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More Politics and Christianity
Hi ya, Folks! Last night was a good night wasn’t it? A really restful night. That means you all are rarin’ to go today.
Grab that cup of coffee and let’s get our day under way together. This ought to be a bit more brief than some of my previous days’ pieces, but I thought I would add a bit more to what I shared yesterday.
Not meaning to step on anyone’s toes here, and if I offend you, my apologies in advance. But I need to talk about some involvement in politics that has been a part of my life for a good 25+ years. No, I don’t mean that I served in some political office. I did run for Congress in this past election, but got defeated in the Primary.
But that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m referring to is some of the same kind of thing that I shared in yesterday’s piece about Alaska’s governor, and the events that surrounded his reelection.
This event also took place while I was in Alaska, and in Barrow. For those of you who don’t know, Barrow is at the end of the world. Actually, it is the farthest north continuously inhabited place in the world – about 1100 miles from the North Pole. It’s the largest Eskimo community in the world – to the best of my knowledge – with a total population of roughly 5,000 people.
When our family first moved to Barrow in the 1950’s, it was still pretty much an Eskimo village with maybe 12-1300 people. Growing up in the arctic was a quiet way of life. It was mostly a subsistence lifestyle with folks living off the land, fishing, hunting for caribou, seal, walrus, ducks, and birds, and whaling. In fact, as a teenager, I was with a number of whaling crews during the mid- and late Fifties, helping to pull in Bowhead Whales after they were killed. A single whale would provide about one ton of meat and muktuk (don’t ask!) per lineal foot. A 50-foot whale would provide somewhere around 50 tons of meat. That would feed a lot of folks for many months.
Anyway, the oil boom on the North Slope changed all of that. Men and women from all over the world began to pour in to Barrow, and other native communities on the North Slope to work on jobs where they could easily make a hundred grand a year with the oil exploration and development.
The big money began to corrupt a lot of folks, including many of the locals. Over the years, the village council (consisting of the elders of the community) disappeared. The village council was an informal group – one didn’t have to be a politician, or run for office to become a part of it. If you were an elder in the community, you were a part of that council, and you helped to make decisions that affected everyone in the village. We didn’t have a police officer in those days. Crime was a rarity. We did get an occasional Territorial Police officer in from Fairbanks or Anchorage, and sometimes they would swap out with a Canadian Mounted Police officer from the Northwest Territories or Yukon.
In the 1960’s, all that began to change. Barrow incorporated itself. The village council went away, and we started electing a city council and mayor. As Barrow continued to grow, it added a city manager. Things started to get political.
Because of the interaction between the Eskimo communities scattered throughout the arctic, and the fact that so many families were related to each other, what happened in Barrow affected Atqasuk, Wainwright, Point Hope, Nuiqsut, Kaktovik and a whole host of small villages and encampments scattered across what was now known as the North Slope Borough. The North Slope Borough, or NSB – as we called it, was one big happy (?) family living in an area roughly the size of the state of California.
“Happy” started to lose its happiness as the borough became more and more political and relatives started fighting with each other and vying for political power. Old clan allegiances began to come into play.
After being gone from the arctic for several years while I was pastoring in Salt Lake City, and then in Long Beach, California, I returned in 1978 to establish a new fellowship in Barrow known as Inupiat Christian Center, and set up operations for CBN-Alaska, Inc.
We rented the community center from the now-City of Barrow as our meeting place. Barrow had a city manager from the “lower 48” who had married a local girl and made Barrow his home. Unfortunately, he was easily corrupted by the political system and the power he gained for himself as the city manager. With sudden access to millions of dollars in city funds and little oversight, it became a simple matter for him to begin dipping into those funds for unauthorized purposes. Over a period of a few short years, he misappropriated around $750,000 dollars for personal purposes.
Of course the community was completely unaware of his misdeeds. My dealings with the man, however, began to make me a bit wary of his personal integrity. I began praying for the man, and calling for our local fellowship to begin lifting all who served the community and the NSB in political office before the Lord.
The day came when, after some unreasonable raises in our building rent, and rather “brisk” discussion before the city council, the city manager abruptly cancelled our lease of the building and ordered us out of it. We had just spent thousands of dollars refurbishing the building at our own expense, putting in real bathroom plumbing (instead of “honey buckets”) and putting in carpet and linoleum throughout the place to make it more hospitable for our church gatherings.
It dawned on me that the city manager was taking the building away from us so he could use it with its refurbished state to conduct parties and dances and make money. It was then that I began to pray in a way that I had never prayed before. “Lord, remove the wicked from their places of authority, and raise up righteous leadership.”
Wouldn’t you know it, the Lord demanded that I put feet to my faith. He spoke to me one day and said, “I want you to take oil and pour it over the head of Brenda Itta and anoint her to become the new city manager.”
Bear in mind that this is only a couple of years after the experience with Jay Hammond. We had a woman evangelist visiting with us that week and sharing with our fellowship. I knew that she was well acquainted with these kinds of instruction from the Lord, so I invited her to join me.
I called Brenda Itta on the telephone and asked her to come to my home. Brenda’s home had been in Barrow, and I had known her well during my teenage years, but she was now living in Washington, DC, and serving as an aide to U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. It “just happened” (if you believe in coincidence) that Brenda was visiting her folks in Barrow that week. She responded quickly to my phone call, and less than an hour later was sitting in my living room.
I surprised her, I’m sure, when I told her the reason for the phone call. She bowed her head very quietly as oil was poured over her head and I spoke the word to her that God had instructed. She had not had any plans of returning to Barrow to live, but she said to the Lord, “I’m willing to do whatever you ask of me.”
Just as in the case when Samuel anointed David to be king of Israel while Saul was still in power, and David had to wait until God’s appointed time to take the throne, Brenda had to await God’s appointed time.
Seven months passed. The current city manager’s embezzlement of city funds was exposed and he was indicted by a grand jury. The city council met together in emergency session to choose a new city manager. Throughout the discussions, only one name really stood out: that of Senator Stevens’ aide, Brenda Itta. They decided to call her in Washington and see if she would consider resigning as the senator’s aide and returning to Barrow to take the city manager’s position for the remainder of his term.
Of course, Brenda was prepared. She didn’t know when, but she knew absolutely that the day was going to come. She responded affirmatively and shortly thereafter was installed as the city manager of Barrow. She was later elected in her own right to fill the position.
In the seven or so years she served as Barrow’s city manager, she cleaned up the dirty politics that had ravaged the administration and put things back in order. She was God’s appointed leader.
During the past four years, all of us have watched Senator Tom Daschle stand up and rant and rave against President Bush, accuse him of criminal conspiracy, and make so many spurious charges against the administration it was hard to keep track of them. Della and I were watching one day as he launched into one of his attacks against the President, and almost spontaneously we both spoke out loud, “Father, in the name of Jesus, remove that man from office! Replace him with someone who will deal righteously.”
As we are all well aware, John Thune was elected in South Dakota, and Tom Daschle lost his seat in Congress. Was God responsible? You can bet your bottom dollar!
When God’s people rise up against unrighteous leadership in a place of agreement according to His word, He moves on behalf of His people to remove the unrighteous.
I’ve got lots more to say on this topic, but it will wait.
Blessings on you! Enjoy your coffee, and don’t be late for praise and worship together this morning!
--Regner
Regner A. Capener
EKKLESIA HOUSE
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
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