The aftermath of the Kirk memorial

Don Lemon, formerly of CNN, wasn't happy with the over 100,000 who turned out to memorialize Charlie Kirk, according to a brief clip I saw. He's desperately afraid of the First Amendment. You know, the one that guarantees him the right to sleep in on Sunday and talk smack all he wants. I wonder if he noticed millions were attending church that same day, and no one seemed to show alarm at that.

Joe Biden closed down our churches and schools (technically it was governors) and most haven't recovered. Did Lemon complain? Nearly all churches have returned to in-person worship since the lockdowns ended in addition to their online services. Yet most churches still have not returned to their pre-pandemic attendance rates. Maybe we'll see an uptick, maybe not. But it wouldn't be a bad thing for people to return to regular church attendance. Interestingly, 23% of pastors of small churches (fewer than 50 in attendance pre-pandemic) report being up to 90%-100% of pre-pandemic attendance rates! This is much higher than for larger churches. (Lifeway Research)

Yesterday, I watched the Kirk memorial prelims and then 7 hours of the memorial itself. I'm feeling grief and sorrow for the likes of AOC, the Squad, the View, Jimmy Kimmel, Tim Walz, Kamala Harris and all the "leaders" elected or not of the Democrats. They know so little and have missed so much. In a nation of winners, they are losers. In a nation of abundance of good will and honorable people, they are poverty stricken, they are beggars with empty cups. It's so sad.

Depolarization of Christians during this political climate

Our church is offering an educational unit on "Depolarization" to help members face the increasing divisions especially in the current election cycle using the Bible as a guide. Call it a polarizing subject, but abortion is at the top of my list. I don't want to nor will I attempt to bridge the gap between me and a Democrat, a Christian, a fellow member of the body of Christ, who voted twice to push through the abortion issues which passed this year in Ohio. A change in our state constitution to "protect the rights of women." And let's just throw in a recent side issue of men in women's sports and locker rooms bill, a bill which DOES NOT protect women, but which would allow continued mutilation of children, aka "affirming care." A bill which Republicans in the legislature needed to override the veto of our so called Republican governor, Mike DeWine.

Actually, I haven't heard too many conservatives complain about the divisions and polarization in our country--they seem to know that liberals are feeling some guilt and anxiety about the wars, the border, and abortion available to the last day, and THAT's causing them to see a profound chasm of the Democrats own creation. It's not the party they signed on to 30-40 years ago, nor the party I left almost 25 years ago. It's not for me to close the gap or wave the white flag.

My heart breaks for my country

 We’ve recently seen but few have read the Durham Report which is 380 pages of crimes at the highest level of government, especially of an agency that will call parents at school board meetings “domestic terrorists” but won’t police its own criminal bureaucracy. No one will be charged for these crimes even though some ineffective, powerless protesters from two years ago are still without trial. The very criminals listed in this report are still seeking more citizens to charge for January 6 for even being near the Capitol. Other rioters and looters from the summer of 2020 have never been charged or have received light sentences.

Also this week we heard testimony of three whistleblowers from the FBI.  The agency which is supposed to protect their rights, and our rights to disagree with the government—the FBI--refuses to recognize they are whistleblowers!  Their damning testimony seriously calls into question the events of January 6, 2021. And therefore, some members of the Congressional committee sneered and ridiculed their stories of abuse, loss of jobs and income.

We are embroiled in a horribly expensive (in both blood and treasure) proxy war in Europe between two Christian nations, while at the same time ignoring the debt ceiling reality. More billions approved today.  No one in our government is even suggesting brokering a peace.  Thousands of people are dying and we stand at the brink of nuclear war—no one in the world will survive that.  Not even the people who are making billions from such a war. Meanwhile, we ignore two other major wars among Christians because they are in Africa.  Black lives do not matter.

We no longer have borders.  And without borders there is no country.  6.5 million people—including Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians, Africans, Chinese, Afghanis--have entered our country illegally in the last two years under the present administration.  They join all those who came before them and are now protected by a patchwork  of Executive Orders.  These are not legal immigrants, and few are refugees.   The years of promising “The American dream” in story, poetry and song to our own citizens is a joke. Much of the mischief is caused by NGOs, paid for by our donations to our churches and grants from our government with our taxes.

