Late Summer Musings …

                                Late Summer Musings …

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 8/26/18

            About our Catholic friends. No, the Catholic Church is not down and out because of the recent accounts about priests, bishops, archbishops and cardinals who have allegedly committed dreadful sins.  Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, a devout Catholic and a conservative commentator, and Mark Thiessen, former speech writer for President George W. Bush, are being too dire in regard to what the sexual abuse scandal is doing to the church at large.  They foresee a weakened church.

  What percentage of Catholic priests do you suppose has engaged in sexual misconduct?  What percentage of the Cardinals has overlooked it?  I believe I could guarantee that the percentage of misbehaving protestant pastors is much higher, yet nobody is declaring that Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. are finished.

            In the seven Baptist churches of which I have been a member, three of the pastors are strong, faithful men who finished well and are in heaven.  Four are still serving God and practicing what they preach.  I’ve no doubt that they too will finish well. Protestant ministers, because of sexual sins, have been falling like flies all of my life.  This says nothing about the seven pastors I’ve had, and others I know from other denominations.  It is, however, a serious reminder of how ministers and everybody else had better guard their hearts.

             Catholics and I disagree on many things, but not on the deity of Christ.  I bristle at how the media are pointing their fingers at Catholics.  Catholics have been at the front of the pro-life movement.  Like evangelicals, they build schools, hospitals, orphanages, and prison ministries.  They are the largest religious group in America.  Expect the media to beat up on them for another three weeks or so until something else negative pops up.

            About the Governor’s race.  Knowing Brian Kemp, I suspect his campaign handlers had to persuade him to do those television gun commercials, not because of the gun or the message, but because he knows the whole thing was hokey politicking.  Kemp’s not into hokey, contrived things.  He’s a slow talking, serious guy who thinks before he speaks and prefers straightforward communication.  But hokey sometimes wins the day and did in the Republican primary as it did when Sonny Purdue’s campaign dubbed Governor Roy Barnes “King Roy,” the giant rat. Watch, though, as the former state senator and secretary of state sets forth his vision for the state in the next two months.  It will not be hokey.

            Knowing Stacey Abrams, I still say Mr. Kemp needs to be at his best.  The nice, well spoken Ms. Abrams can formulate and deliver a clear, unambiguous compound sentence before a debate opponent can clear his throat.  Never has there been a better display of red versus blue than in this race, but never has there been a larger band of purple that can be swayed either way.  Yes, in Georgia.  Remember that Cobb County, Newt country, went for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

            Probably never before have the philosophical lines been more clearly drawn than in this race.  Abrams is an unapologetic Clintonista; Kemp, an equally unapologetic Trumpster.  This race is George Orwell’s Big Brother versus Calvin Coolidge’s limited government.  It is socialism versus federalism.  If, during debates, there is any degree of backing away from the candidate’s base in order to woo purple voters, it will be Abrams who does so.  Kemp will not budge.

            About the President and the media.  I’m sorry, but President Trump’s fighting back with the media is doing my heart good.  Anyone old enough to look back and survey the media’s recent history knows that Presidents Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama were the media’s darlings, all Democrats.  Not so with Democrats Johnson and Carter.  Hmmm, was Johnson too much barbeque and Carter too much peanuts?  Probably.  But Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes, all Republicans, were nipped at constantly by the networks and the nation’s largest newspapers.  

            Except for sending out his vice-president to label the media “nattering nabobs of negativism,” Nixon did little other than fume.  Reagan resisted, successfully, with his humor.  The Bushes, gentlemen both, endured it.  But Trump isn’t willing to take it.  Little wonder.  Nipping has been turned into resistance and outright attack, with such verbal lobs as “treasonous,” “mentally disabled,”  “traitorous,” “racist,” and much more.

            The media has hidden behind the 1^st Amendment long enough.  “Free press” doesn’t mean that the press cannot be criticized.  Objective journalism and commentary have turned into carping.  May the President’s bold response to it continue.

Roger Hines

8/21/18      

           

Postmodernism and What Lies Beyond It

                     Postmodernism and What Lies Beyond It

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 8/19/18

            If the ancient Greeks were man thinking and the Romans were man doing, then we Americans are far more Roman than Greek.  A frontier people, we started out by clearing a path and using the wood to build minimal shelters.  The name of the game wasn’t “What is man?” or “What is truth?”  It was “Where shall we find our supper?”

            But Americans are Greek as well.  We’re capable of questioning and pursuing thought about non-material things.  Freedom and representative democracy are non-material concepts and we prize them highly.  Let us embrace, then, the term “Greco-Roman” and acknowledge that both of those ancient traditions have not simply influenced, but shaped us. 

            Also participant in our formation and in the continuance of what we call American values, the Judeo-Christian ethic has landed more deeply into the American psyche than has all the thought of Greece and Rome combined.  If the foundational American ethic didn’t come from Moses and Jesus, from whom did it come? 

