Modern Christians espousing Garbage vs. What ought to be done

Sermon by Jodi Hickerson on the book of James

REAL LIFE CHURCH, Valencia, CA 6/7/26 on YOUTUBE
https://www.youtube.com/@rlcvalencia


and classic hilarious poem by Silverstein

"Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans,
... And so it piled up to the ceilings:
.... . The garbage rolled on down the hall,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall
.... At last the garbage reached so high
That it finally touched the sky.
... But then, of course, it was too late. . .
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
Poor Sarah met an awful fate..."

by Shel Silverstein

For my websites of poetry, articles, and fiction

http://www.psalmsyawpshowls.com/

https://shimmeringpebblesinthelightstream.blogspot.com/

http://lastthings.weebly.com/

http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/

http://planktonpelican.weebly.com/

http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/

In the LIGHT of the GOOD, the TRUE, the JUST,

Daniel Wilcox

Christian Arameans living near border with Lebanon, attempting to Survive HEZBOLLAH's constant barrage of missiles; past bad Israelis Gov.

Christians who still read in Aramaic the language Jesus spoke, who Survived the Israeli military destroying 2 of their villages in the past:-( (read about that in Elias Chacour's powerful memoir, Blood Brothers) and now the constant killing barrage of Muslim HEZBOLLAH (Party of Allah). https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-jish-an-indigenous-christian-minority-defiantly-stays-in-hezbollahs-crosshairs/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEgqItleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSyWCX5J9l9-tPB0d3GqEZW_NxbQPTphALHp6jmOtmhwec1_iXUAgjpy8w_aem_BewXWqawjIoNuvqQF89O4A

Musings on Great Songs —and on early Quakers’ Rejection of Music-Art

Musings, while spending hours in the new year listening to music, (instead of focusing only on opposing-lamenting current immoral, false political-social claims and actions).

1 What is the difference between spiritual songs versus ones that harm and even are destructive?
2 Songs that are sung by empty rote versus songs that fill us with Light?
3 How do we tell the difference?
4 What are some of the best songs of the last 60 years?

In no particular order:

Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel

“Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence…”

The first time I heard this powerful reflection on the superficial nature of most human speaking--the woeful lack of deep communication-communion among us, I was driving through the night in a white wonder of a snowstorm down Van Dorn Avenue in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1966. Huge flakes of snow were silently hitting the wind shield, and Simon was talking to the darkness...

‘And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Paul Simon
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

This verse is almost bizarre! Because, usually, written words in subways, etc. are obscene, superficial, or shallow false slogans...
How is this graffiti at at all prophetic compared to the superficial miscomunication of humans?
"Sounds" has amazing powerful poetry with an expert rhyme scheme (because it isn’t sing-songy nor does it draw attention to itself like most such couplet rhyming does). --

Colored People by DC Talk
...
“Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir
I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin (shade of melanin)
I tip my hat to the colorful arrangement
'Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin

We've gotta come together (come together)
And thank the Maker of us all

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

One, one, one, one
Two, two, two, two...

A piece of canvas is only the beginning for
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope

We've gotta come together (come together)
Aren't we all human after all?

We're colored people and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure, oh yeah

Well, just a day in the shoes of a colorblind man
Should make it easy for you to see
That these diverse tones do more than cover our bones
As a part of our anatomy

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

We're colored people, and they call us the human race
(Oh, colored people)
We're colored people and we all gotta share this space
(Yeah, we've got to come together somehow)

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted world
(Red and yellow, black and white)
We're colored people, every man, woman, boy, and girl
(Colored people, colored people, colored people, colored people, yeah)

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Toby Mckeehan / George C. Cocchini
Colored People lyrics © Achtober Songs

A transcendent morally real wonder of truth. Opposed to white supremacy and to BLMer WOKE-false narrative against all whites, the nuclear family, and police. INSTEAD of white "colored' racism or Black-victimhood, celebrate the wonder of the HUMAN RACE--in all its variations--so COLORFUL! --

A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten-thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children..."
Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music

That startling lament against nuclear weapons and other forms of mass slaughter by Dylan is fairly easy to understand despite some of the very strange images. However, many of the best modern song lyrics are far more difficult to ascertain as to what their central meaning is.

While I like to write complex, imaged esoteric lyrics and listen to those difficult sorts of lyrics, many ambiguous literary lyrics often open up many possible contradictory meanings, even though they draw one deep into the lyrics’ allusions, archetypes and symbols.

Too many listeners will end up with wrong meanings--often immoral and destructive ones.

Consider the very famous rock song "(Don't Fear) the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult:

All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are

Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man

La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la

Valentine is done
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (like Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (redefine happiness)
Another 40, 000 coming everyday (we can be like they are)

Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man...

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Donald Roeser
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

When I first studied the lyrics, “Don’t Fear…” appeared to be a pro-suicide rock lament. But some commentators have stated, they don’t think that is true.
While the song is a lament it is affirming that life should be accepted, not fearing everyone’s eventual deaths.

Even the author of the lyrics, Buck Dharma, stated,
"I felt that I had just achieved some kind of resonance with the psychology of people when I came up with that, I was actually kind of appalled when I first realized that some people were seeing it as an advertisement for suicide or something that was not my intention at all. It is, like, not to be afraid of [death] (as opposed to actively bring it about). It's basically a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners."
— Buck Dharma, lead singer
Lien, James (November 6, 1995). "Buck Dharma interview". College Music Journal. New York City: CMJ. And on Wikipedia.

And there is the infamous rock ballad by the heavy metal band Led Zeppelin:

Stairway to Heaven

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven

When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for

Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to Heaven

There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I look to the West
And my spirit is crying for leaving

In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason

And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on...

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Anthony Plant
© Succubus Music Ltd., Sons Of Einion Publishing, Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.

This very unusual rock song with many religious symbols and images including biblical ones. It is unique and amazing, unlike any other music in the last 60 years..

But there have been contradictory commentaries written about the lyrics, some saying it is an anti-spiritual song, others disagreeing.
What do you think?


3. For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield

There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

What a field day for the heat (Ooh ooh ooh)
A thousand people in the street (Ooh ooh ooh)
Singing songs and they carrying signs (Ooh ooh ooh)
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side" (Ooh ooh ooh)

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?...

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Stephen Stills
© Cotillion Music Inc., Springalo Toones, Ten East Music, Richie Furay Music

What a distinctive seminal creative song! One's like "For What..." come once or twice in a generation. Its haunting lyrics somehow defined the protest movement.
In the fall of 1966, we used to go down to Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. As college students, we didn’t have money for concerts, but we hung out at coffee shops and philosophized and chatted, spoke against the Vietnam War and for civil rights and of our favorite music groups.

The song appeared shortly after the Sunset Curfew Riot, which we somehow missed. Maybe we Long Beach State students no longer hitchhiked or drove down to Hollywood because of the new 10 PM curfew.

How ironic--but very 60's contradictory--that allegedly nonviolent=promoting teens would riot!


Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) by Alan Jackson

One of the very best poetic laments against war ever written.


Chimes of Freedom (Dylan) by The Byrds

It’s a lyric extoling human rights, justice, kindness, but the tragedy of how often goodness and the truth lose out to intolerance and persecution.


