Choices

As I write this, America finds itself tested and the outcome remains unclear. The current situation may be a bump on the road to salvation, or it may be the end of homo sapien rule. The results of years of simmering distrust, even hatred of our own brothers and sisters, is exploding like a volcano kept too long under pressure. The culmination of more than three years of practiced divisiveness is spewing forth the results of seeking political gain through social distrust.

We find ourselves only wondering what the Galilean would say. Maybe our concentration on the Sermon on the Mount can guide us.

 Of the many dichotomies that he set forth in that brief sermon was the difference between righteous and unrighteous behavior. Perhaps that was why he began with a listing of those things that should make us blessed, or happy in the thought of eternal reward for worldly sacrifice and effort.

How did the forces of evil come to govern while claiming it is being done in his name? One wonders. It hasn’t come from the Galilean. He was pretty clear, if pretty demanding, about righteous and unrighteous behavior. For example:

Men can’t divorce their wives just because a younger woman sashays by. We sin even when we succumb to thoughts of sin. We must reconcile and show love with our enemies. What’s worse, we must even show forgiveness and forego revenge. We should consider what we think are our treasures and where we should store them. (Hint: It’s not money.) We should not worry. Some say he meant unnecessarily, but that isn’t what he was recorded as saying.

Those are some tough spiritual rows to hoe.

Some righteous edicts should be easier. We should help the needy in secret, likewise for praying. We should not look somber when we sacrifice, or fast. As for looking somber when we sacrifice, would that include waving our guns in the air and threatening violence. Some strictures are going to be difficult for a select crowd.

Others should be downright simple. He tells us that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law—the Franklin Grahams and Kenneth Copelands of the world—we will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Being more righteous than the spiritual “leaders” that now frequent the halls of government is a “piece of cake upside down.”

But overall, the Galilean knew it wouldn’t be easy, this seeking of righteousness stuff. He warned:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7: 13-14 NIV)

Is it all worth it? Evidently many don’t think so. Some do, however. They find comfort in a favorite passage of those who legitimately seek righteousness. It reads:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (6:22-23)

Morning Thoughts: Two Brothers

My mind takes me in strange directions. I’ve been reading, this week, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, by Nancy Isenberg. She talks about indentured servants in early America and how they were treated. This started my thinking about a family legend passed to me by my father. According to him, his grandfather had another son, in addition to my grandfather. I guess the other son was quite bright, and according to the legend, the old man “sold” my grandfather in indenture, to a neighboring farmer for money to “get the other son an education.” It was a practice perhaps brought from Germany by Great-Grandpa von Tungeln.

I believe the other son was my great-uncle George Henry von Tungeln Ph.D. Following is an account of his life with Maud, his wife.

“Dr. George von Tungeln was an early pioneer of rural sociology, and served as Chair of the Rural Sociology Section of the American Sociological Society. By 1932, Dr. Von Tungeln was Head of the sociology section of the Department of Economics and Sociology at Iowa State College, and had gained national prominence for his work. Maude also furthered her study at Ames and in 1929 became the 12th recipient of an MS degree in Sociology at Iowa State University.

George died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1944 at 61 years of age as he was completing his thirty-first year as a member of the Iowa State College faculty. In 1969, Maude established an Iowa State University scholarship in honor of her husband, which is now called The George Henry and Maude Drew Von Tungeln Scholarship. Maude died in 1973 in Santa Barbara California at 91 years of age. It is believed that Maude and George had no children because there were no children listed in census reports.”

From what I can find, George received a B. of Philosophy from Central Wesleyan College, a Master’s from Northwestern, and his PhD from Harvard.

Granddad? Well, apparently, he received some money from the deal as well, for after he married and began a family, he had money to invest in a future. He ultimately narrowed his choices, according to my father, between purchasing timberland in Arkansas or a flour mill in St. Paul, MN. One can guess the option chosen. After eight children and a tragically unhappy marriage, he led a lonely and strange life before his final passing in 1963.

I’ll talk more about Great Uncle George later. Today, allow me to leave with one quote from an academic paper he published in 1920, A Rural Social Survey of Lone Tree Township ClayCounty Iowa. He wrote:

“Normal life comes into this world with a nature that hungers after the beautiful and abhors the ugly. What is to be expected when as this life develops amidst surroundings it is being taught to call and think of as Home there is always more of the ugly than of the beautiful? That is no doubt one of the sources of rural problems.”

Yeah, he could have used a comma or two, but I sure wish I could have known him.

Legend has it that Granddaddy "Von"
was always bitter toward his brother.