[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”September 2021 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing, Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Neither Forgotten nor Forgiven – 9/11 + 20

[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”1668″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]We who can remember still do remember what happened and where we were when we first heard or saw it. 2974 died on “9/11”—including over 400 first responders. Each year more die from residual health issues.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”1669″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]I’ve visited the WTC site twice—in 2002 when the ruin was still evident, then several years later to see the memorial and listen to a firefighter tearfully tell the story of that day. I also have visited the Pentagon memorial.

I pray we never forget the tragedies of that day or the lessons to be learned.

Honoring “Teacher of the Year for 2021”

Teaching has been an especially challenging profession over the past 18 months. All the turmoil over Covid and other issues must not cause us to lose sight of the many quality teachers in our school systems. Cory Alfaro is one of these. She was named “Teacher of the year for 2021” by the Los Alamitos Unified School District, which includes Seal Beach.

A Good Word from the District: “She has been with us for 23 years, teaching drama at Laurel High before moving to Oak [Middle School] to teach English and Spanish. ‘I feel blessed to have a job that is my hobby, my passion, and my life’s work all rolled into one.’ Well done, Cory!”

Cory and her family are a faithful part of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach.

Congratulations, Cory!

GOLD for Rachel Fattal and
The USA Women’s 2021 Water Polo Team

The Women’s Polo Team USA won Gold at the Olympics on August 7 by soundly defeating Spain. They have now won the Gold three times in a row—2012, 2016 and now. Rachel Fattal was also part of the 2016 team.

The Fattal Family has been connected to the Seal Beach community and to Grace Community Church for many years.

Congratulations, Rachel!

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Caring for the Birdies God Cares for…

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care… So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” – Jesus

The ultimate lesson of Jesus’ teaching (recorded in Matthew 17:29-31) is that God will sustain us when we stand up for our faith under pressure. But there is also a lesson about comparative worth.

Jesus here teaches about the relative value of living things through the logical argument of “the lesser to the greater.” To God, the little sparrow has value and he cares for it.

Jesus said people are worth more than many sparrows—at least 5 or 6, wouldn’t you say? Just kidding! The Bible’s doctrine of creation clearly establishes a hierarchy with humanity at the top. But it also clearly teaches care of creation.
Listen to Ethel Waters sing, “His Eye is on the Sparrow, and I Know He Watches Me” at a 1975 Billy Graham Crusade: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df3P4cO4Co0

“…not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.”

Recently we returned home from a brief errand and I saw what looked like a ball of string on the lawn. I looked closely and saw it was a bird nest that fell from our parkway tree. There were three tiny baby birds inside, clearly stressed by the fall and direct exposure to the afternoon sun. We moved them from the sunlight and found something to hold the little nest.

We put the nest as close as we could get it to where it once was, hoping momma or daddy bird would show up (they didn’t). There was no safe way for me to get the nest back up onto the high, small branches from whence it fell. After all, I have on good authority that I am worth more than three sparrows!

We went on-line and looked up care and feeding of baby birds. Sadly, two of the birds didn’t make it. But one is hearty and growing and chirpy.

We’ve also protected and released 49 Monarch butterflies this year, with many more on the way. What’s next? Will we find some abandoned baby skunks in our back yard needing some TLC?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

Bible Insight – The Priority of
the Word of God

Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. – Romans 10:17 ESV

…when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. – 1 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. – 2 Timothy 4:2 NIV

Perhaps some of my Catholic friends who read these words can provide me with some insight on the questions I’m about to raise.

When I was in seminary (1966-69) John MacArthur was becoming the model of preaching, the man to emulate. He had long, in-depth sermons and, besides, most of us were already used to 45-minute sermons. MacArthur, now in his 80’s, continues to deliver lengthy sermons expounding the text of Scripture to a packed sanctuary.

Problem was and still is, most of us preachers can’t preach like MacArthur and if we think 45-minute sermons are what we should deliver, we may be thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Romans 12:3).

I gave 45-minute sermons for seven years after seminary. When I returned to pastoral ministry in 1984 after eight years of teaching theology at Biola University, I made the decision that my sermons would be under 30 minutes. * Actually, it’s harder to prepare a 30-minute sermon than most 45-minute sermons. Points must be crisper, introduction and conclusion more focused, illustrations and applications more “to the point.” Harder to do, but worth it.

So the time is shortened but the goal is still there: to present God’s Word clearly and practically. And my prayer always is that a tighter 30-minute sermon will be better and more effective than a 45-minute one.

Which leads me to two questions to discuss with my Catholic friends.

First, why are homilies so short and how can they become better? Second, why would many worshippers want to use Latin liturgy they cannot understand in worship (Eucharistic) services?

