“Jacob speak comfort to me Jacob!” he said imploring. “I have no comfort to give,” replied Jacob Marley “That comes from other regions and ministers than me” (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

Last Friday news outlets across the nation sprang to life covering an unfolding grade school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. There were, according to Police: 20 children among 26 victims of Connecticut school shooting. Somehow the word “tragedy” seems an understatement. As I listened to the coverage, I thought of my grandchildren, two of which are in that age range. One of our supporters e-mailed looking for words of consolation. She said she could not stop weeping and even though this occurred in a distance state and her children were safe she felt completely crushed by the incident. Oddly, Ebenezer Scrooge’s request and his late partner, Jacob Marley’s response came to mind. Sometimes, it seems, no words of consolation can mitigate such an evil event, but I did my best in my e-mail response. Like many parents and grandparents, we looked on and participated in the grief vicariously. Continue reading …

(A Brief Review of Rough Road to Freedom: A Memoir by Neil T. Anderson; Monarch Book, 2012, $14.99)

Yiddish is a language developed by the Jews in Europe. Yiddish has some interesting sounding words. One of those Yiddish words is the word schmutz. The word schmutz has a range of meanings and can be described as soiled, icky, a mess as in “I have schmutz all over my face”. It is also used of something of inferior quality. If one is having lots of serious problems they might say they have fallen into the schmutz.

Author Neil Anderson is known as The Bondage Breaker from the title of one of his books (see our article “Cure All Bondages” beginning on page 4) . He recently published his biography entitled, Rough Road to Freedom. His forte is deliverance from demons but in a gentle low keyed style euphemistically called by Anderson, “freedom encounters.” There is not a lot of freedom felt when a Christian is told they have a demon inside of them. It is a case of saddling you with a problem that you did not know you had simply because Anderson says so. He eschews being thought of as an exorcist and is against the rambunctious, hollering commanding type of exorcist. Though there is a stylistic difference it is the same game with a different name. Continue reading …

I’m of two minds about the elf on the shelf. My first mind says “There is something wrong with manipulating children into being good for roughly 25 days by giving them an imaginary elf who tattle-tales on them to another imaginary elf and the amount of “gifts” they receive is contingent on an arbitrary evaluation of their behavior.” (That particular mind is long-winded.)

My other mind says, “Lighten up. Its a cute holiday tradition. Don’t over analyze it. Just have fun watching your kids. Besides Curmudgeonly McCurmudgeonson over there (points to first mind) will just get you in hot water with a lot of stay-at-home moms who need all the help they can get keeping their children from bringing the house down around their ears. An imaginary elf who makes the kiddies act just a bit nicer during the silly season is not a bad thing.” Continue reading …