Newsflash to Christians who vandalized the atheist billboards: vandalizing is a crime. It is a form of theft. Hence it is sinful. HWJR?

Yeah HWJR is my new slogan for my fellow Christians engaged in acts that Jesus might not approve of . It stands for How Would Jesus Respond (to YOU)?

Obviously, none of us could never know exactly how Jesus would respond to the billboard vandalism in Sac Town recently. But I think it’s safe to say He would not approve of ANY act where one could not be held accountable for his/her actions.. let alone one that was retaliatory in nature.

Jesus was many things, but if there was one thing he was NOT, it was a coward. In fact that’s one of the main attributes that made Him Jesus: His shocking COURAGE to stand up for what He believed in and risk persecution, ridicule, and even death on the cross. He was the PICTURE of accountability and transparency.

By the way, how are people going to preach ACCOUNTABILITY and TRANSPARENCY  to Mayor Johnson when they–themselves–are neither?

It takes absolutely no courage whatsoever to sneak around in the shadows with a ski mask and vandalize. I don’t care if you are vandalizing atheist billboards,  spray-painting swastikas on a synagogue, burning crosses, hacking someone’s email or web site, stealing equipment from an HVAC company, tagging a building with your set name, or spray-painting vile graffiti all over an internet discussion thread, If  you are sneaking, you are a Marcos Breton-certified CHICKEN.

In my opinion, if you don’t have the courage to be both transparent and accountable for your actions and opinions, I don’t care how insightful you are, you are part of the problem, not the solution. Your acts don’t further relations between disparate groups, they poison progress. They don’t promote peace and love, they promote upheaval and hate.

I am a Christian Catholic and I respect the Atheist view. I have no issue with their billboards. I do take issue with the  billboard vandalism though.

Atheists have their beliefs. I disagree with them, but I respect them.  Christians, the same right that you have to worship God is the same right atheists have to denounce Him. Live and let live. Leave their billboards alone. And stop arguing with them….and  gays.. and others who don’t share your beliefs. Stop ridiculing them. Stop persecuting them. Jesus commanded us not judge. When you honor Jesus you honor HIM as the judge. What happened to: “Leave the dead to bury their dead” ?

I say just be thankful He made Himself known to YOU, and pray He does the same for others. Rejoice and be thankful.

If God wants to make himself known to people who don’t believe in Him, He will. He doesn’t need anyone’s help. If He did He wouldn’t be God. Right?

And if you’re going to make a bold statement and stir people up in a public forum.. upset them… offend them… enrage them…. at least have the courage to do it with your mask off.. as Jesus did.

I don’t blame the trolls. If anything I pity them. I blame their  enablers…  like the Sacramento Bee. I want some true change I can believe in. I want all media web sites to begin banning character assassins. I want media sites that work for everyone. I want progress. War is getting us nowhere.

Recently a panel of media experts met at Sacramento Bee to discuss “pay walls.” News content providers are struggling to turn a profit in the age of Huffpo and this was more-less a forum to exchange ideas and experiences. Personally I think they are getting ahead of themselves. To me their content is of marginal value while it is being sabotaged by trolls whose only purpose for patronizing them is to condemn and vilify their brothers and sisters for personal satisfaction.

Oh yeah I should give you some background. If you are new to my site I should tell you I believe we’re all brothers and sisters. I think we all come from the same seed. As such I think we have an obligation to treat each other with a high degree of respect, regardless of the topic we are debating. It’s called COMMON DECENCY. Granted, it’s a concept that has escaped many bigots, sexists, and criminals throughout the ages, but it’s been around since man became civilized, and it’s still every bit as critical to the health and welfare of the common good, societal order, growth, evolution, and good old human decency as it was back in the bronze age.

As stewards of the common good, I am of the firm belief we all have an acute responsibility to protect our public airwaves  from the reach of pirates. We work together in neighborhood associations and other groups to keep our children safe from thugs on the street, yet we don’t work together to keep them safe from thugs on the net.

Why the double standard? I don’t care if it’s porn, spoofing, fraud, phishing, trolling, slander, bullying, threats, extortion, or hate speech, ANYONE who deliberately seeks to hurt people or otherwise disrupt sensible debate or the flow of information should lose their privilege to participate on the web site where the offense(s) occurred. First there should be a suspension, then expulsion. Period. I’m very pleased Sacramento Press has taken a leadership position and started to enforce this very philosophy.

