"First remove the log from your own eye . . ."

The value for us of the prophecies against the nations, such as against Moab in Isaiah 15-16, is that we see in them on a big scale what applies to us personally. When we read about Moab 2800 years ago, it's not really about that nation back then. We're intended to see ourselves in the mirror and wise up.

Here is log-in-eye disease on Imax, if we care to look, revealed by the simple questions of Tom Engelhardt.

http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LB26Df02.html

And people who call themselves Christians support these guys. Do they read their Bibles? Does believing in Jesus have anytihng to do with paying attention to what he says - that thing about abiding in his word?

Judge not lest you be judged

I got an interesting comment on my entry on Yvonne Chan's experience of reaping good fruit from her kindness long ago. Maybe somebody else can make sense of what this anonymous poster had to say. He or she says I'm violating the command not to judge lest I be judged, and reaping what I sow - by which he/she means bad things. No problem judging me, anyway.

What stones am I throwing, and what bad things am I reaping? Yvonne Chan reaped a long-deferred blessing in exchange for her good work 35 years ago - there's something wrong with commending that? Or is there something wrong with speaking up for the speechless against the prejudice of an agency that's being paid by the taxpayers to provide impartial resolution of their matters? Don't the oppressed deserve relief? Don't you think that you do, when it happens to you?

It's pretty obvious when we read the prophets and Jesus, say Matthew 23, that Jesus isn't forbidding us to rebuke wrongdoers and be specific in naming their wrongdoing. Indeed, in the proverbs it is written that to the one who rebukes the wicked there will be sure delight.

Folks that like to quote Jesus saying not to judge lest we be judged generally do so when they want somebody to shut up. It's not because they care to learn and obey it themselves, because in the very act of quoting it they are themselves judging and condemning the guiltless for telling the truth in defense of the helpless. To quote the words of Jesus when we can't be bothered to understand them and live them out ourselves is actually quite unwise and dangerous. First let's learn and begin to do, and only then begin to quote them. This way when we do we'll maybe know what we're talking about.

You reap what you sow

I went to the Advisory Council on Special Education meeting in San Diego yesterday the 18th to join with others in documenting the prejudice of the Office of Administrative Hearings against parents and their children. I think we got the job done, and maybe it will bear good fruit.

But the thing that really got my attention was a side comment by Yvonne Chan, a member of the State Board of Education. The transmission went on her fancy car, and she was looking at $10,000.

Back in 1968, she taught Special Ed. She happened to run into one of her former students at the dealer. So instead of having to argue about who would spring for the transmission, she got out of there with a new car. I was moved to remark that it was a good thing she treated the kid right 35 years ago in class! It took a while, but Yvonne Chan reaped what she sowed, and it's a good thing for her that she sowed some good seed back in the day.