Monday Morning Music Ministry

2-2-26

These words, this question, “Why do you persecute me?” was famously asked of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

Who asked the question? It was a voice Saul heard as he was knocked to the ground, blinded by a light. He heard the audible voice of Jesus, a direct question from the Man who had preached and ministered, was indeed persecuted – harassed, arrested, tortured, and executed. This encounter of Saul’s was subsequent to Jesus’s resurrection from the dead three days after burial; subsequent to 40 days of appearing to masses of people; subsequent to His bodily ascension to Heaven.

Saul, a distinguished scholar and Pharisee, was a Jew who was also a Roman citizen. He had rights in society, and a degree of power that he exercised to persecute the followers of Jesus… even after Jesus was “gone” the second time. He was zealous in rounding up Believers; it is supposed that he was present, perhaps ordering, the stoning of Stephen, a martyred follower of Christ.

Why did the risen Savior choose Saul to cease his persecutions, to mend his ways, and ultimately, as we know, become the most prominent Christian evangelist, author of more than half of the New Testament, the architect of the Church’s beliefs and practices?

We cannot know the ways of God, but God knew the ways of man, and in Saul He had created someone of obvious powers of… persuasion. And clarity of thought. And patience and purpose. Saul needed to discern the Truth, and to re-purpose his desire to apply himself to vital tasks. After his experience on the road to Damascus, he even changed his name to Paul (no theological significance, but plausibly a sign that he savored a “new life” as a new creation). He might not directly have answered the question “Why do you persecute Me?” – except by radically changing course, renouncing his sins, redeeming his life.

Despite the spread of the Gospel, conversions of many people, and the establishment of churches from India to England before the year 60, we know that a myriad number of Jews still were persecuting new Christians. It was not Jews alone, but Romans too, of course. Rome felt threatened by independent thinkers as they protected their political outposts. Many Jews who should have known better – Christ fulfilled uncountable prophecies they had studied; He was the obvious Messiah they prayed for – also felt threatened. If Paul had not converted, he might have become one of the obstinate Jewish enemies of the Gospel remembered through the centuries.

If there is a lesson inherent in Paul’s life as an evangelist and apologist, it is NOT “what goes around comes around.” Are you tempted to think that? For Paul – despite his legal standing and protections as a Roman citizen of the day – was persecuted himself until his (brutal, sacrificial, martyr’s) death. He was shunned, chased, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. He also survived shipwrecks and storms. Yet he never asked Jesus, “Why do you persecute me?”

Back to the original question, or the original interlocutor, Jesus Christ. It is still being asked… of us, today. Why do we persecute Jesus?

I don’t mean the world’s form of persecution, because peoples’ rejection of the Son of God who endured shame, gave His life, and overcame death for each of us is a form of ingratitude at best, and a form of persecution at worst. But individually, we must see our lack of reverence… our failure to acknowledge Him in all ways… our choosing not to pray or care for others or share Him… our consigning Jesus to a corner of our lives and not at the center – are all ways in that we persecute Him, bit by bit, again and again.

Taking His name in vain I believe to be no less offensive to the Lord as failing to act in His name when we have that choice.

“Persecution” comes in many forms.

I have friends from many walks of life, and from many backgrounds. The casual persecution of Jesus is rife today. I wonder, sometimes, when I walk down supermarket aisles or listen to soundtracks of movies, whether many Americans invoke the Name of Jesus more as blasphemy than in prayers. I have a Jewish friend, a prominent academic, who lards her social media posts with frequent Jesuses and Christs – believe me, not in reverence or respect. She has “unfriended” me, probably because I asked her to be more polite to my best friend. She pushed back, of course. A TV producer I once worked with began, or ended, almost every sentence of his with a Je-sus Christ similarly. I offended him by inventing oaths in my conversations, like “By the strings of Moses’ moneybags” and such. I could see little difference, but somehow he took mighty exception.

That’s one end of the spectrum. At the other end – I realize not everyone virtually crucifies Him – but we’re talking about the Creator of the universe and the Savior of our souls. If you and I don’t take His name in vain, or persecute Him more intentionally… are we better if we stand by and watch, as Paul did when Stephen was being stoned to death?

