Who is John Cooper?

November 16, 2011 1 Comment

Who is John Cooper?

John grew up in a large Catholic farm family in central Eastern Illinois, about 15 miles West of Terre Haute, Indiana, between two small towns, Marshall, IL, and Paris, IL.

His boyhood days were spent working with his Father and Uncles, who both owned farmland, and walking in the woods, seeing the beauty of nature, and living close to it.  He grew up poor, but had plenty of food to eat.  He attended school in the Marshall, Illinois school system, graduating in 1967.

John used to love to fight, winning all but one fight he was in, when the whole Marshall, IL basketball team got hold of him at once, slamming his head into the gym floor because John had beaten up one of the tallest and biggest basketball players.  He was also avid reader, (his brother, David referred to him as a “bookworm”), perhaps he read so much because his family could not afford a TV until after he left home.  There was no indoor plumbing or running water in the Cooper home either, until John left home.  He excelled in school and decided to attend Samford University, in Birmingham, AL, largely because his uncle by marriage, Dr. Everett Lemeron, taught accounting and business there.  His plans were to be a psychologist, getting his Doctorate at the University of Alabama, and perhaps working at the VA hospital in Tuscaloosa, AL, which was and is a VA mental health facility.

Things did not quite work out that way however…..  In the last two years of High School, John entered the beginnings of a conversion experience that brought him to crisis of conscious regarding what he had been taught form childhood regarding many facets of religion and faith.  He had been fully supportive of his nation’s war ethics before this crisis of conscience began to occur.

John attended Samford University in 1967 and 1968, while living with his aunt and uncle, working part time, and paying for his own education with funds he had saved working on the farm in Illinois for his uncles. His uncles, and the whole McCulley family, proclaimed that one should not work in the fields on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, even though the many animals they owned had to be taken care of…  In the final year of high school, he came to knowledge that Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is actually the Sabbath, and has been, from creation….  Having been raised with a high regard for the 10 Commandments as being normative for Christians, upon this discovery, he began to have a crisis of conscience regarding this matter…  In beginning his studies of the Christian Bible, John began to see other ethical problems with the systems (Kosmos) of the world, and the teachings of Jesus, one of which regarded the ethics of warfare which seemed to him diametrical opposite the teachings of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, whom John understands to be the exact representation of God, the essence of his being…

Therefore, John began to observe the Sabbath on Saturday, and other Old Covenant Feast Days, and often spoke of the personal conflict he had with warfare, during this period of the Vietnam war.  He was kicked out of his aunt’s home for observing the Sabbath, (on Saturday) and had to find a place to live and pay for on his own.  He could not afford to continue his education at Samford University and choose to take action upon the new beliefs he had come to understand.  He became a member of the a Sabbitarian church with historic peace church roots at that time, and began attending church in Birmingham, AL.  Also, during this time he was convicted to apply for conscientious objector status, and received paperwork from his draft board to approve his request.  He served two years of alternative service in Birmingham, AL, beginning at Spain Rehabilitation Center, caring for people who had been paralyzed.  While there, he moved into the University of Alabama, Birmingham, Cabinet Shop, and found he was gifted in and enjoyed woodworking.  He decided to enter a carrier in this field and in Ca. 1977. After moving to Tuscaloosa, AL he established Cooper Cabinet Shop, where he still works today.  In addition, he established Cooper Wood Specialties, which currently imports cabinetry from China.  Business links for the companies he has help found are: http://www.cooperwoodspecialties.net/; http://www.coopercabinets.com/; http://www.tuscaloosacabinetgroup.com/.

John met Wynema Walters at a church picnic, and after a period, they were married in 1973.  John and Wink have no children, although both have numerous nieces and nephews.  John was an avid tennis player until he was 42, then he took up golf and has played that game ever since.  He would rather be a sports participant than and observer….

John remained in the same church fellowship, now renamed Grace Communion, International, http://www.gci.org/ He served in many offices such as deacon, (his wife, Wink, was also an ordained deaconess), Elder, and Co-pastor….  When this church as a group began to understand the New Covenant around 1994.  John just could not understand how the 10 commandments could be abolished and the New Covenant could be a replacement for, not an addition to, the Old Covenant, at first, and studied and prayed late into the night until he too finally, after about six months, he began to understand these matters…  John still respects individual’s choice to observe days, times, and food laws if that is their understanding…

John now attends Grace Church in Tuscaloosa, (http://www.gracenews.org/index.php) where the thought of something like Circles of Peace has brewed in his mind for several years.  Having met resistance in the community to his ideas regarding Peace and Nonviolence, he put those thoughts on the shelf for a while as he became active in other venues such as assisting the International student community in Tuscaloosa…. He also helped in the formation of Compassion Coalition, with others in the community, an organization to organize faith based groups across religious divides to assist in disaster relief.  He served on the board, and as Executive Director for over two years, and is still serving on the board and the Executive Council of this organization.  Circles of Peace FOR, (http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/) is an officially recognized Affiliate of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest active Peace, Non-violent, and Social Justice organization still active in these areas in the world.  (http://forusa.org/)

John now feels strongly his calling is to serve in the area of Peace, Social Justice, and Nonviolence, helping to return the Christian community to its historic peaceful roots, and to develop common ground across religious divides of all types to bring peaceful cooperation to our community, the nation, and the world.

