AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW PRINCIPLE BISHOP OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA

My congratulations and best wishes go to Elizabeth Eaton on her election. I truly hope that you're the moderate that you are characterized as being in the press. I especially hope that this quote from your press conference is accurate: "we really have to free ourselves of the siren song of a popular culture that doesn’t understand where true joy and freedom can be found." I fully agree with that statement. The "I don't want to offend anyone" attitude of the modern "Progressive" society would mute the teachings of the Church.

My conviction is that we must learn to Hate Sin while Loving the Sinner, a most daunting but necessary task.Your charge  is to find a way to Preach the Word, including God's commandments, without needlessly offending anyone, and yet inspire them to follow Christ. Granted, this is a nearly impossible task. You will have to develop a thin skin and become even more resolute in executing your authority as the voice of the ELCA in the world.

Your interview with TIME MAGAZINE was very interesting. I realize that you were trying to be honest but your response on the question of spiritualism was disquieting to me. I agree that spiritual people are not necessarily religious people, but that struck me as an unnecessary statement to make.  In my opinion, this is where the impartial religious scholar and the true seekers for God part company. You come from an academic background and a milieu of agnostic and atheistic scholars and I believe that showed up in your response and apparently you regard  this as a weak point in you religious self as well. I would suggest that you make this a very public struggle so that all of us in your fold can benefit from your insights and progress.

Your predecessor presided over a nasty schism in our ELCA synod. Although I personally supported the resolution on Sexuality, I know that many did not. I hope that we have all learned a lesson from this. Communication is sooooo important, and apparently not enough convincing communication was done. The issue is still rancorous  in the wider Lutheran Community and the ELCA should lead on this issue rather than sit back and lick its wounds. In my opinion, the ELCA leaders and theologians need to be more aggressive in their teaching of the wider flock. They need to address what they think is Scriptural (God's Word for us) and what is Secular ( the common Societal Mores and Norms of the Biblical times) in the Bible. In my opinion, this is where the problem lies. Is every word of the Bible to be taken as literal truth? My Bethel Bible series experience has convinced me of the answer to this question but many of my fellow parishioners are more conservative (Greek thinkers) in their interpretation of scriptures. We need strong leadership on this subject IMHO.

Again Congratulations and Best Wishes

Philip W. Johnson
Augustana class of 1960

GEODOODLES SMT-Kingdom Interpretation for Neo Geos: How to use Faust to do Time-to-Depth Conversion

GEODOODLES SMT-Kingdom Interpretation for Neo Geos: How to use Faust to do Time-to-Depth Conversion

How The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) will affect peoples lives

Our Nation is divided into many ethnic/economic/geographic groups. ACA will affect all of us but was specifically designed to address some groups but not all. The long term welfare poor were the main focus of ACA with undocumented workers as a second strong focus. Medium term employed moderate income workers were targeted to pay for ACA either willingly or through expensive fines for non compliance. Long term high income employed workers were singled out for "income redistribution" by taxing their employer health plans (Cadillac health plans),

Here is how I predict these various groups will actually experience ACA:

The long term welfare poor will not readily sign up for a plan and welfare workers will have to go out and work them through the process. They will soon stop paying their monthly health care payments leaving the plans in the red. They will not go to their primary care physicians for preventive medicine and will continue their current practice of going to the emergency room when they are sick or injured.

Undocumented workers and their families will have to be tracked down by social workers to get them enrolled because they are afraid of ICE and deportation. They too will continue their current practice of using the emergency room and will not continue to make payments on their ACA health insurance

The medium term moderate income employed will grudgingly sign up and pay for a while but will eventually drop payments on their ACA health insurance. They will not got to their primary care professional for preventive medicine and will use the emergency room when medical care is needed,

Long term employed high income folk will pay most of the costs of ACA through vastly increased costs of their health plans and through additional taxes. They will also see increased denial of services and increased cost sharing with medicare.

It doesn't look good economically nor medically and, as usual, retired people on fixed income are the big losers.

How does a Religious Radical become Dangerously Extreme?

