The last herd in Wallace

This is a story about "lasts"-and it's about township politics.

When we first moved out here, I noticed a large animal veterinarian who has an office about a mile or so up the road from us. He may be, aside from the New Bolton Center, one of the last large animal doctors in Chester County. Jim travels around from farm to farm, but most of his work is done with large farms-farms that breed calves or are home to dairy cattle.

Knowing that I wanted to do a story on the anachronism of a Chester County large animal vet, and knowing he would be in the neighborhood, Jim gave me a call.

The rain was coming down much of the morning, alternating between a drizzle and downpour. I got lost on the road to the Heim farmstead.

When I finally found the barn, Heim and his son were helping the cows go through a cattle shute so that Jim could do a rectal exam to see how many months pregnant they were. Separated from their young calves, the cows bawled sadly. Little did they know it would be forever. When the calves are six months ago, they are sent off to a feed lot. Then they are either bred as dairy cattle or slaughtered. Even the mothers have a maximum life span of 15 years. They all end up as your dinner.

As I looked into the liquid black eyes of the momma cows, I was glad I don't eat meat.

Moving out of the shute after they are palpated, the cows go into another pasture. Buster, the cattle dog, makes sure they go fast. Jay Heim, who has farmed here for 20 years, is selling the cattle on November 17 of this year. He's working on a deal to sell his acreage to the developer who owns hundreds of acres just south of him. The Heim farm and the Greenfield land are Wallace's last big tracts of undeveloped pasture and woods.

The developer, Albert Greenfield Jr, has plans to build lots of houses for wealthy folks, and a golf course and resort.

Meanwhile, Heim says he and his wife will probably move out further into the country-away from increasingly congested Wallace. With all of the new zoning laws, he says, it's almost impossible for farmers to hang on to their land.

And so soon, Wallace Township shall only have one working farm left-Bethany Farm down the road from me in the other direction. When I saw Mr. Messner, who farms organically, I suggested he might want to start coming to township planning committee meetings. Maybe he can get himself listed as an endangered species.

Who is in charge?

A friend wrote me today to say she wasn't a believing Christian anymore because of all the terrible stuff that happens in the world.

I need to ponder a bit before I write her back. She deserves that.

But I did wonder why the evil is so much more prevalent than the good-or is it that we give the evil more weight than the good? Or could it be that we don't see ourselves as lightbearing?

Possibly we don't take our own responsibilities seriously enough. AND perhaps we are so hurt by the horrible things that happen, because our souls know that we were designed to flourish in the light of God's goodness.

I grapple, as perhaps we all do, with such doubts. But I still believe there's a place for us Thomases in the Kingdom- and that God is in charge.

Virtual wrestling

Yesterday I was the guest 'blogger on the Washington Post "On Balance" blog. My post is entitled "Clergy Moms."
The post got more than 200 comments. But, at least at the end, the posters, who seem to enjoy fighting with each other, were talking about issues that had little to do with my original post. Somehow Leslie has created a home for them at her blogsite. Lamentably but predictably, people feel much more comfortable insulting each other online than they do in person. Is the meanspirited, overly sensitive persona they strut online the person they really are? If that is the case, I assume they keep it under control the rest of the time, or we'd be in the same pickle as the ancient Romans-or Pompeiians. But there were also wonderful moments of grace-and I got the sympathy vote. It's amazing how many people have had bad experiences in churches-and might not have had other arenas in which to express their hurt.

You call yourself a what?

What does it mean to be a Christian? Or, put another way, what does it mean to follow Jesus? I've been feeling very uncomfortable, as though I have a splinter under my toe, since
I heard Frank Newport (of Gallup) interviewed recently.

Newport wasn't talking about Christians. His topic was politics.
Gallup pollsters report that, (although more people are found to be innocent by virtue of DNA testing) support for the death penalty is consistent-this latest poll found it to be around 69 percent. People also felt that the death penalty was morally acceptable. A lot of the folks interviewed also probably feel, as other polls show, that abortion is morally unacceptable.

I believe the sanctity of life arguement is a lot more credible if it includes all life. But my major problem is that nowhere, as far as I can fathom, in the New Testament, does Jesus, or St Paul call for shedding blood.

Jesus calls us to forgive, 70 x7, to turn the other cheek and to pray for our enemies. The Jesus of the Gospels doesn't mention homosexuality once, but he spends a lot of time suggesting his followers be nonviolent.

But most Christians apparently feel capital punishment is all right. Is this the church/state arguement-that its OK for the state to maintain the law?

But those polled apparently feel it's not only all right, but "morally acceptable." Is morality the province of the state?

So have we had a new revelation that allows us not to take him (Jesus) seriously? And if we don't, on this score, can we call ourselves Christian? If so, why?

Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe I've been missing something here.