He has been planting the seeds of peace, social justice, and nonviolence for many years, struggling against resistance, but hoping to garner the vision of a younger generation to help bring peace, mutual love and respect, to other people and religious groups in this world, before we destroy ourselves with hate, and it is too late…

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Transforming the Powers

November 10, 2011 Leave a comment

Transforming the Powers

Recently a friend and I were discussing the interpretations of the Romans 13…..  I have been thinking more about this chapter in the past few days and I am putting some of my thoughts to paper…[i]

I was thinking about how some Christians believe the governments of this world and this age is ruled by fallen, although not completely fallen, Powers.  A Scripture selection, Romans 13 appears to indicate these powers are ordered, (not ordained, in my view), by God, and that every Christian should be subordinate to those Powers excepting when those Powers’ commands cross the lines of suffering love spoken of in the same text, just before, as our radical submission to God first.  It is stated that Good is to overcome Evil by this radical submission to God first, exhibited by our outward suffering love to all mankind created in God’s image.

The majority opinion of Christians by name post Constantine have even believed submission to these Powers include going to war for the State and killing others, even other Christians, as we prioritize our allegiance to these fallen Powers over our allegiance to God, because we have been taught this is what this passage means and that we are submitting to God when we submit to everything the Powers tell us to do, including killing….  This, most think, is God’s will…..  However, in the same passage, we are exhorted to Love our neighbors…. (Note that I am reading both Romans 12 AND Romans 13 together, in context, not isolating Romans 13 from all of Scripture and isolating this passage from the words of Jesus who said to Love your enemies, etc.)

How can this be?

Obviously, I do not agree with the majority opinion of the interpretation of Romans 13, nor do a substantial number of not mainstream individuals such as John Howard Yoder, one, among many others…  Also, there are many Peace churches, and Peace organizations linked in the Circles of Peace link below that also have another opinion.  The majority opinion does not read Romans 13 in view of the culture to whom it was written, where Christians, slaves, Jewish people, and occupied peoples were never required to serve in the military to begin with.  the military was for Roman citizens only, and was actually viewed as a privilege for the privileged few…..

What then, are we doing, if we interpret our submission to governing Powers in view of the whole of Romans 12 and Romans 13, let alone all of Romans, let alone all of the Old and New Testament, including the words of Jesus?

Could it be that our suffering submission, (and that of the early Christians), to God first, and our love for one another, and our love for our enemies IS the Good that defeats Evil spoke of just before in Romans 12?  The early Pre Constantinian Christians must have believed this….

Could it be that the vision of Jesus in His commands, such as love your enemy, were actually meant to transform these same Powers, therefore helping place ALL things, (including the Powers, once created good, but now fallen to some extent more, and some extend less), under His feet, even those fallen Powers, and those Powers who may be able to be transformed?

Throughout history we have had many opportunities to try this preemptive tactic, that of suffering love, of loving our enemies, but have generally speaking, failed miserably….  I believe we will always fail when we, as Christians, read Romans 13 to mean that we can defeat Evil by doing Evil ourselves, and killing it….

That is not how Jesus did it….  He died in complete submission to His Father to defeat these Powers….  Perhaps with and idea in mind to even transform any of the Powers He could.  The principal Power once took him to a high Mountain, offering Him this world, if He would be in submission to that Power…. Jesus chose not to do that, but to worship God alone….  From then on, those who understand, understand that the Kingdom of God is coming, one not of this world…  (Come soon, Lord Jesus)

That is how Jesus did it, here and in other recorded instances, and probably in so many more instances that books of the earth, that essays such as this, could not contain them….

Grace and Peace,

John Cooper

http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/

[i] Note: I do not normally do extensive quotations in my writings of this type because I believe they break the train of thought.  I am not writing in a scholarly genre, and I am aware of that fact.  I know how to use footnotes, but normally refrain from doing so.  My writings assume those reading them are fundamentally founded in the topics I write about,  For instance, references to Scripture assume the reader has read the passages already and know what I am referring to…  If not, you may wish to read the passages… I welcome discussion and other viewpoints.  Feel free to respond to anything I write.  Let’s talk!  Let’s think!

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Not a Good Provider?

November 1, 2011 1 Comment

Not a Good Provider?

I heard a sermon recently, by a friend of mine, Dan Arsenhault, entitled, “The Answer to the Question that No one is Asking”.  Dan spoke of the time Jesus was asked by the religious folk, “Should we pay taxes to the Emperor, or not?  Jesus asked to see a coin, and answered the question with a question, as He most often did, asking, “Who’s image is on the coin?”

Dan asked a question that apparently did not occur to the religious folk in this story, “Whose image is on you?”

He went on to explain that we are all created in the image of God and that God’s indelible stamp is on each of us.

In this context, Dan reviewed the message of the Scriptures, which we should, if we carry God’s image, love one another as (as much as) we love ourselves…  He admitted his guilt in not doing so, and all who understood his message came to the point that, neither do we, and we must fall back on the justice and mercy of God.

We all have a God, in whom we are carriers of His image.  To NOT render to our fellow man, created in the same image, all that we have, without condition, without limit, is a failure to render what rightly belongs to God.

At least, that is my take on the sermon today….

It got me thinking, did Jesus actually answer the question about whether we should pay taxes to the Emperor, or not?  I think perhaps, Jesus leaves it up to us….  Some would say, no, we should not pay taxes, where about 40% of our spending goes toward military programs designed to kill those created in the same image of God that we are, including, according to what I heard from Dan, (I am hard of hearing, correct me if I am wrong), we spend 40 Billion Dollars to kill other Christians each year.  I would add, let alone the Trillions we spend to kill other humans likewise created in the image of God.