You needn’t have been the victim of slander on the internet to adopt this zero tolerance policy I am suggesting…. anymore than you need to have been the victim of a shooting to adopt a zero tolerance policy towards gangs. All you need is a little empathy towards your fellow man. I know that’s a tall order for people who have never learned how to empathize.  These are the same folks who, e.g., will not attend a neighborhood crime prevention meeting after an, e.g., string of home invasions, on the basis that they haven’t experienced a home invasion.

I’ll never forget some of the conversations I had in Natomas with residents last year. A few people actually had no clue there was a crime problem.

Me to a neighbor: “Are you going to the crime meeting tonight?”

“Crime meeting? No, I don’t have any problems with crime here.”

“But your neighbors are being robbed and raped and terrorized.”

“Well they probably left their garage door open or something. That’s their fault. Plus there is a game on tonight I don’t want to miss.”

I’m hoping you are shaking your head in disgust right now. If you aren’t, you might check  your empathy level and perhaps  find out why you aren’t concerned about what is happening in the world around you. You might also consider this: just because it wasn’t you THIS time, it damn sure might be you NEXT time.

Oh I know, you’ll deal with that if and when it happens to you. I know so many people like this. They only take action if something happens to them. Kind of like the way the government reacts . Some people are proactive, others are reactive. Some people like to focus on preventing problems, other prefer to clean up messes as they occur. The latter is far more expensive and damaging. Ask Katrina victims. Ask Gulf victims. As the families who have lost their children to gang violence. [Just yesterday I read about another anti gang initiative about to launch in Sac. Great thing, but where are the programs that keep vulnerable, at risk kids out of gangs in the first place?]

Sadly, we are a REACTIVE society, and so many people don’t get involved until something happens to them. The Sac Bee is a great example of reactive policy rather than proactive one. Personally I think the Bee and other companies should not even be considering charging for content until they clean up their virtual offices and make them safe environments for people of all ages, political persuasions, sexual orientations, intelligent quotients, ethnic backgrounds and so forth. As it stands, they are not. As it stands their web sites are being occupied by web pirates, and untiul they are purged, I wouldn’t give the Bee a dime of my money. I hope you wouldn’t either.

Ironically, Bee Senior VP Melanie Sill is a staunch opponent of anonymous blogging, yet at the same time her company is arguably the most prolific enabler of it in the region. No wait, that is not irony. That is good ol’ hypocrisy. (PS: when is the Bee going to stop posting anonymous editorials?). Even though Melanie Sill knows who I am she still gets on me if I don’t sign my name to my emails fr0m my Joe Sac account. “Mark is that you?? Why don’t you sign your real name?”  Hmmph. Why don’t your writers sign THEIR names to your editorials, Melanie?

I want to be clear. I think there is a place for anonymity on the net. Personal blogs is one such place. Personal blogs are like TV channels; if you don’t like one’s content, you have the OPTION of ignoring it. For instance I have never seen a moment of programming on Oprah’s ‘OWN’ network, and chances are I never will. Works for me.

There was a time when this blog was anonymous. I was unfairly vilified for it by local media personalities. Unlike other loudmouths who aren’t questioned for being anonymous, I was called a “chicken” in the SacBee for not divulging my identity–and I never once stated a single personal attack on a fellow citizen here.  I even had community members emailing me and threatening to  “out” me. (!)

But alas, when I “came out” none of these people were anywhere to be found. Wonder why. I know why. They THOUGHT this web site was some sort of specious political storefront. When they found out it was nothing more than a colorful, passionate, pathological weirdo flexing his opinions, they were like, “Oh.” Nothing follows. Haven’t heard from a single one of them. My monthly hits have continued to rise ever since.

But again, this is my site. I pay for it. Furthermore I only criticize public figures here.. public figures who are making life and death decisions on a daily basis.  I have every right. Conversations about public figures SHOULD be spirited, and even caustic. I am not thwarting progress here. I’m promoting it by challenging ideas. I have promoted civil debate here since day one. I have banned multiple offenders for attacking others and I don’t tolerate personal attack and never will.

The public forum, such as on the SacBee’s web site, on the other hand.  is a completely different situation. Here we have people from all walks of life trying to weigh in on important decisions and they are getting torn apart by blood thirsty trolls whose only agenda is to force feed the world their opinions… without ever giving them the OPTION to turn the channel.

On Sac Press’s web site one commenter (I stand corrected, I thought it was Fifth Generation but it was  Cogmeyer) stated he is ok with offensive posters because he can simply pass over their comment if he wishes.

But frankly we are all adults here. Every single one of us could have simply ignored [the offender's]  comments and continued the conversation as if she wasn’t in the room.

