So how do you understand the religious history of Manor Township?

This is the question posed to me by someone growing up here, who moved away to California to become a religious studies professor, but returned now in his 60’s to try to discover the spiritual roots of his family and church history, why they believe what they believe presently, how that impacts their family relationships and what they commit themselves to.

First, I am a simple layman with no particular credential other than I have lived in this community all my life. Everything I say is simply the result of rubbing shoulders with neighbors, absorbing the fulfillment of community, attempting to make sense of wide spectrum of opinion in discussions, and I must say the pain of abandonment.

Many of us Oldtimers (meaning immigrant families from 1720 -1750) here in the Manor came from the area of South Germany and Switzerland. We came because we were fleeing the state religious systems of both the Protestant and Catholic. We were identified as Anabaptist because we refused to believe that babies were born in sin, saved by baptism. We believed Jesus was God in the flesh and we should take his word literally, commanding us lay down our swords, loving even those the state told us were our enemies. We were Armenian without knowing it, meaning that not everything that happens is God’s will. It was not God’s will that the State Churches kill our brothers and sisters as martyrs for their faith. Evil was rampant in this world, and they accepted as fact that the righteous suffer even as Jesus did. They suffered believing the resurrection will be their experience as it was Jesus’ experience. God is Sovereign in the sense that God is the judge of all for what we do. Vengeance belongs to God alone. As humankind we are created like God in that we can choose good or evil yet mortal. They believed God was with them giving them strength as they suffered and fled to tolerant cities. They lived as migrants with few political rights to hold property working as laborers. My family were weavers from Switzerland who found refuge in Mussig, France.

In 1737 my ancestral family came to Penn’s colony. They lived 7 years in Philadelphia to help pay off their fare before moving to Manor township in 1744. Since they had no documents from England to immigrate it took 16 years for them to become naturalized citizens. They joined many other German Mennonite people who already lived here. I suspect they met together in homes for a number of years before they started to build log cabin structures as meeting houses. 5 different fellowships developed in Manor township, a horse and buggy distance from each other at Mountville, Habecker, Masonville, Millersville, and Rohrerstown. Our church at Habecker Mennonite was first a log cabin. The current brick building is the 3rd building on the site built in 1898. Ministers circulated among the churches.

I wonder how much connection these Germans had with the English world. I am told during the Revolutionary War 500 families fled to Canada to remain loyal to the Queen. They must have felt threatened by the revolutionary government. But largely they laid low as a minority people, known as “the quiet in the land”. Unlike the Quakers, there are only a few accounts where Mennonites participated in what was called the underground railroad. While Mennonites were not allowed to own slaves, they generally were not willing to become active in any resistance movement against slavery. I wonder if our people were just focused on surviving economically, still fearful of the persecution they suffered 200 years earlier that they had little strength to identify with the suffering of others. The Civil War was a major crisis in the Mennonite Church especially for those living in Virginia. Many young men of draft age in Virginia fled to Ohio. I understand young men needed to pay a fine or pay the equivalent amount to support a enlisted soldier. During the civil war conscientious objectors were not imprisoned and tortured as they were in World War I.

I often wonder how much the larger culture's values impacted the separatist German speaking Mennonite community. When I think of values of the dominate Protestant religious world, I have a feeling that it was dominated by a colonial drive to take possession of the land. Reading Puritan John Mason’s description giving glory to God for the fiery oven and smell of burning flesh in the Pequot Indian massacre 1637 set the example for Europeans to forcefully remove or kill the natives and establish what they called the New Israel. Manifest Destiny was the primary belief that it was God’s plan for Europeans to take control and settle the entire continent of North America. Did the Mennonite people accept this idea? I wish I knew. Certainly, they took advantage of the expanding frontier as land became available.

Mennonite isolationism gradually began to break down as the English language became more widely used. My mother remembers her grandfather who died in 1937 was the last song leader to lead German hymns in her congregation growing up. My grandfather born in 1900 could understand German but never spoke it. So, I believe the popular use of German must have gradually disappeared in the late 1800’s in Manor Township. As the English language became more widely used, Mennonites began to borrow hymns and Sunday school materials from the Protestant tradition. The Mennonite People west of Lancaster never divided over issues such as language, missions, and Sunday School as did the groups in Northeast Lancaster County creating the old order Mennonite Church. Transportation limitations with horse and buggy kept the community together in body if not always in spirit. With the advent of the car all that was about to change. Suddenly people could travel great distances to a church of their choice. As result the small community church was not so impressive any longer. There seemed to be a new popular theology with each generation which attracted so many young people.

In my parents’ generation, during the 1930’s through the 1960’s the whole country was taken by storm by a teaching of Cyrus Scofield. He was greatly impressed by a secular Jew, Theodor Herzl around 1890’s, who believed Jews would never escape the antisemitism in Europe until they would have their own nation in Palestine. This dream was the birth of what is called Zionism. Cyrus Scofield got excited that this emphasis is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies which he believed were never fulfilled. He wrote a lot of notes in a King James Bible which came to be known as Scofield Bible. He outlined an end times eschatology which became known as Premillennial Dispensationalism. The Bible was divided into dispensations of time. He taught we are currently in dispensation of Grace or church age awaiting the time of the rapture when Christians are taken, the 7 years of the Tribulation, Jesus returning as a conqueror and reigning on David’s throne in the rebuilt temple for 1000 years.

After WW1 the Ottoman empire was divided up because they had supported the Germans and lost. The British got possession of Palestine and opened the borders for Jewish Settlers. Then after WW II in 1948 these European Jews successful fought a civil war against the Palestinian natives, removing them from their home communities forced them into refugee camps and declared Israel an independent Nation. This was an era of great excitement for so many Christians in America because they believed this was a fulfillment of prophesy and that demonstrated that God was behind all of this. Christ would return and reign from the throne of David very soon.

Older Mennonite ministers believed this teaching to be heretical. Jesus refused the temptation to build an empire. He crossed the border to tell the Samaritan women, the time is coming when neither Jerusalem or Samaria was important to God. All children are created by God and equally chosen, and his kingdom is made up of all people to the ends of the earth. When he said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in 3 days”, he meant he himself is the temple. It is through Jesus we speak to God and not from some building. It is completely out of character for Jesus to come as a warring conqueror. Paul says the true sons of Abraham are those who follow Jesus. The Church was the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham and not a piece of land. They believed Jesus would come again, there would be a final judgement, and the righteous would dwell with Jesus forever in a spiritual kingdom we cannot comprehend.

But the excitement of God working out his purposes in real time with the advent of the nation of Israel was just too persuasive for so many young people and many left creating peer group churches; the Bible churches, independent nondenominational churches, plus this teaching influenced many evangelical denominations. In Lancaster this movement started a school called Lancaster Christian School and a radio station called WDAC. People were impressed with ministers who treated the Bible like a magical book, every word was inerrant holding a riddle to be discovered. Truth was found in the written word. People also were excited that God worked through the nations and that our own nation had a significant role to play. The nation of Israel was proof that God existed. People started to become more politically involved, even joining the military in the service of the country.

The driving theology in my generation during the 1970’s in many ways was an exact opposite teaching. While the independent bible church taught a strict literalism of the word, the dispensation of new revelation was closed, miracles were not of this age, and speaking in tongues was of the devil, my generation prayed long prayers into the night for miraculous healings, the gift of tongues, the word of knowledge, and the 2nd baptism of the Holy Spirit. Much of this sensational teaching was modeled after the TV ministers who our people listened to. The Charismatic Churches grew out of this movement of young people. They started their Christian School called Living Word, where speaking in tongues was required of faculty. While the written word was still important in defining belief, Truth became much more experiential. Contemporary worship music was the trademark of this new spiritual expression.

I am not sure how to describe the influence of early 2000's generation in our church at Habecker Mennonite other than to say it may have been an attempt to take the charismatic expression to another level. It was called the prophetic movement. Apostolic leadership where God speaks to the leader directly was advocated. Our young people took mission trips with YWAM and to conventions in Florida called Branded by Fire. While our church was not political in teaching some people were attracted to the beginnings of what became known as the Seven Mountain teaching where Christians were encouraged to be actively involved in the 7 spheres of influence such as government, arts, and education. We held long periods of music where spontaneous spiritual expressions and prayer was encouraged. People were encouraged to see visions or images to be interpreted. The most difficult time in my life was when our church divided because I really loved the young people who sat in the pews. I believed that it is more important to sit together than to believe the same thing. However, someone in Chicago saw an image of sword which was interpreted that our church should divide so it must be so. Truth was now an expression of our imagination.