So, after the sermon, I thanked him…  It was a very good sermon and there is another point to it which Dan did not yet share…..  Regarding what happens to the image of God in a person if he goes to hell, whatever definition of hell it is….  Maybe we will go there and find out if we do not love one another…

Well, I was reminded of something else, since I have been wearing an orange plastic bracelet the past couple of months, which also asks another unanswered question related to our discussion of whose image is on the coin, and other things we are speaking of….  The bracelet is from Sojourners, http://www.sojo.net/, and the question is: “What would Jesus Cut?”  To me, a very good question in view of our budget crisis, and any image on our U.S. coins or paper currency, being pretty much worthless, anyway….   Should we cut our military budget, or our Social Justice Budget, intended to care for those created in the image of God?  Which is it?  I gave Dan the bracelet I was wearing, since I had one more, and, being the ex hippie I imagine him to be, he put it right onJJ..   Now, I have given away all my plastic bracelets, but most of those, except my wife, Wink, to whom I gave them, (Wink put hers right on), were apparently not thinking it was exactly the best thing to be wearing around with such a question on it, “What would Jesus cut?”  Is it only those of us who are just a little out of the box, slightly off our rockers, according to the Emperor, (who himself, wears no clothes), who appreciate and understand such things as this…  (I also wore my St. Louis Cardinals red logo shirt under my jacket when I went to a friend’s wedding recently:):))  After all, it was the day after the Cardinals won the World Series, what else is one supposed to wear? :):)

Then, in my random thoughts I thought of how many, who knew my Father, think I am created in his image.  One family friend called me Lawrence, which was my Dad’s name, one time…  Now, as I spout off such craziness as this and other essays and articles, they are sure I am definitely created in his image.  I remember a faded out old farm truck, a 1939 KB5 International, I think I recall, with hand lettering by my father, signs on the side of the door, Lawrence B. Cooper & Son….  I was his first son, and the other sons never got added to the doors on that old truck….  My Dad did all he could to provide, given the very difficult economic times on the farms he farmed in those years…  I remember a statement my mother mistakenly made one time, in front of my Dad, actually, and in public, that “Lawrence is just not a good provider”..  I am sure that cut him to the heart, having done probably all he could for us, a large family of 7 children…..  I have not been such a good provider, myself, recently, in these worst of economic times for housing in recorded history…  I don’t think the U.S. Government needs to look to me for assistance…

Then, after those thoughts, I was thinking, I am created in the image of another Father, God, who owns the whole universe, and I am a member of a family, called the Church, whose husband, Jesus, is a very Good provider…  Also, I am left with indelible marks of this God, the Holy Spirit, I believe with all my heart….  I believe we have a good provider, a husband who owns  the whole earth and all that is in it…..  Maybe the problem is not God’s provision, but our own failure to provide and share in a loving manner for ALL those created in God’s image, as much as lies within us…  I think we have enough…  We are well provided for…

Dan’s original premise that we are all created in God’s image was based upon the book of Genesis, where man is also early on instructed to “dress and keep” the earth.  Would God’s original mission and vision for those created in His image not be that we should not only take care of God’s provision for us, but also dress and keep, cloth the naked, feed the hungry, etc., of those likewise created in the same image?  ALL of them, not just those who look and believe exactly like us?  Oh, and for those who do believe just like us, if we are Christ followers, for instance, should we not be known for the same character of Jesus, of His unconditional love and forgiveness, of His Peace in us, which He left us?

What are we going to do with this provision?  If the U.S. thinks it is running short on funds, which it definitely is, might we soon develop and answer to another question that apparently not a lot of people are thinking about answering, “What would Jesus Cut?

Thank you, God, for all you continually provide, and thank you, Dan, for serving as a tool in His hands, working for Goodness in God’s own garden…..

YBIG,

John Cooper

http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/

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Sabbath Rest, a Choice, or a Command?

October 26, 2011 Leave a comment

Sabbath Rest, a Choice, or a Command?

An older human influence in my Spiritual journey died recently.  His name is Robert Collins and he was an associate minister in the old Worldwide Church of God, the first minister in that church I ever met, although I had associations with some of its members firstly.  I well remember the time I met him at a Shoney’s restaurant in the West End of Birmingham, AL probably in about 1968 while I was attending Samford University.  The Worldwide Church of God in those days was classified as a cult, but they were Sabbitarian, (observing the 7th Day Sabbath, Saturday) and also were a pacifist roots church.  Both Sabbitarianism and their Peace roots were inherited from the Church of God, 7th, Day which had split off from 7th Day Adventism in the late 1800s in disagreement over the inspired writings of Ellen G. White.  In the time of the Vietnam war, I was forming my beliefs about Peace and Nonviolence.

In those days the Radio was kind of like the Internet today, and I as a formative teenager had developed some of my beliefs listening to the religious programming of the day, including the broadcasts of Herbert W. Armstrong, the authoritarian and charismatic leader of that group.  After chance connections with some of the young Worldwide Church of God (now Grace Communion International) members in those days I felt I was being called to believe in observing the Sabbath, and changing my life from the selfish, deceitful, arrogant, and sinful way of life I had generally kept hidden from others views….  So I thought….

My personal history is not what I want to talk about right now, nor my conversion experiences which have lasted many years and still continue.

