Chapter 28
Sherman’s Biography, 2009 Addition
Personal Timeline
2008 – Fall of 2009
World Timeline
th
Barack Obama Elected 44 President of the United States – First Black President
2008 – Beginning of Major Economic Recession
Introduction
Ann and I published our autobiography in late
summer of 2008. We set a time to stop our story
being the first marriage of a grandchild. This
turned out to be in July 2009 when Kristine Keller
married Brent Hockaday. This writing is an
addition to our biography and will bring the events
in our lives up to date mid fall of 2009. As done in
our original writings, my comments will follow a
topical pattern; whereas, Ann’s writings use a
chronological arrangement.
I began Chapter 1 of my biography with the title of
“In the Beginning,” and I began to narrate my life
story with my marriage. Perhaps this is where I
should start with this biography update – not my
marriage, but that of my descendents.
Family
Most people in our western culture think that time
is a linear process, with time passing from the past
to the future. However, some cultures, such as the
Inca Indians and many Asians, conceive of time as
being circular. It occurs like the changing of the
phases of the moon, the progressing of the four
seasons of the year, or the turning of day into night
and back into day again. The cycle may take years
or eons, but events always go in cycles. Although
this is a mythical explanation of the parade of
history, it has some truth. Virtually all wisdom
literature, Christian and otherwise, stress the
reoccurring nature of birth, marriage, children,
1
death – and then the same thing over with each
succeeding generation.
So in my own life I see the cycle repeated. Within
the past 18 months, I have seen the marriage of
three of our fifteen grandchildren. These events
parallel my marriage to Ann. But even before
these marriages, I saw the “time cycle” of my of
my own life in the education of my grandchildren.
Five grandchildren have graduated from college,
One has an advanced degree; another is getting an
advanced degree. Two grandsons-in-law are also
getting advanced degrees, one in law. Three other
grandchildren are in college. One is in the military,
and the rest are in high school or elementary
school. This is the same cycle that I went through
– grade school, high school, college, graduate
school (medical school), and time in the military.
So, is time circular or linear? Perhaps the book of
Ecclesiastes 1:9 is right when it says, “What has
been is what will be, and what has been done is
what will be done; and there is nothing new under
the sun.
Kathryn Keller got a Master’s degree from the
University of Virginia. Chad Whisenant graduated
from Wayland University. Kristine Keller
graduated from Baylor University. Ryan
Kimberling graduated from Texas Tech. Kimberly
Keller graduated from Baylor and is getting a
Master’s degree. Randy Kimberling is in Texas
Tech. Jared Hope is attending Texas Tech. Ragan
Hope is attending Texas Christian University. Josh
Hope is in the Marines.

Looking the other direction in my family, there is
the opposite end of life’s spectrum. Of my father’s
ten siblings, only three are still living. Gerry
Jackson (of Lubbock) and Grover Hope (of Dallas)
are living and doing well, but Neva Cook (of
Fayetteville, AK) had a severe stroke last winter
and never regained the ability to walk or live
independently.
Gerry’s husband is
very ill with
Alzheimer’s disease.
In July of 2009 there
was a Hope family
reunion in Oklahoma
City that Ann, Judy,
Sue Ann and I attended. About one-half of my
grandfather’s descendents and their spouses were
there. This numbered about eighty people. On this
same trip we visited with Jo Lynn Acklin
(Faubion), one of my three cousins on my
mother’s side of the family (the Faubion side). So
from Ecclesiastes again “A generation goes, and a
generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.”
Military
Since publication of our autobiography last
summer things have changed as far as the military
is concerned. Iraq is a quagmire and unstable, but
the United States has basically withdrawn from
initiating military actions. The US is, for the most
part, occupying some major bases, training the
Iraqi “police,” and making massive economic
expenditures. There are fewer American
causalities, and the war is no longer popular with
the general public. A total withdrawal date of
American forces has been set for 2010.
But our troubles are not over in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, chaos reigns in Afghanistan, where
our military forces are being refocused. Many, if
not most political and military specialists, think
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that this conflict is also a losing war. The US
missed the chance eight years ago to solidify our
gains and advantages in Afghanistan by diverting
our objectives of fighting terrorism when we
invaded Iraq instead of concentrating on al-Qaeda
and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I fear that we are
on a course of escalating the war there, which I
perceive as a sad mistake.
My immediate family has been extensively
involved in the Iraq war. During this past year our
grandson, Joshua Hope, completed a combat tour
in Iraq with the Marines. His unit functioned as
the bodyguards for the commanding Marine
general in Iraq. Fortunately, Joshua suffered no
physical or mental injuries during this tour. Joshua
has been in the Marines for four years, and has
another year to go before his enlistment expires.
