High Gas Prices

The current high price of gas is affecting almost every aspect of our lives at this point.

If you drive to work, then a larger portion of your paycheck is going towards paying for your commute. More of the hours you're working are being spent on actually getting to work.

Food prices are increasing because the cost of transporting food across the country to a neighborhood store near you is increasing.

There's less to go around because we need to spend more to get around.

And then there are those being affected by high gas prices that we don't hear so much about.

Charity organizations such as St. Vincent DePaul, Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries, and others rely heavily on their various drop-off points for receiving donations of used goods. It's a convenience provided for people that inspires and encourages giving. Drop off your used items at the nearest bin or trailer, and the organization periodically comes and picks it up. For larger items, some organizations will come to your house and collect your used furniture or appliances.

For a non-profit, charitable organization, their biggest challenge is keeping down their operating expenses so that more of the money they receive from funders and sponsors can go directly to the services they provide. It's what makes a non-profit "non-profit". When operating costs increase, the funding does not. It simply means that out of the funding received, more of it has to be spent on keeping the org running than can be spent on actually helping the people they serve.

With gas prices on an uphill climb, these organizations may end their pickup service and recall their drop-off trailers because the cost of driving the trucks will cut too deeply into their available funds. This would leave would-be doners with the responsibility of bringing their discarded goods to locations that are fewer and farther away than usual. Given the choice between throwing things out and having the trash truck pick it up, or spending the gas money to drive unwanted materials to a building 10-15 miles away, I would guess only the most civic minded individuals will want to make that kind of effort.

Food organizations such as Philabundance face the same problem. Not long ago I contemplated arranging for a series of concerts to be held in various venues throughout the city and suburbs for the purpose of gathering food donations. The food banks in the city and in other areas are running very low. However, when I spoke to the food banks to arrange for a pickup of the donations anticipated for each concert, I was told the total donation would have to be quite substantial to warrant them sending out the truck. I forget the exact number, but I remember it was the equivalent of several pallets worth of food, and not a couple of cartons of canned goods.

This meant that if the food donations received at a concert fell below this minimum requirement, I would either have to arrange for someone to deliver the food, or I would have to store the food somewhere until the total donations of all the concerts reached the required level for pickup. Considering most shows end after 10:00 PM, delivering the food at 2:00 AM seemed impractical at best. Storing the food was an even bigger problem because renting storage space costs money, which I don't have any more of than anyone else.

Speaking of concerts, independent musicians and artists are another group suffering from the high cost of gas. It's a well known fact that bands, songwriters, and musicians who have no record deal and who are playing in clubs and bars around the region are not making money. Most of the money generated these days comes from merchandise sales. Artists may accept little to no payment for a gig as long as they get to set up a table to sell their CD's, t-shirts, and whatever other tschokas they may have available.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of gigs that are played where nothing sells and the sum total of payment ends up being some drink coupons for the bar. This is definitely not worth the cost of fuel to haul drums, guitars, amplifiers, and other equipment to a gig that may only last 20 minutes worth of playing time.

Add that to the already restrictive climate in the music industry, and more and more voices will be silenced.

Meals-on-Wheels, organizations that offer transit service to dialysis and hospital treatment, animal rescue groups, art and music orgs, traveling theater groups, book mobiles, mobile medical clinics, needle exchange programs, music festivals, art festivals, and hundreds of other small, independent groups that bring food, health care, literacy, art, and music to the very doorsteps of the poor are all affected and could eventually disappear simply because they can't afford to get where they need to go.

We're a society that's slowly dying from the ground up, and as my mother and I discussed yesterday, I wonder how much harm needs to be done before people become willing to take action.

The Atheist's Billboard

Philly.com ran an article about a billboard that's now up on I-95 that asks "Don't believe in God? You are not alone."

The billboard was financed by a couple of atheist and free-thought groups who wanted to reach out to like-minded people.

None of that is a problem...at least not for me. Every group or organization needs to do outreach in order to reach the people they serve, and to obtain funds to sustain themselves. The Catholic Church put up billboards to encourage men to join the priesthood, Latter Day Saints have TV commercials, and I don't know if it's even possible to count how many hours of programming on both TV and radio goes to evangelical Christians.

So everybody has their right to speak about their faith, everybody has a right to try and teach their faith to those who might be interested, and even this blog (while not advertised or shared with many) is a reflection of my beliefs.

Philly.com, which has serious problems with religion, particularly Catholics, not only gave the story about this billboard front page space, but they included a Comment section and a poll to find out how many people believe in God.

The poll was not restricted, which means you could vote as many times as you liked. The non-God believers were well out in front, although there's no way to know if that's an indication of an increase in atheistic thinking, or if it's an indication that some people had way too much time on their hands. Given Philly.com's aforementioned anti-religion tendencies, it would not surprise me to find the counter had been unevenly set so a non-God pollster's vote would count while the God pollster's vote would be blocked. But that's just me being paranoid*, so I'm sticking with people voting numerous times to boost the numbers.

*Note: The very next day Philly.com featured a story about a sex shop in West Chester that faced objections from the local Catholic church and school that are apparently nearby. This article also invited comments and a poll as whether the church should protest the location of the shop. If anybody happens to see an article about the war in Iraq, or Darfur, or any other national news on the front page, let me know. Better yet, if Philly.com ever invites commentary from the public on the war in Iraq, Darfur, or any other national news on the front page, I'd like to see that too. But I digress....


