Prayers for Mars?

Here's the latest column from Norris Burkes! View this email in your browser   The 2001 Prayer Odyssey -- Why Space Exploration Deserves our Blessing   As a retired Air Force chaplain, I say this without exaggeration – NASA's Mars Perseverance rover made its final descent to the Red Planet last week cushioned by a chaplain's prayer.   I know that because during the opening years of this century, I was privileged to serve as the embedded chaplain for Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. My job, along with work-site visitations and counseling, included the honor of delivering the official prayers for all Cape launches, manned and unmanned.    Among the many prayers I gave in my three-year assignment is the one I voiced for America's return to Mars in the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission. On the day before the April 7 launch, I drove to a cinderblock building on the Cape to deliver a benediction prayer for the pre-launch briefing.    As the spacecraft waited atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket, my prayer drew inspiration from Psalm 139. I prayed that Odyssey's camera eye would help us gaze into heaven and know the majesty of God that dwells in creation.   You may be wondering why an Air Force chaplain would pray for a machine. The official answer is that prayers or blessings are a routine part of military tradition.    The unofficial answer is – "superstition." During my three years at the Cape, I met NASA engineers and rocket scientists who could be as superstitious as ball players.    They did absolutely everything or anything to push the juju in their favor. They'd wear their lucky socks, stage their special knick-knacks on the launch panel and stuff their religious medals under their shirts.    Most engineers I knew were typically agnostic or non-religious, but if a prayer might help, why not. A few commanders said as much by confessing how desperately this prayer was needed. Apparently two previous Mars missions failed, one due to a colossal miscalculation of metric to standard US measurements.   Gratefully, Odyssey was massively successful, not only for its discovery of water beneath the surface in 2018 but for its current status as the longest-working piece of machinery on Mars.    "Honestly," you may ask, "beyond superstition and tradition, why would you lend your chaplain credibility toward praying for a space mission?"   Because I believe space exploration inspires us to ask the God questions.   No, I'm not saying NASA is trying to prove the existence of God. That can't be done.    But space exploration helps us to probe the deeper existential questions that put us in mind of God. The search for these answers will both humble us while continually befuddling us by the exponential distance between our questions and answers.    This humility is what Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) meant when he noted, "With increasing distance, our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly. Eventually, we reach the dim boundary – the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial."    Indeed, our search of the heavens inspire the deeply spiritual questions mouthed by our children, namely: "Mommy, where did I come from?" and "Where are we going?" and the most famous of the preschooler's queries – "Are we there yet?"    The collective prayers of our Odyssey launch team that balmy spring day in 2001 embodied those questions. They reflected a desire that Odyssey would not only provide us with an extensive look into our past, but that it would also draw a line in the eternal sands of space that man may one day cross.   Several months later, the Odyssey returned images from the Mars surface that had even the non-religious repeatedly mouthing God's name in holy awe.   The mission truly succeeded beyond anyone's dreams, and perhaps, not entirely because of my providential prayer.    So today, I hold nothing back. I pray for the Perseverance and her ground crew. God Speed.      Visit www.thechaplain.net or https://www.facebook.com/theChaplainNorris. Send comments to comment@thechaplain.net or 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 or via voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain.       Copyright © 2021 Norris Burkes, All rights reserved. You signed up to be on Norris' list! Our mailing address is: Norris Burkes 10566 Combie Rd Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

New Column Norris Burkes -- (c) 916-813-8941

Subject:
Column last week in Feb 2021


Column:

The 2001 Prayer Odyssey -- Why Space Exploration Deserves our Blessing

As a retired Air Force chaplain, I say this without exaggeration – NASA's Mars Perseverance rover made its final descent to the Red Planet last week cushioned by a chaplain's prayer.

I know that because during the opening years of this century, I was privileged to serve as the embedded chaplain for Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. My job, along with work-site visitations and counseling, included the honor of delivering the official prayers for all Cape launches, manned and unmanned.

Among the many prayers I gave in my three-year assignment is the one I voiced for America's return to Mars in the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission. On the day before the April 7 launch, I drove to a cinderblock building on the Cape to deliver a benediction prayer for the pre-launch briefing.

