Just Another Blog in the Wheel

Where you find

• the Word of God proclaimed with clarity in its fulness as found in Messiah Jesus alone;
• those betrothed to Jesus as His disciples, baptized;
• those who profess Him in His glory, nourished in the uncommon meal;
• the Antithesis carefully maintained;
• extraordinary love freely encouraged and freely expressed in self-abnegating service and humility;
• compassion in action, joy in song, hearts inclined toward God in prayer, decency, integrity;
• and inviolable families

–there you find the Holy Mother Church.

Where you find a like faith as found above, but weighted down by

• formality cultivated as the fruit of fear;
• ubiquitous images and statuary intercepting attention;
• assorted material stimulii, conducted along multiple sense-paths, seductively inviting attendees to shed words to be enveloped by mysteries;
• attribution to substances and forms of that which may warrantably be predicated of God in Christ, His Word—alone;
• blurry borders allegedly keeping distinct, reverence, adoration, petition and praise, on the one hand, from worship, on the other;
• a place where pleadings for divine mercies, entreaties for assurance of pardon for sin, supplications for omnipotent assistance, and invocations for the Divine Presence are said to be better addressed to a deceased Jewess awaiting the resurrection than to her extremely living, exhaustively ruling, unfathomably loving, and very jealous Son, the world’s only Savior

–there you find the Church of the Holy Mother.

These two are not the same. By their roots you will know them.

* Maundy Thursday is so named from the Latin for new commandmant (John 13), “mandatum novum.” So, whatever else you do, honor Messiah’s Mandate: love your Christian brothers and sisters.

The following paragraph is from a press release honoring Black History Month, by Alan D. Aviles, the President of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

Both in New York City and the nation, people of African-American descent often face greater health challenges than the general population. African-American adults are twice as likely to have a stroke and 60% more likely to die from a stroke than white adults. African-Americans have a higher incidence of asthma, diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, infant mortality and sickle cell anemia than other ethnic groups. In addition, they have a higher incidence and poorer survival rates of certain cancers, including lung, prostate and stomach cancer.

We are told that it was Mark Twain who observed that there are three categories of untruth: lies, damned lies, and statistics. It is paragraphs such as the above which provide to the gleg observer a disclosure of just how statistics are recruited for such (ig)noble purposes. A moment’s reflection ought to jolt the reader: How is it that these statistical observations are not joined to an explanation of WHY these disparities might exist? Whatever connection these “facts” might have with life is left to linger above the earth, the orbiting satellite of racial guilt, set to pass overhead at regular intervals to remind every American that…what? What exactly is the point of highlighting these disparities if one does not find accompanying the “inequity list” the very best or the most likely explanation which can account for the items listed? If someone really cares enough to notice the disparities, how do we account for them not caring enough to go just a tiny bit further, to bring us a tad nearer to a solution by tracing out for us the root causes of these unequal realities? It is in the Bible one may find the answer: “The mercies of the wicked are cruel.”

Prior to the 1960’s the absence of any attempted explanation would have been viewed as a lapse in integrity by the author and/or publisher. What kind of man is it who knows where a fire is raging but refuses to tell the location so that help might be sent? But you see, inequity lists such as these no longer even pretend to be doing front work for genuine concern. Rather, they are purely political, which is to say creedal phrases, recited not so that anything might be done to solve a problem or cure a disease, but to propagate a faith. They are rehearsed for no purpose beyond perpetuating a favorite myth. The Heidelberg Catechism teaches us the religious explanation for man’s problems. Illness and death are consequences of sin. Paragraphs like the one cited intend the same thing: illness and death are the result of a cardinal sin (if not the Original Sin) identified as such by the priests of the egalitarian state. This paragraph is pure catechetical preaching.

