Blog on the Lillypad
Saturday, August 30, 2003
 | Cruel Irony: The Disappearance and Death of Madalyn Murray O'Hair
A&E aired a Bill Kurtiss documentary on the murder of Madalyn Murray O'Hair last night. It is a sad story, yet it is filled with incredible ironies. There's no doubt, in reviewing O'Hair's public comments and treatment of others, that she was an atheist in the model of Mark Twain, an atheist roaring at God and telling Him He does not exist, reminding Him of all His fallacies. There are real atheists. I read papers by Russian scientists when I worked for Savannah River Site, and they were hard working men, but their ethic really was one of working to serve the state. They did not pray; they did not trust themselves to God even when Chernobyl blew up; they simply did not have that reference point, and they regarded the faith of others as a curiosity or a footnote of interest. They lacked the anger and rage of an American born atheist, and I would assume that is because most of the American atheists who rage and storm and get on front pages are not atheists at all. They are people angry at God. This is what O'Hair seemed to be. She zeroed in most of her rage against Christians. |
She was, apparently, controlling of all those around her. She seems to have demanded a high work ethic from herself as well as from others, and I do respect that she advocated education for everybody even if they had to be self taught. In that one point of virtue, she probably found the credibility for her own beleifs---a person has to make his or her future, and most people are smarter than they give themselves credit for and can go further by means of hard work. I think she tried to be true to these ideas and missed her own blind spots.
 | The first tremendous irony occurred in the 1980's when her eldest son became an Evangelical Christian--the other extreme from mama! He became a Bible-reading, salvation through Christ alone, shouting Baptist. She tried to psycho-analyze his conversion and then later disowned him because he dared to be a separate person. "One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of a mother, I guess; I repudiate him entirely and completely for now and all times...He is beyond human forgiveness." [O'Hair, qtd by Lona Manning at http://crimemagazine.com/ohair.htm] As for her son Bill, he had remarked earlier that she would surely sever all ties with him. |
O'Hair relied on her younger son John and grand daughter Robin to fulfill executive roles in her American Atheists group. They were secretive about money, even from employees. They hated the IRS and they considered the FBI to be far too powerful, an intrusive arm of the government. They did not pay taxes. John sometimes shouted at his mother, used profanity, and often humiliated staff workers. Robin did the same but to a lesser extent. O'Hair did not expect them to behave any other way, apparently. She controlled American Atheists with an iron hand and held power close to her vest.
The three of them went missing in 1995, and there were enough indications that they might have just taken the money and run to New Zealand to ensure that nobody really thought that harm had come to them. It turns out that a former worker at American Atheists who was a small time crook and had been fired for embezzlement, had worked with two other small time crooks to kidnap them and whisk them away to a small motel room in Austin where he held them in comparative comfort while they gave him the numbers, passwords, etc. to empty all the American Atheist financial accounts and run up huge debts on the O'Hair's personal credit cards. There was no sign they ever tried to escape, and the unrealistic John actually had some clear opportunities to make a call for help and never did. He even flew with the head bad guy to Jersey to get money out of an account. Best guess is that he did not think they would be killed or else he was unrealistic enough and cocky enough to think he could outwit his captors.
There is some suggestion that Madelyn, at least, may have been brutalized before she was killed. But if she was, law enforcement officials point to other financial accounts that she did not give up. So she went to her end with her loud, obnoxious courage undaunted, or so it appears. The bodies of the three of them were taken out to a desolate ranch, burned, cut apart, and buried. One of the men who was in on the plot apparently was remorseful over what they had done. So the other two killed him. They threw his head and feet in with the other remains and then left his body in a different location.
Another irony is that after the case was followed almost all of the way by a reporter and a private detective, the FBI got into it and finished it up. Then the IRS got into it and assisted. These two goverment agencies that the O'Hairs hated so much actually saw the matter through to the end and would not quit until they had found the bodies. Representatives from both agencies also attended the funerals. Their reason was that nobody, no matter what they had done, should have died like that.
| And, of course, the crowning irony was that eldest son Bill, the evangelical Christian, was custodian of his mother's remains. He had all three bodies buried near each other. Keeping her wishes honored, no prayers were said. But her son recognized that prayers at that late date were too late anyway. And that was the end of Madelyn Murray O'Hair. Her death went unnoticed even by those who worked for her. She was mourned by the people she made her enemies; her final wishes were honored by a son she despised. A profound sense of the ironic, I think, is something we should not refuse to see in the Providence of God. |  |
Addendum added Sept 1, 2003: This from a poster named acribos on the Fighting Fundamentalist Forum: "Came across a story about 3 years ago that was a further ironic postscript. The IRS went after Ohair for back taxes owed on her house posthumously. Being dead, she was not able to pay them, of course. So they confiscated her belongings and auctioned them off to meet the tax bill. The proceeds from the auction were a pitance, but the one item that recieved the highest bid (about $200) was a Bible that a girls Sunday School class in Dallas TX had given her -- probably was in mint condition. ...The article may have been in World magazine."
For more info about this case: You can read a more complete account of MMO's disappearance and death at The Murder of Madalyn Murray O'Hair: America's Most Hated Woman
| More Trigger Point Massage and Other Dorsal Adventures
Well, I got my legs all nicely shaved and went to the massage therapist. As I have said elsewhere, trigger point massage is not like the images of massage that you see in movies. Picture 35 minutes of slow agony where my obligation is to remember to breathe (and try not to cuss or cry). Thee is no doubt that I have improved under the last six weeks of therapy, but these unusual trigger points in my mid back, called "erector muscles" (and if you are a man reading this, I hasten to say that erector muscles hold the torso upright, and that's all they do, so STOP SNICKERING.) and "intercostals" are the continuing culprits. Using my inversion table has really helped all my other back problems (and they were legion) but the trigger points continue. |  |
Afterwards, I stopped at the Fresh Market and---oh joy to nerds---I found bunched radishes with their tops. I bought two bunches for juicing, but I have learned my lessons and will drink the radish juice quite sparingly! Also got some beets with tops for juicing as I am sceduled to go code red at any time, and fresh beet juice is a wonderful aid for all "women's complaints."
