THE END OF THE WORLD

Dear All of Us,

As a teen and twenty something I spent healthy hunks of time in Manhattan.

Nothing too wild or crazy. Mostly buddies, Broadway shows, bookstores 

(especially that sacred sanctuary, Brentano's), churches, The Cloisters, museums, 

celebrity spottings (Jack Webb of DRAGNET and Dave Colloway, original host of 

TODAY, John Glenn, first to orbit earth - how big a deal is that now?), fine dinning

on a dime at Horn and Hardart's Automat and Toffenetti's on Times Square -

great spaghetti and meatballs, a salad, real Italian crusty bread and a glass of 

wine for under fifteen of today's dollars.

Back then a constant in Times Square was some quirky soul, placard hoisted,

proclaiming THE END OF THE WORLD. Took it as silly sad.

Well, I sure hope I'm not a silly, sad, quirky soul. I definitely don't have a placard 

to hoist. But I do say and state that THE END OF THE WORLD is not only at hand, 

it already has a significant start - I dare not say a good start. The world as we 

knew it, wished it, imagined it, is crumbling under and all around us. It isn't nice 

and it's going to get a lot not nicer. Empire and its power players have fooled us

and the floor is dropping out from under us. Religion lost its soul. Freedoms and 

democratic process are on the ropes, if not out cold on the canvas. A few horde 

most and most world-wide suffer devastating loss in war, poverty, starvation, 

injustice. Earth and air are so stretched wrong they just can't keep sustaining. 

Truth is so trashed that trust is rusted out. Mass media has gone mad taking the 

masses with them, and that's not to Mass on Sundays. It's a Mad, Mad Bad World 

fast on its way to hell as in a hell of a lot of suffering. Most of the world is already 

there. We of the middle and so called upper classes are about to lose our cushy 

perks to pain and it's certainly scary as hell. God is Love and we are not living that 

Love. That absence is hell, hell not later down there somewhere sometime, but 

here and now with more to come and coming fast!

Our situation is a contemporary recast of what the Jewish people faced with the 

destruction of their center, the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus told them that not one 

stone of it would be on another. So it was in 70 CE. Life and religion as they knew 

it were gone forever. And gone were they from their homeland and way of life. 

Scattered world-wide, they had to have a new center and way. In place of The 

Holy of Holies, animal sacrifice and temple priests came The Torah as center and 

that with rabbis and synagogues. They regrouped, renewed, refreshed.

Will we? At the rate and way we're going, no.  We probably will have to suffer a 

lot to move us to real from unreal, to love from crass selfishness. Richard Rohr 

says that only prayer or suffering change us. We're not a particularly prayerful 

people. Here in the USA we say "Liberty and justice for all." That is a damnable 

lie. We are founded on brutalizing native people, taking their land, importing 

slaves. We disrupted our society and devastated our land, killing over a half 

million of our own - homeland insecurity, homegrown genocide. We did that 

claiming to be a Christian nation. Until we face our original sin and its consequent 

injustices and suffering, repent and repair, we are living a lie. We all are children 

of God. Yet, we do not live a loving, caring unity - "do unto others..."  

Example: That poor man Musk drives around in his Tesla with more money in 

the trunk than any other person - child of God - on earth and millions upon 

millions of his brothers and sisters are bypassed, starve in squirming poverty. And 

Mr. Musk is a success story?

God is love for sure. And just as sure God is no fool, but we are. We sleep in the 

bed we make and it's not a love bed. We tout capitalism. Capitalism is me-ism. It 

is not a Godly, love based and operative system. Scripture tells us to have enough 

and share the rest. That's Gospel. Capitalism contradicts and counterman's Gospel.

God lets us sleep where we will. We are having a nightmare and it's just getting 

started.

Now, we don't want to hear all this. I sure as Harry don't want to depress, nor 

will I fudge and fake. I am terribly concerned and I deeply care. In my mid-

eighties, I Soul See clearer than ever. I so fear for us, especially children.

So, what do we do? How do we prepare as our operating system shorts out?

We do as the first Christians did. We bond and take care of each other. We 

embrace a simple lifestyle, live in small communities of faith and love. We live the 

Gospel together, actually and practically. It is possible to likely that will mean 

some form of life like the Jews in diaspora, the Roman Christians in catacomb 

communities. We need to and will be forced to junk what passes for church today.

