I WILL NOT BE STANDING WITH THE NC GOP ON THIS ISSUE.

N.C. GOP leaders push to have marriage defined.

I consider myself a political conservative & have voted Republican 96% since I registered to vote in 1982. I have voted for a democrat when I considered that person to be the best qualified. I am also a Christian, a follower of Jesus and my faith is dear to me and the defining guide of my daily life. I am also a citizen of The U.S. and the great state of N.C.

Sometimes I find my faith and citizenship to be in conflict. I am a citizen of this nation and a follower of a Jewish Rabbi from the 1st century. When this conflict happens I must always look to love and care for my fellow secular citizens and neighbors just as much as those inside my faith. With that in mind I have chosen a more secular view on the gay/lesbian marriage debate.

I believe in LIBERTY, FREEDOM, PERSONAL RESPONSIBLITY, the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS and that the Declaration of Independence & The U.S. Constitution are the sacred documents of our nation. If your life or lifestyle does not cause me, my family or my neighbors harm I believe you should be left alone by the law and any moral code someone else has chosen. I will not use my rights or moral code to restrict your freedom if you will give me the same courtesy. If a married lesbian or gay couple becomes my neighbor they would in no way harm me or my moral code. They would also not harm my marriage or your marriage for that matter. As a matter of fact and biblical teaching, I truly beleive I should invite them over for dinner and love/protect them like any other neighbor. On this issue I beleive my NC GOP leaders are violating the very code of liberty and freedom they say they hold so dear. LIFE, LIBERY & THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS should also include my gay and lesbian neighbors.

My homeless friend is a poet.

I have a homeless friend, he is a poet. The first time you meet him you would never know such a thing. He has broad shoulders, muscles on his arms the size of tree trunks & a "I dare you to look at me wrong" look in his eye. He is always shaved and wearing clean clothing. He has a deep raspy voice and is easy with a joke; once he knows you.

The first conversation I had with him he told me about his bad habit. His bad habit? He has a habit of getting thrown in jail. Not for anything "serious", just placing his fist in the face of people who run off at the mouth.

We have become friends. We text each other every day or so and bump into each other around Durham once or twice a week. He even has a face book page. Probably one or two of your face book friends are homeless if you knew their whole story.

He spent the last two years in a tent in a secluded patch of woods in East Durham. He is a "professional" urban outdoorsmen and can teach you how to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer using a 12 volt car battery.

Two weeks ago he asked me for a pen and a piece of paper. He sat down and penned this poem. He told me he had had it in his brains for a few days. His penmanship was legible and spelling correct. More than a few homeless have talents and skills that are amazing.

Whether you are Christian or not I hope you will enjoy the beauty of the words he penned. This is like and Christmas to him. I hope and pray 2011 brings him much joy and an extra bucket of coal for the fire ;)

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Twas the night before Christmas

And all along the streets

No warmth for the homeless

Nor anything to eat

I with my sleeping bag

And an old homeless cat

Went behind the bush for a cold winter’s nap.

Then all of a sudden

I heard a wonderful sound

I jumped from the bush

In one single bound

And what did my wondering eyes did see,

A soft spoken stranger looking at me.

He spoke very softly, passing out blankets as he went

I knew in my hear he was heaven sent.

I asked the stranger, where are you from my dear friend?

He said even though I’m not there any more

I’m from Bethlehem.

May you experience a blessed, merry & warm Christmas!

The new face of slavery

Slavery is alive and well...

Short visit, long implications...

The Pope visited one of the oldest synagogues in the U.S. on Friday. The video at the news website is less than 22 minutes. It may have been a short visit, but I believe this stop could have far reaching and positive effects on the church of the world.
A "raw" video of the visit was in the side bar this morning. It is worth the time to watch and listen. Rabbi Scheier gives a powerful illustration for followers of Yaweh to build relationships and work together. If we as the Body of Christ, (I include all Catholics and Protestants) as well as those who call on Yaweh, (Jews and Christians) would begin to know and care for each other, we could then love and care for a hurting, hungry world.

