Category Archives: Newsletters

January 2015 newsletter

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“A Piece of My Mind”

January 2015 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

 

I turned 70 in December. Time for a new picture!

Louis Zamperini—The Rest of the Story

My wife Mary and I visited the Wrigley Mansion in Pasadena the day before the Grand Marshal of the 2015 Rose Parade was announced. We could see the temporary construction where it would be made the next day, but everyone was hush-hush about the announcement.

Louis Zamperini would be the Grand Marshal! Olympic runner, World War II hero lost at sea and presumed dead, survivor of a brutal prison camp. He would later struggle with alcohol and spousal abuse and flashback nightmares. Injuries from his prison camp abuse dashed his hope of running in a future Olympics. And he plotted his return to Japan to find and kill his worst prison camp tormenter.

Zamperini died last summer at the age of 97. “Unbroken” has just been released about his life. We saw the movie December 26.

The story’s opening centers on the plane crash into the Pacific that left Zamperini stranded at sea for 47 days. It flashes back to his childhood and Olympic experience and then moves forward to his lengthy POW experience in Japan. It concludes with the war’s end and his reunion with his family—at Long Beach, California’s airport, no less!

Zamperini’s promise to God (should he survive his ordeal) and his later religious conversion are tastefully mentioned. But for many viewers, including me, a postscript is needed.

 

The fabric of his life was deteriorating severely; his marriage hung by a thread. But in 1949 a young evangelist named Billy Graham arrived in Los Angeles for a crusade that extended to eight weeks and catapulted Graham to fame.

Zamperini’s wife pled for him to attend with her. He went, kicking and screaming so to speak, but insisted he would walk out when the “invitation” was given at the end of Graham’s sermon. Instead, he walked forward and responded to the invitation to give his life to Jesus Christ.

And the rest of his life was transformed. That night, at the time his heavy drinking would typically begin, he poured it all down the drain. His nightmares ended. He later went to Japan to forgive his wartime tormenters (the worst one refused to meet him). He built a ministry for youth who were troubled as he once was. At 80, he carried the torch at Nagano, Japan (near the site of his POW camp) before the 1998 Winter Olympics!

 

A New Year’s Resolution for the Christian Community—Let’s Adopt…

A Renewed Paradigm for Worship

I’ve been an enthusiastic worshipper since I was a toddler (my mother told me I sang really loud). I began planning and leading worship when I was 17. In the points below I try to be creative but make no claim to originality. In fact, I hope most ideas are quite old and enduring. These renewal points come from my general knowledge—change isn’t needed everywhere. The points are a work in progress, not the final word, so input is invited.

A Truly Worshipping Congregation

Give worship back to the congregation. Stop the stage-centered professionalism. Get the congregation singing, not just standing—engaged and not mere passive onlookers. Lower the volume, if necessary, so that people can joyfully hear themselves sing. Make the congregation active participants in worship “with heart and soul and voices” (“Now Thank We All Our God” by Martin Rinkart, 1636). Worship can be high quality without being so orchestrated.

In Touch with Our Christian Heritage

Renew worship connection with our rich Christian heritage even as we also sing good current compositions. Put the people in touch with the saints of the past—their struggles, suffering, spirituality, successes and songs. The Holy Spirit didn’t first arrive with “Jesus Music” in the 1960’s!

The Word of God in Worship

Integrate the Word of the Lord into worship more thoroughly. People need to hear the Scriptures read. If we Evangelical Protestants consider ourselves “People of the Word”, why is there more reading of Scripture in a Roman Catholic Mass than in the typical Evangelical service?

The Word Proclaimed and The Word Explained (Example: Acts 2:14-42)

We must see the distinction between Proclamation of the Word to non-believers and Instruction in the Word to believers—both necessary and complementary. As you plan the worship experience, remember that its primary purpose is to instruct and build up of believers in faith and life. While non-Christians should be invited and, when present, not made to feel like awkward strangers, the worship hour should be distinguished from other occasions that have as their primary purpose drawing non-believers to hear the Word of Salvation and confess Jesus as Lord.

Expository Sermons as a Work of Art

The Message should unfold and apply the meaning of Scripture to the people so they can see what was there all along. While the expository pastor has training and tools available that the rest of us don’t have, sermons should not create an unhealthy dependence on the speaker to know what God is saying. Sermons should usually be under 30 minutes—it takes more work to create a tight sermon than an extended one, but it will be a better sermon. Organize the sermon as if it were a work of art, and then maybe it will become one!

“Less” is often “More” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2; Habakkuk 2:20)

Musical instrumentation in all its variety is marvelous in worship. But don’t forget places for silence, softness and quality a cappella singing. Spoken words are not always necessary and, when they are, few are better than many.

Giving in Worship

Don’t forget the giving opportunity within the worship service. Other avenues for giving (payroll deductions, on-line giving, etc.) have a growing place, but must not supersede a time to give in the worship service.

Technology in Worship—Dine with a Long Spoon

Technology must always be the servant of worship, never its lord. People should leave worship thinking, “I’ve met God today!” Not, “Wow!” Ask these questions when using technology: “Does this feature really enhance worship? Does it point us straight to Jesus? Or does it detract and distract from him?”

Humor Has a Place—Keep It There! (Ask those “tech” questions again!)

Lightheartedness and laughter have their place in worship, when done with purpose. But the service must never get frivolous and must always lift us above ourselves to God. Humor is one thing, trying to be funny another.

A Real, Live Pastor (John 3:16 doesn’t say God in love beamed down his son.)

The pastor who speaks should be there in flesh and blood, not electronically delivered like a hologram. Pastors, we should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We aren’t indispensible celebrities! The people need true interaction with the pastor during and after the sermon, not an impersonal non-encounter with someone who isn’t there. No fleeing to the office after services either—you can keep your energy and still meet people!

Worship Aesthetics

Worship settings don’t need to be extravagant, but they shouldn’t be bland and utilitarian either. The place of worship is sacred space, removed from the “common settings” of the rest of the week. It’s not another “Home Depot”! Worship is a vestibule to the Celestial. In “The Gathering”, we are a holy temple of God, a dwelling place for God’s Spirit. The visible word should tastefully and purposefully surround worshippers in the worship location through artistic display and symbols, and (yes) even in the windows.

The Eucharist in Worship

The Communion (the Eucharist) should be a regular feature of renewed worship—even weekly. Communion isn’t “fast food”. Enough time must be given to ponder the Cross, God’s grace and our need for repentance. Pastors should declare the good news of forgiveness in the Communion.

Shepherding the Flock in Worship

Pastors should actively lead their people into worship, within worship, and out of worship. This means a pastoral role for the Call to Worship, the Pastoral Prayer, and the Benediction. The people should be led in petitionary and intercessory prayer. Appropriate prayer and anointing of the sick with oil should be provided by the elders of the church.

© 2014 Donald P. Shoemaker

Death in Ferguson & New York City

  1. New York City contributed to Eric Garner’s tragic and unnecessary death with its “holy war” on tobacco, similar to the war it attempted on soda (imagine a street vendor resisting arrest and being taken down for selling illegal “big gulp” drinks). Absurdly high taxes are an invitation to many to bootleg cigarettes on the street. Still, there should be little wrong in what Mr. Garner was doing—perhaps warranting nothing more than a ticket. There’s a caveat in legislation, “Don’t pass a law without thinking someone might get killed over it” because that might well happen someday, somewhere. We are simply over-regulated, and in this case a price was paid. NYC should learn!
  2. No person should resist arrest—EVER. At that point, police cannot back down. It greatly heightens the danger level, besides leading to worse charges.
  3. Eric Garner’s case is very different from Michael Brown’s case in Ferguson. Mr. Brown had already, just minutes prior, demonstrated his propensity and willingness to do bodily harm through his strong-armed robbery and battery against a convenience store owner (all captured by a store camera).
  4. The constant mantra-like use of the adjective “unarmed” needs to be reconsidered. Sometimes it isn’t relevant. Someone with a fake weapon is “unarmed”. Someone using a child as a hostage and threatening to twist its neck is “unarmed” and yet lethal force may be justified. One’s body can be a weapon, especially in a close-range situation (as Mr. Brown demonstrated at the store and at the police car).
  5. My judgment is that “justice” was pre-determined by many, regardless of the specifics of the Ferguson incident. Many good, sincere and concerned people saw the incident as parabolic—pointing to moral issues beyond the actual incident. With a parable, truth is in the lesson to be learned, not in the specifics of the story. The story is shaped to support the truth-principle it conveys. The problem I have is this: in parables the people who are doing right or wrong are nameless and figurative. The Ferguson incident has names and faces and details open to examination. It is not a parable, but a reality situation where conclusions and justice must be based on actual facts.
  6. My comments above (#5) do not at all mean there shouldn’t be some serious examination of relationships between residents and law enforcement in many communities. For that matter, war-like vehicles and tactics belong in the hands of the military (in this case, the National Guard) and not in the hands of community law enforcement.
  7. Officer Darren Wilson resigned from the Ferguson police force and obviously cannot return to his home, the address of which was released. What he can do in the future is, as his attorney said, “anyone’s guess.” He should receive a retirement stipend since he is unable to perform his duties as a law enforcement officer. This is a regrettable prospect, but many have received retirement from law enforcement with less justification than this.

An important concluding word—these thoughts are not shared in a vacuum. I speak with a high degree of personal memory. In 2010 a neighbor of mine was shot and killed by police in Long Beach, California for pointing a garden hose nozzle that appeared to be a pistol when he was drunk and approached by the police. I conducted his funeral.

No big protests for him.

Don’s Upcoming Ministries

January 6 – Present and Support a Religious Freedom Day (January 16) Proclamation before the Long Beach City Council

February 18 – Lead “Ash Wednesday” service at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (7 PM)

March 22 – Speak in Sunday Morning Worship Services at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (8:00, 9:30, 11:00)

 

A Happy, Productive, Meaningful New Year to All!

December 2014 newsletter

Posted on by

“A Piece of My Mind”

December 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

 

The Very First Christmas Story—A Good Father

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth.” (Luke 1:13-14 New Int’l. Version)

The Christmas story doesn’t begin in Bethlehem with a manger, the Holy Family, docile animals and adoring shepherds. It begins in Jerusalem’s temple. It’s a story about an old man—an old priest named Zechariah.

Zechariah was visited by the angel Gabriel, who told him that he would have a son named John (known to us as “John the Baptist”).

John would grow up to be a very significant man:

“He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord”

(Luke 1:17)

So the Christmas message begins with a politically incorrect statement for today: Fathers are important! Not perfect fathers—Zechariah wasn’t perfect. Not jerks either, but “good enough” dads who are there to nurture their children and be in a positive relationship with them.

