Barney Wiget's Blog, page 34

An “Assault” on Clear Thinking for the Common Good

I was fasting the news this weekend in order to take a break from all the insanity in the world when inadvertently I heard about yet another mass shooting with an assault type rifle. I made an exception and broke the fast for this one story and decided I’d brave the flak I’ll certainly get for bringing this up yet again.

Seven more dead and along with twenty-two others who were injured, 17-month-old Anderson Davis was hit by shrapnel in her chest. She now has a hole in her bottom lip and tongue and her front teeth were knocked out. She survived.

I don’t care if you think I’m playing on your emotions, because if this doesn’t break your heart, nothing will! I have two granddaughters, who if this happened to them, I don’t know how my heart would survive it. Would I go out and get an assault rifle as a means of protection from other assault rifle owners? Not in a million years.

Our Founding Fathers gave us the right to bear arms in a time of muskets, in order to protect ourselves against a runaway government. They did not foresee a time when the U.S. government would sport the largest and gnarliest military in history or when one person could kill dozens of people in the span of seconds thanks to toxic ideas and an assault weapon. It does not have to be this way.

Yes, we do need to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and most dangerous citizens. Yes, we need much, much better background checks. And we need high capacity magazines off the market as well. But these particular weapons, the assault-type rifles, have to go.

For those of you programmed to react to this kind of talk with the trope, “Hide your guns. They’re coming for them!” switch to another station. I’m only advocating that AR’s be banned, not your hunting rifle or your target-practicing pistol.

I have much respect for the well over 200 Christian leaders who crafted and signed the “Advent Declaration on Gun Violence,” in which they they state, among many other biblically based, clear headed things: “We call on our governments to implement the comprehensive prohibition of civilian ownership of assault-type guns.”

Since Americans own more guns per capita than residents of any other country by a factor of well over twice as many as second place Yemenis, it seems we could afford to give up a few, at least this category of them used for assaulting mass amounts of American citizens.

Will banning AR’s keep all mass shootings from happening? Of course not, but it’s a beginning. We gotta start somewhere, right? In my opinion banning these murder machines that can kill a lot of people in a short amount of time is a great place to begin! They had no place in the hands of citizens to begin with.

If you have one and love shooting it at the range or hunting with it, I’m truly sorry, but it’s time to find another gun for your hobby, and dare I say, possibly even another hobby altogether. I had a 22, a Winchester 30-30, and a 410 shotgun as a kid. They were fun until I gave them up to pursue other pastimes.

To be honest, it wasn’t really the guns themselves, but my college bills that inspired their sale. The guns, my albums, and a few baseball cards were pretty much all I had at the time to sell. I got over my gun fetish in the same way I got motorcycles and marijuana out of my system. I’m not bummed about it though. Now I have granddaughters, a few books that I’ve been able to lug from place to place, and a guitar that my church gave me back in 1986. What else could a man need?

There are certain people who shouldn’t be able to own or use a gun and there are certain guns that, in my opinion, no one should own. Is that not logical, or is the NRA too much in your head––as in the case of the Texas Governor who passed legislation the very day after this shooting to loosen gun laws. You read it right––“loosen” the laws for gun owners.

Years ago they banned cigarette companies from advertising on TV or radio for the sake of young people and public health in general. Though some of you are too young to remember it but there was once the manly Marlboro man who became an icon of past. Yet, now Remington claim it’s an AR-15 that will make a “man” of you and they say it with impunity in any media they choose! So we’re saying that it’s not OK to promote cancer sticks that can only kill you (second hand smoke notwithstanding) but it’s OK to advertise and sell AR-15s that can snuff out the lives of a lot more people in one fell swoop, all in the name of proving you’re a real man?

This is not a list of all the U.S. mass shootings since 2012. These are just the ones where assault rifles where used:

June 20, 2012: 12 dead, 58 injured at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
14, 2012: 27 dead including the shooter’s mother, 20 students and six teachers — in Newtown, Conn.
June 7, 2013: 5 dead and 3 injured at a home in Santa Monica, Calif.
March 19, 2015: 1 dead and 2 injured on a street in Little Water, N.M.
May 31, 2015: 2 dead and 2 injured at a store in Conyers, Ga.
Oct. 31, 2015: 3 dead on a street in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Dec. 2, 2015: 14 dead and 21 injured in San Bernardino, Calif.
June 12, 2016: 49 dead and 50 injured at an Orlando nightclub.
Oct. 1, 2017: 58 dead and hundreds injured at a music festival in Las Vegas.
Nov. 5, 2017: 26 dead at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
Feb. 14, 2018: 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Aug. 4: 20 dead in El Paso, Texas
Aug. 4: 9 dead in Dayton, Ohio
Aug. 31: 7 dead in Odessa, Texas

I realize, by posting this I’m painting a huge target on my back (pun definitely intended), but please feel free to chime in. Whether you agree with me or not please be sure to read what I have actually said and not what you assume.

