What Happens in Rome Stays in Rome: The Great Trinity Controversy

2 Corinthians 13:5-14

⁵Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test! ⁶I hope you will find out that we have not failed. ⁷But we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. ⁸For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. This is what we pray for, that you may become perfect. ¹⁰So I write these things while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. ¹¹Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. ¹²Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. ¹³The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

What Happens in Rome Stays in Rome: The Great Trinity Controversy

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

Did you know that the word “Trinity” is not used in the Bible? There are passages from which scholars have derived the doctrine, but the New Testament never explicitly describes a Triune God. Instead,the Bible describes God as infinite. [Jeremiah 23:2 and Revelation 22:13] So how do we get the Trinity?

The Ebionites

The first Christians were the Ebionites(1^st to 4^th C.E.) These early Jewish followers of Christ believed Jesus to be the Messiah but not God. They insisted upon following the Jewish rites and laws, followed Jesus’ brother James [Galatians 1:19] and rejected Paul as apostate to the law. They denied the virgin birth and believed the words “Son of God” signified a special relationship with God just as Moses had a special relationship with God.

The Ebionites found support for their view in both the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament frequently uses the term “son of God”. The angels, many just and pious men, the descendants of Seth, and the Kings of Israel are all called “sons of God” in the Old Testament. [Catholic Encyclopedia] In 2 Samuel 7:14, God calls King David his son. God also refers to the nation of Israel as his begotten son. [Psalms 2:7; Hosea 11:1] In the New Testament, Luke calls Adam the “son of God.” [Luke 3:38] The term “son of God” should not be confused with the theological term “God the Son”. The later term is not found in the Bible. It is the third person of the Trinity as defined by church doctrine.

Early Christian Interpretations

There were three main competing views of the God’s relation to Christ in early Christianity: Adoptionism, Sabellianism, and Arianism. Adoptionists believed that Jesus was a human being who became God’s son by adoption either at his baptism, resurrection, or ascension. Sabelliansim is the belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different modes, manifestations, or experiences of God rather than three distinct persons. Arianism is the belief that Jesus Christ was divine and was sent to earth for the salvation of mankind but that Jesus Christ was not equal to the Father.

Adoptionism

Adoptionism, also known as dynamic monarchianism, was the belief that Jesus was a human being, the child of Joseph and Mary, who God adopted as his son either at his baptism, resurrection, or ascension. Like the Ebionites, Adoptionists believed that God chose Jesus because of Jesus’ sinless devotion to God’s will. According to Paul of Samosata (200 to 275 CE), Bishop of Antioch from 260 to 268, Jesus kept himself sinless and achieved union with God.

Some scholars see Adoptionist concepts in the Gospel of Mark and in the writings of the Apostle Paul. In Mark, references to Jesus as the Son of God are strategically placed. [Mark 1:1 (“The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God”, but not in all versions), 5:7 (“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”) and 15:39 (“Surely this man was the Son of God!”).] Furthermore, Mark contains no infancy narrative. This suggests that the Virgin Birth narrative had yet to be elucidated at the time the author wrote.

The phrase “Son of God” at Mark 1:1 is not present in some early manuscripts. This reflects an Adoptionist view. In these early manuscripts, Jesus is not referred to as “Son of God” until after his Baptism. [Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (1993).]

Paul’s writings are the earliest New Testament writings. They do not explicitly mention the Virgin birth. Paul wrote of Jesus that he was “born of a woman, born under the law” [Galatians 4:4]. “As to his human nature [Jesus] was a descendant of David”, Paul wrote. [Romans 1:3] Hebrews also reflects an adoptionist view. In it God says to Jesus “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”. [Hebrews 1:5]

Sabellianism

Sabellianism, also known as modalism, modalistic manarchianism, or modal manarchism, is the belief that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not three separate persons but are instead different way humans experience God. God is said to have three faces or masks. Considered perfectly orthodox at the time, Modalists point out that the only number ascribed to God is one. [Deuteronomy 6:4]

The writings of Tertullian (160-225) suggest that the majority of early Christians favored Sabellianism. Sabellianism is named after Sabellius, a third century theologian and priest who advanced modalism.

Tertullian labeled Modalism “Patripassianiam” meaning the Father suffered. In his work Adversus Praxeas, he attacked Modalists for implying that “God the Father” had suffered on the Cross. Tertullian accused Modalism of doing “a two-fold service for the devil in Rome”: It put to flight the Holy Spirit and crucified God the Father.

Arianism

Arianism is attributed to Arius (252-336 CE). Arius taught that Jesus was divine, and that God sent him to earth for the salvation of mankind; but Jesus Christ was not equal to the Father or the Holy Spirit. God either created or utilized Christ for this purpose. Christ was not God by nature but was rather a changeable creature who God granted the dignity of becoming the “Son of God”. In this way the Son is subordinate to the Father.

Arians contend that scripture describes the Father’s supremacy in every way. [John 14:28 and Proverbs 8:22] God the Father, the creator of the world, is “unbegotten” having always existed. Jesus Christ was begotten and thereby had a beginning, but God is without beginning. Arianism became the dominant view in some regions in the time of the Roman Empire, notably the Visigoths until 589.

The Nicene Creed

Controversy over Arianism arose in the late 3rd century and persisted throughout most of the 4th century. It involved most church members—from simple believers, priests and monks to bishops, emperors and members of Rome’s Imperial family. The Roman Emperors Constantius II (337-361) and Valens (364-378) were Arians or Semi-Arians.

In 325 Emperor Constantine called an assembly of bishops, the First Council of Nicaea, which condemned Arius’ doctrine and formulated the original Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed describes Christ as “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.” The Nicene Creed’s central term, used to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son, is Homoousios or Consubstantiality, meaning “of the same substance” or “of one being”.

Constantine exiled those who refused to accept the Nicene Creed, including Arius himself and the bishops who signed the creed but refused to join in condemnation of Arius and his followers. He ordered all copies of the Thalia, the book in which Arius had expressed his teachings, to be burned; and he issued an edict condemning to death anyone who did not bring the book forward to be destroyed.

The Arian Controversy

The Council of Nicaea did not end the controversy. Many bishops of the Eastern provinces disputed the homoousios. After Constantine’s death in 337, open dispute resumed. Constantine’s son Constantius II, who had become Emperor of the eastern part of the Empire, encouraged the Arians and set out to reverse the Nicene Creed.

Debates raged. In an attempt to come up with a new formula, three camps evolved. The first group opposed the Nicene terminology. They preferred the term homoiousios (alike in substance) to the Nicene homoousios, but they rejected Arius and his teaching and accepted the equality and co-eternality of the persons of the Trinity. Despite their rejection of Arius, they were called “semi-Arians” by their opponents.

The second group also avoided using the name of Arius but largely followed Arius’ teachings. In another attempt at compromise wording, they described the Son as being like (homoios) the Father rather than of the same substance (Homoousios).

The third group explicitly called upon Arius and described the Son as unlike (anhomoios) the Father. Constantius wavered in his support between the first and second party and harshly persecuted the third.

The debates among these groups resulted in numerous synods, among them the Council of Sardica in 343, the Council of Sirmium in 358 and the double Council of Rimini and Seleucia in 359. There were no fewer than fourteen further creed formulas devised between 340 and 360. This lead the pagan observer Ammianus Marcellinus to comment sarcastically: “The highways were covered with galloping bishops.”

After Constantius’ death in 361, his successor Julian, a devotee of Rome’s pagan gods, declared that he would no longer attempt to favor one church faction over another. He allowed all exiled bishops to return. This resulted in increasing dissension.

The Emperor Valens, however, revived Constantius’ policy and supported the “Homoian” party, exiling bishops and often using force. During this persecution many bishops were exiled to the other ends of the Empire.

Valens died in the Battle of Adrianople in 378 and was succeeded by Theodosius I, who also adhered to the Nicene Creed. Two days after Theodosius arrived in Constantinople in 380 CE he expelled the Homoiousianbishop, Demophilus of Constantinople, and surrendered the churches of that city to Gregory Nazianzus, the leader of the rather small Nicene community there. The act provoked rioting. The following February Nazianzus co-published an edict requiring all their subjects to profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria (i.e., the Nicene Creed) or be handed over for punishment.

Although much of the church hierarchy in the East had opposed the Nicene Creed for decades, Theodosius managed to achieve unity on its basis. In 381, at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, a group of mainly Eastern bishops assembled and accepted the Nicene Creed of 381. This second and final Nicene Creed was supplemented with reference to the Holy Spirit as well as other changes. This is generally considered the end of the dispute about the Trinity and the end of Arianism among the Roman, non-Germanic peoples.

Is There Scriptural Support for the Trinity?

Our scripture for today exhorts us to test ourselves and to realize that Jesus is within us. [2 Corinthians 13:5] Pray for one another as we struggle with issues of Truth. In the process we must be careful to build each other up rather than tear one another down. [2 Corinthians 13: 9-10]

Most importantly, we should be agreeable toward one another. Live in peace. Greet one another with a kiss, and experience our Lord Jesus Christ as grace, God as love, and the Holy Spirit as communion.

For a doctrine described as central to the Christian faith, the lack of any explicit description of the Trinity in scripture lead to dissension. TheEncyclopædia Britannica says: “Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” [Deuteronomy 6:4]

Scholars investigating the historical Jesus assert that Jesus taught neither his own equality with God or the Trinity. To those who follow the life and teaching of Jesus, the question of Christ’s divinity is largely inconsequential and a distraction from the message Jesus taught.

Raymond E. Brown, a Catholic and Trinitarian, found a reading of scripture to be far from conclusive. He wrote that Mark 10:18, Matthew 27:46, John 20:17, Ephesians 1:17, 2 Corinthians 1:3,1 Peter 1:3, John 17:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:4-6, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Timothy 2:5, John 14:28, Mark 13:32, Philippians 2:5-10, and1 Corinthians 15:24-28 are texts that seem to imply that the title God was not used for Jesus. They constitute “negative evidence which is often somewhat neglected in Catholic treatments of the subject.” Galatians 2:20, Acts 20:28, John 1:18, Colossians 2:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:12, 1John 5:20, Romans 9:5, and 2 Peter 1:1 are texts where, by reason of textual variants or syntax, “the use of ‘God’ for Jesus is dubious.” Finally, Hebrews 1:8-9, John 1:1 and John 20:28 are “texts where clearly Jesus is called God”.

The Trinity

The Trinity was finally defined as three distinct, co-equal, co-eternal persons by the Athanasian Creed late in the 4th century. The Trinity is the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are co-eternal, co-equal, and indivisibly united as one being or ousia. Hypostasis means underlying state or underlying substance, the fundamental reality that supports all else.