While these different generational theological perspectives may seem at odds with each other; with respect to a commitment to Zionism, they were identical. When Lancaster Christian combined with Living Word in 2010, with opposite theologies, I was amazed. I asked some patrons about this, and they said they don’t believe all that anymore. The one common denominator they both agree on is a political conviction that God is at work in the European Jewish takeover of Palestine. One can hardly imagine how strong this US support is for the Israeli occupation of Palestine against the natives. The popularity of Christian Nationalism here in US draws it's inspiration from this Old Testament nationalism. When one remembers that Jesus was crucified by European occupiers wanting to please the Jewish nationalist of his own day, one realizes there is very little difference between his day and our present war in Gaza. Jesus would come today as a native baby boy, from Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, (both Palestinian towns), and he would be bombed by European Jews, paid for by the nationalistic evangelical churches of America.

In my personal story, I learned to love the Mennonite Church during my college years from 1970 to 74 at Millersville State College. Millersville was a public college with professors who were Secular, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish, and Atheist. This was a huge shock for this Mennonite boy who attended Mennonite schools all my life to that point. This was also the time a lot of Vietnam veterans were returning from Vietnam. Many of our classrooms were filled with so much anger and criticism toward our government’s continued involvement in the Vietnam war. I only had one professor who defended our country’s involvement in the War in the 4 years I attended Millersville, and he called himself a Christian. I remember thinking how important the peace teaching of our churches was. Many of the students who came from a fundamentalist background which taught the inerrancy of the whole Bible, biblical prophecy relating to Israel, had so much difficulty as professors were very critical of these convictions. It did not matter if it was a World Civilization class, philosophy class, literature class or even Biology class, these subjects would come up. I was enormously grateful that my faith was rooted in the convictions of our older ministers who had only 8 grades of education, that indeed we recognize many conflicts in teaching between the Old and New Testaments. I was taught, if an Old Testament teaching is in harmony with the teachings of Jesus, we accept that as God's truth to us. Jesus is the anchor from which we judge truth. I did not need to defend observations in the Old Testaments that were in direct contradiction with Jesus. It was sad for me to feel more in harmony with the peace advocacy of those who held no faith compared with the teachings of Christians on TV who called themselves the moral majority. It was also sad for me to see ministers in the church who really wanted to teach the teachings of Christ lose their following as political persuasions are so much more powerful than following Jesus.

As a result of 3 generations of abandonment, Habecker Church was left with just a very few members who faithfully attended. I know what it feels like to attend church with no children and all gray hair. Church growth seminars were taught for us to define our strengths, and I hated them. I felt so helpless, hopeless. Can’t you see we are all abandoned old people. Who would take an interest in joining our ranks. When a church loses even one generation in their numbers, they are like an amputee attempting the high jump. We lost 2 generations. Can’t you just let us die? I was bitter, yet I defended the teaching of Mennonite Church as the anchor of everything I believed about Jesus.

Can you imagine the amazing miraculous blessing it has been for us as a congregation to sponsor our first Karen speaking refugee family in 2008. It was totally unexpected. My parents had sponsored 3 Ukrainian refugee families when I was a child. They helped our congregation sponsor 3 Vietnamese families after the Vietnam war. These families stayed for a bit until they learned the language, found better opportunities, and then moved on. Sponsoring displaced people was the right thing to do but certainly not expected as a way to build the church. But these immigrants from Burma joined us, gave purpose to our meeting, energy to our fellowship, joy in soul, and life in our spirit. God resurrected our congregation with people with whom we could not speak. They gave us opportunity live the teaching that we only really live out Christ’s teaching when we cross the border and love those most different from us. They gave the opportunity to demonstrate that to be saved we really do need to sell what we have and give to the poor, living sacrificially. We have walked together for now 17 years. Almost all of our people are now citizens. Of our families in the directory, more than 32 are now homeowners. We are blessed with many children. We again have all generations represented in our Church. Our congregational singing fills the building where one’s voice is absorbed with everyone else’s voices to the point where one cannot hear oneself sing. I feel like church represents a bond built on the ordinariness of putting food on the table, a roof over ones head and the respecting the dignity of each person. We have a church based on loving kindness and not persuasion, academic excellence, sensationalism, fear, or salesmanship. We have all levels of intellectual competence, from the near illiterate to highly educated but no one would know the difference. When I see people, I can’t speak with, sitting in the pew praying, I really don’t know what level of understanding they have or the burdens they carry. But I know God hears their prayer and I am challenged. I am not bitter anymore. God healed my spirit in the most unusual way.

Are we a perfect congregation as an expression of a disciplined Mennonite Congregation? Certainly not. Karen nationalism; still fighting the 75-year-old civil war against the Burmese is part of the mindset of many of our people. I worry about the influence of western entertainment saturated with violence and promiscuity on the screens of our people. The addiction to alcohol has been a long struggle for us as a people for which we have paid dearly. But love does cover a multitude of sin and we are church together.

I often think of a story from my history. I don’t know how Mennonites in Lancaster county got started with the raising of Tobacco. How did this happen? Everyone raised Tobacco as the cash crop to pay off the farm. I thought in my growing up years, our people did not know better. But then I spent some time in our Church Archives reading the Heralds of Truth which was the Mennonite Church periodical back in the beginning of the 20th century. I found article after article criticizing the raising and use of Tobacco. I wondered if these articles began the origin of Lancaster Mennonite Conference walling itself off from the broader church in this country. Seeds of that suspicion of the broader denomination are still with us. My father gained a conviction against the raising of tobacco when he went to Eastern Mennonite School in Virginia. He learned the broader church was highly critical of Lancaster Mennonites raising tobacco. When he came home, he married my mother and moved onto the farm my grandfather had purchased for my father. My father told my grandfather he did not want to raise tobacco on the farm. My grandfather did not think my father could make it financially without raising tobacco, but he allowed my father to farm as he wished. He even loaned money to my father to finance the cost of converting the large tobacco barn into a 4-story chicken house. His only stipulation was that my father not rub his conviction against tobacco in the faces of the other church members who still farmed tobacco. This is an amazing story to me in that it teaches that love and unity among the fellowship may be more important than the righteousness of our convictions. Tobacco raising never divided the church. I feel like our congregation is another expression of that value.

While this is my story, it is not everyone’s story. As my friend interviewed more than 30 people who migrated from our congregation during my parent’s generation, no one mentioned eschatology. A good number mentioned their military service was not permitted by the Mennonite Church. Others mentioned wanting to loosen up the dress code or just wanting to be with their friends from school. The conclusion is that people move from church to church for many reasons, but rarely for theological convictions, but in the process unconsciously adopt theologies which facilitate their journey. As I write this, our world is mired in violent conflicts. I believe the eschatological views which our country has adopted based on old testament wars of genocide are responsible for the suffering of so many people. These views are contrary to the teaching of Jesus and our ancestral immigrants. These wars cause us all to reflect on what we believe and repent. May God help us all.

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

A letter to my Mother - April 2020

    It's been 5 years since my mother died. I just found this letter in a stack of papers in a box set aside in storage. I wrote it to her a month before she died. She had a medical complication which took her to the hospital. Seeing her condition they released her to the care of a nursing facility. One week later due to Covid restrictions we could not visit with her. This was reason I felt a need to write this letter. Thankfully the nursing facility was kind and released her to come home under the care of my two sisters who were nurses where she could die surrounded by her family. Usually we don't share the intimate feelings we have for another in a public way. But it's been 5 years and finding this letter I wrote overwehlmed me with such a sense of graditude, I felt it would be ok. I will let this be a tribute to my mother. She was such a special woman in my life.

