Hear the Word of the Lord:

You shall not charge interest to your brother — interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest.  To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess.

-- Deuteronomy 23:19-20

LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the LORD; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

-- Psalm 15

A person who makes money by charging interest will lose it. It will end up in the hands of someone who is kind to the poor.

-- Proverb 28:8

These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:  A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood,  A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.

-- Proverbs 6:16-19

Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight.

-- Proverbs 11:1

Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal truthfully are His delight.

-- Proverbs 12:22

It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, For a throne is established by righteousness.

-- Proverbs 16:12

Are there yet the treasures of wickedness In the house of the wicked, And the short measure that is an abomination? Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, And with the bag of deceitful weights? For her rich men are full of violence, Her inhabitants have spoken lies, And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

-- Micah 6:10-12

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!  Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.   You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

-- James 5:1-6

It is not just homosexuality that God considers an abomination.  Only the church considers homosexuality to be the Bible's lone abomination.  God thinks otherwise. He considers the actions of our government and business leaders to be abominable in his sight.  James gives them their warning.  Let us pray to be righteous and remain in God's grace, and to give away our fortunes to those who have none, to pay our people a decent wage, and to charge a decent price so all may afford our wares, and treat everyone with honesty and courtesy; so we are not counted in James' warning to rich men, and are not found to be abominations in the eyes of God.

The following is from my personal journal -- things I saw recently while sitting in a small park behind our apartments.   If you look closely enough at nature, you see God, and see all the more reason to help preserve our Earth.

I sit on a picnic bench in a small park in what passes for woods here in Ft. Worth. Sitting here on the bench, looking down at twenty square feet of God’s creation. To the average observer, it’s just another piece of dirt. But there’s a lot here, before my eyes, are five varieties of leaves, and each one’s different. Each one is a different shade of brown; each one is curled just a little differently. Each one lying there in a state of decay ... and this is not death. Death has a morbid smell, a terrible feel. The smell reaches inside your brain and pinches it; it reminds you of your own mortality. No, this is the decay of life giving life. It’s a sweet smell. There’s nothing finer than the smell of leaves on the ground, unless, perhaps, it is fresh cut hay.

I also see, growing up through the leaves, about ten different oak trees, planted here in the spring by squirrels, or perhaps last fall, and they survived the winter. There’s a patch of grass and there’s another patch of grass. And here’s a little clump of wood, that once upon a time had been a larger branch, a knot that survived the decay around it. There are twigs everywhere; big twigs, little twigs, twigs I can barely see, twigs that are so old they have become part of the dirt and the leaf litter underneath, part of the ground, the gray leaves that are turning into dirt, fertilizing it for more acorns to grow. This is that circle of life as they call it, all part of living things around me, giving back to the Earth that birthed them, giving back so that more can grow. Giving back in the way we should, too. We people don’t have leaves to put back into the dirt, but we can give back to the Earth the same way. Through our poetry, through our music, through our art, through our words, through smiles to the bank clerk who’s had a bad day, to hugs for our children, to a kind pat on the back to our pastor who has tried hard but feels like a failure, to a bucket of friend chicken taken to a friend. That’s how we give back to those who gave life to us.

I see insects. Just one bug. Wandering around the leaves. To him, it’s like a big, vast concrete valley; it’s like what Dallas is to me. It’s so little to me, but so big to him. It’s on his scale. And we people have a huge scale, a grand scale, an epic scale, a Homeric scale, because we can dream big. A lot bigger than this little bug. This little bug can’t dream very big. He does the best he can in his little world. To him, these leaves that are only half an inch to me are perhaps ten feet to him. He gets around them. He eats them. He roots around and finds the ones that still have juice and sap in them. He roots around looking for decayed pieces of matter. Plant eaters. Stink bugs. They look for what nectar of life they can find, so they can continue, and give back to the Earth that gave life to them.

