New Baby

Baby Zoey Rose Franxman arrived this morning at around 9 AM and says she is very hungry.

Hooray!

Daddy Glen & Mommy Elizabeth





Big Brother Ben

L'Shana Tova

From the Jerusalem Post article by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin


And you shall return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice in accordance with every thing I have commanded this day... with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 30:2).

Although this commandment which is germane 365 days a year it is especially relevant during the 10 days beginning with Rosh Hashana and concluding with Yom Kippur.

Though I am a Christian, I recognize that my heritage comes through Jesus or more properly, Yeshua. Further, Christians started out as a sect of Judaism. Therefore I believe in the need to acknowledge and embrace what we can learn from our Jewish brothers. This particular biblical reading, falling as it does only one week before Rosh Hashana, is especially opportune.

How do we fulfill this commandment? The noted 12th Century Rabbi, scholar and teacher Maimonides also known as Rambam who wrote the Mishneh Torah, which has become the basis of codification for Hebrew Talmudic law, explains this in clear terms:

"If an individual transgresses any commandment of the Torah, whether it be a positive or negative command, whether he transgressed wittingly or unwittingly, when he repents [does teshuva] and turns away from his sin, he is obligated to confess before God, blessed be He, as it is written, 'A man or woman who transgresses... must confess the sin they have committed...' This refers to a verbal confession, and this confession is a positive commandment..."


It seems difficult to understand how the commandment to repent, could be reduced to a mouthing of words which may be uttered by rote.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, whose Jerusalem Post column is the basis for this article states there are actually two aspects to the commandment of repentance:

First: kappara, forgiveness, the mechanical bringing of a sacrificial offering and/or the mouthing of the confessional - which are minimal, at best.


Second: the more optimal tahara, purity, which requires a transformational experience. Maimonides discusses this second, more powerful aspect of repentance in his second chapter, and calls it "complete repentance" (teshuva gemura).

Rabbi Riskin goes on to say that Maimonides hit upon a significant existential truth when he insisted that the fundamental commandment centers on confession. Apparently what many might think of as a fairly simple and even mechanical formula - "Please [God, spouse, parent, child, neighbor, coworker] forgive me, I have transgressed, sinned, rebelled against you by having done what I did; I am contrite and ashamed by my actions and will never do them again" - is exceedingly difficult for most individuals.


Recently we have seen an inordinate number of high-powered civil servants, senators, governors and Wall Street tycoons being indicted by the courts and brought to light in the Press. Some have been found guilty and several are beginning prison sentences. Others have lost their positions and credibility.

A significant number of high-profile rabbis and communal leaders in New York have been apprehended and charged with crimes. To the best of my knowledge, very few of them have confessed to wrongdoing or publicly admitted guilt. Very few have stood before the public that elected them, or the congregants who revered them, and said "I'm sorry; I repent of my actions, I'm ashamed. Please forgive me." They seem more ashamed of being caught than their misdeeds.


Why is confession so difficult? A great sociologist-psychologist once wrote: "There are four 'yous' to every individual:

· Who you think you are
· Who others think you are,
· Who you think others think you are
· Who you would like others to think you are

The distance between these four yous, especially between who you are and who you would like others to think you are, is what can cause a tragic disconnect within the psyche of many individuals, producing hypocrisy at best and psychosis at worst.

Every human being, from the biblical perspective, is a complex creature, consisting of earthly flesh and divine image: "And the Lord God formed the human being of dust from the earth, and He breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being" (Genesis 2:7).

Hebrew sages have taught us, in a prayer to which we rise each morning, "My Lord, the soul you have given me is pure. You created it. You fashioned it. You exhaled it into me from your divine essence." The essence of every individual is the divine entity within him; the external body is merely the shell, which can be peeled away.

Each of us wears an outer uniform. You may be a businessman, a pastor, a butcher, baker, teacher, even a parent. The word persona or personality comes from the Greek word meaning "mask." Many of our professional identities, the clothes we wear and/or the personality we exude, are meant to express the way we want others to see us. They are the manner in which we want to impress others, but are not necessarily our real selves.



Sometimes the garb, the mask becomes so powerful that it overwhelms the divine image within. And if our transgression is of such a nature that it will cause the mask to fall away and reveal the nakedness of the emperor beneath, then one dare not admit one's guilt - perhaps not even to oneself. There may be nothing underneath the persona. Jesus once spoke of “white-washed tombs.” (Luke 11:44)

If, however, we do play act - utilize an external mask to appear to others the way we wish them to see us, but nevertheless maintain a divine image within us not so far from our public persona - there is still the pristine "you" lurking behind the covering curtains. Then, one can apologize and peel off the external trappings, and the real "you" within the image of the divine can be freed from the mask we thought society wanted us to wear. Then, even a high priest can begin his holy day ritual, despite his eight priestly vestments, with a cry of repentance: "Please, God, forgive." His divine image within was always waiting to come out.

