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Meet the Skunk Wagon. Palestinians Know It Well

Today I want to introduce you to the Skunk Wagon.  I call it the Skunk Wagon because its one and only job is to shoot a long stream of skunk water through a water cannon, powerful enough to knock people — typically Palestinians — off their feet.

Skunk water is one of several new crowd control devices developed by Israeli arms manufacturers.

A BBC reporter described skunk water like this:

“Imagine the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat, old socks that haven’t been washed for weeks – topped off with the pungent waft of an open sewer. . .Imagine being covered in the stuff as it is liberally sprayed from a water cannon. Then imagine not being able to get rid of the stench for at least three days, no matter how often you try to scrub yourself clean.”

Don’t worry.  Numerous American police departments have purchased skunk water from Israel so that it can be used on US protesters, too.  You may have a chance to smell it for yourself one day.

Below is a picture of a Skunk Wagon lumbering down a narrow alley way in the Palestinian refugee camp where Terry and I periodically live with my friends.  As you can see, there are no conveniently located crowds of terrorists immediately in need

The Skunk Wagon approaching my home away from home

of dispersal, but that never stops the Israeli army from taking the initiative in looking for someone in need of a good skunk water bath.  The army is nothing if not industrious when it comes to oppressing Palestinians, even when they are living peacefully in their own neighborhoods.

Typically, when Israeli soldiers can’t find anyone to spray on the streets, they begin looking for open doors and windows in order to shoot the skunk water into people’s homes.  Apparently, the soldiers assume that the families inside are a sufficient “crowd” in need of military control.   I guess you could call it an Israeli strategy for domestic crowd control.

On this particular day, my friend’s elderly mother had her windows open to catch the morning breeze.   She is in her late 80s and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, so she was unaware of the Skunk Wagon’s approach.  Even though she was home alone — not malingering in a dangerous crowd of family members — the Israelis decided that she posed an imminent threat and needed to be dispersed.

After all, she is a Palestinian.  As far as the political Zionism of modern Israel is concerned, the only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian, or one who lives somewhere else, far removed from the real estate claimed by Israel’s government.

Even feeble, senile women in their late 80s deserve to be sprayed by the Skunk Wagon simply because of who they are and where they live:  they are Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.  As far as the Israeli forces are concerned, that is reason enough to beat, batter, control and dehumanize Palestinian residents in any way possible.

This day was no exception.

So, this Palestinian matriarch saw both her bedroom and living room generously bathed in skunk water.  And hers was not the only home visited by high-powered, mechanical projectile vomiting.

Imagine all of your rugs, chairs, sofas, bedding, curtains, walls, floors, clothing — everything! — drenched in skunk water.  The stench is unbelievable.  After several weeks of intensive scrubbing and cleaning by her family members, the home still reeked.  I have no idea how long it took for the smell to finally dissipate.

But this was only the beginning of the army’s fun.  The soldiers returned several days later, angered that a few boys had dared to throw rocks at them while they shot teargas down the streets and into open windows during another of their frequent invasions.  Driving a mobile teargas launcher

with a PA system, Israeli soldiers returned to deliver a message:  stop throwing rocks at us or we will slaughter you all, young and old, women and children alike.

Listen to the announcement for yourself in the video above.  You can also read a good account of the incident in the online newspaper, Middle East Eye here. (Several friends have confirmed the accuracy of the translation.)

I know of at least one instance where an asthmatic woman died in her own  living room after soldiers fired teargas through her window.  Of course, the military never acknowledges any responsibility, much less liability, for the deaths and numerous injuries caused by their reckless behavior in the camp.

My friends would have bust a gut laughing had I suggested that they send a bill to the army base next door charging them for the time and money spent cleaning up the skunk water in their mother’s home.

At least the soldier speaking in this  video was honest enough — an arrogant lapse for which he may well have been reprimanded later on — to call his comrades what they really are:  THE OCCUPATIONAL ARMY.  (A description consistently denied by Israeli/Zionist apologists.) Of course, as an occupying army they can do no wrong while the subjugated Palestinians can do nothing right.

Terrorizing the locals in any way they please is perfectly acceptable.  There are no repercussions.  But should a few testosterone driven boys decide to express their youthful anger; should they exercise human agency by refusing to lie down and play dead beneath another barrage of teargas

Israeli soldiers conduct a night raid, their favorite time to abduct people, including children, from their beds

and skunk water; should they resist Zionist  oppression by (oh my, heaven forbid!) throwing rocks at the very soldiers who daily treat them as subhuman scum in need of a good skunk water bath before their mass deportation, well then, those rebellious children deserve arrest and imprisonment.

This kind of action serves as Zionist justice in the Occupied Territories.

Israel Bombs Gaza on APR Time.  The Rest of Us Need to Reset the Clock

APR is my own abbreviation for “After Palestinians Respond”.  It is the unofficial but permanent demarcation for all of post-1947 history in Israel.

The Gregorian calendar uses BC and AD, making the birth of Christ the dividing line in world history.  BC designates history “before Christ.”  AD is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase Anno Domini, meaning “in the year of our Lord”.

For instance, Cleopatra ruled Egypt from 51 to 30 BC.  Emperor Nero ruled the Roman empire from 37 to 68 AD.  The birth of the Nazarene is the permanent line of demarcation between two historical eras.

Recent bambing in Gaza, August 2018

But modern Israeli society has devised a new way to demarcate their history, especially their military confrontations with Palestinians.  Now, the historical clock always begins immediately after the Palestinians respond to Israeli provocation.  In this way, Israeli aggression is conveniently erased from the story.  All that remains are Palestinian actions against Israel.

