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About padresteve

I'm a Navy Chaplain and Old Catholic Priest
December 5, 2010 · 23:47

Passionate Moderates Arise!

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” Thomas Jefferson

The Reign of Terror, the End Result of Extremist Ideologies

Everywhere I look I see extremism winning. It doesn’t matter which corner of our furry world you look it seems that some sort of extremist group or bunch of radicals is dominating the landscape.  It doesn’t matter what realm of life it is the radicals and extremists dominate be it religion, politics, foreign policy, social issues, the environment, the worldwide economy and the media. I’m sorry to me it is a very unseemly environment and unfortunately will probably get far worse before it gets better.

Just take a look around the country and the world and you can see it. We have Muslim fundamentalist extremists committing acts of terror in the name of their faith against anyone that they oppose. There are Christian fundamentalists in Africa advocating killing homosexuals just because they can with the full support of some American fundamentalist groups.  In India Hindu fundamentalists burn Christian villages and kill the inhabitants. In Iran anyone that disagrees with the Islamic regime is a target of the Revolutionary Guard, in China dare disagree with the Communist party.  There are environmentalists that advocate killing off most of humanity to “save the planet” using the Vietnam war logic of “we had to destroy the village to save it.” I could go on naming example after example but that would simply be beating the dead horse so to speak and I would rather kill farting cows.

In the politics of American real moderates were pretty much driven from the Democratic Party and for the past 20 years or so the Republicans have been driving moderates from their ranks. Many of those that call themselves “moderate” still in political power simply pander and meander to stay in power giving the rest of us a bad name.  Now if you want to gauge just how much moderates are held in derision by these self proclaimed ideological purists just look around the blogosphere and you will see people on the right and the left use the same language and invective to castigate moderates. At least they can find something to agree about, maybe there is hope.   Let’s face it even Hitler and Stalin agreed about crushing Poland.

With all of the extremists about the world is lurching, no plunging into anarchy. As any student of history knows that anarchy is unsustainable because people in nations suffering under it will eventually give up and surrender freedom for the “security” that tyrants provide.  I don’t know about you but while tyrants provide order they also tend to repress the people that helped them into power, crush dissent at home and wage aggressive campaigns against their historic enemies who might have actually become friends in more civil times.  In a sense we have reverted to totalitarian tribalism in almost all areas of life where those of the political, ideological and religious extremes attempt to ensure that those views are dominant and all others crushed.

I remember once when I was attending seminary hearing a fundamentalist preacher remark that moderates that were recognizable by the tire tracks on their back and deserved to be run over. That was back in about 1990 or 1991.  As a moderate I was appalled because this preacher was fairly well known.  Now no moderate is safe.  In the United States true moderates as opposed to the pandering politicians than claim to be moderates are unwelcome in either of the major political party. In the religious world moderates are being driven from their churches or religious organizations because they do not adhere to the prevailing theological, social or political leanings of their particular religious faith.  Allegedly since moderates are not doctrinally ideologically pure they are not moderate at all but watered down versions of what they ideologues on the right and left view as their enemies.  In fact they are despised even more than their actual ideological or theological opponents.  I have seen atheists state that religious moderates are worse than fundamentalists and similar things said by religious fundamentalists regarding religious moderates. Even Hitler viewed moderates the same way these Jacobins and used such terms. It doesn’t matter what the issue is be it moral, social, political or dealing with other nations we now live in a world where alleged ideological or theological “purity” thumps everything and woe betide the person that raises his or her voice against the extremists. Mind you the ideological, political or theological purity that the radicals espouse is usually some bastardized form of the original because ideologues are as brazen liars in regard to truth as they come, except they claim to own the truth.

In fact such people cannot back down from their own propaganda because if they do they believe that they lose their corner on the truth. Adolf Hitler said in regard to this: As soon as by one’s own propaganda even a glimpse of right on the other side is admitted, the cause for doubting one’s own right is laid.

It used not to be this way in the United States.  Americans used to be appalled by extremists and our Founding Fathers feared extremists like the French Jacobins who conducted the reign of terror during the French Revolution. Moderation was considered a virtue and was the glue that held American society together during times of worldwide upheaval.  In the past we found common things to agree on even when we debated very divisive and explosive subjects.  We were the epitome of religious freedom of expression and tolerance and we found ways to appreciate the cultural contributions of immigrants from around the world.  Yes we had problems and still do but overall we did pretty well when we still valued one another.

Moderation meant that we respected the Constitution and the liberties that it promises to all citizens.  Moderation meant that the hate filled ideologies of Fascism, Nazism and Communism never found a home here, at least beyond that of limited enclaves of society.  We never had a Hitler or Stalin because we respected each other as Americans enough not to embrace such types of individuals and their hate driven ideologies.  Moderation meant that four Army Chaplains, two Protestants, a Catholic and a Jew gave away their life jackets to soldiers without on a doomed transport torpedoed by a U-Boat. Those chaplains after giving up their life jackets were seen embracing each other and praying as the ship went down.  Moderation meant that our politicians could go to the mat against each other on the campaign trail or in the halls of Congress but when all was said and done could still be friends and even grieve when an opponent passed away. As Thomas Jefferson said “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” Now we have elected leaders as well as political pundits of both major parties calling the other side the enemy and hurling the vilest of epithets at one another to include the wish that their opponents would die.

American moderation sets the ideal of the Constitution and rights of fellow citizens over any ideology or theology that would trample those rights from the left or the right of the political, social or religious spectrum.  American moderation believed in an ideal of consensus, the consensus of the governed and the government to build a more perfect Union.  Of course consensus does not mean perfection or ideological purity thus we evolved from a country that believed that blacks were only 3/5ths of a person and could be enslaved to a country that fought a war to end that practice and then fought another 100 or so years to ensure that African Americans had equal rights. We have had similar, although not nearly as egregious examples of discrimination that we have fought to eliminate and not just racial. While not perfect we have aimed to ensure equal rights for all, but there are people that would use their political or religious (including Atheists) that would attempt to impose their beliefs on others, so the fight goes on. For those that want perfection you are not going to see it on this earth no matter what extremist promises that it can happen. America was great because it was a nation whose exceptionalism was not found in political or economic power but in our very form of government which promoted individual liberty as well as the common good.  Our founders believed strongly in majority rule but not at the expense of the minority. As Jefferson said: “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

This worked because Americans made it work and resisted for the most part the temptation to abuse those liberties for the sake of one political party or religious sect’s gain.  Andrew Jackson said: “Americans are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission.”