At the same time I heard of the recent death of Robert Collins, I have been reading “The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate”, by John H. Walton. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0830837043

Although only a single point of this book, Mr. Walton thinks the Sabbath would be a useful reinstatement in the Christian Church, one that we would do well to choose.  He believes the Creation story reflects that the Sabbath, or 7th Day of Genesis was a day when God entered His Temple to rest and to rule the Universe.  He believes Genesis is written to the culture it addressed in functional terms, not material terms…  When God says It is Good, it means basically it works as intended…  In various parts of this book are references to the Sabbath, understandably, because the 7th Day is a part of Creation week and our origins…..  I am not writing this to discuss the book, although it is a good read, especially for those who are new earth people and read the Bible in literalist terms and would like to examine another viewpoint…..

In view of the above, and my life journey to this point, I want to ask……

Is the Sabbath a choice?  Many think it is a command, not a choice…  After all, it is one of the Ten Commandments……  So, it is a command, right?  However, we will just ignore it because it is not convenient to observe it on Saturday, in conflict with our culture….

I had been reared in the Roman Catholic Church and understood a high view of the 10 commandments.  My relatives chose not to work on Sunday because that was the Sabbath…  Actually, they worked anyway, since they had farm animals and had to take care of them, but it was their practice not to actually do farming on Sunday.  Much to my surprise I found the Sabbath is actually on Saturday, not Sunday….  In my desire to obey God, I wrestled with this matter for quite a while…  I had met with Robert Collins and Paul Liverman, who accompanied him when I would meet with him…  I would ask my religion professors at Samford about it…  I would read obvious references in the book of Romans and other New Testament books about the observance of days, times, and seasons….  Neither Robert Collins, nor my Samford religion professors, nor anyone, for that matter, could solve this Cognitive Dissonance I carried around for a while.  In the end I chose to obey the 10 Commandments….  Right choice, obviously… Correct?

Not so fast……

In fact it was from the years of 1969 until 1994, 25 years, that I observed the Sabbath, mostly, as a matter of personal conscience…..  Not very fast, one could say…. 25 years… I value those years as my less than perfect attempt to please God…  I will support anyone who makes that choice…

What happened?

Actually, I now believe that the Sabbath is a choice….   I came to an understanding of Grace AND Peace that I just wrote about recently….  I understand that we are not under the law, (10 commandments, etc.) given only to Israel, and NOT anyone else, nor under the law and the prophets, for that matter, but under Grace…..  Adam and Eve were not under the law either, since the Law was given by Moses, many years later.  New Testament Christians are not under the law either, but under Faith.  After all, wasn’t the law given 438 years after Faith, exhibited by Abraham?

Maybe that is why we see Jesus breaking the Sabbath and doing other things not approved by the law….  It makes me think…. Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest…  (referencing the original Sabbath, resting with God in His temple)….  It is a command?  Is it a choice?

I believe God wants us willingly to come to the point we really, really want to rest in Him, to worship Him, not just because we think we have to, but because we really, really want to….  He beacons us to do this…  He draws us to himself….. I believe this is why Sabbath is mentioned in the Genesis Garden…..  God wants to walk with us in our Garden…  He wants to rest with mankind, live in Peace with mankind, and wanted to so badly that He sent Jesus to die for us that we might come to Him and enter into His rest……

A good choice….  If you think it is a command, then do it, and continue to do it 25 years, or all your life, or however long it takes to realize the Cosmological Origins how much God really loves us and how much He is for us, not against us, and has a hope and a future in mind for ALL mankind….

If you think it is a choice, then choose it…. Maybe not literally every Saturday, but some Saturdays, maybe for just half a day on Saturday, or half a day on Sunday, or Friday, for that matter, or every day, if possible….  Let us Rest with God, accept His Peace, walk in His Garden….  I should also mention that He rests in us also, as we are the temple of His Spirit….

As for Robert Collins, there is no choice now, but, may he rest in Peace, as we all will one day will do….  Concerning the point that God rested in His Temple, on the 7th Day…. Now He rests in us, dwells in us, rules the Universe partially through us, the original intention of the original origins, that we would dress and keep the earth, and all creatures in it, including human beings, might I add…  Do not Kill them, but is that also a command, or a choice?  Which is it?  Where is our brother, Abel?  Origins… A lot to think about, cosmologically….

Rest and Peace,

John Cooper

http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/

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Grace AND Peace

October 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Re-coupling Grace and Peace

I often wonder if Christianity would be more effective if it returned to its Historic Roots….

I got to thinking about all this again, as I am wont to do….  It seems to me that a foundational problem in Christianity is the de-coupling of what seemed to be a very important association by the Apostle Paul, as well as Peter and John, concerning Grace AND Peace.  Many greetings are dressed with the term grace and peace….

It seems both Grace and Peace together were very important as a pair in the early Christian Church as seeds of the Kingdom of God and the Gospel, including the Gospel of Peace were preached….  Maybe it was because they had warfare back then….  Maybe because a commitment to Grace and Peace and refusing to worship the Emperor and the military-political systems of the day could result in becoming lion feed……  Don’t we have warfare now also?

Some are aware of my concerns for Peace, Social Justice, and Nonviolence….  I believe we find all three of these concerns as also concerns of the Early Christian church up until around 170 AD, at which time the teachings of the foundational fathers of the church dimmed, and in Ca. 320 AD, the Christian church allied with Constantine and became the official Roman religion.