Let’s look at a few recent examples:

“Israel Launches Broad Air Assault in Gaza Following Border Violence” – This was a NYT headline on July 20, 2018.  The lead paragraph says: “Israeli warplanes launched a large-scale attack across the Gaza Strip on Friday, one of the fiercest in years, after a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier along the border fence during a day of escalating hostilities.” (emphasis mine)

Not until the middle of this article does the writer get around to mentioning that Israeli soldiers have been killing unarmed Palestinians regularly for the

Gazan woman protesting at the Great March of Return

past 17 weeks!  Since the largely peaceful protests in Gaza began on March 30, at least 159 Palestinians have been shot and killed, including women, children and emergency first-aid workers.  More than 16,000 have been wounded, many crippled for life as Israel insists on using live ammunition against unarmed people.

Yet, these facts are not considered relevant for the reader’s understanding of Israel’s recent assault.

The NYT would never deign to report this story more honestly by saying

Gazan child shot by Israeli sniper

that a Palestinian sniper retaliated against Israeli aggression after 17 weeks of constant Israeli sniper fire, during which time Israeli snipers killed 159 Palestinians and wounded over 16,000 more.

Or take this story from the Washington Post (8/9/18):

“Rocket Barrage from Gaza Prompts Fierce Retaliation by Israeli War Planes” — The lead sentence declares: “Israeli aircraft struck more than 150 targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a barrage of rockets from the Palestinian territory…” (emphasis mine).

According to the Post’s framing of the story, Palestinians continue to behave as irrational, suicidal actors instigating yet another round of Israeli bombing by their unprovoked aggression against Israel.

The writer mentions that 11 Israelis were injured by flying debris in their

Israeli war tourists watch Gazan march and Israeli solders shoot

neighborhood. Yet, nowhere does this article print a single word about Israel’s unrelenting assault against the residents of Gaza since March.  The 159 dead Palestinians, including old women, children and medics, go unmentioned.  Neither is there a word about the 16,000 innocent civilians wounded.

As always in APR time, Israelis remain the only victims in the story.  Because that is the point of APR time.

Referring to the rockets sent from Gaza, Naomi Zolberg, 34, a resident of the Israeli city of Sderot (located less than 1 mile from Gaza’s northern border; only 840 meters at the closest point) complained, “We only slept an hour…People were freaking out. It is not normal to live like this, under the will of the other side.”

Perhaps Ms. Zolberg should turn down the volume on her TV.  Apparently,

A section of the Gaza fence

she hasn’t heard the regular, weekly (sometimes daily) rifle-fire targeting the imprisoned people struggling to survive only a short walk from her doorstep.  These are her fellow human beings trapped in an open-air prison, shot like fish in a barrel by Israeli snipers enjoying target practice.

Is that a normal way to live, Ms. Zolberg?

Sadly, it is perfectly normal for people like Ms. Zolberg to ignore the human  tragedy happening under her nose, just as it is normal for Palestinian families to endure it.  Every single Gazan resident would think themselves blessed many times over if only they could switch places with you, Ms. Zolberg, and experience your hard, hard life of freedom living next door to their prison fence.

Israel’s latest existential threat — Palestinians throwing stones at soldiers holding high powered rifles and tanks with machine guns

But we will never see this particular story-line on the evening news because it does not conform to the standard APR rule-book.  And the one rule that can never be broken in Israel’s reporting – and this applies to the vast majority of the Western press which robotically repeats Israel’s perspective on all things Palestinian – is that you never describe Israel’s actions before the Palestinian response.

 What came before the Palestinians acted?  Before the people of Gaza began to march?  Before Gazan activists shot their homemade rockets over the prison fence containing 1.8 million people in the Gazan ghetto?

What came before is repeatedly erased from Israel’s memory, even as it is etched indelibly into Palestinian consciousness.

Yet, it is exactly for the sake of conscience, that we all – especially God’s people – must refuse to abide by Israeli APR time frames.  Ask, learn, study, become educated in the long, tragic history of the many crimes committed against them before the Palestinians finally responded.

Yes Pastor Floyd, America Needs a Spiritual Breakthrough. But Not the One You Imagine

Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in NW Arkansas, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and president of the National Day of Prayer, has written an editorial for CBNNews (claiming to offer THE Christian Perspective on today’s affairs) under the headline “America Needs a Spiritual Breakthrough.”  Here are a few excerpts from pastor Ronnie’s missive:

“America is broken and in deep need of a spiritual breakthrough. Division and hatefulness are abounding as none of us would ever imagine. Our greatest hope is a spiritual breakthrough in America…

“We are facing one of the most dangerous times across the globe in our lifetime. While encouragement occurs from time to time, we remain in fragile moments globally…

 “The churches in America are in need of a spiritual visitation by the Holy Spirit that will call them out of their lukewarm status and cause them to return to the power of the gospel. Jesus is still the greatest hope in every town, city, and region in America…

 “Politically, America is in trouble. The disappointment of our political leaders not working together for the common good of our nation has Americans filled with all sorts of emotions, many of which are not healthy. This partisan decision making is hurting the progress and future of our nation greatly.”

Alas, what hope is there for American evangelicalism when such poisonous, spiritual gruel passes for prophetic witness and is guzzled like cool-aid by the average church-goer?