 | SO I came home, had more turkey tacos for lunch (um um um!) and got on the inversion table for twenty minutes. I spent a few minutes directly upside down, but most of the time was spenta few degrees short of that, just relaxing. Time to work on an audio drama! I am pleased that after THREE attempts, I have completed TWO OF A KIND (scheduled to debut in audio on Sept 5) and will now begin HOUNDS AND HARES. |
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An Amazing Conversation on the Fighting Fundamentalist Forum | |
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Browsing, a godly man on the FFF, posed this series of questions yesterday:
And since I started it, I'll answer the questions first... What's your thots gentlemen? (And ladies, feel free to chime in if your wish) ================== browsing |
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A fairly new poster named WOW responded this way: Is any of this true? I hope you've done your homework. |
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So browsing replied with this: Why do you ask? |
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And WOW gave this cryptic answer: I ask because I want to know if you made this up to get some talk on the forums or if you know of a man who did this. |
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Browsing responded with clear logic: What difference would it make to you one way or another? If it's made up or if I know of someone, so what? Are you saying you don't want to answer the questions? |
Of course, by this time about half a dozen of us had already answered the question with our opinions, taking it in the way it was presented---a hypothetical question. And obviously we agreed that such a man could not hold church office and ought to be in jail---at the very least. But WOW's odd replies (to a question he could have just ignored) prompted me to break into the thread with this:
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From me: As soon as I opened your latest post, my screen got all misty with condensation or something. I tried to wipe it off, but the moisture is on the other side of the screen, the side that faces the internet---and your post. The only thing I can conclude is that you must be sweating a lot, WOW. It came through your post. Is it hot down in Florida? Are you agitated about something? Nervous or anything? Scared of the war on terror? Scared of anything? Just concerned, but man that sweat is a dead giveaway. |
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WOW then gave this guarded answer:
Scared of nothing. Am not afraid to answer questions. My answers: I have some questions for you browsing: Do you know of a man who has done this??? You don't have to tell who the man is. Is he in jail??? Has he been put to death??? And most important question, What is your purpose for this post??? |
Of course, if you read between the lines, there is an allowance there that if such a man stayed in the ministry and DID NOT FAIL, then God may have given him a second chance. You also see that WOW is supposing much mor strongly than browsing is that a very real person who has done this very thing does exist.
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Browsing in his calm way replied: Know of several men who have done this, or a variation thereof. A couple, for example are in jail. A few are merely waiting their turn. My purpose was to elicit answers. I thank you for yours. ================== --browsing |
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WOW then excused his mysterious defensiveness: I hope I didn't offend you with my questions. I am trying to be careful about anything I read and respond to. I was not trying to be difficult. My wife says I don't have to try very hard though. :D :D :D :D |
By the end of this mysterious exchange, I'm sure I wasn'tthe only one scratching my head. We all raise hypothetical questions all the time on the forums and see how we apply scripture to them. Usually the person who raises the question is not cross-questioned on why he or she tossed out a topic for discussion. Yet browsing's question prompted this cross-questioning from WOW and as far as I recall, it also provoked the long, mysterious, ridiculous defense from The Equalizer on how a pastor can stay in office no matter how immoral his actions are because everybody is a sinner, and therefore a congregation does not have the right to remove him from church office. Sometimes on the FFF, you have to ask, "Are you a partof my confused view of what's going on? Or have I dropped into your confused point of view?"
Friday, August 29, 2003
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Another fast ended I started fasting yesterday just because I didn't want to put it off to mid-day today and go into the weekend. Broke the 24-hour fast tonight with what I have been daydreaming about the most while fasting---turkey tacos with soft wraps and lots of diced tomatos. I ate four of them in rapid succession. And I had a Smith's Nut Brown Ale, because I could not find an Old Brewery Pale Ale. Then I visited my inversion table, performed some other health chores, and finally stretched out in front of the TV for almost two hours. I don't do that enough---just lie there and do nothing, and learning to do nothing has been a part of my recovery regarding my back. Some creatures do nothing very well, and they do it with astounding grace. |
Tomorrow I see the trigger point massage therapist at 9:30. That means I have to remember to shave my legs first thing. With all my back problems, that's a major event! I had my second major back crisis three months ago while doing just that. Threw out the fifth lumbar about as far as it could go and couldn't move for a week. $1500 dollars later, I shave my legs with great care!
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Thanks for the quote, Father Ted Over on the Fighting Fundamentalist Forums, "The Equalizer" is on the Berean Baptist forum, arguing that a pastor who has committed immorality cannnot be removed from office because everybody is a sinner. In spite of several Scripture passages that teach that the elders must be blameless and give strict standards of who can and cannot hold church office, The Equalizer (without expressly saying so) keeps defending the position that any man in church office can do as he likes. I was pulling up all kinds of verses to show that John the Baptist rejected the Pharisees from baptism because their repentance lacked any genuine evidence, that Paul warns that immoral men in church office are deceivers appointed to destruction, etc. Finally, as none of it worked, I just quoted Father Ted's famous (and hilarious) question to Dougal at him. |
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Beware of Peeing frogs So today at work I was very charmed by the brilliant green tree frog that made itself comfortable on the wall outside the restroom trailer. I came by a few times to see him. He was happy ina shady spot on the damp wall. Another woman and I started talking about him, and she was as fascinated with him as I was. I told her about the songs that the little tree frogs sing, and we looked at him closely enough to see him breathe. Then this other girl came right up and grabbed him (or tried to). I told her just to leave him in peace because he was fine where he was. So then she tried again to catch hold of him. He got agitated and actually jumped on her blouse at the shoulder in front, and then as she tried to scoop him off, he peed all the way down her shirt and arm. Then he leaped away to another part of the wall and stuck there effortlessly. |
I get so annoyed at people who have to possess the wonders around us. But some of the wonders pee, and that evens the score at times.
Belief-O-Matic
Take the quiz! There is an online quiz to help you determine which church/religion you would be most comfortable with. It's called Belief-O-Matic
I took the quiz and to my amazement turned out to be 100% Orthodox Quaker. Quaker? Me? Nonsense. My next highest score was Conservative Christian, which is far closer to the reality.
Take the quiz! There is an online quiz to help you determine which church/religion you would be most comfortable with. It's called Belief-O-Matic
I took the quiz and to my amazement turned out to be 100% Orthodox Quaker. Quaker? Me? Nonsense. My next highest score was Conservative Christian, which is far closer to the reality.
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Return of the frog I found a frog at work today. He's a bright but pale green tree frog who has decided that the wall of one of the trailers is just about like a tree. Anyway, it's good enough to stick to. He sticks to the wall just under an outside light. I suppose he hopes to catch any unwary bugs that bumble close enough to the glowing light. I was delighted to see him. I have missed the little mascot that used to live under the sidewalk just outside my own office trailer. |
Thursday, August 28, 2003
No Comments, but send e-mail
So feel free to drop me a line! But finding little thumbnail pictures and coming up with brief essays are taking up my blog time. I will pass on installing comment fields! (At least for now!)
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I've had requests that I put up comment rights for readers. And Secret Radio has now added comments (plus a few new episodes if you're following the continuing story). However, I decided against adding comments. If you want to get into the free-for-all debates and discussions regarding the rampant corruption in the pulpits of IFB-KJVO Fundamentalism, follow the link to the right to the Fighting Fundamentalist forum. Or you can e-mail me directly at jeriwho@pipeline.com. Otherwise, I'm more interested in conveying the ideas in this blog than in halting the writing process to converse about it. Besides, this blog is being hit by between 25-40 visitors a day, and I'm sure some of my guests find what I write very annoying! I'll deal with them in the FFF and save my blog time for blogging. |
So feel free to drop me a line! But finding little thumbnail pictures and coming up with brief essays are taking up my blog time. I will pass on installing comment fields! (At least for now!)
