average JoeOhio cont.: Went to an excellent talk by Paul Egan at Presentations Ministries in Peebles, Ohio today. In analyzing Corinthians in the Bible, Mr. Egan drew some modern day parallels. He said, for instance, that dressing modestly is becoming a tremendously big issue — not only on the streets, but even among church attendees. A woman in the audience said she believes Soap Operas these days are nothing but “soft porn.” And yet another woman said the magazine racks in the grocery stores these days amount to nothing but soft porn as well. My wife Liz said she knew of someone who would regularly turn the magazines over while waiting in line — “right in front of everyone.” Liz added that today in America it’s essential to protest, loudly, for what’s right. I agree. Mr. Egan ended with: “You have to fight for truth.” Note: Mr. Egan also referred to the Bible passage that says it’s better to have a millstone (big stone) tied around your neck and be thrown into the sea, than to (spiriually) mislead a child. I couldn’t help but think you’re a parent who is sitting children down in front of most of modern television — and all it’s tremendously influencing, corrosive messages — well, you might want to get fitted for the millstone, now.
7/3/07
average JoeOhio Tour cont.: I met Debbie Schachner in West Union, Ohio, yesterday. She was on a walk — from coast to coast. During the walk, she is raising funds for a library in Timau, Kenya, where she was a volunteer for the Action for Water and Education Foundation (AWE). During an interview with Ms. Schachner, 31, she said the abject poverty in Timau is palpable. She explained many families in Timau (pop. 100,000) live in dwellings comparable to a “master bathroom” in a home in America. They have no running water, no electricity, children sleep atop old clothes on the floor and food consists primarily (and there isn’t much) of bags of beans and corn. Ms. Schachner, who is from O’Fallon, IL, said she found the difference in lifestyles between America and Kenya, over all, as striking. What’s more, she said in America there is “hope” for most children growing up. Whereas in Kenya, there’s little “hope,” of anything better. With a new library, Ms. Schachner is trying to bring a bit of hope. She has raised some $50,000, so far, on a walk that has spanned more than 3,000 miles to date. For those who want to donate: AWE Foundation (attn: Kenya Library) 4286 Burkey Rd., Youngstown, Ohio 44515; and to visit Ms. Schachner’s website and follow her trail, see: www.walkingwithfaith.com Note: Ms. Schachner was introduced to the congregation at Sacred Heart Church in West Union. Fr. Ted Kossee said we are in the throes of extensive world hunger (especially in the Third World), some 86 diseases there are still no cures for (especially in the Third World), a lack of clean drinking water (especially in the Third World)… He said God’s people in America, in the face of all this, are called to help in dramatic ways.
6/30/07
I attended a Memorial Service in Cleveland last weekend for Bruce Edward Horner, an Army medic who was killed in Iraq this month. His brother, Doug, is a good friend of mine — and a peace activist. Doug is also the pastor of St. Paul’s Community Church in the heart of the city here. (Half of his congregation are homeless people.) Doug gave an emotional talk about his brother and ended by saying if the sniper would have gotten to know Doug, he never would have killed him. The service ended with the song: Let There Be Peace On Earth. Note: Afterward I told a reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer that as Doug was a soldier for God and for his convictions, so is his brother — who works in his own “war zone” in inner city Cleveland. What’s more, I added that our country would be a lot better off if there were more brothers like Bruce and Doug.
6/27/07
average JoeOhio Tour cont: We traveled to Westerville, Ohio, where we were introduced to the congregation at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church. During his talk, Deacon Tom Barford said we can get so caught up in our leisure and prejudicial thinking that we miss living out the gospel message day to day. For instance, our prejudice toward the poor keeps us thinking in terms of “hand out,” when we should be thinking: “hand up,” said Deacon Barford. And to extrapolate this out, it is poverty that sometimes leads to abortion. So as an example, some well off, suburban pro-Life people who are tight with their money when it comes to social justice — could well be contributing (by ommission) to inner city abortions. Note: I recently read in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper that leading child advocate Marian Writght Elderman said there is a “cradle to prison pipeline,” especially for Blacks growing up in the inner city. And, again, by our social justice ‘ommission,’ many are responsible. Several years ago, our family intentionally moved into the heart of Cleveland to impact some of this ‘pipeline.’ And we have just put up on this site one way we’re trying to do that.
6/25/07
average JoeOHio Tour cont.: We stumped in W.Salem, Ohio yesterday. During a Sunday Service at St. Stephen’s Church, a deacon said Mother Theresa was once asked to give the Commencement Address at Harvard. He said she stood up and said someone told her that there was a good possibility some of the students had cheated, at one time or another, during their college career. As some may well have had sex outside of marriage, or abortions, or… Her message to these esteemed grads: “Repent.” She got a standing ovation. While we didn’t get a standing ovation, people clapped when the priest at St. Stephens introduced us to the congregation after Mass. We then passed out information to people from all over northereastern Ohio who were in the church social hall next door for “Frank & Angie’s” 50th Wedding Anniversary. (What an anomally 50 years of marriage is anymore in this society.) During the party, I talked with one of the son-in-laws, Rick Spake. He said health care is a big topic with him and he wouldn’t be opposed to paying a bit more in taxes so there was universal health care coverage for everyone in America, like there is in, say, Canada… We then headed south to Ashland, Ohio, where I talked with Lee Wetherbee, who is an Associate Professor of Pastoral Counseling at the Ashland Theological Seminary. He said over the years he’s worked with a good number of children who have been diagnosed with ADHD. However, he explained he isn’t as quick to diagnose this because sometimes seeming ADHD features may merely be attributable to things like food allergies, or sugar… Later in the evening, we passed out flyers to a good number of people who had showed up for an outdoor concert by “The GeezeCats.” Great music, mostly from the ’50s. The lead singer started off by saying: “We’re going to take you back to a simpler time… That is, until Lee Harvey Oswald and John Lennon screwed it up.”
