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.

L.A.Times

Commentary

Wednesday, January 12, 2011.

“Brown’s plan-- pain everywhere”, by Tim Rutten

This is a well written, savvy explanation of Governor Brown’s plan for the new budget cycle. Even a financial neophyte like myself can get a grip on the Governor’s thinking. Continuing the twelve billion dollar tax increase corrupted out of the Schwarzenegger administration must be passed by the voters for the plan to work. The other half of the plan is to cut state services and salaries to the tune of twelve billion. Both of these extraordinarily difficult budgetary moves may stumble over their politics.

Does the governor have the political capital to pull off this miracle in Sacramento? The odds on his success will be very, very long. What are we to do if the voters turn down the taxes and we are already into the budget year, more craziness out of Sacramento? A more informed voice needs to speak to that potential situation but the plan has another significant flaw.

The plan is not fair. Newspaper editors like to use a piece title to please their primary constituency but the piece does not say what the title says. There is a disconnect. One would suppose that the editors assume that their readers are not reading, interesting. I am making this observation on my own and have no personal knowledge of nor contact with Mr. Rutten. In addition this criticism applies to our local paper. Integrity would seem to be the issue.

In this case the title, “Brown’s plan- pain everywhere”, is not supported by the text. The pain is not everywhere. Please let me quote Mr. Rutten, "Two categories of spending , however, are striking for their exemption from pain: kindergarten through 12th grade education and the state’s prison system. The prison guards , in fact, got one of the budgets only increases--from $8.9 billion to $9.1 billion…..".

This reader is a cynic about our politics. The unfairness of this preferential budget is a payoff to the unions who helped get Governor Moonbeam elected. Politics has not changed in 40 years but California sure has reaped it’s downside.

The simple assessment is that the plan is too short and too late and too unfair.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Sunny Comment

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. Are they not less dangerous than our enemies, or are they?

G.Goslaw

Victorville, CA

An Open Letter

January 13, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for being there for we Americans in Tucson this Wednesday, January 12, 2011. This observer is not about to demean anyone’s heartfelt motives but please allow me to ask a question. Was the last four days about the actual victims of the Tucson tragedy or was it about our own agenda’s? This question is not a “trick or treat” question, it is not a veiled threat. This sincere question comes from “the old school”, for a few of us got in the way of that mad man's bullets this Saturday. As a group of Americans we have done our thing and are most concerned about the future of our families and our America.

As much as I speak for any of my countrymen and women, we have a duty to ask this question. The most powerful line from your excellent address at the memorial service was, “this we can not do”! This noble sentiment was repeated at least three times. The direction was so appropriate, at such a time as this, the circumstances should not build up the walls between us but bridge the differences and unite all of us as Americans. We must pull together to preserve the union. You are familiar, indeed, with this motive as expressed by your most admired other president, President Abraham Lincoln.

The Civil War story was a crisis in American history similar to our current crisis. The question then was fundamentally the same as now, was this America to be built on the divisions among us or a national identity that was inclusive as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution. Is the government a servant of all the people or an earthly organization of the few organized to empower the lives of the few. That negative modality is the way the rest of the world operates, we Americans do not, or at least should not. Our history is not pure at this point but your seat as the leader of all Americans speaks of progress.

From the vantage point of one who cares about our American destiny, the current crisis seems to be a like minded attempt by the few to warp our union toward their control. Our first instinct is to think the best of people but at this time it is difficult not to be a conspiracy theorist, events appear orchestrated, one wonders who is plucking the strings? The implication is not that there is a sinister Anti-Christ amongst us, causing all these tragedies over and over again. Mad men kill in Tucson, New York City, Oklahoma City, Texas, and hundreds of other cities throughout our history. Killing is nothing new.

We will always experience such tragedies but at present the potentially violent people in trouble are being increasingly ignored by our elected officials. Every city in America can list a string of violence and cruelty in their own communities. Yet mental health resources are continuously being phased out leaving the ill without a viable option. Even when the ill do not seek help most of our communities have the legal resources to question aberrant behavior. We don’t until it's to late. We should be a community that intervenes civilly to help our neighbors. Where are the neighbors, the parents, the police and friends to confront those of us who are in trouble and give them an alternative?