The homily (another word for the sermon, usually reflecting brevity) should be a Spirit-filled time in worship when people can hear the Word of the Lord proclaimed, explained and applied. It’s true that God’s Word can come non-verbally (St. Augustine said the Bread and Cup of the Eucharist are verba visibilia, “visible words”, and stained glass windows in traditional sanctuaries tell the story of Jesus without audible words). But the verbal proclamation is biblically demanded and necessary for growing faith and spiritual transformation through the inner ministry of the Holy Spirit.

During the height of Covid restrictions (July, 2020), the Archdiocese of Santa Fe demanded that homilies within its jurisdiction be very brief—five minutes and even down to three minutes! Priests offering longer homilies could have their “faculty to preach” suspended. Why, most evangelical preachers haven’t finished their sermon introduction in three minutes!

The Apostle Paul instructed his protégé Timothy, “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching [exhortation, encouragement] and to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). These three dynamic encounters with the Word of God should prominently characterize our worship services still today.

George Weigel is my favorite Catholic writer. In his book Evangelical Catholicism (Basic Books, 2013) he summons Catholic priests to “The Imperative of Preaching Well.” He challenges them to deliver homilies

that proclaim the Bible as the Word of God, that invite the people of the Church to meet the Lord through his holy Word, and that empower Catholic men and women to take the Gospel into the world and draw people to Christ.

The evangelical Catholic priests of the future must relearn the importance of expository preaching, which requires careful study of the liturgy’s biblical texts through the use of good biblical commentaries, many of which will have been written by Protestant scholars. (p. 145)

Now as to liturgy, should it be in the language of the worshippers or is Latin permissible if not preferred? ** My wife and I attended a Latin Mass a few years ago. It indeed was ascetically beautiful with a sense of transcendence. But the spoken word (beyond the brief homily) could not build faith or transform life because it was not understood (Romans 10:17). (I do note that worshippers may follow the liturgy in their own language through the use of a “missal”—roughly similar to a printed Protestant order of liturgy, including readings. A missal wasn’t available to us during our visit.)

Paul told the Corinthian believers whose worship services were full of speaking in unknown tongues, “Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?” (1 Corinthians 14:9). Instead, “strive to excel in building up the church” through meaningful words (14:12). Intelligible words are a must for worship in its fullness.

Whether in a Charismatic gathering where many are speaking in tongues without interpretation, or in a Eucharistic service where the liturgy is not understood, or listening to a highbrow sermon with big theological terms and Greek thrown in, the edification of the mind and spirit is truncated. In short, a key purpose of the worship service is unaccomplished.

If your church board wants to set measureable performance goals *** for your pastor (whoever has the primary teaching task), make this one Top Priority:

Give 44 sermons a year that are well-researched, well-organized, true to the text of Scripture, with excellent homiletics, heart-felt strong delivery, understood by all, timely and practical. ****

* This was partly necessitated by a tight Sunday morning schedule with multiple services, three after 1997.
** I read almost every day about the controversies over liturgy in the Catholic Church. The issues go much deeper than simply a debate over language. Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Wilmington, CA offers a Latin Tridentine Mass at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time on Sundays. It can be viewed via YouTube at: www.sppc.us
*** And I’m not saying they should. Much of a pastor’s task is not quantifiable.
**** “Understood by all” – even a deep sermon needs some cookies on the bottom shelf. The number of weekly sermons can flex. “44” is based on 4 weeks of vacation and 4 weeks for other speakers or programs. Congregations expecting sermon excellence need to supply their pastors with time and ample funds for ongoing training, books and other resources, and must protect the pastor’s sermon preparation time.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]“We must remove police from traffic stops.” So says the leader of an activist group in California.

Likewise, University of Arkansas law professor Jordan Blair Woods proposes “a new legal framework for traffic enforcement that separates it from critical police function” (“Traffic Without the Police,” Stanford Law Review, June 2021).

More later on the wisdom, or lack thereof, of removing police from traffic enforcement. Here is a personal story…

My teenage granddaughter, shortly after getting her driver’s license, did a “California [slow] stop” for a right turn on red late one evening. She got a ticket, not because an officer observed her but because a camera did.

The fine was $100—fair enough. But by the time all kinds of governmental fees were slathered on, she was out almost $500. This is unjust and seems to me to be a clear violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “excessive fines.” Does anyone know if this issue has ever been litigated?

This magnitude of fines can get people of limited means onto a “downhill snowball” debt slope they cannot escape if they are unable to pay and penalties start piling up. Politicians who claim to have special concern for the poor should take a hard look at these unreasonable fees.

Unlike cameras (which some foolishly propose as a partial substitute for having sworn officers make traffic stops), the officer has both a head and a heart. One key feature of a traffic stop is when the officer weighs the factors and decides either to issue a ticket or just give a warning. At such a moment, the officer balances doing justice and loving mercy (Micah 6:8), and strives for “the spirit of the law” above “the letter of the law.”

