Jody is a Great-grandmother

This little bundle is Emerson. Holding him his his grandmother, Linda Holder. He is brand new to the family so does not know a lot about us YET. He should be finishing Baylor University in the year 2030 when his grandparents reach the century mark as far as birthdays go. Plan on making that graduation ceremony since I missed Emerson's grandmother's graduation time at Hong Kong International School.

Wish them well as they take on the new century with all we taught them in the old century. Or tried.

Mean and meaningless campaigns

Presidential campaigns mean and meaningless (668 words)

The German magazine Der Spiegel writes that the GOP candidates are ruining the reputation of the United States.

There is even an extremist movement, the New Apostolic Reformation involved now. NAR has built their program from the Old Testament book of Joel. To them Joel describes how God is coming back to set up a “kingdom on Earth” with a church that will be “organized more as a military force with an army, navy and air force,” to hand out justice on all nonbelievers just in time for the second coming of Jesus.

H does this relate to the GOP nominees for office. The leaders of NAR, Doris and C. Peter Wagner, are considered apostles and prophets. They have this role because God Himself gave it to them. Several NAR apostles (Alice Patterson for one) helped organize or spoke at Governor Rick Perry’s August, 2011, Prayer Rally in Houston.

Thomas Muthee, the Kenyan pastor who anointed Sarah Palin at the Wasilla Assembly of God in 2005, is also a part of this movement according to independent researcher Rachel Tabachnick on National Public Radio.

Tabachnick writes on her blog: NARwatch: "The major topics at these [NAR] events [are] anti-abortion, anti-gay rights and the conversion of Jews in order to advance the end times. And this was very visible at Perry's events as these apostles led all of these different prayers and repentance ceremonies at [his rally]."

The religious community Gov. Perry associates with are not the folks who attend mainline Christian denominational churches. These people are not representative of conservative evangelicalism. They truthfully should be labeled a cult.

I do have a tad of pity for the television networks and any newspaper or magazine writers who have to cover these election “debates” or follow these candidates around like something important might be said or done.

How, I humbly ask, are these reporters expected to keep their sanity as day after day they hear the same old jingles? As one acquaintance of mine (and I do have a few who are of sound mind) said the other day: how can reporters and TV anchors write and talk about this rogue’s gallery with a straight face?

What was once thought to be marginal and bizarre has become mainstream. There was a time when truth was self-evident and easy to spot and accept. Now, just about anything goes.

Almost any avant-garde word from the airwaves goes unquestioned as gospel truth, no matter how unconventional. A politician can say all sorts of half-truths and outright lies and no one questions them. Evidently not many people are really listening to what is being flung to us from the political world.

Possibly I am being bias on this point of not fully appreciating all the good things that politicians do. Bias maybe but without prejudice or partiality and certainly with no preconceived notions or foregone conclusions. I am impartially predisposed to thinking independently, especially when it comes to things religious or political.

The family values of the ultra conservatives gets a pass when a public servant happens to have, one at a time, three wives. I must admit that our Texas governor was right when he said that anyone who cheats on his wife will cheat on his business or affairs of life.

We have had presidents who owned slaves (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Polk and Zachary Taylor). We’ve had presidents with alcohol problems (Pierce, Grant and G.W. Bush).

As far as is known seven had extramarital affairs (Jefferson, Garfield, Hardin, FDR, JFK, LBJ and B. Clinton). We do know that before the GOP hero Ronald Reagan became president he made B pictures for Warner Bros. I think Jane Wyman left him because he was such a bad actor. He was our only divorced president.

But back to the present GOP race for the White House that the Germans think is ruining our image, I quote Bob Scheffer, of CBS News. He said it best:, the presidential campaigns are “as meaningless as they are mean.”

✍Jody & Britt Towery
☞124 Northstar Dr.
San Angelo, Texas 76903
bet@suddenlink.net
陶普義先生

Runnin' fer president? Here's some advice

Bits of Wisdom from those who would be president

I read somewhere that sometime mistakes are too much fun to only make once. That is what makes the political campaigning speeches so much fun. This year- round profession of running for office offers all forms of missteps, bloopers and slip-ups.

A little advice for these candidates from the dictator Napoleon Bonaparte, who said: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

There are several things that Texas Governor Rick Perry has said that show his insight and wisdom on the most recent history of our country.

For example last year he said: “George W. Bush did a incredible job in the presidency, defending us from freedom.”

And last February Gov. Perry spoke about the border town in Mexico: “Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America.”

We are well aware that times are bad in America, mostly among the jobless and homeless. Gov. Perry last June had a solution. He said: “[Get] back to those biblical principles of you know, you don’t spend all the money. You work hard for those six years and you put up that seventh year in the warehouse to take you through the hard times. And not spending all of our money. Not asking for Pharaoh to give everything to everybody and to take care of folks because at the end of the day, it’s slavery. We become slaves to government.”

But our Texas governor is not the only politician with brains and “know-how.” Michelle Bachmann, Congresswoman from Minnesota says when she becomes president there will be no embassy in Iran. Amazing insight! The USA has not had an embassy in Tehran since 1979, when they stormed our embassy and took hostages.

Mrs. Bachmann is also good at science. In April, 2009, she said: "Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas."

The lady from Minnesota really outshines the other Republican presidential candidates. She and her husband run a clinic and she knows business needs. In January, 2005, she solved the jobless mess: "If we took away the minimum wage -- if conceivably it was gone -- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."

Even in the history of our Constitution, Congresswoman Bachmann has enlightened us on the freeing of the slaves during the American Revolution. She has said: "But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States. ... I think it is high time that we recognize the contribution of our forbearers who worked tirelessly -- men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country."

I always thought slavery ended with a Civil War some 85 years later. Live and learn.

It would be a mistake to overlook the former businessman who claims he is no politician, Herman Cain. Mr. Cain sees China as a threat if they get the nuclear bomb. Some less knowledgeable people have been saying that China has had such capabilities since the 1960s. Mr. Cain, a favorite of the Christian Right, also seems to enjoy not knowing how to pronounce some of the world’s countries or dictators.

It is one thing to make a mistake, but it is another thing to keep making it.

Christmas Makes A Statement For Peace

The road from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the expectant Mary and her husband Joseph was anything but a paved highway. It was one rough, yet ancient trail, and pilgrims of all faiths have traveled the dusty path for centuries.

Bethlehem was an ordinary market town in the hill country of Judah. It was about five miles from Jerusalem. The Hebrew Bible identifies Bethlehem, as the hometown of King David. He was crowned King of Israel some centuries before the couple from Nazareth got there.

It was just east of Bethlehem where the foreigner Ruth of Moab gleaned the fields along with her mother-in-law Naomi. The Jews of Judah were good to the immigrant work force. Live and let live was a good policy. It was in Bethlehem the Old Testament prophet Micah predicted the birth of the Messiah.

There are two accounts in the Bible describing the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Luke, an associate of the Apostle Paul and Matthew who was not liked or appreciated “for he was a tax collector.”

Two other Gospel accounts of Jesus life and ministry make no mention of Bethlehem. The Gospel According to Mark is thought to be the earliest of the four Gospels and John the final one written some 90 or 100 years after Jesus’ birth.

Other than these two birth announcements, early historians have made little note of it, even after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

You would have thought after the trial and murder of Jesus some enterprising reporter would have used some shoe leather to investigated this unusual and amazing prophet.

After Jesus’ miraculous resurrection from the dead still no headlines. A Jerusalem earthquake loosed many from their graves as the newspaper reporters slept. How interesting it would have been had someone interviewed “the no longer dead” as they held reunions with their “still living” loved ones.

A slow day in the newspaper offices is a day with little news of note. The birth, trial, death and resurrection of Jesus is not the only time when unusual events took place to little reaction.

One such event took place on the Western Front during the First World War. This happening took place in the cold rain and senseless killing in the filthy trenches of that war.

Stanley Weintraub, a military historian, retells the story in his book, “Silent Night.” A story thought by many to be a myth. It is one of history’s most powerful – yet forgotten – Christmas stories.

It was Christmas, 1914, when the war was just beginning. Soldiers on both sides threw down their arms and came together across the warring lines. They sang carols, exchanged gifts, ate and drank together naively hoping the war would come to an end.

It began when German soldiers lit candles on small Christmas trees and British, French, Belgian and German troops serenaded each other on Christmas Eve. Soon they were gathering and burying their dead, in the age-old custom of truces.

The Generals were angry at what was happening. Generals have little to live for but war – and they don’t like to lose. Instead of the soldier’s hopes to end the fighting the war sloshed on for four more years of carnage.

But a statement was made for peace that Christmas of 1914 just as the Bethlehem event of the coming of the Prince of Peace did. Like a dream, the impossible happened – and was promptly forgotten – as men got on with the grim business of war. War makes more news than peace.

Christian Cultural Wars heat up again...

America’s Cultural War heats up as Christmas nears


“Have you ever wanted to be baptized in the Jordan River?” That is the question Reverend Tim Wildmon asks as he introduces his next tour of Christian sites in Israel. I have only heard this tourist promotion on American Family Radio.

