Our House

Here are a few interior shots of our house after the new paint, carpet, and tile work of this summer. We're not in any hurry to cover up by hanging pictures on the walls or by adding more furniture.

Our House

The Forever War

Recently I completed The Forever War by New York Times correspondent Dexter Filkins. This is a eyewitness account of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the war in Afghanistan. However Filkins primarily focuses on the US war against Iraq. Filkins does not hesitate to place himself in harm's way to see and experience the nature of war now at the beginning of the twenty-first century and in the current location that the US has chosen to wage war. Anyone who reads this book will immediately notice the vast credibility gap between the news of the war as written by Filkins and the watered down and colored news of the same events as portrayed on daily TV and in much contemporary media coverage. Most of today's news from current US wars comes from embedded reporters and is communicated in media that makes no effort to conceal it's right-wing biased support for military solutions to problems the US has with other nations. I highly recommend reading The Forever War as an antidote to apathy and complacency concerning US involvement in warfare. Reading it also might help to save some lives, that is US as well as Iraqi lives. Here are three quotes from the book:

Walking in, watching the flames shoot upward, the first thing I thought was that I was back in the Third World. My countrymen were going to think that this was the worst thing that ever happened, the end of civilization. In the Third World this sort of thing happened every day: earthquakes, famines, plagues. In Orissa, on the eastern coast of India, after the cyclone, the dead were piled so high and for so long that the dogs couldn't eat any more; they just lay around waiting for their appetites to come back. Lazily looking at one another. Fifteen thousand died in that one. Seventeen thousand died in the earthquake in Turkey. In Afghanistan, in the earthquake there, four thousand. This was mass murder, that was clear, it was an act of evil. Though I'd seen that, too: the forty thousand dead in Kabul. I don't think I was the only person thinking this, who had the darker perspective. All those street vendors who worked near the World Trade Center, from all those different countries, selling falafel and schwarma. When they heard the planes and watched the towers they must have thought the same that I did: that they'd come home (Page 44-45).

The most basic barrier was language itself. Very few of the Americans in Iraq, whether soldiers or diplomats, or newspaper reporters, could speak more than a few words of Arabic. A remarkable number of them didn't even have translators. That meant that for many Iraqis, the typical nineteen-year-old army corporal from South Dakota was not a youthful innocent carrying America's goodwill; he was a terrifying combination of firepower and ignorance (Page 116).

A few miles away, a woman stepped from the voting booth at Yarmouk Elementary School, named for the largely Sunni neighborhood where it was located. Yarmouk was slipping fast, but some of the Sunnis were still coming out to vote. Her name was Bushra Saadi. Like Batool al-Musawi, the young Shiite woman, Saadi covered her hair with a scarf tightly wrapped. But she was older than Musawi and carried herself with greater dignity. Her face was drawn, and her eyes looked as hard as little diamonds. Her neighbors shuffled past her to go inside.
Why vote at all? I asked Saadi. Why not just stay home?
She shot me a withering look.
"I voted in order to prevent my country from being destroyed by its enemies, " she said. She spoke English without an accent.
What enemies" I asked Saadi. What enemies are you referring to?
She began to tremble.
"You - you destroyed our country," Saadi said. "The Americans, the British. I am sorry to be impolite. But your destroyed our country, and you called it democracy" (Page 243-244).

The Forever War is one of those rare books that gives the reader an unforgettable picture of what our US government and military actually accomplishes by starting a war. It's also a grim reminder that it's much easier to start a war than to get it stopped.

Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

It's interesting and surprising to hear that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. It actually tells us more about the Nobel Committee and the rest of the world than it tells us about Obama. It tells us that the Nobel Committee is looking to the future and trying to use the prize to improve the safety of people on the earth in the coming years. I think that's commendable although it may be risky. It also tells us something about how the rest of the world sees the US. It reminds us how frustrated most of the people on this Earth were with the Bush Administration. Bush was clearly not interested in being a peacemaker but used the military for revenge and to steal resources. Remember Bush bragging about being a "war president."


Millions of people in the world see the US as a rogue nation, out of control, and using our power, wealth, and military forces to threaten and destroy other countries. We spent annually approximately the same amount on our military that all the rest of the world combined spends on their military forces. We have over 800 military bases on the planet. That's an enormous waste of money and other resources. No one knows the number of civilians who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan by the US military forces. Chris Hedges in his book What Everyone Should Know About War writes that 75 to 90 % of all the victims of wars since World War 2 have been civilians. There are those who have responded to that comment by using the twisted and desperate logic of saying that if we weren't killing them, Saddam Hussein and the Taliban would be doing it, as if that somehow justifies the US killing civilians. The excuses used to start and continue these wars are as absurd as that logic used to justify killing civilians. Obama is in a position to put a stop to two of the most unjustified wars in human history. The sooner he does it, the more he will be perceived of having earned the Nobel Prize. Getting rid of nuclear weapons is an even tougher task, although decreasing the numbers possessed by nations might be easier.

Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to someone who is in a position of power and might actually deserve it in the future is commendable. However we can't expect the other Nobel prizes to be awarded in a similar manner. No one is going to receive a Nobel Prize in physics or medicine because they might accomplish something great or original in those areas at some time in the future. No one is going to receive a Nobel Prize in literature for great novels or awesome and originals collections of poetry that someday, they might write.

The US is seen by much of the rest of the world as a single-minded, tunnel -visioned nation largely made up of people who care only about themselves. US citizens, governments, and lifestyles are the major contributors to global warming and to military violence in the world. We burn more fossil fuels and cause much of the pollution on the Earth. We either cause, participate in, or fund and arm most of the wars taking place at any given time on the planet. The war in Afghanistan is eight years old and the one in Iraq started two days before my grandson was born. He is now more than six and a half years old. Because of these wars his father has been only a marginal part of his life for years. Wars caused by the US government and military, and preparation for war, are the major anti-family forces on this planet.

When the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan the US responded with open criticism and sanctions against the Soviets. We boycotted the Olympics and banned grain sales. By attacking Afghanistan the US behaved exactly as the Soviets did not many years earlier. Shortly after they left Afghanistan in defeat, the Soviet Union self-destructed (or some would say, "upgraded" or "advanced") into numerous smaller countries. There are many people in the world who think the human race might just be better off if the United States did the same. By stopping the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, reducing or eliminating the threat of nuclear war, cooling the violence in the Middle East, and addressing the problem of global warming Obama will certainly have earned his Nobel Peace Prize. In doing so, he may also be helping preserve the US in its present form.

Leonard Nolt

"I think we ought to read only the kinds of books that wound and stab us.....We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."

Franz Kafka, 1904

"Being bullied is an unnecessary hell. It destroys individuals, wrecks families, devastates lives and livelihoods, and costs both employers and the State dear. It does not "toughen people up," instead it weakens, disempowers and destroys. It does not aid survival, instead threatens our existence. It does not promote long-term growth and prosperity, but favors short-term expediency at the expense of the long term. And, as with other forms of violation and trespass, only those who have suffered it fully appreciate the sheer awfulness of daily unremitting abuse that has no answer, no reason, no value, and no end. In the last decade of the twentieth-century, workplace bullying is, in my view, the second greatest social evil after child abuse, with which there are many parallels."

From Bully in Sight: How to Predict, Resist, Challenge, and Combat Workplace Bullying, by Tim Field, Pub. 1996 by Success Unlimited, Oxfordshire, UK, Page 1.

Thoughts About Peace and Pacifism (Part Two)

In the USA where conscientious objection to participating in the military is recognized by the government, it may be easy for a pacifist to refuse to participate. However it's probably more difficult for one to maintain a pacifist approach to dealing with enemies in the personal sense, that is those who intentionally and repeatedly mistreat us in the work, home, or school setting.

For the Christian, pacifism is not optional, and it should be a part of a person's whole life, not simply reserved for the time when the military requests or demands our participation. For many, the biggest challenge to living a peaceful life and relating to others in a forgiving and Christian manner occurs when we are seriously hurt by a relative, friend, or co-worker. I've written extensively about my experience in this area elsewhere on this blog under the heading "Workplace Psychological Abuse," so will not go into much detail here, except to say that I was the target of an abusive co-worker for over two and a half years at my former employer, Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, eventually diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder as a direct result of the abuse, became partially disabled, and had to leave my employment there after thirty years.

