soc.veterans

No,

why do you think it's any of your business ?

why do you think I did it ?


"Jerry Okamura" wrote in message
news:47e2b16a$0$1093$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> Becuase he thinks Hillary would be an easier person to beat in November?
> So, I answered your question, are you going to answer my question?
>
> "Al E. Crocodile" wrote in message
> news:hMWdnQeUQ8BdbXzanZ2dnUVZ_tCrnZ2d@comcast.com...
>> why is Limbaugh telling his listeners to vote for Hillary
>> "Jerry Okamura" wrote in message
>> news:47e1ec5c$0$17357$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
>>> Is this Al E. Gator who has just changed his newsgroup name? If so, why
>>> did you do that?
>>>
>>> "Al E. Crocodile" wrote in message
>>> news:LeGdnQv9BMaHf3zanZ2dnUVZ_rGhnZ2d@comcast.com...
>>>> This Wright guy is smarter than all the ignorant racist hillbillies
>>>> posting their typical hate and venom,
>>>>
>>>> but then you goobers aren't as human as he is,
>>>> hell, I'm not even sure yall are humans,
>>>>
>>>> has anybody looked into that ?
>>>>
>>>> are hillbillies the missing link between apes and chimps ?,
>>>>
>>>> those dragging knuckles, fat hairy assses, low intelligence,
>>>> self abuse, and shit throwing would indicate yall might be
>>>>
>>>> yall like bananas ?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.preachingtoday.com/sermons/sermons/audacityofhope.html
>>>>
>>>> Editor's note: In light of current political controversy, questions
>>>> have been raised about the following sermon by Jeremiah Wright.
>>>> Preaching Today published this sermon in 1990.
>>>>
>>>> Several years ago while I was in Richmond, the Lord allowed me to be in
>>>> that city during the week of the annual convocation at Virginia Union
>>>> University School of Theology. There I heard the preaching and teaching
>>>> of Reverend Frederick G. Sampson of Detroit, Michigan. In one of his
>>>> lectures, Dr. Sampson spoke of a painting I remembered studying in
>>>> humanities courses back in the late '50s. In Dr. Sampson's powerful
>>>> description of the picture, he spoke of it being a study in
>>>> contradictions, because the title and the details on the canvas seem to
>>>> be in direct opposition.
>>>>
>>>> The painting's title is "Hope." It shows a woman sitting on top of the
>>>> world, playing a harp. What more enviable position could one ever hope
>>>> to achieve than being on top of the world with everyone dancing to your
>>>> music?
>>>>
>>>> As you look closer, the illusion of power gives way to the reality of
>>>> pain. The world on which this woman sits, our world, is torn by war,
>>>> destroyed by hate, decimated by despair, and devastated by distrust.
>>>> The world on which she sits seems on the brink of destruction. Famine
>>>> ravages millions of inhabitants in one hemisphere, while feasting and
>>>> gluttony are enjoyed by inhabitants of another hemisphere. This world
>>>> is a ticking time bomb, with apartheid in one hemisphere and apathy in
>>>> the other. Scientists tell us there are enough nuclear warheads to wipe
>>>> out all forms of life except cockroaches. That is the world on which
>>>> the woman sits in Watt's painting.
>>>>
>>>> Our world cares more about bombs for the enemy than about bread for the
>>>> hungry. This world is still more concerned about the color of skin than
>>>> it is about the content of character-a world more finicky about what's
>>>> on the outside of your head than about the quality of your education or
>>>> what's inside your head. That is the world on which this woman sits.
>>>>
>>>> You and I think of being on top of the world as being in heaven. When
>>>> you look at the woman in Watt's painting, you discover this woman is in
>>>> hell. She is wearing rags. Her tattered clothes look as if the woman
>>>> herself has come through Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Her head is bandaged,
>>>> and blood seeps through the bandages. Scars and cuts are visible on her
>>>> face, her arms, and her legs.
