Jamie Greening's Blog, page 12

Some Thoughts on SCOTUS Overturning Roe v Wade

I am pro-life. I have always been. Those of us who feel this way received good news today. It wasn’t a surprise because of the leaked documents from earlier this year. In a case referred to as ‘Dobbs v. Jackson’ the Supreme Court of the United States reversed itself and declared that a woman does not have a constitutional right to an abortion.

Let me respond to this decision with three observations and a bonus. The first is what it seems to mean, the second is how a Christ-follower should respond, and the third is, as usual for Greenbean, some predictions. I finish with some bonus commentary.

What It Means

It might be better to think of what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean abortion is illegal in the United States. It also doesn’t mean the United States has decided unborn life is worth saving or we have decided life does indeed begin at conception. Instead, this decision means each individual state can make its own laws about abortion, including to restrict it altogether. My state, Texas, has a trigger law that goes into effect thirty days from today making abortion illegal anywhere for any reason. But the law does not prohibit someone in Texas from traveling to California or New York or Michigan to get an abortion.

It also does nothing to restrict, as I understand it, medication that induces an abortion. Over half of all abortions are medically induced, so that is a huge number.

How Christ-Followers Respond

As a pro-life Christ follower it is perfectly normal for me to feel happy, joyful, hopeful, and even relieved at today’s decision. There is nothing wrong with that. However, it would be a sin to gloat and to over-celebrate the moment. This is good news, but it is not the battle we’ve actually been fighting.

Remember this, anything the government gives, it can also take away. It is wrong to put all of our hopes in the decision of nine people wearing black robes. I have believed and taught for years that the abortion battle is taking place in the hearts and minds of people. This decision, I think, will not really decrease abortions in America, which are right around a million a year. It will instead change the geography and mechanisms of it. Those who want to abort will still find a way.

We have been winning this battle slowly over the last twenty years as people have changed their view of children and what it means. Let’s keep at it through prayer, pastoral care, and spiritual awareness of what is going on in peoples lives. As an addendum to this, we must remember there are women in our congregations who have had abortions — some of them feel guilt, but others feel like it was their right to choose. We must be cautious to not alienate those who might love into a better way of understanding things.

Predictions

Dobbs is a gift to the Democrats, not the Republicans. This decision, combined with the ongoing January 6 hearings, will continue to motivate Democrats to vote in droves in the midterms. Usually the party in power loses the midterms, but that is in jeopardy now. I think the Dems may well hold both houses for another two years.

A related issue here is that I expect, and expect soon, legislation from the House to codify abortion into law. This is something many people don’t understand, I think. The Supreme Court was always ruling out with Roe v Wade on very suspect grounds to begin with. All it would take is a law.

You say, but the Senate filibuster will keep that from happening. I say, this issue is probably one, perhaps the only one, that could lead Democrats to temporarily suspend the filibuster, join with moderate republicans, and pass an abortion bill making it legal in all fifty states in the exact same way every other federal law happens.

If this happens, the end result might be worse than the beginning. Here is what I mean: as it stands states like Texas and Missouri and Mississippi have been free to restrict abortion as they see fit because the Supreme Court has been in the driver’s seat. If Congress acts, and President Biden will certainly sign it, then all fifty states will have the exact same laws without wiggle room to restrict. The end, then, could be even looser overall abortion regulations, thus finishing worse off than at the beginning.

Commentary

I am pro-life, and I like my judges conservative. (For the record — I have always said the perfect system would have conservative judges, liberal legislatures, and a competent executive branch.) So this is good news for me. However, the ends do not, I think, justify the means. The price paid to get this ruling is that some justices — Gorsuch and Kavanaugh — lied in their confirmation hearings. There will be a payday for that. The court might be in jeopardy. I am against a court packing mechanism, but the political nihilism that has taken place to get this overturning of abortion rights will bring those of other persuasions howling for ‘reform.’

Pro-life means more than just being pro-babies. I am very pro-baby. But I am also against the death penalty, in favor of less capitalism in our medical practices, against euthanasia, and really would like to end our fixation on guns and weapons. As such, I appeal to my sisters and brothers in Christ to care for babies after they’ve been born as much as you do before. We can do a better job of making our world safer, healthier, and better for all of our children.

One more bit here of commentary. This is what you get when six of the nine Justices on SCOTUS are Roman Catholic. As a Baptist, I am fearful of that much singularity in government institutions because it will not be long before they rule in a way that is not to my liking at all. An example is contraception. Justice Thomas all but promised in his opinion to come after the laws making contraception legal. Who knows what else is on the horizon, but I am telling you, the current makeup of SCOTUS was someone’s design, and this was not the end of the plan. It is but the beginning.