Needless to say that experience, which is still ongoing, has been a source of enormous pain to me. Coping with PTSD is a daily challenge, but with time, practice, and help from many sources I've developed reliable exercises to remain functional and confront the injury with which I must live. It isn't as bad as it used to be and I believe it may get better, although I don't expect it to go away. During the course of this experience which began in January of 2004, I've conscientiously and deliberately responded to the psychological assault in a manner that I believe reflected my Christian beliefs. When I first reported the problem to my department manager, I simply told him that I was having a communication problem with the co-worker, because I was afraid she would be fired if I described her behavior in detail. I just wanted to get the problem resolved. I wasn't trying to be vindictive.

Nothing was done about the problem, even after multiple reports to management, not even after the diagnosis of PTSD which I reported to management more than two dozen times without receiving a response addressing the fact that I was being injured. St. Alphonsus, a part of the Trinity Health system headquartered in Novi, Michigan, claims to be a Christian organization, and advertises itself as being the place where "advanced healing" begins. However the treatment I received from management included nothing that even remotely demonstrated Christian principles and no commitment to healing, let alone "advanced" healing. After reporting the injury to management, I wasn't offered any treatment for the PTSD. Instead I was ordered to lie about the injury if asked, and threatened with termination for reporting the PTSD to management. I was told I would be fired if I talked about the problem, or if I continued to report the abusive behavior of the co-worker. I've received numerous written threats from Saint Alphonsus, the most recent one a few days ago, more than five and a half years after the problem began, but no written apologies, no written acknowledgement that I was injured, and no accountability.

The primary purpose of this entry is to focus on how a Christian should respond in this kind of challenging circumstance. In any situation where someone is being injured, the need for safety and protection is paramount. This is an emergency situation. The injured person, especially one with PTSD, cannot be expected to continue performing as before, especially when the abuser is still in his work environment. I made a valiant effort to stay at that job since I liked it a lot, but had no choice and was forced to leave. I felt, and still feel, that it was and is my obligation to report what happened to me to as many people as possible. What I experienced represents a major health and safety hazard to the whole region. There are certain obligations that responsible citizens and health care professionals have and reporting safety hazards is one of them. I will continue to do so in spite of St. Als ongoing threats and attempts to silence me.

It's a Christian's obligation to recognize each person as a child of God, created in God's image, someone loved and cared for by the Creator. That's difficult to do when a person is being chronically cruel and malicious toward you, trying to get you fired or forced to resign by making false accusations about you. Some of the activities that may help one deal with this situation are as following:

1. Pray for the one who is persecuting you.

2. Talk to others who are sympathetic about your experiences.

3. Seek professional counseling (pastor, psychologist, counselor, etc.)

4. Research the problem. You're not the first person to be the target of a bully and there is much literature available on the topic. Even if it's not written from the perspective of a Christian pacifist it will still contain useful information.

5. Request a professionally mediated conflict resolution process. I tried this more than once but the request was denied, which, of course, blocked a resolution to the problem.

6. Be prepared to begin the process of forgiveness.

Recently I sent a letter to the abusive co-worker, briefly reviewing the context of the trauma, and offering her my complete forgiveness. Although I forgave her a long time ago, I felt it was important to say so directly to her and this was the most direct way possible. I also sent a copy of the letter to a member of senior management. Instead of responding in a Christian manner with a thank-you note and an attempt at accountability, management responded by accusing me of harassment. Offering forgiveness for an injury is about as far from harassment as one can get, but unfortunately at St. Alphonsus and Trinity Health there is no awareness of the value of forgiveness. It's a major tragedy when a Christian institution is not capable of recognizing and acknowledging an act of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the expected response of Christians to an injustice or intentional injury.

Unfortunately managers of many businesses are so blinded by the dollar sign that they cannot see the greater value of human health, safety, and integrity. If a conflict occurs, and conflicts are to expected in any situation with human interaction, the only thing taken into consideration by mangement is the potential cost of the conflict. Many large businesses and corporations see any possible conflict as a litigious situation. Unfortunately this seems to be as true for "Christian" corporations such as Trinity Health as it is for other corporations. Every conflict is viewed as a situation is which two sides will engage in legal battle, each one trying to be the winner, and make the other the loser. However there is a different way to address conflict. It involves both sides sitting down together with an impartial professional mediator, discussing and reviewing the history of the conflict and working together to seek a solution, and also taking steps to make sure the problem doesn't reoccur. That's a Christian approach to conflict. For the Christian, trying to retaliate, get even, or "beat the other side" in any kind of setting, legal or otherwise, is not a desirable goal or option.

