Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 30, 2015

15

OPINION

Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 30, 2015 


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

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I MAY BE ODD BUT ONE 

DAY I’LL GET EVEN


I must admit that I am not a great one in answering 
questions. It may be I do not hear the question 
correctly, or someone will ask me a question and 
I give an answer to another question.

 I am beginning to think that I have a little bit 
of politician-itis. I hope there is a cure for this. 
I would hate to go through the rest of my life 
inflicted with this malady. I promise you, I am 
not running for any political office, and therefore 
I do not need any politician-itis to infect my 
personality.

 Overall, questions are very hard to answer. If 
you miss one word in the question, in your mind 
you hear a different question. I must confess that 
I do not always listen as carefully as I should. 
Usually I am thinking of something else when 
somebody presents their question to me.

 By somebody, I am referencing the Gracious 
Mistress of the Parsonage. I noticed a game show 
on television now called, “500 Questions.” I had 
to laugh when I saw it because my wife has them 
beat by a long shot. Why, she can give me 500 
questions before breakfast.

 It is my opinion that one of the secrets to 
longevity, not to speak of happiness, in marriage 
is not taking all of those questions seriously. If I 
had to answer all the questions that came to me 
in the order they came to me, either I would be 
divorced or in an insane asylum, which may be 
the same place.

 Whoever coined the phrase, “Yes, Dear,” was a 
genius on many levels. When I began using this 
phrase, my life took on a little calmer altitude.

 One of the things that I have learned about 
wives is that they will ask questions not really 
expecting answers. When I first got married, 
I thought I had to answer every question that 
stumbled out of her mouth. I still remember the 
day when it dawned on me that she was asking 
me questions not to get my answer but to have 
me nod my head and say, “Yes, Dear.” Then our 
marriage took on a very nice direction.

 I am not sure what I was doing at the time, but 
the question that came from my spouse, was, 
“Are you acting odd, or what?”

 Now, according to my spouse, she believes I am 
an Academy award actor. I only wish I were as 
good as she thinks I am in the area of the thespian 
arts. I simply am not.

 To her question, “Are you acting odd, or what?” 
I simply replied by saying, “I’m not acting!”

 At the time, I did not know what I was saying, 
but the more I think about it, the more I think I 
said the right thing. I am not sure it is possible to 
act odd, although there may be some very good 
actors that can pull it off. With me, I am not acting. 
I am not sure what “acting odd” means from 
her perspective, but I am coming to understand 
my perspective of the whole thing.

 I may appear to be “acting odd,” but I am really 
simply just odd. I think I can rightly say that I am 
the “Wizard of Odd.”

 Being somewhat of an expert in the area of 
“acting odd,” I have learned a few things about 
it. There is nothing wrong with being odd, 
particularly in the society in which we live.

 Sometimes people talk about the “average 
person in America,” which does not exist 
anywhere on the planet. What would the average 
person look like? Where would you begin? 

 I know with many people, what I do may look 
odd. I am not worried about that. I know my wife 
thinks some of the things I do is odd. But then, 
she married me. I could not be that odd if she was 
willing to marry me.

 Everybody is odd in different ways. I’m not sure 
all the different ways in which I am odd, but the 
more I look into myself and the oddness of my 
life, I’m getting a little more comfortable in my 
skin. I am not sure what that means, because 
I have never been out of my skin that I can 
remember. There were those odd moments when 
my skin crawled, but that’s another story.

 Being odd isn’t the horrible thing some people 
think it is. If I were just like everybody else, how 
would you know it’s me? The thing that makes 
me different from everybody else is that aspect of 
oddness that permeates my personality.

 It is not that I have tried to be odd. I am just 
trying to be myself. I see some of these so-called 
celebrities on TV and everybody wants to be like 
them. I have yet to see anybody on TV I would 
like to be like. If I were like some celebrity, how 
would you know the difference between me and 
he?

 I have come to like myself and the main reason 
I have come to that point is I have discovered how 
much God loves me. One of my favorite verses 
is, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.”

 I accept being odd now because one day I will 
be even.

 

 Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family 
of God Fellowship, PO Box 831313, Ocala, FL 
34483. He lives with his wife, Martha, in Silver 
Springs Shores. Call him at 1-866-552-2543 or 
e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net or website www.
jamessnyderministries.com.


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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

MICHAEL Reagan

HOWARD Hays As I See It

CONSERVATIVE 
CHRISTIANS MISCOUNT

I don't care how popular the Duggar 
family and their TLC reality show "19 
Kids & Counting" is with Christian 
conservatives.

