Any Port In A Storm

Before I begin, let me just say that I know full well that the matter homosexuality has become a political and religious boiling point in recent years, with both sides fiercely defending their own small points of view.

And, Yes, I am sure that someone will point out, “God made Adam and Eve.  Not Adam and Steve.”

Okay.  So who made “Steve?”  I mean, if it wasn’t God then who was it?

“You may think that you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse!  When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge do the very same things.  And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things” (Romans 2:1-2 NLT).

And it is certainly worth pointing out that in the previous chapter of Romans, Paul does discuss homosexuality. 

So ”the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.  For the same God who said, ‘You must not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘You must not murder.’  So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law” (James 2:10-11).

And so I will not condemn something I do not understand.  I simply saw someone who was sick and I chose to help him.  If you think I should have let him die, then show me one time when Jesus refused to help somebody who was sick and I will gladly repent for helping another human being.

It all started when my friend, Charlie, was brutally beaten and stabbed to death sixteen years ago.  He was murdered because he was a homosexual.  As I have previously mentioned in Katrina & Me, grief can teach compassion.

So, about ten years ago, I met a man named Lloyd, who happened to be a homosexual suffering from a virus called hepatitis C.  He had already been waiting for quite some time for his health insurance company to approve his medication–which, as I recall, was Pegasys and Inteferon.

So I told my friend, Bob, who happens to know a thing or two about alternative medicine.  A few days later, Bob gave me a holistic treatment for hepatitis C.  And then I asked Lloyd if he would be interested in taking the formula while he was waiting for his health insurance company to approve his traditional treatment.

Lloyd’s response was, quite simply, “Any port in a storm.”

He wanted to live.  So he decided to try the holistic treatment.  But Lloyd had already lost his job because of the disease.  So when Lloyd told me that he couldn’t afford it, I bought it for him.

The holistic formula for the treatment of hepatitis is…

-1,500 milligrams of vitamin C every six hours.

(Total:  6,000 mg daily.)

-1,000 milligrams of olive leaf extract every six hours.

(Total:  4,000 mg daily.)

-250 milligrams of grape seed extract every six hours.

(Total:  1,000 mg daily.)

-Once a year, squeeze 12 organic lemons into a gallon of water.

(Drink 16 ounces every three hours over a 24-hour period.)

Now, I’m not talking about Country Tyme Lemonade processed in a factory.  I mean organic lemons.  This will detox the liver.  The vitamin C supports the immune system.  The olive leaf extract attacks the virus.  And the grape seed extract supports healthy blood.

This is a treatment, not a cure. 

Lloyd’s doctor had told him that his viral count was up over a million.  After four months on the formula, his viral count was tested again.  It was down to 80,000.

Now, assuming for a moment that Lloyd’s viral count was exactly 1,000,000, that means in just four months it had gone down 920,000 to a mere 80,000.

I know that right now most of you are thinking, “Well, what did his doctor say?  If the formula really works, wouldn’t his doctor gladly approve it and immediately start telling his patients about it?”

Not necessarily.

Because the traditional treatment that Lloyd’s doctor wanted to put him on cost $2,200 a month.

That’s $26,400 a year.  For one person.

So if a million people are on the traditional formula, that will cost $26-point-4 Billion.

If ten million people are on the traditional formula, that comes out to $264 Billion.

That’s $264,000,000,000.

So somebody is making a hell of a lot of money off of hepatitis C.

With that much money involved, I was certainly not surprised when Lloyd’s doctor had told him that someone had made a mistake in the first test–the one that showed his viral count was up over a million.

“So we don’t know if this formula really works,” his doctor had said.

And the simple truth is, with that much money involved, the holistic formula will never be proven by traditional medicine.  There is just too much money involved.

And what’s worse, the traditional treatment had some atrocious side effects, including baldness, skin lesions, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, depression, and suicide.

“Side effects” like that are a pretty far cry from Hippocrates’s “Above all, do no harm.”  In fact, if doctors upheld that oath authentically, there would be no such thing as “side effects.”

And if we truly believed that life is sacred, health care would be free. 

But the holistic formula only cost me about $75 a month.

That’s less than my cable. 

I really wish that I could tell you how Lloyd is doing today, but I lost touch with him after he moved.  The man who murdered Charlie, however, was caught.  So far as I know, he has served his time.  As difficult as it was–and you may very well rest assured that it certainly was difficult–I have prayed for God to forgive my friend’s killer.