The tour commercial reminded me of what a fellow student said to me regarding visiting the Holy Land. I came upon J.E. “Hoppy” Hopkins studying in the Howard Payne College (this was back before it became a “university”) in the Old Main library. I remember this encounter as it was one of the few times I was ever in that library. (I am not proud of avoiding the library. It shows on my college transcript; somewhat near our current governor’s level.)

I ask Hoppy if he ever thought of visiting the land where Jesus walked. He replied with evangelistic fervor: “I don’t want to go where Jesus was, I want to be where he is.”

I do have a distant relative through marriage that was baptized in the Jordan River once. Apparently Tim Widmon is not the only tour guide pushing Jordan River baptisms.

The Reverend Tim Wildmon is now running the organization his father Don Wildmon founded in 1977. Don Wildom was then pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Southave, Mississippi.

In the beginning the elder Reverend Wildom called the organization The National Federation for Decency. After a decade or so of promoting his idea of decency the name was changed to American Family Association.

Mississippi was recently in the news when voters defeated a ballot initiative that would have declared life to begin at fertilization. The Personhood Law was in reality a step to prompt a legal challenge to abortion rights nationwide. A person is a person at conception; not when a baby heartbeat is heard, not when the baby arrives and breathes its first breath, but when a sperm and egg have an encounter.

Leaving such a decision to voters is like voting on how many angels can kneel on a tiny sewing needle. The American Family Association went to the mat on this vote and were rejected by more than 55 percent of voters.

The AFA has been in the forefront to replace American secular democracy with Reverend Wildom’s version of fundamentalist Protestant Christianity “democracy.”

According to the AFA’s radio stations they are on what they like to call the frontlines of “America’s Cultural War.”

AFA believes that God has communicated absolute truth to mankind, and that all people be subject to the complete authority of the Bible at all times. A culture based on AFA’s biblical version of truth is a stretch at best.

Most of this war they have created is negative rather than positive. “Preservation of Marriage and the Family” is code for their homophobia. “Decency and Morality” is good for the soul, home and country. Once again, AFA, like Orwell’s Big Brother decides what is decent and moral.

“Sanctity of Human Life” is their phrase for killing the Roe V. Wade law that permits legal abortions.

One particular program on AFR signs off by reminding hearers to NOT shop at Home Depot. Seems Home Depot treats gay employees like anyone else on the payroll. This week on a program titled “Nothing but Truth” the host was upset with Walgreens pharmacies for not mentioning Christmas in their ads. The ads only said “Happy Holidays.” For these guys the war on Christmas is but another battleground of the “War on Christianity.”

Thanks Rev. Tim, but one baptism experience is enough for me.

WOULD the world be better off without religion?

AS APPEARED IN WEST TEXAS DAILIES, Dec. 2, 2011

Would the world be better off without religion?
In the opening decade of the 21st century, there is still debate on the question: “Would the world be better off without religion?” This archaic debate appears to be alive and flourishing, with a multitude of pros and cons, what-ifs and why-nots.

John Donvan of ABC News was the moderator for this most recent debate on Nov. 15. The Oxford-style debate was held in New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. An excellent place for such a debate: a play-acting, make believe venue.

The debate unfolded with Matthew Chapman and A.C. Grayling speaking for the motion that the world would be better off without religion. They contended that religious strife has been at the center of many wars; that a person can be good and moral without being religious; that blind religious faith denies the reality of the sciences.

Both men, renowned non-religious writers, none more famous than Matthew Chapman, the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin. With such a lineage he was a natural for denying the good of religion in world history. He is the author of “Trials Of The Monkey: An Accidental Memoir.”

Likewise A. C. Grayling, a British philosopher and professor, has written more than 20 books on philosophy, religion and reason. One book is aptly and humorously titled: “Against All Gods.”
On the side of religion were Rabbi David Wolpe and Dinesh D'Souza. They were against the motion that religion was not good for the world. They contended that religion not only was, but is a vital instrument in the stability of society; provides a moral compass; and provides many “why” answers – why things happen and what life is for.

David Wolpe, the rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, was voted the best pulpit Rabbi by Newsweek. He is the author of seven books, including “Why Faith Matters.”

Dinesh D'Souza, author of “What's So Great About Christianity,” argued against the motion, believing that the world would not be better off without religion.

Following the debate the audience voted and 59 percent of them agreed the world would be better off without religion, while 31 percent disagreed. Ten percent of the audience remained undecided.
Nothing was resolved just as in the faux debates our politicians engage in these days. The age old questions remain: Does religion breed intolerance, violence, and the promotion of medieval ideas? Or should we concede that overall, it has been a source for good, giving followers purpose, while encouraging morality and ethical behavior?

Back in my Hong Kong days a neighbor friend was a television personality. He had a television talk and variety show on HK-TVB. On a whim he came up with a segment he called: “Is there a God?” The program aired live (this was before video tape) at five-thirty in the afternoon. It was only on the English language channel. If anyone was watching the program it was accidental.

It was really just a time filler and a lark for the Aussie moderator. I wish I could remember his name for he was a most likeable chap. Actually, I never met an Australian I didn’t like. My first cousin Joe Frank Johnson after flying for Air America during the Vietnam War liked Australia so much he and his wife and daughter settled there. Now he even talks like them. Australians are just good people who happened to grow up clinging to the bottom rim of the world.

The viewer’s vote came in 4 to 4 on there being a God. I suggested to the show’s producer that a more interesting debate might be along different lines, such as comparing the warrior-God of the Old Testament with the loving-God of the New Testament; or how does evil evolve from a religious conviction?

The debate will always be with us as long as religious and their non-religious neighbors continue to know so little about the subject.

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A MODERN BLESSING --Fewer TV Commercials

Will TV commercials forever hound us?

Can the curse of TV commercials ever be broken?

THANK THE GODS FOR THE INVENTION OF THE CLICKER -- THE REMOTE CONTROL!!!

All you couch potatoes will soon be able to enjoy television dramas and soap operas without commercial interruption. This is something kin to having a little bit of heaven in our TV-watching. The new regulations go into effect Jan.1, 2012.

There is just one hitch in this great television “happening.” It is in the People’s Republic of China, not the United States of America.

According to a story by Wang Yan in last week’s CHINA DAILY, the new television regulations were passed “in accordance with the people’s interests and demands.”

No longer will TV ads interrupt the viewers dramas. No longer will films made for television be chopped up in ten minute segments by tomato soup or exercise bikes. Or, the worst: car dealership promotions.

American TV dramas and skits are written in eight minute segments. The last moment of the segment must have something that will cause you to endure the commercials and return to the story.

This is why watching a Hollywood movie on television is so appalling. These films were not written to be chopped into little pieces by the networks.

Over the course of ten hours, American viewers will see approximately three hours of advertisements. This is twice the number of commercials that we had to endure during the 1960s. Not a good omen for the future of TV viewing.

When the remote control device came on the market it was as if the Lone Ranger had come riding into our living rooms to deliver us from the barrage of commercials. Just like he saved the rancher’s daughter’s homestead, so the remote saved our sanity.

The remote control inventor should be awarded the Nobel Prize and receive a handsome check for every clicker sold. No one has invented a more stress-relieving gadget than the ingenious TV remote thingamajig.

While American television continues its advertising bombardment with no end in sight, we can find solace with our remote by our side.

The first television advertisement was broadcast in the United States on July 1, 1941. The watchmaker Bulova paid $9 for a placement on New York station WNBT before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 20-second spot displayed a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time.”

In the UK, the British Broadcasting Corporation is funded by a license fee and does not screen adverts apart from the promotion of its own future programming. On the commercial channels, the amount of airtime allowed for advertising is an overall average of 7 minutes per hour.

Television networks and local stations thrive on political campaigns. They are considered indispensable but are seldom held to “truth in message” creed of potato chips or salsa.

Political advertising in France is heavily restricted, and some, like Norway, completely ban it. Hooray for the Norwegians.

The Chinese government said the move to cut commercials from the middle of dramas would "improve the level of public cultural services, protect people's basic cultural rights and leave the people satisfied."

This is probably as happy a government edict as the Chinese have ever had. There were cheers from Hainan Island in the south to the banks of the Ice Festivals in Harbin.

Hold on to that remote and have an extra as backup in case of breakdown, for I do not see our government passing any regulations “in accordance with the people’s interests and demands.”

Remember, life is more fun when the commercials are muted. If the government and industry learn how much we love our clickers, they may ban them!

DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR BOOK ON BAPTIST MISSIONS ALONG THE YELLOW RIVER FROM 1912 TO 1950. "STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND" E-MAIL TOWERY FOR COPIES.

Thanksgiving More Than Just A Day

Thanksgiving is a godly time

One of the most profound thinkers and nicest ‘down to earth’ guy I ever met was the Right Revd. Browning Ware (A title he never used. Nothing reverential about Browning.) He had a way of getting to the heart of a matter in a most common sense way. He could make the most noble and lofty ideas come alive for us commoners in the pews. And you knew it came from a heart that understood suffering and knew inner pain, yet without being judgmental.

Browning Ware died almost a decade ago. Former Governor Ann Richards said of Browning, “Texas has lost a tall timber of wit and wisdom with the death of my friend, Browning Ware.”

Darrell Royal, former University of Texas football coach, said, “Browning was a remarkable articulate, dry-humored, an deeply spiritual man. I am grateful our paths crossed in friendship.”