   

    Good morning my dear Mother,

    We are living is such strange times complying with the restrictions of this virus. We just get to call everyday. We aren't allowed to visit each other, but maybe we can do something even more special like sit down and write a letter. A letter is when you get to think about what you want to say over and over again because you know what is written will last forever in the mind of the other person. So I decided to write a letter. You can read it over and over again because I thought about what I wanted to say so many times. You are a very special mother to me, Mother. I remember praying with you at meal times and bed time. I remember singing:

    Jesus tender shepherd near me bless the thy little lamb tonight.

Through the darkness be thou near me, keep me safe till morning light.

All this day thy hand has led me, and I thank thee for thy care,

Thou hast warmed me, clothed and fed me, Listen to my evening prayer.

Let my sins be all forgiven, bless the friends I love so well.

Take us all at last to heaven, happy there with thee to dwell.

    This was a wonderful song to sing. It made me think that God was a loving God who was very close to us. You cared so much for us as children.

    You often told me what my name meant. How the doctor said it wrong when I was first born, because you knew you were having a boy and his name would be Jonathan.

    You worried about my temper. You told me I could kill someone if I did not get a grip on my temper. You prayed for me so many times. I knew you were right. I remember when you asked me if I could burn the play plastic gun modeled after a military weapon that was given to me by a neighbor as a gift. You talked about what such things were used for. And yes I did offer to burn it with the trash.

    I remember when they did not have a school teacher at Manor Mennonite so you decided you could be the teacher. I remember protesting with tears, saying they would kill you. We used such strong language back then didn't we?! You were such a strong woman. You cared so deeply about the school and your children....the fruit of your womb as you would say. You gave no thought for your own welfare.

    You did well as a school teacher. Danny thought you were the best school teacher he ever had. I think you actually enjoyed teaching even though you were stretched between running a house and teaching school. Father bought a dish washer that year to help you with washing dishes. We thought that was such a luxury.

    You were an anchor for us in our faith. We believed in what you represented as a self-sacrificing person, totally committed to family, Church, and God. You became a model from which we evaluated all things in this world. We loved how you embraced your own people with all their warts and wrinkles, fully engaged in your own world, but with your arms wide open to embrace everyone else, including immigrants from Ukraine, Vietnam and Burma, even persons released from prison lived with us in the summer house, a small house attached to our home. Sometimes it did not go well. I remember the night of horrors when you took me over to the apartment to show me the aftermath of a drunken spree by one you attempted to help.... the only person I ever saw my parents ask to leave our peaceful home.

    We had so much fun as a family. We ate outside at the picnic table every chance we could. Almost every Sunday we would take a walk through the meadow to the woods. Sometimes we went to Tucquan creek and we even went to Philadelphia zoo a couple of times. We had guests over for Sunday dinner often. We loved going to visit Grandma and Grandpa's house with all the cousins. We loved your family also. These are such wonderful happy childhood memories we have as your children. Home was such a peaceful place for us. The only conflict I remember was the day the 52 Dodge left you sit by the side of the road. Finally you were able to start it again, and you arrived home. You told all of us there by the milk house, you would sell the car for a dime, which only left our father smiling looking at the ground. Funny how that car still hung around for a few more years.

    I don't remember making a choice to go college at Millersville. It was just kind of assumed I would go to Millersville following in the footsteps of my older siblings. You thought I should be a teacher so I did. In fact I don't remember making choices about much of anything in my life. Pop thought I should go to Auction school so I did. He thought I should call bids with Leroy Zook, so I did. Lester Brubaker called saying they needed a social studies teacher, so I did. Pop thought I should build a house with Grandpa so I did. It's hard to imagine how life would have been different if I needed to make all those choices myself. Father and you have been the most supportive, enabling parents any child could hope to have. I am sure all your children would say exactly the same thing.

    Loving and embracing Rhoda as your daughter-in-law has been the greatest gift any son could ask for. You loved her from the first day you met her. Rhoda could easily relate to you even as her own mother. I feel like she treats you with more respect and honor than I do. I believe it is because you make it so easy for one to do so.

    No one will ever know the sacrifice you made in supporting our photo business as the retouching person we all depended on. Hour after hour you would take that little brush and color in those whites spots on prints left by the dust on the negative. When we made investments, Father looked to loan money to help make it happen without any questions or oversight. Your personal ambitions did not exist; only to support your children in whatever way you could.

    Your prayers led the way in everything we did, Mother. We love to listen to your prayers. They have carried us over good times and disappointment. I saw you cry in the pews, and I saw you hug the 3 little girls who sit beside you every Sunday morning with great joy. They miss you now. The songs you sing from your heart at every family gathering, and every Sunday morning in church fill our hearts with gratitude for the gift of your life to us and draw us to God.

    We love you so much, your son, Jonathan

Friday, September 9, 2016

Dominga is my "God send"

"Jonatha, can you help me?"   It's the typical question our recent immigrants ask when they find a road block and need some English person to help them find their way.   But this one was unusual.   His Corolla could go backwards but not forward.   It was an obvious transmission problem and his eager neighbor Sonny* was eager to help him.   That was 4 weeks ago.   After a ride to a salvage yard buying a new transmission the job stalled and patience ran out.   When Sonny asked for more money frustration mounted, words were exchanged, and the relationship was broken.   That's when I got the call.  He gave me the phone number.   So I called Sonny, wondering about the car.   Sonny was angry.  "I need 210 dollars to finish the job.  I don't like when people call me names and disrespect me.   I don't want to deal with them anymore".     "Ok", I told him, "you don't need to.  You are dealing with me now.   You finish the job and I'll pay you the $210.  When can you have it finished".   He said "tomorrow" which would be Saturday.   "Very Good, You call me when it finished".   So began my dealings with Sonny.  

    He called me Saturday around 2.   "Can you drive it?" I asked.   "I can't drive", He said.     "I wasn't asked to do that.   I was just told to replace the transmission."   I could tell Sonny was aroused and could get upset quickly.   I was worried.   When I got there, Sonny told me the car now needs a new starter.  Turning the key the starter ground against the flywheel.  Still trusting his mechanical judgments I asked what a starter costs?   He told me $120.   How long would that take?  Monday was a holiday.  He promised the starter would be fixed on Tuesday.   He needed the money to buy the part so I gave him the money and told him when it runs on Tuesday I will pay for the transmission.   He was unhappy but the guy who he called his boss who had the small garage he worked out of told him, he should do it.  

   Tuesday came and went.  My calls went unanswered,   Wednesday I stopped in and found the drunken brother to the guy Sonny called the boss came to the door.   I learned his mother was taken to the hospital and no one knew where Sonny was.   He struggled to write down my phone number and promised to have his brother call me.  

  That night, I finally got a text response, from Sonny's wife... "My husband got arrested last nite because he done a job on someone car and the person did not want too pay him so he lost his tempered and got in trouble.   So I don't know when they going too put his bail. we waiting for the judge in the morning.   So if you want someone else too put the starter on for you just get someone else too do it.   If he gets bail tomorrow he going too get in trouble again, he's very stubern".

   Totally losing faith in redeeming this situation I decided I needed to take this car to a regular shop.  Since I had a key I got five high school guys to help me push the car down the city streets to a regular shop I had confidence in.   I hoped no one would be around to ask any questions but as I approached I realized the guy Sonny called the boss was sitting on the front porch with 4 friends.   I asked him,  "Is Sonny in jail?"   "Jail?"   No one knew anything.   "Yes", I said,"I got a text from his wife".   "That's all a lie." he said, as everyone started talking.   That's when Dominga walked up.   "I can help you", he said.  "I don't think it needs a starter.   Sonny did not put the transmission on right.  He doesn't listen.   I will take it off and put it on properly by tomorrow."     "Would you?   That would be great.   We came to push the car down to the shop on Seymour street".  I said.     "Dominga is a much better mechanic", the boss said.  "He'll get it done right".  

   The next morning I got a call.   "It's done," Dominga said at the other end.   "We need to get some oil for the transmission".   When I got there an hour later Dominga showed me some other things that needed attention.  He also had fixed the broken hood clasp.   As we traveled to Autozone for oil I learned a bit about Dominga.  He's 70 years old, worked for Huber nurseries until a work accident ended that career but his back has recovered and he's now on Social Security and just does favors for anyone who calls on him.   Most of the time he's here in the alley fixing cars.   About Sonny, "he's not in jail, that's a lie.    He's a 'shooter', he just disappeared."  he said.  "He's an adict, a junkie, takes money up front, then never finishes anything.   You cannot trust him".  

