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Friday, January 3, 2025

Let's Stop Killing People For Killing People (Or For Any Other Reason)

If we were truly a Christian nation, we would be asking questions like "For whom would the crucified Jesus seek the death penalty?"
(Wikipedia map)

President-elect Donald Trump recently addressed one of his Christmas post to the "Radical Left Lunatics who are constantly trying to obstruct our Court System and our Elections, and are always going after the Great Citizens and Patriots of the  United States but in particular, their Political Opponent, ME." 

In the post he falsely claims that "Sleepy Joe Biden" pardoned death row prisoners (Biden did commute the sentences of 37 convicted murderers to "life without the possibility of parole" but did not in fact pardon them).

Trump goes on to say, "I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky 'souls' but instead will say, GO TO H___!"

I'm not sure Trump, while continuing to promote his $59.99 Bibles, actually claims to be a Christian, but I can't help comparing his words to those of 16th century reformer Menno Simons, who wrote the following to the professed Christian rulers of his day: 

"It would hardly become a true Christian ruler to shed blood, for this reason: If the transgressor should truly repent before God and be reborn of him, he would then also be a chosen saint and child of God, a fellow partaker of God's grace, a spiritual member of Christ's body... (F)or such an one to be hanged from the gallows, put on the wheel, placed on the stake, or in any manner be hurt in body or goods by another Christian...would look somewhat strange and unbecoming in light of the compassionate, merciful, kind nurture, disposition, spirit and example of Christ... which example he has commanded all his chosen children to follow. Again, if he remain impenitent, and his life be taken, one would unmercifully rob him of the time of repentance of which, if his life were spared, he might yet avail himself."    
                                - The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, pp. 920-21

Thousands of 16th and 17th century "free church" believers (nicknamed Anabaptists, meaning re-baptizers), of whom Simons was a respected leader, were victims of capital punishment. Many of their stories, of being drowned, burned at the stake, beheaded and otherwise tortured and condemned to death by both Catholic and Protestant state church authorities, are recorded in the over 1150-page "Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians." Their primary crimes were to insist on the right and responsibility of everyone to make a personal choice to align themselves with a community of faith of their choice and to avoid the use of violence to impose their will on others by force or by military means.

Since that time, both the Roman Catholic church and most mainline Christian denominations have officially opposed the death penalty. Many of today's evangelical and fundamentalist churches, however, strongly defend the practice.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

The Blessing We All Long For

Isaac Blessing Jacob, a 1635 painting by Matthias Stom.
(Wikipedia)
One of the saddest stories in the Hebrew Bible is that of Isaac's son Esau, who returns from a hunting trip eager to prepare his father’s favorite meal in celebration of the blessing he is about to receive as his oldest son. 

Tragically, he finds that Isaac, his aging and almost blind father, has been tricked into giving the coveted blessing to his younger brother Jacob. 

When Isaac realizes he was conned, he "trembles violently," knowing that the birthright blessing, once given, can never be revoked. 

Esau, beyond devastated, let’s out a loud, agonizing cry, weeps bitterly, and begs, “Oh bless me too, my father!”

Isaac laments, “ Your brother has deceived me, and has taken your blessing.”

Esau responds, “Isn’t that why he’s called Jacob (supplanter)? He’s taken me twice now, he took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing. Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

The patriarchal blessing is a big deal, like a lifetime of Christmses and birthdays rolled into one. It involves inheriting property as well as authority and power. and is validation and celebration of the eldest son’s special place in the family line.

While that kind of blessing may not be what we long for today, the primal need for the blessing of our fathers and our mothers and from other significant people in our lives, remains a powerful one, the need for unconditional love and embrace. Bestselling authors Gary Smalley and John Trent, write about this in their book The Blessinge:

Children desperately need to know - and to hear in ways they understand and remember - that they're loved and valued by mom and dad.

Affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches. Speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child's life and it's like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities.

I was fortunate having a father who was a genuinely good man, generous to a fault, and never intentionally hurtful in any way. In many ways I'm in awe of him, but he grew up in a home in which his father became a widower for the third time when his third wife, my father’s mother, died in childbirth when my dad was only 3 years old. His grief-stricken father, my grandfather Dan, was unable to say "I love you" or to hug or praise my father or the rest of his six older siblings.

My father did impart to me his heart for those who are hurting and his good example as a person of integrity and generosity, and I got from him much more than he had ever received from his grief stricken father, whom he described as “a man of sorrows.” 

