What is it about the Crystal Cathedral that brought thousands of people on a pilgrimage of sorts-the the Holy Land in Garden Grove, California, of all places?
The eighties was the time of megachurches with Capella groups, full bands with rock and roll scripture and the dollars were flowing.
Rev. Schuler was an all star!
I remember the era well. One of the ministers from our church received a "calling"
A silver haired, charismatic minister who like the idea of fame on TV as opposed to a church from a 500,000+ city.
Off he went to make his fortune. Glitter and all.
After all, God is not humble in megachurches. Greed is good. Associate minsters run off with wealthy married women, and the downfall makes the sin even more glorious to forgive.
The flash of the eighties gave way to the pathetic sinning of the mega ministers. After all, what would a mega church be without a spectacular fall?
Sadly, Rev Schuler's charisma did not have a biological component and the children could not carry the message in such a spectacular way.
The church is now in bankruptcy and the only dollars left to tell the story will be the profit on the sale of the cathedral.
Jesus was a humble man who taught us to care for our neighbors.
This is not a popular message in today's culture.
It was never a popular message for megachurches.
Like any for profit, the money was meant for bigger and better stuff.
Outreach buildings, big cars, private jets, special speaking gigs, prime Sunday TV.
Do you think the message Jesus carried to the masses will ever become "hip" again?
Or is the fall of the megachurch just a blip on the radar to total selfishness and disregard for our society as a whole?
Friday, November 18, 2011
Saturday, November 12, 2011
The new morals of our young adults-Penn State
What have we taught them? Is this new generation a result of our own selfishness? Is the world population at such a tilting point we have forgone teaching ethics, morals and compassion? Have we become a earth populated with predators and victims?
The reaction of students at Penn State floored me. To protest the removal of a man who for years looked the other way while young boys were allowed to be brutalized by a staff member for the sake of a trophy? Students felt a "legendary coach" is being wrongly singled out? A University President who refused to deal with the problem for years? All up this chain of accountability, not just one, but many allowed young boys to be sodomized? Students are angry?
Are they stupid, selfish or just confused?
What does this say about our country's moral values?
Have we become so jaded, so inured to what is horrific, we don't care anymore?
Across the world we read stories which indicate the ripping of the fabric of societies built to care for those most vulnerable citizens-the elderly man who dies in his home after the gas company shuts off his heat, children in China given up for adoption after being stolen from families, sexual slavery in third world countries, vast corporations exploiting women and children for labor.
Police shootings, beatings, caught on tape, a judge who beats his daughter with a belt, caught on tape, without punishment. Cain still in the running after four women step forward to talk about sexual harassment and he jokes about it??
Is it because so much is unearthed we try to minimize the horror in our minds and look the other way? Citizens phone messages cracked, and Murdoch is still in business?
I could go on and on but it appears to me the new world order is in favor of the predator and if you are perceived as a victim -you will soon become one.
People should be afraid, not outraged for the wrong reasons.
You might be next. You will have no support in this world order. The predator rules.
The reaction of students at Penn State floored me. To protest the removal of a man who for years looked the other way while young boys were allowed to be brutalized by a staff member for the sake of a trophy? Students felt a "legendary coach" is being wrongly singled out? A University President who refused to deal with the problem for years? All up this chain of accountability, not just one, but many allowed young boys to be sodomized? Students are angry?
Are they stupid, selfish or just confused?
What does this say about our country's moral values?
Have we become so jaded, so inured to what is horrific, we don't care anymore?
Across the world we read stories which indicate the ripping of the fabric of societies built to care for those most vulnerable citizens-the elderly man who dies in his home after the gas company shuts off his heat, children in China given up for adoption after being stolen from families, sexual slavery in third world countries, vast corporations exploiting women and children for labor.
Police shootings, beatings, caught on tape, a judge who beats his daughter with a belt, caught on tape, without punishment. Cain still in the running after four women step forward to talk about sexual harassment and he jokes about it??
Is it because so much is unearthed we try to minimize the horror in our minds and look the other way? Citizens phone messages cracked, and Murdoch is still in business?
I could go on and on but it appears to me the new world order is in favor of the predator and if you are perceived as a victim -you will soon become one.
People should be afraid, not outraged for the wrong reasons.