He lived his life as an example to others. He saw every human being as a person of value to him. He often wrote his newspaper columns in an out-of-the-way café or filling station. He began one piece with “Down where I drink coffee there is a man who talks to himself. I have known several people who talk to themselves. But this fellow is different. He seemed to enjoy it.”

After his death his daughter compiled many of his brief commentaries from daily life. She published many of his words in “Diary of a Modern Pilgrim.” The following are Browning’s random thoughts of one Thanksgiving Day.

“Symbols tend to assume greater importance than the realities they represent. The result is the creation of minor idolatries by which we value appearance more than substance. By this willing self-deception, we wrench life from its roots and pull it toward the surface. Our lives become a garden of values in shallow soil. ‘What you see is what you get.’

“Reflections on holiday celebrations provoked this modest philosophical outburst. I am thinking of the contrast between Thanksgiving as a day and as a continuing attitude of life. The day, a symbol, was created as an expression of reality -- a grateful relationship to God and the world. Thanksgiving Day is excellent as a means but inadequate as the end of gratitude.

“Deep gratitude is not the by-product of material comfort and possessions. If this were true, Americans would be the most grateful people in the world and also the happiest. We are neither; certainly, not both. Gratitude has little to do with the presence or absence of things. Rather, it reflects confidence in God and trusts his good intentions toward us. Gratitude serves God happily with full or empty hands.

“So Thanksgiving is a day and more. To be both symbol and substance, it must be a way of life.”

Browning was not always that serious and often drove home vital truths with his dry wit. One would never take him to be the long-time pastor of the First Baptist Church of Austin, Texas. I understand the “Diary of a Modern Pilgrim, Life Notes From One Man’s Journey” is out of print, but if you ever come across a copy, it is a real treasure, and I recommend it as a most encouraging and fruitful read.

May next Thursday be more than just another holiday. May it be more than traditional football games. May it be a time when the greater human family is remembered and enriched. For those who celebrate the thanksgiving season alone, out of necessity or desire, may it be a time that will enrich what time is left on this good earth that God has so graciously shared with us.

--30—

Britt Towery’s columns appear every Friday in the West Texas newspapers: The Brownwood Bulletin and the San Antonio Standard-Times. His e-mail is: bet@suddenlink.net

My One Per-center View

I must admit to being a part of the ninety-nine percent of the population who would love to see a little sunlight in these fogged-in darkening days. The one percenters are not entirely at fault for the foreboding clouds of displeasure. There is plenty of blame to go around for our winter of our discontent.
First, we are to blame for not electing better representatives. Second, for not demanding more integrity from them. Third, Demand our two major political parties develop and present us voters with competent and responsible leadership choices. Fourth, learn from these mistakes and pray forgiveness for not being better informed on the candidates.

Jack Abramoff, former king of the lobbyist and great colleague of Tom DeLay, appeared on last Sunday’s 60 Minutes program. Abramoff said nothing has changed in Washington since he was convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy in 2006. The lobbyists keep handing out the goodies and the politicians keep taking them. (Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it. – H. L. Mencken.)

We never seem to learn just how crooked the human heart can be. Stand up and speak out against the huge banks and corporations. They deserve a profit for their work, but not such outlandish ever-increasing profits. No longer is a simple profit enough.

Mantras of the establishment are many: Don’t rock the boat. Don’t upset the apple cart. Do not disrupt the status quo (Latin for “the things that were before”). Leave well enough alone. Innovation we don’t need.

The right to speak out in the public square is seldom appreciated by the authorities. In the 1830s to speak out against slavery was right and proper, but not at the best parties. Women took to the streets to gain the right to vote even when it was not ladylike. While they had the right to voice their opinion there were those who sat on the curb shaking their heads in disbelief of this audacity of freedom of speech.

The spontaneous rise of citizens, who formed "tea parties," or joined the "occupy" movement, have the right to speak, to give voice to their beliefs. Like it or not, it is the law.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has struck a cord with those who see the USA becoming the USC (the United States of Corporations). The Supreme Court has said corporations are persons, giving them rights to vote and pay for political candidates who will keep them in power.

As the Occupy movement has spread so has the resistance. A second Iraq war veteran has suffered serious injuries at the hands of the police in Oakland, California. Kayvan Sabehgi is in intensive care with a lacerated spleen. What a way to spend Veteran’s Day!

Sabehgi was walking away from the main area of trouble when he was clubbed and arrested. He spent 18 hours in jail before finally being sent to a hospital.

The Occupy movement is on the side of the police, as well as firefighters, teachers, nurses and countless other professions that continue to feel being short-changed.

These Occupiers don’t fit any mold except the freedom to sound off. It is an effort to save America’s middle class from becoming only a footnote in world history books.

It took Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of disenfranchised blacks years of demonstrations to wake up the Kennedy and Johnson administrations of the blatant injustices to fellow citizens.

How long will it take to wake us up to the corruption in high places and the increasing greed all around?

BAPTISTS IGNORANT OF THEIR CHINA MISSION HERITAGE


“STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND,
Maudie and Wilson Fielder in China
1912-1950”

TELL A FRIEND ABOUT STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND. Milton Cunningham, one-time missionary to Africa and former President of the Baptist General Convention of Texas writes about the book “Strangers in a Strange Land” - “Wilson and Maudie Fieder lived to serve … The author’s love for China and his empathy for the Fielders can be seen in these pages. These pages will enrich and bless your life.”

The years the Fielders were in Interior China 1912 to 1950 were volatile years around the world.

This is the story of a Comanche county cowboy, Wilson Fielder, and Maudie Albritton his West Texas sweetheart from Miles. Two pioneers in China’s Henan province from 1912 to 1950.

When Wilson settled in Kaifeng, an ancient capital of China on the Yellow River, he realized he could not continue without his young sweetheart Maudie. She wondered why he had not proposed before going to the ends of the earth.

Included are dozens of photos, maps and insights on China. In addition to the Fielder family are many Baptist missionary colleagues, heretofore unknown. There is an update on Christianity since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

This book is an attempt to make SBC missions more personal. Through inspiration and information remind Baptists and others why the Great Commission is as important as ever.

Check out the Towery Tales website for more information:
wwwtowerytales.blogspot.com
and
www.strangersinastrangerland.blogspot.com

While there read more on missions

Tell a friend about “Strangers in a Strange Land”

Purchase by mail: $20. -- Purchase in stores: $15.
Britt Towery E-mail: bet@suddenlink.net
124 Northstar Drive, San Angelo, Texas 76903

20th Century Missions in China

INTRODUCING A NEW BOOK ON CHINA MISSIONS HISTORY.

“STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND,
Maudie and Wilson Fielder in China 1912-1950”

Milton Cunningham, one-time missionary to Africa and former President of the Baptist General Convention of Texas writes about the book “Strangers in a Strange Land” - “Wilson and Maudie Fielder lived to serve … The author’s love for China and his empathy for the Fielders can be seen in these pages. These pages will enrich and bless your life.”

The years the Fielders were in Interior China 1912 to 1950 were volatile years around the world.

This is the story of a Comanche county cowboy, Wilson Fielder, and Maudie Albritton his West Texas sweetheart from Miles. Two pioneers in China’s Henan province from 1912 to 1950.

When Wilson settled in Kaifeng, an ancient capital of China on the Yellow River, he realized he could not continue without his young sweetheart Maude. She wondered why he had not proposed before going to the ends of the earth.

Included are dozens of photos, maps and insights on China. In addition to the Fielder family are many Baptist missionary colleagues, heretofore unknown. There is an update on Christianity since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

This book is an attempt to make SBC missions more personal. Through inspiration and information remind Baptists and others why the Great Commission is as important as ever.

Tell a friend about “Strangers in a Strange Land”

Purchase by mail: $20. -- Purchase in stores: $15.
Britt Towery E-mail: bet@suddenlink.net
124 Northstar Drive, San Angelo, Texas 76903

New book on China Missions History

INTRODUCING A NEW BOOK ON CHINA MISSIONS HISTORY.

Beloved pastor Milton Cunningham, one-time missionary to Africa and former President of the Baptist General Convention of Texas writes about the book “Strangers in a Strange Land” - - -

“Wilson and Maudie Fieder lived to serve … The author’s love for China and his empathy for the Fielders can be seen in these pages. These pages will enrich and bless your life.”

“STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND,
Maudie and Wilson Fielder in China
1912-1950”

The years1912 to 1950 were volatile years as China struggled to become a republic. The new 20th century began with 4,000 Protestant missionaries in China. They were laying a foundation along side Chinese pastors and laity to meet the challenge when their churches would be limited (1950-60) and finally closed (1966-77). Thankfully, now reopened and growing as never before (1979-2011).

STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND is the story of a Comanche (TX) county cowboy, Wilson Fielder, and Maudie Albritton his West Texas sweetheart from Miles. Two pioneers in China’s Henan province from 1912 to 1950.

When Wilson settled in Kaifeng, an ancient capital of China on the Yellow River, where once a huge Jewish community resided, he realized he could not continue without his young sweetheart Maude. She wondered why he had not proposed before going to the ends of the earth. She joined him in 1914 and they were married in Shanghai.

