Autumn Leaves

We've had a lovely streak of beautiful weather the past several days here in North Alabama, filled with blue skies, turning leaves, mid-30's at night warming to upper 60's during the day. Indeed, the air has been simply refreshing. Aside from the complete beatdown of my Auburn Tigers at the hands of LSU, it was a very nice and productive weekend. Coming back to the office today, well as I said, it was a good weekend.

Working outside yesterday, the autumn leaves fell all around me and brought immediately to mind the video clip below, that I had seen online only the day before. Consider it fodder for a light-hearted start to a busy week:


(h/t: Dave Carter)

Occupy Movement: Marshaling Their Forces

I suggested in a previous post that the fledging Occupy Movement was unlikely to have long-term staying power, as I believed it to be a marginal activist demonstration. I may be mistaken. Left to its own devices, not to mention the coming of winter, it likely would have puttered out. But according to the Washington Post today, the activists are marshaling their forces and making alliances - with the large labor unions:

Labor groups are mobilizing to provide office space, meeting rooms, photocopying services, legal help, food and other necessities to the protesters. The support is lending some institutional heft to a movement that has prided itself on its freewheeling, non-institutional character.

And in return, Occupy activists are pitching in to help unions ratchet up action against several New York firms involved in labor disputes with workers.

And apparently, they feel that they have much to offer each other:

“Our members have been trying to have this discussion about Wall Street and the economy for a long time,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in an interview. “This movement is providing us the vehicle.”

...

“We’re hoping this will inspire them to take on more militant tactics,” said Jackie DiSalvo, an Occupy Wall Street organizer who has been coordinating with labor. “The fact that they’re willing to support more militant tactics might mean that they’re willing to start doing more.”

...

“Now is this rare opportunity for labor unions, and especially the union leadership, to take some pointers,” Ide said, adding that unions should consider the civil-disobedience approach taken by Occupy demonstrations. “The whole Zuccotti Park thing is quasi-legal,” he said. “Unions, we have to obey the law. But sometimes it’s time to think outside the box.”

Both groups operate under the notion that the taxpayers and the wealthy owe them something. Again, it is about the attitude of entitlement. Frankly, I am a little surprised at just how transparent and forthcoming some of the quotes in this article actually are: "militant", "civil disobedience", "outside the box" [meaning outside the law].

So where do things go from here? One possibility is that this alliance will backfire and further reduce the standing of each entity in the public eye as the protests become more disruptive to people's lives. I also believe that we may be in for at least 12-14 months of civil and economic disruption, to include rioting and violence all the way through and past next year's presidential election.

I wasn't alive during the 60's to witness the great generational period of unrest America experienced. But the chances are increasing that history is about to repeat itself.

My fear is this: How will the nation respond when (or if) the Occupy Movement and the unions eventually resort to lawbreaking and violence?

And you thought our country was divided before.

Quandry

The 2011 edition of the World Series starts tonight, featuring the National League Wild-Card St. Louis Cardinals against the A.L. West Division Champion Texas Rangers.

I'm a Cubs guy, through and through. Which means it goes against my very nature to pull for the Cardinals. But I am also a National League guy, and thus I am disinclined to pull for the Rangers.

If it weren't St. Louis, I could probably find a way to be impartial and just enjoy the series. Or I suppose I could just ignore it and watch football.

Cards vs. Rangers. This is a quandry I cannot resolve.

Carina, Carina

Simply beautiful. Another stunning image from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. According to the image caption, the Carina Nebula is "a star-forming region in the Sagittarius-Carina arm of the Milky Way that is 7,500 light years from Earth." The Observatory has detected more than 14,000 stars in that particular region. Click image to enlarge.

National Entropy

"It is a wise man who plants a tree under the shade of which he knows he will never sit."

I came across the above quote in an article published months ago in ESPN Magazine about the poisoned trees on Toomer's Corner in Auburn. I've tried to hunt down its origins, but so far I have only found non-authoritative sources suggesting that it comes from a Greek proverb.

The figurative notion it conveys is nothing new, and is one that applies in so many of life's active arenas. It is a matter of generational legacy: what values, what faith, what freedom, what ideals are we passing down to our children? Is the foundation eroding underneath us inevitable, can it be prevented, and do we even care? As a society, there's plenty of doom and gloom to go around, and it seems certain that tomorrow will look different from today even as much as today is far different from yesterday. It takes focused, controlled energy to counter entropy. In physics, disorder is more probable than order. Time will tell if this is true of us as a nation as well.

Protesters Stand with Jesus?

To be honest, I haven't given much thought to this so-called protest movement called Occupy Wall Street. To me, it just seems to be another flavor-of-the-month rally that attracts mostly those who want to rail against capitalism, rich people, and government. In the past, such protests usually include elements and/or organizations with Marxist or socialist agendas, and thus are typically less likely to include those who truly hail from freedom-loving America. Generally speaking, folks have the right to protest in the name of whatever they choose, and whether I agree with them or not, I can live and let live.

But there are those who, if you'll pardon the irony, try to capitalize on the opportunity presented when a bunch of easily impressionable people take to the streets to protest. Far too many of these protesters are out there, without any reason or principle driving them other than it seems like a cool thing to do. These people rail on about things they don't understand, chanting phrases and slogans from the 60's, and issuing demands for whatever it is they feel entitled to. And that is the essential element: entitlement. Demands for free college education, demands for jobs, demands for free health insurance, demands to tax the rich guy, demands for fairness; all these are ripe for manipulation by socialists and Marxists. The political left considers Occupy Wall Street a legitimate uprising, while the Tea Party (which has been far more demonstrably civil and representative, in my opinion, of the American middle) is labeled as extremist. But again, if people want to be pawns, that's their choice. Live and let live.