Some good has come from it. Mostly it is captive to capitalism. Just read the New 

Testament and then check out most established churches. Cry and form small 

group communities.  No neutered Christianity. It will be The Kingdom of God or it 

will be hell. The "Furtherance" that follows at the end of this posting offers  

scriptures that will light the way.

We most likely will have to regroup as nation states if indeed we have a future. 

Nuclear and biological weapons are so lethal and all too close threats to 

that. Right behind them are earth and air degradation. We are knocking the life 

out of God's life-giving Creation. Governance is up for grabs, and grab the hard 

hearted power brokers of Empire do. 

In short, it's rather likely we're headed for a world wash along the lines of what 

Noah had to deal with. Our ark is actual, practical, for real inclusion in God's gift 

to us through Jesus the Christ  - Gospel life, life in The Kingdom of God right away 

now, right where and as we are. The End of the World as we are having it isn't the 

end. "Thy Kingdom come on earth as in heaven."

                                                  ******

                                               FURTHERANCE

A road map forward starts with slowly learning together the Gospels, 

ingesting them as we help each other live them in community. Then taking Spirit

guidance from the rest of The New Testament and select sections of the Old 

Testament. A few starter springs:

 Luke 6:38

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken 

together and running over. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to 

you." 

Luke 3:10-11

"Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone 

who has food should do the same."

Luke 6: 27-31

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, 

pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them 

the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 

Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do 

not demand it back. Do to others as you would have then do to you."

Matthew 25: 35 40

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave 

me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes 

and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you 

came to visit me...I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these 

brothers and sisters of mine, you did unto me." 

Romans 12:13

"Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."

Acts 2:45-46

"They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day 

they continued to meet in the temple courts, they broke bread in their homes and 

ate together with glad and sincere hearts."

1 John 3:16-18

'This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has 

material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, 

how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with 

words or speech but with action and in truth."

Proverbs 11: 25

"A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed."

                    How is all this translated immediate, genuine, operative?

                                                 ******

NEXT ONLINE POSTING

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east Coast USA time

November 26, 2024

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Friday

November 29, 2024

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Let's all pass this posting on to others.

God help us as we help each other.

            Love to all.

                 God Bless,

                John Frank

          frankly speaking

     spirituality for the street

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

              ******

 

 

DISRUPTING

Dear All of Us,

So, how high are

your tolerance,

your take it on the chin, 

your bounce back levels,

when you get blamed for 

something you didn't do?

I don't know about yours.

I'm embarrassed at mine. 

I'm in awe of God's.

Unfortunately, in scripture

God often gets a bad rap as

Disrupter/Destroyer in Chief -

petty, punitive,

touchy, torching,

thunder bolt destructive.

Sort of: 

    "Mess with me and

     I'll smack you up 

     the side of the head.'

The scriptures 

seem at times 

to be ablaze 

with God as the heavy,

the one with the fiery fuse

striking out in retribution:

 -Throw the bums out of 

  this Garden of Paradise.

 -Torch sinful 

  Sodom and Camorah.

 -Drown out all that evil

  in a world-wide water wash.

If you are willing, 

please pause here

to check out 

Ezekiel 14:12-23.

It's classic clear

blame game

with God as the

Disrupter/Destroyer 

     in Chief

and better more.

            PAUSE

We misread, misunderstand

            scripture

            so often.

       Often and much 

          we need to

          recalibrate 

   how we take scripture,

   how we let it take us.

Scripture starts with 

      The Start

- a beautiful, balanced,

  plentiful paradise,

  original goodness,

  everything's all right,

  right from the start,

  right from the

  creative good

  that is God.

It came, though, 

with a warning label.

This is God Good.

Be careful not to

disrupt/destroy it

   by seeking to 

know/experience 

      its flip

     - evil -

You can't handle it.

The First Folks 

fell foolish anyway,

got acquainted with,

bit into, bought into 

       - evil -

They insisted on 

knowing it.

They let evil 

loose and in.

It has been

Paradise Lost

ever since.

           IT 

 destroys/disrupts

 to this day, 

       NOT GOD

All those freaky, frightful

scriptures are actually

the ancient writers' 

way of saying that

God is letting us have 

the fruit of our picking.

We had it good.

We insisted on having

its opposite and lack 

        - EVIL -

     The Tree of 

  the Knowledge of

    Good and Evil.

It's God saying:

       "OK.

Have it your way.

