THE FACE OF TRUTH? or THE FACE OF EVIL?

A  new HuffPost/YouGov poll, asked Democrats and Republicans about their opinions on a range of political proposals (universal healthcare, the Iran nuclear deal, affirmative action, etc.).  Half of the time the researchers said that the proposals came from Democrats (President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and/or John Kerry).  The other half they said the same ideas came from Republican Donald Trump.  The poll found that people’s positions on important political issues were more influenced by whom they thought the idea came from than by what the idea actually was.    (Read more here on the Huffington Post website.)

One of the poll items asked people if they supported or wanted to repeal the 1975 Public Affairs Act.  Republicans were more likely to support the 1975 Public Affairs Act when they were told that President Obama wanted to repeal it.  Democrats were more like to support keeping the 1975 Public Affairs Act when they were told Republicans wanted to repeal it.

P.S.  There is no 1975 Public Affairs Act.

In other words, for Democrats and for Republicans, for liberals and for conservatives, the party mattered more than the truth.

In John 3: 20, Jesus said “everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light.”  In verse 21, Jesus said, “he who does the truth comes to the light.”

Truth comes to light.  Evil doesn’t come to the light.

Jesus said that the opposite of truth is evil.

Political parties are not inherently evil.  But, absolute loyalty to a political party, or to any human institution, does and always has led to all kinds of EVIL.  Most Nazis during WWII never saw a concentration camp, but they supported their party.   Most White Southerners ,ca. 1781 – 1955, never murdered a Black person, but they revered the Klan and supported segregation.  Most of the ugliest episodes in human history have been carried out by people who personally knew little to nothing about the people they raped, murdered, and displaced.  They didn’t know the truth.  They only knew what their party told them.

Kill the Savages.

Hang the Niggers.

Death to America.

F*** the Police.

When historians arrive in the aftermath of party instituted atrocities, they pick through the rubble, and ask, “How could people have done such terrible things?”

Because the people didn’t know the truth.  And without truth, all you have is evil.

More and more, each of receives news tailored to our socio-political digital profile.  More and more, we see, hear, and read only what our party says.  We are increasingly isolated from the truth.  We are progressively conditioned for evil.

My side’s position isn’t true because it came from my side.  Your side’s either.  You and I have to put in the extra work to read the other side’s opinion, to dig into the mechanisms behind the study, to go 3 and 4, and 5 and 6 sources back to figure out how two equally qualified experts can reach such different conclusions. We have to discipline ourselves to stop immediately believing the expert who’s on “our side.”

We must pursue the truth, or we’ll end up serving truth’s opposite.  According to Jesus, the opposite of truth is evil.

Jesus said “ And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

(John 8: 32-34)

So you can either be a slave to your party’s sins (John 8: 34), or you can know the truth and counter the impetus to evil.

Only THE truth can make Americans free.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

WHO YOU CALLING A NAZI?

So, I keep seeing these memes about President Obama being a Nazi because he supports gun control.  I thought it was an interesting point, so I looked up information on gun laws in Germany before and after the Nazis took over.

The truth is----- well...In 1919, BEFORE THE NAZIs, in the wake of World War I, the German government passed the Regulations on Weapons Ownership, which declared that "all firearms, as well as all kinds of firearms ammunition, are to be surrendered immediately."    In 1920, the government enacted the Law on the Disarmament of the People which further limited military-type weapons.

The strongest German gun control laws were enacted BEFORE the Nazis came to power.

In 1928, under pressure from the the rising National Socialists (the NAZIs), the conservative majority in the German parliament revoked the 1919 Regulations on Weapons Ownership and relaxed gun restrictions but put into effect a strict firearm licensing scheme.

After Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany the Nazi led parliament passed the German Weapons Act which repealed pre-Nazi restrictions on gun ownership and expanded gun rights for everyone except Jews. 

The Nazis expanded gun rights for citizens.  At the same time they treated the Jews as non-citizens.

