Anne Sullivan, Samuel Clemens, and Helen Keller

 

 Little Anne was 5 when she contacted Trachoma, a bacterial disease that leads to rough scars inside the eyelids, erosion of the cornea and eventual blindness.   At 8 her mother died of tuberculosis and the children were orphaned.  Half-blind, Anne Sullivan was sent to an asylum at Tewksbury, Massachusetts.  The nuns there mismanaged the orphanage, but loved the children and taught Anne to be generous. They taught her to finger-spell, a method of touching fingers to a palm to spell a word.  Perhaps she could help another blind person in some way. Anne was transferred to Perkins School for the Blind soon thereafter. Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama and at age 19 months contracted something, perhaps Scarlet Fever, which left her deaf and blind.  She lived, as she described it, “at sea in a dense fog.’ But she was not dumb, having devised over 60 signs with which she communicated to Martha Washington, daughter of the black cook of Helen’s wealthy parents. The Perkins school was eventually contacted and they sent Anne to help the Helen.  It was an enormous struggle at first.  Anne was relentless in finger spelling but 7 year old Helen didn’t even know what a word was. Then one day, Anne ran cool water over Helen’s hand, and finger-spelled W-A-T-E-R. Helen remembered, “I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten —A thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that w-a-t-e-r meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, set it free!"  That phraseology isn’t accidental.  Anne had shared her faith with Helen too.

            The brilliant student progressed rapidly,  Anne devised ways to teach vocabulary, not just names for everything.  The two were sent back to Perkins and then to 2 deaf schools in New York City.  At age 14, 1894, Helen met Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain, and they became best friends. “To me, he symbolizes the pioneer qualities—the large, free, unconventional, humorous point of view of men who sail new seas and blaze new trails through the wilderness.” The famed author helped arrange for her to attend a secondary school and then Radcliffe College where she graduated in 1904, the first blind-deaf person to ever get a Bachelor of Arts degree.  She learned Braille and found she could “hear” music through vibrations, and identify people by their walk.  Determined to communicate with others as conventionally as possible, Keller learned to speak and spent much of her life giving speeches and lectures on aspects of her life. She learned to "hear" people's speech using the Tadoma method, which means using her fingers to feel the lips and throat of the speaker. She would travel to Clemens’ Connecticut home and practice on him. One evening he offered to read to her from his short story, “Eve’s Diary.” But how would they arrange it? She said, “Oh, you will read aloud and my teacher will spell your words into my hand.” “Well, I would have thought you could read my lips,” he teased. But she did.  She rested her fingers lightly upon his lips, felt his vibrating voice which she instantly identified as his southern drawl, and tried to not be mixed up by his gesticulations as he read. “To one hampered and circumscribed as I am it was a wonderful experience to have a friend like Mr. Clemens.  He never made me feel that my opinions were worthless…He knew that we do not think with eyes and ears, and that our capacity for thought is not measured by 5 senses.  He kept me always in mind while he talked, and treated me like a competent human being. That is why I loved him. Whenever I touched his face, his expression was sad, even when he was telling a funny story.  He smiled, not with the mouth but with his mind—a gesture of the soul rather than the face. Ah, how sweet and poignant the memory of his soft slow speech playing over my listening fingers…It has been said that life has treated me harshly; and sometimes I have complained in my heart because many pleasures of human experience have been withheld from me, but when I recollect the treasure of friendship that has been bestowed upon me I withdraw all charges against life.  If much has been denied me, much, very much has been given me.”

            Keller went on to learn English, French, German, and Latin in braille, to write like Twain and to become world famous.  Clemens died 1910, the year after he had read “Eve’s Diary” to her. Anne Sullivan died in 1936 holding Keller’s hand, herself totally blind by then. Helen Keller lived and lectured for years until she died in 1968.  Her life was portrayed by Patty Duke in both play and film.  The interaction between Samuel Clemens and Helen Keller reminds us of ourselves and our best friend, Jesus Christ.  We are hampered with sin, but He found us not worthless.  We revere his Word, yet know that His Truth transcends the mere human words on a page--we see with eyes of faith. And though we are handicapped, He has given us New Life, so much that we cannot complain.  And we owe much to our generous human friends.  We “see” Jesus in them. Very much has been given us.