Love/Fruit of the Spirit

It should be the easiest, but perhaps it is the hardest. That might be why Paul leads with it. The good news is that if we can get love right, the other eight probably fall into place.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Galatians 5:22-23

Paul tells us these attributes, these characteristics, will be present in the life of someone who has oriented themselves toward Jesus because this is the fruit which the Holy Spirit bears in our lives.

Paul shows the primacy of love as well by using it last in 1 Corinthians 13, where he famous tells us that three abide — faith, hope, and love but he greatest is love.

Love is hard, though, which is probably why the Bible spends so much time on it. Love doesn’t come natural to us. Affection does, and so does nurture, but not love. We are inherently selfish, and even when we do loving things, it is often from a selfish motivation. Biblical love is often mixed up with emotions like romance or goodwill. Biblical love is not a feeling. It is a decision and an exercise of the will.

Love is also hard because people are hard to love. People have hangups, issues, troubles, anxieties, tensions, and overall unpleasantness. Reverse this, and we see that one of the reasons love is hard is not because of other peoples problems, but ours: we all have some kind of hangup, issue, trouble, anxiety, tension, or general unpleasantness that keeps us from reaching out to love others.

Again, though, there is good news.

These are called the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of humanity. God is in the impossible business and the Holy Spirit is forming us, thereby making love not just possible, but a necessity for those of us who follow Jesus.

Micah 6:8 has one of my favorite texts on the subject. What does the Lord expect — to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. The interesting part of that is the word ‘mercy’ is another word for love — to love love. A person could spend forever meditating on that one.

Going back to 1 Corinthians 13, what interests me is how the attributes of love compare with the fruit of the Spirt here in Galatians. Love is patient, and patience is a fruit. Love is kind. Kindness is a fruit. If I have faith, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, but not love, I have nothing. Faithfulness is a fruit. Love keeps no record of wrong doing, therefore it is good. Goodness is a fruit. Love is not puffed up. It is gentle Gentleness is a fruit.

Indeed, love is the key that unlocks them all.

Jesus said lots of powerful things about love: love your enemies, love your neighbor as yourself, God so loved the world — All. The. People.

Jesus embodied love, and as such the Holy Spirit he sent demands that we move forward as ever better lovers.

Better lovers because we love like Jesus – agape, New Testament covenantal love. That kind of love is about commitment and sacrifice. Commitment is another way of saying unconditional. To love in that Jesus way, the commitment is inside of me – I commit to love you regardless of what you do. You can’t make me stop loving you.

Jesus showed us the way to love by sacrificing himself for our benefit. True love always sacrifices for others. A mother sacrifices for her children, a father sacrifices for his wife, a child will rearrange life so his or her parents can be taken care of in their infirmity. If there is no sacrifice it can be affection, enjoyment, even friendship but it cannot be agape love.

Review: The Chosen (Seasons 1 and 2)

Last night we finished season two of The Chosen, a television show about the apostles. Mrs. Greenbean got so enthralled that every evening she would say, ‘I can’t go to bed until I see Jesus,’ which, taken out of context is fascinating. What she meant was — I need an episode. All in all, this is a fabulous show and given the high volume of garbage on the streaming platforms, this one is a real keeper I highly recommend for people of all ages. Here are some big picture take aways, and be advised, there are spoilers.

REMEMBER: I TOLD YOU THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW

Things They Get Right

The biggest win for this production about Jesus is the tone. I believe they have the exact right tone of Jesus, his followers, the enemies, the seekers, and just about everyone else who was involved. The feel is real.

The acting is also right. The man who plays Nicodemus, Eric Avari, should win an Emmy. No lie. He won’t, of course, but he should. Jonathan Roumie is nearly magical playing Jesus, who is the most impossible character to embody. Literally. I also really like the nasty Roman Quintus (Brandon Pottery) and Paras Patel as Matthew. They are all so good. The woman playing Mary Magdalene started off strong for me, but has turned into a bit of a stale character, but that could be writing and not acting.

I love the episode with the kids — I think it is the second one of season one. It is like Jesus goes to children’s camp. I adored that episode.

