Firm Faith of Jimmy

It was easy watching President Jimmy Carter tell of his cancer. He told the world about it in the eyes of faith. His eyes. His faith. Without drama, Carter smiled as he told his tale: Cancer is in his brain. Yet, amid all this, he stood firm in his faith. And, after radiation treatment, he taught his usual Sunday Bible School class full of hundreds of people attending. Faith is his life. Carter doesn't wear his faith on his sleeve. It is him. People may laugh about his presidency, but, what is most important, is faith. His own. Mine. And, yours!

This Wednesday evening at Chene and Lafayette in downtown Detroit, a collection of clergy and other citizens are addressing the epidemic of children living with one parent in metropolitan Detroit, along with the pockets of poverty, and heroine's rise, organizers said. At 6:30 pm, the public is welcome to participate in the revival with rap, hymns and preaching for all as residents and leaders occupy the corner and hold a rockin inter-religious tent revival for all.

The 10 Commandments

What would society look like if the Detroit-area newspapers, among other towns, published the ten commandments from the Good Book once in a while?

To Life...in a Teetering Civilization That Sells Body Parts

In "Fiddler on the Roof," a central character says: "To life..." And, each time I try to engage someone about when life begins, there may be a pause, or, an impassioned statement. Then, I may speak of the trafficking of sacred body parts today, and, how I grimace with pain at how I watch a barbaric act done to a baby in his or her mother's womb. "God help us," I silently say. God forgive us for we know not what we do! And, I wonder who is the author and giver of life now? Surly not I. Or, you. Or, others. Or, mother alone. Or, ecclesiastical leaders, and, the pope. Some segments of society think that their power, or, their influence or education, or, even their place in government, or, lawyers, or, judges on the Supreme Court, allows them to be lord of life's limits. Not! To life. But, when does life start? When? Is life not a scientific issue? Hardly, is life's beginning point a theological, or, a question for philosophers, as much as they may want to resolve the issue of life's start, or, end, for that matter. In science class, perhaps biology sessions at Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish High School at Townsend and Miller in Detroit's 48213 zip code, Mrs. Newton, and, Sister Mary Assumpta, taught me that life starts when the chromosomes of the sperm fuse with those chromosomes of the ovum. Formed from this biological (meaning, "life logic") interactivity, is a distinguished and distinctive DNA compound complex that manages the new organism's growth and progress. And, unless this new life grows, and, changes daily, and, often, it will die. It will. All living organisms are like that, no? Change, grow, or, give up living as an organization. Until, and, if, a natural accident strikes or interrupts the evolving baby's growing, progress mounts in this organism's eventual fruition. That is about nine months. Like my twin sister and myself, Patti emerged from the birth canal minutes before I too was pressed to exit the warmth and the safety of my mother's womb, and, the water, and, the fallopian tube that fed me, I'm told by scientists. Later, age appropriately, my dad and mom spoke to me about the "birds and the bees," and, how God formed my siblings and me. They confessed that the sexual intimacy and penetration of dad and mom produced human and sacred life. Before those talks, I thought a stork brought my four sister and three brothers to our two-family, aluminum-sided home at 7107 Arcola Street, near Van Dyke and Lynch Road in the Detroit zip code of 48234. That cherished time of maturation is savored to this day. Even as my father drove a brown, older Dodge vehicle without a license to operate a motor vehicle (my farming dad went only through the second grade in the Port Austin, MI., schoolhouse, while my farming mother of a merged family, like dad's, finished the eighth grade and came to Detroit to work), some of his children prayed that we wouldn't be stopped by the police, and, that we would arrive uneventfully to the Detroit City Airport, for example, where we recreated as we watched ascending and descending airplanes on Sunday afternoons. The complexities of family life were limited without any surpassing of boundaries of human life's sacredness. Today, a throw-away and locomotive-like-speed of an engine's train finds many Americans traveling in the fast lane, ever ready to thrown life away in and outside the womb. Like the respect one must have for human sexuality and life, so, also youngsters, among others, must be taught to respect guns in a violence-prone culture of anger, impatience, and, the need control, and, to be right at any cost! To life. For sure. Although the Supreme Court claimed they could not determine when human life actually began, they decided, or, asserted, the impossibility of judges and lawyers really knowing. After all, they are far from the scientists who know, as, I was taught when life began. That matter and energy are not destroyed in time, but change, and, evolve. A shadow government, as a conscientious physician I know, dubs attorneys, is far from the Supreme Law of God...in the beginning. What worries me is that my own generation seems to think we know everything. However, the fact is, no one knows all things, but the Maker of heaven and earth alone. Like the mayor of Warren, Michigan, the honorable Jim Fouts, a former and much-loved teacher, security and safety in his town, is similar to the need for protection in and outside the womb, and, for that matter, taxpayers who pay for a civilized society. A civilized society remains that only with boundaries, discipline, respect for all of creation, and, the law of God in the ten commandments of the Hebrew Scriptures in Exodus, chapter 20, and, Deuteronomy, chapter 5. By now, I have to wonder what my taxes are financing. And, what is my government getting away with when there are over 40 million U.S. addicts, only to be outdone by a society with fledgling families, and, increasing numbers of precious children without a mother and a father to form, inform, and shape them, unlike my own parents who were far from perfect, but tried to raise us into faithful citizens of what I still hope is the greatest nation on the Earth.

Marriage and Family: Fortress or Field Hospital?

Family is a healing system that loves, laughs, enjoys household, eats together, and, is disciplined with praying times together, for sure. In some way, it could be a fortress against the demonic elements closing in on it, attempting to even destroy the firmness and the foundation of the family - the glue of society. My own family was a merged system on my mother's side and my dad's side also. On August 29th, we meet for a family re-union in Bad Axe, Michigan at the park. We grow as we meet- re-meet, gather and gather again. Praise God.