Understanding the background of the Civil War

God chose to free a bunch of slaves, the Jews, in order to lay the groundwork for his ultimate covenant of freeing humanity from the bondage of sin--is how Christians see it.  God hates slavery, said the Abolitionists, a movement against slavery that originated in churches in the generation before the Civil War.  Lincoln took this failing attempt of Christians to defeat slavery and translated it into easy moral reasoning fit for his election in 1860. “If a man raises a crop, why doesn’t he deserve the fruits of his labor?” “”You think slavery has to do with intelligence? The smart man rules the dumb? Well, someday you will meet someone smarter than you. Does that mean you must be his slave?”  Slavery is still political. Some ways of looking at the Civil War disagree with the established historic facts.

            It would be good to remember a few hard facts.  Cotton was so valuable and desired worldwide that it amounted to half the exports of USA. It was a non-crop until the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, then became virtually the single crop of the South after 1820.  It still took hand-picking. Slaves were so valued they sold for the price of a good house ($100,000 in today’s money). Plantation owners grew fabulously rich but represented only 5% of the population of the agrarian South.  Many more southerners were hillbillies, micro-farmers, and shop owners. The plantations became a huge lobbying group, bought newspapers, and swayed public opinion.  Nonetheless, 13 anti-slavery churches existed in Charleston in 1861. In 1860, the North had 21 million people; the South, 9 M with 4M being slaves. The North had almost all the manufacturing, naval power, and finances.  But the secret weapon of the Confederacy’s Democrats were the Northern Democrats.  N. Democrats had been organized by Martin Van Buren of NY with the goal of an Urban Plantation.  Immigrants (Irish and Germans) in ghettos were held in subjugation, denied many rights until they spoke English and became educated.  Manufacturers were the ‘plantation owners’. The goal of the South in seceding was to divide the country into two until the N. Democrats could win and bring down the hated Lincoln. This explains why the South seemingly had a tantrum and attacked Ft. Sumpter, when they could have simply stood fast.  Slavery could only have been abolished by constitutional amendment—‘fat chance’ politically, requiring 2/3 of both houses and ¾ of the states. In 1860 there was not one slave owned in USA by a Republican, the anti-slavery party, but many N. Democrats tacitly approved of the institution.

Revisionist historians dislike this traditional view.  They dethrone Lincoln as a closet racist and claim the war was about states rights, neglecting the role of Northern Democrats as allies of the South. They quote Lincoln writing to Horace Greely about how he didn’t care about slavery, just saving the union.  But this came at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, when Lincoln was coy, trying to hold onto border slave states and “War” Democrats, those who supported the union but let Lincoln know that they would switch sides if the war became about slavery. Lincoln was walking a tightrope politically, pretending The Union was the cause.  Jefferson Davis, meanwhile was giving fiery speeches about how it was all about slavery and how they had to simply hang on until the N. Democrats defeated Lincoln and demanded a truce, whereupon the South could become a separate, slave country, or a special section of USA.  

There was an earlier attempt at historic revisionism at the end of the 19^th century.  The “concealment version” of the war held that the Southern instigation of war was not due to partisan disagreement over slavery but to states rights and defense of their homeland.  This was the narrative of the 1915 movie, Birth of a Nation and the resurgence of the KKK after WW I. It was thinly disguised racism arguing for a natural privilege in the old Southern order. After the Civil War the partisan bickering didn’t stop.  Democrats opposed the 13^th 14^th and 15^th Amendments. The use of racial terrorism brought down the Reconstruction, running off Yankees and replacing the slavery with a version of bond serfdom in share-cropping and Jim Crow laws.

John Wilkes Booth was a typical War Democrat from Maryland (a slave state) that found himself switching sides after Atlanta fell to Sherman in the summer of 1864.  But Booth was no lone wolf.  In 1864 Democrat newspapers all over the North, even as far as The LaCrosse Wisconsin Democrat demanded assassination of Lincoln and Grant.  Booth echoed this, “Our cause is almost lost and something decisive and great must be done.”

That bitter partisanship  led to USA’s worst war is embarrassing for modern Americans still embroiled in partisanship. The history of racism is embarrassing for Democrats.  Northern casual ethnicism employed by the very manufacturers who made America grow is embarrassing to Northerners. Racial segregation just about everywhere embarrasses modern Americans and Republicans. Still the historic lesson remains.

Christianity at the beginning

 

How the Christian movement managed to survive and thrive in the first hundred years?  How did it inspire the believers long term and how did the children not abandon it?  Other than the gospels and epistles, there is almost nothing written about the people.  They were tiny in number, maybe 10,000 people by 100AD. What did those early churches have?

