FAITH OUTSIDE THE CITY

Mentally disabled child gets new hope for transplant

2012-01-31T20:49:00.000-05:00

From the New York Daily News, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia refused 3-year-old Amelia Rivera a kidney transplant because Amelia is afflicted with a rare disorder, Wolf-Hishhorn syndrome, and doctors were concerned the disorder would impact the girl's ability to take medication needed to sustain the transplant. However, after Amelia's mother, Chrissy, launched an online crusade to change hospital officials' minds there is new hope.

Why operate a virtual ministry today?

2012-01-28T19:57:00.003-05:00

If the Church is to be a community then it cannot be a place of self-imposed limits. Communities are places where people live within and function within their context. A community is a place where someone may live their whole life. It must, therefore, be as limitless as the possibilities of our individual situations.

During the 21st century in the United States it is too much to expect the same kind of church experiences that dominated everyday life decades before. Single-income households are normal living for some families, as are single-parent households. The so-called ‘simpler days’ of homogenous societal enclaves, where artificial communal particularism could be crafted in order to make a pre-arranged product or grouping of people are also a part of American history and not a fact of living today, for the greatest number of communities across this country. The role of women in our society has expanded, as have notions of manhood, and gender roles have been through revolution and many revisions.

The American experience is, in fact, so broad that to try and quantify it demographically, culturally, economically, spiritually, socially and culturally would be too ponderous to be functional; and after much work would blur along so many lines as to make categorizing groups of people needing the Church questionable. But, what is in common with people from every walk of life is that they need God. At least clergy can agree upon that, regardless of what stripe of Christian, Muslim, Jew or Buddhist they may be. People have always needed God, whether they realize it or not and church – the Church – is where they go to find him or her, as the case may be.

Rather than try to figure out how excessive work hours and technology have become the focal point of our collective lives, the real point is dealing with it and creating a space for functional faith, which fits inside modern parameters for survival, and its fluctuating work hours, 12-hour shifts, single-parent obligations and expanded family dynamics. Figuring out how much it is going to rain while the storm has already started is less important than negotiating the storm and seeing it through. With this in mind, technology permeates our work-soaked environment to the point where the systems that support people and families must make changes to remain relevant to those they serve.

For the Church to fulfill its mission of reaching people and being a part of their lives the Church must be present throughout the spectrum of peoples' lives, potentially accessible to them at any and every moment. Yet, technology has facilitated the Church with the ability of having an almost omnipresent place in the lives of congregants and those seeking spiritual homes, should leaders wish it to be so. Largely speaking, though, most within the Church, as a whole, have not recognized this ability yet and if it has then full development of functionality has not arrived yet for the organizations that require it. Meanwhile, skills necessary to implement virtual ministries on a broad scale are not there yet, but can easily be assembled organizationally.

Whether it is creating a virtual ministry or a brick-and-mortar ministry, the key word is ‘dedication.’ Insofar as a physical or virtual church the parameters have to be established up front and systems developed around those parameters. For example, in a physical church, perhaps there will be three services on Sunday, a men’s Bible study on Wednesday night and a women’s Bible study on Thursday night. So, there has to be someone to open the doors to the building in accordance with that schedule, clergy has to be present, the sanctuary has to be readied before service, and for the meetings there has to be rooms set up, in accordance with the conduct of meetings for the church concerned. A virtual ministry is not so dissimilar: For instance, the first Sunday morning service will be recorded and placed on the website, with a message afterward from the pastor or a deacon discussing the importance of those not able to be physically present but still being members of the congregation. Then, either both Bible studies may be recorded, or perhaps the pastor or one of his or her deacons will offer a separate Bible study, which is recorded and placed on a site. Maybe prayer line hours for the week will be posted on the site, so congregants not able to travel to their house of worship can call in and have someone to talk to.

Meanwhile, there may be several meetings of ministries within a church that will be held during the week. Of the several meetings taking place, maybe two or three of those are recorded. Of course, as well as being advertised on the site, a church can also place news of site updates on its Facebook or other social marketing page.

The point is that ministry is not a part of every parishioner’s everyday life right now, because there are times when it is just not possible to get in a car and spend several hours at a brick-and-mortar location for some people. By changing the conditions upon which parishioners participate in congregations, by expanding definitions and abilities, just about anyone, anywhere can participate in Church life – because of iPhone applications, air cards for laptops and data plans for cell phones.

Virtual ministry cannot and should not be a matter left to contractors. The pace of daily life is too swift for there to be filters or ‘dead time’ between the people who need ministry and those operating ministry. If the discussion is about any ministry, then that has, or should have, a connotation that the Church is more accessible than the paradigm of the brick-and-mortar institution as it is currently configured and this can only be fulfilled by ordained or non-ordained church leaders operating ministry. It should not be left to someone paid from the outside becoming an artificial buffer between those needing and delivering ministration.
Virtual ministry is just another ministry, like a clothing closet, a soup kitchen, meals on wheels or the choir, among others. It is either the pet project of ordained clergy or it is the ministry that has touched some member of the church council or the deaconry. Some of the necessary skills for this ministry will be technological and communicative. It is just another skill, though, that the Church requires to operate from among the parts of its body: These skills will never be optional again so they can be trained and developed formally, just as hospital visitation and special music configurations that are part of the Church are right now.

Being conversant in some basic means of digital communication has to be as normative a Church experience as youth choir, Sunday school or serving on the diaconate.

In any Church office there should be training. Formal training is the hallmark of just doing something in a prescribed manner in order to achieve normative, predictable results that are desired by an organization.
The degree of formal education necessary to be competent to operate a virtual ministry is a good question, which can be discerned from the overall design of the ministry.

What is it that an organization wants its virtual ministry to do; how far does it want a virtual ministry to reach into the lives of its parishioners and the public? Does a church want to be available 24 hours in the first place? This is a decision to consider and make.

Does the larger mission of a ministry have room in it for a round-the-clock mission, and if it does then there are going to be logistical necessities that will need to be put in place. If it does, then it will need to staff its ministry accordingly. A 24-hour-accessible ministry amounts to shift work, featuring eight-hour shifts for volunteers. Perhaps there is not a need or want to operate around the clock, but knowing the capability is there is an important issue in itself for a church.

Can we expect too much from reconciliation?

2012-01-23T09:48:00.000-05:00


If a fence can be mended everyone benefits from it.

I think making amends and clearing the air between people in our lives is important. No, we do not have to do this. Certainly, each of us know families that have been damaged by long-term feuds and fighting, and there is no way back from that, I think, to some extent. But, there can be peace and a place in our hearts where we have made peace with it.

So, when there comes a time in our lives where there is a need for fence mending or whatever you would like to call it, does it mean that everything will be rosy between one's self and whomever they have reconciled with? Well, maybe is the best I have come up with so far. There is no generic answer for what is 'reconciled.' It is entirely subjective. For me, 'reconciled' simply means a disagreement or posture of hostility is ended by the mutual consent of all parties. Sure, it would be nice to forget everything involved with whatever happened, but there are no time machines yet. Until they get created and thrown into the mix, I think the best any of us can do is work for as much peace in our lives as we each can.

As Christians, we are called to love. But, when there is something in our lives that we hold close that amounts to hate then, inevitably that disharmony has a dramatic impact upon our live -- our faith and even our health. But reconciliation is not a magic bullet to forgetting the past forever. It is the ending of a disagreement, even a number of disagreements maybe. It is the turning of a page and that page may give way to another chapter or it may be the last page of a book. Nevertheless, a clean break is always better than one conducted in acrimony. It is from reconciliation between people that the very best closure can happen, I believe. It is the purposeful peace between people that can remove the stinger from wounds so they can heal well.

Not all reconciliation is going to end in future relationship. Men and women have free will and future relationship is something people have to make decisions about. Past relationships are things can fix and heal, clear the slate on. And, there is great value there. Bad outcomes are weights each of us can carry into the future and future relationships like metal luggage, slowing us down and hampering progress in things that will help us improve as people, as Christians.

Reconciliation can be the beginning of something new or closure.

Forgiveness is a central concept here in reconciliation. It is not enough to say one forgives another. It has to be meant, and those words are so easily said and hard to do that it defies explanation. The worst wounds are the ones those close to us can make. In the case of a friend, well, reconciliation is a good plan but it is not as essential to who we are as people as reconciliation, amends with our families. It is from our families that some measure of our identities are forged.

I often see Christianity as an evolution of our own identities. Who are we? Well, I am 'Jim.' And then I would proceed to say I am so old, come from such and such and, before long, I will say something about my family. They come from here. My father worked at this. My brother resides such and such a place. This is natural among people. When we become Christians and really take it into our hearts, then when that question is asked it will seem as natural as falling off a log to say, '...and I am Christian.' I make the supposition that before we have made amends and fixed the fences of the past it is hard to take Christianity all the way into one's heart.

With that said, every case does not require physical contact with people. One's father or mother may have been long dead before they seek to reconcile situations -- find forgiveness and love in one's heart for things said and done. Yet, we can work in the positive -- with what is on hand and present for use, and do what we can to the greatest degree possible to clear out lingering emnity, resentment and ill feeling. And by doing this, by daring to forgive, reconcile the past and place one's self in a place of not being comfortable for a little while then there is a dividend: peace.

Are there things that are unforgivable? Yes. In my book, I think there are things that can be unforgivable. They are extreme. And, everyone has to answer for themselves what 'unforgivable' means. But, I would caution folks to be judicious and serious about that.

In the world beyond reconciliation ,where one has traveled that causeway, the soul is lighter. In forgiving another, someone frees not only someone else but also their own spirit from something that should be unnatural to people -- anger, resentment and even pain. Reconciliation is not a pact with someone for the future but a re-visitation of the past and an amendment to an outcome that does not try and re-write history. And, insofar as its result, the backpack each of us carries around, filled with our past hopes and disappointments, can get just a little bit lighter.

If Christ taught us nothing, it is that people are far more connected than we give ourselves credit. Each time any of us reaches our hand to help someone -- be they kin or stranger, friend or even foe -- they end up helping themselves too. Now, for sure, the Lord did not inspire us to do the foolhardy. Common sense has to be given some weight here. But, where fences can be mended they should be. It makes us better people even to try. And, in the end, since there are no perfect people on this less-than-perfect world, trying is all we can each do about anything.

My father and his expectations...and then there were mine

2012-01-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

My father was born in 1919 and raised in Newark. It was Newark, New Jersey under the ward system, where ethnic majorities were herded into their own areas of the city: Irish, Italian, Portugese, Blacks, Hispanics, etc. Conditions were poor but families and communities were very cohesive. This is not to say that life in Newark before or after the Depression (1929) was not often violent and repressive. It is to say most everyone had a family and someplace (however meager) that was home. Some people in these wards came from the United States and others had immigrated here. It was not uncommon for kids in my father's neighborhood to stop their education in high school, or even before. But, they believed in working hard and working their way into prosperity: education was not seen as the essential element of success. They also had an iron-clad sense of family and loyalty to the precepts of 'family first,' though friendship was also something taken very seriously. The church was upper-most in their priorities; even when they didn't attend (like my Dad) they still sent in their envelopes during the Capital Campaign.

My father's generation married one woman (or man, as the case permitted), usually held one serious job all their lives long, had kids, bought houses in the suburbs, probably belonged to some union or other if they knew Dad or someone like him and had a pension as promise and reward for a life that was filled with hard work and steady, albeit grudging rewards. And, so they fought for a job, a spouse, their families, kids and their home, as well as their wages and pension. Most of my father's generation participated in World War II in some way. My father was a soldier and his brother was a sailor: Dad came home and his brother didn't. My mother worked in a factory that supported tank production, my grandmother sewed clothes for the Army, my father's sisters also worked in war-related jobs during that period (1942-1945), while my Dad's mother continued in her job mopping floors.

Of course, the last vestiges of the ward system was burned away during the 1967 riots in Newark, when Mom and Dad thought it might be a good idea to finally move to the "country" and start on that next chapter of theirs. It seemed not everyone was so willing to embrace the status quo and, afterward, my parents' hometown lay burned and ruined, and stayed that way well into the 1990s. They seldom went back and, when they did, never called it "home" anymore.

My father's victory later in life was measured by him whenever he went out to sit on his porch, smoke his cigarette, read his Star-Ledger and looked out over his lawn with big trees and a wide driveway, with a fairly new car in it. He owned one house in his life. And, when he came home from work there were no responsibilities other than resting for his work the next day: man as provider. Meanwhile, my mother worked at a factory job my Dad dropped her off for every day and attended to him. They had one marriage, two children, one house, one car, three television sets, two pensions and two very difficult jobs every day. And for them, this was the victory after coming into this world in poverty.

In those days, a union job or a position with a big company virtually assured that someone would earn a respectable pension, provided they were not a slacker. They had to be on time, look right, not gripe, work injured sometimes unless it was really big, not offer smack talk to the bosses and keep their nose to the grindstone until one day they earned that coveted gold watch. My Dad had his and was so very proud of it. He wore it often, even when it stopped working after a few years. It was proof that he had finished the circuit, gone the route, crossed the finish line.

He retired in 1984. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1986. After eight years of a painful fight, he died of that lung cancer in 1994.

I have made a lot more money in paychecks than my father ever did. But, during his time inflation had not turned the dollar into something like the yen. I have had quick advancements, big pay raises, expensive lunches to sign big deals, inter-office and intra-office intrigue, overnight company launches and sudden, unannounced company shutdowns, prolonged unemployment interrupted by fast opportunity, punctuated by company shutdowns -- and no pensions or pensions begun but never around long enough to stick. I have been married more than once, to say the least. I have moved many times and owned several houses, in several states.

My expectations were so much higher than my father's. I have a Master's degree while he left school in the 10th grade. I've written a book and he rarely ever read a book. He was not a Zen master by any stretch of the imagination, though. He was in pain a lot. He was angry a lot. He rarely, if ever, enjoyed what he had for long before some tirade or other. But, to his definition he had 'won,' whatever there was to win in life.

He wanted a decent job, a good wife, a nice house in a friendly neighborhood and a new car every decade or so and he was willing to do whatever he had to in order to see that through. I never ended working that hard on anything -- not a job, marriage, family, community or house. I do not think I was atypical of a lot of people in my generation. But, then again, my father was a product of a racist, sexist, stratified society where everyone knew their place -- or needed to -- and got along the best they could with the status quo. My generation wasn't having any part of that, none of it.

Things changed, for the good and the bad. During my years of working, no one believed in companies delivering on their promises of anything -- and they lived up to, or down to, that. Why give a company your soul when you're a number? Yes, times changed a lot. Rather than work for someone else, my friends and I launched our own ventures, went to school and traveled a lot more than our parents did. And, we were not OK with a meager existence. In too many instances, our jobs became the most important thing, our families were something like a third priority and marriage -- well, that just became a free-for-all (at least statistically speaking, on a national level). Divorce became an industry in the 1980s and 90s and remains so today.

In my experience, people rarely say what they really want. I think this is so because, if they did, they would see how much nonsense it is. To be truthful, if someone would have asked me in 1992 what I wanted, I should have said, 'I want a lot of money and a good job to give it to me. I will work almost 24 hours a day provided I am paid right. I want a family but just do not want it to interfere with my job or making money. In exchange for this, I would like my family to totally support me, no matter how nuts this gets, and in return I will provide a lot of stuff.' This is not a reasonable goal or set of goals.

I got everything I wanted for a little while and then I didn't.

Today I get to start over again in my 40s, a lot less brash, a lot more tired and less expectant. I have a decent job, a nice car to get me to work, a wonderful partner and nice place. I think I can pull off retirement more or less on time if I keep my nose to the grindstone. Hopefully, I will mend some fences and maybe not. Nevertheless, the University of Life has done its work. I could have made a lot less money and been happier, been far fewer places, done fewer things I impulsively wanted to do, earned fewer diplomas, been kinder at times and more serious at other times. And, though hindsight is 20/20 it is rarely of much use other than as historical research for whatever is next.

I think I will work for retirement and mind my relationship(s) more, enjoy good cups of coffee longer, plan smarter, try and take better care of my health but -- more than anything -- try and appreciate the small things and remain grateful for what I have and what I have been blessed with and try to tend them both.

Faith and moving to Nebraska

2012-01-20T17:29:00.000-05:00

I have not written on the blog for the longest time, perhaps in some part because things have been so turned upside down because of this move to Lincoln, Nebraska, and I am settling business back in New Jersey at the same time, and the world is really in my head space.

Faith is something we either carry in our hearts day to day or do not. Of course, it is not a binary situation, either one has total faith or none at all. No, this world we are each born into is filled with shades of gray. And, this move has certainly been a test for me.

Back in seminary, several years ago now, I remember having a conversation with a professor at New York Theological Seminary about a class she wanted to get off the ground, called, "A Letter to God," wherein students would use letter writing as a way to articulate the prayers in their heart to the Lord. Well, I thought about that a lot; never did end up taking the class -- but thought about it.

Recently, amid a lot of turmoil and confusion, I have found myself writing 'letters to God,' which talk to him plainly about my life and my hopes, and the relationship I want with him and those people in my life, as well as the world around me: It has helped ease my heart.

A big part of my move to the Midwest was economic, no bones about it. Simply put, the economy in New Jersey is in the toilet and I have almost no confidence in it ever really coming back again fora lot of reasons, not the least of which is the tax structure. But, in there also was the fact I wanted to pare down my life and simplify a fast-paced existence down to a slow-paced one. And, there has been success on this front. This is not to say it has not come at some expense personally.

My adult children gravitate toward New Jersey, and they call it home. Moving to Nebraska means I probably will not see them for a long time. Friends I had back in New Jersey, who were and are very dear to me, are now very far away. Meanwhile, the sights and sounds I have long been accustomed to are now several thousand miles away. This new adventure has had its share of sacrifices, I must say. But, I came here for work and simplicity -- and I am getting both those in very welcome amounts. So, I am glad for this move, if not everything it has brought.

Now to faith: Anything that touches our hearts is going to have an impact upon our faith. Meanwhile, no one's faith can be perfect and is, at best, a work in progress. I am no different. I do not 'have it' when it comes to perfect Christianity or even what I would call comfortable Christianity. I struggle regularly with the fight of it all. In despair, I sometimes pray for God to whisk my problems away and just fix my life with one thought of his. And then, I come back to reality and remember that God is not Santa. He is our heavenly father, creator of the universe and our support and life in this life and the next. That is when I come back to gratitude.

Though many things have changed in my life: my telephone number, address, place of work, favorite pizza shop and places where I shop I still have the most important person in my life right here with me: Jesus Christ. And, together, I am still having that conversation that is going to last a lifetime with him. Some days are better than others, and then there are days when I just go through the motions getting the car into the shop and picking up groceries. Nevertheless, even when that connection between God and myself is not upper most on my mind, it is in his -- and that helps me through the days and nights.

Faith is not my profession, it is the source of my strength. And, in this move as in all other things in my life, it has help me up at times when I thought I just might not do all that well. So, in this moment of reflection, I wanted to say thanks for coming back to the blog, thanks for reading and I'll be praying for faith finding its way into your life a little more this week than last.

What to do with next year on the site?

2011-12-31T18:40:00.000-05:00

Hello to FOTC's readers and, as always, thanks for coming by. When thinking about what to do with the site for next year, it occurred to me the discussion about faith and separation from faith communities seem like the way to go. How does a faithful Christian stay in touch with their beliefs when cut off from such communities? Well, I think presenting materials about that can be helpful. So, if anyone has anything they would like to write about it, please feel free and send it in and I will certainly post it.

Otherwise, have a happy and healthy 2012 -- and best wishes to you and your loved ones. God bless.

Countdown to 2012

2011-12-28T21:34:00.001-05:00

Nebraska is a place of new opportunity

2011-12-25T05:28:00.002-05:00

If someone were to ask the average Lincoln, Nebraska resident about their hometown, for the most part, the person asking might hear it was nothing special. Lincoln is an 'average place,' with good schools and fairly nice people – and there is work. No one would argue that housing prices are fair and that, given an appropriate amount of motivation and ability, anyone could make a living here.

Yet, to a newcomer, and one from the East Coast at that, Lincoln is a place of incredible opportunity, where one’s future is not determined by who one knows, or what family you might be from, but by how hard you could work, how willing one is to be a part of this community and how much someone wants to be a part of this special future here.

In densely populated places, sometimes the sheer number of people is crushing. And, if there is not a vibrant economy then unemployment and distribution of resources become much more pressing than otherwise. Given a compacted enough area, space itself becomes a front-and-center issue for governments and societies. Specifically, a jar only fits 500 pennies, but someone has 1,000 pennies and so they need a new jar -- easily enough solved if we are talking about pennies and jars but not so much when we are talking about people, families and jobs.

