Grandma, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench. She didn't move, just sat with her head down staring at her hands. When I sat down beside her she didn't acknowledge my presence and the longer I sat I wondered if she was OK. Finally, not really wanting disturb her but wanting to check on her at the same time, I asked her if she was OK. She raised her head and looked at me and smiled "Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking," she said in a clear strong voice. "I didn't mean to disturb you, grandma, but you were just sitting here staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK," I explained to her. "Have you ever looked at your hands," she asked. "I mean really looked at your hands?" I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them. I turned them over, palms up and then palms down. No, I guess I had never really looked at my hands as I tried to figure out the point she was making.
Grandma smiled and related this story: "Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have, how they have served you well throughout your years. These hands, though wrinkled, shriveled and weak have been the tools I have used all my life to reach out and grab and embrace life. They braced and caught my fall when as a toddler I crashed upon the floor. They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back. As a child my mother taught me to fold them in prayer. They tied my shoes and pulled on my boots. They held my husband and wiped my tears when he went off to war. They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent. They were uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn son. Decorated with my wedding band they showed the world that I was married and loved someone special. They wrote my letters to him and trembled and shook when I buried my parents and spouse. They have held my children and grandchildren, consoled neighbors, and shook in fists of anger when I didn't understand. They have covered my face, combed my hair, and washed and cleansed the rest of my body. They have been sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw. And to this day when not much of anything else of me works real well these hands hold me up, lay me down, and again continue to fold in prayer. These hands are the mark of where I've been and the ruggedness of life. But more importantly it will be these hands that God will reach out and take when he leads me home. And with my hands He will lift me to His side and there I will use these hands to touch the face of Christ."
I will never look at my hands the same again.
But I remember God reached out and took my grandma's hands and led her home. When my hands are hurt or sore or when I stroke the face of my children and husband I think of grandma. I know she has been stroked and caressed and held by the hands of God. I, too, want to touch the face of God and feel His hands upon my face.
When you receive this, say a prayer for the person who sent it to you and watch God's answer to prayer work in your life. Let's continue praying for one another.
Passing this on to anyone you consider a friend will bless you both. Passing this on to one not yet considered a friend is something Christ would do.
True Freedom Behind Bars The Battle over Religion in Prison
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
Do you notice a trend here? The Freedom from Religion Foundation sues the Federal Bureau of Prisons over their attempt to establish faith-based programs. That same group is suing the state of New Mexico and the Corrections Corporation of America to halt a faith-based prison program there. And as I've told you on BreakPoint, Barry Lynn and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have sued Prison Fellowship, the state of Iowa, and the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) for operating a faith-based program in Iowa.
It's hardly a coincidence that these lawsuits are popping up at a time when faith-based programs have received the support of President Bush. But this assault on faith-based programming goes beyond politics. It's a religious battle being waged by groups whose religion really is no religion. Our nation's prisons are merely the newest theater of operations in the campaign to scrub every influence of religion from American public life.
But there's something else at stake when it comes to removing religion from prisons, and it's critical: public safety. Each year, more than 600,000 inmates in the U.S. are released from prison. Within three years, two-thirds of them will be rearrested for new crimes involving new victims. As the recent report of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons found, the key to reducing recidivism, enhancing security within the prisons, and protecting the public is comprehensive rehabilitative programming.
And that's exactly what the faith-based IFI Initiative offers. An independent study by the University of Pennsylvania has confirmed it. It shows that graduates of IFI's program in Texas were far less likely to return to prison within two years than inmates who did not graduate from IFI. So it's especially disturbing that a federal judge in Iowa would order the program shut down.
If states are prohibited from working with faith-based organizations to reduce recidivism, where are cash-strapped correctional officials going to turn for help? Consider IFI's post-release programming. The judge in Iowa himself admitted that "no other [Iowa] Department of Corrections therapeutic community treatment program comes close to offering the focused, extensive aftercare programming available to inmates in InnerChange."
That's why correctional officials across the U.S. want IFI. Not for its religious content, but for its success in helping the state to reduce recidivism and protect the public. The judge in Iowa acknowledged that correctional officials simply can't afford to replicate a program like IFI.
By removing faith-based programs from prisons, we're tying the hands of corrections officials and hurting the public. But more than that, we are punishing prisoners who, maybe for the first time, want to change their life, or have hope that they can leave prison and stay crime-free. That's a hope that Chuck Colson and I have seen in the eyes of thousands of prisoners across this country.
