So Larry David Peed on Jesus

…to be more accurate, a painting representing Jesus – and this act of urination for comedic purposes is seen as an insult to Christianity, its symbols and “miracles.”

The whizzing in question takes place on Larry David’s hit TV show (HBO) Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry (plays a TV version of himself) is taking some pill that that increases urine flow and, like so many times before in Curb, Larry is caught in an awkward situation of having to relieve himself with little or (in this case) no facilities available. (NOTE: Anyone who has ever watched Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm will recognize this common Larry David plot convention – the more socially awkward, the better.) Larry ends up taking a leak on a Jesus painting – later, the pissed-on painting is seen as a miracle because it looks as though the portrait of Jesus is crying, à la, The Weeping Virgin, et al.

Deal Hudson, author and publisher of InsideCatholic.com, said he doesn’t find any humor in the episode.

“I don’t think it’s funny,” Hudson told Foxnews.com. “Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim — there’d be a huge outcry. It’s simply not a level playing field.”

Hudson said an apology from the show’s producers and writing team should be issued.

“Somebody should [apologize],” Hudson said. “When is it going to stop? When is common sense going to dictate that people realize this willingness of artists to do to Christianity what they would never do to Judaism or Islam?” ~ Foxnews.com, 10/28/09

Obviously, Mr. Hudson has never watched Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm and is unfamiliar with Larry David’s style and shtick. Since Seinfeld’s first airing in 1991, there hasn’t been a minority, a nationality, a disease, a physical infirmity, a sexual orientation, a social situation, a holiday or a religion that hasn’t been made fun of! Judaism included; for example, the Curb episode where Larry David torments a fellow Jew by having an orchestra play Wagner outside his window (“Trick or Treat”, Season 2, Episode 3).

Now – as far as I know, Islam hasn’t been treated to Larry David’s sense of humor. Why? In spite of all of its notoriety, Islam just isn’t that familiar to most people. It’s hard to write good comedy about a subject that the majority of the viewing audience is unfamiliar with. Good comedy comes from a familial relationship with the subject – there’s an element of truth in the joke. How can we laugh at Islam when most of us have no idea what the truth is? (A priest, a rabbi and an imam go into a bar….just doesn’t work – on so many levels…)

Another thing – Islam guards its Holy Prophet better than Christianity guards Jesus, Mary or any other Biblical Holy One. Islam prohibits depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

On the other hand, Christianity has turned Jesus into a commodity. Mel Gibson is praised for beating the living daylights out of Christ in his film – Jesus is graphically crucified on a daily basis at The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida – televangelists regularly invoke the “name of Jesus” to raise donations and expand their religious empires – Contemporary Christian Music uses rock-n-roll and Jesus to sell albums – Christian writers sell books by claiming they have insight into the “mind of Christ” – apocalyptic-end-time preachers use Jesus to build an audience and laugh all the way to the bank – there are Jesus Fish, Jesus bobble-heads, Jesus cartoons, Jesus in Cheetos, Jesus-is-my-home-boy clothes…

…according to Christian doctrine, we, each member of the human race – we are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. Being imperfect, Jesus had to die for us.

Makes peeing on a painting seem pretty mild in comparison.

Maybe that’s what Mr. David was trying to tell us.

Larry David — theologian for the Common Man.

The Dormsbury Incident

Being expelled from college, or in Bob Jones University terminology, “shipped”, can be, as in my case, a life-changing or life-altering experience. The experience certainly left an impression on me – even after 27 years.

Yes – that’s right – 27 years and I still think about it. No April 23rd ever goes by without me thinking about what happened that afternoon, three (3) weeks short of graduation, in 1982.

And this news item (AP story here) about the Louisiana Justice of the Peace who refused to marry interracial couples because, according to Justice of the Peace, Keith Bardwell, “I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way” (CNN story here) brought back a lot of memories of the rancor, acrimony and paranoia that permeated the BJU campus during the IRS v. BJU tax exemption fight back in 1981 – 82.

It was during this time, Bob Jones University, the Dean of Men (Tony Miller) and the Dean of Students (Jim Berg) sent an official letter home to my parents giving them three reasons why I had been shipped – but that wasn’t the whole story – what the University left out in the “official” Letter of Expulsion were the unrecorded and unwritten statements made by Tony Miller – statements that were unusually cruel, judgmental and, as it turned out, totally wrong.

In addition to Tony Miller’s unrecorded oral statements, there were also “off-the-record” reasons for expelling me – reasons that were not spelled out in the official BJU letter sent to my parents’ home. One of those undocumented reasons was a 4-panel cartoon strip that I drew (anonymously) called Dormsbury.

It’s hard to explain now, but at the time, Bob Jones University was embroiled in the fight to keep its Tax Exempt status and, in the national media, the University was under fire for its policy of “no interracial dating.” The fact that the Administration based their stand, their prejudice, their bias on Scripture angered me.

Dormsbury came about after a BJU student poked fun at a Doonesbury strip that mentioned BJU by publishing his own Doonesbury-like strip accusing Doonesbury (Garry Trudeau) of ignoring the fact that African-Americans actually attend BJU. (The 3-panel strip had a crude caricature of Garry Trudeau walking across the BJU campus with a giant pencil eraser in hand, erasing African-American BJU students because they “weren’t supposed to be there.”)

Being a closet Doonesbury fan, I decided to make my own little cartoon, voilà, Dormsbury was born.

I would quietly sketch the cartoon in my dorm room, then “ink” it with a fine tip Sharpee. The strip was really for my amusement and for the amusement of other like-minded individuals – I never meant for it to be circulated around campus.

But it was.

We did not have locks on our dorm room doors at BJU and someone, I never found out who, took many of my originals, even some of the unfinished pencil sketches, copied them and posted them on bulletin boards around campus.

Yep – not good.

Anyway, about a month ago, while digging through a closet in my home office, I found a few Dormsbury originals – some still unfinished – the paper wrinkled and yellowed with age. Using various computer aids, I tried to restore them to their former infamous glory…

The “Roy” mentioned above, was the BJU CFO, Roy Barton.

The “Chancellor”, at the time, was Dr. Bob Jones, Jr.  This strip actually foretold what the future Chancellor, Dr. Bob Jones III, would admit on Larry King Live in 2000 — that the interracial dating policy was “worthless” and not supported by Scripture — my original assertion.

I couldn’t find the finished original, so I had to use the pencil sketch to produce this.  BTW, there is no TV station WAX (that I know of). ~ EKTA

BJU Review…Review 2

Some additional observations regarding the Fall 2009 issue of the BJU Review…

First – It appears that the interracial dating regulations have not been the only rules to have been changed.

Actually, I noticed this change before I received my copy of the latest BJU Review. While doing some reading for the “BJU Beer Summit” , I discovered a photo on the official BJU.edu website of the University’s president, Dr. Stephen Jones, with a goatee. Naturally, I thought it was a joke, so I stumbled around inside the BJU website and found videos of Dr. Jones speaking to potential students – and he still had the goatee.

Now I’m thinking, this is no joke – BJU has lifted the ban on male facial hair.

Evil Twin?

Facial hair (beards, moustaches, goatees and any combination of the three) was forbidden at BJU. Why? Well, not because of any Biblical reason – it was because facial hair was associated with a sloven appearance and with beatniks, hippies and those who were rebelling against society. Several times during my illustrious educational career at BJU I was called out for not shaving – even on weekends. “It’s not a school day,” I used to sarcastically reply, but the answer was always the same: “Doesn’t matter. Every day is a school day at BJU.”

Quick story – there were some staff members who were allowed moustaches. I remember one fellow who worked in the bowels of the University’s computer room back in the late 70’s. His moustache was allowed because he had some sort of malformed lip. (Yes – I asked.) During the shooting of the BJU/Unusual Films motion picture Sheffey (this was back in 1976-77) many students, staff and faculty were asked to be cast members and extras in the feature length film set in the late 1800’s. Naturally, real facial hair looks more realistic than fake, so these extras and cast were asked to “grow their own.” But – these bearded exceptions to the “no beard” rule were asked to wear large badges (like political buttons) identifying them as Sheffey cast members. Got a Sheffey badge? Your beard is okay.

Inside the BJU Review 2009 fall issue, I counted three – yes, 3, goatees, all sported by BJU employees. Strangely though, the picture of Dr. Stephen Jones was sans goatee. I can only speculate as to why. An old picture? More conservative (i.e., cleanly shaven) individuals still read only print media? He only wears the goatee for the BJU web presence?

Dr. Stephen Jones should wear the goatee with pride – a lot of men do.

Second – Inside the latest BJU Review, two recent Cinema grads are mentioned. One, Sarah Nevius (2009 MA Cinema) won 3rd place in a film festival with her film on grief called Solace. Always good to see a fellow cinema grad do something with the major, but the award came from Fireworks International’s Redemptive Film Festival, which, at the same 2009 ceremony, gave religious huckster Paul Crouch of TBN fame a “Lifetime Achievement” award.  Yikes.

The other Cinema major is Darcy Faylor who entered a screen writing contest and won $10,000 for her script Moody Field.  The article in the BJU Review describes her winning script as this:

Darcy’s script recounts the story of a family in World War II America…the family hires German prisoners of war from…a nearby prison camp in Valdosta, Georgia. The family learns to embrace German prisoners of war as equal members of society. The script, with its themes of love and forgiveness, contains a strong salvation message. “This story…is based on actual events,” Darcy said.

Yes – the “actual events” sound very much like the novel and the movie (the two, as usual, are slightly different) Summer of My German Soldier.  The novel by Bette Greene, was first published in 1973, and later adapted into a TV movie starring Kristy McNichol and Bruce Davison in 1978. (Kristy McNichol retired from acting over a decade ago, but you probably remember Bruce Davison as Attorney Wyck Fayer in Seinfeld.)

Here’s a short synopsis of the TV movie Summer of My German Soldier:

Patty Bergen (Kristy McNichol) is a teenager in a Jewish family living in the American South (Arkansas) during World War II. Her town eventually becomes host to a prisoner of war camp. A young German soldier (Bruce Davison) escapes from this camp and Patty finds him hiding in her “secret place” in the woods outside of town. After getting to know him, she ends up harboring him from his captors, and falls in love with him. Patty knows what she is risking to help him. In the end, his regard for her lifts her self-esteem and helps Patty face life and its heart breaks.

Short of the “strong salvation message”, the two stories sound eerily similar. Remove the Jewish girl (Patty) and substitute a Christian one. Instead of making her a loner (like Patty), involve the whole family. Move the locale from Arkansas to Georgia. Add Biblical salvation and take out respect and self-esteem.

An original script?

On the surface, they appear to have the same source material – with a few Christian “tweaks” thrown in.

Is it plagiarism?  Maybe – I don’t know.

It may not be a full beard, but it’s definitely a goatee.

 

“Dress Information” Excerpts, from top to bottom: BJU Student Handbook 1979, 1982, 1984, 1986.

[Goatee Panorama, from left to right: Rick Warren, V.I. Lenin, Philip Yancey, Evil Mr. Spock (Mirror, Mirror), Nathan Bedford Forrest, T.D. Jakes, Bart Ehrman, "The Master" (Dr. Who), Satan (South Park)]

BJU Review…Review

Somehow I’ve managed to stay on the Bob Jones University mailing list, and, as a result, I received a copy of the BJU Review magazine, Fall 2009 edition.

For those of you who don’t know, Bob Jones University publishes a quarterly, full-color magazine. The magazine is small – only 23 pages – and focuses primarily on the University, its programs, faculty, staff and students. The inside contains a lot of fluff and promotional material – as to be expected – and “brag-a-monies”. Brag-a-monies are Christian testimonies about how “God is working in my life” by recognizing me with awards, money, position, etc.

Also, there are itineraries for the family Jones. For example: Dr. Bob Jones III (along with Mrs. Jones III) will be in Labasa, Fiji on Nov. 19, 2009 and Dr. Stephen Jones was in Washington, D.C. at the University sponsored “Friendship Banquet” on Oct. 6, 2009. (Does BJU have friends in Washington, D.C.?!)

But, what caught my attention were the photos scattered throughout the BJU Review.

It has been roughly 35 years since the University started admitting “unmarried Negros” and it has been 26 years (this November 30) since BJU lost its appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s been almost a decade since Dr. Bob Jones III made his pronouncement on CNN’s Larry King Live that BJU had reversed its policy on interracial dating – a policy which, prior to the Presidential Elections of 2000 (and “W” speaking at the University), was strictly enforced by expelling students who dated or married outside of their own race. And finally, not even a year has passed (at this writing) since BJU President Dr. Stephen Jones “apologized” for the University’s many years of racial discrimination and segregation.  (I say “apologized” because Jones blamed the University’s racial policies on American culture and attitudes at the time.)

Now, back to the BJU Review, Fall 2009 – consider the racial make-up of the photos…

How many “Colored Christians” are contained in these color(ed) pages?

The BJU Review, Fall 2009 cover: 8 whites, 1 black

p.2: 7 whites

p.3: 7 whites

p.4: No people – street sign & NYC street view with Madame Tussauds visible.

p.5: Crowd of white BJU students in NYC

p.6: No people – shot of 9/11 Gallery & sermons available on CD

p.7: Group of 10 white BJU students

p.8 & 9: 5 white faculty/staff members

p.10: 3 white people

p.11: 13 white businessman (speakers for the “Biblical Business Ethics” forum)

p.12: 1 white university President – sans goatee

p.13: [in the “fold”] 4 white students on “find out more” promo material, also itineraries for various BJU “big-shots”, personnel & reps

p.14: No people – “Sacred Audio.com” article text (uh-oh – BJU is using a Jesus Fish)

p.15: 13 white people, ½ black girl (most of face covered with hymnal)

p.16: 2 white people

p.17: 2 white people

p.18: Crowd of white BJU students in regalia

p.19: 1 black female student smiling

p.20: Approximately 15 white students in regalia, 1 Asian, 1 black student

p.21: No people – “Know Your Campus?” – trivia about BJU campus

p.22: 1 white person

p.23: No people – buy BJU logo items (fleece blanket & water bottle) at the BJU Campus Store

Back Cover: 2 white students

 

So, the final tally is: 1 Asian,  3 ½ Black,  100 + White people.

The rules may have changed at Bob Jones University, but if the BJU Review is any indicator, the look of the University has remained the same.

Lets look at some BJU Reviews of the past:

BJU Review Winter 1991 – 1 Asian, 2 Black (1 is not a student)

 

 

BJU Review Spring 1992 – 2 Black (neither are students)

 

 

So, what did I expect? A multi-cultural paradise where “Colored Christians” and regular (i.e., white) Christians study, learn, mingle, date and, eventually, produce the next generation of caramel-colored Bob Jones University students?

Well, yes – actually – that would’ve been nice.

But the truth is there are too many people at BJU who loved the University just the way it was – and they will quietly make sure it stays that way.

PepsiCo & Frito-Lay Back Religion in Public School

“Let him that stole, steal!  No more let him labour working with his hands.  The thing, which is good, that he may have.” ~ an intentional mis-reading of Ephesians 4:28 (KJV)

It’s rare for a large conglomerate like PepsiCo, which owns Frito-Lay, Inc., to grant permission for use of their logo to raise funds for such a divisive issue as public prayer in public schools.

c. 2000 - "The Joy of Cola"

But, apparently, the same company that set Michael Jackson’s hair on fire and used the svelte teenaged body of Britney Spears to promote its product has seen The Light.  No more will PepsiCo be seen as a promoter of homosexuality, gay marriage or any such thing that would cause your average Baptist to have a holy conniption fit – no.  PepsiCo, through its Frito-Lay Brand has decided who drinks the most soda and who eats the most potato chips.

It’s those Christians.

Yeah – that’s right – while all the Pagans and ACLU lawyers are consuming large quantities of Budweiser & Stella Artois (what attorneys drink) hanging out at Hooters, Christians everywhere, but especially in Northwest Florida, are curling up in their Snuggies with a 12-Pack of Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos and watching Kirk Cameron in his latest Christian flick.

Who knew?

Well, apparently the Big Money Marketing Minds at PepsiCo did.  They spotted this trend last year and decided to get on board with the Religion of the Fish.

So, when the Frank Lay prayer case popped up in January of this year – why it was a God-send (literally) for Frito-Lay and they wasted no time granting permission for Pace High School to have a local T-shirt company (Paradise Screenprinting in Milton, Florida) knock off the Frito-Lay logo.

What’s really clever is that each printed T-shirt looks like a bag of Lay’s potato chips!  They’re bright yellow and across the front is the “Lay’s” logo, unaltered, with the sunflower art as a subtle reminder that Lay’s chips use the healthier sunflower oil.

Ingenious!  No wonder the Mad Men at PepsiCo & Frito-Lay earn the enormous salaries that they do – they deserve it.  Again, bravo!

So, this past Friday (Sept. 18) when the Frank Lay Prayer Case made national news, the bright yellow “Lay’s” logo was associated with preserving religion in public schools, creation taught as science in the classroom and teachers having the right to preach and proselytize students while in public school.

Makes me want to run to Wal-mart, grab a big bag of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, a 2-Litre Pepsi and a copy of The Purpose Driven Life.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – and you’re wrong.

Actual Lay's logo

You’re probably thinking that the students at Pace High School didn’t ask for permission to use the Lay’s logo and just had Paradise Screenprinting rip it off (otherwise known as “stealing”).  Any reputable screen printing company would know that they could be sued for “unauthorized use”, so I’m sure that didn’t happen.  And besides, what little screen printing business would want to tangle with PepsiCo?

Besides, these people from Pace High were Christians – and, if I remember right, out of over 600-and-some-odd commandments God gave, one of them was and still is, “Thou shalt not steal” – and using a company’s intellectual and artistic property without permission and making money from that theft is certainly stealing.

Oh, I know – other Christians have done it.

We’ve all seen the bootlegged Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes praying at the foot of The Cross – clearly a violation of Bill Watterson’s copyright.  (Watterson has never authorized any images of Calvin and Hobbes for anything – so if you see Calvin wizzing on a Chevy, it’s a bootleg.)  Oh, and the use of the Coca-Cola-style lettering spelling out “Jesus Christ” – clearly unauthorized use, since Jesus never made anything other than wine.

Lately, the music industry has frowned upon having their artist’s property stolen without due compensation and has actually sued individuals for downloading music illegally.  So, if PepsiCo – Frito-Lay, Inc. decided to sue individuals for stealing their intellectual and artist property, the suit would not be without precedent.

But is it really stealing if it’s for a good cause?

Depends on what the definition of “good” is.

“Situational Ethics” – that’s in the Bible somewhere…right?

Experience Christianity’s Dark Side

Soldiers of Christ, lay hold

On faith’s victorious shield:

Armed with that adamant and gold,

Be sure to win the field:

If faith surround your heart,

Satan shall be subdued:

Repelled his every fiery dart,

And quenched with Jesus’ blood.

~ Charles Wesley, from the Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1878

Santa Rosa School Board Member, representing District 4, JoAnn Simpson, is the woman who brought attention to the fact that Pace High School Principal H. Frank Lay asked a school employee and subordinate (Robert Freeman) to “bless the food” at a January school-related luncheon where students were present.

Since the time it was known that she, JoAnn Simpson, was the “whistle-blower” in the case, JoAnn Simpson has required the protection of U. S. Marshals. Her family has been harassed, threatened and they refuse to open unknown packages received in the mail.

JoAnn Simpson (Stone's Studio Photo)

To clarify; after witnessing the “blessing” at the school related luncheon, Simpson didn’t reach for her cell phone and immediately call the ACLU. No. She followed proper procedure and brought the prayer to the attention of the Santa Rosa Superintendent of Schools, Tim Wyrosdick. Simpson was aware of the recently signed “Admission of Liability” and was concerned that Lay asking Freeman to “bless the food” constituted a violation of that signed agreement with the U. S. District Court and the ACLU. (Which, of course it did – but the recent hoopla was over Frank Lay’s intentions: Did he purposely and overtly violate the signed Agreement? Judge Rodgers determined Lay did not.)

“I didn’t want to go into a lawsuit, didn’t want this to occur. I expected we could take care of it in-house,” Simpson said.*

Simpson is unaware of how her identity as the Whistle-Blower seeped out into the local Pace community or how the ACLU got her name. Even with all of the persecution, harassment, fear, threats and ‘round the clock protection, Simpson said she does not regret her actions and would do it again.

Simpson: “It’s been hard, but I would do it again, because it’s my job.”

JoAnn Simpson is not some newly elected rebel trying to “shake things up” – she is a 14 year veteran of the Santa Rosa School Board. She still has three years left in her term, and Simpson is determined to serve them out, but many in her district want her out now. Simpson, who like the rest of the district, is conservative and religious. A devout Catholic, she never dreamed that she would be an object of scorn and ridicule for Christians across the nation.

Simpson: “I’m a very religious person, [a] devout Catholic, [I] believe in prayer.”

Oh – Ms. Simpson – these “Christians” you’re dealing with and who would like to see harm done to you and/or your family – don’t really believe Catholics are Christians. At least not “Christian” like they are “Christian.” In fact, at the courthouse protest rally in support of Lay & Freeman, the only person shouted down by the crowd was a clean-cut young man in a “dog collar” – he appeared to be a Catholic priest.**

These groups supporting Lay & Freeman were overwhelmingly Protestant – not Catholic.

It may shock some Catholics, but Baptist churches still teach that the Pope, the Holy Father, is always a candidate for the Apocalyptic “Anti-Christ” that will appear, unite the world, kill most of the Jews and finally be cast alive into the “Lake of Fire” by a personal appearance of Jesus Christ. (Because of the “bad press” surrounding these teachings, some Baptists shy away from calling Catholics “followers of anti-Christ” – they’ve turned to condemning Islam instead, which is much more palatable in light of our current situation.)

Why, it was just a few years ago that I heard Frank Lay’s pastor, Dr. Ted Traylor of Olive Baptist Church, proclaim that the Pope was actually a Baptist. Why? Because the Pope went directly to God for forgiveness of sin, just like a Baptist would.

If you ask an honest Protestant: Are Catholics saved? (By “saved” I mean “born again” or on their way to Heaven.) Most honest Protestants will answer, “Well, there are saved Catholics…”

So, Ms. Simpson, when these Protestant Christians torment you, they are acting as “Christian Soldiers” quenching the fiery darts of Satan. They consider you a Satanic tool and so justify their very un-Christ-like actions. They consider you to be like Judas; walking closely with the Lord, but secretly serving the Devil.

According to a WEAR-TV3 interview, JoAnn Simpson “hopes now that the trial is over, tempers will cool, and things will get back to normal in Santa Rosa County.”

Simpson: “What kind of message are we giving our children? That if you don’t like a rule or law that you can protest or threaten somebody instead of going through the courts?

“What concerned me was that some child was going to get hurt simply because of being overzealous. I’ve had a parent tell me she was afraid her child would get into a fight in school.

“Hopefully people will take a breath, say ‘I understand your point’…then you can have dialogue…”

I wouldn’t hold your breath, Ms. Simpson.

Oh, and I would hang on to those U. S. Marshals…

 

*[Thanks to WEAR-TV3 reporter Laurie Bernstein. All JoAnn Simpson quotes are from Ms. Bernstein’s exclusive interview with Ms. Simpson on 9/17/09. ~ Ekta]

**[He was and his name is Rev. Nathan Monk, Pastor, St. Faustina Old Catholic Church, Pensacola.]

Frank Lay Won? Really?

H. Frank Lay - sittin' pretty

Outside the Federal Courthouse in Pensacola, Florida, there emerged victorious Pace High School Principal H. Frank Lay, smiling and waving to the assembled crowd, most of which were; A) skipping school, B) skipping work or C) unemployed. Some of the supporters actually lived in Florida – others came across state lines to; A) get on TV, B) go to the beach on Friday, or C) find a job in Florida.

Question is – since Frank Lay was let off the hook by U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers (because there was not enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Lay intentionally violated the Admission of Liability he signed in December 2008) then preaching, proselytizing and prayer are back “in” at Pace High School, a.k.a., “the Baptist School.”

Right?

After 9 hours of debate and 10 witnesses, Judge Rodgers said no. She stood by her previous orders, upholding case law that prohibits prayer in school.

Rodgers made it clear that “the unconstitutional promoting of religion by public school officials will not be tolerated.”

The only thing that was saved was Principal H. Frank Lay’s butt spending quality time in jail bunking with “Dr. Dino” (Kent Hovind) behind bars.

And what of H. Frank Lay?

Now that he has stood up for his principles and fought the Evil ACLU, surely he, the truly awesome super-Christian, Frank Lay, will be leading prayers at Pace High – right?

Let’s hear from our intrepid leader:

Location: exterior, Federal Courthouse, Pensacola, Florida

Time: early evening, approximately, 6:45 pm, Sept. 17, 2009

- Dan Thomas (WEAR-TV3, Pensacola) – “Principal Lay, are you sorry that prayer took place in this incident?”

- Lay: “I’m not…”

- Horatio Mihet/Lay’s lawyer (forcibly interrupting before his client ends up back in court): “Let’s just focus on the victory today.”

Later, apparently, Frank Lay and his attorney, Julio Iglesias – I mean, Horatio Mihet (an attorney for the Falwell backed-Reverend Moon funded-Liberty Counsel), must have had a long talk, because by the time the channel 3 news came on at 10:00 pm, Principal Lay had all of the right responses – for someone who wants to stay out of court:

"We regret that it caused such consternation."

[Quotes from an interview with Lay and his attorney Mihet by Dan Thomas, reporter for WEAR-TV3, Pensacola. The interview took place in front of Lay’s home. Dan Thomas’ questions have been omitted, because they were all about the same – “Do you regret praying?  and ect... ~ Ekta]

Thomas question…

- Lay: “We will be honoring the consent decree.”

Thomas question…

- Lay: “We’re just excited about the fact that we’ve been exonerated by Judge Rodgers. We appreciate her graciousness and we intend to comply with the consent decree.”

Thomas question…

- Lay: “We regret the fact that it caused such consternation. We realize now that we have to honor the consent decree.”

The same Thomas question…

- Lay: “Well – [interruption by yelling of supporters] – ha, ha – Can you rephrase your question again?”

Again, the same Thomas question…

- Lay: “We regret what resulted from it” [the prayer].

Final Thomas question to Lay…

- Lay: “We will comply with the consent decree – there’ll be some adjustments made” [at Pace High School].

I’m no brain surgeon, but it seems to me like Principal Lay intends to “comply with the consent decree.”

Score one for the ACLU.

Now – some lingering questions:

1) Was Santa Rosa County public school transportation (buses, vans, etc.) used to transport Santa Rosa County students to the courthouse?

FritoLay, Inc. - supporter of school prayer?

2) Did Frito-Lay, Inc (or PepsiCo) authorize the use of their “Lay’s” trademark for use on printed and sold T-shirts supporting Frank Lay? Does Frito-Lay, Inc. (PepsiCo) support overturning the ban on prayer in public schools?

3) Did the students who elected to stay in school in Santa Rosa County and did not attend the federal courthouse protest & vigil receive proper education and supervision? Were they “singled out” or treated differently in any way?