Read also: Tired of Waiting for the “Right Time” to Talk About Guns!
Read also:  How US gun culture compares with the world in five charts
Read also:   Advent Declaration on Gun Violence

Vulnerability and Mutual Trust

My general rule of thumb is to convey the radical cost of accepting or rejecting the gospel at a level commensurate with the trust I’ve built with someone. Otherwise it feels like I’m shouting at them from across the chasm to come over to our side. Once they trust me they’ll be more apt to let me come close enough to take them by the hand and lead them over the bridge.

Rahab’s trust in the scouts factored into her confidence in the redemptive red rope. I suspect it had something to do with their mutual vulnerability. When they met, Rahab, as well as the scouts, were desperate and in danger. They trusted her to hide them and she trusted them to return for her and her family. Vulnerability and mutual trust are at the foundation of any good friendship.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

“Why me?”

We’re in charge of requests, not results. Results are God’s department.

I don’t think God’s waiting for us to wince enough when we pray or to use certain spiritual formulas (which tend to be more magical than spiritual). Donald Miller writes, “Formulas seem much better than God because formulas offer control; and God, well, He is like a person, and people, as we all know, are complicated.”

So why does God heal one and not another? Why does he sometimes heal cancer and sometimes not? God does what he does—usually without explanations or reasons that are apparent to us. He is who he is, and he doesn’t need to explain his logic to us.

Whenever I cycle through the “Why me?” attitude, which depends on my mood when I wake up, I hear God’s response: “Why not you? Would you rather someone else get sick?”

That silences me for a moment. “Okay, you have a point. But make some people well. Please.”

“Perpetual springtime is not allowed…You have been treated with a severe mercy.” CS Lewis

– Originally published in The Other End of the Dark: A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway

Unfair!

When our kids were young and complained that something we did or didn’t do was “unfair,” I usually gave the stock parental response: “Who said it was supposed to be fair? Did I ever say that life was fair?” I don’t think they bought it, but it quieted them for the moment. Then when the sun was obscured in my own life, I was vexed by the unfairness of it all. Though I knew that God didn’t promise “fair,” my initial visceral reaction was to cry, “Foul! Unfair!”

I think at the core of this issue of “fairness” in the universe is how we think about God. If we believe that he owes us something because we’re such good people, then, when he doesn’t pay up, we cry, “Unfair!” But I haven’t seen anything in the Bible that supports the idea that I’m entitled to anything from the Almighty.

Friend, I am not being unfair to you… Don’t I have the right to do what I want with (what is) my own…? Jesus

Grace gives me the opposite of what I deserve, so when I toy with the idea that God is in my debt, it helps me to remember that I’m the servant and he’s the served.

– Originally published in The Other End of the Dark: A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway

“The Chosen One”?

Welcome into the frightening demagogic mind:

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Too much to be attributed to coincidence, the very next day after Root’s statement, the president turned, looked into the sky, and said, “I am the Chosen One!” Call it a declaration of supremacy or a Freudian slip. Whatever you like.  See for yourself and come to your own conclusion.

As Michael Gerson said, “At some point, arrogance is so extreme and delusional that it can only be expressed in blasphemy.”

By way of contrast, note the right response to being flattered with allusions of deity:

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.  

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Acts 14:11-15

Do I think Root actually dubbed Mr. Trump the Messiah? No. But when the president goes out of his way to thank him, quoting him verbatim for the compliment, and then looking into the sky and saying, “I am the Chosen One” is, if not blasphemous, incredibly pompous, disgusting, and offensive. This narcissistic declaration implies resistance to his will is disloyalty to God and country.

If this had been said in some other cultures a person could get jailed or worse for offending the religious right. (I suggest nothing of the kind here. I’m just making a point about how distasteful Mr. Trump’s words were.) Problem is our country’s “Religious Right”––the camp that claims sole proprietorship of righteousness––has no compunction about these sort of bellicose declarations of their favorite son. That to me is as disgusting as the incident itself!