But in the ten years since I first bought that formula for him, I’ve told other people with hepatitis C about it.  Most of them had tried the traditional treatment a few times and had just gotten so sick of being sick from the side effects that they, too, would take any port in a storm.

Others, however, simply refuse to believe that it could be so simple.

As with all things, people will chose to believe what they chose to believe.

(Author’s note:  I am not a doctor.  These statements have not been approved by The USFDA.  And I assume absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for anything that may, or may not, happen as a result of someone taking the aforementioned formula.)

A Mighty Stream

Since today we honor The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I thought I would take a moment to explain what his great dream means to me.

As Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to The U.S. Senate, once said, “When The Constitution of The United States was written, I was not included.”

I wasn’t either.

And neither was my brother, my mother, or my grandfather.

In fact, when my grandfather was my about my age, he was not even allowed to drive in certain parts of the country.

And it was illegal for him to vote.

 Employers openly discriminated against him.  And people purposely avoided him.  Daily.

Now, my grandfather was born in 1910.  But eighty-five years later, a doctor told me not to have children.  He didn’t want me to pass along my “inferior” genes.

By the way, I’m white.  So is my family.

But, like people of color, my family and I have been–and still are–discriminated against simply because we are different.

We are Hard-of-hearing.

As is so often the case, I know most of you are wondering Why.

Well, you can find the answer in the same place I did.

The Bible. 

”‘Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see?  Is it not I, the LORD?’” (Exodus 4:11 NLT).

Yes, that’s right.  God made me this way.  So for me to be ashamed of my disability would be the same as being ashamed of my Creator.  And to say that there is something wrong with me because I cannot hear as well as 90% of the population would be the same as saying God made a mistake.

And yet, Exodus 4:11 has been so misinterpreted by that arrogant majority that human history is filled with examples of prejudice and discrimination against The Deaf and Hard-of-hearing.

It started, historically, when Aristotle equated language with speech and subsequently decided that those who could not speak could not be taught.  So children who were born deaf were cast out of the community, left to die from starvation or the elements.

Actually, let me put that another way. 

Imagine a five-year-old kid, half-naked and starving to death in a thunderstorm.  Then imagine a so-called “civilization” with a prejudice so evil it had laws which dictated that such children could not be fed, clothed, or sheltered.

You had to let the child die.

Even if it was yours.

And what started with Aristotle continued for thousands of years.

In The Middle Ages, parents would often commit their deaf children to live in monasteries and convents to prevent them from reproducing, a covert attempt to “cleanse” humanity from the apparent scourge of deafness.

And Senator Andrew Johnson, the former president of The United States who had also refused to promote a deaf patent clerk, once said of deafness, “God Almighty knows how to mark men.”

“Mark men?”  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Because if God has “marked” people with a hearing loss, isn’t He is showing favoritism to those who can hear?  Or to those who are white?  To those who are rich?  Those who have been born in a certain country?

“If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, ‘You can stand over there or else sit on the floor’–Well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgements are guided by evil motives?  If you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin” (James 2:3-4 & 9).

“For God does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:11).

Spiritually, I see my hearing loss as a gift.  It has awakened my compassion for people like Chris, whom I discussed in The Flood of Alcoholism.  It has forged my spiritual wisdom, which I may very well have demonstrated in Katrina & Me and When Lightning Strikes.  Because when one cannot hear the physical world the attention can–and often does–shift to the spiritual realm.

Professionally, I have not succeeded in spite of my hearing loss; I have succeeded because of it.  My hearing loss forced me to work that much harder because I quickly realized that I could take nothing for granted.  Even in college, I had to study harder because I couldn’t always understand spoken lectures.

Personally, my hearing loss has forced me to chose my friends very carefully.  Because people who are arrogant and impatient simply do not have the wisdom to communicate adequately.  And since hearing aids cannot distinguish or isolate sounds as well as human ears, crowds and I don’t get along too well.  So the relationships in my life are honestly more intimate now than when I could hear.  One-on-one conversations tend to be like that, especially when one does not take sound for granted.  And considering that I always sleep like a baby, I’d say the quality of my hard-of-hearing life has never been better.

And this is especially true when I compare my life to my grandfather’s life.  He passed away in 1978, twelve years before The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law.

I have had rights of which he could scarcely dream.

No one can refuse to serve me at a restaurant.

No one can refuse to accommodate me with an assistive listening device when I go to the movies, attend a church, or sit in on a seminar.

No one can refuse to loan me a convenience kit–which usually consists of a teletypewriter and an alarm clock shaker–when I check into a hotel.

