“Crime is a reflection of a nation’s soul. … When criminals and wrongdoing are glamorized in film, on television and in music, the young are introduced to the very things that eat away at society’s foundation.” Cal Thomas

What is there to be learned could be that which we do not want to face or admit. Neil Postman has also commented, “With TV we vault our ourselves into a continuous incoherent present. … In a world of printing, information is the gunpowder of the mind—hence come the censors in their austere robes to dampen the explosion.” Our age, as observed by Czeslaw Milosz (winner of 1980 Nobel Prize for literature) is characterized by a “Refusal to remember”. He cited, among other things the shuttering fact that there are now more than 100 books imprint that deny the Holocaust ever took place. Yet another quote from those who deal with observations of society, historian Carl Schorake has noted “the modern mind has grown indifferent to history because history has become useless to it.” In other words we refuse to learn from history and therefore ignore it.

In the 1940’s Nazi Germany obliterated millions of Jews and we called that a Holocaust. Today, in the last few decades, we have obliterated millions of babies in the name of convenience and choice. Can society do such and not be affected culturally or morally? We need only THINK about what we are doing and have been doing for the past few decades—discredit any moral concepts as being important. "We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." ---C. S. Lewis

Such killings as those at Virginia Tech, and others like them are [merely] isolated incidents that mirror the Holocaust but on a smaller scale – and they are getting closer to our personal lives. What we do about this is no easy solution but do something we must. Could it be we need to start by realizing spiritual values are important to any society? Why should such experiences (Virginia Tech, Columbine, and the list goes on…) bother us if we are in such a mindset that it doesn’t matter that we have murdered millions of babies for the sake of convenience or because “we have a right to choose”. Who knows the extent of this kind of semantics (or word games) and its affects on society? If it doesn’t matter that we abort babies on the brink of life, why should we find it difficult to understand a student buying a gun and kill over 30 fellow students and then end his own life? After all, we’ve been told “nothing really matters anymore…”, at least that’s the message our casual values leaves. Even if a spiritual revival truly occurred it will take decades, maybe even centuries before we could see the results; but trying the “old fashioned ways” that we’ve been told to cast aside, might be worth it. We will never know unless we try.

"If you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains; if you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains." ---Cicero

"How could this great land of plenty produce too few people in the last 30 years? Here is the brutal truth that no one dares to mention: We're too few because too many of our babies have been killed. Over 45 million since Roe
v. Wade in 1973. If those 45 million children had lived, today they would be defending our country, they would be filling our jobs, they would be paying into Social Security. Still, we watch as 3,700 babies are killed every single day in America. It is unbelievable that a nation under God would allow this." ---former Senator Zell Miller

“Why is there evil in the world?
No one ever asks,
Why is there good in the world?”

“Evil originates not in the absence of guilt
but in the effort to escape it.”

M. Scott Peck (1936-2005)

From pages 41 and 76 of “People of the Lie”, A Touchstone Book,
Published by Simon & Schuster, Copyright, 1983 by M. Scott Peck, M.D.

Epilogue by The Wordwright – The losses of those parents and relatives of the victims (at Virginia Tech) are not mere in any sense of the word; my comment, “merely” was specifically in conjunction with the incidents, not the victims or relatives. M. Scott Peck delves deeper yet into the subject of evil in his above mentioned book, on Page 77, saying, “Since they [evil people] will do almost anything to avoid the particular pain that comes from self-examination, under ordinary circumstances the evil are the last people who would ever come to psychotherapy. The evil hate the light – the light of goodness that shows them up, the light of scrutiny that exposes them, the light of truth that penetrates their deception. Psychotherapy is a light-shedding process par excellence.” Some words of the One called the Light of the World can be found by your reading Matthew 6:22-23; Luke 11:34-36 and John 3:19. It seems obvious Dr. Peck’s words had their origin in the truths as found in these Scriptures.

THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

God’s creatures have accessibilities in divergent ways. The “dumb animal” (a misnomer if there ever was one) and us “upright” folks have unique brains and the energy implanted into each are none less than miraculous. To the purist, yes I know it is not a miracle in the sense it occurs everyday and is not an invasion of the natural but it surely qualifies as a “near-miracle”. Yes, how that bit of gray matter, which our brain is often called, is able to train, retrain, improve and update the abilities we use every day should be sufficient evidence that the One God of all exists and has shown an individualized interest in His creations. To some, they look at a limited facet of the animal kingdom and the claim of an “opposing thumb” is that which distinguishes man from some beasts of the animal kingdom. Believe me, there is more than an opposing thumb that makes me look at God’s creations of humans and animals with awe! Bill Venrick, The Wordwright

The brain, mind, and innate “image of God” with which all humans are endowed has one little but important part we have named as “conscience”, and that is my subject for this essay. The conscience is a veritable root issue of life and existence. I believe the conscience is uniquely an essential part of the human, not present in the animal kingdom. A technical scientific term, conditioning, is probably the explanation of some animals having near human traits. Not that humans are unaffected by conditioning, this term is definitely used when actions and reactions are the topic of animal behavior and how or why chimpanzees, for example, perform the way they do.

