Funding Evil: A Fool and His Money

This Sunday presented me with a large sampling of lectionary edits to deal with. I think this would be a good time to read straight through the expurgated verses for a change to get a feel for what the average pewsitter is being protected from hearing.

The Old Testament reading was Isaiah 1:1,10-20. Listen to what was not heard.

Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;
for the Lord has spoken:
I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.

Ah, sinful nation,
people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil,
children who deal corruptly,
who have forsaken the Lord,
who have despised the Holy One of Israel,
who are utterly estranged!

Why do you seek further beatings?
Why do you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head,
there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores
and bleeding wounds;
they have not been drained, or bound up,
or softened with oil.

Your country lies desolate,
your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
aliens devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
And daughter Zion is left
like a booth in a vineyard,
like a shelter in a cucumber field,
like a besieged city.
If the Lord of hosts
had not left us a few survivors,
we would have been like Sodom,
and become like Gomorrah.

I am surprised they allowed people to hear verse 10:

Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!

Next, a large chunk of Psalm 50 got the ax. We read verses 1-8,22-23.

Hear again the missing verses,

I will not accept a bull from your house,
or goats from your folds.
For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the air,
and all that moves in the field is mine.

‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and all that is in it is mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and pay your vows to the Most High.
Call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.’

But to the wicked God says:
‘What right have you to recite my statutes,
or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.
You make friends with a thief when you see one,
and you keep company with adulterers.

‘You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your kin;
you slander your own mother’s child.
These things you have done and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one just like yourself.
But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.

The Epistle also got trimmed. We heard Hebrews 11:3,8-16. The missing verses were,

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and ‘he was not found, because God had taken him.’ For it was attested before he was taken away that ‘he had pleased God.’ And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.

There is so much good stuff in there that I have to wonder if we indeed are guilty of a great sin by omitting verses for whatever reason, be it in the interest of shortening the service, or trying to focus on one theme, or what I suspect, and that is to minimize people's exposure to talk about sin and judgement.

Given all of that confusion, it might be understandable that our rector chose to ignore those lessons and focus on Luke:32-40. Well, he actually focused soley on verse 34.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In his sermon, the treasure the rector chose to dwell upon was money. He told us about the depression era generation and how, in future years, they obsessed over money. After trying to shock people by stressing the word "fool" several times when talking about the rich man and his heirs in Luke 12:13-21 (last week's lesson), and then discussing his own discipline of tithing, he eventually came around to a theme of how liberating it was to give without questioning the outcome.

All of this brought to mind my choice to no longer fund the evil schemes of the Episcopal church. This is the church, after all, that funds pro-abortion groups, and seeks to destroy Holy Matrimony. The heart of this church is bound by the desires of the flesh.

"The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head,
there is no soundness in it"-Isaiah 1:5-6

I am afraid that I have found a treasure in the Word of God as delivered through the teachings of the Apostles and the Bible. I am sorry, but that is where my heart is right now, and I just can't see myself adding fuel to the fires that are consuming pieces of that heart verse by verse.

I also reflected on last week's news headlines about several billionaires who are promising to give away half of their wealth, not because of any Biblical wisdom, but because they have more than they can possibly spend. I pray that they give wisely, and that they don't create any monsters, but I am afraid that their treasure may not be the Word of God either.

The good folks at StandFirm posted a piece on how abortionist training gets funded and referenced a NYT article which highlighted a famous billionaire who has recently been in the news for his pledge to give large chunks of his money to "charities."

"Susan Thompson Buffett was married to Warren Buffett and served as president of the foundation that bears her name. She died in 2004. Two years later, Warren Buffett gave the foundation about $3 billion. He said that he expected the gift to increase the foundation’s annual expenditures by $150 million. And in fact, total giving by the foundation, where two of the Buffetts’ children sit on the board, increased from $202 million in 2007 to $347 million in 2008, according to tax returns."

"The tax records also show that most of the foundation’s spending goes to abortion and contraception advocacy and research. According to Access Philanthropy, a research institute that focuses on the giving preferences of foundations and corporate donors, family planning is one of the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation’s main purposes. The foundation’s nonprofit 990 tax form shows that in 2008, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates in the U.S. received about $45 million; the international arm of the organization got about $8 million. There is no line item for the Ryan program or the Family Planning Fellowship. But the foundation paid out around $50 million to universities with one or both of the programs."

