DEAR SENATOR WARNER - HOW COULD YOU?

Dear Senator Warner,

What have you done? You do not in any way understand what it cost us citizens, how we sacrificed, to reach a 55-45 Senate majority. Don’t you understand that it was mostly to regain the courts? It was our high-cost victory that you just gave away, not yours.

All the sacrifice in this deal came from the Republicans. All the gain went to the Democrats. And you expect this to retrieve the comity of the Senate? Do you not yet understand the depth of the loss of patriotism and of scruples of the “new” democratic party? Comity will not return. Arranging that is beyond the power of the republicans.

Do you refuse to see that you have not saved the filibuster? It is gone. The democrats will destroy it at their very first, slimmest majority in the Senate. Clearly, they understand what is at stake with the courts far better than Senate republicans do.

It is the right of the majority to shape the courts. We finally, finally have earned the opportunity to do that. You have voluntarily thrown some part of that – we do not yet know how much – into the trash bin.

My concern, from out here, is that you have damaged our ability to hold our base so much with this action that this majority will not last the next election.

The courts concern us so much because of the loss of our children, because of the cultural disaster we are leaving them. While we have made some cultural gains, mostly due to 9/11, the losses are still growing faster than the gains. The culture may well be beyond retrieving. With the courts on the harmful side of the cultural divide, the cultural losses continue to accelerate. How is it that you do not see the size of the change that will be needed in the courts to turn them around? How could you throw away any gains at all that we might have in the courts?

From McCain, who betrays his party and his president on alternate days, whose bilious McCain-Feingold revenge on Bush moved control of elections from the parties to the likes of Soros, I expected no better. But I still can hardly believe it was you, respected more than almost any Senator, whose prestigious presence made all this feasible. How could you do that to us?

Europe has already lost its cultural wars and is dying as a result. It may not last – as Europe – more than 25 years or so. Is that to be our fate too? The cultural war is the ultimate survival war, the one lost when countries commit suicide. How can we win ours unless we gain the courts? Look around you! The world you tried to protect no longer exists. What you gave away to “save” it cost far too much.

Reconsider, Sir, I urge you, whether you should not do whatever you can to reverse our loss.

Sincerely,
(Rev.) Gerry Phelps

TONY BLAIR WINS, BUT WITH 'BLOODIED NOSE'

It would seem that Tony Blair is still England' s Prime Minister, but with a greatly reduced majority. That fewer voted for him probably reflects many Brits' unhappiness with his support for the war in Iraq. That he was not thrown out of office entirely shows that it was not as bad as it might have been. As UK papers are putting it, they kept him but showed their displeasure by giving him a "bloodied nose." (Which seems to have a special meaning in UK elections.)

In an election that was so difficult for him, it was especially touching that Jalal Talabani, Iraq's new President, sent a remarkable letter of support to Blair a few days before the election, early enough for Blair to use it in the election if he chose. It is a marvelous and very moving letter, one that deserves to be remembered by history.

He speaks of how the Brits, once the conquerers of Iraq, have become its liberators. A Kurd himself, he speaks of how the Brits helped make the Kurdish part of Iraq in the north of Iraq a protected area ever since the First Gulf War in 1991. (He does not speak of the U.S., but after all, this is a letter of thanks specifically to the Brits, and to Tony Blair, most pointedly at a time when it might help him stay in office. We can afford to forgive him for that, since he is trying to keep our closest ally from being punished for helping us.)

He also speaks of how the real war began long before we started our war. That with Saddam, it was war every day, against the Iraqis themselves. He speaks of how grateful they are to have been set free. And he asks patience as Iraqis try to rebuild Iraq after Saddam spent 30 years destroying it.

But you can read the letter for yourself, here. It will help start your day off right.

THEY ACCEPT JESUS BUT REJECT 'CHRISTIANITY'

Frank Decker writes about new movements to Christ among Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu populations. (No link is available to his article in Good News Magazine, May/June 2005, p. 43.) In these fast-growing movements, people accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, but deny being ‘Christians.’ That is because in their countries the word “Christian” does not mean what it does to us.

A Thai convert explains that “Christian” means “foreigner” in his country, and that he could not be Thai if he were Christian. He tells of converting a Buddhist monk to Christ on a train. The monk then invited him to speak about Jesus to his entire monastery.

A Muslim young woman who accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior identifies herself as Muslim, not Christian. This is so she can talk to others about Jesus. If she calls herself Christian, they will not listen to her. Many other Muslims do the same. So do many Hindus.

We all know that it is not religion that saves us, but Christ. They understand this too. And so they are rejecting the Western-seeming religion of Christianity, but accepting Jesus in large numbers. Decker quotes a Muslim convert counseling fellow believers as saying, “If someone holds a gun to your head and asks, ‘Are you a Christian?’ you can say ‘no.’ But if they ask ‘Is Jesus your Lord and Savior?’ you must say ‘yes.’ If you are going to die, die for the right reason.’”

It is easy, sometimes, to be afraid that the Kingdom of God is not making much earthly progress. But news like this shows that the Holy Spirit never quits. We can be of good courage. God is on the march.

(If you do not read the UMC-related Good News Magazine, you have no idea what you are missing. Take a peek at www.goodnewsmag.org.)

FIREFIGHTER ROUSES FROM 10-YEAR COMA

GOOD THING THEY HADN’T REMOVED HIS FEEDING TUBE!

Fighting a fire ten years ago, Donald Herbert had a falling roof bury him. He was without air for about six minutes and suffered brain damage. See story here.

During all this time he has not spoken, and still cannot feed himself. But Saturday he suddenly said “I want to talk to my wife.” Soon she arrived, then their four sons, then fellow firefighters. He talked to them all night. He was just not willing to stop long enough to sleep. He wanted to know all about everything he had missed.

It is hard not to think about Terri Schaivo.

Donald Herbert had therapy all those years. Terri’s husband denied her therapy, even though doctors said that with therapy, she should be able to learn to swallow on her own, and to talk.

Terri died when her husband finally succeeded in getting her feeding tube removed. No one did that to Donald Herbert. So he did not miss his big chance.

We have a lot to learn.