Beautiful! "The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry" helped to lead me to some of my conclusion(s). It's about agriculture, Love of the Earth, Mothers, Fathers, Family, Community and being self sufficient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grange_(organization) Where in hell did it all go? There were INFILTRATORS of the corperate elitist variety! Peace, Doc On Mar 21, 8:22 pm, rigsy03 <[email protected]> wrote: > This is also a huge factor in our Civil War and in our time as the > decline of our nation when the people became crazy for manufactured > goods after WWII's rationing. Then it wasn't our goods but imported > goods.One should write poems about small towns and farms but they > rarely do. The romance of them fled to big city slums > > On Mar 21, 7:40 pm, Doc Holliday <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Now link these two (Jefferson and Hamilton) and you can see how > > materialism / corporatism came > > out of literal biblical / superstition while family and self > > sufficiency / the virtues of community would have come from Jefferson > > "The Jefferson Bible". It seems for now after we've spent 200 years > > in > > materialism that Jefferson was right. The devil in the works of > > superstition always! > > snip> > > > In his only book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1787), Jefferson > > urged readers to resist the factory life of large European cities and > > stay on the land. "Those who labour in the earth are the chosen > > people > > of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his > > peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue," Jefferson wrote > > in the famous chapter called "Manufactures." Farmers intuit the laws > > of God within the laws of nature, and so become virtuous, he > > reasoned. > > They are, by the nature of their work, resourceful, neighborly, > > independent. They are the elemental caretakers of the world. Nor do > > they succumb to the crude opinions of the masses. But the farmer is > > free-thinking and inquisitive. The manufacturer, by contrast, is a > > specialist, a cog, a wage slave. "Dependence," Jefferson concluded, > > "begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and > > prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." A manufacturer > > cannot > > be a citizen of a democracy, only a consumer within an oligarchy. > > > Four years later, Hamilton submitted to Congress his Report on > > Manufactures, in which he dismissed Jefferson's agrarian vision in > > favor of developing industry, division of labor, child labor, > > protective tariffs, and prohibitions on many imported manufactured > > goods. Today, fewer than 1 percent of Americans work on farms, and > > many of those are huge, industrial farms that generate massive > > amounts > > of toxic by-products. That Jefferson's self-reliant farmer is so > > unrecognizable to us today is evidence enough, should we need any, > > that we have inherited Hamilton's America, not > > Jefferson's..................... > > > more.............. > > The difference between Jefferson and Hamilton is the difference > > between a version of Christianity based on Jesus' life and death and > > Resurrection, and one based on his teachings. Or to put it another > > way, it is a difference between where one locates basileia tou theou— > > the kingdom of God. Is it, as Luke's gospel says, "in the midst of > > you" (17:21), or is it, as John's gospel claimed, a reward saved for > > the sweet hereafter? To live by Jesus' teachings would be to live > > virtuously as stewards of the land; it would be to create an economy > > based on compassion, cooperation, and conservation; it would be to > > preserve the Creation as the kingdom of God. Jefferson was proposing > > a > > country of countrysides, a pastorale in which we would want to live; > > Hamilton was giving us a nation of factories from i which we would > > want > > —perhaps in the end need—to be saved. > > > "Thomas" is the Aramaic word for twin. That Thomas Jefferson's > > version > > of Christianity actually found a twin gospel—one that included no > > miracles, no claims of divinity, but only the teachings of Jesus— > > hidden beneath an Egyptian cliff, and that this ancient gospel was > > also recorded by a man known as Thomas, makes for a remarkable story. > > > Sometime near the end of the nineteenth century, two British > > archaeologists, Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt, were > > searching > > through an ancient trash heap along the Nile River, at a site known > > as > > Oxyrhynchus, when they found three small papyrus leaves. One of the > > fragments read, "These are the [ ] sayings [ ] the living Jesus spoke > > [ ] also called Thomas [ ]." New Testament scholars had long known > > that there once existed a Gospel of Thomas because in the third > > century Hippolytus denounced such a text in his Refutation of All > > Heresies. And because Thomas's gospel ran afoul of the early Church > > bishops, particularly Irenaeus, most copies of it were likely > > destroyed. > > > In 1945, 150 miles upstream near another river town called Nag > > Hammadi, an Egyptian farmer named Muhammad `Ali al-Samman was guiding > > his camel beneath the nitrogen-rich cliffs that line the Nile, > > collecting fertilizer for his fields. As he dug at the base of one > > cliff, Muhammad `Ali found a sealed jug, obviously ancient. Fearing a > > jinn but hoping for gold, he broke the jar open with his mattock. He > > found neither. What fell out were twelve books (codices), made from > > papyrus and bound in leather. Figuring the manuscripts might be worth > > something, Muhammad `Ali gathered them up in his turban and carried > > them home. According to New Testament scholar James M. Robinson, who > > has pieced this whole story together, Muhammad 'Ali's mother used > > some > > of the leaves from the books to ignite their out-door clay oven. > > Muhammad `Ali traded others for oranges and cigarettes. > > > Meanwhile, shortly after the discovery, Muhammad `Ali and his > > brothers > > hacked to death a man they claimed had killed their father six months > > earlier. But when local police started poking around, asking about > > the > > murder, Muhammad `Ali didn't want to answer any further questions > > about the codices. Since the manuscripts were written in Coptic, an > > Egyptian variant of Greek, he hid one at the house of a Coptic > > priest. > > The priest, in turn, sent it to Cairo by way of his brother-in-law to > > ascertain its value on the antiquities market. But someone tipped off > > Egyptian authorities, who then threatened to take the brother-in-law > > into custody and told him he could return home only if he sold the > > codex to the Coptic Museum, which he promptly did. > > > Here a one-eyed bandit named Bahij `Ali enters the story. Cairo's > > leading antiquities dealer, Cypriot Phocion J. Tano, had retained > > Bahij `Ali to acquire as many of the codices as possible. But again, > > the Egyptian government heard about Tano's acquisitions and pressed > > him to entrust the manuscripts to the Coptic Museum for "safe > > keeping." Tano spent much of the 1950s trying unsuccessfully to get > > the codices back. > > > In 1952 the French scholar Henri-Charles Puech realized that a > > tractate in Codex II contained sayings that matched the Oxyrhynchus > > fragments. Less than sixty years after Grenfell and Hunt uncovered > > hard evidence that a Gospel of Thomas did at one time exist, Puech > > was > > able to conclude that the entire text had been found. > > > When all of the remaining codices were accounted for, there turned > > out > > to he fifty-two separate tractates hidden at Nag Hammadi. How did > > they > > end up in this remote port town? In 325 C.E. the Roman Emperor > > Constantine, newly converted to Christianity, called for a conference > > of bishops in Nicaea. He charged them to come up with a short > > document > > that would unite Christians and eradicate heresy. The result was the > > Nicene Creed. Forty-two years later, one of the drafters, Athanasius, > > the bishop of Alexandria, issued a letter to Egyptian monks calling > > for all heretical manuscripts to be destroyed.1 Scholars suspect that > > monks at the St. Pachomius monastery, near Nag Hammadi, refused the > > order, and instead buried the codices in a large jug. > > > Unfortunately, years of infighting among international scholars > > stalled the publication of what came to be called the Nag Hammadi > > library, and the European countries that controlled the publication > > rights showed a remarkable indifference to the task. In the end it > > was > > an American, James M. Robinson, who obtained photographs of the > > individual Coptic tractates and passed them on to a team of American > > translators. As a result, the first complete edition of the Nag > > Hammadi Library was published in English. > > > Perhaps because of this head start, much of the ground-breaking > > scholar-ship devoted to the Gospel of Thomas has come from Americans: > > Robinson himself, Stephen J. Patterson, John Dominic Crossan, Helmut > > Koester, Ste-van Davies, and Elaine Pagels. But I have another > > theory: > > it was Thomas Jefferson's Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth that > > prepared the Americans for what they would find in the ancient Gospel > > of Thomas. In some Borgesian way, Jefferson's gospel has become a > > predecessor to the Gospel of Thomas, though it was composed some > > 1,700 > > years later. > > > The similarities between the two gospels are remarkable, as much for > > what they do not say as for what they do. Like Jefferson's gospel, > > Thomas's ignores the virgin birth. Thomas's Jesus never performs a > > miracle, never calls himself the Son of God, and never claims that he > > will have to die for the sins of humankind. Instead he tells > > parables, > > he issues instructions, and, most alarmingly, he locates the kingdom > > of God in that one place we might never look—right in front of > > us.>end > > snip > > > Peace, > > Doc > > > On Mar 21, 12:02 pm, Keith In Tampa <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Nailed in on the head Doc......Good Post. > > > > On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 8:14 AM, Doc Holliday > > > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > In case any of you haven't figured out that when you look at things > > > > through a microscope you are doing exactly what they want you to do > > > > and "they" (politicians) and getting exactly what then need to > > > > systematically and > > ... > > read more » --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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