There are only about 1.8 million residents in more than 77,000 square miles of Nebraska. In contrast, New Jersey, where I came from, measures under 9,000 square miles and is home for just about 9 million people, and bear in mind that New Jersey’s Pine Barrens are about 1.1 million acres of undevelopable land there.

In recent years, the Garden State has lost employer after employer to overseas and national competition among 'best places' for business. As a consequence, the middle class has shrunken significantly and, as primary markets like manufacturing and farming, secondary markets (retail and medical) are also shrinking. In the midst of all this economic retraction, there are people who were living within the middle class who are no longer there. And, people who were barely getting by are not. Those people are casualties of New Jersey's poor economic planning and policies, as are their families.

I left New Jersey almost two months ago now, and based my next destination solely on two factors: strength of the primary economies (agrarian, manufacturing, industrial, agrarian, etc.) and unemployment rate.Using that criteria, Lincoln. Nebraska became a viable destination fairly early on. I did also lend some consideration to pricing on the housing market also, I must say. But, major economic figures were the core of my research.

Before I decided upon this search I had to ask myself an important political and economic question about New Jersey: Can New Jersey recover economically? At what point in the future would the Garden State be competitive for manufacturing, industry and farming again? My answer was that it wouldn't. Somehow the state had become known for cell phone manufacturing and banking, but cell phone manufacturing cannot sustain an economy of 9 million people and there are many banking centers around the world -- New Jersey is not even all that prominent among them (not that banking is the dynamic linchpin to an economy either).

Not only was Jersey running out of jobs and affordable housing, it was cramped and overly congested. Government was simply too costly for the average land owner, and the way the schools are financed (solely through property taxation with some lottery revenue sprinkled in there) is a ridiculous plan. But, in a state known for crooked, self-serving politicians in the 1700s, I didn't expect any changes.

It was not until I came to Nebraska, though, that I figured out how much 'elbow room' means to an economy and individual quality of life, as well as future prospects for residents. The simple matter of room to grow and evolve and create anew -- the space for a clean canvas, so to speak -- is paramount in the ability for an area to grow and grow stronger. Space allows for the future to be written with a fresh look and new eyes by our children and our children's children. They do not have to just continue what is in place, or not in place. Space allows for people and their ideas to grow.

In New Jersey, people live in very close proximity to each other, generally speaking. And, that closeness has not put humanity in its best light. I was born in Newark a year before the 1967 Newark Riots in Jersey, which cost 26 deaths and countless injuries. Many parts of the town were flat out burned down. And, what became of Newark in the coming decades after that was abysmal – because people could not live with each other, heaped upon one another like carpets. Ever try living all bunched up on top of one another, traveling roads meant for a quarter of the traffic they experience daily, in communities busting at the seams with people and housing...and the work isn't there? Given that situation, even the prospect of who works becomes a political issue, and an economic one.

Right now, confronted by a retracting economy and spiraling unemployment, state lawmakers in Jersey have, in essence, decided to cut social programs (for millions who are unemployed) and 'get tough' on the 'slackers' without work. So, the budget becomes more balanced in Trenton, but people are losing their ability to survive on even the most scant level -- if they are out of work or in one of many blighted areas. And, from a sociological perspective that makes no sense. Hungry stomachs become hard to govern -- it is a rule of human nature. Home ownership is not a goal for many people I met. In fact, so many people I spoke to (especially while planning my departure) said they wish they could unload their Jersey real-estate -- but no one is buying, really.

From my own perspective, New Jersey is a place of mean-spirited competition, crude manners, an almost total lack of courtesy and an economic tundra brought about by a confluence of conditions that are at once parochial and self-mutilating, in my opinion. It is a state trying to run itself on an economy of McDonald's restaurants and affording tax breaks to the top earners in the state. It makes no sense.

Still, when I arrived to Lincoln, I had many preconceived notions, which were wrong. Lincoln is a place of diversity, blooming culture, real commerce and entrepreneurial spirit, Christian sensibility and education. Yet, Lincoln, like Nebraska at large, is a place that has not yet meet its best day – it is someplace that has not yet seen its full capacity of people, business and national prominence. It is destined for that, though, because Lincoln is home to industry, business and agrarian economies, with strong secondary economies and boundless space upon which to build a promised bright future.

In New Jersey, there will be no new towns, no great projects that propel New Jerseyians to greater heights financially, socially or nationally. There is no more land upon which to build without tearing down what is already in place, and unmaking what has taken centuries to put in place is hard no matter who tries to do it.

Here, there are roads that lead into lots of vacant land, like on Fletcher Avenue, but there is nothing built there yet. The access way is a glimpse into the future, a promise that – one day – someone will get around to putting something there. There are large tracts of uninhabited land still, and towns with just a few people living in them. Nebraska is experiencing that vital part of society where it is still living in the beginning, despite its rich past dating back to 1854. Nevertheless, today Nebraska is America’s eighth least densely populated state and 38th most populace state – which means there is plenty of room.

If someone were to ask me what the most important element to a people’s future greatness and I would say – room: the space to create and the spirit to do so along economically responsible lines.

I am not a captain of industry and, at my best, I simply worked for a captain of industry back East. But it does not take a rock to fall on one’s head from a window to see what is plain: Nebraska is a story whose first chapter is barely written while it exists within a nation where, for some states, their epilogues are already begun. The future belongs to those who would make it, and it will happen where things can still occur. I think a lot of what Americans will cling to insofar as business sense is being lived out right now in Nebraska and the Midwest, which is experiencing 4.1 percent unemployment (as of November), while most of the “Industrial East Coast Corridor” bears up under double-digit unemployment.

Mitigating Nebraska’s unemployment statistics, I think, is the fact that there is substantial rural unemployment while major population centers (like Lincoln and Omaha) enjoy an unemployment situation that I would guess is well below 3 percent, based on my observations.

I think it is safe to say that, here in the Heartland, the blood and sinew of America is still strong while our nation feels the pains of its own excess closers to the coasts. My only regret about being a Nebraskan is not doing it years sooner.

If New York and its Greater Metropolitan Area is the Old World, with its dignified decay and acrid manner, then the Midwest is the vital New World, waiting impatiently for its place in leadership and recognition as the successor to American dreams and values for the future.

The 'Days of Christmas'

2011-12-22T03:54:00.000-05:00

All throughout Lincoln, Nebraska this season there are these large ornaments lit to remind everyone of the Days of Christmas. Well, it seemed like a simple and clear way to remember the holiday. In that same spirit, I thought I would share the Days of Christmas with folks who read the blog.

The gift of just 'being there'

2011-12-20T20:30:00.000-05:00

After 45 years of life, with its ups and downs like anyone else, I am assured that the importance of talking can sometimes be over-estimated. Yes, communication is a vital part of the human condition, both spoken and unspoken. And, the best way to communicate is not always the vocal way. Just as silence can, at times, be awkward, thunderous and even damaging to situations and inter-actions, so too there are times when words are inadequate, and even clutter a space.

In chaplaincy, when to just 'be there' with someone is a frequent practice. There are simply situations when words will fail, but there is a component of people that simply seeks to have someone in a room, listening or just being that person present that prevents them from being alone...and feeling totally alone.

The kind of leadership a chaplain exercises is different in its style from the manner a pastor is normally associated with, because the jobs are different; starkly different, in fact.

The pastor is, by definition, a community leader, spiritual shepherd of a flock, church executive, role model (especially for the young people), and even sometimes a fundraisers. There are many hats worn from a pulpit, yet certainly this is not to say that pastors do not seriously apply themselves to the mission of pastoral care for their congregants. Pastoral care, though, is the essence of chaplaincy, though; the basic mission of the chaplain as he or she deals with diverse, transient patients or residents from a host of faith traditions.

Usually found in hospitals or long-term care facilities, chaplains stand in a crossroad of life and death, health and illness, triumph and great tragedy. They deal with the details of life, and sometimes of death, for families and their charges. And so, there are moments when silence and the skill of just being present for someone comes into play -- not forcing conversation or thrusting wishes of getting well to someone (especially when they are not going to get well). Are not such wishes, in the face of the terminally or critically ill, or their families, not intended to comfort the chaplain rather than those involved? I would think so. People deal with real pain while in medical care: they may lose some part of themselves or a loved one. Reconciliation for tragedy does not happen overnight and chaplains do not perform miracles of morale that banish bad thoughts from the minds of those under enormous stress. Yet, in those moments when the world might be coming down on someone, when they feel alone and taken aback, how important is that hand to hold? That person who will simply listen to them, and experience their pain with them? This is what is needed at times. The monologue is not always a good approach -- and, yes, even dialogue fails at times. In some silences, though, there is comfort.

People do not deal with enormous loss well. As a rule, people do not like to deal with issues relating to death: their own or loved ones. Some part of us, while knowing that people die or experience tragedy, just does not believe it could or would happen to us. I have yet to know a life, however, which does not experience some tragedy in it, lived long enough.

Just 'being there' is a kind of active listening, as one certainly listens. Yet, I think that it happens more on an emotional level -- and exposes the chaplain to trying to reach out and empathize to someone going through some situation that may be unimaginable otherwise.

During my travels, I have worked with many terminally ill patients and residents, and there are some commonalities about experiences that strike me: Once convinced someone is dying, by medical evidence and that enigmatic evidence that comes from within someone, one who has accepted the course of nature doesn't want to argue about the prospect of miracles. People who have experienced loss do not want to hear about the virtues of heaven, unless it is something they express a want to discuss. And, if someone is crying (man, woman or child) it is the most natural thing in the world, and a healthy sign of acceptance that shouldn't try to be cut short. I would try and be there with someone in such a situation. Listen. Hold a hand. Try and identify with how they are feeling. These are gifts for people, and maybe the only ones we can give in dark hours.

The need for chaplaincy and CPE

2011-12-17T21:47:00.002-05:00

The need for medical institutions, be they hospitals or long-term care facilities, to provide for chaplaincy is so necessary. To address the spirit appropriately is to do nothing but assist in recovery of the whole person and their families. And, having taken a unit of clinical pastoral education while in New Jersey at Capital Health, in Trenton, I can only say that CPE is essential to training chaplains, regardless of whether it is ASPE or CPSP.

Whether for the hospital, the LTC (or skilled nursing) facility or for the home-bound person, chaplaincy cannot equate to partisan denominational sensibilities or it destroys the very point of what the spiritual healer is trying to accomplish. Yes, there are times, such as Last Rites for a Catholic, when only one kind of clergy may be useful. Still, there are so many ways to work inter-denominationally within the rooms of the sick and dying.

I am a Baptist and have been throughout my entire life. I was born a Baptist, have lived as a Baptist and will surely die as one. But, I have shared, and hope to again, prayers with many other faiths and denominations within my own faith. To work inter-denominationally, at least for me, was a joy because I learned so much about denominations I knew very little about. For instance, during my time at Capital (2010-2011), I worked closely with Pentecostal fundamentalists. In all honesty, prior to that experience, I knew more about Muslims than I did Pentecostals.

In the rooms of hospitals and nursing homes are faces of every color and faiths of every stripe. It cannot be the job of the chaplain to convert. Rather, the chaplain is another member of the care team, who oversees care to a very specific part of the human organism -- that enigmatic part of ourselves where hope is born or dies.

Normally, I do not reference people in my life by name on the blog, as I would not want the people in my real life to worry about what they say being plopped up on a blog without their prior permission. But, with Rev. Steve Faller, from Capital Health, I have to say that I learned so much about what is possible for inpatients where it involves their spiritual recovery.

Preachers are used to preaching. Pastors are used to leading communities and people. Chaplains have to master an entirely different set of skills, which may put traditional clergy people into places of discomfort. For example, someone is dying and the family is present: The medical team has determined that a patient is terminal and the likelihood of their surviving the next 24 hours is slim. It is a Christian inclination to believe in miracles -- and in my opinion they do, indeed, happen -- but the reality is that someone will likely die and there is a family that will be left there coping with it.

Being with someone in silence, now there is something Rev. Faller talked about in some length: not planning anything or recording anything -- just being there with them as someone coping with an illness or as a family member going through a hard time -- is a skill and does not happen accidentally. Sometimes it is not what is said that will make the great difference in someone's life -- but just being there or listening.

During my experiences, I have consoled someone who was violently attacked by a family member, and lived to tell the tale. The person was so grateful to God for letting them live and to raise two children (ages 10 and 11), especially given the fact the other spouse died a few years earlier. I could tell the person was truly glad for God sparing him, with the help of so many talented doctors, nurses and nursing professionals. And then, after awhile, I asked them, "How mad are you about what happened?" It was then that something became apparent. The once-blissful patient, who was set to be released only a week later, said, "I am going to heal and kill that bastard if the police ever let him go."

Well, it seems there was some work to be done there on several levels, one certainly being spiritual. I spoke to the person and genuinely urged them to seek both spiritual and medically therapeutic care, respectively. The point I was trying to get get across was that if a miracle happened, and it may very well have, it was not done so anyone else would die but so that a mother and father would not lose another child, and that two small children would not lose both their parents. The person agreed and swore, after several visits, they would seek the support of not only church clergy but qualified therapists to help address the anger issues.

The point: Healing occurs on levels, and chaplaincy addresses a very special area, which is just as dynamic and important to our overall health as any other.

Jim Purcell received his Master's of Professional Studies in Parish Ministry from the NY Theological Seminary. He also received CPE training at Capital Health, in Trenton, NJ. Jim has worked professionally in non-clinical roles in hospice and long-term care and is the author of the book Faith Outside the City: Faith versus Religion in 21st-Century America.

A true-life ghost story? You be the judge

2011-12-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

Many people who work in long-term care, at skilled nursing facilities, believe in the possibility of ghosts. Why? Well, in dealing with older people and residents who pass away, sometimes things are not easily explainable, such as the story I am going to tell -- which was observed by me and is true.

About a year ago, I worked at a long-term care facility in Ocean County, New Jersey, in a locked Alzheimer's unit. The 40 or so residents there had end-stage Alzheimer's disease, which is just an awful condition, by the way. There was one resident I regularly cared for -- let's call him "Mike." Mike was not ambulatory (meaning he could not walk) and was incontinent (could not control his bowels) and suffered heavily from dementia, which impaired his senses dramatically. Something Mike did was, over and over, in his own kind of cadence, scream, "MommaMommaMomma....Momma....Momma!"

When Mike had instances of lucidity, which he did sometimes, he was engaging and warm. He was an intelligent man, who suffered from an illness any of us could be stricken with. Anyway, Mike passed on one night when I was not there. I simply came in for shift (I work overnights) and his room was empty.

It was just about a week later that a new resident, let's call her "Madeline," took up residence in Mike's room. Madeline was fairly high functioning and had many lucid moments. However, Madeline also suffered from dementia, though she was ambulatory and continent. After a few weeks there, the normally passive and jovial Madeline was very agitated when I came in, which was usually 11 p.m. The nurse on the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift tried to comfort Madeline and asked her what the matter was.

The entire unit had been quiet all night long, by all reports, and there was nothing out of the ordinary that visibly set off Madeline. Nevertheless, Madeline reported, "It's that man in my room. Whenever I close the door and try to go to sleep he keeps on yelling, "MommaMommaMomma...Momma...Momma!"

Madeline never met Mike, to the best of my knowledge. And, Madeline's fellow residents were normally not coherent enough to relay stories in detail. It is fair to say, though quite a shame, that most residents in the unit were barely aware of each other in a deeply personal sense -- in the way people make good friends or have very meaningful conversations.

Did Madeline experience a ghost? I do not know. I left the unit to work on another one shortly after this incident (less bending over in the new unit). It sure was a curious set of happenings, though.

Was Jesus really born in December?

2011-12-14T14:38:00.002-05:00

Bailey on 2012 and the 'End of Days'

2011-12-12T20:14:00.000-05:00

With 2012 on the way, and I am sure the End-of-the-World believers gearing up, I thought to throw in a little light-hearted banter. So I went on YouTube an found Bill Bailey. Not only does Mr. Bailey look like he knows what he is talking about, not only is he funny, but he also has a British accent, which makes everything he says that much more credible.

Celine Deon and 'O Holy Night'

2011-12-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

Celine Deon is a wonderful singer, and I came across this great rendition of her's for "O Holy Night."

Bing and 'White Christmas'

2011-12-11T23:48:00.004-05:00

Bing Crosby, the man, myth and legend, sings his time-honored "White Christmas."

It's Christmas, so let's talk forgiveness...

2011-12-10T16:55:00.001-05:00

It's Christmas, and for us Christians that means the salvation of mankind was born in the person of Jesus of Nazareth more than 2,000 years ago. Jesus came and taught about peace, the Kingdom, God, God's love and the value of faith, among other things.

Of course, forgiveness is really emphasized during Easter. But, with the holidays really bringing people into very close contact within families and the like I thought it might be worth a word or two.

I want to start off slow and speak to the blog's Christian readers especially. I am not seeking to throw 'trick questions' at anyone here. My purpose is to get the average blog reader thinking, in order to advance their faith and internal dialogue about its meaning.

The Lord was born and created a pathway to salvation for us: He was the dynamic historical intervention by the Lord God, Shaddai, the God of Abraham, etc. Jesus came to us as perfect as any human ever in history and gave us the Word of God; he was the last prophet, the savior of mankind and the prince of peace. Among his most important messages are forgiveness to one another. We are told that our forgiveness should be genuine and Jesus continually reminds us we are only human.

The Word of God is as alive today as it ever was, and here are some things life throws at us we might have to forgive of others, or ourselves, or third parties (I will explain that one in a minute). Could you forgive...

1. Your neighbor borrowing your shovel without asking?

2. Yourself for taking your neighbor's shovel without asking, and maybe not giving it back right away and not telling him or her?

3. Could you forgive your neighbor from taking your father's shovel and helping him look all over the house for weeks for it, only to find out your neighbor took it and didn't tell anyone?

4. Could you forgive someone if they opened a car door into your car in a parking lot, leaving a mark, and didn't leave a note?

5. Could you forgive yourself if you backed into another car, with the owner not there and no witnesses, and destroying someone's parked car by accident?

6. You are a wife who does not drive and someone destroyed the car that you and your husband saved up to buy and someone destroyed it in a parking lot and did not leave a note? Now, you and he do not know how you are going to get from Point A to Point B.

7. Someone breaks in and steals money and valuables from your house. Can you forgive them? How about a loved one who lies to you about money, or cheating, or steals, or leaves abruptly?

8. Someone breaks in and rapes you. Can you forgive them? Likewise, someone breaks in and rapes your wife or girlfriend, father or son, mother or sister: Can you forgive them? And, should you?

9. Someone tries to kill you. Can you forgive them? Likewise, someone tries to kill your mother or father, sister or brother, wife, husband or child. Do you forgive them, can you and do you have a right to?

10. Someone kills you. Can you forgive them? Likewise, someone kills your mother or father, sister or brother, husband, wife or child. Do you forgive them and do you have a right to?

If you forgive that someone -- is it authentic forgiveness or something less? Is it alright to forgive some people and not others? Can you accept the fact that no one can be perfect in their Christianity because, especially in forgiveness, people just were not meant to be perfect; we were not crafted that way. Our Maker did his very best, and he could have made us perfect, but instead gave us the capacity to grow. Does this mean any of us will ever be perfect? Well, I don't know that much: I know there is a God, he loves us and that I am not him. But, with that said, I think it makes sense to say that anything made imperfectly cannot be perfect. The real point, though, is to see how far that imperfect vessel can travel on the road to knowledge.

And, I so do not 'have it.' I almost immediately stop listening if anyone says they do -- because they do not. Sometimes, in forgiveness, the best I can authentically say is that I would like to forgive someone or that I wish I could forgive someone. And, then I work on forgiveness in baby steps, sometimes with the person not even in my life anymore -- because even if you forgive someone it does not mean you want them around you anymore, based on whatever they did.

This forgiveness thing does get sticky, but a perfect Christian would 'have it.' I think, though, that being Christian is a little like committing to study for a test and do your best: Bring everything you have to it, leave it all at the table, and never stop trying. I can't do any better. And, if I can't do any better than that then I sure can't expect better. I can try, though, and give it all my effort -- asking God for strength along the way and trying to do so in good faith.

There is something to think about.

Downtown in Lincoln, Nebraska

2011-12-06T19:41:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Lincoln, Nebraka -- the state's first city.

The Journal Star is still a real newspaper here -- thank goodness.

Downtown Lincoln -- it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Well, Christianity sure is big here.

Just the most magnificent golden sky I have ever seen.

Inspirational Images of Faith

2011-12-06T07:13:00.000-05:00


A relief cut into the Riverside Church, in New York City. All photos by J. Purcell

The famed "Dancing Jesus" statue in Middletown, NJ

A wonderful work at the Princeton Museum at the university.

