Dogged in Iowa Hill

On a recent Sunday, my wife and I had one of life’s truly unique experiences.

A pastor friend of mine, Jim Crawford, has been inviting me to come and preach to his congregation for a number of years now, but with my own responsibilities at my church on Sundays, plus my military obligations, I found it difficult to surrender a Sunday from my congregation in Ripon. I’ve been retired from the military for three years, so that obstacle is removed. Then we hired a youth minister about six months back who is able to fill the pulpit for me on those occasions when I’m out of town. Thus, I have recently been available to accept the invitation to preach at Jim’s church.

Jim and I go back a lot of years having first met in 1966 at Azusa Pacific College (now a university). He is also retired from the Air Force Reserve, so we have a lot in common. Knowing Jim as I do, and his wife Diana, I was really looking forward to the experience. Now, please understand. I’ve preached the Gospel in a lot of places over the years, and on every continent, except Antarctica. Many of these opportunities were very unique, like the time I was in Australia. After my sermon one evening, a diminutive older lady came up to me and said in a thick Aussie tongue, “I just love your accent!” I smiled and said, “Madam, I do not have an accent. You have an accent!” She laughed out loud as though I had just told a joke. Then there was the time I was in Tokyo, Japan and was invited to preach to a Korean congregation. I found this to be humorous! There I was preaching in English, pausing after every sentence or two to allow a Japanese Christian to translate my English into Korean for the congregation. Basically, this turns a twenty minute sermon into a forty minute sermon.

So on this recent Sunday we were off to preach at the Free Methodist Church in the town of Iowa Hill, California. Referring to Iowa Hill as a town is a stretch. It’s barely a wide spot on a very small road in Placer County. For those of you familiar with gold mining, you recognize the word “placer.” (“Pla” as in plaque, and “cer” as in sir) What is a placer? It is “a deposit of river sand or gravel containing particles of gold or another valuable mineral.” A year ago this week Iowa Hill received its first telephone landline signal, even though the telephone has been around for 135 years! “It’s a big deal,” said Kathy Morgan, 72 years old, and one of the stalwarts of the church in Iowa Hill. The town of roughly 200 residents still has no electricity. The hum of generators can be heard, along with the use of solar panels and batteries providing much needed electric power. Kathy said most folks don’t want direct electric power because “electricity would just bring more people.” That’s Iowa Hill!

The town is a little less than three thousand foot elevation, some 58 miles northeast of Sacramento on the way to Reno, Nevada. It was founded in 1853 by two gold miners, not surprisingly, from the state of Iowa. During its height of activity in the mid-1850s, the town was mining $100,000 per week! It has been described as being “bound on the west by Iowa Hill Divide and on the east by Indian Creek, northeast of First Sugarloaf and 1.5 miles southwest of Monona Flat.” Once you leave the freeway, it’s a 13 mile drive back into the hills, twisting and winding its way, often on a road that is barely passable for one car. Sheer drop-offs fall hundreds of feet to the North Fork of the American River, forcing drivers to keep their eyes fixed on the road! The scenery is beautiful, and breath-taking – literally!

There is no church building in Iowa Hill, so they use a multi-use building which was primarily used as a school house. Unfortunately, the school has been shut down because there are no students. Kathy Morgan was the teacher, which provided a small income for her. Many of the folks in Iowa Hill simply want to be free from the rat-race of urban life. Some residents are retired, others have settled there simply wanting to be left alone. Living in a tent year-round is not unusual for some, snow and all.

The service was set to begin at 10:30, but Jim had informed me that we would begin when everyone arrived, which was closer to 10:45. All told, there were 20 of us which included a dog. After Jim introduced me, I launched into my sermon, enjoying a free-for-all, give-and-take style with these folks who were quick to ask questions in the midst of the message. I loved it! Anyway, I’m cruising along, fully engaged in the message. I had noticed that the dog, a beagle, had climbed into its owners lap and had fallen asleep just in front of me. I’m used to folks falling asleep when I preach, so I figured, “Why not a dog?” At a telling moment, I paused for effect before making my next statement. In the silence of that moment, the dog, deep in slumber, startled us all with a loud snore. Everyone cracked up, including me! The dog continued in his reverie undeterred by the outburst of laughter. I managed to conclude the sermon, whereupon we all sat together to enjoy a potluck lunch. What a great time!

I may never get back to Iowa Hill, but I can assure you that I will never forget the time we had with these wonderful folks – and the snoring beagle!