Many people have the mistaken concept that a pacifist response to violence, including the violence that takes place, (as I experienced it), in the workplace, means that one does not do anything. Nothing could be further from the truth. Likewise some people believe that forgiveness means the injured person pretends that the injury never happened and doesn't mention it again. That too is false. Forgiveness means that a decision has been made to not consider retaliation or retribution as a possible solution to the problem. I believe it also means that holding a grudge or harboring resentment against the one who injured me is not acceptable. Addressing the problem or behavior that caused the injury, seeking justice and a peaceful solution to the problem, and requesting, or even demanding, accountability, is still very much an option. In fact it may be easier, after forgiveness, for one to actually address the problem since the goals are clearer. It's possible that one can focus better on addressing the experience with concern for the safety of others as the foremost priority. After forgiveness one can proceed in a more single-minded and persistent manner.

In any conflict situation, a Christian pacifist response must be an unselfish response. It should take into consideration the best interests and well-being of all persons and parties involved. Such an approach will look to the future, not just at past injuries or losses, and consider the possible impact of any decisions made now. Revenge, selfishness, and an attitude that "you need to lose in order for me to win" is not an acceptable approach to the resolution of any conflict.

Leonard Nolt

West Yellowstone, Montana

Thoughts About Peace and Pacifism (Part One)

I am a pacifist, and have been one for much of my life. A pacifist for me is someone who will not use violence against other people for any reason. There are those who would define the term more broadly and include violence against other animal species. They may have a legitimate point, but I'm not exactly at that place in my life, and for the purposes of this series of entries I will limit the definition to violence against humans. However violence against humans can be included in acts that threaten human health and life, such as destroying vegetation and crops by spraying Agent Orange as was done during the Vietnam War, or the use of depleted uranium in Iraq and elsewhere which will be causing potentially fatal tumors in children for millions of years. Those actions are just as wrong as killing people,

My pacifism is based in my Christian beliefs. I grew up in the Mennonite Church in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, one of the increasing number of places in the world with a high concentration of Mennonites. I was taught from my earliest memories that it's wrong for me as a Christian to participate in warfare, to get in fights with other people, or to try to get even with someone who wronged me. I repeatedly heard the stories of Dirk Willems, the early Mennonite, or Anabaptist as we were called then, who gave up his life to rescue an enemy from drowning in a frozen Dutch river, or the story of two brothers, members of the Hutterites, who were tortured to death in a military prison in Kansas because they refused to put on the uniform and participate in World War 1. I am currently a charter member of and on the leadership team at Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship in Boise, Idaho, although the thoughts and beliefs I present in this series and anywhere on this blog are my own. I'm not writing or speaking for anyone else.

I graduated from Lancaster Mennonite High School in 1966, during the Vietnam War. Although many young men were being drafted and sent to Vietnam, I not only was not drafted, I didn't even know anyone who was drafted, or who joined the military. All of my friends and nearly all of my acquaintances were Mennonite pacifists like myself. Some would say that I was sheltered and out of touch with the reality of the world where wars rage and people suffer immensely, but who would argue that being sheltered from the violence of warfare is a bad thing? There was no chance I would have participated in the military, if drafted. Becoming a soldier was unthinkable. There was no way that I could have disgraced my family and shamed my parents and grandparents more than by joining the military and participating in warfare.

As Mennonites our pacifism, (or, as some would prefer, non-resistance), is based on solid historical and Biblical foundations. Roland Baintan in his book "Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace" writes that for the first three centuries of Christianity, all Christians were pacifists. Soldiers were not allowed to be church members. The Christians who lived closest to the time of Christ believed that pacifism was mandatory for Christians. The treatment of enemies by Jesus and his twelve apostles was strongly pacifist. None of them were allowd to use violence to defend themselves from their enemies, and when Peter tried to protect Jesus by using the sword, Jesus rebuked him.


