Compounded Evil

Daily Press Victorville, Ca.

Re: “Health and Taxes”, Stan Brown, Daily Press opinion, December 8, 2011.

Stan Brown, what planet do you live on? Is everything a mere partisan squabble? Is it not time to look for the greater good for all Americans? The payroll tax cut has been tried and it failed to leverage new jobs. It only gave already working and thriving public sector workers’ a few extra dollars to spend at the expense of the governmentally abused private sector. The President wants fairness, well so does the private sector, the struggling blue collar underemployed and the unemployed.

The direct victim of these tax cuts are those of us who depend upon the Social Security system for our retirement and medical care. Did you know that the payroll tax, which we paid all of our working days, is supposed to fund this system? Of course you do but do you care? Social Security benefits are in trouble and can only get worse as we baby boomers retire. Medicare is broke, wasteful and at times dysfunctional. These systems, however, are the promise of politicians from both political parties, as a loyal Democrat you should be concerned about the viability of these systems.

Social Security and Medicare need reform but no Democrat, including the President, is stepping to the plate to suggest a fix. You glibly assign ulterior motives to the Republicans when looking in the mirror might prove useful. Instead, the President is playing Robin Hood in reverse, robbing from the poor and giving to the rich with this unfunded payroll tax cut.

Politicians from both parties have for decades pillaged the Social Security system. Now is the day of accountability, the day for politicians to begin to make amends for their thievery. Reform has to happen but asking the Social Security system to support the privileged is compounded evil.

G.Goslaw Victorville, Ca.

An Appeal

11/14/2011

Glen L. Goslaw

Scan Health Plan

ATTN:Grievance and Appeals Department 3800 Kilroy Way, Suite 100- P.O. Box 22644 Long Beach, CA 90801

Re: Notice of Denial of Medical Coverage

This is my written appeal for a 72 hour review of your denial of medical services, dated 11/08/2011 and received by mail on 11/12/2011. The basic reason for the appeal against this denial is that you contract for services with Heritage Victor Valley Medical Group, who has provided lousy care for this Scan member over the last eleven months. I could recount the long history of medical boners but let me attempt to stay on point. There seems to be no competent or appropriate vascular surgeon affiliated with this medical group and they and you have spit at the medical welfare of this patient.

Vascular surgeon # 1….. Dr. Suval of Victorville.

Dr. Suval informed me that he did not treat ascending aortic aneurisms, only the lower vascular system. He did a lower vascular CAT scan and found no abnormalities. Dr. Suval is either a liar or Heritage sent this patient to a doctor who could not treat an ascending aortic aneurism. This was an erroneous referral and should not count against the plans maximum of two referrals to an appropriate specialist.

Vascular surgeon # 2….. Dr. Alturjuman of Riverside.

Dr. Alturjuman admitted me to Riverside Community hospital the second week April, 2011, with horrendous chest pain. This was the third such occurrence since January 4 of 2011, he did another complete heart workup with multiple CAT scans and a stress test, repeating the tests of January at St. Mary’s in Apple Valley. The pain went away after about 12 hours and Dr. Alturjuman insinuated the pain wasn’t real and discharged me in one day, on a Sunday night. Monday morning I drove myself back down to Riverside and got my medical records for the stay just completed. The report from the CAT scan described my heart as “grossly enlarged”. I marched up to his office and asked pointedly, how can this be when you discharged me without a word? His only response was, “you can make another appointment”. Lame, baby, lame.

The pain returned within a week and I was rushed by ambulance to St. Mary’s in Apple Valley. With this fourth occurrence in four months, they removed 200ml of fluid from the heart sack but the fluid returned in 12 hours. With no other alternative, they sent me by ambulance to Dr. McPherson at Saint Vincent Medical Center in LA. The services at this hospital were excellent, as was the surgery to drain my heart with a “pericardial window”. Since this surgery on April 23, 2011, I have experienced no pain. Even this dummy has figured out that the “grossly enlarged heart” was fluid not a “grossly enlarged heart”. Dr. Alturjaman has caused this Scan member anxiety with his incompetent care and I will not return for more of the same.

Let’s get back to the ascending aortic aneurysm. The CAT scan in January 2011 alerted the doctors to the aneurysm. I was told by Heritage Medical group doctors that in all three Cat Scans the aneurysm measured 4.5 cm. The last was in April 2011 and again I was informed that it was 4.5 cm and stable. Not so, for at a routine appointment on November 8, 2011, my new primary care physician informed me that the written report for the April CAT scan measured the aneurysm at up to 4.9 cm. The game being played by Heritage and Scan is to risk a negative outcome to this member in order to hopefully save a few dollars. Scan and Heritage, how long are you willing to wait when my life is at risk? Possibly your plan was for me to drop dead or change insurance companies by December 7. Motive enough, I guess , for you to keep quiet about the unstable aneurysm. Thankfully, my new honest primary physician was alert to your game. I am now insisting on an appointment with a cardiovascular surgeon, other than the two aforementioned doctors.

The final injustice resulting in this diatribe is that Heritage Medical Group and Scan have failed to pay Dr. McPherson for the surgery in April. The $9000 bill has been repeatedly sent to me, and Scan. The account is now in collections with my name on it. All the TV and newspaper advertising of your organizations cannot mitigate your dismal history with this member. I shall remain locked into your system until you pay that surgery bill! After that I will make an exit asap to anywhere besides Scan and Heritage Victor Valley Medical Group.

Please send this Scan member to another vascular surgeon, preferably Dr. McPherson at LA Cardiovascular, and do it now.

G.Goslaw Victorville, CA

The Words

I Corinthians 15 : 20 to 28

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam ALL die, so also in Christ ALL shall be made alive. But in in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished ALL rule and ALL authority and power. For, He must reign until He has put ALL His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For, He HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “ALL things are put into subjection”, it is evident that He is excepted who put ALL things in subjection to Him. And when ALL things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected ALL things to Him, that God may be ALL in ALL. (New American Standard Bible… the more modern versions should be read to help clarify Paul’s thinking.)

The only point at issue in this passage is what Paul meant by that little word “ALL”? Is it a small case all or is it a large case ALL? Does all mean just the community of Christ or does Paul fly higher? Biblical scholarship is divided on this question, so what do you think?

The Beyond

No faith in God can be more elemental than the expectation of a personal and individual heaven and hell. Whether the expectation is for 27 blessed virgins or of streets paved with gold, both are elemental and an embarrassment to the living God. Faith in God is salvation from individualism. It is a salvation moving toward a reunification of all life, a melting pot, if you will, into the everlasting love of God. Each of us can choose to advance or delay this will of God but none of us can stop it.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

Sunday Sermon

October 3, 2011

Apple Valley Church of the Nazarene

Dr. Tom Taylor

"A Bridge over Troubled Water"

The analogy of this sermon to a memorable song of the sixties is intriguing and helps the listener connect. Pastor Tom is a preacher of the first order. Please allow a personal response to this sermon. As stated, the guardrails on the bridge are there to protect us as we cross but staying in lane may be difficult if we focus on the guardrails and the dangers out there. Guardrails do provide some safety but hitting a guardrail will be a negative experience in itself. This is real life, a familiar starting point, but like all analogies this one has it's limits.

Likewise, we set in place in our lives guardrails that seem to promise protection from life’s hazards. The guardrails are social, religious, economic or all of the above in varying degrees. We are all different and we all choose and value guardrails differently, but we all have guardrails. Membership in a family or group may offer protection. Partaking of a religious mission may bring a sense of community beyond the individual. An education that empowers one to a sound financial future may seem to be the safest way to navigate this life. There is nothing inherently wrong or sinful with these guardrails because the hazards of life are out there and they are real.

The message from Dr. Taylor to his people is for all of us to look for true safety elsewhere. Yes, be wise in how you live by being aware of the guardrails but look elsewhere, look down the road. With a vision that is down the road, we are more apt to stay in lane with what God really wants from us. Even with the proper long term vision, spiritual smugness about how well we’re driving can pose a greater danger than guardrails themselves. People and Church, how are we doing or driving? Are we living smugly? Are we looking down the road or building higher guardrails? Each person or church must answer for themselves but one clue is evident, a clue that Pastor Taylor missed.