All of the family is hoping that the military does
not send him to Afghanistan. His usual assignment
is with a helicopter maintenance unit.
However, Timothy Hope was not so fortunate. He
completed a twenty years career of service in the
Marines, being discharged in February of 2009,
having attained the rank of Gunny Sergeant. This
is a very high rank for an enlisted man. Tim served
two tours of duty in Iraq, including the initial
invasion. Unfortunately, he came out of the
military with considerable disability.
His military duties caused severe low back
problems which resulted in two surgeries. The
second surgery consisted of removal of a lumbar
disk (low back area)
and then the fussing
of two vertebrae with
a bone graft and a
steel plate. After
each surgery (which
was two years apart)
he was returned to
full duty, but the
severe physical stress of training for combat, plus
the actual overseas combat tours as a Marine, led
to more and more pain. This, in turn, was treated
with more and more pain medications, which
eventually led to a severe dependency problem for
the pain drugs. His back pain, along with the
dependency on pain medication was complicated
by post-traumatic stress disorder (combat induced
panic attacks associated with sleep and adjustment
problems). All of these problems were adversely
affected with a severe medical depression.
After Tim was retired from the Marines, he lived
with us in Brownfield for several months. Within
the a few months,
Timothy had to be
was admitted to two
drug treatment
centers. One center
was in Lubbock for a
month and the second
treatment center was in Long Beach, California
and was for six months. Mary Ruth had a large
role in getting Tim into the second facility, and she
and Richard made considerable financial
contributions to his therapy.
During this time I spent many hours, and even
days, in gathering information and medical reports
to enable Timothy to receive the disability benefits
from the Veterans Administration that his military
service entitled him to receive. The first set of
3
medical information consisted of a packet that was
thirty-seven pages long. About two months later,
the VA requested more information, especially
about his current treatment, and this packet turned
out to be thirty-nine pages. Getting his disability
benefits is still a work in progress.
Money Matters
Now that I have brought up the subject of money,
let me expound on this issue. In the early fall of
2008, economic issues began to dominate the
national interest. At least partly because of
fighting two wars, corruption in big business,
government misconduct, and greed of the financial
industry, our nation slipped into a major recession.
Unemployment soared to about ten percent of our
work force, and the real estate market crashed. The
Stock market (where much of my savings are) lost
about one-third of their value. Fortunately, things
began to recover by the fall of 2009, but the
economy still has a long way to go before it
recovers. Those who had taken on too many debts
(especially excess mortgage payments, second
homes, luxury cars, etc.) or those who did not have
enough liquid assets and had to cash in their
savings (stocks and real estate investments) lost
heavily, but fortunately this didn’t happen to us.
In fact, I even took advantage of one of the
government’s stimulus programs. It was called
“Cash for Clunkers.” This was an attempt by the
Honda Accord
government to stimulate car sales, remove big gas
guzzlers from the roads, and help decrease
pollution from old, inefficient cars. I traded in our
1994 Mercury for a new Honda Accord, getting
$3,500 more for the Mercury than I had been
offered by a dealership five years ago.
The income from our investments and Social
Security has remained stable for the past few
years. Since much of our savings are in annuities,
it probably will probably remain so. Our savings
are not growing, but who cares as long as we have
sufficient funds to maintain our current life style.
At my state in life I have no desire to buy a private
jet, to operate luxury yacht, or to maintain a luxury
home in the mountains. Expensive hunting
expeditions now sound too much like hard work,
and as far as travel goes, “there is no place like
home.” Even eating out is not as pleasurable as a
meal at home with my wife. (Hum – maybe it is
that I am just getting too cinchy to take her out.)
Medical Practice
I have done little medical practice during the past
year, but I still seem to be involved in medically
related issues, using my medical training and
experience. I still maintain my medical license,
federal drug permit, and the state drug registry.
Therefore, I still write prescriptions for family
members (usually for upper respiratory infections).
I try to keep up with major medical events,
clinically and socially, including information on
some of the new drugs available. In September I
wrote an article on health care reform, a burning
national issue, which was published on the
internet, in the Brownfield News, several other
local papers, and in Christian Ethics Today.
The vast majority of my medical involvement this
year was related to Ann’s shoulder surgery or to
Timothy’s medical problems. Both of these
problems involved a considerable amount of
personal time.
