April 26, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

I've been teaching homiletics in my free time for over 25 years; which comes as a surprise to many who hear my sermons.

I really like teaching doctoral candidates.

Half of 'em know more than I do.

Half of 'em think they know more than I do.

All of 'em have the charisma for discussing books which they haven't read.

@#$%

Because no one has a monopoly on the truth, except for Jesus who doesn't count because He's God, I listen to everybody.

Of course, contrary to what some folks assume, listening and agreeing aren't always the same.

KD subscribers and Metanoeite prayer partners have made that clear to me.

@#$%

My last few KDs have really provoked responses.

Some people got really mad at me for picking on JC with no regard for the first sentences of the Decalogue.

I discovered others aren't really into humor; or, at least, my kind of humor.

A whole bunch of 'em were ticked off about the youth sports stuff and said I was trying to make 'em feel guilty; which probably means they are guilty because you can't make people feel anything without their consent.

So I'm devoting this KD to my subscribers - So where's the 12Gs? - in acknowledgment that some are listening aka reading while not necessarily agreeing aka responding with those 12Gs.

@#$%

I don't have time to collate this stuff.

I spent all morning in the hospitals, all afternoon doing stuff around the house which ruined all afternoon, and I've got a Pig Roast at the church tonight which will be fun but won't do much to reconcile my reputation with Muslims.

Besides, I'm starting just before the last thing on today's agenda which means there may be several breaks in the action; meaning this KD may come off even more Daliesque than others.

I'll just go through the pile and pick out the representative stuff.

@#$%

Somebody from Pennsylvania who is the chairwoman of a PNC and wants me to, uh, write a reference for somebody wrote, "I want you to know we find your writings to be very offensive. You pick on everybody you disagree with. It's so hateful. I wouldn't pay for anything you write."

Join the club!

Last time I checked, the church hadn't received 12Gs despite my shameless begging and my latest book is running about a trillion behind RW and even say-nothing-but-say-it-with-a-big-grin JO and I can't get my publisher to push Golf in the Real Kingdom even though...

Candidly, this one really hurt; because I do love folks a lot and that even includes the ones who hate me for saying what they don't want to hear.

So I called my daddy.

He said, "Will you please get over it? If you don't agree with people, they'll say you're mean or hateful. That's just a ridiculous way of avoiding truths that contradict their lies. Grow up!"

Counting time in the womb which I always do because God does, I'm almost 57!

My dad ticks me off.

He's always telling me the uh, gasp, gulp, sigh...truth.

@#$%

I got an anonymous call on my cellular.

Don't you love anonymous calls and letters.

It takes real guts to do that kind of stuff - kinda reminding me of Islamic terrorists.

"There he goes picking on the Muslims again!"

The call: "You're right, Dr. Kopp. But, remember, some folks end up dead right."

My thought: "Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never..."

Hold on!

What's that first part again?

I hope I don't have that one-time-only gift of martyrdom.

I haven't had a hole-in-one yet.

@#$%

A non-anonymous old antagonist who spent a lot of money to call me from Florida and isn't expected to send in the 12Gs challenged, "You think everything is so funny, don't you?"

I said, "Well, uh, yes, I do...like you!"

He hung up.

I didn't get a chance to say I'd cry all day long about the inhumanities in our world and even church if I didn't laugh a lot.

@#$%

With my responses in italics, here are some really, really, really good questions which everyone should ask about whatever they say, write, and do from a friend in Chicagoland:

1. "Have you done this out of love for Jesus, His Church
and His world? Have you spoken the truth in love,
or just tried to make a point?"

I hope so. I pray so daily. And I thought you
knew so. What I do I hope, pray, and labor
to do for Jesus; using Buechner as a guide:
"A prophet's quarrel with the world is deep-
down a lover's quarrel. If they didn't love the
world, they probably wouldn't bother to tell it
that it's going to hell. They'd just let it go."

2. "Does this build the Kingdom?"

I hope so. I pray so daily. And I thought you
knew so. What I do I hope, pray, and labor
to do for Jesus. Salt stings on an open
wound but prevents gangrene. Bernanos
wrote that. My bottom line is, "Don't
follow me! Follow Jesus!" Colson said
that. Again, I hope so. I pray...

3. "Are you unmasking these idols because you
like doing that? Or are you called to be a
prophet in these specific circumstances?"

O.K., yeah, I like being iconoclastic. It's
a Decalogue thing for me. But, yeah, it's
kinda fun too! As far as the second
question goes, I'd rather leave that to
Him and His to confirm.

4. "Are you ready to let your church and family
(not just you) pay the price?"

I am prepared to die (literally) for Jesus,
my family, First, the PCUSA (they're
killing me daily), and even you - you
unrepentant Cubs fan. As far as anyone
making that decision, it's theirs (and
yours and you know what I mean) to
make. Yes, I will die for Him and His
and even them for Him. No, I will not
decide for others. He saved me in
time for all time. I owe Him.

Geez.

With friends like...

@#$%

Here's one from Vermont: "I love reading your articles, writings, musings...Pastor _____ forwards them to me...I long for preachers who will tell the truth and not cave into the culture or their churches to get along at His expense...We are called to be salt and light...Keep on keeping on! People of integrity are hard to find! I thank God for you and others like you!"

I read that one just after reading the one that said I'm filled with hate.

Paxil, please!

@#$%

A local: "I loved your rebuttal to the lawyer. I ran into the same thing within my own organization with a board member slamming _____, slamming _____, undermining, undermining, undermining...Shame on me for not telling the truth sooner. I could have saved a lot of time and heartache. It goes back to the _____ leadership. They twist the truth to advance their lies. I've learned to tell the truth first. It may hurt up front but saves you from a lot of pain in the end."

LO, former pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church and recently retired Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, counseled me in a little coffee shop near San Francisco Theological Seminary about 30 years ago: "It's better to tell the truth up front and hemorrhage than to accommodate lies and bleed to death in the end."

Whenever I have told anything less than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, it's because I was hiding a personal or corporate lie.

I know all about lying because I did it so well so long for all of the wrong reasons which is why I can sniff it out like weed at a rock concert.

Truthfully.

@#$%

Speaking of lawyers, one of the finest in Boone County is an elder's elder aka really good one at our church and another who has bailed me out in the past is a very close friend and renowned litigator in Pittsburgh.

Another lawyer from Texas wrote, "When you get a letter from a lawyer, don't take it personally. We get paid to provide services for whoever is paying us to provide services. I tell my clients, 'After yawning, call me.'"

Another lawyer from Utah was a tad more, as AG would say, snippy: "You were right! Tell the _____ that this is America not China!"

I like humor; but I'm truly concerned that dissent and disclosure are being increasingly threatened by folks with something to hide.