Following his visit to the grieving families from the El Paso shootings: “The love for me,” he boasted, “and my love for them was unparalleled.” That’s not only insensitive; it’s insane! Where are his advisers? Where is Congress and his inner circle when he’s in need of being reeled in from swimming in lunacy? “His counselors are now flunkies,” says Gerson. “The proof of their loyalty is not found in the honesty of their opinions but in the regurgitation of his insanity.”

“It is their public duty to say that foolish things are foolish, that insane things are insane, that bigoted things are bigoted. On growing evidence, their failure to do so is abetting the country’s decline into farce.”

“Mental health — very important,” said President Trump before boarding Marine One the other day. Can’t argue with that! “Never would the interests of the United States have been better served by a louder helicopter,” said Gerson.

When I was twelve, John Lennon said the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.” Though I had absolutely no Christian influence and wouldn’t have for another five years, I was so offended by the remark I boycotted my favorite band for about a year! Though Jesus was not on my radar at all, and whether or not Lennon meant anything “spiritual” by it, his words bothered me. Now that Jesus is decidedly on my radar, and since control over the plain meaning of English words is not a presidential power, Mr. Trump’s comments, both on Twitter and on camera are deeply offensive to me and I believe they should be at very minimum distasteful to all those who identify as Christians.

I appeal to anyone with a functioning conscience, especially my Jesus-following brothers and sisters, who actually believe there is a “Chosen One,” whose name isn’t Trump. It’s at his feet that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he alone is Lord!

For the love of God and for your own good if you’re on the train called Trump, jump off immediately! If you’ve already jumped, spread the word that the train is on a reckless course!

What are your thoughts about this? Do you think I make too much of Mr. Trump’s words and actions? Does it even matter that the so-called leader of the free world says and does such things? Is it right, in your opinion, to speak  out about our elected officials in this way or should we just pray and trust that God will work it all out?

Safe People with a Dangerous Message

Good witnesses are safe people with a dangerous message. We’re safe because we’re real and genuinely care about what’s best for people. The message, on the other hand, is dangerous because when Jesus moves in he takes over. He knocks down the walls and replaces all the furniture. Receiving him is dangerous and rejecting him is even more so.

Some people begin their evangelistic interactions by pointing out what’s wrong with their victims. I prefer, if they don’t trust me yet, to start somewhere else. It’s not that I’m afraid to share the bad news (of sin and judgment), which makes the good news (of salvation) necessary. It’s that I suspect they’ll be less apt to hear the bad news from someone they don’t trust.

When a new acquaintance tells you how hammered they got over the weekend and woke up next to someone they don’t remember meeting, though your sin-o-meter is triggered and you’re tempted to quote Ezekiel chapter and verse, unless absolutely prompted by the Spirit, don’t. Yes, speaking the truth in love is a thing, but even Jesus resisted the temptation to tell people everything he knew.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

Contemplate the Excellent

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

The kind of “excellence” about which Paul speaks here has to do with moral excellence. It’s not about students doing an excellent job on their math exam or someone’s excellent singing performance on stage. It’s about how one conducts oneself morally.

The original term for excellence here also carries with it the sort of virtue that enriches those around them and not merely what one does in private before God.

Greek scholars also point out that this word has to do with a person living in such a way that fulfills their God-given “purpose,” like a 75-watt bulb that exudes nothing less than all 75 watts worth.

To summarize, we’re talking about a moral excellence that benefits others by living into one’s eternal purpose.

Notice that for these final two qualities on Paul’s list which are worthy of our careful consideration are prefaced with, “if anything is…” as though he’s admitting that these qualities are so rare that we’re likely to have a hard time locating them in our world. “If anything is excellent…” None of us actually lives up to our eternally determined wattage, but we make every effort toward that end. We shoot for the moon and if we hit the top of the trees, at least we got off the ground!

Yet there is Someone who lives into his luminous perfection, whose excellence shines like the sun and the stars throughout his universe! Meditating on him and his perfections is a sure bet for the beginning of a healthy mindset.

“Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.” (Proverbs 4:23 – Contemporary English Version)

 Take a moment and meditate on God’s ineffable qualities …

If you haven’t already, take a look at the earlier things to think about: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, and whatever is admirable.