The Talmud speaks of a once-great Rabbi Elisha ben Abuya, who became a heretic during the Hadrianic persecutions. He joined the Roman philosophers and was called Aher, the other one. His disciple, Rabbi Mier begged him to come back, to repent. "No, he said. For me it is too late. Aher had overwhelmed his divine image; indeed, as long as Elisha was submerged, it would be too late for repentance as long as he was Aher. But for Elisha ben Abuya it was never too late.


Reactivate your truest self and no matter how far you may have wandered, you too can return to the God whose essence initially formed you.

'EBN Fireworks Drive Home T-Shirt

If you get one of those iron-on pages that you can run through your computer you can be the next kid on the block to have your own, "I SURVIVED THE DRIVE HOME FROM THE CINCINNATI LABOR DAY FIREWORKS DISPLAY" T-Shirt. Remember to click on the image to bring into full size.

Although I never attend the show, I seem to get caught in traffic each year. So to voice my opinion I have created this design. Enjoy!

Back In The Hospital

Dr. Suess, in his book. You're Only Old Once, stated, "Getting old is not for sissies" was quite right. This year I've been to the hospital three times and two of those were through the emergency room.


As of Sunday my bowel movements were full of what medical professionals call frank blood and tarry stool. I think that Frank Blood would be a great name for the hero in a detective novel. Frank Blood investigates the Tarry Stool Murders. Too bad Dashell Hammit and Damon Runyon are around any more.

But I digress. I was somewhat concerned, but thanks to Google, I looked up adverse symtoms of Coumadin and was convinced that was what was wrong with me. So my wife called the doctor early on Monday morning as I was getting ready for work. I was about to leave when the phone rang. I was told to go to the emergency room STAT, which is the medical term for ASAP.

Man was I an unhappy boy.

So I arrived at Saint Elizabeth's emergency room and fitted with a extra large size stretcher and as is customary, stabbed mulitple times to determine the exact color of my blood, which turns out to be somewhere between brickdust #15 and burmese ruby.

I was also treated to experiencing the sensation of a naso-gastric tube. This is an unpleasant procedure wherein a clear tube is inserted in one of your nares, the medical term for nose hole. The tube is then forced up your nose hole and into your stomach. The contents of the stomach are sucked out into a clear plastic cylinder for the viewing pleasure of the hospital staff.

Thankfull I didn't have any blood in my stomach contents. If I did they would have left the tube hanging out of my nostril.

I then was visited by 4 doctors. One doctor had me take off my pants and he used his gloved finger as a dipstick into my hinder and commented, "Oh that's blood alright."

I was whisked off to a room and fitted with a hospital gown. I then was stuck four or five more times by folks that had never seen burmese ruby mixed with brickdust #15. They carted it off in little vials as souveniers of their visit. I was told that my hemoglobin was at 11. Which was sort of low. I'm thinking between the bowel movements and the folks draining me, there is no doubt it would be at 11.

After this it was hurry up and wait. I had a delicious clear liquid diet. Not only did I enjoy chicken broth, but beef broth as well. I had a variety of green, red and yellow Jello.

There was a Marion Davies film festival on The Movie Channel that was pretty interesting. She was a comedic actress that started working in silent movies. Sleep was out of the question.


The noise level of a hospital is pretty close to what you would hear at an Aerosmith concert only slightly louder and more annoying.





The latest invention by Hilldenbrand Industries, ticker symbol HB, is the farting mattress. This feature is exclusive to hospital beds.

To prevent bedsores, medical term would be decubidus ulcers, Hildrenbrand has created a mattress that continually changes positions when anything is set upon it, such as a sheet or a blanket or you. This sounds like a marvelous creation. However the drawback is that once every 30 seconds the mattress emits a sound similar to a whoppee cushion.

So between the racket in the hall and the farting mattress, there is no way to get any sleep at a hospital.

I was told by my nurse that I was scheduled for an espophagogatroduodenoscopy, the medical term for sticking a hose with a camera down your food chute. I was to be anesthetized for this, so I would not feel any discomfort. I asked when this was to take place. The nurse said the doctor had me scheduled after his normal patients. This meant either he would do it late or perhaps I was the beggining of his abnormal patients. Communications obviously were not a priority.


