Of the more than 11 million people who are suffering from severe drought in East Africa, over 1 million are very likely to die of starvation/dehydration in the next few weeks unless food and water reach them soon. Can you imagine the despair these desperate and afflicted people must feel?
We can decry this and go on with our lives as usual, or we can at least try to help alleviate suffering by contributing to a humanitarian effort for relief.
I have, like most decent people, been sorry for the suffering of the betrodden people of the world but self-justified my inactivity toward their relief by saying that my money contribution would probably go down-the-drain in corruption or be taken by thieves. One way or another relief would be diverted. Oh well.
I have come to believe that that is an unacceptable attitude. Do we not sing, “Because I have been given much, I too must give…?” We have and we must.
Even if the probability of graft continues to exist, my wife and I feel we must make a contribution and do it now. In addition to our usual monthly contribution to my Church for humanitarian assistance for worldwide need, we feel that further assistance now is an imperative.
The history of our Church reads that when Latter-day prophet Joseph Smith learned of a neighbor black man’s misfortune (I think the man’s house burned down) the prophet said, “I feel sorry for brother ______’s hardship to the extent of the $5 gold piece I have in my pocket. How sorry do you feel?”
Well, how sorry do we feel?
Contributions can go to the United Nations World Food fund or UNICEF, International Rescue, Catholic Relief Services, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints humanitarian effort, or other reputable agencies.
Do I feel that a massive aid response will resolve the Somalian drought or perpetual political instability or root causes of their poverty? No. But it will help some of the innocents live and it will show our maker that we appreciate our many blessings and are willing to share them with our less fortunate brothers and sisters who are in their extremity. Wouldn’t we want someone who had the means to come to our aid if we were in the same situation? You bet we would.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
My Line in the Sand
Every person must at some point draw the line or define what is beyond the pale. I hereby draw my line in this essay.
California governor Jerry Brown and his liberal Democrat legislature recently passed a bill to require that “contributions” of avowed homosexuals be taught in our public schools. It is not that people of every moral and ethical and religious or irreligious persuasion, every race, both sexes, and every nationality have not made contributions to the good of mankind, but it is that the blatant promotion by proponents of a militantly deviant lifestyle should get the protection of law that goes beyond the pale.
If a nation hopes to be great it has got to be good. The standard of what is good for mankind, and good for me, is what is natural or goodly (Godlike if you will) and is congruent with nature. It is not what is deviant or deviates, intentionally, from the nature of how God designed things to operate. The ‘Green’ movement goes to great lengths to protect and promote the ‘natural’ in our physical environment; but besides the physical environment, there is a social environment, a political environment, and an educational environment that needs protection—at least as much protection as our physical environment.
It is incumbent for me to, as contrasted to Governor Brown and his Lieutenant Governor, stand up for the moral ‘movement’ and public behavior that is at least decent, and live up to our country’s foundational underpinnings of being one nation under God’s watchful care.
In enthroning the value of ‘tolerance’ we have devalued the virtue of goodness. Some have tried to make the aberrant appear to be the normal. Well, it is not the norm, or normal. In the minds of children it adds to the confusion of a life-stage that is already confused by the disintegration of marriage, of the behavior of our public figures, by the distortions of pornography, by the violence perpetrated by the fanatical extremes of a religion that most in our nation do not belong.
I thought the low point of our political history was the debacle of United States President William J. Clinton despicably disgracing his office and his smiling, lying way of getting out of his publically-exposed weakness. Of course our womanizing congressmen as well as characters such as International Monetary Fund president Dominique Strauss-Kahn have disgraced theirs, but their public prominence does not legitimatize their unacceptable behavior. It is not so much their personal moral weakness and lack of self-control, but their strident denials and self-justification that galls me.
As for me,
I cannot say it is sunny when it is dark outside.
I cannot call black white.
I cannot rewrite the English language to call ‘gay,’ a word that was previously defined as good, happy, and cheerful, as anything other than what Holy scripture calls an ‘abomination.’
I cannot tolerate what is intolerable.
