Eric Scott's Blog

I take no credit, and accept no criticism, for reprinting this quote directly from an old newspaper article. It is the straightforward conviction of one of America's greatest presidents on a current divisive issue he was compelled to address over a century ago. The issue, and the resolution of that issue, remain precisely the same over the entire course of our national existence. It's not about building a wall or passing onerous legislation. It's about genuine devotion and allegiance, and the intent of a man's heart.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes and American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated with an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American but something else, is not an American at all. We have room for but one flag... the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room but for one sole loyalty, and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Citizens of the United States are "American". All and everything before and after that is simply an adjective or a modifier. Polish Americans, Black Americans, Mexican Americans, Irish Americans, Native Americans, Gay Americans, married Americans, tall Americans, short Americans, angry Americans, prosperous Americans, homeless Americans, disgruntled Americans, educated Americans, and ignorant or illiterate Americans are all Americans. American farmers, American teachers, American politicians, American home-owners, and American athletes are all Americans.

Texas, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Utah, California and New Jersey are all part of America. England, France, Mexico, Russia, Israel, Brazil, and Pakistan are not. I believe the question Teddy Roosevelt would pose to each of us is very simple and straightforward. "Are you an American... or not?"

Another recent study revealed people who spend more time on social media feel far more isolated and depressed than people who don't. A part of this study I hadn't seen addressed before revealed a correlation between those who prefer to relate on social media and those who prefer to conduct transactions at a kiosk, pick up food at a drive through window, and do their banking online.

As our world becomes more robotic and impersonal, so do we. Our society is becoming increasingly technological, mechanical, and impersonal. And people who engage more in technology are increasingly concerned they don't "fit in" or "belong" in a conventional society. It's as though the switch on their electronic devises now also turns them on... or shuts them down. They only derive a sense of "confidence and health" when they are absorbed in their electronic world, where they come back to life until they are cut off and drained.

Like a charged device, they operate fine for a short time until the glow fades, the dials fail, and anxiety sets in. The study was looking for "electronic addiction". They believe they found it... in irrefutable abundance. And it defies social, generational, and intellectual boundaries. Not everyone who becomes exposed gets infected. And not everyone who gets infected becomes terminally obsessed. But the correlations are there. And they are very pronounced.

In getting diverted by and absorbed in our technological world, it seems normal humans are becoming socially dead. On Sunday as I left church, I paid attention to those who smiled and engaged with each other, and those who didn't seem to enjoy the community interaction. I had to ponder if by getting so diverted and absorbed in our busy secular world, normal humans are becoming spiritually dead. It drew me immediately to pray, and I realized I'm still alive. 

Acts 16:31 indicates a person is saved at the point of faith. Romans 3:28 and 5:1 declare at that precise moment he is justified by faith and given eternal life, as assured in John 3:16. It is a point of formal adoption into the spiritual kingdom whereupon he is made a child of God according to Galatians 3:26 and John 1:12. He is literally transferred from death to life as stated in John 5:24. 

He is totally forgiven according to Acts 10:31, Luke 7:48-50, and other verses. And he is accorded the righteousness of Christ as indicated in Romans 4:35 and Philippians 3:9. Consider the thief on the cross. 

Those who believe a form of ritual baptism is necessary for salvation agree a person must have faith, but they want to add that after faith it is necessary to do something more to be saved. There has always been disagreement over whether salvation is a reflection of what a person is or what he does. The Scripture states in Ephesians 2:8-9 we are saved by faith and not by works.

If a kind person does something unkind is he therefore a cruel person, or rather a kind person who did something cruel? And likewise, if a cruel person does something kind, is he now to be considered a kind person? The Holy Scriptures clearly state that we find merit on the basis of what we are, not what we do.

1st Samuel 16:7 tells us men look on outward appearances, but God sees straight to the heart. Straighten out your heart, and your aspirations and activities will come into line. An evil person can never do enough good things to make him good. And a truly good person avoids bad behavior, senses guilt, shame and disappointment when he falters, and stays attentive to make sure he doesn't suffer the same setback again. Christians call it Growth!