There were no sermons, a later invention.  A big speech given like Peter at Pentecost to a crowd was unusual. It is thought early church spread by quiet networking. Music was not a big thing in ancient Rome.  The early Christians met in their homes built around a central courtyard.  Worships would remind one more of home devotions than church today.

Nobody went around saying, “Come hear our great preacher, our wonderful music, this Sunday.”

            Jesus died in about 33 AD and the first gospel, Mark, wasn’t written until at least 56AD.  For a generation, there was no written New Testament scripture. Even 100 years after that, a church might have only a partial hand-copied gospel and a couple of epistles.  How did these people not wander off the reservation with their beliefs? Secular historians think their beliefs evolved or there was a secret text somewhere. That’s unlikely.  We know they had confirmed beliefs from the earliest days and a confused person who doesn’t know what to believe will hardly bring about persecution of the authorites. Moreover, a religion won’t last if it doesn’t remind people constantly of what they are to do. The kids will walk away if it doesn’t solve or put in perspective life’s problems.

An answer is buried in Acts 2:23ff. Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified…But God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. (vs. 24)…And they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. (vs. 42-43), praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number…(vs. 47)

            From the earliest days, Romans said they had the Resurrection.  This was attested to by Julio, the prefect that succeeded Pontius Pilate.  He wrote home to Rome about a new group of Jews, harmless but weird.  They believed that their leader had risen 3 days after he died.  Romans snickered at this.  In 3 days a dead body will start to stink badly.  Roman soldiers knew death! But if Jesus was raised, why? Did they simply say he was sinless? Then he would just save  himself from God’s eternal wrath and find a place in heaven The grave, Peter and the Christians insisted, “could not hold him.” Hence Jesus must be God. And  so we have just answered the first of the two fundamental questions of Christianity —Who was Jesus of Nazareth? And why did He die and rise again? 5 simple words even a child can memorize, Jesus Died For My Sins” That answers the other fundamental question, “What does this mean for me?” As soon as you say that you have also said that Jesus is God.  A 3^rd party person can’t forgive anybody. They aren’t part of what happened.  But the Jews held that God could forgive; all sins offend God.  He alone can forgive all sin.

So the Christians had some apostles right there teaching them (if one lived in Jerusalem), the 5 functions of the church just like we do today (Acts 2:42ff), and the Holy Spirit doing power and wonders that were visible (Magic to an unbeliever.  It wouldn’t convert but grabs the attention.)

            But they really did have the New Testament.  Not written, but “This is the New Testament in My blood.”  Jesus established a New Testament or Covenant that superseded the Old Covenant of Moses, which had sacrifices to atone/forgive transgressions of the Law. Sacrifices were the atonement--a sacred act, ordained and commanded by God, physical elements, required the believers faith, worked forgiveness and sometimes brought other things inexplicable from God.  Forgiveness makes one close to God. A covenant is required for a relationship.

  Jesus came forward with this New Covenant in the Lord’s supper, a sacrament like the OT sacrifices to remind that every day, every second God saved them. Was it really blood and body they believed they ate and drank? They must have—the Romans were horrified by what they heard. Cannibals! Perhaps a Roman asked, what are you doing in there?” Christian: “we are eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ!” Cannibalism, the Roman concluded—the worst form of barbarianism! But what if the Christian had replied “well, we kind of figuratively think this.” The Romans would have just rolled their eyes and laughed. In the Lord’s Supper, Christians became forgiven and then amazingly, bonded with God’s family of believers.  Jesus picked up the bread at Passover and announced flatly that it was His body, given for them.  When you invited someone to share bread in that society, it was to say, “you will be part of my family for the night.”  When we line up to eat his body and we are pledging to be part of His family.  And then Jesus took the Passover cup of blessing and pronounced, “This is the New Covenant in my blood.”  He must have shocked his disciples. Asking someone to share the cup with you was what grooms did to ask a bride if she agreed to a marriage.  In communion, you are saying, Yes, I’ll share your life.  Week after week, the Christians did this, cementing themselves to each other and their Savior. 

The Christians were reminded of forgiveness, but how does one progress in faith & draw near to God? Baptism and the Spirit.  Once again, a Sacred Act requiring faith, forgiving sins—a sacrament. To be baptized one has to confess and turn away from sins. And so, years later, Paul would tell the Roman Christians (Rom. 6:3-4)  “we are buried with him in Baptism. and. “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.” Dead to sin, alive to God. Our sins forgiven, we are again bonded to Jesus and to God’s family as in Communion. The Holy Spirit, given as God’s sealing gift through repentance at Baptism, will raise one to walk with Him. Early church fathers wrote that people were sealed by baptism. ‘Sealed’- you aren’t getting away, now a child of God.  God comes after you in your troubles, whether they are your own fault or not. Nothing in the known universe beats such certitude.

