"Healing" with Marijuana

A friend of mine is suffering from cancer and, the treatment thereof.  She is in great pain and the medications she is taking are accompanied by debilitating side effects.  Surgery is out of the question because her platelets are low from the cancer and she has to watch her sodium intake.  She continues receiving chemo treatments but then immediately she gets a skin infection (cellulitis). Then her doctor gives her antibiotics which work against the chemo. Everything is working against each other.  Now she can't walk and she's gotten even weaker from lying in bed.  Since she is taking so many different drugs, they cancel out the good effects of each other and she can't eat.  It is too bad she won't consider cannabis (pot or marijuana) as a treatment but she has been brainwashed into thinking that marijuana is a "drug" and that the pills she is popping are treatments.  If only she would consider pot as a treatment she could not only re-gain her appetite which would be beneficial to her health and well being but she would also be relatively pain free and conscious.  The drugs she takes now renders her into a zombie estate and do not give her the benefit of sleep.  One of her drugs inhibits getting a good night's sleep which she desperately needs and marijuana could provide that.  But, she is a good girl and doesn't do drugs. 

NY recently passed medical marijuana laws and our next door neighbor, Massachusetts, is looking into legalizing it across the board which will of course destroy NY's medical marijuana industry and, bwahahahaha . . . all the wasted time and tax payer dollars that went into the planning for the medical marijuana industry.  Hah! 

Not only can marijuana be used for physical, mental, and emotional well being, it can be used for "healing."  First, consider the meaning of the word "healing."  There is a difference between healing and curing.  To cure means to make the disease go away.  Healing has to do with an expression of greater wholeness and acceptance rather than curing.  Healing is about discovering what is hurting us in the first place and helping us to come to terms with it. 

A long time ago a friend was dying of cancer.  She sought every treatment and nostrum available, draining her bank account and only getting physically and emotionally worse at the same time.  She was in denial.  I don't know what precipitated her change in attitude but when she accepted the fact that she was going to die, she "healed."  She was able to talk about it, make amends with friends and family whom she transgressed in the past.  She was able to live life a little more fully and finally be happy.  I beleive it was the edible pot that she illegally obtained from her son who traveled to Colorado and risked arrest and decades in prison for its procurement, but gave his mom a new outlook on life and death.  Healing is about discovering what is holding us back in the first place.  Pot helped my friend look at life differently and die with dignity and comfort rather than denial, failure and shame - and she had a healthy appetite, too. 

Diabetes, obesity, autism, anxiety, cancer, autoimmune conditions, thoughts of suicide and other expressions of imbalance are increasing in society as are prescription drug treatments for all of those ailments and the downward spiral which comes with them and their treatments.  A pharmacist friend told me that she believes all the cholesterol medication people take causes diabetes and the medication for diabetes causes weight gain and kidney complications leading to heart issues. 

Cannabis could play a much larger role in most people's lives by helping them maintain a balanced, healthy outlook and diet.  Dying with dignity, comfort and acceptance should be the primary focus of "healing."  It is time for doctors to incorporate medicinal marijuana into their regular treatment practices in addition to traditional medical treatment in order to spare people the harsh side effects of pharmaceutical drugs. 

I recently watched the History Channel's movie "Marijuana Revolution" and I discovered that cultivators of this plant are able create strains to achieve goals and outcomes far more advanced than the dangerous prescription drugs mired with side effects that profit hungry pharmaceuticals are creating and pushing onto doctors to prescribe.  I have no doubt that in the future, cannabis combined with other treatments will actually lead to a cure for many maladies which afflict us.  It is definitely a cure for alcohol and drug addiction because pot itself is not addictive but is an alternative to those other addictions.  Working on the suicide hot-line I had many callers who were in mental and physical pain because of their addiction to pain killers.  I'm sure pot would ameliorate their conditions on the first day of use.

Thank you to states like Colorado and Washington who of course are making billions in tax revenue each year but, are also providing people with the option to heal, even to their death.  It is very exciting that marijuana cultivators are exploring uses of various strains in an effort to find cures and treatments and these people are not even medical practitioners.  They are simply lovers of the plant.  Too bad medical science and pharmaceutical companies are overlooking what has been in front of us for centuries.  Ultimately, there is no profit in curing cancer and other diseases, there is profit however in treating  symptoms.  

If you are on the fence about this natural God given herb, watch the History channel's movie "Marijuana Revolution."  If you can't watch it on the history channel (http://www.history.com/shows/the-marijuana-revolution/about) or find it in the tv guides, you can probably find it on the torrent sites.  Write to your law makers and ask them to re-legalize this herbal drug and support the hundreds of companies already cultivating, infusing, testing, marketing and selling cannabis-related products.

