Sue

Yes, Sue Klein also attended that Bible College in Cleveland, Tennessee. I remember hearing that. Funny how those Tennessee people always treat us AG people like garbage, like there is some kind of law requiring me to like them when actually I don't. Sorry but I cannot tell a lie. I never liked Sue and her manipulative little tricks, the way she would sit there in choir Sunday School class and throw verbal darts at me, as if I did not notice, as if there were any reason for me to dignify such an abusive attitude with any kind of response from me. Better for me not to say anything so that their rotten attitudes will have no excuse, no cause to put the blame on me. They do a very good job of acting like horrid monsters without any help from me.

Shelley

Yes, Shelley who used to attend our church in Fort Lauderdale had formerly attended that Church of God Bible College in Cleveland, Tenn., and talked about the members of 4Him, a Christian musical group, who are her personal friends and college classmates and who went big-time as professional Christian musicians after college. Shelley also talked about attending a concert of Rich Mullins who I am not sure if she knew from college or not but said she thought was very weird. I remember reading that he had epilepsy so that might have something to do with it, I told her. And why are all these Cleveland, Tenn., people attending an AG church here when they think we are not good enough for them anyway? I don't know. Maybe they just don't have enough churches. They are a Pentecostal denomination that sees itself as holier than us by virtue of their slightly different doctrinal positions on certain issues but they are also much smaller with fewer churches. They grow mostly by stealing people from our churches. They come to our churches and try to make us feel like being AG just isn't enough. We're missing it by not switching to Cleveland, Tennessee. However, we cannot all move there to find a good church to attend. There are 50 states and we should be able to find a good church in any state wherever we may have to live for work or school. Nevertheless it does not always work that way. If we are all going to evacuate the coast and retreat to the Midwest, isn't that a serious problem rather than a solution? Just living in the Midwest does not make you holier than me regardless of what you might think. In another 100 years will there be no Pentecostal denominations left for the great-grandchildren? It does make you wonder.

Stuff

Yes, Aunt Cindy ended up with great-grandmother's piano so should I be upset? It was never my piano anyway so whatever. I have my own piano. And anyway, the aunts and uncles are such materialistic people, so intent on snatching up the goods when, really, these things don't matter that much. They never really understood what China was all about. It was the people who count or, well, don't count. It was about the mission, the Great Commission, not anything to do with World War II, but they always thought that religion was for old people, that rules were for losers, that church is just a big joke, that war was the whole end-all and point of being and, well, they just lost sight of the original reason why. They just think that it's all about them so they just don't get it.

Canada

O Canada! That is the national anthem of Canada and might have been the song that we used to sing at school assemblies at MK school, San Salvador Christian Academy, for the sake of our teacher Mrs. Grace Richardson and other Canadians among us. We also "God Save the Queen" for the New Zealanders and "The Star Spangled Banner" for our own sake. "O Canada!" is also the name of an attraction at Disney's Epcot Center if you ever have a chance to visit Orlando. The Circle Vision movie gives some nice glimpses of Canada's snowy vistas. I have never been to Canada but it is interesting to note that my great-great-grandfather was Canadian. He died in 1895 so we do not know very much about him. He did visit my great-grandmother once when she was 10 years old and gave her a beautiful piano. However, she was raised in Pennsylvania by her grandmother Caroline and various aunts, uncles and cousins, the Smith clan. I have the impression that it was a miserable life for an orphan with the whiny Smith clan until she was able to escape to Ohio and marriage in 1899. And what was her last name anyway? Levines? Levins? The spelling is not clear. Nevertheless, we are pretty sure that he had another daughter with his first wife, Miss Little, who died in 1880. I only learned about this other daughter in the last two or three years of doing genealogy. His other daughter's name was Esther, not to be confused with my grandmother whose name was Esther Barth, born 1906. I have no clues for Esther Levins, born 1873, and whatever happened to her. We just have no idea.

Our Nellie

It seems that my great-grandmother's mother was Ellie Keith Smith, which sometimes may appear as Nellie. Miss Smith married Mr. Archibald Levines. Now, was Mr. Levines Jewish? The name certainly sounds sort of like it might be Jewish. I do not know enough about his ethnic composite to say anything about that but I do know that he was actually Canadian born and bred. His mother's family, the Speers, apparently immigrated to Canada from Ireland in the early 1800s. Some of the relatives probably know more about this than I do. Anyway, Miss Smith was his second wife and she died not long after the birth of their one and only daughter, my great-grandmother. He also had a daughter from his first wife. He apparently later married a third wife and returned to live in Canada. So how did my great-grandmother get a passport for missionary travels when the application form of one-hundred-plus years ago required that she declare her father to be a U.S. citizen born and bred or else the date of his immigration to the United States? Well, her husband was able to get a passport and so his wife and children were attached to his passport so really it was not a problem. So there is really nothing else to say about this. It's not a big deal, really. You could ask lots of questions but I would not know the answers.

Nordic Nellie

Yes, one of the pleasures of watching "Little House On The Prairie" was to watch Laura Ingalls Wilder give bad Nordic Nellie (think Sue) a swift kick to the curb. These nasty little rich girls pretend to be spiritual and yet have never seemed to read in the Bible the Apostle Paul's parting words to the church: "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' " These rich people need to stop tripping poor little me when actually they are the ones with the millions of dollars in the bank to give away and I am the poor person who needs the money. I am just saying this to set matters straight. They are the ones who need to practice what they preach.

Prairie Dogs

There she is on television, blond Nellie from "Little House On The Prairie" all decked out with those hideous curls and bows in her hair, all those ruffles and lace, a truly villainous caricature if there ever was one. All that finery and yet there she is hissing and spitting as if we were the problem. Ha ha ha! No, we are not the problem. No one ever said that Swedish women have any taste. They just fake it with sugary cutie-pie stuff and then expect us not to notice. Ha ha ha! We noticed. Sorry.

Two-Way Street

It's a two-way street unless otherwise designated. There are no one-way streets in this neighborhood, however, so nothing to talk about in this regard. Enough said. No time to turn around and go some other direction. You can yammer until the cows come home but it won't change a thing. I am not headed your direction. Sorry.

A Monk's Life

It is pathetically sad to hear about those monks. We see that extreme asceticism is widely practiced in Tibet, all those monastic guys wrapped in sheets wandering the hillsides begging for their supper are monks as we all know, but what is gained by their self-abnegation? Miss Ina K. Birkey, in her article "No Man Cared For My Soul," suggests that such extreme action is not so much a remedy as a symptom of something wrong, a restlessness in the heart, a void in the soul that can only be satisfied by faith in the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Self-flagellation and self-degradation will not accomplish righteousness. Nothing that we can do can make us holy enough to meet God's standard of perfection. We are sadly fallen. There is no one righteous, no not one. Only Christ, who by divine mystery was a man and yet also God's Son incarnate, was able to live a sinless life and pleased God. Only Christ can be our high priest in that His sinless life and death and resurrection qualifies Him to sit at the right hand of God making intercession for us. No other man can take His place.

Mary vs. Elizabeth

Yes, all these references to the battle between Mary Stuart Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth Tudor I of England are getting ridiculous. That history has nothing to do with me and my family. I have no real connection to British royalty so it does not make any sense. Like the vast majority of Americans, my ancestors left England long ago and I know very little about that. If my ancestors were Catholic that would have been before they became Protestants during the Protestant Reformation. And anyway, how many times do I have to explain that I am not nor ever was Catholic? Just because my high school was mostly Catholic, that does not make me Catholic. It was not a religious school so just studying Spanish literature does not necessarily make one Catholic, atheist, Marxist, etc. Besides, Elizabeth is actually my Dad's cousin, not mine. She might be my third cousin once or twice removed. Elizabeth has no children but neither does a Mary that I know. And anyway, Elizabeth is not the queen of anything that I would want. Her parents were missionaries in Venezuela, not El Salvador, so we really do not have much in common. Just living in Houston does not make one a member of the royal aristocracy of America. Besides, aspiring to royal aristocracy is not necessarily a recipe for success. Just look at Mary Queen of Scots the Catholic queen who was mother of the heir but was ultimately beheaded for treason at age 44. Her first marriage to the King of France did nothing to enhance her popularity in England even though the French-Scottish alliance was really her mother's idea. And she spent much of her life conspiring with the Spanish to kill Elizabeth and seize the throne of England. Later, her descendants ruled England but did nothing to further the Catholic cause that she championed. Thus, denying husband and children to the Protestant Queen Elizabeth did nothing to stop the Protestant Reformation because a move of God was underway and it was not just a matter of Henry VIII's divorce. There was a lot more to Protestantism than just a divorce. The Reformation was something that the people of England wanted and which the rulers and leadership of England continued to affirm in various treaties. Thus, it logically follows that they must have me confused with some other Mary, Mary Anderson, perhaps, or Mary .... . I just don't know. They obviously know something else about Mary but I can't really comment intelligently without knowing more about that.

