Kayt C. Peck's Blog: Use the Box for Kindling, page 2

Playground Justice and the IRS

I wish Mrs. Greene, my first grade teacher, could be placed in charge of investigating allegations of the IRS targeting organizations supportive of the conservative Tea-Party. As I recall, she was great at playground justice, and I learned some valuable life lessons watching the wisdom of the teachers of children. Learned a lot from the lack of wisdom in some teachers of children as well, but I’ll leave that for another day.

You see, when a kid, especially a kid with a history of bullying, started screaming about being wronged by another kid, Mrs. Greene would listen, and if something was improper, she would do what was needed to correct it. She’d also check out the backstory. Sometimes, the screaming was an effort to put so much light on the alleged “offender” that no one would question why the child being screamed about did what they did. You know the scenario. A victimized child gets one too many wedgies and punches the bully in the nose. Teacher sees the punch, and the bully starts screaming that he or she is hurt so that the teacher won’t both to discover that it was the 20th wedgie the bully had given that morning.

That is to say as I read or listened about IRS “targeting” of Tea-Party supporting groups, I started to wonder about the backstory. I won’t say I did extensive research -- after all this blog is a hobby that must not interfere with what pays the bills -- but I did enough to find some interesting twists.

I work in the nonprofit sector, and I know it is the IRS’s job to ensure that nonprofit organizations truly do use donations and gifts for authorized charitable purposes. I helped form a US-based organization to support efforts to help endangered women in Iraq. Honey, let me tell you it took us twice as long as normal to get our nonprofit status, and I’m not complaining one little bit because I’m GLAD the IRS made sure were weren’t a cover for some type of terrorist activity or political sabotage. The US group remains highly concerned about what it can or should support in Iraq.

As I researched the IRS/Tea Party support groups’ backstory, I found something interesting. The conflict basically stems from an effort to identify groups actually serving political rather than nonprofit agendas. These were groups designated as 501(c)(4) organizations under the IRS code rather than under Section 527 of the tax code which requires that they publicly list all donors. It was liberal as well as conservative groups who received letters inquiring about their activity. Actually, I know this to be part of the process as an organization is fully scrutinized before receiving permanent non-profit status. While no status was changed for any Tea-Party related groups, one liberal group, Emerge America, did have their status changed and is now required to list all donors. Emerge America trains Democratic women and encourages them to run for office. Changing their status seemed a no-brainer, and, as near as I can tell, they did as requested without complaint.

So, folks, if you want to know the story, apparently all of the bru-ha-ha is because those “targeted” Tea-Party supporting organizations don’t want to publicly list their donors. It makes me wonder why. In my 20 plus years working in the sector, most nonprofit organizations go out of their way to list and acknowledge donors, except in rare cases when anonymity is requested. Could there possibly be some political wedgies involved?

Growing up on a farm and ranch in the Texas Panhandle, I knew there were three things that could bring terror into my household: weather (e.g. drought), the Cold War, and the IRS. From what I understand, it is part of the IRS’ job to seek out and stop those individuals, businesses, or organization that may fail to comply with the law of the land as it relates to taxation. The IRS should not be loved, but it should be fair.

I do not believe anyone should be singled out for harassment, but I question if that was the case. Nor do I believe any sector should receive preferential treatment. It is legitimate for the IRS to watch for political groups abusing non-profit status. I fear that after all this, preferential treatment may become the case. In essence, the IRS may now be afraid to do its job as it relates to conservative political groups.

Mrs. Greene, where are you? We could sure use you now.

Apologies to Mom -- Mother's Day 2013

I’ve been late to dinner, late to class, late to work, late to a movie, and even late in life in figuring out some very basic things about myself. Of all my many lates, there’s one that haunts me. I was five minutes away, driving to the nursing home where Mom was an Alzheimer’s patient. Just five minutes away when the cell phone rang. Mom was dead.

She died with a hospice nurse at her side, none of her four children making it there in time to hold her hand, to say farewell and gently encourage her spirit over to our dad’s company where he already waited on the other side. I don’t know how many times I’ve thanked God for that nurse. As far as I’m concerned hospice nurses are proof that angels do walk among us.

When I arrived, they were so relieved to see me … a family member to sign the paper work so that my mother’s body could be officially transferred from the caring staff of the nursing home to the conscientious care of the mortician … a man whom I knew and respected. Those were confusing moments, ones I remember in a fuzzy haze. They ended in the quiet time they all gave me, sitting at my mother’s side. I tried to say goodbye, but I saw nothing of my mother in that lifeless shell. I’d missed my chance to share those final moments, to be there for as she passed out of this life just as she had been there for me as I transitioned into this life.

