Thursday, December 30, 2010

Ultimate Power

The Apostle Paul continues to chastise the Church at Corinth in Chapter 6. Verses one through eleven focuses on a specific immorality within the ranks. Members of the body of Christ were taking their petty disputes to a secular judge to be resolved. Verse six, “But instead, one brother goes to law against another -- and this in front of unbelievers!” Insulted by their selfishness, Paul exclaims as if to say, don’t you know, don’t you understand who you are? How can you think this way?

In verse seven Paul ridicules their misbehavior making clear that all the offenders amongst them were “completely defeated already” (TNIV & LB). The NASB translates Paul’s accusation to the Corinthian church by saying that the lawsuits are “already a defeat for you”. The KJV says, “Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you”. The NEB translates verse seven as “Indeed, you already fall below your standard in going to law with one another at all”. The Weymouth Bible translates that the lawsuits are a “token of your defeat”.

All moral failure is to act in contradiction to the divine love that is the guiding principle of the church. Supposed love for the Christ in them and the resulting love for others, especially the brethren should be the one overt rule of the Church. What degree of lovelessness will God tolerate in His Church? The Corinthian brethren lived or were tempted by a long ugly list of moral defeats. St. Paul confronted them with their defeatist behavior, scolds them but does not call them names and cast them out. In fact, Paul only has praise for the Corinthian membership in his greeting to them in the first nine verses of the book.

Paul asks the bigger question in verse nine. “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the Kingdom of God?” The Church is a “now” question but this question is also eschatological. This is an impressive theological word that pertains to God’s final judgments or plans for this world. At that time when the church is dissolved into the will of God, there will be no wrongdoing. Please allow me to paraphrase the thought of St. Paul. Moral defeats are now the regrettable norm but they are incompatible with the Kingdom ethic and upon the consummation of the fully revealed Kingdom moral defeats will be no more.

The purpose of the Corinthian letter is to warn, awaken or correct the church members to their Kingdom calling. As believers, according to St. Paul, we are not to be selfish slaves to our immediate earthly temporary circumstances. Instead, as believers in the Christ, as slaves to Him, we are human centers for the expression God’s love. The difficulty for the Corinthian Church was the draw or the influence of the immediate selfish culture, the only culture they had known since birth. An abrupt radical departure required by the Kingdom ethic of love was and is humanly impossible. That love ethic is our only hope or power.

In a culture whose God’s would operate whore houses for the propagation of religion, the Christ way seemed so inconsequential. Where is the power of divine love? The people of the church had divided loyalties. Today’s Church of Jesus Christ is no different so that an impartial observer may ask of us the same question, where is the power of divine love? Does the Church really honor marriage when the divorce rate is equal to that within our secular communities? Is love for others the norm when we believers separate themselves according to skin color, societal norms, income capabilities, education, worship styles, ethical rules and doctrinal statements? Where is the divine love?

As the laity of the Church of Jesus Christ, we are not thinking about who we are two thousand years after the Church at Corinth. We too are slaves to our circumstances. When we model the selfish world, we model defeat. In contrast, Paul reminds us all about the significance of the rite of baptism. “When you are baptized you are washed; you are cleansed; you are sanctified; you are buried in the water and by this burial you get a share in Christ’s death and resurrection; you are adopted and you become sons of God; you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, that is, you are made members of God’s people; in short, you are included in the kingdom.”* Surely St. Paul would further admonish each of us ……. trust the ultimate power and now act like it!

*J. Jeremias, “Jesus and the Message of the New Testament”, Fortress Press, 2002, p. 90. (from 1965).

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Best of Friends

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

I believe in the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.

But lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise. They have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of the mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and in order to qualify himself for the trade, he begins with a perjury. Can we conceive any thing more destructive to morality than this?

Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, p. 352 and 353. “Common Sense, Rights of Man, and other essential Writings of Thomas Paine”, Signet Classics Series, paperback, 2003. First written in 1776, Common Sense greatly influenced the American Revolution. The Rights of Man written in 1791 influenced the French Revolution. The Age of Reason was written in 1794.

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First, that human beings , all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in. p. 21

Do not think I am going faster than I really am. I am not yet within a hundred miles of the God of Christian theology. All I have got to is a Something which is directing the universe, and which appears in me as a law urging me to do right and making me responsible and uncomfortable when I do wrong. I think we have to assume it is more like a mind than it is like anything else we know. P.34

But to be complete I ought to mention the in between view called Life-Force philosophy, or Creative Evolution, or Emergent Evolution. The wittiest expositions of it come in the works of Bernard Shaw, but the most profound ones in the works of Bergson. People who hold this view say that the small variations by which life on this planet “evolved” from the lowest forms to Man were not due to chance but to the “purposiveness” of a Life-Force. When people say this we must ask them whether by Life-Force they mean something with a mind or not. If they do, then “a mind bringing life into existence and leading it to perfection” is really a God, and their view is thus identical with the Religious. P.35

It begins to look as if we shall have to admit that there is more than one kind of reality; that, in this particular case, there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men’s behavior, and yet quite definitely real- a real law, which none of us made, but which we find pressing on us. P. 30

We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. P. 58

In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble-because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him, all the time enabling him to repeat(in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out. P. 64

When they speak of being “in Christ” or of Christ being “in them”, this is not simply saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts-that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It is not merely the spreading; it is more like evolution- a biological or supernatural-biological fact. There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it. P.65

But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know him can be saved through Him. But in the meantime, if you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is to remain outside yourself. P. 65


C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity, Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., 1943, paperback edition 1979.

No Pain, No Gain

We Americans are caught in a buzz saw. The future can only be financial collapse or at least a slide to bare third world status. The selfish few and their co-conspirators have devastated our economic prospects along with the prospects of most of our friends and neighbors. However, there really are no innocent parties left standing for we have all tried to work the system to our own advantage. There are those who bear the brunt of responsibility but having understood our journey, how do we Americans proceed? Are we doomed to dire future economic circumstances or is there any hope?

Surely our politicians have proved hopeless. Despite the “jobs” rhetoric and decisions based on an expected economic rebound, they will continue habitual destructive spending that is a slow painful suicide for the people. We must look to ourselves. Possibly the best course of action would be to admit our inability to effect meaningful change. Are we there yet? Please allow these small words to those of us who believe politics is not the answer and that we must look to some greater authority for hope.

Easy, this is not a spiritual exercise. Biblical scriptures will not to be thrown at our problems with a call to prayer, this is not Sunday morning. There may be some help for us, however, if we consider the possibility that this is a moral as well as a physical universe. To address the human condition from merely a physical perspective does not answer the question of why? C.S. Lewis argues in “Mere Christianity” that there is a moral law in our world just as there is a law of gravity. He believes that human kind is starving for the moral law for we are incomplete without it and we make a heavy investment attempting to manage this universal need in all the wrong ways.

A variety of religions of many forms have arisen in every society to better order their lives around this moral law. The point being, if there is this universal need for a moral awareness, there could also be a corresponding universal presence or originator who has so influenced humanity. This linkage is not a “proof” that God exists but His possible existence can be argued from a rational, thinking perspective. For the sake of argument let’s assume that this thinking God exists and that he has so designed His world that is also our world, to be in balance, a balance of the physical and the moral.

Two thousand years ago an obscure wandering prophet in the countryside of Palestine, announced that such a life balance was possible, even a necessity. He named this place “the Kingdom of God” and invited all to live therein. Rejecting the religious dogma of their times, Jesus and C. S. Lewis would both agree that the moral law is not about an ethical standard. That was the long derailment of the ancestors of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That was the wrong popularized priority of the Pharisees who harassed Jesus. That is the wrong priority of the fundamentalist Christian aberration of the last one hundred years.

Lewis spoke of self sacrifice as a moral principle and Jesus spoke of love. Are they not one in the same and so rare? It is normal for every religion to lift up a seemingly attainable standard ethic and avoid a morality as God defines it. This argument may have progressed to the point where you would allow me a Scriptural reference (Luke 9:51). Having become a popular country preacher, “Jesus resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem”. It is hard to catch the magnitude of that “resolute” decision. He knew he would be walking into the hornets nest of religious orthodoxy and survival was doubtful. The decision was to leave the comfort of the countryside for the way of pain. In Roman Catholic terms Jesus was offering himself up for the possibility of good spiritual change for others.

The way forward is to give it up and rejoice in the face of suffering. This blogger is a minimalist who prefers to claim as truth only the obvious. The second moral principle of this world is that painful suffering in this world will breed positive change. There are eight million, four hundred and seventy thousand hits on Google when “no pain, no gain” is searched. Of the first two hundred, only two have a spiritual context. We need not share the same religion but the no pain no gain principle seems to be widely accepted as factual.