Planes descending over me
"It's not going to crash?" I asked him as it seemed to skim over the wide lot and then past the trees and out of sight.
"No, he's making a descent, but he's level," he said over the roar. Just then two new waves of roaring engines drowned us out again, and two more C-130's, slightly higher in altitude, followed their leader and swiftly disappeared over the horizon of trees on the other side of the lot.
"They're going to Fort Bragg," he told me. "Ninety miles away." He told me he had no idea why they'd come down that low, but they were flying just fine. "Kids like to see planes fly by that close," he told me in a slightly advisory way.
"I gave up being a kid decades ago," I told him. But I thanked him for explaining it to me. My knees shook all the way home.
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Today on the long walk from the office trailers to the gravel parking lot, I heard an ear splitting roar and became afraid. It was positively deafening. I look around, and just over the trees, bursting onto the scene like something in a badly filmed movie, a C-130 came soaring down, descending rapidly. I have never been so close to a plane in flight in all my life. It was huge! And loud, and it came right over the trees, smoke streaming from its engines in little ribbons of brown. I'm sorry that the first words out of my mouth were neither prayer nor praise. I thought he was going to crash. A man who walking to his car behind me told me not to be afraid; the plane is so huge that it was higher up than it appeared. |  |
"It's not going to crash?" I asked him as it seemed to skim over the wide lot and then past the trees and out of sight.
"No, he's making a descent, but he's level," he said over the roar. Just then two new waves of roaring engines drowned us out again, and two more C-130's, slightly higher in altitude, followed their leader and swiftly disappeared over the horizon of trees on the other side of the lot.
"They're going to Fort Bragg," he told me. "Ninety miles away." He told me he had no idea why they'd come down that low, but they were flying just fine. "Kids like to see planes fly by that close," he told me in a slightly advisory way.
"I gave up being a kid decades ago," I told him. But I thanked him for explaining it to me. My knees shook all the way home.
My literary background
A poster onthe FFF writes, "So I know you are an author...what is your literary background?"
Blackout
We had a blackout yesterday. I got home and none of the electric clocks were working, and the VCR had to be reprogrammed. Please Lord, don't let Shearon Harris blow up, I prayed. My cable service has gone out, and I don't know when it will be restored.
Headhunters in business suits
Had another call from a different headhunter yesterday, for a job with Glaxo. But the contract house seems like a body shop. So I'm not sure how to proceed with them. They are, however, on-site at Glaxo.
Four categories of blogs
Spent some time surfing blogs, but most blogs are really awful. I'm breaking them down into the following categories: (worst) poetry blogs. Some poor soul writes, all in lower case:
blond hair cold eyes remote soul
oh gonna lose me in dark vistas
what we had died young
Aaack! Then she (or he) has a link that says, "Click here to read more of my poetry." Thanks, I think I'll stick my tongue down a garbage disposal instead. There was also a page where the blogger insists that writing haiku is easy, and he/she writes one every day. I was tempted to respond that writing lousy haiku is easy, but writing good haiku that hits the reader with an impact is difficult. However, I refrained.
Third are the blogs that are more like journals or info sources. They just track articles onthe web. Some are really just tracking services with links, and others offer commentaries as well as links to articles.
Finally, there are the readable blogs, which are written by a wide variety of people. Some have horrible grammar and worse spelling, but the good ones always hit the joy of life or keen observation notes, even if they lack in other qualities. It's amazing that if a person has something to say, the reader can forgive a lot of hindrances in the style, mechanics, etc. But I do notice that when a person has something to say, the Gen-X (or whatever it is) habit of writing in all lower case with almost no punctuation is dropped. A person who has something to say seems to do his or her best to say it as clearly as possible, so that others will comprehend.
A poster onthe FFF writes, "So I know you are an author...what is your literary background?"
 | Hmmm, I come from the Acme School of Ray Guns and Spaceship Design. Well, that wouldn't be an appropriate answer. In truth, I come from the Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Doctor Who, CS Lewis College of "Always include a Fight Scene". Except Lewis didn't always include a fight scene. I suppose the most accurate truth is that I write adventure stories. But I got so fed up with how stupid, insipid, and downright untrue most published Christian Fiction is that I made my life's work a story about what it's really like to be a Christian (and okay, there are fight scenes in it). So in this string of spaceship adventure stories I have one memorable contemporary story, VALKYRIES. Moody Press saw it on the web and bought it from me.
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Blackout
We had a blackout yesterday. I got home and none of the electric clocks were working, and the VCR had to be reprogrammed. Please Lord, don't let Shearon Harris blow up, I prayed. My cable service has gone out, and I don't know when it will be restored.
Headhunters in business suits
Had another call from a different headhunter yesterday, for a job with Glaxo. But the contract house seems like a body shop. So I'm not sure how to proceed with them. They are, however, on-site at Glaxo.
Four categories of blogs
Spent some time surfing blogs, but most blogs are really awful. I'm breaking them down into the following categories: (worst) poetry blogs. Some poor soul writes, all in lower case:
blond hair cold eyes remote soul
oh gonna lose me in dark vistas
what we had died young
Aaack! Then she (or he) has a link that says, "Click here to read more of my poetry." Thanks, I think I'll stick my tongue down a garbage disposal instead. There was also a page where the blogger insists that writing haiku is easy, and he/she writes one every day. I was tempted to respond that writing lousy haiku is easy, but writing good haiku that hits the reader with an impact is difficult. However, I refrained.
 | The next most common type of blog I have found is teen angst (or twenty-something angst), and these are nearly as bad as the poetry blogs. I did read one account, which as far as I can determine was meant to be taken seriously, by a young man who writes that a girl at work told him she would date him but she cannot get past his weird name. Then another girl who he had dated splits for Chicago with a guy friend of his but assures him it's just because she needed a ride to Chicago, and they aren't doing anything. ("I think I can trust her," he writes.) Then while she's gone, he gets his mother's insurance agent to fix him up with a girl who tells him right off the bat that she's seeing somebody. So his latest post laments that in his short life he will probably never get a woman. I did wonder if this was actually an artfully done blog designed to be really, really funny. But overall, my conclusion is that no, it's just the blog of a hapless guy who keeps striking out.
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Third are the blogs that are more like journals or info sources. They just track articles onthe web. Some are really just tracking services with links, and others offer commentaries as well as links to articles.