Since that time, it seems the subject of Grace has been well studied, and preached, partially by the less than perfect and less than grace filled individuals such as Martin Luther and Calvin….  As far as I know, those adhering to nonviolence, such as the early Anabaptists, were actually persecuted and even killed for their beliefs, often by the very “Christians” who espoused the Grace of God most adamantly… (I have the book, “Martyr’s Mirror”, for instance, that chronicles some of these events.)  So were the Muslims, for that matter….. How about the Jews also????  So were they…. And, the Aztecs, to whom it was agreed they were cannibals, so we could kill them…  I hate to bring this up, but; Where are all the American Indians?

Has anything really changed, even today in our largely Post Christian society?  When we think of Grace, how many of us think of Grace AND Peace?  If we study the Gospel of Grace so much, why not also study the Gospel of Peace?  Now, I like Grace a lot, but I also like Peace….  I recall the word of the Poem, “Fire and Ice”, by Robert Frost…

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great,

And would suffice.

Therefore, not for destruction, but for living eternally, it seems to me that if I can like Grace, and I can also like Peace….

For perishing people, (and all of us are perishing…) all of us who from birth have believed in the Myth of Redemptive Violence, from the God of Babylon, Marduk, on to the cartoons of Popeye and Pluto, to the solution to Evil offered by this world’s fallen governments, that is, we can solve violence, we can solve Evil, by killing it….  That fallen philosophy was not that of Jesus, nor of the Early Christian church…  The Jesus who suffered and died to defeat Evil.  The early Christian Church who followed in Jesus’ steps, also suffering and dying to defeat Evil, seemed to believe also in this other way, the way of peace and nonviolence.  Grace, AND Peace, if you will….

Why, we Christians actually consider it once per year, on average, and make some mention of it, generally around the Christmas season, we manage to add Peace to our vocabulary….  Grace, all the time, we need it.., but Peace, well… we do not seem to need it so much….

Therefore, let us call out today, for the Christian Church (and all people, for that matter) to return to Christianity’s Historic Roots, and to re-couple both Grace AND Peace.  Perhaps is so doing, we will regain the respect of unbelievers who see this separation of Grace and Peace, to be inconsistent with the ethics of Jesus, even if most of Christianity appears not to see this inconsistency, and blindly goes on in the systems of the world with which it is most comfortable.

Grace AND Peace,

John Cooper

http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/

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Got Peace?

October 21, 2011 1 Comment

Got Peace?

This past weekend Wink and I traveled up North to family farm and an event my High School class was hosting…  It happened to turn out that a first cousin, once removed of mine on the Hinkle side of my family, Mary Bowers, had died at the age of 91 years and we were able to go to her funeral that Sunday afternoon…. In Salem, Indiana. (Salem means Peace)

We always enjoyed speaking with Mary and would visit her in her home and later in her Assisted Living Facility when we were close to the area.  She was the last living relative who knew a lot about my Hinkle side of the family, excepting Earl Hinkle Jr. who told me he does not know nearly as much as Mary did.  My Grandmother, Florence Hinkle, was her Aunt.  She was a kind and gracious woman….  We have heard her stories, seen and heard her cry, and we shared what each of us knows about our ancestry….  People who know me know of my concern for Peace, Nonviolence, and Social Justice….  I am particularly fond of telling of my Great Great Grandfather, Alexander Hinkle who was a cabinet maker, (in my possession is a chest he made out of Cherry with hand cut dovetails) as I am…  He was also a conductor on the Underground Railroad, the North Salem route, (there was also a South Salem Route) and he would put up runaway slaves in the home he built himself, in which Mary lived as a child, hauling them to the next Underground Railroad stop in his wagon underneath the stacks of loose hay…  I am particularly proud of his concern for Social Justice, and that of the Quaker community on both sides of Salem in those years….  I am not so proud of my Great Grandfather, Calvin Hinkle, who ran away underage at 16 years old to fight in the Union army….

Both my Great Great Grandfather, Alexander Hinkle, and my Great Grandfather, Calvin Hinkle as well as other relatives are buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Salem, IN…

http://cityofsalemin.com/burialdatabase.html

You can look them up on the link above, as well as others in the Hinkle and Bowers family….

Now, so is Mary Bowers buried there also…..

I am a Christ Follower and what I believe about Peace is based upon the ethics of Jesus firstly and primarily….  At the funeral I was thinking about the Scripture, about In Him we live and move and have our being….  And, about how the whole world and ALL things, physical and spiritual, was created by and for Him…, meaning Jesus…  I was thinking about how mankind is all, everyone, created in God’s image…

I was thinking about how we are created to function as God designed us, of the Genesis account of creation in functional, not literal scientific terms, and how God desired to rest in His temple on the 7th day, and from a New Covenant perspective how we who believe in Him believe He has come to rest in us also and indwell us….  Also, how He, if one believes that Jesus is God, asks us to come to Him, and He will give us rest….

I won’t bore you with all the Old and New Testament references to support this position and bog this down right now… If you want to know, Let’s talk….

All of the ideas above would take a book to explain, and years to explore, eternity, actually…..

One thing though, when we die, we are at rest, we are at Peace…..  Got that?  Got Peace? Want Peace?

I believe we can get Peace while we are alive also….  Mary had Peace with God while she was alive, and definitely has it now….  There is nothing she can do to fight anymore against flesh and blood, there is nothing people who are flesh and blood can do to fight against her….  She is not at war… She is at Peace…, whatever you may believe, even if you are an atheist….

