Save Me!

It's in the hands of the jury now. Those poor folks must decide whether Marci and Jeffrey Beagley who are charged with criminally negligent homicide for failing to provide medical care for their son Neil. He was 16 when he died, and he had suffered from a urinary tract blockage his whole life. It could have been corrected easily when Neil was a youngster.

Neil didn't want to see a doctor. He said he'd put his faith in God instead.

OK, but what else is the kid going to say when he's been raised all his life to see going to the doctor as a slap in God's face? After all, he'd already seen his little neice die of easily treated conditions.

Always, the parents say, "We didn't think our child was going to die." That's not an explanation. The real question is, supposing they had known their child was going to die, would they have still made the same decision to pray but shun medical help? I hope that would be their answer. Otherwise, their faith is a very sadistic double standard, a complete hypocrisy.

I'm wondering a whole lot of other things about the Followers of Christ down in Oregon City. Such as:

Do they ever go to a dentist?

Suppose a family member was choking on food and couldn't breathe. Would they do the Heimlich maneuver, or would they just pray and let the person choke and die?

Suppose they are at their friends' swimming pool watching their 10-year-old kid jumpoff the side and into the pool. All is fine until the kid hits his head on the concrete ledge as he jumps in. He's unconscious on the bottom of the pool, so someone jumps in to haul the kid out of the water. Do they begin CPR, or do they just pray and let the child die? If the latter, then why haul the kid out of the water in the first place?

Does faith only work in air but not in water?

Suppose the above scenario happened at a public pool and the lifeguard began CPR and handed the kid over to the paramedics when they arrived? Would the parents sue for violation of their faith? But the lifeguard would be fired and charged with a crime if he didn't do his duty. The pool's liability insurance would be dropped.

Could a member of the Followers of Christ render first aid to an accident victim? Could they apply a tourniquet to stop a person from bleeding to death?

Could they get emergency surgery for appendicitis? What if the surgeon was a born-again Christian whose life had once been saved by a Good Samaritan who found him by the side of the road and got professional help while praying for the victim?

What would a reasonable person do?

A reasonable person does not attempt to do the work of a 1.5-inch socket wrench and breaker bar by using a pliers instead. A reasonable person uses the best tools available and doesn't insist that it's a rejection of God or a sign of weak faith by realizing that there is a better tool than the pliers.

But even the reasonable person who chooses the socket wrench wears gloves, uses eye and ear protection. They don't just rely on the tool alone.

I'm glad I'm not on the jury. Neil Beagley's parents can be glad also. I'm glad they aren't my parents. I'm glad I'm not their son. Their grieve and mourn a death because of their beliefs. May our beliefs lead us to life, not the opposite.

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Pray for the Followers of Christ. And all their children.

Shalom,

Roger

Jobs Are Job 1

I watched President Obama last night. I heard all the emphasis on jobs. More power to him!

I listen to all the Republican opposition calling for more tax cuts while simultaneously insisting on spending for wars that we've never asked Americans to pay for. They say they have a better way to bring the jobs back. More power to them if they do!

BUT.....

All the stuff the Republicans say will help was done in the last decade, and all the "growth" we supposedly had was on paper because we kept shipping jobs overseas--our biggest export.

So I'm wondering whether any of our so-called "leaders" really have a clue.

Jobs? Doing what?

A week ago, I broke down and bought a new pair of running shoes. I was resigned to buying a pair of Nikes made in Vietnam. At least they weren't made in China. I figure we owe Vietnam a few things.

But the store no longer had the model I had looked at two weeks prior. So I started searching afresh. Then I about dropped my sox. I found this pair of New Balance shoes that were actually assembled in the USA! The materials were imported, but at least some work was done here. I bought them in a heartbeat, gladly paying 20 extra dollars for that little label that said USA.

Now, mind you, I did try them on--and they were the lightest, most comfortable running shoes I've had on my feet in decades.

Two years ago, I overhauled the engine in my wife's car. The gasket set had parts made in five countries--including the USA. And the label could tell me where each part was made.

So when somebody says we can't label food to tell us where it came from, tell 'em it ain't so hard. If they can do it on Fel-Pro engine gasket sets when there isn't even a legal requirement to do so, why can't we do it on everything?

Oh, and if we want to create jobs, you and I need to buy as much of what we need and use from our nearby neighbors--even when we have a choice that's cheaper. No employer hires workers to make things that can't be sold and for which there is no market. That means it's up to us, the buyers.

So let's be choosy about the country of origin on our purchases, as choosy as we would be about the food we put inside our bodies. We have more power to create jobs than we know. And just maybe, we have the only power to do so. All with the dollars we spend every day for ordinary things.

