The World Will Only Snicker

An OCC student posted a link to this article, posted as an editorial piece in the English language version of Pravda. It was written by Stanislav Mishin, and published earlier on his blog (be certain to read to the very end if you want to understand the title of this entry):

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite tv dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blindth the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barrack Obama/ His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barrack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

My Cute Grandson

Actually I've got three (3) adorable grandsons. They recently went on a camping trip, camping out on Boca Chica beach, near Brownsville, Texas where they live. Emily (my daughter-in-law) posted some photos on Facebook. This one is my favorite, of Eli(jah) and his sand castle. He was very proud of it, and rightly so! Good job, Eli!

B-Team Commissioning Service Reprise

On March 7, I wrote a piece titled "Grammar As an Emotional Trigger", which included the lyrics to a song inspired by a conversation the College Heights High School Minister had with one of the B-teamers after their survey trip. I'll reprise the lyrics here, and provide the mp3 file of the song, as sung by its composer, Beau Hamlin.

I'm not sure, what to be saying
So, I'll just start talking, maybe you'll see
The anticipation, oh it just keeps building
I don't want to leave but, I don't want to stay

It's like a mourning process, leaving on this mission
Do you know my feelings? Can you feel my tension?
'Cause, I love my family, but I know my calling
And I love my Savior, and my heart is willing

Uneasy? Yes. We're scared to jump.
But, we took the trip and we saw enough.

He's our strength. So we're going to jump.
We took that trip. And we saw enough.

People we met, faces we saw; broken buildings, torn down walls
History of war, crying for life; broken people, needing light.
We didn't see it all . . . but we saw enough.

It's intimidating, 'cause the ones before us
Never found a system, not a one they could trust

We better be longwinded, if we choose to run this
We better keep our focus, we gotta' know we're His

Uneasy? Yes. We're scared to jump.
But, we took the trip and we saw enough.

He's our strength. So we're going to jump.
We took that trip. And we saw enough.

People we met, faces we saw; broken buildings, torn down walls
History of war, crying for life; broken people, needing light.
We didn't see it all . . . but we saw enough.

Fornication is not required

Though I'm a little embarrassed by the title of this blog, I will continue with this humorous post. Students (especially foreign language students) provide teachers with some laughs. I had one yesterday in my 2nd Year Greek class. The class translated the entire Gospel of John this year, finishing it last week.For this week, I had my students read and translate portions of the The Didache, particularly from chapters 1, 7-10.

Our section for class yesterday covered chapters 7-8 (English translation available here). The verse in question is Didache 7:4, which in the Greek says:

πρὸ δὲ τοῦ βαπτίσματος προνηστευσάτω ὁ βαπτίζων καὶ ὁ βαπτιζόμενος καὶ εἴ τινες ἄλλοι δύνανται.

The important word there is the imperative προνηστευσάτω, which indicates that fasting is required. The text says, "Before the baptism, the baptizer and the baptizee must fast (beforehand), as well as others who are able." The text continues with a commandment that the baptizee must fast one or two days in advance of his or her baptism.

In class, I use a data projector, and project the Greek text onto a screen, and use a laser pointer, asking students to translate the Greek into English. When I got to verse four, the student I called on said something like, "No, it doesn't really say that, does it? Is it talking about fornication?"

I don't think he is dyslexic, but his question stems from a dyslexic moment. You see, the Greek word for fornication is πορνεία
(the first four letters of which are porn, from which we get the English word pornography.) The Greek word in question here was not from that root, but was προνηστεύω, which means to fast beforehand. It is made up of the common word for fasting, and a prepositional prefix (πρό), that means before. So the first four letters of the Greek word (transliterated into English) are pron, not porn. Perhaps because of extreme fatigue, my student saw them as porn, and came up with the idea that the Didache teaches this:
Before the baptism, the baptizer and the baptizee must fornicate, and any others who are able.

No, that's not what the text says. Fornication is not required.

It's Called "Influenza Porcina"

If you have seen the news today, you are no doubt aware of the problem with swine flu (influenza porcina) in Mexico, that has jumped across the boder and into the United States. Kim, our daughter, teaches school in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. I just got an e-mail from her, that said they were cancelling classes there. In reading the Mexican press, I have found that there are no confirmed cases of swine flu in the state of Chihuahua, although there are 33 suspected cases. I just read here that classes in all schools in the state are canceled until May 6. I'm not sure if that means that their school year will be extended, which could possibly affect her return date.