Finally, there are the readable blogs, which are written by a wide variety of people. Some have horrible grammar and worse spelling, but the good ones always hit the joy of life or keen observation notes, even if they lack in other qualities. It's amazing that if a person has something to say, the reader can forgive a lot of hindrances in the style, mechanics, etc. But I do notice that when a person has something to say, the Gen-X (or whatever it is) habit of writing in all lower case with almost no punctuation is dropped. A person who has something to say seems to do his or her best to say it as clearly as possible, so that others will comprehend.
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
 | Fundy-Rama
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Breaking the fast
Well, a cup of coffee helped settle things back into my unhealthy routine. I actually ate another banana. Now there's nothing left but cornbread, but I am not hungry. I'll take the cornbread home, maybe freeze it for the end of the next fast. Tonight I plan to have my standby of stir fry and a Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale.
Frugal Muse
Here's a blog I like: Frugal Muse
The young lady writing it obviously has a lot of gusto and enthusiasm. She openly asks for information on resting one day a week, so I will plan to write to her tonight. These beautiful human beings are my reminders of that grace that we talk about (some of us) but never expect to see outside of our little circles that we carefully construct. Every life is made in the image of God. Every life is precious and sacred. I am stunned at how callously I over ride those considerations day to day. And I am horrified at how others, including those in pulpits, are even more coarse, hostile, and unconcerned than I am.
So this amiable little lamb who wants to get a tattoo for her birthday cocks her head at me (in virtual time) and says, "Why do you keep a Sabbath?" And I want to tell her that Christ is my rest, and explain how wonderful that is. He has ordained that His perfect Gospel is imparted by imperfect people. Hence we pray for a more perfect knowledge of Him, so that He will speak through us and guide our actions.
Rebecca Anderson (Ra)
Here's another Blog I like: http://rjanderson.blogspot.com/
So then the Doctor and his companion reach the bottom of the tunnel and spend the whole night talking and then come back up and return to the TARDIS. And that was the end of the story.
Well, a cup of coffee helped settle things back into my unhealthy routine. I actually ate another banana. Now there's nothing left but cornbread, but I am not hungry. I'll take the cornbread home, maybe freeze it for the end of the next fast. Tonight I plan to have my standby of stir fry and a Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale.
Frugal Muse
Here's a blog I like: Frugal Muse
The young lady writing it obviously has a lot of gusto and enthusiasm. She openly asks for information on resting one day a week, so I will plan to write to her tonight. These beautiful human beings are my reminders of that grace that we talk about (some of us) but never expect to see outside of our little circles that we carefully construct. Every life is made in the image of God. Every life is precious and sacred. I am stunned at how callously I over ride those considerations day to day. And I am horrified at how others, including those in pulpits, are even more coarse, hostile, and unconcerned than I am.
So this amiable little lamb who wants to get a tattoo for her birthday cocks her head at me (in virtual time) and says, "Why do you keep a Sabbath?" And I want to tell her that Christ is my rest, and explain how wonderful that is. He has ordained that His perfect Gospel is imparted by imperfect people. Hence we pray for a more perfect knowledge of Him, so that He will speak through us and guide our actions.
Rebecca Anderson (Ra)
Here's another Blog I like: http://rjanderson.blogspot.com/
| Rebecca Anderson is a Christian woman and a very good writer. She used to write Doctor Who stories, and I have almost forgiven her for the story in which the Doctor and a companion trek down to the bottom of a long, dark archeological dig on foot, carrying torches as their only light. I was ready for a brand new creature of Rebecca's devising, but the narrative kept going and the conversation never turned to inexplicable deaths or gruesome remains. I decided that whatever was lurking for a chance to seize them was a recurring Doctor Who villain, like Cybermen or Daleks or maybe even the Master. |  |
So then the Doctor and his companion reach the bottom of the tunnel and spend the whole night talking and then come back up and return to the TARDIS. And that was the end of the story.
 | I was so mad! Poor Rebecca was surely amazed at the tremendous scolding I gave her via e-mail. To pacify my indignation, Rebecca later introduced a character named Jerin whose only role was to pursue the Doctor and try to blow him up. I also designed a gentle, gray and white furry creature named RA who devotedly befriends one of the good characters in Blood-Dimmed Tide but always thinks him a little foolish because he says too many things. |
Radish Lessons
I learned something today: The Juicing Book says that radish juice serves the following purposes:
Actually, the list should read this way:
Some things you have to learn by experience. I will cut down on the amount of radish juice in future.
To break the fast, I ran down to the grocery. They did not have those instant rice soups. So I got chicken salad, two banannas, a Power Bar, and a bag of chips. Oh, way to go for good health! Yes I *do* feel a little sick at this moment.
I learned something today: The Juicing Book says that radish juice serves the following purposes:
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Decongestant Anti-arthritic Antibiotic (mild) Anti-spasmodic Laxative |
Actually, the list should read this way:
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Laxative Decongestant Laxative Anti-arthritic Laxative Antibiotic (mild) Laxative Anti-spasmodic Laxative |
Some things you have to learn by experience. I will cut down on the amount of radish juice in future.
To break the fast, I ran down to the grocery. They did not have those instant rice soups. So I got chicken salad, two banannas, a Power Bar, and a bag of chips. Oh, way to go for good health! Yes I *do* feel a little sick at this moment.
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Ending the Fast I’m four hours away from the end of my latest fast. Drinking carrot-radish-parsley juice, diluted with water. I’m pretty matter-of-fact about drinking it. Yes, I am constantly thinking of hamburgers, fries, chocolate shakes (none of which I eat anyway), and have decided to name my first child Taco Belle if she’s a girl and McDonald Happy if he’s a boy. Who am I kidding? “Taco” is too masculine. I’ll name her Swiss Belle. |
Actually, I have nothing but instant oatmeal here at my desk, so at the appropriate time (11:00 a.m.), I plan to hustle down to the local grocery and pick up some desk-cabinet foods such as those instant rice soups (if our country grocer carries such stuff). If the grocer is a standard southern hamhocks-beer-tobacco grocer, who does not stock them dang New Age pagan victuals, I will have to go further afield.
What does carrot-radish-parsley juice, diluted with water, taste like, you ask? Well, if you put enough water in it, it doesn’t taste much like anything. Actually, any juice I’ve made (so far) tastes far better than it sounds, as long as I drink it within 24 hours of running the veggies through the Champion Juicer. Strong-tasting veggies like beets are subdued by a lot of sugars that get released from the fiber when the vegetable is juiced in a good juicer. So even though there is a reminder in the vegetable juice of the veggie itself, the fresh juice is toned down, more subtle, and has more nuances to the flavor than the solid vegetable has.
If fresh vegetable juice sits in the fridge for too long, it loses its fresh taste. And even I can tell when the juice has “gone normal” (ie, still safe to drink but not of any special benefit from the short-lived enzymes still being present). Carrot juice that has gone normal is still not too bad, but beet juice is as horrible as it sounds if it goes normal. When it’s fresh, it’s not bad at all, though a little heavy.