Lies, Taxation and Pot, Oh My

A friend of mine suffers from nerve pain and has great difficulty sleeping.  When she sits in a chair, she hangs her head down, folds her arms in her lap and sits slumped over with her legs together as if trying to get in a fetal position.  The only time she can sleep is when she takes prescription muscle relaxants but they give her a hang over the next day.  The pain medication doesn't really work and presents some undesirable side effects on her.

She was complaining to me that she wished there was a natural, homeopathic or herbal medicine which would help her with her nerve pain and not have any side effects.  I immediately suggested marijuana.  Despite actually being a natural, homeopathic and herbal medicine, her voice rose with indignation saying that pot was an addictive drug with dangerous side effects.  It ills brain cells and she would never take that.  I told her that Steve Jobs was a pot smoker.  Look what it did to his brain.

It is amazing how Harry Anslinger's lies about this natural, homeopathic and herbal plant have endured over the decades despite medical research and thousands of my and your neighbors and friends "testing" it on a daily basis.  They themselves, in secret, have been proving the lies to be wrong.  It is easy to beleive a lie when so many people say it is so.

I looked up my friend's nerve pain medication and here are the possible side effects:
difficult or labored breathing, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, , chills, cough, diarrhea, difficulty with swallowing, dizziness, fast heartbeat, hives, itching, joint or muscle pain, puffiness or swelling of the eyelids or around the eyes, skin lesions often with a purple center, skin rash, sore throat, unusual tiredness or weakness, accidental injury, bloating or swelling of the face, blurred vision, numbness or pain in the hands, change in walking and balance, clumsiness, confusion, delusions, dementia, difficulty having a bowel movement, difficulty with speaking, double vision, dry mouth, fever, headache, hoarseness, lack of coordination, loss of memory, lower back or side pain, painful or difficult urination, weight gain, seeing double, sensation of pins and needles, shakiness and unsteady walk, problems with muscle control or coordination, unusual weight gain, anxiety, bloated or full feeling, chest pain, cold sweats, coma, feeling of discomfort or illness, loss of appetite, loss of bladder control, loss of strength or energy, muscle aches and pains, muscle twitching or jerking, muscle weakness, nausea, nervousness, nightmares, noisy breathing, pain passing gas, rhythmic movement of the muscles, runny nose, seizures, shivering, slurred speech, sweating, trouble sleeping, twitching, uncontrolled eye movements, vomiting, thoughts of suicide, suicide.

Here are the side effects for marijuana:
munchies, mellow, sound sleep.

I shared with her my two experiences with marijuana.  Personally I would never smoke it.  I wouldn't do that to my lungs and beside that, I can't stand the smell of smoke and hate to be around people who do smoke.  So my first experience with marijuana was when I was in Washington State.  I went camping up to a glacier and since marijuana is legal in WA, at the suggestion of a friend, I purchased a few doses in pill form and took one before I went to sleep on the glacier.  I slept the whole night through while my hiking mates suffered the whole night freezing in the 20 degree temperature.  I took one final pill on my return flight back to NY.  As my plane took off I put my head down.  Six hours later I awoke to the sound of the pilot saying "We are making our final decent to Albany . . . "  This stuff is amazing.

It is too bad when my mother was suffering from nerve pain, her options were a concoction of three pain medications and one antidepressant or, as an alternative: morphine.  All that suffering she endured and at the expense to the insurance company could have been avoided if marijuana were legal.  You can bet that if she were alive today and still in that amount of pain, I would personally risk arrest and prison to find her relief from all the pain and suffering she endured in her final years.

For those who beleive in the fairy tales passed down by word of mouth, I am sorry you have been lied to and you beleive those lies; survival of the fittest.  Go ahead and take those lab created pills with all those aforementioned side effects.  For those of you wondering why marijuana was given a bad rap in the first place, our first drug czar, Harry Anslinger, who was in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies, alcohol and tobacco distributors, and the lumber and print media industries, he made up stories about it.  Coming out of the prohibition, marijuana couldn't be taxed and was cutting into alcohol and tobacco sales.  Both the government and above mentioned industries were losing money.  His facts changed regularly and despite the scientific findings in LaGuardia report, issued the following quotes:

...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.​

Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing.​

There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.​

Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men.​

Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.​

You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother.​

Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.​

Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.

Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with white female students smoking marijuana and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result pregnancy.

Two Negroes took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days in a hut under the influence of marihuana. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis.

-----
Yup, your call.  Hopefully it will be to your elected representative demanding that marijuana be made legal AND, everyone languishing in our prisons today for past pot possession will be released and their records sealed or expunged. Hey, it is your tax dollars keeping them there at $30,000 per person per year.  It all started with Harry Anslinger.  Who will it end with?

