Separation of Church and State Latest News

The latest ruling on taxpayer funding of religious activities suggests that as of the present, there are still some courts who understand how the First Amendment was really envisioned by the Founding Fathers....but the price of liberty is due diligence all the time and never slack up.

Here is the entire article on the latest court ruling...

" Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Public Funding of Evangelical Prison Program in Iowa Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Monday 03 December 2007

Americans United praises court ruling that upholds separation of church and state.

A federal appeals court today ruled that tax funding of an evangelical Christian rehabilitation program at an Iowa state prison violates the separation of church and state and must end.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that government support for the InnerChange Freedom Initiative at Newton Correctional Facility - a program operated by Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries - advances religious indoctrination at state expense. Americans United brought the litigation against InnerChange on behalf of inmates, their families and taxpayers.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, hailed the ruling.

"This is an extremely important decision," said Lynn. "Government officials have no business paying for religious indoctrination and awarding special treatment and benefits to those willing to embrace one religious perspective.
"Government should not single out a particular religion for special treatment," Lynn continued. "You simply cannot give government funds to a religious group for its evangelism program."

Added AU Senior Litigation Counsel Alex J. Luchenitser, "This ruling is a major setback for the 'Faith-Based Initiative.' It reaffirms that the government must ensure that public funds are not used for religious instruction, and that the government must not aid programs that discriminate based on religion."

Americans United presented evidence that inmates who took part in InnerChange were given better treatment and perks that were not available to others, including better housing and expedited access to classes required for parole. During its investigation of the program, AU discovered that InnerChange was saturated with evangelical Christianity and that staff members were frequently hostile to other faiths.

At trial, inmates testified that they were pressured to convert to evangelical Christianity, and that the beliefs of Roman Catholics and other faiths were ridiculed. The court record showed that non-Christians were frequently referred to as "unsaved," "lost," "pagan" and "sinful" by InnerChange staff. The program required staffers to abide by an evangelical statement of faith.

In a unanimous decision joined by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the appeals court upheld a lower court ruling issued on June 2, 2006, except that it reversed a portion of the lower court ruling that required InnerChange to return funds it received prior to June 2006. InnerChange will still need to return funds it received after the June 2006 ruling.

The decision states: "In the present case, plaintiffs demonstrated ... that the InnerChange program resulted in inmate enrollment in a program dominated by Bible study, Christian classes, religious revivals, and church services."
The opinion concluded that the state's "direct aid to InnerChange violated the Establishment clauses of the United States and Iowa Constitutions."

Corrections officials in other states have considered adopting InnerChange. Lynn said today's ruling should bring those plans to a halt.

The lead trial counsel in the case was Americans United's Senior Litigation Counsel Luchenitser. The trial team also included AU Litigation Counsel Heather L. Weaver and Iowa constitutional law attorney Dean Stowers. Luchenitser also presented the oral argument to the appeals court on behalf of the plaintiffs."

Kilkhampton Parish Church

Two times, once in 1987 then again in 1998, I travelled to Kilkhampton in Cornwall in Englands' West Country.  The fascination for this area is that it was here, in the West Country in the northern part of  Corwall and western Devon, were born those who planned and expedited the  first English ventures to claim for England land on the North American continent and from this area, also, came most of the first colonizers.

This parish church, which even today the plaque of Grenville family marks their pew, is the church of the Grenville family, of which I wrote an earlier post on the Grenville seat of Stowe Barton. 

From the earlier post:

The venture was sponsored under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh....who chose his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville and the Roanoke Hundred (to make the venture). Roanoke Hundred? Not a rock group, though, just the first hundred men -- actually one hundred and eight to be exact -- adventurers who made a voyage in 1585 in the attempt to plant the first English Colony in the New World named Virginia after the unmarried Elizabeth. But circumstances prevailed against Grenville's venture and the attempt lasted only for a short time. Roanoke Island was the name of the attempted seat located in present day North Carolina on an inlet just west of Nags Head and a replica of a type of ship that made those first voyages to Roanoke Island -- for there were three -- sits along side the pier in present day Manteo and you are struck about how small it is."

The following appeared on the North Cornwall website giving a summary of the history of this place.

"Grenville Ward comprises of the Parishes of Kilkhampton and Morwenstowe

Kilkhampton or "Kilk" as the place is known locally, sits astride the A39 "Atlantic Highway", following the line of the old ridge way, from Bude to Bideford, that dates back to Roman times, and like all North Cornwall has a colourful history that goes way back so far that much is lost to the mists of time. The parish of Kilkhampton stretches from the edge of the Tamar lakes to the beaches of Sandymouth and Duckpool and sits on a plateau about 5 - 6 Hundred feet above sea level.

There are several burial grounds, dated to the Bronze age, located around the parish that suggest this area as been occupied by man for many centuries. The Saxons were definitely here because the Doomsday survey states” that King William I, holds a meadow and Harold (the Saxon King) had it before him." This meadow known as Lords Meadow was possibly linked to the agricultural system of strip fields that surrounded the Saxon town of Kilkhampton....The 1084 Doomsday record says Kilkhampton had 3 leagues of woods and some still survive in the valleys at Stow and Hessaford.

The Norman-French Lords of the Manor were called Grenville and their lands passed by direct descent through the names of Carteret and Thynne until today, but they now only retain the ‘rite of wrecks’, on the shoreline."

Carteret Colony in North Carolina is named for this family of which Lord Carteret was one of the Lords Proprietors who were granted the lands in Carolina by Charles II before Carolina was divided into North Carolina and South Carolina as two Crown Colonies.

Music That Speaks





Kothbiro

This song ended the movie The Constant Gardner made from the John Le Carre novel.

MOZART IN ST. STEPHENS


Mozart's Requiem

Sir George Solti conducting Mozart's Requiem in St. Stephens in Vienna in 1991 on the anniversary of Mozart's death in VIenna 200 years before.

In September of 1998 a year after Solti's death, the Chicago Symphony was playing the Proms Concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall and one afternoon members of the symphony were invited by Lady Solti, his widow, to an open house at their London home. A friend, with whom I was in London who plays 1st violin with the symphony, invited me to come with her to the open house. Lady Solti had left her husband's conservatory studio exactly as it was when he died. It was a very open and airy room, filled with light. I was welcomed very cordially as a non symphony member, though Lady Solti did seem to me, for the time I was there, to be trying to figure out who I was and what I was doing there. She was very much at home with the symphony members, as if they were part of her family. All in all it was an interesting experience of many that week in London, among which we attended the non-symphony musical "Buddy" a biographical rendering of the Buddy Holly Story. Very much a constrast for my symphony friend.

