Dietrich Bonhoeffer

All to often the Christian Church has been characterized as being complicit with the Nazis during WWII in the persecution of the Jews. This is unfair and untrue. Below is a Christian pastor who at age 39 was executed for his opposition to the Nazis. It must be recognized that Christianity did not support the Nazis and paid a heavy price for their opposition. Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of those who was executed by the Nazis at age 39.
Ken Clouse

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 - 1945) 

"Whether or not government is aware of its own true basis, its task consists in maintaining by the power of the sword an outward justice in which life is preserved and is thus held open for Christ."

Born on February 4, 1906, in Breslau, then part of Imperial Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer began his theological education in 1923 at the University of Tübingen. He later trained under liberal theologians Adolf von Harnack and Reinhold Seeburg.

Following what he would later call a conversion experience, Bonhoeffer intensified his focus on contemporary theological problems facing the church. With the ascendancy of the Nazi party in Germany, Bonhoeffer was among the first of the German theologians to perceive the pervasiveness and significance of the looming Nazi threat.

When the pro-Nazi German Christian party won the church elections in the summer of 1933, Bonhoeffer quickly opposed the anti-Semitism of the Nazis in an important article, “The Church and the Jewish Question.” In this piece Bonhoeffer provided a seminal overview of his perspective of the church's relationship to the state.

His framework was based on a view of the normative worldly authorities, first articulated in his doctrine of “preservation orders” in his early academic lectures and later developed in mature form in his ethics manuscripts of the early 1940s. In these latter documents, Bonhoeffer speaks of four unique and divinely instituted mandates in the world: work (or labor), marriage (or family), government, and church.

The recognition of the legitimate but limited role of government in human affairs enabled Bonhoeffer to oppose the perversion of the state represented by the National Socialists.

Marriage is not made by the government, but is affirmed by the government. The great spheres of work are not themselves undertaken by the government, but they are subject to its supervision within certain limits—later to be described—to governmental direction. Government should never seek to become the agent of these areas of work, for this would seriously endanger their divine mandate along with its own.

Bonhoeffer's resistance to the Nazi regime included his support for and pastoral participation in the Confessing Church along with other prominent Protestant theologians like Karl Barth and Martin Niemöller, as well as his intricate association with the broader ecumenical movement. When the effectiveness of the Confessing Church's opposition to Hitler was blunted and his efforts to bring the moral authority of the ecumenical movement to bear failed, Bonhoeffer became involved with the so-called Abwehr conspiracy, which intended to assassinate Hitler, overthrow the Nazi regime, and end the war.

After imprisonment for his role in the escape of Jews to Switzerland, Bonhoeffer was implicated in the failed assassination attempt of July 20, 1944. At the age of thirty-nine, he was hanged by the S.S. at the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, just weeks before the liberation of the area under Allied troops. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life and death are a testament to his commitment to the Christian faith and his ardent opposition to the absolutism and idolatry of Nazi Germany.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHp0c49ql5s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuRCr-dfanA&feature=related
Acton Institute
161 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 301
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

phone: 616.454.3080
fax: 616.454.9454
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Born February 4, 1906 (1906-02-04)
Breslau
Died April 9, 1945 (1945-04-10) (age 39)
Flossenbürg concentration camp
Nationality German
Education Doctorate in theology
Occupation Pastor, professor, theologian
Religious beliefs Lutheran (Confessing Church)
Children (none)
Parents Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer



He is Precious

Last week my wife and I had the pleasure once more of taking in an opera. As operas go except for only a few, they are tragic love affairs. Madam Butterfly the opera we saw is no exception it is a tragic love affair. A 15-year-old Japanese geisha girl is betrothed to an American Naval officer while stationed in Japan. She innocently accepts this American Councilet arranged marriage as an honorable union. A friend warns the naval officer “be careful she trusts you”, two times he is warned, “be careful she trusts you”.
Well, the naval officer ships off back home to the USA leaving his betrothed promising to return.
For four years, this young woman now age 19 with a son waits for the return of her husband. She checks the harbor for American ships, visually she checks for the red, white and blue flag, the American flag. She has been blessed to be married to an American, Americans are honorable, and they don’t leave their wives.
Her marriage cost her dearly; her family disowned her when she chooses the religion of her husband and the customs of her husband.
Struggling to provide food for herself and her child her old profession comes to mind. No she says, she will not be anything but honorable, she will not return to dishonor, she has been freed from that. She will die of starvation before she will return to the geisha’s.
One day a ship arrives with an American Flag, it’s a naval ship. Excitedly she gets her home ready for the return of her American husband. The wait was worth it after all.
When the officers friend (the friend who warned “be careful she trusts you” came from the harbor ahead of her husband and found her (former geisha girl) joyously busy being ready. The commonly accepted news (in the past) was horrifying for him to give, she was so innocent so honest so devoted. Madam Butterfly is confronted first by the wife of her American husband. (The naval officer went back to America and married an American girl)
The marriage of the geisha girl to the American Naval Officer meant nothing to him; this was convenience only.
There is now no home for her son with his father, she the geisha girl takes her own life so her son can go with his father and have a mother and father.
Now, how on earth could any one be so cruel, so thoughtless? That poor geisha girl, but who really suffered here? My opinion is the real tragedy is about the deceiver, how can he live with what he did, how can he make it right, how many apologies can he give and everything be made ok. It can never be made ok in his case. His guilt resides with him forever. If his heart is so cold he has no guilt then he is a wasted miserable man.
What happened to the girl is horrible it is true, but she had honor, the man had no honor. To live without honor, I cannot imagine.
Sitting watching the end of this opera my mind went to Peter, check these words out.

Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest’s house. But Peter followed at a distance.
Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.
And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him
But he denied Him, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.”
And after a little while another saw him and said, “You also are of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!”
Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, “Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean.”
But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying!” ¶ Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.
And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
So Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Luke 22:54-62

This is a well-known story; you know it I am sure. Check out the reaction of Jesus “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter”.
What do you suppose went through the mind of Peter; did Peter have a soft heart? What miserable disappointment he must have had in his heart. How horribly cowardly Peter turned out to be, (a coward like the sailor). How could he be forgiven for such a betrayal? Their eyes met, he promised so many times, he said I love you; you are the Christ he claimed. I will go with you to death Peter promised. What could Peter say looking into the eyes of Jesus? Horrified I suppose, I would be. Is there any way for Peter to be redeemed? I wonder if Peter thought so, I would imagine he thought he was finished. He did go away and wept bitterly, I am sure he thought he was finished. I am sure he thought he would have to live with this guilt for the rest of his life, and he would have except the one Peter was dealing with had the power to forgive, regenerate and cleanse, He cleanses from all unrighteousness. I believe the reaction by most to the Peter denying Jesus history is “poor Jesus”, Peter treated Him unfair. I think it was much different than that. I believe that Peter was the victim, he had no escape from his failure, he turned against the Lord, and Peter lost all creditability. Peter must have felt there was no hope for himself.
Here is what Peter learned in his bitter weeping.

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,”
and“A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
1-Peter 2:7-10

Peter in his weeping found Jesus to be precious; he believed he was no longer disobedient. He no longer rejected Jesus, no longer was Jesus an offense, and no longer was he disobedient to the Word. He became so supported buy the Word of God that he could now say he was a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation, even God’s own special person, who was called out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Jesus sees all of us, we all need to repent and trust Him not as an offense but a savior who has promised forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. Always love Jesus.
Ken Clouse
Lay Leader
North Michigan Reformation society

Sucker fishing Time and canning

News from Steve.

You may process your suckers by canning them, they taste just like salmon.

There's nothing wrong with suckers except the bones unless you know bow to can them. The bones of fish get very soft after the canning process, just like Tuna.

Most people don't like eating suckers because of the numerous tiny bones, and also because they are bottom feeders so people think they are dirty. However, if you ask those who eat suckers they will tell you, contrary to popular belief, that the meat is quite good.