You might be next. You will have no support in this world order. The predator rules.
Cannibalism among the 1%
Greece and Italy have instituted austerity measures. This means pulling back government dollars, laying off workers and "belt tightening".
In the United States the media has been spouting "austerity" for the past three years.
This has resulted in high unemployment, high foreclosure rates and a decrease in spending from the average citizen.
It hasn't however, resulted in a decreasing income for Wall Street , bankers, and for profit corporations- megabucks CEO's, a 300% plus disparity in income from their workers.
Our politicians seem to be doing just fine with corporate donations , PAC support at all time highs.
The average citizen spends less, makes less, eats less meat, forgoes vacations and holidays, budgets without money, worries about rising costs of fuel and food.
I never agreed with George Bush but on this I do. People need to spend to get the economy going. Businesses can cut back employees, develop part time jobs without benefits and find hundreds of ways to get money to their stockholders, but eventually, not in the too far off future even those austerity measures, ( based on greed) will implode. You can only keep what you get.
If you don't get, you don't get to keep.
People will cut back on the extras first. Dining out. Gambling. Big screen TV's. Video games, washers and dryers, big expenses.
When we don't have it to spend, we can't spend it.
It seems pretty foolish for stockholders to de-invest in the communities which feed them for short term gains. Invest in jobs and the economy will begin to improve, people will have money to spend.
Continue to be greedy, take the short term money and run, and as we are already seeing, businesses go bankrupt, everyone loses, and the spiral continues.
Suck the livelihood out of people and no one is left to feed the 1% but the 1%.
Isn't that called cannibalism?
In the United States the media has been spouting "austerity" for the past three years.
This has resulted in high unemployment, high foreclosure rates and a decrease in spending from the average citizen.
It hasn't however, resulted in a decreasing income for Wall Street , bankers, and for profit corporations- megabucks CEO's, a 300% plus disparity in income from their workers.
Our politicians seem to be doing just fine with corporate donations , PAC support at all time highs.
The average citizen spends less, makes less, eats less meat, forgoes vacations and holidays, budgets without money, worries about rising costs of fuel and food.
I never agreed with George Bush but on this I do. People need to spend to get the economy going. Businesses can cut back employees, develop part time jobs without benefits and find hundreds of ways to get money to their stockholders, but eventually, not in the too far off future even those austerity measures, ( based on greed) will implode. You can only keep what you get.
If you don't get, you don't get to keep.
People will cut back on the extras first. Dining out. Gambling. Big screen TV's. Video games, washers and dryers, big expenses.
When we don't have it to spend, we can't spend it.
It seems pretty foolish for stockholders to de-invest in the communities which feed them for short term gains. Invest in jobs and the economy will begin to improve, people will have money to spend.
Continue to be greedy, take the short term money and run, and as we are already seeing, businesses go bankrupt, everyone loses, and the spiral continues.
Suck the livelihood out of people and no one is left to feed the 1% but the 1%.
Isn't that called cannibalism?
Friday, November 11, 2011
Is The Tide Turning? Jobless with no safety net
The world order is changing and it isn't for the benefit of the average planetary citizen.
What will become of us?
What will become of us?
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Las Vegas Decay-Family Style
A new book, Fade, Crumble and Sag introduced a number of authors writing about the decomposition of Las Vegas during Las Vegas Book Week.
I thought I would add my chapter, entitled, "Families, or what is left of them"
Two second grade girls are picked up by their mothers after school wearing six inch heels, breast exposing tops and shorts covering little. Not a blink on the playground of hundreds- parents picking up students after school. These girls are proud of their mommies, of course.
After Christmas vacation one year a little boy did not return to my class. His mother had murdered her boyfriend with a butcher knife in front of her five children. After a month he returned, quiet, withdrawn, spending time in Child Haven which is not an experience anyone would wish on an eight year old child.
A lock down lasting until 6pm kept nine hundred students in my school one year. A man shooting a high powered rifle directly across the street had to be killed before we could release the kids.
A student I tutored at home had six locks on her front door, along with all the
windows barred. A few months after working at her home her father was arrested as a gang leader and a drug lord. Her mother previously lost custody due to her drug habit.
Some staff are not much better. A principal and counselor were arrested for drug dealing, another accused of stealing from the school-was not fired but a senior staff member was for with holding information about the alleged thefts.