Narnia

Isn't that funny how the Narnian Ice Queen is pictured on the television screen as a Scandinavian woman with flowing blond locks? I had not thought about this before, the book not really requiring racial thoughts of the reader, unlike the movie, but perhaps C.S. Lewis was onto something. Isn't there something positively evil about these Scandinavian women who slither around like snakes and pretend to be nice and charming and yet never really have anything to say? Never unload any of your personal thoughts to these blond devils. You will spend the rest of your life wishing you had never met them. Just leave them guessing because, really, they are not sincere in wanting to know you. They just want to make you look bad so as to make themselves feel better by comparison. It is not like they are really that good. It is just a game they play.

Interesting

Oh, that's sort of interesting. I had not realized that my former co-worker Sebastian might be Jewish. I never thought about this really. We never discussed religion or much of anything else. Truth be told we just never talked. Don't ask, don't tell. That way one avoids pointless arguments with people who just don't care about me. It's nothing personal. I am just a Christian so I don't expect him to understand what Christmas really means to me. He just doesn't understand.

Helpless

Yes, I am helpless to solve all of these mysteries. I really need some people to come forward and explain why I should care. I do vaguely remember Becky Nolin in college talking about her favorite singer James Taylor and some of his hit songs, "Fire and Rain," "Carolina On My Mind," "Mexico," etc. Yes, James Taylor is a very popular musician but other than that I see no connection. It is interesting to learn that his grandfather's brother died of pneumonia in a Shanghai hospital in 1925. However, I see no connection there. His great-uncle was in China while taking a pleasure trip around the world. I am not sure whether my great-grandparents were in Shanghai at the time but anyway they did spend time in China for other reasons not related to pleasure. So I really see no reason to think that James Taylor would know anything about this. James Taylor's sister is Kate, not Kitty of San Francisco, so I also see no connection to the Andersons, not that it matters except maybe to Kent Stone. Kent might remember Becky talking about the concert that she attended. I personally do not share Becky's fascination with the way James Taylor moves his eyebrow when he sings but also I was not there so I do not remember this, only what she said. I am personally not interested in getting connected to the liberal establishment of James Taylor, nor would I care to be committed to the mental hospital to which his family is attached. I am really not that crazy. I just need a little help from my friends, we've all got to have friends, I could get by if I just had a little help from my friends. I do not need another trip down memory lane. I just need everyone to stop faking it and tell the truth for a change.

Carmen

Yes, that is sort of obnoxious the way Carmen is always hogging the limelight. He has plenty of albums circulating all over the world. However, his music is getting kind of old and dated, very 1980s glitz and Greasy. He still pretends to be a contemporary musician and yet he is getting to be a rather old man nowadays, approaching the age of retirement and probably his hair is dyed, and still we have to listen to him yapping and hammering away on points of ancient history. One would think that he would be embarrassed of his own false advertising claims, pretending to be an eligible bachelor when actually he hates and despises women. We already know this. He does not have to explain. We heard about Chris Christina so we have no illusions that he would treat the rest of us women any better than that. Thus, it logically follows that Carmen should probably step aside and give someone else a chance to talk, someone who has something better, something nice to say for a change.

Self-Interest

I wholeheartedly confess that I do things mainly for myself and my own best interests and this is for the good of all. If I truly am doing what is in my own best interests, and not being too greedy or too self-abnegating, then everyone will benefit and no one is harmed. This is a basic economic principle of free market economics and not a problem that anyone should complain about in my opinion. I am no sympathizer of Max the Marxist and his gang of whiny losers. I found this quote on the Internet and I tend to agree:

"There is absolutely nothing wrong and there is absolutely everything right in advancing one’s self-interest.  It is a sign of self-respect....And if you fail to take care of your self-interest, you may likely perceive the other party to be “unfair” or to be to “blame” for your failures.  Failing to recognize the other’s said motivations to take care of their own self-interest is an abdication of personal responsibility that ultimately leads to frustration, blame and regret."

Yes, so there is no problem with me doing what is in my own best interests. This is normal. It would be weird to not do what is in the best interests of myself and those I love. You are the problem because you abdicated your personal responsibility and now you are trying to blame me when it is actually your problem. Sorry but I can't help you.


Marxists, on the other hand, tend to think that social equality is the goal. Everyone must be torn down to the same level of bestiality so that there is no judgment day for those who conform to collectivist norms. All is for the collective and the collective is for all. This idea makes the need for a Savior meaningless because mankind saves himself through social and political activities.

Yes, there is the Tragedy of the Commons. If too many individuals all act in their own self interests the resource will be depleted and nothing will be left for anyone to enjoy. That is why we have organizations and denominations, etc., to manage resources and regulate and resolve all of these issues. No one ever said we could go back to the garden. It is never that simple. It is very complicated.

Cats

I can't have all these cats meddling in my stuff and throwing their little hissy fits and shrieking and howling all night long outside my window. And, anyway, Cats is old hat nowadays. Its Broadway run ended in 2000 in case you had not heard and that is the way it goes with Broadway cats. One day they are hot stuff and the next day they are fired and there is another cat in the wings waiting to take their place and the old cats are not allowed back on the premises, not that I would know anything about that. This is just another reminder to these cats that they do not own the show. The show belongs to the producers and the writers. The performers are just little cogs in the wheel, like for example that filthy slut Heather Catto Kohout and her filthy wicked family. Hideous Heather will be rotting in hell for the rest of her life as far as we are concerned, or at least I speak for myself. Nobody cares that they worked for Nixon. They made lots of money working for the president so they have no reason to be wreaking havoc on us. We did not do anything to them. Perhaps they were actually part of the president's problem, at least much that much is becoming clear. If the Cattos expect me to say anything nice about them they will have to do something nice for a change instead of always buzzing around as if they were the Antichrist Emperor of the Universe. It just doesn't fit the picture. Someone really should punish the Cattos bigtime for their rotten attitudes because they stink. Like they say, if you can't win at least die trying to beat them down.

State Of Maryland

Yes, I really do not understand all this obsession with the state of Maryland. I have only visited Baltimore once briefly and it is just another big city. America is full of big cities with lots of good things as well as problems and inner city issues. My cousin lives in Maryland but that is probably because her husband lives there so she has no choice. Her husband smokes like a chimney but that is what she chose so that is what she is stuck with. We have not made it by to visit because, well, we just never have any reason to go to Maryland and we are kind of busy trying to unravel all these trivial pursuit games that they left behind. Women tend to live where their families are. I suppose that if I had married someone who forced me to live in the barren frozen wastelands of Nowhereville, South Dakota, that I would be forced to live there and make do with that miserable place and its obnoxious people but fortunately I am not married to a South Dakotan. So that is how things work.

Broadway

Yes, Mark's boss seems to be the Madame of that Broadway brothel described by Stacy. You would think that she would be embarrassed to show her face in public after what she did so it boggles the mind to have these trashy dancers spitting in my face. I never did anything to them. They are the liars anyway, pretending to be Latinas when actually they are Filipino island girls. Sure, the Philippines were also conquered by the Spanish even if their history is slightly different than Latin America. Sometimes these Filipinos also have Spanish names and look sort of like Spanish. But it boggles the mind that these Filipino girls are pretending to be U.S. citizens. I do not recall the Philippines ever voting to join the United States as the 51st state so they really have nothing to be so high and mighty about. We all know the Philippines has a lot of problems, lots of little Indian tribes and terrorists who kill missionaries. They have a lot or problems there. It was probably not for nothing that Theodore Richards attributes all of the thefts and robberies on the island to the Filipinos. He presents no statistics to back this claim but still, it is just a general intuitive feeling. We have heard about the Philippines.

Cheaters

Yes, Mark works for that dirty dancer riff-raff, what's-her-name. I do not associate with that type of dancer riff-raff. For what they have to do it really is understandable that they should be paid well to compensate. Nevertheless I do not want to do that or go there so I do not appreciate them calling me and trying to pull my leg that way. It just goes to show what type of dirty dogs they are that they would sic hideous Stacy on me that way. They stink.

Funny

Yes, isn't that funny, the genocidal Spanish fascists of Chile pretending to be the champions of the Mayan race. Ha ha ha! We all know that many Indian peoples of Chile have long since gone extinct. The Spanish tend to give high priority to genealogy and tracing your lineage back to Spain so the Indian people historically were at a disadvantage socially unless they could marry into the Spanish family tree. This type of genocide and racial domination was how the Spanish conquered America. I am not saying what they should or shouldn't have done. I don't remember even discussing this point. It's just a well-known fact that the Spanish conquistadores seemed to imagine their genetic composition is their gift to the Indians, like raping the Indians is doing them a favor. So I suppose that whoever has the power can do whatever they want. That is the way it works in a dog eat dog world. There are no easy answers to some dilemmas of history and I really do not want to think about this very much because it is a question that is too big for me and cannot be answered. Only God knows and understands some things. I am not saying it is right. It is just a page right out of history. We have all read the history books.

Mark

Now that's funny, Mark Hummel pretending to be pursued by me. Ha! I never thought much of him. He lives at the bottom of a Broadway trash heap. No self-respecting Christian girl is going to apply for a "job" at that honky-tonk joint. Beautiful music is no consolation for tolerating such a mean machine as that. Anyway, they must have me confused with Lynda who always was awestruck by Mark's amazing talents and was a student in his class. Too bad Mark did not do anything with himself, mostly just Broadway fluff and nonsense.

