"BACKED BY THE FULL FAITH AND CREDIT ..."

Hi There !

So, how safe and secure

is the money that

you have banked?

Well, the FDIC -

Federal Deposit

Insurance Corporation -

will cover up to $250,000.

CD's, checking, saving, and

money market accounts,

are safe and secure.

In the words of the FDIC

           they are

 "Backed by the full faith

and credit of the U.S. government."

        Should a bank fail,

should there be a run on a bank,

  the FDIC has a reserve fund.

                 BUT,

        here's the hick up.

Those FDIC reserves amount to

2% of  its total liability.

That means there is $2

of real coverage for every

$100 of the FDIC's

real and total liability.

If you were a Texas rancher

and only 2 out of every 100

of your cattle

were safe and secure from

a deadly storm ...???? 

If the stock market crashed

and investors did a run

on the banks...????

Should we go to cash and

put it under the mattress????

Yes, yes, the government

could borrow and/or

start printing  money

"Full Faith And Credit" ????

We  sure could come up short

           as in being

           "shorted."




Sad, so sad to say,

that very thing

is happening right now

to those highly invested in

another institution

dealing in value -

the institutional church.

There is a run on it,

more accurately,

a run from it.

Its valuation

and credibility

are bankrupt for

multiples of many.

Huge numbers of

   "the faithful"

took church leaders

    at their word.

Those leaders claimed

that trust/faith in them

 was not only requisite,

          it was

    safe and secure.

They assured that it was

 backed by the full faith

 and credit of the divinely

 guided and guaranteed

       bible, or papacy,

 or doctrine, or dogma,

or council, or apparition,

ordination, or,...

Growing numbers of those

who gave such trust

feel that it has been

heinously betrayed

and misappropriated.

        They feel

 a moral devaluation, a

          "crash"

      of confidence.





That's traumatic on a lot of levels.

Most basic of them is that people

trusted the institutional church

and its leaders with their very souls.

Nothing but nothing is

of greater valuation than

 our deepest self,

our unique spirit,

our Soul Self.

The institution and its leaders

have been inept at best

and devilishly destructive

and dishonest at worst

in the squandering

the trust given them

in way too many ways,

way too many times.

The "faithful" have been

spiritually short changed,

down right defrauded.



What to do?

Where to go?

Well, first off

we must never

ever again put our

   "full faith "

     in an all

too human institution

and its manifestly fallible

    board of directors,

no matter how

spiritually sound

they claim to be

or they present

themselves to be.

We must never again

bank our souls on such.

We never should have done so

in the first place.

Faith goes to God,

not to religious tribe.

Soul goes to Spirit,

not to religious practitioners.

Neither ever belongs to

any organization no matter

how lofty it and/or its authorities.

The Spirit may or may not flow through

a religious institution and its leaders.

Mother Teresa and her community

of servant sisters are

a stellar example of the former.

The German hierarchy and church

that refused to face down

Hitler and the Nazis

are a lethal example of the latter.

Hopefully this current crash

of the institutional church

will convince us to be

      soul selective.



        Some soul is is

       one on one with

           The Spirit.

      It's what lovers do.

 Some soul is a communal,

  a shared experience of

           The Spirit.

      It's like family life

and what the institutional church

           should be like.

           We need both

        to breath The Spirit

           freely and fully.



An essential distinction

in all this is between

   "The Church"

and any particular

religious institution

that may participate in it.

That is always

a matter of degree

and never of fullness.

    "The Church"

             is

The Body of Christ,

and it is never

fully embodied

in any one denomination

or its leaders.

Yes, I well realize

some denominations

make absolute claims

about themselves.

That's something

they need to get over.

If they do they will be

refreshed and revalued.

Those very claims

have had a lot

to do with the

supposed immunity

that has caused

a lot of the current crisis.




       We got over

"the divine right of kings"

      a long time ago.

We are terribly tardy about

   getting over claims to

     "the divine right

     of church leaders."

    They are called

     to be shepherds,

         servants,

     not potentates.



    "The Church"

is a community in

      The Spirit.

If we can find a bit of it

at the corner church, good.

If not, we need

to move on down

the street and check out

other corner churches.

Two big helps in assessing

the spiritual valuation

of any religious institution,

any "church" with a small "c":

      - are they living

        The Beatitudes

        and the rest of Matthew 5 - 7

        in a flesh and blood,

        person to person,

        sweaty real way?


    - "By their fruits

       you will know them."

       Are they ripe

       with the fruit of the spirit:

      "...love, joy, peace,patience,

        kindness, gentleness,

        and self-control,"

        not in theory or words,

        but in enfleshed living?.

              Galatians 5:22

If we can't find such a "church,"

we need to huddle and found it.



For the more cautious

and conservative among us,

for all of us really, I hope

this will be of help.

It references the current crisis

in the Roman part of the church.

I suggest it applies to the crisis

among the ( Not So )

United Methodists

and numerous other

mainline churches,

to Willow Creek and

many other mega-churches,

to any and all churches

that are coming up short

because they have shorted

trusting souls:




   The sex abuse scandal cannot

    be understood (apart) from

   a wider church crisis of corruption

   - sexual and otherwise -

   and loss of institutional authority.


   This general crisis was foretold

   by a surprising prophet.

   In 1969, a priest named

   Joseph Ratzinger made

   a startling prophecy

   on German radio.

   Four years after the end of the

   Second Vatican Council,

   he predicted that the Catholic Church

   was at the beginning of

   a great and wide-ranging catastrophe,

   one that would destroy its wealth,

   power and status.

   Father Ratzinger did not mention

  clerical sex abuse per se,

  but his remarks indicate

  a recognition that contrary

  to the official post-conciliar optimism,

  the church would not survive

  in its then-current state

  the cultural revolution

  shaking Western civilization.

  "From the crisis of today,

   the church of tomorrow will emerge -

   a church that has lost much," he said.

   "She will become small

    and will have to start afresh

    more or less from the beginning."


   The future Pope Benedict XVI went on,

   "The future of the church can

    and will issue from those

    whose roots are deep and who live from

    the pure fullness of their faith."


   This is a challenge and a counsel of hope

   not just for the Catholic Church of our time,

   but for all churches, and all Christians.

  None of us can afford to be

  proud and complacent.

  Many of the old verities

  are tumbling down,

  like scales from our eyes.

  As painful as it may be,

  it is far better to see the painful truth

  than to avert our gaze from things

  that disturb our false peace.


  This crisis is systemic

   and will not be resolved by

   new policies and procedures,

   as hapless episcopal bureaucrats

   want to think.

   Pope Francis is not going

   to swoop in to save

   the Catholic Church,

   and heaven knows that by now,

   the bishops cannot be relied on

   to reform and restore the church.


   If the church is to be rescued,

   it will have to happen

   in the everyday lives of the faithful,

   no longer deceived by illusions

   or false promises of faithless shepherds.


      Rod Dreher, Op Ed piece, NYT,

            August 15, 2018




Perhaps the corner church

will turn out to be

in your living room,

just like it was for the

first and fresh Christians. 



We have a real problem.

We have a marvelous potential.



We exist in the wondrous

energy field we call God.

         It is Love.

   We can be as well.

Our spiritual lives are

a participation in that

energy field of Love.

    That's where we put our

          FULL FAITH.

     That's where it will be

     SAFE AND SECURE.

     That's where it will be

      BACKED BY THE

FULL FAITH AND CREDIT

        OF THE SPIRIT.




Holding you in  hope,

   Your brother,

     John Frank

        ****


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          "frankly speaking"

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