@#$%

I wrote to someone who writes a lot more than I do (Imagine that!): "Well, somebody who slipped onto my subscriber list wrote to say how much I offended her and how I'm so filled with hate...So now I know how you feel..."

He wrote back: "I appreciate the sympathy, Bob...Reactions run to the extreme, as in having my AOL account closed for "offensive language." You would be surprised who did that...One guy threatened to contact the Attorney General..."

I keep a card produced by some nuns in my Bible: "If you're right, you don't need to argue. If you're wrong, you can't afford to..."

@#$%

Here's one from a RV[J]TF league representative: "Well spoken! A lie is a weapon of defense. The bigger the threat, and the more troublesome the perceived attack, the more vicious the defense of the lie becomes...They are circling the wagons to protect their version of events...Sigmund Freud said, 'Guilt is a product of the superego.' And in this mess, their egos don't come much bigger...Some people embrace their own reality so much that they begin to believe that the version that they have conceived in their minds is true. Lord, be with them when those things born in the darkest of corners become blatantly obvious. I hope when they are brought out and exposed, you're the one standing there and holding the light switch."

I hope so.

I am forgiving.

Gotta be.

I need forgiveness.

See Matthew 6:14-15.

@#$%

A mentor from Victorious Ministry Through Christ counseled, "My response is not be careful but be obedient. God uses people to speak for Him, and He also protects those who walk in obedience. I believe Christians have been still too long. I will link my name with anyone who is speaking for God. So what if they decide to do away with me. I just go to be with the Lord quicker!"

With friends like...

@#$%

A younger woman who is battling the beast in the mainline was encouraging: "If you let them take away your integrity, you have lost everything. Besides, if you always tell the truth, you never have to remember to whom you said what...If people sense disingenuousness from your pulpit, you lose your effectiveness as a pastor...Thanks for being my piece of sanity in this mess. I really appreciate that I can always count on getting it 'straight' from you and that means a lot - more than you know."

I confess it helps to hear it.

I don't hear it that much.

I'd settle for 12Gs.

@#$%

While I've got a stack for the circular, just one more from a covenant brother: "Oh, Robert, Robert, Robert...I think I can hear echoes of the mutters being voiced by those who see themselves as anointed keepers of purity and propriety: 'Wilt no one rid us of this meddlesome priest'...Stay the course...keep your eyes on Jesus...Shake off the dust from your sandals or cleats."

@#$%

After reading Matthew 10 and John 10 to get right in the midst of so much wrong concomitant to my call, I thought of a closing scene in The Green Mile.

John Coffey, a gentle giant only hours away from being executed for a crime which he never committed, has a final conversation with Paul Edgecombe - the head guard of "The Green Mile" or death row:

"Is there anything special that you'd like for dinner,
John? We can rustle you up most anything. Even
bring you a beer, if you want..."

"Never got the taste," he said.

"Something special to eat, then?"

"Meatloaf'd be good."

"Meatloaf it is. With gravy and mashed."

"What else to go with it?"

"Dunno, boss. Whatever you got, I guess.
Okra, maybe, but I's not picky."

"All right."

"Now about the preacher? Someone you
could say a little prayer with...It comforts
a man, I've seen it many times."

"Don't want no preacher...You have been
good to me, boss. You can say a
prayer, if you want..."

And then John Coffey says something that really, really, really hurts whenever I pray and try to speak, write, or do anything consistent with divine revelation according to Jesus as attested in Holy Scripture:

"I know you been worryin, but you ought
to quit on it now. Because I want to
go, boss...I'm rightly tired of the pain
I hear and feel, boss...I'm tired of bein
on the road...I'm tired of people bein
ugly to each other. It feels like pieces
of glass in my head. I'm tired of all
the times I've wanted to help and
couldn't. I'm tired of bein in the dark.
Mostly it's the pain. There's too much.
If I could end it, I would. But I can't."

If I could end it, I would.

But I can't.

I'm tired of people discussing the book which they haven't read.

Come, Lord Jesus.

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

April 24, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

I keep an old Starbucks cardboard cup - it's really gettin' kinda gross - in sight which has a quote from Brenda Stonecipher (Everett, Washington City Council member) on the side: "Give me world politics, gender politics, party politics or small-town politics...I'll take them all over the politics of youth sports."

@#$%

Before continuing, and this parenthesis is especially for those who will feel stung by this KD and will want to silence or slander me which is not uncommon for folks who can't handle the truth (see KDXXI), KDs reflect personal passions and principles with no emotional or intellectual need for response, regard, or reward; though it would be really cool if someone bit on the, uh, reward thing mentioned in KDXX.

If you're not provoked to think better thoughts (i.e., conforming to Jesus as attested in Holy Scripture) or labor/pray for a better world (i.e., conforming to Jesus as attested in Holy Scripture) or just think, I'm cool with that; because it's much more about witnessing and much less about winning pour moi.

I'm old enough and still marketable enough that, as MLK said, "I just want to do God's will."

I may be wrong on lots of stuff - some of my subscribers have pointed that out quite convincingly - but I'm gonna keep pitching; recalling how Moody responded to the mainliner who objected to his evangelistic methods, "I prefer how I do it to how you don't do it."

In other words, I don't crave affirmation, pay no attention to antagonism, and remain satisfied with the affections of family and friends.

I am speaking for...

Well, uh, you decide.

Be that as you determine it to be, this is just another KD; and so you're wasting your time if you take me out on anyone related to my call as pastor of First's family of faith, professor of homiletics (CEDS), police chaplain (Belvidere and Boone County), and President of Rock Valley [Junior] Tackle Football. KDs may or may not speak for or to 'em; and, as inferred already, that's really not what KDs are about anyway.

@#$%

I've spent a lot of time in sports.

My dad was one of the best all-around athletes to come out of NYC.

My wife was a highly regarded and awarded college athlete.

My oldest two sons were D1 scholarship athletes.

It's in the genes of my youngest two sons.

I was, uh, O.K.

Anyone who plays golf avec moi will attest to the preceding sentence; giving new meaning to scoring bipolarity.

@#$%

When I threw out my arm before 9th grade because my coach knew more about Bud and Gibbons than throwing too much stuff and heat for too long too young, my dream of pitching for the Yankees became as fanciful as the Cubs winning a World Series before the parousia.

I played in the old days when playing time and positions were determined more by ability and attitude than the prejudices and politics of coaches, school boards, sponsors, or obsessive-compulsive parents.

While I may be wrong, I'm convinced all team sports should be developmental until high school; encouraging all participants by fairly equal playing time in the knowledge that an athlete's potential more than proficiency is rarely manifested before the varsity level.

I hesitate to guess the number of athletes who never came close to realizing their potential because of politics inhibiting participation and retarding enthusiasm in the nascent states of development.