I don't care how many Republican 
presidential hopefuls Josh Duggar 
posed with in Iowa, or how important 
his celebrity was to the Family Research 
Council, the conservative Christian 
lobbying group.

When the Duggar family's oldest son 
admitted he had molested and fondled 
five little girls — including some of his 
own sisters — when he was 14, it was 
time for conservative Christians to hold 
Josh and the Duggar family accountable 
for their actions.

Most didn't.

Also, I noticed, most of those who want 
to be the GOP's president in 2016 bit 
their tongues and pretended they hadn't 
heard the shocking news.

But not Mike Huckabee, the ordained 
Southern Baptist minister. He really 
blew it.

Rushing to his Facebook page, he said 
he and his wife affirmed their support 
for the Duggar family. He said what 
Josh did was "inexcusable" but not 
"unforgivable."

"Good people make mistakes and do 
regrettable and even disgusting things," 
Huckabee wrote. 

Almost 70,000 of Huckabee's Facebook 
followers "liked" what he said, but he 
was completely wrong.

Child molesting is not a "mistake" you 
make when you're young. It's a crime 
against the innocent that should be 
prosecuted — and one I believe that 
should have no statute of limitations. 
In fact, the statute of limitations is only 
there to protect the guilty, not protect 
the innocent.

As we wait for more shoes to drop in this 
scandal, I have some uncomfortable 
questions people should be asking.

Let's start with Josh, who's now 27, has 
three kids and is no longer the executive 
director of the Family Research 
Council.

Was he a born a molester? Was he 
molested as a child?

Were other members of Josh's huge 
family molested? Should he be in 
therapy now? Are his own kids safe?

Child molesting is evil, sad, disgusting 
stuff. I know. I was molested by a camp 
counselor when I was eight. Though my 
father wanted to kick his butt when he 
found out 34 years later, my molester 
never paid for his 
"mistake." But I 
did.

Child molesting is 
often covered up 
— and most often 
it's the family itself 
that protects the 
molester.

Did Duggar's 
parents put their commercial success 
ahead of holding Josh accountable? 
Were they afraid to lose the national 
platform TLC gave them for their strict 
brand of Christian family values?

And speaking of TLC, shouldn't we be 
asking its executives what they knew 
about Josh's "mistake" and when they 
knew it? Did they care more about 
ratings and revenues than doing what 
was right?

Republicans and conservatives should 
be asking the people who run the 
Family Research Council the same 
tough ethical questions.

If it turns out they knew about Josh's 
past and were still willing to hire him 
because of his celebrity, the FRC's 
credibility is finished. Everything it 
believes in and has fought for will be 
lost.This scandal was a good time to do 
more than just fire Josh Duggar from 
the FRC and put the TV show on hold. 
It was also an opportunity to hold Josh 
accountable for his actions. But that 
didn't happen.

As for Huckabee, I also have some 
questions.

If you found out tomorrow that Barack 
Obama had molested his young nieces 
when he was 14, would you call that "a 
mistake" and say you were willing to 
forgive him?

What if teen-age Barack had been 
caught molesting, was reprimanded 
and was then caught molesting again a 
year later?

Would you still say no purpose would be 
served by discrediting Barack Obama 
or his family by "sensationalizing" the 
story? I bet not.

We all know why Huckabee blew it. He 
had Iowa on his mind, not God.

He didn't want to lose the support of the 
Duggar family or his Christian base, so 
he decided to call Josh Duggar's child 
molesting a "mistake." 

But child molesting is never a mistake. 
No matter who does it, it's always a 
felony. And it's not something a cable 
network or a family is ever entitled to 
cover up.

“I had other 
priorities in the 
60s than military 
service.”

- Vice President 
Dick Cheney, 
explaining to 
the Washington 
Post his five draft 
deferments during 
the Vietnam War

 For me, a three-
day weekend 
means extra time 
to get stuff done 
around the house, 
and then the following week at my day job 
trying to cram five days of work into four. 

I don’t see Memorial Day as a time for politics, 
of debating justifications for deploying our 
military and sending men and women to war. 
It’s a time to honor those who have and are 
willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their 
country and to remember those that did.

 But that was last week - so now, back to 
politics.

 Going way back, there’s Article I, Section 
8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution, giving 
Congress the power to “declare War” and 
“make Rules concerning Captures on Land and 
Water”. Nearly sixty years after its adoption, 
President Polk thought he’d bypass it in 
launching war against Mexico.