4) Were Pace High School students told they could miss school (wink, wink) and support Lay with no consequences by their teachers or by the school staff?

Just asking.

Religion as a Tool

“WHEREFORE, Defendants, SCHOOL BOARD FOR SANTA ROSA COUNTY, FLORIDA, JOHN ROGERS, in his official capacity as Superintendent of the School District of Santa Rosa County, Florida and H. FRANK LAY, in his official capacity as Principal of Pace High School, notifies the Court that they admit liability in this action, acknowledge that Plaintiffs are entitled to certain relief and hereby request an order setting a scheduling conference and staying all discovery.

The Defendants here have admitted liability and have requested the Court’s assistance in resolving the only remaining issue; Plaintiffs’ entitlement to relief.” ~ text from the “Defendants Notice of Admission of Liability” filed December 15, 2008 before the U.S. District Court, Northern Florida.

“To think that a person can be held in criminal contempt for asking someone to say a prayer, it really concerns me and many members of Congress.” ~ Representative Jeff Miller, Republican, Chumuckla, Florida, September 16, 2009

Is there anything more despicable than a politician using religion to pander to his constituents? The religionists I despise the most are the ones that use the fear and mystery of religion to empower themselves.

For example – Congressman Jeff Miller inserting himself and his 54 Congressional “Prayer Buddies” into the Frank Lay/Robert Freeman case. In a letter addressed to Lay and Freeman, the “Congressional Prayer Caucus” totally gets it wrong. From the letter dated 9/14/09:

“…to charge someone criminally for engaging in such an innocent practice would astonish the men who founded this country on religious liberty.”

And these guys represent us – represent me – gah!

The issue, Representative Miller, is not prayer! The issue is one man [Lay] violating an Admission of Liability that he [Lay] signed along with his supervisor and employer before a U.S. District Court. And, the same undersigned man [Lay] had a subordinate [Freeman] violate the above mentioned court ordered agreement between the Plaintiffs and the Defendants. That, Representative Miller, is the issue. It’s not prayer – it’s not a prayer – it’s a man [Lay] going back on his word and, on his own, violating a previously signed agreement – oh – and then going around town shooting his mouth off about it.  If Lay’s convictions were such, why did he sign in the first place?  Why isn’t he employed at a private religious school?

Yes, Congessman Miller, the Founders of this country would be astonished. Astonished that we have publically funded (government) education.  Astonished that non-religious folk are forced to subsidize unwarranted and unwanted preaching, proselytizing and promotion of religion within that publically funded school system.

Here in the rusting Bible Belt, no politician stays in office very long unless he thumps his Bible every once in a while. This is Jeff Miller’s opportunity to pound his Bible, stamp his feet and proclaim from the mountain tops that he loves Jesus. With Congressional approval ratings nearly in single digits, unemployment rising, costs going up, war dragging on and Congress spending us into oblivion – nothing works better at distracting the voters from the real issues than good ol’ Bible thumping.

Some of us see you for what you are, Congressman Miller – a religious “puffer fish.”

Tomorrow (9/17), Lay & Freeman go to court. They’re already heroes in the eyes of religionists, so the outcome of the case will only serve to justify Lay & Freeman’s convictions (and make a mockery of signing the Admission of Liability) or make of them martyrs (and true religious liberty suffers another set back).

Either way we lose.

Ode to Ivan

M*A*S*H, Season 1, “The Army-Navy Game”, Feb. 25, 1973

A change of subject – I can’t let this anniversary go by…

As I write this at 10:20 PM, September 15, 2009, five years ago at this time, my family and I were about to lose our electricity; when the power did go off at 10:30 PM, September 15, 2004, it would not be restored for two weeks.

After the lights went out, we spent a few minutes lighting candles and lamps. Various flashlights were passed out, making sure that my two kids (14 and 11) each had one of their own. We started out in the center of the living room, sitting as we normally would on the couches and chairs, but eventually the steady wind of the approaching hurricane called “Ivan” grew to a thundering roar, driving all of us into the hallway – supposedly the strongest part of the house.

For six long, dark hours, the steady roar of Ivan shook our single-story brick home. Sitting on the carpeted hallway floor, you could feel the concrete slab below vibrate. As the roar of the hurricane’s wind increased to an other-worldly shriek, it was then I heard the immortal words of Major Frank Burns repeated by my son: “Dad – I think we should evacuate.”

It’s funny now, but at the time I thought we were all going to die.

We didn’t – in fact, my family and I were extremely fortunate. Yes, we had some roof and ceiling damage – lost some trees – but no one was hurt. Others in Pensacola were not so fortunate.

Listen – I grew up in Illinois and went through a direct hit by a tornado on December 15, 1971 – but that experience pales in comparison to what Hurricane Ivan was like. I went through Hurricanes Erin and Opal back in 1995 – but Ivan was a totally different beast – a beast you could actually hear as it tore the shingles and sheeting from your home’s roof.

Ivan’s aftermath was incredible. Even today, if you know where to look, you can still see Ivan damage.

And Ivan was classified as only a category 3 storm when the eye made landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama.

My, God! What would a category 5 be like?!

Next time, I think I will evacuate…

The home before Ivan.

The home after Ivan.

Seaside, Florida - beach before Ivan.

Same stretch of beach after Ivan.

Lay & Freeman’s Legal Defense Fundraiser…

Principal H. Frank Lay and Robert Freeman were absent from their Legal Defense Fundraiser on Thursday, September 10th in Chumuckla, Florida at the Farmer’s Opry & Campground.

That’s right – it’s not just an Opry – it’s a Campground, too.

In attendance were more than 500 people “assembled in the rain-dampened lawn of the Farmers’ Opry in rural Chumuckla. They feasted on hamburgers and boiled peanuts. They listened to bluegrass and gospel music. They bowed their heads. They prayed.  They said ‘Amen.’” [Pensacola News Journal, 09/11/09]

Admission to the event was $10 a head. T-shirts in support of Lay & Freeman were for sale at the event with all of the incoming loot going toward the Frank Lay & Robert Freeman Defense Fund.

So, 500 people at $10 a head – would be – hmm – hold on – I’m not that good at cipherin’…

The absent Frank Lay and Robert Freeman did not speak, of course, but in their stead several local ministers spoke, including Rev. Joey Rogers of the Charismatic/Pentecostal, Perry Stone loving, Tongue-Speaking Pace Assembly of God and Dr. Ted Traylor of the huge Southern Baptist Convention Church, Olive Baptist Church where every Sunday, Olive’s African-American “Minister of Music” struggles to get all of those White Southern Baptists to clap their hands and “testify.”

Pastor Traylor, Frank Lay's pastor

The local ministers were able to speak with no fear of court-ordered retaliation – none of the ministers are employed by the Santa Rosa School District – they are private citizens exercising their First Amendment right; the freedom of speech. These ministers, Rogers, Traylor, Wiggins, Cotten, Godfrey, etc., can encourage civil disobedience all they want – they are protected. But for the rest of us, not employed by a tax-exempt church, there are consequences for our actions, both overt and covert.

Principal Lay & Robert Freeman, however, are employed by the government/public school system and are bound by its rules of conduct, contracts with employees and agreements with the U.S. District Court – which is what got these two in trouble in the first place. It wasn’t “a prayer” – it was an act of overt defiance and disobedience toward Lay & Freeman’s employer and a violation of a U. S. District Court’s order. This isn’t about “school prayer” – that was settled in 1960 – this is about the misbehavior of an employee and his subordinate followed by more insubordination while representing the highest position at Pace High School, a publicly funded government school.

It would be legal suicide for Lay and/or Freeman to attend the event in Chumuckla – and that’s why they weren’t there.

Apparently Lay & Freeman are listening to their attorney – or they’re cowards.

Speaking of “keeping quiet”, there has been no open support for either Lay or Freeman from the Santa Rosa School Board. Of course this doesn’t mean that the school board doesn’t support Lay & Freeman, it just means that, unlike Frank Lay, school board members are wise enough to keep their mouths shut.

Principal Frank Lay’s most vocal supporter is a man named Robert Smith, an independent insurance agent from Milton, Florida. Smith is the brains behind the “Lay Legal Defense Fund” and a long time friend of Lay. Back in 2005, Smith headed up “Citizens Against Legalizing Liquor” – this was a group that fought hard to keep Santa Rosa County “dry” – meaning no hard liquor or wine could be sold or served in the county. Smith was allied with every conservative church in Santa Rosa County, raised support to fight becoming “wet”, but ultimately lost in September 2005.

But Robert Smith does have a connection to the Santa Rosa School Board – it’s a tenuous one, but it’s there. From the Santa Rosa School Board minutes:

“Motion by Mrs. Coleman, second by Mr. Gray, approving the appointment of Robert Smith as the board’s business owner representative on the Value Adjustment Board. Motion carried unanimously. DONE AND ORDERED IN LEGAL SESSION by the School Board of Santa Rosa County this 14th day of August, 2008 A. D.

The board also needs to appoint a citizen and business owner of Santa Rosa County to serve on the County Value Adjustment Board. The board agreed to ask if Mr. Robert Smith was willing, they would like him to continue to serve as the second board representative on the County Value Adjustment Board. DONE AND ORDERED IN LEGAL SESSION by the School Board of Santa Rosa County this 25th day of June, 2009 A. D.”

[By way of explanation – Any discrepancy found by the owner on their Santa Rosa County Appraised Value of property is welcome to be clarified at the Santa Rosa Property Appraisal office. If yet, one is not satisfied with the Santa Rosa Property Appraisal clarifications then one can approach the County Value Adjustment Board of which Robert Smith is a member.]

I would think that the Santa Rosa School Board would cut ties with Smith who obviously disagrees with the School Board’s agreement and “admission of liability” with the ACLU and the U. S. District Court. Depending on the ultimate outcome of this case, Robert Smith could end up costing the Santa Rosa School District some money – maybe lots of monies…

Meanwhile, when not selling overpriced homeowner’s insurance, Smith is planning his next gathering. From the Smith Insurance website & legal defense fund September 2, 2009 blog:

“We have been in discussions with the City of Pensacola in regards to assembling in downtown Sept 17 for the trial [of Lay & Freeman]. The police department and the city managers office has [sic] told us we do not need any permits. They said we have the Constitutional right of assembly. They will require that no traffic be impeded and all streets remain clear. We can gather across the street from the federal courthouse and on the sidewalks.

The U S Marshall’s office informs us that no one will be allowed to stand on the courthouse steps or inside the courthouse. Please encourage anyone and everyone you know to come to downtown Pensacola to show support for Frank and Robert!! It would be wonderful to have several thousand to show up. If Michelle Winkler’s trial is any indication, this could be an all day event. People attending may want to think about bringing folding chairs, cold drinks and something to eat.

For those of you that may not be aware, parking in downtown Pensacola is somewhat limited. You will need to bring some quarters as the parking meters only use quarters.”

Oh, and don’t forget your T-shirts, Bibles, banjos and boiled peanuts.

Kodachrome: R.I.P.?

News of the possible death of Kodachrome film has me feeling a bit nostalgic — and really old.

Kodachrome 25 was the film to use if you wanted sharpness, fine grain and brilliant color.  The film was slow in its ultimate form — in bright sun, and following the “rule of thumb” exposure guide, the shutter speed was 1/30th of a second at f/16.  It was expensive compared to color negative film.  The Pro version of Kodachrome had to be refrigerated to retain its freshness.  Yeah — you had a lot invested in the image — you had to work at it — blowing the shot cost you money.

Circa 1980:  Sitting in an undergrad camera class in the university I attended, I remember my photography teacher (the head cinematographer at the university’s motion picture film unit) making fun of of some early attempts at making 35mm still cameras auto-focus.  The early units were bulky and didn’t work very well.  They were slow, cumbersome and inaccurate — besides, we laughed, who would want or need auto-focus?  While we were yucking it up in camera class, the camera class teacher, Mr. Ramsey, suggested that what the camera companies really needed to do was come up with an “auto-composition” camera…

“Can you imagine?”, Mr. Ramsey said, “A camera that, if you don’t want someone or something where it is in the frame, just move it.  For example, if the Sun’s in the wrong place, just move it where it needs to be!  The camera and you just rearrange all of the elements of the image until perfect composition is achieved!”  We all laughed.  How ridiculous!  And…we all blindly got back to studying reciprocity failure, grain technology, push/pull processing, matte shots….

Uh-huh — Mr. Ramsey had just described what we now know as Photoshop.

At the time, almost 30 years ago, now, my fellow classmates and I had no idea that computers, software and CCD’s would ever invade, take-over and re-make our photographic world.  Sure, we used computers at the time — with a card reader.  We had a few IBM PC’s, but we used them as electronic file cabinets or, in the case of our multi-image productions (with over 30 individual slide projectors + motion picture projectors and effects) as very fast and accurate switching units.  Never would have imagined that the images themselves would be stored (eventually) in the PC itself.

In a realtively short time, digital’s takeover of analog photography has reached the highest levels.  Kodak, whose only worry used to be Fuji Film “dumping” inexpensive film onto the US market, now has to worry about its very survival as a company.  (And some of us who concentrated on the lab side of analog photography are doing the same — fighting to survive.)

There are probably more images captured now than ever before in history — and that’s a good thing for the art of photography…

…but I just don’t have much invested in the image, anymore — especially since I can “fix it later.”

Faith & Film, Part 1

It may be all coincidental, or it may be God, either way the results are the same.

It’s 2008, October and I haven’t given my alma mater any thought in years, but lately, the name “Bob Jones University” has been popping up in the most unlikely of places — like I said, coincidence?  Maybe it’s time for me to come clean about my time there.

1978, September – I didn’t really decide to go to Bob Jones University (I’m not sure too many kids do) it was decided for me — waaaay back before I could even hold a #2 pencil.  Somewhere, in my parents’ vast collection of family photos are shots of me, around 3 years-old wearing a Bob Jones University sweatshirt.  Everyone I knew went there.  The majority of our guest speakers at church went there.  We heard traveling Bob Jones University music ensembles every year at church — and, sometimes, the ensemble members stayed in our house.  So, it was no surprise to me when I ended up enrolled as a 17 year-old freshman that September in 1978.  I started out majoring in Broadcast Engineering — anything and everything having to do with radio & television broadcasting but mostly it was electronics — then switched to, what BJU called “Cinema”, which was anything and everything to do with still and movie photography.

The academics, the courses of study, the hands-on experience and the teachers (with one or two exceptions) were great.  No real complaints.  My life revolved around my Cinema major — and the Cinema major revolved around Unusual Films, BJU’s film production unit.  I could draw (a little) so somehow I ended up in the animation & titling & multi-image department, laboring away in the animation room all day, creating “cels”, shooting titles, duplicating slides or creating effects for the multi-projector, multi-image shows.  I had no problem staying on the Dean’s List and I earned the limit in “co-curricular” credits (unpaid labor for Unusual Films on university projects.)  Great work, great teaching and great friends.

So — where’s the problem?

BJU Concert Center stage crew 1979

The problem was religion.  Bob Jones University believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible — word for word, cover to cover.  With that belief came a conservative, southern, Baptist perspective (not Southern Baptist, but southern, Baptist — don’t confuse the two)- short hair (for the men), long hair & skirts & hats (for the girls), no physical contact between the sexes, no interracial dating, no mixed bathing, no rock music or jazz or “Christian” rock music, drinking alcohol was evil — you get the picture.  Disobedience was considered “rebellion”, and rebellion was equal to the sin of witchcraft.  You think you could escape to the refuge and privacy of your dorm room?  Ha!  The dorm room system was set up to catch suspected rebels.  A typical dorm room consisted of a minimum of three roommates, one was designated by the university as the “spiritual leader”, also known as an APC (Assistant Prayer Captain.)  Rooms were grouped in fours with three APCs and one room containing a PC (Prayer Captain.)  The PC reported to the Hall Monitor (two on a hall), the Hall Monitors reported to the Dorm Supervisor (one per dorm) and the Dorm Supe reported to the Dean of Men.  In short, each dorm room had an embedded university snitch waiting to pounce if you showed any hint of nonconformity.

And pounce they did.  More than once I found myself down in the basement apartment of various Dorm Supervisors in, I might add, the cliche’ darkened room, with the lamp in my eyes while being interrogated as to the condition of my eternal soul.  Why?  My freshman year I refused to go on “extension” (the university’s local missionary-type out-reach program – supposedly optional for students to participate), my sophomore year I was caught listening to “unchecked” (university unapproved) music (it was “The Carpenters”), my junior year it was for “Major Horseplay” (pulled a great prank on another room -ok- I deserved that one) and my senior year…

…oh yes, my senior year…now, we have to take a slight detour and talk about The United States v. Bob Jones University , a. k. a., BJU’s long standing policy on race and interracial dating.

Faith & Film, Part 2

During my senior year, 1981-1982, Bob Jones University chapel messages shifted from the typical Biblical exhortations to providing the local or national mainstream media sound-bites defending the history and current status (i.e., the banning of interracial dating or marriage) of BJU.  It was a joke among students that the news-media cameras perched in the balcony of the Founder’s Memorial Amphitorium (FMA) stayed on just long enough to catch the Doctor’s Bob (Junior or the Third) saying something outrageous.  And the Bob’s did not disappoint.  One of my favorites was Dr. Bob III defending the interracial dating rule:

“There’s no discrimination here.  Why at Bob Jones University, whites can date whites, blacks can date blacks, brown can date browns, yellows can date yellows, greens can date greens, purples can date purples…” (laughter from the audience)

In 1980, Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan spoke from the same chapel platform used by the Doctor’s Bob in the FMA.  Reagan and Mrs. Nancy Reagan waved as they strode down Aisle 7 on their way to the pulpit. 

Ronald Reagan on the BJU campus

Reagan stopped to shake a few outreached hands of students, my hand being one of the outreached and one lucky enough to be shaken by the man BJU had pinned many hopes on.  (As an aside, during Reagan’s speech to the BJU students, faculty and staff, Nancy Reagan started coughing and couldn’t stop.  When it became apparent Mrs. Reagan couldn’t control her coughing, Dr. Bob III literally ran off the platform and brought her a glass of water.)  Reagan, of course, later went on to defeat Carter and was inaugurated in 1981 — the same day the Iranian Hostages were freed.  It was a glorious time; the man who would save us all at BJU from the evil, oppressive IRS was now the Chief Executive.

That year, 1981, BJU asked their friend, and fellow Christian, President Ronald Reagan to help grant Bob Jones University tax exempt status in spite of the IRS’s contention that the university was practicing racial discrimination.  The answer of “yes” (early 1982) was announced in chapel as a huge victory for God’s people.  Thank God that He had seen fit to intervene and defeat Satan and protect His university, BJU.

But the Reagan Administration changed their collective minds after protests and objections raised by minorities and the news-media and some of Reagan’s close advisors.  Bob Jones III called Reagan a “traitor to God’s people” and referred to Reagan’s Vice President George H. W. Bush as “a devil.”  Now, the administration at BJU felt betrayed – betrayed by a man that they had helped get elected to the highest office in the land.

Later in 1982 (more specifically, the end of March), Secretary of State, former general Alexander Haig denied a visa to Dr. Bob Jr.’s close friend, fellow preacher and BJU honorary doctoral recipient, Dr. Ian Paisley of Northern Ireland.  To say this angered Dr. Bob, Jr. would be putting it mildly — way too mildly.  On Thursday, April 1 (appropriately enough), 1982, Dr. Bob, Jr. purposely waited to speak until the news-media cameras were up and ready and all attention was focused on him before launching into what sounded like an Old Testament curse against the enemies of the children of Israel.

Greenville, SC – The Chancellor of the fundamentalist Bob Jones University has urged students to pray, that the Lord “smite” Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and “destroy him quickly and utterly.”

“I am going to pray that God will get rid of that man.”  At a university chapel service Thursday, Jones…described Haig as a “monster in human flesh and a demon-possessed instrument to destroy America.”

“I hope you’ll pray that the Lord will smite him, hip and thigh, bone and marrow, heart and lungs and all there is to him, that he shall destroy him quickly and utterly.”                                                           ~ from the Philadelphia Inquirer, April 3, 1982.

I slipped as low as I could in my chapel seat, hoping the sweep of the national news cameras would miss me.

A disaster in the making... Dr. Bob, Jr. speaks to a reporter.

This outburst by Dr. Bob, Jr. was reported everywhere — Al Gore hadn’t invented the internet yet — so “everywhere” meant newspapers, magazines and the nightly news.  We had reporters from all outlets invading the campus.  Students were under orders not to speak to any reporters but to direct them to the Administration Building on front campus.  Any student who violated this order would be expelled (or “shipped” as it was called) -no questions asked.  The news show Nightline was in its infancy and I remember a broadcast from the lobby of Johnson Dormitory.  There were news stories about the university’s silly demerits, dress rules, hair standards, the fence around campus, the gates locking the students in at night and, of course, the university’s policy of no interracial marriage or dating, which was the real controversy.

Needless to say there was a lot of tension, anger, paranoia and suspicion on campus.  What a wonderful learning environment!

Meanwhile, and may I say, coincidentally, the BJU film department, Unusual Films, was in the middle of shooting a Christian-themed film called Beyond the Night.  This film was about a medical doctor/missionary who spent his time in Africa ministering and healing the African Muslims that live there.  To make some of the scenes realistic, the film required a lot of black people cast as extras.  As you may have guessed, we were a little short on black people at BJU.  We bussed some in from downtown Greenville – very cooperative individuals who didn’t mind helping the university out on a film project.  We were still short.  So, many hours were spent turning dark-eyed white students into dark-skinned Africans.  (I still remember the make-up tint – “Ebony 2.”)

Part of the film required desert scenes – difficult to find in northwestern South Carolina.  Fortunately, the university owned some farmland outside of Greenville and we cleared a few fields of any plant life, then covered the fields with trucked-in sand.  My job during this location shooting was to ride a horse (“Gideon” from another BJU film, Sheffey) at a particular distance from where our cinematographer (Wade Ramsey) was set up with his Eclair NPR (French made 16mm motion picture camera).  Through the camera and at a distance, me riding the horse looked similar to a camel and its hump.  My riding the horse allowed Mr. Ramsey to set-up and frame the shot so, when the animal trainer/handler showed up with his camels, there would be less time and work in setting up the cliche’ camels-walking-through-the-desert-at-a-distance-shot.  We (the faculty film crew and we eager film students) were on location out at the BJU farm for the better part of a week that April in 1982.  The weather was good, my senior film project was wrapping up, my grades were good (Dean’s List again) and, the best part, I was just three weeks from graduation.

What could go wrong?

Faith & Film, Part 3

Early April, 1982.  I’m a senior Cinema Major at Bob Jones University, three weeks from graduation.  Senior project on schedule (a film called CarTalk- long before “Click & Clack” on NPR had a show by the same name), grades good enough for the Dean’s List, plenty of cash (thanks to a part-time job off campus at Eckerd’s Drugs in McAllister Square) and I’m behind my 1977 model Brother electric typewriter putting together a resume’ for post-graduation…

…and I begin to consider the nationwide – no – worldwide attention the behavior and comments by the Chancellor and the President of Bob Jones University have garnered and I begin to worry…

Oh, yeah — four years plus into a BS degree at BJU and NOW I begin to worry!

I look at that line on my resume’, “EDUCATION: BS, 1982, Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC” and all I can hear is, “I hope you pray that the Lord will smite him, hip and thigh, bone and marrow,…demon-possessed…monster in human flesh…yadda, yadda, yadda…”

…and no one will hire me.  I’m unemployable because I went to a bigoted, southern, fundamentalist, religious, wack-o, nut-case, crazoid school!  Who would want to hire a cinema graduate of BJU — especially in the film production world?!  I’ve wasted four years of my life!  AAAAAhhhg!

Shooting EPT in the FMA

I was very down, depressed, so naturally I redoubled my efforts to make this education count for something.  I began working longer and longer periods at Unusual Films and at my part-time job at Eckerd’s.  I spent as little time as possible in my dorm room.  The more I stayed busy, the less depressed I became.  There were several nights where I worked through the night, sleeping in front of a machine or in my car or, in one case, on a light-table in the Animation Room.  That caught up with me in the form of 25 demerits and a scolding about my frizzy, long hair.  “Get it cut and don’t use your work at Unusual Films as an excuse!”  So, I got my hair cut – really short (thanks, Dave Nelson at “Style King”) – what was I going to do?  Graduation was so close I could smell it.

Turned out it didn’t matter what I did — the fix was in.

I never fit in at Bob Jones University.  I was never groomed properly — my hair was frizzy, curly, wind-blown and askew.  My clothes tended to be a mixture of corduroy and flannel shirts with brown, scuffed suede shoes.  My face was pale, freckled.  My eyes blue, unsure.  I certainly didn’t look like a Christian.  Not like all of those Christians in the Bob Jones University promotional material.  But it went deeper than that.  I was never a “Bo Jo” (a gung-ho, hard-core, pro-BJU person) on the inside.  Their positions on race and racial relations made me cringe.  So many times I remember sitting in chapel or in church and literally grimacing at some of the political and racial remarks made by the son of our esteemed founder Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. who died in 1968.  But I was polite, I worked hard, had a good memory and I could take a good test, so the administration at BJU let me stay…

…until they determined that I as a potential graduate of Bob Jones University was “not in keeping with the spirit of this institution.”

Friday, April 23, 1982.  The weather in the up-state was beautiful after a cold start – 75 degrees and partly cloudy.  Rain was forecast for the following Monday, but the weekend was looking beautiful.  The day before, Thursday, April 22, I had worked on location all day at the BJU farm for the Unusual Films Christian film Beyond the Night (riding a horse and pretending to be a camel – see Faith & Film, Part 2).  That night of April 22, I had been in bed about 30 minutes when I was told to get out of bed and go to the basement apartment of the Dorm Supervisor, a Mr. Doug Sprunger.  Sprunger was a small man with dark hair and beady dark eyes.  The eyes were not warm or “smiling”, but were cold and penetrating.  He sat me down around a small table and with my sophomore PC (James Witt of Delaware, Ohio) looking on, Sprunger began to question me about my awful and most un-BJU-like spiritual condition.  I was unmoved.  I thought the whole episode was ridiculous and besides, I was graduating in a couple of weeks…

10:53 AM the next day, April 23, 1982.  Chapel.  My BJU ID card was pulled by a hall monitor positioned just outside the aisle entry point by my assigned seat in the Founder’s Memorial Amphitorium (FMA).  My hair didn’t “check”, the monitor said.  Impossible, I thought.  I just had it cut on April 15th.  Even my frizzy, curly hair doesn’t grow that fast!

