MORGAN'S MOMENT...
The latest in fashion jewelry...
     according to a TV
     running during my gym time...
Buddha jewelry...
     just in time for Christmas!
How about that?
     a little Buddha ear ring
     or broach or bracelet.
A thought of pity
     for Christian supply stores
     with crosses trumped by Buddha.
A thought of worry
     that Muslims will be offended
     or Jews or the Attorney General!
A thought of hope
     that a little Buddha
     might be good for rabid Christians.
A thought of suspicion
     that putting Buddha on a chain
     will mean as little as Jesus on a chain.
Would you believe
     that our most likely Christmas baby
     is a Buddhist?
The holy wears many disguises...
     so don't be surprised
     that some look like the Buddha.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
  “When do you get all that time to read?” It may seem like all we do is read. Not true. We squeeze it in whenever. In the summer, after lunch, I row out to the sailboat where my book waits. At home I go to my office with a good reading light and recliner. (A nap may follow). We rarely watch TV. Exceptions are PBS news and Monday night football. You can get a lot of reading done between plays. If the book is better than the game I just keep reading. Uninspiring reading makes me drowsy. My book club inspires more reading. I write a one-page commentary on every book. Jean searches out suggested books that I read when I can. That's when.
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MOMENT MINISTRIES
Nov. 15, 2004
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at a-morgan@peak.org

THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS...
Local “Moment” people, and some others, received an email copy of my most recent Thursday night homily, “On Being Thankful Anyway.” It was prepared the Monday before the election. While it can be applied to politics, the basic idea is much wider. It would work, I thought, no matter what. You can find the sermon on our web page thanks to our webmaster, Bill Gilbert.
“He who says 'thank you' never has to say ‘please.’” This is an old Chinese proverb. I thought of it as we were making our annual donation allotments. We notice that many organizations now make a point of sending a hand-written ‘thank you’ note. We notice.
There is something that makes us want to give to those who seem to appreciate receiving.
So we always try to say ‘thank you’ rather than ‘please.’ It's been a Moment principle. The principle applies to lots of things, including Christmas. ‘Please’ is nice, but ‘Thank you’ is better. It's also both spiritually and physically more healthy to let your thanksgivings roll.
A Thanksgiving quotation
“God is glorified, not by our groans, but by our thanksgivings.” (E.P. Whipple)

A Sad Word came our way regarding long-time Moment friend, Laura Hulburd. Her daughter, age 46, died this past weekend of a heart attack.

BEGINNING OF CHRISTMAS
Sunday Brunch
at Nancy and Greg's
December 5   10 a.m.

(back page)
READ THE BOOK
 
“Read the book...one out of every 16 verses is about poverty—one out of 9 in the Gospels.”
(Christian Century, 11/2/04)
         Sorry about the subject. I realize that most people don't actually read the Bible. Not to say that there is
not some interest in it.
         Many out there have had quite a dose of it. (I mis-typed the first time as doze, which churchgoers tend
to do during scripture readings!) Most know whatever little they know from early Sunday school lessons. For
some the Bible has provided some life-long direction. For others it was empty or something to recover from.
         It is still reputed tO be the number one all time best selling book. It is also the most divisive book. There
must be 500 different denominations, each with its own special spin on biblical interpretation. Evangelicals now
claim (as did the Reverend Rick Warren who wrote “The Purpose Driven Life”) that “the recent election proves
that America is really a Bible believing nation.”
         Wow! What does that mean?
         Fundamentalist Muslims think that they are a Koran-believing people.
         Do you know what American Bible-believers and the Talibans have in common? Neither reads their
book and both fiercely believe in It!
         So, where do they get their faith-based agenda? I suspect they get it in the same way. What is the
difference betWeen the preacher and the lmam? I mean, both stand before multitudes to make claims about
the sacred authority of their particular book, and then tell the people what it says.
         They are open, if not hungry, for someone to tell them what’s in it. And that’s what preachers do.
         My Sunday school background was quite checkered. We moved a lot and were sent off with some
regularity. I don’t remember much Bible teaching, but remember some of the songs. As a teen-ager I stayed in
church mostly to play basketball and baseball on the church teams. The “no pray, no play” rule forced me into
some exposure to some teaching and preaching. I even got into occasional groups that studied the Bible.
         You know, not much teaching goes on. Nobody tells you who wrote all that stuff. How it was supposed
to have been transferred from God’s mind to those small print pages. Why it was so disconnected and often-
tedious reading. We got some spin on which parts were most important and what they “proved” about the
divinity of Jesus and the majesty of God. Nobody raised any questions about whether it was science, history,
legend, poetry, speculation or what. No other important book is ever studied like that.
         Well, most people had even less Bible exposure than that. People have a feeling that they are
supposed to know more. They sometimes fake it. When I do funerals I ask whether the family has any special
scriptures they want me to use. There is some fumbling around until somebody remembers ~The Lord is my
shepherd...” How often have people said, “He didn’t go to church but he believed in the 10 commandments.”
Then they ask me to pick out something for them. They are glad when someone finds a scripture.
         Which means that people are vulnerable to anyone who can quote the Bible. Bible quoters intimidate
people, especially when they cite chapter and verse. The automatic response of most people is to think they
are hearing holy words that are beyond dispute. The GO million best selling books known as “The Left Behind
Series” are read and widely believed as a riteral description of the coming “rapture” by people who don*t have
enough Bible background to question or doubt. Maybe rapture believers are the ones “left behind.”
         So our “Bible-believing nation” is really full of people who have really been “left behind” in terms of
ability to think about the Bible and understand it. Those who have not kept up on biblical scholarship and
thinking of the last hundred years are totally left behind. Not only that, they are vulnerable to the claims of
people like those who decide that God’s big issues for America are a gay marriage amendment and repeal of
Rowe vs. Wade. Those may be big issues, but they are not big in the Bible. Don’t believe me, do. as the writer
in the Christian Century urges:

“Read the book...one out of every 16 verses is about POVERTY...one out of 9 In the Gospels.”
         If anyone uses the Bible, use all of it. Read it historically, critically and true. Don’t let preachers or anyone—or me—tell you what to think. lf you really want to catch up a bit, you might begin by reading Marcus
Borg’s “Reading the Bible Again For the First“stay left behind.
— Art Morgan, Nov. 2004