The failure of responsible fatherhood is our society’s most consequential evil. As results, we have teenage girls with babies, teenage boys with guns, educational failure, family poverty, and many other negative consequences.

The California Youth Authority incarcerates teens who have run afoul of the law. One Christmas season my church, Grace Community Church of Seal Beach, California, took a ministry team to the CYA facility a few miles away to bring these troubled boys the Christmas story in word and song. Take it from one who shook the hand of almost every young man in that facility (for hundreds—nearly all—chose to come to our two services) and who talked to the chaplains who provide spiritual support to these boys, hardly any have a responsible father role model in their lives. Many of them don’t even know who their biological fathers are.

Our society should be encouraging fathers and reconciliation between fathers and children. Instead, fathers are often treated as superfluous and optional and, in entertainment, men who just don’t get it. The Christmas message stands against this cultural thinking. The Christmas message starts with a good, decent father-to-be and the son who will be his and bring him joy.

No society can afford the social price of failed fatherhood. The word of the angel Gabriel is drawn from the Prophet Malachi:

“He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers … or else I will come and strike the land with a curse”

(Malachi 4:5)

Those are our alternatives—reconciliation between fathers and children, or a curse on our culture. Which pathway will we follow?

That’s how the Christmas message starts!

 

Reflections on Religion in Europe

My wife, Mary, and I just returned from a trip to Europe, with four days in Prague and seven on a cruise on the Danube River from Germany to Hungary.

Twelve days in Eastern Europe doth not one an expert make. These are my observations and I welcome anyone’s critique:

  • We were struck with the depth of history in these countries, going back centuries and over a millennium—even back to Roman times. Here in urban California, you might declare something historic that’s 75 years old, that is if you haven’t torn it down already.
  • Historic religious edifices are everywhere. This is a visual and intellectual feast to those with historical interests (like me). But a churchman told us it is a financial drain to religious institutions that must maintain these buildings, leaving fewer resources for ministry.
  • We visited many churches with glorious, beautiful sanctuaries. Many times, however, entryways were foreboding and sometimes hard to find. In America, we would say the buildings were “not welcoming”.
  • In Germany, people are taxed to support religion unless they declare themselves non-religious. Beyond this, the government maintains the outside of historical edifices while the church must maintain the inside.
  • Christianity has a tradition that is as much as 1200 years old in some localities, and it was often closely tied to the State through many years and situations. Thus, you see militarist imagery inside churches that may strike an American as strange. But don’t forget that secular military might has preserved religious freedom many times in our day.
  • Communist officials in Czechoslovakia would take note of churchgoers and punish them with lesser jobs and loss of access to universities. Christian sites were destroyed or converted. Fortunately, the historic library at the Strahov Abbey in Prague survived. [Our special thanks to Fr. Marek for a private tour of the Abbey.]
  • On a Sunday morning we noticed very few people attending the churches we saw as we walked around Prague. We were told that attendees are mostly elderly but that some young people have found the church. This is partly explained by past Communist oppression.
  • The Roman Catholic Church maintains considerable cultural influence in Austria, though I don’t know how this is generally embraced on the individual level. For example, by law businesses are largely closed on Sunday. Whatever one thinks of this, I admit to a certain nostalgia about it, especially as I see the new and increasing commercialization of Thanksgiving Day and even Easter in the US.
  • Our tour guide in Prague talked of her personal involvement in the protests that led to the “Velvet Revolution” in 1989. She remains emotionally and intellectually opposed to Communism and supportive of the freedoms that came. Overall, we were impressed with the cultural progress achieved in the 25 years following repression, though no culture is ever without its difficulties. Interesting that the celebration marking 25 years since the1989 fall of the Berlin Wall occurred during our visit. People made in the Image of God yearned for freedom of the heart and soul and mind.
 

“Saved by Faith and Good Works”
or
“Saved by Faith without Works”?

In just over two years we will observe the 500th Anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation. How faith and works relate was a key issue.

And the Epistle of James a key book. Even today, we debate the interrelationship of works and faith.

On October 5, I gave a message at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach on James 2:14-26, “Faith that’s Worthless and Faith that Works.”

I invite you to listen to this message. It can be found on the link below as the message for 10/5/14:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-community-church-seal/id370162801?mt=2

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Lord, we thank you for the goodness of our people and for the spirit of justice
that fills this nation.

We thank you for the beauty and fullness of the land and the challenge of the cities.

We thank you for our work and our rest,
for one another and for our homes. We pray and give thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
— Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers

Announcing the Birth of Jesus

There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them,

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

(The Gospel of Luke 2:8-14)

A Personal Note and a Thanksgiving Story

Natalie Dubose of Ferguson, Missouri is a business owner with a cake shop and a bakery dream.

“My shop, which had it’s grand opening this summer, was vandalized in the [November 24] riots. My main windows were smashed and bakery damaged. I’m beside myself, but with the holidays, can’t stop working. I’m very busy cleaning and trying to repair my business. I’m also trying to catch up on baking cakes for Thanksgiving!”

When my wife and I heard of this we discussed sending a gift to Natalie. Well, that won’t be necessary. Thanks to generous people in this good nation, $263,235 has been contributed for Natalie’s business by over 8,000 people (November 30 information).

We now have found another outlet for a Thanksgiving donation. But we thank God for generous people and for the determination of victims like Natalie! She extends these words, “I would thank everyone for their warm wishes, empathy, and support during this crazy difficult time.”

 

A Very Merry Christmas to All!

© 2014 Donald P. Shoemaker

November 2014 Newsletter

Posted on by

“A Piece of My Mind”

November 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

 

When you vote in November,
what should you seek in a leader?

In this newsletter I will suggest some good qualities to expect and demand of an office seeker, whether the politician is conservative or moderate or liberal.

With these qualities in place, we can now examine candidates’ positions on the issues. Without these qualities, those positions don’t matter much.

 

Good Government Starts Here
—What to Look For in a Candidate on Election Day

Thomas Jefferson spoke in his first inaugural address (1801) of our need for a “wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”

In this spirit, I’ve thought about certain non-partisan values that should characterize good government and the officials who are elected and appointed to its many positions. Here are eight qualities I wish to see as I evaluate those seeking office this election season:

  • Frugality – viewing public funds as a limited resource to be prudently handled with great care and not as a constant spring where there is always more to be tapped. It must always be remembered that every tax dollar, regardless of its source and our political good intentions, takes money from people and not from impersonal things.
  • Accountability – recognizing that managing public funds and exercising power are solemn trusts. Those who do these things must see themselves as stewards answerable to thex people. Most of us believe accountability is due “in the sight of both God and man.” But even if a politician doesn’t think God exists, he knows the citizen does. Accountability also measures actions by their impact on the future long after a term of office has ended.
  • Integrity – being people of truthfulness and fairness and good character in light of reasoned principles acknowledged by almost everybody.
  • Collegiality – being an effective office-holder through knowing how to work with others, especially those of opposing viewpoints. The collegiate leader earns respect “across the aisle” and knows how to work the political process for reasonable advantage without yielding core values. In short, he knows “half a loaf is better than none.”
  • Efficiency – getting the most “bang for the buck” by avoiding wasted time, squandered resources, incompetence and bloated bureaucracy. Jefferson’s call for “suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses” needs to be heeded as never before.
  • Productivity – ensuring that resources of funding, time and talent are used for intended and effective purposes and not, as examples, for self-aggrandizement or for programs likely or proven to fail. A good leader regards no program as sacrosanct and regularly evaluates them for both effectiveness and efficiency.
  • Accessibility – demonstrating openness to the people they are selected to serve, whether these people are supporters, detractors or indifferent.
  • Sagacity * – realizing that the state’s power to compel behavior is a great and potentially dangerous power and therefore exercising great reserve and wisdom in its use in our free society.

With these qualities in place, we may then move beyond them to the issues we cherish and the inevitable partisanship of any election. But without these qualities even our most favored office seekers will be compromised in their missions, to everyone’s damage and cynicism.

* Yes, that was a new word for me, too. Meaning: mental discernment, sound judgment

 

Good News from Grace

http://www.gracesealbeach.org/

 

“Saved by Good Works” or “Saved by Grace without Works”?

Does the Bible seem to teach both, or not? Can the ideas fit together?
On October 5, I gave a message at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach on James 2:14-26, “Faith that’s Worthless and Faith that Works.”

I invite you to listen to this message. It can be found on the link below as the message for 10/5/14:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-community-church-seal/id370162801?mt=2&i=319791040

Religious Liberty Vigilance –
“Houston, We Have a Problem!”

“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

“No provision in our constitution ought to be dearer to man, than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.”
– Thomas Jefferson

 

Quenching Religious Expression in the Name of Equality

Whichever side one is on as to the “transgender” issue, what happened in October in Houston, Texas should concern all who support religious liberty.

Long story short, a petition was submitted to the city to call for a voter referendum that would repeal a recent amendment to the city’s equal rights ordinance. The amendment allowed “transgendered” people access to the rest room of their “gender identity”. When the referendum petition was rejected, several groups filed a lawsuit against Houston.

In response to this, attorneys for the city subpoenaed a large number of documents from five pastors—”all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to [the equal rights ordinance], the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.”

The results of this great overreach of government power would be at least two: (1) an intimidating, chilling effect on the messages and legal activism of churches, and (2) much difficulty for churches to fulfill the subpoenas—churches are generally unequipped or staffed for this kind of demand.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State said that, while a subpoena would be in order when there is a reasonable suspicion of wrong, such wrongdoing is not an issue in this case. “The targeted pastors are not even parties to the lawsuit, and the scope of the subpoenas is striking broad. This has the look of a fishing expedition.” The ACLU of Texas agreed: “The government should never engage in fishing expeditions into the inner workings of a church, and any request for information must be carefully tailored to seek only what is relevant to the dispute.” The Interfaith Alliance said, “As long as a sermon is not inciting violence, the government has no business getting involved in the content of ministers’ sermons.”

That’s three left-wing voices supporting religious liberty in this case!

For now, the city has backed down (rather unrepentantly) from its power display—first by narrowing the request and then by dropping it altogether. Nonetheless, keep alert because “Vigilance is always the Price of Liberty.”

[Sources: “Friendly Atheist” blog; Websites of Americans United and the ACLU;
“The Volokh Conspiracy”, October 16 and 29, 2014; Houston Chronicle, October 29]

Message of the Month—
What Makes for “Immoral” Leadership?