How they dealt with the language, customs, Japanese air raids, warlords, bandits, young communists and two years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, is an amazing story. A time when everything seemed strange until Maude learned she was as strange looking to the Chinese as they were to her.

Included are dozens of photos, maps and insights on China. An introduction to the Fielder family and many Baptist missionary colleagues, heretofore unknown. An update on Christianity since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Lack of understanding Baptist missionary history and heritage is rampant in most Baptist churches. This book attempts to be part of the remedy for the lack of such knowledge.

Check out the rest of this “Along the Way” website for more information. While there see new and old photos of Jody, the China we knew from 1982-92, our girls and my most recent West Texas newspaper columns. Purchase by mail is $20 including packing and postage. In stores $15. Click and send address to: Britt Towery


Britt Towery
124 Northstar Drive
San Angelo, Texas 76903
Cell phone: 325-262-5378
弟克陶普義 牧師敬上

NEW BOOK:

“STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND,
Maudie and Wilson Fielder in China 1912-1950”

The publication of my new book introduces the reader to pioneer Southern Baptist missionaries and their 40 years in China. That volatile first half of the 20th century as China struggles to become a republic.

STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND is the story of a Comanche county cowboy, Wilson Fielder, and Maudie Albritton his West Texas sweetheart from Miles. Two pioneers in China’s Henan province from 1912 to 1950.

When Wilson settled in Kaifeng, an ancient capital of China on the Yellow River, where once a huge Jewish community resided, he realized he could not continue without his young sweetheart Maude. She wondered why he had not proposed before going to the ends of the earth. She joined him in 1914 and they were married in Shanghai.

How they dealt with the language, customs, Japanese air raids, warlords, bandits, young communists and two years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, is an amazing story. A time when everything seemed strange until Maude learned she was as strange looking to the Chinese as they were to her.

Dozens of photos, maps and insights on China, the Fielder family and colleagues. Plus an update on China churches since 1950.

A fitting book gift for Christmas, church and school libraries, and that hard-to-please relative. A must for Baptist churches WMU or study groups. Purchases now accepted for $20.00 including postage. Special price for ten or more copies.

Bookstore signings in West Texas towns and hamlets in the planning stages.

Send an E-mail request with address to: bet@suddenlink.net
Or write and send $20. check to:
Britt Towery
124 Northstar Drive
San Angelo, Texas 76903
弟克陶普義 牧師敬上

The Fielders of China, 1912-1950

China Missionary Days of the Wilson Fielders
Looking back can help us see the future more clearly.

Jody Towery standing in doorway of last house where an ill Lottie Moon lived. This photo was taken in 1985 so it is hoped someone has done some housecleaning by now. Lottie did not starve herself because the Chinese were hungry and starving. She was sick and died in a Japanese port city on her way to retirement in the USA.

This new book takes up the story of Baptists in China about the time Lottie died.

STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND
A new approach to telling the story of pioneer missionaries. This is the story of Maudie and Wilson Fielder, Texans who went to China 100 years ago to share the Gospel. It is their story and China's story of the 20th century.

Lots of Southern Baptists know of Lottie Moon, but little else of what Baptist work has been like in China (or rest of the world for that matter) from 1835 to 1950. This but a part, but an important part. To know where we have been helps us know where to go! (ancient Chinese proverb)



Britt Towery with Wilson Fielder March 8, 1953, Stag Creek Baptist Church, Comanche County Texas. Fielder went to China from Comanche County in 1912. Spent over two years in Japanese internment camp in Shanghai. The book Stangers in a Strange Land relates the story of Maudie Albritton Fielder and Wilson in China. Purchase through e-mail or regular mail: Britt Towery Or The Tao Foundation, 124 Northstar Drive, San Angelo, Texas 76903. $20. postage and handling.

Christian growth in China exceeds the national GDP

Pray for the new leaders of the churches and seminaries.

STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND -- From West Texas to Central China, new book on Maudie and Wilson Fielder

A Miles, Texas Sweetheart and a Comanche County Cowboy

The first time I stopped in Miles there was an excellent homemade pie store in what was once a gasoline filling station. For those new to West Texas, Miles, Texas, is a pleasant little town halfway between Ballinger and San Angelo on Hwy 67.

My purpose this visit was not for pie. I wanted to search out some local history. I wanted to see the area of town where Maudie Ethel Albritton lived.

The historical marker in front of the First United Methodist Church on Fourth and Broadway had just the facts I needed. The original 1901 wood frame Methodist Church was where Maudie attended Sunday school and church as a teenager.

Maudie was born in Navarro County in East Texas. Due to her mother’s poor health the family doctor recommended they move to a drier climate. They moved to Miles. Why Miles? The historical marker helped here too. The founder of the Miles Methodist Church was a Methodist circuit rider from Navarro County. It is quite possible that Maudie’s parents Tennessee and William Albritton knew him before he came west. Miles had a dry climate and good preaching.

Miles was home to Maudie until her 22nd birthday. The love of her life, Wilson Fielder, a cowboy from Comanche County, Texas, left the Concho River for China’s Yellow River. The fledging Republic of China was just emerging from the ruins of the Qing Dynasty.

The mail service from Central China to West Texas and back was slower than the Pony Express. With the patience of Job, Maudie accepted Wilson’s “far flung” proposal. So, in the summer of 1914, Maudie waved goodbye to friends and family at the Miles Santa Fe Railroad Depot and began the journey of her life.

A few months later Maudie married her teenage sweetheart, Wilson Fielder, in Shanghai, China. A honeymoon on the Yangzi River was but a beginning. Maudie and Wilson spent the next forty years sharing their faith in Central China, the birthplace of the Chinese people. They lived through some of the most hectic, action-packed years of China’s modern history.

The story of Maudie and Wilson Fielder has been in the works for twenty years. This columnist knew them well. The two youngest children of Maudie and Wilson made the book possible: Florence Ann McKinney and he late L. Gerald Fielder.

The title of the new publication of The Tao Foundation is “Strangers in a Strange Land.” Available in bookstores from October 10 –- Double Ten –- which is the one hundred year anniversary of the revolution that brirthed the Republic of China. (Based on the island of Taiwan since 1948.)

When Maudie’s train left Miles the town had a population of 1,500 and was served by two railroads. There were five churches, a beautiful brick school, two lumber yards and one of the strongest banks in Texas. (According to the Miles Messenger and Enterprize newspaper account.)

The Star Barber Shop advertised sharp razors, clean towels, hot and cold baths for a reasonable price. Tennis shoes (white) were selling for seventy-five cents a pair. The Central Hotel and Café offered a Sunday Chicken Dinner for thirty-five cents.

Maudie became a Baptist before going to join her Comanche County cowboy Baptist missionary Wilson Fielder. She was baptized in our very own Concho River the Summer of 1914 by Pastor Isaac Newton. The book is filled with such nuggets and items of inspiration; dozens of photos; a China map; an update on China Christianity after the Fielder’s retirement in 1950.

--30--

MORE INFORMATION ON PUBLICATION DATE AND PRICE OF THE BOOK COMING SOON - - - - - -

Three who made a difference: John Stott, Eugene Nida, Dick Baker

Three who made a difference

Renown Christian pastor Rick Warren observed what church goers really want in a pastor. He saw a church sign that said: "Come hear our pastor! He's not very good but he's brief"

The national magazine Christianity Today recently interviewed Billy Graham who will turn 93 on November 7. The interviewer asked Graham: “If you could, would you go back and do anything differently?”
Graham’s reply: “I would have steered clear of politics. I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to the people in high places. People in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn’t do that now.”

Last month I happened on a tiny news item that said Eugene A. Nida, a native of Oklahoma died in Spain August 25 at age 96. This Baptist minister was a linguist and was widely considered the father of modern Bible translations, recruiting and training native speakers to translate the Bible into a great number of languages.

To Nida “no two languages are identical, it stands to reason that there can be no absolute correspondence between languages. Hence, there can be no fully exact translations.” While the impact of a translation may be close to the original, there can be no identity in detail.

Two of his books that were helpful in my ministry were “Message and Mission” (1960) and “Customs, Culture and Christianity” (1963). They remain important to the person seeking to make his faith and different cultures and languages more relevant.

Another loss to the Christian faith was the passing of John Stott this summer. It left a huge hollow space in the evangelical cause of the Christian faith. New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 1985, “If evangelicals chose a pope, they would likely select John Stott.”

This British Anglican, who went on to minister to all brands of Christianity, was the author of over 50 books. His most popular book, “Basic Christianity,” could be compared to a textbook guide for Christians of all stripes. A book that has helped many relate to the fundamental truth and principal importance of the Christian faith.

His many sayings have become a trademark of the evangelical world. Such as: “I want to shift conviction from a book [Bible], if you like, to a person [Jesus]. As Jesus himself said, the Scriptures bear witness to me. Their main function is to witness to Christ.”

John Stott has been the compassionate strain of evangelicalism. In recent years, this form of evangelicalism has been over shadowed, and too often displaced by the likes of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and
John Stott has made a far greater impact on the Christian movement than all the television preachers – who, as New York Times columnist Kris Kristof wrote --- Stott’s primary “concern was that Christians emulate the life of Jesus --–“ especially Jesus’ concern for the poor, oppressed, demoralized, exploited and powerless.