What he wasn’t able to give me, given his family upbringing and the the Swiss-German culture he grew up in, was the ability to  embrace me and tell me he loved me, and spend much one-on-one father and son time with me when I was a child, even though I believe he did the best he knew. And we did form a closer bond later in life, and learned to hug and express appreciation for each other.

I wrote a journal letter to him some years ago that was something in the mode of Esau’s “Bless me too my father,” addressed "Dear Dad," in which I told him how much I loved him and how much I had always longed for his spoken words of love and affirmation. I followed this with a journal letter of response and blessing from him, addressed "Dear Harvey," with words I truly believed in my heart he would have responded with, if he could have, from the other side of the grave. This was a truly powerful part of the journaling exercise, the wished for letter that expressed what I was sure would have come from deep inside of this genuinely good man. 

I suspect most of us, at some level, understand the heart cry of Esau, “Bless me, too, my father, and my mother,” as a wish for filling whatever hole in the soul we may still find within us.

I’ll never forget an experience I had attending a week at the Wellspring Retreat Center (after my parents had both passed) sponsored by the Church of the Savior, a Washington, DC, based ministry founded by Gordon Cosby, an elder churchman, writer and fatherly figure I had always admired. I’ve long forgotten what he spoke about in the one session in which he was present, but I’ll never forget what happened to me after he spoke and was leaving the room. While turning around to make a few more comments he, for whatever reason, laid his hands on my shoulders as he stood next to my chair by the aisle, unintentionally imparting what felt like a blessing on me. I can still feel the warmth, the affirmation, the confirmation associated with that simple gesture.

In light of my own longing for this kind of grace I’ve collected words of blessings over the years from many sources, many of which I’ve shared with members of our family and others over the years:

One of these is the blessing an aged Jacob gives his son Joseph, along with those he gives his older brothers. Has Jacob's night long wrestling with God, his later act of repentance and reparation with his brother Esau, made him a changed man? 

Here's the blessing he imparts his next to youngest son:

"You are a fruitful vine,

a fruitful vine near a spring,

whose branches climb over a wall.

With bitterness archers attacked you;

But your bow remained steady

your arms remained limber,

because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,

because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

because of your fathersGod, who helps you,

because of the Almighty, who blesses you,

with the blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the deep that lies below,

blessings of the breast and womb.

Your father's blessings are greater

than the blessings of the ancient mountains,

than the bounty of the age-old hills.

Let all these rest on your head,

may continual blessing rest on your brow."


(Genesis 49:22-26)

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Has The Christmas Story Overshadowed The Rest Of The Jesus Narrative?


Adoration of the Shepherds by 17th century Dutch painter 
Matthias Stomer (Wikipedia)
Christmas has become one of the most widely celebrated holidays of all time. From the pagan and crassly commercial manifestations of the December event to the many profoundly sacred and sublime celebrations of it, its impact on the world has become huge.

Meanwhile, some have questioned whether we should observe the holiday at all, given the extent to which it has been highjacked by commercial interests whose mission is totally counter to that of the one whose birth is supposedly being celebrating. 

Others make the case that the Nativity story has gotten a disproportionate amount of attention compared to what we typically give to the rest of Jesus' earthly life and ministry. They remind us that only two of the four New Testament gospels even have brief accounts of Jesus' birth, while all give extensive space to his healing and teaching work, and each devotes whole chapters to Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection.

By comparison, our church's newest Voices Together hymnal, not unlike those of other denominations, has all of 52 hymns under the heading of Advent and Christmas, 50 under Journey to the Cross (Lent), and Jesus' Death, and Resurrection, and only 23 hymns on the theme of Life, Teaching and Ministry of Jesus. Many other hymns contain elements of all of these themes, of course.

As another example, the Apostles' Creed, after affirming the heavenly origin of Jesus, makes no reference at all to his earthly ministry, going directly from "born of the Virgin Mary" to "suffered under Pontius Pilate." (See https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2014/10/guest-post-anabaptist-comma.html)

Having said that, there is something compelling and powerful about Jesus coming as a powerless infant rather than an omnipotent monarch.

Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary professor Ted Koontz, in a piece entitled, “Why did God come to us as a baby?” makes the point that while we see newborns as helpless and weak, a baby in fact has significant power. For example, a baby can wake parents in the middle of the night from a deep sleep, get them out of bed and respond to their needs when they would be willing to get up for few other reasons.