Mark Driscoll, pastor of the influential mega-church Mars Hill in Seattle, Washington, resigned from leading his church in October. The overseeing board of Mars Hill Church concluded Driscoll had “been guilty of arrogance, responding to conflict with a quick temper and harsh speech, and leading the staff and elders in a domineering manner.” But they were careful to say he had “never been charged with any immorality, illegality or heresy.”

The board’s statement caught my eye. Think about it for a moment. Without a doubt, “immorality” here is a code word for sexual wrongdoing. The sometimes-prudish New American Standard Bible would at times translate the Greek word porneia (fornication) by the word “immorality” (see 1 Corinthians 6:16-18 and 7:2 in the NASB).

But this will not wash! This pastor, it was said, had arrogance, a quick temper, harsh speech and a domineering manner. These all are forms of “immorality.”

Arrogance, temper, domination? “The overseer [pastor, church leader] must be…not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome” and not conceited or overbearing (1 Timothy 3:2-6; Titus 1:7). On the contrary, if you want to lead Jesus’ way (HWJL – “How Would Jesus Lead?”), read Matthew 20:20-28. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them… Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”

A mega-church pastor once wrote a book on leadership. One of his staff members told me the book should have been titled Leading By Intimidation!

Harsh speech? The tongue, scripture says, is “a fire, a world of evil among all the parts of the body.” “No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” With our tongues we bless God and curse people, all made in God’s likeness. “My brothers, this should not be” (read James 3:3-12).

Today “the tongue” includes what we post on (un)social media. Many teens, especially girls, use this form of communication sinfully when they speak with malice and slander and with little regard for truth. One of three teens (32%) has been “cyberbullied”—via mean texts, photoshopped pictures, fake profiles, fight videos, rumors and gossip, embarrassing pictures, threats, and harassment. ** All these are communication (speech) sins, aka immorality.

Instead of all this, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up” (read Ephesians 4:29-32).

The Evangelical world often seem fixated on “immorality” in one specific sense, but not on the range of matters the Bible considers immoral. Every Christian leader needs to confess his or her immorality in the light of a wide range of issues and then strive for improvement. Only then are we following the realism and personal redemption of 1 John 1:5-10 (“If we claim to be without sin [for example, through narrow definitions], we deceive ourselves… If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive our sins…”)

Let’s stop giving a pass for sins of the tongue and temper, arrogance and domination and conceit, especially when these are manifest by leaders.

** “Social Media” session by Detective Chad Morris, Regional Training Seminar,
International Conference of Police Chaplains, October 15, 2014, Sacramento, CA

Responsible Government Fiscal Policies—
A Resolution

Note: As Chairman of the Social Concerns Committee in my denomination, The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, I’m responsible each year for developing resolutions on current issues and presenting the same to the delegates at our annual Conference. Below is our adopted resolution (2014) on Responsible Government Fiscal Policies.

The borrower is servant to the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7)

We express our concern over the federal government’s high deficit spending over the past several years and call on government at all levels to practice prudent fiscal policies.

It is vital that governments, including our own, avoid a careless attitude toward government debt and inflation if they are to act in harmony with the biblical responsibility to rule with integrity and in harmony with the biblical importance of savings.

We call on our nation’s leaders to lead with responsible integrity and to protect the heritage of our children and the assets of its citizens by acting responsibly with respect to the federal deficit, the federal debt and federal money creation.

A Joyous Thanksgiving Season to All!
God’s Abundant Gifts to us!

From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,
and wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine,
and bread to strengthen the human heart.
– Psalm 104:13-15 (New Revised Standard Version)

 

© 2014 Donald P. Shoemaker

October 2014 Newsletter

Posted on by

“A Piece of My Mind”

October 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

 

“Beatitudes for Educators”

What we call “The Beatitudes” (the statements of blessedness found in Matthew 5:1-12) are among the most cherished words of the Bible.

Jesus spoke these words at the beginning of what we call “The Sermon on the Mount” (chapters 5-7 of the Gospel of Matthew). Jesus said, “Blessed (favored) are the poor in spirit…those who mourn…the meek…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…the merciful…the pure in heart…the peacemakers…the persecuted.”

I have the deepest respect for quality educators and others who work with dedication in educational systems. Here I’ve taken The Beatitudes and made application to these honorable people.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

So, blessed are you…when your frustration level is so high and your human resources so low that you realize you must turn to God for renewed strength.

“Blessed are those who mourn.”

So, blessed are you…when your heart is broken over how cruel people can be to other people and over how little children can become innocent victims of violence, even to the shedding of blood. Blessed are you when you grieve over the children who come to school with the deck already stacked against them because their house is not a home and they have no real role models or incentives for being good.

“Blessed are the gentle.”

So, blessed are you…when you turn the other cheek, walk the second mile and continue to work with patience in a situation, even when it seems just about impossible.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

So, blessed are you…when your frustration over the lack of learned values, moral standards and discipline make you want to chuck it all, but you stay committed to your education task as a calling from God and you don’t forget the importance of your own moral nourishment.

“Blessed are the merciful.”

So, blessed are you…when you reach out your hand to a child desperately needing love and care and concern and assistance, who may not find it from anyone other than you.

“Blessed are the pure in heart.”

So, blessed are you…when you maintain your moral standards in the face of temptations to cut ethical corners and when others see you take your stand on principle, no matter the cost to you.

“Blessed are the peacemakers.”

So, blessed are you…when you intervene in the cause of peace, even at personal risk, and help children who don’t like each other to learn at least how to live civilly with each other and to practice the “Golden Rule.”

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.”

So, blessed are you…if you are ever belittled or have to put your reputation or career on the line and pay a price for following the best values.

In all this God is well pleased with all you do and, in the end, that’s what really counts.

© 2007 Donald P. Shoemaker

 

Note: These “Beatitudes for Educators” were published as a Guest Column in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, October 2, 2007). After this column appeared I received this:

Dear Rev. Shoemaker:

Today I read your blessing… It was a beautiful way to start my day. I taught school for 30 years before changing careers, and I would have kept this in my desk and made a copy for the refrigerator to look at every time I felt stressed.

I imagine that any educator who read this before going to school took it with him or her to start the day. The column undoubtedly graces many a teacher’s lounge bulletin board…

Don’s Upcoming Ministries

October 5 – Speak at Sunday Morning Worship Services at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (8:00, 9:30 & 11:00).
Message: “Faith That’s Worthless & Faith That Works” (James 2:14-26)

October 13-15 – Attend advanced chaplain training in Sacramento at the regional meeting of the International Conference of Police Chaplains

 

What Do We Want?
A Free Society? Or a “Correct” Society?

“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

 

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—
What a pesky nuisance it can be!

Whenever the Secular Left or the Religious Right want to come along and impose a secular or religious agenda in America that abridges the rights of others, the First Amendment rises and nips them. When Political Correctness tries to limit freedom of expression and academic freedom, the First Amendment speaks up and says, “No, you can’t!” When the government tries to impede political speech or force its social agenda on religious people who in good conscience disagree, the First Amendment steps forth and blocks it.

At least that’s how it should happen. But since “Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Freedom”, we can never be passive about defending the ideals of freedom expressed in this liberty statement. It is a concept truly foreign to history, foreign to most societies today, and foreign to the desires of many people and pressure groups here in America.

Here are three examples imposing “correctness” over freedom:

  • California State University—Long Beach

This campus denied official recognition to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship because the group required its leaders to confess basic Christian principles. It is a classic example of elevating correctness over freedom.

An editorial in the Long Beach Press-Telegram gave a well-stated defense of CSULB: “While there is room for exploration and debate about religion at public universities, there is no place for state-funded discrimination based on beliefs.” This editorial continued by saying that a willingness to accept people of all faiths would make the group acceptable. Meaning: particularism in religion is forbidden; universalism is supportable.

I fully appreciate what the institution wishes to accomplish. But why wouldn’t a religious exemption further what CSULB is trying to do?

In 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rendered a major decision recognizing that religious groups have the right to demand religion-based standards for their ministers (leaders—understood more broadly than “clergy”). Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “The Establishment Clause [of the First Amendment] prevents the government from appointing ministers, and the Free Exercise Clause prevents it from interfering with the freedom of religious groups to select their own.”

The court has seen for many years that the right of religious groups to choose leaders by their own standards enhances religious liberty rather than hindering it. The practice is fully in accord with the First Amendment.

Again, while understanding what CSULB wishes to achieve, we must also understand that it holds “correctness” over “liberty.” And to think, this is the same campus that once posted (I read it) an opening for a faculty position in the women’s studies program, requiring that applicants have a record of service in feminist activities! So much for academic freedom of viewpoint! *

  • Harvard University

An editorial in Crimson, the daily student newspaper at Harvard, advocates “justice” over “academic freedom”:

If our university community opposes racism, sexism, and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of “academic freedom”?

Instead, I [Crimson editorial writer Sandra Y. L. Korn] would like to propose a more rigorous standard: one of “academic justice.” When an academic community observes research promoting or justifying oppression, it should ensure that this research does not continue.

Now, “justice” is not a clearly objective thing, like the date of the next full moon. People bring their biases into definitions of “justice.” Sometimes there is societal consensus on justice, often not. Once again, this argumentation prefers “correctness” over “freedom”. Instead of following the evidence wherever it leads, the “justice” criterion requires outcome-based research, which has the effect of putting “research” inside quotation marks.

[Note: The First Amendment applies to the actions of government entities, not private entities like Harvard or individuals. Nonetheless, it plays a key tutorial role in society and its enumerated freedoms certainly permeate educational institutions.]

  • Morgan Hill (CA) Unified School District

In February of this year a three-judge panel of the 9th District Court of Appeals ruled the school was within its rights to ban students from wearing shirts that displayed the American flag on Cinco de Mayo. On September 17 the court declined to rehear the case before all the justices. Some words from the three dissenting judges:

The freedom of speech guaranteed by our Constitution is in greatest peril when the government may suppress speech simply because it is unpopular. For that reason, it is a foundational tenet of First Amendment law that the government cannot silence a speaker because of how an audience might react to the speech. It is this bedrock principle — known as the heckler’s veto doctrine — that the panel overlooks, condoning the suppression of free speech by some students because other students might have reacted violently…

In this case, the disfavored speech was the display of an American flag. But let no one be fooled…the panel opens the door to the suppression of any viewpoint opposed by a vocal and violent band of students… [example given: a shirt announcing “Christ is risen!”] It might be any viewpoint imaginable, but whatever it is, it will be vulnerable to the rule of the mob.

* If anyone can clarify the convoluted, agenda-driven description of academic freedom in the current Mission statement of the Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at California State University Long Beach, I’d sure like to hear it.

Bible Insight: Let the Bible Say What It Says!
(Don’t impose your own meaning on it.)

How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star [Lucifer] , son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!

You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon [of the north].