Are not the social, religious and economic divisions in the church a predictable result of the church’s overemphasis on the guardrails that divide the fellowship? This list of Christian divisions is enormous. We are divided in dogma, thought, gender, practice, priorities, income, race, ethical norms, architecture and language. The list goes on. Do our divisions not advertise a scardy cat church that wants and prioritizes another higher guardrail? Try as we do, there is one hazard that has no guardrail for we all shall one day die, be dead and gone. Gone where? Subtilely the church would have us believe the answer to this question is about heaven or hell or some other humanly imposed guardrail. Not so.

The Scriptures, St. Paul and Jesus in particular, each teach that authentic spirituality is about vision down the road. A vision that fosters unity rather than divisions, God himself is about the fruit of unity, that humanly abused definition of love. Are we as a people defining the concept of love according to God’s definition? Most of us, no matter how pious, prefer our divisions, our guardrails. We could pull out innumerable Scriptures to rightly define love but the life of Mother Teresa may be more instructive. She lived most of her life eyeing the religious guardrails, fulfilling admirably the expected requirements of her calling. Frustrated with the tidiness of her life, she had a Pauline midlife crisis that drove her into the streets of Calcutta to proclaim the love and unity of God to the dying human refuse of the city. Did she ask about church membership, dogma or a confession of faith from the dying? No, with a long term vision she communicated by her presence the everlasting love of God.

The breakdown of the analogy is most glaring because of that little word “over” in the song title. To be accurate to real living, the song title should be “A Bridge through Troubled Water”, for there is no easy out from the chores of life and the troubled waters that will come to all of us. God does not act on our behalf to take away trouble, they will always come and go. The troubles may be different but they will still be troubling. However, with a long range vision, God will turn them into possibilities.

Central to each of our possibilities is a mission for others to help bring reunification to this world system that has been distorted by our selfishness. God calls us to live not by our humanly constructed guardrails but with a long range compass setting through life’s troubled waters. May we look down the road.

Thank you Pastor Tom.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

Simply Paul

Much of the scholarly commentary and theological thinking on St. Paul is beyond the reach of we mere mortals. It is no wonder that the lay hearer or reader is quickly lost in the technical jargon. One may question whether the said commentary really is about addressing the relevant issues or may it be that the technical filler is used to deflect possible criticism resulting from taking a stand on the bigger issues. If one says all that they believe, the criticism will make a Church career uncomfortable because church folk tend to get upset over non-essentials. The renowned and beloved biblical exegete, William Barclay is a case in point. His Daily Bible Study Series of Commentaries make little space for the concept of Christian universalism. Yet, well into his retirement he confesses in his autobiography to being a Christian universalist. With this kind of cowardice our Church will always be more of a social structure than a biblical fellowship.

This piece is an attempt to simply state the thought and theology of St. Paul. The method is not scholarly but is intended to be the common sense opinion of a lay respecter of the Scriptures, particularly those words of St. Paul. One Pauline passage is central to this attempt to understand the greatest theologian of all time. We are thrilled by this Pauline summary of the grand plan of God, a plan actualized by the risen Christ. The Plan that will be expanded and made relevant throughout all the galaxies, past present and future. Paul obviously had no scientific or cosmological knowledge but his words are so opened ended that something else must have been been going on. No attempt will be consciously made to fit Paul's words into expected theological boxes.

G.Goslaw

California Insanity

So what is coming out of Sacramento these days? Would you believe more of the same insanity? This time our illustrious politicians are funding an expanded 40 million dollar per year Dream Act, AB 131. This will make available to anyone in the world California educational financial aid. All they have to do is illegally enter the state of California and attend a taxpayer funded free California high school for three years. No citizenship questions will or can be asked. College financial assistance will then be made available. For those who graduate with an education funded by the taxpayer, where will they find the jobs?

Where is the head of our politicians or for that matter, the California voters. Isn’t anyone looking down the road just a few short years into the future? We will be another failed state, this time north of the border. We are trading short term Hispanic political points for the long term financial viability of the state. We are insane.

The kicker is that California is so pressed for money Govenor Brown is closing 25% of our state parks to save 33 million dollars a year. These parks have jobs for our citizens. Go figure.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

2 cents

The liberal media enjoys throwing the theory of evolution in the face of conservative politicians. These politicians derive much of their political support from conservative Christians with a profound distaste for evolutionary thought. The question is intended to embarrass these politicians with their supporters. Is the media question about evolution unfair?

Possibly, evolutionary theory has nothing to do with politics. However, there is no unfair question in the political arena because they all have consequences. Rather than avoiding giving an honest answer, the politician should ask a question of the questioner. Please define your terms, what do you mean by evolution? If you mean by evolution that this present world is the consequence of mere blind chance, then I and all other Christians must reject evolutionary theory. However, this rejection does not necessarily mean that change in all things earthly have not occurred over the last six to eight billion years. The rejection does not necessarily mean that there was an actual “Garden of Eden” and that the first man and woman, “Adam and Eve”, were actual people. Some Christians believe there was such a place in time but other Christians believe that such biblical parables were given to us to describe who we were through the ages and who we are in this time and place.

In the Christian community there need not be and there is not unity of thought except that God is somehow involved in our days. How He is involved is open for discussion without recrimination, most of the time.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

SVL and the CC&R's

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville,Ca

Rebuttal to Robert Reed’s SVL amendment, August, 25,2011

Thank you Mr. Hoover and Mr. Sabo for your valued input but you intentionally misdirect the reader from your true motivations. The onus of the present CC&R.’s is on the association to gather a 55% renewal vote every 10 years. The Board of Directors would like an automatic renewal so that the onus is on the disenfranchised of SVL to gather a 55% vote. This vote would be practically impossible. The proposed change would mean that the Board of Directors would have a perpetual strangled hold on the affairs of the association. The impact of any descent among homeowners to the actions of the Board would therefore be minimized. That is why the proposed CC&R's amendment is so worded and why Mr. Reed has an excellent point.

G.Goslaw

Proxy for the SVL homeowner Marjorie Goslaw

Victorville, CA.

The American Road

The present state of the American economy cannot continue for the next ten years, we won’t let it. Three things have to change now.

One, the American free trade economy must become one of fair trade. May the free trade lobby in Washington go to hell! Their dollars control our politicians, Democrat and Republican, as they fund their elected politics. All of our status quo politicians have treasonously failed in this regard. They have sold the economic future of American workers to the lowest bidder as they diddle on. We want to work! Corporations are not evil, the title best describes politicians. Workers, let’s make reelection of all politicians impossible by getting involved in the vote. No politician shall serve a second term. The free trade lobby cannot exert their evil influence if we the working people of America stand up and vote.

Two, all people living in this country with no legal immigration status must get legal or return to their country of origin. However, the illegals are not the greater villains. The employers who violate our hiring laws by not requiring legal status, have treasonously earned criminal penalties, that means fines and jail time. Our borders must be enforced. Bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan and give them a real job, one for which they have been trained. Station them on our borders for drug interdiction and to prevent illegal crossings. We cannot police the world when we cannot police our own country. There is only one other alternative, annex the Mexican failed state as the 51^st state of these United States of America.

Three, hire a different kind of President. We the people do not need another political animal with neither right nor left strips. We the working people have been crushed by both in the last ten years. We need a people’s President. One who is not content to feather the nest of the corporate sector or the public sector by way of bigger and bigger government. One who will cease with the political money games and take action now for the working people. We are the backbone and strength of America but we have been treated by our politicians and presidents as the least of these.

Where are you, Mr. President?

G.Goslaw, Victorville, Ca.

Marriage

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, Ca

Some of us also love and depend on the dictionary but occasionally we miss the full meaning of a word. Mr. Gray, you have done so in your opinion of August 1, entitled “Semantics and marriage”. For fear of beating a dead horse, the fourth definition of marriage offered in my dictionary (Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language) reads, “Any close or intimate union”. Even the definition of “marry” has a broad context, number three states, “to join closely or intimately, unite”.

Every dictionary is a document of past verbal usage and therefore is never fully up to speed with the immediate culture. Thankfully, in today’s culture homosexuality is less a dirty word to be hidden from the children (in most cases), it is more a word that describes the few in every culture, past and present.

The common but sexist usage from the past is in my dictionary but to it’s credit there is an allowance for a definition that includes gay marriage. Your dictionary must have been written by a Neanderthal.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Sin has many flavors

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, CA.

Re: “Call it something else”, Michael F. Burt

The legal status quo in our country says that marriage is first and at least a civil legal matter. If the participants want that civil marriage to also be a religious exercise, say in a church, that is their right. The problem arises when our civil laws qualify the participants by requiring two persons of differing genders. If marriage is an American civil legal right, then the laws, to be American, should not be written to enforce any religious or supposed moral qualification for the participants. Civil marriage should be available to all Americans regardless of gender or intended life style. That legal standing should be an American civil right.