11:47 AM – after chapel.  Lunch.  But I couldn’t go to lunch without my BJU ID card.  So, in order to get my ID card back, I had to go to the Dean of Men’s office.  The Dean of Men in April of 1982 was a man named Tony Miller.  On this particular day, April 23, 1982, he hadn’t been on the job a year yet after taking over from retiring Dean of Men, Dr. William Liverman.  I didn’t know much about Tony Miller – other than he was the man who came and lectured us guys about the evils of masturbation – “Mr. M” is what I called him — but the “M” didn’t stand for Miller.  Tony Miller looked at me, said something about my hair being too long and I told him I had just had it cut and for the last three days I had been working on a film for the university and had not had the opportunity to get my hair looked at again –

It didn’t matter.  Up to that point I had never seen Tony Miller angry.  I was told to go into his office and wait.  I did.  (What choice did I have?  I was hungry and needed my ID card to eat.)  I was there about a half hour when Miller and Mr. Jim Berg, Dean of Students entered the office.

Let me just give you some Tony Miller quotes:

• “Why should we keep you in school another day?”
• “You are an infection.  An infection to the Body of Christ”
• “You are a subtle rebel”
• “You will feel remorse.” 
• “We don’t hate you, but we are going to humiliate you as much as possible.”

I was expelled — or in the BJU lingo, “shipped.”  None of the above quotes were included in my official college records.  The letter to my parents said I was expelled for three reasons:

1. Your son said, “That sticks out like a turd in a punch bowl.”  This is vulgar and makes a mockery of sin.
2. Also stated that, “BJU sure will be bad to have on my resume’ since Dr. Bob made those dumb comments about Alexander Haig and the government.”  This shows no loyalty to the institution.
3. Made a derogatory comment about university Vespers.  This is not in keeping with the spirit of this Christian institution.

After being expelled, I was assigned a Hall Monitor to accompany me while I packed my bags.  This guy, Tom Pennington from Mobile, Alabama, was supposed to keep me from harming myself or others.  All I wanted to do was pack my booger green 1974 Ford Galaxie 500 and get the hell off campus.

And that’s exactly what I did.

For the first time I was proud that I was not a “Bo Jo.”

Oh, but there’s more…

Faith & Film, Part 4

April 23, 1982, late afternoon – On the campus of the “Fortress of Faith”, Bob Jones University, a memo from the Dean of Men’s Office is dictated to the secretarial pool (no such thing as email, remember?) located deep in the bowels of the Administration Building.  This voice memo is listened to by one of the typists, hired because of her trustworthiness and discretion, and promptly and uneventfully transcribed to the appropriate color of paper for memos of this sort.  The carbon is pulled, torn in two and multiple copies of the dictated memo are on their way; one to the Welcome Center (where the Office of Campus Security is located) and the other…to the Unusual Films Photo Lab.

Huh?  The Photo Lab?

That’s right.  You see, when a BJU student is expelled, the on-campus security personnel are notified that the expelled student is now persona non grata — banned from being on campus — for any reason.  Not even to see family members.  So in order to recognized the now banned student…yes, you get it now.  The Photo Lab.

Campus mail drops off the late afternoon mail at the Photo Lab where Miss Alice Cromley, BJU employee for–forever, collects the mail and gives the memo high priority.  The student’s name and BJU student ID number are noted and one of the trusted staff Photo Lab employees goes to the shelves where the rolls of long roll, 70mm, Kodak Vericolor negatives are stored.  Matching the student name/number up with a roll and camera card number, the staff photo technician pulls the appropriate can of film from the shelf.  Walking to a light table positioned under to sets of opposing rewinds, he loads the film and rolls to the correct camera card number.  There will be a minimum of three poses to choose from, but the one the photo-lab worker is interested in is the center pose – the pose with the student directly facing the camera.  Not damaging or cutting the roll, the lab tech removes it from the rewinds and goes into the darkroom.  In the dim glow of the overhead orange-ish safe-lights, he loads the film into a long roll neg-holder and slides it into the enlarger.  Within minutes several wallet-sized (3″x5″) black and white prints are made and after drying, sent to Campus Security, Administration and one print is pasted into a large black binder called “The Honor Roll” by the faculty/staff Photo Lab employees.

By 5:00 PM, Eastern Time, April 23, 1982, a student, in this case, me, a senior who had spent three weeks short of four years (plus one semester in summer school) is gone.  His picture at the Welcome Center to prohibit any re-entry onto the BJU campus, Campus Security notified, alerted and any remnants of the expelled student’s presence ex-sponged.

If it were only that easy to expell BJU and their warped brand of fundamentalism from my mind…

…and we continue…

Faith & Film, Part 5 (Black & White)

What role did the campus-wide atmosphere of paranoia, suspicion and anger play in my expulsion?  Truth is, I’ll never really know.  I do know, however, that there was a tremendous “purge” of undesirable students during the first half of Tony Miller’s (Dean of Men) regime.  We had “hall meetings”  in every dormitory, male dorms and female dorms, encouraging us to “turn in” students that violated any  university policy, whether it be a minor offense, such as dress code violations, to serious offenses like drinking alcohol anywhere.  Also, if you where aware of another student violating the rules and said nothing, if the violator was caught and “turned you in”, you received the same punishment – even if it was expulsion.  This explains why certain dormitories lost so many students, entire rooms were vacant (i.e., Johnson Dorm early 1982.)  Some rooms lost every student but one – why?  Because “the one” that stayed was “the one” who turned in his/her roommates to avoid possible punishment of him/her self.

Even discussing the merits of the university’s policies on race, religion or politics was off limits.  Saying out loud that you disagreed with the stance BJU took on a certain issue was punishable as “insubordination” and came with 50 demerits (75 demerits got you “campused”- prohibited from leaving the campus grounds, 150 demerits got you expelled.)  There were a lot of students that couldn’t afford the 50 demerits, so if university administration policy was discussed, it was sotto voce  and with only trusted, proven comrades.  To say that Bob Jones University was anxious to expel those students who didn’t tow the university line was an understatement.

Inside the FMA - stand up and be counted!

On several occasions in 1981 and 1982, the assembled faculty, staff and student body was asked to “stand with the university” through its time of persecution by the evil government of the United States and the oppressive Internal Revenue Service.  When they said “stand” they meant stand- get up out of your Amphitorium seat and stand !  When I was present at these assemblies or services (I missed some because of Unusual Films work and working off-campus) I didn’t stand because I did not agree with the policies.  It was my opinion (still is my opinion) that BJU and in particular, Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., was unnecessarily provoking the IRS and the U.S. government.  Was my remaining seated during these “stand up” requests noted by the university administration?  All I can say is I looked very conspicuous remaining seated while all around me students were standing.

Here’s some background; I’m a white Anglo-Saxon protestant from rural central Illinois.  The county I lived in had a total population of around 10,000 people, all of which were various forms of white – English, Irish, Scot, German, French, Dutch, Swede and for spice, Polish.  I was a minority in my public high school, however; I was one of the few Protestants eating fish on Fridays and not crossing myself before chowing down.  My experience with African-Americans was, well, zero.  Until I attended BJU, I’d never met a black person.

My first personal experience with open racism was at BJU.  Oh, I had seen it on TV – I knew what racism was, we touched on it in grade school (this was during the Johnson and Nixon years) – I knew the subject, but I had never seen racism in action, until I made my residence in South Carolina at a university that until 1971 would not allow African-Americans enrollment.  More than once and from the pulpit in the FMA no less, I heard how black folks were “happier when they could serve”, how dark skinned people were the product of the “sin of Ham” (one of Noah’s sons – look it up), and how God made the races separate for a reason and the races should stay separate.  (Those of you raised in Independent Fundamental Churches know what I’m talking about.)  This was not just an attitude of racism, this was taught as doctrine  with actual Scripture to back it up with real Bible verses.  These were doctrines upon which Bob Jones College was formed and these were the doctrines that remained unchanged as BJC became BJU.  Giving out honorary doctorates to Georgia Governor Lester Maddox, Alabama Governor George Wallace, South Carolina Senator and father of the segregationist “Dixie-crats” (oh, and a mixed-race love child) StromThurmond (whose memorial eulogy led to the downfall of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott) only proves the fact that Bob Jones, et. al. and Bob Jones University approved of the strict separation of the races and based this approval on the inspired Word of God.

If you look at old Bob Jones, Sr. material, it’s loaded with the usual references to gambling, drinking, fornicating, etc., but one noticeable addition was “jazz” and “dancing.”  Jazz, Blues and later, Rock, Disco, Hip-Hop and Rap were all deemed “music of Satan.”  (One faculty member of Bob Jones University made a healthy income preaching, writing and recording the evils of rock music with his “The Big Beat” series – Dr. Frank Garlock.)  The commonality of this “music of Satan” was that it was all derived from African and African-American origins.  This was music white Christian kids should not listen to – certainly not BJU students!  That racist backlash against beat-driven music can still be found today (2008) at BJU.

Intermarriage and interracial dating, in the eyes of BJU, was far more damaging than listening to “Satan’s music.”  Listening to unchecked/unapproved music would only get you 50 demerits (max) while interracial dating or marriage would get you expelled.

Upon enrollment at BJU, you had to declare your race on a card given out by the Dean of Men or Women.  Once you declared your race, that was the race of the opposite sex you were allowed to date.  I declared “white”, so I get all of the “white” girls.  My roommate my sophomore year, a guy named Jim Fall, was of mixed race – his father was white, his mother Japanese.  Jim looked Asian, but he declared “white” – why?  Hey, Jim was no fool.  There were far more white girls than Asian girls.  But — had Jim been so unwise to date an Asian girl, he would have been expelled because he had declared “white.”

It was at BJU I learned a different version to “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”  It was told to me as a joke.  It goes: “Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world.  Red and yellow, mostly White – they are precious in His sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

And the beat goes on — next time…

Faith & Film, Part 6 (Ivory & Ivory)

Nearly six months after my expulsion, October 12, 1982, Bob Jones University argued its case in front of the Supreme Court.  BJU’s case was group together with Goldsboro Christian Schools, Inc. or Goldsboro, North Carolina.  Goldsboro, et. al., had a strict segregationist policy based on Biblical interpretation; races remaining separate and being not “unequally yoked.”  The Goldsboro private Christian schools would only accept Caucasians, but on occasion did accept students from a mixed race background where one parent was Caucasian.  The Powers at BJU cringed at being heard together with Goldsboro, but if you look at Goldsboro’s policies, they were the same as Bob Jones University’s were from 1927 to 1971.  This, of course, is the reason the high court lumped the two educational entities together.  Bob Jones University had moderated their policies somewhat (accepting African-Americans post-1971 BUT only if the African-American student was married – singles were not allowed.)  Goldsboro, it could be argued, held true to its Biblical convictions, or in other words, remained the truer representative of the Independent Fundamentalist Christian attitude toward racial separation.

One year, one month and one day after my being “shipped”, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling against Bob Jones University and Goldsboro Christian Schools, Inc.

So, the university lost its tax exempt status – but the ban on interracial dating and marriage remained.  After all, this rule, this ban, was based on Biblical convictions and God-given, God-breathed  Scripture.

Or was it?

Dr. Bob III, enforcer of meaningless policies

Fast forward to the year 2000, the month of March.  Dr. Bob Jones the Third was the the guest on CNN’s”Larry King Live” and the university was once again part of another controversy.  This time it wasn’t Ronald Reagan, but a son of “the Devil”, Presidential candidate George W. Bush, who spoke at BJU on February 2 (Groundhog Day), 2000.  A fellow Republican, also running for President, Senator John McCain or Arizona, accused Governor Bush of ”pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance.”  McCain said. “They [institutions like Bob Jones University & Dr. Bob Jones III] are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.” [The New York Times, February 29, 2000]

(Senator McCain – let me tell you something.  If I had said such a thing while enrolled at BJU, I would have been expelled and all those who heard me and didn’t “turn me in” would have been expelled.  Truth is, many students did  say such a thing and they were immediately “shipped” (no matter where they were in their academic career) and not allowed to return to campus for any reason.)

March 3, 2000.  BJU President Dr. Bob III, son of Dr. “smite them hip & thigh” Bob Jones, Jr., appears across the table from Larry King on CNN.

“We don’t have to have that rule. In fact, as of today, we have dropped the rule,” Dr. Bob said.  He went on to say the policy “is meaningless to us”… “Our concern for the school’s broader usefulness is greater to us than a rule we never talk about,” he said.  “We can’t back it up with a verse in the Bible.”

When I heard Dr. Bob say what I have quoted above (thanks to the CNN archives & transcripts of “Larry King Live”) I immediately started composing a letter directly to him and the administration of Bob Jones University asking for my senior year tuition money back.

Why?  Because in defense of this “meaningless” policy, he and his father (Bob Jones, Jr.) created an environment of fear, paranoia, suspicion, distrust and anger.  They, the Drs. Bob, also administered and set up a network of informants, turning fellow students on each other all in the name of “standing with the university.”  Education died to preserve the name and lifestyle of the Joneses. This atmosphere they and the administration created resulted in the expulsion of not just me, but literally, hundredsof students – all of which deserve their tuition money back.  How many students declared aloud that there was no Scripture to back up the university’s stance on interracial marriage and were expelled?  (I know of a handful, but BJU changed their records to show they were expelled for reasons other than disagreements on policy.)

This change in policy, removing a “meaningless” rule that was “never talk[ed] about,” makes me wonder what else is “meaningless” at Bob Jones University?  What other useless policies do they presently enforce that have no basis in Scripture?  How much is traditional, southern, independent, fundamentalist dogma and how much is Truth?

We’ve only just begun (The Carpenters, 1969) — to pull back the curtain…

Faith & Film, Part 7 (Shock & Awe)

Dr. Bob Jones III, now Chancellor of Bob Jones University, made these comments about his own comments to a reporter from The Nation :

“The statement attributed to me in The Nation  magazine is essentially correct.  Furthermore, it was made out of irritation and as an element of intended shock for the interviewer, whom I couldn’t stand.  It was intended to raise his eyebrows and irritate him.”  (dated, 11-24-1986, www.please-reconcile.com)

Statements made “out of irritation” intended for “shock” value and to “raise…eyebrows” serve only one purpose: to draw attention to the one making such remarks.  This is certainly not the behavior of a so-called “Man of God” – not even the behavior of a pagan secularist who may be the president of a liberal, secular university somewhere.  People in positions of power are not allowed to spout off in this manner – certainly not without consequences.

Unfortunately, it was and is the alumni and students who suffer the consequences.  We are the ones during job interviews (if we get that far) who have to “explain” our degree from Bob Jones University…(“Isn’t that the place that — “)  Uh, yeah, that’s the place, you blush, grimace and shift in your seat, wondering if the guy thinks your a bigot…

It’s not Jesus Christ we’re ashamed of — it’s the lack of Jesus Christ that makes us ashamed.

Christ, during His brief time here on earth, criticized only one group of people, and it wasn’t the racially impure Samaritans, the pagan Greeks or the tyrannical Romans — it was the religious leaders of His day.

My whole point in re-telling some of the events surrounding my expulsion from BJU is to demonstrate that those in charge of the university at that time had “poisoned the well” – they made it impossible for a normal, free-thinking, adult student to complete his education.  For that, Dr. Bob Jones III (missed my opportunity with Junior), Dean of Men Tony Miller, Dean of Students Jim Berg and last, and certainly least, Johnson Dorm Supervisor Doug Sprunger owe me, not just an apology – oh no – they owe me reparations.

 I want a refund on my 1981 – 82 senior year.

 A check would be fine.

Faith & Film, la fin (Questions)

Dr. Bob Jones III, Spring 1993

It’s a shame that southern independent fundamentalist religious tradition had to get in the way of what could have been a great education.  But the Drs. Bob decided that education was not the primary goal of attending Bob Jones University.  Political and religious indoctrination was.  Disagree (a.ka., “gripe”) and you will be expelled.  Ask questions and, eventually, you will be removed from the BJU student body, as I was.  (Remember, Dean of Men Tony Miller referred to me as “a cancer on the Body of Christ” – the “Body of Christ” he was referring to was the Student Body of BJU.)  Bob Jones University didn’t teach us to think, it told us what to think and did it did so back up by the Authority of the Scriptures and the Sovereignty of Almighty God.

Who are you to question us?

It’s puzzling to me that there were many good teachers at BJU, trained in secular universities, with advanced degrees from major secular colleges & universities.  How they could stand to work in this environment and do such a good job is a conundrum.  In my Bible classes, and there were many required, one teacher was particularly good, Dr. Charles Smith.  I really like this man and looked forward to hearing him teach or preach, he did both.  A few years ago I found out that Dr. Smith was asked to leave the university.  What a shame.  Like me, I guess they considered him a “cancer” and removed him from “the Body.”

But my major was not Bible, it was Cinema.  The Cinema Department (Unusual Films) was located in the back of the Rodeheaver Auditorium and consisted of a huge sound-stage, workshops, film storage, animation & camera rooms and three floors of offices, editing room, dubbing theatre and a classroom.  As a cinema or film major, we students were considered living “on the edge” because going to see an actual film in an actual theatre in Greenville (or anywhere else) would get a student expelled.  We would read American Cinematographer and other magazines and plan on how to see the films written about without getting caught.  It was tricky — we lost a lot of good people…

In charge of the Cinema Department was Dr. Katherine Stenholm.  She was assigned the task of starting the Bob Jones University Film Department by ol’ Dr. Bob, Sr. way back in the very late 1940’s.  Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. was convinced that one great way to win “souls for Jesus” was to harness the power and persuasive ability of motion pictures.  Katherine or “Kitty” (I only knew her as Mrs. or Dr. Stenholm), a speech teacher and stage actress, was sent to USC to study film.  While in California, she became friends with some well-known and powerful Hollywood businessman, cinematographers, directors, and editors.

"Wine of Morning" in production at BJU Unusual Films soundstage

 

Upon her return to BJU in the early 1950’s, she started making ”sermon films” with the preaching illustrations dramatized on film.  In 1955, her film, based on a novel by Bob Jones, Jr., Wine of Morning, earned her the keynote address at that year’s film festival in Cannes.  (Yes, that Cannes.)  She went on to direct several full-length motion pictures for Unusual Films…if you grew up in an Independent Fundamental Christian church, you’ve probably seen at least one of them during a New Years Eve “Watch Night Service”….Red Runs the River, Flame in the Wind, Sheffey, Beyond the Night (it’s full length in the “director’s cut”) and, sadly, her last, The Printing.  (I’m leaving out all of the BJU promotional films.)  What I’m trying to say is that Dr. Stenholm knew her stuff.  I’m convinced if she had stayed in Hollywood she could have held her own with the best of them.  But Hollywood was no place for Katherine Stenholm and, besides, a female director in the early 1950’s?  Not likely.

"Stage Coach" (WB) and "Red Runs the River" (BJU - UF)

Dr. Stenholm taught directing classes – Directing I and Directing II, senior level classes.  I wasn’t in her class a week when I realized that I was not cut out to be a director.  Oh, I passed the class with A’s and B’s, but I was a technician, not a director.  I was more interested in shutter angles, inverse square law, reciprocity failure and push/pull processing than the artsy-fartsy stuff Dr. Stenholm was talking about.  She had a habit of scrunching her face up and closing her eyes when she was making a point.  To emphasize the point she would lean forward and give you a penetrating stare as though that would help us to understand.  That stare was intimidating.

Of all the hours in her classes, I remember three incidents.  The first was her repeatedly quoting Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: “the motion picture is the greatest medium of control over the masses.  It is our task to take it in hand.”  The first time that quote appears in my notes is September 18, 1981, and it repeatedly shows up.

The second is watching twice, maybe three times, Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia  and Triumph des Willens.  Even I, a cold-hearted technician was struck by the power and beauty of the editing, the camera angles & movement, the stark contrast of the black & white images.  It was all kind of weird and creepy watching beautiful films made during the Nazi era in Germany and modeling our approach to “winning souls for Christ” on a quote by Vladimir Lenin.  To be honest, I left Directing I and II more confused than I was when I went in.

The third incident was when I made a major, major mistake — in Directing Class I asked a question of Dr. Stenholm…the date, according to my old notes, was January 15, 1982…I asked a question something similar to this:

“Dr. Stenholm, all of this persuasion and speaking directly to the mind is great, but when it comes to Biblical salvation, I don’t understand how you can be sure you’re reaching a soul for Christ or just touching someone’s natural emotions — they’re just moved to tears because Sheffey gave Gideon away or because Sheffey died — that’s just emotions, there’s no conviction there — it doesn’t go to all the way to the soul.”

Ok – I realize I am an idiot.  I just criticized the Director of Unusual Films’ life work — and Dr. Stenholm let me know that.  She never answered the question, but, wow, was she offended.  Things weren’t the same after that – not that Dr. Stenholm treated me any differently – I just didn’t feel the same about using film as a “ministry” — I still don’t.  I still think it’s a waste of time.  (You can show me Facing the Giants  a hundred times and I’m still just glad that the foorball team won.)  That was January, 1982.  By the end of April, 1982, I was expelled.  (I always thought Unusual Films should’ve went to bat for me, but they chose not to.)

In my mind I assumed that cinema would be the one place you could question and analyze motive and results, but, like everything else at BJU, I realized I was not allowed to “pull back the curtain” and see how or if this stuff is working or not.

In a wider sense I’ve discovered that this attitude of “not questioning” or not “griping” is contrary to the whole Christian agenda.  It is the nature of belief, of faith, not to examine too closely the object of belief lest you find a flaw or two or three, and give up the belief entirely.

If I’ve learned anything about faith and film it is that they both operate on the same principle – suspension of belief.  Ignore what you know to be real and true, what your mind and your senses tell you actually exist, and don’t question what you are told, what you are taught, what you are given to read and what you are shown.

Sex in the Sects

A Beka Book Publications of Pensacola, Florida publishes Christian textbooks for private Christian schools and home-schoolers.  Recently I came across the A Beka Book textbook for sex education for children between the ages of 12 and 17 — Seventh Grade through High School age — the book’s title is Sex, Love & Romance.

This book claims as its purpose to “teach sex education from the Bible.”  Well, based upon my knowledge of the Bible and the Bible’s rather lurid stories of rape, incest, prostitution and polygamy, I was intrigued enough to open this Bible-based-sex-instruction-textbook and read it for myself.

The book is authored by Dr. Hugh F. Pyle, 1989 and was updated in 2004.  Dr. Pyle, as it turns out, is an evangelist (a traveling minister) and occasional author of books for adults and children.  From Dr. Pyle’s bio on his website:

“He has often been a featured speaker at such schools as Pensacola Christian College [home of A Beka Book Publications],…Bob Jones University,…and others, in addition to addressing many Pastor’s Conferences and great numbers of Christian High Schools across the nation.  Dr. Pyle…writes a regular “News & Views” column for the Sword of the Lord.  He is also known for his “Good Ship Courtship” talks to teens…”

Sex, Love & Romance was edited by Beka Horton who is the wife of the President and Founder of Pensacola Christian College and the namesake of “A Beka Books.”  My feeling is that we all can assume that these folks, Pyle and Horton, have earned their Fundamentalist Christian street ”cred.”

So, let’s open the book, shall we?

Chapter 7, “Finding the Right Girl”, p. 17 — “You’ll be smart to find a girl who knows her way around the kitchen and is interested in cooking, homemaking, and serving. You and your children are going to need that kind of a girl. Today many a young woman has a career, pleasure, and dollar signs in front of her eyes; such modern “gold diggers” will sadly disappoint a young man who wants a real wife to make a happy home!”

Chapter 8, “Boys and Girls are Different”, p. 19 — “…the only women you would ever see wearing men’s clothes in public would be women of the street. The cheap harlot or dance hall floozy might so dress. The only possible exception would have been farm women or others who had outdoor work to do in bad weather. Even then, they would dress like a lady when they went out in public.”

Chapter 16, Dancing and Sex, p. 42 — “The embrace of the dance, the closeness of the bodies (or the constant twisting, shaking, and writhing of the bodies) cannot but arouse a person and the dancing partner. The body’s response to this type of physical stimulus is normal — but not designed to occur outside the marriage relationship.”

On Homosexuals….

p. 39 — “God is merciful. To deter people from sin, He [God] has in these last days visited the lands that have many sodomites with a horrible plague or pestilence called AIDS. The disease is worse than other forms of VD (like syphillis or herpes) because, as far as we know, it is not only incurable but fatal!”

p. 130 — “…– that is, in their own lives and bodies they suffer frightening sexually related diseases. The ‘gays’ are no longer gay!”

p. 39 — “As homosexuals have come ‘out of the closet’ (as they put it) and are marching, protesting, and demanding that their wicked and perverse life styles be accepted, more and more of them have been stricken with AIDS.”

On Prostitution and Cosmetics…

p. 108 — “Harlotry takes many forms. It does not have to be a professional harlot. It may be a miserable, unhappy wife or one who is looking for some excitement while her husband is away.”

p. 91 — “Those who practice pagan religions have been noted for painted faces. Heathen natives around pagan campfires usually streak their faces with gaudy paint. Harlots have usually been marked by the overpainting of their faces.  … it is unlikely that the Lord is pleased with one of His own dear children spreading on gaudy paint until she looks like an imitation of Jezebel.”

On Interracial Marriage / Inter-Faith Marriage…

p. 54 — “‘What communion hath light with darkness ?’ God asks in 2Cor. 6:14. Someday when you begin to look for a mate, look in your ‘own tribe.’”

A reminder that these are actual quotes from the book.  The book they recommend for 12 year-olds to start reading.  There is no discussion about actual “sex” – you know, how babies are made, etc.  The discussion centers around Fundamentalist Christian behavior – and, typically, female behavior.  This is the kind of sexual rhetoric you would expect from an author who holds a degree in Divinity instead of Medicine.

Oh, one more thing, isn’t the title backwards?  Instead of Sex, Love & Romance, shouldn’t the “romance” come first?

Guess it doesn’t have to…(wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

 

 

 

 

Apocalypse-a-palooza

I’m seeing a lot of signs lately — no, not those  kind of signs — actual signs, along the road, on billboards, on churches announcing an up-coming “Prophecy Conference”, or wording very close to that.  Is this a seasonal thing?  Do churches have these kind of conferences around Thanksgiving or Christmas?  Or is the up-tick in prophetic conferences a result of our country’s current environment?  (economic woes, wars & rumors of more wars, new leadership in Washington, etc.)

Hopefully this isn’t a case of churches taking advantage of the fear and uncertainty in peoples lives to bump-up the number of attendees, not to mention the filling of the church coffers.  I once heard a pastor say that if church attendance is down, hold a prophecy conference.  Eschatology, the study of future events, has always been a good draw, but more so when times are tough, uncertain or both.

Unfortunately we see far too many ministers (preachers, pastors, Bible-teachers, etc.) that capitalize on this fear and curiosity of the unknown future.  Most of them say that the future is not unknown, but completely knowable and laid out before us in the Bible, if only we would read it and believe.  Of course, they have all of the answers on their TV shows, in their books, on their DVD’s — and you too can have all of the answers for a small donation or love offering…  How many careers have been built on Bible Prophesy?