It seems we are asked or required now by force of law to tolerate what generations deemed the intolerable. But I ask, would we tolerate a surgeon who didn’t wash his/her hands before surgery? Would we tolerate by re-electing a dishonest sheriff or judge or retaining a police officer ‘on the take?’ Would we tolerate a cigarette-smoking seat-mate on an airliner who intentionally blows smoke in our face or who starts telling dirty jokes to our children?
I was reading a computer softwear license agreement [from Memeo, Seagate Dashboard] the other day and it had this language in it: “Content that is harmful, abusive, violent, racially or ethnically offensive, lewd, vulgar, defamatory, [or] unreasonably offends …others or otherwise in a reasonable person’s view [finds] objectionable [is not permitted to be placed on this product.] Memeo reserves the right to make the final determination about whether content is objectionable or not.” Should not the public, in their schools, be able to make a similar determination for their children? Should we not as citizens make the same sane “final determination” as to whether our public officials’ conduct is objectionable and therefore unacceptable?
In our public schools we don’t need homosexual ‘history’ or ‘contributions’ any more than we need Black history, or women’s history, or Hispanic history, or Mormon history. If the person or group reported on has a significant historical involvement which is related in a material way to a discovery or an event to their uniqueness, fine. Otherwise their personal proclivities should not be mentioned.
If, to take a hypothetical example, let us say Mr. Levi Goldstein invents a perpetual motion machine. That is a significant historical fact and the subject should be explored. That he is a Jew, votes Democratic, belongs to the B’nai B’rith, drives a Jaguar, and is homosexual is irrelevant and need not be taught. Likewise every Christian or atheist who does anything noteworthy does not need his/her religion or political affiliation or what he/she does in the privacy of their own home brought up. It satisfies nothing but prurient interest.
The military ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy, now retracted, seems to me to have been a reasonable approach to the reality of having homosexual individuals serving in our armed forces. The same approach could be used in our public employment: Hiring officers would not (and do not) ask about sexual preferences and by the same token those hired would not promote their agenda once on the payroll. Neither should the ‘gay rights’ agenda be promoted by our children’s textbooks or mandated curriculum. The policy should cut both ways.
As a former California public school teacher I would not teach the ‘acceptability’ of this now-mandated agenda to my students; I would quit instead. In like manner, I would not now send my children to a California public school; I would move to another state, find an acceptable Christian school or have them home-schooled by myself and my wife.
So, to reiterate, I deplore the homosexual political agenda that is, in effect, trying to get the dictionary rewritten by dignifying what should be the private behavior of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community with the time-honored words ‘marriage’ and ‘family’ and by trying to get the protection of law to promote their aberrant viewpoint. Our system, traditionally, does not and should not protect, and most certainly should not promote, everything it tolerates.
A few years ago Robert Bork, supreme court nominee, declared that our states’ movement toward same-gender marriage “would ratify in the most profound way, the anarchical spirit of extreme personal…autonomy that is the driving force behind much of our [current] cultural degradation” (Bork, Robert H. “The Necessary Amendment.” First things, Aug./Sept. 2004, 17).
Finally, has the world already forgotten the etiology of what this type of aberrant behavior, this abandonment of moral scruples since the 1970’s, has brought to the planet with the AIDS epidemic? If you don’t remember, it has brought about the virtual destruction of a continent’s people (Africa). I fear, as did Abraham Lincoln, the abandonment of Almighty God of this nation of the protection and preservation of His bounteous blessings should we continue down this path.
California governor Jerry Brown and his liberal Democrat legislature recently passed a bill to require that “contributions” of avowed homosexuals be taught in our public schools. It is not that people of every moral and ethical and religious or irreligious persuasion, every race, both sexes, and every nationality have not made contributions to the good of mankind, but it is that the blatant promotion by proponents of a militantly deviant lifestyle should get the protection of law that goes beyond the pale.
