Reaction is not leadership

Timing is everything in news and comedy. Sometimes we are lucky enough that the news is the laugh line. I gained a nice chuckle in learning May 15 that The Institute on Religion and Democracy launched its We Get It! campaign that shows it doesn't -- get it, that is.

In an obvious reaction to the Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change the institute wants a part of the attention that declaration garnered.

[Read More]
Posted by jameson ( May 16 2008, 03:11:19 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [12]

Myanmar a Moral Disaster
To suggest a military invasion of Myanmar to deliver relief goods would be as immoral as the Myanmar government's denial of those goods.[Read More]
Posted by jameson ( May 13 2008, 11:12:54 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Evangelical Manifesto reclaims definition
Leading evangelicals release manifesto to reclaim a theological definition of the term. Beeson Divinity[Read More]
Posted by jameson ( May 07 2008, 09:52:29 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Doomsday vault

In my 14th summer I rode my bike the mile into town to catch with other boys a truck that drove to the large fields planted by Barr Seed Corn Company. Our job was to walk through those fields in which corn stalks loomed a couple feet overhead and tug the tassel from each stalk, which would be at shoulder level.

We left the tassels in the "buck" rows, which were two of every 10, to provide pollination power, for the rest.

Morning dew soaked us to the waist until noon, and we ached and sweat the rest of the day from pulling the stalk's seed and pollen bearing bouquet from its nest. Farmers would use corn produced in these fields for next year's planting.

you've heard the expression, "don't eat the seed corn." No matter how hungry you are, you've got to find something else to eat besides the seed corn or you will have nothing to plant, you'll never break the hunger cycle, and you will starve.

On Tuesday Feb. 26 scientists, the nation of Norway, and others who understand the potential global devastation of natural disasters or our own unwillingness to recognize we live on a fragile planet, will inaugurate a "save the seed corn" project on a global scale.

These progressives with a global perspective will inaugurate a "Noah's Ark" of seeds in Svalbard, Norway to provide food hope in the event of a global catastrophe. The arctic "doomsday vault" has been carved into the permafrost of a remote arctic mountain, just 600 miles from the North Pole and will be filled with samples of the world's most important seeds.

A story in the foreign press by Pierre-Henry Deshayes describes the vault as three cold chambers each measuring 89 by 33 feet bored into the sandstone and limestone below permafrost. The seeds will be stored at a constant temperature of minus 18 degrees Celsius, and even if the freezer system fails the permafrost will ensure that temperatures never rise above freezing.

Protected by high walls of fortified concrete, an armored door, alarms and native polar bears, the "doomsday vault" is 425 feet above current sea level - high enough that it would not flood if the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melt entirely due to global warming.

The vault will have capacity for 4.5 million batches of seeds from all known varieties of earth's main food crops, making it possible to re-establish plants if they disappear from their natural environment or are obliterated by major disasters.

The Norwegian archipelago, home to only 2,300 people, was selected in large part because of its inhospitable climate and remote location far from civil strife that rocks so much of the rest of the world.

Norway assumed $8.9 million dollar cost for building the vault in Svalbard, where ironically no crops grow.

Talk about your worst case scenario. This project assumes the very worst could actually happen. I just hope two things about this project: first, that they include jalapeno seeds, and second, that they leave the vault combination in many places and in many languages.

Posted by jameson ( Feb 25 2008, 02:46:07 PM EST ) Permalink Comments [4]

After the storm

Global and instant communications keeps us informed of just about every tragedy that occurs. We learn at noon of derailed trains in India; mudslides in the Philippines; fires in California and a taxi driver mugging in New York.

The six o'clock news brings a new wave of tragedy for which we must be concerned and we must forget those incidents that made us shake our heads in dismay at noon or we will be overwhelmed.

When most of us learned about Union University in Jackson, Tenn., being smashed by a tornado Feb. 5 we registered the news in three waves: 1. Oh No! 2. Whew, no one killed. 3. It's in faraway Tennessee.

Let me bring it a little closer to home. Five children of North Carolina based missionaries attend Union and several were caught in that debris, none seriously injured.

But, they have lost everything. One recovered a computer, but the others lost their clothes, books, computers, hot plates and all the personal items that make life manageable far from home and in college. You probably don't know these kids. But when you learn they are "our" kids the faceless, nameless tragedy suddenly becomes personal.

North Carolina's Woman's Missionary Union is receiving help for Mary Perkins, Charlotte C., Kate C., and Aaron Davenport. Some are children of missionaries serving in places that don't like missionaries being there, so that's all the information I can give.

WMU is receiving "bank issued" gift cards they will forward to the missionary kids at Union. You can get gift cards at a variety of places; the more nationally recognized the better. Checks are also acceptable, made out to WMU-NC for "NC's MKs at Union University."

You could write a personal note of encouragement, as well. You know how you are lifted when you learn someone is praying for you, especially a stranger who loves you only because you are "one of ours."

Classes began again this week, testimony to the determination and leadership at Union. Photos of the aftermath show the tornado's path swept right through the dormitory village.

Most of the time you read of a tragedy and wish there was something you could do to alleviate some of the pain and suffering.

Here's your chance.

Address:WMU of NC, PO Box 1470, Cary, NC 27512

Posted by jameson ( Feb 21 2008, 09:15:49 AM EST ) Permalink

Lonely Baptist

While "evangelicals" are credited with sweeping Mike Huckabee to a win in the Iowa presidential caucuses, prominent Baptists nationally have avoided the preacher's bandwagon like they avoid golf on Sunday morning.

