Pledge of Allegiance

Do we really mean this?
The whole thing?
I understand the under God thing, but whose god?
Do we mean liberty and justice for all? Or just those like us?
All, kind of means all doesn't it?
Or is it only Protestants? Or only native born? Or only anglo-saxon?
Or does it mean exactly what it says?
For ALL, period.

Stories and Lies, I know they are coming.

Reunion, have not seen some of these cousins in 20+ years. Lake Guntersville State Park in the hills of Northeast Alabama. I hope to reconnect with as many folks as possible.

Good Friday!

I have been distressed over the last few months. My faith has been challenged. I sometimes wonder how I can participate in a denomination where most of my fellow travelers are so obsessed with birth certificates, women's private parts, immigrants and flag worship.

I have nothing against my country, but part of the essence of the Constitution is freedom for all. Nowhere in this document is a reference to an allegiance pledge, much less one created by a socialist.

If we are to believe that the messiah is coming soon are we going to ask Him for his papers? My fellow Americans are so obsessed with people of different color. Why do they come here? They come seeking jobs to support their family. How is that different from anyone of us?

If most are willing to attempt coming to the USA to find work, work that most would not do. They deserve our admiration for wanting to share our American dream. A vast majority pay their taxes. The problem is not with them, but with the power barons that hire them and pay them under the table. The most vocal against immigrants are the ones providing jobs for them and paying them a less than living wage.

And that is my two cents.

Fifty Three Years

The waiting is finally over! National Champs 2010, WDE baby!

'via Blog this'

11-0

Two years into his tenure, Coach Chizik has the Tigers on the verge of a SEC Championship and a possible shot at a National Championship game.
As the coach says, "This ain't like just playing ball, this place was special before you got here. Let's continue to make it special."

Fourth of July Weekend

Indianola-B.B. King Festival and Barbecue Contest.
The King is going to be there for a concert. Maybe Morgan Freeman will show. Its not far back to Clarksdale.

Traveling, yeah, but distressful

As my wife and family moved around the South, the schism of the Baptist faith became obvious to us. Different approaches to membership, ministry to youth and ministry to single adults (with or without children) stand out as major stumbling blocks to acceptance of traditional outcasts.

I grew up in a somewhat conservative Southern Baptist church in North Alabama. Progressive socially, conservative spiritually. During my formative years, an instance probably similar to other moderate Baptists, truly stands out in my mind as a turning point in my faith. Missionaries from Africa were scheduled to speak at our church. One missionary, to Kenya, was a native of Uganda, yes black. It was always exciting to experience Christians from other cultures. I was sitting with my mom in the back of our church. As this man of God stepped to the pulpit, a female member of our congregation stood up and shouted that she would not worship with a ________ (fill in the blank). I was shocked, astounded and dismayed that a fellow Christian would become so upset about a person different than themselves would be allowed to speak. The individual that objected had taught Vacation Bible School, urging the children to sing, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world" but, did not truly believe what she had us sing. I became skeptical and approached my faith differently. If it was not Biblical, I did not accept it as fact.

Some of my current fellow Christians still adhere to the attitude of this woman. This is still troubling. When the new President came into office, our prayer list at church omitted him from our prayers, yet the previous administration was prominently mentioned. If Christians have such little faith in the new president, should he not be at the head of the list.

Moving all over the South with my career, allowed my family to serve in many different churches. Each of these churches had a distinct personality. Some very conservative, some slightly conservative, some moderate and one was very liberal. We encountered a range of approaches to the Gospel. One telling aspect of the most Biblical churches whether conservative or liberal had to do with location more than anything else. The most conservative of our churches was located near a college. It was open in its acceptance of others. The most liberal was also very open in its acceptance of others, it was a very large church. The attitudes of separation are more prevalent in smaller, suburban or rural church settings.

Baptist tradition is ingrained in my family. My grandfather was a circuit riding minister in Texas. My mother was a firm believer in "the Priesthood of the Believer". She would be alarmed with the current nature of the denomination. Politics and Religion have no place in the same room, much less the same bed. Christians need to realize that politicians only want their vote. Republican or Democrat, it matters not. Currently republicans have played upon the faith's rejection of gays and abortion, while also courting those segments also.

I am appalled by the number of Christian Brothers and Sisters that regularly listen to the hate and lies of Limbaugh and Beck, while lambasting Oberman and Kennedy. Most liberal ideas fit more in line with Scripture, taking care of the poor, assisting the needy, rebuilding communities and reaching the lost. The only exceptions for liberals being gays and abortion. Current intolerance and death wishes by prominent churchmen have disgraced not only the denomination, but Christians as a whole. Wishing death on your enemies rather than praying for them first is not Biblical. 

While we must continue to strive to win the lost, we need to stop whining about losing an election to a black Christian. To insure that the lost are reached we must walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." , 2 Peter 3:1

Wow! It snowed this week.