Mary talked a lot about Jesus… She expressed to me how she wondered why she lived so long and expressed in the same sentence that she did talk a lot about Jesus…., and share her faith with others…  I talk about Jesus a lot, the Prince of Peace… I have even been rejected by some of my friends, even Christian friends, (essentially disfellowshipped, actually) because of my radical beliefs in the Gospel of Peace it seems to me so few Christians can understand in our Post Christian culture….  It is so sad, to me…  I pray a lot about it…

I firmly believe one can get Peace while still alive…  It seems we all get more of it as we age and attempt to bear fruit that will last into eternity… Not just Christians get it…  I have seen Christians of all persuasions get it, I have seen Jewish people get it, I have seen Muslims get it…. I have seen so called Atheists get it…  I really do not think the Spirit of God can be limited in time and space by one’s religion.  He can enter into and give Peace to anyone He wants to….

The Gospel of Peace proclaims God is no longer at war with mankind..  God offers us Peace…. He has already absorbed all Evil into Himself when He died on the cross…. Good has already defeated Evil… The Myth of Redemptive Violence taught us form birth by the Prince of another Power is defeated…. God has entered into His Temple, His rest, His Peace, and offers us the same, if we will only believe…  He will enter into us…

Mary Bowers Believed…

She Got Peace…

Grace AND Peace,

John Cooper

http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/

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My Brother in a Box

October 19, 2011 Leave a comment

My Brother in a Box

Recent happenings in the Evangelical world and the world as a whole have piqued my thinking to write about my brother, whom the last I knew, was in a box.

I quote from another of my brothers, Joe Cooper, who wrote in his book “Cooper History”, the following:

” If Lawrence Bernice Cooper had any honors, it would be that he sired eleven children.  they are Faith (b. 10/22/1946, d. 11/15/1946), Hope (b. 10/22/1946, d. 10/22/1946 – born dead), John Anthony (b. 1/15/1949), David Allen (b. 7/11/1952), Joseph Ray (b. 4/1/1956), Jannelle [sp] Marie (b. 6/28/1957), Marita Carol (b. 10/31/1960), Angela May (b. 11/26/1962), Paula Florence (b. 7/21/1965), Paul Lawrence (b. 7/21/1965, d. 4/30/1966).  As can be seen, Lawrence and Charity had two sets of twins.  Only one (Paula) survived.  At nine months of age, the lastborn, Paul, contracted quick pneumonia and died in a Terra Haute hospital.  It was an extremely sad time for the family.  Joe remembers how his father sat at his place at the end of the table and cried uncontrollably while he tried to talk to Myrtle Taylor.  Myrtle tried to console him but only time could do that.  Joe remembers Lawrence telling her as he sobbed, “I would rather have lost my whole farm than to have lost Paul.”  Myrtle responded by saying, “Oh now Lawrence, you would not!”  Lawrence thereupon replied, “Oh yes I would!  I would rather have lost my whole farm than to have lost Paul!”  Joe remembers to this day the agony and pain and misery in his father’s face.  It was the only time he saw him cry.

But pain was also felt when his first children were born.  They too were twins.  The date was October 22, 1946.  Charity screamed and yelled at thirty-year-old Lawrence to get her to the hospital.  Dad rushed her to the hospital and in the process collided with a city bus.  Hope was born dead.  Faith lived only three weeks.

But for those children who survived – perhaps that is the measure of Lawrence’s success in the world.  He worked hard in an effort to provide.  Not only did he farm his acreage, he also helped area farmers as a farmhand and grain hauler.  He was also an excellent gardener, raising more than enough for the family.”

I can add a little to that story my brother, Joe, may not know about….  I was the one at about 17 years old who drove my mother and brother, Paul, to the doctor when my mother first realized his sickness was serious.  I remember my father, Lawrence, telling me between the time Paul died and before his funeral, that my father had carried his son, Paul, my brother, out of the hospital that night in a little box.  My dad said in a chocking voice, “that is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life”….  I can remember now, that at my brother Paul’s funeral, it was the saddest thing I had experienced in my life at that time.  It was not an open casket funeral, to my recollection…

The last I remember, my brother Paul was still in that little box……

I think what prompts me to write about this is the virulent disagreement among some Christians concerning Rob Bell’s book, “Love Wins”.  In the book Rob Bell offers hope for humanity, that all is not lost, that in the end, Love Wins.  Only a few will “go to hell”  and hell is not permanent, and other such thoughts that to some smack of the label, “Universalism”, perhaps first attributed to the early Christian father, Origen.  The criticism and controversy began even before the critics actually read the book…  The mere thought of the labels “Universalism”, and “Post-Mortem Evangelism”, and other such labels that have been applied to some Christians for centuries, seem to have brought this criticism out quickly.

May I ask, Is Evangelical Christianity locked up cognitively in a box?

Although Love Wins is written from a populist style, not a scholarly genre, can we as Christians, and others who have different belief systems at least imagine that God could even think this way?

Mr. Bell claims in his book that he is not a Universalist, and his reasoning is essentially, as I understand it, that man, given free will, will of necessity have a free will choice to reject God.  The vast majority, however, will be won over by God’s love in the end.

I could write in detail and bring up scriptures that support Mr. Bell’s viewpoints, and well as other scriptures that seem to disagree, but predominately, my viewpoint is the same as Rob Bell’s.

I will only refer to some of the scriptures I am thinking of and quote them from memory to avoid bogging down this article for now:

“As in Adam, all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

“All things in heaven and earth, and under the earth will be put under His feet.”

“At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess”

And, concerning Hell lasting forever, “death and hell will be cast into the grave”

“there shall be no more tears”

There are many, many others…..