If a nation hopes to be great it has got to be good. The standard of what is good for mankind, and good for me, is what is natural or goodly (Godlike if you will) and is congruent with nature. It is not what is deviant or deviates, intentionally, from the nature of how God designed things to operate. The ‘Green’ movement goes to great lengths to protect and promote the ‘natural’ in our physical environment; but besides the physical environment, there is a social environment, a political environment, and an educational environment that needs protection—at least as much protection as our physical environment.
It is incumbent for me to, as contrasted to Governor Brown and his Lieutenant Governor, stand up for the moral ‘movement’ and public behavior that is at least decent, and live up to our country’s foundational underpinnings of being one nation under God’s watchful care.
In enthroning the value of ‘tolerance’ we have devalued the virtue of goodness. Some have tried to make the aberrant appear to be the normal. Well, it is not the norm, or normal. In the minds of children it adds to the confusion of a life-stage that is already confused by the disintegration of marriage, of the behavior of our public figures, by the distortions of pornography, by the violence perpetrated by the fanatical extremes of a religion that most in our nation do not belong.
I thought the low point of our political history was the debacle of United States President William J. Clinton despicably disgracing his office and his smiling, lying way of getting out of his publically-exposed weakness. Of course our womanizing congressmen as well as characters such as International Monetary Fund president Dominique Strauss-Kahn have disgraced theirs, but their public prominence does not legitimatize their unacceptable behavior. It is not so much their personal moral weakness and lack of self-control, but their strident denials and self-justification that galls me.
As for me,
I cannot say it is sunny when it is dark outside.
I cannot call black white.
I cannot rewrite the English language to call ‘gay,’ a word that was previously defined as good, happy, and cheerful, as anything other than what Holy scripture calls an ‘abomination.’
I cannot tolerate what is intolerable.
It seems we are asked or required now by force of law to tolerate what generations deemed the intolerable. But I ask, would we tolerate a surgeon who didn’t wash his/her hands before surgery? Would we tolerate by re-electing a dishonest sheriff or judge or retaining a police officer ‘on the take?’ Would we tolerate a cigarette-smoking seat-mate on an airliner who intentionally blows smoke in our face or who starts telling dirty jokes to our children?
I was reading a computer softwear license agreement [from Memeo, Seagate Dashboard] the other day and it had this language in it: “Content that is harmful, abusive, violent, racially or ethnically offensive, lewd, vulgar, defamatory, [or] unreasonably offends …others or otherwise in a reasonable person’s view [finds] objectionable [is not permitted to be placed on this product.] Memeo reserves the right to make the final determination about whether content is objectionable or not.” Should not the public, in their schools, be able to make a similar determination for their children? Should we not as citizens make the same sane “final determination” as to whether our public officials’ conduct is objectionable and therefore unacceptable?
In our public schools we don’t need homosexual ‘history’ or ‘contributions’ any more than we need Black history, or women’s history, or Hispanic history, or Mormon history. If the person or group reported on has a significant historical involvement which is related in a material way to a discovery or an event to their uniqueness, fine. Otherwise their personal proclivities should not be mentioned.
If, to take a hypothetical example, let us say Mr. Levi Goldstein invents a perpetual motion machine. That is a significant historical fact and the subject should be explored. That he is a Jew, votes Democratic, belongs to the B’nai B’rith, drives a Jaguar, and is homosexual is irrelevant and need not be taught. Likewise every Christian or atheist who does anything noteworthy does not need his/her religion or political affiliation or what he/she does in the privacy of their own home brought up. It satisfies nothing but prurient interest.
The military ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy, now retracted, seems to me to have been a reasonable approach to the reality of having homosexual individuals serving in our armed forces. The same approach could be used in our public employment: Hiring officers would not (and do not) ask about sexual preferences and by the same token those hired would not promote their agenda once on the payroll. Neither should the ‘gay rights’ agenda be promoted by our children’s textbooks or mandated curriculum. The policy should cut both ways.
As a former California public school teacher I would not teach the ‘acceptability’ of this now-mandated agenda to my students; I would quit instead. In like manner, I would not now send my children to a California public school; I would move to another state, find an acceptable Christian school or have them home-schooled by myself and my wife.
