20th Century, Canada, History, Hockey, omnipresent history, Prayer, sports

Minnesota North Stars First Game

October 11, 1967
The Minnesota North Stars debut as a National Hockey League expansion team. The home of the North Stars, Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, was built in 12 months (October 3, 1966, groundbreaking to October 25, 1967, first home game).*

Long before the age of modern ice hockey, with its’ leagues and franchises, Europeans enjoyed similar competitive games. Even authoritative Canadian sources, like the 2019 article by author Jean-Patrice Martel on the “Origins of Ice Hockey”, tip their hat to these bridge-building ancestors.
“Hockey developed from stick-and-ball games played in the British Isles, particularly hurling (Ireland), shinty (Scotland) and bandy (England). These games shared a very similar basic structure and have been documented from the 14th century.
But what about hockey itself? Unlike bandy, hurling and shinty, the term “hockey” is relatively recent. Its oldest known use is in the 1773 book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, written by Richard Johnson. Chapter XI of the book is titled “New Improvements on the Game of Hockey,” which suggests that the name had been in use for some years already. The chapter details the game in over 800 words, using the term “hockey” to designate not the stick, but rather the object with which it is played: a “cork-bung,” or barrel plug.” **

Moving us closer to home, what clues to find to the development of ice hockey as sport in the North Star state during the 19th and early 20th centuries? Author and expert ice hockey historian Rodger A Godin states the following synopsis as Minnesota’s deep rooted attachment to the sport in his stellar book, “Before the Stars” (Minnesota Historical Society Press).
“In the early twentieth century, before the National Hockey League had established a presence in the United States, a team from St. Paul played at the highest levels of hockey in the country. Sports historian Roger A. Godin resurrects the story of the St. Paul Athletic Club team—the AC’s—and argues they were instrumental in turning Minnesota into one of the nation’s first hockey hotbeds and gave birth to what is now known as the “State of Hockey.” ***

Let’s explore the final iterations of farm teams and the foundations of Minnesota’s first professional hockey franchise. Two pivotal local teams caught the eye of Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Bruins; first, the Minneapolis Bruins, and second, the Saint Paul Rangers. This attention, along with the friendship of Minneapolis attorney and hockey booster Walter Bush Jr, cemented the viability of the Twin Cities in the minds of those seeking to expand the NHL brand while increasing TV revenues.

To this end, Bush applied for the expansion, and sought investors that could supply the contractually-necessary 13 thousand seat arena. A St Paul team of investors nearly clinched the deal using the existing Roy Wilkins Arena, but the funds to expand the facility required a public vote which cost too much time. Shortly after this failure, the two factions of owners, (from Minneapolis and St. Paul), decided to to go in together and build a new site for hockey in Bloomington; the Metropolitan Sports Center. This groundbreaking crew October 23, 1966 comprised the new ownership: John Ordway Jr., Walter Bush Jr., Gary Mc Neely Jr., Robert Mc Nulty, John Driscoll, Gordon Ritz, Robert Ritter. These locals paid approximately $2 million to the National Hockey League to add their franchise. *

But where did the first team of North Stars hail from; where did they assemble this first team, seemingly out of thin air? The short answer? They were enlisted from existing NHL teams. See the chart below:

Player Team
Caesar Maniago New York
Dave Balon Montreal
Jean Guy Talbot Montreal
Ray Cullens Detroit
Parker Mac Donald Detroit
Bob Woytowich Boston
Wayne Connelly Boston
Bill Goldsworthy Boston
Andre Boudrias Montreal
Mike Mc Mahon Montreal
Bill Masterton Montreal
Elmer “Moose” Vasko Chicago

“The North Stars played their first game on the road against the St. Louis Blues on October 11, 1967. It ended in a tie. On October 21, the North Stars hosted their first home game against the California/Oakland Seals—which ended with the North Stars’ first win. However, tragedy soon struck the team. Bill Masterson, a center, hit his head in a legal check on January 13, 1968, at the Met Center. His injury was severe, and he died of his injuries two days later in a hospital. His death is the only direct death resulting from gameplay in the NHL. It precipitated regulations for mandatory helmets, though they weren’t required until 1979. Even with this tragedy, the North Stars ended their inaugural season with a trip to the playoffs, losing to St. Louis in the semifinals.”
Now, dear Father, we turn to You to reflect and pray on this history. What will we learn if we remain in Your Presence, and just think about the importance of hockey to Minnesota? How did this beginning of a much-loved sports team change the course of Minnesota? Before that, we remember the Master who created winter, ice, and the people groups who were designed to thrive in the cold. We remember that the Ancient of Days is the author of sport, and its underlying causes: to severely prove one’s ability, to test intensely one’s skills without risk of death, and to learn what Cain and Abel did not. For all these things, we adore You!

One thought that comes to mind is how perfectly hockey is suited to the Northern regions of North America in the last few centuries. We, at least historically, come from tribes and nations that are ready made to thrive in the snow. We remember that You conditioned the first hockey players and fans to play in the snow: Canadians, First Nations (Inuits, Nunavuts, Metis, Algonquians to name a few), and recent American immigrants from mostly Northern European origins: Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Russians, etc.

Let’s put ourselves in their shoes as hockey leagues grew over 100 years ago, shall we? What kind of entertainment suits our very rugged ancestors who spent all day in a frozen logging camp, mining camp, railroad camp, or just homesteading a new farm in the wilderness? Would they relish tennis racquets, cricket bats, and white pants or a fast-paced, high-attention battle that could change at a moments notice, and wind up with blood on the ice? Lord, I guess I’m just pondering if our ancestors who day in and day out did high risk, cold, and dangerous work influenced them to enjoy the battle on ice which is hockey?

Under Your Authority and with agreement with the Council of Heaven, we remember all these formational years before hockey was a professional sport. We are grateful for those who built North America, in the bone-chilling winter, and did not lose their sense of play, but handed this game down to us and the world. Will You bless those of us in high risk professions to be faithful in our work, and vent our combative urges with the good sportsmanship of hockey?

Let’s add to the list of gratitude these specific things; dear Councilor of Heaven:

We remember to You the excitement created by the Saint Paul Athletic Club team of about 100 years ago!

We thank You for Walter Brown, the Boston Bruins, and the Minnesota Bruins!

We applaud the efforts and significant investment of these early hockey boosters:
John Ordway Jr., Walter Bush Jr., Gary Mc Neely Jr., Robert Mc Nulty, John Driscoll, Gordon Ritz, and Robert Ritter.

We thank You for the risk and enthusiasm of our first players:
Caesar Maniago, Dave Balon, Jean Guy Talbot, Ray Cullens, Parker Mac Donald, Bob Woytowich, Wayne Connelly, Bill Goldsworthy, Andre Boudrias, Mike Mc Mahon, Bill Masterton, and Elmer “Moose” Vasko.

We remember the contributions of the city of Bloomington, and all those who worked on the Metropolitan Sports Center.

Will You bless these names, spoken or unspoken, and their generations who contributed to Minnesota hockey? Will You forgive them their judgments of their detractors in roughly the 1920’s to the 1960’s, and those Minnesotans who judged them and failed to see the promises of professional hockey?

We thank You for at least two generations of young men and women who were inspired by the North Stars? We thank You for the impact these moments, whether playing the sport of hockey or participating as a fan, have strengthened the resolve of Minnesotans! So many of us have seen, at least in part, the lessons of an all-out battle, yet with rules!

We thank for the lessons portrayed in the game of hockey and in the North Stars franchise; it made our state better! We thank You that it taught what our ancestor Cain had not caught; we fight our life’s battle according to the rules of the game, and because our competition is made in G-d’s own image, we do not kill, but walk off the field of battle to shake hands with our brother. Is this not the heart of sportsmanship and brotherly love?

Conversely, forgive us Lord where we have prohibited our men and boys from sporting battles like hockey. How does one learn his limits as a man unless he has faced his own battles? Where will men be affirmed in their strength, valor, and leadership if they do not experience even a controlled danger?

Our current culture, dear Father, struggles to parse the meaning of masculinity. We rightly recognize that men need to temper their testosterone. There is something right when a hard as nails block layer holds his daughter’s hand like a butterfly! There’s something of Your efficiency in the moment an executive clears his schedule to give 100% attention and focussed time to his son!

Yet, we have failed to recognize that within ordinary men there is a hero because Your brave nature is in them! Who will fight those men who fight civilization? Who will oppose evil with good if men aren’t taught to sacrifice their safety for others? What is the lesson that Cain and Abel failed to teach us? Is it that the same wild and explosive masculine powers unleashed in the Creation of the Universe are the same masculine powers of self-control that sent our Messiah to the Cross?

A mature man is one who exhibits the self-control of his Eternal Father, his dad, and his coach. A fierce and effective hockey player is the man who retains both the wildest of his wild nature with discipline. What better image of power under control than a star? We thank You, the Most Dominant One of the Universe, for Your gift of the North Star, and the team that is its’ namesake! Let us deeply take in this image of exceeding power under control. Will You make us a State and people who neither fail to recognize Your Greatness in wild, masculine power, or Your Greatness to discipline that power through self-control! Amen!

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.”