Then I see the signs of man. Careless man. Neglectful man. Man who wants to rape the Earth and move on to his next victim. Man who could care less about what is out here. I hope that they are not Christians. There is the lid from a drink. And about twenty feet away is the drink cup itself. And I see a straw. And over there is a cigarette pack, twisted and discarded. It’s one thing when a non-Christian is neglectful, but it really hurts me, and I believe it hurts God, when a Christian says "I believe in the Second Coming, so why should I recycle or clean up after myself? Why should I bother? Jesus is coming back." It’s making an excuse. It’s taking a grand and glorious event and using it as an excuse for our own laziness. It’s like what the Nicolatians did - it’s using grace to condone the sin. Pagans have more concern for the Creation of God than this! The Wiccans I have met -- they are called tree-witches for good reason, they love trees, they love nature. How much more should we who believe in the son of God revere his creation? There are trees that should be cut down and turned into wood. There are trees that should be cut down and turned into paper. There are trees that should be cut down because they are already dead. But not all. The old Conservationists had the right idea; clean up after yourself, replant, put the dirt back when you are through mining. When you are done, make it look better than it was when you got here.

And don’t make it look like a golf course. Not everything needs to be neatly manicured. From where I sit, I see three worlds. I see the golf course that connects the park to my apartment building. It is neat, trim and tidy. Pristine. That world appeals to some. I see the park, with its trees and open spaces under them; a forest meadow. Ordered chaos. That world appeals to some (myself included). And I see the wilderness on both sides of the park, with underbrush so thick that you pick up ticks and redbugs just by thinking about walking through there. Primal. That world appeals to some. These three worlds encompass a lot of people. But it’s wrong when someone who enjoys one world tries to impose that world on the people who enjoy the other two. This place is big enough for everyone. It’s a big Earth. And a He’s a BIG GOD! God made everything to be enjoyed and made someone to enjoy something, so that all his creation is ultimately enjoyed.

Where is the Church?  Where is the Body of Christ?

We are supposed to be the agents of change, the brokers of peace, the hands that bless all.  We are the peacemakers, the bridgers of gaps, the destroyers of walls.   We walk as Jesus walked and he blessed and touched all as he went, never cursing, never killing, never lying, giving life, giving love, giving hope, drying tears, healing bodies, restoring souls.

Why are we not doing this?  America needs us to do this.

Why are we not standing up and demanding that the gas prices go down?  We put the government in place, we the Christians, gave this country the government that caused the gas prices to go up, so we can command them to bring them back down to $1.00 a gallon so decent people can go to work and take their children to school.  Or we will vote Democrat next time!  Are we not supposed to bless the world, and is blessing not more than just beating them with the Mosaic Law and dragging them to church?  Isn't blessing the world also making sure they can take care of their families?

Why are we not standing up for church schools, hospitals and welfare programs?  Oh, sure, we have private schools but most are breeding grounds for racism and fundamentalist thinking (dare I say terrorist training camps?), instead of hotbeds of learning and educational opportunities.  Our church-based hospitals are great, but far too few.  And aside from T.D. Jakes, I know no church that helps the indigent in ways that they truly need.  Is true religion not taking care of orphans and widows?  Yet, we take government faith-based grants to build prisons to house people whose worst crime is smoking a joint, and do nothing as our high-tech jobs slip away to Asia.

Why are we not standing up to protest the war in Iraq?  The evidence is overwhelming that there were no weapons of mass destruction.  We were attacked by Saudis, not Iraqis.  The US Government imposes our way of life on a nation that doesn't want it, while the enemy we seek, the al Queda, successfully strikes eight times with casualties.  And the church does nothing.  Are we not supposed to be the voice of peace?  Yet, we applaud the deaths of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens as collateral damage necessary to reclaim the Garden of Eden.

Where is the Body of Christ in 2005?

Where is the Body of Christ?  The same place it was in 1859, when the slavery crisis was at its head.  Instead of standing up for freedom and the concept that there is no master or slave in Christ, the Church was mostly hiding in Southern churches built by slave-owners and northern churches built by mill-owners who benefited from the cheap slave-raised cotton.  In 1859, it ignored the cries of the blood of human beings held in bondage, so the government had to step in. 