How can God’s people hope to see clearly when their leaders are so willfully blind?  How will the people hear truth when their preachers are deaf to any words but their own?  How can the church mature when her teachers think and act (and write) like ignorant children?

When pastors like Ronnie persist in leading their congregations ‘round and ‘round in circles, I am not surprised that so much of the church remains confused, dizzy and socially ineffective.

The pastor of Cross Church is at cross purposes with himself, for he represents the most common theological confusions of American evangelicals, all of which I disentangle in my book,  I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans, 2018).  At the heart of this confusion is his mashing together of church and state which is then sifted through the grotesque assumption that God is a Republican who voted for Donald Trump.

Let’s not be so naïve as to think that Ronnie’s lament over “division and hatefulness” while facing “the most dangerous times across the globe,” dealing with “the disappointment of our political leaders not working together for the common good” is anything other than the predictably partisan judgments of a Trump-loyalist.  For people like Ronnie, healing national divisions for the common good means falling into lock-step behind an obscene, racist, malignantly narcissistic president and then following him anywhere like dumb lemmings running to the cliff.

But these political errors are the easy-to-see, low-hanging fruit.

Let’s move on to grab hold of the more substantial core of Ronnie’s theological errors.  Errors that identify him as only one more false prophet in the American pantheon of wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing defrauding God’s flock.

The tell-tale sign that Ronnie is up to no good appears with his blatantly utilitarian view of the gospel.  Notice that his ultimate objective for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ is not to glorify God or to expand God’s kingdom.  Those are merely penultimate goals.  Excellent goals, certainly, but not the final goal.

No, the final objective for Ronnie and his misguided kinfolk is the unification of America’s body-politic behind the president and his policies.  (Again, we will leave aside how shockingly immoral many of Trump’s policies are.)  What evidence will finally tell us that America’s “spiritual breakthrough” has arrived?  Well, we will see (1) a renewed political scene that is (2) free of partisanship (3) with “political leaders working together for the common good of our nation.”

When these things happen, then we can know that the America church has “received a spiritual visitation by the Holy Spirit” (what other kind of visitation would the Holy Spirit make?) that has “called it out of its lukewarm status.”  So the Holy Spirit will work in America as in ancient Israel.  The Spirit’s task is to unite the nation.  The church and the gospel are tools for achieving that greater end.

But Ronnie’s vision confuses the church with the world and the world with the church.  God’s people are called to become strangers and aliens within American society.  Proclaiming the saving work of Jesus’ death and resurrection recruits new citizens into God’s kingdom who will demonstrate their newfound redemption by their own transformation into strangers and aliens.

Declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ honestly will highlight the stark contrasts between the church and this fallen world.  It will never bring them closer together.  Gospel preaching is nothing if not a heavenly bombardment that destroys our flesh-pot idols of civil religion, nationalism, and salvation by politics.  Genuine followers of Jesus are not deceived by this ancient, beastly triumvirate of bogus, copy-cat Christianity.

Yet, this three-headed monster spewing out recycled false religion like “a dog returning to its vomit” (2 Peter 2:22) is exactly what Pastor Ronnie – and the bulk of evangelical leaders sharing his devotion to American redemption by politics – is offering both the readers of CBNNews and those attending his multi-campus megachurch.

Ironically, the true evidence that American evangelicalism is more than satisfied with its damnably “lukewarm status,” with no intention of confessing its sins or repenting of its many offenses against the Lord Jesus and his kingdom, is its blind, self-satisfied allegiance to such atrociously false teachers as Ronnie Floyd.

Yes, American evangelicalism desperately needs a spiritual breakthrough.  But it’s not the one pastor Ronnie is looking for.  We will know that the real breakthrough has arrived when Ronnie Floyd and others like him publicly renounce their idolatrous Christian nationalism, confess that the kingdom of God has nothing to do with American politics, repent of their adulteration of the gospel with the bile of civil religion, and then call their congregations to sell their excessive belongings, giving the proceeds to the poor.

Now, that would be a breakthrough.

Stories of Self-Denial, 2

Having confronted my earlier failure to ask Jesus what he wanted to do with my life, I completed my undergraduate degree in wildlife biology and did something I would have never thought possible – I stepped into Christian ministry.  (Check out part 1 of this story here).

My friend, Marv Anderson, convinced me to join the staff of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  Terry and I moved to Salt Lake City, UT where I worked on the campus of the University of Utah.  Four years of campus ministry with university students convinced me that I had to pursue graduate work in theology and Biblical studies, but that pastoral, parish work was the last thing I would ever consider.

Jesus had certainly been answering my daily prayer that he teach me to love people, but he hadn’t altered my basic makeup as an introvert.  Yes, I was learning to care deeply about others, but they still exhausted me.  I couldn’t imagine becoming a pastor, dealing with the messiness and conflicts of congregational life day after exhausting day.  So, I searched for a graduate school offering advanced degrees in Christian theology without directing students into the pastorate.

I enrolled in Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.

My first year at Regent blew my mind.  I absolutely loved studying theology, church history, Biblical studies and languages.  Perhaps I will share more miraculous stories from my time at Regent in future posts.  Terry and I were the beneficiaries of many, many miracles during those years.  We also made a number of life-long friends.  Those years living in Blaine, Washington were foundational in making us the people we are today.

But, alas, in my second year of study, the leadership at Regent College double-crossed me!  The powers-that-be decided to add a Masters of Divinity program to their catalogue.  An M.Div. degree is the standard gateway course of study for would be pastors.  To make matters worse, I began to sense that God was calling me to switch programs and enter the M.Div. program.  Yikes!