These days have thrust upon us the added mad man violence of terrorism. We all have learned that this is the indiscriminate killing of like human beings for political and religious agendas, an insanity even more insane than the routine madness. Since 9/11, fear confronts us in response to this threat. The fear is real and justified, the threat is real but what does our government do? Republican and Democrat alike play politics with our fears, seeking to manipulate the body politic toward a prescribed agenda. The stated agenda is war abroad and carefully crafted politically sensitive regulation at home. This old goat, however, smells a dead rat.

There is only one motive that is consistent across party lines and Presidencies. The primary motive is not to keep us safe but to spend. Spend and spend, the politicians must feed the hungry beast of the military industrial complex regardless of the fallout on the average American citizen. Business and corporate interests cross feed on the lazy money of Wall Street. Every Washington office holder seems to have been birthed in the financial sector, all the moneyed lobbyists at least influence our politicians of every flavor. The political faces change but the influence does not. As a result we live under a runaway government that is intent on our demise as the world’s hope for justice among men.

In view of this suspicion let me return to my original question. What was the last four days about? Some of us would confess to being less than impartial observers but from all appearances there was an orchestrated opportunistic attempt to access blame for the shooting in an attempt to influence the politics of the moment. Without a shred of evidence the liberal elitist attack dogs were given the “sic’em” command. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, even to give priority to their mouths instead of their brains, but it appeared duly orchestrated.

Where were you for four days Mr. President? Were you relishing the blame game and all the name calling? Were you giving the commands so that you could ride into the fracas on a white steed and save the day? Or were you just following along with the playbook? Whose playbook may we ask? Did you allow the mourning process for these American heroes to become fodder in the guns of war for political supremacy? Must we politicize everything?

We expected an A-political Memorial Service intended to promote the grieving solidarity of this nation with the grieving victims of the Massacre on the Corner. Why did we get instead a political rally replete with liberal political agendas and the ambiance of a basketball game? I can not answer these questions for you Mr. President and you will not. However, many of us are intelligent enough to recognize the ploy and the diversion in the last for days and remain steadfast to our conviction that we are one America.

We aware Americans, will seek at the ballot box an equitable, for all, Constitutional government, in spite of every appearance of political manipulation. The Almighty dollar that is devastating the middle class will no longer be in charge of our government and our politicians. Unless, of course we as the citizenry of this great country deny our specialness, succumb to spending politics and become like the rest of the world. "This we can not do"!

Best wishes and kindest regards,

G.Goslaw

Victorville, California

Hey Jerry ...

Are you a proponent of the advertised Democratic motto of representing the disadvantaged? This budget plan declares war on the little guy, the bottom 20% of the economic ladder in California. Are we as a mature society to make the least of us support the economic greed of the working advantaged? It is positively sinful.

These are desperate times for all Californians with the necessity for dramatic cuts to governmental services. Please, the public sector has to bear the cuts. The grossly overpaid working secure unions have to be confronted with their greed, not assisted in their felony by our politicians. You may pay a price by being a one term governor but do it for California.

Besides union cuts, the welfare system needs targeting for it is broken. Welfare should be taxpayer funded for the dangerously needy but this state has a system that reeks of a ballooned undeserving clientele. Fraud, illegal aliens, mismanagement and those who are milking the system combine to bleed the honest taxpayer. It is not fair as well as sinful. We do not understand how the thieves among us can sit in church under a cloud of self imposed self righteousness. The blind are following the blind.

Our concern is primarily resources for the disabled. On a visit to the doctor a young man in a wheel chair struck up a casual conversation with those of us in the waiting room. He is facing his limitation with great courage but we as taxpayers want to assist him not the selfish. To make this distinction is a difficult job but take this moment in your long career and be the change agent that will give California a future. The departing governor missed his opportunity for the change he promised. This is your hour. No halfway measure will work.

Who knows I could even vote for you next time.