As the spacecraft waited atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket, my prayer drew inspiration from Psalm 139. I prayed that Odyssey's camera eye would help us gaze into heaven and know the majesty of God that dwells in creation.

You may be wondering why an Air Force chaplain would pray for a machine. The official answer is that prayers or blessings are a routine part of military tradition.

The unofficial answer is – "superstition." During my three years at the Cape, I met NASA engineers and rocket scientists who could be as superstitious as ball players.

They did absolutely everything or anything to push the juju in their favor. They'd wear their lucky socks, stage their special knick-knacks on the launch panel and stuff their religious medals under their shirts.

Most engineers I knew were typically agnostic or non-religious, but if a prayer might help, why not. A few commanders said as much by confessing how desperately this prayer was needed. Apparently two previous Mars missions failed, one due to a colossal miscalculation of metric to standard US measurements.

Gratefully, Odyssey was massively successful, not only for its discovery of water beneath the surface in 2018 but for its current status as the longest-working piece of machinery on Mars.

"Honestly," you may ask, "beyond superstition and tradition, why would you lend your chaplain credibility toward praying for a space mission?"

Because I believe space exploration inspires us to ask the God questions.

No, I'm not saying NASA is trying to prove the existence of God. That can't be done.

But space exploration helps us to probe the deeper existential questions that put us in mind of God. The search for these answers will both humble us while continually befuddling us by the exponential distance between our questions and answers.

This humility is what Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) meant when he noted, "With increasing distance, our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly. Eventually, we reach the dim boundary – the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial."

Indeed, our search of the heavens inspire the deeply spiritual questions mouthed by our children, namely: "Mommy, where did I come from?" and "Where are we going?" and the most famous of the preschooler's queries – "Are we there yet?"

The collective prayers of our Odyssey launch team that balmy spring day in 2001 embodied those questions. They reflected a desire that Odyssey would not only provide us with an extensive look into our past, but that it would also draw a line in the eternal sands of space that man may one day cross.

Several months later, the Odyssey returned images from the Mars surface that had even the non-religious repeatedly mouthing God's name in holy awe.

The mission truly succeeded beyond anyone's dreams, and perhaps, not entirely because of my providential prayer.

So today, I hold nothing back. I pray for the Perseverance and her ground crew. God Speed.


Visit www.thechaplain.net or https://www.facebook.com/theChaplainNorris. Send comments to comment@thechaplain.net or 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 or via voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain.

 

 

 

Fighting Fear with Funny

Afraid of snakes?