Another video at YouTube...

Fried Green Tomato BLT...

I am renovating a bathroom in an old house in Durham. Don't believe all you here about the Bull City. It is full of great folks and has some of the best food, music and art in all the southeast. Working there for me is always a thrill, as I will usually see someone I have known my whole life or have met along the way.

Milton is one of those I met along the way. He and his wife Ginger are fairly new to the Triangle. Not only will they add much to the mix of D town, they will be a blessing to all they meet. Ginger is the new pastor of Pilgrim UCC Church. I truly feel the congregation gets a twofer with Milton and Ginger.

Milton is a chef at Watts Grocery; one of the many fine eateries in the growing food family of Durham. Yesterday he brought and bought me lunch to my jobsite. It was a Fried Green Tomato sandwich and fresh cut fries. Milton, Kevin(my trusty sidekick) and I, sat out on the front porch steps and ate as the traffic drove by on Hillandale Rd.
The food was delicious, but the conversation and friendship were truly filling. I will be hungry again, and need to find another sandwich, but I now have something of substance to carry with me from a conversation on front porch steps.

"You use steel to sharpen steel,
and one friend sharpens another."
Proverbs 27:17 (The Message)

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Random Links...

Federal Credit Cards providing lavish perks for employees.

Advances in surgery continue...

They should just leave the "crisis" alone.

The Christian church of the U.S. built the cassette tape industry in the 70's, could they now conquer the podcast?

We as the Church of Jesus in America must deal with this issue.

What do you think?

There is a 15-30 second commercial before the report.

Beginning to look like Christmas

Our family has been on a journey the past four years. A journey of faith and heart ache. A journey of gain and loss. A journey of lost dreams and future vision. We have been asking ourselves, "What does it mean to live Jesus in our culture?", "What does it mean to be a Christian family in the place God has placed us?" It has been at times a difficult transition, but a blessed journey.

One of the BIGGIES of family transition has been in the area of social justice or mercy and compassion. For us, it has meant a change in our spending habits. We question how and why we spend what we do. That leads to asking where you will spend. We desire to bless our community and God's world with our commerce. We now spend much more locally, many times with micro farmers or small business folks. To keep the money in the community where God has placed us.

This year, it meant looking at how we would spend our money for a Christmas tree. We could have bought a tree from one of the local tree lots. The Boy Scouts and the Optimist Club both have lots locally. The money DOES benefit these organizations, but the bulk of the monies leave here and go west to the counties in western North Carolina.

Yesterday, we were ready to go to a local tree farm, owned by a native county family.
They have invested much in planting evergreens that grow well here and make great Christmas trees. You go on their land, find a tree and they cut it down and load it on the truck for you. It would have been great and benefited the family. But, the tree would die and end up on a burn pile on the farm.

I have grown tired of this. I began to look for a new way. I than remembered that a fellow beekeeper and friend owns and operates a tree nursery down the road from our home. An epiphany! Why not buy a potted tree and plant it after Christmas? That is what we did.

If you drive by our home the first of the year you will see a five foot Thuja Green Giant planted in our yard. It will grow three feet per year until it reaches 30-60 feet high. A new tradition has now been added to our holiday list. Each December, we will go as a family to Backyard Plantation and buy a new tree to enjoy over Christmas. We will than plant it in the yard, where it can grow and tell the stories of Christmas past.

Liv'in in the Burbs

I met Will and Lisa Samson over two years ago. We were attending a spiritual advance in the mountains of WV. During that weekend meeting Will spoke passionately about justice. At that time I had never thought about justice as an attribute of a person of faith. Will's use of the word in context disturbed me at the time. It disturbed me because I knew in my heart he was correct, I knew as I know my name a person who claims to have been radically invaded by Jesus Christ should be concerned about justice. I knew that living a life of justice would change me. I knew it would change my family. I knew it would change my faith community. I knew it would shake my priorities, my wallet, my free time, my world. I knew it would cause my attention to move from me to asking a dangerous question..."How does God view this and how do I respond?" I knew that once that question was asked/answered life as I knew it would move from exciting to frenetic. I know that "exciting" and "frenetic" are synonyms. I know that flying one of these is exciting, but flying one of these would be frenetic. I left that first meeting hoping to forget about justice.