I sent her a note saying that we trust God, and for her to be smart, to wash her hands multiple times a day. Would you pray for her safety? I'm not meaning to be drobbedonian. I just love my daughter. For what it's worth, the word drobbedonian (as far as I know) was coined by Carl Emmons, one of Greg's classmates at Santiago Christian Academy, over 20 years ago. We're not sure what it means, but it is a useful word when you want to change someone's attitude. It is always easy to say, "Don't be so drobbedonian!"

At Least They Won Today (10-3) To Avoid a Sweep!

Yesterday I was stoked to see the Cubbies beat the Cardinals. I picked up my Cardinal friend preacher, Gene McCoy at Rolla, and we continued on to St. Louis. The home team (that would be the bad guys) beat the Cubbies 8-2. I was super-disappointed. You have to admit class when you see it, though, and Albert Pujols just might be the best player in baseball today (sorry, Arod fans!). He manufactured the winning run on Friday, by stealing a base to get himself into scoring position, and later scoring the go ahead run on the next play.

Yesterday, he started the day needing 2 RBI to join a small crowd of ballplayers to reach 1000 before the age of 30. I was hoping he would be denied, but alas, he reached 1002 with one swing of the bat. Mike Shannon, the Cardinal radio announcer, who has a trademark home run call of "Get up! Get up, baby! Get up!" never even had a chance to form a letter "g" sound. Cubs Rule-5 draft pitcher David Patton sent Pujols a huge gift on his first pitch to him, a heater right down the middle of the plate. I have never seen a home run leave a ballpark that fast! The Cubs outfielders barely even moved a muscle. They knew that it was gone! I was there. I saw it! The crowd rose to its feet, as did I. But I was not cheering. It was painful.

I bought a Pujols Pack that had three Cubs games (April 25, May 19, and September 20). The next one is on a Tuesday night, right after school is out. I'm looking forward to seeing the Cubs beat the Cardinals there on May 19. I will have the privilege to take a Cub fan with me, Jonathan Parrot, from Prairie Grove, AR. Jonathan's mother used to teach at Ozark Christian College. Currently she is the Children's Minister at the Prairie Grove (AR) Christian Church. (Video available on MLB.com, taken from FOX Network TV feed).

Reflections on Brain Hemispheres and the Shema

The following is a semi-edited version of the devotional I presented to the OCC Faculty/Staff Luncheon on April 17:

Shema yisra'el adonay eloheynu adonay ehad.

I'll finish in English:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut. 6:4-5, verse 4 in Hebrew, verse 5 in ESV).

I've often been thankful for the fact that Jesus added something that was not specifically mentioned in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew text lists heart, soul, might (or strength)—as Jesus quotes this text (Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27, he adds "and with your mind."

I have frequently joked that I was a forceps baby, and that the right side of my brain was damaged at birth. On the creativity scale from 1-10, I would give myself about a minus 3! I have been amazed at the creativity of my son, Greg. Anything I ever did musically came with incredible effort, by following the notes written on a page. If the notes are not written—anything can happen. Greg may not be able to read music, but he certainly does hear it. What about graphic arts? In a face-to-face competition in Bible Lands Map Drawing, I think I can beat Randy Gariss—barely! But I think all of you could "clean my clock!"

Yes, I have been happy that Jesus added the word "mind" to the Shema. I appreciated John Stott's 1973 book, Your Mind Matters (IVP Press). In it, he quotes a Canadian commentator who said, "What scares me about this generation is the extent to which ignorance is their armour. If know-nothingness goes on much longer, somebody will yet emerge from a commune having discovered the wheel." That great line was written in 1970, when I was still in high school. Methinks that in the intervening years, cognitive excellence has suffered even more. Oddly enough, technological advances have contributed to the "dumbing down of our society." Last year Mark Bauerlein published a cultural critique titled The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30). Let's see, my generation must be the most misanthropic generation in the history of the world. When I was younger, we didn't trust anyone over 30, and now, we don't trust anyone under 30. What's wrong with us?

