Proposition 86 - An direct tax for indirect causes

California is preparing to vote on Proposition 86 which, if passed, will add $2.60 excise tax to each pack of cigarettes. There is presently a tax of $0.87 per pack. The $0.87 raises about $1 billion per year which funds childhood development (57% of the total), tobacco education (28%), the general fund (11%) and breast cancer research (2%). If passed, the estimated $2 billion will be spent on hospital and emergency room care (53%), children health coverage (43%) and research (5%). All of these expenditures are certainly worthwhile and well intended.

The question is: why should the estimated 5 million smokers in California, 14% of the total population, contribute $575 million dollars to childhood development? And why should they be individually selected to pay another $1 billion dollars to pay hospitals and doctors and another $840 million for children's' health coverage. Only 5% of this spurious tax will fund tobacco research. Is it because smokers are an easy target?

The pretense of this tax is that smoking is the leading cause of death in America (1 in 5 deaths is estimated) which could mean the smokers are using more health care than others. If this is the case, maybe we should spend some of the $50 million earmarked for research on what causes the death of the other 2 million people per year and tax them for it. Or if taxation of indirect causes are merited, should we tax over-weight people because they are proportionately heavier and use the proceeds to repair our state's stressed highways. Or tax beer-drinkers and direct the proceeds to our waste water treatment facilities. I mean, everyone knows they urinate more than non-drinkers.

Read the following information prepared by the state attorney general for more information and make your own conclusions.
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/vig_06/general_06/pdf/proposition_86/entire_prop86.pdf#search=%22proposition%2086%20ca%22

For those of you who do not know me, I have a brief biography. I am a Christian, a father of four, three sons and a daughter, with one more daughter coming soon, I pray. I am a husband to Jane Ellen, who has been my partner in life for over 25 years. And I am a business man working in the healthcare industry. I am dedicated to scouting because of the ideals set out in the Scout Oath, the Scout Law and the Scout Motto. I value the three aims of scouting to build men of character, good citizens and to promote physical fitness. I am especially committed to this troop because of its faith-based sponsorship which adds citizenship in the kingdom of heaven as its primary mission.

Two weeks ago, I presented Romans 12:1 to these young men in our devotional reading.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

There is a similar text from Paul’s letter to Timothy. This scripture is the hallmark of the AWANA program “Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed”.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
This is our job description. As I mentioned before, I am a businessman and I have people reporting to me. I evaluate their performance routinely and give them feedback on where they can improve. When I read this scripture, I evaluated myself … and it appears that I won’t be getting a raise … but our Lord Jesus is perfect and has already taken up my slack and paid the price of my failures. I, on the other hand, will be remaining on probation until I am perfected in heaven.

I bring this up tonight because while evaluating myself, I identified quite a few weaknesses that need to be worked on. Due to the limitation of time, I’ll only cover two here tonight. One is the lack of courage. I tell people that I am introverted by nature and have a difficult time speaking publicly, especially about the Good News. That is a pretty way of saying I am afraid of failing or looking stupid in front of people. But just like I tell the people who work for me in their evaluation, if something they do poorly at needs enhancement, the best way to improve is through practice. I guess that is why God has the knack for placing me in positions where I have to speak in front of people.

The other weakness I recognized is pride, masked as the desire to be independent. I seldom ask for help because I do not want to depend on others. I am not so afraid of being let down as I am admitting that I cannot do it myself. Again, I am reminded of an old adage, “practice makes perfect”.

So I stand in front of you tonight, practicing …, extolling the virtues of Scouting, what it can do for your sons, now and in their future and I am asking for your help.

As I said in my letter “We have an awesome opportunity and responsibility to train our young men to be spiritual beacons in our community, our nation and in the world. I pray that you will join us as we work together to equip these young men to be steadfast in the truth of God’s Word with the guiding aim of Scouting to build men of character.”

There are many jobs in scouting. Some are logistical while others provide a leadership role to scouts and scouting volunteers. We have sign up sheets in the back for you to look at but let me list a few for you now.

Water of Life

My pastor occasionally uses his back yard to illustrate a biblical point. I thought I would give it a shot but I cannot say I'll be as eloquent as he is.

A couple of weekends ago, a good friend visited from back east. We went to church together and he was in my wedding. He was fascinated by the sprinkler system since they don't have these in the Carolinas except on golf courses and football fields. Don't get me wrong, when we lived in South Carolina, we had a sprinkler. It attached to the end of a fifty foot long hose and produced a lazy arch of water sashaying back in forth. We didn't use it as much for watering as we did for letting the children play in on hot summer days like today.

The sprinkler system in my yard is comprised of about 20 miles of three quarter inch PVC pipe and electrical wire. It has a timer, dozens of sprinkler heads that spray water in various degrees of a circle and a rain gauge to tell the system if it has rained. There is a ninety percent probability that if you were to stick a shovel anywhere in my yard, you'd puncture the water line. My friend asked what happens if you don't water. "Everything would die."