The Message translation of the Scriptures translate this verse, “Jesus gathered up His courage and steeled himself for the journey to Jerusalem”. Jesus accepted that the road ahead was pain but traveled none the less. The American economic road we have journeyed is painful and will be more so. We really don’t have a choice and we must accept our fate as Jesus accepted His. At present we are in pain avoidance mode, in an attempt to dump the most pain possible on the other guy and the next generations. Does that sound like a Christian mode? Does that sound like courage mixed with the determination for the journey?

Wouldn’t America be the most true to it’s history and it’s beliefs if we as a people were to seek shared pain instead of another economic bubble? The task ahead is to be a part of the solution. After all, is it not Christmas?

G.Goslaw
Victorville,CA

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

2011 NRSC Issues Survey

Part 2.
Government is grossly to big and is all talk. Show us that you can be serious about spending cuts and we may be with you. I am a Common Sense Republican who believes government to be in the way of the Republic. There should be a 25% cut in the public sector, ineffective departments shut down and regulations on business severely cut back. The pork is stinking up the country and I don't believe you have the guts to change. Wall street and the stock market own you and the Democratic party and neither of you are about the integrity of the American worker or the viability of the middle class. Balance the budget and stop the Federal reserve with it's Qe's. The war is evil and National Security as constituted is a farce. John Beaner's 5% House tax cut is laughable if not so paltry and mere lip service. You Good ol' boys are ignoring the Tea party priorities as if you the establishment Republican Party won the election. You were an unintended consequence to be dealt with in 2012. Donald Trump for President.
Part 5.
Cut spending, balance the budget, tax credits for hiring American labor, tax lazy wealth including capital gains, tax and Tariff imports,shut down overseas wars,play hardball with companies who ship out jobs, defund NAFTA and put the army on border to stop drugs and illegals. No Pain, No Gain!

Thank you for asking for my opinion but you deserve not a dime.
G.Goslaw

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Good ol' boys

Not to long ago the Good ol’ boys fought for justice in the countrified TV setting of the “Dukes of Hazard”. The General Lee, their 69 Dodge Charger, hustled Luke and Bo to one adventure after the other. Their crusade was against the status quo and not surprisingly the inept Man. In the best Robin Hood style they weekly and humorously connived for the reform of their unjust governmental figures.

In our real life world, the Good ol' boys are a network of players in politics whose motivation is to take from the powerless and give to the powerful. They are the status quo, their own cause and their own political party disguised with some self righteous label like Republican, Democrat, liberal or conservative. The dollar sign is their weapon of choice and every political ideology is but a cover for their selfish shenanigans. The trick is to know who they are and today it is very difficult to identify the really good guys.

There has always been this political status quo in the American experience. The powerful rightfully brag,“the government works through us”. They are not so transparent as to admit to taking a percentage off the top in the form of money, power or influence in the private or public sectors. The campaign dollars will flow into their coughers as their constituency is paid back. Washington is all about getting into the pockets of taxpayers, even the pockets of the unborn taxpayer. Money and the status quo politicians are in control as never before. How can we survive as a country?

Call any political office and quickly the conversation will be what your elected official can do for you, the voter. Political leadership is about compiling a wish list of every need imaginable to prove his or her essential worthiness for your vote. Do you have a sob story? Do you need a government contract? Do you need citizenship? Do you need a tax break? Do you need a governmental job? Gather your voter friends and pay money to the politician and it may happen. This is not leadership.

Political leadership should first decide what is the greater good for our country. The Good ol’ boys don’t think. Our undereducated citizenry wants more and more from our government but no one wants to pay the bill. We are a disaster close to happening and it may already be to late. Is this an aberrant opinion that can be easily dismissed? Take ten minutes and look around on the internet. Reject any semblance of credulity but can all the warnings be wrong?

You will find many creditable voices sounding the alarm to warn of a near disaster. Jo Cromerford, Executive Director of the National Priorities Project, says that the current tweeking of the budget, as painful as that may be, is merely a temporary fix pushing the impending disaster down the road. Senator Tom Coburn today was interviewed on Fox and compared we Americans to the passengers on the Titanic, partying as the ship is sinking.

Please check out an article on Militant Libertarian.org. Russell D. Longcure details the seeming hopelessness of our circumstance. After detailing the systemic causes of the impending disaster he recommends cession for the more fiscally responsible of our states. Our only option is to pull the plug on Washington. In so doing we would pull the plug on the Good ol’ boys. One may ask, are there no Good ol’ boys at the state level?

Our only hope for the union of American states is to address our systemic problems. They are not hiding from us but our Good ol’ boys would rather go down with the ship than to deal with them. There are only three.
1. Good ol’ boy impossible spending with only a short term accounting using unreal numbers.
2. Good ol’ boy big government mentality that is a tax payer funded elitist job program.
3. Good ol’ boy preoccupation to identify with one world priorities. They promote and govern for free trade and illegal immigration, both of which are job killers for Americans.

The only positive force on the horizon is the Tea Party Movement. Some of us have seen the near future and want to try to make a difference for the sake of our children and grandchildren. We are paddling upstream but if the Good ol’ boys in Washington will give up control there is a chance for all of us. We will not be distracted or vilified for in 2012 we Tea Party citizens will speak again.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

Monday, December 6, 2010

Gays in Military

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
P.O.Box 1389
Victorville, CA 92393

RE: Think it through, William Cash, Sunday , December 5, 2010.

We could understand your opinion on “gays” in the military if their were no gays in the military. Sorry, but there are. Those Americans serving with them know. Only the homosexual is demoted to closed mouth subhuman status. All men and women serving have exhibited the “gifts and graces” for service so let them serve. Let them serve as the responsible adults who daily protect us. If they fail to be responsible, then kick them out.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, CA

Tax Cuts

The current, as we speak, hubbub in Washington is about Tax cuts, you know those Bush era Tax cuts that were deemed good for all of us, rich and poor. The cuts that some opposed because they were seen to disproportionately benefit the rich. The cuts that would prove the wisdom of the Laffer economic curve. This curve promised that if you lower tax rates there would be a corresponding increase in tax revenue. This curve is what some called voodoo economics, no spiritual disrespect intended.

The old political gamesmanship is back in the context of the most destructive economic downturn in American history after the Great Depression. C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity, insisted that the best way forward was to first go back. The wisdom of this is beyond it’s theological context, it is daily life. Let’s test out the hypothesis, did the Bush era tax cuts work as advertised? For that answer we must go back through the last ten years of insanely higher spending and lower taxes.

Most of us can remember the wisdom on the streets in the beginning of George Bush’s presidency was to buy, buy and buy houses. Owning a house or houses was like gold in the bank, a sure quick return on the investment dollar as real estate values skyrocketed. Bernie Madoff was the resident investment guru of Wall Street. George Bush lowered the prime interest rate to further stimulate home investment while beginning in 2001 he gave minimal tax breaks to most Americans. The higher incomes would reap a bigger return on a percentage drop in the tax structure. The 2003 cuts in dividends and capital gains greatly exacerbated the Bush bubble.

As we all know, the Bush economic bubble popped. Our government in Washington chose to bail out the investment community comprised of predominately higher income taxpayers, at the expense of the rest of we powerless average American taxpayers. Based on the tax paying performance of our politicians, one could question to the extent that the higher incomes now pay there fair share. The politically powerful already have an unfair advantage. Our humongous tax code is bulging with tax breaks for the wealthy. In this new American culture it is O.K. for the rich to be a tax cheats. Those of us with automatic deductions from our paychecks are left to finance the country.

We average taxpaying loyal Americans have suffered disproportionately. Those wealthy folk who instigated the false economy in the first place in order to chase after the almighty dollar have been bailed out and gotten off scot free. Now they have hunkered down with their ill gotten gain to weather the economic downturn. The truth is that investing for job growth will not happen regardless of the tax structure. The truth is that the Republican party is heavily invested in the investor folk and it is payback time, even if we middle class Americans get in the way.

The Republican squealing is at least disingenuous, even deceitful. If the concern of the party was jobs, an investment tax credit for jobs would be a reasonable alternative. This is not proposed because the investment class knows that there is no fertile soil for jobs in this country, no jobs no tax credits for the bottom line. We are in for a long term essentially jobless recovery. The truth of the Laffer curve is that the downside of that curve is very unpleasant. The upside works to the good for a short period of time and in certain historical contexts but it is not an automatic cure for our economic ills. In fact, the curve is now irrelevant.

Going back as recommended is indeed unpleasant. To revisit the error of our ways requires courage that does not reside in Washington. Courage has been and will be the great strength of we average Americans who foot the bills for the dollar players. We must rebel and not buy into the political gamesmanship in Washington. The truth is that we Americans are in a fix and we must muster the courage to find a way forward despite the shared responsibilities of our mistakes.