That era has ended and thus real moderates need to stand up and become passionate for the ideals of individual liberty and the common good before those are savaged by extremists of every kind that promote their way as the only way. Moderates cannot be like the sham moderate politicians who sell their vote to the highest bidder while claiming to be non-partisan or moderate when in reality the only thing that they are concerned is maintaining their office and the power that goes with it. That is not moderation and our founders would spin in their graves at the thought of this. I would dare say that James Madison who was as great of a moderate and champion of liberty and the common good as any man that has ever lived would be appalled by what is going on today in the United States but also in the world.  Andrew Jackson saw the danger in his own day when he said: “I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.” I know that many if not most politicians are susceptible to this but when those that proclaim that they are “moderate” do it they bring even more shame to their office.

If moderates not only in the United States but around the world do not start passionately promoting this kind of moderation they will end up like the fundamentalist preacher said with “tire tracks down their backs,” but I think that they might have worse in their backs, perhaps knives or bullets.  If moderates do not stand up for individual rights and the common good and build real consensus that works for liberty we are doomed to political, social and religious fratricide and anarchy that will only end when one group of extremists wins and sets up a tyranny that oppresses all in the name of their ideology.

Look at us today we stopped dreaming and have given in to fear mongers of every imaginable persuasion. These fear mongers have no compunction in communicating that if things are not done their way that calamity will be the result and they use every form of media to communicate that to a populace in despair. They play on the fears that they create and gain support of people that are desperate. The result is that they are destroying the fabric of this nation every day.

Unfortunately that my dear readers is happening every day and it seems that no one has the wherewithal to stand up against it.  We live in an age where the world is in turmoil and “leaders” of all types actively seek to bring about the despair that increases their power over those that they govern. The world is going down the road that ends up in tyranny faster than the speed limit allows and the ones driving the bus are the are the radicals and extremists, the descendants of the Inquisition, the  Jacobins, Lenin, Stalin and Hitler, the perpetuators of genocide around the world and the Ayatollahs, Al Qaeda.  They hail from every country on the planet and are found among all religions including the Atheists, all political persuasions and economic point of view and mind you wherever you live on this big blue marble their desire is to gain and maintain power for themselves because they honestly believe that there is no other way but theirs.

True moderation is not just borrowing from the extremists and trying to find a “middle way” between them. That has been the trap of those who desire to be moderates for millennia. John Adams said: “In politics the middle way is none at all.” Moderates must not be looking for the middle way but be about forging a consensus built around truth and dare I say tolerance. Moderates must always seek the truth wherever it may be and not be afraid of those that chastise them for doing so simply because they do not fit one group or another’s ideological or doctrinal template. If moderates pursue such a life and maintain such an ethos they will be opposed by all extremist but have nothing to fear because truth is on their side.

However my friend’s true moderates are a dying breed in our land and in the world. I saw some analysis of voting patterns and exit polling from the last few elections and it appears from being some latent massive force that real moderates comprise only about 10-15% of the population.  I hope that those numbers are not true and only a passing phenomena.  Of course that is the result of several decades of bitter and acrimonious fighting that have so divided Americans that it is hard to imagine things going back to a better time.  The extremists have intentionally done everything that they can to rip apart the social, political and religious fabric of our nation just as extremists have done throughout history.  They do this because they know that such action serves to destroy consensus in order that they and their faction can gain absolute power.

If men and women of good will practiced the kind of moderation that I write about they would have nothing to fear.  In fact this kind of life promotes optimism. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.”

Americans used to dream and imagine a better world and were willing to work together to make it happen. The words of President John F. Kennedy still resonate in my heart “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Likewise when the rest of the world was falling to totalitarianism in the 1930s as a result of the Great Depression when fear and panic gripped much of the nations, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” and though many disagreed with his policies Republicans worked with him and a number served in his cabinet.

It is time that we returned to such an ethos. We live in an age where the world is in turmoil and “leaders” of all types actively seek to bring about the despair that increases their power over those that they govern.

Real moderates do stand for something and I for one am tired of those that decry moderates in favor of narrow self serving ideologies which promote the seeds anarchy, tyranny and oppression. It’s time to stand up. Andrew Jackson said: “Americans are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission.”

Padre Steve+

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December 4, 2010 · 01:58

Denny Crane and Padre Steve: Going over the top to Kill Farting Cows

Denny Crane

I think I need to put a picture of Denny Crane up anytime I go over the top and use hyperbole as a literary device.  It seems that a lot of people just don’t get it and take me far too seriously and I have to wonder if it’s the Mad Cow.  I’m sure I have it because

Anyone that knows me or reads this site on a regular basis knows that I will sometimes in pursuit of making a point I will go a little over the top.  I did this last week where killed a bunch of people’s farting cow by suggesting “whacking” Wiki-Leaks founder Julian Assange and his cohorts in anarchy.  I suggested using KGB and CIA and MI-16 type methods and really was way over the top. It was a rant patterned on William Shatner’s character from Boston Legal “Denny Crane.”  In fact I have used such methods in pissing off Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists, religious fundamentalists of various persuasions and others.  In this case I just had to ask “What Would Denny Crane Do?” since I know what Jesus would do based on any number of scriptural interpretations from “Loving grace filled and forgiving Jesus” to “Ass kicking Second Coming Jesus” so I had to look elsewhere. So just remember two words: Padre Steve.

Padre Steve

I think that over the top  hyperbole draws out all the people that have no life or sense of humor or irony and are so committed to his or her particular cause that they cannot bear criticism of their idols, especially when it is done in such a manner.  In fact I find such people to be quite tedious and predictable; they presume wrongly that simply being over the top means that I am like them, doing exactly what they do to those that they disagree with.  They see what they want to see and read their agenda into it.

In the case of the Wiki Leak defenders they presume that everything I say is completely serious and in the case of the offending article some was and much wasn’t especially the whacking part.  Now I do think that the Wiki Leaks people and their leader are terrorists because their goal is not truth but anarchy, and anarchy always breeds tyranny but I am not serious about having Assange and his colleagues in crime killed.  Now in reality there are probably at least a dozen despotic nations that would like to chop them into little itty bitty pieces but that won’t be the United States.  Despite our somewhat soiled white hat we are still the good guys giving our blood and treasure to support many ungrateful nations and we don’t owe Mr. Assange and his bunch anything.

Now as far as my detractors I don’t hide anything. Since I have as of this post 681 articles on this website it would behoove, my I like that uppity word, behoove them to actually read some other posts before passing judgment and calling me everything but a Romulan.  Failing that they can pound sand.