Kindest Regards,

G.Goslaw

Victorville, California

Our Heroes

January 11, 2011

Moments crash upon us that demand we put on Superman’s cape in the face of injustice. Such a moment occurred in Tucson Arizona on Saturday, 01/08/11. Outrage is the order of the day and a natural reaction to the injustice of such a senseless mass killing. We Americans are good at it, breeding mass killers. Some would blame the American psyche or the confrontational national rhetoric, both are slight of hand intended to manipulate the public to further another agenda. In reality these folk are more despicable than the killer.

There is little new here, when life doesn’t pan out according to advertised expectations, one option for the individual is to allow anger to consume, both themselves and whomever gets in the way. If we were Clark Kent, if we could jump into the nearest telephone booth and put on the cape to crusade against this injustice, what would we do? For most of us this is an anxiety producing question. We could apply a few Band-Aids to our American condition but regrettably this injustice seems to be an unavoidable byproduct of a free society.

The real insanity is to slavishly surrender our freedoms to a societal designer who would, supposedly, make life sweet and predictable. These lying folk or systems come along regularly to hawk their wares to a nervous public. Should we fear the insane few or the insane multitude who would destroy our freedoms? An overbearing federal government is one such threat. Just because there are a few unstable people who co-op the rhetoric doesn’t make the rhetoric insane.

Freedom is expensive and a few of us will always pay a higher price. Today’s freedom fighters were in Tucson, to include their families who suffer greatly. We mourn together. They are our heroes as much as any who have sacrificed for this Promised Land. The purveyors of hate and murder will always challenge us to be someone other than the shinning light on a hill, the American light of freedom that we were created to be. The fallen have joined a long list of freedom fighters and we are proud and a bit ashamed.

Ashamed at our own reluctance to step up to serve others by over prioritizing our own personal comfort. The American way is more than a job, a white house and our IRA accounts. We are not the world, we are better than this, we are Americans. How many times do we look the other way instead of getting involved? How many times do people in trouble cross our path and we ignore them? How often do our politicians increase the defense budget and skim away at the mental heath resources for our neighbors? We all are guilty.

As Americans, when we are at our best, we are just insane enough to believe that it is up to us individually to put on Superman’s cape and value our freedoms. The best of our freedoms is, as the Constitution states, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Do we value the life freedom for all? Do we give each American the opportunity to pursue their own dreams? Are we as demanding for the other guys freedom to chose their own way, as we are demanding of our own way? These freedoms are not for the few but all Americans.

Grab your Superman capes and let us follow our heroes.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

The Happiness Hypothesis

The obviously brilliant Bertrand Russell asks us to consider his methodology for life in his book, "The Conquest of Happiness”. In 1930 it was the social ethic of happiness. We just need to learn about ourselves and how to get along, a path that will lead to happiness. The description of the methodology is engaging, accurate, clear and to some extent an enjoyable read. Over the last eighty years Americans have been content to swallow and chew on Russell’s happiness hypothesis.

The result was and is the often advertised American dream. As Americans we can lift ourselves by the boot straps to achieve upward mobility. To this point Dr. Russell says nothing wrong or that is injurious to our society, however, his thinking does have one flaw. It is merely a human endeavor to shape life around human priorities, it is secular thinking that has no divine imperative. Does God lead by the happiness hypothesis?

The Scriptures say no but instead of confronting Russell, the church decided to co-mingle the Gospel and the hypothesis of happiness. In ignorance, I hope, the church advertised itself by using self help methodology offering happiness, upward mobility, prosperity, success, health and social acceptance. This partnership with Russell, whom the church despises on paper, has denigrated the authenticity of the church. The Scriptures have no patience with Russell or the church at this point.

Moses was asked to go from the happiness of Midian to confront the other God, the Pharaoh of Egypt. Jesus was asked to leave the happiness of the countryside to go to the conflict in Jerusalem. The Pharisee of Pharisees was asked to leave the confines of his religious community to be a Christian renegade. A monk in an Egyptian monastery is asked to leave the comfort of his garden tending to go to Rome and their to be slaughtered in the Arena, shaming the audience for their unethical understanding of happiness. These are only a few of the inherent contradictions between the happiness hypothesis and the Gospel of God.