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”

– Isaiah 14:12-14 (New International Version)

From early childhood I was taught that these verses referred to Satan, the Devil—how he was once a majestic angel named Lucifer. But he fell from his high estate due to pride and rebellion. If you were preparing a lesson on the Devil, point #1 would be “Satan—Origin and Fall (Isaiah 14:12-14).”

Many years later, while reading the Bible through in a year (a discipline I highly recommend!) I read through the Book of Isaiah, the prophet of Israel. I came to Isaiah 12:1 through 14:23, which explicitly introduced itself as “an oracle concerning Babylon.” I read chapter 14:3-23, which explicitly begins with “take up this taunt against the king of Babylon“. In these contexts I read Isaiah 14:12-14.

Did I find any reference at all to Satan (the Devil) as, for example, you would find if you read the Book of Job 1:6-12? No, not at all. Not in the slightest.

But wait! Isn’t the Bible to be taken “literally”? If so, how can any earthly king “fall from heaven”? So, the argument goes, these verses look beyond the earthly king to the Devil, the sinister spirit that inspired this evil king. In other words, the Bible may have a “Meaning” within the “meaning”!

But, like an archangel clipped of his wings, that won’t “fly”!

First of all, the context literally says it speaks about Babylon and her king. To make verses in this context say otherwise would be an example of importing and imposing a foreign meaning onto the text.

Second, “literal” doesn’t mean ruthless literalism. The “literal” meaning of any particular scripture is the meaning intended by the writer, including the meaning drawn from the type of literature it is. And the Bible has many kinds of literature: poetry, narrative, taunts, diatribe, epistle, parable, apocalyptic imagery and more. All these must be understood in light of their own nature.

Remember the word “taunt” (Isaiah 14:4)? What is a taunt? Go to a baseball game and listen! Taunts are forms of mockery. “Blind batter” comes to mind (many sports taunts are unprintable). In the Bible, taunts go far beyond literalistic meaning to score their points. This taunt is a song directly addressed against an aspiring world conqueror—now a fallen and disgraced tyrant. It serves as a negative example to discourage other rulers from following the same power-hungry path. *

To bring my lesson home, let me give these thoughts to guide us…

  • Yes, the Bible is “inspired by God.” To my understanding, this means that God superintended the process of composition so that what was written was what God wanted written. We rightly call the Bible “The Word of God.”
  • Point #1 must be balanced with also seeing the Bible as “the word of man.” It rose from human contexts and all that entails (language, culture, location, issues, and more). The writers were “authors” in the true sense of the word, not just “stenographers” taking down heavenly speech (as if the Bible was dictated). As authors, their own personalities, knowledge, talents and perspectives shown through (all superintended by God). Christians who strongly believe the Bible is “God’s Word” may tend to overlook or minimize the humanity of Scripture **, thus skewing its meaning.
  • Verses of the Bible must always be understood in context.
  • “Context” includes many things, not just literary location – type of literature (see examples above) being one main contextual factor.
  • Don’t “proof-text” the Bible. Reading it through, or at least reading large sections of scripture, will help keep you from “proof-texting.” This means you will need to be cautious with favorite practices like “verse for the day” or “promise to claim” or “what this verse is saying to me.” Remember: a verse of scripture doesn’t mean what it never meant.
  • The Bible’s meaning is not to be sought through private interpretation by isolated Christians. Its meaning should be sought within the community of believers.
  • Draw applications from verses and chapters in the Bible once you see their meanings in their contexts. The oracle against Babylon and the taunt against her king warn all people about God’s judgment against ruthless power and pride. Judgment will come against such nations and against rulers who think themselves important enough to pull up a chair and sit down beside the Most High God.

There are many excellent books on interpreting the Bible. I recommend: Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition (Zondervan).

* For an understanding of “taunt” as a literary device: James D. W. Watts, Isaiah 1-33: Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 24, pages 207-12, and “Masal”, Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, vol. 2, pages 1134-36.

** Christians who exalt the divinity of Scripture at the expense of its humanity also often exalt the divinity of Jesus to the detriment of his humanity. Thus, they have an impervious Jesus who walked an inch off the ground and is rather untouched by our weaknesses, since (as God) he didn’t truly-truly experience them himself.

When I commented once that the beatings imposed on Jesus in the excellent movie “The Passion of the Christ” would have so weakened him that he would be unable to carry the cross, someone replied, “But don’t forget who this man was!” That’s what I mean.

© 2014 Donald P. Shoemaker

September 2014 Newsletter

Posted on by

“A Piece of My Mind”

September 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

Labor Day 2014 – A Worker’s Prayer

Lord, this is the day you have made. I will rejoice and be glad in it, no matter what. You are Lord of this day. May you be pleased and honored by all I say and think and do in my job.You are my creator, a God of thoughtfulness, planning and beauty. Help me to take those qualities into my workplace, that I might do my very best with the talents and skills you’ve given me.

You have given me values to live by.

Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.

Let the pressures of my job build me and not break me.

In the words of the Psalmist, “Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts.”

Thank you for my work, O God. I accept it as my calling.

Thank you for the privilege of being productive, of earning an income, of being able to earn so that I might give to your work and enjoy a better life.

Give me a sensitive and supportive heart to those who work over me, beside me, and below me.

May I be loyal and loving, concerned and caring, an instrument of your peace.

Let my light shine at work, Lord. May your virtues be seen in me.

May I have opportunities to give a reason for the hope that is within me, and may I have the appropriate words to share.

May my workday receive your smile, Lord, both now and at your judgment. For I long to hear your words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

– By Donald P. Shoemaker (1998 message: “The Bible’s Work Ethic—God’s Way to Job Satisfaction”)

“Prophets are Good for Business”
(Applying Biblical Principles to Work Situations)

In Observance of Labor Day, We Remember Peter Dey

Who? Peter A. Day (1825-1911), one of the best, if not the best, railroad engineers in the country, had a dream job—chief engineer for construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, which built the Transcontinental Railroad west from Omaha to its connection with the Central Pacific Railroad in Utah Territory.

Prior to this job, he had directed surveys of the road to Promontory Point, helped secure land for right of way, ordered equipment, arranged tie contracts, and raised funds for construction.

Enter Thomas “Doc” Durant, who above all was in railroad construction to make as much money as he possibly could. To do this, he would establish the “Credit Mobilier”, America’s worst financial scandal of the 19th century. But that’s another story.

Dey was ordered to abandon a route he had surveyed (already under construction) for another “bowed” one that would add nine miles and “bring in an extra $144,000 in government and company bonds, plus 115,200 acres of federal grants, and more profits for the Credit Mobilier.” Durant also ordered Dey to submit a proposal to build the railroad for $60,000 a mile, twice what Dey had estimated.

Dey pondered the order and reluctantly chose to resign, saying, “I do not approve of the contract…and I do not care to have my name so connected with the railroad that I shall appear to endorse this contract.” Forty years later he would be vindicated when the railroad right-of-way was relocated to his original straight path.

He noted that he had “resigned the best position in my profession this country has ever offered to any man.”

This Labor Day I hold Peter Dey in high esteem as a professional worker who put his own honor and conscience ahead of financial advantage. People like him are honored in scripture—they keep their word even when it hurts; they lend money without usury and never accept a bribe (Psalm 15).

“A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.”

(Proverbs 22:1)

(Note: most of the information is gleaned from Stephen Ambrose’s book on the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, Nothing Like It in the World [Simon and Shuster, 2000]. Other sources include “The Union Pacific—Significant Individuals” and the PBS Program Transcript “The American Experience—The Transcontinental Railroad.”)

Bible Insight:
What Do We Mean by
“The Will of God”?

“I’m just waiting now to find God’s will in this matter.”
“Our church is trying to discern what God wants us to do.”

Versions of those phrases are around us all the time in Christian circles. We’ve likely used them ourselves. I have.

But maybe it’s time for rethinking this whole matter of “knowing God’s will.” Here are some verses that will prod us (James 4:13-15 New Int’l. Version):

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow… Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

I find it helpful to distinguish two “wills” of God:

  1. God’s DESIRED or PRESCRIBED will (his moral revelations to us)
  2. God DETERMINED or PROVIDENTIAL will (what God has set to transpire in the world and in our lives)

An example of the first is in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 – “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality…”

We acknowledge God’s will in this sense every time we pray the words of The Lord’s Prayer (“Your will be done”) or when we recall the words of Jesus to his Heavenly Father, “Not my will, but yours be done.” We find this “will of God” in Scripture. As free moral agents, we can choose whether we want to be “in God’s will” in this moral sense and we are accountable to God for our choices.

James 4:13-15 (above) is an example of God’s determined, providential will.

Its specific details are hardly ever available to us in advance and we are not responsible for knowing them. We will be “in God’s will” in this sense whether we know it or not, or whether we want to be or not.

There is a wide range of issues that are neither forbidden nor commanded by God—that is, not addressed in Scripture. With these issues, there is no absolute “will of God”, that is, no prescribed right or wrong. We are responsible for weighing these issues and making good-sense choices. Issues such as “Should I go to this school or that school, or have this or that career?” or “Should our church have this or that program or building?” are examples.

In this realm of “indifferent things” we must be willing to let others make different choices from our own without regarding them to be “out of God’s will.” And no one should judge us for our choices or try to play the “spiritual trump card”—”I believe this is God’s will for us (and your idea isn’t!).”

So, bottom line, I for one do not try to “discern God’s will” in the realm of his providence. I will live in this realm with prudence and wear my seat belt. I will seek wise counsel, gather information and apply my reason and common sense. I may choose not to travel to certain places—others may choose otherwise. But ultimately, “whatever will be will be.” I will be “in God’s will” and I need to thank him for that, make my plans to the best of my ability, and know that ultimately God is in charge of my life and I am not.

And it would be wonderful if Christians would spend time thinking through how The Ten Commandments (for example) apply to their daily lives rather than trying to discern the will of God that is hidden till it happens.

Just the Answer for the Truly Lazy* Preacher…

* Or perhaps this minister lays aside his primary responsibility to study and teach the Word of God so he can do “vision-casting” and other modern distractions.

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Don’s Upcoming Ministries

September 9 – Lead a meeting for ministers (the district ministers of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches) at the Seal Beach Police Department.

Topic: “Pastors and Churches in the Hour of Crisis: How God Worked through Both When a Mass Murder Happened in Seal Beach.”

Contact me for information on attending this event.

October 5 – Speak at Sunday Morning Worship Services at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (8:00, 9:30 & 11:00).