A superb way to prepare Suckers "can them". Follow the directions below.

How to fillet a sucker

With the fish laying on its side, cut straight down just behind the gills until you hit the bone. Then, without removing the blade, turn it sideways and cut straight along the backbone to the tail. You now have one fillet removed.

Turn the fish over and repeat the steps on the other side.
You now have both fillets removed and the rest of the fish is for the compost.
Next thing slice out the rib section, the rib bones are large and easy to remove. You will see the ribs on the inside of the fillet. Just place the blade underneath the ribs and slice the section right out.

Now skin the fillets. With the skin side down insert the knife at the tail and cut the meat from the skin. If you start the cut about a half inch from the tail it will give you something to hold as you pull the knife between the skin and the meat. Pliers can be used to hold onto the fillet near the tail for a better grip.
Hold the blade on an angle it is almost like scraping the meat from the skin.
These fillets are all ready to be placed in mason jars, before the canning procedure begins some cautions are necessary. The canning of fish requires more care than canning high acid foods such as fruits or tomatoes. The United States Department of Agriculture
considers the pressure canner the only safe method for canning meat and fish. The water bath method, boiling the fish in the jars for three hours is unsafe.
Use a pressure canner only.
Note-----Water boils at 212 degrees F. (at sea level), but in a pressure canner steam expands and builds pressure, and as the pressure builds the temperature increases. At 5 pounds pressure the temperature is 228 degrees F., at 10 pounds pressure it's 240 degrees, and at 15 pounds pressure the temperature is 250 degrees.

Now, the recipe.

Take the fillets and pack them into hot pint or half-pint mason jars. Do not use quart jars.

Do not pack them too tightly, and be sure to leave one inch head space.

Do NOT add liquid. The fish creates its own liquid as it is cooked.
Add ingredients below in pint jar.
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 tablespoon vinegar
1-1/2 table spoon mazola oil
4 tablespoons tomato juice
Wipe the rim of the jars and put on the hot lids with sealing rings.

Follow manufacturer's instructions for using your canner.

Process the suckers for 110 minutes at 11 pounds pressure. (Add one pound pressure for every 2000 feet increase above sea level.)

After the jars are taken out, make sure they are properly sealed. With the metal lids it is easy to tell, you will hear them pop as they cool.
Jars are sealed when the lid is concave "curving" in the down position, press in the center of the lid if there is no give or up and down movement the jar is sealed.

Compliments of Steve

Depression/Unemployment

Unemployment: By the numbers

March 7, 2009



People unemployed in February 2009, the most since records dating to 1948

12.1 million:

People unemployed in December 1982, the previous record

154.2 million:

size of workforce in February 2009

111.1 million:

size of workforce in December 1982
New record-highs at all education levels (all records dating from 1992)

4.1%:

Unemployment rate for college graduates

8.3%:

Unemployment rate for high school graduates

12.6%:

Unemployment rate for those with no high school diploma
Underemployed workers

8.6 million:

Number of part-time workers who would have preferred full-time work last month, the most on records dating to 1955

2.1 million:

People who wanted to work, were available and had looked in the last 12 months, but had not looked in the last month

14.8%:

Unemployment rate including involuntary part-time workers and those who hadn't looked in 12 months, the highest on records dating to 1994
Those still working

60.3%:

Portion of the total population that had jobs in February

February 1986:

Last time the portion was this low
February unemployment rate by group

8.1%:

Adult men

6.7%:

Adult women

10.3%:

Female heads

of households

6.9%:

Asians

7.3%:

Whites

10.9%:

Hispanics

13.4%:

Blacks

21.6%:

Teenagers
Steve's take
I am not convinced the above article is about truth rather it seems to be about creation of an idea, the idea our unemployment problem to day is horrible. The article mentions "the most unemployed since 1948".(I don't put a lot of faith in statistics), check this out, in 1948 there was an unemployment rate of 3.9% out of a population of 146,000,000. Associated Press claims the number of unemployed (not percentage) is the greatest since 1948. How can this be since our population today is over 300,000,000 and we are at 8% unemployment. Our population had doubled since 1948 so why wouldn't the unemployment double as well? Actually I don't think we have a big problem an unemployment rate, below 5% is considered full employment, we are at 8%. This is high but not as high as when Jimmy Carter was president and we survived the prime rate was 22% and we couldn't buy gasoline.
The media is scaring everyone into a depression.
Steve

Money in the Closet

What is the real reason for the decline of the stock market? Trust is the reason, lack of that is. No one knows how much of a slap of taxation will be placed upon their success. Why take the chance? Why invest to make money? How much will they take if we make money? Well you guessed it, it is all a guess, who wants to risk money on a guess. Right, no one. It is apparent the man will be after you should you become successful so leave it alone, stay low, let the taxation devils fly right on by while you are in the closet with your money. No, we will not give it to them, the tax devils that is.
So this is the reason for the decline in the stock market. Money is still there as much as always has been, even more so since the printing presses are continually running. Right the money doesn't go away, it's somewhere, maybe in the closet waiting for the coast to be clear.

Steve

What is the real Agenda?

"The institutions of the North American republic had their birth and baptism from the free inspirations and genius of the Christian religion. This fact has given to the state its political power and moral glory, and shed new light on the benign nature and adaptation of the Christian
system to secure the highest political prosperity to a nation."

-Ref: The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States

Chapter 1, Paragraph 2

By Benjamin F. Morris

On Inauguration Day, I like so many americans watched as we installed our President as we have so many times before. On this day while standing in front of the television an outspoken Athiest outwardly expressed his disgust with the Invocation. I expressed my disdain with the fact that one would be so disrespectful of our obvious national foundation. After the fact I realize that I am guilty of missing an opportunity.

Now some 30+ days later our ability to give to charities is diminished and could possibly threaten numerous charitable organizations. Many of which are attached to ministries, such as Samaritan's Purse where I have dedicated my time in disaster releif. Our new President has stated that the Federal Government is the solution to all our ills. With his taxation policy that will threaten charitable giving will come a set of consequences the Church will suffer from. The President, wishes for the Government to be the answer, but the Government by this action is destroying the financial viability of the Christian organizations which provide the much needed public service he is pushing. Funny thing, as I watch the President in TV commercials selling public volunteer service he is destroying much of the existing charitable infrastructure that has carried this country and the world since its founding.

There is only one conclusion that one can come to. That is the politicians in Washington want to abandon the foundation of this country, bastardize the constitution and the Bill of Rights. The result will be the further erosion of the spiritual health of our nation and we will continue to turn from God and our founding fathers vision. The objective can only be the erosion of the influence of Christianity in our great nation.

Raw Milk

More “stuff“! Never has a cat died who tasted the warm milk squeezed from the farmers hand into it’s mouth while he milked his cow. Those cats would go away purring with delight. As for me, give me milk straight from the cow, water from the well, eggs from the hen house, chickens from the yard and bacon from the hog in the pen. This is the way men lived for centuries, that is before the blessing of the government who knows best about our health.
Ken Clouse


NUTRITION LAB
The raw milk debate rages on
Though proponents of unpasteurized milk tout its health benefits, including boosting immunity, scientific evidence remains shaky.
By Elena Conis
March 2, 2009
More and more consumers are forgoing standard milk in favor of "raw" milk, milk that's unpasteurized and unhomogenized, essentially straight from the udder of the cow.

Some seek out raw milk for its reportedly creamier, richer taste, but more choose it because they believe it's more healthful, a "living" food that can help fend off many illnesses, as varied as allergies and cancer. "Raw milk consumers are dedicated to building their immune systems," says Mark McAfee, founder of Organic Pastures, a raw dairy in Fresno.

