Prairie View

Saturday, February 10, 2024

News Roundup on February 10, 2024

 Here is something that I posted on Facebook several days ago.  One person who commented said that I should start a blog. She is not part of my religious/cultural tribe, but finds much common ground with me in matters of faith applied to current issues.  I didn't tell her that I already have a blog, but I did heed the memory prompt to post here some of what I also post on Facebook.  

I'm sure that there is quite a lot of overlap in the reading audiences for the blog and Facebook, and I apologize for what probably seems like bombardment--especially if you are on a different wave length than I am.  

********

 
Shared with Public
Public
I'm writing this primarily for people from my "tribe" who may have limited exposure to current realities on the national scene. What is happening right now with the bill about the border/aid to Ukraine-Israel-and-others is deeply distressing to me.
As background, you should know that everyone agrees that things have been chaotic at the southern border and something needs to change. This has been a reality under every administration for the past few decades at least. Also, you should know that a large majority of Americans are in favor of giving aid to Ukraine in their resistance to a Russian invasion. I'm not sure on how things stand in public perception with regard to aiding Israel, but such aid has "always" been assumed to be forthcoming from the US when Israel has been under attack.
One more crucial element of the current situation is that a number of months ago, Republican extremists in Congress (HOR) loudly insisted that no more aid should be given to Ukraine and Israel until the southern border problem has been solved. Under President Biden's initiative, a group of three people promptly came together to come up with a bipartisan proposal. The group included one Democrat, one Republican, and one Independent. The Republican was Senator Lankford from OK, whose Conservative credentials have never been in question. Kyrsten Sinema (I) from AZ was another member of the group.
After four months of work, the committee rolled out a proposal that included almost everything the Republicans wanted and addressed much of what the Democrats wanted (although it omitted giving "Dreamers" a path to citizenship), but a short while before the content of the bill was even public, Trump began to contact Republican congresspersons to ask they they not vote in favor of the bill because he needed to be able to highlight the chaos at the border to bolster his appeal during his presidential campaign. Right now it looks as though the bill is dead, since the Republican Speaker of the House says that he will not allow the bill to reach the floor for a vote.
Voices from major conservative media outlets applaud the bill. They reiterate that Republicans made a demand, the demand was met, and now they say, in effect, "Just kidding." People who study such things say that the bill before them is almost certainly the best immigration bill that Republicans will ever see.
Let that soak in. Ukraine doesn't get help. Israel doesn't get help. Taiwan doesn't get help. All of these countries are under threat from Communist governments or terrorist organizations. The border chaos continues. This is the case despite the fact that this is not what a majority of Americans want, inside Congress or outside of it--but it's what Trump wants for his own selfish purposes. That this is how public policy in national and international affairs is being made is mind boggling, but it's not as mind boggling as what I see in the unquestioning loyalty that is being offered to Trump.
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson jets off to Moscow to meet with Putin--who has so far refused to meet with almost all foreign journalists. Several American journalists are imprisoned in Russia. Trump also would be welcome in Putin's presence, it seems, based on what we know of Putin and Trump's cozy relationship in the past.
On other fronts--
An appeals court ruled yesterday that Trump does not have presidential immunity from criminal charges.
An (HOR) impeachment vote yesterday targeting the Secretary of Homeland Security (Mayorkas) narrowly failed. It was initiated by Republicans who pinned the blame for "border problems" on him. Never mind that what he asked for and needed to enforce existing laws was routinely denied him by the same political machinery that became galvanized in the impeachment effort and now in the opposition to address border problems.
One more thing--which I find especially preposterous. Background: The Kansas City Chiefs are headed to the Super Bowl. One of their star players, Travis Kelce, recently began a romantic relationship with Taylor Swift, the singer/entertainer who is arguably at the top of the pile in that world. The "preposterous thing" associated with these well-known celebrities is a conspiracy theory that posits that the Chiefs' and Swift's ascendancy has been orchestrated by "the deep state" for purposes designed to promote the election of Democrats. If you've never heard this, I'm sorry for inserting it into your consciousness. I'm doing it for the sake of disabusing those who have heard it and believed it. End of Facebook quote. One person said in a comment that Biden didn't need a new law--if only he had enforced the already-existing laws. This was my response:
"______________which laws, specifically, has Biden not enforced? Are you certain that enforcing these laws would solve the border problem?
Why did the Republicans insist on tying new border legislation to aid for other countries? It appears to me that they saw a need for a new law--until they didn't.
I'm troubled about framing this as being what "Biden" needed or did not need. Seeing the issue through the lens of political gain or loss for anyone seems to me to be a fundamentally flawed approach.
Please also become informed about how the current amnesty process is broken, how much-needed migrant labor (as well as highly-skilled labor--think foreign students) is often unavailable under current law, how a lack of funding to hire personnel hampers processing and enforcement, how overly-onerous legal pathways to immigration have become, and how much our country actually stands to benefit economically (and otherwise) from immigrant contributions. In each of these areas, effective existing law seems to me to be lacking or insufficient for addressing the problems. Anyone who values Christian compassion, or even humanitarian impulses should also consider how present laws are working by these measures."