>>>>
>>>> I. Illusion of Power vs. Reality of Pain
>>>>
>>>> A closer look reveals all the harp strings but one are broken or ripped
>>>> out. Even the instrument has been damaged by what she has been through,
>>>> and she is the classic example of quiet despair. Yet the artist dares
>>>> to entitle the painting Hope. The illusion of power-sitting on top of
>>>> the world-gives way to the reality of pain.
>>>>
>>>> And isn't it that way with many of us? We give the illusion of being in
>>>> an enviable position on top of the world. Look closer, and our lives
>>>> reveal the reality of pain too deep for the tongue to tell. For the
>>>> woman in the painting, what looks like being in heaven is actually an
>>>> existence in a quiet hell.
>>>>
>>>> I've been a pastor for seventeen years. I've seen too many of these
>>>> cases not to know what I'm talking about. I've seen married couples
>>>> where the husband has a girlfriend in addition to his wife. It's
>>>> something nobody talks about. The wife smiles and pretends not to hear
>>>> the whispers and the gossip. She has the legal papers but knows he
>>>> would rather try to buy Fort Knox than divorce her. That's a living
>>>> hell.
>>>>
>>>> I've seen married couples where the wife had discovered that somebody
>>>> else cares for her as a person and not just as cook, maid jitney
>>>> service, and call girl all wrapped into one. But there's the scandal:
>>>> What would folks say? What about the children? That's a living hell.
>>>>
>>>> I've seen divorcees whose dreams have been blown to bits, families
>>>> broken up beyond repair, and lives somehow slipping through their
>>>> fingers. They've lost control. That's a living hell.
>>>>
>>>> I've seen college students who give the illusion of being on top of the
>>>> world-designer clothes, all the sex that they want, all the cocaine or
>>>> marijuana or drugs, all the trappings of having it all together on the
>>>> outside-but empty and shallow and hurting and lonely and afraid on the
>>>> inside. Many times what looks good on the outside-the illusion of being
>>>> in power, of sitting on top of the world-with a closer look is actually
>>>> existence in a quiet hell.
>>>>
>>>> That is exactly where Hannah is in 1 Samuel 1 :1-18. Hannah is top dog
>>>> in this three-way relationship between herself, Elkanah, and Peninnah.
>>>> Her husband loves Hannah more than he loves his other wife and their
>>>> children. Elkanah tells Hannah he loves her. A lot of husbands don't do
>>>> that. He shows Hannah that he loves her, and many husbands never get
>>>> around to doing that. In fact, it is his attention and devotion to
>>>> Hannah that causes Peninnah to be so angry and to stay on Hannah's case
>>>> constantly. Jealous! Jealousy will get hold of you, and you can't let
>>>> it go because it won't let you go. Peninnah stayed on Hannah, like we
>>>> say, "as white on rice." She constantly picked at Hannah, making her
>>>> cry, taking her appetite away.
>>>>
>>>> At first glance Hannah's position seems enviable. She had all the
>>>> rights and none of the responsibilities-no diapers to change, no beds
>>>> to sit beside at night, no noses to wipe, nothing else to wipe either,
>>>> no babies draining you of your milk and demanding feeding. Hannah was
>>>> top dog. No baby portions to fix at meal times. Her man loved her;
>>>> everybody knew he loved her. He loved her more than anything or
>>>> anybody. That's why Peninnah hated her so much.
>>>>
>>>> Now, except for the second-wife bit, which was legal back then, Hannah
>>>> was sitting on top of the world, until you look closer. When you look
>>>> closer, what looked like being in heaven was actually existing in a
>>>> quiet hell.
>>>>
>>>> Hannah had the pain of a bitter woman to contend with, for verse 7 says
>>>> that nonstop, Peninnah stayed with her. Hannah suffered the pain of
>>>> living with a bitter woman. And she suffered another pain-the pain of a
>>>> barren womb. You will remember the story of the widow in 2 Kings 4 who
>>>> had no child. The story of a woman with no children was a story of deep
>>>> pathos and despair in biblical days.