The Trinity is said to be “a mystery of faith”. It is incomprehensible and incapable of logical demonstration. It’s “above reason” and incompatible with rational thought. Explanations often lack logical or philosophical basis. Saint Augustine explained that the Trinity is beyond human language, the definition of the Trinity as three persons is but a similitude needed in order to express it.

Me at the Holy Trinity Monastery, Arizona 2014

Conclusion

Today there are many non-Trinitarians who either call themselves Christians or whose churches arose historically out of Christianity. These include Unitarians, Christian Scientists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, some Quakers, Shakers, and Unitarian Universalists, among others.

Today it no longer makes sense to let matters of doctrine, particularly esoteric doctrines like the Trinity, divide us. Instead, today’s scripture reading tells us not only to be agreeable toward one another, but to support one another, to live it peace, and to pray that we don’t do anything wrong. [2 Corinthians 13:7]

Today we respect and honor others religions and cultures. How much more should we respect one another, our brothers and sisters, and our neighbors? Today we honor other faiths as co-equal paths to truth. We no longer burn books or sentence people to death just for thinking and believing differently. Even excommunication is a sign of weakness. It means the Church has lost the allegiance of one of their own.

The author of 2 Corinthians reminds us that “we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.” With Christ within us, under the influence of the Spirit, and with love as our guide, we cannot do anything against Truth. We cannot destroy the Truth of other faiths and cultures or of the various understandings of God and the eternal. This is true both within and outside our faith communities

Live in peace and understanding with one another as we all struggle with issues of universal truths. As Marcus Borg as pointed out, the term “believe” as used in the Bible means to love, to hold dear, to cherish. [Marcus J. Borg, Speaking Christian:Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power – And How They Can Be Restored (1989).] It also implies that we follow who we believe in.

Today it is better to follow Jesus than to argue over doctrines about him. In fact, it always pays to look at things from multiple perspectives. We gain new insight this way.

The Adoptionist, Sabellianist, and Arian views offer different windows through which to see Christ’s relation to God. They also help us to understand what the issues were.

Rejoice when we appear weak and others strong, and pray that we do no wrong, that we become perfect, not in understanding but in how we treat others. Most of all use the authority of scripture to build others up rather than to tear them down regardless of their perspective or identity.

UNITED IN CHRIST: Avoiding Division By Respecting Diversity (Corinthians 1:10-18)

January 22, 2014UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

¹⁰Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. ¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. ¹²What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” ¹³Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,¹⁵so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. ¹⁸For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

To be in agreement with no divisions we must be united in mind and purpose. Don’t quarrel over identity, who’s a Christian or not, or over doctrines or beliefs. Don’t be divided by ideology, philosophy, or theology. Instead, experience the saving power of God!

Christ is not an idea or thought in your head. Christ is real! We all experience God in our own ways. Having a personal relationship with Christ means to have a unique relationship with God. Discern, in consultation with others, what holds true for you, and be open to new and different ways of understanding God and the Bible.

Christianity should not be about doctrines and creeds. “Belief”, as used in the Bible, means to love, to hold dear, to cherish, to trust, to follow. <!–[if supportFields]> CITATION Mar11 \l 1033 <![endif]–>(Borg, 2011)<!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>Christianity is about following Jesus, his teachings and his path, and trusting that this path leads to the Kingdom of God.

The early church was divided about the nature of Christ. Some even believed that Jesus never actually died. This belief, called “docitism”, held that Jesus’ human form was an illusion. As a divine being, Christ could not die.

In fact there was a wide range of early Christian beliefs, even more diverse than today. Many of these views seem strange to us today, and many others sound strangely modern.

The earliest Christians were Jews. They viewed Jesus as the Messiah. They argued that to be Christian one must follow the Jewish Law. They claimed Peter and Jesus’ brother, James, as their founding authority. They saw Jesus as completely human and not divine.

Then there were the Marcionites, lead by Marcion, one of the most significant early Christian thinkers and writers. Marcion thought the God of the Jews was an evil God. He saw the God of Jesus as the new true God come to save man from the vengeful creator God. To the Marcionites, Jesus was completely divine and not human.

There were also Gnostics. They saw evil in the material world. Human sin brought corruption into creation, but within some humans there is the spark of the divine. Gnostics believed that one is saved by this secret knowledge or Gnosis, the knowledge of who one is. Jesus provides this knowledge through his life and teachings.

Most Gnostics saw Jesus and Christ as two separate beings. Christ is pure spirit. Christ entered into Jesus at his baptism in the form of a dove. This Spirit is God’s emissary who conveyed secret knowledge through Jesus.

Christ left Jesus before his death. Jesus suffered and died alone. To Gnostics the Resurrection was real but not some “crass revivification of the material body, which itself is illusory.”

For hundreds of years after Jesus’ death, the nature of Christ was debated among Christian leaders. The winners of this struggle, the proto-orthodox, finally hammered things at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE some three hundred years after Jesus’ death. These early Christians had not even formalized the cannon. Final agreement on which books would be included in the Bible didn’t happen until the late 4^th century. <!–[if supportFields]> CITATION Bar03 \l 1033 <![endif]–>(Ehrman, 2003)<!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>

The Bible is “Divinely inspired”, but it is not perfect, inerrant, or even consistent. The authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit did not tell them what to write. The Spirit led them and gave them vision but didn’t dictate to them.

These leanings and insights were then filtered through the author just as an artist is inspired to paint and the sculptor to put chisel to stone. The authors were men of their age, with pre-scientific world views and first century prejudices. Their writings reflect the world in which they lived.

God did not write the Bible. Men wrote it. Yes it’s God’s word, but it isn’t God’s words. The authors did not channel God.

A channeled book is where the author claims to be in contact with a spirit who tells the author what to write. The Bible is not a channeled book. The men who wrote the Bible were human beings, inspired but imperfect human beings. They were not inerrant. They were imperfect conduits, as are we.

The Bible isn’t perfect. It has errors and inconsistencies. These include errors in citation, errors of fact, incompatibly different versions of events, different and even contradictory opinions, and even, yes, wrong and evil things.

Use common sense. Nothing is true, no matter how vile or absurd, simply because “it’s in the Bible.” God is not bound by a book. Our doctrines and understanding do not define or limit God.

God is bigger than we can imagine. Our understanding is incomplete. Better to approach God with humility than to call others heretics and declare them condemned to hell simply for thinking differently, something that is incompatible with a wise, loving and caring God.

The Bible did not “fall from heaven in a Glad bag”. It didn’t magically appear. Instead, the Bible was born of bloodshed and conflict. There were disagreements and arguments. People were defamed, maligned, tortured and killed. Different points of view were systematically and sometimes even violently suppressed.

When the “proto-orthodox” won the debate, they proceeded to suppress different views. They destroyed many early Christian’s sacred texts and labeled them heretical. Over the years the Church waged war, tortured, beheaded, and burned at the stake many who thought differently. The Bible has human origins, and it’s a violent and bloody tale.

Worshiping the Bible obscures this violent reality. It whitewashes history and makes the development of the cannon seem pure and clean when in reality it was violent and bloody.

Worshiping the Bible is a form of idolatry. It is called “bibliolatry”.

Bibliolatry consists of claims that the Bible is the inerrant, literal or actual words of God. Claims that the Bible is perfectly accurate, consistent, and correct in every way are false and a form of idolatry. They turn the Bible into the embodiment of God rather than what it really is: a compilation of different books written by different authors over different periods of time expressing different and even conflicting views about God, humanity, and spirituality.

Many exclaim: But if the Bible is not a magical perfect book handed down to us by God, if it is not the literal words of God, then why study it? If the Bible is not superior to books like the Koran or the sacred texts of other religions, then why become a Christian? These questions are answered simply.

The Bible fostered the world’s largest religion. It is the most influential book in human history. It is a foundation of the Western world. It’s an extremely important book, one that takes center stage in the history of the world. It must be read. It should not be ignored. It is divinely inspired and when read properly it transforms us spiritually.

My denomination, the United Church of Christ, has a saying: “God is still speaking.” God still speaks through us. God inspires us. God breathes creativity into us. God uses us. We are God’s instruments in the process of creation and transformation.

Christians know this. We feel God’s presence in our lives and sometimes even recognize God’s providence. We perceive God as present in what we say and do and in the synchronicities in our lives.

God is constantly providing us with opportunities to transform ourselves, others around us, and the world. Sometimes things happen because of God.

This does not mean, of course, that every misfortune can be avoided, or that God is conniving to give us everything we want, to make us rich, or that the universe gives us anything we set or intention on, though intention is a very powerful tool. What it does mean is that we can understand the Bible as divinely inspired without turning it into an object of worship. As we say at my church, we “take the Bible seriously, but not literally.”

There is much more to the Bible than facts and data. The Bible is not a history textbook. It’s a religious text. It’s a book of stories, lessons, and myths that enlightens us and teaches us to grow spirituality.

The Bible teaches us how to live in community, do God’s will, and be in communion with Spirit. It does not tell us what to think and believe. Instead, it encourages us to ask questions. By questioning the text and listening to the many different responses and explanations we gain spiritual insight and understanding.

As churches split, divide, and indoctrinate others to their own version of correct belief and theology, they rewrite history. Every sect claims it went back to the original Christians. Every change is an effort to get back to” the Truth”.

The claim is always that the church has gone off course is some way. We are 2000 years away from the events at issue. The original disciples and the early church thought differently than we do. Christianity was much more diverse. Later theological developments were unknown to early Christians.

Yet none of this is essential to Christianity. There is only one Christ, not three. God’s saving power should be our focus, not creeds and doctrines.

Life after death either is or is not, but God’s saving power is real and present. Unless we can offer the power of Christ in the here and now, what good is the promise of eternal life?
If we have eternal life, we have it now. In fact, “eternal life” and “salvation”, as used in the Bible, is more often about our experience of life in the present and not life after death. <!–[if supportFields]> CITATION Mar11 \l 1033 <![endif]–>(Borg, 2011)<!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>

God promises to be with us. If we don’t have God with us, then how can we say we have “eternal life”.

If the grace of God is not present in our church, if we are in such a ruckus with bitter disputes and division, when we are weighed down with doctrines and creeds denying the validity of other’s experience of Christ crucified, we are not demonstrating the saving power of God.

A narrow minded, my way or the highway, approach to Christianity is repugnant to truth. Church doctrine has been written and rewritten over and over for 2000 years.

Doctrines have become stale, dry and dead. We hear the same things over and over. Church has become a “repeat after me” and “you dare not disagree” event.

We should not promise life after death unless we can deliver it in the here an now. Experiencing God’s saving power, not waiting for it, is what Christianity is all about. Open your mind and hearts to the experience of God’s saving grace.

OUR KING HEROD: Newtown and the Slaugther of the Innocents

December 14, 2013UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

By

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

Matthew 2:13-23

¹³Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
¹⁹When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ²⁰“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” ²¹Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. ²³There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

I. Introduction

Christmas is a time for joy. A celebration! “A savior is born!”

