Black Thursday

Black Friday is synonymous with gigantic televisions, the latest gaming systems, Tickle-Me-Elmo's, long lines, trampling people, and mass hysteria.  This is the most hyped shopping day of the year.  This is a highlighted day for owners, workers, and shoppers alike as it kicks off the Christmas shopping season.  Millions of people scrounging for deals to wrap in elaborate boxes and place under artificially lit trees.  No one is excluded from the commercial chaos.  I once worked for a Christian retailer who once lectured me about this day and season was about making money (silly me thinking it was about a birth).

It's a day we throw away our money, our common sense, and our common courtesy.  It is a day of the survival of the fittest.  The weak are trampled, the slow are left behind, and the broke are imprisoned behind scanners for 16 hours straight with the promise of longer hours to come during the "most wonderful time of the year."

Is it not bad enough Black Friday comes hours after we celebrate being thankful for what we have?  Now stores are opening sooner.  Not just 3:00 am Friday morning, but now even 8:00 pm on Thursday night.  Now families who had to work on little sleep after Thanksgiving will not be able to have any Thanksgiving at all.  Thanksgiving will soon be a holiday reserved for the wealthy who are not forced to work customer service jobs. Have we all gone crazy?

Wal-Mart, our nation's largest employer, is following suite.  Wal-Mart already has a terrible record with managing its employees.  They already have unlivable wages, scarce access to health care, and discrimination lawsuits enough to backlog the courts for several years.  Their record on the environment is reckless, and their concern for local business is nonexistent.  Now Wal-Mart is opening on Thanksgiving "for their customers."  It is not enough to steal employees from their beds in the wee hours following Thanksgiving, now they are stealing them away from the dinner table so that they can provide our country with things we do not need. 

Black Friday has moved over to Black Thursday, and it seems that the darkness is spreading. 

The truth is we don't need a Black Thursday, and we don't need a Black Friday, what we need is a Good Friday, a Friday where work is not done through shopping malls and super-stores, but where work is done by God himself mending our hearts, our families, our nation, and our world.  We need days of Sabbaths, to remember God's work for us.  We do not need to jump start our economy, or get a head start on our shopping, we do not need to grab tents and wait in line, we need to gather together around the table and wait for the Lord.

There are people who have had enough.  Wal-Mart employees have already started walking out.  People have signed petitions and made promises not to shop on Thanksgiving or Black Friday for the employee's sake.  This all gets me excited and hopeful.

The truth is if we continue to head down the path over manic materialism we will not have to worry about any fiscal cliff, because we will have already fallen so far there will be no else further to go.

Not that shopping is wrong in itself.  But let us be honest, haven't we gone so far overboard that it has become downright unhealthy, disturbing, and just plain wrong?

 I would not dream of asking employees to stay home, that would be unfair, but I am asking employers to close their shops and trust in the Lord, I am asking shoppers to stay home and "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  Please let us stay home, let us be thankful, and let us enjoy a Sabbath rest.

A Physician not a Politician

The election always reveals our nation's problems and issues that each candidate promises to fix.  The problems with jobs and a shrinking economy, the problems with education and failing schools, the problems with national security and foreign threats are seen as issues that can be corrected if the right candidate is elected.  The Democratic nominee believes that his leadership and party can correct the wrongs, and the Republican nominee wants to ask "are things better than four years ago?" Both candidates think they have the answers to our nation's problems, but what if they are both wrong?  I believe that not only do both candidates have the wrong answers to our problems; I believe they have the wrong idea completely about what the problems are.

The reason things fail to get better is because we have been inadequate at naming and addressing the true problems.  A struggling economy, the loss of jobs, national security, and failing schools are not the problems, instead they are the symptoms of our problems.  Trying to fix symptoms does not fix our problems.  I watched a women die this year of cancer pain free.  The morphine and medicine took away her pain.  I am glad that she was able to pass pain free but the pain wasn't the problem, the cancer was.  We have a cancer in our country and our politicians plan is to inject our country with morphine so that we will no longer feel pain, and it is not all their fault.  We look for and vote for politicians to take away our pain instead of leading us through difficult treatment to restore us back to health.  We rather die comfortably than live with heroic struggle.  We look for people to numb our existence instead of push for growth.

The issue with all this is that no political nominee of any party can bring about the holistic healing of our nation, their position and qualifications are inept.  

The true problem that causes the symptoms of job loss is greed.  CEO's and stockholders demand greater profit which means minimal cost which effect job market, livable wages, and even the environment.  No government official can undo and cure greed.  The issue with our economy is entitlement.  People of all classes believe they are owed something and live off the backs of other people.  The problem that causes the symptom of failing schools is discipline.  Our students are not disciplined, our teachers are not all disciplined, and our parents are not disciplined.  The problem that causes the symptom of national defense is lack of peace and love.  No government program and change these real problems.

