Losing The Lord's Luster

Like The Luster Has Gone hit (not often, but) they fall down, and need to be rebuilt.  Government largess is often, hopefully, available for capital projects, roads, buildings etc.  Yet, not much new thinking is required for either - a replacement bridge is still a bridge; a new government building, just one more address on a block.  Maryland's future requires more imagination and sophisticated vision than either..      

'Labeled Justice'

 

That one's a Trump judge.  Another was appointed by President Clinton.  A third was an appointee of  Bush, the older. The first leans to the political right; the second federal judge has shown a decidedly progressive reading of the law, in most of his judicial rulings.  The third judge has issued rulings spanning much the entire scope of the political landscape. 

These days, it seems we measure who a judge is, their judicial temperament, how he/she will rule, first, by mentioning which President appointed them. The connection invariably seems to slap on a 'brand-for-life' - with all that follows being predetermined by the political leanings of the appointing President.  Identify the legal issue, then show me the judge in the case. Knowing both, I can almost pre-scribe the verdict, often one verdict reeking far more  the 'smell' of subjectivity, than any fragrance of the letter and spirit of the law.  

Our ideally 'blind', innocent until proven guilty, judicial system is being seriously threatened.  If what amounts to a debauchery of justice isn't curtailed, we soon won't be able to recognize our American system of justice - a system, despite its shortcomings, is still the envy of much of the civilized world.     

We're starting to have justice-by-popularity rating, by the sway of the mob.  Special interests groups with large budgets, and others, private and corporate, with siren sounding public relations messaging are too often defeating simple justice.  An almost obsessive, devotion to partisanship (and political party) is starting to sound like Communist China or Russia. "Party, party, party; agenda, agenda, agenda".  The only difference is China's legal system makes no pretense to offering justice in the first place. 

Our Lady Justice is no longer blind. Now she peeks through red or blue hues, depending on who's in favor on any given day.  Equal justice, it's going the way of gender certainty, low gas prices, mother, apple pie and the flag.  

Judges have too often become little more than politicians in black robes. These politically motivated, dangerously shortsighted actors are placing all Americans in real danger.  No better example of these politically motivated practices exist than watching judges (and prosecutors) in some of the cases  being brought against former President, Donald Trump.   

I'm not an lawyer, but I know you're not supposed to be able to predict judicial outcomes merely be checking the political party of the judge in the case.  The facts and the applicable law should be the only issue(s) in a courtroom.  True justice is, ultimately, about what not who.  When the 'who', becomes the salient issue, then the prettiest girl, the richest guy, the favorite topic of the day, begins to control outcomes in legal cases. 

Human nature is fickle.  One day you're in favor, the next day no one wants to see you coming.  A legal system left to the whims of political belief or personal caprice will soon cease to be systematic at all - to say nothing of being 'blind', or fair.  Even ancient cultures knew that person-centered, subjective justice, would ultimately lead to no justice at all. As far back as 1755 BC, the Babylonians, under Hammurabi, recognized the need for some kind of objective code.  Otherwise, what would be used to constrain the errant actions of men? 

In Hammurabi's Babylon everyone had to play by the same set of rules - regardless.  A harsh system for sure (they'd cut off and out fingers, hands, arms, tongues), the Hammurabi Code was, nonetheless, based on  the understanding that every man was innocent until proven guilty.  Sound familiar?  The tyrant might not like you, but he wouldn't skin you alive just because he didn't.  

Our founding fathers got a lot right when they designed our form of republican government.  The first and best understanding of the 'American Vision' was and is that our freedoms (and those of all peoples) are derived from God, not from men.  Who else but God?  What mere human (although God's most wonderful creation) could be trusted with the final verdict, over the freedom of the human family? Man is free, because God willed it so.  He did not give powers of appeal to any, merely, man made government.  His will: that is the source of all justice. 

Making justice a matter of political preference is wrong. Relegating justice to the vagaries of human passions, or political appointments strips away all godly protections.  Adherence to a 'Trump judge', or a Biden appointee, or one appointed by any man, replaces the role of our Lord with at least partisan mischief, and at worse, ungodliness.  'Labeled justice' is, too often, no justice at all.    

Men, and the governments they devise, like to have things their way.  The lust for power and contol can be addictive.  If we're going to have anything better than an 'eye for an eye, tooth for tooth' justice (like they did in ancient Babylon), we had better not allow our judicial system to become ruled by 'labeled justice', meted out by sycophantic judges.  The Bible is full of stories about justice and about mankind's sufferings at the hands of injustice. 