Coming across the border financed by the drug cartels and NGOs is a huge drug enterprise. The sex trafficking of women and children is also very lucrative. This is killing our own children and the children of other nations.

Special interest money is choking off the spirit and promise of the United States.  No one can or even wants to stop George Soros who has put 70 prosecutors in powerful big city offices  which have politicized the criminal justice system.  The criminals they put back on the streets are allowed to terrorize minority communities.  

Our U.S. oligarchs like Bezos, Gates and Zuckerberg are steam rollers at election time allowing our Bill of Rights to be mangled and rendering our own votes useless. Twitter was allowed via the mob violence of its “members” (and bots)  to destroy all manner of civil rights and protections.  No one stops them; they are the worst crony capitalists in our history and make the Ukrainian, Russian and Chinese oligarchs look like beginners.

Children are being maimed by “top and bottom surgery” and made infertile with cross sex hormones and genital surgery in tax supported “gender affirming” medical clinics all over the country—one at Ohio State just a few miles from my home.  Transgenderism has become the new civil rights movement of the current party in power as mentally confused children are told from an early age from their libraries to their school classrooms to the locker rooms of the sports teams that biological sex is not real. We have Supreme Court Justices who cannot define a woman because sex has become a political tool instead of God’s way of procreation.

The pandemic lockdown threat is not over.  All the societal protections bowed to a powerful bureaucracy which gave authority over our lives to local and state public health agencies with unelected, barely educated staffers. That power can be reinstated at any threat because we gave up freedom for safety.  All lessons from the past about health, quarantines, masks, mental and physical health were tossed overboard.  It was lust for power, not concerns for safety or life. Our church boards, pastors, priests, synods and fellowships just closed down and accepted money they didn’t need to use as they wished—but it was all “legal” when I questioned my church.  Legal but not moral. Some churches which did stand up to this injustice are still having battles in court.

Our independent media are a joke. The misinformation and disinformation are coming from the very agencies that warn us about the problem. In foreign countries journalists can be jailed; at home they are fired, cancelled or reassigned.

Churches and pregnancy clinics are terrorized and vandalized and the FBI looks away or arrests people praying at clinics. We are expected to follow some unstated law about pronouns.

Whether you call it gaslighting, dystopian, or just crazy, we Americans are in a very bad, bad place. We are not just denying God, we’re denying biological evolution, all the achievements of Western civilization, the beauty of nature, and ordinary common sense.

Loneliness affects health

"The Weaponization of Loneliness" [book] offers a message of hope. We can resist this psychological warfare if we have strong bonds in our families, faith communities, and friendships. Let's resolve to talk to one another openly and often, especially about the consequences of giving in to social pressures and media hype. Indeed, totalitarians always seek to destroy private life because it is the very fount of freedom. (promo)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/.../the.../1142494107

I haven't read this book, but research in the social and medical sciences had long shown for decades the importance of faith communities and friendships for good health. (Remember "Bowling alone?") So what do you do when the government tells the churches to close because they aren't essential? Well, we know the answer to that one. The churches (all but a few) complied.

Two years ago (too late to help much) research at Harvard reported by Fee.org noted the damage isolation had done. "The most obvious solution to the accelerating loneliness epidemic during the pandemic response is to lift the lockdowns and related public health policies that keep people cruelly separated from one another." Follow the science didn't apply to the obvious; the "science" was too busy trying to destroy President Trump. But research did find younger people were hurt more than older. Liberals and the over-educated academics and politicians particularly revered the bad advice of Fauci and the Biden Administration which damaged the young both physically and mentally for years ahead.

Yesterday I stopped at Panera's for a cup of coffee.  A group of about 12 women rearranged tables for their get-together.  Didn't look like a church group--could have been retired teachers.  As they were gathering, I heard one of them say she'd had Covid three times.  Remember three years ago how thrilled we were to get the vaccination, only to learn later the protection only lasted about 3 months?

