The Establishment of a Christian Nation

 

Christmas arrived and great grandchildren looked forward to an evening or two of riding around neighborhoods to view the exciting light displays. One evening the great grandparents went along. For about ninety minutes, we went in and out of cul-de-sacs and down streets. Toward the end of the journey, I asked my wife if I was crazy or were there only about 10% of the yards with a decidedly Christian focus. She agreed what we saw were mostly Santa likenesses or varying degrees and colors of lights.

Another observation pointed to neighborhoods in subdivisions of higher-than-average incomes: multi-story, brick homes with attic floor space larger than our entire living space, and vehicles with values a quarter of what we paid for our home. In other words, people of means.

So, why do you suppose this vast array of American wealth and blessing kowtowed to secular expectations? I’m not specifically calling out all the Santa lovers. What I am pointing to is the lack of acknowledgement of most Americans in our neck of the woods (well within the Bible Belt) to the most obvious blessings of the grace of God.

There have been discussions concerning the state of the union relative to whether America was ever a Christian nation. First, one must understand the definition of nation. It is not a country. It is not a government. A common social trait defines it. Something like culture, language, religion, to name a few things it can be. Secondly, America’s Atlantic coastal colonies were specifically British during the Protestant Reformation movement. This means we had a common language (still in effect), a common religion (Protestant Reformation Christianity), and many common cultural aspects carried over from the British Isles.

How can we be so certain of the claim to Protestant Reformation Christianity?

The start includes key events. One was Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press, mid 1400s. Previous printing required written manuscripts like the Catholic Church’s versions. Gutenberg ensured Bibles in English could be printed 200 times faster than Catholic manuscripts. An important one for all Protestants was the posting of 93 theses from Martin Luther, a Catholic priest who was also an associate professor at a college, 1513. Another was Tyndale’s translation of Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew languages used in the Holy Scriptures directly from the writings of Biblical scholars and prophets. He translated into Modern English rather than the Middle English often used in prior work by other people.

King Henry VIII determined he would not bend to the Catholic pope’s demand to respect the pope’s instruction concerning a divorce from his deceased brother’s wife. Henry then determined he would be the religious leader of the newly established Anglican Church of England, 1517 era. Henry charged the reformation protestants with heresy, causing the movement of the Puritans and finally the pilgrims’ decision to move to America. During these times in England many bibles were produced. In Henry’s time, the Great Bible was used. In the same era, the Geneva Bible drew a huge following mostly because the creators added many academic notes to the wide margins to assist in understanding the scriptures’ intent. Things like the four or five major instances in the Bible which showed clearly the King was not the highest Authority; God was.

By the time King James took notice in 1604, he demanded a new Bible be printed without all of those notes, hence the King James Bible appeared in 1611. It took a while before it met with acceptance in the colonies.

It appears quite plain there exists any number of reasons why one should consider the British American colonies as a Christian nation. For sure, there were Catholics (Maryland the first to allow it recognized), Jews, and even some Muslims within the colonies, but they were not the vast percentage of religions the Protestant Reformation Christian represented.

There are numerous trails to follow when investigating side roads of this journey in American history. The single worst example is Jefferson’s letter while President to the Ana-Baptists in New England indicating “a wall of separation” existed within our Constitutional Republic keeping the government from taxing any church group to supply funds to a government church as the British were prone to do in England. Perhaps it would have been a more easily understood phrase had he used “a wall of filtration” to show Christianity held the keys to our founding. In that instance, the tenets of Christianity would be the important governmental controls of the men serving in Congress, the Courts, or the Presidency, but the Christian nation (We the People) would forever be held accountable for how those elected servants would govern.

The Book

Do you ever remember a time when, for no apparent reason, an assignment landed in your lap? That’s the premise for writing this. I cannot recall how this work took precedence. The title entered my mind with no warning. Hence, I cannot explain to you why I find myself compelled.

One of the earliest memories I have as a child involved a long drive from western New York State to the thumb of Michigan on the Lake Michigan side. I must have been five, maybe six. My paternal Grandmother remarried, and the Shepherds owned a cottage on the eastern shore of the lake.

Why would anyone build a dock only eighteen inches wide? It makes no sense to me now, but there it was. Appartently, getting to the boat I never saw explains the only reason the dock existed. During our brief stay my father determined to teach my two-year-older sister, Patti, and me how to fish. He purchased two of the cheapest fishing poles with reels I’ve ever seen, found some worms, and took us to the dock. My sister sat with her legs hanging over the dock on the right side and I assumed the same position on the other.

Dad proceeded to set up the leader, hook, and worm for me, threw it into the water, and commanded, “Don’t reel it in until you feel a bite.” He then proceeded to do the same for Patti. It didn’t take long until I felt a tug, so I cranked the line. No fish, so I called dad and pointed. He slid over, fixed the worm a bit, and added a bobber. “Wait until the bobber goes under.” He slid back over to tend to Patti’s rig.

Wouldn’t you know the bobber ducked out of sight! I reeled the prize in, only to find an empty hook. Now I’m learning dad’s not going to be happy with me. So, I put the rod over my shoulder and mimicked what he did to get the hook back in the water, but it wasn’t going forward. So I tugged a little.

