Category: The Prophet’s Grotto

“I Want to Break Free … Of the Lies that Bind”

Truths Held Self-Evident

The difference between the United States and an authoritarian regime is a culture whose three branches of government orbit truth. Though at times the orbit may decay, the forces of democracy will force the branch back into a stable path. Our hold to these self-evident truths keeps our country out of a decline into the flames of a dictatorship.

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32

“We hold these truths to be self-evident” enshrined in The Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal.” Of paramount importance is the statement “truths to be self-evident” in that material honesty provides the foundation of the United States. When the United States leaders or its people cease being honest with each other, our Republic will crumble and follow a path like that of a Commonwealth of Russia.

You ask, “Pastor Jim, are you pro-DEI?” Regarding the judging of who is “DEI,” I defer to our Creator and stand on words grounded on higher wisdom that said, “All men are created equal,” and that includes all women, ages, colors, orientations, and creeds. Who can set himself up like God and look into a person’s heart to declare they are “wheat” or “weeds”? {See the Parable of Wheat and Weeds in Matthew 13:24-29}

The difference between the United States and an authoritarian regime is a culture whose three branches of government orbit truth. Though at times the orbit may decay, the forces of democracy will force the branch back into a stable path. Our hold to these self-evident truths keeps our country out of a decline into the flames of a dictatorship.

Truths Held Self-Evident

Material Honesty

These Truths Held Self-Evident Keep America Out of the Mouth of the Bear

“We all lie,” some say. “Lying is a part of life. You can’t get what you want without it.” “Who doesn’t lie when someone asks, ‘Do I look fat in this dress?'” So the argument goes to build a foundation to excuse deception. However, there is a difference between a “harmless untruth” or a “well intentioned untruth” and a “material act of deception” delivered to the U.S. population to steer it toward a preplanned objective, such as hiding Project 2025 behind a Presidential platform.

Examples of Material Deception

One test for an act of material deception is to ask, “Would I have voted for this person if this course had been fully disclosed?” A second test: “What was left out of the discussion when it was explained to me?” This week Donald Trump in his speech to both Houses of Congress referenced the dollars wasted on treatment of “transgender mice.” Rather than a truth-based speech delivered to a nation reeling from of arbitrary tariffs, mass layoffs, and a dismantling of Civil Rights in the workplace, the President’s hateful, inflammatory remarks reminded us of a Lightning cannister vacuum sales presentation by a carnival barker at a state fair. With a flamboyant wave, the carnival barker adds more dirt to the floor to suck in more support for his platform of deception –

“And Now … More Dirt!”

Below I used my imagination with AI to create a “Transgender Mouse” referred to in the President’s speech and its song to go with it:

“I Want to Break Free … Of Lies that Bind” by Mousie Mercury

Queen’s song, “I Want to Break Free,” captures the the song that ran through my mind as I listened to the President’s words –

I want to break free, I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You’re so self-satisfied I don’t need you
I’ve got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free

-Queen

A Decaying Orbit of Truth

One distinctive of the United States that separates us from a Nazi Germany or a Banana Republic is that we have imprinted in our national DNA a multitude of tribes and kindreds who can attest to the truths held self-evident. The videos from meeting halls across the country captured U.S. constituents throwing the foul flag of deception. Fundamentally, U.S. citizens recognize that “truth” and “justice” are closely related in that justice orbits the truths we hold self-evident. A denial of truth decays the orbit of justice and democracy itself.

Justice, Law, and Precedent Orbit Truth

Voters recognize the difference between a “harmless untruth” about a politician’s comment on a beautiful dress that looks like a flour sack and a list of emotion-based half-truths given to deceive a voter out of his vote. A vote is not stolen in the ballot box; it is stolen by half- truths and deceptions uttered in an attempt to steal the voter’s mind. Justice, Law, and Precedent Orbit Truth.

Voters recognize the difference between a “harmless untruth” about a politician’s comment on a “beautiful dress” that looks like a flour sack and a list of emotion-based half-truths given
to deceive a voter out of his vote.
A vote is not stolen in the ballot box; it is stolen by half-truths and deceptions uttered in an attempt to steal the voter’s mind.
Justice, Law, and Precedent Orbit Truth.

