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Remembering My Dad

My dad passed away on January 19, 2002. A few years ago I remembered him on Father's Day by posting the eulogy I gave at his funeral. This year I remember my dad by posting a poem that I wrote about him in the early 90s:

My Dad

I once imagined, that when I was old, a man of position I'd be.
An admired man. One of good works, that many would see.
Now, at the mid-point of my years, my eyes turn back to Dad.
I find myself wanting to be like him in ways that surprise me.

You see, when I was young, I didn't see the strength of his love.
I didn't understand the nobility of the sacrifices he made for me.
The part time jobs, the hard work, the man asleep on the couch.
Images, that now give warm feelings, I then didn't understand.

For I didn't know what made a man a man, and a dad a dad.
But I know now and I want to be like my father, Lawrence J.
A man full of kindness, of gentle strength, of quiet inner love.
I thank God for my Dad, his love for me and my love for him.
I sent this poem to my dad inside a Fathers Day card. We didn't talk about my poem while he was alive (wish we had) as he lived in another state. After he passed away I found the poem amongst his things. It made my heart glad.

This is a repeat of my fathers day post from 2007. It always inspires me to think of my dad and the man that he was.

Is Believing in God a Part of Human Nature?

Theologians have been trying to answer the questions around the origins of faith for thousands of years. A piece by CNN reports that a new study concludes that religious belief is an aspect of human nature. Here are a few clips from it:

Religion comes naturally, even instinctively, to human beings, a massive new study of cultures all around the world suggests.
...
Studies around the world came up with similar findings, including widespread belief in some kind of afterlife and an instinctive tendency to suggest that natural phenomena happen for a purpose.

"Children in particular found it very easy to think in religious ways," such as believing in God's omniscience, said Trigg. But adults also jumped first for explanations that implied an unseen agent at work in the world, the study found.
...
"If you've got something so deep-rooted in human nature, thwarting it is in some sense not enabling humans to fulfill their basic interests," Trigg said.

"There is quite a drive to think that religion is private," he said, arguing that such a belief is wrong. "It isn't just a quirky interest of a few, it's basic human nature."

"This shows that it's much more universal, prevalent, and deep-rooted. It's got to be reckoned with. You can't just pretend it isn't there," he said.

I expanded the word 'religion' to 'believing in God' in the title because it is a bit more specific. I think that many disagree with this study and would say that we are not born with the ability to believe in God. To atheists the idea that all have some kind of belief is a bit ludicrous. Yet there are religious people who believe that people are born without the ability to believe and God grants some the ability later in their lives.

I love these kinds of questions. It reminds me how early in my life I believed in God. Yet later in life I became a practical agnostic that embraced a sort of deism where I believed in a God who created the universe but was no longer involved in it. Thankfully, when I was 27, that agnostic belief turned into real faith. And I guess faith is the issue. Whether we are born with the ability to believe in God or not the real issue is what we do with that belief.

... originally posted on May 29, 2011.

... for more Best of Bob click here.

Fallen World not Fallen God

The subject of pain and the sovereignty of God (i.e. why God allows it) has perplexed man for ages. I think that one's view of God's sovereignty is often an issue when the topic of pain and suffering comes up. An image of a fallen God is often painted by some who say that God controls, causes or allows suffering. On the flip-side some understand that God created everything and called it good but humans sinned and we now consequentially live in a fallen world. The contrast focuses on the source of pain.

Here is part of what I recently wrote to a hurting friend after telling them about my struggles with my wife’s disability and my own battle with a blood disease that has caused me arthritic pain and bone spurs in my ankles and wrists ...

These past years have been difficult ones for both Ann and I. Yet in this season I have begun to realize that, for me anyways, God has not been involved to the degree that I once thought that he was. In a sense I have taken a different view of God and don’t see him directly involved in my pain. Even so, I still pray and still seek his will for me in this season. And I still seek to walk out what I read in the gospels every day.