Connections

I really have no connection to Becky Wycoff. I think she was quite a bit older than me, maybe a couple of years ahead of me in college. I tend to think that if you want to know about Becky you could always ask those trashy Coneheads who are of the same ilk, er, class year. They always seem to have a finger in all the obscene garbage that goes on over there of which I know nothing. They probably could shed a lot of light on that story. I have no clue. I only know that Rusty always was an obnoxious know-it-all so it is not like a nobody like me could tell him anything. Sorry but Rusty was never part of my life really, just another boring guy who got left behind. Really nothing to say about him. Of course the Hoskins cannot say much. Look their own worthless Dave, a disgusting creep of another ilk

More Comparisons

If I measured myself by comparisons alone I would feel so much better than horrid Becky Wycoff and her dog trash brother Rusty, such pale shadows of the persons who were to me only college acquaintances anyway. It is not like we ever talked or like I would ever want to get back in touch with them someday. I feel so sorry for the filthy scum of Melodyland. Did they not learn anything at church, like how to get saved and how once saved to not live like the world. We are not supposed to watch disgusting movies titled, "Is it Just Me?" Yes, hopefully it is only Rusty who delves in th porno garbage so obvious on his Facebook info page. Sorry, yet this dissing of the Wycoff scum is fully "justified" in the sense that I would not want anyone to think that I had any real connection to them and my bad connections pale by comparison to theirs. Enough said.

Bertha

Yes, I suppose that you could make some kind of weird joke about the way that Bertha Dixon often refers to the Clintons in her book. Obviously she is not referring to the Clintons of modern fame. No, she is referring to E.J. Clinton, owner of the San Francisco Puritan Restaurants in the 1910s. He and his wife and five children traveled to Hong Kong to visit with the missionaries. Bertha describes these events in her book published in 1941. Bertha does mention a slave girl having fallen in a hole but no mention is made at least by name of my great-grandparents and their family who also might have been in China at the same time. No matter. So what if Bertha names Aimee Semple MacPherson with typical awestruck wonder while ignoring my great-grandparents who maybe were not so well-funded as Aimee. This does not prove that they were not there somewhere even if not high on Bertha's social calendar. So this book, "A Romance Of Faith," proves nothing.

Jack

Jack Garlit Jr. is nobody really, just another MK guy, one of those guys who we girls are made to feel obligated to, as if we are their slave girls, their objects of convenience, as if we are required to be their public relations agents and help promote their wonderfulness while they do nothing to help us not that we would dare ask for help, as if when he asks me to write to him that I am required to believe that he sincerely wants to be my friend and that I really should do whatever he says and actually write to him, and so I did. As if he ever cared about anyone except himself. My sister also wrote to him and it was pretty clear that Jack really liked my sister more than me and so he wrote back to her but not to me. That is fine with me. I can take a hint very well. It is not like I would ever be caught writing Jack ever again. Jack might be surprised to learn that not a stray thought of Jack ever crosses my mind. Jack married Donna anyway and then he divorced Donna and married Jackie and so he will never make it back to the missionary life anyway. Jack is just another casualty. Jack is nobody really.

Bad Connections

Speaking of bad connections, it is unfortunate that we have such a despicable creep in our family tree as Fred Hibbert. We cannot have any connection to Hibbert and his apostate religion of Mormonism with all of its disgusting attributes and characteristics. Just because Renell made a very stupid mistake and introduced the lousy rapist into her life, that does not mean that we should have stupid Renell calling the shots and running the show and permitting the horrible Hibberts to terrorize our lives on a continual basis. There is nothing special about a distant cousin's husband that he should have any role in my life. Just being descended from Charlemagne does not prove a single thing except that maybe you are exceedingly vain and pompous and annoying and not invited ever to my house. You were Renell's stupid mistake, not mine, and we all know see that Renell makes very bad choices in life. Renell deserves no particular honor in my view and she is obviously not the Virgin Mary, just another high school dropout who does not seem to realize how much she does not know. The beginning of awareness is to be aware that you do not know everything.

Unequally Yoked

Be ye not unequally yoked together. That is what the Bible says, and this means that if I marry a non-Christian it will be a miserable life for me, an unending litany of woes that would most likely terminate in a cruel and miserable divorce because there is no communion of light with darkness. All the free baubles in the world would not compensate for the misery of marrying a non-Christian. How can a Christian be happy married to a non-Christian regardless of race. Only a true Christian can see eye to eye the light of Christ. This explains why Elizabeth is so miserable and divorced from her Jewish non-Christian husband but really she should have known better if she were truly raised in a Christian home. What do those CMA people teach over there anyway? Nothing?

Comparisons

If I were to measure myself by comparison to others, I would feel pretty good about myself in comparison to the dimwitted "cousins," as for example mentally deficient airhead CMAer Elizabeth who married a Jewish guy but is now divorced. I know better than to get legalistic about such matters as ancestor worship. It is not the law that will save me. The law is the cruel taskmaster who will constantly remind me of my shortcomings and where I have fallen short in fulfilling the law. I can never be happy if I were to depend on the law. No, there is nothing about CMA that appeals to me in the least. I have no idea why the Hunts, quite distant relatives of ours actually, took a turn into oblivion for there is no benefit to being CMA. My great-grandfather might have been also associated with them back in the 1940s but that was a long time ago and I don't know anything about that. I only know that I always was AG and that is all I know or ever was. It is much more beneficial to be AG than to be a mostly Baptist, meaningless CMAer. I think that my great-grandfather would have preferred AG to CMA also but there was that old misunderstanding from China that could never seem to be cleared up and he could not get papers from the AG back in the 1930s or 40s but that is ancient history. Obviously we have a whole different generation today and none of us were ever in China or know anything about that stuff. Hopefully the bigshots in Springfield are not going to play stupid games of mockery and ridicule of us. It just wouldn't be fair or the right thing to do. Modern Pentecostals are supposed to be better than that, not even worse.

Fourfold Gospel

Was the CMA Pentecostal or Baptist? I am getting confused They rejected the initial evidence doctrine, preferring instead the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding tongues and glossolalia and yet they share with the Foursquare church the emphasis on what A.B. Simpson, CMA founder, calls the "Fourfold Gospel." Frederick H. Senft, in his Introduction to Simpson's "Fourfold Gospel," says: "This does not mean that the blessings of the Gospel are limited exclusively to four — Christ our Saviour, Christ our Sanctifier, Christ our Healer, and Christ our Coming Lord. In one sense it is a manifold Gospel with countless blessings and ever deeper and richer experiences of God's grace and love. 'But there are four messages in the Gospel,' says the author, 'which sum up in a very complete way the blessings which Christ has to offer us and which it is especially important that Christians should emphasize today.' These constitute four great pillars in the temple of truth." Ok, so, that's nice, but still, it goes confusing. That is why they are the elected denominational position paper writers and I am not.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Don't ask me what it means to be a Pentecostal MK and then I will not have to explain about the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and the fireworks on Chistmas Eve and New Year's Eve all night long so that everybody sleeps all day on Christmas. It is very dangerous to be an MK, especially if people keep asking me all of these questions, like what it means to be a Pentecostal and what is glossolalia and the initial evidence and all that other doctrinal stuff. Not even Pentecostals can agree on many of these points and Baptists disagree with us also, and then also others disagree with us, like the Christian Missionary Alliance. Just because my grandmother's sister married a CMA missionary (the diary says they met at an AG college but he dropped out later to become CMA), that does not mean that we all dropped out of AG or that we are all of us CMA. The CMA position differs from the AG but who am I to tell them where they are wrong. Now there is a job for George Wood and the other big wigs of Springfield. They have it all spelled out in Springfield. You tell the CMA where to go, you hotshots who were elected to tell it like it is. That is their job.

Daniel

Now that's funny, trashy heathen "Cousin" Daniel pretending to be a Christian. We do hope that he likes his new family because he does not really have an old family except in his fantasies. He was never part of my life anyway, only seen at family funerals, and anyway that is so weird the way he talked sarcastically about his own family appearing "Christian." As if his hanging out exclusively with black people makes him a better person, a better Christian than all of the white "Christians" of his former family. As if there were something inherently better about having black skin as opposed to white skin. We do not really care what color his wife and children are. We just don't give much credence to Daniel's nonsense. We do not appreciate the constant dissing of us by Danny who, as we always knew, is a blithering idiot and does not represent us in any collective way. Lots of people with white skin are Christians, too. We do not have to marry interracially to prove some point or earn God's forgiveness. If Danny wants to do that, that would be his choice, but that is not my problem. There is no eleventh commandment saying thou shalt marry interracially. And anyway, Danny has no license to preach so he has no place to be spreading his distorted gospel of guilt, fortunately for us.

Pecking Order

Yes, it is very frustrating to be at the bottom of the pecking order. Everyone enjoys taking a shot at the white girl as perhaps a condition of their advancement to better things, a higher place where they can look down within disdain upon little old white girl who got left behind. We are not so stupid as to not have figured out that everyone else's progress depends on their dissing us first as part of proving to better. We are not so stupid as to not be able to figure that out everyone prefers diversity to the white girl. Everything we say will be used against us, we never get what we want, only what they think we deserve. They don't need us, don't want us, don't have to listen to us if they don't want to. Yes, thanks for reminding me of this point night and day, day and night, ad nauseum.