Then it was on to Birmingham for their final concert in England after which the symphony left for Belgium and I left to meet a friend for three weeks to tour the West Country and stay for several days on the beautiful Cornish coast at Pennycrocker Farm, a Farmhouse B and B just north of Boscastle. Then it was onto Oxfordshire for almost two weeks where I traveled almost daily by train into Oxford to walk the ancient streets of that beautiful city and to sit and read on the ancient quads of the colleges. All in all it was one of the most remembered trips of any I've ever had.

GYPSY AIRS


Jascha Heifetz Plays Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen...Gypsy Airs

This music reminds me of the week before Christmas I spent in Vienna in 1969, dining in soft lighted Viennese restaurants, walking the snow covered streets, feeling the snow on my face walking along the canal, the little Mozart museum, the subdued Christmas decorations of the city, St. Stephens...the evenings, talking softly in the quiet, teaching chess, and watching myself get beat at the game...

Beliefs

"It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong." ....Thomas Jefferson

"Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?".... James Madison, in "Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785

"Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between Church and State."....The U.S. Supreme Court, 1947

"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine." ....George Washington"

"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion ...".... from the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by John Adams, June 10, 1797.

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should `make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State." ....Thomas Jefferson, in his historic Danbury letter, January 1, 1802

"The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of church and state." ....James Madison, March 2, 1819

"... We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."....Recently retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

"They have kept us in submission because they have talked about separation of church and state. There is no such thing in the Constitution. It's a lie of the left, and we're not going to take it anymore."....Pat Robertson, adressing the ACLJ, 1993

"The national government ... will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality."....Adolf Hitler

All the above quotes were made by the actual source listed at the end of each quote.

Today is a day for a music lesson of Bach's Double Concerto by the Maestro of all violinists.

Desert Rose

A great video featuring Cheb Mami, almost like the one by Sting!

The sounds in this video are so reminiscent of the trips I made to the
Middle East in the early 70s! Haunting, yet so full of life!

Sacred Text Archive of World Religions

In a recent conference held by American Vision at the Ridgecrest Baptist Retreat Complex in Ridgecrest, North Carolina, drawing the largest crowd of the conference was a debate between Barry W. Lynn, the Executive Director of Americans United for The Separation of Church and State, and Herb Titus, a former dean of Regent University, founded by TV preacher, Pat Robertson.

The subject of the debate was whether the "First Amendment prevents 'A Bibically-Based Public Policy'."

And why, one might ask, should there be such a debate even considered, let alone held, in a free society? What's going on?

"American public policy cannot be based," Barry W. Lynn said, "solely on the Bible, any more than it could be based solely on the Koran or the Bhagavad Gita. The laws that govern our daily lives," Lynn continued, "need to be based on commonly shared secular values, including those found in the Bill of Rights. Lawmakers take an oath, sometimes on a holy book even, to uphold the Constitution. They do not put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible. Political leaders represent all Americans, Christian and otherwise," he said, "so yes, to base public policy on one constituency's religious text and, moreover, a particular interpretation of that text, would fly directly in the face of the First Amendment's guarantee that there will be no laws respecting, touching upon an establishment of religion."

Now, who possibly could take exception to anything said in those words?

Well, let's see...

The following are excerpts taken from a report on the conference by Jeremy Leaming that could have been entitled:

Christian Reconstructionists and Taking Dominion in America and Their Powerful Friends

"A recent conference....displayed the growing organization of the Reconstructionist movement...a movement that is calling Christians to replace the US Constitution with their version of a Biblcal theocracy.

"Speaking at the conference was Gary North. The son-in-law of the late Rousas J. Rushdoony the founder of Christian Reconstructionism, North has written a number of books and articles about the need to establish "Christendom." His material is widely available, and for years North has called for the death penalty, like Rushdoony did, for youngsters who curse their parents, gays and others who violate his interpretation of biblical law. He has argued that stoning is the preferred means of capital punishment, noting that it is a communal activity and "the implements of execution are available to everyone at virtually no cost." Writing for Reason magazine in 1998, Walter Olson observed that Reconstructionists like North "provide the most enthusiastic constituency for stoning since the Taliban seized Kabul."

"....American Vision states that "By God's grace, we will work together to make America a truly Christian nation for our children's children, American Vision produces material that advocate Christian Reconstructionism, a form of fundamentalism that argues for .... constructing an America governed by "biblical law." Reconstructionists seek to impose the criminal code of the Old Testament, applying the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible juvenile delinquents and those who spread false religions.....This year's conference held at Ridgecrest, North Carolina, [a retreat and conference center along with Glorieta in New Mexico, both long owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Christian demoninaton] was co-sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, a well-funded Christian lawyers' group...

"The speakers spoke of the US as secular and ready for a radical makeover...Gary Cass, the former head of TV preacher D. James Kennedy's now-defunct Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, said "We need a new American vision...because we've lost our biblical heritage, our Christian birthright, which has been given to us by our founders, we have squandered for a poisonous bowl of atheistic humanism and political correctness. And now our culture is experiencing its deadly effects," he said. "By God's grace you are here to reclaim our godly heritage and to reassert, without apology to the atheists and the neo-pagans of our day, that this was and is a Christian nation, built on Christian ideals..."

"Other speakers denounced the public school system,...And still other speakers spoke against civil liberties organizations... particularly targeted the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, claiming that if those groups had their way God would be excised from "everything" in America. But, one speaker thankfully maintained, "there's a new sheriff" in town.... and stated, "they really have a battle on their hands with organizations like the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) ".... a $25 million operation based in Scottsdale, Ariz., for training young lawyers to fight for a "biblical worldview."

"Two Alliance Defense Fund representatives ... promoted the group's work to bring the legal system under Christian control, the one, in their worldview, that was the beginning of this nation from colonial times (editor's note: you know, that legal system, both in Massachusetts and Virginia that persecuted anyone who did not subscribe to their religious belief system and ran them out of their colonies, or worse, most notably Roger Williams), but has been wrenched from its religious moorings by secularists and "activist courts"... The ADF was formed in 1978 because "if we don't start showing up in the courts, our religious liberty is going to be lost in this country. We just need to bring "God back into this debate, and argued that when large numbers of fundamentalist Christians get to the voting booth, good things will transpire.... "We are one judge away".

