JG Wentworth Theory of Faith

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Far too many people think that somehow if we “have enough faith” we can boss God around the universe. You hear stories from time to time, including from the pulpit, about people who essentially “had enough faith” that they got exactly what they wanted. It sort of implies that people who don’t get their prayers answered have less faith, and it kind of implies that we have a say in what we get and when we get it if we just have “enough” faith. That’s what JG Wentworth offers us. He tells us that “They’re your blessings; use them when you need them”. Of course, it comes at a cost if it works. All blessings are predicated on obedience to the laws to which they are associated. Unless your faith is as Christ taught, it’s not faith; it’s wishful thinking.

The Period of Waiting. Some blessings have timing facets. There is no point in blessing you with a spouse if you are 12. There is no point blessing you with a lot of money if you are not in a place where you can put it to good use. The children of Israel were not allowed to enter the Land of Promise until forty years in Sinai, but Sinai can be crossed in a matter of days if you know where to go, even on foot. In Egypt, Joseph prophesied that they had seven years to prepare for famine and that if they spent the time well they would survive.

The Period of Suffering. Often blessings don’t come immediately because we would not appreciate them. The woman that grabbed Christ’s robes had been inflicted for YEARS with a blood issue. It was dramatic to her because she had been living with it so long that her faith was ready to be validated. If we got everything we wanted when we wanted it just for the asking, we would become dependent on God and just ask Him whenever things arose to complicate our lives. The suffering invites us to be submissive to God’s will and timing.

The Period of Action. Most blessings and miracles seem to come only when we follow God’s direction. Far too many people flaunt God’s commandments and then get upset when He ignores theirs. Naaman of Syria was very disappointed that, in order to be healed, he had to bathe in the Jordan River when his own country had better rivers. The Red Sea didn’t part until Moses put his foot into the water. Even the lepers cleansed by Christ were only healed when they followed His instructions to go shew themselves to the priests.

My point in all of this is that blessings do not come, answers are not had on the JG Wentworth theory. We don’t own the blessings; we don’t control the timing. We are not gods, and all that we have comes because God says let it be done. I don’t know why He makes us wait. I just know that sometimes He makes me wait longer than I like for things I know that I deserve. It took two years to find a new dog, but when Courage came, he was perfect. Maybe like I have you have prayed for years and not seen rescue. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. CS Lewis wrote that many of God’s best children have gone through longer and deeper trough periods than anyone else.

The world concludes, erroneously, that if you are not being blessed you must be evil. Job’s friends did the same thing. They concluded that he must have offended God and that this was the reason why God allowed the devil to deprive him of everything. Then we know God arrives and says, “Who is this that darkeneth counsels by words without knowledge? Arise, gird up thy loins and answer thou me.” It is a cruel lie that the blessed are righteous and that the unblessed are wicked, but the world always construes according to its wits. Not attempting and not succeeding may look the same in the end, but they take very different paths. If you judge only on the outcomes you will MISS THE MARK. It is easy to feel that God is ignoring you because He doesn’t bless you the way you want in the timing you prefer. That is not the way of faithfulness, and we know that those who see signs often wane in faith immediately after the signs end. How many people stopped following Christ when He stopped feeding them?

The faithful are always vindicated in the end. If you are not blessed yet, it’s not the end. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. There were no storm clouds in the sky when Elijah called down fire. Mideon had a giant army; Gideon’s 300 men had God. Abraham’s wife was over 90 when she finally got pregnant. Jericho was impregnable until Israel shouted. Obedience is tough. Faith is tough. Often it’s difficult to see where the road may lead. Israel was reticent to follow Moses into the desert, but they reached a Land of Promise. None of these people were wicked, but they had to wait a long time before they say the blessings, and you may also find yourself wandering in a wilderness of Sin waiting to arrive in your Land of Promise.