Allison N. Wyatt, Age 6

Christmas is not joyful for everyone all of the time, but for those who celebrate it, its potential is grand. It’s a child’s holiday. It’s a day parents and family find joy in giving gifts to children and to one another. All too ready to play, our children and family return our kindness with love. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Jesus’ birth was a day of celebration, too. A brilliant star hung overhead while

Ana Marquez-Greene, Age 6

wise men offered gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh. But there’s something else the celebration of Jesus’ birth and today’s Christmas have in common—they are both short lived.

Avielle Richman, Age 6

II. The Slaugther of the Innocents.

Not long after Jesus’ birth Joseph encounters an angel in his dream telling him to flee to Egypt to escape “the slaughter of the innocents.” Herod is said to have ordered the killing of all first born boys aged 2 and younger in and around Bethlehem. It could have been a large number or a small number of children. No one knows, because we have no record of it outside of Matthew. Regardless, it’s a quick end to a celestial party.

Bushmaster used by Adam Lanza

Today our celebration ends quickly, too. Today we remember the twenty children and six adults murdered by Adam Lanza last Christmas in a video game style assault on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

School Entrance

Armed with a Bushmaster assault rifle, Lanza targeted the elementary school in order to increase his kill rate. He kept a score sheet of past mass killings posted to the wall of his blacked out basement room. The 7-by-4 foot spreadsheet contained 500 names recording the number of persons each murderer killed and the precise make and model of the weapons used.

Lanza’s Room

The windows of Lanza’s computer room were covered with black plastic bags, too. He had spent the three months prior to his killing spree mostly isolated in his rooms playing violent video games and planning his attack. He refused to talk even to his mother.

Lanza isn’t the only mass murderer to have planned his attack using video games. Anders Breivik used the popular game Call of Duty to hone his shooting

Lanza’s Video Games

skills prior to killing 77 people in Norway in 2011.[1] Breivik specifically cited the game “Call of Duty” in his manifesto calling it part of his training-simulation.[2]

These are today’s “slaughter of the innocents.” May our thoughts and prayers be with the families of the victims this Christmas, and may their deaths be not in vain.

III. Media Violence Contributes to Violent Crime.

Contrary to what some have written, exposure to violent media increases aggression. In a recent study published in Pediatrics, the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Brad J. Bushman, et al., describes the conclusions of researchers: “For decades,

Benjamin Wheeler, Age 6

researchers have studied the effects of exposure to violent media on aggression in children and youth. The evidence from these studies has been reviewed numerous times, and nearly all researchers have reached the same conclusion: exposure to media violence can increase aggression.”[3] Those who say otherwise have simply not done their homework.

Caroline Previdi, Age 6

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychological Association have all endorsed the following joint statement: “The conclusion of the public health community, based on over 30 years of research, is that viewing entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behavior, particularly in children.”[4]

Catherine v. Hubbard, Age 6

Research organizations as well as government agencies have also issued statements. The US Surgeon General, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have all issued statements. In sum, virtually all scientific and health organizations have concluded that media violence can increase aggression.

Charlotte Bacon, Age 6

Media violence is a factor in increasing social violence, and the cases of Adam Lanza and Anders Breivik demonstrate that fact. Of course, exposure to media violence doesn’t cause every person to turn into a mass murderer. Not everyone exposed to violent entertainment goes out and kills people. Imagine if they did. We would have a real mess.

The issue has never been whether every single person exposed to violent

Chase Kowalski, Age 7

entertainment becomes a murder. No one has ever argued that. The issue has always been whether violent media contributes to an increased incidence of violence. It’s always been a question about aggregate numbers, not individual responses.

The evidence suggests that violent entertainment contributes to the problem of social violence. It’s not the only factor, and it may not be the most influential factor, but it’s a significant part of the violence equation.

Daniel Barden, Age 7

Multiple things come together to create a killer. For example, exposure to personal violence is almost always a significant influence on the killer. Violent video games and movies can make matters worse, particularly with the most impressionable persons who are already predisposed toward violence. Adam Lanza was one such person.

IV. King Herod and Empire

King Herod represents the impunity of the powerful. “Empire”, the “domination system” or the ways of the world, destroy our children and slaughter their innocence. These are the forces that

Dylan Hockley, Age 6

destroy the good and encourage evil. The one who seeks to murder God’s son will not hesitate to kill our children as well.

These forces of evil are multifaceted and complex. In ancient times they were represented by the rulers and religious leaders who operated a corrupt and oppressive domination system in service of the Roman Empire. Today the world is still ruled by Empire.

Emilie Parker, Age 6

The Military-Industrial Complex, the entertainment industry, the wealthy one percent, and large corporations in concert with the Religious Right wrest control of our democracy. They use unregulated campaign finance laws and control over our politicians, news and entertainment media in the pursuit of Empire. These and other forces serve to distract, misinform, dehumanize and desensitize us to violence. They fill our minds with anger, lies, and violent thoughts and images. Every Empire needs a supply of blood thirsty killers to do its bidding, and violent movies and video games train our young people in the ways of violence.

V. Violent Movies, Violent Scripts

Grace Mcdonnell, Age 7

Our culture has become too tolerant of media violence, particularly gun violence in movies and video games. Violent entertainment is increasing. The study by Bushman, et al., found that gun violence in PG-13 movies has tripled since 1985, and overall violence in movies has doubled since 1950.[5] Their study raised the concern that gun violence in movies train young people to use guns.

Jack Pinto, Age 6

Young people solve problems by observing how others solve those problems.[6] They accumulate a set of programs, called scripts, for solving social problems.[7] Scripts can be learned by observing violent characters in the mass media. [8] The authors of the study posit that gun violence in movies, video games, television and the internet provide young viewers with scripts for gun use. Gun violence in films may also encourage an association between guns and violence.[9]

VI. Guns and Violence

James Mattioli, Age 6

The United States already has one of the highest rates of violent crime and homicide, per capita, of any developed country.[10] Many American cities have rates of gun homicides comparable to the most violent nations in the world.[11] The U.S. also has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world. With less than 5% of the world’s population, Americans own roughly 35-50% of the World’s civilian owned guns. No other country compares.[12]

Jesse Lewis, Age 6

Adam Lanza’s bedroom was essentially a gun locker. It housed several firearms, more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition, 11 knives, a starter pistol, a bayonet, and 3 samurai swords. Lanza wore head to toe military garb around the house and created an indoor target range throughout the house and in his bedroom. He used his pellet gun to shoot at the targets. He was obsessed with weaponry, had military posters hung throughout the house, and wanted to join the Marines. Lanza killed his mother, twenty children and six other adults not long after his mother told him he was not cut out to be a Marine.

VII. A Comprehensive Solution to Violence

Jessica Rekos, Age 6

The solution to the problem of violence in the United States is, just like the causes of violence, multifaceted. Gun control, mental health treatment, social and anti-poverty programs for children, and law enforcement all have roles to play. One important area is our too easy tolerance of violence in the movies and video games. Reducing violence in video games, movies, and on television would help.

Jesephine Gay, Age 7

Our obscenity law and our rating system are more tolerant of violence than other western democracies.[13] Europe and Canada think differently. For example, Canada and many western countries, including England and Australia, all include references to violence in their obscenity laws. The United States, under the Miller test, does not. The people of most western nations are more concerned about violence than they are with nudity. Our culture finds public nudity distasteful and focuses on sexually explicit materials more than on gratuitous violence. [14]

VIII. Modifying the Movie Rating System

Madeleine F. Hsu, Age 6

The movie industry created the movie rating system in response to increasingly strict enforcement of the Motion Picture Productions Code, also known as the Hays Code. The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America, now the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), took over enforcement of the code in 1934. In 1968 it replaced the code with its own rating system. The system is voluntary and not enforced by any government agency.[15]

Noah Pozner, Age 6

In the early 1980s people began complaining about increasing violence and gore in films that received PG ratings. In 1984, the MPAA introduced the PG-13 Rating.[16] The PG-13 rating is much more tolerant of violence than it is of nudity. While even brief nudity will require at least a PG-13 rating, violence is tolerated so long as it’s not extreme or persistent.[17] This is important, because PG-13 movies have the largest audience of young people. We have for too long tolerated violence to the exclusion of sex.

IX. Remember the Children and Families of Bethlehem and Newtown

Olivia Engel, Age 6

It’s time for change. This is the message of “the slaughter of the innocents.” While we can celebrate our savior’s birth, there is still much work to be done. Life is not just one big party. Even our celebration of the birth of the world’s savior must end. The wickedness of the world intervenes and forces us to face reality.

Gun violence is at epidemic proportions in the United States. The sound of gunfire and children dying again interrupts our celebration. On Saturday, December 14, 2013, at 9:56 in the morning, church bells throughout Orange County, California will ring twenty-six times in honor of the twenty children and the six adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary a year ago. This coming Sunday after Christmas we can remember again by ringing our church bells 26 times, and having a moment of silence as we read about the “slaughter of the innocents.”

Remember today’s and yesterday’s “slaughter of the innocents.” Pray for an

Adam Lanza

end to gun violence. Campaign to regulate firearms; provide treatment for the mentally ill and social, health and welfare intervention programs for poor and disadvantaged children; and reduce violence in movies, video games, television, and the internet. The lesson of the “slaughter of the innocents” is this: Get back to work! Least Jesus, the children of Bethlehem, and the children of Newtown die in vain.

X. Theological Reflection (Update)

Someone who read this article asked: “Where’s the Good News?”
The Good News begins today. Today we embark with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem. Jesus’ return to Nazareth is the first trek on his steady march to the city gate. The Good News is that Jesus has shown us the way to the Kingdom of God. While we follow Jesus as his ministry marches to it’s inevitable end in Jerusalem, we must never forget all the innocent blood spilled along the way.

Anne Marie Murphy

Others have pointed to the role of King Herod as compared to Adam Lanza. Those in power have always used young men to deploy power. “Empire needs a supply of blood thirsty killers to do it’s dirty work.” Herod didn’t kill the children of Bethlehem himself. He sent a crew of young brutal killers to do it. Every empire needs young men willing to kill. It is as true today as it was then. This is how we train our young men to kill today. We expose them to brutal violence and train them to pull the trigger.

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, Age 47

It was the same then as it is today. Empire, the ways of the world, the world we live in, life in Jesus’ day was brutal and cruel. While we have advanced significantly in democracy and civil and human rights, our world remains brutal and cruel. Even places relatively peaceful are saturated with media violence. How do we seek the Kingdom of God in such a world. The Good News is that Jesus has shown us The Way.