This established what is called orthodox Christianity.  If all they had had was the memory of their leader rising from the dead, within a generation that would have become distant. If sacraments had no real power, they would become dull rituals over time.  The movement would have died out. Later, books were written by the apostles but then other fraudulent books came along too.  Which was right? The Christians measured everything that was said against the fundamentals they knew.  That was Orthodox Christianity—orthodox “square in measure”.

But how did Christianity spread? Knowing God loved you and saw you from the very beginning, saved you, gave you faith to respond, and now puts His Spirit inside you, changes everything  All the world was then and is now searching for God.  The Christians weren’t.  “God found me! Sealed me forever.” Did they have troubles? Consider what’s been unearthed.  There are about 30 house churches discovered and some plaques and stones with names on them—church members.  2/3 of the names were women who in those days were treated like sub-humans. Half the names were just a single name, likely slaves. There were enormous struggles.  The Hebrew word for struggle means also to wrestle.  When  life is a struggle, one wrestles with God in prayers. “Why, God, did you do this?  Why did you make me this way? Help me, please.” Jesus wrestled with God as well, in Gethsemane.  Did God take away his death? No but Jesus became closer to God because of his struggle.  God often does not heal a situation but brings one closer in relationship. A new door is opened or a new way of knowing God to be close arises.  Through our struggles we learn empathy for others, we become experienced in the difficulties of others, we become a wonderful witness with love and joy, seeing God’s love for us behind us all. That is how the early church grew and how modern churches can grow.  Share your life with others.  Listen to their situations. Share the Good News with Love and Joy. This is a kind of compassion that supersedes the worldly politics of giving handouts and favors.

            Think of their prayers. Maybe they went like this.

Lord, it’s me again, your faithless friend. Don’t you ever get tired of hearing all the dumb and evil stuff I’ve done? Without You, I’m lost.  I’ll never get through this life. And why did you make me the way I am?  Do You really have use for me?

Now Lord, I’m scared.  It’s worse than a pandemic.  They are coming after us and killing us in sadistic ways just to watch us die. I don’t know what’s coming next.Yet, I didn’t start this, You did, dear Lord. Your Spirit found me, I didn’t find you. You called me and saved me. You paid for me with Your body and blood. And I’m so messed up with my situation here, but You hold the plan. You care for me.  You Did It All. You won’t let me go. Dear Lord, I’d rather walk through the valley of death with You than dance on my own mountain. Lead me through this mess. Baptize me with the fire of your Spirit so that I can’t shut up telling Your story. And in the end, I know you’ll weave my little life into Your story and you’ll take me home with You. Amen.

And then came the Word, writings so beautiful and profound it makes one memorize it. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among men, full of grace and truth. No one has ever seen God; the only God who is at the Father’s side has made Him known. Come unto Me all you who are labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. The Spirit and the Bride says, “come.” And let anyone who hears say “come.”He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come Lord Jesus.  There, for Christians was the story again. He wins.  We win. Amen.

John Wise, forerunner of the forefathers

 

John Wise was born in Essex, Massachusetts colony in 1652 of an indentured servant father, who had gained passage to Boston by enslaving himself for 7 years.  These were the earliest days of New England when it was entirely agricultural, a far-out place of a guaranteed hard life.  Young John was exceptionally smart and attended the first college of America, Harvard, getting a degree in Divinity and became pastor at Ipswich, just north of Boston. He was a parson pig farmer as well.  He immediately became the community leader.  At one point a number of men on a ship were reported to have been overwhelmed by pirates. Wise led a community prayer and concluded, “Lord if there is no other way to bring these men home safely, allow them to rise up against the pirates and kill them.”  The next day, the crew came walking home, having done just that.

 British kings were always suspicious of the Puritans of Massachusetts, and James II appointed Sir Edmund Andros governor in 1680.  Massachusetts had a legislature, but Andros abolished it and began to tax.  Wise led a protest, got arrested and was defrocked.  Angry Ipswich citizens wrote the crown that their governor was out of control and James II recalled Andros. Thereupon, pig farmer Wise was elected to a commission to reorganize state government. But more than that, he sued the judge who had acted as a puppet for detaining him against habeas corpus of the Magna Carta. Wise won. When the Salem witch trials began Wise penned that they violated due process of law and the trials should be stopped.  He argued that the Bible gives you the right to face your accuser and  testimony cannot be coerced (Prov.18).