Yet, he notes, this cry of a baby represents a power to which we can respond or choose not to. It can profoundly move us, but at the same time it in no way forces us to do anything or robs us of our freedom. Some people might in fact be able to sleep on, oblivious to a baby’s cry. But there is something in our very natures that makes us want to respond. To refuse to do so would be to refuse to be who we know ourselves to be down deep.

This is an important part of the incarnation story, that the kind of divine call that comes to us in the form of “baby power” is the way God chooses to move us. It makes clear that God prefers the soft power of persuasion and invitation over than the hard power of violence and dominance.

In response, millions have acknowledged the Holy Child as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” as one who rules from a lowly manger and a martyr's cross rather than from a monarch's throne.

Oh, the magnitude of meekness!
Worth from worth immortal sprung!
Oh, the strength of infant weakness,
If eternal is so young.
- Christopher Smart, 1765 (from Voices Together #266, Who Is This Stupendous Stranger?)

Merry Christmas! (Note: The Anglo-Saxon origin of the word merry denotes "valiant," "illustrious," "great," or "gallant", as in Shakespeare's "a merry gale" referring to "a strong wind")

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Thankmas, A Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Feel free to stop by for a visit at 
VMRC's Hawthorne Circle!
In this Thanksgiving and Advent season, and at this senior season of our lives, we're spending lots of time in the gratitude department.

Here are just a few of the things for which I am especially grateful:

Alma Jean. My one and only has been a gift that truly keeps on giving. August 8 of this year marked the 60th anniversary of our blessed journey together.

Our loving family. We are blessed with three beloved adult children and six wonderful grandchildren, all doing well!

• Our VMRC and house church families. We're surrounded by kind neighbors here in Park Village, on the campus of the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, and by supportive members of Family of Hope, a living room size congregation we've been a part of for over 35 years. 

• Our reasonably good health. In spite of the occasional aches, pains and memory lapses that accompany our stage of life, we are still upright, mobile and able to take care of each other.

• Our newly repaired 2012 Corolla. After a recent brush with the safety stripe end of a guardrail on Smithland Road, our faithful vehicle is good as new and should provide all the transportation we need for the rest of our days. No one was charged with a violation, no one was hurt and we and our 
Toyato are still in a "Let's go places" mode.

• My new part-time work. After concluding 35 years as a counselor at Family Life Resource Center in March, in July I began helping out as a part of the Hometown Pastoral Counseling Group in nearby Dayton for one day a week. I love my clients and love the balance of being engaged in work I love and yet being free to pursue other things, like serving as chair of the local Valley Justice Coalition and being in correspondence with people behind bars.

• Our little backyard garden. Growing and harvesting fresh food is truly therapeutic for me. We've put our small plot to bed for now, resting under a warm blanket of leaves, but I'm already looking forward to next spring!


• Above all, gratitude for the Gift of Immanuel--God With Us. Join us in celebration of great joy even in a time of much darkness and devastation elsewhere in the world. 

Truly he taught us to love one another,
His law is love and his gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name!


Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices,
O night divine, O night, O night divine!

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Guest Post: US To Spend $1.8 Trillion For "Defense" Next Year

With no real enemies, US poised to spend $1.8 trillion for national security in 2025

Not one of the other 194 countries poses the slightest threat to the US homeland. Yet the US foolishly provokes confrontation with Russia and China, the first and third most nuclear armed states.

With no enemies lurking near our borders, the US plans to spend $1.8 trillion next year to promote not defense, but US adventurism abroad.

750 bases in 80 countries overseas billeting 160,000 soldiers does not come cheap. Additionally, the US has squandered upwards of $200 billion to destroy Ukraine in our proxy war against Russia, and obliterate Gaza by our Middle East aircraft carrier Israel.

That helps explain why Congress is about to pass an $895.2 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to fund discretionary activities of our Defense Department. Adding in mandatory defense spending of $25.8 billion swells the Pentagon’s budget to a cool $921 billion.

But don’t forget nuclear weapons programs, Homeland Security, cost to treat vets from America’s forever wars and miscellaneous foreign adventures. These add another $796.8 billion, making a national security grand total for 2025 a staggering $1,776,800,000. A far distant second in defense spending is China at less than a quarter trillion.

How can this be in the hyped ‘greatest democracy on Earth’? Simple. The administration, Congress, presidential candidates, the media offer not one word of discussion, much less protest about this monstrous squandering of US treasure to get millions killed, injured, starved, sick and homeless in countries America has no business meddling in.