Stay tuned for the final quality worthy of our concentrated meditation: “Applauding the Laudable.”

Dobson on the Border

As beloved as James Dobson is to the evangelical community, predominantly among those of us with white skin and grey hair (if any hair at all), having the audacity to expose a flaw of his, I might as well claim that Smokey Bear was a pyromaniac or Billy Graham smoked crack. Most of my contemporaries and I read so many of JD’s books and listened to his every radio broadcast back in the day that we could not only quote him but sounded like him when we did! He was the  guru of Christian families for decades. He sure helped me be a better husband and father than I would have been without his input. That’s not saying much, BTW, since I wasn’t terribly good at to begin with. But I have no doubt that he was more helpful than not, at least in that area.

Yet when it comes to his politics, especially his view of Donald Trump’s immigration policies and politics of fear I think he may be more harmful than helpful these days. Some would go as far as to call his perspective downright “dangerous.”

In his newsletter Mr. Dobson details how, at the behest of (and most likely on the dime of) the White House he visited the immigrant detention center in McAllen, Texas. That should be our first clue that he couldn’t very well be objective, even if he were tempted to be.

Mr. Dobson drank the cool-aid way back during Mr. Trump’s campaign when he labeled him a “baby Christian” and counseled us all to have patience with him as he grows in the faith. From what I’ve observed the sanctification process is moving along quite sluggishly. While I’m not qualified to know who’s in and who’s out of the kingdom, I do know that there is a difference between an infant Christian and an insincere poser.

JD goes on to describe the disturbing conditions of the immense numbers of detainees as, “exhausted and ragged from walking hundreds of miles. Among them are large numbers of children, many of whom are unaccompanied by a caring adult.” “Some of the kids,” he says, “have been abused along the way… Many of them carry lice, scabies or other diseases. Currently, the facility I visited is experiencing a flu epidemic, and there are no additional beds on which to lie. Some of the women have been raped.”

He goes on to say: “The children looked traumatized and frightened. Tears flooded my eyes as I stood before them… My heart aches for these poor people.” Through a translator he told some of the detainees that God loves them and so does he. I have no doubt that his tears and love are genuine, if not lacking in wisdom and practicality. It’s his solution to the appalling circumstances at the border that I find woefully dim and absent of biblical foundation.

Speaking of the biblical foundations, according to a 2015 LifeWay Research poll the Bible appears to hold little sway when it comes to immigration. It found that 90 percent of all evangelicals say “the Scripture has no impact on their views toward immigration reform.” Supposed Bible-believing folk are not basing their views on such important social issues on Scripture! Sadly, Mr. Dobson seems to be no exception to that rule

Most shocking to me are his comments that are rooted in fear over facts, and worse, over faith:

“Many of them have no marketable skills. They are illiterate and unhealthy. Some are violent criminals. Their numbers will soon overwhelm the culture as we have known it, and it could bankrupt the nation. America has been a wonderfully generous and caring country since its founding. That is our Christian nature. But in this instance, we have met a worldwide wave of poverty that will take us down if we don’t deal with it. And it won’t take long for the inevitable consequences to happen.”

While there may be some truth in the refugees’ limited marketability, illiteracy, and ill-health, it’s a good thing Jesus doesn’t reject people for these reasons! JD’s claim that they will overwhelm our culture, bankrupt the nation, and inevitably take us down is overstated fear-mongering and absurd. He says our country has always displayed a generous Christian spirit, but apparently, in order to protect our portfolios that era has passed and God no longer requires it of us!

According to his statement, migrants and asylum seekers are nothing but uneducated, unproductive, disease-carrying criminals, the type of people we must shield ourselves off from. It’s the height of irony that the most prominent voice in the 1980s to get the Christian community “focused on the family” now claims that it’s only American families we should focus on. Central American families being torn apart seem to require less focus. Could it be that the Republican Party of “family values” only values certain deserving families? Gladly, his “heart aches for these people,” yet true compassion moves true believers beyond tears to action.

He goes on to make a bunch of disingenuous claims regarding such things as the gargantuan numbers of migrants from Middle Eastern countries, “fake families,” the “vast majority” who fail to report for court, and those who become “anchor babies.” He asserts “huge quantities of contraband, including all kinds of narcotics, flow into this country every day (over our Southern border)… Lawless gangs, such as MS-13, are also pouring into the culture.” Seems like sound bytes clipped from FOX News  or one of Mr. Trump’s stump speeches which have been debunked many times by nonpartisan fact-finding publications.

