In Regard to Peacemaking – Journal – November 2000

In Regard to Peacemaking - Journal – November 2000

Summits of Yore:  Promises, Promises and a Deal or Two by Robert Wernick – Smithsonian Mag – Sept 1986

Saladin, Sultan of Egypt ca 1190 AD, “Kings meet together only after the conclusion of a accord, for it is unthinkable for them to wage war once they know one another . . .”

Wernick: “There are conflicts that simply do not lend themselves to discussion . . . Abraham Lincoln could not have arranged a friendly chat with Jefferson Davis.”

At this late date I say, “Why not?”

I say elsewhere that we must keep talking – as Saladin said, “We must get to know one another.”  Children seem to be able to ‘get to know one another’ easier than adults.  Or is that so?  The major obstacle to peacemaking that I see is poor emotional health, and no age group has a monopoly on that.

Wernick says that the differences between Richard and Saladin were ‘irreconcilable’.  As it worked out, they were not!  Richard wrote to Saladin (each remained in his own camp), “Men of ours and of yours have died.  The country is in ruins and events have entirely escaped anyone’s control.  Do you not believe that it is enough? . . . There must be an end to all this.”

In the resulting compromise, “Richard’s warriors rushed into Jerusalem under Saladin’s safe-conduct, weeping with joy, and falling into the arms ‘as though they had been friends all their lives’ of the very Muslims they had been fighting for years.

The eventual fate of the two principals illustrates the futility of human endeavor.

For a report on the encounter See:  saladin_defeated_at_jaffa.htm

Take the situation between the Palestinians and Israel today:  America keeps saying that it is our policy to protect the sovereignty of nations, and yet we encourage Israel to conquer, over-run and subdue the Palestinians.  Unfortunately, the Palestinian voice has not been heard in this country, and probably won’t be.

Terrorism is the only response weakness has in its struggle with strength.  Until we give weakness another tool, for example a voice in the UN, it is going to use the tool that it has.  Do we get a message from the USS Cole?  Probably not.

When terrorists blew up the US Embassy in Africa, they showed pictures of the building on TV.  My first response was, “Why did we build a building like that in Africa?”  The response is usually, “To look after our interests in Africa (in this particular African nation).”  Right there is the place to look for answers.  What interests do we have in Africa, and do they conflict with the interests of the Africans?

When we saw the vicious fighting taking place in another African nation, my first question was, where did they get those weapons of mass destruction?  Africans should be fighting with primitive weapons.  Here again the answer is, “It is in our interest (or that of arms dealers) to sell these Africans these weapons.” No one asks what is in the best interests of the Africans.

So also, regarding the new billionaires:  I can’t believe that morality is a factor in their lives.  Free enterprise cannot be operating when any company can accumulate billions.  As soon as competition sees someone making a profit, it begins to produce a competitive product.  This may not be quite applicable in the case of the so-called dot com stocks, but when we know the details, it may be that there is a simple explanation.

The Accidental Candidate by Gail Sheehy – Vanity Fair – Oct 2000

What makes Geo W Bush tick?  Gail pries deeply to discover that there is no simple, single answer.  However, a major factor is that he has dyslexia.  He was never diagnosed as dyslexic, but his younger brother was, and dyslexia is inherited.  One problem is that that there is no clear cut definition of dyslexia, or I should say, we don’t know exactly what it is.

Nancy LaFevers, a Houston speech and language expert, says, “Dyslexics hear adequately, but seem to be unable to process quickly all the sounds in the word.  So when they go to retrieve a word they have heard, they will sometimes omit sounds, or transpose or even substitute sounds.”  I have never heard of this problem.

Heavy Mettle by staff – People Mag – 10/30/00  Brief descriptions of how six famous people were able to succeed in spite of dyslexia.  The title is a play on the term ‘Heavy Metal’ that describes a type of band and music, with ‘mettle’ meaning ‘pluck’.

Tom Gray, 22, who became a Rhodes Scholar, was diagnosed as having ‘dysgraphia’, a disorder characterized by disorganization, terrible handwriting, and an inability to spell.

11/4/00 Bookmobile Mail-order Div A History of the Hebrew Language by Angel S-Badillos – Transl and Edited by John Elwolde – 1993 – Cambridge Univ Press – NYC

 Badillos is Prof of Hebrew and Aramaic Studies, Univ Compl, Madrid; Elwolde is of the Dept of Biblical Studies, Univ of Sheffield, GB

This is not a well-written book.  Hebrew scholars may get more out of it than I do, But there is no claim that this is a scholarly work.  It was originally written for Univ students, but is now recommended for general students.  There is a long bibliography, but not many references to the bible scholars I am familiar with.  A footnote p xi explains, “The Hebrew forms and their associated transcriptions follow a traditional interpretation of Tiberian orthography and pronunciation . . .”  If you don’t know what that is, you are in trouble deep.  For starters, a glossary and a guide to pronunciation would be a step in the right direction.

Bible Study – 11/19/00

St Luke by G B Caird – The Pelican NT Commentaries – 1963 – Penguin Books -Baltimore

Caird is primarily a DD, more or less equivalent to a Doctor of Theology.  Not reality a scientist but aware of the scientific background required for bible study.  I looked into his treatment of the Parable of the Pounds.  He admits that it is confusing, but offers little to clear it up.

Caird believes that the parable was “directed against the Pharisees, who believed that their whole duty was to preserve intact what God had entrusted to them, not realizing that God expected his capital to be invested in a world mission. . .”

Like Soggin, he seems to think that an evangelist must have gotten all of his ideas from earlier sources, which is far-fetched.  He could have, and probably did, get ideas from his own head.  We call this source ‘inspiration’, or ‘the leading of the Holy Spirit’.

One idea I would like to pursue is on p 209.  “[Luke] gives prominence to sayings in which the kingdom is a present reality, and tones down the futuristic note (9:27, 22:69, Mk 9:1, 14:62).”

Journal – 11/24/00 – Comm on Eccl

I seriously considered revising this book, but after looking over Eccl for perhaps a hour, I decided against it.

So also, I spent several hours on the Parable of the Talents (Pounds).  I finally found one sentence that clarified that parable.  I can’t build an essay, much less a sermon on one sentence.  So!  Bible study is on the back burner.  In fact, it seems that all creativity is on the back burner.

I only hope that if and when I get my computer back, I can pull One Lifetime together.  I sure can’t do much with the fragments on the old computer.  So!  What to do?

One thing I can do is to call attention to little items that surface now and then.  One such:

Washington, We Have a Problem by Gore Vidal – Vanity Fair – Dec 2000

That problem being that the Military/Industrial Complex controls America.  Vidal thinks the problem is strictly money and power.  I think we need to look a little a little deeper.

It is human nature to want power.  Somehow, the ‘average’ citizen thinks that when his nation has power, he has power.  Other citizens realize that this is not so.  They realize that when the ‘police’ have power, the citizen may have none.  The individual may suffer – civil rights may be lost.

So!  What can America do to wrest power from the M/I Complex?  Somewhere there is a good sermon on the sin of seeking power.  All good ministers have written one.  Let’s broadcast this sermon daily, or even hourly, until every American knows it by heart.

Greenspan Shrugged by Christopher Hitchens – same issue of Vanity Fair

An excellent example of a writer with nothing to say saying it obtusely.  I now know nothing of Greenspan’s ideas, nor of Ayn Rand’s who seems to have influenced him in some way.  The title is a play on Ayn Rand’s title ‘Atlas Shrugged’.

Rebel With a Purse by Patricia Bosworth – same issue.

Having put down the Jews in a conversation with Nell and Brian, it is only fair to point out that Vanity Fair will print favorable articles as well as monumental put-downs.  As far as I can see this article finds no fault with Irene Diamond, a multi-millionaire, who is active in philanthropy.  Her principle causes are AIDS research and gun-control.  She is not modest in describing her contributions to the film industry.  Her husband was in real-estate and construction.

All I know about wealth, I read in the papers.  I see the stock market reports and read about people who have become millionaires in it.  Some of these people, especially the dot com CEOs, were outright thieves.  Others just went along.  Some people actually contributed to our knowledge, but nobody ever deserved to become a millionaire.  The Gov’t has pointed out that people like Bill Gates stifle competition.  I have commented on this situation elsewhere.

Its not that Microsoft made so much profit on the sale of its products, as it made paper profits on the value of its stock.  I don’t understand this business at all.  Any corporation can create as many shares of its stock as it wants to.  It can sell this stock at any price it can get.  If it has created one million shares and can sell one share for $100 then suddenly that corp is worth $100 million.  Of course that is foolishness.  One fool buying one share does not create value.

I am now wondering if the Dow or the Nasdaq is based on such a crumbly foundation.

I have also said that in a free-enterprise system, no individual or corporation is going to get rich. Anybody can provide goods or services at a profit to himself.  But!  When it begins to look like he is getting rich, a competitor opens up shop and cuts prices a little.  Competitors will continue to do this until none can make a profit.  Then the weakest will fall by the wayside – nobody will get rich.

We see that this reasoning does not work in the entertainment industry including sports.  They pay entertainers and ball-players millions of dollars a year.  ‘They’ do that because the ‘star’ attracts customers.

Death in Monaco by Dominick Dunne – same issue.

Dominick says that Edmund Safra, the central figure is described as ‘the most brilliant banker of his time’.  I never heard of a ‘brilliant’ banker.  ‘Shrewd’ perhaps, but ‘brilliant’?

Dunne says a taint of scandal and suspicion dogged him.  He then lists the rumors.  If half the suspicions were true, then Safra was indeed a crook.  Of course, even crooks cannot amass enough to become multi-billionaires.  Both Safra and his wife, who was a multi-millionaire, lived ostentatiously.  Neither ever did anything for anyone else that we know of.

I am reminded of the story of Dives (the rich man) and Lazarus.  Dives wasn’t a crook, but he went to Hades nonetheless.  Why?  Sub-consciously I know (with my feeling brain), but rationally I do not.

Here are some thoughts along this line from How Does It Feel to Be Without a Home? By Nibs Stroupe – Monday Morning – Dec 4, 2000

He refers to a book: I Hear Hope Banging at My Back Door by Ed Loring – no date – The Open Door Community – Atlanta

“This book reminds us of the warning Jesus gave in his parable of The Rich Man (Dives) and Lazarus in Luke 16.”

“Our society believes that if we have a lot more than we need, we are blessed.  Ed Loring reminds us of the biblical reality:  If we have a lot more than we need, we are not blessed – we are in great danger.”

Another item from this same issue:

Reference Checks: Another View by F B Elliot III

“Who protects ministers from congregations?  We ministers all know that we are held accountable.  But what about a congregation’s accountability?  There are congregations with a history of chewing up ministers.  Does the Pby have the responsibility of straightening out a congregation?”

The Excessive Indulgences of King Farouk by John Kehoe – Biography Mag – Dec 2000  pgs 30-31

Two pages is not much of a biography, but it may be enough.  Somehow, this should have been incorporated into ‘Mansions of Limbo’ by Dominick Dunne.

Kehoe knows what he reads in the papers, but the papers don’t inquire in depth.  I recall that when Farouk was alive, the press called him ‘Fat Farouk’.

Kehoe says, ‘what really plagued the young king was his compulsive overeating’.  I wonder if it was really ‘compulsive’ eating.  I suspect that it was just another appetite that he gratified to satiation.  For a man who had everything to become a kleptomaniac is not that common.  He also displayed the symptoms of a compulsive gambler, even tho gambling is prohibited by Muslim law.  At least he never touched alcohol – no mention is made of drugs.

Farouk became king in 1936 when he was 16.  He was deposed in 1952 when he was 32.  There is no record of him having done a generous thing – he certainly did nothing for Egypt.

His sexual appetite matched his appetite for food.  Kehoe says that he would go to a night-club and pick out a woman – sometimes two in one night.  This surprises me in a muslim culture.  I think this should be checked out.  He died in 1965 at the age of 45.  One Lifetime.

The following was prepared for Clara as she was called upon to teach the children of the church a bible story.  Nov 2000

There are several ways to read a bible story:  One is to accept it as it is told – this is the way it happened.  Another way is to try to understand what actually happened that gave rise to the existing story.  Another approach is to try to see how modern scholarship could explain this story.  For example, one might ask, ‘What is the story-teller trying to show?  What is his point?’

Sometimes there are rational explanations that might prove useful in themselves – aside from the story.  For example in this story (Elijah and the widow) we see the available food lasting much longer than expected.  This tells me that we eat more than we need – that we could eat half as much and survive.  The story of the resuscitation of the boy could be the story of the invention of artificial resuscitation.   [Is ‘artificial’ the word I want here?]

Every bible story must be read in the light of our understanding of God as revealed to us by Jesus.  Did God cause the drought?  The Famine?  Did God cause the boy to sicken and die?  Did God cause the widow to share her last meal with a stranger?