Ideology: Good or Bad?

There’s a great deal of smoke and mirrors arising from the political landscape these days that makes it difficult to focus on what is really important in the presidential race. If you’re satisfied with the current administration and its policies, then this article will merely be so much extraneous information. But if you’re like me, you know we can do a lot better. Simply put: we need to cut taxes; reduce the size of government; and restore this country to its former greatness as the place where dreams are made possible.

Recently I heard a Republican senator remark that we need to “put aside all of our ideological differences” and come together in support of a certain candidate for the presidency. I found this comment to be stunning in its naiveté.

Let’s consider a good working definition of the word, Ideology: “A system of beliefs or theories, usually political, held by an individual or a group. Capitalism, communism, and socialism are usually called ideologies.” Hmmm. So, let me see if I have this right. I embrace a certain ideology. Why do I do this? Well, because it fits in with my particular world view. My world view is built upon my personal succession of life experiences, and the convictions that emerge as a result. Add to that equation my environment and the people I am exposed to and you have the basis for an ideological belief system. To arrive at such a point takes time. Life must be lived and savored. Life must be experienced daily. On the surface, this statement sounds absurdly obvious, but too many people are trying to hurry to the next phase of life, failing to enjoy the moments they have in the present. This can eventually warp and distort their ideology. But it is nonetheless their ideology. I may not agree with a person’s basic world view, and my world view may strike them as odd. So, looking back on the suggestion made by this Republican senator to put aside our ideologies for the sake of coming together in some sort of compromise to achieve some indefinable political end, is just so much nonsense.

In an opinion piece written for Fox News, October 10, Kyle Scott, wrote, “Mass movements require an ideology to sustain themselves over long periods. Charismatic leaders and slogans will only take a movement so far if it lacks a set of core values that people believe in. Getting people engaged is hard enough, getting them to stay engaged is almost impossible.”

Core Values. . . Now that’s a critical component in the process of establishing a group of people needing to unite around a cause. What we are witnessing with the worldwide movement of the “Occupy Wall Street” folks and their counterparts across the globe is a loosely held idea that might someday be considered a core belief in an effort to bring these diverse peoples together. That oft expressed idea is that “the rich are getting richer on the backs of the poor.” This plays well in the old canard that rich people do not deserve to be rich, and that poor people are poor because they are constantly pushed down by the rich. This class warfare mantra is as old as man himself. It is always pulled out when other arguments seem to fail when subjected to the light of truth.

Make no mistake – There are certainly people who make lots of money at the expense of those around them. They are greedy, self-centered, heartless, and in need of a life change. God is good at doing that! We all grew up watching a movie of any number of the various versions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Regardless of the portrayal by whatever actor, each story focused on the Ebenezer Scrooge character as mean, greedy and heartless. He was an ardent lover of money. In effect, he is the quintessential Wall Street “Fat Cat.” But in the end, he is changed from his wretchedness, to a life of loving compassion and selfless giving.

Because America has experienced such greatness is primarily because of God’s blessing our nation with the truth that emerges from the pages of the Bible. These are transforming words that utterly change a person’s outlook on life, the way they treat their family, the attitude they have toward others, and ultimately their entire world view. When a person subjects themselves to God’s love and control, they have to change their attitude! It is simply not possible to be a lover of God while despising those around you. You see, Jesus said you cannot love both God and money. You will serve one or the other. Many today are serving the god of money, wealth, prestige, status. They bow and worship at this altar, often sacrificing family, friends, and even their own lives for the brief moments in this life that such power gives them. But many others use their acquisition of wealth to benefit others and the nation as a whole, reinvesting the profits in order to grow the business, providing opportunities for others not to merely survive, but to thrive.

We recently heard of the passing of Steve Jobs, founder and developer of Apple Computers. Here’s a man who at first worked out of his own garage, experimenting in the process of developing what has become arguably the most lucrative technological industry ever. How many people are employed today because Mr. Jobs had a vision that his ideas could benefit others? How many others benefit from these handy devices which make communication so much easier? He had an ideology too. I, for one, am glad he did not compromise his beliefs.

After all the protestors on Wall Street and around the world lose momentum and return home, the Steve Jobs’ of the world will be working out of their garages with a vision to make this world a better place.

Democracy or Republic?

I’ve been listening to the protestors down on Wall Street recently who are complaining about the greed and avarice of the “fat cats.”

