W PA Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church Sets Another Record!

The Western Pennylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church will meet at Grove City College in Grove City PA on the dates of Thursday, June 13th through Sunday, June 16th. All clergy are required to be in attendance. The service of ordination will be held on the morning of June 16th and will last approximately 3 hours. --- gleaned from information sent to W PA Conference delegates.

Well, they did it again! The first year they did it was back in 2005 and then again in 2006. They took a year off in 2007 and then did it again in 2008. They have had a number of years off now, but will do it again this year on June 16, 2013! What is this, you ask? All pastors of the United Methodist Church of the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference will be at the closing session of the conference at Grove City College on Father’s Day, June 16, 2013. That is the day of ordination and all pastors, including retired elders such as I, are expected to be present. It’s about a 3 hour session or so.

The first year they pulled this debacle I wrote to the bishop and as expected, there was no response. I also wrote the second year and again, no response.

Question: how many churches can you name, independent or denominational that have had their pastors off somewhere on something by way of some outside activity and not in their pulpits on Father’s Day? How many United Methodist Conferences can you name that have done this kind of thing that qualifies as a major foul-up of the first magnitude?

Yes, the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference stands in a class all by itself on this! All we have to do is come up with a name for that class – difficult to do, as there is probably not a word in the English language yet to really define such a thing!

The issue in this is whether or not Father’s Day is an important date on the church calendar and worthy of time and attention in a nation where the ranks of dead-beat dads are growing year by year – you know, those guys who think nothing of fathering a child and then take off to let the impregnated female to fend for herself – all those “Baby, I love you -- I’ll love you forever!” statements in the heat of passion now mean absolutely nothing! The Bible does have some things to say about fatherhood and responsibility that falls directly on the shoulders of fathers, does it not?

By scheduling a conference session on Father’s Day and requiring all clergy to be present (and absent from their pulpits) the conference administration is sending a message – Father’s Day isn’t worth the ink which was required to print the name on the date of June 16th on the 2013 calendar where the name appears.

Yes, yes, I know – the defense is likely that scheduling with the college was limited in time and those few days in June ending on June 16th were the only days available in which the conference could be held. There is absolutely no law that says that the conference has to be held over through Father’s Day and an ordination service can be scheduled at other times.

As a result of such a fiasco as this, hundreds of fathers will not get to have that special day with their families and hundreds of pastors will not have the opportunity to observe this very special day in their churches.

A few of us, and maybe just a very few, still hold that Father’s Day is on an equal level with Mother’s Day in terms of importance and each of those days should be observed in churches with an equal amount of zeal. In over half a century of ministry I never missed a Father’s Day service. Further, I have probably conducted more Father’s Day services than any other pastor in the W PA Annual Conference mainly due to the fact that I chose to turn down a station appointment and to stay with a circuit of small congregation churches. The total of those services which I conducted on Father’s Day comes to 139. This June 16th will make #140 although as an ordained elder, I am supposed to be in attendance at the session of the Western PA Annual Conference on June 16th. But I will be conducting a Father’s Day service at Gipsy Christian Church in Gipsy PA. No brag, just plain ordinary fact!

In one of those letters to the bishop I asked that if this situation were occurring on Mother’s Day, would the conference hold the session, do the ordination, and require attendance on part of all pastors? I then said, “We both know the answer to that, do we not?”

I rest my case!

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the instruction and discipline of the Lord. [Ephesians 6:4 - Wesley NT]

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. [Colossians 3:21 - Wesley NT]

A Shameful Day for Washington DC?

The news release mentioned that the present resident of the White House was “visibly frustrated” and that he “decried the defeat of the measure as parents of victims of last year's Newtown school shootings and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords looked on.” This bit of drama took place in the aftermath of the vote in the Senate in which the expanded background check on gun sales was defeated by a vote of 54 to 46. 60 votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted. In the Rose Garden setting it was noted that "All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington."

Depending on whose ox was gored in the voting, remarks were made either in support of or against more gun control legislation.

The tragedy, however, is in the remark about it being a shameful day in Washington because of the way the vote went. In their ignorance the members of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government fail to realize that every day has been a shameful day for Washington DC for decades over time!

Even as zealous gun control advocates lamented the way the vote went today in the U.S. Senate they did not recognize another very critical happening which took place throughout the day. Even as the vote was being processed in the Senate chamber a number of unborn children were being brutally mutilated and murdered at different locations throughout our republic. And as the day comes to a close the tally of innocent victims will be in the hundreds!