I totally disagree.  He is ignoring the entire dynamic of nested comments. One person replies with a nasty post, then twenty people respond and the rest of the entire thread is devoted to that one comment. In order to “ignore” the offensive comment, one would have to skip the responding twenty comments, too.  So this whole “ignore them if you don’t like them” business is not the answer.

This is also why an “IGNORE USER” option would  not work. Because comments are “nested” in strings and even if you ignore the assailant who made the original offensive comment, you’ll still see all the replies to it, and often times you end up seeing the comment anyway because people will quote it in their replies.

The bottom line is that no matter how much value a troll adds in his or her non offensive comments, the damage they cause with the offensive ones overshadows any good they are doing.  The most brutal mafia dons in history went to church on Sunday and gave hundreds of thousands to charity by day, but bludgeoned their enemies with baseball bats by night.We didn’t give them a pass because they were doing good on Sundays. We penalized them for breaking the rules. In those cases we banned them from society by sending them to prison. In the case of internet offenders we should simply ban them from the public conversation.

A friend of mine posted a message to Facebook yesterday: “If you have something to say, say it to my face.” Yeah, Polly I could not agree with your more. That is some old school grown folk talk right there. What happened to that? Even when this site was anonymous I still was willing to meet in person with any of the public officials I criticized on this site.

I also met with readers whenever they asked me to. I never “chickened” out. I was even out in the community with John Dahilig and Jim Knapp shooting video. Matter of fact I even met with the organizers of the Fort Natomas rebuild to discuss their frustration with my criticism of the project. We shot a bunch of video of the project and were going to post a very critical article about it here. The organizers asked me not to. I honored their request and never posted the video or article… out of respect for them.

So don’t humor yourself . I have always manned up and stood behind my words. I even tried to interview Heather Fargo and she wouldn’t reply to me (she nixed the Natomas Buzz’ interview request, to0). I will meet with anyone who wants to talk to me, and you can rest assured I will be nothing but 100% respectful and professional no matter how much I disagree with your viewpoints. It’s called COMMON DECENCY.

The truth about character assassins is that they are ignorant. They use racial slurs, they attack people’s physical and mental dispositions, they discriminate against people for their sexual preference and ethnicity, they vilify people who are the victims of accidents (on the grounds they are “stupid”), and they generally do everything in their power to drag people down to the sewer with them.  They have their reasons. I’m sure they are miserable people. That’s fine. I won’t judge them. But let’s stop kidding each other;  these people don’t want to see progress. They want to block it. Those that enable them are no better.

Think about it. If  one is truly committed to PROGRESS and EVOLUTION and PERSONAL GROWTH, why the heck would they call  people names and assassinate their character?  Stop defending vulgarity, profanity and hate speech as passion. Name calling is only a filler for gaps in one’s knowledge. It is a desperate measure used by those who have nothing else of substance to add to a conversation.

In conclusion, if your goal is to EDUCATE and ENLIGHTEN people, if you are really part of the solution, why would you do it with a baseball bat? You wouldn’t. Sorry but anyone who thinks you can enlighten someone by hurting their feelings has no idea what the $#%@ they are talking about. That’s how drill sergeants operate.  It only works for them because if you don’t do what they say they’ll throw you in a stockade!

So how should we act when we are offended by someone’s position or when they disagree with us and it gets us hot under the collar? Well, we DON’T act like the good mayor Kevin Johnson did the other night. That was a 30 minute expose on what NOT to do. For an example of how we SHOULD act, I think we turn to one Dr Martin Luther King for an example…

Dr King was a dignified man who respected human dignity. He sought to educate, enlighten, inspire and ENCOURAGE people to aim higher. He did it without ever even muttering a profane word. Quite the contrary in fact. He preached PEACE and quoted Jesus! Not only that, unlike other people who didn’t want to get involved because they themselves were not victims or racism, Dr. King exercised one of the greatest examples of EMPATHY in history when he stood up for ALL people who had been discriminated against.  In other words, Dr. King didn’t have to be a lynching victim to empathize with those who had been lynched… just like I don’t need to be Mexican to disapprove of discrimination..

If we want progress we should exercise one of Dr King’s most stirring quotes ever “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” AMEN!  This is the same reason I am dead set against the AZ boycott law (but not a fan of boycotting AZ because of it)…. but that’s another long, rambling article entirely.