The Church can qualify the participants any way it so chooses because it is an available option. The point being is that if the laws were fairly written, there would be no problem. New York has just accomplished such a fair update to there marriage statutes and other states should follow suit. That we as a country are so slow to wake up to this reality can only be explained by American bigotry against gays. Bigotry condoned and supported by the Church and church folk like yourself. Bigotry akin to the racism against the black man that has so defined our culture and is also condoned and supported by the church. Mr. Burt, you claim not speak for God but then you do speak for God, we are confused.

Sin has many flavors.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, CA.

Pinehurst and Colonial Court

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
Victorville, Ca 95392

We are a community of families with shared values and space. We are neighbors of mixed racial, social and economic backgrounds who have chosen and learned to respect one another enough to be neighbors. We are not necessarily tight friends but we are neighbors. Neighborly drama is minimal but there are those moments. When drama happens, it seems to always be renters. That is not to say that all renters are drama queens, they are not for most are functioning and respected members of the community. However, when trouble comes it is always renters.

Such a drama event occurred Sunday night, June 26, 2011. The renters on the corner had a party mostly on the driveway with loud music and party noise. One neighbor had the courage to visit the party twice asking on each occasion that the noise be reduced. One visit was at 9:30 to be followed by a call to the Association Security Department for their help. Another visit by this neighbor occurred at 10:30. None of these actions quieted the party so the Sheriff was called twice, at 10:30 and 11:30. They finally responded after 12:30 when the party had quieted down on it’s own momentum. These renter’s disregarded repeated civil requests from their neighbor for them to be neighborly.

Apparently this was not the conclusion of the drama for these folk had in mind payback. On Monday noise was heard from the right front wheel of the party visitor’s pickup. Incorrectly assuming it was disc brake noise, plans were made for a trip to the beach with the grandchildren on Tuesday morning. The noise became excessive in Ventura and the hub cap was pulled to find all lug nuts very loose, one bouncing in the hub cap and one bolt stud broken. The repair station refused to put the aluminum wheel back on the vehicle because the stud holes were badly elongated trashing the wheel. The money is not the worst of the intended payback, the motive of the party goers was to put other neighbors lives and safety in danger. In this the party payback succeeded.

The party hosts, Yvonne and Manuel, are a part of a subculture that routinely uses intimidation to relate to their neighbors. Intimidation by direct confrontation, talking eye to eye, even shouting over a perceived injustice is the American way. Backstabbing is the way of the streets and surely is not neighborly but we neighbors are who we are. Of course the denial of responsibility and claims of innocence from the party folk accompany the intimidation. “You have no proof and the fault is with you and your poor vehicle maintenance”, so they say. The first part is correct, there is no actual proof but is there any reasonable doubt? These attempts at deflecting responsibility are to be expected from the corner of Pinehurst and Colonial Court. The greater villains are the owners of said property.

Dave and Georgia Herbst once lived in this house but are now landlords. Yvonne, the present tenant,works for Georgia in her business. These landlords, like the many landlords of Spring Valley Lake, refuse to take responsibility for the actions of their tenants and play the like mannered blame game,insisting that the troublemakers are not really troublemakers. Money is always the real issue. If Dave had visited that party, he would know the truth and could no longer hide in the bushes of another neighborhood. We live in this neighborhood.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

Healthcare expectations

June 24, 2011

G.Goslaw
7983 SVL Box
Victorville, Ca. 92395

James Krider, MD
Formula Medical Group
18182 HWY 18, Suite 105
Apple Valley, CA 92307

Dear James Krider,

Thank you for your registered letter of June 20, 2011. Dr. Krider, you are absolutely correct, we do have a difference of expectations. You expect your patients, at least this patient, to remind your referral person to generate the needed correspondence to gain an appointment with a specialist physician. Really, are your patients an extension of your office staff?

You are also correct, I raised my voice in protest at loosing a specialist appointment one hour before it was scheduled, an appointment that had already had a thirty day wait. It was cancelled because of Linda’s incompetence with the paperwork,repeated again and again over the last five months,probably at your direction.

Your leadership makes our doctor patient relationship impossible so I shall move on. However, the fault is yours. In the past few months, this patient has learned that life is so short and one never knows what awaits around the corner. Accordingly, another truism states that “what goes around always comes around”, at least life has provided me with ample educational experience to validate this additional fact.

We all are learning, you have my kindest regards into the future.

Your former patient,
G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca.

The Truth

Letter to the Editor
Daily Press
Victorville, Ca. 92392

Most Christian churchmen are Biblically ignorant and ignorantly bigoted. In truth the church social order is the priority of these folk. They choose to emulate the perceived social order as if it were God. They look to the Bible to validate this social order and fail to consider individual verses in their greater context,
including the character of the God they purport to worship. The thinkers of the church parrot this ignorance and/or are to cowardly to confront the ignorance for career and monetary concerns. It is a Donald Trump cop out, since he and they both love the truth but worship more the goodies of this world.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca.

The Few

Pensees’ # 179 There are few true Christians, I mean even as regards faith. There are plenty who believe, but out of superstition. There are plenty who do not believe, but because they are libertines, there are few in between. I do not include those who lead a really devout life, nor all those who believe by intuition of the heart.
Blaise Pascal, Pensees’, Penguin Books, 1995, p. 55.

Soren Kierkegaard (1850) must have read Blaise Pascal (1650), for they appear to be kindred spirits. They are both thinkers of the first order. What they are not is clergymen who owed their worldly existence to the church. Isn’t it strange how it seems to work that way? Thankfully, there have been men such as these in church history but sadly they have been the few.

As Pascal notes, Christian superstition has been and is a large segment of the faithful. In Kierkegaard’s time the superstitious believers were the Christian majority that just went along with the expected Lutheran faith of their fathers and the state run church. Though Pascal was always loyal to his Roman Catholic Church, he surely had in mind the superstitious rule of the church during the middle ages to include his time. Who are the superstitious believer's of our time? Who are the true Christians of our time? Any creditable clergyman will tell you that his office does not make him or her devout. It is the faithful, plain, quiet, devout widow lady in the second pew, right front. These folk have to live a religion of the heart. gg

Matthew 7:13&14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.

Terror

Pensees# 172 The way of God, who disposes all things with gentleness, is to instil religion into our minds with reasoned arguments and into our hearts with grace, but attempting to instil it into hearts and minds with force and threats is to instil not religion but terror.
Blaise Pascal, Pensees’, Penguin Books, 1995, p. 54.

Pascal the prophet is speaking. He comments on the church of his time (1650) and by extension to the church of our time. Could not the revivalist methodologies of the last two hundred years be an appropriate example? Threats of hell and eternal damnation have been and are used to manipulate seekers after truth. Terror is the supposed power of the pulpit. These tactics have accomplished some good but are they God's way? The church and it's pulpits fail to consider the damage done to the thinking but unbelieving adults to whom Pascal spoke. Let us define evangelism as did Pascal, as reasoned arguments and grace from God. gg

A Slice in Time

“God’s ‘strategy’ is to show that all stand condemned, that all have sinned and need the gospel, that all deserve death, that some are hardened that others might be included so that eventually all may be saved, and that God has ‘imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all’ (Romans 11: 32).”

Universal Salvation? The Current Debate, Edited by Parry & Partridge, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2003, “A Wideness in God’s Mercy: Universalism in the Bible”, Thomas Johnson, p. 87.

Hell is the ignorance of, the misunderstanding of, or the denial of, who or what God is. In the midst of this darkness, God, the instigator, sends rays of light to awaken the momentary few so that salvation will eventually find all. If this be truth, God’s redemption plan must, in some way, extend beyond death. That is if God is love and He is whom the Bible says He is. And this is the only God that can be believed. gg

America?

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, Ca

Re: “It’s not envy, it’s anger”, Rick Benefield, Daily Press, May 20.

Thank you for your reasoned response to the opinion of Steve Williams (“On Ignorance”, May 12). Your assessment of the mood of our citizenry is absolutely correct, we are angry. We are angry because the America out there ahead of us is not the America that will be good for our children. Rush Limbaugh is no more the problem than is Barrack Obama. Mr. Limbaugh, one of many media stars, does not represent the filthy rich and works very hard in the entertainment niche he has created. He has earned his millions as do sport and pop culture stars who earn millions for what some would consider much less effort. Our President, as does the left, plays the class warfare card to score political points but the criticism and taxing of the rich will not solve our national problem. The defense of either the rich or the poor is all camouflage.