 Witness:  The escape from Egypt, ending only with God's mercy, and the parting of the Red Sea.  Think, too, of the ultimate injustice:  nailing our savior to the cross. Think if God was just some 'labeled justice', ruled by anything but perfect love?  'Lo and behold', we suffering humans -without His justice, His mercy.

The Chesapeake Bay is not the Red Sea, no one is 'escaping' across the Bay (except, perhaps, on hot August days, to get to the beach).  Yet, everyday we have to escape the fickle changing verdicts of men.  

I say:  'escape with Him across the waters of this life's injustices' - but it won't be done with labeled justice.  

                                                         _______________________

Postscript:  I've been away for sometime - illness.  Thank God I'm back to, 'Bible By The Bay' and you.

Talk with all of you again, soon. 

  

       

   

     

Adonis and Other Beautiful People

Sometime it's fun to go back to reread tales of Greek mythology, with all those gods and goddesses, and all their shenanigans. Before Jesus arrived, it seemed almost everybody and most cultures all over the, then, known world had their own roster of gods and goddesses - like a vending machine, you could pick your choice.  One of the more popular myths was the one about Adonis and Aphrodite; he that beautiful man, and she, the world's most beautiful woman - the Roman's Venus. 

It seems Adonis had caught the eye of the ravishing Greek goddess, herself the queen of love.  Whether boon, and happy-ever-after, or bust, and heartbreak, mythical lyrics would tell. 

One day Adonis went out hunting and, sadly, was killed by a wild boar.  When Aphrodite received the news of Adonis' death she went crazy, becoming consumed in overwhelming grief.  Lamentations, wailing, cursing, stomping, pulling hairs, total disarray followed.  Aphrodite did what any wounded heart would do; she called on her benefactor.  Aphrodite called on Zeus!  

 Zeus, the chief god of all the ancient Greek gods and goddesses, sat high on Mt. Olympus.   Aphrodite was a  Zeus favorite, pampered among all the lesser deities. Now her mournful cries pierced his ears like bolts of lightning. "O great one my heart is dying; for my lover, Adonis, is dead".  "Please, great one, do something; please return my love to me".   

Zeus could be a fickle fellow, a changing god.  One day he'd favor you, another day he'd will some terrible calamity to befall you.  Aphrodite's entreaties found him in a good mood.  Yes he would hear her cries, he would salve her broken heart. 

Zeus would allow Adonis to return to Earth from Hades, the underworld - but only on something akin to an installment plan.  Adonis could spend six month back on Earth, romping and cavorting, with Aphrodite or anybody else, goddess or mortal.  The other half year he would have to stay put - in Greek hell. 

Now for the flowery part.

Aphrodite and Adonis, like so many star-crossed, literary lovers of old (can you say, Troilus and Criseyde; Romeo and Juliet), did have moments of bliss, before their love affair(s) would die one sad death or other.  Our lovers, Aphrodite and Adonis, would die together; their blood, by the will of Zeus, would blend together.  From their sorry would spring, 'daughter of the wind', the lovely whitish blossom, of the Anemone plant.  

Greek gods and goddesses are fun to read about; some of their stories ring apocalyptic.  None of these tales, however, all conjured by men, come even close to the truest love story:  the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. The Son of Man, our savior, on the Chesapeake Bay, all over the world.  He is anything but fickle. 

As I sit here beside the calm waters of the Bay, my thoughts turn to His undying, unchanging, love and mercy.  My eyes scan the shoreline, his countless creations. His  Anemones and more, blooming around me.  My certainty comes in knowing, just as this warm Summer followed the rebirth of Spring, His promises will follow forever - one after another.  From Earthly birth and death, to eternal life with Him.  No changing gods and goddesses here, no clouding the way to salvation.  My God. His Word. The Bible.  Each is true, all the time.  

I like nice stories, Greek myths and all; they can help pass long Summer days.  Along the Bay, however, it's the beauty of God's unchanging wonders and glory, that is the real story.  The story is everywhere for all to have and hold; turning placid days to starry nights - heartbreak to happiness.

 All of God's, stories are true.  If Adonis and Aphrodite could have only known Him.  

Come to Him. Come to the Bay.  Bring your Bible.

 'Bible By the Bay'.  Get back to us.                   

