Think About It

Here is a question for today:   “Do I believe in the freedom of religion or am I interested in the freedom of my religion?”.   A recent trip to Washington D. C. got me to thinking about the origins of our nation, particularly the freedom to worship in the way we believe to be correct.   Now, before I get too far into this this discussion, I am not debating salvation issues, my thoughts are prompted more by “law” rather than “doctrinal truth”.   As I walked through a memorial to Thomas Jefferson I was met with these words, “Almighty God hath created the mind free.   All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens ... are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion ... No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. ...

          One of the reasons I was originally drawn to studying history was that it was fact.   You could look back through the lenses of documented history and determine what actually happened.   We can’t predict the future and the present is open to interpretation – but, history was true and accurate.   The older I get the less I believe in the unquestionable truth of history.   It has been said that history books are written by the conquerors, but with the modern ability to research historic documents we are having to accept that history is not as simple as we might have thought a few decades ago. I still like history, but I think it is important to comprehend its limitations.   As we look back we need to understand a couple of things.   First, I cannot defend the atrocities that were done in the past by my ancestors.   Just because they are “my people”, that doesn’t mean that they were always right. ...

Throughout much of modern history intelligence has been touted as being an accurate measure of potential.   In essence, when we have looked for leaders, we have relied upon finding people with a high Intelligence Quotient.   Yet, recently, there has been a push to consider some of the “softer skills” in assessing leadership.   One of the first elements of this new type of assessment was Emotional Intelligence, but in the past few years others have appeared on the scene – including “Moral Intelligence”.   Doug   Lennick and Fred Kiel have done a lot of work on this topic and wrote the book Moral Intelligence .   In their book, Lennick and Kiel propose that a good leader has four basic moral qualities:   Integrity, Responsibility, Compassion and Forgiveness.   A study of these principles can break them down a bit further: 1)   Integrity :   Acting consistently with principles, values and beliefs ... Telling the truth ... Standing up for...

Last weekend Jeane and I made a trip to Washington D. C.   What an incredible city filled with wonderful buildings and spaces – but, maybe the most impressive thing is the collection of knowledge contained in that city.  Many architects of the mind have their works on display there as well.  One of the places we visited was the Jefferson Memorial.  As I stood the rotunda, I was surrounded by words of a man who became the voice of a revolution of thought.  As I looked at Thomas Jefferson’s concepts I was intrigued by this one:  “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with progress of the human mind as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change.  With the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.  We might as well require a man to wear stil...

          We live in a very interesting time.  In years past, we had gotten into the   habit of avoiding the discussion of sensitive topics.  We had been good about burying our heads in the sand and were more apt than not to avoid discussing hard topics like race, inequity and abuse of power or privilege.  Today, it doesn’t seem like you can turn on a TV, open a website or flip through a book without some type of discussion of some very challenging issues.   While there is value in having open and candid debates, we must make sure that our exchanges remain productive and civil.  Sure, we can review what has happened in the past, but we must stay on the appropriate course for plotting a productive future.  We can be passionate about our points of views, but we must make sure that we respect each other as fellow citizens and fellow humans.            T...

If you were to listen to the critics of modern society you would think that we are the inventors of sexual sin and depravity.   The pessimists seem to be convinced that today is worse than it has ever been and there is no hope for purity in the future.   While I have to admit that sexual temptation is readily available, ours is not the first generation to deal with the issue. Does anyone remember the “sexual revolution” of the late 1960s and early 1970s?   Joshua Zeitz defined the “flappers” of the 1920s as “... the notorious character type who bobbed her hair, smoked cigarettes, drank gin, sported short skirts, and passed her evenings in steamy jazz clubs, where she danced in a shockingly immodest fashion with a revolving cast of male suitors.”   .   The truth of the matter is that sexual temptations have always been with us – in fact, the New Testament which was written over 2000 years ago warns, “ I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me be...

Last weekend I got to participate in something called “Cops And Bobbers” where our local deputies took some kids fishing.   First of all I have to say that you just can’t go wrong with kids, cops, donuts, BBQ and fishing – that combination just couldn’t fail!   It was great to see the law enforcement officers interact with (and be impacted by) the children.   Yet, as I reflect back on the day, I may have gotten more out of the event than did the children because it was a good reminder about the process of learning and teaching.   Many of the young people and never fished before, so we had to start at the beginning.   We had to talk them through what we were going to do, show them how to do it, help them practice the techniques and even do a little coaxing when it came time for some of the ickier parts of the process – like handling the worms or taking the fish off of the hook.   Through the morning there was some pouting and shrieking.   There were li...