"Gary Bates, one of the last speakers, and the head of Creation Ministries International, spoke about his recent book Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the Evolution Connection and he contends that the UFOs some Americans claim to see are not space aliens, but rather angels, some good, and some bad. He said that Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, and the Muslim prophet Mohammed had both been visited by fallen angels."

From this, then, it seems that organizations coming together to promote the Reconstructionist agenda, there is, indeed, a great need for informed debate on whether the "First Amendment Prevents a Biblically Based Public Policy".

Many, if not most, Christians cannot disagree that our society is woefully corrupted in every way. The issue is how to change it without compromising any citizen's basic freedoms to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience; their rights from unlawful search and seisure; their right not to be imprisioned without knowing the charges and a trial by a jury; the right not to incriminate oneself, eg: the whole Bill of Rights without which the United States of America would already have disintergrated.

That Bill of Rights gave the world for the first time in known history a government that was the servant of its people, and without the dissent of two of the original states, Rhode Island and North Carolina, that Bill of RIghts, when one reads and studies the Articles of Confederation and the later Constitutional Converniton of 1787, almost never would have come to pass. Taking the lead the delegates from those two states refused to go forward in the process of ratifying the Constitution without guarantees that a Bill of Rights would be added to it. The whole Convention desiring strongly a unanimous vote of the thirteen colonies for ratification of the new Constitution acceded to the demands of those whose advocated a Bill of Rights as part of the Constitution.

Rhode Island, founded by Roger Williams, having fled to that area to avoid religious sanctions and persecution by Puritan leaders in Massachusetts for his belief that the state had no authority to interfere in the religious beliefs and practices of its citizens or its subjects.

Ironically, Roger Williams was the first person who it has been recorded as having used the phrase "there should be a wall separation between the Church and the State." Ironic because much of the Southern Baptist Convention is now are calling for and working to dismantle that wall and claim Roger Williams established the first Baptist Church in the New World, even though he was only associated with that church for a very short while numbered in weeks.

So, it seems there is a need for debate and to reiterate the words of Barry Lynn:

"American public policy cannot be based," he said, "solely on the Bible, any more than it could be based solely on the Koran or the Bhagavad Gita. The laws that govern our daily lives need to be based on commonly shared secular values, including those found in the Bill of Rights. Lawmakers take an oath, sometimes on a holy book even, to uphold the Constitution. They do not put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible. Political leaders represent all Americans, Christian and otherwise," he said, "so yes, to base public policy on one constituency's religious text and, moreover, a particular interpretation of that text, would fly directly in the face of the First Amendment's guarantee that there will be no laws respecting, touching upon an establishment of religion."

Lynn's comments are words that promote a free society, where one can worship who they please, what they please, and where they please and were the only words spoken advocating the right of the individual to believe and practice his beliefs and the state has no right to intrude upon his individual conscience. If such Christian fundamentalists succeed in replacing the Bill of Rights and other parts of the Constitution with their version of a Biblical theocracy, how soon will such debates cease to exist? How soon will a dissenting view not be allowed, let alone welcome? How soon?

Religious Freedoms
"Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society." - Thomas Jefferson

Following are excerpts from an article by J. P. Briggs, Phd. Distinguished Professor at Western Connecticut State University and Editor of The Connecticut Review and from Thomas Williams, former state and federal court reporter for the Hartford Courant.

"Historians and investigative journalists following the "end-time Christian" movement have grown alarmed at the impact it may be having on Middle East policies, including the current war in Iraq, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian crisis, the strife in Lebanon and the repeated attempts to find a cause for war against Iran.

"Government is funnelling billions of dollars to "faith-based" organizations and grants are now so widespread by federal agencies that federal watchdog officials have serious difficulties accounting for how much money has actually been spent. (Goldberg, "Kingdom Coming" 121). (The widespread lack of oversight on tax dollars, alone, is alarming enough, and the lack of oversitght over federal tax payers monies to "faith based", ie: church, organizations should be cause for concern for every United States citizen, whether religous or not. editor's comment.)

"Further evidence is the transformation of the military. Until complaints forced its removal, a religious recruitment video made by a group called the Christian Embassy appeared on the Department of Defense web site. The video included interviews made inside the Pentagon with seven high-ranking military officers, congressmen, other federal officials and even the Christian Ethiopian ambassador to the US about their personal relationship with Christ. Army Lt. General William "Jerry" Boykin made headlines in 2003 when he said he believed America was engaged in a holy war as a "Christian nation" battling Satan. Adversaries can be defeated, he said, "only if we come against them in the name of Jesus." Despite his highly publicized rhetoric, Boykin remains deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Stephen Zunes, Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus project, observes that "Iraq has become the new Babylon".... In biblical Revelation, Babylon is the "great whore" representing human sin and corruption that will be destroyed to allow Jerusalem's rise and Jesus's return.

"One of the most influential end-time Christian ministers is John Hagee and ecently, Hagee updated his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," to highlight a coming war with Iran. It promises: "There will soon be a nuclear blast in the Middle East that will transform the road to Armageddon into a racetrack. America and Israel will either take down Iran or Iran will become nuclear and attempt to take down America and Israel.....
During the invasion period, hppt://www.raptureready.com, the website for those anticipating ascension into heaven before the final battles, excitement mushroomed. Responders thought the war in Lebanon signaled the start of the Tribulations. "This is so exciting," one commenter offered. "I have been having rapture dreams and I can't believe that this is really it! We are on the edge of eternity!" said another.

"Though they give different, sometimes changing "literal" versions of how close the Apocalypse is, end-timers all agree that the establishment of Israeli hegemony over the biblical lands and the rebuilding of the ancient Jewish temple are preconditions for Christ's return. From this belief derives the unwavering support of end-time Christians for Israel. Both dominionists and dispensationalists call themselves "Christian Zionists." End-time Christians (or Christian Zionists) have become Israel's main tourist revenue, shepherding groups to the holy land to see the sites of Armageddon and the Second Coming.