Have courage, use your real name and stand behind your convictions and beliefs–especially if you are going to attack someone’s character. Say it to their face if you feel that strongly about it.  Set the example.  Be a leader. Stand your ground and respect people as you want them to respect you. Exercise the GOLDEN RULE (do unto others..). Don’t let people run down and bully your fellow citizens and attempt to silence them (even if yu are in agreement with their politics). Everyone’s voice should be heard.

And whatever you do, don’t feed the trolls. We have fed them enough (I know I have fed them far too much already).

Last night we attended mass. It was a very special mass because after a year of preparation my wife’s brother was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic church. As we sang and worshiped and celebrated the resurrection of Christ together, I couldn’t help but think about the child molestation scandal that continues to blast away at the reputation of our church. Actually I prefer not to think about it. Still I think about it. I try to repress it, but it always bubbles back up. Actually, it started when the scandals first broke, abated for a while, but has now returned in the face of the new crisis at the Vatican. Fortunately for me and millions of other shell-shocked Catholics, we find solace in Romans: “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” I don’t think I could find a greater example of this in action than in church last night.

As I looked around the church in the glow of soft incandescent lights, the smell of incense in the air, with that dreadful thought of child abuse on my mind again, I was immediately comforted by the spirit of Christ that was clearly alive in everyone around me.  Each engaged, hopeful and inspired look, on the faces of those young and old, everywhere I looked, gave me an incredibly strong sense of hope. Looking to the altar I saw the priest, the nuns, the deacons, altar servers… in humble service… giving their hearts and souls for one mission and one mission only: to serve the Lord. All these sights and sounds collectively reminded me that the church is led by Christ and his appointed leaders are by and large not felonious criminals who abuse their coveted positions of trust.

As the mass progressed, so did the spirit of love and brotherhood–at least in my heart. As my brother was baptized, I felt the spirit wash away my worries and fears, my negativity and judgments, and renew my heart with a sense of love, peace, and a deep sense of joy, a sense of joy that I also witnessed in my brother in law’s young daughter who cried uncontrollably as her father humbly gave his life to Christ in front of his friends and family.

As the water trickled away in the font and I heard the priest speak the words “I baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit” to my brother, somewhere in the deep caves of my mind I heard that strong, fatherly voice assure me everything was going to be all right. That those whom love and fear God will be saved by Him, come what may. And that the evil that slithered its way into the church’s leadership ranks will NOT destroy the church, but Christ’s love and spirit of renewal will only make it stronger.

God bless you all this Easter. Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again

First, it’s interesting how many Christians criticize the Bee for writing  “Christian bashing” articles. I observe nothing of the sort. To my knowledge, the Bee has never maintained the isolated cases on which they have reported are representative of widespread pastoral “abuse,” nor have they ever cast Christianity in a negative light for that matter.

As far as I’m concerned, the people who are labeling these recent articles “anti Christian” are clearly not reading them objectively. In this tumultuous era of economic crisis, I firmly believe matters regarding one’s money, investments, tithes and so forth are important to discuss openly and honestly.  Furthermore, in those cases where one has abused one’s position and is funneling, extorting, coercing, or picking money out of the pocket of another,  I think it highly commendable that a news organization should choose to expose them.  I say BRAVO Sac Bee and Jennifer Garza. Nice work.

Second, the responses to these articles are very disheartening.  It’s truly disappointing to see how many people have written Christianity off entirely because of A) the deplorable  actions of a few; or B) the philosophical musings of both antiquated and modern atheist doomsayers who have successfully convinced them all religion is a fraud, “opiate”, fairy tale, and/or diabolical  “saw”-grade puppet show on the part of its purveyors.. without ever having personally surveyed the religious landscape and investigated the claims both for and against God, and the necessity of His church in society.

I won’t turn this website into one on cosmology, metaphysics, and theology, but I will say this: Don’t believe everything you hear or read on EITHER side. On the nontheist side, people like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins make some riveting  points, but if you bother to read their critics, you will find their philosophies are rife with error and conflict.  G.K. Chesterton said, “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies simply because they become fashions.”  Amen to that. On the flip side of the coin, we should be just as weary of preachers of prosperity who stomp  up and down their mega stages in their mega churches preaching the exact opposite of what Jesus preached about the storing up of earthly riches.

Third, despite what you may have been led to believe, the brand of Christianity I practice (which is Roman Catholicism), is NOT about being served. Au contraire. It is about SERVING OTHERS. We practice what we believe to be the centrality of Christ and that is that he came to “serve, not to be served.” (Matt 20:28). ANY institution that seeks to be SERVED, or preaches that its members should seek to be served, is not practicing Christianity. They are practicing something, but it is not Christian. Clearly Christ was a servant leader and to model him is to serve others selflessly and without desire for recompense.

