The Power of Pictures

"The Problem"* 

An energetic family of five cut in line in front of me last night as I was trying to lift a heavy suitcase onto the airport shuttle bus.  What information would a photograph of that have communicated?

·      Rowdy kids ignore struggling senior? Or,

·      Old lady impedes family from a timely departure?

As they pushed their way ahead of me, they brought to mind a dangerous current event. I thought of others who are bucking the line trying to get into the USA on our southern border. (Immigrants Flood Rio Grande Valley) Perhaps as many as sixty-five thousand people have cut in line in front of others who are patiently waiting for their American citizenship.  We do not understand who these illegal aliens are, or why they have come, or how we can effectively care for, or return them to their own countries.

We have a couple of issues here – people are inviting themselves into our country, and the government is tacitly endorsing it. And the media is not explaining well what is happening.The limited photographs are generating heat, and stoking passions as they record the illegal immigrants’ troubles and those who protest their arrival and dispersion into communities whose budgets are busting. But, real-time information about the crises is missing.

Why is this?

The press, who is good at manipulating public opinion with powerful photographs, is unwilling or unable to describe the issues behind the images. 

Is anyone stopping them from digging out the details?

Come on guys . . . a picture can be a more truthful communicator of what is happening – and possible solutions -- if you describe the context.   

  

* Ruby Bridges 

RAT-TLED?

My Rat-tled Buggy

It’s taken a few days to wrap my brain around what happened. A few days ago, I started my car and a yellow “Check Engine” sign flashed on, and would not turn off. I switched cars quickly with Doug and left him to cope with the problem – Thank you Doug!

When he was told what it was, both he and I were flabbergasted.

Rats had chewed through the electrical harness of my car.

(Oh, have I not mention rats are a problem in our neighborhood? That’s another story. And yes, Doug’s car go will for a check-up!)

Rodents wreaking havoc under the hood is not uncommon, whether one’s car is parked in the open or in a garage.  Repairing the damage will be expensive and time-consuming; we hope between our insurance and pest control policies, we may enjoy some financial relief – Thank God for people who know what to do! And thank you God neither of us were on a major highway when the electrical connection failed!

Imagining nasty critters furtively feasting on the engine parts of my car is unsettling. But it’s a good visual for how I feel about what’s going on in the world, our nation and the ever-unpredictable adventures in the “Golden years.”  If the car’s problems are a metaphor, something is gnawing at our collective common sense and our national engine’s light is warning us to get it checked!  And aging sure seems like a race against keeping the rats out of my chassis and the squirrels out of my brain!

Remaining vigilant so that we do not again provide a feeding opportunity for whatever it is that has a taste for auto-innards is a skill and duty we must both acquire.  God willing, we both can stay on duty, minding our habits, attitudes, and words – it’s privilege often denied to many. I’m just glad for the Mechanic who promised to remain on duty, and knows what to do when all the connections I take for granted fail.   Isaiah 46:3-5

FYI:

Tips on Keeping Your Car Rodent-Free 

Thank to my friend Marty whose question generated the title, when she heard about this mess: “Are you rat-tled?”

A Christian’s Evolution on a Hot Topic

What does it mean for me when a powerful  and persuasive President announces a change of position  on same-sex marriages because of his Christian faith?  President Barrack Obama announced his acceptance of the rights of homosexual couples to marry.  

“In the end the values that I care most deeply about and she cares most deeply about is how we treat other people,” he said. “We are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing Himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule—treat others the way you would want to be treated. And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids and that’s what motivates me as president, and I figure the most consistent I can be in being true to those precepts, the better I’ll be as a dad and a husband and hopefully the better I’ll be as president.” (Evolved) [emphasis added]

Serendipitously, today our pastor, Julian Russell, preached on the Golden Rule, (Matthew 7:12-14) 

The Golden Rule

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy^[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Footnotes:

a.     Matthew 7:13 Some manuscripts For the way is wide and easy

I hope Christians who urge the acceptance of same sex-marriage will evaluate their position by some points the pastor made about the standard of the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is not about “tolerance” or acceptance. The Golden Rule is the royal law, of which James wrote. (James 2:8-12)

First, Christ summed up the Law and the prophets; it is wholly loving God with all we have and are, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. (Matthew 22:33-40)  It is not enough to not harm those who are different than we are; we are to serve them, in the ways we would be served.  If you and I both like friend chicken, is serving each other fried chicken three times a day what we should be doing, the pastor asked? If God has said no to an appetite, a behavior or a choice, how is it kind or loving to affirm the behavior?    

