Yearly Archives: 2018

Dreams of Unwanted Upper Mobility

Three times during my 40 years working at the national office, I have dreamed that I became a bishop. I remember the number of times, because these are very scary dreams–for me, and for the future of United Brethrenism. If you work in business, perhaps you have a scary dream about becoming a district manager or CEO. If academia, about becoming the college president or, worse, a philosophy professor. For me, it’s becoming a bishop.

The third dream occurred just last night. After being selected, I met with church leaders and said, “Let me tell you about myself.” I then began telling them all the reasons why it was a really bad idea for me to be bishop, beginning with my speaking abilities and proceeding through my lack of Bible training. Then I reached the fact that I wasn’t ordained–a basic requirement for being bishop. At that point I realized I was dreaming, and I woke up.

It was a great relief. All was still right with my world.

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Guess Who’s Sitting Beside God?

Before the election, Pat Robertson said on CBN, “God came to me in a dream last night and showed me the future. He took me to heaven and I saw President Trump seated at the right hand of our Lord.”

Forget for the moment that, according to the Bible, Jesus is the One sitting at the right hand of God. President Trump, as we know, doesn’t play by the rules, and it’s perfectly rational to assume that a narcissist would claim the best throne in the house. But let’s put that aside and return to Robertson’s amazing dream.

Here’s what’s running through my mind. Okay, you went to heaven, and there, right in front of you, was God Himself. And what you noticed was, Hey, there’s Donald Trump! Your attention was not drawn to the Creator, but to Trump?

Rev. Robertson, tell us what God looked like. What was it like seeing the Almighty (I’m referring to God, the one on the right) sitting there right in front of you? Tell us what you saw. What was He wearing? Did He glow? Was He sitting back straight in the throne, or leaning forward? Did you look into God’s eyes?

But apparently, the only thing Pat Robertson noticed was Donald Trump. Not God, but Donald Trump. I think that’s been happening a lot lately.

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Leave Paul Ryan Alone

Sometimes people don’t have ulterior motives. Sometimes people mean what they say. Sometimes people hold good values and make decisions on that basis. Sometimes these people are politicians.

I think Paul Ryan is such a person. He says he’s leaving office to spend time with his family, to be an onsite Dad. Why can’t people just accept that? Instead, pundits are speculating that the REAL reason is based on political considerations. Often, when politicians say they are resigning “to spend more time with my family,” we all know that’s not the real reason. But sometimes it is. With Ryan, I believe it is.

The guy wants to be a Dad. He talked about that before becoming Speaker, and he’s talking about it again. That’s a good thing to want to be, and a good example to set.

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When the “Other” United Brethren Church Went Away

Fifty years ago, the “other” United Brethren church pretty much disappeared, leaving us as the only United Brethren player on the field. It was April 23, 1968, when the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged with the Methodist Church to become the United Methodist Church. Some EUBs grumble that it was less a merger and more like being wholly absorbed by the Methodists.

There were actually two denominations called the Church of the United Brethren in Christ between 1889 and 1946, when the other group merged with the Evangelical Association to become the Evangelical United Brethren. (My second piano teacher, in Harrisburg, Pa., was an EUB pastor’s wife. She used to fall asleep in her wood rocker while I went through my lesson.)

A few EUB congregations refused to go along with the 1968 merger, and instead joined our group. In the process, they lost legal title to their church buildings and had to start over. Some of them, including a cluster around Columbus, Ohio, became (and remain) good, strong churches.

When we began in 1800, we had a good relationship with Francis Asbury and his Methodist folks. They tried to get us to merge with them, but we resisted. We also entertained the idea of merging with the Evangelical Association, which also started in 1800. So our groups had been circling each other for a long time. The EA and Methodist mergers didn’t happen until long after our group split off in 1889.

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The Poor Have this Problem, Too

As I’ve mentioned, I’m reading this year from the Africa Study Bible, written by and for Africans. I want to gain biblical insights from committed Christians who come from a totally different context. And I got one this morning.

I read Luke 18, which includes the story of the rich man who wanted to know how to gain eternal life. He was very devout, keeping all the commandments. But Jesus told him there was one more thing he needed to do: sell everything he had and give it to the poor.

Every sermon I’ve heard about this came from a middle-class minister directed at largely middle-class listeners. My assumption would have been that a poor minister, in preaching from this passage, would REALLY lay into rich people.