Also, last summer, Nicholas Carr wrote an article for The Atlantic magazine. The title of his article asked the question, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Basically, Carr, while embracing and using technology, admits that it is making us stupid. I resonate with what he says:

I think I know what's going on. For more than a decade now, I've been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I've got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I'm not working, I'm as likely as not to be foraging in the Web's info-thickets'reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link. (Unlike footnotes, to which they're sometimes likened, hyperlinks don't merely point to related works; they propel you toward them.)

In recent months, I have done a lot of thinking about things that matter. I have immensely enjoyed teaching Anthropology again (the last time I taught it, there was a guy named Proctor in the class—he has risen quite high in the institution, while I—well I enjoy saying that I am on a need to know basis, and obviously I do not need to know!".)

But in teaching Anthropology, I have been amazed all over again by the incredible cultural diversity in our shrinking, flattened (to use Thomas Friedman's term) world. Our western culture (historically, anyway) is much more individualistic than other cultures around the world. Our western culture is certainly more literate than some cultures that are either oral or aural. But let's consider the individual or group orientation: early this semester, I asked my Life Group about what they preferred individually: 1) to be alone; or 2) to be in a group. I enjoy hanging out with people and I am somewhere close to balanced on the I/E Myers Briggs test. I don't have any problem with alone time, however. My wife, however, is wired much differently than I. She loves to be with people. The isolation of chemotherapy was a huge problem for her. But in my Life Group, I was the only person who preferred to be alone! Maybe I am pathologically anti-social.

It must be a left-brained thing. I also like technology. Well, duh! I am the pusher of Bible software. Remember back in the day, when we had pay phones in the dorms? It was a big deal when we put phones in the dorm rooms. Phones in the dorm rooms today are almost irrelevant. Better not take out the Ethernet or Wi-Fi, though. I used to say that technology is neutral, and sometimes even complained that it is not right for the Devil to use all the good stuff for his purposes. Technology, however, is not neutral. Its use does change us, or to use Carr's thought, "it propels us", perhaps to places we really did not intend to go.

Last month, John Dyer, the web specialist at Dallas Seminary, gave a workshop at the Logos Bible Software-sponsored Bibletech 2009 titled "Technology is not neutral". Because of him, I wasted an hour and a half last night watching a classic film from 20 years ago, that somehow I had missed, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." Waste of time. The only redeeming value was that the 7 day rental only cost me 99 cents.

Dyer's presentation had an image from the movie of a Greek philosopher we know as Socrates, except that these brilliant kids called him So-crates! I thought about maybe using a clip from the movie in this devotional. I was incapable of finding a redeeming clip. Instead, I went to the Loeb Classical Library, to read some Plato, specifically Phaedrus, where Socrates tells a story about the Egyptian god named Theuth, who invented letters (that is, writing). The Egyptian king, Thamus, was not impressed. Thamus said that writing, rather than making us wise, would make us "worse for the wear". In the words of Thamus, given to us by Plato, and to Plato allegedly by Socrates, he says:

This invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of the own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.

I cannot discount the power of the written word—after all, God gave us His word, in written form. I'm committed to the study and propagation of that Word. That's why I'm at Ozark. I've always liked the title to Francis Schaeffer's abridged work to The God Who is There. It is titled, He is There, and He is Not Silent. Yes, God communicates with us through the technology of His written word. But I am beginning to understand that the technology of written texts, and that many technologies we enjoy using also carry the power to effect a change in us, in ways that might not be beneficial.

Yes, to get back to the Shema, I'm glad that Jesus added the word mind. But if I love God, only with my mind, I may be guilty of "neglecting the weightier matters of the Shema". The older I get, the more I realize how important the other side (the right-brained stuff) is.

Dyer's workshop at Bibletech 2009 also pointed me to another resource: Shane Hipps' Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes our Faith, published earlier this year by Zondervan. I recommend the book. I started with the dichotomy between left and right brainedness. Hipps calls the right brain (especially those of us who are left-brained propagaters of the propositional truth of Scripture), the Prodigal Brain.

I would like to read you a portion on Brain Balance (pp. 147-148):

One morning in December of 1996, a blood vessel burst in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain. She was a Harvard-trained neuroscientist who had spent her career mapping the micro circuitry of the brain in people with mental illness. That morning, over the course of four hours, she lost her ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life.