    Here it is.

  Your choice 

       and 

 its consequent."

It has thrown everything 

        off tilter.

Having a baby is a delight.

It still is, but now it hurts.

Work is wonderful.

It still is, but now it's 

brow sweaty hard.

Nature is creatively dynamic.

It still is, but now it is also

disordered, destructive

       DISRUPTING

It's not only those

     First Folks

who bought into, 

were bitten by their bite,

who insisted on knowing 

the opposite of God Good. 

The ancients did.

We do.

I do.

Those ancient writers 

framed the telling

     hurt hard.

It was their culture's

literary form.

We do well 

not to confuse 

form with message.

God doesn't do hurt.

Yet people and nature hurt.

Misunderstood scripture 

seems to say

it's God's doing, 

it's God hurting.

       That's

Deadening Wrong!

Some people suffer from 

smoking and from air pollution.

God doesn't sell cigarettes  

or emit toxic chemicals 

into the atmosphere.

Some people suffer from 

shootings and bombings.

God doesn't own a gun or 

launch ballistic missiles.

Some people starve.

God provides 

Nature's plenty 

that a few horde

to other's starvation.

Genes were meant 

to pass on good.

Now they also pass on 

not so good.

The harsh words of God

in scripture are a 

   soundboard 

God holds up to us,

re-sounding to us 

what we say 

by our choices

with its consequents.

These scriptures were written

by a long-ago people,

in their manner and mode,

not ours - a manner 

quite foreign to us.

We need to translate 

         both 

their ancient languages

           AND 

   THEIR ANCIENT 

MODES OF EXPRESSION

        into our

tongue, time, tuning.

All of Creation is related, 

interconnected. 

The disorder of one

throws off the other.

That goes for 

people, planet.

A current example is 

climate change.

Nature is ordered.

We disorder that.

It hurts.

Not a hurt from God.

The creative, 

dynamic energies

of Creation 

get twisted wrong

by evil choices.

We suffer.

Not a hurt from God.

As we learn and continue

to read scripture aright, 

we encounter a God 

who cuts us slack

       for our 

choices/consequences,

yet constantly seeks

to save us from ourselves. 

Let's Pray:

    Restoring God,

    we are wounded -

    we pray, 

    wounds become

    the scares of hope,

    We are hollowed out 

    by pride - 

    we pray, empty holes 

    become receptacles

    of grace, 

    We are confused -

    we pray, 

    unknowing holds

    the beauty 

    of holy mystery,

   We struggle in doubt -

   we pray,

   churning creates 

   the humus 

   where faith grows,

   We strive for comfort -

   we pray,

   you bust us up

   to birth compassion,

 

   Disrupting God -

   we pray,

   you turn us over

   in love. 

        Amen (1)

God is a love 

that lets us refuse love, 

damaging and damming 

         ourselves,

individually, collectively

socially, environmentally.

God is a love

that welcomes us back 

the instant we accept love,

 - forgives, redeems, 

   sets right, saves.

  "Though your sins 

    be as scarlet, 

    they shall be

    as white as snow..."

      Isaiah 1:18

In the Love that God Is,

God Good lovingly disrupts 

      the evils of our

      DISRUPTING

        ******

(1) Online Morning Prayer

     Spring Forest 

     Hillsborough, NC

     Wednesday

     October 30, 2024

Every week 

we many 

from many lands 

and many ways

join in together here.

There's always 

WELCOME ROOM

at our table.

This week 

we gathered from

India to France, 

Iran to The Netherlands,

and fifty wonderful more

peoples and places.

Such good company!

What a Holy Communion!

NEXT ONLINE POSTING

Tuesday morning/afternoon

East Coast USA time

November 19,2024

NEXT EMAIL DELIVERY

Friday

November 22, 2024

LAST FIVE ONLINE POSTINGS
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           this posting

    Have a God Good week.

    Let's join with God 

    to disrupt our 

    Disrupting.

           Love to all.

           God Bless,

           John Frank

        frankly speaking

    spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

             ******

     

 

   

    

 .

MOMENTS

Dear All of Us, 

So much in life 

is paradoxical,

is counter cultural,

is strange but true.

   Clutching constricts.

   Giving widens open.

   

Certainly so spiritually.

    Sometimes we need 

    to slow down

    to get ahead.

That's tough for

most of us 

fast paced people.