Message: “Faith That’s Worthless & Faith That Works”
(The Epistle of James 2:14-26)

October 13-15 – Attend advanced chaplain training in Sacramento at the regional meeting of the International Conference of Police Chaplains

Three Tragic Human Losses in August –

  • The Rev. Kent Hinkson, friend, prayer partner and California pastor who became a volunteer Anglican minister in Durham, NC – murdered.
  • Pam Morris, recently retired, who served as Executive Assistant to the Chief of Police in Seal Beach, CA – died as a result of a traffic accident near El Paso, TX as she drove to her new home in Florida.
  • Dave Daggett, long-time local Postmaster and church leader at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach, CA, mentor and friend, died suddenly at his retirement home in Grants Pass, OR.

“If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15)

August 2014 Newsletter

Posted on by

“A Piece of My Mind”

August 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

Should Donald Trump The Law?

Message of the Month—Donald’s Flag Pole

In the Bible, the ancient man Job had his critics who were often very wrong. But his critic Elihu surely didn’t err when he described God as a just ruler. God “shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the works of his hands.” (Job 34:16-19)

Our more down-to-earth rulers are expected to do no less: “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” (Leviticus 19:15)

Those reminders are needed, because the real word often isn’t a fair place:
“The poor are shunned by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.” (Proverbs 14:20)

My church is a block from the ocean in Seal Beach, California. For many years we had steady growth and were bursting our seams on our wonderful but tiny property with just 12 parking spots. We needed and had room for a 400-seat sanctuary. Ample parking could be rented a block away. Enter the California Coastal Commission and its rules. Finally, we reluctantly quenched the plan.

Now enter Donald Trump, who does what he wants regardless of the Coastal Commission. Eight years ago he erected a 70-foot flagpole at his exclusive seaside golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes. The Coastal Commission wanted it moved 30 feet and reduced to 26 feet.

The Rancho Palos Verde city council supported Trump and a host of patriotic arguments were paraded. The Coastal Commission now says the flag can stay if the city’s height rules are modified.

So “The Donald” wins with a fait accompli while flaunting the law. A coastal commission member said with resignation, “I’m disappointed at the Trump Organization for putting up that flag without adhering to the rule of law. However, I think this flag now has become a symbol and to the people in this community this flag symbolizes patriotism.”

Real love for country leads to deep regard for and submission to its just laws. The same is true in the spiritual realm, as Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15 New International Version)

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
– 1st Amendment (Our “First Freedom” in the Bill of Rights)

“…to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical – Thomas Jefferson (Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1786)

1st Issue: The “Hobby Lobby” Supreme Court Decision

On June 30 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Hobby Lobby’s argument that it should not be required to provide for certain contraceptive coverages in its health benefits—covering what it believed to be possible abortifacients, coverages that it argued wrongly burdened its religious liberty.

The main counter-argument I’ve heard and read is that a company like Hobby Lobby by its very nature cannot have religious convictions. The other more aggressive argument is the “culture war” claim that this denies rights to others and imposes religion on others (see copy of full-page ad at end of this newsletter). Remember, contraception is a “secular sacrament” today.

Now imagine that you and your family (this scenario isn’t intended to parallel Hobby Lobby) prayed seriously and thought deeply about starting a business through which you would serve and honor God in every way. Your business dealings are honorable; you pay your workers well and give good benefits. In honor of “the Lord’s Day” you refuse to be open on Sundays. You strive to “act Christianly” from A-Z. You don’t bifurcate personal religion from all of life.
Along comes an expansive government mandate that you and your family, the owners of your business (corporation), believe forces you to violate your faith-founded and faith-operated convictions. But opponents claim that such religious convictions can only be held by individuals, not by corporations. Let’s look at that.

Many investors opt for “socially responsible” investment instruments. While what’s “socially responsible” and what isn’t is in the eye of the beholder, all such investors look for high-level corporate responsibility and societal concerns (whatever they are) in their investment decisions. Just do an on-line search of “socially responsible investments” to see all that’s there.

Remember Apartheid? Many businesses, some under pressure from stockholders, divested themselves of their business transactions with South Africa. Without a doubt, many of these stockholders made demands based on their religion-formed consciences.

Today some pharmaceutical companies have, as a matter of ethical conviction, stopped manufacturing drugs used in lethal-injection executions. In other words, they don’t want their drugs used to end human lives.

Hobby Lobby and others don’t want to be forced to have anything to do with paying for pharmaceuticals that, according their ethical convictions, might result in the destruction of human lives.

If corporations can make business decisions based on deeply held ethical values (which they do), why can’t they do so if these values have religious roots? Take to heart this statement:

For many religious people, their faith is not just a purely private hobby. It is rather a set of moral principles that infuses every aspect of their lives, including their activities in the commercial world. If atheists like me can use publicly traded corporations to pursue secular moral principles, it is not difficult to see how religious people can do the exact same thing with their own beliefs.

(Ilya Somin, “Can people ‘exercise religion’ through publicly-traded corporations?”, The Volokh Conspiracy [a daily legal blog of libertarian leaning], July 12, 2014)

2nd Issue: The World War II Memorial, Washington, D.C.

My wife and I toured the memorials on the Washington Mall in July, lingering at each and taking in their deep meaning. We were impacted by the World War II memorial while lamenting that it wasn’t built for 60 years—when veterans of that war were passing away a thousand a day.

Gen. Eisenhower’s words on D-Day were memorable. So were President Roosevelt’s words in the prayer he delivered over national radio on that fateful day (see my June newsletter). “Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity…”

A move is on in Congress to place that prayer at the memorial. An “interfaith committee” (which includes at least one non-religious organization) objects: “Our religious diversity is one of our nation’s great strengths… [This bill] endorses the false notion that all veterans will be honored by a war memorial that includes a prayer that proponents characterize as reflecting our country’s ‘Judeo-Christian heritage and values.’”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State calls this “a Christian prayer” (which specifically it isn’t). More: “From the beginning, this push for the prayer has been nothing but an unholy alliance between the Religious Right and politicians looking to score cheap points with their constituents. After all, the addition of the prayer to the memorial was backed by fundamentalist groups, including the Ohio Christian Alliance and the Christian Coalition of America.” (June 24 statement)

Let’s all see this for the evasive ad hominem and “guilt by association” argumentation that it is and move on.
If Roosevelt’s historic prayer referencing “Almighty God” is Christian or sectarian or whatever and therefore shouldn’t appear at a memorial, what else needs review for possible removal?

What about Lincoln’s inscribed Second Inaugural Address?

Both [North and South] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.

Read further in his address and the religious message gets stronger!

What about Thomas Jefferson’s words on the monument in his honor?

God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism.

Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion.

If you want to see what “religious sanitizing” can do, visit the Martin Luther King Memorial. Powerful as it is with its symbolism and elegant quotations, one looks in vain for the biblical basis and religious motivation behind his words and actions. His statue depicts a Secular King, not the King I remember, whose autobiography I’ve read, and whose sermon I once personally heard at a Baptist church in my hometown.

Certainly today’s America is more religiously pluralistic than that of World War II. But it is anachronistic and sheer agenda-driven revisionism to demand that the country that is (or imagined to be) be imposed on the country that was. Worse, it is a disservice to the significance of D-Day.

Bible Insight: The Alien Among Us (Part 2)

Last month we saw three reasons why the Egyptian king turned to suppress the immigrant people we call “Israelites” (Exodus 1:8-10).

First, Pharaoh didn’t know about Joseph. Whatever benefit he had been to Egypt, whatever high position he once held—this was gone from history. Only the present “immigrant problem” mattered, not their value in the past.

Second, there simply were now too many of them! “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.”

Third, these Israelites, well, they just aren’t “us”; they are “them!” “In the event of war, they will turn against us, join the enemy, and leave.”

So Pharaoh subjected the Israelites to the menial jobs his own people wouldn’t want to do anyway—work in the fields and build the king’s cities.

Pharaoh had another means of suppression to use against the undesirables—mandated birth control! One method might today be called “partial-birth sex-selective abortion.” The baby is killed after being partially delivered. In other cases, the baby is born and subjected to a sort of postpartum abortion.

“The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives…, ‘When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.’” (Exodus 1:15)

Then the story gets spicy! “The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.”

When the king called them to account, they concocted a hilarious answer. “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” In other words, “The birth is over with before we can even get there!”

They fibbed! And because they refused what they refused and said what they said, God was kind to them (read Exodus 1:15-21).
The question, “When is a lie not a lie?” must await answer on some other day! A frustrated Pharaoh then demanded “the final solution”. The unwanted Jewish boy babies were to be thrown into the Nile River (verse 22).

But our God, who works sometimes through the sinful acts of people, had a different outcome in mind for a very special child. The son of a Levite man and woman, after being hidden for three months, was placed by his mother into a papyrus basket and set afloat in the Nile River under the watchful eye of his sister (see Exodus 2:1-10 for the whole story).

In God’s providential will, the daughter of Pharaoh saw and rescued the baby, taking him as her own. Not only that, she hired the baby’s mother as a nurse, who now would be paid to care for her own son!

Pharaoh’s daughter named the rescued baby “Moshe”, which means, “drawn from the water.” We know him as Moses.

Pharaoh’s harsh and calloused treatment of this immigrant nation goes down a one of the Bible’s great cruelty stories. But God does a rescue through the water to save a son of destiny, who would grow and mature and emerge as leader of the nation—who would one day confront a later Pharaoh with the famous demand of God, “Let my people go!”

Don’s Upcoming Ministries

September 9 – Lead a meeting for ministers (the district ministers of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches) at the Seal Beach Police Department. Topic: How ministers and churches responded to the “salon massacre” of October 12, 2011 and the lessons to be learned. Contact me for information on attending.

October13-15 – Attend chaplain training in Sacramento

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

July 2014 Newsletter

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“A Piece of My Mind”

July 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
– The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

“The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”
– Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy,
January 20, 1961

Message of the Month—

1814 – 2014
Two Hundred Years of
“The Star Spangled Banner”

Oh! Thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Francis Scott Key was on a British ship negotiating the release of prisoners on the night of September 13-14, 1814. He was stuck for the night—not allowed to leave because he knew details of the British position and plans.

British ships bombarded Fort McHenry in advance of a planned invasion of Baltimore (never happened). It was quite a one-sided engagement because the ships were beyond range of the fort’s guns. For 25 hours the bombardment raged. At night, since the city was darkened, the only light came from British shells.

From his excellent vantage point on the British ship Key was able to see the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn. When he left the ship to return to Baltimore he was inspired to write a poem about the experience, “Defence of Fort M’Henry.”

The poem was later published, then set to the tune of the British drinking song “To Anacreaon in Heaven” written c. 1775 by John Stafford Smith. A resolution of Congress signed by President Hoover in 1931 made it our National Anthem.