I was a teenager when an officer in a small Indiana town pulled up beside me as I waited at a traffic signal and said, “Watch yourself! This town’s not a race track!” But I’m at a dead stop! What happened? I was “profiled” because I was DWMT – “Driving While Male Teen”. Fortunately, I could outgrow that—the teen part, that is.

That scene stays with me almost 60 years later, along with all the times I was actually stopped by law enforcement. Only once was I ticketed—driving through open farm country on an empty highway in Ohio. The officer who motioned me to pull over told me an airplane monitored me going 60 mph in a 50 mph section of that highway. The ticket (paid by credit card on the spot) was $80, not $500, but I still thought the stop was unfair.

All the other times I was stopped I was warned, even sternly lectured, and sent on my way.

The idea that officers are pressed and eager to achieve ticket quotas or that cities want more citations to up their income is largely a myth or very rare or in the past or in the movies. Have minorities been unfairly targeted? In certain times and places, yes. This must change! (I stress unfairly, because a statistical disproportion in itself does not show improper policing.)

I can’t prove it, but I’d wager my granddaughter would have gotten away with a stern warning had she been pulled over by the police after her “California
stop” that night.

And she would have learned more in a positive way from that experience than she could ever learn from the resentment-building excessive fine.

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Religious Liberty Vigilance –
Cancelling Free Speech

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – 1st Amendment

[NOTE: What “America First” represents doesn’t matter to me when it comes to the First Amendment. I would say the same things here if leftists were prevented from holding a rally in Anaheim, CA featuring Bernie Sanders.]

Politics and social engineering have invaded formats traditionally neutral on such matters (like SPORTS!), and this is both sad and alarming. In fact, it’s time to speak against it.

An “America First” rally that had been scheduled for Saturday night, July 17, at the Anaheim Event Center has been canceled, the city of Anaheim announced. Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida had been expected to speak at the event.

A spokesman for Anaheim, said, “As a city we respect free speech but also have a duty to call out speech that does not reflect our city and its values.”

No, city officials DO NOT have such a duty. Their duty is to run an effective local government that serves the needs of the people and spends wisely.

George Will says, “Perhaps…Anaheim’s city government [has] time and resources to spare because they have excellently completed the jobs they actually are supposed to perform. Perhaps.” (Washington Post, July 21, 2021)

And WHO DECIDES what the City of Anaheim’s values are? Who presumes to speak for the rest of the community, which is certainly diverse?
First Amendment limits on government do not apply to private groups but do call into question government pressure to control speech in these groups.

The First Amendment is designed to prevent government from establishing an intellectual orthodoxy. Governments throughout history have attempted to do this, creating official established religions that could not be criticized or banning the profession of certain ideas. James Madison, author of the First Amendment, stood athwart the tide of history and yelled stop. The new democratic republic would, from its onset, be the first government in history to dedicate itself to individual intellectual freedom.

There is no exception to that rule for speech that the government believes is untrue. In the United States, people can say the most ridiculous things in full confidence that the government will not try to silence them. – Henry Olson, Washington Post, July 21, 2021 [bold mine]

But the government IS trying to silence and cancel! The pressing question is, are we willing to rise to the occasion and work to preserve our freedom of speech, our free exercise of religion, and the right to assemble?

Shameful Political Correctness and
Cancel Culture in Charlottesville

Charlottesville, Virginia did more recently than (understandably) remove two Confederate statues.

Under left-wing pressure, the City Council held an emergency meeting with 20 minutes’ notice and voted to remove a monument honoring explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with their indispensible guide and translator, an Indian woman named Sacagawea (depicted as a trail guide, not as a subservient woman). Lewis, born in the county, was a local hero.

The Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-06) was a project launched by one of Virginia’s great sons, Thomas Jefferson. Travelling from St. Joseph, Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River, it explored the extent of the Louisiana Purchase and performed many other services such as Lewis documenting plant and animal life.

“Follow the Science”?

Abortion was the topic one evening on “Nightline” with Ted Koppel. After listening to a guest argue for a position supposedly based on “science”, he interjected, “With all due respect, what you are arguing for has nothing to do with science.” No science—all ideological advocacy. Good for Koppel!

Today the mantra is, “Follow the science.” But does this directive often either limit or exceed “the science” and advocate ideology instead?

Tom Nicholson, a researcher at Duke University, shows how objective science has suffered during the Covid pandemic:

The quality of scientific publications suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic. From dubious prepublication studies to bombshell papers quietly retracted months later, it has been a busy but difficult time for major medical and epidemiology journals. Peer-review and clinical-trial processes have sped up, and few would claim this generally improves the quality of the research or its conclusions.

The same has happened in the less rigorous world of policy analysis. Working groups and research collaboratives have issued recommendations to government, business, universities and other institutions without even a cursory peer review. Often these groups offer more encouragement and opinion than rigorous findings.
– Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2021[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com
Contact me at: donaldshoemakerministries@verizon.net

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019. His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for 55 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]