Both Christianity and Islam have dangerous radical elements. Buddhism, though not technically a religion, has a few radicals as well (remember the self immolation by Monks during the Vietnam War and the war with China over Tibet). It seems to me that religious people are all supposed to be peaceful. Sure, the Bible and the Koran have violent passages and even urge their reader to enact violence on the "infidels or non believer or wrong believers". Catholics have fought wars with Protestants (I mean real wars with armies lead by Kings and Emporers). The people of Islam have fought wars between different factions such as Shiite vs Suni. Yes, the war between Iraq and Iran that preceded the first Gulf War was sectarian and the final battle was the largest tank battle since WWII. The majority of the casualties in the second Iraq war were due to sectarian violence in the form of car and truck bombs rather than American guns.  The killing by American Christian radicals has been by bombs for the most part. The deliberate assault near Waco, TX that ended up burning men women and children in a Christian separatist sect in their compound was a terrible thing and a black mark on the reputation of Federal agents who "cowboyed" the operation when it could have easily been peacefully ended with the capture of the leader on one of his many trips to town for supplies. Oklahoma city was a revenge killing intended to kill as many federal workers as possible.

How do the architects of such heinous crimes justify their actions to themselves? I believe that it begins with a typical young "believer" who is following in parents foot steps and not really sure what he believes but goes through the motions to be socially acceptable. As time progresses and learning begins, either wisdom or zealotry  begin to take over. The wise believer holds fast to his common sense and humanity while the zealot begins to focus on specific passages that demand action and obedience. The zealot may have too much humanity to go over the edge into radicalism, but if he does not then we have the makings of a pro-active radical extremist. In times past, contact with others of a similar ilk was less likely than it is today with the internet and social media. Once radicalized, a zealot also has a vast library of stimulating oratory to urge him on and  many technical manual to teach him how to act out his fury in a violent way. 

True Believers who are Humanly Wise must rise up to oppose these dangerous men. Neither Islam nor Christianity want their bitter wine. We must speak out against violence and bigotry while we still can.

The Face of the Islamic Jihadist

Those in the media and the past several administrations have been kidding themselves about what sort of person might be a dangerous Jihadist/suicide bomber. We seem to want them to be wild eyed and obviously crazy from a poor country and a poor family with a poor upbringing. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Look at the two Boston bombers. They were both highly educated and came from highly educated and fairly well todoo families. The 911 Jihadists were similarly well educated and from educated families of the middle class. It seems to me that the driving force among these people is radical religious beliefs taught to them in mosques both real and  virtual (online). They willingly gave their lives to destroy as many infidels as possible. What is worst is that they were essentially all educated in America under our very noses. I have noted that our colleges and universities have welcomed students from Islamic countries mainly because their countries are paying a premium to get their young men educated here and the colleges and universities are raking in the dough. I especially noted this when I lived in Tulsa in the middle 1970's and the Iranian's were being taught to fly by the dozens at a local flying school which I thought was not a good idea politically. My wife was getting an advanced degree at OSU and when the Iyatolla Khomeni overthrew the Shah and began the terrible Islamic dictatorship in Iran, the Iranian students were all swooning with joy. It is obvious that these students were a threat to America all those years ago. It is time to take off the rose colored glasses.

WHY COLLEGES COST TOO MUCH

-->WHY COLLEGES COST TOO MUCH (1)

Vaden Burns Hargis was named President of Oklahoma State University in Dec 2007 taking office March 10, 2008. His compensation was set at $350,000 annually plus a $20,000 annual car allowance  and rumored memberships in two exclusive country clubs with golf courses.

In Sept 2008 Hargis was named to the Board of Chesapeake Energy Co. His compensation in 2011 was $565,465 and he owned 56,441 shares of Chesapeake stock.

In their 2012 Stockholders meeting, Hargis received only 26% of the votes in favor of his retention on the board. This was the lowest total vote ever received by a sitting Board Member of a Fortune 500 Company. What makes this so egregious is that Mr. Hargis is trained as an accountant and a Lawyer and a major part of his duties as a board member was oversight the financial operations of the executive leadership.  The very things that Aubrey McClendon is being investigated for are clearly in Mr. Hargis arena of expertise. The stockholders smelled a rat.

QUESTION:

Since Vaden Burns Hargis was a full time employee of the State of Oklahoma, by whose authority did he accept a part time job on Chesapeake’s Board? When I worked for a major oil company I was considered to be a professional and therefore not hourly. This meant that I was not available to work in my “off” hours for another company and indeed was forbidden to do so. How does President Hargis pull this off.

