True Discipleship

Missionaries

So, here's the thing.  You see them going from door-to-door, young men in white shirts, dark suits, and ties or young women modestly, but nicely dressed.  They wear black nametags with white lettering.  The young men all share the same first name, Elder, and the young women also have the same first name, Sister.

They are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Right now there are about 88,000 of them throughout the world.  Yes, they knock on doors, visit hospitals, engage in service in the community, ride the bus, ride bicycles to appointments to teach people about our Church, and try to share a copy of the Book of Mormon with you.  Dogs chase them, passing cars plash cold and muddy water on them, people slam doors in the faces of those pesky missionaries, ministers of other faiths condemn them, and police often stop them to find out who they are and what they are doing.  Yes, people call the police on them all the time.  Over the years some have been shot at, kidnapped, robbed, beaten, and murdered.

They go on their Mormon missions at their own expense or the expense of their families.  Some young men and women save money throughout their lives to finance their missions.  They get to write home once a week and they can call home twice a year--Mother's Day and Christmas.  Sometimes they get homesick. 

Some learn a second language.  Sometimes it's a language they've never heard of before and sometimes it's a language that seems like a disease of the throat.  Some serve as missionaries in well-to-do corners of the world; others find people to teach and love and serve in grass huts, barns, stables, tin shacks, or mud and dirt "houses", all generally having dirt floors.  Some have living quarters that are quite comfortable.  Others share a room with spiders, cats, dogs, pigs, and an occasional snake that passes through.  For some missionaries, cherished Christmas and birthday gifts consist of disinfectant soap and toilet paper.  Those serving missions in foreign lands first tolerate, then embrace, and then love different foods.  When they return home they often enjoy watching the faces of people as they explain what they ate for two years.  More often than not, they eat a lot of beans and rice.  Those serving in the United States eat a lot of peanut butter and macaroni and cheese.

They leave home most often between the ages of 18 and 22.  As a criminologist I can tell you that this age group commits the highest percentage of crimes of all adult age groups.  However, this group of 18 to 22 year-old LDS missionaries does not commit crimes.  And while there are incidents of accidental death among LDS missionaries, their death rate due to accidents is miniscule compared to their non-missionary counterparts.

Missionaries come and go.  Two great missionaries, Sister Brie LeBaron and Elder Ryan Moosman, finished their missions here in Binghamton recently and returned to their homes.  One missionary, Sister Misa Morreall, just came home to Binghamton from her mission in Armenia.  Frankly, the emotions that I experienced from both of these events were overwhelming.

They leave home as 18 and 19 year-old boys and girls and return home as 20, 21, 22, and 23 year-old young adults, ready to be positive contributors to society.  They leave home with a high school diploma or a year or two of college and return home with the Master's degree in humanity, faith, hope, and charity.  What they are asked to do is difficult.  I have yet to find one who wouldn't turn around in a heartbeat and go back for another two years.

I think God loves all missionaries of all faiths.  I am pretty sure that He loves Mormon missionaries, too. I certainly do.

Politics: A Dirty Word

Politics: A Dirty Word

It is easy to become disenchanted with politics.  Being one of the two topics that people don’t like to talk about, the other being religion, it seems to be talked about.  A lot.  Oddly enough, religion gets quite a bit of attention.  And, lately it seems that there is a great deal going on about the two together in the same sentence.  Religion and Politics: What a combination, but let’s not talk about them.

There have been a number of little quizzes going around on social media that helps you determine such things as your aura, the car you should “be”, what kind of flower you are, the type of animal you should be, and so on and  so forth.  There have been multiple so-called analytical questionnaires to help you determine your political persuasion.  I’ve taken a few of them and I’ve been labeled as 100% Republican, being middle-of-the road but leaning slightly to the right, and to the far right of the Tea Party. I’ve always been struck by comments from onlookers saying things like they are an American first (so am I) and are not committed to any one political party or that they don’t believe in politics.

I’ve learned a few things over the years.

First.  Not all politics are at the national and state level.  Quite frankly, the best level of involvement in politics is at the local level.  In spite of all the money that we throw away at state and federal governments (bureaucracies), we receive the greatest services from local government.  Cities, towns, villages, counties, and schools deliver the lion’s share of what we see on a day-to-day basis, and it is at this level where politicians are most likely to actually listen and act on concerns.  Yes, they are interested in your dollar and your vote, but their motivation is more service-oriented than what you find among the ladder-climbers at the state and federal level.  Yes, they may have their own little fiefdoms and be big fish in a little pond, but they also understand that the pond can be drained.  Therefore, from my perspective, if you want to have an impact on the political climate of government, do so at the local level.