On November 11, 1938, the Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons deprived Jews of the right to possess any form of weapons including truncheons, knives, or firearms and ammunition.

In Nazi Germany  more and more citizens had a guns, but a Jew with any weapon was automatically treated as a dangerous criminal.

So Nazi Germany was a powerful nation where ultra-conservative, right-wing interests expanded gun rights .  In that nation, the police serving those same ultra-conservative, right-wing interests treated an ethnic minority with any weapon as an automatic threat.  The police could kill the minority because “I saw a weapon,” or “I thought I saw a weapon,” even though it is legal for “regular” citizens to be armed.

Any of this sounding familiar?

Other things the Nazis did:

• Resegregated schools
• Changed school social studies curriculum by requiring more patriotic versions of  history
•    Effectively outlawed independent labor unioins (by forcing all to them to submit to the    Nazi’s German Labour Front)
• Demanded public support for a mythology of German exceptionalism (Aryanism)
• Promoted suspicion and hatred of immigrants and others who weren't "real" Germans
• Responded to all perceived and imagined threats with military aggression (often to spread “freedom” by “liberating” places like Paris)

If that sounds like any group you know, history encourages you to be real, real, real careful about giving them any more power.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 31. "Last Verse: Final Grade"

Proverbs 31: 31     Give to her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Proverbs 31: 31.  Last verse of the last chapter of the book of Wisdom.  Class is about to be dismissed and the Teacher explains how you will be graded.

You will get credit for your work. 

The question at the close of this series is:  When a wife receives credit for what she has given as a wife will the grade place her on honor roll or in remediation?

First, a review.

God created male human beings to work and to think and to be fruitful.   For most men that destined productivity is divinely ordained to occur in the context of marriage---- God’s original social institution.  Marriage is the only social institution that was created under perfect conditions.  God put together the first marriage in Eden.  Every other human institution, including organized religion, was organized after the Fall in the context of a fallen,  already corrupted world. 

Marriage is something special.

And so, God proclaims that it is not good for man to be alone.  God gave His already gifted, talented, doubly employed, PERFECT man----- a wife. 

Therefore, a wife is something special.

But admittedly, that’s not for every man.    Marriage is special, and therefore marriage in this sinful world is especially difficult.

At one point as Jesus was teaching about marriage and laying out the difficulty and depths of the marriage commitment,  Jesus’ disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”  (Matthew 19: 10)

Jesus acknowledged that not every man can handle it.He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given”.   (Matthew 19: 11)

But, as Jesus explained, if a man is meant to be a father then he is also meant to be a husband.  Cause if he doesn’t want the deal with a wife, then he should be celibate. 

“For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.”  (Matthew 19: 12)

O.K., so now you’re wondering, “Anderson, what’s your point?”

Right, right.  My points? 

Here are my points:

First, not every man is husband material and not ever woman is wife material, and nothing is wrong with a man or woman who doesn’t want to get married. 

But if you don’t consider yourself to be marriage material then don’t present yourself as sexual partner material either.

To my brothers:  If you are a present or future husband, then your potential for success/ fruitfulness is inextricably tied to the woman you do or will call “wife.”  Choose well.  Your life may not depend on your choice of mate; but the quality of your life does.

To the sisters:  If you and he are truly meant to be together as husband and wife, then you must understand your crucial role in his success.   If God has indeed joined you together, then God has proclaimed that he will never realize his full potential------- without YOUR help.  No matter how good, godly, talented, anointed, hardworking, and driven he is------ if you don’t wife him right, he will never be as good as he could be.

But not every woman can receive this saying.  It is a difficult thing to be a good wife, especially since your man isn’t perfect.

As Paul wrote, “If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such will have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you.  (1 Corinthians 7: 28)

As a wife, you have to walk the erratic and razor-thin line between helping your man and trying to run his life.  You’re supposed to help him fulfill his calling without dictating to him what his calling is. 

I understand why a woman wouldn’t want to deal with that kind of drama, but that’s the job.

Your husband cannot do it without you.  