               

The Great and Small - God and Mosquitoes

Ah, the (Asian) tiger mosquito, or forest mosquito, Aedes albopictus, one of 3600 species of the family Culicidae - the mosquitos, houseflies, and gnats, don't you know.   Tiger mosquitoes by the millions breed in the marshes, streams, and rivers along the Chesapeake Bay.  This tiger is especially pesky, because unlike other mosquitoes who like wetlands, this mosquito prefers close association with humans.  Tigers terrorized 24/7, feeding in the daytime in addition to at dusk and dawn.   Summers on the Chesapeake Bay meant you consciously tried to avoid mosquitoes, but against your best efforts the mosquitoes still hunted you - relentlessly.

Many-a-young girl and boy spent long days in June, July, and August shooing and swatting mosquitos.  Girls especially suffered Summer's torment, unsuccessfully trying to devise all manner of ways to remain cool in the Bay's often hot, humid, damp weather.  Against everyone, mothers, sons and daughters, the dreaded winged creators just kept on biting. Especially after a quick Summertime downpour, the tiger mosquito could be merciless, swarming overhead like gray clouds. DDT, the 'miracle insecticide', invented during WWII, promised some relief, but the reality was more in the promise than in the relief. Frustratingly, no amount of spraying could rid the Bay area of it, the 'tiger' - that God forsaking insect.

 Not only did they bite but mosquitoes added insult to abrupt reaction by leaving behind itchy little bumps - and that's not all.  As if adolescent acne were not enough, being a young girl on the Eastern Shore meant you probably got little black bumps all over your legs and arms.  Against all warnings, the poor tormented victim would scratch the little bumps, in a vain effort at relief.  Adding scars to vanity, the little bumps often become dark permanent spots.  Credit Bible admonitions and the threat of momma's switch - for keeping many-a-kid from cursing the very Summer that brought the striped menace.   

 Sometime, especially after a downpour, the damned things would swarm so thickly you'd think they were a storm cloud hovering overhead, they brought to mind something one might witness in the tropics. This wasn't the jungles of Central or South America, not even a Summer in Florida.  This was the Chesapeake Bay. 

 Summertime on the Chesapeake Bay meant mosquitoes for everyone.  City folks just visiting the Bay in Summer could be heard wondering, 'what in the world ever made me want to come to this weed infested buggy place'.  The Bay, though, was and remains God's country.  The place defines all that is renewing. It is calming, soothing, but also warning.   

 For years the mosquito (more, perhaps, than any other pest - insect or not) posed major problems on the Shore.  They impacted everything, the personal health, population growth, economic development and general wellbeing of the entire region.

 Around the 50's and early 60's Maryland got serious about insect abatement, beginning serious efforts to reduce mosquito counts along the Bay.  Before then, shore residents joked that many political leaders, especially those from the Western shore, didn't even know where the Eastern Shore was.  It was business interest, especially those promoting Ocean City's beaches, and the Bay's avid fishermen, who've long seen the area as heaven (mosquito or not), who started the push to get Maryland politicians to take Bay area concerns, especially mosquito control, seriously. 

  

 After landlubbers from the Western shore 'discovered' the Eastern Shore, many of those westerners rediscovered their Bibles.  There is something about the Chesapeake Bay that has the 'pull' to bring those who've strayed away, back to the Lord. 

With the dreaded sheeters still causing little girls to scratch, curse, then scratch some more, the Chesapeake Bay still remains God's country.

God loves all of His creation; yes, even the tiger mosquito.  How much more, then, must He love you.?  

Come on down to the Bay.  Bring your Bible.  'Bible by the Bay'.

 Let us hear from you.

     

 

     

 

  

Thoughtful Americans

 

Drugs.  Education.  Gender.  Race and equity.  Family issues.  Immigration.  Abortion.  Is anything resolved, even reconciled, in this, our hyper- political world?  For sure, the only certain thing among any of  these is 'change' -  but change to what and why?

Along the Chesapeake we get lots of  reports, reports about the overall ecological health of the waterway, about amounts and quality of seafood, about recreation opportunities the Bay affords.  Bay Bridge traffic is a perennial topic.  Less talked about matters, like the fussiness of some Bay area  real estate transfer procedures and the land ownership disputes that result, or the little talked about but amazing Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (down near the Bay's southern tip), or the growth of the HBCU, UMES, only come up now and then. 