"...... although a succession of Israeli prime ministers has courted the American end-timers (the Christian Zionists) and declared them Israel's "greatest friends," the Israelis don't accept the end-time theology one wit. (The author (ATP) of this website personally experienced this lack of acceptance on the part of Israel in 1975 in Tel Aviv from an Israeli lawyer, where in the course of a conversation with him, the Israeli bestowed contempt upon any efforts to convert Jews to Chritianity, when he said that it was only another way to the Jew's Final Solution.) They are also aware that it is anti-Semitic. (For one thing, they interpret the Bible as claiming that only 144,000 converted Jews will be allowed to survive the Apocalypse.) However..... the Israelis also know that the end-time Christian Zionists are a lobby that can deliver US support for Israeli hard-line positions on arms, West Bank settlements,negotiations with the Arabs, and Iran.

"Before 9/11, the neocons envisioned an American global empire supported by newly created democracies friendly to American interests in oil, markets and ideas. But they thought only a Pearl Harbor-type event like 9/11 would make mobilizing the country for it possible. The key to this plan was the Middle East. Kevin Phillips, (a former Republican campaign consultant) says that designs on Middle East oil reserves, particularly in Iraq and Iran, were part of the neocon strategy.....he neocons and end-timers "come at the subject of the Mideast war from different perspectives, but they end up agreeing."

"....many neocon strategists probably think the end-time Christian Zionists "are nuts, but, boy, we can utilize them." Indeed, the thinly concealed disdain some neocons have expressed for the prophetic Christians has fed into the media habit of underestimating end-time influence on the assumption that only identifiable political ideas can shape policy.

"Meanwhile, the influence of end-time Christians on US government policy has burrowed deeply into the American Israel Political Action Committee, AIPAC, the powerful Israeli lobby. At the last AIPAC meeting with a long list of speakers that included Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, "Hagee got the loudest applause of anybody," according to Mezvinsky.

"This spring, AIPAC, with the help of its end-time supporters, succeeded in removing language from a military appropriations bill that would have required the president to get Congressional approval before using military force against Iran. So again, Iran policy provides the example - here for how end-time religion, the politics of Israel and neocon strategies converge.

"....The London Times reported: "Some of America's most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly placed defense and intelligence sources. Tension in the Gulf region has raised fears that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely... The Sunday Times has learned that up to five (US) generals and admirals are willing to resign rather than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack. 'There are four or five generals and admirals we know of who would resign if the president ordered ordered an attack on Iran,' a source with close ties to British intelligence said. 'There is simply no stomach for it in the Pentagon, and a lot of people question whether such an attack would be effective or even possible.'"

"In May 2007, the Inter Press Service reported that Admiral William J. Fallon, who was slated to become the Central Command chief on March 16, had sent a message to the Defense Department in mid-February, opposing any further US naval buildup in the Persian Gulf. The news article said Fallon squelched an administration effort to send a third carrier strike group to the Gulf. That would have brought the US naval presence up to the same level as during the US air campaign against the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, the report said. It continued: "A source who met privately with Fallon around the time of his confirmation hearing and who insists on anonymity quoted Fallon as saying that an attack on Iran 'will not happen on my watch.' Asked how he could be sure, the source says, Fallon replied, 'You know what choices I have. I'm a professional.' Fallon said that he was not alone, according to the source, adding, "There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box."

"End-timers are men who purvey what Christian Hedges calls a "theology of despair" that "feeds dark fantasies of revenge and empowerment." .......Bundesen says she is not being cynical when she observes that end-time ministers like the late Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Tim LaHaye and James Dobson have used their dark theology to increase their followers, pump up their power and fill their coffers and use of their ideas for political and moral support. So isn't it just about politics?

"No. Experts say that whether anybody even believes the violently apocalyptical scenarios shouldn't obscure the stark fact that Mideast policies have emerged in an atmosphere saturated with these dark ideas. Journalist Ron Suskind reported in 2004 that the present leaders of the US Government prided itself on not being "reality-based," and the end-time vision may be one way to understand what that pride is about.
----------
JP Briggs II, Ph.D. is a Distinguished CSU professor at Western Connecticut State University, specializing in creative process. A former reporter for the Hartford Courant and coordinator of the journalism program at WCSU, he is currently senior editor of the intellectual journal "The Connecticut Review." His books include "Fire in the Crucible" (St. Martins Press); "Fractals, the Patterns of Chaos" (Simon and Schuster), and "Trickster Tales" (Fine Tooth Press), among others. Email: profbriggs@comcast.net.

Thomas "Dennie" Williams is a former state and federal court reporter, specializing in investigations, for the Hartford Courant. Since the 1970s, he has written extensively about irregularities in the Connecticut Superior Court, Probate Court systems for disciplining both judges and lawyers for misconduct, and failures of the Pentagon and the VA to assist sick veterans returning from war. (He can be reached at denniew@optonline.net

.)

Stowe Barton Manor House

The above manor house at Stowe Barton on Englands north Cornish Coast where it borders the county of Devon was built after the days of Sir Richard Grenville, some time in the mid 1600s. It is a protected property as part of the National Trust, but not of the kind that has a guided tour. Being a protected property means that nothing can be changed without consulting the National Trust. So you have to do your own homework as to its features. It is possible that some of the walls and the material of which this manor was constructed was once a part of the building when Sir Richard was living. It is located near the footpath that hugs the north Cornish Coast. The day we saw this place it was the kind of day that is featured in this picture. And, if you look closely midway on the left side of the picture you can get a glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean.

Stowe Barton
Sir Richard Grenville was born in the County of Devon in England's West Country at Buckland Abbey in 1541; however, the Grenville family were the owners of much of the land on the northern Cornish Coast and the west coast of Devon and it was there, near the little village of Kilkhampton with its Norman Church, where stood on the Atlantic Ocean, Sir Richards's manor at Stowe Barton..

When Sir Walter Raleigh was unable to persuade Queen Elizabeth I to allow him to lead the expeditons to establish the first British Colony in North America, he appealed to his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, to lead the second expedition in 1585 to Roanoke Island, a tiny island which had been explored two years earlier in a 1583 expedition financed by Raleigh. And, so it was in 1585, Sir Richard Grenville commanded the fleet that embarked on the voyage to the tiny island situated inside the barrier islands of the Outer Banks, just west of Nags Head, in present day North Carolina. Named Roanoke Island after an Indian tribe of that name, the adventurers arrived there in 1585 and many of the one hundred and eight men were West Country men from Devon and Cornwall, which included John Pridieux and Philip Arundell, both descended from Norman conquerors, whose families still retained their huge estates granted to them by William the Conqueror in 1066.

