Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

      It seems that predicting the future is a thriving industry. Forecasters of doomsdays, fiscal cliffs, etc. as well as numerous seers who can predict one's love life, financial success, you name it, are a dime a dozen. I wish I had the ability to write one's horoscope; my financial future would be assured. Oh wait, that requires the gift of BS - not ESP.      But I digress. The industry goes back thousands of years; the magi who sought the Christ child were astrologers. (Traditionally there were three of them, but the Bible doesn't mention the actual number.) And that was the start of the segment of “prophets” that I am getting very tired of hearing from: those who predict the complete disintegration of society because we have “kicked God out of our schools.”      Face it, folks, we did not kick God out of our schools . As I understand it, God is everywhere that we are. According to Psalm 139, “. . . if I descend into hell, thou art present.”      As the Newtown incid

     Almost buried in the coverage of the atrocity committed in Newtown, Connecticut, was another story of an act of “rage”: An attack on three elderly Mennonite ladies in nearby Clay, Pennsylvania.      A young man posing as an insurance salesman gained admission to the residence occupied by three sisters who ranged in age from 84 to 90. Once inside, he donned a mask, and assaulted the ladies with a stun gun; he also punched, slapped and kicked them over a two-hour period.      During his rampage he indicated that he had been a Mennonite, although people who knew him said that he never was a member of that faith. He also read from the Bible, and vandalized the one belonging to the ladies.      Finally he spread a variety of household chemicals – bleach, vinegar, pesticides, etc. - throughout the house, and left the ladies tied up. Had it not been for a relative who stopped in four hours later, they might have died. They are expected to recover from their injuries.      Police report

      A recent newspaper story out of San Antonio tells of a 15-year-old student who is fighting her school district's “locator” chip embedded in her student ID badge. According to her, the chip is a “mark of the beast” as described in the Bible's Book of Revelation. This “mark” is a combination of letters and symbols that will be physically and permanently placed on one's forehead or right hand, indicating that the bearer is a follower of “the beast.” There will be severe penalties for refusing the mark and great rewards for getting it. Among other things “. . . no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."      Within the church itself, the Book of Revelation has had many different interpretations, ranging from a condemnation of the Roman Empire, an allegory of the ongoing fight between good and evil, or a forecast of the “end times.”      Throughout the ages conservative Christians have believed in the “

There are three dates that stand out in the memories of those of us who were born before 1930: December 7, 1941; November 22, 1963 and September 11, 2001. Most of us can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard the horrible news of the events that happened on those days. Today is the 71st anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. The following reminiscence of my personal experience may not mean anything to my younger readers, but it is important to me. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts-for democracy. WOODROW WILSON ****** T he first Sunday in December was warm for the season. Our family had planned for it to be a special day, but little did we know just how specia