Well, all this talk of juice and water has had an effect on me. Gotta go. And I do mean go!
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Innocence I was thinking about innocence yesterday. There were long summer days a lot of years ago when Bruce and I were still kids. For being 13 and 12, he and I got into some pretty weighty discussions. My life was bordered by the dark edge, where my father was loud, angry, and brutal, and my mother was gone to mysterious places and never came home. But adultery was just a word to me. In spite of that one dark horizon that I did not comprehend (and so never thought about unless it directly confronted me), all my other horizons were bright and broad. |
I was fortunate. I had the kind of best friend that people write books about. He and I did innocent things: played chess at first, but I decided I didn't like chess when he beat me 40 times out of 40 games or something like that. But he was agreeable (as well as brilliant), so we used to play the board game, CAREERS, and LIFE. And he introduced me to Mel Brooks type comedy (before the Mel Brooks movies came out). HOW TO BE A JEWISH MOTHER, and the long playing record, WHEN YOU'RE IN LOVE, THE WHOLE WORLD IS JEWISH.
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For my part, DOCTOR WHO was a vivid new vista for me---cliff hangers, when my stomach would knot up because the horrible creature from outer space had Jo backed into a corner, and the Doctor was wrestling for his life elsewhere, and the song would come on, and as it was Friday I had to wait until *MONDAY* to see what would happen. I would spend the entire weekend making up Doctor Who stories, and I had never done anything like that before either. So to keep up with all my own story ideas, I would write them down to remember them. And that was how I started writing. Neither parent cared in the slightest, but Bruce was always keenly interested. I still write Doctor Who stories. I would rather write them than anything else. |
Last night I wondered if anybody else ever had days like those. And I wished I had them again, but one reason the foundational days like those are so vital to a person's heart and mind is that they come only once, and you don't get them again. And the older you get, the more you realize some people never get them at all. Kids trade off the things that really make them happy to get the things they think will make them happy. Few of them every wise up, and they go into adulthood convinced that they have to play the game---and then they wonder why life turned out so meaningless! Or worse, they blame God. I've never done anything to destroy my own innocence, yet I am not innocent any more. Or maybe I am, and like all innocent people, I am not self aware enough to realize how innocent I truly am. But even I sometimes feel like it's all been burned away, and the sweet, guileless wonder at the "glory of everything" as EB White called it, cannot be experienced at second time.
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Spoke to a headhunter from Indiana today about a management job in Process Controls writing. Looks good. Pay is fabulous. It's for a big name contractor who is doing work for Big Pharma, but I would be more the property of the engineering company than the property of Big Pharma. Believe me, I could do six months up there for what they are willing to pay. I hope it works out. I'd like to get more career experience at a higher level. They do pay Per Diem, and I could mail up a lot of my stuff to friends who are up here, so that it's waiting for me when I arrive. It won't be like last time, when I came to Indiana cold and brought only what I could cram into my car. There are always surprises on long distance contract work, but I feel more confident about meeting them head on.
Berean Baptist Skids towards Bankruptcy
Well, the fundies are out in force now that Tom Neal's church is on the skid towards bankruptcy. It's turned into a shouting match on this level:
This will continue over the next several days, especially with Mars so prominent. It's not that there's not legitimate grievances against Tom Neal. He needs to be out of the ministry, in my opinion. And I can get pretty intense when I debate, but when it turns into a "whose masculinity is longer" contest (Did I say longer? I meant greater), the men will go on for hours. And while I am not squeamish about slugging it out over the need for purity and reform in Fundamentalism, this "manhood, tough guy" thing is a meaningless tangent.
Well, the fundies are out in force now that Tom Neal's church is on the skid towards bankruptcy. It's turned into a shouting match on this level:
 | "Well why don't you tell me your real name?"
"Oh yeah, well why don't you tell me YOUR real name?" "You're not man enough, that's why!" "No you're not man enough!" |
This will continue over the next several days, especially with Mars so prominent. It's not that there's not legitimate grievances against Tom Neal. He needs to be out of the ministry, in my opinion. And I can get pretty intense when I debate, but when it turns into a "whose masculinity is longer" contest (Did I say longer? I meant greater), the men will go on for hours. And while I am not squeamish about slugging it out over the need for purity and reform in Fundamentalism, this "manhood, tough guy" thing is a meaningless tangent.
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Disappearance of the Frogs The little frogs at work have disappeared. They no longer spring from the grassy patches onto the walks in the early morning, and the little mascot that lived outside my office trailer has not been above ground in over a week. Today I left for work at a few minutes after five. The lights of the city were low as I drove out towards the country side, and I was running towards Mars, looking straight at him. I walked the long way around from the gravel parking lot to the trailers to see if I could find any of the little grass frogs. BUt they were not above ground as far as I could tell. They've been gone for a few days. The people from third shift out in the smoking patio must think I'm a kook as I crouch down and scan for the little frogs that I've come to like so much. They must wonder what I am looking for. |
| Our office trailers are very big trailers, far larger than most mobile home trailers. They are set up in a disorderly pattern (as far as I can determine), and there are enough of them to make a small trailer city that sits on one end of the colossal new building that is going up. Board sidewalks have been constructed to connect all the trailers, and these are quite sturdy and keep us out of the incredible amounts of mud and runoff that drain from the construction. As I strode along the board sidewalk between two trailers in the darkness, I stopped, for I could hear crickets very plainly. But then, between the rise and fall of the cricket calls, I heard the steady tinkling call of the little frogs. They're in there somewhere, sounding their gentle songs. But they don't show themselves any more.
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Hab 3:15-19 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, [through] the heap of great waters.
When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither [shall] fruit [be] in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and [there shall be] no herd in the stalls:
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The LORD God [is] my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' [feet], and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Matthew Henry writes concerning this passage in Habbakuk, "He [God] that has joy in store for those that sow in tears [also] has rest in store for those that tremble before him. Good hope through grace is founded in a holy fear....
Destroy the vines and the fig-trees, and you make all the mirth of a carnal heart to cease, Hos. 2:11, 12. But those who, when they were full, enjoyed God in all, when they are emptied and impoverished can enjoy all in God, and can sit down upon a melancholy heap of the ruins of all their creature comforts and even then can sing to the praise and glory of God, as the God of their salvation. This is the principal ground of our joy in God, that he is the God of our salvation, our eternal salvation, the salvation of the soul; and, if he be so, we may rejoice in him as such in our greatest distresses, since by them our salvation cannot be hindered....
See how the prophet triumphs in God: The Lord God is my strength, v. 19. He that is the God of our salvation in another world will be our strength in this world, to carry us on in our journey thither, and help us over the difficulties and oppositions we meet with in our way. Even when provisions are cut off... (1.) We shall be strong for our spiritual warfare and work: The Lord God is my strength, the strength of my heart. (2.) We shall be swift for our spiritual race: "He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, that with enlargement of heart I may run the way of his commands and outrun my troubles.’’