Unfortunately, in recent years, Americans have come to accept that a preacher can explain the Bible on television without much historic knowledge of Bible times; showing little or no interest in the nuances of the original texts. American evangelical church members have a history of been skeptical of an educated clergy. A college or seminary education was not conducive to “well-grounded spiritual preaching.”

And last, but no less important, was the death of Richard D. Baker September 5, 2011. For more than forty years Dick and his brother Bo were the finest evangelistic team Southern Baptist ever produced. Dick wrote the Baylor University Fight Song along with hundred of gospel songs like: “His Way Mine” and “Longing for Jesus.”

Men like Eugene Nida, John Stott and Dick Baker made our world a great deal better for having walked among us.

Wherefore Art Thou MIDDLE CLASS?

The squeeze on the middle class escalates

I remember seeing my barber dad sitting on the edge of the bed at night, going through the coins and bills of that day’s labor.

Barbers are basic middle class America. That is how it was and is with small local, independent one or two chair barbershops.

Why else would cartoonist Charles Schultz have given Charlie Brown a barber for a father? Because the loveable little Charlie Brown was “everykid” (I made the word up. It means Charlie Brown was a typical example of every ordinary American kid). He probably never won a baseball game but he never gave up. He probably gave Lucy fits with his humility and persistence. He was “everykid.”

And barber Brown (adults never appear in the strip) is “everyman,” the ordinary person. The world of the ordinary person, the middle class, they are the hub around which the wheels of a nation turns. Call him “your average Joe Blow,” or John Doe; the ordinary guy or gal that makes up the American middle class is hurting – soon to be missing.

This term, middle class, is primarily an American democratic creation; another “only in America” thing. African and Asian countries, Europeans and Latin Americans have a tiny if any middle class population. They have the rich and they have the poor.

The richer the rich get, the poorer the poor get. The more the privileged obtain and gain, the more the poor are deprived and left at the end of the bread line. Nothing we can argue with there. (But I’m sure some will.)

It’s a world of winners and losers; the upper crust and the crumbs. That is the way it has been since the days of Plato and Ezekiel. Evidently it will always be thus till we all get to heaven – where there is a classless society from all I have read. According to the Good Book, everybody in heaven is rich.

Meanwhile, back on the U.S.A. bit of earth, the middle class continues to be squeezed harassed and oppressed by a growing oligarchy. Oligarchy is a new word for some of us. It began back when the Greeks were giving democracy a try out. Those against democracy were from the Oligarchy Party --- rule of the few over the many. In Texas we call that “rule by a few fat rich guys.”

This take-over by the few is a work in progress. Recently, this year, the American Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the same rights as an individual. Corporate personhood leads to oligarchy. This is not a new debate. It goes way back, but what scares us middle class folks is the role of corporate money in politics. Elections are won by those who have the most money to spend. My friends say this makes for an uneven playing field.

Some middle of the road middle class politically-afflicted individuals want to level the playing field, This, they claim, by introducing and supporting a brand new amendment to the Bill of Rights. It would be the 28th Amendment and says corporations are not individuals.

The New World Order, a conspiracy about who rules the world in the future, may not be a huge Socialist Government takeover. It may turn out to be a mere Corporate Oligarchy.

Either way it is difficult to think this is good for the likes of Charlie Brown’s middle class barber father.

Tea Party Not Just For Tea Drinkers

A Big Tea Party For Everyone

The announcement was shouted from the rooftops, loud and clear: It’s party Time! Everybody is invited! Refreshments will be provided! There will be free drinks for all! There is but one minor inconvenience: there will be no beer, hard liquor or cider, not even coffee on the table.

The drink of choice will be tea. Tea, with or without sugar, ice cold, hot or tepid, black or red, tea made to make your taste buds rejoice as if you were in an old time brush arbor spiritual revival.

Feel free to bring along any good fruit flavors to add to the mix and savor the moment. Nothing like having a party where everyone’s particular tastes are met.

Since the party is for everyone’s tea-liking taste, why not just call it a Tea Party? Make it ‘The Place Where Everybody Is Somebody.”

Tea -- Oolong, light or dark, black or red, green or white, Hibiscus or Rooibos, even chai and wellness teas -- will be on the serving table. All the blends are sure to quince your thirst at this great American Tea Party.

It should be noted this Tea Party does not have any relationship with The Republic of Tea Company that claims to be the leading purveyor of premium teas. A tea has to be of the greatest quality to have the approval of those who gather around the exalted Tea Party table. Few are elevated to such a status.

Tea leaves are prepared and cured using various methods. Sometimes they are run through hot and boiling water. There will be no boiling water at this Tea Party. The tea is to be ready to consume just like good old Jim Jones Kool Aid. A drink preferred by a variety of less cultivated parties.

The Tea Party we envision is a breed apart. It cares for all kinds of people – even those who do not drink tea. But be sure of one thing: these folks are occasionally opposed to fear-mongering. At an earlier, sparsely attended Tea Party, major time was given to informing Americans there is much to fear from the Muslim’s Sharia law.

In America today, a scary anti-Muslim sentiment is boiling over in a most ridiculous way. Someone needs to turn down the heat. Ultra-conservatives (who invented the Tea Parties with their heaps of corporate money) are now publicly promoting the notion that Sharia law is going to displace our Supreme Court and do away with our Magna Carter freedoms. It is all a big secret as to how the clandestine Muslims are going to do this. But do it, they are, say the elders and high priests of the Tea Party. (No names, so as to protect the guilty.)

Islamic law has for centuries kept Muslim government and religion tied together with their own version of Sharia law. It is a guide for devout Muslims. America is not at risk of falling under the sway of Sharia law. We have enough problems keeping the laws we have.

Get over it! No Sharia edicts for America. It will not happen even if Oklahoma’s legislative gurus keep making laws to ban something we don’t even have, and are not in danger of getting.

When I was young there was supposed to be a communist under every bed and around every corner. Never found one. Senator Joe McCarthy was the chief nut job then.

Don’t be afraid of Sharia law, the Tea Party will be on the front lines defending the laws the Founding Fathers who gave their blood, fortunes and estates for democratic law. The Tea Party, after this next big meeting, will have all the facts to show there is no cause for alarm – except for some ancient Islamic edict. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? (For the younger readers: that is the opening line of the radio drama, “The Shadow.”)

If you are going to the Tea Party, remember to bring a brown paper bag lunch. Because nothing nourishing will be served, just the Tea Party’s own mixed-up-tea.

Roses and all the best to Dick Baker

This little note, in part, was sent through snail mail to friend Dick Baker in Plano, Texas.



Roses are for the living: Personal word to Dick Baker

Nobody ever sang "I may never pass this way again" like this blessed musician and friend. Just dropping this note to let him know what he means to us. As his late Bro. BO said so often in jest but from the heart, "Dick's always 'longing for Jesus.'

September 2, 2011
Dear Dick,

You are constantly in our thoughts. Jody and I would love to travel up to see you, but not in a position to do so.

But the many songs and words of encouragement to us through the years continue to be a blessing.

Like the time we went down into the Arizona San Manuel Copper Corporation underground mine with one of the church deacons. What a time it was. At lunchtime when they set off the explosives, you remarked that noise and shaking was same as the powerful blast of salvation that God gives. Changes everything. Always the poet. But more than a poet, your smile, songs and spirit brought up the light of any room you entered. You were great the week you spent with our growing church in the desert north of Tucson.

And that monkey in our backyard in Kaohsiung, Taiwan when you and Bo took time to stop after meetings in Singapore. The monkey seemed to like you. How could it be otherwise.

And, the lunch with us for our daughter Linda’s birthday in the revolving restaurant in Kowloon in 1970. Your son Paul sure liked the oysters on a half shell in that supper-club basement of the Grand Hotel.

I’m looking at a BSU newsletter you and Jody wrote when she was finishing Farmersville High School, Texas, and you were beginning Baylor University. --- And the joy of introducing her best college friend, Margaret Ann Self to you. A meeting planned in heaven long before any of us were born.

We wish you and all your families and friends some of your joy and faith as the shades begin coming down and the light of real life begins to form out there in front of you.

God bless, dear friend, and thanks for coming our way.

Love,

弟克陶普義 牧師敬上
Britt Towery
124 Northstar Dr.
San Angelo, Texas 76903

E-mail: bet@suddenlink.net
Blog: www.britt-towery.blogspot.com

"In the cross of Christ I glory" Hymn from Macau

Macau, China, where "In the cross of Christ I glory" hymn was born.



Macau, China: A Hymn of the Cross

In this pre-casino days when the Portuguese Province of Macau was the first European settlement in East Asia, it looked like this but not as big.

St. Paul's Cathedral (built from 1582-1602) can be seen upper left, after the 19th century typhoon and fire. An old Fort is upper right. The Southern Baptist mission house is in the neighborhood just below the Portuguese fort. The distant hills are not so far away. They are in the Guangdong province of southern China. Macau is less than an hour away by jet-foil.

Sir John Bowring, when he was governor of Hong Kong, visited Macau after the great typhoon and fire that destroyed the Cathedral. He was inspired with the mangled cross high up on the Cathedral. He went on to write the hymn "In the cross of Christ I glory, tow'ring o'er the wrecks of time..."