The jobs we save may be our own. Maybe our neighbor's. Maybe our kid's.

Roger

PS. Forget import tariffs. Let's make it a requirement to put this label on everything that comes to us from the most populous nation on earth:

MADE IN COMMUNIST CHINA

Haiti: Now Is All You Have

No, the bus has nothing to do with Haiti.

However, Haiti has little future without an unbelievable amount of help. If anything might convince us that now is all we have, this 77-minute special sermon from Pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church, Seattle should. See or listen to "32 Hours: the church in Haiti":

http://www.marshillchurch.org/

You can pick right up on the audio, but you'll have to cut and paste a link (in gold letters) to get the video as well.

No lack of things to pray about now, in case you'd run out. Now is all we have.

Blessed unrest,

Roger

Experiencing Community: Luke 4

You could almost get the idea that it was a church, the Irvington Farmers Market (note the absence of the apostrophe, sigh....). "Services" are on Sundays from 11:00-3:00. Church hours, sorta. Long-time Portland residents may even see something familiar in the Irvington artwork. It evokes the style of the marquee of the once-popular Irvington Theater on NE Broadway. Movie houses were once community gathering places where we cheered on the troops and leaders as the black-and-white newsreels brought news of Allied successes against fascists in Europe and Imperial Japan in the Pacific.

Theaters once had ushers. They wore uniforms like bellhops and carried glowing flashlights while directing movie-goers to seats. Kinda like in church. We knew who these high school kids were. And their parents. A bag of popcorn might have been 5 or 10 cents, the movie a quarter. Hard not to have a community around that affordability even considering the low wages of the day.

Lots of churches don't call themselves churches these days. "Community" has been the title of choice on a wide scale. "Church" has carried negative baggage that has sent mission-minded pastors and leaders scrambling for other images, looking to respond to what people lack, to real or perceived needs: community. Many of these communities now have branding slogans ("heart of the King", for example) and logos. Gotta have a logo so people recognize you.

Increasingly, our "community" these days seems to glow at us from little flat screens we carry in the palms of our hands. We can stay "in touch" 24/7--without actually touching.

Some years back, local folks won one of those Guinness Brewing contests. They actually won a pub in Ireland and moved there. They noticed something different about the Irish: community. Groups of Irish could get together and begin to sing songs. And everybody in the room would know the lyrics to all 25 verses. They had never experienced that kind of cultural common property in America. The Irish hadn't downloaded these lyrics from a music ap and turned them into ring tones. They had learned them by singing them multi-generationally with other people.

I wonder what we Americans share today with one another as cultural common property? Maybe it has mostly to do with who is wowing us with 90-second song condensations on American Idol.

How many people know the Star Spangled Banner by heart? The Apostles' Creed? The Lord's Prayer? Their state song? Who their Governor is?

Luke chapter 4 is jam-packed. After a 40-day ordeal in the wilderness following his baptism, Jesus goes to church at the synagogue in hometown Nazareth. An articulate local boy, he is honored by being asked to read from Isaiah 61. Hearers burst with pride at his articulate and proper reading of the text. "Yep, we done good raisin' him," some say. Others wonder, "Hey, he's day-laborer Joe's kid. How'd he suddenly get such an authority act? Maybe gettin' a little too big for his britches here."

Jesus could have simply let it lie and come away with a mostly positive review in the local papers. Instead, he throws out a Molotov cocktail by predicting that he will be judged, misjudged and rejected by people who will not actually see or hear what he brings because it will trouble and unsettle their prejudgments. Community "unity" nearly results in a lynching from which Jesus is able to call their bluff and not be tossed over the bluff.

And God's new things are left lying there in the dirt at the feet of the hometown crowd. You can't always go home and expect to find community. It may be out there somewhere else where God leads. May we recognize and build it wherever we are.

Shalom,

Roger

Free Speech

Years ago I wrote to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky because he firmly opposed campaign finance reform. He said that it would limit free speech.

I maintained that we hadn't had political free speech for quite some time, that our politcal campaign "speech" had become the most expensive speech known to humankind.

I thought McConnell's opposition to McCain-Feingold was actually based in the belief that his party still had the ability to out-fundraise the other party. If that situation ever reversed itself, I believed that McConnell would suddenly be on-board for campaign finance reform.

Well, our political campaigns becomre more expensive with every election. Not only are they the most expensive speech in the history of humanity and politics, the quality of that speech seems to be inversely proportional to its cost. Campaign speech these days is not "speech" but advertising. It does not want to inform you, present you with reliable factual information, so that you can make up your own mind.

