Month: November 2024
BORN AGAIN by William Oldham
Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God…you must be born again…” John 3:3-7
“…If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
November 25, 1967 @ 10:30 PM I was born again and became a new creature in Christ, no doubt about it!
I was raised a Catholic. Our family was a faithful, religious, Catholic family. I became a Catholic by being baptized as a baby. When I was six years old, I made my first confession and communion. I was taught that the Catholic Church was the true church, the mother church, and whatever she taught me was the truth. And so at that early age, the priest began to instruct me on the teachings of the Catholic Church.
The very first thing was that I was to receive Jesus on Sunday morning; every Sunday morning if possible. I would receive Jesus physically by the priest putting a wafer (which he had turned into the body of Jesus during the Mass) into my mouth. In order to be worthy of receiving Jesus on Sunday morning, I must confess my sins to the priest. I was taught to go through the ten commandments, and the teachings of the church, to see what sins I had committed—at six years of age.
What I was not taught, and never heard was that you must be born again. I never heard the word “saved.” I never heard the word “Christian.” I never heard John 3:16. I never heard God and Jesus loved me. I never heard that Jesus died on the cross because He loved me; that all my sins were washed away by His precious blood. I was not once told that He freely gives eternal life to all who believe in Him.
My Catholic life took a turn when I married a girl who was raised in a Pentecostal church. The first ten years of our marriage was very rocky. However during those years, I went to Mass, and then Sunday School with my wife and children. Fast forward through those years.
Shortly after turning 29, a horrible fear came over me of dying and going to Hell; that fear was 24/7. The priest was talking in Latin; her pastor talked about the church and family, but I wasn’t hearing anything to help me with my fear. I didn’t know what to do. This lasted until shortly after I turned 30. Trying desperately to find an answer, one evening, after work, I stopped at a small Christian bookstore, and was browsing through a shelf of paperback books.
As I scanned the titles, I saw one, “The Secret of Happiness” by Billy Graham. I purchased it. That night, while my wife and kids watched TV, I went in our bedroom, laid down in bed and began to read the book—the words started to speak to me. I didn’t want to stop, but I had to work the next day, so I stopped, and went to sleep.
The next day, at work, all I could think about was what I had read in that book. That evening, after dinner and talking to my wife and kids, I hurried into our bedroom to read some more in the book. Shortly after I picked up the book I read this, “If you have never accepted Jesus as your Savior, there’s no point in reading the rest of this book.” Instantly, my 30 years flashed before me: I had been religious all my life but had never done that one thing.
I immediately got out of bed, knelt down and told God I was sorry for my sins and wanted to ask Jesus into my heart. Just that short. Well, the room was very quiet. I said, “God, I don’t hear anything, I don’t feel anything,” but I wanted to make sure God understood what I was trying to do, so I said again, only louder, “God, I’m sorry for my sins, and I want Jesus to come into my heart.” As I finished saying this, I got up and said, “God, this is as far as I can go, the rest is up to you”
I got back in bed and started reading my book. About 15 minutes later, all of a sudden, this tremendous, for lack of a better word, feeling came over me. I had a peace fill me, and I knew my sins were forgiven, and all my fear was gone. I began to say things that I had never said before: “Praise God! Thank You, Jesus! Praise the Lord!” And it was like I was alone with Jesus, and He was saying, “I am the Answer.”
Sometime after that, my wife came to bed, and I began to excitedly tell her what had just happened. She said, “Bill, you just got saved.” That was Saturday night. I rejoiced all night long. We got up the next morning as usual, but that morning, as I was dressing, there just came a knowing that I would never return to the Catholic Church.
We got the kids ready and headed for my wife’s church. Now, we had become friends with three couples there but the rest of the folks, about 75, I didn’t like; I thought they looked funny and were weird. But that morning, as I entered the small auditorium where they were gathered, as I entered the room, I’ll never forget that moment as long as I live, I loved everybody!