After a sleepless night of watching lightening from my window, filling up the urinal five times (which I actually did) and watching more Marion Davies movies I was visited at about 7 am by my morning nurse and my morning nurse assistant for the complimentary squeezing of the arm, temperature taking, finger poking and blood letting. I was told they needed to do this quickly as the stretcher bearer was here to take me for my procedure. The doc must have worked really fast or his normal patients didn't show up.


So I rode down the hall and up the elevator to the Endoscopy room and was wheeled into a very cluttered cubical. There were several TV monitors none of which were tuned to the Marion Davies festival.

The camera at the end of a scope that was about a meter long was focused on a box of aloe-enhanced surgical gloves, which must have been the doctor's sponsor.

A nurse asked me several questions in a loud voice that sounded like she was used to dealing with geezers, the medical term being geriatric patients. I was asked to open wide as she sprayed something in my mouth. I don't think it was Binaca, because the back of my tongue became numb.

The next thing I recall was the ceiling was spinning. I then recall waking up in another corridor. I was then told some things that I cannot recall because I was focusing on the revolving ceiling tiles at the time. Then it was a quick ride back to my room and more of the film festival. Peg O' My Heart, featuring Miss Davies as Peg, was just starting. Soon after this the house doctor came in an explained that I have several bleeding ulcers in my stomach and a lesion in my esophagus. He didn't really relate how this was affecting my poo. I wasn't questioning him either and don't really recall a whole lot of the conversation as I was still a little tipsy.


My wife came and I explained what I knew to her. She was rather upset that she missed the TV episode of INSIDE MARC, brought to you by Nutricel Aloe Surgical Gloves that leave your hands soft and pleasant smelling. She wasn't at all interested in watching Marion Davies movies.



I was then given my discharge papers from the morning nurse. My IV was removed and I was told that I could put on my clothes and go home. Which I did in record time. Linny and I went to Applebees for some non-clear liquid food.

When our nurse...I mean waitress asked if I would like onions and jalepenos in my chili I started to say Yes, when Linny said, "What are you crazy?" I said, "Just cheese please."

I was still sort of tipsy.

Desecrated Bible

From the AFP – Christian Post - Telegraph Co UK

Christians voiced anger and dismay Tuesday after a Bible, which was part of an exhibition inviting viewers to add their reflections, was defaced with offensive and foul-mouthed scrawl.

Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art has decided to put the Bible in a glass case after the exhibit, called Untitled 2009 and part of a show entitled Made in God's Image, was vandalized.

Artist Jane Clarke, a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church, asked visitors to annotate the Bible with stories and reflections, as a way of making it more inclusive.

But visitors to the gallery took the invitation a bit further than she had anticipated.

The open Bible is a central part of Made in God’s Image, an exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, United Kingdom. By the book is a container of pens and a notice saying: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.”

The Times newspaper reported that the publicly funded exhibition ‘Untitled 2009,’ was proposed by the Metropolitan Community Church, which said that the idea was to reclaim the Bible as a sacred text.

But to the horror of many Christians, including the community church, visitors have daubed its pages with comments such as “This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all.” A contributor wrote on the first page of Genesis: “I am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this.”

One writer has altered the first line of the Old Testament from “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth” to “In the beginning, God (me) I created religion.”


Another has written “The Gospel According to Luke Skywalker”.

The main sentiment, however, is rage at Christianity. “F*** the Bible”, one message says. And another described the Bible as "the biggest lie in human history" and a third wrote: "Mick Jagger and David Bowie belong in here”

The official Web site of the exhibition stated that the exhibition has been created by the artists Anthony Schrag and David Malone, in with organizations representing gay Christians and Muslims. Mr. Schrag, the gallery’s artist in residence, told the Times that he did not believe in God, but that his research for the 7,000 Euros show had underlined his respect for people of faith.

A video by Roxanne Claxton that forms a second element in the exhibition shows a young woman ripping pages out of the Bible and stuffing them in her knickers and bra and in her mouth in a program to promote equal rights for homosexuals. The film showed “the word as power,” Mr Schrag said. “Roxanne gave a performance where she ate a Bible and it became part of her.”

Some Christians are surprised that Schrag and Malone who have explored faith and sexuality with members of The Metropolitan Community Church, Quest, Al Jannah Muslim Group and individuals from a range of faiths, including members of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow before the event were even permitted by the Church to carry out such exhibition.

However, Jane Clarke, the minister at the Metropolitan Community Church and artist involved in the bible exhibit said, “Writing our names in the margins of a Bible was to show how we have been marginalised by many Christian churches, and also our desire to be included in God’s love. As a young Christian I was encouraged by my church to write my own insights in the margins of the Bible I used for my devotions – this was an extension of that idea.”

“As a young Christian I was encouraged by my church to write my own insights in the margins of the Bible I used for my daily devotions – this was an extension of that idea. I still have that Bible, although it’s rather tatty now,” she clarified her position through the official Web site of the exhibition.