Holy Order of Mans

The four blocks of the Holy Order of Mans symbolize Mystery, Love, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Nevertheless, we urge caution as we do not want to get our convicts mixed up. Sure, Tommy Anderson, before getting saved of course, served time in Walla Walla on a burglary charge even though he says he did not commit the actual burglary, only cased out the saloon prior to the theft committed by someone else. Nevertheless, people in the saloon remembered Anderson's odd behavior in the saloon, his calculated observations of the location of the cash box and his pacing  the number of steps from the door to the bar, from the bar to the window, etc. so he is the one who got caught. Certainly, it does not pay to do someone else's dirty work as his example suggests.

In contrast, we review the example of The Rev. Earl W. Blighton who in 1951 jumped bail in New York after he was fined $500 for practicing medicine without a license in New York. Blighton headed west and in San Francisco founded the Holy Order of MANS, a monastic order also known as the Science of Man Church.


The Catholic organization headed by Dr. Blighton, who fancied himself the Reincarnation of Saint Paul, was sued in 1971 by Miss Randcliff after the priests apparently tried to administer chiropractic adjustments.

The Holy Order of Mans holds chiropractic medicine in high regard and at one time even had a staff chiropractor designated with the title "Director of Healing."

However, Dr. Edward R. Riffle (the man who sued by great-grandfather in 1950), who had apparently served as the church's "director of healing" at some time before the order was incorporated, in 1971 denied having anything to do with Blighton's organization. "I'm now a Pentecostal, "Dr. Riggle said. "In studying my bible I found I could not agree with Blighton."

By that time most of Blighton's patients were sent to another chiropractor in San Francisco. When interviewed, the chiropractor said that adjustments may be administered at home as long as no fee is charged. In fact, even masseuses may be qualified to do chiropractic adjustments.

Ha! Funny thing is my cousin David once cracked my back. Well, that's a completely unrelated story so it has nothing to do with this. That does not make me Catholic. Obviously, we are Pentecostals even if we had out disagreement with the Riffles. You could always ask the Riffles.

I am just retelling the story posted online here.

For more information:
The Science of Man
Holy Order of Man
Eleventh Commandment Fellowship
Blighton books
Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology
Stories of Father Paul
Templum de Octo Rosae Mysticus
Wikipedia
Global Oneness
Great White Brotherhood
Encyclopedia of new religious movements, page 274
Coed Monastery
Gnostic Order of Christ
Encyclopedia
America's Alternative Religions
Museum of Learning
The Concise Guide to Today's Religions and Spirituality
and many more

Hispanic Hawaii

The way Mr. Richards talks about Hispanics in Hawaii is so politically incorrect and racist. The book was written in 1917 so I suppose people could get away with talking that way at the time. Obviously there is no way today that anyone could get away talking about Hispanics this way without getting stabbed to death by the bloodthirsty, vengeful, murderous "Raza." Mr. Richards says of the many Puerto Ricans in Hawaii: "Of the polyglot population of Honolulu, perhaps the least hopeful from an economic point of view are the few Porto Ricans....Brought to the Islands to promote the sugar industry, not a few of them have left the plantations and have drifted to Honolulu, for much the same reasons that congest our large cities on the mainland....In one of the most "submerged" portions of the city there was a shack of utterly shiftless and riotous Porto Ricans. Their children did not go to school and scorned anything much in the way of clothing. The institution of marriage had been long since lost sight of; they were living "haiku," as the Hawaiians put it when they want to call domestic relations 'mixed.'"

The Filipinos fare poorly also in Mr. Richards' estimation.

"Many outsiders told us that they were a wild people and that they never would be any good; that all the robberies and murders are committed by them." All of which Tommy admits, adding to the indictment that there were "some mightily bad ones among them." He goes on to prove their worldliness by what seems to us as "judging them in respect to meats," or, rather, vegetables. He declares tat they are great lovers of leeks and onions. This somehow suggests "Egypt" to us, and we wonder whether Brother Tommy was not straining at a scriptural parallel, thinking of those poor whilom bond slaves yearning so for the odorous garlic despite the hard service in bricks.

"So now the Filipinos," says Brother Tommy, "planted their biggest crop in leeks and onions, and all around the mission house was planted a beautiful crop of them." This pointed in the direction of good works, so Tommy thought; it was far better than weeds. "But now" — note the triumph of it — "the leeks and onions have been pulled out, and in letters of small red flowers 'PAHOA MISSION' has been planted, to be seen by all passers on the public road, while on the sides are fern trees, and some of the bird's-nest variety, and roses, and on the edge, a row of hibiscus. So now you see the gospel made them change from leeks and onions to roses and ferns."

What think you of that proof of the gospel? Plantation men might not agree. From utility to sentiment would spell no progression to them. As for us, the Egypt-Canaan figure appeals, aside from some inherent prejudice against garlic.

"Also in front of their own houses they are planting flowers and trees where before only weeds and wild grass grew." This is conclusive. The same fruit of the gospel has appeared among the Japanese in the Islands, of which the Hawaiian Board records have much to tell us.

But there is a nobler fruit still: "Now they come to services. We hunt for them no more under beds and behind doors and between ceilings and roof." It is either a new habit or a new taste, or both. There is evidently something in that mission for which they come. So much is clear.

So whether the Hispanics have progressed is a question of fruits. As with all peoples and nations, we judge them by their fruits.

Eugenics

Why is everyone always asking me all these questions about eugenics, as if I ever cared about that? Could it have something to do with the Introduction to "Scotty Kid: The Life Story of Brother Tommy," a chapter that is actually NOT written by the book's namesake? Pentecostals such as the Andersons rarely thought of such matters. Those were the words of Li-Ke-Ke, the Hawaiian name of Theodore Richards, a New Jersey-born educator who lived most of his life in Honolulu, Hawaii, a co-founder of the Honolulu Bible Training School and past principal of the Kamehameha School of Boys. I suppose that racial engineering might have been of special interest to residents of what was at that time only a territory of the United States, not really a state until 1959. And besides, this book was written in 1917, a time of widespread naivete in regards to matters of progress. I vaguely remember reading or hearing something in high school about the idea of eugenics being largely discredited as a science after the debacle of World War II in which it became an excuse for the wholesale elimination of millions of people of races not cared for by the Germans. The Nazis started by emptying the mental hospitals and homes for mentally retarded and then progressed to racial designations. Thus we see that eugenics is a highly subjective matter although science may be called into the service of subjective notions or prevailing opinions. Who will or will not propagate the race is certainly of particular obsession to these Nazis and fascists. But mostly, in the natural realm, natural selection is the survival of the fittest, the law of the jungle, of lions and tigers and bears, of birds and bees and beasts. Interesting thought, but if my descendants are not here to see the results of the great genetic engineering experiment so be it. Who am I to argue with God? You can wash the outside of the bowl if you like but the inside of the bowl will still be as sinful as ever. Each individual in each succeeding generation will still need to work out their own personal relationship with Jesus. I may not live long enough to see the outcome of World War III and the end of time so may be content to watch from heaven how things play out in the end. Whatever. I just wanted to have a normal life, mostly, anyway, but of course pleasing to the Lord. Christians are known by their love, not by sticking it to their enemies. We apparently must turn the other cheek, as Jesus said, to these gluttons for punishment. They constantly accuse me of vanity in regards to writing, and yet, having only a couple of weeks ago learned of the existence of this book, I open the first chapter and see Mr. Richards, a published author, touting his own horn in a most vain and self-aggrandizing manner when comparing his own brand of English to the bum slang usages described by the Scottish-born Mr. Anderson, who became a minister only after years of life on the run as a renegade who bummed rides on trains and begged for his dinner and danced the Irish jig in saloons and took dope and cocaine: "The destruction of the king's English attributable to Tommy from that time to this very day bears distinct relation to the "playing hooky" episode; certainly, it is in no wise to be charged to the Scotch schoolmarms." Mr. Richards concedes that while there is no virtue in abusing the rules of English grammar, the use of certain grammatical violations still may put a certain class of men at ease. (Mr. Anderson proves himself very good at ministering to the bums and down-and-outers from whose ranks he was himself rescued by God's mighty hand.) "It ought to be no special road to favor to vaunt one's ignorance or independence of rules of speech," says Mr. Richards. Yet Mr. Richards himself commits various writing atrocities throughout the book, in particular when using the plural when describing Mr. Anderson standing in lock-step with the prisoners in line for dinner at the penitentiary, as if all of us readers were there with them also standing in lock-step waiting for a plate of grub. Really, tell us the story but do not make us go there. This makes us readers very uneasy. He talks about the authorities giving the prisoner a "balling out" but I think he means "bawling out." Just a typo? Well, you be the judge. But really, it is a very good story if you can get past all of the excess verbiage. We get the impression that Mr. Richards had a rollicking good time interviewing Mr. Anderson for the book, all those details about how to do con jobs and how to break out of jail and how to smuggle things like drugs in to the prisoners. Scary to think all of this printed matter occupies more than half of the book. It is not until Chapter 9 that we finally get Brother Anderson's new nature explained. The Christ nature is described as "Anothengenics — Birth from above." Mr. Anderson says that he does not recognize the photo of convict No. 2173 as himself and yet such a photo is incorporated into the book's cover along with the title "Scotty Kid," the moniker given him by the street bums of bumdom, so we see that the book was planned this way. In Hawaii Mr. Anderson is still in the early years of a ministry that later took him to Bolivia. It is a miracle that such a useless, idle bum and dope addict could be redeemed to a life of useful ministry so this really is a powerful testimony of God's redeeming power. From the day Mr. Anderson is saved he stops taking dope. We have heard similar stories, more recently, from Nicky Cruz's book "Run Baby Run." We just wish Mr. Richards would tone it down a little because it is not about him. And if grandma ever had this book lying around the house I never noticed it, but there are several photos of the Anderson family in the family's photo collection. Why would that be? Well, in 1913 Mr. Anderson and family spend some time in China and possibly my great-grandparents were also there at that time. Who knows if they met or how. But, anyway, Mr. Richards does not find the China trip meritorious of explanation. Says Mr. Richards: "This China trip is unique and has much in it worth the telling. In a life that had not so many bristling out-of-the-ordinary points in it, this missionary trip to China could hardly escape notice, but somehow it strikes us somewhat foreign to our purpose and we omit further mention of it." Thus, we see that while Brother Tommy's story is certainly fascinating, it is mostly does not have very much to do with the story of missionaries in China, especially my great-grandparents. It almost sounds as if China were nothing compared to the experience of Hawaii, missions to China being a mostly average sort of humdrum thing in comparison to serving in Hawaii. Well, I am sure that Hawaii is a nice place, but it is truly not a foreign field in the sense that China was so the comparisons fall short. Surely he does not mean to say that reaching the people of China for Christ is any less important than reaching the Hawaiians, regardless of national ambitions, nor that one ever could or should make territorial ambitions a condition of Great Commission endeavors. The Great Commission does not discriminate in favor of Hawaii vs. China when it talks about taking the good news to the ends of the earth. So unless Mr. Richards can produce the notes he did not use regarding the China trip, well, his book is only of minor use to us in reference to the China story which, as we all know, is truly a foreign field in relationship to the U.S. and not just a territory such as Hawaii or Puerto Rico even if it is also borders the Pacific Ocean and was accessible at that time only by ship. Well, my great-grandparents served in both China in the 1910s and Hawaii in the 1930s but I never asked them which mission field they preferred, China or Hawaii. I am sure the Hawaii story is also of interest but it is much more well documented by persons such as Mr. Richards, and anyway Hawaii is accessible all the time by any U.S. citizen. China, on the other hand, is a much more complicated, less accessible story. Mr. Richards' 1902 hymnal in the Hawaiian language seems to have no relevance to the China story as no one speaks Hawaiian in China anyway. Working together we could all possibly put together some interesting history of China and Hawaii, but divided this way we will never get anything done.
So for all of Mr. Richards' verbiage, we are still pretty much getting nowhere if we spend all of our time obsessing about Mr. Richards and his notion of eugenics. It just misses the mark.