The above photograph is a picture of the North Cornish coast and captures how modern technology marvels changes the scape of the land. The satellites outline the curve of the steep cliffs that fall off into the Atlantic Ocean just north of the manor house at Stowe Barton and I first saw them on my first visit to the northern Cornish Coast in the fall of 1987 when unexpectedly the satellites came into view, a complete surprise, as we came up from Coombe Vale, a deep valley leading from the manor house at Stowe to the northern end of the Cornish coast. The satellites contrasted greatly with the rest of the landscape, which probably has changed very little since the times of the Grenville family. It was the influence from the counties of Devon and Cornwall in the West Country, England found its adventurers, the principals that planned and conducted the plan of English settlement in the New World.

Hayes Barton

This year celebrates the 400th anniversary of the arrival in 1607 of Captain John Smith's English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to participate in the ceremonies at Jamestown commemorating the event. It is significant to note the first Queen Elizabeth was the English monarch to issue the first letters of patent needed to establish English settlements in the New World.

But, before there was Jamestowne, there was Sir Walter Raleigh, his half brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Raleigh's cousin, Sir Richard Grenville and the Roanoke Hundred. Roanoke Hundred? Not a rock group, though;  just the first hundred men -- actually one hundred and eight to be exact -- adventurers who made a voyage in 1585 led by Raleigh's cousin, the Sir RIchard Grenville, in the attempt to plant the first English Colony in the New World. But circumstances prevailed against Grenville's venture and the attempt lasted only for a short time. Roanoke Island, the name of the attempted seat, was located in present day North Carolina on an inlet just west of present day Nags Head on North Carolina's Outer Banks. A replica of a type of ship used to make those first voyages to Roanoke Island -- for there were three -- sits along side the pier in present day Manteo and you are struck about how small it is.
Walter Raleigh financed much of the expedition and raised additional money. Unable to lead the expedition himself, chose Sir Richard Grenville to lead the expedition to claim the patent and seat the English colony.

Hayes Barton, featured in the above photograph, was the house where Sir Walter was born. Called a longhouse, from there he made his way into the highest eschelons of English power -- the Queen's inner circle -- where, until he fell in love and married one of the ladies of the Queen's court, he was the Queen's favorite. After that, not so much, when the Queen banished him from court and imprisoned him in the Tower.

Today Hayes Barton still stands as a working farm and is located in England's West County in the county of Devon in East Budleigh on the English Channel. The original part of the house is believed to have been built about 1450, constructed of cob with an arch-braced collar beam thatched roof. The Devon porch was probably added during the time of Raleigh to form the letter "E" in honour of the Queen, a common practice at the time. Sir Walter's father was a tenant at Hayes Barton and a Church Warden at East Budleigh where the family crest on the bench end and his step-mother's tomb can be seen today.

Raleigh's room looks out on Hayes Wood through an upstairs window. The house sits on a slight hill and the land at the back of the house continues its incline to meet the horizon. The day I saw this lovely place was a glorius day and a farmer on a tractor was tilling the land, moving back and forth horizonally near the top of the hill, of which the picture shows how much had already been turned over. Too bad I did not capture a picture of him on the tractor. I tried to visualize how it all may have looked in Raleigh's time but the only thing certain was that the farmer would not have been driving the tractor. The narrow road leading left, away from the entrance, runs through a dense growth of ancient trees and their branches are entangled overhead to form a canopy above the lane.

From Hayes Barton to the Court of Elizabeth I, while not a straight line, nevertheless came to pass when Raleigh was about twenty eight years old and 20 years the Queen's junior. At court he cultivated associations and opportunities and in time accumulated much wealth and influence. But, also a hardworking servant of the Crown, he was elected a Member of Parliament for Devon and appointed Vice Admiral of the West, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall and Lord Warden of the Stanneries (the mining towns of The West Country).

In the early 1580s he tried to buy Hayes Barton, but was unsuccessful in persuading its owner, Richard Duke, to sell the estate. His consolation may have the grant he received of twelve thousand acres in Ireland and, later, forty-two thousand acres including the castles of Lismore and Waterford.

As a young man he was very much interested in the expeditions to the New World of his half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert,

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/humfrey.htm
and in 1583, Raleigh helped pay for what would be Gilbert's final expedition. Sir Humphrey reached Newfoundland, but on his return trip to England, he died aboard his ship, The Squirrel, when it sank near the Azores. Gilbert's aim had been to establish English colonies in North America which he tried to do 1578 and again in 1580 and Raleigh, not forgetting the aim, was able to acquire his half-brother's patent to explore and colonize the east coast of North America. And, while Raleigh never traveled to North America, himself, shortly after gaining the patent, he sent three expeditions, the first, in 1584.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/raleigh.htm

It was chiefly a mission to better obtain a clearer view of what a plan of colonization would entail. The second expedition, in 1585, the above mentioned Roanoke Hundred, created a short lived attempt for further exploration into the hinterlands and on the third and final expedition, in 1587, colonists established what was meant to be a permanent settlement on Roanoke Island. The colony failed, and the fate of the colonists, through the centuries, has remained a mystery. Today that lost settlement is known as "The Lost Colony." 

The 1585 expedition led by Sir Richard Grenville and set sail from Portsmouth on 9th April 1585 with five ships and two pinnaces. Grenville sailed on the Tyger with Simon Fernandez as the pilot. Most of the adventurers, like Grenville, were from Devon, officers and seamen, alike. A pinnace sank in a storm off Portugal; and though the fleet was scattered, it came together again off Puerto Rico and all the vessels continued together to the tiny island west of the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina opposite Nags Head on the present day Outer Banks.

Once there, Sir Richard began the attempt at exploration and when the settlement began to take form, set off on a return voyage to England for needed supplies leaving Sir Richard Lane in charge in his absence. On the return voyage to England, he captured a Spanish ship, the Santa Maria, filled with gold, silver, pearls, sugar and spices and much of the Spanish crew to be held for ransom and when he reached England he was greeted triumphantly on the success of the voyage.