In yet another comment, in response to someone else who marveled at the hold that Trump seems to have on people, I wrote this:

_________ "I still marvel at the hold he has on people." Do you think there might be more than "normal" factors involved--as in supernatural, demonic influences? To me, normal factors include thinking--rational vs. irrational, past experience--learning vs. failing to learn, listening--to THIS voice vs. THAT voice, attitudes toward others--open-heartedness vs. animosity, approach to life--courage vs. fearfulness, Jesus--commitment to Him vs. having no commitment, perspective on "common virtue"--loyalty to widely-held values over a long period of time vs. sudden and thorough abandonment of such values . . . . Generally, I think people who make it into leadership positions are there because they tend toward the "good" side of the good vs. bad continuum. I don't see much that seems "normal" in the Trump loyalty phenomenon though. Is there a better explanation than "supernatural, demonic influence" for this abnormality? I wish there were, and would welcome help in reaching a more hopeful understanding.
********* Since then I have posted this:
"Ageism: prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's age." (Google search page). Perhaps this is as good a time as any to open the can of worms in relation to this issue. I'm not ready at this point to do much more than to acknowledge that we often struggle to get "ageing" exactly right for ourselves and others. Also, I'm sure that ageism is a bad thing.
What do you think? Have you ever seen ageism? Do young people inevitably see ageing differently than older people? What are the social/cultural factors that influence people's ideas about ageing? What do we learn from scientific inquiry and what do we observe personally? Why are discussions about ageing often conflictive? End of FB quote.

Comments on this are still coming in. One of the interesting ideas I've heard for the first time is that healthy ageing involves developmental maturity (I suppose this means as opposed to arrested development at an "immature" stage). I want to explore this further. *********
And this (from a journalist who first caught my eye while I was researching the economic downturn in 2008 to create an all-school study of the then-current economic situation):
Fareed Zakaria, an immigrant and a political centrist, writes about the USA's problematic amnesty policy:
"Despite what some Republicans claim, Fareed writes, the problem with US immigration is the law itself. Currently, migrants cross the border, make contact with US law enforcement, and claim asylum. They can then remain in the US while their cases are adjudicated by a severely backlogged court system. The Senate compromise included provisions to raise the bar for claiming asylum and to allow the president to deny entry, if a certain number of daily irregular border crossings was met.
"Former President Donald Trump opposed the bill and lobbied GOP lawmakers against it. Fareed argues that their criticism was disingenuous, writing: “The most obvious proof that Trump realizes that this bill would give the administration powerful tools to address this crisis is that he is so dead set that it should not pass. Were it to pass, it might well solve large parts of the border problem—which would not serve him politically. He wrote on social media, ‘This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats.’ The rest of the West is facing a similar challenge and is grappling with how to adjust immigration and asylum laws. Many countries have taken significant steps. Yet in America, one of its major political parties is determined to inflame the crisis rather than douse it, fiddling while the country burns, hoping that at least they can inherit the smoldering ruins.”