Second, being a Christ-follower means entering God’s Kingdom by the narrow gate – a gate so narrow the pastor said, we couldn’t fit if we insist on carrying our propensities with us. Entering the narrow gate squeezes them out; puts them to death. A desire to hold on to what we want, what we think we must have, may divert us to the broad path. We can’t live in God’s Kingdom indulging habits, hang-ups and hurts – and if we love others who are wounded, we should not encourage them to pursue what God hates.  

Reading John Piper’s book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, I came across a description of William Wilberforce’s doctrine that sustained him in the battle in the 19^th century against the English slave trade. What sustained him were

   . . . the doctrines of human depravity, divine judgment, the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross, justification by faith alone, regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and the practical necessity of fruit in a live devoted to good deeds. Wilberforce was not a political pragmatist. He was a radically God-centered, Gospel saturated Christian politician. And his zeal for Christ, rooted in this gospel, was the strength that sustained him in the battle. (Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, page 104)

 Can a Christian [politician] today push to strength biblical marriage between a man and a woman with the same zeal that galvanized William Wilberforce who pushed his culture to eradicate chattel slavery – another practice God forbade? Can he or she withstand the desire to accommodate what seems loving to the wider public? If one or two of them, and many more of us can explain and live the Golden Rule, as Christ taught, we might see the debate transformed. 

Christians have more than a few deeply loved friends or family members who are gay; some Christians have been open about their own homosexuality.  Homosexuals may be our siblings, children, parents, or spouses; sometimes they are our pastors or legislators.  How are we to love the people in our path? 

 

A Flare-Up of Potomac Fever*

I didn’t have to dress, but I went anyway, and I insisted Doug join me at the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Who knew we would see so many actors and other performers? (!)

Thanks to c-span for carrying the event, and so showing us the kinds of people who shape our understanding of the world events and entertainment, without comment.  They documented the demise of political satire, and ongoing dependence on bathroom humor, profanity, and name-calling.   We could see the White House correspondents as they saluted one another, schmoozed, and skewered attendees. We heard the President of the United States, and a late-night TV personality perform, for laughs. 

Fifty years ago, women were not permitted to attend the dinner, according to Helen Thomas, interviewed shortly before the dinner by C-span. Indeed their attendance was their right, duty and privilege as hard working journalists, and President Kennedy insisted the doors open wide to women reporters. 

If the increased presence of women will elevate the tone of the workplace, an argument made for changing the culture of the Secret Service, I wonder about the half-century contribution women journalists have made to this evening’s celebration.  

Seriously.

*Poto'mac fe'ver --

 the determination or fervor to share in the power and prestige of the U.S. government in Washington, D.C., esp. by being appointed or elected to a government position.

Potomac fever: meaning and definitions — Infoplease.com  

An Opportunity Blown

 

The recent dust-up over who should pay the cost of contraceptives helped slam shut an opportunity to explore an increasing and damaging price of sex outside of marriage – sexually transmitted diseases,  (STDs or STIs); none are prevented by birth control. Rush Limbaugh could have directed his audience and those who do not listen to some troubling facts. But he couldn’t resist some smart remarks about a young woman who wanted the US government to pay for her birth control; they were hard to hear, even for long-time listeners. The radio talk show host apologized, admitting he blew it. Therefore, the timing of an e-mail* from Peacemaker Ministry seemed fitting. Here’s what Ken Sande wrote about reckless words:

Oh, Be Careful Little Mouth

"Even a fool is thought wise…and discerning if he holds his tongue."
 Proverbs 17:28

Reckless words, spoken hastily and without thinking, inflame many conflicts. "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" (Prov. 12:18; cf. Prov. 13:3; 17:28; 21:23; 29:20). Although we may seldom set out deliberately to hurt others with our words, sometimes we do not make much of an effort not to hurt others. We simply say what comes to mind without thinking about the consequences. In the process, we may hurt and offend others, which only aggravates conflict. . . . (emphasis added)

Tragically, women do die because of unplanned pregnancies – more babies, however, die from these unintentional conceptions. What is appalling, and still unaddressed, is that approximately 19 million new sexually transmitted infections are thought to occur each year.  

