All of a sudden everyone wants to be part of the green revolution. Now that global warming is a reality of greater proportions than we first thought, there is money to be made in getting our pollution under control. Corporations seem to be in competition to out-green each other.

This reality has been heading our way for years. The pollution we all contribute to the environment didn’t just happen yesterday. We’ve known since I was a kid that oil reserves are limited and dirty air would eventually outpace the globes natural systems of cleaning it.

I’ve been a reasoned conservationist for as long as I can recall. Do you need light? Turn on the light you need to do the job or read the book. Don’t sit in the dark or read in a light that’s too dim. However, turn the light out when you don’t need it.

Same with heat. Be comfortable. You shouldn’t need to wear a parka while watching television. But at night or when you’re gone for a few hours. Turn it down.

Being green in our attitude and philosophy is very important and should fit very nicely right into our understanding of what it means to be stewards of what God has given us. We Christians are not new to taking care of the earth. It is part of our heritage.

Six billion humans on the face of the planet will most certainly tax our environment. But we can live together and the earth can sustain us. Doing small things can really add up. It doesn’t require that we be uncomfortable, only that we keep our eyes and ears open to those small things that support the color of green.

 

Pastor B.

One more year until we elect a new president for our country. When I was a kid, I thought Leap Year was somehow connected to the American election process. Not so. It’s just a coincidence. What actually makes the next twelve months the longest year isn’t the extra day, it’s the non-stop politics.

I enjoy politics, I really do. Politics happen in almost everything where two or more people gather. Our day to day lives serve up political intrigue in the home and on the job.

City and school board politics here in Sun Prairie make for lively entertainment and sometimes disgusting drudgery. Every community, it seems, has its share of folks whose only goal in life is to target - often quite personally - elected or hired officials who are just trying to do a good job.

Back to the longest year. ‘Tis the mind boggling, soul numbing presidential race that makes for such a long year. I realize that the road to election takes years and years. It always has. Now, however, our media gobbles up every second of campaigning and feeds it to us not as thought producing insight on leading a free nation, but as celebrity pablum forced down our gullets because, quite frankly, the good food is nearly impossible to find.

To be sure, John Kennedy discovered the power of the television when he out debated Richard Nixon not necessarily because he had better answers as much as he looked better. From then on we’ve grown into a people who elect an image and not ideas or ideals.

So welcome to this longest year of political hype and hyperbole. It’s loud. It’s indecent. It’s empty. It’s inane. And, if you listen very carefully, you’ll hear the whispers of the 2012 campaign beginning to grow.

God bless America!

Pastor B.

If you would have mentioned blogging (blog is short for "Web log") to me five years ago, I would have been clueless on the subject. Now this blog is one year old and going strong.

The blog began in October 2006 with a desire to do a weekly exposition on my ramblings and ruminations on the church’s Web site. It became a Monday event in November when I felt like I needed a little more discipline (i.e. a deadline). Since then, I’ve managed to get something on this page almost every week, although a Monday holiday sometimes pushed the publication to Tuesday.

As a bit of a confession to you, I don’t always sit down on Monday morning and type out the week’s blog. Usually, in fact, I pen the article as the spirit moves me. Yes, "pen". I write it out on yellow legal paper and give it to Sue Nitz or Brandy Foulkes to type. It then gets saved until the week it’s needed. I think the most I’ve ever been ahead of the calendar is three weeks.

That’s not to say I haven’t had a few Mondays during the year when Monday arrived with no blog on file and no blog ideas in my head. Thank God that he has always provided some idea to write about.

I have no idea how many people actually read this each week. Some of you have responded by email or talked to me on Sunday morning. I know that there have been a few weeks when the blog page took more hits than any other page on our Web site other than the homepage. Thanks to those of you who pop in here and peruse my ramblings.

As I look back I see that the blogs have run the gamut from silly (Winter Philosophy 2/5/07) to sardonic (I might be Nicole Smith’s kids father - 2/12/06) to theological (God has come to be with us - 12/25/06) to personal (Happy Birthday, Dad - 11/13/06) to promotional (Live from the.... - 5/23/07) to nostalgic (The Force be with you - 6/11/07) to mere commentary (Leftovers from Independence week - 7/9/07). But, I guess that’s the point. Here is a place for me to express whatever is striking me at the moment. I can only hope that you find it interesting and possibly even refreshing.

So, year number two, here I come.

Pastor B.

This week the voters in the Sun Prairie School District will vote on three referenda regarding building a new high school. The building of schools comes from the tremendous growth our area is experiencing. The issues have been debatable and sometimes divisive. It is not easy.

Although I will vote for the referenda, I am painfully aware of the devastating effects rising property taxes have on many low and fixed income folks. We can see that the school portion of the mill rate has dropped considerably in the last ten years, but with rising home values the fact falls empty.

Like many of you, I’m caught between an overwhelming desire to provide excellent public education for our children and the need to pay my bills. It’s a tight squeeze.

Relief, it seems to me, comes by removing our education system from dependence upon property taxes and funding through income taxes on a statewide level. Yes, we will pay more in income tax, but I believe the income tax is a more equitable way to divide the costs.

Short of doing that, I would think we need to find a way to freeze property costs for low and fixed income people. Maybe we delay the tax until the property is sold. Surely there are wiser minds than mine to figure this out.

The problem, of course, is not finding the way but finding the will. Politics, though necessary, is messy.

And by the way, do you remember when we were sold on the lottery because it would pay for our schools? Yes, I notice on my tax bill that a smidgen has been subtracted by the lottery. But is it worth it? I doubt it.

I don’t want to end on a negative, so I’ll put in a plug for the new high school. It will serve the needs of our community into the foreseeable future. The pool and performing arts center will also serve the community well beyond student life. The total referenda package will allow our children to have a quality education that will make them productive members of our society for many years to come.