Does the Lord need to knock us to the ground and temporarily blind us and virtually shout His truth, in order for us to serve Him the best we can? Paul might say, “Been there; done that,” or “I experienced that so you don’t have to.” And thank God, literally, for that.

But we can go where we can – or where we are – and share the Good News of Jesus Christ. We can even write a few Epistles of our own. Try it!

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Click: From Saul to Paul

1-26-26

Skeptics abound in our society, around the world, and of course are manifest throughout the entire human race. Doubting is part of humanity’s DNA. Humankind is getting “smarter”; we can walk on the moon and we might cure cancer, but there still are flat-earthers, and believers in evolution, among us.

Skepticism is a prime component of agnosticism and atheism. Of course. Is there a God, really? Can He show Himself to us? Why not? Why did His Son come to earth as a baby, not a king? Did a man really perform miracles like healing the afflicted, walking on water, raising the dead? Why would He allow Himself to be tortured and killed? His Resurrection easily could have been faked; how could Romans, Jews, and other witnesses of the time not recognize the likelihood of fraud and deception?

Well, as you might anticipate, I will offer answers to these questions. Of course God exists; He has left His imprint on me, and all of us as individuals. If He did not create the universe, who did? – which in logic is not sufficient evidence, but I patiently will await a better answer. (If there was a Big Bang, who triggered the Bang; and what existed before it? And when we get to the edges of the universe… what is beyond them? Dear God: my head hurts, please help me…) Jesus came as a baby in humility, to identify with us. These and other questions fulfilled myriad prophesies.

Helpless skeptics and arrogant haters flail about, when they allege fraud and deception by Jesus and His Disciples. Yet scoffers scoff. They love the darkness and embrace rebellion.

Sixty years ago a British Jew called Hugh Schonfield wrote a book, The Passover Plot, that carefully laid out a story that a Jesus conspired with others to fake his death and resurrection in order to claim the realized predictions of a rebel who would challenge Roman rule over Palestine. It was a popular book and movie that, if little else, encouraged increased skepticism among the scoffers and doubters.

It has been that way through the centuries. Nothing new. Do you think you would more easily, or deeply, believe in Jesus if you could only see Him? Well, many of His day saw Him, and witnessed miracles… and yet doubted. Even some Disciples, those who walked and lived with Jesus, scattered like dry leaves on a windy day, “when push came to shove.” Would you react differently than they did? Really?

Here is a test – or Exhibits A through M or so, if this were a trial. Let us review the lives of the 12 Disciples after Jesus ascended to Heaven.

Judas drove himself to suicide, filled with remorse, after betraying the Savior.

James, son of Zebedee, was beheaded by Herod Agrippa.

Peter was crucified – upside-down because he wanted to avoid comparison with Jesus.

Andrew: Crucified on an X-shaped cross in present-day Russia, on a missionary trip.

Philip was executed, probably in north Africa.

Thomas, the Disciple who once doubted, was killed with a spear as a missionary in India.

Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia while establishing some of the first Christian churches.

James, son of Alphaeus, was thrown from the Temple and then stoned to death.

Jude was a missionary to Persia, where he was martyred.

Simon “the Zealot” likewise was murdered in Persia.

Matthias, chosen to replace Judas, was burned at the stake in Syria.

Bartholomew was whipped to death and beheaded in southern Arabia.

John was the last to die – and the only Disciple to die of natural causes, although exiled to the remote Isle of Patmos. It was there he transcribed the Book of Revelation.

Paul, the persecutor of Christians who converted and became a missionary and author of half of the New Testament, was martyred in Rome. My pied-a-terre in that city is near the Basilica of “St-Paul-Outside-the-Walls,” a wonderful site for contemplation.

This list of names is more historical than canonical. The Bible traces only two martyrs in the group; the rest are of tradition and local accounts, but surely reliable. Historians of the day, chiefly the Jew Josephus, and Eusebius, and Origen recorded the activities and deaths of the early church leaders.

How many of these martyrs and men who sacrificed themselves were skeptical of Jesus’s divinity when they gave up their lives? Obviously, none.