Following Jesus is a mysterious way to live.  For instance, how do you know when an invisible God, whom you have never seen, who does not speak in an audible voice (at least, not to me) is “telling” you to do something?  And not something in general, like “be a nice person,” but something very specific, like “change your major and enter the M.Div. program you have been running away from”?

Well, you just do.

Following the Holy Spirit is one of those things a person has to experience for themselves in order to understand it – and here I am using the word “understand” very flexibly.  Some would say I am stretching it beyond recognition.  Real Christianity is always mystical at its core.  If a person says they follow Jesus but has never experienced the ineffable compulsion to do this, go there, start that, move over here – especially when those urges direct you in ways that run contrary to your personal preferences – then I would suggest that person is only pretending to follow Jesus.

Remember, the way of Jesus is a way of self-denial.

I pushed back against God’s mystical shove towards the M.Div. program for weeks.  Yet, try as I might, I could not shake the sense that Jesus was telling me to sign up.  My early morning devotional times became lengthy wrestling matches where I worked hard at convincing God that he was making a terrible mistake.  If he had wanted me to become a church pastor, he should have made me a different person.  I simply did not have the proper personality to become a successful church minister.  Why had He made me this way if that was His design for my future?

I still remember the moment of my surrender, actually if was more like a collapse, as if it were yesterday.  I was spiritually and emotionally exhausted.  It is not easy to fight against your Creator.  At least, not if you are trying to love Him at the same time.  In the early morning darkness, sitting in my Blaine living room, I prayed this prayer:

“Ok Lord.  I think that you are making a big mistake.  You made me in such a way that I can never be anything more than a second-rate pastor.  But if that is what you want me to do, then I will try to become the best second-rate pastor I can be.”

That morning I went to the Regent registrar’s office and switched my course of studies to the M.Div. program.  I did not know where or how I could become a minister, since I had no denominational ties or support.  But when Jesus tells you to do something, it’s best to leave the future necessities to Him.  He knows how to work out the details.

I did eventually become the pastor of a church in Salt Lake City.  I was there for 9 years.  When people ask me about it, I sometimes quote a line from the opening of Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities:  it was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

The Lord and I continued to have regular wrestling matches.  Many were the prayers that repeated my fears: “I told you, Lord!  Why am I here?  I am in over my head. I feel like I am drowning. You should have made me a different kind of person.”  And then the prayers would resolve themselves in a new moment of surrender: “But I know you brought me here, Jesus.  It’s up to you to make this work.  I’ll continue to try my best, but I need all the help you can give me.”

During those 9 years of pastoral ministry, I also experienced more of the grace, mercy and the power of God than I had ever dreamed possible.  All together our church body grew in maturity as we shared in more miracles, saw more lives changed, helped more new people enter into the kingdom of God and witnessed more genuine discipleship than I had ever seen before.  I experienced genuine Christian community in very profound ways through the love and support of church members who helped carry me through some of the hardest times of my young life.

I miss those 9 years even as I never want to relive them.  All I can tell you is that, in every way at all times, our God is always good.

We rarely, if ever, know what is best for us.  Heck, we don’t even know what is mediocre.  But Jesus does, and he wants to guide us into a peculiar way of fulfillment through self-sacrificial service because sacrifice is the way of fulfillment – at least, it is for people who follow Jesus.

Jesus says, “Everyone who wants to come after me must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.  Anyone trying to save their life will lose it.  But whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will find it.”

Stories of Self-Denial, 1

With the encouragement of some close friends, I have decided to share a few stories with you from my life.  I have been following Jesus – not always with perfect faithfulness, but those are a different set of stories; I mention that fact here to clarify that I am not making any claims to an exceptional Christian life, only a Christian life – for some 45+ years.

I don’t have as many years ahead of me as I have trailing behind me.  Lately, I have felt the Holy Spirit’s prompting, I suspect (I am not certain; that’s why I asked my friends’ advice), to share these experiences for the encouragement of others.  The memory of God’s good work should not die with the individual.  And God has been very good to me over the years.  These stories are told here in order to praise God by letting you know how good He has been to me.  (Check out my post about the Biblical meaning of “praise.”)

I firmly believe that self-denial is at the heart of obedient Christian discipleship.  Jesus could not speak any more clearly.  He says:

“If anyone wants to follow me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

Self-denial is the heart of the good news.  Self-denial defined every day of Jesus’ life on earth.  The crucifixion was Jesus’ ultimate act of self-denial.  Now he says to us, “Follow me.  Be like me. Live like me.  Be willing to die like me.  Say ‘No’ to your own selfish interests and submit entirely to the Father in heaven like me.”

It is impossible to be a disciple of Jesus Christ without learning to recognize those forks in the road where God tells us to abandon our own plans and walk in a different direction.  I am blessed in that the Holy Spirit has allowed me to recognize a few of those forks over the years.

Denying yourself is not easy.  In fact, it can be painful.

It’s not something we can do expecting immediate “blessings.”  Sometimes the rewards for obedience don’t appear for years.  Maybe they won’t appear until eternity.  At other times, the benefits become obvious in the moment.  In any case, we don’t follow Jesus because he is a cosmic gumball machine dispensing instant, observable blessings for our every action.