But these high profile people in the three powerful branches of the United States government do not care – in fact, most are in support of the daily massacre of hundreds of unborn children. Further, the present resident of the White House will vigorously oppose any effort to restrict the practice of exterminating thousands of unborn children each week of the year!

It is nothing short of hypocrisy of the first magnitude to focus on alleged violence and loss of life due to use of firearms but not give a second of time to constructively eliminate the violence that takes the lives of hundreds of the unborn each week day. The tragedy is compounded when it is recognized that the people who commit these mass murders are never charged with a crime and become extremely wealthy as a result of the murders which they have been guilty of committing.

It is one of many glaring inconsistencies in our culture – a person spends a lot of time and work in developing skills that are to be used to benefit and enhance human health, but then turns around and uses those skills to further advance the bloody tally of the United States’ version of Holocaust!

The question of all questions is this: what will all these people do when Almighty God Who forms each conceived human being in his/her mother’s womb openly shows His intense displeasure with our insane policy of establishing a “constitutional right” to destroy an unborn child by deliberate choice?

For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore. Jeremiah 7:5-7 (ASV)

Hypocrisy Rears Its Ugly Head During Issue of Gun Violence and Gun Control!

Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie. (Source: Wikipedia)

Hypocrisy has reared its big ugly head in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre which took place in Connecticut in mid-December of 2012. A majority of media people, a bunch of politicians and not a few church leaders are jumping on the “ban guns/high capacity magazines” bandwagon. Have you noticed how shooting incidents now get high profile news coverage? And states such as Connecticut and Colorado have dominated news information since enacting what has been referred to as the strictest gun control measures in the entire nation? The media are really feasting on this! And did you notice the emphasis in the graphic above in which statistics are noted as related to deaths by gun violence in the U.S. and military combat deaths?

Where is the hypocrisy in all this, you ask? For starters, on the very same day of the Sandy Hook massacre, hundreds of unborn children were brutally mutilated and murdered – not a couple or three dozen or so, but hundreds! The diligent media that is so rabid in reporting gun violence never gave so much as a teeny bit of a hint in regard to the violent deaths of those unborn children, did they? Connecticut, by the way, has one of the highest abortion rates in the entire nation – 20 for every thousand women each year! In fact, a number of states in the northeast which suffered great devastation due to Hurricane Sandy have extremely high abortion rates.

The campaign is under way to make our schools safer for children, so the gun control advocates claim. But they suddenly develop a case of lockjaw when it comes to speaking out and making the country safer so that about 25,000 unborn children are not violently killed each week of the year!

The present resident of the White House has been aggressively pushing for more and more gun control and in his rhetoric declares that we need to take steps to reduce gun violence and loss of human life as a result of such violence. Yet at the same time this man is an ardent supporter of the present national policy that permits a million or more unborn children to be violently murdered each year!

While a member of the Illinois legislature Obama was instrumental in blocking legislation intended to require lifesaving treatment be given to an infant that just happened to survive an abortion attempt on its life. Yes, once in a great while a small number do survive that hellish procedure. But so far as Obama was concerned, let them lay on a table until they die – do not so much as lift your pinky finger to help them! No doubt about it – we are witnessing hypocrisy in its most decadent form – we cry out for more gun control – we say the gun violence must stop but we don’t let one syllable come out of the mouth in protest against violence that takes the lives of hundreds of unborn children each day.

Have you ever seen a photo of the dismembered remains of an unborn child that was brutally torn to pieces by a guy wearing a white coat with the erroneous letters “M.D.” stitched behind his name? For some strange reason the media people, pro-abortion politicians, zealous supporters of abortion on demand, and indifferent church leaders vehemently object to the public exposure of photos which underscore the horrors of the United States’ unique version of Holocaust.

The graphic at the beginning quoted a figure of 305,493 deaths from gun violence from year 2001 through year 2010. How many unborn children were deliberately murdered during those years? You do not think in terms of a few hundred thousand -- escalate your calculation in terms of millions. Grand total since the insane Supreme Court decision of 1973 stating it is a "constitutional right" for a female to choose to have her unborn child dismembered and murdered is over 55 million victims!

But this “shedding of innocent blood” (a Bible term) will definitely come to an end at some point in the future. However, it is highly unlikely it will come by state and federal level legislation – the hardness of heart is too deeply entrenched for that possibility. Rather it will come by the direct intervention of Almighty God Who forms all conceived children in the womb for a high and holy purpose. We are not going to want to be within the boundaries of this republic when that intervention takes place!

The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. --- Matthew 24:50, 51 (KJV)

Just When We Have Sunk As Low As a Society Can Go, We Manage to Dig Our Pit of Depravity Even Deeper!