In the weeks that followed, I was led to start reading the Bible and memorize Scripture. God was faithful to feed His newborn child. As I read the Bible, my eyes were opened to see the dark domain I was raised up in, and how God had rescued me and translated me into the kingdom of His dear Son. I also saw how the Holy Spirit had cut out from under me all the false teaching that had been so ingrained in me; I had been set free; I was a new creation; I was born again.
To this very hour, in spite of the troubles, trials, disappointments, and sorrows that I have encountered in my walk with Jesus; the love, peace and joy that Jesus brought to me that night, remain secure and bright in my heart: Great is His faithfulness!
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A Legacy of anti-Semitism at Johns Hopkins University
I must say that this article shocked me.
By this time – NOTHING should
My comments indented with asterisks
From jhunewsletter.com
LEON SANTHAKUMAR/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR There is a bust of Isaiah Bowman, the fifth President of the University and an anti-Semite, in Shriver Hall.
Community questions the bust of a past controversial University president
Unknown to most members of the Hopkins community, a bust of Isaiah Bowman, fifth president of the University is displayed outside Shriver Hall.
He was known for his outspoken anti-Semitic views. Bowman served as President of the University from 1935-1948, during the rise of Hitler, the Third Reich, and the aftermath of World War II.
University President Ronald J. Daniels acknowledged Bowman’s faults and accomplishments. Daniels related Bowman’s legacy to the administration’s new initiative to promote diversity and inclusion on campus.
“As I acknowledged in our Roadmap on Diversity and Inclusion, we need to wrestle with our university’s history, warts and all, and Bowman’s story is a perfect example of that,” Daniels wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “He was a visionary in many ways, but blind to his own hurtful prejudice. The bust honors his contributions, but we should also learn from his flaws.”
Geographer and scholar Neil Smith studied Bowman’s life and career while pursuing his Ph.D at Hopkins in the early 1980s and wrote extensively about Bowman’s presidency at Hopkins in the book, American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization, published in 2003. Smith recounted many of Bowman’s anti-Semitic remarks within his text.
In 1939, Bowman fired Jewish faculty member Eric Goldman. In response, Bowman stated, “There are already too many Jews at Hopkins.” Goldman had received a unanimous departmental vote for reappointment to his position as a professor of history. Bowman believed that “Jews don’t come to Hopkins to make the world better or anything like that. They came for two things: to make money and to marry non-Jewish women.” James Franck, who would later become a Nobel Laureate, along with three other faculty members left the University due to the climate Bowman fostered. (emphasis added)
In 1942, Bowman instituted a quota on the number of Jewish students admitted to the University and restricted the number of Jewish students allowed to pursue degrees in the fields of science and math. The quota was abolished in the 1950s. In addition to his anti-Semitic beliefs, Bowman also expressed anti-black and homophobic sentiments. (emphasis added)
“You don’t destroy history. You learn from it.” —Stephen H. Sachs, Former Attorney General of Md.
****** But the question remains – WHAT do you learn?
University trustee Emeritus Shale Stiller learned about Bowman’s presidency through his late law partner and mentor Robert Goldman, who attended Hopkins as an undergraduate during the Bowman era. Stiller also took courses taught by Hopkins Professor of English Literature Earl Wasserman, whose acquisition of the position was met with great opposition by Bowman, largely due to the fact that he was Jewish. Stiller himself has read about Bowman but does not believe many students today are aware of who he was. He stated that it is important that students learn about Bowman. (emphasis added)
“I think students at Hopkins ought to know not only about Bowman but about the whole history of anti-Semitism in American universities on the East Coast in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s,” Stiller said. (emphasis added)
*****I wholeheartedly agree!
Stiller emphasized that neither Bowman nor Hopkins were unique in their perpetuation of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism, especially on the East Coast, was rampant during the Bowman era, as Hitler became more well-known. He also noted that while a statue of Hitler would induce an immediate necessity for removal, Bowman’s bust does not elicit the same degree of outrage and call for removal. In fact Stiller believes that the bust should not be removed, despite the fact that it honors an anti-Semitic individual.