So what is the national problem? One opinion rarely cited is that America has a spiritual problem. Selfishness rules our land, the Almighty Dollar is our God. Self interest will be forever with us but there must be an overriding national interest with a consideration of the interest of others, at times, above our own interest. May I suggest that this has been the historical American way even though we have often struggled at this point. Today is a new day, there is no more struggle, it is culturally O. K. to demand our own way and get what we want regardless of the cost to others. Today, America has few facts that engender national pride, much less a positive future.

Why can’t we be America?

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

Context

“Writers on the biblical message of salvation often treat the relevant passages without due consideration of their historical, cultural, and human context. What the Bible says and what it teaches are not the same thing. Only the overall teaching of the Bible (on a particular issue) can be considered authoritative for Christian faith, not the apparent teaching of any specific passage. Individual passages must be placed in the context of the broader teaching of the Scripture as a whole. It may also be the case that the Bible teaches more than one thing or has more than one emphasis, and that these teachings might be in tension with each other.

Further, no one does presuppositionless exegesis of Scripture, or interpretation without some pre-understanding or theological commitments. There are always larger theological issues to be taken into account before one can pronounce that 'this is the teaching of the Bible' on a given subject. We as interpreters are changed by our readings of the Bible. Our theology is continually being revised, modified, and deepened as we submit ourselves to God’s word. It is not helpful, therefore to come to the study of “universalism” with our minds made up, as is often the case.”

Universal Salvation? The Current Debate, edited by Parry and Partridge, William Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids Michigan, 2004. “A Wideness in God’s Mercy: Universalism in the Bible”, Thomas Johnson, p.78.

The Chrtistian Church has always been guilty of exemplifying and teaching a lazy exegesis contrary to the above statement. The best example is Pastor Rick Warren's book, "Purpose Driven Life", and it's popularity with the flock. gg

Divine Schizophrenic

"People sometimes say, as if it were a weighty consideration, that God is not only loving, but also holy; he is not only merciful, but also just. What is the point of such a remark? Suppose I should say that God is not only loving , but also wise. This second remark, like the first, is no doubt true, and might even have a real point in an appropriate context. But neither remark justifies the idea that God sometimes acts in unloving ways. For if God is love, as 1 John 4 : 8 and 4 : 16 declare, and it is therefore his very nature to love, then it is logically impossible that he should fail to love someone or should act in unloving way towards anyone. It is as impossible for God to act contrary to someone’s ultimate good, in other words, as it is for him to believe a false proposition or to act unjustly."

Universal Salvation? The Current Debate, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, edited by Parry and Partridge, 2004. “A Pauline Interpretation of Divine Judgment”, Thomas Talbott, p.32.

Progress

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Re: “Mayoral Opportunity“, W. Daniel Tate, April 7, 2011.

Thank you Mr. Tate for the wise words from the outback of Phelan. The intelligence and wisdom of this Victorville citizen is not in your league but our concern for real change in Victorville may be mutual. Let’s stifle the blame game and devise a way forward. It is a given that past decisions of this Council have proved ill advised. Have your new mayor put a plan before the Council and take a vote. Fire some people, hire new management, do something besides pointing fingers. As such you are making yourself a part of the problem of Victorville.

G.Goslaw

Victorville

Elemental Economics

The capitalistic economic system is not perfect but it is better than every other. In this system, if money is what turns you on, we are, each and every citizen, free to pursue that goal with all legal means. Freedom is the promise that the pursuit of money is open to all. However, freedom is not equal freedom.

Some of us have certain advantages in the pursuit of money within every economic system. Our birth circumstances, intelligence, talents, effort,vision, luck, creativity, race, education and social position are factors, but none are determining factors in capitalism. Every citizen has the opportunity to pursue money from every life circumstance, that is freedom. It is called free enterprise.

Freedom is not a guarantee of money, there will be haves and have not’s, which shall we be? In the capitalistic economic system, we all make a choice by our actions or inactions. We are all individually responsible for shaping our own lives. In any other system, the government picks winner's and loser's, this is the rule of big government and the resulting "nanny state". That is who we have become, The United Nanny States of America, let's just change the logo.

Are there more important life priorities than money? Again, we are free to choose.

G. Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Hell or Highwater

April 5, 2011

Speaking for those of us who hang our lives on the words of Scripture, we should welcome the efforts of those who challenge our theological assumptions. While it may be upsetting in the short term, as we grow together, these people may be the heroes of the faith. Such is the debt we owe to Dr. Thomas Talbott for his book written ten years ago, “The Inescapable Love of God”. The assumption that is challenged in this book is the church doctrine of eternal punishment.

What awaits each of us when we die? In Christian theology we assume that God is waiting to render payback for our sins on earth. That through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross at Calvary, we can escape the coming wrath of God and be warehoused together forever with the good guys. That is the understanding that unites us but what is the fate of the rest of humanity? That understanding divides Christian doctrine. Is the character of our God to condemn anyone to eternal punishment? Does he condemn to hell only those who have not jumped through our hoops? Can such a God be a God of Love?

The author traces through church history how the three major schools of church doctrine and how they answer these questions. The Augustinian, the Arminian and the universalist theological models for afterlife issues are argued logically in an attempt to at least rock our assumptions and get us thinking. We learn that the universalist interpretation of scriptures has always been a part of biblical dialogue. We learn that to be a universalist does not mean that one must discard the rest of Christian theology. We learn that free will is not the enemy of a really all powerful big God.

If yours is a School House God, don’t bother to attempt to read this book. The “Inescapable Love of God” is not a casual read. One cannot digest the content of this book without making theological choices. Take the time to get inside the thought of Thomas Talbot. You may come away with a better understanding of the scriptures and the things to come. This book may be the most important theological writing since Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the doors of the Castle Church, Wittenburg, Germany.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

A Memo

April 3, 2011

To: Mr. Mahlum, SVL Board chairman, and the lake elitists of SVL

From: Just a Proxy of SVL

Why should all the homeowners of SVL, all 4000, pay for lake upkeep for the very few who use it? What % of homeowners use these facilities? What is spent each year to maintain the lake? What does the safety department do? Where is it when needed, possibly on the phone to the sheriff? The lake is in trouble, water is expensive, how so? The association has to advertise for water rights in the want ads section of the Daily Press, why? How expensive will that be? Good luck.

When yearly fees were $300, the lake and the association overhead were not as much an issue, but at $900 they very much are. If the vote to renew the CC&Rs is passed, where will fees go in the next 15 years? The demise of the association as presently constituted, is inevitable. The board and it’s politicking can only stall that ending. Why not devise a cost structure that more fairly taxes the residents of SVL? You won’t and the reasons are obvious.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

State of the City

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, ca 92392

Frank Sinatra will forever croon, “Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread”. O.K., on this day, in this time, this reader qualifies. Please allow a quick, amateurish and foolish stab at a possible Victorville “what now” scenario. Let us set aside the blame game, think together and try to apply common sense. Our city must begin now instead of waiting until 2012 and a new Council to give us direction in the hopes of a painless solution. There will be no painless solution, then or now.

Fundamental to meaningful change is for the council to stand up and represent we the people. The Council is the City rather than the paid management staffers. Who is in control? The grand experiment of SCLA and it’s multilayered management has left we the taxpayers to pick up the tab for a very expensive project that has not panned out as advertised. The jobs return has been minimal, despite all the millions of taxpayer money, projections for job gains into the future are minimal, the people say cut our losses.

Council why can’t we give up the “big dog” mentality? Please explore turning over the airport to the County and /or a board run by all the cities of the high desert. In the meantime curtail all expansion at the base, including the treatment plant. Leave power generation to the people who are in that business. We live in Victorville because we don’t want to be Orange County. Small government that efficiently tends to the necessities of the people is our model for this City into the future.

Stop the hiring, stop digging the hole deeper. The renegade city management staff has gotten us into this mess and the Council representing the people now has to clean it up. They have failed and have earned a pay cut in salary and benefits, Council oblige. If they resent the cut and don’t perform give them the liberty to go elsewhere or get fired. Promote from within the ranks of current city employees for management responsibilites. Devalue the expensive professional public employee in favor of someone who can just do the job and is committed to this community. Defund and downsize the bloated city bureacracy or hire someone who will.