What I find troubling in all of this is the misunderstanding the protestors and too many other American’s have about our form of government. I hear a nagging theme from the protestors that simply reveals ignorance about the form of government that was originally established in the United States. The cry from these malcontents is that as a nation we need to reestablish our form of democracy. The question is: “Are we a democracy?” The answer: Yes. But not in the exact way it’s typically defined. A democracy is a “government by the people; especially: rule of the majority” (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law). There is an inherent problem with a strict democracy: the majority rules. This may, on the surface, sound just fine. But if you are in the minority, your voice is not likely to be heard.

Point of fact: We are also a republic. The difference between these two forms of governance is crucial to understanding the freedoms we have and need to hold on to. A republic is “a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law” (ibid.). In a modern day republic the two-party system, or bipartisan system, allows for an election to be held in which all qualified voters may cast a vote in favor of their party/candidate which, in the United States, we call a presidency.

The United States is commonly referred to as either a “representative democracy,” or a “presidential republic.” Where we err in understanding such governmental policies is in the manner in which such bodies operate.

Let’s take the case of our protestors on Wall Street for instance. They insist on a democracy. One young lady was adamant that we get back to being a democracy. What is chilling in this is that a pure democracy is an unnerving drift toward a totalitarian government of statism. That is, economic and political power rests with a central government, reducing regional government, and the individual, with relatively little say in political matters. Taken to an extreme, such democracy invites socialism, and eventually, communism.

On the other hand, a republic can be equally dangerous. When the electorate votes their candidates into office, the power, technically, resides in the people who elected the candidates. But this power can be abused by those elected, believing they then can make decisions which are in their own best interests, ignoring the will of those who placed them in office.

It is important to understand why the United States is one of those unique governments that has successfully combined a democracy and a republic for the past 224 years since the Constitution was written. Such a government is always in danger of shifting in another direction should the power of the people to elect be marginalized, or removed. You often hear the argument from the two major parties, Republican and Democrat, dicker over the role of government. The Republicans, at least in principle, are for smaller government, allowing regional control to rule within the individual states. The Democrats, also in principle, focus on the importance of the centralized government being the defender of the individual who is typically portrayed as downtrodden and neglected by the fat cats.

As we are entering in earnest this new election cycle, we are being introduced to these variances in governmental form all over again. “Class Warfare” is one such “red herring” used to cause disparity between “the haves and the have not’s.” Thus, capitalism becomes the evil to be done away with. Another pitch to separate people is the idea that our elected representatives somehow know what’s better for us than we ourselves do. This is the bogeyman we call “Big Government.” And a third problem that is in the morass of politics is “Racial Tension,” suggesting that certain ethnic groups are being marginalized or ignored. Such refrains are heard ad nauseam during every election cycle, with diatribes of bitterness and dissent being hurled back and forth across the political landscape. The truth is frequently sacrificed on the altar of a political party needing to be (re)elected.

In the final analysis, any such form of governance will always tend to swerve out of control because the base nature of the human race is flawed. Our founding fathers understood this flaw. They valiantly attempted to establish a government that would be as equitable as humanly possible, short of a theocracy in which a fair and just God would be preeminent.

Human Trafficking in California

Human Trafficking is indicative of an immoral condition of such magnitude as to fly in the face of God. It is an affront to all the godly qualities and characteristics within the human soul. In other words, it dehumanizes all of us.

 After last week’s article, “Human Trafficking Redux,” my friend Linda, reminded me of the salacious activities uncovered by the work of two people posing as a pimp and a prostitute attempting to acquire housing through ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). I’m sure you watched the undercover tapes being broadcast on the news, where the man posing as a pimp openly stated that he wanted these homes for the purpose of bringing under-aged girls from South America to work as prostitutes. That was shocking enough, but the manner in which the employees of ACORN accommodated the request was stunning. It was handled in such a matter-of-fact manner that it spoke volumes of whatever else was going on under the guise of a community organization. There was the expected outcry from “We the people,” and of course the appropriate posturing of our elected officials who all huffed and puffed their indignation, harrumphing their disdain for such awful activities going on right under their noses. Then the attacks on the man and woman who filmed these various meetings with ACORN workers were relentless. I’ll leave you to decide the morality of their sting operation. But here’s a question: Would anyone in a position of power have bothered to investigate unless they had hard evidence? I think not.