Proverbs 16:32

Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Control

P.T.H. cites timeline formerly at this URL: mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm
** Martel, Jean- Patrice. “Origins of Ice Hockey” Internet. The Canadian Encyclopedia. February 6, 2019. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/origins-of-ice-hockey
*** Godin, Roger A. “Before the Stars Early Major League Hockey and the Saint Paul Athletic Club Team”. Minnesota Historical Society Press, October 4, 2004.
Want to go way deeper? Watch this incredible video series on the formation of ice hockey as an internationally acclaimed sport.
Internet. “Hockey: A Peoples History”. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818640/
**** https://shop.mnhs.org/products/stars?variant=31803020509280
Dan Whenesota. YouTube. “The North Star State – Part 1: A Star is Born” September 7, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mz-bB7MeUc&t=1575s
* Tieberg, Alex. “Minnesota North Stars”. January 6, 2020. https://www.mnopedia.org/group/minnesota-north-stars

20th Century, Black History, Judgment & Counter-Judgment Cycle, Minnesota, omnipresent history

The Unrestful Night on Plymouth Avenue

Knox Food Market, 1819 Plymouth Ave. William Seaman | Minneapolis Star and Tribune Negatives | Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society. mprnews.org

On the night of July 19, 1967, racial tension in North Minneapolis erupted along Plymouth Avenue in a series of acts of arson, assaults, and vandalism. The violence, which lasted for three nights, is often linked with other race-related demonstrations in cities across the nation during 1967’s “long hot summer.” *

For those in the hippie or peace movements, 1967 represented the “Summer of Love”. Simultaneously, black Americans living in the centrums of the great cities of the United States had much different experiences alleging: chronic unemployment, unlawful detainments by their local police, and poor housing demonstrated uneven enforcement and application of the law. The hope created in the Civil Rights movement met the reality of deferred and disrupted implementation. These unmet expectations spilled over in 159 racial riots across our nation during the months of June and July of this year in: Atlanta, Buffalo, Cambridge, Cincinnati, Portland, Riviera Beach, Saginaw, Tampa, Detroit, Birmingham, Chicago, New York City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Britain, Rochester, Plainfield, Toledo, and Newark. **
But what were the local effects of the “Long, Hot Summer” of 1967? Susan Marks, in her article for the online MNopedia of the Minnesota Historical Society provides us an outline to put this event in proper context. ***

“Chronology

1950s
Unequal housing and job opportunities strain previously friendly relationships between the Northside’s black and Jewish communities. Though many Jewish people move out of the neighborhood, several Jewish-owned businesses remain open on Plymouth Avenue.

1965
African Americans make up 4 percent of Minnesota’s population. A large number of newly arrived immigrants settle on the “Near North Side.”

August 1966
After incidents of looting and arson in North Minneapolis, Mayor Arthur Naftalin meets with representatives of the black community and promises to help improve local conditions.

1966
The Way Opportunities Unlimited, Inc. (The Way) opens in North Minneapolis. It attempts to empower the black community and provide economic opportunities.

Summer 1967
Opportunities for black citizens in North Minneapolis remain poor.

July 19, 1967
Violence erupts on Plymouth Avenue just before 11:30 p.m. Knox Food Market, a Jewish-owned business, is set on fire.
11:30 p.m.
Molotov cocktails are thrown at the home of Minneapolis Fifth Ward Alderman Joe Greenstein.
11:48 p.m.
Riot police arrive in North Minneapolis to restore order.

July 20, 1967
At 12:15 a.m., a crowd moves toward the Homewood Theater, a Jewish-owned venue. Police make several arrests.
11:30 p.m.
Alderman Greenstein’s garage is set on fire, but saved.

July 21, 1967
Samuel Simmons, an African American man, is shot at Wayne’s Bar at 12:30 AM.
12:30 a.m.
Silver’s Food Market and Country House Market—two Jewish-owned businesses— are set on fire.
1:05 a.m.
Police arrive and form a skirmish line.
9:15 a.m.
National Guardsmen arrive.

July 22, 1967
The unrest ends. National Guardsmen continue to occupy North Minneapolis for one week.”

We find another outstanding primary source of information on these nights of unrest in North Minneapolis from the archives of ABC News, as cited by Hezakya Newz. This original newscast, about 25 minutes long, is a plethora of interviews of locals and their take on what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. The most compelling interview, in the opinion of the author, is found at 11:52 – 13:58 of local Civil Rights leader; Mr. Harry S. Davis. Please read the transcript below.

“Q: Mr. Davis, how do you size up what happened here last night?

A: It started, because, for about three weeks now rumors have been flying around through the power structure, for one, that there was going to be a riot.
…For instance, the police had a riot control training program just Tuesday of this week…
Now, understanding the emotions of men, especially policemen, who are on the police force for a number of reasons, and the slightest little thing that would happen would force them into doing something, and this is what happened last night.
Two girls got into an argument; a fight. The police, one of the fellas was trying to separate them, the police saw this thing, they were ready and armed, and they started knocking, pushing, hitting people, and they (the people) began to retaliate.”

Q: Do you blame this on the police then? Is that it?

A: I blame this on the temperament of the power structure for alarming the community to the point that this thing had to happen.

Q: What do you mean by power structure? I mean from the governor on down to the lowest man within the system that makes decisions.

Q: They were predicting riots?

A: Right! They were predicting riots.” ****

In sum, we arrive at these general truths: there existed a nation-wide expression of dissent, locally, we find a historical trail that led us to the Plymouth Avenue riots, and a prominent witness of the anticipation of city and state governments of riotous conditions.
Since the advent of televised reporting in this era, we see some evidence of the democratization of outrage; local events sparking nation-wide acts of empathetical protest. We see in local history that when representative government “kicks the can down the road”, (fails to respond to the present), the result is often multiplied and intensified towards uninvolved third parties “getting their can kicked”! Maybe Plymouth Avenue is an example of predictive programming? What happens when locals no longer trust the law and the good faith of authorities, but find only policies to punish disagreement? Or did this event expose the hair-trigger of our local government’s misbeliefs; when they look for riots they surely find them?

With our hands lifted up, we kneel before the Just One; we can’t figure out the night of July 19, 1967 and we surrender! We remember that You are the continual Seat of Authority over this universe. We recall that the Council of Heaven longs for the expression of justice on earth “as it is in Heaven”! Enlighten us to intercede for this event 53 years ago. According to Your system of justice, let us: acknowledge individual and collective judgments and offenses against You, our neighbors, and ourselves within these nights in Minneapolis and the “Long, Hot Summer” of 1967. Come, heal our system of government in the Twin Cities and Minnesota! Come, free us from repeating the same cycles of fear, prejudice, racism, and bitter-root judgments that lock us into eternal conflict with You and our fellow man. Like the Pilgrim’s, make Plymouth the last port before sailing on to the Promised Land.

Let’s begin our confession of a giant source of pain; the democratization of outrage. Lord, by this I mean that at times we respond, bodily and emotionally, to local stories on a national, or even world-wide scale. We now, through media of all kinds, can witness the events of history closer and closer to the actual time of their occurrence. (This, of itself, is neither good nor bad, and I don’t condemn the technology or news gathering sources.)

Yet, Your spirit shows me this in our acts of democratized outrage; they split our souls in two. Can a man simultaneously walk forward while critically viewing himself from the outside taking a walk? Can we both live and analyze our acts of living at the same time? Isn’t this practice a form of DID (Dissociative identity disorder)? Will we be present-tense participants in our own lives, or passive and past-tense analysts of life? Does not our media intake create the possibility of a condition in which “two or more distinct identities or personality states” alternate in controlling the patient’s consciousness and behavior?

Let us learn and practice to be one as You are One! You are Eternally Present to all. Will You forgive us our split consciousness of July 19, 1967, and re-integrate us where we have allowed and practiced the democratization of outrage? Will You forgive us our mountains of judgments against You and our unknown neighbors whom we observe passively and from a distance through the minuscule peephole of a camera lens? There are so many perspectives outside the frame of a photo. A well-researched newspaper article is a two-dimensional facsimile of real life run through the filter and biases of: the owners of the news corporation, it’s advertisers, the publisher, editor, and the history, beliefs, and misbeliefs of the mind of its author! We have deeply offended our Maker in this. We have thoroughly engaged in the practice of snap-judgments of Your Mind, Your Justice, and Your Peoples both near and far! Will You take these root-misbeliefs, that we can be both the observers and participants of our lives, that we can make both passive and actively-minded just choices at the same time, up, out, and onto the Cross of Christ? Will You give us Your solidity of heart and mind? We need to do justly, and we need to learn how and when to control emotional responses while gratefully acknowledging that feelings are gifts from You for the betterment of our lives!

As for the next point of discussion and prayer, Father, we want to acknowledge some specific judgments and counter-judgments of this event.

We start with geography. We acknowledge that the Near North Side to be a place of generational racial judgments and redlining of the heart if not in the law and business practices of Minneapolis! We see a history, too long, of those deemed by the city or county as undesirable ethnically gathered into its neighborhoods; Slavic peoples, Jewish peoples, and African-American peoples. Forgive our city these judgments of Slavs, Jews, and Black Americans as well as the counter-judgments of these groups towards Minneapolis.

We acknowledge the sins and separations of place to You. Will You heal the pain of: Plymouth Avenue, of Broadway and West Broadway, The Way, Knox Food Market, Homewood Theatre, Wayne’s Bar, Silver’s Food Market, Country House Market, Alderman Joe Greenstein’s home and garage, and any other square foot of ground embroiled in this conflict? We invite Your Presence into these specific locations, businesses, and any other unnamed places of conflict in the Plymouth Riots of 1967. Will You restore and create balance where injustices in all directions have occurred?
We declare that the Near North of Minneapolis is Your neighborhood where all men and women of peace are invited!

We move next to general historic realities of the Northside, and again, it’s A-B judgments.

We remember a reality of unequal opportunities and apportionment of the laws of Minnesota and Minneapolis towards various ethnicities, including but not limited to: Slavs, Jewish, and Black communities. We ask forgiveness of this daisy-chain of judgment: of historic leaders of Minneapolis towards Slavs, who judged the Jews, who judged the African American. We ask for the release of the history of counter-judgments of all these parties towards each other, our city, and our state. We have failed You first in this, Father.

Will You forgive the judgments of this neighborhood towards each successive wave of immigration or migration of large groups of “new” ethnicities? Will You forgive Your African-American people their envy, jealousy, and judgments of the established Jewish businesses and culture of the Near North? Will You forgive Your Jewish-American people their judgments and failures to see the Image of G-d in their new African-American neighbors of the 1950-60’s?