It did not work. The next twelve months I fought with God about justice. I argued with God about justice. I attempted to avoid any and all scripture about justice. Do you know you cannot read Proverbs without being hit in the face with justice? And if you have one of those RED LETTER Edition bibles, you cannot read the red and not be smacked down by the voice of Jesus in red talking and living justice. Forget it, it won't work...I tried.

This past fall I again attended a spiritual advance in the mountains of WV. Will and Lisa Samson were again participants. This past fall Will and Lisa were still talking about justice. Not only were they talking about justice, they were writing a book about justice. This time, I enjoyed the conversations. I was excited about the book. Why? What had changed? It is pretty simple, you cannot fight and argue with God and win. Twelve months of battling had changed me and my heart. I was now wanting to live justly.

Will and Lisa grew up in the church. The churches where they grew up loved God, Jesus and USAmerica. Will and Lisa grew up in Christian families with Judeo-Christian values. They married, had children and started to live "the American Dream". All was well until they started learning about the word justice. They fought with it, argued with God and finally realized they were being pushed toward justice by a force much bigger then they. That decision to obey God has transformed a daily journey to a life long quest. A quest is a long and difficult journey with dangerous obstacles, but in the end is great reward. Will and Lisa have written about their metamorphosis in a very personal , yet non-preachy voice. Scripture will not be used as a club against you, they will not shake a finger in your face and tell you how bad you have been. If you will read with a quiet heart and open mind, you will laugh, you will cry, you will become angry, you will pray for forgiveness and you will see your life in a different way when you close the last page. This book should be a primer for living a faith life in the 21st century. Read it, I double dog dare you!!

Listen to the Sweetness and the Samson

Len Sweet is one of my favorite communicators. He is fast with a retort as well as a metaphor. He has challenged the church for years to look into the past and the future at the same time and pull them both together into the now. He does not write a blog, but he does podcast. About once a week he sits down and records his thoughts. I look forward to his words each week. I am also honored that he considers me his friend. Take a listen and enjoy.

Will and Lisa Samson are a great couple with a great family. Lisa is an author, Will is a leader in the Emergent Village. They are attempting to live out biblical justice in an unjust world. They have written a book, "Justice in the Burbs". It is available the first of August. Here is their promo video. Take a look and buy the book.

If you are wondering about justice...

great article at next wave

an upcoming book about justice

The parachute is within my grasp

I enjoy supper around our family table. There is always lots of laughter, the conversations are never dull, and we will usually discuss something of substance. That is why the posts with the label Up to The Table are important to me. I truly wish all people could come up to the table and enjoy a meal with my family. But reality tells us this is not possible. Many families struggle to stay together and far to many struggle to keep food on the table. My hope is our small faith community can make a difference this summer. We are attempting to feed 24 children here in Granville County through the summer season. It all began with the post "Oh God, please let the parachute catch up with me!" We ARE feeding 24 children! We are low on funds! We are low on man power! We will continue!!

The director of a community summer reading program called us today. He wanted to thank us for the lunches. His program is going well thus far and part of the reason is 24 children know that if they come and learn to read better, they will go home with a good lunch. Learning and a full belly are important, even in the summer when the school cafeterias are closed.

My hope and prayer is a child will fall in love with reading and just maybe, enjoy a PB&J on good whole wheat bread and a granola bar and a piece of fresh fruit and a juice box. Someday, one of those children could read a book by C.S. Lewis or Madeleine L'Engle or Mark Twain or James Herriot or William Shakespeare or...the list could go one all night. Maybe by falling in love with reading, they could fall in love with learning and learn to build a strong self and build a strong family and a strong future and never be hungry again. Maybe they could help someone who will be hungry in the community where they will be living and loving and working and reading.

