The Problems in the Church II

OK, I probably wore you out with the previous blog.  That is why I have title this one - II

There are problems, plural.  But if you take a close look at what we have come though in my lifetime, then there has to be hope.

I have the feeling that Rachael is no longer crying for her children - in our nation.

I was privilege to help implement the integration of blacks in to the USAF and we did it with no real problems, but if you would have asked me a year previously, I would have doubted it.  I had spent 30 days taking care of the Morning Report for an all-black unit that was attached to our base and when I got back to my barracks in the evening, the rants began.  But the unit, from their Captain down to the newest recruit, each man respected me and I would have been less than a man to have not respected them.

Such was not the case during my college years in Atlanta, GA, at the time when the Supreme Court issued their ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education, literally commanding the States to end their discrimination practices when it came to education.  I will never forget the attitudes of co-workers at my part-time job, all Southern ladies, I had thought, but given the tone and the language of their responses, they might have been Southerners, but they certainly was not ladies.

After graduation, I began work as an employment consultant and would discover that all of our records were coded so as to tell us the race or the sexual preferences of each candidate - and that was in California.  We were ordered to delete the codes, but I would discover that if I presented the experience and potential, properly, it was not difficult to place people with a real interest of working, regardless of their race or sexual preference.

Things have improved in that area except that for reasons unknown to most of us, most black people seem to prefer their own race when it comes to religion.  Having attended many of their churches, I still prefer them when it comes to an enthusiastic response to the word of God, but I am careful where I express such thoughts.

Then, there is the church and our gay brothers and sisters.  It amazes me.  I have a number of gay friends and in fact, attended gay churches before moving to this area.  I do have some problems with some of them with regard to certain scriptures, but when it came to fellowship, I have more trouble with churches following a faith that is foreign to me.

Very interesting, as I paused after the last paragraph, my TV was turned to watch James Robinson and I heard him tell his audience, "I won't give up on a marriage between a man and a woman" and I suppose he is saying, he will never support so-called "gay" marriages. Sounds good, but I have known several same-sex married couples and find that they are really concerned about one another and I have known gays who were not married and there were several reasons for their lack of interest in a marriage.  It all reminds me of my early days in church where some of the ladies were busy talking about marrying off their sons and daughters even before they had become of age.  I know of two of such marriages in which the husband brutalized his wife as his father had brutalized his mother and another where the wife became the most promiscuous woman in the area.  One of the children is still serving life in prison for murdering a friend.

Marriage ought not to be a community affair.  Certainly a celebration is in order but other than that, the two do not need the counsel or endorsement of others who are not intimately involved with their lives, to become successful. That ought to be policy and the commitment of the church.

Regarding scripture, in the older testament, the comments regarding homosexuality came at a time when the nation of Israel was in the process of formation.  The need for people was their most urgent issue and certainly to endorse same-sex marriages would not be appropriate.

Sometimes I wonder how many of the Biblical apologists ever look beyond the words they see in print.  And speaking of marriages, how many of our religious counselors have the knowledge to deal with lives that are not obliged to live by religious tenets?

February 28, 2014

Technically, if you ask the insurance company actuaries, today is my 85th birthday.  Don't you worry if you missed sending me a birthday card.  My actual birthday is not until the 28th of August, but since the February date represents six months past the actual date of an insured's birth, they declare you to be the age you will become on your next anniversary.  Don't worry, it's just their way of increasing your "investment".  And don't worry if you think it is unfair; it is just the way it is.  Life moves on....

Well, you could say that I received a birthday present, early, yesterday.  I watched our President on TV announcing another new program, but don't fret, it won't cost you a dime.  As a matter of fact, in my opinion, it could - possibly, save you some money, in the form of tax dollars you might not be spending.

This new program, entitled "My Brother's Keeper" is based on the President's realization that he suffered through many of the same obstacles facing far too many of our young "black" brothers.  In my words, they face an identity crisis and it has become a fact of life in too many homes in America.

Yes, I know, I faced similar struggles when I was young, but I was not black, but white, and tho people who could help me were generous in their contributions.  There was seldom any reluctance on their part.   Then, I learned about such problems while I was in the Air Force and because of my job as a Personnel technician on our base in Japan, I was instructed to help with the integration of blacks into the routines of what had been, an all white organization.

At first, I was rather apprehensive; in fact, a Master Sergeant who out ranked me in our offices assured me that integration would never work.  Well, it did work, thanks to the quality of black airmen assigned to our base.  They were - as a matter of fact, some of the finest men I have ever worked with.  Three of them would become my life long friends.   Remember now, I was a white boy raised in an all-white farm community in Michigan.  I had never seen a black person up close until those men came into my life.

Then, I chose to attend college at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA in 1953.  It was not long before the Supreme Court ruled on the Brown vs. Board of Education case, granting blacks the right to attend schools that had previously rejected blacks.  Working, part time, in a local department store, I was shocked to hear the responses of my all white co-workers on the day that decision was announced.
Had I not been recently married and was intent of earning a college degree, I would have been ready to join my brothers and sisters in the struggle to gain their dignity in the Southern states.  As it was, I made a decision that I would never cease to promote racial equality, wherever, whenever, and I am proud to say I have never reneged on that vow.

The fact that we have a black couple as leaders in a nation that came together agreeing to the premise that all peoples are created equal in the site of God, it should be obvious that we should all agree that this thought be uppermost in our thoughts and intentions.  Unfortunately, it is not.

Therefore, our President has acted on our behalf.  He has not asked us to join with him, financially, as he asked many of our nation's leading organizations and employers to do, but if we are agreed that - in spite of our often publicized differences, we need to right the wrongs experienced by too many blacks, then this is our opportunity to help.  That is my prayer that we will do so without even a murmur of discontent.  We have had more than enough of political wrangling in recent years.

As I learned so many years ago, thanks to a high school Commercial teacher who assumed he could teach me to type by having us repeat the following, over and over and over again - "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of our country," I think these words say what needs to be said.