Second.  Not all politics is about holding public office.  There are what I would call “king makers”.  These are people who are the life blood of political parties.  They do not run for political office in terms of council member, mayor, governor, town clerk or assessor, or prosecutor.  These are the people who hold titles such as party precinct committee chair or committee member.  These are the people who often look for good candidates for political office and support their candidates.  They often choose political candidates.  More importantly, they are often responsible for determining their party’s “platform” or the things that their little corner of the kingdom stands for, the things they value.  There are a couple of very important things to know about these people.  One is that these positions in political parties often go unfilled.  The second is that these people take their platforms and lobby for them at the state level and when adopted by a state take them to the national level.  These are little fish in a very big sea, but they can make a mighty big splash.  They can be responsible for a state or a national candidate for political office either winning or losing an election in a geographical area.

Third.  Not all political activity is about running for political office.  Being politically involved can be as simple as learning about the candidates and making informed choices before entering the voting booth.  It can be as simple as knocking on doors one afternoon once every two to four years to hand political literature out to people for the person you strongly support.  Political activity can be as simple as attending debates.  Political activity can be as simple as calling or writing letters to office holders expressing your views on current issues.  Being heard is important at the local, state, and national level.  And when somebody does something that you don’t like, that you disagree with, you should let them know-not just on Facebook, but also by letter.  I have found that letters written on paper and sent through the mail receive more attention than e-mail letters.  Political activity can be as simple as volunteering to be an election official on election day.

I’ve often heard it said that we don’t have a right to complain about those holding political office if we don’t vote.  I agree 100%.  But I also believe that we have a responsibility to be politically engaged.  We have no right to complain about our political parties if we don’t participate in them.  Sure, it may take a few years for your voice to be heard.  How much stock is a group to place on a voice that shows up once in 20 years and then only to complain?

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Questions from the News

Questions from the News #1

President Bush and VP Cheney contended that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  We went.  We found none.  At least so we were led to believe by the Pentagon.  Now we find out that there were thousands of chemical weapons discovered and even handled by our troops in Iraq and have now fallen into the hands of ISIS.

Bush and Cheney certainly had nothing to gain by denying the existence of these weapons.  It would have been the ultimate “I told you so!”

Q-1. Why would the Pentagon not report to the American public that these weapons of mass destruction had been discovered?

Q-2. Why would these chemical weapons be left in a position to be captured by any group that is unfriendly to the rest of the world, let alone the United States?

Questions from the News #2

From the start, the CDC and the Dallas hospital that handled the initial Ebola victim said that the patient was handled properly and that the disease would be contained.  Two nurses that worked with the patient are now diagnosed with Ebola.  Now we learn that they didn’t do anything right.  There was no effective protection afforded to these health care workers and in fact hazardous biological waste was piling up and not disposed of properly.

The CDC now says that they know how to respond.  Incidentally, the military health care system has known all along how to properly respond and protect those who work with infected patients.

The CDC now says that they are looking at 77 people who were in contact with the Ebola patient.  Susan and I counted the number of people that we had contact with since this past Monday morning.  We came up with a very conservative number of 32 people.  We’re talking in terms of people that we touched or items that we touched that would immediately be touched by another person.  Using those criteria we determined that if those 32 people each touched another 32 people, and those people each touched another 32 people, in just three generations of passing Ebola on to others, over 1,000,000 people would have been exposed to Ebola.  (BTW—WE HAVE NOT BEEN EXPOSED TO EBOLA, we think.)  Yes, I know there is a 21 day period before you become contagious.  That’s a nice number if you life in Africa where most people have never been to a doctor in their lives.  Might it be more like 30-35 days in the U.S. where we have a fairly healthy population and where most of us have seen a doctor several times in a lifetime?

Q-1. If the CDC had it wrong to begin with, what makes us think they have it right now?

Q-2. Why are we only looking at 77 people?  Theoretically, exposure only takes place when the infected person displays the symptoms.  Please refer to Q-1.  (Consider now also that health experts are telling us that the Ebola virus is quite capable of mutating to the point where it can be spread through the air.)

Q-3. Why are we not closing the border to all travel from Western Africa?  Great Britain has.

Q-4. If our military health care people knew how to respond to the Ebola crisis, why didn’t the CDC follow their lead?

Questions from the News #3

President Obama now acknowledges that we underestimated ISIS (or in his words: ISIL) and that they are stronger than what we anticipated.  ISIS continues to march onward, beheading western hostages, torturing and slaughtering innocent citizens in their path through Syria and Iraq.  Intelligence reports available to President Obama months before the rest of the world knew of ISIS, reported that ISIS was on its way.  Lest we forget, President Bush, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney all predicted that if we withdrew that we’d be back in Iraq.