Spots

There is that rich lady tooling around in her fancy Cadillac, flaunting her leopard-spotted coat fashions and imagining that giving things to the poor will somehow enhance her popularity with the masses. But we middle-class, just-getting-by people, we are not fooled. We know those leopard spots are not really freckles. No, those spots were purchased as a step on the stairway to heaven. Those spots were fueled by the greed that greases the fur industry. Not that I was ever an animal rights activist, but here is the script played out before our eyes. Many little critters must die a painful death to stock the fur section of the ladies' department store so that the rich ladies' can one-up each other by counting the spots on their leopard or jaguar skin fur coats. Have they forgotten that we are not saved by comparing ourselves one to another? (2 Corinthians 10:12: "For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. But we will not boast of things without [our] measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. For we stretch not ourselves beyond [our measure], as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in [preaching] the gospel of Christ: Not boasting of things without [our] measure, [that is], of other men's labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, To preach the gospel in the [regions] beyond you, [and] not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.)

Dave

Yes, that is so weird the way Dave Crabtree always seems to be spewing curses in my direction. And what would a visiting pastor from a church in South Carolina know about anything anyway? Just because these Crabtrees have some type of connection to the general vicinity of San Jose, California, that does not mean they are in any way related to us. Nay, in fact the only San Jose relatives I have learned of recently would be Uncle Sam's family and they apparently attended a Foursquare church so what would the Crabtrees know about anything anyway? Not to minimize the connection between AG and Foursquare, two denominations that grew out of the same Pentecostal roots, but really Uncle Sam's Foursquares may be a little too boxed in by church tradition to have a clue what we are talking about. What would Foursquares know about missionaries? Their display is tiny in comparison to the massive missionary organization of the Assemblies of God and mostly centered around Aimee. Sure, we were acquainted in El Salvador with Becky and Charlene Gosling, two Foursquare MKs to whom we turned over the letter translation job when we left. Don't have a clue what happened after we left. We have not heard anything specific about this, only a lot of things thrown around, so would not want to guess and maybe a little afraid to ask. They always did run in a different crowd than we did most of the time, attended a different church, so I am not sure what to say about that. Regardless, we all know that Foursquares never did emphasize missions to the same degree as the AG. With the changing tides of time perhaps the AG should rename itself as the Assembly of Scandinavians & Browns Yes, Anglos No while Foursquares are the Hollywood Celebrity-Establishment Church and this leaves us regular white folk rather out in the cold because we no longer seem to belong anywhere.

Loser

Yes, I called Loren a loser, and that was not very nice of me, but he really should not be representing himself by such a dim bulb as Alanna if he wanted me to take him seriously or say anything nice about him. After all, Alanna has so many problems. What did she learn in high school anyway? And Loren is really Alanna's buddy, not mine. So why did he send Alanna to sound me out about what I think about Loren after he had spent months dissing me? Obviously I am not going to feel like say anything nice about Loren by that time. Just being a pastor does not compensate for Loren's lack of civility and decency. Plenty of pastors are horrible people who cannot be trusted for anything. Just look at the example of .... Anyway, I can do better being single forever than getting stuck with someone who is sooooo mean to me. If there were a Mr. Right for me then I would not have to waste so much time on all these losers.

Local Patriotism vs. Protestantism

This document titled "The Missionary Question" is very interesting in that it seems to deal almost entirely with Catholic Christianity, written as it is in Korea in 1894. No mention is made of England or Protestants, almost as if the whole of Christianity were comprehended through the lens of Korean Catholicism as represented by France, Spain, Italy. Are you thus trying to suggest that all Protestant and English Christians discourage local patriotism and encourage the sale of daughters into prostitution? This cannot be so. You cannot be a Christian and maintain such an unsustainable position. Thus you are wrong. Thus, you must go back to the table and rethink your positions on these matters from a truly Protestant point of view, remembering that just because they are Catholics, that does not mean that we necessarily disagree with them. We do have some points of agreement here so get real.

Bicentennial Conference

I seriously doubt there will ever be a bicentennial conference on Christianity in China and even if there were, which there will not be, the Mormons would not be invited as they also likely did not attend the first two-week event held at Shanghai in 1907. It just would not make a lot of sense to invite them to participate when they are not willing to play by the few rules that are agreed upon by all of Christendom for centuries upon centuries. Sure, Pentecostals of China also were not invited but arguably the Pentecostal movement did not yet exist in China in 1907, the first reports from there appearing only in 1908. And the commemoration of 1807 as the introduction of Protestant Christianity would not mean very much to Catholics who had already been operating in China hundreds of years earlier than Protestants. And, anyway, Protestants and Catholics do things separately. The Protestants would almost certainly not want to be required to discuss with the Vatican their issues with the government in China. So it is safe to assume that the 1907 conference was composed of mostly the mainline denominations of Protestantism, the Methodists and Episcopals and Baptists who for a hundred years already had been winning converts to Christianity and building churches and schools and orphanages. The conference was reflective of Protestantism of Old China with all of its 19th century values and achievements. No one is minimizing their amazing achievements during that time. Sure, hostility later developed between the dry and dusty mainliners and the Holy Rollers who were seen as emphasizing personal experience at the expense of works. Pentecostals were greatly persecuted by both mainline Protestants and Catholics and to avoid censorship by short-sighted old fogies they developed independent systems to emphasize their priorities of preaching the gospel and supernatural phenomena as the empowerment for works. But now, a hundred years after that, the mainline denominations do not have much to boast of in the way of China at least publicly. The old fundraising systems so valued as illustrative of the national glories of France and England and which required a huge influx of missionary manpower were mostly dismantled and the church of China operates mostly under national leadership. The argument between mainliners and Holy Rollers is in some senses a moot point. About 40 years after the conference all foreign missionaries were expelled from mainland China and the government was taken over by a Marxist regime that remains in power to the present. Whatever happened to all of the churches and schools and believers left behind by the Protestants? Who is watching out for them now? Well, there still might be some remnants left behind in China but, really, it is not my place to say who they are or what they should be doing next. Sometimes things are just outside of our control. Sometimes no one can say which nations and powers will be raised up and cast down in the course of history. It would be exceedingly vain and futile to even try. God knows all of these things and He will work these things out for good according to His purpose which may or may not have anything to do with us and our personal glory. In fact, we might be better off without the burden of having tried and failed and being made to look foolish. We have our own fences to mend and bombed out ruins to rebuild. Would we not just end up looking foolish trying to predict things that we cannot understand? Would we not end up as stooges of some evil dictator we had not foreseen which would only mean that maybe we should reread the Apocalypse? Just because my peers nominate me as loser of the century, that does not mean that I am required to accept that position or act out all their stupid fantasies. Jesus says that the end will come and that when we see these signs of the end times that we should rejoice to know that our salvation is at hand. The only ones who might have reason to be afraid would be those persons such as for example Mormons who are definitely not Christians. It is the Mormons who should be cleaning up their act because until they just don't past muster. Sorry but I just cannot say something that is not true just because it is what you want to hear. Hopefully the Mormons will not be running the national archives because it is not their story. It is our story.