We see and acknowledge the evil of looting and arson in this event. We remember the physical destruction of primarily Jewish-owned businesses at the hands of primarily African-American rioters and arsonists. We acknowledge these crimes of judgment and counter-judgment. We condemn crime against Your peoples of any ethnicity, or the assumption of criminality based on one’s ethnicity. We recognize that the majority of all residents of the Near North did not participate in violence against property or persons. We recognize that much of these offense were committed by the young and inexperienced in life. Will You forgive the foolishness of these youths? Will You hear the defiance of those fully aware of these acts, and separate out those with a heart for justice from those simply intent on destruction and looting? Will You take this pain, up, out, and onto the Cross of Christ? As we have judged our neighbor, we have falsely judged You and greatly offended the Only Just One of the universe; have mercy!

Finally, we remember the individuals most offended on these nights of July 1967.
We remember the specific targeting of Alderman Joe Greenstein.
We remember the shooting of Samuel Simmons.
We remember the leadership of Harry S. Davis.
We remember the leadership of Mayor Arthur Naftalin.
We remember the injured and unnamed: of the African-American community, of the Minneapolis Police, of the Minnesota National Guard.
Each of the offenses, crimes, and judgments against these is an affront to You personally and Your Justice. Will You take this brokenness; up, out, and onto the Cross? Will You forgive us where we have made Your neighborhood, the Northside, into an unforgiving and unyielding place? We speak against the fires of the past and ask that You make this a place of construction and growth. We speak against the looting of 1967, and invite Your Spirit of giving. Will You make this the most generous African-American neighborhood in Minnesota? Will You erase our democratization of outrage in Minnesota, and replace it with the democratization of those engaged? We love You. We need You to survive. Amen!

P.T.H. cites timeline formerly at this URL: mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm
** McLaughlin, Malcolm (2014). “The Long, Hot Summer of 1967: Urban Rebellion in America”. Palgrave Macmillan.
*** Marks, Susan (2015). “Civil Unrest on Plymouth Avenue, Minneapolis, 1967”, Minnesota Historical Society. Internet. https://www.mnopedia.org/event/civil-unrest-plymouth-avenue-minneapolis-1967
**** Hezakya New & Films. “1967 SPECIAL REPORT: “MINNEAPOLIS RACE RIOTS”. ABC News. Video Source. YouTube. June 29,2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5swH1_r9OI

20th Century, African American, church history, ekklesia, History, Minnesota, omnipresent history

Martin Luther King Jr. Speaks at U of M

MLK at University of Minnesota. April 27, 1967. mprnews.org

April 27, 1967
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks about racism, poverty, and the Vietnam War to a crowd of 4,000 students at the University of Minnesota. Civil rights legislation, King says, has “rectified some evils of the South, but did little to improve conditions for millions of Negroes in teeming ghettoes of the North.” Congress has passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but King cites continuing inequalities in northern cities, such as a high black unemployment rate, segregated schools, and the growth of ghettos surrounded by suburbs. *

One can be inspired by only reading the words of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Yet to those who heard the timbre of his voice and saw the gravitas with which he carried himself that clear Thursday on the lawn of the Agriculture Campus of the University of Minnesota; it must have felt like a dream. Sometimes, one just knows that they are witness to greatness.

King begins his speech with an acknowledgment of the success of de-segregation and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but goes on to state that legislative victories “did very little to penetrate the depths of Negro deprivation.” ** He wonders, aloud, if our society is more opposed to Commissioner Bull Connor and Sheriff Jim Clarke of Birmingham, Alabama than positively for equality and justice. He suggests of the civil rights movement, that the “need is for legislation strongly enforced”, and this would best occur if we were to “make civil rights crimes Federal” offenses. ** (For readers outside the U.S., Federal jurisdiction means that our national government would enforce these laws rather than the city, county, and state.)

Moving on to the economic issues and disparities Black Americans faced in the cities, Reverend King underscores the urgency to both make and enact plans to better their lives stating “our summers of riots are caused by our winters of delay.” ** Dr. King opined that many in white society were not aware or accepting of the type of unemployment and price gouging faced by these neighbors, or that there is “literally a color tax in the ghetto.” ** His solution to this problem could be summed in his phrase “to attack poverty directly by guaranteeing an annual income for all the families of this country.” **

Addressing another political “hot potato”, Dr. King challenged the perceptions of his audience, and our nation’s worldview. Though criticized by some as being overly empathetic to socialist causes, his outlook could be construed as running parallel with the logic of libertarians; if we practice human rights at home, it is natural that we exude healthy human rights in our foreign affairs. Please, try to read and consider his quotes on Viet Nam with this in mind?

“We’re on the wrong side of a world revolution. We tend to see every revolution in the world as a communist revolution. And our tragedy is that we’ve based our total foreign policy on a huge miscalculation…” **

And

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I’m concerned about justice for everybody the world over.” **

At the end of his speech, Martin brought things back to the folly of the human heart. Do we believe in the freedom of our rivals, of our detractors, and of those who genuinely oppose us? You make recognize pieces of his, perhaps most famous speech; “ I Have a Dream”.
“I believe we can build right here, if we will only do these things, a nation where everyman will respect the dignity and worth of human personality and this will be that glad day when all of G-d’s children: black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, protestants and Catholics, will join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual;
“Free at last! Free at last! Thank G-d Almighty we’re free at last!

University of Minnesota Professor, John Wright, an attendee of King’s speech, gives us insight into the personal and public impact of that day in 1967. Because of King’s presence, He committed himself to the civil rights of Minnesotan’s, and participated in the 1969 student protest and take-over of Morrill Hall. ***
“I think we can be proud of the staying power of several of the institutional outcomes of the whole protest and take-over process. Of course, the creation of the Martin Luther King Programs in the College of Liberal Arts, and the formation of the Department of African American and African Studies.” **

Now, Eternal Father, we make a request to sit with You in the presence of the Council of Heaven as we meditate on April 27th, 1967. Today we remember the future the Apostle John recorded and prophesied of Your peoples.
“And they sang the song of Moses the Servant of God and the song of The Lamb. They were saying: “Great and marvelous are your works, LORD JEHOVAH God Almighty. Just and true are your works, King of the universe.” “ **** Revelation 15:3 Aramaic Bible
We thank You for the reminder in this single verse of the revelation that we, humanity, have been shown through the Law (Moses), and through the unparalleled grace and forgiveness of all separation through the Cross, the Blood, and the Resurrection of our Messiah! We cannot say thanks enough for the favor shown to all peoples at all times throughout the history of the human race!

Lord of Lords, will You help us today as we revisit this speech of Reverend King some 54 years ago? What in his message brings You glory, and what in his message does not? May we have a conversational prayer with You and acknowledge to You, first, the offenses of our society past that we can be freed from their misbeliefs and unbeliefs?

We applaud the successes of King’s movement of de-segregation. The ground at the foot of the Cross is completely flat, and so should our civic laws be completely apportioned; an even application of rights and privileges for all Americans! We remember this core “heart value” within the Civil Rights movement. We invite You into the brokenness of 1967, and acknowledge the offense of our society to misuse the Law (Moses), and bitter root judgments that created a legal system that negated justice to black Americans. Will You forgive us this offense against You and Your Image within all Americans of African descent; in King’s era, the present, and until Your return?

As a second thought in this conversational prayer, we hear and ponder Dr. King’s words very carefully. As a paraphrase, we hear this message; local laws and enforcement have failed, thus King suggests making “civil rights crimes Federal offenses”. While understandable the King could arrive at this conclusion given the context of intense conflict, it is understandable while these words would also cause conflict. To Americans who connected with King’s heart, it was completely logical.

However, to those who are aware of the positive and negative limits on our Federal, State, County, and City governments, it presents a drastic change. Our Founders, for many reasons, sought to create a legal system like a family walking in the rain: father’s umbrella covers mother, mother’s umbrella covers the kids, and the kid’s umbrella covers the dog. Our system is reliant on leadership and authority to be: relational, nearby, and accountable to the governed.

Is this, perhaps, a logistical fallacy or root misbelief in Reverend King’s logic? If local government has failed it’s people, which is in a much more direct relationship to its citizens, how will moving the center of responsibility to Washington D.C. make it more accountable to locals? For example, “It’s the government that has failed African Americans of Alabama, so we will look to the government, far away and less accountable, to provide a more equitable solution?” Lord, I may be simple, but doesn’t that sound like repeating the same action and expecting a different result?

So, we come humbly to You with a broken spirit over this question; “What do we do when those closest to us deny us justice?” Will You unravel these tangled root judgments of the 1960’s and bring them up, out, and onto the Cross of Christ? Will You bring Your justice to these places, where every rung of authority from City, to County, to State, to Federal had failed our citizens? Will You forgive us where we placed more hope in the law (Song of Moses), than in Healing Presence and unmerited favor of the Redeemer (Song of the Lamb)? Come and bring Your civil rights to our civil wrongs!

For the next item of this meeting, we start with a point of order brought so eloquently by MLK; “Father, when is the right time for collective responsibility versus individual responsibility as it applies to economics?”
I refer here to the words of King’s speech, Lord:
“our summers of riots are caused by our winters of delay.”
“literally a color tax in the ghetto.”
“to attack poverty directly by guaranteeing an annual income for all the families of this country.”
Bring Your insight, Holy Spirit, let us move with You, see from Your point of view, and hear from Your Word.

In Your Eternal Word we see examples of individual responsibility towards YHWH:
“Love LORD JEHOVAH your G-d from all your heart and from all your soul and from all your possessions.” Deuteronomy 6:5 Aramaic Bible ****

“I am YHWH your Elohim, there will not be for you another god before me.
You will not make for you an idol and you will not bow down to them, for I am YHWH your Elohim.
You will not take the name of YHWH your Elohim in vain.” Exodus 20:1-4 Ancient Hebrew *****
(Lord, we notice that every pronoun is personal in these 10 Commandments.)