If we create more jobs, they will simply be shipped overseas where they can legally pay unlivable and destitute wages.  If we simply throw more money at the impoverished, they will still lack the ability to provide for them, if we create more testing for students and teachers they will surely tell us nothings has changed, and if we add more missiles and bombs to our arsenals our enemies will follow suit.

Where does our hope come from?

What if there was one person who lived this out?  What if there was a person who was not greedy but giving?  What if there was someone who was not entitled but humble?  What if there was someone who was disciplined and lived out love and peace?  What if this person did all this and instead of saying "vote for me" he said "follow me."? What if there was someone who could not just cure the symptom but the problem?  What if there was someone who could not only change things but change us?

There is someone who offers such hope, who does not go on television and slander other people with lies, but is gentle and loving.  There is someone who does not charge ridiculous prices to eat in a banquet hall with him, but freely invites you to come and eat the broken bread and wine.  There is someone who has cure, a great physician who knows the ailment and solution.  Unfortunately we have failed to see our sickness, and we have failed to go seek the cure.  But the physician is still here.  The one who can fully effect change has not abandoned us.

Jesus who takes the illness of the world upon himself and proclaims forgiveness has given us cure from all this and even cure from death itself.  If you want the cure, if you want the change, if you want Jesus then he invites you to follow him and experience not just change but transformation!

Character Counts: The Debase Debates of our Petty Presidential Candidates

It is official the Presidential debate has turned historically ugly.  With both candidates pushing to raise 1 billion dollars in pursuit of being named Commander in Chief, resources have recently been overwhelming spent on negative ads vilifying opponents.   The ads question Romney's past CEO initiatives and Obama's past Presidential programs.  Not that questioning an opponents' motives are wrong, but these paid messages have more name calling than a grade school playground fight.  These messages paid for by wealthy intelligent people in support of candidates are nothing more than bully talk.  The campaign messages are full of half truths that distort the other candidates' words.  There are sound bites taken to make a completely different message than ever intended. There is more dishonesty in this campaign than any other in our history.

Politicians (on both ends) lie about their opponents' to smear their name and then they dare to claim they stand for truth and justice.  Meanwhile the issues of rising poverty, escalating war, unstable governments, and missing opportunities of the lower class go ignored.  When is the last time the Afghanistan War which has over 80,000 U.S. troops engaged been mentioned?

These debase debates effect more than just our voting system.  The behaviors of our nation's leaders are a terrible hideous disease that has infected us all.

 We as a people can no longer discuss points and ideas in how to govern a nation, instead we get angry, make personal attacks, ostracize opposing ideas, and even commit unthinkable acts of violence.  We do not know how to have differing respectful debates because our leaders have debased the art.  Our politicians speak out against bullying, yet when it comes to their opponents' they cruelly attack anything and everything they can.  We have had everything from people’s pet ownership to singing ability attacked in political ads vying for what is supposed to be the highest position in our country.  We have been left with petty presidential debates that disease our nation, families, and even our own reasoning skills.

Why are we even passionately arguing for one leader over another when neither has risen above the challenge?  Why do we put our energy and resources into a failing system?

I think it is time we expect more from our leaders.  Every year candidates wonder why people do not make it to the polls when we are left with no good options.

Our leaders have failed to lead us to be better people; our public servants have failed to serve.  We have put winning, election, and position at the forefront of our achievement and we have only sunk to the bottom in attempts to reach these goals. 

Jesus Christ quite plainly told his disciples the secret to leadership and effective change; serve humbly and look to others interest before your own.  If we are to become a people united together with vision that can effect change, our leadership, our politics, our theology and deepest personal self must turn away from the egotism that has led to violent words and behavior of debate.  We must learn to serve.  This message is for our politicians, for our CEO's and world leaders, but if we expect them to reflect this behavior, we must first lead them with our own daily sacrificial lives, just as Jesus did.  We as a people from the bottom must imitate the greatest teacher who ever lived, we must trust in the powerful words of service and humility allow ourselves to become last so others can be first.  This will not trickle down from the top, but it will be planted in those on the bottom.  It will slowly, yet surely as a strong oak, grow into an unmovable, healthy, and fruitful tree. 

This will happen with those who trust in those words of Jesus and become the underground, dirty, unnoticeable roots that hold together both tree and nation.

The Unjust Scandal of Chick-fil-A

When the donations of owner of Chick-fil-A started to go to places that among other things had official stances against gay marriage the public became suspect of the faith based fast food chain.  When the owner was asked about gay marriage he stated that he believed in a Bible based marriage that recognizes solely the joining of a man and a woman, all suspicions were confirmed and now Chick-fil-A has become a nothing short of modern Nazi régime.