He can’t succeed without you, but if he also can’t succeed WITH you, then what are you there for?

Read this:

I’m not sure how much of this story is true, but the underying principles are spot-on, Biblically accurate.

Ladies, you are the queens who make us kings.  Or not. 

You will be graded on your work.  Show your work.
Make the way you wife----- speak praises in your name.

And let her own works praise her in the gates.
---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Proverbs 31: 31. "Last Verse: Final Grade"

Proverbs 31: 31     Give to her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Proverbs 31: 31.  Last verse of the last chapter of the book of Wisdom.  Class is about to be dismissed and the Teacher explains how you will be graded.

You will get credit for your work. 

The question at the close of this series is:  When a wife receives credit for what she has given as a wife will the grade place her on honor roll or in remediation?

First, a review.

God created male human beings to work and to think and to be fruitful.   For most men that destined productivity is divinely ordained to occur in the context of marriage---- God’s original social institution.  Marriage is the only social institution that was created under perfect conditions.  God put together the first marriage in Eden.  Every other human institution, including organized religion, was organized after the Fall in the context of a fallen,  already corrupted world. 

Marriage is something special.

And so, God proclaims that it is not good for man to be alone.  God gave His already gifted, talented, doubly employed, PERFECT man----- a wife. 

Therefore, a wife is something special.

But admittedly, that’s not for every man.    Marriage is special, and therefore marriage in this sinful world is especially difficult.

At one point as Jesus was teaching about marriage and laying out the difficulty and depths of the marriage commitment,  Jesus’ disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”  (Matthew 19: 10)

Jesus acknowledged that not every man can handle it.He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given”.   (Matthew 19: 11)

But, as Jesus explained, if a man is meant to be a father then he is also meant to be a husband.  Cause if he doesn’t want the deal with a wife, then he should be celibate. 

“For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.”  (Matthew 19: 12)

O.K., so now you’re wondering, “Anderson, what’s your point?”

Right, right.  My points? 

Here are my points:

First, not every man is husband material and not ever woman is wife material, and nothing is wrong with a man or woman who doesn’t want to get married. 

But if you don’t consider yourself to be marriage material then don’t present yourself as sexual partner material either.

To my brothers:  If you are a present or future husband, then your potential for success/ fruitfulness is inextricably tied to the woman you do or will call “wife.”  Choose well.  Your life may not depend on your choice of mate; but the quality of your life does.

To the sisters:  If you and he are truly meant to be together as husband and wife, then you must understand your crucial role in his success.   If God has indeed joined you together, then God has proclaimed that he will never realize his full potential------- without YOUR help.  No matter how good, godly, talented, anointed, hardworking, and driven he is------ if you don’t wife him right, he will never be as good as he could be.

But not every woman can receive this saying.  It is a difficult thing to be a good wife, especially since your man isn’t perfect.

As Paul wrote, “If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such will have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you.  (1 Corinthians 7: 28)

As a wife, you have to walk the erratic and razor-thin line between helping your man and trying to run his life.  You’re supposed to help him fulfill his calling without dictating to him what his calling is. 

I understand why a woman wouldn’t want to deal with that kind of drama, but that’s the job.

Your husband cannot do it without you.  

He can’t succeed without you, but if he also can’t succeed WITH you, then what are you there for?

Read this:

I’m not sure how much of this story is true, but the underlying principles are spot-on, Biblically accurate.

Ladies, you are the queens who make us kings.  Or not. 

You will be graded on your work.  Show your work.
Make the way you wife----- speak praises in your name.

And let her own works praise her in the gates.
---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

BARACK OBAMA & THE DEATH OF PROTEST

Real quickly, let me explain why protests don't work anymore.

 2 words: Barack Obama.

 Every politician with a gram of sense has studied the logistical genius that was the Obama campaign machine. They all know that you can win a national election even when most of the people, most of the vocal public apparently hate your guts.

