Be Like Jesus.

Many of you will be out Christmas shopping this weekend - have a wonderful time, and please, drive safely.

And please remember, as you make your rounds, that there will be people standing on cold sidewalks, ringing bells for the Salvation Army, on behalf of those for whom all the breaks have been bad.

Please include them in your generosity.

Jesus would.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving's been around for a long time in this country - since 1621, after the Pilgrims' first harvest. The party lasted three days, and was attended by 90 Indians, and 53 Pilgrims.

Up through the Civil War, it was an unofficial holiday, marked individually by presidential proclamation (and which proclamations always referred to a duty to be thankful to God...food for thought for the 'exclusion clause boosters). It was often invoked to commemorate military victories, such as the 1777 victory over the British at Saratoga.

In 1863 President Lincoln made it official, and set the date as the last Thursday in November. The tide of the Civil War had turned at Gettysburg earlier that year, and he felt it appropriate to celebrate.

In 1939, FDR realized that November had five Thursdays. Since the country was still in the grip of the Depression, he wanted to increase the Christmas shopping season, and moved it to the next-to-last Thursday of the month.

Still with me?

Finally, in 1942 Congress passed a law making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November, period.

But that wasn't the end, and some states continued to observe the "last Thursday" tradition. Texas did so until 1956, but Texans do go their own way.

So there it is - a holiday that began as thanks to the Almighty, was invoked for military victory, and eventually was shifted to enhance the Christmas shopping season.

So don't feel guilty about celebrating the fact that you have enough to eat, that you live in a strong, kick-butt country, and that you're going to go shopping on Friday.

Do thank God...but remember that these things we do are things for which we should be thankful, too.

Patience

Patience is one of the 'cardinal' virtues, and for good reason.

The world teaches us to be impatient. Why? There's good money in it. The more you want, and the faster you want it, the more risks you're willing to take to get it.

Like signing a loan for a payment you can't afford at an interest rate that used to be the province of loan sharks.

Or making a purchase on impulse, and telling your spouse about it later.

Spontaneous is good...but not when it turns into stupid.

Impatience colors our personal lives, as well. Think about your marriage...are there things about your spouse that make you impatient? (Stop rolling your eyes...yes, I know it's a dumb question!)

Have you talked about it, and is some change happening? If so...I bet it's happening more slowly than you'd like. The toilet seat gets put down some of the time now, but not all of the time?

Patience accepts work toward a destination as something of value on itself. Patience steps away from zero-tolerance, and admits that imperfection, when headed in the right direction, is okay, too.

Patience is about the soul, not the goal.

Patience is love.

What Your Spouse Needs.from You

Hugs? Yes, absolutely, but everyone needs them, not just spouses.

Attention? Yes, but so do your kids and pets.

Money? Don't go there.

Nice tries all, but they miss the mark. What your spouse - wife or husband - really needs is RESPECT.

You'd think it would be a no-brainer. All too often it is - a literal no-brainer, as in "he picked up the laundry and left his brain on the counter".

How many times have you seen couples that trade verbal 'zingers' in your presence? Watching two people who should have a care for each other - and who should know better - trade barbed comments across a dinner table isn't pretty.

Maybe they think it's funny?

Actually - yes, they do. When Barbara and I divorced (we are remarried, don't worry!) we went to counseling. I was a smug, self-satisfied jackass, and I spent a good part of the time making what I thought were clever comments...until the counselor (a Catholic priest) told me to shut the f*** up.

I learned, too late, and then kept learning until we were able to reach back and save our marriage.

Insulting each other in public is bad, but talking about a spouse behind his or her back is worse, because it sets up the unwitting party as the 'last to know'.

And it's so common. Hang out with men, and soon enough you'll hear them complain about their wives, and tell stories about how airheaded their 'woman' is.

And - I'm told - women do much the same thing, in talking about their husbands.

"Hey, we're just venting." Really? Venting is talking to a neutral person, like a clergyman or a counselor. Talking to someone who's already 'on your side' builds a consensus against your mate.

Yes, a consensus. Against the person you promised to love, honor, and cherish (unless you're venting to your buds).

Marriage is the ultimate vulnerability to which an adult can be open. We come open-handed for a reason.

Honor that.

Faith and Torture

Torture is an ugly word. That's why we call it enhanced interrogation.

The subject has gotten a lot of attention over the past few years, from "America doesn't torture" to "how else are we going to get the information we need to prevent terrorist attacks" to "it's not effective, because a subject will say anything to get it to stop".

There are some things we can address quickly.

• America has used torture in the past, and will use it in the future.
• The American way of torture is a walk in the park compared to the way real pros do it. I volunteered for a waterboarding test, years ago, and while it was nasty it wasn't the worst thing in the world. I would hate to fall into the hands of the Iranians, or the North Koreans, or the Cubans. Death would be preferable.
• The information received since 9/11 was suspect for two reason. One, yes, some people will do anything to avoid torture. Two, the subjects were sophisticated enough to know that while they would be uncomfortable, they were, in the hands of Americans, quite safe.

But these are practicalities. What about the morality? Can you hurt someone for a cause?

What about if a loved one was kidnapped, and threatened with death? Would you sanction it then?

These are not "extreme" cases. These are tests to find one's moral threshold, because if you can make an exception based on personal feelings...you've bought into the concept.