In Your Eternal Word, we also see examples of collective responsibility for the sin of an individual:
“But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.” Joshua 7:1 NIV ****

Or we see collective judgement for the offense of an individual ruler:
“Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.” Exodus 12:29 BSB ****

Lord, hear our prayer! Let us first love You, with all we are including our possessions and property whether small or great! We are guilty of making our economic worth an idol, therefore, breaking the first of Your commands! We have tainted Your Name, our family name, our ethnicity’s name through our own individual actions; even in the plunder of an enemy?! Individual leaders in our history, separated from You and hard of heart, have brought suffering and death on the innocent and powerless! We acknowledge our guilt, collectively and as individuals, to You and our neighbor! Will You heal the past, free the present, and bless the future of these economic wounds: within us, in our society, and in Your Body the Ekklesia?

As a third petition and reflection, help us ponder Reverend King’s views on war, and the Viet Nam war in particular. Living Word, let’s think on King’s words given this Thursday in 1967; “We’re on the wrong side of a world revolution. We tend to see every revolution in the world as a communist revolution.” What say You, Rauch Ha’ Kodesh (Holy Spirit)?

Granted, as the political entity known as the United States, we surely had a foreign policy bent on containing Communism in Southeast Asia. Further, President Eisenhower had warned our nation of the drive to power and profit of the “military industrial complex”. Help us remember a bit more, Lord?

China, once an ardent ally of the United States with a proud heritage for millenia, had fallen to Mao in 1949. (Mao’s social justice record was stained by the blood of tens of millions of his own people at the time of this speech.)
Korea, again an ancient people, was split in two with the military support of China and Russia 27 July 1953. (Again, Russia’s record of social justice was stained with the blood of tens of millions of Stalin’s own people.)
The Second Indochina War, commenced on 1 November 1955 had already ravaged the nations of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia for 12 years at the time of Dr. King’s statement.

All this to say that the politically aware in 1967 could plausibly see the wasting of human lives in Southeast Asia as a threat to human dignity and human rights. On this issue, Lord, Dr. King’s views seem at odds with his present tense realities at the time of this speech. As a man with such empathy for the downtrodden, I suspect his heart overruled his head on this matter. Even the FBI alleges that close friendships within King’s circle like Hunter Pitts O’Dell, Abner Berry, and Miles Horton had formed in communist schools and camps in the South like the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee about 1957. A counter-argument to this narrative is that it was one of the few forums in the South where black Americans were welcomed with open arms to: speak, listen, receive free education, and socialize in a multi-cultural setting. ******

This information creates tension in me. On the one hand, it appears Your Body, the Church, had failed to welcome Dr. King and African Americans in general into community. What does this say about Your Body of Believers in the Southern United States of King’s era? Had it calcified the warmth of the Gospel into a stiff, arthritic religion? Were the various denominations more subject to the beliefs, misbeliefs, and unbeliefs of their regional culture than the relational culture of Your Kingdom?

Hear our prayer; will You forgive us, the Ekklesia (those called out of the past and into Your Presence and future), of the judgments of their siblings and Your children; the black American human being? Will Your release Your Body from the “sleeper hold(s)” of the Enemy of all humanity: our religious spirit, of our embrace of cultural lies, of our collective and individual beliefs, unbeliefs, and misbeliefs that so deeply offend the Holy Spirit? Bring healing to this memory of Dr. King’s generation, and empower us to practice Your Healing Presence for ourselves and especially our neighbors of a differing race?

On the other hand, how does a Baptist preacher, (Rev. King), align his Biblical worldview with an atheist one? How does King marry the Gospel’s view of history, one that all men can believe in Your Son and be saved, with a Marxist historiography that is often deterministic and pegs human beings into camps limited by one’s external racial markers rather than one’s internal markers? Father, it’s not my heart to judge Dr. King for having friends of various political views, but perhaps it can explain some of sympathies in the Vietnamese War.******

Billboard in the South circa 1957. appalachianhistory.net

In sum, we appeal to heaven with MLK of April 27th, 1967 that we learn and practice to be “Free at last”! We acknowledge to You that even our icons and heroes of history are human like us with motive conflicts. We so fully believe and misbelieve in You at the same time! We judge our judgers as they counter-judge us! May we radiate the justice of our Eternal King everywhere through confessing our threats and unjust hearts everywhere! May we respect the dignity and worth of Your Infinite Personality first! All our racism, human to human, is first an offense to the Author, Creator, and Lover of the human race! May we avoid the wrong side of a world revolution! May we align with the Song of Moses (Judgement and Just Law) and with the Song of the Lamb (Unending Mercy)! May we love our enemy and do good to those who oppose us until we are all children of our heavenly Father again! We love You and need You to survive! Amen.

One Nation with One King
“Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “And you, son of man, take a single stick and write on it: ‘Belonging to Judah and to the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick and write on it: ‘Belonging to Joseph—the stick of Ephraim—and to all the house of Israel associated with him.’ Then join them together into one stick, so that they become one in your hand.” Ezekiel 37:15-17 BSB

Joseph (Yosef)- means ‘he will add”
Ephraim- means simultaneously “ashes” and “to make doubly fruitful”

Father, is this a symbol or foreshadowing of the Cross? Christ takes our ash pile, adds His life to it, and makes us doubly fruitful? You took the divided nations of Judah and Israel and made them one nation. May You join our divided nation(s) again!

P.T.H. cites timeline formerly at this URL: mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm
** Minnesota Experience. Twin Cities Public Television. PBS. “Martin Luther King in Minnesota”. Restored by Minnesota Historical Society
A discovered tape of a speech given by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the University of Minnesota in 1967; followed by an interview of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by host L. Howard Bennett for a discussion on ideas, methods and words of wisdom on how to achieve the goal of a free society for all.
Premiere Date: January 21st, 2019 (Cites speech of MLK April 27, 1967.) Internet. https://www.tptoriginals.org/martin-luther-king-in-minnesota-full-episode/
*** Maas, Susan. “Remembering the Morrill Hall Takeover”. University of Minnesota Alumni Association. 2019. Internet.
https://www.minnesotaalumni.org/stories/remembering-the-morrill-hall-takeover
**** Citations of Revelations 15:3, Deuteronomy 6:5, Joshua 7:1, Exodus
https://biblehub.com
***** An excellent version of the Ten Commandments both in ancient Hebrew and English. https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/biblical-history/files/bible_ten_short.png
****** https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2018/01/school-for-subversives-and-communists.html

20th Century, Americana, baseball, History, Minnesota, omnipresent history

Minnesota Twins First Game

1961 Press Photo Calvin Griffith, Cookie Lavagetto. origins unknown.

1961
Calvin Griffith’s Washington Senators are reborn as the Minnesota Twins. They lose ninety games in 1961, but Killebrew, Battey, and Kaat lead them to an American League pennant four years later.*

The history of the Twins is like an old baseball, two pieces of horsehide** somehow stitched together around a lot of yarns! In this case, the Saint Paul Saints and the Minneapolis Millers fans yielded a potent and sometimes violent 59 year rivalry (1902-1960) to back the new team in town. Gone were the days of streetcar double headers where fans and players alike could wind up bloodied by spikes and baseball bats in grudge matches both on and off the field for supporting their team. Baseball was about to become a bona fide professional sport when Calvin Griffith brought the Washington (DC) Nationals/Senators to town and renamed them the “Minnesota Twins”! ***

To backtrack a bit, Calvin Robertson may never had pursued a lifetime of baseball were it not for the tragedy of losing his father James at a young age. At age 11, the boy was taken in by his aunt Addie, whose husband Clark Griffith owned the Washington Senators, and the couple raised him as a Griffith. This meant his participation in baseball: he immediately worked as a batboy for the Senators through his childhood, and went on to both pitch and catch for at George Washington University.***

After university, he entered headlong into the business of baseball. He worked various office positions for farm clubs for the Chattanooga Lookouts and the Charlotte Hornets. **** Returning to DC, Calvin filled a variety of roles in the front office, and gained the trust and business acumen to assume more and more leadership roles. When his uncle passed in 1955, he was elected the President of the team that Clark had built.

Always a close-knit crew, Mr. Griffith and his sister Thelma inherited 52% of the franchise, and they populated its leadership with kin. Take for example that the positions of pitching instructor, farm director, stadium supervisor, and concessions were filled by their brothers and in-laws. In spite of the solid economic footing provided by their adoptive father, the club strained to fill the seats, and Calvin sought a way out of the doldrums in DC. ***

At a serendipitous moment, investors from Minnesota guaranteed $430,000 a year and attendance of 750,000 just as many in the American League were in a mood to expand. On October 26, 1960, it voted to expand to 10 teams and allow the move that Griffith longed to make.**** In their first season in 1961, attendance went from 743,404 to 1,256,743 fans, and the team placed 7th in the league.***** Within five years, they would arrive at the World Series led by superstar hitter Harmon Killebrew, and thereafter be taken as a team to contend with.

So now we come to the All; the Champion of the Universe! We remember today that You chose to include us in the business of Your family, and even to intimately know Your thoughts. You have searched for us when we weren’t even looking for You; You have adopted so many into Your family. All-Knowing One, can we sit with You and remember this time in history, and the lessons from the life of Mr. Calvin Robertson Griffith?

We initiate our prayer with remembering the power of Our Heavenly Father who chooses us. We commend to You Clark Griffith and whatever method You worked in his heart to want little Calvin. We applaud a man who took in a son just because that boy needed him, and then built him up the rest of his life. We are happy to learn the good story of Clark and Calvin Griffith.

We thank You that, perhaps, precisely because he was fathered into the family business, he could also be the conduit of blessing for so many in his immediate family. We thank You that a man who was mentored through every step of the ladder of success by his dad also had the ability to bring that out in his staff and players. We thank You for all the lessons learned between 1922 and 1961 on his slow path to ownership and success. Will You give us the diligence to pursue our goals, even if it takes forty years?

