October 18, 1985

Joe Rogers

c/o The C1arion-Ledger
P.O. Box '+0
Jackson, MS 39205

Hey Joe,

. . . . . Don't worry, Joe. It's definitely not just you (in regard to your column in today's paper). I'm pretty sure it's every American who is at least too secretive for their own good. And the worst thing about it is not just that there is no secret thing, as the Bible clearly states (and that there is a God is a determination that is ultimately left to the individual doesn't alter the reality of our situation), but also that Americans (and too many people of every other nationality) are and have been secretive about all the wrong things.

. . . . . If Americans want to be secretive about anything (and most people are self-serving about their secretiveness in a very small-minded way) they should have picked their lifestyle (I guess I will use the third person as you did, though I certainly haven't fit your "people" category) and they should have started a long time ago, 1950 anyway, to try and keep any kind of general awareness about a society that can bring such phrases as "conspicuous consumption" and"planned obsolescence" into the lexicon. (should have continued with "from being spread about" or something)

. . . . . Consider the King James version of some of Jeremiah 5: "They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

. . . . . Maybe the grace and truth of the new testament of Jesus strikes you as more relevant: "And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, . . . for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." (The words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 13.)

 

 

 

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. . . . . So now Americans have allowed satellite dishes in Africa to beam maybe even "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" for people to feed their desires on, as widespread famine and mass starvation ravage the land; and our next-door neighbors in Mexico, while witnessing a flight from real poverty and deprivation in the countryside, a desperate flight from the frying pan into the raging fire of need surrounding Mexico City (a flight perhaps not unprecedented except for its magnitude), can watch the Ewings and their "friends" wallow in luxury and chlorinated swimming pools in Dallas, Texas.

. . . . . Do you want to know what "dangerous territory" really is, Joe? It is eternal darkness. Forever misery, wailing, gnashing of teeth. (More Bible stuff, for the information of the unlearned.) Drawing a paycheck: nevermore.

. . . . . The danger here and now is that the truth is out. Lao Tsu, the founder of Taoism, said "The way of heaven is to take from those who have too much, and give to those who do not have enough. Man's way is different." One of the dangers is that there are a lot of hungry people "out there" who are also sick of injustice and are not above using the same amoral and immoral means which too many of those who have too much today used to get it, in an effort, however misguided, to right the maldistribution of wealth we see. Who's got the plutonium?

. . . . . The clear and present danger today was touched upon by William Faulkner in his Nobel prize acceptance speech when he said he thought mankind would not just survive, but prevail. In "Wealth vs. Riches", (a portion of his book Does It Matter?) Alan Watts said that if we would just realize how wealthy we are, we would no longer concern ourselves with the acquisition of riches. "It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time . . . lends focus," Isaac Asimov wrote. "It is not recorded, incidentally, that the lesson has ever been permanently learned."

. . . . . Have I made my point? At the risk of appearing vindictive, let me continue. Your editorial was dangerous. It promulgates an attitude about money that horribly exemplifies the Apostle Paul's admonition (in I Timothy 6) that "the love of money is the root of all evil" if only because you write of "a new house, automobile, stereo or some such I've managed to get my hands on" WHILE PEOPLE STARVE.

. . . . . Here's where you legitimately should ask me what I'm doing. So if you're interested, keep reading and Ill try to tell you. I'm taking a stand. I will not be shipwrecked on a vain reality is how Thoreau put it. "To be spiritually minded is life and peace" is how Paul wrote it in Romans 8. And anyone who is spiritually minded must put the well-being of everyone on the planet on an equal basis or there are no reasons to hope that mankind can prevail.

 

 

 

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. . . . . All of the worlds religions address the renunciation of desire. "Open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread." (Proverbs 20:13) "Give us this day our, daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:" is part of the prayer Jesus gave us in the sermon on the mount, where he continued (in small part) "lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth . . . but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . Ye cannot serve God and money."

. . . . . I know this is still preaching, as opposed to telling you of my personal practices, but I an practicing what I'm preaching (and I'm doing a lot of that) and so here's one that's real good for both of us: "I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." That's Matthew 12:36, 37, and in the margin I have written "& of course thoughts count too" (from Matthew 5:28 et al) and our actions are the cause and effect, reap as ye sow, semi-scientifically-proven in-the-material-world laws (with apology for the less-than-clear-thinking coming through in the writing, but I suppose I will sleep tonight, and I hope we will all be changed tomorrow).