Alanna

Yes, I do feel sorry for Alanna although she really is too weird. I remember she called me and was telling me all of her stuff and she was talking about how the Popineaus are so fascinated with Jimmy Swaggart. I said it really sort of bothered me that they were pointing people to a man, a televangelist, rather than to Jesus. I told Alanna about a conversation years earlier when my mother was ironing clothes and we were watching TV and Jimmy Swaggart was on and he was in tears and ranting and raving on this point: "Mothers, tell your daughters not to wear shorts!" He was really writhing in agony on this point and my mother said to me, "He has a problem." She thought it was just abnormal for him to get so worked and foaming and frothing at the mouth on such a topic. And so I related this conversation to Alanna with the thought that, really, persons should not put too much emphasis on these televangelists. They are always saying all this stuff but our personal relationship should be with Jesus so that whatever happens out there in television land, it will not affect our personal relationship as a believer in Christ because, really, these guys, you just don't know, they are always saying all this stuff. And this conversation with Alanna happened long before we really knew that Jimmy Swaggart really did have a problem. I thought it was just something my mother said.

Moores

I am imagining that Harold and Joy Moore lived on happily ever after there in Virginia Beach although I really would not know. I only remember Joy talking about Harold's many character flaws, about how his behavior is so fake and he gets so puffed up with pride, so vain and conceited and even somewhat deceitful when he is speaking in public or playing any public role and how this really bothered her. Joy also said that Harold was feeling very guilty and apologetic about all of the things that he had done with his previous girlfriend. I am not sure why Joy told me all of this information. It is not like I would want to know this and I really did not ask any details but Joy just said that Harold felt like he had gone too far with his previous girlfriend, something about what they did in the car. Whatever. If I try to remind her of this conversation and ask if this is still a problem or if it all got worked out she will act like nothing happened so I will not pursue the subject or ask anything about it. Anyway, it is not my problem. Why should I borrow their problems? She is the one who decided to live with that apparently and married the guy. Harold Moore really was nobody to me, just some guy she picked up at church, Joy being my roommate at the time. Joy seemed to think that his family had been prominent in Tennessee but what would Joy in Viriginia know about that anyway? Joy mentioned to me that Harold told her that he thought that I was dirty. Ok, so the dishes sometimes piled up in the sink when I had a lot of homework to do, there being no dishwasher, and the yellowish linoleum floors always looked dirty no matter what. And Joy spent every waking moment nearly at his apartment cleaning his floors, spending all her money on expensive stuff for him rather than contribute to my utility bill, so she was not exactly an ideal roommate. So all in all I do not think that the opinion of the Harold Moore matters in the least. Harold Moore is not my boss and never will be so his opinion just does not matter.

Genealogies

Say hello to Philo and Julie. Ok, I am not sure about this because some of my caption info has disappeared in transit but this might be the genealogist. Aunt Julia had a picture of a couple who are described in the caption as the genealogist. Now that is interesting. And why would Aunt Julia have need of the services of a genealogist? Would her father not be rolling over in his grave to know that his daughter would bother to avail herself of the services of a genealogist or even be acquainted with such a trivial pursuit? Did he not take the paper image down from its pedestal and smash it to bits in symbolic victory over the demons of ancestor worship? Ok, so we all think that reaction might have been a bit extreme. Do-it-yourself would be my suggestion to anyone considering the question of what to do about removal of ancestor worship. DIY. It is not my job to make such a personal decision for you and it is a very personal matter. Does this make genealogy research wrong? I am not sure. It is not illegal to do genealogical research but it is not required. The Mormons often use their fancifully embellished genealogies for religious purposes which makes us not inclined to want to be associated with their genealogical interests. We would not want to be confused with Mormons. Hopefully this is not a Mormon genealogist, although it gets confusing. After all, genealogists often do the bidding of Mormons rather than us, the true Christians. Sorry but Mormons are just a cult and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Just look at the course of the history of Christianity. Here is just one example. http://mormoncult.org/

Nationals

I am a national of the United States. So when the book describes nationals working alongside missionaries, just because I had a part-time freelance job during high school translating letters at 2 cents apiece, that does not make me a national in a Salvadoran national. You are just splitting hairs if you think that is a reference to me. It is not a reference to me. It is talking about the nationals of the individual countries. No missionary is going to argue with the local patriotism of the individual countries. That was not our purpose. Each country has its own legal and governmental system, the Caesars that be, and it is not our purpose to tell you what to do about that. You have your opinions but we are not taking sides in your political system because we do not really understand what you mean exactly. Anyway, the Bible tells me to avoid people who are embroiled in silly arguments and quarrels.

Titus 3:9: "But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain"

Ken Who?

I wonder what makes my dimwitted Butterfield cousins think that I would ever have anything to do with that nefarious, loathsome, disgusting creep Ken Bertwell and friends? Just because he may have an archive full of Pentecostal lore especially about musician Audrey Meier, that does not mean that he has any brains in his empty skull, always tooling around in expensive cars thinking that will impress people so that they will not notice he has nothing really. The past is nothing, just pieces of this and that. There were stories to tell but nobody cares anymore about the old-timey folks and their experiences. What matters is current stories and our experiences and, well, so far I have not heard anything halfway significant about Ken's experience so really he should remember that it is not about him.

Julia and friends

My Dad's Aunt Julia and her friends have been running the show but things have to change. Aunt Julia, well, I really should not go there. All my relatives... Anyway, the point is that this is no longer 1910. Aunt Julia had her particular point of view but her opinions are not necessarily shared by the rest of us in the family tree. We are not even sure what deals Aunt Julia had worked out on this point but she is no longer with us and no longer able to prevent us from scanning all of her personal photos for public review. Maybe someone out there can identify all of these unidentified suspects and then again maybe not. It is pretty safe to assume that these people have all passed on to their eternal destinations and the land of the living is no longer their problem. We, on the other hand, do not know what why they are all hanging out on the rocks there. Like third cousin Chris Gallup, we do not want to have to pay for all of Aunt Julia's stuff, whatever it is although we are not sure. We just know that we are the living and it is our problem now, whatever the problem is although we are not sure exactly what the problem is.

Tribal Nonsense

I am so glad that we have no tribal system here in the United States and that my extended family relatives really have nothing to say about this. After all, we all know that third cousin Danny Barth is a completely worthless mental retard at least in my opinion. Just because these people are related to me, that does not mean that they have a clue about what really matters or what the story really is. We could not care less about what moron idiot Danny Barth says and even less about the silly Butterfields and their obnoxious take on this point. We also are ignoring the ignoble Kansas prairie dog Sharon Baldwin and her Pasadena paramour Mike Bealls. They are only little tiny pieces of the story. The story is much bigger than any one of us as they would know if they had any brains in their empty heads. No need to insult me but this is war so I am returning the favor. No need to jump through hoops to try to impress Uncle Ariel when we all know that our great-grandparents had seven children and so Uncle Ariel only has one little piece of the story and his five kids each only have one little piece of Uncle Ariel's piece of the story and so forth. If it were up to me, I would only have one little piece of my grandparent's story in this regard but, anyway, the story is not about me either. The story is about something else beyond us. The story is about Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus Son of God came down from glory and took on the form of man and dwelt among us and then died on the cross so that through faith in Him we might be saved. So we are all of us filthy dirty sheep. But through faith in Him we are cleansed and purified. He lives in me so that in His strength I may live according to righteousness. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to [his] purpose. Ok, so the Dannieblle song says His Word rather than "purpose," a poetic license. Anyway, God's Word, the Bible, expresses God's purpose for us. Which means that we must study to show ourselves approved, a workman rightly able to divide the Word. All of this mindless yapping just does not substitute for actual study of the Word of God.

Sorry

Sorry, Carole, but just because I briefly worked for your father many years ago, that does not mean that I will ever be a part of your life. You really should not imagine that I will ever give you any of this social affirmation that you so crave. You are not going to get anything from me, especially not now after dumping all this garbage on me. I feel nothing but pity for your fatherless children. It is not their fault that you were stupid. Just being Swedish does not entitle you to special privileges in comparison to other nationalities so it will probably be worse for you than it was for them because of your attitude towards the non-Swedish lowlifes surrounding you. At least they were poor and ignorant. You were just rich and willful and spoiled rotten, that's all. So, no, you do not deserve a prize for all of your worthless web spinning.

