Transplanting the weed..

March 3rd, 2010

Disclaimer — I know just enough about this to be dangerous.  I am just beginning to explore the topic now.  But I am learning something that is worth sharing, and I think the lesson is valid even if my analysis is not, so I am sharing anyway.  Enjoy!

Happened accross another interesting book while researching my ancestors…  My ancestor was barely mentioned in this book – I think he gave money to a cause, or served on a committee or the like — but the book was insanely interesting anyway..

I remember in history class hearing about the colonization of  Liberia.  I don’t really think that it is something that you can boil down to a paragaph or two in a textbook and get it anywhere near right.  I seem to remember it being portrayed as a move by racist Americans to send the free black folks back to Africa, and it was left at that.  But really the story is quite a bit deeper than that.

Thanks to books.google.com, we can now read the organizers periodicals and see exactly what they where saying and thinking.

This enterprise is interesting by other motives and prospects which it opens to our view. It addresses itself with peculiar force to those who would promote the missionary cause. Were this our object, and this alone, is there any other method of evangelizing heathen lands, promising results comparable with those of the Liberian Colony? By great expense, provided with difficulty, an individual or two may be sent into a heathen country. With all his privations, his watchful labours, his precarious life, the time and funds necessary to the attainment of language, he holds up a feeble and glimmering taper, scarcely discernible through the thick gloom of pagan darkness that covers the land. How different is the scene lighted up by a colony of Christians on the coast of Africa, of the same origin and complexion with the natives of the country. Not only does it carry with it, the religion of the gospel, but exhibits its institutions and all its benignant effects upon society. Here is no glimmering taper, ready to disappear with an individual, or to be extinguished by the breath of an enemy. It is a glorious beacon, beaming with a broad, and vivid, and constant splendor, indefinitely into the interior of an extensive continent overspread with the darkness of heathenism. Churches are erected, and the vows of assembled Christians ascend to the living and true God, perfumed by the incense of the Saviour’s sacrifice. The native, whose mind has been enveloped in the night of witchcraft and superstition, approaches this novelty. He listens for the first time to the prayer poured forth to the omnipresent and invisible Being, the Creator of the world, and of man to possess it,—of the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and of all which have their paths in the seas. For the first time he hears distinctly of the glories of that mercy, which is shown to our lost and guilty world, in the redemption of Jesus Christ. His vision becomes illuminated— its dimness is passing away. The arts of sorcery, and the delusions of satan are dispersed from the firmament where he had reigned for ages. They dissolve before the power of Him who, is now about to establish his throne of purity and light, and righteousness, and peace for the salvation of all who trust in him. The gospel is propagated at length to the successive tribes of the continent, now but little known to geography. When we consider the effects thus produced, with materials worse than useless among ourselves, shall we not be consoled—nay, even rejoice, that while we have been so long suffering under the evils reciprocally inflicted upon one another, so ample a compensation is thus discovered in the opportunity of spreading the blessings of Christianity and civilization to nations that for ages have been sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.

-The African Repository and Colonial Journal (1832) -By American Colonization Society pages 69-71

The folks who where raising the money and promoting this great experiment had a grand missionary vision for the colony..   Somehow my secular education omitted that.  After reading a substantial amount of these journals,  I am surprised that I don’t find a overtly racist message.  On the contrary actually –  The organizers had faith in the people of color.  They thought that if they where freed from the poverty and oppression that  they where experiencing here they could do great things – and be great ministers – and transform the cultures around them.   They thought that having a free and educated colony on Africa would provide a base of operations to fight the illegal slave trade..

They do talk about the moral deficiencies of the freed people of color,  but it does seem to be attributed to their hopeless condition more than their race or their intelligence.

Sadly however, I do think that all of these noble visions and missions where the secondary motive..  The primary motive was a defeatism here at home..