This is also featured at the Princeton Museum.

My old church, Stelton Baptist, in Edison, NJ, est. 1689.

A frozen January sunrise in Wildwood, NJ, several years back.

Thought of the Week...

2011-12-06T06:18:00.003-05:00

Hard times measures not only your character and resolve but also those of everyone around you.

Whomever is still standing next to you after the dust settles was meant to share the road with you, and wish well to whomever found their own road to walk down.

But the furnace of adversity burns away the chaff and leaves God's will, one way or the other: Believe in him and yourself and you'll never be disappointed. And, understand when people fail, since no man or woman is perfect and was never made to be that way.

NJ politics: What's your exit?

2011-12-03T19:43:00.003-05:00

NJ: A landfill for political character? Maybe

I admit I have a Facebook account. And, on it, I was commenting about politics in New Jersey, where I had previously lived many years. Throughout my life I have lived in Texas and North Carolina, but mostly Jersey before my move here to Nebraska.

In Jersey, I worked in politics for several years and worked behind the scenes on the state, county and local level. True, I had never done so in Texas or North Carolina, but I think I was close enough to the game to be able to get a feeling about the overall environment.

Anyway, I made the comment that politicians were more crooked in the Garden State than mostly anywhere else. A friend of mine, Tony, said he didn't think so and that politicians were about the same all over. He used Florida, Illinois and Texas as comparisons, which I thought was very fair.

I responded that Florida is, essentially, South Jersey; had to give him the point that Illinois pols might very well be No. 1 in being corrupt; but noted that I just do not believe the level of everyday corruption that takes place in an Illinois, Florida or Jersey could happen in Texas, or here in Nebraska for that matter.

I made the comparison of crops and fertile ground. Some places are better to grow things than others. In both Texas and, from what I can tell, in Nebraska, politicians are not seen as being apart from the social rules and overall environment of those areas. It is very important to be plain, straight-forward and common sense in both Texas and Nebraska. Sure, there is corruption everywhere: But, could a 'McGreevey-esque' scandal happen in the Lone Star or Husker states? Naw. No way. I'll take that bet.

Could outright buying offices and thinly veiled nepotism or selling favors in offices work out? Nope. Not on the level, not to the degree, and certainly not accompanied by the publicity that these things so regularly happen with in New Jersey, or an Illinois, or a Florida. Perhaps, where it involves planting soil, NJ, Ill. and Fla. are the "Pet Cemeteries" of politics in this Great U.S. -- whatever you plant there you don't want to get out of the basement after it comes home.

In Jersey, money is god: not family, for the most part; certainly not community; religion is all but lost up there for the vast majority; and what is prized is the most crafty, the best card players -- so to speak. No, I stand by it: Jersey is a haven for what is despicable in politics because it is allowed by those governed -- and not many other places would buy that act.

The voters are gatekeepers to power, and some places just pay more attention to what is going on than others. New Jersey is a place of 'haves and have nots.' The 'haves' often live very fast-paced lives, in character with the tempo of the region, and the 'have nots' are just trying to get by and could care less about politics and a lot gets lost in the sauce there-- well, that's my take on it.

Why newspapers died in New Jersey, Pt. 2

2011-11-22T20:51:00.000-05:00

In covering politics, it is not possible to cover the game from a great distance. In New Jersey, politics is a near contact sport because the government, both side -- Democrats and Republicans -- is corrupted, in the general sense of the word. Politicians' friends, idiot children, contributors, other family members and hangers on regularly received appointments to government. This may have abated some with the financial crunch, but I am sure where there is a will there is a way.

The most direct route to making money on government in the Garden State has traditionally been to finance candidates, to the point of fueling their ambitions and their campaigns. These people almost always get rewarded, and those people are lawyers, engineers, engineering firms, legal firms, architects, etc.

Drawing the line from Point A to Point B on political corruption is something readers do not follow well. I believe New Jerseyans actually loved the theater of it all. Political parties and teams were rooted for with at least as much fervor as the Giants and Yankees. Well, whenever the political artistocracy was challenged in New Jersey they fought back -- against individuals, newspapers, whole organizations. And, they frequently won because printing the truth is just not enough in the 21st century.

For newspapers to matter, and enhance their credibility with the public, it is necessary for the public to be more passionate about fairness than partisanship. For example, the late and great George Steinbrenner was known for an illegal campaign contribution to the Republican Party many years ago. Everyone knew it was wrong, and absolutely no one cared

Similarly, I believe New Jerseyans are so used to their 'style' of government that they simply do not care who makes what money off the backs of taxpayers. Whether the conversation involves dailies or weeklies, so much effort went into uncovering political corruption before 2008. Corruption was a part of most front pages nearly every week.

Yet, somehow, because newspapers covered corruption so heavily, they were pointed at as being 'part of the problem.' Hence, newspapers today do not explore the depths of corruption nearly as much. I can think of a half-dozen very good reporters who were rewarded with infamy for their coverage of corrupt people in government. New Jersey was not listening. This is an advocated point of view, true. But, it is my experience and this is my opinion.

The political machines of both parties were regularly at war with the media, and they won: plain and simple. The worst and the dumbest found a way to simply bark at facts and make them go away. I do not understand how, but I know the institution of newspapers suffered because of this. Chiefly, in the Legislature, policy makers were regularly trying to take legals away from newspapers, in an effort to deprive them of as many revenue streams as possible during hard times for printed news.

Lies yelled loudly overtook truth printed on a broadsheet. The Internet, its anonymous blogs, television and its sound bites, radio and its minute-commentaries and partisan online posters to digital publications took their toll. I believe with the sanctity of the industry compromised broadly it created a fertile field for politicians and various organizations, all with far more disposable income than most publications, to harangue respective publications until most just gave in.

To qualify, certainly my former publication, the weekly newspaper The Courier (1955-2009) was seen as controversial by many for its reporting. Still, among the landscape of newspapers covering political corruption, Courier was just one. I would not stir old wounds by discussing the brave fights by many other publications, or the consequences they paid for those fights. Still, most newspapers were doing their job admirably, being another form of check or balance against corruption, the end of the last decade. For those still around, mere survival is the focus of their work, as well it should be.

Today, most reporters on most of the staffs for printed or online publications have neither the experience, training or inclination to go after corrupt politicians. I feel comfortable saying that political corruption is covered less today in the Garden State than at any point in my life before. It is the perfect environment for politicians seeking to not only serve, but get handsomely paid by leveraging their offices.

The collective impact of the Democrats and Republicans was not the key element to the demise of the news industry. Rather, these organizations and their leaders created an overall atmosphere that was toxic to papers seeking to do their jobs.

Of all 50 states, it is only Illinois and New Jersey that share honors as the "most corrupt," and for good reason -- they are. Newspapering presumes an active and intelligent readership (well, at least to the 8th grade reading level). Sadly, I think that over estimated the powers of the electorate, on the large scale.

Why newspapers died in New Jersey, Pt. 1

2011-11-19T20:19:00.003-05:00

Main Street: Just where is that now?

Internet news sites cannot sustain themselves at the levels that newspapers did, by and large, and with notable exception. There are a few places claiming to be in the black, but NJ.com is the one I believe.

The Garden State newspaper industry threw itself headlong into Internet news too quickly. A product was created and refined before a mechanism to pay for it via the organization was conceived. Journalists, who were eager to find out what was next in news, contributed to putting themselves out of work by forging ahead and finding new and innovative ways to report in print, in video, via voice only and along the way refined photo galleries, interspersed video in print...etc. And, none of it...none of it...pays for itself.

Are we watching the end of printed journalism in Jersey?

How does one present an advertisement, exactly which way has made a lot of money? Upon what basis should the advertisement be 'rated'? Just what the heck is a "hit" really, and why should I bother with it if it is so fuzzy? All of these questions are still being asked. Sales people are not trained to sell the Internet, and the ones who say they are are generally gilding the lily. But, if any organization finds anyone confident in selling online -- grab them nonetheless -- because I have never seen it done well over sustained periods of times with products that survive no more than some months. And, if anyone is enthusiastic -- great.

The problem with newspaper organizations was that they had a lot of people from the "Ye Olden Print Days" that were bound and determined to fight every advance and step forward. Countering them, also in nearly every organization, were groups of far-seeing people, so caught up in giving away organizational products to a group of online consumers that often very little was left on the shelves. These issues were going on hot and heavy just a few years ago.

Academia solved nothing. The so-called experts in the Garden State, at Rutgers, had nothing to contribute about revenue generation for the past 10 years, and doubt they have anything in the works. One professor there is still talking about reporter "helmets," where some schmuck would wear a motorcycle helmet, equipped with a camera, recorder, cell phone I suppose and maybe even an electric coffee pot -- but nothing that made anyone a cent (except for people who sold helmets and duct tape).

Blogs have proved very difficult to sell, if ever at all. They are online journals from people who might want to have something to say but to treat them as news...no. Yet, the nature of online audiences are hard to define, in general, so how does one get specific enough for a prospective advertiser without exaggeration? Meanwhile, newspapers have gotten to the point where they are given away, in gross, at nearly any fast food (Dunkin' Donuts, Panera) store that will take them (no doubt someone in a circulation department trying to juggle 'paid sales' stats). Because people in New Jersey do not read newspapers anymore, they read the news online. And, they cannot distinguish the credibility of a blog from that of a newspaper reporter putting something online. Ergo, newspaper reporters are now an endangered species.

If I were to take a casual drive to Newark (which is unlikely from my home in Lincoln, Nebraska), I might happen to find a Star-Ledger Editorial Department with everything but its desks placed against the doors as they attempt to fight back digitalization from non-journalists. As a matter of fact, the Editorial Department at Ledger actually had its own site for awhile, in competition with its supposed sister organization, NJ.com. If that does not give one pause I have no idea what would.

Yet the Ledger's Editorial Department may well be the last bastion of real journalism in the state, aside from the staffs of some beleaguered-yet-standing weeklies, like Greater Media and Micromedia, in Freehold and Lakehurst, respectively, among others.

To qualify, for about a decade, I was the editor and publisher of the former Courier, in Middletown, which passed into that good night in April of 2009 after a run that began in 1955. If I had to ascribe a reason for the newspaper's death, it would have to be a lot of similar competition, thinking behind the power curve on a sales level, not trimming the organization or its salaries, too much similar competition within the core area (the Bayshore) and, the coup d'grace -- a digital news community among other papers around the circulation area that went 24/7 before anyone could catch up -- even their sales people.

Newspaper people from yesteryear are sometimes stuck in the fog of "...well, we've always done it like this...." said in much the same way many people were not alarmed when the Titanic hit a great float of ice in the Atlantic. These people felt very assured things were going to go back to the way they were someday, and people would simply throw away their computers. My newspaper's office manager was so convinced of this she kept all of the organization's Swintec typewriters until 2002, when I compelled her to finally throw them away. She was so distraught at this she hotly told me, "Fine. Throw all of these away. Just wait until the computers turn on you!" I responded, 'Like in 'Terminator' when they started taking over?' Finally she answered, "Yes!"

Now there is something to think upon.

At the time, I simply sought to get Courier to finally accept money anyway people wanted to give it to us: check, money order, Master Card, Visa, AmEx, Discover, penny wrappers, PayPal...if someone wanted to give us money I thought it was a good idea. None of that was accomplished by the end of the organization: as always, Courier took Master Card or Visa, check, money order or cash. And, thanks to that, we lost a lot of sales. So, if there is something to think upon it is taking money as quickly as possible from as many sources as possible (credit wise). I also sought to have instant card readers given to sales people on the road. Well, that did work out -- just not for Courier. It turns out our card readers didn't get there until after the paper was closed. But, I am told the organization that is using them now is very happy.

Sales people had no idea how to sell Online news. And, Online news people had only the vaguest notion of money. Mostly, I heard a lot of nonsense from editorial about how "ads were what was wrong with news!" Well, that was solved. No more ads equals no more news. Now is what happens after credibility is gone from news -- it is people trying to throw stuff Online.

New Jersey needs good journalism, though, because it is regularly in a competition for 'most corrupt politicians' in the country. Well-meaning guys and gals with little or no reporting training just do not cut it, though many reporters now are hired on the strength of their homework from school.

If academia or anyone else interested in preserving traditional, credible news organizations were alert they might consider actually coming up with an Online monetization formula that would work across the board: in dailies, weeklies and niche publications. I once had a Rutgers professor tell me my newspaper would be saved if we hired his friend from another college to tinker with our online front page and he could dispense helmets to my reporters. I asked if he had any advice for monetization and I was quickly told, "Oh, no... I don't do that. That would be very hard." After picking my jaw up from the ground, I left and did not return to the New Brunswick campus.

Unable to afford actual reporters, Online publications and many newspapers today hire the cheapest help they can connect with: kids out of college, called "interns" while doing the job; retired reporters living on a fixed income, they cannot make too much; or a category I will call "some guy" because it is reserved for people who are interesting (like in the special tent at some circuses). Yet, reporters are a commodity in short supply and even now may be on someone's endangered list.

The free and Online media (Patch) has ensured that even if a living can be made online, no one will have enough time to find out because AOL has decided to throw everything they have at a pie-in-the-sky venture comprised of a few fossilized print people, intermingled with a freshman class of reporters who are green to say the least (maybe that is why they call it Patch). Patch is to journalism what hoof-and-mouth disease is to Montana farming.

But, it was well-meaning journalists, myself among them, that thought to 'make a product' before there was a way to sell it, and I certainly was not alone if one would care to check the registry of the NJPA today and compare that to just five years ago. Is there a solution? No, I do not think so. Still, I think what happened in Jersey is a dark warning for other papers in other states asking the initial questions about 'what we should do online.' My advice: Nothing until you have a way to pay for it.

Back to the Future: The Trip to Middle America

2011-11-17T22:32:00.002-05:00

This is my 500th post!

So, for this much I have burdened people with my presumptive views of everyday life and the Bible. If you are a steady reader, congratulations on hanging in there.

I was just talking to a friend of mine from Jersey, who is originally from Nebraska. I am living here now, but for most of my life I lived in New Jersey, except for those formative years I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, in Southern Texas.

I am convinced of something: Somehow, people from the Southwest and Midwest forget themselves entirely when they they take the plane ride from wherever they are from to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut. Those places are transformative, and I wish I could say I saw one do it for the better.

On the whole, the East Coast is cramped, angry and overly competitive, to the point of near exhaustion for those of us brought up under enormous skies of never-ending purple, orange and blue, where a full moon felt as if it might just set down beside you on a grass-covered plain not far from where you tied up your horse in a clearing near the woods.

The above sentence will hold no meaning whatsoever for a dyed-in-the-wool Yankee. And, well it shouldn't, as the Northeastern connection to the land they live upon is almost nothing, since it was built out upon generations before they were born.

The New America is not located against the Atlantic or the Pacific, but here in the middle of what was the Great United States of America, where family is still not optional or for the sake of appearance, but where people come from and how they are tied to the world.

In the East, culture is a replacement for values, tradition and community. It is what they have, and all the best to them for it. But, in my almost three decades I have of being there I can tell you this -- it presents nothing in comparison to being home and among the real communities, friends and family that are possible.

Economic blight is the everyday way of life in the Northeast's "Tri-State Area," which is New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It is a world of "haves" and "have nots," where Christianity is a punchline to a joke as opposed to a way of life. Not being above the fray there, I descended into that valley of consumerism, particularism, and placism to do what I could to compete there for years and years -- and for naught.

Anyone brought up upon the idea of family first, community and Christianity can eventually fit into that mile-a-minute-mindest as well as a square peg can eventually fit into a round hole.

Relocation is not an excuse for changing ideals. But, it sure can be a good excuse for remembering what is important.

Sometimes, finding one's way home is the best thing they can do not only for themselves but for those they love -- their families. Just a thought.

The Defender St. Michael: "Who is like unto God?"

2011-11-16T20:11:00.002-05:00

St. Michael was the touchstone the people of Israel had during the Captivity. Daniel referred to him: It was Michael who came to Daniel after a vision and who came to him in the lion's den.

Michael is known not only as God's soldier, but as God's general. During the Fall of Lucifer, it was Michael who banded the faithful angels together to defeat Lucifer and the fallen who followed him.

Michael is proclaimed in both the Old and New testaments as the defender of the true faith.

Today, Michael is known as the patron saint of policemen, watchmen and paratroopers, among others.

Now, to the question: An entity so powerful as to defeat Satan, after marshaling angels and beating back hordes of unholy creatures. No one other than an angel, I think, could hold Michael's unique place in tradition, because no person can, in my opinion, hold such power and not ever misuse it; not ever.

Michael is not just an automaton: he is the only angel who is canonized and there are many who hold this figure in great esteem, and have through the ages. It is not just because of his strength or daring, but because of his obedience to good and excellent judgment. What is sometimes not explored enough, I think, is the wisdom that Michael shows throughout the stories where he is included. Acting is easy enough, but without thought and surety even the best intentions can pave the way to hell. So knowing what is right -- not speculating or rationalizing -- but truly knowing is something that may well be beyond some of us all the time, and all of us some of the time, but with him -- never.

It could only be in total submission to God and his design that Michael could be who he is in the Judeo-Christian lexicon of personalities: perfect submission to God. Who can claim this? With mankind, we get a big head if we win a lottery let alone are the second-most powerful being in the universe.

In Hebrew, Michael's name means "Who is like unto God?" and the name "Micha" is sometimes used for it. In learning the lessons offered by the Archangel Michael, most-ranking of the angels, strength and daring are there. Without action, wisdom is not very useful. Yet, armed with wisdom and obedience to God -- complete obedience -- then the most remarkable things are possible.

With people, it is always arrogance that comes up. Who would pretend to know the mind of God? It is a sin. Michael fights for God's cause, not his own. Michael does not have a cause outside of God's and that is the point. At no point in human history has God ever commanded man to fight against man. What is a "good fight" and a "bad fight" could drive even the most learned of scholars mad for ages, so I would not even attempt to go there. Nevertheless, when entertaining partisanship, for anything, the question has to be asked what is the right thing. What does my relationship with Christ tell me about something? What does my innate sense of right and wrong say? Is my agenda what I am seeking God's endorsement of, and how does that sit with my Christianity? Someone could end up spending a weekend doing nothing but sipping coffee at the kitchen table before they figure out they have acted wrongly -- but it would be time well spent.

Perfect in his obedience, Michael has the advantage of being both immortal and not human: so he has seen everything and has the capacity to be perfect in his loyalty. Yet the great deeds he does in scripture should, I think, come with a warning label: "Kids, don't try this at home."

If trying to be wise in our actions is the best we can do as people, then that is all that can be done because it is a fact that there are times in this world when one must be daring and bold. And, there may even be times in this world when one needs to defend themselves or their community, their nation or the like. But, in considering these things each of us should be solemn, thoughtful and do what people can to be obedient to God's will. If all of this is done before great acts of daring and bravery, then I suppose people are being as true to the character of St. Michael as people can be.

How much does location play into perception?

2011-11-16T08:08:00.000-05:00

Red Bank, New Jersey All photos by Jim Purcell

I have lived in several places in the United States and outside it during my life. And, it occurs to me that every place seems to have its own heartbeat; its own speed and pace.

In Germany, especially during the winter, there is a starkness that is just hard not to notice. Yet, competing with this is the almost surreal beauty of elevation married to scenic charm and architecture. Stationed up in the northern part of the country some years ago, quaint towns and villages, straight out of yesteryear, were so very present in the day-to-day. But, one learned to live in layers, expect hard weather, and wear insulated boots at almost all times (unless optimistic about the frequent snow/rain). Optimism often failed.

Living in Southern Texas could not be farther from that. While a cadet at Marine Military Academy, the heat was a constant player, broken up by regular, unheralded, drenching and fleet rain. Staying dry and cool was simply impossible in the Valley when I was there. Mostly people got used to being both hot and wet; not a great combination but if not comfortable one worked against the other. Only very positive people went through a day believing they would not have to change once; and, again, optimism mostly failed.

In these two cases, weather defined regions that experienced atypical weather patterns from what some of us knew along the East Coast, with its four seasons and crowded living conditions. Weather and terrain played big parts in Germany and the Rio Grand Valley when it came to moving around. And, while Germany was relatively crime free, it is safe to say the Valley was the farthest thing from crime-free one can experience.

Yet, in New Jersey, there is another element of the terrain that plays as vital a factor as the heat of the sun or the daily precipitation: crowding. New Jersey is home to almost 9 million people and is 9,000 square miles in area. Meanwhile, a state like Nebraska is home to about 2 million people and occupies and area of something under 80,000 square miles. Clearly, people can spread out some more in Nebraska.

But, think of living under such crowded conditions for protracted periods of time: Competition takes on new meaning. With so many people, so little land, only a finite amount of work, only so much highway, parking, apartments and housing, office space and physical room. Either people learn how to share in an extraordinary manner under these conditions or they create new and innovative ways not to.

