Trip to North Carolina for Royal Order of Scotland

Back at the end of May 2014, Linda and I took a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, for my induction into the Royal Order of Scotland.  This was our first trip after my retirement, and was partially in celebration of that.  It has been a while, but I'm writing a blog entry from memory now so that I'll have the records of our recent trips in order.

We left Memphis on Thursday, May 29 and stopped for the night in Cookeville, Tennessee, as best I remember.  On Friday, we drove on over to visit our SMOTJ friend Flora Gammon in Waynesville, North Carolina.  She gave us an enjoyable tour of the area, including the Lake Junaluska conference center.  We drove on to Charlotte to spend our first night at the Omni Charlotte, where the investiture would be held.  We wandered around the area and had dinner near the hotel.

The investiture on Saturday was long but quite interesting.  The first degree, Heredom of Kilwinning, was the longer of the two.  It had many lectures relating to the various degrees of Masonry.  The second degree, the Rosy Cross, was basically a brief ceremony of knighthood.  It is claimed that these are among the earliest Masonic degrees.  I found it worth noting that this very early version of Masonry is strictly Christian.  Its lectures put Christian interpretations on many of the symbols of Masonry.  This is most interesting in light of the many claims that Masonry is an anti-Christian organization.

On Sunday, we attended church at the First Baptist Church of Charlotte.  This is a downtown church in a rebuilding mode.  The music was modern, and the preaching was good.  We enjoyed it.  Afterwards, we headed toward Greenville, South Carolina.

On Monday, we visited, for the second time, the Bob Jones University art gallery.  This is an amazing collection of Christian art, and I highly recommend a visit.  It seems a bit incongruous that a place known for such fundamentalism should be the host of such a collection, but just enjoy it.  We drove on and spent the night near Atlanta.

On Tuesday, we drove on into Alabama and stopped at the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman.  This outdoor collection of miniature church models is something I had wanted to see for a while.  It is on the grounds of St. Bernard Abbey.  It is also worth a visit, as is the entire abbey.  They even had a resident cat so that I could get my kitty fix.  After that, homeward bound.

Old news and delayed grief: Evangelical Baptist Missions dissolved

Since retirement, I have begun straightening up the house and sorting through papers.  It's a long, slow process.  As I find old papers that are still of interest, I am checking the topics out online.

Back in the 1980s, when I was in Wilkes-Barre PA, I was a founding member of Hope Baptist Church, the pastor of which was Doug Boisvert.  Eventually the church closed, and Doug and Cheryl went to the mission field.  I found one of their newsletters from March 2011 and decided to check out the web page that they listed.  They were supported through Evangelical Baptist Missions.  I was saddened and surprised to find that in September 2011, EBM closed due to financial difficulties, as I read in this article.  Jesus said that we are to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves."  Financial wisdom is necessary to keep a ministry going.  Apparently, in this case, it was not followed.

Fortunately, it appears that Doug and Cheryl are still on the mission field, and are now supported through a different agency.  I plan to do more research and try to establish contact again.  By the way, it appears that their web site is now:

http://www.tri-m-boisverts.org/

Missionary note: the Savages have returned from Ecuador

My church supports a missionary family that has been serving in Ecuador, Brad and Kim Savage.  They serve with Reaching and Teaching International Ministries.  Pray for them and check out their web page.  From this page, it appears that they are currently back in the US for Kim's health.  It also appears that they will not be returning to Ecuador.  Again, pray for guidance for them as Brad seeks a new ministry opportunity.

Warning about fake news sites

Related to my earlier post applauding the Hobby Lobby decision, I stumbled on something I knew a little about but had not paid much attention to: the issue of fake news sites.  This New Republic article describes them and lists several.  The Onion is the best known, but this article describes one called The Daily Currant that posts what appear to be real news articles that are totally fake and have no obvious humorous tip-off for the reader.  They claim to be creating comedic art and say that if anyone is gullible enough to believe what they publish, why that is the reader's problem, not theirs.

Some at least of these sites seem to delight in publishing fake articles designed to get a rise out of conservatives and Christians, whom they regard as especially gullible and unintelligent.  One recent example was a fake article on a site called the National Report (no obvious humor in that name) that stated that President Obama planned to visit a mosque on July 4.

I regard this kind of behavior as despicable.  It is cruel to use outright lies to goad people into looking silly.  Fellow conservatives, don't let the leftists win at this game.  It's sad to have to say this, but we need to be more suspicious about what we read, especially on the internet.  Check Snopes, though items may take a while to get there.  Google is your friend.  Startpage may be an even better friend.  If a story seems too weird to be true, it may well be.  Check things out before you repeat them as fact.  Let's make the left look foolish by not falling for their tricks.

Burger King Gay Pride Burger? Oh come on!