No. It wants to scare you, seduce you, enrage you, tell you exactly how and what to think. Or all of the above. And it ALL gets tested on focus groups and mind control experts before it ever airs. Airs. How much of our politcal campaign speech is in the form of the printed word? None. It's a multi-media assault. And once you have an opinion, you have no need of information.

Some years back, Greg Palast wrote a book titled The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Gosh, why'd he go and do that? Maybe cuz that's how our so-called democracy works.

Except it's not a democracy. It's a plutocracy. Money talks. Money rules.

And today the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that corporations trump you and me. Since they are "persons", they can spend money like persons and buy as much free speech as they want.

So much for activist judges being only liberals.

I want cheap speech, real speech. It's the only kind that's free. Question is, for how long?

Roller Coaster: Bumps Ahead

I wonder what it would be like if we put speed bumps on the track of a roller coaster? I can wonder, but I wouldn't want to find out.

Years ago, I took our daughter to Disneyland as a surprise reward for a good 7th-grade year in school. All of her friends had already been there years earlier. But we could never see the logic in taking a pre-schooler to a big, expensive amusement park when a visit to the swing set at a local park would be more memorable.

I recall that as my daughter and I stepped into one very busy coaster ride we were delayed. Operators were scrambling around, and I saw red lights flashing and heard alarms on the operator's console. I looked at the fasteners, wheels and bearings of the carriages. I decided I wanted no part of a ride that was having some kind of traffic problem or mechanical malfunction. We got off. I've never regretted doing so.

The year 2009 was a tough one for most folks I know. A friend lost his business that he and his wife had sunk their hearts, prayers and a substantial chunk of money into. My annual income was the lowest in more than 30 years. We took a hit on health insurance and took on higher co-pays and higher deductibles.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs had a banner year:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34972351/ns/business-earnings/

As a deflection of criticism for their fat bonuses, they diverted $500 million into their charitable giving in the final quarter. Thanks. I guess.

But here's the deal. For years, one-half of our political talking heads has told us that if government just took a little less of people's money they would all run out and start new businesses and create jobs hand-over-fist. So it should stand to reason that if a few smart, educated, money-savvy folks did really well and made gobs of money we should be awash in jobs now with vacancies going begging and urgent pleas to government to bring more workers in from overseas to do the work.

I'd like to see a follow-up report on the Wall Street bonuses. How many new businesses have any of these folks started? When have they gone out to the lines of unemployed and said, "Here, come work in my vineyard until you're ready to retire. And by the way, we offer affordable health insurance for you and your family."

Tuesday, the stock market took a nice upward leap with the expectation that Scott Brown would win the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts (the only state that is not a state but a commonwealth). Rising stocks of health care providers led the rally, apparently in anticipation that nothing was going to stand in the way of their rising earnings, certainly not any proposed health care reform in the country that already pays more per capita than any other industrialized country. So much for making health care more affordable.

Yesterday, Wall Street took an equally-sized tumble, apparently with this realization:

OMG! We're now headed for three years of complete Congressional gridlock!

As if the Congress had been such a productive bunch before.

Almost makes you wish for speed bumps ahead. Even potholes. Anything besides what we have.

They used to manufacture aircraft engine magnetos and instruments in downtown Brooklyn. They used to make wooden and metal toys there. They used to make clothing in New York City. All kinds of stuff. People actually worked there at jobs other than convenience stores with bars on the windows. Yeah, bona fide manufacturing in the heart of the Asphalt Jungle. I wonder how many new businesses the Wall Street boys are starting there today? I wonder if they'd be willing to buy my friend Kevin's motocycle shop, give him a bailout that would keep him in business for a year?

It wouldn't cost them more than a couple of days' bonus. Not pay, bonus.

Or maybe trickle-down economics is really what a prominent Republican once named it: voodoo. Until he was tapped to be the vice-presidential running mate. Does having more money make people more generous? Maybe. Maybe not. Help 'em do the right thing? Maybe, maybe not.

Maybe high taxes/low taxes/no taxes don't have much at all to do with creating or saving jobs. Maybe what government needs to do is establish and maintain the framework for long-term common good. Example: if we'd have set the goal years ago of reducing carbon footprint, oil imports and being the world's sustainable energy leader, our free enterprtise system would have figured out how to get there. We'd have made hybrid cars before Japan. We'd be the leading manufacturer of wind and solar energy products, not Spain, Denmark and China. We'd be the leader in co-generation production of electricity, not Denmark. Woulda created all kinds of jobs without stimulus. We'd have people actually paying taxes instead of receiving unemployment checks.

Woulda been the right thing to do. There is no such thing as the right thing being too expensive. The right thing, after all, is the only thing we can afford, don'tcha think?