6/16/07
I went to a Bible Study at the Catholic Worker House in Cleveland. It was noted that Jesus was forever talking about bringing more social justice to the world. Someone noted that, often merely because of circumstances, someone grows up in a suburb, goes to college and makes all kinds of money pushing paper somewhere in an air conditioned office. Someone else, often merely because of circumstances, grows up in poverty and later works in a hot field picking tomatoes making, oh, considerably less. The privileged often support a system that favors the privileged. That simple. However, it was also noted during the Bible study, that nothing would keep, say, a white collar person from taking significant lifestyle cuts and just as significantly helping, say, a group of migrant worker families. I mean the Bible says if you have two coats (more than adequate: housing, food, access to health care…) and your brother, or sister, needs a coat (because of less than adequte: housing, food, access to health care…), well, you give them a coat for crying out loud. (“average Joe Biblical paraphrase.”) Note: Henri Nouwen in the Gennesse Diary writes that wealth can be a “blessing or a curse.” Translated: If you use the wealth primarily for yourself, it becomes a tremendous curse in the long run. (Read: eternity.)
6/15/07
We’re back in Cleveland for a few days and we have just posted a photo-essay/video about the campaign on this site. Stephen Piscura, a photo-journalism student at Kent State University, followed us around the better part of two days recently and captured some of the essence of our campaign, and of our life in the city. God has given Stephen quite a talent, as you will see…
6/14/07
We went to an Assemblies of God Wednesday night service in Bellevue, Ohio, last night. Pastor John Ginty and his wife Jodi told me they used to be involved with the “Open Air Ministry” in LA’s Watts area. Amidst alcohol, drugs, violence, police helicopter search lights… John would walk into this area at, among other times, midnight on a Saturday — playing guitar and talking about Jesus. “We were literally putting our lives on the line any time we went down to this project (Jordan Downs Project),” Jodi said. Jodi and John talked about gang members turning their lives over to Christ, children finding hope in their Children’s Ministry, and so on. The next day, druing a whistle-stop event, I told the editor of The Bellevue Gazette that the nation could use way more of this type of “holy boldness.” Note: Bellevue’s Brian Oldo has caught some of this ‘boldness’ when it comes to politics. He told me that he often gets behind political causes. His last was helping to push to raise the minimum wage in Ohio. He said he and a group of advocates went to various nearby towns (“Republican strongholds,” he said.) and stumped for the cause. It passed.
6/13/07
“average JoeOhio Tour cont.” I stumped early in the morning at Rosie’s Soup & Such Restaurant in Tiffin, Ohio. Great place! Owner Lori Brown was buzzing about serving patrons, and inbetween trips to the tables, was stirring something in a big pot on the stove. One of the customers, out of the blue, voluntarily got up and took over the stirring so Lori could wait on a new table. How’s that for small town camaraderie? …Later in the morning, we did a whistle-stop on the downtown square in Tiffin. A former Ethics professor from Heidleberg University here told me he didn’t think it was ‘ethical’ that our nuclear proliferation was sparking similar proliferation all over the globe. (What’s more, he said he and his wife regularly attend vigils for peace with a group of other peace activists on the square here.) As a spin off from this conversation, I told reporter Zachary Petit from Tiffin newspaper that the U.S. has nuclear missiles aimed all over the world. It’s only “common sense” that other countries like, oh I don’t know, Iran, North Korea… would be racing to develop their own nuclear weapons to protect themselves. Note: Tiffin attorney Martin Koop stopped by the whistle-stop. He told me he’s running for city council as an independent and is going door-to-door to get his message out. He told the Tiffin newspaper reporter that he liked how I was taking the “politics out of the politics.”
6/11/07
Average JoeOhio Tour cont.: While in Bluffton, we stayed on Dan and Cindy Basinger’s farm. Dan told me he’d recently read a story about a rock singer who converted to Christianity. He was sitting in a pew during one of his first church services and leaned over to a man next to him. “When are we going to do it?” He asked. “Do what?” The man replied. “Do what Jesus did (heal the sick, help the poor, set captives free…).” The man replied again. “Oh, we don’t necessarily do that. We just mostly talk about what Jesus did.” … We did a whistle-stop event in Findlay, Ohio. Andy Black approached me and said one of his main issues was the environment. (In regard to the environment, he recommended the book Animal Vegetables and Miracle “…about the ecology of local food and the toxic logic of industrual agriculture.”) I told him that the environment was one of our main issues as well. I then told a reporter from the Findlay Courier newspaper that we had researched wind turbine projects in California and Oklahoma. What’s more, this part of Ohio (with it’s flat land and steady breezes) would be excellent for similar non-polluting, wind energy projects. I said as president, I would also push for subsidies to get farmers to “plant a row of wind turbines” on their farms.