I wonder how many of us are aware of a report that was released in 2007 by the state of California, entitled, “Human Trafficking in California – Final Report of the California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery Task Force.” This was published by the California Attorney General’s Office. I was particularly interested in the section which identified California as being a “Magnet for Traffickers.” The opening page quoted the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” (Amendment XIII, Slavery Abolished (1865).

Well, that’s a great start. 

Consider this statement by California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber: “The problem of human trafficking has reached into neighborhoods throughout California and is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in the world. Individuals are bought, sold, transported and held in inhumane conditions for use in prostitution or as forced laborers. It would be morally and socially irresponsible to ignore this problem and the victims it creates in California every year.” (September 21, 2005 – signing of AB 22).

          There is a simple pattern to the way human traffickers operate. I shared some of this in my first article three weeks ago based on my own exposure and experience with this morally reprehensible so-called business. This next statement is taken from the findings of the California Task Force assigned to investigate trafficking. “Traffickers lure victims into the United States with deceptive promises of good jobs and better lives, and then force them to work under brutal and inhuman conditions, and deprive them of their freedom. Victims of human trafficking may be involved in agricultural labor, construction labor, hotel and motel cleaning services, illegal transporters, organized theft rings, pornography, prostitution, restaurant services, domestic services, servile marriage (mail-order brides) and sweatshops. Once in this country, many suffer extreme physical and mental abuse, including rape, sexual exploitation, torture, beatings, starvation, death threats and threats to family members.”

          The scope of the problem of trafficking in California found that “over 80 percent of the documented cases took place in urban areas: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, and the majority of victims were non-citizens, with or without valid travel documents.”

          “To put the power of the economic magnet for trade in human beings in perspective, it took transatlantic trade 400 years to import 12 million African slaves to the United States. Yet, within Southeast Asia alone an estimated 30 million women and children have been trafficked – in the past ten years.”

To report human trafficking, call the U.S. Department of Justice Hotline, 1-888-428-7581.

Human Trafficking Redux

As Americans it seems that we may be oblivious to one of the morally odious criminal activities in our world today. We simply do not want to have to deal with the reality that women and children are being used as sexual playthings by a frighteningly larger and larger group of deviants that is international in scope, provided by a willing criminal element. It is reported that 80% of those caught in human trafficking are women and children.

In recent months I have had a couple of different speakers address my congregation concerning this vile business that knows no restraint in attempting to satisfy the prurient desires of degenerates. If our laws are ineffective in curbing this immoral outrage, and our government willingly reneges on its responsibilities to protect those who are most at risk, then I am calling on the Church to let its voice be heard!

The Church has answered this challenge in the past regarding other vile activities and has successfully won the day. One of the earliest turnarounds was the removal of the hideously barbaric practice of gladiatorial contests during the era of Ancient Rome. “In the early 3rd century CE, the Christian writer Tertullian had acknowledged the power of the gladiatorial games over the Christian flock, and was compelled to be blunt: the combats were murder, their witnessing of these games was spiritually and morally harmful, and the gladiator was an instrument of pagan human sacrifice. In the next century, Augustine deplored the fascination with the spectacle of the games as inimical to a Christian life and salvation.” After Constantine I became the first Christian emperor of Rome he banned gladiatorial games in the year 325 CE. In various parts of the empire, the games continued, but were losing popular interest. What finally put an end to the gladiatorial games was the martyrdom of Telemachus, a devout Christian monk. The year was 404 CE. Telemachus attempted to stop a contest between two gladiators, and was killed for his efforts. The games effectively ended at this time.

Another of the more reprehensible actions a society has engaged in that brought the Church into the struggle was slavery of black Africans. The story of one Christian’s stand against this barbaric practice has been recounted in the movie of recent years, “Amazing Grace.” This story of English parliamentarian, William Wilberforce, who singlehandedly brought slavery to an end in the British Empire in the early days of the 19^th Century, is a testament to the fact that one person with the conviction of moral right and the able assistance of God are more than a match for any social sin, regardless of how much we may not wish to acknowledge its presence. The Church in America caught this fervor to end slavery as well, effectively hastening its end, albeit through a devastatingly brutal civil war. The same effort on the part of Christians and the Church can be attributed to the enforcement of child labor laws; the requirement of children to go to school; and the abolishment of child “sweat shops” so common at the end of the 19^th Century.

Only a morally conscious people can stand up against the horrors of man’s depraved baser nature. This is why the Church must answer the call of those who have been subjected to the meanest of treatment in a world where we claim to have advanced in our so-called social evolvement.