Look at the author of the Left Behind  series, Tim LaHaye.  Before co-authoring this prophetic, science-fiction series, he was best known in Christian circles during the late-1970’s and early-1980’s, for two books:  The Act of Marriage (sex book for married Christians) and the Spirit Controlled Temperament (personality analysis).  By 1995, five years before the dreaded “Y2K”, LaHaye (and co-author Jerry Jenkins) introduced the world to what would become Volume 1 of the Left Behind  series, earning LaHaye recognition and millions, movie rights, video game royalties and his own prophecy curriculum.  The whole series of Left Behind books are based primarily on the typical, traditional Baptist interpretation of the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the final book in the Christian New Testament.

Here’s the view in a nutshell:

1. As we approach “the end of the age”, evil will dominate the earth and knowledge will expand.
2. The True Church (Christians) are taken into Heaven (“raptured”) leaving the wicked behind.
3. Thus begins “The Tribulation Period” – Seven years – 3.5 years of peace, 3.5 years of hell.
4. The “Anti-Christ” (or The Beast) will arise, unite the earth as one, and rule in peace for 3.5 years.
5. At the end of the 3.5 years, the Anti-Christ will declare war on all Christians & Jews seeking to annihilate them forever.
6. At the same time, God in Heaven is judging the earth, pouring out His wrath in the form of plagues, natural disasters, disease, etc., only those who have not worshipped the Beast (or taken his “Mark”)shall be spared.
7. Culminates in one epic battle in the valley of Megiddo (The Battle of Armageddon) where the Anti-Christ declares war on God…
8. …Anti-Christ loses and he is thrown into hell along with his followers.  God wins.
9. Jesus sets up His One-Thousand-Year-Kingdom (“The Millennial Kingdom”) and rules the earth.
10. The “Curse” is lifted, the earth prospers - Satan pops up at the end of the 1000 years, but, Satan is quickly dispatched and is cast into the Lake of Fire (along with the Demons) forever and ever.

 One little problem — this is just one  interpretation of what is admittedly very bizarre text written nearly 2000 years ago, allegedly by a 85 to 90 year-old man (“John”) who may have been boiled in oil and exiled alone to a remote island.  This view of the Pre-Millennial Rapture is taught as absolute truth  in churches all across the USA.  The pervasiveness of the Left Behind  books certainly haven’t helped.  This particular Pre-Millennial view is so entrenched that legitimate, opposing viewpoints are considered ungodly or even heretical.

Now the facts.

The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ (or more commonly known as Revelation or, improperly as Revelations) is just one of many books or letters written in an apocalyptic style.  And it is a style – it follows a pattern and normally ends with a battle between Good (or Light) and Evil (Darkness) with Good winning, or course.  And with Evil/Darkness defeated only peace and happiness remains.  Sound familiar?

And I heard a voice saying to me: Hear, righteous John. Then shall appear the denier, and he who is set apart in the darkness, who is called Antichrist. And again I said: Lord, reveal to me what he is like. And I heard a voice saying to me: The appearance of his face is dusky; the hairs of his head are sharp, like darts; his eyebrows like a wild beast’s… ~ Revelation of St. John 

Lord, it is good for man not to have been born. Woe to the human race then, when Thou shall come to judgment! And I said to the Lord: Lord, why hast Thou created man, and delivered him up to judgment? And God said, with a lofty proclamation: I will not by any means have mercy on those who transgress my covenant. And the prophet said Lord, where is Thy goodness? And God said: I have prepared all things for man’s sake, and man does not keep my commandments… ~ Revelation of Esdras

And I saw the murderers and them that were consenting to them cast into a strait place full of evil, creeping things, and smitten by those beasts, and so turning themselves about in that torment. And upon them were set worms like clouds of darkness. And the souls of them that were murdered stood and looked upon the torment of those murderers and said: O God, righteous is thy judgement… ~ Apocalypse of Peter

And the angel answered and said unto me: This it is, and these are they that do hurt from morning until evening. And I looked, and saw a great cloud of fire spread over the whole world, and said unto the angel: What is this, Lord? And he said to me: This is the unrighteousness that is mingled by the princes of sinners… ~ Apocalypse of Paul

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it , and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey… ~ Revelation of Jesus Christ

The first four quotes are from books that are not in the Bible (apocrypha) — the last quote is from Revelation in the Christian New Testament.  If I had not footnoted these quotes, could you tell the difference?  The difference is that Revelation was voted in and out of the Biblical Canon by various church councils between A.D. 325 and 400.  Early Lutheran Bibles (A.D. 1622 ed.) relegated Revelation to a special appendix with the comment by Luther, “I can discover no trace that it is established by the Holy Spirit.”  Calvin and Erasmus also rejected Revelation.  Rejecting or at least relegating Revelation to being allegorical or even some kind of poetic flight of fancy puts you in good company – not among the heretics.

Got Apocalypse?

So, this morning, I’m minding my own business, enjoying my usual cup of Zabar’s coffee, when a commercial rudely interrupted the local morning news & weather.  Out of habit I began flipping through the channels looking for news or weather, anything but another commercial…

…and it happened again.  I get some TV preacher standing in front of a giant cyclorama covered with multicolored lines, arrows, circles, ovals — some overlapping with pictures and more circles and arrows…

Another TV Prophet, another End Time Pimp, spouting off about beasts and horseman, about plagues and famine, about DVD’s and books.

Revelation  strikes again.

A Rapture tract, c.1995

Listen, you are not an ignorant boob if you believe this stuff – it’s very interesting, very intriguing, very scary and these Prophecy Preachers can be very persuasive, very compelling.  Unlike the TV Prophets, I am not speaking to you from higher ground or because I hear God whisper in my ear or because when I was a teenager I had a vision and wrestled with some evil spirits (a’ la, Perry Stone).  I’m appealing to your reason, your logic, your mind — it’s done so much for you, why corrupt it now?

Look at the source material for these Prophets; primarily it’s the Book of the Revelation.

I’ve already discussed how Revelation was just one of many apocalyptic books written in an apocalyptic style.  And how Revelation was kicked in and out of the Biblical Canon over the centuries since its authorship, but let’s look at the structure and contents of the book.

1. The first 3 chapters are to real churches, with real people inhabiting actual areas of Asia Minor – you can go there and see the ruins of the ancient cities – but, starting in Chapter 4, Revelation goes into fantasy land.  It’s as if someone wrote the churches in Asia Minor, then added on the rest.

2. Authorship – the book is assumed to be written by John the Apostle, the same disciple of Christ that chronicled the Gospel of John  and the epistles, First, Second  and Third John.  If John wrote Revelation, it was after he had been tortured (boiled in oil, according to tradition) and during his exile to the Isle of Patmos, where, apparently there was plenty of writing material exiled along with him.  Also, if you assume John was roughly the same age as Jesus, then John was anywhere between 70 and 100 years old when he wrote Revelation — elderly by any stretch of the imagination.

3. Date of writing – the date Revelation was written is extremely important.  Are you a Preterist?  A Preterist believes that Revelation was written to warn the new religion of Christianity of the impending persecution by Rome.  We know when Christian persecution began (approx. A.D. 64) so Revelation would have to have been written earlier than A.D. 64 to be a prophetic book (makes John’s torture and exile problematic).  Others believe it was written during the persecutions (“666″ being a coded form of “Nero” or the total of each Roman Numeral, IVXLCD, added together, a code for “Rome”) to predict the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70.  Most fans of the Left Behind  series would say Revelation  was written between A.D. 90 and A.D. 100, at the latest.  But, there are some indications that Revelation, or at least part of Revelation, was written later than A.D. 100.  At the end of Revelation (Chapter 22, verses 18 & 19), the writer warns future scribes or copiers of the text not to add any text or take out any text.  This is the only  place in the Bible where an author warns scribes not to change the work.  The significance of this is that changing words or adding text was not a problem until scripture began to be copied, which would assume a later date for Revelation rather than an early one.

4. Give me one prediction found in Revelation that has come true.  Not a generalized one, but a specific prediction.  Just one.  You can’t.  Jules Verne and H. G. Wells have done a better job predicting the future than Revelation.

5. There is nothing in the book of Revelation that was not already known during the First and Second Centuries, A.D.  Nothing is mentioned outside of what was the Roman Empire or “the whole world.”  If it wasn’t in the Empire, it didn’t exist.

6. Revelation  contains “one-off” statements or, in other words, Revelation is the only book in the Bible to contain certain information with no corroborating evidence any where else in scripture.  This is one reason some early church scholars relegated Revelation to the Apocrypha and gave it little or no heed.

Sounds like a plan...

7. The whole idea (now a “doctrine”) of the “Rapture” comes from the words “Come up hither” in Chapter 4, verse 1.  Yeah, that’s it.  According to Rapture-ists, this is God illustrating how He will call out His Church (true Christians) and then pour out His wrath on the world.  If the words of Jesus mean anything at all, He said He would return  to the earth – not pull some secret “half-return” stunt then come back for real later.

8. Revelation  has become the source-book for cults, cult leaders and bizarre-o religions (remember Waco, Texas…just one example) and men seeking attention and profit.  Should text inspired by God produce such results?

So be careful out there.  When you hear a minister say he knows what’s going to happen, no he doesn’t.  He has chosen one type of interpretation and made a career out of spreading his view.  The one thing you can be assured of is that the future is unwritten.  Always has been, always will be.

Misrepresenting Jesus

Looking at the majority of those who profess to be “little-christs”, a.k.a., “Christians”, one would think that Jesus was a Republican, wrapped in the flag of the U.S.A., in church every Sunday (or Saturday), King James Version (A.V. 1611) Bible under one arm, advocating supply-side economics, railing against paying taxes to support a immoral and reprobate government and using His power and influence to legislate morality — but this Jesus is a myth — He doesn’t exist.

So, what did Jesus do when He did interact with a morally bankrupt government?  Did He advocate paying taxes?  What about His attitude toward the “church” of His day?  Did He take a stand in favor of freedom and justice for all people?

To find the answers to these questions and more, there is really only one source — the Christian New Testament — specifically, the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Lets take a look at the real Jesus.

Keep in mind that Jesus was born under the tyranny of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, which was not a peace at all.  The power and might of the Roman Empire crushed any resistance.  That was the Roman “peace” — destroy and crush any one or any thing that objected to their quest for world domination.  Jesus was born a poor subject, a conquered Jewish citizen of the Roman Empire.  That was His world.  His time.  He was surrounded by mostly poor, agrarian, illiterate people ruled by selfish, bigoted, egotistical governors and a Caesar that considered himself to be “God’s Son.”

But Jesus started His earthly ministry with a miracle – not education, or universal health care, or even a good source of clean water for the city of Canaan – no.  He created large quantities of alcohol for a wedding celebration.  (Don’t tell me it was grape-juice.  Show me the refrigerators of the First Century, A.D.)

When it came to rebelling against the evil Roman rulers, Jesus said, turn the other cheek.  If a Roman asks you to carry a burden one mile, carry it two miles.  When the disciple Peter actually did pick up a sword and cut off the ear of a government official (a guard or policeman) in defense of the betrayed Jesus, Peter was told by Jesus to drop the sword and then Jesus healed the guard’s wounded ear.

When the disciples came to Him complaining they didn’t have the money for taxes, Jesus never said, “you shouldn’t support the immoral government anyway, so lets not pay the tax and be ‘tax protesters.’”  He told them to go catch a fish and in the mouth of the fish was the tax money.  In short – He advocated paying the taxes — so much so that He went to the trouble of creating  the money to pay them!  (Maybe He would agree with V.P.-elect Biden that paying taxes is “patriotic?”)  Why then do churches and religious entities fight so hard for tax-exempt status?  Why wouldn’t they want to do what Jesus did?

Did Jesus criticize “sinners?”  Did He say, “the reason Israel was conquered and is under the rule of Rome is because of all of the sinners in the land?”  No.  In fact, Jesus was accused several times of being a sinner and a party-goer because He hung out with the sinners so often.  One little known fact of the life of Jesus is that the ONLY  people He ever criticized were not the “sinners”, but the religious leaders  of His day.  You won’t hear that from too many religious leaders today.

The only time Jesus ever lost His temper and became violent was in church (or temple – the “church” of Jesus’ day).  He became angry with those conducting commerce (quite legal, by the way) on the church grounds.  Jesus objected to making a few bucks off of those who came to worship.  He objected so much, that He overturned their tables and beat the entrepreneurs with a home-made whip.  Makes me wonder what He’d do to those preachers that sell their DVD’s and books on tables in the lobby of their giant mega-churches…?

Not once did Jesus advocate open or subversive rebellion against Rome or the Roman government.  Not once did He declare slavery wrong – in fact, He told the slaves to be good slaves, and the masters to be good masters.  As far as being a Reaganomics “supply-sider”, several times Jesus told men with families (presumably) to walk away from their jobs and follow him.  We aren’t told how the men provided for their families once they quit their trades.  Not exactly advice you would hear from a Republican.

In fact, it’s my contention that the real  Jesus, should He return and walk among us, would be thrown out of the country by the same people claiming to be “little-christs.”

Kinda like history repeating itself.

Stayin’ Alive (Bail-Out Fever)

Looking back on recent government bailouts (1970 – 2008) I realized that only one bailout took place under a Democratic administration – the Chrysler bailout of 1980 took place under President Carter’s watch – all the rest, and there are several (http://www.propublica.org/special/government-bailouts), took place under Republican Administrations.  Doesn’t this go against the perception of fiscal accountability and responsibility the Republicans are known for?

To their credit, the Republicans currently are opposed to bailing out the “Big-Three” auto makers, GM, Ford and Chrysler.  And, if they stick to their current position, the Republicans will be proven correct in opposing and blocking the automobile manufacturers bailout.  When you look at their track record, all three of these massive companies deserve to fail.

In the early to mid 1970’s, when the first fuel crisis hit, there were four American car companies manufacturing cars in the United States; GM, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors (AMC).  Imports were around but isolated mainly to large cities and coastal areas where driving for long stretches on highways or interstates was not a factor.  All four of these companies were caught with their pants down selling large, heavy, fuel gulping cars.  Sales plummeted as fuel costs sky-rocketed.  Americans started looking for fuel saving alternatives, mainly smaller, lighter cars.  Who had the smaller more fuel friendly cars?  The imports – primarily, VW, Toyota and Datsun.

Many American families experienced an imported car for the first time during these fuel conscious days of the mid-70’s.  I know mine did.  My dad bought a used 1973 VW Beetle in 1975.  Before that, he had owned nothing but Chevrolets and Fords.  After the Beetle came the brand new 1977 Toyota Corolla Wagon – the first Toyota registered in the small Illinois county we lived in – Dad had to drive over 50 miles away to find a dealer who sold Toyota.  Seemed like overnight we started seeing VW Diesel Rabbits and Dashers, Datsun 210s and 510s, Honda CVCCs, Mazda 323s and, of course, Toyotas on our local country roads.  Everyone else was starting to discover what my dad discovered – the quality and performance of the imports, once experienced, was something you could not do without.

Oh sure, the American car companies responded with smaller cars and “down-sized” models of their land yachts.  Some of them sold very well, but the profit margins on the smaller cars were slim.  Many Pintos and Mustang II’s had to sell to equal the profit on just a few of the larger luxury vehicles.  Then there was the quality issues, the engineering issues, the design issues — why would I purchase a Chevrolet Monza over a Toyota Celica?  It was during this time that loyalties were changing.  Ford men were becoming Toyota drivers.  Datsun (later Nissan) was picking off potential Chevy buyers, and, etc.  (Once again, the example of my dad - other than a bad experience with a Chevrolet Cavalier, he’s owned nothing but Toyotas and Nissans.)  Because of their unwillingness to change, their sticking to tradition instead of innovation, the American car-makers set in motion their eventual collapse and failure.

But it took a while…

1982 Ford EXP - it was no Toyota

Finally!  By 1982, all four car companies had small, light, fuel efficient cars (performance – not so much) out in the market, each model full of options and priced low enough for those of us recovering from the Jimmy Carter recession to afford one.  Ford had the Escort/Lynx, GM had their Cavalier/SkyHawk/Firenza/SunBird, Chrysler had the Omni/Horizon/K-Car and AMC had – well, AMC was bought out by Renault.  (NOTE:Renault/AMC was in the beginning stages of producing the 1984 Motor Trend  “Car of the Year” – the Renault Alliance/Encore.  Try finding one of those  still running.  Since AMC was owned predominately by Renault it was no longer considered an American car company and just as well.  French cars have never sold well in the U.S.)  Eight years after the initial shock of the fuel shortages and price increases, the “Big 3″ finally have some decent fuel efficient cars, but with marginal performance.  My first brand-new car was a “Medium Blue Metallic” 1982 Ford EXP with a 1.6 litre “HO” engine (88 hp), 4-speed manual and 32 – 36 mpg.  I financed the $8100 over 48 months with a 10.5% interest rate (ouch) – made my payments roughly $250 a month.  Why did I buy a Ford after all my father had taught me?  The 1982 Toyota Tercel SR-5 was sold out and there was a waiting list for the 1983 model, that’s why.

From 1983 to 2005, gasoline prices remained relatively low and steady (factoring in normal inflation.)  Fuel was plentiful and the Regan/Bush administrations relaxed the CAFE standards and allowed the “Big 3″ a relaxed emissions standard when it came to light trucks and sport utility vehicles.  In 1994, the federally mandated 55 mph speed limit was removed allowing individual states to set their own speed limits.  A demand developed for more horsepower, bigger engines, more capacity – fuel economy took a back seat.  We entered the era of the SUV.  An era where trucks (light trucks & SUVs) out-sold cars.  The car companies loved it.  Profits rolled in on these large vehicles while the smaller car lines were allowed to languish and dwindle down to one or two unimpressive models.

It was the early 1970’s all over again…and the “Big 3″ car companies were ripe for another crash in sales and profits.  All three renegotiated contracts with the UAW and other unions based on past sales performance — but what have we always been told about basing future results on past performance…?

My 2005 Scion XA - no bailout necessary

With the huge spike in gasoline prices came the inevitable switch to more efficient vehicles, smaller cars, hybrids, diesels, of which Detroit auto-makers have few to none.  SUVs and light trucks set on the dealer lots unwanted and unsold while the “imports” (not so “imported” as they once were) thrived once again.  Once again the wizards at the helm of Ford, GM and Chrysler find themselves facing stiff competition and an inventory that is over-priced, under-engineered, inefficient and out-of-sync with the market – just like 1973, 1979-80 and now, 2008 – only this time they want help from us – the taxpayers and their potential customers.

Hey, guys, haven’t we already voted with our wallets?  Make products we want to buy en masse  and we’ll buy them!  If you need profits, stop  making products you can’t sell in large volumes!  What is so hard about this?

Unfortunately, I would bet the “Big 3″ get their bailout.  Too many overpaid union workers will go unemployed if we let the free market (which tends to trend non-union) have its way.  And Democrats and the unions have been bed-mates for decades, so you see where this is going.

Meanwhile, demanding your potential customers to help you out when you screw up is not a good business tactic — and it certainly doesn’t build any brand loyalty.  You may get your “bailout”, but you’ll never get my business.

Create-shun

You do realize that those who push for “Intelligent Design” (or “ID”) believe in the literal interpretation of the biblical book of Genesis.  This is the book, presumably written by Moses, that starts off giving us a blow-by-blow account of God creating all that we know and love – the Earth and the universe that surrounds it – and ends with the death of Joseph, second in command to the Pharaoh of Egypt.  This is the same book that tells us that the Earth existed before the Sun — that all plants, which rely on photosynthesis, existed before the sunlight and its source,  Mr. Sun.

 I’m not kidding.  Look at the chronology of the Genesis account of Creation:

 Day 1 – the earth was formless and void and God said let there be light.

 Day 2 – creation of the waters above the Earth and the waters below the Earth (atmosphere)

 Day 3 – dry land and plant life

 Day 4 – the Sun, Moon and stars

 Day 5 – sea life and birds

 Day 6 – land creatures and Man

 Day 7 – God rested

 Biblical literalists tell us that God took exactly 7 days to create the Earth – not billions of years or even hundreds of thousands of years – exactly 7 days – no more no less…

 #1 – If God had to create “light,” what was there before “light?”  Don’t say dark, because in order to have dark you need light.  So what was there before “light?”  Is this formless void called Earth existing in some dimension outside of normal space?

 #2 – How can there be plant life before the sole source of their energy was created?  Photosynthesis requires sunlight, but, oops, the Sun doesn’t exist yet!

 #3 – If I took a chainsaw back in time, the day after God created trees and cut a tree down, would there be growth-rings in the trunk of the tree?

 #4 – Did God create the stars (and galaxies of trillions of stars) with their light already visible from Earth?  If He did, then that implies age – a nonexistent age.  Is He trying to fool us?  Is this deception?

 #5 – What did the Earth orbit before the Sun was created?

 #6 – We have no evidence that man and dinosaurs existed simultaneously, yet the biblical account of creation states that man and dinosaur would have existed at the same time.

#7 – Did Adam and Eve have “belly-buttons” or navels?  Don’t laugh – if they did not, they were not human.

#8 – If a medical doctor traveled back through time to Day 6 of Creation, kidnapped Adam and laid him out for a full and complete medical examination, how old would Adam be?  We can assume from scripture that Adam and Eve were adults, so the the day after their Creation, how old would they be?  Would their bodies imply an age that didn’t exist?  Is God trying to fool us?

 All of these are simple questions, yet they cannot be answered by believers in the literal interpretation of the Genesis Creation account.

And these are the folks that want equal time in the science classroom.

Creation Yoga

It’s comical to listen and watch Creationists bend and contort their version of science and reality to force the square peg of Creation into the round hole of Reality. I say it’s comical — until I remember that the “Creation Lobby” is a powerful one. “Big Creation” has used its power and political influence to force some school districts to at least mention Creation as a viable alternative to evolutionary theory. When Creation and Creation Theory is pushed into a science classroom, that’s when Creationism stops being funny.Creationists usually believe in a young Earth. An Earth around 6000 to 10000 years old – depending on who you ask. This young Earth age comes from adding up the years mentioned in the Bible (biblical genealogies) as Archbishop James Ussher did back in the 17th Century. Archbishop Ussher arrived at a date for Creation – 4004 B.C. Simple enough, right? And everything was fine until the science of stratigraphical geology developed and started to uncover a much older planet — a much older planet. Also, Charles Darwin had the audacity to theorize that complex beings may have evolved from simple forms of life, and it may have taken millions of years for this complex and uncertain natural selection to have occurred. And then, adding insult to injury, fossilized remains of ancient, pre-human, extinct creatures were being found all around the globe. Some of these fossils suggested intermediate forms – an evolving species. Creation didn’t allow for millions or billions of years of evolution, but the developing sciences of geology and, later, the study of the characteristics of radioactive materials did. Unlike the new worlds of science, Creation was fixed and rigid and did not allow any deviation from the written texts of Scripture. As a result, Creation, Creationism and Creationists and their “young universe” were left out in the cold.

Or were they?

Turns out, Creationists are good at “creating” — creating different ways to get around the fact that the Earth, and, therefore, the Sun, the Solar System, our Milky-Way Galaxy and the rest of the Universe are much, much older than the Bible indicates. How do they get around it?

The Gap Theory – Thank God (literally) He left this enormous “time gap” between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. This “theory” (and I’m being charitable using the term “theory”) holds that, yes, God created the Heaven and the Earth originally, but things went wrong when catastrophe hit the Earth in the form of the fall of Lucifer. This fall brought evil and total destruction to Creation and as a result the Earth lay in ruins for thousands or millions or billions of years before God re-created it all, just 6000 years ago, in Genesis 1:2. What’s really strange about this theory is that the “gap” was only discovered when evolution, geology, archeology and other sciences started pointing out that the Earth was old – really old.

The Day-Age Theory- each “day” could mean a 24 hour day or it could mean periods of time or epochs. In other words, God didn’t create over six days, totally a mere 144 hours, but over six epochs or time periods of unknown length. Never mind the fact that the Hebrew word for day (yom) most always means a 24 hour day as measured by the setting and rising of the Sun – that is if  the Sun has been created – yet.

 The Pictorial Framework Theory – once again the “days” are not days but six revelations to Moses (the presumed author of Genesis) giving the Creation Story a literary framework in which to relay the story of God’s handiwork. The account is primarily logical, rather than chronological, with the creation account arranged in two groups of three – Day 1 through Day 3 & Day 4 through Day 6 with parallels between Day 1 and Day 4, Day 2 and Day 5, Day 3 and Day 6 – confused? Yeah – me, too. To say this theory is a stretch is an understatement, but then again it does give Creationists another convenient out when it comes to the age of the Earth.

The Flood Theory- this theory holds to the absolute fact that the Earth is a young planet, roughly 6000 to 10,000 years old. But, the Earth was “aged” during the deluge of Noah’s world-wide flood recounted for us in Genesis, chapters 6, 7 and 8. God’s destruction of the Earth (save for Noah and family) by a tremendous world-wide flood was so unprecedented and intense that the Earth literally was twisted and compressed under the intensity of the waters from “above the Earth” and “below the Earth.” This combination of water and pressure formed what we know as strata layers in rock and soil – large formations, such as the Grand Canyon and the Himalayas were formed in a matter of days and hours under the grinding hydraulic pressure of the Flood waters. Fossils also were the result of the massive extinction of animals drowned and covered in rock, water and mud in an instant as the Flood waters overwhelmed them. In short, the Flood Theory states that under the unusual forces of the Flood waters, what was accomplished in a short period of time, geologists believe would ordinarily require millions or billions of years. The tragedy of this theory is that it ignores so much other evidence of an old Earth and it shows a gross lack of understanding of hydraulics and modern geology.  Some of you might remember Matt Damon referring to Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin believing that “dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago” and Damon inferring that this belief made Palin unfit to potentially be President.  I don’t know about Damon’s inference, but if Gov. Palin believed that dinosaurs were here “4000 years ago,” then she probably subscribes to the Flood Theory.

The Ideal-Time Theory – (this one is my favorite, by the way) God created the Earth a short time ago, 6000 years ago sounds good, but He made it to appear very old. Looking at this view another way is to say that God creates systems in operation, already functioning with apparent age. Trees, insects, animals – everything was created already functioning with apparent age. Adam (and Eve) did not begin life as newborns; Adam was created a Man, fully functional, with apparent age. If I went back in time with a chainsaw the day after God created trees and cut a tree down, there would be growth-rings of apparent, not actual age. If I dug into the Earth, I would find strata of apparent age. If I looked into the newly created night sky, I would see stars that were hundreds and thousands of light-years away, their light already reaching the Earth giving the illusion of age. Wow! The great thing about the Ideal-Time Theory is that there is no way to refute it! Some have said that this theory makes God out to be a deceiver and this is against His nature (it certainly would make Him a crafty “Intelligent Designer”.) Others disagree, saying that when God creates, He creates in full – systems already in place and functioning. According to this theory, the chicken definitely came first.

Says it all...photo unretouched

Recently there have been several interplanetary probes and landers that have seen, touched, and in some cases, driven on the surfaces of other worlds – worlds not mentioned in the Bible, worlds not subject to Earthly concepts of evil, “sin” and Flood-judgments – worlds, according to the Bible serve only to mark the signs and seasons, the days and years. Yet on these worlds we see evidence of ancient, not recent, development. Worlds that are old, in the millions of years – strata layers, that give an account of the eons that have passed in that particular world’s development – meteor impacts that numbering in the millions, that appeared, not in a short time, but over billions of years. Doesn’t matter what world you visit – Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, the Jovian Moons, Titan or…

…this place, Earth.

