I’m writing this weeks bulletin “on location” in Philadelphia, since I am attending a Classic Video Game conference. I’m having a vacation with Deniese at the same time (also, much to my wife’s chagrin, I continue to dial into work twice a day and oversee the nightly automated testing!). We’ve just spent the last two days touring the city and the museums, riding a trolley and hearing the spiel about how wonderful the city is, etc. The city IS nice, with fairly wide streets set out in a grid pattern, way before its time. (Boston, in contrast, has impossibly narrow streets that run every which way in a maddening pattern less mess.) The founder of the city, and of the state of PA, William Penn, was the one who had this careful forethought. He insisted the buildings be apart, to keep fire from spreading. He insisted the rich business owners give back a portion of their money in the form of parks or other benefits to the general population. He did not want a prison to be built in the city, but instead insisted on a penitentiary – not a place of punishment for crime, but instead a place where you were “encouraged” to feel penitent and thus be returned to society a better man.

William Penn, while not a true Christian, had many true convictions. All of the things I mentioned above about him came from his religious beliefs, which in most ways he tried to live his life by. Thus, the separation here of government and religion was once very thin, even in the times of our Federal government being here. Officials where expected to be men of faith, and to be devout. The city itself is named from the bible, of course; the city of brotherly love.

However, having toured the place I can’t help but be overcome with the pride in things of the past. Everything here, like everything in Boston, is somehow special. Since this is an east coast city, it has many things that are first, biggest, or unique. The oldest school of the arts is here, in fact the first art museum in America is here. The biggest municipal building is here. The first volunteer fire dept is here. The first building to advertise something as part of its architecture still stands downtown. The first monster suspension bridge is here (beating the golden gate by 10 years). And so on. When I visit Boston, many such claims are also made there. I suspect New York, Richmond, Atlanta, and many other places will also boast these same things. If they would cling to history, too bad they don’t cling to the bible’s description of the original city of Philadelphia!

It’s also nice to be first, but sometimes it’s better to be last. Many people cling to history in these cities and prevent change, even for the better. In the center of Philadelphia, there is a construction project going on. They are trying to build a museum to house the liberty bell (safe from hammer-wielding madmen, no doubt) but every time they dig even a little bit they find… history! They find bottles, or a body, or a marker, or a chunk of something from the last few hundred years. Everything comes to a halt. The project eventually starts again, only to find something different. When do you decide it’s time to move on, to start fresh, to build?

When someone becomes a Christian, there is often a lot of baggage. We have pet beliefs about God, we have learning from being members of a different church, we have habits that are contrary of the teachings of the bible. These are sometimes interesting things to consider. I have heard many a child of God proclaim they are a “better” Christian today because of past evil they lived through. Brethren, this is not something to be proud of! Sin is shameful, evil, and not something to revel in. We should remember our past lives, and let them remind us of how far we have come, but some things are better off buried and forgotten, forever. Worse yet, while I can understand the civic pride a city may have in its past, our past evil is not something to build a future on. Our experience can help, but it is Christ that we should shape our lives around. We must become new creatures, the old left dead and buried. Our mistakes in the past should not be worn like medals of honor! Let’s leave this baggage at the “gate”.

In Salem, Massachusetts witches were once burned. The only artifacts left are some incidental things; a cane from the judge, a beam from the dungeon. All the other artifacts were destroyed. In fact, even the beam was unearthed from where the whole dungeon had been burned and buried. The people of Salem, back then, knew they could teach everyone a great lesson from their mistakes, but they properly felt shame and disgust. They threw out the old, and moved on to the new. The apostle Paul expressed great sorrow at his past deeds, but not for show. Not to make himself some great example. He did not bring them up without cause, only to encourage and never to boast. He spent almost all of his time looking forward, and not back. If only we could all do that.

Randy