 President Obama taught politicians how to look past the impressive numbers of the huddled masses and see down to the microscopic levels of who was actually voting and in which districts.

Politicians know that they don't really have to please or pay attention to their constituents. They only have to please and pay attention to the registered and likely to vote constituents who make up the base and swing votes in the key zipcodes they need to carry next election cycle. The rest of you chanting sign wavers can kick rocks.

 So, when a few thousand people show up on the capitol steps and the elected knuckleheads inside look out and see a bunch of out of county and out of state tags, when their own undercover street teams survey the crowd and find that 3 in 4 of the in-state adults aren't even registered to vote----- they just laugh and vote like you weren't even there.

 Yes, you're an American. Yes, you have a right to have your voice heard. But, the days of voices changing policy are pretty much over. One of the many lessons of the Trayvon Martin trial is: Voices change media coverage. Voices do not change law. Votes change laws.

 Wanna make a real difference. Instead of standing among 5,000 generic protesters who are only gonna boost tax revenue over the weekend when they check-in and eat out; stand among 500 Alabama residents who are all registered to vote in the same congressional district. In this state, that's enough to change the outcome of an election.

They'll listen then. The age of protests is over. The age of Voting Precincts has begun.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

KNEE JERKING & COMMON CORE

Knee-jerking can be dangerous, especially for educators. 

Knee-jerking.  You know, a reflexive/ “knee jerk” response.  Like when President Obama pats his dog on the head and Republicans issue a statement denouncing the socialist movement to give animals the same rights as humans.

Knee-jerking.

We're all guilty of it, especially in our politics.  Most of the time it's slightly stupid.  Sometimes it's seriously funny.  But, it can be profoundly dangerous, especially when you don't realize that someone is manipulating your knee-jerks to make you march zombie-like in a direction you wouldn't choose if you were thinking instead of just reacting.

I'm thinking about the debate in Alabama over repealing Common Core Standards.

A couple years ago, when we started the process (the quite poorly executed process) of explaining Common Core Standards in Alabama, most classroom educators knee-jerked against it.

It was just more crap to memorize. We’d have to dump all those AHSGE desktop files and classroom posters and create a whole new set of documents to mindlessly copy and paste into lesson plans and student notebooks. 

We knee-jerked against Common Core without really examining it.

Then it became the rule, so we accepted it, but few classroom teachers (none I know personally) were actually excited about it.

Now, the Republican-dominated Alabama legislature is trying to repeal Common Core in Alabama, and educators are up in arms.

Why?

Now, I’m not a Republican.  I think that the current crop of Republican state legislatures is deliberately trying to destroy public education in America.

But, why are so many of educators suddenly passionate about protecting a set of rules for which they felt zero passion a few weeks ago?

Knee-jerking.
And I felt it, too.  That involuntary flinch forward into spontaneous activism  because THEY are against something related to education.  THEY being Alabama Republicans, the ancient enemies of all institutions with the word “public” in their designation----- public schools, public lands, public parks, public restrooms, ...

I am not opposed to the Common Core Standards. 

Or, as the debate is current framed, I am not in favor of the Republican plan to repeal Common Core Standards. 

(Notice the subtle difference there.  Are we considering the merit of the standards or are we reacting to a move by our political opponents?)

But what has effectively happened is that the Republican opposition to Common Core has achieved in 2 weeks, what 2 years of powerpoint presentations from the Alabama Board of Education had failed to accomplish:   Educators across the state now overwhelmingly support/buy-in to the new Common Cores Standards.

I’m not telling you to stop calling your legislator.  I’m not telling you what to say when you call him/her. 

All I’m asking you to do is ask yourself 2 questions:

(1) Did you arrive at your current position on this issue  by way of reason or by way of a series of knee-jerks?

(2) And if you knee-jerked to this point, who is it who’s been tapping your knee?

Educators are the smartest group of professionals in this country.  We’re so smart that people pay us to make other people smart.  So, if we let ourselves get knee-jerked around the socio-political landscape, then what hope is there for rest of America.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116