Finally, I don’t know about other churches, but mine does not wish to “control” people.  What it wishes to do is UPHOLD the sixty-centuries-old  moral law that has clearly served as the bedrock for the civil law that secures our FREEDOMS and prevents our society from descending into anarchy. That some institutions cannot be supported does not in any way, shape or form translate to “we hate you” as the Bill Mahers of the world would have us believe. They simply mean “We love you, but we can’t support your propensities because they are opposed to the moral law.” As G.K. Chesterton said, morality REQUIRES that we draw the line somewhere. That is reality, not hate.

Yes, I am fully aware–and sharply REBUKE–those rogue leaders of the church who– like police officers, doctors, dentists, school teachers, politicians, presidents, movie directors, daycare providers, and many others–fell to temptation and abused their positions of authority. And yes, I am fully aware that some zealots of the early church (both Catholic and Protestant) lost their way and many people suffered as a result. I get it. But those things–while admittedly atrocious in scope–do not tell the whole story.  In fact they don’t even represent a grain of sand on the beach that is the twenty-centuries-old story of Christianity, and it is gravely dishonest to represent that they do.

In the final analysis–at least from this Joe’s perspective–the actions of the few (and they ARE a mere few over the course of the TWENTY CENTURIES the  church has existed) do NOT represent the beliefs and behavior of the many, most of whom have contributed immensely to the common good and played a substantive role in the miracle that is The United States of America.

A commenter who responded to the Bee’s story stated “Religious people scare me. Spiritual people inspire me.” He/she always states this same thing in response to every religious article the Bee posts. This comment always gets lots of supporting votes. But I submit while it’s a nice sounding byte, it’s outrageously fallacious and ignorant because “spirituality” is the quintessential by product of RELIGION!

Spirituality is religion’s goal. Saying you love spiritual people but hate religion is like saying you love orange juice but hate oranges. It is nonsensical. Whether he or she likes it or not, the “spiritual” people this person adores so much are deeply religious. They may not label themselves as such, but by nature they are.

On a parting note, the Bee asked local conservative radio personality Eric Hogue to weigh in. He suggested people “read the Bible.”  While I think that’s a great idea, at the same time it is dangerously incomplete. One should not only read the Bible for themselves, but they should also get a great bible handbook (I love “What the Bible is All About” by Dr. Mears) and find a great Christian mentor to help them along with questions, and so forth.

Here’s to the true Christian religion.. not fanaticism.. not fundamentalism.. not extremism .. just plain old LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF golden rule-based religion that accounts for all the spiritual good in our country–if not the world–today.

1) Go to http://bit.ly/4Aok1K to access the letters (I had to shorten the URL using bit.ly as it was really loooooong, but the  only address I found to access the documents consistently without an error or browser freeze).

2) Click on an image. When it opens look in the green left sidebar. You will see a tiny little field called “view” and its default selection in its drop down menu field will be “document description.”  Change this field to “page and text” then click the tiny GO button. Once you do this a POP UP WINDOW will appear (if you have pop-ups disabled in your browser you will not see this window unfortunately–this vexed me for a good 10 minutes). Now you can read the actual text of the letters and use the NEXT and PREVIOUS links at top to navigate the pages.

And now one of the letters I copy/pasted over (which was a very cumbersome process I might add). I have added paragraph breaks, etc to make this more readable..

A Letter to a Friend
By John Muir, 1856

Dear Bradley, I wrote you a long letter a day or two ago, with a supplement; but it was till too short; I shall endeavor to finish it now. You remember I mentioned your belief in Jesus Christ as our Saviour. Now what should follow from so great a belief, and what does it signify?

Just suppose Bradley, that you are a traveler; you have long been wandering here and there in rough thorny places homeless and friendless; your father is dead, and your mother is dead; you have not one friend to help you or take pity on you; you are an outcast, poor, hopeless, forsaken. It has been a bitter stormy day; since morning you have been urging your toilsome way against the sleety beast. Now the darkness thickens. It is night, and such a night. Hark how the storm shrieks and wails through the gloomy wood as the.. wind blows through the bending branches, its voice rising & falling in long-drawn dismal cadence.

The storm seems to be seeking you out as if aimed at you alone of all the wretches out that night. Your life’s blood is chilled. How strangely the tales of perished travelers fasten on your sinking heart. Shall you outlive the fearful night? A light! A light! Ah see how it blazes from long rows of windows tier above tier through the storm-laden darkness. You will not perish, Hope returns. Your almost motionless heart beats hard again sending thin watery blood through your benumbed limbs.