Again and again, we thank You that his determined persistence turned out to be the antidote for the schisms of our twin rivalry between Minneapolis and St. Paul. We had 60 years of experience in baseball before Calvin Griffith, yet we failed as fans and farm teams because our overidentification with our teams and the honor of our cities. How did this outsider teach us to just “play ball”? How did he ease us past some of our pettiness that couldn’t abide the letter ‘M’ on our ball caps because it might just mean ‘Minneapolis’ instead of ‘Minnesota’? Even the “TC” logo is a testament of binding the “Twin Cities” together under one roof to become one team.

Lord, we also remember to You the shortcomings of Griffith as father of the Twins. Though made in private, he allegedly made statements about choosing this city for expansion instead of New Orleans as follows,
“I’ll tell you why we came to Minnesota,” he said. “It was when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don’t go to ball games, but they’ll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it’ll scare you to death. It’s unbelievable. We came here because you’ve got good, hardworking, white people here.” *******
This statement deeply wounded his star player Rod Carew. Carew left the team shortly thereafter for the Los Angeles Angels. And to the Hall of Fame.

Years later, Rod Carew gave this assessment of Mr. Griffith:
“When he traded me prior to the 1979 season, Calvin told me he wanted me to be paid what I was worth. Later that year the Angels made me the highest paid player in baseball. A racist wouldn’t have done that.”********

Lord, will You forgive Calvin Griffith his bitter root judgments of African Americans, New Orleans, and the Twin Cities? Will You forgive any counter-judgments made towards him by the fans and players of this state? Will You help us forgive our biological fathers, figurative fathers, mentors, and coaches when they have betrayed us? Will You heal the pain of these our Twins? Take these sins and separations up, out, and onto the Cross of Christ. Help us reach out; across the Mississippi or any other barrier, until we are on the same team again!

“The Law came, so that the full power of sin could be seen. Yet where sin was powerful, God’s gift of undeserved grace was even more powerful.” Romans 5:20 CEV******

P.T.H. cites timeline formerly at this URL: mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm
** https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1676509-the-evolution-of-the-baseball-from-the-dead-ball-era-through-today
*** Hennessey, Keith. “Calvin Griffith” Society for American Baseball Research. Internet. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/calvin-griffith/
**** Internet. “Calvin Griffith” Baseball Reference. https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Calvin_Griffith
*****Ison, Jordan. “Minnesota Twins: On This Day in 1961, the Twins made their Minnesota Debut”. Puckett’s Pond. Internet. https://puckettspond.com/2021/04/19/willians-astudillo-pitched-breakingt-made-awesome-shirt/
****** https://biblehub.com/parallel/romans/5-20.htm
******* Calcaterra, Craig. “Twins have removed the Calvin Griffith statue”. Internet. NBC Sports. June 19, 2020. https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/06/19/twins-have-removed-the-calvin-griffith-statue/
******** Carew, Rod. “STATEMENT FROM ROD CAREW ON CALVIN GRIFFITH” (PDF). KSTP. Retrieved June 19, 2020.

20th Century, Governors, History, Minnesota, omnipresent history, Republican

Governor Elmer L. Anderson: A Progressive of Head and Heart

January 2, 1961- March 25, 1963
Elmer Lee Anderson, the thirtieth governor of Minnesota, was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 17, 1909. His education was attained at Muskegon Junior College and at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a business degree in 1931. He established a successful career with the H.B. Fuller Company, first working in the marketing department and eventually becoming the owner and president of the company. Andersen entered politics in 1949, serving as a member of the Minnesota State Senate, a position he held ten years. He next secured the Republican gubernatorial nomination and was elected governor by a popular vote on November 8, 1960. During his tenure, a fair housing bill was sanctioned; a statewide sanitary law was authorized; highway safety measures were initiated; and a governmental ethics act was instituted.*

“I remind people I want to be known as a liberal Republican. If that’s a dirty word, so be it.” Elmer Lee Anderson **

Governor E.L. Andersen led a life of enthusiasms, that led into ventures, that usually led into success. Though his parents split at a young age, he discovered that he had capabilities to provide for himself and his family selling: soft drinks, candy, and newspapers. He loved birds, and wrote articles as a young teen that made it into the local newspaper.***

Already a natural salesman, he sold for Sheldon, a specialty school furniture company, and this is when he moved to Minnesota. After graduating from the U of M in 1934, he entered H.B. Fuller as a sales manager, and eventually went on to become its president. His formula of good sales seemed firmly based in his solid ethics. The following quote shows his heart-felt business acumen.

“Anything the customer wanted should be seen as an opportunity for us to provide it. Number two was that the company should exist deliberately for the benefit of the people associated in it. I never liked the word employee. It intimated a difference in class within a plant. We always used the word associate. Fuller’s third priority was to make money. To survive, you have to make money. To grow, you need money. To conduct research and develop new products, you must have money. The need for money can be desperate at times. But corporations must put the quest for money in its proper place. Our philosophy did not leave out service to the larger community. We put it in fourth place, behind service to customers, our associates, and the bottom line. Community service cannot be paramount to a business, but it ought not to be omitted, as it too often is. Business must concern itself with the larger society—for reasons of self-interest if nothing else.” ****

Maybe this heart and philosophy underscores some of Andersen’s key achievements during his governorship, and the scope of human interests they spanned? We see his love of nature and ornithology as the loon was named our state bird during his tenure. What ne plus ultra! What more fitting symbol of this place and people; our idiosyncrasies and achievements? This bird is capable aloft or underwater, but walks poorly on land and must run on the surface of the water to take off!?! Its beak is a spear for fishing, and its sharp eyes a vibrant red. Don’t be taken aback by the loon’s haunting lonely cry; it just wants to live in solitude. In this, Andersen is our Adam!

His administration officially recognized alcoholism as a health problem. Maybe the most impactful change for posterity of his term is in his sanctioning of a fair housing act. (Though the Fair Housing Act 42 U.S.C. did not see fulfillment until 1968, his was a quick response to just the problems that were brought to light in the public domain issues of the Rondo neighborhood.) *

Though succeeded by Karl Rolvaag after his one term in office, Elmer remained committed to the Republican Party, and his many pet causes and interests. Governor Andersen became a publisher, writer, and archivist while owning interests in ECM Publishing. He clearly was a bibliophile, and amassed a collection of over 12,000 rare books that went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Library. He was known as the father of Voyageurs Nation Park, working ceaselessly with other famous Minnesotans like aviator Charles Lindbergh, to preserve this beautiful land and interconnected waterways for generations.***

We now bow to You: Governor of Governors, Sovereign of Sovereigns, Crown of all Crowns! As Isaiah rightly prophesied, “On that day, Adonai-Tzva’ot will be a glorious crown, a brilliant diadem for the remnant of his people.” Isaiah 28:5 CJB * We owe this land grant and political state of Minnesota to You alone Lord. What wisdom do You wish to convey through the life and events of Governor Elmer Lee Andersen?

We thank You that Andersen relished the pathway of sales from childhood throughout his life. What a blessing to realize one is talented in an area, and to remain in such a strength for life! We thank You that this particular salesman clearly articulated his raison d’être in writing for posterity, and approached his business with a sense of balance between profits and people. May You be praised in this, and give our salespersons your heart of community service within provision!

As a second proviso of well-being, we acknowledge Elmer’s willingness to name the elephant in the room; “Alcoholism”! Though he aptly called it a disease of the body, we remember to You that is also a disease of the spirit. A satisfied mind doesn’t need alcohol to amplify Your wonders; but a needy heart craves the next drink. We praise You that he chose to name this issue, and create pathways of help for generations of Minnesotans!

Prolonging his memory to You, we see his desire to end discriminatory practices in housing. He began the end of discriminatory lending practices; a practice of unnecessarily stratifying of a generation of Minnesotans. Surely there is a way to honor liberties of private property without racializing Your land! May we keep asking for wisdom in this! Willing You forgive us: in our business and finance industries, as communities, and as individuals made in Your image of this offense towards You and Your land which we temporarily occupy?

In sum, there is much praise worthy in Governor Anderson’s life. His love of books became a fruitful business, which circled back to bless the branches of the University of Minnesota. A passion for the Creation led him to advocate to preserve Voyageurs. In this, he is just like You!

Precisely because of Governor Andersen’s good character and habit of fulfilling good desires, I am reticent to criticize, yet I must add these words and questions to You, Lord. We, who love progress, must define what progress looks like to move society towards it. Often, progressive movements work through the machinery of the State to fulfill their purposes. Does not this oblige others to both sanction and fund a definition of progress that they do not hold in their heart?

Forgive my weak wordplay, Messiah, but who protects our figurative loons from progress? Who stands for those who are undefiant, yet choose to fly alone? Maybe I have an inordinate fear of progressivism because of it’s inherent humanistic roots; “the progress of man”. Where is Your place in this worldview? Does it make allowances for Your Kingdom of forgiveness, humility, and innocence? What place do virtues such as patience and persuasion hold in a climate that waves a banner stating “Advancement Now!”?

Yet this is where I arrive in watching this era of Elmer’s leadership; we need You to stand between us. We ask forgiveness where our version of progress diminishes another; in this age of the early 1960’s, in the present, and into eternity. We invite Your wisdom into the ways we must yield to each other. Keep us from conceit as we make concessions to the greater good. And may our self-defined greater good be submitted to our Greatest G-d.