If you’re not getting blessed, hold on a little longer, and I promise the light will come. I say this, and I have never been promoted, I have never found a wonderful woman who loves me and appreciates my love, and I am just a Sunday School instructor at church. I run a 5K or more every day, and I’m still fat. I have not reaped what I have sown, but I still believe that God will bless me. I believe He will bless you too. CS Lewis wrote that the devil’s cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do God’s will, looks around at a world from which all sign of Him seems to have disappeared, asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

My beagle is a sign that God has neither forgotten nor forsaken me. I don’t think it’s an accident that his previous owners named him Courage. God told me to “take courage”. And Courage crawled into my lap when he first met me and was comfortable. I have someone who is always glad to see me and who doesn’t care that I’m not rich or hot or of status. He just cares how I treat him.

If you’re not getting blessings, continue to have faith. Sometimes when you are walking in the dark, you can only move forward so quickly because the lamp you carry doesn’t light everything everywhere. Just step forward and find the path lit a few more steps in front of you. Remember the last Indiana jones movie where he reaches a chasm without a bridge and realizes that “Only in a leap from the lion’s head can he prove his worth”. Sometimes a leap of faith is required. It’s not a single second. It’s about whether or not you are ready to leap. One of my religion instructors told us once to act in faith and trust that God will stop you if you are headed in the wrong direction. Thermodynamics teaches us that objects in motion are easier to change direction than objects at rest. Eventually, either you will arrive in your land of promise or find God change the vector of your actions to somewhere that bears fruit.

I don’t know what God has for me. But I know it will be spectacular. It just might not be what I prefer. I know God loves us. I know He will bless us. I don’t know how or when or with what, but a loving God in the end will bless you with everything you have earned and everything He possibly can.

Pollution and Poverty

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The debate over "climate change" ignores, whatever your feelings one way or the other, a major bone of contention. It's not about the location of pollution or the virtue of human endeavor. It really comes down to a question of priorities. From ancient times to the present day, people have polluted, and the biggest polluters are those who are poor either in information or in resources, because those people don't usually live long enough to care. In truth most of us won't live long enough to see the world end from pollution, if pollution actually persists, but pollution is a concern of the first world. The rest of the world is full of people just trying to make it through the day without dying.

Everyone pollutes everywhere. Just today, the lid on my cup blew off and I didn't go running to fetch it because I was encumbered. In 2020, my friend and I found piles of plastic waste across the road from a cocao plantation in the jungle in Belize. You might not know that Jeru and Salem were separate cities that are merged because they built atop a large garbage pile between the two hills and conjoined the cities. Some people don't mean to pollute. Some people do. In 2017 I confronted three men (who turned out to be Federal Marshalls) for littering on Mt Charleston right in front of me. Those are the ones I detest, but most people have no idea what the consequences are, and many more don't know. My neighbors are pretty affluent and probably have no idea that, if they dont' clean up after their late night parties, the food they leave out back attracts rodents. And the trash blows over the fence into my yard. nobody taught them until me, and the man is 36 years old.

In antiquity nobody worried about it. There was always more land. If you polluted an area, or depleted it of resources, you moved away. The natives of North America knew this and would actually rotate their settlements to allow the land to recover. However, you can find videos about the large pottery trash pile in the middle of Rome where everyone just threw their broken pots and bowls. It was simply someone else's problem, and ancient governments were too brief usually to tackle things long term. Most people in antiqity were concerned with subsistence agriculture, and so there was no time for education, innovation, or preservation of anything but the lives of their families. It's not a dig. It's simply a fact of their lives.