Sometimes self-denial entails immediate suffering.  But we do it anyway, gladly, willingly and repeatedly simply because we need to be with Jesus.  We love him, and we know that life does not make sense for us anywhere else but at his side.  As Kierkegaard wisely observed:

“If you will believe, then you will…accept Christianity on any terms…then you will say: Whether it is a help or a torment, I want only one thing, I want to belong to Christ, I want to be a Christian.”

For as long as I could remember, I had always wanted to be a wildlife biologist.  Trekking through the wildness, studying wild animals, learning their hidden secrets and behaviors that no one else had yet to witness, this was my lifelong dream as a child.

I chose my university accordingly.  The University of Montana was the only place for me.  Between its department of Wildlife Biology and the presence of Dr. John Craighead, my childhood hero and an American pioneer in modern ecology and wildlife studies, moving into the university dormitory made me as happy as a 17-year-old pig in slop.

I had qualified for the on-campus work study program so I hightailed it over to the office of the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unity, founded by Dr. Craighead, and I asked for a job.  Over the next several years my dreams started to come true.  I became an assistant to several doctoral students, helping them in their field research.  I was living my dream and the signs all seemed to say, ‘Full steam ahead.’

But I also hooked up with another group in my freshman year:  Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  I attended their Large Group meetings.  I joined a Small Group Bible study, and I became friends with the local IV staff-worker, Marv Anderson.  (Marv and his wife Doreen are dear friends to this day.  I consider him to be one of my spiritual fathers.  Every believer needs someone like Marv in their life.)

Believe it or not, I had been born and raised in the church, but I had always thought very independently about my life.  At the university I began to rub shoulders with young people who talked openly about God’s will for their lives.

What?!  You mean following Jesus meant that I couldn’t just chase after any career I wanted?  I was supposed to pray, listen for answers, ask others for advice and do the things God wanted me to do????  Yikes!  Admittedly, I may have been sleeping during those particular lessons at church, but this was a brand-new attitude for my teenage, embryonic Christian faith.

But, with lots of helpful encouragement and advice from Marv and others, that’s exactly what I began to do.  And I started to realize new things about myself.

First, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see that, in large part, my career choice was driven by a major problem in my character.  I have always been an introvert.  Not that there is anything wrong with being an introvert.  I am quite happy with myself in that regard.  But this young man had gone much further into himself and become a good old-fashioned misanthrope.

I did not like people very much.  I was angry and antisocial – yeah, why in the world had I sought out Inter-Varsity?  It must have been the Holy Spirit again.  And I came so see that my desire to live alone in the wildness had as much to do with my dislike for the rest of the human race as it did with my love for animal life.  Yet, I was increasingly impressed by the fact that Jesus loved people.  And if I wanted to follow him, then he wanted me to love people too.

That realization caused me to seriously question whether I could continue calling myself a Christian.  I knew in my guts that no one could say they believed in Jesus while hating other people.  Yet, the last thing I was interested in was learning to love others.  Heck, I didn’t even like myself most of the time!

After a period of great internal wrestling, I concluded that I couldn’t walk away from Jesus.  I knew that I was lost without Him.  It was up to me to change, whether I liked it or not.  So, I added two new requests to my time of daily prayer.

First, I asked Jesus to teach me how to love people as he loved them, to give me his heart for others.

Second, I confessed that my plans for wildlife biology were my own.  I had never before asked the Lord what he wanted to do with my life.  So, I started asking, ‘Jesus, what are your plans for my life?  What did you make me to do?  If you want me to be a biologist, great.  But if you want to take me somewhere else, I will give up biology and do whatever you want.’

If you have checked out the biography on my blog, you will know that I have never worked as a biologist.  After graduation I followed a path into Christian ministry.  Something I never imagined I would do.  I said ‘No’ to my life-long plan – in the middle of seeing it all come true! –  because it had always been my plan.

It turned out that Jesus had a better idea for an introverted misanthrope who had also been given some unexplored gifts in communication and public speaking.

I have never regretted my decision to walk away from biology.  God’s plans for me have meant considerable hardship, at times.  The journey hasn’t always been easy.  There are more stories yet to be told.  But I have never been sorry for the choices I made, because I believe there was no other way for me to keep following after my precious Savior, Jesus Christ.

I thought I was going to the University of Montana to work with John Craighead.  Actually, I went there to meet Marv Anderson…and, of course, my wife Terry.  I had never heard of Marv before, but his model of faithful discipleship changed my life forever.

Learning “to deny myself” ended up saving me from deep personality flaws that were steering me into a life of isolation and loneliness.  Had I stubbornly held on to the person I was at the time, I would have eventually been lost.

Believe me.  Jesus always knows best.  Even when his direction is hard.

If Russia is an Enemy, It’s Our Own Fault.  So, Let’s Fix It!

The cheapest, easiest, most reliable –and the vilest – way for a government and its leaders to assure the support of its citizens is to have an enemy.  If the nation doesn’t already have a big, fearsome enemy, then the government can always invent one.  The bigger, more dangerous and frightening the better.  All nations do this.  The good old U.S. of A. is particularly adept at this national game.

We were told that the Soviet Union was out to conquer the world.

Preaching a message of Us vs. Them, especially if you can persuade folks to believe that They pose an imminent, existential threat to Us, is the simple, time-tested method of rallying people around the flag and stirring patriotic loyalty to the nation-state.  Civil religion is the sharpest hoe for plowing this national field.  It doesn’t require much thought from either side, and religious messages – whether civil or uncivil – always cut the deepest.

In fact, the process is downright magical.  Religious leaders, especially preachers, are the most adept practitioners of this art of fear-mongering, but precious few presidents, senators or congress-persons have ever been capable of saying “No” to the mystical powers of simple enemy-conjuring.