But a note in the Africa Study Bible hit a different angle. “Wealth can keep us from following Jesus, but so can lack of it. We can be so preoccupied with our poor conditions that we cannot love Jesus or help others. But we do not need money to love or reach out to help. Instead, whether rich or poor, we must put God before money.”

I’m guessing that note was written by a person with experience being “poor,” at least by Western standards.

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Leave Paul Ryan Alone

Sometimes people don’t have ulterior motives. Sometimes people mean what they say. Sometimes people hold good values and make decisions on that basis. Sometimes these people are politicians.

I think Paul Ryan is such a person. He says he’s leaving office to spend time with his family, to be an onsite Dad. Why can’t people just accept that? Instead, pundits are speculating at all kinds of other reasons based on political considerations. Often, when politicians say they are resigning “to spend more time with my family,” we all know that’s not the real reason. But sometimes it is. With Ryan, I believe it is.

The guy wants to be a Dad. He talked about that before becoming Speaker, and he’s talking about it again. That’s a good thing to want to be, and a good example to set.

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Florida’s Never-Ending Punishment

I’ve felt for a long time that when convicts pay their debt to society, they should regain the right to vote. That’s what happens in Indiana and 35 other states. So I was happy to see George Will’s recent column, which echoed my sentiments.

In Florida (and other states), felons lose the right to vote PERMANENTLY. Will mentions one Florida felon who went on to earn a law degree. But for the rest of his life, he can’t vote. Is that right?

Will writes of Florida, “The state has a low threshold for felonious acts: Someone who gets into a bar fight, or steals property worth $300 — approximately two pairs of Air Jordans — or even drives without a license for a third time can be disenfranchised for life.”

That now includes 1.6 million Floridians, including 20% of the state’s voting-age African-Americans. Nationwide, of the 4.7 million former prisoners who can’t vote, one-third are African-American. There is an undeniable a racial element, and class element, since such laws especially affect African-Americans and poor people. Nationwide, such laws prevent one of every 13 African Americans from voting.

Will continues, “What intelligent purpose is served by reminding felons — who really do not require reminding — of their past, and by advertising it to their community? The rule of law requires punishments, but it is not served by punishments that never end, and that perpetuate a social stigma and a sense of never fully reentering the community.”

In Florida, Republicans control both houses of the state legislature, plus the governorship. They don’t want to jeopardize that. Since Florida is the largest swing state, and blacks and poor people are generally more likely to vote Democrat, Republicans–not just in Florida, but nationally–have a strong interest in not restoring the votes of felons. Similar laws exist in Virginia and Arizona, two other significant swing states where Republicans have the upper hand.

But permanent disenfranchisement isn’t the norm. Here are the 14 states which automatically restore voting rights after a person leaves prison: Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Utah. As you can see, it’s a mixture of conservative and liberal states. Another 22 states restore voting rights after a person completes parole or probation (they may also be required to pay fines, fees, or restitution before having voting rights restored). So states like Florida are in the minority.

Interestingly, in Maine and Vermont, felons have the right to vote even when incarcerated. California extends voting privileges to persons in county prisons. There’s a lot of other variety. Wyoming, in 2017, restored the voting rights of nonviolent felons. In 2013, Delaware eliminated the five-year waiting period for restoring voting rights.

Florida has a process for restoring your voting rights: you have to wait 5-7 years (depending on the crime) and then apply to the governor, who can say yes or no. Republican governor Rick Scott has received tens of thousands of such applications, but has approved only 1600 of them (compared to 150,000 by his predecessor). A cynic might wonder how many of those persons were white, middle-class people with Republican political connections. He has also pushed other measures to suppress voting among people who tend to favor the Democratic party (students, the poor, minorities). Scott is my Least Favorite Governor Ever.

Name a single instance, anywhere, in which Democrats have passed laws to hinder or prevent conservatives from voting? Take your time. I’ll wait.

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The Gun Survey Game

I received a “Gun Owner’s Action Survey” from the NRA. They, of course, don’t care about my opinions. It’s a fundraising piece and part of a membership drive, as betrayed by the final question, “Will you fight for your freedom by joining NRA today?” But the survey’s ridiculously slanted questions gave me good laugh. Here are two of them:

  • “Should Congress and the states eliminate so-called ‘gun free zones’ and leave innocent citizens defenseless against terrorists and violent criminals?”
  • “Do you oppose any United Nations treaty that strips the US of its sovereignty and gives UN diplomats the power to regulate every rifle, pistol, and shotgun you own?” (There are gullible people who think President Obama actually advocated this. I feel sorry for them.)