Monday Morning Church (Brent Baxter and Erin Enderlin) by Alan Jackson

Deeply sorrowful dirge with an incredible chorused metaphor. Sung by one of my favorite country ballad singers.

What If I Stumble by DC Talk

Very spiritual song of conscience and care; deeply spiritual, moral, and emotional-- without being formally religious

Desperado by the Eagles

Another example of lucid ballad poetry set to music; in this case the brief story of a Wild West gunman who is being
counseled by the singer through playing card imagery that love is the best choice, not killing and money.

The Gates of Eden by Bob Dylan

60’s folk song filled with surrealistic images and metaphors of protest.

Woodstock (Join Mitchell) by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Paean to the most famous rock concert of all time.
Though the famous event led to countless immoral, unjust, and destructive future actions. How tragic for a concert whose music was fabulous, creative, often morally positive.

Gods of Men by Randy Stonehill

Spiritual satire against the finite idols that too many of us humans ‘worship’ instead of the Good, the True, the Just.

The Universal Soldier (Buffy St. Marie) by Donovan

An anti-war song that covers human history. While not excusing militarist leaders, the lyrics instead focus on how each of us as individual humans are responsible for war.

8 Miles High by The Byrds
The instrumentation in this rocker is amazing, though, correctly or not, many have claimed it is about drugs.

See My Life by Seals and Croft
Philosophical, reflective early song from these two Bahai's.

Somebody Must Be Praying for Me (Frank Vinci, Bob Mould, Kris Bergsnes) by Tim McGraw

A very meaningful spiritual song of how sometimes problems and loss of dreams if considered from a spiritual point can open up other possibilities including love.


Cats in the Cradle by Sandy Gaston and Harry Chapin

Poem and song filled with allusions and metaphoric images which warns the severe and tragic consequences of a father who is too busy succeeding in his career for his family.

Old Man's Rubble (Brown Bannister) by Amy Grant

Probably the best ever song of the danger of living contrary to what one sincerely believes.

Celebrate this Heartbeat by Randy Stonehill

Everything I Own by Bread

Written and sung for his father who died tragically young.

--

Since I am a poet/wannbe-songwriter, artist, and lover of music, (of all kinds except rap and opera), it was difficult (and still is) for me to understand the thinking of early Quakers.

And here's a quote
from one early Friend, an outstanding musician before abandoning his career in music to become a Quaker:
Early Friend Solomon Eccles:
From A Musick Lector
"a QUAKER (so called) being formerly of that Art, doth give his Judgment and Sentence against it; but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God."
Written by SOLOMON ECCLES, 1667

"So I see, that Musick pleases well that which is for destruction, and grieves that which God doth highly esteem and honour; Isa. 42.21.
--
Modern Friend Jon Watts:
“Solomon Eccles rejected his upper-class, baroque music profession, and took all of his instruments and manuscripts and burned them in a public demonstration of leveling. The early Friends were rejecting the social class system, which they deemed unjust and ungodly. How could I possibly hear about that and not write a song about it?"

Friends threw out anything that was formulaic. The idea was experiential—to have your own experience of the Spirit, to have the Living Spirit speak through you. If you’re going to be baptized, let the Spirit baptize you. If you’re going to take communion, take it because the Spirit is leading you to, not because it’s just a thing you do every Sunday.

If you’re going to sing, don’t let someone else write it for you. Sing it! So Quakers were the first jazz musicians, always improvising. The Spirit was their muse.

So when I’m playing a song I try to listen to the Spirit the same way one does in a meeting for worship when preparing to give vocal ministry. I wait until I’m quaking to write a song down. I wait until a song is streaming out of me, until it’s not me anymore. It’s as if I’m watching the song get written.”

Jon Watts, Quaker Musician, songwriter, and movement leader
from an interview in the Friends Journal, May, 2013
http://www.friendsjournal.org/bum-rush-the-internet/

And from A Musick Lector by Solomon Eccles:

"To obey the Lord, is better than to give all my goods to the poor, and my body to be burned; yet to let thee know the Truth of this thing; when I came to be convinced of this everlasting truth, I saw my Calling would not stand before it; I went, but not in the Counsel of the Lord, and sold most of my instruments;

"howbeit that would not cover me, for the Lord met with me; and as I was learning to sew, for I had formerly some insight of a Tailors Trade, but I was too high to bow to it, till the Truth came, and that is of power to make the strong man bow, and I sitting alone, with my mind turned in, the Voice of the Lord said, Go thy way, and buy those Instruments again thou lately soldest, and carry them and the rest thou hast in thy house to Tower Hill, and burn them there, as a Testimony against that Calling."

"So I obeyed the Lord, and bought them again, and carried them, and all I had in my house, to Tower Hill, and burnt them there, according to the uprightness of my heart before the Lord; which Books and Instruments did amount to more than four and twenty pound; and I had great peace. Glory be to God for ever. Amen."

"That Heaven will be shaken, and thy Song will be turned into howling; for such Musick and Singing was never set up of God, but of men; and it takes with that part in man that serves not God aright, but is for wrath and judgement, Heb. 12.26. 1 Cor. 2.24."

"But what effects hath Musick brought forth, that men so highly esteem it? What fruit did Nebuchadnezzars Musick bring forth in his day, was it not to murder? But the three servants of the Lord would not bow to his Image at the sound of his Pipes and his Fiddles, though others did.

"And how did Musick and Dancing take the heart of the foolish King Herod, by means whereof he committed murder, and caused John Baptists's Head to be cut off, who was a blessed man, approved of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and was greater than the prophets; and because he reproved him for having his Brothers Wife, rankor lay in the heart of the Damsels Mother, and when the Fidlers did strike up, and the Wench began to dance, his affectionate love began to be enflamed to the Girle, that he killed the Lords servant in coole blood. O ye Fidlers and Dancing- Masters, let this President break you off from your filthy practice;"

"Why do you dance without the Ark? Where is your Ark? What President have you in Scripture for your Dancing? You set up the Devils Kingdom by your proud Calling: You set their Bodies in postures to enflame and take with the lustful Nature in men, and with proud Apparrel, and Spots on their Faces. Woe to the Crown of Pride."

"What account will ye give to the Lord, ye Dancing- masters, from whence came ye, where is your Ark? David danced before the Ark. O repent ye shameless men, will you not blush at your doings? If my Calling was unlawful, much more is yours; O do not provoke the Lord any more; haste, haste, and leave off your practice before it leave you, for what thank will it be to you then, when you shall break off sinning because you can sin no more?"
--Quaker Heritage Press
http://www.qhpress.org/index.html

BUT, why can't good music be creatively planned?

Why must songs always be only, allegedly, spontaneous from the Divine?
Surely, the Light has also given humans the amazing ability to think rationally, morally, mathematically, scientifically...
To create not only via inspiration but through carefully engaged creativity.
This negation of the arts, especially music shows how lopsided the early Friends were when trying to get rid of hypocrisy, formalism without reality, and destructive
influences.

But early Quakers didn’t get rid of business, medicine, science, new technology,

No, on the contrary, Quakers excelled in the sciences and in business, neither any more holy or spiritual than music or any other art.
In fact, business probably is far more an occasion to err, even to destroy than music ever has been.