So, here's an 

   INVITE

for all of us 

to go paradoxical,

to be counter cultural,

    to slow down 

    to get ahead.

It means nixing 

the urge  

to speed read,

to rush through, the

Meditation Moments

that follow here.

Here's one way 

to go about this.

If you favor another,

that's the way to go.

So skip ahead to

       ONE A DAY

MEDITATION MOMENTS

If you chose, stay tuned here.

      

       ONE WAY

For those interested,

give this a try 

to slow down 

to get ahead:

- start by reflectively  

  reading through the

  Meditation Moment's 

  that follow:

- slowly select 

  a few for just now

- taking one a day,

  slowly savor it

  in generous moments

  of meditation

- write it on a card,

  get it in your phone 

- come back to it

   throughout the day

   in quiet  

         MOMENTS

   between appointments,

   at a coffee break,

   online at the checkout,

   waiting for someone,

   doing the dishes,

   going for a walk,

   washing the car

- Pray it, ply it, apply it

  every which way

- Most and best of all 

          listen

       what does 

       The Spirit 

       whisper here?

       what does

        The Spirit

        shout out here?

- Finish the day

  in slow, mellow meditation.

     What fears kicked up?

     What promise and potential 

              presented?

     How grow into it?

     What would that 

       look like in our

       thinking, 

       values, 

       behaviors,

       lifestyle?

- Ask Spirit Light.

  Ask Spirit Support.

  Resolve in The Spirit.

So, here's a resource 

for us to use  

for a fortnight plus.

We meditate on 

one a day,

saving the others

for a good whenever.

And/or we keep them 

at the ready for

occasional use 

going forward.

These come from my

      personal

JOURNEY JOURNAL

     

"Come Holy Spirit.

 Fill the hearts 

 of your faithful."

 Slow us down forward.

             ******

        ONE A DAY

MEDITATION MOMENTS

God is the Party.

We're all invited.

     ******

No one can fill 

a full glass, 

not even God.

What are we full of?

God would love 

it to be 

emptiness.

        ******

God asks only that 

you get out 

of God's way 

and let God 

be God in you.

 Meister Eckhart
     ******

God is a mystery.

     So are we,

  the very same 

     mystery

    variously.
     

     ******

Relax into Reality.

      ******

Whenever I am 

self-centered

I am trying 

to displace God.

It's not good 

for either of us.

    ******

All sides needed 

for a whole.

     ******

Divine Love is 

not a set, 

static noun.

It is progressive, 

an action, verb.

   ******

There is no such thing 

      as outside.

  All is boundlessly

         One.
       ******

We don't find God.

We wake up to

God's Enfoldment

        of us.

       ******

All in Creation are 

particulars of

GOD'S ONENESS.

We have relatives

all over the place.

     ******

"God is more intimate 

 to us than we are 

 to ourselves."

   Augustine

    ******

 "Man's sin 

  is his failure

  to live 

  what he is."

Abraham Heschel

     ******

"God is my deepest self."

    Catherine of Genoa

           ******

Attitude is approach.

Posture is stance.

What attitude 

shapes our posture,

forms our stance?

Jesus suggests 

eight attitudes 

on how to be, 

 Be-Attitudes.

    ******

A selfish life is an ember 

that never ignites.

          ******

God save us 

from all our

 "selfies."

 ******

Next Online Posting

Tuesday Mid-day/Evening

East Coast USA Time

November 12, 2024

Next Email Delivery

Friday

November 15, 2024

      

Jesus mixed with 

all sorts of folks.

It was so God Good.

We mix with all sorts 

of us here every week.

it is so God Good.

     WELCOME

        frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

LAST FIVE POSTINGS

      AVAILABLE

Just scroll down below

     this posting.

Praying that we all 

slow down 

to catch up 

with what 

God has 

in heart for us.

Love to all.

See you next week.

     John Frank

       ******

         

   

       

       

      

 

PRECIS

Dear All of Us,

Come on!

Be a sport.

For just a minute

let's play pedantic.

       So, here goes.

         A Starbucks 

fifteen dollar gift certificate 

for the first one to define

         " PRECIS "

       in five words

          or less.

        Let's try it.

          

          PAUSE

      

 And the winner is:

 "Summary of a longer text"

       Congratulations!

          Enjoy your 

          Starbucks'

        Clover Vertica

         Guatemala

     Huehuetentenango

Hey, that's sure a mouthful!

