This is a New Year and the first Sunday of a new quarter. It is the week to do an overview of the Be God’s Helper Action Plan. This helping plan is based on several assumptions. The first assumption is that Be God’s Helper is the best available description of what it means to be a Christian. The second assumption is that the non-religious version, Be Earth’s Helper, is the best available description of what it means to be a caring human being. The third assumption is that the four actions, Trust God’s Love, Become God’s People, Love God’s Others, and Find God’s Truth, are equally balanced explanations of what it means to Be God’s Helper. The fourth assumption is that the non-religious versions, Trust Earth’s Love, Become Earth’s People, Love Earth’s Others, and Find Earth’s Truth, are equally balanced explanations of what it means to Be Earth’s Helper. The fifth assumption is that there is no difference between the Christian and the non-religious actions. The sixth assumption is that these four actions represent at least 95% of the actions of caring human beings and of Christians. I hope you will challenge these assumptions as we begin a new quarter.

Email: d2mryan@verizon.net

Challenge,David? In what way?

Email: mhlandlbl@msn.com

What is the probability that these assumptions are true? How valid are they? If they are valid, what are the implications? Where can they be improved? etc. After all it is important the a program like Be God's Helper be based on the best possible assumptions. Are these the best we have?

Email: d2mryan@verizon.net

Good, David, now I understand what you mean. Thank you for your clarification.

First let me say, I'm feeling self conscious about being such a vocal participant on this forum. I fear that it looks as if I have nothing else to do but drone on and on about these issues. That is far from the truth. But attending both Temple and church has opened up a whole new realm of questioning for me that heats up my passion for God and the spiritual!!!!

Second, I do have a couple of points to make about your assumptions. I think your emphasis on helping is an excellent one for Christians and non Christians alike. I would like to see a little more emphasis placed on becoming all that we are capable of being,as well. Also, I know you are trying to keep a parallel in both the Christian and the non Christian groupings. But, I find the wording of your 4th assumption very awkward. That fourth assumption really seems to me to deal with our being good stewards of the earth and all life on it. Does every assumption have to repeat the exact same wording as all the others?
Thank you for all your work on this course of study,David.

Email: mhlandlbl@msn.com

ok,---so, I have been thinking some more about your assumptions, David. ANd this may just be a quibble over language. But, I think being God's "helpers' is a little bland in terminology. I brings me back to my elementary school days when I was my mommy's helper in setting the dining room table for dinner, or wasing up the dishes. Or I was my teacher's helper in erasing black-boards or passing out papers. It a great word for Sunday School children.

But, when Jesus paraphrased all the law and the prophets, the word that leaps out is love.
So for the adult class in the Sunday School, I would use "to be lovers of God". I think that word better describes what it means to be a "people of the Book" .There is more passion, more commitment, more 'heart' to that word. The non Christian equivilent would be to "be lovers of the Earth".

Now as to the categories under each---hmmmm. 1) to develop our best and full potential as humans ( a journey into wholeness) 2) to develop a deep relationship / communion with God and with the earth . (These two categories build a healthy love of self and God or earth)3)to build societies of compassion and justice which fulfills God's will and makes us good stewards of the earth. 4) to be co-creators with God in establishing peace in the world and maintaining harmony and balance in nature.( These two categories build a healthy love and support of others. )

Email: mhlandlbl@msn.com

Marion, you put your finger on what has been sticking in my craw all along with this whole "helper" notion. It is a semantic problem I am having with the word itself. The word is infantile and simplisitc and just isn't rich enough in nuance or connotation to distinguish Christians from Red Cross workers. That is really what has been bothering me. Call me silly for getting stuck on a word, but words are important as conveyers of ideas. Will different words be more "helpul" in bringing us to points of agreement and points of mission and outreach to others?