These infections affect men and women of all backgrounds and economic levels. But almost half of new infections are among young people ages 15 to 24. Women are also severely affected by STIs. They have more frequent and more serious health problems from STIs than men. African-American women have especially high rates of infection. (source)

A powerful entertainer and social commentator made reckless comments and we missed an opportunity to begin a worthwhile discussion on a serious public health issue, again – and all because of someone’s exercising their right to speak plainly.   So, what we remember is rude remarks – and the firestorm that erupted – not solutions to the damaging personal, medical, and social problems that erupt from sex with a multitude of partners.

The lesson I learned from Mr. Limbaugh’s catastrophic lapse of good sense and common decency, and from Mr. Sande’s apt reminder is opening my mouth without engaging my brain and heart loses listeners.  Even reckless speech may be my right – but that constitutional freedom  is an opportunity that thoughtless words will destroy.

Peacemaker ministry’s e-mail redirected my disappointment over a missed opportunity to reconsider how I say what I say: 

What have you said recently without thinking?



The word "reckless" usually conjures up images of someone driving a car with no concern for the people around them. A reckless driver can cause havoc on the highway, putting his or her life, as well as the lives of others, in harm's way. If we spot someone driving recklessly, we usually grab our cell phones and alert the police. But what about someone speaking recklessly?



Simply saying what comes to mind can be looked upon as being authentic and honest. People admire the plain-speak quality and often promote folks who can do it. But it can also be looked upon as not thinking, or reckless. The lives of the one speaking and those hearing then are caught in harm's way. And if you're caught in harm's way, the result is usually some kind of harm.

Oh, be careful little mouth what you say.

A wise woman, when she opens her mouth, the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. (Prov. 31:26) * PeaceMeal is a publication of Peacemaker^® Ministries. Copyright 2012. Reprinted with permission. To sign up for this free weekly email publication, go to the Peacemaker Ministries website at www.Peacemaker.net/epubs.

Color Me Grumpy

 

I am not an economist or political scientist or historian – or expert on anything except making it through each day. Neither am I a soccer mom. So, I may be missing the finer points of the blood sport known as the Presidential election campaign. I can identify a few problems, however – problems for which I am listening for answers, while my hearing holds.

·      Americans may outlive our resources.

·      We are spending too much while making too little, just like our government. 

·      Wanting to help the needy and oppressed, we have hamstrung ourselves and made a bunch of other people mad at us.

I want to know if the Republicans have a plan that describes how to revive our economy in the midst of the world economy.  I want to know if the Democrats have anything to add to the record they have made these past three years.

·      How will they reduce the waste government generates?  (US Waste)

·      Has anybody thought through what individuals must to do to be part of the solution?

·      Can the Republican Party point out some good things that the Democrats have done? Likewise, can the Democrats point to anything admirable their fellow Americans propose?

·      Can they simply say how they have the current ability (not just past record) to change the reach and cost of government, from local to national issues?

·      Can the Republican Party (and Democrat) come off its high horse and take the moral high ground on issues of defense, taxation, immigration, sanctity of life, the environment, education, and caring for those who have hit a rough patch of life? And tie this plan to what must happen on the local level!  What do the people have to do?  

Also, would the press in the United States report what the main issues are, and describe what the different political responses are without ascribing nefarious motives to the liberals and conservatives?  (It’s hard to remain a bright-eyed optimist about mankind when one side or the other is described as the devil’s handmaiden!)

Finally, would both parties promise, promise, promise – triple dog swear -- that when the next national election rolls around it is preceded by only one national primary – and that nobody can run for anything until the year of the election begins.

Disappointment

A long-time small pleasure is morning coffee and the newspaper. This morning the wrong paper was delivered -- The NYT arrived instead of The Dallas News.   Disappointing. What could I read with my coffee?

 

I picked up the most recent World magazine, the one with a cover shot of a Japanese mother and her children picking through the debris from the earthquake and tsunami in March,  and caught up on the news that no longer grabs headlines here.

The consequences of the tsunami aren’t cleared up, literally or psychologically. Piles of trash and human pain abound – the Japanese “. . . want people to listen and they are asking for hope.”  (article)

God was good to shake me awake, reminding me that the comfort of a routine, simple pleasures, are not rights; life is not about me enjoying what I like.  Life is more than counting my blessings – it is being a blessing: thinking about others – serving and giving and getting over mistakes that other people make.