Drastic times require drastic measures. Are we ready America?

G.Goslaw
Victorville, CA

Thursday, December 2, 2010

"Henish"

There are those of us who are thinkers and those of us who are feelers, most of us operate between these two poles. We are male and female, a community of persons not defined by a variance of body parts but by a predisposition toward a particular life methodology. These past blogs have struggled to define our “henish” culture or the “henish” church and never quite succeeded despite the obvious causal relationship.

This blogger stumbled on a quote by the humanistic philosopher Bertrand Russell circa 1930. Negatives aside, this atheist thinker had a very perceptive eye toward understanding how we function together as a culture or a community of persons. What he is saying in his book, “The Conquest of Happiness” is that our morality should not be thought of as God driven but should be derived from a rational understanding of our humanness. The quote from page 84 is as follows.

“Our nominal morality has been formulated by priests and mentally enslaved women. It is time that men who have to take a normal part in the normal life of the world learned to rebel against this sickly nonsense.”

In 1930 Bertrand Russell, was right and he was wrong. He was wrong by entertaining the thought that morality was about being happy and that we can think our way to happiness. However, he was correct to direct all of us toward a rebellion that would reject a growing affinity for femininity. Real men, male or female, make truly moral decisions based upon our human thought processes and not the feelings of priests and enslaved women. To enslaved women the immediate feelings resulting from the consequences of any decision are the primary preferred moral value.

That which is good and moral is that which feathers the nest, our immediate personal space. However, the female priority is meant to be balanced by the God given male priority for rational thought. In the male morality, “thinking” is the dominate ingredient for any valid understanding of right and wrong. Men are at their best when they frequently consider the broad implication of their actions that hopefully touches on the greater good.

The “sickly nonsense” of priests and mentally enslaved women results in a false morality, a superficial sentimentality that seeks to avoid the harsh realities of life. Long ago there was a secular prophet who so warned America about growing up female. He said, beware of the hypocrisy of a feminized understanding of right and wrong. What did he mean? America, look around eighty years later, we are Petticoat Junction. We have allowed our culture, economy, politics and religion to become dominantly touchy-feely.

The priests of Bertrand Russel's day responded to his challenge by accusing his crowd of situational ethics. They said the spiritual person has no need of using his mind because the Bible plainly states what is right and wrong. This was and is a decidedly female response. There are a multitude of moralities in the Bible, all of which have a historical context that we have to use our minds to understand. In brief, all moralities are situational. Most priests lazily dump their personal bias's on the Biblical record.

Our American culture has never rebelled against this sticky nonsense. Christianity has remained in lock down mode prescribed to us by the nest minding clergy and the church has remained female. Our politicians have waged a war to dumb down the American voter and thinking in the Church is even less desirable. Most thinking persons in the Church have sadly chosen the way of Bertrand Russell and written off the demands and blessings of a God inspired thinking morality.

We are long overdue for a male morality that is more significant than the current in name only morality. Men and women, let us revolt against this nonsense and be whom God created us to be.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Compromise

The political games must stop. The only good reason for making a political decision is that it will work for the people. In these times the only possibility for the people is compromise. For the new year, a possible compromise seems obvious, the people want action that will work into the future. We are in a desperate place, the positive change can begin in December.

1. Openness and time to evaluate all new legislation.
2. Refusal to fund all spending not directly related to new legislation.
3. A 10 % across the board spending cut for all of the next budget.
4. Immediate 10% cut in all federal jobs.
5. Immediate 10% pay cut for all government employees, salary and benefits.
6. Extension of Bush tax cuts for two years.
7. The cuts for those earning above $250,000 should expire now. A tax credit should be given to businesses that hire in the coming year.
8. Extension of unemployment benefits.

This simple way forward seems to be a no brainer should Washington stop posturing the issues for political gain. We don’t care what party is in control because one party control gives our politicians license to ignore the welfare of the people. This compromise addresses all factions and means progress now for the people. What do you say politicians?

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

Monday, November 22, 2010

Book Review

Book: “Crazy for God”, Frank Schaeffer, Da Capo Press, 2007.

“Crazy for God” is Frank Schaeffer’s story of growing up Christian. He was raised by parents influential within an evangelical or fundamentalist understanding of God. Few definitions for these theological descriptions are given but not far into the book, one gets the picture. It is a family narrative lived out through each generation as a changing of the guard. This particular change is familiar to those of us who were raised in remotely similar circumstances.

Truth be told, it is every man’s story, a search for answers to the big questions. Ancient Jewish wisdom in the Talmud identifies our predicament, “Whosoever gives his mind to four things, it were better for him if he had not come into the world - what is above? what is beneath? what was beforetime? and what will be hereafter?”* These questions are a vexation, a blessing and the curse of our humanity. We try to avoid them or explain them away but they never go away.

Spiritual adventurer’s who have gone before us have struggled with these questions and then codified apparent answers into hundreds or thousands of differing religions. The evangelical fundamentalist Christian answer is one such religious expression. Finding fair skies within evangelicalism, Frank Schaeffer split his energies between his art endeavors and working for the cause of his parents. There came a time when the “pat” answers of his parents no longer seemed to be enough.

Thank you Mr. Schaeffer for sharing your honest story, your courage relative to the big questions is exemplary. Please allow me to share a few personal observations from your book that are particularly meaningful to this reader.

1. All people are fallible, sinners and saints, including our heroes.
2. Each successive generation must individually choose it’s own religious expression.
3. Your resistance to throwing the baby of faith in God, out with the bathwater is to be applauded.

Dr. Schaeffer’s generation has lived out it’s priorities. The next generation, Frank Schaeffer’s generation, has either reacted negatively, conformed to parental expectations or sought a bridge to a spirituality that hopefully retains the best priorities of the passing generation. This reader put’s your journey in the latter category.

Thank you Frank for sharing your journey with us.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

* Joachim Jeremias, “Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus”, Paperback Edition 1975, p.237.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
P.O.Box 1389
Victorville,CA 92393

Re: Tighten the System, Michael Snow, Daily Press, Sunday, November 28, 2010.

Mr. Snow, do you watch Law and Order? As taxpayers we need leverage to change an agreed upon broken welfare system. Fixing the system from the bottom up, while desperately needed, is beyond our ability as taxpayers to effect. That is the job of those hired to manage the system but why should they? The more welfare folk to manage the more secure is the welfare of the managers.

What we as taxpayers don’t need is more welfare managers not doing their jobs. What we do need is our hired managers doing the job they were hired to do.

I was wrong, you have convinced me that your government employee management folk should have a 25% cut in their taxpayer funded welfare system.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

Continuing the Lie (Second Posting)

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
Victorville, CA.

January 29, 2009

Our politicians are ignorant of any responsible economic policy. The American economy is not viable as a consumer based entity that produces little of any substance but banking products. We
the people are more than a potential sale.

The drive for cheap labor has created a bubble that has burst all of the hopes and dreams of the little people. This drive must be addressed by the same politicians that have exploited the people with such disregard.

But will they? Or will they continue the bailout lie? Of course they will.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, CA.
(Published in Daily Press 1-29-09)

Absolutes?

Letter to the Religion page Editor
Daily Press
P.O.Box 1389
Victorville, CA 92393

Re: “Things every Christian needs to know”, by Shane Idelman.
Daily Press, B4, Sunday, November 13, 2010.

Rev. Idleman, your article in today’s Daily Press is sending a mixed message. What is all this absolute business? Pharisaism is merely a negative attitude to be avoided by the Christian but you possess the absolute truth that the rest of us heathen must accept or be eternally damned. Is this a fair summary? Do you believe in recruitment by bullying and threats?

Jesus seemed to have only one absolute, there exists a Father God who unconditionally loves and accepts each of us who ask. The asking opens a friendship beyond any human definition. The people eagerly responded to this good news but the ever present Pharisee types constantly nagged Jesus to preach the absolutes of their religion.

This conflict has been fought for 2000 years but has been the predominate methodology and theology of the last one hundred years. Sinner or saint, you must do thus and so, you must be thus and so. If you were really “saved”, if you possessed the correct spiritual credentials, you would be just like us. Ouch!

One reason this reader believes in God is that Jesus, the Messiah, comes to us not “fitting in” with the spiritual expectations of His day. Instead Jesus issued invitations to all for a party with the Father God! Once at the party, in the light of who we have found Him to be, there will be plenty of opportunity to learn of Him how best to navigate this world. The Scripture directs us not to be conformed to this world but transformed.

Salvation is not a static state of human definition but the possibility of increasing intimacy with the Father God beyond human definition. Most of us, including me, prefer at times to be static and throw absolute stones. Father forgive us, we all have been there.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, CA

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Fence

Mr. Mike Brossart
Opinion Editor
Voice of the People
The Sun
4030 N. Georgia Blvd.
San Bernadino, CA 92407

Re: “In Agreement”, Victor P. Lopez, The Sun, Sunday, November 14, 2010.