“Like a Candle in the Wind” by Elton Mouse

Like a Candle in the Wind,

Pastor Jim

Up Next: “Five Bullet Points … Of a Last Week”

Five Bullet Points … of a Last Week

Last week Defense Secretary signed a memorandum to all Defense Department civilian employees directing them to prepare five bullet points. 
Defense Worker Remembers a Last Week

Civil Servant Vet in his mind while typing his email with his
prosthetic hand.

The Forgotten Vet
Bullet Points Never Forgotten

A Fitting Tribute to Our Public Servant

Source – Facebook

Thank You For Your Service,

Pastor Jim

The Press Conference: “No Truth for You!”

“Say it!! America is DOGEland!”

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

-“White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane.

“Meet ‘Hannibal!,’ Your New Gatekeeper“

Girl, you really got me goin’
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doin’
Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at night

-The Kinks

DOGE to Seniors: “Work Faster”

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:32

As long as quantity governs, anything goes.

-W. Edwards Deming

W. Edwards Deming taught the Japanese about quality. Hear his words and apply them afresh today’s United States. How have we emphasized quantity without quality? How do our leaders attempt to lead by “announcements,” “threats,” and “slogans” versus providing transformational change that values the worker?

A Parable: DOGE makes shocking accusation that of all Federal workers, 50 percent performs below average. Tomorrow DOGE accuses that the other 50 percent performs below average. Someone forgot to tell DOGE that even in the highest quality aerospace and medical groups, at any measured time, 50 percent will measure “below average.”

Years ago, in a restaurant booth adjacent to mine not far from the church I pastored, I overheard an engineer lamenting to another, “I don’t know what to do. I know I am technically right … but I am people wrong.” How can we be technically right but people wrong? What is the ultimate cost of someone who considers himself “right” but is “people wrong”? How do attempts to lead by slogan or announcement fail being people right?

Truth,

Pastor Jim

Up Next: “Lions Not Lambs: From Pray to Prey”

Abuelo’s Final Sacrifice

Inspired by True Events

Deported to Havana After a Life in the U.S.

Abuelo arrived in Miami, Florida as a 10 year-old political refugee from Havana, Cuba, fleeing with his family the terror of Castro. From age 10 to 20, Abuelo picked citrus 10 hours a day, loading crates that weighed more than he. Unable to attend school, Abuelo married his bride, also a refugee, and spent the rest of his life pushing a lawn mower for the wealthy American families in Miami. He specialized in crafting Disney animals out of hedge bushes, which the children loved as they were bused to their private schools. He and his wife made one mistake of returning to Havana for the death of his mother. Last week ICE raided a Super Mercado in Miami. Seeing the ICE squadron circling the market, Abuelo asked his grandson to lead grandmother out the backdoor, as she legally blind due to cataracts. Abuelo laid himself and his walker across the doorway of the market to buy time for his bride. As ICE took his retinal photo and ran his data in the immigration database, they saw him flagged as refugee status “invalid” due to his return to Havana for the funeral. As Abuelo shuffled, shackled hands to feet, onto the C5 Galaxy military transport to Guantanamo Bay, he is comforted that by his “final sacrifice” so his bride of many years would die a free woman in the the country that he loved. Dios te Bendiga! (Abuelo is Spanish for “grandfather.”)

De Colores,*

Pastor Jim

De Colores (“Of Colors”) – a traditional folk-song sung throughout the Spanish speaking world that became the anthem of the United Farm Worker’s Union in the 1960’s, led by Cesar Chavez. De Colores is also sung in the Christian faith movements of The Cursillo Movement and The Walk to Emmaus.

