It All Depends

I do not recall saying that I would not or should not pay my fair share under a given set of circumstances. It all depends. But Eric is wrong to imagine that I am Dutch. Am I my cousin's mother? No, obviously not. I imagine that those are the words you were trying to extract from me, but talk is cheap. You people ought to put the money where your mouth is. All these words have no value. It's just cheap chatter that occupies too much brain space. Now if I could just trade all this excess verbiage for dollars, then I would have to something to spend. Then I could really say, "Shopping mall, here I come." But anyway, talk is cheap.

The Prince

Which reminds of a best forgotten episode of family history in which my Dad's cousin Suzanne, in voyaging around the world, was briefly engaged to some sort of Oriental prince she met somewhere in Asia, in Nepal or thereabouts. I was not in the country at the time and don't remember anything about that except maybe seeing a newspaper clipping. It was very embarrassing for all concerned when the Prince called to say he would not be attending the wedding and the wedding presents had to be returned. We do not want to hear another peep out of those people, obviously. They probably have a lot of money and political influence to make our lives miserable but we are not Suzanne and we are not impressed with their rotten attitude, obviously.

Dreams and Visions

Although I was never aware of the existence of the "Theosophical Outlook" until recently and as a general rule never have time for the "National Enquirer," there being so many more important things to read and think about in the whole scheme of things, still I believe that there is no reason to doubt the eyewitness accounts listed in the review of the book by Colonel Gardiner regarding "The Visions of Mons." Certainly, there were enough similarities in the stories to assume that possibly some supernatural phenomenon may have been manifested on the battlefields of World War I, an event now receded nearly one hundred years into the past, even if the evidence is purely anecdotal. The scary part is the idea that one gets that perhaps many of the persons who experienced these visions died there on the battlefield and only a handful survived to tell the tale. Thus, while I agree that there probably are spiritual forces at work on battlefields, I have not much desire to learn more about that. Internet sources indicate that I could drive several hundred miles to read this book available only in a library in another state, but why bother? It's just not that important to me. I am not unaware of the place of the "National Enquirer" at supermarket checkout stands, but why clutter my brain with all that irrelevant trivia? It's just not that important to me.

Distant Cousins

It is vaguely interesting to note that some distant cousins of ours, the grandchildren of Tim Barth in Northern California, have ended up with the surname Israel. I cannot imagine how that could have happened as no one in our family is Jewish and we are all Christians, completely sold out to Christ, with one or two exceptions. As far as we are concerned, this present age is the kingdom of God and of His Christ, and if you cannot accept Christ as your Messiah then you really have no place trying to order us around and telling us what to think when you really do not represent anything that we believe and hold dear. We feel sorry for you because you are spiritually blind and lack the true understanding of the light of Christ but we feel that if you cannot cooperate with us on the basis of polite society rules of the U.S.A. then, well, you could always emigrate to Israel, a place where you can play by Israeli rules. Here in the U.S.A. we have no establishment of government-sponsored religion and thus we do not want to be hearing from you through the podium of politicians and politically radicalized pastors who are not related to us and don't really understand who we are. We are not against you but if you are continually antagonizing us then you make it impossible for us to help you understand the stark reality that our family is actually not holding a secret pot of money. I don't understand where these jokes come form. There is always the mail if you really have something intelligent to say to us.

Horrid Sherri

Of course we all know that Sherri Turnbull is the most horrid despicably obnoxious mentally retarded big mouth on the planet. She had to adopt mentally retarded children so that at last she could find someone actually dumber than herself to talk to. What a horrible excuse for missionary kid is the hideous Sherri of Panama, that land of pretentious nasty missionaries who take the cake for being too big for their own britches, to borrow a saying, as everyone else already knows about the worthless swamp known as Panama. Just returning the favor, not that I know what her problem is. I really couldn't care less what those drunken dogs thinks about anything.

Anglo vs. Saxon

If you have done the genealogical research then you will know that my great-great-grandfather was born in Saxony, also called Sachsen, a province of Germany. He was maybe three years old when his family immigrated to America in 1850. His three sons were memorialized as church-going citizens.

• Elmer Barth: Trinity United Methodist Church.
• Jesse Louis Barth: Market Street Presbyterian Church.
• David Allen Barth (my great-grandfather): Christian and Missionary Alliance Church

Of course, we know that our great-grandfather was originally Methodist before turning Pentecostal and later CMA but anyway only one church is mentioned in an obituary. I suppose that for the sake of argumentation, one could jest that if great-grandfather were to join the Anglican church he might pass for Anglo-Saxon, but that would only be a joke of sorts, albeit a rather belabored and awkward, even downright mean joke at that. Perhaps some creative person might even find some unique way to frame this "Anglo-Saxon" joke. Who would that person be? It does make you wonder.

Past Conversations

I vaguely seem to remember having this conversation at some time in the past with someone whose identity I cannot quite recall, something about how we should not be too hard on those poor simple-minded Chinese Pentecostals whose views of the Trinity are not exactly Orthodox because lots of Christians are not exactly Orthodox for various reasons. Like, for example, anyone who is not Anglican is not an Orthodox Christian. Huh? Wrong! Actually, lots of Orthodox Christians are not Anglicans. Lots of Orthodox Christians are non-conforming in the Anglican sense of confirmation and yet wholeheartedly adhere to the basic Christian tenets set forth in the Nicean Creed. Anyway, the true invisible church, the Bride of Christ, is not synonymous with any particular human institution, much as we may pride ourselves in the achievements of our particular institutions. So there was no reason for you to try to dump me in the Anglican bucket. I have met people who were Anglicans back in school days, and they certainly are opinionated people as I recall, but anyway we all are entitled to our opinions and we all believe ourselves to be at the center of God's will and everyone else in non-conformity typically. The only Anglicans I ever met at SCC were my sister's roommates Jill Anderson and Linda Harrington. Other than that I really don't remember who was saying that, although Sherri Turnbull is certainly very opinionated as I recall. Maybe Sherri knows more about this Anglican stuff than I do.