So, to reiterate, I deplore the homosexual political agenda that is, in effect, trying to get the dictionary rewritten by dignifying what should be the private behavior of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community with the time-honored words ‘marriage’ and ‘family’ and by trying to get the protection of law to promote their aberrant viewpoint. Our system, traditionally, does not and should not protect, and most certainly should not promote, everything it tolerates.
A few years ago Robert Bork, supreme court nominee, declared that our states’ movement toward same-gender marriage “would ratify in the most profound way, the anarchical spirit of extreme personal…autonomy that is the driving force behind much of our [current] cultural degradation” (Bork, Robert H. “The Necessary Amendment.” First things, Aug./Sept. 2004, 17).
Finally, has the world already forgotten the etiology of what this type of aberrant behavior, this abandonment of moral scruples since the 1970’s, has brought to the planet with the AIDS epidemic? If you don’t remember, it has brought about the virtual destruction of a continent’s people (Africa). I fear, as did Abraham Lincoln, the abandonment of Almighty God of this nation of the protection and preservation of His bounteous blessings should we continue down this path.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Of Maps and Viewpoints
A few years ago as my wife and I were returning on a flight from the Eastern seaboard I had a window seat and studied a slice of America from 30,000 feet. It was a clear day and I had several hours of fascinating observation and reflection. The look of the land seemed much different than the sterile maps I often pore over.
Many different kinds of maps can accurately represent any given area, each, though, in its own limited way. There are maps that show elevations; others, highways; still others, geological formations. Plant types, population characteristics, and political boundaries can likewise be represented on maps and yet I could not see them on the geo-physical picture of ‘reality’ I was ‘seeing’. No map (or photograph, for that matter) can show everything about the area it represents, any more than what I could see outside my airplane window would reveal it to me from my perspective.
In order to be intelligible or definitive, a map must drastically simplify things; it must leave out all but what it means to represent. Consider a few examples: Eskimos, I have read, are able to discriminate nine kinds of snow. Characteristics of snow are important to them. To me, snow is snow. Koreans or Chinese, or most other ethnic peoples of the world make sense of spoken sounds that are meaningless to me but are very understandable to them. Meteorologists can see a storm coming when certain kinds of clouds are far away on the horizon or even beyond the horizon, but most people can see only the clouds. What Eskimos, Koreans and Chinese, and meteorologists thus clearly perceive as significant is, in a sense, invisible to others.
A cartographer in making a map wants to accomplish a certain purpose with his map: he includes in it everything that will promote or define this purpose and exclude everything that’s irrelevant to his purposes.
As our airliner flew over the vastness of America I felt I was seeing a synthesis between a land, which scriptures from my Church call “choice above all other lands,” (mountains and plains, forests, rivers and lakes and natural resources) and what man had made of it (farms, roads, cities, smoke—economic and recreational opportunities).
For a person with one preconception of potential (a land of freedom and security, “choice above all other lands”—a scriptural definition) I looked at it one way; and for another passenger flying on this same airplane with a different preconception of potential it could be regarded quite differently (one giant pool of resources to exploit for gain). But instead of being two dichotomous ‘pictures’ of reality viewed through different portholes, or an antagonism or tension between two potentials, could not what was being observed better be considered simply two different ‘viewpoints’ based on different values?
A similar statement can be made about any person’s system of knowledge or world view. It is like a map in that it is selective; that is, only certain things are represented on it while others are left out—by design or by ignorance. It represents and reveals those things that are familiar to the person’s background, interests, desires and goals.
Some of the inclusions on a person’s individual ‘map’ or outlook are those typical of his family and society as he grows up under the influence of parents, teachers, and peers, as he learns their language, history and customs. Thus he tends to adopt their ways of seeing the world as his own. He becomes ethnocentric. But in addition to this social factor, education also plays an important part in the development of the person’s ‘map’ of reality. So powerful is this individual factor that two people having different desires and attitudes and education can grow up in the same environment and yet have strikingly different ‘maps’ based on the breadth of their understanding and thus arrive at different destinations. So, maps are important.