In fact, this is a guaranteed method for any nation-state hoping to convince its young men and women to sacrifice their lives on a foreign battlefield, typically a place they have never heard of before, while hating an enemy they don’t know, have never seen, and can only conceive of through the lens of the dehumanizing propaganda dished out to them in basic training – or the nightly news.

Take the latest enemy all Americans are supposed to fear:  Russia and the Bear incarnate, Vladimir Putin.

I will not take on the near-hysterical “Russia-meddling in our elections” story here. (Let me just say that I am standing with journalists like Max Blumenthal, Glenn Greenwald, and Aaron Maté who still refuse to jump onto that bandwagon until we are provided with evidence that any such thing actually occurred.  So far, we have only been shown accusations dressed up like evidence. I will also note that members of the important watchdog group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, such as Ray McGovern and William Binney have written extensively on this subject, an area with which they are intimately familiar, and they generally come to the same conclusion.  Please, check out their arguments.)

Below I have links to 2 interviews of Professor Steven Cohen.

Part 1 here.  Part 2 here.  Please take a few minutes to watch and listen.  Part 2 especially addresses US culpability in damaging our relationship with Russia.

Cohen is professor of Russian studies at New York University.  He is also emeritus professor of politics at Princeton University.  He has spent much of his life working in the Soviet Union/Russia.  He is a lifelong student of Russian political history.  I have read many of his articles, but most recently I read his fascinating book, Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War (Columbia, 2009).  The book’s final 3 chapters, The Fate of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s Lost Legacies, and Who Lost the Post-Soviet Peace? are especially pertinent to today’s anti-Russia headlines.

You won’t see Prof. Cohen interviewed on corporate news outlets because he is a man of principle who, as any true academic will tell you, bases his arguments on facts and evidence.  He doesn’t toe the popular line.  He won’t repeat the standard fear-mongering charges of US politicians, bipartisan  Russia-phobes (the Democrats and so-called liberals have gone around the bend!) and the network talking-heads.

In fact, Cohen presciently warns about the very real dangers of today’s McCarthyite atmosphere — he calls it a New Cold War more dangerous than the last — where anyone who thinks it is a good idea to talk with Russia and to build a positive, cooperative relationship with the world’s other nuclear super-power can only be a Putin stooge. He also explains why Russia has very good reason to see the United States as an aggressor.

If we are in the midst of a new Cold War, it was begun by the USA not by Russia.

Russia need not be our enemy.  In fact, there is every reason for us to work together as allies.  If that is not the case, it is our own fault.  We need to own up to and make amends for the many ways the USA has trashed its relationship with Russia by breaking our promises and betraying their trust.

Christians, too, should be deeply concerned about matters of facts, truth, maintaining peace, and building friendships rather than antagonisms.  I do not believe that these are the concerns motivating president Trump’s overtures to Vladimir Putin.  I suspect that his friendship with Putin has everything to do with his deep financial ties and indebtedness to the Russian mafia, otherwise known as the oligarchs.  (See the books by David Cay Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump and It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America).  But, whatever his motives, positive overtures to Russia is the one sensible thing Trump has done.

I encourage God’s people to pray and to think critically before jumping on anyone’s political bandwagon.  Pray for diminishing tensions that will help to ensure peace.  Pray for national humility.  We need to confess our many national sins that have made the Russians skeptical of our intentions…with good reason.

God loves Russia and the Russian people as much as anyone else.  We are not His favorites.

Call Congress in Support of the Yemen War Powers Bill

The organization Just Foreign Policy has been advocating for the Yemeni War Powers bill to be passed by Congress in order to stop the genocide now occurring in that country.

Yemen has become the scene of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

Leaked! Despite War Crimes in Yemen US Trains Saudi Pilots

See my previous posts here, here, here, here .  We have soldiers and intelligence assets on the ground.  The US also the largest arms supplier to Saudi Arabia, the principle antagonist in Yemen’s civil war.

American money, arms, and soldiers, directed by our president and an acquiescent, do-nothing

congress, have helped Saudi Arabia to turn Yemen into a slaughter house where innocent men, women and children are butchered every day.

Please read the latest call for action from Just Foreign Policy reproduced below and make those three phone calls.  Thank you.

“The House goes out on recess this week. If a Yemen war powers bill is going to be introduced in the House before recess, that decision will be made today. If no bill is introduced, we’ll have no Congressional vehicle in August to respond to the threatened Saudi-UAE escalation of the war. The UN has warned that ten million more Yemenis will be pushed to the brink of starvation if the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen does not end this year. 

“The actions today of three Representatives will be key:

Ro Khanna: (202) 225-2631

Adam Smith: (202) 225-8901

Ted Lieu: (202) 225-3976

“Please call their offices now, in that order. When you reach a staffer or leave a message, you can say something like: 

“’I urge you to move forward with the introduction of a Yemen war powers bill in the House before recess. This will deter Saudi-UAE from escalating and pressure them to agree to the UN peace deal. If Saudi-UAE escalate, the bill will give grassroots activists a vehicle for response.’

“When you’ve made your call[s], please report so here. 

“The UN and aid groups have warned that if the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen is not ended this year, another ten million Yemenis will be pushed to the edge of starvation. The UN envoy has said he is close to a deal that would stop the Saudi-UAE assault on Hodeida and return the parties to peace talks. Thus, if the UN envoy is successful in his efforts, it could spare millions of Yemenis from being pushed to the edge of starvation. The crucial thing needed to end the war is more U.S. pressure on Saudi-UAE.