A working definition of Human trafficking is “the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery.” If the idea of this happening makes you squirm – good! But I want to be quick to remind you that this is happening not just in some far distant third world country. It’s happening right here in the United States of America.

“Trafficking is an illegal industry, so finding out just how many victims there are annually is difficult. Conservative estimates say that 15,000 people are trafficked into the U.S. annually, while others guess the number is as high as 60,000. It is reasonable to say that whichever number, or wherever in between the truth lay, the number is one too many.” Statistics reveal that the states with the greatest concentration of trafficked persons are New York, California, and Florida. Washington DC also has a large trafficked population.”

“Traffickers may be professional or non-professional criminals because of the low-start up cost of creating a trafficking business. Trafficking is appealing because it is so lucrative: it is the third largest illegal industry worldwide.”

Read more about traffickers at www.HumanTrafficking.com.

More on this crucial topic next week.

Human Trafficking

Some subjects are hard to write about. Such subjects reveal a baseness in our nature that is hard to accept, but is still there nevertheless.

It has been a privilege to have traveled around the world, seeing and experiencing many wonderful sights, sounds, smells, and any number of titillations to the senses. Coupled with this are other experiences that have brought me face-to-face with the seamier side of life. I have walked through some of the worst hell-holes imaginable, and seen the worst of human degradation. Children typically are the ones who are targeted most because they are the most vulnerable and the most trusting of the adults in their lives.

I guess the first time I was aware of some of life’s injustices on a large scale was when my family moved to Paris, France in 1960. This “City of Lights” was truly spectacular, especially at night! But what I was stunned to see were those who were destitute begging for a few centimes, or perhaps a franc. Mostly these were men who were missing a body part, having served in World War II, now relegated to sitting in the long tunnels of the Metro stations, dirty, disheveled but otherwise harmless.

Later after I had enlisted in the Marine Corps, I was exposed to poverty and rejection at a level unknown to me. Certain children in the Philippines, who were unfortunate enough to be left as orphans, lived in a communal garbage dump. Hundreds of children clawed through the piles of refuse, searching for anything they could resell so as to earn a couple of coins, thus allowing them to buy a bit of food. The more fortunate of these children might have enough to eat one small meal a day. At night they would burrow down into the garbage mounds where they would sleep, staying warm by the heat emitted from the decaying trash. It was not uncommon to find a child dead in their hole.

In countless bars and saloons all over the world young girls are routinely subjected to lives of prostitution, typically against their will through deception on the part of those who stand to make money from them; and from ignorance on the part of the girls and their trusting families. Parents of a young girl, usually from an agricultural community, would typically be offered a sum of money to take the girl to the city where she would be hired as a nanny or housekeeper for a wealthy family. Instead, the girl would find herself dumped into the bowels of some bar where her life of slavery to strangers and forced prostitution would begin. Many of these girls are as young as eight or nine.

It has been said in recent years that the worst slave market ever is the current slave trade in human trafficking. If you are unfamiliar with the term human trafficking, here is a simple definition: children and women forced into deviant lifestyles.

The following are current Seven Human Trafficking statistics obtained from the internet (JusticeforYouth.org).

First: The number of slaves in the world today is far greater than ever before in history.

Second: Approximately 75-80% of human trafficking is for sex.

Third: It is estimated that 30,000 people die each year from abuse, disease, torture, and neglect while being trafficked for sex. 80% of those enslaved are under 24, and some are as young as six years old.

Fourth: A human trafficker can receive up to 2000 percent profit from a girl trafficked for sex. The pimp can often turn around and sell her again for a greater price because he has trained her and broken her spirit, which saves future buyers the hassle. A 2003 study in the Netherlands found that, on average, a single sex slave earned her pimp at least $250,000 a year.

Fifth: The highest ranking source countries for human trafficking include Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, China, Thailand, and Nigeria.

Sixth: Today, slaves are more cost effective for the trafficker than they have ever been in history. The population explosion has created an abundant, on-going supply of victims, and globalization has made people more vulnerable and easily enslaved.

Seventh: Sex traffickers often recruit children because not only are they young, innocent and more unsuspecting than adults, but there is also a high demand for young victims. Traffickers target victims on the telephone, on the Internet, through friends, at the mall, and in after-school programs.

Consider these sobering statistics. I will continue this subject next week.