Struggle on Bradley, you shall yet be warmed & fed and sheltered. You approach feeble, and bent, and dripping; the big lighted front of the mansion seems forbiddingly grand. Hark how the joyous melody of the gay warm company within contracts with the howling of the pitiless storm. You have at length found the door but how woeful your appearance as the light falls on you. Dare you knock in such a plight at such a house. You are ragged and mud splashed and slouched and abject with the consciousness of poverty as well as with hunger and cold.

But life is sweet and you knock. The lord of the princely mansion listens. You knock again, he opens the door, he sees you are wretched, he speaks kindly to you and leads you in. For a time he forgets his gay company as he gets you dry clothing and food and all the comforts and cordials his fine mansion affords. He watches over you too as you begin to revive as tenderly as the fond mother over her sick child. When at length you have recovered under his kind care, he sends you on your way with a glad heart.

Ah Bradley would you ever forget that man? Would you–after joy or grief, hope or fear, bright prosperity or gloomy adversity, friends old or new, or time itself–ever push him or blot him out of your heart? No Bradley though you should live long afterwards, and travel far, and meet many a stormy change of fortune, through all the tossings and beatings to & fro on life’s changeful sea, up and down, back & forward, among those who might halt you, or those who love you, in pagan lands or christian lands – I had almost said, in heaven or hell- that man [the one who saved your life that night] would sit in the best place in the warmest end of your heart. Ah wouldn’t he, Bradley? I know he would.

Where then should you put Jesus? Where have you put him? Is he not too often pushed aside among the dear, airy nothings in the most confused corner of your heart? Ah how truly it may be said of thousands who say,” Jesus is mine, I know not where they have laid him”. The good man who left his company for awhile to lead you to his fireside and lovingly tended you, him you will remember with steady deep love while memory lasts; but Jesus who came away from his home in heaven, as happy a home as God was able to make, him you do not love so much, nor even as much as you would love me were I to walk down to your place some fine day and ask you how you did. How ungrateful and unreasonable. The benevolent man who blessed you with so many kindnesses was only a sinful fellow mortal some gold and some friends; perhaps attracted by that gold and some other things soon to perish and pass away made the only significent difference between you, But Jesus is the son of God. “By him the worlds were made”. By him all things consist “He it is who seeks you and suffers for you to save you.’

Again, you begged the good man to have pity on you, besides you never did him any harm. But it was long ere you ever begged Jesus to help you that he came away here to bless you. So far from humbly begging assistance in time of need, You said, “I desire not the knowledge of thy ways”, “I need nothing from you”. Do not these things make mighty odds in favor of Jesus in the claim for gratitude and love. The good man came only to the door when it stormed; that was not much of a deed. But Christ came far from his home, and out into the storm – a far greater and more bitter storm than we are able to conceive of and remains out in it all his life on earth – going about doing good drinking deep of every sorrow, with no place to lay his head at night, loving all of us, meekly suffering every kind of wrong and abuse, his kindest words and deeds misjudged and misunderstood yet ever returning Good for evil, blessing for cursing. And at the last after being reviled, scoffed at, spit upon, whipped, he meekly suffered himself to be cruelly put to death praying for his tormentors with his last breath.

O dear friend let us give our hearts to Christ our Saviour and love him and follow in his footsteps forever then however far we may be separated while we each follow our destiny here, we shall meet again above the region of storms in that bright mansion of the blessed the home of our Saviour & Father to part again no more forever.

Note: If anyone from UOP is reading this, please contact me and I will be happy to assist you with designing a much more accessible and friendly user interface for people to access these valuable letters.

To start,  conspirators have referred to Bill Gates as the anti Christ for many years now. I never even thought twice about it because all they can come up with is some clever number crunching to show his name and other info come out to 666 somehow. They’re essentially playing records backwards, and the evidence to support such a ridiculous theory is weak at best.Factor in Gates’ BILLIONS in charitable contributions and it’s a hard sell.

Enter Steve Jobs. He and his Apple brand have been the antithesis of Gates and Microsoft over the years. They have presented theirs as a highly user friendly, virus free operating system, and won over the arts community with their support for music production, photography, film, et al.  and quirky approach to advertising. . not to mention their success with iPod and now iPhone. Their stark white and silver computers have been clean and sleek, and mirrored the images of their blinding white stores.

But under all that blinding light, is there something a bit more darker?  As in:  Mwooooo hoo hoo ha ha!

