In praise of . . .

Not all that long ago (1982 to be exact) there was a President who signed a mandate that freed 30 million pounds of processed cheese.

Back then, as part of an $11 billion farm price-support bill, the Government gave away ALL of THAT** surplus cheese to states for distribution to the needy. [!]

Explained President Ronald Wilson Reagan: "At a time when American families are under increasing financial pressure, their Government cannot sit by and watch millions of pounds of food turn to waste."

Well-aged; And sing along here with Keb' Mo'

Giveaways, government and otherwise have long been part of the great American free enterprise/marketing fabric.

Witness the more recent, happy phenomena of Oprah Winfrey and it becomes apparent that altruism clothed in giveaways, great and small, can indeed capture and captivate a MASSIVE NUMBER, however one may care to categorize or describe that.
Elsewhere, less noticeable perhaps, there have been (and remain) ubiquitous examples of such generous marketing of "favorite" (or surplus) things to the public for (even) more evangelical or purported spiritual purposes.

The Gideons (or The Gideons International) founded in 1899 stand as perhaps the quietest and most enduring example of this.

Marking just over 100 years of "freely" distributing Bibles, The Gideons remain a formidable, albeit, often unheralded force for sharing "God's Word" as such "can and does lead people to faith in Christ, and those new Christians then grow by studying their Scriptures and even use them to share their faith with others" in association with the massive, worldwide Presbyterian/Protestant Church community.

As stated among certain frequently asked questions on its website, Gideon membership is open to "Christian businessmen and professional men age 21 and older (or retired businessmen and professional men) who adhere to the core spiritual beliefs held by Gideons. In addition to meeting our professional and spiritual qualifications, potential Gideons must also be recommended by their pastors."

The core spiritual beliefs remain the same distillation of Biblical devotion as ever:

Become . . . a Christian.

May all such enduring devotions, giveaways and quiet crusades, whether utilizing such marketing genius or not, lead the complicated masses of over-brimming humanity to the same conclusion.

Bhaktipedia today

Came across this very interesting resource and found this entry (coinciding with a fairly vivid dream myself, earlier) by Swami B.A. Paramadvait, particularly poignant:

Blind faith is confusion. Manipulated faith means that you have lost track by
being misguided by those who are not truthful. You have to give them up in order
to make some real progress. Distorted faith is what you have produced yourself
by your own cheating mentality, by being too attached to matter and sense
gratification. Very often the loss of superior faith takes place by being
involved with activities in distorted faith, such as intoxication.

When you take intoxicants, like tobacco, marihuana, different drugs or alcohol,
even your positive, constructive, reasonable faith may become shaken. But that
is your mistake.

Disheartened faith is something else, which is more or less produced by having
encounters with people who disheartened you. You may have trusted them, but then
you got abandoned. That is of course a very painful experience. You have to go
through this to realize that only the truth, and the souls who are purely
dedicated to the truth, or at least those who are pure in purpose, can provide
healing faith. They have real faith, positive healing transcendental faith. You
will become disheartened when you put too much faith in somebody who does not
have these qualifications. Having been disheartened should encourage you to find
somebody appropriate to put your faith in.

We cannot walk without faith. We cannot even eat without faith. If you ate
something, which gave you a lot of pain in your stomach, then next time you
would not eat it. You would no longer have faith in that food. If something like
this happened, you would not stop eating altogether. You would try to go
somewhere else and get something else. If this something else gave you good
nutrition, then you would put your faith in that type of food. Disheartened
faith in that sense is an aid to finding real faith.

More readings in "perennial psychology" may be found here.


*****

Amidst certain gloom and doom, today I dreamt of a simple, joyful couple, living
in faith and truly sharing that, as reality.

May such dreams, however rare, never fade away . . .

History as pop culture

Contemplating universal law and other proprietaries this morning, came across this somewhat entertaining (2006-7) take on such from HBO's "Assume the Position [ATP] with Mr. [Robert] Wuhl."
The language may be offensive to some.





And if one cares for more:

Part II is here.

Part III can be found here.

Part IIII is found here.

"ATP 201" can be found here.

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