As president of the most competitive youth football league in Northern Illinois uninhibited by socioeconomic individuation, I'm all for winning concomitant to character development and fairly equal playing time.

Fairly equal playing time means everybody plays a lot as long as they work hard, follow the rules, respect coaches and referees, and can participate at levels which do not put themselves and teammates in physical jeopardy.

@#$%

As President of RV[J]TF, I've seen some of the worst politics and socioeconomic individuation; and in keeping with John 3:19-21, I haven't kept my mouth shut.

I haven't campaigned either; but when asked, I've told the truth as I've seen it and offered to recant whenever my understanding of the truth wasn't the, uh, truth.

For example, we've gained some teams that want to play competitively without socioeconomic individuation; and we've lost some.

Truth is the teams that have left have left because of socioeconomic individuation and, uh, well, sorry about it, they just can't compete against some of our consistently stellar organizations; so our league has experienced significant addition by subtraction in terms of the level of play and constructive cooperation and mutual respect of all organizations.

Then there are organizations (not in RV[J]TF anymore) that do everything possible - some really nasty intrigue here - to keep new organizations from organizing on their turf.

What I know about that stuff makes water boil.

It's very ugly and dark.

If it were not for the integrity and genuine concern for developing competitive excellence concomitant to character development of the eleven organizations of RV[J]TF, I would have left long ago because I don't need some of the headaches; especially from parents who are convinced their kids who play like Michael Jackson or Tiny Tim are the next Lawrence Taylor or Eli Manning.

@#$%

Here's an example of the silliness surrounding and threatening youth sports today.

Not too long ago, I got an e-mail from somebody from an organization which left us for dubious rationalizations which asked for my snail mail address.

While I knew what was coming - a certified letter which would ask/threaten me to stop saying what I thought when asked as if we live in China or somewhere else where only the entitled can say what they think - I told the guy to use e-mail.

I decided to make him work a little harder.

Note that he never said why he wanted my snail mail address!

It was as sneaky as the previously established pattern of behavior.

I've never dealt well with people who can't man up.

@#$%

Have you heard of the Bob Rule?

I wish I had come up with it; for if I did, I wouldn't have to ask somebody/anybody to front the 12Gs mentioned in KDXX.

By the way, there's still time to send in a check...

Anyway, here's the Bob Rule: "If everybody disagrees with you, you may be right; but if everybody disagrees with you, you may want to consider they're right and you're wrong."

What follows may come under that rule for them or, uh, gasp, gulp, sigh, me.

@#$%

So the organization that left to form a new league so they could win championships by playing with themselves and by not playing teams which always beat 'em along with other intrigues hired an attorney to write a nice letter to me to shut up about the truth of their departure and continuing behaviors with a thinly veiled threat.

Just like I don't waste time with mainliners who rationalize their apostasies, I ain't gonna get into a tinkling contest with some of the skunks who hurt and slandered so many of our organizations when they left to form a new league.

I don't blame the lawyer.

She seems nice; as you'll see for yourself in the letter which follows.

I'm gonna send a copy of my last book to her to say there are no hard feelings in her having to, uh, man up for him.

Hmm.

Besides, one of our leading elders is one of the most respected lawyers in Boone County and one of my best friends is a renowned national litigator living in Pittsburgh who'd love to come out here for a round or two.

Hint.

And though my friends may not like the inference, we know how too much lawyering goes these days; servicing whoever pays the bill regardless of veracity.

So I don't blame the lawyer.

Actually, I don't blame anybody; and I've always kinda liked the, uh, brothers who showed up to represent 'em when they were in our league. They were always cordial and kind to my face.

Recalling CJ again, some folks just can't handle the truth; so they try to silence the messengers or slander to discredit/neutralize 'em.

@#$%

So here's the letter (dated 4/14/08):

Dear Dr. Kopp,

Please be advised I represent _____. I have been asked by _____ to contact you
regarding your transmission of unsubstantiated negative e-mails that have been
brought to their attention. One of your most recent e-mails has accused _____
of lying and trying to seduce teams to leave your organization, in addition
to your stating you know more than you can reveal.

While your e-mail, sent to undisclosed recipients, refers to a "dark deceptive
genesis of _____," I need to remind you that prior e-mails sent by you were
supportive of the new conference and league members leaving RV[J]TF
to join it.

Understanding that both of your respective organizations may at times be
in competition, I am sure that you will agree that such competition must
be exercised fairly and justly, to set forth good examples for the
children for which both organizations serve. One of your prior
e-mail commentaries comes to mind, when you stated that "if adults
in our world or even league cannot get along, we have no license
to tell others how to get along." With that in mind, I am requesting
that your negative e-mails cease and desist. I invite you to contact
_____ who you have spoken highly about in the past, or to meet
with _____ to resolve any differences that may exist between
your organizations.

Very truly yours,
_____
Attorney at Law

@#$%

I said she was nice.

My response to the letter was too swift; and I called to say, in effect, and I may get a word or three wrong for the anally retentive, "I will tell the truth as I see it to whoever asks, have no desire to get into a tinkling contest, and I'm sorry if what I wrote in e-mails (private or public) offended anyone if I misspoke on any matter."

Or something like that.

I'm still a little saddened by the inability to man up.

SOSO.

I don't disagree with just about anything she wrote - especially when she quoted me; and to think I thought nobody reads my stuff - but the urging to meet with 'em sounds so shallow in that RV[J]TF asked then mandated many meetings with 'em which were rebuffed when they were sneaking around and trying to seduce some of our organizations to join theirs. And while it is not surprising to know which organizations were asked to join 'em, it is revealing to know which organizations were not invited.

@#$%

Truth is RV[J]TF is doing very well; and it has done even better since, uh, sorry to say, they left our league.

And that's not just me saying that.

Go back to the Bob Rule.

@#$%

I remember being threatened with an ecclesiastical charge for saying mainliners are increasingly apostate.

I said, 'I'd love to have the opportunity to speak publicly about it. Bring it on! But make sure you've got the time for all of the folks who will substantiate what I'm saying which you don't like."

And when it comes to some of the intrigues - and I do know lots more than I would ever want to reveal in public and probably wouldn't anyway because of pastoral privileges and the fear of reprisals against all of the folks who've been talking to me over the past few years - surrounding the thinly veiled threat against me, I'm always ready to recant if proven wrong.

@#$%

Speaking of the disingenuous or sincere but deceptive, I received an interesting response to my questions for Election 2008's Presidential finalists (KDXXI).

Parenthetically, the source, who knows folks who could have come up with the 12Gs, is from Florida and knows more than he can reveal which would also befuddle my aforementioned friends (his responses are in italics).