Do you have a suggestion of a song to add to Great Music?

Quaker rock to rock;-).

In Light,

Daniel Wilcox

WHY WE HUMANS NEED to RETURN to BIOLOGICAL FACTS about HUMAN SEXUALITY and DISMISS "social constructs" such as Gender

DISMISS the ideological, fallacious term, “GENDER”—when it conflicts with the actual biology of infants born either girl or boy.
Most, if not all, "social constructs" are immoral, contrary to facts, and often very harmful to humans.
Note that “gender” isn’t an actual fact of human biology, but a “social construct” of various societies.
"the male sex or the female sex, especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones, or one of a range of other identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.
"the singer has opted to keep the names and genders of her twins private"
https://www.google.com/search?q=gender%20definition...
-
"Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other.
World Heath Organization
https://www.google.com/search?q=gender%20definition...

Trans--Drag Queen--Daytona [2nd part obscene]

-
"Gender can be broadly defined as a multidimensional construct that encompasses gender identity and expression, as well as social and cultural expectations about status, characteristics, and behavior as they are associated with certain sex traits.
National Institute of Health
-
"All humans are born with biological characteristics of sex, either male, female, or intersex. Gender, however, is a social construct and generally based on the norms, behaviors, and societal roles expected of individuals based primarily on their sex.
Psychology Today
-
"Who was the first to define gender?
Sexologist John Money
The term gender had been associated with grammar for most of history and only started to move towards it being a malleable cultural construct in the 1950s and 1960s. Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955.
Enyclopedia.pub
-
"Since the 1990s, Money's work and research has been subject to significant academic and public scrutiny.[7] A 1997 academic study criticized Money's work in many respects, particularly in regard to the involuntary sex-reassignment of the child David Reimer, and Money's sexual abuse of Reimer and his twin brother when they were children.[8][9] Some of Money's sessions involved Money forcing the two children to perform sexual activities with each other, which Money then photographed. David Reimer lived a troubled life, eventually committing suicide at 38; his brother died of an overdose at age 36.[10][11]
Wikipedia


ln the LIGHT of the TRUE, GOOD, AND JUST,

Dan Wilcox

Children's choir from Ukraine sings for world peace.

Review of the powerful, suspenseful biography of Timothy Leary by Robert Greenfield

TIMOTHY LEARY: An Experimental Life by Robert Greenfield

An amazing, detailed, suspenseful, excruciating biography and expose of Timothy Leary. While the tome is one of the best biographies I have read, my view of Leary has changed from thinking him a fairly benign 60’s LSD visionary and promoter and peaceful hippy leader to viewing him as a ruthless sociopath.

We discover at first, he seemed for the most part to be a rising brilliant leader of the establishment, even a West Point soldier/student, then a brilliant Harvard psychologist.

But then we learn, not only did Leary go very wrong like his own father, but became far worse.
Early on Leary was a constant womanizer/adulterer including wife-swapping parties while a psychologist at UC Berkeley, (which led to his first wife’s suicide), became a negligent-criminally-harmful parent to both his kids.

For instance, at one point he talked emotionally powerfully about a close loving episode he had with his son, Jack. Only the facts were that the event never happened. He seldom gave his son any attention or guidance, and they were alienated from each other for many years!

While Leary often spoke in glowing terms of his love for his son and daughter, it appears to have been empty words. He regularly failed to care for them, spend time with them, but instead was preoccupied with constant drug use and constant promiscuity. And he even encouraged them and led them to also do drugs, while they were still young!

Throughout his life, Leary was an almost sociopathic opportunist, constant liar and spinner of fallacious narratives, a brilliant charismatic carny-conman, who manipulated everyone from strangers to his wives and best friends.

Years later, after he escaped from SLO prison, (where he had been sentenced unfairly for 10 years because of a few ounces of marijuana), he rejected his promotion of enlightenment, peace, and love via LSD and mushrooms.

Because his escape was planned with the help of the Weather Underground and the mafia-drug-cartel, falsely-named Brotherhood of Eternal Love, Leary moved to Algeria and became an avid supporter of violent revolutionaries and terrorists, the Black Panthers, Eldridge Cleaver, the PLO, and worse.

Also, Leary became involved with Alister Crowley’s grossly evil beliefs and actions, continued to do constant drugs, even tried heroin. He met and praised other exiles, criminals and degenerates including Williams Burroughs, and, yet, all the while continued drawing millions to his immoral and unjust beliefs and actions!

In the 1970’s, Leary began writing and promoting weird conspiracy-apocalyptic-new-age claims such as his new book that claimed a nearing comet was going to reveal aliens and we humans were going to be transformed, and some of us humans were going to create a star ship to travel the galaxy!

When the U.S. government finally caught him in Afghanistan, incredibly, Leary created a new persona, denied his 60’s message, became a government informant and began to snitch on everyone he knew.

He even betrayed his devoted wife (who he had claimed to love with all of his being), betrayed the lawyers who had helped him escape from prison before, and many other 60’s best friends. He did this in hopes that all of these betrayals would get him out of prison! A self-centered, ruthless user!

Eventually sent to Folsom prison where his next-door cell mate was Charles Manson, Leary spent time conversing in a friendly way with Manson. Though I suppose if one keeps in mind that Leary had been a brilliant and famous Harvard psychologist, maybe he was only operating in a nonjudgmental objective psychologist mode, not really being friendly.

When I was in a therapy group, the psychologist did not once question the continuing adultery that a group member spoke of being engaged in. It’s one thing to not be judgmental when observing, entirely a different thing IF a leader conveys to individuals that their horrendous behavior doesn’t need to be changed! Of course, in the case of Manson, his prior evil actions of murderous slaughter had been far worse than Leary's minor drug arrest, promiscuty, aduldteries, lying, etc.

Throughout most of these chameleon changes ove they years, Leary continued to proclaim that all humans needed was to LOVE! Tragically and absurdly, his many years of actions had nothing to do with love, but only manipulation and using others.

Finally, after Leary abandoned his 60’s enlightenment, love and peace message, while in prison he asked Joanna to sneak a gun to him! He planned to kill his guards and escape. She was able to sneak a gun into him because she was so good at acting the bereaved wife, that the famous prison didn’t even check her when she came through lock-up with the gun in her waist pants! She also had two large knives in her high boots to use.

They rehearsed this plan over and over, according to Joanna. She had even, already, rented a house for them to hide in. BUT then Tim decided not to carry out their murders, not because he would feel guilty, but because he decided there were too many practical problems in such an escape attempt!

Obviously, it appears, that NOT one of Leary’s many thousands of idealistic pages and speeches for years of love and peace meant anything, not when he wanted what he wanted. Leray was the classic user. Heck, later after release from prison, when, Leary, again reinvented himself, he completely denied that he had ever been a druggie, ever advocated drug use, etc.

His new message was support for the establishment, anti-drugs, etc. But Leary actually continued a chaotic life, with promiscuity, major lying and deceit; he daily abused alcohol, chain-smoked, regularly took marijuana, a lot of cocaine, some Ecstasy, DMT, even a dangerous steroid drug for animals (because it had psychedelic results).