“It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.” Ecclesiastes 7:18 NIV **

*https://www.nga.org/governor/elmer-lee-anderson/
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_L._Andersen cited in Saint Paul Pioneer Press. 2004 article
*** Andersen, Elmer L. (2000). A Man’s Reach. Edited by Lori Sturdevant. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
**** “1941: Harvey Fuller Sells Company to Elmer Andersen”. H.B. Fuller. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
https://www.justice.gov/crt/fair-housing-act-1
***** “Publications: Princeton Union-Eagle”. ECM Publishers. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
****** Smetanka, Mary Jane. (1999). “Former Governor’s Gift Is Voluminous”. Minneapolis Star Tribune. Metro ed. April 1. p. 1A.
******* https://www.nps.gov/voya/learn/historyculture/index.htm
********https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Isaiah%2028:5
*********https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+7%3A18&version=NIV

20th Century, African American, History, Minnesota, omnipresent history, Uncategorized

Rondo Neighborhood Removed

1959
Freeway construction passes through established neighborhoods in the Twin Cites. The Rondo neighborhood, long a center of black community life in St. Paul, is razed to make way for Interstate 94. Four hundred houses are condemned and torn down.*

“If New York has its Lenox avenue, Chicago its State street, Philadelphia its Wylie avenue, Kansas City its Eighteenth Street, and Memphis its Beale street, just as surely has St. Paul a riot of warmth, and color, and feeling, and sound in Rondo street.”
–Earl Wilkins, The St. Paul Echo, September 18, 1926**

Connecting the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul had long been in the minds of local civil engineers. The excerpt below from the MNopedia article by Ehsan Alam sums up their thoughts rather precisely.
“In the 1930s, commuters and city planners began to call for a highway linking the business districts of downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis. After World War II, city engineers chose St. Anthony Avenue as the route. This street was located between University Ave and Marshall Avenue, and went all the way to Minneapolis.”***

Yet, that is not the whole story. We find that there is a viable alternative to either Rondo or St. Anthony Avenues that wouldn’t split an existing neighborhood in half. Minnehaha Avenue, now known as Pierce Butler Route, is road that runs adjacent to the rail lines between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Often, the land adjacent to rail lines is already publicly owned, and would suggest that this route may encroach less on neighborhoods and privately owned property. ****

Given these circumstances, one wonders “Why did these cities and Federal Department of Transportation leaders choose to place I-94 through many neighborhoods (including Rondo) instead of adjacent to them?” In any type of city planning or civil engineering events, there are myriads of motives and opinions that compete to be heard. Below, we explore a few hypotheses.

George Herbert Herrold, an engineer and city planner far and away has the most documentation of the City Planning Board of St. Paul, Minnesota. His manuscript covers a 33 year time frame from the start of the Board in 1920 until 1953; just the years that would tell us of their motives, studies, and actions. This research suggests that the city had an interest in eliminating slums. To elaborate, their working definition of a slum constituted a neighborhood with a high percentage of rental properties whose owners did not live in the neighborhood. *

However, what the Board defined as “slums” also was home to the largest African-American neighborhood in St. Paul. Granted, there were some run-down rentals, but there were also a large contingency of fine homes belonging to Rondo’s middle-class residents. Rondo had a population of roughly 30,000 of which about one-third were black, and the remainder composed by Italians, Jews, Native Americans, and a sprinkling of other ethnicities. It is precisely because of Rondo’s diverse assemblage that suspicions of “red-lining” or racist motives arise in criticism of St. Paul’s role in routing I-94 through this neighborhood.******

In contrast, we find evidence that does not support this conclusion. Department of Transportation employees did extensive studies on both alternatives, as they did elsewhere through the Interstate Highway System. Commonly, this looks like engineers doing on-site observations and gathering data: counting cars on every East-West thoroughfare, establishing “desire lines” (i.e. which roads are most preferred), collecting data on rush hour usage, travel times from origin to destination, etc. Of these DOT engineers professor C. Wells of Macalester College states, “the process that they went through would seem to suggest that race had nothing to do with it…”. **** The data collected suggests that the direct route along St. Anthony Avenue was the preferred route, and support for the “northern route” along Pierce Butler and the railway diminished.

As the neighborhood of Rondo saw the writing on the wall, they peacefully protested and gained concessions. According to the research of Mark Simonsen, their focus became the four points listed below.
1. Stay in homes as long as possible.
2. Receive Fair Market Value for homes.
3. Depress the freeway below street level.
4. Requested that they be able to buy new homes anywhere they could afford them. (Open Housing Law)****
Residents won the first three of these requests, but failed to enact the Open Housing Law. In fact, even the city of Saint Paul declined to honor the Open Housing Law within its boundaries. It’s City Attorney denied O.H.L. on the basis that it conflicted with Minnesota’s constitution; sellers could legally choose to whom they sold their property. ****
Shall we pray? Eternal Father, we are reminded of your words of promise today as we sit and watch this snapshot of history that physically divided the Rondo neighborhood with an Interstate.
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Matthew 19:29-30 BSB *
We love that we can always come to You for a hearing, and that Your Hearing and Presence bring justice! Be forever praised!

As a starting point, we acknowledge that You provided two paths for Interstate I-94. We acknowledge that the outcome of following the less disruptive “northern route” may never be known. Yet, there was a solid opportunity to choose a route that had less impact on human lives and relationships. Did we miss You in this? Maybe so. In any case, we acknowledge that we chose the road that wrecked neighborhoods. Will You forgive the seeds of division sown in this moment by the proponents and opponents of running the highway by the railway? Where we judged our neighbor, we have offended You; will You heal the past, free the present, and bless the future in this decision of 1959?

Next, we see the depth of consideration and the data collected to resolve this issue. We remember that the DOT and civil engineers went out into the neighborhoods between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and actually observed where our people drove, how many, and how long it took them to arrive at their destination. Like Your message to the prophet Isaiah, You continually invite us to “come now and reason together”. You are not threatened by our observations, science, data, or investigations!

We thank You that the numbers don’t lie, or in this case, the numbers don’t lie about where we drive; we voted with our wheels. Yet, we fully acknowledge that though “numbers don’t lie”, we are often skewed by our own biases as we interpret them! Will You lift the suspicion of these studies up, out, and onto the Cross? Will You be with us as we reconsider this moment with You?

To continue, we see this data filtered through the distorted looking glass of banking. As a short backstory, we find that the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) had created a system of segregation, real ethnic and racial division, and negated facts that challenged their narrative. It is here, if I can be so bold Lord, that I see some of the ugliest acts of racism and ethnocentrism committed in St. Paul of this era. It is a fact that the FHA created maps based on ethnicity and race. It appears that though the FHA commenced with noble pursuits, in reality it fostered and reinforced the racialization of space.

Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy! We allowed these dreams of placing a home within reach of all to take a wrecking ball to those deemed not worthy by bureaucrats! We give You the damage caused by our State and Federal government’s judgments contained in the word “slums”. We acknowledge to You all the pain and falsehoods spoken over the residents of Rondo like, “a black family will not be given a home loan west of Lexington Avenue.” We acknowledge the defilement of this land through judgment and counter-judgment: from the Mississippi River to Marion Street, from University Avenue to Marshall Avenue; this land is Your land! Will You take these lies, curses, unbeliefs, and misbeliefs up, out, and onto the Cross?

Conversely, will You speak truth to cursed ears and broken hearts? Will You impart life where it has been crushed and stunted? Will You uproot those who have negated human choice because it interferes with their vision of what “helping” looks like? Will You release Your Holy Spirit, and replace the memory of wrecking balls with “Welcome” mats in this Rondo corridor forever?

“Do not afflict your countrymen, but let every one fear his G-d: because I am the Lord your G-d.” Levitcus 25:17 Douay-Rheims Bible

P.T.H. cites timeline formerly at this URL: mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm
** https://libguides.mnhs.org/rondo
*** Please enjoy this solid article and research about Rondo!
Alam, Ehsan. “Rondo Neighborhood, St. Paul”. June 14, 2017. Internet. Minnesota Historical Society. https://www.mnopedia.org/place/rondo-neighborhood-st-paul
**** Simonsen, Mark. “Rondo: Building Highways, Building Conflict”. July 14, 2016. Internet. YouTube. Cit. Professor Chris Wells (Macalester) 2:55-3:18.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaI8USAtJyE
*****Herrold, George Herbert. “The story of planning St. Paul from the beginnings to 1953, 1958.” Minnesota Historical Society Library. Internet. https://snaccooperative.org/vocab_administrator/resources/7080099
****** Redlining and Racial Covenants: Jim Crow of the North https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymOaiWla3DU
******* https://biblehub.com/matthew/19-29.htm

21st Century, News, omnipresent history, Uncategorized

“My Little Finger”

Do you ever get tired of the cycle of bad news? Are you ever amazed at how current event news, especially when an election is involved, becomes an agent of division in our society? Old friends refuse to have a cup of coffee with old friends because they believe the rhetoric online, on TV, and blowing through the airwaves that disagreement equals domestic terrorism?

When “new” news makes me tired, I find comfort in the “old” news of G-d’s eternal reporting in the Torah. The labels may change, but His laws and His words yield wisdom for those who are willing to sit with Him awhile. Look at what the sweet Rauch Ha’Kodesh led me to this week; a 2900 year old call to our leaders to emulate the Father’s perfect balance of grace and truth within moments of crisis!

Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam

Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Neat heard this ( he was still in Egypt, where he fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. So they sent for Jerobaom, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him:

“Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Rehoboam answered,

“Go away for three days and then come back to me.”

So the people went away.

Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime.

“How would you answer advice me to answer these people?”

They replied,

“If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants”

But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them,

“What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us?'”

The young men who had grown up with him replied,

“Tell these people who have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter’ – tell them

“My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”

Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said,

“Come back to me in three days.”

The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said,

“My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”

So the king did not listen to the people. For this turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. When all Israel saw that the kine refused to listen to them, they answered the king:

“What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!”

So the Israelites went home. But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them. King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who wa sin charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.” I Kings 12:1-19 NIV

Last week, my wife and I attended significant events on the east coast; events for peace and prayer, and events that lawfully protested the foreign interference in the 2020 Presidential election. Those in attendance emulated Israel; they humbly asked for their government to hear them.

Yet, this massive crowd, perhaps 800k to 1.2million people, had their voiced overshadowed, again, by the actions of maybe a few hundred attendees who crossed the line into violence and riot. This small but violent mob was instantly addressed on Twitter by the POTUS, but the social media giant erased his message to stand down and disperse. Why would they do this?