A major medical challenge this past year was to
assist Timothy. When he arrived in January at our
home after completing his military duty, he was
not in good physical or mental shape. The first
problem was to adjust his blood pressure and
antidepressant medications. At the same time, I
arranged for him to seen at Texas Tech Medical
Clinic for them to assume his medical care. He
ended up under the care of an internist, an
ophthalmologist, a psychiatrist, and a pain clinic
doctor. It was all very hectic. He had referrals to
4
various doctors – yet the appointments were often
weeks away. Multiple imaging studies (MRIs of
the back, the neck) along with laboratory tests
were done. They were often duplications from
previous visits, and several times the results were
lost. There were so many doctors prescribing
different medications – oftentimes with poor
coordination or general oversight of the case. His
military retirement insurance was another
problem. Some doctors would accept the payment
his of TriCare insurance, but others would not. As
usual, the TriCare insurance company placed
limitations on allowable drugs, treatments, which
hospital facilities he could use, and the lengths of
stays.
After this has gone on for about two months, the
pain drug dependency problem emerged as the
primary disease that needed to be addressed. This
resulted in his admission to a detox unit for eight
days and then followed by inpatient care at Dove
Tree Ranch, (an addiction treatment center) for
one month. The treatment was good but proved to
be of insufficient help, and he relapsed
immediately when released from inpatient care.
After about another month he was admitted to
New Found Life, Inc., another addiction therapy
center where he underwent another detox
treatment. New Found Life is a treatment center
for addiction problems located in California. Mary
Ruth located the institution and made the
arrangements for Tim’s admission. The course of
treatment is six months. They also treat his post-
traumatic stress disorder and depression, as well as
overseeing his general medical needs. He seems to
be responding well at the time of this writing.
During the final weeks of living at our house, I
found out that Tim had not applied, much less
completed, an application for his military
disability benefits. This is in spite of the fact that
in his confused mental state he thought he had
done all that he needed to do in order to get the
disability benefits. Every month he kept expecting
to receive a check from the VA, but, of course, it
never came. To get a disability rating after
obtaining a military discharge can be a very
complicated process. This turned out to be all too
true for Tim.
I realized that he would never get his benefits
unless I undertook the project of submitting the
application and supporting documents to the
Veterans Administration. In order to submit a
claim, I had to scrutinize and summarize two
volumes of his military medical records, as well
obtain records from his civilian doctors. This 37-
page claim was submitted in August 2009, but still
the VA in September requested more information,
and gave the opportunity to submit updated
medical records as well as statements of
nonmedical personnel of his current condition.
These statements could be from family, friends,
co-workers, employers, etc.; anyone who could
certify about Tim’s current condition. It took about
three weeks to collect the latest documents and
thirty-nine more pages of information were
submitted to the VA in mid October. Without a
medical background, it would have been virtually
impossible to submit
the information in a
rational way.
Recreation and
Hobbies
Early in 2009, Trevor Hope, Timothy’s son,
moved from California with Tim to live with us,
which he did for about three months. Wow –
having a teenager in the home was something that
had not occurred for about twenty-five years.
The opportunity to get to know him better
including watching his ball games. He made first
string on the Brownfield baseball team. During
this time I taught him to hunt, especially to hunt
sand hill cranes. He began with a 20 gage shotgun
but soon was using the larger 12 gage gun. He was
5
very excited when he got
his first crane, but wasn’t
so thrilled when I made
him help me with
cleaning it.
I did a little quail hunting and made a Kansas
pheasant hunt in the fall of 2008. I hunted doves
many times – but not nearly as intently as in my
previous hunting days. The major problem is that I
have virtually no one in Brownfield with whom to
hunt. Bill Noble has moved to Lubbock. Carrol
Johnson has moved to San Antonio (however, we
usually hunt when he is back in town, if there is a
hunting season going on at that time). Duane Moss
died (actually the morning he had his terminal
illness, a stroke, I was on my way to his home to
pick him up to go crane hunting).
But if hunting has fallen into the background of
my hobbies, tennis has come forward. I take a
private lesson and a group lesson each week. Also,
once a week (usually Thursday nights in the
summer or on Sunday afternoon in the winter) I
play in Levelland. We have usually eight to
sixteen players show up, including Judy, Sue Ann,
Danny, Chad, and a number of others. We have
done this for several years. This year I got Chris
and Lynn Jackson, my cousins from Lubbock
(Gerry’s son and daughter-in-law) to start coming.
We are cousins but thirty years difference in ages.
In fact, most of the people that I play tennis with
are thirty to fifty years younger – gives me a
challenge.
In the spring and the fall, I played in a men’s
league in Lubbock. Danny and Chad were on the
same team that I was on. I also play in a mixed
doubles league in the summer, and I have entered
about four or five weekend tournaments this past
year, playing both men’s doubles and mixed
doubles (usually playing with Judy as my mixed
double partner). In 2008 my mixed doubles team
worn in our area, and we played in Corpus Christi
for the finals – didn’t win.

