Category: Blogroll

Good Wolf, Bad Wolf and American Politics, part 1

One of my dear church brothers who is in his late 80s, enjoys sending provocative political emails to his long list of friends, including me. He is ultra conservative, and his emails are usually anonymously written forwards, containing strong negative opinion sprinkled with statements of fact, which frequently prove to be erroneous. When extreme, and if I have time, I feel compelled to respond with factual corrections.

Recently we had just such an exchange, in which the anonymous writer asserts that President Obama inserted into the new health care law provisions of Islamic Sharia law, that will in effect exempt Muslims from buying health insurance, while unfairly forcing Christians to buy the insurance or pay a fine. The writer goes on to conclude, very ominously, that the law is part of a conspiracy on the part of Muslims to take over the world.

“Obama Care allows the establishment of Dhimmitude and Sharia Muslim diktat in the United States . Folks, this is exclusively an Islamic concept under Sharia Law. So exclusive they had to make up an English word to define the concept. Why would our government start interjecting Sharia Law concepts into new broad and sweeping legislation like health care that would control the US population? ….Anyone? Muslims are specifically exempted from the government mandate to purchase insurance, and also from the penalty tax for being uninsured. Islam considers insurance to be “gambling”, “risk-taking”, and “usury” and is thus banned. Muslims are specifically granted exemption based on this.

How convenient. So a Christian would have crippling IRS liens placed against all of their assets, including real estate, cattle, and even accounts receivables, and will face hard prison time because they refuse to buy insurance or pay the penalty tax. Meanwhile, Louis Farrakhan and all other US Muslims will have no such penalty and will have 100% of their health needs paid for by the de facto government insurance. Non-Muslims paying a tax to subsidize Muslims. This is Sharia Law definition of… Dhimmitude. This is not a Western Civilization concept.

Dhimmit has two purposes : To enrich Muslims AND to drive conversions to Islam.

I recommend sending this post to your contacts. This is desperately important and people need to know about it — quickly!

This really is happening in your country. A fraction at a time.

Wake up America ! They’re coming in the back door.”

Here is my reply to my friend, Tom:

My dear friend, Tom, et. al:

First, please forgive me for copying you all who were included in this distribution. I know most of you, and a few I do not. Please know I hold all of you in the highest regard and respect. If this communication were to have been made publicly, at a podium, I would have felt just as compelled to walk up to the mic to correct what are clear factual errors. Errors which, if uncorrected, pose a danger to the loving community in which we are all united. So, out of duty I feel bound to grab the mic here. Please forgive me if I offend you by so doing.

This entry at Snopes, which the unidentified/anonymous author of the email uses to confirm the veracity of his claims, in fact contradicts his conclusion and many of the alleged facts.  http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/exemptions.asp.   Tom, did you actually read it through? It appears that the writer didn’t either, that he simply looked at the quoted copy of contested email, which is found at the top of the article, and without reading past it, construed it to mean that Snopes verified its accuracy.

At least three facts and one claim asserted by the anonymous writer are directly contradicted by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson, authors Snopes article:

1) that the Muslim legal term “dhimmitude” is written into the law. Not true.
2) that Muslims are specifically identified within the law as exempt from the insurance requirement, because Muslims see it as a form of gambling. Also not true, on both counts.
3) that Christians would unfairly singled out to be made to pay a fine or buy the insurance. Not true — the most likely group to be exempted is in fact a Christian sect.
4) the writer asserts that the law will promote the expansion of Islam. Given all of the above, this claim is not substantiated in any way.

The Snopes article says clearly (my emphasis added):

“The fact is the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’ (PPACA) legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama does not include language which specifically exempts members of any particular religion from health insurance requirements (nor does it use the word ‘dhimmitude.’) The bill contains a general ‘religious conscience’ provision which establishes guidelines under which religious groups may have established conscientious objections to certain forms of insurance and may seek exemption from health insurance requirements”

and then the article quotes the applicable paragraph from the PPACA, which references for definition of religious sect that would seek exemption to section 1402(g)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code, which addresses religious exemptions from paying any kind of tax, including social security.