Rant for the day: I've eaten my last Whopper.  Just when I thought things could not get more ridiculous, I read that Burger King has put out a "Proud Whopper" with a wrapper that says "We are all the same inside."  This is, of course, patently false.  If some are heterosexual and some are homosexual, then we are not all the same inside.  At least one self-identified "bisexual, queer person" blogs that she doesn't like the phrase but is happy that it is "p---ing off religious conservatives."  I feel sorry for people who rejoice in annoying other people.

If you really think that we are all the same inside, please read Psalm 1.

Boycott Burger King!

A victory for religious freedom: the Hobby Lobby decision

I applaud the Hobby Lobby decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled in a split decision that the Obama administration cannot require Hobby Lobby and similar "closely held" businesses to pay for contraceptives and abortifacients if they have religious objections to doing so.  This is a victory for religious freedom.

Now I am no lawyer, but I know enough to realize that decisions like this are often made based on the legal technicalities of the case, not on the broad moral issues involved.  Such appears to have been the case here.  The court held that the administration's requirement was not the "least burdensome" approach with regards to religious freedom.

Still, a victory is a victory, and we will take it.  The technical nature of the ruling, however, leaves open the possibility that the administration or the pro-abortion wing of Congress may try another approach, so the battle is not over.  Vigilance is still the order of the day.

I have seen editorials in the local paper, and even posts by Facebook friends, claiming that this decision is a blow to freedom and even a step toward a creeping theocracy.  One even asked a rhetorical question about how we would feel if a Muslim started a business and then wanted to impose Muslim beliefs on "white Christians."  I'll just state my thoughts on that briefly.

Any decision about rights and freedom has to balance the rights of different parties.  Conferring a right on one party inevitably restricts the rights of someone else.  If I have the right to own property, someone else does not have the right to take it.  If I have the right to choose where I shop, then no shop owner has the right to compel me to buy from them.  If I believe that abortion is wrong and choose not to pay for someone's abortion, they cannot compel me to do so.

If I start a business, why do I give up that right?  The government was trying to force Hobby Lobby to pay for insurance that covered abortions, to which they had a religious objection.  The company was not telling its employees they could not use contraceptives or have an abortion.  They just objected to paying for it.  I see nothing wrong with that, and I'm glad that the Supreme Court agrees.  Furthermore, no one is being forced to work for Hobby Lobby.  If someone wants to work for a company that pays for abortions, they are free to find one.

So what about Muslim employers forcing their beliefs on "white Christians"?  I must at least call attention to the race card being played here, and point out that its use is spurious and irrelevant.  Would it be OK for a Muslim employer to force his beliefs on black Christians, or Chinese Christians?  What does race have to do with it?  At any rate, I will say that if a Muslim wants to run his business according to his beliefs, that is his right.  If he wants to insist that any woman working in his business wears a head covering, so be it.  Again, no woman has to work for him.  And I suspect that, in America at least, few women would.

It would seem that this is one of many instances of the left trying to shove their morality down our throats, the very thing they always accuse Christians of doing.

Addendum: OK, I just got in an argument with someone on Facebook who called me ignorant for not "knowing" that preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg is not abortion, as "medical science" agrees.  Excuse me!  It is as clear as day that a fertilized egg will develop into a full human being if not interfered with, but an unfertilized egg will not.  So a drug that prevents implantation of a fertilized egg is not a contraceptive, but an abortifacient.  It is just killing the unborn human a bit earlier than usual in the abortion business.

New Linux Mint computer

When I retired, I of course lost my nice work laptop computer.  The only other computers I had at home are really old, and one isn't even working.

Enter two very helpful brothers from the Memphis Scottish Rite who got me a surplus computer and installed Linux Mint on it.  I have long wanted my own Linux computer, and now I have one!  Linux Mint is a really nice operating system, based on Ubuntu Linux.  The more I use it, the more impressed I am with it.  It has lots of cool software installed, and it has detected and used both functions of my HP 2510 printer and scanner with no problem at all, not even requiring any setup or configuration.  Even my wife Linda likes it, and that's saying a lot.

I have added a Linux Mint wiki page where I shall be posting some observations as I go along.

I'm retired!

Well, it has been over four years since I posted anything on this blog or on my wiki.  Now I may have some time to do so.  I'm retired!  I retired from FedEx Services on May 31, 2014 after taking the voluntary buyout.  I spent the last few months there training my replacements and teaching them about what I had been doing.  I had implemented a new real-time version of the system that I had revised and maintained.  I taught my replacements how it worked and how to maintain and modify it.

Now I've been on my own for a month.  It has been nice.  Some friends told me that I would be bored out of my mind.  That has not happened!  So far, I have had so much to do that I wonder how I had time to work in the first place.  Immediately after retiring, I took a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina to join the Royal Order of Scotland.  Since then, I have been working around the house, getting finances set up for retirement, and doing church, Masonic, and SMOTJ stuff.  Now my posts will probably come in a flood as I think of things to write.  Then, I may go on hiatus again.  Who knows?

On July 12, Linda and I shall be participating in the Choro das Tres workshop and concert.  I'll post more about that as it happens.