Monday, we awoke to somewhere between 6-8" of the white stuff. The mid-South was covered by a very chilly white blanket. The roads were not impassable, but some brave souls made their way out of the neighborhood. Normally some of our neighbors make their way out of the neighborhood by 6 AM. But these brave souls did not leave until after 8 AM. Not really such "brave souls". We stayed in.
Channel 3 in Memphis portrayed the event as another dangerous day in the mid-South. I ventured out to clean the snow off of the car. After going back inside to warm up, I glanced back out to notice that the windshield was already recovered by another 2" of snow. We are just not used to this kind of thing in our area.
By evening we worried that the roads would be even worse. In some places they were right. But for the most part, it started to warm up slightly, just enough to clear most of the roads. I went to work on Tuesday. One of the only ones.
Memphis was still shut down for a couple of more days. It is great to live nearby but not be required to drive into the city.
Fortunately for all of us, this snow didn't come last week. 'Cause it was really cold, around 15-20 degrees all over the area. Thank God for small favors.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I have friends, well let us say fellow travelers. My companions and myself totally disagree with each other on all things political. I evidently have what has been called a view of Christianity as a social gospel (taking care of each other, helping the poor, providing for the general welfare), that kind of Gospel.

It is not only a right, but a duty as believers to attend to these needs.

I am not one of those evangelicals that pretend that money is good, prejudiced view are tolerated and that there are only two things a Christian should be against. I'm not talking about war and salvation. I refer to pro-life and the supposed gay agenda.
Since when are Christians so concerned with death, hundreds of thousands of Christians, Muslims and Jews died in the prior struggles for the land of Canaan.

Pro-choice supporters are actually in favor of preserving life, they just believe that a woman has the right to choose. As a Christian, I choose life. As an American, I choose choice.

Religious Conservatives fawn all over every patriotic thing. Flags on the lapel, military songs in church, pledging to the flag and degrading those that are not so enthusiastic.
True nationalism is really what they want us to. This is more akin to the national socialist movement in Germany in the 1930's. Country, right or wrong. Even when the actions of the country are contrary to God's laws.
We have an obligation to our descendants to preserve both religious and personal freedom. Freedom cannot be attained by climbing under a rock, it must be shown through our actions not our rhetoric.

Christian founding of our nation has included slavery (justified by the Word), burning innocent women, (justified by the Word), outlawing Christmas (justified by the Word) and racism (justified by the Word). None of these would our Savior be proud.

Would Jesus listen to Rush, Bill and Sean? For that matter anyone at Fox News. Don't even get me started on Sister Sarah, proclaiming Christ, then speaking at a convention of alcohol manufacturers. Please! And the world wonders why even we consider us to be hypocrites.

We need more skeptics.

Open minds will survive longer than
closed ones. Problem is closed minds
are more comfortable with others
thinking for them. Case in point or should I say pointy, the misconception of occupants of red states hating health care. The underlying reason is in reality there latent ____________ attitudes.

Media Bias, pshaw!

I saw an article last month about the lack of right leaning voices, but this list had all of the blowhards listed together. The list took more than one page to show them all. Bias is not with the media, but with the companies and organizations that produce it. When I think of how a moral, sane individual could listen to some of these blowhards, my head begins to spin. I know, this statement would encourage the "wrong" leaning individuals. But it bears saying, any way. Progress is the opposite of regress. One must move forward to grow.
gif courtesy of http://www.instantattitudes.com

"by the hair of our chiny, chin, chin............"

Wow! What a scare! We just could not put Northwestern away. I never caught which conference the officials came from, but they were as bad as some of our SEC crews.
At least Ziemba did not have a motion penalty. That is a first.

Great recruits, good coaching, superb facilities. Toomer's Corner, after. Could not be much better.
And you know, we should have beaten Alabama. Our guys had them for 55 minutes, but just could not hold for another five.

Can't wait till spring, summer, then its football time again!!!!!!!!!!!

Twenty years, it doesn't seem than long ago.

Twentieth anniversary of probably one of my top Auburn experiences. I bought season tickets from freshman year until I moved too far away to come back every game weekend.
On this trip to Auburn, the loveliest village on the Plains, my family arrived early Friday night to stay at my sister's house. We got up very early to set up our tailgate. The air was electric. I had invited some friends from Tuscaloosa to come on to Auburn they were afraid to come. But I convinced them to come. They had been to games all over the country, but never Auburn.

As my family approached Jordan-Hare the intensity grew as well as the emotions. I attended 17-16 my freshman year in college, the 49-26 game that Connie Frederick faked a punt and scampered around end past the entire Tide, Bo-over the top and even the Lawyer Tillman end around game, none of these had the significance as 1989.

Today thinking about the reasons that Alabama did not want to come still amaze me. Nebraska came, Virginia Tech came, TCU came and eventually Tennessee came in the 70's. I was at that TN game also, none compared to this. Them on our turf for the first time, goodness. I remember many trips to Auburn as a child and an adult, this one was one of the best.