St. Fabian and St. Sebastian: Saint of the Day

Several years ago I used to attend a daily Mass said by a priest who had an affinity to the Saints.  He always made their stories and accomplishments so meaningful so I thought I'd share some of my notes here.  I kept copious notes in case I was ever called upon creating a liturgical celebration based on the person of interest.  Today, of course, we have the internet.

January 20th is the optional memorial day of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian.  Both were martyrs and persecuted for simply being Christian.  Fabian holds the honor of being elected Pope but was not even a priest at the time of his election.  Sebastian was a soldier who comforted the people he was about to kill.  When the emperor found out that Sebastian was a Christian, he was ordered to be killed by a bowmen firing squad.  There are many famous paintings of Sebastian with a dozen or so arrows sticking out of him.    That isn't all he is famous for.  He survived his execution and after being nursed to health, he confronted the emperor yet again and of course, was executed again.  Sebastian is the patron saint of athletes.

It must have taken tremendous courage to be a Christian in a time when they were hated.  Even today we're no stranger to hate.  The Nazi's hated the Jews, Lebanon hates Israel, the Puritans who escaped Europe from religious persecution came to North America only to persecute people who were not pure like them, European settlers hated the Native Americans because the Native Americans resented being forced off their land so they had the nerve to fight back.  Other classes and groups of people we loved to hate in recent history:  blacks, gays, women, Irish, Mexicans, English, French, Muslim, Japanese, rich people and even poor people.

In my town a business was going to build two halfway houses for people newly released from prison with arrest records.  Everyone thought it was a noble idea and the purchase of the property was approved in a non-residential area.  Then someone found out that the people living there could include the dreaded sex offender.  As word spread like wildfire the next town hall meeting was filled to capacity by people protesting this halfway house rumored to be full of registered sex offenders.  All permissions were rescinded.  What is amazing is that when people thought these buildings would house drug dealers, gang members, burglars, robbers, wife beaters, drunk drivers, drug users, murderers and animal abusers, nobody had a problem with it because everyone deserves a second chance.  But, if a 19 year old high school senior who had sex with his 16 year old high school sweetheart might move in - he is a child molester and rapist and nobody saw anything wrong with ostracizing him and everyone else along with him.  Even though the halfway house was for anyone arrested, not just the good criminals like murderers, armed robbers and drug dealers.

When Charlie Hebdo was attacked by terrorists, the West united with rallies and protests reciting the phrase "Je suis Charlie."  The West saw this as a statement in support for freedom of speech while the Islamic religion saw the rallies as an affront to the Prophet Muhammad.  Neither party is wrong because of their cultural differences but it shouldn't be that difficult for either party to say they're sorry; maybe it is.

It is good to remember Fabian and Sebastian and their persecution.  Both fought and peacefully stood up for what they believed.  Did they have to die for it?   Must history repeat itself?

Marijuana: The Devil Drug

David Juaire and his wife Christina Stewart were recently charged with criminal possession of marijuana in the third degree.  They were growing it in their basement.  Have you ever wondered why this sort of thing happens?  Here is a quote:

"Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, jazz musicians, and entertainers. Their satanic music is driven by marijuana, and marijuana smoking by white women makes them want to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and others. It is a drug that causes insanity, criminality, and death — the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."
-Harry Anslinger.

That quote must be true because a politician said it and laws were created because of what he said.  There is a saying, "If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail."   Good old Harry served on the Bureau of Prohibition.  Since Prohibition caused more crime than it deterred and the government lost a lot of money in tax revenue,  prohibition was lifted.   Anslinger was appointed as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics.  What the Treasury Department has to do with drugs, I don't . . . oh, alcohol and tobacco are big business and therefore taxable.  Marijuana can be home grown and thus, is not taxable. 

The war on drugs began when Anslinger wanted to make a name for himself and like many politicians,  he made up "facts" about marijuana which were later debunked in the La Guardia Report.  During the Prohibition, poor people who couldn't buy what Capone and other mobsters were selling, turned to marijuana.  They could easily grow it themselves.  After the Prohibition was lifted, marijuana smokers continued to use it because it was cheap, non addictive and didn't cause hangovers or intoxication.  Since marijuana use was cutting into alcohol and tobacco profits, Congress made it illegal.  Anslinger simply made up lies about marijuana to get congress and the sheep of society to follow along with his plan.  Many of those lies and false beliefs exist today.

Now that Colorado has legalized marijuana, have their death rates from automobile accidents  climbed? And crime, rape, murder and burglary, have those skyrocketed as Anslinger would have predicted? 