In modernity the people who pollute the most are those who have the least to lose from pollution because they are concerned with basic survival. Most people on the planet to this day are poor and barely eke out a living each day enough to afford food for tomorrow. Even in the time of Dickens, it's clear that most Londoners were hand to mouth, which is why so many were in debt to Ebenezer Scrooge. Without banks or pensions, most people worked until they died, of disease or age or warfare. It was simply not a time in which most had the luxury, even if they knew or cared, to take care of "the planet". It was also, particularly in Christian nations, exceptionally arrogant to presume that you could do a better job at that than God, even as men scarred the land looking for treasure or power. What kept the human population in check was food. Now that we have enough, we have time for inventing and vacationing and relaxation and to sit in the jungle with plastic bottles that we leave behind because we're too lazy. It's not the way they say. If the climate is changing because of man, it's not because man is evil. It's because most men don't care because they don't have time. Someone has to manufacture and ship that crap you buy from Temu, and they don't earn much to do it.

Concern about "manmade climate change" is a luxury afforded to the affluent nations of the earth. If you consider the pollution output of most industrialized nations, the ones that are reducing their output are in no way keeping pace with those whose output is increasing. This is due to "men" but not for the reasons they proscribe. It is done because most of the nations who are the biggest polluters have burgeoning populations of mostly poor people whose concern is not "saving the planet" but "not dying today". Although the website mentioned in this video has been taken down, it is interesting to note that these nations have always been this way. It might not be politics. It might simply be poverty.

Marijuana Migraines

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Nearly everyone I know who was excited about the legalization of pot has told me that it "doesn't hurt anyone" and "has no side effects". Trouble is that I know that's not true. I worked in a clinical reference research and development lab about 20 years ago and learned that there is a 1/1000 chance that a patient will have the exact opposite reaction to a pharmaceutical/chemical. In this case, I'm the exception.

Most people smoke or consume marijuana to assuage pain. It also tends to increase appetite, open their minds to asinine conversations, and calm them down. For me, I learned it gives me migraines, makes me lose my appetite and get agitated. I first noticed these things at university where I must have had neighbors who were smoking weed, but since I wasn't doing it and didn't know any of them personally to see them do this, I didn't make any connections until after I moved into my house. One spring, my neighbor's teenage son started sneaking out his window in the middle of the night to smoke weed, and the smoke would waft into my open bedroom window upstairs and I awoke in pain. This disappeared during quarantine and then returned when new people moved in on the OTHER side of me. Apparently they smoke pot in the middle of the night between the houses too.

A few weeks back, I told this to my class, and one of my students admitted that he suffers the same issue. I usually bring it up to aspiring medical professionals to prepare them for the eventuality that a treatment they are sure will work fails completely. Some people get cramps from muscle relaxants, get hyper from sleeping pills, and feel MORE pain from cannaboids. It's simply a function of how the chemicals interact with each other, and apparently if the receptors are aligned incorrectly you get the exact opposite response. He is the first student to manifest the exact same issue as I.

So, when you smoke to "alleviate your pain" it does hurt others. It might not hurt many, but it does hurt. Unfortunately, based on the other behaviors of these neighbors, I don't think there is any way to alleviate this. They have shown over the past two years that they don't respect me or care about what I think. They park in front of my house so I can't, try to bury irrigation lines on my property, throw beer bottles into my back yard, play music into the wee hours of the night. In almost every way these people are a headache.

I'm not sure if they're better than the squatters they replaced.

Online Dating: Worthwhile or Wasteful?

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Today marks the end of a four year experiment trying online dating. I joined four different apps and four other websites. I laughed a lot. I cried a lot. I found a lot of it absolutely crazy. I did not find that it was worth my while except that now I know of my own experience that for men like me, it's a complete waste of time.

One of my coworkers found out just a few weeks ago that I was doing this and shared up her experience before knowing mine. She complained that, even on the LDS sites, men only contacted her in order to have bedroom fun. When she asked me what my experience was like, I told her that on those sites, I had no activity at all. Only two LDS girls even matched with me, one of whom never responded, and the other of whom said she never wanted to have bedroom fun. Ever. In fact, it was the worst experience because, within 10 days, I had been through all the profiles within 500 miles of where I lived and exhausted my options. Since women of my faith (of all ages and marital stati) constitute only 1% of the US population, it has the lowest refresh rate. This means that, although more matches were possible, they would come at an ever diminishing rate. If they came at all that is.