Where I do get some heartburn, however, is when those elements of the Church who lean heavily on liberation theology attempt to imply that protest movements like Occupy Wall Street "stand with Jesus." Jim Wallis, posting at Sojourners, serves as an example. (Sojourners is a publication group formed in 1971 to "articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world." I read their material every now and then, although I rarely find myself in full agreement.)

In a recent post, Mr. Wallis wrote the following:

We will likely see images and hear things from Occupy Wall Street demonstrators that will offend us and some that will inspire.

We’ll hear demands that we agree with and some that we don’t.

And that’s OK.

The Occupy Wall Street protests make some people nervous, while others scratch their heads, and more than a few grab their sleeping bags and join in.

There is a lot of speculation as to who the "Occupiers" are and what they might accomplish. There is much I still don’t know about the movement, but undeniably it has caught the imagination of a generation -- and that matters.

Here are a few things I do know about the Occupy Wall Street protesters:

When they stand with the poor, they stand with Jesus.

When they stand with the hungry, they stand with Jesus.

When they stand for those without a job or a home, they stand with Jesus.

When they are peaceful, nonviolent, and love their neighbors (even the ones they don’t agree with and who don’t agree with them), they are walking as Jesus walked.

When they talk about holding banks and corporations accountable, they sound like Jesus and the biblical prophets before him, who all spoke about holding the wealthy and powerful accountable.

Pray for those out on the streets.

Where to begin? First, Jesus did not come to this planet to provide a path to social justice. He came to save sinners from eternal separation from God Almighty, to provide a path to redemption and sanctification and everlasting life. Jesus did not take to the streets to protest governments, or demand entitlements from Rome for His chosen people, Israel. There is only one type of person who can "stand with Jesus" - the one who professes Jesus Christ as Lord, descended from Heaven, risen from the dead.

The one who "stands with the poor" does not necessarily stand with Jesus. What good does it do for us to take to the streets with our wallets, our cars parked in a paid parking deck, cellphones logged into Twitter, demanding that the rich and powerful provide for the poor? Would it not be better to serve quietly, where the truly poor are, be it through ministries in the church or local charities? You are not likely to find the "poor" online and following social media on their cell phones.

The one who "stands with the hungry" does not necessarily stand with Jesus. Mr. Wallis suggests that we the Church should go out to the streets, visit with the protesters, and take THEM food. Are you kidding me? You want to stand with the hungry, then feed those that are truly starving. That is one of the more important roles of the Church - it does little good for us to take to the streets and demand that the government or the rich feed the hungry. If you have means, and passion to serve, work through your church and just do it. Standing on Wall Street holding a sign does absolutely nothing for the hungry.

The one who "stands for those without a job or a home" does not necessarily stand with Jesus. We are entitled to nothing in this world. Nothing. Neither the rich nor the government owes us anything. At all. In economic hard times, people lose jobs and sometimes lose their homes. It can indeed be tragic. But sitting on the street demanding that the rich and the government give people jobs and homes accomplishes nothing. Can the church help those who are unemployed and homeless? Of course we can. But we would be better served - and blessed - if we actually helped them, as opposed to protesting as if the world owed us something. Because the world owes us nothing - and if you haven't figured that out yet, it is time to grow up.

As far as Mr. Wallis' comment about those that are "peaceful, nonviolent, and love their neighbors," guess what, I don't have much argument with that. But to walk as Jesus walked takes more than being civil and kind to others: Philippians 2:1-11.

But then he says that those who "talk about holding banks and corporations accountable, they sound like Jesus," he loses me again. Jesus and the prophets did not talk about holding the wealthy and powerful accountable - not in the sense that Mr. Wallis claims. Everything Jesus preached on this matter had to do with 1) the individual's tendency to place greater value in material things than in spiritual things, and 2) taking issue with the teachers of the law, the religious leaders of Judaism who had been corrupted by power and money. Jesus did not rail against the Romans - although many among Jesus' followers desperately wanted him to lead a protest-based rebellion against Rome. What Mr. Wallis ascribes to Jesus is precisely what Jesus did not do. Jesus did not call for the wealthy and powerful to be accountable to the people. He called them - and all of us - to be accountable to God. Jesus was there to save men's souls - not to foment a populist rebellion or to establish an earthly kingdom that provided material equality and benefits and justice to everyone. Such a kingdom is one made in man's image, not one that proceeds from the throne of Heaven.

Perhaps there are pockets of people on these streets who are truly gathered in Jesus' name. And if so, without doubt the Holy Spirit would be present. But to ascribe alignment to Christ by those who may not acknowledge His Name, but who only profess to "stand" with the poor, hungry and jobless is false. This doesn't necessarily make them bad people, nor does it make their ideals suspect. Anybody can be good and stand for good things. But standing for good things doesn't equate to standing with Christ. It very much comes down to motive, and I know for certain that I can claim no special knowledge to what drives these people to these protests. But as 1 Samuel 16:7 says, "… for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

With apologies to Mr. Wallis, standing with Christ is a far higher, and a far more transformative standard than what his observations suggest.