Times-Advocate, 1988-03-23, Page 22Page 6A
Times -Advocate, March 23, 1988
Mink
By Bob 'Trotter
-Those who say they talk to God
on a regular basis seem to be get-
ting wrong numbers.
It may be a Divine sense of hu-
mor at work, mind you, but after
Jim Bakker's illicit shenanigans,
the chap who ranted and raved the
loudest, Jimmy Swaggart, had to
tearfully confess that he had strayed
from the straight and narrow.
Swaggart got impaled on the same
sin as Bakker.
In my humble opinion, it was a
welcome deflation of Swaggart's
monumental ego. It still scares me
that this hypocrisy appears rampant
among televangclisis. Oral Roberts
even got death threats from his God
a few months ago. And Pat Robert-
- son, who says he talks to God eve-
ry morning, is running at the top
of the primaries in the Excited
States presidential race.
The strain of talking to God is
too much for these holier-than-
thou-ers. As the Globe and Mail so
aptly put -it a couple of weeks ago,
"a preacher much admired by his
flock suddenly finds himself horn
again a:, John Smith in a motel
register.
Methinks we can do• without this
Programs for
specific needs
Government cash grant programs
arc successfully helping farmers
deal with hard ccoramic times and
they s`aould be extended, says the
Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
Singling out the' Ontario Farm
Family Interest Rate Reduction
(OFFIRR) program and the Farm
Management, Safety and Repairs
program, the OFA asked Provincial
-Treasurer Robert Nixon to continue
assistance to cash-strapped farmers.
"The programs were created to fill
specific needs, and these needs still
- exist," emphasized OFA president,
Brigid Pyke.
Agriculture is a capital -intensive
industry with a high demand for
credit. Debt financing is expensive
in real terms and Ontario farmers'
traditional source - the federal Farm
Credit Corporation - is teetering on
the brink of bankruptcy.
"Provincial government agencies
outside Ontario arc now supplying
almost 15 percent of long-term ag-
ricultural credit, and they're doing it
at a rate two percentage points be-
low FCC and four points below the
banks. Ontario farmers need access
to that kind of long term, low cost
credit and we're asking this provin-
cial government to get moving, "
says Pyke.
While the Federation's main
thrust in its meeting with Nixon
was for better farm credit and im-
proved stabilization for cash crop
farmers, the farm leaders also
argued for new economic develop-
ment programs for rural Ontario.
Among the program areas OFA rec-
ommended were:
Rural enterprise development: en-
couragement of court :m, retire-
ment, and service industries to
complement agriculture as income
source.
Agro -forestry: the conversion of
selected crop land to woodland to
alleviate excess production in some
commodities and provide additional
ort -farm income.
Support for small-scale farmers: a
pccr advisor program which would
offer assistance in developing man-
agement and pr(xluctron skills.
Grain -derived ethanol: provincial
cooperation with the federal govern-
ment in developing alcohol -based
gasoline. This would create a new
domestic market for local grains
which arc now in oversupply.
o 11110
RIL
FOOL:
Fat is
beautiful.
PaRn(IPatnnn .
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kind of rebirth.
All the more reason to look with
a jaundiced and skeptical eye upon
anyone who claims to have God's
ear. I confess 1 regularly talk to
God, too, mind you. 1 try to spend
a few minutes every day in prayer
and meditation. But I cannot claim
to ever hearing God answer me in
such a direct manner as these evan-
gelists claim to hear Him.
I am sure there are millions of
Christians who "talk to God" regu-
larly and millions more who have
sinned. But most of us don't harass
and harangue the rest of the world to
send money to keep God talking.
Sotne of us out here in the back
forty are pleasantly surprised at the
remarkable understanding of Jimmy
Swaggart's congregation. They
seemed to forgive him the way
Christians are supposed to forgive
although there is some talk, now
that the prostitute who knew him is
talking, that he should be barred
from preaching for more than three
months and spend more thantwo
years in rehabilitation.
Jimmy, of course, has been one
of the greatest money -raisers in the
history of televangelism. His histri-
onics were good enough to elicit
more than S130 -million a year from
his viewers.
If he can persuade his church as
easily as he persuaded his viewers,
his rehabilitation may come about
the same way Canadian prisoners
are back on the street: when one-
third of the sentence has been
served. The Assemblies of God are
not likely to keep him under wraps
when more than S10 -million a
month is at stake.
Jim Bakker has been removed
from in front of the cameras and is
even now contemplating a come-
back. He maybe back to Praise The
Lord before Jimmy Swaggart re-
turns.
It will be interesting to sec and
hear how much preaching they de
on the sixth commandment (if you
are Lutheran or Catholic) or the
seventh commandment (if you are
Protestant or Hebrew).
Go on. Look it up. It will do you
good to get your nose inside the
Bible again for a few minutes.
You'll find the commandments in
Exodus. It's the second book of the
Old Testament. Makes good read-
ing.
tilt CG Of EN HOUSE - During Thursda
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