  As I enjoyed watching Dominga wrapping up the project I thought about how my anxiety level changed so dramatically in last 15 hours.  Here was a guy who showed more energy at 70 then most of us have at 35.  He obviously took great delight in being able to help someone in their trouble.   His wife came up and I asked her,  Dominga says he just eats just one meal; rice and beans every evening.   Is that true?   She laughed and said,  He did not tell you how many cupcakes he eats during the day.

* "Sonny" is not his real name.   

Sunday, March 13, 2016

"So who do you support for President?" Day Day

Hi Day Day, 

So you wonder why I as a very small business person would support Bernie Sanders for President.   That is a great question.   Because you are new to this country and you have never witnessed a Presidential election, I am sure you are confused.   Many of the English people you work with are staunch Republicans.   Then there are Democrats which a lot of people are critical of in our area.   And then there is Bernie who is considered a far left socialist.   I'm sure you think that must be really bad.   So, I'm sure you wonder why I,  would support a socialist?

That is really long answer.   First we have to discuss the social issues.   These are the issues that really divide the people.  The social issues are the issues politicians use as tools to destroy their opponent but aren't the real reason people vote.   Abortion is the first one.   We are all opposed to ending the life of a fetus developing in the mother's womb.   This is a tragic happening everyday in America.   Every baby deserves to be born into the world of a loving family.   For 30 years politicians have used this issue to fool the evangelical Christians into voting for them but they have never done a thing to stop it.   I would have more respect for the pro-life movement if they would give voice to supporting single moms who carry the burden of bringing an infant to term.   The least they could do is make the whole process of adoption free for the couples who welcome the unwanted child.   Bottom line is that the republican party is all about tax cuts for the wealthy, expanding our military preparation, and little more.    Reagan said he was opposed to abortion but his wife was not.   George H. Bush said he was opposed to abortion but his wife was not.   George W. Bush, maybe, was a true believer but did nothing.   Now Donald Trump says he is opposed to abortion but everyone knows he's not.   Ask his wife.   I don't want to minimize how serious the sanctity of life is to us, but the  point is abortion is not the issue they really care about so don't be fooled.  

The other issue is the practice that marriage is between one woman and one man.   Certainly this is what we believe.   In my job I have attended more than a thousand weddings but have never been asked to photograph a gay wedding.   I know of people who say they are gay but I don't know them well.   Is it really true they are born with these gay attractions and they cannot do anything about it?  The consensus of the scientific community seems to lean this way but I don't know.   One time I asked Ler La's brother Qwei Qwei if there are gay people in the Karen community?   He laughed and said, "you mean like a girl?  yes yes....they don't treat them very well....Sometimes they kill them".  Is this true, Day Day?   It's hard for me to imagine that could be possible.   If that is the case,  then we do need laws to protect them as we do every minority group who is abused.   Certainly as a persecuted Karen person you would support that.   The hard part is we believe the gay lifestyle is sinful.....the same way we believe the adulterous husband is sinful.   It is hard to accept and tolerate something you know is sinful.   But yet in a democratic society that is what we need to do.   So the courts have established protection for  gay people and there is nothing a politician can do to change it.   It is a constitutional right.   But the Republican party will still bring this up to rally evangelical Christians even if they can't do anything about it.  

So what are the issues that people vote for.  I'm sad to say everyone votes from their wallets.   How can I give as little as I must and at the same time make as much money as I can for myself.   Republicans have been pushing tax cuts for the wealthy since Ron Reagan era beginning in 1980.   We have always called our income tax Progressive Taxation.   In other words the more you earned, the higher percentage of your income was taxed.   In 1980, if you earned 5 to 10,000 you paid just 5 percent of your income to tax.   If you earned 30 to 40,000 you paid 18 percent.   If you earned 200,000 or more you paid 43 percent for income for federal tax.  Reagan ran for tax cuts for the wealthy and won the election.   He dropped the top rate from 43 to 28 percent.   Wealthy people were very happy with Reagan but the deficit spending far outpaced the promise of more income he promised.   George W. Bush did the same thing reducing the top income rate back down since it had slipped up again under Clinton.  Again this move contributed toward a lot of the deficit spending adding to our national debt but did not generate economic growth.  

Deficit spending is a problem.   It means the government spends more money than it takes in.   If you or I would do this we would be bankrupt the first year.   We can't spend more than our income.   But there is a big difference between you and I and the government.   First the government never dies.   It can accumulate debt and it doesn't need to pay it back.   First it pays interest to people who invest in Treasury bonds....so the government debt is an investment for others.  In other words the debt is a loan the government takes on from it's people.  One could say it is the same as a loan to yourself since the government and people are one and the same thing.      Plus the government can print money.   When they do this the value of the dollar decreases.   We paid for the Vietnam War by printing lots of money.   A house my grandpa sold in 1970 for 27,000 dollars, sold in 1976 for 54,000, now it is worth 325,000.  The economy is still perking along....the dollar one earns just doesn't buy as much.   The minimum wage in 1970 was $1.60 and now it is 7.50 I think but it should be 10 or 11 I think because of the devaluation of the dollar. 

The theory behind these Tax cuts for wealthy is that given more money the wealthy would spend it buying all kinds of things which create jobs for everyone.   It was called building the economy from the top down called trickle down to energize everyone.   One could say this was partially successful.   Reagan expanded his military spending considerably which did employ some people but most would say it is largely insignificant.   George W. Bush attempted to same thing but it too was only marginally successful.   The reason being is that wealthy people don't necessary spend their extra money

Therein lies the number one strength of the a socialistic economy.   Rich people rarely make poor people rich.   But poor people always make Rich people rich.   The reason being is that if you empower the poor they spend every dollar they have and it always ends up in the hands of those who control the production of goods and services.  In economic class we call this the velocity of money.   In other words the more money changes hands the more it blesses everyone.   

A second reason tax cuts do not necessarily stimulate the economy is that when one is in business there are all kinds of ways of minimizing one's income.   If one has a good year as a farmer, he can buy a 100,000 tractor which makes him more productive and he writes the  100,000 dollars off in one year.   A wood worker can buy better saws and bigger sanders.   If one prospers the first thing on any businessperson's mind is how they will minimize the tax they need to pay.   So high taxes encourage all kinds of good things such as business investments, giving to charities or one's church, investing in apartments providing homes for people, having children, buying one's own home where the interest is tax deductible, etc.    On the other hand if you spend money for expensive vacations you need to earn 2 dollars for every one you spend because those expenses are not tax deductible. 

So I really appreciate our system as it is or rather the way it was before President Reagan time.   I worry when I hear republicans talk about wanting a flat tax.  In my mind it is another vehicle to place a greater burden on the poor to pay for the costs of government and shield the rich who don't give to charity from needing to pay taxes supporting their lavish lifestyle.   Reagan earned 800,000 one year he was president and only gave to charity 6,000.   I think that shows you where his priorities were as president.    Progressive Taxation is the heart of a just society.   This is socialist principle. 

Another Socialist principle is that of  inheritance taxes.   Republicans call this a death tax and they call it immoral.   I don't understand  why this is an issue because one can have an estate of 5 million dollars before you are required to pay inheritance taxes by the federal government when you die.   Not very many people have estates this large so I am confused by this.   In our state Pa we still have a 4.5 percent inheritance tax when one dies, but at the federal level we have no inheritance tax unless the estate is larger than 5 million.   So why should we care about inheritance or estate taxes.  