When I lived in New Jersey, I almost forgot about the state's status as "most densely populated." Crowding was just a way of life. But, crowding on such a scale is more than just an inconvenience. It is an element of the every day, as frustrating as any major terrain feature or weather pattern. And, what takes root in overcrowding is frustration, anger, unhealthy competition and maybe what I might characterize as the 'anger elements' of people.

No simple observation of this is going to mean anything, per se. But, it may go a long way to noticing why there are some angry stereotypes running around about 'those people from Jersey.' The Garden State's "rat race" isn't that far from the real thing, where four-legged critters contend against each other for everything from scraps of food to a nice place to sleep. Are people really all that better? Now, there's a good question.

God, seminary and the First and Third Worlds

2011-11-14T06:19:00.000-05:00

Seminary itself can challenge faith.

In seminary, there are so many challenges to how someone perceives God when they enter, and how they do so after they leave. Then again, seminary has always been intended to be a place where faith and ideas of the world come into purposeful conflict, I think, to be seen clearly in the light.

I attended seminary at the New York Theological Seminary, Riverside Drive, in Manhattan. I was there between 2006 and 2010, though on some nights I made my regular trek to the city from suburban New Jersey I suppose it felt much longer. Nevertheless, every night I made the journey to school I found myself finding some new thing to consider in faith. So no trip I ever made turned out for naught.

At the seminary, which really focuses upon diverse, urban ministry, there was such a collection of clergy from all around the globe: Christians from China, Africa, all parts of North, South and Central America -- and even Europe and Western Asia. All of that Christian diversity was jarring at times, me being a Baptist with very conventional, non-charismatic ideas of faith. Many of my classmates had ideas of Christianity that were far different from my own; and that was a challenge to my perception of God, at times.

Yet, to grow in our respective faiths, a little revolution now and again can be a good thing, I suppose, to borrow from Thomas Jefferson some. If our faith is to be true then it must be tested and tempered, made durable and weatherproof, I think; because there is so much rain in this world. Of course, by 'rain' I mean there are so many things that will happen in the world and our lives to test our relationship with God that is far more extreme than simply meeting those with their own ideas of relationship with the Lord. There are births, deaths, divorces, break-ups, unemployment, re-employment, under-employment, good neighbors, bad neighbors, long-term illness, terminal illness and infirmity in ourselves and those close to us that will all impact our personal faith and our respective abilities to minister to those around us. And, if there was anything true that I have taken from what I hope is the mid-way point of my life, it is that no one will leave this world without first knowing tragedy.

God is a world traveler.

Yet, among the lessons that I took from my seminary experience was that my faith is not durable if it is challenged by another's true belief in the Lord, even if it looks much different than my own and sounds unfamiliar. There are those who come from parts of the world where faith and country are tied together because there is so much conflict in other lands, such as in Korea, among other places. There is true faith where enormous systemic challenges are struggled with in some countries, like those in Africa. And, the tenor of faith sounds different than my own.

I pray to a God who walks with me through my damaged, even broken experience in North America; through the everyday trials of life in the 21st century experience of someone who lives in the First World and struggles with those concerns. Yet, that God is also the God of those who struggle with the most dire daily predicaments of those in the Third World, where starvation, depravity and famine are interwoven into the very fabric of the daily reality of people.

Still, whether it is in New York, where life moves at the speed of sound, or Nebraska, where it moves less slowly, or Europe or Africa or Asia, God is a world traveler, with no permanent residence other than Glory. How God is perceived in each place on the globe might be different to some degree, based on the setting of life, yet what does not change is the fact of God and the things he grants us; which, I believe, begins with the simplest of all human necessities -- hope.

Why is the Church becoming obsolete?

2011-11-13T18:29:00.000-05:00

The Church becomes obsolete when it allows itself to be; when it becomes too caught in the past, and gives itself excuses about why it should not be relevant today.

Jesus Christ did not come, per se, to build a church. Rather, he came to reform Judaism and to remind us of our humanity -- and what that means. It was people who chose to interpret his message as the call for a new church. I, for one, think that was a pretty good call by people. Of course, people screwed it up along the way, making the creation of a new church the call for more nonsense when it comes to exclusion and murder and the like. Nevertheless, Christian churches are also responsible for feeding, clothing, and education hundreds of millions around the globe, and have been for some time -- and that is nothing to shake a stick at.

Still, the Church in many places around North America, be they Protestant or Catholic, has been abandoned by the masses. And, they have done so because the Church has refused to be relevant in the lives of ordinary Americans. The Church cannot believe that serving the Lord's Supper is enough to the masses. It has never been enough: the Lord's Supper is a rite of the Church, not of the masses.

When the Church becomes involved in the lives of its congregants: supporting their living, their rights, their employment, their families through times of crisis -- all the while keeping their eyes upon the Lord -- then that teaches the masses about the Lord. Otherwise, the Church becomes a lot of nice people in outfits talking about inane things once a week on television, radio or in the pulpits live.

These are hard words for the Church and its leaders, yet coming from a hospice environment, it is not unusual for me to say. When critically ill patients, let us say those who are on dialysis, are members of congregations for several years and find themselves diagnosed with renal failure then they are thrust into a new world of segregation, being alone, cut off from their faith communities -- not of their own volition. Instead, the Church is unprepared to keep these sheep in the flock. They allow them to be cut off, along and despaired. And, without equivocation, this is wrong. When one is within a community of faith then a pact is made: so long as they do not wander they are within this flock. For no reason should they be cast aside by illness; yet, they are.

The role of pastor and priest today has become one of fundraiser, to the detriment of the role of community reconciler/leader. A clergyman today must be more marketer and promoter than counselor and shepherd of his or her flock. So, it is understandable when some form of worship of community falls by the wayside. But, what has fallen by the wayside are the things that made the Church a community in the first place: caring for the elderly and indigent, home visitation, making hospital visits, visits to the nursing homes and the like. Without continuity of care throughout the stages of peoples' lives, the Church is no more relevant than their favorite sports teams.

The way back is simple: finding a way back through the bureaucracy to before -- the 'before' before having to be held accountable for revenue. Should a pastor or priest simply do what they are called to, instead of what they are expected to do by their boards, then the Church will be stronger.

In this world today that is much more simply said than done. Today, church members expect the pastor to be successful at capital campaigns, and not make so many hospital or home visits. This is a shame, since it is the helpless and hopeless that first need ministry.

God's light...the star by which to guide ourselves

2011-11-05T18:20:00.000-04:00

Faith is not a 'frill' in life: It is a way of life. Though we may depart from the narrow way, so long as we have faith then there is a way back to the path.

There are times when each of us will take the wrong road, either intentionally or purely unintentionally. Regardless, we can put that special kind of strain upon our lives that opens us up to spiritual compromise, and since none of us are perfect then that is going to happen. The question is not if, at some point, each of will take the wrong road. Rather, the questions to ask are how many times will we take the wrong road and how many times will we have the strength to find our way home?

Life does not come with a set of directions, and even if they did I was always bad at following precise directions (at 45, I have to admit I have never successfully set up a cable system). No matter how far we can stray from the path, though, so long as we leave our hearts and minds open to Christ then we are never far from the possibility of his grace.

God does not owe mankind grace, or kindness, or mercy...he chooses to do it. God does not need mankind. He is creator of the heavens and the earth. He has enough to do even without us. Yet, he chose to create humanity and parent us in this world, and gave us free will. As imperfect beings, man will fail very frequently. It might be said that failure of one kind or another is the norm for humanity and, when something is right, then it is an exception.

So I might liken God to a distant star at times, which we can navigate by no matter where we may wander. And, it is the light of that star that can guide us straight back home, no matter what we have gotten ourselves into.

Seeya later alligators!

2011-11-03T15:30:00.001-04:00

So it is time to try hopefully more fertile fields in the great American Midwest. There comes a time for crossroads and taking it on the road. Fingers crossed.

As for New Jersey, it has been a blast. Thanks to everyone here for wonderful relationships and friendships: now it is time for new ones.

At the end of the day, New Jersey is foundering economically and, no matter how much governments may balance books, nothing will be solved until ordinary working people go back to decent-paying jobs. Underemployment is not an answer, rather, it is simply a continuation of existing troubles.

The blog will continue in a few weeks, hopefully chock full of new direction. All my best, be sure to stop back.

Our life can be counted in luggage bags

2011-11-01T17:57:00.003-04:00

How many bags can your life fit into? Photo by Jim Purcell

I am in the process of packing for a cross-country trip wherein I will move to Lincoln, Nebraska, and am learning a lot about priorities. I really thought I would spend the time before moving to Florida for retirement in Monmouth County, New Jersey. I took it for granted, actually.

Well, maybe I would have moved to Boston or New York, but never beyond the firmament that I believed was the American Northeast. I found my piece of the universe and was staying. And then, in the midst of my plans, God laughed and everything changed. Mostly, the economy in the Garden State hit the skids.

So, I am in the middle of packing up my life into luggage and am finding that, even though it may be more bags than I have had before, it isn't really that many bags: two big luggage cases, one medium one, three large gym bags and two backpacks. The math on this goes something like this: All my life, materially, equals those bags. Interesting.

Do you remember that movie "Up in the Air," with George Clooney. He played this annoying, aging yuppie who grew fond of being in transit. In the movie he was talking about "...life's backpack and what is in it..." This is leading to some good stuff for sermons later, I think. Well, the whole thing is, really. Everything I own that is currently not packed can now be spread out upon a pull-out queen sofa bed. By tomorrow, everything I own will be packed up and waiting to be packed into an airplane so it can be brought to Nebraska.

I think the point in all of this is that whatever we think we 'own' in the world is sort of our idea of things but not God's. We can have possessions, but each of us is mostly borrowing merchandise until there comes a time when they are someone else's, for one reason or another. What cannot be packed is everything we really need: family, friends and, most of all, our own characters and beliefs.

In a world where 'beliefs' are not held in high esteem, I think this is worth highlighting. I do not know what is on the other side of my upcoming plane ride, when I settle into my new home. But, I am going to try and just enjoy the journey along the way...and do a lot of praying.

So long to New Jersey and fond farewells

2011-10-31T15:45:00.001-04:00

Atlantic Highlands, NJ

This Friday I will be leaving New Jersey for a new life in the Midwest, specifically in Nebraska. Most of the reasons I am leaving are due to economics, but there are times when departures are timely and really Providential: this is one of them.

If our lives are stories, then sometimes chapters can change dramatically, and necessarily so. All change is not bad, though sometimes it might feel like it when the changes coming down the pike are difficult.

Middletown's famous evil clown. lol

I was born in New Jersey, in that garden spot of Newark, 45 years ago. I never really got the chance to know my home state until I was in my early 30s, though, because I was mostly educated in Pennsylvania and Texas before I left for the Army. And, there were and are so many great things about the Garden State and the people I met here that I am glad I stayed, even if it was a happy accident I landed here in the first place from North Carolina.

Well, this time is over and I look forward to whatever is next, though it is a little uncertain and very, very new. The blog will continue, if not my voting in New Jersey, though I am sure it will take on a new flavor and emphasis. Anyway, I may not be posting for a few weeks but will be back up with lots of new things. Please be sure to come back.

Charity and wealth: A lesson learned from a great lady

2011-10-30T14:57:00.002-04:00

The Biltmore estate, in Asheville, North Carolina. Photo by Jim Purcell

During my writing career, it was my pleasure to know Jan Vassar, of the Vassar family whose name is upon the famed college. I met Jan, who lived in Rumson, when she walked into the newspaper office where I was working. She simply wanted to say some nice things about a few editorials of mine and she wanted to say hello. In Northern Monmouth County, New Jersey, it is a place where 'new money' works very hard to appear older and more vintage than it is, and I could have cared less about the whole business until I met Jan.

Mrs. Vassar was, at best, 4', 11" tall, but with her she carried a distinct presence, which required no announcement or formality to it. One day, this wonderful lady appeared at my door and asked me if I had a moment and it seemed absurd I would not. She told me about the eye condition she battled after we spoke about a few editorials and then it struck me about her famous name.

In the world before McMansions there was society, and in that rarified air names like Carnegie, Gould, Rutgers...and Vassar, among others, inhabited that place. I asked questions of Jan during our meeting, and as respectfully as possible, and realized I was given a rare audience with this very special person.

She spoke about charity with some frequency and I asked her how much a part of her world charity was. Well, it was a big enough deal that her father built a college and she built an eye center where there was nothing before, and both recognized the need to elevate society as a whole and afford opportunity to people based on need and merit. They were the pyramids that father and daughter built.

The world of her past that she described was luminous, and her eyes did sparkle a bit more when asked about it. She talked about the duty her father instructed her about where it involved the public good. She said that possessing great advantage in society inherently came with it an obligation to help those in need and that it was unthinkable to enjoy such advantage, as an individual or a family, without contributing to the society. Jan did not say this frivolously. Her great blue eyes were sworn to this and her explanation was the recitation of a mission statement. This little woman, with such a great presence, was perhaps the gentlest, kindest soul I have ever met. And, that day, she taught me a lesson between society of yesteryear and "society" today: one was genuine and one is not. Still, I cannot ever imagine Jan being uncharitable in her comments about anyone. I do not know if she is still alive, this being many years ago. But, her impression was and is poignant and among my favorite memories.

I bring Jan up because she exhibited something so missing in this world: kindness. In our American society today, there is no feeling for the common person, let along the poor and needy. There are political elements of the society, which are very wealthy, that insist upon the most vicious forms of class warfare when such warfare is neither natural or a tradition in any way. In possessing wealth, it is a biblical truth that responsibility is greatest to those who enjoy this and that to fail to understand and exercise that responsibility amounts to more than simple negligence.

There are too many examples of poor conduct among the wealthier elements of our society today to cite, and I am sure any reader of this will have many of their own. Yet, I want to draw a contrast with the days of the real society women, who did so much to help the suffering of others rather than simply watch it from and ivory tower or aggravate these problems in the name of greed.

It is remarkably hard, in my opinion, for very wealthy people to enjoy the benefits of glory. Yes, it is. And yet, when her day comes, or if it has already, I am comfortable with the assertion that if anyone ever deserved to see Glory, Jan would be among those. It would not be because she was someone who was kind to me, or liked my work, but because she may have been born to great wealth but the labor of her life was using wealth to help those in need. And, that is all God ever asked of anyone in that position.

The world could learn many lessons from Jan.

Addicition and Christ

2011-10-29T17:23:00.000-04:00

Man is weak and anything that takes us away from God and our families, our communities and even ourselves is a terror to the soul. Addiction is a scourge that punishes the addict and everyone in their lives. Is a soul lost in addiction? It certainly can be. More immediately, it takes one's life and the things worth living for; it certainly does that with great efficiency.

Whether someone is an alcoholic, drug addict, or in some other form of dependence, it is the same thing. In chemical dependence, there is nothing but pain and the perversion of our lives.

This world is one of pain for many, and those words only underscore lives that can be rampant with grief and loss. Yet, as good a reason might believe they have to destroy themselves, there is a better reason to seek help, treatment and God's presence.

Perhaps those most impacted by addiction are not addicts, when one considers the children and families of alcoholics and all that they must contend with when there is an addict in the family. There are some wonderful links on this site to great organizations that help with addiction, and I encourage people to use them.

There are times to take the show on the road

2011-10-29T00:00:00.003-04:00

What does the American family do when the land is worked out, tired from too many rotations of crops? Traditionally, they leave. Moving on to wherever is next, wherever the soil can still be worked.

In New Jersey, the soil has been worked until it is dead. There is not enough farmland left to matter, or enough manufacturing to make a difference, enough industrial refining to move the meter or enough hope to spend anymore time on.

It is the same throughout what used to be called the "Industrial Northeast," which is now more of a nostalgic reference than it is accurate, in any sense of the phrase. The real jobs have long-since moved across the oceans to India, Pakistan, or points South.

Americans have long been known as a mobile people, traveling across the wide expanse of the country. But, to move because there are 'no jobs' somewhere in the North is historically different. To move because there is a better job here or there is one thing, but to move because a local or state or area economy was on its belly is genuinely something new.

There is no "industrial" left in the Northeast anymore. No, none at all. I daresay not even a little.

I graduated from the New York Theological Seminary about a year ago, and the common wisdom there was to "...go somewhere else in the country or the world..." to find work in the ministry. Well, those are the times we live in. But, there is all this talk about an "economic recovery." Not for nothing, but a recovery that does not include ordinary working people from the Industrial Northeast does not mean very much. The union halls are vacant. The refineries are all but abandoned, as are the many plants and factories that used to employ so many people. There is still farmland, but it is intermingled with McMansions and strip malls built for no particular reason over the past 30 years.

Yet, New Jersey is a place known for its education and forward thinking: how could this have happened? That is a question for historians, I suppose. Nevertheless, it has happened. And, now there are tens of thousands of families waiting for something to change to bring hope back to town...and none is in the offing.

I, for one, cannot wait for the "Great Pumpkin" or some charismatic political charlatan to 'make it all better.' For me, the answer is simple but as hard as gravel...it is time to move... to where there is more opportunity, less unemployment and fewer things that have gone wrong with the economy. I am moving to the American Midwest, a thing I would never thought I'd do.

Famously, in American culture there are three kinds of people: East Coasters (inclusive of the South); West Coasters (yes, Oregon and Washington state too); and the Midwest, where no one could remember what state was next to the other. I have always been a proud East Coaster, but no more. Today, I prepare for a Midwest sojourn for the sole purpose of finding more economic opportunity. In my opinion, this is a great shame.

My line was newspapers, and I have been everything from a newspaper delivery boy to the publisher of a weekly newspaper, as well as a daily correspondent, and everything in between. The Internet unemployed the traditional news industry in the Garden State, and I am not so sure what replaced it is really all that big of a deal, nevertheless, it is replaced nonetheless. So, I am moving to someplace where the Internet is not so pervasive or dominant, maybe to find another 10 years in print before the impending storm of viral news strikes the town and county I move to. Has technology really delivered on its promises to the economy? Are any of us actually better off for so many people being replaced by the Internet or automation? I think this is a good question worth answering, though there is surely nothing to be done about the time, tide or technological advance upon man.

What does migration have to do with the Lord? I think everything. The Lord moves people around, and sometimes purpose is hidden in famine, blight or unemployment. It is a terrible thing to say, I suppose, but it does make some sense.

My grandparents came from Ireland, to the shores of America after a blight and an economic downturn during 1917. They came to the United States for opportunity and they stayed in New Jersey because it was always prosperous enough to make their living. Things change over time, as they tend to do.

Today, opportunity is westward, where technology is not yet the king it is here in the Northeast, but where there will no doubt be change in the next decade. As of now, I may well be chasing a fading ghost but there is opportunity nonetheless in middle America, where manufacturing, industrial and farmland economies have not yet been abandoned for their own sake, and maybe I can bring a warning with me. Perhaps the key to things is not being the 'world leader' in any one thing, but simply being a provider of goods and services where people can still make an honest living for their families. And, in jobs there is dignity, and that is where families can be found and communities.This is not sexy news of the day, but the kind that bears reminding: To save what is important and no discard people for the sake of progress alone.

Still, there was purpose when the Israelites left Egypt and arrived in Canaan. There was certainly the hand of God in the many migrations to the United States through the years, to this new land of milk and honey.

'Community' is not about politicians, or news stories, ratings or team sports; community is about people taking responsibility for themselves and the world around them. In some part of me, I never really believed the New Jersey 'community' would fail, falling into 9.8 percent unemployment (July, 2011) or that the American community would fail (9.6 percent unemployment, as of July, 2011). So now I find myself packing bags and making travel plans, in the same spirit as my grandfather no doubt packed his bags a century before.

In the big moves, though, and the family transitions, there is God and in him we must ultimately believe. So, as nervous and skiddish as anyone of us might get, sometimes it is appropriate to take a leap of faith and hope...pray....we do it the way he wants.

Well, Lord, I am praying.

morality and the world: just how does that work?

2011-10-22T23:18:00.002-04:00

there is the morality we know is right, which includes the lessons in mercy and compassion taught in the bible and by the lord in our hearts. but, can all these lessons survive the world? or must they? can we always win the battles?

sometimes the cards seem stacked against us, and this is especially true in business during times when economics are terrible. all of us have to crawl to the cross, though. none of us 'have it.' learning about the stories, commandments and ordinances or god and being able to fully incorporate them in our lives in the larger community is hard, folks. it is hard. i struggle with it, and pray.

christians know we ask our prayers in our time and get answers for them in his, and that those times are not always the same. but hope is the most precious thing in the human inventory. it is the most important thing and that which sustains us.

