September 25, 2007
METHODIST MINSTER'S VIEW TO CREATE A BETTER FUTURE PUBLISHED
The Rev. Dr. Richard W. Banach
Retired United Methodist Minister The Rev. Dr. Richard W. Banach had some very astute observations published in the Nisqually Valley News last week.
"Thank you for courageously printing insightful opinion page cartoons that unmask an imperial presidency. They are reminiscent of an insight I once gained.
I became a minister with the expectation of teaching about the art of living life aglow with God's presence within. But, to my chagrin, some members were not interested.
"They joined the church," one wise member counseled, "because it looks good on their resume."
Ouch!
Many people voted for the Bush II administration because faith and family values looked good on its resume. But, they got more than they bargained for - a hidden agenda.
A great big OUCH!
First, it finagled its way past losing the popular vote in 2000. Then, it bamboozled us with the ultimate "shock and awe" - 9/11. Frightened to death, we surrendered our freedom for its protection. It's turning out to be the false security of Bush I's "New World Order," run by multinational corporations and a vast military-industrial complex.
All of this has an uncanny resemblance with Revelation's "Babylon the Great," a globalized religio-capitalistic domination system of complete control over everything and everyone, by the elite.
Twenty-seven years ago, on Sept. 19, 1980, the evangelical magazine, "Christianity Today," warned its readers that single-issue politics was too narrow a front in battling a moral crusade, and could prove disastrous.
"It could lead to the election of a moron who holds the right view on abortion."
[The quote is from Christianity Today: “Getting God’s Kingdom into Politics.” 9/19/1980, 10 [1031] quoted in Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America, An Evangelical’s Lament by Randall Balmer 2006, (New York: Basic Books) p. xvii.]
Fast forward.
Now, we are finally waking up to having been deceived by the slick spin of ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing, the fruit of whose actions is exposing them, Matthew 7:15-20 style.
Let us not retreat into denial, but reclaim our power, and create a better future!
The Rev. Dr. Richard W. Banach
United Methodist minister"
This letter is reprinted in its entirety with permission of the author.
Dr. Banach currently resides in Rainier.
You may write him at: drrichardb@hotmail.com
We should always exercise due caution when treading such waters.
Before we can accurately assess the Reverend's claims, shouldn't we first want to know his definition of "imperial presidency" and what evidence he (or anyone, for that matter) has of the President's "hidden agenda?"
Heck, why stop there when a smorgasbord of rhetoric was laid before us, garnished with such rich chemical trigger-words as "finagled," "bamboozled," and "frightened to death." Easy to say, harder to prove.
Personally, when I see someone stringing those buzzwords together, it is usually a sign of ideological opinion masquerading as fact, and when that happens the intent is usually incitement, not enlightenment.
As a copywriter and marketing strategist I routinely blog about how opinions are marketed to us as facts and nowhere is this more prevalent than the political arena.
The rest of this commentary can be read at: http://roicopy.com/2007/10/03/the-reverend-and-selling-the-ideological-pinata
Yelm Community Blog readers should have access to the full account of commenter Walter Terry's blog on Rev. Banach's posted story. That's what this blog is all about - creating a forum of discourse for the local community.
http://roicopy.com/2007/10/03/the-reverend-and-selling-the-ideological-pinata/
Why did this blogger think important "to present this man’s opinion as ” . . . some very astute observations.”
Read for yourself and you decide...
http://www.yelmcommunity.org/
scroll to September 25, 2007 entry
This community is being challenged to show it's stuff by Mr. Terry!
This writer has asked Rev. Banach for a response to Mr. Terry's blog and welcomes this kind of discussion..
Mr. Terry stated,
"It may be that the Reverend has access to information few of us possess, and if so he should cite it. But just going off what he wrote and given that he didn’t cite credible sources, it’s difficult to say how accurate or inaccurate his claims may be."
This writer asked Rev. Banach for a response to this assertion.
> "This community is being challenged to show it's stuff by Mr. Terry!"