For HRC: If you can't tell the truth about anything now, how will we know you're telling the truth then? "If her lips are moving, she's lying. Therefore, perhaps the only time she is truthful is when she shuts up."

For BHO: Are you gonna hang out with your funky friends in the White House? "Yes, but he probably won't get caught renting them the Lincoln bedroom."

For JM: Can you provide assurances that you won't need naps during Cabinet meetings? "Nope, but at least he'll be well rested while his VP covers for him."

@#$%

If I could just find those two gift cards which I lost, I'd go to Starbucks.

I need a shot after getting one.

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

April 22, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

Confession is good for the soul; but bad for your reputation.

True.

Only a dolt lives as if the latter lasts longer.

@#$%

By the way, it's been almost five days since KDXX and there's been no Rushdie-like fatwa issued against me, nobody's sent in the 12Gs to pay off my Dodge Caliber in gratitude for, uh, whatever, and I still can't find those two lost Starbucks gift cards which could have kept me, uh, up through Ramadan (Yep! It's right there in the PCUSA Planning Calendar!).

CJ said, "You can't handle the truth!"

There's a lot of it in the first paragraph of this section; and I'm probably missing as much as you are.

@#$%

Ben Stein's Expelled is exposing the intellectual inconsistencies of those secular and ecclesiastical elites who swallow all of that Darwinian crap; which requires a greater leap of, uh, gulp, geez, horror, faith than giving credit to the intelligent designer.

I think of my old buddy TC who likes to say, "I find few things are more fun than listening to an intelligent person articulate some stupid ideas."

Connecting the dots between Darwinism, Nazism, and, uh, gulp, geez, horror, Planned Parenthood and especially its demi-god of a founder, Stein unmasks the dark conspiracy of the Darwinian elitists to silence critics and stifle academic freedom.

While watching it, I connected a few more dots to the efforts of those ascribing to extreme left and right ideologies to intimidate anyone daring to dissent from their orthodoxies; and though it's in their constitutions, mainliners don't like dissent anymore.

@#$%

Referring back to the second paragraph of the preceding section, I, uh, O.K., sigh, confess voting for Jimmy Carter once.

Carter fans don't like me picking on him.

They, uh, idolize him.

After all, they tell me, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Excuse me; but, uh, didn't Yasser Arafat also win it?

Sorry to bring that up, uh, Al.

My daddy asked when I said I was going to vote for him against Ford, "Do you know what's in a Jimmy Carter sandwich? A little peanut butter and a lot of baloney!"

Gosh, I don't like admitting it; but my daddy is right.

And just when you think he can't get any worse than his handling of the Moscow Olympics, not meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr. because Mr. Holier-than-Thou didn't want to sacrifice racist votes in his bid to become a Georgia state senator for his purported Christian principles, selling our best computer technology to the Soviets to punish 'em for invading Afghanistan, lack of spine vis-a-vis Iranian nutballs, practicing theology apart from Biblical revelation in his pathetic disputes with the SBC, pretending Christianity while talking like a thinly veiled Unitarian-Universalist (Sounds like so many mainline clergy!), causing a SBC President to confront him, "We are praying, Mr. President, that you will abandon secular humanism as your religion," etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum, he goes off to the Middle East, meets with Hamas, and says those Islamic savages are willing to be good neighbors to Israel.

Hello!

Earth to Jimmy! Earth to Carter!

Rivaling Jesse Jackson's need for photo-ops, President Carter evokes a truly persuasive voice from the past whenever he talks, "There he goes again!"

Well, at least he got one thing right when he was challenged about meeting with Hamas without help or approval from the current administration, "I'm just representing myself and the Carter Center. No one else."

Yes, you are...

@#$%

Speaking of Presidents, I guess one of the three finalists this time around will, uh, gulp, sigh, horror, be our next one unless the Democrats come to their senses at the convention and the Republicans copy 'em.

Be that as I hope it won't be, I would like an honest answer to these questions before November 4:

For HRC: If you can't tell the truth about anything now, how will we know you're telling the truth then?

For BHO: Are you gonna hang out with your funky friends in the White House?

For JM: Can you provide assurances that you won't need naps during Cabinet meetings?

Seriously.

@#$%

I have been accused of upsetting the peace of my mainline franchise by claiming it has departed from its Biblical, Christocentric, and constitutional moorings.

Interesting how truth is irrelevant to jingoists.

Going back to the first section of this KD, you can figure out why I pay no attention to 'em.

@#$%

A good friend working for a major corporation falling apart quicker than the Democrats' chance of recapturing the White House if they stick with HRC or BHO recounted a criticism from someone who doesn't like his intellectual consistency, "The problem with you is 2+2=4."

@#$%

I've been rather big-mouthed about remaining in my mainline franchise to be faithful; and you can read my latest rationalization in the 4/19/08 edition of www.presbyweb.com or Spring 2008 edition of The Layman.

While I am remaining rather than separating to be faithful, I cannot contend with accusations of apostasy in mainline denominations as I witness and work to counter 'em.

An extraordinarily clear, concise yet comprehensive, compelling, and conclusive disclosure of the apostasies in the PCUSA - which are mirrored in the other mainliners - has been provided by a faithfully feisty friend who is still young enough to think that her franchise's pulpiteers and pewsitters care enough to do anything about it.

Formatted as something of a bulletin insert, here it is:

Would you want to be a member of a Christian organization that...

...promotes the idea that Jesus is not the only
way to the Father?

...questions the inerrancy and even the authority
of Scripture?

...believes that it's okay to admit avowed atheists
into church membership?

...has an office in Washington, D.C. that
aggressively lobbies for abortion on demand?

...is interested in promoting the GLBT agenda,
even as far as ordination of officers in contrast
to what its ruling documents say?

...allows its staff to ignore clear mandates from
the ruling legislative body concerning
curriculum on the Bible and sex?

...schedules speakers who promote the denial of
Christ's atonement?

...schedules speakers who promote the idea of
Mary as a co-redeemer with Jesus?

...actively supports the efforts to remove "Under
God" from the pledge of allegiance?

...supports the efforts to remove the Ten
Commandments monuments from
courthouses?

...and so much more...

If you are a member of the PCUSA, you are
already a member of just such an organization.

Whoa!

It's true.

That's why some of us remain to be faithful as missionaries to the mainline while others separate to be faithful.

@#$%

If we're ready to handle the truth, now is a good time to read 1 John 1:5-10.

It's not for dolts.

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

April 17, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

9/11.

@#$%

Karen and Homer, my parents, and sister gave pictures, hats, and other memorabilia of the Twin Towers to me not long after 9/11.

I look at them every day because I want to be reminded Satan uses Islam to desolate and destroy.

Anyone who knows anything about the Islam of Muhammad and the Koran knows it is polemical by profession and practice; while those who suggest otherwise think elephants are mice with glandular problems.