And even though I use a teletypewriter instead of a telephone, I can call my family, my friends, and order a pizza through relay.  When I type, a communications assistant reads the exact text to a hearing person.  When the hearing person speaks, the communications assistant types the exact words to me.  Relay is free, confidential, and available 27/7.

Twenty years ago, Deaf and Hard-of-hearing people had none of those rights.  Neither did anyone with a disability.

 But the movements within The Deaf Community–such as The Deaf President Now! Protest at Gallaudet University in March of 1988 and the march in Washington to support and ensure passage of The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990–those movements that lead to our great rights were accelerated by the legacy of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Because of King’s faith in Christ–and I’ll not separate the man from his faith–a whole new generation has been enabled.  ”They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom” (MLK, Jr. 28 August 1963).

Because of King, “justice roll[ed] down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” (MLK).

For that, I shall always be grateful.

Unfortunately, in the past few years, The United States Supreme Court has cut down on the rights of people with disabilities in the work place.  Ruling in favor of businesses and employers, The Supreme Court has ruled against people with disabilities in 97% of all cases, according to roadtofreedom.wordpress.com.  In fact, there is now a ridiculous loophole in the law that allows employers to determine that an individual is either too disabled for the job or not disabled enough to be allowed the protections of The ADA.

In my case, employers can determine that even though I have lost 60% of my hearing, I am not allowed protection under The ADA because I have hearing aids.  The absurdity of this loophole in the law becomes apparent when one realizes that hearing aids are not human ears.  My hearing aids have a limited range of six to ten feet for picking up speech, which depends on the pitch and the tone of the person speaking.  Women, for instance, have higher voices than men.  By contrast, healthy human ears can discern speech thirty feet away.  Additionally, hearing aids cannot distinguish or isolate sounds nearly as well as healthy human ears.  For me, background noise is the root of evil.  And my hearing aids cannot determine the distance or the direction of sound, which the shape of the ear provides for people who can hear.

That is my side of the story.  But there are millions of other Americans who have also lost job opportunities to this discrimination.  People with cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, and HIV/AIDS who are on medication for these medical ailments are not considered to be disabled simply because they are on medication for these ailments and diseases.

As I write this, the presidential primary season has just begun.  Among the candidates is an African-American Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.  He is the only presidential candidate who has openly supported The Americans with Disabilities Restoration Act, which would end the ridiculous loophole in the law that blatantly discriminates against people with disabilities.  

And wouldn’t it be something if forty years after The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated that America uphheld his dream and elected the first black president?  Personally, I do hope that Senator Obama does win the nomination and the presidency because no one else cares about restoring the promise of America through The ADA Restoration Act.

Storm of Controversy: Prayer

The Storm:  Prayer in school.

The Scripture:  “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.  I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:5-6).

The Sunrise:  God does not needs us to stand around a flagpole, before a courthouse, or in front of a camera to hear our prayers.  We can pray anywhere; God certainly doesn’t want us to make public spectacle out of prayer–and that, obviously, includes kids in school.  But favor the public over the private and the end result is hypocrisy, which is a direct violation of the teachings of Christ.

Soul Pollution

Not so long ago, I had a conversation with someone who thought that taking out the garbage wasn’t important. 

So I said, “If you think taking out the garbage isn’t important, then don’t ever take it out again.  You’ll find out real fast just how important it is.”

Now, you may think you know precisely what would happen, but let’s look at the big picture. 

-Obviously, you’ll have the smell and the mess.

-Then you’ll have the critters–ants and rats and who knows what else.

-Your neighbors will start complaining.

-If you rent, your landlord will evict you.

-If you own a house, it will lose value.  As will the houses nearby. 

-Eventually, the health department will close and condemn your house.

-You will be homeless.

-And if you have children, the state will seize custody of them.

-After that, your children will be shuffled through the foster care system, enduring an average of 25 to 30 foster families until they turn 18 and state jurisdiction officially ends.  But, on the bright side, they’ll have plenty of company.  Because 65% of the homeless in New York City alone are products of the foster care system.

If that is the significance of garbage, imagine the consequences if we do not show others the same mercy God has shown us.  (Matthew 18:23-35)

And so to not extend the mercy God has shown us is to pollute our soul.  It may seem insignificant, like taking out the garbage, but even the empirical consequences are threatening.  We can harbor hatred and rage and animosity.  And even simply holding a grudge can also cause stress and anxiety, which–it has been proven–can cause health problems that actually shorten our life span.  But sharing mercy and forgiveness relieve of us those burdens.

”Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27)