But let us wait a minute here.  The owner of Chick-fil-A never said he supports the illegalization of gay marriage.  The owner never said that if someone is homosexual they are terrible people.  In fact there are homosexual employed at Chick-fil-A.  He was asked a question (no doubt to stir up controversy) and he answered honestly.

There are now protests and articles, and blogs attesting at what an evil corporation Chick-fil-A is, have we all lost our minds?

The CEOs and owners of Wal-Mart are one of the largest employers in our country, yet their employees have no health care and fall under the poverty line because they fail to pay adequate wages, where are the protests?  Apple has been accused of atrocious crimes of starving, overworking, and putting their employees in dangers environments to make a cheap popular phone.  Apple does not give money to charities and they force workers to sleep on factory floors, yet we dare not protest one of America's most favorite products.  In fact, the former deceased owner Steve Jobs has been lifted up as on iconic hero of marketing and technologies.  Companies that employe children in dangerous factories and sweatshops dehumanize workers making them nothing more than slaves are our favorite brands that escape the scathing eyes of justice.

Chick-fil-A has donated millions to charitable organization and gives their employees a day off to be with their family on Sunday, yet we have made them our modern society's villain.   

Are we truly so blind?  Are we so focused on specks that we fail to notice the logs in people's eyes?  If you believe Chick-fil-A's ideology is wrong that is one thing, but to put their actions above the atrocities of Syria, Apple, Wal-Mart and other power hungry companies enslaving people overseas in unhealthy work environments is a sign we have truly lost our moral compass here in the United States.

We have become such disoriented wanderers in the pursuit of our sexuality that we have lost our eye on justice, mercy, compassion, and love.  Can we not open our eyes and ears and put first things first, can we not recognize good and evil?  Don't get me wrong, I am against all kinds of hate, but I do believe the words spoken by Chick-fil-A may not be words we all agree with, but they were not words of hate.

We are a lost nation, and either the voices of modern prophets will turn us around into the direction of love and compassion, or we will wonder as shepherdess sheep right of the cliff of selfish obsession.  Let us become a people concerned with true justice, true mercy, and let us not become distracted any longer by the perception of noble causes.

The God of Science and the Science of God

Let us be honest, Religion has been guilty of interfering with fields of study such as science.  When Galileo purposed the earth revolve around the sun instead of the sun around the earth, the Church was quick to contradict such claims based off unrelated scriptural texts.  But if we are truly honest, we must admit that Science has been guilty of interfering with faith and religion as well.  With the theory of evolution and the Big Bang, many scientist of pointed out that these prove God cannot exist.

Both Religion and Science have overstepped their bounds.  As a pastor of an American Baptist Church let me contradict many strongly held stereotypes and say that I am a big fan of science and technology.  Issues such as Evolution and the Big Bang do not disturb my faith.  I feel no overcoming urge to refute scientific claims because I have not the knowledge or understanding to debate with highly trained physicists.

My faith expresses the beauty of a creative God carefully and deliberately fashioning a habitable world full of diversity and life.  If God decided to developed life through slow evolving creatures that is his prerogative.  It is simply beyond my scope to suggest the validity of theories of Big Bangs and Evolving Apes, they may be correct, they may not be. 

Scripture, though intimidating to many, is relatively brief when considering its subject.  The Christian Bible does not have the luxury to detail every nuance of creation and existence.  In fact, John even admits that not everything about the short life of Jesus could be accounted for because the world is not spacious enough to hold the volumes it would produce (John 21:25).  If scripture is too brief to account for the entire life of the Savior, how could we reason that it holds all mysteries of heaven and earth?

I believe that there is much to be revealed about the amazing planet given to us.  What we do with the discoveries is what is important.  If Science is used to better care for humanity and the world I believe every Christian and non-Christian should celebrate.  However, if our advancement in science and technology is used to strip men and women of jobs, produce unfathomable and consequential pollution, if the earth is raped of its resources and beauty, and money becomes the pursuing ambition of our research, then the prophets of God ought to speak again unjust practices.  While science has brought comfort and efficiency, too often it has brought great consequences.  The atomic bomb is a great example of scientific advancement but at too great of a cost, one that too few Christians spoke out against in its debut during World War II.

Science has also been guilty of misusing their expertise and betraying the very field they represent by concluding god could not exist.  Science does not have the ability to affirm or deny the existence of everything in existence.  The scientific process relies on materials that can be measured, weighed, seen, or heard.  Yet humanity overwhelming believes in love, a reality that cannot be succumbed to scientific research.  Though brain patterns can be measured and tested, love and its practices will always be an unproven theory.  I find it amazing that Scripture testifies that "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

I celebrate the fact that we live in a world that can be discovered and revealed through the power of science.  I also celebrate the reality that there is more to life than what mere humanity can capture, hold, and analyze.  Love, forgiveness, loyalty, compassion are all beyond quantifying.  Science has revealed many mysteries and complexities of our existence.  I think it is disingenuous for anyone in the scientific or religious field to assume all is revealed and understood in the ever expanding universe we live in.  There is so much we have come to know, but think of the so much more that is unknown.  I see God in the known and unknown, I see God in power of love and forgiveness, and I see God transforming lives in miraculous ways.  Some say it is psychology, others insanity, but for me and millions of others it is truth that defines truth itself (John 14:6).