Corporations have done this on a regular basis, why not the City of Victorville? Surely this solution is an over implication and many seeming barriers will be advanced to preclude such actions. Yet, this resident has heard of no other solutions. Council hang tough and do what is best now for Victorville.

G. Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Microcosm or Macrocosm

Posted almost two years ago and still relevant to Victorville politics.

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

P.O. Box 1389

Victorville, Ca. 92393

April 23, 2009

A request for facts from our city politicians.

Microcosm or macrocosm, the two or the many are strikingly similar. Let’s forget the dictionary and just use examples in the macrocosm of politics. There are national politicians in their own little world, state politicians in theirs, county politicians and those city political studs. Where are the good guys?

The Victorville guy’s are whining because their hometown newspaper wants facts. Sob! Sob! Get a life Mr. Rothschild and Mr. Caldwell, your elected service to the city is always open to a potentially embarrassing question. Whether or not you choose to answer is your decision but lately the facts have been in retirement.

Who do you think you are? You need not answer but let’s judge by your actions. Secret meetings, county ethical inquiry’s, overdue financial reports, loose financial controls, a rubber stamp city council, billion dollar schemes which have a downside only to the taxpayer, a plummeting credit rating, a trip to China for a financial rescue, bailouts to business on main street, selling green cards, and blaming the Daily Press for doing it’s job.

We the taxpayers fear this is but the tip of the iceberg. Please give us the facts not spin. Your responses to date qualify as a cover up. Cover ups seem to be in vogue, microcosm or macrocosm.

G. Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

Luke

"Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us," (St. Luke’s Gospel, Chapter One, verse one)

Twenty one hundred years ago the world was watching and recording the happenings in the backwater of Palestine. The focus of all the hubbub was on an obscure peasant named Jesus. Something so extraordinary happened at this moment that many observers were driven to write about the events surrounding this man. Each written record was different yet the same. Each writer had a unique view of these events. Through the subsequent hundreds of years, what came to be known as the Gospel of Luke is only one such account.

No history, at any time, is absolute history. Each attempt is colored by perspectives and prejudices that give a partial picture of past events. There are the accounts of Mathew, Luke and John of our traditional Bible, each with it’s own slant on the Jesus event. In addition there were the primitive gospels or the really first gospels. Luke probably was referring to them as the “many undertakings” of others. Then there are the other gospel histories that have only been recently unearthed. Add to these those only mentioned in ancient texts and small fragments of other gospels. At one time there may have been upwards of forty to fifty gospels. No one really knows how many gospels actually existed or how many are lost forever.

The point being that this writing furor indicates the magnitude of the Jesus event. It was and is the game changer of human history. Something must have happened beyond human explanation. Luke conveys for us the enormity of the events when he names them the “things accomplished”. Was he referring to a human exercise to organize a new religion? Could Luke have believed the events to be a result of the efforts of the Great Instigator? Was Luke misguided? Read on, let us find out where we stand.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

March 28, 2011

The Donald

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, Ca. 92392

Fox News this day, March 24 of 2011, is bashing the prospects of Donald Trump running for president in 2012. Citing only in house polling they are attempting to portray him as an arrogant clown whose motives are selfish. Fox News, what are your motives? Could the truth be that you dislike most of what he is saying? Could his distaste for the stock market and one way trade deals be inflaming your polls? You are the business network but it would seem that you prefer a most narrow definition of the word business. This political observer and lover of America, even in this time of crisis, is ready to listen to The Donald.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Safety

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, California

We Californians are a strange breed. Common sense has nothing to do with how we treat each other. The latest example is the split vote by the Victorville City Council to hire seven more deputies for the Sheriff’s Department. Capt. Cliff Raynolds, department commander, seems not to be pushing for more deputies beyond current levels. So why the push to hire, why only the seven and not the missing eleven? Council, what don’t you understand about being broke?

Safety is a code word for union influence in politics. When our politicians cry “safety” the taxpayer is being manipulated. The unions and their politicians must think we are defenseless scaredy cats. They are playing to this new American culture of victimhood. Life is so dangerous that we will say anything or pay anything, or even surrender to a lobotomy to feel more safe. There was a time not so long ago when we Californians were better than this.

The newly elected, Miss. Valles is the chief union pusher in residence on the City Council. According to her, we, the city, must fill more union billets “even if it means cutting other services (Daily Press, March 3, 2011)”. Please let me rephrase, “even if it means cutting the jobs of nonunion city workers”. The rephrasing is more truthful about her intent and priority. Nonunion city workers have suffered repeated cutbacks and setbacks in the wake of the irrational votes of the City Council and the mismanagement within City Hall. These are not just city services, they are people. The selfishness of this union priority in these times is beyond any semblance of fairness.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

we the fringe ( a revision)

Mr. Editor

Enclosed is a revision of a letter previously submitted. You are the editor and make the decision on what to print but this letter is better than 99% of those you do print. Is not your editorial philosophy to “stir up the stew”? You do a lot of stirring. Only one person has commented to me personally about any of my letters but I welcome all comments, positive or especially negative. Generally, the average American and your readers are timidly uninformed. I welcome the opportunity to stir also, regardless.

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Re: “History repeats itself”, Alex Varga; “Second coming”, Tom Freeman. Letters to the editor, Daily Press, Monday, February 28, 2011.

Steve Williams, this reader is mad at you too. Where do you find these people? The only positive thing to say about these folk is that they have the courage to crawl out of there progressive cocoons and speak up. And what do we see and hear? Politically progressive octopuses whose arms are most adept at picking the pockets of the American taxpayer to further their big government agenda. Wikipedia informs us that the octopus is a very intelligent creature but two thirds of it’s neurons are located in their eight arms instead of their brains. The shoe seems to fit.

When a progressive talks about protecting jobs it is about public sector union jobs. The fate of the unemployed, the underemployed and those who have given up hopes for employment, are of no real concern. Our California experience is that the teacher, police, firefighter and correctional unions have been defrauding the taxpayers for the last thirty years. The theft has been dishonest because the unions give money to support the campaigns of the politicians sitting across the bargaining table. How can that be called bargaining? Would not the term “conflict of interest” be more appropriate?

Not only is the dollar their primary focus but they negatively intrude into the management of the various organizations they claim to serve. Intrusions that prevent the success of these organization. The failure of the California public school system with it’s monopolistic teacher tenure priority seem to be obvious. Full blown collective bargaining as defined by the Wisconsin and California unions, is not an American right nor is it the American norm.

Thankfully, right to work states that include the public sector in their legislation are doing better in this depressed economy. Their more business friendly climates works for the American worker. The painful truth for the progressive is that if you are unemployed, the best advice is to cross the state line and live in a right to work state. Our families have been forced to separate because the young folk understandably need a job. And if a government job is not their thing, they have to go to a business friendly state, which is not California.

That brings us to that “fringe conservative”, Californian, Ronald Reagan. He was not intimidated by anyone throwing around intended slurs like fringe. President Reagan knew that he was right and knew it would tick off the less informed (a gentle term). Maybe that is why so may of us relate and honor this man. Calling a spade a spade whether Republican or Democratic was his most admirable character trait. That is not to say that the second best president in our American history was a perfect president. Mr. Freeman correctly points that out for us. However, as a political philosopher and communicator, he was so very close to perfection.

If Ronald Reagan were president in our America, what would he say to the full blown public sector unions?

“Fire them all!” And we the fringe agree.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

we the fringe

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Re: “History repeats itself”, Alex Varga; “Second coming”, Tom Freeman. Letters to the editor,Daily Press, Monday, February 28, 2011.

Steve Williams, this reader is mad at you too. Where do you find these people? The only positive thing to say about these folk is that they have the courage to crawl out of their progressive cocoons and speak up. And what do we see and hear? Politically progressive octopuses whose arms are most adept at picking the pockets of the American taxpayer to further their big government agenda. Wikipedia informs us that the octopus is a very intelligent creature but two thirds of it’s neurons are located in their eight arms instead of their brains. The shoe seems to fit.

When a progressive talks about protecting jobs it is about union jobs not jobs for the unemployed. Our California experience is that the teacher, police, firefighter and correctional unions have been defrauding the taxpayers for the last thirty years. The theft has been dishonest because the unions give money to support the campaigns of the politicians sitting across the bargaining table. How can that be called bargaining? Would not the term “conflict of interest” be more appropriate?

Not only is the dollar their primary focus but they negatively intrude into the management of the very organizations they claim to serve. Intrusions that prevent the success of these organization. The failure of the California public school system with it’s monopolistic teacher tenure priority seem to be obvious. Full blown collective bargaining as defined by the Wisconsin and California unions is not an American right nor is it an American norm.