This brings me to a concluding disappointment – one that comes not from another person’s error, but a deliberate ploy.  Watching the news, one might think that the run for the White House now matters.  Tomorrow all the breathless reporting of the polls, etc will not matter. What will matter is if the voters understand the issues. My hope is that more reporters and their bosses will report the news about

·      How our kids are performing academically (and socially);

·      What it’s like to use a hospital’s services;

·      How we make crude oil into gasoline;

·      Why can’t we get mortgages;

·      What’s involved in getting a BA today, compared to fifty years ago;

·      How do farmers make money;

·      What is the history and science of water and air pollution in the USA;

·      What is capitalism;

·      What is socialism;

·      What is the history of pirates in the western hemisphere;

·      Why do people want to come to the USA

·      What is the state of our public libraries and museums?

That would fill week’s worth of programming – and I could learn something I might be able to use tomorrow. But the advertisers might not agree.

P.S. Within an hour the distributor for The Dallas News swapped papers.

The Cost of Our Conduct

My generation – the Boomers – made “Free Love” a more widely acceptable decision in times convulsed by war and racial strife.  It seemed to many an antidote that would give peace a chance.  Without the constraints of marriage and commitment, we could fulfill ourselves and become better people.

But we did not understand the cost – to our economy. Leaving aside for the moment the emotional and physical cost of “free love” Americans have paid since the mid sixties, consider, please, statistical evidence that   sex outside the bounds of marriage has become a threatening part of our debt crises.

Mona Chareon ‘s recent column reported the following familiar statistics:

 In 1970, 85.2 percent of children under 18 lived in a two-parent family. In 2005, it was 68.3 percent and dropping. Forty percent of births in America are to unwed parents. Broken down by ethnic group, the figures are 30 percent among whites, 50 percent for Hispanics and 70 percent for blacks.

Single mothers (and occasionally fathers) find it much more difficult to be the kind of autonomous, self-supporting individuals that our system of government was designed for. Single parents turn to the government for assistance in dozens of ways. Pearlstein cites economist Benjamin Scafidi, who has offered a rough calculation of how much family breakdown costs American taxpayers annually. Scafidi considered TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), Food Stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid, S-Chip, child welfare services, justice system costs, WIC, LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program), Head Start, school breakfast and lunch programs, and foregone tax receipts. The annual bill to taxpayers: $112 billion.

Imagine if even one-twentieth of the attention we devote to gay marriage were turned to the state of heterosexual marriage -- we might begin to see the true emergency.  (Mona Chareon's Column)

And this information does not include the economic and human cost of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Nor, does it address the bloody cost of abortion: almost fifty million unborn children a year since 1972.  

“If it feels good do it” wasn’t so inconsequential a choice.  Our personal choices have racked up quite a debt – threatening to crash the US economy – and far more.  From what did we free ourselves? And to what have we enslaved ourselves? 

God warned about the cost of the freedom His people would demand, and this ancient warning sounds contemporary:

 But if you refuse to obey me and won't observe my commandments, despising my decrees and holding my laws in contempt by your disobedience, making a shambles of my covenant, I’ll step in and pour on the trouble: debilitating disease, high fevers, blindness, your life leaking out bit by bit. You'll plant seed but your enemies will eat the crops.   I'll turn my back on you and stand by while your enemies defeat you. People who hate you will govern you. You'll run scared even when there's no one chasing you . . .  (Lev 26:14-39 from THE MESSAGE.)

 His offer of deliverance is as timely:

 If I ever shut off the supply of rain from the skies or order the locusts to eat the crops or send a plague on my people, and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I'll be there ready for you: I'll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health.

(2 Chronicles 7:14 from THE MESSAGE;  also see Isaiah 1:18-19; Lev 26:40-46)    

Now,  a humble word to the wise: Take all the time you need-- but hurry up:

Defer not till tomorrow to be wise,
Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.
William Congreve. 1670-1729. Letter to Cobham.(From Christians Quoting)

Context

“When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson” Will Rogers

Context is a powerful interpreter of facts. Understanding the entirety of what a person said, when and where they said it and why  are crucial components of getting the facts straight – we need to listen and read as carefully as a good commentator  would speak and write. This week many reporters, politicians and other pundits blew it, and we saw a new low in journalism, politics and social commentary.