Which is not necessarily wrong.

What does the Bible say? A bit, actually.

There is the story of the man who was forgiven a large debt by his king, and then went to shake someone else down for a much smaller amount. When the king found our, the chap was "handed over to the torturers". Jesus didn't add an editorial comment about torture being wrong.

There are those who will wind up in the Lake of Fire for all eternity - we've been warned.

God could certainly set up a Hell that would be something like an everlasting high-school history class, but he didn't.

The real Hell is more like being trapped in the locker room by the Goon Squad, and all the coaches have gone home. A bad day out.

Torture. And in this case, God isn't trying to get information from you. If you'll get Hell, it'll be a torture you earned.

And perhaps that is how people of faith might best view it - that someone who has aligned himself with the terrorists, the killers, the kidnappers, has chosen a path that necessarily leads to enhanced interrogation. It was their choice - they could have turned away.

But they didn't, and it's just deserts.

Intelligent Morons

It is said that there are some people who have been educated beyond their intelligence. Yo can find a great number of these by Googling "Humanist Manifesto".

Humanism is a pretty word for atheism, and its symbol is a stylized figure with its arms outstretched upward - the 'happy human'.

Guess he's not thinking about Dachau, or Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, or Rwanda, or the West Side Boys in Sierra Leone, or...well, you get the idea.

The latest Humanist document is called "Humanism and its Aspirations", from 2003. It's pretty short. The Humanist Manifesto, from 1933, optimistically extolled human dignity and potential.

Then came World War Two, and its rather nasty cast of villains. The Humanists looked pretty stupid, and have made several attempts to water down their philosophy.

Thus, we can quote the whole package here:

• Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis.
• Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change.
• Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience. 
• Life’s fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals.
• Humans are social by nature and find meaning in relationships.
• Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness.

Right. Let's take these one by one. It'll be fun.

Knowledge of the world comes from the scientific method...great, except with phenomena you can't reproduce in a lab. Like, say, Near-Death Experiences. Any volunteers? Hey, it's for science!

NDE's exist; to deny them requires the denial of every single recorded anecdotal account. You can't leave one unexplained. Arm-waving, shouting "it's religious, we don;'t believe it!" isn't allowed.

Humans are the product of evolution? Oh? Can you point to any instance of observed evolution that does not require unproven assumptions? We have not seen one species evolve from another. We have seen adaptation, but that's not the same thing. A polar bear has transparent, hollow hair shafts to allow flotation and enhance insulation; but it's still a bear.

Ethical values come from need, and are tested from experience...depends on who needs what. The Nazis needs lebensraum, and the Poles were in the way. The Nazis sure tested the heck out of the people they didn;t like, that's for sure.

Life's fulfillment comes from participating in the service of humane ideals. Well, not bad. But again, who decides what's humane? Some people think that killing Grandma when she needs a walker is humane. I mean, if you';re thirty and fit, having to use a walker would be unbearable, right?

Humans are social by nature...sorry, I need to pause, and laugh. I'm not social. I know a lot of people who aren't, and who should not be forced into "relationships" by well-meaning social engineers.

And as for benefiting society to maximize happiness, that sounds a bit like "work for we who are in power, and be happy that we are comfortable". 

Or, perhaps, the sign that the Nazis (remember them?) - arbeit macht frei - work makes you free.

The fact is that none of this crap works. At best, it's Pollyannish twaddle that could have been written by a high-school sophomore who never cracked a history book.

At worst, it's sneaky egalitarianism that wants power, and wants to make us want to support that power.

We need God. Without a Divine focus, we're simply at the mercy of the articulate, glib, and rich people who would forge our ethics in their own image.

People like Oliver Stone.

Or Kurt Vonnegut.

Or a bunch of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, who clearly feel that expertise in one field makes them experts in all.

No doubt these worthy gentry are intelligent.

And they are also morons.

And with that, I shake the dust from my feet, and leave their benighted company.

Whew.

Black Thursday

Just when you thought commercialism couldn't be more idiotic, we will now have Black Thursday - stores open on Thanksgiving for Christmas shopping.

And since it's before Black Friday, the selection will be better, and the feeding frenzy even more enthusiastic. Better borrow your kid's football padding.

On second thought, better borrow his football team, to run interference for you.

This is getting ridiculous. Thanksgiving is supposed to be one of the few paid holidays for the American worker, and now a number of individuals will be told - hey, you're coming in! Better TiVo the parade and the game!

And you can wave to your family as you're coming in at the end of Black Thursday, and they're getting ready to head out on Black Friday.

This is crazy. Are we so totally bereft of interest, imagination, and a sense of family and community that we have to take every opportunity to go shopping?

Do we really need more Duck Dynasty t-shirts or Neiman-Marcus scarves?

Is it worth walking out on Thanksgiving to see what kind of deal you can get in Electronics?

Is it worth truncating Thanksgiving night to camp out in front of the entrance to your favorite store, ready to claw your way to the head of the line?

I had a friend who participated in Black Friday for many years, because her daughter just had to have certain toys for Christmas, and they sold out quickly.

"Of course, it's probably my fault that she's so spoiled," said my friend with a shrug.

A universal observation.

What do you think - is Black Thursday a good opportunity, or are our holidays being stolen by commercial interests? Will you participate?