Faithful Underdogs

2011-10-22T01:28:00.000-04:00

By V. Wayne Sorge

As I look around, I find these are tough times for many of us. It's tough financially, professionally, and socially, I realize we are not all viewing our world from such a perspective, but as a follower of Jesus Christ, I think those of us who face such struggles in life can view them with a unique perspective.

When I was beginning my career in broadcasting and journalism I found welcoming opportunities whether they were lasting or not. Many radio and television stations were willing to give a young man with low pay demands and expectations a chance to work in the business. I was grateful for the opportunity even though one of those early employers demanded that the salary be based on a minimum sixty hour week using a special law that allowed them to pay a rate of half time for overtime...not time and a half, but half time. The job was fun and I was excited to work whatever number of hours was needed. Those pay conditions did improve and that company turned out to be the best one I worked for at two locations in Texas.

Broadcast journalism can be a turbulent career, especially for people who work at it with a sense of conscience to truly cover what needs to be covered. It's also an industry with many conflicting opinions about what is the right thing to do and what is in the best interest of the radio or television station and my career has been more volatile than most. Still, I believe I survived for over four decades by working hard and doing my best to keep my conscience intact.

A few years ago, after some career setbacks, I settled for taking a break from my career to take graduate courses at a theological seminary in Minnesota. That path has been a bit rocky with some health problems, but a few months ago I did graduate with a certificate in Theology and Religious Studies. At age 64, I am finding the job market for a broadcast journalist challenging, even though I anticipate working another couple of decades. Still, I accept the challenge of that difficulty and will continue my efforts, even as I see that there are many people of all ages who join me as underdogs in this current economy.

I think we should be encouraged, even as we are aware of reasons for outrage such as the recent “Occupy Wall Street” movement that is so critical of the nation's difficult economic structure. Some of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties were spoiled by the expectation of opportunity. Even though pay was limited for those early jobs some of us had, we still did not feel the manipulation by Wall Street Bankers and Corporate bean counters that preside over the current debacle.

As a child, I grew up comfortable but not rich. Still, I recall with shame some unfair treatment of people who were African-American employees of the grandparents who were kind to give me a home after my mother's death in a car accident. I remember a one-armed man who mowed weeds from their vacant lots with a team of mules who was fired because he dared to come to the front door of their home instead of the back door. That was not an isolated incident and such incidents have made a lasting impression on me. My grandparents were active in two separate churches of different denominations, but those churches did not seem able to challenge the oppression that culture endorsed.

I now feel that our current economic structure allows more of us to feel the sting of oppression at the hands of bankers and corporate “wheeler dealers.”. Part of me resents it, but part of me feels that it could be a lesson that injustice is contrary to God's plan, whether it be by white southerners in the fifties or by oppressive business people in 2011.

God never promised us that we would find jobs easily in our 60s. He never promised us we would have the good fortune some of us had in our 20s, 30s, 40s or even 50s. We are called to be faithful and leave the rest to God. But our experience may make us more sensitive to the cause of social justice than we may have been earlier in life.

I suggest the possibility that runaway profiteering could be an evil that God is using to get our attention. Don't get me wrong, I do not blame God for causing such problems, but I believe he uses the negative effects to prompt more of us to think. As a child in the fifties, I was influenced by a racist culture, but I knew that the treatment of African-Americans was not wrong, and from what I was taught by my church and even by my grandparents about the teachings of Jesus, I knew the culture where I lived was out of harmony with the teachings of Jesus.

Today, some of us are older and find ourselves targeted by an unfair culture. It's a culture based more on economic status than race, but similar in many ways to the struggles that targeted Black residents in the South and even other parts of our nation in the fifties. We were encouraged to discredit or ignore the civil rights protests when we were children as many are ignoring the Occupy Wall Street movement.

I believe it's time for Christian believers as well as those who are simply secular in having a reasoned sense of justice to unite in their influence to save our nation. Abraham Lincoln warned that we could not endure as “part slave, part free.”, but I believe we cannot hold back potential violence that threatens the future as long as we are a nation of one percent irresponsibly wealthy and most of the rest of the population struggling under an unfair system.

Some politicians are concerned about “class warfare” as they oppose efforts to change the tax structure and use government to create jobs with needed projects and service. I would join those who believe that the “class warfare” has been underway for several decades now and while I don't want that war to be violent, I believe that is the natural result of a system that has created our current imbalance.

I believe most of the church has intended to remain innocent bystanders in this explosive situation. I believe we are called to be peacemakers, and we can't do that by ignoring a war against the underdogs that has been underway for several decades. The church needs to work for reconciliation in this situation and I believe the continued failure to do that is part of the reason for the irrelevance of churches across the nation. Perhaps just as there has been an Occupy Wall Street, there should be an Occupy Pulpits to remind them of the concerns their founder had for the poor and oppressed. Churches and the clergy are responsible for the kind of culture they endorse.

New Jersey and its phoney baloney economy

2011-10-21T15:55:00.001-04:00

Maybe NJ can invest in cotton plants that we could pick.

There are three things that can run an entire economy: industry, manufacturing and agrarian. What rises up around successful economies are service economies, which serve the people and corporate entities that make the main economy work.

Successful economies can have more than just one of these invaluable elements, such as the case where there are industrial and manufacturing economies blended. this would be the example of a strong economy. And, when there is an additional element -- let's throw a viable farming industry in there -- then that is about as good an economy as there can be.

A scarecrow CEO to keep former CEOs from stealing crops,

In economic terms, military installations are not a formal consideration from a study point of view, but where there is one than it obviously benefits the overall economy and feeds into it. Service economies can balloon with the goods and services needed to support all those people and businesses that are occupying a normative economy. Times can be very, very good.

OK, now let's talk about New Jersey's economy: we do not manufacture that much anymore, or refine things that much anymore, and mostly we have bowled over our farmland to turn into big box stores, strip malls, McMansion-gated communities and parking lots. Good job, gang.

Let's make carpooling happen.

As of July 2011, campers, New Jersey employment is at 9.8 percent, which exceeds the national average of 9.6 percent. New Jersey is in a death spiral when it comes to jobs and the economy and there is no end in sight.

Being the communications technology leader in the world does something. What? I have no idea but it sure doesn't put people to work.

Without the infrastructure and economic will to recreate these economic factors, New Jersey will become the Mississippi of the North Atlantic Corridor. Perhaps it already is. Is that a banjo battle I hear in the background?

What are the signs of the 'End Time'; Are they at hand?

2011-10-19T09:47:00.001-04:00

I hate when preachers and so-called evangelists try to scare people with things like "Tribulation," Armageddon and such. Nonsense, really. It was the Lord, in Mark, who said no one would know when the end of the world was at hand. The Lord went on to say there would be no more prophets and, he was both articulate and not joking around so I will take Jesus at his word. There are no prophets after Jesus and anyone other than Jesus who says otherwise is just wrong. There are no retorts -- just wrong.

But, let me tell you not about the physical end of the planet we all live upon but the death of our communities and families.When a man stops believing in his wife and loses faith with her, and when she does him, then the end of their world is beginning. When children start believing that false friends and tacky pop culture are a replacement for family and the love there, then it is the beginning of the end of the world. When our churches start worrying more about fundraising than helping in child raising in a troubled world then the world loses its color. When our leaders place themselves above those they lead then our world starts to die. And, let me pause upon that: It is not un-Christian to be wealthy, no it is not. It is just hard: very hard and harder than anyone suspects because more than family, friends or anything else some wealthy people just love money: and by 'some' I mean more than most would feel comfortable about.

More importantly, how does the world live again? How does the world stop dying? I think these are good questions, better than all the nonsense about people disappearing from cars in the middle of the day. Here is the secret: Love your wife, love your husband, your kids, your brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, cousins and relations. Stop worrying more about yourself than everything and everyone around you and believing you are the focus of the world. And, my oh my, help your neighbors and love them too. Don't sit in judgment lest you be judged and let the Lord do his job and you focus on yours right here on earth. Here comes a big one...it's huge...be kind, compassionate, work hard and pray. Love God and do not take his name or lie about his ordinances.

I have two relatives, whom I love dearly, who do not believe in God because they were raised by a very ill person. What did not help was that when the bumped into Christians all they heard was so much nonsense about the Lord and not a bit about his love...not a bit. God was misrepresented to them and they are lost and it is up to God to do the heavy lifting because not only does he have to introduce himself into their lives but he has to tell their hearts that the nonsense they were told was so much garbage. Now, no man or woman can help shepherd them to the Lord, he has to do his thing. The good news is that he will, in his time and his way -- since mankind has made such a mess of it.

Adding to this, moral reprobates, bad people really, use the words of the Lord to convince my relatives they are repentant but they are not and simply use the Word as a cheap trick. I always said the Devil knows more about the Bible than most of the righteous because he uses it like a lawyer does a loophole in a tax court every time he's dragged into the daylight. But, the Word is about integrity, really, and unfortunately those without integrity can just use it like a bag of tricks.

The Lord does not need us, though. Yes, he can work through us to help people but he can also work miracles without us. And, I say thank God there is our Lord because there is nothing that can be done, no chore that cold be conceived of, that mankind cannot screw up, lie about or misunderstand. I take comfort in that fact. People know when they are doing right and wrong, and usually when people are acting with integrity and love they are doing right and if they are not they are doing wrong.

Most especially, I think the only real thing each of us must know is that God is there and even when we lose hope he does not. Be kind to each other, folks, love one another and make your worlds new and good. Most especially, stay close to the Lord, even when it is hard. I'll pray for you guys, and meanwhile you can pray for me too.

Laying it all out there

2011-10-18T12:23:00.000-04:00

There is an economics to faith: believe it. Jesus Christ was born into an occupied land, a poor Jew, to a disinherited people who had nothing. The Jews lived under the thumb of the Roman Empire.

Jesus was a carpenter...but not the son of a former Roman soldier or any of that. He was poor. So his location was colored by that to a great degree. OK, with that said, he spoke to us about human dignity, worth, compassion and kindness...and his points were made the clearer by his social and economic location.

As of July, New Jersey borders upon an almost 10 percent unemployment rate, but we are not talking about the people not being counted anymore or those who are underemployed...so those are unseen numbers and percentages.

Anyone who took economics on a 100-college level 20 years ago would tell you to have a functional economy someplace, they have to grow things, refine things or manufacture things. And...in New Jersey...we do not. Economic bigshots are trying to tell us that this cell phone industry the Garden State has somehow makes up for all that has been lost. Well, New Jerseyans...I'm looking around here...anyone buying that?

The divide between the rich and the poor is so vast and wide I'm just gonna call that an ocean. And, in the space between the haves and the have nots is despair, placism and hopelessness. It isn't worth staying in New Jersey.

So for the sake of my family, being a former print newspaper man who wants to stop being 'former,' I looked into the place with among the least Internet usage, the lowest unemployment rate, the most-reasonable median income, the best standard of living, where the existence of actual newspapers are not contended and -- lo and behold -- up came South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. Can you believe that!?

New Jersey...supposedly one of the most educated states in the union....was smart enough to tax its manufacturing out of the state, regulate its refining industry overseas and bowl over its farmland for the sake of McMansions and strip malls and then somehow try to sell we were going to collectively 'make it' as the cell phone capitol of the world. If it weren't so serious it would be laughable.

The best our children can do right now is wear paper hats and serve French fries, or, if they are progeny of the rich, they can simply get a job through nepotism. Yet the days of flash and thunder from this economy are over with. I, for one, am voting with my feet and my conscience, my backpack and my luggage. And, all of them tell me I don't have to go home but I have to get out of here because human dignity involves opportunity as well as simply freedom, because the ability to be free and without opportunity is, in fact, living like a peasant -- and my grand daddy took a long boat ride to avoid that.

Poverty is increasing by the month here, our neighbors are making that abundantly clear, and our purchases are making that clear. Yet, New Jersey has become a haven for the very rich, and a place where illegal immigrants are becoming the new (and worst paid) middle class. Yet the unions and the former middle class are just living in ashes. And, this impacts our faith, our hope, our families and our connection to God, people -- and don't doubt it. God's politics are for the poor, but he seems to not have much to say in New Jersey and no one from either party seems to be taking his lunch offers. Mayhap our Lord cannot afford those places where New Jersey's politicians regularly dine.

When all is said and done politics is a matter of conscience -- either having one or lacking one -- and sense, either possessing it or not. And, being devoid of one of those virtues is bad but both is simply catastrophic. So, for me, I suppose I will just say the sky is falling and look for someplace where it isn't.

Time to vote with my feet for my family; these are sad times

2011-10-16T21:50:00.002-04:00

Saying that one is voting with their feet and doing it is another matter. A new Jerseyan, I found myself come to actually love some of the things about this ignobale state. And yet, in making the sober decision to examine the facts and see what there was -- inevitably the answer for me and my family was not hard to say but wrenching to mean: We're moving on.

I do not believe the heydays of Jersey commerce are coming back. I see underemployment, unemployment bordering on 10 percent and business fleeing with jobs for working people, save those who would don a paper hat. I cannot listen to optimism anymore, and see the downward spiral.

In the Depression, my late father said he learned some simple wisdown: If you pick oranges then go to where they grow them and make your wages. Well, I don't pick oranges yet but do intend to move off for a try. And now this is where the Lord is my only guide. I believe in him and the direction he is sending me and so I will simply plan and act. The devil is quite an advocate, he has convinced so many they lack the courage to do even so little.

There are, in fact, times for action not on behalf of the community but for one's self: Case in point -- you're on a ship and it's leaking. My advice, get off.

West on fatherly abuse

2011-10-15T21:18:00.000-04:00

Too many of us, myself included, have been abused by our fathers and made to be afraid of failure. And, it is a shame, not upon us but upon our fathers.

Jerry West was a basketball player for 12 years. He was a GM for a lot longer. And, he was and is a man who knows something about winning, but more importantly about life.

West is a legend, who has earned his legend in NBA victories and countless hours of hard work. His book has given inspiration to many people, myself included. And, his work reminds us about this: being a father is more about love than discipline, teaching than terror and discernment over discipline.

Jerry West is an American tradition all of us could take a lesson from. Being from the NY area, perhaps this is the only time I may say anything good about a Laker. (:)

Are 'occupy protests' a new 'tea party'?

2011-10-15T14:49:00.004-04:00

These Occupy Protests that are cropping up around the globe might be a transient reaction to some very bad things that have happened to the worldwide economy, wherein millions of people lost jobs and entire ways of life, or they might be more. Certainly there is an innate tendency within mankind to enslave, degrade or 'place' others. It is a wrongful feeling within man to do so but it exists nonetheless. A Christian might say, and be right, no man can be trusted except only one -- and we killed him for it.

Religion used to be implemented by rulers to keep people in their place: well, that mechanism has gone all to hell. Religion is as distrusted as are politicians, whose lies used to keep people in their place as well. However, things have grown bad, terrible really. Economics is at the heart of it: Give a person a job and you give them dignity, take it away and you take away the aforementioned dignity. When it becomes a matter of starving, well all bets are off, I think.

In this country, Protestantism defined American sensibilities until relatively late in the 20th century, and there are definite vestiges of this left but the impetus behind this 'feeling,' if you will, is not apparent to the naked eye anymore, well at least not mine. America's "Greatest Generation" that fought World War II and truly made America what it is was is just so different than the men and women I see today. They lived the 'family first' ethos: true, this generation also promulgated racism and the denial of women's right. They were even imperial without really knowing it. But, their intentions were always the best or seemed so, and if they failed in any of their designs it just seemed like bad luck (e.g. Cuba, the Equal Rights Amendment, and Mideast Peace).

Still, that generation understood that people could not be thrown to the dogs, under any circumstances, which is why so many people around the world trusted their ideas, their religion and, yes, even their politics. Today, there is no such confidence, even here at home, of those in charge of the government, the churches or our commerce. The root of this is in human failure, our collective inability to be humane, I should think.

When I speak to older people they always say they fear for the generations ahead. I do trust their insights: they have seen so much and done such great things. I think solving our problems as a collective group of people, and I mean our economic issues at every level, really begins with taking a more humane approach to commerce and society -- one that does not throw people to the dogs or allow them to starve or be made 'less than' by people who have money and position. I think keeping this in mind is a good thing for our leaders, and including talking points about those in dire times would be wise. In fact, helping people would be a good idea. It is all well and good to be on the side of rich folks, but there are always more poor folks than rich folks. And, they have to be paid court as much as those with a few more dollars.

These Occupy Protesters, and I do not even know what that means, are somehow very scary to me. And, though peaceful at the moment, I have great fears about them and what is going on. Remember, the French Revolution started out peacefully and, frankly, with a lot less cause than most folks have today. If this is another kind of tea party movement, then maybe it should receive the same kind of interest. It might head things off, and that could be important.

I was just a child in the 1960s, far too young to remember anything. But, I know this from my teachers who lived through those times -- things barely held together. Things almost went straight to hell. And, just like the French revolution, in my opinion, there was less cause for it than there is today. It's important to keep the peace, because in peace the most wondrous things grow. In times of tumult, though, nothing grows but anger and misunderstanding. This is something that should be headed off, but I sure as heck have no idea of how. I think compassion might help, though. Yes, I do.

on peace and christ

2011-10-15T11:32:00.000-04:00

violence is the real problem with people. in violence there are so many deaths, most notably that of reason and order. when people turn to violence they turn off all that is good in them, all that is helpful to the human condition. christians subscribe to the belief that jesus christ came to live among men to teach them the ways of heaven and, presumably, peace.

Occupy Protest in Rome Turns Violent

2011-10-15T11:24:00.007-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA4U4pBmot8

These Wall Street type protests are growing, apparently, and moved to Europe. This is footage of one in Rome. I do not know what to make of these. Yes, Wall Street and the financial markets are doing and have done terrible things. But, there is another way, short of violence, to express dislike and ire. Violence begets violence and, once down that road, any point that needs to be made is lost.

Multitasking and the lies people tell themselves

2011-10-14T14:32:00.000-04:00

I do not multitask well. Most people do not multitask well. The great lie of the 21st century is that people should multitask. What have we collectively received from multitasking? Children who cannot read or do math, corporate solutions that are half-hearted, a government that is, for all its tall tales, dumber than ever before and let us not start talking about international standings among First World countries where it involves math and science.

Bottom line: Unplug. Most people cannot do two things at once let alone more. All the fables anyone ever heard about newer generations doing 50 things at once are bull, no doubt crafted by people who are trying to sell people 50 things to do at once. Humans are not that smart, and we know it.

Fame and what it is not: that much of a big deal

2011-10-14T05:45:00.000-04:00

Celebrity is this 'thing' society has made up, whether it is performers, politicians, artists, musicians, writers or other leaders. Well, I suppose there has always been celebrity but it seems to have gone over the top in this day and age. In particular, there are these people who, like a stalker for the actress Scarlett Johansson, are addicted to living vicariously through these celebrities.

Often, people distinguish themselves in fields and their name ends up coming into the public domain and, from there, they become public figures, along with everything that means. Fame has been attached to the phrase 'immortality.' For some, it can be said their celebrity has outlived their physical existence: Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, our American presidents, Clark Gable and River Phoenix and all of those.

I can only offer my opinion, which is this: the Lord made us each who we are, and so each of us are originals. I enjoy entertainment and sports, like so many others, but see people and not achievements when looking into the face of others. Fame facilitates cracks in personal character, and fans the flames of bad behavior. In all, it is best to enjoy the talents of others while not making too much of a business over any kind of someone's fame.

Wall Street protests: What do they mean and where are they going?

2011-10-13T12:45:00.000-04:00

The Anti-Wall Street protests taking place are becoming more pronounced throughout the country and one person suspected of funding these protests may, in fact, be investor George Soros. It has been suggested that the movement is a kind of Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

I do not know what to make of these protests, but I know this: There is a realization in this country taking hold that the divide between the haves and have nots has grown as wide and as long as it has in anyone's memory. The unions, always controversial, are now dead or dying -- and that is much more a shame than many place on it. A good union man used to say to me, when I wrote against them years ago, that I had no idea what I was saying. And, he was right. Like it or not, the unions ensured a decent living wage for millions of Americans.

Wall Street has nothing to do with Main Street: when millionaires and corporations receive bail outs and bonuses it means nothing to the working people of the country. This fact has become apparent. The hungry stomach principal is a powerful one and has not been seen in this country for many, many years. And, when it is again seen, as it will be, there will be great commotion about what has been and has not been done to salvage this country.

Desperation has not been known upon American shores like this since the 1930s, and here we are moving straight ahead into it, God help us. What form will it take? No one can tell. Are these protesters the beginning? Maybe and maybe not. But as much as I applaud the actions of these protesters I believe these demonstrations are the beginnings of things that will be tumultuous. Something should be done to head off desperation and strife. Yet, if you are looking for an optimist I am afraid you will have to travel to another blog. It just isn't my opinion there is a silver lining anywhere. Of course, I would love to be wrong.