She added, “It was never my intention to offend anyone – believers and non-believers alike. I had hoped that people would show respect for the Bible, for Christianity and indeed for the Gallery of Modern Art. I am saddened that some people have chosen to write offensive messages.”

Ms Clarke has requested changes to the exhibit. The bible remains on display, but within an enclosed case, the official Web site stated.

On another plinth next to it are loose leaf sheets and pens for visitors to write their thoughts and feelings in relation to the bible. Those loose sheets will be inserted within the pages of the bible by curatorial staff each day, the statement stated.

The Church of Scotland said it condemned any sacrilegious act. “We would discourage anyone from defacing the Bible,” a Kirk spokesman told the Times.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church said: “One wonders whether the organizers would have been quite as willing to have the Koran defaced.”

On Tuesday over 100 people gathered outside the gallery to protest at what they said was vandalism, Agence-French Press reported.

Letitia Reid, a housewife from Glasgow, told AFP the Bible should not be desecrated.
“As a Christian I am offended by this because Christians hold the Bible to be sacred. For it to be publicly defiled in this way is very offensive,” she said.



















Jane Clarke, the artist, asked visitors to annotate the Bible with their experiences, but she has requested the gallery to display it in a glass case after it was daubed with “offensive” comments.

The piece, called Untitled 2009, caused a furore when it went on display in the Made In God’s Image exhibition at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art.

Miss Clarke, a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church, a ministry for homosexuals, said she had not intended to offend.

“I had hoped that people would show respect for the Bible, for Christianity and indeed for the Gallery of Modern Art. I am saddened that some people have chosen to write offensive messages. I had hoped that people would show respect for the Bible, for Christianity and indeed for the Gallery of Modern Art. I am saddened that some people have chosen to write offensive messages.”

Paper and pens will be provided for visitors to write down their thoughts and will be inserted into the Bible later. More than 100 people gathered outside the gallery yesterday to protest against the exhibit.

Made in God’s Image will be on display at the gallery until August 22, 2009

Magnify

This song was written by my friend Mike Wilshire back in the early 1970's. It is one of my favorite songs of all time. Mike moved to Virginia a long time ago and has been the Pastor of Cornerstone Christian Church of Roanoke Valley since it's founding. He is an excellent guitarist and at one time a wonderful vocalist. By the way, as you watch the photos, Michael is the guy with the white hair and beard.

This version was recorded by Rick Marksberry in his studio. Kent Odor sings lead vocal and plays 2nd guitar. I sing first harmony and play the 1st guitar part and play bass guitar. Deny Brigance and Diann Marksberry sing the higher harmony parts. Barb & Ric Hine, Deny Brigance, Diann & Rick Marksberry, Terry Fisher and myself are the choir at the end of the song.

May God bless as you listen and watch us record.

Taking Down A Post

Yesterday I was contacted by someone who objected to a post that I had put up earlier this year. The discussion took place via email. After all we are in the 21st Century. This is the second time since I've started blogging that someone has contacted me to object to an article that I have written.


The first time was when a Cincinnati City Beat editor objected to what I had said regarding the advertisements for Asian massage parlors that used to take up ink on that back pages of that newspaper.


What precipitated that rant was a raid earlier in that week in which the local police, FBI and immigration department rounded up girls working in southern Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

The girls that had been arrested were illegal and were not paid by their employer but were allowed to keep much of the money they earned from selling sexual favors.. I equated this to slavery and implied that the newspaper ads were not much different from the slave bills posted in the early and mid 1800's. This was not at all pleasing to the City Beat guy. Although they still run advertisements, they now have some sort of a disclaimer that must be posted in the text of the ad. Apparently I must have been on to something.

Last Saturday, I received an email from someone that I had written about. This person was quite upset with the text I had written and we traded emails back and forth this day.

My point was an objection to the content and the timing of the work. During the exchange of emails the objector reasoned with me and explained that some of my words were construed as hurtful.

That was a very valid point. Although I still object to the timing of the work, I took the post down.

In the United States we are fond of standing on Constitutional grounds and bellowing that we have the right to free speech. And that is a very, very important right, especially when you look at recent World events in Iran and China. However as Christians do we have the right to say hurtful things?

However true it may be, the work I objected to was hurtful to a family and especially to an individual and their friends. But the text and images in that work were not mine. My concern was only that something I said was hurtful. Perhaps I could have reworded my post to give a more fair and balanced viewpoint. I felt the easiest thing was to take down my words rather than dance on a precipice between right and wrong.

In accord with the words of Our Lord in Matthew 18:5; And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.