On January 7, 2015 I took Office.  I, along with other newly elected officials, took my oath from the Circuit Court Judge. 

I was surrounded by family and friends as my wife pinned the Sheriff’s badge on my chest. 

While I had very limited contact with the Rajneesh, until I took Office, in comparison to the rest of the county residents, there were things that were obvious to me and as I go over this period of time in my writings I think I have garnered a little more insight into the mind of the leaders.

I am not a psychiatrist, just my feelings, as a person and law enforcement officer, from what I observed and heard – some from their own mouths – about Rajneesh and his key leaders.

The Rajneesh accused the local people of being prejudiced towards them because of their religion. 

While the locals didn’t understand the Rajneesh religion they really didn’t care. 

It wasn’t the religion they disliked; it was the arrogant attitudes and the methods the sect used to get their way.  If they didn’t get their way they would retaliate any way they could and screaming religious discrimination was just one of them.

The Rajneesh had a very low opinion of the local citizens, shown by their condescending attitudes and actions. 

Most of the leaders were highly educated and had come from a background of privilege, they felt the local citizens were uneducated, unsophisticated and fools.  They felt they could easily manipulate them.

Sheila, Rajneesh’s closest confidant and his voice to the world, came from a wealthy family in India.  As we know India has a caste system and Sheila’ status was at the top of the system.  Bhagwan was a religious guru and felt entitled to be praised; the lavish wealth bestowed on him by his followers did nothing to discourage that feeling.

Rajneesh, Sheila and some of his followers fled India as the government was starting to come down on them for some of their practices and failure to pay taxes.

They found their way to America and stayed on the East Coast while Sheila went about the country looking for a large isolated property where they could build an empire.  It had to be large acreage and not easily observed by the outside world.

Unfortunately, for her and Rajneesh, those kinds of properties were in the western part of the United States.

While America doesn’t have a caste system, there are those that believe we have a class system – which is true to a point - those at the top often feel they  are more important that those below them.  However, the farther west you come the less importance is placed on class and money and more on how hard you work.

The people that owned the kind of property Sheila was looking for had grown up working side by side with their employees.   These people were not afraid to get their hands dirty by working hard.

This size and type of property usually denotes cattle or sheep, not hands clean living.  The neighbors of these people were of the same basic cloth.

Sheila found the Muddy Ranch and as they drove down, quickly concluded this is where they should go.  This is where they would build their empire but concealing it by saying they were a group of agriculture enthusiasts willing to try new methods in farming.

The land had a few hundred acres of farm land.  The rest of the 64,000 acres was hills, valleys, dry land and scrub brush.  It was rocky and not conducive to farming.  I will give a better description of the property and its isolation as I relate my first trip to the ranch in 1985.

They began with a lie, and continued to try and live that lie while bringing in more people than they originally said; focusing on building buildings with only a slight nod to farming.  Somehow they thought the local people wouldn’t notice or they could bluff, bribe or even intimidate them.

They did have several people in the sect that had training and education in the behavioral sciences and they used their knowledge to set up confrontations.  However, while some were Americans, they came from larger cities and truly didn’t understand all the nuances of ranchers and people living in a rural area in Eastern Oregon.

While they knew the local citizens would be in culture shock over the sect’s methods and lifestyle, and they thought they would take advantage of their naiveté, they also had a culture shock coming.

They badly misjudged the citizens of Wasco County and its government.

What you are about to read are generalities, obviously, but based on a common denominator in the county.  I also want to make it clear that Eastern Oregon is a far different culture than the more ‘metropolitan’ areas of Portland, Salem and Eugene, Oregon.    Because of that difference it took a lot longer for those Oregon citizens to understand and accept that criminal activity was happening in Wasco County.

The Rajneesh mistook Eastern Oregon hospitality and a laid back easy lifestyle for lazy and uneducated – in short they considered the locals to be just country bumpkins they could manipulate.  They had little regard for their worth and could care less if they exploited what they thought were backward people who were beneath them.

The Rajneesh were upset that they didn’t get the deference and respect that they were used to getting elsewhere.  In their minds they deserved it because of who they were – and they were worthy of high esteem.