Prison Fellowship and IFI are appealing the judge's ruling to shut down IFI. And BreakPoint will keep you informed about the progress of the case, because the battle over faith in our prisons is one America can't afford to lose. It's about faith and public safety.
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The Jesus Film team say, "When God provides a tool of technology, we should use it! Certainly, Satan will. So, why shouldn't the Church grasp this new tool - especially when we can use it to reach our families and friends?
That's why we are now making "JESUS" available through podcasting. By downloading "JESUS" to portable electronic devices, like video iPods®, anyone with access to the Internet can experience the power of "JESUS" anywhere they go.
It's also the perfect way to reach teens you know who are glued to their iPods! And, they can view or listen to "JESUS" (currently available in segments for podcasting) with one of the popular music/video software programs at no cost." http://www.jesusfilm.org/podcasting/02.html
America Should Be Ashamed of SHAM Albert Mohler Steve Salerno is a reporter with wide experience. As a freelance feature writer, Salerno has written for magazines including Harper's, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and many others. He has contributed articles to the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Many of his articles have focused upon "money stories," that deal with financial scandals and controversies in the business world. Now, he is ready to report on the biggest scandal he has ever encountered--America's self-help movement.
Salerno writes: "In twenty-four years as a business writer and an investigative journalist, I have covered all kinds of 'money stories.' I have written about boondoggles on bankers' row and sleight of hand at Seventh Avenue fashion houses. I've written about the gyrations of the stock market as well as the myriad forces that surround, yet never quite explain, investing itself. I've written about money as it relates to sales, money as it relates to sports, money as it relates to music, money as it relates to love. It's safe to say that if it involves money, combined with some form of human aspiration, I've probably written about it."
Nevertheless, Salerno's experience in reporting still left him amazed when he confronted an industry whose story "represents the ultimate marriage of money and aspiration." That story is the rise and dominance of what he calls the "Self-Help and Actualization Movement"--identified in his book by the acronym SHAM.
America's SHAM empire includes an army of therapists, authors, motivational speakers and "corporate coaches," all ready to offer help, encouragement, motivation, correction, and assurance--for a price.
Salerno knows big money when he sees it. The SHAM industry is big business. Self-help books are never far from the best-seller list, and the products, conferences, and services of self-help gurus come at considerable cost. The top speakers earn more than ten million dollars per year, and the self-help sector of the economy is growing by leaps and bounds.
There's a good reason for that, Salerno explains. Self-help business is repeat business. The self-help industry would go out of business if its books and products actually solved the problems--real or perceived--that led customers to buy the products in the first place.
Of course, comedians are quick to jump on the oxymoron that lies at the very heart of the industry. If people could genuinely help themselves, they wouldn't need the self-help movement. As comedian George Carlin has quipped: "If you're reading it in a book, folks, it ain't self-help. It's help."
No matter what it is called, the self-help movement is big business and a growth industry. Last year, Publishers Weekly reported, "Self-help books are a Teflon category for many booksellers. No matter the economy or current events, the demand is constant."
The repeat business is often no accident. Salerno served for some time as editor of the books program associated with the magazine, Men's Health. Part of the giant Rodale publishing empire, Men's Health offered a book service directed towards male customers. The company conducted surveys in order to identify "the customers' worst fears and chronic problems," which then became fodder for future books and products. The secret behind the program's success was, Salerno reports, the fact that many customers could be enticed to buy yet more books on self-help within eighteen months.
Depending on how one defines the category, publishers release thousands of new self-help books each year. Some of these books make their way to the very top of the best-seller list--and stay there for months or years. But the market for self-help books and products is not limited to mainstream bookstores. Salerno reports that such products are staples of the more than 5000 New Age bookstores now found in the United States. In reality, much of the energy behind the New Age phenomenon has now been refocused into SHAM with New Age consultants and coaches now ready to talk about profits and marketshare rather than meditation and channeling.
Salerno acknowledges that the self-help tradition has a long pedigree in the United States. After all, Benjamin Franklin wrote what may be identified as America's first self-help book, Poor Richard's Almanack. But the real rise of the self-help industry, at least in publishing, can be traced to 1937 with the publication of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People and Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. Thirty years later, Thomas A. Harris redefined the industry with his best-seller, I'm OK-You're OK, which revolutionized the genre.