The number of Biblical and other reasons for being a pacifist are almost endless. In this series I will be presenting what I see as reasons to reject participation in warfare or any kind of retaliatory violence against humans. However I want to emphasize that being a pacifist does not mean that one is passive. On the contrary. The two words, pacifist and passive are more likely to be antonyms than synonyms. A passive person is one who is nonchalant, apathetic, one who doesn't care. In order to be a pacifist one has to care deeply. For a Christian pacifist, that caring will include enemies, including enemy nations. During the two most recent wars we've all seen the messages on bumper stickers, on magnetic signs, and even on some Christian church signs. Many of them include the phrase, "God Bless Our Troops," which is a profoundly anti-Christian way of directing our requests for blessings. The Christian approach, which has been used in prayer at our church many times, is to request God's blessing for all the troops. Taliban troops and Iraqi insurgents are also created in the image of God. Like us, they are people Jesus came and died for, precisely so they would not have to die for their sins.

You might argue, perhaps with some justification, that the Taliban and Iraqi Insurgents are evil, oppressive people, with no respect for human life. Others would claim, perhaps with equal justification, that they are just protecting their homelands from a vicious foreign invader and occupier. I've noticed that one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter, that one person's war lord or insurgent is another's liberator. Any person or country who uses violence for whatever reason is destroying freedom. Killing people destroys freedom. A dead person has no freedom of speech, press, or religion, no choices on election day, and no democracy. We may claim that sometimes it's necessary to use deadly force against those who might take away our freedoms, but in doing so we are also guilty of destroying freedom. And in all of these violent military conflicts, those most likely to be killed or injured are always the innocent, that is women and children. From 75 to 90% of all the victims of wars since World War 2 have been innocent civilians, and that is as true for victims of US military actions as for the military actions of any other country.

Leonard Nolt

Today while sitting in the back seat of the car as I slowly drove north on 13th st. past Camelsback Park, Zach said, "I hope sometime they'll be no war. I don't want any war in Boise while I live here."

Summer in the City

Summer in the City

Summer in the City

Summer in the City

"Extreme" Truth

I saw this sign on a church in Boise a few weeks ago. It raises some questions that are difficult to answer. For example: How does extreme truth differ from simply "truth?" Is it a less common truth, or a less obvious one? Where does one go to find the "extreme truth" assuming it's not at the same location as the "truth?" I suppose I could have attended a service there to find out what the extreme truth is, but I didn't, although I admit it was mildly tempting. However I'm afraid I might be disappointed. Some more questions arise, like which direction does one go to find the extreme truth, right or left, up or down, or somewhere else? Should I assume that this extreme truth might be controversial, that it might not be easily accepted as the truth? Do I really need the extreme truth or am I just as well off with the simple truth? In writing classes I've been reminded mumerous times that good writing is made up of strong nouns and verbs, that adjectives often weaken or obscure communication. I think this may be a good example of an adjective undermining quailty communication.

Images of Friends and Family

Images of Friends and Family

Images of Friends and Family

Images of Friends and Family

"If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reaction, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that's what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." -- John F. Kennedy, 1960.

A "Money" Idea

"Or it could involve looking at someone like Benard Lietaer, the Belgian currency specialist who was one of the architects of the Euro. He suggested that you could have a global trading currency that would actually have a negative interest or a demurrage charge, so that the longer you held on to it, the more value it would lose. Then, instead of wanting to hoard it, you would want to share it and get it back into circulation, which might lead to more community-based values." (From an article about Daniel Pinchbeck, by Stephen Mooallem in the June-July, 2009 issue of Interview Magazine, page 118).

One possible response to this idea is the question - "Isn't this what we already have, currency that loses its value? For most of my lifetime the gradual trend is one in which it takes more and more money to obtain something of value. A new car could be purchsed in the 1960s for a couple thousand dollars. Now a new car is likly to cost ten times more. Housing costs at least ten times more than what it did fifty years ago. I understand that if money loses its value one would trade it for something that might not lose value, which is why many have invested in land or real estate in the past, only to find out that that, too can lose some of its value. If sharing it and getting it back into circulation leads to more community-based values, shouldn't there be many examples in recent history? I'd like to hear more about this idea, but so far I'm not quite convinced.