If they had participated in hoaxes and frauds, would they have carried to their graves the schemes to torture, crucifixion, impaling, burning at the stake, beheading? Would you?

I would not die for a scam artist; and it would take a rock-solid embrace of Jesus as the Son of God, Who remains the lover of my soul and clearly is the Savior of humankind, for me to choose any of these deaths over confessing a Passover Plot.

Would you choose their lives – and deaths – if it came to that?

But it might come to that for all of us: the Bible foretells a tribulation and persecution of the believers in End Times.

Would you die for a lie?

Would you die for the Truth?

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Click: When I Am Laid in Earth

1-19-26

Years ago in one of my previous lives I was a cartoonist and an editor. I served as Comics Editor of three syndicates (later in that capacity at Marvel Comics, and as a writer at Disney and consultant for European and American comics publishers), and for a reason I now forget I was invited to Manhattan by John McMeel. John’s relatively new enterprise was Universal Press Syndicate.

Universal was so new that its New York office was a shared apartment with Garry Trudeau, its star cartoonist who drew Doonesbury. Its Kansas headquarters had seen its first light in a basement. John had unerring instincts, as his eventual empire proved – other strips like Calvin and Hobbes, Ziggy, For Better Or For Worse, The Far Side; and Uclick and Andrews McMeel Publishing enterprises. That afternoon, he showed me samples of a strip Universal was considering: Cathy. He wanted my opinion. I read through several dozen strips, and while I could picture Cathy finding an audience, my assessment of its violations of basic design and reproduction rules began, “John, the lady can’t draw.”

“You’re right,” he said, casually. “She’ll probably work that out in a year or two.” I thought this attitude was the death-knell of newspaper comics. In fact, rather, it marked a time when good drawing and adherence to craft became irrelevant to cartooning success. (Also, the end of Marschall as an oracle about anything commercial created subsequent to oh, 1927…) Doonesbury, after all, a colossus as Cathy would become, was also drawn execrably. Trudeau had the sense to hire a ghost artist, I believe never acknowledged, as many cartoonists do and even more of them should.

But we live in different times. The levels of craft and self-respect have dropped in the comics field; and the same attends the concepts, writing, and premises of many contemporary strips. Part of the reason is that the public is less demanding of its daily fare. In fact I think many readers are devoted to strips because they think, even subliminally, “If I had the chance to have my own strip, I couldn’t draw well either, but I’d stake my claim!” This is a general indictment of the contemporary arts in America, more than of one creation.

This week I am thinking of a creator of this sort, and a contemporary strip: Scott Adams, creator Dilbert, who died on Jan 13, 2025. Dilbert, Dogbert, and the rest of the cast of archetypal drones of the cubical culture never were drawn well. In fact they were drawn as if by Etch-a-Sketch, intentionally and aggressively badly. Not by mistake or by Scott’s clear limitations. He seldom attempted close-ups and never depicted a character’s reactions or emotions. The depiction of banality required such – the evil of banality, if I may misquote Hannah Arendt.

Whatever the inspirational source, the soulless population of Dilbert were middle-distant actors with stereotypical attitudes not in command of their environment but rather reflecting aspects of it. Almost mechanically (in fact appearing to be virtual schematic diagrams) they helplessly manifested the roles consigned to them by the bureaucrat-industrial complex.

In that regard, Scott’s clunky, amateurish drawing style was irrelevant. Of course it was irrelevant to readers: Dilbert found incredible acceptance. It was carried by 2000 newspapers, filled reprints books, shelves of licensed products, and was made into an animated TV series. The point, or a point, is that comic strips overwhelmingly have become observational bits – comedians’ monologues come to “life” – and have inspired their readers to replicate wisecracks and sarcastic walk-away lines in their own “lives.” Exhibit A: eavesdrop on any group’s conversations at restaurants. The sympathetic chuckles are demand-notes for reciprocal assent, so “laughter” substitutes for wisdom.

Humorous comic strips have had stylistic cycles: stereotypes; slapstick; farce; character-based interplay; irony; commentary. Charles Schulz developed a rhythm where the “punch” is in the penultimate panel, and a character comments to self or to the reader in the last panel. Scott Adams used a variant of that structure, which usually attracts the reader into the gag’s environment. All legitimate. What made Dilbert different was the environment itself, offices that contained acres of dull, sterile cubicles.

