At Last

Hurricane season is over.

Conspiracy Theories

What’s behind the need of some folks to run after conspiracy theories? This spans all denominations and political philosophies; the manipulators of history are also varied–for some it’s the Jews, for others the Freemasons, for others the Illuminati, for others the Jesuits (and some creative folks find ways to link these all together, though they differ on who is pulling the strings).

Hugo Mendez has some fun quoting some folks who accuse me of being a Jesuit in disguise because I dared to expose some errors in their patron saint, Walter Veith.

Conspiratorial Catholics got after me in 2002 because I posted an expose of the antisemitism of Catholic apologist Robert Sungenis.

Cornerstone felt the heat when it published an expose of Alberto Rivera.

All of which merely confirms the validity of the old adage that it is useless to try to convince a conspiracy buff that there is no conspiracy–he’ll just be convinced that you are part of it.

For what it’s worth, I was never all that enamored of the Jesuits–as a group they always struck me as way too liberal and New Agey. I took one class in grad school from a Jesuit; that was a seminar on the American Catholic Community and Slavery in Antebellum America, taught by R. Emmett Curran, SJ (who since left the Jesuit order). I had dinner with Mitch Pacwa, SJ, once (and appreciate his exposes of New Age practices). I met some New Orleans Jesuits at a campus ministry conference sponsored by the Legionaries of Christ. But that’s the extent of my contact with Jebbies. I had much more contact with Opus Dei, as I had an Opus Dei spiritual director for about eight years, went to evenings of reflection and retreats, and was a “Cooperator.” I also was much influenced by Franciscans, having taken a couple of classes from Franciscans while in seminary (including courses in the history of spirituality from Michael Blastic, OFM Conv., and Dominic Monti, OFM, at the Washington Theological Union), and having been a member of John Michael Talbot’s Brothers and Sisters of Charity for about a dozen years.

I do agree with the conspiracists that all error shares a common source: the Father of Lies. I believe that his key lies were spoken to Eve: “You shall not surely die;” “You shall be as gods.” These lies undergird the New Age movement, speculative masonry, paganism, and errors such as the immortality of the soul (and related teachings). There is truth, and we need to be wary of all those movements and ideologies that would tell us that truth doesn’t matter, or that truth and error, darkness and light, are just two sides of the same coin. We know from Scripture that history is moving towards a telos point–good and evil are polarizing, and the great controversy will build to a climax.

But I’m not called to preach conspiracies; I’m called to preach Christ. I’m not called to teach the doctrines of men, but the Word of God. That must be the basis of all our teachings.

We’re lazy, however. We want someone else to do our thinking for us, and we surrender too easily our own conscience to a church or a favorite theologian. Paul faced this in Corinth–one group claimed to follow him, another followed Apollos, another followed Peter (see 1 Cor. 3). All tied their own identity to some human being whose package they had bought into. Adventists faced it at the 1888 General Conference, with partisans of Jones and Waggoner on one side and of Butler and Smith on the other. Ellen White responded to these battles by emphasizing the need of all of us to search the Scripture with humility:

There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation.

We are living in perilous times, and it does not become us to accept everything claimed to be truth without examining it thoroughly; neither can we afford to reject anything that bears the fruits of the Spirit of God; but we should be teachable, meek and lowly of heart. …

The Lord designs that our opinions shall be put to the test, that we may see the necessity of closely examining the living oracles to see whether or not we are in the faith. Many who claim to believe the truth have settled down at their ease, saying, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” [Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 35]

This is in keeping with the teaching of Scripture: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1); “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:2); “they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

If you do this, you’ll be commended by God. If you turn from this to hang on the words of any man, regardless of his pedigree or persuasiveness, or run after “cunningly devised fables” (2 Peter 1:16), you risk much.

Making Communion Bread

From Michael Paulson at the Boston Globe–links to an article and a video about a company in Rhode Island that makes communion wafers for Catholic churches. Interesting economic points: after 9-11, sales went up; after the sex abuse scandal, sales dipped 15%.

Fast Food > Slow Brain

Research on mice links fast food to Alzheimer’s.

Prop 8 & Tax Exemption

Gay activists are now threatening to go after churches who supported California’s Proposition 8 to remove their tax exemption. The New York Times agrees; Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State does not.

“They almost certainly have not violated their tax exemption,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the leading advocacy organization on the issue. “While the tax code has a zero tolerance for endorsements of candidates, the tax code gives wide latitude for churches to engage in discussions of policy matters and moral questions, including when posed as initiatives.”

Generally speaking, churches, schools, and nonprofits that are 501c(3) organizations are prohibited from spending more than 20 percent of their budgets on political activities, Lynn said, noting that his organization is held to the same standard.

The 20 percent threshold means that the Catholic or Mormon churches, whose organizations span the globe, would have had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars – if not billions – to violate their tax-exempt status.

Despite common perceptions, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave relatively small amounts of money to Prop. 8. The church’s sole filing by Nov. 4 was for $2,864.21, according to the California secretary of state’s office. The church said that was an in-kind donation to pay for plane fare for its members. More in-kind donation filings are expected from the church, though the total probably will still be far below the threshold.