What makes the difference, then, between peoples’ governing or driving outlook on life—or their ultimate destination? It is, in large part, what they have been exposed to, what they focus on, and what they value—and the accuracy and completeness of their set of maps.
It makes sense to me to try to accumulate many types of maps to help us sensibly negotiate life’s landscape. A single distorted, incomplete, or inaccurate map will not do.
Many different kinds of maps can accurately represent any given area, each, though, in its own limited way. There are maps that show elevations; others, highways; still others, geological formations. Plant types, population characteristics, and political boundaries can likewise be represented on maps and yet I could not see them on the geo-physical picture of ‘reality’ I was ‘seeing’. No map (or photograph, for that matter) can show everything about the area it represents, any more than what I could see outside my airplane window would reveal it to me from my perspective.
In order to be intelligible or definitive, a map must drastically simplify things; it must leave out all but what it means to represent. Consider a few examples: Eskimos, I have read, are able to discriminate nine kinds of snow. Characteristics of snow are important to them. To me, snow is snow. Koreans or Chinese, or most other ethnic peoples of the world make sense of spoken sounds that are meaningless to me but are very understandable to them. Meteorologists can see a storm coming when certain kinds of clouds are far away on the horizon or even beyond the horizon, but most people can see only the clouds. What Eskimos, Koreans and Chinese, and meteorologists thus clearly perceive as significant is, in a sense, invisible to others.
A cartographer in making a map wants to accomplish a certain purpose with his map: he includes in it everything that will promote or define this purpose and exclude everything that’s irrelevant to his purposes.
As our airliner flew over the vastness of America I felt I was seeing a synthesis between a land, which scriptures from my Church call “choice above all other lands,” (mountains and plains, forests, rivers and lakes and natural resources) and what man had made of it (farms, roads, cities, smoke—economic and recreational opportunities).
For a person with one preconception of potential (a land of freedom and security, “choice above all other lands”—a scriptural definition) I looked at it one way; and for another passenger flying on this same airplane with a different preconception of potential it could be regarded quite differently (one giant pool of resources to exploit for gain). But instead of being two dichotomous ‘pictures’ of reality viewed through different portholes, or an antagonism or tension between two potentials, could not what was being observed better be considered simply two different ‘viewpoints’ based on different values?
A similar statement can be made about any person’s system of knowledge or world view. It is like a map in that it is selective; that is, only certain things are represented on it while others are left out—by design or by ignorance. It represents and reveals those things that are familiar to the person’s background, interests, desires and goals.
Some of the inclusions on a person’s individual ‘map’ or outlook are those typical of his family and society as he grows up under the influence of parents, teachers, and peers, as he learns their language, history and customs. Thus he tends to adopt their ways of seeing the world as his own. He becomes ethnocentric. But in addition to this social factor, education also plays an important part in the development of the person’s ‘map’ of reality. So powerful is this individual factor that two people having different desires and attitudes and education can grow up in the same environment and yet have strikingly different ‘maps’ based on the breadth of their understanding and thus arrive at different destinations. So, maps are important.
What makes the difference, then, between peoples’ governing or driving outlook on life—or their ultimate destination? It is, in large part, what they have been exposed to, what they focus on, and what they value—and the accuracy and completeness of their set of maps.
It makes sense to me to try to accumulate many types of maps to help us sensibly negotiate life’s landscape. A single distorted, incomplete, or inaccurate map will not do.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Artificial Hazards
As I watched the British Open golf tournament on television this morning at the Royal St. George’s golf links (Saturday, 16 July) it was apparent that the players were having fits with the pot bunkers (sand traps) that were capturing their golf balls. These artificial hazards had vertical man-made sides made of what appeared to be railroad ties. If a ball landed too close to the sides of the bunker it required the hapless golfer to hit out sideward or even backward to escape. I’m a golfer but didn’t like the course they played this year because the hazards are not natural and are not a fair test of golf.
