Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #98 |
||
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
JESUS calls US to be |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
||
Preparing for A New
Year
Those who love fine newspapers are apt to dismiss "small" dailies like
The Joplin Globe, and sometimes with good reason.
The issue for Monday, December 29, 1997 is in my opinion an outstandingly good issue of The Joplin Globe. The opinion page (page 4) includes a cute cartoon about fabulously famous sports figures who show us how not to live, a letter from a lady in Keith Sigler's home town who declares her right to brutally murder roosters for the sport of it, and then lots of good common sense from a Joplin writer (to "The Editor"), and an editorial from the editor, with two columns of delightful comment from Nat Hentoff and Thomas Sowell (in honesty, it should be admitted that for balance The Joplin Globe on other days prints views that don't tickle my fancy at all.)
Because of copyright rights, I should rewrite these two columns if I want you to know what was said, or else get permission to reprint. And I likely would do that if they had thoughtfully provided a telephone number. Instead, they say, "Address correspondence to Nat Hentoff, Newspaper Enterprise Association, 200 Madison Ave, New York, N.Y. 10016." Please don't tell them I've used Nat's material without asking!
AVERTING OUR EYES FROM SLAVERY -- by Nat Hentoff who also wears a beard (as does Ray Downen -- only I prefer no mustache with mine). -- I once heard Jesse Jackson speak about Islamic enslavement of black Christians and animists in Sudan (Africa). It was on C-SPAN months ago. He did not bring up the subject. A questioner, a young student, asked him. Jackson, looking grave, said it must be looked into.
But since then, Jackson's considerable capacity for indignation at injustice has not been noticeably directed to these black women raped and kept in bondage; their husbands killed and their children forcibly converted to Islam. [Ray remarks -- Perhaps Mr. Jackson is as busy as most of us but has staff members diligently working on this very matter.]
By contrast, Representative Donald Payne, D-NJ, of the Congressional Black Caucus has been actively concerned. Jackson's indifference [apparent but not proven], is far from singular among feminists and other U.S. liberal opponents of discrimination.
In a column in the Boston Globe -- "Where are the liberals?" -- Charles Jacobs, research director of the American Anti-Slavery Group, notes that "Pat Robertson, Bill Bennett, Ralph Reed, Gary Bauer and the Christian right are fighting hard against black slavery today in Africa." But, he adds, the NAACP is hardly in the forefront of the struggle. Some time ago, the NAACP pledged in a press release that it was going to become engaged in the fight to liberate the slaves. But there has since been no sign of any urgency to get involved.
Along with Sam Cotton, the recent winner of a Petra Foundation human rights award, Charles Jacobs has been instrumental in trying to expand awareness in this country of slavery both in Sudan and Mauritania. Cotton is black, and Jacobs is Jewish [which might be of interest to some readers, thought Nat].
These molders of thought have helped create, as Jacobs says, "seven mostly black-led grassroots groups around the country who count many African-Americans as supporters." But surprisingly [since most of those enslaved are women], "only one women's group" -- the unorthodox Independent Women's Forum -- has come forward [even to publicize the plight of these who have been enslaved].
"Slavery should be a women's issue," Jacobs says. "It is daily rape. Dinka slaves from the south of Sudan, chosen as concubines, are genitally mutilated. Slave masters in Mauritania breed their slaves and own their children."
Meanwhile, at U.S. colleges -- where at one time activist professors could have created a political movement against slavery of blacks, the battles now are about tenure, sexual harassment, and how to secure more federal grants. At least, as Charles Jacobs points out, "The American Friends Service Committee is bringing the issue to campuses." The Quakers never doze. Neither does Nina Shea of Freedom House, or Christian Solidarity International with its frequent trips to Sudan.
Church leaders are, by and large, otherwise occupied. For example, Jacobs' U. S. anti-slavery group is in the Boston area (P O Box 441612, Somerville, MA 02144-1612). Jacobs reports, "We wrote and called church leaders here who care about social justice to enlist their help in protesting this tragedy continuing daily in Africa. No one was interested."
It took a long time, but black slavery in our day finally did get some television exposure -- notably on NBC's "Dateline," where the footage included an actual sale of blacks into slavery in Sudan. And Pat Robertson's "700 Club" television program aired a report on the slave trade that including the selling of a slave. Viewers were asked to come forth to speak up "for our Christian brethren in bondage." [Not all, but most of the victims are Christians.]
With Pat Robertson on his side, Charles Jacobs asks: "Will our cause be hated by liberals now that the Christian right has taken it up?"
Since liberals have yet to embrace the anti-slavery cause in any significant numbers, their aversion to Pat Robertson hardly seems pertinent. [It might seem that Jacobs brought it up only to shame liberals into doing what they long ago should have begun doing.] Still, Jacobs has been advised by some liberals to refuse the support of Robertson and others in the Christian right. [Nat offers no proof for this accusation, but he was out of space and perhaps could have documented it if that was needed.]
He rejects that ideological advice [to turn away support from "the Christian right" which is not admired by liberals]. "Human freedom," he says, "is not a question of right or left -- just right or wrong." In the Dec. 22nd issue of NEW REPUBLIC magazine, Professor Anthony Pagden writes: "Today, slavery seems unthinkable. The idea that it might exist anywhere in the world TODAY would shock most people as much as the discovery that there were still places afflicted by the bubonic plague."
