While the annual Rajneesh festival 1985 version was relatively uneventful, we did have a situation that was not acceptable and there was nothing I could do about it – other than to make sure it never happened again.

It was in the middle of the afternoon of July 3^rd, a Wednesday, when I received a phone call from the Reserve Deputy that had been at my first meeting.

She said, “We think we have had a drowning in the lake.”

I asked, “You think you have?

She said, “Yes, the report just came in that there was a man who had gone under the water and we can’t find him.”

I told her to have the Chief call me as soon as possible.

As accidental drowning must be investigated.

Our Sergeant was heading back up to The Dalles; he was on Bake Oven Road a few miles from Shaniko and a good 45 minutes to an hour from the ranch.  I told the dispatcher to have him go back to Shaniko and call me.

A few minutes later I had another call from the Reserve, she said there was definitely a drowning and they had divers attempting to locate the man.  He was Japanese and had come in, from a city in Japan, for the festival.

I asked her if they had any Deputy Medical Examiners at the ranch, I was pretty sure they didn’t.  This position is held by law enforcement officers who have gone through training AND had been appointed as such by the County Medical Examiner.

I had not heard that any had been appointed there.

She didn’t know.  She did say the Chief was at the scene and would call me as soon as she could – that made sense that is where I would have been.

I told the Reserve I would notify the County Medical Examiner and the District Attorney, I was pretty sure the CME would want the body brought up to The Dalles.

She started arguing with me, and I told her that it was state law.

Our District Attorney was easily found – most of the time, this was one of the few times he had left the office early and no one knew where he was, at the time he didn’t have a Deputy DA.  I didn’t consider that a major problem, we were just required to notify him and we would continue to try and contact him.

I called Dr. John, the CME.  I told him I had a Sergeant who was a DMA and I would have him go to the scene.  He said have the body brought up to The Dalles for autopsy.

I then received a third call from the Reserve – approximately 45 minutes after her first call.

She said, “the divers found the body and the ambulance crew worked on him and got him breathing again.  They are taking him to the medical facilities.”

A few minutes later I was called, by the Chief, and told that while the man was alive when they got him to the facility he was worked on by the doctor who declared him dead.  She also said the doctor said he was a Jefferson County Asst. Medical Examiner. 

When I took that initial tour back in March I wondered why every business and lodging facility was in Wasco County – and the medical facility was in Jefferson County; now I knew.

She said that the young man had been swimming in the lake with some other Rajneesh.  He had been going from the shore to a large raft they had a few yards out.  Suddenly he started thrashing water and then went down.  It took them a while to find him, revive him and take him to the clinic where he died.

I called Dr. John back up and told him where we were on the drowning and the doctor on scene was a Jefferson County Asst. Medical Examiner.

After a few cuss words and comments, which included my thoughts that this was wrong, you don’t revive an adult who has been underwater that long – warm water – in that heat.  He said, “Bring the body up to The Dalles!”

The ranch had a large number of security personnel with semi-automatic weapons.  I had a total of 12 deputies, of which only two were on duty.  There was no way I was going to go down there and get the body – which was in Jefferson County - without further backup and that was going to take time.

I told him that.  I also told him that the pronouncing physicians was an Assistant Medical Examiner for Jefferson County – (which trumps anything I could do as a Deputy Medical Examiner.)

He thought for a moment and said he would contact the State Medical Examiner (who appoints the County Medical Examiners AND his Assistants.)

The State Medical Examiner was recently appointed as the Temporary State Medical Examiner.  The former SMA had done some things that the Governor had felt were unethical and discharged him, appointing his Chief Deputy to replace him while they searched, nationally, for a permanent replacement.

His office couldn’t find him.  After about a half hour they finally located him and he talked with Dr. John.  He said he knew the Rajneesh doctor and trusted his judgment.  Since the death actually ‘occurred’ in Jefferson County it was his body and his case.  If the Rajneesh doctor said it was an accidental drowning, that was good enough for him.

Dr. John called me up, exasperated, saying leave him there.

Mathew 12:31-32  Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

³² And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

As a new Christian I found this verse to be very scary.  How do you know if you have blasphemed the Holy Ghost?  What does it mean? 

I had never heard such a thing.  I had accepted Christ, I knew my sins were forgiven, but now I read these verses.