I kept stats and data along the way and put it into spreadsheets, but only one statistic actually bears reporting. How many dates did I go on in the last four years from dating online?

ZERO

The only profiles that would talk to me didn't actually have any intention to meet up. I believe most of them were either women who 1. wanted affirmation 2. women who were bored or 3. con artists, some of whom were probably not women or at least not the women in the pictures. In fact, I know some of the profiles were using pictures they stole from other people, because I could find those pictures on the internet elsewhere despite the fact that the "women" were claiming they were recent pictures.  Several of them tried the romance scam on me, but I have already learned to be wary even with women I know who are attractive if they have ulterior motives.

Years ago my best friend opined that "Most of what you find on the internet is pretty useless, which is probably why it's free" and in my experience dating online is completely useless. The only people seeming to have any success are the players- the top tier of men who have so many options they do not have any inclination to actually pick a woman since they can have their cake and eat it too and still have more women lining up hoping for their shot.  I had the time; I wanted to give it a serious go. I am a scientist, but that's probably what turns women off.

What did I learn? I learned that I am not considered attractive by women. Except for the least attractive women. I forget who coined the 80/20 rule, but it says that 80% of women are chasing the top 20% of men, and given my experience, I am definitely not top shelf in the appeal department. I know women IRL who think I am amazing, but none of those women would date me anyway (particularly since some of them are already married), and so I must rank in attraction somewhere near Sloth from "The Goonies" not because I believe I'm unattractive but because that's how women regard me.  If it were not so, some of them would have at least consented to meet up with me and give me a chance.

I have had women find me attractive, and the three women I can think of were also women I found attractive. Trouble is that those women were forced to get to know me for some other reason and then decided that I was sufficiently attractive for them to give me a shot. Unfortunately, none of them worked out, and one of them didn't actually end up dating me because she hates all members of my religion. The only women who will date me now are obese and/or single mothers, and I'm not sure the single mothers are attracted to me or my wallet.

If you are having success as a man in online dating, it means you are highly attractive. Unless you are highly attractive, you won't get much screen time. I have watched obese women flip through profiles of men far more attractive than I without giving them a single second of consideration. Ironically, highly attractive people don't need the internet to date. Women are already attracted to them. So, if you're just an average guy or worse, like I seem to be, I suggest you get off the internet and spend time with people who appreciate you even if it's not romantic. It will be far more fulfilling, and you might just even have some fun.

Why I'm Still Here

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I don't talk about this much, but something tells me that someone needs to read what I have to say, so I'm going to tell you why I'm still here. I don't mean on the internet or writing this blog. I mean why I'm still alive.

The story begins back in the UK where, at the age of 6, I died for the first time. We were t-boned at a blind intersection somewhere in the countryside. Since we were in an American car, the passenger was killed instead of my mother. The car didn't have rear seatbelts, so I was apparently thrown from the car and died in the street. While emergency personnel responded to the scene, I remember standing on the curb with an old woman, who turned out to be the disembodied soul of my late great grandmother who had died just before we went to the UK. I didn't recognize her or realize for many years what happened. I do remember that she told me that she was there in case I wanted to leave because I didn't have to stay unless I wanted to.

Obviously I chose to stay, and I remember waking up in the street where paramedics resuscitated me wondering how I got from the sidewalk to the street. I know now that I chose to stay so that my mother, who lost a child that same year, would not lose two children. I don't know how it would have affected her.

My kid brother is now lost to my mother. He is married to a woman who doesn't want their family to have any contact with us. Last year at Christmas, they were there, and I flew in back from my vacation in Poland to be with them Christmas Day in time to see her throw a fit and pressure my brother into cutting off all contact with our family.