The claims sound innocent enough, but the sale of raw milk is illegal in nearly two dozen states, and federal regulations prohibit producers in states where raw milk is legal, including California, from shipping it over state lines. The Food and Drug Administration cautions consumers against raw milk consumption and last year began cracking down on dairies, including McAfee's, for illegal distribution across state lines. (Organic Pastures pleaded guilty to the charge but continues to sell raw milk products -- legally -- throughout California.)

Claims about raw milk's health benefits are scientifically tenuous. Raw milk and pasteurized milk are equivalent in terms of protein, nutrient, fat and carbohydrate makeup, says Rusty Bishop, director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After raw milk has been pasteurized, he says, "there's no difference in composition, other than that you've killed off a significant number of bacteria that were in the milk."

Under the microscope

Bacteria, however, are at the crux of the controversy over raw milk.

Proponents argue that the milk naturally contains an array of beneficial bacteria and enzymes that give the immune system a workout and aid with digestion -- and that are destroyed by pasteurization. Meanwhile, dairy scientists such as Bishop argue that such beneficial bacteria (such as acidophilus and bifidobacterium) occur only in small amounts in raw milk, and that any enzymes the milk contains have no proven benefit for humans.

Federal officials maintain that pasteurization is crucial because the risk of contamination with harmful bacteria outweighs any potential benefits from beneficial, or probiotic, bacteria found in unprocessed milk.

Raw milk advocates point to a small, mostly European body of research to support their claims. A handful of studies have shown that children who grow up on farms appear to be less likely than other children to suffer from allergies such as hay fever and asthma. A separate body of research has begun to link that effect to unpasteurized milk -- though the evidence is preliminary, and somewhat mixed.

A study of about 100 children in Crete, published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy in 2001, found a significantly reduced rate of allergies among urban (but not rural) children who drank unpasteurized milk. A study of more than 4,000 children in a rural county in England, published by the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in 2006, found that those children who drank unpasteurized milk were 40% less likely to have symptoms of eczema. A New Zealand study, published in the journal Allergy in 2002, found a similar effect on eczema.

But an analysis of data collected from more than 23,000 adult women in Iowa, published in the journal Cancer Causes and Control last October, revealed a slightly higher rate of asthma and eczema among those who said they had ever consumed unpasteurized milk, compared with those who hadn't.

Meanwhile, a far greater number of studies have linked raw milk and cheese to outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella, listeria and a bacterium called campylobacter. The pathogens aren't inherent to raw milk, but can get into the milk due to unsanitary conditions.

A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2007 traced 45 outbreaks, causing more than a thousand illnesses and two deaths, to bacteria in unpasteurized milk or cheese between 1998 and 2005. "Raw milk could potentially have beneficial bacteria, but there's a higher likelihood that it has pathogenic organisms as well," says Lloyd Metzger, director of the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center at South Dakota State University in Brookings and a spokesman for the Institute of Food Technologists, an association of food scientists.

By the rules

In pasteurization, fresh milk is briefly heated to a temperature just high enough to kill off those pathogenic bacteria; by default, the process also kills any other bacteria that might be living in the milk. (Homogenization, meanwhile, keeps the cream, or fat, from separating from the milk.) Without it, raw milk producers have to take extra care to prevent contamination of their milk, Bishop says. Sanitary conditions, attention to diet, milk testing and cattle health screening can help prevent contamination episodes, and researchers in Europe -- where raw milk is widely used in cheese production -- have pioneered protocols to help ensure that raw milk is pathogen-free, he says.

"They can have that [raw] milk coming off the farm with minimal bacteria -- but it takes a lot more effort," Bishop says.

In the U.S., raw milk is regulated differently from one state to the next; in many states, it's simply illegal. In California, raw milk producers must meet the same safety standards as producers of pasteurized milk -- without the aid of pasteurization. (Advocates supported a bill last fall that would have established separate standards for raw milk, but it was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.) The extra effort it takes to meet those standards accounts for the high price of raw milk -- as much as $10 for half a gallon in California markets.

To the tens of thousands of California consumers purchasing raw milk, that price is worth it. To others, it's not.

"If you want beneficial bacteria," Metzger says, "you'd be better off just eating yogurt."