Labor Unions

Yes, I really do not understand all this yammering about labor unions. I am not ignorant of their existence but I have never worked in a profession that required membership in a labor union per se and am not acquainted with anyone who belongs to one. I vaguely remember that when I worked at South Florida Newspaper Network some of us were invited to lunch with some people who turned out to be representatives of a union and invited us to consider creating a union at our company. I never saw those people again and did not return to the second meeting with them so do not know if anyone pursued that option further. I personally was not interested in the creation of a union. There are plenty of professional associations of a voluntary nature so I see no need for unions. Interestingly, our publisher Bruce Warshal was previously a labor attorney and prominent in the civil rights movement which was sort of interesting to learn. I do not know very  much about that but Jeff Perlman or Andy Polin probably do. You could always ask them about labor unions.

Children Should Be Seen And Not Heard

In ages gone by parents often had the philosophy that children should be seen and not heard. In actual experience, this is sometimes still true and yet sometimes not true. There are times when children should be heard and their concerns and interests be made known. So what if I was a little bit bratty at the slide show in which Cousin Susie explained various pictures of Hindu temples. Ok, so we don't really need to know the detals that are reserved for the grownups who alone understand these matters, as hinted by Cousin Susie. It was not unfair of Cousin Susie to withhold such information from us children and it was silly of me to pipe and say, "That's not fair."  Nevertheless there are other times when bratty little Cousin Laurie's opinion of me is totally irrelevant. We all know that the Butterfield cousins were exceedingly wicked children, all of them younger than me, and so in such cases the rule is true that the little Butterfield brats should not be heard. The Butterfield cousins must respect their elders which of course include me. Someone really should remind Cousin Laurie that she is not entitled to the honors that are due only to me. I am the one who graduated from high school and she is the one who had to catch up later in regards to high school diploma. She is the one chose to drop out of high school so that is not my problem. There is no reason to punish me for Cousin Laurie's stupid mistakes.

THE TAPE

I spent a lot of time transcribing THE TAPE word for word. I thought I had already posted this along with my snarky little comments but maybe some people missed this. Yes, Susie spends a great deal of time talking about everything she got for Christmas and describing in detail all the stuff that she got from all of her many relatives. Susie really lucked out with all the booty she hauled away on Christmas day. It makes you realize how stupid Susie thinks we are, the way she hems and haws and aahhs and drags things out and making longer than necessary her description of trivia than we really don't care that much about anyway. We are not really as dumb as Susie thinks we are but it would be sort of rude to break the truth to her as she would just never accept a negative truth about herself anyway. To hear her tell it everything is always our fault and she never makes any mistakes which makes it kind of a waste of time to respond. We did not send an answer tape back right away. In fact it was not until maybe April that I started an answer tape and for some reason my sister never contributed her half to the tape nor was it mailed back to Susie so it is still in our possession. Yes, my tone of voice is a little snarky but if you look at what I actually said, I didn't say much. Anyway, by April a description of Christmas gifts would just be old news. Why bore everyone with the trivial details? Is my name Susie? No, my name is not Susie. Better to get on with my life, graduate from high school and go home to the United States where I belong than to try to remember what I got for Christmas from my relatives last year.

Birthdays

Yes, I remember that when I was in second grade I got the chicken pox. There was going to be a party for me at school but I got sick and missed school that day so I guess everyone had cupcakes with out me. No big deal really. I remember that I was so disappointed at the time but then later we moved somewhere else and I do not even remember who those people were. Maybe they do not remember me but it does not matter to me. They were never really my friends anyway. And anyway, a birthday is not that important. Lots of wicked people are very very popular so just having lots of friends does not necessarily prove anything. Popular sometimes just means nothing. Sometimes the ones who do the right thing are forgotten and unpopular. So popularity is not what it is cracked up to be in my opinion.

Bolivia

We are Pentecostals so we expect to be persecuted and vilified by these Catholics who despise us. That is just the way it is for missionaries and their families in Latin America. We have been accustomed to ill treatment for a very long time:

Here we see the example of Pentecostal Missionary Tommy F. Anderson in Bolivia, where served from 1920 to 1925. Conditions always have been very harsh for missionaries. "The priests have warned the people to beware of the evangelists, likening us to dogs, burros, Masons and Turks, and warned every property owner not to rent us a house. Therefore the poor, innocent, bare-footed, priest-ridden Indians fear us because of the penalties that have been pronounced upon people who have anything to do with Protestants....The priest has threatened to break the head of a young man who comes, and tells him we do not believe in God. Although he threatens and scares the people, nevertheless they come....We are persecuted very much and always despised and ridiculed in the streets, but in all these things praise God....after we returned we learned that the priest had planned for some men to break into the house and kill us. This is the third time they have plotted to kill us but so far they have failed....This is real Romanism. No wonder the people fear the priests....The Jesuit priests stand outside of our mission door and warn the people not to enter our house or they will be excommunicated from church, even from burying their dead in the graveyards, that they shall be outcasts from society and persecuted in the streets. Poor souls. they suffer much for coming to our services and we suffer with them. Pray for us and dark Bolivia, the hardest and most fanatical field in all South America....Some of our Indians walk twelve miles (round trip) to attend services. Never in my life did I ever see such a humble people and so hungry to know God's word. Some fanatics have threatened to run them off their little homesteads, and have threatened to take their lives because they left the Roman church; but rather than compromise with the Jesuit priests and turn back to image worship, they are willing to die if need be for the truth in Jesus Christ.
"Last week, our front door was burned with kerosene and rags. The Bolivian government is searching for the criminal. They believe that priest power is at the bottom of it.... One of our members was badly beaten up in his house by an opposer. Another precious young man had all his clothes burned up with several Bibles and religious books. It is wonderful the grace that God has given these souls to endure persecution and remain faithful even while their lives are in danger.....ast Sunday night during the preaching, two fanatics hammered on the doors with cobble stones off and on for half an hour, and the police did not do anything. Besides this they entered the mission and insulted us several times. The other day a man told me they would hang me and today a fanatic told me that he was well armed and that he would kill me. This is the life of a missionary in interior Bolivia. I have been insulted nearly every day in two and a half years. But God's grace is sufficient, and through prayer and Jesus we can do the things which seem impossible to man."

Re: Blocks

The Pentecostal Evangel, 12 May 1945, Page 8

The Passing and the Permanent

"Make America Catholic"

According to The Converted Catholic, the campaign to "Make America Catholic" is now using the block-warden plan. Two or three Roman Catholic families in each block are appointed to distribute Catholic literature to their neighbors, to write letters to local newspapers, and to threaten the corner druggist if he sells anything objectionable to the Roman church."

Wilders

Yes, I declined the role of Gilda Radner, the iconic cancer victim and SNL regular who was also the wife of Gene Wilder. The only Wilders I ever knew were Jeff and Barbara, my sixth grade classmate. I had such a good time at her birthday party the one year they were there in El Salvador, her brother Jeff and Jody Houk being the ones who imposed a military system upon us at the little school. That system makes eighth graders Jeff and Jody the general, Susie the seventh grader was maybe a colonel and we sixth graders were maybe lieutenants. And what were my cousins' rankings? I am not sure. They never talk about that in specific terms, only about what the army does for them, never about what they did for the army or why we should care. The army always has need of warm bodies to fill the private ranks so that's nice but leadership requires a lot more than brawn. Just buzzing around in a helicopter is not going to solve all of these problems. I lost track of Jeff and Barbara after sixth grade. I hope they lived happily ever after but I somehow imagine that Jeff did not quite make it to rank of general. Sometimes we have to give up our eighth grade illusions of grandeur to find something better.

Letters

Yes, I was paid to translate the letters, maybe 5 or 10 centavos each, equivalent of 2 or 4 cents in dollars. No one ever suggested volunteering. It was just assumed that this was part of the administrative cost of running the agency. It was not considered any problem to pay some high schoolers 2-4 cents per letter. The sponsors pay a monthly amount to cover all of these costs so it is not a hardship for them. The costs are all figured into the monthly amount and the sponsors get letters from their students every so often, maybe not every month but often enough to develop a relationship between the sponsor and child. All of the costs are part of the fundraising goals of the organization whose goal is not to increase profits but merely to operate the schools and to offer free education and maybe even a free lunch to the children. So this is not really a problem in most respects. It is normal for nonprofit organizations to pay for services. Lots of nonprofit organizations pay for services whether from freelance contractors or employees both full- and part-time. Sure, it would be nice if nonprofit organizations could get volunteers to take over all of the administrative duties of running the organization and dispense with paid staff so that the funds raised could be stretched farther. Nevertheless, that requires lots of wealthy people who have trust funds and other sources of income to cover their living expenses and are willing to spend all of their time doing someone else's grunt work. If you do that, it would have to be for a cause that you really like, not just to help someone I dislike. Anyway, I just don't qualify as independently wealthy, for starters, so that type of volunteering holds no appeal for me. I could pretend for a while but eventually I would have to pay the piper. "Muzzle not the ox that treads out the grain." If even the lowly oxen is given food and shelter, why should I be treated like a slave, bound and gagged and locked in a cage? The "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" cartoon always was a freaky thing to see in the newspaper but not something to try at home. Anyway, lots of high school students can get part-time jobs so this was not a problem most of the time. I have no record of how I spent the money. I never considered whether there was any legal issue involved in getting paid while living in a foreign country as a high school student. It just was not a big deal at the time. There is no law requiring that I give the money back to the school someday but also there is no law preventing that someday whenever I should have oodles of money in the bank. I am not saying that I would not do that but I cannot discuss this when there is no money in the bank. It is hard to think of giving when I am not getting anything. Until then we say: Put up or SHUT UP!