I guess what this new thinking has allowed me to do, in part anyway, is to embrace God’s love differently. I have found a way to separate the cause of my pain from God but not in a schizophrenic way. I guess I see his sovereignty more in a macro (whole world) sense than a micro (narcissistic me) sense. I hate what has happened to Ann and me but see it more as the result of a fallen world than a fallen God.

When I think about the word sovereignty I see a pyramid where God has delegated sovereignty to nations, to communities, to families and finally to the individual. Both groups of peoples and people themselves exercise an incredible amount of sovereignty in the world. Small wonder, with this amount of sovereignty (even at a micro level) that the world is not worse than it is. Perhaps that speaks to the overarching (macro) level of sovereignty that God exerts as He brings beauty from ashes and works all things together for our good?

...originally posted October 21, 2012

The Crazy Bacon Vote

My wife Ann can attest to my love for these strips of joy and love. So I was so excited when I came across a webpage that lists the 10 Craziest Products Inspired by Bacon. Here is a list of the products:

Bacon Bandages ($3.50) Heal your wounds with bacon!
Bacon Watch ($24.99) Proudly display your love of bacon.
Bacon Wallet ($8.22) For the man who "brings home the bacon.
Bacon-flavored Dental Floss ($1.95) motivation to improve your hygiene.
Bacon-flavored Mints ($0.95) a match made in... well, China.
Bacon-flavored Toothpicks ($2.99) for bits of bacon stuck between your teeth
Bacon Gumballs ($3.49) to help spread the bacon gospel.
Bacon Jelly Beans ($1.99) Not as tasty but better for your arteries.
Bacon Air Freshener ($2.74) the perfect way to brighten any carnivore’s day
Mr. Bacon Action Figures ($11.81) fights for everything salty, greasy and meaty.

I have displayed my favorite product ... one that I actually could see myself buying. How about you? Interested in any of these. Please vote for your favorite one in the comments.

...originally posted July 16, 2009

Am I a Blue Dog?

I first posted this question on January 29, 2010. Six years later I still resonate with much of what I wrote then.
Consider what I recently posted in a comment.

I am no socialist but I am grateful for our democratic socialist programs that care for the poor and the elderly. I told a friend last week that I wish programs like Medicare and Social Security were/are not needed. I wish more charitable people and decent insurance companies existed. In the end it is not an either/or proposition for me. I would love to see the private sector step forward and reduce the need for big govt programs. I am not sure what is preventing people from doing so.

In our town we help a clinic that cares for the poor, a Christian homeless shelter, a group that provides bus passes to people needing to go on job interviews as well as other more traditional ministries. The opportunities are out there if we simply look for them.

So I think that the Blue Dog moniker is still somewhat descriptive of my views. What about you?

Ever heard the term "Blue Dog Democrat" and wonder where the term came from? According to the wiki:

Former Texas Democrat Rep. Pete Geren is credited for coining the term, explaining that the members had been "choked blue" by "extreme" Democrats from the left.

The wiki also describes them like this:

The Blue Dog Coalition describes itself as a group of moderate-to-conservative Democrats committed to financial and national security, favoring compromise and bipartisanship over ideology and party discipline.

I like that description and wonder if I am a Blue Dog. I am in favor of those aspects.. I am a huge believer in financial security if it means balancing the budget and paying down the national debt. I think that we should be have a strong national security policy. I think that compromise is not a bad word. I think that ideology and party discipline are not bad but I think the lack of bipartisan governance has created a cynicism in our nation.

So maybe I am a Blue Dog. Albeit a Blue Dog Independent. I do feel that the extremes have choked me blue. :)

What do you think? Are extremes in politics, religion and life choking you blue?

Is Healthcare a Moral Issue?

Responding to the recent court events in Florida that declared federal healthcare legislation unconstitutional, Joe Scarborough, conservative host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, said this:

"Anybody that goes to an emergency room at 11 o'clock at night and sees the people who have to use that as their primary care providers, it shows two things: the inefficiency and the immorality of the system... There are two Americas when it comes to healthcare -- and it is immoral."