I don't have a lot of ambition or passion. I lost my muse and the best chance I had at a life of my own back in 2013. Since then I haven't found anyone I like who appreciates me. I don't have much expectation for my life having any real purpose. Next week will be ten years since a woman who was not a single mother was willing to go on a date with me. I am here so that my mother will not have to lose another son.

I'm not suicidal. I am in no hurry to die. I just am tired of plowing and sowing and reaping while other people get to enjoy the fruits for which I labor, even when they don't do a thing. I am not ready for death; I am ready for life. But since I don't have what I like, I keep mine so that my mother's will be better.

Sometimes people ask me why I live where I live. I am here for my parents. I may not be their favorite son. I may not be the best son. I am however the only one who was willing to put down roots somewhere they were willing to live. When my dad had surgery, I did most of the labor on their yard. When my parents leave town I watch their house. I'm here for my parents.

It's mutually beneficial. They watched my dog when I went to Poland. My dad speaks German with me. We go camping and share the outdoors, and I go over for dinner most Sundays. I'm here because my family loves me, and I don't want my mother to lose another son.

If you have spent any amount of time reading my blog or watching my videos, you have noticed I am pensive, dour and critical. The only thing I have that gives me any kind of life satisfaction is my new beagle. They took me off teaching status at work and robbed me of access to students (their loss). The Forest Service is discontinuing the program of which I have been part since 2015. But my mother is still there, and during quarantine when we were not supposed to touch people, she took the risk and would hug me knowing that I had nobody else. Family is the only thing in this world that is truly worth a damn.

I thank God for my family. In my younger and foolish years I opined that things were not as I wish. Then I grew up and realized I was pretty lucky and blessed to have the parents I have, to grow up when I did, and experience what I know. Some things were disadvantages, but I like the advantages enough to trade for them, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I hope that you have someone in your life that you love and who loves you. I hope it's your mother. I hope your mother is one of them anyway, because I hope you have many people who care about you. What makes this life really meaningful is three fold. The knowledge you gain, the character you develop, and the relationships you nurture. That's what keeps people here and makes those of us who are still here look forward to seeing those who matter in the afterlife. If you are still here, I hope you know that even if I never meet you or talk to you or sit under a pine tree with you or travel Europe with you that I love you. I chose to come back, and I know that's a rare privilege.

Self-Made Purgatories: Infidelity

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When most people see a single mother, they presume that the man abandoned his roles and responsibilities. Often, this results from infidelity. However, it also excuses the woman from any responsibility or involvement in the maintenance of her own relationship. Sometimes people create their own purgatories and set the stage for bad things to happen to them. Such is our story today, a story of infidelity in which the wife denies any role but in which she arguably has one.

I once knew a woman about a decade ago that we’ll call Lisa. Lisa complained a lot about her husband neglecting her and her daughter to chat online, play online games after work, and play poker with his buddies rather than interacting with them or tending to responsibilities around the house. I consider that a legitimate grouse. However, rather than discuss it with him, confront him with the reality of what was happening, Lisa lighted on a different strategy. She decided to ignore him completely in return.

Her logic in making this choice to return quid pro quo was that this would show him how she felt and inspire him to pay more attention to her. It had the exact opposite effect. Dinner was never ready when he came home; he had to prepare it himself. No gifts were given to him for birthday, anniversary or Christmas, but she expected them of him. And she cut him out of the marital bed completely and refused to be intimate with him. While it was possible that he would up the ante and work to repair the relationship, he retreated further from her instead.

At first, I’m sure it was mostly platonic. I imagine he gamed more, complained to his poker pals, and watched more streaming shows online. Eventually however, he found a sympathetic female ear who first was just kind but eventually one that was welcoming enough to offer him what his wife refused, and he decided to act on her invitations, or maybe he brought it up. If you ask Lisa about her story, she’ll just say her husband cheated on her, and she won’t tell you about the decisions she made that paved a perfect path that made it easier for him to make the choice.