Once again, a book's title was the reverse of its content. As Salerno understands, Harris "explicitly posited that the average person is damaged early in childhood and walks around thereafter in a paranoid, self-pitying state." His book supposedly offered a way out of that state of victimization.
In reality, victimization has become a major theme of the entire industry. Salerno suggests that the SHAM industry is divided into two camps. The first is Empowerment and the second is Victimization. He explains: "Victimization and Empowerment represent the yin and yang of the self-help movement. It is likely that this schism will always exist, no matter which guru or message becomes the flavor of the day."
The focus on victimization allows Americans to blame other persons--or impersonal forces--for their problems. Salerno sees Alcoholics Anonymous [AA] as the "template" for the victimization worldview. Human problems are translated into the vocabulary and categories of victimization so that persons can speak of overcoming what has been done to them, what has happened to them, or those who have afflicted them.
The truth is that virtually everyone can find someone to blame. In her spoof of the self-help movement, I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional, skeptic Wendy Kaminer asserted that the victimizers are usually close at hand: "Grandfather was an alcoholic, mother is a compulsive rescuer, Uncle Murray weighs 270 pounds. Father is a sex addict, your sister is anorexic,"--and the beat goes on.
There is simply no way to get around the fact that the self-help movement is more focused on the self than on help. Americans are evidently quite ready to focus on themselves as an ongoing project and to buy, read, and accept arguments that place blame far outside our own responsibility.
Problems are redefined in terms of therapeutic categories. Individuals are described as dysfunctional, and those who deny this diagnosis are charged with being in denial.
Salerno identifies "five overlapping messages" of the Recovery movement--one of the central streams in the self-help river. These messages include: 1. You're damaged goods. 2. Good is bad. 3. It's all about you. 4. All suffering is created equal. And 5. It's not your fault. Together, these five messages explain everything from the nation's current focus on addiction and a general proclivity to self-centeredness, to the moral evasions of President Bill Clinton and the executives caught in recent business scandals.
Beyond this, Salerno detects a significant cultural damage. Children are raised in an increasingly therapeutic culture in which, as children, they are taught to take responsibility for their actions, but as they become adults are told to blame someone or something else. Salerno also suggests that the impact of SHAM is leading to something like the feminization of society. He accurately notes that most of the central categories of the self-help movement are essentially feminine. Perceptively, he notes that many of these categories are now being sold to men under the category of "corporate coaching." As management theorist Warren Bennis has observed, men will accept this therapeutic advice so long as it is packaged as "coaching."
Steve Salerno is hardly the first to criticize the self-help movement, nor will he be the last. Nevertheless, his unique perspective as an investigative journalist offers a perspective that other authors may miss. Salerno suggests that the self-help movement is making America helpless. Christians will understand that the problem is far worse than that. Indeed, the self-help movement represents a false gospel that offers an unreal hope of redemption. The very category of "self-help" represents a repudiation of the Christian message--that God in Christ has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. But then, the entire biblical worldview of sin is missing from the self-help worldview. The greatest threat of the self-help movement is that it will leave Americans not merely helpless, but hopelessly lost.
At the turn of the century, a prominent Christian led a movement to transform American culture. He stood up for the weak and downtrodden. He pointed out the connection between Darwinism and the nastier parts of American life. And, for his trouble, he was labeled a "fanatic" and a "demagogue."
The "turn of the century" I'm referring to is the year 1900, and the Christian is William Jennings Bryan.
Bryan, whom the Christian Science Monitor called "a forgotten hero," is the subject of a new biography titled A Godly Hero. Its author, Georgetown professor Michael Kazin, wrote the book "to gain a measure of respect for Bryan and his people."
Given Bryan's impact on American history, this shouldn't be necessary. He was a three-time Democratic nominee for president, and he was Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State. And these were just his official duties.
Unofficially, he was regarded as the greatest orator of his age—an age when people went out of their way to hear two-hour speeches, at least the good ones. And Bryan's were spellbinders. His "Cross of Gold" speech at the 1896 Democratic convention is widely regarded as the most electrifying political speech in American history.
Bryan's oratory and Christian passion made him a hero to millions of ordinary Americans, many of whom named their children after him. He articulated their concerns in unapologetically biblical and moral language.
He championed reforms that we take for granted today: women's suffrage, labor unions, and anti-trust, to name but a few. He transformed the Democratic party from a "bulwark of laissez-faire capitalism" into the party of the "little guy."
Yet, he is a "forgotten hero." Why? Mostly it's because of his association with the "Scopes Monkey Trial." His participation on the anti-evolution side gave critics like H. L. Mencken, who already hated him, a chance to caricature Bryan and "his people."
This caricature was then immortalized by the play and movie, Inherit the Wind. If Americans are aware of Bryan at all, their image is of a Bible-thumping blowhard whose positions couldn't withstand scrutiny.
As I've told you before, Inherit the Wind is a Darwinist distortion, especially in its depiction of Bryan. Bryan wasn't opposed to the teaching of evolution. His concern was for the cultural consequences of Darwinism like "Social Darwinism" and eugenics. As he put it, "[science] can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to prevent the misuse of the machine."
As Kazin tells us, Bryan "burned only and always to see religion heal the world." If that sounds familiar, it should—it's the vision that drives many Christians today. While our critics caricature us as being concerned with only one thing—sex—the truth is very different. Much of America's humanitarian efforts in places like Sudan and North Korea are the product of the kind of passion Bryan expressed among evangelicals of his day. If Bryan were around today, he'd be a great social conservative Christian and/or political leader. Like Bryan, the Great Communicator and Populist, our goal today is to heal, not dominate. But like him, we are often caricatured for our troubles.
Let's hope it doesn't take a century for our efforts to gain a "measure of respect," as well.
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~ A child's greatest period of growth is the month after you've purchased new school clothes. ~ A company held a contest for kids with the theme: "The nicest thing My Father Ever Did For Me." One kid answered "He married my mother." ~ A doctor has a stethoscope up to a man's chest. The man asks, "Doc, how do I stand?" The doctor says, "That's what puzzles me!" ~ A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well. ~ A laugh is a smile that bursts. ~ A mother can touch a whole generation just by loving her own child well. ~ A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory. ~ A prayer before you eat may be a reflection on the food. ~ All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism. ~ Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it! ~ Bob to X-ray technician after swallowing some money: "Do you see any change in me?" ~ Can girls go on a BOYcott? ~ Can vegetarians eat animal crackers? ~ Can't sleep? Try counting your blessings. ~ Character is what you are. Reputation is what people think you are. ~ Children are natural mimics - they act like us in spite of all our attempts to teach them good manners. ~ Christians are like tea; their strength is drawn out by hot water. ~ Consciousness: That annoying time between naps. ~ DIAPER spelled backward is REPAID. Think about it... ~ Do not believe in miracles...rely on them. ~ Don't point a finger; hold out a hand. ~ Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. ~ Everyone says I have ADD but they just don't under...is that a chicken? ~ Gas prices are so high that when a woman pulled into a gas station and asked for 2 dollars worth, the attendant dabbed some behind her ears. ~ Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. ~ Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. ~ How come it takes a properly prepared, primed surface for paint to stick to a wall, but if a drop lands on the floor, it's there for life? ~ How do they get deer to cross the road only at those yellow road signs? ~ I figured out why they call our language the "Mother Tongue." Fathers never get a chance to use much of it. ~ I started early teaching my kids the value of a dollar. From then on, they demanded their allowances in gold. ~ I went to the bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose. ~ If a minister runs out of bread during communion, is he having an out-of-the-Body experience? ~ If evolution is true, why do mothers still only have one pair of hands? ~ If mother always knows best, what happens when two mothers disagree? ~ If nothing sticks to Teflon, how do they stick Teflon to the pan? ~ If only I could be respected without having to be respectable. ~ If only you used your powers for good instead of evil. ~ If peanut butter cookies are made from peanut butter, then what are Girl Scout cookies made of? ~ If psychics know the winning lottery numbers, why are they still working? ~ If the going gets easy, you may be going downhill. ~ If the professor on "Gilligan's Island" can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat? ~ If the singular of GEESE is GOOSE, shouldn't a Portuguese person be called a Portugoose? ~ If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil? ~ If tin whistles are made out of tin, what do they make fog horns out of? ~ If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat? ~ If we quit voting, will they all go away? ~ If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it. ~ If you can laugh at it, then you can live with it. ~ If you can lead it to water and force it drink, it isn't a horse. ~ If you can remain calm, you just don't have all the facts. ~ If you can stay calm, while all around you is chaos, then you probably haven't completely understood the seriousness of the situation. ~ If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague. ~ If you don't care where you're going, any road will get you there. ~ If you don't know where you're going, you're never lost. ~ If you get cheated by the Better Business Bureau, who do you complain to? ~ If you got into a taxi and the driver started driving backward, would the taxi driver end up owing you money? ~ If you have 23 odds and ends on a table, and 22 of them fall off, what do you have left? An odd or an end? ~ If you must cry over spilled milk then please try to condense it. ~ If you really want to do something, you'll find a way; if you don't, you'll find an excuse. ~ If you run out of sick days, call in dead. ~ If you think about it, Adam had more trouble than any of the rest of us buying his Father a gift for Father's Day. I mean, what do you get somebody who's Everything? ~ If you tied buttered toast to the back of a cat and dropped it, what would happen? ~ If you want your dreams to come true, don't oversleep. ~ I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing. ~ I'm out of bed and dressed. What more do you want? ~ I'm so poor, I can't even pay attention! ~ I'm taking Lamaze classes. I'm not having a baby; I'm just having trouble breathing. ~ In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal. ~ Income Tax: Capital punishment. ~ IRS: We've got what it takes to take what you've got. ~ Is that a mirage I see, or are my eyes deceiving me? ~ It IS as bad as you think, and they ARE out to get you. ~ It is bad to suppress laughter; it goes back down and spreads to your hips. ~ It is preferential to refrain from the utilization of grandiose verbiage in the circumstance that your intellectualization can be expressed using comparatively simplistic lexicological entities. ~ It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try and pass them. ~ It takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown, and fewer still to ignore someone completely. ~ It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats. ~ It's a small world. So you gotta use your elbows a lot. ~ It's bad luck to be superstitious. ~ It's been Monday all week. ~ It's good to have self-confidence. It's just nice to have a reason for it. ~ It's never too late to have a happy childhood. ~ It's not an empty nest until they get their stuff out of the attic. ~ It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end. ~ Just because you're smart does not mean that the other guy is stupid. ~ Keep the faith...but not from others. ~ Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself. ~ Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges, but eventually you find a hair stylist you like. ~ Light bulb's love declaration: I love you a whole watt! ~ Love is like a roller coaster: When it's good you don't want to get off; and when it isn't, you can't wait to throw up. ~ Make friends before you need them. ~ Middle age develops increased patience...it promotes significant wait gain. ~ Minds are like parachutes - they function only when open. ~ My inferiority complex is not as good as yours. ~ My life has a superb cast, but I can't figure out the plot. ~ My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely. ~ My mom was a child of the 60's, but was a goody two shoes. She has antacid flashbacks. ~ My reality check bounced. ~ My software never has bugs. It just develops random features. ~ Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. ~ New year's resolutions: They go in one year and out the other ~ On your birthday, send a thank you card to your mom. ~ One time my kids wanted to surprise me with a good breakfast in bed on Father's Day. They put a cot in the kitchen. ~ Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it. ~ Say what you will about healthy eating and all, but I've always found it awfully difficult to explain to my son (who's 6'4" to my 6' in height), why junk food is bad for you. ~ Skunks celebrate Valentine's Day because they are very scent-imental! ~ Stop global whining. ~ The colder the X-ray table, the more of your body is required on it. ~ The doctor called Mrs. Johnson saying, "Mrs. Johnson, your check came back." Mrs. Johnson answered, "So did my arthritis!" ~ The doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn't pay his bill, so the doctor gave him another six months. ~ The geek shall inherit the earth. ~ The grass may be greener on the other side, but that's because there is a lot more manure. ~ The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire. ~ The most difficult light bulb to replace burns out first and most frequently. ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. ~ The pigs give boxes of candies to their girlfriends on Valenswine's Day! ~ The Valentine's gift of the farmer to his wife - Hog and kisses! ~ The Valentine's gift of the French chef to his wife - Hug and a Quiche! ~ There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year. ~ There is more to life than increasing its speed. ~ There is no problem a good miracle can't solve. ~ We all get heavier as we get older because there's a lot more information in our heads. So I'm not fat, I'm just really intelligent and my head couldn't hold any more so it started filling up the rest of me. ~ We child-proofed our home 3 years ago but they're still getting in ~ What do you get the man who has everything? Penicillin. ~ What was the best thing before sliced bread? ~ When people complain that they don't get what they deserve, they don't know how fortunate they are. ~ Where I go, there's "I Am" ~ Where there is no wonder there is no worship. ~ Who are these kids and why are they calling me Mom? ~ Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents? ~ You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving ~ Your child needs your love the most when they deserve it the least. ~ Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.