The mainstream media would have us believe that ISIS is composed of a bunch of conscripts running around in black pajamas acting like a bunch of clowns.  The reality is that ISIS fighters are professional fighters led by the second in command of the Iraq Army prior to the Iraq War and that these fighters are using weapons that we left behind and with training that we gave them.  Yes, it’s complicated.

President Obama asserts again and again that we will not commit to “Boots on the Ground” but we will continue with air strikes.  His military advisors and his former Secretary of Defense contend that boots on the ground are necessary to combat ISIS.  To date, we have launched about 200 air strikes against ISIS, much of which has been ineffective. Two-hundred airstrikes is nothing.  That would be spelled N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Q-1. Why didn’t Obama respect the advice of his top advisors instead of dealing with ISIS as the JV team?

Q-2. If the idiotic, stupid, clumsy, moronic, hated, deceptive President George W. Bush and the “Binders of Women” Mitt Romney could see it coming, why couldn’t Mr. Obama?

Q-3. Experts tell us that it will be a matter of time before we have “Boots on the Ground”.  I don’t really want us over there at all, but it appears that there really is no other alternative.  Why don’t we just do it and get it over with?  (Besides, we already have “Boots on the Ground” there.  There just aren’t very many of them.)

Q-4. Just how much confidence are we to have in the media if they continue to portray ISIS as men running around in black pajamas when in fact we are dealing with a professional killing machine?

Faithen Your Strength

I Gaze Upon the Lighthouse

I Gaze Upon the Lighthouse

Gregory B. Talley

I gaze upon the lighthouse, its great luminous light,

For the work it does at sea is mainly done at night.

I love to see the lighthouse standing against the wave

To rescue lonely seamen, their lives it’s meant to save.

Its work is done in darkness and evening fog that’s near,

Out reaching to the forlorn, the lost, the tired, in fear.

It calls against the storm-tossed sea with help sure and true;

Sets a course that safely guides the lonely seaman through.

It guides the ships through darkness around the per’lous rocks

And shallow graves of other ships sailing to the docks.

It works to save the seamen to keep them from the deep,

Bright its light must shine at night, safe harbors it must keep.

Within each standing lighthouse a keeper lays awake

And keeps the light yet burning for every sailor’s sake.

He keeps the lens well-polished and ever flashing true,

And sends its signal outward to every sailor’s view.

I love to see the lighthouse; with pride it takes a stand.

But the keeper of the lighthouse makes it ever grand.

October 6, 2014

(c) 2014 Gregory B. Talley

Radical Islam

I recently shared on Facebook a conversation that took place on CNN with a person by the name of Reza Aslan concerning Bill Maher’s comments about Muslims and Islam.  I have not heard Bill Maher’s comments, but from the conversation with Reza Aslan it sounds as if Maher was condemning Islam as a radical religion and essentially not worthy of the Twenty-first Century community.  Go to my Facebook Timeline to find the video recording.

The Facebook “share” drew only two comments.  One of those comments simply asked what my opinion is.  The following is my response to that question.

What is my opinion?

First, you must understand that I have trust issues, which come from a lifetime and a career of experiences.

Second, you should understand that I have "faith" in the Bell Curve. There is a normal distribution of any population that defines thought, behavior, actions, and beliefs. About two-thirds of any full population trudges along in the middle. It is the one-third, one-sixth on either side of the standard deviation that grabs our attention. When you go further out two and three standard deviations you find the truly exceptional.  In many cases you could call those who are that far out as being “radical”.

Expression of religious faith can be included in the Bell Curve. I believe that most adherents of the different beliefs trudge along in the middle and that you will find extremists on either end of the spectrum. If you wish, Christian text will give you the excuse to join the Crusades. It will allow the Catholic Church to march through Central and South America and destroy complete populations and eradicate cultures.  Also, the last time I looked, stoning of those caught in adultery is still in print in the Old Testament.  As a large sub-set of Christianity, Mormonism will give you an excuse to participate in the Mountain Meadows Massacre while that general Mormon population and the opposite end of the curve are repulsed at that tragedy.  Then you have the outliers who come together and establish their own population.  This is where you will find the Warren Jeffs of the FLDS group (please don’t call them Mormons or Fundamentalist Mormons-there is nothing Mormon or fundamental about them) and the Westboro Baptist Church (I suspect most mainline Baptists have the same feeling about them that I do of the FLDS).  It is my opinion that these groups are the fundamental equivalent of Radical Islam.

The notion that certain Islamic countries are “modern” and allow women to be involved in government and give women freedom to drive or dress as they please merely represents a larger population—two/thirds if you please, who make up the big middle in those countries.  I assure you that there are radicals within those countries.  They look for documentation, an excuse, to hold and act on the values they have.  Little will convince them to act otherwise.

Convincing me that Islam is a peaceful religion is like telling me that Christianity has had a peaceful history.  It just isn’t so.