Mr. Lopez, thank you for your letter asking for an accounting from our politicians as to where they stand on illegal immigration. All of our politicians are experts at kicking every controversial issue down the road rather than making a contribution to the discussion and hopefully a solution. You are correct that in these times punting is unacceptable. Please let me make a suggestion.

Instead of advancing a detailed immigration plan to be voted on by our politicians, let we the voters of San Bernardino county insist that our politicians first answer one question. Going forward toward an immigration plan, do you support a demand that our Washington politicians and President first enforce the immigration laws already on the books? This simple question could be answered by a simple yes or no.

If the answer is no, there will be no solution. Most of America has no confidence that any new immigration plan will be enforced any better than the deceit of the last thirty years. All of us want the same basic solutions but it would seem that no solution is possible until the law ceases to be a political football. The political impasse will remain much higher than the shadow of the fence along our southern border.

Nothing else has worked, let we the voters and our politicians insist on a plan of action that has some possibility of success. Let us insist that Washington man-up to their legal responsibilities.


G.Goslaw
Victorville, CA.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Lament

“Still No Shepherds Cry” by Rev. Clenard H. Childress Jr., “The San Bernardino American Newspaper”, Vol. 41, No. 27, November 4, 2010- November 10, 2010, p. 4.

Thank you Rev. Childress and the San Bernardino American Newspaper for this mixing of faith and politics for your readers. Racism has devastated your black audience for the length of our American experience. Speaking as a white man, we are all rejoicing that in this new America, we have elevated a black family to the White House. However, our joy, as well as yours Rev. Childress, has been tempered by the leftist godless agenda coming from Washington.

Secularism is not color coded. As you so well know, the same negative pressures of secularism have been destructive to the biblical priorities of every Church for at least fifty years. It must be terribly disappointing for a black clergyman to see these ambitions coming from the Oval Office of the first black president. We respect your courage to speak up. Your authority to speak for God to the black believer is unquestioned. Please let we white believers listen and take heed as to how we all are failing our God. We need to hear your words because an authentic prophetic voice is even more non existent in our lily white congregations.

The criticism’s cited in your article rightly describe the wrong turn we all are taking as a country. The creeping secularism of the past is declaring victory. Our welfare system has created a disadvantaged underclass to be used and abused and taken for granted by our politicians. Now the underclass is exploding in numbers and color because the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. These same federal mandates have devalued marriage and the family beyond any recognizable biblical priority. The racial scourge of abortion is being codified into our new genocidal healthcare system. The welfare and opportunities for ethnic minorities are being ignored by our political muck-y-mucks by propping up the monopoly of our failed public education system that is staffed by selfish childish adults.

As you scream, where are the leaders? Who has an answer? Where is a Martin for this generation? The church or the country seems to have no creditable leadership to speak in behest of God and then to lead us.

Thank you for your loud voice, would that we were listening!

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

D Day

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
P.O.Box 1389
Victorville, CA 92393

November 10, 2010

Forget the Skin Heads, forget the Black Panthers, forget the Weathermen and all those so called violent revolutionary movements. Change has to happen now to benefit the lives of the small time, faithful, hardworking, American worker voter, or there will be a violent revolution in the streets of America. The time for political games has run out. As our countries’ politicians increasingly strip the blue collar, middle class worker of any hope for feeding his family, violent desperation is the only option.

We have become a nation of consumers taking from the livelihoods of others. We are now a nation of takers. There needs to be a redefinition of violence when a government refuses to protect the interest of all it’s people. Wall Street and the free trade driven stock market with their Washington D.C. thugs are the worst offenders who are driven to destroy America for the almighty dollar. It is almost time to declare open season on the Wall Street conspiracy, we will not go quietly. Washington this is your last chance.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, CA

Friday, November 5, 2010

The Funeral

One of the most unpleasant experiences of this life is the funeral. It is most unpleasant for the leftovers in the casket that just a few hours earlier exhibited life’s energy. For you and I it is an
unpleasant reminder of this our temporary human state. The flowers surround the casket while the organ music provides a gentle tone for the contemplation of our condition. The appropriate words are said. The pallbearers are in place, each lifting their side of the casket and placing the casket in the ground. To those of us who remain life goes on but it will never be the same.

This is the California election of November 2, 2010, it is the funeral of our golden state. The forever point of departure has been reached and there will be no going back. Our fate is sealed. The pallbearers on the left have won and dumped the state’s remains on the steps of our capital in Sacramento. The retort of most of California is that these words are the whining noises of an old white state reality. Not so, for this funeral is not about race, class or age, it is not fundamentally a clash of political parties but a culture clash.

Who are the culture adversaries? The winners are the consumers of the state’s life blood on the left side of the casket. Who are these folk? They are the entitlement crowd. They view the state as a means to an end, a self centered attempt to get ahead of the other guy. They milk the social welfare system for all it’s worth with no regard for the fact that welfare was intended to be a last resort. The system was intended for those in survival mode but now it is about a bigger flat screen. This abuse has long been a negative reality in our state but if the truth were told, this reality has become grotesque and regrettably socially acceptable.

The new offenders that have formed an unholy alliance with the welfare culture are their new labor union co-conspirators. The list of union offenders is long, according to unionsmart.org, 47 are operating in the state of California, all of whom are venders for political influence. One of the most aggrieving unions is that of the AFSCME and their branch organizations feeding at the Sacramento trough. The voting block of these governmental employees along with the teachers union, the firefighters union, the prison guards union, the medical and nursing communities is huge.

Under the pressure of these economic times and Governor Schwarzenegger, a few of these unions have agreed to minimal adjustments but the liability to the state into the future is insane. As of November 2, the election results guarantee that even these minimal adjustments will not be honored. The readers of the Daily Press who call the voters stupid are misguided. These California voters, to their own shame, are voting for their own self interest, to call them merely stupid is a backhanded compliment. The unholy alliance has doomed our fate. The alliance is a brotherhood of consumers.

We are doomed to a perpetual financial crisis and the raising of taxes on both individuals and businesses. You union folk will soon come to realize the enormity of your selfishness. We are doomed to a downward spiral to third world status in the extreme near future. The Golden State of California is dead and there will be no resurrection.

Producers let us mourn together or like rats, if you can, abandon ship!

G.Goslaw

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Tea Leaves (Third Posting)

May 4, 2009

Our president finds it necessary to minimize the intentions of the Tea Party crowd. They are portrayed as a radical fringe movement that is a step away from being terrorist. The veteran label has gotten thrown into the mix. Guns owned by the good guys is, in government circles, a threat to order and stability. Visible protest is only acceptable if the signs are politically correct. Where is this leading?

It doesn’t take an Einstein to answer that question. The new world order is being dumped upon us. Big government includes our international ambitions. Secretly the first bailout package under president Bush went to prop up the world economy. Murder and mayhem is to be continued in Iraq and Afghanistan. National pride is out of fashion. An apologetic and submissive posture in diplomacy is the politically correct motif required for progress toward world unification.

Mr. President, we are reading the Tea Leaves. Your supposed hero President Lincoln is turning over in his grave because his sacrifice is being betrayed. He loved the union of the United States of America! Your leadership as well as that of George Bush, abrogate the special significance of America. Patriots value freedom and fairness. Neither is a remote possibility amongst the governments of the world.

The WWII, the baby boomer and all subsequent generations have increasingly succumbed to the love of money. The love of spending money is the back side of the same coin. Spending is the overriding concern of the tea party crowd because taxes will inevitably rise as a byproduct. Ballooning interest rates are sure to follow within months. Runaway inflation will follow closely behind.

Our freedom will be further in hoc to the deep pockets of the world, our children’s future is dismal. We shall soon be just another banana republic governed by the few. It is time to stop blaming George Bush when your spending is a whopping 8% of GDP. (Daily Press, April 16, 2009, Tea Parties)

This increase of almost 50% is unprecedented and it is all yours. Your intent may be for this level of spending to be temporary but this is an extreme gamble. Our greed ridden politics has never been successful in cutting costs. The tea leaves say that this level of spending is doomsday for all time.

President Barack Obama, you won the election and therefore set the agenda. The Democratic majority in Congress will make your agenda the law of the land. We former Republicans who dared to vote Democratic, did not vote for this change. We voted against the failure of Republican liberalism. You appear to be peddling only an even more liberal flavor. What will be your legacy?

Please Mr. President, read the tea leaves for yourself!