The stroke happened in the left hemisphere of her brain, which is responsible for all the functions she lost. With her left-brain muted, over the next few hours she began to experience life through her right-brain only. She describes it as a vastly expanded state of consciousness; she was fully immersed in the present moment. There was no past or future, only the now. She lost her ability to perceive the boundaries of her body and became aware of her total oneness with the energy of the entire universe. Molecules of her body mingled with the molecules of the air and objects around her. Her subjective experience was one of extraordinary peace and euphoric bliss. Not a religious person, she called that place "nirvana" or, more affectionately "La La Land."

It took a major surgery to save her life and two weeks to regain some measure of left-brain functioning. It took a full eight years to recover completely. But when she awoke, this left-brain scientist realized the incalculable value of the right hemisphere of the brain. Once her left-brain functioning returned, she learned how to establish a remarkable ecology or equilibrium between the hemispheres of her brain, which unleashed a torrent or creative and spiritual energy that had been dormant under the blanket of left-brain thinking alone. This changed her life completely. She later observed that this experience taught her more about the brain and human potential that all of her years of research.

Shema yisra'el adonay eloheynu adonay ehad.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut. 6:4-5, verse 4 in Hebrew, verse 5 in ESV).

Technology is Not Neutral

John Dyer, Director of IT at Dallas Seminary, gave a very interesting talk at the recent Logos Bible Software BibleTech 2009. I'll embed a synchronized version of his lecture and the PowerPoint slides that accompanied it below. It is about 47 and a half minutes long, but it is worth the time taken to listen (and watch).

Technology Is Not Neutral: How Bible Technology Shapes Our Faith

View more presentations from John Dyer.

What do you think of this decision, Dad?

Art work from World Magazine, April 11, 2009

From the start, let me make it clear that I am not trying to hold a conversation with my deceased father. I understand the Biblical injunction against trying to contact the dead (Deut. 18:11, Isa. 8:19). The title of this post is merely a literary device to get the reader's attention.

You see, my father was born and raised in Iowa. He ministered in Iowa for many years (1954-1959--that's the part that I was around for, and later in his life from 1979-1992, when he retired from full-time ministry). My mother was also born and raised in Iowa. I think that both of them were proud to be from Iowa. I lived there for almost 5 years of my life. I was a pretty happy kid there, I think. It was in Iowa that I had my first church camp experience (what I seem to remember about that was that a bottle of pop cost only five cents); it was also in Iowa that I remember my first clover-leaf exit off of an expressway. I think it was en route to Central Iowa Bible Camp, just 3 miles off of Interstate 80, west of Des Moines. In recent years, I participated with a group of students in an ad hoc club name WOI, rumored to stand for Wannabees of Iowa. I digress--back to the issue at hand, Fish!

The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, upholding a Polk County District Court decision from 2007, appealed by the county. The ruling was unanimous, making Iowa just the 3rd state in the nation (Massachussetts and Connecticut are the others) to legalize same-sex marriages. It is the first Heartland state to receive such a ruling.

As a Christian who believes that homosexual unions are wrong, I am not against affording them basic civil rights. I would much prefer that their unions be labelled as that: civil unions, rather than marriage. 

Perhaps what has happened in Iowa is a portent of what is coming down the pike. I can't help but wonder what my father would think!

Robert Frank McGill (1919-2009)

The Arizona Republic published my father-in-law's obituary on April 1. It reads:

McGill, Robert Frank
89, of Sun City, AZ, formerly of Indianapolis, Indiana, passed away at his 

home in Sun City, Arizona on Friday, March 27, 2009. Robert was born 

on December 18, 1919 in Jennings County, Indiana the son of William 

Henry and Jennie Lee (Dishin) McGill. He married Mary Ruth Hanes on 

August 9, 1942 in Indianapolis. A devout Christian with a servant's heart, 

he served as an Elder at Lawrence Christian Church in Indianapolis, First 

Christian Church of Ft. Myers, Florida and, most recently, First Christian 

Church of Sun City. Robert was a quiet, hardworking man with a wonderful 

sense of humor. After his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his priority was 

always his beloved family. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Mary 

Ruth McGill, 7 Children, 18 Grandchildren and 31 Great-Grandchildren. 

He was preceded in death by 5 siblings and 1 Grandson. A memorial 

service to celebrate his life will be held in Indianapolis at a later date. 

Memorial contributions in his name can be made to the American Heart 

Association.