******** And this:

The grandsons who were here today reported that the bees living inside the Kentucky coffee tree are out. The maple tree is buzzing with the activity of the bees among the tiny flowers. I love it! ********

I'd be very happy to see these things discussed further here, with this more limited (and presumably, safer) audience.

Friday, January 05, 2024

News Roundup

 This is a copy of something I posted on Facebook today.  It's a news/current events roundup, mostly written off the top of my head.

Documentation about current events will not be provided here, but I believe that what I’m summarizing is easily verifiable with rudimentary research. 

1.  The US economy is in good shape, both when compared to the record of the recent past and when compared to global economies. 

2.  A major earthquake hit Japan on Monday.  However, the death toll and the resulting tsunamis were far less devastating than the one in 2011.  The epicenter of this one was in the Japan Sea.  In 2011, the epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean.  Hiromi does not know of any personal connections that he has with any of the people in the most affected area.

3.  Court decisions in two states (Colorado and Maine) have ruled that former president Trump is ineligible for the presidential election ballot, based on the fourteenth amendment to the constitution, which prohibits anyone (broadly speaking) from holding office if they have engaged in rebellion or insurrection. Challenges are pending in nine other states.  A number of the remaining states have either ruled differently from Colorado and Maine, or cases have been filed and then voluntarily dropped by plaintiffs.  Kansas is one of the “dropped cases” number.  This matter will almost certainly end up in the US Supreme Court.  Three members of the court were appointed by President Trump, and the court has an overall Conservative majority.  A Christian lawyer and journalist whom I trust writes that he believes that a very strong case exists for applying the 14th Amendment to Trump.  He states further that no fear of “consequences” should keep anyone from embracing or pursuing faithful application of clear constitutional principles. 

4.  Former president Trump received millions of dollars from foreign governments (at least 20 of them) while he was in office.  This is expressly forbidden in the first article of the US Constitution.  No money received by President Biden has been documented to have come from foreign governments, although his son has received such money.  The investigations that show both of these outcomes were conducted by a committee in the House of Representatives.  The investigation into Trump’s foreign money sources was abruptly halted when Republicans gained a slim majority there–when the investigating committee had only a fraction of the records they sought..  Nevertheless, those few records show a damning picture.  Soon after an investigation into President Biden was opened, impeachment proceedings against President Biden began.

5.  Presidential candidate Trump’s rhetoric has become increasingly extremist.  From my perspective, it seems maniacal and incredibly repugnant and dangerous–not to mention indecent and ignorant.  Many in the populace seem to have stopped listening (I do have sympathy with those who are too exhausted to keep on listening).  Nevertheless, many Republicans appear to be poised to vote for Trump if he becomes the Republican Party's candidate for president.  

6.  Widespread agreement seems to exist that a second Trump presidency would be almost nothing like the first, the main reasons being that he would fill all appointed positions with extremists (often those with almost no experience or qualifications other than their fealty to Trump), pardon all who have been convicted in the courts so far (in relation to January 6 and other Trump-related cases especially), destroy the institutions and traditions that have provided a check on authoritarian rule, disregard laws that apply restraints to him, and actively seek to punish or destroy his enemies.  He states many of these things himself, clearly and publicly. This kind of rule could not accurately be described as Democratic.  Authoritarianism would fit, and other more shocking labels might fit too.

7.  US military support for both Ukraine and Israel is being held up by some in Congress (a minority of Republicans in the House) who insist that they will not vote to support it unless they first secure a promise to impose draconian immigration policies at the southern border.  Meanwhile, Russia is making gains in Ukraine.  

8.  US government funding for some of its major programs runs out on January 19, so action before that is needed if services are to continue uninterrupted.  Other programs have later “expiration” dates

Tuesday, January 02, 2024

Herbalism

I've had a long-standing interest in herbs.  This topic meshes with other areas of interest such as being a nature lover, a passionate gardener, and an absorber of health information.  More recently, I've come to see that knowledge in herbalism might hold answers to some of the vexing problems in the health care industry.  