He is now a freeman; but his complexion, his features, every peculiarity of his person, pronounce to him another doom,—that every wish he may conceive, every effort he can make, shall be little better than vain. Even to every talent and virtuous impulse which he may feel working in his bosom, obstacles stand in impracticable array; “not from a defect of essential title to success, but from a positive external law, unreasoning and irreversible. Pre-eminent attainments in knowledge and virtue, in the skill and powers of the mind, are known to be arduous to the amplest opportunity. To prevent men from languishing in the pursuit of these, they need not only the consciousness of faculties competent to such objects, but the cheering voice of friendship and of surrounding witnesses, and a prospect of compassing at last the high rewardswith which others have been crowned, provided they shall assert an indisputable claim. But what shall we think of his condition, who, after having reached, without these quickening motives, by some self-sustaining force, the highest moral and intellectual excellence, is then to be told, that he must stand away, not only from all office in society, (this he might be supposed to disregard,) but from all the social intimacies, the endearing relations, the sympathies,—nay, the very appearance of too easy an intercourse with those around him, except with the beings from among whom, as the dregs of the human race, he has emerged. To this excommunicating interdict he must be made up at last, though by the persevering exertions of many years, he has been disqualifying himself for happiness in any other intercourse, but that from which he is driven. Nor is this all. For when such an eminence shall have been attained, there are multitudes of the humbler sort, who though forced to admit that it is prodigious! will pronounce it to be opportunity misplaced, and direct upon it a jealous vigilance, from whose invidious obloquy no human prudence could escape. Can human nature be expected to sustain itself in conflict with such difficulties as these; and not be disheartened under a sense of their invincible perpetuity.

-  Same as above  page 66-67

They see the problem – That there is a classism that will prevent the freed slaves from integrating into society.   But that is too big of a fish to fry –  It is easier to send the willing slaves back to Africa and we will see miracles happen accross the pond.

That defeatist mentality however was exported to Liberia.  The colony faced mighty political battles because it’s citizens didn’t integrate with the natives in the area.   They never overcame the classism.  There where American Liberians and African Liberians, and the Freed Slaves that came back always behaved as an upper class..

Unfortunately this aristocracy was the overriding ethic that was exported and defined Liberia.  And it clouded out the “Christian Light” that the country was supposed to be.  Christianity just doesn’t work as a secondary motive.

I wonder how often we still do these things?   Do we expectantly anticipate God doing great things “over there” while we expect him to do very little right here?   Do we long for him to transform pagan hearts while we expect professing Christians to continue behaving  in totally depraved ways?  Do we rally and encourage the guy who is different from us to sacrifically serve the Lord, while we ourselves do nothing but lead the cheers?   Do we pick the battles that the other guys can fight and win and ignore the battles that we can fight?  How often do we  are we going out to make disciples before we go out and be disciples?

Hindsight is 20/20 and I am sure that many of the Liberian organizers did have a good heart, and I am sure that God did do some amazing work over there -  but still, The weed that we where afraid to destroy here was transplanted over there.

jreighley Uncategorized

The most effective preacher of the last century?

February 16th, 2010

Most evangelicals these days would give the title to Billy Graham..  I certainly think this guy deserves to be in the contest however:

I don’t think I hear this preached nearly enough — That lies die –  That sin leads to death — that Truth will overcome…  We are just too pessimistic about our current age, and are longing for Jesus to come back and fix everything.   But He is here now (At the very least as a shadow of what will come)  – and He moves in powerful ways when we have faith to believe that the Rock we stand upon is really solid.

What is most astonishing about Reverend King’s ministry was just how right he was in spite of nearly insurmountable odds..  Who will be the next preacher to aim for reconciliation of this magnitude?

jreighley Uncategorized

Have a beer, but no Poker please.

February 15th, 2010

Apparently we Reighley’s have been stirring controversy for a century and a half now.

I suspect the Rev. Reighley was a bit more articulate than I am, but I taught a similarly unpopular message a year or so  ago.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

On the other hand, I don’t have any problem with a beer here or there..

jreighley Uncategorized

Google books. A Calculus of History?

February 8th, 2010

A few years ago, I did a bit of genealogy research.  I found books.google.com to be a pretty powerfull resource for finding information on some of my more prominent relatives.