Here's the latest column from Norris Burkes! View this email in your browser Chaplain Norris talks to Panamanian school children as the Red Horse Squadron built schools for them. Not Funny, Chaplain   People don't always get my sense of humor. Unfortunately, my years as a hospital chaplain infected me with a touch of gallows humor, an ironic wit handy for hopeless situations.   Nevertheless, ten years ago, I took that humor on a 90-day deployment to Panama with the Red Horse Squadron from Nellis AFB, in Las Vegas.   Red Horse is the Air Force version of the Navy's storied Navy CBs (Construction Battalion). Both are trained to bulldoze the ground in a warzone while simultaneously defending the same ground with an M16.    We were in Panama as part of Operation New Horizon, a humanitarian project to build schools, clinics and playgrounds. The endeavor also gave our airmen the experience they'd need to build a barebones base in a battle zone.    From Panama City, our crew drove the famed Pan American Highway to get to our camp site. The road stretches from Alaska to Argentina, bridging two continents. It's interrupted only by a 60-mile swath of swamp called the Darien Gap.    Once we got settled, Col. Darren Daniels assembled us for a pre-mission briefing. In the trees above us, howler monkeys, sloths and iguanas eyed the proceedings with territorial suspicion.   Daniels issued a sober warning of our dangerous working conditions in an area known to shelter paramilitary groups and drug traffickers.    "We are a long way from help," he told us. "If anyone gets hurt, we may not get the help you need in time."   I'd been to Iraq the previous year, so I didn't feel too worried. Until, that is, Daniels mentioned snakes – particularly the fer-de-lance viper.    I took a jumbo breath of swamp air and expelled an uneasy laugh.   Afterwards, I retreated to the chapel tent to do a quick internet search. Apparently, the fer-de-lance causes more human deaths than any other American reptile. Surprisingly, over the next few days, my gallows humor inflated with these sobering facts.   "Don't worry," I told an airman constructing our showers. "If we get snake bit, we won't suffer long. The fer-de-lance injects 105mg of venom in one bite. Kind of a waste," I added, "because it only takes 50mg to kill you."   At lunch that day, I asked the food-services guy if he knew that it was fer-de-lance birthing season?  He responded by throwing a heap of potatoes on my plate. "The mamas give birth to about 60 babies at once. The little guys even climb tent walls."   Each comment seemed to bring the nervous chuckles I was looking for – that is until I took a lunchtime seat with Col. Daniels and his staff and reshared my newfound knowledge.     Daniels picked up a biscuit and pointed it my direction. "Didn't we bring you here to boost morale?"    The table went quiet, so he graciously softened his tone with a smile. "I'm just thinking the chaplain should be sharing good news, not scaring the hell out of us."   He said it all with a chortle, but we both knew the Shakespearean axiom, "Many a true word is spoken in jest."   My commander was right. His squadron would go on to build outposts in Afghanistan. Not all would come home whole. So, for the moment, my job was to expose them to a faith that would build them up as they built up our humanitarian project.   Spreading fear, even in jest, wasn't the best way for me to do my job. Neither is it the best way we can share our faith.   Yet there are those Christians who think they should use fear to encourage people to take a step toward God.   Fear doesn't work. People have enough hell in their lives without us presenting an angry God who'll make them suffer an apocalyptic hell.    Sharing our faith is the act of exposing people to hope, not to fear or hate.   If faith works, and I think it does, then I have to believe the Apostle Paul's writings in his second letter to his younger colleague, Timothy: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).   This week, I encourage you not to share your fear, not to share your hate. Share your hope.   And by the way, some week later, a Panamanian soldier killed a fer-de-lance just outside my chapel tent. Fitting end for one of those slithering things that've been interfering in God's work for a long time.     Visit www.thechaplain.net or https://www.facebook.com/theChaplainNorris. Send comments to comment@thechaplain.net or 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 or via voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain.                                         Copyright © 2021 Norris Burkes, All rights reserved. You signed up to be on Norris' list! Our mailing address is: Norris Burkes 10566 Combie Rd Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

New Column Norris Burkes -- (c) 916-813-8941

Subject:
PS. High res picture for column


Column:

High res picture for this week's column available at https://www.12af.acc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/319732/new-horizons-personnel-take-time-to-support-local-school-festival/

 

 

 

New Column Norris Burkes -- (c) 916-813-8941

Subject:
19-21 Feb column


Column:

Editors, It's a little long with 750 words. If you need me to shorten, please let me know.



Not Funny, Chaplain

People don't always get my sense of humor. Unfortunately, my years as a hospital chaplain infected me with a touch of gallows humor, an ironic wit handy for hopeless situations.

Nevertheless, ten years ago, I took that humor on a 90-day deployment to Panama with the Red Horse Squadron from Nellis AFB, in Las Vegas.

Red Horse is the Air Force version of the Navy's storied Navy CBs (Construction Battalion). Both are trained to bulldoze the ground in a warzone while simultaneously defending the same ground with an M16.

We were in Panama as part of Operation New Horizon, a humanitarian project to build schools, clinics and playgrounds. The endeavor also gave our airmen the experience they'd need to build a barebones base in a battle zone.

From Panama City, our crew drove the famed Pan American Highway to get to our camp site. The road stretches from Alaska to Argentina, bridging two continents. It's interrupted only by a 60-mile swath of swamp called the Darien Gap.

Once we got settled, Col. Darren Daniels assembled us for a pre-mission briefing. In the trees above us, howler monkeys, sloths and iguanas eyed the proceedings with territorial suspicion.