Leary emphasized that Hugh Hefner is a central hero of America and gave huge support to Larry Flint, the publisher of Hustler Magazine.

And Leary continued to draw young women into his upper-class social circle. He knew and hung out with many famous people including Johnny Depp, a Getty daughter, Tony Curtis, Liza Minnelli and many others in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and LA.

Finally, in his 70's, when Leary was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, many, many devotees came to his house to give him support and help. Some of them stayed and they cared for him since no nurse would any longer take the job. Major networks, magazines, etc. contested for exclusive interviews. There were often many people waiting outside of his rented house to be let in. Everyone from Oliver Stone to Larry Flint.

His strange life had become the Cult of Leary.

Earlier in his life, he had planned to have his body put in a cryogenic tank in order to be brought back in the future. But toward the end when the tank was brought into his room, Leary became angry at the cryogenic workers and cancelled it.

Instead, he talked repeatedly of possibly doing an online suicide, with cameras videoing him at his computer. But Leary later changed to a different plan.

One prison psychologist in his evaluation of two famous lawbreakers, Leary and Manson—wrote that they both had very elevated views of themselves—what is often the case of famous charismatic human leaders—but that while Manson was psychotic and evil, Leary was sane, however had little personal conscience.

So very strange for the apostle of enlightenment, peace, and love adored by millions.

Now, in the 21st century, there has been a return to the extremism and injustice that destroyed the late 1960’s. At least 84% of Evangelicals and nearly all Republicans avidly support the immoral, unjust actions and huge lies of Donald Trump, and the grossly wrong views of the leftists such as the BLM organization, violent protesters, and CRT. Extremism is accepted and promoted by major Democratic leaders, the National Educational Association, etc.

We seem to be, again, living in a time of massive delusion.

This powerful, suspenseful biography looks backward, and successfully shows the tragedy and absurdity of the charismatic Timothy Leary, of one of the 60’s most famous cultural heroes. Robert Greenfield shows how so much evil and darkness can result when multimillions of humans become avidly fixated to a morally dark leader.

It seems hardly any of us humans ever find the True, the Good, and the Just.

Evaluation: A++

Choose the Light, the Good, the Compassionate, the True,

Dan Wilcox

GUEST POST from Professor Randal Rauser to William Lane Craig's Claim that God May Command Us to “Drive Out Canaanites” in Our Day.

FROM the BLOG of Randal Rauser, a Canadian professor of systematic and analytical theology:

William Lane Craig Says God May Command Us to “Drive Out Canaanites” in Our Day. I Respond.: Reasonable Faith just posted a short video from William Lane Craig in which the esteemed apologist defends the prospect that God may command Christians today to target people groups in the same way that the ancient Israelites targeted the Canaanites for extermination. In this video, I provide a response.
from Randal Rauser

I Was a Nonviolent S.D.S. Radical: A Beginning Memoir of My Life in the 1960's

Late in 1964, I experienced a spiritual transformation, went from being a gung-ho rightwing individual (like my parents and work boss) who supported the bombing of Vietnam to realizing that such a war stance is contrary to the Way of Jesus as presented in the Sermon on the Mount, etc.

So, instead of joining the Navy Reserves after high school and going to Vietnam to kill communists for Christ, I chose a third way. At the time all of my relatives, friends, everyone I knew in Nebraska supported the war.

But there was a former missionary and a Mennonite family who also opposed war. Thus, I became a conscientious objector.

I applied for that status with my draft board. Even after those 2 witnesses vouched that I was opposed to war including the Vietnam War, our Draft Board in Lincoln, Nebraska still interviewed me, grilled me personally on various specific violent situations, such as what if your family is attacked by killers, etc.

Finally, they gave me the I.O. status, which meant that when drafted, I would be performing nonviolent alternative service, working with poor people in Latin America or with mental patients, etc. instead of killing.

A couple of years later, when I was drafted and taking my physical with many other young men, the friendly Black medical sergeant who was testing me, after seeing my conscientious objector status, started calling me “Brother Love.”

Then in the summer of 1965, after my graduation from Lincoln Southeast High School, a week later, I started attending the University of Nebraska. With in a few weeks, I became involved with the student protestors, those opposed to the War and opposed to segregation and racism.

The first protest I attended was for the latter. It was one against Apartheid in South Africa.

With in a few weeks, I also joined a new social action-civil rights-anti-war organization called Students for a Democratic Society.

Of course, this was long before when S.D.S. turned to hate and violence, arson, attacks on police, etc. like it did with its splinter group, the WeatherUnderground and its bombings, arson, and violence at various universities including Kent State University in 1970.

To make a long complex story brief, by the spring of 1967, I was living as a spiritual hippie in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, but got drafted that summer. BELOW is a picture of me in the spring of 1967.

I was sent to serve my service time at a mental hospital for emotionally disturbed children and teens in Trevose, Pennsyvania, got evicted from my apartment for an anti-war sign on the back of my Greenbriar van, “the Mystical Hippopotamus”:-), etc.

As the nonviolent protests of the 60’s turned to hate and violence, even arson, bombings, and killings, I despaired. Where had the wondrous nonviolent altrusim of Martin Luther King, John Lewis and others gone?

I very strongly rejected the new hatred and violence of the extremists. IInstead, I emphasized more and more the Quaker and MLK way of reconciliation.

Standing in silent Quaker-like vigils against the War, we tried in many conversations to reason with others (both violent and nonviolent), including a soldier who had just come back from Vietnam, where he had been seriously injured in his left leg.

That whole tragic absurd period of history was “the Best of Times, the Worst of Times.”

Still radical after all these years*

Dan Wilcox

*an obvious paraphrase of a famous Paul Simon song title:-)

Guest Post: Professor Randal Rauser's opposition to Evangelicals' Defense of the Slaughter of the Canaanites.

Many Evangelical Christian leaders defend the horrific slaughter and genocide of the Canaanites in the Old Testament. They also defend many of the other immoral and unjust texts including those which support slavery, forced marriage, etc.

Here is a recent short article by Professor Randa Rauser where he explains a number of contrary points from his recent powerful book, Jesus Loves the Canaanites, a book of moral realism that shows why and how Evangelical leaders such as Frank Turek, Paul Copan, and many others who defend the slaughter are very wrong.

Frank Turek on the Slaughter of the Canaanites. And My Response.: The perfectly awful apologetic defense of the Canaanite slaughter in this clip concisely captures why I wrote Jesus Loves Canaanites. Let’s begin with the video (it’s only six minutes). I’ll then post my commentary below. ? The video begins with a question posed by the moderator of what appears to be an in-church training event. […]

The Great Barrier Reef of Human Moral Realism

At about 7 or 8, I awoke to moral consciousness and responsibility, alive and mentally kicking; then sometimes affirmed, sometimes regretting, sometimes guilty, crying and thinking, atop a huge barrier reef that first began hundreds of thousands of years in humankind’s/our human species’ past history, back to the dawn of consciousness and moral awareness!

In many ways waking to moral consciousness for every human kid is like new coral life at the top of the great physical barrier reef off the coast of Australia. The tiny new coral lives atop all the accomplishments of millions of coral who lived before it.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest structure made by living organisms. It can even be seen from outer space.

