September 3, 2009

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

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Speaking of Kathie, she's among the saints in First's Family of Faith who actually understands the rights/responsibilities of freedom and need to drop control needs to enable wineskins to expand.

Parenthetically (Dang, I love that word!), there have been several requests for printed copies of last Sunday's summary message on "Freedom" in the series on biker culture as metaphor and challenge to the church.

While a printed version - expanded and raw, rough, real, and maybe even redemptive - will be available in my forthcoming book, I'm not making summary printed versions available because of copyright concerns; and, besides, if you get a copy now, maybe you won't buy the book when it comes out and I'll never pay off my old bills, pay for the expansion of the church where I'm an indentured servant while others wait for somebody to cough up the cash in their pockets, help family and friends, and adopt a Road King (lean). But you can order the disk that's available too cheaply by calling (815) 544-6402; and if you're really creative, you can send it to Oprah or Mancow so she/he can plug the book when it comes out!

Getting back to Kathie, she's KD's webmaster (Click on KD Staff) and occasional therapist when the irregulars, irascibles, angsters, and others with the need to transfer their pejorative pathologies to an easy target like me get to, uh, me.

Anyway, she wrote a note to me for you:

The staff of Kopp Disclosure would like to thank our many loyal
readers for spreading the word about our website. The number of
readers is increasing each week and for that we praise God!

Since starting the official KD website in November 2008, KD has
absorbed the majority of the costs associated with running and
maintaining the website. We have received a few generous
donations that have helped offset some of that cost and we
are greatly appreciative for those.

We are asking for our readers to prayerfully consider a donation
so that KD can continue shedding light and salting the church and
world. 35% of all donations received are given to Christian
ministries.

You can donate via the paypal button on www.koppdisclosure.com
or contact me for our mailing address. Another great way to help
is to remember to use the Amazon.com link at the top of our
website when making purchases over the internet. Any purchase
made from Amazon.com that is linked through our website will
generate 4% to 6% in referral fees for KD.

Is she good or what?

C'mon, kick in!

Unlike Democrats, Republicans, and other mainliners, we don't ask that often.

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Continuing on the theme of money-grubbing, Jesse Jackson has been in Rockford, Illinois for longer than necessary to investigate/mediate/instigate responses to a fatal shooting by two police officers.

I feel sorry for JJ.

Rockford is a suburb of Belvidere.

It's hard for him to find photo ops these days with what's-his-name making live speeches on just about everything 24/7 and hogging the media's attention/affection/idolization.

So he came to Rockford to git sum.

JJ kinda reminds me of Rick Warren.

Time has passed 'em by.

JJ thought he was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s successor and RW thought he was gonna become America's next chaplain a la Billy Graham.

JJ blew it by living the lifestyle of the rich and famous and RW's popularity has been plummeting about as quickly as PBHO's since that silly prayer at the inaugural.

Of course, they've done alright for themselves.

JJ has had lots of girlfriends and RW has sold trillions of more books than me.

Be that as it was, I was wondering how folks felt about JJ's latest epiphany.

The responses have exceeded requests for that disk mentioned up top.

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From a Pentecostal in Belvidere's suburb: "I think JJ finds a mole hill and preaches it into a mountain."

After that wonderful metaphor of a start, she writes, "If the shooting was uncalled for and if the police officers were out of line, I believe justice will be served. Our Mayor had already called for an outside investigation before the Jackson team rode into town. To walk into a city and proclaim that an injustice was done when you have no prior knowledge of any of the parties involved and without a proper investigation is looking for bias."

Then she gets feisty: "When the news stations and Rockford Register Star start referring to a criminal as a 'victim' and describes him as being 'gunned down,' we
have a serious problem. The fact that this young man was a criminal, had a prior record, and was running away from the police has slipped the minds of Jackson and people who think like him...I am in total agreement with the Mayor when he says, 'We are a community that can solve its own problems.'"

She concludes, "Mr. Jackson's presence here brings to mind a lawyer chasing an ambulance. What this situation needs is a uniting force; not someone to stir up more division like JJ has done. It's always all about race with him. If you support the police, he says you're a racist. If you support the victim, you're righteous. I will be grateful when this young man is laid to rest and JJ goes back to Chicago."

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Some quick hits from around the country before longer commentaries!

A pastor in Illinois: "When you don't have anything better to do, when you have no perceivably useful gifts, or when no one cares about you, your position, your titles, your history, your name-dropped relationships and your coalitions, you have to create a whirlwind around yourself to feed your ego. This is Jesse Jackson. He goes where he can stir things up and people will turn a camera on him; because if he just sits at home, nobody gives a ___ about him or his opinions. He has about as much personal relevance to our world as a vacuum tube does to an iPhone."

A political science high school teacher in Illinois: "I didn't think it's as poor as previous visits to other places (e.g., Decatur) where JJ said it was a good black man against bad white police. He seems to have toned down his rhetoric and seems to be looking for the truth this time."