Bottom line: longstanding IRS code, not PPACA, is what will define who is or is not exempt.

Included in this definition of who might be exempted from the insurance purchase requirement would be the Christian sect Anabaptists (ie Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites) because they are already exempt from paying into or receiving benefits from the Social Security system, because they choose to take care of their own.

Furthermore, the Mikkelsons speculate that Muslims will likely not be exempt under this IRS definition, because they have never  qualified for an exemption from paying in to Social Security. This is because, contrary to what the writer said,  the Muslim community in general views SSI as a worthy charitable action, of taking care of others who cannot take care of themselves, such as the elderly and disabled, and it involves no risk, no gamble.*

So, to summarize the truth, this provision in “Obamacare”
1) does not use Muslim legal terms from Sharia law,
2) will likely grant special exempt status to some Christian sects
3) will likely not apply to Muslims, and
4) will in fact do nothing to advance the “cause” of Islam, as the writer asserts.

As this portion of the law does not go into effect until 2014, it is not yet known who will apply for exemption, and who will be granted exemption.

Clearly the purpose of this email is to spread fear, misinformation, mistrust, and stir up hatred against our civilly elected president AND the entire class of people in this country who legally practice the faith of Islam.

Tom and friends — I believe Christ was right when he said “the truth shall set you free.” Lies are lies and truth is truth; we, as Christians, have a duty to truth. I would ask you, and by extension, your friends whom I have never met but for whom I hold in the highest regards, to please, please refrain from spreading lies. It does not keep us One Nation Under God.

As I have been studying the lives of the saints and the holy fathers, contemporary and ancient, it is my understanding the God’s grace cannot flow into the lives of people who sin. Sin drives God away; he simply cannot come where sin is, missing the mark of being in line with His will. Its sort of like tuning a dial a radio — if you want to tune in to grace, tune in to the frequency of truth, love, and humility, not sin.  Just as we teach our third and fourth graders, always speak truth and for truth; do not lie, for lying is another frequency altogether; what you’ll tune in, instead, is evil.

Again, forgive me if I have offended you in any way by what I have written. Thank you for your time.

With Love in Christ,
–Laurel

*p.s. My personal opinion, regarding Muslims or anyone for that matter, seeing the new health care law as a risk or a gamble:  The only gamble these days is to have Republicans in office who are bent on disassembling the safety net of our Social Security by privitizing it. That would most certainly turn it into a risk venture, if all our social security public trust funds were put into the stock market! Can you imagine the shortfall today, if the Bush administration had succeeded in privitizing Social Security, as they tried to do in the early 2000s?

In my experience, our current healthcare system as it has evolved today, a bloated, bureaucratic, profit-driven mess– already constitutes a huge gamble: that coverage will be denied by insurance companies redefining benefits,that employers will be able to afford to buy insurance for you as part of your compensation, that you will be able to get coverage at all.  Our current system grows riskier by the year; this healthcare legislation, written not by Obama but by a bi-partisan committee which included the healthcare industry — seeks to minimize the risk, through this provision of requiring everyone to buy into it. Just like automobile insurance is, as a way to lower the risk of having uninsured drivers, this provision has the same aim.

This is just my opinion. Thanks.

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See Good Wolf, Bad Wolf, Part 2 for a follow up to this posting which I received from Tom’s friend, Jim.

Book Review: A Modern American Orthodox Pastor: The Homilies of Fr. William Olnhausen

As a convert to Orthodoxy, I was delighted to hear about the new book: A Modern, American Orthodox Pastor: The Homilies of Father William Olnhausen, our dearly beloved parish priest. In addition to the joy of participating in the Divine Liturgy and church life since my Chrismation in 1999, I look forward each week to the inspiring sermons of Father Bill. Having spent nearly four decades like so many Americans today, outside of a spiritual tradition and practice, without the loving guidance and insights of a genuine spiritual leader or community, today I am grateful to be raising our daughter within the family of the Orthodox church, and to have Father Bill as our spiritual father. Like the editors, I am grateful to be able to share with others the love, wisdom and guidance offered by this very down-to-earth and very remarkable holy man.