It got me to thinking and wondering if healthcare should be classified as a moral issue? Also caused me to ponder that old overused phrase "you cannot legislate morality". Of course we in America absolutely do legislate morality. The issue is what ideological morality are we legislating. So I think that the answer to the question will be different depending on what ideology you might embrace.

Many years ago congress passed Social Security legislation and years later Medicare was passed. The morality of these seemed to embrace the idea that people in their senior years should be cared for by our country. Later on people with disabilities were added to the roles of those covered by these two programs.

So, when I think about the 11pm emergency room scenario that Joe speaks of, I wonder if there is a moral reason to add other folks to the ranks of Medicare. Remember that legislation both reflects and defines America's morality. And it seems to me that our laws should reflect a consistent morality. Possibly the poorest amongst us should be covered by Medicare for the same reasons that seniors are covered.

Do you think healthcare is a moral issue? Please let me know why you think that it is or isn't.

... originally posted February 2, 2011

The Prophet

My daughter gave me this wonderful picture a few years ago for Father's
Day. In it Doctor King is standing overlooking the crowds on the Mall in Washington DC and the words of his speech are printed at the bottom. The picture hangs in my hallway. I have long considered Doctor King an inspirational man to be admired by all who seek peace.

I have asked many people if they that believed Doctor King was a prophet and have gotten a wide variety of responses. I believe that he was a prophet to our nation ... it is sad that much of our nation and the church is confused about this. I wonder if he was speaking prophetically when he said:

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Today I honor him, his legacy to our nation and his contributions to the kingdom of God by sharing these things that he said ... see if you can identify the theme.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality ... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

... originally posted in January 2009

The Upside of Depression

In an article titled 10 Good Things About Depression author Therese J. Borchard says about depression "I do hereby appreciate the gifts that this ugly and manipulative beast has laid upon my table, and so — in David Letterman style I give you the Top 10 Good Things About Depression." Here are her points in brief:

I write better ... my mood disorder has been good for my writing because I don’t care as much what other people think.
I have fascinating conversations with strangers ... So one day I told God that if I ever woke up and wanted to be alive that I would dedicate the rest of my life to helping people who are trapped in the Black Hole.
I don’t have a choice about staying in shape ... I know from a long history of trial and error, that if I skip out on exercising for over three days, that I start to fantasize about death again
I care less about numbers ... every day in which I do not want to die is a victory, a smashing success.
I laugh more ... Just like G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”
I am more outwardly focused ... my outreach efforts on behalf of those cursed with brain chemistry inspire me with a mission worth getting out of bed for.
Depression helps your thinking ... A depressive’s brain is, essentially, always on the treadmill.
So all this thinking can actually lead to a Eureka! moment. In theory anyway.
I am less judgmental ... anyone who has been completely disabled by an illness learns a lesson or two in humility.
I am more compassionate ... My mood disorder didn’t just disrupt nerve cells in my brain,
it also expanded my heart.
I am no longer afraid of death (or anything) ... Here’s the thing about being depressed. You are no longer afraid of death. Say a guy with a gun is about to walk into a restaurant where you are eating (true story). You are a tad alarmed, but not scared. Because you are already living your life as fully as you can.

If these points interest you I suggest you take in the whole article here. I really appreciated Ms. Borchard's candor and vulnerability in discussing depression. If you enjoyed this then you might enjoy her writings at the Beyond Blue blog.

... originally posted January 2010

But it felt like humiliation ...

The past six weeks have been replete with sorting, eliminating, packing and moving our stuff as Ann and I downsized from our home in the suburbs to our loft in downtown Kansas City. Along the way I have had two awkward experiences..

Several weeks back one of my neighbors offered himself and his truck to move a few pieces of furniture to my daughter's place. I gladly took him up on the offer. After we repositioned a piece of furniture in his truck I felt a twinge in my back as I was standing up.. within a few moments I was looking for the Tylenol (extra strength of course).. my back was in pain. Nevertheless macho Bob was pressing on until Mike (who is 69 years old) looked at me and said: "You need to just let me handle the rest of this". Ouch.. more than my back was now bruised.. it was humbling.. but it felt like humiliation.