Churches and the Paycheck Protection Plan of 2020 (PPP)

Very few churches turned down the PPP money, but they sure shut their doors and service obligations when the state said tattoo parlors and bars were essential but churches weren't. Not taking the name of the Lord in vain has got to be bigger than not cussing and swearing.

https://youtu.be/6NhKH91nvJg Dave Ramsey's view--he feared the rules would be changed

Church, Ministry, and the PPP: Should Churches Take Government Handouts? – Dispensational Publishing

For some churches, paying back PPP loans is better than forgiveness (religionnews.com) Some churches didn't use the loans or gave them back.

Ministries and Churches Receiving More than $1-M in Paycheck Protection Program Funds – MinistryWatch Evangelical churches that received a million or more in PPP

The big lie--the U.S. was founded on slavery

In a Q & A session this past week I heard a fellow Christian, a Lutheran, piously repeat one of the biggest lies of our era: that our country was founded on slavery--it's based on the 1619 New York Times misbegotten, misinformation, vanity award of several years ago. No respectable historian ever accepted it, but liberals eager for self-flagellation willingly drink those polluted waters. The wealthy middle class matrons seem to love the topic for their book clubs and tea.

"The 1619 Project is not history; it is ignorance. It claims that the American Revolution was staged to protect slavery, though it never once occurs to the Project to ask, in that case, why the British West Indies (which had a far larger and infinitely more malignant slave system than the 13 American colonies) never joined us in that revolution. It claims that the Constitution’s three-fifths clause was designed by the Founders as the keystone that would keep the slave states in power, though the 1619 Project seems not to have noticed that at the time of the Constitutional Convention, all of the states were slave states (save only Massachusetts), so that the three-fifths clause could not have been intended to confer such a mysterious power on slavery unless the Founders had come to the Convention equipped with crystal balls. It behaves as though the Civil War never happened, that the slaves somehow freed themselves, and that a white president never put weapons into the hands of black men and bid them kill rebels who had taken up arms in defense of bondage. The 1619 Project forgets, in other words, that there was an 1863 Project, and that its name was emancipation.

Finally: the 1619 Project is not history; it is evangelism."

So for Christians especially it is chasing false gods to worship. Sigh. Our country has many flaws--it is after all full of sinners like you and me in need of a Savior and was founded by sinners who wanted worldly rewards. How could it be perfect? But this 1619 drivel is beyond any conspiracy theory the right wing ever imagined. The ignorance, the self-satisfaction, the smugness--it's like trying to escape through a California wild fire with someone using up the oxygen that's left.

https://www.city-journal.org/1619-project-conspiracy-theory

The 1619 Project: Sloppy scholarship and distorted history under consideration for Washington schools » Publications » Washington Policy Center

Down the 1619 Project’s Memory Hole (quillette.com)

The 1619 Project: Believe Your Lying Eyes by Seth Forman | NAS

Making churches relevant

 This is one more article about why mainline and evangelical churches are shrinking (i.e. dying, becoming irrelevant).  Unfortunately, the author after attempting to describe the problem--cultural suicide--suggests finding a new vision.  Huh?  Have they tried Jesus? This is an irrelevant article about why churches have become irrelevant.

The author is still quoting William Sloane Coffin.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/gloriouslife/2021/01/how-mainline-churches-closed-themselves/

A squirrley tail--noticed on Facebook

The Presbyterian church called a meeting to decide what to do about their squirrel infestation. After much prayer and consideration, they concluded that the squirrels were predestined to be there, and they should not interfere with God’s divine will.

At the Baptist church, the squirrels had taken an interest in the baptistry. The deacons met and decided to put a water-slide on the baptistry and let the squirrels drown themselves. The squirrels liked the slide and, unfortunately, knew instinctively how to swim, so twice as many squirrels showed up the following week.

The Lutheran church decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God’s creatures. So, they humanely trapped their squirrels and set them free near the Baptist church. Two weeks later, the squirrels were back when the Baptists took down the water-slide.

The Episcopalians tried a much more unique path by setting out pans of whiskey around their church in an effort to kill the squirrels with alcohol poisoning. They sadly learned how much damage a band of drunk squirrels can do.

But the Catholic church came up with a more creative strategy! They baptized all the squirrels and made them members of the church. Now they only see them at Christmas and Easter.

Not much was heard from the Jewish synagogue. They took the first squirrel and circumcised him. They haven’t seen a squirrel since.