(U.S. House of Representatives.
Verses 1-3 of the Anthem are at the end of this Newsletter.)

Take it from one who sang it twice this year before charity races, it’s a hard song to sing! It goes too low; it goes too high. But “The Star Spangled Banner” remains deeply imbedded in America’s heritage and patriotic life.

The fourth and last verse, reproduced above, reveals a clear understanding of America’s religious heritage. It reflects the Providence of God over America and an optimistic outlook, perhaps too much so, promising success in our just wars. America’s challenge, in turn, is to ensure that our conflicts are indeed in pursuit of a just cause and by just means.

Our motto, “In God We Trust” is ubiquitous in America—on every bill and coin we hold and over many a governmental activity. Does it live in our hearts and practice?

Valuing Persons as Persons—a quote from Michael Gerson

“The worst problem with utilitarianism – measuring the value of a life by its social usefulness – is its cruelty. It tells vulnerable people they are useless. A compassionate, welcoming society affirms exactly the opposite: Vulnerable people deserve our special attention and care. And most of us will need that care, at some point or another.”

Michael J. Gerson, presidential speechwriter and news writer, is a Visiting Fellow with the Center for Public Justice and a nationally syndicated columnist for The Washington Post. This quote is from a transcript in Capital Commentary, “Society and Dependence,” January 3, 2014

Religious Liberty Vigilance – Needed Around the World

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
– 1st Amendment (Our “First Freedom” in the Bill of Rights)

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must…undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
– Thomas Paine

Freedom to believe or not believe, freedom to speak out to convince others, freedom to convert from one faith to another—all these are fundamental to the American Way.

And not just the American Way! Article #18 of “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948) expressed these freedoms this way:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

See this contrast:

KABUL, Afghanistan — In a dank basement on the outskirts of Kabul, Josef read his worn blue Bible by the light of a propane lantern, as he had done for weeks since he fled from his family in Pakistan…

On paper, Afghan law protects freedom of religion, but the reality here and in some other Muslim countries is that renouncing Islam is a capital offense.

Josef’s brother-in-law Ibrahim arrived in Kabul recently, leaving behind his family and business in Pakistan, to hunt down the apostate and kill him…

“If I find him, once we are done with him, I will kill his son as well, because his son is a bastard,” Ibrahim said, referring to Josef’s 3-year-old child. “He is not from a Muslim father.”

…For Josef, who has recently changed hiding places, the time passes slowly now, with little company other than his Bible. He can hear the muezzin calling Muslims to prayer, a reminder of danger’s proximity and the paradox he lives now…

“My body is in prison, but my soul is free.”
– Excerpts from “A Christian Convert, on the Run in Afghanistan,”
New York Times, June 22, 2014

Note: as of this writing Meriam Ibrahim, daughter of a Muslim father and a Christian mother (who raised her) and under sentence of death in Sudan for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam, had her sentence overturned on appeal. But she was arrested again at the Khartoum airport as she planned to leave the country after being reunited with her Christian husband. Released from custody, she has taken refuge at the U.S. Embassy.

Don’s Upcoming Ministries

July 17-21 – Attend the annual meeting of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches in Washington, D.C. Present resolutions prepared by the Social Concerns Committee to the delegates at the business session.

September 9 – Lead a meeting for ministers (the district ministers of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches) at the Seal Beach Police Department. Topic: How ministers and churches responded to the “salon massacre” of October 12, 2011 and the lessons to be learned. Contact me for more information on attending this event.

Bible Insight: The Immigrant Among Us (Part 1)

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”
– Exodus 1:8-10 English Standard Version

We are all immigrants. My ancestors immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the 1840’s to seek a better life. On the ship was little 2-year-old Dorothea Bohning. She would marry Ernst Fredrich Walker in 1860 and they would be my great-grandparents.

The families settled in Ohio where there were many German immigrants like them who pretty much stayed to themselves rather than assimilating much. They farmed, and of course were loyal to the faith they brought with them which was otherwise uncommon in the area—Lutheran Christianity.

They spoke German—exclusively at first. German was also the primary language of the 2nd and 3rd generations. My mother’s first tongue was German. Was it the primary language for my generation, the 4th generation? Nein!

The Bible is very much a book about immigrants, going back to the very first book—Genesis. From earliest Bible times, immigration was a common response to hunger and danger and bondage. The human heart has yearned for religious liberty, safety, food, opportunity, and the meeting of basic needs.

Abram migrated from Haran to Canaan by God’s directive. Jacob fled his angry brother (ostensibly to get a wife) and went to his relative Laban back in “the old country.” Later he fled Laban and his abuse, taking his wives, children and possessions with him. When severe famine fell on the land, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt for food. Eventually his whole extended family migrated there (see the story below).

In one of the Bible’s most beautiful stories, an Israelite named Elimelech took his wife, Naomi, and their two sons to Moab because there was a famine in Israel. The story of Ruth unfolds when Naomi, bereft of her husband and sons, returned to Israel and Ruth the Moabite immigrated with her.

Joseph, son of Jacob, was God’s instrument to provide food for Egypt during a 7-year famine. He rose in power to be second only to Pharaoh. At Pharaoh’s invitation Joseph brought his father, brothers and their families to live in Egypt. Read the interesting story in Genesis 41-47.

Joseph and all his generation died. More generations came and went until the day came that a new Pharaoh looked on these immigrant people with alarm.

Clearly, the Israelites, once received with open arms because Joseph had been such an asset to the nation, were no longer welcome. It was somewhat like our nation’s attitude toward Asians in years past. Once the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, Chinese workers were no longer valued. Once we were at war with Japan, something must be done about American Japanese. Immigrants of German descent likewise were suspect and experienced discrimination during the two World Wars, some even being sent to internment camps.

According to Exodus One, there were three reasons why the Israelites went from being welcomed to being despised.

First, Pharaoh didn’t know about Joseph. Whatever benefit he had been to Egypt, whatever high position he once held—this was gone from memory. Only the present “immigrant problem” mattered, not the value in the past.

Second, there were now simply too many of them! “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.”
Third, these Israelites, well, they just aren’t “us”; they are “them!” “In the event of war, they will turn against us, join the enemy, and leave.”

So Pharaoh subjected the Israelites to the menial jobs his own people wouldn’t want to do anyway—work in the fields and build the king’s cities.

Next month we’ll see another of his solutions and how it was thwarted by people who knew and feared God. Meanwhile, do you have a family immigration story to ponder?

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

“The Star Spangled Banner” (verses 1-3)

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

June 2014 Newsletter

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“A Piece of My Mind”

June 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

June 6, 1944-June 6, 2014 – 70th Anniversary of D-Day

President Roosevelt’s Prayer on D-Day

“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

“They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph…”

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

– 1st Amendment (Our “First Freedom” in the Bill of Rights)

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must…undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine

Important U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Prayer

[More of President Roosevelt’s prayer is below. An Appendix on the last page gives two competing Supreme Court positions on religious diversity.]

As President Roosevelt prayed during a national radio address, he invited all Americans to join with him in prayer. President Roosevelt’s prayer—all 525 words, bold and unapologetic, an extraordinary event in America’s religious and political history—might not be well received in many quarters today.

In fact, it isn’t! A plaque inscribed with his historic prayer is proposed for the World War II memorial in Washington. Opposition comes from some secularists and from some religious groups, who say it doesn’t reflect today’s religious diversity in America.

Of course it doesn’t! Yesterday’s big historic events shouldn’t be subject to revisionism to reflect today’s sociological features or social engineering.

Let me stress: It is impossible to pray a public prayer that is completely inclusive and reflective of religious diversity. Even the frequent Presidential benediction “God bless America” is monotheistic, non-deistic, and reflects at least a tinge of American exceptionalism in the eyes of God.

While public prayers shouldn’t be insulting and demeaning to any religious or secular system or tools to proselytize, they don’t need to be inclusive to the point where they say nothing (to the “to whom it may concern” god). Prayers must at least be prayed in good conscience, or they are phony duds.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision on May 5 (Greece v Galloway), allowed the practice of “sectarian” prayer at city council meeting. [Please check out my op-ed “Does ‘Sectarian’ Prayer Belong at Government Meetings?” under “My Writings” at www.donaldshoemakerministries.com.]

This is a welcome decision. It takes the government out of the role of determining the content and contours of acceptable prayer, which is a form of “establishing religion”. The court once said, “The law knows no heresy.” Courts shouldn’t judge a prayer to be a bad prayer, either.

When I offer a public prayer, I pray to the God announced to philosophers on Mar’s Hill at Athens almost 2000 years ago –

God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, …he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:24-27)

President Roosevelt’s Prayer on D-Day – continued (excerpts):

“Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

“And for us at home – fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas – whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them – help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

“Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts…

“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace – a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

“Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.”

Bible Insight: God’s Will for His World Today

Those who believe in Jesus and those who don’t are all over the world today. What does God want done? Perhaps a big part of the answer can come from a lesson Jesus taught in his little story about the “wheat” and the “weeds” (read the whole account in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43):

“Let both grow together until the harvest.” (Matthew 13:30)

Christians I know and teaching I’ve heard have called for us to do something about those weeds! What we do tends to be at one extreme or the other.

Domination

We think it’s our job to pluck up the weeds and get them out of the society we want to have. Failing that, we want them to be quiet subjects of the world we will run. Some settlers to America tried this. The Inquisitions tried this. It won’t work.

Isolation

We think we must withdraw from this world and all its weeds, and set up a Christian parallel universe, a “Kingdom of God in Exile” so to speak.

This kind of thinking leads Christians to do little for the good of society. Some are totally given over to cynicism and won’t even vote because they think no candidate is right on all the issues (of course, whoever thinks this way rather self-righteously sees himself as right on all the issues).

No, in contrast to these, God calls us to live together with those who do not share our fundamental views about God, Jesus, the Bible and God’s rule in the world. This will often include our friends, neighbors, co-workers, teachers, professors, supervisors and subordinates, even members of our own families.

“Engagement” is the operative word, not “domination” or “isolation.” Not “capitulation” either. Even “tolerance” rightly understood (which it often isn’t—some who trumpet it can be very punitive against their perceived foes!) is our modus operandi.

In today’s world we should let our light shine before others and pray for opportunities to explain our faith. We should work together for justice and fairness based on commonly shared values. We should be God’s instruments of peace. We have the right and duty to influence society with our values.

But we cannot try to pluck out the weeds! The “Harvest” is God’s to determine. Till then, “Let all grow together.”

Don’s Upcoming Ministries

June 3-4 – Meeting of Committee developing Grace Brethren identity statement (Winona Lake, Indiana)

 

June 17 – Speak at breakfast for men of Pasadena’s Lake Avenue Congregational Church.