"Warren Buffett has never spoken publicly about his views on abortion. But in the 1990s, according to The Wall Street Journal, the Buffett Foundation helped finance the research and development of the pills that induce abortion. The foundation also helped finance a lawsuit to overturn the ban on so-called partial-birth abortion in Nebraska, Buffett’s home state and the headquarters of his company, Berkshire Hathaway. (Susan Thompson Buffett moved from Omaha to San Francisco in 1977 but remained close to her husband. She took credit for introducing him to the woman he has lived with since 1978; the three sent out Christmas cards together.) In Thompson Buffett’s only television interview, which was broadcast after her death, she told Charlie Rose: 'Warren feels that women all over the world get shortchanged. That’s why he’s so pro-choice.'"

Buffett's actions above and words below point to some of the perils of his idea of charity. He is reported at TulsaWord.com as saying,

"He said the wonderful aspect about private philanthropy is that money can be used to experiment with new initiatives that governments might not be willing to try."

The word is out on the street. Social experimentalists are listening. Now is the time to get their pet projects funded. If billions are funneled into other destructive "charities," just think of the long term harm to not just this country but to the world.

John Tammy at Forbes may have it right in his article "If Charity is Their Goal, Gates and Buffett Should Hoard Their Wealth" that their money should be used as capital for business,

"There are no jobs without investment, and given the billions that Gates and Buffett control, if they were to hoard their wealth rather than give it away, their wealth-creation motive would boost the job market."

There may be room for both wealth creation and charitable giving, but Tammy has a point.

Today, I faced a decision, should I put money in the recor's plate (T.E.C.), or should I put it in the "Christians Feed the Hungry" plate.

I chose the latter.

Now, where did I lay that WSJ?

Pent Up Costs

I always loved Peter's proof in Acts of the Apostles 2:12-15,

"All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning."

1. The fact that he was able to stand proved that he was not falling down drunk.

2. I wonder if he meant for them to "come back later tonight" to see "serious drinking."

Today we at ECOOS had a post Pentecost meeting during which the vestry presented a brief description of the budget YTD. The good news is that heading into the summer months, we are only $500.00 short. The bad news is that attendance usually drops during the summer as does plate income. We were reminded that the budget was trimmed by $100,000 for 2009 because of a decrease in pledge income. A look back at giving trends and average Sunday attendance for the years up to and including 2007 is found here. This shows a steady rise in income despite a flat or declining Sunday attendance. There was also an interesting rise in baptised members during between 2003 and 2007 that does not jive with the Sunday attendance trend.

I don't think the nefarious and rarely attended "Not Another Episcopal Church Blog" has any thing to do with the numbers. After all, this blog started in June of 2006.

Maybe those baptised members are attending Sunday School and skipping the service. I don't think that has changed, but how is Sunday school doing? (More on that later).

Nor do I accept the rationalization that "All the mainstream denominations are in decline." The Word of God is as powerful today as it was for the Apostles at the time of the Pentecost. The "mainstream" Episcopal Church may have some hidden costs that are keeping people from coming in to hear the Word spoken, praised, and worshipped.

The late Dr. Peter Toon in "Episcopal Innovations 1960-2004" points out the changes this particular mainstream church has taken that weaken the Church's position on things such as sin, divorce, atonement, the Person of Christ, even the Holy Trinity. Many of these things lay in the current "Book of Common Prayer" which since 1979 has indoctrinated an entire generation of Sunday worshippers to a more liberal theology. One small example is the more "inclusive" language in the psalter changing the KJV "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them." to the BCP 1979 "Happy are the people whose strength is in you! whose hearts are set on the pilgrims' way.." (Psalm 84).

Could there also be a cost to the liberal theology we sometimes hear preached such as today's quick reference during the sermon to God as mother?

Could there be a cost to the silence of the congregation when presented with the request to increase their pledge payments? Could there be a cost to the silence in response to the mention that a line of credit from the bank was considered at one point to pay the bills?

Pent up costs accumulate and some day come due with interest, especially to the disinterested.