Over the holidays, I had a conversation with my nephew who is ready to begin a PhD program in medicine.  He has completed a pre-med degree and done several years of work in a medical research lab.  By pursuing an advanced degree, he believes that he is preserving the flexibility to either enter a clinical practice (after completing a residency) or doing further research.  I didn't think of it while I was talking to him, but I wish that he also could apply his considerable talents and skills to learning how to fit plant-based medicine into his framework.  

I wish health were not seen as the exclusive purview of professionals.  Even if nothing else shifted, I believe that people being more proactive in relation to their health would trigger good changes.  Being proactive seems to me to acknowledge some foundational truths about the created world, about God, and about human choice.  Being proactive also involves learning more in each of these areas.  

Herbalism is where learning about foundational truths intersects with the plant world.  God created a good world, but it soon became marred through human choice, the consequence of which was pain, disease, and death.  Even plants turned rogue, developing thorns and growing where they were not wanted.  Desirable plants refused to thrive without the exertion of human effort.  But God did not abandon His people and did not leave them without recourse.  Plants with medicinal qualities and good human choices to the rescue.

Medicinal plants can often be foraged in the wild, and many can be grown in small backyards.  They are accessible to people with few financial resources, unless they are too knowledge-poor to know how to make use of them.  Many of the effective compounds can be extracted with water.  Others require alcohol or oil. Lack of ability to refine plant products to the point of creating a "single-compound substance" is no detriment to their usefulness, since various compounds often act synergistically, to good effect.  

I believe that widespread availability of plant medicines provides evidence of God's provision for the health of all people everywhere.  Even in a "spoiled" world, nutrients and remedies for health problems exist wherever plants can grow..  The challenge then is to find what grows well where you live and how these plants can be put to the best possible use.  

I'm personally leaning into learning about medicinal plants on these fronts:

1.  Plants that grow in the wild near me that may have medicinal uses.  Learning about how indigenous people used them can be helpful.  Some of them have been the subject of good research.  I love when this is the case, and am very pleased that the University of Kansas has a Native Medicinal Plants Research Program.  It was established in 2009.  

2.  Identifying good sources of medicinal wild plants.  Some of them are so weedy that I'm not sure that I want to grow them on our small property, but I don't always know of places where they can freely be wild-gathered.  Permissions (on public or private land) and pollutants (along roadways or field edges--petroleum products and chemical sprays) can both be issues with wild gathering.  Diminishing supplies in the wild is another issue.  Digging roots is a bigger ecosystem disturbance than plucking flowers or leaves and gathering seeds or stems.  Echinacea comes to mind as an example here.

Many herbal books recommend plantain and stinging nettle--both reportedly ubiquitous "everywhere."  I have no idea where I could go to gather either of these plants, but I also don't know if I really want to plant them in my yard.  Mullein, dock, dandelion, purslane, and chickweed could be added to this list.  It might make sense to simply acquire these plants from a reputable source rather than to try to grow them or wild-gather them.     

3.  Learning what it takes to grow medicinal plants.  Some that need more moisture than can be relied on to fall from the sky can be grown with irrigation in my climate.  Plants like this might be worth planting if/until I find a native or wild plant that accomplishes a similar health effect.  

4.  Learning how to make and take plant medicines.  Indications, ideal stage of harvest, parts of the plants that are useful, how to extract and preserve the useful compounds, interactions with other plant compounds, reasonable dosages, etc.

5.  Looking for plants with multiple uses.  Some herbs are culinary, medicinal, and pest repelling. Some cut flowers have medicinal uses as well.  Prioritize growing these, especially if they grow wild in your climate.  

