaving for work, he told his 9 year-old son to pull all the weeds from the shrubbery and the flowerbeds. Coming home, tired, weary from work and worries, he noticed the weeds were still in the shrubbery. Going inside the house, the son had his eyes glazed and fixed to the television set. He went over and kicked the front out of the television set, he said, “now we will see how much television you watch, because there will never be another one in my house!”

It is time for parents to put muscle behind their parenting, set examples for their children. Probably this young man working for me, who will spend 45 days in rehabilitation always observed beer in his family's refrigerator, saw his parents drinking cocktails. All things considered, most communities are fortunate that things are no worse than they are.