Rather than practicing Creation Yoga, why not sit back and enjoy, read and discover real science with real human-beings, exploring, learning – and yes, making mistakes, but correcting and learning from those mistakes. That’s learning. That’s science.

A Timely Death

This kind of thinking just blows my mind. It’s beyond my ability to understand the thought processes involved.Let me take a deep breath – and I’ll start over.

In a conversation with a woman who had recently lost her father to a long battle with Alzheimer’s, she mentioned to me that a decade earlier, prior to the Alzheimer’s diagnosis, her father suffered a massive heart attack. While he lingered in the hospital close to death, she prayed – begging God not to take her father. Thanks to her prayers and the miracles of modern medicine, her father recovered from his heart attack and went home only to later be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease from which he suffered for the next decade.

The woman blamed herself. She told me that God had decided to take her father by striking him down with a heart attack but her praying and begging caused God to change His mind and let the father live. The “punishment” for interfering with God’s Will, the woman told me, was striking the father with Alzheimer’s. “If only I had let him die when God wanted him to,” she said, “the last ten years he would’ve been at peace instead of in a home.”

How can you deal with this kind of thinking? Does this woman seriously think God is this sadistic and cruel? Why would anyone want to pray to some One like that?

If this was an isolated incident, I wouldn’t think that much about it, but I have heard this taught from the pulpit of various churches of different (Protestant) denominations. There are at least a couple of different versions of this “illustration” – I’ll give you the one I remember.

A Christian couple had a son they dearly loved. One day while the beloved son was riding his bike, he strayed into the path of an on-coming car and was hit. The boy lingered near death. The couple prayed and begged God not to take their only son. They prayed that God would let the boy live for surely they could never be happy again if their son died at such an early age. Their prayers were answered – the boy recovered and grew into a healthy adult.

But that’s not the end of the story. You see, the boy as a man, never followed in the footsteps of his parent’s beliefs. He strayed off into secular pursuits, forgot God and served only to please the flesh. The man, the beloved son of a devout Christian couple, died of a drug overdose never knowing or professing the love of God.

And who’s at fault? Why the loving parents, of course. If they hadn’t prayed for God to spare their precious son, the boy would be happy with Jesus now, not tormented in the Devil’s hell. They interfered with the Sovereign Will of God and for that they were all punished – the couple and the son.

This is some sick stuff. I’m not sure who to be angrier at – the ones who teach it as truth or the ones who believe it as truth.

Mentally I just throw up my hands.

The Disciples’ Car

If there was any doubt that modern day Christianity has reached the point of total lunacy, that doubt was removed this past Sunday, December 7, 2008 at Detroit, Michigan’s Greater Grace Temple as a Ford Escape, a GMC Tahoe and a Chrysler Aspen joined the churches ministers at the altar of prayer.  The purpose of the Sunday service entitled “A Hybrid Hope” was to implore the congregation to “pray and fast” until Detroit’s automakers’ bail-out was voted on by the US Congress.  “Divine intervention” was sought to keep the “Big 3″ automakers in business and the congregation of Greater Grace Temple employed.  Monday’s (December 8th) issue of the Wall Street Journal carried a large picture from the service on its front page.

 A service where “a laying on of the hands” and prayer was directed toward vehicles – not people.  Hey, if any vehicles needed prayer it would be the SUVs – they are the biggest sinners in the automotive world.  Let’s hope that the Escape, Tahoe and Aspen “got right with the Lord.”

 Understandably the congregants of the Greater Grace Temple are afraid of losing their automotive industry jobs and I’m sure that the Greater Grace Temple is afraid of losing all of that tax exempt tithe money.  From the pictures, the Greater Grace Temple looks to be a gigantic church, so I’m guessing the church elders, deacons, council (whatever) are shaking in their shoes as they imagine hordes of faithful congregants without work asking for help from the church.  Why that would totally blow the church’s budget for fiscal year 2009.  The church may have to cut back, put off purchases and maybe even down-size.  Why we can’t have that!

Since Greater Grace Temple is (presumably) a Christian church, I’m going to assume their doctrine is based on Scripture.  No where at any time in Scripture does Jesus try to help the corporate entities of His day.  In fact, the only time mentioned in Scripture where business and “the Temple” mixed, Jesus lost His temper and began beating legitimate businessman operating in the temple, over-turning their tables and physically wrecking their legal businesses.  Businesses, by the way, that put food in the mouths of children and alms into the Temple kitty.

Jesus had little pity on the poor.  He never spoke out against poverty or did anything to eliminate it.  “Ye have the poor with you always…,” Jesus said.  Another revered Christian, Mother Teresa, said, “…it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ.”  She also added, “I think the world is much helped by the suffering of the poor people.”  Hey, if Jesus and Mother Teresa said it’s great to be poor, it must be great!  Clearly Greater Grace Temple is on the wrong side of things.  No place in Scripture does it say that prosperity and spirituality go hand-in-hand.  In fact, the opposite is taught.

So dragging SUV’s to the altar of a church, laying hands on them and praying for the health of three huge world-wide corporations, would seem to be very close to heresy or, maybe, blasphemy.  At the very least it is an improper use of a church service that is supposed to celebrate rest and worship.

 Besides, anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Scripture would know that God does not support the American automotive industry.  In Acts Chapter 2, verse 1, the writer (Luke) tells us that “when the day of Pentecost was fully come, [Jesus' Disciples] were all with one Accord, in one place.”  This “Accord” reappears several times throughout the book of Acts (Acts 1:14, 2:46, 4:24, 5:12, 8:6, 12:20, 15:25).

 Ask any Bible scholar – he’ll tell you the Disciples drove a Honda.

Checked Reality

Apparently there is a new set of books on the conservative, fundamentalist Christian “Hit List.”  Sorry, Harry Potter, move over – now the Twilight series has taken your place.  These set of books are full of teen-age angst and mix quasi-reality with pure fantasy.  Other than being poorly written the books are harmless.  And yet, conservative Christian groups and schools are forbidding the reading of these books because of the fantasy elements and the underlying “sexual tension” or the “erotics of abstinence” between the human girl, Bella, and a vampire, Edward, even though Bella and Edward abstain from any sexual intercourse until after they are married.  Isn’t that what conservative Christian schools teach?  Wait until after marriage to have sex?

The offending picture

Last week I was told of an incident at a large conservative Christian school in Florida.  Announcements had been made making the reading of the Twilight series forbidden.  (These books have been out for a while, I know, but the recent release of Twilight, the movie, brought the books to the forefront again.)   One particular female high school student was carrying a notebook that had a small picture of Bella and Edward on its cover.  The Dean of Women stopped this girl in the hallway and questioned her as to why she had that picture on her notebook.  After telling the Dean of Women that she “just like the picture,” the Dean asked the student, “Have you read those books?”

 ”Yes, ma’am,” the girl answered.

 ”Don’t the main characters have inappropriate sexual contact in the books?” the Dean of Women asked.

 ”No, ma’am, they don’t.”

“You realize there are occult references, violence, blood and vampires, don’t you?  I don’t think it’s appropriate for a student here to be reading the books or carrying around a picture of the characters in the book.  You need to cover that picture immediately.”

 The student did as she was told.

 Later in the week, this same large, conservative, Christian school held its annual high school Christmas program where several of the school’s various high school choirs sang the usual assortment of Christmas songs – but all references to Santa Clause were left out.  Example:

 “…We know that Christmas is on its way…There’ll be lots of toys and goodies on that day…”

 Also, any Christmas song lyrics alluding to “magic” or “magic in the air” or “magical” were changed to reflect the anti-occult stand the school has taken.  (On Halloween, the students are forbidden to wear orange or black.)  In short, the school went to a lot of trouble to remove all occult or imaginary figures from their portrayal of Christmas.

Following the choir numbers, there was a “Christmas Play” – complete with “no room in the inn”, “born in a manger”, “shepherds keeping watch by night” and wise men and angels -

 Wait – wise men and angels?

 The “wise men” or “magoi” (or “magian“, what we would call a “magician”) were a combination of astrologer and astronomer – that’s how they found “The Star” in the first place.  The appearance and placement of the new star in the “house” of  Israel indicated a king was born.  The Bible using astrology to bring attention to the birth of Jesus – how did this slip past the Christian school administration?  I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure astrology is roundly condemned by Christians – conservative and liberal alike.

 Angels.  One entire play at this school had a little girl having a dream that she’s in Heaven with the angels before the Archangel Gabriel sends the angels to Earth to announce the birth of Jesus to the shepherds.  Here in this play we have a little girl cavorting with the angels and we are led to believe that this “excitement in Heaven” could have actually happened.

 Really.

 You ever seen an angel?  Seriously, now.  You ever seen one?  No, of course not.  And if you say you have, you need to call the men in the white coats to “come and take you away.”

 There is absolutely no evidence of angels – or of any other life forms or beings dwelling anywhere else or in any other “dimension” other than what we see and know.  I’ve heard it said that there is virtually no difference between the imaginary and the non-existent.  Yet, even with this overwhelming lack of evidence that supernatural beings exist, this conservative Christian school, that shuns the occult and magic, wants us to believe that angels exist and are as real as you are.

 Dare I say it?  There is more evidence for the existence of Santa Clause than there is for angels.  As a kid, Santa was very real to me.  Santa never once let me down.  Every Christmas morning, no matter what my parents’ economic status, there would be presents for me on Christmas morning.  Why, the local TV station tracked Santa on radar!  There was one Christmas Eve night I was convinced I saw the silhouette of Santa and his Reindeer against the snow in our backyard.  Forget angels!  Give me the Jolly Old Elf any day!

 Christianity is replete with angels, demons, talking animals, witches, possessions, exorcisms, magic, multi-faced, multi-horned, multi-eyed beasts and the walking dead – but that’s okay – that stuff is real, kids.

 Just don’t you dare read any books about unrequited love or vampires – that might lead you in the wrong direction.

Rope-A-Dope

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”   ~ Pogo, 1970

 “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”   ~ Barack Obama, 2008

“For many will come…and mislead many.  For…false prophets will arise and will show great attesting miracles and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, the chosen ones.”   ~ The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 24, verses 5 and 24, NASB

 Of all the Biblical authors, Paul is my favorite.  Aside from being brilliant, he’s blunt, sarcastic, a bit of a male chauvinist and a definite sports fan.  This guy was tough.  As a missionary he survived the First Century A.D. Roman roads, shipwreck, snake-bite, beatings, stoning and imprisonment.  Undoubtedly these ordeals took a toll on Paul’s body and his appearance – he alludes to the fact that there was nothing about his outward appearance or his speaking abilities that would draw a crowd.  In another letter he mentions being cold and needing his cloak, being sick, but recovering and apologizing for writing too large because of his failing eyesight.

 Paul also was a technician – that’s right.  What the Bible calls “tent-maker” or “leather-worker” comes from the Greek “techna“, a skill or trade.  Paul had a marketable skill – he wasn’t just a preacher – Paul could earn a living, if he had to, as he did during his year and a half stay in Corinth.

 And still, out of the 27 books in the Christian New Testament, Paul wrote 13 of them – 14, if you believe Paul wrote the book of Hebrews.  Most of the “books” were actually letters written to various churches – churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, etc.  The exceptions were the few letters Paul wrote to individuals – Titus, Philemon and Timothy.  It’s Timothy I want to concentrate on.

Paula - the Anti-Paul

Paul wasn’t getting any younger and he realized that he needed to pass on information to the following generation of pastors or overseers, one of which was young Timothy.  The two letters written to Timothy were actually instructions on how to be a pastor – how to be an overseer.  The letters are to the point and Paul doesn’t waste time getting down to the business of leaving instructions for Timothy to follow.  At one point Paul says, “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long – but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how to conduct yourself…”  Ideally, Paul wanted to talk to Timothy face to face, man to man, teacher to student, but Paul had experienced his share of delays before and half suspected another delay in scheduling a meeting with Timothy.  This lack of a personal meeting made the letter to Timothy that much more important.  So it is significant that after this statement about being delayed, Paul switches from instructing Timothy about “conduct in the household of God” to warning Timothy about the future of Christianity.

 ”…[I]n later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of  evil spirits, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, having their own consciences seared as with a hot branding iron…”

Profit of God

How often have we been told that the enemies of Christianity are the “sinners” – those “bad people” that want to lead us away from God and destroy our beliefs, our families and our way of life?  In Paul’s warning to Timothy, those people don’t even rate a mention!  Paul may have had one last chance to warn Timothy about the enemies of Christianity – and he tells Timothy that the enemy is Christianity – a form of Christianity where the leaders are governed by consciences that have become comfortably numb and unfeeling.  Paul says the future Christian leaders will be deceitful, purveyors of evil doctrine, hypocrites, liars and possess numbed consciences that will allow them to deceive and take advantage of innocent people all while acting in God’s name.

 Any names come to mind?

 The cable and satellite networks are full of these guys – and gals – bombarding us from above with their own particular brew of prophecy and prosperity gospel.

21st Century Christianity

I often become very angry (so angry I’m tempted to become a full-fledged atheist) at so-called Christian teachers-preachers-ministers-prophets that I hear, see or read in the modern media.  I often say to myself and, sometimes, out loud (depends on my level of outrage), “How can God allow this pure crap to be said in His Name?  How can He allow these people to prosper materially and gain large followings all under the guise of being ‘blessed’ by God?  How can these Christian charlatans take advantage of people – some of whom desperately need real help?”

God’s answer may be, “Hey, I warned you about this.  Don’t be so gullible!”

Contrast the life of Paul with any one of these prosperity-gospel-preachers.  Paul came before the church “not with superiority of speech” but in “weakness and in fear and in much trembling.”  Paul’s messages to the Christian churches “were not in persuasive words…that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but…on God.” (Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, chapter 2, verses 1 through 5)  This is the exact opposite of what you will see when a prosperity-gospel-preacher takes the stage!  These modern-prosperity-pimps are all style and rely on the words of men making claims upon God – not the other way around.  Rather than the power of God, they employ deceit, spin and pure lies to draw people unto themselves and their mega-churches.

 Paul spoke and wrote from a point of weakness – sharing the same lot as his congregation(s) – making every effort possible not to prosper at their expense.  But today, a pastor like Paul would be labeled a failure because he, Paul, failed to “name it and claim it” and suffered poverty and ill health because of a lack of faith in God.

 Don’t be fooled by these liars and profit-pimps just because they preach with perfect hair and teeth, from glitzy stages and pulpits – they have their reward – they have their God – and He is Them.

Speak as a Child

“On the inside of you, you will sense something prompting you to say words and syllables. Just open your mouth and let the words flow. I do not care if it is ‘la, la, la,’ or ‘da, da, da.’…” ~ word-faith charismatic preacher Rod Parsley.

 ”puqloDwl’le’qu’: Hoch jaj choquvmoH.  lengllj lutebjaj lengwljvaD bel rap, Sov rap, ngoQ rap je Danobpu’bogh.”~ Klingon spoken by Dr. Frasier Crane at his son’s Bar Mitzvah.  “Frasier” 11/05/2002

 ”De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.” ~ The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta, 1980

 ”As a Christian…I interpreted the feelings from meditating on Christ or speaking in tongues as a direct proof of the Holy Spirit…seems rather silly now, since there is no God – and I only speak in tongues once every few years just to see if I still have the touch…” ~ atheist Dan Barker in his book godless, p. 348, 2008

Characterized by their reliance on emotional decision-making, over-the-top rhetoric and lack of business transparency, it is no surprise the Biblical Charlatans that have set the Gold Standard in deceiving and manipulating needy and gullible people are up to their neck in the Charismatic Movement.  Charismatics, or those that have received “the gifts” of prophecy and tongues, believe in a direct experience with God and His Holy Spirit.  The Charismatic Movement is a theology of experience, of emotion, of direct one-on-one contact with God.  You talk to Him, He talks back – and if you have “the gift” you may even hear and see Him, as so many of the current crop of charismatic prophets and teachers have claimed.

Yes – that’s right.  Several of the famous Trinity Broadcasting Network preachers have claimed to see the Man Himself.  Some of them have visions on a regular basis.

What?  You haven’t heard or seen God this week?  What’s wrong with you?

To a charismatic, personal experience trumps written Scripture.  Instead of judging their experience by Scripture, they judge Scripture by their experience.  The Biblical text is reduced in importance and relegated to a supplemental role instead of being the primary source document for their theology.  This partially explains the lack of Biblical knowledge some of these preachers have and if you listen to them closely (at your own peril), you will find that they concentrate on a small portion of Scripture, usually New Testament, and usually having to do with physical, material or emotional experience.  The theology becomes one of personal emotions – the “feeling” you get when the Spirit communicates with your spirit.  Since your experience is, well, yours, who am I to judge you if mine is different?  You can see how this absolutely destroys the fixed text of Scripture.

Concentrating on emotion (tongues) and mysticism (prophecy) produces church services that are boisterous, sweaty and more akin to a high-school pep rally than a worship service.  The old staid hymnals are gleefully tossed aside in favor of upbeat “praise songs” consisting of simple, repetitive lyrics set to insipid tunes played by blaring rock bands that share the stage with the speaker-preacher-teacher.  The audience is artfully manipulated for maximum emotional output – and that’s just the beginning.  The preacher is usually a man or woman that has developed a stylized way of speaking so that the hearer’s mind tends to not hear what is being said, but rather feel what is being said.  And this feeling, of course, is from God.  This makes the flock very susceptible to suggestion and may explain why so many are blinded to the fact that they are being fleeced.

Let me warn you about something.  Over the next several weeks as the strife in Israel and Gaza escalates and subsides, as we hear about wars and possible wars, as our government shifts from center-right to center-left, you are going to hear these charismatic prophets claim that they knew this was coming.  Thanks to our friend, Mr. Internet, we can check just how wrong and how little these guys knew and know.  These “Profits of God” thrive in uncertain times but look at their record (and you can on the World Wide Web) and you will see that YOU can become a Prophet and accurately predict that these Prophet Pimps will be 100% wrong!  As I like to say, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne were far better prophets and far more accurate than Perry Stone, Jack Van Impe, Hal Lindsey, Pat Robertson, Kim Clement, et. al.

In regards to tongues, I’m not going into all of the Scripture that illustrates that “tongues” and “unknown tongues” were nothing more than human languages unknown to the speaker.  If I start quoting Scripture and dropping in Bible references with book, chapter and verse, your eyes will start to glaze over.  Suffice it to say that there is no current mystery regarding “speaking in tongues” – it is an emotion device used to manipulate people who tend to “think” with their heart rather than with their brain.  It is baby-talk for child-like believers.  It is confusion – and God is not the author of it.

Good ol’ Apostle Paul said it best: “…if there are gifts of prophecy, those prophesies will be fulfilled; if there are tongues, they will cease…when I was a child, I used to speak as a child…but when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”

Atheism Wins

By now most of you have read how a small group of lonely atheists have decided they want to ban God from Barack Obama’s upcoming Presidential Inauguration. The proposed ban doesn’t have a prayer in succeeding but the press time and exposure these atheists get is priceless. It’s not only the media coverage that drives contributions to atheist organizations but the reactionary theists (usually Christian) that wet themselves every time an atheist takes a pot-shot at religion or religious tradition.

Come on – I mean really – what do Christians have to fear from atheism?

Recently, on the island of deep-thought, fish-n-chips and bad dentistry, otherwise known as Great Britain, an atheist group was tired of the religious ads that appear on city buses. So, putting all of their pointy-heads together, they came up with as ad of their own:

There is probably no God, so stop worrying and get on with your life.

And a second variation:

There’s probably no God. So stop worrying and enjoy life.

That’s it? That’s the best their uncluttered, non-religious minds can come up with? There’s “probably no God?” Whaddaya mean “probably?” You mean there might be a God? That should have caused every atheist in the UK to run to their nearest atheist organization and ask for their contributions back. If I were in charge of the Atheist Bus Ad Campaign, my slogan would be:

There is no God. This life is it. Have fun.

Christianity has little to fear from atheism. Atheists usually don’t recruit or proselytize, although one atheist organization, Freedom From Religion Foundation, hands out what they call a “nontract” to Christian believers in an effort to negate the effects of religious tracts, propaganda and teaching. (For an atheist organization, this is dangerously close to proselytizing and appearing “religious” – so it should be no surprise that the Freedom From Religion Foundation is headed up by a former charismatic pastor, Dan Barker. Old habits die hard, eh, Dan?) Other than the exception of the FFRF, hard-core atheism is advanced through books, magazines and websites that the interested reader must seek and find. Unless you count “DARWIN” fish, most atheism is not thrust in your face – it’s a sought after topic or choice.

It’s not the atheist that twists and distorts scripture, using the Bible as a tool to deceive, extort and steal from the gullible only to pad their own nests here in this present life. It’s not the atheist that claims to speak directly to God, see visions and hear prophesies only to have those visions and prophecies proven false. It’s not the atheist that pollutes the airwaves with outrageous and unsubstantiated claims of healings, supernatural miracles and appearances of the Divine. It’s not the atheist that substitutes subjective personal experience with objective truth. It’s not the atheist that wants to force teachers to fore-go science in favor of mysticism.

If Christians want to identify the real enemy, all they need to do is look at the face of Twenty-First Century Christianity. Look at the Charismatic Movement. Look at the Prosperity Gospel. Look at Trinity Broadcasting Network. Look at the Christian Broadcasting Network. The fine wine has turned to vinegar – atheism is the result – not the cause.

History and Agatha Christie have taught us all that if you want to poison someone, and not get caught, you do it slowly, patiently, over time. You disguise the poison with something good – mixing error with some truth. Only then will you be able achieve your goal and walk away, blameless.

It’s not atheism I fear. It’s not the lack of belief that disturbs me. It’s belief – it’s religiosity.

The truth with a bit of error…over time and…

Atheism wins.

Israel’s Cheerleaders

Many of my pagan friends (“pagan” is my affectionate term for a non-believer) ask me why Christians, and Christianity in general, are so ardent in their support of the State of Israel. Somehow, even my pagan friends are aware that Judaism generally does not support the growth or expansion of Christianity, so why do Christians actively support and prop up the State of Israel, home of Judaism?

It’s strange, but understandable, that these questions are asked of me in hushed tones, quiet whispers and a quick check to see if anyone is listening. Questioning the support of Israel can get you accused of anti-Semitism or, worse yet, being pro-Arab – and we can’t have that!

Some basics – both the Jews and the Arabs are correct in claiming the same father, Abram (later Abraham) and both are correct in claiming a Divine blessing upon them and their descendants. The Jews trace their lineage back through Isaac, the son born to Abraham’s wife, Sarah, and the Arabs trace their lineage back through Ishmael, the son born to Abraham’s Egyptian maid, Hagar. If you read the Book of Genesis, the stories of these two births are rudely (and I mean really rudely) interrupted by the disgusting story of Sodom and Gomorrah, so I think the continuity of the two births of Ishmael and Isaac gets lost. If you objectively read the accounts of the births and omit the Sodom and Gomorrah story, you find that God physically intervened twice to help Ishmael’s mother Hagar stay alive while Sarah, Isaac’s mom, was once visited by three men (assumed angels) that told her she would have a baby in a year’s time. We end up with two Divinely blessed half-brothers – Isaac whom God promised, “I will establish My covenant with him…” – Ishmael whom God promised, “He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.” Ishmael, the name meaning, God will hear, and Isaac, meaning he laughs.

Put them together in the same land with the same promises and what you get is not funny.

You would think modern day Christian support of Isaac’s descendants, the Jewish people, would be because of God saying, “My covenant [is] with him [Isaac].” You would be wrong.

The true source of the modern day Christian support of Israel comes from Biblical eschatology. According to eschatology, the Bible tells us that there are future events that cannot happen until Israel has been established as the Divinely ordained and permanent home of the Jewish people, the children of Israel. One of those things that cannot happen until Israel has been established is the Second Coming of Christ. So, very simply, anything modern day Christianity can do to accelerate the process of establishing the State of Israel, whether that be in the form of material aid, monetary aid or military aid – any kind of aid at any cost – will only serve to hasten the Second Return of Christ. That’s the motivation for the support – to, if possible, “speed up” the promised return of Jesus Christ so He can establish His Millennial Kingdom here on Earth.

That’s what is taught in Christian churches today. It also explains some of the fascination modern day Christians have with charismatic prophets who are constantly trying to crack “Bible Codes” or swear they’ve seen plans to “re-build Solomon’s Temple” in Jerusalem. Some examples of what I’m talking about come in the form of, Perry Stone, Jack Van Impe, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Trinity Broadcasting Network and the Christian Broadcasting Network to name a few. In fact, just a few years ago, CBN’s Pat Robertson worked out mathematically when Christ would come back based on the date that the State of Israel was established by the United Nations – A.D. 1948. (Robertson came up with 1988 (the year God told him to run for President), but re-figured after considering the boundary changes during the 1967 and 1972 wars. Robertson now has dates of Christ’s Return between 2008 and 2012.) The point is that the formation, establishment and maintenance of the State of Israel are vital for Christ’s promised return.

So Israel should be grateful for the Christian support – whatever the reason, right? Well, maybe, but there is a down side.

According to modern interpretations of Biblical eschatology, what also has to happen after the establishment of the Jewish homeland, Israel, is the rise of the false Messiah, also known as the “Anti-Christ” and the “Beast.” The Anti-Christ, it is said, will arise as a world leader and negotiate a peace treaty in the Middle East which will allow Israel to re-build the Temple of Solomon and re-establish Judaism’s rights and rituals to conform to the ancient laws set forth in the Torah. This all sounds great; until you read that the Anti-Christ also breaks the peace treaty, desecrates the Temple and declares open war on the Jewish people. “[T]hen let those who are in Judea (Israel) flee to the mountains…” Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, “and unless those days be shortened, no life would have been saved.” Millions of Israelites will die, save 12,000 from each of the Twelve Tribes, all in the process of convincing them that Jesus Christ is the True Messiah.

Boil it down and what you get is modern day Christianity supporting the State of Israel in an effort to eventually convert the Jews, or what is left of the Jewish people, to Christianity.

I wonder how many Israelis are aware of this?

Land of the Bible Bizarre

Late Friday, January 9, 2009, U.S. District Court Judge M. Casey Rodgers granted a preliminary injunction in the case of the ACLU v. Santa Rosa County School District (Florida). The ACLU filed a lawsuit in August on behalf of two Pace High School students, who claim Pace High School officials misuse their positions to promote their religious viewpoints. The suit named the Santa Rosa County School Board, the district’s superintendent, and the principal at Pace High School as defendants.The lawsuit also documents how teachers and staff at Pace High School preach about “judgment day with the Lord” and offer Bible readings and biblical interpretations during student meetings.