I read over the comments even though most of them depressed me because of the complete lack of critical thinking being applied to what is usually a complex topic. This is not a blog about proving whether or not God exists, or whether or not people should believe in God. This blog is about how people arrive at their conclusions. It's about thought processes that have no basis in logic.

On the pro-God side, there were Scripture quotes, warnings of dire circumstances to the immortal soul, and I think my favorite was the person who warned non-believers "don't you dare call out to God on your deathbed..."

As Catholic as I am, these kinds of retorts wear me out. Oh, good LORD! Number 1, when an atheist demands proof of God's existence, there's no reason to run to the one book the atheist will reject out of hand. I wouldn't even bother bringing it up, and really, it's not necessary.

Number 2, what possible effect could the threat of hell fire and damnation have on a person who rejects the concept of a god - never mind a judgmental god?

And then to top that off with a "Don't you dare call out to God on your deathbed..."?!? Okay, way to miss the point of forgiveness and the infinite mercy of the god this person presumably claims to believe in. Why not just come right out and say it..."We don't want your kind in heaven anyway!"

The roll call of saints is filled with the names of people who sinned ,fell down, made mistakes, hurt someone's feelings, had doubts, asked questions, and demanded better answers, which is, IMO, what brought them to the level of faith found in the hearts of those we call saints.

Had the person been around that said, "Don't you dare call out to God....", I wonder how far any of them would have gotten in their search for God.

It's flawed thinking and that's what I find offensive about it. There are very good answers to many of the questions set forth in these discussions, and it annoys me to no end to watch people completely bypass the answer that has substance and reach immediately for the rhetoric. It's when I see commentary such as this running rampant on public discussion boards that I find value in having a centralized authority in the Church. There are people out there who think they are an authority on faith when they themselves are so lost they end up confusing everyone around them. The Tower of Babel must have been an oasis of contemplative thought compared to the mindless chatter of these comments.

And speaking of flawed thinking, the atheists aren't off the hook either.

My biggest complaint with those who choose to refute the existence of God generally (in my experience) start off by listing their issues with religion.

A religion is a man-made collection of practices and rituals used to express belief. It's a tool. Like any tool, when it falls into the hands of irresponsible people, it can be used to cause harm. This does not make it a bad tool. Even a hammer can bash someone's skull in, but no one disputes that when you want to drive a nail you might want to pick up the hammer.

When it comes to God, it's all about the religion - bad priests, thieving ministers, bullying nuns, self-serving reverends who think the "love donation" is for them. If the person representing the religion fails, then all faith is lost. Where else does this happen? Doctors malpractice and people die, but I don't see any push to abandon medicine. Lawyers malpractice and innocent people go to jail, or guilty people go free, or people go bankrupt from losing frivolous lawsuits, and I don't see any push to abandon the legal system.

For some reason the distinction between someone who sucks at their job and the value of their profession is clear when it comes to anything other than religion. Religious men and women of any denomination are as human and as subject to wrongdoing as the most secular of human beings. I claim to have faith. I don't claim to have perfection.

The next popular reason for rejecting God often reads like this: "When I was (6, 7, 8, 9) years old, I figured out the Bible was just a bunch of stories and decided there was no need for God or religion."

I'm not knocking people who were, I'm sure, bright children, but developing a complete understanding of issues as complex as God, creation, morality, spirituality, etc., is pretty much beyond the reach of the elementary school child.

• Age 9 - Nine is a good sleeper, but some do have nightmares. Nightmares tend to be related to the general anxiety of this age and have frightening themes such as being fires, storms, snakes, being chased, or someone being killed. Nine is developing a conscience. In contrast to age eight, nine year olds do not show a great interest in God and religion, and many do not want to go to church and Sunday School. They do have a basic ethical feeling and faith, however, and will pray to God when they are in need.

(Source: From Kimberly L. Keith, Your Guide to Parenting of K-6 Children)

So for a surprising number of commenters, their lifelong decision on the existence of God was based entirely on their perception of the world when they were 9 years old, and that perception was completely in keeping with their age and development. I wonder what other 9 year old traits have been preserved.

When it comes to God (and politics), there are no easy answers. There are no quick courses to be taken, or snap judgments that can be made with any confidence. No matter what the belief, ask the hard questions, demand better answers and be open to change.

Best Example of Blatant Hypocrisy Award

A contender for the Best Example of Blatant Hypocrisy Award:

Crossing Market Street the other day, I passed in front of a Hummer that was waiting to turn the corner.

Hummers used to be merely offensive. At this point in time they’re antagonistically obnoxiously offensive.

So of course I walked slower so the Hummer would have to idle longer and possibly miss the light.

It did get around the corner, however, and as this top of the line, shiny, tricked out assault vehicle passed by me on a Center City street, I got a good look at the wheel cover on the back.

In big white letters: "Mission to Preach"

Yes, some minister from what is most likely some storefront evangelical church most likely located in a poorer neighborhood managed to convince his congregation that in order to be a soldier for Christ, one needs the proper vehicle. You can’t win a war without a tank, dontcha know, so cough up those Love Donations and buy this pastor a Hummer!