As our group of intercessors left the greater Distict of Columbia, news reports began pouring in that mislabelled the entire event as a riot, and even questioned if all attendees should be thought of as “domestic terrorists”. With G-d as my witness, we heard no such messages remotely inciting violence from any events, from the stages, or from the various speakers from the six major rallies on the Mall. * This rally happened because of the failure of the following governmental entities to “hear” them or their allegations of foreign interference and or voter frXXd:

-They were not heard by the Secretaries of States, Governors, Lieutenant Governors or at least six states.

-They were not heard by the U.S. Courts of Appeals. (District Courts)

-The Supreme Court refused the case brought by Texas with the weight of 17 additional states.

-The Vice President refused to act on Article II Section 1.2 of the U. S. Constitution. ** The attendees of this rally, in my humble opinion, were united in their hope for this outcome.

So we find ourselves in a situation that divided the House of David and the house of Israel so many years ago. Will President-elect Biden follow the steps of Rehoboam, or of the wise advisors? Will the leadership of the U.S. gov’t, whether serving in elected or appointed positions “hear” the mass of people, (allegedly 75 million Trump voters) who believe our process of elections has been significantly defiled? Will we practice the “scorched earth” politics of personal destruction championed by the young and unwise advisors of our future leaders?

Perhaps most importantly, what will you choose in regards to your neighbors with whom you disagree?

Will you “scourge them with scorpions”?

Will you make the weight heavier for them?

Will you tell them a story about your “little finger”, or will you hear their fear and pain of becoming a country of men rather than a country of laws?

As followers of the way, let me be clear, I am not here to build the Republican or Democratic kingdom. My Messiah calls to all who will hear Him; “Build the Kingdom of G-d.” All truth is G-d’s truth, and that is what we seek. Come Lord Jesus, hope of the nations!

“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be made known and brought to light.” *** Luke 8:17 BSB

*If one wishes to verify if indeed the POTUS DJT incited a “riot” as alleged, please see the transcripts below.

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6

** https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-2/

*** https://biblehub.com/luke/8-18.htm

Another shot of the masses engaging in protest; not in violence or riotous behavior. January 5, 2020.

ekklesia, justice, omnipresent history, worship

Can I get a howl?

A vintage Golden Eagle microphone circa late 1960’s

Let’s begin this transmission with a message broadcast by an author, Qoheleth, likely King Solomon roughly 2400 yrs ago. (One could say it’s a “Golden Oldie”!) This king is alleged to be the wisest human being of all time. We’ll roll this pre-recorded interview for your listening pleasure! Enjoy!

DJ: Qoheleth, is that you?

Q: It is I.

DJ: The people of the future have a pressing question for Your Majesty, are you willing to oblige them.

Q: I am.

DJ: King, live forever! Forgive my many words, but I must explain the backstory of my question because it is from the future.

Q: You may proceed.

DJ: The year is 2020 AD, and it is unlike any before it because the entire world is cowering before a pandemic. Earth’s people are largely shuttered. Their governors’ are practicing a form of soft monocracy; simultaneously shuttering millions of humans from: buying, selling, working indoors, working outdoors, play and recreation outdoors and on the seas, and even closing the doors of their temples forbidding the worship at Passover.

There are many chasms of ethnic strife. There are peaceful protests in the streets as well as fires of insurrection. Instead of solving these problems, face to face, all this melisma and cacophony is filtered through a device known as a computer. This device is neither good nor bad, but is as useful or harmful as its user or programmer. (One who instructs it what to do.)

Natural relationships are disrupted. Children do not know play. There is fear, suspicion, and distrust in those who were comrades and neighbors only months before! People see things going the wrong way, but do not know how to effect change.

Allow me to illustrate further, O King? These peoples have a tradition and a high holy day where they express gratitude; to each other, to their families, to the Most High. Many are forbidden this practice! Even more are disallowed to eat a meal in their own homes, “for their own good”, by their satraps, rector provinciae, governors, and proconsuls. These leaders mesmerize the people with trading liberty for the temporal illusion of security against this omnipresent pandemic.

What say you Qoheleth? What wisdom will you convey to us from Adonai?

Qoheleth:

“1There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—

2A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

3A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.

4A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.

5A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

6A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.

7A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.

8A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.”

End of show.

Friends, I am first a man of prayer. I only wish to engage the political culture of this world when it steps on the Laws of Nature, and Nature’s G-d. It is time to raise our voices. It is time to write. It is time to give voice to oppose those who would stifle our humanity; even our expressions of gratitude in the dangerous act of sharing a Thanksgiving meal?!?

Turn your radio on. Time to get on the mic!

*https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/who-wrote-ecclesiastes-and-what-does-it-mean

** If you wish to contact the governor of Minnesota. https://mn.gov/governor/contact/

***If you wish to contact your U.S. House Representative. https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

****If you wish to contact your U.S. Senator. https://www.senate.gov/senators/

*****If you wish to contact your President.https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, 21st Century, Christian, cultural transference, ekklesia, Faith, forgiveness, History, Intercession, Jesus, Judgment & Counter-Judgment Cycle, justice, Minnesota, omnipresent history, Prayer, worship

Why pray through history?

My little corner where I pray. 2016. (Yes that’s an original print of Koko Taylor shot by acclaimed photographer and blues archivist Marc Norberg.)

Pray Through History: A New Way of Looking at History

Though this post mostly portrays my theology and touches on historiography, I want to bravely lead out with baring my heart. I pray through history out of love of Our Father. I pray because it is a calling. I’m incensed at the wrongs our human race commits towards Him. I’m humbled at my own betrayals of myself, my G-d, and others. We spend so much time academically threading the needle of who is offended by whom at what time in our past, but we rarely, so rarely, if ever look above the heads of our beloved enemies to see the offenses and betrayals committed against the “I AM”. How will we move forward as the human race if we maintain permanent grudges against each other? How do we heal the huge chasms caused by deep and real wounds, “ethnos to ethnos”, if we do not have a way to forgive, and an academy too often stuck in the same trap?

Dear and Holy Messiah, how grateful I am that You made a way! You literally gave Your blood and yielded Your life so that when we, too, are falsely accused and crucified by our neighbor(s); we also will rise again! Forgiveness may be the most costly of all the virtues You exhort us to live by. It is not a feeling that can be manufactured. It is not a commodity that can be bought or sold. It is not an exercise of the mind, or an intellectual “ism”. It is a habit of Your Kingdom; of those eternally committed to unconditional love. It is an impossibility without Your impartations of humility, revelation, and a new heart to replace our hearts of stone.

Though not in Scripture, You crystalized this human condition through the pen of English poet Alexander Pope. About 1711, he wrote a powerful poem entitled so appropriately “An Essay on Criticism, Part II”. What did You speak to us through this beautiful man’s mind but ‘To err is human; to forgive, divine’?!

May You be honored by our repentance, Eternal Father. May we break off the bitter branches of this tree of humanity. May we prune our own branches so that our neighbors may again enjoy Your light! How we love You, and need You this day to survive! Your adoring adopted son, James

A PRAYERFUL MODEL TO ANALYSE HISTORY

I. THERE ARE SPECIFIC ‘MOMENTS OF SEPARATION’ IN HUMAN HISTORY.

> For example, the Seljuk Turks attack Jerusalem.

II. ACTION-BASED JUDGMENTS IN PRESENT TIME.

> Jews to Seljuks, Jews to all Turks, Jews towards any outsider

> Seljuks to Jerusalem’s Jews, Seljuks to all Jews

III. FUTURE JUDGMENTS ARE FORMED BASED ON MEMORY, PERCEPTION, AND BITTER ROOT JUDGMENTS ARE SOLIDIFIED.

> Transference on a cultural scale.

> Perpetuation of offense.

IV. PARTIES ARE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS AND JUDGMENTS IN THE LORD’S JUSTICE.

> Even righteous anger betrays the victim. Even if the victim is a city, culture, tribe, or nation. We have been forgiven all, and therefore must forgive all. (This is not easy. The decision of the will may be simple, but the maintaining a heart of forgiveness is divine. )

> This is not an endorsement of living without boundaries, especially personal boundaries. Rather, it is a challenge of the rights of a human being to hold another prisoner by the maintenance of an offense.

V. WE CAN REPRESENTATIONALLY ACKNOWLEDGE HISTORICAL SIN BEFORE OUR LORD.

> Through Christ we have access to his Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence. He is present to all history, the present, and future events. He is within time, and beyond our comprehension of time. He knows all and can guide us to pray representationally, (intercession) for events of history, the present, and the future. He truly has unlimited power to forgive, heal, restore any human condition!

>His only limitation is self-imposed: He is a gentleman with boundaries. He believes in good and evil, justice and injustice, lightness and darkness, separateness and relationship. Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” We can trust in distinctions because He trusts in distinctions. Denial of sin within the context of our relationship with Him or others offends God because it denies our condition of separateness, or that we may have a need to address. Denial allows us to keep our pride, hold a grudge, or maintain anger. To use an old Baptist analogy,

“The whole world stand under the Niagara Falls of the Lord’s love. Some have their cups turned up and are filled. Others, although they under a deluge of love, can’t seem to keep a drop because their cups are turned upside down.”

VI. THROUGH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF HISTORICAL SINS, WE SET THE PROCESS OF RESTORATION IN MOTION.

A. We become aware of historical sin through experience or education.

B. We confess it to the Lord. This is a legal admission of guilt.

C. We pronounce the Lord’s forgiveness of confessed sin. (1 John 1: 8-10)

D. He will guide it through the full process of restoration.

1. Confession leads to remorse.

2. Remorse leads to repentance.

3. Repentance leads to reconciliation.

4. Reconciliation leads to restoration.

VII. ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES OR MANDATES THAT OUTLINE OR AUTHORITY TO PRAY THROUGH HISTORY.

A. “It is never the will of God that the judgment due the wicked should come upon the righteous.” pp 14-15 citing Genesis 18: 23,25 NIV

1.”Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” v. 23 Abraham asks.