(3.) We shall be successful in our spiritual enterprises: "He will make me to walk upon my high places; that is, I shall gain my point, shall be restored unto my own land, and tread upon the high places of the enemy,’’ Deu. 32:13; 33:29. Thus the prophet, who began his prayer with fear and trembling, concludes it with joy and triumph, for prayer is heart’s ease to a gracious soul.
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| Total Depravity and Total Ignorance----bad combination
Yesterday on the Hyles-Anderson Forum, somebody asked if we are still totally depraved after being saved. For the readers who are new to all of this: Total depravity means that man by nature has no inclination or power to be good. This doesn’t mean that we cannot do good; we can. We can intellectually realize that doing good profits us in the long term. Man has a conscience that will sting if he does anything to violate it. These shadowy forms of goodness are not the real thing, as genuine goodness clings to good no matter what it suffers as a consequence, and finds a true pleasure and fulfillment in goodness. People, on the other hand, do good because they think they ought to. We have to learn to do good and be drilled in it, then discipline ourselves to do it. This is because we are not good. But innately good creatures do good as naturally as we eat or sleep. |
Total depravity also means that we are capable of committing any sin. Again, our performance will be tempered and restrained by the very pride that condemns us. We often refrain from performing evil actions because self respect prevents us (We have an image of goodness that we try to live up to.), but the inclination is there. Take away the props of self respect; remove the sting of conscience, and we will do anything to justify ourselves, gain what we want, serve our own ends, accrue power, etc. This, of course, is why people sin in secret and why they whisper behind each other’s backs. Such actions reveal their recognition that what they are doing to get what they want is evil. Yet rather than not do it, they do it secretly, as though God is fooled.
Of course, I suppose that most of my readers disagree with this idea, as most people consider man to be neutral in matters of right and wrong, and each choice that he makes indicates his progression up or down the proper path. However, the Biblical teaching is that of total depravity. I don’t mind if readers disagree with the Bible, for as long as we both know this, there’s room for discourse.
But when a person claims to believe the Bible and doesn’t believe that he or she is a sinner, then there’s an obvious problem. For the Bible is clear that man is not good; indeed, is evil at heart and prone to sin. And the deliverance of man from sin is in the finished work of Jesus Christ. In the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul rebukes the believers because they trusted Christ to save them by His Blood, and now they have decided that by teeth-gritting effort and strict adherence to the Law, they can move from the righteousness given to them by Christ to living a life free of sin by their efforts.
Paul rebukes them and reminds them that what is begun by faith cannot be finished by works.
Bama, you always have your nature of sin in this life. As long as you have flesh, you have the nature of the flesh. But Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection, gives His people a new nature. They are crucified in His death and raised in His resurrection. By faith in Him, they are given His life, working through them. Our salvation is of God every moment---from the first moment to every continuing moment, when we resort to Him.
Monday, August 25, 2003
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Dr. Who audio at my web site Played both episodes of TWO OF A KIND on the way to and from work (and again during work) on CD and picked up a few sound errors in Episode Two. So tonight I fixed them but didn't have time to listen to a full run-through again. I exported Episode Two again and converted it to MP3. Then I loaded it onto the Audio site and can listen at work tomorrow, Lord willing. Here is a link to the audio page, but the stories are rotated through it, so you may or may not find "Two of a Kind." It is scheduled to begin September 5 (Episode One) and September 12 (Episode Two). It is scheduled to be removed on September 24. Right now, Strange Darkness is airing. Back inthe 1990's, I won some type of award for that one from the other amateur writers. "Best depiction of a series character" or something like that, for my depiction of Jo Grant. |
I'm catching bloggers as often as I am able, just to see what others are writing. Most blogs I check are created that day, and have one entry. Others have more depth. I caught one from a really psycho lady that says she's glad she's off all her meds, but she hates her kids. Get back on the meds, I thought. Then I found one that was pretty thought provoking and also well designed---really more a journal than a blog, assessing various news commentaries on current issues. Yesterday I found one from a young mother. I think her baby is about 10 months old. She gave no account of a husband, but the blog was a delightful account of her child's discoveries and development, day by day. Also included account of her own father's long distance calls to her to encourage her. I dropped a line in her guestbook to wish her well. I don't map URLs to these pick-up readings that I do. I wish I had saved that one. there's always something new, butyou do have to wade through the stacks of "Just started my blog today" blogs.
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Shopping list for Mars Approach Day:
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If I should have to go, I am going to go happy!
VALKYRIES news: Got the following e-mail from a reader, which is an excerpt of the complete letter:
I wrote back, thanked her for writing, and urged her to keep any writing that she does true to what Christians really are so that she can depict Who Christ really is and what we have in Him.
You can read about my gripes against commercial Christian fiction on my web page. I am dismayed by the consistent point of view that is presented that Christians are not sinful, and the companion point of view that we achieve righteousness by gritting our teeth and trying harder. These two ideas are more fit for papal legends than for Biblical Christianity. We are pretty horrible people, but the divine Saviour has given Himself to us to live through us. This life must be lived by faith, for Christ is our righteousness.
I think what surprises most people is that these ideas can be communicated in a story that is as outrageous as VALKYRIES. Very few Christian books about girls are as outright funny as VALKYRIES. And all I did was depict girls (and adults) in the reality of what they are. Telling the truth in as spare a style as possible can make up for deficiencies in skill.
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I found your books,Valkyries, because of an online writing course I was enrolled in....I found the story not only captivating and intriguing, I also found it to be life changing. I wanted you to know that the Lord used your books in a powerful way in my life to draw me closer to Him. |
I wrote back, thanked her for writing, and urged her to keep any writing that she does true to what Christians really are so that she can depict Who Christ really is and what we have in Him.
You can read about my gripes against commercial Christian fiction on my web page. I am dismayed by the consistent point of view that is presented that Christians are not sinful, and the companion point of view that we achieve righteousness by gritting our teeth and trying harder. These two ideas are more fit for papal legends than for Biblical Christianity. We are pretty horrible people, but the divine Saviour has given Himself to us to live through us. This life must be lived by faith, for Christ is our righteousness.
I think what surprises most people is that these ideas can be communicated in a story that is as outrageous as VALKYRIES. Very few Christian books about girls are as outright funny as VALKYRIES. And all I did was depict girls (and adults) in the reality of what they are. Telling the truth in as spare a style as possible can make up for deficiencies in skill.
I tried to push myself through Tom Neal's Baptist Contender online but couldn't get all the way through. If you go there, be prepared to be sick (those of you who are not IFB fundamentalists). It gives about 50-50 reference to God and Jack Hyles; but the Person of God is a god cast into the image of the IFB god (who looks a lot like Jack Hyles), and is not the biblical representation of God.
