Are we talking about separation of Church and State or what exactly

 

Okay I admit I am not the most prolific reader, nor writer, but I do read occasionally. I also write this blog, but what you call the amount of writing I do here is waiting on a description.

Anyway I am reading four books right now, yet again do not consider me a prolific reader. I am barely covering twenty pages a week in two of them and less in the other two, however I ran across this quote and it got me to thinking:

“For see that you do not give a further ground for the charge of irreligion, by taking away religious liberty, and forbidding free choice of deity, so that I may no longer worship according to my inclination, but am compelled to worship against it. Not even a human being would care to have unwilling homage rendered him.”

The argument behind this quote is that true devotion must come from free will. The author is a Roman legal scholar who converted to Christianity and wrote Apologeticus or Apology around 197 AD. Tertullianus or Tertullian converted to Christianity and became a theological writer. Previously he was a legal scholar. If you are a religious scholar you probably know much about him, for us lay people it is quite a surprise to realize how much he influenced the early church. It is important to note though unlike many of the early writers he is not a saint and later in life he took up with or was heavily influenced by a sect called “Montanists” which took him away from the Church. His main works though are important pieces of early theology, highly regarded and are highly quoted.

So to get back to the title of this post, what on God’s green earth are we talking about here. When I read the quote for some reason I started thinking about Christian Nationalism. I do not think there is a direct correlation here, however, the rise of Christian Nationalism seems to fall into the lines of the arguments Tertullian was making against the Romans who were persecuting Christians.

You need to remember that the Roman government at times forced people to worship the Roman Gods. Actually it was required throughout the Empire, however there were times when certain leaders would issue new edicts and create times of extreme persecutions of Christians.  Tertullian was alive during one of these times and witnessed Christians being martyred. He was arguing against the Roman State and these persecutions.

Now I am not saying the Christian Nationalists are martyring people right now, but their philosophy leads to the same problem the Romans developed for themselves. By forcing a religion upon people, the people will respond against that very same religion especially if there is a choice or that phrase many Christians struggle with, free will.

 Of course at the time Christianity was a new religion, yet they were different in the way they acted and believed. In 2023 it is hard for us to understand what it meant to be a Christian in 200 AD. Most of their belief life was shrouded in secrecy yet they still tended to the basic fundamentals of Christianity. They helped each other, they lived a life free of the excesses of the Romans, they married for life, they worshipped in houses, they were being taught by apostolic teaching which meant they were taught directly from people who could follow a line back to the original apostles and this was just a few generations removed from the actual apostles.

The Christian Nationalist movement is breaking away from the true teachings of Christianity so they are breaking away from Christianity as it is historically taught. They pollute the very word, but this is not a modern theological argument.

Going back to the original quote, it is more a realization of irony that Tertullian used the argument that the State or government cannot force their religion upon people, in this case Christians, because it is less likely to have people believe in that religion. The Christian Nationalists may want to make note of that thought.

And also there is the fact our Constitution allows for the free choice of religion and that the State or government or Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. This essentially bans a national church. Another point the Christian Nationalists seem to miss, yet they are trying hard to change this fact. And another fun point the Constitution doesn’t exactly say separation of church and state, but the above sentence that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.  The phrase separation of church and state came a few years later.

And I do not think there is a direct correlation from Tertullian to our founding fathers in the creation of the infamous separation of church and state, yet even early Christian theologians understood that it is faith and living the life of a Christian which brought more people to Christianity than how a government tried to force people to believe in their gods.

And with true free will most people do not choose the excessive secular liberalism or the extreme religious zealot who wants to dictate their version of their religion over the actual living and teachings of faith. It is the old phrase, lead by example and that changes more hearts than threats, spears and demagoguery.

This is how they propel Trump into the Presidency

 

I do not know if it is by design or sheer chance, but the Freedom Caucus and a few of Trump’s allies in the House of Representatives seem to have the plan though.

About the only way Trump could come back into office is for this country to be in a shambles in 2024. And with high inflation and high interest rates the recipe for the shambles has a few ingredients.  Add in government dysfunction with a full blown shutdown that lasts for an extended period of time and that gives Trump the verbal fodder to attack Biden. Sure the government shutdown won’t be his fault, but the economy will be touted as his fault so adding the shutdown into the political attacks during the 2024 election cycle and we have a recipe for Trump.