1. The first Apple Mac sold for $666 (this is a fact, Jobs has only said it was a pure coincidence).

2. The first Apple logo (view here) depicts Isaac Newton sitting under a tree with a single, glowing apple hanging over his head.. reading a BOOK. Does the tree represent the Garden of Eden teaching in the Bible (where mankind is tempted to eat an apple from the tree of knowledge), OR does it depict the apple tree that Newton himself said inspired him to formulate his theory of gravitation…”by watching the fall of an apple from a tree…”? If the latter, why only one apple, and a glowing one at that?

3. Apple rolled out two MAJOR product lines on dates consistent with 6’s:  6/6/06 and 9/9/09.

4. Steve Jobs always wears black.

5. The second Apple logo was a rainbow-colored image of an apple, this time with a bite taken out of it (I am told this is not a rainbow, but a PRISM, which symbolizes “the separation of lightness”); the third Apple logo was silver (like coins), and the most recent Apple logo is BLACK (like all Steve’s shirts)

6. All Apple stores are painted stark white and are lit up so bright one gets the feeling of overkill. The ONLY area of the store that is not white is the counter, where the greed money manifests. It is jet BLACK.

7. Nearly every Apple product is focused on the idea of PERSONAL possession  and start with an “i”  … iPhone… iPod..  and all these products fall under the umbrella of iLIFE!  Focus on self is the anti God state of mind in many religions, particularly in Christianity (in fact Jesus even said, “those who are last, will be first’”).

8. iPods are anti social and draw people inward rather than turn them outward. It’s hard to even talk to young people now because they’re all enveloped in their iLife listening to their iMusic or watching their iVideos they bought from their iStore. Me, me, me, me.. the total Anti God state of mind.

9. Apple has announced it will no longer take CASH for its products…which pushes our society further into a state where it might some day be impossible to buy something anonymously.. and lead to the very condition prophesied in the Bible’s Revelations whereby each citizen would have to be branded with a unique ID somehow to prevent fraud.. ““Anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed. It forced all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to have a mark on the right hand or forehead. Without the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name, it was impossible to buy or sell anything…” Revelation 13: 15-17

10. Apple touts its MacBook computer line is the crowned king of personal computing. Coincidence it uses the word “Book,” or a conscious effort to steer people away from books… especially the Bible?

11. Bonus round: Steve Jobs goes by the secular “Steve” instead of his birth name “Steven” (which his step-parents clearly named him after the Christian martyr Steven since his whole name is Steven Paul Jobs. Actually Job is a book in the Old Testament, too).

Though these points might be intriguing, and highly coincidental, I don’t believe they prove any conspiracy theories about Apple or its top dog Steve Jobs.  And while I think it’s wrong to mock any religious document such as the Bible (if that is what Jobs and company have done),  I think it’s safe to say that while they might be “genius,” they’re not smart enough to be “the enemy” as some people have claimed.  The enemy is far more cunning.. although its possible those ingenious folks at Apple are on his All Star team.

1. God. Yep, I don’t know who or what I would be without Him. Luther Vandross, my favorite male vocalist, did a song called So Amazing at the peak of his career. I used to think the song was about a relationship. I’ve come to realize it might just be about divine love: “Love has truly been good to me/Not even one sad day or minute have I had since you’ve come my way/I hope you know I’d gladly go, anywhere you’d take me/It’s so amazing to be loved, I’d follow you to the moon and the sky above..” That says it all about my leader.  His love is truly amazing.

2. My wife. As I have stated before, my wife and I struggled early on. I was compulsively focused on being “successful” in my career, and she was all about having fun. In retrospect, the polarity was astounding. Eventually our marriage fell apart, and so did we. Our divorce was only weeks from being final, when  a miracle happened. God brought to me a man who changed my life. This man literally trained me how to be a submissive husband, and how to be a strong and centered leader in my home. He knows who he is, and he would never want to take credit (which speaks to his incredibly humble character), but through my countless conversations with him I rediscovered the God I knew as a child, and through God I rediscovered myself, and once these things happened I was able to see my wife’s extraordinary beauty, both in and out. I am so thankful for her. How could the woman whom I used to dread coming home to now be the one I adore with every ounce of my being? There is only ONE answer. See #1. I’m a witness.

3. Family. I have been blessed to have very loving and supportive parents my whole life. They have picked me up when I’ve been down, and kept me level when I’ve been up. My folks are the most honest people I know. My mom playfully bags on my dad for taking so long on his taxes every year, but I know why he does: He’s determined not to cheat the government out of a single penny. I’ve always had sterling models for unconditional love, honesty,  integrity, and work ethic, and I could not be more grateful for them. Equally, I am thankful for my children. Though they can be a handful (or two), their unconditional love for me is unlike any other love I have experienced. I can’t imagine my life without them. I learn more from my kids than most adults can teach me. I pray I get to share their adulthoods with them as my parents have been able to share mine with me.