My back has done pretty well since then.. a bit sore at times but nothing like that Sunday.. until Friday night that is.. and of course ..

Saturday morning I had a time set up to move a few things around with a guy at my storage unit in the basement/garage of my new place. I tried to contact him ahead of time to tell him about my back woes but could not reach him. When I met him at 10 yesterday morning I explained about my back to which he immediately told me that he would take care of it.. and he proceeded to go about doing all of the heavy lifting.. and I was very thankful.. albeit a bit humbled again.. not sure that he was older.. we were probably close in age.. either way it did not feel that I was humbling myself.. it felt like humiliation.. it is hard to stand by and watch a stranger (albeit a great one) do something for you when you planned on doing it yourself.

I think these are pretty common scenarios in the world of humility.. what we want is something that makes us feel good about humbling ourselves when in fact the things that make us feel good are probably more about stroking our ego than humility. Got to wonder if humiliation is the way that humility should feel.. to some degree anyway.. after all.. when the ego/pride in us dies it should probably hurt a bit. And like I often say.. in the spiritual life humility is simply not an option.. we either humble ourselves or someone will do it for us. ツ

...originally posted in July 2010.

God's Will is all about Character

The topic of God's will is on my mind this morning so I thought that I might opine about it a little. Once upon a time I embraced a pretty traditional view of the topic in that I saw the will of the Almighty in events. World events. Local events. Family events. Personal events.

These days I see God's will not so much in events but in how we respond to those events and the sort of person that they make us. Consider what the Apostle Paul had to say on the matter in the biblical book of Romans:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

What I get from this verse is that God will use anything to make us like him. Like a divine maestro he orchestrates both the good and bad events of our lives to conform us and mold us into human beings who reflect his image.

I think that this is a helpful mindset to have when we are struggling and in pain. Knowing that God's will is not about the events but about our character really encourages me. Does it encourage you?

... originally posted in July 2011

Dad's Stew

To honor the day I am republishing this post from a few years ago.

My wife and I have been busy sorting through our accumulated stuff these days as we plan to downsize from our house in suburbia to a loft in the downtown Kansas City area. And as I sorted through my stuff I recently came across this picture in the basement.. and I grinned a big smile

The photo is one of my dad back in the 1980s making his famous stew - and yes.. that is a boat paddle that he is using to stir the stew that is cooking in a cauldron heated by a propane flame. He made the stew each year for the family reunion.

My mom and dad were divorced in the early 80s after 40+ years of marriage and my dad left his home of 40+ years in the New York/New Jersey area to return to his childhood home in Mississippi. It amazed everyone when he did it.

After Dad moved my wife, children and I would regularly visit dad once or twice a year. We were the geographically closest to him and were able to drive to see him (my brother and sisters had to fly). That went on for a few years - I especially enjoyed going there on Thanksgiving.. my dad was a great cook.. he was a chef for a colonel when he was in the army (before World War II) and seemed as comfortable cooking for fifty as for five.

A few years passed and my dad remarried a wonderful woman and I was honored to be his best man.. it was a strange experience standing beside him when he married again.. a time I will never forget. A year or so past and my dad began working with his niece and nephew to put on a family reunion that the family simply called "The Stew". Upwards of 50 or so of my Mississippi family along with my sisters would attend it on the last weekend in September. The timing was great because it was close to my dad's birthday.

I have great memories of meeting my Mississippi relatives. I had never met any of Dad's siblings and it was a wonderful feeling getting to know them and a bit of my southern heritage. It was a strange feeling seeing Dad's younger brother - they looked so much alike.. I got my middle name from Uncle Fred. The move was a good one for Dad.. I saw a lot of change in him over the years.. he began going to church and one day moved me deeply when he spoke to me about loving the Lord.

