God's Will and God's Way

from Church in the Canyon website

Some years ago someone who was a part of our district conference ran a homeless shelter in Roanoke, Virginia. Many of us thought he was wonderful. He was extremely committed, and was willing to make great sacrifices to help provide housing for the down and out down at that end of the Valley. And people responded. Churches sent food, offered their time, gave financial help to make it a success.

But the person in charge, over time, became more and more bitter toward the supporting churches in our conference. No one could do enough. He began to lash out at everyone. He pretty much wrote all of us off as rich, selfish, and uncaring.

Actually, he was probably right in a lot of ways. There is no doubt that many of us were too busy investing money in expensive church buildings, bigger homes and extended vacations, plus doing all kinds of other self indulgences that I’m sure could break Jesus’s heart. So we probably deserved this angry Amos in our midst, who one day brought a group of homeless folks to our annual conference assembly and planned to just take over the meeting. He was convinced he was right and that God had sent him to us to set us straight. 

I think he was probably about 95% right about God’s will. But what he was missing, I believe, was an understanding of God’s way. And by that I don’t mean always being nice and diplomatic and to never ruffling any feathers. Love can be tough. But love  expresses its anger and outrage out of a heart that is broken, as a weeping prophet who, like Jesus mourning over his beloved Jerusalem, mourns with a love so deep that it is heart wrenching, not out of a heart that’s bitter and full of resentment.

I, for one, need to learn about the importance of not only knowing and doing God’s will, but to learn from Jesus and the Bible about how to do it in God’s way.

Our Local Jail Is Still Using Restraint Chair And Isolated Padded Cell For Suicidal Inmates

restraint chair

Through the kind cooperation of the local Sheriff's office, I recently received updated information on the uses of the restraint chair and the isolated padded cell for mentally ill and suicidally depressed inmates at our Harrisonburg-Rockingham Regional Jail.

As a mental health provider and a concerned citizen, I've joined others in urging both the Sheriff and the head of the Community Services Board, which has a contract with the Jail to provide mental health services there, to provide more humane alternatives for emotionally ill inmates.

Here are their numbers for January 1 to June 30, 2013:

Sixteen suicidal inmates were assigned to a regular segregated cell when on suicide watch, as compared to 17 the prior six months. Here an inmate wears a "suicide smock" (paper gown), and is given a blanket and a few approved personal items.


In the alternative isolated padded cell, however, one has no bed or furnishings of any kind, and is denied a mattress, blanket, reading material or any eating utensils. A grate in the floor serves as a commode. This "rubber room" was used 15 times during the last six months for "medical reasons" (meaning a person is at risk for suicide), compared to 10 times the six months prior, and 7 times during the same period a year ago. The inmate is given only a paper suicide smock to wear, and is cut off from human contact except for regular suicide checks. And there is of course no kind of counseling available.

The restraint chair was used a total of 32 times from January 1 to June 30, usually for violent behavior, with the average time spent in this form of confinement being 5.9 hours, and the longest time 9 hours. This compares to 21 times the prior six months and 27 times during the same time period a year ago. Of those included in the most recent numbers provided, 5 were considered suicidal and 6 either extremely intoxicated or otherwise in danger of harming themselves or others. With the latter 11 persons, the average time spent in the chair was 5.1 hours, with the longest time being 12 hours.

One person in this time period was in and out of the chair over a period of 32 hours, which apparently included some bathroom breaks. While in restraint, belts and cuffs immobilize the prisoner's legs, arms, and torso.

I find it impossible to imagine the sense of torture the above forms of confinement might create, especially to depressed, paranoid and/or depressed inmates, so I and other concerned citizens will continue to work with Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson at our local jail, along  with Mr. Lacy Whitmore of the Community Services Board, to seek ways of improving mental health services for jail inmates. This could include offering the services of approved local mental health professional volunteers to be on call to work with the jail staff to provide a therapeutic presence for a troubled inmate as needed.

Your comments and concerns are welcome.

Click on this link to access other posts on this subject.

What Is Just And What Is Legal May Not Be The Same

from the DailyKos

"God looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress."  

Isaiah 7:3b

“I want to live in a world where George Zimmerman offered Trayvon Martin a ride home to get him out of the rain that night.” 

Bishop G. Brewer 

Like A Basket of Over Ripe Fruit

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit...
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
 Hear this, you who trample the needy

    and do away with the poor of the land, saying,

“When will the New Moon be over
    that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
    that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
    boosting the price
    and cheating with dishonest scales,
buying the poor with silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

Amos 8:1-7 (NIV)

The ancient prophet Amos, a Judean shepherd and vinedresser, marches into neighboring Israel with bad, bad news. 

All this at a time when the economy of that nation is booming. Stock prices are soaring, housing starts are at a record high, and consumer confidence is rising, but so is the gap between rich and poor.  