Time to review for this next crisis

Let's review. It was a mistake to close churches, libraries and outdoor parks and recreational areas, three institutions that strengthen mind, body and soul. Thousands of non-covid deaths could have been prevented if governors (and the managers of these institutions--like pastors and librarians) would have paid attention to the decades of research that show their positive social, economic and health benefits. I remind you, because at the rate Biden is going, it will happen again. In 2020, he said he had a plan. Now we know the plan, so be prepared.

Cato Institute refuses the PPP loan

We probably receive 4-5 funding appeals a day. Today it was Cato Institute--haven't heard from them before, and not sure when we were ever a donor, although I use their research from time to time on my blog.

 
GUESS WHAT CHURCHES! Cato Institute said NO to the CARES Act loan (in April 2020), Paycheck Protection Plan.

 
Why? CATO as a libertarian think tank qualified, but is wholly funded by private donations, the "overwhelming majority of which come from individuals who will suffer material losses from the pandemic." To take the loan would undermine its mission and belief that the scope and power of government should be limited.

 
Wow. I wish pastors and church boards thought that way. That by taking money from the government (us) they would be undermining their mission to spread the gospel of Jesus. By taking the PPP loans they would be supporting the lockdown and denying responsibility to be self-reliant and fiscally responsible. The Cato letter (by Peter Goettler and Robert A. Levy) continues, even when government interventions are well-intentioned, "they often carry consequence worse than the problems they're intended to address, including disincentives to innovate, favors to special interests, anticompetitive barriers to entry, overlapping and confusing laws, and abuses of public power." True. True. And true.
My church is member supported. It didn't need the PPP loan. And neither did yours. Most of my FBF are members of Christian churches. Have you asked your pastor or church treasurer about the PPP loan and were you so unfaithful in your giving that they didn't trust you to do the right thing?

  https://www.federalpay.org/paycheck-protection-program Limit your search by your ZIP code and "religious organization." You'll be shocked. I was.

Palm Sunday 2021, All Glory, Laud and Honor

 Many churches are still on a limited schedule, buildings locked during the week, ministries of service that involve person to person contact closed, and even if meeting with social distancing, hymn singing is discouraged.  I've heard from friends who have changed worship locations that Shiloh Mennonite (London, OH) and Grace Fellowship (Upper Arlington, OH) and Resurrection Lutheran (Hilliard, OH) continue to have congregational singing. Today is Palm Sunday when Christians celebrate the entrance of Christ the Lord into Jerusalem.  Normally, and nothing is normal these days, at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, we would pick up a palm branch on the way into the sanctuary, wave the palms from the pew and sing with gusto . . .

All glory, laud and honor,

To you, Redeemer, King,

To whom the lips of children

Made sweet hosannas ring.

You are the King of Israel,

And David's royal Son,

Now in the Lor's Name coming,

Our King and blessed One.

https://youtu.be/h3a8fTTrAdE

https://youtu.be/zxzhFsuBijs

One of the commenters at the Indian site, Prashant L. Nemani, left this information; 

Words "Gloria, Laus, Et Honor" (Latin).Author: Bishop Theodulph Of Orleans [760- 821], Circa 820. Theodulph was born into the Italian nobility in 0761, but decided on a life of religious service. His first position was as abbot of a monastery in Firenze (Florence), Italy. In 781, Charlemagne appointed him Bishop of Orleans, France. However, this flourishing career came to an abrupt end with Charlemagne’s death. Louis the Pious suspected Theodulph of secret loyalty to political leaders in Italy, the country of his birth. These suspicions led to Theodulph’s imprisonment in Angiers in 818. His predicament is reminiscent of Paul’s incarceration in Rome. Like Paul, Theodulph’s faith sustained him inside cold stone walls. It was there he wrote ALL GLORY, LAUD AND HONOR, and there that he died in 821. Translated from Latin to English by: Rev. (Dr.) John Mason Neale [1818-1866], in 1851.

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) look up data

 You can check data for PPP by state, ZIP, type of organization.

Under open government transparency guidelines, information on recipients of the $595B in forgivable government loans issued through the 2020 Paycheck Protection Program by the US Small Business Administration (SBA) are a matter of public record. FederalPay.org has created a powerful search tool that allows public access to the PPP loan database.  Therefore, you'll see ads on this site.