>>>>
>>>> Do you remember the story of Sarah and what she did in Genesis 16
>>>> because of her barren womb-before the three heavenly visitors stopped
>>>> by their tent? Do you remember the story of Elizabeth and her husband
>>>> in Luke I? Back in Bible days, the story of a woman with a barren womb
>>>> was a story of deep pathos. And Hannah was afflicted with the pain of a
>>>> bitter woman on the one hand and the pain of a barren womb on the
>>>> other.
>>>>
>>>> Hannah's world was flawed, flaky. Her garments of respectability were
>>>> tattered and torn, and her heart was bruised and bleeding from the
>>>> constant attacks of a jealous woman. The scars and scratches on her
>>>> psyche are almost visible as you look at this passage, where she cries,
>>>> refusing to eat anything. Just like the woman in Watt's painting, what
>>>> looks like being in heaven is actually existence in a quiet hell.
>>>>
>>>> Now I want to share briefly with you about Hannah-the lady and the
>>>> Lord. While I do so, I want you to be thinking about where you live and
>>>> your own particular pain predicament. Think about it for a moment.
>>>>
>>>> Dr. Sampson said he wanted to quarrel with the artist for having the
>>>> gall to name that painting Hope when all he could see in the picture
>>>> was hell-a quiet desperation. But then Dr. Sampson said he noticed that
>>>> he had been looking only at the horizontal dimensions and relationships
>>>> and how this woman was hooked up with that world on which she sat. He
>>>> had failed to take into account her vertical relationships. He had not
>>>> looked above her head. And when he looked over her head, he found some
>>>> small notes of music moving joyfully and playfully toward heaven.
>>>>
>>>> II. The Audacity to Hope
>>>>
>>>> Then, Dr. Sampson began to understand why the artist titled the
>>>> painting "Hope." In spite of being in a world torn by war, in spite of
>>>> being on a world destroyed by hate and decimated by distrust, in spite
>>>> of being on a world where famine and greed are uneasy bed partners, in
>>>> spite of being on a world where apartheid and apathy feed the fires of
>>>> racism and hatred, in spite of being on a world where nuclear nightmare
>>>> draws closer with each second, in spite of being on a ticking time
>>>> bomb, with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and
>>>> bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she
>>>> had the audacity to make music and praise God. The vertical dimension
>>>> balanced out what was going on in the horizontal dimension.
>>>>
>>>> And that is what the audacity to hope will do for you. The apostle Paul
>>>> said the same thing. "You have troubles? Glory in your trouble. We
>>>> glory in tribulation." That's the horizontal dimension. We glory in
>>>> tribulation because, he says, "Tribulation works patience. And patience
>>>> works experience. And experience works hope. (That's the vertical
>>>> dimension.) And hope makes us not ashamed." The vertical dimension
>>>> balances out what is going on in the horizontal dimension. That is the
>>>> real story here in the first chapter of 1 Samuel. Not the condition of
>>>> Hannah's body, but the condition of Hannah's soul-her vertical
>>>> dimension. She had the audacity to keep on hoping and praying when
>>>> there was no visible sign on the horizontal level that what she was
>>>> praying for, hoping for, and waiting for would ever be answered in the
>>>> affirmative.
>>>>
>>>> What Hannah wanted most out of life had been denied to her. Think about
>>>> that. Yet in spite of that, she kept on hoping. The gloating of
>>>> Peninnah did not make her bitter. She kept on hoping. When the family
>>>> made its pilgrimage to the sanctuary at Shiloh, she renewed her
>>>> petition there, pouring out her heart to God. She may have been barren,
>>>> but that's a horizontal dimension. She was fertile in her spirit, her
>>>> vertical dimension. She prayed and she prayed and she prayed and she
>>>> kept on praying year after year. With no answer, she kept on praying.