Families move here for the same reason singles do-it is a city in which one can disappear. The likelihood of protective services, the police or the government sticking noses into peoples business is minimal. Corruption is so rampant child abuse, neglect, gang activity or prostitution are all small potato issues for this hands off government.
Las Vegas sounds no siren call of seduction. Las Vegas makes no empty promises for those who come to the city to make a life. Las Vegas is not a deceitful mistress, mother or father figure.
It is exactly what is promises to be-sinful, evil, careless, cruel and heartless.
Be it the kindergartner who comes to school with rope burns around his wrists, the old man who dies alone in his trailer and is buried in a mass paupers grave, the homeless families who beg at Wal Mart, the mentally ill who's self talk is passed by without a blink, or the line of homeless vets, families and singles who line up on Owens Avenue in cardboard boxes, settling in for the night.
Those who defend the city are the predators-"If you don't like it, leave!"
As if those who are game for these predators have a chance of leaving, unless by cheap death-another staple of the Vegas experience.
I thought I would add my chapter, entitled, "Families, or what is left of them"
Two second grade girls are picked up by their mothers after school wearing six inch heels, breast exposing tops and shorts covering little. Not a blink on the playground of hundreds- parents picking up students after school. These girls are proud of their mommies, of course.
After Christmas vacation one year a little boy did not return to my class. His mother had murdered her boyfriend with a butcher knife in front of her five children. After a month he returned, quiet, withdrawn, spending time in Child Haven which is not an experience anyone would wish on an eight year old child.
A lock down lasting until 6pm kept nine hundred students in my school one year. A man shooting a high powered rifle directly across the street had to be killed before we could release the kids.
A student I tutored at home had six locks on her front door, along with all the
windows barred. A few months after working at her home her father was arrested as a gang leader and a drug lord. Her mother previously lost custody due to her drug habit.
Some staff are not much better. A principal and counselor were arrested for drug dealing, another accused of stealing from the school-was not fired but a senior staff member was for with holding information about the alleged thefts.
Families move here for the same reason singles do-it is a city in which one can disappear. The likelihood of protective services, the police or the government sticking noses into peoples business is minimal. Corruption is so rampant child abuse, neglect, gang activity or prostitution are all small potato issues for this hands off government.
Las Vegas sounds no siren call of seduction. Las Vegas makes no empty promises for those who come to the city to make a life. Las Vegas is not a deceitful mistress, mother or father figure.
It is exactly what is promises to be-sinful, evil, careless, cruel and heartless.
Be it the kindergartner who comes to school with rope burns around his wrists, the old man who dies alone in his trailer and is buried in a mass paupers grave, the homeless families who beg at Wal Mart, the mentally ill who's self talk is passed by without a blink, or the line of homeless vets, families and singles who line up on Owens Avenue in cardboard boxes, settling in for the night.
Those who defend the city are the predators-"If you don't like it, leave!"
As if those who are game for these predators have a chance of leaving, unless by cheap death-another staple of the Vegas experience.
Thursday, November 03, 2011
The Changing Face of America
A current CNN poll reports 68% of those responding believe corporal punishment is still a valid way to discipline America's children. Beating children, like using the death penalty, research shows, have never been effective deterrents . Not ne civilized nation in the world uses the death penalty anymore. Place the US with the uncivilized nations who amputate limbs for theft and stoning for adultery.
A current report states 1 in 15 children live below the poverty level in the United States. Oh! This is the belt tightening preaching we have been hearing since our economy collapsed, after our military spent over a trillion dollars on two wars with countries having no organized military.
In Las Vegas over the past three months an average of one murder a day occurs.
Read the paper. If you plan to visit do not leave the strip, do not become involved in an argument, and stay away from the crosswalks and curbs. Nevadans have a nasty habit of running over pedestrians. You see, alcohol and drugs are staples in the single Nevadan males lifestyle-but so is irresponsible behavior like drunk driving.
In the Republican primaries lunacy reigns supreme-from candidates who don't know geography, to those who proudly claim a lack of education fostered their ignorance, to sexual harassment charges. Perry? Cain? Bachman? Romney and his golden tablets from Missouri? How can anyone take these people seriously? Have we totally lost it?