If I had it to do over, I’d risk the speeding ticket. I don’t have it to do over, but what I do have is more valuable. I remember her life. I remember her, and in an odd way, I’m grateful for the Alzheimer’s which gave me a thousand opportunities to say a long and loving farewell to the woman who gave me life. During some stages, as she happily relived her early years, I became whomever she needed me to be … mother, sister, friend … and I saw glimpses of the girl and the young woman who had been my mother. We had trips for ice cream, her favorite food, and songfests with her at the piano (before that skill was also forgotten) and me on guitar. As the disease progressed, there were times of petulance when, in a very small way, I tried to return the patience with which she had graced my childhood. There was also a great gift of healing when my mother recognized only love and forgot the need to save her lesbian daughter from the pits of Hell that were so real to my fundamentalist mother.

If there’s any purpose to this blog, I guess it’s to remind all the adult children of aging mothers to remember to love them not only as your mother but also as a person, a woman who needs you now. That was one of my mother’s greatest gifts to me, allowing me to nurture her in those final years. There was love, forgiveness and healing in those times. It was what helped me to finally become a fully grown adult, responsible for who I am and my own life.

Thanks, Mom, and I’m really, really sorry I was five minutes late.

Homosexuals and the Bible

I was surprised at the response when I posted on FaceBook that I had been asked to speak on the subject of Homosexuality and the Bible. Some folks couldn’t be there, but they still wanted to know what I had to say, so I promised this blog. Make of it what you will.

I was a pinch hitter … filling in for a speaker laid low by appendicitis and now recuperating from surgery. It’s a small but wonderful group of people at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Las Vegas, New Mexico (NOT Nevada). I was honored that they asked me to speak, and, considering the short lead-time, they gave me a starting point, the text of a sermon by David Green, the pastor at the UU in Amarillo, Texas. Forgive me David. Your piece was great, but I didn’t use much of it. You see, I feel the proper starting place is not the history IN the Bible, but the history OF the Bible.

What has become the recognized Bible had its beginnings when the Roman Emperor Constantine ended the persecution of Christians and, instead, adopted it as the official faith of the empire. Odd since he was not a Christian (debatable). Many accounts state that Constantine was not baptized a Christian until he was unconscious and on his deathbed. So why did this non-Christian impose Christianity on the citizens of the empire? Perhaps the most logical reason was the convenience of a mono-theocracy in controlling the population. When there is one God and the political rulers of the day can influence what is pronounced the “word of God” to the people, it is far easier to direct and control.

Now, let me back off a bit. The Bishops called by Constantine to the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. were truly Christians, many of whom survived the torture and persecution of the Romans with their faith intact. Most likely, they did their very best to further the faith begun three centuries earlier with the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Still, they knew that the codified religion they created must be acceptable to Constantine and to the soldiers who stood ready to ensure that compliance. What a horrible task they were given … to preserve their faith while appeasing a non-Christian ruler.

Personally, I am a firm believer that if one seeks the sacred with an open heart that he or she will find it, no matter what religion or belief system in which one operates. That is to say, I have a great deal of appreciation for Catholicism and for the many followers whom I have grown to love and respect. In my personal efforts to strive for human justice, it has frequently been Catholics who stood with me. Please know that I do not wish to vilify Roman Catholics. I am just trying to give historic perspective on the Bible that so many people use to vilify homosexuals.

So, Constantine was brilliant. Over 17 Centuries later, his empire still exists. It’s called the Roman Catholic Church.

During the first three centuries of Christianity, many varieties of belief systems based on the teachings of Jesus evolved. My personal favorite is the Gnostics … those who firmly believed in a priesthood of all believers and that while others could offer wisdom and guidance, no one needed an intermediary to hear and understand the divine direction for their own lives. Unfortunately, the Gnostic belief system was not something that Constantine would endorse. How can an empire control its people by speaking as the voice of God if there is a priesthood of all believers? With Constantine’s codification of a Christian Church, Gnostics paid dearly for their beliefs. Not only were their books burned and their meeting places destroyed, but they were executed in massive numbers as “heretics.” Somehow I question that Jesus of Nazareth would have condoned such actions.

Until 1945, what was known about the Gnostics was simply what had been written by their enemies. Then, one day two farmers near Nag Hammadi in Egypt accidentally discovered a buried earthen jar, one in which 17 Centuries earlier Gnostics had made a desperate effort to preserve some of their writings. In time these ancient texts would find their way to scholars who could preserve and interpret what would become known today as the Gnostic Gospels.

In the interest of keeping this as a blog instead of a book, let me cut to the chase. When the Bible was being canonized, many of the writings by or based on the Apostles who were close to Jesus were omitted. Why? I believe it’s because they didn’t say what an emperor needed to control his people. Who did? Well, there was this self-appointed 13th apostle named Paul. Many of his letters and writings were incorporated into the New Testament, and I will point out that most of the scriptures used to condone slavery, subjugate women, and persecute homosexuals are based on the writings of Paul. Here’s the bombshell, and I first was advised of this fact by Catholic priest. For centuries there have been pockets of believers who think Paul was the first Anti-Christ. I’m not going to offer that judgment, but I will suggest that those of you who are interested do an internet search on Paul+Anti-Christ, and I believe you will be astounded at how wide-spread is the support of that theory/belief and how strong the evidence.