A few days ago, I though about searching again, knowing that more books have probably been scanned since I last looked.

One of my Great Grandfathers was a Episcopal Preacher  between 1838 and 1862 or so.  This time around I found a nice summary of one of his tenures, and I also found this little tidbit of his writing.

Having studies eschatology a bit lately, I was very interested in the term he used “for the renovating of the world”   Seems quite post-millennial.

This is where the revolutionary part comes in..  It is quite easy to type that phrase in the box on the left click search, then see all of his contemporaries who where using simular phrases.  Without a ton of work, you can find the social circle in which an idea was being exalted, and with a little research it would not be root sources of these schools of thought.  I suspect without the google book search tool, this would be a very time consuming endeavor.

I suspect computers are opening up the “Calculus of History”   In future studies, we will not only study the way things where, but the patterns by which they where changing.

admin Uncategorized

Keeping health care costs down…

August 17th, 2009

It seems to me that the solution to keeping health care costs down is fairly simple.. Make people profit from keeping their own costs down…

The Health Savings Account/High deductible plan that is gaining ground in the insurance market is a good model. Rather than having a low deductible and a high premium, the customer has a high deductible and a low premium. The money that you would have spent on premiums and deductibles goes into a savings account that you can use on your health care costs. What you spend you lose but what you don't spend you keep. You get to determine what kind of care that you want to pay for. You may choose the 2000 dollar treatment that has an 85% chance of working rather than the 10000 dollar treatment that has a 90% chance of working… It is up to you.. It is your risk and your reward… If you have something catastrophically expensive hit you, your losses will be limited to the deductible.

The real problem with our current system is that each layer of transactions adds a layer of irrationality… The employer buys insurance on behalf of his employees. The employer buys the policy that keeps the employees happy with the least expense. The insurance company markets to the employer, not to the employee. It seeks to satisfy the employer, not the employee.. The doctor is paid by the insurance company, and as such he is likely to do the most expensive procedure that the insurance company is willing to pay for. The problem is that it is the patient who needs health care. Not the employer, not the insurance company. These people serve their own interests and make decisions differently than you would. Patients also behave differently because it is not their money on the line. They tend to go for the most expensive option that the Insurance company is willing to pay for, after all, that is what they paid the premiums for.

In general, the insurance companies don't have a long term need to keep costs down.. Their goal is to minimize surprises. Normally, insurance companies are expected to keep a certain percentage of the premiums as profit, so as premiums go up, the income for the insurance companies goes up as well. If costs go up dramatically because they are being forced to cover something that they did not expect to cover, they will fuss… But usually they will begin covering the new surgeries, and just up the premiums in order to compensate for the added costs.

Doctors also have little incentive to keep the costs down – the more they can charge the better. Anyone who tries to hold cost down is going to be labeled as an evil greedy corporation.

Really the key is to eliminate all of these layers of transactions and get it so that the patient pays the doctor directly and has financial incentive to buy the cheapest effective treatment rather than the most extravagant allowed treatment.

When it comes to Government run health care, it is quite clearly a bad idea. When insurance companies refuse to cover what should be covered, the regulators crack down upon them. Well over 90% of Social Security Disability claims are denied the with little review, and usually it takes a few appeals to get benefits, even when they are obviously well qualified. Any insurance company that behaved in this manner would be driven out of business. But when the government calls the shots, you have little recourse.

Moreover, our democratically elected officials have great incentive to spend money. It makes their constituents happy and wealthy, and happy wealthy constituents get you re-elected, even if that happyness and wealth was embezzled a bit from all of the rest of the taxpayers. Some gain a lot, and a lot lose a little. The winners are very happy, and the losers hardly notice the trickle.

The per capita expense for healthcare is $5,283 With today's system, that money will be paid one way or another (Through Insurance premiums, Medicare taxes, increased medical charges) It makes sense to give people control of the bulk of that money, and let them make their own decisions as to what is reasonable and what is excessive.