I actually want to call this value Biblical Socialism.   There is a huge theme that runs through the whole Bible we call economic justice.   In the old testament it was called year of Jubilee.   The land belongs to God and is given to us as stewards.  Since some prosper and some have hard luck, inequity develops so this land which is God's gift needs to be redistributed at the end of every 50 years and given back to the original families it was given to at the beginning of their life in the promised land.   I suspect this commandment was rarely obeyed by Israel.  We know this because the prophets continued to cry out for justice for the poor claiming that if they don't keep the law they will be destroyed as a nation.  It was prophesied that when the Messiah came he would indeed practice the year of Jubilee.   It is so interesting that when Jesus began his ministry, the first time he stood up in the synagogue, he read that very passage from the old testament and then he said today this prophesy is fulfilled in your hearing.   Of course  they wanted to stone him right away at the time.   But Jesus ministry was all about giving dignity to the poor.   Even the Lord's prayer includes the line which asks God to forgive us our debts toward him as we forgive the debts of those who owe us something.   This translation is hard for us to  accept.  We are much more comfortable spiritualizing that line making it all about sins:  Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.   But the true translation of the passage is all about money.    Jesus knew our love for money is the great idolatry of all mankind.  That's why he told the rich man if he wants to be saved he needs to sell what he has and give to the poor.   Indeed when he left this earth, sent the Holy Spirit and the Church was birthed,  they sold possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need. ...their possessions and property and distributed them to everyone, as each one had need.    This was the year of Jubilee enacted. 

   Why is this value so important?   We believe in private property.  We believe when people have opportunity, build on that opportunity, they prosper and improve their lives and everyone around them.   This is the foundation of the capitalistic system we practice in this country.   As is natural our enterprises expand.   Up until this point capitalism is wonderful.  But where we go from here is the problem.  Where are the limits of growth that keeps a healthy society.   It's like we are all fish in a big fish bowl.  Little fish get eaten by bigger fish who then get eaten by bigger fish and eventually there is just one big fish who has to die because there are no more fish.   I suspect a biblical answer to this question is that we are limited by our own lifespan.   In addition the year of Jubilee which came every 50 years limited the strength of the big fish.   50 years is just a little less than 3 generations.   I think this is significant because in practical terms 3 generations is as long as a family business can be kept in tact.  

I am most familiar with farming.  Farming is my mindset from which I understand the world.   It is natural for some because they work hard, pay attention to detail, or the luck of good weather, to prosper beyond their neighbor.  When another farm comes up for sale they can purchase it but of course that requires more help....maybe they can take on employees, or maybe a they have a child who is now ready to farm.    This is model of farming in the life of my childhood, and the current Amish model of farming.    However, today's corporate model of business has industrialized farming as well.   We are no longer limited by our lifespan or family help.   The machine age has enabled one to expand enterprises far beyond our human limitations.  Tractors and implements are huge making it possible to farm vast sections of land.    Large chicken or dairy enterprises have grown so large that they depend on multiple farms to support their enterprises somewhat for feed but primarily for manure disposal.   The children of a farmer can bind together to run a large operation like this successfully into the second generation but it becomes a huge problem when all the cousins in the third generation want to have a part in the business.  None of the family can afford to purchase and run this mammoth operation so it needs to be sold to yet a bigger fish....some corporation buys it with public money on the stock exchange.  What we worked so hard to create, ends up in nobodies hands with a family of children upset with each other.   This road we are on has taken us to a difficult place.  Either one is lucky enough to be the child of a trust fund recipient, or you are part of the next generation with no opportunity for ownership except as a nondescript wage earner in some corporate entity.   One hears the echo of Isaiah the prophet saying "Woe to you who add house to house and field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land".  Currently in Lancaster we have a couple of farms in the corporate stage. but most are in the 2nd generation stage.   Entering the third generation stage will be the challenge in the next 30 years.   A strong socialistic government is critical for the health of our farm lifestyle but primarily for the well being of our family life together.  Breaking up these large farms will restore opportunity for individuals who want to farm.  With strong zoning laws in place farms can be valued by their potential earnings in agriculture alone.   

Fortunately we do have the Amish as our best example of Biblical socialism by their self imposed limits of their own operations.   Farms are bought and sold frequently with values based on what that individual farm by itself can produce.  Farms are limited in size to what an ordinary family can do.   Older farmers turn their farm over to their children quickly in their late 40's or early 50's.  as they move into the apartment.   In the corporate world ownership is in the hands of stockholders.  They hire managers who manage employees who do the work.  They have no vested interest in the community or neighborhood except the return they expect for their investment which they buy and sell regularly.   In the Biblical Socialized world the neighborhood, family, means just about everything.  

So the year of Jubilee is central to everything I believe about Christian faith, and politics.  I happen to talk about farming because that is what I am most familiar with.  But one could talk about restaurants, retail stores, health care providers,  etc.  it all has become different expressions of corporate structure.   I thought about this yesterday in Philadelphia where I had my sandwich in a corner deli owned and run by an older couple and their son.   It was simple, good food, unique character.   I sat down with neighbors from neighborhood who recognized me as a stranger, asked me who I was and why I was there.   I wish I would have taken a photo because I only thought about it afterward how special that experience was in contrast to sitting in a strip mall eating at Subway. 

So why socialism?   We have come to this place in our history where people don't see a way to get on the first rung of the ladder.    Many people work at Park City but no one there owns anything.   All the wealth lies in the hands of those stockholders in some corporation somewhere far away.   How can one feel a sense of ownership when that is seen as something far beyond their reach. 

Conservative Republicans tend to believe government is the problem and if government would be small,  get out of the way, tax less, then people would have money to be able to strive for their dreams.   The problem is though, Republicans have not made government smaller.   They just have redirected government toward projects they love to push, namely building up the military.   This is why conservative Ron Paul and his son Rand Paul want to be known as a libertarian because they claim those who call themselves conservative republicans aren't conservative at all.   They say most republicans will continue push military preparedness and fight wars ultimately bankrupting our country.   Interesting that Bernie Sanders as a socialist would agree with that libertarian view completely.

Ordinarily I would support Ron Paul and Rand Paul whole heartedly.  Our government has meddled in the affairs of other countries for a long long time.   Our track record of success is really bad.   We have destabilizing one country after another.  Our current problem in the Middle East is just another illustration of what we have been doing since the Spanish American War in the 19th century.   We have to recognize that wars are big business.   Vice President Cheney was an executive with Halliburton, a military contractor.   It is estimated that his company alone made almost 40 billion dollars on the Iraq war.  He really wanted that war and George W. listened to him.   Hillery Clinton pushed the Iraq war as a business opportunity.  This is grossly immoral.   So the Paul's are exactly correct in wanting to stop our country from getting involved in foreign countries affairs.

On the other hand a democratic government can play a really important role in helping limit the powers of the big fish.   I believe government has a positive role protecting weak and vulnerable from the strong and empower the poor to get a foothold in this world.  Minimum wages, safe working conditions,  food and drug regulations, social security programs, environmental protection programs, public education, public health clinics, unemployment compensation,  are all areas where government plays a role in protecting weak.   These legislative programs have always been labeled as socialistic, which sounds ungodly, but I wish they would be viewed as something God's very heart was concerned about from the very beginning.   So I am not a libertarian.   I believe big business requires government to protect the people.  In this regard they are doing the work of God.  

The business community almost universally rejects these programs because they see it as cutting into their profit margins, but experience has proved otherwise.   When Henry Ford doubled the wages of his workers he enabled them to buy his cars.  Today he is given credit for stimulating the middle class in our country.   In my own small business of renting apartments at least one third are persons who rely social security to pay their monthly rent.   I often think that indirectly I am the one who relies on the government check or what some would call welfare.   The whole agricultural industry is blessed by the food stamp program.   Everyone who employs anyone for less than 16 dollars an hour and one who has a family is blessed by the income tax credits.   This is a program initiated by President Reagan called work welfare.   In a sense it is subsidy to small business supporting them with employees who raise their families on marginal incomes.   I was excited when our first family of four was able to pay rent and living expenses on his $9.00 hour income, buying food with food stamps, and save his income tax credit check.  After 4 years he had accumulated 22,000 in savings.  When he moved with his family to Minnesota he was able to purchase a house with his savings as his down payment.   Since that time I was disappointed when Republican Gov. Corbett said if a family has more than $5500 in saving they cannot get food stamps.   This took away any incentive anyone had in saving to buy a home.   Now our people are inclined to spend money on cars rather than lose the food stamp check.   But the point is still strong, whenever we empower the people to have a vision of what they can become it turns around to bless the people who support that empowerment many times over.     