>>>> She prayed so fervently in this passage that Eli thought she had to be
>>>> drunk. There was no visible sign on the horizontal level to indicate to
>>>> Hannah that her praying would ever be answered. Yet, she kept on
>>>> praying.
>>>>
>>>> And Paul said something about that, too. No visible sign? He says,
>>>> "Hope is what saves us, for we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen
>>>> is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he have hope for it? But if
>>>> we hope for that which we see not (no visible sign), then do we with
>>>> patience wait for it."
>>>>
>>>> That's almost an echo of what the prophet Isaiah said: "They that wait
>>>> upon the Lord shall renew their strength." The vertical dimension
>>>> balances out what is going on in the horizontal dimension.
>>>>
>>>> There may not be any visible sign of a change in your individual
>>>> situation, whatever your private hell is. But that's just the
>>>> horizontal level. Keep the vertical level intact, like Hannah. You may,
>>>> like the African slaves, be able to sing, "Over my head I hear music in
>>>> the air. Over my head I hear music in the air. Over my head I hear
>>>> music in the air. There must be a God somewhere."
>>>>
>>>> Keep the vertical dimension intact like Hannah. Have the audacity to
>>>> hope for that child of yours. Have the audacity to hope for that home
>>>> of yours. Have the audacity to hope for that church of yours. Whatever
>>>> it is you've been praying for, keep on praying, and you may find, like
>>>> my grandmother sings, "There's a bright side somewhere; there is a
>>>> bright side somewhere. Don't you rest until you find it, for there is a
>>>> bright side somewhere."
>>>>
>>>> III. Persistence of Hope
>>>>
>>>> The real lesson Hannah gives us from this chapter-the most important
>>>> word God would have us hear-is how to hope when the love of God is not
>>>> plainly evident. It's easy to hope when there are evidences all around
>>>> of how good God is. But to have the audacity to hope when that love is
>>>> not evident-you don't know where that somewhere is that my grandmother
>>>> sang about, or if there will ever be that brighter day-that is a true
>>>> test of a Hannah-type faith. To take the one string you have left and
>>>> to have the audacity to hope-make music and praise God on and with
>>>> whatever it is you've got left, even though you can't see what God is
>>>> going to do-that's the real word God will have us hear from this
>>>> passage and from Watt's painting.
>>>>
>>>> There's a true-life illustration that demonstrates the principles
>>>> portrayed so powerfully in this periscope. And I close with it. My mom
>>>> and my dad used to sing a song that I've not been able to find in any
>>>> of the published hymnals. It's an old song out of the black religious
>>>> tradition called "Thank you, Jesus." It's a very simple song. Some of
>>>> you have heard it. It's simply goes, "Thank you Jesus. I thank you
>>>> Jesus. I thank you Jesus. I thank you Lord." To me they always sang
>>>> that song at the strangest times-when the money got low, or when the
>>>> food was running out. When I was getting in trouble, they would start
>>>> singing that song. And I never understood it, because as a child it
>>>> seemed to me they were thanking God that we didn't have any money, or
>>>> thanking God that we had no food, or thanking God that I was making a
>>>> fool out of myself as a kid.
>>>>
>>>> Conclusion: Hope is What Saves Us
>>>>
>>>> But I was only looking at the horizontal level. I did not understand
>>>> nor could I see back then the vertical hookup that my mother and my
>>>> father had. I did not know then that they were thanking him in advance
>>>> for all they dared to hope he would do one day to their son, in their
>>>> son, and through their son. That's why they prayed. That's why they
>>>> hoped. That's why they kept on praying with no visible sign on the
>>>> horizon. And I thank God I had praying parents, because now some
>>>> thirty-five years later, when I look at what God has done in my life, I
>>>> understand clearly why Hannah had the audacity to hope. Why my parents
>>>> had the audacity to hope.
>>>>
>>>> And that's why I say to you, hope is what saves us. Keep on hoping;
>>>> keep on praying. God does hear and answer prayer.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>