6.  Figuring out logical groupings for backyard herbs.  I don't have this one mastered yet.  Categorizations that have occurred to me are these:  1.  Similar growing conditions (sun, shade/moist/dry, etc.)  2.  Similar growth habit (annual, biennial, perennial, natural re-seeder, etc.), 3.  Similar effect on the body  4.  Similar plant parts used (probably most critical when root parts are the most sought after plant part) 5.  Ornamental value/weedy appearance/invasiveness.  6.  Proximity to the house.  7.  Hardiness.  (some might survive winter on the south side of the house, but not elsewhere).  In general, I suspect that the most ornamental and those that are most useful in small amounts for cooking will get a spot in the backyard. 

7.  Seeking our Christian perspectives on herbalism, including those from my own Amish Mennonite cultural tradition.  

What I'll likely do is to prioritize No. 1, pray, and do the best I can to take all the others into account as I go. 

I have been seeking information via books, seed catalogs, and online resources.  I own a handful of books on herbs, have checked out others from the library, and am purchasing more.  I'd love to hear from my friends and readers about any aspect of herbalism.  It can be the smallest snippet if that's what you want to share--personal experience, trustworthy source of information, good practitioners--or whatever else that comes to mind for you.  

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Spun Silver

Today I saw a picture on Facebook of one of my mother's cousins and agemates.  Lorraine is 94 now and has white hair just like my mother had.  Her granddaughter had noticed the first gray hair on her own head before she was 30.  She chalked it up to the stress of being a medical school student, and went to the effort of covering it up--till she tired of the arduous process, and decided to "go gray."  At a recent family reunion, she looked around at her aunts and uncles and cousins and noticed that most of her relatives had more gray/white hair than their spouse did. She was ready by now to claim the early graying tendency as a mark of distinction and connection with her relatives.  That's how I feel.   

I often think of one time when I held a clump of my mother's silver threads in my hands, and combed and formed them into braids.  I pinned the braids up into a coil "just so" and pinned her covering in place over the braids.  It happened in the handicapped bathroom stall at church.  I brought in a folding chair for my mother, and I went to work with her hair supplies spread out on the toilet lid. 

My sister Linda usually fixed Mom's hair, but on this evening, she could not leave work early enough to get home before Dad was ready to leave for church, taking Mom along.  Dad called and asked me if I could come early and do her hair at church while he attended another pre-meeting.  I agreed. 

Somehow that space and that experience ended up feeling sacred to me, and I wanted to keep alive always the memory of this part of my mother's beauty.  My own white hair connects me to my mother, and I have never wished to cover it up, especially at the cost of spending time and money to make it happen.  If I had braids now, they would be dark brown, so I haven't lived quite long enough yet to earn those spun silver braids, but maybe someday someone will hold my silver hair in their hands and aspire to owning such beauty.   

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Reflections on the Day of a Funeral

https://www.elliottmortuary.com/obituary/parker-exposito



Today our family attended the funeral of this man, Parker Exposito. He had married into the Iwashige family in 1999. His wife Bev is Hiromi's niece--our children's first cousin. As is often the case, I learned details about his life that I never learned during his lifetime. Among the most surprising was that he had been on the front lines in Viet Nam for two years--drafted while attending college. He never spoke of that time, even to his spouse and to his best friend. He was only one of five from his platoon who survived. Small wonder that he had severe PTSD after he returned.

I knew him as a friendly and gentle man. At home, he cooked and watered his flowers and watched the birds from the patio. He owned Alexander's Jewelers since 1984, a Main Street business in Hutchinson, and went to work every day right up until the day he fell down the stairs at home while carrying a vacuum sweeper, and fractured bones in his spine.

That initial injury did not seem life-threatening, and was not paralyzing. The aftermath was brutal, however, involving a second surgery to correct something that had gone wrong during transport to Hutchinson from Wichita after the first surgery. The picture changed fast after that, and hopes for any kind of return to "normal life" looked dismal. He suffered a heart attack and died in the hospital in Wichita about a week after his fall.

Shane was the vocalist at the funeral. He sang the same song that he sang at my mother's funeral: "Wayfaring Stranger." I heard lots of sniffles and nose blowing behind me during his singing, and overheard many expressions of appreciation afterward. The crowd included people whom Shane had learned to know through business connections in Hutchinson. This funeral was the first clue that Shane and some of these folks had that they both had some connection with Parker.