Things They Wobble On

It is a small list, as I admit I love the show, but they make leaps in narrative that are not grounded in scripture at all. An example is the supposed fraternal relationship of Simon the Zealot and the man healed at Siloam. The Siloam healing is a major moment in John’s gospel, one of the seven signs, and nowhere is it told us that he was related to Simon. It is a fictionalization, I recognize that, but many people will watch the show and assume it is biblical. I don’t mind imagination engaging in the Bible (indeed, I do a lot of that myself) but I’m queasy on this kind of projection. The same is true for the early ‘interrogation’ of Jesus by Romans.

Along the same lines, I am very uneasy about the conflagration of differing stories into one. The most notable of these is the miraculous catch of fish. In the Bible, this is one story of Peter recognizing Jesus’ power. In The Chosen, it is connected to the idea of Peter having back taxes, which sounds like the famous story where Jesus tells Peter to go look in the mouth of a fish and he found coins to pay the temple tax. Jesus tells him to pay the tax for both of them. The television show pushes these into one, and the miracles draught of fish is used to pay off the debt. Clever story telling, but very loosey goosey with the biblical material.

Things They Get Completely Wrong

As I said earlier, the tone is right — Jesus as a man who does things only God can — but I feel like their Jesus is not as in control as I perceive the Jesus of the New Testament to be. I have a hard time thinking of him fretting over the right wording of the Sermon on the Mount, as the show portrays, or him encouraging the work of promoting this sermon with handbills (more on this later) and advertising as if Jesus were on the first leg of an arena rock tour. Jesus didn’t beg the crowds to come. They came because he was preaching and healing. My take on the preaching of Jesus is that the SOTM is essentially Jesus stock sermon he preached everywhere, which is why we have it in Luke as well, although slightly altered. Which is kind of the point.

This is nitpicky, I know, but I also don’t read the biblical material as thinking of Jesus being forever making camp in wide open places. For certain they did that when traveling, but lodging would have most certainly been available and they would have taken it.

One more thing. I perceive Jesus would not have dressed as a homeless man living under the bridge. He was a rabbi, people addressed him as a rabbi, and he carried himself as such. I think he would have dressed as any other rabbi in the first century world.

Okay, now one more thing for real. The age of the apostles is important. My understanding is they would have all been, with the exception of Peter (who is notable for having a wife), been between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. Young men attaching themselves to a teacher. As such, the cast of this television show should more closely resemble the cast of Stranger Things.

Okay okay, one more. Mary Magdalene is never described as a prostitute in the Bible. Never. That is a kind of slur that has been held over her reputation to minimize her, but the text of the Bible only says Jesus healed her of seven demons.

Things That Make Me Scratch My Head

This show has them using way too much paper. There just wouldn’t have been that much paper — certainly not for passing out like flyers promoting a sidewalk sale.

Roman secret police? Yes, the frumentarri were a thing, but not nearly this active at this time period. It wasn’t until Hadrian, as I understand it, that they took a more active role and likely did participate in espionage against some Christians but at the time period of Jesus, Palestine were hardly cause for concern.

Numbers! When the Roman soldiers move about, there would have been more than a half dozen going to arrest Jesus or doing anything. This as an occupying force in a hostile land. Rome used overpowering numbers.

Why no baptism scene? Why!

Final Evaluation

Looking forward to Season Three — even with its holes and faults, it is the kind of television I want to be watching.

Sunrise Fondue

There is a theme in our Memorial Day stories, I think, this year. It is the visitation of those who didn’t make it home.

Joseph Courtemanche, finishes up our Fondue Writer’s Club free Memorial Day themed fiction with a reflective sunrise, and a picture that looks a lot like Steve McQueen. Know, dear reader, that Courtemanche has a lot in common with the main character, notably that he served bravely during the Cold War in the navy. And dogs. And probably that penchant for gas station doughnuts.

Thanks for reading all our stories. The Fondue Writers have been providing free fiction to you for over two years now, and we will be back with some Independence Day themed stories in about a month.

For now, click on the pink gas station doughnut at the bottom left of this picture to read, ‘Dawn’.

Backyard Fondue

Memorial Day is when we remember those who gave their lives defending our nation. In today’s Fondue Writer’s Club Memorial Day free fiction, Joe Shaw shows us a man who remembers those who paid the price, and keeps asking why he made it out.

Oh, and there is also Led Zeppelin.

So you’ll want to read today’s story, ‘The Kid’ for sure. And take note we didn’t leave you story-less on the weekends because writers ARE ALWAYS WORKING!

There are a couple of strong language words, which is unusual for the Fondue, but that is how Shaw rolls. He lives in Florida, you see, and that is probably enough to make anyone swear. I just wanted you to one warned.