Wish we had more governors like Brother Bowring.

The name CHRISTIAN has been hi-jacked

Time to “take back” the Christian name and influence

Back a few years when we lived in Fort Worth, still one my favorite towns, Jody and I visited the Birchman Avenue Baptist Church to hear the famous Lester Roloff preach.

Hearing Lester on his daily radio program made me curious to see and hear him in person. He was apt to break out in song right in the middle of his sermon.

He would sashay into song at the end of every 15-minute broadcast with, “One sat alone / beside the highway begging / then Jesus came / and washed his sins away.”

Lester was a real spellbinder; he was ahead of his time and missed out on the riches to be made in televangelistic preaching. He died when his private plane crashed in East Texas in 1982. He was not so much flamboyant as he was common, which really attracted South Texas farmers and peasants.

Lester Roloff got into trouble in 1967 with his unorthodox, yet Christian fundamentalist, management practices of his Rebekah Home for Girls in Corpus Christi became public. For one thing, Lester went all out in promoting and using the Bible verse: “spare the rod, spoil the child.”

In 1973 the Texas Attorney General finally had enough complaints to take him to court. Brother Lester (that’s what everyone called him) was prosecuted for his excessive corporal punishment of the girls. Lester said on the stand: “Better a pink bottom than a black soul.” The attorney said he was more concerned with bottoms “that are blue, black and bloody.”

(It is not important to the story, but Lester Roloff was a graduate of Baylor University. The school is not likely to build a statue for him anytime soon. Actually, old BU would rather forget Bro. Lester. While on the subject, BU also hates to admit Willie Nelson once went to the world’s largest Baptist university. They ought to name a music building after him.)

Weird as it was, Roloff got a lot of support as Kathryn Joyce, author of “Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement,” wrote recently in an expose of abusive teen homes. Roloff passed off the scene but his co-workers moved on to cause even greater misery for young girls and more shame on the name of Christ in Missouri. Wiley Cameron, who worked for 35 years with Roloff opened “New Beginnings” home for girls.

In 1998 Cameron’s group returned to Texas after then-Gov. George W. Bush deregulated the activities of faith-based groups in Texas. Later Wiley Cameron was chosen to serve on Bush’s peer-review board for Christian children’s agencies in Texas.

Abuse charges emerge all the time in Texas, Missouri, George and Florida. State legislatures consistently look the other way. “We the People” can’t get a hearing on this immoral practice of consecration camps for teens.

The situation is made even more tragic when “faith,” and particular “Christian” terms are tied to the shameful practice. These modern day pirates go about their nefarious ways, hiding behind that very thick, dark and misleading “faith-based” curtain.

These groups are powerful. They are also good at stirring up fear when they are exposed. Nothing like a little fear to rouse the troops. (Typical tactic of the G. O. P. and their appendage “tea parties.” But, I digress.)

Anytime someone suggest more oversight on faith-based programs, especially those “reforming” teens, they whip out several myths: Christians are being persecuted; regulations are bad; government want to control the churches, etc.

When bills come up in State legislatures that would curb such abusive projects as those begun by Lester Roloff clones the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs will oppose it.

Martin Luther King, Jr is not the only one with “a dream.” I hope to see the name “Christian” vindicated and restored to its proper status, and no longer abused by these shysters.

Tea Party Worries About Sharia law

A Big Tea Party For Everyone

The announcement was shouted from the rooftops, loud and clear: It’s party Time! Everybody is invited! Refreshments will be provided! There will be free drinks for all! There is but one minor inconvenience, there will be no beer, hard liquor or cider, not even coffee on the table.

The drink of choice will be tea. Tea, with or without sugar, ice cold, hot or tepid, black or red, tea made to make your taste buds rejoice as if you were in an old time brush arbor spiritual revival.

Feel free to bring along any good fruit flavors to add to the mix and savor the moment. Nothing like having a party where everyone’s special tastes are met.

The promoters next announced, nay, proclaimed to all West Texans: A significant event was appearing in their very city, right down the street, in your neighborhood, where every girl is like the one next door, and all the boys are great football stars just like their dads, and mothers who volunteer for every worthy cause.

Since the party is for everyone’s tea-liking taste why not just call it a Tea Party? Make it ‘The Place Where Everybody Is Somebody.”

Tea -- Oolong, light or dark, black or red, green or white, Hibiscus or Rooibos, even chai and wellness teas -- will be on the serving table. All the blends are sure to quince your thirst at this great American Tea Party.

It should be noted this Tea Party does not have any relationship with The Republic of Tea Company that claims to be the leading purveyor of premium teas. A tea has to be of the greatest quality to have the approval of those who gather around the exalted Tea Party table. Few are elevated to that status.

Tea leaves are prepared and cured using various methods. Sometimes they are run through hot and boiling water. There will be no boiling water at the Tea Party. The tea to be ready to consume just like good old Kool Aid. A drink preferred by a variety of less cultivated parties.

The Tea Party we envision is a breed apart. It cares for all kinds of people – even those who do not drink tea. Also they are occasionally opposed to fear-mongering. At an earlier, sparsely attended Tea Party, major time was given to informing Americans there is much to fear from the Muslim’s Sharia law.

In America today, an anti-Muslim sentiment is boiling over in a most ridiculous way. Ultra-conservatives are now publicly promoting the notion that Sharia law is going to displace our Supreme Court and do away with our Magna Carter freedoms. It is all a big secret as to how the clandestine Muslims are going to do this. But do it, they are, says the elders of the Tea Party.

Islamic law has for centuries kept Muslim government and religion tied together with Sharia law. It is a guide for devout Muslims. America is not at risk of falling under the sway of Sharia law. Get over it! It will not happen even if Oklahoma’s legislative gurus keep making laws to ban something we don’t even have, and are not getting.

When I was young there was supposed to be a communist under every bed and around every corner. Never found one. Senator Joe McCarthy was the chief nut job then.

Don’t be afraid of Sharia law, the Tea Party will be on the front lines defending the laws the Founding Fathers who gave their blood, fortunes and estates for democratic law. The Tea Party, after this next big meeting, will have all the facts to show there is no cause for alarm. Or is this writer merely naïve? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? (For the younger readers: that is the opening line of the radio drama, “The Shadow.”)

If you are going to the Tea Party, remember to bring a brown paper bag lunch. Nothing nourishing will be served, just the Tea Party’s own home-made-up-tea.

Prince Flowing Mane from Paint Creek

Another Texican running for President

“Heavens to Betsy,” Aunt Mae might have said had she heard the flowing mane-blessed present governor of Texas announce his intention of running for the office of the President of the United States of America.

To us nephews and nieces, Aunt Mae, along with her older sister, Aunt Martha, were viewed as powerful women. They had opinions and could care less if they were ignored. They knew what they knew and were proud of it. Only the stupid would disagree with Aunt Martha --- at least until out of sight.

Aunt Martha smoked. I don’t mean politically, I mean literally she smoked. She loved her Chesterfields. During the war she smoked Wings. The Wings brand had a war plane card in each pack. Once she knew that I knew she smoked, she saved the airplane cards for me.

Back in those days most ladies did not smoke – at least not in public. Aunt Mae took a dim view of her older sister smoking. But it never became an issue with them. It wouldn’t have made any difference “no how,” they’d say.

Uncle Louis and Aunt Martha got married after World War I. He grew up in Borger, Texas, and then went off to drive an ambulance in that “war to end all wars.” Ernest Hemingway described Uncle Louis well in one of his war stories. I can’t prove that, but am pretty sure he would have made a stirring character in a Hemingway book.

So much time has passed in Texas since these two aunts and Uncle Louis graced the scene. These were the depression 30s and war 40s. Compared to today it was like living on a distant planet.

They were probably Democratic Party believers. Then again, everybody was in Texas in those days. No self-respecting man, woman, boy or girl would be anything else. Republicans, in those days, were just a generation away from the Yankee carpet-baggers that did more harm to the south than any cotton-pickin’ boil weevil.

They knew first-hand what happens when a Republican president sets up business in the oval office. Ask those who have been there: What do you get? Whadeyeget? You get a full-scale, one hundred percent depression, complete with anxiety, misery, hardship, and utter hopelessness, that eventually led to another war.

When the carpet-bagger Republicans finally left, Texas could say the Civil War was over and Texas was safe in the hands of the Democratic Party.

It would stay that way for over 100 years. A veritable heaven on earth. Then in the late 1950s when justice prevailed and black kids could begin to get a better education, both Republican and Democratic whites fled to the suburbs. Avoiding the trauma of “mixed schooling.”

Democrats-in-name only also fled the party and became Republicans. And the Republican Party and its new “tea party” image has put a pall over Texas and much of the country.

“Heavenly days,” puts it too mildly as we think of another good-old-boy with Republican hues being in the White House. Having never been prone to the use of curses, gutter, low-life language, I can express it no better than exclaim, “Holy Moses, what’s next?”

According to right-wing Protestant radio stations, like the American Family Radio, Prince Flowing Mane from Paint Creek is already assured to bring Christianity back to the White House and free it of the not-really-an American, Muslim-loving, pretend president.