In 1710, Increase Mather published a pamphlet advocating a hierarchy to rule churches in Massachusetts.  Wise disagreed and published his own ideas of more democratic and autonomous churches and helped defeat Mather’s proposals.  Seven years later he published A Vindication of the Government of New England Churches, a work that outlined his liberal concepts concerning both civil and church governments. Strongly influenced by Whig political theory, it had a significant influence on patriot leaders of the American Revolution. In Vindication, he claimed that all are God’s children, whether slave or free, worthy of protection by leaders and the law.  He argued that any tax without representation of the people taxed was not right.  He was a very readable author. Wise and Ipswich are sometimes labeled “the birthplace of the American Revolution.” Massachusetts native, President Calvin Coolidge said that Wise’s Vindication was like a text in governing for the Founding Fathers.

Finally we might ask how many pastors do we know today or Christians who would stand up for Rights and protest illegal taxation to the point of being thrown in jail.  Religion and free speech have been protected so long in America.  But elsewhere in the world they often aren’t. One reason they exist in USA is due to men like John Wise.

The Muhlenbergs

Woodstock may be one of the most historic places in American History--not Woodstock, NY, but the one in Virginia. Because one Sunday morning, Jan. 21, 1776, at the Lutheran Church there, Rev. John Peter Muhlenberg gave what seemed like a normal sermon.  Text was Eccl. 3, “To everything there is a season…” He preached, “In the language of the holy writ, there was a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away.” He continued, “There is a time to fight, and that time has now come!”  At which point he pulled open his clerical robe to reveal a fresh continental army uniform. The congregation gasped.  He gave the benediction and walked down the aisle.  At the narthex he turned and shook the doorway and said, “Who is with me?”  That day 300 parishioners from the relatively small church in the Virgina countryside, volunteered to become the 8^th VA Regiment. 

            John Peter was born to middle class Pennsylvania German parents. He worked as a store clerk and then enlisted in the British colonial army.  Bilingual, he served next to the German dragoons, who nicknamed him “Teufel Piet” (devil Pete), because he was a fierce fighter.  In 1767 he attended Philadelphia Academy and was ordained a Lutheran pastor. His first parish was in Bedminster, NJ.  After a visit to England, it was impressed upon him that the Church of England badly needed pastors in VA.  Since his theology was the same, he was dual-ordained as an Anglican.  Thereupon, he found a small Lutheran church in Woodstock, Virginia to serve.

            Frederick, his brother and also a pastor, questioned whether it was right for Pete to fight, indeed to mix politics and faith.  “I am a Clergyman it is true,” Peter wrote back, “but I am a member of the Society as well as the poorest Layman.  Liberty [freedom to practice faith] is dear… Shall I then sit still and enjoy myself at Home when the best Blood of the Continent is spilling?...[S]o far am I from thinking that I act wrong, I am convinced it is my duty to do so and duty I owe to God and my country.” They agreed to disagree until a year later, Frederick watched the British burn down his own church before his very eyes. (Original British theory was that colonial dissatisfaction was due to non-Anglican pastors)  Fred enlisted too.

            General Pete’s regiment was first assigned to the South but then moved to Valley Forge under Washington.  General Nathaniel Green was Muhlenberg’s commander and he fought in Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth after 1777.   In October 1783, when Washington moved in on Yorktown to entrap Cornwallis, Muhlenberg’s by now well-trained fighters helped General Alexander Hamilton’s bayonet charge and takeover of Redoubt #10.  That capture allowed artillery to be moved close-in and defeat the British army. He and the Woodstock Lutherans returned as war heroes to Virginia. Pastor Muhlenberg was given the rank of Major General and assigned to his native Pennsylvania. 

Evidently Fred rethought his ‘no politics’ stance.  He ran for Congress and became the first Speaker of the House in 1789. He often wrote about the duty we all owe to fight for Liberty.  Peter was also elected as an at-large Congressman from Pennsylvania. His statue stands with Washington and Jefferson amid the Hall of Heroes in front of the Senate Chamber in the US Capitol building.  (If you haven’t been there, it is often used for television interviews of Congressmen by the media.)  The early colonists like the Muhlenberg brothers came together and looked to God, not government, to guide public affairs.  God gave inalienable rights and no government should try to take them away.