Dr. Jerry Bergman, PhD

In the over 200 court cases in which I was a consultant, my experiences were mixed; some very good, some shocking. In one case, the National Education Association evaluated and concluded due process was not followed when a Bowling Green State University professor was terminated for illegal reasons, namely his religion, what they called fundamentalist Christianity. This professor was one of the most productive in his department.

One comment on the three columns I have done on large churches is “You are ignoring the many thriving small churches.” I agree. One good example is Fulton Union Christian Church on County Road HJ near Delta, Ohio. I have preached there on apologetics around twice a year for the past six years or so. This church was as welcoming as any large church that I have ever attended, if not more so. The around 80 members that attend the Sunday service have made me feel comfortable and more at home with each new visit.

The Greek scriptures condemn all war except defensive war. All of us have been wronged at times, thus all of us have to forgive others at times. The same is more true of nations. The King James Version uses the word “peace” 429 times and the New International Version uses it only 230 times. Conversely, the word “love” is used in the King James Bible 310 times and the New Living Translation used the word 801 times. The KJV uses the word “forgive” 95 times, the English Standard Version uses it 109 times.

Not really censored, but the scriptures almost universally ignored include I Corinthians 11:14-15 which reads,  “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him. But long hair is a woman’s glory. Long hair is given to her as a covering. …. neither we nor the churches of God have any other practice.”

A common response to the creation issue is presentations on science is inappropriate in a church. Sermons must focus only the gospel, especially the words of Christ. Because only very few Bible verses mention creation, the feeling is it is clearly a unimportant and a very controversial side issue. The claim is, it does not matter if we evolved from some lower primate, or if God created the first humans as Genesis claims. Which method God used is unimportant. What is important is to preach Christ. Furthermore, they claim, Christianity is not anti-science as is Creationism, but pro-Christ.

We have all heard so-called climate experts warn of looming catastrophes for decades. The problem is the Aesop's Fables’ tale concerning a shepherd boy who twice fooled villagers into thinking a wolf was attacking the town's flock of sheep. When an actual wolf appears, and the boy calls for help, the villagers believing that it is another false alarm, ignore the boy’s calls. The result is the sheep are killed by the wolf.

Harvey was born in Missouri on October 20, 1916, the 5th child and 2nd son of Joe and Emma Haldiman. He arrived in Montpelier on New Year’s Day of 1940 and was employed at Hause Valve Company until his retirement in 1985. Harvey began as the office manager and served as president/CEO of Hause from 1976 to 1985. In 1933, engineer Ralph Hause (1906-1976) and his partner A.C. Brammer formed Hause Valve Company to manufacture specially designed valves used in underground oil-well equipment.

I am occasionally asked about publishing by someone who would like to publish a manuscript they authored. Since I now have published 60 books, sales totaling 80,000 copies, I have some experience in the process. It is often assumed that authors send manuscripts to potential publishers, then wait for an answer. Few publishers even bother to answer these inquiries. The fact is, less than one percent of all submitted manuscripts are ever published. Publishers today are swamped with submissions, so have become very selective.

I have now published over sixty columns in The Village Reporter. It seems everywhere I travel in town, people mention reading it. As expected, some columns are more popular than others. By far, the most popular column was the one on the Hammond, Indiana, First Baptist Church. The reason why, I was told by several readers, was because we hear so much negative about churches, that something very positive was welcomed.

Our church recently had communion called the Eucharist, Greek for “to give thanks.”  The ritual reminded me of an experience I had in the European Study program that I completed for my history degree. When in Italy, our class visited the site of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. Allied leaders had bombed many historic churches containing the works of master artists that either destroyed, or severely damaged, some.