Heavenly Days. Saints preserve us. Whadeyeget? Another day older and deeper in (censored).

[Set to be published in Aug 26 edition of Brownwood (TX) Bulletin and San Angelo (TX) Standard-Times dailies]

Ross Coggins, 1927-2011

For some years now I have had the pleasure of corresponding with a friend from out of the past. But recently my e-mails to Ross Coggins were not acknowledged.

Today word came from friends in Singapore of his passing. I knew his health was failing, but his notes and phone conversations were never about his condition. His insight into our devolving government changes and to the plight of the Christian community were great food for thought. He shared a poem he had written for a loved one in his family of friends that I was able to share when my dear friend Joe Swan died in 2008. Now the poet is gone.

I first met Ross and his lovely wife, Annette, in Hong Kong. They were appointed Southern Baptist missionaries to Indonesia in 1955. At state affairs, mostly social affairs, he met Sukarno, the first Indonesian president. His stories of the old dictator were interesting, but this is not the place for such sidelights.

Ross was looking to buy a camera in our favorite camera-hole-of-a-shop just across from the Grand Hotel in Tsimshatsui district of Kowloon.

A native of Wichita Falls, Texas, Ross attended the University of Texas and received his B.A. at Baylor University, Waco, Texas and a B.D. degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. He was the Associate Director of Student Work for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, before going to Indonesia.
After language study the Coggins worked in Surabaya and Bandung, before taking a new challenge with the United States Federal Government Aid Agencies. He was stationed in Rome and the islands of the Caribbean, among other places.

He should be well-know to Southern Baptists for his hymn “Send me, O Lord, send me.” In 1976 his poem “The Development Set” was published and can be found on several web sights even now. It speaks of his burden to help sick and dying peoples through their governments all over the globe.

He did not travel around the world telling poor countries what they should do and how they should change. He tried to persuade rich countries to change the policies and behaviors that hinder the poorest of nations to prosper.
Here are excerpts from “The Development Set”
by Ross Coggins showing through satire how little we really care:

Our thoughts are deep and our vision global;

Although we move with the better classes
Our thoughts are always with the masses.

We discuss malnutrition over steaks 

And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks. 

Whether Asian floods or African drought, 

We face each issue with open mouth.

We bring in consultants whose circumlocution 

Raises difficulties for every solution -- 

Thus guaranteeing continued good eating

By showing the need for another meeting.

Or say, "That's fine in practice, but don't you see:

It doesn't work out in theory!" 

A few may find this incomprehensible, 

But most will admire you as deep and sensible.

Development set homes are extremely chic,
Full of carvings, curios, and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the great and the poor.
Enough of these verses - on with the mission! 

Our task is as broad as the human condition!

Just pray god the biblical promise is true:

The poor ye shall always have with you.

Ross, may your spirit continue to help those of us still here to make a difference rather than just take up space.

Poets are naive on Mexico drug war

Javier Sicilia, poet essayist from Cuernavaca, Mexico, held a peace rally in El Paso this summer. His criticisms of the Mexican government has grown stronger since the death of his son. He said, “I have begun to learn the names of the 40,000 dead, who died crying out for justice.”

Sicilla also placed some of the blame on the United States. The drug consumption of the States is the basic problem. The desire for drugs here is at the heart of this tragic situation.

Add to the mix, the United States provides weapons, meant to help, but only make the situation worse. Gun shows abound along the border. These gun sellers and their gaudy shows are legal, but deadly.

The rival gangs in Mexico are creeps who see only dollar signs. These “scum of the earth” Mexicans bandit-armies have proven that human life of their own people mean nothing to them. It is now an undeclared war. There is little prospect of it ending until the United States makes some sensible changes in the drug laws.

To have such a war right in our own back yard is not acceptable. But it goes on, just as it has for years. When it becomes personal, in the case of Javier Sicilla, we stand up and complain.

Add to the mix, the United States provides weapons, meant to help, but only make the situation worse. Gun shows abound along the border. These gun sellers and their gaudy shows are legal, but deadly.

Oscar Menendez, filmmaker and friend of Sicllia, says: “he is very hurt by the death of is son.” Mexico. Like the States have had many protests and marches , but they soon fade away. Menendez, however is on record as saying, “I think this one will be different. We’re in it for the long fight. Javier is not going to drop this.”

A poet has a way of touching the hearts of the people. He can put the problem in a context for thinking people, on both sides of the border, to get serious about this war.

To bring us up to date, last March Sicilia’s 24-year-old son, Juan Francisco, and six of his friends were killed by drug cartel criminal goons in Cuernavaca.

The local police have little power in this war. The Army has come and only made things worse. The evident corruption of government institutions makes it difficult for anyone trying to live a normal life.

Sicllia, in his letter to the government, trys to get the point across that the obsnece number of deaths has become an epidemic in the countryside.

In Mexico City’s main square over 90,000 people gathered to protest the inaction of government to the crisis. Mexico President Felipe Calderon has a lot to answer for. It is said that Ciudad Juarez alone has had 9,000 killed since 2007.

In Juarez, just across the little stream known as the Rio Grande, El Paso slumbers in peace. The Texas city is safe from the slaughter because it makes a good transfer point and does not upset the local government. Washington, DC. Is a long ways away.

To be so close to a war should be unnerving, but it does not seem to strike a cord of care. To just blame El Paso is wrong, for San Angelo is not all that far from the Rio Grande. The Texas-Mexico border is long and what hurts on one side affects the other side.

Austin is closer than the politicians realize. They need to wake up to the realities of war next door. When we “Remember the Alamo,” be good to recall who won the battle in that little mission in San Antonio.

Poets are naïve.

Enjoy Life "in the now," It has an expiration date!

Enjoy life now... It has an expiration date!
Living in the “now” is what living is all about. What has gone before is gone forever, unless we choose to keep on re-living it in our faulty memories. What is yet to come, always hinges on “possibilities.” We can’t live today on what is past, good, bad or questionable. We can’t live today on what may or may not happen in the coming days or our possible future predicaments.

I am writing today’s opinion piece to myself. I am writing this for myself. So, if anyone takes the time to read it, know it is a simple statement of what I need to tell myself today (and truthfully, every day).
It is definitely true that the “now,” this day, this hour, this moment is all I have. I try to remind myself that it should be lived to the fullest, enjoyed with every breath.

All the experts keep telling me, “Don’t clutter up your life with what could have been.” “Don’t lose your only ‘today’ worrying about what might be around the corner.”

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” So said Pulitzer Prize recipient Annie Dillard. Everyday there are ‘moments’ that make the day a joy, or at least pleasurable. The ‘now’ moments are undoubtedly our most valuable commodity.

Wise old gurus stress ‘time’ as the greatest of our possessions. Many of the Bible’s parables and stories urge the wise use of time. Recognizing that the time-now-in-our-hands is all we have --- and it can be a liberating force evolving into a “life lived at its fullest.”

Time is like studying a foreign language – no matter how hard I study, if I do use the language, I lose it. Time is a gift to be appreciated, even treasured or cherished, otherwise I lose it. “Cherish the moment” may sound too sentimental or preachy, but it sure beats just “spending” time or even worse, “killing” time. Today is too valuable for me to let slip away on whims, grudges, resentments, or slights encountered along life’s way.

Al Capp, the creator of one of my all-time favorite comic strips, Li’l Abner, lost his left leg at the age of nine. He wrote a memoir with the up-beat, positive title: “My Well Balanced Life On A Wooden Leg.” He didn’t let the loss of a leg ruin the rest of his days. His cheerful autobiographical essays attest to his living in the “now.”

So, I am saying to myself, enjoy life “now”... right here and now! For life has an expiration date!

JESSE AND WILMA KIDD

As far back as I can remember I have had a fascination for the country of Burma. Reading Courtney Anderson’s “To the Golden Shore,” the life of Adoniram Judson had a lot to do with this interest.

The year 1812 is famous not only for a second war with Britain and Tchaikovsky’s famous overture, but it was also the year Adoniram Judson began his missionary work in Burma.

When I met Jesse Kidd, a retired missionary to Brazil, my interest in him grew more when I learned he was a World War II veteran in the fight to keep the Burma Road open for our allies in China.

Weeks after Japan’s attack on Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor, they stuck at Hong Kong, the Philippines and Burma in their attempt to rule Asia and eventually the world.

Down in the Burma jungles, on the southwest border with China, Jesse Kidd remembered: “January 19, 1945 at 5:30 a.m. we were approaching the Burma Road. We had been working our way on foot through the trackless jungle for 36 sleepless hours to reach our target.

“We were just getting into position when the enemy opened fire on us. The trooper next to me took a direct hit, and I was splashed with his blood. Why the sniper stopped shooting, I do not know.”

Jesse still asks the question of why his buddy was killed and he was spared. The gruesomeness of war stays locked in his mind, causing countless nightmares. “In my mind I am still holding my position, but I am running out of ammunition.”

Jesse asks, “how does one write about something he has tried to forget from sixty years ago?” He was on the burial detail. “Trooper was the first one buried that day. One by one we wrapped our fallen comrades in their GI blankets and buried them just a few hundred yards from the Burma Road.”