Daniels issued a sober warning of our dangerous working conditions in an area known to shelter paramilitary groups and drug traffickers.

"We are a long way from help," he told us. "If anyone gets hurt, we may not get the help you need in time."

I'd been to Iraq the previous year, so I didn't feel too worried. Until, that is, Daniels mentioned snakes – particularly the fer-de-lance viper.

I took a jumbo breath of swamp air and expelled an uneasy laugh.

Afterwards, I retreated to the chapel tent to do a quick internet search. Apparently, the fer-de-lance causes more human deaths than any other American reptile. Surprisingly, over the next few days, my gallows humor inflated with these sobering facts.

"Don't worry," I told an airman constructing our showers. "If we get snake bit, we won't suffer long. The fer-de-lance injects 105mg of venom in one bite. Kind of a waste," I added, "because it only takes 50mg to kill you."

At lunch that day, I asked the food-services guy if he knew that it was fer-de-lance birthing season?
He responded by throwing a heap of potatoes on my plate. "The mamas give birth to about 60 babies at once. The little guys even climb tent walls."

Each comment seemed to bring the nervous chuckles I was looking for – that is until I took a lunchtime seat with Col. Daniels and his staff and reshared my newfound knowledge.

Daniels picked up a biscuit and pointed it my direction. "Didn't we bring you here to boost morale?"

The table went quiet, so he graciously softened his tone with a smile. "I'm just thinking the chaplain should be sharing good news, not scaring the hell out of us."

He said it all with a chortle, but we both knew the Shakespearean axiom, "Many a true word is spoken in jest."

My commander was right. His squadron would go on to build outposts in Afghanistan. Not all would come home whole. So, for the moment, my job was to expose them to a faith that would build them up as they built up our humanitarian project.

Spreading fear, even in jest, wasn't the best way for me to do my job. Neither is it the best way we can share our faith.

Yet there are those Christians who think they should use fear to encourage people to take a step toward God.

Fear doesn't work. People have enough hell in their lives without us presenting an angry God who'll make them suffer an apocalyptic hell.

Sharing our faith is the act of exposing people to hope, not to fear or hate.

If faith works, and I think it does, then I have to believe the Apostle Paul's writings in his second letter to his younger colleague, Timothy: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

This week, I encourage you not to share your fear, not to share your hate. Share your hope.

And by the way, some week later, a Panamanian soldier killed a fer-de-lance just outside my chapel tent. Fitting end for one of those slithering things that've been interfering in God's work for a long time.


Visit www.thechaplain.net or https://www.facebook.com/theChaplainNorris. Send comments to comment@thechaplain.net or 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 or via voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain.

 

 

 

Let's play Bible Trivia

Does the Bible Really Say that?