Then he leaps from his alternative facts and his claim to compassion for the suffering to the “urgently needed” wall of Donald Trump, who he claims “seems to be the only leader in America who comprehends this tragedy and is willing to address it. Those who oppose him do everything they can to impede his effort.”

He’s the only one who gets it! He couldn’t sound more like Mr. Trump if he tried, who more than once bloviated: “I alone can fix this!”

Mr. D weeps at the sight of their poverty and pain and proffers the solution of a wall to keep them out of our sight?! Let them suffer in their own countries where we can’t see them or hear their cries. We can’t be expected to pay for these kids living in fear and squalor. We have our security and prosperity to consider, to say nothing of a war chest to build!

So much for his family-first / pro-life position! More like our families and our American way of life.

Though I still love Mr. Dobson and appreciate all he’s done for families, in my opinion (for what it’s worth), dulled by his position as a fawning courtier of the president,  he damaged his credibility and his prophetic edge .

In contrast I recommend the following Christian ministries that are hard at work advocating and operating on behalf of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers:

Evangelical Immigration Table 


Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service 


Border Angels 


World Relief

I know that I’m touching a beloved evangelical icon here. But I’d love to hear from you, even if–– maybe especially if––you object to my assessment of James Dobson’s views on immigrants, the border crisis, or Donald Trump. All I ask is that you be civil and spend at least a little time thinking through what you offer here or on Facebook.

For the Love of God, Love a Dealer!

When Richard Nixon resigned and held up in isolation no one visited him for fear of sullying their reputation, no one except Chuck Colson who risked the trip many times. When asked about it later he said, “To let Mr. Nixon know that someone loved him.”

I have a bunch of drug-doing––as well as a few drug-dealing––friends. “Mercedes,” for instance, a vendor of illegal substances, has for years come and listened to us preach in the Tenderloin and sometimes even helps hand out food and clothing. She’s our friend, and I think she would say the relationship is reciprocal. “Tommy” and “Eddy” and “Sapphire” sell all manner of illicit inebriants in Golden Gate Park. Our decided disapproval of their chosen profession notwithstanding, our friendship with them is genuine and mutual.

I want these friends of mine to fully come to Jesus and find a more legitimate line of work, but until then we’re still friends. Of course, if and when they turn from their own way to turn to Jesus, our level of mutual trust and common bond would improve exponentially. That’s our hope, but in the meantime, I hope to always consider them friends.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

Acknowledge the Admirable

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

E. Stanley Jones said: “My mind was made for his thought, my will for his purposes, my emotions for his love.” To this end Paul gives us some things to set our minds on. We’ve come now to the sixth of eight categories of such items: “whatever is admirable.” 

What sort of persons deserve your admiration? I mean, whom do you highly regard and respect?

The people I admire are not necessarily the most gifted of souls, those with the most talent as performers on a stage or an athletic field. While I appreciate the work of the Rembrandts, Mozarts, Steph Currys, and Denzel Washingtons; I can’t say that I admire them as humans. If I knew more about their person maybe I would. Certainly, it brings me the pleasure to observe their amazing abilities that contribute to what is “lovely” or “excellent” in the world. And so I muse about what they produced, but not necessarily admire them as people, if that makes sense.

As a teacher/preacher you’d think I’d admire others in that line of work, your Tim Kellers, your Billy Grahams, your Charles Spurgeons. Again, I appreciate what they have produced, and do think highly of their books and sermons and their kingdom impact in the world. But if we’re talking preachers, the ones I admire most are those with tiny congregations in rural America that have labored in their communities for decades with little to show for it except their integrity and track record of loving God and people.

I admire those who could be making six figures as doctors or lawyers or engineers and live in huge houses by the beach, but take their skills to Haiti and serve the poor or to Thailand and help trafficking survivors or to Kenya and provide potable water sources. Faithful and wise mothers and grandmothers have earned my admiration. Dads and grandpas too, but to me there’s something especially admirable about how the fairer sex invests in their progeny.

Anyway, whom do you admire and emulate? Take a moment and meditate on the qualities they possess that have earned your admiration.

If you haven’t already, take a look at the earlier things to think about: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely.

Stay tuned for “Contemplating the Excellent”…