 

June 22 – Speak on theme of IMMIGRATION at Community Grace Brethren Church, 5885 Downey Ave. in Long Beach (10:30 a.m.)

July 17-21 – Attend the Conference of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches in Washington, DC. Present resolutions to the Conference as Chair of the FGBC Social Concerns Committee.

Happy Father’s Day – June 15

As a father shows compassion

to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion

to those who fear him.

– Psalm 103:13

Message of the Month—

Now Home of the “Me First” Burger?

News Item – “Burger King is scrapping its 40-year-old ‘Have It Your Way’ slogan for a new-age message exhorting customers to feel good about themselves while devouring Whoppers or Big Fish Sandwiches with fries. Now it will say, ‘Be Your Way.'”

We know what the old slogan meant. You can enjoy your burger by having it prepared any way you want.

The new slogan has nothing to do with burgers and everything to do with every individual’s autonomy. It’s a philosophy statement about life, not a promise to honor food preference. A horrible philosophy.

According to Fernando Machado, BK’s senior vice president of global brand management (wow!), that’s exactly the whole point. He said in an interview that “Have It Your Way” focuses only on the purchase — the ability to customize a burger. By contrast, he said “Be Your Way” is about making a connection with a person’s greater lifestyle.

BK says the new slogan reminds people that “they can and should live how they want anytime. It’s OK to not be perfect … Self expression is most important and it’s our differences that make us individuals instead of robots.”

As if a fast-food outlet should give us life direction! As if we need the sort of reminder they give! Ready or not, BK wants to give us individual moral autonomy so we can live as we want (as if we were not made to be social creatures with duties toward others), contentment with less than perfection (contrast “Be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect” – Jesus), self-expressing as the chief duty (instead of loving God and your neighbor as yourself), and human differences rather than human robots (as if these two extremes are the only options).

Moral independence is as old as the Bible’s Book of Genesis—with its dysfunctional people and relationships. The moral chaos in Israel’s history according to the Book of Judges—a chaos that led to rape, murder, idolatry, moral weaklings like Samson and much more—came to pass because “in those days there was no king in Israel [no authority figure who would lead with a moral compass]; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). In other words, they adopted BK’s slogan before there was any BK.

We may spout such a slogan and attempt to permeate a culture with it. But we know in our hearts we cannot take it to the “nth” degree. Then we’d have to make room for the mass murderers in Seal Beach and Santa Barbara County and for the tyrants and religious extremists who kill those who don’t conform. We also make room for the day-to-day confusion when the Self is made the center of the moral universe.

I hope BK reconsiders. I know I can’t “Be My Way” or my health will suffer, so I only frequent such places once a month or less. I already avoid one fast-food chain that markets female bodies and not hamburgers. I don’t want to think I must boycott this one as well. But maybe I have to, in order to “Be My Way.”

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Appendix: Two ways to consider “religious diversity” in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Greece v Galloway decision (source: legal daily blog The Volokh Conspiracy, May 6, 2014)

Town of Greece v. Galloway is a case about religious diversity – how to recognize it and how to accommodate it. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion upheld one version of recognizing diversity, which we might call “deep” diversity or “thick” diversity. On that view, diversity is best preserved by allowing each particular religious faith to express itself, no holds barred, provided that every other religious faith gets its turn.

But there is another way of acknowledging diversity, found in Justice Kagan’s dissent. That view, which we might call “consensus” diversity or “thin” diversity, responds to diversity by trying to find some common denominator between faiths, so that all faiths are placated, and no one faith is exalted over others. We respect diversity by each agreeing to tone down our particular faith, so as to respect the faith of others. …

May 2014 Newsletter

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May 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

“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

The Salon Massacre—Guilty Plea Just Ahead?

At the time of this writing (April 30), news outlets report that the accused murderer of eight at Seal Beach’s Salon Meritage on October 12, 2011, will plead guilty very soon. Thus will end the 2½-year delay for justice (at least the trial stage) in the case of Orange County, California’s worst mass killing.

My prayers are now sincerely focused on peace of mind and heart to the community and especially to all the individuals and families affected by this monstrosity. Though “closure” is not an appropriate word, this will be indeed an important milestone and step toward healing.

As Senior Chaplain for the Seal Beach Police Department, my own life was dramatically impacted by this massacre. Please see my writings: “Justice Still Waits” (October, 2013 Newsletter) and “Forgiveness” (September, 2013 Newsletter), available at my Website.

“Prophets are Good for Business”

(Applying Biblical Principles to Work Situations)

Equity and the Film Industry

“The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.”     – Proverbs 14:20

“Many curry favor with a ruler, and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts.”   – Proverbs 19:6

“Justice” “Fairness” “Equity” – all these are values grounded in the Bible and essential to a good society. It is especially important that governments practice equity—no one stands above another—in legislation and jurisprudence. This is reflected and required in the 14th Amendment, which provides for the equal protection of law.

For states to curry the favor of particular businesses (rather than “business” in general) seems to me to violate the spirit of equity. This is glaringly true when California proposes special tax breaks for the film industry so it won’t run away to other locations.

Sadly, the situation becomes “You did it so now we have to do it too—only bigger!” Other states (44!) offer incentives to lure away film production and so California, it is said, not only has to do catch-up but also needs to get ahead of the game. ***

What raises the “equity” issue is that this is not for all businesses but for particular businesses with friends in high places. Jesus told the story of the heartless judge who said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice!” (Luke 18:4-5)

Do tax credits for the film industry benefit the broader commercial life of a state or region (a version of the “trickle down” theory)? Arguments on the commercial value of such credits go either way. This statement comes from an economist with Wells-Fargo:

“It doesn’t improve our labor force. It doesn’t provide us with any fixed assets that are going to improve our competitiveness. … The only thing that keeps bringing folks here is our willingness to continue to give them money.”

Equity and the economy would be better served if California and its cities created a much healthier business climate for all.

Favoritism gives credence to charges of “crony capitalism” and “corporate welfare.”

The Proverbs at the top express a reality of this imperfect world—privilege begets more privilege. The following biblical texts are more prescriptive, directing us away from favoritism for a few and toward equity for all:

“Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.” – Proverbs 22:2

“Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity?” – Psalm 58:1

*** The same tendency afflicts government-sponsored gambling. People grow tired of older games (the “fix” isn’t what it used to be), so the games are made more alluring. States engage in “one-upmanship”. The flow of revenue and the news media’s fascination with celebrating the prizes (giving leave to all objectivity) overwhelm the social downsides of gambling.

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

– 1st Amendment (Our “First Freedom” in the Bill of Rights)

“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.

– Thomas Jefferson (Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom)

Kathleen Sebelius has left her position as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Whatever her successes or failures, what must not be forgotten was her January 20, 2012 statement about the “contraception mandate” that would be placed on religious organizations:

Nonprofit employers who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan, will be provided an additional year, until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new law. Employers wishing to take advantage of the additional year must certify that they qualify for the delayed implementation. This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule.

In other words, if this mandate troubles the religion-formed conscience of a religious organization—good news! We will give you an extra year before you have to compromise your consciences or figure out how to evade the guilt.

Much argument (actually a political firestorm) and some modification have taken place since this statement was issued. But its initial arrogance showed a tone-deaf attitude often found in government toward religious conviction—an attitude that must not be allowed to go without response and even resistance.

Don’s Upcoming Ministries

May 3 (8:30) – Men’s fellowship breakfast at Malarkey’s. Lead a panel of Christian men with a law enforcement career.

May 4 – Speak in Morning Worship Services at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (8:00, 9:30 and 11:00)

June 3-4 – Meeting of Committee developing Grace Brethren identity statement (Winona Lake, Indiana)

June 17 – Speak at breakfast for the Men’s Fellowship of Pasadena’s Lake Avenue Congregational Church

Message of the Month –

Words from an Older Minister to a Younger Minister

[Note: In January an assignment given at a retreat was to write a message to a young minister, as the Apostle Paul wrote to his young protégé, Timothy. Then, in February, I was privileged to give the “Charge” to a young pastor at his ordination service. Here I draw together edited thoughts from both of these works.]

To my son and co-worker in the faith, whom I deeply love, grace and peace to you from God our Father and The Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God for you.

I’ve been privileged to have a ministry extending over 45 years. You are one seasoned follower of Christ who will carry on God’s work into the future, as I have been graced by God to do it in the past.

You will not do it my way, nor would I want you to. You may glean from my experience and that of others and then put together your own pathway to follow. The key to remember is that you carefully examine all you think and do, to wisely know what must remain and what is allowed to change.

You are free before God to make your own choices in many of your ministry decisions and to be accountable for these choices, bound by God’s commands that build the fences around what you choose. But don’t forget the value of having a multitude of counselors, especially your church’s leadership.

The authority of Scripture must remain. Yes, there will be strong discussions among godly people over just how the Bible is inspired of God and how this should affect our interpretations, teaching and application. But this core conviction must remain.

Then, the core teachings of Scripture must remain. You can voice this core in many ways. But among the best is found in the words of the ancient “Apostles Creed.” This creed speaks to Christians and to the world of every generation. Notice how it is even expressed through some contemporary music styles. Embrace its words, and see that they remain.

And teach it! You can be clever but don’t try to be cute. Be contemporary without being trendy or faddish. You should teach to touch your generation, but don’t try to remodel what ought to remain. Believe me, it won’t work!

I was born near the end of the Second World War. It was a pivotal time. Generations before seemed stable and traditions continued. Changes that did occur were gradual. All that is over! My generation and the generations that have followed ours are used to rapid change, and now it is more rapid than ever. Many results of this are good; some are not.

You will have to assess new ideas and developments with discernment and care. Don’t reject them out of hand or run toward them unreflectively. For example, communication has exploded in my lifetime and yours. People give and receive information at an astounding level. Not all of it is good! People communicate more than ever before, but I’d be hard pressed to say they communicate better than before. Take what the Bible says about our words, good and bad, and have your speech “seasoned with salt” at all times. Teach others to do the same. Teach them to be “quick to hear, slow to speak.”

Contemporary Christians often lack spiritual “roots”—a value prominent in Scripture. If we don’t know where we came from, we will have a harder time knowing who we are and where we should be going. Also, many don’t value history, so they can’t learn from the traditions and experiences of the past—good ones as well as failures. And they don’t value wisdom gained by generations past, living or dead.

In contrast, the Book of Proverb reflects constantly on the seasoned insights of long lives lived and shared. Live the Proverbs Way. Have great respect for those who have lived longer than you. Value the learning that comes from books, but remember that learning from the lives people have led is more valuable than learning from the books you have read.