I have discussed lately some of these Scriptures with my Evangelical brothers in Christ….  Some of them have said, and will say, “no, that is not what those scriptures mean”  Some have even been provoked by even thinking such thoughts…  Good!

Let’s all, including myself, get our minds out of the box we are in…..  Can we imagine that God might even change His mind, and so to speak reprogram the future, in view of our willingness to think of all the good things He could possibly do, as the God of possibilities?  Can we think of some good news, not bad news?

Can we think of a God who comes to judge, opening up the book of life, and will predominately judge almost everyone, excepting those who reject his goodness, Not Guilty!?

Can we think of this God, who scours the universe, and the those cast into the sea, perhaps the sea of Japan, and those beheaded and the head cast to pigs to eat, the body thrown into the river, the women and men impaled upon a stake, herded into a barn to be set on fire, fed to lions in the Roman Coliseum, or, even my brother, Paul, put into a box and buried before he ever had an opportunity to hear the Gospel (Good News, I might add), and either accept or reject Jesus?  Or, how about those aborted, or born dead?  How about those before the cross?  I am reminded of Isaiah 45, that one of my close Evangelical friends thankfully brought to my attention which also confirms that “every knee will bow and every tongue will swear”….Among other wonderful concepts of the Goodness of God portrayed by the prophet, Isaiah…..

Well, what about my brother, Paul, will he, or won’t he?

Will he be in hell forever?

I was thinking of this quote from C.S. Lewis:

“Do you mean then that Hell – all that infinite empty town – is down in some little crack like this?”

 

“Yes. All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of this world, the Real World [Heaven]. Look at yon butterfly. If it swallowed all Hell, Hell would not be big enough to do it any harm or to have any taste.”

 

“It seems big enough when you’re in it, Sir.”

 

“And yet all loneliness, angers, hatreds, envies and itchings that it contains, if rolled up into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of the joy that is felt by the least in Heaven, would have no weight that could be registered at all. Bad cannot succeed in being bad as good is good. If all Hell’s miseries together entered the consciousness of yon wee yellow bird on the bough there, they would be swallowed up without trace, as if one drop of ink had been dropped into that Great Ocean to which your terrestrial Pacific itself is only a molecule.”

– The Great Divorce

 

To me, although not exactly the orthodox view of hell after Dante, this seems more like what I believe the Holy Spirit I personally believe I know would think about hell, if hell is not annihilation……  However, not having perfect knowledge, I yield to God’s Truth, whatever it is…

To me, to go to hell must be a choice, and to reject God who loves us must be a choice….  I believe hell is a choice we ourselves make, a choice we choose to live in now, and a choice we choose to inhabit if hell were to last through eternity.

Will the Scriptures be fulfilled by every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus is Lord, by force?  Or, will it be willing Love for Jesus, our Savior, once we see Him in the light of His glory?  Does Love win?  Or, does it not?

Which is it?

I am not God, and whatever it is, I Love God and believe He is just…

If I had my preference, I would like to see my brother, Paul, out of the box, again….  That would make my father happy too, and wipe away every tear from his eyes, forever….  unless he too is consigned to hell, as some who knew him believe….. (I do not.)  Will a father ever forget the ones he loves?  Will a Father ever forget the ones he loves?

If I had my preference, I would rather see some of my Evangelical Christian friends out of the box, again….  cognitively speaking…

I would like to see the whole world out of the box….  That would make me happy, and I really believe that would make my Father happy too!

For all, who have loved, and lost, let us hope together…  God is Good…

 

Grace & Peace,

John Cooper

http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/

 

 

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Whose Business is It?

October 8, 2011 1 Comment

Whose Business is it?

This is a plea to our President, and others whose business it is assumed to be….

Whose business is it?

Is it your business to deliver us from Evil? Is it your business to enlist us in preemptive wars to kill and defeat our perceived enemies? Is it your business to spend our monetary resources of past and future generations by going into indebtedness to conquer Evil? If so, how is it working out for you?

I am reminded of an ancient prayer, now nearly 2,000 years old, spoken by those to whom many Christians declare their allegiance, primary allegiance, one would hope….

“Deliver us from Evil….”

It is a simple prayer, indeed, addressed to the one God of the universe to whom the allegiance of Jews, Christians, and Muslims all alike respect and claim to serve…

“Deliver us from Evil…”

Yes, we say this prayer, but do we really believe the God of the Universe has, or will actually “Deliver us from Evil”?

Do we not, by our actions, say and prefer to deliver ourselves from Evil? Do we not prefer to prepare our own guns, nuclear arsenals, and our minds steeped in our world’s influences, to deliver ourselves from Evil? If not, why spend Trillions of dollars and other monetary currencies in such preparedness to deliver our own selves form Evil?

At this time, August 19, 2011, the world apparently teeters on the brink of financial disaster, not being able to pay its debts to the future…. Can we ask this simple question?

In whom do we trust?

The United States has actually printed trillions of times, “In God we Trust”…

Really?

Is God the one in whom we trust?

If so, how about trusting Him to: “Deliver us from Evil”

The Christian proclaimers of the Kingdom of God, NOT of this world, would all hopefully agree in unison with our fellow Jewish and Islamic human beings, and all others created in God’s image, even including our enemies….

God, “Deliver us from Evil…”

God, we trust that you have already, do presently, and will in the future, “Deliver us from Evil..”

Some sensible people, although some would say, not so sensible, cry out…

“Whose business is it?”

