About the Signal Press

The author has two purposes here: 

1.  To support, defend and help preserve the principles of American democracy and uphold the Constitution.  Specifically, to defend and support the first amendment right to freedom of conscience, the Establishment Clause prohibiting the establishment of religion and protecting the free exercise of it; and the complete separation of church and state for the full benefit of both.  

2.  To oppose the conflation of conservative, Evangelical Christianity with far right wing Republican politics and support Christians who are committed and faithful followers of the gospel of Jesus Christ and who don't allow their political affiliation to dictate their Christian faith practice. 

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The Signal was the first newspaper that went into business in my hometown.  It began publishing sometime during the early 1900s and was one-page newsprint utilizing both sides of the paper.  It took its name from the surrounding native American culture that did indeed use smoke signals to communicate with each other.  The newspaper stayed in business until the depression hit the community and its advertisers and it stopped publication in the early 1930s.  It was replaced by another publication which took over its building and its press in 1942, called The Press.  Though it changed names since then, it was the weekly newspaper that served the community until it was absorbed by a nearby daily newspaper company and ceased independent publication.

Journalism has been an amateur interest of this author.  I minored in English in college, with an emphasis in journalism (because the college I went to didn't have a journalism minor) but went into teaching instead of pursuing a writing career or one in broadcast journalism.  That did become a hobby, however, as I worked for several radio stations as both an announcer and a news director.  Small town stations, but lots of fun.  So the name of the blog is a way to remind me of home, and to have a place to practice my craft.  I think I'm a passable amateur journalist.  

This is about life, about perceptions, about the way we think and act.  I was raised in an Evangelical Christian tradition, in a small church affiliated with a denomination that built a deep sense of loyalty to missions, both local and international, and to a specific set of institutions and agencies that included both the college and graduate school from which I graduated. For the most part, the members of this congregation were sincere Christians who would be horrified by what is happening in both their denomination and among some branches of the American church now.  

I consider myself a Christian, a believer in God and a follower of Jesus.  I went to a denominationally-related university where the focus of the education was on intellectual development, critical thinking and which got my faith beyond being just a religious obligation or a single spiritual experience and made it a lifestyle, based on the values of Jesus.  He said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  So it is my "neighbor" which is a term that was also broadly defined by Jesus, who is best equipped to inform others about my sincerity, based on how I treat him or her.  There's not room here to share everything I believe so feel free to ask.   

I've always been uncomfortable with the edgy, hostile attitude displayed by some members of Christian churches toward those who don't accept all of their personal premises, biases or interpretations of the Bible.  Raised Southern Baptist, when I was in graduate school, I found my way into a church still affiliated with that denomination that was one of the most "Christian" I'd ever joined, finding out later that it was over the far left edge of the denomination.  It had welcomed members of different racial and ethnic backgrounds through the years of the Jim Crow South, ordained women and men to the ministry, loved its neighbors, in an impoverished and predominantly black and Latino neighborhood, by committing budget priorities to help meet their needs, and provided opportunities for their children to get an education and a boost in life as a result. That's the kind of Christianity with which I identify.  I cannot reconcile hostility, anger, judgmental attitudes or rejection with the words of Jesus Christ, starting with Matthew chapter 5. 

Conservative Evangelicalism in the United States is a cultural religion.  It is based on faulty premises regarding the transmission and interpretation of the Biblical text as the authority for Christian practice derived not from its historical or cultural context, but from populist themes based on American frontier experience, injected with a full load of mysticism, folk religion mythology and opinionated preacher assertions from uneducated men who are angry at the world.  It's impossible to come to a conclusive interpretation of a document 2,000 or more years old, written in another epoch, to people in a completely different cultural time period.  What's been transmitted isn't the doctrine, it's the values that those who wrote about Jesus Christ aspired to live by.

I now self-identify as Quaker, an expression of faith based on living by a set of life enhancing values which elevate the human spirit, recognizing "that of God within," and spending this life making the part of the world where we live a better place.  Quakers don't elevate theological correctness or doctrinal purity over faith practice, which, is worthless if it doesn't do anything that is life enhancing.  Faith is lived out in the values it exhibits, not something to be used as a weapon to bludgeon someone who lives differently.