Mary Sherlach, Age 56

Jesus demonstrated for us the Way to the Kingdom of God. We follow Jesus throughout the year as he travels to Jerusalem to change the world. In other words, all the progress we have made in over 2000 years in human freedom and self-government has come as a result of following Jesus Christ, whether you’re Christian or not. The act of following Christ is the essential thing. All religions offer their unique approach, but they all essentially offer the their own version of Christ’s One Way.[Matt. 7:21-23]

Lauren Rousseau, Age 30

The Good New is that Jesus has shown us how to change the world! Jesus said: “seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. This is the gospel, the good news that Jesus preached about: the Kingdom of God is near.
The Kingdom of God is not brought about by observation. No one can say “Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!” You can’t sit on the sidelines and point it out. You have to a part of it. The Kingdom of God is in our midst.[Luke17:20-21]
The Good New is that together we can change the world. Get involved. Do your part. Follow Jesus. God has empowered us, through Christ, to do great things. [John 14:12] The Kingdom of God has come Near, Repent and believe the Good News. [Mark 1:15]

Nancy Lanza

Rachel D’Avino, Age 29

Victoria Sota, Age 27

[1] Edgar Sandoval, et al., News’ report on Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza’s video-game-style slaughter score sheet inspires calls in D.C. to stiffen regulation of violent games
(http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/crackdown-urged-violent-games-lanza-report-article-1.1292402)

[2] Id.

[3] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)( http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)

[4] American Academy of Pediatrics. Joint Statement on the impact of entertainment violence on children, Congressional Public Health Summit, July 26, 2000. Available at: http://www2.aap.org/advocacy/releases/jstmtevc.htm. Accessed October 10, 2013.

[5] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)( http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)

[6] Bandura A. Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall; 1977

[7] Schank RC, Abelson RP. Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1977

[8] Huesmann LR. An information processing model for the development of aggression. Aggress Behav. 1988;14:13–24

[9] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)( http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)

[10]Johnathan Stray, Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise Answers),( http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/gun-violence-in-america-the-13-key-questions-with-13-concise-answers/272727/#international accessed December 8, 2013.

[11] http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/01/gun-violence-us-cities-compared-deadliest-nations-world/4412/)

[12] [12]Johnathan Stray, Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise Answers), http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/gun-violence-in-america-the-13-key-questions-with-13-concise-answers/272727/#international accessed December 8, 2013.

[13] Richard Procida and Rita J. Simon, Global Perspectives on Social Issues: Pornography (Lexington Press, 2003).

[14] Id.

[15] Wikipedia, Motion Picture Association of America Film Rating System, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America_film_rating_system)

[16] Id.

[17]What Each Rating Means, available at http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means, accessed on Nov 29, 2013.

OUR KING HEROD: Guns, Media Violence and the "Slaughter of the Innocents" (Matthew 2:13-23)

December 12, 2013UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

By

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

Matthew 2:13-23

I. Introduction

Christmas is a time for joy. A celebration! “A savior is born!”

Allison N. Wyatt, Age 6

Jesus’ birth was a day of celebration, too. A brilliant star hung overhead while

Ana Marquez-Greene, Age 6

wise men offered gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh. But there’s something else the celebration of Jesus’ birth and today’s Christmas have in common—they are both short lived.

Avielle Richman, Age 6

II. The Slaugther of the Innocents.

Bushmaster used by Adam Lanza

School Entrance

Lanza’s Room

Lanza isn’t the only mass murderer to have planned his attack using video games. Anders Breivik used the popular game Call of Duty to hone his shooting

Lanza’s Video Games

skills prior to killing 77 people in Norway in 2011.[1] Breivik specifically cited the game “Call of Duty” in his manifesto calling it part of his training-simulation.[2]

These are today’s “slaughter of the innocents.” May our thoughts and prayers be with the families of the victims this Christmas, and may their deaths be not in vain.

III. Media Violence Contributes to Violent Crime.

Benjamin Wheeler, Age 6

researchers have studied the effects of exposure to violent media on aggression in children and youth. The evidence from these studies has been reviewed numerous times, and nearly all researchers have reached the same conclusion: exposure to media violence can increase aggression.”[3]Those who say otherwise have simply not done their homework.

Caroline Previdi, Age 6

Catherine v. Hubbard, Age 6

Charlotte Bacon, Age 6

The issue has never been whether every single person exposed to violent

Chase Kowalski, Age 7

Daniel Barden, Age 7

IV. King Herod and Empire

King Herod represents the impunity of the powerful. Empire, or the ways of the world, destroy our children and slaughter their innocence. These are the forces that

Dylan Hockley, Age 6

destroy the good and encourage evil. The one who seeks to murder God’s son will not hesitate to kill our children as well.

Emilie Parker, Age 6

The Military-Industrial Complex, the entertainment industry, the wealthy one percent, and large corporations in concert with the Religious Right wrest control of our democracy. They use unregulated campaign finance laws, our news and entertainment media, and our churches all in the pursuit of Empire . These and other forces serve to distract, misinform, dehumanize and desensitize us to violence. They fill our minds with anger, lies, and violent thoughts and images. Every Empire needs a supply of blood thirsty killers to do its bidding, and violent movies and video games train our young people in the ways of violence.

V. Violent Movies, Violent Scripts

Grace Mcdonnell, Age 7

Jack Pinto, Age 6

VI. Guns and Violence

James Mattioli, Age 6

Jesse Lewis, Age 6

VII. A Comprehensive Solution to Violence

Jessica Rekos, Age 6

Jesephine Gay, Age 7

VIII. Modifying the Movie Rating System

Madeleine F. Hsu, Age 6

Noah Pozner, Age 6

IX. Remember Bethlehem and Newtown

Olivia Engel, Age 6

Gun violence is at epidemic proportions in the United States. The sound of gunfire and children dying again interrupts our celebration. On Saturday, December 14, 2013, at 9:56 in the morning, church bells throughout Orange County, California will ring twenty-six times in honor of the twenty children and the six adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary a year ago. The Sunday after Christmas we can remember again by ringing our church bells 26 times, and having a moment of silence as we read about the “slaughter of the innocents.”

Remember today’s and yesterday’s “slaughter of the innocents.” Pray for an

Adam Lanza

X. Theological Reflection (Update)

Anne Marie Murphy

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, Age 47

Mary Sherlach, Age 56

Lauren Rousseau, Age 30

         The Good New is that Jesus has shown us how to change the world! Jesus said: “seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. This is the gospel, the good news that Jesus preached about: the Kingdom of God is near.
         The Kingdom of God is not brought about by observation. No one can say “Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!” You can’t sit on the sidelines and point it out. You have to a part of it. The Kingdom of God is in our midst.[Luke17:20-21]
         The Good New is that together we can change the world. Get involved. Do your part. Follow Jesus. God has empowered us, through Christ, to do great things. [John 14:12] The Kingdom of God has come Near, Repent and believe the Good News. [Mark 1:15]

Nancy Lanza

Rachel D’Avino, Age 29

Victoria Sota, Age 27

[1]Edgar Sandoval, et al., News’ report on Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza’s video-game-style slaughter score sheet inspires calls in D.C. to stiffen regulation of violent games
(http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/crackdown-urged-violent-games-lanza-report-article-1.1292402)

[2] Id.

[3] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)(http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)

[5] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)(http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)

[6] Bandura A. Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall; 1977

[7] Schank RC, Abelson RP. Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1977

[8] Huesmann LR. An information processing model for the development of aggression. Aggress Behav. 1988;14:13–24

[9] Brad J. Bushman, et al., Gun Violence Trends in Movies, Pediatrics (Nov 11, 2013)(http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/11/06/peds.2013-1600)

[11] http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/01/gun-violence-us-cities-compared-deadliest-nations-world/4412/)

[13] Richard Procida and Rita J. Simon, Global Perspectives on Social Issues: Pornography (Lexington Press, 2003).

[14] Id.

[15] Wikipedia, Motion Picture Association of America Film Rating System, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America_film_rating_system)

[16] Id.

[17]What Each Rating Means, available at http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means, accessed on Nov 29, 2013.

HAVE WE GROWN WEARY OF DOING RIGHT? Poverty, Hunger and the Working Poor [2 Thessalonians 3:6-13]

November 15, 2013UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

HAVE WE BECOME WEARY OF DOING RIGHT? Poverty, Hunger and the Working Poor

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

⁶Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. ⁷For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, ⁸and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. ⁹This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. ¹⁰For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. ¹¹For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. ¹²Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. ¹³Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.

I. The Context

There are many who use religion to exploit people. There are con-artists who attempt to get religious people to give them money. I get messages and emails from these people all the time. There are preachers who feather their own nests. There are charlatans who claim to heal but who really just defraud people. There have always been people willing to exploit gullible religious people.

The early church suffered these exploits as well. By the late first century itinerant preachers would make the rounds of churches and receive financial support from congregations.[1] [1 Corinthians 2:17 and 11:20] This put significant strain on these early churches. The author here is attempting to put a stop to it.

This instruction to make preachers work and pay their own way contradicts Jesus’ instructions to his disciples [Mark 6:7-9, Matthew 10:9-10, Luke 9:2-4 and 10: 4 and 7] and Paul’s understanding of Jesus’ instructions. [1 Corinthians 9:14] So when we look at these verses, we need to take a step back and not jump to conclusions.

None of this could in anyway mean that we should neglect the poor. The poor and poverty are mentioned 445 times in the Bible in 384 separate verses.[2]Some sources say God’s heart for the poor is mentioned over 2000 times.[3] There is no doubt that Jesus ministered to the poor, and that we in the church are charged to do so as well.[4]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately one out of six Americans is now living in poverty. Some 46.5 to 49.7 million are in poverty. That’s between 15 to 16 percent of Americans. Sixteen million are children. Four million are elderly.[5]The number of Americans living in poverty is now at a level not seen since the 1960s.[6]

II. Hunger in America

Hunger is a massive problem. Though we live in the world’s wealthiest nation, almost 15% of us, nearly 49 million people, struggle to put food on the table.[7] One in four children do not have consistent access to nutritious food.