An action might be called “unconscionable” – which means the obvious: without a conscience! Sometimes men and women perform such acts upon other humans that are beyond understanding. Killing, or murder, to be more exact, is a mystery. Why or how one human can so invade the lives of others to try to wipe them off the face of the earth for selfish reasons is beyond common understanding. When some want more, they simply kill to get it. Plundering is not a new thing. We have simply refined the tools of plundering to the extent of having “smart bombs” that can be dropped or sent via missiles to travel miles until it reaches their target and specifically explode at a predetermined time to obliterate its target, whether human or mechanical.

A root issue is really what the conscience is. Robert Fulghum correctly identified the essentials in life when he said, “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.” Well, almost. But it is that litany of life we learn as children: to share, to be nice, to be considerate, etc. is that part of the circuits of our minds that distinguish us from “other animals”. Someone has said, it is only the human that has the ability (or need) to blush. In today’s culture one can almost wonder if the ability to blush is becoming a lost art.

What is this thing we call a conscience? A minister, famous to many, said in a recent sermon, “Conscience is a gift of God to protect us and keep us from destroying ourselves.” (from a sermon I heard on TV by Charles Stanley) That certainly is a deep thought. It is a long way from the philosophy of Jiminy Cricket for sure. What is it that makes some more thoughtful than others? What is it that allows one human to take another humans life? What is it that allows nations to war against other nations? What is it that allows mates to deny love to each other, disavowing pledges made to stay together “until death do us part”? The list goes on as to what humans persist in doing to others because of the conscience, which has been defiled or wounded.

The conscience can often be referred to as either “bad” or “good”. The Apostle Paul accurately stated, “…I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience…” (Acts 23:1) The conscience can be programmed – this was more accurately called “brain washing” during war times when the enemy (and our own troops) are technically brainwashed to obtain specific goals. The tools of warfare in Hitler’s regime were based on brainwashing soldiers to believe Jews were clearly collateral matter – not worth letting live. Millions of Jews were obliterated from the face of the earth like so many insects swatted by a giant flyswatter.

God gave us the conscience but it requires continual service much like many tools that need re-sharpened or machines that need oiled or lubricated and checked for worn parts that may need replaced. Fortunately the conscience can be cared for by regular maintenance much like the machines or tools we use. Truly the conscience is a gift from our Creator.

We must respect and protect our conscience. The conscience can be hardened, even seared to the extent it is no longer a safe guide. Our conscience then could be looked upon as wounded. Such damage is often so subtle, slowly modifying our conscience so effectively that ultimately we will accept bad as good!

Ardath H. Rodale expresses her concern for viewers of TV: “I worry that viewers who watch TV indiscriminately are anesthetized or hypnotized by what they see.” This is a genuine concern that all must face because the conscience as we read in the Scripture needs guarded, otherwise why do we read about a “good” conscience or a “seared” (or branded) conscience. Other references in the Bible mention terms (in conjunction with the conscience) as: wounded, pure, defiled, and evil. Defiling of the conscience can be a very slow or insidiously so a real concern exists as Ardath H. Rodale wrote in her book, “Climbing Toward the Light”, Copyright 1989, The Good Shepherd Press, Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Former U. S. Senator of Georgia, Zell Miller challenges the conscience of America with these words: "How could this great land of plenty produce too few people in the last 30 years?” Miller asked in March 2007 during a fund-raiser in Macon, Georgia, for Sav-A-Life Care Center, a crisis pregnancy center. "Here is the brutal truth that no one dares to mention: We’re too few because too many of our babies have been killed. Over 45 million since Roe v. Wade in 1973.” "If those 45 million children had lived, today they would be defending our country, they would be filling our jobs, they would be paying into Social Security. Still, we watch as 3,700 babies are killed every single day in America. It is unbelievable that a nation under God would allow this.”

Source: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (and newsmax dot com archives)

Thankfully, our conscience can be improved once we have allowed it to be corrupted by ungodly influences. Simple steady maintenance may do the job of keeping our conscience clean but we are not left without resources to care for our conscience. We must guard or protect our conscience but being mortal or human enters the picture or prevents us being as good as we ought. Such maintenance is not always easy – that’s why the term “work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling…” is an essential part of our biblical training.

Some Scripture for further study: I Corinthians 8:12; I Timothy 1:5; 3:9; 4:2; Titus 1:15; Hebrews 9:14; 10:22; 13:18. Check your own concordance searches for CONSCIENCE.

Conscience – root issues – boundaries, they are all pretty much the same. Without these built-in safeguards humans are helpless victims of Satan. The Scripture accurately teaches us: ”Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23, King James Version) We wouldn’t let our small children out of the house without being sure they would not run out in the street in the path of danger. We put a symbol of danger on bottles of poison so the contents will be obvious to anyone who can read. This damage or corruption of our conscience can be accurately defined as sin. How can we clean our conscience of the sin from our lives? The age-old question has an age-old answer: “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Be sure, with such a gift comes responsibility. We must consistently and persistently work to maintain our conscience, keeping it pure. Trusting the One who gave us such a gift is essential, and God has not left us without divine resources. Read the passages of Scripture listed earlier and most questions can be answered when honest inquiry is sought in the Bible.

THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you ever wondered where all the phrases and weather predictions came from? Call them fables or old wives’ tales, but modern weather forecasters know better – many of them are honest to goodness reliable predictions. How did our ancestors back in the 18th century know so much? They were observant and watched nature at work. Only since the dawn of professional weather forecasting has there been a dependence upon the professionals for information that our great-great grandparents knew from simple but consistent observation.

A few of those sayings about the weather:

Rain before seven, fine by eleven. Haloes around the moon mean that rain will surely come. Moss dry, sunny sky; moss wet, rain you’ll get. If cows are standing in a field it will be fine, but if they are lying down it is going to rain. No weather is ill, if the wind is still The sharper the blast, the sooner it’s past. If crows fly low, winds going to blow; If crows fly high, winds going to die. Clear moon, frost soon.

Here are a couple popular aphorisms about weather enjoyed in years past:

“Whether the weather be hot,
Or whether the weather be not,
We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.”

-----

“Man is a perfect fool,
When it’s hot he wants it cool,
When it’s not,
He wants it hot.”

Books are written with such material so I will not labor the point. Truly, some moderns may find some fault in such predictions but one of the professional weathermen in Columbus, Ohio, mentioned the honest value to many weather sayings. The point was made that farmers depended upon their knowledge of the weather – their living was at stake. Seasoned observers knew what kind of weather the cirrus or the very high clouds (above 20,000 feet) brought. Weather fronts were not known by such terms but the clouds could be a predictor of weather as much as l,000 miles away. In brief, our ancestors learned by experience because they were observant.

Not only farmers had to be knowledgeable about weather facts but some city dwellers also depended upon the Old Farmer’s Almanac and other known family remedies and sayings. Some of these might even be traced to biblical knowledge passed down through centuries. The appearance of some infectious sores can be a clue to the carefully trained observer. There were no emergency rooms for people to run to and people had to take care of themselves.

However, today we have nearly brought about a new type of Dark Ages simply because we depend upon the so-called professionals for what the average person knew less than 200 years ago. It is this fact that caused me to entitle this essay. Recently I discovered a mimeographed book of 83 pages, which contained guidelines and rules for Cleveland, Ohio, public school playgrounds in 1929. Certain facts were known or mentioned, which in today’s world would be “public ignorance” rather than “common knowledge”. For example: “Keep inflated balls [basketballs, tether balls, etc.] tight. Balls last longer; games are more enjoyable. Proper inflation prevents bladders from rotting.”

At 75, admittedly means my birth came along 3 years after this mimeographed book was printed and therefore six more years would pass before I would have been exposed to such activities on the public school playground. Just the same, the kinds of games played 78 years ago were in the dozens, many of which are unrecognized today; but they did have soccer balls. There was considerable organization and rules for many games while others were quite simple. A surprising activity was for boys to play “Mumble-de-peg” commonly called “mumbly peg” when I was a kid. This activity involved a pocketknife; today’s safety police would be all over parents who let their boys bring a knife to school, let alone use a sharp knife in a game! There were fifteen parts or steps in that game with a knife and I doubt if there was one parent who worried about their son.

Spinning tops, the kind wrapped with string and holding the end of the string, you threw the top, letting the string unwind, thus continued spinning as soon as it hit the ground; this was a popular activity. Several kinds of awards or judgments were made as to how the top traveled on the ground. Not to overlook those who might not be a good knife player or sports enthusiast they had activities for learning how to tell stories, make a ukulele out of a cigar box or learn how to play a harmonica. Hohner, the manufacturer of the harmonicas, provided as many as 35 “Marine Band” harmonicas (sponsors may have paid for them); and at the close of the summer those who learned how to play got to keep their 50-cent harmonicas! Typical tunes they learned started with “America.” “Home Sweet Home” and “Swanee River.” (For the sanitary conscious reader, the supervisors kept the harmonicas in boxes with a label of the child’s name and with the proviso that the instruments were not to leave the grounds.)

Why say all this? Differences in the assorted interests and abilities of children, for starters. Individual responsibility, cooperation with others, gaining knowledge firsthand knowledge of these two virtues was of paramount importance. Today’s child may be seen with eyes focused on a hand-held computer game or playing an electronic game on a cell phone! And today’s youth is so organized businesses have to provide uniforms for their sponsor-teams and competition is fierce with parental observers. None of the public school playgrounds mentioned parental involvement.

“Entertain me” is what people demand today. Such entertainment is expected to come from TV, computer games and movies. Entertaining oneself is obviously accomplished in a different way in our 21st century. “Tell me” what weather is expected.– turn on the 11:15 p.m. news to know how to dress tomorrow. Folks 78 years ago had no such professional advisors, nor did they need them.

THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)