There are times when an artificial hazard has its place, but it is not in golf and it is not with people.
We’ve got rats this year that are infesting the county in which we live. The only way people seem to be rid of them is to put some artificial hazards in their way—rat traps. You can’t talk a rat out of doing his destruction; you need a trap or poison.
I have wondered about artificial hazards we encounter in our daily walk—that someone has put in our way. I am afraid that we are sometimes naïve to think that the only thing that impedes or curtails our happiness or progress is bad luck, economic ‘conditions,’ or poor judgments on the parts of others. Not so. In addition to our own failings we must understand that there are ‘evil and designing men’ who intentionally put artificial hazards in our path to further their desires for power and gain—at our expense.
Over fifty years ago author Vance Packard wrote a book, The Hidden Persuaders, which revealed the tactics used by industry and merchandising and advertisers to hook us into purchasing their products. Many of these inducements were not just a waste of money, but sometimes became downright deleterious to our health, happiness, and progress. So it is now.
Countless people are addicted to substances and behaviors that are killing them materially, physically, and spiritually. These things look so attractive but prove so fatal. The entire sport-fishing industry, and fishing strategy, is built on this premise: present a lure that looks desirable and enticing but that is fatal to the fish. Remember that only dead, or soon-to-be dead fish go with the flow; the strong and living fish face upstream and do their daily battle with the elements. They are discriminating in what they take into themselves. The ones that continue live and grow don’t take the lure.
The bottom line: Neither should we, regardless of whether it comes in a bottle, through cyberspace, as a political promise or the product of a plastic surgeon’s skills presenting herself to us in a tight sweater.
There are times when an artificial hazard has its place, but it is not in golf and it is not with people.
We’ve got rats this year that are infesting the county in which we live. The only way people seem to be rid of them is to put some artificial hazards in their way—rat traps. You can’t talk a rat out of doing his destruction; you need a trap or poison.
I have wondered about artificial hazards we encounter in our daily walk—that someone has put in our way. I am afraid that we are sometimes naïve to think that the only thing that impedes or curtails our happiness or progress is bad luck, economic ‘conditions,’ or poor judgments on the parts of others. Not so. In addition to our own failings we must understand that there are ‘evil and designing men’ who intentionally put artificial hazards in our path to further their desires for power and gain—at our expense.
Over fifty years ago author Vance Packard wrote a book, The Hidden Persuaders, which revealed the tactics used by industry and merchandising and advertisers to hook us into purchasing their products. Many of these inducements were not just a waste of money, but sometimes became downright deleterious to our health, happiness, and progress. So it is now.
Countless people are addicted to substances and behaviors that are killing them materially, physically, and spiritually. These things look so attractive but prove so fatal. The entire sport-fishing industry, and fishing strategy, is built on this premise: present a lure that looks desirable and enticing but that is fatal to the fish. Remember that only dead, or soon-to-be dead fish go with the flow; the strong and living fish face upstream and do their daily battle with the elements. They are discriminating in what they take into themselves. The ones that continue live and grow don’t take the lure.
The bottom line: Neither should we, regardless of whether it comes in a bottle, through cyberspace, as a political promise or the product of a plastic surgeon’s skills presenting herself to us in a tight sweater.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
The Greatest Evidence
I have before me Tom Brokaw’s 1998 bestselling book, The Greatest Generation. The title is intriguing because the modifier ‘greatest’ is so compelling. I think it is safe to say that we, as human beings, are drawn to what is denominated ‘the greatest’ in anything.
Who, of the generation following ‘the greatest generation’, can forget the loud-mouthed self-proclamation of Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) proclaiming himself to be ‘the greatest’ (I at least hope he delimited his evaluation to being a prize fighter)? It may be interesting to know who was the ‘greatest’ golfer, or dancer, or president, or what is the world’s greatest river or even civilization. To make any such judgment one needs to be prepared to present the evidence supporting the declaration.
But I do not hesitate to make such a declaration regarding an issue of much greater moment.