Thankfully, right to work states that include the public sector in their legislation are doing better in this depressed economy. Their more business friendly climates work for the American worker. The painful truth that the progressive will not acknowledge is that if you are unemployed, cross the state line and live in a right to work state. Our families have been forced to separate because our young have to work. And if a government job is not their thing, they have to go to a business friendly state, which is not California.

That brings us to that “fringe conservative”, Californian, Ronald Reagan. Maybe his fringe status is the reason why so may of us relate and honor this man. Ronald Regan was not intimidated by anyone, least of all the name calling of politicians. Calling a spade a spade whether Republican or Democratic, was his most admirable character trait. That is not to say that the second best president in our American history was a perfect president. Mr. Freeman correctly points that out for us. However, as a political philosopher and communicator, he was so very close to perfection.

If Ronald Reagan were president in our America, what would he say to the full blown public sector unions?

"Fire them all!" And we the fringe agree.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Government Unions

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

It’s about time. Thank you Wisconsin and Governor Walker for finally taking action against the greed of your public employee unions. Collective bargaining has helped to get we taxpayers into the current financial disaster. The demonstrators are advertising their selfishness and now are asking us to be sympathetic. This makes no sense. Keep on demonstrating teachers, police, firefighters, prison guards, and judges, for the longer you fight the more you are alienating those of us who pay your salary and pensions. Tell your AWOL senators that this isn’t America when they cowardly run to Illinois.

This reader is beyond tax paying years but where it is possible I refuse to pay taxes. We private sector employees should band together for a Tax Boycott until this injustice is fixed nationwide. Down with the governmental Madoff Ponzi scheme when the taxpayer has to make the investment for you. The rest of the country is suffering and now it’s your turn. The public sector will never get the workers of America working so you are of diminished value to us!

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Killing

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, Ca

Re: Recent letters concerning Muslims, Sharon Murguia. (February 18, 2011)

Before getting to righteous about the Judeo-Christian God, let us not forget from whence we have come and where we have yet to go. Forgetting can be so very convenient. In our own American history, we Christians have exterminated the savages in the name of our God. We have exterminated life opportunities for a variety of minorities, both through the evil of slavery and the more modern ghetto. Our failed public education system kills life opportunities for half of our children. Some of us would rather the children suffer for the rest of their lives than see any change in administrative control, pay and benefits (Wisconsin).

Ignoring injustice to further personal circumstances is killing. We Christians may not pull the trigger but the killing goes on, dead is dead. The Muslim vision of God may justify pulling the trigger but both religious traditions have some growing to do. The choice is not between Gods. The choice is ours.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

An Adult Conversation

The Bible is not a “Buddha” on the mantle to be worshipped. The Old Testament, particularly, is a history writing that recounts the experiences of a people for at least 1500 years. The lives of these obscure nomadic tribal peoples became influenced by what appeared to them as God. As the years passed, the vision of this God became clearer and less remote. However, God is not the main character in the story. The changing faith of the people of Israel in behest of this vision of God is the story.

About now you are protesting that such an understanding of Scripture does not prove the power and existence of God. This is true. What is also true is that if God could be proven there would be no need for faith. If we believers must accept at face value the description of God as painted by many differing generations under differing circumstances, we become confused, irrational, and dishonest. A blind faith that can be proved by “the Book” on the mantle is no faith at all.

O.K. it’s your turn.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

The Face Book Church

The computer revolution has downloaded the power and money to be made in exploiting human nature in the information age. As you know, it is called Face Book. The world and we Americas have stampeded to this tool to expand our social connections. The human need to belong to a group will find attachment somewhere, be it a street gang or Sunday morning worship. How many friends do you have? The answer to that question is what seemingly quantifies one’s value in our culture. Friendship is the American social ethic.

Grouping together has been a survival tactic from time immemorial and is not to be cast aside. Our list of friends brings security as we humans face a multitude of threats as a group rather than alone. The question for we thinking adults is to what extent? When does being a part of a group block our individual potential? When does our mutual admiration society shield us from the harsh realities of life instead of positively confronting them? Sadly most of us don’t go there or even ask the question.

The Church has a similar choice to make. If we are not there already, will we be the Face Book church? If so, what is the possible downside resulting from such an emphasis? The social Face Book ethic says, as do all human religions, “If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is a duck”. This conclusion is thought to be truth and tends to be the priority of the Face Book church. Is it? Should not Christianity cling to the primacy of faith in Jesus Christ? A faith that can not be seen or heard and surely does not walk.

Denominationalism has increasingly fractured the Church ever since the Reformation. The American Church has become a compound fracture. We already gather together with differing doctrinal, ethical, geographical, social, worship, racial and economic priorities. Will the addition of the Face Book church turn worship into a multitude of Christian cliques? Will not the Face Book priority make it impossible for the church to speak to this American culture with any semblance of unity and credibility? At what point do we cease to be Christian?

These are desperate times for the American church. The Danish people faced just such a crisis 200 years ago when the Lutheran Church was the state church. Christianity was the national, normal, expected life long gathering of family and friends of all Danes around a system of doctrine and worship. If you were a Dane, you were also a Christian. The gathering of believers was primarily a Protestant social order of friends and family who could think and live like what appeared to be Christian. The duck definition was enough to warrant the label of Christian.

Into this context arrives Soren Kierkegaard (1813 to 1855). In his person and thought he documented in his many writings, what it meant to be a Christian. He insisted that faith is more than a viable thinking system of believable doctrinal statements. Faith is more than an agreed upon ethical and social standard that fosters the warm and fuzzies for the duck flock. According to S.K., faith is an individual, desperate, called out “leap” into the stratosphere of “no matter what”. A leap of faith beyond any human description or justification.

Based on the biblical account of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his “son of promise”, S. K. named this faith the “teleological suspension of the ethical”. Ultimate things will stretch us beyond everything else upon the earth, even our agreed upon rules for life. This was such a radical understanding of faith that it won him no friends. Educated in the university to be a minister, he pastured no church, never married but instead chose to dive into the exposition in writing of an authentic faith that we believers avoid. And for most of us S.K.'s definition of faith is so very demanding and scary.

Soren Kierkegaard is regarded as the father of existentialism (Wikipedia). In just a few short years he explored God by exploring our human condition, our fears, pain, guilt, desperation, beliefs, etc., etc. The man and his situation in life is the beginning of all truth about God. Most of the philosophers who followed S. K. reduced existentialism to a mere anthropology (Becker, The Denial of Death). This is like constructing a math problem and then abandoning the problem and leaving it answerless. The answer for Kierkegaard was the Religious Man as that believer who has taken “the leap”.

“The leap” was not for the faint of heart. It was and is a commitment to doing not just being. The most scary part of the agreement is that the individual must commit before really knowing what he is committing too. The faith of the truly Religious Man is blind obedience that is beyond human explanations. And it will not be a pleasant experience. Pain and suffering is the reward for this commitment. In 1976, Elmer H. Duncan wrote an introduction to the thought of Soren Kierkegaard in one of a series called, “Makers of the Modern Theological Mind”. Please let me quote from page 92.


Why did Kierkegaard paint such a picture of Christian faith--- paradoxical, a life of suffering,shame, etc.? Of course, he was replying to Hegel and Feuerbach and the Danish Lutherans. But he also meant to be honest, to “tell it like it is”. And I find that young people respect his honesty; they find S.K.’s difficult faith-- and the challenge it involves-- more appealing than some popular alternatives that I shall not mention by name. But we might just whisper , “Are our churches so different from those Kierkegaard criticized?”


The author was asking this question of the Church of 1976, thirty five years ago, before the computer revolution and the threat of the Face Book spirituality of the Church. The popular alternatives then and through these intervening years have been and are pure foolishness. We have reaped a self involved laity and clergy who have downgraded spirituality to the level of being satisfied with mere earthly relationships. We have lost our distinctive. Being a true believer is not fun and certainly not popular. N0netheless, let us flee with due haste from the mere suggestion of a Face Book church (1Cor. 6:18, 1Timothy 6:11).

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

Politicians, Preachers and Parrots

Larry King this Sunday morning, December 26, 2010, was discussing the ending of his twenty fine year career as the CNN “Live” show host. King said that he would miss the show but he had no regrets for the years invested. A factor in the decision to move on was the slumping rating polls over the last few years. The competitions in his time slot, Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow, are admittedly more popular but King would not conform to the popular expectations of a cable show. “They are preachers not learners”, says King, who sees himself as a listening learner looking for a few life applications.