Where is the Body of Christ?  The same place it was in 1910, when child labor was at its height, when tiny tenament apartments were turned into sweat shops, when men and women worked fourteen hour days for a dollar a week and were told to be thankful for it and that God expected them to work like that, and the Triangle Shirt Company building caught fire and 150 people burned to death because the doors were chained shut.  Instead of standing up and saying "the unpaid wages of these people and their blood cry out to God for justice," the Church was relaxing in the comfort of cathedrals with stained glass windows and padded pews, built by robber barrons and slum lords.  In 1910, it slept while people worked to death, so the government had to step in.

Where is the Body of Christ?  The same place it was from 1836 until 1945, when the United States government practiced its form of apartheid and its own form of Final Solution against millions of indigent people, the Indians.  Instead of standing up and saying "Jesus died for them, too, so they can live.  Let us work with them and meet with them and evangelize them where they are," the Church turned its back and said "they're just savage pagans" while the government slaughtered them and herded them like cattle to useless pieces of land to die of drink and malnutrition.  But the government realized its mistake, and turned to the Navaho in Word War Two and said "can you help us?"  The Navaho did, and the government has apologized and gone to great lengths to build bridges to the natives.  What is the church doing?  Turning its racial hatred on the Arab, and keeping its back to the Indian.   During that age of apartheid and holocaust, the church was silent, basking in the glory of Zane Grey novels, Buffalo Bill wild west shows and John Wayne movies -- cheap entertainment manufactured by the world that said "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," so the government had to step in.

Where is the Body of Christ?  The same place it was from 1913 until 1963, when the black man was kept under the foot of an ugly ogre called Jim Crow, when the men were linched and the women raped and the children told they couldn't go to school.   Instead of standing up and saying "All men are created equal, and God is colorblind," the Church stayed quiet.  The only churches that stood up for what was right were the churches run by the people who were being linched and raped, the black churches, while white churches, pastored by Klansmen, formed circles around themselves and said "In Jesus name, no niggers allowed."  From 1913 until 1963, the Body of Christ hid in back rooms because the deacon boards and elders and ushers all rode for the Ku Klux Klan, so the government had to step in.

Where is the Body of Christ?  The same place it was in the 70's and 80's when the environment was being destroyed.   Instead of standing up for God's creation and advocating proper stewardship of the Earth, it was blowing itself out of proportion with self-importance and forming Moral Majorities and Christian Coaliltions to fight homosexuals and giving them a larger spotlight than they could give themselves, while cars polluted and McDonalds bags grew like dandelions on the sides of our roads.  During the 70's and 80's, the Body of Christ decided to become political, and the government had to step in.

We, the Body of Christ, are a whore, wearing a tearaway dress cut up to here and down to there, doing a lapdance for Big Business and his brother Special Interest, and we'll end up going home with them and being two-wayed by them, all for the price of a stained-glass window, a new auditorium, a new sound system, another week on the TV.  And our conscience will yell at us to stop sleeping with the enemy just for his money, and we will shut our conscience up by drowning it in a bottle of Self-Righteousness Gin.  Then we wake up the next day, take a verse out of the Bible as a Morning-After Pill, and return to business as normal.

Where is the Body of Christ?  In 2005, when America is rapidly becoming a third world country in the grip of a depression that is only fixed by cheap credit, we relax in the comfort of our big suburban auditoriums, in air conditioned luxury, playing with our HD cameras and multi-media systems, flying in our corporate jets and asking Paul Crouch "when do I go on?"  Only in 2005, there is no government to stand up and do what we have abdicated doing, because this government was put there by us and is also a whore, doing a pole dance for Big Business and Special Interest.

May God have mercy on our souls, for we have become the Whore of Babylon instead of the Bride of Christ!

-- Dohi Kolona (Peaceful Raven)

Okay, here's the deal, people! 

If I get 20 individual replies to this post -- no repeats -- by tomorrow, then I will post a photo of Lindsey Lohan in a white macrame thong bikini.

I am not concerned about having to post this photo ...

... neither is Lindsey Lohan ...

.