Of course, anti-gun groups play the same survey game. I can envision questions like this:

  • “Do you oppose letting mentally disturbed people, dressed in camo and wearing bullet-proof vests, carry sniper rifles and high-capacity machine guns into daycare centers, grade school music recitals, and church prayer meetings?”
  • “Do you oppose NRA-backed ‘stand your ground’ laws which make it perfectly legal for somebody to blow your head off if they feel offended by something you say?”
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When America Opened Its Arms to Refugees

James Michener, in “The Bridge at Andau,” criticized the United States for being slow to act on behalf of the freedom fighters of the Hungarian Revolution, and on behalf of the 200,000 refugees who poured into Austria. Other countries–France, Britain, Switzerland, and other nations–immediately leaped into the breach to welcome and care for refugees. But America did very little…initially.

But finally, we got our act together and entered the fray with unbounded generosity and compassion. By the middle of March 1957, just four months after the Russian invasion, the United States had accepted over 30,000 Hungarian refugees. Again: 30,000. Some voices objected–we should take care of our own needs first, and besides, there could be communist infiltrators among those refugees. But we responded not to fear or self-interest, but to human need.

Michener wrote about America’s response:

  • We lifted or ignored restrictions on bringing refugees into the US.
  • The US embassy in Vienna, Austria, sped up the flow of paperwork.
  • Our emergency relief organizations–Catholic, Jewish, Protestant–stopped squabbling and began working around the clock to reunite refugee families and get them cleared to come to America.
  • US aid groups flooded Austria with blankets, medicine, food, and money.
  • Educational foundations provided scholarships to American colleges.

Michener continued, “Then, when it seemed as if the United States had done all it could, there occurred the Christmas [1956] visit of Vice President Nixon, who cut additional red tape, reassured the Austrians of our continued support of their efforts, and spurred our own government to further generosity in accepting refugees. A massive airlift was organized….And across America, thousands of families who had never seen a Hungarian before suddenly opened their doors and welcomed strangers to whom they could not speak a single word.”

I’m supremely proud of THAT America, the America into which I was born on the day the Hungarian Revolution started on October 23, 1956. THAT is a country I believe God chose to bless. I think we had our thumb on God’s pulse–helping people who were needy, damaged, vulnerable, homeless, and helpless. People who needed a place to start anew, and we said, “Come to America. We’ll treat you well.”

Consider the similarities to Syria. Like Hungary, Syria was a Russia-aligned country whose people rose up against an oppressive regime, but were put down with help from Russia. As with Hungary, hundreds of thousands of refugees poured into Europe, which largely embraced them. But this time, America has been mostly silent.

Michener wrote 61 years ago, prophetically, “When the patriots in Budapest struck, we were unprepared. We neither knew what to do, nor had the will to do it. We stood before the world in very shabby moral clothes, and should this happen again, we might have to surrender our position of world leadership.”

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Michener and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

I’ve known, since I was a kid, that I was born on the exact day that the Hungarian Revolution started. That has always intrigued me.

I just finished James Michener’s 1957 account of the Hungarian Revolution, “The Bridge at Andau,” published when I was one year old. It’s not a great book, by Michener standards. It feels like it was rushed into print. He writes with much personal outrage at what Hungarians endured during ten years of Soviet enslavement. A proud nation had been turned into a brutal, repressive, horrible prison state. Refugees told him numerous stories of torture and imprisonment at the hands of the secret police, stories that turn your stomach. As Michener notes, the Soviets imposed the same cruel oppression on all of its satellite states–East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany, and others.

The book begins by stating my birthday: “On Tuesday evening, October 23,1956–a day which the world will be slow to forget–a boy of 18…” and we’re off and running. A student demonstration attracts a crowd. Shortly, stones will be thrown, gunfire exchanged, buildings stormed, Russian tanks destroyed by kids. The people won their freedom, and for a couple weeks, made plans for a new Hungary. But Russia couldn’t let that happen.

The Russians invaded in force in November 4. The people put up a heroic resistance, destroying hundreds of Russian tanks with makeshift weapons. But defeat was inevitable. Thousands were killed, and thousands more were packed into cattle cars and shipped to Siberia. Darkness once again descended.

Over 200,000 Hungarians fled the country, most crossing the border into Austria. Thousands emerged from swamps to cross a footbridge near an Austrian town called Andau. Michener was there in late 1956 as a young reporter. He risked his life to help hundreds of Hungarian refugees evade Russian soldiers and secret police and cross that border. And he recorded their stories for the world to hear.

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