G.Goslaw
Victorville, CA. 92395

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Election Day

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
P.O. Box 1389
Victorville, Ca. 92393

This is election day November 2, 2010. There is no real change in sight despite the many changes likely to happen in the next few days. The needed change for the benefit of the middle class is not being mentioned by our politicians or any political pundit on the tube. The silence is deafening and defining. The issue is Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, but no one is addressing the greatest reason for our joblessness. Even Glenn Beck, who says most of the right things is silent on this most important issue that prevents any possibility of economic growth.

On the NBC channel today a Democratic analyst noted how this recession was different from all the recessions of the past. This recession is not cyclical but systemic. He failed to mention the Democratic supposed solution of stimulus spending was the wrong call. We cannot spend our way to a growing economy! The economy will not work for the people until the systemic problem of free trade is addressed.

As things stand, the working American is being asked to shoulder the costly burden of this selfish economic policy that only works for the fat cats. Our jobs go overseas for the sake of the corporate bottom line and the corporate stockholders. The American worker is being betrayed.

To this point we have been accepting of the Free Trade reality but we are angry. It is why Meg Whitman and Carly Forina might fail in their grossly expensive bids for elected office in California. They both participated in the betrayal of the American worker by corporate America. It is, however, hypocritical of Barbara Boxer to run those adds for she sat in Washington for the last 26 years and made the betrayal possible.

We are angry. There is no good reason why anyone should listen to this unknown quantity but please allow me to take a stab at the obvious. We the people are now bounty hunters. Every politician who is content to take the big business dollars, regardless of party affiliation, Republican or Democrat, will not survive. The sleeping American voter is awake, no politician can promote jobs while remaining silent about trade reform and supporting illegal immigration. American worker, for all of our sakes, for our children’s sake, stand up and demand change!

The only creditable pundit to speak up for us is Donald Trump. Please allow me to quote him on Fox News this afternoon, “I don’t care about China”. What a refreshing statement! Donald Trump cares about the American worker and our needed manufacturing base. We will run scared no longer. Fox news, you are a consistent voice for the conservative cause but it would seem that you are resisting involvement in this issue because of the Almighty advertising dollar.

We want to hear more from Donald Trump on behalf of the American middle class.

G.Goslaw
7983 SVL Box
Victorville, CA 92395

Saturday, October 30, 2010

California Nurses Association

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
P.O. Box 1389
Victorville, CA 92393

Re: Daily Press, Saturday October 30, 2010, A4, “Whitman met by angry crowd”, Thomas Watkins.

A nugget of popular wisdom says that your enemies say more truth about you than do your friends. Thank you California Nurses Association for your endorsement of Meg Whitman. Taking the time and expense of following her around in costume and a bus speaks volumes to we the voters. Your union brethren have reassured this voter that my vote for Meg Whitman will not be wasted. The insecurity and thuggery of the California Nurses Association blaringly exposes the union’s cowardice and your fear that Ms. Whitman may be tough enough.

G.Goslaw
7983 SVL Box
Victorville, Ca 92395

Thursday, October 28, 2010

SVLA Again

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
P.O.Box 1389
Victorville, Ca 92393

Dear Daily Press, Editor Don Holland and Editorial Editor Steve Williams,

There you go again, Daily Press, making politically correct bye lines that are not supported by the facts. This Spring Valley Lake resident and proxy for one of it’s 4,000 homeowners is calling you and your reporter Brooke Edwards out for manipulation of the facts.

The dishonest article in today’s edition, October 28, 2010, is entitled “Investigation clears former SVLA employees”. No where in the article or in the workings of SVLA has anyone been “cleared” of thief charges. The truth is that the District Attorney turned his back on the homeowners of SVLA and refused to prosecute the former employees who absconded with association funds.

Our illustrious Board chairman, Judge Mahlum, must have connections to the District Attorney’s office. Wasted by this board is a $10,000 special audit authorized by this board to help in the investigation and an estimated 50,00 to 100,000 dollars in association funds stolen. We don’t know how much was stolen because we member’s are not allowed to see the audit, at least not the last time I checked. We only get to hear second hand numbers.

If you were a real newspaper, you would first check the facts when you write about SVLA. It is no wonder that Judge Mahlum and general manager Sabo are so faint hearted, it is no wonder that they want the issue of justice in SVL to dissipate. It is no wonder that the theft has been buried in the District Attorney‘s office for over a year in the hopes that SVL would forget. Some of us have a long memory, property values be damned!

G.Goslaw
ggoslaw@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Bible Abusers

Key Word: Implication

Colossians 2 : 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,which depends on human tradition and elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

LOGIC, according to Webster, is the science of correct reasoning; a science which describes relationships among propositions in terms of implication, contradiction, contrariety, conversion, etc.

Implication is a formal relationship between two propositions such that if the first is true then the second is necessarily or logically true.

The Church uses illogical implications drawn from Scripture to assert the God directed trustworthiness of certain human traditions. Such as...

I. Creationism which can only be Biblically valid by implication. God created the world so it follows that science is an enemy of faith. This is the new gnosis or Gnostic world world view tradition of separating spirit and matter. Matter, the “real” world is evil so that an intuitive knowledge in spiritual matters is all that God cares about. This is the practical false dualism of modern creationist thought.

II. Raptureism which can only be Biblically valid by implication. God will bring the consummation of this world so it follows that the Bible tauts a specific divine methodology. It is, however, human arrogance to dictate to God the end game. (Every rapture scripture is stolen from the theology of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the end of this present world order)

III. Homophobia which can only be Biblically valid by implication. Homosexuality occurs as a sin in scripture therefore all homosexual behavior is a sin. Heterosexuality occurs as a sin in scripture therefore all heterosexual behavior is a sin. Neither is a valid implication.

IV. Perfectionism which can only be Biblically valid by implication. God expects progressive spiritual performance so it follows that there is a performance plateau of the spirit that brings spiritual credibility.

V. Eternal Damnation which can only be Biblically valid by implication. Spiritual failure is a dour circumstance of this life so it follows that humankind can place themselves beyond God’s reach forever (eternally at death).

VI. Biblical infallibility which can only be Biblically valid by implication. The Bible has divine truth for us therefore every word of the biblical revelation has equal value.

VII. The prosperity gospel which can only be Biblically valid by implication. Faith in God is blessed in scripture so that the faithful can expect certain rewards, monetary or physical.

VIII. Liberation theology which can only be Biblically valid by implication. Freedom is a theme in scripture so that we must assist God in adjusting society to freedom norms.

Conclusion
All eight are non logical implications grounded in human tradition and to be avoided. “Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of human traditions. You hypocrites!” Matt 15:6and7. These are strong words against complicating the simple truth of Scripture. When we assert these implications we are Bible abusers.

G.Goslaw
October 27, 2010

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Bible

It is a Saturday morning men’s bible study at a typical unnamed non denominational church in the high desert. This was a healthy time of sharing in which the discussion came around to the authority of scripture.

The focus was not on the academic and philosophical issues but we regular guy’s understanding of the everyday value of the Bible in our lives. One impertinent participant asked the pastor if there were not some differences that conflict with each other in the Bible. The pastor’s response was in the affirmative but
they were said to be minor and of little consequence.

Those few of us who are familiar with scripture know better, as does the pastor with his graduate degree. His response was not unexpected but to this respecter of the biblical record it was to some degree dishonest. Did the pastor want to avoid any questioning of divine script? Yes! If it had occurred, would such an honest discussion damage the usefulness of quickly quoting the Bible from the pulpit, as if such a quote should end all questions? Possibly but this particular pastor is not prone to such errors but an honest discussion there was not. A decision was made by this pastor that in true Nicholsonian style, “we (the laymen thus gathered) cannot handle the truth”.

Are there listener’s who would misuse such an honest discussion against the local pastor or the local church or the Bible or the faith as a whole? Surely, but these folk have a spiritual axe to grind and their pettiness can be deciphered by all. On second thought, I may be giving a little to much credit to the choir. The point being that regardless of the aftermath, honesty is the best policy, is it not? This voice can speak frankly because these words are from the bushes with nothing to lose.

There would seem to be two ways that believers read the bible. There are those believers who read the Bible with the eyes of faith and those who read with the blindness of faith. The non believer will find the Bible dull and be turned off. The legitimate seeker, asking real questions of the Bible, will be engaged toward a moment of faith and a viable connection to the realm (biblical kingdom) of the spirit of God. There is a danger in absolute statements but it always seems to happen this way. Was it not Jesus who told us without equivocation, “he who seeks finds (Matt. 7:8)”?

Reading the Bible with the blindness of faith is only for the ever immature believer. The Bible is a “totem” or a token of spirituality sitting on the coffee table. The real authority is what is said about the Bible. That methodology feeds our laziness. The assumption is that the Spirit has long quit giving revelation to the individual so we are to swallow whatever is told to us about God and his kingdom. The Bible becomes then a mere “proof text” for human traditions.