The husband of one of my Master Gardener friends shared memories and a tribute.  

Parker's best friend from high school married a Japanese woman, and they live in Denver.  In visiting with them afterward, Hiromi learned that her grandfather came to North America in the 1890s.  After landing in Mexico, he was incarcerated (I don't know why), and forced to work in the mines.  Somehow he escaped the mines and came into the USA through Texas.  He must have raised a family on the west coast because this woman's parents were rounded up along with thousands of other Japanese people from there during World War II.  Her parents were taken to an internment camp in Nebraska, and confined there for the duration of the war.  Many like them lost everything they owned, except what they could pack into a suitcase.  Although there was never a shred of evidence that the threat was real, the US government was ostensibly acting to keep Japanese Americans from communicating with "the enemy" and betraying American interests.  

I believe that "Phyllis" having grown up in Denver is significant.  A former governor of Colorado is a hero to Japanese people because of the warm welcome he extended to their people after the federal government had mistreated them.  I've visited the Japanese Cultural Center in Denver, where the governor is honored.

In another interesting twist, our daughter-in-law, Hilda, recognized Phyllis and her husband from having seen them several days ago at Carolyn's Essenhaus in Arlington. Her husband's mother,  Mrs. Baker,  worked at the Arlington bank for 40 years, and Hilda remembered his Arlington uncles from having worked at Carolyn's years ago.  When the Bakers come to Kansas, they stay in Arlington, and go to Carolyn's every day while they're in the area.  

***********

Current events during my high school years included the Viet Nam War.  One student several years ahead of me at Partridge High School died in Viet Nam.  I remember our government class teacher soberly reminding us of the possibility of that happening long before it actually took place.   I respect him for not glossing over the reality of war carrying a huge cost in human suffering.  

On the way home from the funeral today, Hiromi talked about how awful it must be for soldiers to regularly engage in destructive acts and inflict injury on other human beings--not because they want to, but because they have to follow orders.  "No wonder they have PTSD," he said. 

I feel really sorry for people like Parker who had so little help in dealing with PTSD after the Viet Nam War.  Anti-war sentiment ran high, and soldiers who came home were often not given a hero's welcome.  Some of them were shamed for having participated.  

I long for a reign of peace.  Surely that is just as true for those who have seen war up close as it is for me.  

********

Here's a repost of something I posted on Facebook yesterday:

This is a short piece on the Mennonites of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the Civil War. I especially like this story about Stonewall Jackson's encounter with Mennonite men who were forcibly conscripted. Thanks to my brother Caleb Miller for drawing it to my attention. The rest of the article details some of the costs borne by Mennonites and others during Sheridan's march to the sea. Custer (famous for his attacks on Indians in the Great Plains) was a player in these events. I hadn't known that.
"Even though the Confederacy made no provision for conscientious objection to military duty, most Mennonite young men refused to fight the civil war. To escape conscription some walked over the mountains into what is now West Virginia where military action was less intense. Others attempted to remain invisible, sometimes using the services of the Underground Railroad to hide. But on Sunday mornings, many came out of hiding to attend church. It was not beneath Stonewall Jackson to arrive at Weaver’s Mennonite Church near Harrisonburg on Sunday mornings where he knew Mennonite men of fighting age would be assembled. Forcing them to muster against their will, he soon found that even in battle, Mennonites had a way of remaining true to their pacifistic beliefs. In the oral history of one Rockingham County family, their ancestor was caught up in Jackson’s raid on the meetinghouse. After the first battle, Jackson asked the young man if he had shot? “I didn’t see anything to shoot at,” replied the lad. “Didn’t you see those Yanks over there?” asked Jackson. “Sure,” the boy replied. “But they are people. And I don’t shoot people.” Jackson is quoted later as saying, “There live a people in the valley of Virginia that are not hard to bring to the army. While there they are obedient to their officers. Nor is it difficult to have them take aim. But it is impossible to get them to take correct aim. I, therefore, think it better to leave them at their homes, that they may produce supplies for the army.”