Fortunately I had an understanding Pastor.  When I asked him, he said, “If you are ‘worried’ about offending the Holy Ghost, then you aren’t.” 

I was taught early on in my Spiritual life that we must dedicate our life to Him.  What we do must be geared toward listening to and obeying His Holy Spirit.

There have been times in my life that I have done things that were unquestionably sinful – but, I knew that God was ready to welcome me and forgive those sins through Christ.

That, obviously, doesn’t give us leave to go out deliberately sinning because we know we can come, bow down before God and ask for His forgiveness.

That kind of lifestyle very well might lead to offending the Holy Spirit.

But from what I understand, it is those that deliberately turn their back on God and refuse to acknowledge Him.  They may even ‘preach’ against Him and strive to drag people away from Him.

They go about deliberately living their life in opposition against Him.

The end result for the Christian is these verses are warnings to the world, not to us.

Neither should we try and judge who has reached the point of offending the Holy Spirit that they are no longer redeemable.

Only God can make that decision.

I am reminded of a man, living in another country, who underwent incredible persecution – and mainly from one man.

He never knew when the knock on the door was coming, but he knew it would be and that he would be hauled down to headquarters, thrown into a dungeon of a jail and then beaten – sometimes to the point he felt he would die.

After giving him warnings about to expect more beatings if he continued to talk about Jesus, they would take him back to his house and dump him on the front porch.  He would be cared for by his wife and children until he was able to care for himself – and then he would go back to preaching the Gospel.

This treatment went on for years, the members of the team arresting him may be different, but the leader of the team was not.  The Christian said, that he told the leader that he was praying for him – and the treatment would get worse.

Each time he was arrested he told him he was praying for him.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am not so sure I have that kind of forgiveness in my soul – the man said he didn’t have it, it was God that gave it to him.

After several years there was a regime change and he was no longer beaten, but he was still discouraged from preaching Christ.

A couple years later he answered the knock on the door, only to find his old nemesis.  The man told him that he had cancer and would soon die, but thanks to the Christian’s faithful witnessing to him, he had accepted Christ.  He came back to apologize and to thank him.

We might look at the drunken or other drug addict as their addiction drags them into the gutter.  They have no pride.

They live on the streets, they and their clothes are filthy, they beg for money so they can support their habits and we, and often times they, believe they are past saving.

We are looking at the outside, we don’t know what has happened to them through the years that have made them feel this is the path that is the only way they can travel through life – but God does.

We look at the career criminal who is arrest for crimes, incarcerated for long periods of time and when he gets out, he commits another crime.  The more serious the crimes the more we feel he is beyond redemption, God doesn’t.

God is so forgiving; His desire truly is that everyone would seek Him that they might be saved.

John 3:06  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

We need to see others as God sees them and have compassion on them.

One day I was in the bathroom at Fred Meyers.  A homeless man was in there cleaning himself up.

He looked at me and said, “I am not like these other guys out there.”

I don’t know if he thought I was condemning him or not, obviously he saw or felt something in my demeanor to caused him to make that comment.

It would have been nice to say, I told him I understood and then witnessed to him about our Savior.  It would have been nice, but it would be a lie, I didn’t – I just nodded.

In truth I hadn’t really thought anything as he stood at the sink washing his face with a wet paper towel.  But as he spoke to me, I felt the need to witness to him, and did not.

Here was a man who needed something that I had from God, and I had refused to give it to Him.

I realized later as the pangs of guilt wrack me and awaken me at o-dark-thirty I had missed an opportunity to give him encouragement and discuss my Jesus.

Frankly, I thought as I lay wake that morning, I have come dangerously close to offending the Holy Ghost.  I knew I should have done something and did not.

We can’t go back and redo things, with some people we may have another chance, with this man I did not, I never saw Him again.

We can, however, ask for God’s forgiveness and vow to do what we know we must do in our service to Him.

Christians all over the world are being asked to suffer and die for Christ.  They are being deprived of all things close to them.

Me, I am only being asked to talk about Jesus.  I don’t have to worry about an officer coming to the door and taking me downtown and torture me for my beliefs – at least not at this time.

May I always remember to focus on Christ, May I always strive to serve Him and do what He asks.  May I not worry about whether someone has offended God’s Holy Spirit and leave that decision to Him.

We must always take the view that no one is beyond redemption from God, I can attest to that.

Later, Art :-)

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