“That is why the question of what Members of Congress do now is so urgent. What Members of Congress do now to increase pressure on the Trump Administration and Saudi-UAE to end the war is the only variable apparent on the scene that appears to have any chance of sparing millions of lives in Yemen. 

“In particular, the introduction of a House war powers bill before the recess would give us a vehicle around which to organize public opinion to pressure Congress. Without such a vehicle and without such organizing, past experience indicates that the worsening of the U.S.-Saudi imposed humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a tree that falls in the forest without making an effective sound in the U.S. The worst developments are occasionally reported in mainstream U.S. press. But the attention is not sustained. The last time the issue received sustained attention in the U.S. was in March, when Senators Sanders, Lee, and Murphy introduced a war powers bill in the Senate and pushed for a vote. That is the kind of attention that we need in the U.S. on Yemen now. 

“Urge Khanna, Smith, and Lieu to act:

Ro Khanna: (202) 225-2631

Adam Smith: (202) 225-8901

Ted Lieu: (202) 225-3976″

Please make the calls.

I Thought We Hated Other Nations “Meddling” in Our Politics?

“The Trump administration has launched an offensive of speeches and online communications meant to foment unrest and help pressure Iran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups, U.S. officials familiar with the matter said.”

Hassan Rouhani of Iran and President Trump

That is the lead paragraph of a recent story in Reuters.  The headline says, “U.S. launches campaign to erode support for Iran’s leaders.”

Read the entire story here.

I haven’t written anything about the asinine ‘Russia-meddling’ brouhaha, or Trump’s dangerous withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, because both topics are such a stew of lies, misinformation, partisan back-stabbing and political/media hypocrisy that I get a headache whenever I considered writing a post.

Maybe I will try something in the future, before Trump starts a war with Iran in an attempt to distract from his overtures to Russia, which are important, valuable, necessary and worthy of praise!

No, I have not become a Trump fan.  Not even close.  But the hyper-partisanship that blinds people to the truth and turns them into knuckle-headed contrarians objecting to worthwhile diplomacy is going to lead us into another insane war if we are not careful.

Anyway, I saw this headline on Twitter and read the article.  It is important to be aware of what the US is doing in Iran, not because it is unprecedented but because it is common practice, and we do it constantly in many different places.

To just scratch the surface of the many abominable things wrong with the mainstream discussion of ‘Russia-meddling,’ the Reuters article provides a perfect window into both the hypocrisy and the supreme irony of current US domestic politics and the corporate media’s manipulation of a sheepish American public.

Kierkegaard’s Depression and Service in God’s Kingdom

1836 February

The melancholy Dane.

“People understand me so little that they do not even understand when I complain of being misunderstood…I have just returned from a party of which I was the life and soul; wit poured from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me – but I went away – and the dash should have been as long as the earth’s orbit —————- and wanted to shoot myself.”

1847 August

“I must come to closer grips with my melancholy. It has until now lain deep down and the tremendous intellectual strain has helped to keep it down.  That my work has profited others, that God has approved it and helped me in every way is sure enough.  Again and again I thank him for having done infinitely more for me than I ever expected…I shall therefore remain quiet…and try to understand myself, and really think out the idea of my melancholy together with God here and now.  That is how I must get rid of my melancholy and bring Christianity closer to me.”

1848 May

“My life began with a terrible melancholy, in its earliest youth deranged in its very deepest foundations, a melancholy which threw me for a time into sin and debauchery and yet (humanly speaking) almost more insane than guilty…so I grasped eternity with the blessed assurance that God is love, even though I was to suffer thus all my life; yes, with that blessed assurance.  That is how I looked upon my life.”

These are only a few of the numerous references to depression and suicidal impulses that Sǿren Kierkegaard discloses in his journals.  There are many more.  They are one of the reasons that I feel an affinity for this 19th century Christian brother.

Of course, Kierkegaard lived long before any medical treatments, or even talk therapy, were available for people suffering with depression.  Which makes it all the more amazing (to me, anyway) that he not only managed to withstand his periodic suicidal impulses – I am oh so happy that he never shot himself! – but that his chronic depression eventually played an important role in the circumstances that drew him to faith in Christ.

The Christian Kierkegaard’s openness about his depression and its interactions with his trust in Jesus teach me a number of valuable lessons:

Even when Sǿren was twisted into knots by the darkest, psychic oppression, he continued to search for life’s answers in relationship with his heavenly Father.  If there is any meaning to be found in life, he knew that it appears as we surrender ourselves more and more completely to the Father of Jesus Christ.  He never gave up on faith in Jesus, though I am sure that he felt like it many times.  That persistent faith assured him that we are deeply, deeply loved by God whatever else our terrors, sadness, or emotional despair may try to insinuate in moments weakness and vulnerability.

Though Kierkegaard struggled with temptation, he never surrendered himself to believing that his depression was a divine punishment or judgment.  He did not allow the experience of depression to determine his faith in the Lord.  Just the opposite.  He knew that he had been forgiven and accepted by God.  Even though it must have created a torturous, existential contradiction, Sǿren found a way (just like the psalmist) to live by faith even as he “walked through the valley of the shadow of death.”  Kierkegaard was often a depressed believer, but he was a believer nonetheless.  And he held to the truth that God always loved His children, even when they were depressed children.  The adjective (depressed) didn’t matter.  Faith clung to the noun (child of God).