Saturday, August 05, 2023

Youth Fellowship Meetings in 2023

People who grew up in a context similar to mine almost certainly will have memories of attending these Youth Fellowship Meetings as young people.  Today, at age 71, I attended such a gathering.  I went to hear our middle son speak.  He was one of three keynote speakers for the weekend meetings.  The last time I attended, Shane was the moderator for the meetings when they were held locally.  In the middle of carrying out this duty, he was scrambling madly to prepare for his wedding a week or so later.  Last night, when he had no other duties at the meetings, he attended with all five of his children--ages almost 2 to almost 12.  His wife was ill and stayed home.

Much has changed since I went to that first away-from-home fellowship meeting in Indiana at age 17.  The main thing that is different is that the size of the gatherings are much smaller.  This is due to having subdivided the Eastern and Western districts into multiple smaller districts.  I remember, for example, that when Joel (our first child) was five months old, Hiromi and I served on the church food committee, and we prepared to serve multiple meals to 850 people. I haven't heard how many registered for this 2023 gathering, but I'm sure that the number is far smaller--maybe less than a fourth of that number. 

In another unthinkable-earlier development, many of the local young people are gone for a wedding 20-some hours of driving time east of here.  Young people would more nearly have planned their whole summer around fellowship meetings than to risk not being able to attend because of a conflict.  A few are occupied this year with a disc golf tournament in another state.  I should probably refrain from stating what I think of this reason for being absent.  

Another major difference is that the audience included many more families and elderly folks than are present these days.  They came for the inspiration and because they liked being around young people.  I'm still a little bitter about this change.  I learned about it the year that everyone in our church community was told that if you're the parent of a young person above the age of 16, you're welcome to attend.  Otherwise, no.  I went, but I felt like staying home in solidarity with all those who would have loved to attend but were "uninvited."  The meetings were held at the same location as the one when Hiromi and I helped cook.  That time we had the meetings outdoors, under a big tent.  The weather was hot, but people with appropriate foresight and ingenuity had rigged up sprinkler tapes south of the tent.  When the sprinklers emitted a fine mist, the cooling of the evaporation process helped make the temps bearable. Everyone had access to ice-cold water from the spigot on a bulk milk tank that had been brought in on a trailer.  Today's audiences seem to demand more creature comforts than that, and we've complied--at the price of being less welcoming to all, as I see it.  I'm not convinced that it's a good trade-off.  

I won't belabor the theme of change indefinitely, but one other obvious change is that the meetings are apparently now considered a "casual dress" occasion.  We always dressed in our Sunday best.  

I sat in the back row this morning, along with other not-young people who attended.  I did manage to talk to one young person though in the break between Shane's two sessions, a friendly young woman from Paris, TN.  Her last name was Nissley.  This interaction is the part of Fellowship Meetings that probably has changed less than any other.  It is a meeting place par excellence.  

The inspiration that is possible and spiritual growth that is encouraged is still intact as well.  It's true, of course, that probably no one has ever applied techniques learned from Kansas Leadership Center training in a context like this (on the topic of "Finding Your Place in Church").  But trying to help each other make a connection between what we know and how we live, and doing so with integrity and authenticity--all while seeking to glorify God by it is still alive.  The rapt attention I saw this morning from many young people gave witness to this.  



Friday, March 03, 2023

Email Excerpt on Justice and Righteousness

What appears below was originally written to two of my sisters and one sister-in-law.  I have been updating this small local group recently on my latest housekeeping woes and conquests, and one of the people who couldn't be there for a recent Wednesday evening meeting at church invited my response to the presentation on an assigned topic--after another had already weighed in with a favorable review..  I will redact some of the personal references.

Several people to whom the email was directed asked permission to share it with others.  I granted it and then realized that I could share it here and make it more widely available.  

***********

I too thought the topic was generally good. I especially liked the distinction between social justice A and B.  [This was taken from a book by Thaddeus J. Williams:  Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth.]