It is God’s business to deliver us from Evil…

Some will say that God helps us to deliver ourselves from Evil, that we are to use our own logic and everything in our power as well as trust God to “Deliver us from Evil…” I cannot argue with that, and one would have to set one’s own limits of how far we might go in protecting ourselves and our families, but whatever the decision for oneself, and one’s community, for one”s city, for ones State, and for ones respective nation, and for the whole world, for that matter, we must come to the point eventually, do we actually trust God to “Deliver us from Evil”, or not?

If we do trust God, could we possibly reemploy some of our military resources and equipment to deliver food to Somalia, for instance? From a business point of view, would not this be more our business, to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, give comfort to the sick, to dress and keep the earth, and turn our swords effectively into plowshares? Maybe this would help cut the debt of the world if we give up so much trusting in ourselves to protect ourselves from Evil, and trust in God to:

“Deliver us from Evil”

John Cooper

http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/

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Hopes and Dreams

October 3, 2011 Leave a comment

Hopes and Dreams

Are all our hopes and dreams forgotten?

Maybe it was when we were young once…..

Maybe it was when we were old once, and contemplating no more hopes and dreams…..

Maybe it was when we imagined once that the world could change, be a Garden set in Eden, again….

Maybe we could dress and keep it….

Maybe we could see Adam and Eve again…

Maybe Cain and Abel….

Maybe Isaac and Ishmael…

Maybe Jesus and Barabbas….

Maybe Muhammad, Martin, and Abraham….

Maybe when we see all who have ever looked into the future, and had dreams….

Maybe they are not all forgotten….

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The OMNI Presence of God

September 22, 2011 11 Comments

 

The OMNI Presence of God

I think about God a lot… I was thinking the other day about God and my thoughts went to Jesus on the cross…. Many believe Jesus is God, but how can a God who is one, be a God who is Jesus at the same time? This is a question that many may ask…. God in Jesus and the Holy Spirit is a dividing point between Jews and Muslims who are strict monotheists….

The passage I was thinking of in this regard is:

Eph 2:14-22

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

NIV

NIV

Many who know me know of my inclinations toward Peace…. I am a part of Circles of Peace (http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/) which is an affiliate of FOR, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest Peace and Nonviolent organization still active in the world today… Perhaps my thoughts went to this passage while I was thinking of God, just because that is the way I am, the way I have become, in my journey with God….

Some would say that we are faced with a problem, or more than one, in this passage…. How can Jesus be our peace? How could Jesus just go around making peace like this, by fiat, so it may seem? How can different peoples become one? And, how can we be a dwelling place for God? For that matter, how can One God be alive and ruling the universe, and dead and be Jesus on the cross at the same time, let alone be the Holy Spirit, and be in us too, all at the same time?

How can two be one?  How can God revealed in three persons (hypostasis) Father, Son, Holy Spirit, be one?

OMNI presence, if you will, a way Greeks like perhaps Aristotle and Plato thought about God… A way of thinking about God that has filtered down into our Western concepts of thinking, although do not really understand it, being in only one place and time at the same time….

The Apostle Paul must have thought some about this matter also…. While speaking to the Greeks, he said:

Acts 17:24-28

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28’For in him we live and move and have our being .’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

NIV

It seems we are all included… Jews, Greeks, Christians, Muslims, Everyman….. Included in the unfathomable love of God, who died for ALL, who wants to bring about Peace, not only vertically with God, but horizontally between all of us who live and move, and breath, and have our being…..

God, being OMNI present, and all of that stuff, can do it… He can be in you, in me, at the same time, otherwise, we would just evaporate into nothingness…

Then, after thinking of these things, I was thinking of how big a sinner once was, and still am, for that matter, just not quite so big as I used to be, maybe….

I used to be mean… I used to love to fight… In my teenage years I began coming to a greater understanding of the Peace and love of God for all mankind and even became a conscientious objector by the time I was 19 or 20, or so… I think one of the roots of my understanding of God came while I was a boy on our family farm in Illinois… I used to take a BB Gun out and just kill birds for the sport of it… I would take a 22 rifle out to hunt rabbits, just for the sport of it… One day while walking beside a field by burbling creek, I spotted a possum and decided to shoot it…. It did not just die all at once, as you see on TV when someone gets shot…. Nothing just dies all at once… Jesus did not die all at once… He suffered… I shot the possum… I shot the

possum several times… It did not die all at once… I thought maybe it was just playing dead and poked it until I was sure it was dead, taking what seemed to me like quite a long time to kill a possum… Now I did not need to kill that possum… I had no intention of eating the possum… I did not need the food… It gets worse…. I examined the dead body of the possum and found a living litter of baby possums in the possum’s pouch… they would also die.. They had no mother… They had no food… I felt really, really, bad… I still feel bad thinking of it. I can tell you today within just a yard or so of where all this happened… I can take you there and show you…. I am sorry… I was bad, very bad…

In time, I began to quit thinking like a boy, and began to think like a man, but these thoughts will always stay with me…

Now, when I think about God, I think about the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus… Who, has made peace with me, and with all mankind, and offered God’s forgiveness for all mankind, if we will receive it… Will some be lost? Probably, for this is a matter of a free choice to choose the peace God wants us so desperately to have, not only vertically, with Him, but horizontally, with all tribes and nations… Some may refuse this Goodness, but I believe with all my heart that it will only be a refusal after hearing the Gospel of Peace, and experiences the Peace we have in Jesus… He IS our Peace…. Let us choose Him…

Grace and Peace,

John Cooper

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