It was individual Mormons who contributed up to $20 million toward the Yes on 8 campaign, possibly totaling up to half of the campaign’s contributions. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the leading Catholic body in the nation, gave $200,000, while the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal group, gave $1.25 million to the effort.

Houston Exhibit on Papal Funerals

At the National Museum of Funeral History, of course.

The Dalai Lama on Celibacy

The Dalai Lama trumpets the advantages of celibacy over conjugal life.

“Expelled” in Aggieland

“Expelled” was shown at the College Station SDA church for the AY program. Some graduate students at A&M then said, “Uh, can we discuss this?” An account.

I had posted on “Expelled” here and here.

Advent Reflections

At the beginning of the Advent season, the four weeks before Christmas, some reflections.

• Advent Hope (a sermon last year).
• From Commonweal: Whatever Happened to Advent?
• Alternatives for Simple Living
• Advent Conspiracy

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
(Refrain)

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
(Refrain)

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
(Refrain)

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
(Refrain)

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
(Refrain)

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
(Refrain)

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
(Refrain) MIDI

Greed Kills

Today is indeed a black Friday for the family of a 34-year-old Wal-Mart employee in Valley Stream, Long Island, NY–he was trampled by an unruly mob rushing the store to get in for the sales.

Update: A fuller report here, with news that police will try to find those responsible. I think they need to start in the advertising departments of these stores, which created this stupid thing and fanned the flames of fanaticism.

One Day Only

Not a sale — but a one time day to honor the contributions of American Indians. Today, the first and only Native American Heritage Day. Then (apparently) we can go on forgetting them.

Mumbai and the Media

Javits comments on the role of the international and Indian media in covering the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Sharing It with the World

From R. Adlerstein at Cross Currents:

Should Jews actively promote Jewish values to the rest of the world? For two millennia, there was not much of a question. No one would listen. Today in the West we have the ability to speak our minds, and often a large audience of those who believe that Jews have access to a treasure-trove of Divinely communicated wisdom. They are open to, and invite, our sharing it with them.

This is where the debate begins, not ends. Some believe that anything we say will in time be used against us, as it always was. Our stance towards others should be respectful and cooperative – but not educative.

Others believe the very opposite. It is more dangerous, they believe, to allow a world to plunge headlong into moral darkness. Besides, we have a Torah imperative to create universal respect for G-d (see Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvos, Positive Mitzvos #3). How better to do it than by showcasing the power of His teaching?

Probably by temperament more than anything else, I lean to the latter position.

On the Table

The centerpiece today was a Tofurky,  basted with a mix of soy sauce, olive oil, a little OJ, some sage and some fresh rosemary and oregano, surrounded by potatoes, carrots and pearl onions (all arranged around the sliced Tofurky on the platter). Sides included snow peas, cranberry sauce, stuffying, the cranberry dumplings that came with the Tofurky, yams (mashed, then baked with maple syrup and pecans), and salad. Desert: pumpkin and pecan pies.

Afterwards, a game of Apples to Apples, and then, for me, a 14 mile bike ride along Buffalo Bayou.

Institutional Ethics

They had a problem in Tyler, Texas. The Catholic hospital wasn’t abiding by Catholic teaching. It was performing sterilizations. The administrators went through some creative mental gymnastics in saying it was going by a “good faith” interpretation of Catholic teaching, as reinterpreted by certain ethicists. The bishop is shocked–shocked!–to learn there are dissenters in his diocese. Article. CNS.

When Miracles Grow Old: A Thanksgiving Reflection

Let’s do a little remembering, this Thanksgiving. Let’s remember why we celebrate this day. I’m going to begin with a little history first, and use this history as an entry into a Scriptural reflection.

Let’s start with the Pilgrims. Who were they?

They were English Protestants in the early 1600s who sought to worship God in purity. They were Puritans, who wanted to rid the Church of England of human traditions and rituals that weren’t found in the Bible. But they were the most radical of the Puritans. They didn’t think the Church of England could be purified—they felt they could only be faithful to God by leaving it.

They took to heart what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:14ff:

Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? … Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate.

On that level, these Separatists seem a lot like us. But other aspects of their faith would strike us as strange.

They were rigid Calvinists, who believed that God had elected some to salvation and others to damnation.

Their only music was the Psalms.

They believed that each local congregation should be independent—a group of believers in covenant with one another and with God.

Those who founded Plymouth were mostly members of a congregation in Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire. Their leaders were John Robinson and William Brewster. Their actions gradually brought about confrontation with church officials and with the king.

In 1603 King James I took the throne. He wanted uniformity—that’s why some years later he went on to authorize a translation of the Bible, the “Authorized Version,” or “King James Version,” in 1611. The Puritans and Separatists would have nothing to do with it, preferring the Geneva Bible.

King James became finally declared, “I shall harry them out of the land.”

So starting in 1607 they began to flee to Holland, settling in Leiden. It was a safe haven, but not a place they felt was a permanent home. They were English, and wanted their children to grow up as English. They began to think that maybe God was calling them to a new place, America. They entered into negotiations with merchants who were eager to sponsor a new colony, and part of the congregation set off late in the fall of 1620.

William Bradford wrote of their departure: “they left that goodly and pleasant city which had been their resting place for near twelve years; but they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.”