Whoa, Steve! First, "Mr. Terry" is a bit formal, don't you think?
Whenever I hear "Mr. Terry" I think someone's talking to my dad, and since he's dead, I get a bit jumpy. So Walter will do fine.
Second and more importantly -- let's not put words in my mouth, okay? I do a bad enough job of that already.
For the record, I've issued no such "challenge" to the Yelm community. That is a . . . curious way to frame our discourse. Are you saying the entire town believes as you and the Reverend do?
I have more to say about this at http://roicopy.com/2007/10/03/copywriter-whacked-by-law-of-unintended-consequences
Feel free to drop in with some clarifying remarks because your words, as stated, are troubling.
In response to your questions:
"Steve, are you saying that your blog speaks for the entire Yelm community? Is the Reverend then, speaking for the majority of the citizenry? Are you?
Are you saying that the Yelm community at large has a collective “stuff” that it needs to prove? What “stuff” do you think it needs to “show” . . . and to whom?"
No, Mr. Terry, not at all.
My remark was clearly to rally the community to comment to a marketing professional who says he is only
"focused on doing only two things for my clients:
1.) Increasing responses
2.) Boosting revenues
...whose sales writing and strategies have significantly increased the revenues for industry leaders such as Microsoft, Sprint PCS, Nintendo, and EED."
However, this is a comment area for the community and publicly accessed on the community blog, which invites open discourse by readers, to share all of their viewpoints...
I send my thanks to you & your "international blog" for directing attention in your two entries of Oct. 3 to our beloved Yelm, WA., which has garnered a tremendous amount of attention to our local blog here from an unexpected source.
Would you be willing to share with our readers how/why your "research project" led you to a blog in Yelm, WA.?
Hi Walter,
You honored me. My use of “rich chemical trigger-words” became a 900+ word case study – Selling the Reverend’s Ideological Piñata – of a “little rant” by a professional “provocateur,” as your website describes you. www.roicopy.com
Your call for “real-facts” is addressed in the endnotes of an amended essay just posted on www.yelmcommunity.com. Submitting them to The Olympian and the Nisqually Valley News where my essay was printed would have exceeded their word limitations.
I am most pleased that my essay had you “suddenly waxing nostalgic for the ‘60s and ‘70s!” I share in your reverie. That’s when an inner ache of dissatisfaction for more drove me beyond my cloistered world view into unknown territory.
It led to studying the perennial philosophy, and its connection with the emerging sciences of the mind/body connection and quantum physics with many groups, most notably Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment.
My delight as a minister for 40 years, was sharing my findings in a manner I hoped would enhance my congregation’s personal relationship with the presence of God we all sense at moments of heightened awareness, at the Ground of our being. In other words, with whom Ramtha calls “the Lord God of our being,” and in whom the Bible says, “We live and move and have our being … for we are indeed his offspring.” (Acts 17:28,29)
In the world of the new physics, everything we perceive is filtered through our own model of reality i.e. the assumptions, beliefs and expectations that shade our perceptions. In this sense then, each of us is the creator and the observer of our own reality.
Apply this to history/current events and it leads to a bazaar quandary. We don’t really perceive them directly but only through the lens of our “ideologies” as you rightly point out.
I look through the lens of biblical concepts like the ancient domination system and its link to the ancient cosmic combat myth. The writings of theologians like Marcus Borg, Walter Wink and others on the invisible forces that manipulate human existence inform my outlook (see endnote 1).
I am delighted you portrayed me as a blind-folded boy “flailing wildly at a piñata.” A piñata is filled with unknown wonders. Who wouldn’t want to discover them? My charmed childhood was filled with them. When in moments of quiet, we blindfold ourselves to the cares of life, and focus on the unknown territory within our own piñata, it breaks open the splendor of our innate sublimeness we forgot as spiritual beings incarnated in human experiences. Aha!
Stop by when you’re in the neighborhood. We’ll have a little cheese, wine, and a good laugh.
Cheers, Richard.