Which is why Amos wades right into the Israeli commodities market and announces that it's all over. God is fed up, he says. All of your bins of freshly harvested grain will mold, and your lush harvest of ripe summer fruit will rot, he declares. Your greedy profit-taking is over. 

According to the prophets, whenever the poor aren't getting a fair share and a fair shake, the Almighty is outraged, and roars, "Enough already!" God's bounty is meant to be shared, not hoarded.

Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel describes men like Amos as "some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived," and adds, "Instead of dealing with the timeless issues of being and becoming, of matter and form, of definitions and demonstrations," he (the prophet) is thrown into orations about widows and orphans, about the corruption of judges and the affairs of the market place. The world is a proud place, full of beauty, but the prophets are scandalized, and rave as if the whole world were a slum... What if somewhere in ancient Palestine poor people have not been treated properly by the rich? ...Why such inordinate excitement? Why such indignation?"

Heschel then notes, "The things that horrified the prophets are daily occurrences all over the world."

The Heschel quotes are from  "The Prophets, An Introduction" (Harper Torchbooks, 1963)

Welcome to the Jail Machine

courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"Remember those in prison as if you were together with them in bonds, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." 

                                 - Hebrews 13:3

I have long had deep concerns about conditions at our local jail and in state prisons, a concern shared by our singer-songwriter son Brad, who wrote the following hard-hitting piece in 2006:

Jail Machine

hey, hey, welcome to the jail machine,
there is money to be made in this lock-up game,
everyone’s a winner when the streets are clean,
if the system gets you, you’ve just got yourself to blame

let me tell you, mister, it’s a field of dreams
if we build’em, we can fill’em till they burst their seams..

& life is so much better when the streets are clean,
welcome to the jail machine…

every desperate junkie out there forging checks
gets the same 3 strikes the killer or the rapist gets,
I’m just happy I don’t have to use that stuff,
when my doctor hooked me up my lawyer got me off,

& if the state’s a baby, I’m a candy thief,
buildin’ cheap hotels is easy when the guests can’t leave..

& I’m gettin’ paid to do it like you won’t believe,
welcome to the jail, welcome to the jail machine..

mandatory sentencing creates a need,
we add a touch of human greed,
and now you’ve got a business plan
that college might be cheaper than,
but people get what they deserve,
the over and the under-served,

both rich and poor get exactly what they pay for..

smokin’ there in bed after the money’s spent
lay a lobbyist, a business- and a congressman,
“that was good for me, boys, was it good for you?
let’s build another prison sometime very soon,”

let me tell you, brother, it’s a brilliant scheme
first we build’em, then we fill’em till they burst their seams

and everyone’s a winner when the streets are clean,

(welcome to the jail, welcome to the jail..)

lock up all the sinners who don’t look like me,

(welcome to the jail, welcome to the jail..)

I feel so much braver knowing you’re less free,

welcome to the jail, welcome to the jail,
welcome to the jail machine…

You can click on this link for Brad's music website, and this one for numerous previous posts on criminal justice and prison reform. 

Podcast Conversation With "Amish Cook" Publicist

author Kevin Williams

Kevin Williams, a writer and speaker widely known for promoting the syndicated column "The Amish Cook" works from his home near Cincinnati, Ohio, and recently interviewed me for a podcast he does on Amish life and culture.

Williams has co-written several Amish cookbooks and authored two works of Amish fiction. He frequently does speaking engagements and has his own blog. An interesting person!

Here's the link to the podcast, if you care to listen. And here's his blog.

Exercising Control Over the Kingdom of Me

I meet a lot of folks who feel their life is made miserable, if not downright intolerable, by people and circumstances over which they have no control.

I understand that feeling. But I also believe we can exercise sovereignty, with God's help and whatever other help we need, over everything that that goes on inside our own skins, in what I call the "Kingdom of Me", and especially in the throne room of our own skulls, e.g., in our God-given minds. That's where the crown rests.

The word "kingdom", of course, refers to a king's domain, the realm over which a monarch rules. And when it comes to our own inner beings, that's where we, with God's help, reign supreme.

No, I'm not advocating an egotistical view of ourselves or of our importance. I'm simply urging the exercise of both our ability and our responsibility to successfully manage our actions and our emotions. In other words, to never resort to "S/he made me (so mad, so depressed, etc...)" or "I just couldn't help it," or "I simply can't control myself." That would mean giving away too much power to others that belongs to our own mature adult selves.

In my case, I want to be sure that the Kingdom of Me is one in which God is loved and revered, with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. So I've chosen invite the Almighty to co-rule over my mind and my moods. But life as a gift over which I and each of us must exercise the choice as to how, or by whom, our lives are governed.

I don't want the "Kingdom of Me" to be taken over by other outside forces.

Image by http://free-extras.com/search/1/crown.htm.