Email: rclarsen@otponline.net

Mark Twain said it so well: “The difference between the right word and the almost right word,
is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” I think Marion and Bob are saying that “Helping” is a lightning bug word and “love” is a lightning word. But I find the opposite to be true. Love is so easily used and so hard to define, especially by the recipient of the love. David uses the term “Helpee” and I like his idea that helpfulness can be evaluated by the “helpee” as well as by a dispassionate observer.

Many church people have told me “I love gays and lesbians” which simply means they don’t actively hate us or bash us. For me, this is a real lightning bug statement. Then there’s the awful “love the sinner, hate the sin” which helps nobody. Few people have said to me I want to HELP gays and lesbians. It’s so easy to say we love someone, there’s no way to prove it or disprove it. But when we say we have helped someone, it can be proved, we can go to the helpee and ask them, were you helped by Eugene? Mark Twain’s “LIGHTNING” designation would definitely go to “I HELP gays and lesbians.”

And the fact that helping is a juvenile term is, in my opinion, a badge of honor. It can be taught, it’s a behavior that can be discussed with children of all ages. And helpfulness can grow in depth and meaning as we grow and search for opportunities to do helpful actions. Declaring that we Love someone in the name of God or Jesus then gets us off the helping hook, who’s to judge whether we’ve helped that person or not, even the recipient of the Love may not be aware that the love was ever extended. So in many ways, Love is the juvenile term and Helping is the more difficult task. Using the term Love brings a kind of undeserved flattery to the person giving the love and implies a bit of condescension towards the one being loved.

Being a lightning bug word is not necessarily bad. The little bits of light bring wonder and awe to the darkness. Thousands of lightning bugs are an astonishing thing. My vote goes to HELPER.

It is a real priviledge to be part of a forum composed of such good writers!!! ANd I had forgotten Mark Twain's statement about the right word.

Eugene, you express so well why the word "helper" has much to recommend it. I guess it just sounds so 'goody,goody' and "sweet" and a bit "vapid" to me. No offense, David. i know you have worked very hard and very well on this curriculum. And I understand what you are saying about the word , love, Eugene. It cannot be objectively measured or even sometimes realized by the one receiving it. Whereas, 'help" can be. And 'love' is an overused and vague word too.

i just wish we could find a word with more color and passion to it which better describes the sense of passionate and complete "abandonment"--- of total self giving in faith: A word like the kind of vivid language Paul used when he said in Phillippians 3;13-14,"but, one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining foward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the ... call of God in Christ Jesus" You asked for a good definition of a Christian. That ain't a bad one. It conveys the complete ardor of a life dedicated to bringing God's Imperial Rule to Earth.

Bob, or anyone out there, can you come up with a better word than "help",but one having the same strengths Eugene pointed out so well?

Email: mhlandlbl@msn.com

Eugene, forgive me if I sounded flippant or dismissive in my earlier remarks. I didn't mean to disparage what has obviously been a thoughtful search for just the right word by you and David and the others. And you are so right that child-like simplicity most times should be worn as a badge of honor. Quite apart from handed down precepts, kids have innate intuitions of what is fair and right, and, as they say, "out of the mouths of babes, etc."

Further, we all know how the word "love" has been cheapened and rendered indipid by such statements as "I love ice cream."

Yet I still seek words that distinguish Christians and their spritituality and their service and their charity and their worship and their sacramental life from other good folks who are helpful. I don't need to be a Christian in order to be helpful. I always seem to come back to that same place. How does Christian helpfulnes differ from Buddhist helpflness? Or does it differ? Or does it make any difference at all? Why bother with Jesus?

Email: rclarsen@otponline.net

Ok, David and Eugene, I've thought of an alternative word to "helper". How about the word "co-creator"? We are made in the image of the Creator. Isn't the Bible all about those people whose lives of faith involved co creation with God. Certainly Christians are asked to carry on the work of Jesus in bringing God's Imperial Rule to earth. I think people who believe in being stewards of the Earth would like that term as well.

Well, what do you think?

Email: mhlandlbl@msn.com