Where the church has had complete religious freedom, it has been fragmented, divided, and prevented from achieving any kind of spiritual unity.  That's contrary to the message of the Bible.  But I've also discovered that people, including pastors with a real education, are very capable of making the Bible say whatever they want it to say, and figuring out how to opt-out or ignore teachings that don't agree with what they want to preach or what they want their church members to know. It is rarer than one may think to find sincerity, along with spiritual unity, in the church and there is always the danger of being corrupted by the measurements of worldly success rather than by living in a way that is consistent with the doctrine and faith it confesses. And I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that I struggle with this myself.  All the time. 

The Christian church, when it has become linked to the political state, has become unrecognizable from the ecclesia described in the Bible.  And when it allows the infiltration and intrusion of secular politics, whether from the right or from the left, it has always been corrupted.  

Politically,  I believe in the representative democracy established by the American Constitutional Republic.  Because my Christian beliefs push me toward seeing others as equals, and able to celebrate differences and do more than just "get along," I'm a Democrat.  Yeah, it's a political party and it has its flaws and I don't buy into every position or theory, nor do I believe in every single candidate. But within its principles lies the best hope for the future of American democracy.  I know the difference between freedom and tyranny, between constitutionally guaranteed rights and doing whatever you please and between my obligation as a member of a democratic society, and my own selfishness.  

The Republican party does not reflect my perspective on the sanctity and equality of all humans, regardless of their race, gender or ethnicity, economic opportunity or religion.  It has become influenced by ideology within some branches of American Christianity  that include white supremacy, white Christian nationalism, Anglo-Israelism, Christian Dominion theology and Reconstructionism, none of which are democratic, or a reflection of the vision of the founding fathers.  These ideologies and worldviews need to be called out by showing that they are pseudo-Christian and anti-Christian because they exhibit no values or virtues of the Christian gospel, and they contradict or completely ignore the Bible in laying out their mission and purpose.  

I also know the difference between a lie and the truth.  And between a lying politician and one committed to genuine public service. 

The author is an educator with a B.A. in History and a minor in English, an M.A. in education, with graduate level coursework in theology, political science and social studies education and three decades of experience instructing students and educational administration,  As a result of my career, I'm also a lifelong student who takes advantage of multiple opportunities to learn, both formally and informally, and to be fully informed.  

Life is a gift from God who desires his creation to live it in abundance of richness of all it offers.  It is a blessing to be lived to its fullest and appreciated for its beauty and simplicity.  Writing is therapeutic for me.  Sometimes, I'll see or hear something that prompts me to come here and write, sometimes it is just a matter of needing to put words down in order to gain an understanding of something or someone.  Comments that are respectful of the personal right to one's own opinion, from people who recognize facts and accurate sources, are welcome.

Why I Post Articles Here Anonymously

The author maintains a position of discretion regarding any personal identity or association.  Please be respectful of this position.  

Theoretically, we live in a country which has a constitution that protects our freedom of conscience and freedom of speech.  In practice, for those who have ever worked for an institution in which the governing authority is invested in an elected board, we are a long, long way from that kind of protection.  I have worked under such authority that directly threatened my livelihood for something as simple as putting a political yard sign on my personal property.  

Many of the readers here are people who are completely confused because the message they get from their church pulpit on Sunday is either full of Republican slogans and rhetoric, or has content that seems to contradict most of their conservative political beliefs.  I write because I think I can help them through the confusion, with my theological background and my background in American history and government, and to at least feel better about who they are and what they believe, setting them straight on the stark contrast between the practice of their conservative, Christian faith and the politics of the MAGA right.  

I keep it anonymous, for now, because I am joyously less than 8 months away from retirement, at which time I plan to turn this amateur operation into a profession.  In the meantime, I ask that I be allowed to protect my livelihood because there are people who get angry enough at progressive liberals to become violent, and if they can inflict damage they think we deserve, they'll try it without a twinge of conscience.