And what is worse for Biden is some of the actual policies he needs to initiate would not help with inflation and with a House having a Republican majority he probably won’t get them anyway, yet if he could change the tax structure to create cuts for the middle and working class with increasing on the upper class along with finding ways to support higher wages (these are the inflationary portions) for the middle and working class he would have a recipe for potential success.  He does need to find some inflationary relief he can tout. Yet the Democrats are clueless as always and will continue to let the Republicans drive the agenda or lack of agenda to the Democrats detriment.

The Republicans do not need a plan to combat higher inflation or higher interest rates, they just need to blame Biden. And with the fact that a few Republicans could care less about this country, but more about their ego they are feeding into what Trump needs.

 Somedays I do think this is by design and other days I just cannot see how some of these characters have it in them to be this Machiavellian.  It is hard to tell either way. For example, there is Senator Tuberville with all his machinations, is he this brilliant to destroy the military so Trump can come in and say he will save it. Or is the Senator a complete buffoon? By appearance you wonder could he even spell Machiavellian, but here we have months of military promotions held up by one man. It is truly boggling if they have figured this out or their random madness is just putting all this together by chance. Another example is Matt Gaetz and just by saying his name is enough said. How is this person even newsworthy, yet the liberal media feeds this madness just as much as conservative media, so here we are with him.

And the so called liberal media with their ongoing pretentiousness do not help Biden’s cause. The articles of satire about the Freedom Caucus and Republicans in general only make their audience feel good. They have absolutely no effect on effecting public policy in a positive way.  And Biden desperately needs a positive message ringing loud and clear.

And if you have been reading my tweets or whatever it is now called on “X” formerly known as Twitter you know I am on a windmill fighting crusade for us not to have Biden v. Trump in 2024, yet I do want this country to do more than survive, yet how do we go about getting some semblance of a responsible government, it doesn’t have to be highly effective since that would cause its own problems, but at least do enough to keep our economy together and pay our bills better than this run on sentence I just created, but I am not going back and fixing. And as I always say we need new parties and new leadership.

No Cheers today folks, things ain’t looking rosey.

What can we learn from Tim Gurner’s foot in the mouth moment?

 

Yes, post his infamous statement that workers need to feel pain and know they work for the employer, Mr. Gurner has made some contrite statements, but let’s be honest he meant it.

I looked up his business and apparently it is in high end real estate. This can be an industry with serious ups and downs so maybe he is feeling a pinch. I did not look up the company’s financials.

I did decide to look at this here in the United States because are workers better off nowadays, are billionaires better off nowadays or what gives. I am not making any comparisons, but am going to lay out one of the bigger problems facing the middle class and why Tim Gurner’s comments are even worse than you think.

I am going to use one company’s financial information to spell out a very simplistic example of how things could be a bit better for the average Joe if we quit buying into the large corporation’s hyperbole about their needs. Now with any major endeavor details are important. This is a 30,000 foot view of the problem using one company, but I honestly feel it shows that workers aren’t the financial problem executives want you to think. I am not going to identify the company, but based on the information I gleaned from internet searches, articles and financials published you might be able to guess. One hint I am giving you for fun is this is one of the liberal tax the billionaires bugaboos.

And I do believe in capitalism, but what we have nowadays isn’t necessarily constructive or productive capitalism. With the wealth gap expanding we are moving away from a society that offers opportunity to many, a strong middle class and is encouraging an elitist class that is doing more harm than good by hoarding wealth. That is another post and one I touched on recently, yet there is much more to this.

For now though, let’s look at this overview example of one company.

First the median household income in the United States is $98,487 according to Nasdaq.com. Now it did not say if this was for a family of four or the family size, but it did compare it to the poverty level of a family of four being $29,960.00. And $98,000 may not sound too bad if this is where half the people make more and half the people make less, yet make note it does say median household income or another words there are many families with multiple earners to achieve this $98,000 figure which is borne out by the fact that the average yearly income of a single earner is $56,940.00 ($1,095/week) as per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The company I am using is for my example has a net worth of 433 billion dollars so this isn’t the average size company, but is one of the leaders in increasing the wealth gap. It derives income from various endeavors. One endeavor has 4700 locations where you can find employees that are paid at hourly rates. It was difficult finding a headcount for employees for each location. I found one statistic from 2015 for an average of 6.5. I have to think that has changed since then and so I am just about doubling that number to use in my example.