According to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration Statistics the alcohol-related deaths in the US in  2007 were 15,387.  Here are the Annual Causes of Death in the United States in the year 2010:
Tobacco : 435,000
Alcohol : 85,000
Prescription Drugs : 32,000
Suicide: 30,622
Sexual Fetishes : 20,000
All illegal drug use (excluding marijuana) : 17,000
Aspirin : 7,600
Lack of Health Insurance 44,789
Poisoning 41,592
Firearm Injuries 31,347
Homicide 16,799
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) 9,406
Viral hepatitis 7,694
Marijuana : 0
http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/30

As I look over that list, I can't help but wonder how many of those deaths could have been prevented had the victim been able to use marijuana for the treatment of whatever was ailing them.  While answering a suicide hotline, many of my callers are suffering from prescription drug addictions and the withdrawal is unbearable to them.

Facts:
Over 31% of the US population aged 12 and older are estimated to have used marijuana.

Many people die from alcohol use. Nobody dies from marijuana use. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not even have a category for deaths caused by the use of marijuana since it is so insignificant.

People die from alcohol and drug overdoses. There has never been a fatal marijuana overdose.

The health-related costs associated with alcohol use far exceed those for marijuana use.

Alcohol use damages the brain. Marijuana use does not. Despite the myths we've heard throughout our lives about marijuana killing brain cells, it turns out that a growing number of studies seem to indicate that marijuana actually has neuroprotective properties. This means that it works to protect brain cells from harm - after around the age of 21, after the brain has fully formed.

According to the La Guardia Report which was commissioned to answer the claims of Anslinger:
Alcohol use is linked to cancer. Marijuana use is not.
Alcohol is addictive.  Marijuana is not.
Alcohol use increases the risk of injury to the consumer. Marijuana use does not.
Alcohol use contributes to aggressive and violent behavior. Marijuana use does not.
Alcohol use is a major factor in violent crimes. Marijuana use is not.
Alcohol use contributes to the likelihood of domestic abuse and sexual assault. Marijuana use does not.
   
It is a shame that the Draconian Congressional laws behind this benign drug have put so many people in prison and jail.  Marijuana arrests have rendered  people unemployable because of their "criminal" records.  It has sentenced so many children of these convicted "criminals" as collateral damage and has sucked dry our social services programs because these "criminals" can't sustain themselves nor their families.  Incarceration of these non-violent offenders costs the tax payers about $30,000 per year per offender.

Congress, in one fell swoop, can legalize marijuana across the country, release all the non-violent pot smoking offenders from prisons and jails, expunge their records and allow people to use medical marijuana for addictions, mental health issues and pain relief.

Sure, this will cut into the tax revenue yielding from alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs, but not that much.  The users of those products are addicted and will always be around to squander their pay checks in service to their addictions.  The one thing that can save them from their addictions is, well, marijuana.

As people use tobacco less, consume less alcohol and the misuse of prescription drugs diminishes, the less fatalities we will have.  Less people will be going to hospitals and draining our healthcare programs, less people will be suffering from the side effects of prescription pain medication, less people will be in prison.  In essence, there will be a lot less people in the position of being a burden to society.

The solution is so simple and staring us right in the face.  Congress needs only to listen to facts and statistics, not the lobbyists  and their cherry pickers.  Every day I read in the paper that someone is getting arrested for possession.  Why are they being arrested?  Because it is against the law?  Why is it illegal in the first place?   Oh, because of Harry:

"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured...No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer... "
-Harry Anslinger.

Monsters Under the Bed

I haven't blogged in a while because I've been busy but, recently an event that happened which perturbed me enough to pick up my sententious and pugilistic pen.  The 20 year old son of a friend was recently arrested with drugs.  Drugs are scary.  Just as a drunk driver can hurt or kill themselves or others, drugs can hurt and kill.  Well, most drug users use them in the privacy of their own home and are less likely to harm others but, they do run the risk of damaging their own bodies and creating issues in their normal day to day living.  If someone has a drug problem, arresting them does nothing to assuage their addiction.  It will be far from mollifying but intensifying any problem they may have.  Punishment takes away his life.  Only treatment and support from family, friends and the community will help unencumber him from the appetite of chemical dependency.  People with support, mercy, compassion and purpose are more amenable to discipline and healing. 

Take the scary and often moniker-ed "gateway drug" marijuana.  Most everyone I know uses it or has used it and I bet that most everyone you know falls into the same category - or they're lying.  So why isn't most of our population drug addicts?  Because they don't have that addiction gene?  I have alcohol in my house and I rarely consume it.  I do drink but I don't have to.  I have no need or strong desire to imbibe in it.  I'm not a drinker but I enjoy the product on occasion with friends.

I have several fiends who admit to doing cocaine, heroin or ecstasy in their pasts (I work in the church.  I run across these people a lot.  What is the church for if not for sinners?).  Once they got the fad of drug experimentation out of their systems, they went on to lead productive and professional lives, raising families and leaving drugs behind them.  Would they like to indulge again once in a while?  I'm sure but, they "grew up" and recognized that it affects their productivity and living a real life. 