Here's the latest column from Norris Burkes! View this email in your browser Apples, Whales, and Other Things the Bible Doesn't Say   Let's play a trivia game today called, "Does the Bible really say that?"   I suggest this game because last week's column stirred some good reactions when I listed Bible verses that we unknowingly use in everyday conversation.   Today, at the risk of going full Sunday-school teacher on you, I'll take a different tact and examine the words people mistakenly credit to the Bible.   Most of the time their misquotes are harmless. For instance, people will often say that Eve offered Adam an apple in the Garden of Eden. However, the Bible calls it "a fruit." Or as a child you heard that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Yet the book of Jonah identifies it only as a "great fish."   Sometimes though, the mistakes aren't so harmless.     Let's start with this simple saying: "Cleanliness is next to godliness."   The link folks often make between cleanliness and godliness is likely innocuous. While the saying was quoted by your grandmother, it was likely the preacher John Wesley that said it first in 1791.   While the the old preacher wasn't quoting the Bible he was aware of how ritual washing was a thing in the biblical world. Nevertheless, Jesus redirected that conversation toward the cleanliness of the heart.   In Matt. 15, Jesus minimized the ritual practice, saying that "washing or not washing your hands is neither here nor there." His thinking focused on the heart because "…out of the heart come evil thoughts."   While it is certain that evil thoughts can cause folks to sin, that doesn't justify the use of the saying, "We should love the sinner, hate the sin."    Again, like so many of these mottos, this is a non-Bible verse, a true non-starter.   Over the years, I've heard it most quoted in reference toward the LGBT community.  "I don't hate gay people," someone will assure me. "I just hate the lifestyle."    Try something for me, will you? Repeat the phrase aloud as if it's being said about you.   Do you hear the way the words stage an us-versus-them dynamic? The speaker becomes the righteous person looking down at the poor miserable "sinner."    Christians are right in their confession that "We are all sinners." However, when we place the sinner label on someone else, we infer that we are excluded from that wretched classification.   But the word that gives me the most trouble is hate. Even if God hates, which I don't think he does, he never told us to hate.   Hating the sin isn't in the Bible, but this is: "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).   But as a hospice chaplain, there is one misquote I won't tolerate: "God only gives you what you can handle."    People say this to hurting people for the purpose of soothing their own discomfort. They remind me of the religious leaders Jesus angrily denounced: "They tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them" (Matt. 23:4).   The folksy saying sounds like God will limit your personal tragedies to a certain quota. That's just not biblically true. It's likely that most of us will go through things that we can't possibly handle on our own.    The saying is a poor paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which is more accurately stated as, "God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to escape." The verse's meaning is clear and simple. It's a promise that, whenever we feel tempted to do the wrong thing, God will provide an out.   I'm tempted to go on and on about these misquotes. But fortunately, my editors have provided me a way out of the wordy temptation. It's called a "word count" and I was supposed to stop with the last paragraph when I got to 600.      Visit www.thechaplain.net or https://www.facebook.com/theChaplainNorris. Send comments to comment@thechaplain.net or 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 or via voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain.           Copyright © 2021 Norris Burkes, All rights reserved. You signed up to be on Norris' list! Our mailing address is: Norris Burkes 10566 Combie Rd Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

New Column Norris Burkes -- (c) 916-813-8941

Subject:
12-14 Feb 2021


Column:

Apples, Whales, and Other Things the Bible Doesn't Say

Let's play a trivia game today called, "Does the Bible really say that?"

I suggest this game because last week's column stirred some good reactions when I listed Bible verses that we unknowingly use in everyday conversation.

Today, at the risk of going full Sunday-school teacher on you, I'll take a different tact and examine the words people mistakenly credit to the Bible.

Most of the time their misquotes are harmless. For instance, people will often say that Eve offered Adam an apple in the Garden of Eden. However, the Bible calls it "a fruit." Or as a child you heard that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Yet the book of Jonah identifies it only as a "great fish."

Sometimes though, the mistakes aren't so harmless.

Let's start with this simple saying: "Cleanliness is next to godliness."

The link folks often make between cleanliness and godliness is likely innocuous. While the saying was quoted by your grandmother, it was likely the preacher John Wesley that said it first in 1791.

While the the old preacher wasn't quoting the Bible he was aware of how ritual washing was a thing in the biblical world. Nevertheless, Jesus redirected that conversation toward the cleanliness of the heart.

In Matt. 15, Jesus minimized the ritual practice, saying that "washing or not washing your hands is neither here nor there." His thinking focused on the heart because "…out of the heart come evil thoughts."

While it is certain that evil thoughts can cause folks to sin, that doesn't justify the use of the saying, "We should love the sinner, hate the sin."

Again, like so many of these mottos, this is a non-Bible verse, a true non-starter.

Over the years, I've heard it most quoted in reference toward the LGBT community.
"I don't hate gay people," someone will assure me. "I just hate the lifestyle."

Try something for me, will you? Repeat the phrase aloud as if it's being said about you.

Do you hear the way the words stage an us-versus-them dynamic? The speaker becomes the righteous person looking down at the poor miserable "sinner."

Christians are right in their confession that "We are all sinners." However, when we place the sinner label on someone else, we infer that we are excluded from that wretched classification.

But the word that gives me the most trouble is hate. Even if God hates, which I don't think he does, he never told us to hate.

Hating the sin isn't in the Bible, but this is: "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).

But as a hospice chaplain, there is one misquote I won't tolerate: "God only gives you what you can handle."