I am a passionate Moderate.  This means in addition to having lots of friends from diverse backgrounds that I can’t put in the same room without fear of bloodshed. I also attract an equally diverse number of detractors some that are quite nasty when they see me killing their farting cows.  You see moderates especially the non-Namby Pamby kinds are not appreciated by those who are absolutely convinced in their rightness and obsessed with whatever agenda they purport.  It’s so much easier for them to pick a side and let someone else tell them what to think and assume that those that kill their farting cows are evil.  I know that the correct term is “fatted calves” but farting cow’s just sounds sillier, after all cows are the leading greenhouse gas producer on the planet, but that is a subject for another post and I digress.

 

I’m sorry what some people call debate is nothing more than judgmental name calling with so little critical thought.  They read something and jump to a preconceived conclusion without doing any real research. In my case all they would have to do is look at the “About” page of this site and figure out that I don’t fit their mould.

It doesn’t matter if the are Julian Assange supporters, Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Japanese China War revisionists, angry religious fundamentalists of a variety religions and sects, Glenn Beck supporters, militant environmentalists and so many others they all have one thing in common.  They are all without exception ideologues that only see things their way and can’t handle anyone that confronts their worldview, or as I say kills their farting cows. When I read their stuff it is amazing to see the anger and vitriol expended by these guys. When I made my over the top comments about Assange and Wiki Leaks I expected this kind of reaction and was surprised that it didn’t happen sooner. With the exception of one named Brian all were rather snarky and two pretty uppity European supporters of Assange.  That’s okay I can handle some name calling as some of Neo Nazis have actually threatened me and called me a lot worse.

Maybe I need to put a picture of Denny Crane up when I decide to post one of these articles again and put the disclaimer up that it’s the “Mad Cow” saying it and not me.

What do ya think?

So until the next time, peace, and remember those two little words,

Padre Steve+

 

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December 3, 2010 · 00:18

Borientation: The Perils of Corporate, Government and Military Orientation

If you have worked in corporate America, the Federal Government and State Governments or the Military in the past 20 to 30 years you probably have gone through a program of orientation or indoctrination upon being hired or transferred by a corporation or government agency. Now if you are completely new to an organization such classes are important in understanding the corporate or agency mission, culture and priorities. These programs also stress things that the organization has determined to be essential in a new employee’s understanding of how the entity does business and standards of practice, personal conduct and other items that may be required by accrediting commissions or by law.

Such programs tend to last 2 days to a week and can be incredibly detailed or filled with myriads of small topics that tend to blend together before a day is over. This is what I refer to as “Borientation.” I have worked in the military and in other state or local government agencies for nearly 30 years.  Each time I have being hired by a new organization or transferred within the military I have gone through some form of Borientation process.  These types of classes have been around for years but with every passing day some new law, regulation or discovery that something that we have been doing for years is too unsafe, unethical or enjoyable to be allowed in the workplace or anywhere else the organization can sink its paws into. This aside Borientation is deemed essential and almost everyone requires it.

If you are new to an organization, like in never had a job in your life kind of new or been locked away in a cave for the past 20 years you will certainly receive a fire hose blast of information that will make your head spin like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. However after a while in a business, government or military culture the Borientation process becomes rather mind numbing.   It’s not that there is anything wrong with the information and many times nothing wrong with the presentation but it is rather that after 10 or more years in an organization Borientation becomes a painful experience because with the exception of a tweak here and there most subjects are pretty much the same. It’s like watching reruns of the most boring PBS and BBC shows or really bad sitcoms for the 100th time except they are presented in marathon format and presented in classrooms where the employees sit in uncomfortable chairs in glaring fluorescent light with poor acoustics.

Since I have over 30 years experience in such environments going back to my pre-military days I can pretty much summarize 80% of what is covered in these classes in about 5 minutes.  Heck if I was God I would let the old guys and gals that have been in the organization for years get the “Cliff Notes” version of orientation, just what has changed since the last time they did it or what was not part of previous orientations.

As for me I don’t do well in seminars or classes that go on hour after hours in the same place providing information that I have been provided in person and online for years and years and years, and dare I say…years.  I actually have a physical reaction in these classes because I do my best to stay awake and attentive in order to at least respect the good people doing the training.  Now I keep my laptop with me to take notes to help me stay awake and take note of things that have changed or are new that are important.  I also keep a couple of news sites and Facebook running in the background if even the note taking becomes too tedious.  But even doing this and fortified with major doses of caffeine I often feel my face and head going numb.  I am not kidding it is like one of those old Star Trek or other science fiction flicks where aliens attach themselves to people, on Star Trek TOS the guys in the red shirts on the away team. It is like the life is being sucked out of me. Now I don’t know about you but looking around the room and talking to other seasoned folks during breaks I am pretty sure that I am not alone.  Please know I am not against orientation but rather Borientation. I have had to teach my fair share of these courses and I try desperately to get just the right information out quickly and with some humor because I know that the people that I am victimizing probably have 20 other presenters who will not do this.

Thus I try to see the humor in everything during the classes and afterward sometimes finding perverse pleasure in the Dilbert comic strips.  At the same time I am forced to wonder with the continuous expansion of Borientation programs and re-boreintation programs due to more and more regulations from either the government or accreditation commissions that we have reached the culminating point where we actually begin to lose ground in trying to gain ground by overloading people with information without adequate time to digest it.

Part of what I fear about Borientation is hurting me if I flip my desk or chair if I fall asleep. This mind you is not an unfounded fear.  I remember back in seminary after lunch having my Philosophy of Religion professor do a lecture about philosophic and religious themes in artwork. To do this he showed us hundreds of slides on the old slide carousel, no Power Point back then.  Well lunch had settled in my belly and as the majority of my blood supply went to digest the hamburger that I had consumed I found myself struggling to maintain conciseness eventually losing the battle against the “Z Monster” flipping my desk in front of the professor who didn’t miss a beat and continued to the next slide and I hastily recovered, righted my desk and got back into it as my classmates, many awakened from their naps by the loud crashing noise laughed their assess off.

So until the next time,

Peace,

Padre Steve+

 

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December 2, 2010 · 01:11

Advent 2010: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Christmas Eve 2007 with Border Team and Bedouin family on Syrian Border

The Season of Advent and the celebration of the Incarnation of Jesus on Christmas and during the Christmas Octave is my favorite season of the Church year. I have always even as a child been mesmerized by the aspect of hope that is intrinsic to the celebration, the twofold emphasis on the time leading to the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary in the manger of Bethlehem and the personalities involved to the promise of the Second Coming which was considered the “Blessed Hope” by the early Church which believed that the event would occur during their time as has the Church in times ever since.