John 20:7 curiously tells us the napkin placed over Jesus's face when he was buried after His crucifixion wasn't just tossed aside like the linen strips He was swaddled in. The Bible clearly states the napkin was neatly folded, and placed apart from the other "grave clothes".

Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene arrived to find the entrance stone of the tomb rolled away. She ran to find the disciples and proclaimed, "They have taken the Lord's body, and no one knows where they put him!" John outran Peter to get there first. He peeked inside and saw the burial garments, but he didn't go in.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He too saw the garments lying there, and the cloth that covered Jesus' head was properly folded and lying to the side. In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew the tradition.

When a servant set the dinner table for his master, he made sure that it was exactly how the master wanted it. After furnishing the table perfectly, the servant would wait just out of sight until his master finished eating. The servant wouldn't touch that table until his master was finished.

When the master finished eating, he would arise, wipe his fingers, his mouth, his beard, then wad up the napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clean up. In those days, the wadded napkin meant, 'I'm done.'

But if the master got up from the table, folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because the folded napkin meant, 'I'm coming back!'

He is Coming Back, my friend! Jesus intends to come back. It is finished. But He's not done yet.

As a Christian biologist it strikes me that somewhere along the evolutionary trail of a valid anatomical/physiological argument, both sides threw the baby out with the bath. 
Because I don't know HOW God opened the Red Sea, or WHERE God opened the Red Sea, or WHEN God opened the Red Sea, or precisely HOW LONG the Red Sea stayed open, should I declare the story of the Red Sea crossing in the Holy Bible is a fallacy and object to the teaching of the Red Sea epoch as it is currently being taught? 
Should credible authoritative bodies of institutional scholars declare there never really was an Egypt, or that the Red Sea clearly must have only begun to flow after six days of the Jews crossing a dry Red Valley?
As a Christian biologist I'll cling to my Bible, my microscope, and my awesome God, and keep exploring what I don't understand, in consideration of viable new ideas, concepts, and discoveries based on science, history, and theology. And I'll continue to shake my head and grin every time extremists on either side of this argument open their silly mouths.

When a man values life more than he fears death, he is willing to die in order to live.

Here is the root of the paradox. A person hemmed in by an enemy, a calamity, or any encroaching object or element of certain doom must act upon genuine conviction. In order to survive, he must convene a strong desire for living with a strange recklessness concerning death. 

He cannot merely cling to life. That would be cowardice. There is almost no likelihood of survival for one hiding from, running from, or refusing to address his certain end.

He must not merely await death. That would be suicidal. Gripped in mortal fear, such a one is paralyzed and good as dead until his unproductive end is sealed.

He must seek his life in furious indifference to it. He must live with abandon and attack his fate like a valiant soldier. He must desire life like water, and drink death like wine. He who would gain his life, must lay it down.

Knowing the only way to sustain my life is by passing through death to reach the source of life, I gladly take up my sword and shield and abandon my place in this world to charge into the pit of Hell and do battle until I reach the arms of my savior, trusting he alone is willing and able to preserve my life or resurrect it. Greater love has no man than this; that he would give up his own life for his brother. Christ is my brother... and I am his.

I can't say how many times I've heard people say they believe all roads lead to God, or there are many ways to get into Heaven, or all religions pray to the same supreme being. Or, as Oprah Winfrey likes to say, all paths converge on the same mountaintop. Really?

One religion beckons me to shed my identity and become one with the universe. Another has me coming back as a cow, a crow, a grasshopper, or a rabbit until I work my way back and master being a proper human. If I return as a lion, must I be a kind vegetarian lion? If I am a snake, must I courteously live off some careless human's road kill? I wonder if I ever get a shot at being a vibrant plant or a victorious virus. How about a religion that has me sacrifice infants to gain confidence before I attack a village to plunder it?

So, then, do I need to exclude "some" religions and limit my preferred practice to one that's lofty, kind and gentle; that caters to my more noble aspirations and enhances my emotional stability and personal comfort? If I find a state of zin in my living room, will I be in Heaven? If I hear an echo to my hum, will I be hearing the voice of God?