People say this to hurting people for the purpose of soothing their own discomfort. They remind me of the religious leaders Jesus angrily denounced: "They tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them" (Matt. 23:4).

The folksy saying sounds like God will limit your personal tragedies to a certain quota. That's just not biblically true. It's likely that most of us will go through things that we can't possibly handle on our own.

The saying is a poor paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which is more accurately stated as, "God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to escape." The verse's meaning is clear and simple. It's a promise that, whenever we feel tempted to do the wrong thing, God will provide an out.

I'm tempted to go on and on about these misquotes. But fortunately, my editors have provided me a way out of the wordy temptation. It's called a "word count" and I was supposed to stop with the last paragraph when I got to 600.

Visit www.thechaplain.net or https://www.facebook.com/theChaplainNorris. Send comments to comment@thechaplain.net or 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 or via voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain.

 

 

 

Common sayings we use from the Bible

Did you just quote the Bible?

Here's the latest column from Norris Burkes! View this email in your browser Did you just quote the Bible?   As a kid, if I ever dared to bring church gossip to our family dinner table, my mom was quick to challenge my sources: "How do you know that? Did a little bird tell you?"   Her question has its roots in Ecclesiastes 10:20 "Don't make fun of the powerful, even in your own bedroom. For a little bird might deliver your message and tell them what you said."   Honestly, until I researched this column, neither one of us knew that my mom's ornithological expression was a bible quote.    Truthfully, Bible student or not, you may be surprised how many verses we've unintentionally inserted into everyday usage. That's why I thought it might be fun to use today's column to embark on a trivial pursuit for these uncited biblical expressions.   For instance, if you've ever described someone, as "A wolf in sheep's clothing," you are quoting Jesus' Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 7:15 (NIV) "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."   These days, if you used the expression for a politician or televangelists, you'd be  instantly understood. The saying describes someone who only seems friendly or harmless. In practice, they are vile and shouldn't be trusted.     The expression has got me in trouble with readers as I've used it to describe previous leaders. "Wolf or not," they insist, "you should respect the 'Powers that be.'"    Their admonition is lifted from Romans 13:1 when the Apostle Paul cautioned us to "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God."   "Am I my brother's keeper?" is another saying we may unknowingly quote.   God addresses Cain, the offspring of Adam and Eve, asking (NIV) "'Where is your brother Abel?' 'I don't know,' Cain replied. 'Am I my brother's keeper?'"    The intention of Genesis 4:9 is hard to miss as the Hebrew syntax implies a "yes," we are responsible for our fellow man and woman. The response is a screeching denial of today's demand for individual freedoms over humanity's common good.     Finally, as we begin Black History month, it's important to recognize how Abraham Lincoln emphasized the relevance of Matthew 12:25.   At the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention, he accepted his party's nomination to the senate by quoting "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Without noting the citation, Lincoln was quoting Jesus' words found in three gospels. "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand."   While we sometimes quote this verse in our call for unity between political ideals, it's important to note that neither Jesus nor Lincoln used it as a call to unity or compromise.   Return to the words of Lincoln as he unfolded the Biblical meaning with this: "I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."   Lincoln was speaking in the months following the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision which denied citizenship for black people. He used the verse to forcefully state that there cannot be two houses because one does not, and cannot, compromise with evil.   Finally, even if you're not a bible reader, I hope you find guidance in the "maxim of reciprocity" shared by most religious traditions. Commonly known as the Golden Rule, it's most often quoted in Jesus' words from (Matt. 7:12) "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"    By the way, my mom is 87 and she still asks me if a little bird told me something. "Yup," I say.   "What's the birdie's name," she'll ask.   "'Twitter.' Ever heard of it?"    Follow me on twitter @chaplain.   -----------------   I researched this column from these 85 common sayings in the Bible   Read all my columns at www.thechaplain.net Send comments to comment@thechaplain.net or 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 or via voicemail (843) 608-9715.       Copyright © 2021 Norris Burkes, All rights reserved. You signed up to be on Norris' list! Our mailing address is: Norris Burkes 10566 Combie Rd Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences