Make your voice heard in your investments

What can you do about the "DIE" (diversity inclusion equity) mania infecting the corporations in which you or your pension are invested? And start calling it DIE, because that's the intention. It's certainly not "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

DIE has nothing to do with good values or Biblical morality or basic fairness. And no, the poor benefit the least. And the middle class foots the bill. The purpose of a business or corporation is to make money for the investors and to allow the CEOs to make ridiculous salaries while benefitting all the employees, but if they can punish the little guy start up competition by schmoozing with the latest fad and Democrat bosses, they will. It's the capitalist way. Without government interference and over regulation (to benefit their buddies), capitalism still frees the most people and in the last 30 years has lifted millions out of poverty. Back in 1990, The World Bank reports that 1.85 billion people lived in extreme poverty, but by 2013, the figure had dropped to 767 million. Socialism didn't do that. Socialism holds people back. It killed 100,000,000 in the 20th century. Capitalism works from the bottom up. The poor who risk their lives to cross our borders know that; our politicians don't. Nevertheless, smart capitalists fight the competition by joining what appears to be the enemy (socialism).

First, you'll need to start reading the documents that come with your investments. Second, you'll have to start voting. Yes, it's a pain. And I rarely read that stuff. Third, you may just have to write a letter or join/support a conservative political organization (not the GOP!).

Here's what I got from TJX today--that's formerly Zayre, and includes TJ Maxx and Marshalls. It has 4,557 stores in 9 countries, and based on the lie and line from the Left about Asians, I suspect many stores or suppliers are based in Asian countries. The DoJ tracks hate crimes (a stupid idea, I think), and this figure is so low that most cities report zero, and that which is reported is primarily black on Asian. It ignores the liberal crime of discrimination at Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

TJX annual report for 2020: "The increasing violence against the Asian and Pacific Islander communities is another stark reminder that injustice exists and that we must continue to work toward a better future for all. We are committed to listening to, and learning from, our Associates and taking actions to do better. We also broadened our charitable giving strategy to provide more direct support to Black communities, and increased our global giving to provide an incremental $10 million in grant funding over 2020 and 2021 to organizations that are actively working to support racial justice and equity. Hate has no place at TJX. In terms of environmental sustainability, we were pleased to exceed our goal to reduce our greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions per million dollars of revenue by 30% by the end of fiscal 2020, against a fiscal 2010 baseline, by achieving a 47% reduction. We also announced a new GHG goal, which is a 55% reduction in emissions from our direct operations by fiscal 2030 against a baseline year of fiscal 2017, a science-based target aligned with the United Nations’ Paris Agreement guidelines."

"Global giving" to organizations supporting racial justice is just blackmail. No black child will benefit. It's probably BLM, Inc. which has recently been in the news for the billions it's taken in from gullible white led corporations and white liberals so its Marxist founders can buy mansions and protest. It does not promote jobs or education, it exists to stir up trouble and make its founders rich (an old trick for non-profits which they probably learned from clever white people).

We all know that the Paris Agreement guidelines hold back American companies and allow Chinese factories to belch coal fired smoke and send us wind power blades that can't be recycled when they've ended their "service." When you see them filling up our prairies they are ugly as sin.
And no one even knows if reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) is a good thing--you've been told that. Science certainly doesn't agree. It's throwing billions at a future problem you can't measure and can't define, instead of improving life on the planet right now in real time.

So, you'll need to vote or write. Make your voice heard. Stop letting the Left drown you out!!!

Child abuse--transgenderism

John Money created gender. It was originally only a grammar term. He experimented on babies/children. You heard little about in the 20th century, and now the theory and the fake "facts" have exploded. It's being pushed by the Left--on children as young as 4 and 5. Why is that? A boy can't become a girl, but saying so could get you fired, or cancelled.

https://peltthepundits.com/2020/12/walsh-the-horrifying-origins-of-left-wing-gender-ideology?

"John Money was, among other things, a fraud and an abuser. Along with more conventionally degenerate views — his advocacy of open marriages and group sex, for example — Money was also, as a not very critical article in Salon puts it, “ambivalently supportive” of pedophilia. Drawing a distinction between what he called sadistic pedophilia and affectional pedophilia, Money held that a relationship between a grown man and a child who really love each other should not be considered disordered.

Speaking to a Dutch pro-pedophilia publication, Money explained, “If I were to see the case of a boy aged 10 or 12 who’s intensely attracted toward a man in his 20s or 30s, if the relationship is totally mutual, and the bonding is genuinely totally mutual, then I would not call it pathological in any way.” His tolerance for child rape may help explain some of the events that transpire later in the story."

Advice from an investment firm about Woke corporation

"As I have pointed out several times, the whole university left wing indoctrination has now permeated all of life, including large corporations who are being led to stick their nose in where it does not belong by Jeff Sonnenfeld of Yale. The best way corporations can help the poor and minorities, is to maximize profits, which leads to more hiring, which leads to wage increases, which leads to higher family incomes, and wealth creation for those willing to work hard and stay out of trouble. We saw it in 2019 when the economy was doing very well, and there were millions more job openings than people to fill them, and no government handouts to deter people from working. CEOs need to focus on building their companies to be the best profit and job producers they can, and leave the social crap to politicians, and those who make it their job. Well run companies that create jobs should hire the best people they can find, and build their talent base through apprenticeships where they can train the unskilled to be able to attain higher wages through effort, not skin color. The entire basis of “diversity and inclusion” is racist in that by hiring by skin color you are discriminating against the guy who had the wrong color, thereby undoing all that we all worked hard to overcome over the past 50 years."

Critical Race Theory, definitions and dangers

 From American Spectator, comparing it to the four states of cancer in which the signs aren't noticed until the victim is almost gone:  "In brief: critical race theory (CRT) is a modified form of Marxism that divides people based on race and culture rather than class. The worldviews are similar in every other important way, the most significant being that they are promoted and perpetrated by people seeking their own power and aggrandizement regardless of the cost to society or to humanity. In the first iteration of this mindset, this meant the death of about 100 million human beings.

Just as Karl Marx didn’t necessarily intend his philosophy to lead to the murderous pogroms of Stalin or Pol Pot or to Mao Zedong’s starving tens of millions of his own countrymen to death in “the biggest episode of mass murder ever recorded,” CRT founder Derrick Bell might not have intended his new “theory” to become the national cancer that it is. Indeed, CRT was initially little more than a debate in academia about the proper way to structure a college curriculum. No need for the “working man” or the “soccer mom” to care about that, right? The founding of CRT was Stage One of its cancerous spread; it was there, but nobody recognized its terrible, inevitable path." . . . and to stage four

"Purveyors of this evil mindset, such as Ibram X. Kendi and Kimberlé Crenshaw, race-hustlers like Al Sharpton and Robin DiAngelo (yes, race-hustlers can be white, too), and the mendacious yet still fêted-at-all-the-right-cocktail-parties Nikole Hannah-Jones, are making careers out of poisoning the minds of Americans and turning us against each other based on the immoral concept that a few hundred million individual Americans are responsible for misdeeds of mostly long-dead others, very often others who died before today’s Americans’ progenitors even reached these shores."

The Cancer of Critical Race Theory | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

Biden's American rescue plan isn't

A hike in the minimum wage for federal workers to $15/hour is in Biden's American rescue plan. Don't fall for it. Only a tiny percentage of Americans work for minimum--it will make no difference, except for reluctance to hire inexperienced, slow workers. First minimum wage law was passed under FDR during the Great Depression. Threw many black families out of work; before that, blacks had lower unemployment than whites. They used their labor to outsmart the white workers and could bid low for jobs when everyone was desperate to work. Before government "help" blacks also had a higher marriage rate than whites. Now it's low for both. Black men had a higher marriage rate than white men until 1950, and black women had a higher marriage rate than white women until 1970. This affects education, health and wealth of children. And look at the government programs that ran amuck with the "War on Poverty." Liberals will blame the war on drugs and prison rates, or advocate for more education, but I blame the government's "help."

"The flagship of the New Deal was the National Industrial Recovery Act, passed in June 1933. It authorized the president to issue executive orders establishing some 700 industrial cartels, which restricted output and forced wages and prices above market levels. The minimum wage regulations made it illegal for employers to hire people who weren’t worth the minimum because they lacked skills. As a result, some 500,000 blacks, particularly in the South, were estimated to have lost their jobs." Cato Institute, Dec. 3, 2003

The Minimum Wage: Enemy of Blacks – The Future of Freedom Foundation (fff.org)

On The Historically Racist Motivations Behind Minimum Wage (forbes.com)

https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2020/home.htm?

The Oscars 2021

Oscar ratings went from
57.2 million in 1998
to 43.7 million in 2014
to 23.6 million 2020
to 9.8 million 2021

Movies no one wants to see and lectures no one wants to hear from very self-important people no one respects.

Comparing apples and oranges and getting racism

In 2018, African American women were 50 percent more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white women. 80% of Covid victims have been overweight or obese. They also have higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. But the higher rate of Covid among the black community is called--you got it, RACISM. 

Should the government step into the homes of black families and supervise what they eat? In 2018, African Americans were 20 percent less likely to engage in active physical activity as compared to non-Hispanic whites. Should the government step in and put blacks on treadmills and force them into jogging and running? Black female American children are 24.1% obese compared to 10.4% of white female children. Should the government step in. 10% isn't a good rate either--do we just want "equity" for this health problem?

My BMI is too high, also. I've been battling the bathroom scale since I was 21. I've probably lost over 100 lbs the last 60 years, and if you think losing weight at 25 is hard, just try it at 80! But I'm not asking the government to take over my life, and I certainly don't blame my ethnicity and ancestors (Irish-German American, whose ancestors arrived before the Revolution).

Here's how I would set up a health research project. If 50% of black women and 38% of white women had the same problem, I wouldn't rant about DISPARITY and RACISM to make the evening news. I'd look at what the 50% of the black women were doing who didn't have the problem and compare to the 50% who did. Income, education, marital status, personal life style, smoking, alcohol, drugs, number of children, religion, exercise, and so forth. That's how to do research. That's how to change lives. Adding an MSW to your research team and getting published in JAMA isn't worth it if you can't make some progress with the target group.

Dry Bar Comedian for us old folks

https://fb.watch/56vTMI9reC/

Ross Bennett, comedy that is clean & politics-free!

Climate alarmists are misleading the country and the world

There is no climate catastrophe, unless you see trillions being wasted on a correction as the problem.

There is no climate emergency - Washington Times

Paris climate promises will reduce temperatures by just 0.05°C in 2100 (Press release) | Bjorn Lomborg

There is no climate emergency, say 500 experts in letter to the United Nations | American Enterprise Institute - AEI

Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions - Competitive Enterprise Institute (cei.org)

Al Gore's Doomsday Clock Expires & Climate Change Fanatics Are Wrong Again | National Review

The most recent claim from the purveyors of climate catastrophe is that recent temperature increases are “unusual and unprecedented.” However, records indicate that modern warming began more than 300 years ago in the depths of the horrific Little Ice Age. The first 250 years of that warming preceded 20th century CO2 increases and were necessarily 100% naturally driven.

Solar panels from China are made by slave labor, same with the giant ugly wind mills covering our prairies. But Biden invited them to the climate meeting so he could cave to their demands. Putin and Xi Jinping took time off last week from attacking Ukraine and Hong Kong to attend on zoom. Sweet. Did Biden give away the store--we'll see.

Immune system and Covid

Today I saw a celebrity on TV advertising a healthy lifestyle for combating Covid--better nutrition, lose some weight. Improve immune system. Just like zinc and Vitamin D and Vitamin C. I wonder if that is a heinous crime under HR 133?

The FTC is charging Eric Nepute and Quickwork LLC in a federal court for the heinous crime of advertising zinc and vitamin D to combat covid-19. Gasp. Isn't it good to know the gummit is looking out for dangerous characters while it ships unvaccinated illegals around the country with no testing or mitigation.

In HR 133, according to CLG News, Congress gave the FTC authority to target, arrest and fine anyone who doesn’t follow the government's narrative on lock downs, masks, quarantines and vaccines. Anyone who promotes a healthy immune system can now be charged and fined for the "criminal" act of helping people treat and overcome respiratory infection.

 
So I looked at HR 133. You could pass out reading about billions here and billions there for all manner of things.

Does Wright bear any responsibility for resisting arrest?

Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib called for “no more policing, incarceration, and militarization” following the killing of Duante Wright by a police officer. I wonder if she means that. No Capitol police to guard her? No private security for politicians? No security in her apartment building in DC? No drug busts at the airports and other ports of entry? No police to investigate and bring to justice the murderers of 7,851 blacks in 2017? No police to track down and stop the rapists? Does she read the Uniform Crime Reports? Does she care about victims and their justice? All because 9 unarmed black men fleeing from or fighting police were killed in 2019 out of over 61 million contacts with police. In her state of Michigan the Racial Justice Project of ACLU Michigan wanted more transparency in traffic stops so justice for blacks could be guaranteed. What they found is that blacks were 17% of all traffic stops in 2017, nearly 19% in 2018 and more than 20% in 2019. But somehow the percent of stopped drivers--usually young men--should line up with demographics, which includes children and elderly. So how will black families and businesses be helped by no policing of drivers? Or middle east angry immigrants who live in Michigan? Due to Covid there were fewer people on the road in Michigan (isn't it still on lockdown?), police were making fewer stops, and more people died than in a year with normal traffic, according to this. https://www.freep.com/.../michigan-traffic.../3505170001/ Seems with fewer cars there was more speeding, and no one to stop them. So perhaps that's what Tlaib wants?

"King James" takes down his tweet about Columbus girl

LeBron James put up a tweet suggesting that the Columbus officer who saved 2 black girls from being stabbed should be taken out--posted his photo. Then when the video of the crime scene proved him an idiot, he took it down with this excuse.

  

Washington Post reported the 2019 stats. 9 unarmed blacks were killed by police; 19 unarmed whites were killed by police. You only know about the blacks because the media are making money off their deaths. Ghouls. Considering that the crime rate for young black men is 6x higher than for white men, which group is more often killed? There are millions of encounters (61.5 million, more with whites than blacks) between police and citizens/non-citizens in a year. Traffic stops and domestic violence calls probably put their lives in danger every day. Being killed by police rarely happens to either white, black or Hispanics unless they are avoiding arrest, and they aren't under suspicion for a crime unless someone has contacted the police. Someone had called police about the 16 year old attacking people with a knife. LeBron needs to stick to bouncing and throwing balls for a living because he wouldn't last a week on the police force. If he really wants accountability, read the crime reports.

In the prior 12 months, as of 2018, among persons age 16 or older—

About 61.5 million residents had at least one contact with police.

Twenty-four percent of residents experienced contact with police, up from 21% in 2015.

Whites (26%) were more likely than blacks (21%), Hispanics (19%), or persons of other races (20%) to experience police contact.

There was no statistically significant difference in the percentage of whites (12%) and blacks (11%) who experienced police-initiated contact BJS NCJ 255730

https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=7167 Check data table 1 for race and sex differences in police contacts.

LeBron James has a gazillion dollars, but won't criticize China which actually has slaves, but he will demonize his own country. He'd probably loose his "franchise" if he had to tell the truth about race in America. I can't believe he calls himself "King James." He was probably watching NBC which edited out the knife in the video they showed their viewers.

Stay strong, be informed

A few of my favorite sources to help you stay strong. However, you do need to catch CNN and the alphabet media occasionally so you understand their lies and arguments and know the insipid gruel and pablum half of America are living on. These hosts are not think-alike weaklings. All moderates. What are your favorites?

GoodFellows (Hoover),
Candace Owens,
Victor Davis Hanson,
Dave Rubin (Rubin Report),
Dennis Prager (Prager U),
Tucker Carlson (Fox),
Glenn Beck (BlazeTV),
Heritage Foundation,
Hillsdale College,
Jordan Peterson,
Hoover Institution,
Zuby (black English rock musician/body builder with a political show),
Bret Weinstein (liberal who refused to be bullied and was fired from academe),
Matt Walsh,
Dinesh D'Souza,
Young America's Foundation,
Michael Knowles,
Ben Shapiro,
EWTN News, (World Over with Raymond Arroyo)

What is Black Lives Matter about? Marxism.

What is BLM really about? It's not race, so stop thinking "civil rights," or even "equal rights." It's about POWER and MONEY. Simple. Clarity. No different than the Reformation, or the Crusades, or even our own 18th century revolution which wrested the power from England and enabled the richest nation in the world to develop. The little guys get hurt, and the power brokers walk off with the fat purse.

 
This video is a tiny introduction to BLM, so take 3 minutes to be informed, to see what's really going on. Then you can trash all the nonsense you see in the liberal media and social media about "white supremacy" being the problem of the unrest. A recent report on white supremacy by Washington Post couldn't locate any problems on the Left, even with cities burning all last summer and Portland having regular explosions and attacks on police and federal buildings. Do you really think all these corporations are suddenly as "woke" as the college administrators? Now there's your "white supremacy." 

• Coke, MLB, Delta trying to destroy millions of jobs in black Georgia and taking the power and money to white Colorado. 
• If there weren't a pot of gold at the end of the trans/gay/black rainbow do you think they would give a flying fig? 
• Do you really believe that 3 white teenagers with rifles driving around in a pick up are destroying thousands of small businesses and the livelihoods of their employees? 
• Why do you think the SC story of a black former athlete killing 6 whites, including 2 children, disappeared overnight, yet the Columbus story of a policeman saving the lives of two black girls when he shot a third continues to make the rounds of the news? One story doesn't sell, doesn't meet the narrative, and the other does. 

Stop believing a pack of lies by WaPo, NYT, LAT or the Columbus Dispatch; unhook from CNN and MSNBC. You've got the evidence; you have a brain. Find the independent journalist or reporter with a camera and a voice and dig in or lose your country.

https://youtu.be/8J68p5l-gjQ

NBC edited video of knife attack in Columbus

I don't understand why some media sources deliberately mislead the people who trust them for information. NBC destroyed its credibility on the recent stabbing incident in Columbus that resulted in the police shooting to death a 16 year old girl attacking other young girls in a suburban neighborhood. Based on the Twitter lynch mob, including Valerie Jarrett, only some black lives matter, and the two girls being attacked didn't matter. It's clear on the various videos what was happening, yet NBC edited out the knife! NBC did a similar edit on the George Zimmerman case too. The day before the Columbus incident a 13 year old girl was killed by another 13 year old, also by knife, in Cincinnati. The media didn't care about that child because no one was killed by the police. But she's still dead! 

Knives are lethal weapons, and the fact that the assailants are still children doesn't change the danger to the victims. The media are after ratings, they ignore crimes if they do not have a racial angle they can blow up. I believe in capitalism is a good system, but I also believe there is ill gotten gain, So, actually, I do understand why NBC did it--profit.

Nolte: NBC News Caught Deceptively Editing Columbus Shooting Video and 911 Call (breitbart.com)

The Breitbart reporter had a more sinister view on why NBC did this.  

"So why would correspondent Kevin Tibbles, anchor Lester Holt, and NBC News broadcast something so transparently manipulative, inciting, and dishonest?

The answer is obvious: They want to start another wave of race riots; they want to see more Democrat-run neighborhoods burn to the ground.

There is no other rational answer."

Violent crime rates going down

Fifteen unarmed black men were shot by police last year (and that usually doesn't happen unless a crime is taking place). However, about 48 police were killed by criminals (40 white, 7 black, 1 Asian). Obviously, since the number of police is far smaller than the number of young men (the usual demographic), the rate of violence against police is far greater than rate of force against men (usually men). These figures are always disputed, and for some reason the hyperbole is based on total population of blacks (13%) rather than the demographic of 17-40 . And if you want demographics, Hispanics, which is the largest minority in the country, generally have lower crime rates than either whites or blacks.

 Checking victim rates makes more sense--victims are all ages and sex and race. NCVS statistics identify the victims and the offenders. Black victimization is far higher in number and rate, even with a much smaller population. And usually the offender is the same race, and victims can identify them.
The overall rate of violent victimization from 2005-2019 fell 26% (from 28.4 to 21.0 victimizations per 1,000 U.S. residents age 12 or older). However, the rate fell more for blacks (43%) than whites (24%) . Ask yourself, why defund the police if they've been able to reduce the death and violence among blacks? Sounds like another anti-black plan of the Democrats.

Is this crime decrease ever celebrated? That crime has gone down for all races under 3 difference Presidents? Democrats will never concede this. It doesn't fit their narrative that the U.S. is a dangerous, racist, hateful place.

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/vvre0519.pdf

Good old Joe flogs a dead horse

Although I don't believe in the myth of systemic racism, I do believe the Democrats have been a leader in the problem. Now they see it as something they can't define, or eliminate, but which they can flog like a dead horse, hoping to spread the stench for political gain. Therefore, it was odd to hear Joe Biden condemning the whole country for being racist, right after the trial of a policeman in a Democrat run city who had contributed to the death of a black man on drugs resisting arrest, and who had received a fair trial and was found guilty on the 3 counts. Biden and Harris should have been celebrating the system, not demeaning it. Are they disappointed that the city didn't again go up in flames with more black men killed?

 
If ever someone in the White House was a representative of "the system," and the "deep state," and the "swamp," it's Joe Biden. Forty seven years, I've heard, and he's contributed to every racial disaster and downfall that government has been able to produce. He took home the pork that devastated black neighborhoods or hurt black businesses with the interstate system. He took money from teachers unions which kept black children perpetually behind. He rushed to ignore the needs of black neighborhoods by jumping on the feminist, gay and trans bandwagons as "civil rights" movements. He helped destroy the lives of untold millions of black children before they could see the light of day, with 34% of abortions which he supports being for black women. With special grants and loans, he got black youth to prepare for dead end jobs in government so the Democrats could have a power base subservient to them. He sold his soul (and son) to China and Ukraine, which will damage every man, woman and child in the country regardless of race, ethnicity or political party.

Yes, Joe, tell us more about what racists we all are because Chauvin got a fair trial which was guaranteed him by our laws which you've sworn to uphold.

Stool testing

 This is not a topic I usually write about--I know nothing about it.  But I've been following Lucy for some time--because I started a class on the microbiome.  It was so gross (in my opinion) I dropped out, but did learn a lot and still think it's an interesting topic.  Her specialty is the gut microbiome.

Episode 172: Stool Testing with Dr. Lucy Mailing - Phoenix Helix

Dr. Lucy Mailing is a research scientist specializing in gut health, the microbiome, and nutrition science. Her stool testing expertise comes from both her graduate school training and her clinical practice. In graduate school, her research focused on the impact of diet and exercise on the gut microbiome. She employed a wide variety of stool testing technologies in her research and understands the science deeply. In her clinical practice, she analyzes stool testing reports with the goal of maximizing her client’s health.

FDA trafficking in aborted baby parts

"Last week, legal accountability group Judicial Watch dropped a bombshell: a nearly 600-page report proving the U.S. government has been buying and trafficking “fresh” aborted baby body parts. These body parts, purchased by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “humanize” mice and test biologic drugs in scientific experiments, came from babies up to 24-weeks-old gestation, just weeks from being born." 

So let that sink in and then read the rest of the article.

FDA Caught Buying 'Fresh' Aborted Baby Body Parts From Dealer (thefederalist.com)

"When an ABR employee reassured the FDA they were working with doctors who performed late-term abortions, he admitted some tissue was unusable from a procedure that injects a poison called digoxin into the baby, destroying its cells and tissues. Once the chemical has done its work, an intact, dead baby is delivered. This method makes fetal tissue specimens unusable in experiments; with digoxin off the table, the likelihood partial-birth abortions were used is sickeningly high."

The contracts between ABR and FDA which began in 2012 were stopped by the Trump administration out of concern for the legality. I suppose Biden will undo that Trump accomplishment too.

One Preacher’s Word to the Laity of North Georgia UMC:

I don't live in Georgia and I'm not a Methodist.  Our summer home is in a Methodist community and from time to time we do hear the ripples of concern about what's going on in that denomination. Rev. Lathem addresses the problems of many churches, businesses, families, academics and others. This is a timely message for all Christians. Some years ago our ELCA congregation and the synod went through the open sexuality issue for some of our clergy who had agreed at ordination to remain celibate which the synod was pushing.  Ours created with many others a new synod (NALC) for Canada, U.S. and Mexico, more conservative on many issues, including abortion. The transgender issue and gay marriage wasn't even being discussed, at least as far as members knew.  I'm sure insiders did.

Rev. Warren Lathem:

"Tonight [April 19] our North Georgia Bishop will address the laity of the Annual Conference. This presentation will be live streamed to those who pre-registered. I shared the link a while back and encouraged the laity to attend the meeting. If you did not pre-register, it will be made available at a later date, I am told.

 
I think it is important for the 400,000 or so laity of North Georgia United Methodism to hear and know what is this bishop’s agenda. Correctly understood, I believe the majority of Georgia Methodists will not be supportive.

 
However, the caveat is, “correctly understood.” Do I know what she will say? Of course not. However, I do know what she has been saying since coming to this Conference. I know much of what she has recently said to the clergy in a similar presentation. I know what she has recently published.
Further, I know much of her advocacy will be around the full inclusion of the LGBTQ+ in the ranks of the ordained clergy and the support for welcoming them “to the table.” This will show itself as the major presenting issue and will make it appear that anyone who does not support this agenda is unloving and unwelcoming. It will be clear that those of us who think of ourselves as Traditional are guilty of breaking Mr. Wesley’s rule of “Do no harm.” In the name of love she will, I suspect, embrace one while excluding the other at this big table.

 
There are a few problems with this, as far as I am concerned. First, it is the assumption that those of us who have voted for years to reject the ordination of practicing homosexuals and the ritual of same sex marriage actually hate the people impacted by our theological position.

 
Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of us have family members, fellow church members, dear friends and colleagues who self identify as those we supposedly hate. Yet we love them, welcoming them into our homes and lives and ministries. We simply reject these two aspects, same sex marriage in the church and ordination. We believe in their equal civil rights. And further, many of us have actively sought to minister with and to them.

 
The language which identifies us as “haters” and “bigots” (I do not think the Bishop will use those words) is painful to us as it completely mischaracterizes reality. Here I simply give one personal example.

 
In the 1980’s the AIDS Epidemic was raging exclusively (as far as we knew then) through the homosexual community. Often they were treated like modern day “lepers” by society, often by their own family and the church. The church I was serving was the first outside the Perimeter of Atlanta to begin a ministry with and to AIDS victims. We sought to love, embrace and serve those who had received a diagnosis of what was then a terminal and horrible disease. Yet, our theological orthodoxy caused others to label us haters toward the very ones God called us to love.

 
The second problem I have with the agenda she will, I expect, present is it will seem as if the only issue dividing the church is this issue. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 
We are divided over our understanding of scripture and scriptural authority. We are divided over theological issues as critical as Christology, Original Sin, Atonement, Repentance, Justification, Salvation, Sanctification, the Trinity, Universalism and much more. These are deep, deep theological differences. While both “sides” will use much of the same language, we mean very different things. That will be apparent to orthodox believers who listen very carefully to what our bishop says.

 
This theological division is not new. It has been present in the UMC since we first formed this denomination in 1968. The divergent views of the revelation of truth have taken two tangents which have moved further and further apart across these over 50 years.

 
The third issue will be it will appear, I think, that those of us who do not support her theological and social and ecclesiological agenda are simply an uninformed and narrow few. We are a minor part of the church and if a split occurred only “20 to 30” churches in North Georgia would leave the UMC for a more Traditional orthodox Methodist/Wesleyan denomination.

The assumption is that the vast majority of Methodists in North Georgia will support her agenda. I have served almost 50 years in the UMC, almost all of it in North Georgia. I have preached in dozens and dozens of churches in this conference. I have consulted with numerous congregations. I have known hundreds of lay leaders and worked with them on Walks to a Emmaus, Boards and Committees on Ministry, numerous Conference Committees and Task Forces, have taught courses in dozens of churches, have served as a District Superintendent, a General and Jurisdictional delegate working closely with the lay delegates and have shared about missions with an unknown number of churches in this conference. My appraisal of the laity of North Georgia is they are by far more Orthodox than my clergy brothers and sisters and once they clearly understand the Bishop’s theology and agenda will discover they are far removed from her vision of the faith and the church.

 
The fourth issue is what appears to be a coordinated attempt to silence any alternative theological, doctrinal or ecclesiological opinion divergent from her own. Pastors have been told directly by her district superintendents they are not to speak to the current theological divide in the church. Some have been obviously punished in the appointment making because they have been outspoken in their churches and the greater church. Some of our most effective Evangelical pastors have been invited to leave the denomination by their pastoral supervisors.

 
This has resulted in many clergy under appointment to simply be afraid to speak. This is not anecdotal. Dozens have privately shared this concern with me. They clearly do not agree with the position of the Bishop, but are fearful to speak about this crisis in their own congregations. They have witnessed the treatment of some who dared speak and they feel it necessary to remain silent.

 
As a retired elder, I am not vulnerable to appointment retribution and I can and will speak. Many of them privately thank me for raising a voice of opposition to what is being propagated in North Georgia Methodism.

 
But this is about the laity of the conference, not the clergy. You have no fear of the appointive impact of voicing your thoughts on these matters. You control the purse strings of the local churches and the annual conference and in many ways, the General Church since you make up the largest or second largest conference in Methodism. Your voice needs to be heard. You do not have the platform of the Bishop. In fact, you probably can’t even get the names and contact information for your fellow local church lay leaders. This has been carefully controlled by the Conference. This was not the case in the past. You should ask what has changed.

 
Further, lay folks, your sense of justice and fair play will be manipulated to make it appear if you do not agree with this theological agenda you are unloving, even hateful. Do not fall for it. The laity of this Conference are among the most loving, gracious, and generous people I have ever known. You have stayed faithful while often you have been assigned ineffective pastors or pastors who held very divergent beliefs from your own. You have remained faithful as the growing rift between the local church and the Boards and Agencies of the church has continually widened. You have tolerated the often anemic and even heretical theology taught in many of our denominational seminaries and by some of your own pastors. You have watched as scores of your fellow Methodists, family and church members have simply walked away from your church to join another, more vital congregation. They rejected the chaos and theological drift of our denomination. You have stayed faithful while the conference has escalated closing churches and adjusted to rapidly shrinking resources, Yet you funded generously clergy salaries and pensions. You paid off our unfunded pension liability in spite of the current message. You have supported mission here and around the world. You have fed hungry people, removed debris from natural disasters, taught Sunday School, built Habitat Houses, sung in the choir, joined UMM and UMW. You have supported great ventures such as Camp Glisson, Mountain Top Boys Home, Murphy/Harpst Home, our denominational Colleges and Universities and Seminaries, our Methodist Hospitals and so much more.

 
Stay the course. Do not be confused. Like me, many of you are several generational descendants of your Methodist fore-mothers and fathers. Our faith, our doctrine has not changed. We are followers of Christ and children of the Wesleys. We know what we believe. And this current theological formulation is not it. Use your voice and your influence. Pray for your Bishop and your pastors and your fellow Methodists.

 
The time for amicable separation has come. It is time for leadership to act on the proposed Protocol for Separation in the UMC. Choose this day whom you will serve. “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” I Corinthians 15:58.