My daughter was 7, she had been coming to Auburn since she was an arm-baby. She is still in awe of that day. The thing that seemed to trouble all of the bama faithful was that they "had to come." I was as happy as all of the other Tiger fans, even at Toomer's. That day was a great one, there will be many more.

I lived in Tuscaloosa for 3 years, we won all three. The only comments I heard were how pleasant the Auburn campus and fans were.

One last memory. When I got back to work on Monday, one of my friends, an Alabama fan (not a graduate), paced and paced around work. We had coffee in the morning, I said nothing. We ate lunch, I said nothing. We had coffee in the afternoon, I said nothing. By the end of that last coffee break, he came up to me and said "Aren't you going to say something about the game? Aren't you going to rub in in? Aren't you going to gloat?"
I leaned back in my chair and passed this along, "I know we won, you know we won, the whole world knows we won, so why rub it in?"

Oh and by the way, you know it took bama over a hundred years to beat us in Tuscaloosa. Yep, memories are a great thing. War Eagle!!!!

Old observations:

Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918)

"A friend in power is a friend lost." and this pearl:

"Politics, as a practice . . . has always been the systematic organization of hatreds."

Cap and Trade?

Do you actually know what this is?
Most Americans only know what they have been told by pundits and phony experts. In brief Sightline Institure has an uncomplicated explanation of what it is. Wikipedia has another explanation of not only the policy but also some objections.
Funny thing is most conservatives want less dependence on oil, especially foreign oil, but are vocally against this policy engineered to do just that. They imply that this policy will adversely over tax the small guys, however the intention and scope of the policy is to get at the major polluters.
Truth and fiction don't seem to matter with those guys.

GOP OMG WTF?

Recently the GOP put a list of "famous republicans" on their website. The irony of the posting is imaginative at best and deluded at worst. The link to FDL's comments and summary is here: http://firedoglake.com/2009/10/14/how-many-of-gop-coms-republican-heroes-would-be-republicans-today/
The analysis contains the following as prominent members:
Susan B. Anthony: sure in their dreams. If someone believes this they obviously don't know who she is.
Frederick Douglass: At the time of his freedom, maybe. But today with the obvious discrimination within the base, it is very doubtful.
Perhaps the most surprising is their love of Ronald Regan, who liberalized abortion, raised taxes and even signed a treaty against torture. Does any of this sound familiar?
The posting they have on their site is very creative. It reminds me of how they have spokesmen that have things such as these liberal traits: multiple marriages, drug addiction, extra-marital affairs (Lord knows how many times they bring this up) and beauty queens that either have no knowledge or fake body parts. I guess the last two are just another pair of "boobs".

BOOK BURNING????

I was reading my normal RSS feeds this morning, when an article at Baptist Planet caught my eye. It is about a church, Amazing Grace Baptist (Independent-KJV1611) in North Carolina. This church not only burned secular material, they burned almost all other translations of Scripture. They actually bragged about this. I followed a couple of links to get to the bottom of this story. My investigation led me to their web site. I have never seen as much hatred and intolerance on a church site, save one of those "American Christian" (white supremacist) or on Fred Phelps' site. They despise every thing from "wrong translations", Billy Graham, Rick Warren, John Piper to all types of popular and contemporary Christian music.
From other reading his church consists of his family and a very few others.
Fox News picked up on this story, ran it as a news event. It is no wonder most of the world distrusts Christians. This radical approach to soul-winning is destined to fail.
Besides the anti-everything, they are also against immigration and other denominations.
Wow! I knew there were nutsos out there, but man................./font>

Just had a thought, yes I can have them.

By definition the GOP is for small government and the Federal Government staying out of a person's business, right?
So how does this justify the pandering to the Christian Conservatives?
Isn't the attempt to force anti-choice down the throats of Americans contrary to "hands off" my person? Now understand, I do not condone abortion, but it is not my choice. Many people would rather not raise children at a particular time in their life. I continually here conservatives rail against having another welfare baby to feed. If that was truly their concern they would be for choice.
Isn't the same attempt to deny the union of any individual to another individual against their ardent platform of "Don't tread on me"?
Again I'm only saying if someone wants to spend their life with someone, why should we care. We should pray.
We cannot legislate abstinence, we cannot legislate choice, we cannot legislate sexual preference and we cannot legislate whether or not to bring another "welfare baby" into this world. That type of legislation is "Communistic". Unlike patriotism, this view of "limited government" is just a cover up for control of our lives.

For God and Country (in that Order)

Logan Laituri, Army veteran with combatant service in Iraq and work with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Israel and the West Bank, writes a compelling article for sojourners
As always we need to remember what order we serve. about the priorities we should have as Christians and Americans.

I keep receiving those emails.......

Today I received another email from two different friends that told a story about a great hero, Michael Monsoor.
Problem is part of the email was not true.
Claims made in the email said that his story was ignored by the Main Stream Media (MSM), however the opposite is true.  Not only was the story mentioned in the newspapers, it was also featured on NBC Nightly News before it was on Fox News.
I found evidence that refuted those claims.
Why do people pass on things they don't research?????