So this past week I was thinking about my yard's daily need for water and our daily need to be with Jesus. I found Isaiah 44:3-4, "For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams." and John 7:38-39 "... Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow within him". Jesus was speaking of the Spirit of God that dwells in all believers to nourish and sustain them in a spiritually dry world. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:38 to take up His cross daily and to me that reinforces our need to fellowship with Jesus every day. How do we do that? Read the Bible and pray. Otherwise we wither as Christians and our testimony dies.

Remember the sprinkler's rain gauge? From time to time, I have to clean the cobwebs and dust out of it. Otherwise, the system is fooled into thinking it has rained. This is analogous to the way we are fooled into contentment by the distractions of this world. I am thinking of the television, video games, and other material items. Remember the parable of the seed sown in the thorns. The truth dies due to the lack of Spiritual water (Luke 8:7).

Granted, drawing a nexus between my yard's sprinkler system and the Spirit of God is a stretch at best but the truth of the matter is that our bodies need food and water everyday just like my yard. Our souls also need food, God's Holy Word and water, God's Spirit, to grow and be blessed and to enable us to offer our lives as a testimony to Jesus Christ.

To my children ...

Quite a few years ago, perhaps around the time fire was discovered, I got my first real job as a grocery bagger. I was 16. I had other jobs, like life guarding, delivering newspapers, busing tables, etc. But this was my first real job with a paycheck, benefits, tax withholding and yes, union dues. I remember walking up to Mr. Brown, the store manager, with my long hair and my best clothes and asking for a job. He asked me if I could work hard. I said "Yes sir". He, being retired military, appreciated the crisp response and told me to start the next day. I worked for several months as a bagger. I was always on time and did my best. I was soon promoted to a checker. In those days, bar codes were non-existent so every price had to be entered using a 10-key and to give change meant doing the math in your head. My drawer was never short or over more than a few cents. I did my best and exceeded their expectations. In two years, I was a stock clerk making an exorbitant amount of money (for the time). Twenty-nine years later, I still do my best and almost always exceed my employer's expectations. I am a highly compensated executive and would be considered a success with my peers. Now, if you were to count all the "I"s above, you get the impression that I was a self made man.

That would be a mistake.


If it were up to me alone, I'd probably be a day-laborer someplace (not that this isn't honest work).

I was thinking of my mother just before Mother's Day. I wanted to write her to tell her how much I appreciated her training me to do a good job. I can recall cleaning the bathroom over and over again until I got it right. Back then all we had was Comet or Ajax which if you didn't rinse it well enough, a fine powdery residue remained. It looked clean but when she ran her finger across the porcelain, that powder would show up and I'd roll my eyes and say "yes ma'am" knowing that I had to redo the job. The ma'am part was usually a protracted three or four syllable utterance meant to embody a number of emotions and opinions that I wouldn't dare say to her face. She applied the same level of scrutiny over all our chores. If we didn't do it right the first time we were destined to repeat the effort until it was right.

I cherish my wife of 25+ years (and still in love) and all the encouragement she has given me, since even before she and I were married. When I worked at the glass plant on second shift, she would bring me my dinner every night (her mother prepared it) and sit with me during my half hour dinner break. When the opportunity came up at the hospital she said I should apply for it. I was a student worker at Winthrop University (it was just a lowly college back then). I applied and got the job as second and third shift data operator. Kids, back then a disk drive was the size of a washing machine and data entry was done with a bunch of keypunched rectangular cards. A program to print something could take two or three shoeboxes of these cards. I did fine on this job and when the assistant business office manager job became available, your mother again encouraged me to apply for it. A management job! I was 24. We were so excited when I got this job. It was then we decided to begin having children. All three of the boys were born at this hospital. My wife continues to counsel and encourage me.

Early in our married life, I developed a real appreciation for Charles, my father-in-law; a professional, a good father and a brother in Christ. He taught my wife and I in Sunday School for many years and continues to be an example to me of a godly man who has patterned his life like that of our Lord Jesus and has shown to me that one can be both a business man and a Christian. I also think of my own father, who after his conversion in the early 1990s, showed me how much a man can change under God's grace. I love them both, I think of them a lot.

I think of Bucky who helped me through one of the worst periods of my life, when I was fired. Having never been fired before, it was a crushing blow to my sense of self-worth. He prayed with me and talked me through a lot of moments of anger and feelings of insecurity. He helped me know that God was in control (and all this time, I thought it was me, lol). I still wrestle with God as Jacob did over the control issue but all I have to do is think of that day in Virginia ...

There are others that chipped and smoothed me over the years but I have named the most significant ones except for two. There is God and the preacher from Arkansas who introduced me to Him. I owe everything to God's grace, from the talents He instilled in me to the people He put in my path to shape and sharpen me. Everything I have or am I owe to Him. He has blessed me greatly with you, your mother, my parents including Rue and her parents. His Word speaks abundant truth in Proverbs 14:23 "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." and Proverbs 31:31 "Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."

So why am I telling you all this? So that you will look at your chores as basic training for a life of work and play but work first. Honor God in all that you do. No task is unimportant.