Many of our politicians and technological geniuses have indulged in temporary drug use: Clinton, Bush, Obama, Steve Jobs.  If any of those men were ever caught and thrown into prison, none of them would be the men they are today for they would be convicted felons and not eligible to work in the professions they have chosen.  Can you imagine what our world would be like if Steve Jobs was given a forty year prison sentence instead of freely practicing his craft in pursuit of genius and perfection? 

Assemblyman Steve Katz (R) who is an outspoken state assemblyman who serves on the chamber's Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee — and had the effrontery to vote against medical marijuana — was recently busted for possessing pot.  He was pulled over on the state Thruway for going 80 miles an hour  in a 65 mph zone when a trooper detected a palpable odor redolent of pot wafting from his car.  Katz was on his way to Albany to vote on legislation while under the influence, BTW.  All charges were dropped against him.  Hmmph.  Membership has its privileges. 

Even our best athletes in the world have smoked weed.  "Disgraced U.S. Olympian Nick Delpopolo " is what the headlines read last summer after he failed a drug test. Why is he disgraced when so many other people use the drug with impunity? The Bureau of Statistics doesn't even research marijuana deaths each year because the number is so insignificant. Our government has lied and frightened the public for decades about this safe, natural medicine. Nobody beats their wife or kids, loses their job, gets in accidents, rapes or murders, or blows their paycheck on pot.  Alcohol?  That's a different story.  Nick's life, career and dream of greatness in service to our country through sports is now ruined by societal prejudice due to the unjust prohibition laws of cannabis.

Here are just a few of the many highly motivated athletes who have used drugs:
* Usain Bolt, the 2008 World Record holder of the 100 and 200 meter sprint.
* Michael Phelps, the most decorated swimmer ever with 14 Olympic gold medals.
* Tim Lincecum, the National League baseball’s Cy Young Award winner for 2009.
* Santonio Holmes, the Super Bowl XLII’s MVP.
* Mark Stepnoski, two-time Super Bowl champion. "I'd rather smoke than take painkillers."
* Randy Moss, NFL single season touchdown reception record (23, set in 2007), and the NFL  single-season touchdown reception record for a rookie (17, in 1998). Moss has founded, and  financed many charitable endeavors including the the Links for Learning foundation, formed in  2008.
* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leader in points scored (38,387), games played,  minutes played, field goals made, field goal attempts, blocked shots and defensive rebounds.  During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to  1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP  Awards. He has a prescription to smoke marijuana in California, which he says he uses to  control nausea and migraine headaches. He has been arrested twice for marijuana possession.
* "Most of the players in the league use marijuana and I have and do  partake in smoking weed in the off season" - Josh Howard, forward for the Dallas Mavericks.  Howard admitted to smoking marijuana on Michel Irvin's ESPN show.
* "You got guys out there playing high every night. You got 60% of your league on marijuana.  What can you do?" - Charles Oakley (Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors,  Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets)
* "I personally know boxers, body builders, cyclists, runners and athletes from all walks of life  that train and compete with the assistance of marijuana," —WWE wrestler Rob Van Dam
* Some of the best cricket players of all time, like Phil Tufnell and Sir Ian Botham, have  admitted to regularly using marijuana to deal with stress and muscle aches. In 2001, half of  South Africa's cricket team was caught smoking marijuana with the team physiotherapist. They were celebrating a championship victory in the Caribbean.

Where would any of those un-convicted criminals be today had they been caught and arrested before they achieved greatness?  Yes, drugs are bad and I would not encourage anyone to take or abuse them.  However, are they as bad as we have been led to beleive or are we just not able to make money off of them as well as say, alcohol which kills tens of thousands of people each year?  Are those deaths acceptable to our predominately Christic society? 

My biggest complaint here is not drugs.  It is the arrest of this twenty year old.   Millions of people before him, right now and in the future will do drugs and not get caught.  They will then go on to lead normal and productive lives without incident.  They either lead a life so boring that they are easily enchanted or they lead a life so full of stimulus that are are easily bored so, drugs were a temporary experiment.  This twenty year old will most likely become a convicted felon, do prison time, have the stigma of a conviction on his record, have difficulty procuring housing because of background checks and drug registries, endure numerous desultory attempts at finding a job, he'll have zero credit and he will most likely live off the largess of the social services and the taxpayer's dime.  He will be judged differently from normal, phantasmagorical good people with a prepossessing Christian artifice.  He will be labeled with the delineating modifier of "criminal" and his productivity to society will be a patent waste.  His life will be larded with more problems than an algebra textbook.  Most likely he is no different than anyone else.  He just got caught.

Nobody is the worse thing that they've ever done.  A conviction and doing prison time will not help this kid if he has a problem.  It will certainly not help him when he gets out and tries to put his life back in order.  If he has a drug problem, then he should be treated for it, not punished.  Our entire justice system is designed for punishment and profit.  Prisons should be for people who are a threat to others and not a warehouse for politicians, judges, DA's and law enforcement people to win elections and win grant money.

A story I often like to tell is about a friend who as a teen would ensconce himself on a bridge and throw pumpkins onto a highway below.  Fortunately he never hit a car and he was never caught.  Had he been caught or had he hurt anyone, he would have done many years in prison.  He wasn't caught, he went on to college, got married, became very active in his church, had kids and now works for corporate America as a manager of a nationally recognized chain.  Should he have been punished?  I don't know.  Had he been caught, his life would be drastically different today.  With a felony conviction on his record, he wouldn't have gone to college, probably not be married and his kids wouldn't exist.  He does more good for society today than society would have gotten out of him by punishing him. 

Winston Churchill once said that “One of the most unfailing tests of a civilization is how a country treats its criminals.”  Most criminals return to the streets in a worse state than when they were arrested.  Prison turns good people bad and bad people worse.  A better solution for crime would be a restorative justice approach. 

In The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace, Jack Kornfield describes an African forgiveness ritual: "In the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman, and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, each recalling the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy, is recounted. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths, and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. This tribal ceremony often lasts for several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe."

Too bad for those of us who profess to be Christians, that Jesus didn't show us another way.  Maybe those of us with eyes to see and ears to hear, know that way.  But, not to act is to act. 

-Malcolm Kogut.

Why Are the Institutional Churches Failing? Reason One: Vision, Fear and Apathy.

A favorite discussion topic of mine is addressing why churches across the country are failing or seeing diminished attendance with no sign of growth.  I have seven theories and I'd like to share my thoughts on the first.  So, keep in mind the old saying that the devil doesn't need to beat the church, he needs only to join it.  St. Augustine once said of the church, "So many sheep without, so many wolves within." 

Prayer is the least thing you can do for someone while still getting to grandstand like you are actually doing something.  That may sound harsh and irreverent but, if I fall and break my leg, don't pray for me - call an ambulance.  Then plan to come over for a few weeks to help with cooking and cleaning, then we can pray together in thanksgiving and praise for the gift of friendship, healing and ministry.  After all, isn't that what church is all about, taking care of their, uhm, own?

Religion is a great comfort - to a world torn apart by religion because we confuse the wrappings with the goods.  Let’s say Jane Doe walks out into a field one day and sits under a tree eating carrots.  For whatever cosmic reasons she becomes enlightened and when she returns home everybody can see that she’s got a light around her the size of Manhattan.  Within a week there would be thousands of us sitting under trees eating carrots.  Once a year on that day there would be carrot celebrations and rituals, rules and recipes.  That particular species of tree would become holy and we might even wear carrot pendants around our necks.  We’d wind up killing people on the other side of the world who aren’t interested in hearing about Jane.  Churches and pastors would spring up all over the place charging $200 per weekend to help us look and act more like Jane.  But Jane’s enlightenment may not have had anything to do with the tree or the carrot or what she was wearing or her personality.  Like the Buddha said, "Don’t follow in my footsteps, instead, seek what I sought."  Jesus said "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God."   Hafiz said simply, "Wherever God lays His glance life starts clapping and the myriad creatures grab their instruments and join the Song."  We would go to the mall to purchase stuff to show off their Jane spirit. 

Some of the most hate-filled, unforgiving, uncompassionate and merciless people I have ever encountered have been good church people (watch for my future "Mabel" blog).  A lot of the aforementioned qualities fall insidiously neat under the banner of Christianity.  I haven't been able to figure out why but I can only surmise that it parallels with what Shakespeare said, “Thou protesteth too much.”  Maybe it is that we hate most in others what we fear in ourselves.   Maybe we are afraid of  looking into the abyss and seeing what is staring back at us.  Maybe a vast number of church goers espouse that arrogance because they live beneath the mask of goodness.  The only way to deny what they fear within themselves is to stand on the sins, failures and faults of others.  Now, if your church is different, ask yourself if they would allow a murderer, drug dealer or sex offender to openly become a member of your congregation.  Nowhere else does the query “What would Jesus do?” hold so much irrelevance when you ponder allowing undesirable and sinful lepers to sit in the pew with your family.  All are welcome, except for those people. 