Throughout history, in my view, two classes have kept humans safe and sane: the saints (priests, prophets, theologians) and the silly (jesters, humorists, cartoonists). Grumpy, insecure Establishment types always have cultivated martyrs among these groups, and by body-counts they have achieved some success… yet we are only encouraged, not defeated. Thanks to happy contrarians like Scott Adams.

America has become a bureaucratized culture. Everyone knows it, and is accepting to varying degrees. People live and commute to and from cookie-cutter houses and neighborhoods. The government and its tentacles want to homogenize us. Every innovation in life is co-opted despite bread-and-circus efforts to persuade us that things can be changed, and we can change things, and the Establishment does not impose its agendas. But to join the Bureaucratic life is to automatically accept marginalization.

In a different, or earlier, context a century ago, Franz Kafka recognized, was crushed by, and addressed this new world. So did other writers and poets and playwrights. They reacted with gloom and despair. Scott Adams was a rare creator who beheld the same soul-crushing Bureaucratic State… but reacted with humor, irony, and identification. More and more people recognized those felt-lined cells called office cubicles. Everyone knew the contemporary versions of humanity’s nitwits, incompetents, poseurs, and hypocrites. Dilbert struck a chord… even as its creator scribbled his observations from a cubicle at Pacific Bell, where Scott labored 9 to 5 at first, unconsciously gathering inspirations.

As Scott’s fame grew so – inevitably – did the Establishment’s opposition. Who could object to jokes about computer programs and fax machines? Not readers, who identified. But, you see, Scott Adams was more than a jester; he eventually wrote serious books; and, thank God for the liberating nature of the internet, began sharing his larger thoughts about life, politics, and current events. His common sense reflected uncommon sense. Ever the iconoclast, this jester became a respected commentator; he endorsed Doanld Trump and was invited to the White House; and discomfited the Establishment.

One discussion about a poll by the great Scott Rasmussen that roughly half of the Black population would not choose to be White – or some such news-cycle filler – moved Scott to say that, if true, he would be less inclined to stroll in some Black neighborhoods. The simple remark was pronounced as racist by the Bigotry Police. He lost a multitude of self-righteous clients; his syndicate cast him out into the cold; and Scott was reduced to his books and podcast

… at which pursuits he thrived even more than before. The web carried Dilbert. The podcast audience was phenomenal. Now Scott could, and did, reach more people, easily combine humor and commentary, and continue to visit the White House.

At the apex of his greatest successes and cultural influence, however, that most evil of Establishmentarians, Satan, planned another attack. Scott was diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. He suffered further maladies like partial paralysis, challenges to his ability to draw and speak, and pain. President Trump and Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr fast-tracked alternative medicines.

Only weeks before his death Scott Adams addressed the public about his impending death. A startling portion of the statement addressed his imminent conversion to Christianity. Previously known for his rejection of faith, he wrote: Many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go. I’m not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks so attractive to me. So here I go: I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and look forward to spending an eternity with him. The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won’t need any more convincing than that. I hope I’m still qualified for entry…

Adams, who could have statues or plaques in the Halls of Fame of Cynicism and Sarcasm, was totally serious. His remark betrays no panic but rather a calculated Pascal’s-Wager calculation, coldly triangulating between Mother Nature as oddsmaker, “What do I have to lose?” insouciance, and… an avoidance of what Christianity IS.

I tried to get through to Scott in his last weeks, hoping as many friends did that he “find Jesus.” There is always the possibility of a “deathbed conversion,” of course; and it. is. never. too. late to accept Christ, whose invitations have no scheduled start-times, nor expiration dates. But whether a person is in distress or has sudden lucidity or is the recipient of an urgent appeal at the end of life, whether from a friend or the Holy Spirit… We are blessed by such opportunities and workings of Grace. We do not know; we cannot know.

But the reception of Jesus into one’s heart is by definition life-changing. And life-saving. Personal conversion – after all, being saved from sin; yes, the prospect of eternal life – cannot be a “risk-reward” calculation. If one does “accept Jesus” you walk, talk, act differently. Of course! – whether you are eight and beginning life, or 68, moments from it ending. You can be smart, like Scott Adams, but never smarter than God.