The residents of Wasco County are grounded people with common sense and a strong sense of right and wrong. 

They are not uneducated and they are not fools. 

They are very independent as would be expected from the stock of the pioneers that settled in the area.

They are honest and law abiding and not likely to kowtow to anyone. 

They are straight forward in the way they deal with people and are suspicious of those that aren’t. 

They deal with each other by a nod and handshake and an understanding that each would uphold the verbal contract.

To be continued:

1 Samuel 19:4-10    And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good:

⁵ For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?

⁶ And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain.

⁷ And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.

⁸ And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled from him.

⁹ And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.

¹⁰ And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin: but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.

As you no doubt can tell, my recent devotions include reading the books of Samuel.

As I read these verses this morning my heart grew even heavier for our nation.

Collectively our government has taken on the persona of Saul. 

A government that is powerful, self-indulging and has a building of blinding hatred to God’s children.

Just as Saul had a blinding hatred of David.

David did nothing to incur the wrath of Saul.  He served him in many ways, David fought battles for him, he played harp for him, he honored him before the troops. 

When Saul wanted him to marry one of his daughters, he stated that he didn’t feel worthy of such an honor.

1 Samuel 18:18 And David said unto Saul, Who am I? and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son in law to the king? 

However, he did what Saul wanted and became the husband of Saul’s daughter Michal. 

David became Saul’s target, Saul was threatened by David, he grew to hate him and felt he had to kill David. 

Saul repented of his desire to kill David, several times, but always he yielded to that hatred and would try, over and over again, to slay or have David slain. 

 

The full force of Saul was against David.  David had his supporters, to be sure, Saul’s son Jonathan was close to David and warned him of impending doom – even though in doing so he was risking his own life. 

While today’s governmental sentiment and direction is to attack Christianity and individual Christians by passing laws and edicts to forbid them to practice their beliefs, there are still those in government that belief in Christ and try to overcome the hatred – and as Jonathan did, they are incurring the wrath of the government.

Double standards have always been an issue in any government and our nation has often been guilty of doing just that.  Christians are now facing that double standard. 

They are being persecuted and prosecuted for ‘hate speech’ but those that are supposedly the recipients of those ‘speeches’ may respond in a manner that would be dubbed ‘hate speech’ if the government was indeed fair.

We are seeing a wedge being driven through our country that is causing a chasm so deep we may never be able to come out of it.

If you speak against an action or activity you are labeled by the proponents of that activity as committing criminal acts of hate. 

There is no middle ground to discuss why a person feels one way or another, only bitterness and unwillingness to allow the other to express genuine beliefs and how it impacts their soul.

Saul, was the King – the government – he thought he was in control of his kingdom.  David was but a small person within that kingdom but he became a major player; at times, Saul accepted him – but only to provide him an opportunity to destroy David.

David had his supporters; they were a small percentage of people compared to the King’s people.  David tried to serve Saul for many years, even when being pursued by Saul so Saul could kill him.

David passed up opportunities to slay Saul by his own hands because he believed in the King’s authority.

In the end, David was triumphant, not because Saul was slain (and not by David’s hand,) but because David honored God. 

God anointed David.  David loved God and served Him, even in the service to the King.  God fulfilled His promise to David and honored him by making HIM King.

God has anointed His people here in America.  While the government may take away many of our rights, God will prevail.

The persecution and prosecution may very well get worse, that it will continue is obvious.

But God is in charge and whether we see it, or our great- grandchildren see it, this nation will either return to God and put Him in His rightful place, or, as a nation, we will go by the way of other governments where man thought he was greater than God and rotted from within.

Luke 11:29-30 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.

³⁰ For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.

These words very much describe what is going on in this nation and this world, today.

God’s messengers, preaching His Word and calling sin, sin; preaching the need for salvation; preaching the way to God through Christ – the Son of Man in these verses – are the means by which God desires to reach the un-Godly.

AS Nineveh was, so America and the world is; as Jonah was, so are the Christians that strive to testify to the transforming power of the love of God.

Nineveh, as a city, repented; will America do the same?

There is hope, there is precedence; there are our prayers.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again