Let's see.

Mankind can set its own course because of free will

2011-10-12T17:06:00.000-04:00

religion and everything that word means is not going to be an answer for anyone's challenges. in an ideal world, god is at the heart of religion and it is the relationship between man and god wherein relationship exists. this is becoming more and more important in our everyday world. man is the most unreliable of sources: for information, friendship, faith, love and dedication.

it is god that will see us through our days and especially our nights. there has been so many false representations of god in religion, in the media, in the everyday vernacular of our society that so many people barely know what the concept relates to. it is god, for many, who afflicts man. indeed, the free will that is our responsibility is not given much credit anymore. 'we are powerless before the mean and brutal god, who kills people and gives cancer.'

of all the creatures god created it was us that was given the ability to know right from wrong, to have choice and to accept or deny god. and now, the idea of responsibility in our faith is lost. there is no tether for this anymore and, quite literally, we are driving ourselves into a self-made hell.

it is the choice of each of us whether or not we place ourselves in the presence of god or have relationship. god does not deny people relationship. likewise, he is not santa or some form of genie. god is our heavenly father, our lord. and it was his choice to give mankind its own map to wherever it wanted to go.

god can be trusted and man's representation of god cannot be. for those of us who are christian, there is the belief that jesus christ came to earth as the savior, last prophet and redeemer who paved a bridge between god and man. and that is enough for man to have. there are no cell phones between the expanse of heaven and earth and god does not immediately satisfy prayers or wishes. these are things to think about during the everyday.

Congratulations to A1C Amanda R. Purcell

2011-10-11T17:58:00.008-04:00

A1C Amanda R. Purcell and Angela J.I. Purcell at Basic Military Training graduation, Lackland Air Force Base, Tx., 10.8.11.

My daughter, Amanda, graduated from U.S. Air Force Basic Military Training on Saturday, Oct. 8 at Lackland Air Force Base, in Texas. Amanda is my eldest daughter, at 21, and Angela, 20, is my youngest.

Amanda has always been a motivated person, who has a wonderful heart and very focused upon what she wants in life. She graduated from South Amboy High School and earned most of an associate’s degree from Raritan Community College before she moved in with me and then decided to join the USAF as a career move.

Well, when I went down to Lackland it was an incredible experience. First, the graduation was the most organized I think I have ever seen. The new airmen were great and so incredibly focused upon what they are doing. They were also so courteous; I had never seen anything like that.

Amanda is someone who always had her priorities. But, she is also transformed into someone who loves what they are doing as a career. She is off to advanced training but the total experience of seeing her graduate and enter into adulthood, really enter into it, was perhaps the most moving thing I have seen short of when she entered this world.

I cannot count how many times I paused during this weekend and remembered seeing my little girl who wobbled around the house and got excited over seeing cats or dogs – to the point where she would squeal with glee. For me, she will always be that little girl… no matter how old she gets or how mature she becomes. But, she is also a young woman whom I am so proud of and in.

Every now and again, parents get to feel this incredible feeling – the one that makes absolutely everything, everything worthwhile. And, for Amanda, that was when I saw her after basic; poised, focused and ready for what was ahead of her.

Her sister has yet to decide what is ahead for her, but she is also someone who has so many gifts to share with the world. I know she will find a way that will be as good for her as Amanda’s is to her. But, Amanda took my breath away this weekend and I could not help but make comment about it.

Congratulations to A1C Amanda R. Purcell on graduating from Basic Military Training!

America: Still the land of opportunity?

2011-10-04T14:59:00.000-04:00

I had a wonderful conversation with someone who was in the foreclosure business. No, I was not a statistic of his. Nevertheless, Chris Crandell, of National Field Network in Howell Township, made his point very clearly. His business is thriving because there is a landmark number of foreclosures. There are people in large numbers even walking out of their homes and simply leaving. This is the world we live in, folks.

But here is the insightful thing that Chris said: In NJ we do not refine anything, manufacture anything or grow anything. The state's residents are living on a service-based economy that simply does not hold water. "People keep on thinking things will go back to the way they were but they aren't," Chris said. "The big manufacturing jobs are overseas now and it is becoming harder and harder for people to make end meet."

So, Wall Street is doing OK. Politicians are saying the state economy is swell because budgets are balanced. So how, just how, does any of this relate to the common everyday person? From where I stand, there isn't a relationship. One has nothing to do with the other and the wives tales about the relativity of these things are just that.

America is not entitled to be the land of opportunity simply because it exists. I go back to what Mary Denauski said not too long ago about compassion and the Greatest Generation and truer words were never said: "This generation just seems to not have much compassion for one another." Amen. Yes, the problem is economic but inevitably the real sticky issues seem to come home to ourselves.

What made America great was teamwork, compassion

2011-09-27T18:43:00.002-04:00

MARY DENAUSKI

i just interviewed a 91-year-old woman, mary denauski, at the howell senior center in howell, new jersey. she received recognition from the center for being in her ninth decade of life. and, the story she told was phenomenal. she is the daughter of lithuanian immigrants who came to brooklyn and made good. her father ran away from an encroaching, oppressive tsarist regime (cossacks and everything) and came here, joined the u.s. army and turned around and went to fight for his adopted country.

mary lived through world war 2, lost a fiancee over germany, worked day and night making shirts for the army and parachutes and went on to meet and marry her husband, ramon, fresh from the pacific campaign in world war 2 where that man went through hell.

i asked her the differences between her greatest generation and later ones and she said people stuck together back in her day, and most of all they had compassion for one another. she added that, these days, people lack compassion and just do not hang in there with one another to stick it out. and, she is right.

with teamwork, caring for one another and determination mountains can, indeed, be moved or evil totalitarians (e.g. adolf hitler) can be laid low. her generation and those before made america great: just what have we, as a people, really accomplished since? and maybe, the lack of greatness that has been the hallmark of later generations has something to do with our collective shortcomings individually.

just imagine: people having compassion for one another. now that would be something new these days.

Each person paints their strokes differently

2011-09-25T21:21:00.000-04:00

There are things we want and those things we need. Understanding the difference between the two is something altogether different.

People are all different, so what one needs and wants is different from the other. Yet, it is enough to say that if it is wholesome then one cannot go far from right. Yes, one may want to do good in business or another in the home or yet another in some other field of endeavor. Nevertheless it is hard for one to say what is the heart's content of another. It would be speculative at best.

Let God speak to our hearts individually, as the Lord said. And, if there is right in one's heart then a desire cannot be bad, unless one gives way to rationalization and far-flung optimism.

Time to start calling it was it is -- a depression

2011-09-24T11:16:00.002-04:00

The lessons of the Depression would serve people well here, despite the fact that scant few people want to admit that things have gone straight to hell with the economy. Here in New Jersey, I would ask how manufacturing is coming back when it has already moved out and gone overseas. I would ask how we are becoming an agrarian powerhouse again when, long ago, this state's communities paved over its prime farm lands. And, I would ask how the Garden State might become a refining hub when it is just cost prohibitive for anyone to do that, especially en masse, here.

The unions, which for better or worse were the only things the common working person had, are all but dead now. Ask any small business person how they are doing up against Wal Mart and the like also. So where does that leave us? Even in my former business, newspapers, they are but a shadow of the industry they used to be -- and they are not coming back because the Internet fired them.

Sometimes you take the show on the road.

My parents lived through the Great Depression, and my father used to say the rules of life change when a depression comes (even if no one wants to call it a depression, which is bad marketing). You go where the work is, leave the luxuries behind, live not only within your income but under it, and work your butt off. Of course there are pearls of wisdom I will not use because I do still trust the banks (he hid money in coffee jars and under the bed).

This 'economy' we are living in is really doing poorly for real people. I used to believe there was some correlation between the strength of Wall Street and Main Street, but I have been reformed of that view. Wall Street was bailed out, now receive their bonuses and are making their mansion money again. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans have seen no relief and just heard a lot of RAH RAH speeches from politicians and analysts. It's probably time to turn off the TV for answers and stop believing some great thing will happen to turn back the clock.

There are places in this still-great nation where the unemployment rate is not only under 9 percent but it is actually below four percent. There are places where there is still work and someone doesn't need to earn about $80K per year to be barely surviving -- and I am going to find one of those places and take a chance.

When the Jews left bondage in Egypt, no one said, "You know, maybe we should stick it out and see if things get better. Hang in there, people." I have seen friends of mine try to 'ride out' hard times and lose every penny they had on stocks of their company (Lucent) and their pensions. I have seen extreme things of people who lost their jobs and were not able to support their families anymore (and it was no good). And, I have seen things get harder than ever before for whole communities. Not being a nautical man, I know when it is time to make an exit. Now the question is looking not to the familiar but the unfamiliar -- not to the land of milk and honey but to the land where there is still some work and a better shot.

That's my truth. And, that is the answer I got back in prayer and the one I am listening to.

are your rationalizations making you miserable?

2011-09-24T03:57:00.002-04:00

just how exactly do we each choose to live our days? this is not a rhetorical question -- it is a question that we ask and answer for ourselves every single day.

if we choose, we can live life easily or make it as difficult as possible on ourselves (and others). sometimes, we may think 'but i have no other choice!' i must be as i am, living life as tension-filled and white-knuckled stressed as possible. well, that was how i did it and still do.

it seems to always come down to the simple things being the most important: who do i love and how do we treat each other, am i adding burdens that are not there and am i making this more stressful than it has to be? without being honest with one's self, do not bother asking: you'll rationalize the answer.

i once heard a great line in a movie: one actor says to another actor:

"people like rationalizations more than they like sex, you know."

the other actor responded, "oh, i don't think so."

the first actor asked, "really, did you ever go a whole day without making a rationalization?"

i thought that was a witty back and forth. and, it was memorable because it spoke to a fundamental truth about people.

life is not an easy thing. and, it can be made all the harder by how each of us choose to approach the new day. a change of approach can bring not only a better outcome but also a less stressful one (wow, that sounded exactly like a fortune cookie). nevertheless, that is also true. no one can control everything in their lives, and sometimes it feels like they can control nothing at all. yet, it is possible to control one's approach to an already stressful situation by not being incredibly tense; easier said than done.

it is worth it not to be miserable, or to make others miserable. what does not being miserable have to do with connecting to our god? well, a lot.

halloween: escapism or a christian 'wrong'?

2011-09-23T12:28:00.000-04:00

i know christians who are deeply offended by halloween and take real exception with the celebration of a holiday that does not celebrate faith but rather is associated with paganism, and even sometimes worse.

part of the strength of christianity is that it has been able to travel the world and adapt the customs and ways of non-christian peoples and actually bring some of those things into faith.

of course, when we are talking about vampires, werewolves, zombies and the more explicit outfits then that would be a real stretch.

yet, a certain amount of escapism, maybe not overdone as it is in some corners, has to be considered. if there are two polar extremes to the halloween discussion, those who hate it and those who love it, i come in somewhere in-between. i'd have no problem going to a halloween party dressed like a surgeon, but probably not a 'mad surgeon,' or a zombie surgeon or a blood-thirsty surgeon. in the end, i think it is all perspective anyway, but there are times when the middle of the road is something to think about.

Getting involved and getting off the couch and fighting

2011-09-22T12:06:00.002-04:00

Photos by Jim Purcell

Moving ahead when we are stuck: how does that happen? Well, one day it seems impossible and the next it is a little more possible. If you keep on plugging and moving forward, despite the challenge of it, then a day will come where it seems downright possible.

Being stuck in rutt sometimes becomes more than that and people need a hand -- a professional one with a license and everything. Depression is a serious thing. Do not seek help online or with friends who are 'amateur psychologists.' The professional ones are licensed and went to school for a reason.

Meanwhile, all of the technology we have surrounded ourselves with is very cool. But, sometimes it actually gets in our way when it comes to getting off our butt and making things happen.

God can do a lot. God can speak to us in ways no human can, in our hearts and in our spirits. Yet, all that talking he is doing doesn't do a darned thing if we do not translate thought into action. Consequently, preachers are nice to talk to -- but most do not have degrees whatsoever and the ones that do usually do not hold degrees in either social work, psychology or a related field. If you want to fix a car, go to a mechanic and not a florist. Clergy can be a part of someone's healing, but healing usually occurs within structure and a team environment. There is no "i" in "treatment" (yeah, it isn't an award-winning glitch phrase).

And, nowadays, there is a lot more thought going on than action -- and that is a commentary on our society and culture as a whole in the good 'ol USA.

Whether it is depression or something else holding someone back, medicine, faith, prayer, encouragement only go so far. At some point in this game, boys and girls, someone has to get off the couch to get better.

When I was in the Army, sometimes we'd spend too much time the night before out on the town. To say the least, there were days when myself and some of my buddies had a bit too much weekend pass the night before. Anyway, there was still a 5:30 a.m. formation and all kinds of running around and sweating to do the next day. So, my first sergeant, his last name was McLaughlin, said, "Gentlemen, just bring your bodies, turn off your brains, and at some point everything will fall into place." He was not wrong. After the first gallon or so of sweat the clouds parted.

Of course, depression and associated disorders are much more serious but the same in one vital way: there are so many people that can and will help -- but at some point the person involved has to get on board too and fight a disorder like everyone else that is trying to help them.

I was in the VA again recently, getting my knees shot up as usual, and there were these little candy bowls in front of some of the workers' desks. Instead of a free piece of candy, they were giving out numbers and message associated with a suicide hotline. Then, I looked around and noted there were even bumper stickers and little refrigerator magnets up everywhere saying the same things about reaching out instead of killing one's self.

That is a sad commentary about the world we live in. I dare not make a conclusion, though it is enough to say it is alarming. No, I do not admire the world we live in today that much. Call me old fashioned, but whether it is interpersonal communication being replaced by online networking or the New York Minute becoming the New York Second, I just don't think there has been any value added to our collective quality of life. And, I think it is plain enough to see virtual reality's expansion has not helped the common person's wallet.

There is a lot to deal with today, no one is saying there isn't, but in the midst of this less-than-ideal life each of us has to find a way not to lose ourselves, albeit not without help in some cases.

trust in god to be there for you, not some preacher

2011-09-21T06:39:00.005-04:00

no one has "the answer" in this life: not rev. creflo dollar, or rev. pat robertson, or rev. joel osteen -- not the pope and certainly not any political shyster of any stripe. the answer about our own relationship to god exists between ourselves and god. the point of the life of jesus christ is that we do not require third-party intermediaries, or others to define our relationships to god.

i do not need anyone on television or in a church to pray for me...i can do it myself. i do not require someone else to have a 'conversation' with god about me like they were the high school guidance counselor. with all that said, christian fellowship is wonderful -- taken too far (and it is, oh it is) and clergy start making claims that are simply profane. and they know it. but when you steal an apple and get away with it then someone can start thinking that stealing apples are fine and forget about consequences. the point to christianity isn't to see who you can get to speak to god for you: it is to speak to god.

none of us are worthy (and you can throw any reverend's name in there if you like) of god's love. but god gives this to us freely. that he or she is doing it is god's call and not ours. when you need god, the most powerful thing you can do in your life is simply pray to him (or her). amen.

hope: the most valuable commodity in the world

2011-09-20T10:13:00.001-04:00

hope is the most valuable element to the human spirit. it is hope that propels us, is our inertia and gives us the strength and the ambition to move forward. and hope is binary: it exists or does not.

what grants us hope, individually, is unique to every person. there is no standard for hope. but it is the thing, the element, the ingredient that will allow us to love our life instead of merely passing the days.

i think, in the United States, sometimes we mistake ambition for hope, and vice versa. hope is more than just wanting a better job or a date with a girl or guy. hope is the overall belief that there is something worth living for and thriving for. families can give people hope. a loved one can give people hope. god can give people hope. but it is hope that is the coveted prize after all.

have you ever lost hope? truly lost your enthusiasm for tomorrow and for the things the world holds in it? well, in this world none of us will leave it before we have learned and known tragedy and heart break. there is fundamental truth to this thought. all of us will know what it is to bend, and hopefully not break. this is something that each person will experience. so often i wonder how it is that each of us put up so many walls, try so hard to be unique, that we forget about the commonality of our experience as people. one would think it would teach us kindness.

when loving ourselves does not seem like a possibility, when the dawn just will not break on your heart, then say the humblest prayer, without great ceremony. god is here and hears you.

during my darkest times, i would simply say, 'hello god, that is the best i can do today.' he heard me and i continued to work through whatever lay upon my heart. hope is more valuable than gold, platinum or diamonds because is provides the reason for our lives and the purpose behind our days. and, in god, all things are possible...and hope always survives.

love: is it really just 'a choice'?

2011-09-17T11:20:00.002-04:00

a minister i know said recently that "love is a choice." i have thought about this a great deal for months, and still it does not sit entirely well with me. it feels somehow true, but there seems to be something missing -- larger than a dash of pepper and a pinch of salt.

Is love just a choice we make like new shoes?

there are people in my life who i do not want to love; but i nonetheless love them. there are people i would forget at the drop of a hat, if i could, but love forbids me. if i could forget my pains of the past by simply making a choice to forget those i loved then i would do it in a new york minute.

in every choice, we have an opportunity to unmake a decision. yet, in love, that decision sometimes gets made and is not unmade. and there are times when someone has no choice at all, so i am going to repudiate the "love is choice" theory.

i think it is more accurate to say love can be a choice -- occasionally; to broadly say it is simply a choice is to say we select those around us in the same manner a shopper would pick out new sunglasses.

yet, think of that commentary: "love is a choice." to me, it felt like the minister saying, 'well...love is just a choice. you wake up, pick out your outfit for the day and your shoes and, oh yes, there is the choice about who to love today.'

mankind is the author of the greatest research ever in the field of love. no species on this planet has tried harder to understand what love is and quantify it, and i hope we as a species continue to do so, because if "love is a choice" is the sum of that research it might just as well be placed in small, clear plastic bottles and sold at walmart for $2.75 per case of 24.

are we better than that? surely we must be. right?

ok, now let's take "love as a choice" and move it into our relationship with god. can we simply make the choice to love god today and not tomorrow?

is not our love for god as parent something that is present and hard-wired into us before our birth, and later something may happen to that relationship, but isn't that love born with us? or is picking god a choice, and then tomorrow maybe we make another choice, and on wednesday maybe we choose another option.

"love as choice" is another code for what some ministers call "santa jesus," which alludes to jesus being a santa figure who gives presents for prayers rather than his status as a heavenly parent and savior of mankind.

God: who is he or she to you?

2011-09-16T21:16:00.000-04:00

at 45 years old i know less about life than i did 25 years ago. because, at 20, i was pretty sure i knew everything there was to know. it is only with in the passage of time i have learned how little humility i had then.

what is there to know? it is different for everyone, i suspect. what is vital for one is probably not for the other. yet, i daresay each of us has to make some sense of the notion of god, even if it is to say they are open minded or do not believe in the concept. be that as it may, god and everything that such a word represents will be contended with.

in answering our beliefs about god and the devil, the church and all those things that come along with it, we discover some new part of ourselves. but here is the kicker: it cannot be put on. someone i knew very well lied to himself and others about his real belief about god throughout his entire life. it was only in the last few moments of that life did he let go, admit that he was terrified of judgment and to face god. and it was for that reason, not to be with his family or to enjoy one last sunset, that he clung to life for so long.

yes, have your way with your free will...by all means. but just do not lie to yourself about what god really means to you. whatever the answer, let it be an honest one; to yourself if nobody else.

It is up to us how we choose to live

2011-09-15T11:58:00.001-04:00

The Technological Revolution is over: who won?

There is no doubt that the Technological Age is upon us and is a matter of fact: present and future. People are more connected online than ever before, and are finding new and innovative ways to stay online to do a host of things, from finding love, to working, banking...heck, people do everything except have housing online (and give them time).

In public places, people do not have any awkward silences anymore, as everyone is online via their phones or with their portable computers. I think the problems that arise from this situation are manf from an interpersonal and social perspective. However, neither time nor the tide will be fought and defeated. So I will not fight, and rather just make some observations.

If living through my computer and my telephone is the fad then I do not wish to participate in this phenomenon. Life is too precious for me to live it upon a screen. But, how far do I go in 'unplugging'? Well, I need to keep and email and maybe Facebook, even if it isn't checked that regularly, I think. The big thing, though, is going to be unplugging.

A very smart woman was talking to me yesterday (not online, actually live). She said the problem with people is not the technology, but their inability to unplug from it and revert back to more personal forms of communication. Well, I think she is right. On the verge of me deciding the Technological Revolution was the Great Satan, someone made a lot of sense. It is not up to the technology for us to unplug it and have a real life. It is up to us...a choice: how do each of us want to live? Do we want our lives filled with 2,500 friends on Facebook, or just a few close ones that we share our lives with. Do we spend time with our family, or are just physically in the room with them when we live online?