Among the complaints listed in the suit:

1. Elementary graduations and middle school Christmas concerts held at churches.

2. Teachers & staff at Pace High preaching about Judgment Day with the Lord.

3. Teachers & staff offering Bible readings and biblical interpretations during student meetings.

The preliminary injunction prohibits all district officials from:

1. Promoting or sponsoring prayers during school-sponsored events, including graduation.

2. Planning or financing religious baccalaureate services.

3. Holding school-sponsored events at religious venues when alternative venues are reasonably available.

4. Permitting school officials to promote their personal religious beliefs and proselytize students in class or during school-sponsored events and activities.

On Dec. 15, 2008, the school board, the superintendent and the principal filed an “Admission of Liability” with the Court regarding the district-wide constitutional violations.

“The School District ultimately did the right thing in admitting and accepting responsibility for its violations of students’ constitutional rights,” said Benjamin James Stevenson, principal litigator and staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida’s Northwest Regional office. “We are pleased with (the) decision, and we look forward to working with the defendants and the court to permanently bring the school district in line with the First Amendment.”

Just in case you’re not familiar with Santa Rosa County, Florida, it’s no where near Miami, Tampa, Orlando or Jacksonville. Santa Rosa County is located in the far north-west of Florida, the second Florida county east of the Alabama state line and is part of what the locals call the “Redneck Riviera” because the county shares it’s southern border with the Gulf of Mexico. Santa Rosa County is mostly a rural county and is known for two things:

1. Having more churches per square mile than any other in the nation — there are approximately 178 churches in Santa Rosa County.

2. One of the largest producers of Florida-grown marijuana – due to the large size of the county, its rural nature and its lack of major metropolitan areas.

Just five years ago, Santa Rosa County was a dry county – no wine or spirits – and no beer sales on Sundays. Since then, Santa Rosa County has become “wet” on a limited basis. The locals blame the county going “wet” on new residents moving in from “up north” and changing the local “traditional values.”

If you’re still having a hard time imagining where this place is, let me call your attention to Santa Rosa County’s neighbor county just to the east, Escambia County, Florida. Pensacola, Florida, the county seat of Escambia County, is the home of some of the more bizarre and sometimes violent religious entities. Examples include:

June 1984 – bombing of a local abortion clinic.

December 1984 – bombing of the same abortion clinic.

March 1986 – former KKK member and local religious leader, John Burt, along with his daughter, break in and assault female abortion clinic workers.

March 1993 – Michael Griffin, allegedly a member of Rescue America (founded by Pensacolian John Burt), shot and killed Dr. David Gunn outside an abortion clinic.

July 1994 – Paul Hill, a former Presbyterian minister and leader in Defensive Action killed a physician and bodyguard outside another abortion clinic; he wounded the wife of the bodyguard. Hill was executed by the state of Florida for his crimes.

Pensacola is the home of Pastor Chuck Baldwin who pastors Crossroads Baptist Church and was a U.S. Presidential Candidate representing the Constitution Party in the last national election (2008).

Pensacola Christian College which instructs its faculty, staff and students on how to vote in local elections in order to advance the college’s agenda. This same college churns out Christian “home-school” material with a decidedly conservative right-wing view point.

Pensacola Bible Institute, founded and led by Dr. Peter Ruckman, requires Bible students (and wives & children) to stand and shout (“preach”) at traffic stopped at busy intersections.

Dr. Kent Hovind, founder of Creation Science Evangelism, fought Escambia County over building and zoning permits for his Dinosaur Adventure Land amusement park. Dr. Hovind and his wife, Jo, were later convicted of tax evasion. Hovind is now serving time in a Florida prison.

Pastor Gordon Godfrey of the Marcus Pointe Baptist Church known for his anti-homosexual stance and anti-gay billboards he and his church paid to have erected before the Memorial Day “Gay Days” at Pensacola Beach. Godfrey advocated throwing nails and tacks in the beach and hotel parking lots during these “Gay Day” events. Pastor Godfrey, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, was later convicted of hunting deer in Wisconsin without a hunting license.

So, you can see that it’s no surprise to hear that public school teachers and administrators are teaching the “judgment of the Lord” in the Santa Rosa County Schools.

This is, after all, the Land of the Bible Bizarre.

…And The Bizarre-ness Continues…

Marcus Schrenker...D.B. Cooper?

No known connection, but the aircraft that was abandoned in mid-flight by fugitive (now captured) Indiana money manager, Marcus Schrenker crashed into a wooded area off of Wright Basin near a neighborhood in East Milton, Florida – that’s in Santa Rosa County.

Is there something about Northwest Florida and Santa Rosa County in particular that draws criminals, fugitives and religious weird-os? Is Santa Rosa County the singularity of some kind of a Bermuda Triangle-like phenomenon that draws wack-os, crazoids and nut-burgers to itself? We will probably never have these questions answered, but I think it’s strange that out of all the places to crash, Marcus Schrenker’s abandoned single-engine Piper Malibu decided to crash in Santa Rosa County, Florida. Like some weird and wacky magnet was guiding it, pulling it toward the center of weirdness.

Yes, yes, I know – Schrenker was originally bound for Destin, Florida. Thing is, Destin, Florida is in Okaloosa County, Florida – the next county east of Santa Rosa County, Florida.

Now I’ll probably never know this until 20/20 or DateLine conducts a well-hyped interview with Marcus Schrenker, but I’m convinced that Schrenker was a big fan of one of my favorite movies, In Pursuit of D. B. Cooper. This 1981 movie starred Treat Williams as D. B. Cooper and was only loosely based on the real D. B. Cooper story. The real D. B. Cooper parachuted out of the rear of a Boeing 727 with a bag full of stolen money and was never seen again. The movie picks up where reality leaves off and fictionalizes the events following D. B. Cooper’s famous jump.

The connections to Schrenker and the movie are obvious…

1) Schrenker parachutes out of a plane after stealing money – so does D. B. Cooper.

2) Schrenker recovers a previously hidden motorcycle – so does D. B. Cooper, in the movie version.

3) Schrenker makes contact with law enforcement – so does the movie version of D. B. Cooper.

4) Schrenker’s cute wife had filed for divorce – so had D. B. Cooper’s, in the movie.

5) Schrenker lives rough while on the run – so does the movie Cooper.

Unfortunately, this is where the movie and Schrenker depart company. Not good for the now captured Schrenker because in the movie [SPOILER ALERT] D. B. Cooper gets away with the money and lives happily ever after and even [SPOILER ALERT #2] gets back together with his wife! Only in the movies!

But, sorry, Mr. Schrenker, life is a bitch in the Bizarre-o World of Northwest Florida.

Those Evil Atheists

It is a broad and inaccurate brush that paints atheists and atheism as “evil” and as a malevolent force that “good will ultimately overcome.” A recent example is a December 20, 2008 quote from Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican Congressman representing Florida’s 21st District. Congressman Diaz-Balart made the comments after attending the “Divine Performing Arts” show (a stage show detailing the history of the Chinese people in dance and song) in Fort Lauderdale.

“I was very moved by the song that talked about the damage atheism has caused and is causing…the songs carry a sense that evil will not prevail, and so the message is that the truth ultimately prevails…the message is eternal, it is truth…because eternal truth will survive atheism and the difficulties of the 20th Century. It is very important that this message gets out because it is the truth.”

From the above quote I think I can reasonably assume that Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart is, at the very least, a theist, and at the most, a religious man. Judging from his background, bio and friends, I’d say he’s most likely a Catholic or at least brought up in a Catholic home, although I admit I don’t know this for sure. Congressman Diaz-Balart clearly makes a direct connection between evil and atheism. In fact, to Congressman Diaz-Balart, the words “evil” and “atheism” can be used interchangeably. There’s no difference between the two – evil is atheism and atheism is evil.

Professor Dawkins from an appearance on "Doctor Who, The Stolen Earth" -- An evil atheist?

Has this been your experience? It certainly hasn’t been mine. I have found atheists to be some of the most independent, interesting and thought-provoking people I’ve met. The atheists I know would rather argue over a cup of coffee than participate in mass religious genocide. (It is true that some atheists dream of the day religion dies, but not by force – by its own accord.) My point is that atheism does not make a man “evil” – the man himself makes the man evil. Evil is not the product of atheism – evil is the product of a warped, paranoid mind, longing for power and approval with overtones of veneration and adoration.

No doubt Congressman Diaz-Balart had in mind Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung. Mao believed the Chinese were dominated by three separate institutions; the state, the clan and family, and the system of gods and spirits (theocratic authority) – these three institutions had to be dismantled in order for China to be a true and pure Communist state. Problem is, Mao himself demanded reverence. His “Little Red Book” was nothing short of a Ten Commandment-like Prayer Book. Even today Mao is regarded not so much as a great Communist leader but as a Great Ancestor close to the Divine. It was Mao’s megalomania, not his claimed atheism that motivated him.

Brought up as a Roman Catholic, served as an altar boy, Adolf Hitler was a typical Austrian. It was Hitler’s upbringing in what was an anti-Semitic religious culture that made him susceptible to the rampant Judeophobia that dominated the German nationalists Hitler gravitated toward while in Vienna in his late teens. Much later as Hitler rose to power, he echoed the same anti-Semitism at a 1926 Nazi Christmas celebration, “Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews … The work that Christ started but could not finish, I — Adolf Hitler — will conclude.” His famous (or infamous) book, Mein Kampf, repeats Hitler’s belief that he was doing “the Lord’s work.” Sometimes I wonder how much different history would’ve been if Hitler truly had been an atheist or at least an agnostic. He probably would’ve died a struggling artist outside a coffee house in Linz instead of becoming a tyrant fueled by divine beliefs in the lowliness of the Semitic races and the superiority of the German Soul.

Then we have Joseph Stalin – a tyrant and mass murderer that makes Hitler look like a light-weight – a man that professed atheism but created a system where communism and the Communist Party was the religion. Stalin’s communism claimed to be pro-science and anti-religious when in fact it clearly held unscientific views (the Communist Party under Stalin opposed Darwinism) and was anti-religious only in the sense that it suppressed all other religions except itself. Party devotees established a “Red Corner”, placing a portrait of Lenin in spaces that used to be occupied by Christian icons. An article of advice from Pravda, 1950…

“If you meet with difficulties in your work, or suddenly doubt your abilities, think of him – of Stalin – and you find the confidence you need. If you feel tired…think of him – of Stalin – and your work will go well. If you are seeking a correct decision, think of him – of Stalin – and you will find that decision.”

A more modern tyrant, Saloth Sar, better known by his fabricated name, Pol Pot, worked, starved or out-right murdered 1.7 million Cambodians, or about 20 percent of the population of Cambodia, all in an attempt to reclaim the racial purity of the Khmer race (the ethnic majority in Cambodia) and reclaim the ancient “lost territories” of the medieval Angkor kingdom. Pol Pot’s goal was to establish a purely Cambodian Communist State, one free of foreign influence – this included minority languages, French or foreign educated professionals and Cambodia’s Buddhist religion. In an effort to suppress religious expression, monks were defrocked, temples and artifacts, including statues of Buddha, were destroyed and people praying or expressing other religious sentiments were often killed. It was Pol Pot’s belief that the pure Cambodian Communist State was to be revered, the Khmer Rouge to be feared and the nobility of ancient Cambodian agrarianism to be achieved. A trinity, if you will, of beliefs that often fuel religious wars, such as those currently raging in the Middle East.

All of this brings us back to Congressman Diaz-Balart, who was born in Havana, Cuba before Fidel Castro’s 1959 Communist Revolution. Castro was raised as a Catholic but renounced his faith and was later (1962) excommunicated by Pope John XXIII. This excommunication had little, if any, affect on Castro but was designed to undermine support for Castro among Catholics in Cuba and around the world. As a result, Castro viewed the Roman Catholic Church as a political enemy, not a religious force, that he had to deal with. It wasn’t until the 1990’s, with Soviet-Russian support crumbling, Castro loosened restrictions on church-going Cuban Catholics. In 1998, Pope John Paul II visited Cuba, appeared together with Castro and succeeded in thawing the relationship between the Vatican and Communist Cuba. In April, 2005, after the Pope’s death, Fidel Castro, wearing a dark suit, attended a mass in the Pope’s honor in Havana’s cathedral and expressed his gratitude for the “heartfelt way the death of our Holy Father John Paul II was received (in Cuba).” Hardly the remarks of an “evil atheist.”

It’s the last place most religionists and theists look, but the Bible condemns not atheism, but religiosity. (And those of you that bring up Psalms 14 and Psalms 53 need to study your Hebrew.) The Apostle Paul in Acts 17 was walking and talking with the Epicureans and the Stoics in Athens on the Areopagus. The Epicureans were atheists – believing that there was only this life and, if there were any gods, or God, at all, they or He were/was not concerned with the affairs of man. The Stoics believed in self-mastery and austerity as the means to achieve perfection in this life. Paul commented on both of these philosophies…

“Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.”

Paul’s criticism was derived from the fact that religiosity and mysticism reigned supreme in the lives of these Athenians. It wasn’t their unbelief that was the problem, it was their religious beliefs.

Atheism is not the enemy. Atheists are not the enemy. The fuel of megalomania and paranoia are religiosity and mysticism…

…the true evil.

“…some began to sneer, but others said, ‘We shall hear you again concerning this.’”

More Northwest Florida Weirdness…

Pensacola, Florida, the county seat of Escambia County, Florida is a small town. I looked it up – population 55,240 (US Census for 2000) – we’re not talking Orlando or Tampa, here – Pensacola is a dinky place by comparison.

So how did so much weirdness get crammed into one area? (See previous blogs “Land of the Bible Bizarre” and “…the Bizarre-ness Continues”) Is it the climate? The UFO’s in Gulf Breeze?  Hurricanes? The lack of affordable homeowners insurance? Bushwackers? What is it?

Now a local attorney, Mike Papantonio of the Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Echsner & Proctor law firm in Pensacola is after Rush Limbaugh – and maybe Rush Limbaugh’s job.

Papantonio, or “Pap” as he is sometimes called, has aspersions of becoming the next big thing in talk radio. Papantonio is the host of a nationally syndicated radio show, “Ring of Fire,” on Air America Radio and is the founder of GoLeft.tv. Never heard of it? Yeah – I’d never heard of Rush Limbaugh either until he burst on to the national airwaves back in 1988. Papantonio is different from Limbaugh – Papantonio’s opinions and philosophy comes from the far left (hence, the “GoLeft.tv”) as opposed to Limbaugh’s far right views.

Papantonio - looking Left for the answers.

Papantonio writes a semi-regular opinion column in the local newspaper, the Pensacola News Journal (www.pnj.com), and on Wednesday he had this to say about Limbaugh…

Let Rush Talk to a Laid Off Worker
Mike Papantonio • January 28, 2009

Last Sunday, the pastor in the church I attended prayed for Barack Obama. That pastor prayed that Obama would have the strength and wisdom to guide America. I’m certain that the majority of that congregation agreed that we should all pray for Obama’s success. It made me proud to be a member of that church during that prayer.

I wish Rush Limbaugh had been there. Because the week before Limbaugh made the statement on his radio show that he hoped that Obama’s efforts to pull America through these dark days would fail.

His words were: “I hope Obama fails. Somebody’s got to say it.” He went as far as telling his lockstep listeners that he was angry at Republicans who are pulling for Obama to succeed.

I’m pretty sure there are preachers all over this country leading congregations in prayers that make the same plea my pastor made last Sunday. And I’m comfortable knowing that the power of those prayers are much stronger than the repugnant hate talk of an aging radio host in search of a bigger audience.

It’s important to consider the specifics of what Limbaugh is hoping for in Obama’s failure. Eight million Americans lost their homes to foreclosure during the Bush years. Perhaps if Limbaugh could step out of his 25,000-square-foot home and see the pain of a mother and father telling their children that they just lost their home, maybe then he would want Obama to succeed.

Or maybe Limbaugh could step away from his $400 million job long enough to be on site the day a factory or a bank or a restaurant closes. And maybe he could follow one of those fathers home to tell his family that he just lost his job. Maybe then he would want to pray for Obama, rather than hope Obama fails.

It might even be a good idea for this pathetic radio demagogue to put his solid gold microphone down for a few days and spend some time with his Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity chicken-hawk crowd touring V.A. hospitals. Perhaps then Limbaugh, who himself received a military deferment, could appreciate Obama’s effort to end “W’s” Iraq disaster instead of hoping for Obama’s failure.

These latest words give us a creepy picture of the real heart and soul of Limbaugh. Because, as he rallies his ditto-head crowd around the hopes of failure for Obama, he is in effect hoping that all of America fails.

But last Sunday, a prayer of hope and compassion delivered by a preacher who truly cares about America made Rush sound like the petty, irrelevant demagogue that he has worked so hard to become. ~ Pensacola News Journal, 01-28-2009

Notice how Papantonio worked religion into his column? Rush’s desire for Obama to fail has nothing to do with religion – but, like a good Pensacolian, Papantonio manages to tie the two together.

Since Papantonio brought up religion, Limbaugh is held in high regard by the Religious Right. Robertson, Dobson, et. al., put up with Limbaugh’s obvious un-religious behavior (3 failed marriages & a drug habit) just to advance their political causes. To me the unquestioning support of these quasi-Christians (like Limbaugh) by the Religious Right tells me just where their priorities are. Advance the political agenda and we’ll worry about the Gospel later.

Filling the conservative "power gap" with gab.

First of all Limbaugh is an ENTERTAINER. Limbaugh does not hold any public office and he is not in a position of any authority. Limbaugh is on the air for one reason and one reason only – he’s good at ENTERTAINING. His ability to ENTERTAIN allows Limbaugh to afford his ultra-luxurious East-coast Florida lifestyle – just like a good attorney, such as yourself, Mr. Papantonio, can afford much more than the average Pensacola resident – you know, a gated home, beach front property, a Bentley or a Maserati, etc. Limbaugh’s influence, if he really has any at all, was given to him by the free market, also known as the listening audience — unlike Air America which, well, doesn’t have much of an audience by comparison. Why criticize Limbaugh’s ability to earn a good living in an industry where most hosts fail? Criticizing Rush’s income and possessions just makes you look small, Pap.

Limbaugh’s opinions are his own. When his right-wing, quasi-religious rhetoric gets to me (after about 10 minutes) I turn him off. If more people would do the same, we wouldn’t have to worry about Limbaugh. Limbaugh only has as much power as we, the listeners, give him. Don’t like Rush? Turn him off. Stop listening.

Then Limbaugh will become like Air America…

…no power and no listeners…

Charismatics – Why we need the ACLU.

So this past Monday, the Santa Rosa County, Charismatic, faith-healing, unknown-tongues-speaking mega-church, Pace Assembly of God, led by their Pastor-Teacher-Prophet, Reverend Joseph “Joey” Rogers, decided to challenge the ACLU and the recent court ruling that prohibits teachers at the local public high school, Pace High School, from praying, preaching, Bible reading and proselytizing while teaching.

The ruling came down from U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union last month.  Pace High School principal, Frank Lay, and Santa Rosa Schools Superintendent, John Rogers, admitted liability and agreed to enforce the Judges’ ruling.

One part of the U.S. District Court ruling that really rubbed Pastor Joey Rogers the wrong way was the part about no prayer at the up-coming 2009 Pace High School Baccalaureate service.  So, Pastor Joey decided to hold his own.  The proposed service announced Monday will be held on May 28, two days before graduation, at Pace Assembly of God – of course.

Keeping God where He belongs -- on a cross and on a shirt.

Around ten well-meaning, but mis-guided, Pace High School students were excused from attending classes Monday to attend the Pace Assembly news conference.  One kid that spoke, senior John Soutullo, wore a black T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Crucified” written in a graffiti-style script and an agonized Jesus impaled on a white cross.  Yeeesh.  Kind of creepy.  As well as students, many local ministers attended – it was a wonderful chance to get themselves on the local TV News.

Pastor Rogers took it all a step further by creating his own website to help students and ministers work together to plan a baccalaureate service.

Sounds so good and noble – doesn’t it?

The ACLU favored ruling was not just about prayer at a baccalaureate service.  Here are some of the details from the suit itself:

1. Pace High teachers attend and take part in religious student “clubs” where they pray with and proselytize students.

2. “First Priority” an official Pace High student club meets once a week to sing and talk about God.

Youth Meeting at Pace Assembly

3. Pace High math teacher & softball coach, Dustin Gray, preached to students about “instant reply” and “judgment day with the Lord.”

4. Pace High School teacher Dan Adams offered Bible readings and interpretations.

5. Pace High School history teacher & coach, Clint Martin,  has preached at students in the parking lot through use of a bullhorn.

6. Pace High faculty were known to commonly promote their own faith, identify the church to which they belonged, give religious oriented homework and encouraged attendance of youth oriented “clubs.”

And this isn’t the first time Pastor Joey Rogers has tangled with the law or a school board.  Back in 2004 Pastor Rogers sought to ban a book, My Brother Sam is Dead, from the Okaloosa County Schools classrooms.  Pastor Rogers believed the book was obscene and had what he said was a negative approach to God.  Rogers lost as the school board unanimously voted to keep My Brother Sam is Dead in middle school classrooms.  Still, it doesn’t change the fact that Pastor Rogers is one of those guys who believes that his way is the only way.

Let’s look closely at Pace Assembly of God.  Just looking at their web-site is enough.  One of the up-coming speakers is Perry Stone, the Bible-Code, vision seeing, all-knowing Prophet of the Last Days.  This is the same Perry Stone that had the vision of the World Trade Center falling – but didn’t think to tell anyone until years after 9/11 happened.  This is the same Perry Stone that sells a “food kit” on his web-site that will heal you – not only spiritually, but physically heal you.  This is the same Perry Stone that when he was a teenage wrestled nightly with evil spirits that were trying to keep him from preaching.  This is the same Perry Stone that believes as and works with the administration and founders of Trinity Broadcasting Network – the masters of theft in the name of God.

The Ever-Present Prophecy Series

This is the company that Pastor Joey Rogers keeps.  Pastor Rogers would rather have the charismatic, biblical charlatans from TBN teach at Pace High School instead of trained, non-religious teachers.  Instead of science and medicine, it would be Intelligent Design and Faith Healing.  Instead of English and Literature it would be Speaking in Tongues and interpreting the Bible literally.

Keep talking Pastor Rogers – you are the reason we need the ACLU.  Mysticism belongs in the church – not the classroom.

The Charismatic Commonality

Recently, I commented on another blog that now that the Church has been established and all of Scripture was complete, prophecy had been fulfilled and tongues have ceased. (I Corinthians 13) There are those who say otherwise and they responded by calling me a “Cessationist.”

Prophecy has ceased. When the last bit of Scripture was written, prophecy ceased. To continue to “prophesy” is to add to Scripture.

Tongues have ceased. When the early church was established and those of various languages heard Christ preached in their own native languages, the gift or miracle of tongues was no longer necessary. Modern-day tongues-speaking is nothing more than uttering language-like but unintelligible sounds usually in a state of ecstasy – anyone can do it – pagans do and have for centuries. The so-called modern “glossolalia” is a product of an excited state produced by the hypnotic rhythms of modern praise music, repetitive chants from Praise Leaders and the pep-rally atmosphere of the charismatic worship service.

The “fruits” of such movements are confusion, disillusion and corruption.

For example, here is a list of major ministry scandals of the last hundred years or so…

 
Aimee Semple McPherson (1920’s – 1940’s) – practiced tongue speaking – Pentecostal

Lonnie Frisbee (1970’s – 1980’s) – Pentecostal evangelist

Billy James Hargis (early 1970’s) – fundamentalist protestant

Oral Roberts (1977 & 1986) – leader in the charismatic movement.

Jim & Tammy Bakker (1980’s & early 1990’s) – Pentecostal

Jimmy Swaggart (1986 & 1991) – Pentecostal

Peter Popoff (1987) – faith healer, charismatic

Mike Warnke (1991) – charismatic

Robert Tilton (1991) – charismatic

Frank Houston (2000) – Pentecostal

John Paulk (2000) – ex-”Focus on the Family” employee, evangelical

Paul Crouch (2004) – charismatic

Douglas Goodman (2004) – charismatic (United Kingdom)

Kent Hovind (2006) – Creation Science Evangelism

Ted Haggard (2006) – charismatic

Paul Barnes (2006) – non-denominational, non-charismatic

Lonnie Latham (2006) – Southern Baptist

Richard Roberts (2007) – faith healing, charismatic

Bishop Earl Paulk (2007) – semi-regular guest on TBN’s “Praise the Lord.” (charismatic)

Coy Privette (2007) – politician, Southern Baptist preacher

Phil Driscoll (2007) – affiliated with Kenneth Copeland Ministries (charismatic)

Joe Barron (2008) – Southern Baptist “megachurch”

Todd Bentley (2008) – Charismatic

Tony Alamo (2008) – Pentecostal theology

 
We have a total of 24 ministries on our modern-day Christianity Scandal Sheet, out of which we have 17 Charismatics, 3 known Southern Baptists, 4 non-denominational fundamentalists. That gives us:

70.8% – scandals involving charismatics/Pentecostals
12.5% – scandals involving Southern Baptists
16.7% – involve some form of evangelical, non-denominational, fundamentalism

In 2007, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) opened a probe into the finances of six televangelists who preach a “prosperity gospel”. (Prosperity Gospel is a shallow theological concept that if you give money to God or God’s work, He will give you much more money back. The more you give, the more you get = prosperity.)

This is just a probe, of course, it does not mean any of the six have done anything wrong. However, the lavish lifestyles of these six include:

- fleets of Rolls Royces…

- huge palatial mansions…

- private jets…

and other excesses — all supposedly paid for by loyal television viewers who regularly send their tithe money. There’s more:

- one “faith” preacher who routinely requires a $7,000 spending allowance–in addition to his honorarium–when he speaks at a church AND he also requires luxury transportation to and from the mall…

- one of the TV preachers now tells his audiences that those who give $2,400 in the offering will receive a “24-hour miracle”…

- some preachers now ask people in the crowd to stand if they can give large amounts of money in the offering — then, those who make the pledge are promised prophecies or special blessings…

These six ministries have demonstrated varying levels of cooperation — from reluctant disclosure (Meyers) to total defiance (Copeland). The six under investigation are as follows:

Kenneth Copeland and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark, TX (charismatic)

Creflo Dollar and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International and Creflo Dollar Ministries of College Park, GA (charismatic)

Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church Inc. and Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, TX (charismatic)

Eddie L. Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop Eddie Long Ministries of Lithonia, GA (charismatic)

Joyce Meyer and David Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, MO (charismatic)

Randy White and Paula White of the multiracial Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries of Tampa, FL (charismatic)

What stands out about Senator Grassley’s investigation is that every one of these ministries adheres to charismatic theology and doctrine. What does this say about the theology itself? God enjoys having His sheep fleeced while His “Man” (or “Woman”) lives in palatial luxury? These excesses are not “tools for the ministry,” as is argued by Copeland and some others, these are luxuries purchased with money intended for God. Scripture is very clear that those “shepherds” that feed themselves and not “the flock” are not of God or with God. (Ezekiel 34)

Look, it’s not hard to tell what’s of God and what isn’t. You will recognize them by their fruits. If the fruits of a ministry are profits, materialism, secrecy, investigations and scandal, you are witnessing a ministry that is not of God and not with God. Also, well over half of the time, that ministry will be Charismatic in origin and nature.

