Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Fourth Sermon to Chino Valley school board ( 6/17/2010)

Good evening. I’m going to try some biblical and hard thinking on the budget, since there is little of either, and the budget calls for both.

I went to the rally the 7th. I couldn’t get into it. Shouting slogans against budget cuts is useless. Every politician is a champion of education, blowing a trumpet in front of himself. If they don’t deliver, they’re in too big a fix to do so – shout in the street all we want.

So where’s the $30 million the district wants to see? Doesn’t the fear of man keep us from stating the obvious, to our own ruin?

First, it is wasted on pointless wars, and on the care and feeding of banksters and others that give us the best government money can buy. That $30 million dollars you need: it’s keeping 25 soldiers in Afghanistan for a year to beat people into submission because they push back, just as we would against an invader like ourselves. This is no fight for freedom – our Founding Fathers all rightly said that such wars are how we lose our freedom, as we take it from others. Look around, and see how right they were. All this, so the President can look tough to be seen by men. For this worthy end people should kill and die, and our schools and much else should go in the toilet.

On the state level, consider just one point. Why do we insist that oil companies get to take California petroleum nearly for free, when almost every other jurisdiction takes a cut for that loss? They should prance away with it while our kids do without, and we sit there silent at this, like graven images? What is written in the Proverbs? “He that robs the poor, and he who gives to the rich, both alike shall come to poverty.” Look around. That isn’t true?

Finally, what about us? Hear Isaiah’s description of our budget process:

“You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses you broke down to fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to its maker, nor did you have respect for him who fashioned it long ago.”

If you did, would you do injustice and cruelty to the weak, hiring fancy lawyers to wrong them with crooked reasonings, as though the district’s welfare depends on such devices?

Have you not seen that the proverb is true, “One is generous, and his wealth increases; another withholds more than he should and it leads to poverty?” How has it worked out these 3 years we’ve known each other - solving the district’s problems by robbing the weak?

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Roger Waters - "We Shall Overcome"

Jesus said in the gospels to the scribes (Bible experts) and Pharisees ("separated ones," devoted religious people) that the whores and tax gatherers would get into the kingdom of God before they did, and in Matthew 23, Jesus documented just how much more blind and foolish they were than ordinary people.

This is still seen today. Always amazing, but is it not just the word of God proving true?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMMHepfYVc

Friday, June 04, 2010

Third sermon to Chino Valley school board (6/4/2010)

Good evening my four brothers.

In the first of these talks that I was asked to give, I laid out the basics of what God calls for in rulers, and the nature of the doctrine that has led you otherwise, since the snare is laid in vain in the sight of any bird.

This evening, some how-to.

I was being kept awake in pain last week, and I called to mind a really stupid thing I did 33 years ago. I’m no longer quite that dumb, so I wondered why I needed the review. Then I saw that I need to learn better how to distinguish mercy from indulgence. That’s the real reason I screwed up back then. Defining that issue was worth some pain!

Is that same confusion making you feel the need to protect the abusers of our kids? I have a lot more to learn on this, but I think I see this far. Indulgence is going easy on somebody unjustly, at someone else’s expense. Mercy is going easy on someone because it’s mean – unjust – to do anything else. If the public is to trust you with our kids, you have to learn how to stop being nice to their abusers at their expense.

A related thing. Doing justly and mercifully isn’t something that good people just do. It’s discipleship, training, like learning how to play golf, fix a car, or take out a hot appendix. So Isaiah says, “Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Am I going too far if I add? "Defend the special ed kid, and plead for his hard-pressed parents, instead of hiring fancy lawyers to plead against them."

You obey none of this because you haven’t learned how. But Isaiah goes on to say, “Come let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are as scarlet, they’ll be whiter than snow.” Hang out with God and reason with him. Good company cleans up bad morals.

If Isaiah’s advice sounds unreasonable to you, my brothers, you’re practical atheists, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, which is his presence and guidance in real life. This problem can be cured.

I do want to share a good report. One of you, I hear, accompanied a parent to their IEP meeting and told the district people to quit noodling around and give the kid what he needs, already – and it happened. I’m not sure it’s true, but if it is, that’s a great start, and may this mustard seed grow into bigger things.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

It's confirmed - the Messiah has not yet arrived

For those Obamacrats who still haven't heard. It's hard to top this . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/30-0