But most U.S. citizens have yet to be shocked although slavery in Sudan has been shown on network television. While Jews were being systematically exterminated by the Third Reich, the Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard said: "Humanity stands aghast and ashamed at the indecency and brutality that is permitted in Germany." But now black families are being destroyed in our world. Among the 700,000 Christians who have died during the past eight years in Sudan are many murdered fathers. Yet hardly any U.S. liberals seem to care. [And, much more surprising to ME, the fact is that hardly any U.S. CHRISTIANS seem to care enough to DO anything even to protest what is happening!]
The invasion of the body snatchers was as nothing compared to the invasion of the touchy-feelies. They come speaking their own alien language, psychobabble. For example: "Aaron is emerging into the locutionary stage of intentionality." Translation for earthlings: Aaron is starting to talk.
This was taken from an actual official evaluation report about a three-year-old boy whose speech development was behind schedule. The report was signed by a "social worker" and four other people with various titles in the so-called "helping professions." None of them was a physician but, after pages of pompous language expressing ordinary things, they abruptly concluded that little Aaron's behavior patterns "are consistent with the characteristics of autism, therefore this diagnosis has been made [by us "specialists."]."
Doing an end-run around logic is common among the touchy-feelies. Many aspects of a Chevrolet "are consistent with the characteristics" of a Rolls-Royce, but nobody concludes that a Chevy is a Rolls-Royce. [For good reason].
Autism is very rare. But diagnoses of autism are not nearly as rare, especially when these diagnoses are made by people with no medical degree -- and in this case, without a Ph.D. in anything. Moreover, the report itself noted how affectionate and emotionally attached to his parents the little boy was [and which those afflicted with autism NEVER are]. Yet, if this evaluation finds its way into Aaron's school records or medical records [which could very easily happen], it can affect the course of his life for years to come. The word "autism" will remain indelible, while the shallow basis for it remains unknown.
This is only one of the many ways in which the touchy-feelies of the "helping professions" can wreak havoc. A recently-published book aptly titled "Whores of the Court" is full of devastating revelations of the disasters created by touchy-feely testimony without a speck of scientific substance behind it. The book's author, Margaret A. Hagen, is herself a psychologist with a Ph.D., and knows from the inside what hogwash can pass muster in that field while being accepted as "expertise" by those on the outside, including judges and juries.
The guesswork and dogmas of shrinks have enabled hardened criminals to walk the streets again. Their testimony has also put innocent people behind bars for years, with no evidence against them, for crimes such as sexual molestation that may not even have occurred at all in the case at hand. The fads and speculations of social workers have kept thousands of children moving for years like vagabonds from one foster home to another because the touchy-feelies don't want them to be adopted by someone of a different race.
Psychological and sociological fads are displacing facts and logic from the schoolroom to the courtroom. The gullible assumption that there is an expert for everything creates lucrative opportunities for people who are expert at nothing except convincing other people that they are experts. If they have been certified by other touchy-feelies, that makes them all experts.
The supreme triumph of the touchy-feelies is that no factual record is kept of how often they are proved wrong by later events. When violent criminals are turned loose on the basis of psychological speculation to resume a life of violence, their later violence does not go on the record of any of those who helped unleash these hoodlums and murderers on their victims. [Ray remarks -- this claim is only partially true.] These same "experts" can continue to testify in court with airs of confidence without any fear that their long history of being wrong can be thrown in their faces, because no such records are kept.
Children who are snatched from their homes by social workers on the basis of unsubstantiated suspicions or anonymous tips may turn out to have suffered no demonstrable harm at all in their homes, but they may be physically abused or sexually molested in the foster homes or institutions to which they were consigned by the experts. But none of this goes on these social workers' records, or diminishes their Gestapo-like powers under the law.
What if little Aaron grows up to become an outstanding [and talkative] human being, the pride of his parents, a pillar of the community, and a loving father? None of this will go on the records of those who pronounced him autistic. Twenty years from now, those very same people can be saying that some other child who is "emerging into the locutional stage of intentionality" is autistic -- and no one will know how wrong they have been before, or how many times. [Address correspondence to Thomas Sowell, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W Century Blvd, Ste 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045.]
AND THE EDITORIAL concerns a contrast between democracy and other forms of government. Democracy comes out way ahead!
The Joplin Globe is located at 117 E 4th St, P O Box 7, Joplin MO 64802-0007. The Joplin Globe has lots of GOOD days for discerning readers.
1/3/98 -- When the material below reached me, I saw nothing I could do except add it here:
From: Lyle1321 <Lyle1321@aol.com> Date sent: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 08:52:14 ESTIt's Getting Late
The now, the here, through which all future plunges into the past. --- James Joyce
Because of the seasons, the months and weeks, the calendar, we tend to think of time passing as a circle. Christmas, birthdays, summer---Monday through Friday, around and around. What goes around, comes around. Right? Think about it again. Each day is new. They never come around again. The days you have lived---you only visited each one once. Minutes, hours and days---they are here then gone. Weeks, months and years, all put to use to mark time. An hour never dwells long and never visits again. Time? A straight line, past and future. Now only stays long enough for us to notice it. Time past is a memory and we face the future dimly across the horizon into eternity where time will have ended.
Write your poem. Sing your song.
Do it now, you don't have long.Do you want to tell someone you love them?
Hug your child.
Do what you need to do.
You only have now.Never again said the old clock,
one more tick and another new tock.Lyle