It was a dangerous voyage, as Bradford tells us in his book, Of Plimouth Plantation; they made it across the ocean only to discover they had landed far to the north of where they had hoped to settle. It was November, and they had to make new plans quickly, and decided to settle wherever they could find a place with a harbor, good soil, fresh water, and high ground that could be defended.

They were a mixed body of Saints and strangers, of pilgrims and adventurers, and had to come up with a form of government that all would accept. They called it, The Mayflower Compact, and 41 men signed it on November 11, 1620, off of Cape Cod. Some of the names are familiar—some less so. John Carver, chosen as governor; William Bradford; Edward Winslow; William Brewster; Isaac Allerton; Myles Standish; John Alden; John Turner; Francis Eaton; James Chilton and more. Chilton’s name jumps out when I read it—he’s my 11th great-grandfather.

They found a place, an abandoned Indian village called Patuxet, and put up a common building quickly. The first winter was rough—of the 121 who set sail, only 47 were alive.

That spring they signed a peace treaty with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags. The Indians taught them how to grow corn, using fish as fertilizer.

And in the fall of 1621 they came together for three days to celebrate the harvest, praising and thanking God. They didn’t invite the Indians—that was a bit of an accident. The Indians heard gun fire and were a little worried, and went to see what was going on. Massasoit took 90 warriors with him, just in case, and when they saw it was a party, they went and shot five deer and some turkeys. Together with the turkey and deer, they had corn and pumpkin, fish and clams and lobsters—washing it all down with warm homemade beer.

Joy and I visited Plymouth for the first time when we were students at Atlantic Union College. Some years later, when we were living in Vermont, my daughter had to spend some weeks in a hospital in Massachusetts; my wife stayed with her. The day after Thanksgiving my son and I drove over to Plymouth for the day. He was four. We went to the reconstructed ship, the Mayflower II and to Plymouth Plantation. We saw Plymouth Rock, and then walked up the steep Leiden Street. I told him the story of our ancestors, and how they had carved out this settlement on that shore 400 years ago.

No, they weren’t the first English settlers—Jamestown was before Plymouth. But Jamestown was a settlement of men, looking for adventurer. Plymouth was a settlement of families, who came to stay.

No, it wasn’t the most prosperous colony—but they had guts, fortitude, and courage—and they had faith in God. They made the decision to leave the comforts of home; they made the decision to risk a perilous ocean voyage; they made the decision to stay in the wilderness instead of trying to find the land they were told to settle in; they struggled to survive, and learned from the Indians—but in it all they trusted God, and gave him all the credit, and thanked him for his providence.

Those are the things we recall when we think of the Pilgrims and that first thanksgiving.

But it didn’t become an annual celebration for them. Oh, they continued to thank God for his blessings—in good time, and bad. And bad times came.

Though the first generation saw peaceful coexistence with Massasoit, their children experienced dreadful war when his son, known as “King Philip,” unleashed a bloody war that united the tribes of New England against the Puritans. The town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, was especially hard hit. The minister’s wife, Mary Rowlandson, was captured in 1676, and the town was burned. The account of her captivity became a best seller. She called it, “The sovereignty and goodness of GOD, together with the faithfulness of his promises displayed.” That was the Puritan view of life.

But that’s only part of the story behind our celebration of Thanksgiving.

It didn’t become a national celebration until 1863, when, in the middle of a war, President Abraham Lincoln called for a national day of Thanksgiving to be held on the last Thursday of November.

That year had been a bloody one: Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga—the three bloodiest battles of the war—were fought in that year, with combined casualties of 115,000.

And yet in the midst of war, Lincoln could thank God. Let me read his proclamation:

“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.”

He noted that despite being “in the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity,” no foreign nation took advantage of our weakness. In the cities outside of the war zone, “order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed.”

Despite having to divert energy and resources for the war effort, this had “not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship.” The nation continued to expand, mines yielded their treasures, harvests were plentiful, population increased.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

Because of this, he continued,

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

Lincoln saw that even in the best of times we get caught up in life and forget to thank God. In time of suffering, we think so much of our loss that we sometimes seek to blame God instead of thanking him. But it is especially at such times that we need to come together in humility. Especially at such times, we need to remember that we are in his hands.

Notice there is no blame in Lincoln’s decree. He didn’t blame the South. He didn’t accuse the South of rebellion. He spoke of the war as a judgment of God for our sins, for “our national perverseness and disobedience.” It wasn’t something to celebrate. It wasn’t something to revel in. But that judgment was tempered with mercy, and God still proved himself to be good.

And now, let’s turn to our Scripture reading. It’s from Numbers 11, and it shows that the children of Israel could be forgetful, too.

That’s hard to fathom, if you think about it. They should have gotten the point that God could be trusted. I can understand them being a little skeptical when Moses first went to them. After all, 430 years in bondage and now he says God is going to work miracles and get them out?

But they saw miracle after miracle. Ten plagues came and went, and Pharaoh said they could go. God opened the red sea, and they walked through.

They should have gotten the point that God could be trusted.

But within a few weeks they forgot all about what God had done for them and began complaining. Exodus 16 says it was the 15th day of the second month after they’d gone out.

“Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

God didn’t rebuke them. Instead, he opened up the storehouses of heaven and said, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.” You’ll get it for six days—on the sixth day, you’ll get a double portion, to last over the seventh.

And on top of that he gave them meat, enough quail for everyone.

But even then, some didn’t listen. Some tried to keep the manna overnight, but it rotted. Some went out on the Sabbath to look for it—but it wasn’t there. That’s when God starts getting a little frustrated. “Just do what I told you to do!”

In Numbers 11, the story is repeated, but some time has passed. They’re in their second year of freedom. They’ve seen the miracle day after day all this time—but it doesn’t impress them anymore. The extraordinary has become the ordinary. The miracles are old hat now, and they begin to long for the “good old days.” Verse 4:

“Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”

At this point, God has had enough. It doesn’t say what he said to Moses. It just says, “God was displeased.” Now Moses does some complaining—and he says it’s God’s fault. He, too, has ceased to trust God. He was the instrument through which God worked. He had spoken with God on the mountain. But now he’s burned out from listening to the complaining. He’s thinking it all lies on his shoulders. Verse 11.

“Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,’ to the land which You swore to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now—if I have found favor in Your sight—and do not let me see my wretchedness!”

God does two things.

First, he gives Moses help. The spirit falls upon 70 elders, who are to assist Moses.

Second, he sends the people quail again, and as they greedily gather it up, never once pausing to thank him or to praise him or to apologize for their complaints, “while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was aroused against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.”

What did God expect? Simply what Scripture says in Proverbs 3: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
They didn’t trust him. They didn’t even acknowledge him. They turned from complaining in the bad times to gorging in the good times. In both, they acted as if God didn’t exist.

And things go from bad to worse. In Numbers 12, Aaron and Miriam turn against Moses because of his wife. In Numbers 13, Moses sends spies into Canaan—but the people, instead of rejoicing, only complain more. So God shuts the gates to the promised land and swears that he’s had enough. None of that generation would go in. They would wander for 40 years.

At the end, God would remind them, Deuteronomy 8,

… that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

That’s what God asks of us. That we might know that “man shall not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.”

That’s the point we’ve been studying this quarter in our Sabbath School lessons. God lets us experience trials that our faith might be purified, that we might ever more lean on him, that we might praise him and thank him at all times.

That’s the lesson the Pilgrims give us. They believed in providence. They believed that we are in God’s hands. They praised him in times of plenty and in times of famine; they praised him in time of war and in time of peace.

That’s the lesson Lincoln gives us, too, in his proclamation. He, too, believed in providence. And in the midst of war, the most cruel and devastating war to hit our homeland, he called on the nation to join in giving God thanks.

The pilgrims and Lincoln both knew the scriptures. I think Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, beginning with verse 4, conveys this same point:

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. … Be careful for nothing; [Don’t be anxious about anything] but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Paul tells them that he has experienced want, but he says,

“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

That’s what God wanted the children of Israel to learn, too. Trust him. Believe his word. Know that he will do what is best. Be content.

He wanted to lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey, but Scripture tells us they wouldn’t go in. He had delivered them with might—but they were afraid. He had fed them in the desert—but they were afraid. He had given them meat—but they were afraid. He showed them the land—but they were afraid. They wouldn’t go in.

Will you go in?

Will you enter the land the Lord wants to give you?

Will you dwell in this state of peace that he wants for you?

Then open your eyes. See the miracles that are around you. Look up from the problems of life, the stress and the worries, to the Father who holds you in his hands. Acknowledge him, and today, and all days, give him thanks and praise, through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanksgiving

A couple of posts I made last year:

• Secularizing Thanksgiving
• History of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Hymns

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day all offenses purge away,
Giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.

Not Alone for Mighty Empire

Not alone for mighty empire, stretching far over land and sea,
Not alone for bounteous harvests, lift we up our hearts to Thee.
Standing in the living present, memory and hope between,
Lord, we would with deep thanksgiving, praise Thee more for things unseen.

Not for battleships and fortress, not for conquests of the sword,
But for conquests of the spirit give we thanks to Thee, O Lord;
For the priceless gift of freedom, for the home, the church, the school,
For the open door to manhood, in a land the people rule.

For the armies of the faithful, souls that passed and left no name;
For the glory that illumines patriot lives of deathless fame.
For our prophets and apostles, loyal to the living Word,
For all heroes of the spirit, give we thanks to Thee, O Lord.

God of justice, save the people from the clash of race and creed,
From the strife of class and faction, make our nation free indeed;
Keep her faith in simple manhood strong as when her life began,
Till it find its full fruition in the brotherhood of man!

Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

We Gather Together

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

We Plow the Fields

We plow the fields, and scatter the good seed on the land,
But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand;
He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.

Refrain

All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above,
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord
For all His love.

He only is the Maker of all things near and far;
He paints the wayside flower, He lights the evening star;
The winds and waves obey Him, by Him the birds are fed;
Much more to us, His children, He gives our daily bread.

Refrain

We thank Thee, then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seed time and the harvest, our life, our health, and food;
No gifts have we to offer, for all Thy love imparts,
But that which Thou desirest, our humble, thankful hearts.