 Arguing the matter with a law partner, Rep. 
Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) wrote of the danger 
of allowing a president to make war “whenever 
he may choose to say he deems it necessary . . 
. and allow him to make war at pleasure.” He 
explained the Founders’ concern as, “Kings 
had always been involving and impoverishing 
their people in wars”, and “This our Convention 
understood to be the most oppressive of all 
Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so 
frame the Constitution that no one man should 
hold the power of bringing this oppression 
upon us.”

 Congress revisited the issue in 1973; enacting 
the War Powers Resolution (over the veto of 
President Nixon) requiring notification within 
48 hours of the president’s committing our 
forces to military action, and Congressional 
approval if the action lasts more than sixty days.

 In 2002 there was the Authorization for Use of 
Military Force Against Iraq. Knowing then what 
they knew then, over 60% of House Democrats 
voted against it, finding an insufficient case had 
been made for war. All but 6 of the 223 House 
Republicans voted for it. In the Senate, 42% of 
Democratic senators opposed the resolution, 
while 1 of the 49 Republicans did (Sen. Lincoln 
Chafee of Rhode Island).

 We’ve been attacking the Islamic State now 
for over nine months. There’s been nearly 4,000 
airstrikes and over $2 billion spent with 3,000 of 
our troops in Iraq. But in the words of Sen. Tim 
Kaine (D-VA), “Congress has been a spectator. 
There’s not been a declaration of war. There’s 
not been an Authorization for Use of Military 
Force . . . There’s been no House floor debate or 
vote . . . there’s been no meaningful floor debate 
and no meaningful Senate floor action.”

 The reason is politics. Whether it’s the 
unwillingness of a largely-Shiite Iraqi military 
to take on IS in Sunni areas, reservations about 
allying with Iranian-led militias or hesitation in 
taking actions that could benefit Syrian dictator 
Assad, our elected representatives as spectators 
can simply say it’s all President Obama’s fault.

 Last February, the president sent Congress 
an Authorization for Use of Military Force 
focusing on the Islamic State. After three 
months of inaction, House Speaker John 
Boehner (R-OH) now says the president should 
“start over” and send over a new one. That’s 
not the president’s responsibility, however – it’s 
the responsibility of Congress. Shirking that 
responsibility hoping to score political points 
dishonors our troops – past and present.

 It also dishonors our military to regard them 
primarily as a marketing target in hopes of 
making a buck. With their regular paychecks, 
they’ve been an attractive target for payday 
lenders and predatory short-term credit. Last 
year, the Pentagon developed regulations to 
help protect military families from increasingly 
crushing debt. In response, House Republicans 
answered the call of their banking-industry 
benefactors and slipped a provision into the 
National Defense Authorization Act to put off 
those regulations for a year. Late last month 
House Democrats got enough Republican 
support to have that provision stricken, but two 
weeks later another Republican bill was filed to 
block the protections.

 There’s also been the long-term effort to turn 
our collective responsibility to our 8 million 
veterans into a profit-making opportunity for 
the private healthcare and insurance industries. 
A Koch Brothers front group, Concerned 
Veterans for America, has been pushing a plan 
similar to what Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) sought 
for Medicare; rather than having access to the 
VA, our vets would instead be handed a voucher 
and sent off to try their luck in the private 
healthcare marketplace.

 Other groups (AMVETS, Disabled 
American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of 
America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, etc.) 
are adamantly opposed and, despite its 
well-publicized problems, defend the VA 
as uniquely able to address the battlefield 
injuries, traumatic brain injuries and long-
term psychological disorders afflicting our vets. 
The Congressional Budget Office predicts the 
plan would effect a “dramatic shift of healthcare 
costs onto patients”, while a 2012 Rand 
Study confirms that the VA as it is “delivers 
care as good or better than its private sector 
counterparts; all while doing a much better job 
of controlling costs for American taxpayers.”

 Presidential contender Jeb Bush, however, 
thinks it’s a great idea, as did Mitt Romney 
when he was running.

 Meanwhile, President Obama has promised 
to veto H.R. 2029, the current veteran’s bill, if it 
reaches his desk as it came out of the Republican 
House. It comes up a billion dollars short of 
needs and, according to Rep. Xavier Becerra 
(D-CA), would cut health benefits for 70,000 
of our veterans along with funding for medical 
research, VA construction, education, veteran’s 
cemeteries, etc.

 Memorial Day’s special, but our obligation 
to our veterans can’t be relegated to a certain 
day. When they signed up to serve, their 
commitment to protect our nation’s interests 
extended 24-7, 365 days a year. Our nation’s 
commitment to protecting their interests can 
be nothing less. 


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