Every day I pause to marvel at the very fact of my existence—my hands, my eyes, my brain, and the existence of those things that surround me that sustain that existence. I do not take it for granted that I have been granted a spot on this earth at this time—or, indeed, at all. It causes me to ponder my relationship to the ‘grantor’ or ‘generator’ who started and sustains the ‘generation’ of whom I am but one.
To me, the greatest evidence for a watchmaker is the watch.
To me, the greatest evidence for a Father is a son or a daughter.
To me, the greatest evidence for a Creator is the creation.
In The Book of Mormon—Another Testament of Jesus Christ, a gainsaying atheist named Korihor challenged a prophet of God regarding the prophet’s testimony of what Korihor termed “the silly traditions of [your] fathers.” The prophet’s response was, “I know there is a God, and also that Christ shall come. And now what evidence have ye that there is no God, or that Christ cometh not? I say unto you that ye have none…. But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things are true; and ye also have all things as a testimony unto you that they are true…and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.” (Alma 30: 39-41, 44)
And so, when I consider all this evidence, and the purposes for which it was created, I exclaim:
“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed; then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, How great thou art! How great thou art!” (How Great Thou Art, Stuart K. Hine, copyright 1955 by Manna Music, Inc.)
Indeed, “I stand all amazed….”
Who, of the generation following ‘the greatest generation’, can forget the loud-mouthed self-proclamation of Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) proclaiming himself to be ‘the greatest’ (I at least hope he delimited his evaluation to being a prize fighter)? It may be interesting to know who was the ‘greatest’ golfer, or dancer, or president, or what is the world’s greatest river or even civilization. To make any such judgment one needs to be prepared to present the evidence supporting the declaration.
But I do not hesitate to make such a declaration regarding an issue of much greater moment.
Every day I pause to marvel at the very fact of my existence—my hands, my eyes, my brain, and the existence of those things that surround me that sustain that existence. I do not take it for granted that I have been granted a spot on this earth at this time—or, indeed, at all. It causes me to ponder my relationship to the ‘grantor’ or ‘generator’ who started and sustains the ‘generation’ of whom I am but one.
To me, the greatest evidence for a watchmaker is the watch.
To me, the greatest evidence for a Father is a son or a daughter.
To me, the greatest evidence for a Creator is the creation.
In The Book of Mormon—Another Testament of Jesus Christ, a gainsaying atheist named Korihor challenged a prophet of God regarding the prophet’s testimony of what Korihor termed “the silly traditions of [your] fathers.” The prophet’s response was, “I know there is a God, and also that Christ shall come. And now what evidence have ye that there is no God, or that Christ cometh not? I say unto you that ye have none…. But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things are true; and ye also have all things as a testimony unto you that they are true…and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.” (Alma 30: 39-41, 44)
And so, when I consider all this evidence, and the purposes for which it was created, I exclaim:
“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed; then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, How great thou art! How great thou art!” (How Great Thou Art, Stuart K. Hine, copyright 1955 by Manna Music, Inc.)
Indeed, “I stand all amazed….”
Monday, July 4, 2011
Reflections on Patriotism
On this Independence Day 2011, I would like you to reflect with me on what it means to be an American patriot. Consider the caliber of men and women who stood for the vision of new nation—one, whom Abraham Lincoln later said was “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal.” He further said, “It is for us the living … to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here [at Gettysburg] have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The Crisis by Thomas Payne
These are the times that try men’s souls.
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of his country.
But he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us - - - that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem to lightly.
It is dearness, only, that gives everything its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods, and it would be strange, indeed, if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.
I call not upon a few, but upon all.
Help us, lay your shoulders to the wheel. Better be too much for us than too little when so great an object is at stake.
Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.
Say not that thousands are gone; turn out your 10’s of thousands.
Throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but show your faith by your works, that God might bless you.
It matters not where you live or what rank of life you hold; the evil or the blessing will reach you all.
[In the end] all will suffer or rejoice alike.
The heart that feels not now is dead.