While I disagree with Lisa’s husband, I also disagree with Lisa. Ultimately she did not force him to cheat, and he made those choices to ruin his marriage. It did not have to end that way. She could have made other choices. I know this because my own ex wife also cut me not just out of the bedroom but out of her life entirely. She would just leave whenever she liked, spend money whenever she liked, and even invited strange men into the master bedroom, where I was forbidden. A sympathetic female coworker listened to my plight, but I did not indulge in that behavior. Ultimately I found a different solution and dissolved the marriage through divorce.

I confronted Lisa about this one day. She of course refused my spin on her life. Eventually I got tired of her playing the victim all the time and ghosted her essentially. I could not escape the fact that she played a role, and she refused to accept that was even possible. You can’t argue with idiots.

People paint themselves as the protagonist in their autobiography. They are seemingly never to blame. However, I know that Lisa’s decisions helped make it more likely and more possible for her husband to chart a new course. In a sexless marriage, without any concern let alone intimacy, what did you expect him to do? He was a husband without benefits. Rarely however do people seem to ask the woman what led to the infidelity or how she ended up a single mother. They are simply supportive of the woman, molly coddling her even if she was in the wrong, and the man is slandered and libeled. So was I. People just presumed that I was responsible for destroying my marriage, but if you ask my bishop at the time, maybe he’ll remember that I was the one making an effort and that she never welcomed them.

It takes two people to make a marriage work and it takes two people to destroy one. If we only assume that the husband and his other lover are the two who destroyed it, sometimes we’ll be wrong. And people who are innocent will be convicted in the court of public sentiment. That makes us wrong twice.

Collusion and Tow Companies?

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Just before I left work on July 1st, University Police called me to tell me that my car was at a local towing company. This was in direct contradiction to what the detective told me I could expect. Police procedure means that they are supposed to scan the VIN if there is no plate (which there was none) and then contact me before calling a tow. I found that nothing happened the way I expect it.

The car was not how I expected. The only things missing were the contents of the glove box. I suppose they took the 1995 Saturn Owner's Manual as a trophy. Everything else they put into the trunk, including a tshirt that isn't mine and probably belongs to the thieves. All the parts were there except they tore up the ignition module. They only drove four miles. They probably couldn't start the car, because I couldn't start it with a screwdriver. So, it was always a loss as soon as it disappeared.

According to a sticker on the window, North Las Vegas PD found the car abandoned on the street on 20 June 2024. Apparently they did NOT run the VIN. Only after the tow company received the car did they contact UPD who called me.

I'm the victim here. Twice. My car was stolen. Then I had to pay money to either recover a car I couldn't start so I can find out if I can repair ir or pay money to let the tow company keep it. If the police had called me, I could have towed the car to my house for $50 on my own. Instead, I had to pay hundreds of dollars and didn't even keep the car.

This looks a lot like a scam between police and the towing company to generate extra revenue. I should have known on the 20th of June where the car was and had the chance to move it. Instead, they just put a sticker on the window and then let a towing company come get it so that I would have to pay for work that was completely unnecessary.

Something smells bad. IN any case I signed over the title and paid for the privilege of letting them keep my car. Twice the victim. THe only winner here? The Towing Company. Sus.

Dude, Where's My Car?

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I stuck around last night a few hours after work talking to a coworker waiting for it to cool down before I ran errands only to go out in the parking lot and find that someone stole my car. I was out near the car only four hours earlier, and I'm trying to figure out how they stole it without breaking the window. There is no evidence there was ever a car there. And they got a full tank of gas.

I feel violated and disappointed. I was never planning to drive it forever, but I liked having a Saturn, because I thought they showed I had nothing worth taking. Except of course for the car itself. I told the responding officer that I was trying to look like I had nothing worth taking but evidently failed. The car was a tool- to get me to work and back, and I liked having a beater car basically to just get me to work.

The car also had memories. My dogs travelled with me in those cars. I worked on repairs with my dad. And of course it's a great litmus test for people. It was part of who I am, and they stole it.