@#$%

Well, there go some subscribers; especially the ones who like to pretend Islam is irenic and Muslim terrorists are aberrations of Islam.

While they'll miss out on the opportunity to help fund these KDs which will always be free anyway - look below in the 8th section for an offer which most will ignore or refuse as a way to send a serious hint akin to sales of my last book - people who really buy into the intellectual revisionism of that repulsive religion are about as gullible as Pennsylvanians who think HRC is one of 'em because she knocked down a beer with a chaser at the urging of the boys at the bar and shot a rifle behind pap's outhouse in Scranton.

If this keeps up, we'll end up with angry white women, grumpy old white guys, and a cast of unknowns who become more unappealing as they're more known as the, uh, primary constituencies of Election 2008's Presidential candidates.

@#$%

Jesus can't be blamed for Christians who act so antithetically to Him as attested in Holy Scripture.

Jesus invited, welcomed, included, and loved everybody to death so everybody could exist confidently in the assurance of living forever.

That's why I like Him being God.

@#$%

Muhammad can be blamed for Muslims - especially the cowardly terrorists who pick on civilian targets and those emotionally fragile ones who totally freak out over a few cartoons and start jumping up and down like Pentecostals on crack while roaming around like malnourished and mentally challenged vultures with blood, guts, and veins in their teeth - who are just following his example and pseudo-sacred literature.

Muhammad was a bloodthirsty warrior who embraced and encouraged brutalities to persuade and proselytize or exterminate.

That's why I'm so glad he's only a god or prophet for a god or whatever to the truly Godless.

@#$%

Only the intellectually dishonest, historically illiterate, spiritually impaired, and politically tuned but practically foolish Pollyannas floating through life like a Tiny Tim overdosed on St. John's Wort do not connect the dots of Islamic terrorism to Muhammad.

Too bad our government, media, and mainline churches are filled with 'em.

@#$%

A local mega which I have defended against the jealous criticisms of clergy living in its shadows has been making the news for being in dialogue with Muslims to identify "our" common ground.

Please.

That's like suggesting the Bears can wear green and yellow in 2008.

I don't think so.

Islam is as removed from the truth of Jesus and Christianity as defined in Holy Scripture as Paris Hilton's sexuality from Mother Teresa's.

It's like thesis #4 in Fifteen Secrets for Life and Ministry which nobody buys or reads because guys like JO know folks prefer salve to salt: "Trying to be rational with the irrational is illogical."

I used to think Muhammad just suffered from sunstroke.

That's not it at all.

He needed more Son.

O.K., I'd like you to go to your favorite Bible with our local mega and read 1 John 4.

@#$%

Here's the deal (go back to the second paragraph of the third section).

I don't charge anybody for KDs or the Metanoeite series; and I'm not going to start charging anybody for two reasons: (1) I've seen the sales for my last book and can take a hint; and (2) Despite what JO, PR, JM, BH, and too many others think who are living a lot more luxuriously than Jesus ever did off of what God gave them to give away, I can't charge for inspirations or indigestions - You decide! - because inspirations are from God and not for sale and indigestions are about as trustworthy as John Daly's last sobriety pledge.

Regardless, I'd like to pay off my Dodge Caliber before the parousia; and I've got about 12Gs of principle to go and I'm really getting stressed out.

I know what you're thinking.

"What if I send 12Gs and somebody else sends 12Gs and..."

First, if that happens, I'll give it away to someone for something which will honor Jesus.

Second, uh, this could be as depressing for me as the sales for my last book.

I almost forgot.

If you pay it off all by yourself, I'll stop using @#$%s to separate sections; so I look forward to hearing from my friends in California, Florida, Kansas City, and New Jersey who don't like the @#$%s.

See, I can take a hint.

Send your gifts to my boss Karen at FPC, 221 N. Main St., Belvidere, Illinois 61008.

@#$%

I'm serious about section 7; but, promise, I won't talk about it again unless, of course, I'm on the 4th floor of our most ethnic local hospital.

@#$%

Have you noticed how few Muslims speak out against what those really nasty Muslims do to people in the name of allah?

Have you ever talked to a member of America's Special Forces who has witnessed the barbarity of Muslims ministering to the unconverted?

Can you imagine Jesus leading the charge of a bloody crusade, throwing people into ovens, turning on the switch to fry somebody, tying dynamite to children and sending them into supermarkets to blow up non-combatants to make an ideological point, chopping off the heads of infidels on commercial television to appease His Father, or stripping old nuns and crucifying them to communion tables after mutilating them and making Hannibal Lechter look like Pee Wee Herman?

But you can imagine Muslims doing dirty dark deeds like that because they're just following their leader Muhammad.

And now my mom is going to write or call me seconds after reading this because she'll be afraid some Muslim wacko - so many suspects - so filled with the love of his prophet and god will show up at the first tee of Timber Pointe Golf Club to knock me off for telling the truth about 'em and prove to our government, media, and mainliners how irenic they really are.

Yeah, great religion.

Muslims really make me want to sing at Disney World, "It's a small world after all..."

@#$%

How the hell did it ever come to this?

Go back to section 6 - Is that one of those KD symbols which not many appreciate? - for the first clue.

More clues.

Chuck Colson wrote not too long ago, "We replaced truth with therapy."

Francis Schaeffer wrote from his deathbed, "Here is the great evangelical disaster - the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth. There is only one word for this - namely accommodation: the evangelical church has accommodated to the world spirit of the age."

J. K. Van Baalen wrote back in the 30s, "Cults...[e.g., Islam]...are the unpaid bills of the church."

Paul, who was very tight with the Lord, wrote even longer ago, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie."

Hmm.

Who is the father of lies?

Satan.

He uses lies to desolate and destroy.

And now, friends, you know how the hell it has come to this.

@#$%

George Orwell was right: "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act."

I'll stop now...to look at those reminders of 9/11.

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

April 15, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

Worship of the phallus symbolizes the empire's decline.

@#$%

Symbols betray substance.

Sometimes.

Not always.

@#$%

A marketing guy said in a church meeting, "Perceptions are reality."

I said, "No, reality is reality."

And the reality is he's really rich and I've got this plastic...

@#$%

Jung challenged Freud: "Cigars are phallic symbols."

"You're right," Freud retorted while drawing on an especially big one, "but they're also cigars."

@#$%

A subscriber and friend from Kansas City - those relationships aren't always complementary - wrote to express concern about the @#$%s which separate sections of KDs: "Are there any other symbols you can use besides the ones you start your KDs off with? I feel like I'm being cussed at! Why are these symbols needed?"

They're not needed.

As MR from the Red Sox would say, "I'm just Manny being Manny."

Hmm.

Maybe I should come up with something else.