When I think about Dad's stew I reflect upon how much his life was like that delicious soup. Like that wonderful red stuff, Dad was a blend of different ingredients - Dad was a blend of the best of the South and of the North. He was the most loving man I have ever known - like the savor of that stew his life had a sweet aroma.. people who knew him loved him.. he was such a friendly man. Dad was a kind man.. a southern gentleman who was not corrupted by the crassness of the world.. he emanated a quiet dignity I appreciated so much.

Thinking about Father's Day always brings me back home to my dad. He passed away over eight years ago and I still think of him a lot. Like my wife Ann's dad, who passed away a few years ago, he was part of what has been called the greatest generation. Men like these two, who were both named Lawrence, are a part of what makes our nation great. They are a major part of this wonderful melting pot.. a stew if you will.. that we call America.

The Erroneous Theology of Job

A post from 2010 for the religious prognosticators who see God sending tornadoes to Oklahoma ...

A few years ago my son and I were in the car and he advised me that he thought I was a modern day Job - I had to chuckle as I told him that Job had nothing on me. Of course we all have a story and mine is not all that different than many.. it is just different than folks who have not dealt with the death of a spouse.. or a parent who has not dealt with grieving children.. or a person who has not struggled with a disabling disease that has attacked their spouse.. we all struggle.. and our struggles are ever so personal.

So when I think about the story of Job in the Old Testament I first think about two parents who lost all of their children and their possessions.. and my heart breaks for them. I also think of a man who struggled with a disabling disease that inflicted him with boils all over his body.. a man who had friends.. and a man who was trapped by a bad theology.. a theology that yet traps and disables many even today. It is the theology of divine judgment.

Job and his friends argued about the reasons for his hardships.. his friends blamed him.. Job asserted his innocence.. but at the heart of their cumulative thinking was the idea that someone was to blame for what happened.. and God was judging Job and his wife for some secret sin that they had committed. Even though Job asserted his innocence he did not contest the basis of his friends claims. Job also believed that his hardship was God's judgment.. he just did not believe that he was guilty of a sin worthy of the judgment.

Of course Job's hardship was not initiated by Job or by God.. the story tells us that Job was not being judged.. it says that Job was blameless.. and it also says that Satan (not God) killed Job's children and afflicted Job with a disease. Even so Job and his friends believed that God's judgment was involved.

This theology of divine judgment often rears it's ugly head even today. When bad things happened to New Orleans four years ago religious pundits were speaking about the judgment of God on this area. More recently religious prognosticators were embracing Job's theology and speaking oracles of divine judgment when a massive earthquake hit Haiti. These religious folks seem to have embraced the erroneous theology of Job by saying that hurricanes and earthquakes were God's reaction to somebody's sin.

Interesting that in Job's story God shows up at the end of the story speaking from a whirlwind.. but the wind did not seem to hurt anyone or damage any property.. perhaps God's winds are of this sort? The end of Job's story also teaches us that "sometimes" hardship ends okay - I say okay because even though Job was healed, his fortunes restored and new children were born there were still many lives lost in tragedy.

The moral of Job's story is that things are not always as they seem.. bad things happen to blameless people.. and it is foolish to blame God or invoke a theology of divine judgment when hard times come. I reject that theology on a personal level and I also reject it for the people of New Orleans and Haiti.

Is God a Micro-Manager?

I am not sure that I have anything conclusive to offer by way of an answer to the question I pose in the title of this post. Perhaps I can start out with a definition from Wikipedia:

The notion of micromanagement can be extended to any social context where one person takes a bully approach, in the level of control and influence over the members of a group. Often, this excessive obsession with the most minute of details causes a direct management failure in the ability to focus on the major details.

Interesting how the words obsession and bully are used. I have worked for micro-managers and can relate to the obsessive bullying aspect in this description. That said I think that the word bully may be a bit unfair in that a manager may sometimes need to be very detailed oriented in his approach.