I did find that there are around four job descriptions that had hourly rates and the average nationally was a bit over $18, yet I am going to use $20 for my calculations. So, as you can see I am expanding the headcount and increasing the beginning number so you can see that these numbers will be generous to the company’s viewpoint when expenses are calculated.

At this point we have 4,700 locations times 12 staff members and not all maybe hourly, but am using this headcount since any salary employees are entry level salary so they are just as impacted as the hourly wage earners in some regards.

So 4,700 times 12 = 56,400 potential hourly workers in a front line role. And with each person making $20 hour that equates to $1,128,000 just to pay all these people for one hour. And on top of that there are other expenses in having employees such as payroll employees, human resources employees, benefits, employer social security tax costs, so to get to this one million plus you have to realize this expense example is not the full picture, yet if these individuals were given a direct raise the social security taxes and the benefits would probably be what is directly impacted along with the actual raise. Payroll and human resource costs aren’t directly affected by hourly raises except all these employees may want a raise too.

Where does this lead? You have $1,128,000 hourly rate times 40 hours = $45,120,000.00 now times 52  weeks = $2,346,240,000. Yes, you are reading that correctly. For this company to have 4700 locations the direct labor cost is over 2 billion dollars and that is for $20 per hour. So how can we help these $20 workers? That is quite a bit of money to pay the employees. I say give them at least a five dollar per hour raise. And not only that we are going to calculate the increase at $8 hour to account for the other expenses the raise creates.

Now plug into the equation above a $8 increase so 56,400 times 8 =$451,200.00 times 40 hours + $18,048,000.00 times 52 weeks = $938,496,000. That is almost another billion dollars. And let’s go back in and add the $3 cost I included for the raise to the original numbers and you have 56,400 times 3=4169,200.00 times 40 = $6,768,000.00 times 52 = $351,936,000.00.

So a rough labor estimate for our 4700 locations to give our workers a five dollar raise is $2,346,240,000 plus $938,496,000 plus $351,936,000 equals $3,636,672,000.00. How can any company afford to give their employees a raise? And this raise only brings the hourly workers to $25 times 40 times 52 equals $52,000 per year, yet isn’t that less than the average income? Yep it is.

What gives you might ask. That extra almost 1 billion dollars (the original labor amount was already calculated in the previous year’s budget) to bring their employees to almost the average income affects the company how? The company’s new worth is over 400 billion, last year’s net income was 37.49 billion so this incredibly expensive $5 hour raise cost the company 1/37^th of their net income.

This is just one company and a very large public one at that, but when you hear someone say employees need to feel the pain, it is time to start asking when do they feel the relief?

A pretax income of $52,000 divided by 12 = $4,333.33 with average rent of $1702, average food cost $470, transportation costs range from $400 to a $1,000 a month, and remember the 4,333 is before taxes and probably healthcare insurance is deducted from their paycheck so exactly how are workers making ends meet, yet the CEO for this company enjoyed over $34 million in compensation last year and is worth 1.7 billion.

Yes, Mr. Gurner some people need to feel some pain, but workers? They have felt theirs for decades.

It is not my side, it is your side.

 

I may have written about this before since it irks me so much. I cannot remember and I am not going back to look.

It just keeps coming back over and over again. I am surprised that more people don’t blow a gasket. Maybe because I am independent that it bothers me, yet I have seen it in a work environment that had nothing to do with politics and it drove me crazy.

The Republicans and Democrats continually point the finger at the other side whenever there is some story about political malfeasance and yet will back up their side with impunity no matter how heinous or morally deprived an action on their side. And the devout followers of each party will loudly proclaim the other side is much worse than our side without realizing they are only compounding this exact problem.

Sure there are many Democrats and Republicans that maintain at least some impartiality, however they usually sit on the sidelines and do not jump into the fray for fear of who knows what, but probably loss of connectivity with the larger group. They need to stand up because this is only getting worse and contributes to the growing divide in our country.

The most recent example and this is much worse to me I guess than to others. It is the story of the woman running for the State legislature in Virginia who apparently made a specific sex video her and her husband shared. Of course when Republicans found out, they pounced on it. Yet a person from the Viriginia legislature offered up that this would be a great fund raising opportunity since well doing it with your husband publicly is something to be proud of(?).