The Roman in us doesn’t care much for philosophy.  It wants to get outside and build something.  But the Greek in us does, and the Greeks were right: all that we think and say has philosophical underpinnings.    

            One of the most puzzling and depressing philosophical terms used today is the term “postmodernism.”  Ever wondered what happened to church steeples or why school buildings are so flat and lacking in personality?  Why our dress no longer bespeaks respect or pride?  Why self-esteem replaced self-denial?  Philosophy did it.  Philosophy precedes and surrounds everything we adopt or do.  Current beliefs and the practices that flow from them and influence politics, education, religion and even architecture can no longer be called modern.  They are postmodern.  The modern 20^th century, America’s century, is gone.

            According to most historians, the early modern world began with the Industrial Revolution.  Machines and automation changed us, but not our basic beliefs about God and man.  Fast cars, fast living, and television didn’t diminish faith. Not until the late 20^th century, that is.  So different is our nation from 1960 that a new label is necessary.  That label is postmodernism.

            At the heart of postmodernism lie abandonment, deconstruction, and death: abandonment of stability and social structures such as the nuclear family and deconstruction of definitions such as those of truth, marriage, and even gender.  In churches we’ve seen the death of icons.  Who needs to see crosses anymore?  Give us drums.  In schools, joy is absent.  Success is shown by data.  All things are measurable.  Test those kids!  Forget the joy.  In architecture, it’s functionality only and the absence of ornament.  Give us stark, angular buildings and outrageous design.

            Our literature is postmodern as well. It has turned inward and introspective.  If Ernest Hemingway’s characters were troubled, at least they were trying to figure the world out.  Contemporary, postmodern authors and movie makers present characters who are beyond redemption and hope.  Instead of heroes, we’re given anti-heroes. 

            In postmodernism, everything is relative.  All things are based on perception.  Instead of truth, it’s “my truth” and “your truth.”  Instead of male and female, it’s “whatever gender you identify with.”  (I learned this personally by visiting the local Target store to ask about their bathroom use policy.)  The question is no longer “Where does the truth lie?”  It’s “How do you feel?”

As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Abolition of Man, “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.”   Enthroning multiculturalism, we are deserting faith in ideas, values, and norms of our own Western culture, that is, Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian culture.  Instead of progressing toward once universal goals such as justice, knowledge, and freedom, we now advance “inclusion,” arguing that all ideas are created equal.

Even the word “media” has fallen to postmodernism.  It actually means “between us,” implying the objective connecting of the public to something else.  The media itself is now the something else.  CNN doesn’t give the news.  Its reporters and commentators are the news.

Christopher Butler of Oxford University believes postmodernism is dying.  Men without chests can simply grow tired and weary, longing once again for an age that had a spiritual element and meaning.  We should hope Butler is right.  America’s half-century of postmodernism has produced more suicides than any other period on record.

Man can stand the loss of almost anything except the loss of meaning.  Perhaps beyond postmodernism lies hope and beauty that all of us are still capable of recognizing and desiring.

            Just some thoughts.  With our kids and grandkids in mind.

Roger Hines

8/14/18

Georgia Republicans, Beware

                         Georgia Republicans, Beware

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 8/12/18                                  

Ten springs ago writer Selena Montgomery came to my English class at Chattahoochee Technical College to talk about writing.  Her visit was a rousing success for herself and the class as well.   

            Montgomery and I had met in Atlanta just months before at the state Capitol.  We learned that we had similar backgrounds and interests.  She was a writer, a lawyer, and a state representative.  I was a former state representative and a teacher, though at the time, I was working for the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives.

            It would be inaccurate to say we had become close friends.  Our conversations were actually rare, though generally lengthy.  Of different races, we grew to respect each other even though we realized right away that we were on different sides of the political fence, in name and in philosophy.  Montgomery was a Democrat; I was a Republican.  I had been educated in Mississippi.  She, too, grew up in Mississippi and went on to obtain her law degree from Yale Law School.

            Standing before my English Composition class, this lady was spellbinding.  She said something; she paused.  She looked around; she then landed her eyes on the students right beneath her speaker’s stand.  She was an intense listener.  She was winsome.  I sensed that her outstanding communication skills were natural gifts.  The ease and authority with which she spoke were not practiced.

            As is the case in many technical colleges, the age difference among the students in the college freshman class was vast.  The majority of the class were 18 and 19, but a good third of the students were in their late twenties and thirties.  The two oldest class members were in their 50s.  Ms. Montgomery acknowledged this age difference as she spoke about the art of writing, adeptly asking questions and using illustrations that applied to younger adults and then to the older ones.

            “We talk more than we write,” she asserted, “but learning to write well will definitely heighten your thinking and your spoken English.  Think about that the next time you’re having an interview, trying to get a date, or trying to get your kids to move closer to you so that you can see the grandkids more often.”