A breaking news headline (Jan 24, 2013) has informed us with the exciting revelation that the Pentagon is lifting the ban on women being directly involved in combat operations. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in releasing the information stated that it was “the responsibility of every citizen to protect the nation.” And the present resident of the White House had to say something too – in his words the decision to involve females in direct combat circumstances would “be another step toward fulfilling our nation’s founding ideals of fairness and equality.”

We have dug a pit of depravity for ourselves that is about as deep as it can possibly be with our lack of respect for human life – that is, the intentional destruction of thousands of unborn children every week. A recent poll has indicated that most United States citizens want this carnage to continue and to preserve the ruling of Roe v. Wade intact, which is what the nation’s top elected “leader” wants also! But we have managed to make the pit a bit deeper in the bizarre announcement that now women will be able to have direct participation in military combat operations. You have already read the insane comments of two persons who are supposed to be in positions of leadership.

In older times when wisdom, common sense, and deep God-fearing moral convictions dominated the mindset of those elected to lead our republic, it was believed that men did the fighting in military conflict when that became a very nasty necessity. While women served in the military, it was always out of harm’s way as much as possible. It was a commonly held belief that a nation did everything it could to protect the women and the children in the event of armed conflict. And who was to do the protecting? The answer was simple – the men!

Having been trained a long, long time ago on how to use weapons against an enemy and how to tear an enemy up with a bayonet in the ugly “hand to hand” stuff, it is impossible for me to try to visualize what it would be like to be alongside a female while trading bullets with an enemy a few yards away. Personally, I am afraid I would be greatly distracted by worrying about her well being and protection in the midst of all the action. Yeah, that’s the male chauvinist coming out of me! I still believe in trying to be a gentleman and treat a lady like a lady – I still open doors in public places for a lady entering or leaving a building.

But the very worst thing in this "grand opportunity" of sending women into full combat operations is something that our “leaders” have not seriously thought about or they are so hopelessly brainwashed into the delusion that a “woman can do anything a man can do and probably do it better.” Want to think for a moment what will happen to those females if they happen to be captured by the enemy? Sit down and write some of the details as to what will transpire. Oh, make sure you warn the reader that what they are about to read carries a XXX rating!

However, that really doesn’t matter now, does it? We have taken “another step toward fulfilling our nation’s founding ideals of fairness and equality.”

Oh, by the way - on that matter of a woman being able to do anything a man can do, and probably do it better anyway -- I have yet to see a female on the starting lineup and playing the position of nose tackle on even one of the NFL teams - have you?

Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord...But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it...Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself…. --- Ephesians 5:22, 24, 25, 28

Another Happening on December 14, 2012 Is Ignored and Vehemently Denied!

Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. --- 2 Kings 21:16

On December 14, 2012 in Newtown CT Adam Lanza, 20 years old, entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and shot 20 children and 6 adults to death. This tragic happening not only shook our republic but many other nations in this world as well.

The media immediately went into “shark in bloody water mode” with a constant stream of reports from the massacre scene and a barrage of statements issued by persons who had some kind of position somewhere within the borders of the United States! And it actually continues to an extent a month later. Our local NBC affiliate in Johnstown PA (WJAC TV) makes its pilgrimage to Newtown CT on a repetitive basis to dredge up something – sort of like a vulture returning to the bones to get that very last piece of rotting flesh on the rib cage!

Now then, do you realize this – that on that very same day hundreds (not just dozens) – yes, hundreds – perhaps as many as 3,000 innocent unborn children were intentionally mutilated and murdered in their so-called “mothers’” wombs in the “land of the free and the home of the brave?” Yes, it happened on December 14, 2012!

Answer me – how many of our diligent media reported this far greater massacre that took place on December 14, 2012? How many of our high profile elected officials pointed out this abomination as they prattled on and on about the shooting of small children and adults in a school in Connecticut?

And of course, as could have been expected, the anti-gun campaign began with such intensity that it would make a presidential campaign seem like an amateur contest in its earliest stages! Again, elected officials led the way with declarations of the need to ban guns or at the very least so restrict gun owners that owning a gun is about the worst thing you can be guilty of doing and you need to pay some kind of exorbitant price for such an offense.

Mr. Obama was quick to jump on the anti-gun bandwagon with all sorts of statements issued including the not so veiled threat to use executive “power” in order to bring a high degree of control on the availability and use of firearms.

But in all the flood of words that spewed forth from all officials (self-appointed and otherwise) including the present resident of the White House, did you hear one word of concern about the massacre of hundreds of innocent unborn children on December 14, 2012?