The past two Julys I flew with Ann to Riverside,
California, to play with Allen in a national father-
son tournament (combined age had to exceed 100
years – ours was 128 years). I didn’t prove to be of
much competition but enjoyed the event. About a
year later I
got a court. We have spent several afternoons and
certificate
from the
United
States
Tennis
Association
informing
me that
Allen and I
were rated as
34th in the nation for men’s doubles in our age
bracket. I think that there must have been 36
entries in our tournament. However, tournaments
are held in other major cities for players of the
same age levels, so maybe we were better than I
thought.
I don’t know whether to consider it a hobby or a
chore, but I still do all my yard work, including the
maintenance of the “baseball field.” With the
fescue grass, the yard has to be mowed every five
to six days. Edging, spraying weeds, trimming
trees, pruning scrubs, raking leaves, etc. are all
part of the yard maintenance tasks.
Family Fun
Most of our travel the past eighteen months has
been tied in with family events. We went to
Charlottesville, Virginia, for Katherine’s
graduation from the University of Virginia. We
made two trips to Riverside, California, to play
tennis with Allen. In the summer of 2008 we went
to Dallas for Kristine’s wedding; then in the
summer of 2009 we returned to Dallas for her
sister Kathryn’s wedding. Christmas was also
spent in Dallas with Mary Ruth and her family.
6
Several of our other children and their families
were also there.
Richard and Karla, along with Judy and Danny,
have a very fine home on Lake Allen Henry. This
is about an hour and one half drive from
Brownfield. They have boats, jet skis, and a tennis
evenings there, but frankly, the water sports seem
more work than fun now. Somehow, it seems age
takes it toll on the physical stamina needed to
swim, water ski, and ride jet skis. I could always
retreat to the tennis court, or to card games in the
house; besides, the food is always great.
Being a spectator at grandchildren’s sports
becomes a major activity at our age. This goes all
the way from Little League baseball and Little
Dribblers basketball, up through high school
football, baseball, basketball, tennis, volleyball,
and virtually any other sport you can name. All of
the grandkids played in at least two of the sports,
and some played even more. Games would be in
Brownfield, Levelland, Wolfforth, Lubbock, and
then occasionally the other surrounding towns. We
would try to make at least one game per
grandchild per sport per season. This has gone on
both summer and winter. Although sand storms
did not stop us from attending events, we did draw
a line on attending outdoor events in bad weather.
The only reason I know of to voluntarily be out in
bad weather is if you are hunting.
Family Health
Our extended family suffered a health tragedy in
the fall of 2008. Neal Evans, Ann’s only brother-
in-law, was diagnosed with liver cancer. It was
caused by a chronic congenital disease called
haemochromatosis. This is a condition in which
the liver cannot handle the iron produced by the
metabolism of red blood cells, and over time the
iron from the break down of these cells
accumulates in the liver often causing cirrhosis
and liver cancer. His case was far advanced when
the cancer was first discovered. In spite of
chemotherapy, he lived only a few months after it
was diagnosed. We visited in his home in Grass
Valley, California, not long before his death and
went to comfort Mary Ashley when he died. She
still lives alone in their home there in Grass
Valley, California, depending a lot on the help of
“Little Neal,” their son, who lives next door.
Last summer I played in a tennis tournament in
Lubbock and after it was all over about thirteen or
fourteen of the players all went out to eat together.
Their ages ranged from about twenty-five up to
fifty-five. Someone began to complain of muscle
cramps; then, the next person griped about a sore
knee. This comment was joined by a couple of
stories about tennis elbow and that was followed
by complaints of rotator cuff problems, or
backaches, or ankle problems, etc. etc. After
listening to the “organ recital” for a while I got
them to quiet down by informing them that I
taught a Sunday school class of people over sixty-
five, and that they, the tennis players, were
complaining more about their health problems
than did the old men and women in my Sunday
school class when they had a get-together. Shortly
after, my class did have a social, and sure enough,
the multitude of health problems became the focus
of conversation. I got the subject changed by
telling them that now they were complaining of
their aches and pains as badly as had the tennis
players.
So with these comments, let me go into the
significant health events occurring in my family. I
will begin with Chad. Chad was born with a
congenital blockage of the ventricles of the brain,
which causes fluid to build up in the brain, dilating
it. Shortly after birth, a shunt was placed in the
brain to drain the fluid, and he did well. At age
eleven he had an emergency repair of the shunt but
had no more problems until September of 2008.
7
He and a friend were vacationing in Boston. His
friend flew back to his home in Chicago, leaving
Chad in Boston to catch a plane back to Lubbock
later in the day. When Chad failed show up in
Lubbock that evening and there had been no phone
contact with him, Danny contacted the airlines.
They reported that when Chad went to board the
plane in Boston they sent him to a hotel because
he was disoriented and in no condition to fly. Judy
located the hotel and had the security people go to
his room, where they found him in a dazed
condition. He was sent by ambulance to a local
hospital where an MRI showed a shunt failure. He
was transferred in the middle of that night to the
neurosurgical unit of Beth Israel Hospital, and
early the next morning they performed brain
surgery with replacement of the shunt. Beth Israel
is one of the premier surgical centers of the world.
His recovery was uneventful, and within six weeks
Chad and I played as doubles partners in a Dallas
tennis tournament. We put up a good fight but got
beat. In the grandstands, Judy overheard a member
of the winning team remark “We nearly lost to that
kid who just had brain surgery and that old man,
his grandpa.”
This was Chad’s second emergency brain surgery
for a shunt failure. The first shunt failure occurred
when Chad was already in San Antonio and he had
an appointment on that very day with a
neurosurgeon. Each time Chad has been in trouble
with his shunt, he was in the right place at the right
time. Three medical miracles - at birth, age eleven
and age twenty-seven.
Ann has had some severe medical problems this
past year. Most have been related to the severe and
progressive osteoarthritis that has damaged so
many of her joints. It has caused sciatic pain from
arthritic spurs on the lumbar discs. This was
successfully corrected by surgery about seven
years ago. However, within a few months she had
to have another surgery to replace the right hip
because of the arthritis. The hip problem was also
corrected; but arthritic spurs in the low back
continued to enlarge causing a narrowing of the
spinal canal (a condition called spinal stenosis).
This disease process could not be repaired or
stopped and it has progressed. Currently she is
unable to stand, shop, attend receptions, or even
cook for over ten to twenty minutes at a time
before the back pain, triggered by being on her
feet, becomes a major discomfort. Fortunately, she
can sit, ride, or sleep with not much problem. She
does almost all of her shopping by phone from
catalogs or from the internet.
She has had several injections into the back
(usually corticosteroids injected into the epidural
space). Initially theses injections gave relief for a
month or so, but the effectiveness decreased until
the help only lasted a day or so. Therefore, she has
stopped getting them.
In March of 2009 the pain of the osteoarthritis in
the left shoulder got so bad that she underwent a
total shoulder replacement. The post-operative
care of this was more extensive and difficult than
the hip replacement. She had to wear a sling, sleep
in a recliner for six weeks, and do about an hour
and one half of physical therapy daily for about
four months. After the first week or so, I did the
physical therapy, doing both the passive stretching
Shoulder
(to increase the range of motion) and Prosthesis
the active
muscle movement (to increase the strength). She is
still doing about twenty-five minutes of PT every
day. She has obtained almost total relief of the
pain, but there is still a limitation of motion. Her
range of motion of the left shoulder is about the
same now as it was before the surgery.
Unfortunately, the same arthritic changes are
present in the right shoulder, and the x-ray
confirms that it, too, is “ready” for surgery.
However, it is not causing enough pain to mandate
surgery. Since shoulder surgery takes over most
aspects of your life for about five months, no
further surgery is planned in the near future.
8
My health has been
relatively stable. I try
to do three hours of
tennis, two hours of
yard work, or one
hour of treadmill
every day. Guess
which is the most fun. I still take medications for
the blood lipid (cholesterol) problems, high blood
pressure, and prostatic hypertrophy.
Over the past year or so, I have developed
considerable muscle ache. It occurs in the large
muscle groups and can be in the thighs, calves,
arms, upper back, etc. After my internist could
find no specific cause for the pain, I was referred
to a rheumatologist (arthritis specialist) who, after
an extensive evaluation, also could find no specific
pathology. Because of the type and location of the
symptoms, the pattern of physical findings, and
the absence of laboratory or imaging
abnormalities, I was labeled with the diagnosis of
“fibromyalgia.” This is a condition that seems to
be a real disease, but thus far medicine has not
found a cause or pathological changes in the
tissue. There are no specific laboratory tests to
prove the diagnosis. Even worse there is no cure or
even a very useful treatment. I refer to it as a “non-
disease” disease. Symptoms tend to wax and wane,
but the problem does not produce major medical
abnormalities. Treatment is usually Tylenol,
adequate sleep, etc. The muscle pain surely can be
a nuisance at times, especially after strenuous
exercise, in the middle of the night, and in the
mornings before I limber up
The fibromyalgia has not been my only muscular-
skeletal problem. As much as I hated to admit it, I
have developed considerable back problems. I
have always had a congenital abnormality in L5-
S1 lumbar area (where the back joins the pelvis)
with a partial fusion of these vertebras. About a
year ago bursitis of the left hip joint and of the
sacral-iliac spine began to give trouble, especially
when trying to sleep on my side. This has been
injected with steroids but to no avail.