“For those students who want to just tear down Bowman’s bust in front of Shriver Hall and take out any historical names, [it would] erase a good opportunity to teach students about the fact that nobody is perfect,” Stiller said. “To abolish any mention of his name doesn’t give the opportunity to teach that lesson. My concern is that to abolish those names eliminates the opportunity to teach kids a valuable lesson: People who do good things sometimes do something that is bad.” (emphasis added)
***** the opportunity to teach that nobody is perfect? I think that the better lesson would be to make sure that students of Hopkins that their famous (infamous?) school had a Jew-Hating president during WWII when 6 million Jews were being exterminated in Nazi Germany!
Stiller conceded that while he deeply dislikes Bowman, the former president accomplished many feats in his lifetime. Bowman helped found the American Geographical Society and acted as the organization’s first director. He also served as an adviser to both Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After World War II he participated in talks regarding the formation of the United Nations. He also helped to establish the Applied Physics Laboratory at Hopkins in 1942 and added the departments of geography, oceanography and aeronautics to the University. (emphasis added)
*****Participated in talks regarding the formation of the United Nations is something for which to be commended?
This follower of Adolph Hitler was truly a BAD actor and it is time for his views and actions to be made known to the students of JHU and the world
Stiller further stressed the need for students to know about other atrocities in American history, citing the government’s treatment of Native Americans and the internment of Japanese American citizens as examples. In addition, Stiller likened the presence of Bowman’s bust to similar controversies at other universities, such as the naming of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and Calhoun College at Yale. He explained that the question of honoring individuals known for their prejudicial and racist views is visible outside of college campuses, referring to public calls for the removal of the statue of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney — who delivered the infamous Dred Scott decision — and the renaming of Robert E. Lee Park in Baltimore.
“I think there is another good reason, especially at universities, for not removing all of the public symbols of people such as Wilson, Calhoun, Taney, Lee and perhaps even Bowman,” Stiller wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “The ‘removal brigade’ is, in a sense, a manifestation of historical revisionism. To blot out those names does nothing to teach students as well as adults the wisdom in understanding the fallibility of politicians and other leaders. Retaining the public symbols and then teaching how those people erred does more to create an educated public than blotting out their names forever.”
Stephen H. Sachs, a Baltimore native, former Attorney General of Maryland and the former United States Attorney for Maryland, heard stories about Bowman as a young boy from his father, Leon Sachs. Leon served as an instructor in the Political Science Department at Hopkins and taught during the Bowman era.
“My father had the clear opinion, and this would not have been typical at all for him because he didn’t lightly accuse someone of being anti-Semitic but Bowman had that reputation,” Sachs said.
In regards to the presence of the Bowman bust, Sachs maintained that the bust should remain in its current condition outside of Shriver Hall.
“You don’t destroy history. You learn from it,” Sachs said. (emphasis added)
******I hear this over and over, but I believe that the lesson taught by keeping the Bowman bust in front of a major building on campus is not a lesson at all – not until his dark and nefarious acts are uncovered and made known to the people. This piece in the the JHU Newsletter is certainly a start.
Associate Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs Joseph Colón echoed the need to recognize the University’s history of prejudice and exclusion.
“Across the country, colleges and universities have become invested in providing students with more opportunities to engage in dialogue about diversity and inclusion,” Colón wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “The controversy of former JHU President Bowman is an opportunity to discuss our past, how it impacts our present and create an inclusive campus culture that conveys our commitment to diversity. Our Hopkins community is ready to take on such a task, and this includes conversations surrounding our difficult history.”
Sophie Tulkoff, Vice President of the Jewish Students Association, expressed similar sentiments while noting that an open climate exists at Hopkins today.
“JSA deplores anti-Semitism and we believe any recognition [regarding] Bowman should be placed in the appropriate context,” she wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “We are grateful to be on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus at a time when the administration cares about diversity and inclusion and encourages Jewish life.”