It is significant that Christ is quoted in Matthew to have said, “Many will say to me…, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?’ I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7)

Prophecy, Demon Exorcisms and Miracles (i.e., faith healing) – three things that are indispensable in the Charismatic Movement…

…and also the characteristics of those God “never knew.”

The Benny & Perry Show

Benny - Paul (and his god) - and Perry (notice head-tic)

It’s my own fault -

I woke up early – at least what is early for me – and turned on the TV to check out the news -

But, after flipping through the channels for a while, like an idiot, I stopped on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and who did I see but the two great Prophets of our time, Benny Hinn and Perry Stone, sitting together facing each other behind a stack of papers ( I never did find out what those where – Prayer requests? Checks? Indictments?) talking about The End Times – more specifically the horsemen mentioned in Ezekiel (also in Daniel and Revelation) and why “horsemen” are mentioned when, obviously, we don’t fight wars on horseback anymore so the modern military is a little short when it comes to Fighting Horseman…

So, Benny asks of Perry, “How do you explain this?”

[Start the "Twilight Zone" music, please]

Perry Stone, be-speckled in designer frames and a stylish Christian-man goatee, responded in his usual way – shifting in his chair and jerking his head to stage-left the way he does (I wonder if this “head-jerk-tic” is a result of injuries he sustained while wrestling Demonic Spirits when he was a teenager?) -

Perry explained it this way – I’m paraphrasing, of course:

When Christ arose from the dead and some other saints rose with Him, there was an earthquake. Was there just an earthquake for the sake of an earthquake? No. The earth quaking was a direct result of Christ and those saints being brought back from the dead. So scripture also says that when Christ comes back His return will be as lightning. Some people say that His coming will be quick, as lighting is quick – and that’s fine, but I think His coming will actually be lighting. So when Christ returns, lightning will strike the earth and since saints will be raised from the dead, there will be a world-wide earthquake like never before.

As millions go up to meet Him, says Benny.

Yes. Now we’re all familiar with the EMP – the Electro Magnetic Pulse – this is the electric shock-wave that inhibits or destroys electrical activity rendering anything that uses electricity or electronics useless. I think that the event of Christ’s return will do this. Plus we know from the Bible that the Sun and Moon will be affected. Scientists tell us that the Sun is over-due for a magnetic storm that could wipe out our satellites and destroy our communications and destroy our ability to wage modern warfare. So we will be reduced to using horses again as the Afghans used them to defeat the Soviet Union in the early ’80’s.

In short the Rapture will result in the world being disabled, at least, electronically and reduced to waging war the way they used to in Ezekiel’s day.

Praise God we won’t be here, Benny quipped.

Should I even try to make sense out this? Should I even try to explain why there are horsemen (and chariots – they left out the chariots) in Ezekiel? Should I even point out that the “Rapture” is pure conjecture and never ever mentioned in Scripture? Should I point out how many documented prophecies from these two Great Prophets have been wrong? Should I point out that Jules Verne and H. G. Wells have had more predictions come true that Benny and Perry combined?

Absolutely not. Why bother.

There’s no thrill, no energy, no following – no money in the Truth.

Manilow, Lucifer & Garlock

Saw this article in the news yesterday and was reminded of the Christian, anti-rock-n-roll guru, Dr. Frank Garlock.

Read on and I’ll explain…

Mall Wants Manilow Music to Drive out Unruly Teens

March 3, 2009 – WELLINGTON, New Zealand – It’ll be Barry Manilow versus the mall rats. The New Zealand city of Christchurch hopes that putting the American crooner’s smooth and gentle tones into the mix of music to be broadcast through the central mall district can pacify unruly teens who congregate there – or at least convince them to go elsewhere.

“The intention is to change the environment in a positive way … so nobody feels threatened or intimidated,” Central City Business Association manager Paul Lonsdale told The Associated Press. “I did not say Barry Manilow is a weapon of mass destruction.”

A group of several dozen young people regularly spread rubbish, spray graffiti, get intoxicated, use drugs, swear and intimidate patrons at the outdoor mall, he said.

The city council, police and local property owners covering 410 businesses agree that “nice, easy listening” music like Manilow’s “Can’t Smile without You,” “Mandy” and other hits might change the behavior of loitering teens.

I’m afraid that if these well-meaning New Zealanders implement their plan they will be at odds with Dr. Frank Garlock, who, during the 1970’s through the early 1990’s, traveled across the USA speaking and preaching against the likes of Barry Manilow, even to the point of equating Manilow to Lucifer. Garlock, a musician and music teacher himself, had a presentation entitled “The Big Beat – A Rock Blast”, where he would stand in front of his audience with an overhead projector and a turn-table and play snippets of rock songs, show pictures of rock musicians at their worse and preach against rock music’s lyrics, lifestyle and the actual construction of the music itself – “the beat.” (I remember he had “scientific studies” and illustrations of how rock music would kill plants and alter and destroy the beat of a human heart.)

Of particular interest to Garlock was the soft-rock-stylings of Barry Manilow. In the early to mid 1970’s too many Christians were listening to and being influenced by “soft rock.” Garlock’s mission was to equate “soft rock” with all of the evil associated with “hard rock” and “acid rock.” One Garlock rant endeavored to show a connection between Barry Manilow and Lucifer mentioned in Isaiah 14.

Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit.

After reading Isaiah 14:12 – 15, Garlock would then play and read these Barry Manilow lyrics:

I’ve been alive forever,
And I wrote the very first song.
I put the words and the melodies together,
I am music,
And I write the songs.

I write the songs that make the whole world sing.
I write the songs of love and special things.
I write the songs that make the young girls cry.
I write the songs, I write the songs.

My home lies deep within you,
And I’ve got my own place in your sole.
Now, when I look out through your eyes,
I’m young again, even though I’m very old.

Oh my music makes you dance
And gives your spirit to take a chance,
And I wrote some rock ‘n’ roll so you can move.
Music fills your heart,
Well, that’s a real fine place to start.
It’s from me it’s for you,
It’s from you, it’s from me,
It’s a world wide symphony.

I am music, and I write the songs.

The “I” in Barry Manilow’s hit, “I Write the Songs” is, according to Dr. Frank Garlock, Lucifer, a.k.a., the Devil.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Manilowed or Garlocked?

The Global Conspiracy to turn Barry Manilow into a Weapon of Mass Dispersion has moved to the United States – specifically, the state of Colorado – where, apparently, Municipal Court judges are sentencing the guilty to be “Manilowed.”I give you the following…

Got A Noise Problem? Call Barry Manilow.

Tue Mar 3, 2009 1:55pm PST

Strong evidence is finally emerging that songster Barry Manilow, the man famous for warbling “I Write The Songs,” can rightfully lay claim to having officially displaced elevator kings Muzak as the undisputed leader in music that lulls people to sleep–or at least into peaceful submission.

Just a few months ago, a judge in Colorado decided to “try something new” in order to cut down on the number of repeat noise offenders whose blaring stereos or high-decibel band rehearsals were driving their neighbors crazy. Since fines weren’t working as a deterrent, Judge Paul Sacco of Fort Lupton Municipal Court opted for a different form of punishment: He sentenced the guilty parties to an uninterrupted hour of loudly played music by — you guessed it — Barry Manilow.

And it worked: Most of Judge Sacco’s lawbreakers chose to turn down their own music rather than face another harrowing 60-minute aural onslaught of the likes of “Mandy,” “Copacabana,” and “Looks like We Made It.”

Once again this is contrary to what Dr. Frank Garlock has been saying for years – that Barry Manilow and Lucifer (a.k.a., the Devil) have been co-writing songs since Barry stepped out of Bette Midler’s top-heavy shadow way back in the very early 1970’s. You would think that if Manilow Music was the Music from Hell it wouldn’t pacify criminals, but would, rather, intensify their criminal behavior.

1979 BJU "Vintage"

Could Dr. Frank Garlock have been wrong? After all Dr. Garlock has his earned Doctorate from Bob Jones University and has taken every graduate course offered by the prestigious Eastman School of Music — Garlock sat under Howard Hanson, who headed up Eastman for 40 years. Garlock led the music at the old Independent-Fundamental version of Southside Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina for years (under Pastor Walt Hanford) – singing and intermittently blatting on his trombone in the middle of solemn hymns. Later Garlock founded Majesty Music in Greenville (South Carolina, again) along with his son-in-law, Ron “Patch-the-Pirate-and-if-I-have-to-hear-one-more-time-how-he-lost-his-eye-to-cancer-I’m-going-to-go-crazy” Hamilton. Certainly Dr. Garlock knows more about music than I do…

In his 1971 album release, “The Big Beat – A Rock Blast”, Garlock prided himself on making what he called “bold statements.” Here’s one:

“Tell me the kind of music you like to hear, the kind of music you like to perform, and I’ll tell you what kind of a person you are.”

Really.

So – if I listen to Barry Manilow, am I a reformed criminal? Or am I a follower of Satan?

Or am I just an Old Queen…..?

Garlock – Half-Baked?

Would you buy music from this man?

If you’ve read the last two posts regarding the Barry Manilow articles then you already know that the mere mention of Manilow’s name conjures up in my mind the toothy, smiling, white haired-white suited image of Dr. Frank Garlock. Kind of like the mention of the drug Oxycontin brings to mind Rush Limbaugh. It wasn’t the brilliance of Garlock’s “bold statements” that stuck in my head, it was their unadulterated idiocy.

I mean, come on! “I Write the Songs” is Satan channeling through Barry Manilow?

Dr. Garlock can’t really believe that – so what’s his real agenda?

Just seems strange to me, and a little coincidental, that as Dr. Garlock criss-crossed North America, speaking and selling books, that he was at the same time creating a need – or, in the vernacular of a good ol’ American capitalist, a market. He was encouraging Christians (and anybody else who would listen) to throw out their “bad” music – everything from Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert (& the Tijuana Brass), The Carpenters, all country music (unless it was truly “western”) and even some musicals (“West Side Story” comes to mind) to some so-called “inspirational” or “Christian” music (more on that later) – there wasn’t much left to listen to.

Thankfully, Frank Garlock could compose and play the trombone, and Garlock’s wife, Flora-Jean, could compose and play the piano AND they both had access to recording studios at WMUU-FM (Greenville, SC) and at Bob Jones University…

Do I hear opportunity knocking?

Frank Garlock's mode of travel during the mid-70's -- a white Corvette with "Garlock" vanity plates.

Wasn’t too long before Garlock seminars, books, LPs, 8-tracks and cassettes began to appear in churches, in religious newsletters, in Christian colleges – even my Dad bought a Flora-Jean Garlock 8-track (he still has it) at a Garlock music seminar. The kiddies weren’t left out — soon, “Patch-the-Pirate” music was available from the newly formed “Majesty Music” founded by Patch-the-Pirate’s (a.k.a. Ron Hamilton’s) father-in-law, Dr. Frank Garlock. Garlock had managed to create a niche market for him and his company by shrewdly filling a musical void that he himself had created.

 Not only that, Dr. Garlock & Co. had implanted the notion that the music he approved of, the music he wrote, the music he recorded, the music he sold, was the music approved of by God the Almighty Himself.

So if you’re a Christian – ask yourself: Are you going to listen to God’s music or are you going to listen to “the Devil’s” music? Hmmm? How about your kids? Are you going to let “Barney” sing to your kids or are you going to let “Patch-the Pirate” sing to them God’s Holy Word?

Brilliant, Dr. Garlock. Absolutely brilliant. “Wise as a serpent” indeed!

Garlock, Music & Me

Music has played two major roles in my life:

1.) Entertainment / background noise

2.) A source of much trouble.

The trouble began, not when my Grandpa Ektachrome gave me my first AM transistor radio or when my school-bus driver, Morris Bickers, installed an AM radio on the school-bus tuned to “Music Radio WLS Chicago” or even when I used to listen to my Dad & Mom’s collection of 1950’s & 1960’s rock-n-roll 45’s – no – the trouble began when a wave of religious fundamentalism rolled through our little Illinois village in the mid-1970’s and, for me, sucked all of the fun out of the music.

The day the music died? For me it was when Dr. Frank Garlock & his “Big Beat” seminar rolled through town. He was flashy, well spoken and charismatic. He spoke the unspeakable to my parents – telling them of the “true meanings” behind the music, laying bare the corrupt hearts of the rock artists and explaining how these evil musicians where after my very soul. “Watch out!” Garlock would shout, “Garbage in, garbage out!”

Suddenly, if I liked it and it had a beat, I couldn’t listen to it. It didn’t matter if it was Karen Carpenter, The Eagles, Pablo Cruise or Black Sabbath.

My Dad had worked at Kroger’s for a while just before and after he married my Mom. Dad used to buy for Mom the #1 record (always a 45) every week and give it to Mom. In those days it was usually an Elvis hit, but not always. I grew up listening to that massive collection of early rock-n-roll hits – but after Dr. Garlock and his “Magical Musical Tour” blew through town, that record collection was destroyed in the literal flames of a “spiritual revival” that gripped my Mom’s conscience. Those 45’s all melted away in the 55 gallon drum our family used to burn trash.

Along with many of my 8-tracks and cassettes purchased with the money I earned mowing yards in the summer…

Happy, Frank?

[How often my parents have regretted burning what may have been a valuable collection of forgotten and rare 45's. Now they spend money reacquiring all of those hits on CD and driving to see a local Elvis impersonator perform. And, yes, they've apologized to me for destroying my property along with theirs.]

The day that Elvis Presley died in August, 1977, Dr. Bob Jones referred to Elvis as “one of the greatest idolaters of the 20th century” – the implication was that Dr. Bob Jones and Bob Jones University would not miss Elvis Presley. (There was the same lack of respect and derision a few short years later when John Lennon was shot. In fact, it was that same year that Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. sported an Elvis-like / rock-star silver sequined jacket on the stage of the FMA at BJU – on the back of the jacket in circular-45-record-label-ish lettering were the words, “Big Bob #1.”) It was into this atmosphere I was thrust in September 1978, when, obeying my well-meaning parents, I enrolled at Bob Jones University.

It was at Bob Jones University I ran into Dr. Garlock again and had to hear his “Big Beat” lecture again during Freshman Orientation in the Concert Center. It was at this lecture in 1978 that I heard Dr. Garlock touch on a form or style of music I was unfamiliar with – “Christian Rock.” I had never heard of it. But Dr. Garlock was all over it – it was deemed evil and was to be avoided like all other “rock” variants.

All we could listen to at BJU was approved hymns, of course, and classical music or opera.

I hate classical music. I hate opera.

No one really likes classical music – they only like classical music because other people like classical music.

And opera is a slow Death by Music in roughly three and a half hours.

Thanks alot, Richard & Karen...

In 1979, The Carpenters earned me 50 demerits (see “BJU Artifacts” on the Flikr link.)

In 1980, creating a fake rock band on stage in the ConcertCenter (and photographing it) got me fired from my Stage Crew job.

In 1981, had George Winston’s “Autumn” taken away from me. That’s right – George Winston. BJU considered the music “trance-like and drug related.”

As I aged, pop/rock music became less and less of an issue for me. It was in the summer of 1981 when I decided I would listen to what I liked. The so-called “evil” that Dr. Garlock had preached against was merely marketing by shrewed music producers tapping into the angst of being a teenager and not wanting to be ”like your parents.”  Ironically, pop/rock music started to drift away from me, and I gravitated toward instrumental jazz*, until, by 1989, I no longer listened to “Top 40.”

It was in 1990 at Pensacola Christian College I crossed paths with Dr. Garlock again. This time he no longer dealt solely with the perils of “hard rock” or “acid rock” – by this time he had started to concentrated on the new evil of “Christian Rock” which had become known as “CCM” or “Contemporary Christian Music.”

And, to my shock, I found myself occassionally agreeing with him!

 
*Jazz, in any form, is not approved of at BJU.  Neither are movie soundtracks if the movie has been newly released.  For example, John William’s Star Wars soundtrack was not allowed when I attended.

“The Big Beat” Within

“The Big Beat – A Rock Blast” by Dr. Frank Garlock has, like the rock music it condemns, become out-of-date, antiquated and ineffective. Just as Jefferson Airplane persuades no one to drop acid anymore, Frank Garlock’s tirades against Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly or Alice Cooper have no effect. His album and book belong in a time capsule devoted to Religious Fundamentalism of the late-20th Century.

It could be said that Dr. Garlock’s preaching and demonstrating did absolutely nothing to slow down the progression of rock music or country music in the 1970’s. In fact, the industry seemed to blossom and expand from hard/acid rock and soft rock to country rock, disco, hip-hop, rap, dance, electronica, fusion, smooth jazz, new age and more during the era of the ‘70’s. It’s as if Dr. Garlock’s condemnation of pop music accelerated its growth and expansion. Garlock’s outrageousness only served to marginalize him and his ideas, making him popular only among the Independent Fundamentalists who tend to be conservative anyway.

The energy Dr. Garlock spent making outrageous “bold statements” while creating a market for he and his son-in-law’s “Majesty Music” business by condemning the likes of Grace Slick and Barry Manilow, should’ve been spent on warning churches not to allow church music to be influenced by current and future popular culture. Rock music and its many variants, is nothing more than a reflection of the current state and attitude of the world in which the music was created. The music has a life-span – it’s created, serves its purpose and then is forgotten. That’s what pop music is – it’s temporary, it’s fleeting, it’s shifting – and that’s why popular music shouldn’t influence or be a part of what Christians consider eternal and immutable.

[To be fair to Dr. Garlock, here in the early part of the 21st Century, Garlock currently does instruct churches on keeping their music straight - much akin to closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. This lack of "musical foresight" only makes me even more suspicious about Dr. Garlock's motives during the "Big Beat" era. ("Majesty Music" does sell a lot of church music, written and approved by Dr. Garlock & Co.)]

Like parallel lines that appear to meet at a vanishing point on the horizon line, Dr. Garlock and I appear to have a point of agreement – popular music, even music composed based on popular music models has no place in a church where the point of the gathering is to worship an unchanging and eternal God and direct human thought toward Him and about Him.

Popular Culture / Popular Music can be characterized as:

1. Novelty…
- focuses on the new
- relies on spectacle (and tending toward violence & prurience)
- emphasizes the trivia of life

2. Simplistic Predictability…
- gives us what we want, tells us what we already know
- formulas are the substance
- governed by the Mass Market (commercialism)

3. Popular Aesthetics…
- appeals to sentimentality
- celebrates fame (you are nothing unless you are famous)
- life & art are continuous

4. Distraction…
- casual pursuit, used to “kill time”
- relies on instant gratification, impatience
- thwarts deep or sustained attention

Popular Culture / Popular Music entertains and then leaves us where it found us – unchanged and empty. Popular Music is bought and sold as a commodity – a commodity that is used, worn out then tossed aside in favor of what is new.

The faces of 21st Century Christian Music.

One common denominator among so-called “spirit-driven” or Charismatic / Pentecostal churches is their use of the beat-driven, pop-derived Contemporary Christian Music or CCM. It’s no coincidence that these tongue-speaking religious sects rely on the spectacle and physical involvement that CCM demands. CCM and the charismatic tongue-speaking sects go together, hand-in-hand, guided by the same spirit – the human spirit.

CCM and Popular Music are indistinguishable – in sound, in structure and in the way the music is marketed and sold. The only difference is the inane lyrics which rely heavily on repetition and sound, not doctrine and Scripture. Again, the physical spirit is the one who is being praised and entertained.

If churches were ever in danger from “The Big Beat” it is now.

Only now, “The Big Beat” is coming from within.

Is It OK to Pray?

Is it okay to pray? 

Certainly church-going folk, religious people, Christians – they think it’s okay to pray, but the majority seldom do it – except on Sundays or when they’re in trouble.

Other religions say it’s okay to pray.  Islam, for example, requires the devout Muslim to pray five times a day.  Other religions may call prayer “meditation”, “centering” or “channeling” – but they all maintain that prayer or something prayer-like is okay to do.

Even Atheists agree that prayer can’t do any harm.  However, it’s a waste of time since there isn’t anyone listening, except you.  There may be benefits from the act of being still, meditating and relaxing – but if you think you are mentally or telepathically communicating with a “god” somewhere, you’re just being silly.  Still, no harm done, really.

The local attorney for the Northwest Florida ACLU, Benjamin Stevenson said Wednesday (March 18) that the ACLU supports everyone’s right to pray.  Mr. Stevenson continued, “We continue to fight for the liberty to worship without undue impediments from the government. Inherent in religious liberty is the freedom from government actors using their official position to harness the government’s resources and advantages to promote their own personal religious beliefs.”

So where’s the problem? Everyone should be happy, right?

The Reverend Cotten. Note the Christian-man Beard

Not the Rev. Matthew A. Cotten, Minister of Education & Outreach at the Pine Terrace Baptist Church of Milton, located in Santa Rosa County, Florida.  The Rev. Cotten wants to make sure people know it is OK to pray despite the ACLU.  “We will educate people on their rights according to the First Amendment and express the heritage of our country in regard to freedom of religion,” said Minister Cotton.  “I believe you can peacefully express your religion any place, any time.”

Uh – yeah, Reverend – so does the ACLU.

So why is this preacher all upset?

Reverend Cotten’s remarks are in response to a federal lawsuit filed in August by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two unnamed Pace High School students who objected to Santa Rosa School District personnel promoting religious activity in the classroom and at school events.  The School District admitted the allegations, and a consent decree spelling out the steps the district will take to end the violations was signed this month. (See my prior blog, “Charismatics – Why We Need the ACLU“)

Tallahassee attorney J. David Marsey, who represented the district in the suit, noted at the time that the agreement stops only School District-sanctioned prayer.

“Nothing prevents our kids from praying,” Marsey said.

But the Reverend Cotten, a father of two, one of whom is a Pace High sophomore, still objects to the limits imposed by the consent degree.

“I had to do something,” he said. So, he set up a web site, www.ok2pray.org.

Fine, Reverend Cotten – but – is it okay for you to twist or spin or borderline-lie about the ACLU case against the Santa Rosa County schools?

No where is prayer not permitted. No where is there any language prohibiting students or faculty from praying. Anyone can pray at anytime they like.

The ruling says you can’t force others to pray with you.

And that is exactly what was (and has been) going on at Pace High School (and other Santa Rosa County schools) for years. Faculty, staff and students forcing, not by coercion (that I know of), but by inclusion, others to pray or hear preaching (sometimes with a bullhorn) against their will. This is clearly spelled out in the ACLU suit and the judges ruling – even the superintendent of the Santa Rosa County schools admitted to the suit’s accusations.

But that’s not good enough for Reverend Cotten – he wants prayer enforced.

How about this Reverend, we build these towers all over Santa Rosa County and at certain times during the day, we can have various preachers (like Pastor Joey Rogers from Pace Assembly of God) shout from these towers when it’s time to pray. Then, everyone in Santa Rosa County, students, faculty, whatever, will bow down and pray – maybe give them a blanket or mat so they won’t get their clothes dirty – call it a “prayer mat” if you like…

How’s that sound, Reverend Cotten?

Tell you what – you’re a Southern Baptist, how about next Sunday we get your fellow ACLU-hating buddy, Pastor Joey Rogers from Pace Assembly of God to come to your church and preach to your congregation about how they and all other Southern Baptists are wrong and on their way to hell because they don’t speak in tongues?

How would you like that, Reverend Cotten?

This is so typical of Religiosity. Reverend Cotten is willing to join hands with a sect (Charismatics) that, doctrinally, he considers a heresy, just so he can enforce his own religious beliefs upon others.

Is it okay to pray?

The answer is, sure – if you choose to. God is Pro-Choice, after all…

But I don’t want some religion telling me I have to.

Prayer & Sacrifice – Not

Yesterday, after my post, I got to thinking – if the good Rev-er-end Cotten, a minister at the Pine Terrace Baptist Church (SBC), Milton, Florida, doesn’t care for the local schools, why doesn’t he send his kids to a private religious school?  Or Home School them?  If he can set up his own web-site, surely he can teach a couple of kids – right?

Besides, I thought “being separate” is what Christians are supposed to do – “come out from among them” and “remain unspotted from the world”, etc., etc.

Here’s a list of private religious schools in Santa Rosa County Florida:

http://schools.privateschoolsreport.com/county/FL/SantaRosa.html (there are 7 schools)

In near-by Escambia County (across the bay)…

http://schools.privateschoolsreport.com/county/FL/Escambia.html (there are 28 (!) Private Schools (not all of them have religious affiliations). Talk about choice!

I’ll bet any one of these private schools would love to have the Reverend Cotten’s children.

So why is this guy so interested in changing the public schools?

Number one reason – because he pays for them, indirectly, via his local property taxes – if he owns a home or property. The amount of his individual property tax is a tiny portion of the Santa Rosa County School’s funding – so why should he have such a large say in school policy? His desires, his “say”,  should be in proportion to his monetary contribution.

Number two reason – his kid(s) attend public school. But why? He can change that. If he wants his kids to be religiously indoctrinated at school on a daily basis, then why doesn’t he as a free American choose another school? Or, teach them at home?

Could it be that Minister Cotten’s choice of his children attending public school is not based on religion or even education, but on money?

Whaddya wanna bet he doesn’t like the idea of paying school tuition every month? And transporting his offspring to Private School every morning?  Why that would mean serious financial involvement with his children’s education — maybe even sacrifices!  (Not goats or lambs, but selling the SUV or pick-up or the bass boat or the HDTV or…)

No such thing as bad press.

Yes, my friends, like everything else, money is the real factor here…

…and ego.

OK – Not OK – OK – Not OK to Pray

During my absence (I was on vacation), the Reverend Matthew A. Cotten, Minister of Education & Outreach at the Pine Terrace Baptist Church located in Milton, Florida, held his “Okay To Pray” rally at Pace High School. According to the Pensacola News Journal archived article, the rally was held on Saturday, March 21 and about 100 people attended.

Over the past couple of weeks, I received some rather interesting information about the Reverend Matthew Cotten. Seems the Reverend Cotten has wrestled with the subject of public prayer before -

But – during his last encounter with the public and open prayer he was very much against it.

It was back in August of 2004. There was a group of people called “Patriots for Peace” and “Veterans for Peace” that, on Fridays at noon, would hold a “silent prayer vigil” at the Martin Luther King Plaza located along North Palafox Street in downtown Pensacola, Florida. This group “Patriots for Peace” would gather in the plaza, join hands and pray silently for the end of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

That’s all this group would do – carry signs and placards (“Pray for Peace”, “No Blood for Oil”, “Stop the War”, “Give Peace a Chance”, etc.), stand in a circle, join hands -

- and pray.

Pace High Rally -- Rev. Cotten -- TODAY it is OK to pray.