Be that as it was and is and probably will be, here was my lame reply aka rationalization: "They are not intended as profanities but as profundities. It's my way of saying I could be wrong but here's what I'm thinking. I'm trying to provoke thought in the context of our confession. But I'm not cussin' at you or anyone else."

Aside from my head not swiveling like his when he preaches, I'm no JW.

I'm not big enough to GD anybody.

Besides, I'm really into grace.

It has a lot to do with the measure we give being related to the measure...

@#$%

My youngest son asked why the Republicans use an elephant as their symbol and the Democrats use a jackass as theirs.

Before I tell you what I said to him, go back and read the first sentence of the second section; and don't pay attention to the other one word sentences in this instance.

I said, "Just listen to HRC and BHO talk and you'll know why."

@#$%

HRC was drinking a beer in Pennsylvania.

There are more bars than churches in the Keystone State.

That has to symbolize something.

The bartender exhorted her to drink a shot as a chaser.

Initially, she declined; but the patrons egged her on.

She acquiesced.

Yeah, that's what we need - a President who caves into peer pressure.

Come to think of it, I knew some party girls in Pennsylvania...and...I'm not sure I'd want to put their itchy fingers near the button(s).

@#$%

JM's social security number is 3.

Adam and Eve are 1 and 2.

A friend in New Jersey is my source for that.

@#$%

Continuing on the symbolic stuff which you may have missed in the past few seconds like a Red Sox fan forgetting a couple of World Series wins in the last few years puts 'em only 30 something behind the Yankees, JM skipped the Compassion Forum at the fundie Messiah College on 4/13.

Maybe he didn't want to miss a moment of The Masters (pre, actual, and post).

I can dig it.

I did.

Or maybe it was just political. The Democrats need to face it. He's so far ahead. Why would he put himself on the spiritual stage? He could slip up and say something stupid like they did and it could come back to haunt him like it will for them. He can just watch golf for the next six months, let the others duke it out like blue devils swatting at tar heels, and then use what the loser said about the winner - not sure of the order of those designations - as the propaganda path to the Presidency.

Or maybe he's just not comfortable talking about his religion.

Maybe we should be concerned about someone who won't let us know what he thinks about the things above where...

Maybe he doesn't even think about...

Do we want a President who isn't close enough to God to talk about Him?

Wouldn't it be, uh, salvific to have a President who opens big or any meetings with the WWJD question?

@#$%

By the way, TW played as poorly as he can play and still finished second.

Those closet racists hoping he won't pass Jack before the next term in the White House expires are going to be as disappointed as MJ, PP, and JR with their plastic surgeons.

@#$%

Some hip churches don't have crosses because they don't want to turn off possible converts.

But they talk a lot about Jesus.

Most mainline churches have crosses because, uh, well, sigh, let me think, because, uh, they were put there along ago by people who believed in Jesus.

But they don't talk too much about Jesus.

Go back to the second section.

@#$%

I get lots of ED ads via cyberspace every day.

I swear - Oops! - there are more ED ads than Miller Lite, Clairol, UPS, FedEX, Coke/Pepsi, or Papa John's commercials combined on television these days.

Like the crumbling civilizations of history, we're obviously obsessed with the phallus.

@#$%

What's up with the Washington monument?

It doesn't look a bit like him.

Have you seen anything as ridiculous looking as that trophy at the Academy Awards?

And what's that babe in the Red Cadillac commercial really saying?

Why do they wear such skin-tight whatevers during sacred (sic) dance?

Will Election 2008 come down to sex, lies, and videotape?

Isn't the game good enough without the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders? Help us, Dan Rooney!

What do college and, uh, high school bump and grinding dance teams have to do with...?

Catch the drift?

While acknowledging the 6th paragraph of the 4th section, I see a pattern of pagan worship not unlike preceding empires which fell.

@#$%

JW's GD talk was all wrong.

It seems He doesn't need to do what we're doing to ourselves.

While I'm hoping He's listening to the Abrahams among us, I'm going to get out that cross.

Some symbols have a lot to say about, uh, election.

Sometimes.

Not always.

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

April 11, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

People who hate the Yankees should move to China.

@#$%

Think about it.

Why do people hate the Yankees?

Disingenuous rationalizers say, "I hate the Yankees because they buy the best players."

I don't think so.

It's unAmerican not to buy the best.

@#$%

Maybe people who hate the Yankees are communists; which would make them more comfortable in, uh, China.

@#$%

It could be a 10th commandment thing.

Americans really don't root for the underdog; unless, of course, they're the, uh, underdog.

A colleague and insufferable Dodgers fan gave a large plaque to me less than three years ago when I moved to where I am; and it hangs in my study boasting in big bold letters, "NEW YORK YANKEES! IT'S HARD TO BE HUMBLE!"

Going back to that Twiggy following Dolly Parton to the beach analogy, fans of the also-rans know Jesus is gonna return before they could ever dream/hallucinate about matching the Bronx Bombers' trophy case.

@#$%

I live in Belvidere, Illinois; which ain't exactly the Big Apple.

Despite the, uh, hallunications of White Sox fans, the Cubs are the big deal around here.

I like the Cubs.

I even wear one of their hats, which one of my best friends gave to me, while playing golf; especially when I'm playing poorly.

Sorry.

I love the Yankees.

Unlike that carpetbagging Senator who has a pathological problem with confessing real affinities and claims to be a Yankees fan despite growing up in Chicago which would be like Taiwan or Tibet rooting for Peking in the Olympics, I don't pretend allegiances; for if I claimed to be who I am not then nobody would trust me when I confessed who I am.

And that, by the way, is why I am part of the ABHRC movement.

I can deal with lefties and righties as long as they're straighties.

It's an, uh, Christian ethic.

@#$%

Who said we're not supposed to win?

You don't hear that kind of talk down in Chapel Hill or over in South Bend or up in Green Bay.

I never heard Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Lawrence Taylor, Mike Ditka, Willis Reed, the real Rocky, Ali, Larry Bird, Magic, Dr. J., Dean Smith, Michael Jordan, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, or any other winner say losing is O.K.

Jesus was a winner.

He beat death.

He said anyone can beat death by joining His team and following His playbook.

@#$%

Can you imagine - some folks reimagine lots of funky stuff - Jesus saying one step before the cross as prelude to the empty tomb, "Ah, that'll do...Finishing second in this spiritual war isn't that bad...I'll wait for somebody else to do it...Don't ask...Don't tell...Don't knock..."?

@#$%

Some folks are like that.

Yankees haters.

Some churches are like that: "Give of your less than best to the Master...We're a discount house of worship where the tithe is a tip of 2%...Dang, I'm happy to have inherited last year's legacy so I can stuff it in the casket when I go...Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free? Works for me!...O Master, let me ride in a Mercedes to show the world how sacrificial and humble I am..."