Interview with Walt Mueller

What does God want for our kids?
By Elizabeth
Published: Oct 20, 2007 12:01 AM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA -
Driving home in the dark, I'm blindly surfing my radio presets (the ones that aren't public radio and classical) at my 12-year-old daughter's request.
Soulja Boy's "Crank That" is on the air in Lancaster — neither of us understand the words, but the song is on her iPOD, she tells me. Wilmington is playing a song by Rihanna, the teen that dresses like a refugee from Wisteria Lane. "Under My Umbrella" is on my daughter's iPOD, too.
Back to the Lancaster station and, oh what a relief, a song by Lifehouse — weren't they some kind of a Christian band before they got famous?
In the space of about five minutes, I've gone from suspicious to skeptical to probably misinformed — do I sound like you?
Which is why, moms and dads, teachers and pastors, we need Dr. Walt Mueller and his Center for Parent/Youth Understanding.
Born almost 20 years ago when Mueller was a youth minister in a Philadelphia-area congregation, CPYU's motto is "Understanding Culture to Impact Culture."
His message to sometimes perplexed and often ignorant Christian parents like me is both simple and challenging: Wise up to the cultural messages your kids are taking in a media marketplace that is only growing more sophisticated and diverse.
Criticize culture, don't demonize it.
And keep asking prayerfully and persistently: What does God want for our kids?
Mueller's persistent call to cross-cultural understanding has made him a rarity in the faction-riven denominational Christian world — a man who builds bridges rather than silos. In fact, he has served as a government consultant, and his work on character-building and critical cultural consumption has been "translated" into secular language and is being used in public school curriculums.
In the last year and a half alone, CPYU has produced five books. "Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture," the product of Mueller's doctoral dissertation work at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, lays the theological and biblical foundations for Mueller's practical cram course for youth pastor and parents "Youth Culture 101."
The result of a full-court press to reach high school seniors and college students, "The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness" was written by CYPU staff member Derek Melleby.
On a relatively small budget of $450,000 a year, Mueller's staff sets a high standard for productivity. The CPYU Web site (www.cpyu.org), which gets approximately 6,000 hits a day, is constantly updated with movie, resource and music reviews, as well as Mueller's blog postings.
A quarterly e-zine, Engage, offers parents perspectives on such popular television shows as "American Idol" and the musical group Good Charlotte.
Even students who attend supportive youth groups and are raised in faithful families aren't making the transition well to college, says Mueller. Many abandon Christian activities once they move away from home. Even those who remain involved tell CYPU staff that they find it hard to keep up with changing media and culture, says Mueller.
Although he travels the country speaking to crowds both huge and small, and has a one-minute daily radio spot that airs on around 850 stations (catch him on WJTL in Lancaster), Mueller is not a charismatic made-for-prime time megachurch wannabe.
Soft-spoken, calm, and reflective, the Elizabethtown-based father of four simmers with a determined passion driven by his sense of urgency and his belief that he is fulfilling a call from God.
He has nothing but respect for today's youth, whom he describes as smart and engaging. But he does have a word of warning for their parents. The complaints he hears most often from teens are: "they don't listen" and "they don't understand."
If you want your kids to be more critical, and more prayerful about buying what the global culture is selling, if you want them to be consciously faithful to God rather than becoming avatars for the latest secular trends, you need to make time to do both things, asserts Mueller.
Recently a driver who had probably fallen asleep at the wheel crashed into Mueller's office, leading him to reflect not only on his narrow escape from the jaws of death but on how to build a CYPU legacy of cross-cultural mission and reconciliation that would last after he had moved on.
In partnership with God and His grace, we have a similar job description: building character and faithfulness in our own kids.
But, as Mueller has made it his life's work to teach us, on-the-job training has to start right here with me and with you — for the sake of our children, and our world, and the Kingdom.

A few things that bug me

I don't think I am feeling particularly ticked off today, but a few things got under my skin, and I wondered if they bothered you as well.

A. Middle Class, affluent Christians who have never known significant tragedy who believe everything that God will only allow hard things to occur when they are ready to confront them. How do they explain children who die of AIDS in Africa or getting shot on the streets of Philadelphia-that their mothers and dads were ready to let them die? Or perhaps that the poor are better able to cope with loss than those of us who have a lot of material things?

I have always found this simple minded, to be frank. However, I know many good people believe this-and it makes the scary times less frightening. I can bite my tongue when people who have suffered hardship or who don't have a lot of money or an SUV or a country home say that God will not give us more than we can stand. But tonight, when I read a devotion in which a British mom wrote that, I wanted to write her and say-what makes you sure? I'd love to hear someone assert this from a non-white, non-privileged POV.

B. Surveys that prove things I don't wish to believe. Recently one came out that said it was healthy for families to eat dinner together-whether or not they ate dinner in front of the TV! Hopefully someone, somewhere is even now proving that it is much healthier to argue with your son over how many pieces of sweet potato and squash he eats and to tell your daughter she can't have a half gallon of ice cream without having the TV on while you eat.

C. The automated attendant named "Julie" on Amtrak. No matter how many times we chat, she can't get my phone number right. Fire that woman!

Amish Grace

I'm reading this wonderful book in preparation for interviewing one of the authors, Dr. Kraybill, who has made it his lifelong calling to study the Amish and other Anabaptists. He's written a lot of books on the Amish and Anabaptists but this one was occcasioned by the tragedy of last year, when five girls were killed by a man who then killed himself.

The three men who wrote the book are rightly reticent about the actual tragedy. They spend most of the book analyzing how the Amish understand forgiveness from a New Testament perspective-and how their communal culture creates a basis for practicing forgiveness. Kraybill and his two colleagues did many interviews with Amish people around Nickel Mines-I doubt that would have been possible without a trust relationship between them and the Elizabetown prof. I'm very eager to meet him.