I think the most meaningful season of Advent and Christmas that I have known was my time in Iraq in 2007.  At the time I was travelling about the remote western regions of Al Anbar province with my trusty assistant RP2 Nelson Lebron.  We had been doing this kind of work at a steady pace travelling thousands of miles by air and ground to be with the Military Training Teams that were assigned to the 1st and 7th Iraqi Divisions and those of the Border Training Teams assigned to the 2nd Border Brigade as well as Army advisors assigned to the Iraqi Police and Marines working with the Iraqi Highway Patrol.  By the time we made our far west Christmas expedition which lasted almost two weeks.  The immediate days around Christmas were spent on the Syrian Border with the teams assigned to the 1st and 3rd Battalions, 3rd Brigade 7th Division and Border forces at COP South and COP North.

As we traveled the area with our teams, especially Captain Josh Chartier’s Military Training Team and Major Stan Horton’s Border team out of COP South I was taken in by the Bedouin camps that dotted the desert because in so many ways they lived a life so similar to the shepherds that received the angelic visitation recorded in the Gospel according to Saint Luke.  The Bedouin are nomads and travel where they can tend flocks or fields according to the season.  On December 23rd we traveled with Major Horton’s team visiting both the Bedouin in the area and the Iraqi Border Forces in a number of border forts along the Syrian border which at the time was a major conduit for money and arms being smuggled to Al Qaeda Iraq and indigenous Iraqi insurgents.  The Iraqi troops were most hospitable as were the Bedouin who hosted us in their tents or homes.  We delivered toys, candy and school supplies to the Bedouin kids and were treated to food and Ch’ai tea. Had it not been late and we had not had more sites to visit we would have taken the invitation of the head of one Bedouin family to have dinner with him.

That night we celebrated a Christmas Eve Eucharist a day early for the teams at COP South.  Since we were the only Religious Ministry team that spent any real time with the isolated teams like these it was a special occasion for all, one man in particular, one of the Iraqi interpreters, a Christian who had not been able to attend a Mass of any kind for over two years.  The next day we would travel 50 miles of often very rough roads and trails to the even more isolated COP North where we did the same for the members of those teams and had a wonderful Christmas day and eve with these Marines.

That was the most meaningful Advent and Christmas season I had ever seen. It was a season without all the bells and whistles, without all the commercialism and distractions to take away from the simplicity of the message that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Galatians 4:4-5) the simple message of redemption and the grace and mercy of God that has been shown to all people and is the heart of the season.

After my return from Iraq I experienced a major spiritual and emotional collapse related to PTSD which changed me in fairly significant ways.  For nearly two years I struggled desperately to recover faith that was lost after I returned home.  I was overwhelmed with the turbulence of the country, a disastrous series of splits in my old church, feeling abandoned by the Navy and dealing with the long, slow and painful demise of my father due to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. I am told that I am not alone in what I went through.  I begin this Advent having made the transition from my old church to the Apostolic Catholic Orthodox Church which is a North American expression of the Old Catholic faith and I am quite at peace with that move.

After nearly two years faith returned during Advent due to an event in the Medical Center that I worked in where I provided the last rights to an Anglican patient as he drew his last breathe in our ER. I call it my “Christmas miracle.”   https://padresteve.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/padre-steve%E2%80%99s-christmas-miracle/

It was ironic and fitting that my spiritual rebirth came in the midst administering the Sacrament of the Anointing of the sick.  Faith has returned and unlike last year when in the midst of my personal gloom and despair I rediscovered faith and the wonder of the season I look forward to the fullness of the season.

I don’t know how much I will write about the season this year, certainly some articles but I do look forward to the continued rediscovery of faith in the Incarnate God.

Peace

Padre Steve+

 

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December 1, 2010 · 00:00

The Most Perilous of Assignments: Six Members of U.S. Border Training Team Killed By Afghan Border Policeman

Me on Right with Border Team Members talking with a Bedouin on the Iraqi-Syrian Border

The big battalions get the press but in counter-insurgency operations in a very unstable environment such as Afghanistan the most perilous duty is often done by advisors.  Having served with our Marine and Army in Iraq in 2007 and 2008 I can say without equivocation that the advisors that serve with the Border and Port of Entry Police, as well as Police Training Team personnel serve in some of the most perilous and exposed locations imaginable usually far from quick support of combat units.

With an Iraqi Border Team

The Border teams typically cover large sectors and are composed of 15-20 personnel with a Captain or Major in command of the team and a number of junior officers or Staff Non-Commissioned Officers and junior enlisted personnel sometimes augmented by U.S. Border Patrol and Customs agents or contractors retired from those organizations.  They are not heavily armed and usually are based with the indigenous security forces.  Travelling in HUMMVS they visit and work with the indigenous Border Police and Port of Entry Police along long borders constantly exposed to possible ambush by insurgents or being attacked by the very personnel that they train and support.  This happens more frequently than we would want to see.

A Port of Entry Team after finishing an assistance visit at the Al Waleed Port of Entry. That evening the team went out and intercepted arms, drugs and money bound for Iraqi insurgents

The most recent case of this happened Monday the 29th when an Afghani Border Patrol Officer opened fire during a training mission Monday in the Pachir Wagam district of Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan. The gunman was also killed during the incident according to NATO and Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said the gunman was indeed a border police officer, and not an insurgent wearing a uniform. The Taliban claimed that the man was a Taliban member who had joined the Border Police to “kill foreign soldiers.” This has been a recurrent theme in the world of Afghanistan’s security forces, more so Police and Border forces than Army but a danger that grows as Afghanistan and NATO seek to quickly bolster the numbers of troops in the Afghan security forces.

Leaving a Bedouin Camp

The attack was the latest in a series against advisors by their Afghani charges. In July, a rogue Afghan soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade on NATO troops, killing three British soldiers and wounding four others.  In November 2009, an Afghan policeman killed five British soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand. A month earlier, an Afghan policeman on patrol with U.S. soldiers fired on the Americans, killing two.

These Marines and Soldiers do not deploy for the most part with their own units, they deploy with their team and much of the time return to another assignment after their deployments separate from their comrades with whom they served in harm’s way.

I have been there in Iraq and involved with some very tense situations at Waleed as well as the border. The men that serve on these teams in Afghanistan are always on my mind and in my prayers.

On Monday the United States lost six brave soldiers on Afghanistan’s eastern border.  Please pray for the surviving members of this team which has been decimated by the attack as well as the families of the fallen.

Peace

Padre Steve+

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November 29, 2010 · 23:56

So God gets the Blame for Dropped Passes….the Prosperity Gospel strikes again

Padre Steve’s Disclaimer: This post deals in a humorous manner with the Tweet of Buffalo Bills Wide Receiver Steve Johnson.  His tweet is a foil for a bigger point about the “prosperity Gospel” and the distorted view of God of those that teach it and their unfortunate victims.  I am sure that he is a sincere young man who was very emotional after dropping a pass. I wish him well and he will let up on himself and God. Peace, Padre Steve+

Well, well isn’t this special. Buffalo Bills receiver Steve Johnson dropped an easy pass that would have won the game for the Bills and stunned the Pittsburgh Steelers. After the game at the Bills press conference the young man was up in front of the reporters taking responsibility like a man all but offering to commit Hari-Kari to atone for his sin against his team which cost them the game.  I saw the interview on ESPN and heard it on the radio and I thought that while I liked the fact that he owned up to blowing the play that it sounded a bit overdone and even a bit histrionic if you asked me.  Lucky for Johnson and quickly recovered his composure and realized that God had thrown him under the bus. I mean he had obviously done all the right things to make God happy except to play for the Cowboys who in addition to claiming to be America’s team have also conjured up the image of being the Deity’s team but I digress.  You have to look at what the young man said in the context of his Twitter account:

The “I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!!” is a little strong if you ask me. How anyone finds time to praise God 24/7 is beyond me and I would assume that he means “a lot” and not a literal 24/7 Praise-a-Thon.  I’m sure that since he used so many exclamation points that he lost the chance to remind God about his tithes, vows and other offerings in the tweet, alas the limitations of Twitter.

You see it is obvious to me that God had to let him down. He’s playing for a bad team getting whacked around by opposing defenses and all the while praising God and giving until it hurts. Let’s face it anyone knows if you take the time to watch or listen to much of what passes of “Christian teaching” on almost any “Christian” television network you know that the young man speaks the truth. He praised, prayed and gave and what did he get for his trouble? I’ll tell you what he got, he got the shaft and he should sue.  He should go for God’s big pockets.

Look at this, I mean if you listened to some of the guys that really are tight with God you would do the same thing as Johnson, and if you do listen to God’s anointed you would probably do the same thing in Johnson’s situation.  I mean these guys are called anointed, apostles, prophets and even “God’s Generals” so they can be trusted right?

Prosperity Doctrine Poster Child: Robert Tilton

I mean I have seen some of them actually getting messages from God on camera with the whole constipated look while they are struggling to hear exactly what God is saying because the Old Testament talks about the severe penalties for getting God wrong.  With that kind of accuracy and authority it is no wonder that people fall all over themselves to give to these ministers and their ministries.  Seriously the basic message of the “health, wealth and success” prosperity preacher in its crudest form is that if you give you get.  If you do things like praise God, something that certainly a good thing for us to do and give of your time talent and treasure, especially the treasure part that God is obligated to give back to you. The Prosperity preachers love to quote Scripture but only in regard to people giving to them and their ministries, they just love Luke 6:38 “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full–pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” Can I get an Amen? No of course if you look at all the troublesome verses around this gem the context is not how it is presented by the prosperity crowd.  The passage is Jesus giving a lecture about the Christian life to include humility, forgiveness, judgment and even hypocrisy and the giving is just one part of it and certainly if you look a the broader context of Scripture regarding material prosperity generally talks about it as an encumbrance that often leads to sin, excess and even presumption on God denying the very way of the Cross.

So you get my drift, what Steve Johnson did is no different than the person that gets upset at God when they didn’t get a promotion, or get something that they really wanted and even prayed for, and all of us including yours truly have had meltdowns where we have words with God.  However the problems arise when we presume that because we do something good that God is obligated to return the favor like God is some sort of cosmic ATM. With the proliferation of the prosperity teaching on television, in mega-churches and on the internet we have seen a cultural shift in how the Christian faith is presented in often very narcissistic ways.

So my best to Steve Johnson and I do hope and pray that a more mature Christian in his circle of trust will pull him aside and help him. These things happen and once you “tweet” or hit the send button on your e-mail or text you can’t take it back.  Live and learn, it’s hard to be a rookie on Twitter, maybe the NFL should keep rookies off of Twitter until they can learn not to look stupid using it.

Have fun and God bless,

Peace

Padre Steve+

 

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November 28, 2010 · 22:09

Whack them Now: Padre Steve takes Aim at Wiki Leaks

The Enemy: Julian Assange of Wiki Leaks

Disclaimer added December 4th: Reader beware. Due to comments from people that are too dense to figure out that some parts of this essay are over the top hyperbole in the style of Denny Crane I have to ask readers to look beyond the “whacking” and not take all of this seriously. Despite the “whacking” comments I don’t want this accused rapist and scumbag killed, I want him to have to suffer the ignominy of our court system instead, get sent to prison and try to run Wiki Leaks off a prison library desktop that he has to share with a convicted rapist named Bruno. So don’t take all of this seriously and if this is your first visit to this sight take a look around I’m actually quite the civil libertarian and many consider me a pinko commie liberal and even worse because of some of those views.  Just remember 4 words: Denny Crane, Padre Steve

Note on Comments: Due to the increasingly abusive invective by Mr. Assange’s supporters in their comments on the comments page I have turned off comments for this article. This is the first time in the nearly 2 years in the history of Padre Steve’s World that I have had to do this. Over the weekend I received a number of comments that I chose not to print due to their shrill and hateful tone as well as lack of any clarity of thought.  I have wearied of Mr. Assange’s and his cyber-criminal thugs.  I have not had to deal with such abuse since being threatened with bodily harm by Appalachian Neo-Nazis.

If ever there was a time that my civil libertarian self duels with my Machiavellian self on days like today. Today I have to believe that my Machiavellian side is winning.  I am fed up with these Wiki Leaks people and dare I say the traitors who along with them that have leaked sensitive documents and posted them on the internet for all to see.  In fact I’ll say exactly what I think of this bunch.  They are evil and malignant.  There is nothing good that can come of what they are doing except to make the world an even more dangerous place and endanger American lives and those of our Allies and friends.

