I can say things here that I woudd not put out on my FB page. For a lot of reasons. For one it's more personal.
This will be a short one, I hope. Half an eye on the tube this morning with the commercials muted and who popped up with an overlong presentation? Franklin Graham, son of the late come to Jesus revival spouting Billy Graham. Never really could stand the father and I have less use for his son.
I was raised Methodist and Methodists are just that. Methodical. At least more restrained than the Pentacostals and the Charismatics. Honestly there were some Sundays when I was more likely to dose off than to start speaking in tongues or passing out on the floor. The only thing that saved me was I was in the choir. Anywway, this is already heading out on its own.
And that original label was not meant as a complement. I don't believe John Wesley intended to split off from the Anglicans. He was a member in good standing, I believe, of the established church to the end. His targets were the poor. Mill workers, miners, rural farmers their workers. He used lay preachers. He allowed women to preach. At least until his death and his successors ended that quickly. Actually the women were better at going into prisons and work houses to spread the gospel than some of the men
And incidentally when follks start going on about going back to the Old Time Religion at the time the constitution was ratified you can forget about the Methodists and their offshoots. Those denominations did not exist. An early abolitionist his Thoughts Upon Slavery was written in the mid seventeen hundreds as a pamphlet. He did extensive research to supports his descriptions of the tribes that ended up as targets for European slavers. Especially the English God help us. Peaceful, for the most part. Living decent lives, taking care of their own. At least before the coastal rulers began raiding to provide cargoes for the West Indies, the Carribean and the colonies that became the southern states.
Anyway back to the Grahams. Billy was basically the tame preacher who pretty much supported the status quo. I'm not sure he ever came out against the Viet Nam war. He was also as far as I can find out a late supporter of the civil rights movement. His revivals were reported as long on alter calls and short on providing those that "accepted Jesus" with follow up to help them find a church or any kind of community support.
Well what was planned as a short rant is getting a little longer than planned. Anyway, the commercial. Just accept Jesus and let Him take over your life and what? That's been my problem from almost as long as I can remember.. No pagan deity that I have studied has commanded absolute obedience. And thereby hangs the trap. When life goes wrong it isn't God's fault. It's your fault because your faith wasn't strong enough.
And on the other side we've been hit with the centuries old "God has chosen this ruler" and we have to obey no matter how ill equiped that person is for the job. Funny how Bush II and the current occuapant were divinely appointed but somehow the man in the middle of the succession was slipped in by the devil, or somebody at the bottom of the divine hierarchy. Yes the Bible tells stories of men who sinned, King David for example, and were still used to do God's will. But David repented of his sins. I doubt if the current occupant has repented of anything or even had much of a sense of sin in the first place. My, my we are getting a little cranky this evening.
Anyway, there is an evening breeze rustling the tree outside my window. The finches and the siskins are working on their pecking order at the feeder. I believe there is a second hatching learning the ropes. I got a look at one at the feeder who still had bits of down clinging to its flight feathers. They can fly well enough but seem to have a little trouble gauging their landings.
From a good friend the mystery bird is an English Sparrow or House Sparrow. A non native so I guess that's why my searches of Oregon birds didn't bring them up. Back in Springfield some of our hummers liked to dive bomb the sparrows next door. But they also dive bombed me once in awhile. a buzz of wings. a chp, chp, chp and off they'd go.
Well, this did grow. Hopefully my next entry will be a little less all over the place.
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