Needless to say, there was nothing of Christ's work presented at all in what I read. It was a sort of whipping the reader into agreement, a lot of fallacious reasoning to indict Jack Schaap (who can be indicted on plenty of valid reasons, but Neal relies on typical IFB thinking that strains at minor things and misconstrues and misrepresents). What struck me most strongly was his constant referencing of Jack Hyles as an authority for all matters of conduct and theology. Well, I guess this is normal, coming from the man who sheltered the incredibly perverted and adulterous Dave Hyles until Dave left for Texas a few weeks ago.
In spite of the acrimonious rivalry, I consider Schaap and Neal to be two peas in the same pod---members of a dying but incredibly corrupt and grasping religious movement that relies on exterior conformity and performance of certain specified tasks to attain a level of personal righteousness that they believe impresses God and gives them power and authority. It is so convoluted, so self referential, and so much like madness to outsiders that we can hope (and pray) that it soon falls. The nearness of financial catastrophe to Tom Neal's church is a hopeful sign. I am hoping for a domino effect, and I hope to live to see the movement collapes on its own financial indiscretions.
Needless to say, there was nothing of Christ's work presented at all in what I read. It was a sort of whipping the reader into agreement, a lot of fallacious reasoning to indict Jack Schaap (who can be indicted on plenty of valid reasons, but Neal relies on typical IFB thinking that strains at minor things and misconstrues and misrepresents). What struck me most strongly was his constant referencing of Jack Hyles as an authority for all matters of conduct and theology. Well, I guess this is normal, coming from the man who sheltered the incredibly perverted and adulterous Dave Hyles until Dave left for Texas a few weeks ago.
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It amounts to a tempest in a tea pot. I mean, I'm sure that Jack Schaap is seriously inconvenienced by it, but on reading the rag, the strongest thing that hits me is that these people are so insular. As the name of God serves merely as a rubber stamp that they affix to their pet theories and petty rivalries, the reader has to find their real points of reference. And these points of reference are names that are rapidly being forgotten----Jack Hyles, Lester Roloff, RG Lee, John R. Rice. The public, even the ardent churchgoing public, is ever declining in its ability to recall who these men were. This, of course, is as it should be. Each of us must be forgotten so that the true reality of the work of God is made more clear. And whoever holds to a memory of a man holds to that which must decline and dwindle. It's like clutching very fine sand. |
In spite of the acrimonious rivalry, I consider Schaap and Neal to be two peas in the same pod---members of a dying but incredibly corrupt and grasping religious movement that relies on exterior conformity and performance of certain specified tasks to attain a level of personal righteousness that they believe impresses God and gives them power and authority. It is so convoluted, so self referential, and so much like madness to outsiders that we can hope (and pray) that it soon falls. The nearness of financial catastrophe to Tom Neal's church is a hopeful sign. I am hoping for a domino effect, and I hope to live to see the movement collapes on its own financial indiscretions.
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Just got off the phone with Betty, a friend from BJU (on staff there). Betty is a breast cancer survivor, a year older than I. Her father has had two strokes in the last two years. He lives about three hours away from her. He's a very godly man. He doesn't want to come join her but prefers his quiet but independent life down in rural Georgia. He's a gentle, god-fearing man, and he told me that in WWII, he was an MP. I was stunned that this small man had been an MP. "But sir, how were you picked as an MP?" I asked him.
He smiled. "The Sergeant came up to the men and told us to line up. Then he told the first dozen of us to take a step forward. Then he told us we were now MPs!"
He was given the assignment of guarding condemned US service men on French soil. These were boys who had committed capital offenses while in service in France. Army policy was to treat them according to French law, but carry out executions under the jurisdiction of the military.
Obviously, these were some of the worst offenders in the army---murder, rape, gross violence and cruelty. He told me that many of the men wept over their sins, and he had a good chance to speak with them about the Lord before their final moments. But he remembered one man who was brought before the American commander and informed that his time had come.
"Do you have anything to say?" the commander asked him.
"Yes I do," the young man said. And he let loose a string of profanity and reviling that actually embarrassed the MPs. However, the military commander took it all quite calmly.
"Now you've had your say," he told the boy. They put him against the wall and shot him. And that was the end of him.
This identification as the mouth of the fish pinpoints the person astrologically. For in the heavens, Aquarius pours out the water from the never ending flow to the open mouth of the Southern Fish. Aquarius depicts Christ, pouring out life to His people (the Fish). That flow never stops. And the fish never closes its mouth. So to us this flow is ceaseless, and we never have to shyly withdraw, thinking we've asked too much of him for grace. The fact is, everything is by grace. Yet still the flow never ceases. It's written in the heavens.
Betty told me that this story has prompted her to think about grace from many angles and reconsider again and again how ceaselessly He bestows grace to His own, and it's comforted her. Good! This is why I write fiction.
He smiled. "The Sergeant came up to the men and told us to line up. Then he told the first dozen of us to take a step forward. Then he told us we were now MPs!"
He was given the assignment of guarding condemned US service men on French soil. These were boys who had committed capital offenses while in service in France. Army policy was to treat them according to French law, but carry out executions under the jurisdiction of the military.
Obviously, these were some of the worst offenders in the army---murder, rape, gross violence and cruelty. He told me that many of the men wept over their sins, and he had a good chance to speak with them about the Lord before their final moments. But he remembered one man who was brought before the American commander and informed that his time had come.
"Do you have anything to say?" the commander asked him.
"Yes I do," the young man said. And he let loose a string of profanity and reviling that actually embarrassed the MPs. However, the military commander took it all quite calmly.
"Now you've had your say," he told the boy. They put him against the wall and shot him. And that was the end of him.
 | Betty listens to my Doctor Who fiction on tape (now created digitally). She told me that my story, INSIDERS, is still on her mind. That story depicts Sarah Jane Smith hiding out in caves on a strange planet, being hunted by the tusked, boar-faced Ivorites as food and by the shimmering, cloud-like Insider to serve as a parasitic host for its species. As she tries to find a way to survive, she becomes sick, and then dehydrated, and then stumbles into the lair of a huge spider-like creature that destroys her savage Ivorite pursuer in an instant and yet spares Sarah Jane. Later, Sarah Jane realizes that some sort of ghostly but powerful person dwells in these caves. And the two of them are so different from each other that they are always trying to figure out what is real about the other. This strange being, Fomalhaut, describes herself to Sarah Jane in terms of mercy. Yet Fomalhaut's view of mercy is so experiential a view of mercy that Sarah Jane realizes she has never truly grasped what mercy is:
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"But you talk so much about Mercy." Sarah Jane hesitated, embarrassed, but she blurted the truth. "I don’t mean to sound stupid, but what, exactly, is mercy?"