I was reading some the excerpts in the New York Times this afternoon and I was thinking what the hell? There hasn’t been a nation in history that hasn’t practiced what we are being treated as criminals for doing including those that will cry foul and shed crocodile tears about what has been published or will be in the coming days.

I know that some will disagree with me on this and even accuse me of hypocrisy after all of my recent posts about the threats that I see to liberty and freedom due to the Patriot Act and actions of certain government agencies in the wake of 9-11 and they can go right ahead because I don’t care because I’m not one of those Reverend Lovejoy namby pamby jackwagon preachers that recoil in horror when dealing with the real world.

You might ask why I say this, because I have a brain in my head and while I am a passionate moderate I am passionately in love with this country and threats to it from without and within. However there is a qualitative diplomatic and ethical difference between the threats that we face at home to civil liberties and free speech as opposed to an extra-governmental rogue organization such as Wiki leaks which publishes and uses illegally obtained documents to undermine the United States while we are at war.

Part of the problem especially in regard to the diplomatic cables is that Wiki Leaks is using them against the United States without any regard to consequences.  You see every nation that engages in “diplomacy” is engaged in the same behaviors as have been revealed by Wiki leaks but since the Wiki Leaks bunch has repeatedly singled out the United States as opposed to other nations it can only be surmised that they are a non-governmental and non nation state enemy much like Al Qaeda.  In fact Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange is no better than Osama Bin Laden and though he doesn’t brandish an AK-47 and orchestrate physical terrorist attacks is more dangerous to peace and stability than any turban topped terrorist operating out of a cave in Waziristan.

It is my opinion that they and their employees should be considered enemy combatants and subjected to not only prosecution but good old fashioned CIA, MI-6, STASI or KBG style elimination.  After all name just one other country that Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange has taken the trouble to go after…I’m waiting…but why wait because there aren’t any, Assange loathes the United States and has been tirelessly working to take us down for years.

Assange and his minions hide in the shadows of cyberspace assisted by willing dupes and traitors…yes that is what they are including the Army Specialist that is the source of many of these documents.  Be assured that there is a reason that they don’t mess with the Russians, very simply Putin would have them hunted don and killed one by one.  This may sound un-Christian, un-Democratic or even un-American but if a few Wiki leaks staff were to get whacked their operation would cease because they are cowards, in fact I’d start at the top with Assange because if we whacked his minions he would just find others to die for his cause.  In fact if the U.S. and its Allies don’t arrest and prosecute or failing that whack Assange we will continue to see him and others do this to us and reap terrible consequences of their actions.

I’m sorry but in spite of our flaws, mistakes and sometimes imperialist overreach the United States is the Good Guys.  When people need help who do they call? The Chicoms? Russia? The EU? Give me a break, when people need help they call for Uncle Sam. Despite all that the United States stands accused of by those that loath us, we still willingly put our blood and treasure on the line for others that often spit in our face while taking our money and accepting our servicemen’s blood as an offering to keep them safe.  Sorry anti-American haters, we are still the good guys and slimy people like Julian Assange make me sick, I mean the Swedes have a warrant out for his arrest, I think the charge is rape. What an arrogant low life he even ripped off the “Wiki” label and has nothing to do with Wikipedia or sites associated with it.  This may seem out of character for little old peace loving I want to get along with everything me full of forgiveness and grace, but this guy is evil and ugly to boot, he probably couldn’t get a date with a good looking American girl and is still pissed at us.

As far is hypocrisy goes there isn’t a single nation including the Vatican State whose diplomats do not make the same assessments of their friends and foes leaders and policies that have been revealed in the Wiki leaks documents.  I’m sorry but the Machiavellian world of diplomacy and intelligence is not a Christian and it is not a Sunday school class or Rotary Club meeting. No it is nations working with and against each other based on what they believe to be in their nations’ best interest even if at times it is distasteful. That is the real world and Julian Assange and his organization is an active combatant against U.S. national interests and security and should be treated as such.

The actions of Assange and his minions will damage U.S. diplomacy and our national interests for years. Allies and friends that might have helped us before because they felt secure in doing so will not because they will not feel safe in doing so. This will give terrorists and others free reign to attack because our allies will be hesitant to share what they know for fear that their security and interests will be compromised when what they share in confidence is revealed to their enemies.

Wow that was a mouthful.  While I pray that the diplomatic and human damage from this will be minimized I also hope that someone starts playing hardball with these enemies.  We are at war and Julian Assange and Wiki Leaks is now a declared enemy.  It is time to treat him and his team as the enemy and whack them wherever they are.

Peace or whatever,

Padre Steve+

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November 28, 2010 · 01:51

High Stakes Game of Chicken on the Korean Peninsula

The USS George Washington and her Battle Group arrived in the Yellow Sea

The game is on.  The U.S. Navy and South Korean Navy task forces are moving into position, the South Korean Military is on its highest peacetime alert and the North Korean military is moving fresh batteries of Surface to Air and Ground to Sea missiles into place.  While diplomats from the United States, China and Japan seek to avert a war the North Koreans continue to stoke the fire with fresh artillery fire near Yeonpyeong Island which it brutally attacked earlier in the week.  In the South popular protests are rising against any soft treatment of the North and the commanding General of the South Korean Marine Corps Maj. Gen. You Nak-jun attended the funeral for the two Korean Marines killed in the attack said “Our marine corps … will carry out a hundred- or thousand-fold,” retaliation against North Korea for launching Tuesday’s attack, You said, without elaborating as to what he meant by the comment. The Defense Minister Kim Tae-young resigned after the attack on Yeonpyeong Island, and veterans of the South Korean military protested Saturday in Seoul, stating they were angry that the South Korean government had not done enough to respond to the North’s shelling.

Silkworm Missile being fueled

North Korean rhetoric continues to rise in its belligerence and a North Korean State Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the state agency in charge of relations with the South said in a statement carried by the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA):  “Gone are the days when verbal warnings are served only, escalated confrontation would lead to a war,” and that the North Korean military was “getting fully ready to give a shower of dreadful fire and blow up the bulwark of the enemies if they dare to encroach again upon the North’s territory.”  The KCNA also said “If the U.S. brings its carrier to the West Sea of Korea at last, no one can predict the ensuing consequences.”

South Korean Aegis DDG

The defense drills begun today by United States and South Korean forces in the Yellow Sea involve the carrier USS George Washington as well as the Aegis Cruisers USS Cowpens and USS Shiloh and the Guided Missile Destroyer USS Stethem. South Korea has deployed one of its Aegis destroyers and two destroyers as well as frigates and anti-submarine aircraft.

North Korean forces have brought in SA-2 SAM batteries which an anonymous South Korea government source says “appear to be targeting our fighter jets that fly near the Northern Limit Line.” The source also reported that the South Korean “military is preparing for the possibility of further provocations as the North Korean military has deployed firepower near the NLL and is preparing to fire.”

Additionally the North is mounting C-201 Silkworm Ground to Sea anti-ship missiles on launchers along the coast in the disputed area which also hosts bases for submarines like the one that is believed to have sunk the South Korean Corvette Cheonan in March as well as fast attack craft mounting Styx anti-ship missiles.  If they were to attack the task force the North would likely attempt a saturation attack using ground and sea based SSMs against the Allied ships, however the task force includes at least 4 Aegis equipped guided missile cruisers and destroyers is well equipped to meet that threat.

The situation is tense and no one really knows exactly how it will develop is yet unseen but it will not take much to provoke a conflict that could engulf the region.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

 

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November 27, 2010 · 20:07

Saturday Morning Cartoons: Padre Steve Remembers the Best

I decided to lighten up a bit today since I have been rather serious as of late with all my posts about the loss of liberty and the situation on the Korean peninsula. Since these are all likely to get worse and maybe even a lot worse I decided that I needed a break and with more bad news just waiting for its chance at getting into the 24 hour bad news cycle to drive up the anxiety level and make people unhappy I had to find a diversion. I think that for a few minutes that we should be entitled to a break from wars and rumors of wars, economic, financial, ecological, and biological catastrophe looming not to mention whatever Lady Gaga, Charlie Sheen, Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi and Paris Hilton are up to. My goodness we all deserve a break before Armageddon don’t we?

I find that I miss the old Saturday morning cartoons, not all the new Japanimation and the crap that is produced just to get people to buy their kids toys. I’m sorry but most of what is produced today caters to the baser instincts of humanity and is better left for Midnight Swim and left off our Saturday mornings.  Maybe this makes me a curmudgeonly Elmer Fuddyduddy but I don’t care anymore because if I want to watch debased sex and horror I can turn to any cable movie channel late at night and have my fill of it. In fact I remember the morality police condemning the “violence” of Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner back in the 1970s but I’m sorry but that as absurd. Now it is harder than hell to find a decent cartoon, and that includes the animation not just what is portrayed.  Heck back then e even had something educational, the Schoolhouse Rock series that my goodness actually was educational and entertaining.  Speaking of educational here are some Schoolhouse Rock episodes.

Conjunction Junction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkO87mkgcNo

How a Bill becomes Law: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ&feature=related

The Electoral College: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaPlIcQw_dg&feature=related

So this morning I dug up out of my DVD stash a DVD of Bugs Bunny and his Looney tunes friends and when I was done with that a DVD of Pink Panther cartoons. I mean it was so much fun to watch real classic cartoons again and commercial free to make it even better.  Here are some great Bugs Bunny and Friends, Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies episodes.

Bugs Bunny Opera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPCUDAF0bVY

The Rabbit of Seville: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55G7T8VdWEs&feature=fvsr

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcR6Uw2UL7c

Daffy Duck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD2rI4rTzRw

Sylvester and Tweety: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkBAcN4kh4

Foghorn Leghorn and Henry the Chickenhawk:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwo8amOULkw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdpfhAuAmjI&feature=related

Bugs Bunny and Melvin the Martian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMuWOLVAzYY

Yosemite Sam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJf4levMDTI

Of course there are Dastardly and Muttley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJf4levMDTI and so many more. When I was a kid I loved to watch Bugs Bunny and Road Runner and all of their Loony Tunes friends, Sylvester the cat, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Peppy Le Pugh, Tweety, Granny, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzalez, Wile E. Coyote, Melvin the Martian and the rest of the gang.  I also loved Dastardly and Muttley and the Wacky Races and their Flying Machine, Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, the Jetsons and of course the aforementioned Pink Panther cartoons.  I’m sorry but the new crap is just that….crap and I miss to old stuff. I was looking for anything decent on TV last Saturday morning and was sorely disappointed as I clicked on channel after channel to see nothing but crap. I mean seriously robots that look demon possessed demons in tights, repossessed demon mutant teddy bears and animated ads for mass produced lead paint coated slut dolls made in China that fill toy stores and discount houses…let me stop to catch my breath…. Audible sigh….deep breath….all better now. Thank you.

Anyway so you get the idea I don’t think much of what is shown on Saturday morning nowadays and I wish that the morons that do the programming would at least have the decency to at least show some of the oldies. But since they won’t I just went to the web to get some links to some great entertainment. Try as I might I have yet to find much in the way of entertainment or educational value in any of this, but there was entertainment as well as real artistry in many of the cartoons and some good educational value in stuff like Schoolhouse Rock…heck most of what I know about opera came out of Bugs Bunny, the Barber of Seville and the Flight of the Valkyrie just to name two.  In fact I have never seen a little kid not laugh at the old stuff or be seriously harmed by watching it.  Maybe we should go back to the classics and ditch the crap.  Sure it won’t stop terrorists, wars or economic meltdown but at least we can laugh.

Peace

Padre Steve+

 

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November 25, 2010 · 12:17

Thanksgiving 2010: Thanks for the Memories and Things to be Thankful for this Year

It is better to give than to receive so it is time to give thanks for all the blessings that I have received since last Thanksgiving, but before I do I have to philosophize just a bit.

You see while I am thankful for much I generally find that Thanksgiving Day leaves much to be desired. Not that I am adverse to giving thanks or being extremely grateful but I am really more of a Christmas kind of guy. I’m not a big fan of getting up early to watch parades I’d rather watch the big balloons that got away on the news or on You Tube.

Let’s Get Snoopy to keep watch on potential terrorists, he has the binoculars so why not?

I think it would be more fun since we are becoming a police state if we mounted surveillance cameras and Hellfire missiles on them and used Snoopy, Garfield and others to spy on our citizens and blast any potential terrorists. If we have to have a police state I think it should it might as well be fun.  Who cares about parades anyway when you can watch what are historically some of the worst professional football games of the season as we watch the Detroit Lions find yet another way to lose on Thanksgiving and the Dallas Cowboys play a sacrificial lamb just for the fun of it. Now it may be different this year because the Lions are winning some games and playing well for them, while the Cowboys after a horrible start to the season seem to have turned things around.  I have no idea how we ended up with those teams year after year on Thanksgiving but I guess for Cowboys and all 964 Lions fans it works well, not that there is anything wrong with that.