Protesters is Oakland's Occupy Wall Street were tear gassed yesterday. We tear gas our own people for protesting? In a liberal bastion such as San Francisco/Oakland area?
The United States refuse to recognize Palestinians but the United Nations has. So the US will take its' wad of cash and go home. US reasons are the worst ever.
Huge campaign donations continue to pour into the coffers of the crazy Republican presidential nominees, not one peep on who would step up to embrace the principals of the Democratic party aside from our Centrist, mostly conservative President Obama.
Lindsay Lohan received a special dispensation from her 30 day jail sentence so she could pose for Playboy magazine.
Kim Kardashian continues to make headlines.
This is a snapshot of the US today.
Does the word "Superpower" ooze out of any of these stories?
We have become a nation of loonies.
A current report states 1 in 15 children live below the poverty level in the United States. Oh! This is the belt tightening preaching we have been hearing since our economy collapsed, after our military spent over a trillion dollars on two wars with countries having no organized military.
In Las Vegas over the past three months an average of one murder a day occurs.
Read the paper. If you plan to visit do not leave the strip, do not become involved in an argument, and stay away from the crosswalks and curbs. Nevadans have a nasty habit of running over pedestrians. You see, alcohol and drugs are staples in the single Nevadan males lifestyle-but so is irresponsible behavior like drunk driving.
In the Republican primaries lunacy reigns supreme-from candidates who don't know geography, to those who proudly claim a lack of education fostered their ignorance, to sexual harassment charges. Perry? Cain? Bachman? Romney and his golden tablets from Missouri? How can anyone take these people seriously? Have we totally lost it?
Protesters is Oakland's Occupy Wall Street were tear gassed yesterday. We tear gas our own people for protesting? In a liberal bastion such as San Francisco/Oakland area?
The United States refuse to recognize Palestinians but the United Nations has. So the US will take its' wad of cash and go home. US reasons are the worst ever.
Huge campaign donations continue to pour into the coffers of the crazy Republican presidential nominees, not one peep on who would step up to embrace the principals of the Democratic party aside from our Centrist, mostly conservative President Obama.
Lindsay Lohan received a special dispensation from her 30 day jail sentence so she could pose for Playboy magazine.
Kim Kardashian continues to make headlines.
This is a snapshot of the US today.
Does the word "Superpower" ooze out of any of these stories?
We have become a nation of loonies.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Mean Girls Grow Up
Remember those mean girls from high school? The ones who spent most of their waking hours inventing lists of those who supposedly harmed them?
They are all grown up now, alive and well, practicing their vindictiveness in the workplace.
With all the responsibilities on our plates, as adults, you would think they had more to worry about. Well apparently their miserable lives continue to be miserable and they still believe the problem is outside of themselves.
56 women work in my place of employment.
The women fight. Literally. They yell and scream (so does the boss). They accuse one another of talking behind their backs. They stomp, huff and preen.
It is enough to make one crazy.
Yesterday we were chastised like little kids. Parents I know don't demean their children is the manner we were chastised.
I am way too old for this garbage. I'm a Grandma. Life is too short.
Knock it off, women. Get therapy or shut up and do your job.
Grow up. We don't really care if you feel snubbed. Get over it. It's a grown up world for big people so stop your tantrums. You may have been cute and got away with it in high school but it isn't working for you now. All it does is tell the rest of us you aren't doing your job.
They are all grown up now, alive and well, practicing their vindictiveness in the workplace.
With all the responsibilities on our plates, as adults, you would think they had more to worry about. Well apparently their miserable lives continue to be miserable and they still believe the problem is outside of themselves.
56 women work in my place of employment.
The women fight. Literally. They yell and scream (so does the boss). They accuse one another of talking behind their backs. They stomp, huff and preen.
It is enough to make one crazy.
Yesterday we were chastised like little kids. Parents I know don't demean their children is the manner we were chastised.
I am way too old for this garbage. I'm a Grandma. Life is too short.
Knock it off, women. Get therapy or shut up and do your job.
Grow up. We don't really care if you feel snubbed. Get over it. It's a grown up world for big people so stop your tantrums. You may have been cute and got away with it in high school but it isn't working for you now. All it does is tell the rest of us you aren't doing your job.
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