Preaching seems to be increasingly in vogue. There will always be a few of us arrogant enough to claim that they have the answers to life’s many challenges. Preachers of a multitude of denominational strips, cable personalities, as well as our politicians want their opinions heard but have little patience for listening. Career and financial concerns seem to occupy the same space in these quarters. The arrogant parrot with an increasingly popular lip-sync is squawking to gain an audience. Once established with a malleable audience, these birds become marketers of themselves in books, theologies, coffee cups, philosophies, politics, T shirts and paraphernalia.

Every preacher responding to the call of God is both a learner and a parrot. Every preacher needs a bit of both gifts and graces but the call to pontification seems to be the road more traveled. The parrots will protest that their motivations are saintly and are meant to advance a better faith, a better people and a better America. They claim that so many institutional demands are dumped upon the clergyman there is little opportunity to “own” a theology or a philosophy of life. Parroting the thinking of others allows focusing of available energies upon the immediate. The rational is understandable but shortsighted.

This is the long history of Christianity. Our time is different for no longer can we distort the Glory of God by dividing the people with sectarian hostility. The internet has transformed our human reality. While stumbling through a computer magazine in the doctor’s office, the truth of this new world was illustrated by an article entitled, “8 Things Killed by the Internet”. For the sake of a truth and a little humor they are: (8) Encyclopedia Salesmen, (7) Newspapers, (6) Bulletin Boards, (5) Video Rentals, (4) Faxing, (3) Yellow Pages, (2) Checks, and (1) Stamps. The steamroller of change doesn’t stop with these truths.

We are being forced by the internet to discuss life’s challenges in the broadest possible context. For the first time, all of us have the tool to be a part of any world wide discussion. This liberty does have an evil downside which is impossible to avoid. But even evil should be allowed to speak for all evil is in the eye of the beholder and there are no adequate filters. The parrots of every strip will also use the internet. The point is that the individual opinion of every person has an opportunity to be heard. No longer is “legal standing”, an appropriate degree or career path a prerequisite to speak. Free speech is finally here.

About now you are asking, what makes free speech good speech? When is speech worth listening to? It would seem the individual will have to answer that question. Politicians and preachers are not scientist’s and philosophers. Looking from the outside, the professional politician and the professional preachers commit themselves to parroting a narrow ideology or theology. This is not to demean their thinking for it has been layered by exposure to a professional mental assent. Very few politicians ever change parties let alone change to conservative from liberal or visa versa. People’s thinking stays fairly consistent.

Thinking speech is most able to engage our hearts and minds to focus on listening. Any attempt to communicate a universal truth based solely on dogma, the thinking of others, will squawk of parrot speech. As thinking amateurs we know of few voices that have blazed this trail. If we are looking for them, they have been with us and are here now but their voices are so very rare. Ronald Reagan was such a politician who broke the professional mold. As has been noted previously, C. S. Lewis did the same for theology.

What is unique about these thinkers is that they had a rational ideology or theology little influenced by parrot speech. One was an actor compelled to voice a common sense conservatism and the other was a writer and university literary professor compelled to voice a common sense theology. We amateur thinkers owe them a great debt. We are trying to think like you. Thanks.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

Union Arrogance

latimes.com/opinion

February 4, 2011

Thank you L.A. Times for your expose’ telling the truth about our prison guards union. The article in today‘s paper, “Workers Blamed for Rise in Prison Phones” by Jack Dolan, is a bit of a welcome surprise. This reader enjoys reading your paper to remain aware of how liberal California is not thinking. However, this article is an accurate and truthful description of this union and offers California some hope for meaningful change.

The Prison Guard’s union is a glaring example of the few arrogantly spitting in the face of we taxpayers. They are one of the primary reasons that California has become such a dump. The teacher’s union is cheering them on. Their educational system failure, all in the name of concern for kids, is a ridiculous and obvious lie. Instead of more money, they deserve less and must support independent charter school and home schooling directives. Reform would then be possible. Don’t hold your breath.

California is dying and the unions continue to keep the plug pulled. There is a filthy nasty ring forming around the taxpayer tub and when it is empty, our state will finally have to confront the greedy villains. At that time it will be too late.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca.

A Work of Art

C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer, Harcourt, 1963.

I will not believe in the Managerial God and his general laws. If there is Providence at all, everything is providential and every providence is a special providence. It is an old and pious saying that Christ died not only for Man but for each man, just as much as if each had been the only man there was. Can I not believe the same of this creative act-- which, as spread out in time, we call destiny or history? It is for the sake of each human soul. Each is an end. Perhaps for each beast. Perhaps even each particle of matter-- the night sky suggests that the inanimate also has for God some value we cannot imagine. His ways are not like ours. p. 55

If you ask why I believe all this, I can only reply that we are taught, both by precept and example, to pray, and that prayer would be meaningless in the sort of universe (managed universe) some picture. One of the purposes for which God instituted prayer may have been to bear witness that the course of events is not governed like a state but created like a work of art to which every being makes its contribution and (in prayer) a conscious contribution, and in which every being is both and end and a means. P..55 & 56.

St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 8 : 38 & 39,(Today’s New International Version).

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Who is the “us”? An exclusive sect of believers singled out by the Will of God to be special? Yes and No, the immediate context is about the choice to be known as Christian even in the face of persecution but St. Paul’s thinking about the love of God is much broader and all encompassing. What is the ultimate end of all creation? C. S. Lewis and St. Paul leave us “hints” that God is creating a work of art, at present an unfinished Masterpiece, to be shaped by the Love of God, often delayed and sometimes accelerated by the free will of men, but finally culminating in a reunification of all things and all persons in the Love of God, home at last!

This is the Christian faith to be believed. There is no scripted God of human description, rather an indescribable eternal artist!

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca.

Guilty

The criminal mind is a part of our DNA, each and every one of us, even me. You can chuckle but it is the human condition. When the bent of our criminal minds takes control of our actions, then our minds may produce criminals who break the law. There are moments when the vicissitudes of life fog up the distinction between having a criminal bent and being a criminal. I am guilty. Please allow me to confess.

In my sixty five years, forty seven behind the wheel of a motor vehicle and thirty eight years of driving commercially, I have never worn a seat belt voluntarily in the drivers seat. I just can’t bring myself to put it on. This criminality is indeed a part of my DNA. Will I insist that all passengers riding with me are attached properly? Do I wear a seat belt when riding with another driver? Always, but this stubborn California driver will remain a seat belt criminal. For short moments I ponder why but only for a few moments.

Such moments have occurred in the last six months. I have been stopped twice by the man for not wearing a seat belt. And as I said I’m guilty. My first seat belt violation was about ten years ago as an add on to a speeding ticket. Fair enough but it was only $82.00. Three months ago an Apple Valley sheriff pulled me over lights flashing within a few miles of the house for no other reason than my seat belt. Despite bubbling anger at such irrational enforcement of the seat belt law, I did pay the fine of $152.00. Three calls to the traffic commander, elicited no response, he is still hiding.

This criminal driver is protesting. No rational argument can be made that this ticket was about the safety of the other guy. Was it about my own safety? This is still America, if I choose to be confident enough to trust myself behind the wheel while being unattached, it is nobody else’s business! The law be damned, or more accurately the immoral enforcement of the seat belt law. The red light camera’s are another case in point. Municipalities, including Victorville, are taking them down because the truth is that their use was and is more about raising money for the system than they are about driver safety. Again, another case of unjust enforcement.

This context brings me to my second seat belt ticket in November 2010 and the third in a life time. Shame, Shame! While driving alone in my own vehicle within a few blocks of the house, obeying all other traffic laws, the California Highway Patrol pulled me over lights flashing. Officer J. Martin, badge # 19874, was watching for we criminal’s at the corner of Spring Valley Lake Parkway and Kalin Ranch Road. This is a favorite hangout for tax collection, for it seems that only the man considers it unsafe. The officer in question, who was barely old enough to shave, politely informed this driver that my seat belt was not attached. The ticket cost this driver $166.00. Guilty.