The biggest reason to support socialism is in the area of health care costs.  When I was in business we paid the insurance premiums for our employees.  Costs were very high.   One was reluctant to hire more people primarily because of medical insurance.   When I take someone for a job interview today and the employer asks me, "Does he have a family?"  I know exactly what he is thinking.   A single guy costs far less to employ than a worker with a family.    On the other hand, if a person has a job and really wants to change their job,  many times they are locked in because they can't interrupt their health care.   Health care is expensive primarily because the inefficiency at the bill collection end.   If I go to the doctor, he writes up a bill 3 times higher than he expects to receive, the insurance company rewrites the bill according to what they believe is fair and reimburses the doctor, then the bill comes to me because I have not yet accumulated expenses to match my $5000 deductible.   For this effort each doctor's office needs to employ extra staff, the insurance company needs to pay staff, advertising, and the CEO of insurance company apparently earns 2 million a year.   For the past 30 years I dreamed of a single paying provider with a non profit motive....which of course would be a government health care system.  I wondered why should providing health care be the responsibility of the employer?   In the past 8 years I have sat many many hours in our public health clinics in Lancaster with our immigrant community.   The public health providers are wonderful people. I would be happy to patronize them.   Many of our doctors including my personal family Catholic doctor also would dream of a simpler system so they could just focus on health care.   The Private health care system is destroying our business community.   I plead for everyone to help adopt a one payer socialized system of health care.   It's so upsetting going through all the different medical cards and have the receptionist say we take this card but not that one.   Please make it one card.   Sadly Obama tried but in the end the medical care insurance providers just expanded the base with a sliding scale payment system based on income, which is an improvement.  20 million more people have coverage, but the inefficiencies continue.

Another issue, Day Day, I am sad to say is a historic issue our country has had with Race.   There is a large segment of our population feel so much hatred toward Obama just because he is black.  I know this is true primarily because I listen to people talk on Amateur radio from the south and I hear all the racist things they say.   Donald Troop has become their hero.  He can say the most racist statement and they actually love him for it.   He also ridicules Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio and gets away with it also.   I believe that he ridicules them and people enjoy it because they are also a bit brown.   The reason the establishment republicans are so upset is because they have spent a lot of energy trying to court Spanish and Black votes and now Donald Troop is redefining the Republican party as a white, Racist party.   We knew this element was part of the party since Nixon's time but never has it become so blatantly obvious.    My comfort here is that Donald may be able to use this racism to get the nomination but hopefully will not give him the national election.   You must know Day Day, as an Asian you are considered white.   All nationalities who come to this country have a hard time assimilating into this country in the first generation.   By the second generation every immigrant nationality has been absorbed and accepted as equals except our Afro-Americans.   When Asian people get beat up by blacks you must know that the blacks know in one generation your children will prosper and be successful here in America but the blacks will remain the last hired and first fired.   Sadly this is true.   Bernie Sanders is a most unusual person because as an American Jew he marched with Blacks for Civil Rights in the 60's when the South was still enforcing segregation.   Blacks have not supported Bernie really well for reasons I don't understand.  There is not one of us who does not have racist attitudes.    Our Karen people are keenly aware of their own race because they have been the victim race based genocide.   You were born into a people group exactly like Jesus under Roman occupation.   It will be a miracle of God if you can help your people embrace all people as equally loved by God including your enemies.  

Bernie Sanders will take some criticism for his commitment to a minimum wage of $15.00 and hour.   I agree with Bernie that $15.00 is the minimum livable wage.   You will be surprised that I actually like our status quo.  There seems to be little difference in lifestyle between our families where the bread winner earns $11.00 an hour and those who earn $16.00.   The point is that the bread winner who earns $11.00 gets cheaper health care, more food stamps, and plus income tax credit.   As long as they are working they are golden.   Raising the minimum wage to $15.00 for everyone would reduce almost everyone's benefits to zero.  That would please the Republican Party really well, but the small business owner would be really upset because they really appreciate the subsidy the government gives their employees.   Not all businesses could absorb that kind of increase and survive.   So I think the most socialistic practice would be to keep the status quo as it is.  

Bernie also takes a lot of criticism for his promise to provide free collage education for every young person in America.  It's not a fair criticism from those who wanted to go to war in Iraq because Bernie's promise to young people would represent only a percentage of what we spend in fighting our multiple wars every year.   It is a noble goal and I'm sure you would appreciate this gift but I would raise some questions.   I believe a guarantee of education though high school is important for socialization of every young person.   So our public schools are extremely important and should be free.   I view collage as an investment in a career track.   People value greater and work harder if they need to pay for something.  We have trouble enough with the party lifestyle of students in collage away from family, I suspect if we made it free it could get even worse.   I remember being in collage and feeling that I was prolonging my adolescence as I compared myself to my friends who were in the work world  making money, even getting married and here I was poor as a pauper studying in the library.    Collage education does not necessary open job opportunities to someone so one needs to have a goal to pursue a collage degree.  But clearly a collage education does open doors that ordinarily would not be open to someone, so Bernie is right, young people need to be encouraged to go collage.   The least we could do is have a given amount necessary for any public collage as an interest fee loan promised for everyone who wants to go to collage anywhere.     Bernie's proposal here scares me because I support our Church colleges.   I wonder how they would survive if the State supported collages were free.  

Another huge issue has raised it's ugly head in this campaign is an effort block immigration.   Strange that our Mexican neighbors have borne the brunt of this criticism in a time when net immigration vs. emigration is currently near zero from our southern neighbor.  Most of our current illegal immigrants come from Asia where students stay longer than their student visas allow.   However it has been our Spanish populations which historically have swelled the ranks of our undocumented immigrants.   We need to remember that our industries have depended on labor from our southern neighbor for generations.   Our border was porous and people traveled back and forth freely as jobs required.   Families are made up with 2 or 3 children born in the states as US citizens and others born in Mexico.   Spouses are often citizens of two different countries.   All of sudden immigration became politically explosive, walls were built, work visas became almost impossible to acquire, and green card requests denied beyond reason and families are caught, unable to visit relatives or unite families.   You must know as an Asian refugee you have come to America with a golden parachute.   You have legal residency from day one, with 3 months free rent, caseworker support, and a path to citizenship.   My own ancestors were German who came to this English colony of Pennsylvania without documents.   Ben Franklin wrote frequently of his displeasure of these hordes of Germans coming to Pennsylvania who would change the culture of his beloved colony.   So since both of us have immigrant past, myself as an child of illegal immigrants, and yourself as a privileged refugee immigrant, I believe Jesus is watching how we respond to others less privileged.

Ultimately our very society is dependent economically on our immigrant base.   Germany has absorbed a million Syrian immigrants nobly, it's true.   But more important is the fact  that they needed them economically.   Their populations has been aging just like our congregation at Habecker Mennonite and they drastically need a labor support going forward.   One retirement home executive told me he looking at a future of a growing population of older people with drastic reduction in the labor force required to support his community.   The immigrant population provides us with the most necessary support for our entire society.   Here in Lancaster our houses are full, and our economy is thriving primarily because of first generation immigrants to our community.  Those who oppose our national welcome toward our immigrant communities are inviting our own financial demise.   It is a socialistic principle that every individual has equal dignity and respect.   As Christians we believe that God loves all people.   We believe that when we show love and care toward people of need whoever that may be, we demonstrate the love of God.  God does not respect or see borders or legal residency documents.  He only sees human beings created in his likeness.  

Climate change concern, energy conservation, environment protection, renewal energy resources are all issues we support as people who inhabit this planet called Earth.   We believe the planet is God's gift to us and we need to care for it.   As an Asian you claim your heritage from Mongolia.  Your ancient cousins were the first people who called America home.   They had a saying, "The great spirit is our Father, and the earth is our mother".    I think they were saying the same thing we want to say as Christians.   This too is a strong socialistic value.  

Ultimately we need to remember, when one votes for president of the United States they are voting for the commander in chief of the military.  Presidents can take our country to war.   President Obama promised to take us out of war in Iraq and expand the war in Afghanistan.    He did exactly what he said he would do, but Iraq situation went into disarray with the rise of ISIS  so now our war in Iraq is continuing into it's 14th year.  I voted for the first time in my life when I voted for Obama.  I believed the Iraq war was such a massive tragedy,  I registered as a democrat so I could vote for Obama against Hillary in the primaries.   Hillary has a record of being quick to wage war, and I believed Obama needed to be rewarded for his vote against waging war.   However, war continues to rage, and now we have this horrific problem of 60 million refugees world wide.  I can take comfort that Obama has been a bit of a reluctant warrior  in that we are not fighting Russia in Ukraine, nor did we invade Syria supporting Islamic groups against Assad as McCain wanted to. 