Click on the knave of spades to read it.

1965 American Fondue

Kathy Kexel is coming for everything you love: your family, your country, your church, your good nights sleep. In typical Kexel style, it is wrapped in sweet nostalgia of a simpler time when phones had cords and people measured flour to cook breakfast every morning and teapots had money. Click on the nurse’s hat in the 1965 picture of a hospital room to read today’s Fondue Writer’s Club free Memorial Day story, ‘Finding Uncle Vince’. It is about a six minute read and you’ll be glad you spent those six minutes finding Vince.

All We Are Saying, Is Give Peace Fondue A Chance?

What if?

That is the origin of all great speculative fiction, and perhaps all great fiction in general. For our Fondue Writer’s Club Memorial Day story, Rob Cely asks us to engage in a very provocative ‘What if?’

I think you’ll enjoy it. Click on the ‘peace sign’ below to read ‘The Day of Peace’. More great Memorial Day themed fiction is coming your way tomorrow.

The irony is, the peace sign resembles a 1960s era icon of a B-52 bomber

Uvalde

I went to Uvalde, once, when I was a student in college. We camped up in the hills and hiked and sang around the campfire and ate apple cobbler made in a dutch oven. Before yesterday, that was the only thought I’d ever had about Uvalde. Now, that irenic image of happy people in Uvalde is gone as all I can think about is yet another massacre of children in what should be one of the safest places on earth: an elementary school. Please excuse me if this is a little hot, but these are some exceedingly raw first takes from the school shooting yesterday in which it appears over twenty people were murdered, and nineteen of them were children.

It is sickening that I literally just now Googled ‘Death Toll Uvalde’ as if it was a war zone. Let that sink in. I believe in the right to own weapons — I own several myself — but I just can’t imagine, in my very active imagination, the founding fathers — George Washington and Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, say, seeing the news from yesterday, or Parkland, or Sandy Hook, (or Buffalo or El Paso or Pittsburgh or Charleston or ….) and saying to themselves, ‘well, this is the price of freedom.’ By contrast, I am almost certain they would have determined some kind of legislative action was needed to protect the most vulnerable of our society. How far they would go is a legitimate question, but it is impossible to sanely or credibly believe they would do nothing. We have a problem with boys as they become men. The extreme is these violent explosions but the mundane is boys who don’t get jobs, drop out of life, and play video games all day. Don’t try and soften if. It is a problem, and it is related to the violence.Mental healthcare is grossly over-talked and overhyped but at the same time it is feloniously underfunded and unavailable to those who need it most. There is a connection between the destruction of others and the destruction of ones own body, either through cutting, fantasizing about suicide, reckless behavior, or gender modification. It is a hatred for life, which is a mental health issue and which is epidemic in our society and even more so amongst our high school and middle school students. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. His hands are all over this kind of activity, and then he maximizes it in what we are already seeing play out on social media and around kitchen tables and work spaces, a political debate about weapons and The Second Amendment and who is to blame. Do you not see that this kind of division is exactly what The Satan does? He is literally getting two and three times the bang for this evil buck that he spent. And we are so dumb we fall for it every time. Every. Single. Time. At this point, I don’t care about political blame. What I want is for our elected leaders to show courage and leadership and begin to actually work to solve this. It is not unsolvable. There are paths forward that can guarantee liberty as well as protect our children. These are not mutually exclusive. This is America, we are the greatest nation on the planet with resources unimaginable even thirty years ago. It can be done, and if we love our children and want to safeguard our future we will. But we must first repent, repent of creating a world where this is normalized and no one is surprised, repent of caring more about our politics than the missing children who will never graduate high school, repent of idealizing violence and obsessing about weapons, repent of ignoring the millions of cries for help all around us, repent of not being bothered enough to change. I am a follower of Jesus, the Messiah. He said once that those who create problems for the ‘little ones’ would be better off to have a great millstone fastened around the neck and then drowned in the sea. The Lord will hold us accountable for how we respond. Violence begets violence, and the spiraling we are observing could be an aspect of that reckoning beating on our front door. But as with the prophets of old, there is always the offer of grace, to make right that which has been broken, and to enjoy restoration. I don’t want my grandchildren wearing Kevlar to school.

Corsair Fondue

The Fondue Writer’s Club continues our ‘free story’ motif this week with Memorial Day themed literature. Today’s featured piece is from Paul Bennett, who gives us the store of brave soldiers and one determined pilot battling for liberty in the heart of the Pacific during World War II. For those of you interested, it has connections to some other stories Paul has written here — excellent ones I might add. Click on the World War II era map of Okinawa to read ‘Angels On Our Soldiers’, and then I have other links below that for the two stories related to this one.