Dennis Fritz

You probably do not know Dennis Fritz. He is from the Midwest, Oklahoma and Kansas to be exact. At this moment he is doing all he can to care for his daughter and mother.

He is also working hard to make sure that lady justice is totally blind in the court system of USAmerica. This is important to Dennis. It is important because justice was not blind in his life. Dennis was convicted of first degree murder in 1988. He spent 11 years in county jail and state prison for a crime he did not commit. Dennis has written a book about his 12 year ordeal. Journey Toward Justice is a must read for all who enjoy compelling non-fiction. Dennis’ style is an easy read and he tells his story with simple words. The words may be simple, but his passion for truth is evident with each chapter.

You will ride the roller-coaster of emotional ups and downs with Dennis. One day will be hope of freedom; the next will be despair of being imprisoned. You will have a glimpse into the county jail system, state judicial system and state correctional institutions. You will read clearly how heavy handed investigators and unethical DAs can put innocent people in prison for life, or worse, on death row. You will wonder how you would react, how you would feel, how you would survive. If you love justice and enjoy freedom, you may lose sleep during the reading. Dennis does not preach Jesus in this book, but it is evident a deep and abiding faith sustained him during his incarceration.

Seven Locks Press and the editor condensed a 12 year time period down to 458 pages. The hardback is printed with a font size that will be easy on the eyes. 310 pages will take you on the journey from forwards and preface to the end of the trial. Dennis squeezes over 10 years of prison life and legal education into less than 100 pages and brings the story of the happy resolution to conclusion in the last 50. It is a page turner in which you will not be disappointed. The only fault I found was in Dennis’ remembrances of dialog; the exacting detail of words spoken is somewhat stiff and at times hard to believe in the passage of time. Dennis does have this on his side: much of the story is in court records and transcripts and the true story is a matter of historical fact. It is an amazing yet painful story for all who love justice and this great country. It should cause you pause as you honestly ask yourself, “Do all receive justice in this nation?”

Related links:
The Innocence Project
Truth in Justice
The Innocent Man
Barbara's Journey Toward Justice
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee

The "gospel"

It is a simple question full of christian cliche'...."What is the gospel?". It is THE question I have been wrestling with for almost ten years. I am not sure I have the answer, nor am I sure I ever will. My hope and prayer is the answer to the question will be a life lived well by me and my friends.

Here are Larry's thoughts on the question.


"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."
Saint Francis Of Assisi
Italian monk & saint (1181 - 1226)

Oh God, please let the parachute catch up with me!

If you read this blog on a regular basis you will notice a label for a view posts. Up To The Table are several posts I have made with the theme of food, faith and farming. Those posts are part of a journey I have been on for the last three years:looking deep inside for what it means to follow Jesus at this time in this community.

I have been evaluating social justice in myself and my community because of Will Samson and his wife Lisa Samson. I met them over two years ago and the term "social justice" was etched into my consciousness because of conversations with them. It has been a slow and long journey, but I am now at a place to put social justice into practice in my life and the life of my christian community here in Granville County.

During the summer of 2007 we are going to feed 24 hungry children five days a week.
They will be involved in a tutoring program in our community. They will be learning to read, to write and perform basic math. We will be providing them lunch each day.

I have a small band of about thirty volunteers. We have very few financial resources. We have many ideas. We are going to attempt to use local produce, homemade products and healthy food choices. It seems like a huge task at this time.

I have jumped out of the airplane at 18,000 feet and I am hoping the parachute catches me.

If you have any suggestions, let me have them now!!

There are Monks among us

If you have ever wanted to drop out of the world system, you could take up the call of Jesus to serve. Shane Claiborne is one of a new breed of Jesus' followers, who is taking His words seriously.
New Monasticism is changing the hearts and minds of communities all around.