This was the predominate religious and spiritual atmosphere of the time of Jesus. Some would extend this laziness to our day in which the language of religion may have changed but our souls are being starved for relevancy.

The believer who reads the Bible with the eyes of faith never tires of digging for truth within it‘s pages. He or she will insist on an atmosphere where it is O.K. to ask any sincere question of God’s revelation to us. He or she will accept that the books were authored by human beings inspired by the Spirit of God. We sincere believers have chosen a number of ways to express this inspiration but with very little agreement.

Please allow a definition that works for me but in no way is definitive for others. “Not all the words of the Bible are perfect but all the words of the Bible have a God intended value”. Accept or reject this definition but regardless of one’s view of Scripture there can be no harm to asking this question of each passage. What is the God intended value?

G.Goslaw

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Angry God

Don Holland
Editor, Daily Press

(18) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, (19) since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

People, including your newspaper, lift this verse out of it’s context to validate the erroneous supposition that there is an angry God sitting on high who gets a kick out of raining punishment down on the sinner. At the same time, these same folk are suffering from the delusion that somehow that punishment is for the other guy not them. If this is the “truth” that is gleaned from these verses, there exists an extreme laziness to explore St. Paul’s thought. Enough said but this verse is one of the most abused in scripture.

G.Goslaw

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Just Venting

Dr. Ed Young
The Winning Walk
P.O. Box 1414
Houston, Texas 77251

Dear Pastor Ed,

Thank you again for your program, the Winning Walk, every Sunday morning. Your program has the most creditable presence in the spiritual media. Your knack for summarizing difficult biblical issues in comfortable terms is to be applauded. As you know, the danger of such summaries is to avoid the less popular truth. Great care should be exercised because the audience oten prefers to be played rather than hearing the whole truth. Such a deception occurred today, October 17, as broadcast on TBN.

Your topic was a definition or distinction between liberal and conservative. Let’s assume that the distinction is within the community of believers. As such, the use of these labels is not representative of the love of Christ and are destructive to all of us. You go on to advance Genesis 1 : 1 as the pivotal supposed dividing line between lberal and conservative world views. You state, “If you believe that God created the world then you are a conservative.” This is not reasonable. If you don’t believe that God created the worlds and galaxies, that we live through the will of God, then you are an atheist not a liberal.

Sometimes what is not said is as important as what is said. Further explanation was absolutely necessary at this point even with your program’s time restraints. Since you failed to do this you pandered to the creationist mentality of the choir and offended those of us who maintain that Genesis says nothing about how God made His will factual. The “HOW” is best explained by science. In Scripture it is simply, “God said”. Are not both world views tolerable within the bounds of liberty required of believers by St. Paul? Are they not tolerable without calling each other names as if we were in grammar school?

Possibly I am wrong but I believe that you would agree that both world views are not mutually exclusive. The omission of a needed qualification, however, is a deception without excuse. It is why thinking believers have low regard for the clergy. Preacher’s and politicians too often have similar styles that cry out for a comparison. Both camps whip up the base by appealing to human traditions to raise money. Is that where your coming from? Let me use baseball terminology, “say it isn’t so Ed”.

Thank you for letting me vent, we thinking believers are not second class citizens of the kingdom.

Kindest Regards,
G. Goslaw

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Playing the fool

Letter to the editor
Daily Press

Thank you Mr. Cash for your letter of October 12 (Doing good isn’t enough). May I call your attention to one sentence in your letter, “Sin as defined in the Bible… will end in eternal damnation”. Please excuse my ignorance but where does the Bible say that, either in the Old or in the New Testaments? The trick is to separate what we humans think about the Bible from what the Bible actually says to us. I am an expert in neither but it would seem that this biblical observation needs to be questioned.

My Bible says that we have all sinned, ( chosen our own way ) in this life and that we all are going to pass from this life totally alone. The certainty of death reigns over us all. The Bible speaks often about death but “eternal damnation”? If the two are equivalent we are all in trouble. Your fellow readers are bothered most because this eternal damnation thing seems to always fit the other guy best. When pressed on the biblical fine points Rev. Chandler will recite the universality of the sin question but his banner headlines expose a specialized disdain for the gay community. One would hope that this is not the case.

Could it be that this eternal damnation thing is largely a construct of the Church to get people through the doors and money in the plate? One would hope not but Church history documents it’s possibility or probability. Within the pages of the Bible is truth and help for “our” sin problem but the Church has made it so difficult to find. Jesus walked through the countryside doing Good. The selfless life style is the divine expectation designed by God for all of us and all of us resist the imperative. My Bible defines sin as selfishness not necessarily sexual preference.

There are selfish folk playing golf on Sunday and there are selfish folk sitting in the church pew. To God and to the Bible one’s earthly circumstances seem to matter little, what matters is a gut felt mysterious crazy wireless connection with our maker designer. Please God, forgive my selfishness, search my heart and make me better than I am. At the moment of death, with this faith we shall pass from life with one real friend. Should you or yours miss the connection here on earth, there will be other opportunities in the hereafter. God will be God! Check it out in the Bible.

g.goslaw

Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Sacred Cow

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
P.O. Box 1389
Victorville, Ca 92393
Swilliams@vvdailypress.com

A half mile from the house an Apple Valley police officer finds it necessary to stop this driver for of all things, a seat belt violation. There was no other reason except that I happened to be wearing a white shirt. An effective argument could be made against the seat belt law because it is unconstitutional but let’s not waste time. Could not the officer have found a real crime to justify his salary? A casual conclusion could be that the town of Apple Valley needs fewer police officers.

A helicopter makes a racket circling overhead. We opened the front door to find two police cars with lights flashing in our culdesac. Three public service employees, sheriff deputies, work to defuse a domestic violence situation for two and a half hours.

While walking to the house on the streets of Spring Valley Lake, two Pit Bulls running loose find it necessary to take a bit out of my arm. Two Samaritans in a pick up rescued me from any further injury. I am still fiercely angry at those dogs but even more at the irresponsibility of their owner who rents on Sunburst. After five weeks I finally have her name through the courtesy of a police report. She is hiding for good reason.

The Samaritans called SVL security and then the sheriff. Responding were an ambulance with two public sector employees, a fire engine with three public sector employees, a sheriff’s car with one public sector employee, two Dog Pound cars with one public sector employee in each and two SVL security cars, each with a pseudo public employee-police officer. I guess I should be comforted with the knowledge that so much professional help is readily available but who pays for all the attention? Not the dog owner who won’t even pay for my tetanus shot. The buck stops with the taxpayer.

That fact is probably unavoidable but in these hard times could we not do with a little less attention. The retort from the public sector will be that the first responders must come prepared for the worst case scenario. Oh really, could it be that this is an over simplification that is designed to protect public sector jobs? America used to value and respect the the private sector.
Today it is about working the public sector for all it’s worth at taxpayer expense. I need not attempt to document this conclusion for it is in the news every day, Bell California being just one example.

The Daily Press has a Victorville City Council candidate forum on video. One of the lady candidates recited how crime is down in our community between 5 to 20 % in all categories. Yet the candidates play the female political game of not offending the public employee sector by advocating trimming police, fire, teachers, guards et. etc.

Victorville has been guilty of gross fiscal mismanagement and the public sector must suffer the consequence along with the rest of us regular people. Our fiscal problems are not unique but statewide and even national. No longer should the public sector be the SACRED COW of American politics.


g.goslaw
Victorville, CA 92395

Friday, October 8, 2010

Ho-Hum

E-Mail, Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 4:49 pm

Hi Bob, nice to hear from you. There has to be a job for an excellent experienced computer geek, somewhere in California. Aren’t such specialties always in demand? The safest move is probably to stay put. It’s Friday about 5 pm. I just got back from a trip… I really love being on the move and driving but this present situation is not working out, mostly my fault. Victorville is depressed like all of the rest of America. I’m totally disbelieving of all politicians, Dem’s, Rep’s, or whatever. No one is telling it like it is, you can’t be for jobs if you won’t enforce the border. You can’t be for jobs if your on the free trade payroll and they all are!

Brown and Boxer can only bring further disaster to California. Meg and Fiorina will bring some needed change but they are mega free traders. I thought I was all alone with my weirdo politics until I heard Donald Trump on the TV sounding off about this country. No war, no free trade and we should build it here and stop feeding China.

Of course our politicians are owned and operated by you know who, they get their own on the ballot and we have no real choice. Both sides are arguing from the extremes and no one really wants a working government for the people. I should be angrier, they are all traitors to the American way serving their corporate interests first once they get elected (Obama). Sorry you got me goin’. I’m tired , please let me cool down.
gg

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Homosexuality


Voice of the People
The Sun
4030 N. Georgia Blvd.
San Bernardino, Ca 92407

voice@inlandnewspapers.com

Please excuse this letter from a Victorville resident. Mom just took the Sun newspaper because we didn’t have the heart to say no to the young man at the door. I have found the paper very informative as to what’s happening down the hill. More importantly, Mom has an extra crossword puzzle to work. You wouldn’t believe her vocabulary.