Coretta Scott King, widow of Rev. Martin Luther King, with Cesar Chavez. Notice also in the video several clips showing Cesar Chavez being helped up in his weakness. He fasted multiple times as part of his commitment to nonviolent protest of use of pesticides and conditions for U.S. farm workers. See also https://ufw.org/today-history-cesar-chavez-began-25-day-water-fast-delano-calif-feb-11-1968/

Reality Close to Home

Up Next: “The Silence of the Lambs: How America Became Complicit in Deporting Its Future”

MISSOURI SEEKS TO ADD PREGNANT WOMEN FAIR GAME

Daddy in Deerstand

In light of Missouri Republicans proposing a pregnancy registry to track pregnant females, what is next? Blood hound GPS tracking collars? You could hunt deer and track your pregnant woman. You could even post your captures on X! You never know what that girl might do while you in your deer stand sit. Keepin’ her out of shoes makes it a fair chase. Girls are faster runners due to all their free time, not workin’ and all. To save money, DOGE would add a pregnancy tag to the existing Game and Fish app. Season is limited to 9 months. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5151439-missouri-bill-registry-pregnant-women-abortion/

The Privacy Hunt

Papa Goes Hunting

My next blog will discuss the importance of protecting our freedoms and the privileges associated with freedom, such as privacy. As I consider this, we are parked in an RV park in Birmingham, AL. Today we visited the 16th Street Baptist Church where four black children died in a church bombings. Reflecting on the rights of women and people of color, may we be reminded of the St. Paul’s words, “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

What’s Next,

Pastor Jim

Physician, Heal Thyself

Health Department Gets New Leader

After firing thousands of epidemic medical experts at the Department of Health and Human Services, the newly appointed MAGA Director of HHS hired his own expert who specializes in divination of primate bones and chicken entrails.

See Luke 4:23 where Jesus read from the Scriptures, applying the prophecy to himself. The local crowd of his home town was not satisfied unless Jesus created a miracle carnival act. The same crowd then tried to murder Jesus when he wouldn’t jump like a trained poodle through their hoop.

So it is today, when we are tempted to beg our leaders to outperform one another with voodoo science and conspiracy politics. The old Baptist saying holds true, “It’s not how high you jump … but how straight you walk that matters.”

In Proberbs 22:28, “touch not the ancient landmarks” means do not tamper with or change the established boundaries or rules set as safeguards by the previous generations.

Lord, give us leaders who walk the humble straight path that leads down the path of truth.

#RashRxNow

RFK, Jr. Warns America of the Evil Dogs!

Throw out that dog and eat the box!

“Stop Eating These Foods” by RFK, Jr. described how we need to stop eating certain sugary cereals. In honor of his attempts to steal away our sugary cereals, I post the following:

“They’re Always After Me Lucky Charms!”

Dinner is Not Served

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has slashed two programs that provided more than $1bn for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farms and ranchers. See USDA Cuts. According to Jake Johnson of Common Dreams, roughly 14 million school children in the U.S. are “food insecure:”

Stinkk in the Soup

While the new head of Health and Human Services warns us that drinking too much sweet creams, with fistfuls of caramel popcorn and foot-long brats might make us fat, 14 million children in the U.S. live daily food insecure. RFK’s statements are like our two cats, Slinkk and Stinkk. Slinkk, with soft black fur, is everyone’s friend and slinks house to house, sharing with all. In contrast, Stinkk, our gray scrawny male Tabby with bent tail tip and reeking from caught prey, can’t stand to share with any other cat. He wolf’s down his own food then head-butts gentle Slinkk out of the way to gulp down her remaining food. Stinkk couldn’t possibly be that hungry; he can’t stand the idea that another cat would get any food while he feasts at the table. Contrary to Stinkk, the Bible compels us to “extend our soul to the hungry.”

Don’t Be a Stinkk,

Pastor Jim

If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
- Isaiah 58:10-11

THE GREAT WALL

“It is finished!” “Jesus is Gold!” “JESUS SAVES us from them.” We sing we are,”Whiter than snow” and “Safe and secure from all alarms”! And other lies.

May we be reminded of all things beautiful about Latino culture. Perhaps, one day, the walls will come down and we will embrace our brothers and sisters South of the Border in lovingkindness.

Translation

Dios te Bendiga!

Pastor Jim