@#$%

I'd like to drive a BMW, own a Harley, play at Pebble Beach, and pay off the plastic.

So like Yankees haters and clergy who drive cars antithetical to the whole servant thing, I struggle with the 10th commandment too.

Uh, I struggle with a few others as well.

@#$%

Enough.

This isn't about the Yankees anyway.

It's about mainline pulpiteers and pewsitters.

You're supposed to win the world for Jesus.

And unless you lied when you became a cleric or member or didn't understand the questions of ordination and membership or changed your mind and don't have the integrity to move to China, you're in this to win as profiled in Jesus and prescribed in the Bible.

If not, you can move to China or go to...

I'll bet you're glad that ain't my call.

Don't be so huffy about it.

I'm glad it ain't your call.

It's better to stick with a winner like Jesus.



@#$%

Blessings and Love!

April 8, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

We had a special worship service last night to ordain and install a deacon who wasn't in town in February when we, uh, did the rest of 'em.

Just off the day before's homiletical offering and already preparing for the next one, I preached for just a few minutes on 2 Timothy 4:1-5 with illustrations from the last great President of Princeton and my home pastor.

@#$%

Gathering in his room on the 5th floor of the Hilton in Baltimore during a big franchise meeting where seminarians served as cheap labor (gofers), the last great President of Princeton said to Chris, Paul, Roger, and me, "I don't care what you do; but do something for Christ's sake!"

@#$%

My home pastor preached at my ordination on 5/8/77, "Be slow! Be steady! Be solid! Be for Jesus!"

@#$%

The last great President of Princeton and my home pastor have been home with Jesus for several years; but I don't think a day goes by without recalling what they said and trying to live up to Him.

@#$%

Did you notice their Christocentric charge?

Sadly, any connection between Jesus and most mainliners today is purely coincidental.

C'mon, don't be so defensive!

Aside from punctuating prayers with His Name occasionally, do you recall His Name coming up in any mainline meetings as the focus and filter for decision-making?

@#$%

BHO's pastor disaster is a mainliner.

HRC's youth pastor and continuing spiritual guru is a mainliner.

No wonder they don't talk too much about Jesus; and no wonder their voting records betray antagonism toward so many Christian ethics.

@#$%

I don't know anything about JM's pastor; but I know he's dead meat if he picks MR as his running mate.

For all of the good as well as bad reasons, America ain't gonna put a Mormon a heartbeat away from the button(s).

Of course, WJC does have a lot in common with Mormon men; which HR and CC think is irrelevant to Election 2008.

@#$%

I confess voting for GWB twice; but it's been all down hill for him since a pretty good showing around 9/11/01.

Yeah, he inherited a mess; but he seems to have added to it when it comes to important issues like the wallet and war.

When it comes to war, I don't get it. Have you checked the list of our so-called allies? Saudi Arabia? Hello! That's like Red Sox and Yankees fans sitting together around a campfire and singing Kum Ba Yah. I don't think so.

When GWB talks about Islam, it makes me think he's as ignorant as Democrats advertise.

When it comes to the wallet, I don't get it. What's wrong with this picture? Kuwait. Iraq. Saudi Arabia. Trillions of $ bailing out the Middle East. Big oil buddies. $4 a gallon. What's that song? "Everybody plays the fool, sometime..."

But considering the cast this time around, I'd probably vote for him again.

@#$%

You know that train that left the station without me?

I'm still trying to figure out how the greatest empire in the history of the planet ended up with this final three.

Can you yell, "Fore!"?

Another song comes to mind: "This is the end, my only friend, the end..."

@#$%

Gotta give it to the Democrats.

GWB hands Election 2008 to 'em and they're about to blow it as HRC and BHO go at it.

Commenting on the contextual politics of BHO's pastor disaster, a really smart lawyer in my neck of the woods - one of my deeply embedded sources - wrote: "Do you see the dynamics? The right wanted to create the perfect storm in the Democratic Party. WJC and HRC along with their sycophants are willing accomplices due to their desperation and the fact that they have pulled it out in the past (ML!). Though the Democrats should have steamrolled all the way into the legislative and executive branches (and eventually the courts with more appointments like RBG), they may very well lose the White House."

Prophetically, he went on, "I don't think BHO's pastor or faith will be as much an issue once he gets past the convention. If he gets shot down before then, the Democrats are going to be in a world of pain."

He concluded: "Extreme lefties and those Liberation Theology types will continue to be too strident. They will push BHO into a corner. If they were smart, they would cool their jets. It is like someone once said about the Palestinians: 'They never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.'"

But, of course, you read about this a long time ago in an early edition of KD which will be worth repeating as long as it makes me appear clairvoyant: JM will beat either HRC or BHO by a wider margin than RR's trouncing of JC; unless, of course, JM is as ignorant about Joseph Smith as GWB is about Mohammed.

@#$%

I was invited to open an art show with prayer in Clark, New Jersey about 30 years ago.

Parenthetically, I really miss Clark's Frank Bahl, Ed Bombalski, and Fred Roll who remain elder elders if you catch my drift; and they defended me after I prayed at the art show.

Moretheless, I ended my prayer, as I always do which even some mainliners still do by rote, in the Name of Jesus.

The person who invited me to pray said she wouldn't have invited me to pray if she knew I prayed in the Name of Jesus.

She thought I was a typical, uh, mainliner.

She said some nasty things about me for praying in the Name of Jesus which got back to the elders of the church; whereupon the aforementioned elder elders said spontaneously if not in unison, "Isn't that what Christian pastors are supposed to do?"

Maybe they knew the last great President of Princeton and my home pastor.

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

April 7, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

It's shocking to native Americans to hear Columbus discovered America.

@#$%

Kurt Vonnegut, responsible for that last line and persuading me that lots of folks live in the ozone layer of reality, wrote in Palm Sunday, "An Indianapolis cousin of mine, who was also a high school classmate, did very badly at the University of Michigan while I did badly at Cornell. His father asked him what the trouble was, and he made what I consider an admirable reply: 'Don't you know, Father? I'm dumb!' It was the truth."

@#$%

My mom told me not to say anybody's stupid; but with so many glaring examples...

It's the truth.

People don't go to hell for being stupid.

They just cause or allow a lot of it.

@#$%

As members of Rock Valley [Junior] Tackle Football or anybody else who's hung out with me for any length of time will tell you, I don't like, tolerate, or suffer racists.

I expose 'em.

Go back to KDXIII.

@#$%

I was interviewed for a predominantly black church almost 20 years ago.

I was asked what I think of black churches by a black member of the search committee.

I said, "God doesn't like black churches...[and after a dramatic pause to make sure I caught everybody's attention yet resuming quickly enough to prove I knew something about rhetoric as well as personal safety]...or white or brown or yellow or red churches. Jesus did not come to enable homogeneous groupings of socioeconomic individuation. He came to break down the barriers of class, color, and culture. If your church isn't big enough for the other colors, it ain't big enough for Jesus."

If I have to go on, you're a Christological and Biblical illiterate and could be related to Vonnegut's cousin.

Or as a black judge who was a victim at Tuskegee said to me when I whined about a black woman hating me because I'm white said, "Don't pay any attention to her! She's just ignorant."

With apologies to my mom, some people are stupid.

@#$%

When I was in seminary, my two closest buddies made a pact with me.

If the KKK ever showed up near any one of us, the other two of us would show up to expose the antiChrist in 'em.

One of 'em died in 1994.

The other, well, uh, he's, uh, learned to, uh, accommodate, uh, apostasies to take the, uh, longer, uh, approach to, uh, uh, uh...

Go back to the second section.

I've had to team up with newer buddies for saltshaking.

@#$%

Some folks forget thesis #1 in a book which has never threatened anything written by RW or JO: "Remembering you're going to live a lot longer with Jesus than anybody else makes establishing life's priorities a no-brainer."

@#$%

Committing yourself to anyone or anything other than Jesus for the meantime will prove to be, uh, stupid in the end.

@#$%

Speaking of stupidity, a Chicago pastor just rationalized BHO's pastor disaster like this: "We don't know if the United States is willing to elect a black candidate to its highest office. But it is already clear that many Americans are not interested in understanding the prophetic preaching of a black minister."

O.K., let's talk about context; because that line was written by a guy who claims the AIDS and 9/11 accusations and GD talk have to be understood in JW's "larger point: that governments aren't God, that governments lie and therefore can't be trusted - only God can be trusted."

Sounds cool.

But knowing the author has tried to rationalize so many apostasies apart from Biblical revelation in his franchise, I really can't trust his judgment on the pastor disaster either.

The AIDS accusation sounds stupid; but considering Tuskegee...

The 9/11 accusation sounds stupid; but, O.K., the train has left the station on lots of stuff without me and...

Stretching me to the limits of rationalization to provide the possibility of some kind of metaphor that makes sense, I'll listen some more on those accusations; though I doubt I'll ever agree with such, uh, stupidities.

But GD talk is more than stupid.

It borders on blasphemy.

God inspired the older pastor Paul to tell the younger pastor Timothy, "God wants everybody to be saved."

Besides, we're not big enough to judge.

That's God's business.

Or as that old black woman cited in KDXIII urged me, "You love 'em. Let God judge 'em."

@#$%

I say and write a lot of stupid things; but I'd never ask God to damn anybody.

That's going too far.

I'm sure, as my good friend who is JW's good friend and even the rationalizing pastor in Chicago who has done so much damage to the PCUSA have said, JW's a decent fellow who's just become a caricature of his worst moments.

Fortunately, Jesus came to save us from such times.

So it makes more sense to say, "God bless America...and you, me, and, gulp, them!

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

April 4, 2008

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

My wife says my obsession with Election 2008 is revolting.

I hope so.

It's only the most important election for the empire since, uh, revolutionary days.

@#$%

Pulpiteers and pewsitters who suggest politics are not the Church's province have spent so much time in the church that they can't tell the difference anymore.

Parenthetically, the trick - Who's the clever trickster? - in the mainline church is to say nothing about anything eloquently for the sake of job security at the expense of eternal security.

While I know mainline clergy must have already memorized Holy Scripture because they're rarely seen carrying Him around, only the Biblically illiterate say stupid things intimated in the first sentence of this section. God's people have always been the conscience of the state with Jesus as the model and the Bible as the manual.

@#$%

I've never endorsed a candidate for any office; though somebody in Pennsylvania once listed my name on his propaganda as such.

Some people got mad at me for doing what I hadn't done.

Same old same old...

Except for my favorite mayor, I'll probably never do that; but anyone who loves God as revealed in Jesus and the Bible has a responsibility to tell candidates and incumbents to measure up.

Apostle Don Lyon, a braveheart who understands the call to advance the Kingdom even if it inhibits personal kingdom-building, likes to talk about casting a "righteous" vote. He says, 'I don't tell people who to vote for; but I tell them how to vote: righteously.

Simply, when a Christian votes, she or he casts support for the candidate most likely to honor the Lord as revealed in Jesus and Holy Scripture.

Duh.

Then we pray.

Yeah, I know we pray before, during,...

@#$%

Considering the preceding, Election 2008 can be really, uh, revolting.

Manny, Moe, or Jack?

Moe, Larry, or Curly?

Trinities of the Apocalypse?

Help us, Jesus!

@#$%

Of course, we've got to vote for somebody.

What's the mantra of situation ethics?

The lesser of...?

Hmm.

But isn't the lesser still...?

Whoa.

@#$%

50 Cent (sic) and Jane Fonda have thrown their support to BHO.

That should help...HRC and JM.

@#$%

Let's see now.

One of the candidates is a Yankees fan from Chicago, New York Senator from Arkansas, Marine wannabe, totally aware of what's going down in global affairs except, uh, for what's going, uh, on down the hall with the intern, a big fan of MJ and the Stones who are great role models for our next President, just like Rocky which means we can throw out "Hail to the Chief" for, uh, her theme song, expert on ducking sniper fire, and expert on, uh, glory, alleluia, everything.

Oops.

My bad.

I just don't understand the context, nuance, and misspokenness of it all.

@#$%

Yeah, it's revolting.

@#$%

If you're still reading, it's all a metaphor; and some have already figured that out.

@#$%

You want revolting.

Two sister mainline franchises in an increasingly uncivil war - PCUSA and EPC - keep accusing each other of sheep-and-property stealing and other nasty things.

And to prove their corporate righteousness for their jingoistic lemmings, they're going to secular courts to work out their differences.

How...secular.

Great witness fellahs!

I'll bet folks are just lining up at your doors to get in.

Not!

Yeah, in a world of such chaos, I want to come to your churches for some more.

Did you hear that?

Not so distant thunder.

@#$%

It's kinda like the marriage of Hosea and Gomer.

Hosea (God) and Gomer (people) have this marriage.

Hosea wants Gomer to stop whoring around.

She doesn't.

Everything goes to...

But things can get better if...

And that's why God's people are involved in...

@#$%

Hans Kung said the agenda for contemporary Christianity is to discover what was originally meant before it was covered with the dust and debris of two thousand years of ecclesiastical history.

If you'd like to learn more about more and more and more of God's people who are trying to figure that out for today, get a copy of George Barna's Revolution.

Or, better yet, you can just read the Bible.

@#$%

Blessings and Love!