Children are hit hard by hunger. Fifty-seven percent now live in low income or impoverished homes. The number of children living on $2.00 a day or less has grown to 2.8 million, a 130% increase since 1996. Over one million public school students are homeless, a 72% increase since the Great Recession.[8]

The effects of hunger are greater on children. According to a 2011 Feeding America study, “Inadequate nutrition can permanently alter a child’s brain architecture and stunt their intellectual capacity, affecting the child’s learning, social interaction, and productivity.” Children who are hungry suffer poor health, fall behind in cognitive learning and suffer long term consequences.[9]

Food stamps are a life saver. Forty-six million Americans are on food stamps, an increase of more than 14 million over the past four years. The Food Research and Action Center estimates that millions more are eligible but not receiving benefits.[10]The average food stamp benefit is only four dollars a day.[11]

One out of four children subsist using food stamps. Half of all children in American will be on food stamps at some time before they turn eighteen.[12] The Food Stamp Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program, and other nutrition programs have helped to alleviate hunger. From Social Security to food stamps to the earned-income tax credit and on and on, we have enacted programs that keep 40 million people out of poverty. “Poverty would be nearly double what it is now without these measures, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.”[13]

III Causes of Poverty

The causes of poverty vary. It’s often temporary. For most people it lasts a year or two. Losing a job, going through a divorce, or becoming ill or disabled can lead to a bout of poverty.[14] Millions of workers and their families are vulnerable to small changes such as a slight decline in the number of hours per workweek or an extra few cents per gallon in the cost of gasoline. The elderly have been forced back to the bottom-of-the-economy due to the low dollar amount of their Social Security checks or the collapse in value of their investments following the events of 2008.[15]

I work with the long term poor. Many who become too ill to work lose everything. That’s why the Affordable Care Act is so important. At least people cannot be bankrupted by medical bills. Though the cost of housing can eat up one’s saving quickly, too.

Many are older and have a difficult time finding work, especially if all their experience is manual labor. Others have illnesses that limit the type of work they can do. These include those who are intellectually challenged or who have a limited education. They have to compete for jobs anyone can do. Race plays a role. Twenty-seven percent of African-Americans, Latinos and American Indians are poor, versus ten percent of whites.[16]And of course there those who have been their own worst enemy, spending much of their lives in prison such that no one will hire them, or they become addicted to drugs that render them incapable of working. Many facing these challenges have given up looking for work.

It’s fairly rare to find someone who just doesn’t want to work, though they do exist. Studies have shown that the poor share the same values and work ethic with most Americans. Most have worked and will do so again. Even for those who have shot themselves in the foot by not getting an education or going to prison, the system failed them early on.

We spend the least of all industrialized nations on anti-poverty programs. We do not provide universal health care, affordable child care, or low-income housing to address the problem. We are allowing wages to decline due to our favoritism to businesses and corporations. As a result, our poverty rate is twice that of Europe. Welfare reform and budget cuts continue to make matters worse.

As Mark R. Rank, professor of social welfare at Washington University and co-author of “Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes our Fortunes”, says:

“The solutions to poverty are to be found in what is important for the health of any family — having a job that pays a decent wage, having the support of good health and child care and having access to a first-rate education. Yet these policies will become a reality only when we begin to truly understand that poverty is an issue of us, rather than an issue of them.”[17]

Our nation has more than enough resources to deal with poverty. What we’re lacking is political will and empathy. Normalizing child hunger and allowing a significant part of the labor force to work full-time or more and yet still be unable to pay basic bills is one of the great scandals of our age.[18]

III. The Working Poor

The “working poor” is one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population. The quality of the jobs in America has been steadily dropping for years. Half the jobs in the nation pay less than $34,000 a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. A quarter of American workers have jobs that pay $10 an hour or less.[19]

Roughly 10.4 million people are counted as the “working poor.” The official poverty line is $11,484 for an individual or $23,021 for a family of four. More and more American workers are falling below that line. [20]

Low wages are the biggest problem. About 66 percent of the working poor fell below the poverty line at least in part because of low earnings. The largest group of working poor were in the service industry — 3.3 million, or 13.1 percent of all service workers. Other jobs with particularly high rates of poverty include farming, fishing, and forestry (17.1 percent) and construction and extraction (10.6 percent).[21] According to the Working Poor Families Project, “about one-fourth of adults in low-income working families were employed in just eight occupations, as cashiers, cooks, health aids, janitors, maids, retail salespersons, waiters and waitresses, or drivers.”

Poverty among the employed is increasing. Back in 2007, about 28 percent of all working families were considered to be among “the working poor”. Today, that number is up to 32 percent. Back in 2007, 21 million U.S. children lived in “working poor” homes. Today, that number is up to 23.5 million.

The United States has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation. Forty percent of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs. Half of all American workers earn $505 or less per week.

The US federal minimum wage stands at an abysmal $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2010, retail sales workers earned an average of $10.99 an hour, with a median annual income of $20,990. The average wage for janitors and building cleaners was just $10.68 an hour or $22,210 annually. Food service workers’ wages average just $8.72 an hour. Their median annual income is only $18,130. Agricultural workers earned $9.12

an hour for a median of $18,870 annually.

The problem is expected to get worse. Of the job classifications expected to see the biggest growth in the coming period, many will pay poverty wages. A large proportion will be for unskilled work in the health care sector. Home health aide jobs are expected to increase 48.7 percent by 2016. They will pay an average of only $9.70 an hour or $20,100 annually. Meanwhile, job training programs are being scaled back or eliminated and tuition costs for higher education are skyrocketing.

IV. The Decline of the Middle Class

Our standard of living is in decline. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before. Wages for those who work on jobs in the bottom half have been stuck since 1973, increasing just 7 percent. Half of all jobs pay less than $34,000 a year.

Median household income has fallen five years in a row. Median household income for families with children fell $6,300 between 2001 and 2011. Millions of Americans are at the “living wage” threshold. They earn too much to qualify for most government assistance programs but are too poor to make ends meet. They work at jobs that provide few or no benefits and are perpetually at risk of falling into devastating debt. Over 20 million spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase since 2001. In 1989, the debt to income ratio of the average American family was about 58 percent. Today it is 154 percent.[22]

V. Economic Inequality

Throughout all of this the gap between the rich and poor is growing. Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time high. Wages as a percentage of GDP are near an all-time low. The average CEO now makes approximately 350 times as much as the average American worker.

Most of our nation’s economic growth went to the top one percent. The U.S. ranks third among all the advanced economies in income inequality. The one percent take home nearly a quarter of the country’s income, the highest share since 1928.

It is unacceptable for billionaires to pay capital gains tax at a rate far lower than the income tax that middle-class Americans pay. The wealthy earn their living off investments. In other words, they don’t work for a living. It’s unacceptable that the estate tax has been so eviscerated that only a few thousand estates per year are subject to taxes when nearly one in four children live in poverty.

We know what we need to do. Make the rich pay their fair share of running the country, raise the minimum wage, provide health care and a decent safety net, and the like. The rich benefit the most from the system and should therefore bare a larger share of the burden.

Instead, Representatives like Paul Ryan insist on cutting taxes for thewealthy and eliminating regulations that protect consumers and, as we have seen, citizens from the abuse of the financial system. Meanwhile these same politicians insist on devastating cuts to programs that serve millions of Americans, including Social Security and Medicare, education, healthcare, and all the programs that help lift regular people up.

VI. Conclusion

When the author of 2 Thessalonians says those unwilling to work should not eat, he means that those who deceive and defraud should not receive financial support. He’s speaking of con-artists who steal from others. Like the banks who sold bad investments then bet against their customers. Mortgage brokers who put homebuyers into loans they knew the buyer couldn’t pay back. Stock brokerages who demand less regulation then trade on inside information. The wealthy who live off their investments then demand lower tax rates then the rest of us. Corporations who resist fair wages, move jobs overseas, use their money and power to influence politicians and elections then pay low wages and use loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Those who crashed our economy then required billions of dollars to bail them out due their own malfeasance. Politicians, corporations, and the wealthy that demand tax cuts while taking subsidies, cutting spending on social programs, and shutting the government down in order to exact even more concessions. These of the one of whom the author speaks. These are the idle that live off the labor of others. These are the ones who should not eat.

The Author of 2 Thessalonians is reversing what Jesus said. Jesus said “the laborer deserves to be paid” and “laborers deserve their food”. [Luke 10:7 and Matthew 10:10] If “those unwilling to work should not eat”, then the reverse is also true: those who work should eat.

When we see Americans workers being unable to feed their families, we should be asking why? When we see wages in decline, we should be asking how we can get our country back on track. From generation to generation, our nation has seen our standard of living increase. We have always worked to make Americans richer, not poorer. We have always sought to make Americans better off, not worse. When we see Americans living on $2 a day, when we see hunger and poverty growing, when we see wages stagnant, when we see the rich getting richer at the expense of the rest of us, we have to work to reverse these trends.

The corporations and the wealthy, those in power, the “job creators” have always wanted cheap labor. They put downward pressure on wages by opposing unions, the minimum wage, fair labor standards, social services and taxes. They want a labor force desperate for money. They ship jobs overseas to find people willing to work for subsistence wages, no more or even less than it would cost to keep up a slave. They live off the backs of the working poor. They make money off of other’s people’s labor. They become rich off of other people’s work. They are the ones unwilling to earn their keep. They are the ones unwilling to put in an honest day’s work.

We should be working to reverse the decline in wages and our standard of living, but instead we see right wing politicians working to cut services to the poor. They recently cut food stamps at a time when hunger and poverty are growing at astounding rates. They oppose increasing the minimum wage at a time when millions of working people are living in poverty. They cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations while half of all Americans are low wage earners or less. Then they threaten not to create jobs if we tax them or regulate them, but their wealth depends upon our labor.

These policies push Americans down. These policies don’t create jobs, they create poverty. They create an ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, more money for the top and less for the rest of us. This is exactly what the corporations and wealthy want, and it won’t end until we stand up and stop it.

[1] http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=911

[2] http://sojo.net/blogs/2011/11/01/hole-y-bible-gets-digital-makeover

[3] http://ourspiritnow.org/2009/06/the-bible-talks-more-about-poverty-than-homosexuality-2/

[4] http://www.jesuscentral.com/ji/life-of-jesus-modern/jesus-poor.php

[5] http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx

[6] http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/29-incredible-facts-which-prove-that-poverty-in-america-is-absolutely-exploding

[7]http://www.bread.org/hunger/us/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=onlinead&utm_campaign=search&utm_term=us-poverty&utm_content=text&gclid=CP2Hoejex7oCFeo9QgodrVAAMg

[9] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/12/heres-why-10-4-million-american-workers-are-still-in-poverty/

[10] http://www.bread.org/hunger/us/causes.html http://www.bread.org/hunger/us/causes.html

[11] http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/29-incredible-facts-which-prove-that-poverty-in-america-is-absolutely-exploding

[12]Id.

[13] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-poverty-in-america.html?pagewanted=all

[14] http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/02/poverty-in-america-is-mainstream/?_r=0

[15] http://www.thenation.com/article/167564/other-america-2012-confronting-poverty-epidemic#

[16]http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-poverty-in-america.html?pagewanted=all

[17]http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/02/poverty-in-america-is-mainstream/?_r=0

[18] http://www.thenation.com/article/176242/americas-shameful-poverty-stats

[19] http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx

[20] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/12/heres-why-10-4-million-american-workers-are-still-in-poverty/

[21]Id.