            Having already taught English for 42 years, I watched and listened with amazement as this young woman skillfully stated what she had to say. I was learning from her.  I was also very pleased with myself for having invited her to the class.

            At the Capitol on the House Floor, Montgomery was known as Stacey Abrams.  Already an author, using the pen name Selena Montgomery, Abrams rose fast in the Georgia House. Eventually, she became House Minority Leader.  Her speeches in the House were as lucid as her stellar teaching in my classroom.  She is now the Democratic nominee for Governor.

            Lately, media pundits have been claiming that Americans are divided because they are “defined by their ideology.”  But how can we not be so defined?  Why should we not be?  If ideology is one’s set of beliefs, what else best “defines” us?

            Perhaps the pundits need Ms. Abrams to help them with better word choices.  As most people are (pundits as well), Abrams is guided by a set of beliefs.  Maybe the pundits are trying to say we are not respectful of those whose ideology is different from our own.

            Ms. Abrams’ ideology is clear. It is, I believe, the reason she will not be elected Governor.  She has vowed to protect abortion rights and has received recognition from Planned Parenthood.  She supports “marriage equality” and expansion of gun regulation.  She believes in ending the death penalty.  She has opposed both religious liberty legislation and the strengthening of voter ID laws.  Already she is the darling of progressives across the country.

            As talented and sincere as Abrams is, she still is not likely to find that most Georgia voters share her ideology.  Republicans best be careful, however.  The likeability factor always looms big in politics, and Ms. Abrams is likeable.  Unlike many progressives, she is eloquent without being rabid.

            I haven’t read any of Selena Montgomery’s books.  Reviewers call them romantic suspense novels.  Their covers indicate that they are pure erotica.  I hope not.  Stacey Abrams has too much to offer to be titillating readers with lurid novels.

            If she loses the Governor’s race, I hope she teaches English.  She would rise there as well.  Meanwhile, Republicans have a formidable foe.  There is much they could learn from her.

Roger Hines

8/8/18

           

                           

Cobb County and Noblesse Oblige … Say What?

             Cobb County and Noblesse Oblige … Say What?

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 8/5/18   

            I’ve never had a day of French, but I can count to ten in Italian, thanks to a war bride sister-in-law.  One year of German in college equipped me to understand President Kennedy when he said to the Germans, “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner), but that’s about the extent of my German.

             My daughter Christy, who took four years of Latin at North Cobb High School, has supplied me with Latin word knowledge from time to time.  Daughter Wendy took four years of French at North Cobb High as well.  Sons Jeff and Reagan took Spanish for two years and four years, respectively, at Harrison High School.

I should therefore be more adept with foreign languages, but sometimes in life you just have to depend on others to help you through.  At any rate, the only language I know and do love is a deep well from which to draw.  It‘s also the language of the world.

We all have favorite phrases from non-English languages.  Latin’s “e pluribus unum,” (out of many, one), still describes America, our current immigration debate notwithstanding.  I love the Latin “virtue et armis,” (by virtue and arms), the motto of my home state.  In the simplest of terms it means be nice but keep your powder dry.

 Another interesting non-English term is “noblesse oblige”.  It’s French, but I can make out “nobles” and “obligation.”

Let’s see.  A noble is a rich guy, normally a land owner, but always a man of means and influence.  An obligation is a responsibility.  The phrase implies that nobles bear a responsibility of some kind.  But to whom and according to whom? 

How such an obligation originated is a topic within itself, but suffice it to say that historically “noblesse oblige” has meant the obligation of high ranking persons to behave honorably toward those of lesser rank, to set standards of grace.   I know of two places where this social expectation has been borne well: my home town and Cobb County, Georgia.

One of my 10 brothers-in-law, a true country man of character named Everett, painted the homes of practically all of the “nobles” of Forest, MS.  A teenager at the time, I occasionally helped my brother-in-law with paint jobs.  One of those “nobles” was the future Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.  One morning as we were preparing the tools of the trade at this prominent lawyer’s home, the lawyer’s wife yelled out the back door, “Everett, ya’ll come in for some coffee before you get started.”

Feeling like a Charles Dickens urchin, I followed Everett into the palatial house we were about to paint.  I could tell that for Everett it was no significant moment, but to me, sitting down to fine china cups and saucers and the high-pitched clinking therefrom was most intimidating.  But my intimidation was unnecessary.  This noble couple’s hospitality wasn’t really an obligation.  It was their heart and their way.  And it was typical of the business, political, and community leaders of my home town.  Their obvious obligation was to be themselves and to think of others.

Unlike in many other locales, Cobb County citizens have been blessed for decades with such leadership.  Occasional exceptions aside, this county’s leaders have shown common touch servant leadership.  In large part, Cobb County is the American ideal in miniature.  Different income levels, different races, but no big shots, and a community spirit that thrives.