Back to the divine question. Perhaps we can frame it best by asking if God's approach is more like Mozart, Bernstein or Heifetz? Is his approach more like the great composer Amadeus Mozart imaging the notes that others will play? Or is it more like the New York Philharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein who directed the activities of virtuoso violinists like Jascha Heifetz? Or is it most like Heifetz who brought out the best of an inanimate object?

Perhaps it is a bit of each? Perhaps the Great Composer is a way to see the Father as one who has a beautiful plan for the universe. I think that we see glimpses of that plan in the bible. And maybe in Christ we see the head and conductor of a great body of diverse musicians who each have a different role in the orchestra. Yet possibly we understand God best as the Holy Spirit who quickens an inanimate object and brings beautiful music from it?

Back to the divine question. Is it fair to call God a micro-manager when the term relays such a pejorative connotation? I think that it depends on your view of the composer, conductor or violinist. If you have been exposed to negative images of these types then perhaps you would not want them to be involved at all in your life. But what if you have felt your life come alive at the touch of the virtuoso's hands? Or had your eyes opened to the beauty of your life? Or maybe felt the presence of a divine conductor in desperate times?

My thinking is that the answer to the question posed in the title is more about us than it is about God. I feel that we are reticent to call God a micro-manager if we have a difficult time with the way that our life has played out. When we experience difficulty and pain we do not want to attribute those things to God. Yet when things are going well.. when we are experiencing beautiful music.. we love to credit him for the score, the conducting and the instrument.

It is a matter of perspective. What is your perspective? How would you answer the question?

Why I Reject Christian Universalism

Rob Bell's book "Love Wins" opened the door to a lot of conversation earlier this year when it was released. Looking back I realize that the target audience for his book was not really those who believe but those who once believed and fell away because they could not embrace some of the fundamentalist dogma that they were once taught. In Bell's book he delved into some alternate (i.e. non-traditional) views of hot topics like hell and some of his views seemed to have come from Christian Universalism.

During the spring I had several conversations about the book and, during one such talk, I spoke to a person who did not know that there was a difference between vanilla Universalism and the Christian flavor of it. I shared that my understanding of the difference is not so much in the end result.. both flavors believe that all will eventually end up with God in heaven.. but with the means by which they get there. The Christian Universalists would say (generally speaking) that Christ redeemed all on the cross. The more vanilla universalists would say that God simply loves everyone and wills them to be in heaven.

So with that in mind I thought that I might proffer a few thoughts on Christian Universalism. Please keep in mind that my thinking is still evolving on some of these points.

Firstly, I must say that I do not embrace it. The idea that unrepentant mass murderers will one day share a pot of tea with those that they murdered appalls me. The keyword here is unrepentant. I do believe in forgiveness, even for repentant mass murderers, but I think that we err when we lump the repentant in with the unrepentant.
My view of Eternal Conscious Torment (Hell) is that.. as in the life that began when one is born.. torment always comes from within creation.. I do not believe that God torments anyone.. allowing torment or suffering is totally different that inflicting it.
I reject the idea that some of them espouse concerning a purgatory type of post death life where people are given a second chance. That view depends on the idea that time, as we know it today, will continue after we die. More on that here.
I question the idea (promulgated by the ancient Greeks) that all men are immortal. Now this gets me in trouble with all sorts of people and I have to say that I am not really dogmatic on this subject. Even so I do wonder if people who are not spiritually born here on earth possess anything that survives death. More on that here.
I reject the idea that people are simply divine pets with no ability to really know God in a meaningful way. I think that man is created in the image of God and part of the dignity of our creation (unlike any other animal) is our ability to, by faith, know God this side of the grave. The emphasis here is a relationship with God before we die.
In contrast Christian Universalism portrays God as a pet owner with an unrelenting purpose to be with His pets forever.. nothing His pets do can change His resolve.. He loves them unconditionally and does not care what they think about anything - including Himself, His Son's sacrifice and the afterlife. More on that here.
Lastly, this approach is certainly the most generous of all orthodoxies toward atheists, agnostics and unbelievers in general. Yet this view makes a mockery of all sincere people who strive to follow God today by saying that things like love and faith have no eternal value except that they allow us to all get along better here on earth.