It started sinking with a charge and then a counter charge of  racism. For a brief moment, a news blogger, Andrew Breitbart, tried to show that the NAACP, which had charged others of racism, approved a black woman’s decision to withhold help from a white man. But the context of her admission showed something quite different. However, few people took the trouble to look behind the sound bite  Then, those who jumped in to condemn her were later embarrassed to discover that the out-of-context quote disregarded that she had given a powerful testimony of  racial reconciliation.

Shirley Sherrod, the U.S. Agriculture departments’ Director of Rural Development for Georgia, speaking before members of the NAACP, several months back, was urging its members in March of 2010 to consider advantages of job opportunities USDA programs for  rural development.

But first she gave her audience some background. She grew up in south Georgia, and saw a lynching and the perpetrators released on a technicality; she wanted out of the south! Then,  her father was murdered but his assailants were never charged; her family next lived through a cross-burning. But,  she vowed to stay in the south and work for change through the tumultuous decades of ending racial segregation. Had any of her accusers or repudiators  listened to just one minute on either end of “gotcha” words, they would have heard a story much different and more convicting than the  sound bite.   Listen for yourself!

Ms Sherrod  ended her speech by paraphrasing a proverb: Life is a grindstone, but whether it grinds us down or polishes us up is up to us.

Words are also like a grindstone – tearing down or building up. Words have meanings, expressing ideas that have consequences. In many of the reports of Ms. Sherrod’s speech, we saw consequences of words, taken out of context and used as weapons - offensively and defensively. And it was the context, the full story, of why Ms Sherrod  withheld her full help that should have engaged our full attention!

I hope Ms. Sherrod’s grinding experience will polish her, even as she has been bruised by other people’s rush to judge her.  More than that I hope we remember the power of words – especially when we decide to use them as millstones to grind  down those with whom we disagree. Words have power to build up or tear down, to curse or to bless.

At one time, flaming arrows were terror weapons, shot by enemies invading a fortress to kill wound and demoralize its defenders. Now we shoot sound bites. We who live with sound bites  should  pause instead of  speeding down information highways; we should  ask a few questions that many journalists, politicians and other pundits neglect or decline to ask. Until we develop this habit, we will never rightly understand each other or the world in which we live. We will remain more interested in fighting with each other than learning what is true

Who Would Want My Faith?

She said, “I wish I had your faith,” in the midst of a conversation about what keeps me from flipping out in any given news cycle. I have faith nothing that is going on is a surprise to God;  nothing that seems to me to be careening out of control – is moving even a nanometer out of His boundaries.

Am I just whistling past a graveyard? 

No and yes.

An infinite omnipotent, yet personal Creator God makes sense to me; a causeless confluence of energy doesn’t. However, current events frighten me; so do some of my fellow humans’ education, values and goals. I don’t think fear itself is the only scary thing flowing freely around today. Millions times millions of people suffered and died in the last century, many never fully understanding how their fellow men could do what they did to them. Believing in God, even the One of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as many did, did not spare them. Reading history and the news makes me fear my fellow man, and myself.

Fear also wrecks any chance of a civil conversation with others, as well as an edifying chat with myself.  Fear, wrote Samuel Butler, is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

My faith in Christ, faltering as it often is, should create – increasing peace within me and with others – no matter the circumstances. (Isaiah 54:4; Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 5:9) My faith in Christ may not change my circumstances – or remove me from them; but with Him, I can get through them. (Psalm18:28-29) And my faith in Christ bids me ask you to come along with us – If we stumble, we won’t be down long; God’s got a firm grasp on our hands! (Psalm 37:23-24) Perhaps the waters around us will rise – literally or figuratively – they will not overflow us.  (Isaiah 43:2) 

Faith worth sharing is faith that is well-fed. Talk-radio and the news nourish fear, not faith. A wise counselor said once, “Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!” So, I sing – for I cannot be silent; His love is the theme of my song. (Fanny Crosby, a woman blinded by a doctor’s mistake, deserted by her husband, impoverished and mother to an infant taken too soon to heaven) 

I have heard that courage is faith that has said her prayers – O God! I believe; Help Thou my unbelief!