This is the link for information about churches and non-profits, national: SBA Paycheck Protection Program - Religious Organizations - FederalPay

There are a total of 96,557 businesses in the Religious Organizations industry across the country that received PPP loans. They received an average of $80,452 per loan. Some are $10,000,000 like Diocese of Covington, KY, and Lutheran Social Services of Tampa, FL.

My church, UALC, received $667,000 for 107 employees.

Churches, the relief bill, and PPP

I think this $1.9 trillion relief bill, 9% of which is directed at Covid, is a trial run for universal basic income which U.S. socialists have wanted for a long time. Eighty Five years ago Democrats under the leadership of FDR extended the Great Depression probably 5-6 years longer than a natural recovery, now they want to do the same with the pandemic economic slump. 

I do hope that churches will turn down the 2nd application for PPP. Churches are member supported organizations which do not pay federal income tax. If they have the trust of their membership who continue to pay their pledges, there's money to pay staff. It's legal, but not ethical, to apply for PPP. Especially since so many churches sat in their closed buildings and were willing to be "non-essential" in the eyes of their state governments.

You'll be back, a musical parody

 https://youtu.be/CFduNE4pXAQ

This parody was written by Lonnie Lacy, an Episcopal priest living in south Georgia. Behind the Hamilton Video – GOD NEARBY (lonnielacy.com)  I thought it was very well done, and he heard from many about how it had helped in a bad time.  It has had over a million views, but I missed it earlier, so here it is.

The ending where he replaces the hymnals and communion elements made me  teary.

The future of our country, musings and opinions

Evi Kokalari, an Albanian immigrant, writes: "When I immigrated to America, I had faith for the first time that my vote would actually count; that when I cast my ballot, I was taking part in a sacred and meaningful process. In light of what has transpired over the past few weeks, however, that faith has waned. What is unfurling in America today has been going on in Albania for decades, and I fear for the future of our democracy."

Evi, I feel much the same. In 2016 with Democrats and crazy pink hat ladies ranting about a "stolen election" I knew they just didn't understand the electoral college and what our founders intended. In 2020, I know it was stolen in the middle of the night with massive fraud, and we're no better than any of those other banana republics we've sneered at.

Combine the election fraud with the failure of our churches to stand up to the government, and I really feel we’re living in a remote jungle in a foreign land.

A very spiritual Sunday

 Yesterday I attended two different church services, and one political gathering that opened with prayer and closed with the Doxology.  I was so tired I went to bed at 8 p.m. and slept until 4 a.m.  That's rare for me.  

I started with the 7:30 Mass at St. Andrew about 2 miles away.  I enjoyed the beautiful music, all the scripture--Psalm, Epistle, Gospel, the Nicene creed, and The Lord's Prayer.  I don't remember what the Homily was about--they are usually quite short. Then at 9:30 I went to Grace Fellowship which is about a mile north of our home, on the same street. Very friendly, young congregation.  Someone met me in the parking lot and walked me into church, explaining a little history since I told him it was my first visit.  Then when I noticed his nametag I realized I'd met him several times at Panera's where I use to go for coffee in the morning. Despite their friendliness and commitment to Christ and the Gospel, I won't go back.  Like a lot of churches with a young congregations, it was an assault on my ears and eyes. I was prepared for the noise, because our son used to play in a praise band. This was much, much louder, and since I'm on a heart rhythm drug that can be dangerous as one's heart tries to work with the thuds and booms. The light was a surprise.  It was in the dark.  All the nice windows (stained glass from the previous denomination that owned the building) are covered with darkening drapes, and sound absorbing objects are between windows (didn't do much). When the sermon started (video from Pickerington, Ohio Grace Fellowship church), the lights came up a little so one could take notes.  There were maybe 8-10 narrow columns of light in the front behind the large video screen.  When I blinked, each column would expand to about four.  It was very distracting. So my ears hurt and my eyes burned. That's not a worship experience, but it is a sensory experience which young adults may enjoy.  I still have my good hearing.  I was one of maybe 3 people people over 60. 