ANALYSIS:

This is a great example of “good-ole-boy” politics at work. I doubt that Oklahoma State benefited much from Mr. Hargis’ expertise. He was a figure head and an expensive one. The tuition increases under him have been painful and I doubt he spent any sleepless nights trying to avoid them.  This is a “TIP OF THE ICEBERG” story and is only one of the many reasons that college tuition has become ridiculously expensive

The Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives

 The Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives

These comments are based on my own readings and observations of people over the length of my 74 years. Contrary to most Political discussions of this subject, I divide the spectrum into 4 quadrants: Liberals, Liberal Libertarians, Conservatives, and Conservative Libertarians. I would add to this the “Independents” who are a hodgepodge of disinterested non voters and voters, and people who have a bone to pick with both parties.

Liberal Libertarians

This group of people contain many sub groups but are predominantly people who don't believe that laws pertain to them. This is very common among youth who advocate media piracy and drug freedom. Some Unions fall in this category as well as they advocate freedoms and rights for their members that are not available to the general public, This is best demonstrated by public employee Unions Cadillac health and retirement plans that are much richer than those available to the working man. Our Congress and Executive and Judicial branches are the worst example of rich rewards at tax payer expense. We are all created equal but some are more equal than others. The rights of the masses (common good) trump the rights of the individual. Liberal Libertarians are spiritually similar to the bomb throwing anarchists of Europe and the revolutionaries who took over right after the French revolution. Remember Sarajevo?  Remember the Haymarket bomb thrown at a labor rally in Chicago May 4, 1886 that killed 7 policemen? Remember the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)? Remeber that the Maoist SLA assassinated the Superintendent of Schools in Oakland, shot and wounded several people, kidnapped Patty Hearst, and ended in a huge shoot out in LA in which several were killed by gunfire and fire.

Liberals

Liberals are feeling people who make decisions with their heart. Most are agnostic or downright atheists but have co-opted the Judeo-Christian ethic as their world view. This is ironic since almost all of them are Darwinians who frown on unbelievers without understanding that the Darwinian Theory of Evolution is founded on the idea of Survival of the Fittest (most well adapted to the current environment}. Darwinians make a huge effort to cover this up but it is to no avail, we all know that the strong eat the weak. Therefore, Liberals, are in a constant war with Natural Selection and expend huge amounts other peoples money to try to save the poor from their plight. This usually means food and medicine aid which leads to rapid multiplication of the poor and an even worse problem. General George Marshall was a Liberal and he spent what would now be several trillion dollars of our money rehabilitating the European economy after WWII (even the Communist countries). His goal was to create a group of friendly neighbors who would forever be beholden to us. We all know how that turned out. To fund their grandiose Social Programs, Liberals have subscribed to Keynsian Economic Theory which advocates printing money backed by Treasury Bonds. This scurrilous technique forces the economy to grow by deflating the dollar thus wiping out the retirement of the elderly on fixed income. Liberal are spiritually similar to Eastern Europeans in their world view.

                                                   Independents

Independents are interesting because there is no "Independent" Party and therefore they don't get any say in who will be either parties candidate. This means that most of the election is settled without their input. Independents are often split ticket voters and single issue voters. They also tend to have grudges against both parties for things that happened long ago. The two houses of our Government rarely have members who were elected as independents and even they caucus with one party or  the other. Many Independent voters feel that they are somehow "balancing" the scales between the Liberals and Conservatives. In truth, they are just shrinking from the political fight.

Conservatives

The core of the conservative group are the owners of small businesses who are constantly at war with Government over taxes, fees, and regulations. The next largest group are the religious conservatives who see the Government as an opponent and a hinderance. Conservatives feel that they are the ones who have to pay for the grand schemes of the Liberals and they resent it. Conservatives believe that Social Progrrams must have a SUSTAINABLE financial basis and that Governments should live within their means rather than borrowing printed money. These people are spiritually similar to our founding fathers and pioneer fore fathers.

Conservative Libertarians

Conservative Libertarians are a varied group. They include neo-Nazi's and White Supremecists but there are also business men and bankers and stock brokers who chafe at Government interference in their lives. Spiritually they are similar to some of our cherished heroes, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and the Mountain Men of yesteryear who lived lives of exploration and discovery. They were not fit to live in a modern metropolis. Whereas Liberals do not generally believe in private ownership of property, these Conservative Libertarians are grasping for it. Their view of Government is that it should be as small as possible and cost little. Private rights trump the rights of the masses.