Adios Augusto: Scattershooting

8/30/10 - 2nd Day. Morning. Greetings y'all. August is steaming to an end, and we are rolling towards Fall Ranchfest which is coming quickly (Sept. 24 - Oct. 1). Our First Wednesday work day is coming up the day after tomorrow, so we will be in full Ranchfest preparations starting then. As you can see from the donations thermometer, we are a bit over 10% of the way towards the goal that I set in my mind, then "mind-doubled" just to make a point. I am very hopeful that donations will start rolling in this week, because very few people on my usual friendslist have contacted me or pledged any specific amounts. We'll see how it goes. The donation process is a Texas Two-Step process. First, email me to tell me how much you are sending (so I can adjust the thermometer), and Second, send it ASAP to:

M. Bunker

1251 CR 132

Santa Anna, Texas 76878

Remember that Ranchfest is free for all visitors, and we try to include some practical experience and training in many different areas of off-grid Agrarian life and living. We will be doing some construction, some butchering, and a lot of talking/teaching/fellowshipping. If you are planning on attending and you have not told me so, you need to email me TODAY and let me know about your plans.

This following is interesting, considering that we are in the midst of a dramatic recovery and all:

We spent a day in Mason, Texas this past week and it was great fun. In an antique/junk store I found a book by one of my favorite authors - Eric Sloane. Sloane (who is now passed on) wrote and illustrated books about our common heritage. In addition to his ability to rightly identify what made a people successful and strong, He drew incredible pencil drawings of hand tools, covered bridges, etc. Look up his books and you will not be disappointed. Anyway, I found the book "Spirit of '76" which had individual chapters on the "spirit" of something that created or defined America. One of the chapters was "The Spirit of Agronomy" and in that chapter (which I only quickly glanced through) Sloane makes the point that early American farmers were NOT in the business of raising crops to sell. They might sell their excess, or they might grow a separate cash crop, but the fundamental purpose of the family farm (most everyone was a farmer back then) was to raise and produce the means of survival for the family. The "Spirit of Agronomy" was the spirit of a people who believed it was their own responsibility to provide for most of their own needs. Specialization is for insects. Very few people were specialists, and even then they recognized that over-specialization would mean that they would be unable to provide for themselves and they would automatically become dependent on some other "system" to provide for their needs. I find it interesting that worldlings today teach their children to "go to college and get a job so you can 'provide for yourself'", when in fact they are saying, "go to college so you can specialize so that you cannot 'provide for yourself' but so that you will fit as a widget into a corporate/economic system that will provide for you so long as the system remains working and afloat". I still have people who live and work in the world as some cog in the great society machine who write to me to tell me that they cannot "go Agrarian" or move towards a more sustainable life because "they have to provide for themselves and their families". This is a huge lie. There was a viable system that existed wherein people "provided for themselves". This system was destroyed purposely and with forethought in order to replace it with a system where individuals became cogs in a machine that, so long as it remains intact, provides for the basic needs of the people. This replacement system is unsustainable, unsafe, immoral, toxic, and so deceptive that almost everyone who ever enters it will never, ever escape it. One way leads to life, the other to death. One way is the way of God and of husbanding and managing His creation for His glory; the other way is the way of exploitation, destruction, and covetous living.

But most people will never see it in those terms. The human mind is capable of rationalizing any behavior.

While we were in Mason at the motel, we watched a segment on CNBC entitled "American Greed". The segment was about a scumbag Pentacostal preacher (is there any other kind?) who had scammed OTHER covetous, lying, Pentacostal preachers out of about 9 million dollars in a Ponzi scheme. The modern black Pentacostal movement is one of the most evident symbols of covetousness run rampant in the history of the world, and this story was really the poster story that proved the theory. This black preacher (Abraham Kennard) told a bunch of other black preachers that he had received 28 million in donations and wanted to "spread it around". He asked each preacher to give him $3000 and for each $3000 donated, he would return $500,000... eventually. He also offered a $500 bonus for each new preacher another preacher brought in. When the preachers wanted their money back, he would dribble it out in small amounts, usually offering the preacher a large check (literally one of those big checks they give to golf tournament winners) that would say "$200,000" on it. He would make a big deal of giving them the big check in person on his show with new recruits watching. When the person went to him later to get a real check he would make some excuse and give them some paltry amount of money "in good faith". Eventually, people started to realize they weren't going to have millions of dollars and "bling" jangling in their pockets and they got righteously indignant. How dare he "steal from the Lord's work"! Every one of these covetous wolves became a sobbing victim, crying about how they were only trying to do good for the people. Kennard was eventually arrested and charged with bilking over 9 million dollars while he was living the high life of limos, vacations in the islands, gold rings, etc.

So what is the moral of the story? There are several:

a.) You can't con an honest man, or a true Christian who seeks God's will and way and not his own.

b.) Scam artists (like these so-called "victim" preachers) who use the tithe and other similar Ponzi schemes to maintain their own standard of living, get very, very upset when they fall for the same con they are using on their own people.

c.) Greed is not a one way street.

d.) If you lie, cheat, steal, play to your audience's vanity and greed, twist the scriptures, and promise comfort and security... you can make a lot of money in this preaching game.

e.) If you tell the truth, do your best to support yourself in a simple way, preach the law and the testimony, command people to search the scriptures and examine themselves, and eschew worldly wisdom... you won't starve, but that is about it. Note the thermometer at the top of the page. People like Kennard can raise $20,000 to spend on their own lusts and they can do it in minutes. Try to raise money to offer people a free place to go and learn skills, ask questions, and learn about a better life, and they'll smile at you, give you a golf-clap, and say "go, be warmed, be filled".

Just be glad you weren't with us in the motel when this was going on. I don't know who I hated more, the scumbag, lying, con-man, or the scumbag, covetous, lying preachers. Ok, I hated them all equally. But when I get to yelling at the TV, I think I might be more entertaining to the family than whatever is going on on the TV. (Again, my apologies to bags full of scum for comparing them to Pentacostal preachers)

I remain your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker