Against Principalities and Powers

As noted poet/philosopher Bob Dylan once observed, "The Times They Are A'Changing."  And I'm not talking about the news. I had an uncomfortable ride home from the food bank today with a 350 pound person of unidentifiable gender. I almost asked him/her/they/hir/your highness/o' "arbiter of all that's woke" what the person's pronouns were. The person of massive girth and unidentifiable gender was quick to let me know the person who did not share that person's pronouns with me lived with "my" partner.

I had to rush getting my food because the line of cars at the food bank line was so long today and my driver was early and impatient to get home. It gets crowded at the food bank right after prices at Walmart get bumped up. And I'm pretty sure they did this week, since I had to run by Walgreen's on the way over to get some laundry detergent and saw very quickly that the other Wal store's prices had taken a bit of a jump themselves with a 12 pack of sodas up in the teens now.

I made the mistake of saying something about inflation and this driver person quickly let me know it wasn't the Democrats fault and that inflation was mostly in my imagination. I said, "Well my grocery bill has doubled since 2020 and I don't have enough imaginary money to keep up with that level of spending. I'm not the US government after all, hence the food bank. Anyway," I added, "that was going to happen when the minimum wage for entry level jobs jumped to $15 to $20 an hour." 

I thought this gender unaffiliated person was about to have an attack of the vapors.

That had nothing to do with it according to my driver and the driver person quickly let me know he would never agree with me about that anyway. "Besides," he sneered. "I make $15 an hour and without me you wouldn't have a ride home." I wanted to get home so I didn't point out that without me, he'd be able to get behind the wheel of the van more easily. I also didn't bother telling him that's what drivers were making before the minimum went to $15 here. Experienced drivers didn't get a raise after minimum was bumped up because they were already making minimum. All that happened to my driver was he quite suddenly was reduced to a minimum wage worker with the stroke of our very blue governor's pen. Entry level staff were all of a sudden making more than they are worth and everybody's grocery bill doubled. Of course, my person of unisex attire again insisted it was all in my imagination. Silly me!

Having worked more than 4 decades setting up nonprofit organizations to address problems the central planners in Washington overlooked when designing their programs for the proletariat in my neck of the woods, I had a good deal to say about transportation and the massive embezzlement of taxpayer funds that goes into the pockets of bureaucrats in the business of government funded transit. I saw it first hand. I helped triple the budget of our regional rural transit provider due to the unfair distribution of funds in Texas for rural transit. The Republicans had just taken over the state legislature and I helped the Democrats working with us on our rural transit initiative learn how to speak Republican. We were about the only such initiative to get what we asked for that year to the benefit of our region. East Texas is the most densely area populated with seniors and disabled folk in Texas. One in five East Texans were driving challenged or didn't own cars at all at the time. That was 20 years ago. By now it's probably much worse.

East Texas is sort of the Old Texan's graveyard. In our senior years we Texans move there to fish and subsequently die. Lots of lakes and medical facilities in East Texas. All we lacked was transportation for folk living in the country around the lakes. We were the second largest rural transit district and were getting the smallest appropriation. The largest appropriations by 4 to 10 times were the areas around Houston and Austin. It's where we keep our Democrats and their lobbyists so we can keep an eye on them. 

When I helped get the East Texas Council of Government's rural transit budget tripled, I got a nasty letter from the president of the COG and he actively worked to get me off the Public Transportation Advisory Committee for the state of Texas. I was warned by a lawyer friend to check under my truck before I started up in the morning to look for any funny wires or boxes. The thing was that when the budget tripled, it triggered an audit and apparently someone at the COG didn't want to do THAT paperwork on the transportation program. 

At any rate, my driver, of course, was secure in his knowledge that the Democrats and particularly their genius leaders like Kamala and Tim would take good care of him. He/she/it or whatever pronouns the driver is going by, conveniently keeps his brain oblivious to the blatantly obvious Marxist themes the Harris campaign is embracing, and echoing the same themes in speeches and banners and such by the US Communist party. 

Already the Democrat party's socialism lite has attracted wealthy elites drawn to the leftward political movement by the kind of power socialism always puts in the hands of a few powerful people. And who better to rule than powerful rich folks, corporate barons, and power brokers is the thinking. After all, like me and my driver, the masses can't be trusted to think correct thoughts nor take care of themselves. And my friendly neighborhood driver/person of indeterminate sex defends the future enslavement of the proletariat with eyes tight shut. "You're not going to convince me otherwise!" the young person of indeterminate gender assures me.

You'd think all this, the solidly leftist news spewing from the big media companies, the corporate/government collusion, not to mention our leader's taking bribes and colluding with China, Russia, Ukraine and whoever else will slip a few million bucks under the table would discourage me. It doesn't. The more it looks like the seriously evil left appears to be about to seize power totally, the more certain I am that Christ's return is imminent and we'll be going home soon. The devil's been getting panicky and he's become a lot less subtle these days. He's in a lot more hurry to secure his position as Prince of this world because he knows his time is short. Besides being left behind isn't going to be fun for anyone even if they get a seat on the politburo. They don't make asbestos long john's anymore, so I'd rather not be in their bootsies or around after the good guys have gone off to heaven with Jesus. Nukes tend to warm things up pretty good.and now that we humans have the means to annihilate ourselves, I suspect we're gonna finally collect the wages of sin much of mankind has been earning over all these millennia.

 © 2024 by Tom King

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leavin' on a U-Haul - Washington State

 

The cost of living in Washington State is among the highest in the land. Every time you turn around they're taxing some new thing you can't live without. I suspect it's going to keep on and on until one day, in the name of controlling obesity, the progressive Nazis will finally put a confiscatory tax on chocolate. That, I figure, since this is such an effeminate leftist culture up here, will be the last straw. One Hershey bar too far.

But I kid you not, this is the land where it can cost you three or four Benjamins just to put tags on your car. Property taxes are confiscatory, and grocery prices have more than doubled since Joe Biden swore on some sort of book in 2020. Some mainstream pundit recently opined that a hundred dollars worth of groceries only cost you $125 after 3 years under Biden. Well I want to know what store that is and do they put a limit on how many baskets you can buy at once?

Okay, my rent only went up 25%. My landlord is kind. That's about all that's only 25% inflated. Utilities? I had to sign up for an assistance program to be able to keep up with that. Fuel prices go up and down like a roller coaster. People are putting little stickers on gas pumps all over showing Joe Biden pointing to the price on the pump and saying, "I did that!" Thank heaven my Internet Company is based out of Louisiana and I'd already signed a lifetime no price increase deal with them back during the Trump administration. Everything up here is higher than a cat's back. We gave up trying to own a car and now are experiencing the wonders of old people on public transportation. I didn't realize back in East Texas when I was doing advocacy work for senior and disability transportation, that public transportation involved so much walking. Sometimes it's miles between where you need to go and where you can be picked up. AND the cab driver's union has negotiated new regulations with the cities that have driven up the cost of Uber and Lyft.

But one area where you can still get a bargain is on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and at local garage sales. Particularly, if you want to buy, say, used guitars, keyboards, refrigerators, recliners, sofas and such, hit Craigslist or FB Marketplace up here. We refurnished our living room in all leather furniture for $140, including end tables, 2 recliners, a leather sofa and my office chair. And if you're looking for musical instruments.....

I just saw a Takamine Guitar for $100. You can also find Taylor, Ibanez, Gibson, Fender, Martin and other prime condition guitars in that price neighborhood. I think rich Washingtonians buy their teenage boys guitars so they can attract girls and maybe make them grandparents. Trouble is you have to practice and that's way too much like work for the snowflakes growing up in Seattle and the guitars wind up shoved in closets or laying around unused and the parents, forgetting how much they laid out for the things, put them up on marketplace cheap so they won't have to stumble over them anymore.

The furniture and appliances go cheap because people are fleeing Washington for red states and a lower cost of living. Most are in a hurry to get out and find they can't get it all on the truck. I got a really good Maytag fridge with an ice-maker for $50. The people were leaving the next day so they just wanted it gone. Don't you just love preying on progressives? They voted for the people that are systematically wrecking the state's economy. They are leaving en masse, escaping the fruits of their history of voting for Democrats and fleeing to where voters have elected better stewards of their economies.

Don't you love karma!

© 2024 by Tom King

The Other Sound of Freedom

I was up at 4am yesterday morning after sleeping most of the night in my chair watching Northern Exposure. I noticed after a bit that something seemed to be thumping around downstairs in the garage. I asked Sheila of the super sensitive ears if she heard it too and she confirmed that I was indeed hearing a regular thumping noise - two thumps every two or three minutes. It was the regularity of the noise that troubled me.

I got up and went out on the catwalk between our garage apartment and the landlord's house. In about a minute I heard the thumping sound again only this time it was clearly coming from outside. A couple of more double thumps and I could tell it was coming from the west of us. I've only heard that kind of sound coming from the direction of Ft. Lewis once before since we moved up here to Washington from Texas. Then, I thought it was a thunderstorm, something rare in this region. It wasn't a thunderstorm then. Nor was it now.

It was early morning gunnery practice. I confirmed it with a retired Army officer I know. It seems that the base conducts firing drills and maneuvers along with a lot of planes and helicopters flying around, which I've also noticed over the past week. My Army friend told me the military tends to flex its muscles quite loudly when things get unsettled here in the States. Apparently, they do it to impress the Chinese and Russian (and now Iranian) spies that if they are thinking of getting frisky during this period of unrest, they should think again. The military is warming up just in case they mistake some riots, flag-burning, resignations of political candidates and attempted assassinations as a sign of weakness. 

Japan and Germany made that mistake in World War II. Then we were still in the depression, half the country was flirting with communism it seemed, the president was in a wheelchair, and there were some serious anti-war protests going on. So the Axis decided to poke the bear and see what happens. 

When you poke the back end of the bear, you dang well better have a plan for dealing with his teeth and claws. And it better be one heck of a plan, because he's a huge bear and if you poke him, he's going to turn on you and reduce you to a bloody pile in short order. It was true then and though the tyrants of the world may think we're on the brink of a civil war and vulnerable, they obviously weren't paying attention in history class. 

Come after us, and they'll find us united in a heartbeat. Watch our military grow as enlistments explode. Watch our industry ramp up overnight. And see us lose patience with y'all's nonsense and come together in a breath-taking hurry.

Can't say they weren't warned. It's amazing how short politicians' memories, especially those that didn't grow up in the land of the free and home of the brave. Meanwhile, we're having howitzer practice just down the road at the break of dawn and I'm going to sleep like a baby.

Just sayin'

© 2024 by Tom King

We American Peasants Have No Betters

Really? Threatening to end people's jobs and businesses is "forcing" them to do something they don't want to do. Suppose I threatened to throw you off Facebook for getting the vaccination. I don't know where you did your research. If it was off NBC, CNN or The New York times, you might want to check out some actual scientific journals and talk to actual physicians out there in the field treating this disease. I work for myself, so the president can't fire me. I'm lucky in that respect. My wife and I get out very seldom and we do so with medical grade masks and practice social distancing. We both have experienced bad reactions to flu-type vaccines AND we're in the kill zone for this particular virus. 

 

We have carefully chosen our response to this based on risk factors (and there are risk factors with these vaccines). Were I younger and didn't have an underlying health condition, and I were out in public a lot, I might get the vaccine. As it is, my wife and I chose another approach. Others my age and physical health have faced CoVid and taken Ivermectin, Hydrochloroquine and Z-Pack treatments and now with the monoclonal antibody treatments, CoVid has been rendered a rather minor ailment. So on the outside chance I do get the disease, there are treatments available to get you through.

There are "solid" reasons for my choice in this matter not to mention my constitutional right to do what I want when it's my body. Isn't that the pro-abortion argument? How come it's no longer my body. Besides, with the feds telling you that if you've had the vaccine you can still get it, and still transmit it to others, and that it may make it a lighter case if you do get it, it's hard to trust the advice we're being given by so-called scientists who seem dead set on enforcing their own will in the form of what seems more of a political than a medical solution.

 

Then there is the organization of teams of public health officials and Homeland Security Officers up here in Oregon and Washington to go door to door asking whether people are vaccinated, recording it in a database along with information about whether you were flying Revolutionary War flags, had Trump signs, wore "certain" T-shirts or hats described by organizers as evidence that you are a white supremacist and potential terrorist. And don't start with that being a conspiracy theory. I sat in on the County Commissioner's meetings where they discussed the CDC/Homeland Security plans to do just that. When the County Judge was asked if Klickitat County was planning to do that, he turned to his public health director and asked, "Do we have any plans to do that?" 

The Public Health lady went pale and said, "Oh, hell no! You think I want to get shot?"  Southern Washington State's natives celebrate a culture, that I discovered would give East Texas a run for the money for being redneck. They have bears running around loose. Those folks are armed! They might get away with that over in Oregon, but they do NOT want to bring that stuff across the Columbia River.

That is the reason people are resisting the mandates and quitting their jobs rather than comply. It doesn't help that the same people telling us we must get vaccinated, were the same ones telling us the vaccines were dangerous and not to get them back in December and January before Biden was sworn in. Afterwards, through some sort of magical incantation, I suppose, after Biden became president, the vaccines became miraculously perfect and wonderful and essential to the survival of mankind.

So forgive me if I think that belittling and berating people who choose not to take the vaccine is a small-minded, anti-American thing to do. As Americans we are not averse to giving up some liberties in an emergency or to taking risks where risk-taking is needed. Were my circumstances different my choices might be different. But my choices are my choices and I live in a nation where individual rights are sacred. We don't live in a collective thank God, where people serve the state. The state, in the American Constitutional Republic, serves at the behest of the people.

This high-handed imposition of mandates based on the will of our dear leaders is foreign to American beliefs. Americans don't believe in complying, obeying or submitting to the will and authority of our betters. That's because we don't think we have any betters.

Sorry for the long post, but my leftist Facebook friend's original post had a snarky tone to it and I'm kind of angry about that. He ridiculed those of us who have carefully chosen through research in medical studies, journal reports, our own observations and consultation with our physicians (each one of whom holds a doctorate and is a scientist in his or her own right). I find that more than a little condescending. 

 

And as I said, we don't much care for rule of our betters over us masses, peons, proletariat or whatever you want to call us regular ordinary schlubs! A whole lot of us would take umbrage if you came to our house, banged on my door and presumed to classify me a terrorist because I wouldn't mindlessly fall in line quietly and knuckle under to the latest attempt by Marxist progressive government bureaucrats to test to see just how much we'll tolerate and how quickly we can be bullied into submission to blatantly illegal and unconstitutional executive orders.

Not smart, Joe. We will not kneel to Moloch and his ilk.

Just sayin'.

© 2021 by Tom King

Biden Authorizes Mass Murder of Undocumented Immigrants

Just because they're birds doesn't make it right!

Hoo me? You talkin' about me?

Sounds hypocritical to me. Washington State, Oregon and California, in cahoots with the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service are planning the genocide of half a million Barred Owls which have apparently been classified as undocumented owls! Illegal aliens if you will.

Me? I'm an open borders for birds guy. Just let them come after the sweet pair of barred owls that hoot at us every spring outside our window at night! It is ironic that the leftist government in Washington is doing the following:

1. Declaring a whole race of owls that moved in here naturally to be unwanted illegal immigrants. I thought Democrats liked illegal aliens!

2. As a result of this anti-immigrant policy and the state's racist spotted owl supremacy stance, they have planned to commit genocide against barred owls based on their race.

3. They are talking about authorizing men with gun to go from tree to tree murdering innocent owls.

4. For people who believe in evolution and the survival of the fittest, they sure have a prejudice in favor of the survival of the demonstrably weak spotted owl population.

5. They didn't ask the rest of us if we wanted to turn Washington State et al into owl Auschwitz. They plan to play enticing owl sounds on loudspeakers and the shoot them when they fly in looking for a hot date.

6. And the story says Joe Biden basically issued the kill order.

Here's the story.

https://komonews.com/news/local/west-coast-spotted-owl-potential-extinction-kill-bared-owls-us-fish-wildlife-service-oregon-washington-california?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0SAXBCJE2LeWkHmfSEw1pVsIE49sPjuY7DJl23vyGUOJ8eTdH04MXiafM_aem_TRWz-cteEV5y0cUzh4fSmg#

These guys keep the giant ship rat population in check here near Puget Sound.
Government assassins beware. I will protect my feathered neighbors!

© 2024 by Tom King

He's Done Stopped Preachin'

My friend Mark Milliorn this week wrote a scathing criticism of our election system, both parties and then he started naming names of people's favorite presidential candidates. I don't know about New Mexico, but in certain places back in Texas, that sort of rash talk could get you a load of buckshot in the seat of your pants and from more than one direction. It's reminded me of a story.

Aunt Bertha and the Preacher

 One of my great aunts, a dedicated church-goer, used to make expressions of encouragement to the preacher during the service. She'd practically sing out the Amens and Hallelujahs. She also used a little bit of snuff on occasion. This particular Sunday, the preacher started in on the sins of the flock and he was getting serious.

"All of you out there that are drinking that demon rum are on the high road to hell!" he thundered.

"Amen!" enthused Aunt Bertha.

"And all you out there using that maryjewana or messin with them fetameans....well, I hate to say it but you're looking at getting an eternal hotfoot!" The preacher warmed to his work.

Aunt Bertha sang out, "Preach it brother!"

"All you smokers out there, slaves to that vile nicotine, well you're gonna be able to light them Winston's and them Lucky Strikes off your own hair."  Oh he was stepping on some toes now and Aunt Bertha mightily approved.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaamen!" she glissandoed from an alto to a soprano in one long shout of praise.

"And the devil has prepared coals of fire for the beds of those who's lips drool black tobacco spit, chewing that evil chewing tobacco!" the reverend by this point in his sermon was filled with the spirit.

"Oh, brother, praise the Lawd Jesus, tell em all," Bertha, her voice strained by then managed to croak.

"And I am here to tell you," the preacher raised his hands toward heaven.

"Oh, I know that Gawd is preaching through you, reverend!" Bertha shook her head and raised her hands too.

"That the Lord does not look kindly, nor will He allow into his kingdom," the pastor affixed the amen pew with a fierce glare and continued dramatically, "He will stop cold at the pearly gates, those who partake of snuff!" He shook his head sadly. "For there will be no spittoons in heaven."

Aunt Bertha stopped in mid-hallelujah and fell silent. Then she turned to her sister, Aunt Pearl and in a shocked whisper said, "Well damn. He's done stopped preaching and done started meddlin'!"

Poor Mark. He's definitely done started meddlin', poor boy.

© 2024 by Tom King

The Key Bridge Collapse - A Black Swan Event?

 

Last night a huge container ship rammed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and collapsed the bridge, taking with it a number of vehicles and tossing people into the frigid waters of the bay. Former National Security Advisor, General Michael Flynn, went to X (the former social media site known as Twitter), calling the bridge collapse a Black Swan event. A Black Swan Event is an unexpected major event that has unpredictable large scale impact. A Black Swan event is one that in hindsight could have been predicted, but seems so unlikely that we really don't think it will happen. 

As a Black Swan event, the Key Bridge disaster was entirely predictable. Some day, quite by chance, there was every chance that a giant container ship in the harbor would lose power, go astray and crash into the bridge. Ships move. Bridges don't. And bridges have been known fall before due to other factors like earthquakes, age, and structural issues. A surprising number of ships and barges have struck and damaged or collapsed a bridge. These incidents don't get beyond the local news in most cases if there is not a substantial loss of life, so we are therefore confident, perhaps more so than is warranted, that the ship guidance systems, trained captains and harbormasters would perfectly prevent such events. So, though it's predictable that such a thing could happen, it still comes at a surprise. After such a huge event, people get all a twitter and the ripples of the shock of the event pass through delicately intertwined social, economic and government systems. We should be resilient enough to resist knee jerk reactions to big scale traumatic events, but, though we should be able to, most of us don't. One can always tell folks, "Hey, don't panic," but people will panic anyway. 

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse
Wikimedia Commons

But it's not like bridges haven't collapsed before. The Scottish railroad bridge over the River Tay in
a violent storm in 1879, collapsed carrying a train load of passengers to the bottom of the Firth of Forth. The engineer had failed to consider wind loading from storm winds when he designed the bridge. It was a shock, but it wasn't unpredictable had someone calculated wind loading into the design as it has ever since the tragedy. In 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed into Puget Sound in a 40 mph wind due to a design that, like the Tay Bridge, also failed to take into account the lateral pressure of the wind on the suspension bridge and the need to consider both aerodynamic and resonance factors in the design. A dog was killed.

As recently as 2007, the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13. In 1989, a massive earthquake collapse sections of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge and caused 63 deaths, nearly 3,800 injuries, and an estimated $6 billion in property damage. So despite our confident reliance on bridges, they do unexpectedly fail.

Strikes on bridges by ships have happened before: 

• In 2007, the container ship M/V Cosco Busan struck one of the towers of the western span of the rebuilt San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge because of a “pilot’s blunder in the fog,”. The bridge didn't collapse, but it was a near thing.  
• In 1974, a barge struck the Endom bridge over the Ouachita River in Monroe Louisiana and knocked it down. Thank God it was a swing bridge and was open. The inebriated tugboat captain rammed a heavy barge into a span of the bridge, collapsing it and leaving a police cruiser stranded on the center swing span. The barge rammed Pier No. 3, the rest pier for the western end of the swing span and the eastern pier for the Petit through truss No. 3. According to the local paper, after the barge hit the pier, "the span twisted and rolled to one side and collapsed into the river. It happened in the middle of the night so no one was on the bridge. It did, however, demonstrate once again that boats can knock down bridges. I drove over the adjacent Interstate highway bridge the next morning and saw a bridge I had driven over many times lying in the river. since then have avoided being on bridges when a ship was passing underneath. 
• In 2009, a vessel pushing eight barges rammed into the Popp’s Ferry Bridge in Biloxi, Mississippi, resulting in a 150-foot section of the bridge collapsing into the bay. 
• In 1998, a tow boat, The Anne Holly rammed the center span of the Eads Bridge in St. Louis Harbor . Eight barges broke loose. Three of them hit a gambling vessel permanently moored below the bridge. Fifty people suffered minor injuries.
  
• In 2002, A barge hit the Interstate 40 bridge over the Arkansas River at Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, collapsing a 500-foot section of road and plunging vehicles into the water. Fourteen people died and 11 were injured.
• In 1993, A towboat, pushing an empty hopper barge, hit a support tier of the Judge William Seeber Bridge in New Orleans. Two spans collapsed onto the barge and two cars carrying three people along with the four-lane bridge deck dropped into the canal. One person died and two were seriously injured.
• In 2001, a tugboat and barge struck the Queen Isabella Causeway in Port Isabel, Texas, causing the midsection of the bridge to drop 80 feet into the bay Eight people died as unsuspecting drivers drove off into the hole.
• In 1980, the Summit Venture was navigating the tortuous Tampa Bay shipping channel, when a sudden, blinding squall knocked out the ship’s radar. The ship sheared off a support of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, dropping a 1,400-foot section of concrete roadway during the morning rush hour. Seven vehicles, including a bus with 26 aboard, fell 150 feet into the water. Thirty-five people died.
  
• In 1993, a string of barges being pushed by a towboat in dense fog hit and knocked the Big Bayou Canot railroad bridge out of line near Mobile, Alabama. In minutes, an Amtrak train with 220 people aboard derailed on the displaced bridge, killing 47 and injuring 103.

And of course we will see an outburst of conspiracy theories from all the usual people after this latest tragedy. As it turns out, many people are just naturally fearful of randomness. They would much rather believe this was a deliberate attack by evil human beings, rather than cope with the fact that it happened due to blind chance. Random events really freak such people at. They cannot believe that everything is not planned and orchestrated by somebody somewhere. These guys would blame the Deep State if an asteroid dropped from the sky and obliterated Manhattan. They could never live with the idea that at any moment a space rock could drop on their heads or a volcano pop up in their back yard.

Should We Reject Religion as Outdated?

There is a movement among Christians to reject "religion" in favor of being "spiritual" instead. Adherents to this theology do not seem to like going to church, listening to preachers or taking the Bible literally as the Word of God. This troubles me. We've been warned against spiritualism in Scripture and from the pulpits of Christendom. Unlike my spiritual friends, I am content to accept the Word as my guide and to wait till eternity until God offers me explanations of how everything works,

 before I cast aside religion altogether. Discovering the things we have not been shown yet, should keep me thoroughly entertained for millions of years. God's penmen could only tell us what they saw, what they experienced and what they understood in their walk with Him on Earth, when they wrote all that down. Sadly, we see through a glass darkly. I have found that it takes knowing God in His completeness to find one's way to the truth.

 

I'd be very careful about tossing out all the parts of Christian "religion", including the organized bits, that may not suit our modern clothes. Some ideas could stand to go. For instance, a lot of people stubbornly cling to the idea that God punishes dead folk by chicken frying them for eternity. The thing is Scripture doesn't actually teach that. It was a handy way to keep people afraid and in the pews with their purses opened. That Satan introduced such evil ideas doesn't void all organized religion. Paul warned about that. He says we should meet and work together even more so as we see the end approaching. And if you aren't seeing the signs on the evening news, you're not paying attention.

And if you actually come to know God experientially, you'd know He's not a Hitler or Stalin or Caligula to inflict unfathomable cruelty on creatures He6 lov, and it very specifically teaches that the human soul is not by nature immortal (John 3:16). God truly IS love and knowing that, you'll soon come to realize and recognize what some branches of the church and some churchmen who claim they have spoken for and still speak for God, take his name in vain (a severe violation of a commandment with some pretty harsh consequences).

 

In my study of psychology in grad school, I recognized many of the therapeutic tools we were taught to use were, in fact, the same sorts of things Christ and the apostles built into the church as a way of altering human bad behavior - prayer, praise, study and sharing what we learned from the other four. Turns out, Jesus knew how the human mind works and built things into His church that would help us change our behavior (what we Adventists call sanctification). We get close to emulating religious training with the behavioral/reality therapy techniques psychologists and counselors use. Seems Jesus understood how the human mind works.

 

We're just now catching up and seeing the edges of God's amazingly detailed creation. The sciences, when freed of politics, have begun to see evidence of God as Moses did. Not fully His face, but His "back parts" - the footprints of deity. Physicists, biologists, astronomers and mathematicians have recently begun to discover answers to questions they never thought to ask because they dismissed the idea of a God altogether from the very beginning. Too many approached science by first rejecting the idea of a pan-dimensional being with vast power because of what He is; one described as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end all at once. That was a pretty scientifically advanced idea for a former fisherman, traveling self-educated preacher, and prisoner of Rome living out on an island in the sea to have come up with all on his own. The remarkable thing is that the Bible we've got is flexible enough to guide everyone from the poor, the uneducated and simple folk to some of the most brilliant intellectuals of our time.

So, we probably should be very careful about rejection "religion" in its entirety and making it a dirty word. Much of the greatest good in history has come from the exercise of Christian religion, from ending the tossing of infants into the fires of Molech and Baal, the forced prostitution in Dagon's temples, the massive human sacrifices of the Aztecs, Mayans and Incans, and the scourge of slavery that persisted for far too long in Earth's history.

Tossing out the religious baby with the truly evil bath of some of the worst cultures in history, could set us back centuries. Already we've sacrificed more than 50 million unborn infants in the past half century or so. Humans have committed genocide on an unbelievable scale and seem to throw a new war every few years with result death and carnage. Does anyone believe it's going to get better if we end Christian organized religion in favor of searching for truth within our own screwed up heads. 

Me, I'm going to seek enlightenment from my creator. Looking around at humans, I don't think I'm going to find truth and goodness in the unconverted human heart. I think that comes from Someone outside ourselves and navel-gazing isn't going to find it.

(C) 2024 by Tom King