So will I vote in the 2016 elections?   If I have an opportunity to vote for Bernie I will as an award for voting against the Iraq war as did Obama.   Will I vote for Hillary in the general election?   Probably not.  A funny thing happens to a person when one votes for a person.   Unconsciously their decisions become your decisions.   Unconsciously you feel you need to defend your man because of your vote.   The same thing will happen to you when you take the oath of allegiance to this country.   You will start to defend your country in your thoughts if not your words.   It happens to every soldier when they take their oath to live and die for their country.  Allegiance to one's person or one's country can easily become an exercise of idolatry.   Hillary's track record for military intervention has not been good.  She supported the war in Iraq.   Democrats may speak for peace more frequently but when it comes to waging war, both parties are equally quick to use military force.   We need to remember as Christians that our King and highest allegiance is Jesus and not Caesar.    

Thursday, April 2, 2015

We Love You Pop

We all know that my Dad lived his life to the beat of a different drummer.  He grew up on the farm next to farm his father grew up which was next to the farm where his grandfather grew up.   He raised his family across the road on an adjoining farm where he grew up.  He went to school on the corner of the farm where his uncle farmed next to their farm.  He may have been person rooted to the soil but much more rooted to faith in God, loyalty to family and service for others in community.    

Farming for my father was primarily the way he knew how to raise a family and not a business.  I'm really not sure I was ever aware that farming was a business.  We never talked about money growing up.   We just milked the cows, gathered the eggs, and worked the garden.  Did the farm make any money?   I don't really know.   As children we never felt in lack of anything but we never spent very much either.   We never felt any anxiousness about the farm, it's just where we were planted I guess.  Maybe the farm did make some money after all?   Almost seems silly to think about that.  He always said "We farm as comes naturally".

We had a lot of fun on the farm growing up.  We all knew what we had to do.  Pop would wake me up by tickling the bottom of feet.   I washed the cows udders and Pop minded the milkers.   I talked a lot and Pop would listen.   If I asked too many questions he would say, He had book for me.   My favorite job on the farm was driving tractor.  We were really young when Pop first put us on the tractor working ground to seed corn.  Making hay, Pop drove the John Deere B with the sickle mower and I would follow driving the Massy Harris with the crimper.   

The alfalfa flowers were full bees and butterflies,  The red wing blackbirds were plentiful flying around as we mowed the alfalfa.   We were always watching out for pheasant nests.   We had so many pheasants back then.   It would be easy to run into a nest with the mower.    I remember when I was 12 or 13 I took Pop's single shot 12 gauge shotgun for a walk.  The season opened at 9:00 and I was walking up the back lane.   I saw some hunters walking in from the Donerville Rd. scare up some pheasants and they were flying my way.   I got one, put it by the fence row, than ran down to the crick where the other landed.   It flew up straight away from me across Elmer Sensenig's farm.   I remember it was not yet 9:30 when I brought my limit to mother who helped me clean them.  

We liked the Massy because it had an electric start but the problem was the PTO shaft was tied to the Clutch.   If the Sickle mower would back up to clear the blade it would pile up hay.   With the Massy you had no choice, you just needed to run right through it.   If you stopped with the clutch the crimper would stop.   If you ran right through it the hay could wrap around the rollers.   So Pop bought a Cockshot.   A Cockshot.....what kind of a tractor is that.  Actually it was a Cockshutt, everyone just called it a Cockshot.   Only Pop would buy a Cockshot.   But the Cockshot was good because it had a live PTO .....now I could go real slow and just nimble at the pile until it all got through without wrapping the roller.  

I never remember Pop as a teacher.   He never was much for words.   He just kinda asked us to do stuff assuming we had watched him long enough we probably know how to do it.   But he did believe in us.   I always think of him as person who enabled us.   I suspect my siblings feel the same way I do.   I feel like he encouraged us to do most everything we wanted to do.   I certainly don't think Pop ever discouraged us children from anything we wanted to do.  He just wasn't a heavy handed kind of guy.  He did encourage us all to go to school.  Probably the only thing he pushed was he thought I should go to Auction school.   He liked Auctions....that was understatement.   He lined up Leroy Zook for me to apprentice with and put me on the bus headed for DeMoines, Iowa.   I just needed to work it out.   Fairness wasn't in Pop's vocabulary.....He always said, "I don't know how to be fair", but we all felt equally cared for and loved.     

He loved to learn.  If he had free time he was reading.   Christ Charles had his Bible reading incentive.  Everyone who read the Bible in the past two years got their name in his book.   Pop got more fulfillment from that accomplishment than a bonus on the milk check every two years.  He particularly liked taking evening courses with Paul Zehr in his Adult Evening Education courses down at LMH.   I think he took every course he could.   In the past number of years when he discovered what a google search engine could do he discovered a whole new world.   It's like he was just gifted the world's biggest library.   Every conversation, every sermon, every newspaper article would generation some question or word he could google.  

We all knew Pop had his qwerks socially.   Many times in social gatherings it was hard for him to feel like he was one of the bunch.   He tended to be quiet and off by himself many times.  About 40 years ago he read Abe Schmidt's book,  "Brilliant Idiot".  It was Abe's story of his own journey with Dyslexia.  Reading that book was a real eye opener for my Dad.  His experience resonated with my Dad who also felt like a brilliant idiot in many ways.   He felt fully competent in many ways but unable to express it in others.   He soon became a disciple of Abe Schmidt's taking classes and doing counseling sessions with him.   I think it made him feel like he wasn't alone with his difficulties.   As adult children I'm not sure we took these studies too seriously.  We felt fine with Pop just as he was, although we did wish Pop would expand his one liner's into paragraphs.   He would ruminate in his thoughts for hours, deliver his one liner, leaving us trying to figure out the riddle of his thoughts.  Maybe he was just doing his  "Most for the least effort!"

 

What he lived for was the Church.  As long as I can remember he was involved in Sunday school teaching, song leading, trustee of church and the Manor Mennonite School.   As children I think we simply absorbed his involvements as normal things people do.  Today we see our parents sacrificial modeling of values prioritizing church as gifts from God.  Our father graduated from High School in the middle of our countries involvements in WW2.  He never saw much of a political divide between political parties other then a divide between capital and labor.   But he saw a large divide between the State and Church.   He felt his experience in high school was prep course for the ambitions of the state.   It was out of this experience he felt a strong desire to nurture Church school serving the mission of the Church.   Not that he talked much about this much, but he certainly led the way in practice sacrificing much toward that end.     

Living out one's mission of the church was a strong teaching of befriending and supporting the stranger and alien in your midst.   After WW2 Pop took an interest in hosting several families from Ukraine.  We had a summer house attached to the farm house where they lived for 6 months or a year before they moved on the steel mills or Coal mines.   In the 60's that house became a home for several people coming out of prison on parole.   After the Vietnam war our congregation supported several Vietnamese families.  In the past 6 years our congregation sponsored one Karen speaking family displaced from Burma.   This family invited other families and today our congregation is largely Karen speaking people.   This has been the greatest surprise and most wonderful gift to us as a people.   They have given us energy, life, and purpose as a people.   Our older people are respected above all people by our Karen speaking brothers and sisters.   It is a great gift.   Just as I described my Dad as not a teacher but an enabler.....I believe the gift of presence of all our new congregants has enabled and renewed life among us in indescribable ways.   Certainly my father nurtured these values of supporting those in need all his life.   We are so grateful these displaced people from Burma came to us in our hour of need and gave life to him.  I'm glad Pop has lived to see all those prayers for others return to be such a blessing for him.  

Love was not a sexy word for Pop.  For him I believe it was defined as being available to anyone who needed him for whatever reason.   I never heard him say no to anyone.   If he had something someone else needed it was available.  Granted it wasn't very fancy.   His fleet of public auction cars, (He always said, "he kept 5 to keep 3 running!") was his eager contribution to anyone who would call.  He took pride in the most humble service when he felt he could help someone.   Scheid's produce was the world's greatest gift to him these past 25 years.   They made him feel necessary and valuable in ways we can't thank them enough.  Every day, if he could, he would go down there and "maintain his box office", which means he would salvage old cardboard boxes making them usable for one more round of service.  