Rather than blame God for his suffering and angrily pull away from the Father, Kierkegaard used his suffering as a vehicle for reflection and self-understanding.  There are things that even the depressed person must choose by force of will.  Kierkegaard eventually saw his depression as a gift from God, for he was convinced that melancholy (as he put it) was essential to his psychological insights and productivity as a religious author.  A lifetime of struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide molded him into the man God wanted to use.

In a sense, then, depression became the cross that Kierkegaard carried throughout his life of Christian discipleship.  His writings were intended to help the Danish national church open its eyes to the true gospel of Jesus Christ.   Sǿren was, in effect, an evangelist to all the people of Denmark.  Depression became his tutor directing him into the various avenues he explored for communicating the real Christian gospel to a nation of people who already thought they knew it all.  As he neared the end of his life, Kierkegaard acknowledged the privilege of being used by God in this way and genuinely expressed his gratitude for the “life of melancholy” that kept him praying, seeking, thinking, studying, writing, believing and hoping.

For Jesus said, “If anyone wants to come after me, you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

I pray that I will imitate Kierkegaard in the way that he took up his cross for Jesus.

Meet Lola the Prairie Falcon

One of the reasons my blog productivity has waned a bit this summer is because of my hobby (or alternative lifestyle!) of falconry.  I have been busy raising and training a new falcon.  Terry has bugged me for some time to make Lola a subject of this blog, so here you go.

Allow me to introduce you to Lola, my female prairie falcon.

With the help of a friend, I took Lola from her eyrie – a small cave in the side of a cliff – on May 31st when she was approximately 17 days old.  She was huddled together with 1 sister, 2 brothers, and 1 egg that failed to hatch.  This is the average size for a prairie falcon eyrie.

For anyone worried about this practice, let me say that I probably saved Lola’s life.  Biologists estimate that the mortality rate among 1st year raptors is about 75%.  In other words, there is a 75% chance Lola would have died before next spring had I not taken her.  Nature is beautiful, but it is also harsh, can be cruel (at least, in our eyes) and is always unforgiving.

Prairie falcons are very common in the western United States.  Unlike the peregrine falcon, which was saved from extinction by conservation

My last falcon was a peregrine named Bo. Here he is grabbing a quail for breakfast.

efforts facilitated through the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, prairie falcon populations have never been so low as to be threatened, much less endangered.

(I am biting my tongue not to excoriate president Trump’s gutting of the EPA and the current plan to effectively terminate the ESA!  All God’s people ought to be screaming bloody murder over these catastrophes.  Maybe I will do that in a future post.)

Here are a few things to know about Lola:

  1. She is an “imprint,” meaning that she thinks I am her dad (or mom?). Both
    Lola at 17 days having her first meal at her new home.

    prairie and peregrine falcons will imprint up to the age of 21 days.  There are both pros and cons to training an imprinted falcon.  I have never done it before, and I am experimenting.  So, I decided to give it a try for a variety of reasons.  Maybe I will talk more about imprinting on another day.

  2. One of the benefits of imprinting is that Lola is as tame as a puppy dog. She likes to hang out with me in the living room, which makes her lots of fun…for now.  We will see how things work out in the coming months once she begins serious training and hunting.
  3. No, imprinting does not necessarily mean that she can never be released or
    Teaching Lola how to interpret the news.

    be able to mate and raise young in the wild. We don’t thoroughly understand the imprinting process, yet.  There are documented instances of imprinted raptors mating with their wild counterpart and nesting in the wild successfully.

  4. I wanted a female because the primary game species in my area throughout the winter is pheasants. Female raptors are about 1/3 larger than males.  I want to be able to hunt rooster pheasants when they flush, and a male prairie falcon would be too small to kill male pheasants consistently.
  5. When Lola was small I took her with me
    My two favorite little girls playing on the porch.

    everywhere, except when my shopping required leaving her in the car alone for long periods. She enjoyed sitting on the table with me in her wicker basket at my local coffee shop, meeting the customers coming and going.  It’s called socialization.  When raising an imprint, I had to ensure that Lola had food available 24/7, never experience unsatisfied hunger, did experience a broad spectrum of activity, and was always with me.

    They grow up so fast.
  6. Soon after Lola could fly, we began a procedure called “hack.” There are a variety of ways to approach hacking, but it basically means that the hawk or falcon is allowed to fly around on its own during the day.  So, every day Lola and I drive out to a beautiful, isolated valley – no people, roads, buildings, power lines or telephone poles – that virtually screams “Montana!”  Out here I can be reasonably certain that she will remain safe as she explores.I set her on the roof of my Jeep and let her do her thing.  Right now her
    Lola’s favorite inside perch on the banister.

    “thing” includes chasing larks, harassing the neighborhood marsh hawk, learning to use the wind, gaining self-confidence, muscle tone, stamina, strength and just lookin’ incredibly cool in the way that only big falcons can do.  Don’t worry.  Lola regularly returns to land on the Jeep roof as if to say, “Ain’t I the ritz, dad? Did you see that?!”

    Just to make sure I stay focused, she often buzzes my head for fun.  After 2 hours or so, at some point when she is standing on the roof, I offer her the lure (a leather thingy that I can

    Lola at hack, queen of her domain.

    swing in the air) with her daily meal attached.  She flies or jumps over, grabs the lure, begins to eat, and I get her ready to go back home.

  7. Well, that’s what Lola and I are up to now. I will let you know how we progress in the months ahead.