No word yet, one way or the other, and although I may never drive it again (they at least have to damage the steering column to get control of the car) I can't help wonder if it ended up scrapped for parts, taken on a one way road trip, totalled, burned, or hidden in a garage None of those are fitting ends for a faithful friend. Many people and things that mean something to us end up with inauspicious ends. This is not the one I imagined for my car.

Amidst the shock, I surprised myself by, once I arrived home at 9:45PM, I uttered a prayer aloud that I have only ever said one other time, when someone special was taken from me. "Thank you, Father, for this blessing. I know that thou lovest me and wouldst not allow this to happen if it were not for my eternal best good." I don't know how it will be to my good. I am hoping.

For now, I'm glad I didn't just get new tires on Memorial Day weekend or change the oil yet. Sunk costs into what will probably come back, if I ever see it again, as a vehicle no longer serviceable for the road. It's the "end of an era". To the thief, I have only one thing to say: Dude! Where's my car?

Gasoline and Prosperity

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In January 2020, my friend and I spent a week in Belize. We rented a car so we could get off the coast for our second trip and see the ruins, the jaguar preserve, Amish country, etc. He paid the car rental, and I paid for gas. At first, he thought this would be in my favour until he discovered the prices at the pump. Even more suprising was the reaction of the people in Belize when I arrived for gas.

In Belize, someone pumps your gas for you. It took me a few times before I noticed the look of surprise on their faces when, after they asked me how much to put in, I told them to fill it up. You see, back in 2020 the average annual salary in Belize was $10,000 so they only bought as much gas as they needed. My friend and I drove 1200 miles on that car in a week and used a fair amount of gas, and we didn't want to have to stop to get a few gallons here and there. I realized then that this showed them I was "wealthy" at least by comparison.

Contrast that to yesterday when I went to the gas station to fill my car in Las Vegas. The pumps tell a story of desperation. Despite reassurances that Bidenomics is working, people were buying 1.2 gallons, 5 gallons, and except for one other pump, nobody spent more than $20 on gas, and these people were putting it directly into their cars, not a jerry can for a lawnmower or something (which I also do sometimes). Granted, my Saturn only holds 12.125 gallons, but I put 11 gallons in the car and DIDN'T BAT AN EYE at the price. I'm upset it's this high, but I'm apparently prosperous enough that I don't have to actually ration money for gasoline.

Let's face it- driving is a privilege. We take it for granted in our society that we can jump in a car, go for a drive, and see the world. Most of our ancestors either walked everywhere or rode a horse. In the last 18 months, I have flown to Europe thrice, trips which would have taken a year in total if I had to go by ship. We are so prosperous now that we don't even know it, but the degree to which people do drive does indicate how prosperous our society actually is.

If you like me are over 40, you probably remember being able to fill your tank for $20 and burn a tank in a day and not worry. Back in 2007, I would fill my car every Saturday and drive as far as a tank would take me and back. Most I ever spent on gas was $30 and that was when I had to buy Chevron or gas in the middle of nowhere. It was a cheap day of entertainment. I used to drive around at night for fun. Now I don't. I only drive to things I really care to do, and I sometimes even walk my errands (the grocer is a mile each way).

Personal prosperity is reflected in our gasoline consumption. When times are good, we drive a lot. When times are dire, we only put in as much gas as we need. Apparently many Americans are living as if they have the standard of living of your average Belizean, and only putting in enough gallons to get to their next paycheck. On the one hand it's good because it means they are not wracking up credit card debt. On the other hand it's bad, and I feel for them because cars equal freedom.

I found a graph that I think is interesting showing inflation of fast food over the past ten years.