Many say that Orthodox Christianity is the best-kept secret in America, and I agree. With this well-written, easy-to-read book, the secret is out. Within its pages are found insights into the workings of the original, indigenous Christian church, alive with the love of the Holy Spirit in the 21st century, unaltered and unbroken in its worship tradition since the very beginning. “Orthodox” means true, and the title of this book could not be more accurate, for revealed within its pages is a true, modern-day Orthodox pastor. Writing and speaking each week from the heart, Father Bill’s homilies share openly his own personal insights and experiences of his spiritual journey.

In my life before Orthodoxy, I knew few whom I could describe as genuinely spiritual people, who shrink their egos and allow the light of God to shine through them.  Father Bill is just such a person. In 1998 the Holy Spirit spoke through him, touching my heart, when he explained how it is that we come to know God. At that point I was a typical “Baby Boomer,” college educated, secular, intellectually minded, non-church-attending, and harboring grievances against the “church” for its historical record of atrocities, malfeasance, and arrogance. In Introduction to Orthodoxy class, Father Bill explained that getting to know God is like getting to know your spouse. When first introduced, you don’t just jump right in and get intimate. You treat him with respect and get to know him gradually, a little at a time. You meet the family and hear stories about things he did in the past. You learn how and why other people love him. You eat, work, and play together, and get to know him yourself. Genuine friendship develops and you fall in love, not just your head or your body, but most importantly, with your heart. 
 A heart that seeks God finds Him. And those who do find their lives transformed.

This book chronicles 20 years of such transformation, as Father Bill encounters the living God and His saints, both ancient and modern, as he guides his flock to deeper understanding of Orthodoxy and the Divine Liturgy, and as he comforts the bereaved. Trained as a scientist and continually reading and growing, Father reveals that intellect and skepticism play an important part in a genuine spiritual life. He shares how saints have and continue to intercede within his life and direct his path in ways both simple and profound. From his first encounter with our Holy Father Bishop Nicholas the Wonderworker, who founded our parish in Cedarburg, Wisconsin with Father Bill’s help (he basically just had to get out of the way so the saint could do his work) to the modern wonder-working St. Nectarios, who reposed in the early 20th century (Father has met and developed a relationship with the helpful saint over the course of a decade of prayers and annual trips to Greece), Father Bill reveals the living triune God, in relationship, as the Orthodox truly know Him.

In the act of worship in the Divine Liturgy each week, we are lifted up spiritually into communion with God and the angels, saints, and our loved ones in heaven, and when the Liturgy is finished, we take a piece of that heaven with us into the week. Through an active prayer life which we are gently and lovingly encouraged to undertake, at our own pace, we strive to be open to the transformation by the Holy Spirit, to undertake the process of theosis–to become like Christ Our God. The Orthodox church is both a home and a journey, a place and a path, a spiritual hospital that renews the shine of the light of God within our lives and our journey through the world. Father Bill’s grace-filled presence, guidance, and leadership is what an Orthodox priest should be: a true beacon, a guidepost, and a loving refuge along that journey.

A Modern, American Orthodox Pastor: The Homilies of Father William Olnhausen, reveals openly the “best kept secret” of Orthodox Christianity in America today. This book will stand the test of time, speaking to the hearts of readers for years to come. His sermons are inspiring to hear each Sunday, and thanks to the loving dedication of editors James Scarpaci and Michael Huber, now they are inspiring to read as well. May God grant Father William Olnhausen many more years of sharing his journey, his heart and his wisdom with us all.

A Modern, American Orthodox Pastor: The Homilies of Father William Olnhausen makes a wonderful gift, and is available online and through the parish treasurer, Suheil Acra. All proceeds benefit St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, Cedarburg, Wisconsin. For ordering information, please download an order form from the church’s website, stnicholascedarburg.org, or email Suheil at s_acra@sbcglobal.net.