 Like America generally, the ferocity of debate on the Bay mirrors national issues.  All the cacophony  is usually spawned far from the shores of Ann Arundel, or Somerset, or Kent, or even the ultra-sophisticated Talbot counties.  The Bay area, through it all, still leans to the right, politically and culturally.

Thank the Lord, people along the Bay aren't ashamed to display their right- leaning sensibilities, assured that many of their attitudes are anchored in the Lord's words.

Bay area residents wink at the left, right, back and forth, of the public discourse that acts like windshield whippers, too often squeezing out room for real progress.  

 This brings me back to the necklace of issues hanging around Marylanders' necks.  

Down around the Bay, the Bible has always found practical day-to-day expression, manifested in the way the people in these parts have chosen to live.  It's not that people around the Bay are any smarter than their more landlocked neighbors (though they seem better at realizing more from relatively less). It is that they've clung more closely to the unchanging practical value of  'The Word'.  This has provided a  'heavenly-begotten' premium.   

Starting with proof of the Lord's salvation (from the darkest deepest hole), the worse drug addled sinner need but turn to Christ, and be saved.  Instead, too many have gotten caught in a wishy-washy illogic of, 'it's a disease' that leads to ever more drugs, consumed under the leftists' banners of personal freedom, misleading calls for manufactured equity, and a need for relief from an increasingly challenging society.

 On abortion (no matter how it's framed - the killing of babies), the appealing talking point is, 'it's between a woman and her doctor'.  Such arrogant thinking completely negates HIM, the one source of all life.  Certainly, (in any Earthly sense) it is her body; but this completely secular view  dismisses the role of everything Christian faith teaches.  Sure it's her body, but it's HIS first. This is not rocket science. (Frankly the abortion mess could be cured with just a little more personal responsibility, leaving her, him, and the unborn all intact.)     

 Language, meaning, and the word tools that give them life are tricky things.  Carried to extremes, up can be made down, excrement can be sweetened to perfume, homosexual is morphed into 'gay'. 

 Not too long ago the American Psychiatric Society filed most persistent gender confusion issues under, 'Mental Disorder'.  Political correctness no longer permits any such descriptive or actual honesty. I'll chance to suggest this, you show me a God-less person, one without knowledge or love of the certainty of the Bible's teachings, I'll show you a life of almost constant confusion - enough confusion to drive anybody crazy. 

 There've had homosexuals, lesbians, other sexual deviations throughout human history.  Some cultural elites (most notably late BC early AD Romans) played the 'gender game'; mostly because they often had more idle time then common sense or moral grounding.  Roman elitist at least feign to observe some modicum of discretion.  This was no concession to decency, as much as an effort to  conceal their complete debauchery, from the prying eyes of  'those poor unsophisticated masses'.  Today, shockingly, not even for-show claims of propriety are offered.  Social Media size eyes-on reaction is the goal of today's outrageous displays - most aren't even clever.

 "How much more prurient can I be"?  How much lust can a society endure in the  name of, 'who you love'?  

People on the Bay more generally just want to live, prosper, and let live.  Their Bible tells them, 'judgement belongs to the Lord'.  They only hope their tolerance will not be mistaken merely for good-ole-boy ignorance.  Their faith assures them it isn't.

'Race', while mostly subdued, lingers as a topic - the Bay, after all, is still part of America.  The solution would be to accept each man as God's child, each person worthy of  God's loves. To quote Chief Justice Roberts, 'the way to end discrimination is to stop discriminating'.  Alas, the Lord is still working on us.  On the Bay, I think it's the levelling effects of Judeo-Christian living that still holds enough sway to  move human-to-human relations in the right direction.  

 Some men are given ten things, some twenty. If I hear again the plight of one man (or group) is all the fault of another, I'll scream"!  GOD did not make HIS people to grovel.  HE did not give one man dominion over another.  HE did not make one man a king, another man a slave.  Only men do that to other men. 

 The Bay is a treasure trove of material wealth.  The Chesapeake's  bounty, while not always one-to-one, effort-for-effort, is, nonetheless, world famous for making lots of people (people of many races) very prosperous.  To suggest anything to the contrary is to call the LORD a lie.  The Bay has never been a lie. 

Thoughtful Americans share a lot - especially along the Bay.  Thoughtful, they are  Bible lovers.  Bible lovers, they are thoughtful. 

 Come down to the Chesapeake Bay.  Don't forget, bring your Bible.

 Get back to us here at Bible By The Bay.  We want to hear from you.  Tell us what you think. 

  It's Bible By The Bay.