4. Blessings. Good health (!), friends, family, business associations, pursuits, the ability to reason and communicate, to walk, to breathe, to eat, to live. God has been very generous, and given me many gifts. Sometimes I forget to appreciate them as I should, but I’m trying harder and harder every day to keep them in the forefront of my heart and mind and never take any of them for granted.

5. Freedom. Enough said.

6. Upright teachers, preachers, charity personnel, leaders, judges, PEACE officers, journalists, bloggers, musicians, artists, youth mentors, et al. I love them all, especially the ones who are in it strictly out of love for their fellow man,  completely focused on making a positive difference in the world. Such noble people exist, it’s just that GOOD doesn’t sell newspapers or increase TV ratings. Much love and respect to all the people out there making a positive difference.

7. Music. Sweet music. I listen to all of it. Everything from George Clinton to Bach to Steely Dan to Stevie Wonder to Air Supply to Sarah Vaughn to Coldplay to Public Enemy to the Carpenters to Carrie Underwood to James Taylor to Maxwell to Outkast. Sweet music.

And I’m thankful for everyone who participates in the community discussion and wants to make our region a better place. Doesn’t matter what township you live in, we’re all within 20 minutes from one another, and the larger the coalition, the more powerful our voices become.

I’m sure I forgot some things. I will be reminded of them when people add theirs no doubt.

Peace!

I was over at some apartments in Regency Park (which is north of Natomas Park) off Zurlo Way yesterday evening. These are generally low income apartments, and I believe most are Section 8 (like almost all the apartments Fargo and company have piled in North Natomas). There have been a lot of problems here. When I lived in Regency Park there was a ghetto bird hovering over them at least once a week. There was a home invasion there several days ago. What I saw tonight though really got my eyebrows up..

When I pulled into the complex earlier tonight I saw a crowd of kids in the parking lot, and rap music was playing loudly. Kids were throwing a football (which hit my car! and generally having fun. It looked like a block party. There was a huge sign that said “FLIPT” across the front door of the clubhouse . Turns out Gateway Fellowship church in Natomas is hosting their youth group (called FLIPT) at this complex for the next several weeks. They actually took their group around this complex door to door and passed out fliers a week ago to pre-hype the event. And I’m telling you, it was all good in the hood! These kids were THRILLED to “have company.” I could see it in their eyes. Can you imagine if the mayor or council person Tretheway ever came out and talked to these kids? Ok, Neither can I.. (but I can definitely see KJ out there)..

Gateway’s presence where it is needed most tonight was very inspiring to see; although in my opinion, it’s unfortunate citizens have to dedicate their own time and resources to keeping their neighborhoods safe. Sure, from a Christian standpoint one could argue the prevalence of low income housing in Natomas is a hidden blessing as it allows people with resources to spread the good news to those without (and I have promoted this exact ideology to those who have laughed at me for choosing to live here); but let’s face it, that doesn’t erase the fact that the value of my home will always be 20% less than those in other communities due to the public safety issues and lack of desperately needed infrastructure (like a police sub station). The silver lining can always be found in any scenario, but it doesn’t remove the fact that the cloud is hanging overhead. Quote me on that.

Regardless, rants aside, Gateway Fellowship is setting the bar in terms of community involvement and should be applauded heartily for their efforts in North Natomas.

If you have been reading since the start you may recall I stated something about this idea I had early on called GIJOESACRAMENTO. I have been meaning to get around to this but between family and blog and work and doing artwork for blogger friends(!!)–aw forget the excuses. Anyways, I have served as mentor and counseled at risk youth in the past, and I want to get something started in Nomas like Gateway Fellowship is doing, but more on the mono y mono big brother tip–with a nod to scripture-based mentorship (which is the only way in my opinion).

I need help with this.. especially from guys like myself with a lot of sports, coaching, mentoring, etc in their background that won’t back down or be intimidated. You know who you are. I was thinking we could hook up once a week for a minute and brainstorm, then map something out and look to the community for some assistance to go to ball games and things. I have a lot of ideas.

Here’s to people doing something for their communities. I think it’s safe to say we best NOT wait around for the city to help us any longer.

Much love to Gateway Fellowship Church for their work in the community tonight. Very inspiring.