In a similar sense, our present ethics/morality including human rights, fairness, equality, justice, compassion exist atop previous growths in ethics dating back through the many centuries and many millennia, back to the dawn of human time.

To temporarily change analogies, as kids growing up in southeastern Nebraska, we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel in order to play with our movable toys. We came to consciousness of wheels as a given, that ability/method having been discovered/invented over 7,000 years before.

In a similar sense, each generation of young humans don’t have to create basic moral rules such as be fair, don’t harm, don’t lie, don’t steal, and show kindness, tell the truth, be generous...

That doesn’t mean that every child will live by or up to those rules, just like humankind’s universal ability of language doesn’t mean that every child will do exceptionally well at speaking a particular language. Other factors can weigh in—physical problems, abuse, dysfunction, and so forth.

Sometime way back in the past, when human consciousness reached a certain state of being/becoming, such basic moral rules came into conscience, became an ought for everyone. (Exactly how humans came to moral consciousness doesn’t concern us here—that’s a whole other article. Nor do the many aberrations in human history--when immoral individuals, dysfunctional families, and twisted societies distort, even try and reverse the basic moral code).

When we reach an age of moral awareness, the new sense of “ought” comes to us based upon many thousands of years of human history. Most thinkers posit this happens to children about the age of 7, give or take a year or 2.

Very small children, of course, respond to admonishments when it comes to sharing, not harming, etc., but they probably don’t have a strong enough sense of personal “I” within a social group to consciously sense the “ought” as a universal moral code. Instead, they are mainly seeking to please their parents who care for and protect them.

And, at times, they spontaneously share, care, hug, etc., but they can also spontaneously do the opposite, too.

By the time I was 11, my deep sense of the ethical rules, the oughts, not only led me to ask forgiveness and to consciously change wrong behavior, it also led to an acute awareness of how the “moral reef” I found myself on, a part of, was, too, strangely and incoherently, at times inconsistent, and contradictory. Huge gaps existed, dangerous abysses, immoral quagmires put forth as oughts.

For instance, at that young age, I was shocked and morally repulsed when our Sunday School teacher said God had sent bears to attack some kids who had teased the prophet Elisha for having a bald head!

WHAT?! How grievously immoral and unjust! Why would the Bible, the book we were supposed to believe claim that God would do such an unfair, harmful act?

Then 2 or 3 years later I struggled with the Bible's promotion of slavery. How could the Bible—one source from which we got our moral views--condone and insist on slavery as a worthy institution!? How could Scripture in many places, (and Christians later in history and now), justify lying, stealing, killing, and claiming to own humans like tools such as their rake or hammer?

Why did nearly all Christians, Jews, and Muslims agree with this biblical view for hundreds of years?

Later I came across other horrific texts in the Bible. Such as this in the Psalms: "How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock." (Psalm 137:9).

From then on, my sensitive conscience--sitting atop that great moral reef of millions of humans who came before my brief time--struggled to understand these contradictions I saw in Scripture and in Christians and others.

Aren’t these clear contradictions chasmic ‘defaults’ at least in my particular area of the deep time moral reef?

Not so argue Christian/Islamic/Jewish/Hindu-New Age/Nontheistic thinkers.

Most Atheists claim that all ethics are "subjective," "relative," "personal/cultural preferences" which change from time to time, and culture to culture. They are only a human construct, not real.

So sometimes acts considered immoral, or even evil are necessary to protect the moral code and civilization itself. For example, they agree with the British leader Winston Churchill who stated, "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

While other nations--our enemies--ought to be condemned for acts of torture and the slaughter of civilians, if we choose to torture or kill civilians that isn't wrong but is good. What counts is our survival.

Millions of Christians argue from a nominalist philosophical view--the Divine Command view of ethics and Ultimate Reality. Not lying, not stealing, not harming—such demanding ethical rules aren’t eternally true.

Rather, whatever God wills/decides is what is true for humans. God is free to change the moral code anytime he sees fit to do so. If anyone doubts this, who does the individual think God is?!

In other words, for most creedal Christians (Augustinians, Reformed, etc.), God doesn't have an innate eternal ethical center/essence, but is totally sovereign, totally eternal "will" who only acts when it is for his glory and “good pleasure.”

Many Jews state that G-d created evil in the beginning! They base their view on Bible verses such as "I form the light, and create the darkness. I make peace, and create evil. I the LORD do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7)

Muslims believe Allah wills/ordains every good and every evil action and causes all horrific natural disasters. IF it happens, then Allah wills it.

For Hindus and modern New Age thinkers, Brahma causes both good and evil to exist. "God created both because both are needed. God is in the evil as much as in the good." How to Know God by Deepak Chopra

One instance of this denial of objective, universal ethics came from our Christian youth leader at a Bible study when I was 17 in 1963. He claimed and tried to convince us, based on stories in the Old Testament, that sometimes God will order us to commit immoral acts.

When, shocked and morally horrified, I spoke up and strongly disagreed, he told me personally that God was calling me to do what appears to be immoral!

According to such Christian leaders, God does as he pleases and does what will bring him the most glory. They then proceed to give examples of how God led "his people" to lie, steal, enslave, and kill in Scripture, despite the fact that these were prohibited in the 10 Commandments.

How can we human make sense of this reef madness;-)?

Is the great barrier reef of the moral code unreliable, relative, temporary, changeable?

Do the reverses which occurred during the immoral actions of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st show that ethics are subjective preferences no different than whether or not a person/society likes or dislikes the color red?

Was the Chinese practice of binding little girls' feet for a thousand years only a cultural/social preference? Neither right nor wrong?

Is the ritual of female mutilation of little girls in Islamic countries a valid religious practice? Over 85% of Egyptian parents until recently supported female mutilation as good!

What’s your thoughts on this difficult issue?

Is the moral code reef of homo sapiens a subjective construct or as real as the Great Barrier Reef?

In the Light,

Dan Wilcox

EQUALITY NOT EQUITY

DEFINITION: "The terms equality and equity are often used interchangeably; however, they differ in important ways. Equality is typically defined as treating everyone the same and giving everyone access to the same opportunities. Meanwhile, equity refers to proportional representation (by race, class, gender, etc.)"
Winston-Salem State University

Equality is true and ought to always be lived by, but “equity” as popularly promoted at present isn't good or true. That certain groups, or races, or classes ought to be given special privilege and individuals who because of their class, or race, or group ought to be denied equality--that is wrong. It is a denial of classic liberalism to treat individuals primarily as part of a group, class, and race.

Too often that leads to inequality, injustice, misuse, abuse, unfairness, even divisive division, propaganda, Marxist actions, even hatred, false labeling of all individuals of a certain group or class or race as bad.

Heck, even though I began working and demonstrating against racial injustice long ago back in 1965 and though I support marriage for same sexual couples, etc., recently I was verbally attacked as being of “white supremacy” and of being “homophobic”!

Why?! Because I happen to belong to the white race, and am of the grouping that supports the nuclear family.

BLM and other such organizations (on the extreme left and the extreme right) instead of focusing on individuals, their inherent worth, their differences, etc., view society as competing groups. Two of BLM’s founders claim to be “Marxists.”

Contrary to the drum-beating of equity, the standards, for instance, for admission to a college ought to be the same for everyone!