About a year ago I began to have brief but severe
stabbing pains originating in the right low back
and spreading to the right anterior upper thigh. It
would occur suddenly after stooping and be
completely relieved by twisting and extending my
low back. Clinically, this was typical of a
herniated disk in the low back. Imaging studies
with a MRI revealed two problems. One was the
confirmation of herniated disc at the L3-L4 level
(mid low back), and then, to my surprise, there
was found an extensive L5 spinal stenosis. This is
the same arthritic problem that Ann has with her
back. Fortunately, the spinal stenosis is not giving
me nearly the problem that Ann has. The herniated
disk is being treated with back exercises, but since
it is complicated boney spurs involved, this is a
high chance of this type of therapy not working.
There is no treatment for the spinal stenosis that
changes the basic pathology.
As mentioned in my previous book, hearing was
becoming a problem. Now it is a real problem. I
need to use a hearing aid when in a crowd such as
church, family gatherings, etc. Television, movies,
VCRs, and DVDs are hard to understand. Now I
prefer programs that have captions and subtitles.
The hearing loss really shows my genetics and
noise exposure. My father, both grandfathers and
grandmothers, and my great-grandfather all had
severe deafness. I ran a shooting gallery in my
teens and have done lots of hunting and shooting,
plus I have had other noise exposures such as lawn
mowing, power tools, etc. But there are some
advantages to the hearing loss. I now have
“selective hearing.” When Ann is telling me what
to do, such as “come eat” I can hear well, but such
things as “take out the trash” may fall on deaf ears.
Spiritual Matters
9
I still teach a Sunday school class. I have done so
for fifty-five years. It is composed both men and
women who are the oldest members of our church,
ranging in age from sixty-five through ninety-four.
Therefore, this class has many members with
serious medical problems. Six members are shut-
ins. It seems as if we have a major illness in some
member every few weeks. This involves lots of
cards and calls by Ann, and frequently hospital or
home visitation by the both of us. Unfortunately
there is only one way to get promoted out of our
Sunday school class, and this has happened a
couple of times this year. There is also no
promotion into the class. In our church, the adults
do not promote and rarely change classes. In spite
of little to no membership growth of the class (or
the church) we average about twenty to twenty-
five people each Sunday, which is about fifteen
percent of our church’s total Sunday school
attendance. Having taught these class members for
over twenty-five years, sometimes it is
problematic to find new and interesting
information to pass on each Sunday.
I am still an active deacon. This year the church
changed its bylaws to stop the rotating system of
serving three years and then requiring a person to
be off the active deacon board for one year; before
their name came before the church to reelect that
person back to the active deacon board, (if the
church so desired as it usually did). With the new
change, once a man is elected to the active board,
that person serves for life without any rotation
requirements. I’m not sure this was a good idea. It
gives lifetime positions to a select group of men
who might potentially have their own agenda
knowing they never again have to be approved by
the church. Also take notice that, in my opinion,
our church is still out of touch with reality of our
society today. Only men can be deacons, whereas
a majority of the membership and most of the
volunteer work is done by women. I think our
church policy is not according to either the spirit
or the letter of Scripture, but I am in a tiny
minority in this opinion.
I have been elected “Trustee Emeritus” by
Buckner Baptist Benevolence (now renamed
Buckner, International). This means I can attend
meetings and be involved with discussions, etc.,
but I cannot vote. This occurred last January
because Kenton Keller, Mary Ruth’s husband,
began working for Buckner, and a person cannot
be on the board and have a relative working for
Buckner. I was glad to relinquish my board
position for Kenton’s employment position. With
his business experience, he has already done much
more for the betterment of Buckner than I ever
could have done as a voting board member.
In secular literature and frequently in the Bible,
wisdom is thought to come with age. Other times
wisdom is personified as Lady Wisdom, and is to
be sought. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom,” according to Proverbs. The word
“fear” does not mean terror, but is better
understood to mean an overwhelming awe and
supreme respect for God. Well, if age helps with
obtaining wisdom, my wisdom must be increasing
all of the time.
Observing the cosmos, the workings of nature
(science), and the shear beauty of the world has,
perhaps, increased my “wisdom.” My reverence
for God had been greatly enhanced by the
unbelievable love between my wife and me. She is
my greatest source of spiritual inspiration and
therefore, I court Lady Wisdom via loving my
wife.
As I grow older (maybe just a little bit, now and
then) I realize how little we really know about
God, and yet how foolish are men and women to
claim to know so much. I realize how many years I
have sat in church and heard the same rhetoric and
clichés repeated time after time. Many or most of
them, when really thought about, do not make
much sense. Many of the proclamations are dogma
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that has been passed along for decades or
centuries. The Bible is often quoted, but the
quotations are frequently taken out of context and
presented with a man-made motive. One particular
agenda seems to try to increase the number of
adherents to a particular religion, denomination, or
certain line of thought.