Apparently this didn’t sit well with the Reverend Cotten who, according to my witness, walked down to the location of the silent prayer vigil and verbally harassed the group of citizens praying there. Seems the Reverend Cotten did not appreciate the public and open expression of prayer when it went against his beliefs. My witness, who was present at the event, remembered the Reverend Cotten accusing the “Patriots for Peace” of being a front for the ACLU, the Democratic Party and trying to undermine the presidency and re-election of then President George W. Bush.

I don’t have the details of how or why Reverend Cotten happened to be in downtown Pensacola, Florida that day. I don’t know if this was a one time occurrence or if the Reverend Cotten regularly harassed public prayer vigils he did not agree with.  [If anyone does know, I'd love to hear.]

Is it okay to pray?

In August 2004, Reverend Matthew Cotten would have said “NO.”

Hurricanes for Iowa

Why do I do this to myself?

After making a pot of coffee I turned on the TV to see if I could catch the weather before I hit the shower. I did catch the tail-end of the forecast – a nice weekend ahead – but I missed all of those cool satellite images and the stories of weather related disasters affecting other people in less fortunate locations.

At the commercial break, I flipped through the channels – going “up” in the count (on my cable system) – past C-SPAN and into the religious channels that inhabit channels 21 through 23.

And who did I see?

My favorite goateed, be-speckled prophet (with noticeable head-tic), Perry Stone.

He was claiming that the destruction by hurricanes of New Orleans, Louisiana and Galveston, Texas was a direct judgment of God for the sin of homosexuality. Stone used two examples to back up his claims -

1) the day Hurricane Katrina hit there was scheduled a huge “Gay Parade” that would include thousands of gay men dressed in drag.

2) the city of Houston and Galveston (Texas) had become the newest home for homosexuals who loved living near the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Stone claimed that one of his favorite Galveston family seafood restaurants was not the same because of the influx of homosexuals over-running the beaches and the town.

So, according to Perry Stone, God directly destroyed both cities – New Orleans and Galveston – just like He (God) destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah according to the story in the Old Testament.

Wow.

Now, let’s analyze these Perry Stone claims -

1) Hurricanes regularly strike the Gulf Coast (Gulf of Mexico) and the Atlantic Coast (Atlantic Ocean). It is not an unusual thing at all to have hurricanes forming between June 1 and November 30 of any given year. That’s not a “miracle” or a “judgment” – that’s wind & weather, water vapor & water temperature, rotation & the Coriolis Effect – that’s the nature of living in the Tropics.

2) Name any city along the Atlantic or Gulf Coast - any city – and during their history they have been hit or affected by a tropical storm. What was their “sin?” The Galveston Hurricane of September 8, 1900 — 8,000 citizens of Galveston perished – 8000! I dare say “good Christians” out-numbered the “evil homosexuals” in those days. Was this God’s judgment on Christianity?

3) Hurricane Katrina was the most recent major storm in New Orleans history, but its trajectory across the State of Louisiana was far from unique. Louisiana was hit by 49 of the 273 hurricanes that made landfall on the American Atlantic Coast between 1851 and 2004. In addition, 18 of the 92 major hurricanes with Saffir-Simpson ratings of Category 3 or above have struck the state (U.S. mainland hurricane strikes by state, 1851-2004). On average, one major storm crosses within 100 nautical miles of New Orleans every decade. In spite of what you hear about the city of New Orleans, the rest of the state of Louisiana is fairly conservative and religious.  Are these constant hurricanes God’s judgment on conservative Christians?

4) Many innocent people lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans) and in Hurricane Ike (Galveston) – some lost only their homes, businesses and pets. Was this God’s judgment on them – or did He fail to realize that so many God-fearing innocents lived along the coast?

5) Perry Stone seems to think hurricanes are something new in God’s Arsenal of Judgment. Hurricanes of the last few years – Katrina and Ike – are small change compared to the death and devastation rendered by the Tropical Cyclone (Hurricane) of November 13, 1970 in Bangladesh which killed 500,000 to 1,000,000 (final count unknown). Was this God’s judgment on the majority non-Muslim residents of Bangladesh? Using Perry Stone’s logic, there must have been a secret society of Drag Queens living in Bangladesh that we didn’t know about…

6) Does God hate Catholicism? Seems so. Look at what Hurricane Mitch did to predominately Catholic Honduras and Nicaragua in 1998 – approximately 9086 people lost their lives. And it doesn’t stop there – Hurricane Jeanne struck Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Bahamas and Florida in September, 2004 and 3000 people – again mostly God-fearing heterosexuals – lost their lives.

God's Weather Man -- Perry Stone

There is no miracle of Divine direct judgment here. Perry Stone is a nothing more than the usual religious crack-pot – a liar, a fraud and a fear-monger that seeks to make a living off of the feeble-minded and the uninformed. Perry Stone weaves a web of half-truths mixed with Biblical References and backs it all up with “visions” and “instructions” he receives from the Holy Spirit or God Himself. This is the same Perry Stone that wrestled demons as a teenager and claims to have seen the destruction of the World Trade Center and the creation of the Euro years before either happened. This is the same Perry Stone that claims his “Manna Fest” meal he sells (on his website) will physically heal you – if you buy it and eat it. This is the same Perry Stone that sits in agreement with the likes of Paul & Jan Crouch and the faith-healing fraud, Benny Hinn.

People - please – don’t fall for this stuff!  Use the brain God gave you – research – check out the claims made by these religious swindlers.

Yesterday, April 3, 2009, the Supreme Court of the State of Iowa legalized same-sex marriages – “gay marriages” – joining the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut in permitting such unions between same sexes.

According to Perry Stone, the State of Iowa can expect a Category 5 hurricane this year.

Now that would be a miracle.

Pensacola Peculiar

“But ye are a chosen generation,…a peculiar people…” I Peter 2:9, KJV

Pensacola, Florida – population approximately 56,000. Located in Northwest Florida, U.S.A. on the Gulf Coast. Known for its sugar white sand beaches and for being the birth-place of U.S. Naval Aviation.

Also home for many a religious nut-burger…

Michael Griffin

Michael Griffin – murdered Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, Florida on March 10, 1993. The 31-year-old Griffin waited outside Gunn’s clinic and shot him three times in the back. At home Michael Griffin forbade all television-watching in his house because he thought TV was too violent. A recent convert to fundamentalist Christianity, Griffin joined the Brownsville Assembly of God church, and then dropped out after quarreling with the pastor, the Rev. John Kilpatrick. Griffin then joined the fundamentalist Charity Chapel where he met his anti-abortion guide and mentor John Burt. Mr. Griffin is currently serving time in a Florida Correctional Institution.

John Burt

John Burt – a former KKK member and anti-abortion activist who became associated with the murders and the murderers of abortion clinic doctors and workers in the 1990’s. Burt, a part-time preacher/full-time anti-abortion activist, operated “Our Father’s House”, a Christian ministry and shelter for unwed mothers. In 2003 Burt was arrested for molesting a 15-year-old girl in his custody. John Burt is currently serving time in a Florida Correctional Institution.

Paul Hill

Paul Hill – an ordained Presbyterian minister (PCA & Orthodox Presbyterian) Hill was thrown out of the Presbyterian Church after appearing on TV advocating violence against doctors who practice abortions. In July 1994, Hill approached a Pensacola abortion clinic located on North 9th Avenue (the same clinic that John Burt regularly protested) and shot and killed Dr. John Britton and his clinic escort, James Barrett at close range with a shotgun. Mrs. James Barrett was wounded, but survived. Paul Hill is no longer serving time in a Florida Correctional Institution – he was executed by the State of Florida.

Steve Hill

Steve Hill & John Kilpatrick & Brownsville Assembly of God – perpetrators of one of the greatest religious farces known in Northwest Florida – or in the U.S.A., for that matter. It started on Father’s Day 1995 when Steve Hill spoke at the church, zapped the church’s pastor (Kilpatrick) on the head causing Kilpatrick to fall to the floor. Kilpatrick later declared that revival had broken out. Soon people from all over the country were flocking to the church to participate in the altered states that caused them to

Kilpatrick

speak in tongues, bark like dogs, grunt like pigs, laugh uncontrollably and behave in other bizarre and wacky ways. There was plenty of criticism of the so-called “revival” - it brought in a lot of money and recognition for those involved – and Pastor Kilpatrick never hesitated in condemning and cursing those who criticized his church’s revival. So far all those Kilpatrick cursed are still living. The “Brownsville Revival” died out – Steve Hill and John Kilpatrick are no longer associated with Brownsville Assembly of God.

Hugh King, Sr.

Reverend Hugh King, Sr. – the Rev. King is a former Pensacola City Councilman and former pastor of the Greater Union Baptist Church. He’s the “former pastor” because the Reverend King was arrested on April 28, 2007 for cocaine possession, after which he was removed as pastor. The former Reverend is currently fighting the charges claiming the Escambia County Sheriff’s Deputy that stopped King’s SUV searched King’s vehicle illegally. Claims of profiling and racism have also been bandied about. The former Reverend King is still awaiting trial and will not go down without a fight.  [July 8, 2009 update: Rev. King has been let of the hook.  The reason?  The police did not have "reasonable suspicion" to pull over the vehicle King was in at the time.  So, the discovery of cocaine on this Man of God would have never occurred. ~ Ekta]

Kent Hovind

Kent Hovind – also known as “Dr. Dino” – although his educational background is, shall we say, dubious, to say the least. Hovind was a purveyor of the “Young Earth Theory” claiming that the Earth and all we know is no older than 6000 to 8000 years old. His “proofs” lacked any scientific credibility and were based solely on the Biblical Record – starting with Adam & Eve, Noah & the Ark and so on. Hovind had a reputation for being condescending, egotistical, paranoid and ill-tempered. His chief sin was ignoring a little agency called the I.R.S. – Hovind refused to pay taxes of any kind claiming the money was his and God’s. Mr. Hovind was reported to the Internal Revenue Service by a neighbor and fellow Christian, Dr. Rebekah “Beka” Horton (of “A Beka Books” and Pensacola Christian College). Kent Hovind is currently spending time in a Florida Correctional Institution.

Chuck Baldwin

Chuck Baldwin – conservative, political pastor of the Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola. Became a local talk-show host with aspirations of being the next Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. Surprisingly, Baldwin was a huge critic of George W. Bush and stood in agreement with the ACLU on the implementation of the Bush/Cheney “Patriot Act.” Some Pensacolians have been critical of Baldwin saying that he should give up his pulpit if he wants to be a politician. Baldwin ran as a 2008 Presidential Candidate for the Constitution Party last November – you may have noticed his name on the ballot? No? I’m not surprised.

Gordon Godfrey

Gordon Godfrey – pastor of the Marcus Pointe Baptist Church in Pensacola. Known during the mid-1990’s for putting up huge billboards with anti-gay statements protesting homosexuals gathering during Memorial Day on Pensacola Beach. Godfrey also advocated throwing nails and tacks in the beach parking lots when the predominately gay crowd frequented the local beaches. In 2006 Godfrey was convicted of baiting deer and hunting deer in the State of Wisconsin without a license. Godfrey never fought the charges. He quietly paid the fines.  For more Gordo info, click here.

 

Drs. Harfouche

Christian & Robin Harfouche – operators of the Faith Miracle Center in Pensacola. Christian Harfouche is your typical “faith-healer” – some controversies surrounding his so-called “healings” – unethical, but not illegal. Robin, his wife, is an ex-Solid Gold Dancer (remember that show?). Besides, I just like saying “Harfouche.”

 

Peter Ruckman

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman – long time pastor of the Bible Baptist Church in Pensacola and President of the Pensacola Bible Institute. Dr. Ruckman is shockingly irreverent and the total opposite of politically correct. Dr. Ruckman rarely teaches or preaches without drawing or sketching with colored chalk as he speaks. Ruckman believes and teaches that the Authorized Version 1611 King James Version Bible is the only true Word of God – all other Bibles are inferior and heretical. He believes in the literal word-for-word inerrancy of the KJV Bible. Yet, unlike most fundamentalist preachers, Dr. Ruckman has had several failed marriages – which, according to the KJV Scriptures disqualifies him as a pastor. “Ruckman-ites” are the “Preacher Boys” that attend Ruckman’s Bible Institute. The Preacher Boys are forced to street preach at busy Pensacola intersections as part of their training for the ministry.

Drs. Horton

Drs. Arlin & Beka Horton – founders of Pensacola Christian Academy and Pensacola Christian College, but are better known world-wide for their Christian textbooks, “A Beka Books.” Both Horton’s are graduates of Bob Jones University but now have nothing to do with BJU because BJU (BJ Press) is their largest competitor in the Christian textbook market. In recent years the Horton’s have called BJU “the leaven of fundamentalism” and have said that BJ Press science books promote “natural selection and Darwinism.” The explosive growth of A Beka Books and ABB’s tax-exempt status has caught the attention of the Internal Revenue Service several times, causing ABB and PCC to pay several million dollars in back taxes. It was Mrs. Horton that reported Kent Hovind (“Dr. Dino”) to the local IRS office for not paying his taxes. It is also said that Mrs. Horton is the real “brains” and micro-manager of ABB and PCC. She controls everything from the colors of the faculty houses to what the Campus Church (the PCC on-campus church) preacher preaches on Sunday. Local Escambia County politicians have learned if they want to be easily elected they must find favor in the eyes of PCC – because PCC dictates to their employees and students who to vote for.

Peculiar Pensacola…

…maybe there’s something in the sun-screen.

Putting the “Me” in Memorial

It has been a rough year for law enforcement in Northwest Florida – “rough” is an understatement – so far the year has been a mixture of scandal, violence and tragedy.

Beginning in July 2008, Okaloosa County Deputy Anthony Forgione was shot and killed by a man in Fort Walton Beach.

In the late winter (Feb.) of 2009 it was revealed that Okaloosa County Sheriff Charlie Morris ran a bonus & kick-back scheme that involved himself, members of his administration and other deputies. Sheriff Morris and the others involved have been fired and/or indicted and await trial.

And just east of Crestview, Pensacola Police Officer Travis Pitts was killed March 28, 2009 in a single-vehicle auto accident while on his way to preach to inmates in a Gulf County jail.

And if that wasn’t enough, on April 25, 2009, two Okaloosa County Deputies, Burt Lopez and Skip Ward, were shot and killed in Crestview.

Death, scandal, followed by more death. If there was ever a situation that demanded quiet respect and solemn reflection, this would be it.

So how did Pastor Gordon Godfrey, Pastor of Marcus Pointe Baptist Church (Pensacola) handle the memorial at his church’s 16th annual “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” held Sunday, May 4, 2009?  From the Pensacola News Journal….

The lights went down at Marcus Pointe Baptist Church on Sunday morning and “Bad Boys” blared from the speakers.

A law enforcement officer rolled down an aisle on a motorcycle. Another officer rappelled from the ceiling on a rope near the rear of the church. Three others — one of them head first — dropped from the ceiling to the pulpit.

That is how the 16th annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day got under way.

“It give us a sense of pride in knowing that we had a part in honoring you guys and ladies,” said the Rev. Gordon Godfrey, pastor at Marcus Pointe.

Pink arrow: Pastor Godfrey enjoying the show.

Honoring fallen comrades with piety, with respect, with quiet solemn reflection and gratitude is the right and proper thing for a so-called “house of God” to do. Turning the service into a circus act or a Broadway stage performance is not.

Hollow spectacle, loud music and shallow thinking — all trademarks of Gordon Godfrey and Marcus Pointe Baptist Church, et al.

However – if you’re going to have a “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” at your church, it’s best to get a pastor who is actually familiar with law enforcement…

…like Gordon Godfrey.

January 2006 – The Rev. Gordon Godfrey of Marcus Pointe Baptist Church pleaded no contest to seven charges of various hunting law violations — the state of Wisconsin dropped two of the charges. Godfrey did not travel to Wisconsin and instead pled through his attorney by telephone. Pastor Godfrey will lose his hunting license and will have to pay $1,421 in fines for violating Wisconsin hunting laws.

Did I mention who Pastor Godfrey’s hunting buddies were? The Escambia County Sheriff, Ron McNesby and Escambia County Commissioner Mike Whitehead – these two were also charged.

October 17, 2004 – A repeat guest speaker at Marcus Pointe Baptist Church, Kent Hovind, a.k.a., “Dr. Dino”, was the featured speaker during the church service. Kent Hovind, a man who shared the same religious beliefs as Pastor Godfrey, now sits in a Florida Correctional Institution – a.k.a., “jail.”

August 14, 2001 – A past winner of the Marcus Pointe Baptist Church “Father of the Year” Award and church youth worker was charged with “Unlawful Sexual Activity with Certain Minors” (Fl Statute: 794.05), a second degree felony. This incident was kept hush-hush. (If you want the details about this incident, name of the defendant, court records, sentence, etc. – they’re available.)

May 30, 2001 – Pastor Gordon Godfrey was instrumental in having a Memorial Day fireworks celebration banned on Pensacola Beach. Escambia County Commissioners voted 3-2 last against the pyrotechnics celebration at Pensacola Beach. The fireworks show was supposed to be a “thank you” gesture to the community for hosting gays and lesbians who annually flock to the Florida panhandle for Memorial Day weekend.

Godfrey said it was “not an issue of gayness.” He continued, “We don’t feel it’s appropriate [to add fireworks].” (But playing Inner Circle’s “Bad Boys” theme at the beginning of a church/memorial service is.)

 

Diminutive Godfrey & Friends

Throughout the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Marcus Pointe Baptist Church purchased giant outdoor billboards that were anti-homosexual in nature – leasing the billboards during the time of the Pensacola Beach Memorial Day weekend celebration when many homosexuals flock to the beach. It was also during this time that beach-going homosexuals complained to the Pensacola police that the beach and beach parking lots were intentionally being littered with tacks, nails and other sharp objects meant to puncture tires or injure bare feet. No direct connection to Marcus Pointe Baptist Church or Pastor Godfrey was ever established.

Football players, a deaf Miss America, an American Idol contestant, a NASCAR driver, a Golf Pro, a baseball player – and of course, the ubiquitous Kirk Cameron – Pastor Gordon Godfrey will use anyone or any organization to draw attention to himself and his church.

His latest “memorial” was just the most recent example.

But, to be fair, sounds like Pastor Godfrey needs friends in law enforcement.

Religified

 

Ektachrome finally had to admit it -- he was a lost man in a Holy World.

Recently – Friday night, to be exact – I attended an “end-of-the-school-year” program at this area’s large private Christian school. There were bands, orchestras and choirs. The performing students were all neatly scrubbed and groomed – “squeaky clean” in their appearance. Everything was orderly and in order – a pre-programmed program.

We can safely assume that the administration of this private Christian school prided themselves in constructing order from chaos – discipline from the undisciplined – after all “God is not the author of confusion” (I Cor. 14:33a) – right?

It occurred to me as I watched the neatly trimmed and conservatively dressed students go through their rehearsed performances, how different real life is – how un-ordered the real world is.

Given ultimate control, we humans will micro-manage and direct every aspect of our lives – eliminating any uncertainty, any chaos, so that nothing happens outside of our directive. In short – proper planning and removing chaos from our lives brings us closer to and more like The Author (God).

What we end up with is a whole “religified” generation of Christians who believe that living a Godly life is living a life that is well-ordered and rigidly structured so as to eliminate any possibility of random-ness (“evil”) – they are so intent on separating themselves from the world that these Christians are neither “salt” nor “light” but just weird, peculiar and out-of-place. By “being good” they believe that God will be pleased and disorder will not touch them. But – if chaos or evil does affect a Christian’s life, then the problem is not the unpredictability of life – the problem is with that individual Christian.

“No doubt the trouble is with you” – that was the phrase I was taught.

What we end up with is a situation where “being good” is never good enough. Just one of the reasons anxiety and depression are just as prevalent among Christians as they are among the pagans. We end up with Christians that are afraid to take a chance, to venture out beyond their safe, gated private schools and communities – instead, the Christians become “incestuous” – teaching Christianity for other Christians. Christians taught this way are afraid to challenge beliefs or doctrines. Instead of studying scripture and texts to see “if these things be so,” they willingly accept theory and theological guess-work as doctrine.

Christianity has become a lifestyle rather than a relationship.

Lifestyles are easy – just follow the rules.

Relationships are hard – sometimes anarchy rules.

The Man the Bible Calls “Righteous”

“Do right.”

Strangely enough the first time this simple directive appears in the Bible it is an imperfect man uttering these two words while questioning the morality and judgment of God.

Look it up yourself – Genesis 18:25.

The man is Abraham.

The situation – Abraham is interceding for the cities of Sodom & Gomorrah – much like a criminal defense attorney pleading with a judge for leniency, Abraham is trying to broker a deal for his very guilty client(s).

25) That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked – that be far from Thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Why would Abraham argue the defense of Sodom & Gomorrah before the ultimate Judge?

It wasn’t the first time Abraham defended Sodom & Gomorrah. Earlier, in Genesis 14 we are told the story of Abraham physically rescuing the leaders, the people and the goods of Sodom & Gomorrah. Abraham risked his life and the lives of his men to re-establish these two “wicked” cities.

Oh yeah – did I mention that one of Sodom’s city leaders was Abraham’s nephew Lot?

This guy, Lot, sure received a lot (sorry) of very special attention.

But what did he do to deserve it?

It must have been Lot’s strong conservative moral stance in the face of Sodom & Gomorrah’s moral bankruptcy.

Let’s look.

1) Lot offers his home as shelter and protection for two “angels” that enter the city of Sodom. [That’s good. Okay, so far.]

2) Lot offers his two virgin daughters to be raped by the townspeople gathered outside his front door. [What?!! Does “Focus on the Family” know about this?]

3) To his extended family, Lot appears to be jesting when he speaks seriously of God’s impending judgment. [Probably because Lot left all of those Richard Dawkins, Dan Barker and Sam Harris books lying about the house.]

4) Lot hesitates, protests and ultimately delays the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah – the two angels have to physically drag Lot out of the city. [I can see Lot standing with a garden hose ready to save his house.]

5) Lot loses his wife on the way out – she is “left behind” and dies. [Ever notice in the Bible that most of the wives mentioned are bad influences on the men?]

6) After finding a cave to hide in, Lot becomes drunk and impregnates two of his daughters – he fathers his own grandkids, Moab and Ben-ammi. [This is sick – but not unprecedented – after all, where did Cain find another woman…?]

And yet, the Apostle Peter refers to Lot as “righteous” –

2 Peter 2: 7 & 8 – “…and if He rescued righteous Lot…for by what he [Lot] saw and heard that righteous man…felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their [inhabitants of Sodom & Gomorrah] lawless deeds.”

Either there was a lot more to Lot than is mentioned in scripture, or –

– morality is a bit over-rated.

Bob Jones University Artifact – “Demerit Slip”

 

The famous BJU Demerit Slip

 

Column #1 - note that each demerit has its own 2-digit code

 

Column #2 - Some of these demerits were very minor (1 to 5 demerits) others would get you "shipped" (expelled).

 

Column #3 - The numbers had to be written in blocks so BJU's optical readers could read the codes and "Discipline Committee" lists could be generated via the University's computer system.

 

Column #4 - Love the "Other" and "Use the reverse" - just in case they missed one.

Bob Jones University Artifact – “Textbook Disclaimer”

The Official BJU "Book Disclaimer" -- all books had them, unless the book was written & published by the University.

 

This small 2″ by 3″ bit of paper was found pasted in the front of various textbooks at Bob Jones University.

 

I stuck one in the front of my Bible — the “Disclaimer” is still there.

 

Bob Jones University Artifact – “No interracial dating”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Jones University Artifact – “10 Things…”

In each dormitory – men’s or women’s – on the back of each dorm room door there was a white 4×6 card with Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.’s “Ten Things to Remember” printed on it.  We weren’t required to read it or memorize it, but it was there – staring you in the face when you closed your door.

Of all the “Ten Things to Remember” it was Number 11 that was emphasized the most – “Griping Not Tolerated.”

“Griping” was defined by the administration.  I remember students being severly punished for “griping.”

All this did, of course, was drive the “griping” underground.  I have many a happy memory of underground “gripe sessions” held in various spots across campus.  My favorite: the upstairs dressing rooms in the Concert Center (now called Stratton Hall, I believe).

Bob Jones University Artifact – “Discipline Committee List”

At Bob Jones University, the “Discipline Committee” met once a week in the Alumni Building to either forgive, moderate or dispense “demerits” to individual students.  Members of the “DC” rotated — there was always a member of the administration present (a Dean), a faculty member and an upper classman/student body representative (usually a toady of the Administration) — these members sat behind a long table with the current computer generated “DC List” in front of them.  It reminded me of traffic court.

The Guilty were called in one at a time.  You gave them your name.  The offense was announced.  You were allowed a defense that may or may not moderate the charges.  After hearing the defense, punishment or “discipline” was doled out.

Small offenses were no big deal, such as being late to class — just 1 demerit.  But some offenses carried huge penalties — skipping or missing class without an excuse could get you 25 demerits and 50 demerits for a second offense.

However, repeating the same minor offense on a regular basis would cause the demerits to “multiply” — 1 demerit the first time, 2 the next, 4 the following, 8… — you get the picture.

Social infractions — kissing, hugging or just touching — earned you an instant 50 demerits and you usually were “Socialed” — meaning you could no longer “date.”

If you received a cumulative total of 75 demerits in any one semester, you were “Permanently Campused” — not allowed to leave the BJU campus for any reason.

If you received 150 demerits or more — it was over.  You were expelled.

An actual BJU "DC List"

Bob Jones University Artifact – “Extension”

This bit of Bob Jones University-ism needs some explaining…

“Extension” was a catch-all phrase used at BJU describing the efforts of the Bob Jones University students reaching out (hence, “extension”) to the local community, the surrounding counties and even near-by states.

Some Extensions were not overtly ministries – volunteering to clean the yard of an elderly couple or fixing their house for nothing, etc. – more physical labor than spiritual guidance.

There were other Extensions that were quasi-ministerial – working with elderly and the “shut-ins” in rest homes and, while there, holding church services for them – just one example.  (This is the one I participated in – occasionally.)

And then there were some Extensions that were just training exercises for future preachers – jail ministries, juvenile detention ministries, church camps, street preaching, door-to-door “witnessing” and preaching in small churches that couldn’t afford a full-time pastor – these Extensions were more “hard core” – only those “called” and “on-fire” tackled these.

Now, as a rule, participation in an Extension was not a requirement at BJU – it was optional.

But if you were so foolish to announce or publish your non-participation in Extension(s) – you were targeted as one of those students that needed to be watched and spiritually dealt with. There was such a thing as “Spiritual Probation” and failing Spiritual Probation could get you expelled just as easily (if not more easily) than Academic Probation.

So, instead of Extension, you chose to rock climb near Traveler’s Rest (making sure to stop at the F Mart on the way back), hike in the South Carolina mountains, do some outdoor photography or even study in your free time, you kept quiet about it. Letting the wrong people know you were enjoying your free time would get you on “Spiritual Pro.”

Keeping quiet didn’t guarantee you a trouble-free flight under the spiritual radar – oh no. There were little forms that you had to fill out just to let the University know how they could i