. . . . . Anyway, I'm living in a rented trailer, and I've never made $10,000 (ten thousand dollars) a year in my life, and I'm not making much money now, and I suppose the biggest vanity in my life now is this '54 Chevy pickup I might have $750 in laying mostly disassembled around the trailer that I've been using as an escape for several months putting a lot more work than money in and if I were to have a garage sale/auction of all my worldly possessions I might be lucky to walk away with $2,000 (two thousand dollars) and I'll put that old truck (not included in the sale) up as a tax-deductible toy to anyone who will write a check to Live Aid or Unicef or Care (definitely not the United Way) that is a similar sacrifice and I'll volunteer to have my name head up the list of any organized effort (even if it's me and you starting the organization) to do what Jesus exhorted his disciples not once, not twice, but three times in the last chapter of St. John, to feed his sheep. "Whensoever ye will," He said in Mark l4:7, "ye may do (the poor) good," and I do give money to feed the poor, and I do try to help everybody I can without expecting anything back, and if there's ever a bunch of Mexicans trying to storm the border you better believe I'll be there to be shot by somebody who writes like you because that scripture which says "he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal" certainly lives in me today.

. . . . . I'd like to see a form of this in your column or the letters to the editor space; why don't you call on a WATTS line or send me a line.

Sincerely,

 

 

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Saturday morning

. . . . . I guess a post-script is in order.

. . . . . Last night I saw some video tape of black riots in a major city's streets in South Africa, including savage attacks on any Caucasians caught in the maelstorm. These are people forbidden (I believe) to possess firearms, who are throwing themselves with sticks and stones against the armed and deadly white "enemy" in a physically hopeless, desperate, even fanatical attempt to end the obvious oppression. It called to mind another passage from Asimovs Foundation and Empire in which his fictional world, in a frightening parallel to our real one, is "falling apart of the triple disease of inertia, despotism, and maldistribution of the goods of the universe. . . .Inertia! Our ruling class knows one law: no change. Despotism! They know one rule: force. Maldistribution! They know one desire: to hold what is theirs. While others starve." And I picked up the paper and read your column again.

. . . . . "When the subject turns to money," you wrote, "keep your mouth shut. You've always got less than you think you need. And more than others think you deserve."

. . . . . Cynicism, by the way, was not something Jesus did not understand, as we witness by His saying "Make to yourselves friends of the riches of unrighteousness, that, when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations." (Luke l6:9) And with the scorn and scars and humiliation heaped upon Him it is easy to understand a momentary sneering at their stupidity, and speaking to them in parables, and saying that time "lest . . .they . . .should be converted, and I should heal them."

. . . . . I know that there are organizations international in scope set up to feed the hungry and educate them in how to feed themselves, and that people donate a lot of tax-deductible money to support these organizations. And then I read in Proverbs 15:8 that "the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord", and I consider how many of the people who work for these organizations twist a proverb like "charity begins at home" as a rationalization for drawing a twelve-thousand-dollar ($12,000) a year salary and feeling, like you apparently do, underpaid.

. . . . . I want our organization to begin not in the home, but in everybody heart. Talk about a great game for the kids: Shelter And Feed Everybody (SAFE). It shouldn't take but a year or two and then we could go back to buying houses and cars and boats and vacations. Our legal system is an incredible jungle of trying to legislate morality (let that read financial security) for special interest groups; we need a grassroots movement to legislate morality, and all it would take is an ad hoc law of subsistence, a quasi-moratorium on mortgages, dividends, salaries, wages, rent, utility bills, everything it can be applied to, maybe just using a ninety per cent (90%) cut on payouts across the board; freezing prices; closing the stock market and other organs of speculation (all temporarily remember); and reminding everyone that "in the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer: (Jesus has) overcome the world" and WE CAN TOO.

. . . . . And its not just that we can, but that we must: "For all (the ways of the world) the Lord's anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still." (Isaiah 5:25)


 

 

 

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. . . . . As for me, believe it or not, I'll volunteer to lead the way. If the two major gas companies who sent me credit cards will let me pay them ten percent of my purchases until the moratorium is lifted I will subsist, barring emergencies which would/should still just cost ten per cent, on fifty (50) dollars a month (which might be about what Im spending now every two weeks), I'm talking beans and rice and I will try to grow a garden come spring if all the wonderful people in the world let me live that long (since Gods love beats strongly in my heart).

. . . . . And before you run my name up a flag-pole or a cross or even mention it at a party, let me remind you that there are people seeking to work the will of God, but I have met many people whose hearts were hardened by the world. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," Jesus said in John l4, "not as the world giveth, give I unto you.. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." A parting gift to His disciples, which I fervently hope and pray all people may hold dear. And soon.

. . . . . And now, right after I warn you about casually spreading my name, I say I'm going to send a carbon copy of this to your editor and give copies to family members, and hope that they receive wide-spread dissemination and action. I, by the way, like Thoreau, have no desire for fame, or money or (worldly) love, but crave only truth. All I do is for the glory of God.