I like the times to get together and spent time with family and friends, though due to my military career it has been years since we have spent Thanksgiving with family.  There is something about a 3000 mile buffer zone that makes it hard to get to and from the West Coast.   Of course as many can attest family get-togethers were not always the most enjoyable occasions when after the mandatory grace was said and tempers flared certain elderly relatives rather tormented gastronomical delicacies appeared on the table to cause one to wonder how they ever lived so long.

But food is the centerpiece of any true Thanksgiving celebration is the Thanksgiving Dinner. Of course I have many less than fond memories associated with of the rather insidious entrees prepared by the aforementioned elderly relatives which color my views of Thanksgiving to the current day.

There was the ever present green bean salad frequently bathed in something that might have been mayonnaise or possibly Cool Whip.  Now the fact that it was spruced up a bit with Chernobyl Onions, boiled potatoes, slimy mushrooms or other additives that remain a mystery to this day didn’t make it any better, just more challenging to wonder who came up with the idea.

Another positively scary dish was the puke green Jell-O salad which I think was made of Jell-O, mayonnaise and would have canned pineapple or dry cat food thrown in just to make sure that there was something real in this unearthly concoction.  Of course one cannot forget the times that the Turkey didn’t turn out quite right being underdone or charred beyond belief.  The stuffing stuck to everything like a chunky primordial slime or mashed potatoes resembled Potato soup or were so chewy and dry that you had to add more of the 40 weight Pennzoil gravy just to get them down.  My late mother in law had a delicacy that we called Brown and Burn rolls and my late paternal Grandmother had something white, which might have been meat in white gravy but has never been identified despite the best efforts FBI forensics investigators.

Of course in many household the children serve a purpose akin to that of a Persian Emperor’s official food taster.  I can remember as a kid being forced to eat something from almost every dish on the table just to make sure that Aunt Betty Lou Who or Grammy Sue Who[i] would not be offended if no one ate what they prepared.

Now not everything was bad as most of the time no matter how badly everything else turned out the pie was good, well at least in most cases.  My favorite pie at Thanksgiving was one that a trio of my Great Aunts made. Now these aunts were really great, when we went to their house on 18th Street in Huntington West Virginia for Thanksgiving or any other occasion they laid out a wonderful spread, but the most delightful dish was their Graham Cracker Pie. This is a pie, well that was a dumb statement, of course it was pie, but this pie had a home-made graham cracker and cinnamon crust, was filled with vanilla pudding, the good stuff, not instant and a meringue top which was encrusted with the graham cracker cinnamon mix.  Thankfully Judy had Aunt Viva, the last of the trio write down the recipe before she passed away and she has made it on occasion keeping this one family delicacy alive.  In addition to the Graham Cracker Pie there was Banana Crème and Chocolate Crème, Pumpkin and Sweet Potato, Apple, Cherry as well as other pies that would make an occasional appearance.

As I noted we have been away from family most of our married life and we have frequently spent Thanksgiving with friends, many times single people that we hosted other times people that would host us and those were always enjoyable. I have also spent a good number of Thanksgivings deployed and those have been special, especially 2007 when I was in Iraq and after a mission to the Syrian border when I helped to serve the troops at the dining facility.  Those times make you very thankful and not in a joking sense about all the blessings that we have in the United States.

As most readers know I am just a tad irreverent at times and nowhere was this more in evidence than Thanksgiving 1991 when we hosted a number of our single friends from work or church since none of us were very well off, I was still in seminary and money was not a great commodity. Judy asked me since I was going into ministry if I would pray for the food. That was not a good way to phrase the question because at times, well most of the time tend to find the dark humor in anything and this time was no exception. I think the prayer went something like this. I’m sure that it was longer than this because there are times when I get on a roll and can’t shut up, but this captures the spirit of that “prayer for the food.”

Dear Lord we ask you to be with the soul of this turkey and all of his or her relatives this Thanksgiving. Relieve them of their pain and comfort the survivors in Jesus name Amen.

As I prayed I noticed Judy glaring daggers at me as our guests looked on in dismay.  To this day she always keeps a foot ready to kick me just in case I try something like this again. Likewise she is always careful in how she phrases what she wants me to pray for lest I become too literal in my prayer.

This year I have much to be thankful for. The first is that I have had my faith return after almost two years where I felt abandoned by God and was for all practical purposes an agnostic following my return from Iraq and struggle with PTSD, depression and anxiety after my deployment. Faith has returned, different but much better than what I had been through. Believe me a crisis in faith bordering on despair is not a good place to be and I don’t want to go there again. In addition to the return of faith I am thankful for my family, especially Judy and our little dog Molly. The year was tough because my father died in June after a seven year bout with Alzheimer’s disease, but while in California I was able to spend good time with my brother and his family as well as my mother. I am sincerely thankful for my friends all over the world and my colleagues at work.  I’m thankful for all those that stood by me in my struggles over the past several years, good friends and colleagues are hard to come by but I have been blessed to have them. I’m thankful that I was selected for promotion to Commander which means that I continue to have the opportunity to serve the people that I love in the Sea Services.  Likewise I am thankful that I was selected to be Command Chaplain at Naval Hospital Camp LeJeune and for the wonderful staff that I am honored to serve alongside as we care for the Marines and Sailors wounded in body, soul or spirit in the current war. I am also grateful for my friends at Gordon Biersch Virginia Beach, the Church of Baseball Harbor Park Parish, St. James Episcopal Church, my old friends in the Charismatic Episcopal Church and my new friends Bishop Diana Dale and the clergy of the Apostolic Catholic Orthodox Church.

I am also incredibly thankful for the fact that the San Francisco Giants win their first World Series since they moved to the West Coast in 1958. Go Giants!

Today we will meet a friend at a restaurant as Judy sprained her ankle, big toe on the opposite foot and wrist in a fall at church last weekend and is still not 100%.  That’s too bad because she is unable to make pie this year. Perhaps I will watch a football game but more likely we will enjoy some movies or Boston Legal episodes as we recover from our dinner out.

I do pray that you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving full of life, love, family and friendship, and remember to pray for those in harm’s way and if possible do something for one of the least, the lost and the lonely today.

Oh, and by the way be careful of that addictive 40 weight Pennzoil gravy; it has a tendency to turn the bloodstream to sludge.

Peace and Happy Thanksgiving!

Padre Steve+

[i] The names have been changed to protect their memory

 

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