Often the teachings were related to the secular
governance of men, which included controlling
their thinking. Through the centuries secular
rulers have used religion to help them govern their
subjects; whereas, religious rulers have tried to use
the government to enforce their religious views.
Such has been true throughout history, and it is
still going on, both worldwide today and in the
United States.
A dynamic speaker, preacher, or even a writer, (of
whatever religion or denomination) can generally
persuade his audience to accept virtually anything
to be a spiritual truth. There is no human way,
using science or other physical methods, to prove
or disprove “spiritual truths.”
History is full of examples of men claiming to
have spiritual truths. It ranges from the Jim Jones
Christian cult People’s Temple) in Guyana to the
suicide bombers of fundamental Islam. Other
groups arising from following charismatic leaders
that claim the “final truth” could include the
separatist cults (the Shakers), isolationist groups in
Christian monasteries and convents, Buddhists in
their monasteries, and Hindu holy men. To some
extent this could also be said of those who
proclaim that certain ancient writings are the
infallible and the literal word of God. This
includes the Christian Bible, the Koran, the Jewish
Bible, the Apocrypha, the Vinaya Piṭaka (sacred
Buddhist text), and others. There are more modern
examples of how charismatic individuals, who
claim special spiritual insight for their teaching
and writings, can ignite a great following.
Examples include people such as Mary Baker
Eddy (founder of the Christian Science movement
and writer of Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures); Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon
church and “discoverer” of The Book of Mormon);
and Charles Taze Russell (founder of the Jehovah
Witness Church) to name just a few.
All monotheistic religions claim absolutism, that
is, they, and only they, have spiritual truths. Thus,
they claim that no one else has any true
relationship to God. Since only they have the
“truth,” virtually all of them try in some manner to
impose their “truths” on others. It is often done by
force, governmental laws, and community
pressure. They may impose social stigma on non-
compliers or impute religious dogma on a
community. They often make use of overbearing
persuasion, promoting repetitious clichés and
rhetoric. They frequently impose their cultural
norms, and make unduly sacred the works of men,
whether it be ancient literature, customs, and
traditions or modern rules and regulations.
Christianity throughout the centuries has attempted
to impose “correct thought” on its adherents. The
Gospel of John (12:20) reports that the apostles
complained to Jesus about some Greeks wanting to
see Jesus. This implied that the apostles wanted
the message of Christ to be “their way,” not
allowing someone that was not of their group to
have access to God. The fifteenth chapter of Acts
is about a church dispute over how to become a
Christian. Different groups had their own opinions
and were trying to impose their ideas on others.
The letter of Paul to the Galatians is, for the most
part, writing about the conflict between Jewish
Christians and Gentile Christians, with dogmatic
opinions for a particular way of relating to God.
Soon after the union of the Christian church with
the Roman Empire, under the direction of the
Emperor, Constantine, in 323 the Council of
Nicaea formulated the first known church wide
Christian creed. (A creed is what one is expected
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to believe.) Failure to observe the decree was
subject to the penalties of Roman laws.
For several hundred years, the inquisition of the
Catholic Church resorted to terror and torture to
enforce her creeds and dogma. By the sixteenth
century, the Reformation gave rise to Martin
Luther (Lutherans) and John Calvin (Calvinists of
multiple branches of Protestant persuasions), who
had a different idea of what was the “truth.” The
rise of multitude of other Protestant churches
demonstrated the constant attempt of various
Christian groups, (each of which thought that it
had the “only complete truth”), to propagate its
beliefs. Sometimes this was done by persuasion,
and at other times they used less humane means.
Even as we come down to current history. there is
a tendency to define what a person must believe.
In the evangelical protestant churches in America
there developed a group of people that set out to
define “true orthodoxy.” This movement was
called Fundamentalism. It was begun in the 1900s
as a reaction to “modern” ways of Bible study.
“The movement's purpose was to reaffirm
orthodox Protestant Christianity and zealously
defend it against the challenges of liberal theology,
German higher criticism, Darwinism, and other
isms’ which it regarded as harmful to
Christianity.” It actually became a major religious
movement in the latter part of the 20th century and
finally became a major political power, aligning its
followers with the Republican Party.
They were called Fundamentalists because of the
position that they took when they listed a basic set
of “fundamentals” that a person must affirm in
order to be a Christian. The fundamentals are:
• The inspiration of the Bible by the Holy Spirit
and the inerrancy of Scripture as a result of
this.
• The virgin birth of Christ.
• The belief that Christ's death was the
atonement for sin.
 • The bodily resurrection of Christ.
• The historical reality of Christ's miracles.