A football official in Rockford: "I think JJ coming to town made this a racial issue; which it really wasn't. It was an ethical issue and a police enforcement issue."

From Maryland: "I am not a JJ follower; but my take has always been that one of the purest expressions of our American rights is the freedom to make an ___ of oneself...JJ has made a career out of it."

A pastor in Florida: "JJ is there to espouse opinions and half-___ed rhetoric that are antithetical to traditional American and orthodox Christian belief and practice. JJ is a self-serving, self-promoting race-baiter whose only consideration is how some event affects his income."

A retired pastor in California: "I don't live in Rockford anymore; but I remember JJ visiting Rockford during the Kerry/Bush campaign for President. JJ campaigned openly in black churches. Imagine if someone had done that for Bush in white churches! That would have caused an investigation! JJ is a demagogue; and cannot be trusted with any public policy. If he is for it, I am against it. If he thinks the policemen are guilty, I think they're innocent."

A major distributor of several newspapers in the Midwest: "I suspect the amount of JJ's compassion for the unfortunate and other victims is directly related to the amount of publicity the incident can generate. Typically, a significant news event comes first, generally involving race, and JJ comes next."

A news reporter in Pennsylvania: "Bringing in JJ to investigate a shooting is like bringing in J. Edgar Hoover to investigate communists. The outcome is already predetermined or he wouldn't even show up. The racists are empowered by PBHO. The liberal media aids and abets them. Please show me JJ's detective education and skills. Zippo! He's got a mouth and rhetoric. That's it! I'm just disappointed Al Sharpton didn't show up with him. If the circus is coming to town, it's time to send in all the clowns!"

My dad in Pennsylvania: "I know nothing of the situation; but years of watching JJ has proven his dedication to promoting racial disharmony."

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"I do not know the facts," writes a professor in Pennsylvania, "so I cannot say whether JJ should 'investigate' or not; however, I do know that JJ and others in the so-called 'leadership' of the civil rights movement are too anxious to blame police in such cases..."

"JJ," he continues, "is from that part of the civil rights movement that shows up late, stirs up trouble, makes a big splash for the cameras, and then leaves a town after prompting riots and racist killings in their wake."

His conclusion: "JJ is part of that civil rights movement. It is very much in his interest, as it is in that of Al Sharpton, Reverend Wright, and PBHO, to keep the pot stirring. PBHO's too quick condemnation of the Cambridge Police being a case in point. They still think the world is Mississippi, 1964, a scene out of In the Heat of the Night."

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"I tend to support the police," writes an Illinois high school English teacher.

"However," she notes, "I worry about any officer who's been involved in more than one shooting...They can be jaded and often act like a vigilante. I hope that was not the case here."

"However," she adds, "I also think it's interesting that even the victim's mother said this was not a race issue. It may have been excessive force, but she did not think it was race."

Getting to JJ, "I cannot help but think his presence just reinforces the idea to the community as well as nation that it was racially based. That doesn't do anyone any favors. As the radio broadcaster Ken DeCoster pointed out, JJ is not a medical examiner or coroner. So why does his opinion on how the shooting took place matter?"

She ends, "I'm just afraid that sometimes the presence of someone like JJ creates more problems than it solves."

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From a very influential leader in Rockford, "I was in most of the meetings and will speak a little at the funeral today..."

Always fair and balanced, he says, "JJ has some good ideas like having the banks that were bailed out start refinancing mortgages...He says we must quit sending all of our jobs overseas...He wants government to fix the fatherlessness and unraveling of the family..."

And so on...

I guess JJ had a bigger agenda in going to Rockford.

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A pastor in another suburb of Belvidere reflects, "I had a professor who was a prominent player in the civil rights movement...She had great disdain for JJ; telling us about how JJ got a hold of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s blood-stained shirt, wiped it on his own, and then brazenly went around telling everybody how he held MLK in his arms until he died and how MLK passed along his dream and mantle to him."

He says, "JJ's whole life has been spent trying to get in front of cameras. He has, will, and will continue to do everything he can to advance his most important agenda: himself. Any move on his part is driven by that sole purpose: 'How can I advance myself?'"

"By the way," he ends, "my professor, unlike JJ, really loved Jesus with all her heart, bore the fruit of the Spirit, and is now home with the Savior."

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A confessional pastor in California chimed in, "I voted by write-in for JJ twice. Clearly, I'd listened too much to the ideals of his rhetoric; and not discerned some of his lower-based motives - like his instinctive suspicion of police. As a former cop who has been involved in more 'police involved deaths' than I care to remember, but knowing at every level of my being that in each and every case the right thing was done by the cops, I find myself unreceptive to JJ's Rockford investigation."

Conclusion: "JJ's visit to Rockford? Don't know the details, but suspect little good will come from this visit unless his investigation is supported and welcomed by the officers of the police department."