These are good questions, and people might want to answer them for themselves. I am in the midst of answering these for myself.

the everyday

2011-09-14T19:56:00.000-04:00

in all the world, the only thing that matters is who we love and how well we love them, and these things are more important than even our own lives. there is an end of the road for everyone, a time when our days are cut off. in my professions, as an aide and a chaplain, i have been a part of several of those occasions.

no one on their deathbed ever oozed about how they captured that well-earned degree, or how much they had or had not in their bank account. what people on their deathbed talk about is who they loved, who loved them, God or they complain about the service in the hospital (lol). actually, i have met several people very ready for the end, with a kind of bliss that is hard to describe; nevertheless, work never came up.

in north america, what we do, how much we have, and our personal sense of style is dramatically over-rated. these things have the illusion of importance, not the reality of it. there is nothing wrong with ambition, but when it overwhelms one and becomes the beacon of one's humanity then it is an opiate, as any other.

people are prone to many kinds of addiction. and, anything that cuts us off from our real values has to be questioned. is the job more important than the family? don't answer that in public because you are likely to lie. answer it for yourself.

people in our lives matter. they are the reason of our lives. they are why we are here, though that is just my take upon it.

Suicide places someone outside of God's covenant

2011-09-13T20:19:00.003-04:00

There is information everywhere in the Veteran's Administration about suicide prevention. Well, there are a host of wonderful doctors and clinicians out there, not to mention well-qualified people who really do a lot of good. So, I will not address this topic on that level.

I will address it on another level, a spiritual one.

Life can be as tough as nails. Living it can be hell. Loss can be overwhelming. Sometimes, people may not want to finish the course. And, often, there are excuses some will have for giving up. To some people, these excuses may even sound OK.

My take is this: God put me into this world, for reasons I neither know nor care about. He did. I have lived so far and I will die one day, and I do not fear that death because of my Lord's merit and not because of mine. I am sure if I go to Glory it is not on account of my own perfection, as I am not perfect and am a sinner, but am sure in his mercy. I only know this: God loves me. As imperfect as I am, as much of a sinner as I have been, I know he is there and do the best I can to follow. Regardless of what happens to me, God will decide, not man...not me.

I heard someone say that "hell" is not a place per se, that it is the fact of placing one's self outside of God's love by one's own act. Yes, I like that definition, and it feels right. So I will say this: I do not want to place myself outside of the pact between myself and God. If this life has been hell, and brethren it has, then I surely do not want to jump from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak.

I do not know how God feels about suicide, but it feels wrong. And, though I strongly believe that someone is not damned eternally for it...I also believe there is a lot of spiritual inconvenience as a result of it: and, for one, I have had enough inconvenience for my entire life and after-life during the past four decades.

These are hollow words for someone contemplating this terrible thing. But, it is my truth, and that is all I have.

The Golden Rule: Our most understandable divine message

2011-09-11T11:34:00.002-04:00

--Photo by Jim Purcell

By Jim Purcell

I have come to the strong belief that people know a lot less about God than is being widely represented out there. The thing that really gets me the most is the political people, regardless of parties or any of that. But we are all guilty of many of the same sins as the politicians, away from the cameras.

Yes, there are things we can know about God, many of them through our religious books, be they Christian or Muslim or anything else. What can we see in common between these books? God loves us and wants us to get along. He or She respects life, or planet and the relationship between us. God wants us to lead upright lives, and to take care of each other: Listen to that again -- God wants us to take care of each other. God wants us to not exclude people, or see people go hungry, without health care, or housing, or work or hope.

So, there are responsibilities with saying someone has a relationship with God. It is hard to reconcile a position in life where one does not support caring for people and yet representing public piety (which is a problem in and of itself).

Each of us has this problem. None of us are complete. All of us are broken. Humanity is in the flesh, so perfection...true understanding...is impossible: absolutely and totally, undoubtedly impossible. Any true approach to understanding God is diverse, multicultural, spans continents and understandings of the divine and, after lifetimes of study, even that will not have the essence of God captured. It would bring us closer in understanding to God -- absolutely.

A pious person works on themselves, I think, realizes the fragility of their position and imperfections and still takes the steps to be closer to their God. And, it is a humbling journey...it cannot be something where anyone, at some point, gets indirect light behind their head because they 'got it.' No one 'gets it' because it is not possible. If someone wants to say Jesus, Mohammed or the Buddha 'got it' then I will buy that but probably not buy that anyone has a perfect understanding of what these people meant.

If someone does have communion with God, I think that is because there is something special about them and these people are communicating to people who are not pious, share that communion with God, or come to their words without agenda.

No one understands God perfectly. The Golden Rule is the closest thing we have to real understanding of the divine, and all of us violate that every day. Let's work on the Golden Rule: "Treat others as you would yourself." Let's do baby steps and start there, myself included.

Back from hiatus

2011-09-04T00:34:00.000-04:00

Happy Labor Day Weekend readers!

So, I will start updating the blog again and thanks to everyone for their patience and support. It was a busy summer, though, and felt nothing at all like a vacation.

So, please stop by and I will be publishing at least three posts a week. Thanks so much.

Jim Purcell

Sometimes it is better to defer to nature

2011-08-26T18:37:00.000-04:00

There is this sentiment I have heard that religion, faith and the relationship one has to God exists in a vacuum. Well, God is always there and that is true enough. However, a person who experiences unemployment, amid so much unemployment and disempowerment of so many in their community can question, if not God, then certainly themselves.

God is there at all times. But sometimes, it is up to ourselves to answer the call of our own destiny and change our own stars with his help. In more than four decades I cannot remember so much unemployment and under employment. And, in good times, New Jersey is a good enough place to live. Yet, in bad times it is still among the most expensive places in the United States, where working people earn the least (relative to the local economy) and taxes -- oh, the taxes -- are simply out of hand.

If one is rich or privileged, New Jersey is a fine enough place. For working people, the divide between rich and poor is remarkably becoming more apparent every single day. I love God and America, and it is with the Lord's help that I hope he leads me to another place in America where the environment is not quite so toxic for working folks.

So I am whittling down my life here as best I can for the reason of going elsewhere after I settle some housekeeping. I am convinced I will live to see a Depression made apparent in this country. And, if not in this country then certainly in this state. I will defer to common sense found in nature: When animals smell fire in the woods they get out. Well, I smell the smoke quite strongly.

Taking a Break

2011-07-09T12:48:00.000-04:00

I am currently working on a project related to virtual ministry, so the posting has been sparse. I will be back up when I get less busy.

Faith, God and the size of your Escalade

2011-05-15T15:55:00.001-04:00

God commands us to serve others.

If a Christian cannot reach out to the poor, the victimized, the dying, the elderly, the young people, and the under-privileged, or understand the need to do so in a real-life, meaningful way, then I question the strength of that faith.

The Lord did not arrive to this earth as a worldly king, dressed in silk robes and possessing great riches. No, he arrived here a poor Jew, a resident of an occupied nation and a member of an oppressed people. And, it could be said this was exactly because he was sending a message to his followers that the priority of heaven is not with the kings and the nobles, the fine people and celebrities of that day.

Heaven's priority was with the poor, the sick, the dying, vexed, afflicted, marginalized and down-trodden. Jesus Christ arrived to earth with the good news that God remembered those who had their backs against the wall, and that he was there for them in a way that was personal and divine.

So, if this is heaven's call, as it is, then how can we not remember these people in our lives, at least now and then? The Lord does not command us to great personal wealth, or over-weaning pride. He commands us to be our brother's keeper, to be responsible for our neighbors and treat them as we would ourselves and, most of all, to love the Lord our God, with all of hearts and minds. And, folks, how many televisions you have in your Escalade, or whether or not you have stone pavers in your driveway, is not a standard of how closely one is following the Word.

The Lord does not command us to give all we have away to the less privileged. But, he does command we not turn our backs upon them, and saying or believing something else is a rationalization, and not Christian faith. Easy faith is, well, no faith at all.

God our heavenly parent wants the best for us

2011-05-07T20:30:00.000-04:00

I think who we are, who we each really are, is put on vivid display as parents. In this lifetime, I think the closest mankind can come to unconditional love is through our children, at least for the vast majority of people.

I have two daughters, whom I love more than anything in this world. And, in them, I see hope and joy, endless possibilities, and love – so much so it is blinding. It is not possible for me to love any person more than that.

Perhaps our children are meant to remind us about our humanity, about what we should be to all of our brothers and sisters. Parents may not agree with everything a child may do; there will always be disagreements. But, a mother or father cannot stop loving their children.

I say that, though, with an important caveat. There are tortured souls who should have nothing to do with children, be they as parents or even close to children. This is a dangerous world for children around disturbed grown-ups. And, by virtue of parents or other adults abusing children they can see for themselves how truly far from God they have walked. No, it is not God who walks away from us, never. It is we who choose to walk with him or to walk away from him.

That even the hardest-hearted person can find gentleness and love of their children is a sign that they can see love in the world itself. Truly, the Lord was never clearer than when he said the two most important things each of us could do is to love God with all of our hearts and to treat our neighbors as we would ourselves.

Can we each treat those around us with gentleness and respect? Can we do it in our relationships, in our homes, at our jobs, in the community and in everything we do every day? I think that is hard for people. At the very least, it is an amazing amount of work. Can we treat each and every child as we do our own? More yet, can we treat every person as we would have our children treated? I would make a bet no, if I bet.

None of us are 'finished' and none of us possess the love our Lord commanded us too. But, it is in the attempting that our salvation is found. It is in the effort to transcend that our salvation is secured. God, as parent, knows that mankind aspires to what they can never achieve, because we are only flesh and blood by his design. Yet, when we try to conform to the highest standards of his love then we take steps that are not unseen.

God love us. God wants us to do so much. His hopes for us are boundless. And, he knows we are bound to let him down; but he hopes. He lives in hope, just as we do.

Osama bin Laden reported killed by U.S. special operations team

2011-05-02T08:21:00.001-04:00

Osama bin Laden was reported killed by a U.S. special operations team last night, in Pakistan. Mr. bin Laden is responsible for the deaths of so many, beginning the terrorism snowball at the top of the hill so to speak. And, the wars that made very little sense in Southwestern Asia to the minds of many -- well, he was certainly culpable.

Mr. bin Laden was the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 plot. Now, he has paid a mortal price for his earthly evil. There is rejoicing about Mr. bin Laden's death, but I do not feel this way. His death cannot bring back what was taken, in lives or our quality of life. He ushered in this latest world of terror, and all the paranoia it comes with.

Some will see this as a conclusion of sorts, and to them it may be. Meanwhile, those fanatics that followed him may well see him as a martyr, which will give his name more power to the deranged causes he served.

I believe that Osama bin Laden dying is not a loss to mankind, at least as he was. As a Christian, though, I am just sad for all of the grief, terror and death. Maybe Mr. bin Laden would never have felt sorrow for what he did. If he did, perhaps his change would have been a revelation in itself. Where there is life, generally speaking, there is hope. So dark a spirit, though, stretches that concept.

I was at Ground Zero, and years before I served my country in the Army. So, I love my country and everything I learned as a boy about it growing up. Yet, I will not rejoice at death, only at life and new hope. If Mr. bin Laden's death has anything to do with stirring hope of an end to something bad, alright. But, I do not even know if that genie is capable of being placed back in its bottle.

Beatification and John Paul II

2011-05-01T17:27:00.000-04:00

I am not a Catholic but nonetheless I appreciated the late pope, John Paul II. During his lifetime, he provided so much hope to so many. While I do not know about saints or that, I do know that hope is the most valuable thing people can have. They can live on hope in expectation of joy.

I think faith is something where examples are needed. If someone is seeking a way of life that is better, they can look up and say, 'I want to be like him,' or, 'I want to be like her.' And, the late pope is a worthy example for all of us. I recall the stories about him during World War II, when he was a priest in occupied Europe. Pope John Paul II hid Jews, oppressed by the Nazis, to save them at the risk of his own life.

There is a tension between faith and religion, and at some point it is uncomfortable. The Church is a sacrament to Christ, yet Christ never preached the creation of a religion to his ministry. He preached reform of Jewish Law and spoke to the essence of human spirituality. He really came as the ultimate figure of hope, our greatest inspiration for what is possible – yet still out of reach because we are just mortal and he was and is not. To see such a good life, though, such as the late pope had, is food for thought.

Where does religion fit in? I have no idea. It is necessary, I think. Surely religion, as a whole is deeply, deeply flawed. Yet, there are moments where religious institutions really translate to the world around them. I think this is one of those times with the Catholic Church.

Something about Virtual Ministry

2011-04-26T00:04:00.000-04:00

[Excerpt of Introduction to Virtual Ministry, by Jim Purcell and Bill Whitehead]

Many academic papers are about high concepts, macrosystems or institutional diagnostics, or add upon concepts such as these offered to larger communities. Yet, the very big picture is not the point of this paper, which is concerned with the establishment of uniform functionality using an advocated direction, with the intention of recreating predictable results digitally for religious congregations. The concept involved with this paper is the establishment of uniform functionality where it involves virtual ministry. As a working definition throughout this work 'virtual ministry' can be considered 'ministry through digital means online.'

Perhaps the genus of the perspective presented, which is viewed from the bottom up organizationally, does trace itself back to my American Baptist Churches background, which places a distinct emphasis upon congregational autonomy. Nevertheless, without acceptance of innovations on the congregational level by leaders then uniform remedies for virtual ministries cannot exist in a cogent, denominational way. Certainly, if individual congregations implement virtual ministries, even in the absence of a larger combined effort, then there will certainly be a measurable result for the congregation(s) involved. This would not be the optimum use of virtual ministries, though, in my strong belief.

So it is fitting to present a work about virtual ministry from the congregational location and perspective. Congregational leaders, though, often welcome high-concept works, it is my experience, because such work gives them license to promptly forget about materials presented, since new ideas more than occasionally represent some kind of change. And, change is the very last thing many congregational leaders, ordained and not, want. To human perception, change can be interpreted as something that comes to replace what is wrong, end tradition, or edit existing well thought out policies and procedures – or even reproach of established practices and leadership.

Yet, when change in the greater society occurs and becomes institutionalized – such as what has happened with digital communications – and any group or organization chooses to deny such change or fails to embrace it efficiently then they run the risk of being on the losing side of societal and commercial Darwinism. Patently, backward organizations, by not embracing change and adapting to normative means of communication and commerce, court extinction.

In the United States right now, and even the developed world, efficiently using the Internet is not just an additional chore for an organization, company or group. In particular, because of the innately social nature of religious or faith communities and organizations the Internet is a place that must be navigated efficiently and harvested in order to continue faith or religious views, let alone help sustain organizations.

My greatest credential for understanding the transformation of the world through digital does not come from my own study, or the perspectives of others in the religious world. No, my understanding came through the transformation I witnessed firsthand in my former industry, where I was a newspaper publisher. Like the blacksmiths of old, newspapers as an industry have been supplanted by online news websites. Of course, there are lingering monetization issues associated with this revamped industry, but it is undeniable that online news will solve this puzzle from atop the pyramid of news positioning. Simply, while there are niche publications and some daily newspapers in some parts of the country that continue to survive, and perhaps even thrive, the vast majority of the newspaper landscape has been either wiped out, dramatically downsized to stave off closures or economized to the point of breaking to just keep existing. This is a stark reality for an industry that was a staple of the human condition since around 1439, when Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (1398-1469), began using movable type printing.

This industry, print journalism, once literally formed and interpreted the world around us. Yet, in the space of just a few years, roughly 2007 through 2009 in my experience, many long-standing newspapers seemed to die or fall upon hard times. Newspapers were how the world received news, and online news outlets are not a 1:1 transplant or evolution of the former print industry. In fact, where there are so many variances, such as in distribution, audience, editorial style and content, and peripheral issues like search-engine optimization then the emergence of online news is not simply an evolution but something entirely new.

The online news people had and have an enormous burden, though, because they are working on an industry that has already happened but without the benefit of being fully worked out. So too there are some interesting parallels between the news industry, then and now, and the religion 'business.'

It was enough to print church bulletins a decade ago, or to solicit local newspaper coverage for events or calendar listing in an effort to get the name and activities of a church out into the community. There are churches that operated very aggressive community service projects and bake sales and other drives got congregants out into the public. But, the public has changed its habits and places where attention spans are at their highest. According to Pew Research Publications, during a 2008 poll, 66 percent of Americans say they have made an online purchase. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said shopping online is convenient and 21 percent said shopping online saves time. Americans were only awakening to their need for virtual reality a decade ago. Today, they are awake and online.

According to National Public Radio, in 2000, 92 percent of Americans under the age of 60 years old were rapidly adapting to technology in their homes and 52 percent of them had a computer at their residence. I daresay none of them have turned their computers in for typewriters. For more than a decade now, the American public has raised the bar on its need for virtual reality and social networking, to the point where Pope Benedict XVI has an official Facebook page and the Dalai Lama regularly operates a Twitter account. Within the context of the 24-hour news cycle, even television has been pressed to its limits of timely reporting as social networking sites and Twitter have often been the first place for news about natural disasters and wars.

Now, for consideration of faith organizations: How is a state-level denomination going to be found along the vast expanse of the Internet? If it is a valid presumption that the target audiences for churches and denominations are leading some part of their lives virtually, then how are unique organizations, like congregations, going to be found? The answer to the first question is by understanding the importance of search-engine optimization in a practical way. The answer to the second question, right now, is open competition, often using paid contractors or technical personnel with no investment whatsoever in the congregation or organization being promoted.

Advertising and marketing of organizations has fundamentally changed during the past 10 years. Search-engine optimization essentially blends marketing, advertising and public information into one body of knowledge rather than three distinct areas of endeavor. The point of printed, radio or television advertisements is to expose the public, and hopefully targeted demographics, into contact with an organization so that people know more about what services are offered by an organization. To this end, a decade and more ago, there were various forms of media advertising budgets and the bulk of public relations and information work was directed to non-digital means of communication. Yet, in an all-digital world, the larger question, I think, is what use non-digital advertising serves if it is not something unquestionably resonant (e.g. highway billboards, public transportation ads, etc.). Am I to believe that newspaper, advertising, radio and television ads, by and large, reach numbers of old when these were discretionary forms of public entertainment, which have actually been supplanted to one degree or another by regular virtual means? The advent of more advanced phones, which are essentially hand-held computers, has done nothing but add to this point. The American audience, in particular, has become more and more choosey about how they spend their recreational time. Meanwhile, so-called traditional media sources are reaching fewer and fewer people while their infrastructure continues to move upward in cost. Who bears that cost? Advertisers.

A message of faith is like any other message for an organization: if people do not hear it in the mainstream then how are they supposed to know to gravitate toward it? It is established that online shopping is more than a casual trend, so if that is true then why is the case for faith not being made with the same conviction online that the case for Walmart is for a shopping experience? Of course, Walmart and religious communities do entirely separate things; in one families shop for food, housewares, electronics and clothes, and in another they are shopping churches. Yes, the content of the searches are dramatically different, but how these searches are being conducted is likely identical.

Phone books are not as widely used because telephone numbers for important businesses are easily located by typing in the desired business in a search engine (such as Google or Bing). Rather than flipping through pages, people input a name and town and it appears before them. This is done because a search engine pulls up available information requested. So, it makes sense that, when people begin to seek a faith community then the search is likely to begin online. And, if someone spends a good deal of their time online then they would likely gravitate toward affiliations in their life that can communicate in a cogent manner online.

These only seem like over-simplistic conclusions, because if they were all that simple by way of logic then there would be an ample supply of organizational methodologies for, at once, finding a competitive edge in search-engine optimization and information presentation – but where it involves faith communities for traditional mainstream religions this has not, to my satisfaction, been the case.

What a wonderful world: Easter 2011

2011-04-23T22:29:00.002-04:00

It is, indeed, a wonderful world this Easter 2011. Be sure to share it with those you love.

God, evil stuff and this world

2011-04-18T11:41:00.003-04:00

I heard a victim of a crime recount acts so terrible that I think murder might have been more pleasant. She told me about this last week. And, at the end of what she said this woman told me that is why she cannot believe in God. I can understand why she said that. Yes, I can.

There is evil in this world, and not some metaphoric evil. Not some watered-down, diluted evil. But, the real thing alright: murderers, rapists, perverts of every description, and places of darkness that know no bounds.

God gave mankind free will, for the better or worse (and I often think it was for the worse). And, with that free will mankind was given license to create a paradise or its own hell. And, every day, with every decision we make, each of us choose to do one or the other and with those decisions help to bring those around us closer to heaven or the Pit.