America’s national security budget may as well be planned and passed on Mars, far from the radar of America’s 155,000,200 clueless voters having no say in this monstrosity whatsoever.

Of course, with the US war party crossing Russian red lines like it’s in a demolition derby, nuclear war becomes more likely than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis 62 years ago. If that happens, any important discussion of our $1.8 trillion national security budget will be moot.

Walt Zlotow is a writer for the West Suburban Peace Coalition in Glen Ellyn IL.

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Psychologizing Guilt

In this 1973 best seller psychiatrist
Menninger warned against sin being
labeled as simply an "illness" or
"disorder"in a way that makes people
less accountable for their actions.
"This is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were proud, had plenty to eat, and enjoyed peace and prosperity; but she didn’t help the poor and the needy. They became haughty and did detestable things in front of me, and I turned away from them."
- Ezekiel 16:49-50 (Common English Bible)

According to some, one of the worst things preachers and others  can do is to "guilt" people, give them "a guilt complex" or send them on a "guilt trip." 

I agree that no one should suffer from false guilt. But on the other hand, we shouldn't dismiss or minimize all guilt as simply a bad feeling to get rid of by whatever means necessary.

The Cambridge English dictionary defines guilt as both "the fact or state of having done something wrong or committed a crime," and "a feeling of anxiety or unhappiness that you have done something immoral or wrong, such as causing harm to another person"  (italics mine).

As a mental health counselor and a pastor, I'm concerned about our overemphasizing the feeling part of the definition and paying too little attention to the fact part.

In other words, acknowledging actual guilt (when we are clearly in the wrong) is a good thing, motivating us to repent of wrongdoing and change our ways for the better.

In fact, I've come to believe we should expand our concept of guilt to include corporate as well as personal sins. 

For example, the land on which most of us live was stolen from native people who had inhabited it for millennia. Much of the prosperity we enjoy is a result of our ancestors having appropriated that land and its abundant resources, then benefitting from slave labor that helped clear forests, build roads, houses and cities, and otherwise add to our nation's phenomenal wealth.

We likewise continue to benefit from having cheap food provided by underpaid agriculture workers around the world, and cheap garments and other goods manufactured in sweatshops by people in unimaginable poverty. Should we feel entitled to that level of privilege and not bear some responsibility to rectify such injustices? 

The Hebrew prophets repeatedly charge whole communities of people with wrongdoing and with giving allegiance to the false idols of their day, addressing their words to entire nations like Israel, Judah, and Babylonia, and whole cities like Jerusalem, Nineveh and Sodom.

We become personally guilty when we are silent or complicit in going along with the evil and injustices of our people, our fellow citizens. 

In seeking to become blameless, we can either deny responsibility and guilt (in which case we need to find an alternative religion and worldview), or we as God's people can heed the words of Jesus and the prophets that call us to "humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways." 

The good news is that God offers us grace in place of guilt, pardon instead of judgment, forgiveness for our sins and healing for our land.

Acknowledging guilt is a necessary first step to liberation and shalom.

Saturday, December 7, 2024

This year's Christmas newsletter to some of my incarcerated friends

    Holy and Happy Holidays!__

HARDTIME VIRGINIA, Vol. 9, No. 3                                     December, 2024

an occasionaol newsletter by and for Virginia prisoners


Sadly, Not Many Will Be Home For Christmas


Charles Zellers at Deerfield CC  writes: "I’ve been away from my family for 31 Christmases. Not being with my loved ones never gets any easier. I miss them very much. They used to visit me on holidays and we would eat sandwiches and snacks from a vending machine in the visiting room, but the DOC no longer permits that. Anyone used to be allowed to visit, but now my children are not even permitted to bring my grandchildren to visit me because of my offenses nearly 32 years ago. I have been parole eligible since July 30, 2005. I've not had a write-up March 1, 2000, but I'm continually being denied. How many times am I going to be punished for the same offenses?"

 

Jonathan White at Lawrenceville CC laments that here have been only 16 releases granted by the Virginia Parole Board from January through October of 2024, as follows: Discretionary parole, 4; Geriatric parole, 7; Dual parole: 2; Terminally ill medical release: 3.