[22] http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx

THE GHOST OF DEAD MAN’S PARK

October 27, 2013UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

THE GHOST OF DEAD MAN’S PARK
by
Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

Having paranormal experiences throughout my life, from premonitions and omens to visions and prophetic dreams, I have stories to tell. I told some to my six year old nephew Bobby and his eight year old sister Jacquelyn. They were skeptical.

Recently I began participating in ghost investigations. I showed Bobby and Jackie some of the evidence. Bobby became confused. My stories disturbed him. He didn’t know whether to believe me. Was I lying? Was I crazy? Was I still the uncle he knew, loved and trusted?

People say ghosts don’t exist. Bobby’s father, mother and grandparents worried. People at church surely discourage such thoughts. I imagine it bothers him when people criticize my stories. He knows me to be honest and sane, mostly. He looks up to me. He needed to know whether my stories were true.

One day Bobby asked if he could go on an investigation. When a paranormal investigation team scheduled an investigation near my home and not far from by brother’s house, I decided to take him.

The investigation would take place at Founders Memorial Park in Whittier. Founders Memorial park lies over two old cemeteries, Broadway cemetery and Mount Sinai cemetery. By the 1950s the cemeteries were visited no more. Vandals had knocked over the headstones, and it laid in disrepair. The city declared the cemeteries a public nuisance, removed all the headstones, and turned the cemeteries into a park. The graves were so old few people claimed the remains. About sixty percent of the bodies are still in the park. Locals call the place “Dead Man’s Park”.

The park is divided into two parts with a short street separating what used to be the two cemeteries. The walking path is laid over the original cemetery paths. If you look closely you can still make out the grave plots. The hardened packed mounds and lines in the grass still show where the new sod had been placed over the graves.

There are stories of a strange fog that sometimes lies over the park. Some say the fog is caused by spirits angry about the desecration of their graves.

The City created memorials with plaques containing the names of those buried there, but the

plaques, possibly made of brass, were either stolen or taken down. The wood signs on the concrete memorials have deteriorated. The signs are in disrepair.

Bobby and I spent the day of the investigation together. I taught Bobby to meditate. We mediate prior to investigations in order to connect with the spirits and be more sensitive to their presence. We spent a few minutes quietly meditating while listening to New Age music. Bobby surprised me by how quiet he remained. We meditated for only a short time.

Bobby and I had planned this investigation for weeks. We both looked forward to it. But the afternoon of the event I received an email with a chilling story.

The day before a man had attempted to abduct a child near the park. The man abducted an eleven year old girl and threw her in the back seat of his car. Once in the car, the girl found another little girl weeping. The eleven year helped both escape.

Frightening even before we began, was this was some sort of warning? I resolved not to let it disrupt our plans. Unfortunately, I had to let Bobby know about it. I couldn’t afford to have him run away playing games because he doesn’t know why I want him to stay close. My brother and I showed Bobby the NEWS VIDEO. We were now ready to go on the investigation.

I borrowed my brother’s digital camera and we went to the park. We met up with our fellow investigators of Ghost 2 Ghost 40 Plus. They were excited to meet Bobby. The leader gave Bobby a flashlight as a gift. We split up to investigate.

Bobby and I walked through the park. We had only two tools: a camera and a flashlight. We went around placing the flashlight on trees, bushes and signs asking the spirits to turn the flashlight off. We did this about five or six times. Nothing happened. Then we went into an enclave of groomed bushes and trees off of the grass near the border of the park. We placed the flashlight on a small tree, stood back and asked the spirits to turn the flashlight off.

The flashlight started to flutter then turned off. Startled, I felt myself recoil as I put my hand on Bobby’s shoulder and held him close. Unsettled, I asked the spirit to now turn the light back on. The light flickered and then went on.

We were shocked. I struggled to think of questions to ask the spirit. Suddenly I felt a hot jagged ball of energy shoot through my left chest and shoulder. “I felt that”, I exclaimed as I turned to look behind me for whatever had gone through me. I took a couple of pictures.

Bobby then heard something. Looking behind him he said “there’s something here”. I snapped another couple pictures. By this time Bobby wanted to leave. I picked up the flashlight and we walked on the grass toward the pathway. The rest of the team was across the small street at the other end of the park. Later when we looked at the pictures we discovered a tiny orb floating over the bushes right

behind where we were standing. It’s difficult to see at first. It’s right below and between the two small red lights in the picture.

If you zoom in on it a little, you can see it’s a small orb.

Then zoom in real close and you can see a face. The face seems to change when I first looked at it. At first it looked like an animal, like a dog. Then it rapidly changed to a demonic looking face. After that, no matter how hard I tried, I could no longer see the dog like image, only the demonic face.

When preparing this article I decided to lighten the picutre and increase the constrast, because the picture was dark as I took it at night. This is when I discovered another face in the picutre. Look to the right, behind and below the angry image and you will see a man with a mustache wearing a hat. It almost looks as if he is wearing military like uniform and is pointing a gun at us from his right hip. It’s an apparition within an orb.

Is this a spirit angry about the desecration of its grave? Is it a demon that inhabits the park? Is the man the ghost of someone buried there in the 1800s? His mustach and hat appear to be from that period.
Bobby then began pointing to places where he thought there may be ghosts. Orbs appeared in some of those pictures. Later, when I returned to the park for another investigation, I would have an even scarier experience.

A few months later I joined the Los Angeles Paranormal Society for an investigation of the park. Only its leader, Al Garzon, and I conducted the investigation. We walked around the park getting pictures of orbs. Is the orb next to Al’s ear communicating with him?

Then we came upon the enclave of bushes and trees off the side of the park. Approaching the location, Al sensed something there. As I tried to point the area out I became disoriented. I pointed my finger then realized that the enclave was about forty feet to the right. It was as if it moved right in front of me. This is how I sensed the spirits.

We entered the area placed a flashlight on the ground and asked the ghost to turn it off. This time I had a digital recorder and my smart phone. I began to video the flashlight just in case it turned off. We continued attempting to contact the spirits.

What you see in the video is the flashlight. The little orange light is my digital recorder placed next to the flashlight. The moving red light is Al’s directional temperature gage. Al is talking.

Al unintentionally provoked the spirits. He began talking about replacing the grave markers, something we cannot do. We don’t have the authority to replace grave markers in a public park, and we are unable to identify who the spirit is anyway. The suggestion angers the entity or entities.

As you view the video and listen to the audio you will hear me groan as I feel energy go through my left shoulder and chest, this time from the back. At first I’m determined to stand my ground. This may be my only experience of the night, and I want to see if anything else happens.

Suddenly I feel another sensation go though my back, then my right thigh, my lower back, my right shoulder, and my left arm. I feel myself balling up as I attempt to run away screaming as tingling vibrations shoot through me. I see my glasses go flying off into the darkness. Then I’m either pushed down or I slip and fall to my hands and knees. As I’m falling the sprinklers come on.

Listen to the video. You will hear the sprinklers come on toward the end. This demonstrates that we were not spooked by the water coming on. It’s possible the spirits intended to push me down and take my glasses just before the sprinklers came on. They intended for me to get wet.

I don’t know why I laughed. Perhaps it’s relief. This was one of the craziest experiences I ever had. It was exhilarating. I laugh after being scared at haunted attractions during Halloween, too. But now, I couldn’t leave until I found my glasses.

We looked and looked for what seems five to ten minutes. I was soaked. Frustrated, I finally exclaimed: “Where the fuck are they?” I looked down and there they were right at my feet where I had been looking for them all along.

This ghost has the ability to teleport objects, making them appear and disappear in different places. My glasses flew off into the darkness and reappeared at my feet. The audio you hear is from the digital recorder lying on the ground next to the flashlight which remained on the whole while.

Al felt that he had been scratched. He seemed eager to leave the park. We walked across the grass past the pathway and across the street. When he lifted up his shirt there were drops of blood on his back. I warn you, the picture is disturbing.

We walked around the park down the short street that cut through the center of the park where we parked our cars. Still shaking, Al took a bundle of sage out of his trunk to cleanse us and our vehicles. Burning sage for cleansing is called smudging. It’s a Wicca practice. Al lit the bundle then had me stand on the side walk with my arms spread apart. He took the burning sage and passed it around my body, in front of me and behind me. He asked me to do the same for him. I did. He then blew smoke into our cars. He filled both cars with smoke and closed the doors. We waited about five minutes talking about our experience.

Al said he hadn’t expected this. He felt unprepared. He was worried. Spirits can attach to people after incidents like this.

Afterwards paranormal activity increased in my condo. Previously I heard knocking and sensed movement. I’ve been touched and kissed on the cheek. Now I heard knocking every night. Spirits began to rouse me in my sleep. Lying in my bed, a surge of anxiety would wake me followed immediately by a knock.

Al came over to perform a cleansing. He had me take a cleansing bath. He had me use a mixture of herbs and sulfer which turned the water an opaque shimmering black. The black represents the darkness being washed away. Meanwhile, Al smudged everywhere, sprayed blessed water on the walls, and spread a line of salt along the walls and around my bed and night stand. For many nights afterwards I heard no knocks and sleep well.

Postscript

After events escalated the second time, I am hesitant to return. I don’t know where I stand with the spirits there, and I’m not interested in bothering these spirits, especially since they may be demonic. Al returned with other investigators but didn’t have an experience.

After leaving the salt on the floor for three weeks, some of the activity has returned.

MAKING SENSE OF GOD: "Sound Doctrine" and Divine Inspiration

October 20, 2013UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

MAKING SENSE OF GOD: “Sound Doctrine” and Divine Inspiration

(2 Timothy 3:14-4:5)

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5

¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

4In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: ²proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. ³For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. ⁵As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

What is “sound doctrine”? The author of Second Timothy speaks only of Jewish scripture. The Torah was early Christian’s scripture. There was no New Testament. There were writings, including the undisputed letters of Paul and the Gospels, and there may have been disagreements over these and various other diverse teachings. The solution offered by Second Timothy? Respect all scripture. All scripture is “God-inspired”.

The New Testament was unknown to early Christians. Many of the books of the New Testament had yet to be written. Agreement on which books would be in included in the canon didn’t come together until three hundred years later. When it did, the books were selected based on their age, popularity, and coherence with various creeds. Meeting these criteria inferred divine inspiration. Doctrines of “divine inspiration” came later.[1]

The author of Second Timothy tells us that scripture which equips us for good works is divinely inspired. All scripture does this and is, therefore, divinely inspired. The question is not whether or which scripture is divinely inspired. All scripture, when used to teach and call us to service, is divinely inspired. Divine inspiration depends upon divine interpretation and application.

Doctrines are merely interpretations of scripture. Many a Council has agreed on various doctrines, but when doctrines no longer make sense, they should be rejected. Divine inspiration requires us to think and reason. Doctrines that don’t make sense are little more than myth.