Detained on his return voyage to Roanoke, the colonists he had left, having become heavily dependent on their Native American hosts for food and needed supplies as they continued to wait for Grenville's return led to serious disputes, that when Sir Francis Drake unexpectedly sailed into shore, the adventurers took the advantage of Drake's arrival to return to England with him. Shortly after Drake set sail, Sir Richard arrived back at Roanoke Island and found all of his settlement gone, except three men inadvertantly left on the island in the midst of Drake's departure, who then returned to England with Grenville.

The third attempt in 1587, the Lost Colony, was the last attempt at settlement by the English in North America in that century, when all their available resources being mustered in their fight against Spain precluded their resupplying and reinforcing the settlement until after the war's conclusion and it was not until 1607 when a new company, the Virginia Company, was finally able, after much duress and travail for the latest adventurers, to establish a permanent settlement at Jamestown in present day Virginia.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va01.htm

Raleigh introduced the use of tobacco into England and until the last half of the twentieth century, when tobacco use had become scientifically known as detrimental to health, tobacco played a leading role in the econony of both Virginia and North Carolina. In 1727 "Tobacco notes" became Legal Tender in Virginia. Tobacco Notes attesting to quality and quantity of one's tobacco kept in public warehouses were authorized as legal tender in Virginia. Used as units of monetary exchange throughout 18th Century, the notes were more convenient than the acutal leaf, which had been in use as money for over a century prior to 1727. Seventeeth and eighteenth century records show most all of the monetary transactions were exchanged in tobacco.

So when the current Queen Elizabeth visits Jamestown, it should be remembered that the first Queen Elizabeth made it all possible.

BACH IN THE UNIVERSE

Bach in the Universe

Accompanied by Bach's Air on a G String, a wonderful video of space taken from the Hubble telescope.































 

Paris In The Autumn Light

Paris in the fall of 1971 in typical Paris lighting... that lighting that captured the imagination of the impressionists' artists in various seasons. It was always the lighting in and around Paris that excited their imagination. This was the path leading away from the Louvre headed toward Place de la Concorde. Picture was taken on a trip with a friend when we stayed on the Left Bank in a tiny little hotel with a lovely courtyard housing the only shower in the hotel. We walked everywhere and spent days on end at the Louvre, eating the most wonderful omelets, and sitting in the sidewalk cafes, watching all of Paris go by.

A Sunny, Summer Afternoon

On a sunny, summer afternoon in 1952, probably a Sunday, family
members and neighbors had dropped by to spend some time catching up

on the latest family and neighborhood happenings. It is possible that some
of the family had come from a good distance and everyone had gathered to visit.

Television was still very new in 1952 and was not available on the weekends

and folks' lives had not yet become filled with the influence of TV on the

imagination. It was a time when spending time was more than just hanging

out. In the words of our cousin, Shawn, "It was a time to be."

A Country Place

These pictures taken of my grandparents' farm in the Fall of 2006 show the wonderful Fall colors that were a part of growing up, as I remember them as a child in Tennessee. The house and pond are much like they were many years ago; the house being somewhat the worse from the wear for its having been a rental property for many years. It is now being restored. The main feature of the house is its stone chimney, the stones probably collected from the creek and branches nearby and hand chisled by an unknown artisan. As a child I mowed this lawn with a push mower, together, with the help of my brother, he on one side of the handles and I on the other.

THE PLASMA UNIVERSE THEORY continued...

Inquiry into the Plasma Universe Theory on internet sites has produced
some interesting reading. From my early years I have never ceased to be
especially interested in art and science, and most always the interest
in science has been tuned in some way toward new theories and discoveries
in physics, expecially, in the 1960s when I became interested in quantum
physics. Might have become a scientist, except I was always hard put to
know in which was of the most interest - science or art - so became neither
scientist nor artist. All aptitude and interest testing to which I was ever
subjected positioned me both equally in the 95 percentile. Even more than
25 years later in newer testing environments, the tests revealed the same
95 percentile range. In a different world I might have been able to have
found a way to combine the two into some singular accomplishment. For
me that world awaits, still.

A summary of the theory found at: The Electric Sky
http://tinyurl.com/2hpdbm

"A complete summary of all the aspects of the Electric Cosmos
is too extensive to fit into a single web page. In fact, this entire
web site, with all its pages, is only a cursory introduction to the
vast implications of these ideas. Therefore, this summary page
can only list a few of the points that should be remembered by
anyone who is trying to learn about the view of the Universe that
is emerging.

The entire cosmos is permeated with plasma. In some regions
(within a galaxy, within a solar system) the plasma is denser than
it is in others. In some cases the plasma is visible, in some, not.
But everywhere our spacecraft have gone - they have found it.

The electrical properties of plasma vastly outweigh its mechanical
(gravitational) properties.

There is nothing mysterious about magnetic fields. They do
not "get tangled up", "break", "merge", or "reconnect". They require
electric currents in order to exist.

The relative distances between even the most densely packed stars
are vast in comparison to the stars' diameters.

The homopolar motor - generator shape seems to be ubiquitous.
Stars, pulsars, and galaxies are organized in this morphology.

The z-pinch effect that occurs in Birkeland currents
(electrical currents that flow through plasmas) is responsible for the
accretion of stars, planets, and galaxies.

It is highly likely that the solar system started out as a collinear
array of "Herbig - Haro" type objects formed by a z-pinch."

WELL, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?

The Plasma Universe Theory .....sounds interesting....
Hannes Alfven (1908 - 1995) explains:
"...if there was no Big Bang, how -and when- did the universe begin?
"There is no rational reason to doubt that the universe has existed indefinitely,
for an infinite time," Alfvén explained. "It is only myth that attempts to
say how the universe came to be, either four thousand or twenty billion years
ago. "Since religion intrinsically rejects empirical methods, there should never
be any attempt to reconcile scientific theories with religion he said. An infinitely
old universe, always evolving, may not, he admitted, be compatible with the
Book of Genesis. However, religions such as Buddhism get along without having
any explicit creation mythology and are in no way contradicted by a universe
without a beginning or end. Creatio ex nihilo, even as religious doctrine, only
dates to around AD 200" he noted. The key is not to confuse myth and empirical
results, or religion and science."
Alfvén admitted that his plasma universe theory may take a long time to penetrate
the popular consciousness. "After all," he asserted to a group of physicists,

"most people today still believe, perhaps unconsciously, in the heliocentric universe."
The group, at first incredulous, quickly nods in agreement as Alfvén continueed,
"every newspaper in the land has a section on astrology, yet few have anything at
all on astronomy."
Anthony L. Peratt, 'Dean of the Plasma Dissidents', The World and I, May 1988, pp. 190-197.


snip

"The elements are eternal..." Doctrine and Covenants 93:33

"There is no such thing as immaterial matter...." D and C 131:7-8

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.." Genesis 1:1
To create means to organize materials to develop order and give form, to make, to build, to rearrange….