May I make a quick comment about the excellent article, Sunday, October 3, by Wendy Leung, “Two homes for two beliefs”? The folks at RPYA have a blessed mission. There is clearly a difference of opinion about homosexuality expressed by those involved in the mission, a division that is descriptive of our culture, nurture or nature. The purpose of this comment is not to make a choice between the two but say that the bible does not clearly make the choice either. Ms. Rosales has a right to her understanding of scripture but it is an incorrect over simplification.

Do we all worship a God who rains death down on gay people or one who calls us to love even our enemies. Which is it, both are in the Bible?

As the community of Sun newspaper readers, let us practice the biblical truth that Jesus taught, loving all our brothers and sisters. We must love especially those we may not understand. Aren’t they less dangerous than our enemies, or are they?

ggoslaw
Victorville, CA 92395

Meg Whitman

To our Aspiring California Politician

Thank you for listening to my dribbles. As a native Californian and a long time resident, we both have witnessed the decline and fall of the California experience. There was a time when we were the best of the best, economic opportunity was everywhere and our school system was envied by all. As citizens we could take pride in the efficacy and efficiency of state government to enrich our lives. Taxes were an acceptable expense for the privilege of California residency. Sunshine was just an added benefit to being of California.

Our reality in 2010 is that California only has the weather to comfort us. The only economic opportunities are in the heath care system or some form of governmental dole. The average Joe or Jane can anticipate only a meager existence while the union fed hoards feed at our tax trough.

Our state’s school systems have degenerated to the bottom of the heap while our politicians throw our money at a failed system that sentences another generation to ignorance. Our culture and our politicians are at the extreme poles of those whose style it is to take and those who resent being taken. Sacramento is not just broken, it is grossly dysfunctional.

The girly man came to town eight years ago preaching your optimism for the future of California. We signed on and have been greatly disappointed in his timidity. Our state’s circumstances would have been vastly improved if he had stuck to his guns. Now all California citizens are at risk. At such a critical hour, dare we trust your leadership to have a back bone? Are you just another political opportunist who will say whatever to win an election? Is politics a game or is it life and death?

This hour is life and death for we citizens of California. Are you willing to step out of the political box of normalcy and risk being a radical politician. It is time for the state to declare bankruptcy, let the courts redistribute the money. Let’s cut all the unions, the politicians and the lawyers out of power. It could not be any worse for the average taxpayer.

Or is it really about getting the money?

G.Goslaw
Victorville,Ca

Moses and Jesus

Now that the choir is upset, who was this Moses, a man of God, a dispenser of divine justice, a terrorist, the founder of a religion, or a hodgepodge of contradictory motives? We cannot know for sure, only his biographers knew. They gave us a blended hero villain Moses. However, there is one other place for us to look for an answer to the Moses question. That question must be asked of the New testament and the person of Jesus. What credentials did Jesus give to Moses, the Old Testament ways and religion?

Let us leaf through the Gospels noting where Moses is referenced with Jesus. When he heals the leaper in Mathew’s Gospel, Jesus instructs him to show himself to the priest and offer sacrifices in the old way to give testimony to what God had done. As always, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can possibly interfere with the negative entanglements of this debilitated world. Jesus intended to heal and share the ever present God of old with the people. This same allegiance to the old way is also recorded in Mark and Luke.

Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on a mountaintop witnessed by Peter, James and John, this too being recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels. This meeting also symbolized the unity of His ministry with that of the old way. There is not a hint of superiority. Yet these witnesses heard a voice from a bright cloud saying, “this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Why? Must he not have had something new or different to say to us?

The Apostle Paul so believed. Citing the Lords words in Deuteronomy 18: 18 and 19, “ I will raise up for them a prophet like you (Moses) from among your people, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call into account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.” Then he warns of the awaiting false prophets who never cease to seek the limelight.

In the thousand years after Moses there were other authentic prophets who would fulfill their mission to speak for God amongst us. The commands and the old ways as given to Moses were consistently being misapplied because of our human frailty. The writer of Mark’s gospel quotes the prophet Isaiah’s condemnation of religious hypocrisy that was still alive and well in the time of Jesus. “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding to human traditions (7:8).” Moses lead the way but Isaiah and Jesus called the people to a religion of the heart.

Jesus reverenced Moses. In his parable of Lazarus, the self consumed older brother dies and finds an unpleasant afterlife. Calling out to God for a warning to his younger brothers, Lazarus is told that no warning would change their decisions because they have the words of Moses. Like him, they are content to live life selfishly. The words of Moses as given to him by God were enough to bring the lives of Lazarus’s brothers into alignment with the God of their ancestors, if they would but listen. In the first commandment there is enough warning, love God more than yourself.

As much as Jesus reverenced the words and commandments of Moses, this reverence was not a blanket endorsement. All three gospels record the legalistic sparring forced upon Jesus by the religious types of his day. In Mathew Chapter 19 : 3, the Pharisees question him about divorce, noting that Moses allowed the men to give a rite of divorce for almost any perceived offense. Jesus clearly said that Moses was wrong, he should not have so polluted the Law by compromising the truth. Marriage is a divine union to be respected in almost all cases.

The difficulty is that the Law that was meant to be written on the heart is unavoidably devalued when written down by we humans. Possible enforcement is a joke. Let’s don’t waste energy as did the self righteous attempts of the Pharisee’s and their religion of old. These religious types are the one’s who missed the specialty of Jesus and crucified him.

Jesus said that the commands of Moses were given to help our spiritual journey not to rule over our lives. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses is not the God of the dead, but forever of the living (LK 20:38).

Please excuse the arrogance of the above simplification of biblical theology. The question should be asked, however, in today’s Christian culture, is the faith of the choir alive or dead? There probably are as many opinions as there are observers of the church but allow this one. Despite all the protestations and clasims to know the truth, the clergy remains the voice of hypocrisy and we laity remain fundamentally mired in a legalistic religionism since the days of Moses. I would hope that this is an unfair assessment.

ggoslaw

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Holy Moses Wash

Passing south of Kingman Arizona on I-40, one passes a sign that identifies Holy Moses Wash. The name has a certain flare. There is a gully and an apparent stream bed bordered by rocky buttes and mountains to the north and east. Holy Moses Wash is a watershed, a natural barrier that hinders rain water from reaching the desert to the west. The sign triggers for some a nostalgic long ago glimpse into a similar desert and the watershed biblical character of Moses.

The Book of Exodus recites the history of this man and his people and their divinely orchestrated rescue from a 400 year bondage in Egypt. This formative act, the exodus, spawned the Hebrew faith (religion) with Moses as the visible spokesperson for the One True God. The books of Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy record the progress toward a formative religion and the trauma of this people as they attempt to return to the promised land of their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The context for our discussion is the place of Moses in a relevant biblical theology. Is the moniker of “Holy Moses” appropriate? This view of Scripture is less than scholarly and admittedly formulated by an amateur theologian. Please accept this exercise with the appropriate grain of salt. That being said, allow this attempt to speak to the divide between the Old and New testament understandings of God. The contrast between the aggressor Moses and the passivist Jesus is the problem that most non believing commentators use to discredit all Scripture and all biblical faith. The Church refuses to address the disparity because to do so would force a biblical honesty. An honesty that would upset the immature Church choir.

The first five books of the Bible document that Moses was both a man led by God and a terrorist. He was both the right arm of God and the left arm of hell. For a responsible theologian not to acknowledge this fact and only emphasize his hero status, is to make God a genocidal maniac. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and finally ordered the hacking death of three thousand of his family, he was acting as a terrorist. It was an act repeating the slaying of the Egyptian slaver in his youth. Death was the weapon of choice.

Wait just one minute you say, the Word maintains that Moses was authorized to kill at the behest of the Almighty! Really, what does that divine death order say about the One True God? If the reader has questions at this point, please read the blog piece, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”(ggoslaw.blogspot.com, 2/4/10). Let’s assume for this discussion that Moses may not have correctly heard from above at this point. Please allow a voice to those of us who believe that death used to advance any cause, no matter the self righteous motive, is terrorism.

The problem gets worse for Moses and the people as they move northward toward the promised land. The homeward bound organize themselves into a formidable fighting force. The peoples they encounter are understandably threatened by this large tribe of wandering Semites. Numbers chapter’s 21 and 22 record the first of the confrontations. Moses asks permission from the King of Edom to pass through his land. The Edomite King says no and brings his army out to meet Moses, who retreats to find another way.