Enjoy the story, but remember, though these are fictions, it is a fact that many have paid the ultimate price for us to enjoy the liberty we have right now.

To read Paul’s ‘Easter On Okinawa’ click here.

To read the story he wrote for Christmas, click here for ‘Let This Be Your Last Battle’.

Patriotic Fondue

The Fondue Writer’s Club is one again serving up some free reading material for you during a holiday, and this time it is for Memorial Day.

I almost passed on this, because I do not feel qualified. I have nothing but respect for those who have served our nation, and when I think of those who gave their lives defending our liberties it takes words from my mouth. Thank you to all who served, and let us never forget those who died that we might live.

But I didn’t pass. I started to write something a little flippant with Wyoming Wallace, who is a character in my Butch Gregory novels (yes, there are three novels and many short stories). Wyoming is a veteran of the first Iraq War. But then, the emotions came on, and when emotions come I gravitate toward poetry. Therefore, I wrote you a poem.

It has an odd rhyming scheme which is meant to be unsettling. I don’t want the reader to ever get too comfortable or too settled in. There are three different stories, four stanzas each, for a total of twelve stanzas.

The other Fondues will be posting next week and we finish with Joseph Courtemanche on Memorial Day. It is my distinct pleasure to go first, and with that . . . here is “Resolved”.

Resolved
Jamie D. Greening

To say he was only a kid is to deny his voice;
he knew the score, he made his choice.
There was news of sneak attacks and burning boats,
of Pearl Harbor, sailors entombed undersea,
the day that will forever live in infamy.
His country called,
he resolved,
to serve.

With a raised hand he took the vow;
this young man was in the navy now.
No pilot’s wings or gunners steel for his strong hands,
in the belly of the beast he labored and toiled,
on the levers and gears where the engine roiled.
His country called,
he resolved,
to serve.

Fiery flames cough and choke;
exhaust fumed, the smell of war and smoke.
The battle was won, but the ship was lost,
he stayed at his post and gave full power,
the day he died was his finest hour.
His country called,
he resolved,
to serve.

The Japanese bombs sent him to the deep;
under the pacific his soul found sleep.
Back in Ohio, they had his funeral,
his mother and father weeped and wailed,
yet oh so proud of the ship he sailed.
His country called,
he resolved,
to serve.

To say he had no choice is to deny his dreams;
he wanted to build from iron beams.
With an architects mind he’d been born,
and raised with love by his dad and mom,
yet far away war rose again, this time in Vietnam.
His country called,
he resolved,
to serve.

The politicians called it a lottery, but it was no game;
he was sent to the army when his number came.
In his bunk, he dreamed of buildings and a girl named Peggy,
when the war was over and he’d finish his call,
he’d marry that girl and design skyscrapers big and tall.
His country called,
he resolved,
to serve.

Some called it war, some an action, but it was hell;
on unknown hills and fields our very best fell.
Somehow, he survived three nightmare tours,
With both arms and legs, his body whole,
coming home, though, left a void in his soul.
His country called,
he resolved,
to serve.

Bangs and bombs and choppers woke him at night;
Peggy whispered in the dark, ‘are you alright?’
America was bleak, his dreams dead, the nation cursed him,
baby killer and criminal they called him around town,
the rest of his life in a bottle he’d drown.
His country called,
he resolved,
to serve.

To say she was only a girl is to deny her will;
her heart longed to walk the edge, to never be still.
A degree in one hand and job offer in the other,
but for her it was the desire for commitment, duty and service,
work that made her nation safe, a life filled with purpose.
Her country called,
she resolved,
to serve.

A woman of valor, A Marine captain out to Afghanistan,
to a godforsaken country raped by the Taliban.
She built schools and protected the future of boys and girls,
then the end came, guarding the retreat from Bagram,
where she perished from a cowardly suicide bomb.
Her country called,
she resolved,
to serve.

Fingers were pointed and blame went all around;
no one considered the cost to the troops on the ground.
A political disgrace, incompetence on display,
our best deserved better, but the shaft they received,
no one could fault them for feeling deceived.
Her country called,
she resolved,
to serve.

Her body returned in a flag draped coffin;
photos of pigtails and braces the tears couldn’t soften.
At the service the pastor prayed for comfort and peace,
family and friends remembered and cried,
wondering for exactly what was it she had died.
Her country called,
she resolved,
to serve.