If we spend 2283 of that 5283 on premiums covering the financially catastrophic health care emergencies, and let people hold on to up to 3k per year, by staying healthy and being frugal, then expenses would likely go down. If you charge them the 5283 in premiums and deductibles, they are going to want to get their money's worth, and they are going to try to claim as much health care as they can.

admin Uncategorized

Cheap and easy internet filter..

July 31st, 2009

My kids really like to play on the computer.. Mostly they play flash games online that Mom says are okay.. They play with Webkinz and beanie baby websites, PBS kids and the like.. They don't seem to get into much trouble, but on the internet trouble is often just a mistyped URL away... Typing is not the kid's strong suit yet.

Open DNS is handy. I just go into my router and insert Open DNS's address as the DNS server.. From then on any machines getting their network assignments from that router will send their requests through openDNS. Once you setup an account and give OpenDNS instructions on what kind of domains you want to allow or deny, you are done.

I set mine on the Low Setting... This blogs Porn and Phishing, but not the British Tabloids. You can crank it all the way up to the point where it blocks social networkings sites and the like.

It isn't foolproof, but it is far better than nothing.. Sites like Youtube.com are either on or off. It would be nice to have a some where in the middle setting..

Anyway, I don't think this is a replacement for adult supervision, but it does reduce the risk of ugly images passing before the children's eyes accidentally. I suspect it will also do a pretty nice job of preventing spyware from taking over your PC's. (Macs Rock)

If you would like to try it out here is the link!

Use OpenDNS

]]>

admin Uncategorized

The Great Idol

July 31st, 2009

We spend far too much time "watching" and far too little time "doing"

In Genesis 2:15 God put's Adam into the Garden, to work it and to keep it. Cultivation is what man was built do do.. Many of the most satisfying experiences in life come from cultivating God's creation. Making and raising children. gardening, hunting and fishing, ministering to those in need.. When we take the resources we have around us and use them to strengthen and enable others, we get a huge reward...

I see our entertainment industry as being a real threat to our ability to enjoy life in this way.. Most of the time, if we do what we naturally do, we sit... In front of the TV, the Computer, and get ourselves entertained.

Instead of being a conduit that feeds blessings to others, we become a basin that just soaks life up for ourselves.

I really like John Piper's advice here about thinking about your death:


(HT: Seth McBee

Entertainment is by and large morally neutral.. But if you let your life orbit around morally neutral stuff, you just won’t ever get around to the morally good life that God is calling you to.

What are some examples of morally neutral activities that you see smothering lives?
]]>

admin Uncategorized

Switching over to a new comment system

July 31st, 2009

Installed the Disqus Commenting system. Hopefully that will help make it easier to interact with Fingertoe.com.

I know, it is probably more important that I post stuff up here that is worth talking about… I will work on that…

Comment away, any testing you can do will be helpful!

admin Uncategorized

Getting Traction with twitter..

July 10th, 2009

So, here is the trick to getting going...

Go to search.twitter.com

Enter something that you are interested in. This is easy for me… I like preachers.. I enter something like Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll or Matt Chandler. If you have different interests, it may be harder.

Once you hit enter, you see everybody who is talking about what you are interested it. There are some folks that may be worth following. Click through to their profile and see if any of their other tweets interest you.. If so, follow them. Don’t stop there… Try to dialog with them. I rarely follow people who follow me.. 300 or so is more than I care to keep track of. I almost always follow people that dialog with me. So find a recent tweet that you find interesting and send the an @reply about it.. Many will follow you back..

As you go, remember that Twitter works best when there is some dialog. Go out of your way to interact with the people you are following. Retweet stuff you think your followers might like. It isn’t a microblog, it is a party. You can build real relationships with real people, and ask them questions like they are in the next cubical.

Hope that helps.
]]>

admin Uncategorized

Free Francis Chan!

July 1st, 2009

ChristianAudio.com is giving away his "Crazy Love" audio book. http://christianaudio.com/free_download.php Use coupon code JUL2009 to get it for free...

If you don't know Francis Chan, here is a good sample of his preaching... It is light, fun, and brutal, all at the same time...

]]>

admin Uncategorized