If you notice I have tried to stay away from arguing verses of the bible. I have found that line of dialog usually never goes anywhere because there are scriptures on both sides of the issues and they are generally interpreted from a personal theological perspective.

With that in mind I would appreciate any feedback that you might have but I have to say that I am probably not up to wrangling scripture verses as that tends to get contentious. Yet I would like to understand this issue better and invite you to share your views here.

Is Marriage a Civil or Religious Institution?

Ann and I were talking a few weeks ago and she told me that citizens of France needed to be married by the civil authorities before they could be married in church. I wondered about that so I googled a bit about marriage in other countries:

France: All marriages must be performed by a French civil authority before any religious ceremony takes place. ... The religious ceremony has to be performed after the civil ceremony (never before). The minister, priest or rabbi will require a certificate of civil marriage before any religious ceremony takes place.
Germany: Everybody getting married in Germany must first appear physically at a Standesamt for a civil ceremony. This is actually all that is needed, and the great majority of couples go no further.
Mexico: In Mexico, only civil marriage is recognized as legal. Persons wishing to do so may also have a religious ceremony, but it has no legal effect and does not replace in any way the legal binding civil marriage.
Turkey: Only civil marriage is legal in Turkey. You may, of course, have any religious ceremony you wish in addition to the civil one, but the religious service has no legal standing in Turkey.

I think that it is interesting how the religious aspect of marriage is separate from the civil in these countries. It seems that the latter is definitely needed if marriage affects the civil rights of the citizens of a country. Yet, for me anyways, the religious aspect is also required because I see marriage as a covenant rather than a contract. What do you think?

Should an Alzheimer spouse divorce?

Televangelist Pat Robertson has done it again. This week he responded to a call from a viewer and began a firestorm among people of all religious backgrounds. Here is the question and his answer as reported by the New York Times:

“His wife as he knows her is gone,” the caller said, and the friend is “bitter at God for allowing his wife to be in that condition, and now he’s started seeing another woman.”

“This is a terribly hard thing,” Mr. Robertson said, clearly struggling with the subject matter. “I hate Alzheimer’s. It is one of the most awful things, because here’s the loved one — this is the woman or man that you have loved for 20, 30, 40 years, and suddenly that person is gone “

“I know it sounds cruel,” he continued, “but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but to make sure she has custodial care, somebody looking after her.”

When Mr. Robertson’s co-anchor on the show wondered if that was consistent with marriage vows, Mr. Robertson noted the pledge of “’til death do us part,” but added, “This is a kind of death.”

On their Facebook page the 700 Club offered this follow up:

Having had many close friends struggle through Alzheimer's, Pat has seen the devastating impact that it has on not only the spouse with the disease, but especially the caregiver whose quality of life also becomes completely debilitated by it.

Robertson's reply is offensive on so many levels.

Firstly, how can anyone categorize a person with Alzheimer’s as dead? This is simply ludicrous and presupposes that all people with the disease are incapable of loving interaction. His answer displays an alarming ignorance.
Secondly, when did marriage become all about what a person gets out of it? Where is the call to sacrifice and honor? Where is injunction to enter into the suffering of the hurting spouse? It seems that one having this sort of mindset looks for reasons to escape their vows rather than embrace them.
Lastly, where is the concept that Christian marriage is a covenant between a man, a woman and their God? Robertson's answer comes across as a purely human response. He leaves God out of the situation and offers no spiritual advice at all.

When I think about this issue my heart wanders back to a room in a nursing home in a suburb south of Memphis. My dad shared a room with a man who had this sort of dementia. Before the disease the man had been a pastor. Each day that I was there I watched his wife come in and attend to his needs. My heart was lifted then and it is lifted now as I remember how much she loved her husband. This is a memory that greatly encourages me and shows me what love really is. Would that Robertson shared such a story with his caller.

What do you think of Robertson's reply to his caller. How would you have responded?