We are all richer for having known him. When all (or most of) the family would get together, he used to break out in a huge smile, and say, "Look what I started!" Indeed!

A Memorial Service will be held in Indianapolis, IN on June 6.

This is Who My Wife Wants to See so Badly

Little kids are really funny at times, especially when they are REALLY tired. Here is my 3rd grandson. Rose will see him and his two older brothers Monday night.

Another Issue Above His Pay Grade

This in from the upcoming issue of World Magazine.

Grammar as an Emotional Trigger

I've just returned home from a Commissioning Service for a team of missionaries (oops, I forgot to call them Global Partners), composed of 3 couples and a single woman. They are affectionately called the B-Team, a name that bears some significance because of the place they are going, while at the same time hiding some of the details. For their security, I will refrain from using their names. They are all dearly loved.

During the service, I found myself becoming more emotional than used to be common for me, being the rational person that I am. I found it interesting that grammar provided my emotional trigger. We sang a Marie Barnett song that is commonly sung, but the words were changed (changing the focus) from the first person singular to the third person plural. The lyrics were intentionally changed to focus on the people the B-Team will be going to reach, at first singing in a prophetic sense, "You are the air they breathe. . ." At that point in the song, I was thinking, "Nice touch!" The emotions started coming later in the song:

You are their daily bread.
You are their daily bread.
Your very word, spoken to them.
And they, they're desperate for you.
And they, they're lost without you.

Think about it. That's the very reason the B-Team is going there. They don't even know how desperate they are for Jesus. May God bring fulfillment to our future-looking praise!

A little later in the service, Beau Hamlin, our High School Youth Minister, sang a song he had written in conjunction with one of the B-Team Members. I want to share the lyrics with you.

I'm not sure, what to be saying
So, I'll just start talking, maybe you'll see
The anticipation, oh it just keeps building
I don't want to leave but, I don't want to stay

It's like a mourning process, leaving on this mission
Do you know my feelings? Can you feel my tension?
'Cause, I love my family, but I know my calling
And I love my Savior, and my heart is willing

Uneasy? Yes. We're scared to jump.
But, we took the trip and we saw enough.

He's our strength. So we're going to jump.
We took that trip. And we saw enough.

People we met, faces we saw; broken buildings, torn down walls
History of war, crying for life; broken people, needing light.
We didn't see it all . . . but we saw enough.

It's intimidating, 'cause the ones before us
Never found a system, not a one they could trust

We better be longwinded, if we choose to run this
We better keep our focus, we gotta' know we're His

Uneasy? Yes. We're scared to jump.
But, we took the trip and we saw enough.

He's our strength. So we're going to jump.
We took that trip. And we saw enough.

People we met, faces we saw; broken buildings, torn down walls
History of war, crying for life; broken people, needing light.
We didn't see it all . . . but we saw enough.

About 33 years ago, my wife and I were at the same jumping off place. I can remember some of those same emotions. I thank God for these young adults, for their commitment, and for what they will accomplish in His name. Soli Deo Gloria.

CNBC's Jim Cramer calls Obama's Policies "The Greatest Wealth Destruction Ever"

On the NBC Today Show:

I Found an "As You Are Going!"

The idea of this blog entry comes from my devotional reading in the Greek New Testament. On Thursdays, I meet with a small group of guys during what used to be one of our chapel services. In our small group today, students were asked to fill out a Student Satisfaction Survey, designed by Noel-Levitz. The survey was designed to take 20-25 minutes of our time.

I decided to read some of the Greek New Testament (off of my phone), while I was waiting. I remembered where I had left off, having finished Matthew 9, with the great passage on missions. I began reading in Matthew 10, where Jesus names the apostles, and then sends them out (Matthew 10:5). They were to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When I got to Matthew 10:7, I thought, "Eureka! I have found it! The great lost "As you are Going!". Here is verse 7, just as I encountered it:

πορευόμενοι δὲ κηρύσσετε λέγοντες ὅτι ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

The NIV text follows the Greek word order more closely than the ESV.

NIV: As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’
ESV: And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

The word πορευόμενοι is a present participle, usually translated as an -ing word. For years I have heard people assert that the Greek Commission text of Matthew 28:19-20 does not command people to Go! Usually they will identify the "go" word in the passage (πορευθέντες) correctly as a participle (though they seem not to recognize it as an aorist participle), and will state that there is only one imperative verb (make disciples), insisting that the participle (πορευθέντες) should be translated "as you are going."