The Gospel is about giving it up, happiness that is, under the direction of God. Bertrand Russell considered God talk human insecurity and of no concern in his hypothesis of happiness. Instead of siding with Dr. Russell the church should be presenting the truth of the gospel, as unattractive as that may be.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, CA.

Our Fine Feathered Friends

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

P.O. Box 1389

Victorville, Ca. 92392

Well, our fine feathered friends are back doing our business in Washington, D. C. Sorry for the less than respectful nomenclature but Washington has run us into a cavernous ditch.

There is a new flock in town squawking promises to we the people. There is cause to hope but are they really listening? We shall see but change has to be now for we will not be placated. Across the board sizable cuts including military, defense and Home Land Security .... this is what we are demanding of you. The people want an end to giveaway trade deals that also play to the lazy money on Wall Street.

Our fine feathered friends, start squawking a hopeful tune that is real not just politics. Are you still listening? Are you eagles or sparrows? Please, fly high our fine feathered friends.

G. Goslaw

Victorville, CA

Book Response

Horton, Michael, "Christless Chrisatianity: the Alternative Gospel of the American Church", Baker Books, 2008.

Great hesitation is hindering my comments on this book, “Christless Christianity, The Alternative Gospel of the American Church”, by Dr. Michael Horton. It seems that when this learner is touched positively by a book I am in the thinnest of minorities, in fact, my approval seems to be a literary curse. This book does not deserve such an ignominious fate. This book is, however, a critique of the American church that should cause the churchmen of America to question what they are doing and saying. And as a critique it will be badmouthed.

Being prodigals of the “me generation”, a corporate confession of the accuracy of Dr. Horton’s thesis is overdue. The unintended consequence of the revivalist era of the American church is a self absorbed church that has given God a backseat. We have ignored the Godship of God and worshipped ourselves. Case in point is the following quote from page 241 of his book.

"No longer saved from damnation--they (we; gg) are now saved from unpleasantness. We are the walking dead, forgetful that our designer-label fashions of religion and morality are really a death shroud. To paraphrase Jesus, we go through life like corpses with lipstick, not even aware that all of our makeovers and self improvements are just cosmetic (Matt. 23: 25-28)."

The expanding and dominate new Pharisaism of the church is old human self worship, as it was in the time of Jesus. The church, therefore aggressively moves to parallel the culture instead of confronting it with God’s values. Once in a while a book like this arrives that may jar us into spiritual reality. However, we cowardly saints, we the faint of heart, we need not waste our labors listening for divine directives from our God who is but our pathway to societal acceptability. It would seem that such an understanding of God is most comfortable.

"All that is necessary to become unwitting Pelagians (and Pharisees; gg) is less preaching and teaching of the law and the gospel--downplaying the means of grace (Word and Sacrament) in favor of our means of transforming ourselves and our world. Since self-trust is our default setting, we can never assume that we really get the gospel and can now move on to our own works. Even when we talk about our obligations to God and neighbor, it must be grounded first of all in the gospel of salvation by grace apart from works. So when the church loses its interest in doctrine (a word that simply means “teaching“), it is no surprise that we will drift back to our most familiar religious and moral assumptions." P. 244

Put most bluntly we are the sinning church, blinded to our own frailty by the darkness in our hearts. With a Pauline, “therefore”, we can hope because by the gift of faith we become dependent upon the adequacy of our Savior. The failure to acknowledge that fact belies our testimony. Every believer to be biblical and Christian, is an acknowledged moral failure. Our local paper carries a series of articles on the religion page written by a local pastor. Rightfully evangelistic, the invitation sounds like the church has the moral high ground and of course you sinners can be there too.

This moral and spiritual high mindedness is the rule of the Church and would seem to be symptomatic of the author’s critique. How more truthful to say, we the church are a group of spiritual losers who have been introduced to the God who gives meaning to our lostness. To me, this is what it means to be Christian.

"People are looking for authenticity, but this includes acknowledgment of our sin and self righteousness and our need for Christ. What could be less authentic and honest than assuming that our lives can preach better than the Gospel?" P. 157

Will the critique of this book bring needed change? One can only hope.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.