Speaking of 

"a mouthful",

well I do.

Most of us preachers do.

We just plain talk too much.

We kick up a dust storm 

of words and call it a sermon. 

We were taught better.

For me way back there in 1965 

it was seminary professor, 

Father O.J. Miller,

in Preaching 101.

We had to give a 

one sentence

   PRECIS 

   of our 

 the sermon 

we were preparing:

"The point of this sermon is ..."

Father Miller was spot on.

Do that and you really know 

what you're talking about and

so will the people in the pews.

In spirituality circles 

there is a tendency 

to do just that - 

go in circles,

mist up the mystical,

word overload.

    (God forbid that 

 should happen here!)

With all do respect, 

and I really so mean that,

 even our prime source

           our 

     Master Class

       The Bible 

   does that some.

   By count there are

    783,137 words in

    The King James 

      translation.

    For all of that, 

     what's the 

 point on the pencil?

Here's my try at an answer, 

                a

   SPIRITUALITY PRECIS

For all those words it's this.

    

    "Spirituality is about

         God is love.

        (1 John 4:8)

             and

       living that out

              by 

           Loving

            God

         neighbor

            self.

    (Mark 12:30-31)"

For all the words,

techniques,

rituals, regimens,

prayers, practices,

schools of thought

cycling in current 

    spiritualty

the baseline word

   and reality

    is simply 

the always same: 

      LOVE

      LOVE

is an action verb.

We give ourselves 

in every way,

all the time, 

completely,

really,

personally,

practically, 

flat out,

vigorously, 

    a la 

The Sermon 

on the Mount, 

The Beatitudes,

  - All of it -

in thought, word, deed,

action and attitude

      to the 

     Ultimate,

         to 

        God 

       who is 

     Love Itself

        and

    present in 

    all creation.

     (Please don't tell

      Father Miller of these 

      run on sentences,

     so shy of short!!!)

Of a oneness in that 

   "Give God Love"

we wrap in absolutely 

every one of 

our neighbors

in all Creation:

people, places,

powers, presences,

babies to trees,

enemies to intimates,

riders on the bus 

the bright and beautiful,

the hurt and hurting,

a Spring flower to 

an Autumn leaf.

While we're at it, 

we give 

the same love

to our

God given,

God desired,

God loved 

very own 

  selves.     

   

         Love 

God-Neighbor-self 

 

Spirituality is so simple:

          Love

    that's the point.

We give ourselves away,

     who we are,

     what have,

   what we can do

       because 

    We Become 

  What We Love.

  Love is a merger.

     It's a wrap.

        It's a 

Trinity Of Oneness.

God - Neighbor - Self

         ONE

       IN LOVE

      That's the 

point on the pencil

scripting everything.

          Love 

spirituality to the point

     in a one word

        PRECIS

        ******

PS 

Enjoy your Starbucks.

I obviously don't qualify!

And by the way.

I actually went online

to our local Starbucks 

and copied down that

God awful long name

  Clover Vertica

    Guatemala

Huehuetentenango

That is such a mouthful

times two and 

big bucks to boot!

         ******

Next Online Posting

Tuesday Afternoon/Evening

East Coast USA Time

November 5, 2024

A day like few ever before 

for those of us in the USA.

Please pray for us.

What a pleasant surprise 

this week to have first ever

visitors from 

    The Foroe Islands  

A warm welcome to you.

NEXT EMAIL DELIVERY

Friday

November 8, 2024

LAST FIVE POSTINGS

      AVAILABLE

           by

scrolling down below

      this posting

Looking forward 

to all of us 

being here 

together again

next week.

Plebian that I am,

I'll probably show up 

with a cup of

Maxwell House Mild. 

    Not much

super expensive

     "Ta Ta"

  around here!!

   Love to all,

  John Frank

    ******

VOICE AND VOTE

Dear All of Us,

And are you ever - ever so dear. 

I need to tell you that this is going to be tough.

So, a caution.

Please don't bother with this week's blog unless you are willing to risk comfort 

and face evil with good at a heavy cost to easy religiosity.              

Let me tell you where I'm coming from.

I ask your indulgence as I do this in a rather rambling manner,

kind of work our way in from left field.

Like most all of us, I've had to stick my neck and more out

over these my many years for rightness and it's not easy or fun.

I know you have as well.

Please let me share two examples of mine.