I do not believe God intervenes in the immediate evil men or women may capriciously do. Yet, I believe God's plan involves possibilities of love and hope in the very darkest places people can create.
So, I have to deny a Devil that runs around the world with horns and a tail. I think we create the Devil in ourselves, and use him as an excuse for the bad we do…blame a fictional boogeyman for the evil we spark ourselves.

Steal something? Devil made me do it.

Assault someone? It was the Devil.

Rape, murder, drugs…and other things? The Devil. But, it wasn't the Devil. It was us. We did it.

God gave us possibilities of life, and death. He gave us free will so we could grow in our own way. And what we do with it…we do with it.

The Lord gave us life and a world with infinite possibilities. With that world, we create heaven or hell every day with every decision we make. I daresay this is not a perfect situation, as it allows people to conjure the most amazing volumes and qualities of evil. It would be so much better if we would offer the world love and peace. Yes, it would.

I don't know what to tell this woman. I sure wish I did.

Death is not the end but a new beginning

2011-04-14T08:42:00.002-04:00

Geshi Dakpa

In our lives there is loss. It is as inevitable as the breath we draw. The loss of loved ones and of those parts of us that each of us may love, for instance our ability to be healthy, are a few things that can be lost. And, at a certain time in our respective journeys, no one knows when, each of us will even lose our lives. And, how each of us deals with lesser losses will inform us about how, ultimately, that final transition in this life is greeted and experienced. At every stage of our lives, even at the very end, there is a possibility of peace and enlightenment; a chance to understand ourselves in ways that move our spiritual journey forward.

For the good and the bad, Tibetan Buddhism recognizes the need for all of our experiences – even those that make us depressed and feeling the pains of loss.

Geshi regards the image of the 15th Dalai Lama

Geshi Dakpa is a yellow hat lama who oversees the Tashi Lhunpo Temple and religious community in Howell Township, New Jersey, and he has walked a path toward enlightenment throughout his life. When he discusses loss, Geshi does so with firsthand knowledge, since the last he saw his family of origin was in 1959, when he fled Lhasa, Tibet in the wake of the Chinese invasion of his homeland. He lost his stepmother, father, brothers and sisters and the only home he had known to that point in his life. So, he went to neighboring India and immersed himself into Buddhist philosophy for a decade before traveling to Bangkok, Thailand, where he earned his bachelor's degree from Mahamakut Buddhist University in Buddhist philosophy. It was after his university studies that Geshi ventured to the United States and Tashi Lhunpo, where he has guided the congregation since 1977 with the exception of during brief periods where he taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

Geshi says that understanding loss and depression that occurs because of it occurs when each of us understand the truth about our own spiritual journeys and walks toward, if not enlightenment, experiences that can help to perfect our spirits. "The worst part of human life was never seeing my mother and family (after I left Tibet). There was no communication with them and they do not know if I am alive or dead and I do not know whether they are alive or dead," he says. "They never knew what happened to me and what became of me."

Yet, Geshi says that while humans know pain in a way animals may not, because of the emotions involved, it is they and not us who experience the most severe pain in the spectrum of life. "For animals, they fear being eaten alive, not starving to death, and being hurt because they cannot get medical care like people can. They understand pain in a way that humans do not."

Geshi says that, in human incarnations, people are given a freedom that animals do not have: It is people who have a path that allows for reflection and contemplation. People can understand the real truth of loss, which is that experiences in life allow for us to help shape our karma and, thereby, move along our spiritual path more quickly than a spirit within an animal incarnation. Nevertheless, "Pain is a part of life. It is part of the experience of our lives. Everyone has loss during life, but understanding the real truth of what our lives are helps us to cope with those losses," he said.

Geshi says the way he would counsel someone undergoing loss is to offer them the truth, which may not always feel like a comfort in our time of grief. "Truth is reality and what gives us comfort throughout our days, if we allow it to do this," he said. "It is a matter of accepting spiritual truth and to not deny it, and not deny our pain." Geshi says that enlightenment is a continuum through which we each move, and reincarnation is central to this. In espousing life in all of its joys and sorrows, and not mistaking love for permanence, then each of us begin to understand life itself. Geshi says that attachment can become our problem, and that attachment is not synonymous with love because love is what we feel and can keep within us.

Geshi says that people tend to reincarnate around those they know. The titles and places in one's life may change. Perhaps a father in this life becomes a brother or friend in another, and maybe a friend becomes a parent. The point seems clear enough, though, that it is beyond just metaphor to say love never dies. Is there an end to reincarnation and the cycle of lives, though? "Eventually a spirit can return [to God] when it is enlightened. But, that is many, many lives."

Depression can lead to many things, and when asked about the deepest bouts of depression that happen, and the sometime dark consequences of it, Geshi is plain: "People can become depressed and may even kill themselves. But, this is murder. They may murder themselves, but it is still murder. It goes against the plan of nature to murder, even if it is one's self." The impact upon our karma, which is the spiritual computer within each of us accounting for what we have done with our lives and how we have spent them, uses information to we each provide to it in order to assign us to new life situations after each of us have passed from this life. "And, it is karma that leads us to our next life, whether that is to life as a baby or into the egg of a bird or to the life as a pig."

Geshi laughed when he said, "People think they just showed up one day and were here. They just popped out of nowhere. But this is not so." He pointed to the stations where people are born to in life. Sometimes, people are born into situations of wealth or great prosperity, or maybe in the worst of circumstances, where money and hope are scare. In the end, though, Geshi says this is where our karma delivered us. When someone kills themselves or others, their karma may well deliver them into an animal form as part of their individual spirit journey. "Our lives are not an accident," Geshi said.

Geshi says the Laws of Nature are those which bind the physical world around us, and the beings within that world, are not ruled by karma. Indeed, it is the Laws of Nature that rule our karma and all karma. "In this life, it is good to have family and friends; all the things that make one feel very good. The only problem with that is 80 or 90 percent of people do not know the way to do that. It is in knowledge, though, that people find freedom in their lives. And the lives they are living already give them so much more freedom than anywhere else in the world and creatures around us," Geshi says.

Yet, the elder lama says that nirvana, a state of not wanting or needing anything, is something that can be easily misunderstood. "In this world, we have a body that needs to sleep and eat. We need a roof over our heads to protect us from nature. How can we not need or want anything in this world? It is natural that we want and need things and so a certain amount of pain can be expected," Geshi says. And, in the next life, is nirvana possible? Geshi laughed as he said, "How can a ghost have nirvana? That makes no sense." True enlightenment is a long road, and Geshi says there are no shortcuts to truly understanding ourselves or our natures.

"Each of us makes our own God and our own Devils in us. We give them the power that we want them to have. If we want to blame them for the evil we do, then it gives us someone to blame. Always, though, these things within us are what we make," Geshi says. "Everyone loses things. It is the way of nature. No one keeps everything forever. We learn things and we live and then we move on." Geshi says the Buddha that was never born and never died can do everything and anything it wants. No one living today can say as much. Having freedom to grow is not the same thing as having grown in enlightenment and this is the work that is left to us here on the earth.

"The earth is ruled by the elements: earth, air, fire and water. The earth is not ruled by the Devil or by any gods we create within our own minds. Nature rules the earth, but in understanding ourselves and the truth about our natures then we can finally rule over ourselves. So we have great freedom, but not all freedom," Geshi says.

Having freedom means having decisions to make. One of the worst decisions, in times of loss or in general, according to Geshi, is turning to alcohol and drugs. "People get depressed and do not want to feel bad so they turn to drugs. This is almost as bad as murder because this is still a decision to violate the Laws of Nature. Drugs and alcohol get in the way of what we are each here on the earth to do. They do not help us. Murder is murder whether it takes us a moment or a long time. It is still karma that we must finish before we can move on. People do not have karma, they make karma," Geshi says.

Where does all this bring us to where it involves loss? People feel loss because of loved ones, or things that have not gone right, and even impending loss such as when it involves the issue of death. There is no way to cheat the pain that one feels when they experience loss. But, in understanding ourselves and the Laws of Nature that guide us then the walk through our lives takes on much more clarity and opens up ways of new understanding about everything around us.

For more information about Geshi Dapka or Tashi Lhunpo, call (732) 363-6012. For information about services, go online to olnagazur.org/services.htm.

All photos by Jim Purcell

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jim Purcell is a religious writer and blogger, who has authored the Christian inspirational book "Faith Outside the City" (Word Riot Press, 2009). He has founded blogs for the New York Theological Seminary, in Manhattan, as well as for several Baptist churches within his denomination. He operates his own blog at FaithOutsidetheCity.blogspot.com. Mr. Purcell holds a Master's of Professional Study in Parish Ministry from the New York Theological Seminary. He has garnered one unit of clinical pastoral experience from Capital Health System, Trenton, New Jersey, where he interned as a chaplain. Mr. Purcell has also earned writing honors from, among others, the United States Congress and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons.

Cornel West: Funk and disappointment

2011-04-13T04:24:00.000-04:00

Princeton University's Dr. Cornel West about "the funk."

What should we do?

2011-04-12T23:07:00.001-04:00

The right thing to the best of our understanding of God's intent and love.

Just where are all of those righteous folks?

2011-04-09T00:04:00.002-04:00

By Jim Purcell

Where are the "righteous people" I keep hearing about? I've looked for them high and low, kept an eye out all the time, even asked around, and have yet to meet up with the righteous people I keep on hearing about.
I think my inability to find anyone righteous in this world is that they are very hard to spot. Righteous people are pretty quiet about their unique relationship with God and their obedience to His laws. Righteous people are unassuming, and they thirst only to do what is called for by the God of their understanding.

Yet, I have heard pastor after pastor, clergy after clergy and politician after slimy politician loudly proclaim themselves and their best friends or admirers 'righteous.' A righteous man or woman will see the Lord. They will see Glory. The righteous do not struggle with their pride, or if they do then they win the battles. They love God and God's creations. I would love to be counted among the righteous people of this world but I wouldn't want to claim that title because it would be a lie.

I can say I try as best I can keep the Lord's laws. I struggle, I stumble, I fall and, inevitably, it is the Lord who inspires me or guides me back to the Way. I suppose that means that God just will not give up on me and I am not as blind as possible, and know that rebelling against Him is actually rebelling against everything that can lead to my own enlightenment and peace. And yet, I am weak but not as weak as God is strong, and so if I have to dust myself off after falling 10,000 times during this life then I think I can do that. I cannot be perfect because the best I can be is dust with a will but the best God can be is Creator of the heavens and earth.

Alright, let me revisit everyone going around calling themselves and their dear friends and supporters righteous: I cannot be righteous because I am in the flesh and that flesh is weak. I am not extraordinary in and of the sum total of my parts to the Lord, so what on earth makes anyone else think they are somehow more than that? What restaurant does someone have to eat at to get that special beverage that will make them more than mortal? What church pew do I have to sit in to make me semi-divine? What pastor is it that I have to listen to and give my money to so that I can be, like him or her, one of the very special, most anointed and extremely saved – beyond all worries?

I suppose I might try and research this more fully. But, I also remember that part of Christian faith that informs us to fear the Lord our God, not to take His name lightly, and not to presume we, as just flesh, know His mind (which I think everyone can agree on is a lot brighter than anyone any of us know or whom has ever drawn breath other than, say, Jesus Christ).

In being irreverent to my church brethren, I am not concerned whatsoever. The truth is a hard thing to hear. It is tough for folks to go around thinking they've won the ball game and finding out they aren't even on the line-up card for the first inning.

The only messenger each of us needs to be concerned with isn't the one with the most brightly colored vestments, or the best homily or the finest church. There are no prophets after our Lord, Jesus Christ. He was it: the last one. And no more were minted after Him. I think He made that pretty clear.

So what about everyone who claimed to be a prophet after Christ? For my money, I think I'll stick with what Jesus said and leave it at that, smile and nod to the rest of the righteous people and try and do what I can to be a Christian worthy of that title.

Why all this talk about the righteous anyhow? What's the importance of it? I think it's apparent that there are a lot of people in need today: spiritually, physically, psychologically, emotionally and vocationally. And, no one – no one – is any better than anyone else. We are all liars, cheats, thieves and hypocrites, at the very least, and the only chance any of us has of being anything more than that is through reflection, contemplation and the practice of Christianity.

It's the hardest thing anyone can do, and the only way to find out if we've each done it successfully is to get it straight from the boss. It's a tough test, though, because the only way to really know if we've pulled it off the right way is to see our Lord after our own demise. Now, that is strict. It’s also the way it is.

Is politics a waste of time?

2011-04-07T22:36:00.001-04:00

Politics is a waste of time.

Never before in the history of me have I so thoroughly believed that my vote is wasted -- on anyone in office.

I voted for Democrats because I consider myself a progressive, but the reality is that the only real lobbying force in this country is owned by the top 1 percent of wealthiest Americans. And, they sure are represented.

I truly believe things will get a lot worse but that families will be stronger due to it, because Americans today will have fewer options for support and upward mobility than any group for the past century. Why? Easy. A bag of hammers could win in an IQ test between most American voters.

Gun owners need rights. Gun makers certainly need rights. Corporations who have outsourced our middle class into one-bedroom apartments should be deluged in rights. Industrialists and energy providers need plenty of rights and no governmental regulation.

OK, here is whose rights are having problems right now: poor people, children, women, the sick, the dying, the unemployed.

There are times when going through the hard road can lead to good things and that is what average Americans should expect. So, with that said, it is loin girding time.

British archeologists unearth what may be an important find in Jordan

2011-03-31T06:30:00.001-04:00

Clues to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ may have been uncovered by British archeologists, who are seeking to authenticate 70 lead codices that could have been made during the 1st century CE. The codices were discovered in a remote area of Jordan.

The wire-bound volumes reportedly contain a number of accounts of the crucifixion and the resurrection. It is being speculated that it is possible these codices may have been in the possession of early Christians who fled during the Roman sack of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

While this discovery could very well have deep meaning, experts are quick to add that such hopes should be suspended pending verification.

Maybe there are no 'final goodbyes' for us as we cross over

2011-03-27T20:26:00.001-04:00

Is death the end, or just a new beginning? I'm willing to bet it's the latter.

I went into clinical pastoral training because it is my intention to become a chaplain, not a pastor, within American Baptist Churches, New Jersey. I trace my call back to the tragedy of Sept. 11th, 2001, when I was helping out at the base of Tower North, in Lower Manhattan. There was death everywhere, and even though there is a final season in life for everyone, the manner in which life was ripped out of people during the attack was obscene: It was horrific. And, it stayed with me. We should each deserve respect in the end, and a certain amount of dignity.

Now to today: At the hospital where I am going through CPE, where I do a lot of end-of-life care. It is by my own choice, or circumstance. Yet, it is not all about grief and unbearable goodbyes. And, there is a key role here for a chaplain, especially the right kind of chaplain.

Just today, I entered a room in an ICU unit and there was a man who was going to be removed from a ventilator. His family was quiet, spread throughout the room: there were perhaps 10 or so people there. I came in and was asked to perform a prayer on him, because this was an end-of-life situation. So, I certainly went.

During what I have learned, in life, the classroom and the rooms of CPE, I place a high priority on interaction between the person passing and their families. The man was not conscious, and would not become so again. Yet, he may well have been there. Certainly his family was, along with things unsaid. So, my style addresses that circumstance.

I asked the family to join me at the bedside and to join hands around the bed, with those at the end holding the hands of the dying man. Nothing is rushed. I ask them to turn their attention to their departing family member as I read Psalm 23 and parts of Psalm 29. There are tears, but there is unity in the family. Then, with their hands still joined, I ask them to share with everyone one of their favorite memories with the patient. This can be hard, but hard because of love. Later, everyone who does this whom I have spoke to have said they were glad they shared a final memory and thought at this time.

Then, I offer up a prayer of my own, joining the circle. In all truth and candor, I offer that the only thing I have learned during my ministry and in life is that there is no real death. I share with the family and the patient that the strongest thing in this life or the next, on this world or on any other, is love. It is the purpose of our lives, and it is love that we leave and also take with us. This is my exegesis of the Word and of life. It is this message that comes from my very being: God loves us. There is Glory and we are loved and are not forgotten.

In church or anywhere else, this resonates. But, at the bedside of someone returning home, across that last river, it is everything. And, in that room, which is a sacred space, this message has to be a part of the chaplain that is bringing it or it would somehow be false. Yet, when I stand there and fulfill this role, it is not false. It creates in me a feeling of surety, which perhaps I have in no other place but certainly there in that one. We go on. We live though we cross over into death. God's love defeats death as we return home.

In this case, there is not a family member not in tears. And, I have to tell you that I wasn't all that far away. These were tears of love, though, and of good parting. These are the tears of years of relationship and trust in our Lord. If I did nothing else in my life except this visit to the family of a man whose ventilator was going to be shut off in the moments before then my life has meant a great deal, if only for a moment.

This man was given the respect he deserves in death, and the dignity he deserves, as well as his family. They had the chance for a clean and loving goodbye. If we are meant to live lives of respect then we should be able to expect death in this way. And, his was very meaningful.

No one killed in Tower North so long ago received the love and respect this man did in the minutes before their passing. They were taken out of this world in a vicious way. They were murdered by people so bent they even murdered themselves: ironically, all this was done in the name of God. Of course, this was the furthest thing possible from what God wanted. Still, God moved many hearts that day and mine was one of them.
God used the evil men do to teach us what good we might be able to do if we simply would. In CPE, all of that good intention finally found a focus, a way to positively contribute to humanity in a way I have felt compelled to for so long now. If to no one else than myself, my experiences in CPE have reaffirmed to me that this is how I want to spend the rest of my life and that it is the best, albeit not the best paying, job I have ever wanted.

In end-of-life care there is an ending, yes. This is a season each of us will go through. Yet, how we walk to the end of life's tract, which is no doubt bounded by a simple marker, should be one where we are infused with the love we have given, received – and wanted – all our lives. The opportunity to be a part of this is humbling. It is a privilege. As exhausting as it is sometimes, it is also the most rewarding thing I have ever done, perhaps with the exception of being the father of two of the loveliest girls I have ever seen, my daughters Amanda and Angela.

The best things in life can move us to tears, as well as the worst. Yet, through the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, I am sure there is no end to love and my CPE experience has proven that to me in the most unscientific and anecdotal way possible, but to my complete and utter satisfaction.

More about Buddhism

2011-03-25T19:24:00.000-04:00

There are some wonderful sites out there that discuss Buddhism. In the United States, there is a Judeo-Christian focus on faith. But I have found some wonderful places to go online to find out more about one of the world's most important religions.

Writing on virtual ministry with Rev. William Whitehead

2011-03-24T11:43:00.001-04:00

Connecting people to faith perspectives and resources: this is and has been the mission of clergy for time immemorial.

For about a year, Rev. William Whitehead, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rahway, New Jersey, and myself have been doing some work in search-engine optimization and quality content where it involves online ministry.

He and I will be writing a paper about this, with the intention of obtaining peer review and offering public presentations about our work.

Before we started doing anything, Bill and I agreed that whatever we worked on would be with the intention of creating a systematic approach that was fundamentally free of monetary cost. Yet, whatever we did would have to involve reader interaction, a visual focus, the ability to sustain itself financially and to be clearly found online.

I am very happy where we are at right now and, as we move forward in the writing, I am very confident about where we are going.

End-of-life transition is a difficult topic, even with healthcare providers

2011-03-24T11:20:00.001-04:00

The end-of-life transition in a hospital, non-emergency room setting is a big topic insofar as chaplaincy. I have been thinking about writing something anecdotal, sort of as a starting point to consider putting some things together for a larger piece.

There are elements that, I think, are very dynamic where it involves planning resources for end-of-life chaplaincy care (or even medical assets for that matter).

I recall seeing some references that mentioned hours of the day where it is more likely people pass away (e.g. during the late night/predawn morning).

During my experiences in a long-term and hospital setting, respectively, I have seen some physical and psychological commonality where it involves some end-of-life situations in people. However, there have been some notable exceptions to those commonalities. While this does not negate the common experiences of others, it certainly qualifies those experiences in a way that can be challenging.

Inclusive of the discussion of end-of-life is the sure discomfort that many in the chain of care feel with the subject of death. Simply put, most people in my experiences just do not want to explore the issue of death with some detail and a sense of open-mindedness. Religious and personal views come into play with people where end-of-life is the issue. And, with that, in comes subjectivity.

I know many wonderful doctors and nurses, aides and support staff. In medical professionals, I think their tenacity to fight death is something that assures us, as patients, that everything possible is being done to safeguard our life, health and quality of life. But, when heroic measures are involved with saving life, and when patient inclination is centered upon peaceful transition, and where the maintenance of life comes with acute quality of life issues, then these are important intersections worthy of real discussion and exploration, in my opinion.