You will face challenges that are either new or increased, compared to the challenges of the past. Your culture will be less and less supportive of your faith and message. In the name of “tolerance” it will reject you if you are loyal to the core that must remain. You should expect to “pay the price” at a level I didn’t have to.

Do your best to live in your community and culture productively. Seek the “shalom” of your community, as one of my favorite prophets Jeremiah once said (Jeremiah 29:7). Do your best to make it a better place. Learn to interact with all kinds of people. Seek the common good. When you do have to speak out against something in your culture, do it from the strong position of respect you have earned, as I once told Timothy that leaders of a church must have respect among unbelievers.

Be a good citizen and an effective community leader. Work to make your government good. Don’t try to “Christianize” it—that’s not what biblical influence calls for. But strive to make it good. Remember, you are a community leader whether you think of yourself as one or not. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.

And keep strong in your testimony in word and deed. You have a calling to share your faith with others and strengthen your fellow believers to do the same. Teach them how to have reasons for the hope that is within them and how to share these with those who do not know your Lord.

In your personal life, be sure to honor your spouse above all and love her as Christ loves his church. Make sure your place of ministry regards her and your children as persons in their own right, not as extensions of the church. Be sure your family members can maintain reasonable privacy and protect them from any unfair judgments.

Be sure you keep a weekly “sabbatical” and don’t immerse yourself unreasonably (yes, pridefully) into church matters to where they consume you. Don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

Live backward from how you wish to reflect back upon your life as you reach the end of your journey, so you can say sincerely, “I have fought the fight; I have kept the faith.”

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

[SUBSCRIPTIONS]


May 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

April 2014 Newsletter

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“A Piece of My Mind”

April 2014 Newsletter from Donald Shoemaker

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

Evil, Suffering & Tragedy—
Proofs of God’s Displeasure?

A self-styled member of the clergy told the Seal Beach City Council and all others listening on March 24 that the city’s neglect of the homeless led to the “Salon Massacre” in October, 2011—Orange County’s worst mass murder, eight innocent lives. Had city officials listened to advocates of services for the homeless, “God would have been unjust to allow that massacre in this city. ” Read on…

Bible Insight:

“Who has understood the mind of the Lord?
or instructed him as his counselor?
Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge
or showed him the path of understanding?”
– Isaiah 40:13-14

Do our moral actions or inactions bring identifiable judgments from God? Does anyone have the right to tell us, “Thus saith the Lord!” when tragedy strikes?

Biblically speaking, bad things happen for many reasons or (to our finite understanding) for no reason at all. Sometimes tragedy strikes those who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sometimes punishment can come from God for violating his commandments. This can be seen in the Law of Moses (see Deuteronomy 30:15-20 for summary promises of blessing and judgment; the warnings are common throughout the Mosaic Law as found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). Warnings are also common in the prophetical writings (for great examples, read the first two chapters of Amos).

Other scriptures speak of the natural consequences of the choices we make, good or bad. I highly recommend reading the Book of Proverbs to see literally hundreds of moral truisms (generalizations) on the consequences of conduct.

“The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” (27:12)
“Those who work their land will have abundant food,
but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.” (28:19)
“Drunkards and gluttons become poor,
and drowsiness clothes them in rags.” (23:21)

But still other scriptures make it clear that many things that happen to us are not subject to moral cause-and-effect equations. The greatest example is from one of the oldest works of literature—the Book of Job. If you have never read this Old Testament book with its splendid poetry, treat yourself to it!

Job was a good and honorable man, wealthy and blessed. Then he was struck with a rapid series of disasters: (1) great evil: his animals were stolen and his servants killed by marauding bands; (2) great tragedies: fire destroyed his sheep and killed more servants, and a wind collapsed his son’s house and all his children were killed; (3) great suffering: he himself was covered with painful sores from head to toe. Yet Job retained his trust in God, in the face of no answer to the question why.

Enter his three friends. Most of the remainder of the book is the poetic arguments back and forth between Job and his “counselors.” They are sure that Job’s own conduct must have brought God to bring these disasters his way. Job’s protests are judged as proof of his blindness to his own deeds and his willful failure to understand the moral cause-and-effect equation.

Obedience brings blessing and sin brings punishment—it’s as simple as that! “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty” (Job 5:17). That’s the theory—alive today—set forth by Job’s “counselors.”

Certainly God has compassion for the poor and homeless and calls on us for compassion as well. “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God” (Proverbs 14:31).

But poverty is complex and can have many causes: oppression, natural and economic happenings, choice and slothfulness among others. How we respond to poverty must take the range of causes into consideration. And the solutions need to be efficient, effective ones that will lift a person up rather than reinforce the circumstances.

So the moral cause-and-effect linkage between a failure to provide housing for the homeless and a mass murder is fallacious in the extreme.

How can one prove that, in the case at hand, God demands local housing as the solution for the homeless? Over many years I’ve known many of these men and women through talking with them on the street, providing meals for them, and welcoming them to church. Many will not change their situations. They “come and go.” Some will ask money from others while spurning truly helpful assistance. Alcoholism runs deep. Housing alone isn’t the answer.

Why would God punish the innocent for the wrongful omission of others, if indeed there was omission? Who is qualified to draw the connection?

And who can claim to know the mind of God and be the voice of God, to speak “thus saith the Lord” and lecture others? Again, over the years I’ve had many visitors come to church and tell me God sent them here today to give me a message. I will tell them I don’t want to hear it.

I hope and pray that the consciences of good citizens will not be troubled by preaching that draws a cause-and-effect between sin and suffering. And I pray that people’s minds will not become jaded and critical of Christian people and churches who are struggling to understand and speak and practice the true will and love of God in a world full of challenges and difficulties.

Other theological and philosophical issues:

  • Is God “unjust” if he doesn’t intervene to prevent an “undeserved massacre”? And aren’t there many examples of this evil in the world today? Theologically speaking, it is impossible to charge God with injustice, since he is the source of all justice and justice is defined by his character. Abraham’s rhetorical question before God was right: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).
  • A distinction between what God “allows” versus what God “ordains” when used to exculpate God from responsibility—this won’t fly. If God foresees an action (like mass murder) and possesses the power to forestall it but instead permits it, how can saying God “allowed it but didn’t ordain it” excuse him from moral culpability? If I’m standing beside a small child who will very likely run out into a busy street unless I restrain him, and if I do not act to restrain him when it is within my knowledge and power to do so, how could I be exempt from a moral claim of negligence? Personally, I think this matter is insoluble with regard to God’s knowledge and action or inaction. The Bible seems to let the question rest.

Religious Liberty Vigilance – Battle of the Cross

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
– 1st Amendment (Our “First Freedom” in the Bill of Rights)

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must…undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
– Thomas Paine

“By this conquer” – Message in the vision of Constantine (312 AD)

I don’t know what Constantine really saw that day. I do have a problem whenever God is enlisted to provide endorsement to actions of the state. Especially since Jesus declared to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate,
“My kingdom is not of this world”
(John 18:36).

Religious endorsement of secular power or secular endorsement of religion is one thing. Recognition of religious heritage in a context that recognizes other features of heritage is something else. Thus, I fully endorse the decision of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to restore a cross onto the county seal.


In 1957, liberal Democrat Kenneth Hahn proposed a redesign of the seal to recognize the diverse heritage of the county.

Beside the cross and in the middle of the seal was a prominent image of Pomona, goddess of agriculture and abundance. That’s didn’t seem to concern “church and state separationists” the way a tiny cross did. So, fearing a lawsuit by the ACLU, county supervisors surrendered without a fight and approved a new seal in 2004.


The new seal featured an Indian woman (in a servile role, according to critics) and the likeness of the San Gabriel Mission, sans cross (which some said really made it look more like a Taco Bell). It also eliminated politically incorrect oil derricks.

But in January 2014 two supervisors added liberal supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to the cause and still another seal with a small cross on top of the mission was approved 3-2. The Los Angeles Times gave a hand-wringing editorial on February 7, “County supervisors voted last month to add a Christian cross, an unmistakable symbol of one religious faith, to the county seal, an official symbol of government. Blending the Christian symbol into the government one signals an impermissible intertwining of church and state. It practically begs for a lawsuit.”

Does this “favor” one religion over others? Would a “reasonable observer” see it as an “endorsement of religion”? If so, what about Pomona? Or Minerva, goddess of wisdom, on the California seal? Don’t these “endorse” paganism? Don’t think that’s a dead faith these days. Common sense, please!

No, I agree with Supervisor Don Knabe, who says the new seal was adopted for historical correctness, not political correctness. Radical secularists relax!

Note: the Ventura County seal has two crosses! One is on Mission Buenaventura, the other on the likeness of Father Junipero Serra, founder of the mission, who also is holding a Bible!

Easter Message —

“…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” – Romans 6:4

Good News from Grace

www.gracesealbeach.org

 

Grace Community Church of Seal Beach
138 8th Street (at Central in “Old Town”)

Good Friday Communion Services at Noon and 7:00 p.m.

Easter Sunday Services at 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00 (traditional style), 9:30 and 11:00 (contemporary style)

 

Don’s Upcoming Ministries

April 5 at 8:00 a.m. – Sing the National Anthem at the opening of Seal Beach’s 5/10K race.

May 4 – Speak in Morning Worship Services at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach
(8:00, 9:30 and 11:00)

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

How Is the Bible Regarded in America?

This study analyzed the Bible mindedness of the top 100 cities by population across the U.S. in 2013. Bible mindedness was calculated based on combined levels of regular Bible reading and residents’ belief in the Bible’s accuracy. – American Bible Society
www.americanbible.org/features/americas-most-bible-minded-cities

10 Most Bible-Minded Cities (all in the South but one)

  • Chattanooga, Tennessee
  • Birmingham, Alabama
  • Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia
  • Springfield, Missouri
  • Shreveport, Louisiana
  • Charlotte, N. Carolina
  • Greenville/Spartanburg, S. Carolina/Asheville, N. Carolina
  • Little Rock, Arkansas
  • Jackson, Mississippi
  • Knoxville, Tennessee

10 Least Bible-Minded Cities (7 in New England or New York)

  • Providence, Rhode Island/New Bedford, Massachusetts
  • Albany, New York
  • Boston, Massachusetts
  • San Francisco, California
  • Cedar Rapids, Iowa
  • Buffalo, New York
  • Hartford/New Haven, Connecticut
  • Phoenix, Arizona
  • Burlington, Vermont
  • Portland, Maine

California Cities

  • Bakersfield (21st)
  • Sacramento/Modesto (66th)
  • Fresno (70th)
  • San Diego (72nd)
  • Los Angeles (73rd)