He continues, “Those young men were just out of high school. I have tried to find out if their remains were ever brought home, and I got no satisfactory answer.

The long countless nights, hunger and total exhaustion were part of the price for victory. “God alone has been my Rock.” Jesse said.

The Americans, under General Vinegar Bend Stillwell, fought their way from Indian territory (now Bangladesh) through swamps, mountains, monsoons and typhoons to clear the road and Burma of the Japanese.

Until the road was cleared Air Transport Command planes flew from Allied bases in Assam, India to Kunming, China, to supply Chiang’s army and the American Flying Tigers outfit.

The flight over the Hump took them over the Himalayan Mountains. The five-hour, 700-mile trip was considered one of the most dangerous in the war. Not counting the freak winds and unpredictable turbulence, C-47s were not designed to fly at 20,000 feet. Later, larger planes made the run. Supplies were also dropped for the troops in Burma. By the end of the war, the Hump pilots had flown 777,000 tons of supplies to keep China fighting, with the loss of 910 men.

Down in the Burma jungles, Jesse Kidd writes “January 19, 1945 at 5:30 a.m. we were approaching the Burma Road. We had been working our way on foot through the trackless jungle for 36 sleepless hours to reach our target.

“We were just getting into position when the enemy opened fire on us. The trooper next to me took a direct hit, and I was splashed with his blood. Why the sniper stopped shooting, I do not know.”

Jesse still asks the question of why his buddy was killed and he was spared. The gruesomeness of war stays locked in his mind, causing countless nightmares. “In my mind I am still holding my position, but I am running out of ammunition.”

Jesse asks, “how does one write about something he has tried to forget from sixty years ago?” He was on the burial detail. “Trooper was the first one buried that day. One by one we wrapped our fallen comrades in their GI blankets and buried them just a few hundred yards from the Burma Road.”

He continues, “Those young men were just out of high school. I have tried to find out if their remains were ever brought home, and I got no satisfactory answer.

The long countless nights, hunger and total exhaustion were part of the price for victory. “God alone has been my Rock.” Jesse said.

After the war the American soldiers moved into Kunming, Yunnan province, China. From there to Shanghai where, when each soldier had enough points, they returned home by ship. While in Shanghai Jesse attended Christmas services in the Moore Memorial Methodist Church on Tibet Road. (Now the Mu En Church, first in Shanghai to be re-opened in 1979 following the tragic Cultural Revolution.)

The Arkansas youngster, Jesse Lee Kidd, was a 22-year old war veteran by the time he got home. After graduation from Ouachita Baptist University he pastored the Ebenezer Baptist Church in El Dorado, Ark., while in seminary. The church saw him through seminary and supported him as a single missionary in Brazil. He became pastor of the Central Baptist Church of Volta Redonda, in Brazil’s interior.

In Brazil, Jesse met Nebraska farm girl, Wilma Alice Gemmell. She was a former Assistant Dean of Women and graduate of Howard Payne University, later became secretary to Juliet Mather, writing, editing and overseeing Southern Baptists’ Women’s Missionary Union publications. Her first foreign missions experience was in the financial offices of the SBC Brazil Mission in Rio de Janeiro.

Their courtship was somewhat long distance at first. She lived in Rio and he was a long bus ride away in the interior. Jesse and Wilma Alice were married later in the States. They then served as Southern Baptist missionaries in Brazil until retirement in 1989.

Their autobiography, “The Kidds of Brazil,” Morris Publishing (1999), Kearney, Nebraska, is presently out of print. They now live at Baptist Memorials, San Angelo, Texas. They are still in good health and active in the First Baptist Church, San Angelo, Texas. Their e-mail address: jessewilmakidd@suddenlink.com.

The Curse of Annual Family Form Letters

OPEN LETTER TO FRIENDS WHO SEND FORM LETTERS:

I began today’s column as a personal “form letter” to all those people who send annual letters at Christmas. You know, those that share all the great things happening in their lives during the past year. I decided to write my own. I began it this way:

This is one of those “who in the world cares” letters that usually flood our mailboxes at Christmastime. The kind that is filled with the exploits of kids, grandkids and great-grandkids with whom we have never met; have never corresponded with and have no plans to meet.

Who doesn't love to go to the mailbox and find a newsy letter? The disappointment comes when it is a self-congratulatory opus of someone’s second cousin being promoted at Taco Bell? --- Merry Christmas!

Or to get a long detailed account from this voice out of the dark and distant past detailing that year’s medical record of having survived mind-boggling bouts with gout and hammer toes. – Merry Christmas!

And those family photos included are a mystery. Who is this old couple and the thirty or forty newly acquired descendents standing around?

We are supposed to remember one-time colleagues, co-workers or church and school (even back to grade school) classmates and be enlightened with all the plaudits and fun times they have been blessed with over the previous twelve months.

These form letters do not bother the wife. But I am well into my eighth decade and I have my hands full emptying my mailbox that is stuffed full with fast-food circulars and “save you money” letters trying to con me into buying another credit card, or subscribe to Playboy or the Foreign Affairs Journal.

I have enough trouble remembering the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night, much less reading an annual family newsletter about somebody’s remarkable progeny’s promethean feats and unusual accomplishments?

What I wanted to write has been written and published already by Michael Lent, a Hollywood screenwriter. His 2007 Simon and Schuster book “Christmas Letters from Hell: All the News We Hate to love,” says it all. Michael shares a collection of the best collection of do-gooders and go-getters of the past, present and future.

His tales are not so much of the personal nature and more of the weird realm, for example: “What if my Christmas tree were home to killer bees?” or “What if bin Laden had been a high-school exchange student in Minnesota?”

My favorite of his letters was “What if a child’s letter to Santa crossed paths with that of a Nigerian scam artist?”

Here is one more quote from Michael Lent’s book: "I kid you not" about an actual Christmas letter he received reporting "grandma's bladder problem and the family's Winnebago disaster, all within the first two sentences." Which is a great deal more than one wants to know.

Another factor is the cost of mailing a form letter. I would have to dip into my savings for the postage and envelopes if I mailed such a letter to all those who send me their annual form letters.

Although with some polishing of my prose and laying aside some postage money I still might be ready this Christmas to send this sincere review of my years of opening my mail box toward the end of each year.

Family Trees Now Thing of Past?

TODAY’S COMPLICATED FAMILY TREE

The Towerys originated in Italy? So says some shakey research. The Turraine families in the Principality of Milan became so obnoxious the populace demolished their houses. This helped them decide to migrate to the British Isles.

It is still a matter of conjecture that the Turraines were the forebears of those who spell their name: Towery / Towry.

We do know that John Towery and his two brothers from Scotland, settled in the Carolina Colony. Sometime later John married Miss Betsy Cannon. (Unconfirmed item: Betsy said to be a niece of William Penn, the Quaker who founded Philadelphia.)

The newly weds, John and Betsy, had a son they named Mannering (1778), married Winnie, and they had a son named Wilborn (1805), whose wife Nancy Teague gave birth to my great grandfather, Argyle Campbell Towery (1844). By the middle of the 19th century the clan had spread across the south.

On October 18, 1861, Argyle enlisted in Capt. R. J. Armstrong’s Mississippi Volunteers as an 18 year old private. In his Confederate States of America files they show he was AWOL (absent without leave) more than once.
He was without leave all right, but not intentionally. He was not a deserter nor a disgrace to the CSA. On Nov.25, 1863, Pvt. Argyle Towery was captured by Union forces at Missionary Ridge, Tenn. As a prisoner of war he was first sent to Louisville, Ky., and later Rock Island, Ill. On March 10, 1864, he took the oath of allegiance to the United States and was exchanged two months later in New Orleans.

After the war, Argyle came to Texas. One of his sons was my grandfather, Roland and the other was grandfather of Kenneth Towery, the cousin who won the Pulitzer Prize in the 1950s.

By 1906 Argyle was living in Rockwall County, Texas, applied for his Civil War Pension. He never got it, possibly due to “joining” the Union before the war was over. He was almost blind by this time. He had no property, but he did have one pair of Mississippi mules and a wagon.

Genealogists have long had a blast with this kind of detail. Where they define familial relations according to bloodlines, marriage or war. Today, the composition of families is changing to such a degree that it is almost impossible to know who gets a branch on a family tree.

In the early 20th century some elementary school projects included making family trees according organized traditionally according to genetic information. Today there is hardly a school student or graduate who ever heard of such an exercise.

Such exercises in schools are gone from today’s schools. With at least half of today’s marriages ending up in divorce court and the children scattered back and forth, home to home. (For the last six years, according to United States census data, there have been more unmarried households than married ones. And more same-sex couples are having children using surrogates or sperm donors or by adoption.)

Add to that the use of surrogates, sperm donors and same-sex parents and making a family tree is next to impossible. It looks more like Uncle Remus’ brier patch – common name for a thicket formed by any of a number of unrelated thorny plants.

Learning about out heritage is more than just a hobby. There are medical and legal implications, particularly when it comes to death and inheritance.

For some children, having to explain their family tree can be alienating and discouraging.
The Stepfamily Foundation, a family counseling service based in New York City, gave up on the traditional family tree for a network of circles (females) and squares (males), with dotted and straight lines to connect married and blood relatives. Its complicated any way you look at it.