Love also was defined in that relationship are forever.   Mother had a motto on her kitchen sink that "Being kind is more important than being right".   Pushing "rightness" often breaks relationships but Love brings people together.   One classic modeling early on was his desire to stop raising tobacco when he started farming.   Grandpa did not know if that would work financially so he was not exactly in favor but he supported Pop....even loaned him the money to convert the big tobacco barn into a chicken house....but he did not want Pop to rub his convictions in the face of those in the church who still raised tobacco.  I'm sure Pop never did.  He even volunteered me as a helper for our good neighbor in the tobacco harvest when I was 13.   I believe this was Pop's way of embracing everyone.   He seemed totally secure in the path he walked, he felt no pressure to change to fit the mold anyone else took, yet he would not judge or criticize anyone else either.  He often said "the guy who argues the most is the most unsure."   Another quotable quote, "I'm probably in a rut,  but there's a lot of security in a rut".

    I love the little story that happened in church one Sunday.   Twelve years ago we had a lot of young people here at church.   We had what could be called a Contemporary worship band to lead worship.   Obviously this music was foreign to my Dad's experience but he never raised objection.    One Sunday as the band was playing I was sitting beside my Dad,  he leaned over to me and said,   "I hope they introduce me to heaven slowly!"   I understood his statement immediately.   He wasn't criticizing or condemning.   Actually he was embracing everyone expecting everyone to be in heaven with him, but he thought it might take a little time for him to get used to it.   I thought that was really funny.   For him New Wine skins are skins that stretch and never break.   When I think of the spiritual roller coaster that spanned my Dad's lifetime in the church, content with himself,  embracing all, he demonstrated a model to us all of what it means to be new wine skins.  

  Love, in his mind also means you walk with your brother/sister.   I remember him saying one time "Don't go where your brother cannot follow!"   This was primarily related to the way we celebrate our weddings and such like.   It's interesting now our Karen speaking people from Burma are now our brothers and sisters and are the largest part of our congregation at Church.   One Karen person told me one time.  "We know how to have a baby in America, we know how to get married in America, but we don't know how to die in America".   This is an enormously big question.   In the Buddhist tradition the body is burned.   In the Karen Christian tradition the body is buried.   Can we can give dignity to the body in a way our Karen brothers and sisters need not be fearful of dying?   We asked this question as a family?   In reading the plans of our parents wrote years ago, we realize once again their wishes are directly in line with a tradition our Karen brothers and sisters can easily follow.  

It was the flu/pneumonia four weeks ago which put Pop in the hospital.  He recovered from the flu but his digestive system never opened up again.   After two weeks the Doctor told him the sad news that their treatments were not working and they would need to take the next step of surgery to remove the blockage.   Without much hesitation Pop told the doctor,  "We've done enough for this body, It's time to focus on the next generation".   He was grateful for the 90 years he lived and now was the time to lay down his life.   He never complained, expressed disappointment, only gratefulness for all the support so many brought to his bedside at home.   He made it so easy for us, his children, even though it was difficult to see him growing weaker and weaker.    His two daughters gave constant nursing care 24/7.  Us guys took turns standing by as we could.   We met almost daily singing around his bedside.   His mind was conscious and even verbal except the last three days.   Today, Wednesday, April 1, 2015 Pop finished his earthly journey and is now in the presence of God.   As a family we gathered around to care for his earthen vessel.   As we laid him in the casket Mother took the lead and said she wanted to cover him.  Cover him she did, caressing his body one more time, she asked for the coconut oil to anoint his body for the resurrection, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   We love you Pop.   We are so grateful to call you our father.      

Monday, July 14, 2014

Thoughts on the 4th

It was the 4th of July, 2014; Rhoda and I left some friends off at the BWI airport.   Deciding to make it a vacation day, we took 695 to the east instead of the west to explore coast line of the Chesapeake Bay.  Crossing a bridge we turned right into a small community called Edgemore and then onto North Point State Park.  We enjoyed our picnic lunch among many minority groups who have come to celebrate this holiday of their recent country of choice.   As we hiked the beach we saw so many people in white shirts several hundred feet off the shore line.   When we heard their singing we soon realized this was a baptism class for a Spanish Pentecostal congregation from Baltimore.  The large Trolley station which had supported a popular amusement park from 1920 to 1940 was closed years ago and now it became the site of several cooks grilling corn, sausage, and hamburger patties preparing for their fellowship meal following this baptism service.  

After a hike around the park we ended up in the visitor’s museum.   We soon learned we were on another site of our country’s war riddled history.   Two months shy of 200 years this was a site where more than 4000 British soldiers landed on route to take Baltimore as they had taken Washington DC a few months before.   This time however the Royal forces ran into Continental snipers who shot their famous General Ross on horseback.  While the English may have prevailed in the battle they were demoralized and retreated.   The War of 1812 soon sputtered to an end with the Independent Colonies still intact.   

This little visit along with so many verbal statements of thanksgiving for a country where “we can worship as we please”, brought to my mind again the difficulties we have as a church committed to the way of peace and political nonalignment.   We are bombarded by continual references to quotations from our founding fathers that would lead one to believe that if we had not fought these so many wars we would be ruled by some bigoted despot who would have all Christians living in fear of the midnight knock on the door taking us all off to jail.  

Thankfully we have our neighbor to the north as a reference point to give us an honest comparison of a country which did not fight a revolutionary war, a war of 1812, a civil war, Mexican wars, Indian wars, or a Spanish American war.   Yet they are every bit as free and independent as we are in this country.   I often wonder, if we would not have fought the revolutionary war, certainly we would not have fought the War of 1812 as that was kind of a repeat, then as part of the British Empire our slaves would have been freed in 1830 instead 1864 which means the Civil war would not have been fought either.    Maybe we would have had more favorable relations with our indigenous people; both the Native Americans and the Mexicans.   Our borders would be much more porous and friendly.   Would WW1 have been fought?  I don’t know.   Canada was drawn into WW1 because of their alliance with Great Britain before US, so my “what if’s” do break down here a bit.     But the point remains that Canadian character has been shaped by a history that is far less militant, even resisting our involvements in Vietnam in the 60’s, Central America in the 80's,  Iraq and Afganistan since 2001.   We could fly from Canada to Cuba and Vietnam though out these past many years we called the Cold War.

It may seem almost heretical to grieve our war of independence as firework’s are bursting in the air and we listen to leaders honor “those who gave their lives for our freedom”.   We need to remember the convictions of so many who did not share in the rebellion of those tax resisters of the 1770’s.   It was a scary time for our ancestors from the Historic Peace Churches here in Pennsylvania.  I am told more than 500 families from our Lancaster area fled to Canada during this time to remain under the Queen.   The Queen had been very good to us, allowing William Penn opportunity to invite the persecuted pacifist people to settle this land.   They did not trust the tempers of those willing, even eager, to go to war with their own motherland over what seemed to them as a proper obligation of “giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and giving to God what is God’s”.   

But grieving the revolution I must, particularly because I walk with more than 150 displaced refugees from Burma in our congregation at Habecker Mennonite Church.   Their people have fought a revolution for 60 years seeking independence from the dominate people of Burma.   Their struggle has not been successful.  Thousands have died, more than a million displaced, so many villages have been burned, and the battle continues in their minds even as they settle in this country to start life again.   If I encourage them to give up their war for independence, I certainly cannot celebrate our own.

So as I walked this park at North Point 200 years after 80 people lost their lives, 500 wounded on this small patch of land seeking to maintain who would dominate this peaceful countryside, it is nice to celebrate the present rather than the past; Two hundred recent immigrants gathered together to celebrate their commitment to the Prince of Peace and Lord of Lords.  

About Me

Name: Jonathan Charles

Location: Lancaster, Pa, United States

I suspect I'm a bit of a "helper" kind of guy. I got into business quite by accident just trying to help young couples getting married save a few dollars on their wedding photos. The rest of my life seems to be an extension of that motivation.

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