So let us as followers of Christ not be intimidated by the findings of science, and let science not be intimidated at the prospect of something greater than their methods exists.  Let us use our skills and wisdom to advance the world in things of love, compassion, health, and forgiveness.  Let us put aside our pride and remember nothing we have made or invented has come without the resources given to us.  Let us not be surprised about the statistical prospect of something greater than us exists, and let us rejoice that the greater thing loves us and desire to be known.

Stop Hating Leaders and Become One: The First Health Care Mandate

Say whatever you like about the constitutionality of the health care law, it will not solve all the problems as some hope, and it will not be the fiery apocalyptic end of civilization as others tend to argue.  My concern is how did we even get here in the first place?  How does any "modern developing" society that believes in evolving intellects and advancement find itself in a place that must cajole people to move.

We idly sit by criticizing our leaderships every move demanding them to make changes that allow for better jobs, better pay, affordable healthcare, and equal access to education and opportunities.  The majority sees the world as an incomplete place and we point figures at past leaders, opposing political parties and contentious markets for our problems.  When did we adopt the belief that real change must trickle down from the top?

What if the only way to provide better jobs, equal opportunities and health care was through small local changes?  The early church had it right.  The church had the message of Jesus Christ upon the cross, the message of forgiveness and hope, the message of eternal life.  The early church also believed that they were called by their messiah to advance his kingdom here on earth.  The advancement of Christ's kingdom does not come with holy wars, forced conversion, or a Christian nation-state, but through caring for the poor, widow, and orphan.

The early church quickly attracted a following because of their encompassing way of community.  No one had shortage of food in the church because they all shared their meals together.  The rich with the poor sat down side by side, brother next to brother, sister next to sister as equals and ate the same meal.  If someone was out of a job due to famine, cutbacks, or being blacklisted because of their faith, the church carried the family through and helped them find a job.  If someone was injured and could not work, the church would not only carry the family through the difficult time by taking care of food and shelter, they also provided physical care or the injured.  If famine destroyed your farm, your house burnt down, a plague ran through your town, there were no sick days there was no insurance, there was no equal cheap access to health care, the church was formed together to take care of every need.  The only mandate was to love at all tiems with everything (literally everything) you had.

This kind of community extremely attracted the poor, but it quickly grew so that even the wealthy could not ignore the power of the movement.  The power and provision was always driven by Christ as their Lord and savior, but as the church grew in size and influence they began to focus less on local communities to address problems.  The Churches started becoming regional, then national, and then global.  The church formed a hierarchy that imitated the powerful nation-states, with a Pope at the top, cardinals as governors, bishops as local magistrates, and priests as alderman.  The church became an ineffective government.

The early church understood the importance of influence not through money, or power, but through joining together, eating, praying, living together and providing for needs.  The church did not try to fix the world, it tried to care for those within her reach, and this enacted a chain reaction.

If we want change we cannot hand it over to leaders governing from the top of the world.  Change begins by reassessing our values, reaching out and joining with our neighbors, and committing to care for those within our reach.  Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to change themselves.  Everybody wants to save the world, but nobody wants to save their neighbor.  A smaller focus means a bigger change.

It is time we focused on doing the right things, like making sure we are paying our neighbors livable wages, not because someone makes us but because it is right.  We need to make sure our neighbors are getting enough food to eat instead of handing them a form for food stamps.  We need to join together and help find shelter for those struck with tragedy, and not wait for the government to do it.  It is time we do the right thing for our neighbors without passing it off to anyone else.  The kingdom of God is coming, and Christ with it, and we will be judge on his mercy, and how we care for each other, if we rely on some other force to care for our neighbor why we turn our back, we may miss out.

When Progress becomes regress

When progress becomes regress

And cities are set on fire

The rage of the people will burn bright

Tottering ideals expire.

Tyrants feed, dictators greed

Who can lead the wild flame?

When the earth begins to turns backwards

All the unknown need a name.

Mass killers only hinders

More than generals can command.

The devil wages the fiercest war

For much more than our mere land.

When what's torn part is our heart

And we cannot find our soul.

More is needed than our human pride

A mender to make us whole.

Ideals burn placed in the urn

And everything is in soot

We refuse to build it back again

We will shake it from our foot.

A new place with a new grace

Unlike all others before

What was started from the beginning

God will finally restore.