Can we put this conversation in the context of Miss Valles’s desire to restore nine more deputies to Victorville? Please shake up City Hall, Miss Valles, but we the legally driving public do not need more bullies in uniform to financially support your governmental employees. Their unions are about unfairly robbing the tax paying public, they think of themselves first, and we don’t need nine more. Contrary to the word’s of Miss Valles, the number one job of the government is not safety. Staying out of the pocketbook of responsible citizens is number one. Just because one governmental employee says we need more governmental employees is no surprise.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

A Challenge

Human events are in much confusion. A missionary to Mexico, Nancy Davis, is shot and killed by the druggies. There are riots in the streets of Egypt. The world is in financial crisis, the younger generations are rightly upset with this world’s political expediency. Injustice is the long tolerated norm of our politicians as they perpetuate abusive school and welfare systems. The hard working, tax paying, risk taking private sector worker is being victimized by American institutions that have been corrupted in the last forty years. As is, there seems to be few real options and little hope for future generations.

This reality confronts us every day. To date the only national response is for our politicians to kick the football around while the people suffer. Where can we look for authentic leadership in these times? Should the peoples of the world expect leadership from our spiritual and religious institutions? Where are they, saving the soul’s of men? Are they hiding behind their golden silence and the walls of the Church? The Church has volunteered to be irrelevant in the current crisis and therefore in the lives of men.

What have we learned in the 2000 years since Jesus walked the byways of Palestine? What has the Church learned since Jesus called to account the religious institutions of that time? Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter ten. The “robbers and thieves” of our time are leaving the people half dead and the predicted response of the “priest’s” and “lay leadership” is to pass on the other side in a time of crisis. Jesus did not open up a perpetual checking account for the man in crisis as some would assert. Rather the Samaritan showed mercy in a time of crisis which made personal responsibility possible.

The biblical mandates are clear and seemingly unavoidable. But where is the voice of the Church? The sinning church is an institution bent upon self preservation as opposed to doing Good. The Almighty dollar is the rule of this community. Those in institutional robes will retort, “who are you to criticize us, you are not Jesus”! Correct, but this chief among of sinners must speak out because the best of us won’t.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

Bugs

Letter to the editor

Daily Press

Victorville, Ca

Re: “Welfare Parasites?”, John E. Douglass, Letters, Jan. 26.

Thank you Mr. Douglass for your letter in response to Mr. Irwin’s critic of our present welfare system. Welfare is an honorable function of the American government for it gives the most desperate of us a chance at a positive success story. Your story beginning at least sixty years ago is such an admirable case in point. Thank you again for the testimonial.

Today’s welfare system is not about compassion for it has lost it’s original mission. To criticize the present system is an act of compassion because desperately needed change may save the honorable mission that the structure was intended to fulfill in our community. Please do not judge the criticism harshly but attempt first to evaluate it in light of the current parasitic system.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Not so factual

Re: “Not so fast”, (Alex Vargas), Daily Press. January 25, 2011.

Political verbiage is often emotional as opposed to factual. Thank you for your well written opinion defending our union culture but where are the facts? This Daily Press reader has been following the opinions of Steve Williams for many, many years. We do not agree at all points (maybe) but he has never had an opinion without the facts.

Those of us who have the facts know that the union culture is a leech in the underwear of the American taxpayer.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Lazy Money

There are over 31,000,000 folk who want your attention on the internet when “Lazy Money” is searched. None of the hits are serious information. Most are get rich schemes intended to bilk the desperate among us. As a country, it is time to take lazy money seriously. Why? The truth is that lazy money controls our politics, our economy, our banks, our trade relations, our politicians and most of all our national moral center. The “our” reference is we the people. Those of us who work hard to support our families and pay the taxes to support those who are supposed to represent us. Instead, lazy money is the grease that is destroying our democracy.

A definition of lazy money is now due. Lazy money is the stock market of Wall Street. Labor has been redefined as a spectator sport rooting for the upward tick of our investments or retirement funds. When the few create a disaster, we taxpayers pay the bill. Why aren’t the Wall Street thieves in jail? The rational for bailouts and stimulus actions is to protect the economy. Some would say that the actual motive is to protect Wall Street and the lazy money in the stock market.

One hundred and fifty years ago President Abraham Lincoln spoke just a few words to honor the fallen Americans at the Civil War battleground of Gettysburg. That critical hour was much like this critical hour. In that hour the greed of the few was fracturing the American governmental experiment. President Lincoln took a stand to preserve the union regardless of cost. In this hour the greed of the Wall Street few is fracturing our American governmental experiment. The people have no voice in their own destiny. There is no ethic, no right or wrong except as it might influence the stock market.

The people are merely a commodity to be used or abused as the market forces so dictate. You have the right to disagree with this assessment but some of us believe it to be our place in history. And we don’t like it. Are we the people powerless victims? No, at this moment in time we must stand up as Americans in like manner to the national resolve in the days of President Lincoln. Some things are worth dying for.

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last measure of devotion-- that this nation , under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

President Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

Heroes

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Re: “The real heroes” (Michael Smith, Letters, Jan 20)

O.K., then who are they? Mr. Smith prefers preventative reflection to parading and falsely accusing our American heroes of being heroes. The logic of it all escapes me but to each his own. They did not volunteer for the title or their obvious sacrifice. Yet their selfless sacrifice from the actions of a crazed gunman and their proximity to the political process leads some of us to believe that the shoe fits.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

The Cosmic Christ

The Cosmic Christ has authority over all things and makes all we humans ultimately powerless to resist his or her divine love advances. All of creation has a destiny to choose and be united with the warmth of our Creator. This God is the God whom all of us can trust as God. Yet, the Cosmic Christ is disrespected in the thinking of most of Christianity. Christian doctrine has much preferred to describe God as a galactic bully eager to trash a part of humanity in the eternal fires of hell and damnation.

In good conscience, we can not nor should we withhold from others what we have claimed to have received. This crime is beyond any definition of the love of God regardless of the crime of the individual. We all have failed to love God as Jesus commanded in Mark 12:30. Which one of us is qualified to love the Lord your God “with all your heart and with all of your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”. This humanly impossible command was and is intended to confront our self righteousness.

The Cosmic Christ is about peeling the onion of our false self to reveal who we are in God’s creation. Pain and suffering in this world and even in the next is God’s way of peeling the onion. All difficult circumstances are about furthering the day when all of our wills will voluntarily melt into a grand reunion with the God of eternity. With the help of a few thinking friends and a few difficult circumstances, this is the hope that this galactic pilgrim believes to be true.

G. Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

The Dogs are Barking

This political observer has been slow to warm up to Sarah Palin. I have been assuming that such a lovely lady could not have political smarts. Possibly I am ready to make a mental adjustment. Sarah’s video response to her immediate vilification by the progressive left following the Massacre on the Corner in Tucson was just angry enough. The political pundits on the right who are slow to endorse her words for fear of a backlash are chicken. Her words were carefully crafted righteous indignation. The henchmen dogs ( ggoslaw), including former President Clinton, deserve to be spoken too in such a manner.

Her usage of the term ‘Blood Libel’ was and is cause for timidity. The term has a long history in religion and politics. At issue is the long documented history of hatred, slander and slaughter of the Jewish people, the innocent race held accountable for the sins of a few religious extremists two thousand years ago in Palestine. The Pharisaical sect of Judaism flowered at the time of Jesus (Jeremias, "Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus"). This short lived grand Jewish spiritual overreach of a hundred years was guilty of throwing Jesus to the brutality of the Romans, not all Jews forever.

Every human institutional religion to some degree changes with the times. Whether we are of the Christian, Muslim or of the Jewish persuasion, we have all had our periods and incidents of irrational extremism. To hold the many accountable for the few is evil. To some of us it is worse than the original transgression of the few. This has been done to the Jewish people and to Sarah Palin. The senseless sins of a lone gunman, whatever his motivation, are being used in an attempt to paint all anti-government rhetoric the color of Red.

Rabbi Botech helps us to understand this “Blood Libel” history in an enlightening article published in The Wall Street Journal, Friday, January 14. He may not agree with the above assessment of the circumstances in Palestine two thousand years ago, but we are in overwhelming agreement that Sarah Palin and the tea party are being smeared in like manner to the Jewish people. No assessment can be said any better than the Rabbi’s own words, so please allow me to quote them.

“To be sure, America should embrace civil discourse for its own sake, and no political faction should engage in demonizing rhetoric. But promoting this high principle by simultaneously violating it and engaging in a blood libel against innocent parties is both irresponsible and immoral.” p. A 13.

We live in an evil world and the sad truth is that evil is effective. The Clintonian politics of personal destruction may win a few elections but it is still evil, it will be judged for what it is, be it in this world or the next (The Gladiator). When will we human kind wise up?

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.