2.”Far be it from you to do such a thing-to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” v. 25

B. “Every Christian has dual citizenship.” pp 32-35

1. “By natural birth he is a citizen of an earthly nation, and he is subject to all the ordinances and requirements of his nation’s lawful government. But by spiritual rebirth through faith in Christ, he is also a citizen of God’s heavenly kingdom. This is the basis of Paul’s statement, already referred to in our previous chapter: “We…are citizens of heaven.” Philippians 3:20 NEB

2. Example of dual citizenship: Jeremiah 1: 5,10 NIV

-”I approinted you as a prophet to the nations.” v.5

-”See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” v.10

– Jeremiah was subject as a citizen of Judah: “he did not “preach or practice political subversion or anarchy. Nor did he ever seek to evade or resist decrees made by the government concerning him, even though these were at times arbitrary and unjust. Yet on the spiritual plane to which God elevated him through his prophetic ministry, Jeremiah exercised authority over the very rulers to whom he was in subjection on the natural plane.”

Derek Prince, Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting, (Springdale, PA: Whittaker House,1973)

Mark 2:1-12 NIV

v 5. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “ Son, your sins are forgiven.”

v 10. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…”He said to the paralytic, v11. “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

“It is interesting to note that in John 20:22-23, Jesus breathes upon his disciples to receive the Holy Spirit, and then pronounces, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Jesus is giving the church the authority to announce His forgiveness in the lives of those who come to Him in faith. We do not have the innate ability to forgive anyone’s sins against God, or to withhold God’s forgiveness of sins from anybody. But Jesus has given the church the authority to act as His regents or representatives in the world, and to speak on His behalf. We can declare that “God forgives you” with all the authority of Jesus, because we are not declaring our forgiveness, but rather His forgiveness in Christ. We are merely pronouncing the forgiveness made possible by the sacrifice of Christ.”

Timothy Tennent, President Asbury Theological Seminary

http://blogs.asburyseminary.edu/global-talk/the-temple-is-here-mark-21-12/

His Holiness John Paul II, First Sunday of Lent, “Day of Pardon” Presentation

Vatican Basilica

12 March 2000

I. The meaning of the celebration

1. On 12 March 2000, the First Sunday of Lent, the Holy Father will celebrate the Eucharist with the Cardinals and will ask forgiveness from the Lord for the sins, past and present, of the sons and daughters of the Church.

The celebration of the Day of Pardon was expressly desired by the Holy Father as a powerful sign in this Jubilee Year, which is by its very nature a moment of conversion.

“As the Successor of Peter, I ask that in this year of mercy the Church, strong in the holiness which she receives from her Lord, should kneel before God and implore forgiveness for the past and present sins of her sons and daughters. All have sinned and none can claim righteousness before God (cf. 1 Kgs 8:46)… Christians are invited to acknowledge, before God and before those offended by their actions, the faults which they have committed. Let them do so without seeking anything in return, but strengthened only by the ‘love of God which has been poured finto our hearts’ (Rom 5:5)” (Incarnationis Mysterium, 11; cf. Terno Millennio Adveniente, 33).

2. Consequently, the Church, in a Eucharistic celebration at the beginning of her Lenten journey, and thus in an act of thanksgiving to the Lord, confesses, proclaims and glorifies God’s work within her during the past two thousand years of Christianity. The Lord has been living and present in his Church, and through the Saints he has demonstrated that he continues to be at work in human history, in the midst of his community. Certainly, Christians, as pilgrims and wayfarers towards the Kingdom, remain sinners, frail, weak and subject to the temptations of Satan, the Prince of this world, despite their incorporation into the Body of Christ. In every generation the holiness of the Church has shone forth, witnessed by countless numbers of her sons and daughters; yet this holiness has been contradicted by the continuing presence of sin which burdens the journey of God’s People. The Church can sing both the Magnificat for what God has accomplished within her and the Miserere for the sins of Christians, for which she stands in need of purification, penance and renewal (cf. Lumen Gentium, 8).

3. “The Church cannot cross the threshold of the new millennium without encouraging her children to purify themselves through repentance of past errors and instances of infidelity, inconsistency and slowness to act” (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 33). Consequently, a liturgy seeking pardon from God for the sins committed by Christians down the centuries is not only legitimate; it is also the most fitting means of expressing repentance and gaining purification.

Pope John Paul II, in a primatial act, confesses the sins of Christians over the centuries down to our own time, conscious that the Church is a unique subject in history, “a single mystical person”. The Church is a communion of saints, but a solidarity in sin also exists among all the members of the People of God: the bearers of the Petrine ministry, Bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful.

http://www.catholiclinks.org/sacramentoperdondiadelperdon.htm

Nehemiah 9:33

“In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.” Nehemiah 9:33

20th Century, Civics, ekklesia, Fathers, government, Governors, History, Intercession, Leadership, Minnesota, omnipresent history, Republican, Social Studies

Governor C. Elmer Anderson

Clyde Elmer Anderson, a Republican, is elected the 28th governor of Minnesota and served from September 27, 1951 through January 5, 1955. This calm and assertive executive already had achieved the distinctions of being the youngest lieutenant governor at age 26 serving under governor Harold Stassen in 1938. He went on to win five more terms under three different governors: Stassen, Thye, and Youngdahl in: 1940, 1944, 1946, 1948, and 1950. *

In many ways Anderson typified the upbringing of Minnesotans during this age: born “outstate” in Brainerd, on March 16, 1912, born one of nine children to Swedish immigrants Fred and Anna Anderson. Elmer simultaneously worked on the family farm, held an outside job, and went to high school. He lost his father at age 14, finished high school at 16, and began pre-med studies at the University of Minnesota to become a doctor. Though a solid student, he never finished his studies due to financial constraints. **

Not one given to self pity, the young Mr. Anderson picked himself up by his own bootstraps. He found a job at Service News Incorporated, a “a retail fixture manufacturer, a wholesale magazine and newspaper distributor, and a consulting company.” *** By the age of 22, he owned the company, and had made it profitable.

Perhaps this bedrock solidity of character attracted the attention of candidate Harold Stassen to tap Anderson to become his Lieutenant governor ca. 1938? Though few records can be found to validate as to his own policies in this era, we find him a capable advocate of his governor’s positions. Governor Stassen recollected of him, “He came in kind of unexpectedly, but he stepped in and carried on in a way that had the general approval of the people.” ****

During his tenure in office Governor Anderson promoted technology and the skilled labor industry within the state. Strong local companies such as 3M, Honeywell, Engineering Research Associates, Sperry, and Cray needed incentives to attract brainy talent to his cold state. He undertook the tasks to reform mental healthcare, law enforcement, and penal systems.*

Lastly, Governor C. Elmer Anderson knew how to create a consensus. DFL leaders of this era recall opposing him on policy, yet he never yielded to partisanship. Namely, State Senator Don Samuelson (DFL) sums up nicely saying of Governor C.E. Anderson, “He was extremely well-respected by the Legislature. He was not confrontational. He was not there to pick a political fight with anybody. He was just there to get the job done.” ****

We turn to You, Eternal Father, Authority of Authorities, the Omniscient Head of the Council of Heaven and think how much this man’s type of authority reminds me of Your Son! Especially the last quote, “He was not there to pick a fight with anybody. He was just there to get the job done.” We praise You that You did not seek office, or power, or lands as You lived with us; You were here to get the job done!

C. Elmer Anderson led a life with striking parallels to so many of the heroes of our faith in that he trusted in Your positioning, and seemed content to be second in command. He reminds me of Aaron, who operated as the prophet and spokesman for Moses. He runs with Joshua; the strong right arm of of Moses. His administrative skills bring to mind Joseph, and the wisdom, (informed by Your revelations), he asserted to save Egypt and its neighbors. He is a reflection of Daniel, and the humble submission and service shown those of Nebuchadnezzar’s court. He prompts thoughts of Elisha, and his trusting relationship with Elijah.

Lord, hear our prayer; will You accept such commendations of C. Elmer Anderson? We thank You for his example as the longest serving Lieutenant Governor! We ask that You impart such gifts to our present and future citizens who bear the title of “Second in Command”.

We ponder these examples with You, and wonder “Why is it that Your Word gives us so many examples of “power under”? I recollect this idea presented by my former professor, Dr. Greg Boyd. In his book, “Myth of a Christian Nation” *****, he poses similar questions of You and the ekklesia. Your Bride, the Church, has at times acted out such conflicted examples of authority to our world. Sometimes we assert our legal or political wills in excess of Your Kingdom’s directives. Dr. Boyd called this notion; “power over”. Sometimes, though we are inheritors of Your great authority and revelations, Your Spirit may direct us to take the humbler paths of not asserting rights, authority, or engaging in combative rhetoric. To our world, and even to ourselves, submitting ourselves to Your Spirit can look and feel like a defeat. Yet, it is precisely Christ’s “defeat” at the Cross, along with its pain and humiliations, that enriches and empowers the joy of Your Resurrection!

Again, we thank You for this man’s long path to becoming our 28th Governor. We ask that You stamp the lessons taught through Governor C. Elmer Anderson into the psyche of our State. We hear this message; though a consummate politician, he did not lead by asserting political authority, but by trusting that his authority and positioning from You was enough. A sheriff who is insecure has to twirl his guns. A sheriff who knows he’s in charge: tips his hat, smiles, keeps his guns in his holster, leans back on the post of the boardwalk, and just regulates! Will You make of us, and give to us leadership that does the same? Amen.

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” Ephesians 1:18-21 NIV ******

https://www.nga.org/governor/clyde-elmer-anderson/

** https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w68p8zcr

*** https://servicenewsinc.com

**** Citing Author Unknown, “The Minnesota Daily”, January 23, 1998. St. Paul, MN.https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094845/http://www.mndaily.com/1998/01/23/former-gov-c-elmer-anderson-dead-85

***** Boyd, Greg, “Myth of a Christian Nation”. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Zondervan, 2009.

****** https://biblehub.com/bsb/ephesians/1.htm

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praythroughhistory

Heal the past. Free the present. Bless the future.

Category Archives: omnipresent history