While the media has overwhelmed us with talk about banning guns and reducing violence as a result of usage of those horrible gadgets, have there been any proposals from our elite leadership about banning the tools used to rip apart an unborn child so that the pieces are scattered out on a table and a “doctor” (term used very loosely) takes an inventory so that he/she is certain everything is accounted for – before the pieces are then discarded as casually as throwing a tissue into the garbage can after blowing one’s nose into that tissue?

The greatest tragedy of all in this matter is not the killing of persons in a place in the state of Connecticut or even the daily destruction of hundreds of unborn children in a republic known as the United States of America – the ultimate tragedy is that we have leadership (political and church) so blind and so ignorant that they fail to realize that the God Who formed this mighty universe by mere spoken command is going to make His response to this massive “shedding of innocent blood” that has been going on for forty years as of January 22, 2013!

No culture in the past has practiced the “shedding of innocent blood” and gotten off without incalculable consequences – in fact they now lie in ruins somewhere in this dismal world. It is a guarantee that the United States will prove to be no exception!

And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood; and the stars of the heaven fell unto the earth, as a fig tree casts her unripe figs when she is shaken of a great wind. And the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?” --- Revelation 6:12-17

Letter to Editor About that Fiscal Cliff!

The letter printed below was sent to editors of the following newspapers: The Indiana Gazette in Indiana PA, The Punxsutawney Spirit in Punxsutawney PA, Mainline Newspapers in Ebensburg PA, and The Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown PA.

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Friday, December 14, 2012

Editor:

At present time the news arena is dominated with one subject that is summarized in the expression “fiscal cliff.” As the president and the Congress attempt to maneuver for positions of great influence in this debacle, the image of a 3-ring circus quickly comes to mind.

The tragedy in this is the failure to realize that the real crisis is not the possibility of falling over a fiscal cliff but the hard reality that we have already fallen over a moral cliff!

Our version of Holocaust has resulted in over 55 million unborn victims. Our idolatry is on a level comparable to the ancient Roman Empire. Our sexual immorality is now pandemic in nature. We continue to brainwash the majority of our young with the deadly doctrine that we have evolved from lower life forms, hence, there is no personal need for God if He really does exist.

Mounting evidence suggests that it is simply a matter of time until Almighty God, Who is calling us to repent of our personal and corporate sins, deals with our nation as He has dealt with others in the past whose ruins now pique the interests of archeologists!

Clayton D. Harriger, Pastor

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"You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you." --- Ezekiel 2:7, 8

Lesson from a Bulldog!

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. Luke 6:26

I have participated in the famous social network known as Facebook for quite some time and have a few hundred persons known as "friends" on the network. Over time there has been a lot of interaction and many responses to things I have posted.

In dealing with responses I have tried to learn a lesson which was revealed through the experience one pastor had many years ago.

The pastor was walking down a sidewalk toward the home of a church member he wanted to visit. Before he reached his destination, he noticed some distance away an English bulldog coming in his direction in the middle of the sidewalk. As the two got closer to one another there was a sudden barking from a small dog in the yard of one home as the bulldog passed by. But the bulldog never so much as gave a glance in the direction of the one making all the noise. It was one of those "yap" dogs - small in size, but big in the mouth and always yapping all the time about something. But the bulldog would not be distracted. He continued to lumber along at a steady pace looking straight ahead.

The pastor reports that he too had been walking in the middle of the sidewalk and now this bulldog was getting close -- he was still in the middle of the sidewalk and gave no indication that he was going to change his position. So the pastor said that he stepped to the side of the walk and the bulldog just kept going with not the slightest hesitation, passing by the pastor without glancing a bit at him -- same response as he had made to the yap dog just a short time earlier.

The pastor turned and watched as the bulldog continued on his way -- it was obvious that the bulldog was headed somewhere and was not about to be detoured or distracted regarding his destination. After a bit as the bulldog got further away, the pastor said he bowed his head and prayed, "God, give me what that bulldog has!"

Due to posting subject matter related to my website and my blog as well as a wide variety of images with comments, there have been numerous responses. Some have been complimentary and express in one or another agreement with the posting. But others have been quite negative and in some cases those responding have been extremely upset to the point of labeling me in not very flattering terms! I do not respond to such -- yes, I could engage in the art of trying to set them "straight" but I won't -- I have more important things to do. The bulldog had a destination toward which he was moving and he was not about to be distracted from that by a yap dog with its noise or a pastor standing in the side walk. I also have a destination toward which I am moving -- and I have to be careful that I do not allow myself to be distracted and/or detoured along the way.

That bulldog was a good teacher! I am grateful for his example, so, "Lord, give me what that bulldog has!"

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." --- Matthew 5:10-16