In the afternoon from 2-4:30 (ran long) I went to a friend's home with about 10 other like minded Trump supporters from my church.  There was one woman we all met for the first time, the founder of WomenFightingForAmerica.com.  Since our church has been on lockdown since April, it was really good to see people I hadn't seen in 6 months. The guest from Florida and our host talked a lot about what is at stake in this campaign--particularly religious freedom--but others talked about their concerns about our community which has been moving from red to purple to blue these last 2-3 elections, our schools which are buying into Critical Race Theory, the plans the left has for riots in DC after the election, regardless of how it turns out, and the squishiness of some evangelical churches and organizations. Very little was said about Trump because we don't see this as a race between Trump and Biden, but between two different philosophies and sets of values.

Why are our churches talking justice and racial reconciliation now—it’s trendy and they are woke?

2020 wasn't about George Floyd. BLM was launched in 2014 by three lesbian feminists steeped in Marxism.

"Homicide is the leading cause of death for young black men in the U.S., and around 90 percent of the perpetrators are also black. Yet for months [2014] we’ve had protesters nationwide pretending that our morgues are full of young black men because cops are shooting them. Around 98 percent of black shooting deaths do not involve police. In fact, a cop is six times more likely to be shot by someone black than the opposite. The protestors are pushing a false anti-cop narrative, and everyone from the president [Obama] on down has played along.” . . . Jason Riley https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/race-relations-and-law.../

• When did we pray for the millions of babies aborted?
• When did we hear sermons on bitter divorces and the need for understanding and acceptance? In fact, when did we ever even hear a sermon about marriage?
• When did we pray for all the families who’d lost loved ones from cancer or heart disease as we do for Covid19?
• When did we as a congregation ask for justice for the trafficked child or abused woman?
• When the Columbus police were told to stand down during the summer riots, did our church collect money for the damaged or destroyed businesses?

Yes, we need reconciliation, but it’s between members, not races.

Spokes model for millennials

Alyssa Ahlgren is a millennial who's made a name for herself by being blunt and unapologetically conservative, calling out her generation, including AOC, for being spoiled and naive.

She wrote a nice piece in late May about standing up to fear. Now it's nearly October and I think maybe she was wrong about Americans and what they would put up with.

"Americans were willing to take temporary hits to their liberties to flatten the curve. We followed the rules. We were compliant with the “15 days to slow the spread.” What we are not compliant with is the continued abuse of power backed by zero evidence and practiced in the name of the “common good” and “safety.” As the country’s leaders remain divided on locking down and reopening, Americans are starting to stand together. We will not be vulnerable. We will not be complacent. And we will not shrink in fear. After all, the American spirit was derived from rebellion and the desire to be free. Good luck keeping that locked down."

My church has timidly offered some parking lot and mid-week services, and my library still has closed branches and appointment only computers. I guess our walk doesn't match our talk, especially on the First Amendment.

https://alphanewsmn.com/alyssa-ahlgren-what-the-shutdown-has-taught-us/

Facial language fails with masks

Today I learned it is very difficult to scowl wearing a mask and have people get your message. The church I attend is still closed, so when we're in Columbus I attend St. Andrew Catholic, which is only a mile away. This has never happened before, but there were 4 men chatting 2 by 2 in the entry and in the back of the sanctuary. Usually, in my experience, Catholic churches are very quiet and people go there to worship not to catch up on the local news. I love the architecture, but the acoustics are poor with a lot of echo, so having someone talking (that sound seems to travel) makes it especially difficult for others to hear. I tried turning my head and scowling at them, but they either didn't get the message or they figured out I was a visitor and they had rights. I would like to tell them that  many churches in the U.S. are not open and they should appreciate what they have.

Can I get an AMEN?

The church is proving what the non-churched have said for years. We're invisible, irrelevant and unnecessary. Time to change that. Time to reopen.

"The church is not a building." How many times do we have to hear that!

"It's not loving to risk infecting people." It's also not loving to ignore other types of pain in the community.

"We've got more people at our Bible studies on Zoom than we ever had before." Great. Let's fire most of the staff and just buy everyone a new computer and blanket the neighborhood with Wi-Fi. Probably cheaper than maintaining our buildings and parking lots.

I've heard all 3 excuses from pastors. . . this week.

Let's stop living up (down) to the unbelievers' expectations.