The 10-year governor of Arkansas has been steadily plodding the campaign trail with no boost, encouragement or endorsement from nationally influential Southern Baptists, a neglect that has angered the admittedly thin skinned politician. And now Washington Post columnist Robert Novak offers a reason for that shunning.

It seems while he was president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention during his pastorate at Beech Street First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Ark., Huckabee did not satisfactorily support the "conservative resurgence" in the Southern Baptist Convention. He did not tap enough theological conservatives in his appointments to satisfy people like Paul Pressler, who national media look to for a word on all things Baptist.

"I don't know of conservative appointments he made, and I don't know of any contribution to the conservatives," said Pressler about Huckabee. Pressler instead supports former senator and actor Fred Thompson for president. Pressler did tell Novak, "I would never do anything to hurt him (Huckabee)."

But, as Novak points out, the reluctance of nationally recognized Baptists to publicly support Huckabee made him a lonely Baptist indeed.

Huckabee would like Richard Land's endorsement, as well, since Land is an oft quoted speaker for Southern Baptists on the national scene. Land will endorse no one, as is proper in his position as president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Huckabee, however, told the New York Times that he feels Land "swoons for Fred Thompson."

You should not support Mike Huckabee just because he is a Baptist. This post is neither an endorsement nor rejection of Huckabee. It is only a vehicle to allow me to observe two points.

One. My wires may be frayed but a fuse blows when I think that anyone would base endorsement of a candidate for president of the United States on appointments made or not made to honorary denominational positions from a temporary chair in Arkansas. I know Pressler dedicated his adult years to pushing Southern Baptists to the right so he feels Huckabee's neglect to take him seriously more personally than others would. Now that Huckabee really wants Pressler to take HIM seriously, the shoe is on the other foot.

Two. Assume with me that the person most likely to have a world view similar to Baptists would be a Baptist pastor. Doesn't it seem that Baptists vocally and publicly committed to voting "values" would logically support a man who touts the same values?

I'm going with a different view here. Until Iowa, no one thought Huckabee had a chance to win the Republican nomination. And those for whom religion and politics share the same bed are more interested in waking up in the White House than they are in backing a loser - no matter the values.

P.S. It's up to you to decide if these men are "prominent" Baptists, but to avoid the impression that Huckabee has no Baptist endorsements, these brave souls who spoke for him early are included here. They are listed on a website of a Huckabee supporter.

Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention; Jimmy Draper, former SBC president and retired president of Lifeway; Jerry Vines, retired pastor of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Florida and former SBC president; Danny Akin president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Posted by jameson ( Jan 05 2008, 11:22:49 PM EST ) Permalink Comments [4]

Pardon Me

Is it just me or are you a little disconcerted to see the president of the United States, in his "trust me" blue tie, stroking the back of a turkey and offering to pardon one of God's ugliest creatures?

Watching that scene creates a clanking clatter in the back of my brain that says two realities are trying to meld but they remain separated by a great rift in the universe.

Here is the single most powerful human being on the planet, petting a turkey. Turkey industry execs hover; political lackeys and schedule keepers mind their watches and reporters act as if this scene actually merits 45 seconds on the evening news.

On one hand, the president. On the other hand, a turkey.

And the concept of "pardon" wedged into the incongruous scene like an ill timed punch line.

A pardon is an incredible power and responsibility of a president. He can utilize it as a political favor, as most do at the end of their final terms. He can wield it to rectify an injustice, to undo the damage that occasionally happens when the wheels of justice fall off the wagon.

While President Bush is pardoning a turkey, two border guards languish in prison for shooting a fleeing drug suspect whose vehicle is later proven to contain illegal drugs. The injured suspect is granted immunity to testify against the border guards.NC Congressman Walter Jones says the guards "remain unjustly incarcerated."

I have no idea of what political shenanigans are being played, what favors are being called in, what lunacy in the theater of the absurd is being written. But instead of "pardoning" a turkey in a ridiculous holiday theatrics, the president needs to pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Ramos was recently beaten to a pulp in prison by Mexican bad guys after his plight was aired on television.

The man they shot in the buttocks fled back across the border in a van found to contain nearly $1 million in marijuana. He was granted immunity to testify against the boarder agents, is suing the United States for $5 million and now it is discovered that he was already a convicted felon at the time of the border agents' trial.

People will be good followers and let leaders lead until things reach a breaking point of crazy. If this situation is in reality like it appears to be on the surface, I think the crazy rock has crested the hill and is gaining momentum on its own.

The list is growing of things happening, or not happening, in this country that make my guts gurgle. And yet, you and I citizens continue to vote for no change because we still fear change more than we're disgusted over the way things are in health care, social security, education, infrastructure, drug policy, foreign policy, war, energy and tax policy. Pardoning Ramos and Compean would be one small indication that a seed of sanity has root in Washington.

If I've offended you pardon me.

Posted by jameson ( Nov 22 2007, 11:12:47 PM EST ) Permalink Comments [4]

Addiction old and new
Beer has a long history. So does addiction. Both are bad news.[Read More]
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Why you should care about Nebo-Sarsekim
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Not real churches?
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Sacred site or sewage canal?
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Are men really worth more?
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History is in the cards
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Wrong rewards
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Tar Heels and torture
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