To give preferential treatment to an individual who happens to be Black or poor or a woman or from a bad neighborhood is to treat him not as an individual but as primarily part of a race, a group, a class, a gender/sex.

This the sort of political propaganda that focuses on—blaming the current major society for the ills of the minority (even though those ills come from a variety of sources, including some of the individuals and their wrong choices within that grouping, besides racism, etc.).

However, this is not to say, that disadvantaged young adults ought not to be helped. Injustice in the past, immoral actions of the past, and so forth ought to be righted now.

BUT the way they ought to be helped isn’t by disadvantaging individuals who happen to belong to other groupings--white or Asian or middle class or male or from a stable, civil neighborhood.

There ought to be equal standards for all—equality.

Then beyond that equality--not disadvantaging a person just because he is white or Asian-- the government and society can still make additional efforts, plans, etc. to help those who have grown up disadvantaged.

For instance, instead of quotas, special privileges, or giving lower standards for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, those individuals who can’t meet the requirements can be given extra tutoring, extra help in getting tools such as computers, etc.

That way everyone is treated equally, but those who because of social and cultural injustice, poor circumstances, or abusive background, etc. are given extra help to meet and achieve the same standards.

Hopefully, balancing equality with extra help for those in need will help achieve the good, true, and just.

In the Light, Dan Wilcox

Stand up to Protect Little Girls in Egypt and other Nations from Fathers Who Mutilate

From BBC World News:
"The UN estimates that 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone some form of genital mutilation.

As much as 87% of Egyptian women and girls aged 15-49 have undergone FGM, according to a 2016 survey by the UN Children's Fund."

"It can cause lasting physical and mental trauma, including chronic infections, menstrual problems, infertility, pregnancy and childbirth complications."

This year,
"a man in Egypt who allegedly had female genital mutilation (FGM) carried out on his three daughters after tricking them, has been charged along with the doctor who performed the procedure.

The doctor went to the girls' house after their father told them they would receive a coronavirus "vaccination", Egypt's prosecutor-general said.

The girls, aged under 18, were drugged and the doctor cut their genitals.

FGM was made illegal in 2008 in Egypt but remains prevalent."

Read the rest of tragic story at BBC World News.
Photo from CNN

Stephen King on Pandemic Tragedy: (THE STAND) How Humans Ought to Respond...and Not

Looking back now, King's famous story, a mini-series and 1,141-page science-fiction opus seems prophetic,
especially in how such a crisis brings out

the Moral Best
and Immoral worst
in humankind
/unkind.
(Of course,
The Stand's
fictional flu pandemic
is far worse
than the Corona Virus Crisis).

Before we look at the outstanding themes in The Stand, here's a brief plot summary
of the powerful story to remind everyone of the basics and the main characters.

The central plot shows us how a pandemic could easily start, because of human negligence and immoral priorities. In the miniseries, most humans quickly catch the weaponized flu and suffer horrific deaths. The unwalking dead.

A few remaining humans--who somehow are immune--unite in two contrary groups:
One is led by a 104-year-old Black lady, Mother Abigail Freemantle, who seeks to lead them to the Good, the Just, the Right, the Kind.

The other led by Randal Flagg, a demonically inspired sociopath, sets up his kingdom of the world to bring about Evil, Injustice, and all that is Wrong.

From the first scene/opening page, the narrative hooks readers with the epic story.

For those who haven't seen the miniseries or read the long tome, I recommend the former, mainly because in the movie version some obscene minor parts not central to the plot are cut out.

Central Themes of How We Ought to Respond to Pandemic Tragedies:

#1 Don't spend trillions of dollars on weapons of mass destruction (biological, chemical, and atomic weapons) like the U.S. and many other nations do, and have done in the past. (Are you aware that President Obama, and now President Trump have committed more than 11 billion dollars for maintaining and upgrading U.S. weapons of mass slaughter?! The total cost will be almost 1.7 trillion dollars according to the Arms Control Association.)

#2 Set priorities putting humanistic spending first.

#3 Listen and observe what humans DO, not what they say. For instance, NIck Andros, when confronted by Mother Abigail to choose the Right and the Good, says to her, "I don't believe in God."

Mother Abigail bursts out laughing, "That don't matter! God believes in you."

Nick is a caring, compassionate, conscientious individual. Those actions are what matter, not abstract notions.

#4 TO BE CONTINUED...time to grandkid sit:-)

Part 3: Realistic Hope--Don't Start with Ancient Scripture

PART #3: REALISTIC HOPE—Don’t Start with Ancient Scripture.

1. Begin with Reason
2. Humbly Search to Discover and Base Your Behavior Toward Others Upon Kindness, Meticulous Honesty, etc.
3. Don't Start with the Most Speculative or Ancient Scriptures

When one decides it’s time to think about the philosophical nature of Reality, beyond the truths of moral realism and basic reasonable living, then
one ought NOT
first seek guidance from ancient literature
such as the Jewish Bible or the Christian New Covenant. 1

INSTEAD, all human ought to study user-friendly academic books on astronomy, cosmology, and evolutionary biology.

Based upon those extensive facts, scientific discoveries, defended theories, and a general overview of basic reality, (along with reason and moral realism), a human can then begin
to make educated guesses as to the inherent or transcendent nature of God.

Always keep an open informed mind.
--Avoid confirmation bias,
--fallacies of thinking,
--popular anecdotal ‘evidence,’
etc.

At this point, one of the many reductionists or skeptics will probably jump in and emphasize that all of this worldview of Reality is built on presuppositions such as moral realism, the realness of the human mind, self-aware consciousness, and moral responsibility.
That, of course, is true.

No view of Reality begins without a few presuppositions which form the foundation. Heck, science can’t even function unless one accepts such presuppositions as that meticulous honesty must form the basis of all research.

And, it is possible, as the famous atheist, philosopher, and Nobel-winning writer, Albert Camus, wrote, that reality is “absurd.”
However, most scientists and thinkers do think that reality exists objectively, that humans are capable of meticulous honesty, and we are all morally responsible.

NASA scientists, mathematicians, and technologists have been able to repeatedly send probes into space, including all the way to Pluto, to land surveyors on Mars, and astronauts onto the moon, and to the International Space Station.

None of those achievements could have happened if math is "fictional," if the cosmos isn’t out there, and so forth.

So those basic presuppositions, based upon Enlightenment values, don’t seem like a quick-sand foundation.

2 Even if there is no reality out-there, even if moral realism is fallacious, even if all humans are “biochemical puppets,” (to quote Sam Harris), etc., Albert Camus wrote then
we humans ought to “rebel” against such an absurd existence.

Camus sought to live this out, living as if moral realism is true,
as if justice is real,
as if humans do have inherent worth.

He emphasized that slaughtering humans is wrong, that justice ought to be pursued, that even capital punishment of murderers is unjust!
--

1 IF the 66 books of the Bible (or other Scriptures including the Quran, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhist Sutras) had truly been revelations from God, then all of many horrific immoral, unjust texts wouldn’t have been included in such Scripture.

Think of all very evil slaughters, enslavements, thefts, lies, etc. that multi-millions of believers have committed in the last 3,000 years because of those evil verses!