Christian Schools

During the time that my family was in El Salvador as missionaries I remember that another missionary there, John Bueno, set up a system of Christian schools. No missionaries in El Salvador itself were opposed to this Christian school system. There was an element within the denominational organization back in the U.S. that initially was opposing that but it wasn't us. We really did not have a problem with that as long as the school system remained a separate organization from the church itself. The school system has its own organization even if some of the schools operate in borrowed church buildings. Some poor children might never have an education or learn how to read and write if not for those Christian schools so it may be a good thing as long as it does not interfere with the mission of the church. I do not remember much about the controversy surrounding its creation or who the people were who were so opposed to that. There are those who would prefer that the church not get involved in parachurch ministries such as school systems but I do not know too much about that. Each country does things differently and even among the missionaries each one does something a little different. During high school I worked as a translator for the schools. I translated the children's letters to their sponsors from Spanish to English. Those were cute little letters. Children say the funniest things sometimes. So I really do not understand all this commotion, all this mock drama trying to cast us as the opposition to their school system. It just wasn't like that. They must have us confused with someone else. Like I said, there are those who oppose that but it really wasn't us. I don't know who they were.

Things That I Have Heard

Just because I heard something, that does not mean that I know very much about it or that it has anything to do with me. Actually, it does not have much of anything to do with me. Don't we all do some silly things when we are very young? I could tell a few stories on myself, like the time we put a bunch of things, vinegar and whatever could be found in the kitchen, into a bottle and offered it to the drunken bum who was sitting outside on the sidewalk and he took it and thought we were doing him a favor. The maid went out later and told him not to drink it. How mean we were back then, at Susie's house, playing with Susie. Ha ha ha! So whatever. I am a grownup now so I am not allowed to say all these self-deprecating things about myself but nevertheless that is all I can remember. Like how silly it was that people at the Yearys' church were telling me that I was not allowed to mention that I am a missionary kid. And like how am I supposed to avoid mentioning this when everybody already knows this anyway? And, like, since when is it a crime to be a missionary kid? Should I be embarrassed of who I am or try to erase half of my lifetime and still be able to function with no memories and no personality? Ha ha ha! They must be joking. Did I do something wrong? Not that I recall. But MKs do hear things. Like the time my parents went to a missionary retreat in Florida and the speaker was maybe Wayne Kraiss who talked about the time that a girl at SCC was raped by two guys. And my mom was really freaked out by that story and was telling me about that and what a terrible thing it was. How could such a thing happen at a Christian college? I just cannot imagine. I do not know any names so I cannot really comment intelligently on the event. I only know what my mom said about what Mr. Kraiss said about the event, but news travels down the grapevine, no doubt about that. Not that anything like that ever happened to me, but everyone doubtless has heard about it and lots of people know who they are.

Chickens

This reminds me that Lynda Lestarjette once mentioned that the Cederblom boys burned down a chicken coop in the Dominican Republic. I later mentioned this to Tim but obviously I probably should not have said anything. I had not realized it was such a sensitive subject with him but Tim acted like I was pointing a gun at him or threatening war. Very strange. I had not really meant it that way and don't really know very much about that other than what Lynda said but it is no surprise that we all know each other and that these little incidents are passed down the grapevine. Tim should remember that we MKs are not just any local yokels. We are all connected in various ways so it is silliness and vanity for the DR missionaries to pretend otherwise. You just never know when things might come back around to bite you.

Books

OK, I will not pay $10 for Mark and Lynda's book, but at $0.07 for a used copy plus shipping I did place my order. However, no reason to comment if I have not yet seen the book and have no clue what everyone is talking about. Cannot imagine why I should care.

Jetsetters

For all of these reasons, we could not care less what the jetsetters say about us behind our backs. We cannot be expected to keep track of all of their problems. And as long as we are talking about jetsetters, we might as well throw in Marty Lestarjette, that jaw-flapping batty old witch whose daughter Lynda and husband served in a Muslim country. We heard the horror stories but we do not want to go there. We also do not want them bringing the horror home with them. We have enough problems without all of their garbage. What would I know about the DR and about Lynda's aspirations of being a writer which she briefly mentioned but said she was much too busy raising children? Well I don't know anything about that. It is just not my problem. They should remember that. Hopefully, someone will fire creepy weird monster Mark because Lynda Lestarjette's writing career is just not my problem. Just because she co-wrote a book with her husband, that does not mean anything to me. It is not my job to honor Mark's wife. Obnoxious Mark and his wife are just a nuisance to me and nothing more. They will never be friends of mine, especially not after that. I will not be wasting $10 on their book. It is not a bill that I have to pay so it is not my problem

Guilt

I am often reminded of the time when Sharon Turner was discussing George Wood's sermon about tithing. Sharon was saying that George Wood talked about a time when he and his wife did not tithe because they were going through some difficult times but after their finances were restored they resumed tithing. I did not hear this sermon but Sharon was telling me that George Wood himself said that it is OK sometimes, that it sometimes happens that people who are in financial difficulties may have to postpone tithing until finances appear and then may have to get caught up later but still it is OK sometimes to not pay tithes. We know now that it must be so because while Sharon Turner was deeply troubled by George Wood's words and thought it was terrible, nevertheless George Wood was promoted to head of the denomination while Sharon Turner is nobody. Thusly, we see that it must be so, that there is no reason to writhe in agony about getting caught up on tithes when one cannot even get the credit card bills paid down to zero. God knows.

Advocates

Yes, so like I said, Jesus is my advocate. Jesus is the one who pleads my case before the throne of God. I never claimed to be sinless or perfect. Only Jesus lived a sinless, perfect life and thus he is qualified to appear before the throne of God to counter the accusations of Satan. Basically, what matters is that my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those who matter know that my name is there.

Dennison

So just because I studied music in college, that does not make me a clone of Mrs. Lily Dennison, the amateur singer of Lima, Ohio. What happened to Mr. Dennison anyway? We have no connection whatever to Ohio so the women's club was never anything that we were aware of and their disdain means nothing to me. The only thing that matters to me is what Jesus says about me. Jesus tells me that I have this treasure in a jar of clay. Our bodies are frail vessels. We cannot engage in sexual misconduct and think that there will be no consequences. Thus, the New Testament says that if we live by biblical principles that our treasure will be preserved. What treasure is this? It is not a matter of money and dollars. It is a matter of being in good standing in my relationship with Jesus which is more important than anything else. It is something personal that I really can't explain, just knowing and having confidence in my own heart that I can go boldly before the throne to make my petitions known, because I have in Jesus a high priest who was sinless and yet experienced in his own body the temptations that are common to all and took upon himself the punishment that I deserved. Jesus experienced fully the scorn of mankind so at least Jesus knows how I feel even if no one else does.

Associations

The Bible says that we are known by our fruit, by our friends, by our actions. If we are judged by the people with whom we associate, then we are truly hopelessly sunk if our associations are composed mostly of the juvenile pranksters of SCC. I well remember the guy who jokingly suggested that I audition for the part of Gilda Radner with hairy armpits. Hmmm.... And what exactly was he suggesting or saying about me? Very strange. Not the kind of thing that would make a girl like me think that such a guy would ever be a friend of mine. Rather, it would make me feel rather insulted in a way. Not to insult Gilda Radner but comedy schtick is just not my thing. I never remember jokes. I forget the punch lines. And besides, the hairy armpit thing could be disastrous in real life. Was he making a commentary on my personal hygiene? Some people might actually take that seriously and imagine me all of the time wearing army boots and all the other stuff that goes along with the suggested stereotype. I already had that problem in a small way once before with the role of "Captain" in high school but once is enough. Playing the bad girl on a regular basis was not what I had planned for my life. Sure, there might have been a place for performance but I choose. It would have to be something more fitting for me and who I am, something in my own best interests.

Spot

Yes, I do remember at SCC that morning, walking from my room to the classroom via the parking lot and noticing that the sign painted on the parking lot ground had been switched from STOP to SPOT. Ha ha ha! Obviously we all learned to read by the Dick and Jane method. Of course you remember Dick and Jane and their dog Spot. "See Spot run!" "Stop, Spot! Stop!" Ha ha ha! Well, I suppose I can safely laugh because I was not involved in the gigantic prank that involved turning the parking lot into a used car lot and nobody told me anything about it. One morning there was Lynda B's car, a Honda Civic, wrapped in toilet paper with the designated price, $0. So if that is what Lynda wants to claim for herself that is her problem. Dauna later told me that Warren's car was covered with shaving cream and with the designated price of $1 million. That must be some kind of insider joke. I wasn't there so I just don't get it. All cars in the parking lot had various prices and funny slogans painted on them. Only later did Dennis boast about taking paint supplies from the school maintenance supplies to pull the Stop sign prank. We know now that their doings earned the wrath of school officials. Many people also were inconvenienced in having to stop and wash their cars before driving to work or leaving campus and the school maintenance staff had extra work to do in restoring the campus to order. So why is everyone angry with me? I didn't do anything. At least I know how to read. I can't speak for them.