Setting standards of belief in the Baptist world was
formalized in 1925 by the Southern Baptist
Convention when it issued a non-binding
statement of what most Baptist believed. This was
made stricter in 1962, and then it was made rigid
in 2000, with the requirement that all seminary
teachers, missionaries, and employees of the
Southern Baptist Convention sign a statement of
belief in this Baptist Faith and Message. Now
Baptists are attempting mind control of other
Baptists by a creed that dictates belief and a
certain interpretation of the Bible. I reject both the
fundamentalist’s viewpoints and the current
Baptist creed. In fact, I fear that they have actually
become Bible worshipers, instead being a people
of God who use the Bible to help them understand
what God has revealed to mankind.
It is of interest that historically, in the 1600s,
Baptists were among the first groups to advocate
the idea that everyone had the right (and
obligation) to approach God in his own way and
according to his own conscience. This
encompassed the idea that there was to be no
coercion. To our Baptist forefathers there was to
be no other authority over the soul – only God.
Now this seems to be ignored or denied by many
modern evangelicals, including many Baptist
preachers and denominational leaders with their
creeds and political agendas.
In my opinion, this attitude of “my way, for there
is no other way” works opposite to what I think
true spirituality should be. Real religion, and
especially Christianity, should be the epitome of
what Jesus expressed. When he was asked what
was the most important law, (Luke 10:27) he
replied that it was “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and
thy neighbor as thyself.” If men really did this, the
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religious hated generated between differing groups
would cease.. Unfortunately, I have seen just the
opposite going on in our nation.
It seems to me that over the past ten years there is
more hatred generated by religious groups than
there is good will and love for others. During the
past few years the religious right has pushed a
dogma of ill will on all of those who are not in
their camp. This includes promoting hate in the
abortion issue coupled with a hate campaign
against homosexuals. Antagonism against science
(especially the ideas generated by evolution,
geology, and astronomy) has been a major theme.
Anger has been stirred against many aspects of
medicine, (especially stem-cell research, end of
life care, and genetics).
Ignorance of science seems to be popular among
religious groups. Over fifty-five percent of our
population state that they believe literally the
Bible’s story of a six-day creation, a geographic
Garden of Eden, a global flood, and a earth
centered astronomy, etc. They advocate that they
do not believe the “theories” of modern science,
especially about evolution, astronomy, geology,
and other sciences. Unfortunately, to me, this
shows their ignorance of both the Bible and
science. These two endeavors of men,
understanding the physical world and
understanding the spiritual world, (God) are not
now, nor have they ever have been, in conflict
with each other, provided that each field of
knowledge is studied in the context of its purpose
and limitations.
The purpose of the Bible is to reveal, in part, our
relationship to a spiritual creator, God. It shows
how we should relate to Him and his creation, and
especially to other people. It tells us the why of our
existence and the why we are to act in a moral
way. It gives the why of the purpose of our life. In
contrast, science does not try to address the
question of why, but instead science tries to
explain how the physical universe is put together
and how it functions.
Science, as it describes the workings of the
physical universe, is neither good nor bad. Like all
physical things, the moral nature of science is
determined by how it is used. Chemists use the
same chemicals (nitrogen mustard) to create
poison gas to kill people or to produce medications
used to treat cancer. Physicists use the power of
the atom to build atomic bombs, or they can
harness the atomic energy to generate electricity.
Biologists can utilize microbes to create weapons
of germ warfare, or they can program the microbes
to produce insulin and life-saving vaccines. The
Global Positioning System (GPS) can guide
ballistic missiles or it can help you find a place to
eat.
So what is the point of this last section on spiritual
matters? In days gone by it was the social norm for
families to sit around and talk. The parents shared
their ideas with their children, and even the
grandparents were looked upon as a source of
entertainment, advice, and common sense. Our
current culture has virtually replaced this family
interaction with other activities such as sports,
television, professional entertainment, trips, and
video games. There is little interaction among the
family and less among the extended family. Yet, I
still wish to share my thoughts with the next
generation, so I am using these writings to do so. I
trust that perhaps my family will know me better
by my doing so. I realize that when I present some
of these ideas, I may be considered as rather
different, a little heretical, perhaps a bit odd, or
just maybe out of touch with reality; but, these
thoughts summarize my analysis of the present
time and past history as it applies to my life.
My conclusion (which always will be a work in
process) is that I am to express my relationship to
my Creator by doing the best I possibly can for his
creation. This begins with the responsibilities to
my family, and it extends outward to the rest of
society. So where do I go from here? Basically, I
will continue to do what I am doing now, but
perhaps I can do it better. (Certainly, the tennis
had better not get any worse.)

Personal Time Line

2008 -2009; a Year of Major Medical Situations
World Time Line
The End is Not Yet, and No One Knows When. So Keep on “Keeping On”

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