Dad hollered, “Stop pulling!”

I turned to look, and he had hold of my line along with his right ear. The hook embedded in his lobe. It remains the only time I’ve ever thought about fishing for men.

In the primary Holy Bible carried by the majority of colonists headed for the Atlantic coast of the New World, the Geneva Bible in Matthew 4:19 states, "And he saith vnto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

How many of you, even though solidly Christian, ever caught a man? I imagine a few snickers as the women tap their husband’s hand.

The pattern became evident throughout my young life. One picture shows my maternal grandfather helping a friend who dad picked up to go fishing with me. Jimmy had caught a fish and grandpa Cook helped him land it. I may have caught a chub, but not a fish.

One of the least expected gifts my father gave me as a young teen turned out to be a nine-foot, three-section, split bamboo fly rod with an automatic reel. He had been an avid fly fisherman but gave all his stuff away some five years earlier. Now I was to learn how to place a little bitty dry fly in the center of a hula hoop. Rather incredibly, I did learn to do it consistently. But I had no idea how to think like a fish. I could cast overhand, underhand, with a roll, and sideways, but it never resulted in catching a trout.

Perhaps you can see why experiencing what Jesus taught the disciples became the farthest thing relative to my goals, even though I had already accomplished it.

These memories stand clear as day to me, yet God hadn’t forgotten.

At one point, as a fourteen-year-old Boy Scout, I earned the Protestant God and Country award. I see it every now and then when looking for other memorabilia. But the lingering memory fades quickly while a young boy.

One fact of life most never consider remains a significant part of my story. One’s frontal cortex, where thought matures, does not happen until at least the age of thirty. It explains why my conversations with my father never reached a connection until my thirty-second year of life in 1981. Oh, I respected him, obeyed him, and we had some plain understanding like the time he refused to accept the fact it took me longer to learn trigonometry than the teacher expected. The U for unsatisfactory work drew the exclamation I wouldn’t be playing basketball if the grade didn’t come up. Mission accomplished and basketball remained. Dad died five years after my maturing when we lived two hundred miles away. I was in the room with him when he expired.

I asked him some time before his death if he knew Jesus.

“I’ve made my peace with God.”

I won’t know until I get to heaven if dad is there.

The man who excels at catching men the Godly way, Pastor Robert Engelhardt of the Catskill Mountain Christian Center in Margaretville, NY, turned my life around as it demanded I focus on Jesus. While sitting under his leadership, my friendships matured. A Greek first, followed by a black man who sticks closer than a brother, and a Puerto Rican corrections officer who remains a solid connection resulted from over thirty years of Pastor Bob’s teaching. He caught me so well; Jesus’s other words call me to repentance.

If I may be so bold, I’d ask you the same question I asked my dying father. Do you know Jesus? Not simply knowing about Him. Scripture tells us even the demons know about Him. Take some time to understand there’s only one way to reach eternal life. It’s through The Book we know as the Holy Bible. Jesus said it. “I’m the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes unto the Father but by me (John 14:6).” Take it by faith, because you’re not likely to understand it in this life.

Birthing the Baby

 

Birthing the Baby

Warren A Johnson

©2015

 

Ashley Clark posted a take on writing based upon the painful experiences of the labor process during the birth of her son. I am not experienced in that side of the deal, but I’ve been around a few births. I have been exposed to the process by which nurses and OB GYN staff determine the quality of health of the baby during the process known as Electronic Fetal Monitoring (EFM). So, with the idea churning around in my brain, I thought I’d birth it for you here. If you are interested in learning more about the technical side of this and you have a smart phone, find the app called EFM Guide. It will explain the terms and physiology of what’s occurring at any given time on the fetal monitor.

            The first thing to learn concerns the process of EFM. No one has x-ray vision. No one can see your creation, your story. It will only come to fruition if you let it out. However, with the proper monitoring, one can tell the overall health of it. So, the first step is to apply the belly band around the mother. This device connects to the fetal monitor and shows patterns understood through observation. And, since birth is as much about the mother’s health as it is the child’s, we will also connect the mother to a heart monitor, We will watch her blood pressure, pulse rate and breathing rate. By discerning the increase in stress of the mother, we’ll know to look for like stress in the baby and whether or not the baby, like the mother, can recuperate from periods of stress.

            Although millions of people attempt to birth books, the successful ones I see plug into a venue to expose their efforts to people of greater knowledge and skill. This is the importance of writers’ conferences. Get plugged in. Dare to put your efforts up for observation. Let the pros discern your status. It’s for your own health and that of your creation.

            Since you are attached, so to speak, we’ll look at a few of the terms and what they mean to the baby. Fetal heart rate (FHR) refers to the predominant average rate displayed on the graph. The issue is that a baby in the womb experiences many influences changing their pulse rate. For instance, the baby may not like mom’s diet and the rate goes up. Mom may bend over and apply pressure to the baby and the rate goes down. The rate ranges from 90 to 200 beats per minute (bpm). What we’re looking for is the average baseline rate, generally expected to be around 140, ranging from 130 to 150, during rest or normal times.