I pray that Scott is in heaven now. No cubicles! Jesus promised, “In My Father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.” It would be the ultimate irony, in this rotten culture against which Scott Adams crusaded for years and lies to us about Christian truths, that he never realized the simplicity and beautiful promises of the Christian life.

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Click: Dame Judi Dench sings “Send in the Clowns” – BBC Proms 2010

1-12-26

A late friend of mine, a prominent science-fiction writer, taught me a lesson, or rather two lessons at least, about addiction and such personal challenges and crises. He was not a Christian, despite my puny efforts to witness the Truth to him. I was not particularly discouraged, however, because as Christians our main job in such situations is to share the Gospel; the Holy Spirit was sent among us to minister to peoples’ souls – to “close the deal, so to speak.” We plant; He cultivates; the Lord harvests.

The first life-challenge he shared was about his wife. Throughout his entire marriage he endured her unfaithfulness. She was a serial adulterer, and he knew it because she left countless evidences. His two sons were not his. At different times she was an alcoholic, a chain smoker, consumer of various drugs, anorexic (she looked like a concentration-camp survivor), and, contrarily, a binge foodie. Usually these addictions slightly overlapped – she bounced from one self-destructive addiction to another, sometimes returning to a former disorder seemingly at will.

My friend sought counseling for her, or them together, and the usual result was futility, or his wife having an affair with the therapist. I finally asked him why he didn’t leave his wife, and his answer startled me: “Well, I love her.”

Yes, a lesson in love and commitment, and forbearance and patience and faith of some sort. The putative convert taught the missionary a lesson.

The other perspective I gained was about addiction itself. I don’t know whether there have been volumes written on his view of addiction, or if it were his own battle story, or method of coping. No matter: it made sense to me. He told me that he grew to recognize that people are not so much addicted to alcohol or nicotine or a type of drug or the pleasures of sex or the thrill of escaping discovery; or the flavors or particular sensations. He theorized that most of these people – and that includes most of us – are rather addicted to addiction itself.

Putting aside whether addictions are a disease (which argument many people regard as an “out” of personal responsibility or decisions to sin) the perspective is persuasive. The Bible preaches that there is Original Sin. The core of Christianity is that Jesus, the Incarnate God-Made-Flesh, lived and died and rose in order that we may be forgiven and saved of our sins. “None is holy, no not one.”

Sinning is an addiction. We all commit transgressions against God and against each other, more often than a drunk hits the bottle, or a druggie snorts. We are addicted to sin, though we fight it to varying degrees and inconsistency. It is, literally, the bane of our existence: self-destructive; malignant; in fact deadly.

But. There is a silver lining to this situation.

As addicts seek counseling, we all have a spiritual therapist. Yes, Christian friends, clergy… and the Lord Himself, by immersing ourselves in the Word and through earnest prayer.

As my friend’s wife proved, albeit through myriad backslides, we are capable of switching addictions. We can therefore commit to become addicted to doing good. Rejecting evil and harmful tendencies. Being kind and forgiving. Putting God first in all we do. Are we doomed to fail? – yes, of course: no one is perfect among us. But even drug addicts routinely try to “swear off”; adulterers occasionally repent. The road to reform is always before us. We can do the same. Switch addictions; change habits.

I am seeking to counsel a prominent addict-of-sorts right now. One of the hats I wear is in the cartooning world, as a former cartoonist and editor and historian. Scott Adams (the Dilbert comic strip creator) is a confirmed atheist behind his persona as a clever cartoonist and a brilliant political commentator. He is enduring a diagnosis of terminal cancer, and recently has stated that he will convert to Christianity as a practical matter, hedging his bets that there is a heaven.

Unfortunately that is the most formulaic – therefore empty and futile – impulse. Jesus invites us to love and believe in Him, to save our souls. Not to manipulate the God of the Universe and wrangle an eternal motel room in Paradise. There is another form of addiction from which we all suffer: self-delusion. We never will be smarter than God.