The Enigma

Yesterday morning it was raining here. It was a cool rain; the rain was not cool, but the breeze in the rain was. It was the kind of spring morning when sleeping late would seem to be wisdom. Instead, I was up and out by 6:15am. We worked in the cool and the rain. It was not raining hard enough to say you were getting soaked, just wet. It was cool enough that a sweat shirt or light rain shell was enough.

At around 9am I had to drive to the farm, the farm owned by the businessmen-enigma. He and had to discuss our construction plans for the first of the week. He was in a chatty mood, it was cool and raining, my crew would continue a few moments without me, I stayed. He had mentioned in the past that he grew up very poor. That is hard to imagine when you are surrounded by evidence of anything but poverty. During a break in the conversation I asked a question, "Did you every go hungry as a little boy?"

"Yes", he said. "At eight or nine I would get up very early in the morning. I would go into the woods and check my line traps. If the trap had an animal with fur, I knew we would have something to eat that day, if not I knew we might you hungry. My mother made jewelry. She made ceramic ear rings. She would make dog wood boom ear rings and fire them in a very small kiln. She could make 6-7 pairs at a time. She would assemble them, place them on a small card and give them to me. I would take them to school and sell them to the ladies at school. If I sold ear rings, I knew we would eat. If I caught food or sold ear rings we ate, if not we didn't.
Kids can be mean to little boys who have to sell ear rings. That may be why i am so mean sometimes."

I was shocked by the story. Here was a man who is brilliant. He is a builder, electrical engineer, architect, investor, cattleman, wood worker, etc, etc...
He has a beautiful home and farm, yet I saw him as a little boy trapping food and selling ear rings to eat. Hunger in America, post Depression is OBSCENE!!

$68,000,000,000

According to the N.C. Department of Agriculture, the ag industry in N.C. benefits the state with total income of $68,000,000,000. The ag industry represents 20% of the state income and provides over 17% of the employment.

With those kinds of numbers, agriculture should be a top priority for the General Assembly. Instead the "leaders" in Raleigh have given hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives to companies such as Dell Computers and Google. These companies will come to N.C., suck up the tax breaks and bail at the first sign of shrinking profits.

Meanwhile, the small to medium farmer in N.C. will attempt to hold on to family land, turn a profit and even transition his farm to a new food crop, if he can borrow the money to keep going. If he should die, his family will face huge federal and state taxes. Many will find it necessary to sell the farm to pay theses taxes. The land will be sold into private hands, much of that land that borders metro areas will never be used for producing food again. Some of the land will be logged and then houses or commercial construction will move in.

Things must change!! Farmers should farm!! N.C. should continue to lead the nation in agriculture production, not development. The N.C. General Assembly and the Governor should top playing kissy-face with big name comapnies by handing out money, and start loving on the N.C. Agriculture Community by helping them flourish. If they want to know how to help, ask a farmer who is attempting to make a living this spring and summer.

Second Amendment

I am a gun owner. I am an NRA member. I enjoy the sport of shooting. I love wildlife and hunting, but I do not enjoy the killing of animals anymore. I hate killing! I cannot imagine killing another human, unless My life and the lives of MY family were in danger. Thanks to South Park Pundit, here is a video PSA on gun control...you be the judge.

New book, hot topic

I had a comment to yesterdays post. I know it was a sales pitch from an author, but when I publish my first book I will do the same thing. I went to the blog and found the topic so intriguing and appropriate for our time I wanted to give a shout out to book and author. Dennis Fritz has written a book on our criminal justice system and the problem of unjust imprisonment and death of innocent defendants. I have NOT read the book, but I have added it to my reading list for 2007.
If the author would send me a review copy, i will read it sooner and put my thoughts and impressions here at Woodshavings. Somebody read the book or give me your impressioms before I spend $20.00 to read "Journey Towards Justice".