            You experience any number of things throughout your day. Some of you may even have an hour by hour calendar so you know exactly when to write, when to do chores, when to go to the store, etc. If you don’t write during the proposed time, your baby suffers. If the cat plops on your computer key board, the baby suffers. If the older child falls off the porch rail, everything goes haywire until the emergency is under control.

            When the baby is excited, its heart rate accelerates. If the increase is over twenty bpm, it shows on the graph as an upward swing of the FHR. Accelerations are expected to decelerate as evenly as they accelerate. What you see is activity measurable by rate and time. An increase of fifteen bpm over a period of twenty seconds will show the peak at ten seconds and a return to baseline FHR at twenty seconds.

One day you’ll zoom through pages of text, moving right along on the plot and character development, and then it’s back to the grind. But that’s good! Realizing writing comes in spurts allows you to go with the flow and realize there will also be the work associated with normal activity.

In the same vein, decelerations occur. This time the monitor shows a depression of the FHR. It is always a sign of stress. Whereas an acceleration can happen from fun things, like receiving Brussel sprouts for lunch, decelerations occur from stressful things, like contractions mentioned previously. Again, stress is a part of labor, but the key is how well the baby recovers. We look at how low the FHR drops, how long it takes to get to its lowest rate, and whether or not it recovers to baseline FHR in the same time span. This pattern, equal time going into the depression and equal time coming out of it, is normal for babies.

Most of you know writer’s block will slow you down and you’ve overcome the illness. One way or the other you have taken steps to recover, whether it’s writing something else (like a blog) or brain-storming with cohorts. The issue is when your story is depressed you don’t let it stay that way. You get on with it. That’s normal life to a writer, so I’m told…

Accelerations and decelerations generally occur in association with the mother’s health. If mom’s heart rate goes up, chances are there will be a response from the baby and it will chart accordingly. If mom’s blood pressure changes significantly due to an event, the baby will be stressed, too. However, the OB folks also have terms like Early and Late Accels and Decels. These events occur, generally, because of events that are not obvious. These events are watched with a closer eye on the chart to determine if they are a) regular, b) predictable (able to tie the pattern to a cause and it repeats), c) whether or not they can be relieved.

Sometimes when we write, stuff happens. Stuff outside of normal or the occasional emergency discussed earlier. Most of you have had these experiences: bad health reports relating to significant diseases, loss of a loved one, hard economic times. Each of these will have an effect on your writing. That’s why Hemmingway always wrote in the morning. He knew that he’d be drunk by early afternoon and that all writing ceased at that time. I’m not advocating you plan that well for early decelerations, but you get it.

The last thing I think is important for you to know about this FHR monitoring is a major problem when the actual birth is occurring and it’s known as Shoulder Dystocia. The term dystocia simply means something abnormal. Many causes exist for this, but the inclusion of the word shoulder gives us a clue. When the baby starts down the birth canal, the preferred position is with the head preceding everything else. The baby also rotates so the shoulders end up with one toward the belly and one toward the spine. The baby faces either the left or the right side of the mother. This is the best position, considering the shape of the pelvic bone girdle through which the baby will pass. On the top of mom’s pelvic girdle lays the pelvic arch bone.

The problem comes when the baby’s shoulder closest to the mom’s belly catches, or hangs up on, the pelvic arch. Here’s the mom in heated battle with contractions going on, breathing heavily labored, she’s pushing to expel the baby and WHAM. The shoulder dystocia thing happens. The external sign observed by the OB folks is the head “crowns” (the top of the baby’s head is exposed through the vagina and is usually a sign of imminent delivery), but then it gets sucked back up into the birth canal (turtling—like a turtle pulling in its head). Holy smokes! Emergency! The birthing staff starts doing many things at this point. The FHR monitor is removed. The mother is placed in a number of positions to assist in relieving the pressure and to assist the baby in acquiring a better position for delivery. Someone will usually start by applying full body pressure on the pubic arch to try to effect a change in the girdle shape. Often the mother’s position changes to her hands and knees to alter the pressure points. All of these ensure the baby comes out as quickly as possible at the right time.

What we know about writers is unless they are tended by observant staff they will experience shoulder dystocia of an incomplete or unpublishable work. I’ve experienced this. I wrote my first novel about twenty years ago, but didn’t really have the interest in continuing with the writers’ conference route. Life changes, work experience, the economy and any number of other excuses kept me from pursuing the dream of publication. Then one day someone offered to publish it for three hundred dollars. What a pittance to pay for a book I could hold in my hand instead of looking at the manuscript in a box in the closet. I jumped.

It was the wrong thing to do. Yes, I have a book to hold. Yes, I had friends buy it. Yes, I gave many away and some even said they liked it and want to read the next one. It was premature and should have hung up on the way out! Now I know better. Now you do, too. Don’t get anxious. I have since learned God has my best interest at heart and He directs my path, if only I will follow him instead of getting in front of him. Thanks to many, I know I’m on the right path to publication, but it’s likely to be nine months from now.