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A computer dude who is very active in Illinois youth sports: "Do we know all the facts of this event? No! Will anyone ever know all the facts? No! Is the truth being said because of the race card being played? Very unlikely!"

"The event," he laments, "is very sad. Was there another option besides deadly force? Probably, but with the hearsay that the offender was reaching for the officer's gun, they probably did what they did to protect themselves. If the offender was innocent, why did he run? Nobody knows."

Turning his attention to JJ, "Would he be here if the tables were turned? I think everybody knows the answer to that. I am not racist by any means but we all get very tired of seeing things like this blown up in our faces and all it does is make the community we all live in feel very insecure about our neighbors...Justice does need to be served, but let the officials that do this for a living make these decisions and not somebody from the outside."

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From another pastor in Belvidere's suburb, "I was at the clergy meeting and the rally with JJ on Sunday...I am always concerned about his agenda. His people pass out envelopes to collect money and to join his PUSH organization at every meeting."

Continuing, "He speaks peace but his presence creates just the opposite...I wish he hadn't come; but we'll deal with the mess that he's made when he goes back to Chicago."

"My greater concern," he adds, "is the Nation of Islam and the New Life Movement that have had a lot of exposure during this thing..."

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An Oregon businessman writes, "I hadn't heard about his visit...but I have little positive regard for JJ...I question his academic credentials...I question his qualifications as a clergyman...I question his objectivity and color-blindedness...I question the legitimacy of his organization as a 501(C)3 and believe his capacity to stir up trouble is the main reason he hasn't been prosecuted for violations of provisions of that non-profit tax category."

"In the corporate world in which I operate," he notes, "JJ's main function is as a shakedown artist. He's done it to my company!"

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A former Baptist pastor who is making better money as a lawyer in the Keystone State observes, "The church was a different place when and where I grew up. I was taught to stand for the truth against the lie and for the good over evil even if that means standing against authority; but that same church teaching taught me to respect the civil authorities..."

He admits, "I have no idea what JJ intends to do in Rockford. He has, in the past, been pulled too far to the side of standing for his truth and rights over respecting civil authorities. As a lawyer who sees these matters from the side of the accused and the victim, I see some issues in the black sub-culture that are harmful to the entire culture and extremely harmful to all African-Americans. First, there is the assumption that any authority expressed over a black man is based on race. That hyper-sensitivity teaches young black men to grow up in fear and causes police of all races to approach young black men with fear and deadly consequences. Second, most African-American communities see cooperation with civil authority as cultural treason..."

"On another note," he concludes, "as PBHO continues to fail, the blame cry will be that white racists conspired to cause his failure because of his race. I don't think I am over-thinking this; but the risk of his failure is a new generation of racial violence that we haven't seen in 40 years."

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An engineer for one of America's vanishing auto-makers asserts, "When people stand back and let due process take its course because it is just cleaner to stay out of it, evil prevails."

He insists, "JJ takes a bad rap because he never admits the wrong of people that he defends; however, I respect anyone who has the balls to question due process when they know due process is not serving justice. JJ will do that!"

Taking it a step further, "We are surrounded by weak and gutless people who call themselves leaders. JJ is not one of them. Are there dirty police? Absolutely! Are there dirty cops in Rockford? We'll see! But if JJ hadn't come, we'd never know. Go JJ!"

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Finally, from California: "I have direct experience in the arena of officer involved shootings. I used to reach a snap judgment that the shootings were righteous...Shootings are almost always more complex than they appear at the outset...and the aftermath of a shooting, particularly of a racial minority or social misfit, will always contain knee-jerk suspicions of racism or brutality."

"The culture of law enforcement," he reports, "is to lock down the situation...The community wants answers instantly; having no understanding about the snail's pace of a post-shooting investigation. As the community whips itself into a frenzy, the investigation is accused of unnecessary delays and a cover-up. This is rarely true."

From the inside, he continues, "There is pride in the police force that they can and will do a good job. They resent the smears...The call for an independent investigation is resented...An independent investigation is a good way to deflect the focus of attention. However, it should be a rare choice based on the sense of evidence which warrants it."

Getting to JJ, "So what about JJ? JJ is a shakedown artist who has to get his 'minority advocate' card punched on a regular basis. This gives him gravitas as an activist to perpetuate the victim mentality of his constituents. That mentality is what mires them in the economic and social backwater of America much more than overt racism..."

"JJ," he claims, "is a lightening rod for the media, who are his willing lapdogs. He is a mantra-chanting mouthpiece for the overstated and outdated claims of black oppression. And he gets away with it. His is not a pastoral presence because he almost always causes division..."

"My only guarantee," he predicts, "is that on the criminal side, the cops will probably be found justified. Then there will be a civil trial and the city will be made to pay $100,000 for 'wrongful death.' I have seen this happen many times...JJ can get a 'win' for his appearance and move on to shaking down some more corporations for more money..."

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In short, pray for Belvidere's suburb.

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Blessings and Love!

Send $ to Kathie via www.koppdisclosure.com!