What is our "Wellbeing Index?"

This is an interesting and short article about the "wellbeing" of our country and its citizens. www.workplacebullying.org/2009/07/13/ciw/

Canada is doing some interesting things to measure the wellbeing of its citizens. It's clear that one reason US citizens suffer is because of our excessive investment in and committment to using military violence against other countries as a means of trying to solve our differences.

Mennonite Church USA National Convention - 2009, Columbus, Ohio

Mennonite Church USA National Convention - 2009, Columbus, Ohio

This is nice short story from "Every Day Fiction." www.everydayfiction.com/choice-snow-by-diane-hoover-bechtler/

"Our greatest weariness comes from work not done."

Eric Hoffer

"....but you've got to have some fun in life."

Zach Branam

Celebrating as a Christian (Thinking about Pentecost and the Fourth of July)

Celebrations are a part of our Christian and national traditions. As Christians we celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ and as citizens we celebrate the birth of our nation.

Sometimes it is beneficial to compare a Christian celebration with a secular one, looking for similarities and differences, as a way of keeping our celebrations biblical. It's especially interesting to compare Pentecost, the founding of the church with the Fourth of July, the founding of the United States. Both remind us of freedom. The Fourth of July reminds us of the freedom people have as citizens of a country. Pentecost reminds us of our experience in being freed from the tyranny of sin.

Both celebrations look to the future. There's an abundance of hope and promise in the empowering by the Holy Spirit which began at Pentecost. Likewise, as a nation there would be little or nothing to celebrate today if we thought that all our freedoms were going to disappear tomorrow.

However there are some significant differences in the two events. The celebration at Pentecost is associated with joy, life, and faith in God. The celebration that happens on the Fourth of July in the United States is aligned with many symbols of militarism and should remind us that our existence as a nation was acquired with much suffering, especially to the native Americans and slaves who lived in the early history of our country.

Pentecost was a unifying experience. Acts 4:32 says, "The group of believers was one in mind and heart." The events leading to the first Fourth of July celebration had a divisive effect. During the Revolutionary War two-thirds of the citizens in the colonies were either still loyal to the British government or wanted to remain neutral.

The Pentecost experience was a a celebration of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was a celebration which proclaimed, "God with us!" The Fourth of July celebration is a celebration, not of the presence of God, but of the presence of the most powerful weapons of war. On this national birthday many Americans celebrate their trust in the bomb.

Pentecost celebrates the truth. The early church celebrated because they discovered that God's promises are true. The Messiah had come. He was resurrected, and had sent the Holy Spirit like he promised. They witnessed out of having experienced the presence of that truth in their lives. The Fourth of July celebration of independence, an independence acquired and maintained by trust in war and violence, is something that we can only celebrate because we haven't experienced it. It is, literally, celebrating a lie.

To explain further, there are many people living in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America who have survived under the shadow of war for decades. Many have been injured, lost relatives and friends, and lost property to the violence of war. These people have experienced war firsthand in their neighborhoods and hometowns. They know war is nothing to celebrate but a nightmare to dread.

There hasn't been a war on US soil for over a century, so most Americans have little or no firsthand knowledge of war. Even most US soldiers who fought overseas in the past several decades have not been faced with the horror of seeing their homes and families destroyed by war. War is not the glorious, exalting experience that many pretend it is every Fourth of July. The Fourth of July celebration is a false celebration.

The Pentecost experience was a result of the Holy Spirit entering people's lives and making them whole and complete persons in a way never experienced before. The Fourth of July, celebrates, not the wholeness of people, but acts of war which destroy human wholeness, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Pentecost took care of all human needs. Acts 4:34 says, "There was no one in the group who was in need." All wars, including the wars celebrated by Americans on July 4th increase human suffering and need. War causes poverty, famine, physical handicaps, and death. War is the biggest threat families have ever faced. War destroys neighborhoods, alienates people, and breaks down productive societies. War has been responsible for turning millions of people into refugees.