The next article is also from JHU Newsletter. It is an Open Letter from the faculty of Johns Hopkins, proclaiming their solidarity with Gaza.
Perhaps no lessons have been learned?
HOW CAN I BE SAVED?
COME LORD JESUS – COME QUICKLY!
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HOPKINS FACULTY Write Open Letter in Solidarity With GAZA
From jhunewsletter.com
THE OPEN LETTER:
In response to the ongoing war in Gaza, Anthropology Department Professor and Graduate Studies Director Clara Han and Anthropology Department Associate Professor and Chair Naveeda Khan wrote the “Open Letter from JHU Faculty in Solidarity with Gaza.” As of Friday, Nov. 3, 29 professors have signed the letter.
In an interview with The News-Letter, Khan shared the reasons behind writing the letter.
“This letter didn’t come out of a deliberative process where we talked to a lot of people and had a lot of forums. This just emerged out of a group of us feeling like we have to mark the moment,” she said. “We just felt that we couldn’t sit by and be quiet.”
The letter condemns the violence inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel, expresses solidarity with the Palestinian people and calls for an immediate ceasefire. Citing the loss of lives, the collapse of the health system, the blocking of access to basic needs and the mass displacement in Gaza, the letter states that the Israeli response is a draconian collective punishment and poses a real risk of genocide.
“The violence denies Palestinians in Gaza access to food, clean water and fuel, with barely a trickle of food, water and medical supplies entering through the Rafah crossing; Israeli authorities block all other crossings. Over one million have been displaced to the south of Gaza, and in their displaced condition, they continue to be bombed,” the letter states.
The letter also criticizes the actions of the U.S., which the faculty say has continuously supplied munitions and monetary support to Israel while exercising its veto power on the United Nations Security Council to block humanitarian aid.
Khan pointed out the inconsistency between the U.S. narrative as a long-time advocate of human rights and its current actions in Gaza.
“The U.S. is not coming across well in terms of how we stand behind issues of human rights, of the need to fight for people’s self-determination and their rights to sovereignty, especially since the U.S. has made it a very big deal to protect other countries in their efforts of this kind,” she said.
The letter is not intended to serve as a response to the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Khan explained that while it is important to have conversations on topics such as the nature of the organization of Hamas or the two-state solution, this letter in particular focuses on the present loss of lives in Gaza.
“[Our open letter] was really about trying to draw attention to what’s happening right now,” she said. “It wasn’t about trying to equally acknowledge or disacknowledge one side or the other, but [it is] about the humanitarian situation.”
Khan referred back to President Ronald J. Daniels’ message on Oct. 10 as a thoughtful and meaningful response to the overall conflict. However, seeing that since the release of Daniels’ statement, the conflict has further intensified in Gaza, she believes sharper demands are needed at this moment.
The letter also emphasizes a commitment to upholding academic freedom in the context of the global dehumanization of Palestinian life in media coverage and public discourse.
In the interview, Khan shared that, taking into consideration how people have faced repercussions for voicing dissent or criticism of Israeli policies — including being doxxed, harassed or fired — they only sent the open letter to tenured professors for signing.
“We decided early on that we wouldn’t approach junior faculty or students, because we did not want them to feel unfairly burdened by our request, particularly given the stories of intimidation and doxxing and so on,” Khan said. “So we decided not to involve them in either the writing or the signing.”
Looking into the future, Khan expressed that the letter is only a small step that joins forces with the various efforts organized by Hopkins students, such as the Oct. 30 walkout and the Oct. 23 candlelight vigil organized by the Johns Hopkins University Dissenters and Speak Out Now.
“The letter is, to me, a small gesture that we need to proliferate in many,” she said. “We need to have teach-ins, we need to have more conversations, we need to have demonstrations, rallies, all sorts of things, because the world is watching.” source
These people NEED the FACTS because they are clearly NOT in possession of them.