Many find offensive the idea that all scripture is divinely inspired. As David Lull points out:

Ask your mothers, wives, sisters, and female friends how “useful” they think Gen 3.16 (“…your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you”), 1 Cor 14.34 (“women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says”), and 1 Tim 2.11-12 (“Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent”) are! Ask them if they think Gen 19.8 (which says that Lot tried to protect the strangers in his house and placate the terrorist mob in Sodom by offering them his virgin daughters, to do with them as they pleased) is “God-inspired”! Ask anyone whose ancestors were slaves which version of 1 Cor 7.21 is “God-inspired,” the RSV (“Were you a slave when called? Never mind. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.”), or the NRSV (“Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. Even if you can gain your freedom, make use of your present condition now more than ever.”)![2]

Could scripture that requires “death by stoning” for things like touching Mount Sinai [Joshua 7:1-26], cursing or blaspheming [ Leviticus 24:16], adultery (including urban rape victims who fail to scream loud enough) [Deuteronomy 22:23-24], not being a virgin on your wedding night [ Deuteronomy 22:13-21], worshipping other gods [Deuteronomy 17:2-5and Deuteronomy 13:5-10], disobeying parents [Deuteronomy 21:18-21], breaking the Sabbath, and [Numbers 15:32-56], cursing the king [ 1 Kings 21:10][3] have ever been inspired by God? How could our God order the murder of women and children? [1 Samuel 15:3]

Additionally, many Christians deny the divine origins of scriptures of other faiths. Today, however, we should read the words “all scripture” broadly. Just as the author of Second Timothy instructs us to measure our scripture, today we respect and appreciate the scripture and literature of other cultures and religions. These scriptures can be used for teaching, training, and equipping for good works, too.

Be patient. The Greek word translated “patience” means “great soul” or “large temperament.”[4] God is larger than any one religion. God is greater than any theological claim. When a doctrine doesn’t make sense, rebuke it. Encourage one another with convincing teaching. Proclaim sound teaching, even when it is unpopular.

Christians today are stuck with doctrines that no longer make sense. God is not going to murder billions and destroy the world at the end of time. God is not going to throw billions into eternal fire just because they are Buddhists, Muslims or atheists. These ideas are atrocious. People who say they don’t understand why God would do these things, and then claim that he will do these things because “the Bible says so”, are simply admitting to their ignorance. They have turned to myth.

Doctrines of the Church are not God’s word. Many have lost their usefulness. We are not bound by them. Instead, we are bound to interpret scripture in a useful and reasoned way, in a way that prepares us for service and action.

Yes, but I hear you say, what about the Bible? Well I’ll tell you what you already know. The Bible has been used to justify all manner of evil. Even Satan cites scripture. [Matthew 4:5] The Bible has been used to support war, slavery, torture, discrimination, and even genocide.[5] As Second Timothy reminds us, it’s not what scripture says, it’s what you do with it.

Scripture is not a justification for hatred. The Bible does not justify homophobia and sexism. Those who read the Bible this way have “itching ears”. They find in the Bible support for their own prejudices. Men use the Bible to enforce patriarchy. Bigots use the Bible to justify discrimination. The calling to serve the poor falls on deaf ears. Healing the sick is not a community responsibility, least we have to pay more in taxes. These Christians use the Bible to satisfy their desires and promote their own interests.

There are many who impose doctrines upon us that no longer make sense. God does not commit infanticide. God does not demand death for the payment for sin. It’s not that Jesus didn’t die for us. He most surely did. It’s the doctrines about this that are flawed.

God is love. [1 John 4:8] God loves all his children and wishes that they all be saved. [1 Timothy 2:3-4] These are the bases for sound doctrine, not murder and mayhem.

The teacher is divinely inspired. To us, God is still speaking.[6] We are all connected to God. Scripture is divinely inspired not because of what it says, or who wrote it, or when it was written or under what circumstances. Divine inspiration depends upon how we interpret and use scripture. Misused scripture is uninspired.

Properly interpreted, scripture prepares us for good works. Ravenous wolves are those you use the Bible for their own profit. You will know them by their fruit. [Matthew 7:15-16] Hatred, prejudice, poverty, destruction and death are not God-breathed.

The fruits of sound doctrine are love, justice, and salvation or well-being. Every good ministry focuses on these. Scripture that prepares us for good works is inspired. Doctrines that end, for example, with “we don’t know why God saves us but not others”, or “we don’t understand why God throws good people in hell” are based on a lack of knowledge. Whenever it comes to this, the point where a doctrine fails to explain, the doctrine has broken down. It has failed and is therefore false.

The Church is an economic as well as a religious institution. Over the centuries, doctrines have been developed with the interests of the Church in mind. These doctrines have come to us from human hands and minds. They are imperfect.

We are not to follow blindly. We should question and reflect upon the Word. The Bible requires discernment, not blind allegiance. That’s what makes in inspired and sound.

[1] http://www.gotquestions.org/canon-Bible.html

[2] http://processandfaith.org/resources/lectionary-commentary/yearc/2013-10-20/proper-24-0

[3] http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/stoning.html

[4] http://www.drbilllong.com/LectionaryIII/IIT3.html

[5] http://atheistcamel.blogspot.com/2012/05/thank-god-for-genocide-slavery-torture.html

[6]Saying of the United Church of Christ

Assad’s Pride and Arrogance: Syria and the Arab Spring (Sirach 10:7-18)

October 15, 2013UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

Sirach 10:7-18

Arrogance is hateful to the Lord and to mortals,
   and injustice is outrageous to both.
Sovereignty passes from nation to nation
   on account of injustice and insolence and wealth.
How can dust and ashes be proud?
   Even in life the human body decays.
A long illness baffles the physician;
   the king of today will die tomorrow.
For when one is dead
   he inherits maggots and vermin and worms.
The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord;
   the heart has withdrawn from its Maker.
For the beginning of pride is sin,
   and the one who clings to it pours out abominations.
Therefore the Lord brings upon them unheard-of calamities,
   and destroys them completely.
The Lord overthrows the thrones of rulers,
   and enthrones the lowly in their place.
The Lord plucks up the roots of the nations,
   and plants the humble in their place.
The Lord lays waste the lands of the nations,
   and destroys them to the foundations of the earth.
He removes some of them and destroys them,
   and erases the memory of them from the earth.
Pride was not created for human beings,
   or violent anger for those born of women.

The Book of Sirach is part of the Apocrypha, Old Testament scripture not included in the cannon. It is in the Catholic Bible, but not in most Protestant Bibles. Also known as Eccelesiasticus, it is a “wisdom” book popular with both Jews and early Christians. Many do not consider it divinely inspired, but I’m not so judgmental. It helps better understand our world.

Some say money is the root of all evil, but the arrogance of the powerful may cause the greatest evil. Over confidence is often part of an evildoer’s downfall. Our world is full of examples of how arrogance brings the mighty down.
The corruption of the arrogant and prideful is a common theme in the Bible. These words as used in the Bible are not about feeling good about yourself and your accomplishments. They are not even about being conceited or immodest. The Book of Sirach describes arrogance as a form of hate, the devaluation of others in relation to oneself. Once devalued, evil is more easily done to others.

Arrogance and pride are about the abuse of power. When you see these words in the Bible, think about corruption and institutional violence. Think impunity. Nothing could be more hateful then corruption, oppression, and institutional violence. These lead to suffering, injustice and death.

This type of pride and arrogance is an affront to God and to all of humanity. The injustice they wreak upon the world is an outrage! Wars over territory and resources value material wealth over human life. Civilians suffer and die to enrich those in power. The insolence of wealth and power is a curse on us all.

The arrogant and powerful may appear to prevail, but this appearance is temporary. Consider the war in Syria. Assad may remain in power, but what type of nation will he rule. He has destroyed his own country and created a nation of enemies against him. Every Syrian has been affected. Millions hate him and want him dead. They may yet succeed.

Everyone dies. Life is in some ways a process of dying. In the end we are fighting over dust. This is the atrocity. In the scheme of things, Assad is killing for nothing. His wealth and power are nothing in God’s eyes. Spirit filled people instead look to give their lives for something meaningful. Herein lays the frailty of the regime.

It’s easy to envision Assad’s body full of maggots, vermin and worms. He has forsaken God. He has taken too much credit for his success. He has failed to consider God’s hand in his life. The Spirit has withdrawn from him. His heart is murderous, cold and dark.

Oh, the abominations! Terrible calamities caused by arrogance are not limited to war. Global warming and environmental degradation, torture, crime, prejudice, poverty, and hunger are all the result of arrogance and pride. Total destruction may yet be our end.

Ultimately arrogance and pride are self-destructive. They destroy the perpetrator as well as the victim. The text implies that God brings destruction upon evil-doers. The adage “live by the sword, die by the sword” contains truth. Yet we also know many evil people go unpunished in this life.

Here Sirach is more prescriptive than descriptive. God brings down the powerful by imbuing man with Spirit. God works through people. We’ve witnessed people willing to risk their lives for justice, who stand in front of tanks and snipers for freedom and democracy. We’ve seen nations overthrown and dictators brought down by the power of people organized and taking to the streets. God inspires resistance.

The “roots of nations” are the systemic and ingrained interests and institutions that serve to maintain the status quo. For example, patriarchy and Imperialism are the roots of authoritarianism and corruption. God enlightens us about these false ideologies and institutions so that we take action to overthrow them. This is still true today.

Mass movements are composed of the most oppressed and marginalized people of a nation, those suffering under the current regime. These are the humble God raises up.

Overtime, right prevails. Those on the side of progress will not stop. The forces of regression cannot withstand the power of God. While some fear change or work to maintain the status quo, change will come. Those filled with the Spirit will not stop fighting for human and civil rights. This is one way God brings down the prideful and rises up the lowly.

Consider the people of Syria. They will not tolerate dictatorship forever. Nearly everyone has family or friends killed by Assad. In whatever form it takes, resistance will continue. Syrians will pursue democracy. It is their God given right. Once they get it, they will hold it tight remembering the cost and knowing what can happen without it.

The lands of nations, what wars are often about, are nothing to God. The earth is the Lord’s. No earthly ruler or nation owns it. What they have built are the systems of domination and oppression that maintain their own power and wealth. God will not only overthrow them, God will destroy them. God reveals to us the truth about systems of domination, such as patriarchy, racism, authoritarianism, and unrestrained capitalism. These are hateful forms of arrogance that lead to injustice and death. These too will die and be remembered no more.

Pride as a belief in one’s superiority in unnatural. We are meant to love. Violence is not meant for those born of love and compassion. Rest assured that human beings are naturally peace loving and humble. Pride and violence are abhorrent to our nature, a disease.

God created human beings. We are God’s children. Though many have been corrupted, we are not meant to be this way. As God’s children, we naturally resist oppression and injustice. Love and compassion are our central features. Freedom and justice our basic demands. We will continually fight for these, and we will prevail because God is with us.