As for the marvelous morally true passages, if led by God, his followers when reading and memorizing their holy books in a supernatural way, would have lived inspired moral just lives.

THE EXACT OPPOSITE HAPPENED MOST OF THE TIME.

Study the tragedy and absurdity of history of ancient Judaism and creedal Christianity (the Roman Catholic Church, Reformed Church, Lutheran Church, Evangelicals, Charismatics, etc.) . God believers have avidly persecuted, oppressed, abused, stolen, lied, even committed genocide, burned at the stake, drowned, tortured in the name of their God and his abstract doctrines and dogmas.

Very few—only a tiny number—of believers
have sought to live some of the great moral ideals of ancient Jewish writers and statements of truth from Yeshua and other writers in the NT.

Even today in the 21st century, rampant evil happens because of devout believers in God.

In the U.S. at least 78% of Evangelical Christians support immoral and unjust and unequal polices completely contrary to the very words of Jesus’ moral truths.

Millions of American Christians strongly support a government administration who advocates the violation of the Geneva Conventions, supports autocratic regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey (who execute, deny human rights and freedom of religion, and imprison many thousands of innocent humans).

This ‘Christian’ Trump administration emphasizes arrogance—U.S. FIRST, and it demeans, name-calls, distorts, lies, bullies, and sells weapons to unjust governments.

It builds a multi-million-dollar wall to keep out refugees--the illiterate, impoverished, and persecuted.
It falsely accuses most of these ‘huddled masses’ of humans as being thugs and drug cartel killers,
BUT
that is completely disproven by known statistics which show that most cartel drugs come through ports of entry into the U.S.

So many famous Christian leaders such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Evangelist Franklin Graham claim that God supports President Donald Trump. They claim that Trump is God’s man, that God put him in the Whitehouse! Some even state that those who didn’t vote for Trump are against God!

YET these same Evangelicals claim that billions of us humans are foreordained to eternal damnation because we don’t believe in strange abstract doctrines such as Original Sin, Penal Substitution, and the Trinity.

Thankfully, we don't need to live by ancient texts,

Dan Wilcox

Ought Americans (or any other nationality) emphasize they come FIRST?

When I was growing up,
many devout American Christians emphasized
GOD FIRST,
OTHERS SECOND
ourselves third!

BUT now they EMPHASIZE U.S. FIRST
Others, including refugees,
third!:-(((((

American Christians' arrogant attitude, lack of concern for the impoverished and persecuted
is
SHAMEFUL,
IMMORAL,
UNJUST,
and
ungodly.

A large percentage of Americans' actions are now self-centered, group-egotistical, demeaning, harsh, name-calling, lying, uncaring, ungenerous, unkind, etc.

American government leaders, are AGAIN, rejecting the moral truths of great human leaders of the past such as Jesus and,
instead, pursuing very selfish, arrogant realpolitik policies.

HOW TRAGIC.

Please, every day, stand up and speak truth to Americans.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Is it Necessary for the Holocaust to Happen for "Greater Good" to Come About as Many Religious Leaders Claim?

The historian Karen Armstrong points out a life-stance doesn’t succeed because it “can be demonstrated rationally but because it [is] effective in preventing despair and inspiring hope.”

Of course, if the life-stance is fallacious, irrational, superstitious, harmful, unjust, destructive, etc., even questionable, then the hope it inspires is delusionary, not real.

Maybe, even despair would be better than delusion, than false hope.

Isn’t facing loss, distress, heartache, grief, sorrow, anguish, tragedy, desperation, hopelessness, and intense suffering preferable to what is false, an empty pretentious lie?

Ought not we human primates to realize that terrible accidents happen for no reason, and that often evil events occur without any hope against them?

There is no meaning in an accident, especially not in a serious one. (Isn't that the usual meaning of "accident"--that it happened by chance, wasn't planned!?)

UNLESS, of course, one is a Muslim for whom everything that happens, evil as well as good, is Allah’s will...
Or a creedal Christian for whom the Trinitarian God foreordained every event, evil as well as good, before the universe came to be...
Or an Orthodox Jew who believes that God created evil in the beginning, etc.

Billions of such true believers claim to know that accidents are planned:-(

And another very bad philosophical view in another sense is the horrific belief that God ordained and permitted (or willed) the Holocaust, the Black Death, the 30 Years War, etc.

According to them, God allows, permits accidents and other evils in order to achieve “greater good”!

For instance, the Baptist philosophical professor Randal Rauser argues that not even God can get humans to demonstrate compassion…without allowing the amount of evil/suffering which would be required a condition for the demonstration of compassion.”

Even more reprehensibly, Rauser sincerely states, “Even in the paradigmatic example of evil, the Holocaust, one could readily draw up a vast list of some (but certainly not all) of the types of reasons that might be operative in God's allowing that evil. At no point is the Christian left with "very little, if any, content to such speculation."

Totally baffled and grieved, I courteously asked Randal Rauser, “May I ask what greater good came from the Holocaust?

And the 1918 Spanish Flu, the Great War, the 30 Years War, the Black Death, etc.?

Also, doesn't allowing horrific evil in order to achieve a greater good sound similar to the immoral action of the end justifies the means?

God permits horrific abuse, torture, and slaughter of millions including children and infants in order to achieve a “greater good”?

As a former teacher of the Holocaust and one who has lived and worked in Palestine-Israel, I can't think of any good that has come out of the Holocaust, let alone any greater good.”

BUT Rauser never answered me, didn’t give even one example of a greater good that came about because of the Holocaust!

--

But, thankfully, most humans, even many millions of religious ones are baffled and appalled by such horrific thinking by millions of other Christian leaders. During the 55 years I was a dedicated liberal Christian, mostly a Quaker, we NEVER thought that accidents or intentional evil actions happened for some greater good.

What an immoral, unjust, terrible idea—that the God had to allow the intentional torture and slaughter of over 10 million humans, 6 million of them Jewish, in order to get some unknown great good.

Even on the local level such thinking is wrong! I still remember reading about this high school girl who thought she had had an accident, become paralyzed so that she wouldn't be able to dance, because dancing was a sin in their conservative Christianity.
How absurd and tragic both at the same time.

A commenter on Rauser’s blog wrote even more starkly about this, “The innocent smile of a child hides within itself all the evils of history. It is horrible when children suffer and die; but, when I look at my son and daughter smiling at me, I realise that smile is only possible because other children (my older siblings for instance) suffered and died.” “If God loves the particular persons who exist as the particular persons who they are, and loving them wills their existence, then he must also will everything necessary to their existence, including even great and horrific evils.”
“If the Holocaust had never happened, then very many Jewish people alive today would never have been born. Without the Holocaust, there would have been, not just more Jews in the world, but a very different set of particular Jewish individuals.” Jews who live now do so only because “of the Holocaust.”
“So, if one of these individuals concludes that it is good that they exist – or good that their own beloved children exist – well, that good is only possible because of the Holocaust.”
“If God loves the particular persons who exist as the particular persons who they are, and loving them wills their existence, then he must also will everything necessary to their existence, including even great and horrific evils.”

WHEW:-(

How can one possibly answer such grossly immoral, unjust defenses of the idea that some God premits horrific evil, even genocide in order to get “greater good”?