And if we seek secular help in secular worldly crises, we more easily can approach the Throne of Grace, going before our loving Father who has expressed His yearning for us to reach out to Him. He has proven His love for us, sending to Jesus to sacrifice Himself for our sins, even while we are yet sinners. He has called Himself a “jealous” God – hurting when we don’t seek Him in times of trouble.

And the best part of the Christian’s seeking to break the addiction to sin: we actually do not have to achieve emotional “strength” or other prerequisites. Christians achieve victory not by marching and battling: we win on our knees. Surrendering. We admit our weaknesses and addictions; we don’t explain or justify them. And our Counselor materially helps us. Not advice, but Salvation.

Pat your chest by your heart. Say Hello to your Savior. The Great Physician ministers, but He also heals. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Mark 2:17).

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Click: T. Graham Brown – Wine Into Water (Acoustic) // The Church Sessions

1-5-26
Janus, the Roman god who had two faces, one looking backward and one looking
forward, was among other things the source of January’s name. We logically are
prompted at this time to review the past year and contemplate the next. (By the
way, it strikes me as appropriate that a false god can be considered two-faced…)
My favorite pied-a-terre outside Bologna (Sasso Marconi) is the ancient villa Torre
di Iano, Tower of Janus. The old guy has been around for a long time, as have
superstitions and traditions like new year’s resolutions.

I will not offer resolutions, nor even suggestions, this week because I likely will
have broken my own before I hit “send” on the keypad. However I will share
observations I have jotted down over this past year. Advice, wisdom, challenges,
irrelevancies, take your pick – ‘tis still the season.

More people search the Scriptures looking for loopholes than for direction.

Contemplating the vast universe makes a lot of folks confess to feeling
insignificant. But shouldn’t we feel, placed on this planet amidst the vastness of
space and was created by God, special? – MORE significant!

We are berated every day to be Politically Correct. It is more important, however,
that we be Spiritually correct.

Pro-abortion forces insist that “blobs,” not lives, grow inside expectant mothers. So
why do they call their prescriptions “BIRTH control pills”?

Christians – in fact all people – are like moths: We are drawn to the Light.

In Life, there is a difference between GIVING and FORGIVING. Specifically,
come to think about it, not much of a difference! Each act blesses you as much as
the recipients.

Be not deceived – God is not mocked. (I had help on that one. Namely Galatians
6:7)

Pastors and priests once were condemned for what they preached. Today, many
pastors and priests should be condemned for what they DON’T preach.

A mathematical certainty: Life without Christ can yield half-successes. But it also
leads to total failures.

Satan tempts; God tests.

We want to cry out that God change our circumstances. God, however, desires to
change US.

Let us all banish from our vocabulary the word “luck.” What we call “bad luck”
we usually bring on ourselves. And what we attribute to “good luck” are insults to
the loving will and care of our Father God.

If your life were made into a movie, could it state truthfully in the opening credits
“Based on a True story”?

America needs a backbone. Instead, it has been looking for a wishbone.

Listen to the debates about Creationism vs Evolution, hotter than ever. For my
part, I care more about the Rock of Ages than the age of rocks.

Why is it that pundits attribute mass church shootings to racial and sexual and
political motivations? These are churches… children and adults praying…
Christians worshipping. Why not discuss our culture’s hatred of Jesus, its
animosity toward faith?

Jesus knocks at the front doors of our lives. Satan climbs in the back window.

The world foists “Pride Month” on us. Dare anyone call it “Shame Month”?

Our coins and public buildings say “In God We Trust.” Oh, really? Where does
He fit on the “truth” meter with favorite politicians, military weapons, “luck,”
guns, insurance policies, unions… Whom do you really trust?

And, from two of my best friends, Penelope Carlevato and Clive Staples Lewis:

We take our children to malls to see the Easter Bunny and to meet Santa Claus.
How many take children to church and meet Jesus?

Jesus claimed to be the Incarnation of God, the Savior of Humankind. By these
claims He was a madman, a liar, or… indeed the Son of God, Savior of your soul;
the only way to eternal life. There is no other choice.

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Click: My Tribute

youtube.com/watch?v=KcE5IlUL_focom/watch?v=KcE5IlUL_fo