The blood of his children will curse his cowardice who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole and have made them happy.
I love the man that can smile in trouble; that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection.
‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm and whose conscience approves his conduct will pursue his principles unto death.
The Crisis by Thomas Payne
These are the times that try men’s souls.
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of his country.
But he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us - - - that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem to lightly.
It is dearness, only, that gives everything its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods, and it would be strange, indeed, if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.
I call not upon a few, but upon all.
Help us, lay your shoulders to the wheel. Better be too much for us than too little when so great an object is at stake.
Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.
Say not that thousands are gone; turn out your 10’s of thousands.
Throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but show your faith by your works, that God might bless you.
It matters not where you live or what rank of life you hold; the evil or the blessing will reach you all.
[In the end] all will suffer or rejoice alike.
The heart that feels not now is dead.
The blood of his children will curse his cowardice who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole and have made them happy.
I love the man that can smile in trouble; that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection.
‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm and whose conscience approves his conduct will pursue his principles unto death.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Nothing To Do
My mother has Alzheimer’s Syndrome. Every once in a while she is able to form a thought and string a few words together. What she has said a couple of times in the last few months is “What can I do?” It breaks my heart when she asks that for she can do virtually nothing except sit, eat when fed, and walk when assisted. She cannot read or even focus on television. The other elderly women in the assisted care home where she lives are in the same situation. They can do nothing but sit—hour after hour, day after day. Mom’s past, in this life, is mentally irretrievable; her present, incomprehensible; her future, in God’s hands, but based, in large part, on what she did while it was in her own hands.
What can I do for her? I can sit with her. I can walk with her holding her hand. I can help feed her and be with her as often as I can. I can read to her and make small talk, and though she does not comprehend the words, she does comprehend the tone, the kindness. She does not know me other than a nice man who comes to visit her, and she, and the other women are glad to have a visit.
What if we, you and I, come to that—to the mental state of those afflicted with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease? I hope we will have stored up memories of a lifetime of good works, accomplished or attempted. And though we sometimes think we are not accomplishing much, if we but keep attempting to work, to learn, to serve, that may be even more important than measurable accomplishment.
But many are not doing that—not even making the attempt. Many who do not suffer dementia claim, because of unemployment or misfortune they have ‘nothing to do.’ Recent reports in the news show that Americans are working less, sleeping more, reading less, watching more television, getting fatter, and finding less satisfaction in life. It is easy to see how all these things are related. It is by following the path of least resistance.
What is the antidote? Just take the road less travelled (or the one formerly more travelled): work more (even for no money), serve more, read more, move more, eat less, sleep less, watch less television. There is always something worthwhile to do as long as we have faculties. Schedule some discipline into your life. If it isn’t scheduled it won’t get done.
Be grateful we’ve, as yet, got something to do.
What can I do for her? I can sit with her. I can walk with her holding her hand. I can help feed her and be with her as often as I can. I can read to her and make small talk, and though she does not comprehend the words, she does comprehend the tone, the kindness. She does not know me other than a nice man who comes to visit her, and she, and the other women are glad to have a visit.
What if we, you and I, come to that—to the mental state of those afflicted with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease? I hope we will have stored up memories of a lifetime of good works, accomplished or attempted. And though we sometimes think we are not accomplishing much, if we but keep attempting to work, to learn, to serve, that may be even more important than measurable accomplishment.
But many are not doing that—not even making the attempt. Many who do not suffer dementia claim, because of unemployment or misfortune they have ‘nothing to do.’ Recent reports in the news show that Americans are working less, sleeping more, reading less, watching more television, getting fatter, and finding less satisfaction in life. It is easy to see how all these things are related. It is by following the path of least resistance.
What is the antidote? Just take the road less travelled (or the one formerly more travelled): work more (even for no money), serve more, read more, move more, eat less, sleep less, watch less television. There is always something worthwhile to do as long as we have faculties. Schedule some discipline into your life. If it isn’t scheduled it won’t get done.
Be grateful we’ve, as yet, got something to do.
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