Within the last two years I have been privileged to be a guest Sunday School teacher at one of Marietta’s largest, most historic Methodist churches.  Both times the room was filled with Marietta and Cobb County community leaders, including political leaders of both parties.  Their camaraderie was memorable, their love and concern for each other exemplary, their social status irrelevant.  No doubt the same is true of many other congregations in our county.

For three years I worked for a wealthy friend and Cobb businessman.  My job was to assist him in research for giving money away.  My friend practiced noblesse oblige.  Not a government requirement, actually not a requirement of any kind.  Just a spirit of selfless nobility.

It is this very spirit that astounded Frenchman Crevecoeur when he came to write about our newfound nation.  “Kings, queens, dukes, and duchesses will not fare well in the New World,” he opined.

Happily, it’s not just good nobles who accept the obligation of showing class and grace.  My father, a country man extraordinaire, was prone to respond to any deed of kindness with the words, “I’m much obliged.”

Roger Hines

8/1/18

Cobb County and Noblesse Oblige … Say What?

             Cobb County and Noblesse Oblige … Say What?

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 8/5/18  

            I’ve never had a day of French, but I can count to ten in Italian, thanks to a war bride sister-in-law.  One year of German in college equipped me to understand President Kennedy when he said to the Germans, “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner), but that’s about the extent of my German.

             My daughter Christy, who took four years of Latin at North Cobb High School, has supplied me with Latin word knowledge from time to time.  Daughter Wendy took four years of French at North Cobb High as well.  Sons Jeff and Reagan took Spanish for two years and four years, respectively, at Harrison High School.

I should therefore be more adept with foreign languages, but sometimes in life you just have to depend on others to help you through.  At any rate, the only language I know and do love is a deep well from which to draw.  It‘s also the language of the world.

We all have favorite phrases from non-English languages.  Latin’s “e pluribus unum,” (out of many, one), still describes America, our current immigration debate notwithstanding.  I love the Latin “virtue et armis,” (by virtue and arms), the motto of my home state.  In the simplest of terms it means be nice but keep your powder dry.

 Another interesting non-English term is “noblesse oblige”.  It’s French, but I can make out “nobles” and “obligation.”

Let’s see.  A noble is a rich guy, normally a land owner, but always a man of means and influence.  An obligation is a responsibility.  The phrase implies that nobles bear a responsibility of some kind.  But to whom and according to whom? 

How such an obligation originated is a topic within itself, but suffice it to say that historically “noblesse oblige” has meant the obligation of high ranking persons to behave honorably toward those of lesser rank, to set standards of grace.   I know of two places where this social expectation has been borne well: my home town and Cobb County, Georgia.

One of my 10 brothers-in-law, a true country man of character named Everett, painted the homes of practically all of the “nobles” of Forest, MS.  A teenager at the time, I occasionally helped my brother-in-law with paint jobs.  One of those “nobles” was the future Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.  One morning as we were preparing the tools of the trade at this prominent lawyer’s home, the lawyer’s wife yelled out the back door, “Everett, ya’ll come in for some coffee before you get started.”

Feeling like a Charles Dickens urchin, I followed Everett into the palatial house we were about to paint.  I could tell that for Everett it was no significant moment, but to me, sitting down to fine china cups and saucers and the high-pitched clinking therefrom was most intimidating.  But my intimidation was unnecessary.  This noble couple’s hospitality wasn’t really an obligation.  It was their heart and their way.  And it was typical of the business, political, and community leaders of my home town.  Their obvious obligation was to be themselves and to think of others.

Unlike in many other locales, Cobb County citizens have been blessed for decades with such leadership.  Occasional exceptions aside, this county’s leaders have shown common touch servant leadership.  In large part, Cobb County is the American ideal in miniature.  Different income levels, different races, but no big shots, and a community spirit that thrives.

Within the last two years I have been privileged to be a guest Sunday School teacher at one of Marietta’s largest, most historic Methodist churches.  Both times the room was filled with Marietta and Cobb County community leaders, including political leaders of both parties.  Their camaraderie was memorable, their love and concern for each other exemplary, their social status irrelevant.  No doubt the same is true of many other congregations in our county.

For three years I worked for a wealthy friend and Cobb businessman.  My job was to assist him in research for giving money away.  My friend practiced noblesse oblige.  Not a government requirement, actually not a requirement of any kind.  Just a spirit of selfless nobility.

It is this very spirit that astounded Frenchman Crevecoeur when he came to write about our newfound nation.  “Kings, queens, dukes, and duchesses will not fare well in the New World,” he opined.

Happily, it’s not just good nobles who accept the obligation of showing class and grace.  My father, a country man extraordinaire, was prone to respond to any deed of kindness with the words, “I’m much obliged.”

Roger Hines

8/1/18