I helped lead a civil rights march in a racist red area of rural Maryland. 

I actively participated in other marches in Washington, DC and in Klu Klux Klan

laden central Indiana all in the 60"s and one in Northern New Jersey later.

Each one posed considerable personal and professional peril.

I risked misunderstanding and even suspicion for getting close to gay 

folks, trying to support them as they worked their way to

self-acceptance, self-respect and eventually joy of self.

It meant things like me going to gay bars, inviting gay people to church 

activities, taking them on retreats, offering shelter in moments of crisis under 

the questioning scrutiny of families and church people, like letting 

one crashing gay teen stay overnight at the rectory.  

The back fences buzzed.

So that's a bit about where I come from in terms of 

sticking out my neck and more.

 

And now here's where I'm going.

My quiet, pleasant retirement may be going, too! 

What follows is me 

sticking out my neck and more

in a never before way

and suggesting we all do so.

             

I have never ever 

   even once 

done this before 

  as a pastor

    that is

TALK ABOUT

HOW TO VOTE

   

     A lot

 like rarely 

ever before 

is at stake.

Time to shift

our spiritual

acuity and resolve

into high gear

God help us!

We here in The States are up against one of the toughest and most telling 

elections in our history, one that will profoundly set course for our future

if we are to even have one.

At the risk of seeming a Yankee Jingoist, it will also affect world order/disorder. 

As people striving to live a true and real spiritual life it is incumbent on us 

to accurately size up and respond to what's at issue here, and do so in Jesus, 

                        "The way, the truth, and the life."

                                    John 14:6  

                               VOICE AND VOTE

Our fix is a carbon of the so-called followers of Jesus Christ in Germany 

during the 1930's and 40's.

The leaders of the two most prominent churches in Germany, the Roman 

Catholic and Lutheran denominations, protected perks over being prophetic.

They did not voice truth or lead a holy resistance.

They played patsy with an out-of-control wronging right and 

its mastermind of mass murder, Adolf Hitler.

In addition to the millions of military dead and maimed on all sides, 

over five and a half million Jews were tortured and then murdered.

               (Atlas of the Holocaust by Martin Gilbert)  

They were murdered for no other reason than Hitler, 

like all fascists, needed 

a scapegoat enemy.

He set the Jews up as a threat and himself as savior.

In addition, actually SUBTRACTION, three point three million 

Soviet prisoners of war, one point eight million Poles, 

three hundred ten thousand Serbs, gays, Roma, political 

prisoners (Deitrich Bonhoffer), homosexual persons, 

and handicapped people were executed.

           (The US Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC)

An evil, one of the most heinous in all human history, wasn't challenged by people 

claiming to be Followers of Jesus. They let it happen. They even cooperated with it.

What a horrid copout.

Look what it allowed.

Those Roman Catholic and Lutheran clergy wore vestments at church 

died red in the blood of millions.

The pews were full of apathetic go alongs  to vigorous Nazi supporters.

So here I am, just a little old retired pastor person.

I could duck what's before us and just watch TV all day.

Well, I cannot!

I must stick out this tired old neck again.

We all must.

That' what I'm leading up to.

Here's how I see it.

We have a lot of dear and really good folks, 

and some terribly dangerous sorts, 

who are rip roaring mad at the way things are 

here in the USA and globally. 

It's just like the Germans after World War I. 

They had lost how it was.

They didn't have it good. 

Social upset and unrest.

Social divide and anger.

Just change the dates and particulars 

and check it out in the Rust Belt for example.

In addition to outsourcing overseas

industry is replacing lots of workers with robots.

Industry retools production but not employment 

for those workers machine replaced.

How do they support their families, save up for retirement?

Same sad in Appalachia for coal miners.

We've made strides in racial and gender matters and yet lots of basic, 

fine folks, have not been wrapped in, part of the consideration.

They don't understand.

They are thrown by it and are downright frustrated and ticked.  

They feel on the outs and are sick and tired of it all.

It's "Give me that old time ..." that never really was and can't be now.

I am in no way playing partisan politics here.

That's not my place.

I do need to herald the importance of our soon to be election.

I do need to challenge and state that we have 

some candidates for office that favor fascism.

Instead of Jews, they portray immigrants 

as our most pressing danger

when in fact they the candidates are

our most pressing danger.

Immigration is a concern for sure. 

It's a global concern.

It means a lot of reset,

but let's not be confused by the facts.