"It's what the water bearer forever pours into my mouth, Sarah Jane. In fact, I am the mouth: the mouth that receives the joyous giving of the life that is poured into me, and from me, an ocean is poured forth."
Sarah Jane stopped and stared at her.
"If he were ever to stop, I would cease to exist, but the flow of the water is written into the heavens. It's written that I must always be given water from that heavenly abundance. Therefore, because all my life is the receiving of mercy, I am mercy. I am the mouth of the fish that receives mercy, and you first perceived my great emptiness, my waiting, and my expectation. This frightened you and made you feel abandoned, for in your world, these things mean hunger and privation. And in mine, they mean the certainty of fulfillment."
This identification as the mouth of the fish pinpoints the person astrologically. For in the heavens, Aquarius pours out the water from the never ending flow to the open mouth of the Southern Fish. Aquarius depicts Christ, pouring out life to His people (the Fish). That flow never stops. And the fish never closes its mouth. So to us this flow is ceaseless, and we never have to shyly withdraw, thinking we've asked too much of him for grace. The fact is, everything is by grace. Yet still the flow never ceases. It's written in the heavens.
Betty told me that this story has prompted her to think about grace from many angles and reconsider again and again how ceaselessly He bestows grace to His own, and it's comforted her. Good! This is why I write fiction.
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Whew! Finished the second episde of the two-episode audio drama, "Two of a Kind," which is scheduled to debut September 5. The last two scenes combined equaled about five and a half minutes, so that took the episode to 34 minutes total (with theme music at either end). I'd been hoping for a 29.5 - 31 minute range, just to show that I could do it, but when it came to cutting the story any further from yesterday's (and this morning's) massive overhaul, I decided against it. There are bits of lines and snippets of scenes that I *could* cut, but I like the episode to listen to. There's the right mix of intellectual evil doer, grotesque evil doer, comic good guy, cosmic good guy, and desperate young female in danger to make it interesting. |
It's nice to know that at last I've created an audio drama that actually fits onto one CD. "Two of a kind" is about 65 minutes long in total (two epiodes), so that means I can schlep it around Chicago TARDIS this year and attach some advertising to it. After "Two of a Kind," I plan to air INFLUX OF THE ARRAY (non-Dr. Who version), and then do "Hounds and Hares." I've started scripting Hounds and Hares. I believe it is twelve episodes, which is the longest audio story to date. Then it's time for a Christmas story. I hope I can carry out these plans, but everything is subject to the Will of God.
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Here's a quote from the at least partially fictionalized journal of Grace Jovian (Secret Radio): I guess I had learned to be cruel, too, in that unthinking, sarcastic way of the preacher boys. |
Over on the Fundamentalist Forums, "hopeless in hammond" writes,
BH [Bev Hyles, wife of late Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist of Hammond] got $1 million when Jack died - insurance policy - the church did not get it.
BH has received Jack's salary every month since he died and will continue to receive it whether she signs the "contract" or not. (She's going to need it because she supports DH [Dave Hyles - son of Jack, pointed out by then Detective Paul Cialino as prime suspect in the death of Brent Stevens, ousted from Miller Road Baptist Church for affairs and gross involvement in pornography]- he has no job.. therefore, no $)
When JS [Jack Schaap, heir to the Hyles throne in Hammond, IN]found out about DH's latest "victims" in FL he pulled every DH book out of the bookstore. BH didn't like it, therefore she left.
BH has joined forces with DH and TS [I don't know who TS is.]to sue the church.
For more info on the current uproar over Bev Hyles and the "contract" she was pressured to sign, you can view my August 7 blog entry in the archives. (Look to the right hand frame for the list of archives.)
I'm cynical about Schaap's new quest for purity. In the AV Ballenger case, Jack Schaap, who was then being groomed to take over, defended Ballenger on charges of molesting a little girl by insisting that the little girl had been all over him. According to the ever hopeful Hyles followers, Schaap is now cleaning up, but I remain skeptical. Reform is never successful, as it is fleshly. Repentance is what brings the changes that we need, and Schaap has yet to repent, for repentance must be open and sweeping. And I cannot help but notice that if you want to eliminate Dave Hyles as an adversary, all you have to do is wait for the next scandal to break and then express great horror and shock, like you didn't know all along the guy is a tornado that destroys lives that he touches.
Meanwhile, a puzzled and angry poster is now trying to quiz me on my beliefs and practices. This is like Braemer demanding my credentials. Credentials to do what? Post on a forum? Credentials to prove that I have the knowledge of history that I have already demonstrated? Credentials to show that I have a right to highlight how incredibly ignorant these men are of history and doctrine? These guys will do anything to sidestep the truth (as was astoundingly apparent in Braemer's conclusion that even though many events point to Hyles having committed sin in the past with Jennie Nischik, still there is a chance he did no wrong. Search for the post entitled "A Higher Power" in the Hyles Anderson forum, posted by Pastor Marty Braemer on Aug-21-03.)
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I think these guys have formulated some idea that if they can point out my sins with enough fervor, then Jack Hyles did not sin. And yes, this is the type of logic you get from the Hyles Clowns. If the Presbyterians are bad (or if a Presbyterian is bad enough), then we ought to gloss over the adultery, sodomy, and pedophilia linked back to Hyles-Anderson College and First Baptist Church of Hammond. The fact that I drink beer exonerates everybody, and Brent Stevens' death was surely an accident. And as for those broken bones all over his body that had never been treated, well, we can gloss over that too if it is discovered that I have not "won enough souls to Christ". |
The other amazing thing about these men is that they keep insisting that because I am a woman, I have no voice in these matters and need to keep quiet, and then in the next breath they are asking me questions and demanding that I make answer to them in a public forum! I think, if anything, their behavior points up that they are on an intricate journey of self-justification, but they really don't believe the things they say.
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They are cruel people, certainly. It is a mercy to us all that they are limited in other ways. As I noticed a couple years ago when the young man on the forum (one of Dave's followers) challenged me to a fight and I accepted (thus prompting him to back down), they don't seem to know what to do with a woman who is in control of herself and is not afraid of them. They keep resorting to their old standby tactics, and even though these tactics (based on women who are afraid of them) fail again and again and make them look sillier and sillier, they are unable to adapt. They remind me of Rabadash from the Chronicles of Narnia, who Aslan at last turns into a jackass as a fitting judgement. But even though there is a certain funnyness in their behavior, it is important to remember that integrity is not in them. If they can malign, they will malign. If they have to deceive, they will deceive; if they have to behave like apes, they will behave like apes. They will justify all of it on the basis of being soul winners, of having short hair on men and long skirts on women, of avoiding rock music and movies and alcohol. To these people, as long as they observe the points of righteousness that they have picked out, they are excused from all other moral responsibilities. And if you don't believe me, go to the Fighting Fundamentalist Forum and have a good read. |