If you consider the actual inflation rate, it tells an interesting story. The rate of inflation increased significantly in 2021, coinciding with a change in which party leads this nation. I do not think it is a coincident. Our prosperity is down as a rule. I'm just doing well enough that I didn't notice the gasoline asymptote when I was in Belize, and I haven't felt it until yesterday. I still stay under my gasoline budget for the month, but that's because I don't drive anywhere "just because I feel like it" anymore. When I break the budget, I'll know even I'm impacted by Bidenomics, something of which Kamala Harris is very proud.

Food for thought.

Most Christians Are Actually Heretics

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People all around me like to call me heretic because I don’t subscribe to traditional catholic (or other Christian) dogma. However, I recently lighted upon a traditional belief that is far more heretical than anything I believe because it is actually a way in which we deny the Christ. Most Chrisitan faith alleges that God is no respector of persons while teaching that He is. That is not a merciful God, nor is it a Christian principle.

While serving as a missionary in Neumarkt am Wallersee Austria, we tracted into the Andexer Family. They invited us in because their son, who was probably around 20 at the time of his death, had not been baptized as a child. The local pastor told them that, because their son was not baptized as an infant, he was condemned to hell. We shared with them our dogma, it gave them hope, and while they never embraced our Faith, they from that time forward were friendly towards us and would wave when they saw us in town. He gave them wrath; we gave them hope. And whosoever beleiveth in God might with surety hope for a better world. Another chance.

You see, the teaching that only those who are baptized as children can be saved means that God is a respector of persons. Only those appropriately baptized as youth while alive can be saved by Christ. This denies the Christ, not that He exists, but that He is the Christ came to rescue and redeem ALL men. The catholic dogma, and in fact most Christian religions, make no provision for posthumous ordinances despite the fact that Paul asked “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:29). This seems to imply that there was provision in the early church for those who had not the chance to accept Christ while alive to accept it once they passed out of the mortal realm.

It's not just Christians who are condemned to be cast by God’s wrath to hell by this heresy. This means that all people all over the world, either blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, or kept from the truth because they know not where to find it, are condemned, because they were BORN UNABLE TO HEAR ABOUT CHRIST. No Dane, nor Iriquois, nor Magyar, nor Selucid, nor Berber may be saved by Christ because they were not blessed by God to be born in a place and time to hear about Him. How can Christ be the Savior of Mankind if most of mankind is not allowed to be saved because they were not baptized Catholic, particularly as children? This is heresy. Worse, it is anti-Christ.

Regardless of where or when someone lived, all can hear and accept the message of the Redeemer and Christ’s Atoning Sacrifice through the sealing powers made possible in the Lord’s House. For Christ came not to destroy but to fulfill, and what does He fulfill, the promise that all mankind MAY be saved, if they wish to be. Now modern Christians teach how all you must do is accept Christ and let Him in, and then they shut the door and bar any of the Pagans from entry and don’t even give them a chance to hear and accept. This message gives men hope. This message brings the Good News of the Gospel. It also comforts Christians who are fearful, selfish, lazy or timid enough that they fail to either come to Christ themselves or invite others WHO ARE ALIVE to join us. Who are we to decide who gets to hear about Christ? Who are we to decide who gets to be saved by Christ because we decide NOT to preach of Him to them and thereby condemn them forever to hell by our bias? Through proxy ordinances, those who died not having the privilege of knowing about Christ may accept Him, follow Him, obey Him, magnify His name, and partake of His mercy, grace and love.

No man must be condemned by circumstance or choice forever to hell. That does not sound like a loving God to me. Rather, He made provision that all mankind may be saved and exalted by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, regardless of their location in space or in time, even those who are beyond the grave. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoso believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Even if they died before Christ or before they got a chance to hear about Him.

The simple fact of the matter is that we do not know who will be saved by Christ. Everyone CAN be, but that’s between them and Christ, and we have very little if any say in that. The catholic church has made it part of its dogma ever since anyone knows to deny the Christ and claim that they know who can and will be saved, but we don’t know that. In truth, I suspect myriads of Christians will awake on resurrection day not only surprised where they end up but also by those in whose company they find themselves.