I live next to the construction site of a massive, 

new apartment complex here in DC.

Other than the Anglo bosses, all the hundreds of heavy lifters are Latino.

Check out the farm fields and meat packing houses cross the USA.

Take away the immigrants and a lot of suppers are gone as not so well.

Statistically, crime is lower among migrants than folks whose families were 

migrants a generation or four ago.

They are not taking away jobs from native born Americans.

They are taking at low, low pay jobs that native born Americans don't want.

The whole thing is a problem that needs a lot of corrective.

But it is not a threat any more than all those Scotts, Germans and Irish, 

Sweeds, Italians and Poles and lots of others 

who made America what it is today.

That's how America was made great again,

and again and again and to our now.

Last Sunday on ABC TV's "THIS WEEK" there was an interview of

Republican Govenor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire.

He typified our danger.

He said of Donald Trump,

 "I don't like his rhetoric" 

and  then went on to his

    VOICE AND VOTE 

    for Donald Trump.

Hey, words are externalizing what's inside us.

"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." 

               Matthew 12:34-40

Consider the "rhetoric, reasoning and rhyme " 

coming out of Candidate Donald Trump's mouth:   

- I won the 2020 election and this after sixty some court cases across America 

   ruled that not one claim of voter fraud was found to be valid?

- Kamala Harris is a "s..t Vice President": abundance of the heart?

- Arnold Palmer's male measurements? 

- Praise for current dictators?

- Positive comments about Adolf Hitler's feats?

- Threat to use DOJ to punish political enemies?

- Military to be used domestically for control?

- Mass deporting of immigrants - legalities, costs, social impact?

- "I'll only be a fascist the first day" - suppose the sickness lasts and lasts

   more than that dreaded first fascist day??

- Political opponents are "The enemy within" ?

- Fear mongering: Immigrants eat people's pets?

- The Vice President's husband had an affair in his previous marriage. 

  What's that got to do with electing Kamala Harris?

  And by the way, how many affairs has Mr. Trump scored - 

  many more than one it seems.

- Those who stormed our Capital attempting to overthrow 

  democratic process and  the storming resulted in a number of deaths and 

  life trauma for some capital police are heroes and will be pardoned?

               "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."

                              What's at the heart here?

There are sadly many lap dog candidates spewing 

radical right twistings of free elections and constitutional democracy.

Fortunately, there seem to be some fine candidates on

both the Left and Right in the general election.

The concern is those who repeatedly lie, fabricate spurious unfounded facts 

to their supposed favor, who scuttle constitutional process and principals.

I in no way endorse voting for Kamala Harris.

That's up to each voter.

If we can't support her, 

we must not support an anti-democratic other.

We can still voice our vote by doing a write in ballot.

John Bolten of Trump's White House staff says 

he's doing a write in vote for Dick Chaney.

Again, the issue here is not Left or Right.

It is truth, human respect, commitment to justice 

and The Common Good.

Left would do that one way. 

Right would do that another way.

As long as our model is Jesus and his truth shared in the Beatitudes and 

The Sermon on the Mount things will be all right and no one will be left out.

Absent that we are in for a ride to hell.

In Germany fascism got off to a slow, quiet start.

People just let it go/grow. 

It was not sniped in the bad bud.

Right now we must snip.

I rarely say we must.

Right now we MUST.

   VOICE AND VOTE

Perhaps you wonder about my political stance.

Well, I am not a Democrat or a Republican.

I am a progressive traditionalist.

More often than not Democrats think 

I am a Republican and, yep, you guessed it, 

Republicans think I am a Democrat.

I recon I might just be on to something.

We who get together here at frankly speaking each week are pretty evenly spread

50/50 from my home country and lots of other lands - USA and international.

Whether we are from Bardstown Kentucky or London England please pray for us 

Americans at our crossroad.

May this cross be redemptive.

           We have

      VOICE  AND VOTE

           ******

NEXT ONLINE POSTING

Tuesday Afternoon/Evening

East Coast USA time

October 29, 2024

NEXT EMAIL DELIVERY

Friday

November 1, 2024

All Saints Day

LAST FIVE POSTINGS

      AVAILABLE

           by

scrolling down beneath

     this posting

        frankly speaking

    spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

Thanks for riding out this

difficult and critical matter

         together.

        Love to all.

        God Bless, 

       John Frank

         ******