If you look at the Apocalypse of Peter in the Gnostic Gospels, there is evidence that Jesus himself predicted that all of this would come to pass. Forgive me for adding yet more to the length of this blog, but there is a passage that I feel I must share. It is:

“For many will accept our teaching in the beginning. And they will turn from them again by the will of the Father and their error…. And he will reveal them in his judgment…. But those who became mingled with these shall become their prisoners since they are without perception. And the guileless, good, pure one they push to the worker of death, and to the kingdom of those who praise Christ in a restoration. And they praise the men of the propagation of falsehood, those who will come after you. And they will cleave to the name of a dead man thinking that they will become pure. But they will become greatly defiled and they will fall into a name or error, and into the hand of an evil, cunning man and a manifold dogma, and they will be ruled heretically.”

All of this is interesting, but the subject of the day was the Homosexuality and the Bible. Continuing in the historic context, keep in mind that Constantine wanted a religion that furthered patriarchal control of the empire. Women and homosexuals, who helped bridge and equalize the balance of the genders, were a threat. Women were an essential evil, needed to propagate the race, so they were simply relegated to second class, but homosexuals could be safely vilified and, if possible, eradicated. Poor Mary Magdalene (whose work is included in the Gnostic Gospels) was branded with a total fiction that she was a prostitute. There is a growing body of evidence that not only was she the apostle to replace Judas but that she was the apostle closest to Jesus.

Let me summarize before this blog does turn into a book. Essentially, I believe the Homosexuality and the Bible is a moot point. More relevant is the need for believers to take a close look at the Bible itself. Perhaps it is time to question the brilliance of Constantine in ruling an empire and reviving efforts to learn the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and the hope it brings to the healing of humanity.


The Nag Hammadi Library in English

Sounds of Silence

Today’s world is a cacophony of sounds, even in the “quiet” of one’s own home. Walk in the door and hit the button on the remote, setting into motion the comforting sights and sounds of the world of television. One can’t even ride in a danged elevator without canned music serving as the equivalent of Pabulum for the ears.

With the loss of silence, what else have we lost? Seems to me that all the busy-ness (hummm … is that why they call it business?) and perpetual motion has become a very effective way to run away from knowing one’s self. Buried pain remains buried because no one takes the time for the stillness to hear one’s own heart and mind. Consequently that buried and unacknowledged pain secretly controls individual lives. While we continue to progress by leaps and bounds technologically to address physical and material needs, few find or offer the wisdom needed to deal with humanity’s deeper issues. With the loss of silence also comes lack of opportunity to question and hence, so many people think and feel whatever they are told to think and feel by the group(s) with which they are affiliated.

In the quiet and silence of the mountain air this morning, I had an epiphany. Suddenly I understood why it was I had reacted so adamantly and somewhat inappropriately during a recent situation. Frankly, I was something of a jackass, and I have now taken steps to right my mistake, but I never could have gotten there without the silence.

Honesty is so important … especially when you’re talking to yourself. Self-honesty is a whole lot easier without the distractions while embracing the greenhouse for wisdom to be found in silence.

The Kiva and the Mosque

Blinders

When my dad was a boy, his family still used mules for some tasks on the ranch. I’ve never ridden a mule nor worked a team of these oddly magical beasts, but my dad told enough stories that I have extreme respect for these long-eared, never-quite-tamed workers and protectors in field and pasture. I do know that it takes a special skill to persuade them to be workmates instead of opponents. One sure tool involves the use of blinders, those little squares of leather on bridles that keep an animal from seeing anything except what’s right in front. Basically, if they don’t see it, they don’t think about it and will stay focused where the driver wants them to go doing what the driver wants them to do.

Our world is full of blinders … tools of governments, churches, organizations, gangs, families … efforts to make sure enough people see what someone wants them to see and do what someone wants them to do. In many cases, those blinders may have been developed for a very good reason. Young children don’t know this mystery of a world and are as likely to hurt as help themselves as they learn by trial and error. A few well-placed parental blinders may help a child survive to adulthood. Sometimes blinders are just an awesome tool for people with less than positive motivations to direct crowds into believing and doing erroneous or even dangerous things.

How many “terrorists” are simply frightened and angry people who have been well fitted with a set of blinders so that they will do the dirty work of others? How many radicals believe to be evil any opponent to their particular group or belief system? Perhaps an even bigger problem are the masses of people with a major case of the “I can’t’s.”

I’m a dreamer. No question about that, but I firmly believe there are many dreams that could easily become reality if enough people would simply remove their blinders … dare to dream of real solutions to root problems. For example, the more people from “opposing” forces work together on neutral ground, the less power there is in issues about which they are opposed AND it eliminates the ability of those who intentionally create blinders to manipulate and maneuver their own people into destructive beliefs and practices.

Just a thought. After all, this one of millions of blogs throughout the world, and I’m probably just talking to myself. On the off chance I’m not, here’s my challenge. Today, why don’t you Democrats buy a Republican a cup of coffee or vice versa? Shoot … maybe this should even be a Christians taking Muslims to lunch day. Uhhhh … don’t order the ham sandwich.