Thus the true translation of Genesis 1:1 is: "In the beginning God organized the heaven and the earth..."
"intelligence or the light of truth was not created or made, neither,
indeed can be..." D and C 93:29
"truth has no end.." D and C 88:66
"...Endless is God's name.." D and C 19:10, Moses 1:3
"The glory of God is intelligence..." D and C 93:36
"...all spirit is matter, but....more fine or pure and can only be discerned
by purer eyes. We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall
see that all is matter."   D and C131:8
"all things were created first spiritual, second temporal..the Lord's works have not
end and neither beginning.." D and C 29:32-33
"...this life is the time to prepare for endless state after....." Alma 12:24

TRAVEL TIMES



This collage of snapshots is the whole and sole efforts of
pictures of me taken in the heyday of 1968 - 1977 travel times.
Yellow was my favorite color in those days.

Pictures 1, 2   deplaning in Mexico City.
Pictures 3,4   dinner at the Villa Fontana in Mexico City
Pictures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9   in Athens
Picture 10   enroute to Tiberias in background on Lake Gennereth
Picture 11   Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem...new meaning of footstool
Picture 12   just before departure for Vienna at Christmas 1969.
Picture 13   Caesarea at the Roman Aquaduct
Pictures 14, 15    Acre, the Arab Old Sector
Pictures 16   Ayelet Hahashar kibbutz in Northern Israel
Pictures 17   on Mt. Carmel overlooking Haifa
Picture 18   Upper Galilee with Hula Valley in background
Picture 19   Jerusalem, Old City
Pictures 20, 21 Tel Aviv from Joppa
Picture 22    at Shavei Zion on northern Israel coast.
Picture 23, 24    Acre  by sea
Pictures 25   Capernaum ruins of 2nd century synagogue
Pictures 26   Kfar Blum kibbutz northern Israel near Lebanese border
Picture 27   with Liz at JFK before departure for London and Beirut 1972
Picture 28, 29 ruins of ancient Byblos a Jebusite city, north of Beirut.
Picture 30   At a dinner in Beirut escorted by Lebanon's Minister of Finance.
Picture 31   Helsinki February 1977
Picture 32   Moscow with Kremlin in the background
Picture 34   Catherine Palace gate with double headed eagle at Pushkin
Picture 35   Pushkin just outside of Leningrad

KARL POPPER
Karl Popper exerted profound influence upon the thought of modern
science and the various philosophical questions posed by
scientific intrusion into a world heretofore not prepared for the
questions that challenged the most profound beliefs of inquiry into
the origins of things.

"Sir Karl Raimund Popper rose... to become one of the most influential
theorists and leading philosophers and commanded international audiences
and conversation with him was....a myriad of philosophical problems.
His intense desire to tear away at the veneer of falsity in pursuit of the truth
lead him to contribute to a field of thought encompassing (among others)
political theory, quantum mechanics, logic, scientific method and
evolutionary theory. Popper challenged some of the ruling orthodoxies
of philosophy: logical positivism, Marxism, determinism and linguistic
philosophy. He argued that there are no subject matters but only problems
and our desire to solve them. He said hat scientific theories
cannot be verified but only tentatively refuted, and that the best
philosophy is about profound problems, not word meanings...
Through his ideas Popper promoted a critical ethos, a world in
which the give and take of debate is highly esteemed
in the precept that we are all infinitely ignorant, that we differ only in
the little bits of knowledge that we do have, and that with some
co-operative effort we may get nearer to the truth.

"Popper regarded his solutions to the problems of induction and the demarcation
of science from pseudo- science as his greatest contributions.... Popper's work
is important not just to those who agree with his new bold solutions, but to
everyone who recognizes the importance of the problems that Popper discovered,
analysed and reformulated in a way that allows a solution. ...

"To take just three examples, the problems of verisimilitude, of probability
(a life-long love of his), and of the relationship between the mind and body
will never look the same now that Popper has made important progress in charting
the intricate structure of these problems and in offering at least partial solutions.
Yet there are books on the mind/body problem, for instance, that simply do not
mention Popper's work (for more on this attempted "refutation by neglect", seethe introductory reading list....)"


Thus, only in the asking of right questions can solutions to
a problem be found.

LIFE'S MEANING

John A. Widtsoe
Press of Zion's Printing and Publishing Company, Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, USA

MAN: A PRODUCT OF PURPOSE
Why am I here? Is the inward cry of every thinking person. Without a sufficient reply, life remains empty and desolate. Along with that question are two of equal value. Whence did I come? Where shall I go? If these three questions are answered satisfactorily, intelligent direction is given to all human actions. Intelligent people require an objective to make life worth while. Our advancing knowledge declares that intelligence and purpose are found in the whole of the universe; therefore, there must be a purpose in man's appearance on earth. What is that purpose?

MAN IS ETERNAL
Life's meaning can best be unraveled by searching man's inmost nature. In that pursuit, the most fundamental discovery is the eternal existence of man -- that man lived before he came upon earth. In that pre-existent life he thought, acted and progressed, even as, in a different degree and under a different environment, he does upon earth. "Man was in the beginning with God;" and that beginning reaches into the measureless past, beyond human comprehension. This is not a new doctrine, but one beyond human comprehension. This is not a new doctrine, but one that has been forgotten in the centuries of man-made religions.

EVIDENCES OF PRE-EXISTENCE
Every person has the feeling that he has lived in a life before this. At times the memory of that life seems very near. This universal feeling cannot be laid aside as idle imagination.

Poets of many lands, have written, with clear vision, of the pre-existent life, its beauty and joy. Philosophers, among them great ones, like Plato, have convinced themselves by processes of reason, that man had a pre-existent life. Scientists who have proved the universe to be eternal, indestructible and everlasting, have refused to deny man, the head of creation, the quality of eternal existence to make him inferior to things solely material, such as wood and stone. Prophets, inspired by the Lord, have proclaimed the pre-existence of man, as in the cry of Job, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?"Modern revelation teaches definitely that man had a pre-existent life. The pre-existence of man is an assured fact.