Two Organizations Accuse Parole Board Of Policy Violations


In a letter dated October 14, 2024 the Virginia ACLU alleges the Virginia Parole Board is in violation of Va. Code § 53.1-136, which states they are to “Convene a public meeting . . . when conducting the final deliberation and vote regarding whether the Board will grant parole to a prisoner. The prisoner being considered for parole or his attorney shall be permitted to attend such meeting either, in the Board's discretion, in person or via video conference…”


The letter goes on to say, “Further, whereas the Virginia Code previously required the Board to conduct a thorough investigation into each person being considered for parole, HB 2169 / SB 1361 provided that: All information collected through such investigation shall be made available to the prisoner or his attorney, provided that (i) neither the prisoner nor his attorney shall further disclose, reproduce, copy, or disseminate such information in any way and (ii) the Board shall redact all personal information of the victim. Va. Code § 53.1-155. 

 

Also, according to Karen Morrison, founding member and president of Fighting 4 Freedom, there have been 140 parole eligible applicants from August to September who have had only two Board members voting on their cases, specifically those who are serving life for homicide crimes. Given the fact that some members never grant parole releases in such cases, this is not likely to affect the outcome, but it is nevertheless contrary to official Board policy.


Wise and Encouraging Words From Two Men at Lawrencevillle

 

“Why do we spend our whole lives running from problems, sadness, hurt, and pain? God has promised all of us PEACE, JOY, and HAPPINESS, as we keep FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE in our hearts. Jesus himself went through misery.”                                        - John Crider


“Unlike people who waste their time being miserable... build and renew your character within you, because today is the day you can be your very best YOU, even when Christmas in prison seems to be no more than a gift in a empty box.”                         - Jonathan White 


The Startling Story of the Stolen Stihl


I gave myself the gift of a brand new chain saw back in 2009, a smooth running Stihl 250.


Some months later, just before Christmas, we had one of the heaviest snow storms ever. Soon thereafter, on a cold day while I was at work, a friendly stranger came to our door and asked my wife if he could shovel out our lower drive--for a modest fee. Among other things, he explained, he had just been awarded visitation of his ten-year-old son and needed some extra cash to buy him some things for Christmas.


While my kindhearted spouse had never met the man before, he seemed pleasant enough, and we did need more parking space cleared for holiday guests. So why not have him remove the snow, she thought, to surprise me and to do a needy person a favor?


“Just return the shovel to the utility room when you’re finished,” she said, “and I’ll have your money waiting for you there in an envelope.”


Meanwhile, she went about her work and only occasionally checked to see how he was doing. A phone call she received near the time he was finishing prevented her from actually seeing him leave, but when she checked everything out, she found the lower driveway clean, our shovel back in its place and the payment gone, so she felt satisfied that all was well. She also excused herself for the extra generous payment she had left for him. After all, it was Christmas.


When I came home that evening and learned about my wife's surprise move, I assured her it was fine. Whether or not his story was entirely true, I figured, it's always better to err on the side of generosity.


It was not until the next morning that I discovered my new chain saw, stored in the aforementioned utility room and with the word "stihl" emblazoned on it in bold letters, was missing. Just plain gone, nowhere to be found.


My wife was devastated, in spite of my assurances that a chain saw was quite replaceable, and that she needn’t be hard on herself. I also promised I would report the missing saw in case it showed up in a pawn shop somewhere and could be recovered. “Maybe I just loved my new toy a little too much,” I joked.


Much to our surprise, the sheriff’s deputy assigned to the case showed up with the stolen Stihl the very next day, Christmas Eve Day. “Here’s your saw,” he said, “Merry Christmas. And just to let you know, the gentleman who took it will be spending his holiday in jail.” Which seemed fair enough, on one hand, but we couldn't help feeling sorry for anyone having to be behind bars at this special time of the year.


But the story doesn’t end there. Over the next year we had a series of conversations and an exchange of letters with our unexpected friend. We learned he had earned the position of “trusty” in his jail pod and was scheduled to be released December 24, 2010, exactly a year after being locked up for stealing my Stihl.


In one of his letters he wrote, “Yes, it's a blessing to be leaving here on Christmas Eve. It makes me feel special to know God has plans for me.”


Among those plans was to spend his first months of freedom at Gemeinschaft Home, a local recovery and re-entry program for ex-offenders, Upon release he, like so many others who have ever been incarcerated, faced the daunting task of finding a job, a decent place to live and the kind of treatment and support network people need to remain free of their addictions.


I say, "God, please bless them every one."     


Harvey Yoder, editor