“All Kinds of Evil”: Money, Economic Inequality and the Pursuit of Happiness (1 Timothy 6:6-19)

October 7, 2013UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

1 Timothy 6:6-19

⁶Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;⁷for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; ⁸but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.⁹But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. ¹¹But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

¹³In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. ¹⁶It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. ¹⁷As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share,¹⁹thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

The author begins by reminding us of our mortality. Everything begins and ends here. When we live with aware eyes we live with meaning and purpose. When we overemphasize wealth and status we overlook suffering and injustice. When we love money and privilege we inspire evil.

War and torture are great evils. Environmental catastrophes caused by corporate greed and malfeasance kill and destroy our world. Personal moral failings like apathy and ignorance contribute to injustice and prejudice; yet the crimes of nations and institutions are immensely evil.

Political and corporate institutions controlled by those who seek power and wealth can inflict more suffering than can any individual alone. The evils the author speaks of are not merely personal. Corporate greed impoverishes millions through unsafe working conditions and poverty level wages. Nations wage war and slaughter millions. Political, social, cultural, religious, and economic domination systems, those in the pursuit of empire, perpetrate many evils.

Least one try to spiritualize the text, and thereby depoliticize it, consider recent studies that show that money does indeed make people happier. A study by professors Betsey Stevenson Justin Wolfers of the University of Michigan found that people with the highest incomes report the greatest happiness and satisfaction with their lives. The differences are spread across income lines For example, only 35% of people making less than $35,000 a year say they are “very happy,” versus 100% of people making $500,000 or more.[i]

Another study by Princeton economist Angus Deaton and Nobel-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman found that added income brings a measurable impact on day-to-day contentment at least up to $75,000. One’s overall “life assessment” or broader satisfaction with one’s place in the world also increases with earnings.[ii]

And why shouldn’t this be the case? The quaint myth that money doesn’t buy happiness speaks to a certain truth about life’s priorities, but having enough money to pay your bills, take care of yourself, buy the things you want, and live in comfort and luxury would make most of us more comfortable and satisfied. It’s an obvious conclusion that needn’t scientific verification.

Poverty, on the other hand, is miserable. More and more Americans are falling into it. Over the past 30 years poverty in America is rising. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a full half of all American’s are now considered poor or low income.[iii]Between 2007 and 2010, overall median wealth in America fell a “staggering” 47%.[iv]From 2007 to 2009, average family income declined by 17.4%, the largest two-year drop since the Great Depression.[v]

The United States is one of the richest countries in the world.[vi]It trails only Norway, Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong in national income per person.[vii] Yet it also has one of the highest levels of economic inequality in the developed world. It follows only Chile, Mexico and Turkey. [viii]

Meanwhile economic inequality has grown. Incomes of the top 1% grew 31.4% between 2007 and 2012 while the incomes of the 99% grew only 0.4%. The wealth of the top 10% in 2012 is equal to 50.4%, the highest ever since 1917.” This surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble before the Great Depression.[ix]

This sobering fact should give us pause. The American Dream is slipping away. An American child’s prosperity is now more dependent on their parent’s wealth than in other developed countries. The idea that one can lift oneself out of poverty is increasingly unrealistic.

Emmanuel Saez, author of “Striking it Richer: the Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States”, explains that inequality in the United States has been growing over the past 30 years. “Top earners are capturing an increasing portion of productivity gains.” A number of factors explain this, including “the retreat of institutions developed during the New Deal and World War II, such as progressive tax policies, powerful unions, corporate provision of health and retirement benefits, and changing social norms regarding pay inequality.”[x]Contrary to what you may have heard, lower tax rates on the wealthy offer no obvious benefits to growth or to the poor.[xi]

In a 2013 study, scholars Benjamin I. Page and Jason Seawright of Northwestern University, and Larry M. Bartels of Vanderbilt University, found that the wealthy are aware of the inequality yet still oppose anything that smacks of redistribution. The rich are also more active in politics. They block regulations and reform.[xii]

The public, on the other hand, leans more toward increased regulation. Over half of Americans say the government should redistribute wealth and tax the rich more.[xiii]

The rise of inequality is attributed to overpaid CEOs and bankers.[xiv]At the same time Tea Party, conservative, and libertarian politicians fight to loosen regulations on banks and the financial sector and give big tax cuts to the rich. The result: the wealthy accumulate more while putting less into the economy. Top earners have made more while getting their taxes slashed by over 40 percent.[xv]The Tax Code has a big effect on income inequality.[xvi]

Income inequality is worse today then in Jesus’ day.[xvii] Jesus would have known of poverty and income inequality, as would have Paul. When God tells us to “fight the good fight of the faith” and “take hold of the eternal life”, we are not to sit by while others have only food and clothing.

This is not merely a call to personal charity. The worst evils arise not from individual neglect. They arise from nations, criminal syndicates, and large corporations who use their power only for the accumulation of wealth. When people who seek riches use these entities to exploit workers and oppress the poor, they “plunge us into ruin and destruction.”

Now the Supreme Court says money is speech. This means that money can be used to persuade. Free Speech, especially in politics, is used to persuade. The Supreme Court, full of conservative appointees, has said that money can be used to persuade our elected officials, including United States Senators and Congressmen. The Supreme Court has, in effect, turned bribery into speech. Only a conservative activist court could make such a ruling.[xviii]

The writer of First Timothy is not telling us to be content with what we have. He tells us to “fight the good fight” and “grasp hold of the eternal life.” Those with only food and clothing cannot be fully satisfied with their situation. The writer has to instruct them to be content. The path to eternal life instead involves generosity and sharing.

Be generous and ready to share. These important values must be incorporated into public policy. Our nation cannot be run by greed. The bottom line cannot be allowed to run roughshod over the poor and working people. The idea that our problems can be solved by private charity is a lie. The Church is not the department of public social services, nor should it be.

The demonization of the poor by the Right is false theology. We have a nation of billions. All of them need food, clothing and shelter. Those who are sick and disabled need healthcare. The young need an education. Our businesses need infrastructure. Our cities need to provide services. Our military commitments soak up over 50% of our budget.[xix] Crazy people gun down our children. Our nation has many problems to solve. It’s expensive to run a nation.

In no way does giving tax breaks to the rich and to large corporations make any real sense. The rich don’t need the money. Since $500,000 is all one needs to be very happy and satisfied with one’s life, no one need earn more. Vast inequalities have little social utility.

If our constitution guarantees us anything, it guarantees us the right to the pursuit of happiness. Since a basic standard of living is so important to happiness, vast economic inequality, especially when coupled with corruption and greed, deprive Americans not only of a living wage but of their right to the pursuit of happiness as well.

In the end, both the poor and the rich are told to take hold of “the life”. We are not to hope on “the uncertainty of riches”. Instead, we are to place our hope in “God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” Eternal life is the life where we all share what God richly provides. This is the “good foundation for the future” of our nation and the world.

The “eternal life” is not a life where a few accumulate wealth while forty-nine million American’s live in poverty. It is not a life where billions of people around the world live on little to nothing while the few live in unimaginable luxury. It’s the life where we put God’s priorities ahead of the interests of the wealthy. The “eternal life” is “the life that really is life”, the “good foundation for the future”, the life where God provides all of us with everything for our enjoyment. Take hold of the “eternal life”.

[i] Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, Subjective Welbeing and Income: Is There Any Evidence of Satiation (April 16, 2013) (http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2013/04/subjective%20well%20being%20income/subjective%20well%20being%20income.pdf)

[ii]Daniel Khaneman and Angus Deaton, High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but not Emotional Well-Being, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Vol. 107, No. 38)(September 21, 2010) (http://www.pnas.org/content/107/38/16489)

[iii]Census data: Half of U.S. poor or low income

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57343397/census-data-half-of-u.s-poor-or-low-income/ (Dec 15, 2011)

[iv] Edward N.Wolff, The Asset Price Meltdown and the Wealth of the Middle Class (May 2013)( http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/data/report/report05012013.pdf)

[v] Saez, Emmanuel. “Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States,” September 2013. Updated version of study published in Pathways Magazine, Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, Winter 2008.

[vi]Distribution of Wealth http://english.turkcebilgi.com/Distribution+of+wealth

[vii] Measuring Us Against theWorld, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/07/30/business/Measuring-Us-Against-the-World.html?ref=economy&_r=1& (July 30, 2013)

[viii]Cr isis squeezes income and puts pressure on inequality and poverty,

http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/OECD2013-Inequality-and-Poverty-8p.pdf (2013)

[ix] Saez, Emmanuel. “Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States,” September 2013. Updated version of study published in Pathways Magazine, Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, Winter 2008

[x] Saez, Emmanuel. “Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States,” September 2013. Updated version of study published in Pathways Magazine, Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, Winter 2008.

[xi] Mark Gongloff, Income Inequality Gets Worse When You Slash Taxes On The Rich: Study http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/28/income-inequality-study_n_3346073.html (May 28, 2013).

[xii] Benjamin I. Page, Larry M. Bartels, and Jason Seawright, Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans (March 2013) (http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jnd260/cab/CAB2012%20-%20Page1.pdf)

[xiii] Frank Newport, Majority in U.S. Want Wealth More Evenly Distributed,

, http://www.gallup.com/poll/161927/majority-wealth-evenly-distributed.aspx (April 17, 2013)

[xiv]Mark Gongloff, Banker, CEO Pay Largely Responsible For Rising Inequality: Study http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/21/banker-ceo-pay-inequality_n_3478573.html (June 21, 2013)

[xv]Matthew O’Brien, Why is Inequality So Much Higher in the US Than in France, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/why-is-inequality-so-much-higher-in-the-us-than-in-france/278660/ (Aug 14, 2013).

[xvi] Mark Gongloff, Income Inequality Gets Worse When You Slash Taxes On The Rich: Study http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/28/income-inequality-study_n_3346073.html (May 28, 2013).

[xvii]Steven J. Friesen and Walter Scheidel, The Size of the Economy and The Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire (January 29, 2009 ) (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1299313)

[xviii]Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010)

[xix] Where Your Income Tax Really Goes, http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

THINK IMPUNITY: Understanding Arrogance and Pride in The Bible (Sirach 10:7-18)

August 28, 2013UncategorizedProphet of the Christian Left

Richard Mario Procida, Esq.

Sirach 10:7-18

This type of pride and arrogance is an affront to God and to all of humanity. The injustice they wreak upon the world is an outrage! For example, wars over territory and resources value material wealth over human life. This is unjust. Civilians suffer and die to enrich those in power. The insolence of wealth and power is a curse on us all.

Mass movements are composed of the most oppressed and marginalized people of a nation, those suffering under the current regime. These are the humble God raises up.