As I stated earlier, I have heard this for years, usually from people who trained for the ministry at a sister school. The most recent time I heard it was over a year ago, when a prominent speaker (who trained for ministry at that school), made that same comment in a message in our chapel. I asked my boss if he could explain to me why people who studied there (have you guessed that I asked him because he went to graduate school there?) insist on making that false assertion. He speculated that it may have had to do with a very popular professor in the theology department that should have paid more attention to Greek before passing on wrong information (though he probably stated it with more grace that have I).

Concerning the Great Commission text, last year I found a document written by Daniel Wallace, author of the textbook we began using this year as our 2nd year Greek textbook. Last year, I made the article available to our 2nd year Greek students. Unfortunately, the document is no longer available on the web. If you would like to receive a copy of it, I can e-mail it to you, with the annotations I made.

As I continued reading into Matthew 11, I found another construction identical to the Great Commission structure--in Matthew 11:4:

πορευθέντες ἀπαγγείλατε Ἰωάννῃ ἃ ἀκούετε καὶ βλέπετε.

No Greek translator who knows what he or she is doing would dare render that verse as follows: "As you are going tell John what you hear and see." No! The clear meaning is "Go and tell John what you hear and see."

The grammatical structure is what Wallace calls attendant circumstance. Other grammars refer to this a coordinate circumstance. Daniel Wallace describes what happens:

The attendant circumstance participle is used to communicate an action that, in some sense, is coordinate with the finite verb. In this respect it is not dependent, for it is translated like a verb. Yet it is still dependent semantically, because it cannot exist without the main verb. It is translated as a finite verb connected to the main verb by and. The participle then, in effect, “piggy-backs” on the mood of the main verb. (Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, 640)

The participle "piggy-backs" on the mood of the main verb, being connected to the main verb semantically by the word and. So when a participle piggy-backs on an imperative verb, it gets imperatival force. We join them by the word and, which does not appear in the Greek text.

So, the Great Commission text does not say "As you are going . . .", but rather, "Go and make disciples . . ." Anybody who tells you differently has not read much Greek.

The Joy of Inductive Discovery (Greek)

I have been reading through the Greek New Testament once a year for the past several years. I enjoy it very much, and I think it helps me be a better teacher of Koine Greek, DUH!

This year I started off with the Gospel of John (easy), then I read John's epistles (easy), and from there went back to Matthew, at which time I will read straight through the New Testament, skipping over the books previously read.

First year students of New Testament Greek learn a couple pretty common deponent verbs as vocabulary:

πορεύομαι = I go
ἔρχομαι = I go, come

Students sometimes have difficulty with the concept of ἔρχομαι being either I come or I go. Which is it? In my reading today, included in the passage was the healing of the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5-13). In v. 9 the centurion tells Jesus that he tells one servant to go and he goes, but to another one he says to come and he comes. Both words are used in that narrative:

καὶ λέγω τούτῳ· πορεύθητι, καὶ πορεύεται, καὶ ἄλλῳ· ἔρχου, καὶ ἔρχεται.

At least in this setting, πορεύομαι is the one meaning go, and ἔρχομαι means come. Now you ought to take this knowledge, add $3.50 to it, and be able to buy at least something at Starbuck's.

Who is "The Forgotten Man"?

Late last year I read through Amity Shlaes' book, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. The phrase "forgotten man" was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt in a radio address given on April 7, 1932, in a time of economic crisis that many say is very much like our current economic crisis. FDR said,

These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

That quote reminds me of our president's speeches during the electoral campaign, where he "made a career" of criticizing the "failed policies of the last eight years" that expect prosperity to "trickle down from the top". Rather, Obama advocates a "trickle-up" approach to economics, believing that to continue in what he calls "the failed policies of the last eight years", will result in "trickle-up pain" rather than "trickle-down prosperity". For an example of his campaign rhetoric, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1VzBqqO_M0