The Canaanite king Arad attacked as the Israelites approached. Some Israelites were captured and their brothers mounted a counteroffensive, asking the Lord for assistance. God was said to bless them with the utter defeat of the Canaanite king. The author uses the Hebrew word is “hesem”(21:3), meaning “to devote to the ban”. The ban meant utter destruction and the death of men , women and children. The Expositor’s Commentary, Vol. 2, p. 874, states, “ this action was determined, not just by the rugged spirit of the age, but from a sense that the people were engaging in Holy War, where the extermination, not just the subjugation of her enemies was the spiritual goal for the people in their conquest of Caanan”.

The biblical and theological problem is that the Israelites somehow believed that the One true God designed this battle plan. Self defense can be understood but what of these Attila the Hun battle tactic’s, the scorched earth, take no quarter battle plan advanced for all the campaigns to take the Promised Land. More modern and similar battle plans are employed to this day, all in the name of God. Is there really any difference between the tactics of the fundamentalist Moslem and those of the Israelites in the conquest of the promised land? Was “hesem” God speak or man speak, human bloodletting or divine judgment.?

This is where the choir gets testy. The Almighty God ordering men to kill in God’s name seems a little much, but the first priority is to hold to an extremist literal reading of the Word. The Church will not tell the whole truth. The Pentateuch is a compilation of many sources beginning with Moses. His life experiences in verbal narratives preserved the events of his time. The generations passed without radio and TV, they listened to these narratives around the family fires, a multitude of faith stories telling of what God had done for their own people. Gradually the verbal “tellings” began to be documented in written form.

A second possible influence was that of the temple workers descended from the tribe of Levi and the emerging priestly class. These folks needed to document this new religion and their own centrality within this new community, thereby cementing their place in the hierarchy. They may also have needed to excuse their own violence by blaming it on Moses and his God. This conclusion cannot be avoided in any casual reading the Pentateuch with it‘s piecemeal approach. For at least a hundred years scholarship has identified numerous literary sources in the Pentateuch, these two seem to be primary. Within it’s pages is both a story to be told and a new religion of this world to be grounded in the Scriptures for the succeeding generations.

Let us engage in a “what if scenario”. No one can say for sure how these words were put together. Possibly, the Mosaic model of leadership that depended on the timely intervention of their God in the desperate situations of life was gradually interspersed by the words and deeds of mere men using violent means to secure the promises of God. The peoples of the promised land are the bad guys and our enemies because they have what we are entitled to by God. Whatever means that are necessary to secure this God given entitlement have been sanctioned from above, or so it is reckoned, including the slaughter of men, women and children. Even today, some believe that God is in the killing.

Please allow me to take issue with anyone who so believes. God is never in the killing, then or now! It is difficult to appreciate their time and circumstances, but has Christianity not moved beyond such a primitive religion? Jesus surely did for he said to love even your enemies. The Pentateuch preserves, through the Spirit, all the happenings and priorities of that time for every succeeding generation to evaluate. Godly or primitive, they are all kept for us to consider within it’s pages. Jesus discarded the God of the religionists, calling his followers to a God of Love. This is so difficult even today.

Personally, I would like to have sat and talked to the historical Holy Moses. Was he a divided personality as the Scriptures want us to believe? Is the God of Scripture a Love Hate God? We are all entitled to our own opinion and no one has the authority to claim that they know “the truth” and put down the spiritual integrity others.

G.Goslaw








Thursday, June 3, 2010

By Laws

Mr. Glen Goslaw
7983 SVL Box
Victorville, CA 92395

Board of Directors
Spring Valley Lake Association
13325 Spring Valley Lake Parkway
Victorville, CA. 92395

June 3, 2009

Dear Association Board,

Hello again from your Nemesis. You good folk are playing games with my application for committee standing. At the regular board meeting of October 27, 2009, you voted to deny my application on the Safety committee. This not unexpected event could have been due to my belief that the safety department is effectively to large and to expensive for the members of the association. The fact that I may not possess nor desire a cozy personality, also could have had an influence. Considering the political climate and who you are, “no” is a legal and acceptable decision on your part.

In April 2010, I again applied for the safety or budget committees. Voluntary service on both committees would have been fulfilling. My name was listed on the meeting agenda of May 25, 2010. However, the board failed to give legal notice of the meeting so another meeting was called for June 1. At this meeting, my name was still on the agenda held over from the May 25 meeting. When it came time for enacting committee assignments, about ten names not on the agenda were added and my name was not even mentioned nor voted upon. All other voluntary service was approved with a yes.

This association associate member rudely interrupted the meeting in protest of this slight. The board chairperson, Kirt Mahlum, informed me that my protest was out of order and to speak with him after the meeting. Directly after the meeting I protested his action. Mr. Mahlum informed me that the By Laws of the association prohibit my service. He deceptively stated that the decision was not personal. Having a working knowledge of the bylaws, this associate member stated that the By Laws would be reread but that the chairman was wrong.

Written notice of proxy authority as required in the By Laws was given to the board on September 19, 2009. Mr. Mahlum is the lawyer but this dunderhead believes proxy status means that I am “entitled to vote or execute consents” (Article V, Section 8.1) on behalf of Marjorie Goslaw, acting as an agent. The fact that I am her oldest son and that we have shared the same house for the last three years is a bonus. The By Laws place no limitations on proxy service. What am I misreading?

Mr. Mahlum, please give me the legal grounds for your decision according to the By Laws.

Thank You.
G.Goslaw

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Case # 3010-13996

Glen Goslaw
7983 SVL Box
Victorville, CA. 92395

June 1, 2010

Michael A. Ramos
San Bernadino County District Attorney
316 N. Mt. View Ave.
San Bernadino, CA. 92415-0004

Gary Roth
Chief District Attorney
Desert-Mountain Region Office
14455 Civic Dr. Suite 300
Victorville, Ca. 92392

Board of Director’s
Spring Valley Lake Association
13325 Spring Valley Lake Parkway
Victorville, Ca. 92395

Dear sir:

This letter is a complaint from this member of the Spring Valley Lake Association in Victorville, California. As citizens of this county we expect our law enforcement officials to meet out justice in a timely manner. The possible case of fraud against our association by Mr. Osmar Castro and others, (Case # 2010-13996, BD 12-1-78), is worthy of a prosecutorial decision by the District Attorney’s in the immediate future.

Our Association has expended a one time added cost of $10,000 for a forensic audit to assist the sheriff’s investigation of this possible fraud. Our Board of Director’s have acted to restore the integrity of this organization. Our District Attorney’s Office needs to do the same.

We as member’s of the association are not yet privy to the facts in this case but we anxiously await your decision and the facts. A word of response from your office would be welcome.

Sincerely,
G. Goslaw

Monday, May 31, 2010

Why Not?

The gulf oil disaster drags on. BP has failed to protect our way of life. This foreign company has repeatedly stumbled over itself since the April 20 fire and collapse of the Deep Water Horizon oil rig. The mantra sung by BP is that all that can be done is being done. Really? The Obama administration has picked up the chorus, kneeling to the self protective interests and double talk of BP and our government.

It is time to stop trying to save the well and blow it up. At least three weeks ago this suggestion was advanced as a nuclear option due to the gravity of the disaster. Voices have surfaced on the internet in the last few days that it is time to call our military to action. Surely our president has considered such a possibility. Mr. President speak up, why not?

G.Goslaw

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Meg

Let us assume for a moment that Meg Whitman has the guts to be our next governor. Her website and campaign play to the frustration of we common folk but if elected how will she accomplish the task before us? Is there a bigger plan than a grand kum-ba-yah moment that will bring all competing interests together?

These interests include the following:
1. The owner’s of California who provide the tax base, tend to be conservative and fiscally responsible. This interest group includes not only real estate owner’s but includes businesses large and small.
2. The renter culture that pays taxes indirectly but tends to be more liberal and see government as an enabler for upward economic mobility.
3. The union culture that uses the political money trail to grab all they can from our California economy and the taxpayer. Government is the employer of first and best resort.
4. The illegal aliens, their interest groups and the uninformed citizenry who ignore the devastating financial consequence of these folks and their crime.
5. The elitist progressive political minority who wish to enact their Robin Hood mentality of social and political engineering as the new California. Of course, the rich are the middle class not the truly rich.

Is it reasonable to believe that these divergent interest groups will rally to any personage, be they Arnold or Meg? They have not and will not. A middle ground is impossible even if such a compromise would address our ills, which it will not. The time has arrived for out of the box drastic action, our new governor must possess the will to accomplish what is best for California. Meg, the rhetoric is commendable and on point but you or Chuck will need leverage. Political leverage is real power to bring real change. You probably have already considered the leverage to be employed. It is the only powerful tool for change that has any possibility of restoring the historical California success model.

As a state, we need to file bankruptcy and start over.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, CA