Does time exist after we die?

I can still hear the voice of Rod Serling describing the Twilight Zone as a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. I have always wondered about this whole idea of time and whether another time bounded existence awaits us when we die. I question whether heaven could exist in such a time bounded realm. If it did then it would seem that God might not exist there because time appears to be something he created. It seem more logical, even though it is unimaginable, to think that we will enter an existence where we are no longer bound by time and, unlike this world, will be in the very presence of God. What do you think?

Are all humans immortal?

This Shoebox Blog cartoon reminded me about how most people believe that all humans are immortal (i.e. live past death) when they are born. Some wonder if people become immortal when they are spiritually born after they are physically born. What are your thoughts? Are humans born immortal or do some become immortal after they are born? Or perhaps you feel that no one lives past death.

The Bible, Jefferson and Me

The story of Thomas Jefferson, the third US President, and his cut-and-paste 'bible' is a very interesting one. Here is a bit about it from the wiki:

The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was Thomas Jefferson's effort to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.
...
Using a razor, Jefferson cut and arranged selected verses from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in chronological order, mingling excerpts from one text to those of another in order to create a single narrative. Thus he begins with Luke 2 and Luke 3, then follows with Mark 1 and Matthew 3. He provides a record of which verses he selected and of the order in which he arranged them in his “Table of the Texts from the Evangelists employed in this Narrative and of the order of their arrangement.”
The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth begins with an account of Jesus’s birth without references to angels, genealogy, or prophecy. Miracles, references to the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, and Jesus' resurrection are also absent from The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

I find Jefferson's actions to be so interesting. Can you imagine a person so obsessed that he would take a razor to the bible? If memory serves me right (and it may not) I think that Martin Luther did something similar to the book of James.

I have a hard time imagining this kind of dogmatism. Yet I can relate to allowing my ideology and theology to impact the way that I interpret the bible. I can relate to building a theology that is based on the intellectual theology that I learned from pastors and in bible college. I can understand how Jefferson's background, experiences and intellectual focus compelled him to slice and dice the scriptures in that manner.

The message from Jefferson is that we can err greatly when we allow our brain to trump our hearts. When we reduce spiritual things to those that we can apprehend with our brains we are left with the Jefferson Bible. We are left with Deist tendencies that draw us to lives where everything is explainable.. where awe, miracles and wonder are left for the children. And maybe that is why Jesus instructs us to become as children?

I want to be a child in such matters. How about you?

Anonymous has Questions about God

Someone named Anonymous left a comment with some questions on my post titled: Stephen Hawking's Spontaneous Creation. Here are the questions and my simple answers:

Who created god?
God revealed Himself to Moses simply as "I Am that I Am".
God has always existed. God is eternal. God has no beginning.
God has no end.
What are the constituents of god?
God is spirit. He is the invisible entity that created and maintains all that is visible.
How is god calculated? What is his mass? luminosity? size?
God is incalculable because humans do not possess the intellect to measure God. Humanity cannot even accurately determine the weight of Saturn because it does not have a scale large enough to weigh it. Small wonder that humans cannot understand God.
Why did god create the universe 13.72 billion years ago and wait to tell some desert people in some insignificant planet to tell the story?
God has been revealing himself to humanity from the beginning of existence. A person has to be blind to the beauty of a sunset or the wonder of a baby being born to willingly ignore the existence of God. From the beginning of humanity there has been an awareness of God.

Anonymous ends their comment with the following observation:

If god created the world and religion then he surely made it to retard human progress. The idea of god sounds ridiculous enough by itself.

The fundamentalism and narrowness of atheism never ceases to amaze me. Folks like Anonymous embrace a black and white interpretation of the universe and do not leave any room for the colors of life. The idea of God may seem ridiculous to some but I find the idea of God to be compelling. The existence of God and His injunctive to love others as I love myself challenges me to my very core. I cannot imagine an existence without God.

I think that my answers need some help. Please share an answer or two for Anonymous.

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