If we're putting religions on a list, Christianity is actually only a good option if it is the only option. You'd have to be stupid to choose it. To get to the pinnacle Christianity promotes you have to confess you are an abomination. You must admit you are the sole reason a truly innocent person who deserved to go on living had to die at the peak of his young life. You have to surrender your hopes and dreams and give the rest of your days in pursuit of his aspiration for an unappreciative, degenerate, undeserving world around you.

To choose Christianity is to die to yourself to live for another, guided by a Spirit you can't see according to a plan you can't master contained in a book you can't authenticate from a source you can't confirm. And the first step is laying aside all other options!

I remember sitting with my great grandfather, James Willis Hinson, and listening intently to his stories when I was a young boy. Grampa Hinson was born in Franklin County, Tennessee in 1863 at the height of the American Civil War. Like me, he was an infant when his father was drawn into combat. Thankfully, he wrote a personal memoir when he was in his nineties, which my Aunt Estellee promptly edited and self-published as a small book entitled "From the Summit of My Years" for distribution to family members across the United States.

His father, my great great grandfather William Jackson Hinson, joined up with the Army of the Confederacy at the age of nineteen and fought against his older brothers, Leroy and Merrill, who fought for the Federalists. Poor sharecroppers who never owned a slave and didn't know any, they laid their lives on the line over principles of governing, like their free darker skinned sharecropper neighbors.

Although he subscribed to the notion free people need to be governed by a common understanding, ruled by a fair and just authority, and protected by a shared volunteer militia, Grampa rejected substantial taxation, saying, "No government can give anything to anyone without first taking it from someone else. What one person gets without working for, someone else has to work for without enjoying. When somebody gets the idea they don't have to work because someone else is going to provide for them, and those who are working realize what they are working for is being taken to give to someone else, expect a fight."

Having no government creates a breeding ground for eventual anarchy and chaos. A little government is vital to the stable prosperity, security, and well-being of free people. Too much government creates a breeding ground for eventual anarchy and chaos.

An aging woman set her Bible aside and bowed her head. "Lord, I know I've failed you," she conceded right up front. "You must be terribly disappointed in me." Her eyes moistened.

"I see all these people around me who have accomplished so much and made good use of the talents you gave them. I have nothing to show for the years you have given me." A tear began to form. "I have read my Bible, said my prayers, and done... nothing of consequence." Tears started to flow.

She sat in silence, and began to listen. A voice, not quite audible, or was it, comforted her. "You raised three children who are faithful in marriage and, bucking the tide, take their kids to church every weekend. You encouraged your husband when he lost his job, and nursed him after a debilitating stroke.

"You've welcomed dozens of neighbors with a meal and smile when they moved into your declining neighborhood, only to leave when they could afford better. You helped a blind man cross the street. You paid for a young couple's meal without prompting when you saw it was their anniversary. You gave your umbrella away to a stranger standing in the rain. You even rescued a frightened dog trapped on the highway in the midst of traffic.

"My child, your problem is that you're equating who you are with what you've accomplished. Achievements don't impress me. I invested my heart in you, and you have nurtured it and allowed it to grow. You've shared my heart with others on my behalf. What you did came out of who you are. Rest assured, I am very pleased." An aging woman picked up her Bible and bowed her head. And sobbed herself to sleep.

The Lord sees not as a man sees. For men look upon outward appearance. But God looks straight to the heart. (1Sam16:7)

Anti-depressant drugs are commonplace in America, and still you see people moping around, anxious and forlorn. A friend recently ticked off a measure of how a person is faring according to a very insightful list. You can bet you're doing okay if you can answer "yes" to each of the following:

Are you breathing?

Do you have clean water?

Did you eat today?

Do you have clean clothes?

Do you have a roof overhead?

Do you have a good heart?

Are you striving to be better?

Does someone care for you?

Do you care about others?

Do you have a dream?

It has been said, a normal person can last only 3 seconds without air, 3 days without water, and 30 days without food. But you won't last 3 minutes without hope! For lack of a vision, people perish. (Proverbs 29:18)