The Pentecost experience had a liberating effect on those who were filled with the Holy Spirit, a liberation that was and is for all people everywhere. Although words like freedom, liberty, and Independence are associated with the Fourth of July celebration, it is in fact, a celebration of the denial of freedom. The phrase, "war of liberation" is a contradiction. War only transfers oppression from one victim to another. American militarism, as presented by exhibits of military equipment in our parades, tells us that our freedom and liberty is based on our willingness to destroy the freedom and liberty of enemies by killing them.

The closer we look at the celebrations of Pentecost and the Fourth of July, the more incompatible they seem. Dale Aukerman in his book Darkening Valley: A Biblical Perspective on Nuclear War, writes, "The two utterly contrary attitudes we can take toward those with whom we are in contact are blessing and cursing. In blessing we as that the mercy of God and the goodness of life rest upon others. In cursing we seek to exclude them from that..." To curse someone or some nation is to call down doom or misfortune on them. If we identify with the Fourth of July celebration and its militaristic and nationalistic symbols, then we are part of the cursing or calling down of doom on those who are our nation's enemies, and in so doing we seek to deprive them of the fullness of God's blessing. Ecclesiastes 21:27 says, "When a godless man curses his enemy, he is cursing himself." When we stoop to the level of cursing others. whether they be personal enemies or national enemies, we become our own worst enemy. We cannot escape the doom ourselves without God's forgiveness and we can't receive that forgiveness unless we are willing to forgive others (Matthew 6:12, 14, 15).

If we look closely at the Fourth of July celebrations we can recognize within them, not only the echoes of past wars, but also the rumblings for future ones. John Howard Yoder writes, "The idolatry of patriotism, believing that any one nation's or people's cause is so worthy that to it human lives - whether of 'friend' or 'foe' - should be sacrificed, must be unveiled not first when it has actually led to open warfare, but already when the possibility of such slaughter has been accepted in government plans. "

"Not the taking of life, but the idolizing of one's own interest which leads finally to killing is the deepest sin of militarism. Whether the sixth commandment absolutely forbids all killing is still debated; in any case the first forbids nationalism."

James 3:8-10 says, "But no one has ever been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable, full of deadly poison. We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse our fellow-man, who is created in the likeness of God. Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My brothers, this should not happen!"

There is a place to be properly thankful for the privileges and opportunities we have living in our own country. But many Christians will, in their celebration of the Fourth of July, go beyond words of thanksgiving to words of cursing or calling down doom on those who might jeopardize that which we consider ours. The tongue is guilty of cursing when it cheers and applauds military exhibits in Fourth of July parades and it is also guilty of cursing when it is silent in the presence of doom or misfortune befalling our nation's enemies.

The biblical person cannot include in his celebration, attitudes, actions, or language that are threatening to the well-being of others. The tongues given by the Holy Spirit to believers on Pentecost did not include any cursing or calling down misfortune on enemies. So we need to remember that we are first and foremost witnesses of the Pentecost experience. That is our primary source of celebration.

Leonard Nolt

Previously published in slightly different form in the June 21, 1983 issue of GOSPEL HERALD.

this path, this road that is one perfect
straight line even if it goes around the
world through heat and fog and rain
and snow and it's my life I keep
thinking. It's my life.

- Deborah Keenan,
from "Small History."
found in the Feb.
2009 issue of Oprah.

"All winners are accomplished quitters in that they have perfected the art
of quitting everything that is holding them back from whatever it is they
set out to do."

Ben Glass
http://theworkplacebully.blogspot.com/2009/06/better-to-leave-than-stay.html

Idaho City, Idaho

At the corner of Main and Commercial
a lanky mongrel jogs, stiff-legged
past the leaning culvert.

At the corner of School and Main
the charred remains of a second-hand store,
plastered with license plates,
waits for time to heal the burns.

At the corner of Montgomery and Commercial
inside a "censibly-priced" gift shop
lies a 1964 issue of LIFE, with a
lack and white picture of Robert Mcnamara,
hatless, scaling the Matterhorn in a snowstorm.

In another shop at the corner of Myers and Montgomery
on a table inside the front door
lies a heart-shaped jewelry box,
coated with seashells, but for the rim, which is
ringed with the vertebrae of dead fish.

At the corner of Montgomery and Walula
a Harley rumbles by, the long black braid of the
passenger grazing the revolving rear wheel.

At the corner of Walula and Duck Walk
blistering sun rays drill into skin
caressed by a cool breeze.