We discourage people from the church in order to keep the gene pool, as it were, clean and, protecting existing members is more important than fighting sin.  Many people who commit crimes and get arrested are good people who made mistakes, who got carried away with power and privilege or had a lapse in judgment.  Does that make them bad people?  Does that mean they can't learn, change or grow?  Do they deserve second chances?  Do we even know who is sitting in the next pew?  Oscar Wilde, who was sent to prison for three years because he was gay said, "Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

Altemio Sanchez was a pillar of his community, trusted and professional.  He was a church lector and Eucharistic Minister.  He also raped and murdered over ten women during a twenty year period.   He got away with it because the police arrested and framed the wrong guy.  Case closed, bonuses for everyone.  So, Altemio hung low for a while.  Despite that, he was trusted, loved and respected every Sunday in his own community flying well below the radar of the other good people of his congregation until after a ten year hiatus he did it again and got caught.  It was a shock.  Nobody saw it coming.  "He was such a good man."

Does a man change because you know more about him?  The answer is no but the new knowledge about someone can bring to the surface of our personalities some latent prejudice, hate of fear which is often stronger than faith and has little to do with the person.  It is easier to hate the gentle and child-like Frankenstein monster because you can label him than it is to face our own nascent monster within.  We humans do protest too much especially when we can point an accusatory finger at someone worse.  Remember, burning witches at the stake did nothing to resolve the witch problem, it just exposed more witches in our midst. 

I once had a man come up to me after Mass to inquire about joining our music ministry.  He said that he played the drums professionally and was looking for a church to belong.  He told me that he just got out of prison and was looking for a church that kisses the leper clean.  I told him that I would love a professional drummer and he could start with our variety show which was that weekend.  He joined me and he gave our music new life.  I never asked him about his past.  We were a church.  It was irrelevant.  All are welcome.  Cast the first stone, and all that. 

After a few weeks of playing, the priest came up to me and asked me who that new musician was and without thinking I said that he was a guy who just got out of prison and was looking to get his life back on track.  Fr. Leonard then approached him and told him that he likes to meet with everyone who is looking to join the parish and would like to set up an appointment with him.  The drummer eagerly acquiesced. 

The following Sunday, the drummer didn't show up for Mass.  He didn't show up for rehearsal or for Mass the following week either.  Since I didn't have a phone number for him there was no way to make contact so I asked Fr. Leonard if he had that meeting or if he knew why the drummer didn't come back.   Leonard just said that at their meeting, they both agreed that this parish was not a right fit for either one of them.  That was very strange because without knowing of his past, everyone made him feel welcome, loved, valued and respected and, he was eager to share his talent, faith, prayer life, witness and growth with us. I can only surmise that it was Leonard who didn't make him feel welcome.

A few years later, Leonard told me about a time when he was a priest at another church.  There was a DWI accident where the intoxicated person was a state trooper.  He crashed head-on into a van carrying a family and there were serious injuries.   The trooper was unharmed and quickly whisked away from the scene  by his cop friends in collusion to sober him up.  There were no charges lodged against him, it was just an accident.  Leonard witnessed the accident, knew that the trooper was intoxicated and was livid at the scandalous injustice so he decided to contact the DA and demand justice or he was going to go to the press.  That same day, Leonard got a phone call from the bishop and was told that he had three hours to pack up as he was being moved to a new parish immediately.   Leonard the ever obedient company man could take a hint and never mentioned the case to anyone.  Shortly after the accident, one of the victims died from their injuries. 

A few months later the state trooper completed suicide.  Leonard said “Finally, justice is served.”  He  totally lost my long waning respect for him on that day.  Social psychologist Ian McKee, PhD, of Adelaide University in Australia said that "People who are more vengeful tend to be those who are motivated by power, by authority and by the desire for status.  They don't want to lose face.  They must be right at all costs."  The few people that I have known who desired revenge or justice, seem to base their justification on some presumed idea that they were owed something.  Usually the "revenge" sought was somehow related to addressing a presumed injustice.  The priest in the above story rests on the assumption that his personal standards should be accepted as universal.  This viewpoint suggests that the individual has some secret access to the universal good.  Such a viewpoint will eventually be unsatisfactory because it doesn't allow room for personal or spiritual growth.  He felt that the suicide was justice and thus acceptable to him and right for society.

One of the flaws in our present legal system is the emphasis on punishment instead of restorative justice which would address the needs of the victim as much as the action and correction of the violator.  Sending someone to prison only makes them hate society and when they get out they feel that society owes them so they look for ways to take - often gleefully living off the largess of the social service department and taxpayer.   Instead of becoming a productive member of society they become a drain on its resources and a leper because we won't rent to them nor hire them nor let them into our good churches.  “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime” is just another way of arrogantly saying "We don’t forgive you."

Rather than providing closure for the victims and survivors, revenge does the opposite: It keeps the wound open and fresh.  I don't think revenge is really sweet.  If it is, it's an artificial sweetener.  It may feel good to get back at someone by sending them to prison for decades, but the feeling won't last.  My priest friend continues this day as a bitter, hateful, spiteful, vengeful person who surrounds himself with others with as much venom and blackness of heart as he possesses.  They spend a considerable amount of time at their men's prayer group meetings talking about other people and since a church’s most effective information source is its congregation, be it good news or gossip, they spread the word.  That word reaps what it sows.  Those with eyes to see, see and now his church is near death.

Leonard does however give great homilies and inspires many people.  Sometimes when someone knows the truth and they don't live it, they protest too much, in this case at the ambo in front of an adoring audience, with great fervor.  He is very successful at grooming them into thinking he is holy.  I don't want to fall into the trap of Godwin's Law so I'll just say "Heil!" as an example of this phenomenon.

The people who choose to seek revenge perhaps do so because they think it will make them feel better and they don't care or haven't thought about how it could actually make things worse.  Gavin Staulters operated a motor vehicle in an intoxicated condition and crossed onto the shoulder, striking and killing 14 year old Kari Liedel.  Gavin was sentenced five years in prison and Kari's mother said that she wished the sentence could have been longer.  The community and DA were outraged, too.  Their anger, hate and thirst for revenge is going to haunt them the rest of their lives because they didn't get what they think they wanted and Gavin supposedly got off easy.  In this case, nobody won.  If they first practiced restorative justice, forgiveness, compassion and healing mercy, everyone could win.  The tragic and avoidable death of Kari was because of stupidity, immaturity and weakness, not malice.  Revenge comes at a price. Instead of helping you move on with your life, it can leave you dwelling on the situation and remain unhappy because the revenge or justice wasn't sweet.  Meanwhile the offender goes on often unaware of the hurt the other person is festering with.  How ironic that our justice system just perpetuates this victimization of the victims.  Kari's birth into new life could have been the impetus of healing enlightenment for many.

Will more laws and more harsh punishment solve the DWI problem or bring Kari back?  There will always be drunk drivers and they will always be with us as long as there are people, alcohol and cars.  If I fall off a ladder and break my leg, you wouldn’t hate the ladder but you may compassionately heal me.  Too bad, before we carried out the death penalty on that convicted felon, Jesus, who most likely, he and his friends would not be welcome in many of our churches today, that we didn't learn his lessons about restorative justice.   I believe it was Gandhi who was asked,
"You are always quoting Jesus.  Why don't you become a Christian?"
Gandhi replied,
"When I meet a Christian who acts like Christ, I will become one."

Historically, there are two schools of thought on revenge. The Bible, in Exodus 21:23, instructs us to "Give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Punish the offender.  But more than 2,000 years later, Martin Luther King Jr., responded, "The old law of 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind." Abraham Lincoln famously turned his back on some crimes because he knew that punishment would not benefit anyone.  Hate begets hate.  Buddha called it "Karma."  Jesus said "Do unto others."  The world says "What goes around comes around."  The laws of physics are true even in our congregations:  Every action has an opposite and equal reaction.  Hate begets hate, absolutely.

I offered a church the opportunity to get involved in a prison ministry where I offer support, comfort and assistance out of my own pocket to the families of those incarcerated.  The families are the collateral damage of our justice system and they are often too ashamed to even go back to church (they are a goldmine of new members and wounded healers).  The church responded by saying that that ministry was not for them nor where they wanted to go at this time.  They then organized great and lucrative fish dinners for the Fridays of Lent.  Yay, praise Jesus (He likes fish and money).

So my first reason people don't look to join churches:  Many churches lack vision for compassion and love;  Many churches fear sinners; and many churches have apathy for people who are not good, like them. When looking for a church to join because you wish to be closer to God and make a difference in the world, would you join a church who first screens out the people whom you are looking to save? 

Disgraced SC Governor Mark Sanford said  "Don't judge any one person by their best day, don't judge them by their worst day.  Look at the totality, the whole of their life, and make judgments accordingly."  The highly effective cavalry commander George Armstrong Custer is unfortunately best known for his greatest failure.  If Jesus hung out with and went where the people spit and swear, lie and cheat, kill, rape and do filthy things, then who was it that came up with the bright idea to make the church some kind of anesthetized clinical environment of only "good" people, that is removed from the rigors of everyday life?

In a world gone mad with mistrust and alienation, the church like never before must present faith as a dynamic and relevant force for change and enlightenment.  It must be as yeast and unsettle the mass around it making the comfortable uncomfortable.  As a weird Biblical aside, I don't think Christ advocated revenge or praying for things from a selfish position or to alienate undesirable people.  I think churches that operate that way are doomed because church seekers with their hearts in the right place can see the hypocrisy and futility of the institution.  Before praying, maybe we should get up and do something such as kissing lepers clean, then praise God for the gift of love, for one another and for healing action - even for the lepers.  Some good people would vehemently protest - "That is well and good but, not in my church!"  And that, is a church nobody wants to be part of.