Refrain

All People That on Earth Do Dwell

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell;
Come ye before Him and rejoice.

The Lord, ye know, is God indeed;
Without our aid He did us make;
We are His folk, He doth us feed,
And for His sheep He doth us take.

O enter then His gates with praise;
Approach with joy His courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless His Name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

For why? the Lord our God is good;
His mercy is for ever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.

To Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
The God Whom Heaven and earth adore,
From men and from the angel host
Be praise and glory evermore.

Anti-Christian Violence

20,000 Muslims protest outside a Coptic church in Cairo.

A full accounting of the extent of the anti-Christian carnage in Orissa is just beginning.

A Tale of Tyranny and Free Speech

At a recent dinner of the Federalist Society, Attorney General Michael Mukasey defended the Bush administration’s abridgment of liberty in the fight against terror. While others laughed at his jokes and applauded the iron fist, one man stood up and shouted, “Tyrant!” before walking out–Washington state Supreme Court justice Richard Sanders, who is of course now pilloried by Michelle Malkin and her peanut gallery. They all link his comment with Mukasey’s subsequent collapse as if to suggest (post hoc, ergo propter hoc), that the one was the cause of the other. Nobody bothers to reflect upon the actions of the administration, its failure to keep its treaty obligations, its failure to do what is right and decent. They all point to Sanders as if he did something wrong by declaring the emperor has no clothes. Sic semper tyrannis! (Hat tip, Mark Shea).

Missing the Point of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not about giving thanks to random people.

Why do we have the holiday? Consider the words of Abraham Lincoln, who established it in 1863:

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the everwatchful providence of almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

Partisan Captivity

Nicholas Cafardi, writing in NCR, laments the “Republican captivity” of the American Catholic Church–because a handful of the 300 Catholic bishops spoke about abortion and marriage as important moral issues in this year’s election. Do they represent the bulk of Catholic bishops, chancery and USCCB bureaucrats, and priests and lay ministers in the parish? Or are the leftist politics represented by the CCHD more typical? Those who’ve actually worked for the Catholic Church know this is a rhetorical question. If the Catholic Church is captive to a particular brand of politics, it is definitely the Democratic machine.

“Small Towns”

A Lutheran pastor reflects on life in small towns at First Things.

Small town life has its advantages and disadvantages, but they are not the obvious ones. When the media focused on small towns, viewers got the feeling that they were visiting a distant nation not their own. They were clearly delighted to be somewhere they hadn’t been before (much like a tourist in the developing world) but were unsure how to react to something so different. The extremes of the campaigns and the coverage tended to be way off the mark. Small towns are neither Edens nor bitter enclaves of the small-minded.

In many ways, they are exactly like the rest of America. People in them watch CNN and Fox news. They have cable and satellite television and high-speed Internet connections. Kids play the same video games and wear the same fashions. But there is one distinctiveness here, and a single word captures much of it: connectedness. To live in a small town is to be connected, and not electronically or digitally. Rather it means to be connected to people in the flesh, to actual places, to land and buildings, to a common past.

The Passion of Mel Gibson

Benedict Fitzgerald is suing Mel Gibson, claiming he wasn’t paid enough for cobbling together Scripture, Anne Catherine Emmerich, and Mary of Agreda to produce the script of “The Passion.” He wants another $10,000,000.

Some old links to things I’ve written on the subject of Gibson’s Passion:

• The Passion of the Christ: Crisis and Opportunity in Jewish-Christian Relations
• Passionate Blogging: Interfaith Controversy and the Internet. In J. Shawn Landres and Michael Berenbaum, editors, After The Passion Is Gone: American Religious Consequences (AltaMira, 2004).
• The Sources of The Passion of The Christ

The Catholic Church and the Law

Cardinal DiNardo  is using his red hat as a megaphone, and calling attention to his favorite causes. But they are troubling.

He wants to reward those who broke the US law and infiltrated the country, treating them more favorably than those who followed the law patiently. He was speaking at an event sponsored by the Alinsky-ite activist organization, TMO (The Metropolitan Organization).

And he led (actually followed, in a van) a protest march in Huntsville, TX, from an abortion mill to the state prison, protesting both abortion and capital punishment, linking them as if they were the same thing. He is apparently unable to distinguish between the killing of the innocent for convenience and the execution of the guilty as a matter of justice. He forgets the latter was established by God (Genesis 9:5), who is reserving his final act of capital punishment for the last day (Revelation 20:12-15).

Meanwhile, a court has ruled that the Catholic Church is not above the law, not even its highest level. The US Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has ruled that plaintiffs in a sex abuse case can name the Vatican as a defendent for its negligence. The Vatican had argued that it is a sovereign nation, and immune from US civil law. That theory of immunity was quashed long ago, as when it was ruled that victims of Pan Am 103 could sue Libya. They were successful (though Libya didn’t stop fighting the judgment until just last month). Even if the Vatican evades earthly justice in this matter, there remains that final judgment ….

Healthy Airport Food?

Yes, at some airports. Topping the list: DFW, Detroit, O’Hare, and Bush. At the bottom: Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Reagan.

Talking Turkey

In a few days we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving, a day traditionally set apart by our nation to gather with family and friends and give thanks to God for his bounty. It’s been a national holiday since Abraham Lincoln established it in the midst of the Civil War (take a look at his Thanksgiving Proclamation). But when we talk about the “First Thanksgiving” we look further back, to the year 1621, and the harvest celebration of a group of English Separatists in Plymouth, Massachusetts—the men and women we call “Pilgrims.” After a harsh winter, and many tragic deaths, they began anew in a new land, planting and fishing and hunting, assisted by neighboring Wampanoag Indians. They brought in the harvest and gave thanks to God (learn about the history at Plimouth Plantation).

That’s not just a bit of national history for me—an ancestor of mine, Mary Chilton, was a young orphan at that feast, her mother having died during the winter and her father having died at Cape Cod before they landed.

They were a religious people, who had come to worship him in freedom; they were staunch Calvinists, trusting always to Divine Providence.

I think we as a nation have forgotten that.

A few days ago I Googled “Thanksgiving Day” and “God”—I got 723,000 hits. “Thanksgiving” and “Pilgrims,” only 179,000. But “Turkey Day”? That got 3,800,000. And “Black Friday”—the day of department store sales—nearly 8 million.

We keep the holiday on the calendar, and the name, “Thanksgiving,” but the God we are to thank and the story of the Pilgrims have been buried beneath advertisements of sales and the mountain of food we gorge upon.

It’s a day in which our wallet gets thinner and our waist gets wider. A day for stuffing not only a turkey, but ourselves.

And that’s what I want to reflect on now. I want to talk some turkey about what we eat.

How much do we eat on Thanksgiving? The Calorie Control Council, which represents producers of low calorie foods, says on its webpage:

… the average American may consume more than 4,500 calories and a whopping 229 grams of fat from snacking and eating a traditional holiday dinner with turkey and all the trimmings. And these figures don’t even include breakfast or the late evening munching on leftovers!

…That’s the equivalent of more than 2 ¼ times the average daily calorie intake and almost 3 ½ times the fat. The typical holiday dinner can be loaded with 45 percent of calories from fat. In fact, the average person may consume enough fat at a holiday meal to equal three sticks of butter.

Food was certainly a part of the first Thanksgiving: corn and pumpkin, fish and clams and lobsters, turkey and deer—washed down with warm homemade beer. But the Pilgrims were a thin and hardy bunch, like the wild turkeys on their tables—they normally ate a meager diet and they worked hard outdoors. But we’ve grown fat and lazy. Time magazine says 67% of us are overweight. I am. I can’t believe it. I was so skinny growing up. I weighed 145 lbs. when I got married 26 years ago. For many years I stayed at 185, which doctors say is my ideal weight. I’m now 220—35 lbs overweight. Fourteen more pounds and I would be officially obese.

How did we get to this point?—by eating too much of the wrong stuff and not exercising.

The problem of eating the wrong stuff was dramatized by film maker Morgan Spurlock in his 2004 documentary, Super Size Me, in which he made himself the guinea pig of an experiment. He ate all his meals at McDonald’s for a month. When they said, “Would you like to Super Size that?” He would.

Spurlock packed away 5000 calories a day, twice what a man needs. And he purposely didn’t do any exercise. 1/3 of his calories came from sugar—in a month he ate (and drank) 30 pounds of it. He gained 25 pounds, and seriously damaged his body, especially his liver. His organs began to shut down. His doctors warned he would kill himself if he kept it up.

But we can’t blame McDonald’s, because he could have made better choices from the menu. He could have eaten less. He could have exercised. In fact, another film maker, Soso Whaley, was so outraged by this that she made her own movie, “Me and Mickey D,” in which she ate at McDonald’s every day for two months—and lost 18 pounds. The difference? She ate a balanced diet, she ate no more than 2000 calories a day, and she skipped the so-called “value meals.”

Another recent book to examine what we eat looked at just one thing: a familiar golden sponge cake with a cream filling. The Twinkie. In his book, Twinkie Deconstructed, Steve Ettlinger tries to figure out where each ingredient comes from, from simple things like wheat and corn and salt and water to those strange sounding ingredients: sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate, Mono and diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Calcium caseinate, Sodium stearol lactylate, Calcium sulfate, Sorbic acid, and artificial colors. He tracks down each one, and the process by which they are made. His discoveries are shocking. The ingredients include animal, vegetable and mineral. His journey takes him from “phosphate mines in Idaho to corn fields in Iowa, from gypsum mines in Oklahoma to oil fields in China.” Yes, oil fields. A number of the ingredients are petrochemicals. All this to make something that lasts longer on the shelf than it would if made from ordinary pronounceable ingredients like flour, sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla. And it won’t last forever—only about 25 days. But it’s typical of so many processed foods lining the shelves of our grocery stores.

And how about the star attraction of most Thanksgiving dinners, the Turkey? Most of the 72,000,000 turkeys that are slaughtered for Thanksgiving each year are raised not on picturesque farms in the country, but in dreary factory farms.

In 2006, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) did an undercover investigation at a Butterball factory farm in Ozark, Arkansas. An investigation by the US Department of Agriculture confirmed their findings:

• Employees intentionally and repeatedly injured or killed birds by kicking, punching, throwing, or stepping on them.
• One worker saw other workers bash live turkeys against trucks, shackles, and the floor. He recalled seeing approximately 200 birds whose necks had been broken or who had been decapitated in one day alone.
• Birds’ wings were often injured or broken because the birds were roughly yanked out of transport cages.

But because there are no federal laws protecting chickens and turkeys slaughtered for food, no federal charges could be filed, and the state refused to prosecute under Arkansas law. Even more horrendous things were discovered this year in a similar investigation of the world’s leading poultry breeding company, Aviagen Turkeys, Inc. You can see the videos at the PETA webpage.

This abuse is just the tip of the iceberg. A book that goes much further in revealing how food animals are treated is Eric Schlosser’s 2001 expose, Fast Food Nation. He looks at the meat packing industry, and how it treats both the workers and the animals destined for slaughter. They are assembly line operations, and supervisors want the lines moving at a fast pace. As a result, injuries to workers are common. And in the rapid ripping open of animal carcasses, the contents of their intestines sometimes spill onto the meat, often resulting in E. Coli contamination (take a look at some cartoons that were made to promote the movie: The Meatrix).

This is the backbone of the American diet: animals sadistically and unhygienically slaughtered, and processed and fast foods high in cholesterol, fat, and sugar. The result: we suffer from obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

I do have some good news for you, however.

There’s a better way. There’s a book that suggests a diet that will prevent most of these problems. You don’t have to wait for Oprah to talk about it—it’s from a book she’ll never recommend. You don’t have to sit through a 30 minute infomercial to find out how you can order it by phone. Chances are, you already have a copy.

Turn with me to Genesis 1, the story of the creation, starting with v. 27.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

This was man’s original diet: every plant that bears seeds—apples and oranges, pears and pomegranates, melons and squash, berries and nuts and grains.

After man’s fall there’s a change, as we read in Genesis 3:18-18. Man is now to till the ground, which is cursed.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Now man is going to be a farmer. He’s going to grow crops and eat them. He’s going to cultivate wheat and rye and barley and corn, and turn them into bread. He’s going to take a weed like the wild mustard, and domesticate it, and train it to grow in different ways, to create cultivars, which are all the same species even if they look wildly different: from wild mustard came such different things as broccoli and Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, kohlrabi, and cauliflower.

But no hamburgers or roast turkey.

It’s only after the flood, we read in Genesis 9, that man is given permission to eat meat: in the face of the devastation of the earth God tells Noah, “every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.” But already God had separated animals into two groups, clean and unclean. Genesis 7, v. 2:

Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth

Because he had seven of each bird, he could let out a dove, and when it didn’t come back he still had others that could breed. He could offer a sacrifice of a sheep, and still have others to breed—and to eat.

But notice something else. Immediately after God gives permission to eat meat we see that the life span of man decreases. Where before the flood men were living 800, 900 years or more, afterwards the lifespan rapidly decreases until the oldest men are 120, and the average lifespan is threescore and ten.

God gave some other dietary laws to Israel. We read about them in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. You know the lists. Sea creatures must have fins and scales. Land animals must have cloven hooves and chew the cud. Ducks and geese and chicken are OK, but not birds of prey or scavengers. And stay away from creeping things: mice and snakes and turtles and snails and lizards and moles.

God doesn’t give a reason for the distinctions. Many scholars say it was to remind Israel that it was separate from the nations. And that would certainly be in keeping with Peter’s vision in Acts 10—he is told in vision to eat unclean meat, and he understands it to mean that he cannot distinguish between Jews and Gentiles.

But maybe there was something else going on, too.

God said in Exodus 15:26

If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

God doesn’t say in Leviticus 11, “I’m forbidding pork because it is unhealthy”—he just says, “Do it. You shall be holy, set apart, because I am holy.” But remember, this is not a new rule. Noah knew about the distinction long before Moses’ time. And God says here that he would preserve them from the diseases that afflicted the Gentile nations. One sure way to avoid many of those diseases would be a sort of quarantine. Don’t eat the same food they do.

This becomes an issue for Daniel and his companions when they were led as captives to Babylon, and the chief of the eunuchs was put in charge of them to train them for service in the royal court. The king was generous to them, feeding them from his rich table, as we read in Daniel 1:8ff.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. … “Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king’s meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.”

What is pulse? Most other translations use the word, “vegetables.”

So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.

They ate the original diet God gave to man—even though God had given permission to eat meat. And they were better off for it.

And this is God’s intent. God wants us to be healthy. As we read in John’s third epistle, verse 2: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

This raises a question: Will we be better off if we eat man’s original diet? What does science tell us?

Consider the 2006 bestseller, The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. He was director of a major study of cancer across China. They noticed some diseases were almost entirely absent in many rural areas but common in affluent areas, including many cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. But even these were less common in China than in the United States. What was going on? It was their diet. They were able to demonstrate a correlation between diet and disease.

“People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease. …. People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease.” (p. 7)

The lesson for us is clear, Campbell says. It’s so simple you can reduce it to one sentence:

“Eat a whole foods, plant-based diet, while minimizing the consumption of refined foods, added salt and added fats.” (p. 242)

The current recommendations from our federal government make many of the same points. We used to have the four food groups, then a food pyramid. You can find the current version at mypyramid.gov:

• Make half your grains whole
• Vary your veggies
• Focus on fruit
• Get your calcium rich foods
  • Fat free milk products
  • Soybeans, some other dried beans, some dark green leafy vegetables
• Go lean with protein
  • Dry peas and beans, nuts, tofu
• Make physical activity a regular part of the day

None of this should be new for Seventh-day Adventists. Health reform has been an important part of our message for over 150 years. The first Seventh-day Adventist to be a health reformer was Joseph Bates, and he had begun changing his diet long before he became an Adventist. He gave up tobacco in 1823, throwing it over the side of the ship; he gave up alcohol in 1824, and then banned it from his ship. Around seven years later he was visiting some friends and was served tea that was stronger than he usually drank, and found that he couldn’t get to sleep that night. He resolved then to give up tea, and, a little while later, coffee. By 1843 he was a vegetarian.

He slowly persuaded others, both by his own example and by Bible teaching. So health reform was beginning to be known to Adventists before Ellen White had a vision on the subject in 1863. Four years later the Western Health Reform Institute was established in Battle Creek. It focused on natural methods of healing, and use of drug free remedies, including hydrotherapy. It promoted a vegetarian diet, of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and water. In encouraged exercise, fresh air, and exposure to sunlight. In 1876 a new doctor took over, 24 year old John Harvey Kellogg; James and Ellen White saw promise in him, and paid for his education at Bellvue Hospital Medical College. He changed the institute’s name to the Battle Creek Sanitarium. He coined the term, “sanitarium,” to emphasize it wasn’t a place just to get over a disease, but to learn how to live right.

That beginning led our church to establish a string of hospitals around the world, as well as health education programs such as vegetarian cooking schools and the Five Day Plan to Stop Smoking.

We don’t believe health reform saves–Jesus saves. But Jesus doesn’t just want us to get to heaven, he wants us to have life now, and have it more abundantly. He wants us to be healthy, and has given us in his word some basic principles that will lead to health.

Besides the Biblical passages, we’ve also spoken of the “Eight Laws of Health,” which can be stated simply:

• Nutrition
• Exercise
• Water
• Sunshine
• Temperance
• Air
• Rest
• Trust in Divine Power

This is the Seventh-day Adventist vision for healthful living. Is it relevant today? I think it is. As I stated at the beginning, we have a health crisis in this country. Our meat supply is contaminated. We use too many processed foods. We use too much fat and sugar. And science shows that if we eat the kind of diet Seventh-day Adventists have always recommended, we will be healthier and live longer.

And the world is eager to know what many of us have forgotten. Vegetarianism was once a curiosity; now it’s popular. There are vegetarian restaurants all over town, some run by Hindus and Buddhists. Whole Foods Market and HEB and Fiesta and Randalls are all sensitive to the needs of vegetarians. My daughter will even be having vegan cooking as part of her PE class next year.

What we offer, along with these others, is a better way to live. Healthy living shouldn’t be about guilt, or fear, or putting ourselves above others, or clubbing them over the head. It should be a simple matter of trying to do what is right for our own bodies.

Thanksgiving is coming up on Thursday. Give the turkey a break. Fix a healthy meal. Here are some places to give you some ideas:

• Celebrate a Vegetarian Holiday!
• Vegetarian Thanksgiving
• Vegetarian Times

Enjoy your time with family and friends, but don’t over do it. You really don’t need to eat 4500 calories in one sitting. Take it easy. And after that nap, go out for a walk or a bike ride.

But most importantly, take time to offer praise and thanks to God for all his gifts. That’s the real purpose of the day, is it not?

Tony Jones: Gay OK

Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, says gay relationships are OK and should be blessed by the church. Another sign that much that is known as “emergent” isn’t new, or postmodern, but is simply plain old fashioned liberal Protestantism.

An Abortionist Talks

A abortionist who was sentenced to jail for a botched abortion that resulted in the death of woman, tells his story. He’s unrepentent. And the “pro choice” people say this is something that wouldn’t happen if abortion was legal. Duh. It is legal. Women end up in the hospital and die. Because of butchers like this.

Wacky Laws

Eugene Volokh reports that rain barrels and home cisterns are apparently illegal in Colorado, Utah, and Washington, because the state has already decided that rain falling on your roof belongs to someone else.

Another article on this subject links to this Denver Water page:

Colorado Water Law requires that precipitation fall to the ground, run off and into the river of the watershed where it fell. Because rights to water are legally allocated in this state, an individual may not capture and use water to which he/she does not have a right….

Colorado water law allows each customer just one use of the water before it goes down the drain, through a wastewater treatment plant and back into the river for others to use. By law, Denver Water customers are not permitted to take their bath or laundry water (commonly referred to as gray water) and dump it on their outdoor plants or garden. After this water is used once by Denver Water customers, it must return to the South Platte River where it will be used seven or eight more times before it gets to the state line (Nebraska). …

However, Denver Water customers are encouraged to catch unused clear water in a bucket or other container as it comes out of the tap and then use this water once; to mop floors, refresh pet water or water plants. For example, try catching water that comes out before the shower water warms up and then use this water to flush toilets or rinse the shower.