In this case, the catechism holds that all of America’s problems are rooted in inequalities. If egalitarianism has yet to descend upon a segment of life, if its visitation of destruction has failed to reach a sphere because the spreading leaven was halted in some way, then the populace is to meditate on it, chant and recite verses that they hope will, by religious fervor and force, finally bring the Great Solution of equalitarianism to all spheres. This is a religious exercise, my friends. It is because we are on this side of the communist egalitarian utopia–which it is our duty to ever hold before our eyes as THE great goal of man and state–that these terrible imbalances exist.

Black people suffer higher incidence of sundry and assorted “leading bad health indicators” because America and its health care systems are utterly racist. Isn’t it obvious? Here is the proof! There are health inequities! What further proof is needed? In the current American environment, at least, to say nothing by way of explanation is tantamount to saying, “Racism did this.”

But surely enough knowledge is available, enough data known to correlate these higher incidences with certain “lifestyle” choices. If the announcement were generic, speaking of total populations (i.e., regardless of race) in region “X” in, say, 1978 compared with the same in 2008, a conclusion stating that the 2008 population was “twice as likely to have a stroke” as the 1978 group, would certainly be joined to a hypothetical explanation. No editor worth his salt would accept the story for print if the reporter didn’t dig further for an explanation. These considerations, I insist, reveal this sort of selective reporting, in which the important questions are left unasked, to be nothing less than race-baiting, less than worthless and inexcusable. To know WHY the disparities exist and to be silent concerning these reasons, especially when seeking to draw attention to the additional burden borne by one segment of the population, is, to every sensitive conscience, unconscionable. But like the “Rev.” Al Sharpton, these people make their living off of racism. Though they put themselves forward as enemies of inequality, the truth is they are devoted to perpetuating and extending it. Without it they’d be out of a job. Any decline in real racism (and its ugly fruits) means a corresponding decline in their bonuses. And hey, these are hard economic times.

So expect lots more of these mysteriously abstracted observations. It’s like the figures bandied about by ignorant (I’m being kind) feminists who ask you to be indignant about “inequitous” (my new word!) pay between men and women. By failing to connect it to women’s choices about what sort of work they are trained or willing to do, or the number of hours they elect to be away from home, or the costs to employers who hire and train women only to find over time that other items on their agenda made it too easy for women to forsake the workplace altogether–by leaving it as an abstraction, it best serves its religious function as a training tool, instructing the next generation just what sin is. It is “any want of conformity unto or transgression of 50/50.”

If you are skeptical, if you suspect that I’ve done my own abstracting, I place before you Mr. Aviles’s next two paragraphs. If you find a reason for the disparity that might prove helpful to Blacks, let me know, will ya?

HHC has a proud history of addressing racial and ethnic health disparities faced by African-Americans in New York City. For example, we have developed numerous initiatives, such as our Web-based electronic diabetes registry, to help our patients with diabetes better control their illness and avoid long-term complications. Similar technology and special care programs help keep our pediatric asthma patients out of emergency rooms and hospital beds.

We continue our work to expand access to preventive screenings for heart disease, hypertension, and cancers; make HIV testing part of routine medical care; help people to quit smoking; and provide optimal perinatal care.

It is time for Americanity to recognize that Political Correctness is not about politics. It’s simply that old Baal showing his version of “tolerance.”

An enthusiastic friend of mine sent out a letter with the following in it:

The Chosen
Most are invited, but only some are picked out of the crowd. Is it our free will or God’s election? God calls everyone and gives them the power to respond—but to be chosen, we must respond to the call, using the power God gave us to take on the character of Christ.

Read it again— “to be chosen we must respond.” What then does it mean to be chosen? Oh goodness, me! Here is an example of that which induces in us spontaneous praise to God, not only for His sovereign salvation, but also for the Canons of Dordt and wonderful Westminster. The Confessions are very helpful on this topic. My friend, unfortunately, is not. Pray we can help our peers see some of the beauty which remains hidden from them. A great deal of the attractiveness of God’s Gospel is inevitably out of sight when schemes dictate that becoming chosen is up to you! As the great rabbis said: Oy Vey!

pastor steve