At the corner of Bear Run and Main
a black cat silhouettes its way
across the sunlit street
to the safety of city hall

Cars creep past, not even fast enough
to raise a little dust, that
last remnants of pioneers
and teradactys;
two small boys stroll down
the wooden sidewalk.
an old man, feet dragging
heads for his noon siesta;
and, with blinding speed,
light ricochets from light
At the corner of Main and Wall.

Leonard Nolt
Sept 27, 1997

"It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably everyday
for lack
of what is found there."

William Carlos Williams

"The man who opts for revenge should dig two graves."

Chinese Proverb

BLACK BOX

It used to be that when an airplane crashed, the one part of the plane that always survived was the Black Box. No matter how bad the disaster; an explosion five miles up, a fiery mid-air collision near a busy terminal, or a badly screwed up landing, the Black Box stayed intact.

Inside the Black Box were high tech instruments that recorded valuable information about the function of the plane prior to and at the time of the accident; control settings, instrument measurements, and the conversation of the crew.

After an air disaster, agents from the National Transportation Safety Board or the Federal Aviation Agency retrieved the Black Box. They always got it, sooner or later, even if it was mired in a snake-infested swamp or congealed in a tortured mass of scorched metal.

One day at a committee meeting late in the 21st century, someone made the suggestion that since the Black Box always survived an air disaster, and since we want the passengers and crew to survive also, why not just put them in the Black Box? There was a shocked silence around the table. Like all great ideas it was simple and beautiful.

Some one pointed out that if people were placed in the Black Box, those precise instruments that recorded valuable information about the plane's performance would have to go. After all, the Black Box had a limited amount of space. No one paid attention. What mattered was saving the souls aboard the plane.

From that time on passengers and crew were assigned seats in the Black Box. So if the power went off at 30,000 feet, the drone of the engines turned to an ominous silence, and green oxygen masks dangled like the webs of poisonous spiders in front of each face, there was no panic. People just got the same feelings they would get at the beginning of a roller coaster ride.

Later, when rescue crews arrived at the unrecognizable crumpled mass of broken metal that used to be the latest Boeing or Airbus, retrieved the Black Box, and pried open the door, people would file out. They would be smiling and laughing, perhaps a little disheveled, but unhurt. Strangers would be joking with each other; seventy-eight, forty-one, and seventeen year olds; children holding hands, the Carosellies, the Schultzes, and the Zabreskies, from Toronto, El Paso, and Albany.

Schedules would be disrupted, of course. Grandpa Rodriquez might be late for Tony's graduation. Once Senator Boone missed an important vote in congress and the airline's insurance company had to pay dearly. But no one was killed or injured.

It's true that there has been no reduction in the number of crashes since statistical information about the accidents is no longer available. But that doesn't seem very important, now that no one gets hurt. Some have actually suggested that one of the reasons people fly is because of the possibility of a crash, like going to the hockey game to see the fights, but that's ridiculous, of course.

It's been nearly half a century since anyone has died in an accident. After the tremendous success of Black Boxes in airplanes, manufacturers began installing them in cars, trains, bicycles, and baby carriages. Laws require bungee jumpers and hang gliders to have Black Boxes, but there are unconfirmed rumors that some people don't always use them. Once, many years ago, a manufacturer tried to ship some ATVs without Black Boxes. He still serving time.

Children and teenagers go to school in their own personal Black Boxes. As you can imagine it prevents many of the problems that go with unsupervised human interactions. Like a mother's arms or a church community, the Black Box has become the perfect symbol of complete security.

Scientists are working on Black Boxes for riparian areas, the ozone layer, and California Condors. Soon everyone and all creation will be safe. It's only a matter of time.

Leonard Nolt

Here's an article from "The Mennonite" about the Maunday Thursday and Easter peace vigil at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, USA.http://www.themennonite.org/issues/12-09/articles/Good_Friday_vigil_challenges_air_strikes

SECOND ANNUAL MODERN HOTEL ART EXHIBIT - MAY 8, 2009

SECOND ANNUAL MODERN HOTEL ART EXHIBIT - MAY 8, 2009

SECOND ANNUAL MODERN HOTEL ART EXHIBIT MAY 8, 2009