I guess I don't see the same urgency that _____ sees in our knowing all the details of how corrupted various terms have become, given the fact that we generally don't ourselves attach the same corrupted meanings to the terms and do not generally align ourselves with those who do.  Maybe it's partly because I just can't happily blend into a world of detailed analysis, etc.  I'm all about the big picture, and it's quite enough for me to know that word meanings often change over time, but the Word of God doesn't, and we have guidance there about what we are called to do and to be.  As _____ pointed out, our group efforts at Center are directed toward biblical justice--not the corrupted kinds of social justice that he referenced.  The more relevant concern involved here seems to me to be political activism related to these issues.  On that front, Anabaptists in general seem in many cases to have completely lost their way.  

I remember something Ervin Hershberger* said about capital punishment--which was a current issue at that time.  He said something along these lines.  "If we say anything on this topic, I think we would need to speak up in opposition to it.  But I'm not sure that it's important that we do speak up, given the fact that punishment of evildoers is a legitimate government function."  I feel a little bit the same about the social justice issues that many Christians have become uber-vocal about.  It is within the "rights" of the government to reward good and punish evil.  It is also a basic tenet of a democratic government that all are equal before the law.  Equal opportunities and equal rights are included in the equality equation, and government should promote equality.  To parse all the ways that government gets it wrong is sort of beside the point.  We know that they will not/cannot operate by Christian principles.  As Christians, however, we are duty-bound when we speak to stand with the marginalized (which may at times include people whose values do not align with ours) rather than the oppressors.  As a purely practical matter, I can't see that it makes sense for anyone (all Christians are marginalized to some extent) to point "guns" at others who are marginalized.  Don't we all know that those "guns" can easily be wrested out of our hands and pointed back toward us?  IOW, if we do not show generosity and love toward others, it's unlikely that it will be shown to us.  

There's a lot in this broad category of justice and righteousness that I still need to think more about.  To mention a few: 

1.  "Systemic" terminology.  I personally feel no need to argue against the concept that certain kinds of discrimination are so deeply embedded in a society and have been present so long that they're baked into many ways of being and doing that we may not recognize as such.  This makes it a systemic problem.  I think systemic problems are a thing.  

2.  "Intersectionality" terminology.  I don't see the problem with this general concept--that many people have more than one area in which they may be discriminated against.  Of course it might be misused at times, but it can also be a valuable tool in understanding people where they live.  Surely the recent poverty simulations** made that clear.  

3.  "Group guilt for private sins."  Certainly in the Old Testament God often held people responsible for the sin of others in their tribe (e. g. Achan).  I think Paul in the New Testament often felt the weight of the sins of the Jewish people, even after he was transformed by meeting Jesus.  Jesus certainly did:  "How often I would have gathered you under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not."  (memory quotation).  I just don't see the need to make it clear to the world that I am not guilty of white people's sins, or of other sins that members of our "tribe" have committed.  One reason for this is that I can not justifiably claim to be fully aware of my own wrongs [i.e. wrongdoing].  Another is that self-defense runs counter generally to humble service. 

4.  "Critical race theory."   Isn't that closely related to the "systemic" term?  As such, and for other reasons too, I have no interest in teasing out all the reasons for being upset about anything related to critical race theory.  I think it's a nothing-burger as long as we think straight about systemic issues, group guilt for private sins, intersectionality and Biblical justice. I believe that ____ did not mention this term last night at all. That seemed good to me. 

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*Ervin Hershberger was from Meyersdale, PA.  He was the long-time editor of a publication for which my father, David L. Miller, also had major responsibility.  He was active at Calvary Bible School for decades and was one of my dad's closest friends.  He was widely respected across the entire Beachy constituency.

**The poverty simulations happened at church.  A group from a Mennonite church in Hutchinson orchestrated the activity. It's a little hard to explain, but basically it involved assigning temporary identities and circumstances to people who then did some role playing in keeping with those assignments.  It was designed to show how people in poverty often face challenges on multiple levels, meaning that even if they work very hard to do well in one area, another obstacle can sink their efforts into overall failure.