I think the best response to such bizarre religious thinking is the story from Dostoevsky:
"Tell me yourself, I challenge your answer. Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance- and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth."

"No, I wouldn't consent," said Alyosha softly."

And can you admit the idea that men for whom you are building it would agree to accept their happiness on the foundation of the unexpiated blood of a little victim? And accepting it would remain happy for ever?"

"No, I can't admit it."

The Brothers Karamazov
--
Thankfully, ALL such religious doctrine is fallacious.

But that doesn't mean that all theistic thinking is wrong.

I do think that theists are right, that there is meaning in existence, just not in accidents, not in chance, not in evil events, especially not in the Holocaust.

No, I’m not of the sort of modern non-religious leaders who claim that everything is meaningless, that the human species is only “pond scum,” "biochemical puppets," without any worth, etc.!

When any human shows care and concern for others there is good meaning. And the Enlightenment values of human rights, justice, and equality are of great meaning.

That is why I think that moral realism is true, that humans have inherent worth, that existence isn't meaningless, and so forth, why I am a theist, not an atheist or agnostic.

However, I don't claim to know the ultimate nature of reality; I suppose some might term me an agnostic theist.

Unlike many theists and atheists, I don't start by asserting the ultimate nature of existence, but start with the local--reason, moral realism, caring, human rights, math, etc. and
from finding those reasonable, I work my way out toward the cosmic,
thinking that while I don't know ultimately what is the final nature of existence, I can be fairly confident that reason, moral realism, caring, human rights, math, etc. aren't meaningless and worthless even if human primates are a rather insignificant brief species in a minor solar system of the universe.

In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox

EL PASO RALLY'S POLITICAL CONTRADICTIONS

El Paso

The chubby woman in a blue Pontiac
Jerked up alongside our country’s curb
Where members of contrary rallies stepped
Placarding decision street
In planned parents' hood.

One protester crossed our line,
To ask her, "What do you need?"
Bordering near to hysterical, she yelled,
“You’re wrong!” her face taut and
Yanked back from the cleft.

With drowning eyes, she shouted
“I wish I’d never been born.”
So much for ‘boarders’
And backwards wet with rivers
Walled out from us.

Then she jammed her shift's gear
And sped away, not even glancing
At Trump's declared wall or down
To her remaining child next to her,
Confused and missing her seat belt.



First pub.
in Unlikely Stories IV
in different form

Promiscuity and Fidelity

Given that so many millions of Americans (both heterosexual and same sexual individuals and the Supreme Court), worked diligently for and came together in a vast movement to finally bring the good legalization of marriage for gay individuals, it is puzzling, disturbing, disheartening, and contradictory that now
so many Americans are rejecting monogamy and fidelity,
rejecting marriage,
and, instead promoting,
defending,
and living in promiscuity.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, (a wondrous poet who could write about ideals powerfully
but who's private life was tragic, superficial and uncommitted like Earnest Hemingway, Diego Rivera,
and many other famous humans. The great Mexican muralist Rivera stated that sex is like pissing.)


True, billions of humans for many thousands of years have engaged in promiscuous behavior of various sorts, BUT in recent times, many humans have seen fidelity and monogamy as the ideal, what all people ought to seek.

Polygamy, one-night-stands, serial divorce, mistresses, pornography, prostitution, recreational sex, etc. have been rejected as immoral, unequal, unjust, and destructive.

Committed monogamy for many people replaced those unequal, unjust ways of history.

That is until the last 40-50 years.

Now many are celebrating promiscuity as a way of life, having multiple partners, talking about sex workers' "rights," even justifying one form of polygamy.

The Modern Un-Covenant

Bad rituals
Lost affection
Of disengaged couples
Uncoupling on
Rail lines that never join
The banal and travail
Not personal union
Instead venal
Scabbed and only
Repeating ing ing
Copping a plea
And blame
The feeling of deeply
Gone
Not populating
Only copulating
Waste
Both pissed
Urinal leavings
Not ultimate giving and receiving
Not the spurt and burst of life
Precious in the growing
But
Unwanted
Leaving
Not passion
Of the inner room
But passive ‘lost’
Coveted
Over and over
Skinned rituals on
Destructive routes
Repeating ing ing
Through the ‘mine’ field
Worn to the ‘marrow’
Rigor mortis
Climaxes


First pub. in The Cerebral Catalyst,
then repub. in Dead Snakes


This is a tragic reversal back to the unethical historic past when most humans rejected fidelity, and only a few humans actually lived in equal romantic monogamous relationships.

Which brings to mind the famous poem on romantic sexual love by Edna St. Vincent Millay:

Recuerdo

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

--

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!


Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Recuerdo" from Collected Poems. Copyright 1931, 8 1958 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. Reprinted with the permission of Elizabeth Barnett, Literary Executor. All rights reserved.
Source: A Few Figs From Thistles (1922)

Tragically, Millay seldom lived those idealistic lines, but instead, (like so many American writers and artists of the early 20th century), engaged in rampant promiscuity.

To Millay (too late), and to all of the individuals and thinkers I've dialogged with, here's my own poetic response to the contradiction between some of Millay's romantic lines versus her rampant sexual infidelity:

On Losing Recuerdo

Remembrance
dissipated by rampant

Back and forth
Back and forth
Who said the sad truth
Our allusions are truer than true
Illusions, yes?

Back and forth, ritual rote lust

Millay so trothed to us
In Recuerdo love’s truth
Only to show and live in her life
Lust’s crusty lie, lying with every
Tom, harry, and dick
And not so merry’s too.

She burned her lifeline at both ends
A taper betwixt noxious flames
She lay, lay, lay New York,
Lay down on a steeple-top
Under neath her generation’s
Gin-jazzy, faithless moon.

How slow-slug tiring her girlish
Fetish for a boy poet Dillon
Not Thomas nor Bob,
But oh so tight drunk
And so loose
Wide her marriage
Eugenic barrenness aborted;

All so fair-less—her life’s subway,
Money given for less,
No lesson in her dissipation

And that sky dripped, slime
A thicket-full of yellow
And an apple vomit ate
In this garden gone to rot

Who gives a fig for these
Her thistle, Pulitzering
Gemmed Lines
Caught in the snout of a swine'd life


CHOOSE the romantic love of Recuerdo, not its opposite, Losing.

For in the midst of many seeking to marry, to find one other person to commit to in romantic love and caring and fidelity,
there are so many millions of others who brag about,
promote, and live in
infidelity.


CHOOSE FIDELITY INSTEAD.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Talk About Tragic, Hypocritical, and Contrary to Its Founder's Wise Words

Look at the tragic selfish, unkind, unjust, and immoral position that White Evangelical Christians hold toward accepting refugees:

These devout Christians claim that they follow Jesus who told the Parable of the Good Samaritan and who spoke the Sermon on the Mount,
YET
they strongly refuse accepting and helping refugees.

Notice that these U.S. Evangelical Christians are the most opposed of any group to helping the abused, the impoverished, the persecuted, the helpless!!


Don't look to their selfish and fallacious religion for truth, justice, or hope.

Instead, consider these wise words:

In the LIGHT of kindness, compassion, generosity, help, and rescuing,

Daniel Wilcox