I am sorry. I don’t think so. There are many things you can do in private, and maybe even publicly if that is your bent, but to do something of questionable thinking and then run for political office. What were you thinking? At some point you have to realize your moral compass is not set for political office and making public policy. You may actually have some good ideas, or even solutions to problems, but people are supposed to be able to look up to you. How can you go to your constituents and say “hey, vote for me, but don’t tell your kids”? Kids read the news, too.

And yes I know we are overwhelmed with politicians of all stripes bathing in the sewers, but we also need to step back and decide exactly what am I supporting when I publicly back someone who made questionable decisions. We are way past time for some serious reckoning with who we are in the body politic.

Yes, this one bothered me, not just because I have minor grandchildren who might run across this story when I am trying to open their minds to better civics in our world, but also because someone thought they should not only show support, but suggest this is a fund raising opportunity. You can internet search for the story, but their logic was beyond me except for this was someone on our side who was persecuted (?, She published the original video) by the other side so must be immediately rallied around with some questionable justifications. Because she supports what we support? Tell me exactly how I am supposed to think your ideas are what I want or can trust when you push this on me.

Sometimes people ask me why I do not run for office and I sit quietly because of youthful indiscretions from 40 years ago or so. And what I did is no where near the shock value we get in today’s world. And shoot it is legal in half the country now anyway.  So maybe I could run without too much worry, but I still believe that if you are going to be a leader or role model you should be someone people can point to with pride. You do not have to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but people who have affairs, steal, lie, expose themselves to public in sexual display while maintaining a different public face maybe not the best representatives for public office. I am not sure I could actually vote for an adult entertainer, but if they always represented themselves as such at least I might be more inclined to listen to their ideas over someone who lives a clandestine life.

It is bad enough politicians say one thing and then get in office and do another or do nothing and then abuse their office, but honesty at least deserves a listen.

As always we need new parties to start holding these entitled Democrats and Republicans accountable to how they represent themselves and subsequently what they actually do once in office. Yep I am in Texas and Ken Paxton is also exactly what I am talking about. There are some that are going to support him no matter what because he is their guy, but really what does that say about them.

Not much.

And the next time I hear a politician talk about values, I will try hard not to choke.

Quick hit on Dallas Sports: Cowboys, Rangers, and Mavericks for now

 

So I usually give a prediction on how the season is going to go for the Cowboys. And as always it will depend on the offensive line. If healthy, the Cowboys go 11-5 with a chance to win the NFC East. If they struggle with injuries, this will be a long season. If the defense holds they could still end 9-7, but if the offensive line and defense suffer some injuries, this is going to be a long season. The Cowboys have the skill players, that is rarely the issue over the last few years, it is the offensive line that makes or breaks the season. And right now the line is a bit shaky from the little bit I have read. I hope I am missing something.

I am still holding out hope the Rangers find a way to stop this free fall. If they turn it around and regain some momentum going into the playoffs they are still a good team to make a run. Maybe not the best, but have a chance. Otherwise there will be many questions this off season.

I am still waiting on the Mavericks to find a true center. This person would not have to be the best center in the league, but at least strong on defense. That being said, the trio of Holmes, Lively II and Powell are better than the trio of Powell, McGee and Woods from last year. At the very least the attitude difference will make a difference and Holmes does have some talent so let’s hope he can reclaim some of his past production. Keep Maxi at the four because he his better suited for the weakside defense and spreading the floor.

Cheers

Don’t know what to title this, yet here goes

 

I felt like I had just gotten out of the car. It was late in the afternoon of a fall day. I seemed to park in a parking lot, for maybe a business. There were leaves all in the parking lot. There were other cars and maybe some people there, but I wasn’t feeling comfortable especially with the people, yet I could not put a finger on as to why or exactly where they were in the parking lot. Or were they over by the business or in their cars. I cannot remember why I stopped.

Again the parking lot was full of leaves, all drenched in bland fall colors, not the bright oranges and yellows you want to see, more of a dull orange or dull light brown. I looked up and the trees were the same way. The canopy of trees were thick so not much sunlight was getting through. All round the parking lot were trees blocking any direct sunlight from reaching the ground. I looked over and wasn’t sure if the one story small building I thought I had seen still existed. Did I see one?

I continued to look around. Off to one side of the parking lot was a small ravine and then on the other side was a hill that went up. Due to the trees I could not see how far the hill went up. I thought about walking over to the ravine to get a better look, yet still just stood still looking at the ravine. It had me fixated for a moment, but for how long I cannot remember or was it I could not tell.

I turned back towards where I thought the business had been, yet there was something there, but now it appeared to be more of a mound up against the other side of the parking lot from the ravine. There were trees standing over it and a hill went up behind it with trees going up the side of the hill so you could not see how far it went up.

Not only was the ground of the parking lot covered with leaves, so was the ground all around the parking lot. I turned around and around looking for the entrance to the parking lot or the road that led me here.

The leaves went up the sides of the hills on either side of the parking lot. I decided I wanted to leave so I reached into my pocket for my keys. I couldn’t find my keys. I tried walking around and now it seemed there were less cars and the cars that were there were in states of disrepair and missing doors or other body parts. I tried to look for the people I had thought I had seen earlier or had I just felt their presence.

It still seemed like it was late in the day. I could look up through the trees and saw blue sky and some light filtering through all the trees. It had that look like the sunlight wasn’t directly overhead. I could not figure which direction the sun was though. I tried to figure out how long I had been there. It couldn’t have been long since it was still light. I was starting to worry about it getting dark so I began hunting around where I was standing for my keys. I then realized I could not find my car much less my keys.

What happened to my car? I looked around the parking lot and now I wasn’t sure it was a parking lot. Were there any cars still there? There were leaves everywhere and some seemed stacked high like maybe they were covering something. I looked up. It was still daylight and it appeared it hadn’t changed. Small amounts of sunlight filtering through the trees and glimpses of blue sky through all the leaves. I started to try and figure out why the trees had all their and yet there were so many on the ground. That thought did not hold long. I just kept standing in the same spot trying to look for something to orientate myself. I started thinking I should try to climb one of the hills to get a better sense of my surroundings. For some reason I still stood there. I do not want to say I was unable to work forward or I wasn’t motivated to walk towards the ravine or any of the hills. It seemed everywhere I looked around there were hills all covered with trees so it was hard to determine how high was each hill. All the trees had the same color leaves that dull orange or light brown. It even appeared they were all the same size, yet I could not tell if all the trees were the same type. Some were taller than others, but that did not determine if the species of the trees were all the same. Now that I had been there awhile, I noticed everywhere around me was a forest, not too thick, but seeing off into the distance was hard or up the hills all I could see were trees.

And as time went on I kept worrying about what I was going to do when evening then night came. I looked up and the sky had the same amount of light it had when I first arrived. I didn’t panic about night coming yet, but it was a concern. I tried to determine how much light was left in the day. I could not tell. I knew it was still daylight, yet seeing the sky clearly was difficult through all the foliage on the trees overhead. I couldn’t tell if there was a cloud in the sky or not. The light seemed the exact same as when I arrived.

Nothing was stopping me from going anywhere, yet nothing was inspiring me to trek through the forest to climb one of the hills. I wanted to walk, yet I just stood there constantly turning to face one direction then another. The idea that I was once in a parking lot was there, but it had long since disappeared with the building, my car, my keys, the other cars and the people I had thought were there when I first arrived. Now there was just me, some flat ground that use to be the parking lot, some mounds of ground I presumed, leaves that had collected into mounds, the trees and then the hills going up to who knows where. All around me was this dull color, nothing that stood out, just this constant foliage of dull brown or dull orange giving off the appearance of some contrast, but very little with enough sunlight filtering through to let you know it was still day, but the light of late afternoon only.

And then I couldn’t tell if I was disappearing into the environment or just observing it. I wondered why everything around me was evolving or changing, yet time kept still.

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I started reading The Story of a Soul, the autobiography of Saint Theres of Lisieux. It was late at night so I only had read the prologue and most of the first chapter then fell asleep. It was a contrast to have read about her first descriptions of arriving in Lisieux and starting to discuss her impressions of the flowers there and then having the dream described above. It was one of those dreams where you are about 80-90 percent asleep yet still slightly conscious. I woke back up and started thinking about it. What did it mean? I came to the conclusion I am not a saint and I better wake up to that fact or I could be spending quite some time in purgatory.

Cheers