THE PLAN OF SALVATION
In the pre-existent, spiritual estate, all mankind were begotten spirit children of the Lord. We were a vast spiritual family. Thus comes the true Fatherhood of the Lord. Fatherlike, our Creator in that long-past day provided for our welfare. His plan for the development or education of His spirit children is the plan of salvation, known as the Gospel. As we increased in power and understanding we approached, that is we earned, the right of another profitable experience, another school - the earth experience, an earth-school. The plan provided that the eternal spirits, having gained the experience of the spirit world and spiritual conditions, might, if they so desired, be clothed upon with mortal bodies and taught the lessons furnished by earthly or material conditions. Then, provided with the learning and power of this twofold experience, they would return to the spirit world to continue there the progressive labors of eternity. The plan of salvation is a plan of education of eternal spirits for everlasting, eternally progressive life.

The plan of salvation involves three estates of man: First, of the pre-existent spirit world; second, of the earth, and third, of life hereafter - the three representing ascending, increasing periods of eternal progressive existence. The plan of salvation is intended for the whole family of spirits, not for a few of them. Its purpose will not be completed until the whole human family has yielded obedience to the plan, on earth or in the hereafter. Therefore, every man must help his brother. To assist weak man in this work and to make possible the eternal association of the spirit with the earth-won body, Jesus, the first begotten of the Father, was appointed as Leader, Director and Savior of mankind.

FREE AGENCY AND PROGRESSION
The plan of human salvation was formulated by the Lord, but it is not compulsory upon eternal man. Salvation here or hereafter is not forced upon man. In every person inheres the right of free agency, the right to accept or reject whatever is offered, to act for oneself in all matters. This quality is sacred before the Lord. Taught we may be, by Divinity itself, but we must upon our own volition, accept or reject that which is given us.

The plan of salvation provides for the progression, the unending education and increasing happiness, of eternal man. Nothing in the universe stands still. There was no standing still in the pre-existent state, there can be none in the life to come. Every man, by the exercise of his free agency progresses towards more abundant life, or retrogrades towards darkness and death. The plan of salvation provides the way by which man may help himself, through obedience to eternal law, to win the power and joy of eternal life.

THE BUSINESS OF EARTH
Man comes upon earth because he has earned the right to be born and has accepted the plan of salvation. He comes as to a school, to become acquainted with the material world and to learn how to master it. He comes in forgetfulness of his pre-existent joys and subject to the rough forces of the material world, including death, the temporary separation of body and spirit. Every honest task of this earth, in the kitchen, shop, farm or office, every toil and struggle, contributes to the earthly education of man and has a spiritual equivalent.

Man is so placed on earth that his free agency, the tempering, upbuilding power within him, may have the fullest exercise for expression.

Man is not left alone on earth. The Lord from the beginning has taught him such eternal principles of life as are needed. These are known in their entirety as the Gospel. They were taught to the first man; they have been taught again to others as men have departed from them or adulterated them. The earth program is under constant divine supervision.

It is not intended that man on earth should suffer because of bodily needs. "Man is that he might have joy." The earth with its fulness is ample to supply all of humanity's needs. It is expected that he will use his powers to provide against his spiritual and bodily requirements. The Gospel, in its fulness, teaches how this may be done. Poverty and riches are not necessary to please the Lord. Properly directed efforts for happiness in the physical, economic, social or spiritual realms of life develop man and give him the most valuable results of earth life. Man is placed on earth to win true and complete happiness.

LIFE HEREAFTER
Man is deathless. Birth is not his beginning and death is not his end. He passes from earth into the world of spirit; he recovers his body, purified and eternally useful, through the resurrection made possible by Jesus Christ, the key figure of the plan of salvation; and he continues eternally, actively, in the work of progression in knowledge, power and wisdom. He retains his power of thought, learning and action, of faith, repentance, obedience and free agency. Family relationships continue in that new world. Father, mother, children and friends maintain their devotions to each other. Over all is the presence of the Eternal Father. It is an active, progressing estate.

GRADED SALVATION
Salvation is the reward or gift to the free agent who has used his will in harmony with the code of divine requirements for eternal progress. But all men do not use their wills for righteousness to the same degree. Then, will everyone be saved alike? No, that would be neither logical nor just. Each person will receive a degree of salvation proportioned to his righteous work. "In my Father's house are many mansions." No one, unless it be the impossible few, will fail of salvation. All will receive some degree of salvation, and the great punishment of those who have done evil will be that they have failed to achieve all that was within their possibilities. Yet, the mercy of God, which magnifies our small righteous endeavors into glorious rewards, will not forget the meanest sinner. Man can think, act, reject and accept, repent and seek forgiveness on that other side as here. He can make up for his failures, since his natural power of free agency remains undisturbed throughout all time. Hence the door of progression is not closed against him throughout the eternities. Nevertheless, by his misdeeds he travels onward in the rear when he might have been near the head of the army of the Lord. None of us in that great coming day shall be fully happy unless all are moving towards the greatest possible joy, that is, have accepted the laws of the Lord.

THE MEANING OF LIFE
Thus, in terms of eternal progressive existence, the meaning of life is explained.
Life on earth, a chapter of our eternal progression, is given us for a two-fold purpose:

1. To prepare us for further progression and development.
2. To enable us to assist our fellow men to secure the same needed preparation.

For these purposes we strive to conquer the forces of earth, our unseemly appetites and every progress-retarding temptation. For these purposes we cherish love and beauty and all the virtues. For these purposes we meet the trials of life gladly and give glory to the Lord. Those who understand life's meaning strive boldly, happily, for progress, knowing full well that the experiences of earth will be transmuted into precious eternal realities.

THE REVELATION OF THESE DAYS
This larger conception of the origin, destiny and meaning of human life, known since the beginning of time, was lost during the centuries of man's departure from the true doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were restored again, by revelation, in this day through the Prophet Joseph Smith, who became the organizer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This later day life-philosophy is marvelous in its comprehensiveness and completeness, in its power to satisfy the righteous desires of man. Will you investigate it?

John A. Widtsoe
Centennial Series No. 7