President Obama seems to fashion himself after some of our highly-esteemed past presidents: Abraham Lincoln (using his Bible in the inauguration), Franklin D. Roosevelt (see Time magazine's cover from November 24, 2008), and John F. Kennedy (see Slate magazine's article from early in campaign). Obama's (Non)Stimulus Plan (parenthetical editorial comment added for effect) shares many of the attributes of FDR's New Deal, with heavy emphasis on infrastructure spending. My father lived through the Great Depression. I'd like to pick his brain about it, but I can't because he's already in heaven. I promise I won't try to get you to eat Potato Soup, Dad. Those who lived through the Great Depression that I have polled seem to be unanimous in the belief that what brought the U.S. out of the depression was World War II, not any of FDR's policies. Shlaes' book seems to agree, and offers unemployment statistics and market values to show how FDR's policies failed:

Obama's plan indeed may help the forgotten at the bottom of the economic pile. Julio Oseguedo and Henrietta Hughes are two such people (though Ms. Hughes' request was fulfilled by the wife of Republican Representative Nicholas Thompson). The reality, though, is that it is incorrect to call the person at the bottom forgotten.

In 1883, long before FDR, William Graham Sumner of Yale University used the phrase "the forgotten man". He (correctly, I believe) identifies the middle class as the truly forgotten--that the burden for trickle-up prosperity fall upon the middle class. This quote is insightful:

As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X, or in the better case, what A, B, and C shall do for X. . . . What I want to do is to look up C. I want to show you what manner of man he is. I call him the Forgotten Man. Perhaps the appellation is not strictly correct. He is the man who never is thought of. . . . He works, he votes, generally he prays--but he always pays. . . .

A and B are represented by the fat cats among our president's friends. Many of them evade paying taxes. Some of them even make it into our president's cabinet. Julio and others (represented by X in Sumner's quote) are helped, but it is always at the expense of C. As a member of C, I am in favor of helping X. But the reality is that the greatest help is not always in the form of a handout. The current administration seems not to understand that, as long as they can:
1) pass stimulus and bailout bills
2) print more money
3) reach into our pockets, and pass the bill onto our children and grandchildren

I don't like it. The economy is in a crisis, which is portrayed as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Such hyperbolic rhetoric is blatantly false. FDR's New Deal did not bring the nation out of the Great Depression. Obama's New New Deal has the likelihood of taking us into the greatest economic crisis ever. Those of us who stand to suffer the most are the forgotten ones in the middle of the socio-economic pile. We are mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren, soaking them with the sins of the fathers, to the third and fourth generation. I pray to God that I'm wrong.

Pelosi on the Urgency of Passing The Stimulus (sic) Package

I can imagine that the Aflac Duck is saying "Huh?":

Is there a preacher in here?

We watched this video in our Faculty Meeting on Friday. This video is rather long (about 8 minutes), but is worth watching. It is of a 5th grader, Dalton Sherman, who is addressing an assembly of 20,000 from the Dallas (Texas) Independent School District. Enjoy!

2 Bibles and 2 (or was it 3?) Presidential Inaugurations

I originally planned to write this short piece a couple days ago. When I saw the video done by CatholicVote.com that I posted yesterday, this post got 'poned (if you don't understand, insert another post at the point of the apostrophe).

This month we have seen two African presidents installed (though "African American" is the proper description of one of them): President Barack Obama of the United States of America, and President John Atta Mills of Ghana. Both of them took a presidential oath with a Bible. The fact that President Obama took a do-over oath (almost secretly--citing an abundance of caution) is really an afterthought to this post. I really wanted to talk about the Bibles used.

Obama took his oath, not on the Quran, but on the same Bible that was used in the first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln. John Atta Mills also used a Bible, but when I saw the photo (click on the link just to the left to see a larger image of the photo above), I was taken back. It is an English Standard Version, which is a relatively new entry (2001) into the world of English Bible Translations. The ESV site, linked above describes their translation philosophy in these terms: we have sought to be “as literal as possible” while maintaining clarity of expression and literary excellence. The more I use the ESV, the more I like it. In fact, I am reading through the Bible devotionally this year from the ESV. If you do not have an ESV, you also can read it online at the ESV site. It was earlier this year, when reading in Genesis from the ESV, that I noted a play on two Hebrew words in the same verse that I had never noted by reading any other English Bible. I checked the Hebrew text, a sure enough, two consecutive words, built off the same root. The ESV is the only English Bible I have ever read of that text that allowed me to make the mental connection between the words in the original. Try it, you just might like it!