Meanwhile, praise the Lord and pass the potholes. Bumps ahead.

Roger

First, Do No Harm: Haiti Today, Us Tomorrow

We might do well, very well, to practice the first rule of medicine as we practice our faith in the world:

First, Do No Harm.

For some time now I've chosen to describe myself as a Christ follower rather than a Christian. "Christian" is only used three times in the New Testament and only as a noun, never as an adjective. It's also never modified by any adjectives in the Bible. We weren't left with a laundry list of what's more or less Christian (adjective), such as Christian music, Christian bookstores, Christian fashions or office supplies.

In recent years, "Christian" has become a tarnished word often associated with judgmentalism and divisive agendas. So I've been calling myself a Christ follower. That's what Jesus asked his disciples to do: follow.

Now, however, "Christ follower" may also have to be vacated for fear of association with the Followers of Christ, a group of modern day folks who don't believe in modern medicine and who will anoint, sing and pray with their children as they watch them suffer grievous pain and finally die of conditions easily and quickly treatable. See: http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2010/01/prosecutors_see_jury_selection.html

Think about the different approach to the world if you are a Follower of Christ. You could go into Haiti with food and water for hungry, thirsty people; but you wouldn't actually treat infections from gaping wounds using antibiotics, you wouldn't amputate gangrenous limbs in order to save a life. You wouldn't offer blood or plasma transfusions, IV bags, to someone whose life could be saved by them. Medical supplies? Not necessary. Fly or truck in about 5 gallons of anointing oil and you would have enough to make the sign of the cross on about 500,000 foreheads. That would do it.

Latex or nitrile gloves? No need. If God didn't want you to get infected or to spread infection, it wouldn't happen. Prayer wouldn't allow it to happen--unless God wanted it to. And then I guess all your prayers wouldn't be effective anyway. It would be God's will, so just go on.

Search and rescue teams? Heavy equipment to look for survivors under the rubble? Not needed either. You would pray for them and call it good. And if God wanted them to survive, then another earthquake would come and dislodge the chunks of concrete to free them before they died. If not, well. . . it was just their time and God had already decided.

First, do no harm.

Haiti is the poorest nation in this hemisphere. It has been that way for most of its life. Badly overpopulated and badly denuded and deforested because the poor people have nothing for fuel but charcoal they make from every living twig they can get their hands on, Haiti is also one of the most badly eroded landscapes on earth. When the rains come, as they will, the other shoe will drop in this desolate land. Soil and rock now shaken loose by the quake and not held by tree roots, not covered by their canopy of leaves, will again cascade downhill. This time the floods of mud will descend onto people living with even less for shelter and security than they had after the recent terrible hurricanes, all of which were the worst natural disasters Haiti had seen--until now.

Not only has Haiti been inundated with natural disasters. It has also been inundated with mission trips and Christian groups and orphan care and food aid and antibiotics for years and decades. Countless lives have been saved, many only to reproduce and multiply unsustainably to live in shacks and huts without latrines or water. Families there have been selling or just flat giving away their children because they cannot provide for them. Some orphanages have rescued infants tossed by their mothers onto burning piles of garbage. Human life has never been cheaper.

Have we forgotten that the words "Haitian" and "boat people" became a redundancy years ago?

So let's say that the massive efforts of the next five years put the entire population of Haiti in new, earthquake-proof structures. What in the world shall those people do for work, livelihood, income, sustenance? Make more children to be sold or given away into slavery and the sex trade, to become 12-year-old armies-for-hire somewhere? Pirates of the Caribbean doing what they do in Somalia?

Is China ready to industrialize Haiti so that the cheap goods with which they have saturated every store on the planet can be made cheaper and closer to Bentonville, Arkansas? Are we ready to offshore something besides church mission trips?

Haiti is a microcosm of what humanity is doing globally. We should wake up to that and respond accordingly. Their life will be the lives of more and more people as the resilient life support systems of earth lose their resiliency due to human overload and destruction.

Then, will we in the weathly world turn out to be any less blind and bull-headed than the people going on trial in Oregon City?

A former boss once said, "Life involves choices. Choices have consequences."

So does the practice of our faith and our consumption-based way of life. As a civilization that has pegged all its hopes, put all its eggs in the lone basket of nebulous and infinite "economic growth", we might do well to ponder the words:

First, do no harm.

Meanwhile, immediate needs confront us. Children and their parents cry out. Let us be busy with those needs while never ignoring the consequences of every choice. And we rich people have far more choices than the world's poor. We have far more responsibility.

Let us pray . . . Amen.

R.