We Pledge for This?

Ever since we had our own taste of the Divine Feminine, my ears perk up when I hear references to the subject. I once was blind, but now I see...

Do you ever wonder where those dollars sent to the National Church go? I mean besides the RCRC, attorneys fees and court costs. Well it goes to all kinds of kinky stuff. Things like this bizarre event held Feb 13-14, 2009 at the National Cathedral.

From the Institue on Religion and Democracy we read this report,

“A Lakota medicine woman officially opened the conference by offering up a bowl of smoldering tobacco and directing the participants to face the four directions while she went through a ritual to “invite the spirits:”

“To the sacred guardians of the East,” the leader said, “all the medicine that comes from the East, we welcome you. Acupuncture, Tibetan medicine.”

“To the sacred guardians of the South,”—the place of the physical body, innocence, and warriors, “we ask for laughter, healing, joy.”

“To the sacred guardians of the West”—the place of great mystery, the vision quest, and death, “The place of finding your own divinity.”

“To the sacred guardians of the North”—the Earth element, whom she called to “gather spirit and wisdom,” and regarded as the place of transformation, change, and the “White Buffalo Woman.”

“Come spirit of many names, come” the medicine woman concluded.

and this,

"Elizabeth Lesser, co-founder of Omega Institute and guru to Oprah Winfrey, spoke about the importance of emotional and spiritual intelligences…
Lesser recalled the pagan history of what is now St. Valentine’s Day, at which time the Romans honored Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled Rome’s mythical founders, Romulus and Remus, and Juno, queen of the Greco-Roman pantheon. Said Lesser, 'I think it’s time for us women to take back Valentine’s Day,' to 'take it back for Lupa the she-wolf and Juno the fertile goddess, and Valentine.'”

It starts getting a bit obscene, so read no further if you are easily offended.

"Unfortunately, Lesser lamented, women 'suffer from this desire for someone to come and save the day.' Women need to realize, she insisted, 'No handsome prince is going to wake us up. We’re going to have to kiss ourselves; we have to rouse ourselves.'”

I hate to flash you the sacred circle logo...



Do we pay for this stuff? Yes we do.

. . . The Episcopal Office of Women’s Ministries underwrote all of the scholarships to attend “Sacred Circles,” and a paid staffer of the cathedral served as the convener of the event.

I can't wait to see the brochure for the men's conference. I even have some suggestions for the location and the logo. We could have the meeting right here in Rock Hill at a certain restaurant just off I-77 and Hwy 161. Call it "Sacred Chicken Wings." It would be a hoot!

OMGodess

God 3 - Presidential Candidates 0

Last night I caught some of the "debate" with the President wannabes. I also watched the gloom and doom from the MSM about the current swing of the financial pendulum. I was keeping score looking and listening for God talk. I wasn't the only one that noticed that the subject of God did not make its omnipresence known during the debate. As this article at Get Religion points out, there were other witnesses keeping score, but here is my tally.

Presidential Candidates: Zip.

What about other experts?

First off, we have our good friend the President of Iran.
"Ahmadinejad blames lack of piety for credit crunch".

"God willing, a global government of justice will be set up with the resistance of Iranian people as the flag-bearers (of the movement) led by Imam Mahdi."

Easy for him to say, awash in oil, saving money on dry cleaning, 1 point for God

Next, a few words from the Pope.
Pope Benedict XVI says the global financial crisis show the futility of money and ambition.

"now with the collapse of big banks we see that money disappears, is nothing and all these things that appear real are in fact of secondary importance."

He didn't say God or Christ, but I know where he is coming from, 1/2 point for God.

And finally a lot of words from the Archbishop.
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury,

"And ascribing independent reality to what you have in fact made yourself is a perfect definition of what the Jewish and Christian Scriptures call idolatry. What the present anxieties and disasters should be teaching us is to 'keep ourselves from idols', in the biblical phrase."

Overall the article reads more like a lecture on economics, and he does bring the Bible in at the end, but it was a long haul to get there, 1/2 point for God.

Overall, God is in the lead 3-0 (I gave God 1 extra point because He always starts in the lead). The next question is how the current financial market will affect...THE PLEDGE DRIVE!