Blog Archives
Time to jump ship, Prof. Bailey! (Off course church, out — messianic, in)
On 2-8-2020 Newsweek ran this op-ed piece by Davidson College professor of public policy, Isaac Bailey: I’m Struggling with My Christianity After Trump | Opinion (newsweek.com)
Here are some excerpts (I bolded certain especially hard-hitting sentences)
And I am constantly wondering if I am indirectly complicit because I dedicated my life to the same Jesus the insurrectionists prayed to in the Capitol building after ransacking it and promising to kill those who didn’t do their bidding.
If Christianity can convince so many to follow a man like Trump almost worshipfully—or couldn’t at least help millions discern the unique threat Trump represented—what good is it really?
I say this as someone who has been Christian all my life, who spent two decades praying in a white evangelical church. How could our faith have allowed this, encouraged it, enabled so much violence, so much death?
……….
Many pro-life Christians have never accepted that complex reality, which made them susceptible to a man like Trump. That’s why the death and destruction left in Trump’s wake didn’t horrify them the way it has the rest of us: They could always claim they were saving babies from evil Democrats, even though they weren’t.
You know who understands that complex reality? Christian people of color. The embrace of Trump was largely a white Christian phenomenon. Because we don’t have the luxury of seeing things in black and white.
……….
But I’m struggling. I don’t want to be a part of any organization that would support those at the highest levels who demonize and belittle the vulnerable, that would look the other way in order to hold onto power.
The body count left in Trump’s wake is immense. Add to the list my faith in the white church.
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UNREST & SOCIAL UPHEAVAL: Could a daily dose of Li (3) help blunt the anger, depression, and angst Americans are wrestling with?
In light of all the problems, anger, and unrest that permeate America, it is tempting to regard “the city on a hill” as “the reality TV show gone slugfest on the Hill”. I can’t help but think we have somehow yanked the November 1988 episode of Geraldo in which “self-described racists, white supremacists, and Nazi lovers” got into a free-for-all with other Geraldo guests and audience members and wound up (among other things) breaking Geraldo Rivera’s nose, and relived it a grander (and more threatening) scale on January 6. Click to watch the Geraldo episode in its entirety.
If life ever did imitate art, this moment in American history must surely be it.
I’m sure you have a spin on how we landed in a situation in which the outgoing one-term President has been impeached for a 2nd time based on his alleged role in the recent orgy of violence on Capital Hill carried out by a determined and militant gang of what I’d characterize as “true Trump believers” (Trumpeters?) Consider these recent news items:
Read the rest of this entryWhat lies ahead?
From a 9-21-2020 text message to a Japanese lady believer in Tokyo:
So many conflicting forces and trends are tearing at the social fabric of America. The news is filled with conflicting, sometimes contradictory stories not to mention skewed and even fabricated news segments and social media posts. I am however seeing one trend surface among some genuine believers: prophetic insights into what is coming which agree with scriptures and are not self-serving. One example: Messianic Rabbi Herschberg (Beth Yeshua International in Macon, Georgia) has stated that the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) showed him that “after November” God is going to create situations that will cause believers to confront their own immorality, greed, corruption, racism and such both in America (and beyond) and then do likewise with many nonbelievers throughout the world (Rabbi Herschberg said “All that can be shaken will be shaken”). I surmise this move of God will result in many believers being convicted of gross sins and then called to repent and commit to obey his commandments. Other prophetically gifted preachers and teachers have been told (by God) the same exact thing. I too have had convictions well up within me that confirm what these men are saying. I have also seen in my spirit an image that comes out of the book
of Revelations: a white horse being readied to ride across the world. I have seen this quite vividly and even witnessed its bridle and other gear being secured in place which means this horse is being readied to be mounted and ridden. I have also seen in my spirit a menorah being lit. This is what I believe this is telling me and all who will receive it: by the time Hanukkah unfolds this year many believers will experience Holy Spirit empowerment and gifting in order to do the things God has for them to do in life. This interior conviction and image preceded comments by Rabbi Herschberg concerning the fact God is going to equip genuine believers and followers of Yeshua with what they need to shine as lights in a world rapidly sinking into darkness and chaos.
Read the rest of this entryGrowing your own food
Beginner Gardening Tips for a Successful Garden – Grow Your Own Food! (19m09s video by Rob Greenfield, posted 6-15-2020)
https://www.communitygarden.org/
If you want to want (or need) to begin growing your own vegetables and fruits, the video above and the 2 organizations I provided links to should get you started.
And, for those who want helpful hints on how to do container gardening right, check out https://www.treehugger.com/secret-container-vegetable-gardening-4863889
Program note: I spent my summer vacations and more lending a hand to my Choctaw maternal grandfather who owned & farmed 300 acres north of the rustic Panhandle town of Plainview, Texas. This equipped me with some insights on how to grow vegetables & various kinds of fruit and keep weeds and insects at bay.
I’ve also raised vegetables and dwarf fruit bushes in various types of containers outdoors down through the years (I am doing this right now on the patio of my Japanese wife and I’s abode in SoCal).
And done stints in Ag labs and greenhouses devoted to growing various culinary mushrooms and more.
I say all this to indicate my familiarity with the challenges that face farmers and home gardeners. I will periodically post helpful hints gleamed from my years of work and experimentation.
America is obviously in dire economic shape right now and backyard and community gardening projects will help growers reduce their food bills and also (hopefully) give them surplus to donate to local food banks.
Personally I am in favor of folks pooling their resources and buying land, setting up fire, earthquake & storm resistant homes (off the grid or nearly so), making use of water & land conserving equipment (high tech & intermediate tech) and devoting acreage to growing many different types of vegetables & fruits. Some who go this route might find merit in setting up a nonprofit co-op or such.
Recently I became a VP/CSO with a nonprofit religious university (More on this later on). This school has a school of ecology with many professors who have worked in agricultural projects and communes abroad. You can bet your bottom dollar I will be tapping these highly educated and experienced professionals for tips, insights and caveats for novice “patio farmers” as well as those who have their sights on buying a farmette or such and living off the land.
Readers can contact me at nativescienceguy at gmail.com.
The American experiment: recovery, revolution or resignation (to decline & fall)?
As I put fingers to keyboard (August 2020) it is very evident that America is in very deep trouble. Our chickens have come home to roost. While debates rage about the exact nature and extend of the sins, unredressed wrongs, bad policies, corruption, inequality, racism and xenophobia and such that landed us in such dire straits, and how to address or remedy them, I for one am convinced that neither a left or right wing sociopolitical revolution will have a good outcome. Nor will scraping everything up to and including the Constitution and starting over “from scratch” (The French Committee of Public Safety dictatorship tried their hand at radically reinventing France’s social, economic & political order including introducing a secular Republican calendar and dechristianizing France. These extreme reforms paved the way for the Reign of Terror).
And, mind you, I am a democratic socialist. I’ve been one since 1986. But I also know how often revolutions meant to liberate “the people” – especially those that took place in the last century – wound up suppressing dissent and even eliminating dissenters (and other “undesirables”) by often cruel, inhuman means.
In light of human nature as reflected in history, it is difficult to imagine that any revolution-spawned modern day government, no matter how benign its intentions, will be able to resist relying on sophisticated surveillance, cyber warfare and AI technologies to “manage” its people and fend off its enemies (Real or imagined/contrived).
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For Seekers & Other Heretics 